Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

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 o...

In New York City, it's hard to find restaurants that are hidden gems anymore, and in light of recent events, it seems that this hidden gem has been taken away from us... Le Zucco is a tiny (and I mean tiny - three tables and seats about eight people in total) French restaurant in the Lower East Side.  Ironically, we found it because of a Groupon.  The restaurant has kind of a French-people-only trespassers-beware appearance about it, but the ambiance inside was more welcoming. We ordered a large charcuterie plate with cheese, meat, and fruit; escargot; french onion soup; and merguez sausages. The waiter who took our order also happened to be the owner and head chef, a grungy shaggy-haired guy that definitely exuded a Frenchy air about him.  I loved, however, that he knew our orders by memory and he himself then went behind the bar to start pouring our wine and cooking our food from scratch.  All the while, he schmoozed and double-European-cheek-kissed ...

I just had my mind blown after my birthday dinner at Beauty & Essex!  It was quite possibly the most fun dining experience I've had in a long time! Beauty & Essex is, as the name suggests, beautiful and located on Essex Street in the Lower East Side. It is one of two restaurants by Executive Chef Chris Santos, also known as the lovable tattooed judge on Chopped.  The concept of both Beauty & Essex and The Stanton Social (his other restaurant in the same neighborhood) is to have little plates for sharing: tapas, but without the pigs ears and with a whole lotta fancy. Why is Beauty & Essex beautiful?  The restaurant will puzzle you, surprise you, and take your breath away, quite literally.  Its marquee is a dingy, falling-apart sign that looks like the covering fell off the neon letters, a leftover from the wild days of New York in the 80s.  I wouldn't be surprised if they intentionally made the ampersand dangle at an angle.  The vesti...

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...

A couple of years ago, Francois Payard, of Francois Payard Bakery, invented my favorite holiday: Macaron Day.  Well, okay so he brought the tradition over from France, but it really doesn't matter because Macaron Day is The Best Day!! Think about this, friends: for one whole day, you can visit participating bakeries and get free macarons from them. I'm going to let that statement sink in for a bit.... Exciting right?!  I'm almost hesitant to write about it because then we'd be letting out our big secret and then all our favorite macaron places will be crowded and run out of macarons this year...but this was how we found one of our enduring favorite macaron places in New York City. Bisous Ciao Located in the Lower East Side in a very sleek,  minimalist shop, Bisous Ciao gave out a dark chocolate ganache macaron last year, embellished with a little pink bisous on the top of the cookie.  Since then, I've practically fallen in love with the place...

Yep, that's a unicorn For everyone who's been living under a rock for the past year or so... There's this ice-cream-truck-turned-store called Big Gay Ice Cream near Alphabet City.  And their ice cream is to-die-for.  And their shop is really cute!  If you're into eclectic unicorn murals and rainbow colors.  But word of warning: the fact that their store is right next to Butter Lane Cupcakes spells trouble (i.e. sugar overload) for the wandering foodie. The first time we came here was to use up a Groupon deal.  It was a horrendously rainy fall day last year and I was kind of annoyed at having to trek all the way over a bunch of avenues to get to the shop.  And then, when we arrived, the guy said the air conditioner was broken so it might mess with the quality or solidity (is that a word?) of the ice cream.  No matter, ice cream is ice cream and I've been known to straight up drink the bottom of a bowl of of ice-cream-melt.  That time,...

Counter Happy first night of Hanukkah! To celebrate, we tapped into Alex's heritage and had a little nosh from one of the most famous Jewish establishments in the Lower East Side, Yonah Schimmel's.  We've passed by it a few times, and Alex has raved about their world-famous and centuries-old knishes and other noshy things.  The storefront is decorated with peeling and fading newspaper clippings and printouts, celebrating its 101 years of existence (mazel tov!).  There are even more newspaper articles and photographs inside, so much taped to the walls that they probably don't need wallpaper!  This is one of those places with so much history etched in its foundation that even though I think the health department would be really turned off, it is a great place to grab a bite. Pac-Man! When we first got inside, it was empty except for the guy who works there and one customer, hunched over a dingy counter with mounds of knishes inside.  They were hav...