1. I found a really great NYC blog this week called DelicatesseNY. It happens to be written in French as well as English, so it’s perfect French practice for me. There are some great restaurant picks and gorgeous photography. Check it out!
2. A three-piece stoneware baker set from Crate & Barrel in pastel spring colors for only $30.
1. Gorgeous giant pancake cake with a blueberry sauce by the talented Sarah Coates of The Sugar Hit, one of my favorite recipe blogs right now.
2. Some simple food photography tips from professional food photogs. Read ‘em, even if you’re just a serial Instagrammer.
3. Set of two Le Creuset Heritage green gratin dishes from Sur La Table - just in time for St. Patrick’s day.
4. Ever feel like a good cry while you’re out in New York? Say, on Fifth Avenue? Maybe you just saw your ex with his new girlfriend who looks just like Mila Kunis, or maybe the Starbucks barista spelled your name wrong… again? Well, this genius Tumblr blog tells you the best and worst places to cry around here. Bookmark it for emergencies!
5. Just discovered this awesome food blog called My Name is Yeh. Check out Molly’s creative recipes and beautiful photos.
1. Amateur Gourmet shared a recipe for making your own hot sauce.
2. Apple corer from One Kings Lane - I didn’t know this existed but what a great little tool to have around, eh?
3. Listen up, ladies who suffer in the eyelash department like me. Maybelline’s Lash Discovery mascara may not get much press, but it’s been around for a while and it’s still the best at making teeny-tiny lashes look long, without clumping. Try it!
4. Polka-dotted offset icing spatulas from Sur La Table - so adorable and only $3.99 apiece.
5. Serious Eats conducted a serious test to determine which gin is best for negronis. But I don’t care what they say, Hendrick’s is still my fave.
1. The New Yorker posted a short video on their blog featuring Malgorcata Sibilski, the woman who’s been making the iconic borscht at Veselka for the past five decades. The video doesn’t go much in depth about her but it’s nice to put a face to the soup.
2. Duralex Picardie tumblers from Sur La Table - These painfully chic French tumblers (est. 1939) are made by the company that invented glass tempering, and you’ll find them in every French restaurant and home goods magazine around. Clearly, I’m biased towards anything French, which brings me to…
3. David Lebovitz wrote about a Paris cafe called Le Nemrod this week. I knew the name sounded familiar and as I read, I realized it was where my best friend and I shared our very first French meal when we studied there in 2010. Besides reviving my nostalgia, the article makes a good point about Parisians not being crazy about making it to the hottest new restaurants, but instead preferring to frequent the ones where they’re already regulars.
4. Leave it to the one and only Emily Schuman of Cupcakes and Cashmere to elevate the Egg McMuffin. Touché.
4. I actually discovered this Trader Joe’s granola several weeks ago and finally decided to tell you guys about it today. It is simply the best granola I’ve tasted to date. It’s full of oat clusters, rice crisps, dried cranberries and toasted nuts, all wonderfully perfumed by maple. It’s gluten-free and sold in small 12 oz packages so it won’t go stale on you. I enjoy it with almond milk and banana slices.
5. Cozy Eiffel Tower mugs from Sur La Table… enough said.
1. Brooklyn restaurant Brucie hopped on the Queen Bey bandwagon and designed their V-Day menu around her and Jay-Z’s enviable relationship. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean much for the food except for fun dish names - like Surf Board (a bone marrow appetizer), Drunk in Love (for a negroni short beef entree) and Breastiny’s Child (a veal breast) - but the restaurant is already fully booked for the evening.
2. Compostable plates made from, wait for it… fallen leaves. Too bad they used water instead of virgin tears to bind them, otherwise I would’ve totally ordered me some.
3. My Morning Routine, Bon Appetit’s online column that explores famous people’s breakfast choices, featured Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd this week. Incubus has been my favorite band since the seventh grade (yes, I remember it like it was yesterday) and they’ve been inactive for the past for few years so it was awesome to see his face in the media.
4. Distinctly rustic, French-style Sainte-Germaine bowls from Sur La Table - what my imaginary French grand-mère would serve me soup in.
6. I try to set out time to watch French movies to keep the language fresh in my mind and the other night, I watched “Haute Cuisine” (2013), a movie loosely based on President Mitterrand’s personal chef. The movie follows a female chef from the countryside who is summoned by the President to move to Paris to cook for him. The movie documents her struggle against the macho chefs of the main kitchen and shows how truly passionate she was about her family recipes, using high quality ingredients, and taking pleasure in eating. The movie is pretty light-hearted so if you’re into French films and want some cooking inspiration, check it out - it’s streamable on Netflix.
Hello and happy Friday! Here’s the first entry of a new series I’m starting called Friday Finds. Each Friday, I’ll be highlighting unique products, articles and other links that I come across that week. Let me know what you think!
1. Totally adorable glass milk bottles from One Kings Lane - as perfect for kids’ drinks as for grownups’ cocktails. On sale now for $26 for six (reduced from $34), available until Sunday. (This is an affiliate link).
2. Zwack Hungarian liqueur - Rene bought this at a specialty spirits store on a whim and it is ah-mazing. Since the 1700′s, this liqueur has been consumed as an aperitif and digestif. It is made with over 40 different herbs and spices and then aged in oak casks for over 6 months. It’s a dark amber color, slightly viscous, moderately sweet and pleasantly woodsy. It’s great chilled, as a shot or mixed with Pepsi or Dr. Pepper.
3. A funny yet confusing Eater review of Emmett’s - a new Chicago-style pizza joint in the West Village - by the great Robert Sietsema. He complains about the crust, the abundance of sauce, the quality of the cheese, and the futility of toppings in the overflowing sauce, but concludes by saying that he actually liked it and that it’s worth the experience. Seems kind of odd. Nonetheless, it’s a good piece of writing and now I’m curious about this pizza.
