For Mother’s day, I took Sarah, her sister and her mom to brunch at Vero Midtown for a boozy brunch. Sarah’s family invited me and Ken over to their fabulous apartment for Passover and we haven’t seen each other since their Seder so we planned brunch to catch up. We started with tropical sangria that was really good (not too sweet and lots of apple chunks) and I ordered the steak and eggs:
The steak was probably the lowest quality meat I’ve had in a while (it’s also a really bad idea to order steak after you’ve just eaten amazing steak at Benjamin’s Steak House.) The steak was really rubbery and fatty and it was also a little cold when it was served. The eggs were very buttery but otherwise, a little too cooked for my taste (I’m also surprised they didn’t ask how I would have wanted my eggs cooked).
Sarah’s mom ordered the brioche French toast:
Sarah’s sister, Becky, ordered the proscuitto eggs benedict:
And Sarah ordered the egg panini:
Overall, the meal was mediocre and I’m definitely sure I wouldn’t return on my own, however, the company was great and we had a really fun time catching up.
I love the new food stands by Madison Square Park – Ken and I continued our afternoon lunch by visiting Asiadog to order two hotdogs (for $9):
The menu has a bunch of really interesting combos – Asian-inspired hot dogs that can be made with chicken, beef, or veggies:
Ken ordered the Wangding (with pork belly) and I ordered the Vihn (the bahn-mi style hot dog):
The wangding was a little too sweet and the pork belly was a little fatty, but the vihn was really interesting even though I couldn’t taste the pate. They used fresh jalapeños on the hot dog and lots of cilantro (delicious!) I definitely want to visit the Asiadog in Chinatown now – I have never even heard of the place before going to the stands at Madison Square Garden!
I’ve been meaning to check out Roberta’s for a really long time but going to Brooklyn is quite a difficult task. Luckily, Roberta’s is going to be in Manhattan for the next month at Madison Square Garden so I can just walk out of my office and taste Roberta’s pizza! Ken and I walked over to the area originally planning to eat at Shake Shack (and being turned off by the large lines) and then walked in the direction of Eataly when I remembered the stands were going to be up for the next month. Roberta’s is currently selling three types of pizza that they make on the spot:
The pizzas they’re selling are $8 (for the Margherita) and $9 for the Bee Sting. It takes about 5 minutes for them to make the pie:
Our pizza going into the oven:
5 minutes later, bee sting perfection:
The bee sting comes with pepperoni, mozzarella, and it’s topped with delicious honey. The honey is barely noticeable but it’s really delicious and adds a really nice flavor to the crust. I wish the cheese was spread a little more evently (one slice didn’t have any at all!) but it was a really great pizza and now I’m definitely going to visit the Brooklyn location!
Banana nutella crepes at Madison Square Park for the next month? A true test to my willpower:
It was really fun watching the guy create crepes – Perfectly pouring the savory and sweet crepe batter onto their respective frying surfaces and evenly distributing the batter across the surface with his little shovel. Our nutella crepe was warm, sweet, and definitely hit the spot!
On Saturday night, we celebrated Ken’s roommate’s birthday at Trattoria Alba. The restaurant has pretty good reviews online and I was excited to have Italian food after eating so much healthy food (apparently Joe and EY felt the same way because they ate salads for an entire week!) The restaurant is located close to the midtown tunnel entry and is quite a quaint place – we started off with two bottles of wine to share and warm bread baskets while we browsed the menu.
I decided to order the dover sole with vegetables:
The dover sole was cooked with white wine and LOTS of delicious butter. The sauce was really good and I happily ate all of my entrée (I was also starving because Ken and I had breakfast and then ended up running around the city all afternoon and I didn’t get to eat again!)
Ken’s veal parmigiana was also delicious:
It was a little too thin for his liking, but he still enjoyed it – the fresh tomato sauce and lots of mozzarella on the lightly fried veal smelled really good but I didn’t have a chance to try it.
A couple of people ordered the parpardelle with zucchini, shrimp, and tomato sauce:
Ken was originally going to order it but then decided he didn’t want seafood so ended up going with the veal instead.
The other dishes of the night:
Spaghetti alla carbonara for the birthday boy:
And more spaghetti with a bolognese sauce:
The restaurant brought along tiramisu, chocolate cake, and raspberry cake for Joe, which was a really nice touch to end a wonderful meal. Afterwards, we headed to Koreatown to celebrate some more (not only were we celebrating Joe’s birthday, we were also celebrating Hana and Hughie’s engagement…part two!)
