Date Night: Madison Square Eats - Flatiron, NY, Wednesday 9/17/2014

Her Take: I had heard about Mad Sq. Eats from two fellow classmates and I've also seen tons of Instagram posts about it, so I KNEW we had to go. Mad Sq Eats takes place in Madison Square Park in Flatiron and there are a BUNCH of food vendors there so you can basically have it all! Finally on a Wednesday, we didn't know what to do so I suggested Mad Sq. Eats after work. It was really a great time; Nicky and I met up around 7:30 and we walked together to Madison Square Park, we saw lights and a bunch of stands and we walked right in. First stand I saw was Roberta's Pizza. PIZZA! I WANTED. so we got that first, a small margherita pie split between the two of us. Then we moved to the next stand, we got Korean tacos. I got the pork taco and Nicky the beef taco. Next I got a pork bun and then a mini rice ball. Yes, I ate more than Nicky.. Then we both got tortas from a Mexican stand, torta means sandwich by the way. Then we walked around and stopped to buy some chocolate to take home and then we saw an empanada stand. WE HAD TO GET THEM. I got the pulled pork empanada and Nicky the Queso empanada. Both were very good but mine was the best ;)
We went around again and decided to spilt a crepe- nutella and banana crepe! it was reallyyyy good. And then I got a Thai Iced Tea Bubble Tea. Afterwards, Nicky got a cinnamon pretzel and we left and sat on a park bench and chatted.
Yea, so I ate like a fat. But I thought it was a fun time! I have to say the best thing I ate was my Pulled Pork Empanada. All the food was different and fun to try and taste! I highly recommend going to Mad Sq Eats! Unfortunately the Mad Sq Eats location was only until October 2nd :(! (sorry it too k so long to get this post up) But Urban Space, the company that runs these park food vendor events, has different locations as well that you should try out! The Garment District Market is running until October 17th!! CHECK IT OUT
It was something different! A different take on date night, and I loved it!

His Take: If you do not know by now, Ariana and I love to eat.  Seriously, we blogged about plenty of food places, so food is our expertise.  Ariana and I were looking for something different, something to really quench our appetites, just one thing would not cut it!  I believe it was Instagram and classmates that led Ariana to Madison Square Eats, and am I glad it did!

So Madison Square Eats, to sum up, was a group of different food vendors kind enough to assemble in Madison Square Park for your eating pleasure!  Perfect thing to satisfy our appetites, all different things!

We started with a personal pie from Roberta's, as expected it was delicious.  Pizza is Ariana's favorite food so we had to start there!  Next up, Korean Tacos, from Soul Lee Korean BBQ.  I got a beef taco and Ariana a pork taco.  The beef itself was good, but the soft taco shell was bluish-purple and was falling apart, a little disappointing but solid.  Ariana's pork taco seemed the same.  On to another Korean place, were we order just a pork bun, which is, you guessed it a slab of park in a bun. Really disappointed in this pork bun, because our last korean pork bun, from Bann (see blog) was amazing, this one could not shine the other bun's shoes!  Next stop, Mexicue, which sounds like heaven, a combination of Mexican and BBQ food.  Ordered 1 of each, the chicken sandwich and the braised beef.  These things were really messy and like sloppy joes, but they were good.  Not great, but good.  Arincini Brother's glad you were up next.  We grabbed an original rice ball, small of course, which I regret, and it was amazing.  Very good.  Finally we reached around the bend, walk passed some stands and found an empanada stand.  I wish I could remember what the name of this stand was because it was by far the best stand we tried.  We got a cheese empanada which wass great but pretty simple, and a spicy pulled pork empanada which was the best thing we had all night.  This pulled pork empanada was absolutely delicious.  We walked around some more and ended up at a Crepe place.  After much debate on which crepe to order, we settled on a nutella bananas, an excellent choice.  Good dessert after the rest of the food.  Next I got a a cinnamon pretzel, glad I did, great pretzel.  We tried to see what else we wanted to try, but ultimately we ended up taking some chocolate babka home and some home made chocolate.  Babka was ok, I tried a bit we brought to my parents, the choclate was really rich and dark.  Oh and they shorted us on some flavors!!!!  Ohh and Ariana got a Thai Iced Tea Bubble Tea, which I do not like, because I do not like those little taro balls.

Madison Square Eats, great job!  The food was all good to great, and I loved the desserts!  Ariana gets the credit for this date, great choice.  Next "pop up" food mart that comes up, I would definitely like to attend, why not try a bunch of different restaurants!

Roberta's Pizza Oven

Korean Tacos

Mexicue Tortas

Arancini Bros

Empandas

Fat

Nutella & Banana Crepe

Thai Iced Tea Bubble Tea & Nicky

Greatest City in the World

Day Date: Popbar - West Village, NY - Sunday 8/17/2014

His Take:  I was watching the Food Network one day, and what I was watching did what the Food Network always does, MAKE ME HUNGRY.  This time they were showing a place called Pop Bar, which serves different flavors of frozen gelato on a popsicle stick.  MMMMMMMMMMM, I mean who does not like gelato?  Lo and behold, PopBar is in New York!  I immediately looked up the location of Pop Bar (Carmine Street in the West Village) and took a screen shot of the place in my phone so that I would 1) remember to tell Ariana and 2) remember where it is when we were going to go.

 

Here we are, Sunday afternoon after a wonderful Sunday dinner (side note: big thing for us Italians!) I met up with Ariana and we decided we wanted to head out for a bit and enjoy the day.  During the week Ariana had remembered that we still had not gone to Pop Bar, so on Sunday I suggested that we did.  And were off to Pop Bar.

 

I have to say I was a little fooled by the show on the Food Network, I thought the place would be much bigger!  But let me tell you, size does not matter, especially when it comes to Pop Bar.  As we were walking in a family was walking out and the Father saw us peeking in and said “it is delicious, you should definitely get one.”  Walking in staring at the display off all the flavors my eyes were immediately drawn to one, PEANUT BUTTER.  Peanut Butter gelato, I never had it before but it sounds perfect to me, I love peanut butter.  Off to the dipping station, where they can dip your frozen gelato in, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate amongst other things, me I prefer white chocolate to it all, so peanut butter dipped in white chocolate is already two for two in my book.  Now onto the toppings, they have various toppings they will coat your frozen gelato in, mostly nuts, but caramel corn is the one I chose.  Thankfully I did because it was heavenly and my frozen peanut butter gelato, dipped in white chocolate, coated in caramel corn, tasted absolutely amazing.  Just reread that again, my mouth is watering thinking about it.  Ariana got pistachio gelato, dipped in white chocolate, covered with hazelnuts, good yes, but it could not hold a candle to mine!  We sat on the bench right outside and I marveled over how delicious my pop was from Pop Bar.

 

Cannot wait to take another leisurely trip to Pop Bar.  Walk right in pick from one of the many flavors of frozen gelato, but don’t stop there, dip it in something and finish it off with a topping!  Incredibly delicious and who knows maybe next time I will grab two different flavors because pop bar is DELICIOUS!  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

 

Her Take: On Sundays I like to go out. Do nice day things, take walks, go to the city and take in the scenery. I like to enjoy the day because on Sundays, we eat dinner at 1:30, so I have the rest of the day free! This Sunday, like every Sunday, Nicky was coming over, but this time he was in the mood to do something so we said POPBAR! 

We've been wanting to go and never got the chance to, so Sunday was the perfect day, it was beautiful out and what else goes hand in hand with a sunny day better than handcrafted GELATO (on a stick)? So we hopped on the train towards the West Village and we must have gotten out of the perfect stairwell cause Pop bar was just up the block on Carmine Street. 

I was surprised at how tiny this spot is, but then again do they need that much space? No! They have a glass "showcase" of all the different flavors of gelato pops and on the side they have 6 dips, 2 batches of each: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, and a handful of toppings. I picked pistachio pop dipped in white chocolate and topped with hazel nuts. It was yummy but Nicky's was DEFINITELY yummier! The caramel corn on his peanut butter pop topped it off, I don't know why I didn't get caramel corn, I LOVE CARAMEL CORN! 

But I digress, I do wish Popbar had more toppings that weren't just nuts, I was expecting crazy or diverse toppings! What if I wanted, I don't know, crushed chocolate-covered cone or something weird! They had crushed nuts and chocolate sprinkles, that was it! I think that is the only thing Popbar should update, but other than that, this place is delicious! The gelato is creamy and the taste it on point. Plus when you dip it in chocolate.. MMMM.. so good!!! The size of the pops are just the right amount of gelato, not too little, not too much (is there a such thing as too much gelato??)

I really loved it here, they have 4 little stools to sit at and a bench outside, we sat on the bench, for 3.4 seconds because we inhaled our gelato because it was that good! 

Definitely going back to Popbar soon soon soon! I've been craving it every day since.