NYC: Madison Square Eats

About 2 weeks before our NYC trip, I saw a post on Facebook about Madison Square Eats and how it's going from May 1st - May 28th. Sweet! We were gonna be there for it's last weekend! It's a semi-annual culinary pop-up market. The fall installment is from Sept 4th - Oct 1st. It's meant to be, we gotta go check it out!

Madison Square Park
May 1 - May 28, 11AM-9PM Daily
http://urbanspacenyc.com/mad-sq-eats/

We went for an early lunch on Friday. My fiance's sister had taken the day off to hang out with us. Yay! So she met us there. It's just a small area by Madison Square Park but cute and bustling with people already. And just so happens it was like the sunniest day ever. Got hot really quick!

It reminded me of Smorgasburg (which we went to on Saturday) but just smaller. We did a quick look around and scoped out where we wanted to eat at. And then split up so we can save time.

Mexicue
Blackened Brussels Sprouts $4~ I freaking love Brussels Sprouts so I had to get these. It was kind of a let down. They were soggy and a bit too salty. I've definitely had better.

 

Arnold Palmero (lemonade/iced tea) $3~ I also decided to get a drink since it was so hot. This was yummy. I love a good Arnold Palmer. :)

Roberta's
Margherita Pizza (tomato, basil, mozzarella) $9~ Plus Speck +$2~ 

Everyone I mentioned Madison Square Eats to, told me to get Roberta's. So I guess we've gotta try it! A peronal size pizza, thin crust. After you place the order, it takes about 10 minutes before pickup. They had their mobile oven there making pies to order. It was good, a little too salty though. The crust was nice. Wasn't blown away.

The Cannibal
Pig Head Cuban $12~ 

 

 

Oh man... that pig head goooood!! It was a good sized Cuban. At first we weren't too impressed but the more I ate the more I liked it. I got a big bite with a lot of the pig head and it was amazing!! Uber tender, so full of flavor. I think this was my favorite of the day.

Sigmund's
Reuben (Corned beef, kraut, gruyer, mustard). 

Not sure how much this was, but considering the average prices at Mad Sq Eats, I'd guess $9-11 or so. Huge chunks of corned beef. Sooooo juicy. And the pretzel bun was an excellent touch. A close number 2 in my opinion. Yummy.

Melt
Crackly Chocolate Cookies + Malted Chocolate Rum Ice Cream Sandwich $4~ 

 

As we were finishing up, I said "there's an ice cream sandwich place!" They had a cute display of the available flavors on the cart. We all decided to just get one and share. It was a good sized sammich. And frozen well. The texture of the cookie was still chewy and slightly soft. It's not light biting into a brick. And the cookie held up to the ice cream really well. None of the ice cream squished out when you bit down on it. That's always a good sign! Especially when you are standing and eating. The cookie is definitely crackly! NOMS! I'd totally eat their ice cream sandwiches again.

I'd say a pretty good start to our Friday. We weren't overly stuffed. Which is good, cuz... we're headed towards more food in just a bit! haha.

Make sure you go check out their fall event starting September 4th!!

Mexicue:

Roberta's:

The Cannibal:

Sigmund's:

Melt:

Overall Experience:

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

ZaLat Pizza

My friends had a baby shower at DaLat mid last month. (She just gave birth last week! Congrats to them!) The owner of DaLat is one of their relatives so he hosted/catered. Which is awesome because I finally get to try some ZaLat pizza!

 

ZaLat
2519 N. Fitzhugh Avenue
Dallas, TX 75204
(469) 573-2007 (Text for orders)
https://www.zalatpizza.com/
Price: $$-$$$

So... same owner, obviously. ZaLat is his latest venture, just next door to DaLat. It's a take-out or delivery only pizza joint. But if you want to take it over to DaLat and enjoy it with some drinks, you can do that too. It is open daily from 4PM to 4AM. You text your orders to them along with the payment and then get ready for some amazing pizzas!!

Check out their website before you order. They have a template on how you should structure your text order for maximum efficiency!

I liked the food at the baby shower so much I decided to order a pizza of my own and take it home to my fiance. (He had to work that weekend. booo.)

Reuben (corned beef, salami, sauerkraut, mozzarella, swiss cheese, chives, thousand island sauce) 18" $18.99~ 

 

I've heard this is a very popular choice. I was able to get the last slice at the baby shower. It was already cold by then but still really good. It didn't take long at all before they texted me back to say the order is ready. OMG... the pizza smelled FREAKING amazing! I had to take a bite before I drove home. haha. Sooooooo good. And so different than any other pizza I've had. The crust had great texture. The toppings were well distributed on the pie. And my fiance loved it. I only ate a slice and he ate the rest. hahaha.

I need to go back and try some other ones. They have an "Elotes" pizza that's not on the menu! Doesn't that sound fantastic?!?!? GO GET YOU SOME!

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Fritzl's Euro Grill & Dessert Shop

It's been a crazy month... work was insane, and then I've been sick. Stupid virus, I've been out of commission for almost a week now. Definitely not digging the indecisive weather of Texas. Hot, cold, hot, cold...no wonder I've been sick twice this year already. But enough weather griping... I've still had some good food outings!

Earlier this month, we discovered another new (to us) hidden gem in Rowlett. Seems like we gotta explore Rowlett more thoroughly!

Trying to figure out where to go for dinner on a Friday night, I pulled out my trusty Yelp app. And found a Austrian hole in the wall.

Fritzl's Euro Grill & Dessert Shop
3390 Lakeview Pkwy.
Rowlett, TX 75088
(972) 412-3555
http://fritzls.com
Price: $$

We didn't call ahead or anything. Neither of us really thought there would be an issue getting a seat. Man we were wrong. It's a pretty small place and there were already 2 parties waiting in front of us. Business is booming! And looked like they were pretty short staffed. Just a waitress at the front, and a guy, I'm assuming Fritzl, manning the kitchen. He also came out to take some orders.

One group got seated, and they vacated the small bar countertop. So we plopped ourselves down to wait. Then I asked my fiance if he's ok with just eating at the bar since it doesn't seem like anything is going to open up any time soon. The place was a madhouse! The waitress is trying to get to every table as fast as she can. They ran out of menus so we had to wait for some. But wasn't a big deal for us. This is definitely a hole in the wall, and very eclectic in its decor. Random signage, pictures and lots and lots of signed dollar bills covered the walls. It was quite entertaining trying to read everything.

While waiting for the waitress, we got Fritzl's attention and asked if we could eat at the bar. No problem, he said and found some menus for us. He was running around like a crazy person. Got us some waters and zoom, he was off to the kitchen again. He seems like he's a fun person to talk to when it's not too busy in the restaurant, but they were just hauling ass that night.

I haven't had much Austrian/German food in my life. I think this may be the first real Austrian restaurant I've ever been to...and so far it seems pretty legit, since the owner is Austrian (or German...I wonder if they get offended if you called them the other??).

I ordered the House specialty: Wiener Jaeger (Wiener Schnitzel stacked and covered with Jaeger sauce - cognac, mushroom cream sauce with garlic) Half $13.99~ All Schnitzel dinners are served with Austrian roasted potatoes and sauerkraut. Red Cabbage or Spaetzle can be subbed for $0.50 extra. A Schnitzel is a tenderized and seasoned piece of porkloin, breaded and fried. And I subbed for both the cabbage and spaetzle. 

I've never had real spaetzle, but always wanted to try ever since I saw some people make it on Chopped (a cooking competition show on Food Network, for those who didn't know). hehe. And he said I lucked out because that was the last serving of spaetzle for the night! Wow...it wasn't even 8pm yet, and he was already starting to run out of things. It was delicious. The pork was thin and fried well. I totally loved the sauce... boozy, creamy and with mushrooms? What's not to like?! Spaetzle is basically fried dough... reminded me of unsweetened funnel cake maybe? Was a little salty for me but paired well with the pork. I liked the cabbage too. Everything went together very well.

Bratwurst Dinner (two grilled bratwurst) $12.99~ Served with Austrian roasted potatoes and sauerkraut. 

My fiance loved his dish. I found the bratwurst to be a tad salty for my preference but it was still tasty. I loved the potatoes. I've never been a big fan of sauerkraut, but I was ok with this one. He totally cleaned his plate... actually we both cleaned our plates. Hit the spot, he says.

When you walk in, you see a dessert display case lit up in the middle of the room. Naturally I gravitated towards that while we were waiting. All the cakes and pastries (they have homemade strudels!) looked amazing, but I noticed one cake that was unfamiliar to me. One of the customers said it was an Austrian cheesecake, and it's light and fluffy. Sounds yummy.

We decided to get an Austrian Cheesecake $7?~ 

 

Fritzl told us all the pastries were made by him from scratch (as well as all the food). Impressive. So far we've loved everything. The cake was FREAKING AMAZING!! It had flavors of lemon and poppy seeds and was so light and fluffy...the cake layers AND the cheesecake center. We fought each other for bites of the cake. And then we decided to get another slice to take home. hehe. 

When we were finishing up our cake, we noticed that they were doing the dessert service part of the evening. Plates and plates of cakes were lined up and they were doing an assembly line type process for efficiency. Plates and plates of desserts were served as we saw all the cakes were quickly disappearing before us. I'm glad we got a second piece before they were all gone!

While we were waiting for the check. A group walked in and Fritzl had to tell them they were sold out of food for the entire night. Wow... This was before 9PM. Crazy! I think we may need to go on a week night in the future, or just go super early!

Needless to say, it was a great find. And I think I can safely say it's authentic. We will definitely be back. And save room for more desserts!

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~