Crab Boil at Back Forty

Address: 190 Avenue B, New York, NY (12th Street)

Phone: 212-388-1990

http://www.backfortynyc.com

Whether you enjoy eating crab or not, Back Forty restaurant's Crab Boil event is definitely a fun summer dining experience, worth the $42 per ticket if you ask me. But before you start calling the restaurant to make reservation, you need to know that in order to attend this special summer (Tuesday only) event, you'll have to purchase tickets online at brownpaper.com one week before, on Wednesday at 10am. And be sure to get the tickets on time if you want to attend earlier dinner, or they will be gone in seconds!

The crab boil at back forty is really All You Can Eat and our waitress was great in making sure that we have enough all the time -- buckets of blue crab steamed with house made spicy old bay spice were poured onto our newspaper covered table even before we can finish the previous batch! The dinner also comes with baked potatoes, string beans and corn bread as side dishes, but I suggest you skip those side dishes. You should save room for the seasonal fruit cobbler dessert though, it's a sweet finish to the crabby meal.

Blue crab steamed with house made spicy old bay spice

finger licking good!

raspberry cobbler dessert

The Breslin Bar and Dining Room

Address: 16 West 29th Street, New York, NY (Btw Broadway and 5th Avenue)

Phone: 212-679-1939

http://thebreslin.com

April Bloomfield is no doubt the queen of gastro pub in New York City. Her spotted pig restaurant has reached a cult like status, with diners and fans flooding its tiny restaurant daily for a taste of its world famous burger, shoestring fries and gnudi. The chef and her business partner Ken Friedman tried venturing into a more grown up seafood restaurant, John Dory last year. Unsuccessfully, they closed John Dory and opened Breslin a few months later at Ace Hotel near Flatiron.

Breslin is all about refined rustic food, and lots of meat. It's back to basic for the chef. The chef de cuisine Peter Cho and April created a pretty solid menu, especially the breakfast menu, where dishes such as Baked Egg on a cast iron pan, fish sausage, toasted almond pancake, Full English breakfast (which we didn't try) etc makes breakfast interesting again. The Baked Egg with spiced tomato and chorizo was truly awesome, the chorizo provided necessary saltiness and spiciness to the perfectly cooked egg. Homemade seafood sausage was also unique and delicious, light but flavorful, definitely carnivors approve. The toasted almond pancakes was pretty good too, but still can't beat Locanda Verde's almond pancakes.

I really want to go back to Breslin to check out their lunch and dinner menu, especially the suckling pig dinner (for minimum 8 people, so let me know if you are interested). And maybe hang out at their semi hidden bar on the mezzanine level after dinner, enjoying some "Liquid Swords", "Lust for Life" or "London Calling" etc cocktails.

Toasted almond pancakes

Homemade fish sausage

Baked Egg with spiced tomato and chorizo

Faustina

Address: 25 Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003

Phone: 212-475-3400

http://faustinanyc.com

Looks like celebrity chef Scott Conant is trying to follow the footsteps of Mario Batali in building modern Italian cuisine empire in the US. With Scarpetta at meatpacking district becoming a big success, the chef opened another Scarpetta restaurant in Miami's Fountainebleau hotel in November 2008, and Faustina restaurant at the swanky cooper union hotel in February this year. By end of this year, he will have his fourth and fifth restaurant set up in Las Vegas.

I don't recall how the decor of table 8 restaurant was like (Faustina took over Chef Govind Armstrong's Table 8 old location) but Faustina was designed as such that it allows people to peek into the restaurant chic interior, showing off its impressive wine cellar and admirable wine collections. The indoor dining room has a rather formal dining feel, while outside patio is more relaxed and looks out to third avenue. The menu was designed for a more conversational based dining experience, with mostly small plate Italian tapas, so the atmosphere should have been more casual to compliment that concept, but it was not. In addition, pricing is critical for tapas concept restaurants but at Faustina, a lot of dishes were too small and too expensive. With that said, there were some good dishes in the Faustina though -- I liked the chef's signature Sea Urchin Maccheroni, the bacon wrapped shrimp was a highlight for us too. But I would prefer to see more of chef Scott Conant's signature pasta on the menu.

Gan had a tough time remembering Faustina when asked about the food there and I had the same problem. There weren't a lot of positive reviews from other diners about Faustina as well. Let's hope chef Scott Conant will not let Faustina share the same fate as fallen Table 8 restaurant.

Kanpachi porcini & garlic chips

Oysters & Mojito Gelee

Lardo-wrapped Prawns with rosemary-braised lentils

Prosciutto San Daniele and Speck

Puree of Asparagus Soup with king crab & new potatoes

Maccheroni with tomato & sea urchin

Lobster Risotto with asparagus & preserved truffle

Dessert

Red hook ball field food vendors

Address: Red Hook Ball Fields (corner of Clinton Street and Bay Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn)

Phone: no phone

I have wanted to check out Red Hook ball fields food vendors ever since my friends Dahlia and Han Chun went there last year. I have waited one year for them to reopen, which was why I cleared my Saturday schedule on May 1 to do just that. Some of these vendors have been there since 1974, started out as street vendors selling Latino food during summer weekends to spectators watching semi pro soccer games played at the field. It's been a well kept secret for some time due to its location, and only to become popular recently, possibly after appearing in an Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservation"episodes. I am sure a lot of non-Brooklynites (like myself) found our way to the very unfamiliar territory of Red Hook Brooklyn just to get a taste of real authentic Latino food since we became aware of its existence.

NYC Health department and city park department had to tried to close down the vendors in 2007, but with support from people like Senator Chuck Schumer and Top chef judge Tom Colicchio etc, the vendors won a six year contract with City Park Department and will continue to operate until 2013. So, three more years left in the contract, you have got to go check it out at least once, just in case they don't return after 2013.

Soler Red Hook Food Vendor

Tamale and Pupusas from Soler Red Hook Food Vendor

Grilled corn with cheese

Grilled steak from El Olomega Food Vendor

Chalupas

QBA (Quick But Authentic) Cuban Lunch Truck

Phone: 973-687-2000

http://qbacubankitchen.net

Tuesdays & Thursday at Hudson and Grand Street

There's a new lunch truck in Jersey City waterfront area, and it serves one of my favorite cuisines - Cuban! For about $8, you can get their main entree of either bistec (steak and onions), pollo (chicken) and lechon (Cuban pulled pork) serves with white rice, black beans and a choice of unique sauces such as citrus garlic mojo, guava habenero bbq, cool creamy garlic aioli, jalapeno cilantro aji. QBA also offers cubano sandwich, empanadas, maduros and specialty chips, as well awesome drinks like guava juice spritzer, cortadito and cafe cubano. QBA sold breakfast when they first came to Jersey City, but it was discontinued, unfortunately. I would love to have that ham, scrambled eggs and maduros breakfast roll and cortadito for breakfast again!

Service with a smile :)

bistec lunch with white rice and black beans

cortadito with ham, scrambled eggs and maduros breakfast roll