The evening of the epic chocolate tour and pastry tasting, HC and I had early dinner reservations to Fogón. My dining plans in Paris were essentially trying to get a taste of everything and I hoped to get my lips around some good, creative Spanish food. Granted, we’re not in Barcelona but it’s close enough compared to New York City.
Before we parted ways from Gilles Marchal, he told me that he knows the co-owner of Fogón, Vanina Herraiz. (Gilles was a former pastry chef at the 2 Michelin-starred restaurant Le Bristol for 8 years before joining La Maison du Chocolat and chefs have their own community and familiar with each others’ work.) Whilst HC and I were relishing on La Maison du Chocolat’s beautiful chocolates and eclairs, Gilles made a bunch of gift bags for us and one specifically for Mrs. Herraiz (Alberto is her husband is the executive chef and co-owner of this establishment, while she develops the dessert menu and manages the front of the house). His instructions were to give this particular bag to her, via the reservationist or waiter, and we should get a cocktail or something.
Last week I met up with a friend who’s visiting New York City for a couple of days and we arranged to meet up for dinner for the sake of catching up. Talking a bit about where either of us wanted to go, we settled down for El Quinto Pino.
Entering this tiny, bar and stools setting with approximately sixteen seats with a semicircle-shaped marble bar, this place was filled with diners. And it’s only 6:30 on a rainy evening. Placing ourselves near the windows, our server asked us what we’d like to drink; I stuck with water, my dining companion had his glass of wine. At the same time we asked, “Where is the menu? Or that large chalkboard in the back is the only copy?” He answered, it’s the one in the back.
Madejas con ajilimójili
The madejas con ajilimójili or crispy lamb intestines were not bad. This particular dish was something my friend wanted but I don’t mind trying once. These crispy, knotted tendrils of intestines were barely gamy and it’s tender by itself. When dipped in the pink, garlic vinegar, it’s way too acidic that it took over the delicate flavor of the intestine. Continue reading “El Quinto Pino” »
Around the second week when Ruskie is in town, we arranged to have lunch at Casa Mono. Both of us went there before but we’d agree that it would be nice to visit there again since it’s been a while and we did like their food (in our disparate ways).
Baguette & Olives in Olive Oil
The baguette and olives were still the same as I remembered – not too crusty with fluffy crumb and the olives were still briny while the olive oil gave it additional richness. Continue reading “Lunch at Casa Mono – Take 2″ »
For several years, I’ve been dying to go to Casa Mono just because I read about their tasty tapas in a publication (I think it was The New York Times?) that extolled the food. Also hearing it from several foodies helps build my excitement to eat there as well. But I haven’t gone there since I didn’t know anyone who would eat there with me. That’s until I met up with my Aussie reader, Suzen and her friend Sarah who was interested in trying out the food. Woot. Continue reading “Tapas at Casa Mono” »
A few Thursdays ago, I planned a dinner with Ariel to Islero, a new tapas restaurant and bar that’s located in Midtown East. I sort of picked this place just because I wanted to try something different.
We originally started small since Ariel’s complaining that he ate a fairly heavy lunch at Adrienne’s Pizza Bar. [...]
I apologize for two reasons on this post: 1. I’m preposterously late posting this up. (It’s been nearly two weeks. TWO WEEKS?!) and 2. Some of my photos suck that I’m borrowing a few of Robyn‘s photos for the sake of saving you some of my dreadfully blurry photos. This post is continuing on the evening after the “amuse-bouche” at P*Ong (as Ariel called it) and moving on to the real dinner at Alta. So, here we go…
I’ve coordinated this dinner just because Jessica’s back in town for the weekend and Robyn told to me that she never tried tapas before. Since I’ve been to Alta last June and had a fairly good experience and that it’s a great for groups, I started rounding up people who can come and reserved a table for 9 people. But as the evening rolled in, it went down to 7 due to last minute happenings. Robyn, Jessica, Ariel, Doug, Patrick, and Helen were the lucky ones who were able to join in on the tapas feast.
The past Thursday, when the weather in NYC was atrocious: it rained then changed to sleet, transformed to snow, then back to the pouring of rain. Isn’t Mother Nature great?! Sighs… The good thing was that fact I don’t have classes but I had to study for my finals since they’re starting on Monday (4 finals in a row = mind suicide).
Anyways, ever since I had my previous dinner at Momofuku Ssam with Sam and a bunch of other friends, I never really hanged out or went fooding with him. Since he’s going back to his hometown in Missouri next week and I don’t have time due to the aforementioned finals, I made time from my study schedule and had a late lunch with him at Boqueria.
Over the weekend, I wanted to go brunching for some reason. Maybe because of feeling restless from sitting on my butt in front of my laptop writing papers ENDLESSLY or studying from law textbooks just makes me want to blind myself? Possibly… So, for a few days before Saturday, I’ve contacted my almost dependable fooding friend, Ariel to ask if he wants to have brunch? After exchanging e-mails infrequently that I known practically last minute where and when we’re meeting. Thanks to my iPod Touch’s WiFi capability, I got the message before leaving the city and abandon Ariel.
Anyways, we met on Saturday at 3 at Houston and Broadway and eventually walked over to the Lower East Side. Honestly, we don’t really know where we’re eating. We’re basically roaming around a few places that he had in mind that strikes his fancy. We stopped by some Latin bistro/tapas place somewhere in the LES, but I don’t remember where it was. All I can recall was that it was a pastel pink exterior and the name started with “A.” It didn’t appeal to me at all and eventually Ariel changed his mind and he wanted to go to Stanton Social.
We started to walk on Stanton going east since I don’t wander around the LES that often and depending on Ariel that he knows where he’s going since he said he passed by this place a few times. Once we were on Clinton & Stanton, we stopped and I was thinking out loud, “Wait a minute…This doesn’t seem right. We’re heading toward WD-50.” Ariel thought a minute and said, “We should be going the right way…I think?” Since we’re doubting ourselves, Ariel whipped out his cell phone and called his younger brother and hope that he would actually give him the address. But since his bro didn’t pick up, I just remembered about my iPod! I prayed mentally that I could pick up a WiFi signal. And yes, it worked! I managed to Google: Stanton Social and I got the address. It turned out, as expected, we were heading the wrong direction. We’re supposed to head out east, not west.
Last night I went to Degustation for dinner. You might be wondering why would I choose this place? Well, I’ve been meaning to eat here for a while ever since I’ve read Frank Bruni’s review of this place, it seems very enjoyable in terms of atmosphere and food. Foodies at Chowhound likes this place a lot and the fact I love tapas. I ate this dinner with Ariel since he loves Catalonian food…or anything that tastes good and he’s willing to splurge with me.
As promised from my previous post was my lunch at Tia Pol with Ariel. I originally picked out this place for two reasons: I haven’t eaten tapas for lunch before since there are not that many restaurants serve it for lunch. The other reason is because of Yumondo; I need something trendy and ethnic kind of place to write about before I officially sign off from my temporary position there. Since tapas is meant to be shared and I don’t know anyone who would leave work for a good hour or so for the sake of food (and not get fired), Ariel’s my guy.
