Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

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October 6, 2010 By cheryl

Cowgirl: A Dessert Surprise


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The evening had been good — entertaining but generally uneventful. Until the question came, "Would you like dessert?"

Having just devoured chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes, chicken fajitas and a massive bowl of vegetarian chili (plus copious amounts of chips and bean dip), dessert was an unlikely endeavor. But then there it was before us at Cowgirl in New York City: A dessert menu emblazoned with a large tempting picture of the restaurant's signature ice-cream "baked potato."

I was shocked to see the picture — not because of the calories I saw before me. (The dessert consists of scoops of vanilla ice-cream dusted with cocoa powder to resemble a
potato, topped with whipped cream, slabs of lime-sugar "butter" and
chopped pecans dyed green.)

The surprise was there because I took the picture last year for a piece on this blog about Cowgirl's seafood outpost, Cowgirl Seahorse. And there it was, massive and beautiful (if I do say so myself) on this restaurant's menu.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Dessert, New York, Restaurants, Shameless Promotion Tagged With: A Tiger In The Kitchen, Baked potato, Bean dip, Butter, Chicken Fried Chicken, Chips, Cowgirl, Cowgirl Seahorse, Dessert, Fajitas, Lime, Mashed potatoes, Pecans, Sherry Delamarter Holmes, Sugar, Vanilla ice-cream, Vegetarian chili

July 20, 2009 By cheryl

Cowgirl Sea-Horse: Fish So Good It's Got To Be Bad For You


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It’s always a little unfair to judge a restaurant based on its first week out the gate — kinks still have to be worked out; the kitchen may not have found its rhythm yet.

Judging from a visit to Cowgirl Sea-Horse just days after it opened, it’s a place well worth checking out. If things are only expected to get better after the first week, well, let’s just say they’re already pretty darn satisfying.

This new seafood outpost of the popular Cowgirl in the West Village has the same Southwestern flavor and Steel Magnolia bartenders that the original restaurant does. But it offers slightly different fare from the chicken-fried steaks and smoked barbecue ribs that have been mainstay of Cowgirl for decades.

On the menu are $12 to $14 seafood gumbos, fish tacos and shrimp cornettas (crispy cones filled with shrimp). Like Cowgirl, it does a good job at what it does — uncomplicated comfort food. One thread links the two restaurants: there’s an awful lot of fried in both places.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: New York, Restaurants, Seafood, So Good It Must Be Bad For You Tagged With: Baked potato, Brooklyn Bridge, Cowgirl, Cowgirl Sea-Horse, Hot Fudge, Ice-cream, Jalapeno, New York, Po'boys, Rattlesnake, Reuben Sandwich, South Street Seaport, Steel Magnolia, Swiss Cheese, Thousand Island

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