The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English

I’m not usually one for the celebrity chef crazes, especially when they involve being dragged to the much-dreaded Plaza on Central Park South. Growing up, the Plaza promised opportunities of freedom and recklessness that I lived vicariously through Eloise. However my most recent visit to the (short-lived and quite trashy) Oak Room brunch-party destroyed any illusion of glamour and playful chicness that I could have had.

That said, being dragged to Todd English’s Food Hall on the Lower Level of the iconic hotel was a pleasant surprise (for both the enthusiastic tourists as well as the cynical downtown New Yorkers). The restaurant was quite full when we arrived around 3 on a Friday, but luckily the 40-minute estimated wait turned out to be much shorter.  Of course, as you wait for your table you can take advantage of some of the convenient shopping options, including old-fashioned organic toothpaste, top hats, and a leather-care shop.

We were seated at the carving station, which gave us a great view of all the delicious sandwiches the guys behind the bar were crafting up. I blame the friendly chefs for convincing Xime to go for the half-burger half-pastrami sandwich extravaganza.  Regina, on the other hand, went for the healthiest option of Spicy Squid Stir Fry, which had amazing ‘squid-ink’ noodles and was fresh and delicious.

Unable to settle for any one thing on the perfectly crafted menu, I decided to go for the three-course lunch menu. It started off with a beet salad, over a pistachio crème covered with pecorino and parsley. Although tiny, the salad was delicious, with a great and subtle mix of flavors .

Next I had the Salmon, it was prepared two ways: fried and grilled. Fried was basically a crab cake situation but with salmon, and the grill was simply cooked over a bed of pretty flavorless-colorless-odorless vegetables and a couple of orange slices.  The Salmon was well cooked- to say the most, but lets just say large amounts of Tabasco sauce were used at this point of the meal.

For dessert we tied it up with some Carrot Cake and a Cheesecake, which I was promised with my lunch menu meal. The Carrot Cake, with generous amounts of shredded carrot, coconut and frosting, was one of the best I’ve had, and I have had a fair amount of Carrot Cake. The Cheesecake was tiny and cute, but underwhelming and I would have been more disappointed had the giant slice of carrot cake not comforted me.

Todd English’s Food Hall is definitely a welcome surprise hidden between other midtown tourist traps, and definitely a more welcome dining option than the Plaza’s now infamous Oak Room. Winners included the Pastrami Burger, Parmesan Fries and Carrot Cake; Losers included the Lunch Menu (don’t let your wallet get seduced by the $24 price tag?). However, the Food Hall should not be overlooked as an excellent take-out option to be enjoyed at the park, far away from any type of pretentious organic toothpaste. The Whole Foods at Columbus Circle is also a good option for lunch…

If this post made you crave fancy toothpaste, you are welcome

The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English

One West 59th Street- Concourse Level

New York, N.Y. 10019

http://theplazafoodhall.com/

Shopsins General Store

Approach Shopsins with caution, its been called the soup nazi of breakfasts and it wont take you long to figure out why. Luckily we were the cutoff for the line (even though we got there an hour and a half before it closed), the tourists from Arkansas that got there five minutes later weren’t as lucky.

As you wait in line anxiously pressed against the wall I’d recommend getting comfortable and checking out Saxelby Cheesemogners, and maybe getting some of their legen-dairy Goats Milk Burrata for later. Of course if your starved self can handle checking out the mind blowing menu while you wait in line for what seems like ever, it would be much more productive since it easily consists of about 300 items (the old west village location had near 1000).  Once you find something you like, in true l.e.s. fashion, don’t think twice its alright, in fact it will be more than alright it will be amazing.

Its refreshing to find a place in New York that focuses more on the food than the buzz, the comfort than the obnoxious and their most fusion-y situation is the TexMex section (something that as a legit Mexican I usually steer clear of but not here – the Chilaquilles have feta and chipotles, ill leave it at that).

The Junior – bbq pork, mac and cheese, eggs, toast- is an American ropa vieja on crack basically.  The pork is pulled and can be either hot or mild, its tender and juicy and literally soaking in sauce. The eggs are scrambled, plain ihop-y and the only normal part of your breakfast. The mac and cheese is gloriously heavy on the cheddar, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you ate a spoonful containing no mac whatsoever.  … Now for the toast, I BEG you not to scream multigrain at the guy in a pathetic attempt to make this breakfast healthy. Seriously, inquire within, you should get corn bread – its brunch, come on! The corn bread toast was sliced and toasted on either side, although don’t even think you be able to make yourself a sandwich with that crumbly deliciousness.

Finally, my partner in crime got Blisters on my Sisters, which we had both been craving since the last time we were here. Shopsins’ take on Huevos Rancheros, it features eggs sunny side up over rice, beans greens a choice of bacon, sausage, chorizo, shrimp, pulled pork, brisket, chicken, etc. What I had of this was impeccable, although I was too involved in my Junior as portions are definitely large enough to keep you entertained with your own dish for a change.

In whatever star rating system I intend to enforce on this blog Shopsins definitely get two extra points for: asking you how spicy you want your food from 1 to 10 (take this seriously they don’t joke around with their habaneros); having the best home-mixed hot sauce (its frowned upon to ask for Sriracha); and giving me a free SPIDERMAN comic book!

Thank you Shopsins for finally letting me put Seinfeld into context and understanding why he chose the soup over the girl.

Shopsins

120 Essex Street

New York, NY 10002

http://www.shopsins.com/

The Juice Cleanse

I just finished my second day of juice cleansing.  I’ve never been on a diet and I have never blogged. Who knows, maybe I have become the cliché twenty something New York Sex and the City wannabe. I don’t care. The past 48 hours have been the longest of my life, and if writing about it helps, I’ll give it a shot.

Being the masochist that I am, I decided to spice things up writing about food rather than eating it. Hazardous Eating is the lovechild of my solid-food-deprived-hallucinations and will probably not make half as much sense as other food loving blogs. I’m sorry for that and I pity whoever tries to read this, ever.

Anyways, sorry if I came off as a psychopath, let me clarify that it’s definitely me and not the juice. Cooler Cleanse is amazing, you get about 1200 calories a day, so any hallucinations that you might have are definitely anxiety based and not food depravation.

You can check out the program here. Essential Green and Essential Red are the most expected and satisfying, basically a full meal and they are spaced out so you’ll have one every 4 hours.

Grapefruit Mint, Coconut, and Almond Nut Milk are incredible. Literally, just what you need when it’s been two hours since your last “meal” and your mouth is foaming when you smell your bosses’ Chinese food. They are all a lot denser than what you’d think, and even Grapefruit Mint has a (surprisingly delicious) milkshakey feel to it.

Hopefully I’ll wrap up this cleanse in style, and come Friday I’ll begin my food extravaganza.  Baked eggs at Café Gitane? Perhaps…