December Good Eats Round-Up

Today I thought I would share with you some of the bakeries, sandwich shops and food trucks I tried in NYC during the past month. I hope you enjoy going on this culinary journey with me! If you have been to any of the places mentioned and have additional comments or recommendations to make please let me know via the comments section below.

1) Num Pang Sandwich Shop

I discovered Num Pang Sandwich shop through TimeOut New York's 50 Best Cheap Eats In NYC 2014 list. I will be referencing this list and other "best of NYC cheap eats" lists a lot in the upcoming weeks and months so stay tuned! Num Pang Sandwich Shop is a chain with 6 locations throughout NYC. I went on a beautiful friday I had off of work. I had been shopping in SoHo and walked to the Union Square location. As described in the TimeOut NYC review, all of the locations have awesome graffiti on the wall, which I definitely appreciated. The menu is all sandwiches made on bread that is baked fresh daily. The menu is quite eclectic and extremely unique. Some options include:  Hoisin Meatballs, Five Spice Glazed Pork Belly, Ginger Barbecue Brisket and Roasted Cauliflower. All of the sandwiches are served with cucumber, pickled carrots, cilantro and chili mayo. I decided to go with the roasted cauliflower, which had a delicious Chinese and Thai eggplant spread. The sandwich bread was absolutely delicious and the combination of the Chinese and Thai eggplant spread with the cilantro and chili mayo gave the cauliflower a much appreciated flavor boost. Overall, I enjoyed the sandwich and look forward to going back and trying one of the meat options. According to my friend Audrey Num Pang has a "Sandwich Happy Hour" on certain week day afternoon/early evenings so that is definitely something to check out if you are looking for a late lunch or quick bite after work.

2) Levain Bakery

  Photo Courtesy of: 1000 Things NYC

Photo Courtesy Of:  WestSideRag 

                                                        Back in November I was invited to a breakfast pre-game the morning of a big collage football game at a college acquaintance's apartment. Anyone who went to college in the central new york area will probably be familiar with the Cortaca Jug, which is the football game I'm referring to. When I was talking to the host of the party she asked where I lived and when I told her where I live on the Upper West Side she asked if I had tried Levain Bakery and said they have the best chocolate chip cookies in NYC. Since she has a pastry arts degree I knew she would not make that statement lightly and that I would have to check Levain Bakery out for myself immediately. I went around 6:00 PM on a random sunday night and there was line out the door to get into the bakery so I immediately knew I was in for something special. I waited around 12 minutes and eventually made my way into the tiny storefront location on West 74th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues. Levain Bakery serves a variety of different baked goods  such as cookies, which include: chocolate chip walnut (the most popular), Oatmeal Raisin and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip. They also serve a variety of different fresh baked breads, coffee cakes, sticky buns, etc. I bought the chocolate chip walnut and dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies for my roommate and I to share. The dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookie was good, but the chocolate chip walnut cookie is really the star of show and is what really draws the big crowds to Levain Bakery. The cookie is light and airy and the choclately cookie goodness melts right in your mouth and will leave you craving more. 

3) Wafels & Dinges

I took the above photograph

Photo Courtesy of: Tracy In Polaroids

  Unless you have been living under a rock you have probably heard of Wafels & Dinges one of the most popular gourmet food trucks in NYC with trucks stationed throughout the city. I first heard of Wafels & Dinges back in 2011 when I would feature different desserts for a weekly blog post for my previous company's blog. I shared the blog post with a PR rep for the company and they wrote back saying that I spelt the name wrong, oops! I was super embarrassed and corrected the mistake immediately. Anyways, the first time I actually tried Wafels and Dinges was this past summer when I took Sidewalks of New York's Food Truck Tour.  The wafel was delicious with spekuloos spread and tons of whipped cream on top, what could be better! My first Wafels & Dinges experience left me craving more so when I discovered the Wafels & Dinges cart across from Lincoln Center, which is close to my apartment I was very excited and anxiously anticipated my next wafel.  A few weeks ago I had a random monday off of work and was feeling kind of sad since I had long weekend and nothing particularly exciting to do so I decided to cheer myself up by having Wafels & Dinges for breakfast, which I highly encourage everyone to do if you are having a bad day.  I decided to get the liege wafel with dulce de leche sauce and whipped cream. Wafels & Dinges is notorious for there spekuloos spread so if it's your first time I definitely recommend it. While I was sitting at a table near by on a beautiful day,  my bad mood was instantly lifted. The wafels are delicious and how can you go wrong with dulce de leche sauce and tons of whipped cream? 

I hope you enjoyed my december good eats choices and who knows, this could possibly become a monthly installment so stay tuned in January :)