Mmmm... spinach and feta hummus

Maggie brought this positively addictive dip to Mark's bbq.

Spinach and Feta Hummus
1 can (15 oz) of chickpeas / garbanzo beans
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 cups fresh spinach (I bet you can substitute 1 cup frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed-out)
½ cup feta cheese
2 tbsp tahini
6 tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes for some heat - all to taste

Drain the chickpeas. Add the beans, half the spinach, half the feta, and all the other ingredients into a food processor. Process until smooth. Add the rest of the spinach and feta, and process to your desired consistency (I think it's nice when it has a little texture). Thin with water or more olive oil (or lemon juice or chicken stock) if necessary.

Refrigerate for one hour before serving. Great for parties!

BBQ Village

Occasion: Yet another meat-a-palooza shenanigan with Yining.
Location: BBQ Village on Northern Blvd in Flushing, Queens (bbqvillage.net)
Edibles: bbq'ed meats galore, all you can eat for $30

Musings: We went during ultra peak hours (i.e. regular weekend dinner) and paid the highest price on their matrix. You can get a better deal for more inconvenient time slots. On weekdays it's $25 per person. And the late night special is hard to beat - after 10pm on weekdays it's $17 per person, and after 11pm on Friday and Saturday, 10pm on Sunday, $20.

The meats all looked fresh and were of a decent quality. Be careful not to overcook the beef - it goes from juicy and tender to tough and chewy in about 30 seconds. Surprisingly, the pork kalbi was our favorite. It stood up to erratic cooking times really well and had the same yummy marinade as the beef.

There's also a selection of cooked dishes, vegetables, soup, rice, and fresh fruit for dessert. I quite enjoyed their braised short ribs and was hard-pressed to stop at just one bowl of rice.

This is a niche restaurant - all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ is not for everyone. If you are usually satisfied with a normal-sized Korean dinner, you might as well stay in Manhattan at the weekend prices. Meat-tooth that I am, even I don't think I'll be shlepping out to Queens just for BBQ Village.

In the end, transportation's the biggest hurdle. The closest LIRR stop is Broadway in Queens. After dinner, you might decide (as we did) to walk to the Flushing Main Street stop, about 20 minutes away. If you're headed back to the city in a rental car after some event, the late night special might be worth considering.

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.

Cafe Ronda

Occasion: Dinner with Abby and Jill
Location: Cafe Ronda on Columbus between 71st and 72nd (caferonda.com)
Edibles: calamares fritos; gambas al ajillo; spinach salad with goat cheese

Musings: While waiting for the girls, I ordered a cocktail at the bar. The drink was rum-based, but what their drink menu didn't mention was that they used coconut rum to make it. I really don't like coconut - it reminds me too strongly of sunscreen. Over a period of about 20 minutes, I took maybe two or three small sips of the drink. The bartender finally asked me if I liked it, and I told her about my coconut-suncreen thing. At which point she did nothing. Didn't comp the drink, didn't offer to make me a new one with regular rum. Boo. What NOT to do in terms of customer service.

The calamari was a nice big dish at $9. Inexplicably, the $11 shrimp were puny and came in a tiny dish.

Bottom line: Give it a pass - there are lots of better options on the UWS.

Porsena

Occasion: Winnie's birthday!
Location: Porsena on E 7th between 2nd and 3rd
Edibles: pea risotto and baby octopus starters to share; various pasta mains (more detail below)

Musings: There's a lot to like about this restaurant. It's a cute, cozy space. The staff couldn't have been nicer to us. The food gave me the impression that the chef really has a strong food philosophy, and cares about good ingredients.

That said, I'd give it an average score of B+. There was a something about almost every dish that was just a little bit off. With a few small tweaks, it could be amazing. (Or at least amazing to me. It's entirely possible that the chef and I just don't have the same palate, whereas you might find the flavors perfect as they are now. Porsena is kind of place where you tend to give the chef the benefit of the doubt.)

The pea risotto, for example. The perfect spring dish, it was competently prepared. I did find it oversalted, and texturally it needed to be a bit looser. (You can tell by the way it's mounded up in the picture that it's too stiff. A perfect risotto would slowly ooze into shallow puddle.)

The octopus was great. No problems there.

I also ordered the beef tongue appetizer, more out of curiousity than anything. I liked the concept of the dish; I think the pickled vegetables were absolutely the right side to serve with the meat. The tongue itself was a little mealy. Maybe it should have been served cold instead of room temp? I'd skip this dish, at any rate.

For my main, I got the pasta with spicy lamb sausage. The pasta was very interesting, a wide tube shape with ridges on the inside. It was cooked perfectly al dente. The lamb sausage had a great flavor - unfortunately, I could only enjoy the complexities of the flavor for a few bites before the aggressive spiciness numbed my mouth.

I also tasted of Winnie's uni pasta and Gabrielle's pasta curls with many cheeses. The sea urchin sauce was too rich and too fishy for my taste. I don't think I could have finished a whole dish of it. Winnie loved it, though. The cheese sauce was likewise too rich, though I loved the whimsical pasta shape.

I give this place at least one more try. Start with the octopus and maybe try another pasta.

Mmmm... Moroccan redux

Occasion: Melissa's birthday / Moroccan reunion!
Edibles: cucumber salad with cider vinegar and parsley; eggplant zaahlouk; carrot salad with golden raisins and marcona almonds, dressed with orange juice and zest, argan oil and cinnamon; zuchini with paprika vinaigrette; couscous; beef tenderloin with ras al hanout rub, served with chermoula sauce; Moroccan fruit salad [+ chocolate cheesecake bottom left contributed by Alicia]

Notes:
1) With an able prep assistant (thanks Melissa!), you can prepare all of the above for a party of 15 in three and a half hours, cooking flat-out. Give yourself five for a more leisurely pace.
2) The recipes are all variations from the classes I took with Souk Cuisine and Riad Kniza in Marrakech.
3) You can make chermoula in a blender, it just comes out smoother and more liquid-y. Works great as a sauce with beef tenderloin. (And props to Tony for bbq'ing that tenderloin perfectly!)
4) For the Moroccan fruit salad (chopped apple, mango, kiwi and strawberry in orange juice), Ceres Medley of Fruit with mango and passionfruit + regular North American orange juice = a close approximation of truly amazing Moroccan orange juice.

Big Apple BBQ

Location: On the streets bordering Madison Square Park

Met up with Winnie, Erin and Hsinpei for another meat-a-palooza. I swear I eat vegetables too. (I do! Sometimes.)

Stop #1: Ubon's - $8 for pulled pork shoulder sandwich with a side of coleslaw

Nice enough. Very tender and moist. Most of the flavor I got was from the sauce, though.

Stop #2: Pappy's - $8 for ribs and a side of beans

The ribs were, once again, undercooked for my taste. The meat was hard to chew and I was not impressed with their flavor (which was basically just bbq sauce slathered on at the end and brûléed). It was also unfortunate that we happened to get the stubby little ribs that come at the tip of the rack. The ends always get a little burned and dried out, compared to the bigger ribs further up. And the beans were sort of watery and sad. Thumbs down, Pappy's.

Stop #3: Blue Smoke Bake Shop - $6 for blueberry crisp à la mode

Now, I'm normally hating on Blue Smoke for their crappy food. And I stand by that. But I will say that they serve a nice dessert. (We weren't quite done with the meat yet, but passed right in front of Blue Smoke Bakery while waiting in line for Ed Mitchell. So we dispatched Erin to pick up... let's call it an unusual palate cleanser.)

This was the first dish of the day that made me go, "WOW!" Really good crisp topping and not too much of it, a light hand with the sugar in the berries, and a scoop of perfectly textured vanilla ice-cream. Yum.

Stop #4: Ed Mitchell - $8 for a chopped whole hog sandwich, with a side of coleslaw

While waiting in the long-ass line (after the blueberry crisp), I saw someone making pork rind crackling. At this point, my head pretty much exploded with joy. I had to get me some. When it was ready, they passed out a few shards to the people in line. It was amazing.... and so I had to get some more.

I went up to the lady and shamlessly played up my bacon-themed t-shirt and love of all pork products. Happily, she found me at least moderately amusing and rewarded my antics with a *massive* piece of crackling almost as big as my head!! Oh, happy, happy day!!!!

Yeah, we also got some of their whole hog, but nothing could really compare to that crackling. Here they are chopping it up:

And here's the sandwich:

I liked the more varied texture of the whole hog, but it was also sort of bland. Coleslaw was pretty generic, not as good as Ubon's.

But the crackling..... oh, the crackling.......

Mmmm... pasta salad

I basically threw this salad together with odds and ends I already had in the pantry/fridge. Despite the lack of premeditation, the flavors melded really nicely so I thought I'd share.

Pasta Salad with Chicken and Vegetables

rotini (but really any pasta will do), cooked, drained and cooled to at least room temp
shredded rotisserie chicken (I used Pio Pio's excellent chicken for extra oomph)
chopped red pepper
chopped celery
julienned sundried tomatoes in oil (in a jar, from Trader Joe's)
basic vinaigrette of Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar and olive oil
salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Ludicrously easy to prepare - just throw everything together in a proportion you find pleasing. (Though you don't want to overdo it with meat and veg - it's a pasta salad, not a chicken salad - and you don't want to drown it in vinaigrette). It can be easily scaled to feed any number of people.

The dressing will hold up well without refrigeration so you can safely bring it to a picnic. It will also keep at least a day in the fridge if it's been dressed, longer if you keep the dressing separate.

Goes without saying that you can add or substitute ingredients at will. I happen to like the color from the peppers and the crunch from the celery. They're both fairly watery, bland vegetables so the intense bursts of flavor from the sundried tomatoes are nice. Meat-tooth that I am, I always want to put animal protein in but you can substitute some kind of cheese (feta, etc.) for the chicken if you have vegetarians.

Enjoy!

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.

Sunday Gravy

Location: Brooklyn Flea in Williamsburg

Bread boat with meat sauce, chock full of shreds of pork shoulder, slices of sausage and mini meatballs. Hearty doesn't even begin to describe it.

Perhaps a bit heavy for the weather, but it was the most interesting (to me, at least) of the remaining food stalls. The $7 price tag was a mite high but I absolutely fell in love with that sauce. I bought a quart jar of it to take home. It ran me $23, which is expensive but still less than what something comparable would cost you at a restaurant.

A note on the jar: It's not commercially vacuum-sealed, so I wouldn't keep it for more than a week in the fridge.

[One quibble: If you're going to feature a red Le Creuset pot in the company logo, you should really be cooking in it. I could clearly see the stainless steel insert that they were really cooking in. Perhaps they have issues with the sauce sticking to the bottom?]

Asia Dog

Location: Brooklyn Flea in Williamsburg (asiadognyc.com)

The Vietnamese-style Vinh dog (on the left) was disappointing. The carrots and the daikon weren't pickled long enough and tasted pretty bland.

The Thai-style Sidney dog (on the right) was better. The mango relish is a lovely condiment for a hot dog (though it'd be even better with a homemade chicken sausage). I think the ingredients minus the fish sauce would make a great lobster salad too. Yining immediately agreed that we have to try it.

Regular dogs (beef, chicken or veg) are $4 each or two for $7. Organic dogs are $5 or two for $9.

All told, Asia Dog was not particularly memorable and, by itself, is not enough to drag me off my island. The flavor combinations are thoughtful and interesting but the hot dog is dragged down by the grocery-store quality meat and bun. They should definitely consider making their own sausages. Or, at the very least, sourcing some fresh local stuff.

Macondo

Occasion: Huijin's birthday dinner, with Yining and Melissa
Location: Macondo, on E Houston and Allen (macondonyc.com)
Edibles: clam ceviche; chorizo and shrimp; pork belly flatbread; mofongo de pulpo (mashed plantains and octopus), feijoada (a Portuguese stew) and duck tacos; two desserts to share - chocolate cake filled with dulce de leche and French toast stuffed with lemon cream cheese

Musings: I've passed this place a hundred times and never felt the urge to go in. That sign, maybe - it just looks cheesy.

But now that I've been, I'm definitely going back. The reason? Their awesome and totally addictive pork belly flatbread with tomatoes, lima beans and mahon cheese. It's super crispy and savory... just wonderful. If we hadn't ordered so much other food, I'd've insisted we get another one.

If the flatbread was the winner of the table, the feijoada was the loser. It was a special, not on the regular menu. One of the most expensive dishes of the meal at $15, the stew just sort of muddy and didn't have any depth or pizzazz.

Everything else was tasty. The portion on the duck tacos is perhaps a bit small and hard to share, but they were delicious. I also really liked the clam ceviche. Very refreshing, and it's a generous serving.

The French toast dessert (torrija) is HUGE - even with four of us eating it, we barely made a dent. Both it and the chocolate cake (brazo de gitano) were very, very sweet. I personally would have had trouble finishing a whole dessert by myself but it was great to have just a few bites.

With a round of cocktails, tons of great food and two shared desserts, our dinner came out to a very reasonable $40 per person including tip and tax.

Mmmm... improvised mushroom sauce

Occasion: Dinner party at Ben and Rebecca's

OK, this turned out to be one of the more eventful dinner parties I've attended. Here's the story.

Ben had decided on a main course of grilled halloumi cheese* with marsala sauce to accommodate Karen, our vegetarian. I offered to go early to help cook (as his sous chef - I would never usurp another cook's kitchen) and Ben accepted.

When I get there, he says, "Why don't you make the marsala?" So I start by slicing an onion and browning it. I add sliced brown mushrooms and sauté. I look to Ben for guidance on what to do next and he tells me, "Oh, I trust you. Just wing it."

I don't have a recipe for marsala sauce in my head!! I freak out for a few seconds, then figure what the hell... I'm sure I can cook something decently edible. I add a dab of tomato paste to the sautéed onions and mushrooms. (You always want to cook tomato paste a bit, to get rid of that raw flavor.) I'm now ready to add the marsala and deglaze. At which point Ben hands me a bottle of merlot.

Marsala, for the record, is a fortified sweet wine. Not the same thing as regular red wine at all. So okay, I'm rolling with the punches. I use the merlot, and toss in a handful of sugar to compensate. After a few minutes to let the alcohol burn off, I pour in some vegetable stock, and season with salt, pepper, and chopped fresh tarragon.

The ingredients bubble together for a bit, and the sauce reduces. I check the seasoning one last time, and throw in a knob of butter at the end for gloss and flavor.

The final product was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself. It ended up being more like a beef-less boeuf bourguignon than a marsala sauce but it went well with the halloumi. (It'd also go well with the more robust meats - beef, pork or lamb. For chicken or veal, I'd use a proper marsala sauce, like Martha's.)

Ben served salads with grilled artichoke and ricotta salata to start, and sides of individual sundried tomato bread puddings and steamed asparagus with the halloumi. Abby contributed a pan of chewy, gooey brownies and coffee ice-cream for dessert, and Ben pulled out a ridiculous assortment of digestifs to complement.

Ben and Rebecca, thanks for having us all over to your gorgeous apartment - and busting out the good china to boot!

Karen, it was so nice to have you back with us! Come back again soon!

*Note: Halloumi is a goat and sheep's milk cheese, originally from Cyprus. One of its unusual qualities is that it can be grilled or fried without melting.



Libertador

Occasion: Cinco de Mayo! Dinner with Brigid after an Opera Hispanica showcase.
Location: Libertador on Second and 89th
Edibles: chicken, beef and spinach empanadas; skirt steak

Musings: All the Mexican places were crazy packed, natch. We were too hungry to wait out the crowds and so ended up at Libertador, figuring that Argentinean was sort of in the ballpark.

It had been a long and frazzling day, so I took full advantage of their fantastic half price Cinco de Mayo drink specials. (I think they offer the awesome prices for regular happy hour too.) I had something that tasted like boozy Welch's grape juice and then their sangria. Both packed quite a punch. I like a bartender who pours generous.

Good empanadas. I liked the beef the best; Brigid liked the spinach. But all were yummy.

We sat at the bar around the grill, and watched quite the parade of sizzling meats before our dish came up. By that time, I was positively drooling and pretty much dove in headfirst. Awesome skirt steak with some nice garlicky fries on the side. Not cheap but so very, very good. Meat-tooth happy.

I'll definitely be back. I've been looking for another restaurant within walking distance of Brandy's for ages!

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!

A Matter of Taste

Directed by Sally Rowe (amatteroftastethefilm.com)
Featuring Paul Liebrandt, chef-owner of Corton
(cortonnyc.com)

My review: 3/5 stars

This film follows Paul Liebrandt over a decade and stints at three restaurants. It's not so much about cooking, or even food, but rather the career trajectory of a chef.

Liebrandt's story shows how difficult it can be to find and maintain success in the restaurant industry, even when most people agree that you're a damn fine chef. He encounters such obstacles as a horrible economy for restaurant financing, a horrible economy for fine-dining customers, the capricious decisions of management, and a new Times critic who intrinsically likes another style of food. Through all of that, he sticks to his guns and keeps cooking the food that he loves.

The film does have a happy ending with his current restaurant, Corton, backed by Drew Nieporent. Finally, finally, it all comes together. He even manages to squeeze three stars out of Frank Bruni.

I happened to see the premiere screening at Tribeca, and Paul Liebrandt and the director did a Q&A afterwards. The poor director was pretty neglected; all the questions were for Liebrandt. He talked predictably about having passion and perseverence. (That's him at the podium. The director is in the yellow blouse, to left.)

[Postscript: The film premiered on HBO July 13, 2011.]

Doughnut Plant

Location: 23rd between 7th and 8th

Doughnut Plant makes these huge, very chewy, very bread-y doughnuts, $3 each. I got one of the fresh strawberry and one peanut butter and jelly.

The strawberry had a nice scent, but any flavor of fresh strawberries was overwhelmed by the amount of sugar in the glaze. I liked the balance of the PBJ doughnut (a jelly-filled doughnut with peanut butter glaze) better. But I personally thought they both had way too much glaze, which tended to crack and get all over everything.

An interesting novelty, but I don't think this is going to be the next dessert craze.

Momoya

Occasion: Post-movie dinner
Location: Momoya on 7th Ave and 21st (momoyanyc.com)
Edibles: chef's choice sushi dinner

Musings: Of course, I walked out of "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" just starving, and dying for sushi. After a few blocks of aimless wandering failed to uncover a sushi place, I asked a gay guy walking his dog for a recommendation (because a dog's a good indication that the walker lives in the neighborhood). The guy sent me to Momoya. (Hilariously, he didn't remember what corner it was on in terms of ordinal directions, but did remember that it was where some bar or club named Merkin used to be. Oh, New York.)

The chef's tasting included ten pieces of nigiri sushi and one roll. The Black Dynamite roll I picked had a bit too much going on with two sauces and multiple fillings.

The sushi was likewise overly complicated. There were lots of garnishes piled on top that made it impossible to dip the sushi in soy sauce. And they didn't make much sense, e.g. a slice of jalapeno and some caviar on the fluke. The best pieces were the eel and the rock crab.

A nice dinner, and one that certainly hit the spot after the movie. But not worth $50.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Directed and produced by David Gelb
Featuring Jiro Ono of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a three-Michelin-star sushi restaurant in Tokyo

My review: 4/5 stars

If you like food porn, this is the movie for you. Macro shots of the sushi just fill the screen with their vibrant colors and varied textures. The way with slices of fish repose, glistening under a thin glaze of sauce.... it's sexy stuff. From the visual style alone, you can tell that the filmmaker loves good food.

Jiro clearly loves food too. His dedication to his craft is simply mind-boggling. His work ethic, and attention to detail, his drive to innovate and perfect - he puts even NYC workaholics to shame. The movie is a great character study, and provides interesting insight into Japanese culture. Not just Jiro himself, but his staff and his suppliers all pride themselves on being shokunin, the very best at what they do. And almost none of their knowledge comes from formal education - instead, it's built on decades of practical experience.

The rice dealer: [I'm paraphrasing] "The Grand Hyatt asked to buy the same rice. I said, only Jiro's apprentices can cook that rice. You can't cook that rice with just big talk. If Jiro says you can buy it, I will sell it to you." (At which point Jiro agrees that the particular rice he buys is very hard to cook, requiring a lot of pressure.)

[Note: The film picked up a North American distributor, Magnolia Pictures. In fact, it was the first sale at Tribeca this year. So hopefully it'll be publicly released soon!]

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.