Another tasty article in the Financial Times; this time it's about premium jamon iberico- the arguably tastiest ham in the world from black pigs that consume pounds and pounds of acorn every day during the season. I've had the pleasure to taste several of them (albeit not the $5k version) and have to agree: Iberico 1- Parma 0
My friend Shakti and I went for a little impromptu food walk from Chelsea market to Penn Station yesterday. For posterity, here are the results:
View West Chelsea Food Walk in a larger map
I highly recommend the sweet snacks at Three Tarts - try the blood orange goat cheese Panna Cotta. And to wrap it up - make sure you visit the new Highline park for some excellent views of the city and a glimpse into the Equinox Yoga studio at the Caledonia building. This picture shows the view up 10th Avenue from the little "theatre" they've built into the highline park. Nice job, NYC!
Last night we had dinner with some friends at Degustation, a heavily praised newcomer to the Tapas scene. We were actually seated at adjacent Jewel Bako because we were a rather large group and Degustation has only 15 seats. The service was very attentive (except for the fact that the sushi chef closed down at 11) and the overall food was very good. Now to the title story: the portions are absolutely tiny! The "tortilla" which Frank Bruni so eloquently describes as "poached quail eggs and shallot confit inside pockets of thinly sliced potato. Each of these savory bonbons was best consumed in one bite, which set off a gooey eruption" are indeed quite tasty - the problem is there are two tiny bonbons on a $6 plate and I could easily eat 10 of them just to start. As girls tend to eat less, this kind of place is perfect for them :-)The experience was similar with the minute foie gras and the somewhat terse lamb.
Over the last few years we have eaten Tapas at Tasca, Casa Mono, Tia Pol, Boqueria, Kana, Pintxos, Xunta and Pipa and have almost always had the same experience: artful, varying degree of quality, definitely americanized (my Spanish girlfriend will testify for that) and TOO SMALL.
In Spain you can walk into any Tapas bar, order 3-5 plates and have a great, simple meal - in New York the same will set you back almost as much as the Porterhouse at Keens!
Cry for help: can someone, ideally from the Basque country please come over to NYC and open a great, authentic tapas place? I will spread the word to at least 100 eaters in the first week!
And if you do want to try all of these yourself, here are my top 5 tapas restaurants in NYC:
1) Casa Mono
2) Pipa (not really Tapas focused)
3) Pintxos
4) Degustation
5) Tia Pol
Please send me any hot contestants!
Great google mashup - find fastfood with this cool mashup (here's the Manhattan example). Too bad they don't have "good fast" places like Chipotle on there yet and there's no InnOut east of the Rockies - but I remain hopeful!
In the meantime I highly recommend Gin Lane for a really good meal in the meatpacking district - go for brunch or dinner and enjoy the classic english/new england gentleman's club atmosphere.
And if you're in the mood for a drink afterwards - find a happy hour quickly with Mappy Hour or another fave - Myopenbar!
Every weekday between 7:30 and 9:30am this is the place where models, actresses and aspiring and established Internet entrepreneurs meet. The latter as clients, the former as employees - with usually mixed results...
New York Internet scene hangout Coffee Shop in Union Square recently failed its annual health inspection as reported here by Eater - after lying about it the day before!
This is not yet reflected on the city's Health department website but should be shortly.
I usually enjoy Coffee Shop except for the actresses' attitude and morning moods. Let's hope they get it back up and running in time for Monday morning!
