Nicolicious Life

Address:1046 Broad Street, Meriden, CT. 06450
http://www.tedsrestaurant.com/
I love watching "Travel Channel" & "Food Network", and here's another one shows up at Burger Paradise and Man vs. Food -- Ted's Restaurant. If you watched the shows, you'll know what they are famous for! Their steamed Cheeseburger!

So they steamed their beef patty and cheese in their not-so-big steamer. The extra grease came out from the patty after steaming, they will dump it. Oh, but don't think that the patty won't be juicy anymore after they throw away all the deliciousness. The patty is still full of flavor but a lot lighter than grilled patty since the extra grease was discarded.
No grease no deliciousness??? OH YOU ARE WRONG! Did you forgot about the cheese? They keep their cheese top secret but very unbelievably yummy! It's almost like steam melted fresh Mozzarella plus Cheddar but I can be totally wrong. Even when the cheese gets cold, it's still wonderful. 

Address: 1 Mohegan Sun Boulevard, Uncasville, CT 06382
http://www.bobbysburgerpalace.com/
YEAH!!! It's Friday again!!! Steve, Elissa, Brandon, Laura, Kate, RCSIII and I bought the WNBA ticket long time ago and finally the game is on. It's between Seattle STORM & Connecticut SUN. To be honest, I didn't know any players since I never watch WNABA, so I decided to cheer for Seattle since I loved the city and that's where Steve & RCSIII are from. But Before the game, we have to get dinner first.

RCSIII & I have always wanted to try any of Bobby Flay's restaurant. Since he is suppose to know how to make good burgers, we though this place should be a good start. And if we liked it, we can move on to other more upscale restaurants of his. So here we come, Bobby's Burger Palace.
While we were waiting in line, I was worried that I couldn't finished my drink before the game starts. What I had in mind was one of their spiked milk shake options: Vanilla Caramel Bourbon with real whipped cream. So RCSIII went to the bar and ordered this for me and I started to drink while I was still waiting. 

Address:http://www.xianfoods.com/locations.php
http://www.xianfoods.com/
Today is the day to get my hair cut!!! And of course it is a good excuse to come to NYC. I had many food spots in mind that I really want to go for a visit. Since I arrived around lunch time, what's more important than fulfill my stomach! (Actually I visited "Two little red hens" and "Buttercup bake shop" already and have 6 cupcakes with me at this point of my NYC day.)

I remember this place at Flushing during my first visit and today I am going to visit the east village store. This "Lian'Pi" cold noodle has become more famous among Americans after Anthony Bordain ate it and liked it on his show, No Reservation. For me, since it's a type of cold noodle, it makes it a great summer meal. Besides that, it is also spicy (although still not spicy enough for me...), which make is ten thousand times better than many other things.
I ordered "Lian'Pi" -- extra spicy.

Address: 93 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06510-1236
http://caseusnewhaven.com/
Dinning out again!!! Kate and I have been talking about having dinner here before she move out from New Haven, and here we go! It turned out that seven of us were there.

This is my second visit to Caseus, and I remembered that I had a great experience last time. This is a cheese place, so you have to try their cheese board and order some wine to go with it. I personally hope we can choose what cheeses we want to be on the board, but they do the job for you here. However, I usually end up liking 3 out of 4 cheeses and that's fine with me. They usually give you 4 cheeses and from milder to bolder tastes with some house made bread and crackers. (See picture above.)

Address:4 Clinton St (between Avenue B & Houston St), New York, NY 10002
http://www.yelp.com/biz_redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clintonstreetbaking.com&src_bizid=nU4XBdvxDABXqZ6CnB8Dig&cachebuster=1309377539
Oh man! I really have to catch up on my posts. After my almost 3 hours group meeting today, I can finally relaxed a little and come back to my blog and food pictures again.

This is another brunch I went in NYC. And I went there with Kate & Laura (poor RCSIII had some serious business so couldn't join us.). It's my 2nd time visiting this place and I know it from the great review on yelp and the food network show when Bobby Flay throw down with this place's famous blueberry pancakes. During my last visit, I came with my parents. Three of us tried 4 dishes and finished them all (this is how my family eats). We of course ordered the famous blueberry pancakes, plus French toast, eggs Benedict, and something with biscuits. We liked them all but favor the sweet dishes more as you may find similar quality and tastes of the savory dishes in many other successful brunch restaurants. Between the two sweet dishes, my mom and I both agreed that the French toast is REALLY REALLY good and better than their famous bluberry pancakes!!!
Obviously, that's the reason I suggested Kate and Laura to come here and I can enjoy that French toast again!!! (YUM!!!)

Although I have made apple pie many many times, I haven't made it after RCSIII and I started dating(and that was more than 14 months ago). The reason I didn't make it was because (1). I was too lazy too make the pie crust from scratch (2) RCSIII warned me that he almost dislike all the homemade apple pies by his family and friends. He claimed they all turned out too watery and the apples were under cook. (He likes McDonald's apple pie filling, if you'd like an example).

I finally decided to give it a shot. Although very nervous, but still excited. And OH MAN, it took me almost 4-5 hours to finish the whole thing (including the baking time). I used the recipe from "Williams Sonoma: Baking" and followed the procedures almost exactly (including making the pie pastry). Thus, there's no point of sharing the recipe here since you can easily look it up. (I can also typed it out if any readers would like me to.)

Address: 157 Wooster St. New Haven, CT
http://www.pepespizzeria.com/
New Haven is super well known for it's pizza, and there are couple of them that you have to try if you pay a visit here. One of them is Frank pepe's. I have been to this place many times and I always left with a happy stuffed tummy. Their pizza is thin crust New Haven style and served on a rectangular tray. Since it's thin crust, I bet you can eat twice as many slices as you would with regular crust pizza.

On the menu, my favorite item ( I have to ordered it every time I go otherwise I would think it's a waist of time to stand in line outside) is their "White Clam Pizza"!!! It's salty, seafoody and full of clams that you can actually see and taste it.

Address:321 Boston Post Rd. Orange, CT
http://www.chipsrest.com/
This is RCSIII and my second time to come here for brunch. The first time was Mother's day weekend and that was the worse decision ever to come on that day since it was super crowded and we waited for about one hour.

 If you live in CT area, you might see their commercial on TV every once in a while and they have this song they play that always end up stuck in my head. It goes "Chip's family restaurant, best pancakes around! 40 great varieties, we'll never let you down! :)"
Well, I love breakfast and I love pancakes. I even enjoy IHOP which many foodies dislike (one major reason is that IHOP is a chain business)! After sining their commercial song for a while, RCSIII and I finally decide to check this place out. (Maybe RCSIII just couldn't stand me singing the song anymore and wish I'll shut up after we tried it out.) I didn't have my camera with me when I first visited this place,  and luckily we both had pretty good time eating here last time, so here we are...back for the second time!
This time, we still had to wait for a while, but it was only about 25 minutes. (Although I prefer 0 minute.) I have decided before we were seated that I am going to try their flavored pancakes (since we both got omelettes last time with just buttermilk pancakes.)
So I just ordered 2 eggs (white) scrambled with ham steak (real thick and huge!!! I loved it!) with 3 sweet potato pancakes!

Address:179 Crown Street, New Haven, CT 06510
http://thecaskrepublic.com/
I met so many beer lovers after I moved to New Haven. One of them is definitely RCSIII. Besides him, we also discovered Greg and his love for beer at our lunch table, although he only joins us when he remembers to eat at normal lunch hours.

We have been talking about this place for a while and we finally decided on a time that worked for everyone and made reservation. For me, I am more interested in the food they have but the boys are excited to see the beer selections. Since this is a bar, they have some generic bar food options with some more entrées that are more on the expensive side, which are not something I would usually order at a bar. Where there are beers (or coke), I always feel like a big meaty burger.
Here were what RCSIII and I ordered:
RCSIII had their Cask Republic Burger with Swiss Cheese (That's right! You have to pay $1.00 more for your cheese!)

I have always wanted to try to make red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting! The combination of the two was just so great! I finally made and it turned pretty great for the cake part, but just alright for the double creamcheese frosting.

The reason it is called double cream cheese frosting is because when I first finished the frosting and asked RCSIII to give it a try, he claimed that it wasn't that cream cheesy. And I panicked and added in some more (almost doubled the amount as what the recipe suggested) cream cheese. Although it tasted cream cheesyER, I am not sure that's the  best recipe. So I am going to just write down the red velvet cake recipe and I think I'll definitely make more later with different frosting recipes. Hopefully I'll find one I like and come back and share that later.