Staycation Eats

There are so many great restaurants in NYC, it's inevitable that some of them will be out-of-the-way. Faced with the expense and hassle of a last minute trip somewhere or enjoying my beautiful city, I chose to eat my way through the holiday week.

Thanks to a tip from Chowhound, on Monday I joined my parents at Gotham Bar & Grill for one of the most elegant lunches I've ever had. The roasted beet and mango salad was a line of colorful cut pieces on a long plate: delicious and tasty as well as a visual treat. I rarely order steak in restaurants, but their hanger steak was perfectly cooked. In addition to their $31 prix fixe for lunch, they also have a selection of $31 bottles of wine; we had a bottle from the unfamiliar region of France called Saint-Chinian. The chocolate marquise was the perfect end to the meal.

I'll mention in passing that I had supper at Tia Pol, mostly to note I'd forgotten just how incredible the food is. Also, it was the first time I'd EVER been seated - possibly because we got there 30mins before the kitchen closed :-P

I'd planned to go to L'Impero the very first time I was free on a business day, but then they closed. Fortunately for me, Scott Conant re-opened it as Convivio. I started with the sgombro, which was a delicious ceviche-like tuna dish; my gracious companion split her fegatini with me, which were incredible. I exclaimed to her that if things continued like this, the meal would be one of the top 10 best in my life. The chicken liver was dark and rich.

I must confess, when we first sat down, I didn't expect much from our waitress, but she turned out to be one of the best I've ever had. When I asked her opinion on the pasta, she unhesitatingly told me to get the fusilli with pork shoulder ragu. I'm not a big fan of pasta, but this was delicious. She was also fantastic in guiding us with multiple wines: I hate when waiters call over a sommelier for everything.

I was disappointed with my tuna: it was fine, but not outstanding. The grilled lamb chops were better, but still not as remarkable as the pastas. When I come back - because I must find a way to make this happen - I will probably skip the entree course altogether. The dessert on the other hand, wow. Caramel is my favorite sweet, so it was a no-brainer to get the tartalletta di caramelle. Convivio's caramel was exemplary and sandwiching it between chocolate and tart highlighted its intense flavor.

My new dining table was delivered yesterday, which precluded lunch reservations, so the big meal of the day was joining my siblings and uncle at Cipriani downtown. Although I greatly enjoyed a corporate event I attended at their midtown location, I had no expectations. I was horrified by the prices and annoyed that they served their bread without olive oil. Yes, I know it's a chintzy American-esque thing to serve bread with olive oil but I still like it. Then they brought it to the table with the caprese and the olive oil turned out to be incredibly good.

My aunt was delighted by the waiter's Italian accent. Me, I was delighted by his unhesitating advice to order the tagliardi (as well as his patience as I rattled off the dishes I was considering). He picked well - I tried everyone else's dish and the veal ragu set off the homemade pasta far better than the bolognese or sausage. Again, I'm not a pasta fan, but if I keep eating this sort of stuff, I might reconsider.

We'd watched the merengue cake go back and forth several times, so it was no surprise we ordered that. The nice thing about eating with 7 other people is that someone joked, "Why don't we just get one of each [cake]?" and we could. I also like the white cake whose name escaped me, as well as the tirimisu-like one.

May the new year be as full of good eating as the past three days. Read More......

Gonna need a bigger lunch box

You know your lunch has jumped the shark when you find yourself packing a tray for the toaster oven to prepare it in the pantry.

On the other hand, my tacos were delicious and cheered me up immensely. Read More......

The Anti-Brown Bag

I've been having a bad week, and yesterday was particularly bad, until I thought to call my friend Patrick for lunch. Despite the recession, Bar Americain was packed and could not accommodate us for an hour, but his favorite restaurant, Redeye Grill, had a table available.

I wasn't all that hungry: I mostly needed to be taken care of, and some good company. Ever since reading Taras Grescoe's Bottomfeeders, I've been trying to eat more oysters, but I don't know much about them, so I let Patrick pick. I got 3 each of the Blue Island and Pearl Point oysters. The former were large and salty, and tasted particularly good with a teensy dab of cocktail sauce; the latter were creamy, as if they were covered in a thick white sauce, and were even better with a little lemon.

Patrick's also great at picking wine, so I didn't bother looking at the list. He chose a pinot noir and we had a long discussion of why that would taste good. In a wine tasting class, I learned that proper pinot noir should taste like wet carpet, so I've avoided it since. Patrick pointed out that it tastes good with food and then glared at me when I commented that oysters taste like wet carpet too.

He had diver scallops. I protested loudly that I don't like scallops when he put one on my plate and he laughed when I went from complaining to nom nom-ing.

After the Esca experience, I wanted to get the goat cheese panna cotta, but it wasn't available ala carte. Instead we had white chocolate mousse in a milk chocolate bag, which was rich and sinful and sent me back to work in a cheery if indulgent mood. Read More......

RW Winter 2009

This was a very low-key Restaurant Week for me. Early in the week, my parents and I had theater tickets, so we ate at Blue Fin. I was somehow less impressed this time: my mother's tuna and fluke chirashi was an interesting presentation, but nothing to come back for, and her wild striped bass amounted to fish with tasty mush. I had a craving for oysters, so I had their "east & west" selection, of which I enjoyed the east. The crispy skin salmon also amounted to fish with tasty mush; I ordered it specifically because I wanted to try their brussel sprouts, but can't remember it, which probably says it all. This was the meal that made me realize I'd rather eat my own home cooking than go out, at least some of the time.

I've already mentioned how Esca fixed that misconception.

In years past, I've never been able to get a reservation for Asiate for RW, but when we went on Friday, it was half empty. The service was good and the views magnificent, but the food was adequate for the environment. The first taste of the chestnut puree? soup? made me gasp, it was so delicious, but there were so many mushrooms and the duck confit somehow didn't integrate well. My companion had the tuna tartar starter, which seemed to involve a salad, which he left. We both had the beef tenderloin - does it always come with two different cuts of meat, prepared differently? I chose the creme caramel for dessert, mostly because it came with citrus and I was curious how that would work, but I think my uncle's flan is better. I was jealous of my companion's raspberry chocolate cake, but I'm not convinced it was much better. I was initially excited to hear they are continuing the RW menu for the rest of the year, but I'm not inclined to go back, unless circumstances bring me to the neighborhood. Read More......

RW Summer 2008, pt 2

It's taken me so long to write this post about Bar Boulud, I've actually been back twice!

I took a summer Friday to take care of some renovation-related things at home, but even my sister who works all the time took lunch off when she heard I had a reservation for Bar Boulud. The lunch was magnificent. Charcuterie is their specialty and mine was delicious - but my father's carrot soup was intriguing - it had a strong cumin flavor and the flavors were so well blended, it no longer tasted carrot-y. I had a ricotta and chanterelle ravioli for an entree; I'm not a fan of mushrooms and I believe ravioli should always contain meat, but the flavors blended so well, I didn't care. Dessert was a hazelnut mousse. Mmm..

My mother liked the restaurant so much, we went back for dinner for my brother's birthday. Turns out they always have a prix fixe and I think this might be the best fine dining/pre theater deal in the city - $42 for an exquisite, impeccably served 3-course meal. The carrot soup and the charcuterie were less transporting the second time, but overall the meal was delicious and delightful.

Did I mention Bar Boulud is across the street from Lincoln Center? We ended up going there before the opera and once again, the food delighted. I had a taste of my mum's head cheese, which was fantastic, and I had the skate. Both highly recommended.

They have tasting flights on their wine menu, which I don't think I've seen in fine restaurants before, and their sommelier is friendly and helpful. My mother keeps encouraging me to go there on my way home from work - and maybe I should. Read More......

RW Summer 2008, pt 1

I used to get very excited about Restaurant Week, guessing which restaurants would be participating and making reservations even before the list was published, but after 8 years, I've been to a lot of the interesting restaurants and let's face it, there's a lot of chafe. By the time this summer's RW started, I'd only made one reservation, but somehow, I still ended up at four different participants.

* Blue Fin was one of those restaurants I'd always avoided, assuming that a hotel restaurant in Times Sq couldn't be all that good, but I was pleasantly surprised. I'd go back for RW, and not just because the mixed drinks are delicious.

* While I enjoy red meat, I rarely go to steakhouses - I enjoy innovative cuisine more than large quantities of food - but my friend Kat had a reservation for Kobe Club. I ordered the RW menu, which could be upgraded from the hamburger to the wagyus, and she had the tasting menu, meaning that we could taste everything they offered, but still spend a little less than the usual. Well, not that much less. The dishes were interesting and side by side, I could taste the difference between the American, Australian, and Japanese wagyus, but for that amount of money, I'd rather go to Le Bernardin. The wine list is very interesting.

* I wasn't particularly excited about Grayz, but I needed a same-week lunch reservation in midtown west. I'd never have gone there otherwise. It's on the site of the old Aquavit, where I'd had my first disappointing RW meal, and I'm a big believer in food karma. After all that, it turned out to be better than expected. We started with a spicy tuna-kampachi tartare with a lovely presentation: there was an arrangement of tuna in the middle, held together with tortilla chips, with an artful scoop of tomato salsa on the side. The entree was short rib croque monsieur, which was too much of a good thing, alas. The black forest parfait was delicious. I was ready to go back the next time I needed a nice restaurant near work, but then they gave us a $25 coupon for our next visit, which sealed the deal. To me, that's what RW should be - an introduction to a restaurant you've never been to before, but might return if you like it.

I'll save the other restaurant for its own post. Read More......

Would you like that on Wonderbread?

Lunch yesterday at the cafeteria was chicken pot pie, braised beef tenders, macaroni & cheese, buttered noodles, twice baked potatoes, parslied (sic) turnips, and asparagus stir fry. Particularly galling as earlier in the day, I came across this article which lists obesity as a potentially job-threatening habit. whiskey-tango-foxtrot?

Me, I had a spinach-celery-ginger juice with protein powder. I've had it before, but with parsley, which was delicious. Without the brightness of the parsley, the mustiness of the spinach and the tang of the ginger conflicted too much and the whole drink was out of whack :(

Read More......