I like brunch but hate the crowd and the wait time, so it’s a good thing Allswell does weekday brunch. Unlike their dinner menu, which changes daily, their brunch pretty much stays the same. There’s something wonderful about leisurely strolling into a restaurant, sit down and leisurely eat your lunch and maybe drink three cocktails (which I did).

The biscuits with sausage gravy and fried eggs was excellent. I usually tend to stay away from biscuits and gravy because I’m afraid it’ll get too heavy in my stomach. But Allswell does it really good and it was quite light. I think I needed an extra biscuit to mop up ALL the gravy.

I even got to taste their housemade chicken dogs which they serve during their late night hours. This made a perfect late night snacks, wash it down with a pint!

- Allswell 124 Bedford Ave. Williamsburg

On a quiet street in the sort of empty area in Chinatown sits a tiny restaurant, Cheeky Sandwiches. Definitely one of those places you’ll miss if you blink. The space is small and the door to get in is smaller but the owner is all heart. He’s super friendly and makes one of the best fried chicken sandwiches in town. This is one of those places I regret not going sooner.

Delicious fried chicken on a bed of slaw topped with gravy and between a biscuit. What better combo?

- Cheeky Sandwiches 35 Orchard St, NYC

It’s funny how once I learn how to bake something, I just keep baking them. I’ve always been fascinated with “the biscuit” and like many people my first one came from The Colonel. Well, fascinated by how something so tasty only comprised of few ingredients and relatively quick to make. Similar to my bad cookie incidents, my first few batches of biscuits came out dense and dry. But since I bought a whole thing of flour, I kept making them. Each time the biscuits came out better and better but still not what I think a biscuit should be, until couple weeks ago. Couple weeks ago I found this biscuit recipe from Lisa Fain aka Homesick Texan. The biscuits came out pretty damn good. They rose nicely and weren’t dense at all.

Ever since then I’ve made banana and honey biscuits and cinnamon and sugar. I’m thinking chorizo maybe next.

Okay, going to take a break from writing about LA and get back to NYC.

Peels! Finally! Yes this has been my to go list ever since I found out where Shuna Fish Lydon was going to work. Besides being a great pastry chef she’s also a great photographer! Check out her blog, Eggbeater.

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Many past Saturday few of my friends and I ventured out to crowded Flatiron/Chelsea area from our cozy Brooklyn apartments in the hopes of scoring ourselves some Grill Em All burgers. They were scheduled to serve their gourmet burgers from 1pm to 3pm at Rub BBQ. Sadly we found out that you had to RSVP to get the burgers and they had already sold out of their RSVPs. With our sad faces and empty stomach we were desperately trying to figure out what to eat. I quickly said the usual suspects Shake Shack…..Eataly….Madison Square Markt. In the end few of us went to Shake Shack, others went food stall hopping at Madison Square Markt and I went to Hill Country Chicken.

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I heard that the year 2010, still sound so futuristic, is the year of fried chicken. Is it true? Is it true? My friend Steph and I even started a list of restaurants that serve fried chicken and hopefully we’ll go to all of them this year. One of the most anticipated reopening was definitely Pies ‘n’ Thighs. I have never heard of this place until people started buzzing about their reopening. *Buzz

So I went with my friend Derek couple Thursdays ago to check it out. We walked in around 7:30pm and were lucky to get the last table. There was a tiny voice in the back of my head that kept saying “Get the catfish box. Get the catfish box.” I politely replied “Next time” because today was all about the fried chicken. Well I did listen to the tiny voice about getting grits and glad I got grits. The menu said nothing about grits topped with cheddar and tobasco sauce! It was GOOD. Anyways we put in our order and waited…and waited. Hm…at least we had our drinks. Then I realized they were out of biscuits and was waiting for a new batch. Damn and we were starving too. But once our food came I quickly had forgotten the long wait. Nothing beats a fresh hot biscuits and burning hot fried chicken. I burned my thumb that night.

What can I say. They make fried chicken and make them real good. For $11 you get 3 pieces of perfectly fried chicken, biscuit and a side. I was full afterwards and was still full when I got home. I say thats a damn good deal.

Beware, it gets crazy packed later in the night with super skinny people with weird hair dos.

- Pies ‘n’ Thighs 166 S 4th St Williamsburg Brooklyn