Restaurants – Cheeky Attitude

So much food, so little time… NYC Restaurants

There were only so many meals we could fit into a day. I think I managed 5 meal stops on one of the days. Here are a few highlights.

Grimaldi’s Pizza in Brooklyn

Key Lime Pie and Peach Lemonade at Bubby’s in TriBeCa

Dinner at Bar Americain with Fried Chicken ala Bobby Flay

Devil’s Food Cupcake from Amy’s Bread in Hell’s Kitchen

Big fat pastrami sandwich from Carnegie Deli

A Fresh Fruit Tart from The City Bakery

I created a map with all the restaurants we visited during our trip. I’m sure everyone knows that I only had a taste of what the city has to offer. I guess I’ll just have to go back sometime soon.

View NY Restaurants – 2010 August in a larger map

I had gathered recommendations from friends, and found lists/reviews various places online. New York Magazine had the most helpful restaurant section for pre-planning. During our trip, I found that the Yelp app on my iphone was the easiest to use when we were out and about. What made Yelp so convenient was the feature that sorts bookmarked places by proximity to you at the time. So while we were walking around and wanted to stop to eat I could easily see which places were nearby and click on the link that would give me directions and a map.

San Francisco weekend pt. 2 : Sugar high Sunday

My Sunday morning walk led me up Valencia again. This time I stopped in at Four Barrel Coffee. A place the fabulous @HizKnits frequents and Erica raved about on her recent visit. The bonus – Dynamo Donuts in Orange Blosssom And I had to have a second cup of their coffee though I knew it would lead to a major caffeine buzz on top of the sugar high.

Walking back, a number of stores were open that I was too early for on my way and I stopped in here and there. The best find was the hat shop.

Zomg @kzooerica you would die in here! Must visit in nov.

The really bad thing was that I ate the donut knowing full well that my afternoon would be filled with pie.

The person who I was kitty sitting for had to take a trip at the last minute and left me the tickets for the SF Food Wars “Pie or Die” event.

Look at all those pie pieces! People did an amazing job making pies their own way. Even though there were three peach pies, each had an original twist. And there were a number of berry pies as well. My favorite name was the “Gleek Team” who had the “Rachel Berry” pie. In the end we had to just vote for our #1pick.

I was very happy when my favorite turned out to be both the professional judges favorite and the choice of the majority. Irving Lin’s blackberry lemon chess pie with honey jumbleberry sauce was a standout. Irving is the blogger behind Eat the Love and everyone should go over to read his charming account of the day.

Here’s a slide show from SF Food Wars:

Up next for SF Food Wars: the Great Salsa ChampionChip, at the Ferry Building on September 12.

After that I had to detox for the next couple of days. After all, I’m in training for NY Food and BlogHer.

Lest anyone think I neglected my duty…

Meet General Zod

Walking San Francisco’s Mission District and Beyond

This past weekend, I had the great good fortune of kitty sitting for a friend who lives in San Francisco’s Mission District. I love walking the city and had so much fun discovering places new to me.

Saturday morning I walked up Valencia and noticed a bunch of chalk art/graffiti had poped up. Some creative soul rubbed chalk on the grates that surround the trees lining the street. I never noticed the art on the grates before – a big thank you to whomever it was.

First off I had to fuel my weekend and I met a friend at Mission Beach Cafe. The wait (about 30 min.) was well worth it. I had the “wild mushroom benedict” and a “huge” grapefruit mimosa.

Well fed and slightly tipsy I headed to Imagiknit one of the few remaining yarn shops in the city. I should have taken more pictures. The store is adorable and a really great space. The people were very helpful and attentive. It was good to see it hopping. There were even a couple of people learning to knit.