Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

Cheerio, dear readers! My bad for the very long hiatus this time.  The thing is, your Veritasty friends had been cavorting (also working full time jobs, etc. etc.) around London and other faraway locales from late September last year to right after the new year.  We're back home in New York now and swamped with work and life, but finally decided to carve out some time to share our absolutely delightful journey, both food-related and otherwise, for the last few months.  Here's our series that I'm going to call...The Great British Partake-Off!!  Part one of many... London A little backstory: Alex got an opportunity to work abroad in his company's London office, and they were going to put him in corporate housing for free.  So, Sandra decided to take full advantage of this opportunity and move there as well. Practically everyone in my family thought I was taking a sabbatical and going to London for vacation, but on the contrary I actually worked harder...

Who does Veritasty vividly and vehemently vouch for on Valentine's Day?  Vitae! After a long struggle to find places to eat in Midtown, we've hit on one that combines impeccable customer service and delicious food, for a really decent price.  Vitae, on 46th Street and 5th Avenue, looks pretty unassuming from the outside.  Once you step inside - past the cute entrance with a wall lined with fragrant apples - it looks a little Art Deco-ish with banquettes and geometric light fixtures.  The dining room beyond the bar/banquette area is dimly lit, mostly from the tea lights on the tables, and cavernous: there's a staircase leading to a small mezzanine level dining room too. That's where our hostess brought us, to a private table in a corner overlooking the first floor.  We were in for quite a treat, and the first indication was the personalized menus she handed us that read "Happy Anniversary Mr. & Mrs. Jagendorf"!  Okay, so that was a little preemp...

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 learne...

There's a cute little neighborhood of Manhattan where I've never traversed, but discovered one night en route to a French restaurant called Bistro Vendome.  The restaurant is in Sutton Place (let me guess your reaction: "where the heck is Sutton Place?!") right under the 59th Street Bridge.  It was dark and romantic inside; the restaurant was a sort of crazy configuration of split level - a few tables on the ground floor, a few tables up some steps, and a bigger space down some steps.  The different levels gave the eatery some charm, but must make it very difficult for wait staff to maneuver.  Many of the diners were a few generations older than us, meaning they spoke to the staff in fluent French and were probably dignitaries or ambassadors or some such thing.  It was very cute to people-watch. Alex had a duck leg confit and I had a big ol' vat of Normande mussels.  The duck leg was perched  on a plate almost like it was seductively beckon...

On its own, few things are as recognizable as the Umami Burger.  I've seen my fair share of Umami Burger posts on Instagram, and you just know  from that "U" seared into the bun (side note: do you think they use the font Impact?).  I've also added to that trove of Instagram pictures, obviously.  This is mine: Veritasty finally got a chance to visit the New York Umami Burger after hearing much hype.  I had to wait for my dining companion/co-blogger for some time, so I sat at the bar and solo-drank.  Although my loneliness was killing me, it was assuaged by the Left Hand Milk Stout on tap.  I had first fell in love with Left Hand Milk Stout at Dinosaur BBQ  and was thrilled to see it at Umami Burger (side side note: I was so  thrilled to see my friends bring Left Hand Milk Stout for a recent Friendsgiving that I was literally jumping up and down and hugging them...my friends, not the beer).  I specially requested a half-pint, s...

So we bid London farewell with one fewer member in our tour group and headed on the Eurostar from London St. Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord.  Oh Paris!  City of Lights, city of love.  We had a very short time in Paris, hardly long enough to do it justice.  In the two-and-a-half days, I squeezed in trips to Notre Dame Cathedral, Musee d’Orsay, Versailles, a Seine boat cruise, the Latin Quarter, Musee du Louvre, the Champs Elysees, and the Eiffel Tower.  Phew! Along the while, we had some interesting eats.  The first night, we dined at  Le Saint Germain  after Musee d’Orsay.  We were starving and ready to keel over so I made the executive decision to head over to Saint Germain where I’d heard there was good food.  We stopped at this brasserie on a street corner (very typical of Paris, no?) and a cute waiter handed us a menu.  I barely looked at it and said YES PLEASE FEED ME.  We shared some escargot (just me and Mom: Dad i...