Preserve24: A Boozy, Delicious Brunch

Hey ya’ll! It is Monday and my oh my am I tired. I had to be up at 6 am in order to go to the Bronx for a project that I am working on. I’m working on examining local school lunches at a Bronx school in order to see what the kids are actually eating and how we can improve the nutrition that the kids are getting. Today was just a practice run to see how everything would be done and how we would collect the data, but lets just say that what the kids ate was pretty interesting. Anyways on to fun things, such as New York’s infamous unlimited brunch. That is the only way to brunch I feel like. My brother, his friend, and one of my friends ended up heading over to Preserve24 in the Lower East Side for a delicious and epic brunch.

Obviously we had to start off the meal with our drinks. As soon as we sat down all of us ordered unlimited mimosas. I thought it was a pretty good deal to just pay $15 for unlimited drink and then choose your entree, which could range from 11-20$. You had the option of getting sangria or mimosas. I personally like something light with my heavy meal, so I went with the mimosas. The waitress was the bomb. She kept these things flowing like no other, and even left a pitcher on the table (refilled every time that we ran out).

Many people in the reviews on yelp and friends that we know told us that the truffle fries are a must get, so you know we were going to start out with that. We got it as an appetizer to split between the four of us. This was such a good decision. The truffle fries were cooked to perfection, so they were crispy yet not burnt. The parmesan cheese on the top was a nice addition. It melted all over the fries, so that they were evenly covered. I also liked that the fries were mixed with parsley because it gave it a nice flavor and freshness.

My brother is a huge pastry fanatic, so we ended up going with a pastry basket as the second brunch appetizer to split between the four of us. It came with a chocolate croissant, a regular croissant, a chocolate chip chocolate muffin, and a banana nut muffin. All of the pastries were actually quite delicious, so I was happy that we got this. It was also served with a apple butter, which everyone put on the plain croissant. It was nice to get a taste of everything.

My little brother and friend ended up getting the Croque Monster, which I thought was incredibly cute for a name. It came with pane de costa, smoked ham, gruyere, truffle fries, mornay, and a sunny egg. This was delicious. My friend let me have a bite of hers and I definitely would have gotten this for my meal. I love that it had the crunchiness from the fries and the toast, but the middle with the egg, cheese, and meat was soft. Every bite was a perfect combination of everything on the plate.

My brother’s friend ended up going for the L.E.S. Sandwich. It was definitely a hard thing to decide what to eat as the main entree because all of these looked so good. This had a runny egg, a fried oyster, and and smoked bacon. Obviously anything with a fried oyster and smoked bacon is going to be some of the best tasting food you will ever have. This was no exception. I was in foodie heaven at this point. This sandwich was good. My brother and his friend ended up splitting both of their dishes, which I thought was pretty smart because there were so many items on the menu that looked amazing (she originally wanted to get the bacon waffle, but it was sold out at that time :(. )

I have saved the best for last. My meal choice, which was the Lobster Benedict. Oh Preserve24, how I love thee. You are definitely one of the best dishes that I have ever had. I was in foodie heaven. The lobster was incredibly fresh and it went along great with the hollandaise sauce. The english muffins were toasted perfectly. I don’t usually gravitate towards Eggs Benedict, but I could not pass up something with lobster. I have a lobster weakness as you can tell from my last post. I definitely recommend getting this, especially if you are a lobster fan. You will not be disappointed and if you are doing the boozy brunch then you probably will feel pretty great at that moment too.

God I could stare at that big plate of food forever. The best part was my friend and I were feeling really great from the mimosas, so we walked around the east village all the way to Union Square. From there we met up with her dad to go to the MoMA, and then we headed off to dinner at a thai place. Overall it was a pretty epic day of fooding, drinking, and exploring. I am head over heels in love with this amazing city. Now I’m off to go finish up the last of my school work for this week, so I can enjoy tonight and tomorrow with my brother.

Have you ever had an unlimited brunch?
What is your favorite breakfast food?

 

Lobster Joint: Date Night

Hey ya’ll! It has been a crazy weekend. My feet are still tired and I have about two more days to go with my brother, which I’m excited about because I have some fun things planned when I’m not in class or at work (this week I am going to be at PS 64 in the Bronx examining how school breakfasts and lunches are run, what the kids eat, and how much of each item choice is taken). Saturday was a pretty relaxed day because my brother and his friend ended up spending most the day at museums and going to Brooklyn. I was glad because unlike them I’m not on spring break, so I still had work to do. Saturday is meant for date night though, so I looked through my bookmark list on yelp and decided where I wanted to go. I have been craving lobster rolls so much lately, so I asked my wonderful date (in case he reads this – probably not though since I didn’t give him the URL) if he would be down for seafood. Luckily I am a really lucky girl and he said of course, so we decided to go to the Lobster Joint.

The lobster joint is a cute, really cozy kind of place to go eat at. It is located in the Lower East Side, which is turning into one of my favorite foodie neighborhoods. There are so many great food spots to hit up (this is where I am taking my brother and his friend on the Lindsay guided food tour – it is going to be epic). Anyways this restaurant was placed a few shops down from the iconical Katz Deli, so it is pretty easy to find. The inside is really adorable.

The entire menu is placed up on the walls, which I like because it is relatively easy to read. When you go into the restaurant, you order at the cash register and get a number. You can sit anywhere you would like to. The place was pretty packed at around 8 pm, so we ended up sitting at the bar, which I thought was nice because we could sit close to each other and actually talk privately. That is so hard to find in the city these days. The inside of the restaurant had a really cute nautical theme with lobsters and other sea themed items all over the place. The tables inside were high up picnic tables, which I thought made the Lobster Joint very kitschy. I was super excited for the food when we got there.

Look at that plate of greatness. I went into lobster heaven. We ended up both going for the New England style lobster roll, which was just your basic lobster roll with mayo and celery. They had a ton of other options available such as the BLT lobster roll, which had avocado, mayo, bacon (Ummm yes, please sign me up for that one next time). I actually thought the lobster rolls were really decently priced because this whole plate of food was 17$, and if you are a lobster roll fan you know that they can run you about 20-25$. This was a pretty good deal since you got a lobster roll, a pickle, a ton of french fries, and some coleslaw.

Look at that juicy, succulent lobster. It was definitely really good lobster. It wasn’t fishy at all, which is the worst when it is. It was mixed perfectly with the mayo and the celery. It is so horrible when there is too much mayo because who really just wants to eat a sandwich of pure mayo. No one. EVER. The bread was toasted to perfection. It wasn’t burnt, but it wasn’t soft. Overall this was definitely a pretty good lobster roll for my first official city roll. I will definitely be going on lobster roll adventures to test out all the other common places that there are to eat.

Fries on fries on fries. I love french fries. It is one of my favorite fat kid treats to myself. Of course it was my cheat day/weekend, so I allowed myself to choose the fries over a salad for the side. They were actually really good french fries. The best part was that I got to eat the rest of my date’s lobster roll because he was so full from eating a little before dinner. Win for me. I was a happy girl. After dinner we ended up going to a knish shop for my date to try some Jewish food, which was cute. He ended up getting a blueberry cheese one that was so to die for that today I had to go get some for myself. Overall it was a great night with good food and great company.

 

Jin Ramen: The Cold Weather Cure

Hey guys! Friday is such a great day of the week. Plus my brother and his friend are in town, which is super fun. That means my posts for the next few days will probably just be filled with fatty goodness. I’m not complaining. When they got in, I had Doughnut Plant waiting for them (I’ll share this another day), but then I had to head off to work. They ended up going with me to my stop and walking to a bagel shop that apparently is amazing (I don’t direct people to bad food ever – it is my life skill). Work was crazy. The kids were crazy. Anyways we had plans to meet up for ramen after I got off work. I thought of all the amazing places that are offered in NYC, and ended up choosing one right by my school that I have always wanted to go to.

Introducing Jin Ramen. The problem with ramen restaurants are that you can’t make reservations, so pretty much it is first come, first served. Otherwise the rest of you are shoved outside to wait in the cold. However, as the crazy foodie that I am, I think it is totally worth it. We were blessed by the ramen gods though because a bunch of people complained and left, so we waited a minimal amount of time (probably like 3-4 minutes) when my brother and his friend go there, so we were seated almost immediately. Success. The restaurant is pretty small too, so that is one reason why it takes so long to get seated. Plus the food is the bomb, so people know what is up.

If you really know me, you will know that I have a deep love for pork buns. Anything in a steamed bun is particularly delicious to me, and I was happy to find out that steamed pork buns are a staple at ramen shops. THANK YOU. I got an order of steamed pork buns, which you could pick to get either 2 or 3. I’m obviously not a massive pig, so I just chose to get 2. It was Gua Bao buns stuffed with chashu pork (I have realized that this may be the greatest pork to exist, so thank you Jin Ramen), iceberg lettuce, and spicy mayo. I am obsessed. This was definitely one of the best pork buns that I have ever had. I probably will go here after class just so I can enjoy some of these bad boys. It came served along with a nice portion of cabbage, which I really enjoyed. There was a nice dressing on it, which paired well with the pork buns.

My brother and his friend ended up splitting (besides an order of pork buns too, can’t miss those) a dish that had something to do with dumplings. I forgot to take a picture of the menu because there has been some new additions to it compared to the one online and the old menu. This came with a mustard sauce and another dipping sauce. They ended up going with chicken (you could get chicken or pork), since they were having pork in their ramen. It looked really good. They seemed to love this sauce that looked like a black bean dip. I would definitely try this next time I go. They had a ton of appetizers that looked good, but I’m obviously biased toward my beloved pork buns.

Oh man. This was a bowl of deliciousness. My brother ended up getting the Green Curry ramen, which is a new menu item. It said it was three pepper spicy on the menu, but I think mine was definitely way spicier than this. It literally tasted like a liquid version of green curry with ramen noodles in it. He ended up adding enoki mushrooms to it, and the dish as a whole was great. There was a wide variety of vegetables in it that you would typically find in a green curry. I am getting this one next time I go because I feel in love with the coconut creamy goodness that this has to offer.

My brother’s friend ended up going with the Tonkotsu ramen, which is just a pork bone based ramen. She added enoki mushrooms to it to, which are these small skinny things. According to the menu, this ramen cooks for hours upon hours to get the rich flavors out of the pork bone. It was really simple, but so delicious. All of the basic ramens come with noodles, scallions, a hard boiled egg, and charshu pork. You have the option of adding in extra sides, which is pretty cool I think because you get to create your own ramen.

Now my bowl of ramen. Look at that kind of creepy orange color, but it is just filled with warm spicy broth. Mine definitely came with a kick. I was chugging water, but every moment was worth it. I ended up adding some tofu, bok choy, and enoki mushrooms to it. My original choice was another new menu item, but it has four spicy peppers next to it and I realized I didn’t want to spend the rest of my night experiencing actual death. Therefore I went with the spicy tonkotsu ramen, which is the same pork ramen that my brother’s friend got, but with spicy mayu sauce and rayu (a spicy sesame oil). I loved having all the extra things in it. It made it really hearty. I even had so much leftover that I got to take some home for snacks for later. I think this place is a really good deal because the ramen is only 11-13$ per bowl, and then you can get add ins if you want from .75-1.25$. Overall I am in love with this place and I definitely will be coming back. Ramen is in.

Have an awesome Saturday!

Have you ever had real ramen before?What would you want in your ramen?

Morimoto: The Holy Grail of NYC Restaurant Week

Hey ya’ll! I have returned from my ski-cation with a sore body, but it was all really worth it. I had a great time with my friends and even survived my first time skiing. Since it was still restaurant week until March 7th (this Friday), I decided that I had to go. My roommate and I scanned the list, and our eyes exploded at one of the places that was available to go to: Morimoto. If you don’t know who Chef Morimoto is then you should definitely me ashamed of yourself. He is one of the Iron Chefs and is a bad ass in the kitchen. At 25$ for an entree and a dessert, I was definitely getting my butt over to Morimoto since I can’t afford this place regularly.

My roommate ended up going with the Morimoto burger. It looked amazing. I even got to have a bite and it was pretty great. The bread was really soft and the meat was cooked to perfection. Not too chewy or too tough. It was a dry aged burger with miso Russian dressing, sake kasu soba ale cheese, soy ginger shiitakes, and house made nori bun. It was served with some chips that were really delicious. It was also like a little bento box, which is how all the entree options came for New York City Restaurant Week. Morimoto was on point with this. This was definitely a stellar choice. It was pretty hard to choose because the menu had a wide selection of options such as wagyu beef, fried chicken, black cod, and so much more.

I ended up going with the veggie bop. It was a nice Japanese twist on a classic Korean dish. It came served over rice and was prepared at the table (which I thought was sort of weird since at most Korean places we usually stir our own bibimbap). This one had mushrooms, bok choy, asparagus, sliced carrots, daikon, and a bunch of other delicious vegetables. It was topped with an egg to be fried in the hot bowl. Instead of the traditional spicy sauce, this bop was served with a nice spicy sesame dressing. I really liked the twist of this.

This was what the rest of our bento box looked like. Overall, I think that this was a very good deal for a NYC Restaurant Week meal. It was tough because they were only having the menu during lunch, so we had to book a time when we could both go and were not in class. Luckily we got a time right at 12 pm when the restaurant opened. Anyways both of our meals typically cost 20$ on the regular. So we were already almost to the cost point of having a 25$ prix fixe meal.

The salad in the bento box was awesome. It was tossed with some roasted nuts and had a really delicious vinaigrette served on top. This may have been my favorite thing in the bento box. I could have definitely taken a large salad like this before my meal. I will definitely be trying to recreate the salad dressing, so I can enjoy it myself at my apartment. Thanks Morimoto!

The miso soup was actually quite good too. It was definitely different than the other miso soups that I have had in my life. The broth was more sweet I think than others I’ve had. The tofu was great. It was silken and there were a ton of chunks floating around in it. With the bento box, I actually felt that I was eating pretty healthy overall.

Obviously I couldn’t go to Morimoto and not order myself a sushi roll. It was a hard choice, but I ended up going with the soft shell crab roll. It was definitely a good decision on my part. It was amazing. The rice was perfectly seasoned on the outside and the inside – my oh my. It was stuffed with fish eggs, avocado, asparagus, and soft shell crab that had been fried. There was also a nice spicy mayo sauce on the inside of the roll. The pieces were huge, but I definitely didn’t care. I shoved each and every one of them into my mouth.

Look at that bad boy. The last two end pieces were the hardest to eat, but so worth it. If I could afford this place, I would so go back and nom on all the sushi available. I would love to have some of the appetizers too. They looked amazing. Morimoto is definitely the best place to go. This sushi roll wasn’t on the prix fix menu, but who cares. You got to treat yourself every once and a while.

The dessert was the bomb. It was pretty much a lemon bar topped with whip cream and pistachios. It was served with some pistachio gelato. I probably could have gone without the gelato and just had more lemon bar. It was that good. The whipcream was really light and not heavy, which was good. It let you really enjoy the pure taste of the lemon. The nuts gave a nice crunch to the creamy smoothness of the lemon bar. Overall it was a win. Morimoto, I love you and thank you for having a delicious restaurant week menu!

New York City Restaurant Week: My Heaven

Hey ya’ll! It’s Friday, Friday, I freaking love Friday. Fridays are seriously my only day off from school, which is very different in comparison to last semester when I only had class on Monday and Wednesday. I have epic plans for the weekend. I am going to Killington, VT with a bunch of my friends to learn how to ski, have fun in the hot tub, and just relax from the stress that is school. In the meantime though I have something really near and dear to my heart to share with ya’ll. New York City Restaurant Week is upon us and I obviously have to experience all the greatness that is available to me. When you offer 25$ and 38$ lunch/dinners that are a ton of freaking food, I’m so going to be all over it. This Thursday, my school friends and I, decided to have an after class date at Haru Sushi, who just happened to be participating in restaurant week. Success.

One of my favorite things about restaurant week dinner is that you get a ton of options from each category. For the dinners, you usually get a appetizer, entree, and dessert. The best part of Haru sushi is that each category had many amazing choices while dessert just had two (not complaining though because both are really great).

I ended up going for the rock shrimp tempura with spicy sauce for my appetizer. This was definitely a good choice. This portion was freaking huge. I love that they give you the actual sizes for restaurant week because it means that you are definitely getting your moneys worth. The tempura on the outside of the shrimp was perfect. It wasn’t too crispy or too soft. The sauce was awesome. A lot of people on yelp complained that it was super spicy, but ya’ll are seriously weak. This sauce is not spicy at all. It was more creamy and delicious. So far this was a win. I was looking forward to more of the food to come.

My friend ended up going with the King Crab Dumplings, which looked really good too. She said they were delicious. They came in this cute little steamed dumpling basket that you usually see sitting on dim sum carts. If I go back to this place, I would definitely get an order of these bad boys. They were only 8.75$ regularly (while it is nothing like my Jade Garden 8 dumplings for 4.25$ this is still pretty great for crab dumplings at a sushi restaurant).

Hail the sushi gods. This was a lot of sushi for an entree. My friend and I both picked the specialty sushi rolls for our entree choice. It came with two rolls that were each 8 pieces, so that was 16 pieces of sushi in total. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to finish this (I ended up having to take 7 pieces home with me in order to be able to enjoy dessert). The rolls that were included were the Gramercy Park Roll and the Kiss of Fire roll.

This was the Gramercy Park Roll. It came with crunch spicy albacore tuna and jalapenos wrapped with tuna, yellowtail, and salmon. There was also a wide variety of toppings on top in form of fish eggs. This roll was the bomb. I loved that there were different types of fish on top. All of the raw fish was incredibly fresh. It blended together nicely and to be honest I couldn’t really taste the spiciness of the jalapenos inside the roll, so I think that they did a good job of making it more of a blended flavor than a spice of the dish. This roll is originally 18$, so I probably wouldn’t have gotten it in the restaurant if there wasn’t this special NYC restaurant week menu. It was definitely good though.

Hello you little firecracker. Man this roll definitely had a kick to it. This was the kiss of fire, which was really living up to its name. It was salmon, albacore tuna, and wasabi tobiko wrapped around crunchy spicy tuna and more jalapenos. This thing was jacked with jalapenos and spiciness all over. The red sauce that was a dot on the top of each piece of sushi was spicy. It wasn’t too much that I was sweating and snot dripping down my nose, but it definitely packed a punch and I had to chug some water to keep up with it. I love spicy things, so this was definitely my favorite of the rolls. It was regularly 15.25, so I think that I might get it, but probably not since I’m my cheap graduate student self. Thank you NYC Restaurant week, I love you for having all of this food available to me.

For dessert, my friend ended up going for the banana spring roll with chocolate dipping sauce. You can’t go wrong with chocolate on the side. This was actually pretty good. We each let each other have a piece of our desserts. This was rather simple. It was just a banana wrapped with a wonton wrapper then it was fried. However that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good because it definitely was delicious. I liked that it was a lighter option to have for dessert because at this point you are probably pretty stuffed from all the food you have eaten.

Oh man. I could just stare at this beauty for a long time. I went with the tempura cheesecake. It was definitely a win on my part. It was served over this interesting alcoholic kind of sauce with strawberries and whipcream. The cheesecake was so soft inside. It just melted in your mouth as you bit into the piece. I loved that it was lightly fried because it kept the cheesecake in its prime condition. I could have probably managed to stuff a ton of these cheesecake bites into my mouth, but unfortunately they only gave me about 3. Overall you get your moneys worth at this place because my appetizer was 11, the sushi was 33.25, and the dessert was probably 6-8. Therefore you know you are getting a good deal since the dinner is just 38$ and all you have to do is pay tax and tip. Oh restaurant week, can’t you be forever?

Well I’m off to the mountains! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend because I know I will be having a pretty great one and a hilarious one. Next up on my NYC Restaurant week adventures will be Morimoto (yeah ya’ll can be jealous now, I’m going on Monday for lunch – booooyah).

Cheesy Goodness

Hey ya’ll! Welcome back, Lindsay. I am totally getting adjusted to being back in this frozen arctic tundra. No joke. My original flight got cancelled because of Janus and now it has snowed twice since I’ve been back (today is only my fourth day back). Real life struggles right now. So not fun to go outside, but Carrianne and I had to have our typical Saturday adventures, so we braved the snow in order to get some good food and walk around. This led to us traveling to our dream neighborhood: Greenwich village (I dream of living here once I’m a dietitian being fab in the city). We ended up at heaven.

Hello to Murray’s Cheese Bar. We had planned to just get a little appetizer at this place and then go around to run some errands to end up at sushi for dinner. However we fell in love. At first we were confused because there is Murray’s Cheese Shop where you can buy the cheese you had at the restaurant or pick up some nice little food items. We ended up getting multiple items at the Cheese Bar and went to the Cheese shop after in order to get the good food that we had.

This was the Cheese menu. There was also a main menu on the other side with entrees, appetizers, desserts, and other items. We were there to get our cheesy goodness on. We thought the best thing to get in order to share was one of the cheese flights because it came with three cheeses and some toppings for those cheeses. Also in order to have a delicious cheese night, you need some great meat to go along with it. That means prosciutto. If you don’t like prosciutto, we probably can’t date. Sorry, not sorry.

Oh man the cheese flight from heaven. We ended up choosing the seasonal flight, which was such a good choice on our part. We had three different types of cheeses. One was really soft, one was a mid-ripened cheese, and the other was a hard cheese. The softest cheese was paired with a raisin jam topping. It was my favorite cheese. The cheese just melted in your mouth. It was served with crackers and bread, so it was nice to have a little crunch with the softness of the cheese. The cheese at the bottom was paired with butterscotch. I fell in love with the butterscotch. Who would have thought that the butterscotch would go so well with cheese. I usually like butterscotch with my icecream, but now I’ll be eating it with my cheese. The middle cheese was my least favorite. It was a hard cheese that was paired with carrots. I was not that much of a fan. The other two cheeses were amazing though.

Look at this huge pile of meat. I am typically not the biggest meat eater, but oh man. I would devour a huge pile of prosciutto anytime. It was cut incredibly thin and when paired with each cheese, it added a nice salty flavor to it. I made so many little sandwiches, it was the life. I liked that the meat was thin because it wasn’t overpowering the cheese, which was supposed to be the focus of the place. We ended up going to the Cheese Shop in order to buy some prosciutto to have later at the apartment. We got a different kind because damn this stuff is expensive, but oh so good.

Carrianne got a wine flight, which I was totally jealous about. I hadn’t eaten a lot though, so I would have gotten pretty drunk from just that amount of wine. She said that the white wine was really delicious, which was surprising because she isn’t a huge white wine fan. I will definitely be getting multiple glasses of wine when we go back because you can’t enjoy cheese without a good glass of wine.

We decided that we needed more cheese. So we looked through the a la carte menu items in order to decide what to get. We wanted a soft cheese since that other soft one we had on the flight was so delicious. We got a French Cheese. It was creamy, mushroomy, and amazing. I was so happy to see that the butterscotch was served along side this. I was in cheesy heaven. We ended up getting this cheese at the Cheese shop in order to continue the delicious food coma that we were in back at our apartment. Although that plan never happened haha. We were too full and got absorbed into a Gossip Girl marathon on netflix. Tonight will be the night that we enjoy our cheese though with some wine and a french baguette. I definitely recommend going here if you are ever in NYC, but if you can’t go to the restaurant just go get some cheese at the shop.

What is your favorite type of cheese?
What is your favorite thing to have as a flight?

 

The Sushi Date

Hey ya’ll! I only have one more full day here in Austin. It feels kind of weird since I’ve been gone from New York for so long, but I’m looking forward to going back and getting in the swing of things. Plus I just miss my roommates. We have the best roommate life. Anyways I couldn’t leave Austin without going on a traditional sushi date with my brother to one of our favorite spots in Austin: Roll On Sushi Diner. I was excited because we were going right when they started a new menu! So I was definitely going to take that new menu on a test drive to see if it was up to their standards.

This was one of the new items on the menu. It was the cherry blossom, which is super cute in general because it looks like a flower on the plate. It was avocado, cucumber, and salmon wrapped with tuna and topped with spicy krab, creamy garlic sauce, and crunch. This roll was really delicious. I liked that there was two types of fish on it because it gave a nice mixture of creamy textures. The spicy krab gave a little kick to the dish too. So far Roll On was 1/1 on this new menu. I was looking forward to what else was to come.

This may be my new favorite roll. Such a great addition to the menu. This was the dirty harriet. I love the plays on names for the rolls that they have here. It makes the restaurant fun and very relaxed unlike some sushi restaurants that are very traditional. The roll had spicy whitefish, cucumber, and avocado topped with baked salmon krab mix. That krab mix was the bomb. No joke. It was like a cheesy concoction that sat upon a perfect sushi roll. I was in heaven. It sort of brought me back to the Japanese Lasagna at one of my other favorite sushi restaurants in Austin: Tomodachi. Anyways I was impressed that Roll On was 2/2, but not really surprised because the quality for this restaurant was on point.

This was a more simple roll on the menu, which was located under the traditional rolls section. It was just a spicy scallop crunch roll. I thought it was a great way to have a break in between all the rich rolls that we ate while at Roll On. The scallops were chopped up finely, so the bites weren’t too large to fit into my mouth. The crunch was nice because it gave a variety to the textures. Overall it was good choice to switch up with if you are thinking of getting something like the spicy tuna or salmon roll.

Oh how I love rolls like this. In my opinion, the more creative the better. This was the El Goucho roll. It had brisket, arugala, roasted red peppers, and goat cheese in it. The wrapper was a soy wrapper. It was mindblowing. You would think that all of these ingredients would taste really disgusting in a sushi roll, but oh man was I surprised that this was so good. The brisket was smoky and the creaminess from the goat cheese melted right into my mouth as I would take a bite at a time. I would definitely get this one again. Go Roll On, you are killing it with these rolls.

This was one of the new Austin inspired rolls. I love that Austin provides such an inspiration for food. It makes eating that much more fun. This was the 512 Club. It was deep fried and contained chicken, fried bacon, and other delicious things inside. It was served with guacamole and pico de gallo. I would never think that smearing guacamole all over a piece of sushi would be something that I would love to consume over and over again, but man once again I was surprised. This is a definite on the order again list. I thought I was going to burst at this point, but I was like MUST GET IN MOUTH. It was worth every single bite and now I’m in a sushi coma laying on my couch watching lifetime movies (yes, I’m just that cool watching lifetime movies on my winter vacation).

This wasn’t a new item on the menu, but in my brother and I’s eyes this is a classic and a must for every time we go to Roll On Sushi Diner. It is the Lo Burn, which is so tasty for such a simple roll. I definitely think it is the combination of sauces with the lightly fried outside of the sushi roll that make it so amazing. I always recommend this roll to everyone that is a first timer at Roll On. It makes them fall in love with the sushi that this restaurant has to offer and it makes them realize that this isn’t your typical boring sushi restaurant. With the jalapeno and tempura shrimp, it gives you the best of both worlds: fried things and spiciness. It isn’t a trip to Roll On without this bad boy.

This item isn’t new either, but it is something that I haven’t reviewed. I definitely recommend this one too. It is the dream roll and man does it gives me happy dreams of delicious sushi. The roll has tempura shrimp, spicy tuna, cream cheese, and cucumber topped with krab, yellow tail, salmon, avocado, spicy mayo, unagi sauce, crunch, and scallions. It is a million things that somehow mesh so well together. I think something that sets these rolls apart besides the creativity is the freshness of the fish. All the proteins used in the rolls are top quality, which always makes it that much better.

I am in love with Roll On Sushi Diner as I have been for the last two years since they have been open. Discovering this place was a dream come true. The staff is fantastic and always trying to make your experience better than the previous one. They are always coming up with creative rolls and menu items, which makes it fun and exciting to always go because something is always new. I love this place and am a total loyal customer for life.

What is your favorite sushi place?
Do you like to eat sushi?

Gorging on Doughnuts

Hey ya’ll! It is Saturday, which for me means that it is my cheat day to eat whatever I want. Today we decided to celebrate my mom’s birthday a little early since I’m headed back to the big apple on Tuesday. That meant we ended up going to some food trailers on south first street. Specifically we had lobster rolls at Dock and Roll then for dinner we got doughnuts from Gourdough’s to go. So this post is all about the decadent, fatty doughnuts that they serve up.

Now let the food porn commence. No joke. I have some drool worthy photos to share with ya’ll today. This was my mom’s substitute for birthday cake. I was so happy that we ended up getting doughnuts to go for dinner later because I miss this trailer up in NYC. Not that I was eating this all the time in Austin, but I would definitely go once every four to five months in order to fulfill all my glutinous cravings that I have. Actually I don’t really crave anything, but it is just an Austin thing to do. Whenever I have friends visiting, this is a must on the to do or to eat list. I still haven’t been to the Gourdough’s pubhouse, which makes me sad, but I guess that will be on the list of next trip things to do.

My mom is a chocolate lover, so she ended up choosing blackout. She also loves brownies, so I think that definitely was another reason why she chose this bad boy. The doughnut has brownie batter, chocolate fudge icing, chocolate covered brownie bites, chocolate chips, and chocolate fudge. If you don’t love rich amounts of chocolate then this definitely is the doughnut for you. I thought it wasn’t too rich though. My brother warned that it would make you sick, but I had one bite and I thought it wasn’t too overwhelming and really delicious. My mom was in chocolate heaven.

Hello beautiful, I do love you too. This is my beautiful doughnut. Pretty much everything that is great in the world wrapped up in one doughnut. I ended up getting the Fat Elvis. It had peanut butter, bacon, maple syrup, and caramelized bananas. Really the doughnut had me at bacon and bananas. I love an elvis sandwich, so I thought that this would definitely live up to the hype.

Yeah it definitely lived up to the hype. This doughnut was sick (in a good way – for those of you that don’t know dorky slang). The caramelized bananas were the cherry on top of this doughnut. It was so great to mix the creaminess of the banana with the smokiness and crispiness of the bacon. It was a foodie’s heaven. The maple syrup obviously went perfectly along with this since it was another sweet taste. The doughnut itself was a pretty simple cake that served as the base for the toppings. I would definitely get this again because it didn’t make me feel really gross after consuming it.

My brother always makes interesting choices here at Gourdoughs. Although he is pretty predictable in what he will get. It always will involve fruit. Some of his favorites include Son of A Peach and Granny’s Pie. I don’t blame him because fruit serves as a perfect topping on top of these delicious cake doughnuts. This one here is the Carney. The doughnut has apple pie filling, cream cheese icing, caramel, and dry roasted peanuts. I get that the peanuts would be at a carnival, but I don’t really see apple pies being at carnivals. I like the name though because it is a fun play on it.

I ended up sneaking a bite because he left his doughnut with us, so he could eat it tomorrow. I really thought this was an interesting tasting doughnut. I didn’t think it was spectacular like all of the other doughnuts I’ve had at Gourdough’s, but I did think it was okay. I think all of the different things on the doughnut didn’t mix that well together. Maybe the doughnut should have been stuffed with the apple pie filling instead of having it as a topping. I felt like something was missing, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

You can’t go wrong by stopping at Gourdough’s, so definitely next time you are in Austin, hit up this place. Also you can get a lobster roll or tacos since two other trailers share the lot with this goldmine.

What would you put on top of your doughnut?
What is your favorite type of doughnut?

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Hey ya’ll! Hope everyone is doing pretty good. I’ve had a pretty lazy day, which in my mind is awesome because I’m trying to get as much relaxation as possible before I go back to graduate school to get on my nutrition grind. I’m looking forward to getting into more serious and in depth classes since I love nutrition so much. Anyways back to the last meal of my trip to DC. We ended up going to a tapas restaurant. For the three of us, it was like going down memory lane to our trip this summer to Spain. Oh how I miss you Spain, you were so wonderful. We ended up at Estadio, which was a quick walk from our hotel. Luckily it was a quick walk because at this point the temps had dropped to 17 degrees and it was incredibly windy. Weather.com said it felt like 3 degrees. Brrr. Literally no one was out except us. Okay shut up Lindsay and get to the food.

Some of the pictures are a little dark because the restaurant decided to have a “romantic” feeling to it, which was kind of weird since there were only a few people inside. Everything was tapas style, which means that it is small plates. I love this because you get to sample a bunch of things. This was a pintxo, which is just a skewered appetizer type of thing. On this one there was chorizo, manchego, and pistachio crusted quince. I like getting a little bite of something. All of the things on the toothpick blended nicely together. My favorite part was the pistachio crusted quince. It was a little sweet with a little saltiness. I was glad we started the meal off with this.

The sandwich king would have been proud. This was a bocadillo with pork belly and pickled shishito peppers. Oh man. I loved that it was served on a ciabata roll. Definitely wasn’t expecting that from a Spanish restaurant. The pork belly was incredibly tender and fell apart as you bite into it. The pickles were a nice simple topping to go on the sandwich because they added a little spice, but didn’t take away from the star of the dish that was the pork. My brother and I gobbled this down in probably five seconds.

Of course you can’t go to a Spanish tapas restaurant and not order a plate of croquetas. These were wild mushroom croquetas with argula and roasted peppers. These were so simple, but tasty. The outside was nice and crispy while the inside focused solely on the freshness and flavors of the mushrooms. The inside was creamy and delicious. I definitely would have gotten these again.

Now this was a colorful dish. Very tasty too. It was a montaditos, which is an open faced semi-sandwich like tapas. On this one there was beets, heirloom tomatoes, and whipped goat cheese. It was delicious. I liked that the goat cheese was minimal on the sandwich because it allowed the vegetables to be the main focus of the dish. The bread was lightly toasted, so there was a slight crunch with the bread as the vegetables were smooth and soft to bite into. I am a huge fan of beets right now and these were cooked perfectly.

This was definitely one of the best dishes of the night. It was another montaditos. This time there was foie gras involved. If there is anything ya’ll remember about my Spain posts it is that I am obsessed with foie gras and we pretty much ate it at every meal if it was possible. This was foie gras scrambled eggs with black truffle butter. You pretty much can’t get better than that. It was so exquisite for such a small plate. The eggs were fluffy and creamy. It provided a nice texture to the hardness of the toasted bread. I could have eaten about ten of these. I had to split one piece with my dad while my brother got to eat an entire one to himself.

What a beautiful plate. This was from the pescado part of the menu, which is simply just fish. It was a sherry glazed halibut served over nuts and sauteed spinach. It was a nice piece of fish with a delicious sauce. The fish was incredibly flaky and paired well with the spinach. I liked that it was a small portion of fish that we got to all taste. If the fish was any bigger I don’t think I would have made it through the rest of the meal.

Ya’ll know my family and I couldn’t have gone to a meal and not have gotten mussels to eat. We wanted to try every restaurant’s mussels in order to compare. These were probably the most simple of all the mussels we had tried on the trip, but that didn’t mean they lacked flavor or weren’t delicious. In fact I liked them quite a bit. Not as much as the mushroom ones from Brasserie Beck, but they were pretty great. Plus there was a ton of bread to dip in the sauce, which I am always a fan of.

Oh man, this was the other favorite of the night. It was a delicious carne selection (meat, which is pretty obvious if you don’t know Spanish). It was crispy braised bacon served on top of a butternut puree and topped with crispy brussel sprouts. This meat was probably some of the most tender meat I have had in a long time. As soon as your fork ripped into the bacon it just fell apart. The crispy brussel sprouts were a nice addition. It gave each bite a little crunch to go along with it. The butternut puree was very creamy and gave a sweet addition to the smokiness of the bacon. I was in meat heaven. I don’t eat a lot of meat, but I would definitely be a meat eater all the time for this bad boy.

This was a special of the night. In my mind I call it Jewish brisket on crack. It was some of the best brisket I have had in a while surrounded by mashed potatoes that were surrounded by brisket sauce. Noms. It was like Shabbat dinner in a quaint little Spanish restaurant. However it was a Monday night, so definitely no Shabbat was going down. It was so awesome being able to dip the meat into the mashed potatoes. Definitely a good option for those who aren’t able to venture out on the menu and want to stick to the traditional meat and potatoes. BORING, but in this case delicious.

It took us a million tries to get this dish. All it was is a plate of simple wild mushrooms, but for some reason the waiter kept forgetting that we ordered this. He also forgot our order of patatas bravas, but oh well because I would have barfed if he brought them to the table. This were amazing. They were just sauteed in some oil and herbs. It reminded me of one of my favorite places we went in Spain that only served different types of mushrooms sauteed in oil. It is so simple, but amazing.

Now it was time for postre. Finally my brother realized he could only handle one dessert that night. He opted for a pear tart with a side of ice cream. It was very tasty. The crust was flaky and the pears were caramelized, but not too sweet. I liked the addition of the dusted powdered sugar. He was in dessert heaven because he is a huge fan of pastries, especially tarts.

I got to be in pumpkin heaven. Pumpkin is life to me, so when I saw that there was a pumpkin bread pudding dessert I knew that I was getting that immediately. My brother ended up eating half because he can’t keep his spoon to himself. Typical. It was amazing though. The bread pudding was soft and the pumpkin wasn’t too overwhelming. Sometimes people can use too much pumpkin and it doesn’t taste sweet enough. I liked the addition of all the nuts too. It gave it a little crunch.

Overall this was the perfect way to end our trip to DC. It brought back memories of our previous trip together to Spain and it made us have warm bellies to brave the cold weather. If you are in DC this is another recommendation of places to go. Estadio. Don’t forget it.

Have you ever had tapas?
What is your favorite Spanish inspired meal?

More Mussels Please

Hey ya’ll! Hope everyone is having an awesome Monday. I am having a great day since I don’t have to go to class. Sucks to be all those other people who go back to school today. The perks of going to grad school at Columbia. I love still having a week and a half off. I’m living the life. Today I got to go see Hunger Games, for a second time, with my mom, and I got frozen yogurt (OMG how I miss you so much). For today’s post, I’m going to share more about my trip to DC with ya’ll. I swear it is not the only thing I talk about. When we woke up on our third day in DC, we ended up going back to the zoo in the morning because the zoo keeper told us that they let the animals out in the mornings when it is cold and let them go back inside later.

I was excited since I love animals and we missed a lot of the ones the day before due to the bad weather. However OMG I can’t believe the animals were out because it was freezing. This was the start of the polar vortex and man was it already getting chilly. I did get a lot of steps in though, which was awesome. I’m pretty obsessed with my fitbit. We averaged about 20,000 steps a day while in Washington. It is a great walking city! After we went to the zoo, we decided it was time for lunch since we didn’t have breakfast. The night before we had debated about a lot of places, but settled on Brasserie Beck. They were known for their mussels, so obviously it was the right choice for us.

If it wasn’t obvious to ya’ll, we started with a half lb of mussels. Oh god I died. These were amazing. No joke. They were in a mushroom cream sauce with smoked bacon and fresh wild mushrooms. This sauce was something that you would typically find on a classic hearty Italian pasta dish, but instead our mussels were soaked in it. Plus it was served in a hot skillet, which kept the mussels and sauce hot the entire time we were eating. My brother and I pretty much drank this sauce through bread. I wouldn’t be surprised if we ate an entire bread basket while dipping it in and soaking up the sauce. I wish we would have gotten more of these because they were just that good.

My little brother ended up getting a sandwich because he wanted to have a small break from eating so much seafood. He was debating back and forth between a few good looking choices, but decided to get the pork shoulder sandwich. It looked pretty good. He let me have a bite, so I can definitely vouch for it. The meat was incredibly tender and the bun was toasted slightly. I thought it was simple yet delicious. I thought it was a good choice, but he decided he should have gotten something else. It came with a side of fries and these three dipping sauces. I thought that was cool that the restaurant gave three different sauces, although one was a bit weird. The odd one out was a curry mustard. It was a little too spicy with odd flavors mixed in it. The other two were white cream sauces.

My dad of course stuck to one of his favorite seafood items and what the restaurant was known for: mussels. The picture is a bit blurry because at this point I was already focused on my own food and I wanted to chow down. He ended up getting Thai style mussels. These were also crazy good. Not as good as the mushroom ones, but different. I like that throughout the trip we never had the same style of mussels. Each kind was prepared differently, which was really nice. That made it seem like we were trying out different foods. These had a ton of Thai spices in the sauce, which soaked into the mussels. Overall it was a really tasty dish.

I ended up going for a healthier and lighter option. I chose the diver scallops salad, which contained scallops, arugula, red onion, oranges, and avocado. There was a light vinaigrette that was lightly tossed on top of the salad. It was a nice change to all the heavy food we had been eating over the past few days. I have such a weakness for scallops. I find them to be incredibly tasty and meaty for such a small amount. The salad gave me a really fresh feeling and for once I wasn’t full after a meal.

Just look at that bad boy hiding in a bed of leaves. I probably would have been happy with just a plate of scallops, but I feel as if I needed a serving or two of just straight vegetables. Sometimes when I go on vacation I don’t exactly stick to my morals and eat my daily servings of fruit and vegetables, so I always feel better when I have a salad or some type of vegetable at a meal. Anyways Brasserie Beck lived up to its fame with the mussels and the non-mussel dishes were also delicious, so it was definitely a hit. After we paid the bill and the guys used the bathroom, we headed on our way to that day’s activities. Thank god we ended up going on the metro because it was starting to get colder and I thought I would die in my nonexistent outfit (JK I was wearing clothes, but my pants were so thin that my legs were freezing).

This was the day of museums. We pretty much just walked down streets going into every museum possible. Thank god that everything was free. Otherwise that would have been one huge museum bill. This was taken at the Hirshhorn museum, which was definitely an interesting place. It was a modern art museum with some hilarious things inside. My brother and I had a great time exploring it, but my dad not so much. I think with modern art you just kind of have to let your mind free. The building was kind of like a doughnut, which I really enjoyed. We went to a few other art museums that day, which were much smaller galleries.

We also ended up at the airspace and science museum, which was pretty fun. My brother and I got to do the simulators, which I definitely recommend. It is only 7-8$ depending on which one you do and you don’t pay to visit the museum, so I just think of it as paying for a ticket to the whole museum (which is MASSIVE btw). I’ve actually been here before, so I wasn’t that excited. The simulation was great though and I thought I was going to vomit afterwards. Fun times obviously. My dad enjoyed the museum a lot though. He spent some quality time with the exhibits. I was slowly dying at this point, needing a break before dinner. Thankfully after the museum, we went to rest for an hour before our dinner. I’m going to share the epic dinner with ya’ll tomorrow. You won’t be disappointed. It is droolworthy with quality food porn.

What is the best museum you have ever been to?
Do you have a favorite piece of artwork?