New Changes at Tacombi

It had been months since I last enjoyed tacos from my favorite little VW bus in Nolita. I stopped by the other day and there were certainly some changes afloat. First change- alcohol!



Tacombi now serves beer, wine and sangria. The watermelon and lime sangria sounded delicious so I had to try one of those. It was tasty but I was hoping for a stronger flavor. It was a little on the watery side. Next time I’ll be getting the Spiked Horchata instead.



They still make amazing Crispy Fish Tacos with spicy mayo and slaw. 



And a damn fine breakfast taco of tomato, pepper, onion and avocado.

But now they have two kinds of shrimp tacos, ceviche, tamales and a beef short rib taco that sounds amazing! They also switched up the stations so there is only one place to order and one to pick you. No more tickets! This made the line seem a bit long but everything really worked much more efficiently. Sometimes change is good and it certainly is at Tacombi.

Fabulous Fridays

Truth be told Sunday is my favorite day of the week but who doesn’t love a Friday as well? Fridays are great for me since I usually get out of work early and have some city time alone before the rush of the weekend crowd sets in. Last Friday I walked home across the Brooklyn Bridge, through Chinatown and into the East Village where my first stop was Abarco for a warm macchiato.

Then I hopped on over to Good Beer where I enjoyed a delicious Joan of Arc cider while I perused the shelves of beer for weekend imbibing.

After getting fully stocked I lugged my haul over to Momofuku Milk Bar and picked up some more weekend treats- birthday cake truffles.

And finally I ended up near home at the Madison Square Eats for their final night. Mr. T joined me and we enjoyed a hearty Imperial Black Ale from Southern Tier Brewing Company.

Then shared an awesome, creamy Brussels Sprout pizza that seriously rivaled Motorino’s version. Then we retired home for a nice scary movie to get into the Halloween spirit. What a perfect Friday!

The Hog's Pit

Mr. T and I find ourselves in this divey BBQ joint about three times a year.  I blame this solely on the rapid decrease in Megatouch machines.  It's honestly one of the last remaining bars I know of where it actually exists.  For those of us that grew up with this thing it's really a treat to find.  So usually we have a few beers and play some games.  Last time we actually decided to try out the food.  

We had the BBQ platter filled with Brisket, Pulled Pork, Ribs and of course some mac and cheese.  I'll admit I was kind of expecting the worse and it really wasn't bad at all.  The pulled pork was surprisingly juicy and the brisket was quite moist.  It's not in the standards of Hill Country across the street but for dive bar BBQ this stuff is pretty top notch.  So next time you feel like playing a few games of Photo Hunt or Trivia Whiz don't be scared to order up some grub.


The Hog's Pit

Emporio

I always walk by this cute rustic place so when a friend asked to meet up for dinner in SOHO I thought it was a perfect oppotunity to try it out.  It happened to be Happy Hour when I stopped in.

There was quite a nice spread out on the bar of various little snacks.

One could make a meal out of apertivo treats alone but we were here for dinner so I skipped the snacks and ordered appetizers instead.

The Chicken Liver Pate was wonderful and quite a large portion as well.  A nice layer of Bacon Marmalade sat atop the pate which really helped cut the fat and smooth out the flavor.  Unfortunately the Crab and Avocado special didn't fare as well.

This sounded great on paper but suffered horribly from hard unripened avocado and over-salted crab.  It was so bad we both had one bite and pushed it away.  Entrees fared a bit better, my friend loved her Whole Wheat Orecchiette with Lamb and Mushroom.

I went with the waitress recommendation and ordered Taglierini- saffron-flavored pasta, Florida rock shrimp, roasted tomato, marjoram and hot pepper.

I was honestly surprised at how bland this dish was.  I was expecting lots of spice and herbs but I only tasted  a little heat and barely any saffron at all.  It wasn't terrible but it wasn't that great either.

Overall Emporio was hit or miss.  If I found myself in SOHO again craving Italian I would certainly check out Rubiroso or Parm first.

Emporio

Chinatown Brasserie

We woke up this past Sunday a little too late because of the spring ahead change in time. The plan was to go to Chinatown for dim sum but we figured it was already too late and most of the good stuff would be gone.

Instead we headed down to Chinatown Brasserie where we knew we could get some good food, albeit more expensive.

We walked in around 1:30 and the place was packed! The entire waiting area was filled and there were no empty table. Luckily there were a couple of open stools at the bar.

I decided to try out one of their cocktails and ordered a Bellini martini.



This was little too sweet for my tastes. There was way too much peach puree and not enough prosecco. I wouldn't order one of these here again.

For starters we got some pan fried crab, shrimp and spinach dumplings.



These were a little bland. I was expecting a little more flavor from the crab but there was hardly any inside.



I'm not usually a big fan of the sauce they send it with so that didn't help. I thought the skin would be nice and crispy since it was pan fried but I guess I was wrong.

For our main dish we ordered the Crispy Orange Beef with orange zest, chili's and grand marnier.



This was excellent. The beef had an interesting texture of both crispy and chewy that I really liked. The sauce had a hot and sweet orange flavor that was wasn't too rich and syrupy like most places you get it. I really enjoyed this dish.

We also ordered some soup dumplings which would have been great except the dumpling dough itself kept sticking to the steamer. Every time we picked one up the dumpling would ripe and we would lose precious drops of soup. I'm not sure why this was happening but it kind of ruined the dumplings. 

Overall I did enjoy our meal. If the dumplings hadn't had the ripping problem they would have been spectacular. And I did enjoy having a fancy atmosphere for eating dumplings. It's a good alternative for those days when heading to Chinatown proper just isn't in the cards. 

Chinatown Brasserie

Happy Easter!!!

So my Easter wasn't too exciting this year. I woke up on Sunday not feeling well and so we cancelled our family plans. 

I had gone down to Black Hound bakery the day before to pick up some nice Easter treats. How cute do these look?



The one on the right is a Meyer Lemon Easter Egg cake and the one on the right is their Spring Strawberries & Cream cake.

I had planned to bring these treats for Mr T's family to enjoy but since we knew we wouldn't see them for a while we decided to enjoy them ourselves late Easter night. And they were fantastic!!

The Egg was filled to the brim with Meyer Lemon filling that was zesty, cool and refreshing. We gobbled this up before I got a shot.

The strawberries and Cream was just as good as the lemon.



Look at those big chunks of strawberry! The cake itself as really moist and light with layers of vanilla cream in between. The white chocolate icing was my favorite part. It wasn't too heavy or sugary and came with some vanilla cake crumbs on the bottom. Yum!! 

We devoured both of these. I feel a little bad not sharing with anyone else on Easter but at least it's an excuse for me to return. The people in the bakery couldn't have been nicer yesterday so I am happy to give them more service.


Black Hound

Cask Ales and Bacon Lollipops

Yesterday we hit up the first night of the Gotham Imbiber Cask Ale Festival over at Chelsea Piers. We knew we would be drinking lots of strong beers throughout the night so we started out by ordering some good beer food.

And there is nothing better than some big salty hot pretzels to go with the suds.



Mr. T and I have been to Chelsea Piers a bunch of times, usually in the summer, to sit out on the patio. While the food on their menu isn't fantastic, the pretzels consistently blow us away.

They're so big and buttery! And come with some melted processed cheese for dipping. Yum!!

As a special for the beer tasting they offered a cheese plate.



This came with 3 different cheeses of which I enjoyed the cheddar the best. It had a smokey flavor that went really well with the stouts we were drinking.

Now how about that cask beer!



Here is just one side of the menu. They had 39 casks all together and quite a diverse amount. We tried a bunch but these were the two winners in my book.

First the Flying Bison Warbird.



Okay, so I'm from near Buffalo and I'm a little bit biased, but this beer really is awesome. It's an Imperial/Double IPA that poured a slightly orange brown color with no head (cask beers don't usually have much head). The beer itself was quite smooth with hints of Carmel throughout and a slightly orange zesty finish.

For an 8% beer it's dangerously drinkable.

The other winner of the night was the Otter Creek Sea Otter.



This is a Baltic Porter from Vermont that poured a reddish black with a little bit of head. The beer had an excellent smooth chocolaty taste and the texture was almost velvety. I loved this beer and will definitely pick some up if I see it in the stores. I believe Whole Foods carries Otter Creek.

One more beer that I didn't get a shot of but needs a mention is the Sly Fox Ichor. This is actually a barleywine that would be a great after dinner drink. It was very sweet but for a 10% beer pretty light in body. 

Obviously this should be served in a small snifter instead of drank down in a 16oz beer glass like Mr. T did. But hey, this was a festival after all. Why not get a little crazy!

The festival itself was fun and well run. You had to buy a sheet from the bar of "tokens" and then bring it over the the cask table and they would give you the beers. 

The lines moved quickly and everyone really seemed to be enjoying themselves. We were lucky enough to have a table but there was plenty of room to stand if needed. Besides the fact that it was freezing cold inside the brewery, everything was fantastic.

Oh I almost forgot- the Lollipops!!!

We were drinking our beers when our friend pulled out this box. Bacon Maple Lollipops!!!



Apparently he saw them online and decided- hell why not! See the brown stuff inside! That's bacon!



So how were they? 

Pretty good I have to say! The outside tasted like a really sweet maple syrup, almost a little too sweet, but then you would hit the bacon and get a chunk of salty grissle. The whole texture was a little weird for me, and I don't think I would be eating these as a daily thing, but they were pretty good.

A sweet and savory taste combination I never thought I would have in a lollipop that's for sure.

So if you're into beer I recommend heading over to the festival. It runs all weekend long and they still have plenty of great beers to go though.

Gotham Imbiber Cask Festival

Chelsea Brewery