Foxley's on Ossington

Foxley's - located on Ossington, a few blocks north of Queen Street, is Asian Fusion at it's finest.  My girl, Janice, and I went there a couple weeks ago - it's taken me this long to write about it because it was such a special evening and a very unique dining experience.  We had no wait - we arrived a bit after 8 PM, I believe, and we sat at the bar.  We ordered a couple glasses of red wine that was very smooth and easy to drink.  As this is a tapas type resto, we ordered a few treats - the shrimp with spicy sauce, the ribs in a shallot glaze and the blue crab avocado salad.  The shrimp was amazing - each one, very fresh, crispy and the sauce was spicy without being too over the top.  I believe the word jalapeno was in the sauce description and if you know anything about Mexican food, a jalapeno can be "burn your mouth" spicy!  The crab salad came on top of a halved avocado.  I took a spoon and separated the avocado from the skin and we just dove on in for what was a delicious and fully loaded crab salad.  It was just awesome.  The textures of the crab and the avocado were just amazing.  Lastly, the ribs - omg...those ribs are out of this world.  We actually ordered 2 full orders of the ribs, knowing how good they were - Janice had been here before and absolutely drools over these ribs and now I know why.  If ever I want a unique dining experience, or to treat myself to a nice meal, Foxley's Bistro would be an excellent choice.  Between the 2 of us, with tip and tax, we spent $36 each.  Not bad if you ask me!  As it is Asian Fusion, I don't know about you, but I have to be in the mood to be enticed by different flavors and textures - so when the mood hits you, go for it, because you can't go wrong here.  

Alice's Tea Cup in NYC

I forgot to write about my favorite little place in NYC called Alice's Tea Cup.

They have one of the best buttermilk scone's I have ever had.  Dense but not too dense.  Flaky, without being doughey and pastry like.  It is cakey without being cake.  And accompanied by one of their many loose leaf teas (I always get Earl Grey), it is one fantastic scone with clotted cream and jam.  Yum...

Alice's Tea Cup is located on 102 W. 73rd Street off of Columbus.  

www.alicesteacup.com

Quince Restaurant (2nd time)

It is Friday the 13th, the day before Valentine's Day, and my husband just took me to Quince for yet another good meal.  We started off with aperitif's - sweet vermouth on the rocks and dubonais on the rocks for me.  We shared the pork/celeriac/apricot terrine - it was good, but Delux's terrine's are softer and more flavorful.  I'm always in awe of the way the grainy mustard is presented on a plate - the cutest spoonful of mustard shaped like a mini-football.  For entrees, one of tonight's special's was fresh pickerel.  It had a lovely broth and came with sugar snap peas and beautiful thin sliced mushrooms, and heirloom looking tomatoes.  My husband ordered that.  I had the braised lamb shank with mashed potatoes and watercress salad.  It was melt in your mouth delicious.  We paired our meal with a half liter of Pinot Grigio.  For dessert, we both ordered our own chocolate bread pudding with vanilla ice cream.  It is SO good.  This is what bread pudding should be.  Not like the one at Auberge that was a cross between flan and creme brulee.  I most definitely recommend Quince now the way I did before.  Even more so because service came with a smile, the price point is just right, and the food is delicioso.

Community Restaurant in NYC

As I was leaving on the Saturday morning, Jan. 31st from NYC, I thought, should I have my last meal be at my favorite haunt, Sarabeth's?  Or should I try something new?  I decided life's too short - I've gotta try something new recommended by Elena.  And I'm so glad I did.  Ziv and I went to Community Restaurant on Broadway between 112th and 113th and it was delicious.  Started with the freshly squeezed pear juice (amazingly refreshing) and I ordered the BELT - bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato sandwich that came with an awesome potato/carrot hash.  Ziv ordered the famous blueberry pancakes with maple butter that was all melted and so delicious. 

I'd gush about this meal even more, but I've gotta give my kid some attention right now...more soon!  

Pear Juice:

Blueberry Pancakes:

BELT:

Red Mango on 32nd St.

Have you heard of this crazy new fad in Korea/Japan of frozen yogurt?  There are so many different stores, versions, rip-off of store concepts, etc., but all I know and care about is Red Mango.  It's located down W. 32nd St. in the heart of Little Korea in NYC, and I love it!  I've probably already written about it here once, I've been here now 2 times, and will always go back as long as I am standing.  There are only 3 flavors of yogurt here.  Plain (which is what I get), and on the 30th of January, they had pomegranate and something else, I don't remember.  Probably green tea.  You add toppings, like MOCHI bits, oh, was I a little excited about the mochi?  Uhhh, yeah, I was.  I love mochi - sweet rice cake bits - no red beans, just sweet chewy rice cakes on top of the frozen yogurt.  And I also got greedy and had fresh pineapple and strawberries.  It was divine.  I love it there.  Super refreshing and no matter how much Korean food I've just eaten a few steps away, I seem to be able to make room for this dessert.

Han Bat, Korean food in NYC

On 53 W. 35th St., is this Korean eatery open 24/7 called Han Bat, and I used to go there fairly often.  Introduced by my friend, Alan Gilbert (I am soooo name dropping here, but I love Alan and he took me here whenever he came thru town), I recalled meals of crunchy, savory pah jun's: a seafood and green onion pancake, and the infamous dolsot bim bim bop, which is a mixture of rice, meat, veggies, and egg all served in an extremely hot stone pot that you stir as soon as the food arrives at the table.  The side dishes of kimchi were great - especially the napa kimchi and the radish kimchi.  I could do without the half moons of hard boiled eggs in soy sauce.  I went with my foodie cousin, Elena, Ziv and his fiancee, Megan.  It was good, but I was thinking how the food is better in Toronto or maybe we should've have gone next door to get bijjie jigae.  Ahhh...there's always next time for next door.  However, my next post is one of my new favorite places in the world!  Red Mango!  Yummy...dessert!

Shake Shack in NYC

On January 30th, I had a very good burger at a really good price.  What was even more surprising were the fries - they were delicious, flavorful, crisp and potato-meaty at the same time.  Usually, a thicker cut fry is not as crunchy on the outside as I'd like - they're more like soft fingers.  But at Shake Shack, for about $8.00 for a cheesburger, fries and a fountain coke, I would definitely go there again, and again...this place is very reminiscent of In n' Out burger in California.  It has that feel of fast food but is cooked as soon as you order.  With the name Shake Shack, you'd think I'd order one of their decadent custard shakes.  I didn't, but that won't stop me the next time I go back.  It was pretty fast, and for the price at the convenient location, you can't help but go, and often.  Shake Shack has a website - www.shakeshack.com and it is located on Columbus at W. 77th St.  

Slacker I am...a big compilation on NYC eats! Let's start with Cupcakes first!

It's been almost a week now since I left for NYC on the worst traveling day of 2009.  Aside from the plane delay, I had some good eats in NYC.  I will share them with you now.

I have been obsessed until most recently, with red velvet cupcakes and naturally, Buttercup Cupcake Shop in New York turned me on to that flavor years ago.  Buttercup built a new eatery on the UWS (W. 72nd St. and Amsterdam), which are my old stomps, and most recently, Magnolia Bakery (W. 66th and Columbus) built one as well.  Naturally, this meant for a red velvet cupcake show down.  Who won?  Well, neither...exactly.  As I taste tested with my dear friend, Ziv and our friend, Bruno, we all agreed (doing a blind taste test) that Magnolia had better frosting, at least the texture of the frosting was better (although I found it flavorless).  But Buttercup had better cake texture.  Which leads me to the conclusion that here in Toronto, at Caffe Doria, the red velvet cupcake that they out source to a bakery on Queen Street is the best I've tasted to date.  I don't need to fly 100's of miles away and spend 100's of dollars getting there to have a good red velvet cupcake anymore.  Thank God.  

This cupcake is from guess where? 

Ok, hard to tell?

Buttercup!

Which thus means this cupcake, by way of process of elimination is the Magnolia Bakery's version.  You can see how light and fluffy the frosting is, but man, it got no flava!  And they don't use cream cheese!  Egads!!!