Meals i didn't write about when i had them

I can't remember everything... basically Brand and I spent some time apart and I drank a lot and didn't write anymore. Then I worked at La Sirene every night for like two months and didn't eat at all. NOW i am working all over the place and not eating out as much (unless you count my fire escape or M & M deli...). But I am spending the majority of my week behind a computer at a desk currently so I can start writing again, because I know you've all missed it so much... There are a lot of things that I probably should've written about and didn't, but I don't know that I should rehash them now... Also, I ate a lot, but didn't gain any weight... oh New York, you magical city!

SOoooo some really good meals I've had:
12 Course Chef's Tasting with Wine Pairings at WD-50
-This was one of the best meals I've ever had, and certainly among the most memorable. Stand-out dishes included WD's riff on Eggs Benedict, which I love anyway, something dubbed "knot foie" that I don't remember how to explain, and a coconut cake dessert. Basically, I only disliked one of the twelve courses, which is a pretty big achievement. The one I hated was a weird beer and white chocolate flavored dessert which really was disgusting... but whatever, the pairings were good, ELEVEN courses were excellent and perfectly portioned, and the service was great even though we didn't start our tasting until like 10 pm.

Soup dumplings! This was a random sunday with Ian and he introduced me to something called soup dumplings which are pretty amazing. They're cute doughey dumplings filled with pork and broth and sometimes crab meat... and you have to eat them with both a little ladle spoon and chopsticks... and you get like 12 of them for something like 6 or 7 bucks... and they're super hot and when you bite in soup like, sprays out at you if you're not careful. I don't even know the name of the restaurant in china town where we ate them but I think I could find it again... so good.

Another Chinatown experience: Dim Sum A Go Go... such a random name. Very good, very inexpensive dim sum. Shark's fin and duck confit were stand-outs. Apparently it's owned by like, an French food writing ex-pat and a dim sum chef or something. Anyway, it's delicious.

LES Lunch- Inoteca! Have been there several times, always had great servers who knew the menu and wine list well, and love love the meatballs and the octopus is incredible.

Peasant- AMAAAAZING meal. The menu is confusing because it's totally in Italian, and they're not serving like, Olive Garden meals, so the waitress had to decode every item one by one, but it seemed like everyone was having their menus deciphered so we didn't feel that stupid. the meal was amazing, i think i had lamb chops maybe? i don't really remember it was so long ago but basically, it was delicious... we actually went there because we couldn't get a seat at prune. thank god. (read under meals I hated)

Tailor- I took my parents there one rainy weekend when they were visiting and it was amazing, as always. Everyone that works there is SO nice and they always take amazing care of me. My parents were really, really, really impressed. We were treated to Champagne (or Cava?) and a tasting of saki, which I normally don't love, but when I tried the unfiltered kind I really liked it. Also grapefruit sorbet, which is perfect. After dinner we visited the kitchen and my parents got to meet Sam and everyone which was a treat for them I think. Anyway, I know it was a meal unlike any they normally have in DC and I was really happy they loved it there as much as I do.
I also took Michael Gottlieb here the other night and we had bar snacks and a couple apps and he really liked it too. He was obsessed with the pork belly, like everyone, and also love the snails which are my absolute favorite.
This saturday we're going in a big group for Vicky's birthday, and I look forward to yet another amazing meal and lots of great drinks in my favorite New York restaurant/bar which luckily is also basically my neighbor!

I also had a few really terrible meals in the last few months, and that sucks, because nothing in this city comes cheap (except for chinatown), and a few of these restaurants I was really really looking forward to so I've been really dissapointed each time.

Elletaria- Very dissapointing. Great drinks, amazing decor, not so impressive food. I had something I liked, an appetizer, but basically everything was either so-so or very bland and not terribly memorable. Brandon had a good duck dish I believe... but my Saag Paneer was whatever. I had heard it was good but I really wasn't impressed, and it was cold... and the waitresses were wearing elf outfits. But it's pretty in there, I would consider drinking at the bar... I don't know though, something felt off. All the chefs in the open kitchen looked really really unhappy. That's never a good sign.

Craftbar- Good food, HORRIBLE SERVICE. Unbeleivably bad.

Raoul's- It's definitely a scene, not so much about the food. Ok steak tartare, and I think maybe there was somethign else we liked, but mostly it was very overpriced, and not that special. And they were out of just about everything.

Prune- I hate that I'm putting Prune on this list because I wanted to love Prune. I really did! But it was a MAJOR dissapointment. The food was dreadful, almost all of it, and didn't even look pretty... it looked like nobody cared and just threw some stuff on a plate... but every plate looked like that. We had the most terrible octopus dish... waaay overcooked to the point that it was like, spongey and shrunken... again, the plate looked like nobody cared about it... and the flavor was just not great. very dissapointing! The sweetbreads were fine, nothing amazing, but they were enjoyable. The bone marrow, which is supposed to be a highlight at Prune, was not good. And way undercooked! I actually had one bone where almost all my marrow was like, bloody. Very unappetizing. My drinks, both minty cocktails with a lot of citrus, were good. Our waitress was fabulous. But the food and the ambience not so much. Very rude, snobby women were seated next to me and brand and although we were quietly enjoying the end of our meal, the women asked to be relocated away from "the young people"... Don't eat in a tiny restaurant if you have to be seated away from other people. And basically, don't be bitches. We didn't even try dessert, even though I kind of wanted to try the ice cream sandwiches, because the rest of the meal was so dissapointing. I don't think I'll be back unless I think of trying brunch or something, but I'm not sure it's worth the line.

Ummmm I'm sure there were others, but those really stand out...

Looking forward to Tailor this weekend and maybe brunch somewhere? Will def. beat the ramen and macaroni I've been dining on recently!

5 and a half months later...

um so i got out of the habit of posting but now i'm back in the office and ready to blog all the goddamn time so get excited! i think i have to remind people to read it all over again.
basically, i've had a lot of good and bad meals over the summer. and i worked a lot. and brandon came back and then left and then came back kind of. nobody knows what's goign on there. oh, and vicky and i went to la for the mtv movie awards.
sooooo in the coming days maybe i'll reflect on some of the things i ate, some of the places i went, some of the people i've met... or maybe i'll just start fresh, i don't know, we'll see! i know, all 3 of you are excited.
right now i'm as the receptionist/office manager of an architectural firm at 5th and 18th... everyones nice, the offices are nice, and i spend a lot of time online.
ummm i am not in the mood for this right now because vicky and i are having important gmail discussions, but seriously, sit tight! this week the blogging begins agani!

ahhhh i've been so lax...

but breaking up is hard to do...

meals i still have to write about:
gigantic 12 course tasting at WD-50
Worst service ever but good meal at CraftBar
aaaand Delicious free meal at Community Food and Juice... before brandon got himself fired

i think that covers it...
where will it be this week??? tuesday i'm having dinner with kari somewhere, and possibly vicky if she isn't sick and isn't being boring and dieting.

hoping for ellateria?
oh also having dinner at la sirene thursday with ian... as if i don't spend enough time there already...

choo chooooooo

i feel like i was hit by a train. my heart hurts. i'm miserable.

how could one person so calculatedly hurt another person like this? how can someone say i love you every fucking day to someone else who clearly loves them in return... and that first person just not mean it? just be saying it for the hell of it?

i sort of wish i could just sleep until this wouldn't hurt so much anymore.

momofuku ssam

better than momofuku noodle bar, but still not as great as the first time... isn't it supposed to get better as you do it more? welll.... that rule doesn't apply to momofuku so far. not gonna lie, i'm still trying to get reservations to ko!
my first noodlebar experience was incredible, the next few, terrible... so we decided not to go there anymore... but brand and i were hungry when i got back from dc at like 10:30 tuesday night and so we decided to try late night spot momofuku ssam bar... we had fuji apple kimchee, which didn't involve enough pork and was way overpriced considering how inexpensive fuji apples are and how that was basically the entire dish.... we also had the pork buns which are obviously always delicious, thank god. aaaaand we had the grilled sweetbreads with lime and salt and maybe a miso sauce? i don't remember but these were delicious and i wanted more... the plate was good sized but since brand and i were sharing... we shouldve just each ordered our own! very good. anyway, after those three dishes we were still wanting more so we ordered the crispy pigs head torchon. it was greasy and salty and there wasn't enough spicy mustard to fix it... we weren't that impressed... i don't know what it is, there is SO much hype around everything that is momofuku and i want to like it so badly! but we just keep being dissapointed and i don't understand! that said, this meal wasn't as horrible as the last two at noodle bar... but it wasn't amazing enough to make us forget those. i hope to try ko eventually and i hope that blows me away, as i've read it will... but right now, i basically just wish they delivered cause it's not that worth going all the way to the east village (not that far) just for delicious pork buns.

THANK YOU FRANK BRUNI!

holy hell La Sirene got reviewed in the NY Times!!!! and holy hell they used a picture i'm in! haha

http://events.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/dining/reviews/19rest.html?ref=dining

please examine! so exciting!

bruni at la sirene?

so i'm at la sirene right now... working and waiting for a photographer for the NY Times dining section to come take pictures for a review! sooooo exciting that we're getting in the times. we don't sell any alcohol and we seriously seat 25 people... and that's at our most crowded. so to be in the times is pretty huge i think. fingers crossed for at least a start! and a decent picture of our tiny bistro! seriously though, if we get a good review, i think we'll be super busy all the time. fabulous!

in other news, i didn't work today at CAA because i was so sick... i rested up all day to be able to work at the restaurant tonight. so i don't look that great for a picture, I will need to hide... but where? there's no hiding in a restaurant half the size of my apartment!

i got a membership on the resy website for momofuku ko late last night. v. exciting news! one step closer to a reservation... now i just have to try for one at 10 am every day when the new day opens up. out of control, seriously. after two not so great experiences at momo' noodle bar, i don't know why i'm so keen to try ko... but it only seats TWELVE and has been raved about so far... so i think it's worth a try maybe. plus, there aren't servers, from what i understand... the chefs take care of you and you sit around the kitchen at a counter, like the back half of noodle bar. so i guess we'll see when i finally get there!

also: i really wish i was in savannah for st. patty's day. v. upset to be here, for once.

also: paris in june for leo and brian's wedding? yeah? i think i'm gonna buy tickets...

ok perhaps i should pretend to actually be a waitress...