The Red Bull Dog

What's the best way to get your fair share of beer, wine and liquor? How about a Red Bull Dog at Blockheads Mexican Diner. The drink basically consists of the following: Get a frozen margarita, add some sangria, then stick a Corona in it. The best part is that the entire thing only cost $7.50.

Philippines Tops Bourdain's Hierarchy of Pork

In tonight's episode of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain makes a stop in my home country of the Philippines. He'll be visiting Manila, Pampanga and Cebu through his travels and will be meeting with travel author Claude Tayag and runner-up for the No Reservations FAN-atic Special casting call, Augusto Elefano. While this in itself is exciting, as I can attest that my homeland has some of the best food in the world, what really caught my eye was his blog posting on tonight's episode.

In his post, Bourdain states that "of all the whole roasted pigs I've had all over the world, the slow roasted lechon I had on Cebu was the best," ranking it above Bali and Puerto Rico respectively. He also talks about Sisig (by far the one thing I miss most from the all the food back home) describing it as a "divine mosaic of pig parts, chopped and served sizzling and crisp on one side on a screaming hot platter." Let's just say if there's anything Filipinos are good at, it's eating pork. Click on the link below to access the full post.

Go Philippines!

Hierarchy of Pork (Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations)

Skittles Shots

If you're growing tired of scarfing down Jell-O Shots, here's a new way to get your sweet fix while getting inebriated. Mix That Drink has a step-by-step tutorial, including pictures, on how to make Skittles-infused vodka. Aside from having some super sugary vodka on hand, I think the brightly colored bottles would be a visually interesting component for any bar. I would be careful though as drinking too much will probably make you not just taste, but see the rainbow as well.

Skittles Vodka Tutorial (Mix That Drink)

Alice's Tea Cup

Brunch is great thing and any excuse to have breakfast food at a meal other than breakfast is OK by me.

One of my favorite places in the city to have brunch is Alice's Tea Cup. The name and decor of the restaurant is inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland with Alice-inspired art and quotes lining the walls. Dishes and tea are served on what I would describe as "mismatched" china, but I feel this only adds to the restaurant's overall charm. With 3 locations in Manhattan, Alice's is best known for its lengthy tea list and freshly baked scones. Scone flavors rotate daily, but once you try their pumpkin scone (pictured above), you'll never order any other flavor. If you are in the mood for a serious meal, the brunch menu offers a tasty selection of breakfast goodies - eggs, crepes, pancakes and such. My personal favorite is Poached Eggs with Smoked Salmon on a Buttermilk Scone.

More pictures below...

Caracas Arepa Bar

It's been quite some time since I've posted anything and what can I say but I just haven't gotten around to it. I've been saving up some things I've wanted to post about and now that I have much more free time on my hands, I'll see if I can just get them all out on a regular basis over the next week or so.

Anyhoo... a couple weeks ago, I had dinner with a friend of mine at Caracas Arepa Bar in the Lower East Side. The place dishes up freshly made arepas, which are made-to-order and are hot and toasty when they get to your table. As you can see, it's tiny and we had to wait about an hour for a table, but it was worth it for some delicious delcious beef and chorizo in our bellies. If you're not in the mood to wait for a table, they have a "To Go" version a couple of stores down. However, arepas are still made-to-order so don't expect fastfood-like speed.

More pictures below...