...more recent posts
Spain 2003: We did a quick 7 day hard blast across North Spain, the Eastern coastal seafood is not happy (and neither am I) but we did pluck some oysters out of an area that has strong rivers flowing into the bay so oil has come nowhere near them, scary fresh stuff.......We dined mostly at local spots, places that specialized in one type of food, we BYOB'd alot and drank well (mostly old Rioja back to 1947).....2001 will be monumental for Spain overall in wine....
Passadis Del Pep (Barcelona) off the charts seafood 3*
Botafumeiro (Barcelona) Seafood 1*
Asados Nazareno (Roa, Spain) only serves 5 items: lamb, blood sausage, salad, flan and bread 2*
Carballeira (Lleida, Spain) Seafood Deluxe 3*
Piro (Gratallops, Spain) Catalan Food 2*
El Torreone (Torrisellas, Spain) Carne, Carne, Carne was great, came here 6 years ago and its only better 2*
Restaurant del Remey (Lleida, Spain) simple but nice 1*
El Agua (Villafranca del Bierzo, Sapin) 1*
Villa Laguardia (Laguardia, Spain) 1*
(about two restaurants could be 2* if you like eating things like pig's feet stuffed with cod wraped in filo and fried, or snout and ear pie....I dont like these things, maybe I can get the picture of me putting the snout on my nose??)
(THE WHOLE GROUP AGREED WITH THE SCORES)
can we get rid of pumpky?
just had lunch at that place on the corner of ludlow and rivington which has new owners and has been renovated and renamed paul's boutique. i guess the menu is the same but i hate the renovation. it had a mellow understated corner brasserie feel and now theyve given it a modish decor with green pillows and some bench seating along the walls which are too low for the tables. should have subscribed to the rule "if it aint broke, dont fix it."
$25 and under: szechuan queens
Still love Cambodian Cuisine in Brooklyn and Holy Basil....
I stoped by Grand Sichuan Int Midtown for some to-go, I know I want to find a new spot, people had sent me emails from far and wide wondering how this little Chinese joint made it to the top eight NY.......My friend Daniel asked me to have them make a special lunch for a wine critic pal of his, they made a meal with nothing on the menu, its was funky, some were lets say something polite here "for the highly adventerous", other dishes were insane good, the chicken killed that morning was as good as any poulet de Bresse, then with the "man cooking" we went to the regular menu and every dish was awesome, byob vino deluxe....to-go was good, food has been inconsistant with the family fueding, maybe I will never stop...
78 OTAFUKU
Think it might be a new nightclub owned by Joey Buttafuoco? Nope-it's an Osaka-style street-food stand where the specialty is a gooey pancake called otafuku, which means "cook what you like." While the range of offerings
doesn't match that of a similar establishment at the Japanese mall in Edgewater, New Jersey, Otafuku provides a fine intro to the genre, featuring ingredients such as shrimp, unsmoked bacon, and squid. Also offered: fried octopus balls (gee, I didn't know they had balls).
236 East 9th Street, Manhattan 353-8503
((The Ocu-balls were fun but just ok to me, the pancake is made of cabbage with toppings....I will do a road trip to Edgewater soon))
field trip -- iron chef japanese in philly
Rumor has it from a real in the know-er that this place ROCKS!!
Il Barilotto
1113 Main St
Fishkill , NY 12524
Phone: (845) 897-4300
"THE World's Most Decadent Hamburger" has come to New York. Served at the Old Homestead in - where else? - the Meatpacking District, the $41 sandwich is made of "hand-massaged, beer-fed" kobe beef, "lobster mushrooms" and micro greens on a parmesan twist roll. "It's the world's most incredible beef," boasts owner Marc Sherry. "Each cattle is hand-massaged and beer-fed, so when the meat is slaughtered the fat content and marbling is very high." The fatty feast is costlier than Manhattan's previous record-holders, the $29 dinnertime burger at '21' and the $27 DB Burger at DB Bistro Moderne. -nyp
Finally found a super Korean spot, I have tried many and this is it IMHO, and the company of Steve and Erin was special:>)....WOOCHON 10 W 36.....
WOOCHON 1*
New Years Dining Resolution's:
1) No more Lupa (I am tired of it)
2) Find a new Grand Sichuan restaurant to BYOB etc....
First meal of note for 2003 is Il Gattopardo (3rd trip) and loved it again, I wish it was less cash and more wine to pick (they are 2* NYTimes and chef was 1* Michelin in Italy I hear)......
My wish list for 2003 is Kurima Zushi (rated #1 in NY per all my sushi guru's...), Wallse and Annisa again due to Rachael reviews, 66 and WD50 (both for many meals), and Kai for the chef's meal, Tommasso's for more old Nebbiolo!!!!.....
To be more Virgo-ian I will rate all meals this year that I love 1* to 3*'s (the 3*'s will be listed in order of favorite's, the rest in no order)......
Il Gattopardo 1*
byebye balducci's
from saveur's 100 favorites issue (jan/feb), sautewednesday, bruce cole's online foodie site. looks good.
Lonely Planet has led me fine most of the time but of course you loose something by using them 100%, I still buy them for almost every place I go and like to get other sourse of info but they just came out with World Food Guide's ....I just bought the Japan one and plan to buy Spain asap (as I leave soon)...I also bought at the Japanese book store some "Food Porno Mags:>)" in Japanese, wow I love this stuff....next is the Japanese grocery stores in Little Japan, I will see you soon...
beer ogles
As strange as it sounds to me, Linda and I are celebrating our tenth wedding anno, 6 weeks from today in New Orleans...after weeks of research we have picked Peristyle for the dinner but are looking as much or more forward to Uglesich's for lunch...Jim Louis we hope to see you for a meal or drinks while we are there, and are open to any food/music/etc news you may wish to share.....