April

Yes, I Wear Flip-Flops to Expensive Restaurants, but

I’m really enjoying Foodspotting these days now that it’s getting more popular. You just upload your photo, tell the site what the dish is and what restaurant it’s from, and people “nom” it if they’ve had it or want to have it. There’s also a “Great Shot!” button that I use to encourage people who understand that it’s not okay to use a flash when they’re dining out. It’s a really great site for those of us who appreciate food but don’t get any recognition because we don’t do any cooking of our own.

But today, while I was busy nomming the borscht at Veselka and the pork soup dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai, I saw this photo from someone’s visit to Locanda Verde (which Robert De Niro has a stake in, if that sort of thing matters to you):

And then I read this in the New York Times review of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s new venture, the Mark Restaurant:

Local burghers sit in the dining rooms alongside tight-faced matrons in vintage Halston, younger ones in diamonds and black pencil skirts. There are senior partners from white-shoe firms; publishing tycoons; one of the city’s premier public relations men, fiddling with an immense gold ring.

Flash photograph, tongue out, possible devil horns on right side? Diamonds, gold, and vintage Halston? Is it any wonder I feel so out of place at most of the places I eat? I know it’s elitist to assume I’m the only one eating at these restaurants and appreciating the food, and I know it’s elitist to be glad that high prices keep out tourists and babies, but it’s sad that high prices also make restaurants targets for rich people who go just because they can.

Note: my favourite Foodspotting user is definitely LUNCH. Check out their photos and blog.

Meatball Shop – Italian – Lower East Side

It was just a couple of months ago that my boyfriend found a rudimentary menu for the soon-to-be famous Meatball Shop, and now the place has totally blown up into what you might call a phenomenon. And I love a gimmick as much as the next guy, so a co-worker and I rode the bus from our office in Battery Park up to the Lower East Side recently to give the balls a go.

The restaurant itself is all dark wood and old-timey feel, very small with a storefront entirely made of glass so that it gets plenty of natural light and air. The kitchen takes up the entire back wall and is also open so that you can see your meat being freshly-ground and your balls being freshly-formed.

My whole wheat hero with pork meatballs, spicy meat sauce, and mozzarella probably lost a lot of its freshness on its way back to the office, but that didn’t matter one bit. This wasn’t the biggest meatball parm I’ve had, nor the sauciest, but I’ve never had one made with better ingredients. Even the mixed greens salad with sliced pears and chives was worth talking about.

As usual, a small menu is a better menu when it means the chef can do a few things really well rather than a bunch of things mediocrely, and executive chef Daniel Holzman has meatballs down

Note: Everyone who tried my pork meatballs agreed that they were better than the chicken ones, so you know what to order.

Meatball Shop 84 Stanton Street

New York, NY 10002 (map)

Restaurant Review: Lodge

My friend Meredith and I decided to go to Lodge in our Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg one night last week to celebrate a cool restaurant not being on the cool-saturated Bedford Ave. She’d been there once a year ago for brunch and wasn’t impressed, but she left deciding that she wanted to come back and try more of the dishes, so I’d say it was a success.

deviled eggs with plenty of chives

• I’m so into the fact that deviled eggs are a popular thing right now. These were probably the best I’ve had lately thanks to their extreme chiviness. The added texture was a welcome treat, too.

pulled pork

• This was less like pulled pork and more like pulled pork soup. I’m the kind of girl who likes a little Kansas City in her barbeque, so I wasn’t totally averse to the extra sauce, but this would’ve overwhelmed someone who prefers their sauce as a mop or a side. The meat was just the right amount of fatty, and there was still plenty of burnt-end flavor, but I’d probably tell them to make it not-so-sloppy next time.

Brussels sprouts with MUSHROOMS

• Why are there mushrooms in my Brussels sprouts?! And why are they not mentioned on the menu?! Neither Meredith nor I were very pleased with this, especially since little burned Brussels sprouts bits look like mushrooms, and I accidentally ate one. Not that it tasted bad or anything, because mushrooms are actually kind of delicious, but I don’t eat them because of their ugliness.

gouda mac & cheese

• Just look at that flaky topping. This more-mac-than-cheese tasted slightly bacony to me, but there was no bacon to be found in it, so maybe they used a smoked gouda that deceived me. This was meant to be a side dish but more than served as Meredith’s main, so A+ for value.

It’s a very neighborhoody kind of place, with a family at one table and a group of twentysomethings celebrating a birthday at another. It’s on a quiet but not uninhabited corner, and the people-watching–guessing whether a girl actually liked the rumbly 50s-era car her date was driving, a Satmar Jew looking completely lost for five minutes but unwilling to stop anyone for help–from walls of solid glass was top-notch. The service was totally unpretentious and even verging on friendly, my giant bottle of pear cider was only $10, and they were playing Spoon on the overhead speakers. Sold.

Lodge 318 Grand Street

Brooklyn, NY 11211 (map)

It’s Okay to Like Organ Meats a LITTLE

I once complained about the smarmy boys next to me at dinner who claimed they looooooooved organ meats, thinking they were being disingenuous.

But you know what’s worse? People who are totally resistant to them. This scene from “The Millionaire Matchmaker” made me laaaaaaugh. And also cry.

PHILISTINES!

Getting Even More Intimate with the Double Down

The KFC Double Down is on Twitter, and it is following me. I like it better than all of my other Twitter friends, too, because it says things like, “This is my 100th tweet. Not bad for a sandwich. A delicious, filling sandwich.”

It tweeted to Anthony Bordain: @NoReservations: I come in peace. And Original Recipe. And Grilled. All delicious!

Andrew Zimmern tweeted to it: @kfcdoubledown Fermented walrus anus? Yes! KFC Doubledown? No f-ing way!

And the other day, it tweeted to me in response to my review of it!

I think my new dream job is to tweet as foodstuff.