Balducci’s Apple Pie
Balducchi’s Food Lovers
81 8th Ave
(@ 14th St)
New York, NY
After walking past here a million times to meet up with the bf, I finally got the ballocks to go into this exclusive rich man’s supermarket. Only because that day, the bf asked me to wait for like 15+ minutes because he has some work that he needs to finish up. Anyways, I figure that I needed to cast away my fears and just go in. I have absolutely nothing to lose and I would be using my time efficiently.
Inside, everything look so classy and elegant just as I have expected. The word, “ORGANIC” seems to be everywhere. The people here obviously have no problem with money because they’re carrying bags upon bags of groceries. I saw this woman bought a few broccolis that cost like $2+/lb. I think it’s pretty hefty for broccoli. I buy my veggies from the cheaper markets in chinatown. Shoot, $2, I could buy a whole box of broccoli in chinatown. Well, not really, but you know what I mean.
After walking around the joint, I found heaven. There was a baked goods section with a ton of pies on sale! Yeah! Even when it’s on sale, it’s still expensive. $12.99 for a pie; original price $14.99. That’s entirely perverse. In my mind, I figured if it cost that much, it must be the best tasting pie in the world. It’s got to be!
Mmm, $13 pie.
Verdict: This pie lives up to my expectation. This is good shiet. The apples inside aren’t overly sweet, like the McDonalds’ ones, and the crumb crust is absolutely delicious. It’s nice and crunchy and it compliments with the pie nicely. After an hour, the pie was gone. That’s how good this pie is.
You only live once. Why not spurge once in a while and try an expensive pie?
Yesssss.
Masu Masu Asian Fusion Restaurant
Masu Masu Asian Fusion Restaurant
1116 Avenue U
btw 12th St & Coney Island Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11223
Avenue U, aka little Chinatown, is filled beyond filled with half-assed boring restaurants. If you live in this neighborhood like I do, you’ll know that the foods here aren’t the best. They taste what they’re supposed to taste like, but there’s just no creativity at all. Or they just plain suck.
With a lot of Japanese sushi bars popping up all over the neighborhood, it seems like none of them can be distinguished. Most of them have non-Japanese chefs making sushi, which absolutely grinds my gears, and the food seems to cater to americans or tourist. What happened to specialty rolls? What happened to creativity and love for food?
Well, Masa Masa is the answer to my prayers.
This is the only restaurant on avenue U, the gravesend neck road area, that tries to be hip and trendy. Thank you!! Most restaurants that you’ll see here don’t really try that hard to impress people with decor. I can understand because people here are simple and they don’t have the time to pay attention to those little details. Service and food is most important to the restaurant owners here. While that’s great, I think it’s time to get with the times.
I came here with the boyfriend after a morning run, and we were craving for dumplings. I am a huge dumpling fan and will almost eat any kind of dumpling as you will see in my prior and future posts.
Pork Dumpling
Never have I seen a dumpling that has such a thin, transparent-like skin. Dip this baby into the accompany soy sauce and your mouth will scream like it’s in heaven. I do have to admit that I was pretty excited because of the way it looked. Look how cute it looks! Unlike the ones that have thick skin and are incredibly doughy, this one doesn’t make you feel as guilty eating it. I really enjoyed this appetizer and absolutely craved some more. The pork is moist and tender and accompanied well with the lightly pan fried dumpling. I swear, you can pop a million of these in your mouth and still crave for me.
My rating: 4/5
Recommended!
Specialty Roll:
It’s been a while since I’ve eaten here and the name of this roll slips my mind. It contains medium well salmon, avocado, cucumbers, seasoned with sesame.
Price: $11.50
This roll is absolutely fantastic. The presentation alone is worth the price, especially in this neighborhood. I like the fact that the salmon is not completely raw, so it gives it a semi-rough texture which I truly love.
Highly recommended!
Rating: 4/5
If you want to order this roll, why don’t you print the picture and show it to the waiter/waitress? haha
California Roll
Price: $4.50
I will always love the Cali roll when it’s done right. I hate it when sushi makers skimp out on my dam rice. I probably said this a million times, but it’s true! I love the presentation and the size. The rice was not too hard, which is the way I like it.
My rating: 4/5
Recommended!
Salmon Roll
Price: $4.50
With a roll done right like this, what can go wrong? It’s a classic.
When you stop by the neighborhood, be sure to pay a visit. You won’t regret it!
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Soho Park Cafe
Soho Park
62 Prince St (near Lafayette)
New York, NY
(212) 219-2129
SUMMER RECAP:
On this beautiful summer day on Friday, July 20, the bf and I took a half day from work to go to the anime convention in Baltimore with a few friends. While waiting for them to drive down from Somers, I managed to the drag the bf to SoHo where I attended to shopping matters. Of course knowing me, I get hungry afterwards. Ah heck, when the hell am I not? I complained like a mad woman to the saint-like patient bf, and alas, after walking all over soho, we found this cute place called Soho Park. It didn’t look too pricey and dingy like a fast food restaurant which was a good enough reason to go in.
It’s packed in here, but amazingly it wasn’t loud at all.
You get a license plate after you make a purchase. Pretty neat huh? The purpose of this is to set it on your table so the server can serve you your orders.
Park Burger w/shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced pickles, tomato, and special sauce.
Price: $5.50; $7.50 w/fries.
I could have sworn that I ordered the Belgian fries, but apparently not. Oh well, regular fries will have to do even if everyone else around me is having that. Bahh. This burger is definitely not worth the price. Maybe it’s because I’m such a cheapo and prefer more bang for my buck, but I swear, I’ve seen bigger burgers for the same price.
Ok, so I may sound a little bias, but if a burger is of average size like this, it should at least make up in taste for it’s mediocre size. But no, there’s nothing special about the taste. The patty is cooked very well since it’s moist, juicy and gosh darn tender, but unfortunately it’s pretty bland.
This is what I get for ordering the most basic burger on the chopping menu. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad burger. It tastes pretty clean…almost organic, and it compliments well with the lettuce, pickle and tomato. I didn’t love this burger, nor hate it. Nonetheless it’s still comfort food which makes me happy.
My rating: 3/5
Recommended: No.
Dipping Sauce for Fries
Price: $.0.50
Your choice of:
Basil Mayo
Roasted Red Pepper
Garlic
Black Olive Mayo
Curried Mayo
Spicy Sambal Ketchup
Smoked Paprika
I swear, when you’re in SoHo, merchants will charge an arm and a leg for everything, even goddam dipping sauce. They should just have a giant pump with all the sauces and give it to us for free.
But I understand why they do it, I just want to gripe about it.
Left: Roasted red pepper; Right: Garlic
I did not like these sauces at all. I’m sure it’s just a personal preference, but the roasted red pepper is very strong and tasted bitter in my mouth. The garlic one is also strong, but I felt like I was dipping grease. Yuck.
The fries taste much better without the dam sauce, in my opinion. It’s already nice and salty so don’t even bother seasoning it. I liked it.
Herbed Buttermilk Red Onion Rings
Price: $5.00
This is by far the worst batch of onion rings I had in my entire life. Like, where’s the batter? I felt like I was eating greasy ass crispy onions. This is disgusting. And no amount of dipping sauce would help me through this arduous eating process.
Recommended: No way.
I love the look of this place, but unfortunately that’s essentially what you’re paying for.
Chelsea Gallery Diner
Chelsea Gallery Diner
72 7th Ave, New York 10011
(Btw 14th & 15th St)
212-691-5200
When I get a craving and there’s no White Castle around, I’ll settle for burger and fries at a diner. Something happy and magical about a diner that I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe because it’s loaded with fattening comfort food that sends me into a trans-like ecstasy mode. Yeah that’s it.
This diner is on the outskirts of Chelsea Village, literally blocks from the bf’s work site. When you know the restaurant isn’t trendy, or the waiters aren’t gay, you know you’re no longer in the heart of the rich Chelsea village.
Anyways, after when I pick up the king after work, we walked around to find a place that’s not too pricy and not too dingy, cause you know you get for you pay. So ultimately we settled for this joint.
As I walk in, I can’t help but notice that maybe there’s some kind of early bird special because all the old people in nyc are sitting right in my face. There are a sprinkle of young, my age, gay and lesbian couples here and there, but majority of them are old. They’re eating eating along, or they came with their girlfriends and families to chat. Not that I have a problem with that, it’s just a new experience that’s all. I thought I was at the old folk’s home or something. Let me tell you, this is certainly not a trendy place. The audience here is mainly caucasian, especially when I went there. But the people here are friendly and the staff are super cool.
The waiter, who’s pretty old himself asked us what we wanted to drink to start off first. Nothing goes down better with fries than a nice ice cup of pepsi. After I got my drink, I knew what I wanted to get.
Mushroom Burger!
Price: $6.25
I didn’t want to order something too heavy and I always think putting mushrooms into anything makes it healthy. I know it’s not, but as long as I dam well feel it is, then it is!
I forget that at a diner you have to essentially build your own burger. I kind of wished I didn’t have to because I’m such a lazy ass, and also because I think it’s better built because it can have all sorts of juicy sauces in it. This lacked that sauce. This isn’t your fancy smanchy high-scale diner joint; this place serves it to you the good ol fashion way — you build it and you can add ketchup, mustard, salt and/or pepper.
The french fries are the best. It just hits my sweet spot. That doesn’t mean to say that I’ll settle for any fry — I have to have a french fry that is crispy and golden on the outside, and soft hot on the inside. This fry wasn’t too thin or thick which is just the way I like it. I didn’t need to put any salt on this because it’s perfectly salted, but my bf only because he’s a salt-maniac!
The burger is very bland and dry especially if you don’t add condiments. I wish they made a special sauce with this burger, but at least the beef patty itself isn’t too dry.
Recommended – Only if you love mushrooms on your burgers!
Rating: 3/5
Bacon Cheeseburger w/ onion rings
Price: $6.75
Without repeating myself, all I can say about this burger that my bf ordered is that there’s bacon and lots of it. I love bacon and it makes anything taste great. I wished I ordered a side of bacons with my burger, shoot. I like my burger loaded with ketchup and a little of mustard like on my hot dog. Without it, your mouth is going to be bored sheitless, believe me. The only thing exciting on these burger plates are your side orders — in this case, onion rings which was crispy and somewhat golden on the outside, and sweet on the inside, which was somewhat the way I wanted it to be.
Recommended: Yes
My Rating: 3.5/5
Now I leave you guys with the city’s health inspection report.
CHELSEA GALLERY
72 7 AVENUE, MANHATTAN 10011
212-691-5200
Violation points: 26/28
Inspection Date: 07/13/2007
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
Sanitary Violations
1.) Non-food contact surface improperly constructed. Unacceptable material used. Non-food contact surface or equipment improperly maintained.
2.) Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to vermin exist.
3.) Wiping cloths dirty or not stored in sanitizing solution.
4.) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
5.) Evidence of flying insects or live flying insects present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.
6.) Eggs found dirty, cracked; liquid, frozen or powdered eggs not pasteurized.
