BCD takes NYC: "Fabulous in Fall" Edition -- Day 2

by Erin




First of all, we want to extend a gigantic THANK YOU to everyone who voted for us for the Mobbies in these last few weeks! Bear hugs for everyone!

And now back to business: a very belated NYC post chronicling yet another day of wonderful eats. Like the day before, we hit a lot of great places to eat!

We had originally planned to go to Barney Greengrass, a deli on the Upper West Side for some good ol' deli food. We wanted corned beef, chopped liver, matzo ball soup, latkes, blintzes....[drooling]. But alas, they were CLOSED for Rosh Hashana. Damn! So, instead we went to The Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien Hotel, a destination that is always on our list but for one reason or the other, gets nixed every time.


I loved the Burger Joint for so many reasons, but one of the main reasons is because of its hidden, underground vibe - like only a select few know of it, and I'm one of them! (This is the second time secrets + burgers = awesome - check out my post about the secret language at In 'n Out burger here.)

The lobby of Le Parker Meridien is cozy but open and sunshine-y, with marble floors and big pieces of modern art on the walls. But if you know where to look, you end up in a dark hallway with black curtains, and just this to guide you:



And then you turn the corner and you feel like you are in the middle of a rec room in Texas. Wood paneled walls covered in writing, movie posters on the walls, and the menu is literally written on cardboard with markers. A-mazing. They only sell burgers, fries, and shakes, and we gladly partook.



All of us ordered burgers except Lauren, who got the cheesiest grilled cheese ever. The burgers were great - juicy and cooked to medium rare, per our request. The fries were pretty good - they reminded me of the fries at McDonald's or In 'n Out. My only criticism was the size of the sodas - call me a stupid American, but 12 oz of soda is not enough when you have a gigantic burger and a bag of fries to get through.







We hung out at the Burger Joint for quite some time, talking, laughing, and appreciating the awesomeness of the place. I love secret burger places!!

After lunch we decided to head down to The High Line, an elevated park created from now-defunct railroad tracks used to transport cattle to the slaughterhouses in the meatpacking district. The High Line is beautiful - the pathway is lined with wildflowers, there is a beautiful view of the city, and a there are a few benches to sit and have a picnic if you are smart enough to plan ahead. We strolled down the High Line and enjoyed the sunshine. We came back down to street-level and, like magic, there was an ice cream truck (called Van Leeuwen) waiting for us!



We couldn't resist - not only was it ice cream (my fave) but they used local milk and eggs, and flavorings from small producers abroad (e.g., vanilla, chocolate, ginger, pistachio). I got espresso and Xani got vanilla - both were great but the vanilla was absolutely, heart-breakingly good.



After our ice cream treat, we went to the Chelsea Market, which was so fun. I love a good market so I was in heaven. After our day o' fun, we separated from Ann and Steven and headed back to Brooklyn to rest up before heading out to dinner in Park Slope at Franny's, for what would become the best meal of the trip.

We had been looking foward to Franny's for quite some time. Xani's friend from high school, Dave, said he was "friends with the chef" and we should go there and tell them "Dave sent us." We weren't sure if this would work - surely the chef would be busy, and what if he had met our connection, Dave, like twice? We would be mortified. While figuring out our game plan (and killing time waaiting for a table - they don't take reservations), we had a few drinks.

Franny's serves local Brooklyn-brewed beers, so Xani, John (Lauren's beau), and I enjoyed those, while Lauren sipped some Prosecco. We waited in the outdoor courtyard and enjoyed the shockingly good weather. (Long-time readers will recall that we have terrible weather karma when visiting NYC: heat like the surface of the sun, or constant slushy precipitation. We were thrilled that the weather cooperated for our visit!)

Once we were seated in the bustling but small restaurant, we were greeted by our friendly and very knowledgeable waiter. Turns out he's getting his PhD in economics at NYU - smart AND friendly! Swoon. Ahem, anyway...we had an AMAZING meal at Franny's! (However, our pictures truly sucked so they are minimal for this meal...sorry!)



We started with 5-6 antipasti, including roasted broccoli with garlic and pecorino cheese, a crostino with tomatoes and lots of olive oil, another crostino with house-cured proscuitto, amazing roasted potatoes with some sort of cheese, and an heirloom tomato salad with ricotta cheese. Everything was so good, it's hard to describe the joy we experienced with each bite.

For the second course, we enjoyed a pasta dish, penne with eggplant, raisins, and pine nuts. I loved this dish - the pasta was cooked very al dente, and the sauce was light but delicious. And I don't even like eggplant!

Finally, we got two pizzas - a classic tomato and buffalo mozzarella pizza, and a pizza with clams, chiles, and parsley. The former was great and classic; the latter blew our minds! The clam pizza was spicy, garlicky, and of course, had lots of delicious clams and clam flavoring throughout the sauce. It reminded me of BCD Dad's pasta alla vongole (clam sauce) and it made us all very happy.






At the end of the meal, Chef Danny came out to visit with us! Turns out our connection, Dave, really IS a good friend of his (they were roommates for several years, in fact)! It was great talking to Chef Danny, and especially nice to compliment the chef directly - as I mentioned, this was the best meal of our whole trip, all thanks to Chef Danny. It was a pleasure meeting him and we will DEF be back!



Okay, enough for now - Day 3 coming soon!


Happy NYC eats,

EP

I Feel Spooky-Coziness in the Air....

by Xani

Regular readers, or anyone who has ever met EP or myself, know that Halloween is our favorite holiday. No question. Even the slight chill of fall, a rust-colored leaf, or writing a "10" in front of the date on a check gets me in the Halloween mood. So if you are anything like us, you're starting to feel that itch to get your Halloween on. I thought I'd go through the archives and dig up some of our old seasonal posts to start getting things all kinds of spooky up in here!

Going waaay back into the x-files, here's a post about a fabulous party where we invited our guests to make their own Haunted Gingerbread Houses! Making that much gingerbread was a terrifying ordeal but the party was a blast!

We made a LOT of gingerbread

Spook-tacular!

Another scaaaary Halloween memory was the caramel lady-apple ghosts we made as seasonal treats for our friends and co-workers. Things really got ominous when we almost burned down Mom and Dad's house with a caramel boil-over. Luckily the spirits took pity on us and the apples came out great!

Almost boil over-- the horror!

Boo!

Finally, we remember back to last year, when we threw a truly over-the-top Seven Deadly Sins Halloween Soiree. The costumes were fierce, the decorations were creepy, and the food was out of this world. The only thing scarier than the costume fashion show was the giant mess to clean up the next day-- but it was worth it!

Clementine all spooked-out

Halloween isn't complete without costumes

Themed food? Sounds like us...

So what do those crazy BCD girls have in store for THIS Halloween?? Only one way to find out, keep reading! And don't forget to vote for BCD in the Mobbies, everyday through Oct 9. We need your help!

Keep it scary,

X

BCD takes NYC: "Fabulous in Fall" Edition -- Day 1

by Erin and Xani



While a normal report of one's vacation would include highlights, including culinary ones, we do it a little differently around BCD. You see, when we go on vacation, especially our trips to NYC, we put in literally months of research to determine where we should eat. Thus, everywhere we go is a highlight :) That's why it takes us 3 posts to write about one weekend, because every restaurant was hand-picked and highly anticipated.


So, let's start with Day 1 (of 3)! Actually, we should start with day -1 (??) because before we got to NYC, we spent some time in Philadelphia. Xani had been in Philly for work for the week, and then EP and friends Matt and Smulson drove up from Baltimore on Thursday night to see the much-awaited It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia LIVE show! For those who don't know, It's Always Sunny is a TV show on FX that recently went on tour, so to speak. We are huge fans of this television show and our friend Andy not only hooked us up with great tickets, but also was one of the driving forces behind the show's existence! Thanks Andy - we love you! The show was, in a word: awesome.





"Are you chewing gum??" (And yes, that's Danny DeVito!)



"Day Man!"

Of course, while we were in the City of Brotherly Love, we had to have cheesesteaks! We went to Jim's before the show and got a classic cheesesteak with provolone (not cheez wiz - can't bring ourselves to eat that!) and an Italian cold cut sub. Both were good, neither blew our minds. I hope we don't get threatening emails over that last sentence like the Magnolia Cupcake incident of '08.





The following morning, we took the trusty Bolt Bus to NYC!! Two hours later we arrived at Madison Square Garden and got a cab to BFF Lauren's place of work, where we dropped our bags. Thanks LP! Then, excitingly, Xani and I were off on our own in NYC. We had a game plan, and it had alliteration: Prune, Porchetta, Pinkberry.

We took a cab down to the Lower East Side and started at Prune. We'd been to Prune before in February for Xani's birthday, and were eager to get back for some snacks and cocktails. Daytime drinking is classy when you do it at Prune ;)

For our drinks, we got their famous Bloody Mary and also a Ghost of Mary, which Xani had the last time we were there. The Bloody Mary was very fresh-tasting and definitely homemade, with a good amount of fresh horseradish. The Ghost of Mary was much lighter and very refreshing, due in part to their using tomato water (they strain their Bloody Mary mix to make a consumme of tomato, of sorts) and lemon vodka. Yum!



While drinking our drinks, we were noshing on the various garnishes (house-pickled, of course) and we ate what appeared to be a pickled green grape and it was so delicious! We asked the waitress for more of them (greedy for garnishes, we are) and she informed us that they were pickled, unripe (green) grape tomatoes! Called "tom-olives" in the biz. She told us we could buy them at Zabars, so we did!



She brought us extra tomolives!

Then we got two little snackers to go with our cocktails and garnishes. Again, one was a repeat and one was new. The repeat was "Cold Spicy Eggplant, Fried Salt Cod, Hard Boiled Egg" which was just as delicious and interesting as we remembered. As described, it was spicy, smoky, salty and a wee bit fishy from the cod, but then it had a beautifully cooked egg and some creme fraiche on top. These were served with grilled bread with black and white sesame seeds, and the whole thing was very satisfying.



We also got the Sous Chef Salad, which had lovely greens, boiled potato, cheddar cheese, radishes, fresh corn, walnuts, and a vinaigrette made with walnut oil. Yum!



After our visit at Prune, we headed to our next stop just a few blocks away: Porchetta (pronounced por-KET-ah). (And on our way we saw a MOVIE STAR!! Bryan Greenberg! Swoon!) We've had our eye on Porchetta since we strolled by it on our way to Butter Lane last February, and were almost carried away by the scent of roasted pork, like in the cartoons.



Porchetta has approximately 2 things on its menu: roasted pork, and potatoes cooked in the pork fat with the "burnt ends" of the pork (crispy pieces of porky goodness). We got both, natch. We ordered the pork in sandwich form and it was SO. GOOD. It was super-flavorful from the herbs rubbed on it, and it had a contrast in texture between the meat and the crispy skin - when's the last time you got delicious crispy pork skin in the US, much less on a sandwich in the middle of NYC?! The potatoes were, as predicted, incredible. Potatoes + pork fat + burnt ends = magic.





Last stop of the afternoon was Pinkberry, the frozen yogurt craze that is sweeping the nation. Xani had had Pinkberry before but EP had only had one of the knock-offs in Baltimore, so we were excited to get a sweet treat at the original yogurt shop. The verdict? Pinkberry actually IS better than the knock-offs! Xani insisted there was a difference but EP wasn't convinced until that moment. We got the regular "tangy" flavor with kiwi and strawberry, and then a coconut-flavored yogurt plus chocolate-covered crisps on top. It was sweet but not too sweet, and a great (light) dessert after our multi-stop lunch in the East Village.





We then walked all the way back to Lauren's office in Tribeca (and worked off approximately one bite of pork), and changed for dinner. (I swear, there were many hours between Pinkberry and dinner!!) For dinner we gathered cousins Ann and Steven, cousin Brian, friend Melody, and of course BFF Lauren at a wonderful Peruvian place called Yerba Buena. Since we had a large group, we ordered MANY things to share. Some of the highlights were the taquitos (so tiny!), the fish tacos, both ceviches (one was flounder and one was ribeye with sea urchin!), the guacamole, the empanadas, the croquetes, and of course, the cocktails! As is often the case when we get this crew together, much of our energy is focused on catching up with our dining companions, so the food is (for once) not our main focus.



Awesomely spicy guacamole



Empanadas with Peruvian corn (it was gigantic!)



Croquetes of manchego cheese - TDF!



Rib-eye ceviche with sea urchin (uni) and more Peruvian corn



Taquitos - so tiny; see lime for scale!



Churros - a great end to the meal

Whew - what a day! A couple more NYC posts comin' atcha in the coming days!

We'd like to send a big THANK YOU to everyone who has been voting for us as the best Foodie blog in Maryland on the Baltimore Sun's Outstanding Blog awards, the Mobbies! Keep up the great work! Remember you can vote once a day, every day, until October 9th!

Happy voting,

EP & X

National Coffee Day

by Xani
I just found out it's National Coffee Day! Since coffee is half of the reason we exist (maybe even more than half), I couldn't let it go without mention. To celebrate, check out our previous posts about COFFEE.

Don't forget to enjoy a delicious donut with your coffee to make the experience complete-- and don't forget to vote for BCD in the Baltimore Sun's Mobbie awards!

It's about time to get a cup myself...

X

We’re Nom-Nom-NOMINATED!!

by Xani and Erin

Here’s the big news you’ve been waiting for! Black Coffee and a Donut has been nominated for a Mobbie—the Baltimore Sun’s awards for Maryland’s Outstanding Blogs—in the Foodie Blogs category, natch.

“Vote for the blogs. Take the cannolis.”

So here’s the deal: you vote by clicking HERE. (Note that you have to create a username and password for the Baltimore Sun but it's no biggie. We're worth it, right??) You can vote once a day, everyday, starting Monday, September 28, at 8am, until October 9 at 5pm. So vote, vote often, and TELL YOUR FRIENDS! We have no shame and will be launching a massive campaign to gather votes. We’ll be hitting up our friends and family, utilizing all our social networking skillz, and activating our Wonder Twin powers!

We're so excited to be nominated and hope you will support BCD and help us win our first ever award. We've got some stiff competition, but we know our fans will come through for us. You'll be handsomely rewarded with more great content and, possibly, cookies (we better read the fine print first though- cookie bribes might be expressly prohibited).

Let the voting begin!

X & EP

Hello, Blog, My Old Friend

by Xani

Hey! Blogging! I remember this! Been a while, but it's just like riding a bike, right? Life has been a whirlwind lately, and rather than bore you with excuses about why I haven't been blogging, I'll get right to the action...

Item the first: BCD Goes Gutenberg.

That's right, we're in print! Starting this month, we will have a monthly column in our neighborhood newsletter, the Federal Hill South Free News-- hoorah! Lovely Editor Michelle, an old colleague of mine, is a fan of the blog and asked us to be her regular food columnists-- SCORE. The newsletters should be posted on the website regularly, but until then, you can check out our column here (and the second page here).

Item the second: BCD needs your help!

Very soon we will be asking for your help in winning a local blogging award. We'll keep you posted on how to vote and show your support for BCD. STAY TUNED!!

Item the third: FOOD. That's what you're here for, right?

While I was too busy to blog, I did find a leeeetle time to have fun, cook, eat and entertain. We had one small bbq when my friend Hayley and her husband came to visit from Cleveland, and another, more elaborate one the weekend right after the Blackacre Blowout, at which point I almost died from over-entertaining. Here's a rundown of the eats:

BBQ #1

• Gazpacho
• BBQ chicken
• grilled corn
• yellow watermelon and feta salad
• nectarine and blueberry gallette

Sounds simple, right? And in reality, we did try to keep everything light, easy, casual-- and it worked! But more importantly, everything was SO delicious. We used almost all local farmer's market produce, which made all the sides especially yummy. The gazpacho, which I had been talking about making all summer but didn't get around to until August was absolutely summer at its best, especially with the homemade croûtons and other garnishes to sprinkle on top.

The watermelon and feta salad was a test-run for the dish we wanted to make at the Blackacre Blowout, and this version was so fresh and interesting that it secured a spot on the menu for the big party. The chicken, however, was really the star of the show. I have to give FULL CREDIT to my wonderful boyfriend, D, who proved at this party, and the next, that he is a true bbq master. (That's right, boyfriend. (!!) Who cooks. Really well. Didn't I mention life has been crazy lately? But in a good way, sometimes :) ) I'm not even really sure what he did with this chicken-- it involved a new piece of a equipment which has taken up residence in my backyard-- a smoker. D+ smoker+magic= amazingly delicious bbq chicken! It was so moist, with perfectly crispy skin and wonderful smoky flavor. A triumph. We also grilled up some fresh local corn, which was just as sweet as any I had all summer.

Dinner wouldn't be complete without dessert, specifically my new obsession, random fruit gallete. I threw together the dough early in the day, mixed some sliced local nectarines and blueberries with a touch of sugar, some flour, and lemon juice and voila!

uncooked

cooked!

So all that was just bbq #1! Bbq # 2 was for a few more people and was just a touch more elaborate...

For our starter, we made a fantastic chilled zucchini soup. Unlike the vegan recipe we used for the Blackacre party, this one was chock full of homemade chicken stock, milk, and sour cream (of course, it's James Beard, after all). Lots of hot pepper flakes, too! It was a great first bite to warm up the palette- cold, rich, spicy.

D was on meat-duty again, and he pulled out all the stops by smoking some fantastic St. Louis style ribs, as well as a brisket that cooked OVERNIGHT. In my backyard. Let me rephrase: something in my backyard was on fire all night. I was certain the fire department was going to be called-- the whole neighborhood smelled like a campfire... oops! But the payoff was totally worth it. We were in serious meat-heaven...

rib-a-rama

massive piles of meats

the elusive smoke ring!

Along with the meat we served a bunch of sides-- again focusing on using the last of the local summer fruits and veggies. We made this recipe for Ina Garten's Sagaponack Corn Pudding that I have been lusting after for, literally, years. It did NOT disappoint. Fresh corn, cream, ricotta, basil, cheddar cheese- what could be bad? (There are somehow no pics of the finished pudding-- probably we were in too much of a rush to devour it. Here are some of us putting it together, thanks to our personal paparazzo, Max!)

While D was slaving over a hot grill and many pounds of meat, he also made this grilled potato and scallion salad, which was good but could have been better if not for an inherent recipe flaw-- everyone knows that vinaigrette should be pured over WARM potatoes, to allow them to soak up the dressing. This recipe, however, said the potatoes and scallions could be grilled ahead of time and tossed with the dressing the day of the party. Also, it said the bacon in the recipe was "optional." BACON IS NEVER OPTIONAL!

We also made a simple Israeli salad with tomatoes, cukes, red onion, and simple lemon-y dressing. Aaaah refreshing!

All of of guests seemed to enjoy the various offerings, along with LOTS of beer. There were several sauces to accompany the meat, and lots of napkins used to wipe fingers and faces. What a meal!

We finished up with great conversation and dueling peach desserts. OK, not really dueling, as I would never dessert-duel with our friend Joy, who is a professional pastry chef! I made a rustic peach-pecan crumble and she brought a gorgeous lemon-verbena tart topped with fresh peaches. Two desserts= we're all winners!

It seems like it will be awhile before we have another bbq. A taligate, maybe. A pumpkin-carving party, possibly. But summer is over and fall is in the air-- bring on the coziness!

So Long Summer,

X

P.S. We're hoping to get back to more regularly blogging, including the special announcement, philly and nyc trips, and more super-jumbo lobsters, coming soon!