Culinary Explorations: On the Road Again to Connecticut and New York City

On the way to New York City, we stopped off at this diner for lunch. A relative had mentioned this place and said it was good. The place was busy and bustling with many ready and waiting to dig in with the vegetarian and multifaceted entrees. The menu had breakfast items, waffles, pancakes, bagels, omelets, clubs, vegan delights, burgers, eclectic entrees from all over the world as well as wraps and salad, starters, pasta, roasts , seafood and sauteed entrees all at reasonable prices. Desserts, ice creams, rounded out the menu.

I did not want to eat a lot so my mother and I shared the interesting huge offering of Twin Towers, vegetable strudel with seasoned vegetables rolled in a phyllo dough. Crispy, delicious and tasty, it was perfectly baked.

My sister had the protein cake like seductive tempeh reuben. I had heard of tempeh before but never had it.http://www.tempeh.info/
I took a bite of her sandwich. It was sliced and fried crisp and golden brown



It tasted very much like fried eggplant. This entree came with a wild rice cake, sauerkraut and maple mustard to give it a different intermingling flavor on grilled rye. It also came with a nice dark bean chili which has a nice smoky taste.

Then on to New York City where we stayed in a Bed & Breakfast near Natural History Museum and Central Park.
We hit fantastic Zabar's twice for savory knishes, crunchy olive bread, and more to snack in the Bed and breakfast near Central Park. Offerings include foi groi the gooseliver pate ($100) to other itemshttp://www.zabars.com/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/zabars-new-york










Then in the morning we hit this well known establishment. Supposedly mobbed at breakfast, we were able to find a nice table for brunch. Once again my son and daughter have good taste!
Supposedly this remarkable nice looking eatery, started out as a catering business and selling their remarkable apricot jam marmalades.

Sarabeth branched out and the result is a very nice restaurant with a remarkable list of delicious offerings for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

We settled down to decide what to eat. While the rest of my family zoned in on breakfast items, I had my on an innovative looking, sounding and hopefully delicious warm berry bread pudding (which I love and heard was good).


Now I am not much about plating, but wasn't this gorgeous looking! I let everyone sample some and then I dug in.

The bread pudding was sublime. The berry bread pudding was very creamy, The little "sprits" of strawberry puree amidst the vanilla bean sauce was divine. At $8.50, it was not cheap but this heavenly desert hit the spot for me and carried me through the rest of of the day. I was looking for something extra special and this was it. I don't usually go for dessert, let alone brunch but this was a winner as well as the other dishes.
The rest of my family had Spinach and Goat Cheese omelette and the Gruyere Cheese White Cheese Omelettes. They were savory and cooked perfectly. We could also then try some of the excellent marmalade signature jam.
After that we bought more from Zabar's to snack on the way and stopped off at a Dairy Queen on the way back before returning to Providence. I will be back in New York City May 21. More then. (if you have reactions, ideas etc to any of these or other posts or you have ideas about where to head to when we come back to NYC, post a comment! I want to try an ethnic restaurant if we can.