I wanted to have a very New York Weekend this Labor Day weekend, and everyone knows you can't have a New York Weekend without doing brunch. Ishita, my partner in crime and amazing food blogger, suggested Tom Colicchio's Riverpark for brunch. Riverpark is known for it's farm right next to the restaurant and views along the east river. This was perfect since I signed up for the 2012 Locavore Challenge. What could be more local than a restaurant that sources from a garden in it's own concrete backyard? We had an amazing watermelon dusted with merken to start that was picked from their farm. Unfortunately, they would not disclose the purveyor of their meat. I hate when restaurants do that. I just kind of want to be like, "why are you being so shady?"

Rumor has it, I am moving to Boston. Shocking, I know. This weekend my friends decided to take me to the basement of Penny Farthing to show me what my life in Boston is going to be like. They are mean, and I may or may not have had a mild panic attack. So to make it up to me, they took me to do one of the most New York things possible: fancy cocktails and pork buns at Booker and Dax, part of Momofuku Ssam. I  am a huge Momofuku/David Chang supporter. Chang is known for supporting small local farmers and using nose-to-tail dining at most of his restaurants.

This weekend has been filled with so much food and fullness, I just wanted something light and vegetarian for dinner. So I decided to make falafel, but instead of the garbanzo beans I used cauliflower (adapted from I Breathe...I'm Hungry).  The original recipe calls for frying, but since I wanted to avoid frying, I cooked them stove top and then finished in the oven.  It tasted surprisingly very similar to real falafel!