Sachin Agarwal: January 2008

I love coffee. I love strong, bitter, dark coffee, black, no sugar or milk. I sometimes drink an entire pot in a day, so I'll drink decaf (but it's never as strong as regular!)

I recently decided I should try drinking more tea. It's healthy and natural. It's not as processed as coffee. It's just a bunch of herbs and leaves in a bag, simple. Coffee is so heavily processed what you end up drinking is nothing like what grew on the plant.

So I tried a bunch of different teas and I'm a fan. I enjoy being able to pick out smells and flavors from the teas I'm drinking. As opposed to coffee which doesn't taste like anything, and is itself a taste/smell. "Smells like coffee in here"

I find that tea is similar to beer for me, in that I can tell them apart, pick out different flavors, remember which ones I like or don't like, identify them blindly. But coffee is more like wine: some people can do that, but I can't. I can tell you I like or dislike a particular coffee/wine, but when purchasing more I'm still picking randomly.

I haven't completely switched to tea but I'm happy to be drinking more of it now. I just wish it was stronger, and it was easier to make a whole pot early in the morning and drink it all day. If you have suggestions for teas let me know.

The past couple weeks have included some of the best food I have had in New York. I highly recommend the following:

Ferrara Cafe - ***** - website
Cyndee bought me an assorted pastry platter from Ferrara delivered to my door. It was a beautiful selection of pastries. I had my doubts. Would it be as good as Venieros Honestly, I think it's easily a notch or two better. Each piece was unique and delicious. I couldn't stop eating (and there was a lot to eat!)

Black Hound Bakery - ***** - website
On Christmas I took a cake from Black Hound to my uncle's place in Long Island. It was a ginger bread cake with layers of fresh apricots and cream. It was surprisingly light, not too sweet or filling. We easily finished the whole thing. One of the best cakes I've ever had.

Kati Roll - **** - website
I usually don't like heading over to this neighborhood around NYU, but it's on the way to my hair stylist. Well, it's worth going there for this place. The Undu Chicken (egg and chicken) is delicious. Get two, you will want another.

Dosa Man (NY Dosas) - **** - website
I never eat street food but I'll make an exception here. The masala dosa is spicy and delicious. You can drink sambar while you wait. There's also a dosa with fresh vegetables. Awesome.

Barmarche - **** - website
Beautiful restaurant though a bit cramped. Everything was fresh and delicious. New Zealand lamb, crab salad, chocolate cake, you can't go wrong with that.

Jane - **** - website
We had a large group go to Jane for New Year's Eve dinner. It was a prix Fixe meal and unlimited sparking wine. I thought they might skimp on us but they didn't. The food was fabulous and our champagne glasses were always full. They let us keep the table for a full 3 hours, and they even gave me and Aki a large glass full of chapagne on the way out to make sure we had a nice buzz :)

BarBossa - ***** - website
A bunch of us ended up here randomly because Cafe Habana across the street couldn't accomodate our large group. I'm glad they couldn't. This brazilian restaurant has a great menu with lots of appetizers and sandwiches. Most of their dinner entrees are special and rotate. I tried four different entrees and every one was incredible. I had roast pork with a pineapple chutney. We also got two desserts: guinness chocolate cake and a passion fruit pavé. Especially for the price, this is one of my top New York restaurant picks.