London: Dishoom

It's never too late to talk about London, is it? I enjoyed a girls' trip last fall with my good friend LaShauna, a two-woman 'hen do' of sorts (aka mini-bachelorette party). Just the two of us traipsing around one of our favorite cities.

We met up one night with a former news colleague of mine who has lived there for almost a decade (and is on her way to becoming a British citizen)! She suggested meeting on the edge of Covent Garden at Dishoom, a mostly no-reservations restaurant that is one of the last remaining Bombay cafes in London. (They do take them for parties of 6 or more)

That no reservations thing is no joke. However, we didn't wait that long, maybe 40 minutes, and they brought out mini drinks and snacks to keep us from getting too hangry in line.
My drink was a lovely hot mint tea. Just sweet enough, and full of fresh mint.

They took us downstairs to a table in the middle of bustling room, and we started with cocktails. Mine was the Bombay Colada: a pina colada jazzed up with coriander (those seeds on top), chai syrup, lime juice, and rum. WOW. This was one of the best cocktails I've had the pleasure of sipping. The coriander made this drink sing from the tip of my tongue to the soles of my happy feet.

LaShauna ordered the Chaijito, a chai-infused take on the mojito. I tried a sip-- it is a refreshing spin on one of my favorite cocktails, but once LaShauna tasted MY drink, she made that her second cocktail (and so did I-- I had TWO Bombay coladas!)

We decided to share a bunch of dishes, including their sauteed green veggies, their red curry, black daal (lentils) and some naan bread.
Samosas to start-- flaky crust, surreally-spiced filling, YES YES YES.

That Black House daal (pictured above)-- holy shut your mouth richness. The menu says it's a signature dish, and I can understand why. Simmered for more than 24 hours, it is incredibly lush, aromatic, flavored in the most luscious of layers. I could have had just this dish and called it one of the best things I ever ate.

The chicken ruby was a gorgeous curry in what they call a 'makhani' sauce. Tender, juicy chicken pieces floating blissfully in that sacrilicious sauce. We had some naan, thankfully, to scrape up every last drop of this dish.
We ordered the succinctly-titled 'Bowl of Greens,' described as "grilled broccoli, snow peas and spinach tumbled with chilli and lime." This dish could easily have been a throwaway, but it was so incredibly flavorful that we nearly ordered another. Splitting this among three people left us all wanting more, but we were saving room for dessert.

And I doubled DOWN on dessert. I didn't just get the pineapple & black pepper crumble (which was good, but not great, a little dry).

I also ordered a dessert coffee, a Monsooned Cobbler. It is described as Malabar espresso, 'bamboozled' with spices, cognac, and cream. They served with with cream and EXTRA sugar on the side-- it does NOT need any more sweetness, but yeah, I splashed a bit more cream in there. It was super cold and super sweet. Normally I don't care for sweet coffee, but this was excellent. When I go back, I'm having just THIS for dessert!

Dishoom
12 Upper St Martin's Lane
London WC2H 9FB, United Kingdom
+44 20 7420 9320

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Holiday Eats: Cranberry Pie

Thank goodness for bookmarks. I saved this recipe years ago after tripping across it in the wilds of cyberspace. It still took a long while before making it, and I'd be so mad at myself for that if it did any good. Instead, I will just make it as many times as I can to make up for all the missed opportunities!

Called Nantucket Cranberry Pie (original post here), this is texturally more like a cake, but let's not fight over semantics, shall we?

This recipe is dead simple, and simply delicious. You can put it together in mere minutes, and it's a tart and tangy treat to mix it up in a sea of pumpkin and pecan pies.

It's a one-bowl, easy-peasy, satisfying recipe. Chop the cranberries and nuts (I used pecans, though the recipe calls for walnuts), toss them with a 1/2 cup of sugar, and dump them in your pie tin.

Next, add 2 eggs, melted butter, flour, sugar, and almond extract to the same bowl you used to mix your berries & nuts. You'll have a thick, yellow batter ready to pour over the berries.

I made this for a work potluck and it was gone in no time. The tart cranberries and the mellow almond flavor were a great pairing, and more than one person asked me for the recipe. I think it might be on a few tables this Thanksgiving!

It's not the most photogenic dessert when sliced, but everyone will eat it too quickly even to notice! I loved this so much that I made it again 2 days later for company.

This dish has earned a spot in my immediate rotation of recipes. It's easy to prepare, bakes in less than 40 minutes, and goes just as well for dessert (I'll add some orange zest and top with whipped cream next time) as it does for breakfast, next to a steaming hot cup of coffee. I hope you'll give it a whirl!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Wafels & Dinges Restaurant

A group of us gathered one EARLY Sunday morning, hoping to have some of my favorite pancakes at Clinton Street Baking Company. When our expected wait of an hour turned into TWO hours, and then we heard it would be THREE HOURS, we collectively said Oh HELL NO, and walked north to find a better option, ANY option. Three hours for pancakes? You must think I've lost my mind and then some. No. NO NO NO NO NO. I'm mad we even waited that long, but sometimes optimism can be a real kick in the head.

We walked two blocks up and saw the brick and mortar version of the Wafels & Dinges, an amazing Belgian wafel truck that was really at the forefront of the food truck movement. In fact, back in 2008, I organized a Wafels & Dinges Day at the talk show where I worked. Everyone chipped in about 10 bucks and the Wafels truck came just for us outside work. Sigh..that was a great day. But back to the future...

He's putting BACON in the wafels--thank you, Sir. THANK YOU.

We walked in, immediately ordered at the counter (where they serve sweet AND savory), and were seated in under five minutes. Hello, THIS is how I like to do brunch. Screw that waiting in line nonsense. And I had an icy cold, bracingly strong iced coffee-- FINALLY!

I like to start with savory first thing in the morning, so I ordered the chicken and mushroom wafel. It sounded so good, and tasted even better. It was like a wonderfully comforting stew. Impossible to eat with your hands, but I'm not complaining. I was not expecting the savory wafels to be so incredibly flavorful. Bright, green herbs and BACON cooked into the wafel!! It came with a side of lightly-dressed arugula and pickled, tickle-your-tongue onions. Killer combo.

ABF ordered the Wake Up Grumpy: an egg, bacon and cheese with two savory wafels replacing the biscuit. Drizzled with a generous portion of honey, it looked gorgeous, and ABF gave it two forks up, happily.

For dessert, ABF & I shared the sweet raspberry wafel, lightly dusted with confectioner's sugar and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with honey. This was great- ABF is coming around to really liking raspberries (one of my favorite foods), and I'm happy to share with him. As tasty as this was, I actually rate the chicken & mushroom wafel as even more fantastic.

See that stunning chocolate concoction? I think that was my friend Travis's pick-- I was so full at this point I couldn't even fathom trying it, but it smelled glorrrrrrrious.

The prices are reasonable, coffee is strong, flavors are fab, and the servers were all cheerful and welcoming. Skip waiting ANYWHERE for brunch and try out this spot!

Wafels and Dinges

209 East 2nd Street

NY, NY 10009

(866) 429-7329

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Giolitti (Rome, Italy)

I was going to wait a few days to post this visit, but Buzzfeed just published a list of some of the world's most visit-worthy ice cream/gelato spots, and Giolitti was on the list!

This ice cream parlor has been serving up sweet endings in Rome since 1900, so I guess in 2014 we're a little late to the party. We stopped here on a late night in Rome, after a good bit of walking around in drizzly, damp weather. Gelato is always in season!
I was a little confused at first-- at Giolitti, you pay up front at the cashier, and THEN you pick up your product. But how am I supposed to know what I want when there are so many choices! It took me a while to decide.

 Giolitti is known for its gelato, but it also had a dizzying, heady display of sweets, from cannoli to Nutella tarts. I resisted the tart, but snagged a cannoli for later (leave the tart, take the cannoli)-- and when I had it the next day for a snack on the train, it was STILL sensational.

The cannoli of my dreams...

But tonight was about the gelato. I got a bit shy and was less brave about snapping photos, but I enjoyed the fancy uniforms the (handsome) young Italian men behind the counter wore. They looked a lot like Disney's Prince Phillip's fancy dress whites-- I'll have to research that more.

I first tasted pear gelato in my 1999 trip (then in Sorrento), and I've never forgotten it. This is NOT the same thing as pear sorbet, which I sometimes find gritty and bland. Pear gelato is a light, fragrant, delectable cloud of flavor. Sublime. And at Giolitti, they ask if you want freshly whipped cream on TOP of the gelato. YES PLEASE THANK YOU. You will not regret it. I got another flavor on top of the pear (Amarena cherry, maybe?), but the pear completely stole the spotlight.

This is a hot spot for locals and tourists alike, at least from what we saw during our stay there, and the gelato was incredibly delicious. If you're wandering around Rome, you'll be happy to take a side trip over here.

Giolitti
Via degli Uffici del Vicario, 40
Roma, Italy
+39 06 699 1243

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Peanut Butter & Co.

A college friend of mine was visiting NYC with her family, and ABF & I decided to meet them in the West Village for a kitschy and tasty lunch at Peanut Butter & Co., a family/tourist/tastebud friendly spot that's been around for quite some time.

Tourist & Family-friendly fare! 

It's a small space, but we managed to snag some seats in the back for our group of 6.

Peanut Butter & Company makes their own peanut butter, as well as peanut butter spreads, and they will make just about any sandwich concoction you want. I ended up going with my standby: creamy peanut butter with raspberry preserves on whole wheat bread. My only mistake? I forgot to ask them to cut off the crusts (yes, they will do this)!

I also ordered a coffee milkshake because, well, I wanted one! It was creamy, with a strong coffee flavor and lots of sugar in there. This would later come to haunt me...but we'll continue. You can also get a glass of milk if that's your thing (I will MAKE that my thing next time).

ABF got the Elvis: peanut butter, bananas, and bacon, all fried in a pan. I wasn't feeling too adventurous, so I declined his offer of a bite. However, this is one of their most popular sandwiches-- I'm just an odd duck.

As we finished our sandwiches, we decided to all get some sweet treats to end the meal. Here's where caused myself some trouble- quickly forgetting the liquid sugar bomb of a shake I just had, I thought it would be a GREAT idea to have the brownie sundae and share it with ABF. What was I thinking!? Clearly I was all hopped up on sugar. Well, that sundae was SO good that I kept taking 'just one more bite,' unaware that I was bringing myself ever closer to the stomachache of a lifetime.

Everything we ate was quite tasty-- like comfort food without having to do your own dishes. However, if I had a do-over (and how I wish I did), I would have skipped the shake and saved room for the sundae instead. Sometimes you really CAN have too much of a good thing.

Peanut Butter & Co.
240 Sullivan Street
New York, NY 10012
(212)677-3995

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Doughnut Plant

If you love Doughnuts, if you even kind of LIKE them, you simply MUST swing by one of the Doughnut Plant's locations. Before this visit, I'd only been to the Chelsea area location, and taken them to-go. This time I went to their original spot on Grand street with my friend LaShauna, who was visiting for her birthday. We squeezed in time for a quick coffee for me, chai for LaShauna, and sweet treat before LaShauna had to leave. Oh, what a delicious visit we had this time, didn't we?

Their coffee is strong and smooth-- I loved my latte. LaShauna had their hot chai (not pictured).

They have yeast, cake and doughseed donuts, and we tried one of each: the peanut butter & jelly, the creme brulée, and tres leches. The fabulous, fabulous tres leches.

Creme Brulée

Creme Brulée's custardy insides

I always forget how tiny the creme brulée is-- two bites, TOPS. If you are trying to get as many doughnuts as you can, sure, share this, but you probably will want one all to yourself. The crackly bruléed top, the fluffy doughnut, and the sweet custard are a trifecta of fabulous flavors.

We also shared a doughseed that was a PB & J, with strawberry jam, and a peanut butter doughnut flecked in chopped peanut pieces. This was great, of course, as I've never had a bad doughnut there.

The showstopper, however, is the tres leches donut. How do they make this masterpiece of physics and flavor? It's cloaked in a gorgeous glaze that almost crackles like a piece of pottery- the doughnut inside is light and chewy, and the filling is perfect.

Tres Leches, man. Tres Leches.

How do they take everything about a tres leches cake and squeeze it into doughnut form? I don't know.. THEY JUST DO. This is a must-taste every time I go there.
It's obviously pretty pricey if you compare it to a Dunkin Donuts or other shop, but worth every penny. They're not just lumps of dough thrown into a bunch of oil-- they're edible art, and you'll remember them long after you dusted away the last delicious crumb.

Doughnut Plant
379 Grand St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 505-3700

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