I’m back. Sorry I’ve been on hiatus. I took the summer off, so now that fall is here it’s time to eat! What better way for me to be back in the saddle than to share some thoughts on food during my recent visit to the concrete jungle where dreams are made of. This is very fitting because my foodie roots started in NYC. When I first moved there, I hung out with a lot of chefs and was exposed to some pretty amazing food and wine. Additionally, when I lived in my 200 sq foot studio on Orchard Street, I could not afford cable. So, I stuck the cable in the wall and got six free channels, one of which of the Food Network. I watched a lot of it. I learned tips and tricks and also discovered some great restaurants, I would later try. Living in the LES was also a culinary adventure, being so close to some NY staples like Russ & Daugthters, Gus’s pickles, Katz’ Deli and the markets of Chinatown.
During my recent visit, I tried some oldies and some new joints. The first stop was brunch at Mercer Kitchen. Mercer is a SoHo fixture, always delivering quality food. We ponied up to the bar, and since it was so damn humid, we wanted something refreshing. We started with an ap of black mission figs, mozzarella and prosciutto. It’s so simple and delicious. Let’s put together a salad of my favorite things: figs, salted pork products and cheese! They all balance each other very well. I will be making this one at home.
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| Figs! |
Next we ordered the salmon with crispy rice, chipotle mayo and ponzu. It was like a sushi roll of sorts. This dish didn’t ring my bell. Finally, our main was: steamed shrimp salad with avocado, mushroom and tomato in a champagne vinaigrette. I was really enjoying this salad until about three bites into to it, my dining partner (we’ll call her JBo) notices a bug in our salad. We’ve all experienced this, but while not super pleasant, depending on the size of it, I sometimes just ignore (it’s protein after all). Well, this was not a tiny gnat. This was a live, crawling black worm. Very disgusting. After a few apologies, we got a new salad. Worm-free. As nice as Mercer is, I was a bit surprised, especially when the salad was still on our check. Seems like Mercer has gone a bit downhill since I left.
That night we had a reso at the new David Burke Kitchen in the James Hotel. The atmosphere was cool, dark and there were a lot of good people watching, including David Burke himself. We started with something that wasn’t even on the menu: tuna tartar tacos. This was a treat! Gone in two bites. Next, I had to order one of my favorite appetizers, dates and bacon. This was no ordinary dates and bacon, it added peanut butter! Dates and bacon are so delicious on their own, you really don’t need to add anything. I mean stuffed with blue cheese or an almond, maybe a drizzle of honey, but peanut butter? I had to try. They were served on mini skewers with a fried olive. My verdict: lose the peanut butter. It overshadowed the salty-sweet combination of the dates and bacon. Finally, we all ordered a roast chicken with some summer succotash. This dish was very pleasing, the chicken was cooked perfectly and the veggies were light and flavorful. Would I order it again? Probably not. Overall, I thought DBK was pretty good, but I’ve been to better in SF.
My last night we ventured to the Meatball Shop in the LES. It was great to be back in my old hood right across from where I used to live. The Meatball Shop is very simple: pick some meatballs (pork, chicken, beef, veggie) pick your sauce (classic marinara, spicy meat, mushroom gravy, pesto, parmesan cheese) and a host of unders or sides from spaghetti and polenta to spinach and salad. You can also get sliders or subs. What a great concept and the atmosphere was hoppin.
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| Meatballs (sorry, Blackberry camera = bad) |
The special ball of the day was a buffalo chicken. This tasted exactly like a wing. We had three. For my main, I had pork meatballs with classic marinara over polenta with a side of garlic green beans. This was a great combo, the meatball was very moist and paired well with the polenta. The chicken meatball was the best, however. You know why? There’s pork in there! Everything is better with pork. I really enjoyed this place as it was casual, inexpensive and fun. If I still lived across the street, I could see myself eating a lot of balls.
