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.

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