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You don't see pestle tea too often. To start, the best ones are ground by hand in a stone mortar, and turning a handful of nuts and seeds into a smooth paste takes a good twenty minutes of studious grinding—by hand. But the result is well worth it: the kind of drink that nourishes you like the best oatmeal, and a ritualistic experience that, if I had an extra half hour every day, would become a required part of my morning routine. More

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"We wanted it to have the same vibe as the Bien Cuit in Brooklyn, even if it's in Manhattan," said head baker Zachary Golper of his second location, which just opened on Christopher Street. More

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You know a restaurant opening is an important one when, a few months later, you can't imagine New York without it. 2012, despite plenty of closures even before a catastrophic storm that crippled, closed, or delayed so many restaurants, was a fantastic year for eating in the city. Here are my favorites of the year: not just full-service restaurants, but the odd bakery, cocktail bar, and Mediterranean lunch joint thrown in for good measure. More

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"My idea with the menu here was to start with classic American and Mexican cocktails—the Mexican Firing Squad, the Vieux Carré—break them down, and reinterpret them through a lens that's both a little more Mexico-focused in its ingredients, and a little modern," says Sam Anderson, the tall, heavily tattooed bar manager at Salvation Taco, Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield's new taqueria in the Pod 39 Hotel in Murray Hill. The Hotel Delmano bartending hotshot has been running the program at the hotel's rooftop bar since the summer. More

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One of New York City's oldest continually-operated businesses, Faicco's Pork Store has been serving up high-quality meats, imported Italian specialties and prepared foods in the West Village since 1900. Edward Faicco, who immigrated from Sorrento, Italy in 1896, opened the store on Thompson Street, which in those days formed the heart of a heavily Italian neighborhood home to pushcart vendors and cobblestone streets. More

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If a casual, a la carte restaurant serving up tacos that start at $3 and sandwiches that top the menu at $9—in a converted Salvation Army space in the middle of the banker and adult frat-boy-friendly bar scene of Murray Hill—seems like an out of place move for chef/restaurateur duo April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman, that's because it is. Talking with April about the concept and the menu, even she seems a little surprised by the whole affair. More

Happy New Year, serious eaters. May your 2013 be filled with lots of seriously delicious food with people whose company you enjoy. That's in fact what we strive to do every day on Serious Eats, and to the extent that we succeed, it's largely because of the warm embrace we receive from the ever-growing community of serious eaters all over the world. Here's to a happy, healthy new year! And if you're throwing a party tonight, here are 60+ easy, tasty nibbles to prepare in a jiffy and tips for affordable bubbly to pop. More

With this post we're signing off on SENY for 2012. We've done our reminiscing; now it's time to see what stories you loved most this year. More

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From marshmallow apples oozing liquid caramel to decadent red velvet cakes and whisper light coconut cakes to gigantic, golden honey toast, desserts in this city seem to only get better and even more delicious with each passing year. Click through for my picks of the top ten Sugar Rush sweets of the year. More

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It's been a great year for Mexican food in New York, and as the community develops, second and third generations settle, and more chefs become inspired by the diversity of the cuisine, it can only get better. Here are some of the best dishes of the year, ten that would make even the most fervent disbeliever reconsider. More