The "Other" Macaroons

Ask any Jewish kid about Passover and the food items you MUST eat-- hands down right after Matzah is Macaroons. I don't know what it is about the overly sweet Manischewitz can of cookies but they're a must have for your 8 day Passover hibernation. (7 days if you are in Israel) Or maybe less if you run out of Matzah.

Can I eat beans? What about rice? Ugh the RULES!?

Fun Fact: Wikipedia has 7 different ways to spell Matzah. Who knew?

But enter the latest trendy sweet craze.

J. Chanceux Macaroons

202A Mott Street

Macaroons.

And these aren't the kosher for passover variety. (Or are they?? Anyone??)

These French macaroons come in a rainbow of colors and flavors that is harder to pick out than a ice cream flavor.

Mr. Broad and I were doing a walk around Chinatown into Soho to East Village and being tourists along the way. And then I came across this window.

Entranced.

Fig. Peanut Butter. Rose water. Vanilla. Mocha. Lavendar. Chocolate. Peach.

Whoa.

Excuse the glare behind the glass display.

And so many more...

Apparently this shop shares the space with an ice cream parlor. Like the ice cream shop closed their section in the back during the winter (Helloooo, people still eat ice cream in the winter!!) and this macaroon place subletted in. I love when people play nice in the sandbox.

Mr. Broad and I got a small box of 6 for $6.

So the French Macaroons. They're pretty small, airy yet not overly sweet. They're good for sure but I have to say the craze definitely revolves around the colors. Ya know that bright blue ice cream with pink sprinkles that you wanted as a 8 year old (or for Mr. Broad, yesterday). This is like that for grown ups.

But don't worry Manischewitz. I still have a place in my heart for your macaroons in April.

PS- But speaking of macaroons... did I mention that Mr. Broad and I are going to FRANCE next month?! Yes the Broads are continuing their travels and hitting up EUROPE... Aah lots to come.

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Just Another NYC Power Lunch

So Mrs. Cardinal (a friend/coworker/and fellow foodie) was in NYC yesterday and I was in prime google search mode to find a fun place for us to do lunch.

Note to restaurant search query tools. PLEASE put an "open for lunch" drop down on your site to distinguish between the only dinner spots.

Anyway, I gave up and we hopped in a cab to SoHo because we are TRENDY and COOL and went to Balthazar.

Balthazar

80 Spring Street

On our way over I casually said to Mrs. Cardinal in that nonchalant way, "oh be on the look out for celebs this is their hangout."

And as we are getting led to our seats, Mrs. Cardinal had that smug "I see someone famous" look. Ya know where you are trying to not stare and be cool at the same time. Yeah I can't master that look either.

And then I see her. Good ol'Sandra Lee of Semi-Homemade Cooking! from the Food Network. Yes, I know this was no Bob Saget sighting... Sandra Lee, a B-list celebrity at best, however was right across from us.

Mrs. Cardinal did a good job eavesdropping on their conversation (something about magazines, 20 min meals, party ideas) while I had a good look at her the whole time.

And yes. I still took pictures of my food.

Oh right. the FOOD!

Warm Goat Cheese and Carmelized Onion Tartlet

Mrs. Cardinal and I shared this and it was nice and flaky. The tartlet was pretty good, however the real winner I thought was the side salad... mmmmm. grape tomatoes.

Just in case you want to see what it looks like cut open

Linguini with Shrimp and Olives
Mrs. Cardinal went with the special of the day. It looked good with some baby shrimp thrown in there. Her comment was that it was pretty garlicy but in a good way. Mrs. Cardinal also remarked that while it was good, it wasn't a "must have" again. Fair enough.


Roast Lamb Sandwich with Grilled Vegetables and Arugula
This was my order cause I do heart the lamb. The sandwich was served on a OMG I JUST MADE EYE CONTACT WITH SANDRA LEE!!!! Okay. Breathe. Omg. Did she just move that backpack over the baricade because she saw the flash go off and didn't want her picture taken!? Hmmm. Whatever. She's pretty annoying anyways. But at least she had a turtleneck on so her cleavage wasn't as annoying. Yeah I said it.

Oh so the lamb came on a hard roll making the sandwich difficult to eat. There was some zucchini in there and lots of onions. It was aight. The lamb was kind of tough-- hello, did we see Top Chef this past week?? You don't overtenderize lamb. Anyway. It was good, I was just slightly underwhelmed.




Review
I've passed this place many Saturdays and they are constantly packed. The ambiance has that cool NYC vibe with clearly lots of celeb sightings. But honestly? I think the food is overrated. Mr. Broad has been here before and likes some of the breads and they may have okay desserts? I don't know. Regardless, it's in a great location and if you want to put your name down, go shopping for 2 hours, and then grab a bite. This is your place. Who knows maybe next time, you'll see Ina Garten? Ooh, or the Neely's!
Rating: 6.5

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Watch out Ice Cream!

Before I give a full scale review on where we went on Friday night, I wanted to run home and tell everyone out in blog world about this amazingness place we found in SoHo today. (Technically I think it was in Nolita- North of Little Italy- but walked a lot today and starting point was SoHo, so we're going with that).

Mr. Broad and I decided to get out of our apartment today (novel concept) and go to SoHo. He enjoys shopping (for him, not for me). Meanwhile, I always have the problem of going into one of these cutesy boutiques that sell 3 sweaters which are all about $450 each (no joke). To me if you are paying that much for a sweater (and no it's not cashmere although that shouldn't matter) it should also include the pair of pants, the purse and just maybe a nice belt to tie it all together. What I am getting to is that I didn't see anything I liked... amongst the clothing stores that is!

BUT.

What I DID find?! And I regrettably have no photos to show you (but stole some off our friend the world wide web)...

May I present Rice to Riches.

Rice to Riches

37 Spring Street (btwn Mott and Mulberry)

A couple of years ago I found Rice Pudding. I had always known of it, and liked it sure enough but I had my wisdom teeth pulled and rice pudding and me became really good friends. (Until I got sick from my meds in which case rice pudding and I had a very unpleasant breaking up, but all is now forgiven). Well. Rice pudding.

A close friend of mine told me about this place in NYC ages ago- it's like an ice cream shop but instead of different flavors of ice cream, you guessed it- lots of different rice puddings.

Mr. Broad was not nearly as impressed as I- if it wasn't once alive (and preferably moo'ing or snorting) I'm convinced he could go through life just fine. But regardless, he enjoyed watching me in my super duper excitement.

There were a zillion flavors and if you look on their website, their prices were grossly underestimated from what we saw. A small was around $6.50 (website says $5)... Luckily I found a prepacked even smaller size available and got two flavors to taste - cheesecake and chocolate chip.

The cheesecake one tastes identical to a cheesecake filling and actually has pieces of cheesecake in it! Yes there were bits of rice in there too, however, it didn't really matter. It was gooooood.

The chocolate chip I will have later on but from what I can tell it's a bit more "traditional" while still sweet with chocolate chips in it.
No, I didn't get to try their classic flavors (boring!) but will definitely have to come by and pay this place a visit... sex, drugs, and rocky road is calling my name.

Rating: B+ (would be higher if it wasn't so expensive!)

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One of those "Top Chef" Restaurants...

Perilla

9 Jones Street (btw. West 4 and Bleecker)

So after the fun, amazing, and drank a wee bit too much salami class, we went to Perilla. As Mike said, "I view that as an hour and a half of appetizers. Bring on the entrees."

About three blocks away from Murray's is Perilla, which Susan and I have been wanting to try. It has gotten rave reviews on boards and was opened up by Harold Dieterle, the winner of the first season of Top Chef. However, interesting note, the entire Perilla website has no mention that he won Top Chef. Dietrech's bio doesn't even mention it at all. (Hmm, sounds familiar to Kelly Clarkson forgetting her roots).

We immediately order a bottle of wine; which was fantabulous. Kudos to Susan and her pick of BenMarco Malbec Mendoza 2006. (We wrote it down we all loved it so much). Ordering while drinking can sometimes lead to splurge purchases or everything tasting "Oh wow, this is sooo good". That being said. We had a great meal.

We started off with:

-Seared Diver Sea Scallops, parsnip puree, pumpkin seed praline & orange-hearts of palm salad (Is that what that was?! I thought I didn't like hearts of palm. Oops). The scallops were great, and had a nice grilled flavor. With only 2 scallops, though, it was fine for us but don't expect it to be at an all you can eat buffet.

Foie gras was ordered as well however both were eaten so fast that no pictures were taken. Oops, I have to remember that one.

Onto the entrees and more wine. Excuse the pictures, I am really new to the whole taking pictures in the dark thing. You can tell this place had some "ambiance".

Susan and I both ordered appetizers for our entree.
Me: Spicy Duck Meatballs, mint cavatelli, water spinach, quail egg

Susan: Tai Snapper Tartarcucumber, rice pearls, tom yum broth gelee & pickled green papaya puree

Mr. Broad: Roasted Hampshire Pork 'Porchetta'flageolet beans, escarole, concord grape-chili ragu & green mustard

Mike: Roasted Bacon Wrapped Game Henspaetzle, chestnuts, persimmons & pomegranate molasses

Oh and brussel sprouts for the table-- Roasted Brussels Sprout Leaves dried cranberries, toasted nuts & seeds.

The great thing about going out to dinner with Mike and Susan is that we all pass each other's dishes around so we get a good taste for the restaurant. And that taste was divine.

Review: This restaurant is apparently hard to get into, but leave it for a Wednesday night it's well worth it. I almost wish we didn't have all that salami beforehand so I could try more dishes and appreciate it better! Their wine list was extensive and the service was very attentive. The chef was not there- don't think we didn't ask!- he was in Thailand presumably coming back with other fun concoctions. We can't wait to see what they are...

Rating: A

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