New Year's Eve Links

Happy New Year, friends! Many thanks to those who so kindly commented on some of my very first blog posts. See you all in 2011, but until then....

(Photo via Martha Stewart Living)

New Year's Traditions From Around the World... New York Mag

New Year's Party Printables...The Sweetest Occasion

A Decadent Buffet...Saveur

Resolve to be Chic at Work...Habitually Chic

2010 Summed Up in One Word...Eater (What one word would you use to sum up 2010?)

What New Yorker's Talked About...NY Times

What to Drink on New Year's Eve

I am a wine lover, though I am by no means a connoisseur (I have been known to enjoy a glass of $2.99 Chardonnay from the house brand at Trader Joe's Wine Shop). Even though I do not purport to be an expert, I do know what I like. I prefer dry whites and smooth, full bodied reds. And I love love LOVE a glass of bubbly!

However, since I don't feel quite qualified to give you recommendations re what to drink for your NYE festivities, I'll leave it up to the experts:

How to open a Champagne bottle from Martha Stewart

Champagne picks from Food and Wine

Festive cocktails from Saveur

Or, if you get started now, by next winter you can have your own well-aged Egg Nog like the guys at The Bitten Word 

(Photo from here)

2011 Glasses....

Are these a New Year's Eve "Do" or a "Don't"?

(Photo from here)

Frolic in the snow!

She is definitely making the best of a less than great street plowing situation:

(Photo via The Sartorialist)

Favorites of 2010: Stylish Accessory

My favorite accessory of 2010 by far is the snood (a scarf/hood hybrid)! This is not only fun and stylish, but is also extremely functional - warm and cozy! I wear mine indoors and out. Here are a few options:

This looks comfy:

(Zara via WSJ.com)

This picture with no head seems a little strange to me, but I still love the snood:

(The Gap via Daily Mail)

This is the one I have, although I don't look that glamorous when I wear it (probably because I also wear a coat and never run around in the snow in just my sweater!):

(The Gap via here)

Home Sweet Home

Besides eating (should I be classy and say "dining"?), one of my other favorite pass-times is pouring over home design magazines and blogs. This interest has intensified to the point of a minor obsession as Brian and I prepare to move into a more permanent dwelling after about a decade of renting.

In honor of this upcoming move, I purchased this fun and inexpensive piece from Jenn Ski's Etsy Site that I originally saw on Apartment Therapy.

(Photo from here)

Mine is a slightly different color pallet that I hope will go wonderfully with the decor in the new place. I will definitely show you once we're moved in and settled!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful....

But also kind of beautiful...

(Photos via NYTimes.com)

Party Plannin'

Now that Christmas is here, New Year's Eve is right around the corner! What are your plans?

I love all of the apartment parties that we get invited to around the holidays. I think that the cozy quarters of most Manhattanites' homes just make for a more intimate get-together. There's no hiding in the corner!
So, Brian and I (well, mostly I) are planning our first ever New Year's Eve party at our apartment. I'm very excited! But also a little nervous.

Thankfully, I will have some help from my dear friend Lauren over at All Parts Party. She is an entertaining goddess!

(Photo from Lauren Minichetti via All Parts Party)

I'll be sure to update you with a full account and pictures of the party early in January.

Favorites of 2010: Concerts

Another great thing about New York is that, no matter how big or how small, almost every band will play here at some point. There are constant opportunities to see great performances. My absolute favorite venue, the McCarren Park Pool (a public pool in Brooklyn that was converted to hold events - inside the pool) closed recently. So this year's favorite concert was held at Terminal Five, over on the West Side. And it was....

The Flaming Lips! I had never seen them in concert before, but now this has been remedied. I had been mildly obsessed with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and Do You Realize since college, but nothing really compares to seeing the awesome spectacle that the band puts on.

One of the band's trade mark moves is when the lead singer walks out into the audience totally enclosed in a bubble.  

It kind of made me wish I had a bubble of my own...

And tons of balloons and confetti!! 

Thanks so much to Brian for this special surprise this summer! 

Happy Holidays!

This is where I'm heading for the holidays. My bff Carolyn and her lovely fiancée have offered to drive me upstate so that I don't have to suffer on the bus. (Thank you!!!)

Some of my friends are stranded in their homes away from home because of the weather. I hope they still have a wonderful holiday and make it home eventually.

Where are you heading?

Favorites of 2010: Restaurants (Part III - Food Truck!)

I work in Midtown on the East side, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that lunch usually consists of yogurt eaten at my desk. Every now and then, however, I go out into the world in search of something more fulfilling. I used to love a little deli on 52nd St that had great udon, until the health department shut it down...

Side note: Why did Udon go to AA (alcoholics anonymous)? Because it wanted to be Soba! hahahahaha (Joke courtesy of Julia Yum)


So what's a girl to do for a warm, hearty lunch? Food trucks to the rescue!

Favorite Food Truck: Korilla BBQ

"Korilla" rhymes with "gorilla." They serve Korean tacos, burritos and rice bowls. My pick is always the bowl, and, contrary to the recommendation in the NY Times review, I say go with the bacon kimchi fried rice. I top mine with 1/2 spicy pork and 1/2 bulgogi (aka ribeye) with mushrooms, lots of extra spicy kimchi and the Korilla sauce.

My coworker swears by the taco combo and gets one chicken, one beef and one pork. My boyfriend Brian, who walks from his office near Grand Central to the truck's parking spot on 55th, loves the burrito.

Another point of contention with the NY Times review is to cheese or not to cheese. For the kimchi virgins out there, you need to know that cheese is not its most intuitive compliment. The Times was emphatically no cheese, but the nice guys who work the truck and Brian all say that cheese is the way to go.

One of the unique things about Korilla is how they choose their location each day. It's very democratic! Each day there is open voting on the Korilla web site and the neighborhood with the most votes wins - that is where they show up for lunch the next day. So if you want to try some Korean tacos, log on and let them know!

Korilla is also featured on Midtown Lunch (always a great guide for those of us who toil by day between 30th and 60th streets) in their Best New Food Truck poll . I encourage you to vote for Korilla! Or to just try some of the other options listed on the site.

Favorites of 2010: Restaurants (Part II)

Some people think that it has to cost a fortune to eat out in NYC. WRONG! There are a million fantastic options out there that won't break the bank. Here is my favorite discovery of 2010:

Favorite Cheap Eats: Ihawan 2
How many of you have ever tried Filipino food? Despite having a huge cadre of Filipino friends, I had never eaten at a Filipino restaurant until 2010!

Ihawan 2 is "2" because the owner's mother owns the original Ihawan. Ihawan "1" is located in Woodside, Queens. Even for a borough-friendly girl like me, this is a bit of a trek from my home in Manhattan just for dinner. Ihawan 2, however, is conveniently located in Long Island City. Where is Long Island City? you ask. Why, it's only one stop from Grand Central on the 7 train, my friends.

(Photo from here.)

While you can get a few more familiar foods like crispy spring rolls and homemade pork rinds there, Ihawan2 really shines with its traditional Filipino dishes. My favorites are the Kare-Kare and the Crispy Pata.

Kare-Kare is a dish of ox tail and green beans stewed in a peanut butter sauce. You eat it over rice with a super salty shrimp paste. Seriously. It sounds intense, but don't knock it 'til you try it. I loved it so much that I begged my friend to buy me the ingredients for the sauce on her last trip to the Filipino market. I haven't tried cooking it yet (I need to figure out where one buys an ox tail), but I will let you know when I do.

(Photo from here.)

If Kare-Kare scared you, then Crispy Pata might push you over the edge. Crispy Pata is a succulent fried pig's knuckle the size of your head. Most of the time, they cut it up into little pieces for you, but if you are lucky, they leave it in one big hunk and you can carve off your own pieces. It is AMAZING! Crunchy and chewy and really bad for you. But proportionally delicious!

Each of those dishes will run you around $10 a piece, but the way to go at Ihawan2 is definitely family style. If you split a few of their generously portioned plates with some carnivorous friends, you can each have a couple beers and still make it out the door without spending $20.

Next up - Favorite Food Trucks!

Favorites of 2010: Restaurants (Part I)

As the year draws to a close, I thought that it would be fun to profile some of my favorite things about 2010 - starting with food!

I'm a total foodie wanna-be, and one of the things I love most about New York is the fabulous selection of restaurants. For a number of reasons, 2010 yielded fewer new restaurant experiences than most years, but I still managed to get a few good bites in!

On the high end:  Ma Peche
The newest addition to David Chang's Momofuku empire, Ma Peche changed things up in terms of both location and cuisine. I'm an ardent fan of the Noodle Bar, but Ma Peche out does it! The great food combined with the relative ease of getting a table (Ma Peche's big space and mid-town location make it way more accessible than its East Village counterparts) makes this my fave place of 2010.

I had business lunches, romantic dinners and a number of very happy happy-hours at Ma Peche this year, and I expect to spend many more meals there in 2011.

From the traditional steak frites served with untraditional rice fries (you can also order these as a side dish!) to the roasted chicken, from the spicy pork with rice noodles to the 3 terrine bahn mi, I haven't found a dish that I didn't love. This Momofuku entity embraces the a French cafe style of cuisine, with a number of less exotic sounding dishes (no pig's head) so that even some of my pickier friends found dishes they enjoyed.

They also have super friendly bartenders serving yummy cocktails like the Seven Spice Sour. But if you walk in after a long day at the office, the dude behind the bar doesn't hesitate to suggest a nice tequilla shot and a beer chaser. *grateful sigh*

More to come - my favorite cheap eats pick.

Introductions

Hi! My name is Margot. I live New York, a city that I absolutely adore.

I love NYC for its food, its culture and the amazing people who live here. These are some of the things that I'll post about in my blog, along with the occasional nod to my other obsessions ;)