The Meatball Shop

200 Ninth Avenue

(between 22nd and 23rd Streets)

www.themeatballshop.com

The third outlet, with its Chelsea locale seems to be an inspired choice. With the neighborhood’s gay-friendly environment, the restaurant can have quite a bit of fun with its menu.

You can order your balls prepared the way you want it with your meat and sauce preference. Make no mistake, this restaurant does not offer your mother’s meatballs. They offer ball specialties of the day (it was lamb on the day we went for lunch) and a lounge bar that opens in the evenings called Underbar.

Although we went to lunch on a weekday at noon (as soon as the restaurant opened and allowed seating), the place quickly filled up in less than half an hour. So be warned, it's a highly popular hotspot with all types of customers--from girlfriends catching up at a lunch, to union guys grabbing some hearty heroes, to older touristy couples.

Staff is attentive and knowledgeable. They were also very accommodating as my friend wanted to replace some of the greens in her meal and they were more than willing to do so. I also was unsure as to what I wanted for a drink order. They had a lemonade special--tarragon--and kindly offered me a tasting in a shot glass. Way too spicy and syrupy so glad that they let me sample as I could not imagine having an entire glass of it.

The menu is interesting as it’s laminated so that the customer can mark his/her selection with a black marker that is provided in a jam jar on the wooden table.

I went with two sliders. I had a beef ball with mushroom sauce (which was very tasty!) and a spicy pork ball with pesto sauce (with lots of olive oil that soaked through the bread) and my friend ordered the Everything But the Kitchen Sink with the lamb balls (which I thought had too many nuts (a pun!)). The greens though that came with her order were very good as they were all crunchy (another pun!!).

The highlight to me though came with their homemade ice cream sandwiches prepared to your choosing. And the staff offered to split the sandwich for us so for easy sharing!

We chose espresso ice cream with a top cookie of brownie walnut and a bottom cookie of oatmeal raisin. That brownie walnut was warm and literally melting. So good!

We washed it all down with the pint of beer that I finally decided on, and the total came to $15/person for lunch. Definitely will come back to try some more ice cream sandwiches and for more balls (and another pun!!!).

Celebrity Apprentice - Ice Cream Challenge

I just started watching the last 4 episodes of Celebrity Apprentice - so over the top.  However, it shows you how one can succeed with good planning and extremely good contacts.  More you know with big bucks the more likely you will make money for your charity.

Anyway, yesterday was the last challenge.
                                        and
The finalists are Penn Jillette and Trace Adkins.

Penn's charity is Opportunity Village and Trace's charity is the American Red Cross.

Okay, I decided to do a taste test.

What a perfect opportunity for a blogger and a food blogger at that.

Hmmmmm....I am on a diet, but I can take a slight break.  It will just be a spoonful from each container.

I bought a pint of each.

Penn created the Vanilla & Chocolate Magic Swirtle.  This is rich vanilla ice cream with a sea salt chocolate swirl and fudge caramel candy pieces.

Okay, my spoon is curled up in there.  Beautiful swirl - interesting swirtle - supposed to be similar to a turtle back.  Vanilla looks gorgeous.  I sniffed at my spoon and the fudge gave a good powerful odor - remember my other blog about senses...looks delicious.  I love vanilla so it melts in my mouth.  The fudge is quite powerful and so sweet.  I think this is a winner.

Wait, let's test the other one now.  

This is created by Trace Adkins.  It is called Maple Macadamia Mash-up.  It is made of dry roasted macadamia nuts in maple ice cream.  Now, let's pop the top.  It is simply white.  I thought maple ice cream would be more yellow.  I definitely smell macadamia.  In goes the spoon in my mouth - very sweet and nutty.  Chewy.....that may be the better word.

Ohhhh, so yummy.  I cannot decide.  Wait, why do I have to make a choice at all?  I am not Donald Trump.  Why not pick both?  I do like the American Red Cross better, but I prefer the swirtle.

What do you choose?  Go ahead and head to Duane Reade or Walgreens and get these.

Do your own taste test.

Cafe Champignon

200 Seventh Avenue
(between 21st and 22nd Streets)
New York, NY 10011

Want to know a secret!

Cafe Champignon is a very low-key, cozy bistro among trendy, Chelsea hotspots.

The food is nothing spectacular; it's good, hearty fare (most notably you can order breakfast any time--hurrah! And they've just started offering Croque Madame on their menu--YUM!!). However, what's special about Cafe Champignon is that you feel as if you're in a Paris cafe. Servers also don't rush you and if you're a regular they always have a friendly and welcoming smile for you.

Wonderful place to catch up with a friend over half-priced drinks during a weekday Happy Hour or to just sit and relax and enjoy a cup of coffee.

Just make sure you go to the sit-down restaurant, and not the take-out space next door, which they share a kitchen with. There's also outside seating if you don't mind suffering the fumes of Seventh Avenue traffic.

And remember--please don't share this place with too many people. So, shhh!

Banc Cafe

431 Third Avenue
(between 30th and 31st Streets)
New York, NY 10016
www.banccafe.com

Came for a weekday lunch with one of my mommy friends on a lovely, spring afternoon at the Banc Cafe, which was formerly a 1920s bank. It was dark, spacious, with comfortable banquettes (lots of words associated with "bank" in this restaurant!). Overall, nice attempt for a Parisian-style atmosphere.

Service
Was extremely accommodating. My friend is pretty particular about her food and asked many questions regarding ingredients and substitutions. Our server remained good-humored throughout our stay and made quite a few trips to the cooks to check and query on our behalf.

Food
Every meal came with a complimentary bowl of soup! Choices were either chicken vegetable or french onion. I had the french onion--super good with just enough melted cheese. And the bowl was just the right size--not too big or too small. It was also not too hot, or too cold--we were able to dig into our soups right away. Goldilocks would have been right at home here!

Grilled tuna wrap: tuna cooked to your preference with guacamole, tomato salsa, watercress, caper mayo in a tomato tortilla. And it also came with a generous side of steak fries. The wrap had a zesty "zing" to it probably due to the salsa, and the fries were cooked to perfection. They had just the right amount of crispiness while remaining not too crunchy.




Not bad for $11!

SciCafe - Flavor labs - Science of Taste in American Museum of Natural History

This is not my usual type of blog.  No, I did not go to any restaurant nor any food-tasting event.

I actually learned something about myself at the SciCafe event at the American Museum of Natural History.

This is a monthly event that happens at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), but it is not available during the summer months of July and August.

It occurs during the first Wednesday evening of every month.

I confess that I sometimes do fall asleep - just too tired since this event takes place at 7 pm and sometimes it is just too dark in the room or exhibit area.

This event already took place on May 1, 2013.  The lecturer was Barb Stuckey, who is the professional flavor developer and author of TASTE: Surprising Stories and Science about Why Food Tastes So Good.

She discussed the five senses: touch, smell, see, hear, and of course, taste.

Then she talked about the 5 different tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and umami.  Huh?  What is umami, you may ask?  I wondered about that too since she did not give a very good explanation.

So, I did some research.  This is from the following link: http://www.edinformatics.com/math_science/science_of_cooking/about_taste.htm

"Umami is a Japanese word meaning "savory" or "meaty" and thus applies to the sensation of savoriness -- specifically, to the detection of glutamates, which are especially common in meats, cheese and other protein-heavy foods. The action of umami receptors explains why foods treated with monosodium glutamate often taste fuller or just better."    Ahhh, so this is MSG.....never knew that was a taste.

I also found out that I am a SUPERTASTER.  We all did an experiment.  There was litmus paper in a cup that was given to all attendees.  We were told to put that on our tongue.  YIKES!!!!!  THAT TASTED SO BITTER as I exclaimed in my seat.  Barb apologized to the Supertasters in our group and told us to eat the two crackers, which I wolfed down immediately.  That is on the extreme end of tasters.  There are also tasters, who cannot taste anything and they will eat anything since they cannot really tell the difference.  Most people are in the middle and can taste the bitterness, but it does not bother them like it did to me.  Now, I understand why some food affect me more than others.

Finally, try this at home.  Get a jelly belly or jelly bean.  Hold it in your hand and hold your nose with the other hand.  Pinch your nostrils shut - no cheating.  Let me wait.  Ready?  Okay, put the jelly belly or jelly bean in your mouth.  Chew on it with your nostrils pinched tightly closed.  Interesting, right?  Some flavor, but you cannot tell what exactly.  Okay, now release your nose and taste the difference.  Wow - can you taste that?  The smell affects your taste bud.  When I first did this experiment, it reminded me of that animated cartoon - Ratatouille and pictures of the bursts came in my head.  Such flavors and why one must need their sense of smell to enjoy what we eat sometimes.

The sense of sight is not really necessary except to make sure you are not eating sloppily.  When experiments were done with people tasting beer in the dark versus tasting beer in the light, they usually get it wrong when the lights are on.

Lesson learned - trust your sense of smell, don't trust your sense of sight too much, and I am a supertaster and can taste the flavors very well, especially bitter stuff.  AVOID MSG at all costs!!!

Bon Appetit!!!!