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 ...

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...

Are you recovering from a very indulgent Valentine's Day/President's Day Weekend?  I sure am. This weekend, we tried out a restaurant right under Alex's office building called Le Relais de Venise: L'Entrecote.  I've always walked by, seeing a chic French bistro and thinking it'd be completely over our budget.  I was quite wrong! This restaurant's schtick is that they serve only one thing: steak frites.  You get a salad, sliced steak, and french fries for a fixed price of $28.75.  The salad of mixed greens and walnuts has a quirky, unusual, and very delicious mustard dressing.  For the main course, you can choose your steak blue, rare, medium, or well-done.  The first serving comes with a heaping pile of shoestring fries and the steak covered in a secret sauce.  Once you finish your plate, they bring you a second serving of both.   Funnily enough, the reason this blog post has no photos is that...the steak sauce is extremely not ...