Yet another post-New York post
Once again, we have just returned from New York and a visit with the always lovely and hospitable villagechick and her whirling dervish of a husband. It was definitely more of a gastro-tourism trip than a touristy tourism trip this time: we ate at a whole bunch of different restaurants, most of them excellent. The service was occasionally spotty (yes, I'm looking at you two, Cowgirl Cafe and Spotted Pig), but the service at Landmarc more than made up for it. (Now I just have to research some of these places on eGullet to see what the general consensus on them is. Because I'm a trailblazer that way.) Not that our trip was entirely bereft of touristy activities: we did go and see Xanadu on Broadway. It was really incredibly campy fun, and I think I'm gonna have "Magic" stuck in my head for the rest of my life.
For the record, this was our restaurant itinerary, along with my menu selections:
Thursday: Tea and Sympathy for lunch (scotch egg and ginger beer), Suenos for dinner (a La Paloma to drink; black bean dip with cornbread, duck confit quesadilla, grilled salmon with a corn tamal and pumpkin seed sauce to eat)
Friday: Grimaldi's for lunch (Coke and coal-fired brick oven pepperoni pizza), Gigino's for dinner (Nero d'Avola, fast becoming one of my favourite Italian grapes, to drink; prosciutto and melon, linguine with clams to eat)
Saturday: Landmarc for lunch (roasted marrow bones with onion marmalade, skirt steak on watercress salad with gorgonzola; we also poked our heads into Per Se, but they don't serve lunch), Cowgirl Cafe for dinner (a too-sweet Maker's Mark cocktail to drink; black-eyed pea salsa with chips, chicken-fried chicken with mashed potatoes to eat)
Sunday: Taïm for lunch (ginger-mint lemonade to drink, falafel and fries with saffron aioli to eat), Spotted Pig for dinner (roll mops, devils on horseback, roasted carrot salad with avocado and cumin, scallops with corn pudding and herb salad; cask conditioned bitter to drink)
If I'm feeling really writerly later this week, I may throw together a post for my other blog with slightly more articulate reviews. (Yet another oft-repeated complaint of mine on this journal: why does writing drain me these days, rather than energizing me?)
Right now, I'm pretty exhausted and trying to gear up to spend the next two weeks prepping the course I'm teaching at the university in the fall (read: two weeks from now). Fun, challenging, nonetheless anxiety-inducing, blah blah blah. You've heard it all before.
Also, we picked up four new types of booze and one new type of bitters while in the US. And I'm about to go see what I can make with some of them...
For the record, this was our restaurant itinerary, along with my menu selections:
Thursday: Tea and Sympathy for lunch (scotch egg and ginger beer), Suenos for dinner (a La Paloma to drink; black bean dip with cornbread, duck confit quesadilla, grilled salmon with a corn tamal and pumpkin seed sauce to eat)
Friday: Grimaldi's for lunch (Coke and coal-fired brick oven pepperoni pizza), Gigino's for dinner (Nero d'Avola, fast becoming one of my favourite Italian grapes, to drink; prosciutto and melon, linguine with clams to eat)
Saturday: Landmarc for lunch (roasted marrow bones with onion marmalade, skirt steak on watercress salad with gorgonzola; we also poked our heads into Per Se, but they don't serve lunch), Cowgirl Cafe for dinner (a too-sweet Maker's Mark cocktail to drink; black-eyed pea salsa with chips, chicken-fried chicken with mashed potatoes to eat)
Sunday: Taïm for lunch (ginger-mint lemonade to drink, falafel and fries with saffron aioli to eat), Spotted Pig for dinner (roll mops, devils on horseback, roasted carrot salad with avocado and cumin, scallops with corn pudding and herb salad; cask conditioned bitter to drink)
If I'm feeling really writerly later this week, I may throw together a post for my other blog with slightly more articulate reviews. (Yet another oft-repeated complaint of mine on this journal: why does writing drain me these days, rather than energizing me?)
Right now, I'm pretty exhausted and trying to gear up to spend the next two weeks prepping the course I'm teaching at the university in the fall (read: two weeks from now). Fun, challenging, nonetheless anxiety-inducing, blah blah blah. You've heard it all before.
Also, we picked up four new types of booze and one new type of bitters while in the US. And I'm about to go see what I can make with some of them...