Kashkaval

Occasion: Last stop in the tapas crawl (after a visit to Tia Pol, an old favorite)
Location: Kashkaval on 9th Ave between 55th and 56th (kashkaval.com)
Edibles: cheddar and ale fondue; some cold salads; salmon wrapped in grape leaves, donated by friendly fellow diners

Musings: I've loved this place since the first time I came here, brought by a Hell's Kitchen resident in the know. From the street it looks like a Greek deli, but there are a number of tables in the back as well as a bar area. It's close quarters - most of the tables will seat a maximum of four. There is a long table with benches that will seat one party of six to eight, which you can reserve.

The dining area is dim and cozy and comes across as very European to me. Kashkaval is open late - until 12:30am Friday and Saturday, 11pm other days of the week - making it a great option for after theatre.

The cold salads (in the case at the front of the shop) are excellent. I like the eggplant, the elephant beans, the beets. The hummus is good, if somewhat more mundane choice. They usually have a few daily specials as well.

For the hot, I usually get fondue. The Kashkaval house blend is good, as is the cheddar and ale. It's a matter of personal taste of course, but I find Swiss fondue a bit plasticky and the gorgonzola, too strong.

Yining and I were eating at the bar. The couple next to us ordered these divine-smelling salmon dolmas. I asked them how they were, and they very kindly gave us one of them to taste. I'm happy to report that they're as yummy as they smelled. I'll definitely be getting some next time I come.

Icelandic Fish and Chips

Occasion: Casual dinner
Location: Icelandic Fish and Chips on Tryggvagötu in Reykjavik, Iceland (fishandchips.is)
Edibles: fish and chips, natch

Musings: This place is *really* popular. It also closes fairly early, at 9:00, and they stop letting people in about a half hour before that. So go early, and be prepared for a bit of a wait.

We got two different things to share. First was an order of the battered ling with rosemary roast potatoes. Not great. Yining and I were both surprised. You might be able to see in the photo that a puddle of oil has seeped out from the fish. The spelt and barley batter, which they advertise as "light and crispy", was in fact quite soggy and dense. I think what happened is that the oil had picked up a lot of impurities and wasn't quite up to temp, but the kitchen staff were eager to finish up for the night and didn't bother to change it. (We were almost the last table to be served.)

The other dish we ordered was the steamed haddock with coriander and a side of onion rings. Much better. The haddock was really plump and juicy and the coriander sauce was nice and fresh. The thin, delicate onion rings were also vastly superior to the potatoes, which were dry and leathery on the outside. (Which, again, could have been due to the fact that we came close to closing. Those potatoes tasted like they'd been sitting in a warming oven for an hour or more.)

So at a fish and chips place, the winner turned out to be steamed fish and onion rings. Go figure.

Cafe Saturnus

Occasion: Last day in Stockholm
Location: Cafe Saturnus on Eriksbergsgatan, just off the main street Birger Jarlsgatan, in Stockholm, Sweden - nearest T-bana stops are Rådmansgatan and Östermalmstorg (cafesaturnus.se)
Edibles: linguine vongole for me; tomato-mozzarella salad for Yining

Musings: A nice little cafe, close to our hotel, offering sandwiches, salads, a few hot dishes. Seating is self-serve, so you have to hover and pounce when it opens up. People do tend to linger and chat.

The pasta was pretty good, but the real winner was the giant cardamom boule I impulse-purchased. (It's hard to tell from the picture but it really was a massive bread, about the size of a head of cabbage.) Dense yet fluffy, spicy and sweet, it was the perfect thing to munch on while we waited for our food to arrive.

[Postscript: It held up well, wrapped in waxed paper, and provided some much-needed sustenance for the flight to Reykjavik.]

Östermalms Saluhall - Tysta Mari

Occasion: Another day, another delicious lunch
Location: Östermalms Saluhall in the Gamla Stan neighborhood of Stockholm, Sweden - nearest T-bana stop is Östermalmstorg. It's a landmark. You can't miss it.
Edibles: smoked salmon with boiled potatoes in creamy dill sauce; salad with shrimp, greens, tomatoes, artichokes and snow peas

Musings: The Östermalms Saluhall is a high class food court, sort of like Eataly. It does have stalls that sell meat and seafood, produce, prepared foods etc. But mostly it's restaurant stalls. And don't worry - it's not a horrible tourist trap. Locals definitely come here too.

We went with a place called Tysta Mari. Their display case looked enticing, it was clearly popular with locals, and we were able to pounce on some seats opening up. The original plan was to get another open-faced salmon sandwich, but I changed my mind after all four people ahead of me in line ordered the salad. (We'll meet another day, Scurvy.)

And no wonder that salad's so popular - it's crisp and interesting, with lots of really fresh baby shrimp. It turned out to be surprisingly filling when paired with a thick slice of dense, brown raisin bread. The salmon in the other dish was on par with the excellent Scandinavian salmon we'd had elsewhere, and those potatoes - stunning. Cooked perfectly, with a light glaze of sauce, elegant and hearty at the same time. So simple and so perfect. Add a chilled glass of house white to wash it all down. Heaven.

A lady next to us was having one of the daily special, ham (fläsklägg!!) with some kind of orange-colored purée. Sweet potato? Butternut squash? I never did figure it out due to the language barrier. It looked really good too. [Postscript: Sadly, we couldn't fit in a return trip to verify that.]

A big thumbs up for this place. Not exactly cheap but very tasty food, skillfully made.

Nord Seafood Bar at Keflavik Airport

Occasion: Layover on the way to Stockholm
Location: Nord Seafood Bar at Keflavik Airport in Reykjavik, Iceland (kefairport.is/English/ShopsRestaurants/107/default.aspx)
Edibles: smoked salmon open-faced sandwich with lettuce and sliced hardboiled egg, with a dill honey-mustard

Musings: Hailing from the west coast, I admit that I've always sneered at Atlantic salmon. No more. The smoked salmon they were serving at Nord - at an airport, no less - was nothing short of spectacular. Really rich and silky, not too fishy or salty. Perfection, full stop. I've never had smoked salmon so good.

An unexpectedly delicious start to our trip.

[Postscript, 8/21: We ate here again before our flight back. I tried the shrimp sandwich this time, which was not as good as the salmon. The shrimps were flavorless and the bread was soggy, like it'd been sitting there for a while.]

Markt

Occasion: Brunch with Abby, Elizabeth, Jill and Katie
Location: Markt on 6th and 21st (marktrestaurant.com)
Edibles: croque-monsieur with a side of bacon

Musing: Yeah, don't get the croque-monsieur here. Their version is thin, dry and Béchamel sauce-less. On the bright side, it was surprisingly uncrowded for a weekend and they made the best coffee I've had in ages. (French press, in case you're wondering. Only $3.) Also, they only charged a moderately exorbitant $4 for a side of bacon.

I'd try it again - I'm sure there's something on this menu I'd like, though it for sure wasn't what I ordered today. Maybe the Benedict. The pain perdu that Abby had looked promising as well.

Fette Sau

Occasion: Continuing shenanigans with Yining
Location: Fette Sau on Metropolitan Ave in Brooklyn (fettesaubbq.com)
Edibles: we (okay, I) ordered...
2 slices of brisket
1/4 lb pulled pork shoulder
1/4 lb boneless beef rib
1/8 lb of thick-cut bacon (the guy wasn't really supposed to let us order so little, but he let us do it)
1 link of spicy sausage
2 St. Louis style pork ribs
small coleslaw
piece of cornbread

All of the above came out to $40 including tax. Meat-a-palooza!

Before:

After:

Musings: I was chatting with these two hefty guys (I'm talking like 200+ lbs each) while waiting in line. Very nice guys. Told me about an all-you-can-eat Korean bbq place in Queens. After I paid, I heard them order, "What she's having." So there you have it - confirmation that I'm competitive way above my weight class.

My favorite bbq item is baby back ribs. Sadly, these were a bit underdone for my taste. One of my co-workers, who competes in bbq competitions, says that the proper doneness for a rib is when you can take a clean bite, without having to pull (underdone) or having the rest of the meat fall off the bone (overdone). By that standard, Fette Sau's ribs were cooked perfectly - but I personally like them with the meat falling off the bone.

The pulled pork had good texture, though it was slightly lacking in flavor. I don't think it matches Wilfie's awesome pulled pork sliders, or even Great Jones Cafe's. It needs a generous squirt of bbq sauce to be even halfway decent. You can take a pass on this one.

My favorite was the beef rib, a cut so tricky I've never attempted to cook it myself. Absolute perfection here - tender, robust and flavorful. Yining's favorite was the brisket, with the beef rib gaining slightly as we made our way through the tray. So surprisingly enough, in a restaurant named for the majestic pig, the beef won the day.

The sides are also worth mentioning. The coleslaw is actually pretty exotic for a place like this, with hand-cut cabbage, peppers and chunks of apple. The dressing is thin and tastes like sesame - it's got tahini, I think. I'd definitely recommend an order of it to give your palate some relief from all the meat. The cornbread, which is about six inches square and two inches thick, is light and fluffly. Also excellent.

All in all, the best bbq joint I've been to in the city - there isn't even a close second. Fette Sau, I'm going to be back soon. Real, real soon.

Ted's Bulletin

Occasion: Brunch with Sylvia
Location: Ted's Bulletin on 8th St SE in Washington, DC
Edibles: I had the biscuit with sausage gravy and Sylvia had the French toast

Musings: Ted's Bulletin is a cute place for brunch. The décor has a sort of retro, deco thing going on but not in a fussy or pretentious way. As you can see from the pictures, they serve extremely generous plates of hearty food. Prices are reasonable too. A place like this would be mobbed in New York.

Biscuits and sausage gravy - when it's on the menu, I pretty much have to order it. Ted's Bulletin's version of it involves a beer biscuit. Great in theory, but in practice it gave the biscuit an unfortunate bitter aftertaste. The sausage gravy was excellent, though, and I scraped up every little bit of it.

The French toast was tasty too.

For next time: I noticed they had homemade Pop-Tarts on the menu. I was intrigued but - alas - didn't have the room to try them.

Sylvia - great catching up with you!

Northern Spy, part II

Occasion: Pre-movie (Cinema Komunisto at TFF) brunch with Josh
Location: Northern Spy Food Co. on 12th between A and B (northernspyfoodco.com)
Edibles: I had the biscuit and sausage gravy, with two baked eggs; Josh had the sausage, egg and cheese sandwich.

Musings: I've been wanting to come back here, ever since that first dinner with Winnie and Gabrielle - gosh - a year ago. Not too much to add. The décor is as charming as ever, and the food is hearty and unfussy. My gravy was good, the biscuit was nice and fluffy, and the egg yolk provided the perfect amount of unctuous ooze over everything.

One niggle. They did seat their dining room sort of awkwardly, i.e too many people at once. The kitchen got slammed and our food took ages to come out.

Social Eatz

Occasion: Lunch with Meredith and Mike, with lots of ex-Death Star crew
Location: Social Eatz on 53rd between 2nd and 3rd (socialeatz.com)
Edibles: I had the bulgogi burger and fries, and a bite of Meredith's spring rolls and chop salad

Musings: Social Eatz is the new eatery of Top Chef Season 7 finalist Angelo Sosa. It's Asian fusion - not exactly a shocker for anyone who's seen Angelo cook on TV. But I actually like the concept here - Asian-inspired burgers, tacos, etc. Casual streetfood, in a yuppie diner setting. The menu's got some cheeky, fun items like the Imperialist Hot Dog, and some cringingly pretentious ones like the Chili-Kissed Tilapia Tacos.

The shrimp and chicken spring rolls were flavorful, but surprisingly heavy considering the ingredients. The chop salad not a hit with the table - it's a tiny little portion, and the so-called six minute egg was barely cooked long enough to hold together. Meredith rightly avoided the egg; the runny yolk would have completely drowned the small amount of lettuce.

I got the bulgogi burger with a side of fries. First of all, potatoes are dirt cheap, Angelo - your burgers should come with fries. Second, my burger was way underdone. I mean, it was literally half raw. Not rare. Raw. I practically like my steaks still mooing, but that burger was on the borderline of what I'd eat (v. what I'd send back and ask them to cook longer). Another person in our group left her burger patty half uneaten for the same reason. So please ask your diners how they like their burgers.

That said, I think the concepts of the bulgogi burger, bibimbap burger and Korean taco are genius. I love the salt-sweet flavor of the beef, accented by the tart bite of the pickles. I'd come back to try those latter two.

La Follia

Occasion: Drinks with Amy... that sort of slid into dinner.
Location: La Follia on Third between 19th and 20th
Edibles: prosciutto, caponata, and burrata crostini to start; then we shared an arugula salad and the pappardelle with braised pork ragu

Musings: La Follia has a good selection of wines by the glass, and the food is very cheap compared to the likes of Bar Jamón. The prosciutto, caponata, and burrata crostini (two pieces of it) were all $6 a plate. It's good, too. I particularly liked the caponata, which had a few more ingredients than the standard version, but tasted wonderfully bright and fruity.

The pappardelle is also worth a mention. A mere $15, the homemade pasta is great and they're generous to a fault ladling the sauce on.

The décor is understated but classy, and it looks like a place for adults. Hopefully, that will keep the NYU hooligans at bay. I did see a lot of banker-looking guys, but I guess that's not too surprising considering the proximity to Credit Suisse.

In general, a nice addition to the neighborhood. If only it was ten blocks further north....

Part II, 5/2: I came back here for dinner with Mamie after an anniversary showing of Top Gun at AMC Village 7. I ordered a bunch of the same stuff - can't resist caponata! - but Mamie got the salmon main. I can report that it was masterfully done - a gorgeous, tender piece of fish with a nice hard sear on the skin.

I'm really liking this place. Hope they can keep their quality up and their prices where they are.

BXL East

Occasion: Another Tax Day under our belts! This clearly calls for beer....
Location: BXL on 51st between 2nd and 3rd (bxlcafe.com) [Note: There's another one on the west side on 43rd]
Edibles: moules à la Grand Mère (mussels with cream, onions and bacon)

Musings: With our tax returns zipping their way to the guvmint electronically, and our third annual Tax Day an official success, Yining and I headed out for some celebratory beer. Sadly, as we feared, Hofbrau Bierhaus has been completely overrun by obnoxious frat boys. We slunk out to find quieter environs.

We found BXL pleasantly deserted. Because we're suckers for a cute logo, I started with a Delerium and Yining, with La Chouffe. Man, those Belgian beers are strong! Halfway through my second Delerium, I decided that we needed some food or I'd be asleep in an hour. And, of course, nothing goes better with Belgian beer than moules frites.

The mussels were fantastic. I don't think I've ever had a cream-based mussel broth before, but it's AWESOME. (The bacon probably helped.) I was flat-out drinking it with a spoon towards the end. It's also great to dip your bread into, if you're not as willing as I am to be uncouth in public. Yum!

Mama Ti Lee

Occasion: Dinner with Winnie
Location: Mama Ti Lee, a derb off rue Riad Zitoun El Jdid, just slightly to the south of Le Clos. We were worried about finding it at night, but a boy somehow divined our goal and led us there.
Edibles: three-course prix fixe, details below

Musings: Negotiating Marrakech's medina at night can be tricky and a little scary. Mama Ti Lee, like our riad and Dar Cherifa, is in a derb - a little neighborhood of about ten to twenty buildings that all lead into a dead-end alley. There are only a few sporadic streetlights in the derbs, and they are also pretty deserted - two corners and you can be all by yourself, even if the main street you turned off is very well-traveled. And maps are no help - even the most detailed map we had showed a few street names, with lots and lots of unnamed paths with multiple little crooks branching off them.

I guess Mama Ti Lee is the only tourist destination in the immediate area, because a pre-teen boy figured out where we were going and started leading us there, almost before we understood what was happening. There was a bit of a nervous moment at the restaurant when I handed him a tip, and he insisted on getting more. We ended up giving him the equivalent of about three dollars, but he still looked a bit disgruntled. (We wondered if he might still be hanging around when we were done with dinner, maybe with a few friends for extra persuasion.... but no, we left the restaurant and found our way back to the riad without incident.)

And now, the restaurant.

Mama Ti Lee serves modern Moroccan cuisine. [Postscript: Which, in the grand scheme of the trip, ended up being quite refreshing and novel. We didn't eat anything comparable for the rest of our visit.] Based on the food and stark, industrial décor, Mama Ti Lee would fit right in in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. The menu is very small. The prix fixe is three courses for 210 dirham (about $25), and there are two choices per course. That's it. Mama Ti Li does not serve alcohol.

Winnie and I got one of each dish, and here's how it went:

We were first served an amuse bouche of cheese madeleines with cherry tomatoes. I thought the texture was a bit rubbery, but the flavor was good.

The first course was roasted tomato tart, with arugula and honey-balsamic dressing...

... and eggplant "caviar" with ricotta, confit garlic and fig. (By the way, let me just say how nice it was to go from Spanish to French, and to be able to decipher menus and order precisely. My conversational French is fair to middling, but my food French is *excellent.*)

For me, the eggplant was the superior dish. Really nice textures and flavors. The tomato tart was fine, but the pastry was a bit tough.

The second course was rouget with tapenade and potato purée...

... and deep-fried cigars of shredded lamb shoulder in pastilla dough, with apricots, nuts, salad and cumin yogurt. I preferred the lamb to the rouget, but both were excellent. There's something about the savory-sweet balance in Moroccan cuisine that I'm really liking. It doesn't ever overpower the protein or make it taste dessert-like; rather, it's a fantastic added dimension of richness and body to the flavors.

Dessert was a coffee and white chocolate tart...

... and a parfait of orange gélee, orange blossom cream and streusel topping.

This course needs work, I think. The tart shell on the coffee tart was like cardboard - really tough and hard, almost impossible to get through with the spoon. You really needed a knife, and that means it's bad pastry. (Assuming the same person made the madeleines and the pastry for the tomato tart, he or she could use a refresher course in baking.) Also, the white chocolate on top tasted slightly greasy and heavy to me. The parfait needed less cream and more orange, and the orange should have been left alone instead of jellied.

Desserts and other minor critiques aside, I think Mama Ti Lee is doing really interesting food with considerable skill, and it's a great modern dining option in the medina. (There are other fancy modern restaurants in Marrakech, but they tend to be located in the new part of town.)

Dar Cherifa

Occasion: Lunch with Winnie, after some pathfinding adventures in the medina.
Location: Dar Cherifa, just to the west of the souks, in a derb off rue Mouassine - not that you'll be able to find a street sign that identifies it as such
Edibles: lunch of Moroccan salads

Musings: Sort of a cafe and art gallery, with a small shop and a roof deck. It's just a stunning building, with tall, soaring walls and arches surrounding a sunlit central courtyard. Intricate carved wood and plasterwork *everywhere.*

After snapping photos up, down and sideways, we settled down to order lunch. Le Clos' substantial breakfast ensured that neither of us was terribly hungry, so we went with those omnipresent Moroccan salads - a nice, light lunch. This time, we got: peas and carrots; green beans; fried eggplant; marinated olives; zucchini salad; and stewed lentils. We also got a basket of this hard, chewy wheat bread that was covered in cracked wheat.

The lunch was nothing special - the salads not as complex or deftly executed as those from Le Marrakchi - but it's still worth a trip to see the building and the local artwork.

Taberna Los Huevos de Lucio

Occasion: We'll call it lunch.
Location: Taberna Los Huevos de Lucio, Cava Baja 30 in Madrid, Spain
Edibles: tomato and avocado salad; battered, deep-fried shrimp; callos Madrileña (stewed tripe)

Musings: This place has the distinction for serving us the first mediocre meal of the trip. The tomatoes in the salad were hard and underripe, and there was way too much dressing and cheese. [Postscript: Unlike the fabulous tomatoes in France and Italy, the tomatoes in Spain are about as bad as they are in the US. I base this assertion on three separate instances of tomato consumption.]

The shrimp were okay, but you could hardly taste them under all the breading and sauce. This dish struck me as clumsy, and very American.

The tripe was, frankly, terrible. It's supposed to be a local specialty, and Mario Batali certainly seemed to enjoy it when he was in Spain. But I could only force down a few bites. The different tripes were all variations on the theme of mushy, squishy, and gummy. Kudos to Winnie for eating a good third of that dish so we wouldn't look quite so wasteful.

Total damage was about 30€.

Apparently, what we should have gotten was the soggy fries with fried eggs. Seriously, it was on every table. What is it with the Spanish and soggy fries?

Villa del Pescadito

Occasion: Afternoon snack?
Location: Villa del Pescadito, Toledo 26 in Madrid, Spain
Edibles: fried sardines, fried shrimp, bread and ham

Musings: OK, so maybe sardines are not the most natural follow-up to chocolate con churros. But going to a sardine bar was pretty much my only to-do for this entire Madrid trip. So off we went. [Postscript: And wait until you see what came next!]

On our way there, we found ourselves in the middle of what we first thought was a parade, but turned out to be a labor protest. With all the unrest in north Africa, this made us a little nervous. But we ducked into Villa del Pescadito to wait it out, and the protest eventually moved on peacefully.

Villa del Pescadito is a tiny, narrow little bar with a number of seafood small plates on offer. We got my sardines - scooped out of a tub, raw, and floured and flash-fried by the proprietor's wife. We also got a plate of small head-on shrimp, likewise flash-fried. And, since it was a bar, some Mahou draft beers. (With every beer, you get a small round of bread with a sliver of ham.)

I know what you're thinking - wrong time of day. And it was. This is the type of snack you should really get at happy hour. But we had limited time in Madrid, and already had plans for the evening (the Prado + paella) so we went for it.

Food was tasty; it was fun. The place definitely had a neighborhood bar kind of feel. When we were there, the other patrons were some taciturn old guys - who were undoubtedly wondering what the hell those Asian chicks were up to.

[Postscript: The sardines are the likely culprit for my later bout of violent food poisoning. Which makes me sad, because I really did have a good time there. And also mad because, DAMMIT, I NEVER GET SICK when I travel. I had to miss out on three whole meals in Madrid! And I didn't really get my usual appetite back until almost a week later. What a waste!]

Hofbrau Bierhaus

Occasion: Another random food shenanigan with Yining
Location: Hofbrau Bierhaus on 3rd Ave between 44th and 45th, above the OTB (that detail is particularly delightful) (bierhausnyc.com)
Edibles: beet salad; sauerbraten; schnitzel with mushroom sauce; apple struedel

Musings: I think this place really has Hall of Fame potential. From the random location to the massive communal benches, the uber-cheesy waitress uniforms, the fried foods, the beer boots - I'm tickled by it all.

As it was a school night, I restrained myself and just got a 1L stein. Yining, showing even more restraint (or what a less generous soul might call wimpiness), got the half stein. See below - the big and the little. (Sort of like Mike and Gerald. Hee!)

I was more than happy with the food. The schnitzel was outstanding. Don't know if you need the mushroom sauce. The sides were also excellent and noteworthy - purple cabbage with just enough bite, a nice mellow cucumber salad, and a scoop of German potato salad.

The beet salad was massive - more than enough to share - and very tasty. If there was a weak link, it was the sauerbraten. The meat was tender enough, but it needed a few fat pinches of salt for flavor.

And who would walk away without some strudel? Not us. It was decent, but too cinnamon-y for me to really get into.

The homemade pretzels also looked good. (They're why all the tables are covered with salt.)

I'm definitely going to be back - that 2L boot and I have a date with destiny.

Chai

Occasion: Pre-theatre (Arcadia) dinner with Winnie and Erin
Location: Chai on 55th and 8th (chai-restaurants.com)
Edibles: duck salad; beef stir-fry; cold glass noodles

Musings: We tried this place reluctantly, having not budgeted enough wait time to get seated at Yakitori Totto. The theatre district is infamous for having dismal dining options, and unfortunately Chai is a place that proves the rule.

It's a tiny space, and they really crammed the tables in. The table next to ours was pretty much inaccessible. The waitress had to reach over our heads to serve them, and couldn't even fill water glasses without the diners passing them to her. If the owners were really so desperate for extra seats, they should have foregone the large water fountain behind our table. Which is quite poorly situated anyway - I kept worrying I'd knock my purse or my coat into it accidentally.

When it came time to order, they didn't have any of the three dishes Erin wanted to try. I also heard them tell another table that they only had two of their desserts available, one of them being just ice-cream. My guess is that they were too ambitious with the menu when they started out, and have since trimmed it drastically to keep food waste down.

Of the dishes we ordered, the beef was the only decent one. The cubes of beef were surprisingly tender and the dish overall was pretty flavorful. The glass noodles were completely waterlogged, like they hadn't drained the noodles properly before dressing them. The duck salad the worst - the pieces of duck were totally dessicated and tasted like nothing so much as balsa wood.

In any other NYC neighborhood, this place wouldn't last three months. But with a steady stream of clueless theatre-going tourists, who knows? Do yourself a favor at least, and give Chai a wide berth.

Cafe Orlin

Occasion: Post-movie (Battle LA - absolutely execrable) brunch
Location: Cafe Orlin on St Marks between 1st and 2nd (cafeorlin.com)
Edibles: salmon omelet with dill, cream cheese, cucumber and red onions - came with salad, home fries and toast

Musings. In short - long wait; close quarters; exotic menu; great coffee.

My omelet had WAY too many onions, but it was fine after I removed them. In retrospect, I should have ordered something more adventurous. I'm sure there's something amazing on the menu that they don't serve anywhere else. Like maybe the Middle Eastern Eggs? The Tunisian Eggs? It's worth a few more exploratory visits.

[Side story: Josh brought me some layered marzipan squares from his favorite bakery. I gamely tried one, even though sweets like that aren't really my thing. I should probably have been more diplomatic - still, he seemed to take it pretty well when I told him I thought it tasted like toothpaste. Something like 30 seconds later, he had inhaled the three remaining pieces in the box - and those things were not small. It was very cute. I don't think I've ever met anyone who likes marzipan quite so much.]

Grimaldi's

Occasion: Post speed-dating debrief dinner with Mamie and Sheila
Location: Grimaldi's on Old Fulton St in Brooklyn (grimaldis.com)
Edibles: pizza, natch - one with mushroom and pepperoni; one with sausage and roasted peppers

Musings: OK, y'all, I know this place is supposed to be legendary... but I walked out feeling like it's kind of overrated. I mean, they make some good pizza, but it's not good enough by itself to get me out into the hinterlands, a.k.a. the outer boroughs.

The dough for the crust is really nice and chewy - this is a pie where I'd actually eat the crusts. But the slice itself is soggy and limp. The sauce was bland and watery. And you certainly don't go to Grimaldi's for the ambiance. So what's the big deal, exactly?