Food Adventuring Around NYC
You have pre-conceived notions about certain things (we all do) and then when it turns out that your expectations are completely wrong, it takes a little while to adjust. That was the case when we walked into Katsuno, a little Japanese restaurant in the middle of suburban Forest Hills. I sort of expected this place …
Mondays are not the most popular night to go out for dinner, but you’d never guess that on the day before Tuesday at Buttermilk Channel in Carroll Gardens. It might be their special $25 three-course prix-fixe menu (which is a great deal) or it just might be that this place is part of the latest …
I’ve started going out early recently. Partly because I am getting old and tired but also because you can avoid the crowds and get into hot spots if you go early enough. I had not been to Draft Barn previous to this night, but I assumed it was a hot spot, partly because it was …
SADLY, MOTO NOW CLOSED. I do enjoy beer, but I’ve never been one of those “alcoholic types” who drink it in the morning. Hair of the dog and all that, sure, but I don’t find myself sloppily hung over too much anymore. Well, granted, by the time I got the Breakfast Beer at Moto, it …
Clover Club is another of those repeat spots from last year. I sometimes think Time Out picks the hippest bars and restaurants first and then tries to find an item that might qualify for the Best 100. And Clover Club is definitely one those hip bars. I came here last year (thanks to the previous …
Okay, so when it comes to Tarte Flambées, I am definitely a little bit jaded. For those uninitiated, a tarte flambée is an Alsatian flat bread with smoked bacon, softened onions, and créme fraîche. I feel like I’m at work. You see, at The Modern (where I work), our Chef Gabriel Kreuther is Alsatian and …
I grew up on Chinese food. Besides Italian, it was the only ethnic cuisine my conservative (on the food front, not politically) parents ever dared to let me try. I begged them to let me try sushi when I was younger, but their fear got the best of them. Interestingly enough, the two cuisines I’m …
I work at a restaurant so I completely understand how annoying it is when a group of people come in to have dinner a few minutes before we close. But when we arrived at Bamiyan at 10 and they close at 11, I expect to have full service and not be rushed out the door. The …
I remember once many years ago when I worked at California Pizza Kitchen, a guest asked the bartender if she knew of any good tapas bars in the area. Without missing a beat, the bartender told him about Scores down the street. You see, Scores is a topless bar and a tapas bar is a …
Octopus is a tough dish and often a “tough” dish. I was never a huge fan of octopus sushi because it’s very chewy and I always felt like my jaw was getting a work-out. And I hate working out. I have had some pretty spectacular and tender octopus dishes outside of sushi and it’s one …
It’s nice to return somewhere from last year’s list to get a new list item. Last year I had an amazing duck and foie gras ravioli at Scarpetta thanks to Time Out. And I’m hoping their entry this year, the Tagliolini will be just as mind-blowing. We sat at the bar and were given good …
Unctuous. What a great word. And one that I don’t get to use very often. Although when we went to the fancy new seafood palace, Marea just off Central Park to try another list item, I found myself saying the word over and over again. The list item was number two on Time Out’s Top Ten …
SADLY, AUEROLE IS NOW CLOSED. This is getting too stressful. Two possible failures in a row! After the maple crusted versus maplecrest debacle, now I get to Auerole, the fancy schmancy Charlie Palmer restaurant which has recently relocated to the very strange location of 42nd Street, and find that the foie gras and quail terrine is …
SADLY, THE BROOKLYN STAR IS NOW CLOSED. My heart dropped tonight. We got to The Brooklyn Star in Williamsburg to order the roasted maple-crust chicken. It sounded delicious and I had checked their website to make sure they had it on the menu. The restaurant was hidden on a quiet, unassuming street. It was rather small …
Yellow pickled eggs do not sound like a terribly appetizing conquest. But if it’s on the list, I’m gonna eat it. And so this brings me to The Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights. The Vanderbilt is not inside a hotel, but rather on Vanderbilt Avenue. It was a bitterly cold night and the bar/restaurant was pretty …
Some might call it cheating, but I call it strategy. I didn’t actually purchase this list item at Mast Brothers Chocolate Factory in Williamsburg, but rather at Bklyn Larder, where I picked up the pickled cauliflower. Now just to set the record straight, I did go to Mast Brothers a few weeks earlier and they …
I went in to the very homey cheese and snack shop Bklyn Larder a few weeks ago in search of another list item: pickled cauliflower. The girl told me that the cauliflower was in the process of being pickled, but they had pickled carrots which I was assured tasted the same as the cauliflower since …
We had an amazing time at Oceana, the recently relocated seafood palace close to the Theater District on 49th Street. We sat at the bar and the staff was incredibly accommodating and friendly. The seafood was all fresh and pretty inventive. I especially enjoyed a sausage stuffed seafood dish, where the chef ingeniously used a …
I went out to the very diverse and colorful Jackson Heights to track down one of the list items with the hopes of having a fun food adventure in Queens. Well, it turned out to be more adventurous than I had anticipated. Now, as usual, I had a limited time frame since I had to …
SADLY, ALDEA IS NOW CLOSED. Aldea es un nuevo restaurante fantastíco! El arroz de pato es absolutamente delicioso y creo que todo el mundo debería probarlo. Sólo desean que sus tamaños de las porciones fueron un poco más grande, pero George Mendes es un gran cocino. Aldea is a great new restaurant and if you …