Gorilla Cheese Truck

Having a sandwich from the Gorilla Cheese Truck became a quest for me around Memorial Day when a news program reviewed a bunch of food trucks in a "summer eats" segment. Now when I say quest, don't think of it like a never ending search like that of Don Quixote. It was more like, I saw the segment, thought that the grilled cheeses looked cool, and occasionally checked their website to see that days location when I was at a loss of what to eat. Last week, however, I found out the truck stopped serving on October 1.

Now,while my quest lacked ooph, but that didn't mean I wanted it to end like Monty Python's for the Holy Grail, ie unfinished, so it became my mission to get one, and today, with less than a week left, I finally had my sandwich.

It was a fresh mozzarella and tomato on white bread, and it was phenomenal. Better still, was that the truck was parked near Madison Square Park, so I sat outside of it savoring every last bit of it, while cute dogs passed on their way to Jemmy's dog run and a movie shot across the street.

Sidenote: food trucks are technically illegal in NYC which, in my opinion makes eating from them more fun.

Washington DC: Hotel Eating

A lot of people, I would think, liked to plan itineraries when they travel somewhere, especially if they are trying to squeeze in as much as possible in a short amount of time. I am not one of these people, however, because I feel like my inability to estimate time and preference to meander would lead to disappointment. I’d rather have fun at one place than continue to rush to get through a schedule. Instead, Lauren and went back and forth mentioning things to do between our estimated arrival in DC and the Cook concert, about 4-5 hours, and settled on “something” as the plan. After 5 hours on a bus, with only a bagel, a cup of coffee, and a bottle of water inside of us by 2:30 it became clear that all we wanted to do was eat. Which is exactly what we did, right after hopping in a cab, checking into the hotel, and picking up race gear; we get distracted easily.

We decided on eating at the Potomac Bar and Grill which, you may recall was located in the hotel lobby last year. We came to this decision for two reasons, the Crown Plaza was located next door to the pickup location and also because of the Happy Hour appetizer menu we had enjoyed so much a year ago. The mouthwatering pulled pork sliders, fried ravioli, and mozzarella sticks were no longer offered so we decided on Potato Skins (not my favorite food but how could you screw that up,) Pot Stickers (they are delicious at Costco,) and Chicken Quesadilla Rolls (which I was told were not as spicy as the Steak Quesadilla and because it meant eating that delicious Guacamole again.) the Potato Skins might have been the greatest that I have ever tasted, but sadly the Pot Stickers were underwhelming. The Quesadilla Rolls were golden brown and crunchy but, unless the steak quesadilla recipe has been changed, the waitress was insane. After a few bites of the extremely spicy filling, Lauren said she was expecting fire to shoot out of her mouth, and though I felt the Guac neutralized it a bit, she quit with 2/3 of them left. Nobody screamed for milk but we did each finish up the meal with the Apple Crumb pie with Vanilla Ice Cream which was even better than last year.

Both Saturday’s Breakfast and Sunday’s dinners were eaten at out hotel, the MARRIOTT COURTYARD in Crystal City, Va. From the sparse breakfast menu we both decided on the French toast which was, as advertised, a generous portion served with strawberries and fresh maple syrup. The syrup was delicious as were the berries but the bread was whole wheat, I would have preferred white bread but the Coffee was Starbucks Verona Bold and that’s all that really mattered. When it came to dinner the next night, we decided to eat burgers there because it seemed all the Crystal City fast food restaurants (and for that matter most of Crystal City) are closed on Sunday. The French fries were okay but the burger patty resembled something from McDonalds and had almost no flavor. I was expecting something not resembling cardboard and if I ever stayed there again (which I definitely would do or recommend others do since aside from no food options the Hotel was lovely, the staff kind, and the hot tub and pool delightful) I will make sure to eat all of my meals somewhere else. I will give the café credit for one thing, the offer Starbucks coffee until 10 or 11 at night, which is important since Crystal City seems to believe people don’t drink coffee in the evening so they close their shops mid afternoon.

Christmas Cookies

Christmas may be over but the desserts remain.

For me, eating isn't as big a part of the Holiday season ,del.except for all of those straight out of the oven cookies that mysteriously fell into my mouth as baking the treats, and making Christmas cookies has been a tradition since I was a little girl (and before.)

The last couple of weeks I have been working everyday with the wonderful GiGi, along with a few night jobs here and there, and when you mix in the Holiday get togethers and Tuesday Movie Nights (because God Forbid I miss those) there was no time for the yearly Traditions of hours of women hanging around the Kitchen blasting Christmas Tunes and mixing recipes. But that doesn't mean it wasn't fun!

So here now are some of the results of all of those late night baking sessions and a few batches that I, unfortunately wasn't present to help with.

Red Velvet Cookies

Pistachio

Classic Chocolate Chips

Coconut snowballs

Cinnamon Swirls

Chocolate, M&M stuffed snowballs

Almond "Balls"

If anyone wants a recipe, let me know : )

Things to do in NYC for the Holidays #3

Whenever anyone I know is coming to New York, the one thing they ask about is pizza. I mean let’s be honest, New York is known for having the best Pizza in the nation (maybe the world) and what would be the point of visiting without having at least a slice?

Now the way I see it, the world is split in to two categories, as far as pizza eating goes. There are people who love thin crust and people who swear by thick crust. There are easily a thousand places to get both varieties on the small island, but to get the greatest I believe you need to look no further than two places. If you prefer thick crust you want Mondello Pizzeria and Restaurant and for thin, Gotham Pizza.

Mondello, located at 3 E 37th St (between 5^th and Madison Ave.) serves a wide variety of pizza choices, along with Italian dishes, but for thick, hard bottomed, soft in the middle, over flowing cheese and gravy on the top goodness what you want to order is the Sicilian. It is to die for, I am obsessed with it and I am a diehard fan of thin crust!

If you are looking for Gotham (144 9^th Ave. at the corner of 19^th Street) you have to head downtown to Chelsea. Unlike Mondello, and most places, Gotham specializes in Pizza and, other than salads, serves nothing else, so you know it is good. I have tried every variety they offer (all with paper-thin crusts that are seasoned with bread crumbs on the bottom) but still think that the traditional variety is their best. The mouth watering combination of mozzarella and homemade gravy make it the perfect option for pizza fans young and old.

The best part about both of these places is (well the taste but after that) they both deliver so if you are tired after a long day and just want to veg out wherever you are staying (assuming this is a several day visit) you can enjoy either or both.

Things to do in NYC for the Holidays #1

It seems like every day the streets are flooded with more and more people trying to make a Christmas visit to the city enjoyable. I can only imagine how exhausting it can be so as someone who spends most of their days wandering around this great city, I thought I’d help everyone out by listing things that families can do and writing posts about them.

The first is Serendipity 3 located at:

225 East 60th Street
between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
New York, NY 10022

History

It was 1954. The world was suffering from unrequited love, a big post-war baby boom and an insatiable craving for sweet solace.
In the heart of Little Italy, sharing a cold water flat with creepies, crawlies and things that go bump in the night lived Serendipity 3. Princes under their frog suits, they waited, lips pursed, for the kiss that would reveal their true selves. But it took a magic word to open the palace door.
Days, they hounded producers’ offices. Nights they built skyscrapers of ice cream at Howard Johnson’s. One of them became a lead dancer in “Catch a Star,” and Jose Limon said he might have reached Nijinskian heights, had destiny not called him to the kitchen.
He was Calvin Holt of the sassy ass and incorrigible ways. Fresh from the cornfields of Arkansas. Full of beans and Aunt Buba’s sand tarts. Uninhibited by grey flannel rules. Lit up with crazy electricity that outshone Broadway.
Fast as his heels came Stephen Bruce. Two black, slanty, Slavic eyes in league with the devil. Sly and shy, saucy and sweet talking. A wittily mustached enigma, he could be a son of a B or Pola Negri’s love child. Mixing fantasy and innuendo, he dressed windows at Macy’s and dreamed of draping the stars.
It was Patch Carradine who found The Word that would turn their fortunes. Composing salacious song lyrics and comedy routines for tiny Village boites. Tossing around a vocabulary that wandered from obscure to obscene. Able to do the whole Times crossword puzzle weekly, the London Times on off days. One day he uncrossed a word that rang a bell. A word that you couldn’t find in the dictionary of common usage back in ’54.
The Word was Serendipity. The art of finding the pleasantly unexpected by chance or sagacity. Invented by eighteenth century wordsmith Sir Horace Walpole, it evoked the ancient legend of the three princes of the island no longer known as Serendip.
“ Hey,” said the boys, “that’s a good name for a place of our own.” The rest reads like A Thousand and One Nights. The Serendipity 3 pooled their entire fortunes of three hundred dollars and staked a claim to a tiny principality in the basement of a tenement on East Fifty-Eighth Street.
It was New York’s first coffee house boutique. The first Tiffany lampshaded meeting place since the days of Diamond Jim Brady. Serendipity had come into the world four tables, sixteen chairs and a towering espresso machine strong. In no time, [patrons out numbered the facilities. Nightly the line formed, stretching around the block and under the old Third Avenue El.
Before he was anyone, Andy Warhol declared it his favorite sweet shop, and paid his chits in drawings. Photographers discovered the charms of Tiffany glass set against whitewashed walls. New York’s avant-garde caught on that nineteenth century junk was suddenly twentieth century chic.
The Serendipty 3 lost no time learning how to cook, design, whip and turn on the frozen hots. They rolled in the loot and rolled around the corner to the cozy brownstone on Serendipity Street. The entire Silk Stocking community squeezed into its tightest jeans and queued up.
The kitchen buzzed to all hours producing never-before extravaganzas. The general store and boutique grew trendier with every passing Hebrew Eyechart dishtowel and Little Red Riding Hood’s jigsaw puzzle (365 pieces all of them red). Swivel-hipped waiters balanced trays overflowing with calories. Everything was for sale, including the waiters. Frozen Hot Chocoholics were nurtured and Apricot Smushniks were sated. Palates pampered with caviar developed a list for Hard Times fare like Lemon Ice Box Pie and Texas Chili.

If you have the time to have a meal, go for it the food is exquisite check out the menu but what you really need to have is dessert, specifically the Frozen Hot Chocolates.
The treats, which come in Original, Mint, and Peanut Butter variety, are, to be blunt, an orgasm for your mouth. The only drawback, is that the tiny restaurant doesn't take reservation for desserts, only lunches and dinners so you might have a bit of a wait, but trust me it'll be worth it.

Also important to note: due to the size of the place, carriages and strollers are not permitted so smaller patrons need to be carried in.

The Treat Truck

In even more things that are going to challenge my diet news, last week our boss very generously bought Lauren and I boxes filled with Thanksgiving goodies from the treat truck. What is the treat truck you ask? Well it is exactly what it sounds like, a truck that drives around Manhattan selling treats.

COMPANY HISTORY

One day Kim Ima had a vision, the Treats Truck! Oh, wouldn’t that be the best way to spend her days - baking and serving treats on the streets of NYC! Her love of baking and her love of treats and her love of New York inspired her to open her bakery, The Treats Truck. Delicious cookies, brownies and goodies galore for you and all your friends. What could be better than that? The Treats Truck team now spend their days concocting, baking, delivering and eating lots of treats. Treats are good is their philosophy! Their truck, named Sugar, is their retail mobile bakery, serving NYC and the surrounding boroughs. The Treats Truck does all of its baking in Red Hook, Brooklyn. In Red Hook, The Treats Truck bakers prepare all of the Treats Truck goodies for the truck and for special orders and deliveries. And if you just happen to be passing by, you just may get a cookie.

And what does the Treat Truck offer?

MENU

The Treats Truck is filled to the brim with boxes of your favorite freshly baked cookies, brownies and goodies galore!

The Standards

COOKIES

oatmeal jammy
oatmeal cookie with a jam center

oatmeal chocolate chipper
oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips

oatmeal old-fashioned
oatmeal cookie with raisins

chocolate chipper
chocolate chip cookie

chocolate chipper with nuts
chocolate chip cookie with nuts

caramel creme sandwich
brown sugar cookies with vanilla cream frosting

peanut butter sandwich
peanut butter cookies with peanut butter filling

sugar dot
a petite sugar cookie with icing and sprinkles

CRISPY SQUARES

classic crispy
rice cereal and marshmallow

cran almond crispy
rice cereal, whole wheat cereal with flax seeds, dried cranberries, almonds and marshmallow

BROWNIES

chocolate chip brownie
chocolate brownie with chocolate chips

chocolate chip brownie with nuts
chocolate brownie with chocolate chips and nuts

raspberry brownie
chocolate brownie with jam swirls on top

mexican chocolate brownie
cinnamon chocolate brownie with chocolate chips

pecan butterscotch bar
butterscotch bar topped with pecans

DRINKS

organic milk, organic soymilk, water, juice, tea and coffee, boylans soda, gus soda

The Specials!

THE DAILY SPECIAL

rotating special treats pulled from our favorite recipes, including seasonal, holiday and customer-inspired creations

SOME OF OUR FAVORITE TREATS TRUCK SPECIALS:
though all treats are special!

peanut butter and jelly cake sandwich, frosting sandwich, chocolate mint sandwich cookie, lemony lemon cookie, cinnamon creme sandwich cookie, brown rice crispy, chocolate chocolate chunk cookie, peanut butter brownie, ice cream cone cupcake, kitchen sink oatie, apple junior pie, peanut butter chocolate sandwich cookie, chocolate dot, coconut almost crispy, banana junior cake, pecan junior pie, buttercream frosted cupcakes, carrot junior cake, apricot dot, kitchen sink crispy, big sugar dot, espresso brownie and many more...

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For prices and details on special orders and specific ingredients you can check out their website: www.treatstruck.com where you can also find out the schedule of where Sugar is going to be.

The treats were delicious, but along with being good, Treat Truck does good for the world 10% of the profits from daily special go to charity of the month which is a rotating list of charities.

As for my diet, the website states “We believe in the importance of treats - in our daily lives and for special occasions, both big and small” and you know what, so do I. Everyone deserves treats and I’ll fit them in. Everything in moderation right.