Lemonade?

My friend Sandra plied her friends with promises of watermelon and watermelon-themed drinks for her birthday party, so I made sure to eat well before heading over. I started the day with the Simple Cafe again, and ordered another delicious meal with a lot of liquids. This time it was french toast with coffee, orange juice, and a mango mimosa. I haven't been able to go wrong there yet. Our next stop was the Greenmarket in Union Square. I searched high and low for lemonade here. Then I expanded my search to the neighboring cafes and to a kiosk that called itself a juice bar. No lemonade to be had anywhere in Union Square in the middle of summer. Amazing. I settled for some cold mint tea from one of the farm vendors that actually hit the spot perfectly. Dinner was at a great Japanese place, Go, in Greenwich Village. The highlight here was some rice with ume (plum) that you pour a savory green tea mixture over, but we also got some really good spicy tuna rolls.

Starting the day right:


French toast:


I love Japanese food:

Matter in General

Brunch was at The Rabbit Hole, which is the other eating place across the street from us. My goat cheese and lox omelet was delightful. I had requested fruit instead of a side salad from the waiter at the counter, and asked if that was possible. He said he would check. I heard nothing more and the dish came out with a beautiful arrangement of currants on top of banana and apple. A few minutes later, the woman who was working in the back came out to let me know that they don't normally do this sort of thing, and not in a nice "you're special" way. She told me not to expect this, nor to let anyone else expect this. I assured her I did not live in the area and she did not need to worry about me abusing the brunch substitutions. Nonetheless, the food was good.

We then headed to Astoria and to Socrates Sculpture Park to watch the sun set over Manhattan. According to our friend Erin, it was one of two days out of the year when the sun sets directly between the buildings along the grid of the city. We picked up some snacks to tide us over from Bakeway. I got a surprisingly good mix of thick plain yogurt with berries on top of granola, which I ate with my reusable spork. We enjoyed the sunset, sculptures, snacks, and a bottle of cheap champagne. We also enjoyed the sculpture that was just a sign that said "Matter in General: 937. Deep Fried in Oil, 938. On a Stick". Damian and I have often talked about how things on a stick are the universal food. I bet deep frying is pretty high up there too.

Dinner was at Philoxenia. The first thing I noticed were the candles. They were short and thick, like many restaurant candles, and they were made of wax. But the light was coming from a battery-powered source somewhere inside the candle itself. It looked very authentic until you looked at the wick and saw it wasn't burning. Food-wise, the best part was the beets with pureed potato and garlic, a mixture called skordalia. It was a delicious combination I would not have thought of, despite loving both beets and mashed potatoes (when asked on my college application if I wanted to include any additional information, I wrote that mashed potatoes was one of my favorite foods). The other highlight was the olive dip for the pita - very flavorful and a rich purple color. We definitely asked for seconds.

The bamboo spork makes another appearance:

Sculpture on a stick:

Philoxenia:

Day 7 The Rabbit Hole, Philoxenia

This morningwe had a completely opposite experience of the Rabbit Hole from the one I’d had the night before. We walked in and said we wanted to use our computers so they sat us in the bar with another guy and his computer.

I opened my computer and clicked on there network but I still wasn’t able to connect to the internet. Kirstin had the same problem so we asked the other guy there how his was working and he told us it was fine until about five minutes ago and that they probably just needed to restart their modem.

I asked the bartender if he could restart it and he told me they didn’t really offer wireless on the weekends so “it was probably just off” then he pointed a sign by the door as proof. The sign read “In order to maintain a more pleasant atmosphere we ask that all computers be put away by 5:30 p.m.” It said absolutely nothing about weekends.

I had a burger with no bun and fries which was fine but they really didn’t want to give me any ketchup. Kirstin had her usual eggs with fruit instead of potatoes. Half way through our meal, already feeling rather unwelcome, a woman came up to Kirstin and said “we normally don’t do that.” I had no idea what she was talking about. Was this about the ketchup? No it was about the fruit. She wanted Kirstin to know not to expect to be able to substitute fruit whenever she wanted to.

This was not the pleasant atmosphere I’d experienced there just 12 hours earlier.

For dinner we went to Philoxenia in Astoria, Queens. A little Greek place I’d gone to last time I was in town and have fond memories of. Having lived in Astoria for years before moving back to the bay area I was very familiar with Greek food and I missed it more than anything else about New York.

We sat outside on the patio at the same table we’d sat at last time. Me, Kirstin and Erin shared everything we ordered and we ate it all down to the last drop of sauce.

We had beets with skordalia, a Greek potato garlic dip, a green salad, grilled octopus, mussels with feta and Ouzo tomato sauce and lemon potatoes. Everything was perfect and just what I wanted. The beets served as a welcome and unexpected vehicle for the garlicky "skordalia" I’d missed so much (Erin says she’s going to give me her Greek grandmothers recipe). The salad was a mix of chopped romaine and olives perfectly tossed with a lemon oil dressing and fresh dill. The sauce for the mussels made me wonder why I don’t mix tomato sauce and cheese more often, the octopus was grilled perfectly tender and not at all rubbery and the potatoes, although not as good as the ones at their more famous neighbor Uncle George's, were still better than anything I’ve had back home.

This eating experience brought me back to my years living here in Astoria. The years where I first learned about food and cooking. Eating the simple elegant Greek fair I remembered again the joy of marveling at food you can just barely figure out how they made but could never make yourself.

Champagne Goes With Everything

Started the day getting lost trying to find Five Points, a brunch place near the West Village. There were six of us eating together for brunch, and only two of us claimed we wanted mimosas, me being one of them. We were able to convince one more member of the table to be indulgent with us, which meant we could order the full pitcher of mimosa, which at this place consisted of orange juice, champagne, and triple sec. Thirty dollars bought us so much mimosa that all six of us each had two glasses. The food around the table all looked good, but I was totally engaged in my brioche french toast that was soft like delicate little pillows on my plate. It came with pecans and a side of whipped mascarpone cheese with shredded basil on top. I left the restaurant feeling luxurious, sated, and, I’ll admit, a little tipsy.

After spending the afternoon watching They Might Be Giants in Prospect Park, Sandra and I headed back to Hilary’s apartment so the three of us could go to Pinto, a classy Thai restaurant. Deciding that prosecco would be appropriate for a girl’s night out in an area known for being the setting of Sex and the City, we ordered a bottle and toasted. The green papaya salad and crunchy fried mushroom rolls with dipping sauce were a good start, but the basil and tofu main course I got really filled me up without feeling weighted down. It was a nice mix of tofu, veggies, and lots of basil. Although, for a dish named “Basil”, I was actually expecting just a bit more basil. Can you have too much basil? Okay, you probably can, but nonetheless I was expecting a dish that was primarily green.

Continuing the Sex and the City theme, I stopped at Magnolia for a cupcake. Now, I have never actually watched an episode of Sex and the City, but that did not make the cupcake any less yummy. The type of cupcake was called “hummingbird” and had cream cheese frosting with nuts. Unbeknownst to me, while I was in the store my two friends were buying me a present at the bookstore across the way. Back at my sublet I opened the present on the pretense that since it had been pouring rain on the ten block walk from the subway I should really make sure it hadn’t gotten too wet. The New York Restaurant Cookbook: Recipes from the Dining Capital of the World. Thank you!

Pinto (you can tell it's classy from the sign):

"Basil":

Cheers:

Day 6 Five Points, The Rabbit Hole

The ongoing lunch vs. brunch battle between me and Kirstin was unnecessary this morning. We’d had plans all week to have brunch with her friends at a place in the Village called Five Points. We even had reservations.

I couldn’t eat much at this place, I ordered a salad with hanger steak, a perfectly good little item. Not really what I wanted at the time but my only other option was another burger with no bun.

The egg dishes I saw other people consuming however where pretty amazing looking. They seemed to be eggs cooked in almost tagine like terra-cotta vessels along with various other ingredients like tomatoes, goat cheese and spring onions. I was a little jealous.

For dinner me and Kirstin ate separately for the first time since our arrival. She went out with her friends in the east village and I went back to Williamsburg to get a little done and meet up with my friends later.

I had dinner across the street from our apartment at a place called the Rabbit Hole. At first I’d hoped to get some food and post some of these blogs since they advertised free Wi-Fi and our connection was still down. When I asked them about it they told me they didn’t allow laptops after 5 p.m. A perfectly admirable policy. I went elsewhere to check my email then decided to head back there for dinner.

I chose this place because it was relatively laid back and empty. I had no idea how long it would take my friends to get out here so I wanted a place I could sit, read comic books and drink wine as long as a wanted.

I walked in and ordered steak frites from the bartender, a big goofy guy who kept calling me “mang” like he was Tony Montana. The steak was actually quite good, served pre-sliced with a very nice red wine and peppercorn sauce, the fries where shoestring style, well cooked and great when dipped in the sauce and steak juice.

The atmosphere was very calming. The bar area was entirely opened up to the street allowing it to have a pleasant airy feel and we where far enough south to avoid being overtaken by hipsters or anyone else. I could have sat there and drank wine all night.

Eggs and Borscht (But Not At The Same Time)

Lunch today was at Ella Café. My order was pretty boring, I have to admit – two eggs over medium, toast, and side salad. What I received was exactly that. Nothing more, nothing less. Good, but nothing special (but still more palatable than lukewarm reheated spanakopita). Dinner, though, was at Odessa, a Russian place in the East Village. I tried a bit of the borscht, which was hearty and of course bright red. The Greek salad was heavy on the feta, which is not usually a problem, but I was really trying to save room for the pirogis. I tried the spinach pirogi, sweet potato pirogi, and the cheese pirogi. All with applesauce and sour cream. I could have eaten ten (and I think James did). As we were finishing up, the waiter was walking from light to light in the restaurant, unscrewing three of the four bulbs in each hanging fixture. “Mood lighting”, I guess, for when the place turns into a bar around 8pm. We took that as our cue to exit, and left satisfied and happy.

The last pirogi:

In Which Kirstin Gets Her Wish

We had a delicious brunch today at the place that is right across the street from where we’re staying. It’s called Simple Café. I ordered a goat cheese and tomato omelet with sides of green salad and fruit (no watermelon). It came with homemade bread in the form of little bready dew drops perfectly cooked. In addition, I ordered a raspberry mimosa. The waitress with a French accent asked if I knew that the breakfast plate also came with coffee and orange juice. Oh yes, I knew. I knew that this meant I was getting three drinks, not even including the cucumber-infused water provided at the table. We sat on the porch of the café both facing out toward the street and I was so happy with my wonderful breakfast that I didn’t mind the car alarm going off right in front of us.

Dinner was at Tai Thai on Bedford. After swearing we were going to try a place that didn’t serve Asian cuisine for another straight night, we wandered up and down the main drag reading menus, and finally decided that we could always do non-Asian on another day. This place had a really good green papaya salad without too much fish sauce, well-prepared fresh spring rolls that were denser than usual and covered in tamarind sauce, and some great pad thai that hit the spot. I kept looking up at this sign that said “cocktail room” in neon lights, so we ordered the first cocktail on the menu – something with vodka, honey, and ginger, I think. Sweet and fresh-tasting like lemonade, but not so much that your mouth tingled. And at the end of the meal, while looking for the bathroom, I followed the sign for “cocktail room” down the hall and found another big room in the back with a bar (presumably this was said “cocktail room”), and a back porch for tables. I would probably want to sit there next time, but in this nice summer weather, the front room where we sat had the large glass doors to the street open, making it also very airy. The other thing I have to mention about this place is the staff. The fast service was absolutely remarkable. We had barely even put in our order when it was on our table.

We finished the evening with friends at a bar nearby that also had bowling, although we didn’t bowl. Someone knew someone who knew someone (or something like that) so we each were given a large pretzel stick dipped in chocolate on the house. An unexpected treat at the end of a day filled with good food.

So much liquid:

Brunch food:

Thai food: