NYC Eats

During my last two trips to New York, I eagerly took in some culinary exploration and want to share highlights from two of my excursions.

First, we went in search of a tasty little bakery for cupcakes one afternoon. After not too long, we came across Buttercup Bake Shop, considered one of the best spots for cupcakes in the city.

We were quickly mesmerized by the vast and lovely dessert case...

And quickly overwhelmed by the array of colorful cupcake choices. Pink, yellow, purple, blue, white, brown, swirl, sprinkle...

We placed an order for six: one buttercup golden with chocolate icing, one buttercup golden with vanilla icing, one chocolate with vanilla icing, one chocolate with chocolate icing, one red velvet and one "Devil Dog." Perhaps, not surprisingly, the "Devil Dog" was mine. Devil's food chocolate cake with a light whipped frosting, a swirl of chocolate and topped off with sprinkles. I definitely enjoyed every last bite. And, at $2.25 each, it's a price that's hard to argue with.

In an interesting turn of events, the person who helped us at Buttercup is also from Minnesota. Gotta love those random connections :)

My other dining highlight comes from dinner with a friend who'd just moved to the city. I requested that we venture outside of my typical Midtown boundaries, so we hopped in a cab and headed to the East Village. There's a great little eatery called S'MAC, which is short for Sarita's Macaroni & Cheese.

It was tiny but overflowing. Eclectic but homey. S'MAC's specialty is macaroni and cheese...in more than 10 different varieties.

I decided to give the Cheeseburger Mac a try: cheddar and American cheeses combined with seasoned ground beef. There are four different sizes: nosh, major munch, mongo and partay!. This is the major munch ($9.75).

And it was majorly delicious. Cheesey, burgery, noodley comfort food. And boy was it filling. I think I could have gone with the nosh portion size and still left satisfied. I was mighty impressed with S'MAC and imagine that if I lived in the city, it would quickly become one of my favorite regular spots.

And, finally, I'll leave you with a photo of my favorite building in all the city - the Chrysler Building (with a little bit of a fancy Instagram touch-up). Isn't it lovely? :)