The Last Bite

A while ago, I decided to end this blog after a year, just because it seems like there are other things on which to focus. Not that I spent THAT much time on it, but it was a great way to procrastinate on life's more important things. Also I was running out of synonyms for "delicious."

But in any case, I actually gave birth a month early, on Feb. 17, and we did move to (ugh) Jersey City on Feb. 23, so great eating is going to be less a feature of my life for a while, anyway. Although I am compelled to point out that after a year of searching in vain for a decent Thai place that would deliver to us in the Financial District, we have already found such a winner in JC, called Sawadee! YAYYY!!!!

So this is farewell to the "Devour New York" audience, which consists, as far as I know, of two readers. Thank you, two readers!

Acapella, 1 Hudson St # A, Manhattan

Pat and I were treated to dinner at Acapella, in Tribeca, last night by his colleague Dan and Dan's daughter Devon. Dan had told us about Devon's interesting background with the Peace Corps and working for Ken Burns, and it was cool to meet her. It is perhaps only through meeting someone's daughter that you get to learn about some lesser-known aspects of their personal history, such as their altercation maybe fifteen years earlier with an angry man in a sandwich board, who traded punches with Dan while Devon hit him with her handbag. Somehow, that didn't come up the first time we had dinner with Dan.

My starter was agnolotti stuffed with lobster, in a creamy sauce with chunks of shrimp. It was fantastic. As I think about it, I should have tried to order that in a larger portion, as an entree. My entree was a steak that was only ordinary. We ordered sides of asparagus, spinach, and fried slices of potato, all of which were decent.

Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop, 174 5th Ave., Manhattan

I have once again taken up pre-natal yoga, this time at YogaWorks. They have three locations for pre-natal classes. I had been a few times to the UWS and SoHo locations, but my first attempt to make it to a class at Union Square ended fruitlessly, last week, when I went to 38 5th Ave. and there was no YogaWorks. There I was, pregnantly waddling up and down the block with my yoga mat as if it might suddenly appear, but it did not. I called Pat at work to see if he might look it up for me online, but he wasn't available, so I got back on the subway and went home. Where I learned that actually the studio is at 138 5th Ave.

The next day, I fell pregnantly down in the street for no apparent reason, twisting an ankle and bruising and skinning a knee (and most tragically, putting a hole in my favorite of my few pairs of maternity pants), so yoga was out for a few days, and then there were some scheduling challenges, mostly revolving around a man I was supposed to interview for my consulting gig who kept being only "available" during yoga class times and then failing to be available at those times anyway. Which begs a tangent: has it become professionally acceptable to schedule work calls with someone and then blow them off or be late? And if that's the new standard, how is it possible that someone as reliable and punctual as myself can't get hired? I mean, aside from the obvious fact that I will be giving birth in 5-6 weeks.

Which brings me back to my pre-natal yoga class - I was determined to get to the Union Square class on Tuesday, after several days of inactivity. But as it turns out, Tuesday was also the day of the parade to celebrate the New York Giants winning the Superbowl. The Giants' win was probably as important to Pat as it was unimportant to me. I think football is a brutish sport. However, I like parades, and this one went literally right past our apartment, and so we watched it. It was fun!

But then I underestimated the challenges the parade would present for getting to yoga class. I made it harder for myself by stopping along the way to pick up a free baby item from someone who was giving it away (this has become a hobby of mine), but then I had to head through the post-parade mayhem to get to the subway, again waddling pregnantly and now also lugging a nursing stool. And it turned out that my intended subway stop was closed until they finished the parade clean-up. So I had to schlep back to a different stop and finally got to 138 5th St. just in time for the class, which I didn't enjoy, because I couldn't put pressure on my knee. Then when I got back on the subway, it turns out they were running R trains express past where I wanted to get off, so I had to improvise and transfer and this made ME 4 minutes late for yet another phone interview with someone else! So I guess I shouldn't cast stones when it comes to the punctuality for the phone interviews, after all.

If you are even still reading this sob story, you are really just wishing I would get to my review of Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop, in the Flatiron district, where I stopped to pick up a sandwich before my second ill-fated subway trip of the day. I had pastrami on whole grain bread, with mustard. It was particularly greasy but delicious. The shop's motto is "raising New York's cholesterol since 1929." I enjoyed my artery-clogging sandwich immensely when I finally got to eat it at 4:00.

Ichiro, 165 Front St., Manhattan

Pat and I have only ourselves to blame for our appalling dinner from Ichiro, in the Financial District, tonight. We are always whining about how we can't find a good Thai place that delivers to us, and so we applied ourselves the internet for a new option, and Ichiro billed itself as an "Asian fusion" place. But it's not, is it? It is a Japanese place, and we were fools for ordering the Thai dishes. Fools!

Pat's pad thai did not taste like pad thai, and it had bell peppers in it, inexplicably. My red curry was simply not red curry! It actually wasn't bad, whatever it was - it was basically stir-fried vegetables. But I wanted red curry, and red curry I did not get.

The ordering itself was also an exercise in frustration. The online ordering function didn't work, so we called, and while she was very nice, the woman taking the order just was not up to the task of understanding English. (Side note: lest you should wonder whether this was why I didn't end up with red curry, that's not the explanation, as "red curry" was written on the order slip that came with my non-red-curry dish.) In particular, she was thrown for a loop when I told her the apartment number was 2J. I wondered if the Japanese language doesn't have a "j" sound, as German does not; I was referred to as "Chennie" for the nine months I spent in Austria.

Anyway, eating my non-red-curry in dismayed resignation, I looked on the web for Thai restaurants in Jersey City, and found a few highly-rated places within delivery or even walking distance, so hopefully we'll have better luck when we move across the river in a couple of weeks.

Burger Burger, 77 Pearl St., Manhattan

Pat picked up burgers for us yesterday from Burger Burger, in the Financial District. Mine was just a plain burger on brioche with a slice of tomato, to which I added my own avocado. It was fine. The fries, however, were excellent - crispy on the outside despite being quite long and fat.

David Burke Kitchen, 23 Grand St., Manhattan

It is always a delight to reunite with our friend Rob, visiting from Washington, with whom I suffered through a long study abroad year in Salzburg, Austria, viele Jahren vor. Rob is fun and hilarious, in multiple languages (though I only understand him in two or so....I cannot pretend to still remember more than a few words of Italian).

I believe that if you scroll down this blog far enough, you will come to the source of my choosing David Burke Kitchen, in lower SoHo, as our meeting place. I think that someone from Daily Candy recommended it, and the Yelp/Google reviews I looked up were uncharacteristically positive (it seems like people usually turn to Yelp when they want to unleash some hell).

We were very happy with the experience. The place did not fill up on this Saturday at lunch, so we were probably there about 2.5 hours, with no sense of being rushed. We were presented with popovers with marmalade, jam, and/or butter upon arrival, and then we ordered an appetizer of skewers with bacon and peanut butter and some sort of cherries or something? Whatever, it was quite tasty. I had stuffed french toast that was neither dry, nor what you might think of as gooey - it was somehow a perfectly moist yet light consistency. Pat had scrambled eggs with lobster that came in an impressive, eye-opening presentation, inside half an ostrich egg atop a bed of salt, with two lobster antennae sticking up. Rob, insisting all the while that he is not cheap, ordered a yogurt and granola mix with honeycomb on top.

It being Restaurant "Week," which seems to last for months nowadays, Pat added a dessert to his order that we all shared. We got carrot cake with coconut ice cream. The cake was crumbly and interesting, not overly sweet, with pistachios mixed in, and a decadent yet untraditional frosting. It paired beautifully with the ice cream.

Just to reiterate, Rob is *NOT* a cheapskate.

The artwork in the men's room was racy in a vegetal sort of way, prompting a stir among us. It was four close-up photos of a tomato with a protrusion appearing to be on the verge of penetrating another tomato. You don't really see tomatoes depicted pornographically very often. Or ever. It was salacious enough that I was secreted into the men's room to view it with my own eyes, which will be forever burned with the images.

Rob would like it to be known that he generously paid a third of the bill even though he ate practically the cheapest item on the menu.

Fino, 1 Wall Street Ct., Manhattan

Pat and I ordered from Fino a couple nights ago, armed with a 20% off Seamless coupon. It was a mixed bag. Both our entrees were big enough for two meals, which is a real plus, and they were good: Pat got veal and I got angel hair pasta with a tomato sauce and mixed seafood. The mixed seafood consists only of clams, mussels, and  squid, by the way. Surprising not to get any shrimp in there. But it was good.

The fried mozzarella appetizer turned out to be aged, not fresh, mozzarella, and it was not good. It was congealed and the breading was soggy.

Delivery time was as promised, around 40 minutes. I'm not sure we'd order from there again, given that it is a little pricey. Fino is in the Financial District.

Trinity Place, 115 Broadway, Manhattan

Trinity Place is just a couple blocks from us in the Financial District, and someone on the Herpes Mamas list recommended it. Pat and I went last night. The best thing about the place is that the bar through which you walk to get to the restaurant is an old bank vault, with ENORMOUS bank vault doors on either side. These are fantastic. The bar at 7:00 was raucous with libidinous Wall Streeters on the prowl for other libidinous Wall Streeters. We passed through the vault into the quiet restaurant.

Alas, the food was mediocre. We each had lobster bisque that was a little thin and lean on the lobster. My entree with duck confit and mushroom risotto was good, but nothing memorable, and a little too smoky for my taste in any case. Pat was similarly unremarkably placated by his gorgonzola ravioli.

We have decided to move, as outlined in my Jan. 9 post. We squirm when we think about trading in Manhattan for Jersey City, but I am going to have "4 minutes" tattooed onto my forehead, because that is only how far away Manhattan will be on the PATH train, which has a stop very close to our new apartment. 4 minutes is NOTHING! It will probably take me another 5 minutes just to wrap up this post! We have also pledged that we will take some of the vast amounts of money we'll be saving by making this move, and apply it to a regular (bi-weekly?) babysitter so that we will have nothing stopping us from making frequent 4-minute trips back in for a night on the town. We are not resigning ourselves to gaze longingly across the Hudson to our glittering former home (we are, however, looking forward to the OPPORTUNITY to gaze across the Hudson at the Manhattan skyline, a very nice feature of the new digs).

35 Thai, 35 Lispenard St., Manhattan

I had a hankering yesterday for pad thai, so Pat and I picked a place on Seamless that we had not yet tried, 35 Thai in Tribeca. The food came in around half an hour. Both my pad thai with chicken and the gang mussa-muhn (peanut curry) with chicken ordered by Pat were perfectly adequate but nothing remarkable. We wish we could find a truly great Thai restaurant within our delivery area! Thai restaurants may be one category where the Washington DC area actually has an advantage, although you can't get it to show up at your doorstep with dazzling speed the way you can here.

Light Horse Tavern, 199 Washington St., Jersey City

Pat and I have lived in our current apartment for almost a whole ten months, so clearly it is time to think about moving, right? SIGH. I never set out to be a drifter. Before Pat and I moved in together, I owned my house in the 'hood in DC for seven years. Then I moved four times in six months. Now we're considering moving again.

And we really like our current apartment. It is marvelous, with high ceilings and huge windows, in a building with character and nice staff, in a great location convenient to 4 subway lines, and it is plenty spacious for two people. But of course, in a couple months we'll be three people. And we could save a boatload of money by heading across the Hudson. And there are the darned boiler noises which wake me up usually several times a night, and the maintenance staff seems confounded by this.

We spent Saturday touring four apartment buildings in Jersey City, and particularly liked one called The Pier, which sits, go figure, on a pier. Being in the building was very much like being on a cruise boat. It is hard to weigh the trade-offs of moving there. Pluses include saving money, getting more space (and excellent views, by the way), and being more convenient to Pat's family. Minuses include negative reviews of the building online (it is hard to know how much weight to give those), moving at all, trading known problems (boiler) for unknown ones, and being in totally lame, boring Jersey City rather than Manhattan. We would still be just a four-minute PATH ride or eight-minute ferry ride from Manhattan, and we can't expect to take much advantage of being inside the city anyway once the baby arrives, but as Pat points out, it will be that much more of a challenge when we do want to take advantage, if we're across the river.

I don't know.

Anyway, in the course of our exploration, we had dinner at the Light Horse Tavern, and it was great. Pat had actually been to this place once before, for a work dinner. Our very friendly waiter told us that the new chef had been there just 2 days and was quite ambitious, including offering a special of lobster tempura atop duck l'orange atop a....heck, I can't even remember anymore -some sort of mushroomy pancake-type thing. I was willing to give it a whirl and was relieved that it was not as over-the-top as it sounded - just a great (basically non-orangey) leg of duck under a welcome chunk of battered lobster and atop a tasty carb base, also with some sautéed spinach. Yummmmmm. Pat was also pleased with his meatloaf and mashed potatoes. He also had a great parsnip soup that I ate a lot of, although the shrimps in his shrimp cocktail were fairly measly - the only negative worth noting.

I'm not ready to give Jersey City a rating yet but the Light Horse Tavern gets two thumbs up.

Kaffe 1668, 275 Greenwich St # 4, Manhattan

Kaffe 1668 in Tribeca was the site of my meeting with yet another of the Herpes Mamas, Sonja. She is new to the list and due in February, and lovely as all the rest. Joining this group was such a coup for me.

Unfortunately I wasn't impressed with the cafe. I got a hot chocolate and it was kind of on the small side, and barely chocolatey at all. Booooo. And Sonja had managed to snag us a table, but the place was overcrowded.

Walter Foods, 253 Grand St., Brooklyn

Pregnancy makes me cranky, so I regret that I was not in the best mood when Matt P. introduced Pat and me to Walter Foods, in Williamsburg. But it was nonetheless very likable.

There was a wait for a table, but the boys were pleased with their cocktails (and I with my ginger beer) at the bar. I got fried chicken as an entree, and it was great. It came with mashed potatoes and a spicy honey dip. I polished it off.

One downside to visiting this part of town in winter: the subway stop is outside! Elevated! In the cold wind! Brrrrrr.

The Bourgeois Pig, 111 E. 7th St., Manhattan

New Year's in NYC? Forget Times Square - our friends Marc, Yulia, Alex and James drove four hours up here to ring in 2012 at our apartment, while playing Rock Band. It was a great time!

The night prior, with no room at the inn at our intended East Village destination (Cienfuegos), we settled instead for the Bourgeois Pig, which as it turns out is a fondue spot. We got the rarebit fondue (excellent) and the mushroom fondue (good) and had a good night lounging on the couches, bathed in the red light of the place. It was a fine experience.

McNally Jackson Cafe, 52 Prince St., Manhattan

My latest career networking target suggested we meet in SoHo, at the cafe in the McNally Jackson bookstore. This bookstore is of the sort that makes you never want to enter a Barnes & Noble again. Yes, it loves itself, as independent bookstores often do, but you will love it too.

On this Thursday morning I was there for a couple hours and there was always at least one table available at the cafe. The hot chocolate was excellent (it was explained to me that they offer dark and milk, but my barista--Jerry--had blended them because the milk is too sweet and the dark is too bitter), although the raspberry scone was a little salty.

You have to insert a quarter to use the bathroom in the bookstore, and when you do, you are treated to a sign that says they're not engaged in a pathetic attempt to get another 25 cents out of you, but rather are trying to discourage use of the bathroom by intravenous drug users, whose needles apparently do horrible things to the plumbing. This is not, to be clear, a place I would picture drug users shooting up. It was amusing.

All this to say, if you need a book or a hot chocolate or a bathroom in SoHo, don't hesitate to visit McNally Jackson.

S'MAC (Sarita's Macaroni & Cheese), 345 E 12th St., Manhattan

Pat's sister Kathleen and her fiancé Paul came to New York on Sunday to partake of its Christmasy feel. We saw the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, the window displays at Macy's and Lord & Taylor, and the trimmings at the New York Public Library. But perhaps most importantly, we visited S'MAC, in the East Village, which serves only macaroni and cheese! God bless New York for nurturing this sort of culinary eccentricity.

All the offerings are served in cast-iron skillets straight from the oven. Pat and I shared a Parisienne, with brie, roasted figs and shiitake mushrooms, and rosemary. Delicious? Check. Delicious as leftovers the next day? Check. Artery-clogging? Check. I also sampled some of Kathleen and Paul's Cheeseburger skillet and Buffalo Chicken skillet; also both good. The latter was surprisingly spicy.

A couple of mild complaints: not enough tables to really meet demand, and no TP or paper towels in the restroom. Also the staff was a little on the surly side. But no complaints about the food. I have noted before that it is hard to go wrong with mac and cheese but I loved the devotion to the product demonstrated here.

Side note: I have heard there is a restaurant in New York entirely devoted to tiramisu. Please excuse me while I go conduct a Google search.

Midtown on a budget

Excerpted from The New York Times

December 13, 2011, 1:26 PM

Can It Be Done? Midtown on a Budget

By SETH KUGEL

...Food and Drinks

New Yorkers often fight the urge to physically block tourists’ entry to Times Square spots like the Hard Rock Cafe and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, which are not cheap and about as New York as an Idaho potato. That’s obvious to many tourists. But even savvy ones can get confused by the generic delis that litter the neighborhood. And anyone can get so overwhelmed with choices that Subway and McDonald’s can seem like oases. But remember the Frugal strategy: if you’re not supposed to pay for anything you could do anywhere else in the world, you certainly can’t eat at a restaurant common at highway rest stops.

It’s so cheap, you say! But lunch for under $10 at an only-in-New York spot is within a few blocks of just about anywhere in Midtown. My go-to has long been Margon (136 West 46th Street), a cheap, plain Cuban spot just off Times Square. Just about everything — from the pressed-to-order Cuban sandwich (which comes with a renegade slice of salami) to a plate heaped with rice, beans and meat — is under $10.

Still too pricey? How about Ming Du (273 West 38th Street), a tiny Chinese place that could be more of a hole-in-the-wall only by being an actual hole in a wall. On offer: your choice of three steam-table dishes, served over rice, for $5. It may not be the prettiest spot, but a tray of roast duck, pork with pickled vegetables, and bok choy, served over rice, looks strikingly similar to what the owner’s family is eating at your neighborhood Chinese restaurant (always a good sign). Need to go cheaper still? Make a meal of fresh pork buns for 80 cents and fresh breads for 70 cents.

For something a tad more upscale try Bann Next Door (350 West 50th Street), the cheap lunch nook in Bann, a sleek Korean spot, for bulgogi tacos with five-grain rice and guacamole salsa for $9. Too L.A.? How about Vic’s Bagel Bar (544 Third Avenue, between 35th and 36th Streets) for the Tokyo Tel Aviv Express (cream cheese, wasabi, lox, scallions and edamame on a bagel; $7.50). If that’s too breakfasty for lunch, there’s the Peruvian chicken lunch special at Pio Pio for $9.50, which is right next to Talent Thai Kitchen’s $7.95 lunches (appetizer; entree, like delicious curried noodle soup with meat; and bottled water), both on 34th Street just east of Third Avenue.

Those are mostly lunchtime spots, but if you’re willing to (barely) break the $10 rule for dinner, try the tiny, cute pasta place Radicchio Pasta & Risotto Company (253 East 53rd Street), with several entrees for $11. I took cheapo hometown friends there for pre-marathon carbo-loading when more standard spots were booked, and we loved the homey service and freshly made pasta.

And if you need a drink after browsing for items you can’t afford at Bloomingdale’s or Williams-Sonoma, there’s the recently renovated Subway Inn bar (143 East 60th Street), where a bottle of beer will run you just $4.

Let’s even toss in a dining recommendation near the Javits Convention Center, so you can avoid the awful food inside: Bis.Co.Latte (667 10th Avenue), a cozy cafe with $8.75 risottos and $1.10 biscotti in flavors like triple ginger and coconut chocolate chip. It’s also within walking distance from the Hard Rock, so no excuses, O.K.?

Balthazar, 80 Spring St., Manhattan

On Thursday morning, I met another of the moms-to-be on the Herpes Mamas list (I know, I shouldn't call it that, but I'm gonna - see my earlier post). We had breakfast at Balthazar, in Soho. I had hazelnut waffles with fruit sauce and it was eminently satisfying. Pat has heard this restaurant is very good and I would like to try it again for lunch or dinner.

Mary Beth is really cool, just like the other pregnant chicks I met last weekend, and she too is due in March. I am ecstatic about meeting these fun women, and I really hope we will all get to know each other better not just in the next few months but after we have our kids, when I'm sure I'll crave their company all the more. The Herpes Mama list was a great find. I was initially a little put off that there is a $55 fee and they make you meet one of the organizers, to prove you're legitimately a downtown mom (or mom-to-be), before they'll add you to the list, but already this has been worth that and much more. I met a fourth cool woman named Jazz for coffee yesterday too, and will be meeting another named Lori (plus reuniting with Katherine from last weekend) on Sunday. I also got three free pairs of maternity pants from a mom on the list!

I went to Dumbo after breakfast to hunt down a particular Christmas gift and ended up getting there before the store opened, so I stopped for a bit for a hot chocolate at the bar at Al Mar, 111 Front St. My hot chocolate was good and frothy and the space was airy yet cozy, so I note it for further exploration.

Al Di La Trattoria, 248 5th Ave., Brooklyn

In the course of my endless, if somewhat hopeless, networking to look for work, I had lunch with a very pleasant and interesting independent consultant, Sarah, in Park Slope this week. We may have the chance to work on some projects together so it was both fruitful and enjoyable.

My food was terrific, and perfect for the day of heavy rain. I had a steaming bowl of cheesy polenta topped with mushrooms, braised greens, and a little broth. I loved it. Sarah had tagliatelle with ragu that also looked truly delicious. She told me that it is really hard to get into Al Di La for dinner but we got seats at lunch no problem and stayed for probably almost a couple hours.

Restaurant recommendations in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

These are from someone I don't even know on a listserv to which I subscribe!

Cafe Bakeri - Great coffee, pastries and baguettes
http://www.bakeribrooklyn.com/

Zenchiki - japanese super cool, hidden 
http://www.zenkichi.com/

Miss Favela (brazilian - super fun, same owers as Felix)
http://missfavela.com/bkny/

Dumont Burger
http://www.dumontburger.com/

La Superior (Authentic and cool Mexican)
http://www.lasuperiornyc.com/

Pies and Thighs (Cute, all american Southern food)
http://piesnthighs.tumblr.com/

Radegasthall and Beer Garden (escucha la musica, es genial)
http://www.radegasthall.com/index.php

Caracas Arepas Bar - cheap and tasty!
http://www.caracasarepabar.com/index_2.php

Fette Sau (BBQ)
http://www.fettesaubbq.com/

Marlowe and Sons (our favorite seasonal fare)
http://marlowandsons.com/

Rye
http://www.ryerestaurant.com/

Walter Foods
http://walterfoods.com/

Aurora - amazing italian, rustic setting
http://www.auroraristorante.com/

Fiore - yummy italian, afforadable, great brunch too!
http://www.fiorebk.com/

St Anselm
http://menupages.com/restaurants/st-anselm/

Cafe Colette
http://cafe-colette.com/

Cafe de la Esquina (same family as la Esquina in Manhattan)
http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2011/06/plans_revelaed_for_cafe_de_la.html

Cantina Royal
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/cantina-royal/

1 or 8 - Fancy Japanese, if you ever need to impress!
http://www.oneoreightbk.com/

Cadaques - Awesome Tapas
http://www.cadaquesny.com/cadaquesny.com/Welcome.html

Samurai Mama
http://www.samuraimama.com/

Meatball Shop
http://www.themeatballshop.com/#http://www.themeatballshop.com/index.php/specials/view

ISA
http://www.yelp.com/biz/isa-brooklyn-2

Dressler
http://www.dresslernyc.com/website/

Vanessa's Dumpling House
http://www.hereswilliamsburg.com/home/2011/12/1/open-for-business-vanessas-dumpling-house-310-bedford-avenue.html

DRINKS
Berry Park (amazing views of Manhattan)
http://www.berryparkbk.com/
Hotel Delmano
http://www.hoteldelmano.com/

Amish Market Tribeca, 53 Park Pl., Manhattan

We ordered last night from Seamless and went with Amish Market Tribeca. Pat got a massive, heavy wrap with good ingredients, although he found it a little too moist. I had a brick-oven sandwich with roast beef, onions, tomato and cheese that was great. The prices were very reasonable, and you could also get groceries delivered, which is good to know! The list of options was very long and we plan on ordering from them again.