Further evidence of a red-sauce migration sweeping east: No fewer than six members of Nate Appleman’s crew at Pulino’s abandoned A16 or SPQR in San Francisco to join their former colleague. “I compare it to, like, a baseball player wanting to play for the Yankees. Every chef wants a shot at cooking in New York,” explains Appleman, who moved here last July as a free agent before being drafted by Keith McNally. Less than a year later, Appleman is poised to debut an extensive menu — relying on two wood-burning ovens — featuring antipasti, Balthazar-influenced pizza, and lots of meat. “Beef, pork, lamb — we're going to be bringing in whole cows and butchering them. I built a butcher room,” he says. In anticipation of a March 9 opening (when just breakfast and lunch will launch), Appleman spends his New York Diet of taste-tasting mozzarella and previewing desserts by pastry chef Jane Tseng, an A16 alum.

Friday, February 5
I had a Lärabar. It's like a date and nut bar. I also had a graham cracker with peanut butter and black coffee. I always make breakfast at home, because I always run in the mornings and I need energy. Five miles is my standard run almost every day. That morning I was running late to go to New Jersey and do a mozzarella tasting.

I went and had four different mozzarella at Lioni. I'm going to use their mozzarella on the pizzas. Some of them were fresh, some of them were semi-dried; different ages and different salt content. I chose a fresh/semi-dried hybrid. That time we just did a tasting plain, but to really figure out which one I wanted I had to cook pizza and put it on the pizza.

I came back to New York and had a passatelli in brodo from Balthazar Bakery, and then after lunch I made mozzarella, because I got curd from the factory. I really enjoyed it. It may be something we do at the restaurant, but it's not 100 percent. You've got to treat it very gently. That's the trick — you can't squeeze it.

After that, I went and had a dessert tasting with my pastry chef, Jane Tseng. She made a farro budino with goat-milk yogurt and it was so delicious. She also made a lard and rosemary tigella, which is like an Italian English muffin that's going to be on our brunch menu. We're going to start it on the side of a couple of the egg dishes.

Then I had a chili tasting, as in hot pepper. That was at Balthazar Bakery too. I found an Italian variety that's really tasty. It's not too spicy. They called it Italian peppers. I followed that up with coffee because I had too much sugar.

For dinner, I went to Dos Toros. It's this San Francisco–style Mexican place, and had a chicken quesadilla. I read about it in the New York Times and I wanted to check it out. It was really tasty.

That was it. If you can't tell, I eat a lot.

Saturday, February 6
Saturday morning, in the middle of my run, I had an everything bagel with white fish, salad, cucumber, and red onion at Zucker's.

I didn't have lunch that day, but I had a snack of pretzels and peanut butter mid-afternoon. Then, I went back to Balthazar Bakery to do another tasting with my pastry chef, and she made a chocolate semifreddo with crispy rice, caramelized milk, and lemon. I loved it. It's going to be on the menu. She also made an affogato with anisette gelato and orange biscotti. She also made a chestnut crostata with rosemary and a pinenut-brittle gelato. She nailed them. They were amazing.

After that, I had coffee.

For dinner I went to Matsugen. I had the Yuba sushi, chicken meatballs, oshinko — the pickles. I had the Barachirashi, a rice and fish dish, and their signature cold soba, the Matsugen soba. It was actually my first time there. I'd been wanting to go because I live kind of close, and decided to finally do it. The Barachirashi was my favorite dish.

Sunday, February 7
I had oatmeal with banana, yogurt, and almond butter, and coffee.

Sunday I didn't run. Sunday is my off day and I cooked with my son, Oliver, all day.

We made the oatmeal for breakfast and then we started dinner; I put everything in the oven before we left for lunch. I made pork-rib adobo — pork spare ribs with crispy garlic rice and salt-baked sweet potatoes. He eats everything. He's two and a half now, almost three. He grabs the tongs, he tries to turn the meat. It's hilarious.

We went out for lunch. We had pizza at Famous Ray's in the West Village.

We ate dinner about 6:30 and then I went to a Super Bowl party after that. One of my sous-chefs lives in midtown. It was like a potluck, and a couple of my other sous-chefs were there and they made some chili and an eighteen-layer bean dip. It was in a huge Dutch oven.

Monday, February 8
I had a mixed bowl of cereal: shredded wheat, honey, and oat-nut crunch, and Trader Joe's Honey Os. And then I mixed banana and yogurt into that and had coffee. That was after my run. I have to eat immediately afterwards or I'm just tired the rest of the day.

For lunch, I had French onion soup and a ham-and-butter baguette from Balthazar Bakery. After lunch, I had a bite of a chocolate birthday cake from Dean & Deluca for somebody in the office. I'm working out of the corporate office right now in Soho, near Balthazar.

One of our purveyors dropped off some goat cheese, and I had some goat cheese with a slice of bread, and then I had coffee.

For dinner, I took the leftovers from the night before and made eggs with leftover pork and roasted peppers and pineapple that I just diced up and stir-fried into the whole mess. For dessert, the leftover pineapple.

Tuesday, February 9
Tuesday, I had the same breakfast that I had on Monday after my run.

Before lunch I had a cheese tasting at Saxelby Cheese and tasted ten different cheeses. There's one called Grayson, it's very similar to a Taleggio. That really stood out. I'm just looking for pizzas, actually.

For lunch, I went to my new favorite restaurant called Torrisi Italian Specialties. I had handmade mozzarella, braised broccoli rabe, beans and bacon, potatoes and pepperoni, spicy egg sandwich with roasted peppers and provolone, and lasagna. I love that place. I had water and coffee.

After lunch I had a chocolate-hazelnut croissant that we're working on for the breakfast menu. That was a combination between my pastry chef and one of my sous-chefs who's heading up the pizza program, Beth Ann Simpkins.

I tried a new pizza place called Numero 28 and I had half what they call diavola pizza and then half a five-cheese pizza. I thought it was good, you know; I'm not going to rush back. Honestly, it was a little expensive for what it was, and that's the whole reason I probably won't rush back.

Then I had a scoop of ice cream with Oliver: maple-banana walnut at Sundaes and Cones.

Wednesday, February 10
For breakfast, I had an English muffin with egg, cheddar, and avocado. I did not run because of the snow. I had that with an espresso.

For lunch I went to Ippudo. I had the chicken tori ramen and the Mentaiko rice. Oliver had the rice, and he also had some ramen. He loves cod roe, the Mentaiko, he just loves it. He has a little bit of a heart condition. He's on a special diet where he can't have a lot of vitamin K. That's the only thing he can't have. But he loves all food. It's very sad, but [Vitamin K is in] everything that's green: avocadoes, mangoes, chickpeas, lentils — all good food. He's okay. It's something that he's going to have to deal with for his entire life. He was in the hospital for like a month when we first moved here, but he's getting better.

Then someone had dropped off samples of buttermilk, hazelnuts, and raw honey at the office from a local farm. Actually, the hazelnuts are from Oregon. Really good.

For dinner, I went to Faustina. We had pretty much the entire menu, and I thought everything was great. You know, for only being open a week, they're doing a great job. There were six of us, a couple of my sous-chefs, a couple friends. I especially liked the cannelloni with tomatoes. It was just really simple, but super tasty and the presentation was really nice. They did it tableside. And all the desserts — all the desserts were amazing.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the new york diet, a16, dos toros, matsugen, nate appleman, pulino's

Soho: The Hampton Inn Soho opened a bar called Artifakt to the public on Super Bowl Sunday. [Hotel Chatter/Hampton_Inn_SoHo_Has_a_New_Bar_With_an_Old_Name]
Tribeca: New York Vintners hosts a Tuscan wine dinner with Canalicchio di Sopra winemaker Francesco Ripaccioli on February 19 at 7 p.m. [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, east village, mama's food shop, new york vintner's, soho

West Village: Cabrito is running an all-night happy hour today to lure drinkers out of the snow. [Grub Street]

Kingswood closed today owing to smoke damage from a fire in the same building, but plans to reopen this weekend. [Eater NY]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, cabrito, hell's kitchen, kingswood, kyotofu, little italy pizza, midtown east, west village

Nolita: Torrisi Italian Specialties chose Piginahat.com as the URL for its website. [Grub Street]

Tribeca: RBC hosts Brazilian champion barista Sylvia Magalhaes on Friday from 3 to 5 p.m. to share recipes and latte art. [Grub Street]

Williamsburg: A scrawled note on the wall at El Beit reveals there’s a heartbreaker in the hood: “"I'm on vaca with my boyfriend but I'm going to break up with him when we get home.” [Free Williamsburg]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, el beit, palmyra, rachael ray, ruth reichl, sylvia magalhaes, times talks, torrisi italian specialities

While the opening date of Má Pêche is closely guarded, David Chang and chef Tien Ho debuted new dishes at a kickoff party with Alice Waters for Edible Schoolyard New York last night. Supporters of P.S. 216 in Brooklyn paid $350 to fund the $1.6 million greenhouse and garden project. In exchange, guests tried hors d’oeuvres like oxtail rillette with chanterelles and pine nuts, beef cheek and onion tartlets, beef tartar with charred scallions scooped onto tiny shrimp chips, short ribs with hoisin, and fried cauliflower with fresh mint and fish sauce. The beverage of choice was a Pear Collins: pear cider, apple brandy, and maple syrup.

Chang is a longtime supporter of the Edible Schoolyard project, which took over a decade to come to New York. “There are a lot of lots that are vacant, and I thought, why can’t we grow herbs or build a temporary greenhouse?” Chang told us. “I did so poorly in school, but I remember everything we did as a kid that involved cooking — we made butter in elementary school. Maybe it’s my way of giving back.” If you don’t have the pocket change to schmooze, P.S. 216 principal Celia Kaplinsky said supporters can e-mail info@esyny.org to volunteer after the ground breaking this summer.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: foodievents, alice waters, chambers hotel, david chang, edible schoolyard, ma peche

In the magazine this week, Adam Platt reviews two newcomers serving southern food and small plates, respectively. Tipsy Parson “is clearly designed as a decorous, tea-social alternative to the usual barbecue joints and fry houses that pass for southern restaurants in this Yankee town,” he writes. But he misses some staples like fried chicken: “Since this popular, consistently crowded restaurant opened, several of the more traditionalist southern-style appetizers and entrées appear to have been excised from the menu.” Further downtown, “the Denton brothers’ latest dining outlet, Corsino … seems to have been designed with durability, and a high turnover rate, in mind,” complains Platt. “None of the pastas or entrées cost over $20, and most are competent in a serviceable, professional way, but not outstanding.”

Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld forage this week for the best baked goods in town, including a new line of sweets introduced at Bklyn Larder that boasts buttermilk cake, pistachio loaf cake, and “perfectly textured, crispy-chewy cookies.” Rob and Robin preview the opening of Bistro Vendôme, where former Jubilee chef-partner Pascal Petiteau “revives many of his signature Gallic classics,” as well as the Meatball Shop. Also in comfort food: Black radishes are in season, and “chef Neil Ferguson, formerly of Allen & Delancey and now at Soho House, tempers the root’s characteristic bite in a rich, creamy gratin.” Finally, our real-estate section asks a newcomer and an old-timer to list their favorite stops in Hell’s Kitchen; the young guy digs Xie Xie, while a fellow clearly predating the carbophobe generation recommends H&H Bagels, Little Pie Company, and Amy’s Bread.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: in the magazine, bistro vendome, corsino, in season, meatball shop, openings, recipes, tipsy parson

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, astoria, black shack, midtown east, the mark, upper east side

After a stint as a party boy on The City, model and Il Bastardo partner Adam Senn rapidly expanded his résumé. He just returned from Milan Fashion Week to rep Dolce & Gabbana, announced his investment in Film Center Café, and is working on the acting portion of his triple threat. Senn plays a video director and love interest of Meagan Goode in Video Girl, which awaits a distributor. “I ran probably about five miles a day every morning just to release a lot of tension, and did a lot of yoga exercises,” said Senn about his preparation for the role. A self-described “gym rat,” Senn's New York Diet was consumed with little concern for forthcoming Fashion Week casting calls.

Saturday, January 30
I was in L.A. screening the movie. I’m back and forth and split a house with a friend of mine. For breakfast, I had French toast stuffed with strawberry jelly and cream cheese with maple syrup at Doughboys. And I had an iced latte with skim milk. I usually work out on the weekdays, Monday through Friday.

Before lunch I went to In-N-Out Burger. That's so bad. I had a double, animal-style. Every time I go to L.A. I eat there at least once. I've been to Shake Shack. Actually, for my restaurant, we get our meat from the same people they get their meat from, LaFrieda. Shake Shack is good, but I don't know, there's something about In-N-Out. The sauce, for one, whatever they put on it. I like how the fries are just regular cut fries.

Then I went and ate lunch with a friend of mine, [the director] Ty Hodges. I had ravioli stuffed with blue crab. I can't think of the restaurant. It was off of Sunset. It was great.

Dinner was at the Spanish Kitchen. It was a friend of mine's birthday, Seth Miller, and I had chicken fajitas and iced tea. I haven't drank alcohol in probably about eight months. Actually, you go so long with drinking alcohol, even if it's just once a week for a year or so, for five years, why can't you go five years without? I just get weird like that; I'm always looking online at diets. I get bored with one workout, one diet, just change it up a little bit, and look at other people's habits. It’s not hard at all. I've gone a year without drinking before, just one time. Now I really just don't have any intention. It's just not appetizing to me. I didn't have anything for dessert.

Later, we went to Voyeur, I think it's called. I wouldn't call myself a huge dancer. But it was a pretty big night — Saturday night before Grammy night. And it was my best friend's birthday, so …

Sunday, January 31
Sunday morning, I woke up around 9 a.m. and, this sounds stupid, but I had a homemade, from scratch, cupcake from my buddy's birthday. They were amazing with, like, a coffee-type icing on top of it as well. Just ridiculous.

I skipped lunch all day because I flew out, and didn't eat again until midnight after my flight got in. Well, I had a Baby Ruth and a bottle of water at the airport, but I was rushing.

I went to Mercy Deli over here, a Chelsea deli, and had a turkey, lettuce, tomato, and American cheese sandwich, a bag of chips, a Smart Water, and a Crunchie bar. It's from the U.K. originally. It's awesome. It's honeycomb dipped in chocolate. Like I said, I go through different phases. I feel like you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, pretty much, as long as you exercise. I'm a pretty strong believer in that.

Monday, February 1
Monday morning, I had another iced coffee across the street from where I live. I was working. The shoot was for Macy’s, so I went there and had an everything bagel with cream cheese from the shoot.

It was a decent lunch. I had a chicken-salad wrap, also from the shoot. And water.

Dinner Monday, I ate downstairs at my restaurant Il Bastardo: tortellini with chicken breast. I've always been around good southern food, and then I came here to New York and met one of my best friends, Bobby Malta, who owns something like sixteen different restaurants. I met him and he kind of took me under his wing. Since I've been here and I made a decent amount of cash, I ended up coming up with a concept and investing in Il Bastardo and Bar Baresco.

I'm definitely involved in a lot of different aspects. I have a hands-on approach to making sure the staff is dressed right, making sure the food is presented correctly, tastes right. I came up with the concept of having the wine bar next door. We have 40 different wines by the glass.

Tuesday, February 2
I didn't wake up till the afternoon. I went to Film Center Café with a friend of mine, Tiiu Kuik, the supermodel chick. I had a cheeseburger and an iced tea, and she had macaroni and cheese with truffles.

After lunch, I ended up going to the gym. I go to the gym on weekdays around 8 p.m. to 9:30 or 10. Monday's kind of like a light day. I'll run three miles starting to warm up, and then, it was a chest day so I do — I always do four sets of everything, some people do three, it's kinda like an extra kick in the ass with four — flat bench, incline bench, decline bench, flies, then triceps ... you really want to know all this? Tuesday would be biceps, shoulders, abs, and forearms, I guess, I don't know — this sounds lame. And then Wednesday is legs. And every day, I run three miles before the workout.

Tuesday night, I had Mercy Deli again. I had a salad with chicken on it.

Wednesday, February 3
I had cereal, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and then for lunch I had Subway: a tuna sandwich, two bags of Sun Chips, and a bottle of water. And for dinner from Il Bastardo: red snapper and steamed broccoli and an iced tea.

Thursday, February 4
Nothing yet. Toothpaste.

For Fashion Week, I'll probably just stick to mostly proteins and greens, and will cut down on carbs. They have castings going on right now. I've been around for a while, so I'll go to maybe a casting or two and you'll see what happens.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the new york diet, adam senn, doughboys, film center cafe, il bastardo, the spanish kitchen

“I have doubts about the physical demands of the kitchen,” Dan Barber confessed last night at the 92nd Street Y. “I am a part of the service and I find my stamina decreasing.” The chef joined Tom Colicchio, and French expats André Soltner and Jacques Torres on a panel with FCI founder Dorothy Hamilton to discuss her new book,
Love What You Do. Loving it, it seems, doesn’t make it easy. Keep reading, aspiring chefs. It's time to be scared straight.

Dan Barber is tired. “At Stone Barns, for example, there are no menus. You come to the restaurant, you sit at the table, and the ticket comes in as an interview with the captain: What are your likes, dislikes, allergies, things you’re very interested in. There’s notes: They range from “this person has been dying to come to the restaurant for the last year or two,” to “this person is totally uninterested in what we’re doing, and would rather be someplace else.” The menus tend to be different between tables, and very different from night to night, and that requires a commitment and a flexibility and devotion that I hadn’t really anticipated. The best way to inspire a tired, physically and mentally rundown chef is to be there, with him or her, doing the same thing, which is really hard to do. So I wonder about this philosophy.”

Tom Colicchio is ... the Apprentice “We don’t have an apprenticeship system here, but you can put yourself through one if you try. All you have to do is work in one restaurant for a year, and then you move to another restaurant. I grew up in New Jersey, and I worked at some pretty bad restaurants until I found myself at a pretty good restaurant.”

Jacques Torres, Food Orthopedist “If you look at the medical profession, the chef is in the emergency room. You see the chefs really reacting to the service and dealing with what’s going on at the moment. The pastry chef would be the knee guy or something. You cannot bake a cake by the time a customer sits. You can assemble desserts, put whipped cream and berries together, but it takes a lot more planning … At Le Cirque, we were twelve pastry cooks in one restaurant; that’s pretty unbelievable. Once the manager came and said, ‘Can you do a tanker in chocolate?’ And we said, ‘Yes, how long?’ And he said, ‘Oh, you have time, the customer just sat.’ Sirio was on top of his game when I started and it was unbelievable. He was magic and it was a magic place.”

André Soltner Gets Poached “I was working in Paris as a sous-chef, and one of my pastry chefs emigrated here. The person he was working for had an idea that he wanted to open a restaurant — Henri Soulé. He came to Paris, ate at the restaurant, and after his dinner he said to the maitre d’, ‘I bring greetings to the chef from Robert, the pastry chef, can I see the chef?’ The maitre d’ told me; I went to see him; and he said, ‘I bring greetings from Robert and, well, the real reason is I would like to talk to you outside.’ We had a meeting the next day, and that’s the way you steal chefs.”

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: back of the house, andre soltner, dan barber, dorothy hamilton, foodievents, jaques torres, tom colicchio

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, christina tosi, daniel boulud, east village, foodievents, gowanus, milk bar, milk bar cookbook, upper east side, williamsburg, zenkichi

Valentine’s Day, boon to florists, bars, and enterprising restaurants, offers dessert lovers a holiday of their own. Bakeries are not shy about cashing in on the cupcake craze, and Valentine&#8217s Day brings a whole slew of options. Pick up a box of edible roses from Kumquat Cupcakery’s pop-up in Greenpoint, or send a love letter baked by Magnolia (ask for them at the new Dubai location!). Like flowers, desserts won’t last forever, but they will endure a gym workout.

Related: The Valentine’s Playbook 2010

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: user's guide, cupcakes, cupmudgeonism, slideshows, sweet news, valentine's day

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, 88 orchard, cascabel, hell's kitchen, le bernardin, lower east side, midtown west, print, upper east side

While the usual suspects turned up in Slashfood’s top ten list of the hottest men in the food industry (Rocco, Jamie), Paula Deen lands in the ten spot on the women’s lineup. She does fit the criteria y’all: “A woman who isn't afraid of fire, or knives, or licking her fingers.” [Slashfood/AOL]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: food tv, hottest men chefs, hottest women chefs, paula deen, top ten lists

Greenpoint: Chef Joseph Ogrodnek takes on the kitchen at Anella starting Wednesday. Preview his new menu here, along with the $45 Valentine’s Day menu. [Grub Street]
Tribeca: Try Japanese ingredients like surimi, wasabi, and saury pickles in French cuisine at Bouley during a series of special seafood lunches served February 8 to February 13. [Grub Street]
Upper West Side: Carmine’s celebrates its twentieth anniversary with a special menu of $20 entrées (linguine with clam sauce, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken cutlets) served Monday through Wednesday during lunch and dinner. [Grub Street]
West Village: On March 9, the brothers Voltaggio host a $165 dinner at the James Beard House that begins with foie-gras jelly doughnuts. [JBH]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, anella, boerum hill, clinton hill, east village, foodievents, greenpoint, james beard house, ko, menus, mile end, nerodoro, voltaggio, west village

In the magazine this week, the Underground Gourmet unwinds at Greenpoint’s Eat: “It’s good, fresh, truly local food in a mellow, relaxing atmosphere, and the combination has an undeniably calming, salutary effect.” Seasonal food is also emphasized at Print, opening this week in the ink48 hotel. “For insight into his biggest influences, [Adam] Block flew his culinary team (chef Charles Rodriguez, a Sony Club alum, and his wife, pastry chef Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez) out West, to eat at Chez Panisse, Zuni Café, and, less predictably, Dynamo Donuts,” report Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld.

Rob and Robin also welcome the return of El Quinto Pino with an expanded menu of multiregional tapas. Snap into artisanal jerky this winter — Rob and Robin know where to find seven local sources. Buy some for your Super Bowl party, and then replicate Joaquin Baca’s Seven-Layer Dip.. It&#8217 not on his menu at Brooklyn Star, but Baca shared the recipe with New York. Finally, Andrew Carmellini will start a new Monday-night supper series on February 8. The inaugural meal is the Super Bowl: three-courses, including all-you-can-eat pasta, for $39.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: beef jerky, eat restaurant, el quinto pino, greenpoint, in season, openings, recipes, super bowl

Midtown West: Molyvos celebrates Clean Monday on February 15 before the beginning of Lent: “The term refers to the leaving behind of sinful attitudes and non-fasting foods. This day is celebrated as a National Holiday in Greece.” [Grub Street]

Park Slope: The Brooklyn Lyceum holds a food and craft market Saturday and Sunday, May 1 and 2 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. [Grub Street]

Soho: Kelly Cutrone loves Grand Street Deli. [Feed/TONY]

Upper West Side: Hundreds swarmed the Tavern on the Green tag sale today. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, chelsea, flatiron, grand street deli, kinski, midtown west, molyvos, shake shack, soho

Chocolatier Jacques Torres lost twenty pounds last year by limiting exposure to red meat and rich foods — like the cookies he faces every day at his Hudson Street headquarters. Lucky for him, he doesn’t put chocolate in this category. Torres snacks on unsweetened cacao nibs and sticks to what he deems healthier candies: dark-chocolate bark and chocolate cereal. You can ask him for sweet diet tips at the 92Y on Wednesday when the FCI Pastry Dean joins Dorothy Hamilton and chef friends (Tom Coliccho, Dan Barber, Andre Soltner) for a panel called “Doing What You Love.” The subtitle of this week’s New York Diet could be “shed pounds while eating what you love.”

Saturday, January 23
Morning is usually pretty simple. I have a decaf Illy coffee when I wake up and just a slice of high-fiber bread, with a little bit of honey or fruit spread. I won't have much before I go to work at 8:45, 9 a.m. Basically, I don't want to put too much calories in and I don't like eating much in the morning.

When I come to work, I certainly will have another decaf. But what I also do —
do you know about cacao bean? Cacao bean doesn't contain any sugar. They have some fat, but they are high in energy ... a lot of good things for you in the cacao bean, but not many people can snack on that; it has some nuttiness to it but it's quite bitter. And it's like espresso. If you get used to it, you crave it. That's why I have decaf coffee because; otherwise, it's too much.

I love to snack on that in the morning. I have a few of those. You can even put it in your pocket. It's the center of the cacao bean, and when you roast it it's called nibs. It doesn't have much calorie. It's a good and healthy thing.

I like to pack my lunch the day before. I will do, again, a couple of slices of that high-fiber bread and I will take maybe one slice of cheese — Gruyère or some other flavorful cheese. I will put some turkey, maybe some chicken ... some protein in it. Maybe a couple of slices tomato. Maybe some lettuce. Another piece of bread on top. And I put that in a Teflon pan with a little bit of cooking spray; roast it on both sides; and then I wrap it; I take it to work; and I have it cold.

I'm of Spanish descendant, so I like my rice. But I like my rice a certain way. Saturday evening I made paella. And I love to do that on the weekend. I have a certain size paella pan for one to two people. I take a half-cup of rice, a little bit of squid, a little bit of fish, a little bit of tomato and onions. I sauté all that and put my rice in; I deglaze that with a little bit of fish stock, and I cook that with saffron, salt, a little bit of pepper, poivre d'espelette, and if I have a few shrimp or sea scallops to put on top, I do that.

I cannot have much wine because I want to lose some weight, so maybe a glass or two but no more than that. But the problem is that I love red wine, you know? I just love red wine.

So I kind of restrict myself. The diet works, you know, when you're very serious about it, and you lose weight, and then you're so happy that you slow down the diet and then you gain back some weight, and then you freak out so you go back on a diet, like everyone else. So I try to stick with it. It's a lifestyle change. You have to work on it.

Sunday, January 24
I spend my time on a boat. I don't know if you know that, but I have an apartment in Manhattan. But when my wife is not here — when she's in California for her store — I live on my boat most of the time. Sunday morning is my day off. So in the morning when I wake up I have the beautiful view of Manhattan in front of me, I mean the whole island of Manhattan. The boat is next to the Statue of Liberty. There's a marina there. So the view is just amazing. I get up in the morning; sit down; certainly put the French channel on the TV and listen to the news; have a good croissant or pan au chocolat with my coffee; and my neighbor is nice enough to drop off the New York Times. So I just enjoy my Sunday morning.

We make dark 60 percent cocoa-content chocolate with cereal in it, corn flakes. So I'll always have at least one of those little bags on the boat. And that will be the snack on Sunday. I'll allow myself a little bit more than cacao. And I love that because it's kind of healthy. And I always have a lot of fruit on the boat. I don't eat that much veg, but I eat a lot of fruit. A lot of citrus: oranges, some mandarins. I also like something you see it a lot in Chinatown ... I don't remember the name of that. I call it persimmon but it's not. Persimmon has to be soft. Those you can eat hard, and they're still sweet. It looks a little bit like a tomato. Blueberries are one of the things that I will have. Black grapes, I love to have grapes. Always a couple of apples and a couple of pears. So I always have a choice of fruits.

Lunch will certainly be something grilled, I love fish. That's something that I just love to eat. I go to Citarella at get some fish on Saturday — usually striped bass, black sea bass — but I also fish a lot during the year and freeze some of my filets. All over, Sandy Hook to Long Island. You name it. When weather permits, every weekend I'm out. I love to cook the fish en papillote. I put it into some foil with fennel, and cover it with a little bit of olive oil, some spice, maybe a little bit of tomato and onions, and close the foil like a pocket. On my boat I have a grill, so I grill that inside the foil. A very slow grill.

For dinner, I went and bought some ground turkey and I did a bolognese with it. And I ate that with whole-wheat spaghetti. No dessert. Usually what I have is some bark. Bark is that chocolate that we spread into a sheet pan with hazelnut, pistachio, and almonds. It's like the thickness of your pinky. So that's one of the things I will have after dinner. It's a little bit like having a coffee because it's dark chocolate, but you have the nuttiness of all those nuts inside. It's really good.

It's funny, but a reporter came here and I gave her a tour of the whole factory. Maybe twenty minutes after starting the tour she asked me, "How many chocolates do you eat?" And I said, "Oh, I basically don't eat any chocolate during the day. I work with it, so I don't really eat much chocolate." And she said to me, "You ate twelve different things since the time we started the tour." It can be a tiny little piece of nuts or a tiny little piece of chocolate, but she said, "twelve times you put something in your mouth. So don't tell me you don't eat any chocolates." And I tell her, "Listen, I don't even realize that I eat chocolate." So I cannot answer the question but I can tell you that I eat some chocolate during the day.

Monday, January 25
Monday morning, it's a work day, so coffee and a piece of bread just to keep me going. Go to work, maybe some nibs, maybe some chocolates with corn flakes.

If I had time to make my sandwich the day before I would have had that, but I went to Sunrise Mart. It's a Japanese store, and I went to the sushi counter and had some sushi. I love spicy tuna and the rice with smoked eel on top. It's four or six pieces in a little package. I sit over there. It's usually a lot of Asians there. I have a scooter that I got maybe six months ago, so I just park in front. If I go to a sushi restaurant, it takes too much time. If I go over there, it's fast. In 20 minutes, it's in and out.

Snacks are always something I have in the store. I try to stay on the healthy side of the chocolate that I have. So it can be the bark; it can be chocolate with cereal. I stay away from the cookies. I stay away from things a little bit richer, but they're difficult to stay away from.

For dinner ... do you know couscous? You basically cook some vegetables, but you don't want to use too much water and lose too much flavor. Then you also cook some chicken or some lamb, but I usually stay with the white of the chicken. And then you add some couscous. I do that at the boat, and I put it in a couple of containers so I have a couple of dinners from that. This is a healthy, but also a hearty food. It really fills you up and this is one of the ways that I will have veg.

Tuesday, January 26
Tuesday morning, breakfast is the same.

Tuesday for dinner, I had my couscous. The same as Monday. That's usually good for a couple of days.

Wednesday, January 27
Wednesday same breakfast. It's a boring breakfast, but it's what keeps me going. Snacking, nibs in the morning. I always have some of that in my pocket.

Wednesday, I had salad for lunch. That's something that I like to do. Just a green salad and we have nuts here at the factory, so I add a little bit of pignoli, and little bit of pistachio. And I love to get a red pepper and put it directly on the flame on the stove so the skin is going to burn. Then I remove the skin and the flesh has that smokey flavor after that. I put that in the salad, warm, and add a little bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper. That's it. From start to finish, it will take me maybe ten minutes.

Later, I went to the school, the French Cullinary Institute. So when I go there, I usually go a little bit further. There's a place in Chinatown where I get lobster. And listen to this, lobster lately, you can get at $5 a pound! It's unbelievable. So what I did, I bought two small lobsters, around a pound each. I take it on the boat, and boil it for four minutes. No more. Most people boil them for too long. This is the time now when you get them, in the winter. They're really fresh and they're really good. I put a little bit of butter on top of it, and that's all. They are a little bit salty because the water who boil them in is salty, and you don't need any spice on them. I put the carcass, they go back in the water [off the boat]. It's natural like that.

Thursday, January 28
This morning, same thing: Slice of bread for breakfast and I had a sandwich.

I do go out to eat. Like tonight, I'm going to a little place called Socarrat. It's a paella bar. It's a Spanish place. The name of the owner is Lolo. He's a friend of mine, and I usually tell Lolo that I'm coming. So he preps some small tapas; he has the most delicious tapas. So during the time that you enjoy your tapas, they cook a fish paella for you, or whatever paella you want. And they bring the paella for however many people you have. I get the fish paella. I think I used to be a fish in another life. My dad was full Spanish, my mom was half-Spanish. And I grew up in France. Ibiza, that's the place that my family comes from. It's a small island in the Méditerranée. And their diet is mostly fish, too. I cannot live too far from the water.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the new york diet, jacques torres, sunrise mart

As a local chef with a writing habit, frequent TV appearances, and a Time 100 honor, Dan Barber is working toward food-statesman status. He is the only chef invited to this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Yesterday, he joined a panel on “Groundbreaking Discoveries in Science & Technology”; today, Barber speaks about “Better Food for Better Health;” and Friday he discusses “Catalyzing a New Vision for Agriculture.”

For his main gig this today, Barber focused on how chefs lead change in America. “When you’re interested in flavorful food … a lot of good things fall into line: good farming, good ecological stewardship, good nutrition, good communities … Chefs, as arbiters of taste, lead the way in determining what's fit for their kitchens, which means they do quite a lot to affect the way the world works,” he said in an e-mail. Chefs rarely speak at the event, and participants outside the business arena may hail from governments, NGOs, and academia. While Alice Waters attended a panel at the 2008 forum, she was also asked to cook.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: food politics, blue hill at stone barns, dan barber, world economic forum

Midtown West: Newcomer Holey Cream makes ice-cream sandwiches out of fresh doughnuts and homemade ice cream. [UrbanDaddy]

West Village: All of the proceeds from Eric Hara’s Oak Room dinner at the James Beard House on February 4 go to the International Rescue Committee to benefit Haiti. The $165 dinner starts at 7 p.m. [James Beard]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, ardesia, brooklyn wine exchange, cobble hill, dirt candy, hell's kitchen, midtown west, pinch n smac, upper west side

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, duane park, hell's kitchen, kyotofu, tribeca

In the magazine this week, Adam Platt lauds the Breslin, which outdoes the Spotted Pig with its excess: “There’s more booze (the wine list is seven pages long); more butter, salt, and pork (the three pillars of Bloomfield’s inspired brand of cooking); and much more attitude,” he writes. “When parceled out in smaller doses, however, many of Bloomfield’s meaty creations are worth the price of admission.” If you’re looking for a new way to warm up, Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite find eight hot, “stress-meltingly comforting” cocktails from Fort Defiance to PDT.

In openings, the West Village Bistro le Gare “marks the professional reunion of Maryann Terillo and Elisa Sarno, late of Jarnac and Babbo, respectively.” Sweet Maine shrimp are in season , and we’ve got a recipe for shrimp rolls from Luke’s lobster. Rob and Robin also profile up-and-coming snack-food mogul Amy Hamberry, who turns “kale, the entirely virtuous, dark-green-leafed vegetable, into an irresistible, only slightly less virtuous snack chip that’s poised to take over the health-food-store world.” Finally, the delicatessen Mile End settles into Boerum Hill to traffic in Montreal-style smoked meat.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: in the magazine, amy hamberry, bistro de la gare, boerum hill, cocktails, kale chips, mile end, openings, recipes, shrimp, the breslin

Microsoft’s newish search engine Bing now helps users find recipes. Type in an ingredient and get recipes culled from food sites like Epicurious and Delish. We like that there are so many photos of actual dishes and that you can filter by cuisine, occasion, and convenience. The layout is similar to New York’s database, except we spotlight dishes created by our favorite chefs. Good luck finding Tom Colicchio's bruschetta on Bing.

Cooking up a storm with Bing Recipes [Bing]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: recipes, bing

Microsoft’s newish search engine Bing now helps users find recipes. Type in an ingredient and get recipes culled from food sites like Epicurious and Delish. We like that there are so many photos of actual dishes and that you can filter by cuisine, occasion, and convenience. The layout is similar to New York’s database, except we spotlight dishes created by our favorite chefs. Good luck finding Tom Colicchio's bruschetta on Bing.

Cooking up a storm with Bing Recipes [Bing]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: recipes, bing

Now is the time for all good eaters to come to the aid of their restaurants. We must stop Mayor Bloomberg's reckless campaign to reduce sodium in restaurant food by 20 percent over the next five years. Grub Street says, "Enough!" We don’t fear hypertension as much as we dread underseasoned vegetables. We must rise up to protect our cured meats and pungent pickle products! To help us imagine a world with reduced salt, we asked several chefs to I.D. the saltiest dishes on their menu. Read on through your salty tears and remember, these entrées may one day be gone.

Eric Ripert, Le Bernardin
Dish: Smoked Yellowfin Tuna “Prosciutto”
Why it needs salt: “The tuna is cut and seasoned and placed between two leaves of rehydrated kombu then sous-vide. It’s served topped with smoked salt, smoked trout roe, pickled Japanese vegetables, and a tuile of the kombu. The salt is essential in drawing out the moisture of the tuna and giving it a very meaty-mouth feel. Then the richness of the tuna is both highlighted and balanced by the salt-pickled vegetables.”

Bobby Helen, Resto
Dish: Chorizo, Lardo, Beets, and Brussels Sprouts
Why it needs salt: “We make our sausages here. For the chorizo, we need to up the salt because of the smokiness and the spices. A lot of people think salt is salt, but it’s a flavor amplifier. It would be really bland without it. You miss the layering of flavors. You won’t get cumin; you might get chili flakes; and you can lose the pork flavor.”

Amanda Freitag, the Harrison
Dish: Grilled Pork Chop with Cannellini Beans, Escarole, and Crispy Pancetta
Why it needs salt: “Pork on pork is not a crime. The pork chop is actually quite lean and it needs additional fat and salt, so the pancetta plays that role perfectly. It’s chopped finely with rosemary, thyme, and garlic, then melted and crisped in the pan. And it’s amazing.”

Mathieu Palombino, Motorino
Dish: Sopressata Pizza
Why it needs salt: “Sopressata and Pecorino contain a lot of salt to start — and that’s also why this pie is one of the favorites. Your mouth becomes very watery when it comes in contact with salt and it amplifies the reception of the flavors. The salt definitely makes your mouth fully aware. I think a 5-year-old could have come up with the combination. What pairs better than sausage and cheese? Do they plan on coming to my restaurant and measuring how much salt I put on my food?”

Andrew Carmellini, Locanda Verde
Dish: Cucumber and Radish in Tuna Dressing
Why it needs salt: “Cucumber and radish have tons of water in them, so you need to make them extra salty, because when you bite down, more liquid is released on your palate, thus watering down your seasonings. We dress them with housemade tuna belly, tons of anchovies, lemon, olive oil, garlic, and even more salinity in the form of bottarga.”

Carmellini issued this closing battle cry: “LONG LIVE SALT!”

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: health concerns, le bernardin, locanda verde, motorino, resto, salt, the harrison

• An Algonquin Hotel waiter is accused of stabbing a sous-chef and a host with a butter knife. [NYP]

• Calorie-posting laws compel restaurants like Starbucks and Applebee’s to introduce low-calorie dishes. [WSJ]

• Cutting salt by three grams a day could prevent 99,000 deaths and 92,000 heart attacks a year in the U.S., says a new study. [NYDN]

• Up to a quarter of Italy’s mozzarella makers may be diluting their buffalo milk with cow’s milk. [Times UK]

• The Baltimore Health Department and a soup kitchen called Manna House just launched an educational program to reduce local salt consumption. [Baltimore Sun]

• The search engine Bing now features a recipe filter. [Bon Appétit]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: mediavore, buffalo mozzarella, fast food, food network, gordon ramsay, salt, scripps, whopper bar

On Saturday, April Bloomfield took her first day off from the Breslin in months. To decompress from twelve-hour days feeding scensters, Bloomfield’s downtime includes light babysitting, playing with her current favorite iPhone app, Epic Chef, and dreams about her future projects with Ken Friedman. Next up is the John Dory 2.0. With the success of the Breslin at the Ace, could the fish shack resurface in a hotel? “Oooh. That might be, but I'm not going to make any comments on that,” she teased, directing us to business partner Ken Friedman. Bloomfield's forte is food, and she recovered from hard labor on the line with meals at Eleven Madison Park and Locanda Verde in this week’s New York Diet.

Saturday, January 16
That was the first day off I took after a few months of being at the Breslin. So I didn't know what to do with myself, quite frankly. The review had just come out on Wednesday, and I was tired and I wanted to take a day off. For breakfast I had Raisin Bran. I like Raisin Bran because you get healthiness in the bran but then you get a little sweetness from the raisins. I had some Ronnybrook whole milk on that, a banana, and then I drank a cup of coffee. I actually take milk from work, just like a pint here or there.

Then I drank a Vitasoy. It's like a Chinese soy drink that's slightly sweetened, just a natural flavor. No chocolate or anything. It was a bit weird being not at the Breslin, so I just kind of sat at home and played with my Epic Chef, which I'm kind of addicted to, on my iPhone. It's really geeky and I'm probably coming off as quite square, but I just recently got an iPhone. And I got this app called Epic Chef. Basically you can pick a chef, and you have a certain amount of stamina. You train to get even more stamina and keep up your energy and play with other people who have these different chef personas on their iPhones. And then you fight against each other. They're anonymous. They have these names ... I'm not gonna give out my name. I spent probably a good couple hours of the day trying to figure it out and enjoy myself. It's a fun thing. Kind of square. I'm probably sounding quite boring.

So what else did I do? One of my friends just had a baby so I went and helped look after her baby boy. Somebody ordered Thai food from this local place. I don't remember the name, unfortunately. I had tomato, watercress, and beef salad, with toasted rice, which was delicious. And then I had pad Thai after that. I love the fried egg, and the peanut.

I spent time with them and around 1 a.m., I went to the Pig for a birthday party Kate Douglass, who works at the host desk during the day at lunch, was having a birthday party there. I had a couple of glasses of Prosecco. And then I had a couple of Sapporo Lights. No food.

Sunday, January 17
You know, I start my day with tea. Every morning I wake up and have a cup of tea in bed. I relax, either read cookbooks or think about food; think about what's in season; and I try to get inspired.

For tea, I love PG Tips. It's an English brand and it's a mixture of tea leaves in this little pyramid bag, which is supposed to release flavor really fast, which is a bonus if you want caffeine fast. So I'm a big fan of that. So I had a couple of cups of tea. Then I headed to the Breslin. It was the first time I had walked to work in a couple of months, 'cause I've been so busy. I had a very brief meeting at the Breslin and I had the full English Breakfast that we do: You know, we make our own homemade sausages, and they're just so juicy and crumbly and nicely seasoned. I had a couple of fried eggs, some tomatoes that were cooked with garlic and bay leaf, some mushrooms, and then some house-cured bacon. And then I did a little bit of service.

Throughout the day, I had two chocolate-walnut cookies that my pastry chef had made for the cookie plate. They were kind of crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside. And then about an hour later, I went back for some ginger cookies she had made. I have an appetite for cookies and tea, or biscuits as we say in England. I have a soft spot for biscuits and tea. It's very English, isn't it?

The cooking winded down from brunch, so we have to do a really quick clean-down and then gear up for dinner. So just before dinner, at like 4:30, 5 p.m., I had a preservice cup of tea and a glass of water. I have a preservice cup of tea every day. I'm never without my PG Tips. It just kind of perks me up perfectly at the beginning.

I don't like to eat family meal. I get too heavy. I remember a time I ate Shepherd's Pie at the Spotted Pig. It was so delicious, I ate so much of it that I couldn't move. And I felt so sluggish and all I wanted to do was curl up by the stove, but obviously I can't do that. So I try not to eat so much before service. Anyway, service went well. I tasted stuff throughout the night. I ate copious amounts of duck salad we have on the menu, which is slow-roasted duck topped with sprouts and some pumpkin seeds and pomegranate. I was tasting the onion soup, mashed potatoes, pear salad with bleu cheese ... If I'm feeling like I've tasted too much, I drink bitters to get a hold of myself a little bit.

I had a Blue Point Toasted Lager just before going home. And when I got home I had some salted pistachios from Trader Joe's. You should only eat the ones in the shell. There's something about taking a salted pistachio out of the salted shell. And then I had a glass of wine. I think it was a Chenin Blanc, Vouvray.

Herbal tea before bed? What? I don't know if I know any chefs who drink herbal tea. I drink about ten cups of tea, on average, a day.

Monday, January 18
My other half was having friends around the apartment. Pretty much I was at the Breslin all day. It was a busy day so I didn't eat all day Monday. Especially having a day off on Saturday, you want to come in and kind of catch up on stuff. And Sunday was a hugely busy.

By the time I got home it was, like, 12 a.m., and I managed to grab some leftovers. I had guanciale pasta with lemon and peas. It was made with guanciale fat, the pasta, and the peas were frozen, I know — shock, horror. But I do like frozen peas, and they’re quite good to keep in the freezer. And they're very consistent and sweet. My other half made it. And with the pasta I had a Sapporo that I had in the fridge. I had it with a frozen pint glass. Perfect after a service, having a nice beer in a frosty glass.

Tuesday, January 19
I had my regular cup of tea in bed and I had a banana. Then I went to the Breslin, did some work there for a few hours, and then I went to see Andrew Carmellini at Locanda Verde. I went to talk to him and chat and get some advice from him. He offered me something to eat and I couldn't refuse. So I finished up what I had to do there, and I sat at the bar with my head chef at the Breslin, Peter Cho. We had rock-shrimp pasta in a tomato sauce, pumpkin agnolotti with sage, brown butter, and amaretto biscuits; and then you can't go to Locanda Verde and not have the lamb sliders. So we got some of them in there, too. They're so easy to eat. We had some Brussels sprouts with pancetta, fried potatoes with parsley and aïoli — some kind of mayonnaise-y thing. And I had a glass of Ribolla.

Then Karen DeMasco came out to say hi to us, which is always a joy. She sent us out a couple of desserts. One was a maple budino, which is a maple pudding with butternut-squash sorbet and candied pecans. It was so delicious. It really worked well with the maple. And we had date pudding with rum ice cream. The rum ice cream was perfect. I love Karen's desserts. She explains them so well and she'll say to you, "You know, they're just so comforting." And you know, they're very nurturing. I just love the way people talk about food. She just made my day with the way she was talking about food. She's very passionate. Lunch was around 3 p.m. Then I went back to the Breslin and did some service there. And that was pretty much my Tuesday.

Wednesday, January 20
Wednesday, I had my regular old cup of PG. Can't start my day off without PG. I went to the Pig; spent some time tweaking the menu a little bit. I changed a couple of garnishes on each dish and just played around a little bit. For my lunch, I had chicken-liver toast and deviled eggs. Then I had some Maine shrimp with aïoli and concentrated on booking my lunch Thursday at Eleven Madison. I hadn't been in a while, and I just wanted to enjoy myself and relax and eat some fantastic food. I'm a big fan of Daniel [Humm]. And yeah, it was perfect. It was everything I wanted.

For dinner, I was still at the Pig. I had a plate of mushroom pasta that my chef was running as a special. I didn't drink anything that night. Around 8 p.m., I went to the Breslin and finished service there, and then went home.

Thursday, January 21
I got up and did some work on e-mail, checked some stuff and replied to people who I had probably neglected in the last month, and then took a nice stroll to Eleven Madison and had lunch with Peter Cho.

Oh myGod, I had a foie gras, a little block of foie gras and pineapple and a little pickled onion. The foie gras was so silky smooth and delicious, and it came with rum and raisin brioche, which was sweet and fluffy and delicious, slightly toasted. I had a poached lobster with a Espelette pepper butter; it came with a lemon-curd marmalade. Then I had poached black bass with saffron broth with tapioca, mussels, clams, chorizo, which was so clean and crisp. It was awesome. And then I had braised veal cheeks with celeriac. And I had two desserts: a Pop Rock and grapefruit ice pop. It was like sorbet with Pop Rocks in it; it was very refreshing. And then we had this dessert with white-chocolate ice cream that was slightly caramelized with ... so many components — there were so many different terms — with this crumble of chocolate biscuit and this super-fluffy ice cream that was made with liquid nitrogen. Anyway, it was all delicious and now I'm stuffed. And I'm heading to a meeting with Dan Halpern at Harper Collins.

[Breslin cookbook?]

I don’t know! You’ll have to wait and see.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the new york diet, april bloomfield, eleven madison park, locanda verde, the breslin, the spotted pig

Park Slope: Bark and Sixpoint host a five-course beer dinner tonight at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. $40 includes pairings like crispy pork and spicy pickled-chili mayo with Brownstone Ale, and chocolate bread pudding and malt ice cream with a surprise brew. [Grub Street]
Tribeca: Amanda Freitag is making Super Bowl munchies at the Harrison: "A beer-inspired menu that includes stout-braised short ribs, meatball heroes, pork-belly sliders, and beer-batter onion rings." [Tribeca Citizen]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, bark, bon chon, fort greene, kif, midtown west, park slope, the harrison, tribeca

Vinnie's pizza on Bedford Avenue just opened a second location on Nassau at Kingsland. [Greenpointers]

Park Slope: Bklyn Larder’s Valentine’s Stimulus Package ($65) includes cheeses like Lazy Lady Oh My Heart! double-cream, ”plump calmyrna figs,” and honey. Kinky! [Grub Street]

West Village: New Korean spot 8St. Kitchen is offering a twp-for-one lunch special weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and weekends until 5 p.m. Bi Bim Bap is only $10. [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, bklyn larder, brooklyn homebrew, gowanus, greenpoint, kumquat cupcakery, liddabit, park slope, valentine's day, vinnie's pizza, west village

A mom-and-pop op joins the food-truck fray. Munch Truck, on the corner of 56th Street and Park Avenue, sells specials like fish and chips, chili, and chicken wings, alongside typical gyros and rice plates. [Midtown Lunch]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: truckin', midtown west, munch truck

Book a candlelit booth at White Castle for its annual Valentine’s Day event. The website even sells special-edition pink, fuzzy blankets to get your date in the mood for a fast-food affair. [White Castle]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: valentine's day, V-day, white castle

When Village Tart steps out of soft-opening mode next week, the full-service café will serve food from 7 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Wednesday, and until 2 a.m. on Thursday and Friday. The actual opening date isn’t firm, as owner Lesly Bernard is holding out for a beer-and-wine license. The meticulous design — combining dark wood, a pressed-tin ceiling, and walls of antique mirrors — almost makes up for the endless delays leading up to the debut. Until then, grab pastries and snacks to go from a counter area from 4 to 7 p.m. daily and admire the old-time space in our slideshow.

Earlier: Opening: Village Tart and DessertTruck Works

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, nolita, slideshow, village tart

At Maialino “many dishes are not only lighter on the tongue than in Rome, they also taste better,” says Steve Cuozzo. [NYP]

After multiple visits to Maialino (including one with Gail Simmons) “the staff is already in that fine anything-you-say and thank-you-for-coming Meyer service mode. And the kitchen is definitely sharper,” writes Gael Greene. [Insatiable Critic]

The Breslin “offers the most opulently fatty food in New York — served in medieval portions in a raucous rock & roll setting,” says Jay Cheshes, adding that “the new gastropub delivers a near-perfect dining experience.” [TONY]
Related: Ken Friedman Is Ready to Say ‘Yes’ to You at the Breslin

“At Brooklyn Fare's Kitchen, a few doors down from the small, independent, more-than-a-mere-grocery-store Brooklyn Fare, chef César Ramirez offers what is the most outrageously wonderful, unfathomably underpriced, and virtually unattainable meal in New York,” declares Alan Richman. [Forked and Corked/GQ]
Related: César Ramirez Sticks With the Chef’s Counter

“If the food was a little more exciting, Fort Defiance would be mobbed by intrepid inner-borough gourmands,” writes Lila Byock, who fawns over owner St. John Frizell’s cocktails. [NYer]
Related: A Closer Look at Fort Defiance

Robert Sietsema joined an “Organ Meat Society meeting … called to order at Northeast Taste, a Flushing restaurant that features cooking from China's northeastern provinces.” [VV]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the other critics, brooklyn fare, brooklyn kitchen, maialino, the breslin

It’s a great week for dessert: Pichet Ong's Village Tart soft opened yesterday with sweet and savory tarts and Dessert Truck's Jerome Chang will open his his first brick-and-mortar location, DessertTruck Works, on the Lower East Side on Friday. DT Works is open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. You’ll have to wait till next week to try the wine bar-café offerings from Village Tart, but you can while away the hours sampling MaximoPino gelato. Plan your downtown dessert crawl now.

Village Tart Menu [pdf]
DessertTruck Works Menu [pdf]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, dessert truck works, lower east side, menus, nolita, sweet news, village tart

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, aamchi pao, emporio, greenwich village, long island city, midtown west, nolita, philippe, upper east side

When it opens this weekend on a corner of Sixth Avenue in the West Village, MaximoPino will unveil made-to-order pizzas, a slew of pastries imported from Italy, and an underground gelato operation. The royal-blue signage bears the modified name of Italian chef-owner Massimo Pino, who honed his crust-making skills at a family bakery in Southern Italy and more recently worked at an Italian café in Dallas. He hopes this venture will be a flagship for a local chain.

Pino is importing the majority of products from his motherland, including Prosciutto di Parma, speck and fresh, and smoked mozzarella to top pizzas; desserts — cornetti, cannoli, cassata Siciliana; and gelato ingredients like Sicilian pistachios and Bacio candies. On flat-screen TVs, customers can watch live footage of 50 varieties of gelati and sorbetti being blended in the basement or listen to music streaming in from Italian radio stations. To drink: espresso-based coffees, twenty flavors of hot chocolate, and frozen beverages like the Marscapino, a sort of tiramisu slushee. MaximoPino is open from 7 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday, and on weekends until 2 a.m. — a more refined late-night alternative to Ray's across the street. Click through the slideshow to see the streamlined space and preview the menu below.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, maximo pino, slideshow, west village

Tom Colicchio envisions a “more creative, composed-plate style of cooking” at Colicchio & Sons, so preview the menus below to see if the celebrity chef is staying true to his mission. The restaurant opened last night, and Serious Eats already has some opinions. Open Table shows seats available tonight; otherwise, dinner is served Sunday through Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. and weekends until 11 p.m. The bar in the “Tap Room” opens daily at 5.

Colicchio & Sons. 5 Tenth Ave., at 15th St.; 212-400-6699

Dinner Menu [PDF]
Tap Room Menu [PDF]
Dessert Menu [PDF]
Cheese Menu [PDF]

Earlier: TOM BOMB: Colicchio Will Close Craftsteak, Reopen It As Colicchio & Sons

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, colicchio and sons, menus, tom colicchio, west chelsea

Midtown West: Má Pêche launched breakfast service in the mezzanine this morning from 7 to 10:30 a.m. with farm eggs and lemongrass sausage ($16) and an $18 bread basket. [Grub Street]
West Village: Joseph Leonard now opens for dinner on Mondays. [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, joseph leonard, lower east side, ma peche, midtown east, midtown west, west village, yonah shimmels

Designer Yigal Azrouël just returned from a restful beach vacation in Costa Rica — the perfect preparation for the hectic days leading into next month’s Fashion Week. The designer will debut looks he conceived last September, 80 percent of which were produced here in the garment district. “I have much more control of how I see the products,” he told us. Azrouël, who ran his first marathon last year, starts days with 6:30 a.m. visits to the gym, and loves to cook. Though he denies past involvement with Katie Lee, he does admit taking someone along with him to the beach. So, ladies, the closest you’ll get to one of his Moroccan dinner parties is reading this week’s New York Diet.

Friday, January 8
I cooked an amazing dinner on Friday night. I cooked dinner for six people in my house, mostly Moroccan traditional food: eggplant salad, red-beet salad with cilantro — my mom gave me the recipe, which I really love — tomato-and-bell-pepper salad with onion and garlic. We also ate Moroccan-style fish: salmon with chickpeas and different kind of spices that I get at Kalustyan’s. I also made roasted chicken, and I baked potatoes with rosemary and olive oil. We drank mostly red wine. My friends got us dessert from a place in Brooklyn: French macarons and a lemon tart. And I did a strawberry fruit salad with apples, bananas, nuts, lemon, and orange juice, and cinnamon, and made a Moroccan fresh mint tea. It’s very traditional. You use fresh mint leaves with hot water and serve it on a special tray with beautiful stained glasses. And you pour it from very high. That was a big dinner. Then we all played backgammon; I played the winners, and I won! I love that game; I play it all the time when I’m with my friends and I kick everybody’s ass.

I learned how to cook growing up in a big family. My mom is an amazing cook so I kind of got it from her. She still doesn’t believe that I cook because when I try to cook for her, she still doesn’t let me do it. But I get recipes from friends and my sisters, who are great cooks. When I cook, I don’t really know what I’m going to cook — I’m kind of experimenting — but it comes together really well.

Saturday, January 9
I had to wake up really early to go to the gym; 8 a.m. for a Saturday is early. My trainer was waiting for me and he kicked my ass that day. I work on my stomach, my arms, a lot crunches and kicking, and a little bit of legs. My trainer is Brazilian so does a lot of capoeira movements, which is very hard since I’m not used to those moves. That’s what I’m working on to get into good shape. I’m going snowboarding Saturday; to get ready for the season I got all new stuff. I go to Hunter [Mountain], just for the day.

I had my breakfast after. That day, I made a smoothie, with papaya, banana, ginger, and honey, and put ice in it to make it cold. And I had black coffee.

For lunch, I was picking on leftovers, which was a lot of food — salads and things — while listening to music and relaxing. One of my closest friends, Erez, made a new playlist. It’s a mix of reggae and old French music like Serge Gainsbourg. I was very mellow.

For dinner, I went to Bond Street and had miso soup, seaweed salad, tuna sashimi, spicy tuna, crispy shrimp, and green-tea ice cream. I went with my friend Adi.

Sunday, January 10
For breakfast, I just made myself a pineapple-and-banana smoothie, and had a coffee, of course.

For lunch, I was working, so I came to the office around 10:30 a.m. because I had to get ready to shoot my men’s collection for buyers, like a look book. I ordered split-pea soup and a schnitzel wrap from Schnitzel. My office is on 39th Street between Seventh and Eighth.

For dinner, I came home a little late so I just ate the leftovers from Friday. The fish was delicious; I remember eating it. I cook often and always have people over at my place and hanging out.

Monday, January 11
I had coffee and a whole-wheat bagel with cream cheese from Starbucks.

For lunch, I ordered a tuna sandwich from Prêt A Manger with whole-wheat bread, lettuce, and tomatoes.

I got home really late from working all day and just made myself a salad with vegetables and a dressing of olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper.

Tuesday, January 12
I made an omelette at home, very simple, with salt, pepper, and had a whole-wheat English muffin with butter. And yes, coffee, always coffee. I don’t wake up without coffee. My trainer canceled, so I skipped my workout and went the next day.

For lunch on Tuesday I ordered eggplant lasagna from Pomodoro. They send some really delicious bread and butter with it, and I had a Diet Coke.

I was working late and went to Whole Foods for groceries and bagels and things, but because I was picking during the day — power bars and stuff — when I came home I just had an apple. I didn’t really eat.

Wednesday, January 13
For breakfast: black coffee and a toasted bagel with cream cheese. I meet my trainer at 6:30 in the morning, sharp. I run for fifteen minutes and then work my stomach, my arms, my legs, and do some stretches.

For lunch, I ordered a panini with mozzarella and vegetables from Metro Café. I always bring some stuff in as well. The director of the company actually made an amazing granola bar. I remember going in and picking. It was really good. And I had an orange, too.

For dinner, I ate some of the leftovers from Friday because it was still good and I came home really late — hummus and bread, just dipping. I make it sometimes, but I didn’t make this one.

Thursday, January 14
And this morning I had granola cereal with coffee.

For lunch at 10 Downing: halibut with couscous and lemon-and-fennel salad, and a side of truffle fries.

I’m still working, so I don’t have a plan for dinner. I’m spontaneous.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the new york diet, 10 downing, bond street, pomodoro, yiga azrouel

Upper West Side: Picholine recently introduced a weeknight four-course prix fixe for $58.
[Zagat Buzz]

Williamsburg: With its strange opening hours, Leon’s Burger Hut on Bedford Avenue is "like the Halley’s Comet of delicious things that can happen to your mouth." It opened for a spell today. [VICE]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, financial district, i tre merli, leon's, loreley, lower east side, sho shaun hergatt, soho, williamsburg

Lebanese natives and childhood friends Roland Semaan and Joseph Said opened Balade this week, a Lebanese spot that makes its own pita bread for a take on pizza called, yes, "pitzas" and "sandweechet," wraps stuffed with marinated meats and spread with garlic aïoli. With housemade mezze like hummus, tabouleh, and baba ghanouj, plus platters of grilled meats, the small spot should give competition to similar, packed Middle Eastern neighbor Café Mogador. The atmosphere combines soft lighting and clunky wood tables with stone-toned exposed brick and tile walls. Plus, the owners scored beer and wine licenses to pour some Lebanese bottles, and an outdoor garden will open in the spring. Check out the menu below and then click through the slideshow to see the intimate space and some food.

Balade Menu [PDF]

Balade, 208 First Ave., nr. 12th St.; 212-529-6868

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, balade, east village, lebanese, slideshow

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, bedford stuyvesant, bills bar and burger, lower east side, meatpacking district, midtown west, saraghina

“At the Breslin, like Brueghelian souls in torment, you can never escape the fryer for very long,” says Robert Sietsema. [VV]

If “Spotted Pig is a gastropub, the Breslin, in the hipster haven, the Ace Hotel, is a gastrodive,” concludes Ryan Sutton, who considers the food cheap. “Other restaurants push pre-appetizers and middle courses. The Breslin can fill you up with a single dish.” [Bloomberg]

“The best window view from any Manhattan restaurant seat is at the corner table for two — a k a Table 31 — at Robert, the new eatery on the ninth floor of the Museum of Arts and Design at 2 Columbus Circle,” instructs Steve Cuozzo. [NYP]
Related: Robert Opens at MAD

“Purple Yam, which is in the heart of Ditmas Park’s new restaurant row … is a sleek slice of Soho transplanted to a part of Brooklyn where ethnic eats abound, but boutique dining options are still limited,” Jay Cheshes writes. “Even if you live nowhere near Ditmas, Purple Yam’s best dishes are worth an excursion.” [TONY]
Related: Openings Preview: First Look at Purple Yam

“Tipsy Parson is the Lady Bird Johnson of restaurants — so superficially charming that it’s genuinely likable,“ says Lauren Collins. “This is débutante food, though, and some of it is saccharine and fakey.” [NYer]
Related: Openings Preview: First Look at the Tipsy Parson

“I clutch the menu wanting to try everything but I’m already too high, can’t handle another sensation, no, not even dessert,” Gael Greene writes about a dinner atCascabel Taqueria. [Insatiable Critic]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the other critics, cascabel taqueria, purple yam, the breslin, tipsy parson

Upper East Side: The Wright launches dinner service in the Guggenheim on Thursday, from 5:30 to 11 p.m. We've got the new menu. [Grub Street]

West Village: A restaurant called Satay Junction is opening in Lassi’s former sliver of a space on Greenwich Avenue. [Grub Street]

Williamsburg: The Meat Hook hosts a Meatball Slapdown at Brooklyn Kitchen Labs Friday at 8 p.m. to benefit Roberta’s Brooklyn Grange Farms. Frankie's Spuntino, Bamonte's, and Roebling Tea Room are also competing. Tickets are $50 in advance; $75 at the door. [Fork in the Road/VV]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, brooklyn grange, east village, greenpoint, lower east side, meatball slapdown, midtown east, midtown west, oaxaca mexican grill, paulie gee's, pulino's pizza, williamsburg

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, cienfuegos, east village, havana central, midtown east, satay junction, upper west side, west village

The former Bar Q space is reborn as a fish shack called Choptank tonight. “Named for a river in Maryland where the owners and the culinary consultant, Kevin Patricio, grew up, the joint references the Chesapeake Bay region with crab chowder, Old Bay seasoning, and Baltimore’s Ostrowski’s Polish Sausage, served with soft pretzels and mustard,” Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld wrote in the magazine this week. The spot will open with a full bar Sunday through Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to midnight, and Thursday through Saturday until 1 a.m.; brunch and lunch will eventually follow. Check out the dinner and cocktail menus below, then preview the interior and some food in our slideshow.

Choptank Dinner Menu [PDF]
Choptank Drink Menu [PDF]

Choptank, 310 Bleecker St., nr. Grove St.; 212-675-2009

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, choptank, menus, slideshow, west village

While there is no substitute for wintering in Europe, you can taste the dream at two upcoming events. Savoy’s sixth annual cassoulet festival — a celebration of pork-and-bean stew from Southwestern France — returns January 19 through February 13. Score the house version a la carte at lunch and dinner, or hold out for brunch January 23 when chefs including Michael Anthony and Marco Canora will prepare seven variations to try, plus wine, for $65 a head. On January 30, Peter Hoffman teaches a $45 cassoulet cooking demo from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Call 212-219-8570 to reserve.

North of the city, Blue Hill at Stone Barns hosts Spanish chef Ángel León for a six-course seafood dinner and wine pairing on January 24 at 6:30 p.m. Described as a fisherman philosopher, León will wax lyrical on sustainability, of course, and his cooking experiments. “He'll start your meal with plankton — plankton bread, served cold. He tells you it's like biting into waves. And it is,” promises the invitation. If the experience sounds surreal, the $185 price promises to jar you back into the physical realm.

Dinner With Ángel León, Spain's Chef of the Sea [Blue Hill Farm]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: foodievents, angel leon, blue hill at stone barns, cassoulet, savoy

In the magazine this week, Adam Platt finds a taste of Rome at Maialino, even though the service screams Danny Meyer: “Once at your table, you will be swarmed by platoons of solicitous, well-drilled waiters dressed in cheerfully colored cotton button-down shirts and a standard-issue Danny Land bistro apron.” Chef Nick Anderer “has a ventriloquist’s knack for soaking up the spare, earthy vocabulary of casual Roman restaurant cooking and reproducing it, more or less exactly, on the plate,” Platt writes in his three-star evaluation. Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld preview openings, including coffee shop RBC NYC, Chesapeake Bay–themed fish shack Choptank, and Colicchio & Sons, where Tom Colicchio vows to cook.

Good news for weary wallets: the dollar slice is back! New York's dollar menu also includes things like dumplings, sushi, and falafel, says Robert Morgan. If you really want to save money, you could also brew your own beer, a practice that’s gaining popularity with the locavore movement and better supplies. Pair your beer with this week’s in season recipe for Finnish rutabaga pudding from Gastronomica editor Darra Goldstein. And finally, good news for fried-chicken lovers who can’t make it to Harlem: “Beginning January 22, New York’s premier frymaster Charles Gabriel totes his titanic skillets down from Harlem for Fried Chicken Fridays at Aretsky’s Patroon,” conclude Rob and Robin.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: in the magazine, maialino

Midtown East: Aquavit introduces special wild-game dishes to its menus from January 18 to 24. Find game hen in the café; venison and porcini tartar, as well as wild boar in the dining room; and buffalo sliders by the bar. [Grub Street]

Upper East Side: On weekends for $11.95, you can add unlimited mimosas or Bloody Marys to a brunch entrée at Southern Hospitality. [Grub Street]

Today is the first David Burke snow day when flutes of Veuve go for $15 at his restaurants. [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, aquavit, aunt butchie's cupcakes, chelsea, david burke, greenpoint, midtown east, southern hospitality, upper east side, van leeuwen

Rachael Ray’s Burger Bash at the South Beach Wine & Food Fest on February 25 only appears to be sold out. The powers that be wisely expanded the venue, and will release a second batch of $200 tickets this Sunday. Ditch brunch and position your mouse to refresh. [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: foodievents, burger bash, rachael ray, sobe, south beach wine and food festival

Michael Pollan may have written several books about sustainable food, but that doesn’t mean he’ll refuse your kind offer of overfished tuna. “Social values count as much as environmental values with me,” he explains. He faced one such situation at Nobu 57 this week while promoting his latest book, Food Rules, a virtual pamphlet of 64 eating tips based on culture, science, and crowd-sourcing from New York Times readers. “Rest assured that my next book will not be a haiku,” he says. Pollan’s forthcoming project will mark a return to long-form journalism, but the writer sees the brevity of his Rules as a way to better connect with a resistant audience. “This book was an effort really to reach people who don't necessarily want the full story, and they really just want to know what to do,” he said. With a New York Diet filled with veggies from Lupa and a nice helping of pulled pork, following Pollan’s lead sounds doable.

Saturday, January 2
I was in Berkeley. My wife and I had some whole-wheat toast with some cheese left over from a New Year’s party, a wonderful raw-milk cheese from Dancing Cow Vermont. I know that sounds like a brand of Velveeta, but there's an artisanal producer named Dancing Cow. I have tea in the morning; any one of the couple different black teas.

Lunch was more leftovers. We cooked for 100 people on New Year’s Eve and made lots of different dips and things like that. I had a very good day hunting for mushrooms on Wednesday and found what must have been 20 pounds of Chanterelles. I had made a kind of spread on toast for this party — it was Chanterelles with herbs and crème fraiche. So Saturday we had homemade Chanterelle raviolis. My wife had the idea. We had some wonton skins in the fridge and had read in a magazine that you could use them to make pasta. We made these little triangular ravioli with the mushroom spread in it and boiled them up; it took 20 minutes. They were great plain, there was plenty of flavor inside them — and plenty of butter inside them. We had truffle butter in the mix.

Saturday night my sister was in town taking her son to college at Stanford, and we went out to have sushi in Menlo Park at a place called Kaygetsu. I had sushi a la carte and a seaweed salad. Yellowtail is my favorite, but I had eel, mackerel, and I don't remember what else. I do make an effort to eat sustainable fish. I don't think I've got a perfect record, but I tend to avoid tuna — though if you're getting a mixed sushi you end up with it — and swordfish and the big predators that are endangered and full of mercury. I had sake to drink.

Sunday, January 3
I made a lunch for the flight on JetBlue: a sandwich with the leftover cheese from the party. There's a couple alternatives for us for bread in Berkeley. This particular bread came from a bakery called La Farine, but I also get bread from the farmers' market on Thursdays; Morell’s Bread makes a terrific big, heavy loaf of multigrain bread. On the flight, I had the sandwich, water, and a pack of plantain chips.

I had dinner with my parents, my mother actually. They live on the Upper East Side; that's where I stayed. I went to Square Meal. It's a place my parents like in their neighborhood and it's pretty simple, home cooking. I had an apple-and-endive salad and then sautéed scallops in an apple-vinegar beurre blanc, and we had a Pinot Noir. I don't have much of a sweet tooth; I don't often have dessert.

Monday, January 4
I stayed at my parents. I had twelve-grain toast with smoked salmon that my mother had gotten from Barney Greengrass. She always gets me smoked salmon when I'm in town. I never think to buy it myself, but she knows I like it so it's always in the fridge when I come stay with them. I had that with ricotta instead of cream cheese, and tea.

Lunch on Monday was on the run doing interviews, so I had a little prepackaged sushi and a bottle of water from a fish store on Lexington and 88th.

For dinner that night we went to a French restaurant called Demarchelier. This was with both my parents. I had mussels meunier for a first, and dover sole with lemon. Again, no dessert. We had a bottle of Château Greysac Bordeaux.

Tuesday, January 5
Breakfast I had the salmon again.

I had lunch with my editor at Lupa and we shared small-plate appetizers: Brussels sprouts, broccoli rabe, octopus, and sardines with faro. And we had an escarole salad and shared an order of charred tortellini.

Dinner, I had a book event downtown at Barnes & Noble and afterward we went to Bubby's. I had a salad and pulled barbeque pork butt. The reason I had that was I had met the owner earlier in the day and I’d learned a lot about how he sources his meat; I know he's getting really good pork from small farms who are growing it sustainably, Snowdance Farm. Normally I don't have meat in restaurants unless I know that kind of information. The pork was excellent. It had been very slow cooked, eighteen hours or something, over applewood. We had a Cabernet. I don't eat like this at home. And normally if it's nice, I'll run in the park when I'm here. But forget it, it was like twenty degrees! I was bundled up and in cars the whole time.

Wednesday, January 6
The waiter at Bubby’s had given us a couple muffins to try so I had a blueberry muffin for breakfast with tea.

For lunch I was at Nobu 57. I was taking out a man named Steve Gold who is the president of Murray's Chicken. I had been asked by the American Humane Association if I would contribute a lunch as part of their fund-raising auction, and the deal was whoever bid the most I would take out to lunch somewhere in New York. Since he was in the chicken business, I thought we'd go to a pretty fishy place. We shared a couple things: yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño, salad with seared tuna — there's a violation of my tuna rule right there — we had a lobster and avocado salad, and black cod and miso. We actually let the waiter direct us. We wanted two cold and two hot, and he recommended those, and the lobster was a gift from the chef. It's funny, avocados are in season where I live, so it didn't seem weird to see them on the plate. But you know this was a gift from the chef and one of my principles is — in addition to eating sustainably — to be a good guest and not reject what is served to you. Social values count as much as environmental values with me.

We talked about the challenges of selling antibiotic free, sustainable chicken. He was making the point that I had educated consumers to be very demanding and they were asking him a lot of hard questions, in a very polite way. It's a very competitive business. Organic feed costs twice as much as conventional feed, and it isn't really clear that in a recession the consumer is willing to pay that much of a premium, even though they'll tell you in a focus group that's what they want. They’re making an effort in the right direction, and it’s a unionized operation which is increasingly rare in meat production and they require all their farmers to pay minimum wage, but I can't say I know enough about everything they're doing. I don't make endorsements of brands. If I lived in New York I'd probably not eat very much chicken and what I did eat I'd probably get at the farmers' market. If I recall, there was a terrific producer at the Union Square Farmers' Market, Violet Hill; I remember having one of his chickens once and being kind of blown away. You don't get all this right every time you eat. It would be incredibly trying to do that and I do think the perfect is the enemy of the good. You get three votes a day when you're eating, and several votes within each meal, and you get as many right as you can, and that makes a real difference. I think if you set the bar too high for yourself or for other people you discourage people from doing anything. So I'm all in favor of either companies or individuals taking baby steps.

When I get home, I’m looking forward to some home-cooked meals. I've been eating out a lot and at home we cook most nights. I don't know what’s in the refrigerator, but I have a lot of lamb in the freezer. Someone gave me a half a lamb, so I think we're going to be eating a lot of lamb the next few weeks. I'll go to the farmers' market tomorrow. I don't want to lord this over New Yorkers, but my farmers' market is in full flower in the middle of January. I'm very lucky that way.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the new york diet, barney greengrass, berkeley, blue hill, bubby's, centolire, lupa, michael pollan, nobu 57, savoy, square meal

Upper West Side: Henry’s will start a “Sing for Your Supper” Monday-night series on February 1 at 6 p.m. Don’t get excited for karaoke: While there will be piano and emerging singers featured, diners can purchase a three-course spaghetti-and-meatball meal for $19. [Grub Street]

Williamsburg: Meat Hook butcher Ben Turley teaches a $75 chorizo-making class at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Brooklyn Kitchen Labs. [Brooklyn Kitchen]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, brooklyn kitchen labs, greenwich village, happy ending, lower east side, midtown west, osso buco, upper west side, williamsburg

Plan to surrender your resolutions in about three weeks, when 2010's tasting season begins. On January 25, Metromix hosts Hot Plates Live at the Highline Ballroom. At $15, it’s a cheap way to try downtown restaurants, including Michael Bao Huynh’s Bia Garden, the Norry at Kampuchea, and Stuffed Artisan Cannolis. The Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival stops in New York on January 30 at La Venue, 608 West 28th Street. Space is left in the $75 session from 5 to 9 p.m., with over 100 beer and bourbon purveyors, demos and bites from Southern pitmasters, and a live Bluegrass band. The Village Voice holds out until March 22 at the 69th Armory for its annual Choice Eats event, but tickets go on sale January 20. Spots went for $35 last year and you can expect 50 restaurants from across the boroughs like Porchetta and Zuzu Ramen.

Hot Plates Live [Metromix]
Beer and Bourbon Festival [Official Site]
Choice Eats 2010 [VV]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: foodievents, beer and bourbon festival, choice eats, hot plates

Williamsburg: Robert Sietsema reviews White Castle’s new pulled-pork sliders: “The taste of the meat is sickeningly sweet, and one wishes that the meat had simply been put on the sandwich with no sauce.” [Fork in the Road/VV]

Upper East Side: Cascabel launches brunch the weekend of January 16, with a tostada bar, tamales, and Mexican-style eggs. [Grub Street]

West Village: The Maryland natives who own Dell’anima and L’Artusi are opening a Chesapeake Bay–themed fish shack called Choptank at 308–310 Bleecker Street on Monday. [UrbanDaddy]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, astoria, brooklyn heights, cascabel, choptank, fort greene, mundo, upper east side, west village, white castle, williamsburg

Danny Meyer piddled away nearly a decade before commencing the Shacking of America, but Steve Hanson is wasting no time with Bill’s Bar and Burger. B.R. Guest will plant a 300-seat flagship in the former Tuscan Square below Rockefeller Center in just a few months, Eater reports. With Hanson putting dibs on midtown east, it’s Meyer's move.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, bills bar and burger, rockefeller center, steven hansen

“In our rational exuberance we’ve ordered much too much of Chef Bloomfield’s too-muchness” at the Breslin, admits Gael Green. “Our crew sits quietly as if gelled in fat.” [Insatiable Critic]
Related: Ken Friedman Is Ready to Say ‘Yes’ to You at the Breslin

Sparks “has always been thought of as the finest purveyor of steak in Manhattan, and until now I’ve never had cause to disagree,” begins Alan Richman, ominously. “I have never in my life come upon another restaurant that makes customers feel so wrong if they insist on their food cooked properly. The kitchen correctly prepared two of five strip steaks ordered by the people at my table.” [Forked and Corked/GQ]

“In an era of absurdly exclusive restaurants (the Waverly Inn, Momofuku Ko), Le Caprice joins the gang as perhaps the most overhyped import to set up shop in New York,” says Jay Cheshes. “The bland, innocuous grub — country-club cooking with an Anglo spin — seems designed mostly not to offend.” [TONY]
Related: A Closer Look at Le Caprice, Now Serving Plebeians in the Pierre Hotel

Joseph Leonard “takes the pose of a shabby-chic apartment,” says Andrea Thompson. “The dependability of the menu seems to have drawn a number of regulars … attracting equal measures of Wall Street foodies, sleek young women … and the self-consciously dishevelled.” [NYer]
Related: First Look at Joseph Leonard, Bar and (American) Brasserie

“I ended up visiting Best Fuzhou three times. Fortunately for me, the food was spectacular,” says Robert Sietsema of this Chinatown spot. “The Fujianese adore soups, and our hands-down favorite was ‘water melon with fish stomach.’” [VV]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the other critics, best fouzhou, casa lever, joseph leonard, sparks, the breslin

Nolita: The Jimmy Bradley restaurant in the Nolitan Hotel on Kenmare and Elizabeth is progressing. [Eater NY]

Upper East Side: Red Skins quarterback turned broadcaster Joe Theismann is hosting the VIP opening party on January 14 for the new Johnny Rockets sports lounge at 1134 First Avenue. [Grub Street]

On “snow days” through March, David Burke restaurants will sell flutes of Veuve for $15. Keep an eye out for a flurry. [Grub Street]

West Village: Gotham introduces “Mondays Uncorked” starting January 18 when the restaurant will serve $75 regional dinners and you can BYO bottle to pair with it for no corkage. [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: david burke, ditmas park, east village, gotham bar and grill, jimmy bradley, marfa, mimi's hummus, nolita, pdt, upper east side, west village

Murray Hill: A Japanese businessman — who “studied ramen-making for a decade, including a ramen boot camp held by a Japanese noodle company on Shikoku Island in Japan” — now moonlights as a ramen chef at Moco Global Dining from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. nightly. [Fork in the Road/VV]

Williamsburg: Dressler now offers 20 percent off food for the first Monday of each month, in addition to its BYOB policy every Monday night. [Eater NY]

West Village: When it opens at 10 Morton Street mid-month, a new tea shop called Bosie will feature pastries (including macarons) from a Pierre Hermé and Bouley Bakery alum; savory dishes by Xie Xie’s Angelo Sosa; and over 100 teas picked by an American tea master. [Feed/TONY]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, bosie, bread and butter restaurant, brooklyn heights, dressler, midtown west, moco global dining, murray hill, ramen, urban lobster, west village, williamsburg

After a little more than a decade in Brighton Beach, Café Glechik will bring Ukrainian dumplings and some of New York's favorite soup to Sheepshead Bay at the end of the month. The second location will serve the same menu, but will feature two floors of seating to better accommodate large groups and a liquor license to keep them entertained. The owner made special trips to the Ukraine for the décor, so expect a display of Eastern European kitsch that outdoes the diminutive original.

Café Glechik, 1655 Sheepshead Bay Rd., nr. Voories Ave.; No phone yet

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, brighton beach, cafe glechik, sheepshead bay

Except for Rachael Ray’s naughty FHM shoot in 2003, TV chefs seem frozen in grinning middle age. That was before Food Network Humor compiled a delightful photo spread exposing the bunch during their un-made-up youth. As a boy, Guy Fieri recalled Kurt Russell’s eldest in Overboard; a certain Brit bombshell got herself some new teeth; and did Batali swallow an Archie comic? Enjoy.

Photos Of Famous Chefs When They Were Young [Food Network Humor via Eater]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: food tv, bobby flay, giada dilaurentis, guy fieri, mario batali, nigella lawson, paula deen, rachael ray

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, hudson terrace, midtown east, midtown west, padma lakshmi, upper east side, vermilion

“Dude, Red Bull is so 2008. Why speed up, when you can slow down?” This is how we imagine scenes at 7-Elevens across Southern California that are selling the bulk of a new anti-energy drink called Mary Jane’s Relaxing Soda. Maybe our vision of SoCal is very 1990, but the region accounts for 70 percent of sales for the product created by an out-of-work supplement-developer in Denver last year, according to the L.A. Times. While there is no marijuana in the beverage, the company’s website claims that the South Pacific root Kava and other herbs in it will calm you without the side effects of traditional mood enhancers: “Drowsiness, 'beer goggles', tough-guy syndrome, or hangovers … laziness, 2 am pizza runs, black light posters, or handcuffs.” Still, we don’t recommend you mix the stuff with the latest upper, coca-leaf liquor.

Kava 'anti-energy' drink takes root in the Southland [L.A. Times via Fork in the Road/VV]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: drink up, drinks, mary jane soda

If you ate lunch at Broadway Community Soup Kitchen in Manhattan today, did you enjoy the caviar on your blini? Thanks to an anonymous donation of an $1,100 tin of Petrossian Malossol, the regular seven-course lunch got a little richer. [NYDN]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: feed the poor, soup kitchen

It’s okay to drink alone for educational purposes. The International Wine Center in midtown now features an online wine-certification through the Wine & Spirit Education Trust based in London. The five-week course covers regions, production, and labeling; the first session begins January 15 and concludes with an exam at the IWC on February 25. In addition to paying $428 for the course, you must bring your own wine for the chat-room tastings. If abbreviated free lessons will do, legendary Brit Master of Wine Jancis Robinson discusses wine regions in three-minute videos on the WSET website. So, slap a shot of misty vineyards on your desktop. On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a drunk.

Intermediate Certificate Online [IWC]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: oenofile, international wine center, wine classes

“Not only do I like the food at Maialino’s bar more than I like the food at any of [Danny Meyer’s] other bars, it might be my favorite bar food in New York,” declares Alan Richman. [Forked & Corked/GQ]
Related: A Closer Look at Maialino, One Day In

Sushi Uo “doesn’t provide the almost intimidating flawlessness of the best midtown sushi temples, but its food’s quality is consistently higher than that of almost any comparably priced establishment and far removed from that of ordinary neighborhood joints,” says Leo Carey. [NYer]
Related: First Look at Uo and Its Secret Sushi

“I feel my time machine has landed in the innocent Fifties. I imagine I see the ghosts of ladies who lunch in hats and men in seersucker suits,” Gael Greene writes about a visit to Yura Catering’s Square Meal restaurant on the Upper East Side. “Since Square Meal’s time warp does not exclude three times a week excursions to the Union Square market, of course the menu changes.” [Insatiable Critic]

“With a name meaning ‘golden’ in Bengali, Sonali Cuisine is the latest small dining establishment to arrive on the Sunnyside stretch of Queens Boulevard, which has gradually developed into one of the city's best food neighborhoods,” declares Robert Sietsema. [VV]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the other critics, maialino, purple yam, sonali cuisine, square meal, sushi uo

“I refuse to think about NYE until after Christmas — the denial tactic,” a friend told Grub Street last night. For those skirting plans, we’ve compiled a list of dining options to fit a range of budgets and alcohol preferences. Even this late, there are still open bars, tasting menus for less than $100, and à la carte options for all. So don’t hold out for an invite when you too could be walking the streets late at night, watching dark cabs pass by you in droves. What are your plans? Let us know in the comments.

DOWNTOWN
10 Downing
6 p.m.–8 p.m.: Three courses, $75
9 p.m.–11 p.m.: Three courses and Champagne toast, $95

Bar Blanc Bistro
6:30 or 7:30 p.m.: Three courses, $85
9:30 or 10:30 p.m.: Four courses and a Champagne toast, $115

Blaue Gans
9:30 p.m.–3 a.m.: À la carte plus D.J.

Bondi Road
9 p.m.–midnight: Buffet and three hours of open bar, $25
Midnight–2 a.m.: Two-hour open bar, $20

Cabrito
5 p.m.–8:45 p.m.: Three courses, $25 with purchase of $60 open bar
10 p.m.–2 a.m.: Open bar, $60 ($80 premium)

Capsouto Frères
6 p.m.–7 p.m.: Three courses, $65
8:45 p.m. or 9.45 p.m.: Three courses with D.J. and dancing, $95

Commerce
5:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m.: À la carte
9:30 p.m.–midnight: Four courses with midnight Champagne toast, $130

Duane Park
6 p.m.–8 p.m.: À la carte
9 p.m.–midnight: Three courses, the Brian Newman Jazz Trio, plus burlesque dancers, $75

Fatty Crab
5 p.m.–2 a.m.: À la carte dishes previewed from Fatty Cue: clams with coriander, bacon, and Dragon Bakery Pullman bread, smoked-crab soup, and the fatty smoked black-pepper brisket with sweet cilantro sauce, plus a D.J. (reservations accepted)

Giano
5:30 p.m.: Three courses, $59
9 p.m.: Three courses and midnight Prosecco toast, $79

Emporio
5 p.m.–2 a.m.: Four courses, $85

EN Japanese Brasserie
5:30 p.m.–1 a.m.: À la carte; special eight-course kaiseki, $95 ($150 with sake pairing), includes annual mochi-tsuki event, "a Japanese tradition in which guests pound fresh mochi with a giant hammer and then break open a giant cask of sake at midnight"

Travertine
6 p.m.–8:30 p.m.: À la carte
10 p.m.–2 a.m.: Garden of Eden NYE Party includes passed appetizers, open bar, and a D.J., $175

UPTOWN
Aureole
5 p.m.–6:30 p.m.: Three courses, $95
8:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m.: Five courses with wine pairing, Champagne toast, and D.J., $500

Bar Boulud
4 p.m.–7 p.m.: À la carte or three courses, $65
8:45 p.m.–10 p.m.: Four courses, Champagne toast, and live music, $175

Boqueria
7 p.m.: Nine courses with a Cava toast, $65
9 p.m.: Nine courses with a Cava toast, plus unlimited sangria, red and white wine, $95

Fatty Crab UWS
5 p.m.–2 a.m.: À la carte dishes previewed from Fatty Cue, plus broadcast of the ball drop

Fishtail
5 p.m.–10:30 p.m.: À la carte or four courses, $65 (Additional wine pairing for $40 or $90)

Havana Central
5 p.m.–8 p.m.: Five courses and premium open bar, $75 (Children under 12, $15)
10 p.m.–2 a.m.: Latin hors d’oeuvres, open bar, and monitors showing the Times Square countdown, $50
Midnight–2 a.m.: Cash bar and $10 cover

SD26
5:30 p.m.: Three courses, $55
9:30 p.m.: Five courses with a Champagne toast, D.J., and dancing, $165

BROOKLYN
Bark Hot Dogs
6 p.m.–9 p.m.: "Pre-Game Party": all-you-can-eat hot dogs, french fries, and onion rings, plus a half bottle of Gruet Blanc de Noir sparkling wine, $30 per person

Prime Meats
5 p.m.–2 a.m.: Four courses, $100

The Vanderbilt
5 p.m.–11 p.m: Four courses, $68 (wine pairing $40); bar open to walk-ins

Related: The Bashes-to-Brunches New Year’s Guide

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: user's guide, new year's eve

Park Slope: Former Murray’s cheese-guru Chris Munsey will teach a $35 class on beers and smoked foods at Beer Table on Monday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Buy tickets here. [Grub Street]
Red Hook: Anselmo’s Pizza closed and is looking for a new location. A sign blames the landlord: “THE PEOPLE OF RED HOOK WARNED US OF HER AND HER SISTER WHEN I WAS BUILDING MY PLACE BUT I TRUSTED THESE TWO WOMEN.” [Slice/Serious Eats]
Tribeca: Michael Pollan will read from his latest book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, at Barnes & Noble on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Pollan solicited eating tips for the book this past spring. [Tribeca Citizen]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: anselmo's, east village, great jones café, long island city, michael pollan tribeca, red hook, studio square, williamsburg

When Willamsburg’s butcher-idol Tom Mylan wed Brooklyn Based–editor Annaliese Griffin, we called it the most hipstavore reception ever, and now B-Based wants to point you and your mate toward locally sourced bliss. The online publication hosts its first annual "Wedding Crashers" fair at the Bell House on January 9 from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There will be upwards of 30 vendors (with samples!), including Brooklyn Brewery, One Girl Cookies, and Added Value Farm, which will host events on Governor’s Island starting this spring in collaboration with iCi. Crashers is split into two $20 sessions, with different speakers and caterers appearing in each. During the 2-to-5-p.m. slot, Frankies Spuntino will debut new catering options from Prime Meats available at the start of 2010. All that’s left is to find a partner who loves local products as much as you.

Wedding Crashers [Brooklyn Based]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: foodievents, annaliese griffin, bell house, brooklyn catering, tom mylan, weddings

Tumbador — the Brooklyn-based winner of our chocolate tasting — makes artisanal Ring Dings called Lil’ Devils. Buy them at Joe in Grand Central and Murray’s Cheese, or in packs of five for $12 online. [Blondie and Brownie]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: sweet news, chocolate, joe, tumbador

Coming in January, Top Chef victor Michael Voltaggio will collaborate with runner-up bro Bryan for a series of online cooking shows that captures the marketing potential of family rivalry. The videos will be posted on the Voltaggio Brothers website, and Bryan’s first post reveals that we can expect weekly content starting next week. Check out the promotional clip below.

Earlier: Interview: Top Chef Winner Michael Voltaggio Reveals His Regrets and Bedroom Antics

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: video feed, bryan voltaggio, michael voltaggio, top chef, video

Upper West Side: The Broadway location of Mamá Mexico filed for bankruptcy protection on Christmas Eve, and cited the recession as the cause of decreased sales. [Crain’s]

South Street Seaport: December 24 proved a popular date for filing for bankruptcy. While closed for a year, Father’s Fish Co. could not secure a buyer for its stall at the Fulton Fish Market and stacked up more than 50 creditors, and liabilities topping $2.2 million. [Crain's]

West Village: Gordon Ramsay alum and former private-dining chef Jesse Schenker opens Recette next month. [Feed/TONY]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, bankruptcy, fort greene, kitchen club, nolita, park slope, recette, south street seaport, upper west side

In a slideshow of his top eight pizzas of the year, Adam Kuban avoids controversy by dropping the word “best” from the title and refusing to rank his picks (boring!). You see, these are simply domestic pies that “continue to haunt my dreams,” and they are merely listed by chronological order of consumption, he explains.

He leaves off Di Fara, but other legendary pizzerias do make the cut: Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix for their Rosa (combining red onion, Parmigianno Reggiano, rosemary, and local pistachios), and Sally’s Apizza in New Haven for the plain tomato-and-Parmesan pie. In New York, Kuban fell for Motorino’s Brussels sprouts–and-pancetta pie and Pizzeria Veloce’s sausage squares. In Cali, try the sausage-and-onion pie at Emilia's Pizzeria in Berkeley, California. For pizzerias aspiring to be included next year, Kuban shows a weakness for meat-topped varieties, especially those with sausage.

The Year That Was: Adam's Top 8 Pizzas of 2009

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: lists, emilia's pizzeria, motorino, pizza pizza, veloce pizzeria

We’ve been waiting for Village Tart for two fall-preview issues, but consulting chef Pichet Ong tells Fork in the Road that it will open in mid-January. Look online for the restaurant's menu, which promises sweet tarts like raspberry-ginger or salted caramel with a selection of fruit or sundae-style toppings, and savory ones including pear with brie and bacon-leek.

Lesly Bernard's artisanal-bacon bar at Permanent Brunch banked on the pork trend, and he'll attempt to woo cult coffee consumers here with drip offerings from five buzzy roasters: Intelligentsia, Blue Bottle, Terroir, Dallis, and Ritual Roasters, all available for “gourmet coffee pairings.” Will diners want to drink coffee during a meal instead of after? We’ll find out soon — the menus (below) and Fork in the Road's photo of a near-finished space mean Village Tart may actually open, for real.

Village Tart Food Menu [PDF]
Village Tart Beverage Menu [PDF]

Village Tart, 86 Kenmare St., at Mulberry St.; 212-226-4980

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, pichet ong, village tart

In the magazine this week, Adam Platt writes the 2010 Where to Eat guide: “Our annual compilation of everything that’s good to imbibe, gobble, and otherwise devour in the booming, buzzing, constantly evolving restaurant galaxy that is New York City.” Discover his favorite spots in categories like Hotel Chic, the Seafood Renaissance, and Bull-Market Italian. Platt anoints the year’s Best New Chefs and Restaurants, as well as Top Cocktails and Stellar Desserts. Our critic also shares his blacklist of Tiresome Trends. Finally, Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld slip in the opening of Torrisi Italian Specialties, where “both the concise menu and the grocery-style shelves will pay tribute to the American products co-owners (and Café Boulud alums) Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone grew up on.”

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: in the magazine, openings, torrisi italian specialities, where to eat

Midtown East: The bakery chain Financier Patisserie opened in the old Oren's space in Grand Central today. [Blondie and Brownie]

Midtown West: Le Bernardin will open Christmas Eve and Day, when the restaurant will serve a nine-course Holiday Truffle menu in their Les Salons dining rooms for $220, in addition to the classic tastings. [Grub Street]

Burger Joint raised its prices, so a burger now costs $7.50, $8 with cheese. [Midtown Lunch]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, chinatown, east village, le bernardin, midtown east, midtown west, plump dumpling, table 8

Schnitzel & Things faced a set of slashed tires this morning, and will be sidelined until at least Thursday. Their T-Mobile commercials skipped over the brutal side of small business. [Midtown Lunch]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: truckin', food trucks, midtown, schnitzel & things

Chocolate might be the quintessential food gift. Depending on the packaging and quality, it can channel romance, please a party host, or disappoint (Whitman's Sampler, anyone?). To ensure we're sending the right message, we enlisted a few professionals: Le Bernardin pastry chef Michael Laiskonis; master sommelier and B.R. Guest director of wine and spirits Laura Maniec; and restaurant-logo (Sfoglia, Mermaid Inn) and food-packaging designer Louise Fili. We examined and sampled gift boxes priced at less than $50 from: Bespoke, Kee's, Nunu, Mast Brothers, Max Brenner, Fine & Raw, Jacques Torres, Tumbador, Liddabit, François Chocolate Bar, Vosges, and Chocolate Bar. The experts rated the chocolates on a ten-point system for taste, five for presentation, and five based on whether the selection makes a good gift. Find out what to buy for every candy lover this year, from a hippie sibling to an exec.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: user's guide, chocolate, food tour, holiday gifts, laura maniec, louise fili, michael laiskonis

We drooled over meals served at 25 long-gone restaurants that William Grimes profiles in Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York, so it’s not surprising that the idea for the book sprang from descriptions on old menus. In 2002, the former Times restaurant critic curated an exhibition called New York Eats Out based on a collection at the New York Public Library, then culled primary sources for five more years to produce the narrative he deems ripe for a Ken Burns documentary. While Grimes devours restaurants of the past, in the present he often cooks at home in Astoria, a reoccurring scene in this week's New York Diet.

Saturday, December 12
I'm a tea drinker, not a coffee drinker. I use Harney & Sons. My wife puts together what we call a "cuvée." We buy a bunch of black teas from them in bulk and blend our own version of a version of an English Breakfast Tea; we make a couple of pounds worth in a big tin. Then I'm kind of a maniac about coffee cakes. I make them myself because mine are better than what you buy. On Saturday, I happened to be toward the end of this date-nut coffee cake that I made. I have a rotation of about five of them.

For lunch, I was pressed for time. I had nothing more than a ham sandwich. And I ate these awful Terra Chips. They're like potato chips made from taro, parsnip, sweet potato, and yucca. They're really good but they came out with this new line called Mediterranean with oil, garlic, and oregano and it just does not work. You can just tell from saying it, but I gave it a try and found it wanting.

I was running errands and I bought a couple Christmas stollens from Schaller & Weber. Then I drove past this Butterfield place where Payard has started selling some of his stuff, so I was curious about that. I'd never been in this place. And I wound up buying this raspberry-peach crumb pie. I had a slice when I got home.

For dinner, I went and got a medium pizza with mushroom and sausage from this place called Sac's on Broadway in Astoria. They do coal-oven pizza. I wouldn't call it a destination pizza place, but it's convenient to me and it's better than decent quality. To drink, Dr. Pepper.

Sunday, December 13
Sunday. This is like a pre-Christmas breakfast in a way: grapefruit juice, Canadian bacon, stollen that I had bought the day before, with butter, and tea.

Lunch. I had made this big project earlier in the week, where I wanted to make the full-fledged Vietnamese sandwich, bánh mì sandwiches, which involves making pâté, your own pickles out of daikon radish and carrot, and this marinated roasted pork dish involving five spice, hoisin, and garlic. I had this pâté on hand. (You end up with this three-pound loaf of pâté, which is ridiculous; there's only two of us.) So we had pâté sandwiches with pickle and mustard, and I got rid of those other chips and we just had some sweet-potato chips from the North Fork of Long Island.

For dinner on Sunday, we had a roast chicken and something needed to be done with it or else it was going to be thrown out. So I minced the chicken and made a pasta sauce using a bunch of leftover kalamata olives. I sautéed some onion and garlic and added crushed tomatoes, chicken, and olives and made a bunch of pasta sauce with fettuccine. And then came the brilliant part. We had a bunch of monster Tuscan kale growing in the yard this past summer. You're supposed to wait until the first frost to harvest it, and we've been waiting and waiting and waiting for a frost. I don't know why you have to wait for the frost, but my wife kept telling me that. And they're giant. I mean these things are about three-feet tall. I went out and harvested, and I chopped the kale and started sautéing it with olive oil, and I put salt on it. It was just great. A bunch of the leaves were much thinner than others and I thought I was burning them almost, but those were the best parts. It's almost like it came out like an incredibly delicate potato chip but made out of kale. It was definitely the best part of the meal.

Crunch, you know, is one of those universal human irresistible things. In fact, if it is a universal I'd love to know why. Is it some ancestral memory? Crunching the bones of your enemy? I don't know why crunch would be pleasurable. After that, I had these cheeses I was working through that I had gotten at Costco. Costco has gotten kind of inspired on cheese lately. They used to have very standard-issue Cheddar and Swiss cheeses in unappetizing blocks, but they've been getting French cheeses. They had this Chaource cheese — it's kind of a runny, mildly pungent cheese — and they had a Stilton that was not half bad. So I had those with some whole-wheat crackers from Carr's.

I almost always have dessert. This is a legacy from being a food critic. I became a complete addict to dessert. I think I might have had yet another slice of that pie.

Monday, December 14
In the morning I created a new coffee cake: orange cranberry nut. It takes twenty minutes to throw it together and then an hour to bake it. I have these little books that have been hanging around forever. One of the best coffee cakes is this Marion Cunningham recipe for dried-fruit coffee cake with layers of a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon and a layer of crushed walnuts. That's reliable. And excellent.

Lunch was at the cafeteria at the Times, which has an international station; they do a different country every day. I always gravitate to see what's going on there. And they did a kind of unusual one on Monday: Greek, which they don't normally do. So I got sliced lamb with Tzatziki sauce, orzo pasta, and braised escarole. I think I had a Coke with that. The best things they do is Latin Caribbean. They'll do Dominican one day, Puerto Rican one day. Italian has got a little wary. Sometimes they'll do Korean, or American.

Dinner. I went to this local diner called Sanford on Broadway in Astoria. It's this diner that suddenly got aspirations and it's worked for them; they're constantly packed. They do one thing really brilliantly: the bistro burger. It's a high-falutin bacon cheeseburger because of its applewood smoked bacon; it's on a kaiser roll; it's enormous. They get this beautiful charcoal-broiled flavor to the beef and they understand what medium rare is, so it really is a tremendous hamburger. Dr. Pepper once again.

Then a former student of my wife's — my wife teaches painting and drawing at Pratt — wanted to come over and do Christmas baking, so we ate her coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate, pecan tarts, and double chocolate chip cookies. There's a real synergy between visual art and baking. I've found over the years that lots of painters are also energetic cooks and have ambitious projects they want to do. We had a tasting and argued over the merits. There was serious debate. I went for the pecan tart, because the crust on it was very well done. It was the kind of crust that kind of falls apart in your mouth.

Tuesday, December 15
For breakfast, that cranberry-orange-nut coffee cake.

Lunch, back to the cafeteria. It was French Day. Now normally I wouldn't test them on French food, but they had sliced flank steak in green peppercorn sauce and they happen to be good on not overcooking sliced beef. So in this case, it was actually pretty good. It came with gratin potatoes and sautéed vegetables. They have a little package deal where you get the main course, two sides, and a beverage for $8.25. If I had discipline I would make my own food and bring it. When you multiply $8.25 times every day that you're there it adds up. But I get so hungry that I end up gravitating toward there anyway.

Dinner, we had the Vietnamese sandwiches on toasted sourdough bread. You should do it on a crusty french loaf, but we didn't have that. I started cooking in penniless student days when there wasn't much eating out, and then maybe once a week you'd splurge and go out to eat someplace. As I got into journalism as a freelancer, I started to write a lot of travel articles and travel articles seem to end up always being about food. It's the only real legitimate reason for traveling, in a way.

Wednesday, December 16
I had slices of the stollen, orange juice, and tea.

For lunch I met somebody at Bar Breton and I had a galette with braised lamb shoulder and tiny glazed turnips and mushroom followed by a really good bread pudding with huckleberries and a scoop of passion-fruit ice cream on top.

Oddly enough, this is the restaurant that's the last restaurant in my book as a matter of fact. I had ended the book with Fleur de Sel, which was my favorite romantic, intimate restaurant that was not pretentious, just really good. But no sooner that I had finished the book and went into galleys, he had closed that restaurant and focused all his attention on Bar Breton. The reason I wrote about Fleur de Sel is because I was trying to get at what makes New York a great restaurant city. People mistakenly, when they assess the restaurant culture wherever they go, they tend to focus on these three-to-four star restaurants and to me that's not really the sign of vitality and underlying health. It's kind of the one-star restaurants — how many of those do you have and what level are they? And Fleur de Sel always struck me as the kind of restaurant that would be like the best restaurant in town automatically in a medium-size city. And in New York it passes. There's tons of restaurants you can go to that can offer a similar level of quality. You just can't say that about any other city in the United States.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the new york diet, appetite city, william grimes

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, feast of the seven fishes, financial district, greenpoint, greenwich grill, jackson heights, table wine shop, tribeca, wall street burger

With five Vietnamese concepts running and a taquería on the way, Michael "Bao" Huynh shows no fear that his empire’s center cannot hold. On Monday, he steps out of his Southeast Asian domain and opens Mikey’s Burger. Hubris aside, Huynh boasts a history with the American classic, which he garnered slinging burgers after school in upstate New York. The menu sticks to four griddled specimens under $6, served on soft potato buns in a miniaturized diner setting. A silver counter with black stools forms the bulk of the space, but he takes liberties with the nostalgic food. The BLT features Chinese bacon and sausage, and a lamb patty comes “satay-style.” Shakes like avocado, black sesame, and Vietnamese coffee sound amazing, but there will be chili dogs and egg creams made with Fox’s U Bet chocolate syrup for traditionalists. Preview the menu and space below. Or, stop by tomorrow at midnight, when the restaurant will give away free burgers until they run out.

Mikey’s Burger Menu [PDF]

Mikey’s Burger, 134 Ludlow St., nr. Rivington St.; 212-979-9211

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, lower east side, michael huynh, mikey's burger

Permanent Brunch’s breakfast-for-dinner premise seemed like a great idea (diners do it!), but the restaurant has faced slow evening traffic since opening. The answer, of course, is to reboot with … burgers! Permanent Brunch & Burger debuts tonight with a more extensive, and traditional, dinner menu. Expect six patty variations, plus the omelettes and French toast already served all day. Tomorrow, in promotion of the new offerings, the restaurant will give you a free burger with a cocktail purchase between 5 and 7 p.m. The same happy hour runs again this Monday through Wednesday. Preview the menu below.

Permanent Brunch & Burger Menu [PDF]

Earlier: Permanent Brunch Bounces Back From Tax Snafu With ... Burgers!

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, east village, menus, permanent brunch and burger

No one mentioned cupcakes in their 2010 trends, but they’re not going away. At Red Velvet Lounge, which opened last Friday, “the idea is simple: Take mini booze-soaked cupcakes from Baked by Melissa, and pair them with drinks from mixologist Charlotte Voisey,” says the Feed. Playing to the female delusion that tiny cakes have negligible calories, and can be consumed with wild abandon; each cocktail comes with four minis. Check out the menu, with drink recipes, below. Apple martinis are back, too.

Red Velvet Lounge Menu [PDF]

Red Velvet Lounge, 174 Rivington St., nr. Clinton St., 212-673-5020

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, lower east side, menus, red velvet lounge

Midtown East: Lebanese fast-food spot Naya Express opens soon on Third Avenue near 44th Street, next to the new Five Guys. [Midtown Lunch]
Park Slope: Bussaco now serves lunch Wednesdays through Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Expect a big salad (greens, shredded veggies, feta, and almonds) and a lamb burger. [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, bussaco, cobble hill, east village, led zeppole, lower east side, park slope, teany, union market

Continuing the barrage of 2010 trends pieces, Bon Appétit’s January issue embraces fads that will stay popular in the next year: meatballs, updated Austrian food, and nostalgic desserts. The editors make the requisite nod to the sustainability craze by pushing vegetarian dinner parties.

Related: Grub Street's complete coverage of food trends.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: trends, bon appetit, lists

"While Casa Lever is anything but cutting-edge, it makes a strong case for what it is: a higher-end, well-oiled Fiat of a restaurant amid racier Ferraris and Lamborghinis," writes Steve Cuozzo. [NYP]
Related: A First Look at Casa Lever, Coming to Lever House Next Week

"I admit I’m mesmerized by the audacity of Michael Huynh’s feverish empire-building," says Gael Greene, who falls for OBAO. "I’m quickly seduced by the powerful tangle of flavors and textures in the spicy beef salad." [Insatiable Critic]
Related: A First Look at Michael Huynh’s OBAO and Its Food

Alan Richman takes Best Cellar co-founder Josh Wesson to help review two wine spots where Richman admits bias. L’Ecole (Richman is dean of food writing) features a nice list, but complicates its cheese program by choosing accompaniments for you. "Said Wesson of Ardesia’s list, 'There’s something for everybody. It’s small with a big range of styles and tastes,’" writes Richman. And they both liked the food. [Forked & Corked/GQ]
Related: What to Eat at Le Bernardin Spinoff Ardesia, Now Serving Pork-Belly Bites

"That counter is the best place to experience the heart of The Vanderbilt's menu: charcuterie," says Robert Sietsema. [VV]
Related: First Look at the Vanderbilt

On weekends at Permanent Brunch, "the food may or may not be worth the wait," says Shauna Lyon, who unfortunately finds it less successful on evenings, when it's easier to get in. [NYer]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the other critics, ardesia, ed's chowder house, l'ecole, obao, the vanderbilt

Midtown West: Patsy's will serve the traditional Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes December 17 through 24. The four-course menu features Linguini Frutti Di Mare, stuffed calamari, and struffoli (seen in our holiday dessert guide) for $59.95. [Grub Street]

Nolita: The first 300 people in line at MacBar at noon on Saturday get a free small macaroni and cheese, and for every bowl given away the restaurant will donate $10 to Have a Heart Children’s Cancer Society. [Grub Street]

Tribeca: From December 16 to 30 at Marc Forgione, 10 percent of sales from a new walnut liqueur and cheese pairing ($14) go to Citymeals-on-Wheels. [Grub Street]

West Village: For a taste of shuttered Chanterelle, David and Karen Waltuck present a five-course menu of greatest hits (grilled seafood sausage, Bartlett pears two ways) at the James Beard House on January 12 at 7 p.m. [James Beard]

Upper East Side: With two days' notice, Philippe will make $55 Peking turkeys for reservations of six or more through Christmas Day. [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, angels and kings, east village, gogo curry, hell's kitchen, lower east side, macbar, nolita, patsy's, phillipe, upper east side, westville

Tonight, Orchard co-owner Xerxes Novoa, manager Jonathan Duke, and chef Chris Frakes (EU, Butcher Bay) open El Ay Si, named for its location in Long Island City (Get it? Get it?). The partners designed El Ay Si as neighborhood hangout with entrées mostly under $20, a "kidz" menu, and a low-key, votive-lit setting anchored by a salvaged, dark-wood bar. Frakes channels the South (fried chicken) and Italy (wild-mushroom agnolotti) in his global menu, below. Hours are Tuesday to Sunday from 6 to 10 p.m. and weekend brunch runs from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Click through the slideshow to see the space and some of the food.

Dinner Menu [PDF]
Brunch Menu [PDF]
Wine List [PDF]

El Ay Si, 47–38 Vernon Blvd., Long Island City, Queens; 718-389-8781

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, el ay si, long island city, slideshow

Former Stereo partners Michael Satsky and Brian Gefter soft open the invite-only Provocateur this week in part of the former Ono space in the Gansevoort hotel. The setting is "specifically created to cater to woman’s every desire," say the owners, who are men. Lionel Ohayon of ICRAVE (STK, Hyde, W Hotels) split the space into a café with a 4,000-square-foot retractable roof and dollhouse imagery and a club with black-lace walls inspired by Madonna's Virgin tour in 1985. "Every man's little secret is that they like these things," says Satsky of his club's appeal to both genders. "A lot of guys on the low watch Gossip Girl." The go-go dancers will help, too.

Skin-care guru Scott-Vincent Borba created drinks that purport to aid outer beauty while intoxicating your insides, for $22 each. Hear indie music in the café and progressive house spun by international D.J.'s in the club, which will be open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. (To start, expect parties from partners Kyky and Dimitri, formerly of PM.) Food comes from the Tanuki Tavern kitchen next door. Preview the menus below and see the space in our slideshow.

Café Menu [PDF]
Drink Menu [PDF]

Provocateur, 18 Ninth Ave., at 13th St.; No phone

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, gansevoort, meatpacking district, provocateur, slideshow

Long Island City: Next week Orchard and EU alums will open a global restaurant called El Ay Si at 47–38 Vernon Boulevard near 48th Avenue. [Feed/TONY]

Midtown East: A new restaurant called Oaxaca Mexican Grill plans to open on 47th Street near Park Avenue in January. [Midtown Lunch]

Upper East Side: Dr. BBQ, Ray Lampe, is leaving his role as executive chef at Southern Hospitality. [Grub Street]

Upper West Side: In celebration of National Cupcake Day, Crumbs will offer 15 percent off all online cupcake orders placed tomorrow. [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, chelsea, crumbs, fort greene, island salad, long island city, midtown east, oaxaca mexican grill, red bamboo, ronnybrook milk bar, southern hospitality, upper east side, upper west side

’wichcraft continues its courtship of the after-lunch crowd this Thursday by opening a café in the new David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center. As part of the the visitors center, this ’wichcraft serves food and drink nonstop Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and weekends from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. The day menu, anchored by hearty cold and hot sandwiches, echoes every other ’wichcraft, while evening items reference the dinner menu at the Flatiron location with crostini and more paninis, like a pork loin and Gruyere variation. Since no one wants to brave three-hour operas without booze, this stop features a full bar. Preview the full menus below.

Snack Menu [PDF]
Drink Menu [PDF]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: openings, lincoln center, wichcraft

In the magazine this week, find an extensive guide to the pleasures of soup. Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld reveal the city's top 50 bowls and choose chicken matzo ball delivery from the 2nd Avenue Deli as the cure-all of the season. Gillian Duffy scores a recipe for Soup Doria, a potage Andrew Carmellini created for a Swiss princess who used to live in the St. Regis Hotel. For those seeking a quicker fix, Adam Platt judges canned soups. Also, look at what's new in soups in other Grub Street cities around the country: Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

As always, food is a Reason to Love New York. In this year's edition, Grub Street's Daniel Maurer and Alexandra Vallis write of the city's ongoing obsessions with hot dogs, hamburgers, and pizza — "because we insist on perfecting what's already perfect."

Also in this issue: Adam Platt enjoys the pre-recession attitudes on display at Le Caprice, even “the patina of old-fashioned Euro snootiness that permeates the operation.” In deference to the atmosphere, the Brit-inflected food "is intended less to dazzle than to please," he notes. If you haven't settled on Christmas dinner, dazzle your guests by serving this week's In Season recipe: Kurt Gutenbrunner’s Roast Christmas Goose. Finally, Rob and Robin introduce us to the latest Momofuku obsession: late-night tamales.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: in the magazine, in season, le caprice, momfuku tamales, roast goose, soup

Upper West Side: Cookbook author and founder of the Careers Through the Culinary Arts Program Richard Grausman got his Lexus stolen on West 81st Street last week, and the thieves tried to sell it back to him for $3,000. [Daily Intel]
West Village: EN Japanese Brasserie hosts a Japanese-beer tasting on December 15 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The $25 event includes house fried chicken. [EN]
Williamsburg: Brooklyn Bowl’s December special: Half-price bowling and Brooklyn Brewery Beer, Monday through Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. and midnight to 2 a.m.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, brooklyn bowl, chanterelle, city winery, tribeca, west village, williamsburg

• In the early new year, McDonald's will add breakfast items including sausage McMuffins, sausage biscuits, small coffees, and hash browns to the dollar menu. [AP]

• The recession has led to grocery stores lowering their prices while spending large amounts on advertising and promotion. [Chicago Tribune]

• Costco, which has locations in the U.K. and throughout Asia, saw improved profits in its latest quarter even in the face of deflating costs for food commodities. Maybe it's the socks. [Market Watch]

• Neighbors of Biddy Early's want the SLA to revoke its liquor license (recently renewed for two years) for drawing underage college kids with cheap beer and drinking games. [Downtown Express]

• A wiretap will be used as evidence against two people charged for attempting to bribe an SLA official to expedite a liquor license for Upper East Side Restaurant El Nido del Aguila. [NYP]

• The man who stabbed a teenager in 2006 for "cutting" in line at a midtown street cart claims it was self-defense. [NYP]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: mediavore, biddy early's, costco, gordon ramsay, mcdonalds, sla

Professional ballroom dancer Kym Johnson spun with Donny Osmond to victory last month in L.A. on the latest season of Dancing With the Stars. Two days later, she hopped a plane to New York to join the cast of Burn the Floor on Broadway. The show, which features ballroom dance, has been around for more than a decade and is now enjoying the popular spillover from TV's current dance craze. With eight cardio-centric shows a week, it’s not surprising Johnson is tiny, but a restrained New York Diet also keeps her light on her feet.

Saturday, December 5
I always have coffee in the morning. I get a blend from Starbucks and do it in a percolator. I use Splenda and a little skim milk. For breakfast, I had Special K with strawberries and milk and then a fruit salad.

Saturday we have a matinee, normally I go to work and take a snack: A banana or a muesli bar. Then I’ll do the show and have lunch after the show at Pax. They make the salads there for you. I get chicken, feta, avocado, and some balsamic vinaigrette. And normally just drink water.

I also keep a box of fruit roll-ups for snacks.

I went out with the cast afterward to Sardi's and had grilled salmon with steamed vegetables and a glass of pinot noir. It’s a little place across from the theater. I try to stay away from bread, especially later in the evening and if I’m drinking wine. For energy during the day, I'll definitely have toast with breakfast, or a turkey sandwich later. While I’m doing the show, you do start to feel really tired. I don’t eat that much before the matinee, and after the show, I’m always hungry.

Sunday, December 6
I had some wheat toast with strawberry jam and coffee.

We have one 3 p.m. show, which is nice because you have the rest of the day. After that, I went to see Hugh Jackman’s play A Steady Rain on Broadway, which was great. Then I had dinner with just a few of the girls at Tony’s di Napoli. I had a caprese salad to start, and a petit filet mignon because I was wanting steak with some vegetables. I generally don’t have dessert, unless I’m in L.A. and my roommate makes his apple crumble. He’s the cook of the house. That’s my favorite dessert, and it’s pretty healthy.

Monday, December 7
I had some toast again with strawberry jam, a Fage Greek yogurt with some honey in it, and coffee.

I met a friend of mine at Five Napkin Burger. They have all different kinds of food there, and I had a California roll.

Later for dinner after the show in my apartment, I had some chicken-noodle soup. I picked it up from the Food Emporium, which is around the corner from our theater. It’s a great place — you can pick up so many things from there. I had a cup of peppermint tea that night.

Tuesday, December 8
I had my cereal again and coffee.

I had a turkey-and-Swiss-cheese sandwich from Pax downstairs. And I bought a spinach-and-leek quiche for later.

I had the sandwich; did the show; came home, and ate my quiche. I shared some little gummy bears with Maks Chmerkovskiy at the show, as well.

Wednesday, December 9
I had my cereal and Greek yogurt again with honey in it.

For lunch, I had a turkey sandwich again. And I picked up a salad already, so it’s what I’ll have after the show. It has lettuce, chicken, feta, beet root, and corn, with balsamic vinaigrette. I have my friends staying from L.A., so I brought a bottle of pinot noir as well. I love going out, but I’m kind of just getting into the show. I’ll start exploring more when my boyfriend comes into town, because it's more fun when you have someone to go with, and my mum's in town for Christmas, so I'd like to show her around and take her to nice restaurants.

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the new york diet, five napkin burger, kym johnson, sardis, tony di napoli

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, dylan's, east village, mercadito, michael bao, midtown east, phaidon, red hook, soho, upper east side

Lower East Side: Meatball Shop (serving, yes, meatballs) plans to open at 84 Stanton Street in February. [NYT]

Midtown East: Chilean sandwich shop Barros Luco introduces a lunch deal: empanada and a medium soda for $1.50. [BarrosLuco/Twitter via Midtown Lunch]

Tribeca: This month, Tamarind opens a second location at an 11,000-square-foot space at 99 Hudson Street. [Zagat Buzz]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, chelsea, east village, lower east side, meatball shop, midtown east, numero 28, scott conant, table 8, tamarind, trestle on tenth, tribeca

“I’m an admirer of Bloomfield,” writes Alan Richman of the Breslin, “but I’m not certain her cooking is what most folks want to tuck into at lunch or brunch, unless they’re planning to sleep the rest of the day.” [Forked & Corked/GQ]
Related: Ken Friedman Is Ready to Say ‘Yes’ to You at the Breslin

“Unless you’re an ocean-hopping regular at CapriceHoldings’ celebrity-full London joints, forget about Twittering epiphanies from this beautiful, boring, restaurant any time soon,” Steve Cuozzo complains about Le Caprice. [NYP]
Related: A Closer Look at Le Caprice, Now Serving Plebeians in the Pierre Hotel

“In a repeat visit to Café Boulud, Jay Cheshes compares the recent renovation to “good plastic surgery; the nips and tucks by Jeffrey Beers are so understated, it’s not immediately clear what’s changed.” Gavin Kaysen’s food is noteworthy, too: “Though the menu combines the young American’s whimsy with the older Frenchman’s understated refinement, the restaurant remains a reflection of the icon whose name adorns the marquee.”
[TONY]

Compared to Bar Pléiades, the revamped Café Boulud “feels rather stodgy ... But isn’t a nice healthy dose of stodginess exactly what I crave?” writes Gael Greene, who is as charmed by the food as she is the adult setting. [Insatiable Critic]

“Café Boulud is to New York’s Upper East Side what Balthazar is to SoHo. It’s a mostly all-day brasserie where the first-rate cuisine keeps pace with the high-society scene,” agrees Ryan Sutton. [Bloomberg]

“While it's true that the menu of a typical Roman trattoria often borrows recipes from other regions of the country, mainly to the north, it often seems as if Trattoria Cinque isn't trying hard enough to be Roman,” says Robert Sietsema after trying some out-of-place entrées. [VV]
Related: What to Eat at Trattoria Cinque, Home of the Cesarista

“Bark is a fierce reproach to the aqueous cart fare of Times Square and Central Park. The dogs here aren’t pinkish-gray or wizened. They’re about seven inches long, too big for their buns, and the ends curl upward,” writes Mike Peed. [NYer]
Related: First Look at Bark Hot Dogs, Bringing Artisanal Wieners to Park Slope

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: the other critics, bark hot dogs, cafe boulud, le caprice, madangsui, the breslin, trattoria cinque

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, artie's, black shack, bobo, brooklyn grange, cupcake stop, flatiron, midtown east, upper west side, west village