a better day

Some days are just so nice. Sunday was one of them. PP and I ate two happy and tasty meals on our first day in Chicago. That’s pretty much all we did, actually. We arrived, dropped off our luggage at the hostel, went for lunch, whiled away time until dinner by doing absolutely nothing, ate dinner, spent an inordinate amount of time on the return subway and then just slept!

Since then, the food situation has rapidly deteriorated (read: university cafeteria food..eeks!). I can see myself losing it pretty soon. Until then, I am trying to survive on the memory of our Sunday meals!

We ate lunch at Bar Toma. The weather was nice, so we sat outside. Their wood-fired Pizza Verdure (local market vegetables, ricotta, lemon, black pepper, pecorino Romano) was charred, smoky and delicious. However, the Tasting of Three from the mozzarella bar (fior di latte, mozzarella di bufala, smoked, Genovese pesto, lardo pesto, Sicilian pesto) was very ordinary. But, I would definitely go back for the pizza.

Dinner was at Sepia. I liked the feel of the restaurant, but what’s up with the cylindrical coverings on their chandeliers?!? The service and food are excellent! They are celebrating their 5th anniversary, so all guests are being offered a complimentary cocktail. Ours was a refreshing strawberry concoction. I was also extremely pleased with my ‘Guide to Better Living’ (lillet rose, mezcal vida, muddled strawberries, and victorian lemonade).

The English pea ravioli (with hazelnut-chicory crumble and thyme butter) starter was just okay. For main course, both of us ordered the carnaroli risotto with asparagus, morels, grana padano and pickled lemon and LICKED OUR PLATES CLEAN!!! Ah, how I miss it already!

I wish all days were like last Sunday. Sadly, there is more crappy food in my near future .

back forty west

I had a lovely dinner at Back Forty West with some friends last week. After much confusion (two of us, including the person who had chosen the restaurant i.e. me, landed up at their other restaurant, Back Forty, by mistake and were half an hour late as a result!), there was a lot of chatting, eating, drinking and a really good time was had by all. The roasted spring vegetables with almonds and goat cheese were alright, but not great. Their fresh fava bean hummus, however, was awesome and my favorite! We ordered it twice!

The place reminded me of one of my favorite restaurants, Peasant (more on their spring vegetable risotto some other time!). Here are a few photos.

table for one

Do you ever eat alone at restaurants? In my thirty years of existence, I had only done it once – in Lima, Peru at a tiny chifa - until my San Francisco trip. Like many others I know, the idea of going to a proper restaurant and getting a table-for-one is quite intimidating. And it’s not just eating by myself in a public place that I find scary. I have never been to the movies or traveled to a new city/country where I didn’t know anyone, without company.

Despite the fact that I was in San Francisco for a conference and it was not my first trip to the city and I sort of knew people there, it was the closest I have come to traveling independently. I stayed in a hostel on my own for the first time. (I highly recommend their private rooms, but not so much the shared dorm, especially not the night before your presentation! I have stayed in far nicer dorms in other hostels.)

But more importantly, I finally got over my eating-alone phobia. And the experience was so much nicer than I had expected! The first place I ate at was Flour + Water. It’s an acclaimed Italian restaurant (2010 finalist in the ‘Best New Restaurant’ category of the JB Foundation awards) in the Mission neighborhood – you know the kind that requires reservations and has a long waiting line for walk-ins and apparently, even Steve Jobs had trouble getting in to! And that’s where dining alone comes in handy…it’s sooo much easier to get a seat at the bar! And you get special attention from the servers and the bartender! So, I happily ordered a pizza and a beer, chatted with the bartender, took a few pictures, read my book and ignored the little voice in my head pointing out the fact that I was the only person in the restaurant eating dinner on my own!

This was just the beginning. After my confident start, I dined out alone several times over the next few days and realized how convenient it is – you don’t need to exchange countless emails back and forth with your friends trying to figure out a date, time and a place that works for everyone; you hardly ever need a reservation or wait in line and what’s more, you can order, eat and leave at your own sweet pace.

Two other places I really enjoyed eating at were Mission Chinese Food (their Mongolian long beans are super awesome and by the way, they are coming to New York this fall!)…

…and the famed House of Nanking in Chinatown. I was a little apprehensive about it at first, given how it appears on every tourist guidebook, but I am pleased to report that their food was delicious and delightfully different from my experience of Chinese food. I had a bowl of their House Noodles that are freshly-made thin egg noodles, tossed in sesame sauce with asian spices, scallions, garlic and pea-shoots.

All this is not to say that I shall, henceforth, be abandoning my friends and only eating out alone – I still prefer company. But, I have definitely learnt that a table-for-one is a refreshing, exciting and brave place to eat at, every once in a while.

tartine bakery & cafe

Tartine is located on a beautiful street in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco. On my recent trip to the city, I spent a lovely afternoon at the café and ate a slice of strawberry Bavarian (pictured below), a buttermilk scone and a slice of carrot cake with several cups of coffee. Yes, I ate all that! And sat there for a couple of hours, reading Blood, Bones & Butter, watching people on the street pass by, in no hurry to get anywhere, happy being where I was.

red rooster, harlem

You’ve heard about Clippers, right? Well, if you haven’t, go read this pronto!

The special Spring Break Edition of our weekly Tuesday dinner took place at Red Rooster, Harlem. Red Rooster is a special and different restaurant. Not because it has great food, I have eaten much tastier and more reasonably priced food elsewhere. But there is no other place in New York that has the same ambience, location and character, at least in my experience and opinion. It is low-fi and high-fi at the same time. It is yellow and brown and black and white. It is gay and straight. It is female and male. It is old and young. It is casual and dressed up. It is beer and cocktail. It is Old Fashioned and Cosmopolitan. It is noisy. It is crowded. It is lively. It is cheerful. It is cool. It is awesome!

One of the things I judge a restaurant by is its restrooms. Ha ha , yes, it’s true! Really, try it! And Red Rooster’s restrooms don’t disappoint. They have parlor-esque picture-framed walls, full of old black and white pictures, chandeliers, and notes written by unknown former guests.

I had read and heard so much about Red Rooster way before we managed to get a reservation almost a month in advance. I usually tend to judge things very rationally, bordering on the devil’s-advocate-point-of-view. So, I was all prepared to be disappointed, but I had a feeling that it would be my kind of place. And I wasn’t disappointed. We had to wait for 15-20 minutes despite having a reservation. But we got to spot Marcus Samuelsson meanwhile! He is the person behind this restaurant. He is originally Ethiopian, raised by his adopted Swedish family and now lives in Harlem. I am a sucker for stories like this. His diversity reflects in the menu — the pairings are not always successful, but that’s okay. Dining is never just about food.

It was six of us, so we sampled quite a few things. I started with a Bourbon Negroni, which was too sweet and bland at the same time. The sip of Old Fashioned that I stole from my Oppa was quite nice though. My favorite dishes of the evening were the Fried Yard Bird and Helga’s Meatballs. I ate the Berbere Roast Chicken, but couldn’t taste the Berbere or the coconut jus or the peanuts in the slaw. The chicken was very nicely crisp though. What I absolutely LOVED was their cornbread..it’s to die for!  I should have just ordered several platefuls of it with beer and I would have been as happy as anyone ever!

They also have an open kitchen, that I peeked into. By which I mean, I stood there for 5-10 minutes and annoyed the busy cooks by asking if I could take pictures of them and, they said yes. I like doing this.

On the whole, if you are on a student budget, I would recommend going to Red Rooster for drinks, but not for food. No other place comes close on the Upper West Side/ Morningside Heights/Harlem/elsewhere in NY in terms of character. What’s more, there is live music and livelier company. Give it a try!