Enough has been said about Shake Shack and their ever growing empire. I have not been to their UWS location nor their newly opened spot in Times Square, why? First, I’m a bit too lazy to trek all the way up to UWS and I hate the Times Square area. Second, wouldn’t you rather eat your tasty burger in this lovely Madison Square Park? On my most recent trip (last time I was at Shake Shack was back in November) there was a concert going on plus the weather was actually nice, also Robyn came along, super!

All you need to know is that I fully enjoyed my burger and fries and iced tea. I wanted a 2nd burger after that.

- Shake Shack 11 Madison Avenue, New York inside Madison Square Park

My sister came into town a few weeks ago, and before she arrived the one thing she told me she wanted to do while visiting Brooklyn was to eat at Paulie Gee’s. I was happy to oblige. Paulie Gee’s is quickly becoming my favorite special occasion destination, due in equal parts to the excellent pizza and the graciousness of Paulie Gee himself. On this most recent visit, I realized that I had already made my way through most of the vegetarian options on the regular menu and so I went for one of the specials, the Honey Jones (Fior di Latte, Gorgonzola Cheese, and Megan the Bee Keeper’s Local Honey — usually served with Prosciutto di Parma but I asked for the meatless version). It was a great mix of salty, tangy, and sweet, all atop Paulie Gee’s chewy, crispy crust. Paulie is a bit persnickety when it comes to his crust — he sent us over a Bacon Marmalade pizza that he thought was too charred to send to the people who had actually ordered it, on the condition that we not photograph it — but when the result is as good as it is, who can complain?

Update on our backyard. Somehow if you leave your radishes growing, they eventually sprout flowers. Cool!

Top-left: WHOOPS! Top-right: Bell pepper prefers hot weather Bottom-left: We have lots of basil! Bottom-right: Lots of mint also.

Regular Market Watch readers know that I get excited when I see something that I haven’t seen before, let alone never heard of. Callaloo is also known as amaranth, which I have heard of. Callaloo is also the name of a dish made with this leafy green and is very popular in the Caribbean. It’s similar to spinach, the man at Bradley Farms told me, though when you cook it the color will leach out and stain the rest of the food. I’m looking forward to finding out.

HA so after my lunch of cod schnitzel and dinner at the always popular Shake Shack at Madison Square Park, I REALLY wanted some desserts. If you live in New York City I’m pretty sure you know about the Dessert Truck and how they couldn’t renew their permit so instead opened a store in the Lower East Side. I still have yet been to the store but LUCKILY they got a seasonal permit this summer and the truck is back! It was surprisingly not too hot that night so I walked from the Flatiron District to the East Village where the truck was parked in their old spot.

I walked up to the truck and looked at the menu. They had the same stuff from the shop and well there wasn’t anything that jumped out at me BUT the guy in the truck had already dropped his dinner, wiped his lips and was ready to take my order. What I really wanted was something cold and creamy like the strawberry angel food cake with thyme whipped creme I had last year. Anyways I ended up getting the warm brioche donut holes, 3 for $6. Hmmm soft round balls covered in sugar and filled with nutella. Most of the time I’m a BIG fan of nutella but for some reason I thought there was just a bit too much nutella in these donut holes. I think nutella is at its best when paired with whipped cream or something to make it less dry. Right? Anyone?

- Dessert Truck 6 Clinton Street New York Twitter

FINALLY after many many attempts I got to try the cod schnitzel from Schnitzel & Things. As for the 2 sides I got potato and cucumber salad. I opened the lid to the pesto mayo and dunked a piece of cod into it and quickly took a bite. I have to say AMAZING! Great flavors like a punch in the face great flavors. And both the potato and cucumber salad went REALLY well with the cod because it sort of sooth your face from being punched by the cod. It was like I was riding a roller coaster, a super tasting roller coaster ride.

- Schnitzel & Things Twitter