today's meals are booked

i've finally faced the reality that my work isn't going to get done on its own, so thursday, i went for a quick gym (more like a warm-up) before my pilates mat class at movements afoot.  very stiff from class, i rushed to lunch at alto in midtown to meet my girlfriend choi for lunch with her adorable baby boy.  i've been wanting to try alto for quite a while - i swear, i was italian in a former life - but i wasn't expecting it to be as "all-business" as it was.

the restaurant is set back from the street, which is nice. it's architecture is modern and very square.  i was expecting it to be open and airy (for no reason), but the dining room is a level below with lowish ceilings; it seemed like a modern townhouse layout.  the maitre d' rudely stated that we wouldn't be allowed in the dining room if my friend's son continued to fuss, and they didn't have highchairs available.  the waitstaff was much more friendly, and the service was pretty much impeccable.

i started with the mushroom soup, which burst with mushroom flavor.  it was a touch salty (i've been salt-sensitive lately), but i still licked my bowl clean.  choi started with the gnocchi (she was planning to share with julian), which tasted a little gummy - a touch undercooked, even!  the tomato sauce was good, chunky, tasty, but the gnocchi should have been the star of the show.

for our 2nd course i had the garganelli amatriciana - i'm a huge pasta fan, but i'm not sure if this pasta is for me.  it didn't have enough mouthfeel for me.  the sauce was a seafoody sauce with smoked cod tripe and baby calamari; it was delicious, but i wished it had another noodle with the dish.  i should have gone with my ever-fattening gut and had the tagliatelle with veal ragu, which is more up my alley.  choi had the meat tortellini, which she also proclaimed as salty.  the tortellini were probably the best meat tortellini i've ever had, but i'll agree, the sauce was too salty.  but i still lapped it up with the extra bread that i requested (the olive bread was wonderful).

we shared the zabaglione-filled donuts for dessert, which i thought was just ok - the texture was a little crumby, the filling fell out of the donut, and the chocolate sauce it was served with was pasty instead of smooth and runny like a sauce.  the long lingering lunch was nice to catch up with choi, but i think they were thrilled for us to leave.

i rushed home to change to return to the gym (i have a mini-crush on a squash player at the club, and there was a squash match that evening that i thought he'd be playing in), but was delayed by jetlag tiredness and a call from my younger sister.  then i realized i'd left my favorite sneakers (asics) at the pilates studio earlier!  fortunately, when i arrived the squash match was just getting underway, but then it turned out my mini-crush wasn't playing after all.  all signs pointed to "workout unnecessary" so i rinsed and changed, and hurried to get a cab downtown to meet more friends for dinner!

while i was in china, my friend sent an email about a new sushi spot downtown, sushi uo, whose sushi bar was manned by a young, non-japanese chef david boudahana, and it was getting talked about all over town.  additionally, on tuesday evenings, they were doing live tastings where the sushi chef would serve all sorts of live seafood, and there may twitching and such going on.  originally, i made the reservation for tuesday, but when i called to change the number in our party, they told me they were closed for the week due to a change in sushi chef.  HUH?!  then i received a follow-up call to notify me that they were actually reopening on thursday, and they were going to do the live tasting on thursday this week.  i'm jetlagged and easily confused, so i changed the reservation to thursday.

sushi uo is a cute small space, and everything we tasted, including the live sampler (octopus, giant clam, torigai, orange clam, scallop and uni) was quite delicious.  you could tell the fish was good.  the new sushi chef, john, was friendly.  the staff was less knowledgeable.  the toro collar was amazing.  we did an uni flight (which is not on the menu, and we requested as such) of the santa barbara, hokkaido and maine uni (i think the hokkaido was best), which is a nice different thing for a sushi restaurant to offer.  the sushi rice wasn't as tasty as yasuda's and it was a touch hard like kuruma zushi.  they have a diverse selection of good sakes to drink, also right up our alley.

the real problem was that the service was just SLOW.  i mean, if we'd ordered more food, we would've been there until the next day.  we were there for almost three hours, and i ate as much as i would have in 15 minutes at yasuda.  and because it was slow, they brought us a number of complimentary dishes.  the fish was good enough that i'd go back, but i recommend sitting at the sushi bar, either alone or with one other person, and doing an omakase.

after our meal, we had to double-down at barrio chino a few blocks away.  we had an appetizer sampler, and three entrees (yes, we did just have dinner at sushi uo, and there were only 5 of us, but we're piglets), plus margaritas.  the appetizer platter was quite good, filled with grilled steak, beans, chorizo and queso fresco, served with warm tortillas.  for the entrees, we had lamb barbacoa (i didn't love, but the boys really enjoyed), enchiladas mole (i didn't like, but i don't like the sweetness of mole), and enchiladas verdes (i liked the sauce but i thought the chicken was dry).  i loved the tanginess of my fresh lime margarita, and i forgot how much i loved the buzz of NYC at night since this was my first night out since i've been home from china.

all i do is eat

in an effort to be recession-friendly and healthier, i'm cooking more. after spending 2+ months in a hotel, i also really missed cooking/having a kitchen. after our eating bonanza monday afternoon, i planned shrimp scampi dinner tuesday and osso buco yesterday.

i chose to serve the shrimp scampi with spaghetti & broccoli; my S.O. only likes a few veggies, so there aren't many choices. i added the broccoli to the pasta cooking water about four minutes before the pasta was a touch undercooked, and i doubled the sauce for the shrimp scampi (plus some additional olive oil) in order to finish cooking the spaghetti & broccoli in the yummy scampi sauce. i tossed it all together and served with grated pecorino romano. the S.O. loved - hooray!

i woke up yesterday at 4:08a (ugh), so i started prepping my osso buco in the morning. i took a recipe from cook's illustrated, but i adapted because i only had two veal shanks. i decided to serve with polenta and either asparagus or cauliflower, and i thought i'd make a little extra sauce for the polenta to soak it up. i threw it into a low oven, then went to the gym (1h 15m alternating walk/jog - about 775 calories) before i rushed to meet my new mandarin tutor!

i arrived home starving, and perfect timing - my friend bunnard asked me to lunch! he wanted asian, and ramen sounded quite appealing. we went with ippudo because in my quick research, it's been deemed a top spot in manhattan AND neither of us had been. it's also convenient to both of us, located right near union square. we started with shishito, and the yuzu salt that comes with it is fantastical. i chose the akamaru ramen with extra pork lunch set (with grilled eel rice) PLUS a topping of kakuni (because who can resist pork belly); bunny chose the tori ramen lunch set (with mentaiko - spicy cod roe - rice). this was probably the best ramen i've had in new york (the best i've had is in LA, but i'll keep trying!). my only concern is the salt content. i was dehydrated the ENTIRE afternoon and evening, and i drink A LOT of water.

ippudo akamaru ramen

the jetlag was so horrendous last night (and my leg hurt from being exhausted AND overdoing it) that i decided to forego the afternoon pick-me-up workout and started to make dinner an hour before the S.O. said he was coming home. i made polenta with water, added a touch of salt, butter and grated aged provolone. the osso buco was very tender (i pureed the sauce because it was too veggie-chunky, and my S.O. wouldn't eat it if he saw the veggies). and i went with roasted cauliflower with prosciutto, garlic, lemon and a touch of grated pecorino romano. so the verdict: since i only used two veal shanks, i think the sauce lacked a lot of the meaty flavor. the polenta was a good base, but i think my cornmeal is too fine for polenta. but the star of the show was the cauliflower - it was yummy caramelized from the roasting (i tossed in garlic & tiny diced prosciutto during the last 5 minutes), and the squeeze of lemon juice gave it a fresh/clean taste while the cheese, mmmm, cheese makes everything better. my S.O. deemed the osso buco just eh.

today is another food-filled day. lunch at alto and dinner at sushi uo!

my first weekend home

i had total crap internet access in korea, and work in china became too busy to blog, so i'll post a recap of my week in korea and my final three weeks in china later, but i want to focus on HOME now that i've returned to new york, the greatest city in the world!

on the way back from the airport thursday evening (2/11), we picked up lombardi's, which may not be the best pizza in the WORLD, but it's pretty delicious, especially after 9 weeks of asia traveling. our favorite is the white pizza with meatballs (lombardi's meatballs are fantastic).

my jetlag has been fierce since i returned, so wakeups have generally been between 4-5am. i desperately wanted to cook veal parmagiana for dinner friday, so after gymming in the morning, i hopped in the car to my favorite italian grocery store, dipalo's, in little italy, to pick up some aged provolone and fresh mozzarella. lou dipalo is the face of the store, and he's usually around, but his brother sal is my hidden gym - he's always smiling, super friendly, and he always gives me a taste of what he's slicing. mmm, this time mortadella. after picking up my intended groceries, plus an additional provolone, fresh ricotta, a baguette, cacciatore sausage and a chunk of the butt of the prosciutto, i headed home.

i decided to serve stuffed artichoke with my veal parm since my S.O. loves gino's stuffed artichoke, and i found an easy recipe on saveur. my problem was that my best hours are the first 10 hours after i wake, so by dinnertime, i was becoming zombie-like, even though i went back to the gym for a pick-me-up (i'd already have been on the floor without the shorty afternoon workout).

we started with the baguette & fresh ricotta, simple yet amazing. the veal turned out perfectly - crispy crust (panko/breadcrumb mix, with the addition of grated pecorino romano), topped with grated aurecchio provolone/fresh mozzarella mix. and the artichoke tasted good, but i forgot to add the boiling water so it was a little dry/tough. sad.

the next morning, i hit the gym, then pilates tower/reformer class (i said i was rededicating!) in anticipation of a delicious brunch at artisanal. it's my favorite restaurant to hit once i'm back from china, since there's no cheese in china. although the service was spotty, and it was crowded, even at 130pm, the food was solid. we started with gougeres (i like eleven madison's FREE gougeres better, but these are denser, cheesier) and risotto croquettes (would have been good if they were warm/gooey in the center). then the petite artisanal blend fondue with air-dried beef (good), kielbasa (undercooked) and french fries. THEN (yes another course), we shared the croque monsieur and macaroni & cheese. the croque monsieur was quite creamy & rich; the S.O. liked that, but it was falling apart, which it shouldn't do. we had to take the mac & cheese home, which was the perfect snack for dinner later! we were pretty pooped after all that food, so we couched it the rest of the afternoon, until around 530p when i decided banana bread was in order! i change the recipe up to include some almond flour in place of AP flour, but i think i went overboard this time, because it was a little too coarse. still yummy, very banana-y and quite moist; next time i'll work on better proportions.

sunday morning (valentine's day) i woke up early (again) and was HUNGRY. i started making veal parm again since i had leftover breading and veal and cheese. over the course of three hours, i ate 4 pieces! i was very sore from pilates, so i did a really light crappy workout in the late afternoon, and then my S.O. and i went to big daddy's in gramercy for dinner because a) i really wanted a big salad, b) i had a groupon and c) it was the most non-valentine's-y like restaurant on opentable. it's amazing that i was hungry at all, considering all the food i ate during the day, but i amaze myself daily on that front.

we started with the half & half (half fries, half onion rings), which i thought was very greasy, and the onion rings were skinny & limp, and the macaroni & cheese, which lacked a lot of flavor. my S.O. had the bacon cheeseburger which was pretty terrible (dense, dry burger), but i had a really delicious salad - a family affair - but i opted for feta instead of mozzarella. it was exactly what i wanted, chock full of artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, roasted red peppers, cucumbers, chickpeas... i could've done without the carrots.

monday (presidents' day), i gymmed in the am, and i made my S.O. egg whites with prosciutto and more leftover provolone/mozzarella before he left for work. i did some work (i had been boycotting work all weekend), then went to pilates reformer at noon, which was better than the last one, jeesh, was i sore from saturday! but the real coup de grace was the afternoon. i wanted to hit luke's lobster, which i think has the most tasty lobster rolls of right now in NYC, so after my S.O.'s conference calls, i went to pick him up. since he was running late and since i haven't seen any of my friends after my return, i cast a line to some of my favorite eaters to join us. two bit, so the four of us started off at luke's with two large lobster rolls, 1 large shrimp, 1 large crab - 3 of 4 schoonered (with soda/water & potato chips) plus a large new england clam chowder. it totally hit the spot. but then i realized, i wasn't full.

next up motorino (we tried to hit this little piggy had roast beef, but the place is so small, 4 fatties like us couldn't even fit in the joint!). 3 of 4 of us hadn't been, so we were excited. we started with two pizzas: soppressata and brussels sprouts. i think the brussels sprout one was tasty, but a little too smoky for me. we then ordered a THIRD (the margherita). my fave was definitely the soppresata, mmm. the boys also drank 2 bottles of wine, so they were ready for more. when we realized it was 5pm, there was no debate: terroir, hearth's little wine bar, down the block. although the boys were there to drink, no one would pass on more food (!!), obviously, so we ordered marinated olives, fried sage leaves with lamb sausage, red wine risotto balls with oxtail and duck ham panini with hen of the woods mushrooms & taleggio cheese. seriously, it was like we hadn't eaten twice before. i had been contemplating the bruschetta with whipped lardo (whipped lardo is like food of the gods), but opted out since this was our third meal, but our server could obviously see how much i wanted them because she brought a plate out anyway. after all of this food, i started to get sleepy and zombie-like so i forced my S.O. to leave with me.

although the entire weekend was unbelievably perfect (i gymmed every day, i pilates'd twice, and i ate everything i wanted AND MORE. plus i got to spend some QT with my S.O.), the best moment was leaving my building friday morning on my way to the gym (around 6am), walking down the street, breathing in the cold cleanish air, knowing that bustle is soon to happen, taking in the sounds of new york. it's always that moment that puts a huge smile on my face.