the perfect workday lunch place

Restaurant: La Felicita
Location: 1834 Lakeshore Rd. W., Clarkson, Ontario L5J 1J7
Telephone: 905-822-9922
Website: lafelicita.ca


We always seem to end up going to La Felicita for lunch at work. It's the perfect workday lunch place! It's a cute little Italian bakery/restaurant and bakery that has a large selection of very fresh foods. It's also set up cafeteria style, so you can get your food quickly and get back to work in time.

food as art

While touring New York City we had a chance to stop by MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art) and we saw a few exhibits that were food related. One was a giant slice of cake that was very large and looked to be made of painted cloth (pictured below). It is done by Claes Oldenburg, which I think also created the giant hamburger that I have seen that is in the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario).

Image from: moma.org

If you don't already know, I love fake food. I loved playing with fake food when I was younger, I always loved seeing fake food displayed outside of cafe-type restaurants in Hong Kong, and I am always tempted to buy things nowadays when it's of the fake food variety.

We also saw the iconic piece comprised of many cans of Cambell's soup by Andy Warhol (pictured below). I didn't realize each can was a seperate piece of work. Can you imagine trying to line up all those seperate pieces? Definitely need a laser leveller for that job.

restaurant review: del posto

Restaurant: Del Posto
Location: 85 Tenth Ave., New York 10011
Telephone: 212-497-8090
Website: delpost.com

Meal type: Dinner

Average price per person: $100+

What I ordered:
- Bellini
Il menu Del Posto -
- Antipasta: insalata d’estiva, summer squashes, warm almonds and ruchetta
- Bis 2 Tastes of Pasta: rabbit panzotti with pencil asparagus and black truffle butter (pictured), orecchiette with lamb neck sausage, morels and spring onion
- Secondi: tomato and cerignola braised tuna with chipotle & avocado
- Dolci: gelati e sorbetti del giorno

Ratings:










Comments:

We were unable to make reservations for Babbo, because they were under renovations so we decided to try Mario Batali's other restaurant Del Posto which is located in New York's trendy meat packing district.

Del Posto received two Michelin stars in 2007 and 2008, so we were really looking forward to it. I think this was our first visit to a Michelin star-rated restaurant.

When we first arrived and sat down I think we were pretty taken by the gorgeous interior of the place. Not only did it look elegent, classy and huge, but it somehow retained the comfortable cozy setting. The staff was super attentive, which I would expect from a restaurant of this calibre. And our waiter was extremely helpful with the menu. I think this was probably the best service I've ever received while dining out.

When we finally received our orders we were quite impressed not only by the quality, but the size of the portions. They were definitely generous. Our favorite dish was the rabbit hats in the butter sauce. I don't think I've ever had pasta in butter sauce, but it is to die for. It was so rich and tasty and it balanced the rabbit so well.

Enjoying the ambience of the restaurant was also quite enjoyable. There was an extreme amount of wait staff buzzing around at all times and we noticed a couple of very enchanting elements. The first was how every time a woman placed her purse on the floor a staff member would quickly bring a little unique and adorable looking footstool to place her bag on. The second was the a service station set up in the middle of the dining area. At first I assumed the service station was a place to store cutlery, drinks and whatnot, but after watching the staff in action we realized it was so much more. We watched a waiter plate a fish with great ease and flair as well as prepare a fresh custard on a stovetop on order.

In between dinner and dessert our waiter brought over a cheese cart and asked if we wanted to sample some cheeses picked by Mario's wife. We selected three cheeses and enjoyed them with the most amazing hazelnut and date bread slices. Why cheese always tastes so much better in restaurants than when I buy them at the market I'll never know.

We ordered a dessert of just gelati because we were so completely stuffed with food, but seeing as it was 4 scoops of very decadent gelati I couldn't even finish it. It was two scoops of very rich chocolate, and two scoops of what we think was gingerbread. I really enjoyed the gingerbread was it was light and very interesting tasting. The dessert course came with a complimentary plate of cute Italian desserts such as: candied almonds, biscotti, etc. It was definitely a nice touch, but unfortunlately I was so stuffed I could only try 2 or 3 items.

I was very impressed by Del Posto and must say that it was worth the money. I didn't even write about every thing that made me fall in love with this restaurant as it would make my post extremely long (even moreso than it already is), but I was very happy we were able to go to Del Posto. I hope next time we're in New York we get a chance to visit Babbo.

michelin stars

Watching a lot of the food network and Gordon Ramsay I kept hearing about Michelin stars. I gathered that it was a prestigeous rating system for restaurants known around the world (or at least North America and Europe), but that's about all I knew about it, so I decided to investigate.

From Wikipedia:
"The Michelin Guide (Le Guide Michelin) is a series of annual guide books published by Michelin for over a dozen countries. The term refers by default to the Michelin Red Guide, the oldest and best-known European hotel and restaurant guide, which awards the Michelin stars."

I was totally unaware that the Michelin they mentioned was actually the Tire company. They have a hotel and restaurant guide? you learn something new every day!

See tommorrow's post for a review of Mario Batali's Del Posto restaurant which received 2 Michelin stars in 2007 and 2008.

new york city chronicles: little italy

While escaping the hoards of China town, we slipped in to what we thought was an alleyway, but turned out to be an equally crowded and bustling Little Italy. As like everything else in the big apple it blew our mids. Our senses were attached by all the amazing smells coming from all the tents set up right on the street by dinfferent food vendors. The streets were closed off to cars and there was everything being sold from gelato, to Italian sausages, to pastries and desserts. I almost died when I saw a man selling giant blocks of that white stuff with the nuts in it(pictured).

restaurant review: aoki japanese restaurant

Restaurant: Aoki Japanese Restaurant
Location: 234 West 48th Street, New York 10036
Telephone: 212-956-2356

Meal type: Dinner

Average price per person: $26-$60


What I ordered (shared):
- Green tea
Aoki Grande Sushi and Sashimi for 2
- 15 pieces of sashimi
- 8 pieces of sushi
- eel avocado roll
- crunchy lobster salad topped with tuna

Ratings:









Comments:
We were undecided on what to eat our first night in NYC, so we agreed on the 1 thing we always agree on - sushi! We picked this place randomely because it looked busy (always a good sign) and very chic, but comfortable. It definitely had a good atmosphere.

We ordered a dinner for 2 not expecting the portions to be so generous., but when our beautiful plate of dinner came we knew we would be wasting food. The sashimi was huge and very fresh and I absolutely loved the eel avacado roll which reminded us of peanut butter for some reason.

We definitely enjoyed our NYC sushi experience!

new york city crhonicles: food festival

On our way to dinner we passed a huge street festival. So since we had some time before dinner we decided to check it out.

It was a huge street festival of some kind near Broadway and Times Square. As usual there was huge masses of people checking out the goods being sold. In addition to the vendors selling things like jewellery and trinkets there was LOTS of food.

Although there wasn't a huge variety of vendors (it was the same vendors over & over again), the sheer number of people walking around and checking things out was overwhelming.

Some of the items being sold were:
- crepes with your choice of topping
- freshly made fruit smoothies
- arepas (baby corn with mozerella cheese)
- thai food (spring rolls, pad thai, etc.)

It was all so tempting, but we didn't want to spoil our dinner. I wish I had more time there just to eat more food.

new york chronicles: minamoto kitchoan

While walking around Rockefeller Centre Plaza we peeked in to this Japanese bakery and I fell in love with these cute bunny shaped cakes, so I just had to go inside to check it out. It sold traditional Japanese treats made in Japan and imported to North America.

Store: Minamoto Kitchoan
Location: 608 Fifth Ave., New York 10020
Telephone: 212-489-3747

Website: kitchoan.com

I bought a Fukuwatashiesenbei cookie (pictured below) and Dave bought a Kurimanjyu bean cake. We sat outside Rockefeller Centre and enjoyed our treasures.

I love Japanese treats because they're usually so prettily made and packaged/wrapped. So much care goes in to making it special. My Fukuwatashiesenbei was basically a cookie sandwich with a cream filling. It was oh-so-yummy. The cream wasn't heavy, but suprisingly light and it was so subtle and airy. I was suprised that something so beautiful was so simple and not pretentious at all. Dave laughed at me when I described it that way.

I usually wouldn't spend $2+ on a single cookie, but it's not everyday you run across fresh imported Japanese goodies of this calibre (at least not around where I live/work).

new york city chronicles: street food

We knew going to NYC that we'd get to try some different street foods, but we never imagined this:
- falafal sandwhiches
- gyros
- hot dots/sausages
- gourmet ice cream trucks
- pretzels
- fruit
- nuts
- chinese take-out
- arepas (baby corn with mozerella cheese)
to name a few.

I think my hands down favorite was the vegetable lo mein we got for $1.25 in China town. It was not only taste, but a super bargain!

Another favorite was the nuts - I didn't realize New Yorkers were such nut fans!

new york city chronicles: first taste

We're back from New York City!

It was a whirlwind 5 days and 4 nights in the big apple. We rented an apartment in Chelsea and basically ran around Manhattan (via our feet and the subway). THere was definitely too much to see and it made me feel like a fish out of water.

Our first taste of New York City was streed food. We ate falafal sandwiches from a street vendor near Rockefeller Centre. It was delicious and makes me wish we had more than just hot dog carts in Toronto.