a proper good first weekend home

or: the yummiest camp food detox ever
berries! berries of all sorts, large and small, frozen and smashed, locally grown and flown from far farrrr away. watermelon, yogurt, smoothies galore. a whole wheat pizza night with pineapple and zucchini courgette! hold the cheese. from scratch: black bean hummus, sesame noodles, zingerman's carrot top, whole wheat sourdough, a plan for cornmeal pancakes {but maybe next weekend!} caramelized onion + chive jam. apples, tangerines, apples, tangerines. brown rice sushi, baked oatmeal. a bit of arugula and some cheese at edi & the wolf... and a nice warm cup of red velvet tea. get it while it's hot. 

oh and that hot dog. is not a hot dog. it is a suicide dog from the meathook stand at smorgasburg. "it's all the leftover meat from this week, made into a sausage!" says mike. and there was more flavor in one bite of that than in all of the food that i ate this summer combined. {welcome home, me!}

also: some quality hours spent by the river with the molly mobile, and the {just about} end to a week-long cleaning + organizing session of my little apartment. phew!

-yeh!

2day, so far


 
waking up to my new favorite smell, filling up the house: tomato bread
homemade butter, homemade curry mustard, the perfect hole-in-the-middle... tell me why we eat out again?
stop being so shy, george.
perfect, gracie, just perfect!
and now... a wedding. of heather & the heir to one of the world's best mustard companies


-yeh!



cours saleya {nice}


1. you say tomahto? really?
2. savon
3. didn't eat enough of those...
4. my new friend, the lapin!!
5. pretty beta carotenes
6. hot dog bun {except, in france, a saucisson brioche?}
7. fleur

imagine your local green market on crack and acid. give him a french accent and call him gaspard. no. call him the cours saleya. and love it to death because, mes amies, it is totally amazing. the veggies and flowers were fresh and photogenic, the pastries were cheap and unreal, and the mustards! i bought six in one day. a new record. including a violet flavored one which was gross, but props to it for existing. and we met the friendliest bunny! and the saucisson brioche was so scrumptious/snappy/buttery. i want to go back there right now:  i'll acquire a baguette and some jam and take a little lunch to the park... ahhhh j'aime le cours saleya!  


-yeh!!


week 51: cafe sabarsky

the last new york restaurant in restaurant challenge
there are three reasons the answer to can you play this gig? will be a definite yes:
1. the venue is in an unexplored part of town 
{creating opportunities to discover new restaurants} 
2. the performance is narrated by isaac mizrahi
3. it involves 3D glasses 
ok there are other reasons that actually have to do with music and stuff, but the point is this past week i played a gig that included two of the above...
[and i was absolutely kidding about the 3D glasses.]

see?!
for two entire weekends, i was chained to the guggenheim,
playing show after show of {my favorite!} peter and the woof.
and i thought i was out of luck when yelp search nearby said
 starbucks, le pain quotidien, starbucks, the wright...
 until on page four it finally said my dreams come true in the form of
[3 blocks away]
...and so began my residency
on the first day there was what a little austrian girl eats after a long day when it's cold and she could use some comfort:
baked bowties, ham, and emmentaler
and
weisswurst with a pretzel and mustard
it was the best kind of hot dogs with mac and cheese.
and it is a fact that, if there's one underrated wiener in this country, it's weisswurst. 
that s*** is hella good.
on the second day,
there was 
spätzle with peas, carrots, and mushrooms 
bratwurst with riesling sauerkraut
and a high brow version of what the people in my family like to call
hot dog cheese* {käsekrainer... bratwurst stuffed with cheddar}
*one of the most embarrassing snacks i ate as a wee one was a hot dog cut up and topped with little squares of american cheese and then microwaved and served with ketchup. 
it was as embarrassing as its terribly unfortunate name.
the käsekrainer was really delicious and snappy!! and oozy. 
and the spätzle was amazing, once i picked out all of the mushrooms. i know, i know. 
spätzle is another thing this world needs more of. i mean, it is little premature dumplings!
for dessert,
rehrücken
chocolate marzipan cake with organgey things and house made whipped cream
your girl cannot resist some marzipan.
it is like if a clydesdale were a dessert, you know? 
all smart and stately. 
and austria is cool because it doesn't mess with all them fruity sorbets or popsicles. 
they are all about the cakes and the marzipans and the strudels.
and you should have seen this dessert menu. 
on the third day,
i took the newspaper as my date and had a 
liverwurst open-faced sandwich 
which i had a little issue with because the menu didn't specify that my sandwich would be 
open-faced, but i instantly didn't care because 
it was some thick and salty {i lurve salty} liverwurst spread. 
by far the best part about this meal was afterwards when i ran into my little korean friend on the street who asked me what i ate for lunch and, in my best broken korean, i tried to explain what liverwurst is to her, until i realized that i really don't know korean and decided to just point to my liver and then i didn't know which side my liver was on. 
so i think she thinks i ate a pancreas sandwich for lunch...
the other best part about my last visit was that i got an apple strudel on the house.
maybe it's because i went there like twelve times in a week,
but part of me also thinks it's because i was there alone and it was an all male wait staff and i did my hairs real good that day.
regardless, the apple strudel was the perfect christmas time dessert!
***********
***********
and so here marks the last new york restaurant in restaurant challenge. 
it was christmas-y and festive and delicious. 
wiener-filled, and marzipan inclusive. 
i'm into it. you should be too.

now, get ready for the 1 remaining restaurant.


xoxo

yeh


cafe sabarsky is on east 86th and 5th, inside of the neue galerie. if there's a really long wait, the more casual cafe fledermaus {downstairs} has the same menu.