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When I ate lunch during Restaurant Week last year at Eleven Madison Park, I was underwhelmed. But this year, it’s a significant improvement for the food.
As Giulia and I got seated in, I can’t help but be in a moment of awe how everything seems elegant and refined – the high ceilings, large windows, and the tall floral centerpieces. Two weeks ago, Helen and I had a chicken craving. Since Helen’s quite knowledgeable in the realm of Korean food (she’s of Korean descent, in case you’re wondering), she recommended either Bon Chon Chicken or Baden Baden. She told me she hasn’t tried the latter and was curious about it, Restaurant Forte Baden Baden (that’s whole name) was our dinner spot for the evening.
It seems popular with the Korean restaurants that serves good chicken dish, at least from what Helen describes them to me, are bars and it gets louder as the night goes on. The good thing was the fact that we arrived at 5:30, that the place was relatively quiet since there weren’t many diners here and the hip-hop/pop music playing from the speakers weren’t jacked up to the maximum volume (but did happen at the end of our dinner). After reading about Craft for years, I’ve always thought about eating here but hating the fact that they don’t serve lunch, except at its sister branch Craftbar. That’s until I read from the NY Times’ blog, The Diner’s Journal that Craft started to serve lunch again.
A Note to the chocoholics: To those of you who have seen my “tasting” photos earlier the past weekend, I will not be posting that anytime soon since I recently finished three bars of chocolate (and my stomach’s hurting because of that), I want to pace myself eating these chocolates and I can do whatever I want since this is my blog! BWHAHAHAHA… Ahem. No, I’m not trying to be mean. I don’t want to have a chocolate backlash and I want to be thorough in what the heck I’m tasting from these chocolates (and I realized when I started that I’m tasting them the wrong way initially, until I read a few articles about how to taste chocolate, I’ll explain when I post about the tasting). If you really want to know what I tasted so far, it’s the Amedei “La Tavoletta”, Marie Belle’s Dark 70% Hot Chocolate, Green & Black’s 70% Dark, and Michel Cluizel “Noir” 72% bar. Some fared better than others obviously, but I won’t tell you the results until I’m done with all of the “blends.” That might be around next week or so for me to publish that since I’m going to attend and write about Robyn’s party this weekend! Woohoo! Now onto what happened the past Saturday… It’s been ages since I’ve seen my long lost best friend, Stacey. We’ve known each other since junior high school in eighth grade, went our own ways since high school but kept in contact each other by old fashioned snail mail to the the modern age of Facebook. Oh how times have changed… We’ve finally made a lunch date the past Saturday at meet up at Lombardi’s. Yes, we’re craving for some PIZZA!
As you can tell these past recent weeks, I’m writing pretty much an average about a post a week. It’s going to be like this for a while just because I’m snowballed with school and I’m dreading the LSATs! Good lord help me on the latter. I’m scared the wits out of me for this one test for the sake of law school. Anyways, I’m writing the aforementioned on the title but skipping out on Jean Georges just because that restaurant deserves its own post. Even though you see or seen the photos on my Flickr gallery. On Saturday, I felt brunch-y and motivated to brave the mythical lines that one would face at Prune.
Once I got in the place is pretty much packed. Tables were close together, just barely letting a person fit in between each table. Lively chatter from the diners surrounding me. This place is charming. It has this old French country feel with worn walls, antique mirrors, and the open French doors of sorts where I was sitting. It’s unlike any other restaurant I’ve ever been in, in a good way. Continue reading “Brunch at Prune; Shake Shack, Ninth Street Espresso, and Picnick” » I apologize for not writing for a while, even though you see the photos from my Flickr photostream on my sidebar and the page itself, it’s just because I’m busy with work, studying for LSATs, and now my family is going through a rough time because my mother’s seriously ill. I’m just writing to you guys now for the sake of not focusing on my mother’s situation and keeping myself sane. So, here’s what happened on Monday, when things were generally mirthful. It’s been an awful while for me to have a real day of fooding. What I mean is that I went to more than two places for the sake of food or drinks in one day. Where have I been to? Just read on. During the morning, I went all the way to the Upper West Side for the sake of cookies. You might be thinking, “Cookies for breakfast? You must be nuts!” Well, for me there is no time restraints for the sake of sweets. Think about it. Some of us eats donuts, muffins (which sometimes taste like a cupcake), chocolate croissants, or danishes for breakfast. How can you tell me that eating a cookie is a ridiculous idea? Anyways, I went to Levain Bakery.
Lunch at Eleven Madison Park was my last and final restaurant for Restaurant Week on Monday. (For those of you who are still curious when is it over, it’s officially this Friday, July 27, 2007; while some restaurants are extending ’til Labor Day.)
I had high hopes for EMP, since I had a really great experience last time when I tried Chef Humm’s Gourmand Menu that courted me to be one of the many fans of this place (if you do a search at Chowhound, you know what I mean or read Frank Bruni of the NY Times’ piece). To end Restaurant Week with a good bang of sorts, I ended up with a larger group of friends: Robyn, Helen, Doug, and Ariel. Continue reading “A Bittersweet Ending to Restaurant Week: Eleven Madison Park” »
Today is too gorgeous to not eat out in an open space. It’s 72 degrees Fahrenheit, warm, and sunny…so why not? Since I have no clue what restaurants actually has good food and a nice outdoor seating, I went back to Shake Shack. I know I went here last week but I changed my order a bit to expand my horizons on their menu. When I got here at 11:05 A.M., there’s already a line formed unlike last week. The line is actually about halfway to the end of the block on Madison Avenue and 28th Street. It’s not terrible but I had to wait about 15 minutes ’til I got to order. I ended up choosing a Chicago dog ($3.25), a regular sized Arnold Palmer ($2.00), and a double dip chocolate custard ($3.25). Just to let you know what’s an Arnold Palmer, it’s basically iced tea mixed with lemonade. I don’t really know why I ordered it and it doesn’t go with a hot dog, but I did. I did receive their ShackWand as you have seen from my last post. But this time my order took a shorter time than I have expected. I got my order in about 10 minutes. Here’s my food.
I think I’m one of the last few food bloggers and New Yorkers who ate here at Shake Shack for the first time (it’s shameful, I know). It always made me wonder what’s all the hoopla’s about whenever this place open every single year and now, I know what it’s all about. It’s about 11:35 AM when I arrived to Shake Shack and I’m starving. Thankfully there was no line, since it’s a bit chilly and it’s cloudy out. Only a local businesswoman ahead of me, not that legendary line that forces one to wait for hours on end to get a darn burger. Anyways, when it’s my turn to order, I wanted a Shackburger ($4.75), a Black & White Milkshake ($5.75), and an order of fries ($2.50). After I paid they gave me this new innovation of sorts, which is their ShackWand. The ShackWand is your notification system that your food is ready and waiting at the window; it’s shaped like a remote and it rings like a cell phone in vibrate mode. Take a look…
Out of boredom, I flipped to the backside of the ShackWand and saw the above photo’s label. I thought it was funny, well, not really. The line is starting to build up, too… Continue reading “I’m Finally at Shake Shack” » For the sake of being curious, I wanted to try Eleven Madison Park‘s tasting menu for lunch. Why? Well, I still have their Restaurant Week certificate (which worth $24.07). It would be interesting to let Chef Daniel Humm strut his stuff for lunch, instead of me picking out what I think tastes good. The only thing differed from my tasting from the menu was the Lobster Cappuccino due to the fact that I’m allergic to shellfish. Here’s the menu (read the second page). As always first, the bread and butter.
This time, I just chose the French baguette. I’m not feeling for olive or multi-grain bread. The bread was good. A thin, crisp, crust with a chewy, irregular crumb. The butter is fine. I just kind of miss how they had the maple leaf shaped butter. Now, it’s a bit unappealing to see that they cut the butter with a serrated knife that isn’t even cut straight. Continue reading “Eleven Madison Park Restaurant: The Gourmand Menu” » Improve the web with Nofollow Reciprocity. |
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My order
The Arnold Palmer and Chicago Dog 
The back of the ShackWand
I’m still amused how they serve the butter
Butter dish, uncovered
My French Baguette/Roll