We’ve got a ton of New York City food recommendations that we’ve been storing up through the winter, and now we’re putting them all out there!  Last week we showed you two good casual spots in New York where you can grab a quick bite, but today we want to showcase some places where you can sit and have a good meal.  The two spots are connected by their cuisine:  both serve up Italian fare in different iterations, and through they’re in two separate boroughs, they’re both worth a visit to check out – so read on to see some new restaurant recommendations.

First up is Ci Siamo, a new place that opened up late last year near Hudson Yards.  We were really impressed by the interesting-looked appetizers they had on offer, so we got two:  here’s the caramelized onion torta, topped with pecorino cheese and a balsamic drizzle.

And as another round-shaped starter, we also had the focaccia.

For entrees, Miriam had some tagliatelle, made with a tomato and butter sauce.

While Cyril got the potato topini, in a sauce of mint, almonds, and pecorino cheese (sadly, this wasn’t vegetarian because it’s made with chicken broth).

And we also split a side of charred red peppers with capers and feta.

But if you’re looking for some Italian food that’s a little bit different, you can swing over to Brooklyn and check out Macchina in Williamsburg.  Macchina has been around for a few years now but was previously located in Midtown Manhattan – now you’re going to have to travel a little farther for their signature Neapolitan-style pizzas.  We decided to do a little sampling and split two pies:  one spinach kale pesto, topped with ricotta, mozzarella, and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes …

… and one margherita pizza with a ball of burrata melting right in the middle.

And we also shared an order of crispy artichoke hearts.

It was fun getting to check out both of these restaurants – one where we could get some excellent pastas and appetizers, and one where we got inventive pizzas.  There’s thousands places in New York where you can get Italian food, but we like to scope out the ones that rise to the top of the heap and serve up some really good and interesting cuisine.  These are two spots that we think fit the bill, so enjoy!

Where We Ate: Some Good Food in Southern California

Over the long Martin Luther King Day weekend, we decided to go on a whirlwind trip out to southern California.  But we didn’t just stay in L.A. and hang around the city – instead, we went to some of the surrounding towns and cities to check out some cool off-the-beaten-path places.  And naturally, as we always do, we tried some interesting food.  We’re not going to say that what we ate was the best food in region, because the Los Angeles area is a huge place and we couldn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the food landscape there in three days.  But we still want to highlight where we went and what we ate, so here it is, and just as a warning there are some images of meat here.

The first place we went was Catalina Island, which is about an hour off the coast of the city of Long Beach.  For lunch there we popped into Cafe Metropole and decided to sample from their menu of avocado toasts.  Here’s the one Miriam had – the caprese, topped with sliced cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, and a balsamic drizzle.

And Cyril got the Catalina avo toast, with two eggs and bacon crumbles on top.

We also stopped into Catalina Coffee & Cookie Co. and of course had to try some cookies – specifically, one peanut butter chocolate chip and one eclipse, made from a fudge chocolate chip cookie dunked in white icing.

Later that night we decided we had to try southern California’s signature fast food chain – In-N-Out Burger, which has become famous not just for their burgers but also for their extensive “secret” menu, which lets you customize their standard offerings and features some vegetarian options.  What we got is below: a regular cheeseburger on the right; a grilled cheese with the works (lettuce, tomato, onion, and burger sauce) in the middle; and a grilled cheese with lettuce, tomato, burger sauce and spicy chopped cascabella peppers on the left; plus some animal-style fries, topped with cheese, burger sauce and grilled onion pieces.

The next morning we headed to the city of Ventura, because from the docks there you can catch a boat to Channel Islands National Park.  Before we departed we grabbed some donuts from Good Time Donut:  here’s a chocolate frosted cake donut on the right, and a maple frosted yeast donut on the left.

Now the Channel Islands are owned by the National Park Service, and because of that there are no businesses on the island, so you have to bring your own food and water there for a day trip.  Cyril had the idea to stop the night before and get burritos to bring along with us, so we found the El Antojito food truck in the city of Gardena in Los Angeles County.  Here’s what we got there:  one lengua burrito, and one bean and cheese burrito, which came with grilled hot peppers plus some limes and pickled vegetables.  These burritos survived their journey pretty well from Los Angeles to Ventura, then on a boat for an hour, then in our backpacks as we hiked up and along a ridge on Santa Cruz Island.

We did get to spend some time in Los Angeles after all that, and we decided we wanted to try a restaurant in the city’s Thai Town neighborhood in East Hollywood.  We decided on Original Pa-Ord Noodle and started there with an appetizer of veggie spring rolls.

Then Miriam had the khua noodles with tofu and bean sprouts …

… while Cyril got the pork boat noodles, in a beef broth with meatballs, liver, broccoli, and chili flakes.

We also stopped at The Pie Hole, which has several locations across southern California (plus two in Japan and one in Saudi Arabia).  We visited the Hollywood Boulevard site and got two slices – here’s the Mexican chocolate pie, made with spiced chocolate and whipped cream on top.

And here’s the Cereal Killer pie, made from a filling of cream cheese and Fruity Pebbles with Froot Loops sprinkled on top.

And on the last day of our trip, we wanted to go get breakfast before heading out of town.  We settled on Fratelli Cafe on Melrose Avenue, which serves both breakfast and lunch items all day.  Miriam was interested in the lunch menu, so she got the Fratelli sandwich, with avocado, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and spinach, plus a side of sweet potato fries.

While Cyril had a more traditional breakfast of the bacon hash, with two eggs on top of potatoes, bacon, peppers, spinach, black beans, and cheddar cheese.

We know we only got to the tip of the iceberg that is southern California food on our three-day trip, but we think we got a pretty good introduction:  burritos, donuts, pie, cookies, avocado toasts, Thai food, In-N-Out, and some good breakfast cuisine.  We hope to visit Los Angeles and the surrounding area again at some other point in the future, and of course we’ll be on the hunt for more good food that represents the wealth of what California has to offer.

Where We Ate: The Best Food on Long Island’s North Fork

We thought we’d start this new year off with a post to inspire you to travel!  During this past fall we took some weekends to go out to Long Island and sample some of the region’s many wineries, and during that time we also decided to explore what kind of food was on offer.  If you happen to be unfamiliar with Long Island, let us give you a little tutorial – you can think of the island as being shaped like a whale, with the head at the western end representing Brooklyn and Queens, and eastern side split into two forks like a whale’s tale.  The South Fork has nice beaches and some really expensive areas (like the Hamptons) while the North Fork has a ton of wineries.  And luckily, if you’re like the majority of New Yorkers and don’t have a car, you can still get out to the North Fork by taking either the Long Island Railroad or the Hampton Jitney and bringing along your bicycle so you can pedal from one winery to the other.  Taking the train is cheaper, especially because they let you bring your bike onboard for free, but the service is limited because the train only makes one stop out near where the wineries are, in the town of Mattituck, and it also runs very infrequently in fall and winter.  The Hampton Jitney is more expensive and changes you extra for taking along your bike, but it stops in almost every town along the North Fork and runs throughout the day.  We traveled out on the combination of both train and Jitney and made it work, and now we’ll show you what we ate on our day trip adventures!  (But as a warning, there are some images of meat here).

Mattituck, where the train drops you, is the largest town out in the North Fork, so it’s where many of the local restaurants are.  We tried a bunch of different things in Mattituck, like these donuts from North Fork Donut Company, which is just a block from the train station.  Here’s the chocolate peppermint donut …

… and here is a gingerbread donut, stuffed with a vanilla cream.

Just a few steps away from the donut shop is Love Lane Kitchen, where we had dinner one night.  Since it was a chilly day, we both started our meal with their soup of the day, which was a spiced carrot and butternut squash.

Then Miriam had the risotto, made with more butternut squash plus three types of mushrooms.

And Cyril had the duck tagine, with pearled couscous and peppers and onions on the side.

A little farther into Mattituck there are some other cool places – for example, there’s Mattitaco, where you can get … well, you can probably guess.  Here’s their Bang Bang cauliflower taco, made with fried cauliflower and a mango salsa.

And here’s one of their specials on the day we went – two birria tacos.

On a different day in Mattituck we got dinner at another spot – an Italian restaurant called aMano.  We started our meal there by splitting the bianco pizza, topped with mozzarella, ricotta, and broccoli rabe.

Miriam tried the ravioli, stuffed with burrata and covered in a cherry tomato sauce.

While Cyril got the rigatoni with Sunday sauce, which is made from tomatoes, sausage, meatballs, and pork, all topped with a dollop of ricotta.

Now if you venture beyond Mattituck and out into the areas with all the wineries, you’ll come across some other interesting places to get food.  One day we stopped at Hallock’s Cider Mill in the town of Laurel, just west of Mattituck.  They’re know for their key lime pie, so we got a handheld version of one …

… plus a chocolate-dipped mini key lime pie on a stick.

We also found the Catered Fork food truck, which sets up at various spots along the North Fork and was at Jamesport Farm Brewery on the Saturday that we visited Riverhead, two towns west of Mattituck.  We decided to get a snack from the truck:  these truffle Parmesan fries.

And finally, our wine tasting one day took us east of Mattituck into the town of Cutchogue, so we decided to visit Red Rooster Bistro while we were there.  We shared an appetizer of their burrata caprese, with pesto on top.

And Miriam had the penne alla vodka …

… while Cyril tried the ribeye steak au poivre, served with a green peppercorn sauce.

We’re glad we got to explore all these unique places to eat on the North Fork – we got donuts, tacos, key lime pies, truffle fries from a food truck, and dinner from three different local restaurants.  These were all delicious things to eat in between sampling wines, and we were able to get to everything – all these places plus the wineries we visited – by combining train or bus travel with bicycling.  The North Fork is in its slow season right now, with many places closed for winter, but once warmer weather arrives we hope this gives you the urge to visit the area and try some wine and some food.

Where We Ate: Wau & Parm

Now that we’ve shown you all of our holiday baking for this year, we think it’s time to take a break from the kitchen and instead show you some of the good food we’ve eaten recently around New York.  Today we’re featuring two restaurants on the Upper West Side – these places are less than a mile away from each other but serve up very different cuisines.  They’re a great encapsulation of the diversity of food you can get in this city, and how cultures from all around the world share shoulder-to-shoulder space with each other.  So here’s some of the delicious things we’ve eaten recently, but just be warned that we will show some pictures of meat here.

The first spot we went to was Wau, a new restaurant that features a menu of pan-Southeast Asian food.  You can get dishes from several different countries in this region of the world – for example, here is the poh plah we got as an appetizer, which are Malaysian fried spring rolls stuffed with veggies and served with a chili sauce.

And here’s our other appetizer, the roti canai, which comes from Indian immigrants in Singapore.  It’s a folded-up flatbread served with a curry sauce.

For entrees, Miriam had the mamak mee goreng with tofu, a noodle dish with a tomato-chili sauce that comes from India’s Muslim community.

And Cyril tried the char kway teow with shrimp, a Singaporean dish of noodles and vegetables in a chili soy sauce.

And we ended our meal there with this lychee crème brûlée.

Now if you walk a little farther south, you’ll come across the Upper West Side location of Parm.  This restaurant turned 10 this year, and it’s now become an New York City institution – it’s considered one of the must-try restaurants here, but we’d actually never been before until recently.  Of course we had to try the dish the restaurant is named for, so here’s Miriam’s eggplant parm, served with a side of spicy rigatoni.

And Cyril decided to try the meatball parm.

And just so we could get some veggies in, we also split the arugula salad, tossed with almonds, figs, and Parmesan cheese.

We enjoyed getting to try these two places and what they offered:  Wau was a new spot that served up dishes we’d never had before, from several different countries and cultures on the other side of the world, while Parm is a mainstay that allowed us to indulge in some familiar Italian-American comfort food.  It’s truly amazing that you can find such different – and tasty – places within just a few blocks in this city, and that’s one of the reasons we love being here.  We’ll make sure to provide more restaurant recommendations like this soon!

Where We Ate: The Best Food in Key West

This year we decided to take advantage of the long Thanksgiving weekend and travel somewhere we’d never been before, and we settled on Key West!  If you’re unfamiliar with just where Key West is, let us give you a little geography lesson:  at the bottom of Florida, just south of Miami, are a chain of islands that stretch out into the Gulf of Mexico – these are called the Florida Keys.  Bridges connect the islands so that you can drive all the way down U.S. 1 to the furthest inhabited key, which is Key West.  It’s a popular tourist destination, because it’s warm all year round there and also because there’s a lot to do:  you can visit Ernest Hemingway’s home, you can kayak and see all kinds of interesting wildlife, you can bar hop at dozens of different spots, and of course there’s tons of cool restaurants to check out.  So today we’re going to present you with a sampling of some places we tried while we were there, but just be warned that there are images of meat here.

One aspect of Key West’s food scene that we enjoyed was all the casual spots on offer, where we could stop in and get just a quick and tasty snack.  For example, we got a chance to try a little Cuban food at El Siboney – they made Miriam a vegetarian plate with yuca, plantains, rice, pickled onions and a slice of Cuban bread.

Cyril got a similar plate, except with roast pork instead of yuca.

At Old Town Bakery, Miriam got the vegetarian sandwich, made with spinach, thick slices of fresh mozzarella, and a sun-dried tomato pesto …

… while Cyril had a breakfast sandwich made with eggs and bacon on a croissant.

We also discovered Frita’s Cuban Burger Cafe, a small counter service place that’s open late.  Cyril had the namesake traditional Frita burger, topped with matchstick potatoes and cheddar cheese, all on a Cuban roll.

But Frita’s also has some good vegetarian options, like these veggie tacos stuffed with fried avocados, queso fresco, hot peppers, and coleslaw.

Plus we also shared a side of yuca fries topped with cilantro and garlic.

Now if you’re looking for something sweet, Key West also has a lot of cool places.  You can go to Mattheessen’s for enormous cookies – this one is their classic chocolate chip.

You can get some creative donuts at Glazed – here on right is a brown butter hazelnut one, and on the left is the stuffed key lime pie donut.

Speaking of key lime pie, which is the area’s specialty – the most famous place in Key West to get some pie is Kermit’s, so of course we had to stop there.  Here’s a slice of their key lime pie dipped in chocolate and stuck on a popsicle stick for your eating convenience.

Then for dinner one night we decided to stop at Santiago’s Bodega, a tapas restaurant that also has two locations on the Florida mainland.  In the tradition of tapas, we ordered a bunch of different things to split, starting with this spicy curried lentil soup.

Plus the avocado and pear salad, topped with Parmesan cheese and pine nuts.

Next up was some puff pastries filled with mushrooms, herbs, Parmesan, crème fraiche, and a béarnaise sauce.

And some patatas bravas, topped with olives, capers, tomatoes, Parmesan, and a spicy aioli.

And finally, burrata and cherry tomatoes drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette.

And one last place we want to highlight, which actually isn’t on Key West – instead, it’s on Islamorada, a different key that’s further east towards the mainland.  Since it’s a three hour drive from Miami to Key West, many people (us included) stop at one of the keys along the way for a bite to eat.  On Islamorada we found M.E.A.T. Eatery and Taproom and decided to try their burgers.  Thankfully they offer an Impossible Burger, so Miriam got that topped with cheddar, jalapeños, and a thick onion ring, plus truffle fries on the side.

And Cyril had their signature burger, a double Nancy Pants with American cheese, plus some onion rings.

So there’s our suggestions for what to try if you’re traveling in the Keys.  There’s a lot on offer there, but we think we found the perfect mix of sandwiches, sweets, Cuban food, burgers, and one really interesting and unique table service spot.  There’s a lot of drinking, swimming, and soaking up the sun to do in Key West, but when you get hungry check out these places that go beyond just your usual tourist food and serve up a nice variety of delicious, local eats.