New York: Fuck Yeah

I've been thinking about this for a while... why is everything better in NY?

People ask me why I love NY so much, and I usually respond, "the subway," but that can't be it. I mean, MegFOODBlog, right? And yes, the food is bountiful, noteworthy, and mood-specific. Massive. The thing is, though I think my heart is in the subway, the food is where my soul is, because in NY, you can get a meal to suit every occasion, every event, every mood. It's a little bit like - what do they call that? Pathetic Fallacy or something? That literary device where nature mimics human emotion. Yes, the food in NY does that.

If you're feeling contemplative, then you have to go to Teany. Teany is Moby's vegan tea house and restaurant in the East Village. It's a great place to get a healthy snack, drink a pot of tea either to relax or to get totally amped up, and just be left alone and ogle tattoos. It's intimate, but you don't need to feel like socializing there. So, life's got you a little down? Head to Teany and have a pot of jasmine tea and the amazing artichoke heart beet salad (add goat cheese)! You'll see, it's enlightening! The vegan creamy herb dressing is best!


If you're feeling social, on the other hand, then Moutarde in Park Slope in Brooklyn is where it's at. Equally intimate, this one somehow breeds conversation and interaction. Start with a bottle of red to accompany the crudites and mustard first course. Then, while you have the option of a meat or even veggie risotto entree, I recommending selecting from the sides menu, where you can maximize your flavor opportunities and encourage lots of cross-plate-tasting! It's the epitome of intimate socializing. I had the caramelized endive (oh my), the julienned veggies with roasted potato mash, the carrot/butternut squash puree, and then the most amazing shitake and asparagus risotto I'd ever had. I know it's just mushrooms and asparagus, but there was magic in there (and it wasn't chicken stock. I asked. For real!) If you're on the fence about something, then you're going to need a lot of room to make choices and not feel punished for those choices. The Farm on Adderly in Ditmas Park in Brooklyn will afford you that kind of freedom. Between three, we had 8 dishes, a bottle of wine, various other wines, a coffee course, one heck of a ton of leftovers, and not much of a dent in the pocketbook. The best part, though, was not only that we could bring home the remnants of our exploratory journey, but we could bring them home in compostable sugarcane containers! And if we didn't have ready access to a compost bin, then the Farm on Adderly would graciously take them back and compost them for us!

So what to eat is: the best fries in NY (voted!) with a curry mayo; fried artichoke hearts with house made sundrieds on a walnut puree; grilled asparagus with a poached egg on a spicy mustard sauce; chilled cream of summer pea soup with truffle oil; fried foccacia; baby butter lettuce with fried onions, peas, lemon thyme, and a housemade buttermilk dressing; finally, a pea fettuccine.

But say it's not a day of choices; you aren't looking to think or contemplate; you just want good. Take the train down to Tribeca and stop by Il Mattone. This place is perfect for subsisting. Tribeca is full of energy and posh, but you needn't exert yourself. This little corner bistro allows you to just be. To do so you need three things: a glass of zin, the butter-parmesan-champagne-vinaigrette artichoke hearts, and the couscous salad with grilled veggies--a little warm, a little charred, and very balsamicy. Whoa!

For those occasions where you are embracing life--just digging in and taking hold of it--you need to make your way to Chelsea and dine at the Cook Shop. The food here is phenomenal and abundant, so you don't need to ponder what looks best or what you're in the mood for. And if you ask for a glass of wine, they automatically bring you four glasses, four bottles, and start pouring. I heart impromtu wine tastings!!

The Cook Shop is great for moments when you're in it because they match odd ingredients in ways that shout, "fuck yeah!" So just pick a few dishes and go for it! I recommend the ginger vodka lemonade to accompany the bread and horseradish-creme fraishe spread course, then the purslane (a citrusy green), blueberry, and toasted hazelnut salad, the corn and purple Asian basil soup, the fried hominy grits (the size of nickels!), the morel mushroom ravioli in a pea sauce, oh and while you're at it, you may as well enjoy every dessert on the menu. No need to exert brain power choosing; just go for it! This is life, and life is beautiful!

But say it's a dark day; not depressed, just low lit. You're feeling earthy, romantic perhaps, or maybe just European. Then head underground to Pipa in the Gramercy neighborhood, have some sangria or some Chilean malbec, enjoy the music of the Latino underworld, and experience tapas. Wine infused mushrooms, spicy and covered with herbs; grilled asparagus in an avocado sauce; spicy sauteed spinach; and a flatbread pizza with corn, veggies, and bean puree. Dessert was good too, but mostly this place was good for the dark and steamy ____________ (fill-in-the-blank). (wink)

Got a good night's sleep? Went for a run or to the gym first thing? You need to rebuild your protein supply! Dizzys in Brooklyn will get you the best breaky for any given Sunday. You should probably find someone to split two meals with you, because you'll want the benefit of both the eggs Florentine and the power breakfast with yogurt, granola, and fruit. And then there are the complimentary muffins and scones to round out any meal.

And I would be remiss, of course, if I didn't talk about NY celebrations. These can be had in many ways, but for the kind where you have good news to share, and you want the entire city to know, then you head yourself to Rockefeller Center and you sit amongst the masses. You may even run into Elmo. Order yourself a good red zin and a cheese plate, and you'll find that your good spirits will be well served!

I could go on. Seriously.... I could. But should I?

Nah. I'll save the rest for the next blog: New York: They're Not Fucking Around!

Beer bread let down

So I went back to my favorite work lunch place, Schlafly Bottleworks, specifically to eat the yummy beer bread. I know, right? It doesn’t sound like my cup of tea. But this bread is fresh, it’s a wonderful texture, nice and heavy, and has a really good bread flavor. It’s brown, so you think you’re eating whole grains, which makes a body happy. (I don’t know if you are or not.) The accompanying butters are no joke, either: chive butter and some sort of white cheese. Wow! I first experienced this a couple of months ago with a pal visiting from New York (this was another meal I ate consisting completely of sides).

Suffice it to say we were wowed. I mean, we were wowed enough that when she returned months later, our phone conversation went something like this:

Friend: “Meg, beer bread.”

Me: “Yeah. Wednesday.”

So we go and before we order we’re like, “Listen, Tim; whatever about your specials. Can we get some beer bread?”

It was so good! Warm, crumbly, heavy yet light, and oh so flavorful. Can’t wait! Yay yay yayayayayay beeeeeeeeer bread!

But, uh, this was not the same. First, it was greasy. It seemed deep-fat-fried. I doubt it was (that’s just weird), but maybe they used a lot of oil? Then the butters. Oh the butters. If I’m going to violate my no-butter clause, then it had better be for a good reason. These butters were not good reasons. The chive butter looked the same, but the flavor was very blah. And the white one they said was a blue cheese cream cheese, which I KNOW can’t be the same, because I’m allergic to blue. We asked, they said for sure it was the same, no way, they hadn’t changed recipes in all the years the waiter’d been working there, but maybe a different sous-chef cooked it? Eh, whatevs.

So we let Tim tell us the specials. He says they have a salad special with locally grown mushrooms and some other stuff, and I cut him off and say, “OK I”ll take that.” I figure, I heart the vanilla vinaigrette salad, I’ve ordered it millions of times, it’s always good, so I trust Schalfly’s salads. And I figure, if they have the produce to create a salad on special, it’s got to be good!

But no again! Jeez! Bad day for the Bottleworks. The salad was greens, mushrooms (albeit locally grown shitakes), cheddar cheese (?!?!), lots of red onion, and what they said was a honey mustard dressing (but which tasted like Ireland’s version of “salad dressing” which is mayonnaise). It was so very so. Not even a so, actually, just an s, in my ranking system (so so/so/s). Boo.

Conversation: check

Iced tea: pretty good

Ambiance: like it.

But food today:_________________

I’ll leave that blank. So sad. I guess you shouldn’t knock a solid goat/green salad; at least you know what you’re getting.

Anyway, I'm not out for blood. Everyone gets a free pass for mediocrity. Just one, though...!

Work Lunch

Work lunch; ugh. How do you find a place that satisfies everyone’s food preferences, when everyone comes from such different life stages and styles? (READ: how do I psychologically, physically, and emotionally survive the trans-fats burger joint? Eeegads!).

We had a meeting today to discuss work-related activities and I recommended SCHLAFLY BOTTLEWORKS. Schlafly is a favorite of mine, partly because they boast the same philosophy that NTPH does—all fresh, locally-grown produce. In fact, I think Schlafly grows their own out back. Sweet! But the beauty is, it still looks like a “pub,” it smells like a brew house, and it has “burgers” on the menu (albeit organic, free-range, grass-fed bison burgers). So it’s a good choice for us.

My favorite thing about it, besides the philosophy, is the menu. The food here is so so good. Unfortunately, they deleted the black soy bean hummus from the menu a couple years ago, which was the clear winner. But its replacement, a regular chick-pea hummus with feta, kalamata olives, and red onions on top, is still quite good. Even better, however are the accompanying breads (in fact, this little bowl of hummus for $4.99 totally beats the baldy-patch $12 cheese plate from NTPH!).

The pita is fresh and very light, house made probably, but fresh-baked definitely. It’s not so much toasted as warmed, and it’s topped with some herbs that include dill weed (so underused in the bread world!). It’s nice and salty, too, so it goes well with the creamy/garlicy hummus. Then there is the real winner (and another food enigma that’s just so darn enticing)—a type of dried out flatbread or cracker, seemingly homemade, that has this delightful mystery flavor (cloves? nutmeg?) behind the grains, salt, and garlic. I’ve eaten this at least 10 times, and still, I can’t place it. Gosh it’s good. Ok so it’s a secret, and I’ve learned my lesson about food secrets, but I don’t think this one is chicken stock. (Oh god, is it chicken stock?!).

Anyway, suffice it to say that I’m a fan, my mother’s a fan, my friends are fans, I mean everyone who is anyone is a fan. It’s hummus, dang it, and a good one at that!

But my 3 coworkers (from different “life styles and stages”), had never had hummus. Beans, yuck. What’s feta? And olives?????? (Ok I admit I’m still waging the olive battle with myself… winner TBD). Noses were upturned when the waitress delivered it. I encouraged one to dig in, and she did, like a sport, taking the least threatening pita wedge, spreading a thin layer of the hummus across the surface. (I, on the other hand, figure this is my protein for the day, so I glob whole tablespoonfuls on it and chow down). (OK and it’s also because I heart it!) She kept it down and sort of admitted to it being “OK” and “pretty mild.” The other two were much more skeptical, and I really had to explain to them that it’s simply beans, garlic, cheese, salt; but again, beans, yuck, right?! One gave in, tried a little, conceded that it was “OK,” and left it at that. But the third made some serious faces at it. It was like a child physically rejecting the taste and texture of liver—and she hadn’t even tasted it yet! She barely choked down a mouse bite before refusing altogether. Whatever. More fore me. Jeez.

In the mean time, I got my salad. First, I should say, it’s the standard greens/goat combo: greens are greens (although locally grown), goat is goat, toasted almonds are unusual only because people have been so into walnuts lately, and then the totally unnecessary croutons. But this one also boasts two phenomenal additions. First, the dressing is a vanilla vinaigrette; Oh my! It’s like cookies in my salad! Plus, the vinaigrette is nice and oily (I’d say they err on the side of olive oil like me) and coats the leaves really well. And then there are the wild mushrooms, an addition you can choose. I SO love this! Often you get the choice of grilled chicken, or maybe, maybe, salmon, but this is great—locally farmed wild mushrooms, roasted on site, TOSSED IN VANILLA VINAIGRETTE! The nerve! I would never have had the guts to mix a cookie with a fungus, but they do, and they rock it.

This is one restaurant that really has succeeded in all respects: it’s been going strong for several years, it gets the beer crowd, the organic foodie vegetarian crowd, the family crowd, the happy hour crowd, your crowd, my crowd, everyone we know’s crowd. But also they have a huge menu with such unusually diverse options as bison burgers, pistachio raviolis, beer bread, calzones, ahi tuna BLTs, I mean, wha? huh? It’s impressive. Again, foodie = yes. Restaurant reviewer = I have to say a 10. I have no complaints. It’s big and warehousey, so if you’re with someone with hearing aids it’s hard to converse, but besides that, they do it, without a doubt.

St. Louis Cheese Plate

So, as I’m a near vegan, I usually shy away from the cheese on principle. However, lately, I’ve been on a mission to find a good cheese plate, accompanied by a decent cab or zin. This search ensued all over New York, which seemed like the thing to do there, and now seems to have spilled over into St. Louis territory as well. I went to the Newstead Tower Public House in the Grove, St. Louis, MO last weekend. Their menu is sparse. Only a few appetizers, two salads, a handful of sandwiches, and maybe 3 or 4 entrees are available. One veggie-friendly item is included, which always scores points with me; but it’s a roasted vegetable sandwich. Blah. Boring, right? NTPH’s claim to use only locally-grown produce does kick it up a notch, but still; you might as well offer eggplant parmesan! Regardless, also offered was a cheese plate, with a suggested glass of wine, so I was down with what I fancy to be my east-coast M.O. The waitress informed us that 8 cheeses were available, and we requested “no blue” (I’m allergic). We end up with a goat, a gruyere, a feta, and a brie. Very very uninteresting choices, indeed. And the plate was quite bald: just wheat rounds accompanying it, no dried fruits, no berries, no smoked nuts, [NO MANCHEGO!], no nothing. Just cheese, bread, white plate. But the cheese was of decent quality and flavor, and we enjoyed it for what it was, even if we left thinking the usual Jackson Pollock knee-jerk: “I could do that.” The cab was so-so, but the Spanish wine, Juan Gil Monastrell, was nice and spicy and full-bodied, a little fruity, with hints of cherry licorice, but not tart. It worked for me.

Having consumed quite a bit of cheese (well beyond my range of acceptable dairy consumption), I ordered a salad for dinner and my partner ordered the mushroom puree soup. The salad was greens (too much frisee) and goat cheese (didn’t really need any more cheese), dull, dull, boring, boring. However, I was surprised and pleased by two additions to the salad: instead of croutons or nuts, NTPH grilled what appeared to be small cubes of crusty Italian bread, creating a wonderfully charred flavor, yet still soft centered. The grill flavor is something I NEVER mess with, as I leave open flames to the men. But this was delightful, really; such a nice flavor to go with the standard greens and goat combo. And the second surprise was the vinaigrette—a simple red wine/olive oil mix. The only difference was it was SO vinegary—really tart and tangy. I always err on the side of olive oil, but this I really enjoyed! Now the vinegary-vinaigrette may have been an accident (I do 4 shakes per person, so maybe they did 6 shakes or 8 by accident), but nevertheless, it inspired me to try to rein in my heavy olive oil hand in the future.

And the mushroom puree soup: three flavors: mushrooms (pureed), veggie stock, celery seed. The fact that I could identify the tastes was both exciting and disappointing. Usually, I like to be intrigued by what I’m eating, ever guessing, you know. But this was quite clear. On the other hand, by knowing, I felt a renewed sense of commitment to simple foods (natural flavors, no hubbub) and also relieved that I wasn’t secretly eating a pound of butter or chicken stock.

Were I restaurant reviewer and not just a foodie, I would give NTPH an 7 of 10. I really liked it there—friendly, nice but not too fancy, menu options I can live with, and a philosophy I totally jive with. But I’d vote that they should think more about interesting-up their stuff. Good raw materials are key; but it never hurts to throw a few nuts on the fire.