let's do brunch: kittichai

It's been brought to my attention that people who work in kitchens generally loathe brunch. I've been on the receiving end of a disapproving "Oh, you're one of those people" comments followed up with a self-explanatory picture of some cook's tattoo featuring a popular brunch item and the words "Fuck brunch." I sympathize. I would be pissed off too if I had to drag my hungover ass to work on a weekend afternoon to make other hungover bastards some poached eggs.

But I can't help it. I am one of those people. I like brunch. And if it's a boozy brunch, I might even have to use the word love.

I thought my feelings about the Sunday afternoon we spent at Kittichai illustrate my unconditional love for the boozy brunch quite well. It's certainly not the best meal you'll ever have in your life, but there's just *something about unlimited cocktails, food involving eggs and the company of friends that makes me so happy.

*and by something I do mean unlimited bubbly

At Kittichai, $25 gets you a brunch item and unlimited Bloody Marys, bellinis and mimosas. The brunch choices are:

• Smoked salmon, grilled naan bread, classic accompaniments  
• Asian five spice french toast, thai basil and fruit compote
• Kaffir lime leaf pancake soufflé, lemongrass butter
• Eggs benedict, penang curry hollandaise with morning glory 
• Kittichai omelette, thai sour sausage, jumbo lump crab
• Kittichai Pad Thai, shrimp, garlic chive and peanuts

If your main goal is to day drink and maybe have some eggs, go for this option. The servers are excellent at keeping your glasses filled but the food is pretty lackluster. The most enticing thing on our table were the eggs benedict but since Anthony Bourdain has scared me off hollandaise for the rest of my life, I wasn't having it.

While the yellow curry potatoes on the side were tasty, my Kittichai omelette was frankly quite tragic. I've never seen such rubbery eggs outside of an airplane ...

But by then I'd already swigged a lusciously spicy Bloody Mary and a bellini so I really wasn't too upset.

If you're not feeling like too much of a lush, I would suggest foregoing the boozy brunch prix fixe and ordering a la carte. The chili-smoked hanger steak and eggs plus either a Bloody Mary or a Thai iced tea should be a great combo. We ordered the chili-smoked hanger steak to share and I am still salivating at the memory of it.

To cap off our meal, we ordered the banana spring rolls with burnt honey ice cream, which erases all sadness over inadequate omelettes.

With a few strategic a la carte orders and A LOT of bellinis and mimosas, we ended up really enjoying our brunch. See that's how it is with love: you don't need perfection because you will find a way to make it work.

Kittichai is located at 60 Thompson Street, New York, NY. Phone (212) 219-2000 for reservations.

let's do brunch: miller's tavern

"You're the only girl I know who'll order fried chicken for brunch," Monica said as she watched me tear into my plate of fried chicken smothered in pepper gravy at Miller's Tavern.

"It's fried chicken! With a poached egg! And gravy! It's everything I want in a plate," I replied, clearly in cloud nine. I don't go out to Brooklyn for brunch too often, but this plate of heaven was definitely worth the trek.

Monica's brunch fare was a bit more conventional: Eggs Miller—poached eggs atop crab cakes and English muffins, all drizzled with hollandaise sauce. 

The Bloody Marys were especially nice after a night of much beer and karaoke.

To cap it all off, a lovely latte.

Oh brunch, how I love thee!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend with lots of sunshine, coffee and well-deserved Bloody Marys!



Miller's Tavern is located at #2 Hope Street (At Roebling St), Brooklyn, NY 11211

let's do brunch: the weekender

As big of a glutton as I am, I would not normally be raring to get out of bed on a rainy Sunday. But I do love my friends so I pulled on those wellies and trekked to Soho for our burger brunch date at Burger & Barrel. This was my reward:

This, my friends, is the B&B Classic "Weekender." It's a burger topped with all the typical fixins: lettuce, tomato, pickles, cheese and special sauce (basically mayo, ketchup, mustard and spices). But ask for the "Weekender" and you get a fried egg on top of all that. If you really wanna go all out, ask for extra bacon, too. Those crisp onion ring toppers come gratis with all B&B burgers. What more could you possibly want?

I thought the burger was pretty perfect. With all the goodies stacked on top of that thick and juicy patty, the burger is easy to handle. There's nothing more frustrating, after all, than going in for a bite anticipating several different flavors only to find half of them have slipped off the burger and onto your plate. I like how the sandwich is just the right size and that they've thought to cut it in half before serving it to you so that it's easier to dig into. And an egg in my burger? Sheer genius.

It was unfortunate that I was completely stuffed afterward because there were so many things I wanted to order off that menu. I am dying to try the Caramel Twist Spiked Milkshake, which combines vanilla ice cream, Makers Mark bourbon and caramel sauce. Can you say yum? Also on the dessert menu: S'mores Pie. Hell's to the yes.

You'll be seeing more of me, B&B.

I give that burger:

Burger & Barrel is located at 25 West Houston Street New York, NY between Mercer and Greene Streets. Phone (212) 334-7320 for reservations.

let's do brunch: locanda verde

I still recall being completely confused by the New York concept of brunch when I first arrived in the Big Apple. Elsewhere in the world, brunch refers to a meal had between the hours of breakfast and lunch, with brunch partakers usually good and stuffed by 11:30AM. In New York, brunch is a meal best enjoyed after a long night of debauchery. Brunch-goers typically roll into establishments hung-over and looking to sop up the remnants of last night's dirty martinis with a serving of Eggs Benedict and perhaps get some hair of the dog with a freshly made Bloody Mary. New York brunch starts around 11AM and typically ends at roughly 4PM. It can either be the cure or the precursor to further debauchery. I for one, love it!

I had a great brunch awhile back at Locanda Verde in Tribeca with Zoe, Amanda and Brandy.  It has been said that Locanda Verde may have the best brunch in the city, but that's a tough call that I'm more than willing to investigate. It was tough pulling myself out of bed on a freezing cold Winter day to go for brunch but once I had a bite of burnt orange toast smothered with sheep's milk ricotta drizzled with truffle honey ($12), it was all worth it.

I loved, loved, loved my lemon ricotta pancakes topped with tart meyer lemon curd and fresh blueberries. I feared it would be ricotta overkill but it turns out the concept doesn't exist.

I normally order something with eggs for brunch but this time I decided to forego it. There were some very yummy egg dishes on the table, however. Amanda had a fluffy zucchini frittata with roasted tomato, goat cheese and basil ($15).

Brandy had the soft scrambled farm egg crostino with leeks, mushrooms and speck ($16).

Zoe had the scrumptious Uovo Modenese ($17) with cotechino hash, spinach and tomato hollandaise. Cotechino is a type of pork sausage from Italy. This plate looks like the epitome of the perfect  post-party Winter morning meal. 

I'm not fit to say if Locanda Verde does in fact serve the best brunch in the city, but it was pretty damn good, and I am willing to sacrifice and try as many brunch spots as possible in an effort to find out! For now though, it is a freezing cold Saturday morning in New York and my appetite has been whetted so I'm off to forage for food. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Locanda Verde is located at 377 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel. (212) 925-3797

let's do brunch: maharlika

I first heard the term "pop-up restaurant" from what I consider the most awesome reality series on TV: Top Chef. A little more than a week ago, Top Chef All Stars had its restaurant wars. For this episode, they brought in a guest judge who knows what it's like to pull together a renegade restaurant for a brief culinary fling: Chef Ludo Lefebvre. Chef Ludo is the man behind LudoBites, an establishment that has been popping-up in various locations with different concepts for a few months at a time, effectively stringing along Los Angeles' food enthusiasts.

It thought it very cool, then, that just as most foodies had this popular concept on the brain, a pop-up restaurant with a Filipino bent cropped up in my neck of the woods. Maharlika has brought a Filipino take to Manhattan brunch in its temporary digs at Cafe Leon. The venture is the brainchild of Nicole Ponseca (GM at Juliette) and Enzo Lim (head barkeep at Minetta Tavern), and has chef Miguel Trinidad putting a New York spin on Filipino breakfast classics (and vice versa).

Brunch in New York is like a sacred ritual, with groggy urbanites braving sleet and snow for a much-needed noontime pick-me-up after a night of partying. I was hurting from an evening of far too many lychee martinis and would not have gotten up from bed if I had not been lured with the promise of arroz caldo. This was the best hangover cure on the planet:

Arroz caldo ($7) is a garlic-flavored rice porridge with a hearty portion of sliced chicken. Maharlika's version is jazzed up with a little bit of saffron and tastes like home. My cousin Melissa went for the classic Filipino breakfast of tocilog, a place of cured pork, fried egg and rice. I was intrigued and insanely jealous of our friend Chini's order, the Eggs Imelda ($11), which puts a Filipino spin on Eggs Benedict by substituting pan de sal for English muffins and prawns for the ham. It also comes with kamote fries, laing (taro root leaves, coconut milk, shrimp paste and chilies) and calamansi-spiked hollandaise sauce.

I am dying to come back and try the Eggs Benigno, a genius Filipino take on Eggs Benedict that involves that canned mystery meat that we love with a passion called Spam. I am also hoping to be ready for cocktails the next time around as there are some intriguing ones on the menu: particularly the Bloody Mary flavored with good old patis (fish sauce).

There are plans to make Maharlika a proper brick-and-mortar spot and I pray that it will happen. So many people in New York are curious about Filipino cuisine and I feel that this is one good way to slowly ease people into eating our type of food. The restaurant has been packed for the last two weekends so reservations are highly recommended. I for one am looking to cure (or create) a few more hangovers at Maharlika!

Maharlika is located at 351 East 12th Street, between First and Second Avenues.
Email info@maharlikanyc.com or text 917-710-5457 for reservations.

let's do brunch: tía pol

After our incredibly fun aerial silks class, Kate and I went for brunch at Tía Pol. I normally veer towards Soho and Nolita for brunch so I didn't quite know what to expect, but we lucked out. Tía Pol is really a tapas bar, so your only seating choices are to sit at the bar or on bar tables, but since we were fresh out of a workout, this was a-okay. It was pretty roomy at around 1pm and we didn't have to wait for a table, which is always good. I felt guilty because there weren't as many vegetarian choices for Kate as I thought, but they made the revueltos del dia vegetarian for her. Since I was a little piggie and had a small french toast with caramelized strawberries for breakfast before our class, I ordered a salad at Tía Pol. But this was a pretty indulgent salad, crowned with a beautiful poached egg and sitting on a generous bed of jamon Serrano. Oh how I missed jamon during my veggie month. YUM!

I also ordered a latte, which was nice and strong. Just perfect for a lovely Sunday afternoon. After we finished our main dishes, the waitress talked us into ordering the chocolate churros which are made fresh and only on Saturdays and Sundays. Dios mio, they were good ...

Beautifully crunchy on the outside and almost custardly inside, then dipped in that thick chocolate sauce ... a damn good use of $6, for sure! After brunch, we took a walk on the High Line and sat down for an intense planning session of our upcoming road trip. The High Line is definitely pretty and I would certainly stop there for some sun and a good chat if I were in the area. But since I'm pretty spoiled these days with my proximity to Central Park, I wouldn't go out of my way to go there. Here's us posing by the little shrubs of the High Line. Kate looks super chic while I just seem to be living in athletic wear these days. You can totally tell who lives in a cool part of Brooklyn and who's resigned to living in the Upper East Side! Oh well.

Incongruous outfits aside, what a great use of a Sunday! Hope yours was great too. Let's grit our teeth and hope the workweek goes by in a jiffy! 

Tia Pol is located at 205 Tenth Avenue (between 22nd and 23rd Streets), New York, NY. Tel. (212) 675-8805

let's do brunch: yerba buena perry

It must seem like all I do is overindulge in rich food, but people, I don't actually eat like this all the time! Most days, all I have are salads, soup, yogurt and coffee. But I do live in one of the best cities to eat at in the world, and it would be a crime not to take advantage. I get plenty of exercise walking all over the city, climbing my 5-floor walkup, and sweating it out at Bikram Yoga so no need to be concerned about my health. I'm not going for death by foie gras/bone marrow/fatty duck, I promise.

So now that I've issued that disclaimer, I can tell you all about my girls Valentine's Day brunch at Yerba Buena on Perry Street. I'd read about the all-you-can-drink brunch at Yerba Buena in the East Village but couldn't get reservations so we ended up at Yerba Buena Perry instead. No unlimited booze here, unfortunately, though the cocktails were at least relatively cheap at $8. In any case, I wasn't in a boozing mood. I was way more interested in the food. The churros con chocolate ($8) immediately caught my eye among the starters since I've been craving for Dulcinea's churros con chocolate for ages.

While yummy, these still don't hold a candle to Dulcinea's version. I love the really thick, slightly bitter hot chocolate we have in the Philippines but I haven't found anything similar here. Since this was advertised as Mexican hot chocolate, I thought it would be closer to Philippines-style hot coco but no dice. Our friend Mitch, who's a pastry chef, said the churros reminded her of Disneyland churros. Not a great sign, I think.

The chunky guacamole with chipotle and queso fresco ($10) that Jenn ordered was a winner though. 

I loved that there were chunks of avocado in the guacamole, rather than it being just a thick paste. We had to ask for a second helping of tortilla chips. So good.

I was a bit peeved that the entrees took long to arrive. We were loaded up on guac and chips by the time our "real food" came. Jenn's Pan Dulce ($10) looked amazing but I was too full to try it. But how can you go wrong with a french brioche toast with grilled manchego cheese, maple syrup and fresh fruits anyway, right? Yum!

Mitch and I both ordered the Cachapa Benedict—sweet corn cake, asadero cheese, poached eggs, ham, yerba buena-aji amarillo hollandaise ($13). I wasn't too crazy about the sweetness of the corn cake because I felt like having a savory dish this day, but at any other time I would love the sweet-savory combo for sure. Overall I was still happy. Eggs Benedict for brunch is one of my most favorite things ever.

I'd recommend Yerba Buena Perry for a chatty girls brunch because the setting is so chic and they don't rush you through your meal. (It also didn't hurt that our waiter looked like a younger version of Djimon Hounsou!) I'd definitely do brunch at Yerba Buena again, though I want to try the boozy brunch at their East Village location next time. Oh New York and your weekend brunches ... love, love, love!

Yerba Buena is located at 1 Perry Street at Greenwich Avenue. Tel. (212) 620-0808

let's do brunch: roebling tea room

Interiors photographed by Ryan Bevans for New York Magazine
 

Yesterday, I took the subway to Williamsburg at 10:30AM to meet Zoe and Amanda for Pilates and brunch. Zoe brought us to The Well where she had taken Pilates classes before to get in shape for her trip to Greece. I'd only ever taken Pilates classes at the gym before, and this class was WAY better. I feel the effects on my abs, glutes and arms today, which are deliciously sore from the workout. As I gritted my teeth through the seeming neverending repetitions, I was kept going by the thought of brunch at Roebling Tea Room.

A little over an hour later, we were seated at the breezy patio of the sprawling tea room. I'd been here a few times before but always for a nightcap so I was really excited to try the food. Roebling Tea Room looks to me like a clubhouse in one of the former colonies, where people might gather for tea and scones on a balmy afternoon. I love how relaxed the atmosphere here is on a Sunday afternoon. We didn't have to wait long for a table, and never felt rushed through our meal. It was all very easygoing, which is what Sunday brunch should be, in my opinion.

Amanda ordered the intriguingly named Red Flannel Hash, which consisted of potatoes, beets, goat cheese and a fried egg. I didn't try it because I'm not a fan of beets, but Amanda loved it. Zoe and I both ordered the baked cheddar eggs with raisin fennel toast, apple butter & grits. Amanda savored her Earl Grey de la creme tea, which was flavored with bergamot oil, real bourbon vanilla & blue mallow blossoms. Zoe and I both went with refreshing glasses of iced fresh ginger lemon mint tea. That iced tea is a true picker upper; the ginger is strong and delivers a real zing. I loved it.

The cheddar baked eggs were everything I could ever want for breakfast in one small souffle cup. Every bite of chedder crusted egg was just heaven to me. The raisin fennel toast smeared with apple butter was a significant component to the meal. The bread was so tasty and the apple butter just divine. I'd love to have a jar of that at home. I'm still getting used to grits since I am the farthest thing possible from a Southern belle, but I did like this version. Nothing resembling the Velveeta mess Britney Spears' father makes for her, thank god. Best of all, the meal set us back $16 each, which is not bad at all ...

A very pleasant Sunday afternoon, for sure. One I'd definitely drag myself all the way out to Brooklyn to enjoy again.

The Well is located at 25 Broadway, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Roebling Tea Room is located at 143 Roebling Street (at Metropolitan Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Another Try for Cafe Falai?

I love the crisp glamour of this place, with its all white interiors and glittering crystal chandeliers overhead

Tam and I had a NY moment as we toasted with our strawberry infused prosecco

I keep ordering gnocchi but really shouldn't. It's not that good.

I've been to Cafe Falai twice, both meals being quite unremarkable—though knowing me it's probably because I ordered the same unremarkable dish both times. The gnocchi (above) is nothing to write home about, so avoid that. Reading the reviews, it seems that the best bets here are the baked eggs, paninis made using their signature focaccia, and the bomboloni. Their pastries must be good too, since the establishment is run by former Le Cirque pastry chef Iacopo Falai. I think I might drop in again to just see if I missed something, but I just might get takeout because service was horrendous last time. Our waiter was perpetually MIA, and I had to eventually go to the counter to ask for the bill AND again to give my money and get my change. We actually wanted to get dessert and coffee, but didn't want to waste our whole afternoon waiting to get some service so we just left. The waiter did apologize in the end that they were so crazed, but I think that there's no excuse for a Nolita restaurant to be understaffed on a Sunday during brunch. When else were you expecting customers to come? They only had 2 waiters to serve the entire restaurant, and no runners at all. Plates were never cleared and it was like pulling teeth to get someone to take an order.

Hmm after reliving the incident in my head, maybe I don't want to go back and eat there again. But takeout, that I'd maybe consider.

Where: Cafe Falai at 65 Lafayette St. between Prince and Spring Streets, New York, NY 10012. Tel. 917.338.62072

Let's do brunch: Cafe Gitane

One of my favorite things about New York is brunch. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and the luxury of having it in the afternoon after you've gotten over your hangover makes it even better! One of my favorite brunch spots is Cafe Gitane in NoLita. Even just standing outside waiting for a table is a total NY experience. The NoLita hipsters hanging around outside make for pretty good people watching. Oh, and on the weekends there are stalls around the corner from Cafe Gitane on Prince Street, where artisans and their wares line one side of the sidewalk. You can find some unique handcrafted jewelry there.

But back to the food! The food is the main reason I keep coming back to Cafe Gitane (well the affordable prices too). My ultimate favorite is the baked pasta with roasted tomatoes, gorgonzola, bread crumbs and prosciutto ($11.50). It's the perfect greasy antedote to a hangover. Biting into pasta that's encrusted with baked cheese and crunchy prosciutto is nothing short of heavenly. Last Sunday, I decided to switch it up and picked prosciutto and brie with honey mustard on seven grain bread ($9.50). It was a poor choice, not because it didn't taste good, but because seriously even I can slap a mound of prosciutto and brie on a piece of bread. I sought comfort in my very refreshing fresh watermelon juice, but soon found myself coveting Mika's organic roasted chicken with chipotle mayonnaise, fresh parmesan and roasted tomatoes on toasted baguette ($10.50), which was just perfect. Everyone else though seemed to be coveting Johan's organic chicken satay with peanut sauce, and an avocado and carrot salad ($12.25), which was surprisingly quite good. Who would've thought a little French Meditteranean cafe could make brilliant satay?

Can't wait for my next Cafe Gitane brunch ...

Where: 242 Mott St., New York 10012. Tel. 212.334.9552