First Course
Ristorante Asellina
Bring mom here for a special meal. Located in the Gansevoort Hotel Park South, this spectacular restaurant is going to have a pop-up flower shop with hand-made bouquets and a rosewater cocktail for every mother during brunch. Executive Chef Marco Porceddu has created a special menu for mom which includes many innovative Italian dishes. Flower service is available from 11am to 1pm and brunch is from 11am to 4pm. All dishes are a la carte and don't forget to ask for the special dish list. Menu items include Shrimp Frittata with Zuccini, Mushrooms, Tomoni Cheese, Fresh Herbs, Sage and Orange Pappardelle with Monk Fish, Watercress and Pacific Sole with Caramelized Belgian Endive, Celery Root Sauce. You can also have a Champagne and Butternut Squash Pudding.
Throughout New York City, you can find that many restaurants offer a prix-fixe meal that could include 3-course to 10-course meals. Alongside the menu is normally a list for a suggested wine pairing, from a Gruner Veltliner with your oysters and a bursting-with-fruit forward Beaujolais to go with your Roasted Duck. This is a lovely experience to indulge yourself in but what happens when wine is not your forte and you don’t necessarily care to pair it with your dinner? Many non-wine drinkers tend to gravitate towards a house cocktail or draft beer.
Lucky for you, in midtown something fun is happening every Wednesday. At newly opened Little Town Restaurant Row, they will be offering a Beer Tasting and Dinner Pairing once a week through June 27th. Starting back in the beginning of April, every month a new brewery that’s served among one of their 100 locally source brews will be offered. As the sommelier fills you with knowledge on the beer flight, Executive Chef Jordan Andino will prepare specially selected savory dishes from all over New York to pair with your brewski.
Moms are special people and even more special if they can cook! Our moms make our favorite meals on our birthdays, the perfect chicken soup when we’re sick, and she bakes the cookies that holidays wouldn’t be the same without. This Sunday is Mother’s Day, the day when moms all over the country get served breakfast in bed and you actually need to do your chores when asked the first time. So what’s the perfect present for the mom who loves to cook and has passed on her love of cooking, or just eating delicious foods, down to us? Here are five great ideas for the foodie mom in your life!
While some residents of NYC were busy drinking margaritas in sombreros last Saturday there was another food event happening hidden below the Brooklyn-side of the Manhattan Bridge. The LUCKYRICE Night Market was part of the week-long LUCKYRICE Festival (May 1‑7th) hosted by LUCKYRICE, a media and marketing company whose motto is "If we are what we eat, we're all part Asian." LUCKYRICE specializes in bringing the diversity of Asian culture and cuisine to North American diners. In celebration of the festival’s third year, the 2012 LUCKYRICE Night Market paid homage to the unique experience of an Asian night market.
Poor New Jersey is always getting a bad wrap like a wicked redheaded stepchild that no one loves. Never fear NJ, you can stand on your own two feet when it comes to restaurants! New Jersey, even if New Yorkers will deny it up and down, boasts a collection of restaurants that rival its neighbors in New York and Pennsylvania. Forget the PATH, NJ Transit, or taking a bus over from Jersey for a nice dinner out; you’ve got plenty of great restaurants nestled right in your own backyard!
CulinAriane (33 Walnut Street, Montclair)
If you live in the Magic City you know Miami is never short-changed on fun things to do. From farmers markets to private cooking lessons with a professional chef, Miami won’t let you down. There are plenty of fun foodie happenings going on throughout the city. Here’s a peak at what’s going on in the month of May.
Afternoon Tea
1435 Brickell Avenue
305 381 5590
Every Wednesday through Saturday from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m., for $24 per person, guests can enjoy the time-honored tradition of high tea in the beautifully decorated 14Thirty-5 Lounge. There are thirteen different tea blends to choose from. Whether you like traditional Earl Grey or need something to take the edge off like their Pear Green Tea Vodka cocktails, there’s a cup, or martini glass, of tea for you. Enjoy snacks like cucumber sandwiches or a pin-wheel of oolong tea-smoked salmon with dill and avocado, a choice of blueberry or cran-orange scones with clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam and orange marmalade, and Miami-inspired sweets such as tropical fruit mousse cake.
There is perhaps no other instituion on Collins avenue more symbolic of the South Beach renaissance that occurred in the 90's than The Delano. Ahead of the game back then, the iconic Philippe Starck-designed hotel continues to be ahead of the curve by periodically reinventing itself, which usually includes changing up some of the restaurants. One of the newer additions to the hotel's dining options is Bianca, an Italian restaurant that opened with a typical SoBe bang this past January and seems to continue to do well.
The fare at Bianca consists of that brand of Italian cuisine that become to be a trademark of Miami Beach dining - closer to the Italian cuisine eaten in Italy than to the red sauce, spaghetti and meatballs Italian-American cuisine that the rest of the country is probably more familiar with - which translates into homemade pastas, fresh seafood, and light antipasti. Starting on Mother's Day, Bianca will be "putting the B in brunch" with a spread that includes Italian delicacies alongside much-loved brunch staples. Menu offerings will include a selection of sushi and rolls from Umi Sushi & Sake Bar, which took the place of Blue Sea, as well as a selection of chilled shellfish, Bloody Mary Oyster Shooters, and caviar. The buffet will also include an array of charcuterie, prosciutto, and artisan salumi alongside signature homemade Bianca pastas. Of course, no brunch buffet is complete without the requisite omelet and Belgian waffle stations, and in true brunch buffet form, Bianca will also be offering a carving station featuring rosemary prime rib. The restaurant's head pastry chef will also be offering his dessert and pastry creations.
She gave birth to you, she raised you, she loved you, and if you're lucky, she probably cooked for you, too. Mothers are, without a doubt, extremely important. While we should be good children and celebrate our mothers every day of the year, it is on Mother's Day that we go all out and really show our appreciation to that woman who did so much for us. While Mother's Day celebrations are only limited by one's imagination, it seems as if the consensus is that a lavish brunch in in order....at least that's the idea that Miami's many restaurants offering Mother's Day brunches are seemingly pushing. Here are few suggestions that stand out:
The big story on the New York Post today is that Long Island's 'Hotdog Hooker' Catherine Scalia is in hot water again for slinging more than Ballparks out of her camper. After doing a 4 year stint in jail from 2004 to 2008 for similar charges, the Hotdog Hooker is back in the slammer after an undercover cop caught her offering up off-menu weiner services.
It was only a matter of time before the shameless weiner wrangler was nabbed again as she did little to cover her tracks. Amongst her clearly guilty behavior, she handed out business cards titled "Strips-R-Us" offering "bachelor party" services, "stripteases," and "topless cleaning." She also previously posed for some ridic pics (inset), weiners in hand, chest out, with a mischievous smirk (inset).