This week got us back to KIN SHOP and our first time to the new “grand cafe” LAFAYETTE. To the former we give a yum and to the latter a reserved ho-hum. I’ve gone on about KIN SHOP before: Harold Dieterle’s modern and fresh yet reassuring classic take on Thai. As with this Top Chef’s other ventures, PERILLA and THE MARROW, there’s a soul and intimacy to his cooking and something welcoming to his restaurant [...]
A bike basket of bao from BAOHAUS, NYC is absolute bun yum!!! Amazing taste and texture come together with these Taiwanese-edged street food eats. The BirdHaus Bao’s got 24 hours of brining and the Waygu Haus beef is from Snake River Farms at this hole in the wall where the buns could be some of the city’s best. BAOHAUS, 238 East 14th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Avenues), East Village, New York City. Open daily [...]
When thinking about small town USA, New York City is not the first place that comes to mind. However, if you go a bit beyond its main grid and squint ever so slightly, the stretch of Hudson Street running through the West Village is more apple pie than Big Apple. WALKSEE From Leroy to Gaansevort Streets, Hudson Street is a mix of row houses, small commercial buildings and a hodgepodge of apartment houses. There are [...]
Welcome to the Borscht Belt circa 2013 at KUTSHER’S TRIBECA. You’ll need to use your imagination and, perhaps a reference to a bit of Dirty Dancing at this throwback, if in essence name only, to the Catskills of yore. At this Kutsher’s it’s all about up-to-date culinary takes on schmaltzy Jewish classics that make for a fine Passover holiday dine. Yes, there’s the brisket: in this age of pedigree food purveyors it makes sense that [...]
Sounds off-putting, a liquid paste of wheat flour and boiled oct0pus but, really, there’s something to these Japanese “takoyaki” balls. At OTAFUKU, NYC, the glutinous mixture of the takoyaki is grilled in special spherical pans to create a wonderfully crunchy skin. Once done they are finished off with a squeeze of sweet okanomiyaki sauce and spicy mayo and then topped with a shake of grated seaweed and bonito flakes. I’ve never been to Japan but [...]
At OTTO, the restaurant viagra cheap at One Fifth Avenue, a 1927 Art Deco apartment house at the corner of 8th Street in Greenwich Village, you’re in for some rustic Italian eats courtesy of the media-meal-man of Food Network fame, Mario Batali. He’s often in residence and easy to spot – there’s no mistaking the signature trademarks of thinning ginger frocks and fulsome girth atop the Crocs of this chef and restauranteur extradordinaire. Years ago [...]
This year for Valentine’s Day I skipped over the chocolates and passed on the flowers. Was a time these would be top items in the romance offerings but alas they seem pointless while my love remains unrequited. Nope, this year I will have to make do with a tart. Make that a yuzu tart from the Parisian ERIC KAYSER, a recent import that is nestled in the very un-Parisian environs of New York City’s Upper [...]
If a big rise is on your mind don’t get too excited about the loaves at the PALM BEACH BAKERY & CAFE. However, if dense, dark and toothsome is what you’re after in a loaf then search no further than the ruis limppu aka rye bread. Forget the seeded rye of that delicious pastrami sandwich you had at Katz’s Delicatessen – lofty and soft may be a perfect mate to that meat but the problem [...]
The hostess, dwarfed by mural-sized art and double-height ceilings, asked if I had a reservation for a table. I happily smiled and said no as I eyed my friend with the seat next to him occupied by his briefcase at the soon-to-be-packed bar at the Union Square Cafe. This defining culinary counter for contemporary-minded American cuisine has been going strong for more than a quarter century. Except for a few slight changes – the shelves [...]
Ah, Fifth Avenue in December: all the beautiful decorations, the shopping, the holiday cheer. Oh, and, don’t forget the tourist crowds – lots and lots of them. Welcome to Christmastime in New York City. No doubts about it, with so much hustle-bustle you’ll work up a Santa-sized appetite. Here’s a bit of elven magic to satisfy your What-to-See and Where-to-Eat hunger along the Christmas-resplendent Fifth Avenue retail strip. WALKSEE With the holidays in full force a [...]
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