The Girl Who Ate Everything

Yesterday I ate lunch at Ukranian restaurant Veselka with my friend Joan and her brother Ronald who were visiting for a while from Maryland. Ronald had heard of the place and since the weather was craptastic and we didn't know where to eat, we popped in. Very nice place and for $10 the vegetarian platter is a great deal. I was full (yes, FULL, that happens sometimes) from the split pea soup, salad, four perogies, and stuffed cabbage. I've never had perogies before (or Ukranian food) and as a dumpling lover, of course I'd like perogies. I like the cheese ones more than the potato ones, since the cheese ones had a touch of sweetness to them.

I agree with the comments on menupages that the service isn't spectacular, but I feel like after fooding in Chinatown so much, I've become less concerned with bad service. The service in Chinatown isn't that bad but sometimes I think I've just become accustomed to it all. Restaurants in Chinatown are good for being very quick most of the time (in order to accomodate as many customers as possible...hey, why not?). Anyhoo, I'd definitely go to Veselka again since I didn't get to try their blintzes or their baked goods, which looked DELISH! I bought rugelach for my mum cos she loves them. I did take some of the samples they had out and their blueberry tart is ....is mmm. MM. So good. Maybe I'll buy one next time. :)

Before going to Veselka, we wandered on Bleeker Street and came upon Magnolia Bakery. I had wanted to go there for quite a while as I heard about it from some friends and was told the sugar content of the cupcakes would take a while to get used to, or would kill me. Which goes to show my body chemistry is probably way off because I ate two cupcakes (one vanilla, one chocolate) without any problems. I like the vanilla one more cos it was sweeter (I could SMELL the sugar before I took the cupcakes out of the box) but the chocolate one was good too. As for whether the cupcakes are as good as "everyone" says they are...well there's no way they could have lived up to the reputation. Cupcakes are simple, which makes them great. Cupcakes are always good! I mean, they'd have to be quite bad for me to not like them. I thought the cupcakes tasted like most cupcakes except maybe for being sweeter. The icings were different on the two cupcakes as the one on the vanilla cupcake started getting crusty while the chocolate one was still soft (no sign of crusting). I don't know what that means, although having taken my intro to foods class, maybe I should know? Damn. Would I eat the cupcakes again? Sure, but I think I'd rather try their other baked goods, all which looked delicious. I went to the bakery sometime between 10:30 and 11 AM and there were only a few customers in there (also, the weather was crap). More impressive was how many employees filled the tiny bakery, aka, a LOT. I can remember at least six people, so there were probably more.

And now I am back in NJ for MORE FOODING. For dinner I went to local Japanese restaurant Cocoro with my family. I haven't eaten out with my entire family (mum, dad, bro) in a long time. It was my dad's b-day, by the way. I'm afraid I wasn't nice enough to him considering a birthday comes just once a year, but it's hard not to become annoyed by my dad. But that's a whole other problem not fit for this blog. I had yaki soba for the first time in ages and the restaurant was nice enough to give each of us a free mochi ice cream ball for dessert (for the holidays, methinks). Very cute restaurant to check if you're ever in Franklin Lakes, NJ, which you will never be in. GOOD. STAY AWAY. :)