bali nusa

new york, ny

website

my friend y can speak indonesian and i always rely on her when ordering from this restaurant. derek and i went without her once and we ordered the same nasi goreng dish she usually gets - but because we are not indonesian, we ended up with a bland tasteless version. it's really amazing that indonesian food can end up bland and tasteless, but somehow they managed.

therefore i would not recommend going to this place without an indonesian-speaking person. earlier this week, with m visiting from out-of-town, y ordered delivery from bali nusa. after lots of lovely indonesian was spoken, we ended up with curry tofu, spicy eggplant, chicken satay, fried rice, and crispy onion chips. delicious!

casellula

new york, ny

website

highly recommended by kate and y&a. the three of them suggest ordering the amazing truffle fries, but i have yet to see it on the menu (and i've been three times already...) the cheese plate is my favorite part of the menu. before casellula, i didn't even know that fromagers existed. they do. and the one at casellula is brilliant. you tell your server your cheese preferences (derek and i don't like bleu or stinky cheeses) and how many cheeses you want (at $6 each, be cautious). then the fromager works her magic and throws together a cheese plate that delights and surprises. each cheese comes with a specific condiment that matches the cheese perfectly. our gouda came with a vodka mustard sauce - amazing. our middle cheese came with a sweet brittle - delicious. and derek loved the corn pudding that came with the brie. so good - if you like cheese you have to try this place.

oh, there are other things that are good too. the pig's ass sandwich. it tastes as good as it sounds. the mac and cheese has comte and bacon in it. ridiculous. for dessert - order the chocolate cake. just before you dig in, your server will pour a cup of cool fresh cream over it. a few months ago, my sister cindy and i dined here with y&a before our broadway show. we nearly missed the start of the show because we were in chocolate-cake-fresh-cream heaven...

initially posted 8/31/2009 -- reposted with better photo (but different cheeses...)

amy's bread

new york, ny

website

once again, i found myself in midtown west (hell's kitchen) and decided to stop by another one of y&a's recs. and no, i did not eat all of those by myself. my favorite was the yellow cake topped with chocolate frosting. the red velvet was also good and came topped with extremely light and fluffy frosting.

because i strive to be a cupcake connoisseur, i have to say that my yellow-chocolate cupcake was a little too crumbly and the frosting was too heavy and overly sweet. but let's be honest here, a cupcake is a cupcake and two cupcakes from amy's bread definitely put a smile on my face.