Saturday, July 31, 2010

IL BUCO-SUMMER

Il Buco's menu is always different depending on the season. Susan and Ashley ordered for me since I showed up late. As explained by Katie, our server, this tomato salad had dried olives which were salty and chewy, a nice contrast to the creamy burrata. The ziti came with home made sausage and broccoli rabe. The home made papparadelle was mushroomy and buttery.

Friday, July 30, 2010

OLIO

Olio is a new Neapolitan (I just realized that this meant "from Naples", I never really thought about it before, except strawberry, vanilla, chocolate ice cream) pizza place that recently opened in the West Village, it replaced a gross fast food sushi place. It's what I imagine a busy pizza place in Italy to be like. It's chaotic and hectic with Italian guys yelling at each other but then the pizza comes out and it's perfect and simple. I started with an arugula salad topped with slices of prosciutto and parmesan.

I went for the margherita "super" which used buffalo mozzarella and added cherry tomatoes, the crust tasted great and wasn't burnt at all.
One thing... the outside of the building is painted an ugly bright green, I think they should change the color. It looks OK at night but during the day it's too bright, then again, this weirdness kind of adds to it's authentic Italian feeling.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

BLUE HILL AT STONE BARNS-CAFE


At work today we were scouting for country roads. Luckily we were looking right in front of Blue Hill at Stone Barns so we had lunch at the cafe. It's a working farm. Almost all the food they serve is raised or grown right there. Today I had a bologna sandwich and mixed vegetables.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

LOUIE


Louis CK's new show Louie is great. I love the whole opening and theme song so I decided to research it.

SOLE EAST-BACKYARD

This was a mistake. Sole is a trendy, LA-ish hotel that has two locations in Montauk. I stayed overnight at the Beach location, it was fine. But the East location has a swimming pool and DJs playing lounge music. The fluke ceviche at the The Backyard Restaurant was more like fluke soup.

SECOND HOUSE TAVERN

I had a couple of days off so I took a solo impromptu trip to Montauk. It's pretty easy to come mid-week on the Jitney, for an extra $15 you can bring your bike. Being a solo diner, I didn't want to go to some really family-oriented or action packed place, that would make me feel extra lonely. The Second House Tavern over-looking Fort Pond was just what I was looking for. They had the Yankees game on in the bar and since it was happy hour they were handing out pizza from their wood oven. The cod with beets and capers was also from the wood oven.

Monday, July 26, 2010

THE COMMODORE


Food was a big part of the movie I am Love, which I saw today. A rich older lady falls for a young chef who is passionate about growing and preparing food, then her life falls apart. After the movie I was really in the mood to eat so I rode my bike to Williamsburg for fried chicken at The Commodore. It came with biscuits and two different types of hot sauce. They also have hamburgers and tacos and a bunch of different sides such as rainbow chard. The cocktail menu looked really good too, I'll have to go back and try more things.

SAUSAGE AND EGGS

I'm not a big breakfast guy but I couldn't resist today. Extra tomato, cheese and bread from lunch last week, and eggs and sausage from Flying Pigs Farm. Now I feel like I'm supposed to do something important today.

COLICCHIO AND SONS

There was a long rain delay at the Yankees game yesterday so Kat, Tracy and I headed to Colicchio and Sons for an early dinner. This place is so good, but I always forget about it... and it was completely empty (then again it was 5:30 on a hot July Sunday) We started with watermelon and cucumber salad with jalapeno and lime dressing. We said it tasted like "summer in a bowl"
Tomato, mozzarella basil pizza
Pizza with ricotta, rabbit sausage and squash blossoms. I loved this.
Romaine salad with a fried egg.
Dried beef with pickled eggs. This was a great combo.
Pan seared sole with potato pancake. Too many restaurants do too much with fish. This was so nice and simple, it tasted like sole with just a little lemon. This was a great meal.

Friday, July 23, 2010

FORGIVENESS

I saw Todd Solondz's new movie Life During Wartime today. It's theme is forgiveness. I've been thinking a lot about this lately because I harbor too much resentment and anger. It's much more powerful and freeing to forgive.

SUMMER LUNCH WITH ANN


Ann came over for lunch today and the ginger ale I made exploded. (We recreated the moment with another bottle)... so it might be better not to follow my recipe, since someone could get injured. It tasted pretty good though.
We had grilled cheese sandwiches with cheddar cheese from Bobolink Dairy. And tomato sandwiches with Duke's Mayonnaise. This is my favorite mayonnaise, it's from the south and I like the vaguely Nazi-ish packaging.
I made peach cobbler for dessert.


Thursday, July 22, 2010

GINGER ALE


Ann is coming over for lunch this week and she likes when I make ginger ale. It's very satisfying, it only takes about ten minutes and then after two days, it's ready. For each liter, add 1/2 cup of sugar, one tablespoon of grated ginger, juice from 1/2 a lemon and 1/4 teaspoon of yeast. The yeast and sugar interact to create carbonation (you can kind of see it beginning to happen at the top of the bottle). Ford got these cool containers for me from a Swedish furniture store.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

OATMEAL FOR DINNER?

A few months back Mark Bittman wrote about savory oatmeal. It's a quick and great dinner for one. This is kale with garlic and ginger, topped with soy sauce.

Monday, July 19, 2010

FATTY CUE




Since reading the New York Times review of Fatty Cue, I've wanted to go (even though I never liked Fatty Crab*). Andrea was in town working on her book so we met here for an early dinner. I didn't like it. The flavors were very murky and everything tasted too much like smoke.
Toast with Master Fat (the juices from all the animals they serve)
Smoked eggplant with chicharrones
Pork Ribs with fish sauce and palm syrup
Hoping for some relief we had the cucumber salad and the celery salad.
"The Legend" Pork Rib Chop with Buns
*My former therapist and group leader was a part owner here. It bugged me that she told me this information. She refused to answer any questions I had about her personal life (i.e. marriage status, kids, etc.) but she wanted to show off by telling me she "owned a restaurant". Once, I saw her park illegally and then take a parking ticket out of her glove compartment and put it on her dashboard. Even besides all this, when I ate there, I had the same feeling as tonight. Too murky.

Also, and maybe I'm being too grouchy, but the Verizon guy was there tonight, and everyone that worked there knew him. That bugged me.


Friday, July 16, 2010

EISENBERG'S



Eisenberg's is a classic New York sandwich place. You sit on a stool and order a BLT and cup of coffee and read the Post. There used to be a guy that kind of reminded me of an old friend behind the counter, but I haven't seen him for a while. For lunch my favorite is the tuna and egg salad mixed together on a roll with lettuce. This morning I met Ford and had an egg sandwich and a side of home fries.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

MOMOFUKU NOODLE BAR

Mott and I met at Momofuku Noodle Bar. I've pretty much liked everything I've ever tasted at any of the Momofuku establishments, except the tamales. They weren't bad, just nothing special. Everything else was special, like usual. We had raw scallops with beets.
Snap peas with horseradish and trout roe.
The classic Pork Bun (these had more pork in them than ever before)
tamales :(
Bok Choy in miso broth

ZIGOLINI'S

There are so many great new pizza places, I've become spoiled when it comes to pizza. Pete and I went to Zigolini's in Hell's kitchen. We shared the Primavera: a daily special with ricotta, arugula and fresh tomatoes: and the Regina Margherita. Our server said "Aren't they great?" but when she walked away, we looked at each with a shoulder shrug and "Meh?" look.


Wednesday, July 14, 2010

TAKASHI


Phil and I went to Takashi in the West Village for dinner. You wouldn't want to go here with a vegetarian or someone that was squeamish about beef. We started with raw flap meat topped with sea urchin and rolled with chiso and dried seaweed.

Seasonal pickles: okra, beets, fennel, tomatoes, string beans, purslane, potatoes and most interesting-cilantro, pickled.
The tongue tasting- three different parts of the tongue including the tip (we made lots of "tip of the tongue" jokes)
You grill it yourelf and make a little lettuce wrap using this stuff:
The last course was the Chef's tasting: (first stomach, fourth stomach, sweetbreads, heart and liver) in a sweet marinade. Our server told us to make sure to cook the "white meat" until crispy--Phil said "Throw another stomach on the barbie!"

Were they trying to say I had bad breath?