Dessert from 2nd City in NYC

After brunch we swung by 2nd City for dessert - ube cream cones! Definitely was ube pandan as could taste the coconut.  It was very creamy and less ube-ish and more like general ice cream, but nonetheless delicious.

Brunch at Oscar's Place in NYC

Went to Oscar's Place, a cute british style restaurant in the West Village, for my Dad's birthday.  I made a reservation, which was very needed as it is a very small place that was crowded when we arrived.  Funnily enough, we could see the kitchen, and no one looked at all British either in the kitchen or at the tables.  Food was great though; great authentic tasting flavors.  Just was kind of a mind f***.  Great English breakfast.  Only wish they had scones and clotted cream

Beer Battered Fish and Chips - cod with fresh tartar and lemon.  Very nice piece of fish. My mom actually ate all of it!

The Classic English Breakfast - two eggs over easy, applewood smoked bacon, myer's pork sausage, sauteed mushrooms, fried tomatoes, homemade baked beans, and Amy's bread.  Both my Dad and I ordered this

Egg oozing out.  You can have the eggs any way you like

Dan got Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon. Came with garden salad and mash of the day.  Great dish and eggs perfectly poached

.

Dinner at Pasta Dal Cuore in Jersey City, NJ

We went to Pasta Dal Cuore for the first time.  It's a fairly new Italian restaurant that makes its own pasta and sells pasta and sauce in the front.  We were so pleasantly surprised.  Very delicious, homey food that I think is possibly the best in JC.  So much flavor and reasonably priced.

Complimentary bread, olive oil, and bruscetta of sorts.  Delish!  Not enthe what was in the bruschetta but was so tasty. Def some balsamic, eggplant, and tomatoes

Polpette in Marinara - 3 beef & pork meatballs (ricotta & grana padano) in a light tomatoes, salted walnuts, mustard dressing tomato-basil sauce, topped with grana & parsley. Served pink in middle.  Very tasty.  Great flavor and texture.  Also pretty large

Insalata Panzanella - olive oil-poached tuna, cucumber, Roma tomato, rustic bread, Involtini de Melanzane fresh basil, red wine vineger dressing.  One of my fav types of salads.  Only negative was olives but we just avoided them

They gave cucumbers on the side so here it is mixed in

Short Rib Ravioli - beef short rib ravioli served with braising liquid reduction, the classic beef, pork, and veal sauce, sprinkled lightly celery root puree, Grana Padano shavings.  Dan ordered this and really enjoyed it.  Great flavor and texture of the pasta; was just a little rich for me to eat too much

Linguine Neri con Calamaro Ripieno o Gamberi - squid ink linguine, stuffed calamari (panko, Grana Padano),.  Loved this.  The pasta was perfectly al dente, great ink flavor.  Loved the calamari mixed in and shrimp.  I didn't love the stuffed calamari.  It was a little cold and flavorwise a bit bland.  It also seemed cold inside because of the cheese.  Felt it was unneeded but otherwise a very strong dish

Dinner at Mile End Deli in NYC

We finally made it to Mile End for Poutine Week and on Valentines Day no less!  Not your traditional couple haha.  Everything was delicious but so so filling.  We only get about halfway through, which wasn't bad.  We didn't  bother ordering anything else because we didn't think we'd need it, and we were very correct.

Aerial shot of the MeatLovers Poutine and Duck Confit Poutine

Duck Confit Poutine - duck confit, cheese curds, gravy and fries.  So delicious.  Duck was super tasty and a great topping

Meat Lovers Poutine - brisket, smoked meat, corned beef, hot dogs, salami, bacon, cheese curds, gravy, fries.  RIDIC.  It was a bit dark in the restaurant (romantic i suppose) so it was hard to actually see the different meats we were eating.  Kind of like meaty roulette haha.  Salty, tasty goodness though.  Eating them the next day was actually not as gross as one might see, but I realized we had eaten most of the more interesting meats like brisket and corned beef and smoked meat.  Mostly bacon and hot dogs left.

Dinner at Komegashi in Jersey City, NJ

We had a quick dinner at Komegashi after going to the movies.  I got ramen because I wasn't super hungry, but only got about half way through because it was quite filling.  Dan got sushi and also had leftovers because we were full.  Very fast service, fresh food, and good meal overall, we were just not super hungry.

Shoyu Ramen - pork broth with roasted pork, sweet corn, menma, hard boiled egg, scallions, and wakameme seaweed

Yellowtail roll and a special roll that I can't remember but had tuna

Brunch from Short Grain in Jersey City, NJ

We ordered food from Short Grain for brunch as I was craving lemon ricotta pancakes but we didn't want to leave the pups.  Our food was good but the pancakes looked less good than the photos, and was definitely not as good as Roman Nose's pancakes.  Glad we tried it though.

Green Eggs and Spam - SPAM, eggs, salsa verde and toast.  The salsa def had some kick.  Not a crazily creative dish, but glad to see a legit restaurant in our neighborhood serve spam :)

Lemon Ricotta pancakes with berries, mint and honey.  Lemon flavor was very subdued.  Pancakes seemed a little bit dry; not sure if that was just because it was take out

Home-made smoked brisket

Dan used the stovetop smoker I got him for Christmas to make some brisket.  Though we cooked it for awhile in the oven, ultimately it ended up a little bit tough though had great smoke flavor.  I think perhaps needs to be cooked in the oven for hours longer. The machine isn't so great in the apartment though.  It smoked up the whole apartment floor and maintenance /the apartment office came to our building to make sure there was no fire haha.  I think perhaps best to use in a private home or outside.