Chubby Chinese Girl

That's the name of one the sandwich specials at Certe' located at 20 West 55th Street in NYC's Midtown.

The sandwich was comprised of tender orange coated roasted duck slices with cilantro, hoisin sauce, chili with cucumber and pickled radish strips on a baguette ($8.95). The duck was thick, medium rare slices and the chili gave it a nice spicy flavor.

I have always enjoyed everything I have eaten from Certe'.

Astor Bake Shop

...is located in NYC's borough of Queens at 12-23 Astoria Blvd. in Astoria. Ths new bake shop and cafe is bright and airy. When I visited the menu was limited and the service was a little haphazard.

I had the Astor Burger with lettuce, tomato, spicy Astor sauce, cheese, thick slices of apple wood smoke bacon for $10.50. I wasn't given the choice of 2 or 4 slices of bacon. I received 4 (for $1.75), but 2 (fro $1.00) would have been adequate. It was missing the creamy coleslaw and pickle. My burger was served on a Portugese roll (they didn't offer me a choice between this and the wheat roll).

I also had a homemade "salt" lemonade for $2.75...true to the name it was salty! Too salty for me.

But I balanced it out with a Lemon Meringue tart for $3.50 which was perfection! The tart was nice and flaky, the lemon filling was slightly tart and sweet and the meringue was lightly browned.

Alexis Diner

Located off in NYC's Orange County Interstate 84 in Newburgh at 2025 Route 9W this is your typical diner with a vast menu.

For breakfast I had a belgian waffle with bacon ($7.75) and hot chocolate.

NYC Food Film Festival

Last night "C" and I attended the free Festival at the Water Taxi Beach in LIC, Queens, NY.

We watched several short films and received complimentary tastes of the foods featured in the films:

- Jarlsberg cheese

- pig ear sandwich (very fatty)

- smoked ground pork sandwich (tasty)

- french fries with ketchup (nothing special)

- coriander bacon with mustard on toast (tasty)

- all natural 4 ingredient sodas: vanilla bean, juniperberry, rhubarb, lemongrass (not very flavorful)

- ice cream: cabernet, spicy peanut, chocolate chip pancake, banana nut chocolate (very good, rich and decadent)

The tastes were far and few between (plus the audience would descend like locusts upon the servers as soon as they appeared with trays of food) so in order not to be trampled we supplemented the night with a hot dog each ($3).

It was a fun night to be outside watching short films about food while eating food.

Zaro's Scone

...I picked up this giant mixed berry scone at Zaro's in NYC's Penn Station for only $2.25. It was huge and full of berries.

The City Bakery

...is located in NYC's Flatiron District at 3 West 18th Street.

I stopped by for a sugar fix and had a chocolate chip cookie ($2.50). This really shouldn't be called "chip" because there were slabs of chocolate throughout this giant cookie. Yum...

Forever 21 Times Square

Now tourists will be able to see a Broadway show and buy affordable fashion!

Pizza

Bravo Pizza is located on Broadway near 38th Street (and NYC's Times Square and Garment District area). For a quick lunch on the go pizza is always a good option.

I had the chicken cutlet pizza ($3.50). The crust was not as dense as sicilian pizza. It was light and area similar to foccaccia.

Macaron

I went back to one of my favorite cafes in NYC's Garment District - Macaron on W. 36th Street.

I had the Paris sandwich - ham, gruyere cheese, lettuce, cornichon and mayonaise on a crusty french baguette ($7.50). They went a little too heavy on the mayo today.

And, of course, I had to have some macarons! I tried the Nutella, Wedding Almonds and Coconut today ($1.95/each). The coconut was my favorite.