My Foodie Twin's Birthday Brunch

Birthday Brunch at Double Crown then dessert run at Ferrara....
The food at Double Crown was really good!!! *will write about it later but here's the pics**

Happy Birthday Cecille! <3

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Double Crown
316 Bowery
New York, NY 10012
(212) 254-0350
www.doublecrown-nyu.com

Ferrara
195 Grand Street
New York, NY 10013
(212) 226-6150

www.ferraracafe.com

Eat Like Kings In Queens!

Queens Restaurant Week 2008!

Manhattan has it's restaurant week and so does Queens! The 3rd annual restaurant week in Queens runs from September 22-26th, 2008. The event is sponsored by Discover Queens of the Queens Economic Development Corporation. The participating restaurants will offer a 3 course lunch ($25) and dinner ($35). Selected restaurant will be offering a two for $25 or two for $35 on special menus. Check out more details of the participating restaurants from Discover Queens.

Today we went to Woodhaven House, a participating restaurant for Queens Restaurant week, for brunch. Andy and I went there a few times, the food is pretty good and another reason we decided to go there is because we had a restaurant.com coupon! There was a promotion a while ago which was 80% off so we got a $25 coupon for $2! We brought a few coupons and Woodhaven House was one of them. The brunch menu is from open until 3pm on Sundays. It's a Irish pub/restaurant, it's so lively in there and we always see lots of people drinking at the bar and watching sports in morning!
So we had to order $35 min worth of food in order to use the coupon so this is what we ordered:

We started off with a Mimosa, a cocktail like drink composed of champagne or sparkling wine and Orange juice (comes with any brunch order, other drinks available):

Classic Eggs Benedict Canadian Bacon, English Muffin & Hollandaise ($10)-it was very good, the dish came out nice and hot. The English muffin toasted and crispy. I was glad that the ham wasn't dry and chewy like the first time I had it a another diner. The potato were freshly made and seasoned really well.

Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Shaved Parmesan & Herb Croutons ($12)-the chicken was kind of dry but the salad was good. The portion was huge, I was so full from eating 1/2 of it!

Belgium Waffles du Jour Fresh Cream ($9)-the syrup was warm, the fruits were sweet, the waffles was warm and crispy. It was good but it wasn't like the real Belgium-melt in the mouth waffles... yes I know, I was spoiled after eating real Belgium waffles!

We were so full but we still had to order more food because it wasn't enough to use our coupon so we order a chocolate cake with white chocolate moose ($6) to go and ate it after dinner for desert! It was so creamy and delicious! Sorry couldn't get a whole picture of it because we couldn't help ourselves from taking a bite of it!

The whole bill was around $38 and with our $25 coupon we only had to pay $13.01 + $2 coupon we brought + tip! The food portion was big, the food was good, and the discount made everything taste even better! I love paying less for great food! Happy eating....

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Woodhaven House

63-98 Woodhaven Blvd.

Rego Park, NY

718.894.5400

Big Filipino Breakfast:

We couldn’t get enough of Filipino food so we decided to go try out some Filipino breakfast at Ihawan. This is my favorite Filipino restaurant at the 69th street area. The place is really ghetto; the first floor is a small take-out counter and the narrow stairs lead up to the 2nd floor of the dining hall which is right next to a hair salon. You can smell the chemicals when you walk up the stairs but when you sit down to eat, you won’t smell anything because the eating area is far from the salon. What’s so special about this place? I think it’s very cozy, it’s a family run place so everyone is so friendly, the food is awesome especially their bbq on the stick. We usually order alot of food, sometimes even if we know that we won't be able finish everything we'll order it anyway so we can take home!

We never tried their breakfast menu because we never got there early enough to order it. The breakfast menu is served on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from open to 11am. We rushed there (getting there is another story!) and got there at 11:15ish. We asked them if they still serve the menu and they were nice enough to give it to us! They gave us two menus, one with the today’s specials and their breakfast menu:

I didn’t know some of the items on the menu but they were so nice they explained it to us:
Longanisa = Philippine Sausage
Tocino = cured meat product native to the Philipines. It is often in strips, reddish in color and has a sweetish taste.
Daing na Bangus = Milkfish Marinated in Vinegar and Garlic
Tinapa = fish cooked/preserved through the process of smoking

So what did we order? For starters we order my favorite lumpang shanghai and avocado heilo:

It was a little too early for such oily, fried and fatten food but we couldn't help ourselves! It was so good!

I order the # 5 (I change the fish to Tinapa)
1 pork BBQ, 1 piece of Tinapa, 2 eggs and fried rice:

The garlic fried rice was really good, very flavorful with a lot of garlic taste. I broke my poached egg and ate it with the rice, great combination! The bbq pork tasted good but it was a little chewy this time. The Tinapa was awesome! It had a smoky grilled taste, the skin slightly crisp, and the fish meat was kind of creamy.

Andy ordered #1:
1 piece of Daing na Bangus, 1 tocino, 2 eggs and fried rice:

The tocino was sweet and tasted some what like their pork bbq on a stick. The Daing na Bangus was a little too crispy and dry.

This was such a huge breakfast for me sinceI usually eat little or nothing in the morning. I was so full and couldn’t move but it’s all worth it! I can’t wait to go back again to try something else!
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Ihawan
40-06 70th St.
Woodside, NY 11377 nr. Roosevelt Ave.
MTA: 7 Train to 69th Street