Going for the soup and salad at Gossip. Yes, that's weird.

On Saturday night, AV and I had no destination in mind for dinner. He wasn't hungry; I was sort of hungry but didn't quite know what type of food I wanted. It was a bad combo. We walked up and down Ninth Avenue, getting rejected by place after place. Finally, inexplicably, we ended up at Gossip Bar & Restaurant. They had tables. They had TVs. And, ostensibly, they had food. We headed in.

Snagging a huge, elevated four-person booth, we settled in. Our server was nowhere to be found, and an enormous group of revelers at the table next to ours was thoroughly blocking the walking area between the bar and the tables, so we seized every opportunity we could to garner some attention. We started with a round of drinks-- diet coke and club soda, thank you very much. Yes, we were at a bar, and yes, we would only order food and soft drinks. I admit this entire night made no sense.

But order food and soft drinks we did. AV, who had had a hefty midafternoon snack courtesy of fresh sourdough and lamb sausage from the Union Square Greenmarket, stuck to a light repast of the black bean soup. He enjoyed it, aside from the incongruous lump of guacamole in the middle of the whole affair. Sans guac, it was a good bowl of soup.

Like a little green island

My choice was the beet and goat cheese salad. This salad was built upside-down: a tuft of greens on top, a generous base of ruby beets, a ring of toasted pistachios, and two huge (I'm talking ice-cream-scoop-size) dollops of warm goat cheese. It scratched my head at the composition, and then I dug in. Mmmmm, goat cheese. All the ingredients here were pretty standard, but you have to give them tons of credit for their heavy hand with the goat cheese. Well played.

A microgreen toupee hiding mountains of goat cheese

Oh, and there was bread. A complete afterthought, clearly baked-from-frozen rolls, but warm, and good with a nice slather of goat cheese.

So very average

So that was it. We were satisfied with our meal. Would we go back to Gossip? Sure, why not. It was a nice bar with a comfortable atmosphere, and the food was decent and well-priced. For what it was, Gossip is a three Offset Spatula restaurant-- a haven of downscale food, reasonably priced, devoid of pretense, and full of goat cheese.

Gossip Bar & Restaurant
733 Ninth Avenue, between 49th and 50th Streets
212-265-2720

Branching out to a new Thai on 9th

Two weekends ago, I attended the incredible show Fantasy Football: The Musical?, written by my good friend DI, part of the New York Musical Theater Festival. After laughing heartily for an hour and a half, fellow showgoers AV and JR and I were hungry. So we scurried around the corner to Aura Thai on Ninth Avenue.

The decor of Aura is plain and simple, but we were all so ravenous we didn't care. We started with a couple of apps-- first up, JR's fried calamari with sweet chili sauce. This dish looked like onion rings and was well received by both JR and AV, who sniped a ring or two.

A tangle of veg 'n' squid

AV and I shared the vegetable dumplings. These were large, half-moon/ravioli-style dumplings filled with a mixture of shredded veggies. The sweet sauce was drizzled over the top, which meant we weren't able to control the mixture of dumpling and sauce through dipping, always a key part of the experience. Overall, these weren't my favorite dumplings in the NYC Thai Restaurant Dumpling Pantheon; the filling tasted like generic frozen veggies, and I wasn't a huge fan of the half-moon shape.

Pretty, but plain inside

Moving on, JR got a curry dish... and shamefully I can't remember exactly which one. But it was ample and flavorful and delicious, according to its consumer.

Some sort of curry? Maybe?

AV went with the pad see ew with chicken. Lots of green veggies made this one a winner in my book... and AV was also a fan.

Wide noodles and bursts of bright green

My choice was, of course, papaya salad. This was a big portion with lots of green beans; the papaya was also cut spaghetti-style rather than in small matchsticks, which was interesting. The vinaigrette here was heavy on the lime and light on the umami, which made the whole dish light but lacking in the strong flavor usually associated with papaya salad.

It also came with sticky rice. Very, very gluey sticky rice.

Overall, we were so hungry that the food at Aura hit the spot. But the quality of food was definitely eclipsed by the other Thai options a few blocks up on Ninth. As a result, I wouldn't necessarily return to Aura unless I were ravenous and right in the area, which means Aura earns a two Offset Spatula designation. Done and done.

Aura
462 Ninth Avenue, between 35th and 36th streets
212-971-8530

A celebration of fall at Kyotofu

This evening, I swung by Kyotofu once again for my new favorite treat: a soymilk soft serve sundae. Today's flavors were pumpkin spice and chocolate, neither of which is a favorite of mind, but for some reason I was in the mood to try them out. Behold, my masterpiece:

Soft serve with two strawberries

The pumpkin was incredibly pumpkin-y-- full of Thanksgiving spices, like eating a slice of pumpkin pie. The chocolate was rich and smooth and surprisingly delicious. For those of you who don't like the trademark nutty tang of soymilk, both these flavors exhibited no trace of soy-- the strong chocolate and pumpkin masked that taste well. Unfortunately, the woman who served my sundae put only about a tablespoon or two of the sweet fruit compote on there, so it was mostly straight-up chocolate and pumpkin... could be worse, but next time I want more fruit! Also, Kyotofu, if you're reading this, bring back the vanilla flavors (especially the vanilla almond) before the cold weather sets in!

Bite by bite at Plate by Plate

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Going back into the past once again, we arrive at the Metropolitan Pavilion on a balmy October 2 evening. AV and I had decided to do a very grown-up thing: attend a benefit. And so there we were, in our party-going finest, at Plate by Plate. As we strolled in and took in the throngs at the tasting booths, bars, and silent auction, we realized that since this event was a benefit for an Asian-American Equity association, we were one of the few non-Asian people there (this fact was underscored by an event photographer who breathlessly tracked us down and asked, "Can I take your picture? We're trying to get as many non-Asian couples as possible!") No matter. We dived into the food and drink, most of which was quite delicious. Below, our pictorial journey.

Fresh tofu from En Japanese Brasserie

Vegetable curry puff from Pranna

Sweet sausage and sticky rice from Umi Nom

Green papaya salad and Thai beef salad from Land! Our favorite!

Various treats from Sweetiepie, including a homely but delicious lemon cake

The lay of the land

Lemon crepe cake from Bar Breton. Very delicious.

Sloppy Bao from Baogette

Nougat glace with roasted plums from South Gate

Incredible spread of treats from Tawny Ong. We tasted (and enjoyed) a red velvet cupcake, a hummingbird cupcake, a devil's food cupcake, icebox cake, and banana pudding. Yes, we made two trips... or possibly more. Oops?

The band jams

Texas salt and pepper ribs from Blue Smoke

Lamb ribs from Ilili. AV called this the best bite of the night.

Duck torchon on brioche from One If By Land

Mascarpone cheesecake with apple granita and spiced foam from One If By Land

Gougere from Brasserie Cognac

A last al fresco gasp at Tenzan

I'm wayyyyyy behind on posts at this point, but here goes one from the archives. It was a Sunday evening, a beautiful Sunday evening in fact, clearly one of the last nice weekend nights of the Indian summer. Once again, AV and I found ourselves on the UES looking for a bite. And so we ended up at Tenzan, a modern-looking Japanese restaurant very close to AV's apartment that we had not yet tried.

Despite the slight chill in the air, we chose to sit outside to take advantage of possibly the last al fresco dining experience until next spring. I was quite hungry and in an extravagantly tearful mood, so what better thing to order than dumplings? Ah yes, there would be dumplings. There would indeed.

But first, AV's miso soup. He's a fan of miso soup, it turns out. And as he declared, it's hard to screw up miso soup. (N.B. Hard, but not impossible. One experience with miso soup at the Harvard dining hall a few years back proved that.)

Warm and well-executed

And then came the vegetable gyoza. They were pan-fried, for a change, which was delicious, but for textural reasons I still prefer my dumplings steamed. The filling was white and undefinable and delectable. The dipping sauce that came with the dumplings was citrus-inflected and curious; after a few bites, I switched over to soy sauce and was much happier. These dumplings were also accompanied by about a half-tablespoon of sweet and mysterious pickles. I gobbled them up and still don't know what they were.

Perfection, and pickles

Then came the entrees. AV had selected chicken teriyaki. Overall verdict was quite standard and a huge portion.

Unexplained broccoli

My choice was the "vegetable appetizer," described as "sauteed mixed vegetables." It ended up being a large plate of mixed stir-fried veggies (peppers, onions, zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms) with a hint of soy sauce umami and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Delicious and verrry filling (I emerged from dinner pretty stuffed).

Huge portion of veggies

Overall, if I ever have a yen (har har har) for Japanese food on the UES, I'd definitely go back to Tenzan. The classics were well-executed and not insanely expensive, and the gyoza were craveable, if you're in the right mood. We experienced solidly executed three Offset Spatula fare and were happy because of it.

Tenzan
1714 Second Avenue (at 89th Street)
212-369-3600

Bye-bye, Billy's

Dear Readers,

It is with a heavy heart and an empty stomach that I officially announce my time at Billy's Bakery has come to an end. I have returned to my "real" job, which sadly involves a significantly smaller amount of baked goods on a daily basis. But while I may not be there in person, I promise to continue my unstinting coverage of Billy's to the best of my no-longer-insider abilities. Stay tuned...

Janine

Tofu in a Pod at Penn

Last week, I found myself at UPenn midweek for a recruiting trip for my "real" job. Since I had to stay overnight, I met up with my friend JR from college, who's in his third year of law school at Penn, for dinner on Wednesday night. We made our way to Pod, an Asian fusion restaurant attached to the Inn at Penn, where I was staying.

Pod is a weird, weird place. It's all futuristic plastic surfaces, primary colors, and shades of white. Our two-person "booth" was basically a niche carved into the wall under a recessed window that made me feel as though I was eating in a dungeon. There was anime playing on a flat-screen TV over the sushi bar, which (of course) had a conveyor belt. It was that kind of place.

Pod is actually relatively expensive, even compared to Manhattan prices, which surprised me. And the vegetarian options were somewhat limited. But I decided to go for the tofu lettuce wraps with Thai peanut sauce-- what could go wrong? Well, when the plate arrived, I was startled to find that the tofu in question was deep-fried. Oy. I tried to eat as much as I could, but the sauce's spices weren't that tasty and the whole thing was just clumsy and heavy, and with every bite I was sure the dish would make me feel miserably sick. I ended up primarily picking out the bean threads and scallions and eating them with the lettuce and the peanut sauce. Oh well. Fortunately, I actually felt okay afterwards-- score one for my stomach!

Regrettable lettuce wraps

JR went with a Pod Caesar salad, which was both ample and delicious (according to him). Special points for the black sesame seeds, which always add dramatic flair. To the salad, JR added an order of Tempura rock shrimp, which he also enjoyed. The candied walnuts that came in the mixture looked tempting, but I was dissuaded from trying one by the mysterious heavy mayonnaise-y sauce coating them. This dish also included grilled pineapple, which JR spoke highly about, but I can't for the life of me find it in the picture below. I suppose we will just have to trust.

Asian Caesar

Fried tiny shrimp

Overall, Pod was... weird, and kind of cool. It was clearly more a scene than a value- or high-dining destination; they had interesting-looking cocktails and a lounge area that I could tell could be an on-campus hot spot if they play their cards right. JR and I definitely had fun, but as a vegetarian who doesn't eat much sushi, I don't think I'd return to Pod for the food alone. It's a two Offset Spatula destination, by Philly or New York standards, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't be back for a cocktail or two...

Pod
3636 Sansom Street
215-387-1803