May 22, 2013

Googa Mooga 2013

Oh Googa Mooga. Memories of last year’s epic first annual food festival in Prospect Park are indeed sweet. This year, summer literally rained on Googa Mooga’s parade. In addition to the shitty weather, the line up of food vendors were almost identical to the year prior! There was very little creativity or deviation from last years’ menus. Dang. The upsides were that they made a concerted effort to have better cell phone reception, and the Googa Mooga app was a fun way to map the park and keep track of what you’ve eaten. There’s always next year…

First Stop: Umami Burger. After reading about Umami Burger’s foray into NYC, I was pretty excited to try this California burger chain out before the NYC Locations open up in July – Williamsburg, West Village, and Battery Park City! Could this truffle burger be that amazing? Answer, yes yes it was.

Continue reading →

April 20, 2013

The Marrow NYC

Ten seasons in, I’m still a Top Chef groupie. I try to share my eating adventures at top chef veterans’ restaurants [posts] – Colicchio & Sons and Social Eatz to name a few. Come to think of it, I’m definitely missing a few more! Harold Dieterle’s Perilla and Kin Shop, Dale Talde’s Talde, Sam Talbot’s The Mondrian Soho are all some fave spots. So I couldn’t resist trying out Harold’s third West Village restaurant, The Marrow. He clearly has a favorite neighborhood. Harold, I’ll follow you anywhere.

Prime Beef Tartare with Vinegar Chips and caperberry dressing

Continue reading →

April 1, 2013

Food 52 April Fools Day

I love April Fools Day on the Internet – usually Google does it the best, but so many websites participate in recent years. Some of my faves from today:

Vimeo’s – “Vimeow”
GMail Blue
The always classic – Leave it On The Printer
Google Nose
Rebecca Minkoff’s prank of joining the Real Housewives

The cutest one I’ve seen is Food52′s revamp of their ENTIRE website- back in time to 1852. Check out some of the cute details and posts after the jump.
Continue reading →

March 31, 2013

Asian Hipster Restaurants – Hanjan

My winter of Asian eating continues. The next resto to knock off this Asian Hipster list is: Hanjan, located down the block from my office (yes I have a day job). Question: How can I not check out the Korean hot spot that is a mere 528 feet away from my place of work? Answer: I was a fool to wait as long as I did – Hanjan is one of the best new restaurants I’ve tried in a while. RUN THERE NOW.

AMAZING [Gwangju] Market Fried Chicken. The pickled daikon that comes with this is so addictive, we ordered a side of it.

Continue reading →

March 31, 2013

Bohemian Restaurant – Noho

Once in a blue moon you receive an invite to something super cool that you’ve never heard of. When I was invited (through work) to a “secret” dinner at a “secret restaurant”, who was I to resist? This is what I live for!!

After a little bit of research, I learned that Bohemian was a secret Japanese restaurant located at 57 Great Jones street, tucked behind a Japanese butcher shop. There is no phone number or menu listed on the strage website that is archaically built in flash. That’s it.

Once we arrived at the space beyond the butcher shop, I instantly fell in love with the interior. The hostess of the evening quickly explained the history of the space. Bohemian was actually the former home and studio of the NY artist Jean-Michel Basquiat who lived and died there. Basquiat created Neo-Expressionist pantings (many of which decorate the restaurant) and became one of the first international African American art stars, and a muse of Andy Warhol’s. But it wasn’t all fun and games in the art world – Basquiat overdosed on heroin and died in his home/Bohemian restaurant in 1988, which was kind of creepy. Wanna hear another fun fact about JMB? Jay-Z and Kanye West gave him a shoutout in the song “Illest Motherfucker Alive” on the Watch The Throne album! (Jay-Z raps “Basquiats, Warhols serving as my muses.”)

Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Continue reading →