New York City: Sapphire

Location:

1845 Broadway, New York, NY

www.sapphireny.com

After taking in the last runway show at NYFW one evening, I was in the mood for Indian food. We ended up at Sapphire which is near the Lincoln Center and across from Central Park. 

The piping hot peshwari naan is, hands down, the best I've ever had! Our food was served onto our plates. The salmon was marinated and flavourful. And our request for less mutter (peas) and more aloo (potatoes) in the aloo gobi mutter dish was in fact, granted and well-executed. 

Everything was incredible! We literally cleaned up every dish to the last morsel. 

We were so content with our meal that we went over to thank the gentleman at the front and tell him that we thoroughly enjoyed our meal. He ended up being the owner, Satish Arora, who then very graciously offered us drinks and desserts at the bar. We obliged and was amazed when we saw a bottle of Crown Royale in his name! 

We had a wonderful time chatting with Satish about his life in NYC and also found some common links of his in Toronto. The decor is all authentic and brought over from India and the restaurant is very popular with celebrities as well.

Thank you for showing us a delightful time Satish, we look forward to coming back soon! 

New York City: Love from NYC

Heart shaped pizza? How about some breaded love?

This is how NYC does Valentine's Day.

MA: Priya Indian Cuisine

Location:

1270 Westford Street, Lowell, MA

www.bostonpriya.com

Looking for amazing Indian food in Massachusetts? Look no further than Priya's. 

Authentic north and south indian fare that's well priced and so delicious. We ordered half the things on the menu (some not pictured) and everything was excellent. Service, although friendly, is a bit slow. One of the tables beside us pre-ordered on the phone prior to coming in, which seemed like a good idea as they sat down after us but were eating well before us. 

Still, a great place for indian food and big enough to host parties and functions. (Photos via underwater camera)

Frugal Fare #7: Boston: Costco: Best Hand Dipped Chocolate Ice Cream Bar

Sssssh, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.

Costco, yes, mega wholesaler COSTCO, has THE BEST hand dipped chocolate vanilla ice cream covered in almonds, bar.

Plus it's only $1.50 and it's the size of a baby elephant. (photos via iphone) 

Boston: Samurai

Location:

827 Boylston Street  Boston, MA

www.samurai-boston.com 

After the Zoora launch at the Apple Store on Boylston, and after the recommendation of Samurai from some of the Apple employees, we ended up there, a tad daunted by it's basement entry and dimly lit interior.

However we were in the mood for Japanese and gave it a shot. 

Once inside, we realized the interior was rather nice and cosy and were warmly welcomed.

A disclaimer, we are not sushi conoisseurs; in fact, our tempura heavy selections may reflect that, anyway.  

Delicious miso soup, and splendid tempura sushi - I've never had this type of sushi before, where the whole roll is tempura-fied. Not realizing that it would be as such, we also ordered a massive tempura dish (also not realizing it would be so massive!). 

Great portion size and wonderful food. Our server was also top-notch.

Samurai is highly recommended by me, but see above. 

Boston: Francesca's Cafe

Location:

564 Tremont St, Boston, MA

Everyone talks about the South End, so we made it there this past Sunday - it was cold you guys, and everything was closed! Why do they do that? Made it to Francesca's Cafe in a frozen state and thawed out nicely with a hot chocolate, tea and a tuna melt (apty named for this occasion). Oh, a pretty cupcake made the cut, too.

Provincetown, MA: Fudge Factory

Location:

210 Commercial St # 1  Provincetown, MA

Go for the fudge, don't stay for the service. 

I guess you have to stay for the service in order to get the fudge, though. 

As it was the only fudge store open in Provincetown over the MLK weekend, and as we didn't know any better, we went into the Fudge Factory.  Contrary to Yelp reviews, you're not able to try the fudge anymore and also contrary to Yelp reviews, our server was quite rude. Perhaps it was an off day for him, or it was someone new, but it left us with a bad taste in our mouths, which we quickly sweetened up with their yummy fudge. 

Provincetown, MA: Fanizzi's

Location:
539 Commercial Street  Provincetown, MA 

For the MLK long weekend, we decided to check out Cape Cod for the day. Yes, it was freezing, and yes, everything, save for a few shops, was closed. However, we were recommended Fanizzi's by the water and decided to grab dinner there before heading back. 

We scored the best seat of the house, overlooking the water and the sunset.

The service was lovely and the place filled up quickly as the sun began to set. 

We chose a dish of sea scallops n' pasta in marinara sauce and fish n' chips, both downed with beers. The coleslaw that came with the fish n' chips was to die for. It must have had some green apple or something, as it was both sweet and perfectly coleslaw-y. The bread basket arrived piping hot which is always welcome. We also had coffees and the molten lava chocolate cake, which took me well over my sugar quota for the day, but was totally worth it.

I can't recommend this place, enough. We'll be back this summer!

Cambridge: Atomic Bean Cafe

Location:

904 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA

When my bro-in-law, who used to live in Boston, was visiting in the Fall, one of the areas of Cambridge that he wanted us to see was Central Square.  We walked around and checked out his old place and then were in the mood for some hot chocolate and tea. One of the first places we found didn't serve hot chocolate, the Starbucks had no seating and we found a funny organic health food place that served buck wheat and sprouty type drinks, which we were definitely not in the mood for. We finally ended up at Atomic Bean Cafe, which was well worth the wait. 

 

Amsterdam: Hilton Hotel: Half Moon Lounge

It was raining pretty hard as soon as we arrived in Amsterdam, and it remained fairly wet and quite chilly throughout the trip. As soon as we got to The Amsterdam Hilton, made famous for John Lennon & Yoko Ono's "Bed-In-For-Peace", all we wanted to do was have a quick bite to eat and some tea.  So, while we waited for our room (not the John Lennon/Yoko Ono presidential suite, alas), we dined at one of the hotel's resturants, the Half Moon Lounge. We ordered some teas and a falafel sandwich with a side of fries.  How amazing was this sandwich?  And the service was wonderful and unintrusive while we relaxed by the huge canal side windows. Highly recommend this hotel, which has beautiful rooms and bathrooms with gorgeous canal views and a spectacular breakfast buffet, which may make an appearance on Foodhogger, later.

Product: Black Summer Truffles from OGourmet

I received this product to review from OGourmet, which is a Canadian company dealing in fine food products from around the world.

I chose a jar of Extra Fine Black Summer Truffles as I'd never cooked with truffles, and only had dishes with truffle oil in the past.The "Tuber Aestivum" whole black summer truffles, is part of a line of truffle-inspired products imported from Viani & Co. Not knowing what to do with the little jar of black summer truffles, it sat for a while in our cupboard, until the other day, when I decided, that for New Year's Eve, I would make an attempt to cook with it.The Gilded Fork proved helpful in my task whilst Googling recipes using black summer truffles. However, by not having as much time as required in the recipe (fresh truffles, soaked in olive oil for a few hours), I made my own modifications to The Gilded Fork's recipe, here for only a small portion of pasta, as follows:

Ingredients:

1 black summer truffle
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Small portion of pasta for two
2 cloves garlic, minced

Prep:

Chop truffle

Chop garlic

Pour olive oil into chopped truffle

Gently cook the garlic until softened. Do not burn the garlic. Remove from the heat and add the truffles with the rest of the olive oil.

[Chef’s Note:  It is important that truffles never be “cooked”, but just gently warmed, so as not to destroy their delicate flavor.]

When the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the truffle and olive oil along with a splash of the cooking water, and gently reheat over very low heat.  After trying the dish, neither of us could taste the truffles; individually they didn't seem to have any stand-alone flavour. 

As I said, I tailored the recipe to just a small portion of pasta, enough for two bowls. The rest of the pasta I served with an easy sauce using Morningstar's Veggie Meatballs, which are delish and really have a meaty texture.

So, I ask, what did I do wrong with the truffles and do you have any tips or recipes on how to cook with black summer truffles?

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Recipe: Cake Pops

My sister and I (more her) made cake pops recently for a cookie swap we were invited to.  She was telling me about these cake pop machines you can buy, but you really don't have to

if you can do the following.

My sister made the mix, I rolled the balls and stuck the sticks into them, sis dipped and dunked. 

Et Voila!  They were a huge hit at the cookie swap!  (My sis also made Snowball cookies, recipe to come, soon!)

You can coat them however you like, which would make them wonderful little Holiday presents. 

Recipe: Beets

Beetroots are one of my favourite vegetables to eat and they're so easy to prepare.

I know people like to have them steamed then served cold in salads, but I am not a fan.  I like them warm when eaten.

So, I'm sharing my Mom's quick and tasty beetroot recipe with all of you.

Ingredients:

BEETS  - a bunch of them, peeled, cut into cubes

1 tsp of OIL

1-2 tsp of CUMIN

pinch of SALT & PEPPER

sprinkle of SESAME SEEDS 

OPTIONAL curry leaves

How to cook:

1 tsp of oil in a hot pan, lower the heat, add the cumin, let it brown a little.

Add the beets, add a bit of water, a bit of salt and the optional curry leaves (y'all know how much I love me some curry leaves), cover the pan and let the beets cook through on low heat.

When the beets are cooked through, sprinkle some pepper and some sesame seeds to serve. 

• And alternative way to cook the beets is to toss them into boiling water (unpeeled) and boil them until soft, then dunk them in cold water and the skin will easily peel off (this way you don't get as much beet staining your cutting board).  Then you simply cook in a pan with oil/salt/pepper/cumin and serve with sesame seeds.

 I like to serve beets with indian style masala potatoes, dal (lentil curry) and rice.  

 

Boston: Kashmir

Location:

279 Newbury Street  Boston, MA

Not only was it packed, which is one reason we thought it might have been a good choice, but it was packed with INDIAN people, which is sometimes a good indicator of a decent Indian restaurant.  Not this time.

Kashmir has terrible, terrible indian food.

I'm from South India where we LOVE our rice to death.  Present me with old rice (where it's clumped together, with bits of rice stuck to the outside rim of the bowl?) and I'm already an unhappy camper.

Tandoori salmon, which came out looking like steamed salmon with an aside of curry to be poured over it.  How is that Tandoori salmon?  It had not a single piece of evidence of having been in a tandoor oven.  The sauce was the same as in the fish curry dish. 

Our bhatura was initially forgotten and then brought out later looking flat, which a bhatura should not be.

Veggie samosas which were filled with mashed potatoes - seriously?  

The eggplant was mushy and tasteless.  The only item we liked were the Kashmiri naans, which were quite good.  Makes sense to me now, why the place is called Kashmir. 

Add slow service and disgraceful bathrooms to round up this review.  

Oh, and when I asked to get the Kashmiri naans to go, big mistake.  The worst thing, ever, that a server can do, is to place other dishes ON TOP of the dish you've asked to take home.  Needless to say, our takeout was tossed right away.

Tell me Bostonians, where the good Indian food at?