We very rarely eat out on a weekday, and when we do eat out, it is usually a quick and dirty takeaway, KFC or fish & chips. I both enjoy cooking and eating out, but as bacon don’t get home till after 7 usually, it just makes more sense for me to cook on weekdays and we can eat out on weekends. However, on a rare occassion where I run out of ideas of what to cook and there’s not much left in the fridge, we try to make and effort to eat out.

Like many people, I get trapped with a handful of restaurants that I go to. I make an effort to discover new places, but I do tend to repeat a few places, i.e. Sundays are buffet days, the same old thai, indian or chinese. Delicious, but seriously lacking in creativity. As for italian, we had been going to the same old restaurant for years now – I never try anywhere new because I love it, but it was seriously time for a change. I go past Viva in my bus out of town, but never stepped in before. After changing our minds about 10 times whilst heading into town, we ended up in Viva at last.

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The gregarious owner greeted us at the door and shook both our hands in welcome – a big change, I don’t actually remember the last time I’ve been greeted by the owner of a restaurant. All the staff spoke italian inside the cozy restaurant, peppered with some choice English phrases like oki doki. I found this very charming . We were in time for the Early bird deal (up to 7.30pm on weekdays) , which came with any pizza or pasta, choice of starters and desserts. For just over £10, this was an absolute bargain.

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For some reason bacon mistook this for the starter we actually ordered. No idea why!

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We both went for the deep fried brie. Coated with breadcrumbs, deep fried and drizzled with a balsamic sauce, this was heavenly. It did leave me quite full, but the melty cheese contrasted beautifully with the drizzle of sauce and the salad garnish.

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Bacon had the double pepperoni pizza. Unfortunately it was only sparsely populated with pepperoni. Bacon was not entirely impressed. Everything else tasted ok -lovely base, thick with cheese; just not enough pepperoni (I counted 8 slices) to be classified as a double pepperoni pizza.

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I had the chicken and spinach calzone. This was better than the pizza, filled with oozing cheese, lovely tomato concasse and enough spinach & chicken in the calzone. Yumms. We could not finish either the calzone nor the pizza, but they were more than happy to wrap it up for us to take away.

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However, there is ALWAYS space for desserts! I had the tiramisu, which was seriously one of the best tiramisu I’ve ever had. I raved about Jamie Olivers’ tiramisu, but it doesn’t compare to this. Well-soaked sponge contrasts beautifully with just the right amount of mascarpone. Mm Mm good.

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Bacon had the creme brulee, which was lovely as well. We very rarely order the creme brulee, but this was so perfectly faultless. Creamy and sweet, topped with a crunchy layer of burnt sugar.

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Even the coffees have that personal touch. Call me a pushover, but a little latte art pleases me to no end

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Cheap, cheerful, friendly and yummy, I guess Viva will be finding its way to our growing handful of go-to restauraunts:)

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Viva Ristorante
9 Bridge End Leeds,
West Yorkshire LS1 7HG
Tel: 0113 242 0185

I rarely post my lunches here as I’ve created a separate blog for it, but this creation of mine was way too good to miss

Cross posted from http://notabrownbag.wordpress.com

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Today I learnt a lesson on never giving up. I tried making the yellow bird from egg sheet the day before, but had stupidly mixed in the whites & yolks and added tumeric to bring out the yellow-ness. However, this just serve to turn it a dull brown dishwater color. Looking at the state of my eggsheet, I was very upset, and actually did not end up making a bento for myself that day.

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EVERYTHING about it was wrong. I was really excited about making it initially, and after an whole hour in the kitchen and producing this really sad bird, I was more than ready to throw in the towel. Gaah! After sleeping on it, I asked Lia, the queen of eggsheets, and she advised me that I should just separate the whites from the yolk and just use the yolk for the yellow eggsheet.

And success!!!!!

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Today’s bento is made for the bacon again, a giant bun filled with ham and crumbly onion chutney cheese. I covered the bun with another thin slice of ham to get the contrast. The box is filled with a mini salad, a whole nectarine, a small pot of pickles, a homegrown tomato (our first fruit from the plant!!!) and four wild blackberries.

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The speedy yellow bird is made from a base of yellow egg sheet and a half-moon of polony. I used two different cheeses for the eyewhites & eyebrow, a carrot beak and teensy nori eyeball, nori tail and hair.

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Here it is, warts and all! You can see I still need to work on my egg sheet.

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Just as proof that you don’t need cute boxes to start packing a bento, this sammie have been packed in a well-recycled ice cream container . Yeah I know, here is me saying that you don’t need a cute box for a bento whilst I have a large number stacked up in my kitchen cupboard.

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EDIT: This was part of my Awesome America blog posts – however, I’ve just noticed that I’ve left this in the draft!! So here it is – my love for chain-restaurants revealed!

I’m not entirely sure that a trip to Red Lobster deserves an entire blog post by itself. Heh. Well, I’m going to anyway, as I never did document my visits to Red Lobsters years ago. Red Lobster is a nationwide seafood chain, serving up lobsters (doh), crabs, shrimps and more. However, my favourite memory of Red Lobster is most definately their deliciously naughty Cheddar Bay scones. Served warm, buttery, soft and herby, I had dreamt about them for many years since I left CA.

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As usual, when we went in for an early lunch, I was not hungry at all, having just had breakfast. Seeing that the Red Lobster by Times Sq was the only one that we’d seen in New York, we thought we would pop in for a quick lunch anyway and share a platter.

The yummy Cheddar Bay biscuits. The best part is they are FREE – comes complimentary with every main course ordered. OMG. When I was a penniless student, I used to go into Red Lobster, order the cheapest entree, and get two lots of the biscuits. And then doggy bag all of it when I’ve finished with a basket of biscuit. Yeah, I have no shame . The biscuits are really beautiful. So buttery it should be made illegal, as soft as a marshmallow, it literally melts in your mouth. I have to admit though, I don’t really like the main courses as much as I love the free starter.

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We ordered a Seafood Platter, which came with a starter of Caesar Salad. Crisp and tasty, like a caesar salad should be – just nice.

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And here it was – the shrimp and lobster platter. A pot of buttered shrimp, a shrimp skewer, a lobster tail, wild rice, fries, ketchup and melted butter, this was seafood dipped in butter. It tastes better than it looks, and suprisingly not as greasy as all the butter would lead you to believe. The seafood was suprisingly fresh, and the butter counteracts beautifully with the well seasoned seafood. Bacon even went as far to declare that this was the best meal he had in the States – and with the places that I bring him, this is no easy feat!

I miss Red Lobster already.. It was lovely when I was a student and it is still unpretentiously lovely now. Highly recommended as a family restaurant as they cater for kids, but it serves up good value tasty seafood for adults as well. I wished they would seriously consider opening a branch up in the UK, although it would probably triple the prices!

Before we accidentally bumped into Eileen’s Special Cheesecake, we were actually on the lookout for La Esquina Taqueria & Cafe, Mexican cuisine exordinaire. Another non-tourist haunt, this was recommended to me by a blog friend as serving one of the better mexican food in the NY area. Seeing that it is literally diagonal from Eileen’s, I still have no clue how we missed it.

Serving up mexican food street-food style, it is tacos galore, and even proper sandwiches in baguettes. There is a sit-down cafe next to it, but we decided to go it takeaway-style from the taqueria, where food is freshly cooked and the service is speedy.

Lining up. Looks like the streetfood kiosks that pepper California.

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Bacon ordered the pepito, the grilled steak sandwich in a crusty baguette with chimmichurri sauce. You could taste the freshness of the ingreddients, and that was nice.

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I had the fish taco, pescado a las brasas. Grilled skewer of fresh fish with red slaw and salsa verde, this was freshness to the max – obviously I didn’t realise that one portion meant one taco – could’ve done with a few monre. Fortunately I didn’t order more, otherwise I wouldn’t had been able to finish my ‘side dish’.

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Taco soup. Hardly a side dish, this was a hearty meal by itself. Chockful of tangy tomatoes, creamy avocado, chicken and crunchy black corn tortillas, this was heavenly. It was the first time I had taco soup – and ever since returning to the UK, I had had this three more times, once in a mexican restaurant and I made it myself twice. I fell in love with this dish, and I think the magic is due to the amazing creamy avocadoes and swirl of sour cream – somehow mine just never taste 100% the same, but 97% is close enough for me! Yummys.

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La Esquina was refreshing, a definate well-loved trendy neighbourhood haunt. It has a slightly speakeasy-like aura surrounding it. Minimalist food with extremely fresh ingredients, this really impressed me. Flavours are not masked with lashings of tinned salsa or cheese/sour cream combo that is so prevalent in Mexican restaurants in the UK. Everyone seem to know exactly what they wanted except for me and bacon, the token tourists. I am ever so pleased that we stumbled upon (well, more recommended to, thanks Megan!) this little slice of real New York, and the flavours of Mexican food delighted my tastebuds to no end. Ahh….I remember now why I used to love Mexican food. Thank you La Esquina for bringing me back.

Resource
La Esquina
106 Kenmare St
New York, 10012, United States
(646) 613-1333
Underground: Spring St Station

I’ve never been a big fan of Sex in the City, but I’m always a big fan of cakes. NY is (in my opinion, at least) most famous for a few types of cakes, the NY cheesecake, Baked Alaska and the cake reinvented by S in the City – the American cupcake. I seeked out for one, and literally bumped into the other. Ah, fate

We were actually searching for a Mexican street-food stall in SoHo that was located literally across the road from Eileens. Being completely blind, we just missed it for some stupid reason, and instead walked into Eileen’s for cake and directions. It was late and I was tired, and the little unassuming cake shop pulled at me like a magnet due to its quaint little size amongst other building blocks. I couldn’t have planned it any better. Eileen’s, it turned out, was a very famous and popular NY-styled cheesecake shop. Eileen herself actually gave us directions (by literally pointing across the road..doh).

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Founded in 1975 as a wholesale bakery, the retail doors only became a reality when people started knocking on her door to buy cake. You can still see evidence of this inside – a small eat-in area of about 8 seats is supplemented by a gigantic wholesale-sized kitchen. Eileen herself was baking up a storm when we got there; apparently she was expecting a French film crew in the next hour. She still came out for a chat with her customers, which in my opinion, provides independent establishment with the extra personal touch compared to modern carbon-copy cafes

If you believe the internet, Eileen’s serves up one of the best (if not the best) cheesecake around in New York. And I agree. Deliciously smooth and light, tempered by just the right amount of sugar – unlike the commercially available cheesecakes with their faintly sickly sweet taste.

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We ordered two mini cheesecakes – the original and the pecan.

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The original

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Pictures all around the teensy store. That’s the famous Eileen, by the way.

As we set there agape staring at the walls of reccomendations and awards, it finally dawned upon us that we were indeed in a treasured NY institution. Like wow. And not only does Eileen serves up a good cake, she is friendly and helpful as well. She seems to know most of her customers that walked in whilst we were there, and having been there since 1975, it’s no suprise that she is probably as local as they come.

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Later that day, I literally bumped into the one place that I wanted to visit. I obviously didn’t realise that the cult following of Magnolia Bakery had resulted in a number of branches all across NY City. Hm. I was walking around Mid-town, and suddenly started spotting girls with paperbags from magnolia. Interesting. And then I spotted it.

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Made famous by the SATC girls gossping over cupcakes, this NY institution was instantly elevated to the levels of glamour. Who would’ve known that cakes (especially cupcakes, the bane of children’s parties) could be elevated to glamour? Tourists (like myself) came from all over to experience the SATC phenomenan – heck, I don’t even watch it. But Magnolia Bakery transformed the cupcake industry as we know it. There are now dozens of Magnolia-wannabe bakeries all over the world, concentrating on pastel colors and sickly sweet frosting. Hey, I fall for it hook line and sinker too . I even had cupcakes for my wedding before it was all in-rage like it is now.

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It was, as expected, super busy inside.

Cakes Cakes!

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So anyway – because we had already eaten about 3 times over, I could only order one measly cupcake for us to share (REALLY could not fit any more in!). And it would just have to be the cult Red Velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

First impression, not bad. Slightly plain-looking without the usual crazy pastel colors, but I don’t really care.

Digging in.

I’ve only really tasted one other red velvet before (other than mine) and it was Hummingbird Bakery’s. Magnolia’s is lighter than Hummingbird, both cake and frosting. This is most definately a good thing, Hummingbird excels in pretty presentation, but I do find their creations too much on the heavy side, dense cake and heavy frosting. Magnolia is also lighter on the sugar, which is really good as the frosting at Hummingbird usually ruins it – it’s nice, but far too much of it and far too sweet. Whereas Magnolia struck a good balance between flavours, lightness and sweetness.

I came away slightly dissapointed by the whole experience. It is probably the massive commercialisation – I don’t know what I expected, a hole in a wall? It feels like the KFC of fast food – nice enough, but the commercialisation ruins it slightly. Even though the cake is passable (slightly better than average I would put it), the whole experience is far from the homey home-grown bakery that was potrayed when Carrie & the girls gossiped in it.

Even though Eileen’s started off as a wholesale commercial venture, it had somehow manage to maintain the home-made neighbourhood feel about it, giving the cake character and the whole establishment history. Magnolia’s started off as an independent bakery, and morphed into a faceless commercial money-making giant – complete with branded gifts, countless stores and massive queues. Oh the irony.

Resources

Eileen’s Special Cheesecake
17 Cleveland Place
(corner of Kenmare and Centre Sts., opposite Lafayette and Spring Sts.)
New York, NY 10012
Spring St. Subway Stop

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Magnolia Bakery
401 Bleecker St (W 11th Street)
New York, NY 10014
(other locations across NY)