La Girolle

What makes a restaurant experience even better is an open kitchen. I wish I could share a photo of La Girolle's chefs in action but R, M, and I were too mesmerized by all the kitchen activity that I had forgotten to take a photo. 

Cucumber courgette with goat's cheese

I used to think I would always and forever hate cucumbers, but this was an exception.

Surf and turf - hokkaido scallops and steak topped with foie gras 

Salmon and pancetta. So tasty!!

Note: This is an extremely late post and unfortunately (or actually, fortunately), La Girolle's menu changes monthly so I was not able to catch the exact details of each dish, hence the pretty description-less captions.

La Girolle
2nd floor Bleu Sapphire Building
30th and 2nd Avenue
Fort Bonifacio

Barbuzzo and a little something

Barbuzzo was not only my first stop for dinner upon arriving in Philly, but it also remains to be one of my favorite mediterranean restaurants in the city.

Sheep's milk ricotta with grilled french country bread

The bread in this dish was perfection. I love dipping bread that is so good you wouldn't mind eating it alone and this was just that. The sheep's milk is always a barbuzzo staple. I didn't think anything could top locanda verde's, but this is just as good!

Always order a drink when you're at Barbuzzo. They serve great mixes. This was just a sangria but the rest of their drinks menu is pretty funky and innovative.

Pan seared shrimp and pork belly - pork jus, apple celery salad. DELICIOUS. 

Seared halibut - fennel, castelvetrano olives, orange, celery root, salsa verde, roasted peppers

Grilled mediterranean octopus - juicy and so, so flavorful!

 And finally...whenever you're by 13th street, Yogorino is a must.

Left: Pistachio & Coconut
Right: Dark chocolate & almonds

Barbuzzo

110 S 13th St

Philadelphia, PA

If you've ever wondered

I am a huge fan of coffee, which I think should be differentiated from an addict. I almost always go for an iced cappuccino but I sometimes wonder if I can go for a latte instead...and it turns out I can, I'll just be getting way more milk than coffee. Anyway, sad to say that I can't consume any coffee at the moment because I came down with something but here's an explanatory diagram for your perusal, in case you didn't know yet...

Some of the best ones (and by 'ones' I mean iced/hot capps) I've come across in New York are (in no particular order):

1. Stumptown Coffee Roasters (inside the Ace Hotel) -- A Philly foodtruck (HubBub) carries stumptown, too 
2. Gregory's Coffee (multiple locations)
3. Prodigy Coffee (West Village)
4. Fika (probably my fav)
5. Lavazza at Eataly (they even top your capp off with dark chocolate flakes)
6. Balthazar bakery

Fig & Olive

At a place like Fig & Olive, it was natural to expect rows and rows of olive oil--both for dipping and cooking--lining the walls. Of course, as this was in the meatpacking district, the interiors were nothing short of posh.

Crostini tasting

Labor of love - Sliced each crostini into four pieces so everyone gets to sample each type

The table went for a 6-piece crostini tasting while R and I decided to opt out of restaurant week and ordered eggs for brunch (typical).

Truffle mushroom fontina scrambled eggs - cremini & black trumpet mushrooms, mascarpone, fontina, scallion, white truffle olive oil

Truffle mushroom croquette - cremini mushroom, parmesan bechamel, truffle olive oil aioli 

Gazpacho andalucia soup

Chicken tajine - fig, olive, apricot, carrot, zucchini, toasted almond, cipollini onion tomato, hojiblanca olive oil

Penne funghi tartufo - white truffle olive oil

Cous cous - cilantro and harissa 

Chocolate pot de crème - crunchy praline financiers & vanilla cream

Berries & cream on a french waffle

Fig & Olive - Meatpacking district location

420 W 13th St. (b/w 9th ave. & Washington St.)

Beauty & Essex

Celebrating N's birthday with rounds of tapas, a bottle of wine, some soju, and pretty chandeliers all around.

Tuna poke wonton tacos & oven braised chicken meatballs

Top: Tuna poke tacos
Middle (L-R): Shaved NY strip on pretzel toast, Kale & apple salad, Lobster tacos
Bottom: Grilled cheese, smoked bacon, & tomato soup dumplings

Always a good time with these girls.

Beauty & Essex

146 Essex St

New York, NY

ABC Kitchen

One of my more memorable Jean Georges meals. 

A friend once pitched ABC Kitchen as Gwyneth Paltrow's favorite, and I absolutely ADORE Gwyneth Paltrow and her lifestyle. She loves food but is also one heck of a fitspiration because she is very health-conscious. She epitomizes class and glamour but exudes such a down-to-earth aura...I tend to think of 'basics' when she comes to mind for two reasons: 1) she seems to lead a pretty simple 'mom' life and 2) her fashion style is very minimalist.

Anyway, I can go on and on about her but the reason I brought her up is because ABC Kitchen is essentially the amalgamation of everything she preaches about eating and making food -- it is all about local, organic, original, and environmentally conscious food. 

Rustic - mismatched floral-patterned vintage china, vintage silverware

Eco-friendly table setting and handmade porcelain dinnerware

I fell in love with the intimate interiors

Half of a roast carrot and avocado salad - crunchy seeds, sour cream, citrus

Whole wheat pizza - mushrooms, parmesan, oregano, and farm egg

So good

I heard Gordon Ramsay hates truffle oil but I never found out why...until now...maybe. This pizza did not have any sneaky truffle oil drizzled on top or anything, and yet it was still so tasty. Having said that, I'm still a big fan of truffle oil because, like sriracha, it magically transforms everything bland into something so flavorful, but this pizza made me appreciate what a good mushroom dish should be like.

There is always room for dessert

I have a pretty big sweet tooth. As much as I hate thinking about all the empty calories that come with dessert, I believe in treating yourself once in a while and indulging in dessert on days you need a pick-me-upper (the filthier, the better)!

Anyway, here are some dessert photos I found lying around that I thought I would share.

Ilili Candy Bar 

Chocolate ganache. Fig Caramel. Pistachio White Chocolate Sesame -- words never sounded so mouth-watering. Layers of gooey chocolate ganache mixed with the crunch of sesame seeds and a dab of creamy, thick white chocolate. Leave it to ilili to come up with dessert as delectable as its dishes are. This was hands down the best dessert I've had in a while.

Molly's Cupcakes - Creme Brûlée and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Molly's Cupcakes apparently won Cupcake Wars (a TV show, for those who don't know), so naturally, we had to try it. I'm not really a cupcake person but the creme brûlée cupcake blew my mind. Imagine an extremely moist, almost custard-like cupcake with a caramelized surface. It was so tasty. The Cookie dough cupcake was just okay, I've never had cookie dough cupcakes with amazing frosting and this one had frosting that was just like whipped cream, which I ended up scraping off. I loved the cookie dough surprise that was piped into the cupcake!

Coconut Chocolate 

Q, R and I ended up at Chelsea Market one sunday and went to this raved-about crepe place. I've never before come across crepe that was as flat as Bar Suzette's but I think this form worked because it really smushed all the contents together so that every bite had a bit of everything.

Spot Dessert Bar -- Chocolate Green Tea Lava

Post-dissection lava flow!

Unfortunately, the day J and I checked Spot Dessert Bar out, they had run out of Green Tea ice cream! The horror. So we ate our cake with vanilla ice cream, which was pretty meh. Vanilla ice cream is vanilla ice cream. So anyway, this was actually quite a disappointment for all the hype it received. We agreed that it tasted just like any other lava cake we had.

Dominique Ansel - almond croissant and cannelle 

Dominique Ansel is the father of all cronuts, a pastry term he coined and trademarked. Unfortunately, his cronuts, which people line up starting from 6.30AM for, sell out by 9AM everyday. Seeing as I'm not THAT crazy about food, cronuts were out of the question. I've just always wanted to try his kouign amann, which he is equally famous for, but it was sold out by the time we came (every single one of his pastries actually get wiped out by 6pm!!). Hence, I settled for an almond croissant which has always been a childhood favorite.

 I loved Dominique Ansel's version because the almond filling was generous and the croissant was still so soft and flaky even if we got in at around 5pm. The cannelle, too, was just the most moist little cake (as you can see in the close-up!) ever.

Bouchon Bakery - chocolate almond croissant

 Okay, I feel like I'm actually always on the hunt for the best almond croissant. Bouchon's chocolate almond croissant was pretty good--what can Thomas Keller mess up?--but it was a bit too hard for my liking.

Ceci-Cela had an amazing almond croissant, too. It was extremely soft, buttery, and flaky although it was much flatter than Dominique Ansel's.

Grom - Dark Chocolate

Ahh, Grom Gelato. Grom has always been a NY staple for me because I love its flavors and the consistency of its gelato. Imagine sticky gelato...it sounds weird but it's so fun to eat.