So Cheesy

And the winner for best comfort food is... Peanut Butter and Jelly? Khichdi Kahdi? Nope.

The absolute best comfort food has got to be good ol’ fashioned mac n’cheese. Which is S’Mac in New York’s East Village is the best thing to ever happen on planet Earth.

Owner, chef and desi girl, Sarita Ekya was all ready to pursue a career in biomedical engineering, when she realized what the world really needed was not another engineer but more macaroni and cheese.

At S’Mac (“S” being short for Sarita), she whips up a variety of tasty delights including the 4 Cheese, Manchego, Goat Cheese, and Cajun. Deeeeeeelish!!!!!

Our stomachs thank her.

S’Mac, 345 East 12^th Street, New York. Tel: 212.358.7912.

www.smacnyc.com

Ski You Later

I hate midtown New York as much as the next person. Lame-o tourists, excessively, bright neon lights, and some dude trying to get me to go to a comedy show, is not my idea of a good time. Thankfully there’s finally a respite from hell known as midtown. Aspen Social Club is a comfy Colorado ski lodge right in the art of the Big Apple.

The themed bar is located in hotelier extraordinaire Vikram Chatwal’s new hotel Stay. Frankly, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to stay anywhere near Times Square, but I digress.

The rugged menu features such Rocky Mountain favorites as Elk Sausage Cranberry Compote, Trout Taco, Colorado Lamb Lollipops, and a tribute to former Aspen denizen, Hunter S. Thompson, a shot of Bailey’s topped off with Chivas Regal.

While, I’m definitely not trekking to Times Square just to hang out in a faux ski lodge, the next time I have to take an out-of-town friend/relative to a Broadway play, you know where I’ll be afterwards getting toasted.

Aspen Social Club. 157 West 47^th Street, New York, NY. 212.221.7200 www.aspensocialclub.com
www.stayhotelny.com

Ain't Nuthin But a Dosa Thing

If you haven’t done it already you’re missing out.

We’re talking about NYC’s very own Dosa Man. Dosa Man is out there Mon-Sat from 11-4 in his vendor cart serving up steamy hot dosas to hungry New Yorkers. Our personal fav is the Special Pondicherry Masala Dosa filled with potatoes and veggies.

Dosa Man is so well known for his tasty treats he even has his own review on citysearch, no small feat in a city full of sidewalk vendors. And the best part? It’s all vegan and under $10. Filler up!

For hours and location see www.newyork.citysearch.com

Need more Dosa Man? Read an interview with Dosa Man at Pardon My Hindi. www.pardonmyhindi.com

A Small Package

Good things come in small packages, as the saying goes. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires to count a few. Or maybe they were talking about Graffiti, the recently opened hotspot by Jehangir Mehta.

Although he came from a family of accountants, he followed his passion for food at a young age, eventually studying at the Culinary Institute of America. He went on to hone his skills as a pastry chef at some of the hottest restaurants in New York including Jean-Georges, as well as Vong, Aix, and Sapa. The Bombay bred chef later created the uber delicious Partistry featuring handmade chocolates and teas.

With Graffiti the restaurant, (which by the way is the size of a Manhattan apartment) takes cues from Mehta's flair for edgy creative food and witty sense of humor. Case in point? Watermelon feta salad with mint sorbet, mustard soup, and hot chocolate sprinkled with pop rocks on the menu. Neon colored whisks serve as napkin holders and a handbag featuring a peeping tom is used to point the way to the ladies room.

Introverts be aware. The super tiny restaurant only seats 18 people and seating is communal. Which means your date just might turn into a double date after you're seated.

Menage a trois anyone?

Graffiti, 224 East 10th Street, New York, NY 10003. Tel: 212 677 0695. www.graffitinyc.com Keep posted for Mehta's upcoming book Mantra hitting shelves Spring 08.

Living in a tiffin world

It's 1 pm on a yet another weekday afternoon. As your colleagues start munching on their tuna salads, sushi, or gourmet sandwhiches, your mind drifts off to another world. A world of fresh baked naan, creamy saag paneer, spicy chicken tikka. If you were in India right now, you surely would have called up the dabbawalla and ordered all of your faves.

“It’s not fair!” you cry out. But alas, perhaps you spoke too soon.

Munish Arula, the creator, of Tiffin Store, is here to save you from your lunch doldrums. That’s right, we said tiffin. The tiffin box of yesteryear, this is not. On their online store, you select the day, time, and location of delivery, place your order, and voila, the tiffin is delivered hot and fresh to your door. The online delivery service inspired by the tiffinwhallas of Mumbai, allows the lucky denizens of Philadelphia to choose from box meals (including 2 entrees, rice, pickles, dal and raita), to appetizers, breads, and biryanis.

And the meals are trans-fat free to boot. To say this is genius, might be an understatement.

Now if we could only get gulab jamun with that.

Tiffin Store, 710 Girard Street, Philadelphia, PA, 215.922.1297. www.tiffinstore.com

We All Scream for Ice Cream

Remember on those hot summer days how mom used to pour delicious layers of ambras over vanilla ice cream?

Well those days are long gone. Which is why we're so excited about 5 Boroughs Ice Cream.

Kim and Scott Myles, inspired by the rainbow of diversity that is New York City, created 5 Boroughs Ice Cream. From “Bakla-Wha?!” representing Astoria’s Greek Community, to “Amaretto-Amore” representing Bay Ridge’s Italian roots, the company seeks to pay tribute to the city built as they put it “on mom and pop shops, not Starbucks and Cold Stone”!

The Desi Mecca of New York, Jackson Heights, is represented in the form of Mangodesh, a creamy delicious Mango ice cream weaved with hints of spicy cardamom. The locally owned 5 Boroughs Ice Cream starts all flavors with a 16% butterfat base (yum!) produced by dairy farmers in upstate New York. They then add extras from local vendors, in this case, the Patel Brothers.

Represent.

For more info and locations check their website, 5 Boroughs Ice Cream. For online and out-of-state orders, check out The Ice Cream Cellar

Too Spicy

She’s done it again. Make us drool that is.

Season 3 of the eagerly awaited (for us foodies anyway) Top Chef debuts June 13^th at 10pm on Bravo, with our favorite model-turned-actress-turned-chef, Padma Lakshmi playing hostess with the most-ess.

For those of you who haven’t tuned in yet, Top Chef pits 15 contestants against each other in a series of culinary trials and tribulations eliminating one chef each week, until of course the most awesome TOP CHEF is left standing.

If the idea of people getting heated over who bought the last chili pepper, doesn’t excite you, surely Padma will. After graduating from college, and modeling for the likes of Vogue and Versace, Padma hosted 2 cooking shows, penned a successful cookbook entitled Easy Exotic and became a syndicated columnist for the NY Times. Another pretty face? We think not.

Next up for Padma is another cookbook Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet releasing later this year and a film directed by Deepa Mehta and starring John Abraham entitled "Exclusion" releasing in 2008.

Whet your appetite with a smack down between Seasons 1 and 2 airing June 6^th at 10pm. Then catch the real deal June 13^th at 10pm.

Top Chef, www.bravotv.com/topchef

Padma Lakshmi, Padma Lakshmi