NYC Food: Day 1

When hubby and I recently planned a last minute trip to New York, I scoured the web to make a food heaven checklist.  When hubby realized that our trip was going to be food stop to food stop, 'we' decided to be a bit more flexible with our musts.

Day 1 saw us checking into our hotel in the morning.  We wanted to check out the High Line which gave us a great excuse to stop by the Doughnut Plant in Chelsea and sample their amazing gourmet doughnuts.

 

 

  

I had to have the crème brulée doughnut and boy, did this little guy not disappoint!  While I was expecting a 'hard candy' exterior it was more sticky than crackling, but the flavours by far made up for it.  The bitterness of the caramel was the perfect foil to a rich vanilla custard filling.  The Valrhona, hubby's choice, was a solid yeast donut completely immersed in an excellent chocolate icing.  The third, Tres Leches, was a winner for anyone like me, who loves sweetened condensed milk.  A cake doughnut with pockets of sweetened condensed milk in a milk icing.  I expected the doughnut to be also dipped in milk like the cake it's named after but really it was delicious as is.

I had a lot of trouble making a reservation for dinner, but I stumbled upon a great tip that Gramercy Tavern, my top pick in NYC, has a front room that does not require reservations.  We therefore had plans to have dinner quite early to avoid any wait times.  So we decided to stop by Aaron Sanchez's, of Food Network fame, Tacombi, in Nolita.  This adorable taqueria serves authentic latin fare in rustic surroundings reminiscent of an outdoor restaurant complete with a VW kitchenette and mood lighting.  Walking from the cold into this little spot really warms your heart; sitting down eating tacos really warms your stomach.

                 

With our early dinner in mind, we put a very conservative order in for a taco platter, a chef's selection of 5 tacos, and esquites, corn kernels in a cup with a chipotle mayonnaise and queso fresco.  I was really looking forward to trying the latter street food snack and it did not disappoint.  It was warm and filling, and packed a sweet, salty, spicy punch.

The tacos: al pastor with pineapple salsa, chicken with pickled onions, beef, corn and fish were all sensational, I'd have trouble picking my favourite one and would just opt for the platter again!  The manager, Eddy, saw me snapping pictures and sent us a platter of tortilla chips and guacamole and while we were trying to resist we finished it happily.  All of the ingredients were really fresh, the service was excellent and nothing can beat the laid-back vacation atmosphere.

Following some shopping and a bit of resting time, we headed to Gramercy Tavern for 5:45 hoping to avoid waiting to eat in the front room.  We were told it was an hour wait and we decided to walk around a bit.  We returned after 30 min to make sure we wouldn't miss our turn and were seated probably within 45 min of giving our name, which was pretty sweet.  The front room serves a four course Tavern Menu for 48$ or a short à la carte menu.  We both chose the Tavern Menu and it was a great value.

The first course of Arctic char tartare was my favourite.  Every component of this dish brought something to the table, pardon the pun, and complemented each other while highlighting the star, the fish.

 

The scallop course was also delicious: the scallop was cooked to perfection, the broth was flavourful and well seasoned and the mussels were fresh and succulent.

The steak course was very good, though the portion was a bit small, but really we ate plenty and did not need a full portion with the other courses.  We found the fingerling potatoes just slightly underdone and were not sure if that was intended, but the steak and chimichurri were really top shelf.

The little sundae was a great treat, good quality ice cream, cooked apples and little circles of puff pastry.  It was slightly sweet for me but still really good.

I would love to return next time to the dining room.

Grumman '78 ▪ Montréal

1616 Sainte-Catherine St W
Montréal, Québec
514.290.5125 
website

Elle has been talking about Grumman '78, a food truck that offered food on special occasions (since food trucks are not legal yet in Montréal), for a long while. We were never able to track it down but lucky for her, Grumman '78 opened a brick and mortar location at Le Faubourg's food court. While it's pretty quite at Le Faubourg, the addition of Grumman '78 makes it a good place to stop for affordable and original food. (We haven't written a post but head to Yuki Ramen for hand pulled noodles).

Grumman '78.

After walking around downtown and shopping (what else would we be doing?), we shared a sip-sac of jugo verde ($3), which was made up of celery, pineapple and parsley. Unusual combination of ingredients, but refreshing nonetheless. The juice is served in bags to replicate street food in Asia (or elsewhere); Elle observed with amusement that the juice is poured through a funnel, rather than directly poured in bags by the deft hands of Asian street vendors.

Jugo verde sip-sac.

As a general rule, if there is something deep fried, I will order it so I convinced Elle to share a portion of fried chicken ($4). The chicken drumstick was fried into golden perfection and slathered with truffled honey. Now I love truffle, but I find that not only does it often find itself on a menu unnecessarily, but you can't really taste it, just like this instance. Not sure they truffle was necessary. The drumstick was served with a side of creamy potato salad that both Elle and I also enjoyed very much.

Fried chicken.

Grumman '78 specializes in non-traditional tacos. Having had it on her first visit, Elle highly recommended the pork banh mi ($4). We're Vietnamese so we can't turn down banh mi when opportunity arises! The pork was roasted to a pulled pork consistency, and combined well with the pickled carrots and daikon. You can't go wrong with banh mi inspired food!

Taco Banh Mi.

For our second taco, we ordered the jerk chicken taco, mainly being attracted to the idea of jerk chicken. I should have read the description more carefully because I was surprised to see a cucumber, dill and yogurt garnish. The taco was also stuffed with rice. The taco was good but didn't meet the idea I had of spicy jerk chicken. It seemed a bit more Mediterranean influenced.

Taco Jerk Chicken.

On Elle's previous visit, she also had the Papas Grumman, fried sweet potatoes, which she raved about. I will have to try it next time! Our friend E (who has started her own blog) had a vegetarian taco of red kidney beans and feta. If you want to have tacos with a spin, Grumman '78 offers an affordable menu. I like that each item is well-priced so you get to try different things.

Amaranto ▪ Montréal

5974 Monkland
Montréal, Québec
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
514.510.1225

With no plans for dinner, Elle texted that she craved Mexican and suggested trying out Amaranto. Conveniently, the restaurant is walking distance from my condo so we headed out to try some authentic Mexican fare. Amaranto is located on a less busy part of Monkland Avenue, on the West side.

Elle and I first sat at one of their outside tables but it was rather windy so we went into the basement level restaurant. It's a spacious space with a small number of tables. The kitchen is open so you can see what's cooking. There's also a wall offering specialty Mexican food for sale, such as nopales (cactus) and Mexican herbs.

Amaranto.

I drank half of my hibiscus tea, or agua de jamaica, ($2.75) before I remembered to photograph it. The juice is made of dried hibiscus flower. It had a sweet and tart taste, reminiscent of cranberry juice. Elle liked it so much she bought a pack of hibiscus flowers to make for herself at home.

We were served complimentary tortilla chips with two salsa's. There's no better way to my heart than free food! Even better, when it's fried chips with great salsa's. The green salsa, made with tomatillo and habenero, was my favourite because of its spicy kick but the red tomato and chipotle salsa was also tasty.

Tortilla chips.

Elle and I decided to share a starter and ordered the cazuelita de queso fundido with chorizo ($8.25). When we topped a soft tortilla with the Oaxacan cheese mixture, the cheese was ooey-gooey, stringy and stretched for miles it seemed. The combination of the cheese and chorizo reminded me of pizza topping. How could one go wrong with that?

Cazuelita de queso fundido with chorizo.

Elle was very intrigued by the avocado soup ($4.99). The soup was as delicious as it was unique. Made of chicken stock, the soup had a generous amount of avocado purée in the middle, was dotted with pomegranate seeds and topped with crispy tortilla crisps. The soup was slightly tart from lime juice. The avocado in the soup was a wonderful and unexpected combination. My favourite part was the little pops of flavour that came from the pomegranate seeds. Outstanding soup and so original!

Avocado soup.

We also shared four tacos de pastor ($9.99). The marinated pork tucked in soft corn tortillas was delicious. The tacos were generously topped with coriander and onion, with a side of lime wedges. The tacos were quite satisfying.

Tacos de pastor.

Finally, we were in a mood to try out more new food so we decided to have dessert, and ordered the fried plantains ($3.50). Sour cream and condensed milk were drizzled and cinnamon was sprinkled on top of the plantains. The condensed milk nicely sweetened the plantains while the cinnamon gave the dessert a nice kick.

Fried plantains for dessert.

We were very happy with our meal at Amaranto. It's nice to know that you can find authentic Mexican food in Montréal. If you've never had the pleasure of having authentic Mexican food, Amaranto should be your next destination!