CLOSED: La Table Exquise- Bed Stuy's Best Kept Secret

This establishment is unfortunately no longer in operation.

La Table Exquise's Weekend Special French Toast: so good it should be illegal.

$5 per portion, or unlimited amounts (yes!) with the $19 Sunday brunch buffet

All-you-can-eat slider burgers served hot on homemade brioche, as many omelettes as you want cooked to your liking, a huge spread of salads and grilled wings and cereal and quiche and rolls and pastries AND juice and coffee and tea and to top it all off, endless heaps of buttery, caramelised, so-good-I-could-die French toast... all for $19, at a shop two minutes walk from where I've ended up living.

Holy wow. What a welcome to New York City, bless you foodie guardian angel!

I apologise dear readers that it has taken me a month to post any updates- since my arrival life in this new city has proven intense, exciting, exhausting and inspiring all at once, with my course at the Actors Studio Drama School living up to its notorious reputation of being tough and challenging (hence the lack of time for blogging). I assure you though that I have been doing my duty to eat as much as possible (ha!), and although I should be doing my homework I simply HAVE to share this little gem with all New Yorkers out there.

La Table Exquise- 370 Tompkins Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216

Tel: 347-663-6066

"Do or Die Bed-Stuy" is the last place you'd expect to find French baking at its best, but I am not kidding when I say this little nondescript joint is home to the flakiest croissants and pain au chocolat as well as the most sublime desserts (5-layer chocolate cake anyone?) that you can get your hands on. The 11am-4pm all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch also redefines the meaning of "buffet"- far from being a way for restaurants to use up the week's leftovers, mega-talented Chef Sebastien whips up hot omelettes, slider burgers on cute little baby brioche buns and that unbelievable French toast using his own homemade baguettes at your demand.

The menu varies from time to time, but if you love good grub La Table Exquise is a must-try. Go go go, before the crowds find out.

My brunch buffet plate- serving number one :)

Chef Sebastien's alluring dessert cabinet- selection varies daily.

Prices range from $1 (for chocolate mousse cups) to $4

The sublime 5-layer chocolate cake- $4

Profiterole with hazelnut cream (chocolate eclair and pistachio pear tart in the background)

Croissants and pain au chocolat, piping hot from the oven- $2.75 each

La Table Exquise- 370 Tompkins Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216

(Nearest station: Nostrand Avenue, Kingston-Throop Aves)

Tel: 347-663-6066

Hot Pork-Roast-In-A-Roll for £3! :)

Hello foodies! A short quick note this sweltering sunny afternoon- am spending 4 days in Bristol this weekend, and thought I'd share with you the delicious discovery we made outside the mammoth Costco in Avonmouth when shopping for BBQ ingredients:

A stall by The Hot Hog Company, a Weston Super Mare-based traditional slow-spit hog roast catering group!

£3 gets you a hot shredded roast pork roll, which come with gravy and a table on the side where you can help yourself to as much delicious stuffing, chunky applesauce, mustard, relish or BBQ sauce as you wish :)

Practically an entire roast dinner in a soft white bap, YUM :)

That is all, just thought I'd share this for those in the area. Happy Easter everyone!:)

Brick Lane Beigel Bake- Hot Salt Beef Beigel

Brick Lane Beigel Bake
159 Brick Lane

London E1 6SB

Phone: Hmm. 0171 729 0616 on the sign, 0207 729 0616 on the card. Tell me which works!

FINALLY got to try this after living in London for 5 years!

First of all, some necessary beigel/bagel clarification so you get your expectations right. What's on sale here is NOT a New York bagel- moist, malty and generally large, puffy and doughy- nor is it a Montreal version- sweet, thin with a large hole, crunchy and usually topped with seeds. Beigel Bake produces daily on-site the traditional London-style beigel- chewy, dense and tasty, with a coarser air-bubbled texture and a slightly harder bite.

3 ingredients is all- aforementioned beigel, lots of mustard (a bit too much in fact, I'll ask them to be less generous in future for the sake of my nasal passages) and a toppling stack of hot salt beef. But Oh My Heavens. The BEEF!

I present to you, huge succulent hulks of ultra moist melt-in-your-mouth perfectly fatty-but-not-greasy deliciously tender mouthwateringly salty juicy mmm mmm yum ooooh woah...

All for £3.30. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in this little kosher East End institution. So good I have crazy Malaysian friends who buy slabs of the meat by the kilo to take home!

70p slab of cheesecake (sorry I took a bit before I remembered to photograph it)- yum!

The smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel is excellent too. Maybe next time- tonight it's all about the BEEF.