A couple of weeks back, my friend from Martha Stewart Living got me two tickets for a taping of The Martha Stewart Show (it airs today!) The episode was actually Martha’s 700th taping of the show and the only people that could be in the audience were people that had May birthdays, so David and I were really lucky (especially since it was the last taping for the season). Since Chase got us the tickets, the employees were super nice to us and sat us in this VIP area in FRONT of the regular seats. Here are some pictures from the episode:
The room on the left hand side is the kitchen where they make all kinds of delicious treats (for our episode, they made lemon meringue cupcakes – too bad David couldn’t eat his because he can’t eat eggs! I stepped up to the plate and ate his for him.)
See that red stand mixer? Well, KitchenAid and Martha gave everyone in the audience one for their May birthday! It was really generous of KitchenAid – David sent his home to North Carolina and I’m getting a red mixer (their anniversary edition) in July!
The kitchen is really well organized. I mean, none of the pots look like they’ve ever been used (although I’m sure they’re just props). I absolutely LOVED her kitchen, especially the large island in the center.
Martha answered some questions after the show – one woman asked how to prevent a cheesecake from cracking and Martha’s best answer was that it happens to every cheesecake and it gives the cheesecake character. I’d like to disagree – I think cheesecakes are usually overbaked (hence the cracking) and if you bake it with a water bath on a different rack for about 10 – 15 minutes less than the suggested cooking time, I’m guessing you won’t have any noticeable cracks. Also, it depends on the cream cheese that you use (low fat stuff usually cracks faster than the full fat cream cheese).
David and I were really excited to be on the show and had so much fun at the taping! They also played a lot of hip hop music before the show started (Usher, Lady Gaga, and similar artists). I wonder if Martha can actually hear the music in her dressing room and if she’s dancing along. Chase, thank you SO MUCH for getting us tickets to the show – David and I had a wonderful time and I can’t wait to use my stand mixer!
PS – don’t forget to enter the Pirate’s Booty contest – it ends this Friday!
Hi friends! May is my favorite month because I get to celebrate my birthday and get lots and lots of awesome gifts. This year, I’m giving my readers a chance to get a little gift or two – in the next week and a half, I’ll be giving away various things (some are food related, some are beauty related!).
Today’s contest is sponsored by Pirate’s Booty – they sent over a huge treasure chest of goodies pictured below:
The booty box has six different types of Pirate’s Booty: Sea salt and vinegar, bermuda onion, caramel, aged white cheddar, barbeque, and veggie. There are also Booty Head stickers, Pirate’s booty stickers, AND Pirate’s Booty tattoos! The two new flavors are Bermuda Onion and Sea Salt and Vinegar. I’m a bigger fan of the sea salt and vinegar than the bermuda onion, but I grew up eating the veggie flavored booty and now I pig out on the white cheddar and the caramel. To enter the contest, just answer the following question in the Comments section of this post:
What’s your favorite Pirate Booty flavor?
The contest ends on Friday, May 22nd at 5pm EST and I’ll announce the winner shortly after 馃檪
A while back, my friend mentioned this great restaurant in Nolita that also had an outpost in London, where she lived and worked for a while. We’d been planning to go Public for a while, but scheduling in NYC for four people is pretty much impossible (especially when two of the four work in finance). I decided to go on my own (with a different friend) and ended up making a dinner reservation. We pretty much knew what we were going to order – one appetizer to share and two entrees (which we’d share as well). We started with Grilled New Zealand venison on a coriander falafel with lemon tahini sauce and green pepper relish:
The flavors of the venison weren’t very fresh and the meat was very rare (to the point that the center of the venison was still pretty cold). Also, the portions were extremely tiny and pretty expensive ($13 for that!) The waiter kept asking if we were finished before the plate was empty, something that REALLY annoys me (can you please not hover?!) We finished our appetizer and waited for our main courses to arrive.
We actually ended up waiting about an hour for our main course (about 45 minutes into our wait, a waiter brought over another venison appetizer, meaning there was some kind of mistake in the kitchen and they thought we hadn’t been served yet). I asked the waiter if he could check on our orders and he said he was checking, but everyone around us was served (even though they had arrived after us) AND one table had the exact same order as us and had gotten served first!
An hour later, my friend’s Spiced Berkshire pork loin, warm guindilla chili-spaetzle salad, nashi pear compote, and crispy salsify arrived:
And my Roast lamb sirloin on crispy goats cheese polenta with saffron braised baby vegetables and harissa aioli arrived:
I actually didn’t have the opportunity to try my lamb because the pork dish was completely cold and we had to return it to the kitchen. Our waiter refused to admit that there was a mistake, even though the manager came over and explained to us the situation, and tried to blame the wait on our pork dish (because it had to be cooked to a certain temperature). I was SO hungry and SO tired of waiting that I didn’t bother waiting for the next pork dish to be “fired up” in the kitchen. We actually walked out of the restaurant and headed to Pearl Oyster Bar (where we had cod and lobster rolls and I forgot why I was so angry an hour earlier).
The manager of Public e-mailed me and apologized for the situation and invited me (and a guest) back for brunch. I decided to accept his apology because I was kind of interested in their brunch options, so I invited David to brunch on Valentine’s Day (is there any better way to spend Valentine’s day than with your brother?)
Public is pretty packed for brunch on the weekends and luckily we had a reservation for noon. David and I arrived a little after noon and were seated immediately. We ordered some bloody mary’s and mimosa’s (guess who ordered which drink) because they came with a brunch special (a brunch dish and a drink for under $25).
My bloody mary:
I haven’t had much experience with bloody mary’s, but this one was really spicy and delicious (and who doesn’t love a salt and pepper rimmed glass?)
There’s also a self-serve table of preserves and scones:
David took an Irish soda bread, which we shared, but I didn’t find it that appealing, especially since it was really dry.
The waiter brought along some fruit with Greek yogurt and mint while we were waiting for our main dishes:
This was probably the best dish of the entire meal, which is kind of sad considering Public is a Michelin starred restaurant!
I ordered the Banana stuffed French toast with bacon and maple syrup because I read a lot of great things about it:
The dish wasn’t completely coated in the egg batter and tasted like a banana sandwich that was drenched in maple syrup (I also really dislike it when restaurants add maple syrup for you). David didn’t mind the dish, but I thought it was pretty gross and didn’t even bother finishing it (you know it’s bad when I don’t finish a dish because I’ll eat practically anything!)
David ordered the tea smoked salmon with spinach & poached eggs on toasted sourdough with yuzu hollandaise:
Too much hollandaise (which wasn’t good) and the salmon was good, but didn’t taste good with the hollandaise sauce.
Overall, I was disappointed with the restaurant’s food and their service (also, their tables are so close together that a woman knocked over my hot tea all over my dress during brunch). I’m really glad the meal was comped because I wasn’t really happy with the food during either meal and I don’t see myself going back.
Last Friday, I had the pleasure of going to the Food Network to meet with other bloggers, eat lots of good food, and get a behind the scenes look at the kitchens were all the magic happens. Food2.com is a website I’ve been working with recently and they had their launch party to celebrate all of the hard work that everyone has been putting in for the website (check out my posts in the blog portion!) Below are some pictures from the event – hope you enjoy them!
The Food Network chefs grilling up some mutton burgers, frying up some grilled cheese sandwiches, and baking some whoopie pies:
Interesting tidbit: Bobby Flay uses that same stove to prepare for his battles on Throwdown!
The very large spice cabinet:
Some fellow food2.com bloggers (Shayna from Miss Menu NYC and Aleta from Omnomicon):
Just out of the oven whoopie pies (my first one, ever!):
And me and Shayna with Kelsey and Spike from Kelsey and Spike Cook:
To see more pictures/information about Food2.com, check out Finance Foodie’s coverage of the event or Foodie In Disguise.
Cliff and I decided to go out to one nice meal while he was visiting from California. Lucky for us, per se had just introduced their salon (a la carte) menu and there wasn’t a month long wait to get in (it’s walk-in only), so we decided to meet there for a light meal before he left. Earlier in the afternoon, I went to the Mets game and had awesome box seats, where I loaded up on chicken fingers, french fries, hot dogs, and other things that are not good for you, so I wasn’t extremely hungry when we met at per se.
I didn’t take pictures of my meal (maybe because I ordered the gnocchi and it literally came with 6 amazing pieces), but I did capture the desserts. We went with two desserts – Bombe au Pamplemouse, which was a Chocolate “Roulade,” Manjari Chocolate Mousse and Grapefruit Curd with Pink Grapefruit Ice Cream:
I was quite skeptical of putting together pink grapefruit and chocolate, but this dessert was sweet and tangy. Not my personal favorite (and not something I’d order again), but it wasn’t terrible. Oh heck, it was pretty awesome, actually.
I ordered something our server, Andrew, recommended, which was a mixture of Chuao chocolate, hazelnut, and ice cream:
I had never even heard of Chuao chocolate until my cousin from Taiwan told me about it (what a trendsetter), but now I can’t get enough of the stuff (although for $18 a bar, I can hold back a little). I enjoyed Andrew’s recommendation a lot more than the grapefruit-chocolate dessert.
If you’re a semi-fan of gracenotesnyc, you’ll remember that I went through the full four-hour tasting back in August. If you’re a new fan, here’s the lengthy write-up. Anyway, Andrew must’ve remembered me from our last visit because he also brought out this dessert:
I must’ve squealed with delight when the coffee and doughnuts came out because 1. it’s never on the actual tasting menu and 2. they only serve it for special occasions (repeat customers, if they know it’s someone’s birthday). I must admit that coffee gives me a serious headache, but I HAD to try this dessert – I mean, I’ve READ so much about it! One bite and I seriously could not stop eating it – the “coffee” is actually cappuccino semifreddo and the “doughnuts” are brioche doughnuts dusted with cinnamon and sugar. Cliff and I were sharing desserts, but he could tell I loved the coffee portion so much that he just stopped trying to fight me and let me finish the cup 馃檪
The total was about $50/per person (including service) and it’s definitely worth it; not only do you get the per se service, you also get lots of little things that you’d get if you sat down for the full-tasting (at a fraction of the price!)
