Torrisi Itailian Specialties and the Best Chocolate Cake in the World!

Hey y'all. After a stressful week, I needed a good pick me up. So it being friday and all, I went to get some good food and cake! First stop, Torrisi Italian Specialties. I had heard that they made really good sandwiches, especially the chicken parmesan and turkey sandwich. I was more in a hearty mood so I went for the chicken parmesan.

Look at that picture. I know you're drooling. This sandwich was really good. The bread was super soft and soaked in all that marinara sauce which was super tomato-y and herby. It was smothered with mozzarella cheese that was oozing and overflowing over the sides. Super stretchy and melty= real good! There were also leaves on top that I ate that didn't really contribute to flavor but I liked the veggie input so I wasn't complaining. There were two chicken patties so it was super chicken-y and really filling. Fluffy bread with chicken, tomato sauce, and cheese was really good. The only negative thing I can say is that it was really messy so bring a napkin or something. It was all over my hands but thankfully I had a napkin. The best chocolate cake in the world was like a block away so that was the dessert spot.

 I almost walked past the place but realized it said best chocolate place in the world. Realistically I knew it wouldnt be the best chocolate cake in the world but when you have that title I must dispute/verify. So I got a slice to go. First thing, it's not really chocolcate cake. It's more chocolate mousse with dark chocolate filling and then like a slight crunchy layer.It was good, but nothing to write home about. I liked that the mousse was light but upset because it really wasn't cake and it definitely did not live up to its title. So, I 've had better but not bad. So yeah, that was my destressing method. Good food in Noho.

Tanoreen!!!!

So, I had another food experience. So soon? I know, it's out of the ordinary. However, there is a reason. It was EID!!!! And what better way to celebrate such a holiday than having dinner with the family at a mediterranean restaurant? So that's what we did. Reservations at 6pm cuz you know this places is always booked. On to the food. Oh and apolgies in advance, we did't take many photos of the food cuz it was rather dark and i figured that the internet would have beter looking ones. First, like any other restaurant they had a bread basket. But this was arab style. ain't no breadsticks here. just pita bread. But with regular triangles of pita bread there was also this spiced one which i believe the arabic phrase for it is zayt wi zaatar (oil with these seed like things, see photo).

The bread was crisp and crunchy. The seeds were too! They were kinda lemony though so I didn't really like it because it left an aftertaste of sour that I wasn't diggin. But according to the others it wasn't bad. Then, we had a yellow lentil soup. It kinda looked like that. It's what we call aatz. I dunno why but all I kept tasting was Indian. It was weird and apparently only I was tasting it although Mona said she kinda could too. With some soft pita bread, it was pretty good but sorry my mom makes it better. On to the entrees! We ordered three to share among 5 of us knowing that they would be quite large.We ordered the shepherd's pie, chicken fetti, and beef stew.

 So the beef stew was a special sooo I couldn't find pictures of it but this one had most of the components. It had beef, spinach, chick peas, olive oil, and spices? I think that's what was in it. It sounded good so we ordered it. I liked it. The beef was really tender and falls apart in your mouth like it has been in that stew forever (which it probably was). The spinach that came with it was so spinach-y. Usually when I make spinach at home I can tell it's spinach but the flavor was so powerful I could probably identify it blindfolded, which I liked. The chick peas I gotta say didn't really contribute much but I love any type of bean so I was happy it was in there. It came with rice and salad too.

On to the chicken fetti. It is described as " shredded chicken, Egyptian-spiced rice, a rich yogurt-tahini sauce, crunchy toasted pita chips and fragrant toasted almonds." Pretty accurate I'd say. It was pretty good too. I think what surprised me the most were the almonds. When I was eating the dish I was like whoa this is weird, cuz there were like little crunchy almonds in it! I never had yogurt in a savory dish before so I wanted to try it. it wasn't bad! It made the dish really creamy! When I had all the components together it was really good! It was creamy, crunchy, soft (from the chicken), and with the pita chips.... lovely.

  

And finally, the shepherd's pie. This turned out to be the all star of the bunch. It stole the freakin show. It was sooo good! I have never had a traditional shepherd's pie but after this one I want one! It had "Garlic mashed potatoes layered with lamb, pine nuts and Tanoreen spices, baked to a golden brown and served with salad." It looked like macaroni and cheese or something when it came but when you cut through it, you could tell it was shepherd's pie. The whole table loved it! It was a pretty much agreed upon fav of the thre dishes. The meat was so flavorful and the mashed potatoes were a nice consistency. I can imagine what the American version tastes like but I could also see the arabic twist on such a classic and I LOVED IT!! It was really really good. I would definitely recommend it and may get it the next time I'm there. Now, on to dessert!

MMMMMMMMMMM!!! Looking at this picture makes me want some more! Knafeh!! "Shredded filo stuffed with two types of sweet cheese and baked. Topped with homemade syrup and pistachio nuts." Om nom nom nom nom nom nom! Sooooo good! I can't really explain how knafeh tastes, you kinda have to try it yourself. It really is like sweet hay with sweet cheese in a syrup which makes it sound like it tastes ridiculous but it really is delicious! And tanoreen does it right! We had to wait 20 minutes for this bad boy because they make it fresh! Now, that is the way to serve knafeh! When it came to the table the waitress cut it into individual pieces for us. It came with a side of syrup too and extra syrup don't hurt! I liked my slice cuz it was last and she scraped all the good stuff on to mine. Hehehehehehe :) Anyhow, it's really good, and I'm not much of an arabic sweets person.

In summary, GO TO TANOREEN! It has been claimed to be the best mediterranean restaurant in New York and has won several awards for its food. And hey, after my experience there, they are well deserved. It's worth a trip to Bay Ridge so go visit whenever you can, but make sure you have a reservation cuz they're ALWAYS BUSY! I'm just really happy it's only a couple of blocks from my house! :)

Lady M Boutique

Hey y'all. Haven't posted in a while but here's a good one! I went to Lady M yesterday because I had lotsof time to kill before going to pick up Mona and going home so I decided to stop buy and get one of the foods on my list that I've been meaning to get around to. I haven't gotten any in a while, hence the lapse in posts. But on to the food. I got the mille crepe cake. Now I know crepe and cake don't really go together/make sense but if you think about it, it can. Basically, its layers and layers of crepes (approximately 20)! they're layered with a smooth, creamy custard. When you put you're fork through, I'm telling you now, it's going to be hard to cut because you're tearing off twenty layers of crepe with that fork! But it's worth the suffering. The crepes are so thin and light and somewhat buttery but sweet. The creamy custard is what does it though. Its not too sweet and goes great with the thin layers of crepe. It's one of those desserts that isn't sweet but is still good! Weird huh? When I went in I saw LOTS of delicious looking things but at $7.50 for a slice, I couldn't afford to get anything else. Perhaps in the future though. If you're in the area, check it out!

                                             

Food feast at Madison Sq Eats

So, I finished class early that Friday and after hearing that Madison Sq Eats was going on, me and Mona decided to check it out and it turned into constant eating lol. So Madison Sq Eats is basically two blocks near Madison Sq park where various stores set up mobile trucks and sell samples of their products. Places like wafels and dinges, momofuku milk bar, robicellis, milk truck etc. So, after looking around we decided to get a classic grilled cheese from Milk Truck.

It was gruyere cheese on a buttery levain bread or something. It was pretty good. I would say definitely not traditional. You have to try it to know what I'm talking about as I cant really describe the cheese. Just go try it to see what I mean. Was it worth $5.25? Not really.

So, Mona wanted Shake Shack so we went and got Shack Burgers and the 'Shroom burger which I never tried before. The Shack burgers I wrote about earlier but they were out of this world good. I dunno how they do it but that is no ordinary burger. The shrrom burger, though very good and cheesy and delicious, does not beat the Shack Burger in my opinion. So the 'Shroom burger is basically a portabello mushroom that's deep fried and stuffed with cheese (mozzarella?) with lettuce, tomato, and shack sauce. It's really good and OOZING with really good cheese. It's a great vegetarian option. Then, I heard good things about their concretes, especially this one called the Concrete Jungle which was made up of vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, bananas, and peanut butter. I thought that the top was really good (as seen in the photo), there was a good amount of fudge, vanilla, peanut butter, and banana in every bite. But after a few bites there was no more banana and it just tasted like vanilla with fudge. They didn't mix it all the way so it stank after a few bites. I was really disappointed about that. So, that was just ok.

Then we went back to Robicelli's to get some sort of apple pie resembling cupcake. I think it was like an apple based cake with vanilla cream frosting and apple spices and caramel. It sounded really good. After biting into it, the apple flavor was very dominant. The cream was light too. and there was a lit piece of sugared apple on top too. It was pretty good, but nothing to talk about.

I also got my friend a voucher for pie slices so we picked up a slice of momofuku milk bar's crack pie which I heard was so addictive it was like crack (hence the name). I think it was just a buttery crust with a sweetened butter filling. Sounds nasty but they did something to that filling to make it taste good. I had a bite when it was cold and it was really melt in your mouth buttery. I imagine when it's warm, it's even better. It lived up to the hype. Then we saved the rest for the gift for our friend. And then we called it a day, as we had been very piggy. Overall, a great day filled with great food! It runs until mid-October so get there before they wrap it up!

Sticky Buns from Flour Bakery= Nice Buns!

Sorry in advance for the jumbled dates but I haven't updated in a while even though I had the pictures. I've been busy. Anyhow, while in Boston, I made it my mission to visit something featured on the Food Network being as they had described multiple places and since I would be there for two days and would not likely come back for a while, I had to get something off of my list. As it turns out, Flour Bakery was only ten minutes by car from the bus station we arrived at. I heard really good things about their sticky buns which were only served on weekends and apparently were so popular that you can even reserve them! And that;s what I did. I reserved four of those bad boys and took em home and waited til after dinner where we ate em nice and warm. Man, was this worth the trip!!! As you can see from the picture, all that caramel goo and walnuts look AH-MAZING. I was jumping in my chair waiting all day to try these babies. As soon as you bite into them, theyre so pillowy soft its ridiculous. And it's also kinda buttery in a sweet, good way. You also get a pleasant surprise of nuts in the dough as well as on the top. The buttery, soft bread combined with the sweet caramel goo and crunch of the walnuts made for a perfect bite. It threw Cinnabon outta the water. Seriously, the bars have been raised. Sorry, Cinnabon. If you're ever in the Boston area, seek these sticky buns out. They're worth it.

The NEW BIG GAY ICE CREAM SHOP!!!!

Sooooo, the sis and I were walking in the city looking for costumes for Halloween and stopped for some grub. She had pizza, I had Caracas (you can see the previous post for details about the deliciousness). Then, time for dessert. As you know, I like trying new things as there are so many places in new york that I need to visit and the list keeps growing longer. So, I heard that the Big Gay i ce cream Truch had a store with ice cream sandwiches and other treats and it was down the block from Caracas so I thought why not? So, they were out of there Lovelet ice cream sandwich from Melt Bakery so I decided to try the Mexican paleta from La Newyorkina as I heard their popsicles were awesome. They had a rainbow one that had layers of fruit flavors that sounded really good. It was strawberry, then apricot, pineapple, and kiwi. All in one popsicle! So I decided on that. It was really good for a popsicle. All of the fruit flavors were on point! So close to the actual fruit! and i would eat the popsicle sideways to get multiple flavors in one and the combos were really nice too. It wasn't too sweet either. So refreshing and fruity and perfect for the sunny weather. It was nice and interesting, but I didn't really see why they were so popular. Still good none the less.

Mona got the American Globes which was vanilla ice cream, sea salt, pretzel chunks, all dunked in chocolate. Oh my gee. That was the star. After I tried hers I wanted to toss my pospicle away and devour that thing! It was the perfect balance of sweet and salty, as I expected it would be. Eve nthough there was sea salt and pretzels which are salty too, it wasn't overpowering at all. The vanilla ice cream and chocolate balanced it out with sweetness. It was smooth and silky crunchy salty and sweet. I will definitely order again. Now that I don't have to chase down the truck, I can just come to the store! Check it outttt

Sundaes and Cones!!!!

So, I finished my first day of classes early and went chillin with the sis Mona. After an hour of singing our hearts out at karaoke, we were pretty hungry so we traveled to the good old east village for some grub before going home. We were unsure what we we wanted to eat and decided to just check out whatever was in the area as my sister's main desire was for some 16 handles so we would deal with any other food in the neighborhood. I was really craving a panini and we saw a pizza/cafe thing that did paninis a few blocks away. I just wanna say that I LOVE SUNDRIED TOMATOES!! like seriously, they might be my favorite vegetable. Lately, i've been having a certain sandwich combo a lot. I love it. I get grilled chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, and mozzarella with some type of bread ( i really love it on a panini). it's like my favorite sandwich ever. it was soo good, but this one was nothing special so i'm not writing a post about it. I'm writing a post about the best thing I had all day. After that we went to 16 handles and got some froyo but it was just ok and then I had this chocolate pudding from Chickalicious Dessert Club which I blogged about before but it was too bitter for me (it was made of dark chocolate though). After we had ice cream from Sundaes and Cones, hands down we would've ditched the rest of the dessert we had all day for some more ice cream but we had no more money. I wanted to try every flavor but stuck to Tiramisu and Lychee.Lychee was ok but it wasn't a strong flavor. and tiramisu was pretty good. i heard toasted coconut was good but was still undecided. My sister got the toasted coconut scoop and mango scoop on a cone. It worked out cuz then I got to try two more flavors without asking. My god were those two so good. The toasted coconut had like some actual coconut flakes and some crunchies in it and screamed creamy coconut. and the mango flavor was soooo powerful you felt like you were eating a mango but just smoother. they complemented each other wonderfully. next time I might get tiramisu and will also try other flavors but I know if I wanna be safe, I'll go with those two. they were so delicious I will probably get the combo again after I try some other flavors. Now that I know their ice cream is this good, I'm going back for some whenever I have an ice cream craving and you should too. You'll thank me later.

(I didn't take a picture of the cone but for display purposes the one on the left is the toasted coconut and the orange one on the right is mango)