Saturday, March 13, 2010

Falai Panetteria


Daddy said he had never thought of baking eggs. In fact, he is quite sure that, before he came to New York, he had never been to a restaurant that served baked eggs. His first baked egg was at Brown, a cafe one block from our apartment, serving baked eggs in cast-iron skillets and Intelligentsia coffee. But thats a meal for another day.

Back to Falai.

On a recent walk into the East Village we stopped in at Falai Panetteria, a white-walled corner cafe with old fashioned Italian posters. I suppose it's meant to feel like you are in some little corner cafe in Italy, perhaps by the sea.

As you can see from the photo, the baked eggs at Falai were served in a little white casserole dish with a lid. Inside the dish was something like a scramble, with spinach and red peppers mixed in. Much to Daddy's delight, the centre of the dish featured a barely cooked egg yolk that broke and spilled yummy, gooey yolk about the dish. A nice and seemingly wholesome, if not entirely healthy, way to start the morning!

Daddy is still not sure if baking has surpassed poaching as his favourite way to have eggs, but it does offer a better way of integrating other ingredients while retaining the yummy broken yolk.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Blue Smoke

Today, Mummy and I met my mates Harper and Abbie at Blue Smoke (116 East 27th Street) to celebrate Abbie's 1st birthday - oh! Their Mummies came too. Mummy and I arrived early, so I took it upon myself to charm the staff with all my adorable tricks - waving, saying "Dadda! Bbbrrr!", blowing kisses, laughing animatedly for no reason. It was fun!

Mummy said that Blue Smoke was a southern barbecue style restaurant and that we shouldn't tell Daddy because he would be jealous. I certainly think they had a big BBQ going because we stank of smoke and BBQ all afternoon!

Mummy says that Blue Smoke was a "fancy pants" BBQ restaurant and not the old school, homely atmosphere she was expecting. We were also very impressed with their ability to accommodate 3 Mummies and 3 babies in need of high chairs, and they had child entertainment almost covered. They just need crayons.

Mummy said she was a little bit overwhelmed by the menu and didn't know what to order. I think Daddy would have enjoyed helping Mummy decide what she should eat. So Mummy followed suit with the other Mummies and had Memphis Baby Back Ribs ("Our leanest rib, with Magic dust and Original sauce). For me, Mummy ordered Macaroni & Cheese and a side of mashed potato. We both knew the mash was for Mummy - Daddy says she loves mash "like nobody's business". I just know she eats it a whole lot.

Mummy said her ribs were very nice - personally I don't know why she wanted to eat a baby's back ribs? Unfortunately, Mummy should have followed suit with the other Mummies when she ordered for me. The mac 'n cheese was far from appealing and not up to the gourmet variety I have become accustomed to. To begin with, it was orange. And I think it tasted like plastic. Hence it ended up on the floor (where I spat it). I had to sponge off my mate Harper and eat half his grilled cheese sambo (Australian slang for sandwich). Thanks HM!

Thankfully, my meal was turned around with sharing a cupcake with my mates to celebrate Abbie's birthday (from Billy's Bakery of course) and a sugar cookie which we were able to decorate ourselves - though somehow the Mummies did all the decorating. And come to think of it, I still haven't eaten mine...

"Mummy....??!!!"