We just got back from a couple days’ visit to New York City during which our nearly sole focus was to try new places to eat. Staying with family in SoHo, we found it delightfully easy to fall out of bed and into a restaurant, chocolate shop, specialty grocery store or patisserie.
Our first stop after a long trip with too little caffeine was a Vietnamese restaurant called Bún Soho. With family members, we ordered a couple of bún, a beef salad and duck confit, all really tasty. The coffee showed up slowly (we expect this with Vietnamese coffee) and in a startlingly large quantity, without the little Vietnamese coffee maker sitting on the top. It was very satisfying, but just not the knock-out coffee we get at New Century in Syracuse. I suspect it was not made in the traditional way. The service, too, was lacking. Seemed it was her first day on the job. All in all, though, the experience was quite nice, and I later experienced a longing for that cup of coffee that was not sated by the Italian coffee nearby.
Later in the evening, looking for a hot drink to balance out the bitterly cold weather, we wandered into Maribelle chocolate shop and cacao bar. Yes, it’s pricey, but so is most of New York. And yes, it is an experience worth having at least once in your life. We went to the charming cacao bar in the back and ordered one Aztec spicy chocolate and one dark chocolate. I judge all hot chocolate by the chocolate I drank in Bar Odeón in the north of Spain some thirty years ago. It must be thick, very dark, and so rich you have to eat it with a spoon. Maribelle provided exactly that. I’m just sorry we didn’t have time to do it again.
Our first morning in New York, we went to Caffe Roma for the first shot of caffeine. The place is darkly old-fashioned, with dark wood walls and tin ceilings. The coffee was adequate, but did not stand up to the milk in a cappuccino. Not great (face it, New York is low on truly great coffee vendors, if you think in terms of roasters per capita), but it wasn’t bad either. What was bad was the service, especially the second time we went, the next morning, when we were treated by both servers (manager and waitress?) with great surliness. Same thing happened to a couple French tourists who were lovely ladies. I won’t go into details, as you can read the sordid story in these reviews.
Fortunately, the rest of our experiences were truly great. We stopped in at Despaña at 408 Broome St. and were not disappointed. My focus was on fabes asturianas, the perfect bean for the most delicious, hearty bean dish I’ve ever had, the fabada asturiana. Alas, this bean is apparently difficult to grow and has become quite expensive: $27 for a kilo of dried beans! I can get incredible cheeses and seafoods for half the price, so no thank you, I’ll make do without them. We did order a couple types of tortilla de patatas, one containing jamón serrano and the other containing chorizo and peppers. Dave kindly bought me a polvorón just so I could bring back more memories of my time in Spain. It was a good one. But one is enough. When we returned the next day, we bought the morcilla and chorizo sausages that are difficult to find yet an important part of any fabada.
Family members directed us to Ceci-Cela patisserie at 55 Spring Street in Soho and it was so good, we went twice (the second time we sat at this table). The first time, I had a crème brûlée that topped every one I’ve ever had before. The caramel provided a dark contrast to the amazingly smooth and creamy custard. Not too sweet, it made me wish it would never end. Dave had a fruit tart with a crunchy crust that was a total delight to the eye. I’d rather spend my time enjoying the eye candy of their display case than looking at just about any work of art.
(This is Dave chiming in) We come from a nice city with many good features, but still provincial in many ways. As such, when going to a world-class city like New York, I’m in a certain amount of awe and excitement when I get there. New Yorkers are famous for telling you in very clear terms what is best, whether it be restaurants, stores, bars, parks, or just about anything. And they’re often right, as they have better things to select! But their information may be out of date, which you find out when you get to a place they recommend. Even more intriguing are the times when we are surprised to find that we know more about certain New York features than the locals. In truth, both of us have been to NY many times, so we have a base of knowledge about it.
For instance, my relatives may have had no idea that Caffe Roma service sucks, or that there are restaurants in Soho that only take American Express (thanks a bunch, L’Orange Bleu!), an extremely annoying surprise that I’ve never run across in any of my travels. Obviously, many businesses take only cash, especially small ones that can’t afford the nasty credit fees, but they tend to let you know up front. But any kind of fancy restaurant or bar? Pitifully lame, and provincial. I guess it’s their way of having it both ways – they can say they take credit, but actually have a de facto cash business. Slick!
Fortunately, as Lonnie said, any lameness was overshadowed by the many fun things we found this time around. One was stumbling onto Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop just before leaving town. Frozen in time, it has great food and vibe, and photos of the many celebs that also enjoy it. My Reuben and Lime Rickey were outstanding, and for some reason I could not stop talking like Groucho! For a little fun, take a look at the Law and Order scene filmed there.
Lonnie here again. One of the delights of a good bed and breakfast is that they attract interesting people. We love to stay at the very reasonably priced Olde Judge Mansion in Troy, NY. It’s a really stunning Victorian home where you get a very clean, comfortable room, a really filling breakfast, and all the comforts of home without any of the headaches. We met linguist Paul Topping, the pronunciation researcher for Recorded Books, while stuffing ourselves with eggs, sausage and oatmeal. He invited us to join him for dinner in New York, which was precisely what we did.
Paul instructed us to meet him at Seoul Garden, 34W. 32 St. 2nd floor, in midtown Manhattan. Oh my. What a treat. Paul is fluent in Korean, which very much surprised one of the waiters, and we just put ourselves in his hands. He ordered the barbecue, which is cooked right before your eyes… you can have a hand in it… and accompanied by dish after dish of delights. By the time we were done, the entire table was covered with plates and we were groaning from the sheer gluttony of the experience. While Korean has never been one of our favorites, there were plenty of combinations of this meat item with that veggie item with that dipping sauce that really educated us as to the possibilities we’d been missing.
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