Food Pic of the Week

Red Rooster (***)

310 Lenox Avenue, NY, NY 10027

Another weekend, another brunch. Believe it or not, we did NOT have bottomless brunch this time around. A good choice because this place does not have bottomless brunch.

Anytime someone visits Harlem, they always want to have a meal at Red Rooster Harlem, but I honestly do not get all of the hype surrounding this place . . . Lemme show the food pic before I get into hater mode.

Cornbread & Gravy with Chorizo, Fried Egg

 
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I gotta say that this dish really did hit the spot. Honestly, I never would have considered eating cornbread and gravy for my brunch. BUT, the restaurant's brunch menu was uuummmmmmm a bit lacking.

 
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Wait a minute! Y'all have only three things on the brunch menu? FYI: There were more cocktails than the ones in the screenshot. I get that this is a fancy restaurant so one should not expect a menu with 20 different brunch and lunch items, but may we get a few more fun brunch items? I mean the owner, Marcus Samuelsson, did win the second season of Top Chef, and I'm sure that contestants from the show have to do some sort of innovative dish challenge.

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Food Pic of the Week

Treadwell Park (***) 

1125 1st Ave New York, NY 10065

So simple yet so basic.

A friend and I took a “stroll” to our old neighborhood (UES) where we completed our postdoctoral training. We grabbed some bites (and beverages) at Treadwell Park. Since it was an easy breezy Friday evening, we decided to grab some nachos and chicken waaaaaaangs.

Pork Nachos

 
Sorry for the blurry pic. I think my phone’s camera had some grease on it.

Sorry for the blurry pic. I think my phone’s camera had some grease on it.

 

OMG, these pork nachos were everything and more. Normally, nachos do not do much for me because most places use crappy cheese and stale nachos. Also, most nachos dishes tend to make me super gassy the next day (yes, TMI). I do not know, but it seems like this restaurant took care and placing slabs of pork on each nacho chip. For example, every nacho had an adequate amount of cheese, guac, and pork. Most places’ nachos tend to have a plate of nachos with everything thrown on the nachos, then the nachos are baked until they are a nice gooey (sometimes disgusting) mess. However, Treadwell Park is fancy, so you will not have that problem.

LOL moment at Treadwell Park:

Most folks know that I’m not a huge fan of super sweet drinks. Why dilute the fun of a cocktail with extra sugar? Frozen margaritas are the exception. I ordered a Modern Farmhouse cocktail, which is prepared with Interboro gin, Old Duff Genever, lemon, chamomile, honey, and Ayinger Brau Weisse. Being complicated, I asked our waitress if she could tell the bartender to make the drink without honey. Lord, I think the staff had a mini-conference about my beverage. Five minutes later, three staff members came to the table and asked me (a few times) if I was sure that I did not want honey in the beverage.

Some statements/questions raised by the staff:

  • Are you sure?

  • Positive?

  • You know that the drink will not be sweet?

  • We will not be able to refund you if you don’t not like the drink.

It turns out that our first waitress was training that evening so the other two staff members were just confirming that she got the order right.

All in all, I definitely will be sure to make another trip to Treadwell Park the next time I’m on the UES . . . if it is still there. For some reason, restaurants do not last very long on 62nd St. and 1st Ave. Perhaps, the space is too large, which makes it hard for the owners to keep up with more likely expensive rent in the area.

Random Thought:

Writing this post has made me realize that I am very behind in writing my Yelp reviews, and I better upload a few reviews before Yelp revokes my Yelp Elite status.

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FOOD PIC OF THE WEEK

The Rustic Spoon (***) 

1658 Pleasure House Rd., Ste 101, Virginia Beach, VA 23455

Dining here for breakfast (or was it brunch0 was the perfect way to end our quick ‘getaway’ to Virginia. Also, it is conveniently located near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. I am so glad that I had an opportunity to try (for the first time ever) a fried oyster eggs Benedict. I’ve had fried oysters plenty of times during my family Christmas brunch celebrations. But, why not combine these delicious bivalve mollusks with eggs?

fried oyster eggs Benedict.

I gotta say that going forward The Rustic Spoon will be one of my go to spots for brunch doing my trips to VA.

Food Pic of the Week

The Chelsea Bell (***) 

 316 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10001

I cannot remember the last time I had lunch or dinner in/near midtown.

A classic, Fish & Chips

A classic, Fish & Chips

Usually, I select fish & chips when I have to make a quick decision. Hands down The Chelsea Bell has the best fish & chips in NYC. I pretty much enjoyed this dish because the breading for the fish was out of this world amazing. Honestly, I could have just had the fried breading for my lunch. In my opinion, many restaurants' fish n chips dishes are kind of bland, which "forces" me to dump copious amounts of vinegar and hot sauce to get some flavor. This definitely was not the case at The Chelsea Bell.

Food Pic of the Week

Jackson’s Eatery (***) 

 10-37 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101

Bringing in the fall season with a bang.

I took an ‘adventure’ to Long Island City to visit an old friend, catch up, and get my grub on for Labor Day weekend. I will say that I was pleasantly surprised that the 7 train was running quite efficiently during the weekend. Sometimes the 7 train is hit or miss with more misses than hits. Coming here was not really planned. We pretty much ended here because the restaurant had open tables in the shade and it was like half a block from the Jackson Vernon subway stop.

OMG! I want to come back to this restaurant at least eight more times so I can try more of their brunch items . . . and cocktails. What’s brunch without a few adult cocktails? Seriously, I was experiencing FOMO looking at the food at other folks’ tables.

In addition to the amazing food, the service was also top-notch.

Can’t wait to go back.

Food Pic of the Week

Mel’s at 22 (***) 

 22 Chestnut Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326

Ugh, I’m annoyed that I wrote this post, and somehow Squarespace deleted the entry. Out of frustration, I’m just gonna put some quick bullet points.

-Out of boredom, I ran six miles to have cocktails at a bar.

 
 

-I pretty much stayed at the bar for about 3 hrs alone consuming various cocktails.

-The staff and bartender were pretty nice and friendly.

-Random bullet: I gotta say that I’m not a fan of Squarespace’s blogging platform. Ugh.

Sometimes you need to eat a bunch of cookies to deal with #quarantinelife

During this pandemic, my (unhealthy) food consumption has been out of control. One day, I was fiending for something sweet to deal with #quarantinelife. After failing to obtain a huge slice of red velvet cake from LA Sweets NY, one of my favorite bakeries in Harlem. In addition to baking amazing cakes and cupcakes, LA Sweets NY is like a 90-second walk from my apt so it’s super convenient for curing a sugar fix. Also, it’s a Black-owned business so double win. For whatever reason, they were closed so I ordered from Insomnia Cookies. The plan was to order the 6 pack of cookies, but I guess that my thumb “slipped” while using Grubhub’s app, and I ended up ordering the 18 pack of cookies. Oh well. #YOLO and I blame COVID-19. ;)

 
The mint chocolate chip and original chocolate chip were my favorite ones.

The mint chocolate chip and original chocolate chip were my favorite ones.

 

Archer & Goat

187 Lenox Avenue, New York, NY 10026

I’m not sure what they are doing at this restaurant, but it works. The owners come from an Ecuadorian, Puerto Rican, and Bangladeshi background, which is reflected in their classic dishes.

An international take on the classic burger and fries. Who would have thought that pickled okra would be so delicious?

An international take on the classic burger and fries. Who would have thought that pickled okra would be so delicious?

Even though this restaurant uses all sorts of spices and seasonings, I had to chuckle because Texas Pete was the only option hot sauce option. . . and it was served in a shot glass. Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

 
A bit perplexed.

A bit perplexed.