Do look behind this curtain.

I love New York. I know, I know. It's such a cliche'. But, it's a cliche' for a reason. The city's not for everybody, I get that. And, if I'm being honest with myself, I just don't have the patience (nor am I hip or cool enough) to ever actually live there. But, I love to visit. My husband and I recently went to New York City for a wedding. We touched down on Friday evening with just enough time to stop by our hotel in mid-town and freshen up then hop a cab to the tres chic Upper East Side to meet our friends Anders and Yvette for dinner. Now, I know what you are thinking "Upper East Side? What kind of overpriced, snobby restaurant is she going to write about?" Well, you're wrong. I'm going to head in the other direction actually. Although, we did walk by Phillipe, a restaurant that Yvette informed me is regularly featured on Real Housewives of New York.

My friend Yvette is perhaps the reason I love New York so much. I know if I'm in the city I'll get to see her and that makes me happy. She's a great friend for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is our shared love of food. We are similar in that we can both get equally excited about a french fry or foie gras. The decision on which restaurant we should eat at was left up to her and I knew we'd be in good hands.

When Yvette told me we were going to get burgers I figured we were going casual and I wore some jeans and flats. When this burger joint happened to be in the Parker Meridien hotel - I started to second guess my choice of attire. I mean, this is a hotel that actually calls itself Le Parker Meridien. Seriously, the signs outside say "Le". I found that hilarious for some reason. We walk into the very posh lobby and as soon as we can see the front desk the smell hits us. Grease. Yummy, greasy food. Yvette points to an incredibly tall velvet curtain and explains to us that the burger joint (it's really just called "the burger joint") is behind there. I found it hard to believe but, sure enough, when we rounded the corner there was an itty bitty burger joint tucked away in the lobby. The place was packed and the line went all the way to the door. Just as we walked in someone got up from a table in the back and Yvette, the cool New Yorker that she is, slid past everybody in line and grabbed the soon to be empty space. Our husbands met us a few minutes later with cheeseburgers, fries, cokes, milkshakes......mmmm. The menu is limited but who cares when cheeseburgers are an option. Yvette's vanilla shake was delicious, the fries were very good, but the burgers were the star of the show. Juicy, flavorful, cooked to perfection. And we managed to have dinner in New York for less than $25 a couple - no small feat.

If you're ever in NYC and you're in need of a delicious and cheap meal, check out the burger joint.

I'm lazy. And for that I apologize.

Hello, dear reader. It's me, I'm back. I'm sorry I have gone so long without posting. I took a long vacation and I was daunted by the thought of writing a post that covered all the amazing things I consumed during that time.......so I just put it off, and put it off and put it off.....you get the idea. And then I realized, I don't have to write about that. So here we are. Starting fresh.


I had a weekend full of delicious things and I am excited to share with you. Many of you know that my husband and I, with the help of our trusty partners in crime Sara and Jay, have been working our way through Seattle Metropolitan Magazine's Top 10 Restaurants list. This week we ventured out to Crush. It was our fourth pick from the list and we were not disappointed. Crush is located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in a house that has been redesigned to accommodate a restaurant. The atmosphere seems a bit confused - but the food makes up for it. The menu offers a good variety of options and each item we tried was met with "Ohmygodthisisdelicious!" or "mmmmm...". The portions were not large, but the food was so flavorful and rich that we didn't need much. I had a geoduck ceviche to start and then some hand made tagliatelle with morels and duck confit for my main course. Both dishes were inventive and well made - but the pasta was the stand out in my opinion. I ate every last bite of it. We all swooned over Sara's perfectly cooked scallops in a sauce that had a hint of curry, and both boys ordered the short ribs which we all agreed were outstanding.


The only miss of the evening was on the dessert list. We had one order of the Blue Cheese Cheesecake and we all decided there is a reason most people use cream cheese for this dessert......the blue cheese was overpowering and we just didn't care for it. I'm sure if you loved blue cheese and it's your favorite thing on earth this dessert might be for you, we just weren't feeling it. We also had an order of a Valrhona chocolate cake with salted caramel sauce and huckleberries and this dessert was a home run. The cake was warm, the salty caramel sauce was perfect and the huckleberries were a surprisingly ideal addition, they added just the right tartness to balance it out.

The service at Crush was outstanding. And the wine list was fantastic. But, I'll end with this final note - the bill was shockingly high. While I do recommend this restaurant, I would suggest it as a special occasion place. Thanks to my sweet husband for treating me to such a wonderful meal.