Around Schiphol

After our delicious snack at Vlaamse Frites, we walked around other parts of the Schiphol "mall" including the grocery store. I love grocery stores. Visiting grocery stores on vacation is something I love to do - to see the different products, brands, foods that are important to the local culture. Here, at the airport store, I expected to see drinks, sandwiches to go, or other things that people might bring on board.

The first thing that caught our eye was the stroopwafels. A stroopwafel is made from two thin cookie-like waffles with a caramel-like filling. Gouda, in the Netherlands, is the home to the stroopwafel. In our trip preparation, one of the day trips we were considering was Gouda & Utrecht, on which we were definitely going to look for stroopwafels. (Spoiler: we never made it on the day trip, since there was so much to see in Amsterdam!) I was looking forward to trying them for the first time but didn't want to buy them just yet.


The second thing that I noticed was how much "real" food there was. Food that you wouldn't just take to go or take on a plane. Lots of cheese. Raw meat. Frozen foods. Premade meals that needed to be microwaved. I loved looking at all of it, but wondered who was buying it. They also had premade sandwiches in boxes to go, but those were less exciting (other than putting my Dutch food vocabulary studies to work).


The chips were also really interesting, mostly because of the different flavors. There were lots of snack foods in paprika flavor. (We made a mental note that we had to try paprika snacks before leaving.) But it wasn't just the paprika flavors that were different. Barbecue ham or bolognese flavored potato chips? Why don't we have these in all of our grocery stores?


Large sections of the store were devoted to drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. There were lots of orange drinks, including beer bottles and orange sodas. Heineken had orange designs. Orange and beer everywhere. We also saw Budweiser (not pictured) which was "Czech imported lager."


We had on our "to do" list for later that day to take a trip to the Albert Heijn supermarket after we checked in at our hotel so we could stock up on granola bars for breakfast and drinks. We didn't buy anything at the airport grocery store, but it was a fun and fascinating visit!

Detox

After a weekend of indulgence (Shacktoberfest, 4food burgers, BBQ, 3-course anniversary dinner), all I wanted to do for lunch was to eat something "clean." I've previously written about Just Salad, which I find is the most reliable place to go in Midtown for salads of good quality and flavor.

Today it wasn't that busy, probably because of Columbus Day. When it came time to chop my salad, I noticed that the person before me had gotten broccoli, which unfortunately causes a really bad reaction for me. From a previous exchange with them on Twitter, I learned that if you have a food allergy, they can switch out the cutting board for you. I felt bad asking the guy to do it since he had to go into the back for it, but I had no choice and he was really nice about it. I got my salad, got my 5% discount for the loyalty card (yay!), and was on my way.

The salad was huge today. I don't know if it's because it was Columbus Day or they were just being generous with spinach, but there was so much in my salad that it was hard for the bowl to close! It was full of healthy goodness.


Spinach salad with grilled chicken, grape tomatoes, chickpeas, beets, white beans, barley and red peppers. I can't believe I forgot my usual red onions! But it was still tasty and nutritious (photo from after I had eaten an entire layer of salad):


What do you like in your salads?

Auf Wiedersehen Shacktoberfest Part II

It wouldn't be a proper recap of Shake Shack or its Shacktoberfest without talking about their concrete specials. This year they had two specials:

Cranberry Almond Streusel

Vanilla custard mixed with cranberry compote and almond streusel. Topped with a little schlag (whipped cream)

German Chocolate

Chocolate custard blended with coconut, toasted walnuts and caramel. Topped with a little schlag (whipped cream) except they didn't put on the schlag which is okay by us.

A preferred the Cranberry Almond Streusel as it had a nice ginger-y flavor to go with the tartness of the cranberries and the sweet crunch of the streusel and almonds. The schlag wasn't necessary, but it was okay.

M preferred the Cranberry Almond Streusel because of the cranberries. She likes cranberries. Also, her thought was that the German Chocolate was good because of the coconut, but overall wasn't anything special.

A agrees that the German Chocolate overall had good flavor, and coconut is always a treat, but it was nothing overly special. The walnuts added a nice bit of texture to the concrete, but the caramel was lost due to the overall sweetness of the concrete.

We definitely enjoyed both concretes as they each had their own merits. Overall, we still think the Jelly's Last Donut is the best concrete they offer in the Theater District.

Auf Wiedersehen Shacktoberfest Part I

Today was the last day of Shacktoberfest at Shake Shack. (We have mentioned Shacktoberfest before, but never actually discussed the Shacktoberfest specials.) Since it was our last chance to enjoy the Shacktoberfest specials for the year, we had to go back for lunch to try whatever we hadn't tried before and have our favorites one last time.

We each got our favorite Shacktoberfest sausage, which happens to be the same one: the garlic sausage. According to the Shack menu, the garlic sausage is "a Polish-style garlic sausage cooked flat-top style topped with a bacon n' beer cheese sauce featuring Shackmeister ale, finished with crushed pretzels." It's delicious. It probably doesn't even need the crushed pretzels. That bacon beer and cheese sauce is the star.


We tried one of each sausage last time and split them all in half, so here's a cross-section of the garlic sausage:


Another Shacktoberfest special was the "Hungarian smoked sausage" which according to the Shack menu is "split and griddled, served with Dusseldorf mustard." Of the 3 sausage specials, this came in second for M. (A doesn't really have a preference between the 2 other sausages and just ranks the garlic sausage on top.) This may have something to do with the fact that the mustard is really good and M loves mustard.


Last of the specials was the currywurst, which was served with fries. According to the Shack menu, it's "traditional style bratwurst in a Shack-made tomato sauce with curry." This was ok. The sauce was definitely a tomato-based sauce, but it didn't taste like much more than that. It also probably didn't help that we had currywurst the night before at Hallo Berlin.


Can't wait to find out what's in store for Shacktoberfest 2011! But before we drop Shacktoberfest entirely until next year - one more post about the Shacktoberfest special concretes!

Trini Paki Boys

So on Wednesday (10/6) M and I weren't sure what to get for lunch. I had some time for lunch so I could meet her, and I had made a couple suggestions. M kept quashing them (too far, too close, etc.), though. In the end, M ended up deciding on my first suggestion.

Sigh. Only 15 minutes wasted deciding that :P

Off we went to Trini Paki Boys, one of our favorite carts in the area. It's a bit of a walk for me, but it was a nice day, and I'd get to see M during lunch which is always a plus. For those that don't know, Trini Paki Boys is a Trinidadan-Pakistani food cart serving a fusion of both cultures' foods, though it apparently skews more towards Trini, along with the standard chicken/lamb over rice. M and I both opted for the Chicken Biryani which is offered Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Thursdays they offer Goat Biryani.

M got the medium, and I got the large. We happily bundled our goods and departed back to our respective office to enjoy our spicy goodness. Along with the biryani, they also offer to pile on vegetables (this time it was cabbage, chickpeas, and potatoes), salad of lettuce and tomatoes, and the white sauce and hot sauce.

View of the Trini Paki Cart while waiting to order

My large biryani with the lettuce moved for better viewing

M's medium biryani also with the lettuce moved for better viewing
Some people complain that their biryani is a little dry. Some people also complain that it's too spicy. We both disagree on both accounts. We both like that it's less oily. Also, the spices and vegetable additions really make this extremely flavorful and better than any other biryani we've had in the past. In the end, for the price, the Trini Paki boys never fail to leave us satisfied.

If you're looking to try this out for yourself, check out the Trini Paki Boys cart weekdays at the intersection of 43rd and 6th in Midtown on the NE corner.

Mai Sushi

Today I visited Mai Sushi for lunch for the first time. I had been to Chiyoda (its previous version) in the same space a number of times, but this was the first time I had been able to get over to try the new stuff at Mai.


I couldn't decide what to get. At Chiyoda, I usually got sushi and then a side salad - sometimes potato salad, sometimes other things. After much deliberation, in which I considered sushi, bento boxes and salads, I finally decided on a "tapas" lunch (for lack of a better term) since all the sides were jumping out at me.


I decided on potato salad, spicy popcorn shrimp onigiri, green beans and a curried tofu and chickpea salad. Looking back, I probably could have gone with just 3 of them, but I was trying to get a good balance of vegetables since potato salad was a definite choice and I didn't know how filling everything would be. I didn't eat them one at a time, but I'm going to talk about them from least liked to most liked.


First up, the sesame-soy green beans. The texture of the green beans was good - not too hard and not falling apart. However, because of the sesame-soy sauce, it was really salty. The carrots were a nice addition, even if they weren't listed on the nutritional label.

Second, the curried chickpea and fried tofu salad. The taste of the salad was really good but here, the texture was a little lacking. The chickpeas were a little harder than I prefer and the fried tofu skin was a little thicker and harder than I had hoped. But the flavor was good.


Now for the 2 dishes I liked better. The spicy popcorn shrimp onigiri was new to me. The spicy sauce is like the spicy mayo sauce I've had on rock shrimp tempura elsewhere. Good flavor and the onigiri didn't really fall apart. The potato salad I have had many times before. I love Japanese potato salad. The recipe seems to have changed a little and now includes eggs. I prefer it without eggs, but I can deal with that because sometimes I just need a fix of Japanese potato salad.

I think next time I go to Mai, I may get hot food in a bento, or maybe go back to my usual of sushi plus a side. But it was nice to branch out and try new items (other than my old standby of potato salad). Hope for a new discovery next time!

Vlaamse Frites

What was our first meal in Amsterdam?

Fries.

We landed at Schiphol airport and after going through passport control, getting our luggage and exploring the airport (including the awesome outdoor terrace), we were hungry. We had spotted a place near the food court called Vlaamse Frites in our exploring and we made a beeline for it as soon as we finished our airport exploring. Fries were on our list of "must-try" foods while we were on our trip, and seemed like the perfect snack.


The fries at Vlaamse Frites come in a cone. They don't really have a seating area, but a bunch of tables where you can stand, and also a long counter, which I think may have had seats. The nice thing about the counter is that they have cone holders so you don't have to hold the fries the whole time. The bad thing for us was that there were no seats at the counter.


We ordered the fries with mayo, curry ketchup and onions ("ui" in Dutch). We had originally just ordered mayo and ketchup, but they pointed out that it was cheaper getting the "speciaal" with onions, and who are we to turn down onions?


These fries were delicious. We tried fries elsewhere in the Netherlands but these may have been our favorite fries. I don't know if it was the onions, the curry ketchup, or if it was because it was our first meal after a long flight. But we loved them. And they filled our bellies just enough so that we were able to explore the city without stopping for another snack before dinner. Yummy frites!

Breakfast Boxes

I have a confession to make. I am not a big fan of breakfast.

I know there are people who could eat breakfast for every meal, but I am not one of those people. I love lunch. I love dinner. (Also not a huge fan of dessert, but that's a more complex story.)

I do eat breakfast every day. Usually a granola bar because it's convenient, easy and takes no time to prepare. If we have any, maybe a banana for the same reasons. Today, Popchips (terrible, I know). But if I had time, it would be leftovers or popcorn chicken, which I do sometimes. Back in high school, breakfast would be leftover pizza. Or chow fun. Or spaghetti. I was never really a cereal eater (outside of Cheerios and Rice Krispies, on occasion). I don't have any hatred for French toast or pancakes, but given the choice between those and spaghetti, I'll choose spaghetti. I would eat omelettes but they do not make my stomach happy in the morning. (TMI?)

All this to explain that I was very curious about what KLM was going to serve us for breakfast. I remember previous plane breakfasts with rubbery scrambled eggs or spongey pancakes, back when airlines served meals. It turned out that KLM took the safe route and went for cold food.



Raspberry yogurt, a chocolate chip roll and orange juice. Not a bad breakfast. But also not super-filling. Which meant that once we landed and arrived in Amsterdam for real, it was going to be time for a meal!

Surprise Dinner

During our blogging hiatus, we took a trip to Europe and went to the Vendys and other food festivals. It's time to recap!

We had been wanting to go to Europe for so long. We had gone on a day trip to Frankfurt a few years ago, but it was time for a real European vacation. After some deliberation, we decided on a trip to the Netherlands and Belgium. So excited!

We had a night flight from NYC to Amsterdam, and according to Delta, we were only getting breakfast. After a stressful trip to the airport in which we almost didn't make our flight, we grabbed sandwiches at the airport before our flight. Having not eaten anything since lunch, there was no way we were going to make it without any food until breakfast. The sandwiches were fine, nothing exciting.

They gave us a snack with some smoked almonds soon after takeoff. They were OK. An hour or so into the flight, we were surprised when they told us that they were going to serve dinner. Although airline food is usually nothing to be excited about (unless you're on Singapore Airlines), we were looking forward to a real dinner.

Since our flight wasn't actually operated by Delta, and was operated by KLM, I think we got a good deal. KLM has been working with chef Daniel Green to put together healthy and tasty meals for their trans-atlantic flights. Instead of eating heavy food that makes you feel sick on the plane, or other junk, the idea of a light, healthy dinner was really appealing.


Dinner consisted of a hot dish, a warm roll, a salad and a dessert. And none of it was junk food!


First up, the cold salad. Lettuce, carrots, a big cherry tomato and seafood, dressed with a very light vinaigrette. The dressing wasn't overwhelming (in taste or quantity) so it left the salad very crisp and light. I was wary about having a seafood salad on an airplane, but it was actually really good and full of flavor.


The hot dish, according to the wrapper, was a chicken thai red curry. The rice had good texture, not too hard or watery. The green beans were healthy. And the chicken was actually really good. Not good only by airplane food standards, but it would have been good even coming out of a restaurant kitchen. We were really happy to be having such a good and healthy dinner!


Then it was time for dessert. It looked like ordinary chocolate cake but it was more like a sacher torte with fruit (raspberry?) flavor in the middle of spongey cake. It was delicious.

And after such a nice dinner, it was time to sleep until breakfast!

Obsession

I wouldn't say I'm addicted to Shake Shack, but I certainly do love going there. I mean, I could stop going whenever I want to, but I just don't want to.

What? Why are you looking at me like that? I can quit, I swear! I could live without those juicy burgers, crispy fries, and creamy, delicious custards/concretes/shakes. Nevermind the fact that it's Shacktoberfest so they have tons of sausage options and even more delicious concrete options...

Hello, my name is A, and I'm addicted to Shake Shack.

So it was that on Monday I regaled my coworkers with tales of the wonderous sausages that Shake Shack had for their annual Shacktoberfest. I did such a good job that my regular lunch buddies, C and R, made the decision that they wanted to try out these fabulous creations. Who was I to deny them the pleasure of Shake Shack? Who cares that I had already gone on Saturday for a special concrete and a giant stein of beer? Who cares if I had gone Sunday with M to try all 3 of their sausages? I'm a damn addict remember?

Off we went on a rainy day to my favorite fatty goodness. Maybe it was the weather since we didn't go that early (12:15-ish), but there were only about 10 people in front of us when we got to the doors. C and R each got the garlic sausage smothered in its glorious beer-infused cheese sauce and pretzel pieces.

I opted for the standard Double Shack Burger with everything, an order of cheese fries, and a peanut butter shake. If I've never mentioned that I'm fat, you probably figured this out already. It was quite a satisfying feast, but a tad pricey, and a tad heavy for lunch. I'm still not sure how I stayed awake the rest of the day with all of that sitting in my stomach, but I managed.

My full fatty lunch

I love this burger

These cheese fries are like crack

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with my lunch, but it does represent M and me in all of our piggy glory. We saw it on Sunday outside a Chinese wedding banquet when we went down to Brooklyn to have dinner with M's family.

Freshii

Remember when I said I wanted to try something new? I'm glad it was slightly warmer today because I decided to head over to Freshii, a new place that opened about a week ago in the Fashion District.


Freshii advertises itself as a natural and environmentally conscious place. If you go to their site, you can read about their mission. They even claim that they will wash bowls you bring from home and fill it with your meal to help the environment. Nice idea, but I usually decide what I want while walking outside so that won't really be an option for me. (And I don't keep anything but Just Salad bowls at work.)


To order, pick up a clipboard by the door and check off what you want (or write in the name of a pre-designed combination). Since it hasn't been open that long, there were lots of people who weren't quite sure what to do and ended up on line without a clipboard. They had to order at the front of the line, which slowed things down a little bit.

When ordering you have the option of getting 1/2, regular or 1 1/2 dressing mixed in (or to get it on the side). Just don't forget that the dressing option is there!


I got one of the pre-designed bowls. I thought picking a bestseller and proven combination for my first visit was a safer choice. That way, if it sucked, I would know it wasn't because I can't mix ingredients in my head. I went for the warrior chicken bowl, which contains brown rice, cajun chicken, sweet corn, red onions, black beans, cilantro, diced tomatoes, carrots and low-fat ranch dressing (I got 1/2 instead of the regular amount). It came in a regular take-out container (I had heard that salads came in bags, so I was wondering if rice bowls did too, since that could be difficult to eat).


The box wasn't actually this full; it was about an inch below the top of the box. But it was pretty densely packed full of rice and other ingredients. Just look at it - doesn't it scream "healthy"?


My verdict on the warrior chicken bowl falls somewhere between "OK" and "good." I liked that it felt like I was eating a healthy meal, yet it wasn't a bowl of lettuce (and yes, I know that's not really a healthy meal). It didn't have a really strong flavor though. The cajun chicken wasn't spicy. The dressing only added a hint of flavor, but that's probably because I got 1/2 instead of regular. The cilantro and onions were plentiful, which I liked, because I love cilantro and onions. I wonder what it would taste like if I got something other than ranch dressing and whether that would make a difference.

Overall, I feel pretty neutral on this place. I like that they have healthy options for lunch, and hope that there are more places with healthy and tasty options on the horizon. But I guess I was hoping that this would be my replacement for Rocket Wrapps (sigh, we miss Rocket Wrapps) with healthy but flavorful bowls piled high with chicken and vegetables. It doesn't quite get there. That said, I would go back. I need something healthy in my rotation (not that I really have a rotation) and it's not that far from the office. What should I get next time?

Asparagus

Today the temperature hovered in the low 50s. Wearing a skirt and light jacket, it was cold. Soup weather, for sure.


Back to Hale and Hearty. I usually get a sandwich-soup combo with oyster crackers. Not the most adventurous or exciting lunch, but sometimes it's just soup weather.


This half sandwich had a sundried tomato spread, chicken, tomatoes, lettuce and mozzarella. What I especially loved was that the bread was so soft, matching all of the ingredients inside, instead of creating a hard shell.


This was the first time I tried the asparagus, potato and leek soup. It's one of the VLD soups (vegetarian, low fat and dairy free) which makes me feel like I'm having a healthy lunch. And asparagus is always good. The soup was thick, even more remarkable for its lack of cream. I would get this again.

Hopefully tomorrow either I will have warmer clothes or the temps will get out of the low 50s. I want to try something new!

Wafel

So it's been a very very long time since I posted. I know, I'm terrible. So for my penance, let's discuss the trials of my Friday lunch work meals...

It's the first day of October, it's raining because of tropical storm # 693 or something this year, and I'm hungry. Twitter tells me that Wafels and Dinges has a cart located on 40th between 7th and 8th today, and they're thinking of making this a permanent Friday location. Well then, a pulled pork waffle sounds like a pretty good idea for lunch. In fact, I had planned on getting one pulled pork waffle and a second waffle for dessert.

Eagerly approaching waffle-y goodness

So I get to the cart with a coworker of mine who had been enticed by the prospect of BBQ pulled pork, pickles, and slaw on top of a golden waffle, and we set ourselves to order. I let my coworker order first as I was still plotting what to get for my dessert waffle. Then, to our horror, we hear the words, "Sorry, no pulled pork. Only the truck has that."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The best laid plans right? Thwarted on our pork and waffle quest, we settled on pizza from Siena Pizza right across the way as we needed to get back to the office. As we sat eating our pizza, still sad about our lack of waffles, we vowed to return for an afternoon snack.

Having recently traveled with M to Brussels, I still envisioned the crunch of the sugar crystals found within the waffles. 4pm rolled around, and my coworker and I once more braved the rain and made the short walk to see our yellow cart friend. I went with the liege waffle with spekuloos and strawberries. Spekuloos is a spread that tastes like graham crackers that is always talked about over Twitter when Wafels and Dinges is mentioned.

Yum. Waffle with spekuloos and strawberries

A touch blurry, but a closer look at the spekuloos spread and strawberries

After all of the hype of the spekuloos, though, it was a touch disappointing. Perhaps the strawberries took away from the flavor of the spread, but I found it a little light on flavor. Perhaps next time I get the spek I'll get it straight. Overall, the waffle was quite delicious, and I hope they come back every week like they say they want to.

Shackenstein

We love Shake Shack. The burgers, the (cheese) fries, the changing custard line-up, the hot dogs. Right now it's Shacktoberfest, which brings a whole new round of specials. And not only is it Shacktoberfest, but it's the first week of the October custard lineup.

Sundays in October means Shackenstein. The lineup for the month looked great, but what is Shackenstein?

We asked the person at the register and she said it was vanilla with green food coloring, with crispies and marshmallows. Sounds good!

When it came out, it looked like this:


But after we started eating it, we realized a few things. First, no marshmallows. Second, if by crispies they meant the white crispies like in the Great White Way, they're not there either. Third, there's some sort of chocolate brownie cake in there.


So we're not sure what the contents of Shackenstein are. But it's pretty good. Even though they said there wasn't mint in it, there seemed to be a little bit of mint flavor. The chocolate cake brownie was a nice addition.

M's not big into numerical ratings, but since Shake Shack custard is something we have pretty regularly and they can be judged against one another, we're going to start rating them on a 1-10 scale (with 10 being the best).

Shackenstein
A's rating: 7.5/10
M's rating: 8.5/10

A New Start

If you've been following this blog (is there anyone out there?), you might have noticed that we changed the name. The old name just didn't feel right and we were struggling a little bit with the identity of the blog as a food blog v. a life blog (with a concentration on food, since we love food). In the end, we have decided to go for a two-blog route (with the "life" blog to come later; this whole thing reminds M of a book she loved in undergrad called "The Golden Notebook"), so the focus of this blog will be on food. We're also going to try to blog more regularly. After all, we eat all the time. More adventures to come!

Boi Noodles

So once more I get to mention a lunch spot around my office. Seriously, the West 30s are really really good for cheap, tasty food.

I went to Boi Noodles about a week or so ago since I had a craving for some banh mi. I've had banh mi from a few different spots in my life, both in Chicago when I lived there and now also in New York. Overall Boi is pretty good. The best I've ever had is still in Chicago up near Argyle. I can't remember the name of the place, but I had a shrimp omelette banh mi that was simply unbelievable. Back to Boi, though...

The flavors of the meats are good. I've had their Banh Mi "Saigon" which is Jambon, VN Ham, BBQ Pork, and Pate and also their BBQ Pork in 6 spices. Both are very flavorful, and they put just the right amount of meat in to not overpower the sandwiches and also to make sure there is some meat in each bite. All of their sandwiches are also stacked with the standard Mayo, Cucumber, Cilantro, and Pickled Carrots and Daikon all on a toasted baguette. They also put sandwiches into a low-carb wrap if chosen, but seriously, anybody that knows me knows better than to waste my time suggesting that :)

Pictured here is the BBQ Pork in 6 spices.


Top view showing the pickled carrots and daikon


May not look like it, but there's a good amount of meat in there

The only issue I have with the sandwiches is the baguette. The really good banh mi I've had have all had really good bread. Those baguettes had a less toasted feel to them. The outer crust had a good stiffness but didn't flake or crunch off from over toasting, and the insides were nice and chewy. Boi Noodles' baguettes are a little over toasted so the crust leaves a lot of crumbs and can be a bit tough to bite into. The inner bread also isn't as chewy as I would prefer.

Overall, the sandwiches are tasty. Maybe some day I'll try their Pho, but it really hasn't been cold enough for that recently. Plus, for the price (currently $7.50 as of this posting) they're a great value for a solid lunch.

Baja

I don't watch many ads (and when they're on, I often tune out) so I didn't know Wendy's had new salads. Apparently I also missed all the blog posts about them.

Anyway, they have a few new salads including a spicy chicken caesar and a "baja" salad. I didn't pay much attention to the other 2 (?) because they weren't the types of salads I usually go for. The baja salad is basically the taco salad, version 2. Since I'm a fan of the taco salad, I figured I would try it. On a general salad note, I'm still waiting for them to bring back the southwest chicken caesar salad again. (Hint, hint Wendy's! It's been a few years since the encore!)


The baja salad has mixed greens, pico de gallo, cheese and guacamole. It comes with a small chili on the side to be put on top of the salad (just like the taco salad), tortilla strips (just like the taco salad) and a creamy dressing (which, just like the taco salad, I ignore). Reading some reviews of the salad while I was eating lunch, people keep calling it deceptively high in calories, but it's really not that bad if you don't use the dressing (I don't) and save the tortilla strips for a snack later (I do). Less calories than a Chipotle salad bowl.


The salad in its pico de gallo and guacamole glory.


And topped with chili.

The verdict? I liked the salad. The main differences between this and the original taco salad seem to be the greens (mixed greens better than iceberg), pico de gallo (instead of tomatoes, but not dramatically better), and guacamole (good, but not absolutely necessary - it doesn't "make" the salad). I would get it again. But I would really prefer to get the southwest chicken caesar back! I will always be on the lookout for that and my favorite - the wild mountain chicken sandwich. Please bring them back!

Cool Breezes

Hello there, remember me?

It's been awhile. Things got really hectic. We threw our at-home wedding reception for over 350 people and the weeks leading up to that were incredibly busy. It was like a second (or third?) job. After the reception, I got sick for awhile (damn ear infections). But now I'm back and hopefully I can get back to my resolution to blog every day!

You might notice that I haven't talked about food yet. I wanted to clarify something that we might not have mentioned in the earlier posts. This blog isn't just about food even though "eats" is in title. We like to eat (hence the title) but we want to talk about all of our adventures on the blog, whether they involve food or not. Hopefully we'll have some exciting things to talk about in the coming weeks.

But for now, onto the food...


Today it was in the 60s. It felt like fall, my favorite season. It was cloudy, on and off raining (not my favorite weather). It rained so hard on my walk to work that my socks were soaked and my sneakers hadn't dried by lunchtime. The breeze was strong and cool. It felt like the middle of September, not August. By tonight, the rain was gone and we were just left with a light cool breeze. I love it.

But considering the 15-20 degree temperature drop, it felt like soup weather. I looked up Hale and Hearty's soups for the day and saw that they had clam chowder. Not the Manhattan kind, or the New England kind, but "Rhode Island" (the clear one). I knew this as Boston clam chowder in my college days at the dining hall, but either way - I wanted it.

You might have figured this out from the picture above, but I ended up getting a really late lunch. So they were sold out of the clam chowder. Sad day.

I briefly considered chicken couscous (it looked good) but decided on the turkey chili. It had a different texture than most chilis which are less broken up and more meaty and beany. (I think I'm just making up words now.) I'm not sure how to describe it, but this felt more like a sauce and a soup than a chili.

It comes over rice, so I decided to try it anyway. It had a nice flavor, but it was really subdued and mild. It was a little on the oily side, I learned, as I took off the cover to see all the oil on top. It was still a good soup, but not as good as some of the others I've had from H&H before.

To finish off the combo, I got a guacamole chicken wrap which also had tomatoes, onions and greens. It was fine. I like some of their other sandwiches better (especially the ones with basil), but it's always good to try something new.

I'll probably get something else (both soup & sandwich) next time I head over to H&H. These weren't bad, but I've definitely had others that I like better. Maybe they'll have wedding soup next time. I like their wedding soup. The weather forecasters claim it'll be back up to 88 degrees by the weekend. So it might be some time before I go back for more soup!

Hale and Hearty Soups has multiple locations in Manhattan. I usually head over to Rockefeller Center or Bryant Park. You can check their daily soup menus on their website.