Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

Funny coincidence that I used to work at Maimonides in Brooklyn and one day, we stumbled quite accidentally and desperately on this restaurant called Maimonide of Brooklyn. It's located on one of my favorite stretches of buildings in downtown Brooklyn, a colorful row of houses on Atlantic Avenue almost like they were implanted here from Portobello Road in London.  It was late in the day, we were starving, and we were actually joining other dining companions who scoped out the place first. The front of the house was kitschy, with figurines of vegetables stuck on plates, and a huge wall decorated with Sharpie drawings.  We sat in a cute courtyard out back.  And then...we were told this was a vegan restaurant.  My heart sank into my already-empty stomach.  Okay.  Not the first thing I wanted to hear, since I was HANGRY and wanted something junky to fill me up after a day full of walking. To give MOB credit, though, I thought lunch was actually re...

I scream, you scream, we all scream for Ample Hills Creamery! New York City and I are in love with Ample Hills Creamery.  Never before have I seen such creative, unique, and delicious flavors of ice cream as I have at this cozy ice cream parlor in Prospect Heights.  I have not, like the guys over at Serious Eats: NY, tried every single flavor .  Actually, this is a Sisyphus-ian task because Ample Hills continually invents new flavor combinations based on both seasonal ingredients and on - get this - pop culture and current events.  Anyway, I am wholeheartedly a fan of Ample Hills and I am very excited to check out their new Gowanus location in the spring!  Doubly exciting, they released the Ample Hills Creamery cookbook yesterday! You can get your standard ice cream flavors at Ample Hills, like chocolate, vanilla, cookies & cream, and mint chocolate chip.  Then, there's your best-selling Salted Crack Caramel: salted butter caramel ice cream b...

What more could you ask for on a Friday evening than the company of your closest friends, beautiful weather, pizza, and ice cream? Last Friday night (TGIF), I had just those four things as I dined at Peppino's in Park Slope.  Peppino's is a brick oven pizzeria with an intimate, rustic-looking dining area.  Eight of us were gathered around a table, practically salivating after a long walk to get there.  We split a meal, family style, consisting of an antipasta dish, two salads, and three small pizzas (margarita, alla vodka, and diavolo). The food was pretty standard Italian cuisine, which reminded me how good simple food with unpretentious ingredients can be.  I had a bite of mozzarella, a bite of sundried tomato ( very  good), some Caesar salad, some mixed salad with balsamic dressing, a slice of margarita pizza, and a slice of pizza alla vodka.  I had all the quintessential tastes and colors of Italy: tomato, basil, cheese, balsamic, vodka (just ...