Thoughts & Reflections

Tag: Manhattan

Dinner at Claudette

Despite a slightly disappointing start with breakfast, I ended my birthday with a fabulous dinner at Claudette. My friend Q was treating that evening and we both had been wanting to check out the restaurant so it made perfect sense to go there.

Claudette serves French (Provençal) cuisine with a Middle Eastern bent. There are so many delicious looking items on the menu and it really was hard to decide. In the end, between the two of us, there was a starter, two hors d’oeuvres, two entrées, two sides and one dessert. Just like with Q’s birthday dinner at Cosme last month, looks were deceiving and there really was a lot of food at our table.

First up was the Pistounade, a basil almond tapenade. It was similar to a pesto and served with a basket of warm garlic flatbread. Very delicious and it felt healthy. The hors d’oeuvres came out at the same time: charred baby octopus for me and the Autumn Salad for Q. These were pretty big plates considering; we thought they were going to be smaller dishes, more similar to tapas but they were practically full meals themselves.

Choosing an entrée was a tough choice since there were so many good options. I was drawn to the Chicken Tagine since I haven’t had one in a very long time and Q chose the Bouillabaisse. The plates that came out were enormous; my dish was served in a traditional tagine and it was a very huge portion considering how much food we ate before the entrées arrived. The couscous was excellent; it wasn’t dry and very tasty, having absorbed much of the juices that came from the chicken. I could eat just that alone and have been happy. I did sample a bit of the Bouillabaisse and that was terrific too. And we really should have stopped ordering there but we wanted to try the sides as well so we ordered the grilled eggplant and the frites with ras el hanout (served with an aioli). There really was no way to eat it all and I ended up taking most of my tagine home, and Q took the remaining Pistoundae and flatbread (we finshed one basket and they brought out another).

Of course, one cannot leave out dessert. When the menu arrived, most of the sweets were either dairy or chocolate based. After all of the savoury dishes, we really wanted something light. We had settled on the orange blossom creme brulée when our waitress told us the dessert du jour was a baked apple served on puff pastry and topped with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. She likened it to a deconstructed apple pie. Fruit! And it was totally what we wanted. We devoured most of it before our tea and dessert wine arrived at the table. That was definitely the best way to end the meal.

October 17, 2015
Breakfast at Locanda Verde

I spent my birthday eating my way through the day. Though I did have a small breakfast at home first (because I’m usually up early), my second breakfast took place at Locanda Verde. Dinners are usually how I end up celebrating with friends but it’s nice to have a change and since my weekdays have been free, I wanted to go have a morning meal at a nice place.

Locanda Verde is one of those places I always hear about and never exactly know where it is other than somewhere in Tribeca. My friend and I met up before 10am and headed inside. We were seated right by the windows that looked out onto Grennwich Ave. The restaurant is located within the Greenwich Hotel and M noticed there were paparazzi hanging around on the sidewalk (we never did find out which celebrity was staying at the hotel).

There were several things on the menu that caught my eye but ultimiately I went with the Uova a Piacere, which was eggs, crispy garlic potatoes and toast. M settled on the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes and we both ordered sides of pork sausage and bacon. The pancakes, smoked bacon and crispy potatoes were pretty good. I wasn’t really thrilled with the eggs (I hard ordered over easy and they ended up arriving as poached, and not very warm). M thought the sausage was okay but I did like the spices in it. My genmaicha tea was good and though they did give me the wrong tea at first, the waiter realized his mistake and corrected it a minute later; I had been given jasmine tea instead and wasn’t bothered too much by the mistake since I will pretty much drink any decent type of tea.

Overall, it was decent but the service was a bit spotty. Perhaps dinner might be better but at least I’ve tried it once. There are other breakfast places to try on my list and I can cross this one off now. One nice thing though is that there is a to-go counter so one can pick up a drink or pastries instead of sitting down to a full meal. I was eyeing the doughnuts and considered getting one to go but showed restraint.

When we left, the photographers and a few other people were gathered by the hotel entrance still waiting for the mysterious celebrity to appear. And speaking of photos, for fun I snapped one of M and I sitting at our table, reflected in one of the slanted mirrored panels along the ceiling of the restaurant; an unusual selfie of sorts, I think.

October 16, 2015
The Dyckman Farmhouse

I recently spent a weekend up in Inwood, the neighborhood at the northern end of Manhattan island (though it’s not the furthest neighborhood of the borough; that honor goes to Marble Hill). Usually, I’m only in the area for the annual Medieval Festival or a visit to the Cloisters but for once, I travelled beyond Fort Tryon park and rode the A train to the end of the line.

The Dyckman Farmhouse is over 200-years-old and the last remaining farmhouse left in Manhattan. It currently sits a few blocks south of where the original house was located; the one that stands today is of a later date since the first house was destroyed during the American Revolution. Almost a century ago, it was converted to a museum that is now run by the New York City Parks Department.

Surrounded by modern construction, the farmhouse sits on a corner lot atop a slight hill. Enter at the corner and climb up the path to reach the front porch. On the day I went, the museum was hosting a fall festival event so there were a lot of children poking around indoors and out. Most of the rooms are open to the public so one can walk inside and examine the furniture and objects up close to get a sense of what life must have been like for the Dutch settlers.

There is a large garden behind the house as well as two smaller buildings. The larger of the two is a reconstructed military hut used by the British and Hessians when they had an encampment in Inwood during the Revolution. It was locked but there is a plaque just outside the hut with more information. With their fair going on, there were a few tables set up in the gardens for children’s arts and crafts as well as a demonstration of an old press for making apple cider. There were different events set up throughout the day but I didn’t stick out for most of them. The farmhouse is fairly small and one can see pretty much everything in under an hour.

October 14, 2015
Alice in Wonderland Tea at the Morgan Library

Currently, there is an exhibition at the Morgan Library devoted to Alice in Wonderland. I love children’s literary classics and Alice is one of them, what with the rhyming, songs and cast of crazy characters. I met up with my friend Q once more and we went to check out the exhibit the day after her birthday.

Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t feeling well at all that morning but I went anyway (I did feel much better later on in the day) and tried to enjoy it as much as I could. The exhibit is titled Alice: 150 Years of Wonderland and some of the items on display included photos of Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell, sketches and illustrations from the book by Carroll himself as well as John Tenniel. And of course, there were copies of the book itself including a limited first edition that had been recalled because Tenniel wasn’t satisfied with the quality of how his illustrations appeared in the printed copies.

We also checked out a photography exhibit upstairs after we finished with the Alice exhibit and then went down to the cafe for the Alice in Wonderland themed afternoon tea that is currently on their lunch menu. We ordered one tea set and split it between us. The tiered tray was absolutely adorable, decorated with illustrations from the book and topped with a sign that said “Eat Me”.

The were four tea sandwiches, cut into spades and clubs. The ones I tasted were egg salad and I think a chicken salad; there was a salmon one and I’m unsure what the last one was. On the top tier was a scone (with jam and clotted cream topped with purple glitter), a treacle tart and a heart shaped linzer cookie. For a casual cafe, I thought the offerings were fine though Q didn’t enjoy it much. Since it wasn’t a fancy hotel tea, one should not have high expectations but for me it was enjoyable. I might have been more critical if I had been feeling better but a cup of hot tea did go a long way in helping me out (I was freezing in the exhibit rooms).

For those that are interested, there’s still time to check out the exhibit. It runs through October 12, 2015.

September 22, 2015
Dinner at Cosme

Continuing with my friend Q’s birthday celebration, we had dinner at Cosme. After a long afternoon spent wandering around the Met, we were both hungry by the time we arrived for our dinner reservation.

The menu is Mexican but with a twist. There are three sections to the very short menu consisting mainly of small plates and a few entrées. Because we were going to order the duck entree, one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, our waitress advised us to order just two of the smaller plates to share.

Every table received a basket of warm corn tortillas served with a pumpkin salsa. This starter came shortly after the drinks: a Paloma cocktail for me (a tequila and grapefruit soda mix) and a cashew milk agua fresca for Q. After we finished the tortillas, the pumpkin salsa remained on the table and it went well with the other plates that we ordered.

First up was a mussel tostada, served with lettuce, pig’s feet, and Mexican cucumber. It was very light and tasty, reminding me a bit of the cold plate of pigs’ feet or jellyfish that one sees at Chinese banquets. Then came the roasted eggplant and cauliflower, served with sesame seed salsa and preserved lemon. This was served with some (blue corn I think) tortillas. For a vegetarian this, it was pretty meaty but in a very good way. We both liked this dish a lot.

The duck carnitas came out at the same time as the eggplant. It was a very large dish though it didn’t look it at first. The duck was so tender, falling off the bone very easily as if it was pulled pork. There were more tortillas involved as well as salsa verde, salsa roja and wedges of lime. It was all very delicious but we couldn’t eat it all. After a while, we didn’t even use the tortillas to make tacos and just concentrated on eating the meat. I think we ended up devouring about 2/3 of it and Q took the rest of it home.

And let’s not forget about dessert. I had read of and Q wanted to order the corn mousse with husk meringue. It was wonderfully light and airy and moist. Q thought the corn flavor was a bit light but to me it tasted of vanilla. And we also ordered the honey yogurt panna cotta with mixed berries jello, which arrived looking a bit like a wobbly waffle. This was a nice contrast to the mousse with its slightly tangy flavor and jelly consistency. Both desserts were excellent and made for a terrific ending to the meal and the day.

September 21, 2015
Breakfast at Maialino

The last few days have definitely been ones of indulgence. Celebrating a friend’s birthday last week meant a day of eating very good food. A late breakfast at Maialino eased us straight to lunchtime and we managed to get through the rest of the day without eating until dinner.

I’ve never been to Maialino before. Italian restaurants aren’t usually on my list of places to dine; I much prefer French if choosing someplace with a European feel. When my friend Q invited me to join her for a birthday breakfast before we went to the Met that afternoon, I easily agreed. It’s very rare to dine out for breakfast on a weekday and even more so at a very nice restaurant. We agreed to meet at 10:30am but had to rush to give our waitress our order; apparently breakfast is only served till 10am so we had cut it very very close and I ended up texting my order to Q (who arrived earlier) on my way over.

We each ordered an egg dish and split the ricotta pancakes. Q chose the Contadino, which was poached eggs served on corn, tomatoes and jalapeno; the menu is seasonal so the vegetables will change depending on time of year. I ended up ordering the Salsiccia Fungo, which contained a vegetarian mushroom sausage patty, hash brown and a sunnyside egg with a bit of salad. My dish wasn’t too bad but I wasn’t a fan of the sausage because it contained cheese. The ricotta pancakes were pretty delicious though; two very large and fluffy pancakes that could easily feed three or four people. The ricotta kept the batter very moist, almost like a custard (at least I couldn’t taste the cheese flavor in it) and the maple syrup and pear butter that accompanied the pancakes were excellent.

And the tea menu was pretty good too. I ended up with a pot of hojicha (one of my favorites) instead of the usual Earl Grey or English Breakfast. We were so full that it was a slower walk back to the train station and then walking off all the calories as we wandered through the museum.

September 20, 2015
Lunch at EN Japanese Brasserie

It’s been a while since I’ve had a meal at an upscale restaurant. When I met my friend Q for lunch one day, we couldn’t think of where to go until she suggested En Japanese Brasserie. I’ve walked by it before a few times but it’s usually further west than my usual haunts so I happily agreed to go there.

When we arrived, there were still a lot of people having their lunch (it was around 1:30pm or so when we got there). We were seated in the main room right beneath one of the soaring glass windows that let in a lot of light despite facing a tall building just across the street.

En offers lunch specials that are pretty reasonable considering the amount of food that arrives at your table. Compared to a different Japanese restaurant that offers similar lunch sets, this was definitely the better bargain.

I’ve been having a craving for fried chicken lately so I ordered the fried chicken lunch set. The miso cod set was very, very appealing but all I wanted was fried meat. There are also two daily specials available, one seafood and one land (beef, poultry or pork I assume). On the day of our visit, the land special was a chicken tempura set (I think the seafood special might have been salmon). Q ordered the chicken special after seeing it arrive at a nearby table.

There was a lot of food in the lunch set: chunks of crispy fried chicken, mizuna and watercress salad, freshly made tofu with wari joyu (a mixture of mix of soy sauce and fish broth), a small dish of mushrooms with daikon, housemade pickles, and bowls of steamed rice and house-made miso soup. We also ordered non-alcoholic specialty drinks: a red shiso leaf drink with berries, I think for Q and I had a fancy grape spritzer with lemon.

Thank goodness neither of us had plans afterward. Lunch was nice and slow; we were there for a very long time. A long lunch meant we could enjoy every bit of it, savoring the different flavors and textures. And I left room for dessert too. An ice cream sandwich with house-made matcha ice cream, red bean paste and mixed berries served between two thin wafers. It looked like a little jewel box and tasted delicious.

September 9, 2015
The Seaglass Carousel

I love carousels. To me, it’s one of those things from childhood that as an adult, one can still derive pleasure from. There are definitely a few fun carousels left in New York though I haven’t been on most of them (at least not that I can remember). I do love the little children’s carousel in Bryant Park, which reminds me of the film Amelie but that’s way too tiny. To ride beautifully painted horses, my preference is to go to Brooklyn Bridge Park and take a spin on Jane’s Carousel. But now there’s a new carousel in town to enjoy.

The Seaglass Carousel opened last week in Battery Park. I had first heard about it the week before and apparently it’s been many years (and cost a ton of money) in the making. The grand opening was last Thursday but I couldn’t make it so I went the following morning.

There was a long line already queued up when I got there. Purchasing a ticket was a bit confusing as the kiosk wasn’t actually near the entrance; it was on the same little cart that was a bit of a distance away selling souvenirs. I wasn’t the only one confused by that, so hopefully they work out the kinks soon enough. After handing over $5, one gets a little plastic “sea glass” token that was the ticket to the ride. I think I stood in line for about 30-40 minutes before finally arriving at the front. There were many parents with their children (and strollers) waiting patiently for their turn as well.

Instead of horses, the carousel comprised of fishes in all different shapes and sizes, painted so they appeared to be made of sea glass. It was very strange to sit inside and be a part of a fish. Once everyone was belted in, the music began and the fish started to “swim” within the glass enclosure. The carousel was lit in ever-changing colors, which reminded me of watching sunlight playing on water. Many of the fish moved up and down and weaved in and out amongst other fish, just as one would expect to see in an aquarium. Classical music designed specifically for the ride played in the background and the whole experience was very cool.

The ride ended quickly enough that I think I need to revisit it again (but without a camera) to try and truly enjoy it; everyone had their cameras out, taking pictures and videos of the entire experience. I’m sure it must have been crazy over the weekend, which is why I’ll have to revisit on a slightly more quiet (and less crowded) day mid-week.

August 24, 2015
Waterfront Garden Tour on Randalls Island

I was reading up on things to do in the city and one item caught my eye: a waterfront garden tour on Randalls Island. I don’t think I’ve stepped foot on the island before though I might have once, a very, very long time ago. Unlike Roosevelt Island to the south, Randalls Island is more difficult to get to; there isn’t a train or tram stop anywhere and the most direct way to get across is via a footbridge that connects it to Manhattan at 103nd Street. (There are also bridges that connect from the Bronx and Queens as well.)

There are tours Tuesdays and Thursdays around the Island every week; the first one that worked with my schedule was the Waterfront Garden tour held every other Thursday. I tried to time my travel so I would arrive with a few minutes to spare before the tour began but the subway delays and the roundabout route from the train station to the East River was very annoying because the streets are cut off by the public housing projects in the area so one has to go around them. I arrived about 5 minutes after it started and one of the park staff stationed at the meeting spot helped me to meet up with the group. A few other people arrived even later than I did, so I didn’t feel too bad. In all, there were about maybe six or seven of us, and the woman who met me earlier came along as well; the two of us were the youngest members of the tour.

The tour was led by the head gardener, a man named Kevin. He led up north along the Harlem River Pathway, stopping every so often and pointing out the different flora that made up the interesting landscape that bordered and explaining why certain plants were being grown in those areas and what worked and what didn’t. We also had some very knowledgeable people with us, including two women who were visitors from Virginia that run a nursery back home.

We walked as far as approximately 113th or 114th street across the river before turning southward. The tour was supposed to last an hour though it did run slightly longer but it didn’t matter that much. Overall, I thought it was pretty interesting and I enjoyed looking all the different trees and plants that grew along that stretch of land. We saw a lot of bees (in various colors; I never saw golden/orange bees before) as well as butterflies.

The shady parts were the nicest because it kept us cool but the views and the sun were wonderful too. We could see all the cars traveling along the East River Drive across from us but it was nice to not hear them (or not so loudly) since the water separated us. And the views were pretty spectacular, depending on where one looked. It was very relaxing and for the most part pretty empty, which is nice for those that want to relax and enjoy peace and quiet while remaining close to the heart of the city. The weekend might be less so, especially with the events being held on the north side of the island, where there’s the big stadium for concerts and other things.

I think I’m going to try to check out the Wildflower Tour as well, which is held on alternating Thursdays. There is a Wetlands Tour which I would really like to check out but that’s on Tuesday evenings so it doesn’t work too well with my schedule. I highly recommend checking out any of these tours if one has the time while the weather is still lovely and warm.

August 15, 2015
Kakigori at Kokage

It’s now August and we’re in the midst of high summer, with consecutive days full of bright sun and warm temperatures. Staying indoors is the best plan and when one heads outside, the sun is only tolerable for so long before it’s time to rest in the shade and keep cool. And on a day like yesterday, nothing is more refreshing than a nice bowl of shaved ice.

My friend Jee reminded me of this when I saw her photos of a refreshing dessert at Kokage, one of the restaurants that’s part of Ippodo, a Japanese tea show in midtown near Grand Central Terminal. For the past week, Kokage had been hosting a special pop-up. They teamed up with Nakamuraken, a Kyoto sweets shop, to bring some special treats to New York, in particular Kakigori (shaved ice). I made a note to visit but I’d been busy and had forgotten about it. My friend Q asked if I wanted to go on Sunday, the last day of the pop-up and I happily tagged along.

We arrived late afternoon and noted they had already run out of some of the specials; that was fine as we really just wanted the shaved ice. There were two flavors available to order: the Shiratama Uji Kintoki and Rhubarb. The former is the more traditional flavor, with matcha, red beans, mochi and condensed milk; the latter was created specifically for this week. Most of the other customers I saw ordered the traditional and that was what we both wanted as well. It arrived with a cup of hot hojicha on the side. The one thing that was a little different about our orders was that they ran out of condensed milk so we were served a matcha syrup to pour on the shaved ice instead; I didn’t mind at all since I’m not too big a fan of condensed milk. So we ended up just being a bit more over-caffeinated which wasn’t terrible. The shaved ice was absolutely delicious and was the perfect way to cool down after walking around all afternoon in the sun.

Since the shaved ice was mostly water, it did not fill our stomachs. The advantage of that was that we ended up ordering the rhubarb shaved ice as well, splitting it between ourselves. It was light and fruity, flavored with lemon and served with a dollop of rhubarb jam. The flavor of the rhubarb ice was much more subtle than the matcha one; of the two, I definitely preferred the not too bitter but flavorful matcha over the rhubarb.

August 3, 2015