week 19: fairway cafe and steakhouse

someone's been a bad girl.

this post is one week behind.

and it kind of sucks.

but the food looks good, right?

it was.

it was fantastic.

and finding a crispy schnitzel on the upper west side is as satisfying as finding a hundo in the couch cushions. 

pictured top to bottom:

polenta with bolognese {good}

schnitzel {really good}

molten chocolate cake {HELLLL YEAH}

33 to go.

xoxo

yeh

fairway cafe and steakhouse is located above the fairway market on 74th and broadway.

week 18: miya's sushi and the caseus cheese truck

last week, i had one day in new haven.

that's 24 hours to experience all of new haven's culinary offerings.

but is it really possible to fully experience a town's best eats in that short of time?

no.

so really,

you've sometimes got to do silly things in order to at least come close.

you've got to eat at odd hours,

jump up and down a lot to work up artificial appetites,

do stomach stretching exercises...

and the number one rule of spending only one day in a new town?

if you meet a grilled cheese truck on the street,

you must make friends with it.

take it to coffee,

give it your business card...

{even if you are on your way to eat sushi}

it was a rough day because a bit of an impromptu early morning smörgåsbord in the yale cafeteria

left me with little room for the lunch at 

miya's sushi

that friend ariel and i had planned.

and then when we happened upon the 

caseus cheese truck

our reaction was more a less a groan and a feeling of obligato stuffing than of excitement...

i guess we have to try it, ariel

yeah, and i guess we have to get bacon on it.

owwww my insides!!!!

that is until we actually tasted the grilled cheese that came out of the truck.

a blend of provolone, 

swiss, 

comte,

 gruyere, 

gouda, 

and sharp cheddar

oozed out of two slices of sourdough,

with the chewiness of some applewood smoked bacon up in hurrr. 

{party in my mouth like wha?}

like, dang.

too often i meet a grilled cheese where there is too much cheese,

or the cheese isn't melty but the bread is burnt,

or the grease from the bread spills down my hand and/or corrupts my arteries,

these ratios that came out of the truck, however, were exceptional.

piping hot,

oozey goodness,

it made me wonder why everything doesn't come out of a cute little truck.

also available was grainy mustard

{double points for mustard, kids}

so we slathered her in the seed,

ate as we walked,

and prelunched it up!

tummy was rightfully confused when we finally made it to

 miya's.

and even more confused when i opened the  menu.

{for a good/hilarious potty/subway read, read their menu}

our appetizer was 

tokyo fro

like an afro?

it's really amusing to picture a 14 year old japanese boy with an afro- so do it.

it's basically shoe string taters fried to a crisp

with a "secret" sauce

which very strongly resembles in-n-out's secret sauce...

it looks like a lot of food,

but it had the lightness of popcorn,

so naturally ariel and i finished the whole thing.

{wondering where on earth i am going to fit this sushi!!!!}

and then,

there it was.

a plate of a delicious looking

smoked salmon roll

with cream cheese and avocado

and pretty orange crispy things around the edge

and a

hot-headed cowgirl roll

avocado, cream cheese, papaya, burdock & hot pepper

rolled in coconut

ari got

kimchi seared escolar

and

spicy albacore

now,

if i may admit something to you,

i am still new at this whole sushi thing.

but with gourmet garage as my one real comparison,

miya's was like hearing lady gaga for the first time during my diet of kenny g. 

my smoked salmon roll was a little {ok a lot} cream cheese heavy,

however being reminiscent of a ye old bagel & lox, i was a fan.

i only had the balls to taste ari's albacore, which was fresh! and rumor has it sustainable! {?}

i'll save the kimchi escolars for next time... 

my fave by far was the cowguurrrrl. 

maybe it's because there was no fish in it?

sorry, this whole meat without feet thing is still stressing me out, but i'm working on it.

coconut+rice really are a match made heaven, if you ask me. they should date more often.

i can see why my whole new haven correspondence/advisory team demanded that i go to miya's.

not only was it very very fresh,

but the combinations of rolls were just outrageous.

the textbook sized menu leaves enough options to have a different roll every day for about a semester

{it's proximity to yale is making me have scholastic lingo, my apologies}

next time i go back, though, i'm getting the

oo la la mitzvah! roll

"winner of the prestigious 2008 l'chayim world sushi award; this award winning roll was developed by rabbis [of the lost tribe of china] as a gift to the israeli national ping pong team in support of their quest for an olympic medal. tempura arctic char, brie cheese, avocado & ch'i energy"

thanks, miya.

i will be back!!

but, first, i've got 34 restaurants to go!!

xoxo

yeh

miya's sushi and the caseus cheese truck are both in new haven, connecticut 

week 17: risotteria {and caffe vivaldi}

{and the time i was a total diva}

i recently went to see a performance by the famed/illustrious
zoogmadon
at caffe vivaldi

in the west village {around the corner from kesté, john's pizzeria, risotteria, etc, etc, etc}


in enjoying fabulous and hilarious music,
i decided the only thing that would make my life better,
was if my tummy wasn't so growly and begging for dinner...


so i made the terrible and uneducated decision to order
what was advertised as 
"house made ravioli"


*calling something "house made" on a menu
is about as sad and ambiguous as calling something "gourmet"


 as i experienced, "house made" could very easily translate into
a dish reminiscent of canned poop.
{that i won't even waste my energy describing}

do you know how painful it is to be eating a bad meal when you are spitting distance from kesté?!


i left.


but first i subtracted twenty from the amount of minutes it took to get my food,
divided that by two,
and then deducted that amount of dollars from the proper tip amount.
i go back and forth between embarrassment and pride for tipping so little, but i'm leaning towards pride because i think i would have done a disservice to future victims otherwise.


anyways,
in a mad dash, i fled around the corner to the intersection of kesté and risotteria,
and since i've been to the former, decided on
risotteria

where i was immediately able to sit at the bar,
and within minutes,
have a bowl of piping hot,
burn-your-mouth {meaning bonus points in my book}
comforting,
gooey,
rich,
heavy,
hit-the-spot


mozzarella and pesto risotto 


oh it was heaven.


i recently learned my lesson with pesto
{to me it always seems like a really good idea until the second bite when i realize it in fact is not usually a good idea, due to oil, etc}
but when waitress recommended it, i decided to give it another chance.
and i'm so glad i did.


it was so rich and heavy that i saved some for lunch the next day.


 comforting
is the one word i'd use to describe it.
not just because it saved my evening from being culinarily awful 
but because, it was so simple and cuddly and non offensive. 


the rest of risotteria's menu looked delicious as well.
everything is gluten-free,
and it is abundant in herbivore-friendly options.


the vibe was cozy,
and the view of phileo yogurt across the street was just too tempting
{pistachio fro yo with mochi was my dessert}


risotteria,
i am forever indebted to you for saving my evening.


i have 35 restaurants to go, lovelies


xoxo




yeh

risotteria is on bleecker between 6th and 7th ave
open noon to 11pm every day
caffe vivaldi can suck it

week 16: umi no ie

a very wise man once added the shortened form of "bourgeois"

{"bougey" {büzh-ee}}

to his everyday vocabulary so that he could more easily use it as a way of classifying eating places,

usually in the negative sense.

{ex. "even the waffles truck is a little bougey"}

this wise man {ok, we'll call him chris}

came to the city, like me, with the zagat top lists memorized and had every intention of trying all of [them bougey places] until, 

as legend has it,

he discovered 

the other places. 

the authentic,

hole-in-the-wall

make-friends-with-the-owner

no-reservations-needed

other place.

and so when chris,

our friend

jeff

{whose claim to fame is that he once made the bold, and possibly quite genius claim that jj's hot dogs is a better culinary experience than per se}

and

luke

pardon me

luke

saw that my restaurant list was all momofuku-ed and jean george-d out, they said,

"we're going to umi no ie."
”海の家に行く”

and the rest is history...

{if chris and luke and jeff made a cd of percussion trio music this might be the cover.}

ok 

so let's talk about food.

uminoie is japanese.

it is not sushi a go go or whatevs,
ゴゴカレもでわない

it is not bring your prom date to benihana,

but rather, 

it is the japanese equivalent to your jewish mother's matzoh ball soup and the challah bread {holla!} she baked fresh to dunk in it, and, of course, the brisket. 

it's comforting and it's home style...

and these udon noodles are what "homegirl's grandmother taught her to make when she was seven." thanks, chris

...

now since we literally ordered every single menu item,

i'll discuss the highlights.

first to come out was the

shiokara
塩辛

squid marinated in its own liver sauce.

{this is not an april fools' joke}

when my first instinct was to run the other way,

i was immediately harassed by jeff 

who informed me that,

because i have a {mostly} food blog,

i will be trying everything that they order

and i will not have a choice.

and he was right. 

and so on the count of three

i ate squid.

いか食べた

and it was reminiscent of a gummi bear that had been sitting out for a day,

with the flavor of licorice,

and then a strong little punch at the end.

enjoyable indeed,

albeit a little scary. 

next up was

eihire
エイ鰭

dried fin of manta ray, served with mayo

chris is convinced that, 

whereas americans use pretzels and chips simply as a vehicle with which to eat salt,

manta ray fins are an excuse for japanese people to eat mayonnaise. 

because apparently 

mayonnaise:chris::mustard:molly

マヨネーズ：クリス：：辛子：森

i imagine that if i were a 14 year old japanese boy,

washing up on the beach after an afternoon of surfing,

i would reach for these instead of doritos. 

森＝モリー、ごめん はは

they had the consistency of fruit leather,

and the taste of salt, a hint of fishiness,

and a glob of mayo. 

yum!!

another fave

was

karaage

空揚げ

fried chicken

{thankfully/sneakily jeff got two orders...}

there's not much to say about it,

(超おいしい！）

except that, if my memory serves me right,

i'm pretty sure this sparked a conversation on the kfc double down. 

these two photos are further evidence that the japanese really enjoy their omelets.

as a youth,

my protocol for going to a sushi restaurant was ordering about 50 pieces of tamago.

loved the stuff.

but these omelets just took it a few steps further:

the top had bitter melon,

tofu,

and bonito flakes

and the bottom had eel

{yes, another food virginity broken}

...if you've never had bitter melon,

i highly suggest that you forget about the fact that it's called "melon,"

maybe rename it to "bitter weird carroty thing,"

or something,

and then try it.

there's really nothing like it.

another source of tastiness was 

meatballs + eggs

didn't dare ask what kind of meat these were made out of,

but they were very similar to their italian counterpart.

luke, jeff,

some

"divine"© jeff irving

egg rolls

春巻き

...and the pièce de résistance...

pork belly.

let's get a close up on the top left, shall we?

i assure you two things:

1. my obsession with this dish was not just because it was served with hot mustard

2. this sad little glob was not the limit to my mustard intake,

because, thankfully, friends don't let friend deprive of mustard

{not pictured: xtra side of mustard}

i mean,

this pork belly,

while it looks like a total mess,

was one of the tastiest,

juiciest,

dissolve-in-your-mouth

pieces of meat i've ever bitten in to

{keep it appropriate, boys}

it was like meat,

in marshmallow form.

i couldn't get enough of it.

except for when i accidentally ate a whole chunk of fat.

but that's besides the point.

the point is,

it was delicious,

and one of the main roles in why 

this meal was one of the most satisfying meals i've ever had ever ever ever ever ever

おにぎりワイワイする！

{the plum rice balls helped too}

(おにぎりワイワイする）

キープボットルです

did i mention we sat on the floor with our shoes off?

and that in the back,

there is this shelf where customers who don't finish their bottle of shochu can label it and store it for next time?

and that this place is open late?!

{an ode to restaurants that are open late, part 2 perhaps...}

this place is the greatest.

it's probably one of new york's best kept secrets.

no joke,

if most of you readers didn't hail from other states and australia and england,

i might not have even posted about umi no ie. 

ニューヨーク大好き

 if this post gets into the wrong hands,

we may all be in trouble,

so keep it on the down low, people,

and go here as soon as you can.

...36 to go...

xoxo

yeh

and a special thanks to chris for adding the japanese characters!!!

umi no ie is located in the east village, at e. 3rd and 1st ave

open m-th 7pm to 1am, f-sat 7pm to 2am, sun 7pm to 12am