A foodie's weekend journal

What a weekend of eating! It began on Friday evening, when I met up with Chef LaLaLa and Marathon Man at Canyon Road on the Upper East Side. There was quite a bit of a wait for a table, so we bided our time with some chips, salsa and "sangaritas". The sangaritas are frozen margaritas with sangria; pretty good and they certainly pack a punch! During dinner, I had moved on to the cactus pear margarita which was a bit too sweet, explaining my Saturday morning hangover. I've been spoiled by the amazing cactus pear magaritas at Mesa Grill.

For our meal, I ordered the duck burrito in a mole sauce. The duck was smoky and perfectly balanced the savory chocolately mole sauce. There was a bit more mole than I would have preferred and the duck perhaps a tad overcooked but overall a pretty decent dish. There are so many great Mexican restaurants in the city so the bar is raised pretty high - so I would put Canyon Road in the middle of the pack.

On Saturday evening, I joined Piggytails, her neighbor and her neighbor's co-worker at Foodie's perennial favorite, Havana Central in midtown. Piggytails' super was playing there and we were treated to a front row seat to hear some great music over a great meal. We enjoyed two delicious bottles of jammy Tempranillo and I had one of the evening's specials: two garlicky pork chops with spinach. There was a mashed root vegetable of some sort that accompanied the chops but it was a bit loud so I did not hear my waiter. It didn't matter it was creamy & delicious!

Service was a bit spotty however, perhaps because the restaurant was a bit hectic. Our appetizers never arrived but when we saw our massive entrees, we all figured it was for the best.

We finished up our second bottle of wine with a farmer's cheese plate: gouda and manchego cheeses along with guava paste, grapes and bread drizzled with caramel. The perfect blend of salt, savory and sweet. We were also treated to a complimentary bottle of champagne as we were finishing off our cheese - it pays to be with the band!

I spent Sunday morning at the gym, trying to undo some of the caloric damage I did on Friday & Saturday. I eventually made my way to City Bakery to grab some lunch. I just love City Bakery's salad bar! It is expensive but well worth the cost. It took every ounce of strength I had, but I was able to resist the melted chocolate chip cookies and the decadently rich hot chocolate... this time!

NOTE: I'd link to their site but it is kinda annoying - good thing I love their food so much!

What I did wind up with is the seared tofu with chili sauce, sauteed radicchio with chick peas, sauteed broccoli, cilantro chicken, lentil salad, jasmine rice with beans and squash with Asian pears and hazelnuts. I am not sure what they do to their veggies to make them so flavorful, but I am going to guess it's not low-cal. But it did provide me with enough nourishment and energy to tackle making my last batch of tomato sauce for the long awaited meatball tasting happening this week!

I can't stand the excitement for meatball madness, can you?