...more recent posts
A great meal at Wallsé(11th Street and Greenwich), which is fast becoming a favourite. Kurt, the irrepressible chef, is one of those impossibly thin people that likes to watch you chub up before his eyes. A tasting menu emerged, not a false note on the food front, the boozers looked well pleased too with the Austrian wine list, and a really wonderful staff. A chestnut soup and a squash soup amuse. Smoked trout palacinka. Spaetzle with white truffles. Foie gras terrine with apple. Wiener schnitzel with cucumber and potato salad. We were with a friend recently returned from Russia who just happened to have a huge tub of caviar in her sheared beaver purse, we sent it into the kitchen for the staff to have some, but they sent it back out with mountains of crème fraîche and delicious little Viennese palacinka pancakes. Desserts are, as one would expect from a nation of cake lovers, sublime. Try the Salzburgerknochen (literally the mountains of Salzburg), a sort of Austrian île flotant with fruit. Kurt is also in charge of Cafe Sabarsky (1048 Fifth Avenue at 86th Street) where you can go and pretend to be in Vienna for the afternoon, eat cake (there are also soups and sandwiches), drink great coffee and reduce yourself to a sugar and caffeine fuelled haze.
couple yummy items for lunch at Restaurant Marseille (green bean salad and seafood burger), other dishes ok.....TanDa lunch the day before was also excellent (tender duck wrapped in a crepe, spring rolls {more herbs and lettuce would have been nice})....
gsi:nyc
had a sad lunch at Grand Sichuan yesterday (still good but a far cry from what made it #4), i have a 12 top there this tuesday (maybe my last) but will start trying the new spot where the chef is more on lex/mid 30's soon (yesterday i learned that the chef and owner have troubles, they still share ownership of two on 9th ave but the chef owns 100% the place of lexington and the other guy another one upper east side that was no good)....:<(
dinner at the much talked about Beyoglu was fun (owner is a nut), not as good as a fantastic Turkish place that closed a few years ago IMHO....they have an $8 corkage fee and decent stemware, plus tons of yummy little dishes, so if lost on the upper east side, go taste 1431 3rd ave/81st
Top Restaurants 2002 (NYC unless noted)
NYCity
#1 Lupa
#2 Jean Georges
#3 Jewel Bako
#4 Grand Sichuan Int'l Midtown
#5 Felidia
#6 Union Pacific
El Mundo
#1 Da Guido (Piedmonte, Italy)
#2 Zur Rose (Sud Tyrol, Italy)
#3 L'Astrance (Paris)
#4 Temple Club (Siagon)
#5 Locanda Dell Arco (Piedmonte, Italy)
#6 Les Tonnelles (Loire, France)
#7 Indochine (Siagon)
Special Merit/No Particular Order
The Minnow, Veritas, Sistina,
Fresh, Holy Basil, Al Di La
Manducati's, Willi's Wine Bar (Paris)
Tomasso's, Gramercy Tavern, Picholine
Locanda Vini Olii, Al Ponte (Verona, Italy)
L'osteria del Vignaiolo (Piedmonte, Italy)
L'Oste Scuro (Verona, Italy)
Il Gattopardo
excellent tasting menu at Union Pacific, the house special uni/taylor bay scallop/wasabi/sake yum yums ROCK, tender pheasant, rich and juicy rack of lamb, and foie gras w/ tahini and concord grape salad to finish (a funny twist on peanut butter and jelly:>)
last night was Aix and a few things we very tasty, lively crowd and a bar scene....
what puff's
(from ny magazine)
Kapadokya
A Brooklyn Heights spinoff of Turkuaz on the Upper West Side, this second-floor restaurant and hookah bar serves a similar menu of meze, kebabs, and Turkish specialties, which somehow taste more exotic when consumed at a traditional low table and followed by a few illicit puffs of something Bloomberg hasn't gotten around to outlawing yet.
142 Montague Street
Brooklyn
718-875-2211
· Cuisine:Turkish
i'm ready
(from ny magazine)
Svenningsen's
When some chefs branch out and open a new restaurant, they have a loyal client base to fall back on. Ron Svenningsen has a congregation. For the past sixteen years, he's held the title of head chef at Marble Collegiate Church, feeding the flock at various singles dinners, Sunday brunches, and ladies' teas. But the former lobsterman and northern Maine restaurateur dreamed of opening his own old-fashioned fish house, serving shore dinners, fried Ipswich clams, and seafood crêpes. Hence Svenningsen's, his homey restaurant that opens next week a block from the church. "I'll put my lobster roll up against anybody's," he says. "I use only the knuckles, with just enough Hellmann's to bind it, and a homemade bun with a little butter placed on the griddle — it's got to be a griddle so you get that buttery flavor." Mary's and Pearl's, watch your backs.
292 Fifth Avenue, near 30th St.
212-465-1888
lunch at Il Gattopardo was super duper, 7 dishes tried, not a weak one.....Crispo was fine, deff a scene.....
Rachael Alert: Sun Dou Dumpling Shop
A real lunch for a buck. Do you hear us? One dollar. Grab two hot pork buns (50 cents) on a cold day, and watch them steam as you gobble them right there.
(214–216 Grand Street; 212-965-9663.)
sea urchin risotto?? well we were sent it out the other day at feledia, not bad....
i did lunch there and dinner with 5 dishes at 71 clinton fresh foods in between....rumor is i ate and drank to much cause i pasta'd out with hiccops sounding like a hippo and linda had to head to the couch after punching me in the gut...another day in paradise!!
i bought expensive fresh NY porcini at the market this am and while they were ok as a pasta sauce (butter, oil, parm chesse, pasley), we could not eat them all, so lets see if the cats will, rex 4 or 5 pieces, prisilla eat everyother one left and licked the bowl clean, she ate more than me.....she's purring taking a nap now
Of late my three favorite dining experiences all happen to total under $10. I have been cooking at home most nights out of a general weariness with restaurants (this might have something to do with the fact that everyone I associate with can speak of nothing else as they are building one, and I feel like I have been swept up in some very dodgy cult that can’t quite dislodge itself from the birth canal, but also the fact that most eateries all seem a little disappointing. Much of the time something reductive happens on the way from the home kitchen to the restaurant kitchen—perhaps it’s as simple as volume, volume of customers, volume of food being prepared, and number of hands putting out a dish—and things just start to taste less). Apart from this culinary narcissim, economy and nutrition are also contributing factors. Why can’t you eat a big dish of delicious vegetables anywhere? But when not in the kitchen, I happily resort to these venues: Dumpling House at 118A Eldridge Street, where the visuals provided by the cooks are as delightful as the food (try the chives and pork fried dumpling, the sesame pancake with beef, or the chives and egg pancake). Dessert can then be had at the nearby Laboratorio del Gelato on Orchard. For simple but excellent Chinese take out (or eat it there) head to Golden Siu Sam Yuen at 5 Catherine Street (near Chatham Square and East Broadway) for their roast duck (or eel, or salt-baked chicken, or barbecued small pig, or ribs, or lobster) with rice and vegetables. When in the northern territories, two hot dogs with sweet relish and a mango papaya drink from Gray’s Papaya at 2090 Broadway and 73rd, can result in a person feeling deeply contented.
ny times magazine duz clinton street. quite a dewey-eyed tribute.
Argintinian dinner at Ripe
Bacalao stuffed poblano pepper with corn broth
Grilled hearts of lamb, watercress, dried mango, and toasted almonds with a sherry vinaigrette
Matambre - rolled painted hills flank steak stuffed with black kale, hard cooked egg, onion, and oregano
New potatoes
Tres leche
Wines:
Don miguel gascou 2001 malbec mendoza argantina
bodega jacgres + francois lurten 2002 mendoza
valle de uco
pinot gris
layunta torrontes 2001
famaatina valley
la rioja - argentina
The Bacalao stuffed pepper and corn broth soup was amazing. So was the flank steak.
The salad was great. But the lamb heart was so finely sliced, tender that it was practically un-noticable. I guess subtle is the word. I could take it or leave it. The dried mango and almonds were my fave touch.
I loved the wines, the dessert was nice too.
All is served family style so second and third helpings on wine and food (not dessert) if you want.
Special dinner that night so price was double the usual: $40 plus tip. I love this place.
email from Ripe
>What is Ripe and why are they bothering me?
>
>
>
>
>ripe is:
>
>a small local company that to date is best know for its
>family style dinners called "family supper",
>we are also well established caterers, and at present have a few new
>projects...
>
>
>A. family supper
>In march 2001 we began a series of informal dinners held in our home
>twice monthly for around twenty guests, after serving over 700 guests
>in our living room, we moved to our new location on N interstate,
>expanding our concept into a restaurant,
>for lack of a better word...
>..
>since march 2002 we have been serving up to 45 diners,
>3 nights a week in our spacious open kitchen...
>...
>all our guests arrive at the same time and sit together at three
>long woodentables
>there are no waiters, just cooks bringing out large platters of food
>and earthenware pots to be passed and eaten family style...
>...
>there is only one menu per week, though we encourage people to alert us to
>any
>dietary restrictions in advance.
>...
>The price of the meal is $20/per person + gratuity
>dessert is available for $5
>...
> everyone receiving this email is invited to attend one of our suppers
>dinner is served
>every wednesday, thursday and friday
>at 7:30
>
>
>b. cake
>we are beginning a new division of our off-premise business with "cake"
>offering
>special order desserts and pastries by mandy groom, formerly the executive
>pastry chef
>of zefiro and bluehour
>c. gotham bldg coffee shop
>we have just opened a humble coffee shop and lunch place on the corner of
>interstate and albina, featuring pastries by cake and food by ripe... open
>m-f 7-5
>call 503.493.2646 for more info
>(family supper is featured in
>better homes and garden this month pg 37 - 42)
>
>family supper Dates
>
>open dates
>booked dates
>what is ripe and why are they bothering me?
>
>
>open dates
>
>
>september
>27th (just had someone cancel 8 seats. let me know asap)
>october
>2nd
>16th
>17th
>18th
>midnight supper 18th
>23rd
>24th
>25th
>30th
>tentative: Native seeds day of the dead benefit 10/31 $50
>november
>6th
>7th
>13th
>14th
>15th
>midnight supper 15th
>tentative : wine dinner november 16th
>
>*october 9th and 10th are benefit dinners for community advocates
>(child abuse and domestic violence prevention) call 280-1388 for
>reservations
>
>
>booked dates
>
>september
>28th
>29th
>30th
>october
>1st
>2nd
>3rd
>4th
>5th
>11th
>15th
>19th
>22nd
>26th
>november
>1st
>2nd
>5th
>8th
>9th
Hoi An at 135 West Broadway was fine, aint Vietnam, but is there anyplace in NYC to come anywhere close....I used to live at #135 WB and thats where Linda and I first hung out, Brooklyn has allowed me not to miss 135 WB...I very much miss the Slanted Door in SF, thats good Vietnamese, all whom have been long for more....Steve help me out, I saw a listing and a yummy looking photo about Pho Van in Portland (1012 NW Glisan), is it good??:>)
we take a car service to Queens on some road I remember being on only once before, we mill around Kew Gardens circling 83rd Ave looking for #120-35, we have mapquest so we tell the driver to drop us in front of this big beautiful house....one block away we find the sign Uzbekistan Cultural Center / Uzbekistan Tandoori Bread House / Kosher Restaurant, in my bag I have a 1968 Rioja and a 1930 Dulce Monastrell, and my pals are well equiped also...we enter to many onlooking eyes, sit down and dig in, the first round of food was fantastic (lamb noodle soup, lamb dumpling soup, salad of carrot/slaw/pickles, big lamb dumpling, rice pilaf w. boiled lamb, fried potato, glorious bread), room had murals and great paintings (one of which by the end of the nite I was asking the owners to buy, and we are still talking), soon the music began and people were dancing....the mains (griled meats shish kebob(sp?) were less good for only two correctable reasons, too much salt and overcooked...great nite!!
Ate at Washington Park last night. Beautiful room. Very good service. Extensive wine list. One app sparkled (pasta with crab and heirloom tomatoes) but the rest of the food, while good, didn't excite any of us. Desserts, on the other hand, were yummy. Nice night, but I'd need to hear something different to try again.