Doing the New York Thing

1. Bagels 

[French toast bagels with butter] Who knew semi-burnt sugar + powdered sugar + butter + carbs could taste so good? Well duh, why am I even asking that question? I don't think adding brown sugar to a bagel qualifies it as "french toast" but I'm not complaining when the sugar is all but caramelized perfectly.

2. Knish

I have never heard of a knish before. I didn't even know how to pronounce knish. I thought the "k" was silent. I also thought that I was ordering a sandwich haha. At least, I really liked it.

3. Shake Shack

What is the deal with this place? Every time I get off of work, I see the line stretching all across Madison Square Park. I mean yea its a good burger but its not that good. I personally think In n Out is way better and a lot less greasy.  Shake Shack describes themselves as the "modern roadside burger", whatever that means. For the wait you have to go through, it'd be easier and tastier to just get a real burger from an actual restaurant. 

4) (Mini) Cupcakes - Baked by Melissa

When I first saw these mini concoctions (and when they say mini...its actually quite mini), I thought it was the most adorable creation ever - especially with the plethora of diverse flavor combinations...then I learned that Baked by Melissa's is actually a chain of cupcake stores. And we know how I feel about chains/franchisees. Oh well, the flavor combos were still fun. Shown above: peanut butter & jelly, chocolate peanut butter and chocolate chip pancake. 

5. Truffle Fries & Black and White Photos 

My roommates went to Delicatessen in Soho for dinner the other night that I was at Giorgios. After they came back and raved..literally raved...about the truffle fries - I all but demanded that they go again with me. The fries were indeed quite fabulous and came in a well-received extra large portion. Unfortunately,  the rest of the menu was severely lacking - not enough to go back for another full-fledge meal, but I wouldn't mind returning and getting another order (or two) of those fries.  Speaking of which, Elle's latest issue features the actress Emma Stone and there is an entire section of the interview paying homage to truffle fries.  You can find some shots from the issue here .  A girl who can't live without truffle fries is my kind of girl :)

Snapshots

1. Stuffed Eggplant. Enough Said

2. The best fried chicken wings I have ever had. oh man. Three hours later and I'm still full. Probably not a good sign. harumph.

3. More cupcakes. Here's my theory on cupcakes. There are good cupcakes ie made from scratch with good ingredients and tender love and card. There are bad cupcakes ie the ones you buy from the grocery store. When there are bad cupcakes (first off, I usually just avoid the card board tasting, unnecessary calories) but if I was absolutely coerced into eating one, I would definitely go for the chocolate since the chocolate tastes marginally less card board-y than the vanilla ones. However, when it is a good cupcake I am a big fan of just the plain old vanilla ones. The vanilla cupcakes are always a lot more dense (reminiscent of pound cake. pound cake...yum) with a really well made buttercream icing. Anything past that: red velvet, german chocolate etc is obviously delicious but its just more of a good thing. Anyways, enough rambling. Here are the pictures.

4. Thai Iced Tea. Condense milk = love.

5. Heart + Coffee.

Playing around on Picasa

and thought I'd share my discoveries :) With the 70 degree weather today, I've become a lot more motivated to go take more pictures.

I) Pictures of some dried roses after a big snowfall during Christmas Break.

II) Playing around with the focus adjustment. 

III) Super low saturation.

IV) High Saturation

I think I still like saturated/high contrast pictures more than the other way around.

Anyways, since I did promise to always post about food, here are some FANTASTIC looking cupcakes from Philly Cupcake. We catered the cupcakes for a speaker event the Women in Leadership Series was hosting. The people there are delightful and the cupcakes are amazinggg. Hopefully, I'll get some better shots tomorrow when they cater our last speaker. 

Chocolate Oreo in the Back. Red Velvet in the front. 

Chocolate on Chocolate with GLITTER icing.

Who can say no to blue and pink sprinkles??

Here's to a happy Tuesday :)

Sunny days and dishes I can't pronounce

Avenue of the Arts

Random eats from Sister Retreat, Girl's Night and time with the parents.  

Chocolate Hazelnut (my favorite!) paired with fig. *yum*

Gotta thank my Parli friend Jess for these. Tequila sunrise cupcakes. Yes there's tequila in them. lots of tequila.

Just discovered this dish from Banana Leaf. It is absolutely amazing and costs like five bucks. I think it is called Nasi Lemak. Its like a Malaysian style of Bi Bam Bap. Can someone pleasee teach me how to make it.

New Eats from the RTM

Who can not blog about Reading Terminal Market when they are in Philadelphia? Its only the most iconic food eater/picture taker/photographer's dream. I literally walked around with the camera pressed to my face the entire time while my girlfriends stared on waiting (im)patiently as I continually adjusted each picture's exposure until I good get a semi-decent shot.


Here are the random eats of the day!

I'm such a sucker for good sandwiches

The Flying Monkey features some of the best cupcakes that Philadelphia has to offer. Check out their adorable site :)

Caught some vanilla babies fresh out of the oven

Frangelico is a hazelnut flavor liqueur so naturally with Nutella still on my mind, I had to try this one.

Never saw this combo before. Sure looks tasty!

The reason I went to Reading Terminal was actually to pick up some yummy gifts for my dad's birthday. 

Got the creme brulee and chocolate Frangelico cupcakes

Picked up "6 Bean Espresso" beans from this coffee shop. Apparently the mix is a patented blend which will make the perfect cup of Espresso. Still haven't heard the verdict on this one yet.

Biscottis to go with the espresso :)

This place literally had the best and biggest chocolate chip cookies I've ever tasted.

Here's what they were working on when I strolled by. I'm assuming they're chocolate turtles or just chocolate chip cookies covered in more chocolate. Either way, you can't go wrong.

Next to Franklin Fountain, Basseet Ice Cream is probably the most famous (and oldest) ice cream place in Philadelphia.

Now that's my kind of aspirin.

Unfortunately, since we went on a weekday, some of the shops were closed including this chocolate place. My friend also recommended the creperie which I must have missed.