Friday, 15 April 2011

• East Village Comfort Food Crawl

  

  My best friend from back home finally made her first visit to my apartment after a long awaited 8 months! We spent these 8 months talking on a week basis about what we were going to eat that day and just how much we could pack into one tiny trip. It would be a day of eating not so healthy "meals" and lots of walking! 

  I agreed to wait for her to visit some places so we would both be just as anxious and excited.....plus I thought this would make her visit sooner! There are definitely fancier places to go eat in the East Village, but these were some of the less expensive more casual spots.

  We started our day off at 11:30am at S'MAC Sarita's Macaroni and Cheese.  We ordered the nosh size portion of garden lite which was beyond satisfying.  It had a lite cheddar and Parmesan cheese sauce with roasted cauliflower, portobello mushrooms, roasted garlic, broccoli and scallions. The other nosh was cheeseburger with a cheddar and American cheese sauce, combined with seasoned ground beef. The bread crumb toppings for both tasted like it had cornmeal mixed in which made for extra crunchy bits!  Each portion is served in a bubbling hot cast iron skillet you could not ask for anything more comforting.  

  Garden Lite

  

  Cheeseburger

  

  Next stop: 16 Handles one of my personal favorites that I visit far too often.  I tend to prefer frozen yogurt over ice cream (go figure!) and the fact that I can make my own delicious treat is just a bonus.  There are always 16 different self serve flavors of all natural frozen yogurt that rotate on a weekly basis. The picture below includes cake batter, chocolate explosion, vanilla, and cookies n cream frozen yogurt with selected toppings. Just be careful because the yogurt is weighed at the end and with heavy toppings the final product could turn costly!  

  
  Our dinner meal was at Artichoke Pizza. A place I had walked by for 8 months straight waiting for my friend to arrive.   The wait was well worth it! We purchased a total of 6 slices as, we were going to meet another person and did not realize just how filling one piece could be.  We had a variety including their margarita, the classic artichoke pie, and their crab pie. I can see why there is always a line for this gigantic slice of heaven!  My favorite is a toss up between the artichoke and crab pie.  I would highly recommend both of them!  

  Artichoke & Margarita

  Crab

  

  Some souvenir stops along the way:

  We bought a cannoli and cream puff from Led Zeppole for my friend to take home.  This is a late night pastry shop located right next to Artichoke Pizza and everything was made fresh to order which was surprising.

  

  
  A trip to Butter Lane for cupcakes to take home was a must!

  Butter Lane is a boutique cupcake shop on 7th that also offers baking classes.  Their cake flavors include vanilla, banana, and chocolate and you chose your frosting from their large selection of delicious buttercreams.  They even do seasonal flavors! My favorite combination is the banana cake with fresh blueberry frosting.  My friend chose the vanilla with caramel frosting (garnished with fresh popcorn) and a chocolate peanut butter frosting with chocolate cake.

  

  We took a quick detour to show her around Eataly and had some very small glasses of overpriced wine at Shake Shack.  We picked up some dry pastas from Eataly's mind blowing selection of pasta to take home for relatives. 

  

  I am not sure why I thought Shake Shack was a good place to have a glass of wine.  I think it was just the fact that it was a beautiful day and a nice place to sit.  Anyway, the two petite wine glasses totaled $19 with tax.  We took a picture of them next to my lip gloss to show everyone the actual size. I will stick to the delicious burgers and frozen custard from here on out. 

  
  Do you have a favorite local spot you visit with friends? What are some of your favorite comfort foods? 

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