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. 

food & wine best new chefs

oh my god, you guys. food & wine held their annual "best new chef" party at the four seasons tonight and i got to go! i'm still dying inside that i went. dana cowin (editor in chief of the magazine) held this little twitter contest where she'd dole out clues and the tweeps would try to guess who the chefs were. i mostly googled insanely and when i'd get it i'd find out that like 4 other people had it first. some of the clues were easy, some i still don't understand. regardless, some chick from chicago won! and she fucking flew out for this damn party! and i commented something to the effect of, "damn. i spent a LOT of time doing this and it sucks that i lost." and then i found out that i didn't lose at all! tickets were waiting for me at will call. HOLY SHIT. YES. it was at the four seasons which looks pretty much eleven madison park BEFORE it was eleven madison park. high ceilings, lots of 5 foot high flower arrangements (also like del posto, so i'll probably mention it to robert who does the del posto and esca floral arrangements to get his take), 3 staff members per guest and just decadent beyond belief. because i'm the fangirl i am, i recognized every damn person there. i finally met andrew carmellini from locanda verde. i had to say, "yeah, i'm that blogger. sorry." but he was as nice as could be and we had short, lovely little chat. he'd made meatball sliders. i was happy to report that my last dinner there was fantastic and that my friend brought a large work party there afterwards as well and they LOVED it too. "so you're friends with ahiram," he said, which was true. but he didn't know that we were only friends at all BECAUSE i was going to his damn restaurant so often. but anyway, yes, cheers to ahiram who is endlessly charming and a total superstar. 

lockhart steele was there. we discussed faustina's review in the nytimes, out tomorrow (but posted tonight) and hinted at by jeffrey tascarella's twitter feed. "but while his kitchen is exciting, faustina is not." is a killer of a sentence. sifton was right that the portions are described as small and then are bigger in person. sometimes much bigger. and i'm a prime example of someone who thought they weren't ordering enough but then ended up with WAY TOO MUCH. (and it's totally better to have more than less but the dishes aren't particularly cheap so some people might not want to over-order.) but his main issue was with the space, which is something that feels unfair to judge a restaurant by when they didn't build it and it's part of a hotel. so, yeah, the bathroom is outside the restaurant and down some stairs. and YES, the place is chic to the point of frigidity. it ends with, "all this would be depressing if the food weren't so good." which is kind of shitty. if the food is that good, it should get two stars, period. this is MANHATTAN. he knows how fucking hard it is to find good space on this island. 

but i digress. lockhart introduced us to his good friend sarah simmons,food and wine home cook superstar. she's amazing. she blogs here and she's pretty much just what i need. i'm a single girl who doesn't know how to cook for 1. she does. also, she loves dogs so we're totally going to be friends. sarah then brought us over to dana, the EIC of F&W who is so tiny and lovely. sarah and dana then turned me over to alessandra, a F&W assistant editor and she was also bubbly and charming and wearing a stunning green jewel-toned dress. and the F&W travel editor was wearing a stunning orange dress that (sadness!) was from india so i'll never own anything like it. otherwise, it was super star studded. the gorgeous seamus mullen was there. he has an asian girlfriend! which means, in my head, i have a chance with him in another life. todd english was there, the man famous for his asian fetish. marcus samuelsson looking sooo beautiful in a bright orange scarf. wyle dufresne, tom colicchio, anne burrell, danny meyer, drew nieporent, ad infinitum. we were there to honor the best new chefs and met roy choi who is cool as shit. he called out my half-asian-ness ("it's workin' for you") and told me i had to come visit the restaurant next time i was in L.A. we met an owner of blackbird in chicago who, of course, knew our friend pam. everyone knows pam. and for dessert, just as i was leaving some girl runs up to me and says, "i'm sorry, who makes your dress?" my answer: "h&m" "NO! you look like a million bucks!" she wailed. yes. yes indeed. i mean, i threw on a theory belt and some moderately expensive heels but the dress was a whole $25.00. she was flabbergasted. i was flattered beyond belief. we both win since h&m will likely make the dress again this summer so she knows to keep an eye out for it. but i'll seriously live on that compliment for the next two weeks, at least. 

but the best, BEST part? i'm kind of hating work. actually, i'm really hating work. my job sucks and i'm not cut out for it. and lockhart and sarah and alessandra all said, "quit the damn job and start doing something with food because you obviously love it." and it was just such a relief to have real people tell me to do what is floating around in my head as just a whim. and they offered to send my writing (you know, the food/travel stuff i do) to real editors. and my writing teacher has been super supportive and really thinks that i could write about food if i wanted (i do! i do!) so, well, maybe i'll start pitching the shit out of people to see if anything comes of it. colin is a prime example of someone who throws himself into stuff and gets rewarded tenfold. he takes risks, unabashedly, and they pay off. it's inspiring and i think i need to start trying it myself. virgo-risk-averseness be damned. 

congrats to the folks at locanda verde. a much deserved best chef and best new restaurant from time out. voted on by people who eat and, collectively, have pretty damn good taste in food. i'm proud to call myself a regular and a groupie. kate krader may be one of the few people to eat there more often than myself and she delivers the news that the fava bean crostini has returned! huzzah!!

also congrats to joseph leonard, another place that i might stop by weekly and totally adore, even though my beloved brussels sprouts are out of season and off the menu. harumph. but, like, they make a fucking KILLER bloody mary so i will continue to send them my business and wait for fall to hit again before the brussels come back into my life. 

other exciting food news that i keep forgetting to mention: i finally tried a mangosteen. i've been wanting to stumble across them in chinatown but for all my visits through, haven't seen the thing. it's illegal to import them to the US but not, apparently, to canada, which is where i found them all over the damn place. the skin is easily peelable and they're so much smaller than i'd imagined. i'd thought they'd be the size of an orange. they were the size of a clementine. so tiny! and a lot of work for the small amount of fruit that you actually end up with which tastes like a lychee but then there's this annoying pit in the middle. totally disappointing. 

when being a regular pays off

so lien came to visit. and she's blogging now! lunch at del posto, dinner atlocanda verde. in said post she compares eating dinner with me to eating dinner with bob deniro. the comparison is flattering, honestly! except for that i'm just a nobody who likes to eat and he's a famous person who is part owner of locanda. but yes, we probably get a lot of food bought for us either way. i swear that lien and i and our other guests at these meals got even better treatment than i'd have gotten being by myself. 


so maybe all the extras are the folks at the restaurant saying, "oh! that girl actually DOES have friends! lets treat them really nice and hopefully she won't keep coming back alone." i have no real explanation. all desserts were gratis (and the ricotta) at locanda and del posto brought over their awesome bellinis AND a moscato d'asti AND a trio of amuses with black truffle. the moscato was all george's fault (the maitre'd) because he told everyone it was liens birthday so then dessert wine came out, as did her plate with "happy birthday" written in so beautifully with chocolate sauce. i mean, it was OUT OF CONTROL.  


why aren't more people going to del posto for lunch?! i talk about it constantly. i need to start recruiting people there, hard-core, lest they decide that losing all the money for being open for lunch isn't worth the cost. now lien has left thinking that i'm someone to whom this happens all the time. and it doesn't, really. i mean, it happens occasionally at about 6 or so restaurants that i have on rotation. i stick to my favorites, all of which are truly GOOD places to eat. the end. no mayorship needed. but yeah, i came of looking pretty fancy for lien while she was here. i cannot wait for her to repay the favor next time im in in LA. she's a lot like me though; super chatty and inquisitive in a way that isn't annoying because we're cute, small asian girls. people remember us. she had a bartender at joseph leonard who knows me so now i'll have to tell the bartender i know the bone marrow obsessed girl. SEE! this is a small world.

Liveblogging Lunch: Del Posto

Stool for my purse!

del posto lunch

you all know i'm an eleven madison park devotee. that my lunches there when i'm between cases and have the rare weekday off, are blissful. i knew 4 stars would change that. what i didn't predict was the fact that they'd stop participating in restaurant week. that, never again, would i get 3 courses for $24. EMP, i love you but you've priced me out. i can't afford your dinners and i found a much more satisfying place for lunch.

when i read this post, lunch at del posto jumped to the top of the list. AND, LO, IT WAS GOOD. i mean, HOLY HELL: YES.

service is beyond gracious. really proper without being stuffy. billie and ella and edith and nina played in the background. i had the bastianich sauv blanc because it was from friuli and i'm slightly obsessed with his tocai (or friuliano or whatever it's called now, available by the glass at esca! sit at the bar with victor!). my server (though i don't think they're called servers. maybe head waiters?), though not flirty, was italian so he pretty much oozed sexiness. it's the italian swagger and i love it. he greeted me with a hearty "buon giorno!" and recommended the duck. and then did NOT ask me come come out back and get naked but in my head, that's what ALL italian sounds like. it all sounds like, "let me make love to you, bellissima"

tre amuses and one hell of a bread basket served with both lardo and butter. lardo, for those uninitiated...think gourmet bacon fat. but bacon fat so good that you briefly think of eating it with a spoon. or bathing in it. but then you remember that 5 minutes ago someone came over with a brocade stool for your purse. a chair! for a purse! i mean, how silly! but also: fancy. which is what stops you from rubbing said lardo all over your face. 

i started with the roasted vegetables because i'm a sucker for robiola. and though you'd think i'd be truffled out, i am not. my favorite part was the slice of apple  (granny smith?) on the far side of my plate. i ordered the duck. OH MY GOD. it was gorgeous and so tender, the skin so crispy. it's the best dish i've had in a long time. (i mean, it might have been better than the ribeye from carnevino, incidentally another batali place that pam recommended, which cost an arm and a leg and was my birthday dinner out in vegas.) people, i seriously moaned every time i took a bite. it was transcendent. there are no words for this duck. i'm totally wasting my time trying to convey how incredibly awesome it was. if i could have sex with meat, i would screw the crap out of this duck. i would propose. i'd move into its brooklyn apartment even though i SWORE i would not leave the borough of manhattan.

mark ladner was in the house. and joe bastianich also arrived as dessert was delivered. i asked for a skim latte and was told "we do not use skim milk" which, you know what? that's fine by me because whole milk tastes so much better and i never order it because i've got some female guilt that i'm sure i got subconsciously from looking at skinny models on magazine covers in the grocery store checkout aisle. i respect a restaurant that full on refuses to give you something they know doesn't taste that great in favor of the stuff that tastes better, even if it may be fatty (mmmmmm.....lardo......)

dessert: CHESTNUT Cake Warm Plum Macedonia, Crushed Chestnuts & Yogurt Gelato. i liked dessert but i liked all my little amuse desserts better. i'm not a real sugar person anyhow so might have sweeted out with them prior to even dipping a fork in my cake. delivered on a cheese grater were a teeny tartufo on a stick, an eensy lemon tart, a baby beignet, a sliver of truffle and something else i can't remember. so twee and perfect. and they also brought over a glass of moscato, gratis. i love when restaurants do that. bring over a free glass of something to the nice lady who came in to eat all alone.

but people: the food was only $29. that is bonkers and, as seen with my dear EMP, who knows how long it'll last. so GO. NOW. ORDER THE DUCK.