Stay Gold

Trying to Stay Gold…Adventure in DC

2006-10-09T14:36:00.000-04:00

The past month and a half has been crazy busy. However, I decided to use part of my three-day weekend and take a trip to one of my favorite places, Washington, DC. Upon arrival after work on Friday, I was very hungry (shocking…I know;)). I tried Raku http://www.washingtonian.com/Dining/Profiles/raku.html, considered one of the best bargain restaurants in DC. The restaurant in located by Dupont Circle.

The restaurant is busy, and while I have only been once, I think it is likely that people usually wait in order to get a table. Because the restaurant is so trendy, people tend to go to the bar and order drinks after giving their name. We left and took a little stroll around the block, and when we came back we stood awkwardly near the door and waited for our table (the door space is cramped). I am not 100% sure, but I think we were seated before people who gave their name earlier and went to the bar, because the space is crowded and we were there as soon as they were looking for someone to seat. I can’t say that this trick always works, but it can be helpful.

Anyway, on to the food...We ordered salmon and avocado rolls, vegetable dumplings, tuna tartar and a ginger vegetable stir-fry. The restaurant is designed to be Asian tapas, so everything can be shared, and this appeared to be the common practice. However, they also have big plates that can be ordered to eat alone. We choose to share everything. All of the food was yummy. The tuna tartar was a food highlight: creamy raw tuna with spicy wasabi sauce to be eaten on lightly toasted baguette bread with a light tangy salad on the side. The vegetable dumplings were well prepared, but I didn’t like the dipping sauce. It was a strange spicy bitter concoction that was simply not well done. I did really enjoy the ginger stir-fry sauce (I even dipped the dumplings into it). I was particularly impressed with the speed and friendliness of the service and the freshness of the food. If I lived in DC, I would definitely go back to this place.

I miss having a life...

2006-09-10T13:31:00.000-04:00

I am deviating from my usual rules of not talking about anything other than my actual adventures around NYC for this post. Basically, I have not been writing lately with the start to teaching another school year, taking masters classes in education, and applying to law school. Not to mention, I am trying to make time to see friends and family. Hopefully, I will have time to update again soon. There are a lot of places I have wanted to write about, but have not had the chance. You should consider checking them out, and hopefully there will be more detail on them in the future. They include Gobo, Quantum Leap, Suma Sushi, Awash, and Society Cafe. I also made this Lo Mein type recipe a little while ago that I was going to go into detail about, and spent a day exploring the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens (better than Staten Island's-sorry Staten Island). Okay, I need to go back to work. Keep on adventuring!!

Arepas are on my mind again...

2006-08-18T11:14:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday night, I continued to feed my obsession with arepas and the top 101 Best Cheap Eats (yes, I agree not all of them are actually cheap) by going to Caracas Arepa Bar (http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=4971). I continue to be happily surprised by arepas in all forms. Caracas is a tiny restaurant in the East Village. It is likely you will have a wait to get in, but the service, including the guy manning the door, is super friendly and relaxed. The food is definitely worth the wait. I ordered the La Del Gato (cheese, avocado, fried sweet plantains) and the Domino (aged cheese and black beans). El Del Gato is served cool, while the Domino is served really hot. I really liked both of my choices. My friends ordered ones with meat and seemed happy with their picks as well. Lots of ‘mmmm’, and ‘this place is amaaaazzzinng,’ and ‘we made a great dinner choice’ were heard from our mouths between large bites of yummy food. The actual arepa was very different from what I expected. The corn pancakes were much crispier than the ones I had before. With the other arepas I tried, the outside was literally pancake dough made with corn and griddled to have a pancake consistency when eaten. The outside of these arepas (which I expect are more authentic then the ones I had before, but I am not sure since I have never had arepas in Venezuela) was very thin, extremely crunchy and did not feel greasy to the touch. The filling was really fresh. There is this amazing sweet and spicy sauce that is sort of creamy on the table to be drizzled on top of the arepa. It is great and should not be missed.

Pumpkin in Pasta…Another Good Food Decision

2006-08-15T14:19:00.000-04:00

I don’t know how I have waited over an entire week to write about this, but last Tuesday I went to Via Emilia (http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=5183) as part of my quest to hit all 101 Best Cheap Eats from New York Magazine. Once at the restaurant, I learned about the greatness of tortelloni, described as tortellini’s ‘supersize cousin.’ My friend and I ordered it in two forms (spinach and ricotta and pumpkin in sage and butter sauce) and switched plates half way through. I think that the spinach is more famous, but the pumpkin was the star. I have tried butternut squash tortellini in a similar sage and butter sauce before, but I loved the pumpkin. It tastes extra decadent-sweet from the pumpkin filling and silky from the homemade pasta dough with a hint of salt from the butter sauce. The place is cash only and the service was a little lacking, but the food is soooo incredible as to warrant more than one repeat visit.

Staten Island: More Than Just the Ferry?

2006-08-07T17:04:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I took my first trip to Staten Island. I have been meaning to go for a while, and for some reason, it seemed like the perfect day for a little adventure. Looking at a map guide of Staten Island, it actually says “Staten Island: More Than Just the Ferry.” That does not bode well for actually being more than just the ferry, and many people appeared to simply be riding the ferry over and then back in order to see the beautiful view of the city and the Statue of Liberty. To be fair, I did enjoy the ferry ride, but I wanted to see more. After getting to Staten Island, I journeyed onward to the Staten Island Botanical Gardens. I have a secret desire to get to all the botanical gardens in the 5 boroughs before the summer is out, although this is looking less and less likely as the summer goes by far to quickly. Anyway, the botanical gardens were a bit of a disappointment. I had good company, and the weather was perfect, but there were not a lot of flowers currently in bloom, and the space was filled with all sorts of buildings. I expect that the place shines at certain times of year, and that perhaps August is not one of those times. The rose garden still had a couple late bloomers to check out and a circus was performing randomly at 5pm, but overall, I think I prefer roaming around Central Park.

Another big goal of my summer is to make it through New York Magazine’s “The 101 Best Cheap Eats” list. While on Staten Island, I went to the borough’s only restaurant to make the list, Joe and Pat’s. Is it the only excellent cheap eat in all of Staten Island? This I cannot tell you. However, after three slices of spinach and onion pizza, I can confidently say that the restaurant deserves to make the list. The pizza had one of the thinnest crusts I have ever encountered, but it was crispy enough to hold the toppings without falling apart or being tough to bite into. Also, it was covered in gooey cheese, but not oily at all. The oiliness factor is a major downfall in many New York City pizza places, and somehow this place completely avoids that. Furthermore, the pizza was served at the perfect temperature to be pleasantly hot during the entire meal without burning the roof of my mouth at the start. Awesome!

Super Spanish: Classes at El Taller Latino

2006-08-03T16:53:00.000-04:00

I thought about writing this entry in Spanish, but I have decided to refrain. Anyway, today was the final day of my morning intensive Spanish class at El Taller Latino (http://www.tallerlatino.org/) at 103rd and Broadway. The class was fantastic. The school offered three levels of Spanish classes during the month of July: Beginner I, Beginner II and Intermediate. I was proud of myself on the first day when my high school Spanish background placed me in Beginner II. My class contained approximately 10 students, all with very different backgrounds and purposes for taking Spanish. This particular class was four days a week, although they have classes to accommodate many different schedules. The class had two different teachers that alternated, in order to help us learn more accents when speaking and listening in Spanish. On the first day of class, my profesora said that we were all amigos in the classroom, and that was when I knew that this Spanish class would be more personal than any language class I had taken previously. The school also offers tango and salsa classes and has cultural events. I adored my experience there, so if you are looking for a Spanish class you should definitely check it out.

I Could Have Guessed I Was Eating at the Best…

2006-07-28T17:32:00.000-04:00

I have been on a quest to find excellent Thai food in NYC. Since moving here last August, I have found nothing that matches my favorite places for Thai food in Chicago. I know that NYC has great food, but for some reason whenever I have ventured out for Thai (even after doing much research on a place), I have been very disappointed. Last Monday, this changed. I went out to Queens with two friends in search of said Thai food. My friend guaranteed that this place, one of her favorites since childhood, would meet all of my Thai food expectations. We went to Sripraphai. It was fantastic.

Now I don’t always go for such a basic when eating Thai food, but I just had to try their Pad Thai. Amazing…just sweet enough, just peanuty enough, with noodles cooked to perfection. My friends also enjoyed their meals-though they were full of meat that I couldn’t eat. The catfish (Crispy Thai Catfish Salad) looked particularly interesting. It was fried in a manner that made it appear as though sea sponge had been fried. Apparently, this too was excellent. With dinner we ordered Lychee Wine from Thailand. It had a strange grassy smell, but a very refreshing taste, although a little sweet. I would probably not order it again, however, I am glad that I tried it.

Upon arriving home from my trek out to Queens my copy of New York Magazine was sitting on the table with the cover story of the 101 Best Cheap Eats in the city. Sripraphai was ranked 5, and one of only 7 restaurants given 5 stars (http://newyorkmetro.com/restaurants/cheapeats/2006/18479/index1.html). From my experience at this place last Monday, it definitely deserves the ranking. The only unfortunate part is that there might not be a place to match the quality of Shipraphai closer to home.

Lovely Lunch Spot: Zanny’s Cafe

2006-07-20T14:56:00.000-04:00

I am on a ‘try all the cafés in my neighborhood’ kick. I stopped into Zanny’s (http://www.zannyscafe.com/) on 108th and Columbus today for lunch. The place is very bright during the day due to big windows, making this spot a great place to sit and read. The music selection this afternoon was not something that I knew, but it was excellent. My lunch was awesome. I ordered the Health Wrap, which has mixed greens, cucumber, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, olives, brie and mango chutney. Even with the large amount of brie cheese that I consumed, the title of the wrap made me feel like I was ordering smart. One complaint I have is that the wrap did not have many cucumber, tomato, or olive pieces (okay, so I don’t really like olives, so that didn’t bother me very much, but if I did like olives that would have been disappointing, and I was legitimately saddened by the lack of cucumber and tomato). The wrap contained mostly lettuce and brie cheese. However, all is forgiven due to the AMAZING mango chutney and the way that the mango chutney and the brie cheese tasted together on the tongue. Mmmm!!!! I would definitely order this again if there weren’t a ton of other things on the menu that I now want to try. It came with chips or a side salad. I took the side salad, and went for the carrot ginger salad dressing. The salad included more than just lettuce, something that often is not the case when sandwiches come with sides that tend to be more like garnishes. This was actually a small salad of its own right. The carrot ginger dressing was a bit too spicy for me due to lots of shreds of fresh ginger throughout the dressing. I really like ginger and this was even too much for me. However, the salad and the dressing tasted really fresh and light, which was very refreshing during this summer afternoon.

In response to some reviews of this place that I have read, I want to say that I went at 12:30 in the afternoon and the place was busy (it actually was busier by 1:15), but not so busy that I couldn’t comfortably sit at a table and read. Furthermore, there was no time in the little over an hour that I was there reading when I felt that I should leave because the place was so packed that I was either taking a seat away from another customer without buying anything else myself or too distracted to do my reading.

Why I Love Restaurant Week or a Night at Mesa Grill…

2006-07-18T15:35:00.000-04:00

So, before I go off on the amazing dinner I had last night, I need to briefly tell you about my Saturday spent at the Siren Music Festival at Coney Island. I would skip it, but I had an arepa, and as I said in my first posting, I am on a mission to try all the arepas in nyc. The one at Coney Island is actually from the same company as the ones served at the International Food Festival, only more disappointing. They were making new ones on the griddle when I got there (I thought I would be getting this uber gooey sizzling one cooking away happily on the griddle as I approached the counter), but instead they served me one that had been staying warm in a heater in the back. It was two corn pancakes with mozzarella as the filling. The cheese was not particularly gooey and the corncakes were saltier than I remember. Although, compared to other amusement park food, I think it was a tasty and unique choice. While my dinner was not particularly worth noting (except for the fact that I had an arepa versus another type of food), I do recommend seeing the Scissor Sisters live. They were awesome.

On to Mesa…It is restaurant week, and being the foodie that I am, I had to check out a swank nyc restaurant that I might not get to (and certainly would not be able to eat three courses at) without some sort of deal. I went to Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill (http://www.mesagrill.com). After this eating experience, here is what I have discovered. I don’t understand why I can’t make a dressing and companies can’t bottle a dressing as good as ones that are made at certain restaurants. My dinner started with an amazing salad. To be fair, it actually started with an excellent house margarita and some tasty bread, but my first official course was a salad. This salad was tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Now, I pride myself on being a good cook, but this dressing was fantastic…not too much balsamic or overly oily, no sharp flavors, but whatever was in the dressing made one beautiful salad topper that was able to make the entire dish. The salad also had one cm square corn chips mixed in adding an extra crunch. I love when dishes not only taste good but also have a complex texture, especially when it is a dish as simple as a salad. This one had crisp lettuce, crunchy corn chips, smooth kidney beans, gritty chickpeas, chewy tiny blocks of cheese, and salty olives (I recognize that is not a texture, but clearly the olives were in the salad to make it the right amount of salty so that is how I will describe them).

My entrée was the star of my meal. I say this is as it should be, although my friend, slightly disappointed by his dessert, said he is always up for an excellent dessert (a fair statement). Okay, so my Yellow Corn Crusted Chile Relleno was unreal good. The corn bread crumb crust was super crunchy and golden brown. The chile added a little spice that was countered by the cubes of beets that were mixed with smooth creamy goat cheese and stuffed inside the chile. You couldn’t really taste the beets except to recognize that they were the ingredient that held the flavors of the dish together, adding just the right amount of sweetness and turning the goat cheese into this beautiful pink color to contrast with the dark forest green chile and the light brown casing. So pretty… Really, the beets were brilliant. Who would be creating a new dish and think, ‘I know, if only there were cubes of beets inside the chile, it would be perfect’? But someone did, and this makes me happy.

As I mentioned earlier, dessert was not the star. It was fine. I ate it because it was sweet and tasty enough. Blueberries were involved. The point is you should eat at Mesa Grill, and feel free to skip dessert.

Good Food in Midtown? Amazing Akdeniz

2006-07-14T10:10:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday, I found myself at the library by Bryant Park around dinnertime. I was hungry and about to meet a friend. We did not want to travel too far to find food because, as is not uncommon this summer, it was raining. Browsing menupages I found Akdeniz (http://www.akdenizturkishusa.com/). I was not expecting too much, but it was the right price in the right location, so off we went.
The food was great and so was the service. Our waiter was extremely attentive, as were all the other waiters at the restaurant. Water glasses were always being refilled. It is my opinion that waiters who know the right time to refill a water glass are one important sign of a great restaurant. I will go as far as to say that restaurants that do not have waiters that know the exact right time to refill a water glass (when the glass is almost empty but before all of the water is gone) might be good but cannot be classified as great.
On to the food…we ordered Mediterranean Salad, Stuffed Vine Leaves and Cheese Pastries. The vegetables in the salad were crisp and perfectly dressed. In my opinion, the stuffed vine leaves were the star of the evening. They were stuffed with rice that is made sweet by currents. The leaves were chewy, the rice soft and sweet and melted in my mouth and the pine nuts added a little surprise crunch when least expected. I like stuffed leaves when they are tangy, as I have usually found them, but I loved stuffed leaves in this sweeter form. The cheese pastries were cooked to a golden brown perfection, a wonderful hot dish for a rainy night.
For dessert, we were convinced with a simple look from our waiter that it was imperative we did not leave without trying the Baklava. It was served slightly warm making the honey extra runny. The filo dough was flaky and delicious. I was definitely full enough that I could have left without dessert, but I am very happy that I didn’t. From all the other reviews I have read about the place, the food and service is consistently solid. I would recommend checking it out.

Upper West Side Fun: Vintage

2006-07-09T13:29:00.000-04:00

Looking for something a little different to do with the later part of the evening, a friend and I stopped at Vintage on the Upper West Side (http://www.vintagenewyork.com/). This is a wine store that serves wines only from New York State, and there is a wine bar at the back. This means that you can taste almost anything you are about to buy. They have about 10 different tasting flights on a given evening or you can just order a glass from their extensive wine list. Who knew NY State had so much wine? Apparently New York State wine is very hot right now around the country (although there is little market for it abroad) due to the fact that the law that banned the selling of New York State wine outside of New York State was just lifted last year. At the wine bar, my friend tried the Sparkling flight, and I had the Riesling. I am currently angry with myself because I loved the first Riesling that I tasted, but I can’t remember what it is called in order to record this information for my future use. Hopefully if I go back to buy some wine, I will be able to remember what the bottle looked like. Anyway, this was a really great way to spend a lazy Saturday evening. Everyone working there seemed to have a deep love of New York wine. The store is open for tasting from 5pm-midnight seven days a week. Apparently there is a restaurant associated with the Soho branch of the wine store, although the bar on the Upper West Side has some snacks and is the location of the company’s monthly wine classes.

Great and Gluten Free: Risotteria

2006-07-07T18:14:00.000-04:00

Today I had a good friend in town, and we went to lunch at Risotteria (http://www.risotteria.com/) in the village. My friend is on a gluten free diet, and this restaurant is a gluten free restaurant (actually only about 60% the dishes are actually gluten free). Nevertheless, I was a bit wary. However, it was fantastic. We had a balsamic vinaigrette salad and gluten free pesto pizza with mozzarella, tomatoes and zucchini. Both were excellent! If you go with the salad/pizza share decision at lunch, I recommend you go for the small salad. They are huge, although extremely fresh and tasty. The pizza had a very thin and crispy crust. It was not at all greasy. I particularly liked the pesto on the pizza. It was not too garlicky, focusing most of its flavor attention on the basil. Also, feel free to order less food and leave room for dessert. Now, I know you are thinking, ‘will the desserts be good if they are not made with regular flour?’ The answer is YES. We split the strawberry shortcake. The cake part of the shortcake had the consistency and taste of a brownie without the chocolate. It was very sugary, but not overbearing. The combination of flavors with the sweet white cake, vanilla pudding, fresh strawberries and cool whipped cream made this one of the best desserts I have had in a while. This place is a keeper.

A Unique Spin on Dessert: Rice Pudding

2006-07-02T00:03:00.000-04:00

Tonight was my roommate’s birthday. In celebration, a group of us went out for the evening and in our travels we decided to check out Rice to Riches (www.richtoriches.com). This is one of those chic boutique type restaurants serving only one type of food-in this case rice pudding. Tonight they were serving 20 different flavors of rice pudding. My favorite of all the ones I tried was ‘Category 5’ Caramel. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Almond, but many people in my group thought this one was the best. The people at the counter will let you have a taste of any flavor, and pretty much everyone I saw tasted more than one flavor before making their final decision about what to order. I got a Solo size (advertised as feeding one), but I would recommend having a friend share it. I would have liked an option for a cheaper smaller portion, since the solo was $5, and way to much food for one person. However, other than that, I really enjoyed my dessert.

Website About Free Events

2006-06-29T22:14:00.000-04:00

I was going to hear Audra McDonald and Liz McComb sing tonight in Central Park. In fact, I went to hear them sing with a tasty tuna sandwich and large bottle of water in hand. Then I got wet-very, very wet. I even had a random conversation in the middle of Central Park with a guy trying to protect his new IPod by standing under a tree. Given the amount of rain, this could not have been a successful approach-though I am not sure anything would have been. Anyway, even though I did not get to see the free concert, a conversation earlier today reminded me about an important website to have as a favorite when looking for things to do on the cheap, and by cheap I mean FREE, in nyc. It is http://nyc.freecityevents.com/. You should definitely check it out.

Mmmm….Shawafel

2006-06-20T23:42:00.000-04:00

I know I said that I rarely get to eat meat because Kosher meat is so expensive, but I have now had meat three times in the last week. Mmmmm….meat! The most recent experience was at Chickpea (www.getchickpea.com) at the East Village location. Here’s why I love Chickpea. 1) They have Shawafel, so you don’t have to decide between shawarma and falafel. 2) The shawarma is hot and not too greasy. 3) The falafel is small, so there is an excellent ratio of crusty fried outside to chewy spicy inside. 4) They are super cheap. 5) The food is served super fast due to counter service. 6) The place is small but still has a reasonable amount of places to sit.

Kosher Eating in NYC: Wolf and Lamb

2006-06-18T21:26:00.000-04:00

Tonight I went to Wolf and Lamb (http://www.wolfandlambsteakhouse.com/), located on 48th between 5th and Madison. Due to the fact that I don’t eat non-Kosher meat and Kosher meat can be expensive, I have not found many opportunities to eat meat since moving to nyc. Because I owed a friend a steak dinner as a thank you, I decided to treat us both to some quality Kosher meat. Mmmmm meat…. I ordered the Chicken Caesar Salad, and he had a steak. Dinner started with complimentary warm garlic bread. My salad was huge with very tender pieces of chicken and tasty portobello mushrooms on top. His steak was cooked to perfection. There is no doubt in my mind why this place specializes in steaks. The meat was cooked to what should be considered the definition of medium-not a second over or undercooked, and was well seasoned without being too seasoned. The steak came with a baked potato, portobello mushrooms and a vegetable combination.

The chocolate chip explosion is a must have for dessert. We were full. After the description, we ordered it anyway. We made the right decision-warm chocolate chip cookie base, hot chocolate syrup oozing out the middle and over the top, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This is the second glatt kosher restaurant I have been to where the dessert has been absolutely phenomenal (the Top Hat dessert at the now closed Shallots in Chicago was the first). This always surprises me, given the limitation on ingredients. I would go back just for dessert, though I would rather go back for dinner too.

There were a couple strange things about the restaurant. The first was the fact that it seemed to be obsessed with portobello mushrooms. Both my salad and his steak had portobello mushrooms on top, and while tasty, they seemed really extraneous. Secondly, one of the waiters continuously did exactly the opposite of what we asked him. I ordered a ginger ale and when he brought it to the table, he gave it to my friend even after we told him I ordered it. Then he asked if we were done with our meals, we said yes, and he promptly walked away from the table without taking away our plates. By the end it was more amusing than anything else, but still very odd.

While not cheap eats, I would definitely recommend going to Wolf and Lamb when looking for some excellent meat in a relaxed environment.

The Little Pie Company: More Than Just Pie

2006-06-18T00:58:00.000-04:00

This evening, I returned to The Little Pie Company (http://www.littlepiecompany.com/). I had tasted their pie before at the International Food Festival, where I chose to sample the famous Sour Cream Apple Walnut Pie. In case you were wondering, it is incredible-tart apples, surgery walnut topping, perfect crust with just the right amount of crunch-and I am not even a crust person. However, tonight I learned that this little dessert shop is more than just pie. Think chocolate…think chocolate caramel brownie. Soooo tasty. The caramel makes it extra gooey, and by not making the brownie too think, it is not too rich. Mmmm….

After ordering dessert (if in the Hell’s Kitchen location), you can choose to sit in a number of places-inside the store, at a table outside, or at the park just to the west of the store. I mention this only to talk about the ‘park’ that is next to the store. It is actually just the sidewalk with some benches. However, it is actually labeled a park, and it even has rules, such as ‘this park closes at midnight.’ Can a bench actually close at a specific time? Apparently, it can in nyc. Anyway, I find this ‘park’ incredibly amusing.

On a separate side thought, in case you were wondering, the Jamba Juice on 85th and Broadway does not have any tables whatsoever. Therefore, it is a good place to go to get a smoothie, but a bad place to go to get a smoothie and try to grade a stack of papers.

Best Book Store in NYC: St Mark’s Bookshop

2006-06-11T10:18:00.000-04:00

I love St. Mark’s Books. Located at 31 Third Ave. (right near Astor Place), this bookstore is clearly the cream of the crop in nyc, and I recognize that there are a lot of choices. Added to its greatness is the fact that it is actually called St. Mark’s Bookshop (not Books or Bookstore), a fact that I just discovered this morning. I love this store because it is small, rarely crowded, has an incredibly friendly and helpful staff, a cool East Village clientele, and in my opinion the best book collection in the city. Particularly strong sections include travel, politics, literature and food. It may be impossible for me to enter this store without spending much more money than I originally intend (yesterday my total came to over $60), making the greatness the store’s book collection perhaps its biggest downfall.
Whenever I tell people that my favorite bookstore in the city is St. Mark’s, they tend to reply with the same question “have you been to The Strand?” As far as I am concerned, this question is ridiculous. I love books, so of course I have been to The Strand. However, as far as bookstores go, it is not the best place in the city. I will give you that it has a larger collection than St. Mark’s Books and that it even has more books on sale than can usually be found at St. Mark’s, but that is where The Strand supremacy ends. The Strand is the perfect place to come to when in nyc as a tourist, and has a lot of the elements of many touristy places in the city-it is crowded, it is large, it sells shirts that advertise for itself, and it is loud. Now, I do not want to spend this posting completely rejecting The Strand. The bookstore brings lots of people from all over to look at books, a big love of my life, and it has a huge collection, but when I want to sit in a bookstore and quietly browse or when I want to be tempted by a large number of books that I actually want to read, I always go to St. Mark’s Bookshop.

Cutting Edge Comedy

2006-05-29T18:57:00.000-04:00

Last night, relatively unexpectedly, I found myself going to see the free Sunday night show at the Upright Citizens Brigade (www.ucbtheatre.com). While this is not a particularly hidden event going on every Sunday night at 9:30 (get there by 8:30 for standing room seating or 7:45 for tickets-the free tickets are distributed at 8:15), it is something that I have never made the time to go to before. While there, I laughed, a lot. The comedy is smart, moving smoothly from person to person, as ideas continue to connect throughout the show. They ended with a bit about substitute teaching that was particularly amusing. If that isn’t reason enough to go, I also drank $2 beer (so cheap…). It’s funny. It’s free. It’s an all around good time.

A Scoop of Summer

2006-05-28T12:46:00.000-04:00

One thing that I think of when envisioning summertime is ice cream. And nothing is more indulgent than ice cream of the gelato variety. Yesterday, I went on an adventure in Brooklyn, and while there were many enjoyable elements to my trip, walking down the street in the beautiful Memorial Day weekend sunshine eating gelato with a good friend was a true highlight.

I wasn’t even quite in the mood for ice cream at the time, but my friend was insistent that this was the right late afternoon snack. We walked into Tempo Presto(http://www.tempobrooklyn.com/home2.htm). This is the little café that is associated with Tempo Restaurant and Wine Bar on Fifth Ave in Brooklyn. My scoop of gelato was a bit pricey at $3.50 for a single scoop, but where else are you going to get Banana Bourbon Pecan Gelato. It was extra decadent, creamy and unique. While I was very impressed with the flavor of my gelato, my friend was less impressed with her vanilla, so I would recommend going with a more unusual flavor in order to make the cost worthwhile (although she also swears by the virtues of vanilla ice cream, which I think is very respectable). Furthermore, if you eat at the actual restaurant and get gelato for dessert, it is $7.00, so this $3.50 version of the same product is actually a steal.

Food Festival Fabulousness continued…with less fabulousness

2006-05-22T20:58:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, I made my way over to the NYC Culinary Festival at Pier 94. This festival had a $20 entrance fee, but I thought the cost would be worth it to learn information about and taste food from the more exclusive restaurants in the city. Not to mention, there were some interesting lectures scheduled. However, at the end of the day I would have preferred to pay money to walk around the free International Food Festival in Hell’s Kitchen-there the crowd was interesting and the food hot. At the NYC Culinary Festival, the food was expensive (on top of the fee) and often cold and unenthusiastically presented. I did find one restaurant that I definitely want to check out soon, Gobo. Gobo has two locations in nyc, the UES and the West Village. I had the opportunity to try its avocado carpaccio, and it made me want to go back for the entire restaurant experience. The food reminded me of the Green Zebra in Chicago, a restaurant that I highly recommend if you are ever in that fabulous city.

The food tasting at the Culinary Festival was okay, but the real highlight of my experience was the talk entitled “Outsmarting Wine in Restaurants” given by Mark Oldman. I now want to go all over nyc and order Prosecco throughout dinner. He calls it Prozaco. His website www.markoldman.com is full of all sorts of interesting information about wine. I went home from the festival and immediately checked it out. Furthermore, this man is not only into wine, but he also has his JD from Stanford, is co-director of a company and has books out on internships. Now, he tours the country to talk about wine. I am just a little bit impressed… and/or want his life.

Food Festival Fabulousness

2006-05-21T10:25:00.000-04:00

This weekend in NYC is all about food festivals. Yesterday, I attended the NYC International Food Festival on 9th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen. This festival was filled with so many different types of food. The streets were packed with people. Just a heads up, the crowd and venues change depending on where you are along the festival path. The food is much more upscale at the northern end and then becomes more carnivalesque once hitting the upper 30s.

I discovered a new food obsession…the arepa! These tasty treats are a staple in Venezuela. It is essentially a corn pancake sandwich. On the inside of mine was mozzarella cheese. Griddled to perfection, the arepa is hot and crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside. One of my new missions for the summer will be to find my favorite in the city, and possibly try my hand at cooking some of my own. If you have never tried an arepa before, now is the time.