Mimi's Pizza and Sprinkles Cupcakes!!!

Hey y'all. So, yesterday I finished class early and had quite a bit of time to dilly dally. And what does Youssra do when I have time to kill? If you thought eat, then you know me very well my friend. Mona wanted an arepa from Caracas sooo I went to get me some grub first and then made my way down there. I started off with a slice of pizza from Mimi's Pizza as suggested by Bobby Flay. I was in a pizza mood so it sounded like a good idea. I picked a slice that had fresh mozzarella and basil as opposed to the greasier regular slice. I'm sorry but there is no picture. If you see a slice that has really white mozzarela and lots of green distributed throughout, that's probably it (kinda looks like a margherita slice). This was like the worst sllice of pizza I have ever had. Ok, it wasnt that bad but it was pretty crappy. I was so disappointed cuz I was hungry too. I kept asking myself WHERE'S the SAUCE?????? Seriously. It was like eating bread and cheese. No good sauce-y flavor. Ugh. And even the bread and cheese stunk. No flavor. I had to add some Oregano just to add a little herbal taste to it but still. Pretty crappy. Never again. If I want a good slice, I'l go to the pizzeria across the street because its cheaper-$2.25 as opposed to the atrocious$4 price tag of said slice. AVOID!

Sprinkles was next because they had released a tweet about the first 50 people getting a free mystery cupcake and I was only one express stop away. I ran there to be one of the first people and I was. SCORE! But I was originally gonna go that day because I had a coupon for a free cupcake so now I have three for only $3.50!! Niiiiice. I picked the Red Velvet cupcake and pumpkin cupcake. The free one ended up being a vanilla cake with strawberry frosting. I have pictures!

 

   

 
 The red velvet one was more chocolatey than most red velvet cupcakes I have had. Usually red velvet is not as chocolatey but this cupcake I could've mistaken for a chocolate one. The cake was moist and the cream cheese frosting was not too sweet. Pretty good but not the best I've ever had.                                            

            

Next up, pumpkin. A spiced pumpkin cupcake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting This was my favorite of the three. The cake itself was really soft and the flavor was so so seasonal and just screamed pumpkin. It was a nice orange/borwn and you could see and taste some of the spices. Cinnamon cream cheese-mmmm. silky smooth and the cinnamon flavor is very subtle.

 The vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting was good too! It was first a mystery and I guessed that it was vanilla with strawberry frosting and I later overheard one of the girls say thats what the flavor was. Go palate. Anyhow, the cake is like a yellow cake and strawberry frosting is subtle. I find that all of the flavors of these cupcakes are subtle.

 Mmmmmmm look at that. Does that not look delicious to you? Believe me, it was. It was a chocolate chip studded peanut butter cake withe milk chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. It was the perfect balance of chocolate and peanut butter. Sometimes the peanut butter can become overpowering, but not here. It was perfectly balanced by the chocolate chipps and the chocolate frosting. The peanut butter cake was soft and had a perfect crunch from che chocolate chips followed by smooth milky chocolate and chocolate sprinkles. I liked it.

This was a vanilla cake with coconut cream cheese frosting and shredded coconut. I liked this one because I like coconut. The cake was awesome and the frosting was sooo creamy and with the shredded coconut I justthought everything went together well.

Last, but certainly not least, the salted caramel cupcake. It's a caramel cake with a buttery caramel cream cheese frosting topped with fleur de sel. Fleur de sel is just a fancy french phrase for sea salt. I loved this one. Mainly because i am a HUGE fan of the salty sweet thing in desserts. So the caramel cake was sweet especially with the frosting but then it was cut with those little sprinkles of sea salt to balance it out. So good. I think its only until the end of february as a special flavor so get it soon! After trying a bit of all of these (not at one time of course, the last three were a day after but I didn't wanna make a separate post), I am definitely a fan of Sprinkles. I'm going back to try some more later cuz I'm a little over cupcakes at the moment haha. But you should too!

Norma's!

Ok, so as you may or may not know, restaurant week is happening NOW! If you haven't checked any restaurants out, GO! This is an amazing opportunity to visit the city's best restaurants without breaking the bank. First stop for me was Norma's. I think their restaurant week deal is fabulous, however I wasn't able to experience it due to being there before 11am. Booooo! However, me and Megan decided to go in anyway cuz what the heck? It'll be somewhat around the same price except we wouldn't get the complimentary food basket with muffins and bagels and such. As it turns out, we were pretty full when we were done and we didn't pay too much so perhaps it was better there wasn't more food! Lol. Another visit with Mona may be in the near future so lookout for another post about Norma's soon. Maybe. Anyhow, on to the food.

First off, are you lookin at the beauty? FANCY! Fyi, that tulip was real. Beautiful, I know. Anyhow, so the meal came with two complimentary smoothie "shots". I think it was a banana, mango, pineapple smoothie. We had it after our meal and it was the perfect finish! You could really taste every flavor! At first I was like mmmm this is banana-oh! mango-y- oh! pineapple-y! LOL. Most smoothies have a standout flavor but the cool thing about this one was that you could taste each distinct flavor and each one moved into the next kinda like banana then mango then pineapple. AWESOME. Alert! If you don't wanna pay $9 for OJ, don't let them pour any for you! They will come around all friendly going would you like some OJ? like it's free but it's NOT! Just a heads up. Megan did opt for some coffee though. Apparently you can't share but the waiter let us for some reason, and he was really nice so he got a nice tip :) The coffee was smooth but bitter, so I added lots of sugar and milk. It was coffee. Nuff said.

  

Megan got the Potato Pancakes. It is a James Beard Award Winning Recipe with Homemade Cranberry Apple Sauce and Sweet Carrot Payasam. Mmmmmmmm. Being as we are a fan of sharing we had this first and the Chocolate Decadence French toast as like a dessert. About these, I wanted something savory because I don't know about you but when I have something sweet like pancakes or french toast I crave something hearty like eggs and bacon or something. So we did savory then sweet. These were great. Totally satisfying. It's pretty much a really good hashbrown. It came with three so we just picked at em, kinda hard to cut but we got through it. The carrot payasm was surprisingly sweet and had a really strong carrot flavor. It was silky smooth  and really great. On the side was a cranberry apple sauce and that was sweet. The cranberries were not tart at all, it reminded me of cranberry sauce at thanksgiving. The crispy thing with the star was a garnish but that was good too, provided some good crunch. I liked having the potato pancake with either the carrot or the cranberry, not so much together. This was really great. After I had fulfilled my savory/hearty need, I was ready for dessert.

As seen on Best Thing I Ever Ate, I was relying on Alex Guarnaschelli to lead me towards something good because there were so many things on the menu that I wanted. She did not disappoint. The Chocolate Decadence French Toast is Covered in Strawberries, Pistachios and Valrhona Chocolate Sauce. The french toast itself was SUPER soft and fluffy so it wasn't so heavy. The chocolate flavor shined through but it didn't feel heavy. Although it essentially felt like eating cake for breakfast lol. But hey, you gotta live a little. It came with a whipped cream on top and pistachios. The whipped cream cut through the strong chocolate flavor and the pistachios added a nice crunch. The chocolate sauce made it extra decadent. In addition, there was a orange slice on top that was REAL GOOD. I bit off a piece of that and with the french toast it ROCKED. It was crunchy and citrus-y and went really well with the cake for some reason. All in all, this was an awesome end to the meal.

All in all, this was a really fancy pants meal that was worth it. You may wanna dress up a little bit because everyone around us was really professional. Lots of guys and gals in suits, it is 57st after all. It felt kinda awkward walking through such a fancy place in a beautiful hotel with my backpack but endure! The food is worth it. I hope to try the food again soon, but if not, Norma's is definitely on my "in the future when I'm rich place to go for food every other day" list. If you haven't been to Norma's yet, Restaurant Week or not, I suggest you go. It's really good!

Spot Dessert Bar!!!

I have only one word to describe this post. OMAKASE!!!! Yes, people that is what we got. I had to separate the other two posts because I knew that this one post would be very long, so here we go. We started off with the 3 for $21 but the omakase was 9 dessert tapas for $60 and we thought hey the first three are good and this is a better deal, why not? OMAKASE!! LEGOOOOOO!!!! And so, it began. To start us off, the white miso semifreddo!

It came with white miso semifreddo (kinda like ice cream) in between olive oil cake with raspberries, EVOO, almond tuile, raspberry sorbet. Let me tell you, we started off the omakase with the best dessert there. It remained number one in preference even as more and more desserts came out. The olive oil cake with the ice cream was kinda like ice cream cake! Buttery goodness. I love the soft creamy texture contrast. Pair that with the fresh raspberries and the raspberry sorbet and bang! flavor explosion! I'll let y'all know, that raspberry sorbet was the STAR of that plate. It was the shiz. Next time I'm there,I'm gonna get the coconut and mango sorbet since the raspberry was so good. Five stars for this one!

It was a warm Japanese pumpkin cake with condensed milk ice cream and walnut soil. Our #2 favorite tapa. It was a really dense cake that had a nice pumpkin flavor that wasn't too overpowering. The condensed milk ice cream was on point and reminded me of the casava that my mom makes. I loved the hot cold contrast, I mean who doesn't? And the walnut soil added a nice crunch! A yummy dessert!!

 Next was the yuzu eskimo which came with blackberries, raspberry foam, chocolate pearls,
oreo soil, chocolate ganache. This one was alright. Really fresh and nice elements but I feel like it didn't really work together. It was just ok for some reason. the oreo cheesecake was good but with the passionfruit foam it was tart and did cut the sweetness but with chocolate it was kinda an odd combo. But, it was really fresh with strawberries and pineapples and such. But this was eh.

Next up, green tearamisu (hahahaha good one spot!) It had matcha green tea essence, green tea madeleine
sponge, shaved white chocolate-green tea. It was like a green tea tiramisu! There was like no coffee taste, it was very tea tasting. Really soft cake, creamy, and it tasted like green tea but it was not too strong. It tasted like tea cake kinda. This was ok too.

Up next! The soft cheesecake! It came with a passion foam, blueberry compote, seasonal citrus,
walnut soil. The cheesecake was soft somehow!! But very strong cheesecake flavor. And fruity too! There was so many fruity elements! Citrus, blueberries, passsion! Mmmmm. Essentially it was cheesecake with fruity stuff. The soft creamy cheesecake was great with the contrasting tart flavors of the fruit. Nice.

This one was really interesting! I loved all the little components and it was really interactive! Especially with the thai tea, they gave you the tea and the milk separate so you could pour the milk in! Awesome. And it came with a white little tea pot with syrup so you can adjust the sweetness to your liking. I like oured all of that ish. haha. I like things SCHWEEEEEET. mmmm tea. then on to the creme brulee. It was like creme brulee! There was a crackle top and everything! But it didn't taste like the typical creme brulee. It was a thai tea brulee so it had a mellow flavor but it was still nice and creamy just like any other creme brulee.

Coming to a closing there was the chocolate green tea lava cake that came with green tea-white chocolate ganache and green tea ice cream. Once you take one spoon of it the green tea lava comes pouring out!! like lava! and youre like ahhhh! But its like oooohhh yea lava!!! it has that green tea flavor in the cake itself but again, it's not really overpowering. It's light and subtle. And the green tea ice cream was more of the same. Subtle green tea flavor. I was surprised that the chocolate lava cake was also intensely chocolatey! I thought it would be overpowered by the green tea but there was still a strong, dense, chocolate flavor which I loved because I really wasnt fond of the green tea since I like chocolate more. But this was a good balance of flavors. 3rd favorite!

And finally! The Smoked Coconut Cheesecake! It came with young coconut flesh,Oreo crumbs, white chocolate shaving. This one was really good too! The coconut flavor in the cheesecake was subtle, but there. I thought it would be weird but it went together. And the cheesecake was really creamy and smooth. Also, the oreo crumb bottom was great with the whole chocolate cheesecake bit. It was pretty darn good.

All in all, OMAKASE ALL THE WAY!!! It got a little bit hard at the end but we made it out alive! We DESTROYED that ish!!! And it was GLORIOUS! If we had to pick I think the top three would be the white miso semifreddo, the kabocha pumpkin cake, and the coconut cheesecake/green tea lava cake (it's hard to decide!). But regardless, GO TO SPOT DESSERT BAR!!! I will be back!

Luke's Lobster!!! and Caracas again? ish

Ok, so me and Mona felt like going out again and since eating was definitely involved I have a strict policy of onl trying new things. Being as time was against us, other plans fell through and we decided on Luke's Lobster/Caracas. We would split Luke's famous lobster roll and in case that sucked, Caracas was right next door. A perfect plan! So we got the stuff and sat down. On to the lobster roll first.

Yes y'all. That was the actual size. The thing was small! And it came out to 16 bucks! This honestly was like i dunno 5/6 bites! I had to have an accurate picture so you wouldn't be deceived. I get it. Lobster is expensive. But that being said and the size being so small, you would expect more. I mean, I liked the soft, buttery bread and the lobster was very lobster-y and good but like it tasted like lobster and bread honestly. I wanted more flavor out of it but that's what we got. Not bad, but definitely not worth $16. On to the backup and much better Caracas. We decided that after the arepa de pabellon ( already written about) and this half we were still hungry so we got the Arepa de pollo.

 So this came with grilled chicken, caramelized onions, and cheddar cheese. Gotta say, it doesn't beat the arepa de pabellon, then again, nothing has yet. It was ok though. I thought that the caramelized onions were unneccesary, it was good just with chicken and cheese but it was in there so ok. The cheddar was sharp and went really well with the chicken and caramelized onion was sweet. Note to self, stick with what's good: the arepa de pabellon.

Motorino!!!

I was hanging out with Megan today shopping in the city. She was on a quest to find leggings and sweatpants so we went from store to store in search of them. Hours of shopping later, we were hungry and being in the 14st area, we went to Motorino's. They are known for making some really good pizza and after having been there myself, I can say that they do. We ordered the Margherita Pizze with tomato, mozzarella buffala, and basil.

Mmmmmmm. It was pretty good. I had never tried neapolitan pizza before, I grew up eating NY style pizza and I like it! I kept thinking, "Where's the CHEESE?!!!" but it's ok, this pizza was still good without that much cheese. I loved that the crust was pretty thin. It had a nice char on it and I realized that I kinda like the taste of char. I had it before on some bread a few days ago and I have grown to like the taste. It's not burned where you're like ew, I can't eat this. It's like slightly burned so you get a nice smoky taste. The dough was also really soft and fluffy. The sauce was really tomato-y and when I had a bite with the basil, I was like, hey, I like basil! And then when you finally get a bite with nice chunky mozzarella, it's really good. It was a new experience, but I still wish there was more basil and more mozz. Motorino is also known for their tiramisu.

Look at that piece of beauty. It looks like its right out of a friggin' magazine! And it tasted muy delicioso!!! This is now my go to for tiramisu because 1. it was really good. and 2. it has no rum! It's kinda hard to find tiramisu without a coffee liquer of sorts so I was really glad this one didn't have it or else I would be missing out. There were two different layers of cream. The top was more yellow-y and slightly sweeter than the bottom white layer. The sponge cake was super moist and it went really well with the super smooth consistency of the cream. It also had a nice dusting of bitter chocolate on top which was balanced out by the other sweet flavors. The coffee also had a more subtle flavor in this tiramisu which I liked because other ones I've had the coffee was too overpowering. This was the perfect blend of sweet, smooth cream, moist cake, coffee, and chocolate. Awesome! I will come back for this tiramisu whenever I have a craving because they also deliver! Score!

Locanda Verde!!!

So I've been wanting to Locanda Verde for quite some time as I had heard many great things about it. I had heard that the maple budino was one of the best things that Frank Bruni, a food editor at the New York Times, ever ate. So I had high hopes for it. He also named it one of the best desserts of 2010 or something like that. So I had high hopes for it. After I saw the episode, I looked up their menu online but found that it wasn't there so I gave up on the idea. Recently, however, I discovered that the maple budino was back on the menu. I knew that it would disappear from the menu soon so I knew I HAD to go soon. Also being that they only serve the dessert menu for dinner, I decided to do that with me sister Mona. Walking in, I was glad I had somewhat dressed up because I saw that this was a place for classy people. The lights were dimmed low, there were candles (as seen below) on every table, and a slight buzz just as dinner was starting (we got there at 5:30pm). Overall, the atmosphere seemed really cozy. Before ordering, the busboy brought over two pieces of foccacia bread.

Now let me tell ya. At first you're like oh, bread. My first thought was WHERE'S THE BUTTER???!!!! They wanted me to eat just bread? Yes, yes they did. And let me say. This bread did NOT need butter. At all. I was willing to deal with the no bread so I picked up the soft warm bread and took a bite. Mmmmmmm!!!! was all I thought. It was super soft and warm and yes it was bread but it had some cheese on top that was probably a mix of parmesan and maybe cheddar? and something else. It was really good. A great way to start the meal. Then for an appetizer, we shared the Sheep's Milk Ricotta with sea salt and herbs.

I gotta say, I had heard that this was life changing, but honestly, it wasn't. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a nice appetizer. The cheese was really creamy and smooth, and you could taste the sea salt and herbs. The bread it came with was slightly charred which I actually liked because at some points it kinda tasted like pizza. I know, I'm weird. I also liked that it came with at least 8 slices of bread so they weren't ripping you off. There'd better be a good amount because it was $14!!! It was good, but not great. Other things we had that night definitely stood out more. Then we moved on to a special they had that day so I don't know the complete description. It was a fondutta ravioli with mushrooms, something else, and truffle butter.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We got ourselves a winner! First off, I like that it's a house made ravioli, I think it says a lot when a restaurant makes their own pasta, especially high quality like this one. The ravioli was pillow-y soft and stuffed with a fondutta cheese. I've never had fondutta cheese before but now I can say I have! And I like it!! Me and my sister didnt know what one of the things was but we ate it anyway and it wasn't bad. The mushrooms added a nice earthy touch too. Normally, it's not my favorite vegetable, but I didn't mind it being on the plate and find it did add a nice touch to the dish. What really stole the show was the SAUCE!!! It was truffle butter and now I know, anything that has truffle butter in it, I will order it. It was AWESOME! I could've just eaten the sauce on its own!It was really creamy and cheesy and just went with the cheese ravioli perfectly. I scraped that bowl clean!Mmmmmmmm..... Then, dessert. The main reason I was there! I ordered the maple budino (that was the whole mission, mission accomplished!) and Mona had the La fantasia di Coliccio.

                     

We split this dessert so that we were both eating half of one. I had the La fantasia di Coliccio first.  I'm not sure what the name is or the exact components since they changed the menu from the one they have online. It had caramel gelato, apple sorbetto, caramel sauce, chocolate crouton like thingys and a caramel brittle on top. I decided to try each component separately first. The caramel gelato was really good. Super smooth, caramel taste was spot on. The apple sorbetto was also great. It was like POW! pure apple. It wasn't as creamy as smooth as the gelato. It was sorbetto after all, but I didn't really care. It was really good! Then I tried everything together. I scooped up the gelato, sorbetto, some of the caramel sauce, and the chocolate crouton and mmmmmmmm what a nice combo! The chocolate crouton provided a nice crunchy contrast to the creamy gelato which also played well with the fresh apple taste. It reminded me of a really good caramel apple! As I kept digging, I realized at the bottom that there were little apple cubes! I scooped those up and those were a nice surprise. Soft, fresh aples added a great finishing touch.

On to why I was there. The Maple Budino!!! This was the star of the whole night I have to say. The ravioli was the best savory and this was definitely the best sweet treat of the night! I mean, the sundae was awesome, but this was just RIDICULOUS! So over the top good! It had a maple budino which was served with a  cranberry-blood orange conserve and cranberry sorbetto. There were also some dried cranberrries and walnuts too! It all sounds so strange together but trust me they all work together to make a truly magnificient dish. The maple budino I thought had the consistency of maybe a pudding or more like flan. Really creamy and soft. It had a strong sweet maple taste that was balanced out by the tart cranberry sorbetto. I thought that individually, all of the components were great, but when I had a bite of the walnut, dried cranberry, the sauce, sorbetto, and some of the maple budino, it was like a symphony of flavors were having a party in my mouth! The sweet budino with the tart cranberry sorbetto with the nice crunch of walnuts (which you wouldn't think would go AT ALL but somehow it does!) and silky sauce was just HEAVEN! It really was PERFECT! I never say that things are "one of the best things i ever ate" because I don't really eat fancy food much, but I gotta say that this was DAMN GOOD. And that it really set the bar high for other future restaurant visits. Well done Karen, well done. You pastry genious you.

So our meal ended with the bill and it was given to us with this cute little plate of chocolate biscotti! How cute! The maple budino was so good Mona and I wanted to get another one but felt that we were in a good place so we shouldn't push it. This was a great ending to a great meal. Super crunchy and chocolatey and I think it had some golden raisins or something sweet that just made it real good. Overall, I was amazed by Locanda Verde. It was consistently good food, with friendly people and a nice atmosphere. Before we left, Mona and I were planning our next visit with our other sister and friend!! Oh, Locanda Verde. I shall see you soon. Very, very soon! :)

Kwik Meal!!!

So I was in the rockefeller area and just learned that plans for dinner were cancelled so as always, I wanted to get something new. So I remembered reading a post about Kwik Meal and it was only a few blocs away so I decided to get food from there. I discovered that they won the 2007 Vendy Awards and knew I had picked the right choice. Now, I had heard good things of the Lamb Pita and the Cheesesteak. Being that the lamb pita was $10 as opposed to the $5.50 cheesesteak and being the cheapo that I am, I went with the cheesesteak. Lamb pita next time when I'm in the mood. On to the cheesesteak. It was really really good!

It was like a traditional cheesesteak but it tasted kinda different too. I mean, it had all of the components of the traditional cheesesteak (peppers, steak, melty cheese) but it tasted a little different. Me thinks its cuz of the cheese. Im not sure which one they used but it didnt taste like american. All I know is it was good. I also really liked that the steak was really flavorful and tender. Sometimes when I get a cheesesteak the steak is chewy and just not great, but this one wasn't at all. It was all warm and ooey gooey cuz of the cheese and soft cuz of the steak but had some crunch from the peppers so lots of contrast of textures and flavors! Overall, it was good, so I'm DEFINITELY going back for the Lamb Pita!