It has been a while since we went to Dafni Greek Taverna across from Port Authority and I admit that I totally forgot to post about our last visit. So, as we were looking for a place very close to this area because we were meeting Jodi’s cousin Rebecca , we booked a table for a dinner. The place was not that crowded (it was a Wednesday), and the waiter found a way to mix up dishes a bit, mistake that I would put on his difficulty to understand my French accent, although I was showing him the items we we were ordering on the menu.
We hear a lot about Mediterranean diet, so I took that dining experience as a way to improve our health, dessert included. Here is what we had:

We had a plan to go to the Whitney Museum Biennial exhibit but I admit that I was more thrilled about what was coming next: the brunch at Untitled, the restaurant on the side of the Museum (you do not need to go into the museum to go there). I cannot believe it has been two years that we went there and I was looking forward to eating two things: the burger and the cookie and milk that Chef Suzanne Cupps proposes.

Dining at Bar Boulud, one of the many restaurants of acclaimed Chef Daniel Boulud, never disappoints: the food is great and a perfect representation of classic French dishes, like the cassoulet that has become more popular in New York the past few years, with even an annual competition where the best Chefs across the country are dueling over a very comforting dish for the title of best cassoulet in New York. This competition is called The Cassoulet War, a perfect name for a dish that was created during the 100 year war between France and Britain, in Castelnaudary (South West of France), with duck confit, pork shoulder and sausage while the city was besieged and people were asked to bring whatever ingredients they had to prepare a stew and feed the soldiers.

There are not that many restaurants that have a unique way of doing things that sticks in your mind. When people ask me about a life changing dining experience, I often think about Noma, where Chef Rene Redzepi showcases unusual ingredients that Mother Nature has to offer like moss or flowers. In New York, I think about The Marshal in Hell’s Kitchen, that cooks all the dishes in their wood fire oven (they do not have a regular oven, so even the S’mores are cooked in there) and in Hoboken, there is Antique Bar and Bakery, downtown.

Who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies? I discovered them in France, when I was a kid: my brother made some at school, but it was really something we saw on TV, not that mainstream, that appeared few years later at the supermarket. Then, coming here, I had a revelation at Levain Bakery, on the Upper West Side: they serve the kind of cookies that make you want to lay down. They are big, heavy, chewy, with tons of chocolate. Sweet but not overly. My next cookie adventure was at City Bakery where I got the chance to try freshly made cookies that were so delightfully buttery that you refuse to share them.

As we were planning to go see artists in Dumbo for open studios (check out one of my favorites, Peter Drake that we never miss to visit), I was happily tasked to find a place for lunch. As Jodi loves pizza even more than I do, I looked up for a pizzeria and found Love and Dough on Pearl street, just few blocks from the Brooklyn Bridge. This place has a nice feel with lots of old black and white photos of Italian actors and actresses and the smell of their brick oven that sits in the back of the dining room. They offer Neapolitan pizza, made with flour imported from Napoli and apparently make their own pasta that I will have to try in our next visit.

It’s been a while we have been to The Kati Roll Company, a restaurant that serves these delicious street food wraps that originated in Kolkata, India. There are many variants, but, at The Kati Roll Company, they are made by wrapping warm paratha, a type of Indian flat bread, around a variety of meats, vegetables and cheese. But I would not compare them with wraps that you can find anywhere else: these are so flavorful that one is not enough, even if some are spicy…We went on a Saturday, at 7pm, and the place was already full. I should even say packed and we got lucky because our friend Caleb got a table and was able to resist the various attempts by hungry customers to storm it

We were looking for the best ice cream in Chicago and a quick Google search brought us, on a rainy day, to Cone Gourmet Ice Cream, a family run ice cream parlor with an Irish theme (between the “Lick me I’m Irish and ice cream flavored in Jameson whisky - that I did not like - or Baileys, you cannot miss that). That place has its charm and is cozy, with a neighborhood feel. However, I found the flavors to be a bit too much out there and wished they offered classic flavors like hazelnut.

We were looking for a breakfast place when we stumbled upon Mindy’s Hot Chocolate in the Revival food hall: this small place serves a bunch of mouth watering goodies besides bagels and we liked it so much that we went twice, our experience at Le Pain Quotidien being quite disappointing over the week end (yes, this place is closed Saturday and Sunday, so we had to find a backup…).

On our first day in Chicago, we looked up donuts places and stumbled upon Firecakes Donuts, a shop with a few locations in the Windy City. It is with excitement that we went to their Hubbard street location in the River North neighborhood and I was surprised to see a very small place with no seating area. This is the kind of joint where you truly get overwhelmed by the many tempting choices in front of you, knowing that you will probably go only once as a visitor. So we decided to try three donuts and not just two: there were a sprinkles donut, a buttermilk old fashioned and a honey glazed donut.

With a name like Goddess and The Baker, you can expect incredible food and so we decided to try this place for breakfast and then went back later on for a treat in the afternoon. The place is not that big and seems to be quite popular to the point that it can be challenging to get a table, especially if the tables outside are not an option because of the rain (and it rained a lot as we were visiting the Windy City).

With its one Michelin Star earned since 2011, Sepia has been feeding Chicago diners a seasonal menu working with producers who use sustainable practices. This West loop restaurant is a true gem for sure and we were glad we could get a table on a crowded Saturday. With a near perfect service, although overwhelmed as the evening went and the dining room filled out, we had a great time and ate delicious food as you will see below.

You may find that Fat Rice is too off the beaten path to go there but not going would be a serious mistake. Surely, when you think about Chicago, especially when you are a tourist, you are more inclined to try the deep dish pizza that the city has to offer and I admit that if we would have not seen the season finale of Top Chef in Macau (the finale was in Macau, not us unfortunately, although I visited this place many years ago) last March, we would not have gone there.

We were supposed to meet our friend Alison for a brunch on Sunday in Chicago and Jodi booked a table at The Dearborn, a restaurant serving an interesting brunch: it is not everyday that you see a place serving bone marrow and soft scrambled eggs! It did not take me long to want to try this dish, intrigued by this unusual pairing and its description: Parmesan gratin, crusty bread, cheese eggs, fresh herb salad and chipotle sauce.

For our last evening in Chicago, we decided to go for an early dinner as we wanted to watch the finale of Game of Thrones at 8pm, worries that otherwise we would have this last episode spoiled by social media and news outlets, rightfully so. Our choice was Giordano’s, near Millenium Park that boasts lots of pictures of people lifting slices of their deep dish pizza with long, very long strings of cheese attached to it. When we arrived, we thought that we would have to wait a long time, people waiting outside, but, they just announced 15 to 20 minutes of wait time that was quite surprising and reasonable.

After our disappointing lunch at Pizzeria Uno, I admit that we were a bit anxious to find a good deep dish pizza in Chicago. Not that we thought it was impossible, but, being there few days, we really wanted to go to a good place that would erase our past experience. And we did. After a walk to the Navy Pier, we looked up pizza places and ended up at Gino’s East, a homegrown chain that serves an amazing pizza. I know that the term chain gives a negative image of the place, but, in this case, it should not. They have places in quite few cities, except unfortunately New York, but who knows, maybe one day!

When searching for the best deep dish pizza in Chicago, I saw some recommendations for Pizzeria Uno and, at first, ditched it, because I thought it was a chain. But then, i read that this is this place that created the deep dish pizza back in 1943. At that time, the owner of the restaurant, Ike Sewell, decided to create a hearty meal by combining, on a pizza, large quantities of ingredients, like vegetables, meats and cheese. That is what you get when you order the Numero Uno, …

Located on the Upper East Side, Heidelberg is one of the last German restaurants in Yorkville, reminiscent of the German neighborhood this area used to be. Next to Schaller and Weber, the old school German market, it has kept, some opening in 1936, its rustic and comforting atmosphere, serving a fairly large menu where pork is the star. But no worries: if you are vegetarian, they offer several options like the popular giant pretzel, that I wished was served with a cheese sauce rather than just mustard or the potato pancakes, these crispy thick patties made of grated potato, onion and garlic that are fried, traditionally served with apple sauce. Perfect to share.

There are places like that that mark your memory because of their originality. Brooklyn Chop House is one of them. The name surely indicates a meaty meal made of steaks and burgers, but it also surprisingly offers Chinese dishes. Not so surprising when you know that the person who runs the place, Stratis Morfogen, was one of the people behind Jade Sixty, a restaurant on the upper East Side with the same concept that had to close due to a water main break (too bad because I did not get a chance to visit it!). I tried the ribeye at Brooklyn Chop House and was blown away: their meat, aged 50 to 60 days is tasty, tender and juicy. And they surely know how to cook it!

I often tell people that I love so much coffee that it is probably this dark juice that is flowing through my veins. I have been drinking coffee since I was a teenager: I love the smell of the freshly ground beans and the strong taste an espresso has, but not the bitterness that is sometimes in the bottom of a cup. So it was with excitement that we went to The Mill few times as we were in Long Island City. This quaint joint with its rustic feel serves artisanal coffee, sweets and sandwiches in a relaxed atmosphere. They have good espresso and macchiato, but if you are not into coffee, you can opt for a tea. In term of sweets, …