Big Bogus Apple

Rib Festival - NYC Style

I love ribs and I aint afraid to admit it. I grew up going to rib festivals in Pittsburgh where my love of ribs began with world famous Michelbob ribs. Yum! They really are the best. The rib festivals in the midwest host over 100 bbq vendors and allow the attendees to cast their vote for the 'best' ribs. The winner gets a big chunk of change. It was always obvious who the front runners were by the long lines but every vendor offered a sampler platter for a few bucks so you could try out as many as your stomach could handle. Great way to get people to stick around, eat and drink beer. The NYC festival is MUCH smaller. When Joe and I found out NYC was having a 'mini' rib festival back in June, we marked the calendar immediately. The festival was held on Pier 54 by the Hudson River and had five vendors. They didn't offer sampler sizes so we only tried two places. The best we had was from Dinosaur BBQ. Their ribs were tender and full of flavor. See pictures below!

~Wiating in line at Dinosaur BBQ~

~Joe wearing his pork shirt, waiting in line to eat pork!~

~Yum~

~Joe Lovin it~

 

Dinner Time!

I haven't written a restaurant review post in a while so here we go:

1. Il Vagabondo - I've been wanting to go to this place ever since I moved to NYC. Emeril featured it on an episode of Food Network's 'Best Thing I Ever Ate.' The featured dish was veal parmesan which is the size of a big plate covered with muenster cheese! I took my family here with Joe before our trip to Africa and I think everyone ordered this dish based on my mouth-watering recommendation. Even my sister, who is not a huge red meat eater, ate the whole thing! It is AWESOME! 
2. Peels - I love biscuits and gravy and I'm not embarrassed to admit it. I read online that this place makes homemade biscuits and I had to try them! The place is one of those noisy, packed NYC restaurants but for good reason. The biscuits and gravy are delicious! Get you brunch here!
3. David Burke Kitchen - David Burke opened up a new restaurant in the meatpacking district so Joe and I decided to check it out. We accidentally booked a reservation the week of Restaurant Week so we ended getting a huge bang for our buck! The deal is $35 for a three course meal. We started with a jar of chicken liver and prosciutto & mozzarella salad. I had the braised short-rib entree and Joe had the BBQ chicken, both very god. But the most amazing part of the meal was the dessert. I ordered the apple tart which came with cinnamon ice cream and Joe ordered the berry panna cotta which was a play on cheerios with milk! The dessert came in a glass cereal-like bowl and you got to pour in the 'milk' which was a lemon sauce and top it off with chocolate cheerios. Classic David Burke! Love it! 
4. Whitmans -  Much to my surprise, most restaurants don't do a good job cooking burgers. They are either way over cooked or covered in weird grill stuff. Whitmans does not fall into this bucket. They make an amazing burger and it is only $8 with cheese. The burger is the perfect size, not too big not too small, and topped with their special sauce, tomato, bibb lettuce and fresh-made pickles. Great place for a burger! Highly recommend. 
5. Mermaid Inn - I love happy hour! I will not go to a bar between the hours of 5-7pm unless there is a happy hour special. Mermaid Inn has one of the best food happy hours I have ever seen. They offer $1 oysters, $8 lobster sliders, $3 tacos, $6 glasses of wine, and much more. I LOVE this place because of their deals and their food is very well prepared. Bravo Mermaid Inn! 

Hope you enjoyed this! 

Free Movies - Who doesn't love them?

HBO does something amazing in New York for us city slickers. They sponsor a free movie series every Monday night at Bryant Park! I went two summers ago - you can read the post here - and Joe and I went again on Friday night to see Cool Hand Luke.

This movie drew a much bigger crowd than The Magnificent Seven. If Paul Newman knew that Luke would still be such a relatable character I'm sure he would have named a salad dressing after him! Ok bad joke but people were going nuts during famous lines like 'What we got here is... failure to communicate,' 'Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand,' and 'I thought it was a nice round number.' It really is a great movie if you haven't seen it. 

I love that NYC has this kind of stuff to do. Another funny thing about these free movies is that probably 10,00 people show up with blankets, towels, sheets and anything they have to lay on the ground with. I obviously bring my blanket in a bag that has served me quite well since moving to NYC. People cram into the lawn and there is no grass showing, not even one strand by the time the movie starts. So when most people go to the movies to be in an extreme air-conditioned, quiet place with open seats next to them, New Yorkers cram together like sardines to watch a movie on the ground. Makes me think we are all a bunch of weirdies :) but it really is great fun.