Kefi

Last Thursday I went to go see Nosedive’s production of “A Colorful World”. Based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel “The Watchmen” it was clever, witty and all in all well done. Kudos to all involved with special nods to James, Pete and Patrick Shearer, who is a devastingly talented actor. But this ain’t no theater blog kids. The show was on the upper west side, where I spent many a year slaving over a hot stove and subsequently getting kicked out of Citrus only to retreat to All State Café (R.I.P. to the saddest bar I’ve ever been to)

Now originally I wanted to eat at Ouest or Telepan but it seems that my friends are not nearly as eager to spend all their money on food (weirdos). I had heard good things about it and the chef Michael Psilakis who is now hotter than hot (he also is the chef at Anthos and Mia Dona). I looked up the greek menu online and found that it was pretty inexpensive and right around the corner from the theatre so it seemed perfect.

I rushed in my customary 10 mintues late to find Maria, Marsha and Teresa sitting at the bar waiting for me, which was an absolute joy . The bar is small and the front lounge was filled with people waiting for tables. Our waiter, who was also apparently a manager was quite gracious in giving us a table for 5 (Nadine joined us 5 mintes later after she found a power bar- upcoming blog, my thoughts on replacing a meal with a bar).

The dining room was packed and we got a roomy table in the back. Our waiter/manager told us the specials of the night and was incredible knowledgable and passionate about the food and wine. He recommened a greek red (all the wines are Greek) which was absolutely delicious. Marsha and I decided to start our meal by sharing Sheeps Milk Dumplings with Pine nuts, Sausage and Tomatoes. Teresa ordered the selection of spreads and Maria opted to start with a simple greek salad. The sheep’s milk dumpling appetizer was wonderful . Savory and delcious, the dish was perfectly balanced, and the sausage had a little kick, not too much but enough for me to appreciate. The selection of dips was also a great way to start a meal, served with warm pita bread, I love nothing more than having warm bread with something warm to slather over it. Now I have always loved taramosalata, (creamy fish roe spread), but for me the real revelation was the eggplant caviar spread. I don’t really like eggplant. Growing up my mother would serve it fried, in oil that was never hot enough rendering it into essentially a flavorless oil sponge (my mother is a good cook, just not with the eggplant, I love you Ma), served as a spread it was smoky and wonderfully flavorful.

For entrees I opted for the “broken mouska”, which was basically a free form mouska, Marsha the pork medallions with spicy peppers and capers, Teresa, sheeps milk ravioli with brown butter and sage, and Maria shrimp with orzo and feta. Everything was fantastic, I have only had mousaka at diners so it was a real treat to see the dish elevated into something a bit more special with care towards ingredients and method. Marsha’s pork was the perfect dish for her, peppers, capers, lemon with pork worked beautifully and was perfectly balanced. Teresa’s sheeps milk ravioli were delicious ( I feel like if someone ran in and put brown butter on my computer, I might eat it). And sweet Maria, a practicing vegetarian who for some reason feels compelled to eat fish whenever I’m around, her shrimp with feta and orzo was wonderful. The flavors were fresh and the dish worked wonderfully. Everyone enjoyed the food a lot and we had a great time eating talking and laughing like ladies who lunch (or dinner).

Unfortunatly we couldn’t stay for dessert,we had to run to the show, but Kefi with no entrée over $15 is defiently worth treking to the Upper West Side for.

Friday was busy

I had an interesting day on Friday. I spent most of Thursday night and the wee hours of Friday morning celebrating the birthday of my friend Troy. The next day we put on our Friday lunch best and continued the birthday celebrations at Eleven Madison Park. I love Eleven Madison Park. I went when they first opened years ago and recently with Nadine. Nadine and I had the tasting menu which was amazing. I wanted to take Troy there because he loves fine dining and wine and rarely gets to go out to nice restaurants in the city.

We walked in and were greeted quite warmly by the hostess, who wished Troy a happy birthday and talked to Troy about being the maître d at Bouley. They sat at a wonderful table by one of the giant windows. For those of you that haven’t been there, it’s a gorgeous dining room. Art deco inspired with massive ceilings.

We started out our meal with champagne; they brought out a champagne cart driven by a sommelier. Troy decided on a German sparkling white, (I may be wrong here I will fact check over the weekend). It was really refreshingly dry the perfect way to start the meal. We decided to have the tasting menu, because, you know I like tasting menus. As it was Troy’s birthday they had the foresight to give us menus that said “happy birthday” it was quite sweet and Troy was quite touched.

The first course was a Garden pea and Coconut panacotta with “crunchy spring vegetables”. The panacotta was lovely. Light and delicate, the crunchy spring vegetables balanced the panacotta texturally perfectly. A wonderful way to start the meal, it really tasted of spring.

The second course was halibut with razor clams, cauliflower puree and green almonds. I cannot stress enough how exquisitely cooked the halibut was. Tender, juicy and cooked all the way through, the halibut was divine. The accompanying cauliflower puree, green almonds and some sort of saffron sauce balanced the dish beautifully. The razor clams added another dimension of savory that was unexpected and worked quite well.

At this point I suppose it’s prudent to mention the wine. Now as much as I love tasting menus, I also love them with wine pairings. Troy however being a sommelier is a bit weary of them. He went through the 90 page wine list (shouldn’t it be a wine book at that point?) and chose a German white, a Franken Rielsing ( Hans Wirsching, Iphöfer Kronsberg , Spätlese, Trocken 2006, and yes I did just copy and paste this from the restaurants website. Sue me). The bottle was not the usual wine bottle shape and short, which is why a lot of restaurants don’t carry it (it’s hard to store). It was absolutely perfect. It was a pleasant compliment to the panacotta and the halibut. This is one of the perks of going to eat with a sommelier; he knows stuff about booze that I am sure not to know.

Now the next course was the foie gras. Ahhh foie gras, so delicious, so hard to mess up (though apparently it does happen). The foie was served with rhubarb and was absolutely delicious. Our waitress brought us a glass of dessert wine to accompany it. This is where the weirdness with the service starts. Troy had to be at work by 4, and told our waitress when we sat down. So she gives us a dessert wine to accompany the foie, it tasted like sweet lacquer. Sweet delicious lacquer. She said that they chose to give us the dessert wine rather than an extra course because of the time constraint. After we left Troy and I looked at each other like “bitch please”, the courses while delicious were on the small side and we were eating fairly quickly. They totally could have done an extra course. But no matter, the glass of wine with the foie was quite nice (though Troy pointed out that the pairing was “textbook”).

The next course was a lamb en croute with artichokes and prosciutto. They presented us the lamb before they plated it which is a nice old school touch that I always appreciate. The lamb was delicious. Lamb loin wrapped in prosciutto wrapped in puff pastry, it was served with tomato confit, and baby artichokes. A note about baby artichokes: my first garde manger job at ‘Cesca I had to clean and cook cases of artichokes, babies and full grown. I love artichokes but I rarely order them in restaurants or cook them for myself because they are so labor intensive and I feel bad. Hats off to you entremet at Eleven Madison Park. They were magical. They also sent us a glass of red to accompany the lamb. Worked together very nicely.

So now on the tasting menu we had a choice of cheese or dessert. And to quote my favorite movie I thought “can’t we have both?”. So we did. Now when I came for dinner they brought the cheese cart. I still dream of that cheese cart. It was filled with lactose loving sometimes while I’m watching law and order I wish a captain from eleven Madison Park would show up with the cart and offer me some goat cheese to accompany my favorite crime drama. But I digress. Um no cheese cart for lunch. This made me sad. I was tempted to add an emoticon but thought better of it. The cheese plate though was delicious. They were served with wine gelees, which frankly added very little to the cheese but looked pretty on the plate. There was a Portuguese soft sheeps milk that was a standout. Our German white (remember that) went perfectly with the cheese, which Troy predicted when he first tasted it.

Dessert was a “ Vacherin” of Lemon and Basil Parfait, Strawberries and bits o’ Meringue. It was really refreshing. The parfait was light and delicious, the strawberry ice cream tasted much more like a sorbet though it was far more intense than a normal sorbet. Now here’s the weird bit about lunch. When I made the reservation I told them I was bringing the maitre d from Bouley for his birthday. When we walked in they greeted us with a happy birthday, they even wrote it on the menu. Now just about every restaurant that has sit down service if they know it’s your birthday will bring you a dessert with a candle. I was sitting there looking for anyone with a plate with a candle. Nothing. I discussed it with Troy, he said he didn’t mind, he was for more touched by the menus. He got up to go to the bathroom, I asked our waitress if she could bring out just any dessert with happy birthday written on it. She brought out a cookie plate with happy birthday written on it. Cookie plate was nice, had some awesome dark chocolate and peanut butter tarts. We washed everything down with a glass of cognac that Troy chose, a wonderful way to end a meal. Now the bill came and it wasn’t cheap, they comped us the two glasses of wine and the cheese course. But they charged me for the cookie plate. That was weird. Now I don’t mind paying, going into Eleven Madison Park you know that you will be dropping at least $300 (I think our total was like 340 after tip), but $12 for a cookie plate for a birthday? Really? To sum up food fantastic, service pretty great with a few odd missteps.

Now did my day end there? NO Friday night I went to see Stone Soup Theatre Arts Production of Ghostdancers (quality linkage). I met my friend Nicole at Gusto and we had a quick dinner at Dallas BBQ before the show. Now after the champagne, the wine, more wine and then the cognac I was as they say a tad overserved so all I really wanted was some fried food. And frankly I don’t like the barbeque at Dallas BBQ. So I ate some fried shrimp and a giant apple martini because I am classy. Comparing the restaurants would be odd, but I’m glad I went to both in the same day to get some perspective on restaurants in general.

The show was great, I am blessed to have some amazingly talented and wonderful friends. (Please vote for Nadine. A lot). After the show we went to some tiny Mexican restaurant. I didn’t eat anything, so there’s really nothing to report other than apparently I intimidate my friend DR with my knowledge of food. A few things, DR you are sweet and naked, 2. I just love food I don’t judge. Unless you put ketchup on your eggs which is just gross. Other than that most everything is fine. All in all a great day filled with wonderful food, drink and friends.

Fatty Crab

Wrote this review for class. Class is over which makes me sad. Once school is over I'll do a massive top chef recap. I promise.

Fatty Crab

Zak Pelaccio has a great deal on his plate. The chef at 5 Ninth and Fatty Crab, he is also the consulting chef at Chop Suey in Times Square and is consulting on a restaurant with friends Will Goldfarb and Josh DeChellis. I thought it might be interesting to see how his second restaurant Fatty Crab was holding up considering how busy the Mr. Pelaccio is.

Dedicated to Malaysian street food, Fatty Crab is a tiny store front in the West Village. When we arrived on a chilly Monday evening weekday evening the place was packed, always a good sign. My party and I opted to sit outside than wait for a table or squeeze three people onto a table for two. Service was a bit lacking as we were ignored outside till we went back inside to ask for a table inside or some menus. We decided to sit back outside, and once our waitress did appear she was quite kind and courteous. She helped us navigate the menu and informed us that it was smarter to share rather than to order individual entrees.

The food for the most part was bright and tasty with few missteps. The fatty tea sandwiches, pork belly on white bread with sambal mayonnaise, were for the most part successful. They were fatty and tasty though in my opinion they could have used some acid to cut the richness of the pork belly. The best dish in my opinion came next, the malay fish fry, with fried fish, cilantro and chilies served with tamaki rice. The fried fish was light with no trace of grease, the rice was well balanced with sweet and spicy and the cilantro added a spark of freshness. My other favorite dish of the night was the fatty sliders, small hamburgers made of pork and beef with sambal mayonnaise served on a potato bun with bibb lettuce and a pickle. The combination of meat was perfectly seasoned and juicy and the spicy mayonnaise and the pickle added the perfect spicy sour counterbalance.

Less successful was the fatty duck. Meant to be eaten with your hands, the duck was slightly overcooked and the dish was grossly unbalanced. The sweet glaze on the duck was also on the tamaki rice that the duck came with making it far too sweet for my tastes. The vegetable bun while tasty did not blow me away by any means.

Overall I left satisfied, our meal was under thirty dollars per person and everyone in my party was full at the end of the meal. I feel like Fatty Crab is the kind of restaurant where there are hidden gems on the menu. I look forward to going back to try and find them.

Grafitti and such

So i've been pretty sucky with the blog updates, not that i haven't been eating out or not watching top chef. I've just been procrastinating like a lazy person. So forgive me. Last night I had dinner with my dear friend marsha. We went to grafitti, a tiny asian fusion tapas place in the east village. The menu is split up into three categories $7, $12, $15. We had the following:

Flatbread with cheese
Chili pork dumplings
Pork Buns
Chili prawns
Crab Noodle rolls

The chef is Indian, the flatbread was like the bread i used to eat as a child sprinkled with goat cheese, really nice.
The chili pork dumplings were nice and spicy and paired with semolina crakery things which added some really nice texture. I really enjoyed these.
Pork buns were awesome, beautiful braised pork with more semonlina crunchies, an apricot chutney that tasted like a proper chutney from the motherland. The bun was really soaked up all the braising liquid from the pork. Really Really delicious.
Crab noodle rolls. Nice balance of flavor, but as with most crab things i wanted more crab.
Chili prawns, I was most disappointed with this one. The sauce didn't have enough flavor (where were the curry leaves, don't advertise curry leaves in a dish if you're not bringing curry leaves, please, no one likes a curry leaf tease). The shrimps were flavorless, rice cake unimpressive and the pretzels on top, really? REALLY? how about you properly season your food and stop trying to be cute. But i really liked the pork buns, so we're cool
Marsha chose a nice cote du rhone, because she's a panda sommlier, it was awesome.

Afterwards we headed over to chickalicious pudding, which was down teh street. Marsha had a "adult chocolate pudding", I had a "vanilla custard pudding" Both were inexpensive (2.50) and delicious. The music at chickalisous pudding however, nearly drove me to kill. Z100 can really kiss my ass, being forced to listen to bad music more than anything else, leads me to homicide.

Ate at Degustation again on tuesday. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite restaurants. Did the ten course tasting again with a wine pairing. Word to teh wise. Wine pairings get you DRUNK. All spainish wines, really wonderful. Some of the courses were the same, one that was different that stuck out was a sardine sandwich in between baugettes that had been fried in butter. Tartar sauce, pickled onions and fresnos. Dear GOD. so fucking good. The last savory course was a slow roasted pork, tomatillo puree, fresnos peppers, mushrooms and micro cilantro. It was like they climbed into my brain. It was amazing. They sent us a glass of port, which i had never had before. Unfortunatly at that point in the evening i was too drunk to really dissect the flavor of the port.

Other dining briefs:
**Went to Gusto two days in a row. My friend is the chef there, after a pretty afternoon on sunday went to see her, more for friend support than for food. Of course the soft shell crab and the fettucine with clams helped. As did that new cheesecake. I also went the next day after class and Nicole sent me some beautiful short ribs with white polenta and root vegetables. Wonderful. Nadine showed up and Nicole sent her some meatballs. Because she knows Nadine. Everything was fantastic.
**went to see my friend ben (hey ben) in a show in long island city. Me Marsha, Dr, and Maria wanted some food before the show. We asked ben where to go, he suggested a pub nearby telling us there was no food in the neighborhood. Marsha and I had burgers, Maria had some fish and chips, and our ever adventuorous DR got some pasta. At a pub. Yeah, he's that guy (by that I mean wonderful, handsome and perfect). The food was fine, wonderful guiness. The thing is, as we walked to the show, we passed a perfectly quaint looking bistro called cafe henri. Yeah no food in the neighborhood. What did we learn, do not rely on ben for food recommedations. For music yes, food no.


I think that's it. Um top chef update soon. I promise.

Degustation Wine and Tasting Bar

Holy fucking shit. Yeah, sigh so dinner last night REALLY FUCKING GOOD. Should I stop using profanity? Nah, Last night warrants all the profanity a 19th century scurvy ridden sailor could conjure. So yesterday I was slightly mopey, so to counteract the mope I made dinner plans with my friend Nadine. I had read about Degustation in an interview with Anita Lo of Annisa and decided to try it out. The 5 course tasting menu for $50, was also pretty tempting.

The dining room is simply a bar, maybe 20 seats, behind the bar is the kitchen. The chef Wesley Genovart and two line cooks. Nadine was already there (I'm always late) sipping a glass of Spainish sparkling white wine. Looking over the menu i saw the tasting of five courses for $50, and a ten course tasting for $75. My meager math skills told me teh deal was with the ten course tasting. I ordered a black velvet (guniess and cava) and two ten course tastings. Man was I happy.

Our amuse bouche was a trio of popular tapas there. A croquette of bacon with bechamel on a pimento sauce, a spainish tortilla filled with shallot confit and house cured sardines with parsley. The spainish influence is evident (I believe the chef is Spainish born, and his Spainish is perfect). The amuse was fantastic, my favorite was the croquette (I love fried food!) and Nadine loved the sardine (which was also fantastic).

First course was a crudo of snapper with avocado and parsley. The fish was marinated with olive oil and had a little spice to it. Really light and refreshing.

Second course was whole fried anchovies with and herb tartar sauce parsley and pickled fresno chiles. I love fresno chiles, and anchovies, though I did not eat the heads. Sorry I draw the line at eyes, dont want to eat eyes. The rest of the anchovies were delicious though.

Third Course was an egg. It came in a little egg holder, inside the hollowed out shell were soft scrambled eggs with yoghurt and chives duck bacon and rye croutons. I wish someone would make this for every day for breakfast. So so good. Rye croutons man, can we get married? (Here i ask rye croutons to marry me, i know it's not going to happen)

Fourth Course was a fucking revelation. Prawns with the head (they were some special prawn from Morocco I think), the most sweet and succulent prawn i have ever tasted, done simply with olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Served with amaranth (Asian grain) cooked with blue crab stock and lobster roe. Holy mother of god was this good, it was like porridge of the gods, we were instructed to suck the heads, but once i lifted mine the delcious shrimp head juice ran out and made my shellfish amaranth all the more delicious. This dish was absolutely perfect.

Fifth course (I might be mixing up the order): Rouget with cilantro and mint. Man it's like someone climbed into my brain and was like "what does anasua want to eat?". Basically this. The rouget was served whole, was perfectly cooked and seasoned sat on a spicy yet light chili sauce and cilantro and mint. We polished our plates. Perfection, might have been one of my favorites.

Sixth Course: Uni and Oatmeal Risotto with crisp ham and parsley. SHHHHIIIITTTT. I love me some uni and the textural interplay between the uni and the oatmeal was satisifying and brillant. The crisp ham chips added more texture and a nice saltiness, the parsely puree added a freshness. This dish was awesome. I am officially starting to run out of adjectives.

7th Course: Grilled octopus with confit potoatoes, pearl onions and pimento sauce. This dish is so fucking spainish it makes me want to lisp and drink sangria. The ingredients were so fresh and honest. Really Really good. Octopus was perfectly cooked.

8th Course: Squab with beet puree and pickled white asparagus. Man, well I love squab, I am a huge fan of game meats. Most times chefs try and pair them with something a little sweet to stand up to the gameiness. What I loved is that Wes (can i call him Wes now?, i think i asked him to marry me around the 6th course. He smiled which i think was his polite way of saying um no). The beets were sweet yes, but the pickeled asparagus had a little kick. Apparently the pickling liquid was water, vinegar, all sorts of citrus and thai red chilies. Between the sweetness and the beets and the subtle heat of the asparagus, the perfectly cooked squab and the crunch of the aspargus this dish was perfectly balanced.

9th course: Perhaps my favorite Kobe beef with molasses, red onion marmalade, horseradish foam and sea beans. Yes sea beans! I saw them on my plate i was so happy. This dish made me so happy, happy to be alive. I cannot stress how skillfully the beef was cooked perfectly seasoned and just amazing AMAZING. The sweetness of the marmalade was countered with the horseradish, but because it was a foam the horseradish wasn't overpowering (like freshly grated horseradish can be) or too creamy (like a lot of people do with horseradish). This dish was delightful, so so good I kind of wanted to cry.

The Intermezzo was a tequilla and ginger granita with an apple foam. Consider our palates cleansed, the granita was boozy and hot (thanks ginger) but instantly cooled by the foam.

Dessert. Torija with grapefruit foam. Man, man I missed marsha. Apparently a torija (forgive me if it's misspelled) is a bread pudding of sorts, soaked in heavy cream and then carmelized. I don't know the exact process, long story short i could eat this for the rest of my life. It was so rich and beautiful but not heavy at all. Oh my god. little bits of frozen grapefruit segements and the foam lightened.

In terms of wine they do offer a wine pairing we did a few glasses to pair with specific courses. They sent us a glass of dessert wine, like a muscat (spelling?), but spainish and lighter and paired really well with the dessert. We talked to the kitchen most of the night because you know they are right there. Really friendly, wonderful staff. The service was not pretensious and on point. I think the owner (Jack Lamb?) came over and we talked about places we'd worked and people we know. All in all a super satisifying meal. The portions were just the right size so I left feeling full and not stuffed. A little buzzed but not drunk by any means. Pure Bliss.

We ended the night at Whiskeytown which was around the corner. Owned by George of I used to own a part of Tribe fame, and his brother Justin the bar is nicer than you'd expect for someplace called whiskeytown, really laid back and fun. We had something that Justin had created that night the "Elliot Spritzer", rye whiskey cherries and sweet vermouth. Tasty.

Dallas BBQ East Village

I love my friend Marsha. She is one of the lights of my life. We went to dinner Tuesday night before a birthday party (happy birthday comtois!). Both of us being cash poor we wanted to keep things cheap. We were in the East Village so I automatically recommended Yokocho (I LOVE YOKOCHO) and Klong (cheap thai on St. Marks). Unfortunatley Marsha hates the entire continent of Asia. This isn't true, but I enjoy hyperbole. She does however love chain restaurants. So Dallas BBQ here we come!

So when I think Dallas BBQ I think of giant glass of booze like the tangerine margarita with an extra shot that I started with. Apparently you're supposed to do the shot and then drink your margarita. I didn't understand this (Notice the confusion on my face). I poured the extra booze in my drink and went to town. My thinking is this, if i'm going to Dallas BBQ I'm not going to order a diet coke and a salad. I want some chicken and a big glass of booze.

There's also some fried shrimp on that plate a backed potato and some cornbread. After that meal i kind of wanted to die. But in a good way. The BBQ sauce there was more sweet than spicey but it was still great. Marsha had the roast chicken white meat only (I'm a dark meat only girl this is why we are great dinner companions). Both Marsha and I left stuffed with chicken and happy as clams! And dinner was cheapish, which is always good so i can spend more money at better restaurants. Retirement be damned!

On a somewhat related note, the service was fair, nothing crazy good, but we were well taken care of. The table next to us however seemed to be having alot of problems with the server. And dealt with it the entirely wrong way. Instead of being oh what's the word, a bitch when service is poor, the best thing to do in my opionion is to be extra nice. This is not earth shattering advice, but lets face it none of you are coming here for the answer to peace in the middle east. As someone who is in the service industry, we make mistakes, we're sorry it would be nice if you didn't treat us like idiots or human filth because of it. Love me.

Oh and here's a picture of Marsha about two seconds before a brain freeze

Applebees (yes that Applebees)

So I ate dinner at Applebees tonight. Why you ask, if I'm trying to write seriously about food would i 1. eat at applebees 2. Admit to it ? Well I was having a bit of a mopey day, and was talking to Marsha about where to have dinner. We both have a soft spot for chain restaurants (I'm from long island, I make no apologies)and the mediocre food at chain restaurants is always comforting. Another factor I think is that the Applebees is a ten minute walk from my house and I barely wanted to leave my apartment today.

So the food: Well, um, we started with a trio of appetizers, spinach dip, boneless chicken wings, and steak quesidillas. They came to our table, looking less fabulous than they did in the pictures in the menu. Everything was fine, I mean at a place like Applebees its really about expections, and for the three of us, they were pretty low. For dinner I had a quesidilla burger, which is a quesidilla with a burger inside with something called Mexi-Ranch sauce. It was astoundingly medicore, and i had expected nothing less. Nadine had a steak and some broccoli which looked fine. The dressing on Marsha's grilled shrimp and spinach salad was a bit too sweet. I must say the service at Applebees was great. Now I understand that our waitress had to undergo some sort of Clockwork Orangesque training session, but after the apathetic french waiter from Les Halles, our waitress was considerate and attentive.
We passed on dessert, which is unfortunate because the applebees on fulton has red velvet cake from the cake man in fort greene. I was slightly upset about this until i realized that the acutal raven cake man store is literally 4 mintues from my house. For those of you who don't know about the raven cake man, he started baking cakes in harlem in the 90s and has been in brooklyn for at least four. The red velvet cake here is fantastic. I can understand people being skeptical because I am an Indian girl from the north, but my southern friends agree, and they're from the south so they should know. What is the point of this post, um okay, lessons learned, the service at applebees, better than Les halles
the red velvet cake at the cake man is awesome
applebees is mediocre.

I'll be posting something about gin over the weekend, there was an interesting article in the Washington Post.

Les Halles (Downtown)

So last night was Nadine's birthday. For those of you who are randomly reading this (who are you people anyway), you'll be hearing alot about Nadine, we eat out alot together, she is one of my most precious friends. Yesterday was her birthday so a large group of us went to the Les Halles in the financial district.

Before dinner I must note we went a bar called Pound and Pence on Liberty Street. The thinking behind this was the following, we wanted (Marsha, my other most precious of friends, Nadine and I) to go have some nice happy hour drinks and wouldn't it be ironic if we went to some pub establishment filled with Wall Street types. The bar was actually very spacious and warm. The reason I'm mentioning it is because they have a really extensive gin selection. To know me is to know my love of gin. I sampled a Dutch gin Bols Genever, in a gin and tonic. It was clean and really refreshing.

On to dinner

We were seated in a back room there about ten of us. Nadine, Marsha and I got there and met Nicole and DR inside. Our waiter was french, which i have no problem with (I work with a bunch of frenchies), but I usually expect good service coupled with the haughty attitude. I can take you thinking you're better than I am as long as the service you provide is of high quality, unfortunately that was not the case. Only half of our party had arrived and our waiter was continuing to ask us if we wanted something to drink, even after we had said we were going to wait for everyone else to arrive. Then once everyone arrived our waiter was no where to be found. I ordered my steak Bearnaise with mashed potatoes instead of fries, and they brought it with fries anyway. When I pointed this out there was no apology to be found. I don't mean to sound like a bitch, but i do this for a living, we were a fun and nice group of people, common courtesy should apply. There was visible annoyance when we repeatedly asked for drinks we had ordered and asked for the wine list. Sigh. Someone flunked french waiter school it seems.

The food, I started with escargot, which was delicious. To be fair anything slathered in garlic butter is going to be delicious, but god damn it i love me some escargot. Other appetizers floating around included the crabcake (pretty standard, nothing special), mussels with tomato and chorizo (fantastic) and pate (once again pretty standard, good but nothing earthshattering).
For dinner my steak which i ordered medium rare was pretty unevenly, cooked but otherwise satisfactory, the Bearnaise sauce was a bit thick but had a nice shot of vinegar cutting the fat deliciously. Nadine got a seafood choucterie which was very nice, not particularly my taste but well executed. Nicole had some sort of massive mixed grill plate with bacon, lamb chops, and sausages, which was fantastic. Nothing beats a giant wooden board filled with meat. NOTHING. All around the food was well executed, but I must say I prefer the kitchen at the Les Halles uptown.

In spite of the crappy service and the underwhelming kitchen we had a good time and Nadine had a great birthday which is all that matters. After dinner the four of us (Nadine, Marsha, Nicole and I) headed to Souths to have some birthday pie from the little pie company. Here's what I learned. Pie always tastes better with coffee, that has Jameson and Baileys in it.