• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Alice Dishes

Adventures and Real Food

  • Design
  • Life
  • Recipes
  • Reviews
  • Travel

April 19, 2015

5 Favorite Food Finds in NYC

Landing in a city I’m unfamiliar with always feels like a food-oriented scavenger hunt to me. The challenge is how many clues can I glean from Facebook, Twitter, trusted friends and restaurant reviews, to unearth the gems that will give us special memories. Our recent trip to NYC yielded a few finds I want to share with you:

  1. The Fat Radish – living on the West coast, where so many of the buildings are new, relatively speaking, it’s easy to forget that buildings which are 150+ years old, bring their own charm and personality to the table. The Fat Radish is one of those fabulous New York dining experiences – painted white brick walls, rather long and narrow, with great art on the walls and a dimly lit interior, you immediately know you’re in for a unique experience. The meal starts with a fat radish, natch, and the menu is punctuated by locally-sourced produce prepared in an often unexpected way. Take for instance the monkfish green curry ($27) or the beet root crumble ($16). The banoffee pie for dessert was a blast from the past, although not made quite as I recall ($9). Back in the day, I spent many a long Sunday boiling an unopened can of condensed milk for hours, hoping it didn’t explode and longing for the rich dulce de leche to be revealed at the end of the day. I digress. Check out Fat Radish next time you’re in town.
  2. Empellón Taqueria – an upmarket take on Mexican cuisine, Taqueria satisfied everyone at our table with its fresh spin on  old favorites. Salsas were reinvented and updated to include a smoky cashew salsa which was so good we asked our waiter how we could make it at home. Cauliflower came with almonds and an almendrado dressing ($9). The sopes ($9) – open bite-sized dumplings made from corn with various fillings were satisfying – we liked the meat ones best. And the tacos, which range from $12-39 for 2-3, depending on the filling, couldn’t be a further cry from the sad little splats by the same name at Taco Bell. From Brussel sprouts with burnt jalapeño hummus, to chicken with black kale, crema and salsa, every single one was delish and gone in the blink of an eye. Highly recommended. Get thee down to the West Village stat. taqueria nyc

  3. City Kitchen – finding “real” food fast – vs. crappy fast food – when you’re being a tourista and find yourself hungry on the hoof, is never an easy thing. Especially not in a trap like Times Square. But I am always willing to be proven wrong, and City Kitchen does just that. A new food hall – much like De Foodhallen which we loved in Amsterdam – it brings together different tastes from New York under one roof. Rather like permanent food trucks, there’s something for everyone from Dough’s inventive doughnuts to Box’s Mediterranean lunches which come either as a sandwich or a salad – think falafel loaded up with tahini sauce and tons of lettuce. A tad heavy, but yummy all the same. Sushi, burgers, tacos and lobster rolls can all be found here too.
  4. Dean and Deluca – in a time long-gone, i.e. 1977, before the word ‘foodie’ had been invented or people paid the same for top-notch olive oil as they would for a Tiffany bracelet, the founders of Dean and Deluca were prescient enough to realize that if you build it, they will come. They imported balsamic vinegars, preserves from Italy, fine cheeses – all displayed in an ‘assault on the senses’ emporium in Soho. And come they did. I adore this place. If you need anything unusual for a recipe, they usually have it, plus if you’re hungry there’s a great deli and coffee bar. You can now find their cafes around NYC too. Deananddeluca
  5. Beecher’s New York – think you can find handmade cheese in the Big Apple? Of course. You can find anything you want in this city. Think you can find cheese being handmade in the heart of Manhattan? No? I didn’t either, until I stumbled across Beecher’s in the FlatIron District. Just as I love to watch the cheese-makers at work at Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes Station, here too I could peer through the glass to watch curds and whey being magically turned into heavenly rounds of sharp cheddar. With a wine cellar downstairs and lots of yummy sandwiches and of course, heaps of cheese, this is a great find. Beechers

 

 

Filed Under: Reviews, Travel Tagged With: Beecher's, Bell, Book and Candle, City Kitchen, Dean and Deluca, Empellon Taqueria, New York, NYC, The Fat Radish

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

About Alice

A bit about me... I grew up in the UK and moved to Northern California in the late 1990s, drawn here, like so many others, by the lure of ...

Read More

Popular Posts

  • holey_grail_donutsThe Best Places to Eat in Hanalei, Kauai
  • 10 Things to Do in Sea Ranch, CA10 Things to Do in Sea Ranch, CA
  • When All Is Said And Done: 7 Things That Really Matter in LifeWhen All Is Said And Done: 7 Things That Really…
  • Stunning Beet and Cauliflower SoupStunning Beet and Cauliflower Soup

People are Talking About

No People Food

A Lesson in Salt From Samin Nosrat

Madeleines by Monkey

When All Is Said And Done: 7 Things That Really Matter in Life

Alice’s Favorites

101 Cookbooks
Chef on a Mission
Cook, Taste, Eat
Food Politics
Golden
Good Eggs
Healthy Cooking
Jamie Oliver Food Revolution
Mary Vance
Michael Pollan
Nina Planck
Not Without Salt
Nourish Network
Samin Nosrat
The Healthy Home Economist

alicedishes

Lover of life, Labs & horses. Visit AliceDishes.com blog for travel, recipes, design & life. Area VI #morganhorse #blacklab #eventing #interiors

Alice Dishes. Eat, Bark, Ride
Roger was a very good boy yesterday to get a 75.6 Roger was a very good boy yesterday to get a 75.6 at our local schooling show 😍 #dressage
This boy is teaching me so much. And I love the fa This boy is teaching me so much. And I love the fact he always has his ears forward and is enjoying his job again. Excited to head to @horseparkatwoodside to show him next weekend for the first time in a year. He’s ready!! #eventinghorse #areavi
Staying alive and getting it done on xc - so much Staying alive and getting it done on xc - so much fun 🤩 #areavi #eventinghorse #morganmare
A little bit of our dressage and SJ action from th A little bit of our dressage and SJ action from the weekend @twinrivershorsepark - Q and I were either great or mediocre during dressage to give us a 36.4 which made it hard to be competitive, but the goal was to finish on our dressage score and feel confident all weekend ✅. We moved up 4 places over the weekend and jumped double clear in both SJ and XC for a top 10 finish. Our rhythm and timing in SJ was probably our best yet. #eventing #areavi #comeback
The sunset was spectacular last night in Paso Robl The sunset was spectacular last night in Paso Robles! #sunset #pasorobles
So fun to watch @tommygreengard on these two speci So fun to watch @tommygreengard on these two special boys: Barry and Josh. 😍
The boy is back in town! Rogee had a blast doing X The boy is back in town! Rogee had a blast doing XC schooling for the first time since February. He was relaxed (shocker!), said yes to everything and although he wanted to shred up the track he listened and was a very good boy 😍😍😍 - so happy with him and I think he had the best day ever 🙌  Looking forward to showing him at @woodsidehorsepark in Oct! #xc #eventing #eventinghorse
My little pocket 🚀 was on 🔥today! I couldn’t have been happier. We jumped all the Training things and tackled some challenging questions. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs since losing some confidence. At one point in June I froze jumping a x-rail 🤷‍♀️. But we have fought our way back, filling in gaps and ultimately our partnership has become even stronger. I’m so proud of her. I have lots of work to do to be fully deserving of this brave girl, but after a day like today it feels like we could conquer anything! (Except dressage 😂 - but we are working on that too!) #eventing #eventinghorse #xc #morganmare #comeback
Fun working on our jumping at home today 1) no st Fun working on our jumping at home today 
1) no stirrups 2) trot verticals 3) adjust canter 4) work a related distance ✅. Felt great. She was keen and took me to the fences 😍 #eventinghorse #morganmare
🎉 New blog post alert! My first story about our 🎉 New blog post alert! My first story about our trip to the Baja peninsula is live - link in bio.  Read all about the fun we had staying and tequila tasting at  @thecapehotel, massages at @cabosurfhotel delicious food at @florafarms and @elhuertof2t  #bajacalifornia #vacationvibes #cabosanlucas #beachday @thecapehotel @florafarms @cabosurfhotel
My handsome boy. The many faces of King Arthur. #b My handsome boy. The many faces of King Arthur. #blacklab #blacklabrador
I would choose them both every time. It’s defin I would choose them both every time.  It’s definitely not easy having two horses and one rider. But I am going to make it work as long as I possibly can because they are part of me. 😍 Can you have two ❤️ horses for different reasons? Because I might have just got that lucky.
It makes me so happy to see Rogee fit, strong and It makes me so happy to see Rogee fit, strong and enjoying his rehabbed body. He’s really learning what he’s can do with himself these days physically and it’s also really rewarding to see his personality shift down a few gears to a generally more relaxed state… #goodboy
I planted these at the end of April - and finally I planted these at the end of April - and finally I get my first harvest!!
Burghley Revisited. What a terrific time we had. # Burghley Revisited. What a terrific time we had. #eventing #5* #burghleyhorsetrials
Load More Follow on Instagram

Footer

A bit about me... I grew up in the UK and moved to Northern California in the late 1990s, drawn here, like so many others, by the lure of the dot.com ...

Read More

More to Explore

All Posts Archive

Stay Connected

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Never Miss a Post

Copyright© 2023 · Alice Dishes

website by lobstervine