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Citi Field – Mama’s of Corona and Box Frites

Friday, August 21st, 2009 by virginia

DSCN1805

Since it was my first visit to Citi Field, we arrived early for the 7:10 game against the Phillies, as I wanted time to walk around the stadium, and I also wanted to make sure we got the promotional sports bags that were offered that night. Unfortunately, it had been raining on off all day, and was drizzling steadily when we got to the stadium. I checked online before I left work but they hadn’t made any announcements about the game being cancelled or delayed, so when we arrived at 6, we already had plenty of time to kill. After making a loop to see all the concession stand offerings, it was finally announced that the game would be delayed until 8:30. Bummer. Luckily, our seats were high enough that they were under the overhang in the top deck so we decided to grab some food and sit out the delay.

As I did with our visit to Yankee Stadium, I checked online for reviews of all the offerings at Citi Field (I keep wanting to call it Shea Stadium still!). While the Shake Shack and Blue Smoke had obvious appeal, I figured that this would probably be my first and last visit to Citi Field this season, so I wanted to try something that I haven’t had before and couldn’t easily access in Manhattan. I remembered reading a lot about the special sandwich Mama’s of Corona on the Feisty Foodie and that’s where we ended up.

The taste of NY concession area, which we walked through but didn't get anything

The Taste of the City concession area, which we walked through but didn't get anything (except Box Frites)

I don’t know if it was because we were early or because of the weather, but the World Market where Mama’s of Corona is located was completely empty. Josh and I weren’t that hungry yet so we decided to split the special sandwich. There were a bunch of them already pre-made and stacked behind the counter so all we had to do was wait for it to be boxed up and we were on our way. We stopped by the Catch of the Day stand to pick up some Blue Point Toasted Lager (I love the range of beer offerings at Citi Field – much better than Yankee Stadium!) and headed up to our seats.

A stack of pre-made sandwiches ready to be packed up from Mama's of Corona

The special sandwich has fresh mozzarella, genoa salami, and black pepper ham on it. Looking at the sandwich, I was disappointed by the thin layer of meat it had. Basically there was only one layer of salami, and one layer of ham. It definitely was not a hearty Italian sandwich that we’re used to.

Not a super stuffed Italian sandwich

The sandwich came with a small container of roasted pepper and a container of marinated mushrooms. We added on both to provide some extra heft and flavor. Even though the sandwich was pre-made, the bread was still pretty fresh and had a nice soft chew to it. Out of the fillings, the black pepper ham really stood out, but it’s not for you if you don’t like the taste of the black pepper. I did take a bite without the extra condiments and it wasn’t as tasty. The roasted peppers and the mushrooms added a nice zing and complemented the mozzarella cheese.

The sandwich was better after adding on the marinated mushroom and roasted pepper condiments

Overall I wasn’t the hugest fan of this sandwich, though it wasn’t bad. I definitely thought the bread-to-filling ratio was off, and the only thing I could really taste from the meats was the black pepper on the ham. At $9.75, it’s a pricey sandwich for what you get, but not so pricey considering the venue. Stadium food is always overpriced, and this was a nice change from the usual hot dogs and hamburgers. I’d probably try out some other foods before I would order this sandwich again though.

As the storm passed, the sky turned an amazing red/purple color

The rain eventually did stop, and the game started around 8:30 as promised. It was a pretty exciting game, with the Phillies taking the early lead but then the Mets pulling ahead. After that it was a nail biter to hold onto the lead, as the Phillies were presented with lots of scoring opportunities. Midway through the game we started to feel a bit puckish, so Josh headed down and picked up a large order of fries from Box Frites.

A large order of fries from Box Frites

Since it was later in the game, the stand had run out of most dipping sauces, which was a bit disappointing. We ended up with the olive and pepperocini sauce, which is mayo based. It didn’t have a strong olive flavor but there was a nice tangy kick from the pepperocini. Josh preferred this sauce (haha bet he didn’t know there was mayo in it) while I stuck mostly with ketchup. The fries were really good though, thick cut, hot, and crispy. I preferred these fries to the skinny Garlic Fries at Yankee Stadium, though the garlic sauce on top of those fries were much better than the olive and pepperocini dipping sauce. The perfect combination would be the Box Frites fries with the Garlic Fries sauce. Mmmm.

Olive and pepperocini dip for the frites

Overall I thought the food options at Citi Field were much better than the ones at Yankee Stadium. I also prefer the openness of Citi Field to that of Yankee Stadium. While both stadiums offer field views from the concession areas, Citi Field just seemed much airier and more welcoming to me. And the Taste of the City area is really a great idea. It’s a nice wide open space with lots of food choices, making it a good place to hang out before the game. And the beer options are also better at Citi Field, making it a complete overall experience for me. Too bad the Mets haven’t lived up to their new stadium this season!

Tags: Baseball, Fries, Mets, Sandwiches
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Fiore’s Deli

Thursday, August 20th, 2009 by virginia

fiore

I don’t watch 30 Rock, much to Josh’s sister’s dismay, but somehow I ended up watching the “Sandwich Day” episode that featured a roast beef and mozzarella sandwich with magical dipping sauce. It was and still is the only episode of 30 Rock that I’ve seen, and I couldn’t get that sandwich out of my mind, or the scene of Tina Fey’s character eating it at the airport security gate because the dipping sauce was over 3 ounces.

I read a post on Serious Eats New York that revealed the sandwich to be from Fiore’s Deli in Hoboken. Even though Hoboken is just across the Hudson, and Josh and I are in NJ fairly often, we could never find the time to get over to Fiore’s to try out this sandwich. So when Josh was assigned to a project in Jersey City and he mentioned that he had been hoofing it over to Hoboken for lunch, I quickly looked up the deli’s address and found that it wasn’t too far from his office. I asked him to pick up some sandwiches for dinner and made sure to tell him that he had to go on a Thursday, as that was when the magical dipping sauce would be available.

So the last Thursday before his Jersey City project ended, Josh made the trip to Fiore’s. He picked up two sandwiches, which are so large that they’re really like four sandwiches, and brought back 1.5 for our dinner that night (he ate a half for lunch).

A crazy big half of a sandwich

He also got a huge container of the magical dipping sauce, which is gravy made from the roast beef drippings. We heated the gravy up on the stove, and it smelled and looked a lot like soy sauce.

The magical gravy dipping sauce

Fortunately it didn’t taste like soy sauce, although I thought a detected a hint of it in the flavor. Maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me since it really looked so much like soy sauce. We also heated up the sandwiches briefly in the oven, since the bread had gotten very soggy from traveling all day. While the bread crisped up nicely, and the cheese got a little melty, I think it dried out the roast beef unfortunately.

Autopsy shot

The dry roast beef wasn’t a huge issue though, as we had lots of dipping sauce on hand. I liberally dipped each bite into the gravy, letting it soak into everything.

Lots of dipping action

Overall I must admit that I was a little disappointed with this sandwich. I know a lot of it was probably my fault in not eating it right away and reheating it in the oven, but the flavors weren’t as good as I thought they’d be; it was kind of one note. The beef didn’t have a huge amount of flavor to it.

Josh did eat half a sandwich right away, and while he said the roast beef was definitely moister originally, the bread was better after being toasted. And I’m sure the mozzarella cheese lost a lot of its fresh taste after being melted a bit. I thought the sandwiches would have roasted peppers on them but maybe you need to specially request them. I wonder if adding those would have helped perk up the flavors of the sandwich.

I think I’ll need to find a Saturday to make the trip to Fiore’s Deli myself, so that I can have a freshly made sandwich and dipping sauce and eat it right away. I don’t think that I can fairly judge this sandwich at this point. I also wouldn’t mind trying some other things that the deli has to offer!

Fiore’s Deli
414 Adams St.
Hoboken, NJ

Tags: Deli, Hoboken, NJ, Sandwiches
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#4 – Bouley – The best 5 meals of my life (so far)

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 by josh

New York, NY USA. March 2007
4 course prix fixe
My favorite food author, Anthony Bourdain, says his first oyster was what made him realize that food could be special. I remember what I ate that made me feel this way too. The Grand Marnier soufflé at Le Cote Basque on my sister’s birthday sometime when I was around 9 years old, was, up to that point, one of the most unique things I had ever eaten. I don’t know how it happened, but I became a soufflé nut. I’d look for restaurants that made it well. For example, Chez Madeleine in Bergenfield, NJ was a must for chocolate soufflé, and even its successor, Madeleine’s Petite Paris (with far inferior savory food) maintained the chocolate masterpiece. I even took to making my own soufflé and was given all the necessary materials and tools by my aunt on a particularly young birthday. It should come as no surprise then, that on my birthday, I commonly request a French meal, particularly at places that serve dessert soufflés. Bouley seemed a perfect choice: renowned restaurant and it has chocolate soufflé for dessert. Although we ate this meal way before Virginia began photographing food, I still remember what I ate. Tuna tartar, “Return From Chiang Mai” (Lobster), lamb chops and, of course, the chocolate soufflé. All this, combined with good wine, amazing bread, and impeccable ambiance and service, was unmatched at the time.

Tags: top5
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Go Go Curry

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 by virginia

I first read about Go Go Curry on Midtown Lunch and now it’s part of our regular lunch rotation, though we can’t get it too often because I always feel incredibly full after eating it. Josh and I always share a Grand Slam order, which is a massive mound of rice covered in curry and topped with a huge chicken katsu, a pork katsu, two sausages, a shrimp tempura, a hard boiled egg, and shredded cabbage. The container it comes in weighs a ton and it’s just a crazy amount of food. We can’t even finish off one order between the two of us.

The Grand Slam

The curry, however, doesn’t look anything like any curry that I’ve ever had. It’s a super dark brown color, whereas all the other curries I’ve had previously at other Japanese restaurants have been a lighter greenish color. This curry is mixed with little bits of pork so it’s definitely not vegetarian friendly. It has a thick, rich texture and is slightly sweet tasting. It also doesn’t have the same complexity of spices that is found in other curries, so it might be a bit friendlier to people who claim they hate all curry.

The curry is a deep brown color and full of pork bits

The chicken katsu and pork katsu are always perfectly fried and still remain a little crispy even after being transported in a styrofoam container. The chicken is a bit thicker than the pork, though the pork is always a bit more moist and flavorful.

Chicken katsu up close

The shrimp tempura is a large piece but it’s heavily breaded and always comes slathered in mayo, which makes it soggy. I could do without the mayo, as this dish is rich enough.

Shrimp tempura

The sausages are pretty fatty and greasy but mild in flavor. They taste more like hot dogs than sausages, which I like, since I’m not a sausage fan. I’m not sure why the hard boiled egg is there, but it’s just another protein option for this already packed meal.

Go Go Curry is basically an homage to Hideki Matsui of the Yankees. “Go” in Japanese means “five”, and Matsui’s number is 55. When Matsui hits a home run during a game at Yankee Stadium, the restaurant gives out free topping cards the next day. They also give out free topping cards on the 5^th, 15^th, and 25^th of each month. Keep in mind that toppings at Go Go Curry are things like chicken katsu, and they give you the whole chicken cutlet; it’s a pretty good deal. While I don’t know how authentic the curry is (reviews vary), I find it pretty tasty and very filling. Grab a friend and split a Grand Slam so you can get a taste of lots of different toppings. I just don’t recommend trying to finish one off yourself, but if you can, I will be super impressed.

Go Go Curry
273 West 38^th St. between 7^th and 8^th Ave.
New York, NY

Tags: Curry, Japanese, Lunch, Midtown
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Bar Boulud

Sunday, August 16th, 2009 by virginia

DSCN1761

Josh has been itching to try Bar Boulud ever since we moved into the neighborhood. We pass it all the time and the tables outside on the sidewalk are always full. Plus it’s a Daniel Boulud restaurant, so how bad can it be? I reminded Josh that this restaurant’s main focus is on charcuterie, however, and not necessarily on standard french main courses and appetizers. Nevertheless, we have both been intrigued by the art of charcuterie ever since we read The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman, which chronicles the Certified Master Chef exam, of which charcuterie plays a major part.

Josh was able to get us a reservation for Sunday night dinner so off we went. We arrived early for our reservation (surprising!) but they seated us right away, even though our party was incomplete. We had a table next to the window at the front of the restaurant, so we had a nice view of the “wine cave” tunnel that makes up most of the dining area.

The main room is a tunnel built like a wine cave

However, it was unbearably hot where we were. I don’t know if the heat was an issue in the whole restaurant, but we were seated underneath a vent and nothing was coming out of it. This continued for our entire dinner, making most of us feel extremely uncomfortable. We asked our waitress about it and she said the air was on, but we definitely couldn’t feel it.

Nevertheless, we fanned ourselves with our menus as we looked at the long list of offerings. We were pleasantly surprised to see that they were offering a $35 “Endless Weekends” prix fixe dinner menu that had several tempting options. While we were perusing the menus, a runner dropped off a basket of big puffy gougeres. These were deliciously light and cheesy, and we finished them off immediately.

Puffy, crispy, and chewy gougeres

Sadly, they replaced our basket of gougeres with regular bread. I would have liked more of the cheese puffs! The bread wasn’t bad; it just didn’t have a crispy crust and was very chewy. I did enjoy the accompanying butter, which had a nice sprinkling of coarse salt on top.

Ok bread with good butter and salt

Most of us chose to order from the $35 prix fixe, except that they ran out of one of the entrees, a braised heritage berkshire pork shank. Josh was the only one who decided to order a la carte instead, since the rest of us covered all the other prix fixe options.

We decided to share some charcuterie to start before getting into our appetizers. We got an order of Pate Grand-Mere, which is made from chicken liver, pork and cognac. It was a huge piece of pate and was not too overwhelming in chicken liver flavor, which is good or bad depending on your preference. It had a nice subtle liver-ness to it but was still very rich. Josh is not a liver fan and he still enjoyed this dish.

Pate grand-mere

We also had a terrine of lamb, eggplant, and sweet potato. This had a softer, smoother texture than the Pate Grand-Mere but the flavors were more muddled. The lamb was not gamey at all, and had I not seen the menu I wouldn’t have known we were having lamb. It didn’t taste bad but there was nothing about it that stood out.

Lamb, eggplant, and sweet potato terrine

Finally, we shared a plate of prosciutto san daniele, which was sliced very thinly and deliciously fatty. The prosciutto had a nice soft texture and basically melted in your mouth.

Prosciutto san daniele

They gave us pieces of toasted brown bread to spread the pate and terrines on. The crunchiness of the toast worked well with the smoothness of the charcuterie.

A piece of crunchy brown toast and a little taste of everything

Moving on to the appetizers, we had a choice of gazpacho, gnocchi with chorizo, or rabbit and beef cheek terrines. Josh’s cousin selected the gazpacho, which was an impressive bright red color and had watermelon in it in addition to the usual gazpacho ingredients. It was pureed smooth and was perfectly seasoned. The bright flavors really popped and it had a nice tang to it. It really was a refreshing course after the heavy pate and terrine.

Bright and tasty gazpacho

Josh’s parents both selected the gnocchi with chorizo, which was an absolutely delicious dish and the winner out of all the appetizers. The gnocchi were melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the chorizo added a nice smoky background to the sauce. I ended up stealing half of Josh’s mom’s portion, as I was not so happy with my own appetizer selection.

Gnocchi with chorizo

I had originally ordered the gnocchi dish myself, but after everyone ordered I switched last minute to the terrines, since no one else had ordered that as an appetizer. I didn’t have the foresight to think that we were already getting a pate and another terrine to start. By the time we finished those pre-appetizers, I was pretty much terrined out. The beef cheek terrine was very similar to the lamb terrine, though it was a bit meatier in flavor. It was also very rich and heavy, and I didn’t feel the need to finish it. The rabbit terrine was much lighter, and had nice chunks of rabbit meat in it. I enjoyed this terrine a lot more but I still preferred the gnocchi. I must say that they did give a generous portion of each terrine, which is nice considering it was part of the prix fixe special.

Beef cheek terrine on the left and rabbit terrine on the right

Josh was the only one who didn’t order off the prix fixe menu, and he opted for steak tartare as his appetizer. The tartare tasted wonderfully fresh and was nicely seasoned. It was served with crunchy potato gaufrettes, though there weren’t enough chips to last through all the tartare. Nevertheless, it was my second favorite appetizer of the evening.

Steak tartare

For his main course, Josh selected the coq au vin. It fell cleanly off the bone but I thought the meat was still very dry. I also didn’t think it had enough seasoning or a deep enough wine flavor, but Josh seemed to enjoy the dish a lot. The hand rolled pasta that was mixed with the dish was an interesting twist though, and a nice addition I thought.

Coq au vin

Josh’s mom ordered the moules a la provencale, which were steamed mussels in a white wine broth with tomatoes and herbs. It was a pretty decently sized bowl of mussels but a bit lacking in flavor. It wasn’t that they were bad, they just didn’t have a nice garlic punch that you tend expect from mussels steamed in white wine.

Moules a la provencale

The rest of us opted for the grilled angus steak with market beans and smoked onion mashed potatoes. My steak was cooked rare to order and nicely seasoned. The market beans were sauteed but a bit boring. The mashed potatoes, however, had a nice smokiness to them, and the caper steak sauce that was drizzled on top of the meat and potatoes really added a lot to the flavor of the dish. This was my favorite entree of the group.

Steak with beans and smoked onion mashed potatoes

We also ordered some sides to share. First up was a cauliflower gratin, which was kind of like mac and cheese but made with big pieces of cauliflower. It was creamy and cheesy and totally addictive.

Cauliflower gratin

Our order of spinach didn’t come out as expected, but it was still tasty. We thought it would be sauteed spinach; instead, what we got was more like creamed spinach without cream. The spinach was chopped very finely and had a smooth texture.

Some kind of spinach

Lastly, we couldn’t go to a French restaurant and not get pommes frites. The french fries were cut very thin and were nicely seasoned but unfortunately, they were really soggy. That was kind of disappointing, even though they still tasted really good.

Pommes frites

For dessert, the prix fixe menu came with a choice of apricot clafoutis or coupe framboise, which was white chocolate mousse with fresh raspberries, pistachio crumble, and strawberry sorbet. The presentation of the coupe framboise was really nice, with everything layered in a clear glass. The white chocolate mousse was creamy and delicious, and all the ingredients just worked really well together.

Coupe framboise

The apricot clafoutis was and almond cake topped with apricots and a layer of crumble on top. While I didn’t think almond cake and apricot worked well together at Morimoto, this dessert was really scrumptious and comforting. The cake part was a bit eggy, the apricots soft and sweet, and the crumble added a nice textural contrast.

Apricot clafoutis

Josh ordered his dessert a la carte, and then traded with his cousin for the coupe framboise. She is a self-proclaimed total chocoholic and couldn’t turn down the tarte au chocolat classique, a chocolate tart with hazelnut spread and chocolate-vanilla ice cream. It was super rich and super chocolately, perfect for any chocolate-lover.

Tarte au chocolat

Overall I enjoyed certain aspects of Bar Boulud, but not everything. Apparently I’m not a huge fan of terrines and pates, but I appreciate the skill that it takes to make them. The $35 prix fixe menu was a pretty good deal, especially since the a la carte options here are pretty pricey. Though the place is always full and bustling, the atmosphere is still pretty laid back and relaxed. Our waitress was attentive but not overbearing. While I’m not sure that I would come back here for another full meal, I might stop by for a nice glass wine and some cured meats and cheeses.

Bar Boulud
1900 Broadway between 63^rd and 64^th St.
New York, NY

Tags: French, Prix Fixe, Upper West Side
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#5 – Cervecería Catalana – The best 5 meals of my life (so far)

Sunday, August 16th, 2009 by josh

Barcelona, Spain. December 2006

Tapas

One of the best meals of my life was also one of the most unexpected. The first time I was at Cervecería Catalana was in the spring of 2000 and I didn’t think anything more than that I had found the best tapas restaurant in Barcelona. When I returned in 2006 with Virginia, because Virginia would complain about how much I talked about Barcelona, we ate there twice in three days. Thinking back, I’ll confuse what I ate at each meal, but it was all fabulous. Pimientos de padron, garlic shrimp, calcots (only in season due to a freak warm spell), chiperones, calamares rellenos and more. The mood of Barcelona and atmosphere in the restaurant that’s crowded even at 1AM both contribute to the overall experience. I recommend this place to all my friends who travel to Barcelona and can’t wait to return myself and try more offerings. The only downside to this trip was that I didn’t get to see my friend Ana, whose email address I lost when I moved several years ago and a computer died.

Tags: top5
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The best 5 meals of my life (so far)

Saturday, August 15th, 2009 by josh

Since Virginia has been posting details about our various dining exploits it doesn’t make much sense for me to duplicate those. I’ve been thinking for a while, as you can tell from my absence on this site, about my role here. Besides writing about my independent dining experiences, the result of my job’s travel requirements, I’d like to be able to contribute on a more regular basis. I suppose I could be considered the TFB “features” writer. Is there a word for “amateur writer”?

With this role in mind I decided my first post had to be positive. Since we’ve started the blog I’ve noticed that I’ve become more critical about my meals and have begun to notice things that irk me. For instance, servers at a fancy restaurant reaching across me to lay a plate or clearing the table before everyone’s finished. I don’t want to use my space here to kvetch (although I will one day), but to fulfill the spirit of TFB: our love for food and how it can make you feel. The feeling after a wonderful meal is unique and memorable. I was reminded of this after Virginia wrote her post on Alinea; just looking at those photos still makes me smile like an idiot.

My next five posts are going to be about the best five meals I’ve ever had. Writing about them isn’t as enjoyable as eating these meals was, but the memory of each keeps that stupid grin on my face. Two thoughts linger in my mind after re-reading what I wrote (and am going to post over the next few days): 1) I am extremely blessed and lucky to have had the opportunity to eat like this over the last few years and 2) how many great meals there are to look forward to as chefs raise the bar over and over again. This list will be a living feature on this site. I will update it as it changes; I just hope it changes often.

Tags: top5
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Fat Sal’s Pizza

Saturday, August 15th, 2009 by virginia

So I have a dilemma that I thought I’d put forth to you, the readers. If you had some of the best pizza you’ve ever eaten, but it showed up to your door looking like this, would you order from this pizza place again?

This is what our pizza looked like when it arrived - no joke

Thus is my experience with Fat Sal’s Pizza. In the interest of full disclosure, I may have caused our pizza to arrive looking like that, although I still don’t know if that makes it acceptable.

We were continuing our quest for our go-to pizza place and decided to try out Fat Sal’s on 10^th Ave. I placed our order on delivery.com, a website that we’ve used before, and somehow our address was messed up. I don’t really know how that happened, but I must’ve mistyped it at some point. We do have an account and I just logged into it, so I didn’t check the address before I submitted our order. We’ve ordered using that account previously without any problems so I wasn’t aware there was an issue.

Nevertheless, when the pizzeria called us up to verify our address, Josh apologized profusely about the mistake. So the deliveryman had traveled four blocks out of his way, and we honestly felt badly about it. We planned to make it up to him in the tip, and we would have completely understood if it took a long time for the delivery to come or if our food was cold. We were definitely in the wrong, and we knew that.

We didn’t open up the pizza box until after the deliveryman took his tip and left, and now we understand his haste in getting out of our apartment. Lets see that picture again, close up this time, and from a different angle.

Different angle, but still just as messed up

So what happened? Did he purposely turn our pizza box sideways in retaliation for sending him to the wrong address? But he must have realized it was an honest mistake, not a vicious sabotage to send him four blocks in the wrong direction. And why didn’t he think that we would be apologetic and try to make it up to him with a larger tip? It doesn’t make sense. I can understand that if we shafted him on the tip, then the next time we ordered he would do that to our pizza. So maybe he dropped the pizza by accident? The pizza was in such a state that there’s no way he didn’t realize he had dropped it or tilted it severely. It was completely mangled and glued together at the side of the box.

I managed to pry most of the pieces apart, but not without losing a lot of cheese in the process. Surprisingly, the pizza was still warm. The crust was pretty floppy though, and I don’t know if that was a result of the treatment or if that’s how the crust normally is. It wasn’t super thin nor was it too thick. The outer crust was actually really good, with a bit of crispiness on the outside and a nice chewy texture on the inside. It reminded me of a really good baguette. Despite the floppiness, I really did enjoy the pizza and thought it was the best that I’ve had yet on our quest.

Mangled slice with unintentional underside shot

The chicken parmesan hero was also really good. It was huge and served on a nice crispy roll. There was a lot of chicken but could have used a bit more cheese. Still, it was pretty tasty.

Chicken parm hero

The garlic knots were standard but they had a nice texture to them and good garlic coverage.

Decent garlic knots

So what’s the verdict? I don’t know. I really enjoyed the pizza and would have definitely ordered from here again had the pizza not arrived in such a disastrous state. But I do feel bad about the address mix-up, so maybe I was partially to blame. Still, do I want to order from a place that would either be so vindictive or so careless? It’s a tough call. I’m going to work my way through the other pizzerias in the area, and if I don’t find anything better, maybe I’ll consider ordering from here again. If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Fat Sal’s Pizza (multiple locations)
730 10^th Ave. at 50^th St.
New York, NY

Tags: Delivery, Midtown West, Pizza
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New Taco Express

Friday, August 14th, 2009 by virginia

New Taco Express is one of those super cheap Mexican food joints that is neither authentic nor outstanding but offers quick and decent food at great prices. It’s almost identical to the Fresco Tortilla restaurants that are available all over the city. While the food isn’t spectacular, it’s reliable and you always know what to expect; it’s kind of like fast food in that regard.

I usually get the same order at these places – a combination plate with chicken, and tex-mex chili on a flour tortilla. The combination plates are huge and come with chicken, rice, beans (black or pinto, your choice), lettuce, tomato, and two flour tortillas. The flour tortillas are my favorite – they’re homemade and thicker and doughier than supermarket tortillas. They have a nice mild flavor and a pleasant chewy texture. The chicken that comes with the combination plate is an ample portion and more than enough to fill the two tortillas. I always mix the rest with the rice and beans and eat it with a fork.

Chicken combination plate

The tex-mex chili is pretty standard but I think of it as comfort food. It’s usually a bit oily but this version was actually not that bad. And it just gives me an excuse to eat another flour tortilla.

Chili on a flour tortilla

Josh got a combination plate with steak and chicken. Again, it’s a lot of food, and the meats are decently tender and nicely seasoned. At less than $6 a plate, you really can’t go wrong.

Chicken and steak combination plate

If you accept New Taco Express for what it is, the food really isn’t terrible. It’s not gourmet, and not even really Mexican, but the food is cheap, filling, and dependable. When it’s late at night and you’re at a loss for what to have for dinner, it fits the bill. The delivery comes super quick and the food is always hot. The two of us can eat for less than $15, and I’ll still have leftovers for lunch.

New Taco Express
857 9th Ave. between 55th and 56th St.
New York, NY

Tags: Delivery, Mexican, Midtown West
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Rattle & Hum

Thursday, August 13th, 2009 by virginia

Josh’s coworkers are pretty avid beer drinkers so their favorite spot for happy hour is currently Rattle & Hum. They have a huge list of beers from all over the world on tap. The beer offerings change often, and they’re printed on a paper menu that lists each beer’s ranking and % alcohol by volume. If you find too many beers that you want to try, you can order a flight that comes with four 4 oz pours. That way you can try as many beers as you’d like without getting too wasted.

A tasting flight of beer

After you’ve had a few drinks, you’re bound to want some food. The favorite here is the boneless buffalo wings that are spicy and saucy and come with celery, carrot sticks, and blue cheese dressing. They use white meat chicken so it can get a little dry, but the ample amount of sauce usually helps with that. We always order the wings hot so the sauce has a nice kick to it.

Spicy boneless buffalo wings

We also tried an order of their chili nachos, which was a huge messy pile covered in beef chili and cheese. Unfortunately the tortilla chips they use taste kind of funny, like they are the baked variety. They had a weird cardboard-y taste and texture and I found them to be pretty unpleasant. It was too bad, because the other ingredients were really tasty. We ended up only eating the top layer of the nachos, where there was the most topping to cover up the flavor of the tortilla chips. I probably wouldn’t order this dish again.

Chili and cheese nachos

Rattle & Hum is a must-visit bar for any beer lover. We go there all the time and I rarely repeat my beer orders. There are so many options to choose from and it’s a lot of fun to try all the different varieties of brews. The food isn’t the greatest but we come here for the beer; the food is to just soak up the alcohol. If you’re really hungry after all that drinking, the bar is just a stone’s throw away from K-town. You only need to walk one block and you’ll find some of the city’s best Korean BBQ joints!

Rattle & Hum
14 East 33^rd St. between 5^th and Madison Ave.
New York, NY

Tags: Bars, Beer, Midtown
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