Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

All my life, I've lived near L&B Spumoni Gardens, known as one of NYC's best pizzerias, but haven't ventured there until this weekend.  With sunshine and blue skies on the forecast, we planned a 35-minute walk down 86th Street in search of pizza, especially after seeing Time Out New York's Best Pizza list. We got two square Sicilian slices at L&B.  You can also get round slices (which...I didn't immediately realize meant came from round pizza, rather than actual round...slices...of pizza :-P), but you really only go to L&B for the Sicilian pizza.  We sat in the little outside dining area under the beaming spring sun and chowed down on delicious pizza.  Normally, I'm not a fan of Sicilian pizza because I much prefer thinner and crunchy crusts, but even though L&B's had a thicker crust, it had an amazingly crisp bottom and a pillowy fluffy center. Mozzarella cheese sits directly on top of the crust, which is covered by a sweet-tangy toma...

Oh, the long-awaited much-anticipated Eleven Madison Park lunch!  This was my first foray into the realm of Michelin restaurants and we aimed for the best.  I've been on a roller coaster of emotions for the past month about this lunch reservation: anxious, freaking out, even in tears because of the huge expense and fanciness I thought I couldn't handle; eager, positively giddy, and happy to have the opportunity. Our meal left us euphoric. Eleven Madison Park is housed in the Credit Suisse building. The lofty dining room is illuminated by daylight from the tall windows facing the park.  On the walls hang old photographs and art prints of New York City.  It was very classy decor that was warm and welcoming and woodsy, not overly sleek, minimalist, or clinical.  The ideological motif of the restaurant is to serve local, seasonal fare.  The literal motif of the restaurant is the stenciled drawing of four leaves, probably to represent the different seas...

In New York City, you often hear the names of hip and popular restaurants being thrown around.  One of these hallowed eateries that I've oft heard but never tried is Locanda Verde.  It has been featured on plenty of Food Network shows and highly rated on Yelp and Eater NY and all that jazz.  It had been on my NYC foodie bucket list for a while, and we finally had the opportunity to dine there!   Dinner at Locanda Verde was a highly cherished occasion for me.  Apparently, reservations at Locanda Verde are also highly cherished, since it was packed on a weeknight and it took a lot of sweet-talking to get us in. We had dinner with Alex's gregarious and wonderful cousin Sam and Sam's beautiful and talented girlfriend, Jenn - both of whom are very dear to me.  It was one of those meals you hope would never end: romantic, delicious, and shared with good company. Locanda Verde rocks a very sexy vibe, if that makes sense.  It's dark inside, eve...

Look!  Thirty-two Shake Shack burgers!  These were so kindly delivered to my office today.  Unfortunately, I was running into a meeting just as these arrived...so I had one about an hour later.  Still an incredible burger, my first Shake Shack burger.  There were two really juicy patties that were cooked to medium-rare-ish.  The cheese was liquified and oozing out all over, as you can see in the picture.  There were also mushroom burgers in the assortment, but I was so full after just one.  Mmm.  Shake Shack, you have truly lived up to the hype!

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 ...

We came, we saw, we conquered some grilled cheese sandwiches at The Big Cheesy.   The event was held in a really cool gallery space in SoHo.  Five competitors offered some creative and scrumptious grilled cheese sandwiches, and Goose Island poured three different IPAs.  We were given orange ping pong balls to put into tall plexiglass columns to cast our vote for The Big Cheese of The Big Cheesy 2015. First up was Mrs. Dorsey's Kitchen representing Brooklyn.  Their grilled cheese had: mushrooms sauteed in truffle oil, onion bacon jam, arugula, and grape tomatoes.  Oh, and mozzarella cheese!  It was a solid sandwich to start, with lots of my favorite flavors (truffle!  mushrooms!  arugula!!!).  The only thing I could nitpick on was that there may have been too much going on at once, and I forgot I was eating a primarily grilled cheese sandwich. Next was Hudson Common with a french toast grilled cheese.  This sandwich had...