trufflepalooza

We had a table but I saw two bar seats, stopped John (the bartender) to ask if they were taken and planted my butt down when he said they weren't. The bar is ALWAYS better than a table. I don't care where you are, this is a rule of life. 

Oh, y'all. I should have taken a photo of the menu tonight at Locanda Verde. Mostly because I took a cursory glance, saw that there was two of everything and looked at Ted to say, "Of course we get one of each." He responded, "Of course," and that was that.

We had an artichoke soup with some kind of mushroom and a dabble of some kind of cream with white truffles shaved on top. We had steak tartare with white truffles shaved on top. We had the usual focaccia with rosemary and truffle oil. There was a delicate ricotta ravioli with white truffles shaved on top. See the pattern here? We had a spinach pappardelle with walnuts and white truffles shaved on top. For dessert we had some kind of honeyed cake with white truffles shaved on top with a vanilla bean cream and a sorbet which Ted ate all of but which looked like it might have been made with pineapple? And also a truffled gelato that had white truffles shaved on top and also maybe a cherry (which, again, Ted ate). He drank Verdicchio. I had the Falanghina. We left with what felt like the permanent taste of truffles in our mouths. SO GOOD. 

I should also mention that Andrew Carmellini is blogging. Blogging gorgeous photos with bits and pieces about his new place that I'm highly anticipating because I think it's more fun to run a place in a restaurant not owned by some celebrity and huge corporate backers. I trust his taste and his vision and it'll be great to see him run a bit wild. 

We stopped into Smith & Mills next because they make a damn good Dark and Stormy, muddling all the ginger so that it's in itty bitty pieces that you suck up through your straw and get to chew on and it's sweet and spicy and all sorts of lovely.

I walked by the police stable on my way to the train and saw a stocky man showing a horse into his cubby. He held up a single index finger, letting me know it would be a minute and dragged the big tawny guy my way to say hello. I gave him some pats on his long white nose. He was wet. "He's just had a bath," was the minder's explanation. The horse, a boy, was fidgety. "I just gave him his dinner but brought him over to say 'hi' so he's telling me he's hungry." I gave him some long strokes along his cheek and the man caring for him brought him back to his carrel. The man's name was Daniel. He's from Panama but got his U.S. citizenship in 2006, though he'd moved here in 1990. He used to work on a farm in Panama. The police don't walk the horses around manhattan, but instead, bring them into boroughs and even New Jersey to navigate places that don't have paved roads. Daniel said the horses were treated well. He also said that horses at the racetracks are also mostly treated well. We both love Arlington, the horsetrack in IL that I grew up near. 

A lovely end to a truffle-filled evening. Sometimes this city is so beautiful I can't even stand it. 

A piece about raw beef with Mike Toscano is running on Esquire this week and I have a bit on schnitzel on a new site any minute. Will link them both when they show up!

Jeffrey's dinner

Stopped into Gabe Stulman's new place the other night.

Shared the cheapest bottle of white on the menu, but it was totally drinkable. Then moved to red. Something with big lettering on the bottle, maybe about velvet? We'd possibly done some shots with the staff and things got hazy.

Lots of family/friends/regulars in the house.

Had a plate of oysters. They had three east coast and three west coast varieties so we got two of each though we should have just gotten a dozen Kumamoto since those were our favorites and we knew that before we started. Some shrimp and King Crab claws thrown in for good measure.

Moved to a cheese plate (humboldt fog, a goat and a blue) with the ham and beef (which are served with an amazing cornichon/mustard puree). 

Sea bass over lentils. Okay, I love a lentil. I just do. This was fantastic, it was a special though, so don't look for it on the menu.

Chef Eric tried his hand at a red velvet cake and we had a sliver of that. He said it needed more cocoa, we disagreed.

They're still trying to find a rhythm over there but everyone is pretty forgiving. Lots of Joseph Leonard regulars convening there because they don't know where else to go. Lost little puppies looking for a home. I am a lost little puppy. And I'm already going through bloody mary withdrawl. Might have to make my own. 

various food events

san diego was fantastic. stayed at the andaz, which is one of the best hotels in the city but we kind of hated it. the rooms had no light and no lamps and it was impossible to do work in the room. we got an "upgrade" which was just them moving us to a room with a king-sized bed which looked into the restaurant so we had to keep the curtains closed 24/7. they have this club on the roof which is pretty tacky but the pool is otherwise lovely and colin and i spent time getting sun and doing some work in a cabana in the rain.

the best part of the trip was searsucker, brian malarkey's new place. it was FANTASTIC. one of the best meals i've had in years. get the brussels sprouts.

i wrote up the new yorker festival for mediaite over here. 

i've pulled a bunch of my eating posts here and moved them to a separate blog: A.B.E. Always Be Eating. just made sense to separate it. sorry to andrew carmellini and the joseph leonard folks who will have that new place pop up in their google alerts some 15 times each due to the re-posting. i'm still deciding whether to keep the food stuff entirely separate or whether to just repost it there as it happens...suggestions? i use this here blog as a sort of livejournal and would hate to have my life separated into two like that, but feel the food stuff has to have its own place now that i've started writing. 

trufflepalooza is coming up again! ted is joining, I'll come back with a full report.

i've had such a busy few weeks that i'm starting to just forget where i've been and what i've done. BAD. 

had the honor of attending the Michelin Red Guide drop party. i'm possibly working on a story about supper clubs and talked to michael white, drew nieporent, jean georges, daniel boulud and others about them. the food at the party, cooked by supper clubs, was fantastic. the caliber of cooking these guys are doing blows my mind. whisk and ladle had this celery root soup with veal cheek croutons that i'm having dreams about. city grit did fried shrimp and grits which were awesome (and eater's favorite). i met the sweetest girl there, a travel writer for AOL who won a shorty! for weirdest tweets! she has a llama that tweets at people to do ridiculous things at their desks. small little tasks that are silly, and probably entertaining for those stuck in a cubicle all day. reggie watts performed and HE IS THE SHIT. 

then new york wine and food festival happened. had a steak sponsored afterparty at some random mid-town club. let me tell you, if you ever hear "steak sponsored" and "party" in the same sentence: GO. filet was all over, as much as you could eat. they had a beautiful rose champagne and some pretty awesome music. 

finally tried relais de venise, the outpost of the famous french place that i adore. in three words: not as good. the sauce is lacking kick (or salt) and the portion was small. service was spotty and there were a few screaming babies in attendance (due to location, i'd assume). but afterwards we hit rudy's. consumed 1 pitcher of blonde and no hot dogs. then stopped by joseph leonard which pretty much the best place to be at that second because the 2nd place winners in the burger bash, mo koyfman and ben leventhal were there celebrating and their award winning burger was being given out gratis to everyone still in the restaurant. AMAZING. getting the #2 burger without having to pay the $250 burger bash entry fee: priceless.

gabe's jeffrey's grocery opened last week too and i was luckily invited to friends and family there. wine and cheese were in abundance but it was a good chance to catch up with some regulars. met phyllis who immediately seized my arm and dragged me over to meet a cute bartender when she found out i was single. "it's my jewish grandmother's instinct," she said, apologetically.

birthday at blue hill at stone barns

so, i had a birthday. i turned 30. i'm all kinds of whatever about it. in fact, i've been telling people i'm 30 for months now thinking that saying 29 seems a wee bit clingy to my 20's, which i'm certainly not! me and 20 of my nearest and dearest all took a train out to tarrytown (a train i almost missed because the subways were so completely fucked) and were all treated like royalty at blue hill at stone barns. a private lobby overlooking the gardens where they brought us bellinis and whatever other drinks we wanted and then all these yummy passed canapes. sesame seed crusted baby zucchini, tomato burgers, tomato foam things on tart shells that sound crazy but were INSANELY GOOD, and high class tater tots with pickle slices, polenta tarts, a few more tomato things ('tis the season). we sat down to a gorgeous tomato salad with ricotta and peaches. moved onto pork something (this is where the afternoon starts to get hazy because i'm drinking too much). david gave a lovely speech about how delightful i am. i cried (again, probably, with the alcohol). i gave a rambling speech about being so lucky and grateful for such awesome people in my life. and also that i was thankful for pork. dessert was some gorgeous cake with berries. we moved to the bar and drank some more. blaise maybe stole a tomato off a table. and an egg, which was presented to me as a present, which i presently dropped on the train platform. (grrr, alcohol.) oh, and then, THEN we thought it was a great idea to go to the frying pan and drink a lot of beer. 

i know my friends had a good time because one spent all night throwing up, another forgot she'd had sex with her boyfriend that night (she apologized about passing out before sex and he was all, "what do you mean? we had sex" HA). 

saturday was the jazz age lawn party at governors island. bill cunningham took a bunch of photos of us but i'd DIE, just absolutely be DEAD if any of them ran in the nytimes. we are here taking a candid shot!

i wrote something for esquire. seriously, try that bloody mary. it's off the hook. 

cabrito: my movie choice

labyrinth, by my request, was the monday night movie at cabrito. it's one of the first movies i remember being entranced by. (the other was west side story, which changed my life.) i used to try to toss kenny around and pretend he was toby and i was the goblin king. and we would sing and dance until we collapsed from exhaustion or until i dropped him and he'd cry and we'd both get in trouble. it makes me look at myself, my application to take the CFE (you guys, i'd be a bank examiner. grizz) and wonder where the hell i got lost, where all that creativity went. 

new friends, same old favorite places

you guys, i'm totally laura from the glass menagerie. except for that instead of figurines, i collect people. oh, and i'm also not shy and not crippled. but otherwise, we're the SAME PERSON.

it happened again. i was having brunch alone, minding my own business. all the gays are in fire island every other weekend now and this had promised to be a quiet weekend with them gone. i sit down, order a pulled pork sandwich special. the guy next to me was all, "oh, i wanted to order that but i should be good so i got the nicoise salad instead but i'm going to live vicariously through you." the sandwich was awesome. we keep chatting. he's a gay who works at macy's, his friend met up with us and we continued to drink. his boyfriend joined us, more drinking ensued. before i knew it i'd been recruited to go shopping with them and then also invited to dinner with one of their girlfriends. i made a phone call and we were put in the garden at locanda verde (i can't stay away, i know) and had a ridiculously debaucherous dinner. many bottles of wine, many apps and pastas and every single dessert on the menu. and more wine. we were sat outside so it was nice and quiet and perfect for story-telling and drunken bonding. our server was hilarious and didn't hate us, even though we were loud and silly. i didn't feel drunk until i was in the cab home and then had to start doing that split-second planning about how to vomit while in the cab. at what point would i ask him to pull over. would i open the door or throw up out the window? just utterly nauseous. 

anyhow: new friends! yay. 

food linkage

remember that amazing clip of david chang going to piece of chicken, getting wasted, then going to frankies? another installment from vice tv. this one with andrew carmellini from locanda verde. luke ostrom is there too. he may be one of the best looking people i've seen in person, next to nigel barker, though i suspect he'd much rather be less pretty so he could avoid the attention. my favorite part is AC talking about how he would have brought cheaper wine had he known they weren't going to open what he'd brought. that happens to me all the time. though, drinking all my good wine by myself at home doesn't sound like that healthy of an alternative. and i relate to not feeling that the job he was doing was good for his soul. in fact i'm looking to leave the legal profession altoghether. is this risky? SURE. is it liberating? YES. am i terrified? CERTAINLY. is it still probably the right thing to do? i hope so. i'll be 30 this year. i deserve to have a job i enjoy. something that feeds my soul. i'll work through my savings and if i run out of money, there's always stripping. kidding! (not really.) oh! and the video mentions 100 layer lasagna. i am so getting george to hook some of that up for me next time i'm at del posto. 

 the newest song that i keep playing on repeat

food porn. this clip made me die inside because of how badly i want to eat at marea every meal of the day.

i got a lobster roll from the underground lobster pound. those things are really decent. he tells you to text him from a random street corner. he'll text you an exact address and you pick it up from the windowsill of a ground floor apartment. it feels very dangerous and 007. the roll is $14 and it's just huge chunks of tender lobster in some butter and old bay. no mayo. an excellent roll if you happen to be in whichever neighborhood he's selling from.