Hooray!

Dear readers,

Just a quick public service announcement to celebrate the 200th post of Life with Food and Drink! It's been a fun and food-filled journey so far... can't wait to see what the next 200 bring!

Janine

Breaking bread, and more bread, at Blue Hill

It was Friday night, and AV and I had a birthday party to attend later in the evening. But first we needed dinner, so as usual I turned to Opentable to peruse the available offerings. I may in fact have let out an audible gasp when I spotted something rare right there on my computer screen: a 7PM reservation at Blue Hill for that night! Immediately I snapped it up and called them to confirm the res. I'm assuming somebody cancelled or failed to confirm a reservation for that table day-of, but whatever the circumstances, their loss is our gain. We were on.

We made our way to the West Village and found the buried, subterranean entrance to the vegetable mecca that is Blue Hill. Service was top-notch from the moment we arrived-- we were escorted to our table graciously by the host(s) and several other members of our dining room. And immediately we encountered pretty much the only lapse of the night: it must be said that the tables at Blue Hill are extraordinarily close together. We were seated a banquette against the wall with about 6 inches between our table and those on either side. It was such that you basically couldn't avoid eavesdropping on and/or participating in your neighbors' discussions. Thankfully, our particular neighbors (including an older couple, whose choice quotation of the night was provided by the lady to her husband in reference to her dessert: "Much better than your nuts.") were riotous. But you are taking a gamble when you make a reservation-- bad neighbors = bad meal.

Regardless, we pushed on. We made our decisions, placed our order, and immediately dove into the bread basket. While the butter provided was a bit too hard and also unsalted (and unaccompanied by any salt on the table), I'm being nitpicky-- I do declare that the bread in this bread basket is the best in the city. To wit, I reference the thin, crackly ficelle loaves that are stuffed into the upright cylinder that lands with authority on your table. I implore you, ignore the seasoned flatbread in this jar-- think of it as the baby's breath in your bouquet of carnations-- and go straight for a long, slender baguette. Crack open its crust and watch it shatter, giving way to an air-filled, stretchy interior. Slather with butter and gobble. Repeat. I believe at one point in my meal, after I had consumed two full baguettes, I labeled this "the bread that makes you feel bad about yourself," since you eat so much of it and never really get full. But if this is what self-loathing tastes like, I'll have a second helping.

BEST

While our attention was fully diverted to the bread, we were treated to an amuse-bouche. A medieval-torture-device-like contraption appeared with tiny baby vegetables impaled on spikes emerging from a thick block of wood. We rescued the veggies bite by bite and popped them in our mouths; the marinated little bites had great flavor and were impeaccably fresh (not surprising from Dan Barber, of course). A great prelude to the meal.

An artificial forest

After a wait that stretched a wee bit long (cue consumption of second baguette), our entrees arrived. AV had selected the grass fed lamb, with curried chick peas and winter vegetables. I tasted the chick pea mixture, and it was incredibly tasty, spicy and hearty. AV raved about the lamb, which was delicately cooked and sliced across the plate. Definitely a winner.

Lamb 'n' peas

My own selection was the "Eleven winter greenhouse greens and herbs" salad, which came with roasted and confit mushrooms, marinated winter vegetables, lettuce and mustard vinaigrette. This was one of the best salads I've ever had. It was almost preternaturally flavorful, and I kept digging under the lettuce to find bits of the tastiest, most satisfying veggies I've ever encountered. The presentation-- on a slab of slate-- was also fittingly creative for a groundbreaking salad. I could have eaten twelve of these, and if I ever have the good fortune to return to Blue Hill, I will most certainly order this salad again.

There's so much going on here that you can't see...

While we looked at the dessert menu, there was nothing that really jumped out at us, so we paid our bill and headed out to find dessert in the land of gelato (hooray, L'arte del Delato!!). While Blue Hill is certainly not flawless, my gripes are small and relatively insignificant when you consider the quality of the food. With the best bread in the city and one of the best salads I've ever eaten, Blue Hill deserves four Offset Spatulas and a ringing endorsement. If you can snag an elusive reservation, seize the opportunity to taste vegetables that will change the way you think of the food group.

Blue Hill
75 Washington Place
212-539-1776

The Rereview: A Land upgrade

On a gorgeous Thursday evening, AV and I were searching for a place to grab a quick dinner before a showing of "I Love You Man." I was googling restaurants near the theater on the UES, and lo and behold, I found out that Land Thai Kitchen has a location a mere few blocks from our destination. Now, as you'll recall, my last review of Land was only so-so, but as part of my near-insatiable recent craving for veggie dumplings, I had begun to long for Land's version of the delectable treat. So we decided to give the UES Land a try.

The dining room is bigger and much more comfortable than the UWS location. There's space between the tables, so you don't feel as though you're sitting in your neighbor's lap. It probably helped that the joint wasn't crowded on a random Thursday night, but nonetheless it was a much nicer space to be in.

We placed our order quickly and waited for the food to arrive. (It's worth noting that when I changed my mind about my entree after we had ordered, the Land staff accommodated my switch with ease and grace.) Shortly, our veggie dumplings made their appearance, and this time around they were delicious. AV's theory is that if you know what you're getting, you can enjoy these puppies much more-- they're not dumplings in the traditional sense, and they're a peculiar taste and texture sensation, so if you're looking for classic dumplings you'll likely be disappointed (as we were on our last visit). But as I said, I was craving these little green pouches, and they delivered their soft, peanutty filling deliciously. Mmmm.

Like green hard candies. Except soft. And not sweet.

For an entree, AV chose the wok basil with beef. Last time, this dish burned all the taste buds out of his mouth. But this time around, the dish wasn't overly hot and was duly delicious.

Suitably spicy, not searing.

My own entree (the late-ordered selection, after I had had second thoughts about my previous selection) was the papaya salad. I'm very glad I decided to go ahead with this choice-- it was crunchy and tangy and spicy but not too spicy, as I had requested. Delectable and refreshing.

Papaya on a pedestel

We were in and out of Land very efficiently and easily made our showtime. Given the improved comfort level of the dining room and the spice-tempered deliciousness of our entrees, the UES Land easily trumps its West Side cousin. As a result, I hereby upgrade Land to a solid three Offset Spatula Thai restaurant. I'm sure I'll be back for the veggie dumplings. They haunt my dreams...

Land Thai Kitchen
1565 Second Avenue, between 81st and 82nd Streets
212-439-1847

Life's a breeze at... Breeze

Monday night, I met BL for our monthly-ish catch-up dinner. I've had a near-insatiable craving for Thai food recently, so we hit up Breeze, a Thai-French fusion restaurant on Ninth Avenue.

The restaurant is very cool-looking, with interesting light fixtures and bits of decor that brighten the room. Bizarrely, the menus come in CD/DVD cases and the drinks list on an old record, indicating that there's some sort of music theme going on... but that's really the only indication. Otherwise it's just a Thai restaurant.

We placed our order with the friendly waiter, and soon BL's Coconut Chicken Soup emerged. It was hot and steamy, and BL seemed to enjoy it. I only remembered to take a picture halfway through, though, so while it looks as though they only gave him a half bowl, I promise it's just an optical illusion! Mwahahahahahah. Or something.

This dish is half full. Or half empty?

While BL was finishing up his soup, our entrees arrived. BL had chosen Thai style shrimp fried rice. He only ate a bit of this; apparently, it was thoroughly underseasoned and therefore simply "meh."

A dome of mediocrity

My own selection was the tofu/eggplant with Thai basil sauce, which came with a side of standard jasmine rice. I had gotten this once before at Breeze, on an occasion I had forgotten to blog (oops), and it was delicious, so I was psyched to get it again. Especially because I was RAVENOUSLY hungry, which you know always leads to disaster. It was very tasty, packed with yummy tofu and soft, creamy eggplant and some auxiliary veggies like onions and peppers, and I ate the whole thing (see also: "always leads to disaster"). As it turns out it was a wee bit oily, because now I have a pretty powerful ohhh-I-ate-too-much-heavy-food stomachache.

Yummy Thai veggies

White rice, take II

And that was it-- fast in, fast out, we were on our way. And while we didn't have the greatest meal we've ever had, I like Breeze, and I'd definitely go back. It's good Thai food, a bit more creative than usual, in a cool atmosphere, for prices that aren't exorbitant. That to me means Breeze is a classic three-Offset-Spatula joint.

Breeze
661 Ninth Avenue, between 45th and 46th Streets
212-262-7777

Favorite wine and food aplenty at Cavatappo grill

Many moons ago, AV and I went for a post-Valentine's-Day dinner nightcap at Cavatappo wine bar on the UES. I had a glass of lambrusco bianco, a wine I'd never seen before (lambrusco is a sparkling red wine, and I'd never encountered a white version). It was so delicious, I've been craving it ever since and haven't been able to find it anywhere else. So this Saturday night, we headed to Cavatappo Grill, the restaurant version of the wine bar, to slay (guzzle) my white whale.

The restaurant is small but cute, decorated with a pervasive wine-cork motif. We sat at a small table by the window and pored over the paper-placemat menus. I already knew our wine order, so we asked for a bottle of lambrusco bianco straightaway. The waiter brought the wine quickly; it was, as I had remembered, powerfully delicious: crisp, not very sweet but not bone-dry either, with tiny effervescent bubbles that make it go down like San Pellegrino. Exquisite-- and my new official Favorite Wine. Along with the wine, our waiter brought over a basket of bread and a small dish of olive oil and vinegar. The bread was serviceable, a little hard on the outside (indicating it had been sliced many hours earlier and left in the open air) but good for sopping up the oil. Unfortunately, try as we might (and we did), the balsamic vinegar at the bottom of the olive oil dish was pretty much inaccessible.

Boat of sliced bread

When we were about half a glass in, we placed our order. There was so much on the menu we both wanted, it was difficult to make a choice. But we finally settled, and the food arrived after a reasonable wait.

AV had gone with a starter (not to be confused with an "appetizer," a separate section on the menu) and a side dish. He reported that the fried calamari was delicious, full of lightly fried rings and none of the castoff bits that tend to populate lesser orders of the app. To balance out the meal, he ordered a side of sauteed broccoli rabe. I tried a few bites and it was really good-- not too oily, fresh and green. Overall, two winners.

Bands of gold

And greenery for balance

My selection was a salad of cremini mushrooms, pears, walnuts, fontina cheese, and mixed greens with white truffle oil. It was very, very good. The mixture of ingredients was creative, and the serving size was very generous-- there were even a few cherry tomatoes thrown in for good measure. Especially with the addition of the white truffle oil, this salad was eminantly craveable, something I won't forget for a long time... which presents me with a conundrum: when I return to Cavatappo, do I get this delicious salad again? Or do I order one of the other several items on the menu that I wanted to try? I do not know, dear readers. I do not know.

A bowl of creative deliciousness

Food (and much of the wine) dispatched, we decided to throw caution to the wind and order dessert. We shared the tiramisu, which hit the spot-- creamy and spongy with a strong espresso syrup on the bottom. Definitely not the best tiramisu I've ever had, but at that moment it was perfect.

Sooooooupy

By the time we were done, the place had filled up with happy, chatty patrons, and we paid the reasonable bill and stumbled out into the night. The service at Cavatappo is what one might call "brusque"; the waiters are friendly enough but they're clearly there to get the food to your table in the most efficient way possible. The atmosphere is pleasant, and the prices are reasonable. But if you're there for the food and the wine-- and we most certainly were-- Cavatappo is the perfect neighborhood restaurant. You can get a table on a weekend night with only a few hours' notice, and you can have a very enjoyable meal there and leave happy. So even though it's not the pinnacle of fine dining, Cavatappo Grill deserves four Offset Spatulas and several more visits from this hungry blogger.

Cavatappo Grill
1712 First Avenue, between 88th and 89th
212-987-9260

The Rereview: A birthday revisit at Pera

It was the bro's birthday this past Wednesday (April FOOLS!!! Hahahahaha. No wait, it really was), and for an extra special treat, the Mom came in from Massachusetts to take JT, the bro, and me out to a celebratory dinner. Per my suggestion, we made our way to Pera Mediterranean Brasserie, a place I'd been to with my mom and thought the bro would like.

We were seated at a large table with a great view of the open kitchen (score!). We took our time placing our order, but shortly after we had completed the transaction, Pera's interesting bread basket arrived. I say interesting because the bread is tasty-- almost completely hollow and studded with sesame seeds. But, being hollow, it's almost entirely unsatistfying. The best part of the basket is the tangy, pungent feta cheese that's really delicious ladled into the empty interior of each small pocket.

Bread. It will fool you with its emptiness.

Our appetizers emerged quite promptly. The bro had selected the crispy phyllo rolls, which our waiter described as "Turkish mozzarella sticks." Once the rolls had arrived and the bro had taken a bite, he described the order as "a mild tweak." According to their consumers (JT had one as well), the rolls were okay but not great. Not worth ordering again.

Tweak!!

Mom and I split the Maroul salad, which she had gotten last time. It was a delectable mixture of shredded romaine, dill, scallions, and feta cheese. Light, salty, and tasty, it's a salad worth traveling to.

Crunchy, light, green, and white

After we finished our apps, we sat and waited. And waited. The wait for our entrees stretched on and on, long enough for me to begin picking the sesame seeds off my half-eaten roll. Finally, after our waiter assured us our dishes were coming right out, the entree course did arrive. First up: my mom's fish, the catch of the day. I believe it was dourade, prepared the same way as it was last time, with a green foamy sauce and a fried pepper on top. She enjoyed it, as she does all sea creatures.

Like froth from the sea.

For my entree, I got the grilled vegetable and haloumi salad, which I had so enjoyed last time. This time, I requested the chef go easy on the oil, because it was a wee bit oily last time. I'm not sure if that request was what did me in, but this version of the salad was not nearly as yummy as last time. The cheese, in particular, felt as though it had been grilled many moons ago and sat there for a while-- the edges were incredibly tough and oil-saturated, so much so that I wished I had had a steak knife to cut it properly. Taste-wise, it was still on point, but I was disappointed by the texture.

The cheese looks like chicken

Finally, JT and the bro had both gotten the lamb steak special, a fajita-esque sizzling skillet of lamb with a little arugula salad on top. Both consumers absolutely RAVED about the lamb. JT deemed it the best lamb he's ever had. Let's say that this dish produced two very contented customers, including one contented birthday boy, which did my heart good.

Best. Lamb. Ever.

So there we go. Needless to say, we had a Billy's Bakery birthday cake waiting at home, so we passed on dessert and headed home. While the pacing was a bit of a lapse in the otherwise up-to-par service, I will add one thing worth noting: About halfway through the meal, one of the drunk, loud idiots sitting at the table next to us spilled a glass of red wine, which splashed all over my umbrella and my purse. While the drunkard made no effort to apologize, at the end of the meal the manager of Pera came over, gave me his card, and told me if I had any dry cleaning bills as a result to send them his way. Not that I'm going to dry clean my purse (if I knew what other ridiculous crap was all over that purse, I probably would have dry cleaned it long ago, but as it stands... well, meh). But it was a very classy gesture. So while my food was a bit less stellar than last time, the raves from JT and the bro and the extra-mile effort from the manager mean that Pera keeps its four Offset Spatula designation. It's a truly great place for upscale, tasty, generally well-excuted Mediterranean food in a beautiful and buzzing dining room.

Pera Mediterranean Brasserie

303 Madison Avenue, between 41st and 42nd Streets

212-878-6301

The Pony: So close you can smell the bubbles

The infernal green plywood on 10th and 45th is finally down-- which means The Pony is almost ready to go! First glimpses indicate it's certainly a handsome bar, and the extensive craft beer menu indicates they're on their way to living up to their self-designation as a craft beer bar. Management informs me they're aiming for a release mid-next week. Check out the pics and menus below and stay tuned for more dispatches in the near future!

A pretty, rustic exterior

Crafty!

And some bites to match your suds