Enjoy, cyber friends!

Chairlift – Ghost Tonight
Amazing Black Cab session! Was lucky enough to see these guys at Laneway in Feb this year. Loving their new-ish album right now.

Twin Shadow – At My Heels
This song makes me feel happy, reminds me of the carefree 70′s… rollerskating in the summertime or some shit.

The National – Anyone’s Ghost
What can I say about this one? It’s just a great song.

SBTRKT – Trials of the Past
Also had the pleasure of seeing this guy & Sampha live at Laneway. Awesome live set!

Check out this beauty:

Roast pork belly sandwich with apple & mint relish, rocket and aioli

Roast chicken sandwich with rocket, tomato, avocado salsa and mayo

And a ginger and mint iced tea to wash it all down!

They, of course, do an excellent coffee too, as I am told by (_I_)head who ordered 2 cappuccinos.

Mmm, mm! Best $12.50 I have ever spent!

Pulled pork sandwiches
Pulled pork tortillas
Pulled pork nachos
Pork belly
Porchetta

Pork, pork, pork! Not that I mind, I’ve just noticed, is all. BRING IT AWNNN!

It was so good I have to document it, in case I forget…

Friday – Pulled pork nachos and chilli fries for dinner at The Dip, followed by a very appropriate hot grapefruit green tea at Happy Lemon
Saturday – Tennis, followed by Sokyo for lunch and Danks St Depot for dinner
Sunday – This awesome kransky from one of those tenty stall things  (so satisfying for festival food!) in between awesome sets by Twin Shadow, Chairlift, The Drums and SBTRKT at the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival.

It’s been a while since I’ve been satisfied with every single meal I’ve had in one weekend! SO. SATISFIED! Pics from Sokyo to follow!

This is what we had to share between the 3 of us.

Citrus Drop & Pimm’s and Lemonade… Can you guess who’s cocktail is whose? ….

LOL. Paul and his Citrus Drop^_^v So pretty!

Crispy school prawns, lime mayonnaise and Quail eggs, tarragon mayonnaise
Note: these are two different starters served on the same board. The prawns were awesome – the bowl was massive! When we thought we were coming to the end, we managed to keep fishing more of these tasty crustaceans.

Seared scallops, peas, crispy pancetta, mint emulsion
Fat and juicy, nicely seared!

Kingfish, wasabi pannacotta, quinoa, ponzu

Herb gnocchi, summer vegetables, parmesan cream, pangritatta
Fluffy pillowy goodness! I think that green stuff was broccoli,  which isn’t something I would immediately think to serve with gnocchi (maybe pesto or something!) but the way they sliced the stalks and crumbled the sprouts in the parmesan cheese worked well… well enough for Paul to be able to eat them!

Duck confit, sweet potato, pomegranate, ras el hanout
Tender and juicy inside! We were all fighting for this, haha

single best link i’ve clicked on. ever.

The wine list cover – very cool! The owner Alex, explained that they had to buy thousands of different wine labels off eBay to create these covers because you could only purchase them in bulk. Cool theme, it also appears on their website.

Tastevin cutlery
In case you were wondering about that teensy weensy spoon and fork at the end, we ordered oysters which I forgot to take pictures of!

Tastevin’s gnocchi a la parisienne
Mmm, soft fluffy gnocchi and cheesy, cheesy sauce.

cassoulet of confit duck, pork sausage and grilled speck
It just fell right off the bone! Delicious, this is the dish I would come back for!

char grilled beef eye fillet with pommes frites & peppercorn sauce
Perfect French fries – so crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside

.. But not before one missed stop, a mishap with an express train and 3 L train rides…  The L train rides wouldn’t have been so bad if we didn’t have to get off at 14th St Union Square every  friggen time – the place seriously WREAKED of piss! We wanted to die between connecting trains!

But the reward was well worth it…

Porchetta Sandwich – generously flavoured roast pork – none of that dry, bland shit!

porchétta [por'ketta] n. roasted pork with crispy skin, highly seasoned with aromatic herbs and spices, garlic, sage, rosemary and wild fennel pollen. Typical plate of the Roman cuisine. Slow cooked Italian fast food.

Home fries with burnt ends. Mmm! Potatoes in one of its most tasty forms.

And then down the road for dessert at the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop (complete with rainbows and unicorns) where(_I_)head got a Big Gay Ice Cream and I, a Tang Shake.

http://www.porchettanyc.com/

http://biggayicecream.com/

We had plans to do the whole Momofuku thing but it didn’t open until noon which meant we would be cutting it a bit close to catch the Lion King at 1pm.

This joint was suggested to us by JuBert and we happily took it up. Four stars and 3000+ reviews on Yelp – couldn’t be bad, right? Turns out, it was the best ramen I’ve ever had! DEEEELICIOUS. It was the perfect meal to alleviate the mildly ill effects of the night before.

We were a bit worried to find the huge line out front when we got there at 11am on the dot but it was all good because they had just opened. It took us 20 minutes to be seated but only because they didn’t have enough menus to go around… A bit silly but hey, at least it’s an easy fix if they want to do something about it.

The cool bowl display at the bar/entrance

Hamachi Carpaccio    $13
Thinly sliced yellowtail sashimi with Japanese carpaccio sauce

Hirata Buns (2 pieces)    $9
Steamed buns filled with your choice of pork or chicken, served with Ippudo original spicy buns sauce

Haven’t had the Momofuku ones but peeps on Foursquare have said they are comparable! Momofuku or not, they were fucking good! I could eat these all day.

We were seated at the counter where we could watch the chefs prepare our meals in their cute shirts! This guy had cherry blossoms on his – my favourite!

And the ramen! (_I_)head went for the classic:

Shiromaru Hakata Classic     $14  + Onsen Tamago (Poached Egg)
The original “Tonkotsu” noodle soup topped with pork loin chashu, kikurage, menma, red pickeled ginger, sesame, and scallions

And I had the one that everyone loves:

Akamaru Modern    $14 + Onsen Tamago (Poached Egg)
The original “Tonkotsu” noodle soup topped with Ippudo’s secret “Umami Dama” miso paste, pork chashu, cabbage, kikurage, scallions, and fragrant garlic oil

A definite must-go for anyone visiting NYC. Oh, how I miss the Big Apple.