Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

In the continuing series of "Sandra and the Jagendorfs Have Lunch," we bring you Katz's Delicatessen.  Twenty-two years of life and I haven't yet been to Katz's.  Heck, twenty-two years of life and I haven't even had real deli-styled cold cut sandwiches (see our disastrous experience ordering food at Lansky's ).  I have once stopped by the outside of Katz's to gaze adoringly at their neatly hung salami and hilarious old-school neon signs, but I've always heard it was quite expensive. Expensive, but as I found out, so worth it.  It wasn't very crowded on the day we went, so we got a nice table to stretch out and walked around the different stations to look at hunks of meat being carved and tubes of meat being roasted. The counters that lined the wall had buckets of sour and not-that-sour pickles.  All the walls were heavily adorned with framed photos of celebrities, old ads, and other pieces of New York history. Our food came pret...

Bon soir, cherie!  Today was a really long, torturous day for both of us.  After endless hours in class and in lab, we definitely needed something fancy and classy to unwind. French food! Alex found this cute French bistro in Chelsea called Trois Canards which has a Restaurant.com coupon!  They have really cute framed pictures, wine bottles, and wooden sculptures all over the wall, particularly their namesake, three ducks in a row.  All around, very cute.  Very French. We got spicy calamari, crispy duck, and veal scallopini (wrapped around goat cheese and spinach).  The calamari was breaded very lightly with a salty, spicy breading.  The accompanying tomato sauce was thin and spicy.  Overall, we really enjoyed the calamari. Our plates of crispy duck and veal scallopini were beautifully plated and generously portioned.  I excitedly grabbed a little piece of crispy fried duck cracklings from Alex's plate and it practically...

As fate would have it, last week I basically met Mario Batali. Met his gaze, that is.  I was walking to campus when I saw an unusual sight stopped at a traffic light.  I promise you, it was the orange Crocs that I saw first.  Then the orange helmet.  And that sexy green Vespa!  It had to be Mario Batali!  And, as I walked in the crosswalk no more than 5 feet in front of him, we totally made eye contact.  Actually just last night by pure coincidence, I watched A Day in the Life: Mario Batali.  He explained his philosophy behind food and even though it sounds a little cliche and cheesy, it was basically: to use simple, fresh ingredients to cook things people wouldn't normally make at home.   Today, Alex surprised me with an after-8-hours-in-lab dinner at Otto Enoteca Pizzeria, one of Mario Batali's restaurants in New York City.  We've eaten here before, last summer when we all looked kind of like little...

If you're ever in the mood to have more food than your stomach can possibly stomach...head over to Cafe Espanol.  We've been here a couple of times as per Alex's suggestion.  Each time, I've had enough food to last me around three full meals. Cafe Espanol is a dark, crowded restaurant on Bleeker Street. They have cute tile mosaics and murals on the wall.  It is darkly lit and quite romantic.  They serve authentic Spanish food like paella and tapas and seafood dishes.  I've had a few different dishes and I can attest that whatever I've eaten has always been delicious. The first time I came here, I had a seafood paella.  When the waiter brought out some rice and shellfish on a plate, I was a little disappointed.  I didn't just get rice and shellfish on a plate! But...my eyes lit up when he set down something else on the table next to me: a heavy, sizzling cast-iron skillet with the rest of my paella in it.  Legit!  If you add up the tot...

Every Wednesday, on my way to Nutrition class, I pass a little (emphasis on "little") restaurant on 12th Street near University Place.  It's a small sandwich shop called Num Pang.  My friend works there so I always walk past and shout "HI SARAH!" with a wave as I walk to my 3-hour-long dreary class.  One day, we finally decide to get lunch here, and as luck would have it Sarah wasn't there, but nonetheless we had some delicious food. Num Pang specializes in Cambodian-style sandwiches.  I'm not that familiar with Cambodian food, but it seems similar to banh mi sandwiches.  I've heard lately that Mario Batali has collaborated with Num Pang to create a sandwich.  When we went there, they were filling an enormous order: two entire cardboard boxes to deliver to some fancy shmancy event.  I was excited: this must have meant their sandwiches were awesome. And awesome they were.  I had the pulled duroc pork sandwich and Alex had hoisin ...

If you recall, dear reader, I took a hiatus from coffee last year, so my drink of choice became tea, all day, errday.  We happened upon this amazing tea shop in Soho called Harney & Sons that I am still in love with.  Even though the store is kind of small, the interior is cavernous and the walls are lined with black and gold boxes of every tea imaginable.  There is a bar where you can get free tea samples: they brew tea leaves to a kitchen timer (3-5 minutes, depending on what you're sampling) and pour it into cute little ceramic bowls.  They also sell tea accessories: intricate teapots, hand lotion scented like Earl Grey, tea towels, and mugs. The best part of the whole store is the little tea parlor all the way in the back.  Soft lighting illuminates the pale lavender walls and the furniture is accented with dark brown wood-y colors.  Besides having a romantic ambiance, the things they serve are delicious. We've frequented Harney & Son...

Who's got four thumbs and went to Puerto Rico for spring break?  Me and Alex! I pretty much have no reason to take a break from studying and working...but my friends convinced me that in our senior year of college, I should take a nice leisurely spring break.  But rest assured, I'm going right back to doing my school work.  And I owe you guys a bunch of posts afterwards! A bunch of friends came along with us for our short-and-sweet trip down to San Juan for spring break.  Suffice it to say that I'm perpetually cold now that I'm back in New York and it is no longer 85 degrees, humid, and sunny.  We spent a good amount of time touring Old San Juan, seeing the gorgeous and colorful colonial architecture, and sampling the local cuisine.  We also rented cars and drove out to El Yunque Rainforest for some hiking and burning off calories from the food...which proved necessary. What is Puerto Rican food like?  To be honest, before our trip, I wasn't...