Food Adventure: Chinese banquet

Forestview Chinese Restaurant

468 Dundas St. W.

What's a foodie do with a random Saturday night? Why, randomly attend a Chinese banquet, in honour of, well, discerning was difficult, but I think it may have been the beginning of spring? Well, maybe in China. Who cares? It was so much fun and 10 courses for $25, including tax and tip.

U.S. Thanksgiving dinner at DBGB

The rustic open shelves display the copper pots used by famous chefs around the world

DBGB is chef Daniel Boulud's more casual of his renowned NYC restos. Named after the now shuttered CBGB, the soundtrack pay homage to the punky musical roots of its Bowery neighbourhood. A $60 prix fixe was well worth the price tag, and offered a lot of choice, considering it was Thanksgiving.

NYC Eats: Lunch at Tasty hand-pulled noodles Inc.

Why it is is "Inc" I can't say. I doubt this tasty hole in the wall is incorporated.

For lunch on our first day, I had remembered a noodle place that chef Guy Fieri described as the Best Thing (He) Ever Ate--- in a bowl. Tasty hand-pulled noodles is in a back alley (1 Doyers St) in Chinatown. It was a little crowded, and not the classiest--- and there's a bit of a strange smell in the air. But by the end of our meal (which cost about $30 for four of us), the only thing I was disappointed about was the fact that I did not get to see the cooks actually hand pull the noodles.

Eating my way through NYC

This is my mom posing very cheesily, reading Mario Batali's latest cookbook, in his restaurant. Grrroan.

For my mom's 60th birthday, we decided to do a good ol' fashioned family trip ---to New York. Going with parents is very different from my last trip there with girlfriends (i.e. far less shopping), we did all the typical tourist-y stuff, including the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, Staten Island Ferry (with $3 beers!) and a Broadway show.

But I also got to be in charge of where we'd eat.

And we had some amazing food --from cheap and delicious homemade dumplings in Chinatown, to Thanksgiving at one of Daniel Bouland's restaurants, lunch at one of Mario Batali's and possibly the best mac and cheese I ever ate!