At least the gyros are hot...

Hi! We're Ellen and Mark. We moved to New York City in early 2005, fresh-faced and with high expectations. We came here for school and, ironically, school is now the only thing keeping us here. We're counting the days until we can graduate and move to a place that has non-toxic air, apartments that are consistently larger than broom closets, and insects and vermin that are of the normal, smaller-than-Great-Danes variety.

But, something must be said: the one sustaining truth that keeps us sane in this filthy, rude, absurd city is that hands down, by far, no contest - New York City has the best food in America.

Surely, food is not enough to make us forget the drawbacks of metro living: our apartment has a hot water system that rivals those of most medieval cities. We're pretty sure it involves an intricate system of pullies and aqueducts extending directly from Siberia, ensuring a frigid, eye-opening personal hygiene experience each morning. We live under a highway and next to an elevated subway, which makes for quiet, pollution-free living. While commuting to Manhattan for school and work, we are sucker-punched by Cantonese grandmas, held captive by horrendous subway accordionists and assailed by an endless barrage of loud-talking, cell-phone-gripping 20-somethings, all of whom make more money than we do.

But despite all of this, we come home to Queens and, well - we're home. Within walking distance of our modest roach motel we have amazing Greek, Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Italian... There is also a plethora of bars, cafes and bakeries that make our daily lives tolerable. Hell, when the paycheck is a little bigger than expected, we sometimes even venture into Manhattan and beyond for certain delicacies.

So...that's why we're writing this blog. We want to share our culinary experiences with our friends and family so that they know that, despite our complete, utter disappointment in New York City, at least we're eating well. And if they visit, they'll know at least a few places that won't give them botulism or malaria.

We plan on reviewing all forms of culinaria all over the city, as we see fit. We are not professional food reviewers, but as you'll see, we do know quite a lot about food. We're also students (translation: we're broke), so don't expect to see Nobu or The Four Seasons being reviewed here. Price is a big part of the dining experience, and we will definitely be factoring it in with our food reviews. Our goal is to highlight low-to-mid priced places for people who don't work in finance but still want delicious, authentic culinary and mixological experiences.