Yesterday was a rather exciting day, completely filled with lots of eating and fun people. Well actually the fun started on Friday, right after I got off work. Speaking of which, work is going quite well, if you care to know. I'm working with a really nice team of people in a super freezing office room, the client's break room is well equipped with awesome food including these fiber bars that I'm obsessed with and lots and lots of Kozy Shack rice pudding which I love almost as much as bread pudding. We get delivery for lunch everyday through seamless web (will do a long post on that soon, oh man, midtown is really a big lunch mess. If only places in the Village would deliver up here!) And my business cards finally arrived!! It makes feel soooo official. Like a real person. bwhahaha.
But let's get back to the subject. Friday night I met up with Tai and Shravani, friends from my freshmen year at NYU. I saw Shravani just a few weeks ago, but it's been at least two years since I've last seen Tai, so it was good reunion of sorts! :) We ate at Taj-Almoulouk in the East Village (just right across the street from Pinisi Bakery!!). It's a tiny restaurant, with about four tables inside and two outside. Lighting is dim - perfect for dates, not so much for picture taking, hehe. And the owners are super friendly people. You could tell they cared about the quality of their food from the way they executed our orders in the open kitchen down to how they asked our opinion of the dishes and actually stood to listen. Service was equally excellent and very friendly. I'm starting to think with Pinisi and Taj-Almoulouk put together, 4th St between 1st and 2nd Ave just might the street with the nicest store owners in the city!
Tai and I both went for the Lahambajin pizza, which is basically pizza done on pita bread dough. Put short, it was awesome. The dough was rolled cracker thin and topped with a mix of ground lamb, chopped onions, tomatoes and an interesting medley of spices. I say interesting, cause I honestly didn't know what any of the spices were. It hit all taste spots though, a bit spicy, sweet, almost cardamom-like, and my favourite was this purple spice sprinkled on right before sending out the pizza - it tasted exactly of ume! Except in super crunchy powder form...
Shravani had the Spinach Pie, a mix of spinach and mozzarella tucked into a very flaky dough that hovered between pita and croissant! There was only one small brick oven in the kitchen so it took a long time to get the food out. After the pizzas arrived there was a good 15 minute wait before Sharavani's spinach pie arrived. Nonetheless, good food takes time, and with such personable service it was hard to be anything other than happy.
And then REALLY HAPPY when the owner brought out a plate of rice pudding on the house! Chee. Oh man. And rice pudding is like. SUPER DUPER LOVE. I really love puddings of any sort, but bread, rice and banana puddings are at the top of my list. This particular rice pudding tasted heavenly of rosewater, with plenty of raisins and chopped pistachios. It was creamy like no other, with the perfect rice/pudding balance, the generous hand of rosewater was something I enjoyed, giving the pudding another subtle, sweet dimension. If I could have done dinner all over again, as good as the Lahambajin pizza was, I'd rather have three orders of rice pudding and call it a day :)
Post dinner I met up with Justin and Shann at a coffee shop on Ave A. We debated over whether we should go to a bar or eat dessert...and somehow ended up at Pinisi, which you can read about here. Justin spent the night in our apartment, and he was very happy, cause he checked his email on Shann's computer right after we got back and found out that he scored a million bagazillion on the LSAT!! Super duper congrats, Justin! :)
None of us went to sleep until past 2am that night...computer-ing sucks up sooooo much of our lives! And we got up at bright and early the next day. Or at least Justin did. Shann and I couldn't pull ourselves out of bed till near 10am. bwhahahaa. We made our way to one of my most favourite places on earth: Russ & Daughters! I love this place for not only having the most incredible smoked salmon on the planet, but also because they rock my cream cheese world, make mindblowing chocolate and cinnamon babbka's, and the halvah! Remember the chocolate covered halvah?! They've also got some amazing dried fruits that truly look like jewels. In fact, they look better than jewels! They look like MAGIC! Ahhh. I am in love with this place. And the very attractive guy who very expertly made my lox and bagel my very first visit to this place. I worship Russ & Daughters!
Okay. That last paragraph probably made me sound like a psycho. But really, just visit for yourself and you'll see what I mean :)
Well Justin wanted to see what I wouldn't stop talking about, so we made a morning visit where he picked up chocolate covered halvah bars, some of their gorgeous dried figs (above), and BAGEL PUDDING!!!
One Fig...Exposed! :)
Truth be told, I have no basis for comparison because I rarely eat dried figs. But my mouth knows what it likes when it tastes something, and yesssiiir. This dried fig I liked. Very much. A gentle bite is all you need to tear though the skin and into the moist figgy innards, sooo soft and tender, I love biting the little seeds and hear them make that cracky-snapple sounds. And it's creamy! So creamy! Like portable dessert encased in an edible skin. Which I supposed, is exactly the definition of dried fruit!
Justin took a bite and gave the rest to me. Now that's what I call a delicious friend, hehe :) Oh man. Okay. So you know BREAD pudding right? This is BAGEL pudding! And you'd think it'd be all wrong and everything cause you know, bread pudding made with croissants, or brioche or danishes would be super awesome. But bagels? Would it work? Would it be oh-so-yummy? Yes & Yes! In fact, it was more than just yummy, it was this crazy conglomeration of pudding and bagel chunks melded together in one sweet homogenous mass. Usually I disdain homogenous bread-based puddings cause they tend to be dry and heavy. But this was not the case. This was perhaps the most moist pudding I've encountered, filled with juicy plump raisins the size of the MOON. Sorry, that was an exaggeration. But honestly, the raisins were THAT big. And they were sweet. Soooo sweet! And prunes too! Raisins & prunes. And pudding. Oh my goodness, you see why I love this place so much now?
We moved onto the Greenmarket just to wander around, it's super busy and all on Saturday mornings, and while some people may dislike crowds, I get strange comfort in seeing a sea full of strangers in search of good produce, baked goods, meats, cheese, and plants! It's better than the isolation of Claremont as far as I'm concerned. Justin and I paused at this stand to eye the variety of teas by the cup for sale.
There's enough variety to suit all whims: clockwise from top left is ginger-cayenne (with maple syrup, peppermint/spearmint (unsweetened), peppermint/spearmint (sweetened with sugar), and sweet basil & mint (sweetened with honey).
Justin pouring our pick of the Ginger-Cayenne sweetened with maple syrup. By the way, this dude was totally my high school prom date, hehe! In middle school we were square dancing partners and sat next to each other in Chinese class. Ahhh...high school seems so far away. I feel like I'm getting old so quickly!
The tea in mid-pour. Holey moley baby, this tea burned! When you first take a sip, it just tastes cool, no hints of maple syrup and just the lightest whisper of ginger. It's not till the tea goes down your throat that the cayenne decides to kick in hard, whooooa. Burn, burn! But it's nice burn, so long as you don't chug the tea. Which you shouldn't do anyways. We walked through the rest of the market, eating our way though a pint of concord grapes and eyeing the market in sheer wonderment of all this energy, and food, and happiness. I looooove the Greenmarket!
So. Russ & Daughters and Greenmarket accounted for two hours of Saturday morning. The rest of Saturday was a REAL BIG ADVENTURE. FULL OF FOOD!! And DESSERT! Involving Robyn and Shann. Locations: Red Hook, Brooklyn, Chinatown and East Village. Food: The Red Hook vendors, Key Lime Pies with a Surprise and Pork Chops and Diet Coke. Oh yes. And Ice Cream, Marshmallows, and Brownies! I will post in tomorrow, Tuesday at the latest, but check back tomorrow. And you super duper won't be disappointed :)
Hope you had an awesome weekend, cause tomorrow is MONDAY which means...I gotta get up early for work!
Taj-Almoulouk
125 E 4th St
NY, NY 10003
(212) 982-4868
Russ & Daughters
179 East Houston St.
NY, NY 10002
(212) 475-4880
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