Starbucks Does Breakfast Right!!

Aside from their overpriced beverages and somewhat weird employees, Starbucks has come out with some amazing new breakfast and meal options for those trying to be more health conscious.

The breakfast of topic: The Greek Yogurt and Honey Parfait

Reduced fat greek yogurt topped with coconut-almond macaroon granola, pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries. At $3.45, it's a little steep for a parfait, especially when McDonalds only charges $1.00 for theirs, and you're already paying over $3.00 for a drink! But, this parfait is totally worth it.

Rip off the top and pour the entire cup of granola into the yogurt and honey mixture, and stir it around to evenly mix everything. This makes for a breakfast filled with tons of protein, a healthy amount of fat, lots of calcium, and mostly natural sugars. The real damage is this: 290 calories, 12g of fat, 8g of protein, and 32g of sugar, but it'll keep you full past lunch and is absolutely delicious.

The Starbucks Fruit and Yogurt Parfait

If you're really hungry, or greek yogurt isn't your thing, you can opt for the larger fruit and yogurt parfait, which also comes with granola. This is usually too much for me to eat, but is equally delicious, and is a better value because you're getting 2 more ounces of food for the same price of $3.45. This has 320 calories, 4 grams of fat, and 11 grams of protein.

Both equally delicious breakfasts, at a pretty good value, definitely convenient, and overall pretty healthy!

Kudos to Starbucks for keeping up with the food trends and current consumer needs!

Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives restaurant visits

For some reason, I've seen Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on TV a lot lately. It always seems to be on when I turn on the Food Network, so I just watch it. After watching a few times, I realized that it seemed like every episode had a place in Texas in it, so I kept watching. Recently, there have been 3 places in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex on the show, and I'm about to tell you about the first one I made it to!

5 Star Dining at a Conoco Station- The Chef's Point Cafe

The story behind this restaurant is that the entrepreneurs who started the cafe were declined a loan to open a restaurant due to lack of experience (neither owner has a culinary degree or food backround).. However, they were granted a loan to open a cafe in part of an already existing gas station. The restaurant attracted people from all over since its opening in 2003, and it finally made it onto the Food Network. Since its appearance on DDD, there is always a wait to get in!

A scene from the crowded restaurant, adorned with Guy Fieri pictures and autographs all over the walls:

After waiting 45 minutes to be seated, we knew exactly what we wanted and went to town. I ordered everything off of their Special Nightly Menu, instead of their regular menu.. I figured I'd check out the specialties while they're available! Bobby and I both ordered an appetizer and an entree so we could see as many menu items as possible, and then shared their famous dessert.

Appetizers
I started out with a bowl of their homemade clam chowder in a bread bowl, which was perfect for the cold night that it was. It was so creamy and meaty that it sort of tasted like loaded baked potato soup! YUM! It was also the first clam chowder I'd ever tasted that had huge chunks of clams in it- you could tell it was completely made from scratch!

Bob started out with cheese fries. I normally love cheese fries, but when I read that they were topped with cheese SAUCE and American cheese, I shyed away.. When they arrived at our table, Bobby just started cracking up.. it turns out the chef had just placed a slice of American cheese ontop of the fries and left it there to melt! The presentation wasn't great, but the asiago cheese sauce they were coated in was fantastic! Very good. Round 1 was delicious!

Onto Round 2-Entrees

I wanted to order the Osso Bucco from the nightly specials menu because it was a great deal at only $15.95, but they were all out! So I opted for the Teriyaki Glazed Salmon topped with Grilled Pineapple and Coconut Rice. It sounded FANTASTIC and isn't something I could get at any other restaurant. When it came, the presentation looked great, and I couldn't believe that I had two huge salmon filets and all of this rice for onlty $14 bucks! The rice ended up having green beans, peas, and corn in it, which was sort of weird, but the flavor was amazing. It even had a little bit of heat to it. The salmon, of course, was fantasticly sweet and sticky. Yum!

For Bobby's entree, I convinced Bobby that he should go outside his normal course of sandwiches and pizza and try something different so we'd have some good food to try! He ordered the Shrimp Scampi, which came doused in butter sauce. Holy amazingness! Both entrees also came with a slice of their homemade fresh garlic bread, which worked perfectly to dip into our sauces!

Dessert

I knew I had to try their dessert, so I put more than half of my salmon into a to go box and ordered up their bread pudding!

The bread pudding comes served very plain- a big square hunk of sweet bread mixture served in a shallow bowl of bourbon sweet butter sauce. I even got Bob to try it, even though he said he "didn't like pudding" LOL! Of course he couldn't stop eating it, and we finished it off.

It was a fantastic visit, and definitely worth the 45 minute drive to Watauga, and the 45 minute wait to sit down. No wonder it made it on the Food Network! I would recommend this place to anyone :) By the end of the meal, I realized that this wasn't a restaurant in a gas station- this was a gas station inside of a restaurant. We learned that the owners purchased 2 acres behind their current location and will be expanding to hold the demand! Excellent!

1 downfall of the restaurant- they do not sell alcohol at dinner (although it's sold in the gas station), and it's not a BYOB restaurant. I guess this just makes your dinner cheaper! :)

Need pie for Thanksgiving? Try Royers!

The Scene of this Blog:

Royer's Round Top Cafe

Round Top, TX

Home to down home country folks, a couple Ohioan tourists, and some fantastic pie!

Set scene: Roadside cafe in downtown Round Top, TX- population 81

Their motto is "Dive into the PIE box for an out of the box experience!"

Their shirts say "Remember the Alamode!"

Their pie is DELICIOUS!

I went to Round Top cafe after a visit to the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham, TX. It was only about a 25 minute drive, but seemed way out of the way. I had read about this place in a Dallas Morning News article about roadtrips, and it seemed like a great place to go, so I thought it'd be worth the inconvenient drive.

When we pulled up, upon seeing the cafe, the exact words out of my husbands mouth were, "Where the heck did you take us to? This is it?" Little did he know, that in about 15 minutes, we'd have some of the best pie we've ever tried in our bellies- and quail, stuffed giant jalapenos, and rolls ontop of that! When we walked in the door, this is the view we were greeted with:

Pies, pies everywhere! Cherry, Strawberry Rhubarb, Apple, Chocolate chip, Pecan, Butterscotch, Buttermilk, Pumpkin, Cinnamon, Key Lime Buttermilk, and Coconut Chess.. all there for us to smell and savor!

We sat down and ordered pie immediately- a slice of Apple, and a slice of Strawberry Rhubarb- both with ice cream, of course, because they charge you 50 cents extra if you don't get them a la mode! As we waited for our pies to come out, we sat and looked around this quirky cafe. The walls were adorned with signs, old tshirts, pictures of local and national celebrities, Christmas lights, napkins... anything you could think of!

We sat and chatted with the waiter wearing overalls (who I think was the owner) and talked to him about my food blog. He, in turn, started bringing out free samples of everything under the sun! Grilled quail (first time I'd ever tried it.. very good!), HUGE jalapenos stuffed with crab meat, cream cheese, jalapeno, and a plethora of other things, bread with homemade jelly, and then our pies. The fabulous, down home service here was wonderful.. almost refreshing. You don't see many places anymore where you can sit and learn about the business from the server, and really get to know them. By the time we left I felt like I belonged in Round Top, and was born to eat this pie!

As we paid the bill and got up to leave, the server brought out a box and handed it to me. He said, "On the house. Please enjoy, and y'all come back." It was a large cherry pie, straight out of the oven, just for me. Free.

This place has my heart, and will always have my business.

So, if you're ever deep in the heart of Texas, somewhere between Houston, College Station, and Austin, stop by Royers Round Top cafe. They also ship their famous pies all over the US- just order at http://www.royersroundtopcafe.com/

The Best Burger in Texas

Please bare with me as I try to get caught up on all of the posts I've been meaning to write for awhile now.. So many new foodie experiences, and not enough time to write!!

Recently, the Texas Monthly Magazine published an article about the Top 50 Burgers in Texas. The writers of the magazine drove over 12,000 miles, ate at more than 250 restaurants, and finally came up with The #1 Burger in Texas.... which just happens to be in my own city- Dallas, TX! Now, this is quite a huge honor to have, especially in the great (LARGE) state of Texas, so of course I'd have to verify it for myself. So, I made a reservation for brunch to try the burger, and made a date with our friends. It was FABULOUS!

This is the excerpt from the magazine description:

"No. 1 Classic Cheeseburger$12 (Fries are included in this price.) The Grape, Dallas
Not to take the Lord’s name in vain, but if ever there were a burger that could sitteth at the right hand of the Almighty, this would be the one. We sweareth. This is a celestial sandwich in every tiny detail. The meat, ground in-house, is ten ounces of high-quality chuck-eye (renowned for having the best fat-to-lean ratio). The peppered bacon is cured on-site. The slightly sweet bun hails from a local bakery. Are you getting the picture? Are your salivary glands in Pavlovian mode? Let us rave on: The lettuce is Texas hydroponic Bibb, just the tender inner leaves; the Lemley tomato has achieved ideal ripeness. White cheddar cheese oozes across the meat patty, melding irresistibly with the Dijonnaise blend that has been swiped across the amply buttered, crisply toasted bread. Is there a drawback? Just one: Unless your mouth is the size of Julia Roberts’s, you’ll need to press this tower down to a manageable height before attempting to stuff your face. The Grape’s creation does not attempt any radical maneuvers, but in its simple perfection it achieves the pinnacle of burgerdom: It makes you wonder why you would ever eat anything else. That it’s offered only during Sunday brunch makes it even more desirable. Granted, some curmudgeons might balk at eating a burger in a wine bistro on Sunday morning, but they’d be missing the very best burger in Texas. 2808 Greenville Ave., 214-828-1981. PS"

The article is SO true. The Dijonnaise sauce that's on the sandwich couldn't be more balanced. The sharp white cheddar cheese that is melted ontop adds just the right amount of flavor, and the toasted buttery bun? Well, it's perfection. The bacon was crisped and hot, adding a small amount of flavory grease, and the lettuce and tomato were fresh. What about the twice fried fries, you ask? They were flavorful, crunchy, and delicious with Heinz ketchup!

My only wish for this classic burger is that the pickles would've been different. They tasted fresh and homemade, but were spicy instead of being a dill or bread and butter pickle. I like the taste of normal pickles, and usually add extras onto my burger, but with these I didn't eat too many of them.

Here are some pictures of the burger. The first one is the burger as presented to me, and the other is my burger after I built it. It WAS huge, and I couldn't finish it..

I can definitely see why it was called The Best Burger in Texas!!!

Cocos Frios- A taste of the tropics

Hola! I just returned from one of the more fabulous trips I've taken in my life with a lot of new foodie experiences to chat about. I was in Mexico for a week, and I was determined not to eat tacos, burritos, quesadillas, chimichangas, or enchiladas. Instead, I ate octopus, conch filets, squid, and had ribs prepared ways I'd never seen them, but the one experience that stood out among the rest was the Cocos Frios.

I consider myself to be somewhat of a mixed drink connoisseur, which means that I've had my fair share of drinks out of coconuts. Miami vice, pina colada, strawberry daquiri, Bahama mama, and some sort of dirty monkey type thing, but none more interesting that the one I'm about to describe. I'd always thought that "coconut milk" came from the inside of coconuts, but the coconut milk we see here in stores is a mix of sugar and the meat of a coconut sieved through a cheese cloth. What comes from the inside of coconuts is actually a clear liquid called coconut water. It tastes a little bit like coconuts, a little bit like fruit, and a little bit like dirty water. It's best when served chilled, making the name Cocos Frios (cold coconuts).

We had rented a Jeep for the day to explore the other side of the island, and pulled up on a sign that said Coco Frios. One of my goals for that day was to drink out of either a coconut or a pineapple (both of which I accomplished, by the way!), so we pulled over to get our drink out of the coconut. The first thing I saw was a scary man with a machete! Ahhh.. but, he was just cutting the tops off of the coconuts so we could drink out of them :)

We pay the $3.00 for the two coconuts, and begin watching him cut into ours. He handed us ours, with a little hole on the top and a straw inserted into the opening, and we began to drink up! Right as we took our first sip, my husband looked at me and said, "I wonder if Tom Hanks on Castaway was serious about the coconut water.. he said they're a GREAT laxative." I was like oh, great.... this should be an interesting day if that's true! Here we are enjoying our first Cocos Frios foodie experience. Couldn't have picked a better background!

Anyway, the coconut water was pretty good, and very refreshing. After we finished, the "Machete Guy" cut our coconuts in half and let us eat the underdeveloped flesh inside. It was a little too slimy and gooey for me, so I didn't eat a lot, but I did try it. I've gotta say, I like the hard, sweetened coconut a lot better, but apparently that comes from very old coconuts.

To wrap up our drinking experience, after we tried the Cocos Frios we hit up Playa Bonita, where I drank a Bahama Mama from a Pineapple, and it was AWESOME.

The next stop was, funny enough, called Coconuts, where we ate lunch for the day. My husband had conch filets, and they were really interesting tasting, but I prefer to have my conch diced, chopped, and fried into Conch Fritters :) Here are the conch filets:

The squid and octopus weren't really worth writing about, but obviously everything above was. Great trip, great food, and great experiences! So, next time you guys are out, go out of your comfort zone and try something you normally wouldn't. It's fun!

Clare vs. Food!

It’s been over a month since my last foodie post, and man have I missed it! I’ve been dying to have something or somewhere fun to write about, and finally I do! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

My Man v. Food Tour of Austin

As you probably know, or at least could guess, I love the Food Network and The Travel Channel. Together, these two channels combine everything I love in life- food and anything about it, and traveling. There is a new show on the Travel Channel called Man v. Food, and if you haven’t seen it, let me paint a picture for you: The host, who may I say has the greatest job in the world, travels city to city taking on America’s different eating challenges. An 8 lb burger? Sure! An 11 lb meat lovers pizza?! No problem! The hottest chilis in the world? Done! This guy is like a human elephant who just heaves food into his stomach for pleasure (well, and money). However, I greatly enjoy watching his discomfort on tv, and also seeing which eating spots he deems credible for the Food Network.
On a recent roadtrip around Central Texas, I took a “Man v Food” tour of Austin. Now, I’d been to The Salt Lick BBQ before, but had never been to Juan in a Million or Round Rock Donuts, so of course I had to check those out… and hit The Salt Lick again!

First stop: The Salt Lick BBQ, Driftwood, TX

To come upon this magnificent barbeque pit by chance isn’t possible. Not only do you have to make it to Austin, but then you must travel the backroads southwest of town, and wind down Hill Country roads to finally pull into the driveway of Paradise. This place is what you call a destination. Upon first entering the restaurant, you’ll see one of the only open barbeque pits left in the state of Texas. That in and of itself is amazing. Piles and piles of smoked brisket, ribs, turkey, and sausage smoked 16-24 hours to perfection.. you’ll never see anything like it. Check it out:

Being a huge fan of brisket, and knowing that Texas is famous for perfecting this cut of meat, I go for the sliced brisket sandwich- only $7.95. Well.. this sandwich arrives at my table and is larger than 2 Big Macs from McDonalds. It probably has over ½ lb of brisket on it, and it on a homemade LARGE roll topped with sesame seeds. I slather on the bbq sauce and pickles, and dig in.
Now, this is the 3rd time that I’ve had this sandwich, and I always come back to it because of its deliciousness and enormity. It’s probably one of the greatest things I’ve ever put in my mouth. And, being of sound mind and body, I finish it all and clear my plate. I’m full until tomorrow morning.

Second Stop: Juan in a Million, Austin, TX
This morning, I wake up in my hotel room in Austin and everyone is hungry. I don’t want the standard hotel food buffet breakfast, and don’t really want the IHOP that’s next door. I have a fabulous idea, so I just throw it out there- why don’t we go to Juan in a Million and try their breakfast tacos? I saw it on Food Network so it must be good! Knowing that my mom doesn’t really care for Mexican food, I’m not sure she’ll go for it, but she says yes! We are all a little hesitant in driving the 2 miles down to Cesar Chavez St, as this street isn’t in the greatest part of town, but surely the FN wouldn’t steer us wrong. We drive past the blocks and blocks of dirty front yards, abandoned and trashed houses, and all the Taqueiras you could think of. Finally, we come upon a building with bars on the windows with a line out the door! We’ve reached our destination!
Luckily the line was for takeout, so we didn’t have to wait to be seated. This place was packed, and boy is it a big place. I didn’t even need to see the menu to know what I wanted to order. I wanted the breakfast tacos that the Man v. Food host did the challenge on. He had to eat EIGHT PLATES of tacos in order to beat the Juan in a Million record. He failed miserably, only making it to 4 ½ plates, so I knew I probably could barely eat one! Here's Adam after he lost:
My dad and my husband ordered the same, and my mom got a tiny little bean taco, as she was trying to be ‘healthy’. The food came quickly, and I immediately could see why Adam couldn’t eat 8 plates of this. THIS WAS A LOT OF FOOD!
A blend of potatoes, cheese, eggs, and bacon were atop 3 flour tortillas on the plate, and were served with a side of salsa. The breakfast was heavenly (my mom ended up eating my last taco because she, of course, was still hungry after her bean taco) and the bill for the 4 of us to eat breakfast was less than $25. Can’t beat it!!

Time to head out of town..

Third and final stop: Round Rock Donuts, Round Rock, TX

After we had all stuffed ourselves with breakfast tacos, we went back to the hotel to check out, and headed north on 35. We were all so full, but were going to be passing through Round Rock, and I absolutely couldn’t pass through without a stop at Round Rock Donuts. I just HAD to see this donut I’d see on Man v. Food. It was huge.. the biggest donut I’d ever seen! So, amidst some sighs I heard from the rest of the car, we stopped. The line was out the door, and all of the benches in the front were full! We went inside, and for such a large looking building, the shop wasn’t very big. We stood in line, and as we did so I was looking in the displays for the donut I’d seen on tv.. but I couldn’t find it. I was really hoping that it wasn’t a pre-order, limited time offer thing. We decided to just order regular donuts since we didn’t see the large one, but I went ahead and asked if they had any large ones anyways, and THEY DID! JACKPOT! She brought out a tray of the donuts, and I was in awe. I said, “Put the rest of the donuts back.. we’ll take the large one and split it”. Look at the size of this donut!

Well, it had just come out of the fryer and still had hot glaze. The inside was warm and doughy, and the glaze was sweet and stuck to your fingers. The donut batter was orange, and this is what Round Rock Donuts is known for- their orange yeast glazed donuts. Hands down, best donut I’ve ever had. And I didn’t care that I was full.. I was very satisfied :) Now we could go back to Dallas.

So until my next foodie culinary adventure, keep it tasty!

Hot Town, Summer in the City

Does it get any better than sitting on a patio in the Texas summer heat drinking a Key Lime Pie martini and eating a cheeseburger?

NO... Not unless I was doing the same thing under a palapa on the beach.

Tonite I ventured to Sullivan's Steakhouse for their Swinging Thursday nights, where the entire bar menu and all of the martinis are $5. Where I live, I am completely surrounded by steakhouses, all within a block's distance. Three Forks, Ruth's Chris, Rafain Brazilian Steakhouse, Sullivan's, and Tre Amici. These are places that you'd never think would be affordable..

Wrong.

On Thursday and Sunday nights at Sullivan's Steakhouse (which is a chain around the country), they have great deals! Bob and I each ate a burger and had beers and martinis, all for $35 bucks! Now, in a previous blog I wrote how Red's Patio Grill had my favorite burger... well, it has now fallen to second place. This burger from Sullivan's is now at the top. It's made from ground up steaks... Now, they're generally day or two old steaks, but that doesn't mean anything- they're certainly not old. The meat was so juicy and tender that the juice dripped off and filled my plate. The cheddar was melted perfectly ontop, and it was served with thick-sliced bread and butter pickles instead of dill. Talk about a nice substitution! I LOVE sweet pickles!

One of my favorite people, Mr. Jimmy Buffett, sings about a Cheeseburger in Paradise, and tells the story like this: " I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes. Big kosher pickle and a cold draught beer, good Lord almight which way do I steer?!" My answer to that question would be a block down Frankford and a quick left on Dallas Parkway, straight into Sullivan's parking lot.

I couldn't have had a better night.. friends, drinks, burgers, and fun, all on a patio enjoying the outdoor Texas summers. Can't wait for Sunday :)

Keep it tasty folks.

Chef Boy-are-who?!

It'll be a short post today.. just wanted to throw a little bit of information out there that I thought most people might not have known.

I was finished with work today in Florida, and came back to my hotel room to relax before dinner. I turned on the tv, and the History Channel popped up, and it happened to be a history behind America's favorite foods (how Chef Boyardee is one of America's favorite foods, I'll never know, although I do love the ravioli..). I continued to watch it, and found out that Chef Boyardee is a real person!

Hector Boiardi is the original Chef Boyardee. He came from Italy at age 17, and started working in New York. His brother worked in the kitchen at The Plaza Hotel, and actually landed him a job there, as well. Hector cooked in multiple states before opening up his own restaurant in Cleveland, OH, called Il Giardino d'Italia. His spaghetti sauce was so darn good that customers requested to have some in a jar to take home. He'd package it in a milk bottle and send them on their way. Soon after, Boiardi started assembling packages of dry spaghetti, crumbled cheese, and his special sauce for customers to take home and cook on their own. He became so popular that he moved his operations to Pennsylvania and joined with American Home Foods. They began canning his products, and they still sell them today.

What's interesting to me is how a product notorious for being so delicious ended up being so cheap and processed. Knowing Chef Boiardi's history now actually makes me a little sad.. he had such a good product that turned into a fabricated "Italian" canned meal.

Oh well... I still eat it :)

Here's Hector Boiardi doing what he loved best. He died in 1985.

Foodie Trip Through NYC

This will be an extremely long entry.. Feel free to read if you're interested in my travels, but also feel free to just look at the pictures :)

So I recently returned from spending quite a bit of time in NYC. I went for work, but whenever I had a little bit of free time, I wandered out to see what I could see. Being who I am, the majority of these were food. I wanted to explore the new food trends, go to restaurants that I'd heard a lot about, and do research on pizza (duh!).

I ended up walking through many different areas of New York and learning about their food.. This blog post will be a journey through my eating/walking tour of NYC.

I began on the Upper West side. I wanted to see Zabars, H&H Bagels, Strawberry Fields, and the Carnegie Deli.

1st Stop- Zabars. A local gourmet food shop that's been around for years, this store has so many options crammed in to a little corner shop. So many selections of honey, jam, jelly, fish, crackers, bakery goods, knishes, cheese, cured meats, and the list goes on and on. Check out their cheese counter! I have never seen so many cheeses in my life.

Look at all of the different types of honey!! Who knew there were so many kinds?

One thing that shocked me was how small the store was.. I sort of expected Zabar's to be like the size of the Macy's in NYC. Tons and tons of floors of specialty foods, cooking classes, kitchen goods, etc, but it was very far from that. The store was very small and was hard to get around. I did buy a couple of very interesting things, and tried a lot of samples.

Right next to Zabar's is H&H bagels. Anytime you see people on TV with a bag of bagels, they're generally from H&H. They've been around for years, and have a special process for making their bagels. I didn't try one, but I had some pretty darn good bagels in New York so I figured I made up for it.

See Zabar's in the background?

Stop 2- Strawberry Fields

In all of the times I'd been to NYC before (~25), I'd never been to Strawberry Fields. This isn't a food stop (but it does have Strawberry in the name, so I guess that counts :) ), but it's a memorial to John Lennon, right next to the Dakota where he was shot. Strawberry Fields is an area of Central Park specifically dedicated to him, and is supposed to be a quiet area for relaxation- but it was far from that with all of the tourists. Here is the famous memorial:

Here is a picture of the entrance to The Dakota where John Lennon was shot

After The Dakota, it was on to my next stop.

Stop 3- The Carnegie Deli

The Carnegie Deli and Katz's are probably the two most famous delis in NYC. Katz's was a little less touristy for a long time, so a lot of locals thought it was much better. Usually once somewhere becomes really touristy, the quality of the products fails. Carnegie Deli has been touristy for quite some time, but they still maintain a high quality of food. The big allure about this deli is the size of their sandwiches. Some are stacked with a mountain of meat almost a foot high! I also found out what makes their special cheesecake soooo famous- instead of using graham cracker crumbs for the crust, they line their pans with COOKIE DOUGH! OMG!

Here's a picture of the deli

And in the front of the restaurant is a glass case displaying their famous cheesecakes. YUM

I went into the Deli, and saw customers inhaling BLT sandwiches that were without the L and T. 7 inches of bacon on a sandwich?! Oh my God... This place was packed, and had any sandwich you could think of on the menu. They also had much more than sandwiches- lots of gourmet food.

I got to looking at the pictures of celebrities on the wall who'd endorsed the restaurant, and who did I find but the famous..

Jerry Jones! HAHAHA Had to take this picture for Bobby because he hates him!

The next stop on my list is a wonderful French restaurant with an amazing patio. It was so beautiful outside that I HAD to sit on a patio.

Stop 4: Maison @ 54th and 7th

Ever since I had been working on interesting breakfast items at work, I'd been wanting to eat a croque monsieur. This is a ham and cheese sandwich grilled with melted mornay or regular cheese melted on top. So, I sat down to a dinner of a croque monsieur and a bellini. It was fabulous.. ahhh, how I love French brasseries!

Here's the patio:

At this point, I left NYC and went to Ohio for the weekend. The next week, I flew back to NY for work, and had one day of exploring the city.

The next stop on my tour of food:

Stop 5: Ristorante Il Cantinori on 10th st

A restaurant in SOHO, this restaurant is very deceiving. It looks like a little tiny quaint restaurant from the front, but once you get in, the restaurant goes alllll the way back, and also has a room in the basement. This is the restaurant from Sex and the City when no one shows up for Carrie's birthday. The restaurant has always been wonderful, but filming SATC there made it that much more popular .

I went around 930pm after a long day of work. I walked in alone in jeans with a Pizza Hut laptop bag and my purse. Everyone else was in dresses and business suits and all dressed up, so I definitely felt out of place. But, I sat down and ordered a glass of wine. It was restaurant week in NY, so I could have chosen from a fixed price menu and gotten 3 courses, or order off of their normal menu. I wasn't incredibly hungry, so I didn't want 3 courses. I ordered off of the regular menu, and got whole wheat gnocchi. The meal came out about 15 minutes later, and it was SO GOOD. The perfect blend of sweet and fresh in the sauce, with just the right amount of fresh basil. The gnocchi were, of course, homemade, and it had freshly grated parmesan on it. It was just perfect with a glass of red. Great meal! Afterwards, I was so incredibly full that I walked 25 blocks back to the hotel!

Here's the restaurant from the street

The next morning was Friday, and I didn't have to work, so I explored the city.

It started with a visit to The Today Show with my Aunt Marianne. On Fridays in the summer, they have concerts outdoors, and The All American Rejects were playing, so we went to watch. We met at Dean and Deluca right next door for breakfast and coffee.

Stop 6: Dean and Deluca Gourmet Foods

As purveyors of fine wine, food, and kitchenware, I always stop here when I'm near Rockefeller Center. They have GREAT pastries and pretty decent coffee, so it ended up being the perfect spot for breakfast. My aunt and I went in and ordered coffee and pastries. We also ended up being able to score a great view of the Today Show. Here's a picture of the hosts:

Al Roker, the other woman?, and Matt Lauer

While I was in line, I snapped a couple shots of the pastries and food in there, as well as the racks of food before I got yelled at for taking pictures. Get a look at these quiches!!

Check out my scone I got. It was cranberry orange, and tasted so pure- like only a couple of ingredients: sugar, butter, cranberries, orange peel, and flour. It was heaven, and the best I'd ever had, next to the ham, gruyere, and chive one I had at the CIA.

For the rest of that day, I headed south to Chinatown, and then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Because I was so full from breakfast, I didn't stop to eat anything in Chinatown. However, there are many interesting things there to write about- on every corner is a fresh fruit stand, where the product is SO cheap. Many a time down there I had gotten a pound or two of fresh Ranier cherries for $2.50 and munched on them while walking around downtown. They have great deals on food in Chinatown- you've just got to find a reputable place. I saw Dragonfruit for the first time at one of the produce stands, and learned how to eat it. You peel it like a banana. Here's what it looks like:

There are all kinds of shops in Chinatown that serve Peking Duck. However, the way they display their food is pretty weird, albeit ingenious. They display it through a window on the street, and it looks so weird that it makes you come look at it and go into the store. Here's the window with allll kinds of meat (some of them weird!).

After Chinatown, I walked down to the Brooklyn Bridge to walk across. I knew at the other side of the bridge was an ice cream shop, Grimaldi's, and Jacques Torres chocolate, so I'd be able to have a treat on the other side. I had to go to Brooklyn to check out Fried Pizza for work, but more about that will come later.

Stop 7: Jacques Torres Chocolate

Jacques Torres is known for having spicy chocolate. He puts chiles and all sorts of heat into chocolate. Now, I'm not one for heat, but I definitely am one for chocolate! So I went in and checked it out.

Look at this spread!

So, I got a Key Lime Ganache chocolate called a Lovebug, and a Rose Champagne chocolate. Both were SO GOOD. I heard they had amazing hot chocolate, but because it was 89 degrees I skipped that.

On to the real reason I walked to Brooklyn:

Stop # 8: The Chip Shop Brooklyn

I'd seen The Chip Shop on The Food Network multiple times. They're known for frying anything and everything- you can bring anything in, and they'll fry it! It's a British pub, best known for their fish and chips, but because they have only fryers, they started frying other crazy things. I'd seen them fry pizza on tv, so I had to go try it and see how they did it!

Here's the food :

It was so well done. It tasted just like pizza, except a little more crunchy. It tasted SO good.. But, because it was SO bad for me, I only took a couple of bites and just studied the batter :) After lunch at The Chip Shop, my feet hurt from walking, and I was so tired, so I quit for the day.

The next day was Saturday, and I had tickets to the Yankees vs. Tigers game at the new yankee stadium. My friend Shannon had told me that they had THE BEST FOOD of all stadiums, but boy was she right. They had Mo's Southwest Grill, Johnny Rockets, Nathan's Hotdogs, Famiglia Pizza, and a lot of other chains. They even had a Hard Rock Cafe. With all of these choices, I still went with the All-American favorite- a good ole hot dog.

Check out this packaging for the (all beef) hot dog!

The Yankees won, the hot dog was great, and it was a wonderful day overall.

After this trip, I had visited pretty much everywhere I've ever wanted to visit in NYC. I'm sure in the next couple months more hot spots will pop up that I'll need to visit, but for now, I'm finished.

If you made it to the end of this blog, I commend you. It's taken quite some time to write. Until the next one, keep it tasty!

Cheeseburger in Paradise

From reading my first post, you may already know that I recently moved to Dallas. 2 years ago to be exact. Before moving, I lived in Ohio, where I'd lived for my entire life. We never had local burger chains, so if you wanted a burger, you just went to TGI Fridays, The Cheesecake Factory, or Good Old Mickey D's. Until I moved to Dallas, I don't think I knew what the real definition of a burger joint was. I mean, in Cincinnati we had Zips, and in Columbus we had Brazenhead, but never a plethora of options. When I moved to Texas, I began seeing signs for Snuffers, Jakes, Scotty P's, and the Angry Dog. I had never seen so many burger joints in my life. And, after talking with family who'd lived in Dallas for years and years, they recommended Red's Patio Grill.

Of course I had to try all of these places. I liked cheeseburgers, but they weren't my favorite. But, in an effort to try as many new places in town as I could, I went to each place and critiqued it....

I don't think I knew how much I actually loved cheeseburgers.

Snuffer's was first. My boss went once a week, and told me I HAD to try the cheesefries. Well.. I'm not one to turn down cheesefries, so I went and tried them. Seasoned fries LOADED with shredded cheddar, topped with jalapenos, bacon, chives, and ranch dressing. Oh my God I was in heaven. Then came the burger.. we ordered it medium, and it came out well done. The lettuce was chopped up into tiny squares instead of being leaf lettuce, and so were the onions. This made for a very messy burger. Cheese cost extra, and there were no side items. Okay, I wasn't digging it at this point, but I hadn't tasted it yet either.

Once I took my first bite, I regretted all of the things I'd been disappointed with. This burger was wonderful. Very salty, but wonderful. Snuffer's was an A in my book, especially because of the cheese fries and $1.50 margaritas!

Now onto Jakes. This place had a green logo just like Snuffers, but has palm trees on all of their patios. That's my kind of place! I went for lunch to check it out. Fried pickles for an appetizer, and a cheeseburger for dinner. Long story short, everything was very similar to Snuffer's, althought I liked the sports bar atmosphere better than Snuffer's restaurant feel. The burger was really good, and tasted just the way I like it. They didn't have cheese fries though, or $1.50 margaritas, so Snuffer's still beats them.

Scotty P's hamburgers was next. At this point, I'd begun to realize that all of these places must compete for the best cheese fries, and if you were a burger joint, you HAD to have famous cheese fries. This place had some loooooaded fries! I didn't try them since I was there for the burger, but they looked mighty fine. Somehow I don't think they're as good as Snuffers :) Anyways, I digress. Back to the burger. I ordered a regular cheeseburger, since I don't really like the fancy stuff. It was good.. nice and juicy, cooked well, and not overly seasoned. However, there was too much lettuce... 2 layers to be exact. That took away the beef flavor, and I was not pleased. Overall, this place gets a B-. It was in a strip mall, too. Boo.

Last but not least, that leaves Red's Patio Grill. It's a family owned place in Plano, TX and, of course, has a nice large patio. In Texas we have about 9 months of patio weather, so a place like this is very nice to have. I was told by a family member that everything in this restaurant is fresh because they don't have freezers. Ground beef has never been frozen, fries are hand sliced, chicken is cooked in house, etc.. so it sounded very good to me! I love fresh food way more than the pre-done stuff. So I went and got a cheeseburger, only to be questioned about what kind of cheese I wanted. And the choices weren't just cheddar, pepper jack, and American. These choices were Blue (yum) and Manchego (drooling) and all kinds of delicious cheeses! I adore manchego, so that's what I got. When my burger came out, it looked absolutely perfect. The meat was nice and pink inside, and the sandwich had crispy pickles, fresh tomato, onion, and mustard on it. Not to mention it was on a soft poppyseed bun. The fries I had ordered with it were twice fried and very crisp, with a side ramekin of ketchup.

My first bite of this delectable sandwich almost gave me a mouth orgasm. It was juicy, layered with wonderful flavor, and mushed up well in my hands. It didn't fall apart when I picked it up, and the bottom bun wasn't soggy. I'd never tasted something so wonderful in my life... except the pomegranate margarita I was drinking with it. This was definitely a Cheeseburger in Paradise. If only I'd had some Jimmy Buffett playing in the background...

Red's Patio Grill wins the comparison. I've eaten some darn good burgers in my day. Hell, my dad makes the best one I'd had to date, but this one was something special. And the best part? It was only 2 bucks more than the other ones, at $8.50.

Anyways, there are many more burger places around town that I need to check out. I've had some bad visits at a couple joints around town and they're not even work writing about.. But, if you've got any good suggestions, send them my way! My next adventure will probably be to Milwaukee to try a Juicy Lucy burger :)