August

What a pleasant, pleasant surprise. This restaurant snuck up on me and I couldn't have been happier. August is some place that I have seen before and heard good things, but would probably never go there for no other reason than there are so many other places that I want to eat. So last week when my roommates informed me that we were having roomie dinner and we were going to August, I was happy to test it out.

That night I had to work late and came straight to the restaurant from work and to be honest, I wasn't in the best mood. A glass of pear champagne later, I was back in Frugal Foodie mood and ready to get the party started. What I loved immediately about the place was the back patio. Through the restaurant there is cover patio with greenery and chandeliers that make you feel like you are dining in an outside garden. So cute!

As a general rule, if you dine with me we are all going to get different things. So the table ordered the following:

• Slow roasted suckling pig with smoked olive polenta
• Whole roasted Orata
• Grilled filet with lentils, tongue and a mustard bearnaise
• Mussels in saffron and mustard

I won. I won so much it hurt. My politically incorrect suckling pig was so unbelievably good my mouth is watering as I write about this now. The smoked olive polenta was creamy, smokey, cheesy, basically it was the perfect comfort food.

I would set my fork down, then pick it right back up and scoop the deliciousness back in my mouth. Ugh, SO GOOD. Then the suckling pig. The sweet, baby, suckling pig. It was so tender and the skin so crispy, and the sauce was sweet. Overall all the requirements for the perfect disk - tender, crispy, sweet

The steak was moist, tender, nothing that I would order again, but still pretty good (I am picky person when it comes to what constitutes a steak that I would order again). The fish was so fresh and clean tasting it was pretty unbelievable. I love when they present the fish to you whole and then go back and filet it. I just like seeing the product in its natural state like that. Makes me feel better about the quality. The mussels were good, but to be honest the best part was the bread with pesto on top.

Another fine West Village eatery. Despite not being on the top of my "must eat" list, I was definitely happy with August and all of it's charm.

August

359 Bleecker St
New York, NY 10014
(212) 929-8727

Revisiting Novita

It's a sad day in the world of the Frugal Foodie. Today is Annie's good bye dinner before she departs to the South for warmer weather.

We are going to Novita, a place that I have been many a time, but honestly wish I could eat there everyday. Here is a post I wrote back in September and I hoping that it's as good as I remember:

Oh. My. Goodness. If you weren't dining with Leah and I on Monday night you missed out on an incredible meal. This was the personification of perfection. Seriously, perfection.

Nestled away off of Park Avenue, there is a little Italian eatery, Novita (pronounced no-vee-TA), which has quickly become my favorite Italian restaurant in NYC.

Everything from the service to the decor is straight up Italian. The wine selection is impeccable and the food is unbelievable.

We ordered a lot so bare with me, I'll go over my favorites, but I promise everything was delicious and thoughtful...


Appetizers

• Carpaccio di manzo con tartufi neri - Kobe beef carpaccio with arugula, parmigiano and black truffle
• Insalata di carciofini - Fresh baby artichoke salad with mushrooms and shavings of parmigiano
• 
  Squash blossoms - battered in cornmeal and deep fried stuff with ricotta cheese and served with prosciutto (pictured left)
• 
  Tuna wrapped in phyllo dough - flash fried and served with reduce balsamic vinegar and a spicy aoli sauce**

Entrees

• Branzino con carciofi - Pan-roasted sea bass with artichoke fricassee
• Salmone alia griglia - grilled salmon with crisp potato carpaccio, sweet onions and black olives**
• Vitello alla Milanese - Veal Milanese-style with rucola and tomato
• Spaghettini neri ai frutti di mare - Black spaghettini with mixed seafood in spicy tomato sauce
• Strozzapreti al pesto - Homemade strozapretti with pesto, pinenuts and shavings of parmigiano
• Orecchiette con salsiccia piccante - Orecchiette with spicy sausage, broccoli rape, and tomato sauce

Dessert

• Sorbetti misti - Homemade mango, strawberry, and lemon-mint sorbet
• Tortino di cioccolato - Individual warm chocolate tart with pistachio sauce and white chocolate gelato
• Tiramisù - Espresso soaked biscotti layered in mascarpone cream and cocoa**
• Cheesecake - Homemade with marscapone cheese, served with a raspberry sauce
  

As you can probably see we had a large party in tow (Leah's mom's friends were with us and I'll say this, dining would not have been complete without them, they are a RIOT! Soo much fun!!), anyways we ordered A LOT, but I will just talk about my favorites...

Tuna with phyllo. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Basically they take sushi grade tuna and wrap it in phyllo dough, then flash fry it so that the outside is warm and crispy and the inside is still rare. Served with a balsamic reduction and spicy aoli, this is the perfect way to start the meal off! I would order two, its just amazing.

For entrees my favorite was the salmon with potato carpacchio, onions and olives. My salmon was cooked perfectly and the skin was left on (in my opinion the most tasty part) and the olives and onions added the perfect hint of sweet and salty that I crave. It was light, delicious and served along side some sauteed vegetables.

Dessert. Ah, dessert. The final frontier. It's hard to mess up dessert, but it's also hard to make the perfect tiramisù and yet Novita in their infinite wisdom has perfected this after dinner treat. It's the perfect blend of the strong espresso taste and the light, fluffy marscapone cream. Definitely a must.

Overall, the dinner was great, the wine never stopped flowing, the company was to die for and I didn't walk out completely stuffed. It was just, perfection. Appetizers range from $10-15, entrees from $16-25 and desserts from $8-10.

A special thanks to Leah and her mom for this fabulous night!

Novita
102 E 22nd
New York, NY 10010
(212) 677 - 2222
http://www.novitanyc.com/

Top Chef Masters - Episode 1

First off, do not read this if you have not seen the episode. There will be some spoilers. 

Secondly, ok what did everyone think? A couple of weeks I wrote about how excited I was that Top Chef Masters would fill my TV void this summer, however, after the first episode it's clear to see that this is not going to be like the Top Chef we all know and love.

So first of all, they don't have all of the "Masters" competing at once, they make them compete in heats and then the winners will compete in a "championship" round. Ok, fine, I get it, you

 couldn't get all the Top Chefs available at the same time. 

In this first episode, Tim Love, (who I was personally pulling for...maybe a Texas thing), Christopher Lee, Hubert Keller, and Michael Schlow, all competed in a quick fire and an elimination challenge. Their first quick fire was to make desert in an hour (I think) for four girl scouts (girls, who obviously, know their cookies). While all creative, not all the chefs could rise to the occasion and cooking for kids really isn't easy so I can sympathize with that. Hubert Keller ended up winning with his fanciful swan, whip cream mouse,  and chocolate mouse dessert.

For the elimination challenge the chefs were tasked with cooking in a dorm room using only a microwave, toaster oven and hot plate. It was pretty hysterical to hear how none of the chefs really knew how to use a microwave. I found this extremely comforting and testament to their ability, I mean really, microwaves should only be used to reheat things, not cook them...

Instead of walking through each menu one by one I just want to go over some highlights:

• Hubert Keller's first course of Scottish salmon over creamy whole grain mustard - I just thought the color were beautiful and I would have NEVER guessed he cooked that in a dorm room!
• Christopher Lee's second course of creamy risotto with sage, proscuttio and parmesean - like Gael Greene said I love anything creamy and cheesy
• Which brings me to my other favorite: Hubert Keller's creamy macaroni and cheese with prawns mushrooms and fresh herbs. Um, are you kidding me? I could easily gain the freshman 15 in a week if I has someone cooking that for me. 

Based on my analysis and the judges as well Hubert Keller won this thing hands down. It was like the man could do no wrong (well, aside from taking his macaroni into the bathroom and rinsing it off in the shower to stop the cooking), but other than that everything was pretty perfect!

I am still on the fence about the show in it's entirety, but I enjoyed it none the less. 

What did you, dear foodies, think about last night's episode?

For your enjoyment, below is a video that shows Fabio making Hubert Keller's delicious, creamy mac and cheese:

Find Local New York Events!

Are you bored? Want to know where the best happy hours are? Check out the new tool on my sidebar that will let you know what events are going on in the New York city area. Seriously, this is one of my favorite tools for the city. 

Events, Nightlife and Deals powered by
Hapnin

You can follow them on Twitter too: http://twitter.com/coovents

Random Pictures

Hello Dearest Foodies, 

I will be home in Texas for the weekend, but thought I would leave you with some photos that I took from my roof at dusk, the New Museum and the Brooklyn Bridge. You can use them as background or desktop savers or just look at them here :) Let me know if you would like the actual file and I can send to you. Email me at: thefrugalfoodies@gmail.com 

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

 

How to Make a Chicago Style Hot Dog

As you may remember a couple of weeks ago I wrote about Matt's Chicago Dog and his amazing, yes, you guessed it, Chicago Dog. This week I found a great video made by Whole Foods teaching us, common culinary folk, how to make a true Chicago style dog. If nothing else this is just amusing to watch :) Enjoy! 

Unibroue Ephemere

So let me just preface this by saying I had this beer at Spitzer's Corner and have been looking for it EVER SINCE. Seriously, that was almost six months ago...Anyways, image my surprise when last week I was looking for some beer to bring to a BBQ when I saw this little gem sitting on the beer shelf at Whole Foods. My inner monologue went something like this:

"That can't be it, can it?" "But, how? How can my search have been as simple as going to Whole Foods?" "Is this really it? Has my search come to an end?!"

I think you can now fully understand how shocked I was. So I decided that even if I was mistaken I should just buy this beer anyways in the spirit of trying new things. Luckily, I was right; the instant I popped off that beer cap I knew I had found it.  A smooth, light wheat beer infused with apple and vanilla flavors. Guys, calm down, I know you are jumping at the bit to get your hands on this beer. Seriously, though it's one of my favorite beers of all time and if you like Blue Moon, you will love this. You know how Blue Moon has that hint of orange? Well this has the same hint, but with APPLE. Ugh, delicious!!!

Before finding it at Whole Foods, I had searched high and low, I even called the distributor! However, I can assure those in the NYC area that you can find this beer at the Whole Foods on Houston and Bowery. This is a perfect summer beer and a MUST TRY!

Thanks to this person's flickr page for the picture of the beer above.