Eat, Play, Run

New York: Blue Hill New York

This past summer, I visited the Stone Barns, home of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agricuture and the world famous restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns. The farm was beautiful with livestock and gardens. What I didn't do was eat there.

Fast forward to a recent trip to New York. My friend made a reservation to Blue Hill in the Village. This Blue Hill gets all of its food from the farm, so it's still very fresh.

Here are the foods we sampled, with a brief description:

Seems weird, but the highlight of the meal was probably the "This Morning's Farm Fresh Egg"... an egg served over mushroom and lamb quarters. I don't like eggs all that much. But, wow, this was so good.

This dish was simply titled "Fall Fruits and Vegetables." And, uh, that's what it was. Obviously, it was fresh. But, it was 90% veggies, and personally, I'm more of a fruit guy.

These are called Jerusalem Artichokes. But, as a root vegetable, they share more in common with potatoes than artichokes. They're a little crunchier and sweeter than potatoes.

Anzela ordered the "Klaas Marten's Emmer and Quinoa"... basically, chicken served two ways over butternut squash and pancetta. I liked this one quite a bit, probably more than Anzela.

For my main course, I had the Stone Barns Berkshire Pig. I know you're shocked I went with the pork. The pork was served over a bed of "Last Chance" string beans, curry and tomatoes. The pork was delicious, but I was less of a fan of the bed of veggies. The curry was very subtle.

For dessert we ordered a caramel apple. This was a seriously deconstructed caramel apple. The caramel in the form of a salted caramel sauce, the apple was served three ways, a terrine, dried chips and diced. I really loved how all the flavors came together. A fancy pants dessert, to be sure.

New York: Bill's Bar and Burger

I've heard so much about Bill's Bar and Burger over the past month, it was a given that I would drop by on my trip to New York. On consecutive days, I had ate burgers for lunch at Shake Shack, DB Bistro Moderne and finally, Bill's.

Maybe it wasn't fair visiting Bill's after having two of my favorite burgers in the world, but I was mildly disappointed with the Bill's burger. It wasn't a bad burger. The $6 was well spent, but it wasn't the game-changer I had been expecting.

The burger is very reminiscent of Corner Bistro. The meat is very fresh and tastes homemade. Meaning it's good, pure ground beef. I don't think it's a mixture of meats. It appears to be just ground beef.

Where it differs from Corner Bistro is the way the burger is actually prepared. I asked if I should order it medium or medium-rare, and the server said that because of the way the make them, they're all pretty much medium. They smash the burger against the grill, flattening the patty. I'm not sure of the physics behind it, but somehow smashing the patty doesn't chase all the juices away.

The bun is rather boring. I don't mind American cheese, but I do wish it was melted.

Overall, not bad, but not great either. However, if you're in the Meatpacking District and craving a burger, this one kicks the crap out of Pop Burger.

DB Bistro Moderne: Best Burger Ever

I've seen a million burgers, and I've rocked them all. And this burger, the Original DB Burger, is flat out the best burger I've ever eaten.

It's a sirloin burger stuffed with braised short ribs and foie gras, served on a parmesan bun. I ordered it medium, which was perfect.

The burger is drip-down-your-arms-as-you-bite juicy. The flavor is real nice. The short ribs and foie gras bring good flavor and texture.

The burger is served with fantastic french fries. Nice and crisp on the outside and smooth and light in the middle.

Obviously, I truly loved this hamburger. Oh, did I mention it was $33? Seriously, it's worth every penny.

New York: Shake Shack

Had lunch at the Upper West branch of Shake Shack. Contemplated heading down to Madison Square Park, but the weather is crap... rainy, windy and a little chilly. Shake Shack makes the best fast food burgers. Ever. In-N-Out may come close, but it doesn't touch the Shack.

I had a Double Shack, fries and a chocolate shack. So good. Did I mention that my diet is only in effect in the state of Washington? I didn't? Well, now you know...

New York: Lupa

All things considered, Lupa is my favorite restaurant in New York. Now, that's saying a lot considering all the great places I've eaten. But, the food here is always amazing and the prices are quite moderate.

Today for lunch, I started with the Sweet Corn with herbs. It's served cold, crispy and oh so delicious. For my main course, I had the Ricotta Gnocchi with sausage and fennel. Yes, I order this every time I visit, but it's simply my favorite dish at my favorite restaurant. The gnocchi are light, pillowy clouds of pure Batali goodness.

I didn't order the beets this time because, well, let's just say that beets are the gift that keep on giving, and I was going to be doing a lot of walking after lunch, so that just wasn't going to work. But the beets w/pistachios are something you must try.

I can't give a higher recommendation than the one I give to Lupa. I love it.

New York: DBGB

Daniel Boulud is one of the most celebrated chefs in this country. But, I gotta say, I've been to two of his restaurants and neither blew me away. About a year ago, I tried Bar Boulud and thought it was pretty good, but not worth the hype.

On Tuesday night, Laura and I tried out the recently opened DBGB. DBGB is a downtown "low brow" bistro from a high end chef. Located on the Bowery, it's just two blocks from the original location of the seminal punk rock venue CBGB, so the name is pretty cute.

We started with a truly great crab cake. I enjoyed this crab cake more than the crab cakes at the Dahlia Lounge. It's a light crab cake bursting with crab. It's served with a fantastic curry sauce on the side. If you visit DBGB, this is a must order.

In just a couple of months, DBGB is already known for its sausages. I wanted to try the spicy blood/pig's head sausage, but Laura wanted nothing to do with it, so we went with a more standard pork sausage called the Chipolata. It's served over pommes mousseline, which are essentially a light (airy) version of mashed potatoes. The sausage and potatoes were quite good.

My issue with DBGB was with my burger. I ordered the "Frenchie," a $17 burger served with confit pork belly, arugula and a tomato-onion compote on a brioche bun. Even though the burger came out a perfect medium-rare, it still seemed a little dry. The taste of the beef was fine, but it wasn't spectacular. For $17 and coming from Daniel Boulud, I really expected something special.  This burger did not deliver. The fries were pretty good, but I wish they were a little crispier.

Maybe I expected too much, because overall, the food was very good, but I can't help but be a little disappointed by DBGB.

New York: Magnolia Bakery

I'm not sure if they were first on the scene, but Magnolia Bakery was definitely at the forefront of the cupcake craze that hit New York about four years ago... a craze that seems to be hitting Seattle now. It's not unusual to see lines formed around the block for cupcakes at Magnolia.

But, smartly, I've noticed they continue to add other baked good to their menu, and from my unofficial tally over the last two nights, it seems evenly split on whether people order cupcakes or something else. Something being slices of cake, mini pies, cheesecake, brownies, banana pudding, lemon bars, etc.

Honestly, I always preferred the cupcakes at Buttercup Bakery and could never really understand the Magnolia hype. But, there's a Magnolia about four blocks from my hotel, so I walked up the street and ordered cupcakes last night and a white chocolate brownie tonight. The cupcakes were fine. The brownie probably a little better, but being a white chocolate frosting, it was a little too sweet. Unfortunately, they were out of the plain brownies.

New York: Five Guys

Visited President Obama's favorite burger joint, Five Guys tonight with Glenn, Margaret and Karen. When I lived here, we would meet up a couple of times a month for dinner. Nice to have the gang back together.

Five Guys serves up "doubles" as their standard, but you can order a "Junior" if you only want a single patty. They also offer up pretty much every condiment you can think of, gratis. I kept it pretty simple tonight, though. I had the Bacon Cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo and ketchup.

The burgers here really are very good. They also serve excellent fries. And lots of them. Between the four of us, we had three orders of fries. We threw away about an order and a half. I can't imagine anyone ever eating an entire order of fries by himself/herself.

I'd say Five Guys is the east coast version of In-N-Out. Now that Obama has given them national acclaim, I wonder if they'll move west...

New York: The Cardinal Club

Wow, what a treat. I landed this morning at 5:45 AM. Normally, on a red eye, I beat myself as I get more and more frustrated that I can't sleep. I decided this time I just wouldn't even attempt to sleep.

Luckily, the flight had ESPN so I was able to watch the second half of the Huskies vs. LSU game. After that, I watched Fast and Furious and Adventureland. I make get razzed for this, but I really enjoyed both of them.

So, when I landed, I was pretty exhausted. I hopped on the E, then transferred to the 6 and made my way to Laura's apartment. Once there, I slept about three hours. Then, we went to brunch at The Cardinal Club.

Now, when I say we went the Cardinal Club, it's a bit of a misnomer. There isn't actually a "club"... it's more of a title for a special meal. Huh? Read this for a little background.

I had no idea what to expect when we arrived. What I found was an apartment with a backyard patio and a table set for two. This was literally a private brunch!

We started the meal with spicy Bloody Mary's. Real ones, you know, with horseradish. They had serious kick.

Then the food began. The first course was a brioche topped with ricotta cheese and peaches. This was so good. As you know, I love fresh peaches. Somehow, this heavy bread with cheese and peaches came off as light. Kudos to the chef!

The next course was, well, I don't remember what it was. It was a poached egg, served with a thick chunk of cured bacon, over, um, something vegetabley and stringy. I'm so good at this! Laura, help me out! Again, I'm not much of an egg guy, but I ate all of it.

At that point, Paula, originally from Buenos Aires and possessor of an enchanting accent, picked up our silverware, and I thought we were done. I was actually pretty full. But, it turns out, those were just preludes to an epic dish of pasta. The linguine was hand pulled and amazingly fresh. It was topped with squash, pine nuts and more ricotta cheese. I can't believe I ate the whole thing.

Finally, we finished the meal with an espresso granita. We actually heard the chef, Simon, shaving it from inside their apartment. The granita was topped with a heavy, sweet cream and chocolate shavings. It to was perfect. On a warm, sunny day, it really hit the spot.

I can't recommend the Cardinal Club highly enough. Next time I come, I need to do the dinner. Check out this write up!

New York: Rigoletto Pizza

Rigoletto is my favorite pizza on the UWS. They have easily the best crust. Since moving to Seattle, I noticed that they've expanded into the next door space and added outdoor seating. Could this be the spillover effect from having Magnolia Bakery as a next door neighbor?

Congrats to Rigoletto on their success. They deserve it.