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La Sirene is French Genius

My visit to La Sirene had been a long time coming. Last year, Gao Di intended to take me there for my birthday but we neglected to look up the address and decided to stop walking west any further. Big mistake! This year we did my birthday right by finally going to this amazing French restaurant. This is hands down one of the best meals I’ve had in NYC. Now to the food run-down.

We started our meal off with the Tartelette de Chevre Frais – a Goat Cheese Tart with Shallots ,Truffles, Grape and a Veil of 90 days Aged Swiss Cheese, a signature La Sirene dish. This was arguably my favorite part of the experience. This goat cheese tart is hard to comprehend. Topped with swiss cheese, this combination of cheese flavor and textures is one of the most delicious things I have ever had. So delicious that it deserved two photos. Yum!

La Sirene is also known for their mussels, they have four types to choose from! We went with the Moules Rochelaises Originated from La Rochelle - Steamed mussels with curry, diced apples, and light cream. This light creamy curry sauce gave the mussels a really rich flavor.

For an entree I got the Kassulet Toulousain de la Maison, a Cassoulet with Cannellini Beans, tomato, Garlic Duck Confit, Slab Bacon & Pork sausage all Braised with Noble Duck Fat. The menu’s note  reads, “Yummy but GREASY!! It was created for Warriors to defend the City! Don’t take it if you can’t bear it ”

Like the note says, this meal is insanely greasy but it is pretty awesome. The duck confit is super tender and the pork products all taste amazing from being submerged in duck fat. The cassoulet has a LOT of beans. I’m not sure if I would get this again, it was delicious and worth it – I like to think of myself as a warrior, but I just don’t know if I can handle that grease and all those beans again! Delicious, but there are other things on the menu I want to try.

Gao Di ordered the Tournedos Rossini, Seared Filet Mignon Over Bread Toasted With Foie Gras, Shallots, Port & Red Wine Truffles Sauce, and this was definitely my next favorite thing from the goat cheese tart. This filet mignon’s texture was pretty insane. The sauce and meat together was a beautiful combination of flavors. This meal came with a side of four pureed vegetables – mmm, perfect accompaniment to the filet mignon.

Although we were sufficiently stuffed, we decided dessert was necessary to make the birthday experience complete. We rounded out the meal with La Sirene’s Big Profiteroles au “Bittersweet” Chocolat. Profiteroles are usually small and filled with some kind of cream. La Sirene does their profiteroles to a grand scale – filled with ICE CREAM and covered in a Hot Callebaut Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce – this is an amazing dessert. They really don’t skimp you here, these large profiteroles are easily shareable.

Like I said, La Sirene really has to be one of my best restaurant experiences. I love its small unpretentious environment – the waitresses are super friendly and give great suggestions! While on the pricy side, La Sirene is also BYOB and they don’t charge you a cork fee and are happy to pop open your beers. This way you know you’re spending your money on amazing FOOD and not blowing it on a $10 Kronenberg. This restaurant is amazing and I will be back when I’m ready to splurge again. Do yourself a favor and treat yourself one weekend to an amazing meal at La Sirene.

La Sirene is located at 558 Broome St and Varick St

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Calexico Carne Asada – Soho Mexican Food Cart

There’s a lot of hype surrounding the Calexico Carne Asada and I’ve been meaning to go here for a while, but the cart in Soho is only open Monday through Friday, 11:30am to 4:30pm. Last week I finally had the opportunity to check out the Calexico Cart.

I love places with small menus and Calexico offers four different meals available in taco, burrito (or burrito bowl), or ‘rolled quesadilla’ format. We opted for Calexico’s namesake, the Carne Asada, in a burrito bowl and their special of the day, Chili Verde Pulled Pork in a burrito. The pulled pork burrito was tasty but a little uninteresting. The pulled pork seemed a little dry and plain but I will try the Chipotle Pork next time which looks a little more promising. Anyway, on to the real deal of awesomeness…

Calexico’s Carne Asada is sooooo good. Delicious perfectly grilled skirt steak is accompanied quite nicely by rice, beans, cheese, pico de gallo, and avocado crema (creamy guacamole). Squeeze that lime over the whole thing to complete the blast of flavor and Calexico definitely lives up to the hype. Look at that picture – YUM. I only wish they gave you utensils.

The Calexico Carne Asada cart can be found M-F during lunch hours at the corner of Wooster & Prince St.

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Soho Sandwich Delight at Alidoro

I have been meaning to come to this place since moving to the ‘hood. My co-worker told me that Alidoro has delicious sandwiches…and they do. Alidoro is a small Italian sandwich shop in Soho right on Sullivan and has some tasty offerings. I’ve read from some reviews that the service here was lackluster, but who needs service when you get an amazingly fresh sandwich. We got our sandwiches to-go, but from looking around there were just a few places to sit and it seemed pleasant enough.

We tried the Michelangelo and the Zampano, their components were perfect. The Michelangelo has an awesome helping of prosciutto along with provolone cheese, arugula, hot peppers and amazing dressing. This sandwich was so good. I watched him slice the prosciutto right in front of me and it tasted so, so fresh. This simple sandwich was a blast of flavor…. mm hot peppers and the dressing was so good. $10.50

The Zampano consists of smoked mozzarella, caponata of eggplant, arugula and dressing. Another sandwich of few ingredients and still, so delicious. The smoked mozzarella was perfect. $9.50 Apologies for the blurry photo.

Alidoro has some of the best sandwiches I’ve had in the city and the pricing’s not too bad for a premium sandwich. Now that I’ve experienced the glory I am eager to go back and try some of the other sandwiches, but I must say, the Michelangelo, with such amazing prosciutto, has already captured my heart and it will be hard not to order the same thing again.

Alidoro is located at 105 Sullivan St. btwn Prince & Spring

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Ah, Snow in Soho

I love a good snow and New York hasn’t had one in a while. Was lucky enough to enjoy it last night before all the plowing in the early morning.