What I ate in New York

Now that my Christmas and new year blog posts are done and dusted, I thought it was about time I wrote another blog post about New York.

January feels as if it's dragged on for about a hundred years, and it genuinely feels like a lifetime ago since we experienced the magic of New York during the festive season.

We really love eating (shock horror) so we researched lots of places to eat before we went and plotted all the possibilities on a Trello board. We also added a few must-do-again restaurants to our list after falling in love with a few on our first trip to New York six years ago.

If you know me at all, you'll know that my days are always structured around food whether I'm at home, in work or on holiday. We started every day with a classic American breakfast which usually kept us full until mid afternoon, then we'd have a snack and a hot drink before going out for dinner a few hours later.

After reading the title of this post, I know you all just want see some food photos rather than scrolling through my ramblings. Your wish is my command...



Breakfast 

We ate breakfast at our hotel on the first morning. It was a good breakfast but was very expensive, so we decided to eat at Tick Tock Diner every morning for the rest of our trip. It was only a ten minute walk from our hotel, and we had a bonus view of the Empire State Building from our table if we were given a window seat. The pancakes at Tick Tock Diner are my absolute favourites, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm salivating just thinking about them.

Fast food 

One of the many excellent things about New York is the sheer amount of places where you can eat on the go. There's a huge variety of cuisines to choose from to suit every possible dietary requirement and appetite. Our most difficult decision was figuring out how to try as many places as we possibly could during our trip without over-eating and making ourselves sick.

We discovered a place that sold huge pizza slices for two dollars on our first afternoon so we promptly went there for our first snack of the holiday. Obviously you can't go wrong with a pizza slice for two dollars, so we visited a couple more times before the end of our trip.

We couldn't go to New York without getting a takeaway cheesecake to eat in our hotel room over three days, so we made sure we went to Junior's to get the biggest slice of cheesecake I've ever seen. True to form, it did last three days. 

The next two snacks were absolute must-dos after our last trip. The best hot dog I've ever had from the food court in Grand Central Station, and a giant burrito from Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Lastly on the snack front, no day in my life is complete without a hot chocolate stop. Although we tried to go to coffee shops we wouldn't find in the UK for the most part, I did succumb to a Starbucks one afternoon when I had a sugar low and was freezing cold. 

Dinner 

We'd scouted out all the restaurants we went to for dinner on TripAdvisor beforehand and they definitely lived up to the hype.

My favourite find was Bareburger on 46th St, and we ate here on our first evening and our last evening. If America does one thing really well, it's big fat burgers. And just look at the size of those onion rings! There are lots of sweet potato fries hiding under there too which were equally as delicious. 

After trying Junior's last time we visited New York and rating it as our best meal of the trip, we absolutely had to visit again. The photo makes my meal look a bit beige and bland, but I can promise you that it wasn't. However, I will grudgingly admit that it was far too big for me to eat the entire thing. 

Pure Thai, a little hidden gem on 9th Avenue, was another firm favourite. We would easily have walked past it without a thought if we hadn't looked it up on TripAdvisor. It was a tiny little restaurant with fewer than ten tables so we were lucky to get seated without a booking. The food was so simple but SO TASTY, and the service was fantastic. 

We splashed out on an expensive meal at K Rico Steakhouse, a few doors up from Pure Thai. We had three courses and a couple of glasses of wine, and it was well worth the price. The waiter helpfully warned us that the desserts were big enough to share, so I didn't eat that entire slice of cheesecake myself (just in case you were wondering). 

I well and truly miss New York and its amazing food, and I'm absolutely starving after writing this post. Have I inspired you to try any of these places if/when you visit New York? Let me know! 

Breakfast review: Bill's

Going for breakfast at Bill's has become a little bit of an obsession for us over the last few months.

I've visited Bill's loads of times for lunch and dinner, but we'd never got around to going there for breakfast until the end of May. We were missing our American breakfasts after coming home from Florida with a particular craving for pancakes, and we'd heard that Bill's was a pretty good substitute.

There's a Bill's in Cardiff city centre and in Cardiff Bay, and I've been to both restaurants several times over the last few years. However, when we go to Bill's as a couple, we always go to the one in Cardiff Bay as it's more convenient for us and is set in beautiful surroundings, especially on a sunny day.

On our first visit to Bill's back in May, I ordered the banana, strawberry and blueberry pancakes. You can choose between a 3 stack or a 5 stack, so I opted for the 3 stack to be on the safe side. I've got a hefty appetite but, for some reason, I REALLY struggle to finish all my food when it comes to American pancakes. 

I think you'll agree that this is a very instagrammable breakfast. The pancakes come with a decent helping of Bill's 'pancake syrup', which is basically their own branded maple syrup. The fruit adds the sweetness that's needed to break up the texture of the pancakes, and the whole dish just works perfectly. These pancakes are slightly thinner than their American counterparts which means they're more manageable for me, and I can comfortably clear my plate as long as I order a 3 stack. 

On our second visit to Bill's for breakfast in June, I chose the smoked streaky bacon pancakes. I think I marginally prefer the fruity variety, but that bacon really was cooked to perfection. My only slight issue with the bacon pancakes is that they come with a big dollop of very rich butter as well as the pancake syrup, and this meant the meal felt a little too rich for me towards the end. 

Bill's has plenty of options for breakfast if you don't fancy pancakes, but I don't think I'll ever be able to order anything else just in case I'm disappointed! There are also plenty of beverages on offer including tea, coffee, orange juice and a very tasty apple, carrot and ginger juice. 

Our breakfast usually comes to around £22, and Bill's will also add an optional 10% service charge to your bill. I think this is pretty reasonable for a good quality breakfast, and it's always a lovely experience with great service. We definitely need to plan our next visit soon. 

Have you been to Bill's for breakfast recently? What did you think? 

Top 5 snacks and quick-service restaurants at Walt Disney World

I've been back from holiday for four weeks and I haven't blogged about the food yet. Can you believe it? I certainly can't, so I thought it was about time I rectified this situation.

I'm going to start by blogging about my top 5 snacks and quick-service restaurants on this trip, then I'll blog separately next week about our favourite table service restaurants.

We made good use of our Disney Dining Plan as always (read my quick summary of how it works here), although we did struggle to use all our snack credits this year. It turns out that a table service meal, quick-service meal and two snacks per day is sometimes too much food even for us. However, we spent our remaining snack credits on Ghirardelli chocolate so we felt quite smug about having so many left over.

Brace yourselves for photos of my top 5 snacks...

Mickey-shaped cinnamon bun at Animal Kingdom 

My all-time favourite Disney snack. Churro! 

Giant pink doughnut... I ate this at 9am. 

One of many trips to Beaches & Cream for our ice cream fix

Warm Wild Berry Buckle with pepper-berry gelato from Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival. One of the new things I was determined to try on this trip!  

After seeing the size of the snacks, I'm sure you can understand why we struggled to use up all our snack credits! 

We did well with our quick-service credits and managed to space them out evenly throughout our trip. Quick-service restaurants are ideal when you want a more casual meal which you can eat as quickly or as slowly as you want to, and there really is something to suit everyone. Don't be fooled into thinking you'll get a small portion though... see below! 

These were my five favourites this year: 

We tried Blaze Pizza in Disney Springs for the first time and it was goooood. 

Orange chicken at Lotus Blossom Cafe in Epcot's China pavilion.
I look forward to this every year! 

Another holiday staple for me - Mickey waffles for breakfast at The Artist's Palette 

One of many trips to D-Luxe Burger. BEST BURGERS EVER. 

Colossal breakfast at Be our Guest in the Magic Kingdom 

Are you really hungry now? I definitely am... no change there then. Keep a look out for more mouth-watering photos of food next week!  

A weekend in Milton Keynes

A couple of weekends ago, we travelled to Milton Keynes to visit one of my best friends from university and her husband. They've recently bought their own flat so we were excited about visiting and having a grand tour, as well as making the most of the opportunity for an overdue catch up.

We drove up to Milton Keynes on the Saturday morning and arrived at midday, just in time for lunch! We all walked around the corner to a little independent cafe and passed some very instagrammable architecture on our way there. Fee and Dave's block of flats is next to a canal and the old railway works which means it has some really unique and unconventional surroundings.

When we got to the cafe, everyone else opted for sensible sandwiches but I decided I wanted a sausage, bacon and egg bap because I couldn't stop thinking about it once I'd read it on the menu. It was really really really good... I'd like to think that everyone else secretly had food envy.

After eating our lunch, we went for a wander around the local neighbourhood which included walking alongside the canal and stumbling across lots of tranquil scenery. The weather was surprisingly mild and it was a walk full of picturesque views, certainly very different to the 'concrete' Milton Keynes everyone talks about! 

After walking for half an hour or so, we stopped at the local pub for a drink. We sat outside with our beers and our wines which was a nice change for February, but we were pretty cold by the time we'd finished our drinks as the sun decided to disappear behind a cloud halfway through!

After getting back to Fee and Dave's flat, we settled down and said hello to Fee's hamsters. They're so little and cute and I have no idea why I didn't take a photo of them! In the meantime, Dave was busy cooking in the kitchen and his creation smelt divine...

This was such good food! It consisted of lots of tasty gammon with a homemade onion and mustard sauce, along with all the trimmings. I was ridiculously full after this and even had to turn down dessert. It's rare for me to turn down dessert, believe me. 

After finishing our food, we played Exploding Kittens for an hour or so... don't panic, this isn't as barbaric as it sounds. It's just a very amusing card game which has weird parallels with the much-loved Uno. With all of us being over 30, we started falling asleep at around 12:30am so went off to bed at a fairly decent hour. 

The following morning, we went to the Harvester for breakfast which was lovely as always, although does anyone else get really confused by their breakfast menu options? I can never work out which option gives me the most value for money along with the most food)!

After getting back to the flat, Neil and I said our goodbyes (to the hamsters as well as to Fee and Dave!) and started our long drive back to Cardiff. The roads were quiet so we made it back in just over three hours, and I was in my pyjamas by 5pm. Standard Sunday evening. 

I always love visiting my uni friends, or having them over to visit us, as we don't see each other very often any more due to living in various different areas across the UK. Our weekend in Milton Keynes was no exception, and I definitely need to schedule in some more visits over the next few months.

Have you ever been to Milton Keynes? What did you think of it? 

Food, glorious food (and drink) - Honeymoon style #2

After eating our way around Rome, we moved on to Malcesine in Lake Garda to discover what food and drinks this little town in the north of Italy had to offer. Quite a lot, as it happens.

We operated at a much slower pace in Malcesine which meant that we had more time to enjoy a few afternoon cocktails. I loved the way we were presented with a little bowl of crisps every time we ordered a drink... I have an unhealthy love for crisps.

If it's even possible, I think we ate even more in Malcesine than we did in Rome. Here are some of the delights we enjoyed during our stay:

My first Bellini of the holiday

Sometimes you just can't beat a pepperoni and cheese panini

Hawaiian pizza

I can't remember what this orange cocktail was called,

but it was lovely!

A simple but amazing starter... glorified cheese on toast

with lots of garlic and olive oil 

Spaghetti, chilli and olive oil... what's not to like?

Yes, we had lots of gelato here too... 

Epic pizza slice!

Glass of wine... I love the bubble glass

This was a STARTER. There were about ten mozzarella balls hidden

underneath the eggs and the cheese strips!

Steak and chips. My first ever steak!

Spinach and ricotta calzone

My favourite cocktail of all time. White Russian!

Lovely breakfast hot chocolate at the hotel

Aperol Spritz. Everyone drinks this in Malcesine!

Another epic pizza slice

More meat and cheese

Looks unappetising but this was one of my favourite meals

of the honeymoon... ravioli with smoked cheese and pistachio sauce

Mint mousse dessert with a shot of limoncello

Lunchtime Strawberry Daiquiri! 

Yet another spaghetti bolognese

More wine!

Last dessert in Malcesine... ice cream bomb

Lovely Pina Colada at the hotel bar

My large and varied breakfast on the last morning... 

We were in Malcesine for six days. That's a lot of eating and drinking opportunities, as you can see from the disgusting amount displayed above. I loved every second of it and don't regret a single bite/sip. 

Food and drink was extremely reasonable in Malcesine (2 euros for a huge pizza slice!) and we ate all our meals outside. Usually under some kind of canopy or sun umbrella, but still outside! Such a lovely relaxing place, and perfect for casually eating and drinking all afternoon (and evening). 

I'll be publishing my last instalment in a few days where I reluctantly admit to what I ate and drank in Venice. Watch this space!