1 {5:32pm}: Leaving flushing for the gaf soon, hoss.
2 {5:33pm}: Awaiting sushi. Will leave once I finish eating.
1 {5:33pm}: Sushi waiter.
2 {5:35pm}: Flushing queen.
Showing posts with label restaurants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label restaurants. Show all posts
04.23.09: PA redux
alright: philadelphia. as i tweeted (and said about four thousand times, i'm told), it's pinchably cute. we had the good fortune to be in town for dazzling weather - breezy sunshine straight through - and the flowering trees had just started to shed their early spring blossoms, so everything was covered with petals. revolving doors and air conditioned shops would kick up little white eddies. it was like wandering around in a snow globe.
our pre-trip research was far more fruitful than i'd expected it to be: tripadvisor led me to the independent hotel [nb 2016: now the independent philadelphia hotel], a little boutique place in rittenhouse square, and travelzoo hooked us up there; we paid $119 for a room with a pressed tin ceiling in the bath.* design*sponge's city guide did us several solids, too: in fact, most of our random decisions worked out so well that i started to expect a stroke of bad luck just to balance things out. i'm used to special occasion doom, you see.
doomless occasions are so nice, internets. as we sipped pints and peoplewatched by the windows at mcgillin's,** joe's blackberry beeped: an anniversary note from his parents saying how happy they are that i'm their daughter.
alright: philadelphia. as i tweeted (and said about four thousand times, i'm told), it's pinchably cute. we had the good fortune to be in town for dazzling weather - breezy sunshine straight through - and the flowering trees had just started to shed their early spring blossoms, so everything was covered with petals. revolving doors and air conditioned shops would kick up little white eddies. it was like wandering around in a snow globe.
our pre-trip research was far more fruitful than i'd expected it to be: tripadvisor led me to the independent hotel [nb 2016: now the independent philadelphia hotel], a little boutique place in rittenhouse square, and travelzoo hooked us up there; we paid $119 for a room with a pressed tin ceiling in the bath.* design*sponge's city guide did us several solids, too: in fact, most of our random decisions worked out so well that i started to expect a stroke of bad luck just to balance things out. i'm used to special occasion doom, you see.
doomless occasions are so nice, internets. as we sipped pints and peoplewatched by the windows at mcgillin's,** joe's blackberry beeped: an anniversary note from his parents saying how happy they are that i'm their daughter.
imaginary vacation awards
best bar: national mechanics (22 south 3rd st. @ market). i didn't even try to blend like a local when i got a good look at the interior of this place: it was designed so well that i needed at least a dozen pictures immediately. the apothecary jar terraria! the lamps made of pharmaceutical bottles and whippets! the bill cosby pint glasses!*** if you find yourself in philly, find this place immediately.
best use of artichoke: three-way tie, osteria (alla giudia), amada (on flatbread with wild mushrooms, black truffles, and manchego), and tria (in salad with grilled asparagus, white beans, tomato-onion relish and pine nuts). inspired by joe's dad and his all-haggis scottish adventure, i tried to have an all-artichoke weekend. an excellent decision, if i do say so myself.
best use of al gore: this room.
imaginary reading group discussion questions
01 if you were to eat one foodstuff at every meal for a whole trip, what would it be?
02 have you been to philly? how was it?
03 when joe and i finally buy an apartment, should our bathroom have a tin ceiling or a little chandelier?**** (both would be overkill even for me).
*which strikes me as kind of brilliant, as it'd be so much easier to clean than the painted ceilings i've always had (no weird condensation-mold!). note to self: install pressed tin in bathroom.
**cheers for that tip, anonymous commenter!
***i don't have a picture of those, but...ask me about them sometime.
****i was skeptical at first, too, but they're surprisingly pleasing.
04.13.09: thai spicy
101 in 1001 {II}: 054 have dinner at sripraphai in queens [completed 04.12.09]
my other half, an adventurous and well-read foodie, is more than happy to commute to a good meal; i would betray my country for a properly made mission burrito, but if mexican isn't on the table, i'm pretty much unwilling to go more than a few subway stops or stand around in excess of fifteen minutes. we did both last night, for joe's been talking for at least a year about the hot and sexy thai food waiting for us out in woodside (sripraphai's reviews, i will admit, impressed even me).
i thought the holiday would thin the thai-seeking crowd a bit, but the restaurant was packed when we rolled up at about eight; we took a number and spent twenty minutes shuffling our feet and checking out the mysterious desserts in refrigerators near the door (i ended up bringing a little container of wiggly, kelly green-striped coconut tapioca whatsit home; to my surprise, it was kind of tasty). when we finally snagged a table, it was in the restaurant's more recently renovated (and less harshly lit) wing; a good beginning. an even better beginning: big-ass menu binders with a substantial vegetarian section tabbed near the end. internets, i don't even remember when i last had tom yum soup (the bowl front and center in that photo above); i know that this tom yum soup, which was fresh, sour-spicy, and brimming with silky tofu and perfectly cooked cauliflower, was easily the best i've ever had. the vegetarian spring rolls (humble, but a must for american thai) were crisp and tasty as well - points for chili sauce that wasn't cloyingly sweet - and my bowl of red curry (we planned for serious leftovers) was muddy, moody, and dragon's-breath hot. my thai receptors, deadened by years of aggressively mediocre thai from the mostly interchangeable restaurants in hell's kitchen, had a synaesthetic moment of bliss; william gibson would have been proud (more on neuromancer, finally finished last night, in a day or two). i won't be heading out to queens every weekend or anything, mind you, but i know where to go the next time the soup jones strikes.
how was the holiday weekend - and how were your eats?
101 in 1001 {II}: 054 have dinner at sripraphai in queens [completed 04.12.09]
my other half, an adventurous and well-read foodie, is more than happy to commute to a good meal; i would betray my country for a properly made mission burrito, but if mexican isn't on the table, i'm pretty much unwilling to go more than a few subway stops or stand around in excess of fifteen minutes. we did both last night, for joe's been talking for at least a year about the hot and sexy thai food waiting for us out in woodside (sripraphai's reviews, i will admit, impressed even me).
i thought the holiday would thin the thai-seeking crowd a bit, but the restaurant was packed when we rolled up at about eight; we took a number and spent twenty minutes shuffling our feet and checking out the mysterious desserts in refrigerators near the door (i ended up bringing a little container of wiggly, kelly green-striped coconut tapioca whatsit home; to my surprise, it was kind of tasty). when we finally snagged a table, it was in the restaurant's more recently renovated (and less harshly lit) wing; a good beginning. an even better beginning: big-ass menu binders with a substantial vegetarian section tabbed near the end. internets, i don't even remember when i last had tom yum soup (the bowl front and center in that photo above); i know that this tom yum soup, which was fresh, sour-spicy, and brimming with silky tofu and perfectly cooked cauliflower, was easily the best i've ever had. the vegetarian spring rolls (humble, but a must for american thai) were crisp and tasty as well - points for chili sauce that wasn't cloyingly sweet - and my bowl of red curry (we planned for serious leftovers) was muddy, moody, and dragon's-breath hot. my thai receptors, deadened by years of aggressively mediocre thai from the mostly interchangeable restaurants in hell's kitchen, had a synaesthetic moment of bliss; william gibson would have been proud (more on neuromancer, finally finished last night, in a day or two). i won't be heading out to queens every weekend or anything, mind you, but i know where to go the next time the soup jones strikes.
how was the holiday weekend - and how were your eats?
07.17.08
the dirty dozen, part three: the latest issue of the ladymag is dead and you, dozen, you are next
07 my friend meg, a sort-of newcomer to san francisco, asked me about "adorable yet affordable" restaurants in russian hill (the neighborhood where joe and i lived for three years) yesterday afternoon. oddly, i had nothing for her:* we didn't do a lot of dining out close to home, and we also lived in SF at the height of dot com weirdness and flux ('00-'03): a lot of things that existed back then are long gone now, even in our slowest-to-change old 'hood. i'm not especially helpful with recommendations here in new york, either, come to think of it: only a handful of restaurants in hell's kitchen get my seal of approval. is it that proximity breeds contempt?** that i'm extra-conservative when local cred is at stake? that when we bother to get up from the couch, we go far, far away to make the most of inertia? is this problem familiar to you?
08 speaking of food that is awesome, i am frequently disparaged for recommending and/or preparing things that are too spicy for most people toenjoy eat. the feedback that fire burns out the other flavors in my chili is particularly hurtful; i can still taste everything else, thank you. i asked the internets to exonerate me, but science flavors the bland, at least on this point: researchers have found that capsaicin decreases sensitivity to sweetness, bitterness, and umami (the element of taste triggered by MSG). that said, sensitivity to sourness and saltiness aren't affected, and everyone knows those are the two best elements of taste, anyway. also, capsaicin prevents cancer, has anti-inflammatory properties, increases metabolic activity, and makes you a better lover. you can take or leave my chili; i'm just saying.
09 after returning to salon's broadsheet blog to re-read a horrifying post on pre-wedding dieting (one fifth of the women in a fitness survey said they'd postpone their wedding if they hadn't met their weight goal in time; more than half of the women in a cornell study said they'd use "extreme dieting methods" to lose weight), i hopped to a new post on a love song for ladies' rooms from the wall street journal online:
the dirty dozen, part three: the latest issue of the ladymag is dead and you, dozen, you are next
07 my friend meg, a sort-of newcomer to san francisco, asked me about "adorable yet affordable" restaurants in russian hill (the neighborhood where joe and i lived for three years) yesterday afternoon. oddly, i had nothing for her:* we didn't do a lot of dining out close to home, and we also lived in SF at the height of dot com weirdness and flux ('00-'03): a lot of things that existed back then are long gone now, even in our slowest-to-change old 'hood. i'm not especially helpful with recommendations here in new york, either, come to think of it: only a handful of restaurants in hell's kitchen get my seal of approval. is it that proximity breeds contempt?** that i'm extra-conservative when local cred is at stake? that when we bother to get up from the couch, we go far, far away to make the most of inertia? is this problem familiar to you?
08 speaking of food that is awesome, i am frequently disparaged for recommending and/or preparing things that are too spicy for most people to
09 after returning to salon's broadsheet blog to re-read a horrifying post on pre-wedding dieting (one fifth of the women in a fitness survey said they'd postpone their wedding if they hadn't met their weight goal in time; more than half of the women in a cornell study said they'd use "extreme dieting methods" to lose weight), i hopped to a new post on a love song for ladies' rooms from the wall street journal online:
[L}adies' room banter is an endless source of wisdom and comfort. My ladies' room crowd includes a fashion maven, a globetrotter who knows every good cheap restaurant in Paris, Berkeley and Hong Kong, a marriage counselor, several cancer survivors and a bevy of super-moms. They've guided me about how to survive pre-school interviews and college tours and which internist to choose in my health-care plan. They've advised me about where to get the best cocktail dress, haircut and beach house that won't break my budget. The time I've saved shopping, searching for doctors and worrying about my daughter because of advice gleaned in my office ladies' room has added up to months of work for my company and saved me from numerous multitask meltdowns.the WSJ piece feels wildly outdated to me: i have the occasional significant conversation with my boss in the loo, but that's because we coincide there more than anywhere else (she's almost never at her desk). my office chats graphically all over the place all the time, which could be because we're one big ladies' room; i think the candor is more generational than gender-based, though. then again, i've been in situations like this one for most of my working life: how would i know?
imaginary reading group discussion questions
01 do you find yourselves resenting strangers at the gym, internets? if so, what are their crimes?
02 spices: proof that the universe is fond of us, or brutish dish-killers?
03 is the ladies' room a special, special place?
*i of course thought of something just now, though. go to nick's crispy tacos (a nightclub that turns into a taco shack during the day), meg! draped velvet and cholula, together at last!
**lord knows i'm hard on The Canadian Whimperer, a frighteningly hairy old regular at our gym who cranks his treadmill too high and grips the heart rate sensors like his life will end if he lets go.
10.16.06
101 in 1001: 036 have a meal at a 'raw food' restaurant [completed 10.13.06]
101 in 1001: 036 have a meal at a 'raw food' restaurant [completed 10.13.06]
joe, phil, dave, and i braved the spookies of friday the 13th and checked out pure food and wine near union square. i was pretty excited; as sara noted when we chatted the other day, the food looks gorgeous (on their site, mind you - i know my photo stinks), and local foodie sites seem up on the place. two raw dishes and $75/person later, i say...meh. raw* food, like other vegan food, calls for a special kind of thinking: if you compare it to with eggy/milky/meaty versions of the same dish, you're going to be disappointed. unfortunately, raw food chefs like to mimic regular menu items, which is wildly hit-or-miss. my appetizer (above), a napoleon of black trumpet mushrooms, was fabulous; the cashew 'cheese' wasn't cheesy, per se, but the texture was pleasant and the pinot noir sauce was lovely. my entree, on the other hand, was chalky parsnip 'pasta' with seriously overherbed sauce. joe said it reminded him of savory key lime pie, and if that sounds good to you, i'm never coming to a dinner party at your house. dessert - particularly dave's mint chip ice cream - was spectacular and is available for take-out; if you feel like going raw, i recommend picking up a carton of that** and skipping the full sit-down experience. then again, it's no secret that i have a white trash palate - if a splashy, wacky dinner is up your alley, give the ol' raw food a try. it's certainly singular.
*per PF&W, "the term raw refers to keeping all of the ingredients under 118 degrees. this preserves food's natural enzymes which catalyze digestion. wheat, dairy, soy and refined sugars are naturally omitted in raw food preparation."
**lord only knows how much it would cost, though; raw ice cream is coconut meat and cashew sweetened with agave nectar, which is freakishly expensive on its own. the restaurant's snack site suggests calling for prices.
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