Brunch at Norma's - NYC

Norma's is one of the legendary brunch places in NYC - I've been wanting to go for a long time since breakfast/brunch is my favorite meal and especially because it was featured on Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate" show for their decadent french toast made with slices of chocolate cake instead of bread - described on their menu as "Chocolate Decadence French Toast - Covered in Strawberries, Pistachios and Valrhona Chocolate Sauce"! (The restaurant was also featured on Gossip Girl!) However, the restaurant is not only in midtown, it's also in a hotel - which means it is pretty expensive. Thus, Giltcity's $20 for a $40 Norma's gift certificate presented the perfect opportunity for me to try it out!

Walking into the restaurant, it is not what I expected. It is a lot smaller than I imagined and kind of felt like more of an extension of the hotel lobby (even though it is set apart from the lobby on a separate balcony area).

On to the food...

Complimentary banana, pineapple & guava smoothie shots to start off!

My dining companion ordered the "Hudson Valley Duck Confit Hash à Cheval" - shredded duck with peppers, cippolini onions, and potatoes. I loved the use of cippolini onions in this rather than just normal onions!

While I've been dying to try the chocolate cake french toast, I've been on a health kick lately so I opted for the "Egg White Frittata With Shrimp With Oven-roasted Roma Tomato and Spinach." I loved this frittata, the egg whites were surprisingly fluffy, and I loved that the tomatoes were roasted on top. It was a lot bigger than I expected as well - the frittata was pretty thick, and it sat on top of a pile of fingerling potatoes.

While we were waiting for the food to arrive, my dining companion and I suddenly noticed an incredibly delicious smell and looked around trying to figure out who ordered what food that smelled so delicious. It turns out to be the toast that comes with some of the dishes. I got multigrain toast with my frittata, served with butter, blackberry jam, and orange marmalade. Sometimes, simple warmed toast, spread with butter and jam just hits the spot!

I'm back! with tons of FOOD!

In this day and age, living without internet is extremely inconvenient! But I was determined to not fall into the trap of Comcast, so I chose to live in the stone age for awhile. Thus, I was not able to blog about my gluttonous activities for quite a while. But now I'm back to civilization. However, it's been so long since I took these pictures, I have very vague memories of the meals. So I'm just going to post it all in one giant brunch edition post.

44 & X - 622 10th Ave, New York, NY 10036


My opinion:

This place is definitely my go to brunch spot. Ambiance is very bright and pretty, with a fresh rose on every table. (The bathroom is magnificently decorated with candles and roses!) The cute waiters wear tight t-shirts that say "Heaven in Hell" (lol, get it?), food is solid, AND instead of bread, you get muffins and jam.

Good Enough To Eat - 483 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10024



Review: The highlight of this meal was the strawberry butter! I could eat that stuff all day every day. Other than that, this place is pretty ordinary in my opinion. The restaurant is pretty small and for some reason it's very popular. So prepare to wait in line to be seated.

Thanksgiving Dinner - Home, NYC, cooked by roomie

Ever seen how brussel sprouts grow naturally?
$1.99 per STALK at the grocery store in Chelsea Market. It's a Thanksgiving miracle! Picture shown half "de-sprouted." Roasted in the oven with oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Addictingly delish!
Lobster Thermidor. Lobster purchased from Fresh Direct. So fresh that after being in the fridge for 3 nights and 2 days it was still alive! Poor lobster, thank you for providing us sustenance.

Cornish Hen stuffed with apple stuffing? Raw hen and mashed potatoes in background both from Fresh Direct. Apple stuffing - randomly made up.
A view of our humble but fulfilling thanksgiving feast.

Cafe Henri - 1010 50th Ave, Long Island City, NY 11109



Review:
Lol, as you can see, I was too busy eating that I forgot to take a pic of the escargot until there was only 1 left! I love that there is a good brunch spot right in LIC. So those days when I'm too lazy to commute into the city, I can enjoy a relaxing meal just a few steps away from home. The food here is pretty typical of what you'd think of when you say brunch. I thought the savory crepes were quite special and not something you can find in ever NYC brunch spot. We went during a cold winter morning, so the hot chocolate was especially inviting. They present it in such a large cup! The one I got has Grand Marnier mixed in. It actually became a bit too bitter for me to handle, I would have preferred something lighter and sweeter. But I have the commend their service. I asked for my left over hot chocolate to go and they gave me a piping hot cup of it. So they must have either heated it up again, or gave me a brand new cup! It was very thoughtful.

Uncle Ben's Chili Bowl- 1213 U St NW, Washington, DC 20009Review:
Uncle Ben's Chili Bowl is a DC food institution. It's beloved by everyone from Bill Cosby to Barack Obama, who are the only people allowed to receive free food from this chili joint. The restaurant is right next to the metro exit and very easy to find as it has a patchwork multi colored bear randomly sitting outside. Due to its popularity, its almost always crowded and being inside can be a bit claustrophobic. We ordered a half smoke and some chili fries. To be honest, the chili was tasty but I did not think it was extraordinary. The half smoke hot dog with chili is definitely a better choice than the chili fries which just weighed you down.

M. Wells - 21-17 49th Ave, Queens, NY 11101

Review:
This place was quite a shocking contrast for me. It's located in a pretty isolated area in the industrial section of Long Island City. It's basically an old fashion diner cart plopped on the side walk of an everlasting construction area. There is very little seating due to the size limits of the restaurant and nearly no space to wait your turn. The plus is that in such a small area, there is nowhere to hid the kitchen, so you can basically watch your food being made. The menu itself is quite different than expected. It includes upscale restaurant faves such as bone marrow and foie gras. I ordered the Biscuit and Jam and was surprised at what I received. Visually, it looked like a mess. But the apple sauce like raspberry "jam" was quite delish and refreshing. We were served our order of steamed eggs with bonito flakes in a cute little cauldron. I especially enjoyed this dish since it reminded me of the steamed eggs my mom made for me when I was still living at home. I have to say, I've only seen this dish in Chinese and Korean restaurants, so it was pretty unexpected for me to find it at M. Wells. That bone marrow you see? Hides a couple of escargots underneath all that marrow! From our entrees, the one that stood out the most was the lobster roll. It was decently sized and you can taste each bite of the fresh lobster meat. The one I enjoyed least was my breakfast sausage. I really just picked it for the "pickled jalapenos" that was on it, bad idea. It was too heavy for breakfast. Overall, I felt this place was a bit overrated. True it has a creative menu, but the taste was just not there for me to make that trek out to this part of town again.

Calle Ocho

Calle Ocho is another place that I found out about while doing research for the engagement dinner. Unfortunately, the ambiance is too casual for me so it didn't make the finalists list, but it definitely made my NYC must eat list.  Everyone always raves about the unlimited sangria brunch here, so we took advantage of the extra vacation day on labor day weekend and tried out the famous brunch.

One thing to note, if you are coming with a large party be sure to make a reservation a couple of weeks in advance. Their brunch is so popular, it is pretty much impossible to get last minute reservations. We ended up just showing up around 2:30 to try our luck. We were able to get a table, but the dining room was completely packed, so this may not always work.

It doesn't looks like it from the outside, but the inside dining space is REALLY large and spacious.

Calle Ocho interior

Whimsical warped lampshade decoration

I love the curved skylight ceilings. It really made the room feel large and cheery. Look how packed it is!

Sangria bar

Their sangria bar is free with any entree purchase. This is a great value since the entrees are pretty inexpensive, maxing out at around $15.

Blanco - Fresh fruit + splash of spirits

Havana banana

This was my fave drink out of the line up: Havana Banana. It's made of coconut rum, banana flavoring, and real pieces of coconut, banana, and lychees. Its light and sweet, so it went down really well. I usually enjoy white wine more than red, so of course I preferred the white colored sangria selections here over the red. 

Yummyyy

I tried all the white sangria selections, but I only tried the Fresas in the red section, which is raspberry rum, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Fresas was too strong for me. The taste of alcohol was overwhelming and the fruits did not taste fresh. 

Complimentary bread and dip

Since there were so many people dining at Calle Ocho, the service was a bit slow. We did not receive our complimentary bread for a long time, but when it came we realized it was sooo worth waiting for. The bread you see are warm brazilian cheese bread. Its soft and chewy in the middle, absolutely incredible! The black bean dip looked a bit questionable at first but after the first bite I was hooked. Its lightly flavored so it's a savory dip with a distinctive latin american flavor. I found a recipe for it on the food network site, it's a bit like salsa but with blackbeans instead of tomato chunks: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dan-smith-and-steve-mcdonagh/black-bean-dip-recipe/index.html

Burrito Sucio

I had the Burrito Sucio - Chorizo, scrambled eggs, black beans, and Tetilla Cheese wrapped in a burrito with salsa verde on top.  I liked this, the salsa for this had quite a kick to it, and the chorizo and scrambled eggs fillings are quite different from a typical burrito. Parfait for brunch though!

Cachapa de Salmon

DF's roomie ordered the Cachapa de Salmon - Venezuelan sweet corn crepes, smoked salmon scrambled Eggs, caper red onion, crema nata.  Notice how blurry it is, because I did not like the dish well enough to retake for a clear picture. Actually, none of us liked this dish. It may be because we were too busy stuffing our faces full of alcohol and other dishes, so by the time we got to this it was already a bit cold. The smoked salmon were in little pieces mixed in with the eggs, so the flavor did not really shine. It tasted like creamy scrambled eggs. I'd skip this dish next time.

Quesadillas de El Salvador

DF actually ordered the best dish of the day. The Quesadillas de El Salvador. The usual quesadillas you find in restaurants are filled with boring old cheese and chicken. If they're not cooked correctly and eaten immediately, they can also be quite dry. So I usually avoid ordering the quesadillas if I can. At Calle Ocho, their quesadillas also includes curtido (pickled carrots, onions, and peppers), and avocado, with crema nata on top. The curtido  gave the quesadilla flavor and kick. The avocados were also a nice touch as a balance to the heavy cheese and provided a great smooth texture.   

Yuca Fries

Chorizo

We also ordered two sides: Yuca Fries and Chorizo. Yuca is also known as the Cassava root and a large part of South American cuisine. As fries they were a bit too starchy for us. It was also crunchy like a crisp apple, but without the juiciness. Our dislike of this dish was mainly due to personal preference and not because of Calle Ocho's preparation. It was served with a red sauce that tasted a bit like marinara sauce with the spicy kick of cocktail sauce. The Chorizo was really good, but it seems like a hard to mess up side. They are not stingy with their side dishes, so again brunch here is a very good value. 

One additional thing I just HAVE to mention. During the meal, perhaps because I was a bit too tipsy from all the sangria, I dropped my fork on the floor. It literally flew out of my hand. Before I even realized what happened, the manager (Manager! not waiter!) was at my side with a new fork and napkin. Now THAT'S service! Especially in such a crowded restaurant. I didn't even get that caliber of service at michelin star restaurants. Needless to say, that really impressed me.

There were mixed reviews for this brunch. I thought it was great! DF thought it was only okay and still prefers Chipotle, and his roommate said he was too drunk to taste the food. However, we all enjoyed the experience and were all quite tipsy at the end of the meal. 

Calle Ocho is definitely a must do for brunch, especially if you enjoy your alcohol. It's a very comfortable and friendly environment, which is seriously hard to find in NYC, and you get so much for your money.