I've always loved a good bagel and I have one almost every day for breakfast. Usually a cinnamon raisin one, toasted and with melted butter. When my friend Diya told me about Black Seeds I knew this bagel place in Nolita would take it to a whole new level. They make their own bagels in a wood fired oven in the back of their tiny restaurant, and I can safely say I've never had such a good bagel. You choose your type of bagel and one of their fillings. I was feeling adventurous so I got the red beet infused salmon with radices, red beet cream cheese and dill on a poppy seed bagel. Completely sold.
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Restaurant
My friend Carolyn and I recently signed the lease for an apartment together next year. It's going to be my very first apartment, so naturally I feel very grown up and to celebrate she took me to one of her new favorite brunch places in West Village, Joseph Leonard. Carolyn clearly knows me pretty well, because I absolutely loved this place!
We started out with the usual round of fruit, coffee and orange juice.
Carolyn had the omelette with mushrooms, goat cheese and baby lettuce.
I had the avocado toast with scrambled eggs and I was extremely impressed by the avocado toast, which was made just the way I usually make mine at home.
I also had to get a side of the country fried bacon, which was almost too intense, but amazing nevertheless!
Afterwards we went for a stroll in our new neighborhood and the light was so gorgeous that I simply had to share a few pictures with you:
New York, it's really hard not to love you at times like these.
While I was staying in San Diego I also went to LA for one day and tried to do as many purely tourist things as possible, because I had never seen LA. We went on a bus trip of Beverly Hills, walked Hollywood Boulevard and had In n Out burgers and Coldstone ice cream to top it all off. I love the burgers at In n Out, but I wasn't entirely convinced of the fries, I'm guessing they had an off day or something like that.
It was such a cool experience to see such a different side of the US and I loved exploring the different parts of LA. One of my highlights was finding Grace Kelly's star on the walk of fame (as you can tell I was very excited to find my favorite Old Hollywood star!).
A couple Weeks ago Aya and I set up shop at Lafayette, one of our favorite brunching spots. We stayed there for about 5 hours (no shame) and people kept coming to visit us while we finished some work, hence the odd variety in food, as the menu kept changing every so often.
Lafayette has some of the best coffee with my favorite croissants in all of New York, but I recently lost all the pictures on my camera, so I only have the ones I was able to recover:
Soft scrambled eggs vol-au-vent with leeks.
Scrambled eggs and toast.
A scrumptious Lamb Sandwich.
And of course a cheese platter with the most incredible warm nut and raisin toast, that I would have as my main course with butter any day.
Find them here:
For my friend Aya's birthday we all decided to go to an old favorite, in a new location. Laduree recently opened it's newest location in Soho and we had to go and try everything for afternoon tea! It's large and absolutely delightful in case you still have doubts!
Some of us were in the mood for lunch, so they opted for Club Sandwiches and Iced Tea.
While others opted for a proper afternoon tea with macarons, tea, and pastries on pastries on pastries.
I have a serious weakness for ice cream, even when it's very cold outside so I had to have the iced coffee! I definitely recommend going for more than just the usual macarons!
If you ask my Italian friend Carolyn what her ultimate soul food in New York City is, her answer will always be Serafina. Even though it was still slightly chilly outside, we decided to brave the cold, because who knows whether spring is here to stay in NYC… Serafina has several locations throughout the city, but their Meatpacking one in a quiet side street is definitely my favorite.
Chelsea Market is just plain cool. It's an inside area filled with an incredibly vast selection of restaurants, food stalls and stores. Besides an array of food ranging from pasta to Vietnamese, over oysters to crepes and doughnuts, including even a Sarabeth's bakery, cakes modeled after characters from "Despicable Me", clothes and cooking supplies.
Breads Bakery is pretty well known in Greenwich Village and the Union Square area and most certainly well worth a repeated visit. Whatever you do, don't leave this place without taking some cheese sticks with you for later! The pastries are impeccable and they even had a stand at the Armory Show this year.
