This place (Bua) is a bar in the East Village, but this burger certainly should not be considered bar food. It's made of a La Frieda custom short rib blend with lettuce, tomato and pickle served on a potato roll with "burger sauce" for $8. It's akin to the burgers at Shake Shack, in the very best way. Come to think of it, all my favourite burgers are a "blend" of some sort. That must mean either:
EAT IT NOW!
If you'd like to taste the best chocolates you'll ever eat, then please go no further than here. I've tried most every flavour and they're ridiculously good. Even the vegan ones. Such a good gift to give someone this time of year.
With the exception of all their tea tree products, this is my absolute favourite thing at Trader Joe's. As you already know, I love any kind of chicken that gets curried. But this one? Best I've ever had. Every time I buy some, I have such lofty ideas about what I'm gonna do with it. Am I gonna put it in an open-faced sandwich? Maybe a regular sandwich? PERHAPS A WRAP OF SORTS? And these ideas never come to fruition. What does end up happening? I get a fork and go to town. Usually within an hour of having it sit, lonely, in my refrigerator. It's so fucking tasty.
I know, I'm supposed to be done with Thanksgiving (since I've already celebrated it last month in Canada) - but when you're surrounded by people who haven't had their own turkey yet, well, they're gonna talk about it excessively until it happens. And thank goodness for that, otherwise I would've never heard of THIS AMAZING SANDWICH.
It's white meat, dark meat, cranberry sauce, GRAVY, all stuffed inside a buttery-tasting croissant. If I were hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, I would only buy these to serve to my guests. I might make some enemies since people seem to flip out if there isn't a bird cooking in an oven for this holiday, but fuck that - these croissants are just that good. If anything, they should serve them alongside some extra gravy in a little bowl. But that's just me asking for too much. It really is perfect already.
Here's a short video showing how they're made:
Honestly, they should cost way more than $4.50 (Update: it’s 2021 & they now cost $9, so I really should’ve shut my mouth!). This guy is so fucking tasty. I ate it in the subway. Like an animal. Because I couldn't wait until I got home. Who knew I could be into dark meat? I think it's so good 'cause there are a ton of flavours in one teeny little bite and you don't expect that. I realize I've already done a Momofuku post before, but I had to talk about this croissant. Absolutely phenomenal-tasting.
These are only available during the month of November, so please do us both a favour and hurry the hell up and eat one. They arrive at the place around noon and are usually gone by 3pm, so note that. It took me two tries before I could devour one. (Sorry, Toronto - they don't offer them at your location - and you should really be writing letters to them about that fact.)
If you're in Astoria, stop whatever you're doing and go eat here. I feel like this is going to be a post that I'm going to have to come back to constantly with slight updates of what I've tried there recently detailing how MUCH I loved it. So far? The deviled eggs with bacon and aleppo pepper are nuts. And the fucking slow roasted pulled pork? Get the hell out of here. This is the best pulled pork I've had IN LIFE. You start eating it and you're all, "Yep, this is pulled pork." But then you realize some of it is somehow CRISPY and fucking unreal, it's so good. Must eat this. Also, they have half sandwiches for $3 at lunch with is insanely cheap and probably taste heavenly.
Also, I thought this place would just be a bar. It looks like just a bar. But with food like this? Yikes. So much more than just a bar. Go now.
As a Canadian, I often miss proper cheese curds. You know, the Quebecois ones. Those rubbery, delicious little chunks of heaven are often unheard of in these parts, so when I saw them on the menu at The Cellar at Beecher's I had to of course order them. Result? Majestic and fresh as hell. If you haven't had them for awhile (or *shudder* ever) then these are definitely just at good as the ones straight out of Quebec.
I have a new favourite dish and that dish is bœuf bourguignon. If you know how to make this... maybe let me know. I just ate it for the first time at Tournesol in Long Island City in Queens (thanks to the lovely Angela for suggesting we go) and it was transcendent. I promise you. This place is extremely French, lovely and better than any place you frequent so GO RIGHT NOW. And you know how I knew this place would be good? Two reasons.
I can't wait to go again. This dish is phenomenal.
(Sidenote: Don't forget about the Movie Wardrobe Sale happening tomorrow (Saturday) in Toronto!)
Here are some things that I learned this week:
Do these seem more like recommendations and less like lessons to you? 'Cause you're wrong. You need to get on all of these things immediately.
There are pieces of cake in it!
This place is nuts. Just nuts.
Look at this mayhem!
THIS is what they let you do to your burger. THIS! What the hell? And I didn't even LEARN that little fact until just now - otherwise I, for sure, would've ordered it had I have known in advance. Cheese selections for the burger include Rarebit Cheddar Sauce, Three Cheese Fondue, Double Creme Brie, Fontina and Creamy Blue Cheese. Doing this to a burger is almost... sordid - and I love it.
Buffalo Cheese Curds = Wisconsin Cheddar curds, Black River Blue Cheese dressing & celery
These are the babies we continuously kept ordering. Three separate times. They're outrageously good. We also ordered the Queso Fundido ("Mexico's answer to fondue: 3 melty goat cheeses with Chorizo, tomato, jalapeno & torilla chips"), which was much too small, but equally glorious. And finally I ordered some burrata, which was a little too salty for my liking - but also, I'm extremely biased because the best burrata I've had in North America is at The Smith, so few places compare.
Burrata aside, this place is fantastic. Just look at the menu. I swear the next time I go I'll be able to get past just ordering a million starters.
Note: This post will only please you if you have ever given a shit about Woody Allen's mousey little face.
From September 9th until December 16, 2013, Woody Allen & The Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band will play at The Carlyle Café every Monday night at 8:45pm.
Does that seem insane to you? It shouldn't because he's been doing it every autumn for years now. Is this something you should go to? Heavens, yes.
This was something that I'd wanted to see in New York for eons. Why did it take me so long to finally go? Well, because of money. Anytime I'd come into a little bit of cash, I usually tend to throw that away on beautiful steaks and/or frivolous items that I'll never need.
And then one beautiful day, my boyfriend Nathan told me that he was taking me to see the Wood as my Christmas present. (Also note: I had never mentioned to Nathan how much of a dream this was of mine. So when I lunged at him and asked, "How could you possibly know that this would be the best gift of all time!? I never mentioned it before! How could you know!?" - he responded with, "You talk about this man a LOT.")
So we finally went one lovely December evening in 2012 and since it started at 8:45pm, I wanted to get there for 3:00pm. Seriously. We were getting bar seats, and those are first-come, first-served so I really wanted to make sure we were there as soon as possible. We, of course, were the first ones there - but people did start to trickle in by 4:00pm. So... if you're intending on sitting at the bar? Get there when I did.
Anyway, the wait was fine and even a little fun since I was anticipating the evening so much (also, we saw Mick Jagger walk through the lobby, which was something), we ate dinner at the bar which was ridiculously good, of course - and the show? Man. Perfect. The music was good and it was the neatest thing in the world to see that man bust out a clarinet. He seemed to enjoy the hell out of it, too. Definitely something I'll remember for the rest of my life. I love that man. (That above photo of him is so blurry and not-good because I didn't take a lot of photos since it was just so nice to actually be there.)
Anyway, this isn't even a great story to read or anything - I get that. But if you've ever had any doubts about going to see this, please just do it. Or talk about this man endlessly to your better half until they take you to go see him.
The tickets are $195 per person for a real fancy/good table, $145 per person if you want to sit at a table and $100 per person + $25 drink min if you want to sit at the bar (which is extremely limited seating). Go here for more information on online reservations.
