4:00 sponge cake

Since one of us can't really taste right now, we went for texture and cheapness. These sponge cakes are perfect for such occasion, and enjoyable for those who can taste as well. I've always had trouble getting a mouth watering photo of this thing due to its odd shape, but I may have accomplished it this time around. ???
Fay Da Bakery, 191 Centre Street at Hester

Fu Kee

With some sickness going around the office, we opted for a good warming bowl of congee at our convenient go-to spot. Man, this place was packed today both with tourists and locals! The guys behind us opened up a bottle of some lethal smelling Chinese liquor starting on their weekend festivities. Yes it's Friday.
Fu Kee, 128 Lafayette Street above Canal

4:00pm danish

It may look like a sunny side up, but in fact it is an apricot danish. Both seem like breakfast food, but us being renegades, we consume it at 4pm.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome Street btwn Mulberry and Mott

Nyonya takeout

OK, this looks kind of gross - but rest assured it wasn't. Though admittedly it was a "shove food down your throat so you can get back to work" kind of day for both of us, so we probably wouldn't have noticed even if it was. But how bad could young chow fried rice and hiananese chicken from Nyonya be? Even the photo on wikipedia looks gross.
Nyonya, 194 Grand Street btwn Mulberry and Mott

4:00pm cupcake

Carrot? Pepper? Strawberry? Whatever it is, it's cute.
McNally Jackson Teahouse, 52 Prince Street btwn Lafayette and Mulberry

Dogmatic

People! Stop eating crap salads and eat yummy sausages! Chop't next door had a line out the door while this place had ample seating - figures. Dogmatic - a "gourmet sausage system" inserts your choice of handcrafted sausage and sauce into a warm crispy baguette. I haven't had one of these since Chamonix in the 9o's, apres-ski style. The food, the vibe and decor is just teeming with fun-ness! On my way back from a pre-lunch meeting, and on her way to a post-lunch meeting; Union Square was the perfect junction spot today. And what a fun lunch it was.
Dogmatic, 26 East 17th btwn Broadway and Fifth Ave

4:00pm crumpets

Kim stopped by our office the other day to share with us her homemade marmalade. We felt loved. And then we thought it would be appropriate to enjoy this fruit preserve atop toasted crumpets and sweet cream butter. We were right.

Patois w/ Iridesco

While we had lunch with our Iridesco friends, it was a bonafide business lunch today. This new Manhattan location of Patois, the beloved Brooklyn restaurant, has a pretty extensive lunch menu that we wanted to check out. The food was decent - although the duck confit club didn't need the third slice of brioche, and the plate felt a bit cold.
Patois, 177 Mulberry Street below Broome

4:00pm cookies

Oatmeal raisin (left) and peanut butter (right) cookies purchased at lunch. And the peanut butter cookies from Hampton Chutney are ooh so good.
Hampton Chutney, 68 Prince Street btwn Crosby and Lafayette

Hampton Chutney

No, we did not go big wave surfing for lunch today. This is the #10 Potato Masala with Grilled Chicken & Spinach Dosa from Hampton Chutney. It's good but we're convinced everything here tastes the same.
Hampton Chutney, 68 Prince Street btwn Crosby and Lafayette

4:00pm chocolate cupcake

We like this cupcake from Oro Bakery because it's less like the iconic American cupcake with the sugary frosting, and more like a simple cake with a side of whipped cream. And the mocha whip cream is worth writing home about. "Dear Mom and Dad, ..."
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome Street btwn Mulberry and Mott

Pho Bang

Yes! Now that we know the secret (go early), we made it to Phở Bằng for a plate of bánh cuốn (Vietnamese rice crepe). It's not the best, not even close, but certainly satisfies a craving when you got one. We split a plate and then shared some cơm sườn nướng (grilled pork chops over rice) and called it a decent lunch.
Pho Bang, 157 Mott Street btwn Grand and Broome

4:00pm biscotti di cioccolate

Picked up from earlier. These biscotti di cioccolate are umm.. way good. The other ones were too.
Grandaisy Bakery, 73 Sullivan Street btwn Grand and Broome

Grandaisy Bakery

The beautiful day inspired us to sit in the park to eat our lunch. We picked up some pizzas and sandwiches to go from Grandaisy Bakery. We think the pizza cavofiore is the best of the bunch (potato one pictured). The panino scandinavo (? forgot to make proper note) was equally delicious though not quite enough food for lunch, for me anyways. But I think I've mentioned wanting more sandwiches to have buttered bread, and here there was plenty of sweet cream butter on the multi-grain bread. And - Andrew in Alabama - english cucumber slices too!
Grandaisy Bakery, 73 Sullivan Street btwn Grand and Broome

4:00pm apricot tart

On our way back from meeting a flooring contractor, stopped in Cafe Select to see what dessert they had to whet our afternoon appetite. This apricot tart was not too sweet, perfectly tangy and walnutty tasty.
Cafe Select, 212 Lafayette Street at Kenmare

Landmark

Mmmm, chicken fingers... The BLT wasn't so bad either. Looove the blue tabletops. Nice to have a diner on our block.
Landmark, 158 Grand Street at the corner of Centre

4:00pm cranberry scone

No joke, the scones from Oro Bakery are simply the best in the city. Due in part to the fact that they taste the closest to the real thing. Scones baked in the States are NOTHING like what they are across the Atlantic.
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome Street btwn Mulberry and Mott

Li Hua

If you are a NY architect, perhaps you can imagine what we've been through today. We worked all weekend eating at our desks (egad! only on the weekend!), so though we were crazed, we decided to sit down for lunch. Things were sort of out of our hands. We both agreed on craving Korean food. We ordered our usual - hot stone bulgogi bibimbap for her, and kimchi jigae for me. And getting little dishes of banchan is always a big perk of going to a Korean restaurant.
Li Hua, 171 Grand Street at Baxter

4:00pm applesauce cake

One downside to baking your own goods is that you're stuck eating it for a while (even when you give half away). Good thing it still tastes good. Some vanilla ice cream is in order.

L'asso

Not the most photogenic of slices, but it was a nice summery tasting Margherita slice. Recent and frequent press had peaked our interest in this "not so new anymore" pizzeria. Dining solo, I didn't go for a pie but opted for two slices. I enjoyed the Roma (not pictured) especially, a white pie with walnut pesto, mozzarella, rosemary and walnuts. The slices weren't particularly memorable, but I'm going to reserve all judgments until I go back with some friends to order a pie - they looked amazing coming right out of their oven.

4:00pm vanilla cupcake

Ack! Dry, dry, dry!
Prince Street Cafe, 26 Prince Street btwn Elizabeth and Mott

Saha Thai

Their lunch special portions are back to normal! Our busy week has led to another lunch where we order in. Straying from the usual Pad Prik King, tried the Pad Cashew Nut with Tofu. Kinda boring, but at least it wasn't bad.
Saha Thai, 227 Centre Street above Grand

4:00pm coffee cake

Not to be mistaken with an American coffee cake, this one is a Chinese bakery coffee flavored cake.
Fay Da Bakery, 191 Centre Street at Hester

Sophie's Cuban Cuisine

That was some juicy roast pork. With some high remarks from Midtown Lunch, we were excited to try the pernil sandwich at Sophie's. We didn't get it with the plantains as recommended but we did get the special combo, which gives you a full serving of rice and beans with your sandwich. That's a great deal for $7. We split it between the two of us and didn't finish it. The bread was a bit crap, but the pork was distracting enough to not make the eating experience a downer.
Sophie's Cuban Cuisine, 805 Third Ave, Lower Level Food Court btwn 49th and 50th

4:00pm applesauce cake

Even though I got home late from work last night and could have gone straight to bed, I somehow felt compelled to do something productive with myself. When one doesn't own a TV, baking becomes a sensible(?) option. Another 1-step too many time consuming recipe from Cooks Illustrated. The reward to losing 2.5 hours of precious sleep? - true deliciousness with amazing texture. The other half is impressed.

An Choi

It's been more than a couple months since An Choi officially opened and has been serving pho, which we've been dying to try. However today, we only have time for delivered banh mi's.
An Choi, 85 Orchard Street below Broome

4:00pm bomboloni

Whoa! Raspberry jam overload. Could use a piece of buttered toast to spread the spilt jam. Some claim the bombolonis from Sullivan Street Bakery to be the best doughnut in the city. Perhaps when fresh from the fryer, but hard to tell when it's been sitting in Dean & DeLuca all day.
Dean & DeLuca, 560 Broadway at Prince

Emporio

We treated ourselves to a fancy-ish lunch this afternoon because today, it was all business for us. In this economy, there's a lot of necessary strategizing when you're a business owner. Emporio, a new restaurant, inhabits a cursed spot, but we hope it's here to stay. The orecchiette with shrimp, roasted cauliflower and bottarga, was light and bright on flavor. And truthfully, I have trouble resisting anything that has bottarga in it.
Emporio, 231 Mott Street between Prince and Spring

4:00pm munchkins

If we were a rock band our name would be DONUTS ROCK.
The Donut Pub, 203 West 14th near 7th Ave

swich

We met in the West Village between meetings for a quick bite at swich this afternoon. Not normally fans of turkey, we took a chance on the Bob Cobb and were more than pleasantly surprised at the juicy goodness of the turkey, avocado and bacon combo.
Swich, 104 8th Avenue btwn 15th and 16th

4:00pm pear tart and cappuccinos, with Dee

This new location of La Colombe Torrefaction is somehow so discreet, that though I pass it twice a day, didn't realize it was there until I read about it. Certainly a welcome addition as their coffee is delicious. Today we meet up with brilliant sculptor Dee, to update eachother of our "heard it through the grapevine" "saw it on Facebook" juicy Pittsburgh-centered gossip. Whether it was the caffeine, sugar, company or all of the above, we returned to the office with smiles and a lighter step.
La Colombe Torrefaction, 270 Lafayette between Houston and Prince

Cafe Zaiya

Should have looked up more lunch options close to our Midtown meeting this morning. But we were in a bit of a rush to get back to the office so popped into the Cafe Zaiya located within the Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya. Their lunch selection here is much smaller compared to the other location, which was slightly disappointing. The Omu-Soba is a combination of the "omu-rice" and "yakisoba".
Cafe Zaiya @ Kinokuniya, 1073 Avenue of the Americas below 42nd street

4:00pm oatmeal raisin cookies

Boo. These cookies from Eileen's, always reliably good, are not as good as usual. This is a first, and hopefully the last.
Eileen's Special Cheesecake, 17 Cleveland Place btwn Spring and Kenmare

Thai Angel

Time constraints lead us to order lunch in this afternoon. Meh. Should have ordered from Saha Thai instead. Makes us realize that maybe angels don't need to be good cooks.
Thai Angel, 141 Grand Street btwn Lafayette and Crosby

4:00pm apple tart

This apple tart from Oro Bakery is a Winner!
Oro Bakery, 375 Broome Street btwn Mulberry and Mott

Pinche Taqueria

We didn't have much time today, but wanted to have a quasi-observance of Cinco de Mayo by having some Mexican food. A quick lunch at Pinche Taqueria's original location seemed like our best bet. We can't go there without ordering the fish tacos - they're really good, and many others think so too.
Pinche Taqueria, 227 Mott Street btwn Spring and Prince

4:00pm chocolates

We'd been meaning to try this newcomer chocolaterie, located inside an unmarked storefront on one of the city's few alleyways. The chocolates were subtle and nice, but to us, nice like all those other nice chocolates. We should have gotten her signature piece. Again, next time!
Bespoke Chocolates, 6 Extra Place

Parigot

A petit jaunt to Paris for lunch at Parigot today. Noticing the $9 lunch special posted on their window, we'd been meaning to go back to try some other dishes after our last lunch there. What used to be a fairly deserted restaurant, seems to have gotten their act together, and has been picking up a good lunch business as of late. The restaurant was pretty packed, mostly with French tourists, and the service was charmingly slow ala France. Our meals were perfectly decent, but we eyed some delicious looking cheeseburgers and steak. There will be a next time.
Parigot, 155 Grand Street at Lafayette

4:00pm donuts

Donuts rock.
The Donut Pub, 203 West 14th near 7th Ave

Cong Ly, with James

James came by to take a short walk with us before the rain came. He chose Vietnamese food and we chose Cong Ly for a bowl of hu tieu my tho. We talked about his recent trip to India and the resulting images taken in Chandigarh and later Ahmedabad. The gray skies and bare bones decor of Cong Ly faded back as we listened to James tell us of waking up early each morning, going to sit in front of some grand piece of architecture, waiting for the rain to die down, the clouds to part and for some perfect sunlight to open up.
Công Lý, 124 Hester Street btwn Broome and Chrystie