March 2006
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Mare
Mare is a pretty ugly restaurant but it's got decent prices for seafood.
I got an octopus salad appetizer (a special) which was pretty good but very heavy on the green olives. Lon had a really good shrimp bisque and Janny had a pretty terrible New England Clam Chowder that tasted more like really salty potato and celery puree thinned out.
Janny had the grilled Atlantic Salmon. It was fresh and cooked nicely b...
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Gradisca
Gradisca has very good authentic food but I don't think I'd go back. My brother, Lon, and I shared a mussel appetizer. Great tomato sauce with just a little kick. We wiped the plate clean with bread but the bread wasn't the best which doesn't really make sense considering that they leave very good bottles of olive oil and balsamic on the table.
They make fresh pastas (and grandma was sitting at a table right out fron...
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Morimoto
Where do I begin? A month of anticipation till our reservation at Morimoto NYC on the 26th and yet we still had to wait 40 min for our table. When the host was asked what the delay was, his response was that they had a full house. Don't they always? That's why it takes a month to get reservations......Fortunately, we shared a fantastic drink at the bar downstairs. They call it White Lily: Shogu, Calpico, Yuzu, and maybe something else. Perfectly...
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Fruit Inspired Meal
We prepared a fruit-inspired meal to welcome the Spring. We integrated fruit into each dish. We enjoyed strawberry and spinach salad, rice with dried cranberries, with cumin chick... -
Hamachi
Another good neighborhood sushi place! Hamachi is a nice, well-lit space with good service and a very large menu for a Japanese restaurant. The prices are right on for large portions of equally good, cooked food and raw.
Lon had a good plum wine mojito that was full of flavor and really large for $6.95. The B&W roll was a great starter for us....filled with crab meat and topped with white tuna. Mmmmm..... I had...
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Boyd Thai
I still haven't found Thai food in NY that I'm really impressed with. Boyd is a step above the typical Thai place in quality but the portions are just a bit smaller.
They do cook fish very well. I tried a bite of Sara's Sea Bass (great sauce on this one) and I had the Orange Roughy. Both were perfect in doneness. The Pad See Eww was way too sweet for me.
The desserts ar...
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Taste of Tokyo
Taste of Tokyo is what I call the perfect neighborhood spot. It's small, quiet, and clean, and still unknown enough that there was no wait. The portion sizes are HUGE; they have good prices (avg meal inc tax & ti...
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Buttercup Bake Shop
We gathered in Ktown for my cousin Vivien's birthday and ate at Seoul Garden, my favorite restaurant in Ktown. The BBQ squid was kind of overcooked but everything else was really good as always. I ate way too much!
BUT, like my mom always says.....Dessert goes in a separate stomach. (I really wish that were true.)
So we hopped in cabs and headed over to Buttercup. I did...
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Diner 24 revisited
I needed another dose of their Disco fries since it was over a week since I last had them. I ventured over with my brother and Janny. Lon met us there. Justin and Lon had just eaten so they basically did some tech chat while Janny and I scarfed down 2 bowls of their heavenly fries covered in melted brie accented with truffle oil. The first bowl was better because it was nice and hot. The second bowl was room temperature.....still good but......
Here comes the bad part: I orde
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Cooking Greek....Cooking Latin
Just a little update on the last 2 cooking nights: In the first link, note that the plate the salmon is on is about 2' in diameter and we ate everything you see in the pics plus Eggnog ice cream. In
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Cookshop
To start, Cookshop has good bread, rock salt and a pepper mill on the table, and a fantastic concoction of creme fraiche with chopped caramelized onions and some other stuff (can't remember). I like the clean and comfortable look of the restaurant and the beautiful open kitchen. Lon liked the silverware.
We started with a smoked trout appetizer paired perfectly in taste and quantity with some fromage, thinly sliced grapefruit, and an excelle...
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Pan-pressed Panini and Oven Roasted Swordfish
After the success of the Stuffed Chicken Breast, we couldn't resist cooking again 5 days later.....If you don't mind salivating, ... -
En Japanese Brasserie
A beautifully designed space just might not be a good thing all of the time. At EN Japanese Brasserie The high ceiling, open kitchen, comforting earthy colors and textures, complete with servers in Japanese garb set up an expectation for me that just was not met.
We took suggestions from articles/reviews and their own website and ordered the warm hand scooped tofu and the potato and duck mochi as 2 of our appetizers. The tofu was so disappointin...
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Stuffed Chicken Breasts
I didn't think it was possible, but Lon and I created the perfect meal in a 15 sq ft. kitchen. You can see more evidence on F... -
Sala One Nine
I had dinner at Sala on Tues night and just wanted to note that I liked it... They have a wide selection of interesting Tapas so the 4 things I had that night were good enough to make me want to try other menu items. The service is pretty fast and I liked the atmosphere......chill with comfortable lighting.
So the food:2 tostas: One was a seared yellowfin tuna on top of baby spinach with some caramelized onions. It was really good and I...
