HK

We went to a new place near Todd's office last night, HK, over on 9th Avenue near Port Authority. It brought up a couple of questions I have about NYC restaurants.

Why skimp on the pita? We ordered an appetizer of dips, hummus, tzatziki and baba ganoush, and when we got it there were ample portions of the dips but just four little triangles of pita. This is not the only place this crime has been committed. I was eating the baba ganoush with a fork because it tasted so good to me, really eggplanty if eggplant were sweet.

Also, what's the appeal of eating dinner alfresco along 9th Avenue? The stretch from my office at 50th down to where we were last night is always clogged with honking, exhaust-spewing angry drivers trying to get to the Lincoln Tunnel. This place has a wall lined with something like glass garage doors so they can open the whole place up to the side street, where trucks continuously rumble by. I've got to say, though, that there's something lovely in the sight of New Yorkers basking in the fumes and noise while enjoying a bowlful of mussels or a salad.

And why tout that you're serving Haagen-Dazs on your menu? In Kim's fantasy world, every nice place would have industrial ice-cream makers to churn up their own. I used to hate that restaurant desserts always featured ice cream, but I find that it's often my favorite part. Chefs manage to get such fabulous flavors in there. Of course, I still ordered some of the Haagen-Dazs. It's not transporting, but it's still yummy.

This is not to say I didn't like eating there. It was noisy and seemed a little more focused on decor than food, but what we ate was tasty, and not too pricey. I had seared tofu with spinach and mushrooms in a mushroomy sauce, and it was pretty good. We'll probably go back since it is so close to Todd's office.