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I Love You Mama!!

January 8, 2010 — wecouldeat

Mama’s Food Shop
200 East 3rd Street (A/B), East Village

goldenbonzone
Yes, I love my Mama, but her cooking certainly does not compare with my beloved Mama’s Food Shop in the East Village. It’s been serving heaping plates of delicious down-home comfort food since 1995, and I’ve been an obedient, loyal customer since the beginning. Mama’s is set up like a traditional Southern cafeteria where the customer lines up at the counter, is served food straight from the abundant tray table, pays, grabs a table, and stuffs his/her face. The proteins include fried and baked chicken, meatloaf, and the new tilapia and pork shoulder offerings. They are all good, although the pork is my current fav. Unlike most menus, the carbs and veggies are just as important here. The mac & cheese and mashed potatoes are done in the ultra-comforting classic way. The brussel sprouts, braised kale, and German potato salad are other favorites- hell, all 14 choices are my favorites. They cook everything with love – just as Mama should. The exceedingly casual East Village vibe is always a plus when gnawing on chicken bones and stuffing one’s face with mac & cheese. While I recommend the ginger-mint iced tea, I can’t recommend the desserts because I’ve never tried them. After tackling the enormous main dish mounds, I’ve never had room. Mama’s not only gets a big fat Golden Bonzone, it also gets a coveted Hall of Fame selection. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that you get 1 meat and 2 sides for $13 – and that includes tax and tip! Plus it’s BYOB. So now you know why I love Mama…

Posted in GOLDEN BONZONE, american, down home, east village. 1 Comment »

Getting Comfy with Penelope

December 17, 2009 — wecouldeat

Penelope
159 Lexington Ave at 30th, Murray Hill/Midtown East

Penelope is all about comfort. It serves bright, creative comfort food in a cozy setting, with sweet service and a warm. Not surprisingly, it’s a popular neighborhood place. We ordered a future classic: arugula with warm chicken meatballs. The melt-in-your-mouth meatballs were a perfect contrast with the spicy greens. Next, we had one of my favorites: chicken pot pie, which was light and flaky outside and warm and creamy inside with squash and asparagus, in addition to the standard peas and carrots. An excellent version. For dessert, we shared the marvelous raspberry sour cream coffee cake. It wasn’t overly sweet, which I prefer, and had a nice balance of flavors and a classic crumb topping. I have no idea who Penelope is, but her restaurant certainly is warm and comforting on a cold day.

Posted in american, down home, midtown east. Leave a Comment »

La Cabeza Roja

November 14, 2009 — wecouldeat

The Redhead
349 East 13th (1/2 ave), East Village
goldenbonzone
Solid down-home Southern classics in a funky East Village hood for reasonable prices is the hype surrounding The Redhead. Almost too good to be true, right? Well, sometimes ya gotta believe the hype. The Redhead is good. Their fried chicken is damn good. Their signature main is two mammoth pieces of amazing fried chicken along with cornbread and some simple spinach and apple salad, deliciously dressed. The chicken is so succulent and moist, it must have been brined for days, yet the coating was perfectly crisp. It’s rare to find excellent fried chicken, but this is the genuine article. We also dined on a bacon cheeseburger that was well dressed and well cooked, both bacon and beef, with a nice burger to bun ratio (quite essential). I had heard much about their bacon peanut brittle, which was a very good starter as well. It’s loose, coated peanuts with chunks of smokey bacon – which they also sell packaged to go. We actually visited on Halloween evening, which was fun and kind of chaotic, but I got the sense it normally gets pretty busy here, and there is a large bar which takes up about a third of the space. The servers are friendly East Village types. This place gets a Golden Bonzone for it’s down home cheap eats and I am looking forward to returning soon for their supposedly outstanding brunch. (Sorry, no Redhead pics)

Posted in GOLDEN BONZONE, american, down home, east village. 1 Comment »

JC’s Got Soul…and Tamales

May 15, 2009 — wecouldeat

Jersey City should not be confused with other notorious car-jacking New Jersey areas like Patterson, Elizabeth and Newark. While there are some rougher parts of JC, most of it contains peaceful local working-class neighborhoods with families – as do the other three cities, I’m sure. What separates JC is the commuters from Manhattan, thanks to its three PATH train stations. These commuters demand more of the convenience and diversity of Manhattan. Our friend, Joanna, one such commuter, has been living in JC for 8 years and was nice enough to take us on a tour and introduce us to THREE proud local eateries.

Soul Flavors
354 Grove Street, Jersey City

Soul Flavors is a Jamaican eatery right on Grove Street with a great menu. All the comfort foods are here: fried chicken, bbq chicken, chicken & dumplings, mac & cheese, ribs, and chicken & waffles, but only on Saturday & Sunday. It’s BYOB so four of us marched in there with the jug size of Carlo Rossi Rosé Zinfandel – pure class all the way. We ordered the jerk chicken, chicken & dumplings, crab cakes, with mac & cheese and mango/carrot slaw as sides. The mini biscuits and corn bread as starters are a must. Everything was down-home good and satisfying, although no one expected the weather to be so warm, as it was one of the first hot days of the season. Luckily, the Carlo cooled us off and we had a blast. I would definitely return on a weekend for chicken & waffle brunch.

Brownstone Diner and Pancake Factory
426 Jersey Avenue, Jersey City

I usually don’t include diners in this blog since my other blog, Diner Cakes, is solely devoted to the subject, but this diner is exceptional – and in Jersey. We had two of their specialty pancake wraps: Country Breakfast Wrap = Scrambled eggs, pork sausage, potatoes and american chz rolled into a large pancake and Downtown Pancake Wrap = Scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese and sour cream stuffed into an over-sized pancake. They were delicious, especially the Downtown whose creaminess perfectly balanced the doughy pancakes. Considering that the Brownstone’s motto is “need pancakes!”, we also tried the German with apple compote and the and the Honky Tonk with peanut butter chunks and bananas, which were of course very good. While we only had pancakes (and grits), you could just tell that the other items on the book-size menu were going to be interesting and delicious. This place is a great find, and if you don’t believe me, you can ask Guy Fieri, because he visited here on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
No pics, but check out the video clips.

Taqueria Downtown
236 Grove Street, Jersey City

It’s easy to miss this little converted house on the corner, but you’d be skipping out on some great, cheap authentic Mexican food. Taqueria Downtown offers all the standards: tacos, tamales, tortas, enchiladas, as well as a weekend brunch. The decor is East Village kitch with old books and I even saw the old 1970′s white handheld football video game I used to have. Order at the counter and they bring the food over in the dining area or back patio. We had awesome fish tacos ($3 each!) and pork tamales ($2.50 each!). The fish, probably tillapia, was pan fried and moist with all the authentic toppings. The tamales were rich and smoky. If this place was across the East River from Manhattan, we’d be here weekly… at least.

Posted in breakfast, down home, jersey, mexican. 4 Comments »

The S’Mac Down

June 3, 2008 — wecouldeat

S’Mac
345 East 12th Street, NYC

A place that only serves mac & cheese?!? Sign me up! Well that’s what I thought at first, but in really analyzing the nature of this type of “One Trick Pony”, I have had other thoughts lately. S’Mac stands for Sarita’s Mac & Cheese and has gotten a ton of press because of its all-mac & cheese menu and East Village location. The menu is interesting with a dozen or so kooky variations that are considerably more delicious and fun than the Kraft product. We had the Garden Lite, an all-vegetable, and the Parisienne, with figs, brie and mushrooms. They were a tasty snack before our main dinner an hour later.

I think the problem is that there is no heart here. It is a contrived concept that only wants to make money, not genuine grub. The counter person had the same interest in food and love for his job as your typical Duane Reade cashier. This place shamelessly self-promotes and you get the feeling that there will be one in every mall soon. It is similar to Totally Baked (see review), now that I think about it, in its distanced vibe and concept, the difference is that baked potatoes are a great, fun snack food. Don’t get me wrong, I love mac & cheese but I want it with a full meal in a comfortable setting, not in a fast food environment.

As far as these One Trick Ponies, I have been skeptical since I waited on an hour long line for BB Sandwich Bar in 2001. My feeling is that when they are fun snack foods: pudding, hot dogs, fries, knishes, they are great; when they are trying to be mass-produced and a substitute for dinner, they fall short.

Posted in american, down home, east village. 2 Comments »

Such a dainty name for such hearty food….

March 18, 2008 — spud

Pink Tea Cup
42 Grove Street (Bedford/Bleeker), NYC

We are the anti-Valentine’s Day couple…..I mean, not completely. We acknowledge its existence and WeCouldEat and I are always willing to take the opportunity to say how much we love and appreciate one another (yes, we are annoyingly happy and even more frustratingly not afraid to admit it!) But, we do refuse to pay double the amount for food in Manhattan just because of the Hallmark Holiday (we feel similarly about New Year’s Eve). So, we use it as just another excuse to find a fun hole-in-the-wall establishment to raid in the city. This year we went to The Pink Tea Cup, a small Southern soul food joint. Do not be fooled by the unassuming name……The Pink Tea Cup is small in size, as is the menu, but the food packs a heavy calorie laden, deep fried wallop. Fans of soul food will be exceedingly happy here. If you are watching your diet, just keep walking and don’t stop in. If you’re like us and you believe that you need to eat large amounts of every type of food every once in a while, then journey in and take a seat. The service is friendly and you can take a look at all of the famous people who have dined here over the years as you debate between fried chicken, smothered pork chops and chicken fried steak. I went for the smothered pork chops and my hubster had the fried chicken and we both had the collard greens and black eyed peas to go along with it. It came with heavily buttered corn bread and a very salty chicken soup and just when you could not handle any more food, they serve you a large hunk of super-sweet bread pudding. Now, we don’t get stuffed easily, and if you know my husband’s love affair with pudding, than you would not believe that we couldn’t eat more than a bite or two of that dessert. The smothered pork chop was heavenly……covered in a hearty batter and deep fried and smothered in a rich dark gravy. The sides were flavorful and meaty (as all good southern greens should be!). I just loved watching all of the other diners ingest large plates of fried foods and mac-n-cheese. The music was perfect, as well. Check this place out when you’re in the mood for a completely soulful night……what better way to say “I love you”!?