My Favorite Food Places in NYC

Nicole at Art and Aioli is coming to NYC and asked me for restaurant/foodie recommendations. Rather than respond directly, I thought it would be fun to turn it into a post: My Favorite Food Places in the City. Keep in mind, however, that I don’t go out to restaurants a lot – I only go out about twice a month (babysitters are expensive here!). Nevertheless, here are my favorite food places:

Upper West and East:

Eli’s Manhattan * 1411 Third Ave. Between 80th & 81st (gourmet grocery haven - spendy but you'll be on too much of a natural high to care)

Café des Artistes 1 W. 67th (Great place for Sunday brunch, pre-theater)

Popover Café 551 Amsterdam Ave. Corner of 86th (Close to the Museum of Natural History. See my review here)

Between 59th & 23rd:

Campbell Apartment In Grand Central Terminal (drinks only, no jeans or sneaks, very "old New York". I've only been on Saturday nights - the jazz band is old school...in a good way)

Rare 303 Lexington at 36th (expensive, high-quality burgers and some of my favorite fries in the city. You can even top your burger with truffles!)

Gaby 45 W 44th Street, in the Sofitel hotel (pricey, perhaps overly so, but one of the most memorable meals of my life here. Quiet, soothing atmosphere.)

Ginger Man 11 E. 36th St. between 5th and Madison (avoid this place at night unless you reserved the private room or you don't mind crowds - on the other hand, sitting on the couch, drinking a beer at 2pm on a Saturday is sublime. Try the pretzel with the spicy honey mustard sauce. Here's my review.)

Shake Shack Madison Square Park (you'll wonder if the line is worth it for burgers and shakes. Yes, it is.)

23rd to 4th:

Chelsea Market 75 Ninth Ave. between 15th & 16th (Food shopping, restaurants, desserts, coffee, bread...this place has it all. Check the list of events - watching people tango right there in the market is truly a NYC experience)

Billy’s Bakery 184 Ninth Ave. (Take my word for it - skip the hype and tourists at Magnolia and come here instead for the best cupcakes in NYC)

Union Square Greenmarket (go before 10 a.m. on Saturday to see the chefs and locals, and to actually talk to the purveyors; avoid it after noon, unless you don't mind insane crowds)

Fig and Olive 420 W. 13th between Ninth Ave. & Washington St. (there are other locations, but I've only been to this one in the Meatpacking District - check out my post about it here)

Below 4th:

Home 20 Cornelia St. (one of my favorite places - cozy, casual, great food - but I haven't been there since the owners have changed. The patio is the best place for a warm summer evening!)

A Salt and Battery 112 Greenwich Ave. between 12th & 13th (it's been awhile but I have nothing but fond memories. They recently went local/sustainable, and the shop feels like a little piece of London here in NYC.

Gray’s Papaya Various locations (some people may disagree with me, but I say skip Papaya Dog and Chelsea Papaya. Stick with Gray's. For better or for worse, a NYC institution)

Oliviers & Co. 249 Bleecker St. (so, okay, I know it's a chain, but I fell in love with this store instantly when I entered. The staff is unpretentious and friendly, and you get to sample oils and vinegars before buying. Don't want to haul those bottles around? They'll ship for you. There's also a location in Grand Central Terminal)

Eat, drink, and visit NYC

* Note: Yeah, that's right - I left off Zabar's. I've only been there once, very briefly, and I haven't been motivated to return. I found the space claustrophic in a way I've never experienced and, because of all the people and lack of space, everyone seemed to be ruder than usual. Not a good experience for me. Let me know if you've had a better one. Eli's was infinitely more enjoyable.

The One Where I Re-Create Fig and Olive's Fennel Dish

My soul twin/BFF/partner-in-crime came for a visit last weekend, and we had a proper night out on the town: a 3 ½ hour dinner at Fig and Olive, drinks at The Campbell Apartment, dancing down the street and curtsying to passers-by after one cocktail too many, the Chrysler building (or “the chandelier building”, as my BFF calls it) twinkling in the background. Completely fabulous.

At Fig and Olive, we had the Grilled Fennel with Lemon and Rosemary and I truly don’t know if I can find the words to express its wondrousness. The texture was perfection – cooked through but still resisted a bit when we bit into it. The flavors were complex – the anise, obviously, was predominant, as was the rosemary, but there was something else in there. What was that flavor? What is that? And the fennel was sliced super thin with that pale cream color. Where were the grill marks? It drove us to the brink, trying to figure out how it was done. We asked our adorable server, but he said, “Maybe the chef grilled it whole and peeled away the outer layers.” Hmm…perhaps. But then how did it get sliced so thin once it was cooked? Our server also told us there was “a touch” of grapefruit juice. Hmm…really? Intriguing… Analysis aside, there were gorgeous moments when my BFF and I would take a bite, close our eyes, and sit in orgasmic silence. Wow.

Naturally, I had to try to make it on my own. Last night, I made Nigella Lawson’s Potato and Mushroom Gratin. It was so simple and so delicious, especially since I was able to improv a bit with the ingredients I had on hand: I used red new potatoes instead of the “baking potatoes” Nigella calls for. I also couldn’t find any cremini mushrooms so I used baby portabellas instead. Now the dish was fine on its own, but it could be fabu with bacon. Or maybe even a blue cheese crumbled on top before serving. I dolloped some crème fraîche on it, and that was perfection.

So the fennel…well, I put the whole bulb in a baking dish, rubbed it with oil, salt, and pepper, and baked it at 425 for 40 minutes. I had to do it for only 40 minutes because that’s how much time I had left for the gratin. When the fennel came out, I peeled the outer layers away and did a pretty decent job of slicing it thinly. But it definitely was underdone. So I sauteed it in olive oil and lemon juice for about 20 minutes (while my gratin just sat in a 200° oven. Unfortunately, that still wasn’t enough time, and it was definitely too crunchy still. And I forgot the rosemary. So I’m chalking this up as a failure, even though I still enjoyed it and ate every bite. I consider it a failure because I didn’t have the outcome I was trying for. It’s back to the drawing board.

I just wish I was somebody in the food world, and I could go into the kitchen at Fig and Olive and find out how it’s done! Anyone know anyone who can get me in?

Another One Where I Talk About the NYT Dining Section

The NYT Dining section has been doing this sort of annoying thing lately (to me, anyway) where they’re reviewing the best restaurants in the country. Naturally, I find it annoying because it doesn’t interest me and everyone knows it’s all about me, right? Nevertheless, you should know about this so you can check it out, if you want. For now, though, onward…

The Letters section was actually pretty interesting. Last week there was an article on MSG that almost accused MSG-related migraine sufferers of imagining the whole thing. Of course, a couple of letters grumbled about that. And two letters were related to the octopus article – you know, the octopus recipe that I was dying to try. One person actually spent time in Mykonos so, of course, he had had the real thing off the boat, beaten against a rock, and grilled on an open fire. Well, dur! Of course that’s going to taste better than octopus prepared in my crappy NY kitchen! Then another letter was from a woman who had seen the gorgeous creatures while scuba diving in the Caymans and questioned whether octopus was worth eating when it was so beautiful...not to mention that, if you have to do that much to a thing to make it suitable for eating, isn’t that a sign that maybe we shouldn’t eat it? I don’t know, perhaps I have no conscious, or perhaps I’m too simple-minded, or perhaps I’m cavalier…but I just don’t really care. For the most part, I have had an immensely enjoyable experience every time I’ve had squid. And that’s enough for me. Environmentally, ethically irresponsible? Sure, I suppose you could argue that. But isn’t nearly everything we parasitic humans are doing these days environmentally irresponsible? Oh goodness, I am so digressing…

I’ve been trying for months to get a decent reservation time at Blue Hill to no avail. Apparently now, thanks to TableXchange, I can purchase one! They cost anywhere from $15 to $40, sort of like eBay without bidding. There’s another website, PrimeTime Tables where you pay a $500 annual membership fee (!) and even then you play $45 per reservation. This is irking the restaurateurs because now they’re getting more no-shows and, probably more importantly, they can’t manage the quality of people getting into their restaurant. Now anybody can get in! The most popular restaurants in the country are now open for the masses! Hell, it’s anarchy! I can see where the restaurateurs are coming from but, on the other hand, this is American enterprise and capitalism at work. It’s the nature of the beast. Now some restaurateurs are saying that, if they know a reservation was made by a TableXchange customer, they won’t honor it. I do find this whole issue interesting, but it’s also part of the reason why I prefer home cooking to going out. I want an experience. I don’t want this cutthroat, bragging rights, showing off, competitive part. Or if I do want to go out, I’d rather go to a mid-level restaurant where I can manage a decent reservation time if I call on a Tuesday or Wednesday beforehand: Fig and Olive, Home, Gaby (in the Sofitel Hotel and some of the best food I’ve had in NYC). That’s much more enjoyable and less pretentious to me. I loathe pretension.

I am going to go back to the whole restaurant thing, very briefly. The restaurant reviewed on the first page – Fearing’s in Dallas – has a dish that looks and sounds like a plate of heaven: Buffalo marinated in maple syrup and peppercorns. Not bad, eh? I’d pout that I have to go to Dallas to try it, but the Union Square greenmarket has a guy who sells really good buffalo. I might have to try to create my own recipe…

And that’s the news this week. Stay tuned for more next week!

EDIT: I have to rescind my comment that "I just really don't care." That's totally inaccurate, and I feel bad for saying it. The truth is that I care very much. However, there are a lot of battles to be fought out there in the search for sustainable, organic, and local food...and this is just one I don't feel like fighting. Certainly not enough to compel me to write the Times. Not to mention that I made such a fuss over this woman's letter...and I see they didn't even include it in the online version of that section. So this is all a moot point anyway...