Char Kway Teow (炒粿條) – 16
flat rice noodles stir-fried w/ homemade dark sauce and chili paste, shrimp, egg, preserved sausage (lap cheong), chives, beansprouts, pork lard
Was hoping for wok hei but oh well. Tasty anyway. Not spicy to my chile-inured palate.
Went to Dean’s the night I arrived. Nice atmosphere, at 10pm most of the people there were treating it as a bar. They pull a proper pint of Guinness.
Kind of burned out from travel, didn’t have the appetite to try the lamb chop, fish & chips, or Stargazy pie or really appreciate what we did order.
Pork scratchings were a different style: super-crunchy like hard caramel, but the fat was creamy and soft. Filling as hell.
English Pinot Noir tasted strange at first but opened up and got really Burgundian.
I want to go back and get that lamb chop.
Hoja Santa at Bar Contra: hoja santa, cilantro, lime, sotol, I think something else. Very savory, somehow had a hint of nixtamalized corn. Carbonated Forthave Marseille was also excellent.
Went to Sunn’s because Kopitiam didn’t seem to have any vegetable dishes.
Somaek was great, tart and refreshing.
Left to right: scallops, cucumber, nappa, tofu, anchovy, mushroom. Potato salad next to plate. Everything was great. They comped me a shot of soju to go with the anchovy-peanut.
Fall salad hit the spot. Took one bite that I thought was a heart of radicchio that turned out to be a date, that was a big surprise!
Piping hot butter mochi dessert. Great textures and flavors.
Delightful little place. I love her personal take on Korean cuisine. Looking forward to going back with more appetite.
Late dinner at Lil’ Frankie’s. Place looks like it’s been around for generations but Frank Prisinzano opened it in 2002. Cash only, open unti 2am. Place was lively after midnight, fun atmosphere.
My friend said her ravioli di zucca were very good.
Basically spaghetti aglio e olio with broccoli added. Just what I was craving. Perfectly al dente.
Kind of a wacky wine list, a couple of pages of well-chosen, moderately priced stuff available by the glass or ounce, then a lot of fancy, expensive, aged stuff like a $1000 bottle of Gaja Barbaresco (cash only!).
I’ll likely go back for a pizza, they looked great.
Jambon beurre at Frenchette at the Whitney. Great baguette, great butter, only minus was the ham was cold instead of room-temperature. Hit the spot anyway.
Early dinner at Zimmi’s. Hung out at their new Bar a Part next door first, worth a visit.
oysters with cucumber and horseradish
Neglected to photograph the socca, same as last time, crunchy and topped with an herb salad.
Crab soup with mirepoix, saffron, and pastis, deep and complex, somehow did not taste like bouillabaisse.
Cepes omelette, lovely.
Salad with Bayley Hazan, to my taste it was oversalted given how salty the cheese is.
Pied de cochon pané, this was awesome but my appetite was flagging, which was particularly annoying given how nicely it paired with the rose the sommelier recommended.
Ice creams: peanut was excellent. Concord grape was barely sweet (so did not read like PB&J) and refreshing. Vanilla great as last time.
Really a charming place. Beverage program is particularly fine, most bottles on the list you can buy half (as we did).
Sake Bar Asoko.
This was really good, rich, dry but with a subtle caramel flavor. News to me that the Maillard reaction does not require heat, long aging can also cause it provided the right amino acids etc. are there.
Seoul Sweets
Strawberry bingsu: shaved ice is neutral, not sweet or anything. Extremely fine powder. Syrup is good and there was enough to finish the ice.
I think I’m the only non-Korean in here right now.
One of my favs
It occurred to me that there’s probably Roman-style pizza tonda here so I Googled and found:
She references my favorite pizzeria in Rome, Da Remo, so I figure she knows what I’m looking for.
Spunto was just down the street from my hotel so I tried that. Ordered the wrong thing, way too much toppings. Otherwise good but it’s more like eating a taco.
Affumicata at Gnocco was spot on. Could have been crisper for my taste but that’s common in Rome.
Soccarat paella at Soccarat Nolita. Sent it back because no soccarat. Came back perfect. They say minimum portion is two but I guess if you’re solo you can get a single, at least at the bar
“Welcome to Socarrat. We’re out of socarrat. Oh wait, we do have it, but you have to ask for it…”
This was surprisingly good. Modelo’s kind of bland so dosing it with chamoy is an improvement. Lots of tamarind, not much vinegar if any.
Tacos Coralillo
Extra-large (40cm/18 inch) hard tacos. Crispy tortilla roll ups with chicken or beef, topped with sour cream, cotija cheese, green and red spicy sauce, with a side of salad.
Good, basically giant taquitos.
Machete de chivo: to me it was like a huge tostada.
Toto. There are about 100 “cash only” signs around the place.
Zoli, Brooklyn. Huge place in an otherwise industrial-seeming neighborhood. Very comfortable. Bar and dining room are separated by a big Pierre Huyghe aquarium triptych art piece. Got to watch some little horseshoe crabs dancing around.
bison tartare, mackerel crudo, mussels
artichokes, poblano
mushrooms, duck heart, whelk, pear salad
chocolate cake with black garlic
Great lighter meal. Standouts were the tartare, poblano (surprising creamy texture), amazing whelks (labor of love by the chef), pear salad (great refreshing way to end), and the chocolate-garlic dessert. Great service, kind of casual-elegant atmosphere. Pricey but relatively good value compared with some of the other high-end places I’ve been to. Good music (seems weirdly rare around here).
Absinthe Colada and Corpse Reviver #2 at Maison Premiere: fun place. One of the biggest absinthe selections in the world.
