Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

Peter Xavier Kelly beat Iron Chef Bobby Flay during the Battle of the Cowboy Ribeye.  Bobby Flay, losing at a grilling competition?!  His victor has got to be good.  We found out just how good last weekend at a dear friend’s surprise graduation party. The restaurant X2O Xavier’s on the Hudson is up in Yonkers, a nice train ride from Grand Central on the Metro North.  The décor is lovely, minimalist, and reminiscent of the sea – wavy and curvy glass fixtures – which is appropriate because it sits right at the riverside.  Everything was elegant and beautiful, including the food! First we started with Caesar’s salad and bread.  The bread was interestingly trapezoid-shaped and dusted with a cinnamon-y sugar.  The salad was delicious, if not very remarkable. Then, we picked different items off the menu for appetizers and entrees.  I had wild mushroom ravioli and Alex had the shrimp and asparagus tempura.  My ravioli were a...

I'm sort of on a quest to find the best plate of pad thai, and I pretty much think I found a winner.  With reservations. Cafetasia is an affordable casual Thai restaurant right around NYU so in the past 4 years, I've obviously  been there loads of times.  The first thing that got me hooked was this "block party" that NYU had, with local vendors giving away food samples.  Their crab and cheese rangoon had me hooked.  Hooked, I tell you!  Crab meat and cream cheese, stuffed in a deep-fried wonton wrapper and dipped in a spicy tomato sauce.  Four years of ingesting plates and plates of their crab and cheese rangoon appetizer and I still love it and get it every time. Their lunch menu and early bird dinner menu allow for appetizer + entree, but otherwise the menu is categorized by "extra-small," "small," "medium," "large," and "extra-large" dishes.  A typical entree, like pad thai, is considered medium. So, ...