Located in the hip meatpacking district of New York City, Del Posto is one of those restaurants that, when you enter its premises. simply takes your breath away. To the left, there is a classically designed dark wood bar and in the middle, a grand staircase that leads up to the second floor of the restaurant and brings you a little closer to the huge sparkling crystal chandelier.
I’d been looking around for a Japanese dessert place in New York City for a while, so when a friend recommended Spot, we made plans to go almost immediately. (I found out later that the owner of Spot is Thai but the amazing desserts have a distinctively Japanese edge to them). Spot is located in St Mark’s Place, one of NYC’s fave Japanese food and drink hangout spots. St Mark’s is filled with izakayas, yakitori places, ramen restaurants and karaoke bars and the vibe is more casual and laid-back due to its proximity to NYU and East Village.
I haven’t had that much fun in a restaurant in a long time! The Downtown Grocery Vermont is a ski town during this season, and when I called on Thursday night for weekend reservations, I was surprised that it was already fully booked for Saturday. Fortunately for us, they had a Friday slot available at 745pm. My sister and I arrived early as we were hoping to turn in a little earlier that night, and although we were a little apprehensive about getting seated at the bar because our table was not yet ready, man did we get lucky!
Although I had not truly tasted authentic Mexican food till I moved to the US, I was hooked from the first moment I tried it. The flavours are fresh, with heavy usage of lime, tomatoes, onions and chillies like jalapeño. The spice factor is sharper from that of most Asian cuisines and often carry more of a kick.
When I was in Los Angeles recently, the friend that I was visiting told me that I had to try Umami Burger. Her sister who is based in Singapore had watched a television program about Umami Burger, and being a food blogger based in the USA, how have I managed not to write about burgers so far? Umami, also known as the fifth taste (besides sweet, sour, bitter and salty), has been an increasingly popular catchword in the culinary world for the past few years. Taste receptors in the tongue have been found to differentiate umami flavours and therefore scientists consider it to be unique from saltiness. For me, it is something almost indescribable…like an extra oomph in your food. Umami Burger focuses on bringing out naturally occurring umami flavours in their burgers.
A friend who was visiting brought me to this place, it comes highly recommended by another friend who lives in NYC. Located in West Village and recently opened in June this year, Rosemary is a casual Italian restaurant which only takes walk-ins. The space is wide open with a lot of natural light, with glass windows that open up to the street. Wooden tables are spread across the area with tables lined along the circumference of the restaurant and communal tables in the middle. Bar seats also available. Rosemary is also known for having a simple outdoor garden on the second floor. The garden is worth a tour, if only to see the vegetables that will be served to you at your table, extending the farm-to-table concept further to a rooftop-to-table one.
Cloud 9 Living is a provider of experience gifts – instead of providing the traditional physical gift, they organise experiences so that that wonderful memories can be made. They pride themselves on providing premium class customer service and I personally found that to be true. Founded in 2005, they have 1,700 experiences in 43 regions in the United States. When I was contacted by Aun about experiencing firsthand one of Cloud 9 Living’s experiences, I was ecstatic! There are several categories for me to choose from: food and wine, driving, fighter pilot for a day, golf, learn to fly, action and adventure and more! The experiences look amazing and are appropriate for birthdays, anniversaries, corporate gifts and more. I picked the private winery tour and picnic as I wanted to take the opportunity to go out to the Long Island wineries in a more intimate setting, enjoy the good weather while it lasted and spend some quality time with my sister.
The cupcake boom was alive and well when I was first in Chicago four years ago. There was Sprinkles, Swirlz, Sugar Bliss…and of course, there was Molly’s. I especially love Molly’s. I truly love Molly’s. Molly’s was a five minute walk away from my apartment when I lived in Chicago and I definitely had a love hate relationship with it. I loved it for the little pick-me-ups whenever I needed (or wanted) one, but of course hated that my then expanding waistline was in no small part attributable to my love of the delectable concoctions at Molly’s Cupcakes.
I spotted Totto from a distance by recognizing the crowd outside. Yes, it is one of those places that have chosen to forego reservations altogether, instead preferring to have a crude pen and paper waitlist. Located in Hell’s Kitchen in NYC, this place is touted to be one of the top ramen places along with Ippudo and Momofuku (neither of which takes reservations either).
If you are a fan of US television series and movies, you will be familiar with New York’s obsession with brunch. Brunch features so prominently in movies and TV shows based in New York that I knew it had to be among one of the first things I tried here. I have always wanted to have brunch with my girl pals Sex and the City style, talking about any and everything under the sun…and Sarabeth’s is a definitive top pick!