Blockheads

My best girl friends and I try to get together at least once a month (it’s hard to because we’re all busy and it’s hard to find 1 day that we’re all available). After a few months of not seeing each other, we finally found a day in May to grab dinner and drinks. We decided on Blockheads (1 of my girlfriends heard a lot of great things about this Mexican restaurant).

 

We get there around 6 pm. The restaurant is somewhat small in the front but there were more tables in the back. We sat in the back on these chairs that kind of reminded me of metal lawn chairs. Our waiter was pretty funny (he joked about the food and annoying customers). He also brought out these addicting chips and salsa! The salsa was mildly spicy and the chips were lightly salted.

 

The 1st thing we ordered were drinks! Margaritas were pretty cheap ($4 for a small, $7 for a large, and $1 extra for flavors). My girlfriends ordered 2 small margaritas, 1 on the rocks and the other frozen strawberry. I ordered a large frozen peach margarita. The margaritas were so good! I tried not to drink too much because I had to watch my figure (this was right before I flew in for LL Bean).

 

For our entrees, 1 of my girlfriends ordered a vegetarian burrito (had lots of rice, black beans, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, and carrots) and my other friend ordered a bbq chicken burrito. I ordered a shredded beef soft taco and salad. Though I love meat, I tried the veggie burrito and it was actually very moist and had lots of flavor. The bbq chicken burrito on the other hand, was moist as well but was way too spicy. My taco was actually the best dish of the night. It was juicy and moist. My girlfriends tried it as well and loved it! The salad was a typical house salad but the dressing was zesty and a little spicy. After dinner, we stopped by the bar Turtle Bay for some more drinks. We had a good dinner, fun drinks, and a good time. What more can you ask for?

 

Blockheads

954 2nd Ave

New York, NY 10022

http://www.blockheads.com//

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25
May
2011

Grand Central Station’s Super Bowl Bash

After a quick lunch, I headed over to Grand Central for their “Super Bowl Bash.” A bunch of vendors set up stations with samples and great food for Super Bowl Sunday. Luckily, I only had to walk like 6 blocks from Kati Roll, so I burned off some calories from that.

I walked in and sampled everything there was to be sampled. I start with food from Cafe Spice, an Indian Restaurant. I tried some saag paneer (a spinach based dish) and chicken tikka masala with some basmati rice. I wasn’t really feeling the saag paneer because it didn’t look really appetizing and really didn’t have much flavor (not even a little spicy). The chicken tikka masala though, was really good and mildly spicy.

Next was the Brother Jimmy’s BBQ station. They had stations set up with small bowls of shredded pork and chicken. I tried the pork with their own chipotle sauce and the chicken with their BBQ sauce. I could’ve done without the chipotle sauce but I fell in love with their BBQ sauce. It was slightly smokey, sweet, and just good. It was so good, I bought a jar of it!

Next on the way was Oliviers & Co, a French retail store specializing in olive oils from all around the Mediterranean. I tried a chile oil and wasn’t feeling it. I did try truffle oil on popcorn and loved it! Ultimately, I decided on smokey mild heat seasoning. It’s supposed to be used in place of a pepper. Hopefully I can show off my Italian cooking skills with this seasoning!

I also tried popcorn from Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse. They tossed regular popcorn with truffle oil, black pepper, onion and garlic powder. So good! I love popcorn and I think I’m going to have to toss truffle oil on my kernels from now on.

Manhattan Chili Company offered samples of their beef, turkey, and vegetable chili. I tried the beef and turkey and they really weren’t that good. They kind of tasted as if they were sitting there for hours (they probably were). The only way to go up from there was gelato from “Ciao Bella Gelateria.” I love frozen desserts, so I tried a tiny scoop of their espresso and blood orange gelato. The blood orange gelato was to die for! Apparently Oprah likes that flavor too. It was so good but I ran out of cash, so I couldn’t even pay for a scoop. That only means I have to go back and get a 3 scooper!

I tried a sample of anniversary coffee from Oren’s Daily Roast. It was alright. I probably will stick with my usual Starbucks vanilla latte.

The last stop was Murray’s cheese. They were giving out samples of salami and I believe Wisconsin cheddar cheese. They also had a weighing contest, where people had to guess how much the huge chunk of cheese on the bottom weighed. I guessed 1075 lbs but who knows. If I was able to cut a chunk to throw into cheese and broccoli soup, I would’ve been just as happy.

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04
Feb
2011

Snowed in dinner

New York was hit with ANOTHER storm today, so today was a lazy day for me. I had no idea what to make for dinner, so I figured right before I started to shoveling, I’d take some wings out and figure out what to do with them later (and hoped that the wings would defrost before midnight). Luckily the wings defrosted in a few hours. While shoveling, I was thinking about what produce we had and what I knew how to make. I immediately knew I wanted to go in a southern direction. We had fresh sugar peas, frozen kernel corn, and maine potatoes.

I boiled the corn and after draining, I salted them. As for the sugar peas, I just blanched them (I boiled them for a few minutes and threw them into some ice cold water). With the potatoes, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to just boil the potatoes or mash them. I’ve never made mashed potatoes from scratch, but luckily, I found a simple recipe for mashed potatoes, so I decided on that. You basically peel the potatoes (I used 5 medium sized potatoes), cut them into chunks, and boil until they’re tender (a fork should go through with no problem). You then drain them and add some milk (or half and half), butter, salt, and pepper. I also added some grated Parmesan cheese for flavor and then mix with a hand mixer. I think the mashed potatoes came out great, especially it being the 1st time making it.

As for the wings, I decided to make a marinade with 8 tbs (or a couple of good squirts) of Kraft’s Honey Garlic Barbecue Sauce, same amount of hoisin/oyster sauce as the BBQ sauce, 4 tbs of honey, salt, and pepper. This marinade was enough for a dozen wings. I marinated the wings while the veggies were cooking and by the time I was ready to cook the wings, they were well marinated. It took maybe 10 minutes to cook the wings thoroughly and they came out super moist and juicy! I was only able to finish half of it, so I have leftovers for tomorrow.

After a nice dinner, I wanted to just relax with a mug of Ghirardelli hot chocolate mix with mini marshmallows (lovely gift set from 1 of my girlfriends, Sarah). Mix in some hot milk and you got a good night!

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26
Jan
2011