Today we wanted to take the time to highlight two New York restaurants that we got a chance to try recently, which we both really enjoyed!  There’s two commonalities between these places:  first, you can find them both in the West Village, less than a mile from each other; and second, they both serve up some excellent noodle soups from two different Asian cuisines.  We were especially delighted to find that these two spots offer up vegetarian and vegan options, which is nice because often these particular dishes are made with meat-based stocks and broths.  So read on to see where you can get some  excellent, hearty noodle soups – but just be warned that we will show some images of meat here.

The first place we decided to check out was BòCàPhê, a Vietnamese spot with one location in the West Village (which is where we went) and another in Chelsea.  We started our meal there with these veggie summer rolls, made from scallions, radish, cilantro, basil and sweet potatoes wrapped in a rice paper roll, with peanut sauce on the side.

Miriam was the one who got some noodle soup – a classic Vietnamese phò, which BòCàPhê makes in a vegan version with lots of veggies, herbs, and noodles.  You have the option to add in dumplings to your phò, so there’s also some vegetable dumplings floating in there.

Meanwhile, Cyril had one of the specials that day:  cà ri gà, a yellow curry made with chicken, potatoes, and vegetables, with some tumeric tandoori rice on the side.

Now if you’d like to try a different type of noodle soup, you can head 3/4 of a mile west to Ramen Danbo, a chain the originated in Japan and now has 30 restaurants across Asia, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. (including a second New York location in Park Slope).  The menu is very simple:  there’s ramen that you can customize with a bunch of different ingredients, plus a few sides.  Here’s what Miriam got:  the negi-goma atsuage ramen, made with noodles, scallions, sesame seeds, and slices of fried tofu in a vegan broth dotted with sesame oil.

Cyril had their classic rekka ramen, with noodles, scallions, and slices of pork belly in a tonkatsu pork broth, plus he added in some soft boiled eggs.

And we also split an order of pan-fried vegetable gyoza.

It was great for both of us to be able to get some ramen and some phò, in both vegan and traditional, meat-based forms.  Since it’s been a pretty chilly April, we thoroughly enjoyed these warm noodle soups, as well as all the other food we got to try at BòCàPhê and Ramen Danbo.  These two places have pretty simple menus, but they make their specialties well so can leave feeling completely satisfied with your phò and ramen.  We hope you try these places out, and check back later to see some other recommendations we have for eating out in New York (and elsewhere)!

Where We Ate: The Best Pizza on Long Island

We enjoy ourselves a good pizza, so we’re lucky to live where we live, because the New York City area – thanks to its history of Italian-American immigration – is home to some of the most well-rated pizza places in the country.  We’ve had our fair share of pizza in NYC proper, but we recently decided to venture out and try a few spots outside the city.  Today we’re going to feature some restaurants on Long Island that have some pretty good slices and pies.  Interestingly, what we discovered is that each place is within walking distance of a Long Island Railroad station, so you could visit all these spots just by taking a train from the city.  In any case, here’s our recommendations for good pizza on the island – just be warned that we do feature some meat pizzas here.

We’ll start off with Salvatore’s Coal Oven Pizza in Port Washington.  They do whole pies only (there’s even a sign right when you enter reminding you not to ask for slices), so we got their margherita pizza topped with roasted red peppers – and it came to our table absolutely steaming fresh out of the oven.

South of Port Washington, and just east of the Queens border, is Eddie’s in New Hyde Park.  Eddie’s specializes in bar pies, which are personal pizzas made on a super thin crust.  Miriam got a cheese and tomato bar pie with chopped hot cherry peppers on top …

… while Cyril had a bar pie-sized Eddie’s special, which has sausage, pepperoni, sliced meatballs, onion, peppers, and mushrooms on it.

Also in New Hyde Park is Umberto’s, and we learned that the thing to get there is grandma pie slices.  On the right here is a traditional grandma slice, and on the left is a grandma slice topped with fresh mozzarella, fresh tomato slices, and basil.

And we apologize for this incoming confusion, but we also enjoyed King Umberto in Elmont for some more grandma slices.  Here’s a vodka slice, made with fresh mozzarella …

… and here’s one of their newest creations, a grandma slice with plum tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella, drizzled with hot honey.

Now if you travel all the way to the bottom of Long Island, you’ll find Gino’s in Long Beach.  We opted for some more traditional slices there:  one cheese, and one from their “special” pizza, made with pepperoni, sausage, peppers, onions, and mushrooms.

A little east of Long Beach is Merrick, where you can find La Piazza.  There we got ourselves a combination of regular and square slices:  here’s a vodka square (on the left), a grandma slice made with fresh mozzarella and plum tomato sauce (on top), and a regular Neapolitan slice (on the left).

Now so far all the pizza places we’ve featured have been in Nassau County, but if you’re willing to venture a little further out you can also check out Little Vincent’s in Huntington.  They serve up traditional slices and toppings, but the thing they’re especially known for is cold cheese pizza.  If that sounds weird or confusing, trust us  – it’s really good!  It’s a regular slice of oven-fresh pizza topped with a handful of chilled shredded mozzarella.  At Little Vincent’s they’re pretty generous with that extra cheese on top, which makes for an excellent contrast with the warm pizza underneath.

If we had to pick, we’d say that King Umberto was our favorite out of all these places – but we really did like them all.  We got to try a bunch of grandma slices, some traditional as well as more unusual toppings, a bar pie, a coal oven pie, and one cold cheese slice.  We don’t get out to Long Island all that often, and when we do it’s usually to go to the more coastal areas, so it was nice to explore the interior of the island and some of its towns.  It’s also great that you can get to each of these pizza places on public transportation, so if you’re looking to try New York pizza outside of the city, you can make a day of it visiting any one of these spots.

Where We Ate: Jaz & Javelina

We’re always down to try some great spots here in New York, so today we’re going to shift away from recipes and instead feature two restaurants that we got to try recently.  Both places are in midtown Manhattan and serve up food from two different cultures on two different continents.  We enjoyed each one not just for the eats, but also for how convenient it is to get to both these spots, since they’re in prime locations right in the middle of the bustle of Manhattan.  So if you happen to be wandering around Midtown and you’re wondering what’s good to eat, here’s two of our recommendations.

First up, on 54th Street, is a small space housing Jaz Indian Cuisine.  Their menu is full of classic Indian dishes, ones you might have seen on take-out menus, but here they’re served in a nice sit-down atmosphere.  We started our meal here by splitting an order of onion kulcha:  an herbed flatbread stuffed with spiced onions.

Then, because Indian cuisine is known for its plentiful vegetarian options, Miriam had a lot to choose from for an entree and ended up going with the aloo gobi matar, made with potatoes, cauliflower, and peas in a slightly spicy ginger and tomato sauce.

Meanwhile, Cyril had the Jaz mixed grill, which has chicken, lamb, salmon, and shrimp rubbed in a spice mix and then cooked in a tandoor.

If you’re not up for Indian food, you can also swing down to 18th Street and check out the Union Square location of Javelina (they also have a restaurant on the Upper East Side).  Javelina specializes in Tex-Mex, and one of the things they’re especially known for is having an extensive section of their menu devoted to quesos.  We decided to try the fried jalapeño queso, which is swirled with salsa verde and topped with a few slices of crispy jalapeños.

Then Miriam had the avocado tacos, which come filled with beer-battered fried avocados, cotija cheese, and pico de gallo, with a side of poblano sauce.

Cyril tried the brisket enchiladas, which are topped with cheese, poblano sauce, and a jalapeño relish.

And for dessert we had an order of churros, served with chocolate sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Both these restaurants served up some pretty good food, and it’s pretty amazing to see that you can get such a wide variety of different foods all in the same neighborhood.  And both of these places are also pretty quick, so if you want a restaurant experience that’s not really drawn out, you can eat in these spots in an hour or less and be on your way to checking out all the other things Midtown Manhattan has to offer.  We know there are tons of options for where to eat in Manhattan, but consider these two spots if you happen to be in the mood for some great Indian food or Tex-Mex.

Where We Ate: The Best Food in Austin

We love taking advantage of three-day weekends and using the extra time to travel to new places.  So since we recently had off for Presidents’ Day weekend, we decided to go somewhere we’d never been before – and that somewhere was Austin, Texas.  Austin is famous for having an interesting vibe – its unofficial slogan is “Keep Austin Weird” – plus it’s the capital of the state so you can explore the beautiful capitol building, the historic University of Texas campus, and the state history museum.  But, of course, we also went there to sample the food, so we’ll show you here everywhere we went and what we ate.  Just be aware, though, that we will feature some images of meat here.

Now there’s two types of foods that Texas is especially well known for:  tacos and barbecue.  We had to get our hands on Austin’s version of these foods, so we first went to Joe’s Bakery, where they have an extensive list of tacos.  Miriam got three that are vegetarian:  one bean and cheese, one guacamole, and one with potatoes.

Cyril, meanwhile, had some breakfast tacos – here’s one bacon and egg, one chorizo and egg, and one potato and egg.

We also stopped at Radio Coffee and Beer, where we each got one migas taco.  Migas is a dish originally from Mexico, made with scrambled eggs and vegetables, so immigrants to Texas decided to wrap all this up in a tortilla and now migas tacos are found on almost every breakfast menu.

For barbecue, we headed over to Terry Black’s, which has several locations around Texas, including a very popular one in Austin.  There we got this giant tray of food:  in the middle is a sausage and a beef rib, which are served with your choice pickled onions and vegetables.  We also got some of the individual-sized sides – coleslaw, potato salad, mac and cheese, creamed corn, and pinto beans.

Another food that’s unique to Texas is kolaches, which came to Texas from Czech immigrant communities in the late 1800s.  A kolache is a pastry made stuffed with a variety of ingredients, and we got ours from Batch Craft Beer and Kolaches – the one on the left is fruit and cheese variety, while the one on the right has sausage and cheese in the middle.

One other thing Austin is known for is food trucks – there are so many roaming the city.  They’re great for getting quick bites, so we decided to hit up Golden Tiger as a late night spot (they’re open until 1:30am every day).  Miriam had their tofu basket, which comes with pieces of fried tofu on top of some matchstick fries.

And Cyril got their original chicken sandwich, served with lettuce, onions, pickles, and a house-made special sauce.

There’s also a couple of other interesting types of food in Austin – things you might not expect from Texas.  For example, Home Slice Pizza, which has three locations around the city, is considered to be one of the best pizzerias in the entire country.  So of course we had to try it, and we went with the eggplant pie.

We were also excited to see that Austin had its own offshoot of Voodoo Donuts.  This donut shop has gained cult status for its creative offerings, but because it has locations primarily on the West Coast we hadn’t gotten the chance to try it, until we found a shop on Austin’s very popular 6th Street.  We shared two varieties:  here’s the Viscous Hibiscus, topped with hibiscus icing and sprinkles …

… and the Chuckles, made with chocolate frosting, hot chocolate powder, chopped peanuts, and a caramel drizzle.

And finally, we couldn’t pass up the chance to get our hands on some cool burgers, so we headed up to JewBoy Burgers.  What drew us there was their creative take on a veggie burger – the Mensch, which has two latkes stuffed into a potato roll, then topped with roasted Hatch chiles and cheddar and pepper jack cheese.

Cyril got a more traditional burger:  the Oy Vey Guey, which also has roasted Hatch chiles on it, plus steamed pepper jack cheese.

All in all, we had a pretty interesting culinary experience in Austin.  We expected to eat some delicious tacos and barbecue (well, just the sides for Miriam), plus sample the food truck scene, and we found some excellent spots serving those up – but we also got out and tried some other things as well, like kolaches and donuts and pizza and burgers.  It was a well-rounded food experience, and a weekend filled with lots of different flavors.  So if you happen to find yourself in Austin, these are some cool places to visit and try just a little of what the city has to offer.

Where We Ate: Some Good Food in New Hampshire

You may not know this, but Cyril is a pretty talented snowboarder.  Each year when winter hits he goes out and brings his board to some of the good ski mountains along the east coast (and a few out west too).  Miriam doesn’t do any kind of winter sports, but she’ll sometimes tag along just to ride the gondolas at the resorts, or go snow tubing, or hike at some nearby trails.  Anyway, at the end of January the Northeast got hit with a blizzard, so Cyril decided to take advantage of the fresh snow and head up to New Hampshire to hit the slopes, with Miriam in tow to just hang out and check out some interesting things to do up there.  We made a weekend of it, including checking out some cool places to eat, and we’re going to feature here all the interesting food we found.  Be warned, however, that we do show one image of meat in this post.

The first place we went was the town of Lincoln, home of Loon Mountain ski resort.  Before Cyril headed to the mountain we decided to get some breakfast, and we discovered that New Hampshirites really love themselves some pancakes (probably because there’s an abundance of maple syrup to tap from local trees).  Luckily, Lincoln has its own pancake place in the form of Flapjacks, which is just down the road from Loon Mountain.  We each got something different there for breakfast – for Miriam it was the chocolate chip pancakes, topped with the restaurant’s homemade maple butter …

… plus a side of home fries.

Meanwhile, Cyril got the Hungry as a Bear breakfast, which comes with two pancakes, two eggs, bacon, sausage, and home fries – plus he ordered an extra grilled English muffin with it all.

Later that day, while Cyril was snowboarding, Miriam sett out to explore the town and see what other interesting food was on offer.  First she headed over to The Moon Bakery & Cafe and grabbed two cookies to share:  one ginger molasses (on the right) and one trail mix, made with oats, nuts, and dried cranberries.

She also went to check out Chutters, a local candy store that has several locations in New Hampshire.  The original shop has the world’s longest candy counter, clocking in at 112 feet and verified by Guinness World Records.  At the Chutters in Lincoln, the candy counter is only 63 feet long, and the way it works is that you grab a paper bag and a plastic glove and then go nuts picking out the candy that you want, and at the end you pay by the pound.  So Miriam got a selection of the chocolates – this is a combo of chocolate peanut butter caramels, chocolate covered cookie dough, chocolate covered brownie batter, cookies and cream caramels, birthday cake cookie bites, milk chocolate cake batter bites, and peppermint bark shortbread.

Then Miriam headed into the neighboring town of North Woodstock to check out Woodstock Pie and Coffee Company and get a slice of their peanut butter pie.

Back in Lincoln, Miriam treated herself to lunch at Black Mtn. Burger Co., which makes their own in-house veggie burger.  This one is topped with white cheddar cheese, avocado, and jalapeños, plus some sweet potato waffle fries on the side.

That night, after the slopes at Loon Mountain closed, we headed a little farther north to a town called Littleton, where we were told that Littleton Freehouse Taproom and Eatery was the best restaurant around.  We decided to split two appetizers there:  here’s the roasted Cajun carrots, sprinkled with Parmesan and Cajun seasoning and served with a spicy aioli.

And here are the panko-breaded fried cheese curds.

And we also split an entree of the mac n’ cheese, made with Vermont white cheddar and topped with Parmesan-panko breadcrumbs.

The next morning we had … more pancakes!  We drove over to the town of Sugar Hill to check out Polly’s Pancake Parlor, which many people rate as the best pancake restaurant in the state.  Here’s the magnificent breakfast we got:  one gingerbread waffle topped with their homemade maple spread, one platter of whole wheat pumpkin pancakes (which was the special flavor for the day) with two eggs and home fries, and a side of potato pancakes.

We also bought some of their blueberry scones to take with us for a mid-day snack.

And finally, on our way home at the end of the weekend we decided to stop into Tilton House of Pizza in Tilton, which many say has the best pizza in all of New Hampshire.  They specialize in Greek-style pizza, which means that the pie is cooked in a pan, making for a chewy crust that’s somewhere in between thin and thick.  We decided to go for the Cindy’s eggplant pizza – it’s topped with breaded eggplant, garlic, roasted peppers, and red onions.

Of course there’s tons and tons of restaurants and food in New Hampshire that we didn’t get to try over our weekend away, but we think we got a pretty good sampling of things to eat.  We had pancakes at two different places plus pizza, burgers, some interesting brewery food, and plenty of snacks and baked goods.  We don’t go to New Hampshire very often, but we’re glad we got the chance to spend a weekend there and see what the state has on offer.