This post has less to with this restaurant – which is a slightly-above average locals type place found in every neighborhood – but with restaurants of like this one. And it has to do with salad. Like many people, I eat a lot of salad. Sometimes because I like it, and often because I am supposed to be watching my weight. Dressing on the side, never the Caesar, yada yada yada.
So tonight I ordered the smoked chicken salad ($13.75, which is a little spendy in my book, for this kind of a place). It came in a salad bowl the size of a mixing bowl, with whole leaves of lettuce and then quarters of avocado, a few big chunks of tomato and some roasted hazel nuts. And a big lump of the smoked chicken placed on top. All the mixings were there, but here’s my gripe: how to eat a salad like this? Bowls are are not meant for cutting. And if you’re like me, you like a little bit of each ingredient on every forkful. So I sent the salad back and asked them to chop it. I really really hate salads served in mixing bowls. It makes me feel like I am eating out of a trough. I am not a farm animal. I am human. With a human sized mouth that needs small little pieces so I can fit them gracefully into that mouth.
Anyway, they brought the salad back with only the chicken chopped, so I hacked away at it and made it into something manageable. And it tasted good. But in any event, the place only gets one belly up.
Where: 68 Greenwich Ave., (212) 243-1400
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Totonno's
On Friday, as part of a long-delayed trip to Coney Island, I ate at Totonno's, a classic New York pizzeria with a long history--the original founder once worked at Lombardi's, acknowledged as the first pizza joint in American history. Totonno's is on Neptune Avenue, a few blocks away from Astroland and the rest of the Coney Island boardwalk hullaballo. And, like much of the area, Neptune Avenue is fairly dilapidated, with Totonno's surrounded by auto parts shops, check cashing places and the like. (Ok, maybe not the check cashing places, but I needed another cliched sign of a low-rent area to fill in the blanks.) One wonders what Neptune Ave. looked like when Totonno's opened, and how depressing it must have been to watch the transformation of the neighborhood.
The decor in the restaurant is quite spare, with a few tables and the main attraction, the pizza oven, at the end of the room. An extremely loud employee of the restaurant was jammering on her cell phone during much of our stay. Classic New York pictures and restaurant reviews dot the walls, with a disconcerting picture of both Bushes (Presidents 41 and 43) perched above our table.
I'm not as good at describing victuals as Catherine, so I'll just say that the ultra thin-crust pizza (with mushrooms) was excellent but not quite transcendent. The ingredients tasted fresh, and the place prides itself on using only bread baked that day. I ate five slices, so it obviously did satisfy the hunger beast inside me. Also, they serve you soda in dixie cups. Charming! Though not so charming when you finish the soda in 15 seconds and have to ask for a refill.
I find that a lot of the "best" NYC pizza tastes quite similar--Totonno's reminded me of Grimaldi's, Lucali (the upstart place on Henry St. in Carroll Gardens that you must try if you're a self-respecting pizza eater), and of course, Lombardi's (which is very hit or miss). After eating some deep dish pizza in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, it's striking to see just how thin New Yorkers like their pizza. I fall squarely in the thin crust camp myself, though variety is the spice of life and I wouldn't mind one viable deep dish option in the area.
Where: 1524 Neptune Avenue, Brooklyn, New York (718) 372-8606
The decor in the restaurant is quite spare, with a few tables and the main attraction, the pizza oven, at the end of the room. An extremely loud employee of the restaurant was jammering on her cell phone during much of our stay. Classic New York pictures and restaurant reviews dot the walls, with a disconcerting picture of both Bushes (Presidents 41 and 43) perched above our table.
I'm not as good at describing victuals as Catherine, so I'll just say that the ultra thin-crust pizza (with mushrooms) was excellent but not quite transcendent. The ingredients tasted fresh, and the place prides itself on using only bread baked that day. I ate five slices, so it obviously did satisfy the hunger beast inside me. Also, they serve you soda in dixie cups. Charming! Though not so charming when you finish the soda in 15 seconds and have to ask for a refill.
I find that a lot of the "best" NYC pizza tastes quite similar--Totonno's reminded me of Grimaldi's, Lucali (the upstart place on Henry St. in Carroll Gardens that you must try if you're a self-respecting pizza eater), and of course, Lombardi's (which is very hit or miss). After eating some deep dish pizza in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, it's striking to see just how thin New Yorkers like their pizza. I fall squarely in the thin crust camp myself, though variety is the spice of life and I wouldn't mind one viable deep dish option in the area.
Where: 1524 Neptune Avenue, Brooklyn, New York (718) 372-8606
Friday, July 27, 2007
p*ong
Pichet Ong wants to know if it's too much dessert. We are sated and tipsy, having nibbled our way through the 13 course suite ($79). Nah, we tell him, it was just right. We are the last diners in the restaurant on a Thursday night and he has come out from the kitchen to chat.
Ong's new restaurant p*ong is 9 weeks old and after the glowing review in the Times, we went for a test drive. The menu is divided into three parts: savory, sweet and savory and sweet. Plates are priced between $10 and $15. He is famed for his desserts, as his roots are as a pastry chef. But it was the dessert-like preparations of savory dishes that I personally liked the best. Foie gras brulee is a 1" round of foie on a toast and torched to crunchy perfection and served with cherries and a biscotti jelly, which is deliciously light and translucent. The burrata with the frozen roasted tomato was also a wonderful combinations of temperature, taste and texture. Our least favorite was the stilton souffle, which was a little too heavy for a summer evening, although the basil-arugla ice cream was delicious and worth having a scoop on its own. The fresh dates seemed a little too simple - served with shards of aged Spanish mahon - after the artistry of the other plates. As we finished our sparkling black muscat we chatted with Ong. He told us he is planning to open an ice cream shop next door in the near future and signed a cookbook for us. The service was wonderful - both the host and our server were very friendly and warm, creating a great and comfortable experience. I give p*ong four belly ups.
Where: 150 West 10 Street, 212-929-0898
Ong's new restaurant p*ong is 9 weeks old and after the glowing review in the Times, we went for a test drive. The menu is divided into three parts: savory, sweet and savory and sweet. Plates are priced between $10 and $15. He is famed for his desserts, as his roots are as a pastry chef. But it was the dessert-like preparations of savory dishes that I personally liked the best. Foie gras brulee is a 1" round of foie on a toast and torched to crunchy perfection and served with cherries and a biscotti jelly, which is deliciously light and translucent. The burrata with the frozen roasted tomato was also a wonderful combinations of temperature, taste and texture. Our least favorite was the stilton souffle, which was a little too heavy for a summer evening, although the basil-arugla ice cream was delicious and worth having a scoop on its own. The fresh dates seemed a little too simple - served with shards of aged Spanish mahon - after the artistry of the other plates. As we finished our sparkling black muscat we chatted with Ong. He told us he is planning to open an ice cream shop next door in the near future and signed a cookbook for us. The service was wonderful - both the host and our server were very friendly and warm, creating a great and comfortable experience. I give p*ong four belly ups.
Where: 150 West 10 Street, 212-929-0898
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