Restaurants: July 2004 Archives
Since its churros and hot chocolate were reviewed somewhere last winter, I have wanted to go to Noche. The pros and cons kept see-sawing me, though. The reviews weren't so good. It's just down the block from my office. It's loud, dance-clubbish, not my kind of restaurant. It serves a cuisine I love. It's in Times Square. It's right in front of me when I desperately need to use the bathroom and am kind of hungry, too.
The last one finally drove me into Noche Thursday night with Todd, and I'm glad it did. Gotta say, Todd was not thrilled when he looked at the menu. There's a ton of seafood on the menu and a whole section of ceviche, which limited his choices a lot. He doesn't like corn, which narrowed it even further. He was going to have mole chicken (doesn't really like mole) when I directed him to the braised short ribs over a sweet corn arepa. Whew! What a relief when it arrived. The ribs were a fully-2-inch thick slab of tender, flavorful meat over a few crosswise bones.
With my tiny stomach capacity I just ordered an appetizer, skewers of shrimp, steak and chorizo (which Todd also loved). Two of each, with just a couple bites of steak and chorizo and one jumbo shrimp per skewer. There were greens in the middle of the plate, but they seemed to be drenched in oil, so I skipped them (and why eat greens when you can have meat!). Also ordered yucca fries, which came in thick slabs topped with chimichurri sauce. They were kind of like potatoes, if potatoes had a grain like a piece of wood. But not really fiberous. I actually craved them again this morning.
And we finished the meal with the churros I had wanted for so long, warm, long, grooved doughnuts that were fried in a loop and coated with cinnamon and sugar. The chocolate dipping sauce was dark and rich, and the dulche de leche, while lighter and thinner than I thought it would be, tasted so good, almost creamy, with the cinnamon.
Everyone was super-nice (because it's Times Square?), especially the waiter who answered all my pregnancy food-safety questions without a hint of annoyance. He actually acted interested in the eating habits of pregnant women. The place is huge, with at least three open upper floors and a winding staircase (but also an elevator). Seemed a good place to accommodate a large group.
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.
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.
We had some things to celebrate last night, so we went to Stella for dinner. I think the biggest draw for that place, and their smartest move, is all the snacks they bring out before you even order. We got olives, cured meats, thin little snappy breadsticks, focaccia, bread and a pizza-like thing. My coworkers love to drink in the bar because you get the same assortment of snacks as long as you have a drink in your hand. The place is huge, so there's more likely to be room, too.
After all that we split a fritto misto, which was fine. They have a lot of salads, carpaccios, pizzas. But my entree was really fantastic: rosemary and lamb tortelli with pine nuts and prunes. It's not a very big plate, but it's full, and the dish is so rich that they could really get away with giving you about half. I chose that over calves liver with polenta or porcini pappardelle.
We didn't get to dessert because we were both stuffed. (The lamentable thing about the growing uterus is the crowded belly; I reach this sudden wall where, oops, I'm full, and I can't even fit in a spoonful of gelato. It usually happens at dinner, after I've grazed all day.) It looked like the usual suspects, though: tiramisu, a panna cotta, berries, etc. That's not to say it's not good. (It also reminds me of that lovely buttermilk panna cotta I made once, which would be perfect for the hot weather. Yum.)
