January 2016 – The Urban Garden Cook

Foodie Walk in New York

The best days to do this walk is either a Monday, Wednesday, Friday or a Saturday morning. By doing the walk on these days you will be able to take in the Union Square Green Market . It is a shame to miss this market as it is an unique experience to see over 140 stalls all selling locally source produce.

We have often done this walk and we always start the walk with a good strong cup of coffee from Amy’s Bread in Chelsea Market. If you are early enough you can grab a stool in the window, and eat a pastry from the shop whilst staring out of the window at passerby’s walking through the market. Amy’s Bread prides itself on making from scratch pastries and breads. I always find it difficult to choose one thing to eat, as everything looks so delicious. Trying to be healthy I decided this time around to go for some oatmeal. The combination of the cinnamon and freshly grated apple, worked so well, I didn’t feel deprived that I didn’t go for the almond croissant that Dave had instead.

Take your time wandering through Chelsea Market, there are always new shops and restaurants to explore. I should do a whole blog on it one day, but for now just take it from me you would really want to hang out there for a LONG time! Whatever you do, do make time to check out the bookstore Posman Books, who ever does the staff picks on the table at the front, is always spot on, as we have always picked up some really good books there. I could spend hours there ….

But tearing ourselves away, walk across town along 14th Street towards Union Square. Take in the Green Market.

Depending on the time of year, there will be lots of different types of seasonal produce on sale. When we visited just after New Year, it felt like almost every stall was selling hot apple cider. Very welcome on the chilly day we visited.

From here it is a short walk to Eataly, up Broadway towards Madison Square Park. It is only about a 5 minute walk. At Eataly it is fun to wonder around the store and just look at all the amazing Italian produce you can buy, and if you are lucky to find room have an espresso at the front of the store. I have never been there when it hasn’t been busy, and you have to admire the people behind the store to have thought up the concept and to run it so well. There is a good selection of cook books (predominately Italian) at the back (and incidentally near the toilets).

From there, hop on the subway at 23rd and 7th Ave take line 1 to 79th Street and go to THE best kitchen store in New York – Zabars. On the ground floor is a busy deli/grocery store stocking every kind of cheese, meat, spice etc that you can think of and upstairs it is full of kitchen supplies. I always come out of the shop, swearing that I can’t buy another thing but end up with another kitchen implement that then becomes invaluable over the years.

This is a great walk and a great way to see various different areas of New York. Don’t get put off about hoping onto the subway. It is really easy to navigate and it gives you a welcome chance to sit down before bracing yourself for the Zabars experience!

Christmas in New York – part 3 drinks and dinner

We found some amazing new wine bars on this trip. We particularly like natural wine or wine with few addictives and lucky for us there are several wine bars that have sprung up that serve natural wine.

The outstanding one was Ten Bells. 247 Broome Street. The wine is natural and the certainly the white wine I drank by the glass (sauvignon boutanche) had that wet paper smell to it, that at first makes you think it is oxidised, but actually it is just slightly botrytised and developed. This makes it an ideal wine to drink with the fresh charcuterie and small fried patatas bravos they serve. We drank and ate at the bar. Would highly recommend seeking this place out if you are in the Lower East Side. We also went to Cocotte, 110 Thompson betw Prince and Spring. Which is a lovely basement wine bar serving small bites. We sat at the small zinc bar and had wines by the glass. Although we didn’t eat there, we will next time as the small dishes all looked really lovely. This has a French flavour to both the wine list and menu.

Lupa was our next stop along Thompson Street. We went here for Sunday lunch. What a treat it was. It seemed like a local hang out and there were lots of families eating there. To start we shared crostinis topped with warm cannellini beans, tuna and pigs jowls. Personally I would have probably have had either the tuna or the pigs jowls but not both. But it was delicious and I certainly was left wanting more…. the main course of pasta well actually gnocchi with fennel, tomatoes and saugage was really good and went excellently with the red wine that Dave ordered. I sipped wine from his glass, was so immersed in our conversation and having a good stare at all the other dinners that I didn’t make a note of what the wine was. But given the type of wine Dave likes to order I would have imagined it was a Sicilian red wine. Whatever it was, it went excellently with the food.

But the real knock place was Black Tree on Orchard Street (they also have a branch in Brooklyn). This is a Slow Food Approved restaurant. I can see why. It was a long dark room, filled up by a long bar. We sat at the bar, but unusually the bar stools where really comfortable and had backs to them, which made sitting there a pleasure. We both had the same thing, which was the “PumKing” Artichoke dip (I am definitely going to try and make this at home), the ingredients were pureed pumpkin mixed with ricotta and thhen a soft egg baked on top sprinkled with pesto made with the artichoke, sour cream, bacon crumbs, nutmeg, chilli flakes and cheddar. It was a real riot of flavours and textures and worked so well with the lovely sour dough bread.

I realise I wandered away from the title of the piece about wine bars in NYC but the excuse is all these places serve really good wine by the glass too. Some other mentions for wine bars are 8th St Wine Cellar which is on 8th Street very close to Washington Square, practically next door is the equally excellent Amelie wine bar, both serve great wines by the glass and also small plates.

Christmas in New York part 2 ….lunch

Lunch time in New York was a bit of a challenge, as we didn’t want to eat so much that it would ruin our dinner but at the same time we were on the hunt for healthy options. As lunch had to fit in and around touristy things we were doing, we weren’t always flooded with choices. The stand outs were Blossom du Jour, (convenient for Upper West side) Amy’s Bread (for Chelsea Market) and Edward’s Dinner (for visiting the 9/11 Museum).

Blossom Du Jour – has various locations in and around Manhattan. We went to the cafe on the Upper West side, mainly because we couldn’t get into the much hyped vegan restaurant – Peace Food Cafe . Blossom is also a vegan cafe (well really a counter service take out sandwich bar with a few stools to sit on). The food was delicious despite the cramped setting, I had a bean and smoked avocado wrap with a smoothie made with strawberries, bananas and apple cider. But health doesn’t come cheap and this for two people (we had the exactly the same) came to just over $40 and worth noting no toilet facilities (well at less at the Upper West Side location we visited).

Also worth mentioning, if you are shopping in Bloomingdale’s, it worth checking out David Burke at Bloomindales. Burke has several restaurants in and around the city, but this small cafe on the ground floor of the department store, is really lovely and you get really good quality food for not too bad prices. I had a chopped kale salad with shallots, dried berries, coconut flakes and crispy chickpeas.

Christmas in New York

I have just come back from a wonderful week of eating my way around New York. Here are some of the highlights from my trip and then future posts will be of some recipes inspired from my trip.

GOOD BREAKFAST STOPS ……..

Buvette 42 Grove Street, West Village

We stumbled upon this place on our first day in New York and went in for a quick coffee and croissant. We didn’t realize how lucky we were to bag a table as this is apparently the “hot” breakfast spot in the West Village. I can see why. It is styled like a French cafe, really cosy and full of waiters charging around in their long white aprons. But what really stood out was the coffee. It was excellent. We only had two small croissants and strawberry jam, but looking around I could see people tucking into lots of different egg dishes and the like. The cafe turns into a wine bar later on and I could imagine it as a lovely refuge from the bustle of New York later on at night with a glass or two of fine French wine. If you can get in I would highly recommend this cafe. They also have a sister cafe in Paris – which I am definitely going to check out the next time we are there.

Ruby’s 219 Mulberry Street was our next stand out breakfast. So this was an Aussie style cafe, sans the surf boards, but full of breakfast items such as Vegemite and avocados. I loved the laid back atmosphere, and yet again the coffee was superb. I had banana bread with passion fruit butter – which was a bit like lemon curd but made with passion fruit instead. This was another cafe that morphs into lunch time fare and then into evenings. Again extremely popular and we were lucky to get a table.

Other good coffee stops are Toby’s Estate, with several outlets all around Manhattan and Brooklyn, if you see that an establishment is serving this coffee it is worth stopping by. And another recommendation is StumpTown Coffee which again serves excellent coffee and nice pastries.