Essex Restaurant and Sugar Sweet Sunshine Cupcakes

So a couple of you readers can tell by my blog that I always seek out good deals (read: poor and frugal) ... Some of my readers that actually know me in real life and are probably students much like me. With my graduate student stipend going up slower than inflation, my pay is less and less every year, so going out to a decent dinner, much less any dinner is a stretch for me considering I'm saving to attend at least two destination weddings next year (so far), one of which I'm a bridesmaid in. But eating at home gets pretty boring ... Come on, let's be honest, no matter how many different recipes we try from different countries, it kinda all tastes like my cooking! I can make Italian or Japanese, and it tastes like my cooking ... Ha ha! Even my boyfriend admits if I gave a bunch of my friends a recipe, and we all made the same thing, he would be able to tell which one I cooked ...

So anyways, the point to this little speech is ... I DO go out to dinner sometimes. I love eating out. I love the atmosphere of it. It doesn't hurt that I don't have to do a sinkful of dishes either! I hate dishes!

One of my favorite little outings is one I do with my very close friend from graduate school (well, she's actually a postdoc). We hike all the way down to the LES, which is a good 45 minute to one hour train ride from my lab. First we hit Sugar Sweet Sunshine for the best cupcakes in NYC. Oh, please don't tell me you're a fan of the dry cupcakes at Magnolia! And then Essex Restaurant.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine is a little bake shop in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC. Their decor is just so warm and inviting with comfy couches and little tables. But their real draw is their super moist cupcakes. My all-time favorite is their Pistachio cupcake. I can just order 4 of these for a full box and be happy! My second favorite is their pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese frosting. And then its the Sexy Red Velvet with their "the Moose" frosting. Though sometimes their Red Velvet is a bit dry. One of my other school friends likes the Lemon Yummy. Sometimes I'm in the mood for their yellow cake. Their frostings aren't as buttery as Magnolia, but the cake is way moister plus there are more flavors to choose from. BTW, if anyone has an awesome moist recipe for pistachio cupcakes, please let me know. I've seen a couple recipes, maybe I should actually try one. I even bought a box of pistachio pudding mix to try one, but never got around to it ...

Next we hit Essex Restaurant for dinner. Actually, we just order cupcakes, not eat them, and then have them for dessert after Essex. Why do I love Essex so much? Why do I travel one hour on the train to get all the way down here just to eat here? First of all, they have this unreal $16 lobster deal on Wednesdays. A lobster with two sides for $16! They have other daily specials including $1 oysters (Mon and Th) and unlimited mussels $16 (Wed).

Then there's the fact they have happy hour with half priced drinks from 6-9pm Monday through Thursday. So I can get a Stoli tonic or decent glass of wine for only $5! And, to top it off, if I'm I decide to go Sunday through Tuesday for dinner, I can use Restaurant.com to get a $25 Gift certificate (must spend at least $35 on food) there for only $10. But generally they have a discount code. So currently its 70% off, so you can get a $25 Gift Certificate for $3. So if you calculate this out, you can get a $35 for only $13! Plus whatever drinks you decide to have. Its a great deal. Just so you know, Restaurant.com also has GC to other restaurants, but sometimes they don't let you use them. I think restaurants use it as a ploy to get you in the door and then you're too embarrassed to leave, so you just end up eating there. So, If I were you, I'd call before you buy the certificate, because this has happened to me twice already. I've never had a problem at Essex Restaurant. The only thing is you can not use the gift certificate/coupon for their daily specials, which means you can't use it for the $16 lobster deal.

As for recommendations at Essex other than their lobster deal:
Appetizers
warm goat cheese salad with roasted beets, walnuts & arugala $7
fried calamari with habañero-avocado dip $8
jumbo lump crabcake over hearts of palm salad $10
braised short ribs & polenta in a porcini mushroom sauce $11
Entrees
herbed Colorado lamb chops over sautéed spinach & ricotta gnocchi $21
manchego macaroni & cheese with edamame, haricot vert & citrus salad $12



Sugar Sweet Sunshine
126 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002-2300
(212) 995-1960

Essex Restaurant
120 Essex Street
New York, NY 10002-3211
(212) 533-9616

Butter~~~~ (NYC Butter Sale)

Let's be honest, I love butter. Not just love, but LOVE!!! butter. (I sound like Paula Deen don't I?) Its the MSG of real chefs, it really does make food taste better! As Anthony Bourdain mentions in his book Kitchen Confidential, to make your food taste and look like restaurant quality, use such ingredients as shallots, garlic, fresh herbs, garnish your plate, and use BUTTER! He even says that Italian chefs throw butter into their marinara! Believe me, I tried it ... butter makes your marinara taste better. It mellows out the acidity in marinara, I was quite amazed ... and converted!

Okay another confession ... Being a poor starving student, I am very careful with my money. People can call me frugal. But you try living off my grad student stipend, in NYC, while still wanting to go out and party with your friends, or your BF's friends, who have real jobs that make real money!

Borrowed from: "Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
www.phdcomics.com

My family didn't raise me to be in debt. Its just against my nature. I'll be in my mid 30s when I finish grad school, who wants to crawl out of debt at that age? I walk over a mile one way to work to save subway fare (unless its raining or I'm very late), cuz it seriously cuts into my budget. So how do I eat the way I do? Honestly, I watch the supermarket sales, and stock up when prices are down. I don't coupon cuz New York Times weekend edition is $4, I'm not sure if I'll get enough coupons to recover my losses, so if you know of other newspapers in NYC that you can get coupons for cheaper, let me know! Anyways, so butter, my love, when its on sale in NYC, its $1.99 a pound, sometimes $1.79, and the cheapest I've seen it, but only once, $1.49. Its not the good stuff like Purga ... But for everyday cooking, buttering the pan for eggs or chocolate chips cookies, generic butter is fine. Though I guess if you want really good butter for cheaper, you can shake heavy cream until it makes butter ... or "overwhip it" in your KitchenAid Mixer.

Time to stock up on butter for all that Holiday baking and cooking! Just throw it in your freezer to keep it fresh if you decide to stock up!

Butter is currently on sale at the following stores in NYC for $1.99 a pound.
The Met Supermarket until Saturday, November 7, 2009
C-Town Supermarket until Thursday, November 5, 2009
Morton Williams Supermarket until Thursday, November 5, 2009

NYC UWS Oyster Deal

So I guess everyone's figured out I live in the UWS (New York City). This is why I keep mentioning different groceries stores in this area ... Well, being a hard working graduate student, or the fact my boss chains us to our benches, ... I don't get out of this area very much. Not that I have to ... UWS has everything. Cheap bars, great grocery stores, and awesome dining deals. One that I am yet to try ... is Puddingstones UWS $11 oyster deal on Thursdays nights. Its half a dozen oysters with a glass of champagne. Not too bad ... I can probably do one or two ...