by Bonnie Tandy Leblang

The Best (and Simplest) Chocolate Birthday Cake!

My daughter-in-law asked me to bake and decorate my granddaughter’s first birthday cake; she sent me a photo of what she’d like with the end result to be: a colorful butterfly.

I couldn’t say no.

I had multiple worries as I would…

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Red Farm, Upper West Side, NYC + Admissions

Red Farm’s chef Joe Ng had just been nominated by the James Beard Foundation as this year’s “Best Chef in New York City” making me even more excited to head to the UWS location of this Chinese restaurant. We got to the 77th…

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Piccola Strada, East Village, NYC + Rosemary and Time

Piccola Strada a tiny Genovese restaurant across from the theatre where we were attending a performance of Rosemary and Time came highly recommended by more than one friend. It’s a BYOB place with a mere $5 corkage fee.

Our waiter offered…

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Fig & Olive Uptown, Upper East Side, NYC

After shopping at Saks for two mother-of-the-groom dresses for my friends from CT, both of whose sons were getting married, we looked for something nearby to grab a bite. I made a reservation at the uptown location of Fig & Olive as we were…

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Kubeh, West Village, NYC + Relevance

Kubeh refers to a Middle Eastern dumpling that I had read about being offered in my hood at a restaurant by the same name. We
stopped by on the way to the Lucille Lortel to see one of our favorite actresses Jayne Houdyshell (who had won a Tony…

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Black Ant, East Village, NYC

The Black Ant is not like most other Mexican restaurants, except Temerario another one of Jorge Guzman Hospitality’s fabulous places. They had invited me to try their outstandingly unusual and delicious offerings with matching cocktails.

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Sorbillo, Bowery, NYC

Word has it Italians stand in hour-plus lines at Sorbillo’s Naples and Milan locations, like New Haveners wait for Pepe’s. Sorbillo pizza, that arrived in NYC just before the new year, has gotten rave reviews for it’s soupy, very…

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Lucciola, Upper West Side, NYC + Parisian Woman

I was invited to Lucciola, a new restaurant uptown on 90th street and Amsterdam Avenue.

My friend and I headed there after seeing an amazingly good production of The Parisian Woman. The buzz was they play wasn’t very good, but Uma…

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Estiatorio Milos, Midtown, NYC – In The Body of The World

The best way to experience the pricey Estiatorio Milos down the street from City Center is to order their reasonable prix-fixe menu. Their pre-theater menu, served between 5:00-6:00 pm, offers three courses for $55, containing both the Faroe Islands…

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Machiavelli, Upper West Side, NYC

Machiavelli offers classic Northern Italian cuisine along with live music for brunch and dinner. We decided to go for dinner — I was greeted by a masked server in costume, as I had arrived in the midst of the Venice Carnival celebration. That…

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