NYC Food Film Festival

The 3rd annual NYC Food Film festival was super fun! Last nights showing included a fascinating film about food distribution in NYC and a short about a guy who eats an extremely impressive amount of deep fried fair food.
The weather held up for us at the South St Seaport Water Taxi Beach and though there was not enough seating for everyone, I arrived early and got comfy at a picnic table so I was a happy camper.

The staff did an excellent job with the free food. Free food events have tendencies to get crazy and leave people angry and hungry, but here that was not the case. Hundreds of fried cheese curds were generously passed around and they were more delicious than you can even imagine in your head right now. Corn dogs were corn dogs, meaning good but not divine. Later on the clam pie came out, imported straight from the town in which the related short film featured. Delish mush of buttery crust and clam.

Drinks were not free, and were interesting... I felt like each drink was almost very good, but had something slightly off.

I was highly entertained and stuffed full of fried food by the end of the night, so great success here. Financier patisserie supplied tiny little buttery yum cookies. And we even got a parting prize of useful lunch bags filled with crapola and some Pop chips.

Chez Napolean

Chez Napolean is tiny, eclectically decorated, and a bit romantic. They churn out a long menu of legit French dishes. Entrees average $24, a full meal here is not going to be super cheap. For me, the service kinda feels like you are a guest in the home of a French matriarch who is stern but has a heart of gold.


I am a sucker for garlicky escargot, and tend to order it when I see it. Here 6 of them came in individual little ceramic containers.

My entree, canard a l'orange, was really delicious. Thee duck was moist on the inside with just a hint of orange flavor and the outside was crisp and glazed with the orange sauce. Normally I am not a huge fan of orange and meat, but it definitely was done right here. It came with a nice helping of wild rice.

I ate a lot of the bread that came at our table during the longish wait for our food and I knew I had to save room for dessert so I took practically half of my main dish home and it made for a hearty breakfast.

Make sure to order your dessert souffle at the beginning of the meal to give it time to be made fresh. Ours came with a booze filled grand marnier sauce, that only added to the major wine buzz I had going on.

A much better French dining experience than the neighboring Tout va Bien.


365 W 50th

Dolla Breakfast Makeover

I would be lying if I said this was the first time I got the 99cent breakfast from Papaya Dog. It comes with two eggs (cooked how you like it for the most part), two pieces of buttered toast (either white or wheat), and hashbrowns that have been generously coated with some kind of oil out of a squeeze bottle. Its not really delicious. But it is 99cents and you will not be hungry until lunch time. Why is this Papaya Dog breakfast different from all other Papaya Dog breakfasts? Because I asked them to slop on some of the onion goo meant for the hot dog. Now there is actually some tastiness going on and they didn't charge me extra. Try it out.