East Coast vs. West Coast

I ordered the chopped salad at Bonita on Bedford for my last day in New York before heading back home to the Bay Area. I was totally happy with my salad and it's slightly spicy lime vinaigrette, but I can't say it was necessarily all that related to what I think of as Mexican food. Of course, maybe I should have ordered the tacos or a quesadilla in order to really experience this place, but I'd been hearing all week about how much better Mission burritos are back in San Francisco as opposed to anywhere in New York and how nothing will ever compare to eating Mexican food in California.

I'm betting maybe Mexican food in Mexico.


Chopped Salad:

Epilogue

I'm not going to cover the last day in depth. This part of our blog was about our shared experiences eating in New York and she went home one day earlier than me.

I will say a few things:

Our last meal together was at the mediocre Mexican place "Bonita".

I ate dinner with James in Astoria the night before I left at a great little place on 34th Ave., S'Agapo. I had lamb fricassee with artichokes.

That made it seven times I ate lamb while here in New York

Four of those time where at Oasis.

That looks like this:

We had Japanese food seven times.

And to top it all off at around midnight, the night before I left I got to eat Souvlaki at my favorite Souvlaki stand in queens.

The Souvlaki Man's Stand has gotten bigger

But the Souvlaki is Exactly the Same!

Day 14 (The Ultimate Day) Tai Thai & Kefi

We started our last day the same way we've done the entire trip; arguing about the question of brunch vs. lunch. After tramping up and down Bedford for our millionth and possibly last time we finally begrudgingly settled on going back to Tai Thai, the quite good Thai Place we'd gone to earlier that on our trip. It was just as good and efficient as I'd remembered.

For dinner we went with Kirstin's friend Sandra to a great Greek place on the Upper West Side called Kefi. The food was very good and priced pretty much as reasonably as anything I'd had back in my beloved Astoria.

We ordered four appetizers for the table; an amazing sort of califlower/tomato salad, a feta caper olive concoction and some sardines. Everything came with caperberries and feta cheese on it witch was just great by me.

I also finally got the branzino I was hopping for. It just the way I wanted it; perfectly pan fried and served with a nice mix of roasted tomatoes, potatoes and olives.

A meal full of feta and love.

Sandra and a large amount of food

My beloved Branzino

An Ouzo sour, the only drinkable ouzo I've ever had

Day 8 Bonito & Nobu

Our only concrete plan before we left for New York was a reservation we had at Nobu for 6:30 on the 13th.
I woke up late but I still had to eat something before our reservation. I headed down the street to a little Mexican place Bonito I’d noticed to get some tacos.

Being from the bay area I normally I avoid Mexican food in New York at all costs but this place had something about it that suggested authenticity. Maybe it was the plastic lobster and steak sign above there awning.

Immediately after entering the door I half wanted to flee. The waiter was an overly friendly tattooed white person, everything was too clean, and tacos where listed at $10. I asked the white guy how many Tacos came with this and he gave me a long description of all the different tacos you could get, why didn’t they just have this on the menu?

As it turned out you got three tacos is you ordered the steak ones, not a bad deal. You had to pay for chips and salsa but at least it came with three different kinds of salsa and tons of home made chips.

One small hispanic woman made up the entire visible kitchen staff. She was an amazingly fluid person to watch. Throwing tortillas here and there with one hand and scooping sauce with the other. I was hypnotized.

I took the Tacos home and ate them. They where good, fresh and light with a nice chipotle sauce. Still they lacked something, something that is missing from all east coast mexican food, not something I can put into words, but it’s absence is always conspicuous.

Anyways Nobu was really the point of this day.

I’d been there before over ten years ago. Still I figured I might as well get the second tier tasting menu since I’d already tried the first one. To describe everything we ate would be too much of an endeavor but I will try to at least list the courses.

Drinks:
First I ordered the “Cucumber Martini“ a delightful combination of lychee, cucumber puree and vodka. A drink so clean and clear it didn’t even taste like I was drinking alcohol.

Later I got a “Matusuhisa Martini” with Hokusetsu Sake, Vodka and ginger because I wanted something I could feel.

Our tasting menus where as follows:

First coarse: Cold Appetizers

Me: Some sort of Japanese oily wrapped around stalks of asparagus drizzled with Yuzu (Japanese Citrus) sauce.

Kirstin: A yellowfin tar tar served in a wasabi sauce with some sort of frozen stuff on top.

Both dishes came topped with Caviar and accompanied by a Yamamomo the “Japanese Apricot”

Second Coarse: Salads with Sashimi

Me: A micro green salad with a light ponzu dressing and a raw sockeye salmon which I gave to Kirstin because I don’t like Raw salmon.

Kirstin: Seared Ahi on a bed of mixed greens with sesame ginger dressing. I ate the Ahi, it was perfect brushed with a small amount of white and black petter corn.

Third coarse: New Style Sashime (a food invented by Nobu owner Iron Chef: Matsuhisa)

Me: A lightly seared bonito topped with chopped onions and cilantro in a with some sort of amazing dark green jalapeno sauce.

Kirstin: A japanese snapper seared very quickly with a high temperature blow torch drizzled with yuzo, oil and chives.

Fourth Course: Fried Things

Me: An amazing piece of Japanese style fluke battered in a wheat free batter and flash fried. Served with a skinned cherry tomato salad.

Kirsten: Bay shrimp tempura in a bowl. Sort of like Japanese pop corn shrimp.

Fifth Coarse: Main Coarse

Me: Rare Washu beef with a wine-miso sauce served with roasted baby vegetables and a piece of fried lotus root topped with poached Foie Gras.

Kirstin: Nobu’s signature dish. Miso glazed black cob with pickled baby ginger. Fish that tastes like butter.

Sixth Course: Sushi

We each got six pieces of perfectly fresh nigiri served with a bowl of extra complex tasting miso soup (I’m sure they make the dashi themselves) with baby clams in it.

Last Coarse: Dessert

I couldn’t eat much of mine (a super chocolaty mouse thing topped with shiso syrup) or Kirstin’s (Some sort of ‘smores thing) so you’ll have to look to her post for this one.

At the end of this day one basic thought came to mind. Sometimes some of what people tell you about New York really is true. “You can’t get good Mexican food” and “you have to try Nobu if at all possilble”.