I Sodi Visited 3/29/2013 4.5 Forks

I Sodi 105 Christopher St., (between Bedford St & Bleecker St), New York, NY 10014

You'd think that I would be sick of eating Italian food after my recent trip to Italy but it's actually been the exact opposite.  I have been craving good Italian food ever since I've been back so when Aarti and I decided to get dinner and she suggested I Sodi, I was all over it.

I've walked past I Sodi tons of times but have never been inside.  I got there was  6:30pm on a Friday and I thought that it would be early enough to snag a table but the only available seats were these two tiny, cramped seats at the bar.  It would have been fine if no one was sitting by us but shortly after I sat down this slightly larger older couple sat down next to me and I was literally pressed up against them and the bar and it was a bit uncomfortable.  I get that the restaurant was trying to accommodate as many people as possible but they also need to realize when there are just too many people at the bar.  Then the couple proceeded to ask the waitstaff if they could just make them spaghetti and tomato sauce or a pasta primavera.  The only reason I bring this up was because I was totally appalled but the waitstaff was so nice and patient with them that it made me feel really bad about being so b*tchy.  They gently told them that whatever is on the menu is that they serve but that they would be more than happy to help them with the menu.  It was amazing how sweet they were to them despite how awkward the conversation was.  I will say that the crowd here does lean more towards the older crowd, but there were a few 30 something couples here on dates too.  It's just a much more subdued crowd here. 

Since they were so nice, Aarti and I decided to ask them for their opinion too.  I am on an artichoke kick lately and we were interested in the artichoke salad but the bartender told us that he really liked the fried artichoke side ($11), so we decided to go with that.  For a starter, we went with the microgreen salad with parmigiano cheese and balsamic vinegar ($12).  It was a great light starter salad.  The mache greens didn't have a whole lot of taste to them, they seemed kind of like pea or bean shoots but it was totally fine for a light bite.  For pasta we opted to share half sizes of the ravioli ($15) and the cacio e peppe ($12).  I'm glad the bartender steered us away from the full size because when the pasta came out, the half size was more than enough food.  I usually don't order ravioli in most places because it's normally like 3-4 giant pieces of ravioli and seems like not enough food.  But not here.  Even though it was only a half size, there was at least 10 pieces of ravioli (they were mini raviolis but still there was a lot of them).  The inside was stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese and served with butter, sage and lots of cheese.  The dish was incredibly rich and decadent.  The cacio e peppe was also wonderful.  I usually opt for pastas that are more saucey but when I was in Rome a lot of my friends were raving about how fantastic the cacio e peppe was that I felt like I Sodi was the right place to try it outside of Italy.  Essentially it's spaghetti with pecorino and black pepper.  The pasta was so soft and clearly homemade and there was the right amount of pecorino cheese (lots of it) and pepper (not too much of pepper, it was pretty subtle) that I would totally get it again.  I still like my pasta with traditional tomato sauce but this was definitely a winner in my book too.   If I had to pick one dish that I didn't super love, it was the fried artichokes.  I envisioned it to be large chunks of the artichoke fried but instead it was super thin sliced artichoke leaves.  It just didn't have the meaty texture or flavor that I think is the best part of an artichoke.  It just kind of felt like I was eating thinly fried dough. 

In true Italian tradition, even though we were both stuffed to the gills, we had to order dessert.  We opted for the hazelnut semifredo which honestly was good but it was a bit too hard and frozen at first to enjoy.  Plus I think we were just pushing it too much because I don't think either of us were really in the mood for more food.  The reasons I give this place 4.5 Forks are the really the pastas, the fantastic and empathetic waitstaff and a mean mean pomegranate martini ($14) that even almost knocked me off my feet.  Plus all of this food was a very reasonable $50/pp including tip and tax.  

Photo Credit: Yelp

Saleya Visited 3/29/2013 3.5 Forks

Saleya 65 W Broadway (between Murray St & Warren St), New York, NY 10007

Work was super slow on Friday (it was Good Friday), so Allison, Anuja and I decided it would be fun to taking a nice leisurely lunch.  Allison and I had walked past Saleya a bunch of times and always commented on how cute the outside looked.  Since it's more of a sit-down restaurant vs. take-out, we don't usually have a lot of time on a regular work day to sit down, so we picked a day where we knew it would be slow to check it out.

We got there at 11:45am and there was literally no one there.  The inside decor matches the bright outside with lots of brightly colored tables and paintings inside.  With the floor to ceiling windows, there was tons of natural light inside and it's just a very lovely and inviting interior.  My initial glance at the menu was a bit underwhelming and limited.  It wasn't a huge menu and I couldn't really figure out what the cuisine or theme was.  But no matter, I can usually always find something to get there.  I opted for the chicken breast sandwich ($11) and Allison and Anuja split the Wild Mushroom and Truffle Oil pizza ($12) and each got a soup ($8).  I gotta say despite how boring a chicken sandwich sounded this one was pretty good.  It was served with fresh tomato, arugula, and lots of herb aioli mayo.  The bread was a soft foccacia type bread and the chicken (which there was lots of) was very juicy and moist.  It was a super hearty sandwich and despite the mayo, I did feel like I was eating something health-ish.  My one disappointment with the meal was that it was served with potato chips and celery remoulade.  I would have preferred a salad or even fries.  I know it's kind of bratty but there's just something cheap about serving chips on a dish in a restaurant.  I also tried the pizza and it was more like a flatbread and there was no sauce (but lots and lots of cheese).  Anything with cheese and truffle oil is delicious and this one was no exception.  Since it was a leisurely lunch, we also opted to get dessert.  The one thing that was screaming our name was the cinnamon bun bread pudding ($8).  When they brought out the dish, it came with its own side bowl of fresh whipped cream.  How amazing is that?  It was incredibly sweet and perfect to share because for one person it would have been just too much.  It was a very moist and not overpowering with the cinnamon flavoring and it was awesome to have an overload of whipped cream to go with it.  It was a nice way to end our long lunch. 

By the time we left the place was completely packed.  I would come definitely come back here again if I was looking for a nice casual sit down lunch near work.  But I do wish that they would expand their menu a bit more.  Total bill: $20/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp
  

Italy Day 4 Visited 3/16/2013

Hotel de Russie Via del Babuino, 9, 00187 Rome, Italy 4.5 Forks

If there is any place to get married in Rome, the Hotel de Russie has got to be up there was one of the top places.  It's a classically beautiful hotel that's really the epitome of luxury.  My good friend Virginia was getting married there and I was so happy to be able to be able to join her in celebrating her wedding here.  I'm not here to review the wedding (it was lovely) or the hotel (fabulous) but the food.  The wedding was during the day, so we had an hour of passed appetizers and then sat down for lunch.  I don't remember much that was passed around during the cocktail hour but I do remember a delicious shrimp tempura that I loved.  I think I had about 4 of them and would have had more if it didn't look totally embarrassing or greedy.  I was always and still am a huge believer that the appetizers at weddings are often the best part of the food experience at weddings and if I ever do get married I want to push for just heavy apps instead of a sit down meal.  But I will say that the main entrees I got here was some of the best wedding food I've had anywhere.

The lunch started with a very delicate but wonderful lasagna with ricotta cheese and vegetables.  The layers of pasta were very light and even though there were a lot of layers, the dish didn't taste heavy at all.  I loved that the lasagna wasn't drenched in tomato sauce, that it was more on the side so that you could put as much or as little with each bite.  The tomato sauce used in the dish has this fantastic tang and the zucchini in it tasted like it was picked right out of the garden.

Next on the menu was a grilled beef with balsamic sauce and olive oil mashed potatoes.  I'm usually very wary of meat at weddings because they are almost always overcooked and it's just really difficult to cook 50+ steaks at the same time and have them all turn out well.  So I was super impressed at how delicious the steak was here.  It was extremely tender, medium rare and tasted like it was cooked just for me and not for a large group.  On top of it, the mashed potatoes were simply amazing.  So decadent and I loved the olive oil touch because who doesn't love Italian olive oil on everything? The potatoes were smooth and I could have literally eaten an entire vat of this and died a happy girl.  There's just something about a perfect mashed potato dish that's just so comforting.

Next we were served a fresh fruit plate with lemon sorbet.  It was probably the healthiest thing I've eaten the entire trip and to be honest I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't some ridiculous dessert to end the meal.  But before I could say anything I noticed that there was a cake outside.  It was not a traditional wedding cake but a similar dessert to what we had last night.  I do have to say that the millefeuille at the rehearsal dinner was actually better.  The custard used in that one was sweeter and thicker and the layers of pastry was a bit flakier and not as dry.

As far as sit down wedding food goes, the food here was one of the best.  I mean how could it not be when you're at one of the best hotels in Italy right?

Il Brillo Parlante Via Della Fontanella, 12, 00187 Rome, Italy 4.5 Forks

For our final dinner in Rome, we ended up at Il Brillo Parlante, which is actually owned by the same people as Hi-Res and Il Valentino. I guess we might as well try all of them right? I was hoping that it wouldn't be as mediocre as the other 2 restaurants and luckily this one was not.  It was the best one of the 3 restaurants.  Although the night kind of started on a bad note as we had a reservation at 9:30 and we had to wait and wait and wait.  We didn't sit down until past 10pm but the waitstaff was incredibly nice and apologetic about it.  There was a huge rugby game that night (Ireland vs. Italy) and there were tons of Irish tourists in town, so every restaurant was packed to the gills.  The waiter kindly let us place our order first so that we wouldn't have to wait too long for our food when we sat down.  We started with an order of the bruschetta, the spinach salad and a few pizzas.  I'm normally not a huge lover of bruschetta but the one here was amazing.  It had some of the freshest tomatoes and basil I've ever had in my life.  It was literally like eating tomatoes right off the vine and basil right out of the ground.  Amazing.  The spinach salad had apple, super strong gorgonzola cheese and vinegar.  I wolfed this salad down as it was the first real green salad I've had this entire trip and I also love a good strong gorgonzola on anything.  I didn't have any of the pizza because I was waiting for my pasta, but it looked good and similar to the other pizzas I had on this trip.  Since I had eaten so much rigatoni, I opted for a bucatini pasta with a basic tomato sauce and chopped bits of fatty bacon.  It was simple yet tasted like something I couldn't make at home for some reason.  Again, I can't stress enough how amazing the tomato sauce is in Italy.  It just doesn't taste processed or pumped full of sugar or salt.  It just taste like one a giant fresh tomato.  The pasta was cooked perfectly al dente and it was just a perfect way to end my culinary tour of Rome.  I know, this picture kind of makes it look like a hot hot mess, but believe me, it was delicious.   I was just still so full from lunch that I didn't really have the stomach capacity to finish the dish or enjoy it for all that it was worth.  I was literally forcing forkfuls of pasta down by the end of the night and that's just not a great feeling even if the food is great.

 We were all so stuffed and it was past 11pm by the time we finished dinner that we didn't order dessert.  The greatest surprise of the night was that when we went to pay the bill they had generously gave us a discount for making us wait so long.  What?! That never happens anywhere in the US.  We were so touched that we tipped them like 20 or 25 euros, which is a pretty big deal since Italy isn't really a tipping culture.  I'm glad my last meal in Italy was a hit and to be honest, every meal in (even the "worst" meal) was exponentially better than most meals you'll have anywhere in the world.  Italians just know how to do it right, use local ingredients to their maximum potential and leave you stuffed, happy and wanting more at the end.  In fact, when I came back to NYC, I actually was craving Italian food when I came back, which almost never happens to me after I've been traveling out of the country.  I left Italy with a super warm fuzzy feeling in my heart and it's definitely a country that I want to come back to again and again in the future. 

Italy Day 3 Visited 3/15/2013

Hi-Res Restaurant via della Fontanella, 14 00187 Roma 3.5 Forks

The bridal lunch was at this lovely rooftop restaurant not too far from our hotel.  It was a gorgeous day in Rome and this restaurant had floor to ceiling windows that created this great bright, open air feel.  It actually took my breath away when I first walked in because of all the light streaming in.  The decor and view of the restaurant was most definitely the high point of the meal.   It was early in the day, so I opted for a morning cappuccino at the bar and even though I'm totally not a coffee drinker, this cappuccino was amazing.  It was sweet and frothy and made me realize why people are obsessed with coffee in the first place.

We sat down and started the meal with how many Italian meals start, a dish with tons of prosciutto in it.  It was essentially an arugula/mixed green salad with pear, prosciutto and shaved Parmesan cheese and then some balasmic dressing drizzled on top.  It was a nice solid salad although I was still getting used to having so much more prosciutto in my "salad"then actual greens.

Next we had a yellow fettuccine pasta with shredded chicken in it.  As Julie said, it smelled a lot like homemade chicken soup and less like a hearty Italian pasta dish. While I ate the entire dish, it was definitely my least favorite pasta of my trip.  This isn't to say that it was bad, but compared to all the other pasta dishes I had on this trip, this one was by far the least impressive.  It was a bit on the dry side and the chicken just didn't seem to really be a great protein for a pasta dish.  In fact, when I think about it, I've rarely seen a pasta dish that has poultry in it.  You usually see pork, oxtail or beef and I think there's a reason for it.  Those meats have a lot more fat and flavor to them while chicken can be very lean and bland if not cooked or spiced correctly.  There also didn't seem to be any sauce or a lot of wetness to the dish, which also lent to the dryness of the dish.  Again, the pasta wasn't awful, I've just had much better.

The meal ended with a standard cheesecake, which was fine but I don't really relate it to Italian desserts.  It seems like a good ole USA type of dessert.  Again, it was fine but not mind blowing.  What was most important for this lunch was the company and the fact that we were there to celebrate VA and less about the actual food.  I would definitely recommend this place for a light snack and as a place to relax in a beautiful setting.

Il Valentino via della Fontanella, 14 00187 Roma 3 Forks

The rehearsal dinner was at a restaurant in the same hotel where the bridal lunch was, but this one was next door to the hotel and not on the rooftop.  So it didn't have the gorgeous views of the restaurant.  In fact, it was much more of a closed off, windowless event space.  But it was nice that we had the entire space to ourselves, so we could mingle and be as loud as we wanted without bothering anyone.  Like every meal, dinner started with a antipasti meat dish but this one had a very very fatty piece of uncooked bacon-like meat.

While I love a good piece of fatty meat, this one almost a bit too fatty even for me.  It was literally white with fat.  The other meats were also ok, but not mind blowing.  Next we were served what was described as a white pizza with rosemary but all it was was foccacia-like bread with no cheese or sauce.  So I don't know what really constitutes as a pizza but I would think it would need to have at least either cheese or sauce and this one had neither.  The next course was a cacio e peppe pasta, which is essentially a pasta with pecorino cheese, black pepper, and butter.  This particular dish was supposed to have squash flowers in it, but my dish did not have any of it which was disappointing because I love a good squash flower.  I did notice that some people had some remnants of squash flower but it certainly was not consistently distributed across all dishes.  To be honest, the pasta here was also just ok.  I know that cacio e peppe is supposed to be rich and buttery, but this one just tasted too rich and didn't have the tomato punch that I love in a good pasta dish.

Again, in true Italian fashion, the pasta was just a starter.  The actual main course was grilled lamb chops.  The presentation was very underwhelming and the lamb chops were just very messy looking.  The actual lamb was seasoned well but very very overcooked and leaning towards too dry.  I usually like my meat to be medium rare with a nice pink inside but this one was just cooked all the way through and a bit tough to cut and chew.

But what made up for everything was this AMAZING dessert.  Now this is what I was talking about when I'm think of delicious dessert.  It was a millfeuille with chantilly cream and chocolate flakes.  It had these flakey layers that reminded me of a napoleon and then it was layered with the cream similar to what you would find in a cannoli.   The cream was light but sweet and it was seriously the best dish of the entire night and the best dessert I had of the entire trip.  If this entire cake was in front of me, I would have totally helped myself to 2-3 slices.  Everyone on the trip agreed that this was by far the most amazing part of the meal.  And thank god for it, otherwise the overall meal would have been a bit lack luster (mostly in Italian terms since the food everywhere in Italy is generally so fantastic, this one just fell a bit below the bar).

Italy Day 2 Visited 3/14/2013

Trattoria der Pallaro Largo del Pallaro 15, 00186 Roma - 5 Forks

This is one of those places that you hear about from others and wonder if it's really that good.  After trying it, I can say that it really is wonderful!  It came highly recommended by one of our friend's boss.  As he told her it was a MUST try and I would have to agree.  It's one of those cute, off the beaten path restaurants that was filled with locals at the time we were there for lunch.  It's also one of those places where there is no menu.  You sit down and they immediately start serving you a 4 course meal without telling you anything.  But first they set down 2 pitchers of house wine, a red and a white.  What a perfect way to start off lunch already.

The first course consist of an delicious, warm lentil dish, a bowl of olives, great selection of antipasta (assorted meats), fried potato balls that were nice and crispy on the outside but nice and soft on the inside and a fried cod dish as well.  Another great surprise of the first course was a fragrant dish of sliced fennel cooked in lots of olive oil and vinegar.  I usually am not a huge fan of fennel but this was cooked in such a way that was fantastically delicious.  It's crazy to think that 6 dishes was just the 1st course.  I want to add that they weren't small dishes either.  They kindly offered 2 dishes of everything so that everyone was able to have their fair share.

The 2nd course was the best part of the lunch.  It was the pasta section! And even better is that they give you two kinds of pasta. Oh my.  It was perfectly cooked rigatoni in a rich and creamy carbonara sauce and another one with a red spicy sauce.  This was what dreams are made of: homemade pasta.

I would have been perfectly happy to have ended my meal here. I was beyond stuffed and in most instances a heavy round of appetizers and pasta would have been more than enough food.  But not in Italy.  The 3rd course was the meat course.  Good lord.  We had veal cooked 2 ways.  One was cooked in the oven and sliced thinly and the other was veal cooked cacciatore style.  It was a more hearty, chunkier style of veal but I actually really liked both dishes.  They were both tender and juicy and they were pushing me past my fullness level. But of course the course came with 2 sides as well.  We had hand cut fresh potato chips which were wonderful.  You could definitely tell that they were made seconds before serving (as indicated by the waiter literally picking up my hand and shoving it into the bowl and saying "Fresh! Just made for you!").   Since they just came out of the fryer, they weren't as crispy as I would have liked but they were still good.  But the best part of this course was this amazing puree of zucchini.  I mean this dish was the f'ing bomb.  While the majority of the zucchini was pureed, it still had some nice sweet chunks to give it some texture but it was just a fantastic dish.  You could just taste the love made with all the dishes.  There's something about the food here that just tasted so fresh, more so than most places in the States.

After the meat course, I was seriously at a point where it was painful to keep eating.  Luckily, the last dish came out and while it was a good dessert, it wasn't that good that I felt like I had to finish the whole thing.  It was a flakey coconut cake that I barely finished and frankly I can barely remember what it was at this point.  The meal was capped off with a glass of freshly squeezed mandarin orange juice.  It amazing how different mandarin orange juice tastes from the regular orange juice you get here.  It literally tastes exactly like a mandarin orange that you get at a supermarket.

At the end of the meal, the cook came out and it was too much to handle.  It was almost like an Italian stereotype of an adorable old lady who reminded me of a typical grandma: cute and loving.  She only spoke Italian and thought that we were Argentinian (because of the latest pope) which I thought was kind of cute.  The total cost for everything was 25 euros per person.  Unbelievable.  But one of the girls who was with us was a local and she thought that we were being overcharged and that it was too expensive.  Of course we were all shocked that this would be considered expensive but she mentioned that you can get fantastic meals in Rome for 15 euros.  I need to travel with her!  But seriously, the experience here was everything you think of when you think of Rome: lovingly homemade food that makes your tongue dance with happiness.

Ristorante Aroma at Palazzo Manfredi Via Labicana, 125, 00184 Rome, Italy - 4 Forks

If where we had lunch was the quintessential adorable mom and pop Italian restaurant, Aroma is what you think of in terms of super romantic fancy pants restaurant.  While I wasn't there with a special someone, I was in great company and had a lovely time none the less.  And yes, this is a real picture from the view of the restaurant.  Aroma came highly recommended by Kissy, our new local bestie while we were in Rome.  She said that there's no place in Rome that has a view like this (and boy was she right).  It's on the rooftop of the Palazzo Mandfredi hotel and the views are just stunning. Floor to ceiling windows of the Colosseum.   Of course, when you get views like this you are going to pay dearly for it.  Not to mention that the Palazzo is a Relais & Chateaux property, so you already know that the prices are going to be high. 

In fact, one antipasti dish was the price of our entire 4 course lunch.  Ouch.  We all decided to split the veal croquettes with artichokes (28 euros) and the lobster medallions with sweetbreads (32 euros).  For my entree, I had to go with pasta.  I mean I'm in Italy for christ sakes!  I opted for the rigatoni (I fell in love with this pasta here) with crispy bacon, confit tomatoes, and smoked ricotta cheese (32 euros).  

I was a bit disappointed that the veal croquettes were a bit on the small side but I guess that's how croquettes are.  The veal filling was flavorful and the outside was nice and crunchy.  I also loved the Roman style artichokes that came with it.  I have never loved artichokes more than on this trip.  There's just something about the way they cook them in Italy that's amazing and delicious.  For some reason, most of the time that I get it in the States, it's hard, too stem-y and difficult to eat.  But not here.  They were soft and have no stem issues.  Next came the lobster medallions and sweetbreads.  Now I've never had sweetbreads before and you know what? They were pretty damn good.  They didn't taste anything like I expected.  For some reason I thought they would just taste grey (if that's even possible) and gross simply because it's a gland.  But they were quite tender and soft with a mild meat-y taste to it.  I wouldn't say that I'm now a lover of sweatbreads but I certainly wouldn't shy away from in the future. 

The pasta was also fantastic here but it just had that fancier flare to it that the lunch pasta.  They were both wonderful and delicious but this dish just had a greater finesse to it by look, feel and taste.  It was a bit on the too al dente side for me, but I know that's how pasta really should be.  I didn't try anyone else's food but I did take a picture of Syd's pasta because it looked amazing (mostly because of the gorgeous pile of raw prawns on top) and because the waiter mentioned that it was his favorite pasta on the menu.   I kind of was jealous of this dish just by the looks of it.

By the end of dinner, we were all still kind of hungry but when we took a look at the dessert menu and saw that the prices ranged from 20-25 euros (that's $25-32 USD) we opted to skip dessert and get gelato across the street for 2.50 euros instead (best decision we ever made).  Aroma is a perfect place for a special occasion as you can't beat the view, service and high end finishes of the meal.  But it was just a bit too overpriced for me to merit it above 4 forks.  Total bill: ~$80/pp

Rome, Italy - Day 1 Visited 3/13/2013

Gusto - Piazza Augusto Imperatore, 9  00186 Rome, Italy - 4 Forks

Ahhhhhh, Italy.  It is quite possibly one of the most amazing countries in the world from a food standpoint.  There are so many amazing options that even the "worst" meal is still 100% better than most meals anywhere else.  The freshness and quality of the ingredients are mind blowing and any visit to Italy is truly a culinary treat.   Of course the 3 must eats of any trip to Italy are pasta, pizza and gelato.  I started my trip with a trip to Gusto for a light snack.  We actually ended up at Gusto primarily because it was the only thing open near our hotel that was serving hot food.  Many restaurants in Rome shut down after 3pm and don't open up again until dinner time.  When we walked into Gusto they told us that the only thing they had available was pizza, which was totally fine because none of us were really looking for a heavy pasta meal and because we knew we were going to eat a bigger dinner later.  I opted for the prosciutto and mushroom pizza and the girls split a white pizza and a sausage/mushroom pizza.  This might go without saying but in a sit down restaurant like this, even though it's casual, you can't order pizza by the slice.  It's all personal sized pizzas.  The pizzas came out in about 5 minutes and you'd think that might indicate that it wouldn't be that good.  But it was actually delicious.  The crust was thin but not too thin that it couldn't firmly hold on to all the sauce and ingredients.  The mushroom was fresh and not of the canned variety that you often see in NYC pizzas and the 2 thinly shaved slices of prosciutto was a nice light touch to the pizza.  Even though I wasn't super hungry, I found myself eating almost the entire thing because it was that good.  I tried the white pizza and found it to be light and delicious despite not having any sauce.  While I still think that a place like Roberta's in Brooklyn still offers a better pizza, the pizza here is a solid choice and was just what we needed right off the plane.  It's definitely not fancy nor is the kind of place that would have a cult following like a Grimaldi in NYC but it's a nice introduction to pizza in Italy.  Total bill:  roughly 10 euros per person.

Photo Credit:  tamarindandthyme.wordpress.com

Enoteca Ferrara  Piazza Trilussa 41, 00153 Roma - 5 Forks

Entoeca Ferrara is located in the Trastevere neighborhood of Italy which is across the river and is a more local, less touristy part of Rome.  It was by far my favorite neighborhood and it was so quaint and lovely.  It's what you imagine when you think of classical beautiful Rome neighborhood.  It is surrounded by old cobble stone streets and old fresco type buildings.  You could spend hours just walking around and not get tired of it.  We came to Enoteca Ferrara based on a recommendation from one of our friends.  The outside of the restaurant looks old and dumpy but when you walk inside it's this enormous space that goes on forever.  We were seated in the back and the waitress could not have been sweeter or nicer.  She spoke perfect English and walked us through the menu in meticulous detail.  There were so many options that we all kind of decided to just order for ourselves.  

We started off the meal with an amuse bouche of fresh bread and fresh fish which I thought was clean and a great way to start off the meal.  

For an appetizer, I got an amazing dish of fried artichoke, cod in tempura and fried anchovy.  Although everything was "fried", it didn't taste oily or unhealthy.  The crispiness of the batter just gave the food texture while I could still taste the freshness of the actual ingredients of the dish.  I usually don't love artichokes because I find them hard to eat but the artichoke here were amazing and I ate the entire 'choke, steams and leaf.  The cod was light and not too fishy and strangely enough the anchovy was also fairly mild as far as anchovies go. 

For my main entree, I got the squid ink risotto with fresh crab meat.  I am a huge sucker for any pasta dish with squid ink even though it totally stains your mouth and teeth.  I absolutely do not recommend a squid ink dish for anyone on a date.  Luckily I was among friends here.  But I also was drawn to this dish because the waitress told us it was their special for the night and there was only 1 left!  Nothing like the threat of low supply to get me going.  Despite being a completely black looking dish, the taste was amazingly clean and the lumps of crab (it actually looked like lobster meat) made the dish super luxurious.   Although the actual risotto was a bit thin on its own, the combination with the squid ink and crab made it a very filling dish.  I had a hard time actually finishing the entire dish but I was determined to not leave a bite behind.  I should note that by this time, it was close to 11pm, so many of us were hitting our wall but that didn't stop us from ordering 3 different desserts.  We ordered a lemon tart, tiramisu, and the chocolate tasting plate.  In true Italian fashion, they were all decadent and amazing.  They all tasted exactly as they should:  the lemon tart was sour and super tart, the tiramisu was chocolately and creamy and well, I didn't try the chocolate plate because I just didn't have any room of it.  The restaurant also had a fantastic wine list that literally was like a 100 page book and we just had the waitress pick a lovely sparkling wine to start and a great medium bodied red for the dinner.  This was the fancy meal in an adorable Italian local joint that you dream of.  I don't think I saw a single tourist while I was there which is also a big plus in my book.  The meal was definitely more on the expensive side for Italy (roughly 60 euros a person or almost $80 USD) and considered a fancy place despite the mom and pop exterior.  But if there's any neighborhood to check out while you're in Rome, it's definitely the Trastvere area and you'll find any number of wonderful neighborhood gems even if you somehow don't manage to make it here.

Potlikker Visited 3/10/2013 2 Forks

Potlikker 338 Bedford Ave., (between 4th St & 3rd St), New York, NY 11211

So I had been wanting to try Potlikker since I had heard that it was from the same people of Queens Hideaway in Greenpoint and had read great and unique things about it.  I thought the menu sounded quirky and interesting and invited Janet to my 'hood to try it out. 

I can't quite put my finger on what kind of cuisine they offer here and when we asked our waitress how we should order, she told us to order about 3-4 small plates and to share everything.  So Janet and I followed her instructions and ordered a bunch of things to share.  We ordered the Chicken liver parfait which was served on sourdough french toast points, roasted apple, & pickled beet ($13), the 
Gnocchi Parisienne with cauliflower purée, spiced walnuts, apple-cider pearls, Romanesco cauliflower, celery leaf, & parsley ($18), the Duck confit croquetta with cream-poached kohlrabi, grilled rutabega and pear, and huckleberry bearnaise ($16) and finally the dish that they are well known for, the Dutch pancake with fried oysters, hot pepper jelly, goat cheese, & bacon ($13).   The first two dishes that came out where the dutch pancake and the chicken liver parfait.  Now, to be honest, it's taken me a while to really like chicken liver and what I didn't love about it when I first tried it was that it can be grainy some times, which is a huge turn off.  Luckily,  the chicken liver here was extremely smooth and fluffy, which you would think about be great but it was missing some salt or other flavoring.  It was so light that it didn't taste like chicken liver at all.  I did like that it came on french toast which was a nice unique touch.  It was a nice start to the meal but I wasn't overly impressed with the flavor (or lack there of) of it.  I was particularly excited to try the dutch pancake but when I saw it, I couldn't figure out the dish at all.  It was this thin crepe-like base but then it had all the goat cheese, bacon and hot pepper jelly strewn across it with no real meaning or like they threw all these ingredients on there with their eyes closed.  I honestly just didn't really get this dish and the fried oyster made it even more random.  Next they served the gnocchi and duck confit.  The gnocchi was in this super sweet and very buttery sauce that it was a bit too much for me to deal with as I started to eat it.  But I did think that it was the best of the 4 dishes, although there was no way I could have eaten the whole dish myself.  Lastly, I tried the duck confit and I was disappointed that there were only 2 croquettas to the whole dish.  I was a bit confused with what came with the dish as I'm not sure if I've ever really had kohlrabi or rutabega before and it was just a bit weird to be eating something I wasn't sure of.   The actual croquetta was nicely fried and had a lot of pulled duck meat in there so it was very filling but for $16, it would have been nice to have had more than 2 of them.

At the end of it, I was glad I tried Potlikker but the food was a bit underwhelmed by what I ate.  I do appreciate a good and unique meal but the food here just didn't have any meaning or cohesion to it that I just left feeling confused and disoriented.  Total bill:  $50/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Village Voice

Benihana Visited 3/8/2013 3 Forks

Benihana 47 W 56th St., (between 5th Ave & Avenue Of The Americas), New York, NY 10019

So this may be surprising but in all my years of eating out, I've actually never been to Benihana before.  Ever.  I've always been curious but I always thought it was kind of cheesy and for tourists.  And you know what? It's totally cheesy and for tourists, but that's kind of why it was fun.  The experience here is much more about the act of watching your food cooked in front of you with some flare rather than the quality of the food.  The food actually wasn't bad, my main complaint would be that it was too salty.

When we first walked into Benihana, we all kind of commented on the crowd of people eating there.  Not to sound too much like an awful New York snob, but let's just say that most of the crowd looks B&T (and yes, I realize the complete irony of this coming from someone who lives in Brooklyn and technically falls into that category).  But none the less, I don't knock people who want to come into the city for a fun meal, it was just a totally different crowd than what I'm used to.  The majority of the seating is upstairs and it's a pretty enclosed space with only 1 set of small windows, so there wasn't a lot of natural light coming in.  The menu is pretty long and a bit confusing.  They don't really make it clear that you are ordering habachi for yourself.  I kind of thought that by eating as a big group that they would have a group menu but I guess it does make sense to have everyone order their own food.  On one side of the menu is a list of single ingredient habachi such as filet mignon, steak, chicken or shrimp.  On the right side of the menu are combinations of steak and shrimp, etc.  I opted for the filet mignon and shrimp combination and since I was starving I also got a side of seaweed salad.  But little did I know that the habachi comes with soup, salad, grilled vegetables, shrimp appetizer and rice (fried rice is extra).  If I could have held out for just a bit I would have realized how much food I was getting and wouldn't have ordered the seaweed salad.  The soup came out first and I think it was supposed to be like miso soup except that it had onions in it and that was a bit of a turn off for a soup that's supposed to have a more clean taste to it.  Next came the garden salad which was your standard garden salad with ginger carrot dressing.  Meanwhile my seaweed salad came out at the same time and that's when I started to feel like I was eating too much food.  The seaweed salad was good but a bit cold and as Jill noted, it kind of seemed like it was sitting in a fridge for a while. 

After the salad dish, the "main event" started.  I had visions of this Japanese guy throwing and tossing around shrimp into people's mouths and everyone clapping.  Instead, a Hispanic guy named Rey came to our table and tossed around a couple of shrimp but nothing like what I thought.  He did throw some shrimp that landed in his hat and shirt pocket, which was kind of fun.  I had also heard about an onion volcano but all I saw was an onion tower, but then it was knocked down quickly and chopped up to be served.  Then for the next 2 hours, Rey cooked, chopped and served up vegetables, filet mignon, shrimp, steak and salmon.  With each dish, Rey put more butter and more salt on the grill.  The fried rice was essentially Rey laying out a gigantic vat of rice and then pouring tons of soy sauce (I don't know why he kept calling it chocolate sauce - gross) which probably also didn't help with all the saltiness in our food.  The rice was good but super filling and I kind of wish I had just had plain rice or if I could have asked for brown rice.  My filet was actually cooked pretty well and the shrimp for the main entree was large and quite tasty as well but I was so full by the time they were served I could barely enjoy myself.  I did manage to finish everything but I walked about 20 blocks after my meal to really let the fullness wear off.

All in all, it was a fun time at Benihana and it's a great place to bring a group to relax and enjoy yourself.  I wouldn't necessarily say that the food is amazing but it's not bad either.  The girls and I actually came up with an idea while we were there to create a trendier or sleek habachi experience and call it Jennihana (more for Jenn Yee than for me).  Who knows, this might just be our calling!  Total bill: $66/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit: Yelp

Rose Water Visited 3/2/2013 4 Forks

Rose Water 787 Union St., (between 5th Ave & 6th Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11215

It has been a very long time since I've been back in Park Slope since I moved out of the hood a few years ago.  I was back in the area to get my taxes done and met up with Anuja for brunch afterwards.  I had been to Rose Water once years ago but now that I've been there for brunch I'm really sad that I never went there more often because it was quite delicious.

It's got the quintessential cute brunch feel and their menu has a nice mix of sweet and savory options.  They offer a $15 prix fixe deal of 1 entree and one drink.   At first Anuja and I both wanted to get the vegetarian dish but it didn't make sense that we would get the same thing, so we split the vegetarian dish and the pear buttermilk pancake and of course I had to get a side of bacon because who can have brunch without bacon??  I was a bit disappointed that the drink options were non alcoholic (tea, coffee, apple cider, or juice) but I opted for a warm apple cider since you usually don't see that very often on a menu.  The dishes came out and they were pretty huge.  The vegetarian dish was a baked polenta and goat cheese with 2 poached eggs, mustard greens and salsa verde.  For some reason I had forgotten that the dish was on a baked polenta and thought it was bread because it didn't really have the consistency or taste of polenta.  The polenta was a little bit bland on its own but it when combined with goat cheese and salsa verde it was quite tasty.  The eggs were poached perfectly and the flavors all worked very well together.  Next I moved on to the pancakes and it was a pleasant surprise.  I usually never get pancakes for brunch because it's too much sweetness and while this dish was no different, it was nice to have been able to split it with someone else because it made me realize that I do miss having something sweet every now and then.  The pancakes were a little bit on the dense side but not to the point where I didn't like the dish.  You could definitely taste the hint of fresh ginger in the batter and there was a nice thin layer of pears on top of each pancake.  The syrup was super sweet but shouldn't syrup be that way?  But honestly the best part of the meal was the side of bacon ($5) I got.  It was freaking amazing.  It was perfectly fatty and crispy at the same time and had a nice sticky hint of honey on the outside.  It was salty perfection.  But since Anuja is a vegetarian I had to eat all 5 strips myself...I know tough life but I did reach a point where I thought I couldn't finish it but I can't leave bacon behind!

The waitstaff was very friendly and nice and I was glad that we had gotten there super early (around 11am) because by the time we left there was already 5-10 people waiting in line for a table.  It was a great brunch and I do wish that I had visited more often when I live nearby.  Total bill: $22 with tax and tip per person.

Photo Credit: Yelp