Trattoria Toscana, NY 2

Having read Varian and Gary’s great review of Trattoria Toscana, we have been hoping to try it. An opportunity presented itself on January 5, 2008,when we decided to go to the late afternoon movie at the International Film Center near the other end of Carmine Street in the West Village.

Annisa, NY 3

We went back to Annisa for dinner on January 4, 2008 with Andrea and Tony. We received a warm welcome. After considerable discussion with our excellent waiter, Michael, we ordered the seven-course tasting menu at $88

Rosanjin, NY 2

Our Kaiseki meal at Rosanjin last March was memorable in several ways:
1. The quality of the ingredients, many of them unfamiliar to us, and their excellent preparation;
2. The artistic presentation and the lovely serving dishes;
3. The gracious welcome from Mr. Park and the time he spent explaining things to us;
4. The interesting blogpost I was able to do afterwards, my first really good one.

When Linda and I returned to Rosanjin on December 20, 2007, Mr. Park greeted us warmly and thanked us for the blog posting. 

Annisa – NYC – 2

On August 17, 2007 Linda and I went back to Annisa with Chuck and Becky. Our meal there a few weeks before had been excellent. We had the tasting menu then; this time we ordered from the à la carte choices.

Belle du Jour – NY

 On August 16, 2007 Dennis and I had lunch at Belle du Jour, a new little French bistro right under the Brooklyn Bridge.  Since the closing of the Fulton Fish Market, many restaurants have opened in this neighborhood. 

Toscana Trattoria

New York/West Village, 64 Carmine Street (between Bedford and 7th Avenue). 212-675-8736.

(August 10, 2007)  Leave your passport at home. Avoid jet lag. Hop in cab or a subway and go to Toscana Trattoria (formery Oreste Trattoria). You are now in Italy, or at least the Italy that every traveler hopes to find.

Annisa – NYC

For the first event celebrating my 67^th birthday we went to Annisa with Gary and Varian on July 24, 2007. When we arrived, they had already ordered a bottle of Prosecco and put presents at my place.  

FR.OG – NYC

FR.OG, which stands for France Origine, opened in April with obvious ambitions to become a trendy destination, like Balthazar across the street. Linda and I dined at FR.OG on July 1, 2007 as we liked the concept: the best cuisines of the French Empire: Lebanon, Morocco and Indochina.

WD–50 – 2

On March 31, 2007, Andrea, Tony, Linda and I dined at WD-50. (My previous blogpost on this experimental restaurant was December 11, 2006.)  We were promptly seated in a nice booth, which provided a private atmosphere, quite different from the first time when the two of us were right next to the tables on either side. A basket of the delicious, thin sesame crisps was put on the table; it was refilled during the meal as needed. We ordered the March 2007 tasting menu & wine pairing. 

Rosanjin

Rosanjin
141 Duane Street
212-346-0664
dinner only, closed Sundays
www.rosanjintribeca.com 

On March 10, 2007, Linda and I dined at Rosanjin, which had opened as a small restaurant in December 2006 after starting as a caterer and takeout establishment earlier that year. The style is modern Kyoto Kaiseki: a tasting menu of small dishes in which the composition of the ingredients on a beautiful serving dish is as important as the cuisine itself. The name and tradition has evolved from small meals served as part of a tea ceremony.

WD-50

On December 10, 2006, I took the 4 train with my sister-in-law, Elaine, to Brooklyn Bridge and changed to the J train, the first time I had ever been on it.  In three stops we emerged at the Essex Street Station, walked three blocks ENE and found ourselves at WD-50 at 50 Clinton Street.  The welcome was warm and we were soon seated at a small table enjoying an apéritif of champagne rosé with a box of paper-thin sesame crisps. 

The Orchard

On November 6, 2006, Linda and I dined at The Orchard, a restaurant described in Zagat’s as “unstoppable.”  Shortly after opening a year ago it was awarded two stars “very good” by Frank Bruni in The NYT. 

Danube

On August 25, 2006, Linda and I dined at Danube, 30 Hudson Street, David Bouley’s neue-Austrian theme restaurant.   Our apéritif was a generous glass of the house Grüner Veltliner.  The bread tray was passed, which included yummy hot bretzels with caraway and salt, as well as poppy seed buns.   

Nam

110 Reade (off West Broadway)  212-267-3777

Our friends, Bill and Pat, were in the midst of planning a trip to Southeast Asia in February following ours last February, so it seemed appropriate to eat dinner together at a Vietnamese restaurant  

Nam turned out to be the perfect choice—not too trendy, not down-scale, and probably the best Vietnamese food we have had outside of Vietnam. Starters ranged from Tom Cuon (rice paper rolls of grilled prawn with vermicelli, cucumber, fresh herbs and peanut dipping sauce) and Thit Nuong Cuon (rolls of fresh rice paper with grilled lemongrass beef and sesame seeds) to salads like Goi Du Du (green papaya salad with shrimp, dried beef, roasted peanuts and aromatic herbs and Goi Bo (spicy beef salad with onion, lemongrass and basil). Our main courses included Mi Xao (stir-fried egg noodles with shrimp, chicken, pork, vegetable, roasted peanuts, and a chile lime sauce), Ca Chien (crispy red snapper in chile lime sauce), Tom Thit Rim (caramelized shrimp and pork in light pepper sauce) and a that night’s special, Bo Lui (grilled marinated beef in 5 spices with crusted peanuts, angel hair noodles to roll in lettuce leaves and dip in a mint and lime sauce).

The service staff was knowledgeable, informative, and largely Vietnamese (exceptions were a spattering of Thais, Malays and Cambodians).  Don’t be shy about asking for help in choosing from their wide range of, unfortunately, unfamiliar offerings.  But that will change with more anticipated exposures to the Nam menu. No dessert after all that wonderful food and a few bottles of adequate wines.  Total for four, all in, was around $250.

AMA

48 MacDougal St (Houston & Prince).  212-358-1707.
Downtown where Greenwich Village morphs into Soho is an easily overlooked storefront restaurant, nestled next to a French/Brazilian fusion restaurant.  The dining room is small, maybe twenty tables.  The floors are bleached wood, the lines and colors are beige, modern, and clean.  There are paper tablecloths but the napkins are linen.  And the staff is really pleasant. The food is regional Italian, from the Puglia region at the heel of Italy’s boot.  To us this meant lots of vegetables, especially fava beans, and lots of organ meat and rabbit.  Thankfully, the chef and the menu did not disappoint.  We started with a round slice of rabbit frittata filled with Swiss chard, fiori di zucca (filled with ricotta and herbs), and grilled octopus salad with cherry tomatoes and herbs, washed down with a chardonnay from Puglia, of course.  The Primi looked good, and had the obligatory orecchiete (with sweet sausage, cherry tomatoes, asparagus and pecorino), but we moved right into the Secondi. Moving into a red, we drank the Flaio Primitivo, also from Puglia and it was very good with the rest of our meal.  The lamb sweetbreads on a bed of lentils with caramelized pearl onions were truly delicious.  So too the boneless quail on a bed of peas and pan seared pork medallions on escarole.  No meal of the region would be complete without fava beans so we had a side order of them, served with shaved pecorino.  At this point we were very happy diners and too full for dessert.  We did manage a cheese plate to share.
 VA/GK