Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

It's not every day that you have lobster and caviar for breakfast. Unless you drop some serious cash at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Midtown for the Peacock Alley breakfast/brunch buffet. Brunch is held next to the sumptuous check in area.  The theme of the cavernous room seems to be elegance in darkness: the walls are rich dark wood, the carpet underfoot is dark, and there's minimal spotlight lighting on some of the food.  In one way, I guess it makes it fun since you feel like you're in an 19th century rich person's Victorian library.  In another sense, I would have loved for it to be a brighter, more minimalist and modern experience. Darkness aside, the spread was spectacular.  From the entrance of this delightful food maze, we have huge silver vats of soups, a veritable mountain range of bread rolls and pastries, and charcuterie plates with tons of meats and cheeses. Next door is a towering rack of little glass tumblers filled with none other than the ...

When we recently went to a Bay Ridge restaurant called Mussels & More, you may be surprised to hear we opted for no mussels, just whatever "more" entails.  We find ourselves walking around this stretch of Bay Ridge a lot - between 5th and 3rd Avenues and from 86th Street to however far north our legs take us - and have seen Mussels & More frequently, but never thought to try it until now.  Big mistake, because the food turns out to be pretty spectacular! We shared an order of fried calamari and fish & chips, with sweet potato fries instead of regular chips.  The food came out quickly and was really fresh and tasty.  First, our compliments to the chef for frying up some of the best calamari we've ever had: light, flavorful batter with squid rings fried to perfection.  I've had lots of good calamari from a variety of places, but I think the ones at Mussels & More will be most memorable, honestly, because it was unexpected.  The fish ...