Yesterday, I had one of my very rare "two restaurants in one day" days. I don't often do that because 1) it's much too fattening and 2) I don't really enjoy a long fancy lunch in the middle of the day as I still have half a mind in the office and it stops my work rythym. But I have been wanting to try the Danny Meyer restaurant, Maialino, in the Gramercy Park Hotel so I went with a friend I haven't seen in a while. It's a casual and pretty Roman trattoria with friendly service and really good food. We shared the fried artichoke appetizer which was delicious-quartered artichoke hearts fried to a luscious non-greasy golden crispness and sprinkled with chopped herbs. Next to it was an anchovy sauce which was tangy and salty, the anchovies had melted into the sauce and added body and salty richness. My friend who doesn't like anchovies loved it as much as I who do like the little fish! Then she had a peppered pasta -a crinkly thick spaghetti cooked perfectly in salted water and was served with much black pepper as a garnish and was terrific-the bland (and not in a bad way) bite of the spaghetti against the heat of the pepper was terrific. I had a rich flavorful chicken broth (though to be really honest it had the funny aftertaste of chemically made broth-though I feel certain it was all made from scratch and just used a flavor I didn't recognize) with egg in it-like an Italian egg drop soup. Very luxurious but not fattening! I was actually expecting pasta in it so was very pleasantly surprised that it wasn't there. Though let's be real here-I never met a noodle I didn't like! I had affogato for dessert-one of my favorites and they gave it to me with chocolate ice cream (I would never have ordered it with the standard of vanilla with espresso poured over it). My friend and I were thrilled with the portion sizes which were admitedly on the small side but she is a model and model thin and I am a fat person hiding in a thin person's body who has to watch very carefully what I eat, so as I say we were quite happy.
What I don't understand about the newest fancy but ultra fabulous chic hotels is why they are opening pretty, casual, country decorated restaurants. The GPH is an ultra cool modern colorful artist decorated hotel and yet the restaurant has checkered tableclothes-the Standard Grill in the Standard Hotel is a similiar situation (more about that another day and I apologize for offering my life to you out of order :)).
Last night I had dinner plans with an old friend who was joing my regular Wed night glam friend plans. We all wanted exceptional but inexpensive food so I looked through my Michelin guide and found, Rhong-Tiam a Thai restaurant with 1 star and penny symbols, not dollar signs. Who would have thought such a combination possible!!! Once I looked at the picture my glam friend and I remembered we had been there before, when we needed to eat inexpensively and liked it so we made the plans.
He came to my office to pick me up but just before he arrived my other friend found she had to work late after all. Tres triste. Strangely for me, I had been craving the chili shrimp burrito from the deli next door which is highly unusual as Mexican is the one cuisine I really dislike. My glam friend loves it so he took advantage of his golden opportunity-as I never suggest Mexican to him. Unfortunately, that part of the deli was closed but by now he now had Mexican on the brain so I was to try the bar at Rosa Mexicana which was too crowded so we walked from 18th and 5th to Laguardia and 3rd to the original Thai place, Plan A, after all and we found, upon arrival was closed?!?!?! A man standing outside kept whispering "next door, next door" so we went next door to a Cuban place (Favela Cubano) which turned out to be delicious (though more of a pan-Latin cafe, than a specific or authentic Cuban place). I often have to stay away from Cuban food for how pork heavy it is but I looked at the menu and saw many other options. I started with the banana/chicken/tomato/almond salad which really delicious and again an odd choice for me as I don't like lettuce very much and I don't eat meat (especially chicken which I detest). I then had the shrimp mango avocado salad, also, very good but I liked the other better while my glam friend had roast chicken and mashed potatoes. The chicken smelled divine and the skin was so deeply colored that at first I thought it was steak and it looked really juicy on the inside. We then went to an old college hangout of mine, Cafe Reggio, a very beatnik coffe house around forever and popular long before Starbucks existed and it was as charming as I remembered!
It was a day full of adventure and a very enjoyable one. Tonight my glam friend is coming to dinner at my house which I am of course looking forward to. I just called Murray's in Grand Central Market to have them hold some buratta (his absolute favorite cheese) for me to make as part of an appetizer. And Wild Edibles has my husband's favorite Scottish wild salmon and my favorite salmon roe. I expect a very fab dinner with everyone having a favorite!
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