It’s story time! Once upon a time, I lived in this tiny little craphole in the East Village. It was the East Village and that part was nice, but it was a craphole so it wasn’t. I rarely invited friends over, because it was a craphole AND there was nowhere to sit. I had guests sleep in the kitchen. Yep. Welcome to New York!

Anyway, one dark and cold winter night, I was walking home from The New School for Social Research (graduate degree I’m not using, what!) and I happened upon the good ol’ Dessert Truck near Cooper Square.

I approached the truck with hope and ordered a molten chocolate cake to go, asking if it would still be warm by the time I made it home. The sir promised me it would and when I got home I discovered that he was right! Used my plastic spoon and took a picture of said molten chocolate cake and sent it to my momma. Success.

I found out a while back that The Dessert Truck had gotten a storefront, Dessert Truck Works and a recent video from Amy Blogs Chow prompted me to finally go check it out. With my momma, of course.

That sign is cute! We went for the chocolate bread pudding and their espresso panna cotta:

Oh man. We almost died. For real. I need to go back there. And you need to go there too. Or stop at the truck and carry it all the way home. :)

So after church on Sunday I told my friend Lucy that I had something to tell her and it was going to make her mad. Now Lucy is someone you can’t really imagine being mad, and even she had no idea what I could say that could anger her.

Until I told her where I went for a late-night bite on Friday. This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef. Lucy has tried to get me to go there more than once and I would whine because I’d heard bad reviews, so we never went there. Well, I happened to find myself there on Friday night after going to the Poetry Project and the only thing I had had for dinner was beer. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Haha. I was supposed to walk a few blocks for something that I did not want before but at that exact moment sounded like the only thing I ever needed. And it was.

So you can order your roast beef “This Way” or “That Way,” which are the names of the subs. They have more, but these were teh ones we wanted. The one at the top is a “This way,” with Cheez Whiz! And then…

That Way! With mozzarella and au jus! Absolutely delicious! And there were pickles! And we got amazing french fries!

So basically, don’t knock it until you try it. And sorry, Luce. Next time you wanna go, I won’t complain. :) Seriously, it hit the SPOT.

Other note: This Little Piggy was chock full of MEN after we got there. And us pretty ladies were eating our delicate sandwiches at the front counter in front of all of them. It was kind of hilarious.

Other note number two: Vinny, the guy at the counter, was awesome. He remembered our names on the way out, which gives them an automatic plus ten points for customer service. Way to go, Vinny!

Look who finally went to the Clinton Street Baking Company! This girl! And MB!

This was my third attempt going to this overly popular, little pancake heaven. And third time is the charm. Usually when I go with people, (always on the weekends, cause we’re really smart) whomever I’m with takes one look at the line and jumps ship. I knew with yesterday being President’s Day and a lot of people off of work, we’d have the same kind of wait, but MB was a trooper and we waited together for… dun dun dun… just over two hours! Two hours for pancakes? These girls have got to be crazy. And we are. But so were the five billion other people standing in the cold.

We had lots to catch up on and found a bench across the street in the sun, so it wasn’t bad at all. And guess what, it was worth it. It is Pancake Month afterall.

First things first. MB ordered a coffee when we first sat down so I got myself a little hot chocolate:

It was realllly good. I fear it may be encroaching on the number one top spot in my book of hot chocolate in NY, which is currently The Adore. This had the perfect amount of cocoa and the perfect amount of sweet:

I will come back to the Clinton Street Baking Company just for this.

And now what we came for… the panacakes!

I mentioned it was Pancake Month, so Clinton Street had a different flavor every few days and yesterday’s was raspberry, chocolate chunk. Also, the syrup is fantastic. MB was singing its praises before we got our food and now I know exactly what she was talking about. It’s not as sticky as your run-of-the-mill maple syrup, and I’m not sure exactly what it is, but it’s really smooth. Like butter. So maybe it’s butter.

Because the pancakes are so, so sweet, we got some eggs so that we could split two orders:

Why is breakfast the best meal ever? We also got some sugar-cured bacon which was delish. And here are the pancakes after we gave them some love:

Perfect.

Also, if anyone has any interest in perhaps MB and I starring in a show on the Food Network or something, where we travel and eat foods from all over in search of the BEST, let us know. I mean, I know there’s a ton of shows like that already out there, but they don’t have us! :)

Hi. Those are sliders. On top is onions. All delicious.

Let’s have a chat. When I hear the restaurant is called “Matchbox,” I immediately think of a few things. First is Smashbox, the makeup brand. Second, would be Matchbox 20. Third would be a boxcar and fourth is an actual matchbox. I’m not sure why I felt that was important, but I did.

Now, tell me we’re going to a pizza place in D.C. called Matchbox and I think first, that the best pizza is already in New York, and second, I should expect white and red checkered tablecloths. Perhaps it was because Matchbox was billed to me as the “pizza place down the street” that I had such low expectations, because let me just say, Matchbox is not your typical pizza shop. Do you order heaping plates of sliders at your pizza shop with gorgonzola cheese? I didn’t think so.

Matchbox is not a pizza place. It is a really good restaurant and one of its dishes happens to be pizza. So here it is:

Tempura sandwich for Missy.

Crab soup for P, which I ate.

Pizza also for P, which he ate.

Meatball pizza for Benny Boy.

I didn’t take a picture of everyone else’s food because we weren’t besties yet.

And I hate to say it (not really) but I was the winner. Since we were there on Sunday morning during brunch hours and there was an actual brunch menu (not to mention that I, as a New Yorker <3 brunch), I ordered something completely off the charts:

Stuffed french toast. With honey cream cheese inside. Maple butter. Fruit Salad. Complete.

I am nice and I share and everyone who tried it almost died. It was amazing.Why is it that you can put cream cheese with anything and it is pretty much delicious? Bagels? Check. Cheesecake? Check. With pickles and bologna (don’t ask)? Check. French Toast? CHECK. It is goooooood.

So Matchbox was fun. And I love going out to eat with large groups of people. Oh and this is what their menus look like:

And here is the entire gang:

So basically, if you’re in D.C. and you need a place to go for some good eats, I would definitely recommend Matchbox. Leave your preconceived notions behind.

In other news, when we were there, we saw a kid wearing a “South Butt” sweatshirt. Apparently this is a thing. (Get it, North Face, South Butt?) I digress. I like Matchbox. The end.

We have another birthday girl on our hands! Yesterday my cousin Melissa came to the city for the day to finally celebrate her birthday at Gotham Bar & Grill. Gotham Bar & Grill is one of the best restaurants in the city and practically across the street from my office, so I was more than happy to tag along.

Melissa, her friend Angela, and I ordered off the prix fixe lunch menu and we were not disappointed. My selections were:

butternut squash soup

Papparadelle with veal (amazing)

and, of course,  chocolate cake!

Their chocolate cake is probably my favorite in all of New York, it is just so light! Every time I cut a bite with my fork, I wondered how they make it. I would love to see that. The ice cream was some sort of mocha flavor with chocolate chips, which is another favorite thing of mine. Chocolate chips = love.

So, I love Gotham Bar & Grill is what it really comes down to. It’s such a nice place and the service is impeccable. You feel like everyone really cares and they are trying their best to take care of you. Angela thought going to Gotham was just a regular ol’ thing for me. I wish! I’ve been one other time with my friend Joe, when we split a bottle of wine during Summer Restaurant Week and I was delirious in happiness. Haha. I love these days.

And I’m not the only one who takes pictures at restaurants!

When she made the reservation, Melissa told them they were celebrating birthdays so at the end of our meal they brought out a little plate with a bunch of mini desserts on it.

Cute but not even comparable to their chocolate cake. An A for effort though, and for everything else. :)

Michelle left me yesterday. But not before we went for some Grimaldi’s Pizza in Brooklyn!

We took the train to Dumbo and walked to Brooklyn Heights. The area between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges is one of my favorite areas in Brooklyn; so many good things. And yeah, that was my second time there in one week, what of it? :)

Grimaldi’s: Pizza for tourists and locals alike. There’s always a line on the weekends but the wait is always worth it. We waited about 40 minutes which wasn’t too bad. It’s kind of fun to stand in line and hear what people are talking about, sometimes you can learn a lot. Oh, you’re from where? What restaurant did you try last week? What documentary were you working on? I’ll have to check that out.

(Sidenote: Who says “on line?” What is that? You wait IN line, not ON line. Where are these people FROM?)

Once inside, we tried to figure out if the guy and girl next to us were on a first date. Awkward questions with awkward responses? That’s always a fun game. Probably even more fun when you’re eating Grimaldi’s pizza.

Hmm. Didn’t I just make a post about pizza the other day? It wasn’t Grimaldi’s though, and hey, it’s New York: there are a thousand pizza places, a hundred of them are excellent and I’ve probably only been to three. So yeah, this is not my last pizza post.

The cheese on their pizzas is just delicious and you can see them make the pizza right in front of you and throw it into the coal oven. We ordered sausage and pepperoni, a great combination. Also the one I get every time. Do I need to get more creative?

Nah.

This is Michelle. She flew into NYC for the weekend to visit and I made her play model for me. As you can see, she got a little bored. We went to my friend’s Gossip Girl-themed birthday party on the LES Saturday night and she wore a dress from the Anna Sui for Target collection, which was inspired by the show. Yeah, girl.

One of our first stops for the weekend was the Doughnut Plant.

Um, yeah. If you’ve never been here, you don’t know what you’re missing. I mean, it’s not just doughnuts, it’s a way of life.

I made her get the blackout doughnut and a creme brulee doughnut which is exactly what I got too. At first she wasn’t convinced, but after her first bite, there were no complaints. She couldn’t believe how good they were either. Of course there are more options (tres leches for one) but the blackout and creme brulees are too good for me to pass up for anything else.

The blackout is a cake doughnut but to me, it’s really just cake. It’s so chocolatey: chocolate crumbs on the top and gooey chocolate in the middle. It’s hard to describe but basically, you should get one now. A word to the wise: The Doughnut Plant is closed Mondays. I learned that one the hard way.

And the creme brulee:

Another not-your-average doughnut. It may be small on size but it is huge on taste. My mom’s favorite dessert is creme brulee so she absolutely loves these doughnuts.

After the Doughnut Plant, we somehow found ourselves in the middle of the San Gennaro Festival.

We played tourists and took pictures just like everyone else.

And guess what we found… cannolis!

I am actually am not much of a cannoli fan, but Michelle was happy to see them and bought a mini one for two dollars. The stand had all kinds of mini cannolis; peanut butter, birthday cake, apple pie and mint chocolate chip were some of the flavors. I was tempted, but not tempted enough. Michelle decided to go with the plain.

The San Gennaro fest is basically games, rides, cannolis, gelato, fried oreos and grilled meats. The grills smelled pretty good.

She is wondering what to do with all of these food options.

The peppers looked good too.

I have never been to a place like this in the States. It’s basically a gelato restaurant. And it’s delicious. The menu is pages upon pages of beautiful gelato creations made with all kinds of ingredients and toppings. And the presentation is phenomenal.

Every time someone would walk by with a tray of gelato we would say, “Look at that one!” Some of them were GInormous and some of them came with cake or a giant piece of chocolate. You could also order cones and such at the window but we wanted to go for the gold and get some gelato creations.

Ingo gave us the tip on this place in Potsdamer Platz and when we found it our jaws almost dropped. It takes up an entire end of the second floor of a mall. We snatched a table in the center as soon as some kids got up and went over the menu. My mom ended picking something with vanilla and banana gelato and all kinds of fruits. Mine was chocolate-based (duh) with stracciatella gelato and hot chocolate! Part of it was like pudding. Mmm!

This place is so good we went back a second time. Hey, we were in Berlin for five days and we wanted something good for dinner our last night in town. Yes, I said dinner.

And here is what we got that time:

Half-way through:

I thought I was going to die after this. But a good death.

For the record, I did not eat this. Not that there’s anything wrong with eating this giant, juicy burger here per se, it’s just that I had already eaten most of my lunch when I decided to meet up with my friend Lisa at Stand yesterday. And also, a certain someone was recently looking at my blog and asked me, “Geesh, how much do you EAT?”

Well…

Haha.

Anyway, Lisa got a cheeseburger and those fried darlings in front are fried pickels. We tried to split some shoestring fries but they ended up being a little too stringy for me. When I think shoestring, I think more J. Alexanders (yeah, it’s a chain, but a damn good one that for whatever reason is missing in NY) and less what I got here.

But I could not sit at Stand empty handed, especially since I’ve walked by the place countless times in the past two years and never actually tried it. So I got me a milkshake. Just plain chocolate but it was plain delicious. In fact, I’d say this chocolate shake is probably one of the better ones I’ve had in New York (yeah, I’m talking to you, Shake Shack). Another plus was the straw. It was HUGE so all those yummy chocolate chunks won’t get stuck.

Lisa got a Vanilla Kahlua shake and if I go back, I’d go for the toasted marshmallow shake because it came with toasted marshmallows on top and that’s just cute. So’s the fact that there’s currently a painted cow sitting in front of the establishment.

This weekend, to my mother’s dismay (she would have rather gone to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory) we stopped at Jacques Torres’ ice cream shop in Dumbo. It opened sometime in the past year and I was finally able to try it a month or two ago. I thought it was quite swell, their chocolate chip cookie ice cream has both chocolate chip cookies AND chocolate chunks in it. Yes, please.

By the way, their Wicked chocolate ice cream is called that because it’s got a spice to it. We tried it but I think I’m a purist when it comes to chocolate. Or I just don’t really like spicy things. I think Chocolate Chip Cookie is the way to go.

And afterward, we took a little walk towards the Brooklyn Bridge. Wasn’t a bad night.

Ignore the blur, please. But look, I caught a plane in the sky!