Rhode Island 100 mile

So to continue on with our NY trip . . .

Our friends Becky and Chris told us about Doughnut Plant in NYC and I saw a few postings on ChowHound.com about them as well.  As many of you know – I (Ingrid) love doughnuts – I belonged to the Doughnut Club when I worked at UNH!  So when we heard about this place – crazy doughnut (so much easier to spell it donut but anyways) flavors, really fresh – we knew we had to try it.  Knowing that we would fill up once we got there, we walked from our hotel on 54th down to Grand Street (about 7 blocks south of 1st) so we were ready to chow!  And oh my goodness – again I find it difficult to describe how good the donuts we had at Doughnut Plant were!

Josh and I got one of each of the following (which are pictured below) – lavender (raised), tres leche (cake), coconut (raised), and a chocolate one (cake).  All of them had sticky, flavorful icing (except perhaps the lavender – Josh and I both ranked that as our least favorite of all the ones we tried – only because we didn’t get much of a lavender taste) and some gooey goodness on the inside.  Though we had just split four donuts between us, we went back for one more . . .

The creme brulee donut.  This donut was one of my top three foods I ate on our whole trip.  As you can see below – this donut is more of an oversized Munchkin but the filling was a crazy cream filling and the crackly top of the donut was JUST like a well-made creme brulee.  I implore everyone to go to Doughnut Plant the next time you to to NYC and get the creme brulee – it will change your perception of the donut!

After licking our fingers clean from all that wonderful donut goodness, we headed over to Williamsburg in Brooklyn.  We originally were going to take the Metro but decided that we would walk – over the Williamsburg Bridge – at noon – when it was over 90 – with no more water.  It was so hot but at least when we got to Marlow and Sons in Williamsburg , we didn’t feel bad about having lunch after all those donuts.  We had small sandwiches at Marlow and Sons and then went next door to Diner (operated by the same people)  to try out the dessert – upside down cherry cake.  We loved the atmosphere of both restaurants – but the sandwiches lacked a bit at Marlow and Sons.  I ordered the cucumber sandwich and there was brown lettuce on it – not impressed.  Josh ordered the Italian and it was ok but just ok.  The dessert next door was excellent and the staff there seemed a little more lively and open.  I’d possibly go back but there are a lot of other places to try first (and I won’t be walking from 54th Street!).

We did take the Metro back to Manhattan after a short walk up Bedford Street (the trains are air conditioned but the stops themselves are hotter than hell!).  We had one more stop before heading back to the hotel and that was The Ginger Man.  The artwork below is done by one of the bartenders and she does it in chalk!  They have about 60 beers on tap and hundreds more in bottle…Josh had a 13th anniversary beer from Stone Brewing in San Diego and a belgian-style from he forgets where…

For dinner on Tuesday (our actual anniversary), we went to Gramercy Tavern.  I loved it from the beginning.  We had drinks at the bar (Josh was very impressed with the beer and hard cider choices) and then got seated in the front room (less formal than the back- we would’ve needed reservations).  Our waitress was really great – she knew all the dishes, was up on the beers, and treated us well.  Josh started with the sweetbreads and I had a pork terrine with their homemade mustard.  I then had the homemade sausage over chickpeas and Josh had the duck.  For dessert I ordeded the chocolate pudding – chocolate pudding, who gets chocolate pudding when you go out?  Usually not me, but it was chocolate pudding with a little caramel and fresh whipped cream with salted brioche croutons.  Crazy, Crazy, Crazy!  This was my favorite dessert dish of the whole trip.  Josh got the German Chocolate Cake – oh so good and then our waitress brought us a chocolate dessert from the dining room section – a dark chocolate mousse – because she could tell we liked chocolate and Josh had ordered a JW Lees 1997 Harvest Ale to drink with dessert and she thought it would pair well.  Low and behold, Josh liked the chocolate mousse with the JW Lees the best out of all three desserts.

…Day 3 will be forthcoming…

-Ingrid and Josh

Josh and I spent the last few days in New York for vacation – basically eating and drinking our way through The Empire State (actually just two cities in NY).  We celebrated our 2nd anniversary, my birthday, and the last few days before the 100 Mile Diet starts.  We started first in NYC and stayed at The Warwick in midtown – it was a great location.  It is right next to MOMA which of course was closed the day we went to check out the exhibits.  We got settled quickly at the hotel and then hit the streets to start tasting!  Our first stop was Magnolia, the cupcake place.  We each got a cupake – chocolate with mocha frosting and a caramel cupcake – both were great but the chocolate was better in my mind.

After cupcakes, onto Pinkberry at Central Park West.  We had to go because our friends Andrew and Denise swear by this frozen yogurt.  I knew it was supposed to be good but I didn’t know what to expect.  There are only 4 flavors but a whole bunch of toppings.  I got the original which is basically plain yogurt frozen topped with oreos and chocolate shavings.  It was  a little more tart than Josh and I expected but it was good and very smooth.  I like my frozed desserts to be super smooth.  I’m not sure if I would go back – sorry Andrew and Denise.

After Pinkberry, I wanted to show Josh one of my favorite supermarkets in the world – Fairway – also in Central Park West area.  Andrew introduced my friend Charlotte and I to this market years ago.  It is such a great place – absolutely crazy with people and amazing foods.  Josh was very impressed with the beer selection.  I loved all the vats of olives, capers, peppers, and everything else they have.  We grabbed a sandwich and some figs to have lunch in the park.

Before we could get to the Park for lunch, we hit Zabar’s – another place I wanted to take Josh.  We got some fun ingredients to take home with us (sherry vinegar, walnut oil and verjus) and one small chocolate bar that was 99% cacao.  It was so bitter – almost like bitter chocolate paste when we tried it – but we did try it.  …meanwhile, a torrential downpour started to wash over the City…

Once we had finished shopping at Fairway and Zabar’s (and the rainstorm ended) – we headed over to the Park – Bethesda Terrace – to enjoy our lunch from Fairway.  We had a foccacia sandwich with mozzerella and prosciotto and the fresh figs I mentioned earlier.  If you can get your hands on fresh figs – get as many as you can and fill up on them – they are only around for a short, short time!

I repeat – get fresh figs now!!!

Our last food stop – after relaxing at the hotel for bit – was Eric Ripert’s La Bernardin . Our nerves were getting ancy on the walk over to the restaurant on 51st Street, but once we were welcomed inside, they started to calm down. We were seated in a quiet nook in the corner of the dining room that turned out to be a great vantage point to watch the brigade do their magic. We were treated to some salmon tartare and a cocktail to begin and then the succession of the next 10 or 11 courses had us floating in gastronomic bliss. This being predominately a seafood restaurant led to 8 of the courses being selections from the sea… Some standouts of the meal were the aforementioned tartare, scottish salmon with creme fraiche, brioche and Oestra caviar; escolar (white tuna) and langoustine with foie gras.  That being said, it is close to impossible to describe how delicious the food was, nice the staff was, and how much Josh and I enjoyed ourselves.

Tom Kat Bakery, pictured below, provides La Bernardin with their bread – and I think most of the other restaurants in NYC.  We saw this truck or a similar one multiple times while in the city.  More to come tomorrow . . .

- Ingrid and Josh

…a couple of our tomato plants have grown over my head despite the limited sun that we’ve been having lately. I think our plan of  cutting back on the amount of individual plants as opposed to last year will reap dividends…there are a lot more tomatoes per plant than I remember having last year. Additionally, it will be easier to get in there and take care of the plants as well; we had a huge tangled mass of vines because we planted so many plants too close together which made it hard to actually pick the tomatoes…let’s just hope they ripen up!

                             -Josh

I was very surprised at the Goddard Park market this morning- one vendor had corn already! I picked up a dozen ears which will be shucked and cooked this evening…some of which will be frozen for the winter. Some nice green and yellow beans and pattypan squash ended up in my bag as well…

                                                                                    -Josh

About a month ago, Ingrid and I agreed that we should start buying local meat year round, not just during our 100 mile diet months. There are ample vendors at the farmer’s markets that sell fresh chicken, beef and pork raised right here in Rhode Island. Sure, it’s more expensive than the supermarket offerings, but we’ve found that either intentionally or subliminally, we make it last a little longer throughout the week. Take tonight’s chicken for instance- it will probably yield us 8-10 meals throughout the week…last week we bought a skirt steak from Stoney Hill Cattle Farm at the East Greenwich Farmer’s Market and we got five meals out of it (plus some snacking). Not only do we think that the products taste (and look) better than their supermarket counterparts, we get to find out about how they were raised and under what conditions they were processed which is hard to ascertain by going to the supermarket meat case.

                                             -Josh

What a difference a couple full days of sun makes! Our tomatoes have grown above their cages and all four of the plants have green tomatoes on them. We tried a different tactic this year- we planted less tomatoes in hopes of having a higher yield per plant. Last year they were a little crammed together and we think that we didn’t get as much out of each plant as we could have. We chose to plant one each of Early Girl, Jet Star, Sweet Chelsea and Super Sweet 100 varieties. If we continue to receive some more sun, we may have some tomatoes by the end of the month.

                                                  -Josh

One of  the by-products of the larger dinners that we do is that we have all these little bits of leftovers floating around in the refrigerator…which can easily turn into multiple meals for the following week…add some greens from Friday’s market and all those tomato, radish and beet pieces can build a pretty substantial salad…

                                                -Josh

Happy Fourth of July everyone! We used Friday night to kick off the long weekend festivities by having a few friends over for dinner. We tried some new things out on a willing bunch of guests and Chris brought down some of his great homebrew to sample (as well as a few “nuggets” from his beer cellar- including a 12 year old Imperial Stout that he brewed while we were living in NH)…

…first off, Nasturtium flower soup with cucumber shallot marmalade (the Nasturtium flowers and leaves came right out of our backyard garden).

            Beet Juice Spheres…

                                              Cucumber Gelee with almond…

 ”Dry Shot”- dehydrated pepper, garlic, breadcrumbs, fried capers and fried oregano leaves (also from our garden)…

“Soup and Sandwich”- Mini grilled cheese and tomato consomee….

Tobacco cream, blackberry and mint…

Strawberry sorbet- Ingrid picked the berries five hours before making the sorbet…

Salmon, white truffle sauce, celery and black truffles…

We neglected to take pictures of dessert, but we had home made vanilla ice cream with butterscotch…all in all, it was a fun meal with some great people who were perfect subjects for our kitchen foils!

                                                                         -Josh