Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

So many delicious-sounding places in the Upper West Side, so little time!
On this 70-degree Christmas Eve, we explored the UWS to get some fresh air, exercise, and warmth before any potential winter weather in our future.  After a bit of Yelping, we found Bustan, a Mediterranean restaurant with some awesome signature dishes.  Bustan was a great find, and we left so full we were bustan a gut!  (Forgive me, everything I could think of to write about this restaurant is a pun)


We got a few dippables and a lamb entree to share.  Though our waiter was the most nonchalant person I'd ever encountered, I appreciated his honesty when he told us 5 dips would be too much for two people to eat.  We narrowed it down to: tzatziki, taromasalata, and spicy feta (nixed the hummus and roasted eggplant).  The schmears came on a three-welled plate, each a huge mound from an ice cream scooper.  The true highlight of the appetizer, however, was the bread that accompanied: the executive chef himself ref…

Veritasty is back from hiatus!

We've had undoubtedly a busy couple of months, which started shortly after our last post from Pig Island...
:cue flashback montage:

We went on a cruise to Bermuda with my family (surprisingly good food!), traveled to Europe with our good friends, and Alex went to London and Florida for work.  Sadly, the two of us have barely had a nice stretch of time together to explore and eat around New York, nor have we had the chance to give our little blog any love lately, but hopefully we'll get a little more time now that it's close to the holidays and a little more chill at both our jobs.
In the meantime, we did have an incredible trip to Europe and ate some deliciously memorable meals, so let me tell you about them!
Alex and I went to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam with my best friend Jackie and our good friend Harry.  I couldn't have picked better travel buddies, and our whole trip was nothing short of amazing.  I also learned that we have to…

Happy 4th birthday to Veritasty!  We are eternally grateful to Jimmy Carbone and the folks at Food Karma not only for inviting us to our first food event four years ago, but also for throwing this wonderful celebration of pig every year!  The weather held up, the lines were not too long, and there was delicious food to be had at Pig Island.
I have found some years that there are trendy pork preparations (one year, I recall there being a lot of pork tacos, another had a lot of pulled pork sliders) and this year was all about crunch - and by that, I mean chicharrones!


Many chefs chose to accompany their pig dishes with either a small sprinkling of crunchy pig skin on top; some fried up whole huge chunks for us to break up and eat at our leisure!  Alex is immune to the pleasures of chicharrones, but I'm kind of obsessed for some reason....  I think growing up in an Asian household eating these things:
(prawn crackers, in case you didn't grow up in an Asian household)
...got me ac…

This weekend was a very successful celebration of hard ciders and grilled eats at Ciderfeast.  The event, hosted by Food Karma Projects, The Good Beer Seal, and Beer Sessions Radio, took place in a nondescript lot right on the East River, with beautiful views of Brooklyn across the river and of Manhattan buildings towering behind us.  We arrived just as people were setting up, and slowly the air begin to smell of delicious roasting meats and we heard strumming of guitars accompanied by lovely voices.  I was reminded of Austin, Texas (from where I had just returned the day before) with their world-famous barbecue and music scene.  We were super excited to try some food and drink!

We saw some familiar faces at the Copenhagen Street Dog team, serving the same fantastic hot dogs as we had at their launch party last week.  Ciderfeast was a much less crowded and more intimate event, so we got the chance to chat with some of the Revolving Dansk team (hello Martin and Sera!) about their wond…

When I think of summer, I think of BBQ. When I think of BBQ, I think of hamburgers and hot dogs. As a Jewish kid growing up in suburbia - we stuck with the classic - Hebrew National Hot Dogs. However, pretty soon, I grew tired of the same - albeit - delicious taste. As an NYU student and son of Brooklynites, we'd go down to Nathans for "the" hot dog. However, that too grew old. I needed flavor.
About 5 years ago, we took a family trip to Iceland which I discovered was known for a few things: expensive food, beautiful landscapes, and hot dogs. This trip opened my mind to what a hot dog could taste like and when we left, I craved that flavor. Last year - I found it again. Almost a year ago, we attended Pig Island where we first tasted Revolving Dansk's Street Dog. It had everything a good hot dog should have - snap (of the pickles), crackle (of the onions), and pop (of the hot dog casing). A few weeks ago, we heard about the Launch Party and knew we needed to get our …