I’m sorry.  I haven’t posted in a great while.  It’s not because I haven’t eaten anything in 2 weeks (I have!), it’s just that I have been quite busy at work and haven’t had a chance to hone in on places worthy of this here blog.  Yesterday that all changed.  Alas!  My family met me at work and we trekked on over to Cookshop, located on the corner of 20th St. and 10th Ave.

After squeezing ourselves into the chairs situated outside and one of our glasses shattering on the concrete during our hostess’ efforts while fidgeting with our table, we opened our menus to peruse the constantly changing menu.  I ordered the Hudson Valley rabbit duo, complimented with vine beans, pioppino mushrooms and apricot relish.  My pop ordered Atlantic black bass with sauteed spinach, grilled lemon, pickled red onion and parsley salsa.  Not pictured in this post were my sis and mom’s orders, which were the Vermont roasted leg of lamb (sun gold tomatoes, wild arugula and salsa verde) and the Globe eggplant lasagna (three cheeses and five minute tomato sauce), respectively.

The rabbit was prepared with a grilled rabbit leg and a poached rabbit loin, the loin of which contained a pesto-like sauce inside of it.  I deemed it delicious.  The apricot relish on the side was outstanding and had a sweet flavor to compliment the rabbit.

My dad had the whole Atlantic black bass. I sampled it from him and the moistness of the fish was unparalleled. He was finished with his dish before anyone else so I think he enjoyed it. My sis loved her lamb and while I enjoyed my mom’s eggplant lasagna (the mascarpone gave the lasagna a lemony taste), my mother was not as great of a fan of it due to the eggplant skin remaining on it.

Dessert rolled around, something my family always has room for, and we pulled no punches. I had the lemon ricotta with fresh berries on poppy seed shortbread. It was tart but a nice way to conclude my meal.

My mom and dad had the Summer Fruit Streusel. The fruits inside were blueberries, blackberries, nectarines and plums. It was tart as well, but the vanilla bean ice cream sweetened the streusel fine enough.

My sis had the chocolate cake with caramelized bananas, salty caramel ice cream and topped with caramel sauce for good measure. This one went over quite well with the ladies in the family.

Overall, having gone to Cookshop previously only for lunch I was extremely satisfied with their dinner menu. For some nice local ingredients and a satisfying meal, I recommend Cookshop to anyone around the lower west side of Manhattan.

“This blog is starting to take its toll on me.” Those were the first words that popped into my head when this rounded mountain of meat and luscious Vermont Cheddar rolled out in front of me during my lunch trip to Prime Burger at The Old Homestead Steakhouse.  On a casual side note, if you visit their website and find yourself marveling at their awesome Flash website, I won’t blame you.  I totally worked on that page at my old job.  Anywhose, back to the food…

My veggie headed work friends ordered the Crab Cakes (or cake if properly titled), which came accompanied with that cole slaw/salad type thing right above….um, yeah.  They said the portion was a bit too tiny for lunch though they said it tasted reasonably good.

Coworker Shauna ordered the Artisanal Burger with Blue Stilton cheese. This burger was so colossal that they had to jam a thick stick straight through it to keep it from teetering over. As one could assume, these titans of meat were very messy but the bun was extremely soft.  I’d prefer a thicker bun so the meat isn’t all you tasted but the choices of cheese balance the seasoned beef nicely.

Interior view of the carnage.  I was tempted to pull the trigger on Old Homestead’s $40 Kobe Wagyu beef burger, but instead decided to save that for another future date.  I was also surprised to find out Old Homestead now has an $81 burger that actually has a 4 ounce sirloin steak INSIDE of it’s already hefty 14 ounces of 100% “Grade Five” Kobe Wagyu.  Intense to say the least.  Way intense.

My friend Eli threw a 365 party in honor of living in his apartment for a year. I brought the cheese I bought from the Bedford Cheese Shoppe in Williamsburg. I provided a sharp cheddar and a bleu cheese. Veggie burgers and veggie sausages were made for the hippies, while I grilled up some good ol’ burgers. Even some corn was tossed on the grill.

As the party winded down, a couple of us trekked over to Creperie to enjoy some fantastic crepes on Ludlow. They scolded me for taking pictures of the crepe making process (for some reason), but I was able to snap off a couple of drunken shots first.

I got the apple, brie and walnut one. It was delightful. Picture was never taken because I possibly devoured it too quickly.

Yes. Finally got around to make my way to Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. As part of my birthday celebration, some coworkers took me over there to enjoy some wonderful Shake burgers for lunch. The place is notorious for it’s long wait (they even have a camera on their website to monitor it 24/7) and today was no exception. We waited an entire HOUR on line to place our order. The group was in high spirits though and were equally psyched to receive their dogs, burgers, fries and shakes…eventually.

I ordered a Shake Burger, Double Shack Burger, fries and a Black & White Shake. The shake tastes EXACTLY like the cookie it gets it’s name from and is super rich and thick. After scarfing all this food, I felt quite ill. Not gonna lie, it’s totally worth it. The line makes you think the food won’t live up to the hype, but it does. The special sauce and fluffy potato bun make for a great balance to the burger. My compadres got the Bird Dog, Shake Shack’s chicken hot dog and Julia reported that one of the casings was rather difficult to break through for her dog. Disappointing, seeing as you shouldn’t have to battle with your hot dog to eat it.

Overall, I love the burgers at the Shack and if you’ve never gone, I highly recommend. If you have gone and hate the line, try going later at night or sometime when the weather gets cooler. This place is not designed for quick lunch breaks.

Eaten at Peter McManus Café on 7th Avenue. While the pitchers kept rolling to our table, I had to absorb the flowing beer with some greasy bar food. Of course I tried their burger. Dug the steak fries and the Muenster cheese gave the greasy burger a nice kick. The bacon could have been cooked a little more but if I ever go back to McManus’, I’ll definitely try their decent McManus’s Chelsea Cheeseburger again.

Dope fresh.

Earlier this week I went to Los Dados with a couple coworkers for a nice little lunch.  They have a lunch box special that includes an appetizer and either a taco, chalupa or enchilada for $11. Not a bad deal, but their portions tend to be on the tiny side if you don’t make wise choices for each.

The poor choice for appetizer. Mango Pineapple Salsa. While delicious and sweet, chips already come to the table with some dip so all you’re getting for you appetizer is this little cup. Yeah, that’s it.

The wise choice for appetizer. My buddies Matt and Julia had the Organic Greens with Lime Vinagrette. Portion seemed more rewarding, no?

I ordered the Chicken Chalupa. Love the colors and presentation of this layered Mexican cuisine. While delicious, I wish they gave you two since the portion is so small. After the salsa and this, I was still left hungry after lunch. : /

The Shrimp Tacos were another wise choice not picked by me. Shrimp, jalapenos, pico de gallo - these little tacos were chock full of flavor.

Went to Brasserie 360 over the weekend with the family. They asked me to pick a place in the Upper East Side to celebrate my promotion (yippee!) and I went on nymag.com, closed my eyes and chose at random (after, like, looking at the menu and being satisfied with that). My finger, once landing on my monitor, rested on top of a bunch of pixels that formed the words “Brasserie 360″. With that we were off to our dinner at this quaint french restaurant.

For the sake of this blog and my stomach, we ordered the trio of kobe beef sliders. We had our sliders topped with bleu cheese. The soft, fluffy bun overpowered the meat and the tomato, while resting nicely on top of it all, battled with the kobe beef for the primary flavor in these tiny burgers. If you buy kobe sliders, it would be nice to taste the kobe beef.

My main was the Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna with Red Swiss Chard. It was fantastic. I love Swiss chard and the tuna surrounding that mountain of greens was seasoned well. The tuna was cooked perfectly at medium-rare and fell apart at the slightest touch of my fork.

New picture taken of the Dumont Burger, this time at Dumont Restaurant off Union Ave.  If you recall, I did a crappy job last time.  This particular Dumont Burger came topped with Danish Blue Cheese, Boston bibb, tomato, pickles and some fries on the side.

Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburgers.  Um…wow.  Nasty and apparently a favorite of Luther Vandross.  

via wikipedia