Love This Marketing Idea

If somebody sent me this, I’d pretty much be a customer for life. I’m easy, I know. Way to go, Swich.

Margaritas on the LES

I finally checked out Barrio Chino on Broome Street between Orchard and Ludlow on Saturday night. Usually when I stop by the small, open-aired Mexican restaurant, there’s between a 1 and 2 hour wait. But thanks to some cold, rainy weather, I got a table in under 20 minutes. The food was delicious and cheap—two very important criteria. And I finally got my spring margarita fix, even if it didn’t feel like spring weather. If you’re going to go, get there early or expect a long wait… or pass the time with margaritas, caipirinhas, or some sangria. (And order the Enchiladas Verde… yum!)

Photo by Robert K. Chin.

Total Bummer

J and I had dinner at an amazing fish restaurant in Murray Hill called Wild Edibles—it’s seriously the first time we ate out in that neighborhood at a place I thought was reasonably priced, delicious, and had a cozy atmosphere. It’s basically a fish market with a few tables and bar stools set up to eat the on-display fresh fare. I love seeing my food before it’s cooked! Also, we had raw oysters with beer tastings which is probably my favorite thing on earth. But I just read on Eater and Grub Street today that my precious needle-in-a-haystack find is in trouble. Apparently, there’s some sort of issue where they’re being sued by former staff, and thus over 20 major restaurants in the city have stopped ordering from them. It’s this quote that broke my heart: “the Brandworkers’ real agenda is simply to put Wild Edibles out of business.” NOOOOoooo!

Photo via.

Vodka That’s Good for the Earth

I read a post on YumSugar today about 360 Vodka, and I remembered that I tried some a few weeks back. Now, I’m not a vodka drinker—I try to stay far, far away from the stuff. And they had it mixed with some sort of neon green midori concoction that looked less-than-appetizing. But I sipped, and… it tasted like vodka. No better, no worse than Stoli. But here’s the green twist: the company uses an energy-efficient process to distill the vodka, the labels are 100% recycled and processed in a chlorine-free manner, the bottle is 85% recycled, and the facility that filters it has gone through measures to reduce its eco footprint. They also gave me a coaster that I could plant and grow flowers with when I tried the drink. I don’t know—I guess I support it because it’s better for the earth, but I’m still not down for drinking it.

Yummy Yogurt Dip

How delicious does this look? I know yogurt and warm days don’t really seem like they go together, but for some reason, now that the sun’s shining, I have a craving for this Greek Yogurt, Lemon, and Herb Dip. Actually I have a craving for Greek food in general! But maybe this dip (found via The Kitchn) with recipe from Chez Pim will do the trick?

Wines That Please Everyone

I clipped this post from Dr. Vino’s blog the other day sort of as a mental note to myself, but thought y’all might like to see it too. It’s a list of the wines that were unanimously enjoyed by the classmates of his NYU course on wine tasting. I figure if it’s good enough for an NYU-kid, it’s good enough for me.

* Luneau-Papin, Clos des Allees, Muscadet 2005 $12 (find this wine)
* Godeval Godello 2006 $16 (find this wine)
* Lenz Estate Merlot, North Fork Long Island, 2001 $21 (find this wine)
* Patricia Greene, “Whistling Ridge” Pinot noir, 2006. $35 (find this wine)
* Catena Malbec 2005 $16 (find this wine)
* Yves Cuilleron, “vin de pays des Collines Rhodaniennes,” Syrah 2006 $18 (find this wine)

The first two are whites, and the rest are reds. Enjoy.

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Do Food and Art Go Together?

Tomorrow is the last day of the Umami: Food and Art Festival. If you don’t know, Umami is defined as the fifth taste after salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. It’s a Japanese term that refers to foods that are “savory” or “meaty” tasting. Tonight and tomorrow is the Ensemble 2009: Cookies performance—”A performance based around words derived from the linguistic milieu of food and cooking and begin with the letters that make up the term PERFORMANCE.” Whoa. I went to NYU and had to sit through things like this every day, so I’ve had my fill, thank you very much. I’d rather eat my food than watch performance art about it.

Photo via.

A Bit of Bragging

I know this isn’t food related, but I won this lovely green skirt from Pears & Bears thanks to a giveaway on the beautiful blog Coveiter (which I linked to a few weeks ago). I am so incredibly excited about this! We do giveaways all the time at work, and I love giving people free stuff. But I’ve never, ever won one. And what a great one to win! So cheers to Coveiter and Pears & Bears for giving me something stylish to wear to my next restaurant outing.

Ding… Order Up!

Based on a NY Magazine recommendation, J and I went to Maco Global Dining in Murray Hill on Friday night. I have to admit, it was one of the weirdest dining experiences I’ve had. Not necessarily bad, but definitely strange. The cuisine is truly “global dining”—there’s everything on the menu from sushi, to pasta, to chicken wings. Though an eclectic menu usually intrigues me, I have to say I was mostly confused and didn’t know what to order. The items were just so varied that I couldn’t decide on a cohesive meal. So, we ended up getting a tempura appetizer, I had a curry noodle entree, and J got some sushi. Everything we ate was definitely yummy. But there was this really odd thing—every time an order was ready the chefs behind the window would hit a bell (which I swore was a gong, but can’t prove). It was ridiculous, and so strange to have a fry-cook diner element at this upscale restaurant. I seriously almost fell out of my chair with laughter when I heard the “ding” every five minutes. It’s so funny how little things like that can alter your restaurant experience.

Photo by Zach Desart.

New Wine Bar in the LES

There’s a brand new organic wine bar that opened on Broome St. near Orchard last week called Ten Bells—a nautical term which also happens to be the name of the pub in London where Jack the Ripper met his victims. Yikes! But the space doesn’t look scary, and in fact looks rather cozy. Wine bars are my favorite, so I’ll be checking this one out soon. It’s owned by the same people who run Les Enfants Terrible, a restaurant I keep hearing great things about and still haven’t been to. My restaurant list is just too long!

Photo by Melissa Hom.

Gearing Up for the Picnic Club

Yesterday was beautiful here in NYC—hit the 70s for the first time in forever. Thus, I got spring fever and consumed approximately a million calories to celebrate the warm weather. There goes the diet! But I came across two really cute picnic sets that got me extra excited for future picnic-ing this spring and summer. The Eco Picnic set (via Dose of Design) is all fully biodegradable/compostable, and the Steady Stick Table and Wine holders (via SwissMiss) are less eco-friendly, but more likely to keep your food and drink away from the ants. I can’t wait to picnic!

My Latest Obsession

A friend and co-worker turned me on to her latest weight-loss obsession, Daily Plate. It’s a site where you can input all the food you eat each day and your exercise, and it’ll tell you exactly how many calories you can have to lose weight. I’m not really, exactly trying to lose weight. OK… maybe like a pound or two. But I’ve never been much of a dieter and I have no idea how to count calories. Yet I find it oddly satisfying to put in my Reese’s Mini Peanutbutter Cup, and see that it’s only 42 calories. Nice. And mostly, I just want to know that I’m not eating disgusting amounts of calories. I think this obsession’s life-line is a week at most, but, for now, I’m totally into it and I’m gonna try to shed some poundage for the summer.

Photo via.

A Tip on Asparagus Tips

If you cook at all, you probably know this, but I had to laugh when I saw this little asparagus tip on The Kitchn. I never knew that you were supposed to snap off the bottoms of asparagus until J and I started making dinner together. Now, that’s pretty much my sole job when we cook—he does things like bread chicken cutlets, bake herb-crusted salmon, and sautee yummy carrots in butter sauce. I do things like chop vegetables and now… snap asaparagus. Yipee! I get the fun jobs. So if you don’t know here’s the way to do it:

Take the end of the asparagus between your thumb and forefinger and bend until it breaks. The asparagus automatically breaks just where the woody part ends and the fresh, juicy part begins. It breaks this way, we assume, because the end has much less moisture and therefore less flexibility.

All images: Faith Hopper

Get Thee to a Starbucks

Free coffee today at 7,000 Starbucks stores to celebrate their introduction of the new Pike Place blend, named after the place where the first store was located. Also, if you’re near Bryant Park, there’s apparently a faux-Starbucks store set up where you can grab free bags of the new beans.

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Eat Through Your Grief

According to the Diner’s Journal, Meatpacking District staple, Florent, will be closing on June 29, the Sunday of Gay Pride. Florent has been serving bistro-style food at all hours of the day and night since 1985, and now the time has come to close the doors. Another MePa spot bites the dust, just like The Hog Pit. But I love how the owner of Florent in going out in style with his final 5 weeks reflecting the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance (starting May 26). I’m trying to decide which week I want to attend. Anger could be a very feisty, firey experience and maybe I’d be allowed to smash glasses and through plates, but bargaining could be cheaper?!?! Does that even make sense? Man, I’ll do anything for a cheap meal!

Photo by Shanna Ravindra.