219 Mulberry St. at Spring St.

(p) 212-925-5755

Don't know how this Australian cafe has evaded the blog for as long as it has, considering it possesses many of the qualities we hold in high regard: 1) It's cheap. 2) The food's good. 3) We dig the vibe. And as a bonus, it's always packed with good looking foreigners wearing new duds by APC and Rag and Bone. Amen. Salads are fresh and colorful, pastas are hearty, and the hamburger on ciabatta is a Nolita legend. 

We love brunch as much as anyone, but sometimes the hassle of waiting for a table at a good restaurant makes the whole experience feel more like a punishment than a treat, especially when you're hung over and craving a cup of coffee like, ten minutes ago.  Which is why we like do it up at the home-front every once in a while.

You don't need to spend much money to put together a fantastic brunch menu. And you don't have to rely on Aunt Jemima either, although we won't hate on getting inspiration from Kellogg's. A couple of Sundays ago we put together a killer menu: YAH's favorite buttermilk biscuits and honey butter, a vegetable frittata, and home made pop-tarts. 

YAH's Veggie Frittata

serves 6

8 eggs

1 onion

1 bag of spinach

1 bunch cherry tomatoes

crumbled goat cheese

dash of balsamic vinegar

salt/pepper

some oil and butter

pinch of sugar

How:

Preheat oven to high broil. Use butter and a pinch of sugar to caramelize the onions until they are shriveled and brownish and taking up about 1/3 the space they originally were in the pan. (Add the sugar about halfway in when the onions looks translucent.) Have the spinach ready using your favorite method of preparation. I stick them in a covered pot with a bit of water for 3-5 minutes then drain and season.  Cut the cherry tomatoes in half an warm them up in a pan with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and a few squirts of balsamic vinegar.  After ten minutes, or when the tomatoes are juicy and hot, add them to the onions. Add the spinach.  Swish everything around and then reduce heat to medium.  Add the eggs on top of the vegetables. Sprinkle with the goat cheese. When the eggs are still runny on top, stick the entire pan into the oven on high broil and cook until the top is set, or about 3-5 minutes. Finit! 

We stole the pop-tart recipe from the wonderful Smitten Kitchen, and couldn't have been happier with the results. The raspberry filler was our unanimous fave.

Swallow this all down with homemade bloody marys, which won't set you back $12 a pop.

Michael White restaurant sans white table cloth and not in Midtown? Major score for the downtown set. Or is it?

110 Bedford St. between 11th and 12th

(p) 718-301-1002

The Bedford, located in the old Sound Fix HQ, is throwing its hat in the ring to contend with Williamsburg’s ‘new American’ heavy hitters, such as Marlow & Sons and Rye. Guess what? Their ingredients are local, their would-be patrons are stylish in that nostalgia-for-another-era fashion, and their interior is oaky and candlelit. What’s wrong with hopping on a bandwagon if said bandwagon is proving to be a hot ticket? You shouldn’t need one more reason to leave Manhattan for better shores, says this Brooklyn loyalist. CONT'D

While the menu is as sparse as the dinner crowd at this point, there are some true highlights. Meaty ones at that. The pork shank and lamb ribs, both, are so tender they barely stay on the bone. Added points to the North Carolina vinegar-based sauce, which pays homage to the Chef Blake Joyal’s hometown origins. Goat cheese on a burger, unsurprisingly, a crowd pleaser.

The chef is just a little heavy-handed it seems. We found the black kale Caesar salad a bit too over-dressed. Like Cher, always. And the roasted half-chicken, while being quite the looker of a dish, was salty. Deer lick salty.

But the cocktails, oh my the cocktails, were a ginger divinity. Ginger beer + liquor = maybe I should be a Southerner. Our faves: the Kicking Mule, a lime juice, vodka, ginger beer concoction, and the Bedford Sour, which is essentially an Old Fashioned plus egg whites.

If not for a few kinks yet to be worked out, The Bedford is poised to blossom into a local hotspot. And less we forget, there is a rear lounge and bar perfect for a DJ’d dance night. So dance on, Williamsburgers, dance like it’s 1935 in a men’s smoking lounge and the Second World War has yet to come.

CONT'D

The Verdict: Joe's sausage pancake balls easily fall into the category of Good. Light and fluffy, the treats had the consistency of funnel cake. The lighter feel could also be attributed to the switch from syrup to wild flower honey which added a subtle touch of sweetness. When it comes down to it, you really can't compare homemade pork sausage to whatever it is that Dunkin' Donuts used in their balls, but we'll tell you this: there certainly wasn't any unidentifiable gooey stuff this time.

photo:Altacucinasociety.com

355 West 14th St. at 9th Ave

p: 212-691-0555

Last week Seth turned 24, and I thought it was appropriate to celebrate with $24 pasta.  Scarpetta made some noise when it arrived on the restaurant scene in the summer of 2008 — Adam Platt called it "priestly" — but I haven't heard much about it since, most likely because it's pricey and is consistently packed with white haired couples and their grown children.  Seriously, Scarpetta is the place to take your parents (and their parents) when they're in town to see Rain next month.  But if an older checkbook isn't going to front the bill, it's a great celebratory destination worth the spend.CONT'D

Wooden walls, black chairs and minimalist lighting create an almost Japanese/sushi feel. There are place-mats in favor of white tablecloths but the service is attentive and serious. It took two waiters to serve our appetizers —creamy polenta with truffled mushrooms and seared scallops — and when I spilled polenta onto my plate it was swapped out, mid-bite, by another, different waiter. No games, here. (And the apps were awesome.)

While the atmosphere might be stiff, the food is warm and comforting. Scarpetta's bread basket trumps any bread basket I've ever had. There must have been six huge chunks of bread in there, including a hot prosciutto roll that was an insanely delicious cross between focaccia and pizza; it took a severe amount of will-power not to order more, and more, and more. 

The $24 spaghetti with tomato and basil was, please believe, actually worth it.
It's simple, for sure, but ask yourself when's the last time spaghetti and red sauce tasted that good.  It's a conversation started in itself. For entrees, Seth and I both wanted to try the roasted sirloin, but felt guilty after a night of heavy meat-eating at Hill Country the day before, so we settled for the branzino, which was perfectly nice, though not rave-worthy. The flourless chocolate cake and homemade orange gelato, on the other hand, deserves a round of applause. 

All in all, Scarpetta gets an enthusiastic seal of approval from us. We hope to return soon.

This meal was so simple and so delicious and so cheap and resulted in such great glamour shots that we felt obligated to share it will all of you.  I'll make this brief.

What  you'll need: 

For the Meat

Salt

Pepper

Olive Oil

Pecorino

Breadcrumbs 

Ground pork and beef

For Mario Batali's Basic Tomato Sauce:

1/4 cup olive oil

1 Spanish onion diced

4 garlic cloves peeled and thinly sliced

3 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (or 1 tbsp dried)

2 (28 oz) can crushed San Marzano tomatoes (Batali says whole but crushed is way better, have faith, and only use San Marzano)

1/2 medium carrot finely grated

salt

basil, for garnish 

Spaghetti

What to do for the meatballs:

Season the meat with salt and pepper, knead in breadcrumbs and roll into bite-size balls. Heat oil over medium and then ad the meat. Cook until brown and lightly charred. 

What to do for the sauce:

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft and light golden brown, approx 8- 10 mins. Add the thyme and carrot and cook an additional five minutes.  Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often.  Lower the heat and simmer for 30  minutes until thick.  Season with salt and serve. You can freeze this for up to six months, or else eat it in different varieties for the next five nights like we do.

Mix it all up and wallah! Enjoy.

The Naked & Famous

Monday 11/15

Sufjan Stevens @ Beacon Theater

Tuesday 11/16 

The Joy Formidable / Grouplove @ Bowery Ballroom

Wednesday 11/17

Ben Kweller @ Maxwell's

Darwin Deez @ Mercury Lounge

Saturday 11/20

The Naked & Famous / Savoir Adore @ Brooklyn Bowl

210 Sixth Ave. |  28 E. 13th.  |  326 E. 6th

I am about to spill a treasured secret of my food-loving soul.  After this review, there is no going back: I am going to reveal something B-I-G.  Ready?  Let’s get intimate.

I like health food.  Like, I really, really, really like health food.  I voluntarily eat things like tempeh and I use stevia extract in my coffee instead of sugar and I just have this thing for whole grains.  Kale is my BFF. 

Given this confession, can we still be friends?*

OK, to the point.  I found a restaurant that I like more than kale (that’s a ringing endorsement if I’ve ever heard one): Souen, a super-duper-healthy joint that’s bringing veggies back.

DO NOT LET THE MACROBIOTIC-NESS DETER YOU.  I, like most people, went through many years of my life assuming macrobiotics were kind of new-agey and weird.  Well, I was right but that’s besides the point — just because it’s macrobiotic doesn’t mean it tastes bad.  I did a little wiki-research [little-known trade secret] and it turns out macrobiotic is just a super-healthy-elitist-I-make-cereal-out-of-dehydrated-carrots way of saying: I eat a lot of rice. 

The basic tenets are as following:**

>Grains are the staple of your diet.
>You supplement them with other things, like vegetables or fish
>You eat a balanced diet
>You eat what is in season.

YOU ARE PRACTICALLY A MACRO AND DIDN”T EVEN KNOW IT.  I just blew your mind. 

Anyways, if you call NYC home, and you like to eat healthy things sometimes, or you just like to eat yummy food sometimes that happens to be cooked out of healthy ingredients, then you should probably visit Souen.

A bit on the food:  This shit is delicious.  It is like crack vegetables.  The squash tofu has both squash and tofu (huh!) but also onions and carrots and nappa and broccoli and snow peas in a miso-tahini sauce.  Vegetables and Tofu in Pesto Sauce is a delicious dish made of vegetables and tofu in a pesto sauce.  Things are served with the fluffiest, nuttiest brown rice you will ever eat.  This is not a good representation of their menu, but it’s a good representation of what I like to order, and I have exceptional taste that you should strive to emulate.

I used to walk by this place and thing, pshhhhh.  Then they converted me to their cult (kidding).  But seriously dudes, give it a try.  Be open-minded.  And Eat your vegetables.

Bye.

* I feel like I need a disclaimer before I lose all credibility.  I REALLY like other things too: see BBQ. It’s not my fault.  I was raised by a vegetarian-organic-produce-loving-homemade-kombucha-brewing momma.

** I may have oversimplified.  Tomato, Tomatah,*** right?

***You can’t eat tomatoes on a macrobiotic diet.

Dear Gwyneth,

We saw you perform "Country Strong" on the CMA's and, at first glance, felt pleasantly un-offended and neutral about the whole thing.  See, we know how the country business works; we don't expect every country singer to actually BE country strong, growin' up on the farms, living for friday night lights, and letting their whiskey "make their babies, get a little frisky." (Thanks for that one, Luke Bryan.)  (Con't)

We understand that there are labs in Nashville where old curmudgeons crank out songs that are direct seeker missiles to the heart of middle America, and you are just a puppet in their show.  In the end, what we really want to know is: how much did it cost to put together the world's best studio musicians to get a faux-country album to #16 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart?  I guess it's not too hard when you star in Iron Man  and are married to the lead singer of the biggest band in the world and also run a holistic lifestyle website questionably named Goop.  But seriously, bravo, you didn't sound half bad.  We fell for the music itself. But then we turned back at the screen and saw your long bond hair and skinny arms (fried chicken doesn't help that cause, you know), and heard you pronounce "can't" kay-unt, we thought, nice acting Gwenny. All those hours with the vocal coach really paid off!

Love,

Seth