new york city restaurant week - perilla

Restaurant Week ran in New York City from July 22 through August 16. There were a bunch of places I really wanted to try out, but sadly most of the ones on my list were only running specials for lunch Monday through Friday. Alas. The woes of working deep in the bowels of Brooklyn.

However, I did have the opportunity to dine at Perilla in the West Village with my high school friend Isabel and her college friend Susan. They had a really delicious prix fixe menu, featuring a selection of appetizers, mains, and desserts.

I think we each ended up ordering the exact same thing: mussels to start, followed by a roast chicken with either a peach or apricot glaze, a small loaf bread for dessert with some sort of consommé on the side.  (Can you tell it's been a while since I ate here?) We also shared some sort of duck meatball side dish with cipollini onions and mozzarella and some other flavors. And to round everything off, the waiter brought us little chocolate cookies topped with sea salt sprinkled on top.

Seriously yummy meal. I don't consider myself a New Yorker by any stretch of the imagination, but once in a while I catch myself in these "New York" moments, and this dinner felt like one of them.

bonding through food

Julie came to visit me in New York back in the middle of July. As we are wont to do, we embarked on many foodventures. For example, we went back to Burger Bistro. We had a breakfast picnic in Washington Square Park. We had lots of snacks.

Here is some photographic evidence:

 

And some more foodventures that we've shared over the past few months, prior to that... because when it comes to bonding through sisterly activities, we're a little bit predictable.

the burger bistro

 

When Julie was here – weeks and weeks ago now... this is a very late post – we had dinner at the Burger Bistro in Bay Ridge (also located in Park Slope and the Upper East Side). I freaking love this place and wish I still lived as close to it as I used to. Make-your-own burger menus, fries, tater tots (we love our totz), and ICE CREAM SANDWICHES. Not to mention local sodas that come in fancy bottles and in flavors like "ginger root" and whatnot. Ahhh.

molly's cupcakes

A while back I got to meet up with Allie, one of the most elusive friends I have. We met on our study abroad trip to London and fell in platonic love. After graduation, she proceeded to disappear off the face of the earth, but I've managed to reign her back in. (No, that is a lie.)

We had dinner at a sushi restaurant in the West Village that is not even worth mentioning, really – what is worth mentioning is the cupcake shop we went to afterwards: Molly's Cupcakes. Allie's sister just started working at their Chicago location and has been raving about it apparently, so we decided to try it out.

Gulp.

DE-LISH.

Molly's has a great selection of in-house flavors, all filled with some special concoction (Boston creme pie, caramel butterscotch, blueberry cheesecake, cookie monster, cake batter, and one called "the Ron Bennington"). They also let you put together your own cupcake – i.e., you choose the cake, frosting, and any toppings you want.

Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.

I love this place so much that when my sister came to visit slash help me move, I forced her back here as well. Their red velvet is regal. Their cake batter cupcake is literally (no, not literally) a party in your mouth. Their cookie monster cupcake is fab.

Molly's Cupcakes is a bit pricier than my beloved Sugar Sweet Sunshine – but then the location is much larger, the flavor options are fancy-schmancier, and there is more cupcake to go around. Also, West Village versus Lower East Side? I mean... yeah.

a trip to the brooklyn bridge

On my parents' last day in New York, we decided to take a trip up to the Brooklyn Bridge. My dad had been wanting to go for some time now, and we didn't have time to go when everyone was here back in December. It was a cool 50-something degrees, so we bundled up and headed out to Dumbo.

I see the Brooklyn Bridge from a distance every time I travel along the Manhattan Bridge, but seeing it up close was kind of weird... surreal, almost. It was so windy! And so many Europeans everywhere!

Afterwards we were hungry for lunch so we went to Grimaldi's – the real reason for my dad's interest in the Brooklyn Bridge – where we found ourselves in a surprisingly short line. (Not even ten minutes and we were at a table for three. It's a far cry from the hour-long waits that people talk about on Yelp.)

This is not the best New York-style pizza i've ever had, and it's probably not worth waiting an hour in the rain/heat/snow, but it is pretty decent brick-oven pizza, and it's fun to say you've been here and tried the food! All in all, a fun way to wrap up an activity-filled weekend. Yay. Family is fun.