In the spirit of a favorite foodblog,
http://umami.typepad.com/, in order to simply get this down, an elision of a weekend+ Manhattan-area eating tour:
We arrived in Astoria where T lives just around the corner from Kaufman Studios, The Museum of the Moving Image, and, what luck! Pizzeria Uno.
Took the train to Times Square(still scratching my head about that one) in search of the “best scones in the city.”
Good and Plenty was out of these supposed delicacies, but we did endeavor to enjoy Brazilian cheese and jalapeno rolls(they suffered from sitting out) and a tasty unlabled banana muffin with chocolate crumbles. S/o’s choice. He somehow couldn’t figure what's it's enticing tropical flava, T and I were, like, um...duh, banana. That's the state of mind all around and the quality of the baked goods.
Bad weather humbled rummage sales. We holed up in The Cheyenne Diner for bland, tho’ filling Deluxe Bison Burgers: gutbombs. As a matter of course, they blacken their buns; ick easily remedied by ditching ‘em. Tiny, hot, pillowy fries, a creamy coleslaw enlivened by an unexpected bite of horseradish, pert, grass green, dill pickles.
ABC for upholstery fabric, Old Town Restaurant and Bar(for old time’s sake...last time we were here we popped in because the Veteran’s Day Parade wouldn’t let us across the street): A blue collar-esque P.J. Clarke's
That evening we met up with friends M and her husband S for our reservation at Assenzio; slinked from deluge into a lively, dark trattoria. They seated us immediately. App.s of Sardinian cheeseplate(forgive my approximations---a “fontina,” a tart, fresh “mozzarella,” a “Greek yogurt,” and, a “feta”) drizzled in honey and rosemary ham carpaccio brought to life by a spritz of lemon. I was looking forward to the various suckling pig dishes, alas we were informed that the pig is unavailable on Saturdays. Entrees of rigatoni(maccheroncini dell'Ortolano), veal, wild boar ragu w/ gnocchetti, roasted wild boar(cosciotto di cinghiale con salsa di cannonaue e bacche di ginepro), and gnocchi w/white truffle. At first nibble my dish came off ephemeral, the more I ate the more the white truffle sauce bloomed, enveloped, invigorated my admittedly-tired palate. The larger, earthy gnocchi obeisant to an unctuous, imperious truffle. The wild boar ragu/gnocchetti had little of the expected depth of boar but sparked up salsa pomodoro and teensy, tensile pasta. I teased a bit of the innocuous rigatoni in tomato sauce, didn’t get around to trying the veal. The roasted wild boar bested all our dishes by popular acclaim; assuredly, here was the expected strident, voluptuous boary-boar. So good. We ordered a Primitivo and a Valpolicello with dinner; both passable, nothing special. Hazlenut mousse all around, coffee, two grappas and I sipped a treacly myrtle digestif. Service was adequate for those rowdy, raucous.
Evenings in Queens we tippled at T's corner bar, The Sunswick. First night I nearly puked from nonstop Counting Crows Marathon...Oi!
Next night we played DJ...you get enough alcohol in you and Radiohead actually sounds good. I spun Be Bop A Lu La, Sucka MC's, and The Redheaded Stranger.
Next morning back in Astoria hankering for Cuban we retired to El Sito de Astoria where eventually they offered us complimentary croquettes and garlic toast. It’s a sandwich shop up front and sit down in back. I was pleased with my subtle, savory sopa de galego(white bean soup), less so with my barely-stuffed tamal(what was there was tasty enough for a bite or two). T had an almost-pureed Mondongo(tripe soup)---also worthwhile, s/o, the perky ropa vieja a la cubana with sweet plantains and yellow rice. Our waitress amusedly-navigated our party through the various plantain preparations only to bring sweet when we requested savory. Their Cubano looked crisp, porky. We sat there for a good thirty minutes getting more and more irritated before she deigned to bring tableware and water. The food made up for any glitches.
Found some sought after Huysman@The Strand and Shakespeare and Co.
When visiting The City we’re always on the lookout for street glasses. We wandered Soho, popped into their Vosges(because, really, why not?). Turns out we just missed the Boris instore at Other Music. Tippling late afternoon at The Cloister, I admired their floor to ceiling “lightbox” stained glass windows. It was temperate enough to decompress with cocktails in the beer garden.
Unfortunately running late, we had to miss a snack from Pommes Frites. A shortlived asshole cabby experience, we caught another from St. Mark’s(sunglasses!...yeah...they last about a week, but they simply cry out to be bought) to friend Lori Nix’s
http://www.lorinix.net/ open studio in Brooklyn. She and her girlfriend Kathleen drove us back to Hell’s Kitchen for a meal at Grand Sichuan. Funnily enough, the restaurant’s right next door to a favorite Greek place, Uncle Nick’s, serving memorably tender brains and sausage.
Grand Sichuan compares favorably to our Lao Szechuan, but I give LS a leg up.
After hasty deliberation, I ordered:
dan dan noodles: one of the best dishes...perfection, oily, fiery
scallion pancakes: crispy, crunchy, and green
pork dumplings: well-seasoned, savory filling(couldn’t ask for any different, really)
smoked tea duck w/ hoisin: I found the duck a bit salty(a first), but everyone else enjoyed it quite a bit. I easily could’ve eaten a pile of the crackly skin.
kung pao chicken: less chile heat than I would’ve liked, but altogether exemplary
sauteed and dry string beans: perhaps the best dish---little khaki lengths of love w/minced pork
ma PU tofu: this turned out to be an off-menu request(on a 300+ item menu)---their’s had less of LS’s swoonful heat and quite a bit more of the Szechuan peppercorn citrusy tingle -----GS arguably the more traditional with it’s inclusion of minced pork.
Grand Sichuan served a tea delicately perfumed with smoke. Perfect for the meal(and I’m a fan of industrial strength creosote-y lapsang souchon). A requested Riesling paired favorably with the modicum of spice heat. Lao Szechuan’s probably spoiled me for anything but those preparations with full guns blazing.
I dug the menu: it’s page upon page of possibilities plus a list of poetry-inspired specialties, and another section devoted to a brief history of Szechuan cuisine.
Next morning -Astoria: we ate in after being sent on a quest for bagels at NY Bagel(a taqueria of all things)...um...hmm. Breakfast also included the s/o’s foul and fresh scallions.
Left Queens for Manhattan and our room at The Regency. We planned on catching Carol Channing at Feinstein’s in the hotel, but missed her by a couple days.
-walked the 30-odd blocks to meet up with Lori at her lab then drinks and a new friend, E, at Corky Sullivan’s, a pleasingly dank, quiet cellar a few doors down from Kalustyan’s: bittersweet smoked paprika, hibiscus flowers, Jacob’s Cattle beans, Mexican Red beans(finally!!!), and old-skool fruit rollups.
-impromptu Vitnamese @ Lannam in Murray Hill: super medium rare beef(akin to a larb) with lemon juice and red curry sauce(sweet and spicy), pad thai, thinly-sliced grilled pork chops with nuoc cham(the best), sapporos, and an unsampled Chinese dish. Food worked, comparing favorably with Argyle St., but in more sedate environs. If only the waitstaff didn’t feel the need to, all four, beseechingly hover around our table.
Later that night our Astoria friend visited us at The Regency and led us on a whirlwind tour of a few of Manhatten’s finest watering holes:
The Library@The Regency: um...sorry, but a place charging 18 bucks for a cocktail shouldn’t screw the pooch by hanging flat screen TV’s everywhere.
The King Cole@The St. Regis: my favorite by far...a flat room with enormous ceilings. seated at the bar, quaffing the febrile, psychedelic namesake Maxfield Parish mural; I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Best cocktails of the night. Some might offer too good.
The I.M. Pei-designed bar@The Four Seasons: somewhat airport terminal for my taste: but, by “airport terminal” I mean a cavernous, modern, louche repose where a Brian Eno-inspired ambience might waft over and grab a beer. The floors are a little hard on the face, no?
That left the next day for a deadly hangover, horrible, horrible rainy weather, a line out the butt for The Frick and who knew The Whitney is closed on Monday AND Tuesday??? WTF?
The s/o and I made our Central Park pilgrimage to Alice in Wonderland of the sighing trees, sussurating leaves.
Met over in Murray Hill again for lunch. Lori took us to Dimple: a kosher, vegetarian Indian buffet: bajri rota, bangan sharta urad dal, khichad, kachijaggari garlic chutney, sag paneer, rasam. Little though I grok of Indian cuisines, I enjoyed this. -wish I could’ve partaken more. Supposedly, Dimple keeps it real by virtue of a sister operation in Queens.
btw: The Regency has nice, complementary umbrellas. We packed up and headed back out of the city. Of course our flight was canceled, but one more night of food adventures(on a tired stomach, yes) who’s to complain?
I got my barely-touched quasi-NY slice from Napoli Pizza and Pasta. We ended up there because a recommended Sicilian place was out of pepperoni and sausage, oh, and btw, we’re also out of vegetables.
With a way early flight and still hungover, I retired to bed, but the s/o and our host stayed up ordering Thai from Ubol’s Kitchen. NY Thai’s supposedly shit, but according to the s/o their’s held up favorably to the likes of Roseded and Opart: i.e. strong Ameri-Thai with some complexity. I have it on good authority they ordered tom kha, thai dumplings, spicy pork in the garden, and papaya salad. A quick glance at the menu shows they offer a great many choices beyond pad thai, satay, and som tum.
Took an early flight back home, plied my recalcitrant appetite with a delicious breakfast burrito and hotsauce from an O’ Hare McDonald’s.
Home and
Pizzeria Uno, anyone...anyone?
...anyone?
---
Manhattan:
Good & Plenty
410 W. 43rd St.
NY, NY
10036
Cheyenne Diner
411 9th Avenue @ 33rd St.
New York, NY
10001
Assenzio
205 E. 4th St.
btw. Ave A & Ave B
10024
Grand Sichuan Int’l Midtown
745 Ninth Ave
NY, NY
10019
Lannam
393 3rd Ave(corner 28th st.)
Dimple
11 West 30th St.
Kalustyan’s
123 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY
10016
Astoria:
El Sitio de Astoria
35-55 31 Street
Long Island City, NY
Napoli Pizza & Pasta
33-02 35th Avenue
Ubol’s Kitchen
24-42 Steinway Street
Astoria, NY
11103
Being gauche rocks, stun the bourgeoisie