Bada Bing! Bada Jianbing!

I’d eat this jianbing if it contained a piece of paper. It was that good. Any vegetable matter comes to you in the crepe batter (made in part from mung bean flour), which has a greenish cast, a slightly musky taste and is a thing of beauty. Bits of cilantro, scallion and also sesame seeds swirl within folds of yellow and white eggy pancake to create a pattern you might be happy to wear on a scarf. In fact wrap this around my neck, and I’ll eat my way through it

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Puff n' Stuff for When Life is Tough

Corrado Bread and Pastry is a busy, welcoming spot in the East 70s, catering to ladies who lunch and school girls in pleated uniform mini skirts. I like many things about it: the outside dining area, the fact that, tiny as it is, it has a bathroom, that, in an area with the highest concentration of billionaires in the city, its prices are miraculously low, especially for ritzy items like prosciutto wrapped focaccia sticks ($2.75) or mini pepper brioches stuffed with chicken and basil or tuna and watercress ($3.50). 

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Hype for an Anglo-Thai Hybrid

In what world would Branston pickle, a mainstay British condiment from my husband’s stomping grounds, be a fitting accompaniment for a Thai snack? The answer: when that snack is a Thai Scotch egg. The sight of that Thai Scotch egg flashing on a large TV screen lured me into Amster Thai, a small attractive restaurant that opened on Amsterdam Avenue in late 2016.

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The Everyday Sandwich

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"Everyday I spend trying to keep the inexplicable from oozing out of the everyday sandwich I make." I wrote this in my journal in high school. Sandwich as metaphor. I'm 58. Give me the sandwich. Hold the metaphor. And for that matter hold the arugula. Hold the avocado, the sprouts, the fancy condiments and even the tomato. Just ham + cheese + mayo + mustard on two factory cut slices of Pepperidge Farm 12-grain bread. In early days of the New Year I had a sudden craving for just such a sandwich. Why?

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Free Roamin' at Aroma

Since Earth Cafe now has flat-out no wifi, I often go down to my old UWS favorite, Aroma, an Israeli based chain with imported excellent Italian Balestra brand coffee and free wifi all day long, no password or “access pass”  to boot. But let's talk snacks: there is a just-right snack to power me through to the next page or Google search: the filo stick—a savory feta or sweet apple filling wrapped in flaky filo pastry and strewn with sesame seeds ($3.10).

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The Teeny Weeny Panini of Madison Avenue

Where, oh where, can I indulge a Snack Attack in the charmless wasteland of Madison Avenue? My friend Lydie and her husband Chris are experienced urban hikers, so I trusted the tip Lydie texted me one afternoon during their Sunday stroll. “Sant Ambroeus on E. 61, sandwiches for $5.50.” She sent a beauty shot of a small pressed Panini with a frittata and tomato spilling out of the edges, two dainty cookies, and a foamy coffee drink.

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