december 8
(click restaurant name or point of interest)
time to go through my stack of restaurant receipts before another meal comes my way. i will go from the top to the bottom beginning with new york city.
Momofuku, on First Avenue made us wait an hour one Saturday night, but we were willing and enjoyed all the second-hand stores in the neighborhood. if only i could lease the place next door and open a bar…then everyone could have a good drink while they waited while on the tv we could project pictures of Asiatica wares. It was truly delicious, with a pared-down menu (we were 4 and ordered 8 dishes plus 3 orders of pork buns and a delicious carafe of cloudy sake called “nigori”). I made a quick run to their Milk Bar a few blocks away, but the cookies were not as good as dinner.
Balthazar is a great people-watching place, though i do not understand wearing baseball caps (backward, no less) inside and chewing gum. Not appetizing. Also too many screechy young girls drinking too much wine. Otherwise, oysters, duck confit and a pavlova are just about the perfect meal when you need a few calories. Add muscadet and an espresso.
Sushi Yasuda is the best in New York. They are very precise about reservations. Always sit as the sushi bar, have the kani miso and ebi matcha as appetizers (crab roe and green tea dusted shrimp). Order sashimi and then sushi and leave it to the chef. Do not dip the sushi rice in soysauce and do not use chopsticks to eat sushi. Dinner for 2 was close to $200. cheaper than a trip to Tokyo and worth it.
Chicken pot pie at E.A.T. was only so-so, not enough mushrooms. But i was on a mission to find the best chicken-pot-pie. Let me know if you know where it is. (perhaps in a cookbook).
Bar Boulud with Mel was delicious. A beautiful oyster presentation
with red peppercorns scattered. The duck confit excellent. Mel was disappointed to have 2 legs in his coq-au-vin since he prefers white meat and a more traditional version, but i would have been delighted to eat his dinner. He passed on dessert, so i did too.
Dhaba at 108 Lexington ave is a new find. Indian street food and more. Tasty and inexpensive with lots of style. We loved the sauteed cashew dish: tale huay caju. Lots of good small courses at the front of the menu.
Fatty Crab on the Upper West Side was unbearably noisy, but the fatty duck was delicious. We were not enough people to order the crab, but i am sure it is at least as good in Chinatown.
also in NYC, we saw the wonderful production of Don Giovanni at City Opera, the Kandinsky exhibit at the Guggenheim and some amazing samurai helmets at the Metropolitan.
In September I decided to drive to the East Coast, since we had 4 trunk shows in a row. It was a fine adventure. Kansas City to Columbus, Ohio arriving just in time for a fabulous dinner at Rigsby’s Kitchen. I dashed into the Holiday Inn past the USC alums drinking beer in the bar anticipating the next day’s victory over Ohio State. I rushed to my room with my computer to try and scope out the best dinner. Bingo! Rigsby’s sounded right so I dashed there and was delighted with Sardinian fregola soup with clams, grilled fennel with lemon olive oil and some hand-cut french fries. Since I had driven for 10 hours I felt justified in ordering the affogato of chocolate gelato for dessert (i must have forgotten that i had been sitting down and not jogging for all those hours). I left the cookies which came with for breakfast. I could hardly wait to stop again on my way back a month later.