Palma Visited 10/6/2017 4 Forks

Palma 8 Cornelia St., New York, NY 10014

I've been in NYC for quite a while now and have spent countless hours in the Village yet somehow had never crossed paths with this adorable quaint Italian place right on Cornelia Street.  Holly had mentioned how it had one of the most beautiful back patios in all of NYC, so of course I had to check it out.  We tried to get a reservation on Opentable but they did't have anything available on a Friday night but we walked in around 7pm and they were able to seat us, just not outside, which was fine. The inside is a bit cramped but with all the pretty flowers and open windows (it was almost 80 degrees in October), it felt welcoming and airy. 

The menu leans towards more traditional Italian but it's not old school red sauce type.  The menu itself is flowery and pretty like the restaurant and the waiter was very kind and walked us through a few things on the menu as well as the long list of great sounding specials.  We started with the tuna tartare ($21) and the burrata special for appetizers and then we opted to split two different pastas for our entrees - we got the pappardelle ($26) and the fettuccine ai funghi ($26).  We were a bit hesitant on the fettuccine because it was served with gluten free pasta and since neither of us had a gluten allergy we weren't sure if we really needed to go that route but the waiter convinced us that it was just as good but if we really wanted to we could switch it out with regular pasta.  We decided to take his word and see how it goes. 

The tuna tartare appetizer was excellent.  It was a huge serving of chopped up fresh yellowfin tuna with capers and avocado.  It was simple and so perfectly executed that I didn't want to really share the dish.  Alas, I didn't really feel the same way about the burrata.  Usually I am a huge fan of burrata and I generally feel that it's a hard dish to get wrong.  But this one was served with sautéed leeks and the flavor combination just didn't work for me.  The burrata could have also been a bit saltier also but luckily Holly really likes leeks so it all kind of worked out between the two of us. 

As for the pastas, they were both great too but who would have thought the gluten free pasta would have been the winner of the night?  I am a huge fan of pappardelle pasta because of the thick ribbon shape and it usually is served in a red sauce and this one was no exception.  It came with slow roasted lamb, olives, rosemary and pecorino.  It was a solid dish but honestly tasted like any other really good pappardelle dish in NYC.  Maybe it was because we had low expectations with the fettuccine that we liked it more but you really couldn't tell the difference between that pasta and a gluten filed pasta.  It was served with wild mushroom and black truffle pate, so it was a bit on the heavy side but it was really hearty dish and you really didn't feel like you were missing out on anything.  This isn't to say that I am on the gluten-free bandwagon, but I was definitely a fan of this dish.  The only miss of the evening was that we had to flag down the waiter a few times to get parmesan for the pasta - usually they come right when they serve the pasta and ask if you want any cheese to go with it (and the answer should always be yes) but this time they didn't which was a bit frustrating.

Even though we couldn't get a seat outside, I had to check it out and it was indeed a very lovely patio.  It had gorgeous lush greenery, lots of sun coming in, and adorable small twinkling lights.  I can see it being the perfect place for a romantic outing or special occasion.  

Overall, it was a lovely surprise and oasis smack in the middle of the busy Village.  You definitely feel transported away from the hustle and bustle of the city.  The food is good but what you're really coming here for the cozy and gorgeous atmosphere.  Total bill:  $98/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

48 Hours in Durham, North Carolina - Part 2 Visited 9/8-10/2017 3.5 -4 Forks

Foster's Market  2694 Durham Chapel Hill Blvd., Durham, NC 27707                                    3.5 Forks

I was excited for Foster's because everyone kept raving about the grits bowl there and how amazing it was, so I was eagerly awaiting my chance to try it.  It's a super cute country market/cafe type place - you can walk around and buy all sort of adorable Southern focused food items and then they have a entire prepared foods section where you can order food to-go or to stay.  They have a lovely outdoor patio where you can sit and enjoy your food. 

I was all set to order the grits bowl when the guy at the counter said it would take over 45 mins for it to be ready.  I was super bummed because the bowl sounded amazing - stone ground yellow cheddar grits, two fried eggs, black beans and salsa.   Even though I wasn't in a huge hurry to go anywhere, it seemed a bit ridiculous to wait that long for food.  He said that we wanted something faster we could either order the farm plate or breakfast biscuit and those still came with a side of grits.  I'm not sure how they works where we could still get a side of grits but couldn't get an entire bowl of it.  Isn't it the same thing except the bowl is bigger and had more ingredients mixed in?  In any case, I wasn't going to argue with him and got the farm plate ($10) which came with 2 scrambled eggs, choice of meat (I got the country sausage), herb cheddar biscuit, fresh fruit and a side of cheese grits.  

You order at the counter, you seat yourself anywhere and then they come and find you.  Normally places will give you a number on a stick so that they can find you easily but here instead they take your name and then just scream it across the whole restaurant while they walk around with your food. There has got to be a better way for them to do it because most of the time you're trying to eat our food but the waiters are just running around screaming "Jenny! Is there a Jenny?".  In any case, my food came relatively quickly and in true Southern fashion it was hearty and great - for the most part. The biscuit was fluffy and you could tell that the sausage patty was home made.  It was easy enough to make your own biscuit sandwich with the eggs and sausage.  The Rise sandwich was better but this one was also really satisfying as well.  Ironically enough the thing that wasn't good about this dish was the grits.  They were actually really plain and flavorless.  I'm normally not someone who puts hot sauce on anything for flavor but for this, I dumped a bunch of hot sauce to give it some kind of flavor profile.  I was shocked at how bland it was and this was the whole reason we came here.  Aarti commented how it must have been a bad batch because it was normally much better than this.  It's too bad that I didn't have enough time to come back for another try.  Total bill:  $29 for 2 with tax, tip and coffees

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Rose's Meat Market and Sweet Shop 121 N Gregson St., Durham, NC 27701                           4 Forks

Even though Aarti and I were pretty full from our breakfast at Foster's, we had to stop by Rose's Meats and Sweets because Will and Aarti's friend is the pastry chef there and they were insistent that we stop by for a bite before we left for NYC.   When I walked in, this place reminded me of a place that you would easily find in Brooklyn.  It had a super hipster feel complete with heavily tattooed chefs and waiters, but I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all - in fact, it was nice to something that was very non-Southern.  Even the name has an artisanal feel to it, doesn't it?

Another surprising element was that the menu is actually Asian and not a BBQ focused place, which is what I would have thought with a place that had "meat market" in it.  The menu changes daily but they had things like steamed buns, silken tofu, smashed cucumber and ramen and then the dessert portion was more Southern focused with pies, ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, cookies and tarts. When we sat down the waitress told us there was only 1 ramen ($13) left, so of course without even knowing what was in it, I had to have it.  It was barely 1:30pm and they were already out of it, so I guess it must be good!  Plus everyone around us was inquiring about it so I figured I didn't have any time to waste.

I was pleasantly surprised by how tasty it was given that this wasn't a ramen shop.  It was a fairly traditional ramen with a salty flavorful pork broth, chashu, egg and greens in it.  The noodles were soft, the pork sliced thin and the egg was poached well so what's not to love??  It would have been nice to have some seaweed but overall I was impressed with the dish.

I was stuffed to the gills but of course we had to have dessert and the flavored ice cream sandwiches were awesome.  They are huge and the cookie is more like a soft gingerbread consistency and the ice cream is hard but not too hard that you can't bite into it.  We had a few samples the night before and trust me, they can be very addictive.  Unfortunately we had to run to the airport so we couldn't stay long but it was a lovely glimpse of a funky cool restaurant that caught me by surprise in what is otherwise a cute Southern town.  Total bill:  $35 for 3 people with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

48 Hours in Durham, North Carolina - Part 1 Visited 9/8-10/2017 4.5 Forks

Rise Biscuits and Donuts 401 Foster Street, Durham, NC 27701

I had never been to North Carolina before so when Aarti and Will asked if I wanted to join them during their annual visit there to see friends and to catch the NU vs. Duke game, I figured why the heck not?   The city has gotten some good buzz as being friendly and hip given that it's got a booming college town and lots of working professionals in the Research Triangle area.  We stayed with Will's friends from college who were the nicest people ever (is that what happens when you live in the South?) and luckily for me, his wife is a pastry chef!  So they knew all the great places to eat in the area. 

We spent Saturday afternoon at their local farmer's market which was great.  I love that kind of stuff.  It's was huge and had tons of stalls as well as food trucks and it seemed like the place to be on a Saturday afternoon.  Even though everything looked great, we got lunch at Rise Biscuits and Donuts which is a brick and mortar place right next to the market.  It's tiny and doesn't have any seating but don't let that deter you.  You can order at a kiosk or at the counter - we chose kiosk since the line was shorter.  As you can imagine with a name that has biscuits and donuts in it, it's all about the biscuits and donuts here.  You can make your own biscuit sandwich or they have ones that you can choose from.  I went for a traditional sandwich of sausage, egg and cheese on a biscuit and Aarti got a version with fried green tomato on it.  Will was the only one who got a donut - maple bacon bar of course!  The wait can be kind of long but it is totally worth it. 

Like I said, they don't have any tables inside but they have a few benches outside.  I don't know how anyone can wait to take this home and eat it because we were practically tearing through the bag when we got our order.  This is Southern food at it's best.  The biscuit was fluffy and moist and extremely hearty.  The sausage and egg was a perfect salty combination with the sweetness of the biscuit.  I was afraid 1 sandwich wasn't going to be enough food but it is plenty of food - don't be fooled.  I didn't try the donut but it looked amazing.  While this is not the kind of food you should eat on a regular basis, it's definitely the kind of food I wish I could eat on a regular basis and not drop dead at 50.  I'm glad they don't have these in NYC otherwise I would have a real problem on my hands.  And what's even better?  The price.  Total bill:  $24 for 3 people with tax and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Mothers and Sons Trattoria  107 W. Chapel Hill St, Durham, NC 27701

Having a pastry chef friend in the area was amazing because clearly she's plugged into the food scene in Durham, so I completely trusted her choice of going to Mothers and Sons for dinner on Saturday night.  Given how small Durham is, you could tell that this was one of THE places to be - as it was packed to the gils on Saturday.  We were a fairly large party of 9, so we got a big communal table in the back but luckily the acoustics were pretty decent that we could still hear the person sitting next to us.

Since there were so many of us at the table, we essentially ordered one of everything off the menu. The men at the other end of the table got a lot of meat focused dishes like the rabbit and porchetta, while the end of the table I sat at had more vegetarians and we got more pasta focused dishes.  I won't list off everything we had because (1) I can't remember it and (B) everything we had was great.  But I will call out in particular that the squid ink pasta with uni and shrimp ($13) was truly outstanding, the arancini was fantastic and the artichoke salad with trumpet mushrooms creative and incredible. While we all shared family style there were definitely dishes that were so good that I wish I could have had them all on my own.  All the pastas were home made and perfectly executed.  If there were any just ok dishes, I would say I've had better polenta and I'm generally never really impressed with bruschetta in general.  The waitress was super friendly and knowledgable (she directed me to the squid ink pasta over the rigatoni that I originally ordered).

Overall it was a really lovely night out with great food and friends.  A lot of people at the table were saying how they were ultimately looking to retire in Durham because of the cheaper cost of living and general slower pace of life.  I can see the appeal and with restaurants like this, I get it...although the overall lack of diversity and extreme slowness of life might be a bit much for me but restaurants like this do make you see that living outside of NYC can still be fun and delicious too.   My only concern with the city is that there aren't too many other places like this in the area and one can only eat at the same fantastic restaurant so many times before getting bored but if this is what's like to be bored, it might not be such a bad thing.  Total bill:  $76/pp with tax, tip and wine

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Publican Anker Visited 9/4/2017 4 Forks

Publican Anker  1576 N Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60622

It seems like brunch in any city is always a shit show.  It becomes much more of an ordeal than it needs to be and factoring in that I had a flight to catch right afterwards didn't help either. Luckily, Publican Anker was right next to the El train and we got there right as it opened so there was no wait. So if you are trying to hit up Ohare to catch a 2pm flight, this is a perfect option.

Even though I don't live in Chicago, I've been there long enough to see this space turn over a few times.  The last time I was here it was an Italian restaurant and now it's sort of a gastropub type place. The brunch menu is much more of a lunch menu - no eggs or other breakfast type food, more along the lines of burgers and sandwiches.  Since we were hungry, Deanna and I split the heirloom tomato salad ($13) and garlic aioli fries ($6) while I got the turkey sandwich ($12).  There weren't a whole lot of veggie entree options and I can't remember the details now but there was some confusion on what Deanna could get but it all worked out in the end as she got some kind of yummy mushroom dish.

The heirloom tomato salad was delicious but you would be hard pressed to find any heirloom tomato salad that sucked.  This one had avocado, arugula and fried shallots and a buttermilk dressing.  I could have done without the fried shallots - I mean I was trying to be healthy so throwing in fried shallots doesn't really help the cause. Next came the turkey sandwich - at first glance it sounded like it would be kind of boring but in reality it was really creative and tasty.  It reminded me of something Danny Meyer would make.  The turkey was juicy and a thick cut from the breast and paired with roasted broccoli, avocado, smoked cheddar and dill havarti on a multigrain bread.  Yum!  The flavor combination of the turkey, broccoli, cheddar and dill was fantastic.  My only complaint was that the bread wasn't strong enough to hold all of these ingredients and the sandwich fell apart quickly.  It's definitely a messy lunch but worth it as long as you're not on a date.  The one small service hiccup was that they forgot our fries and we had to remind them but they were apologetic about it and it came out quickly.  They were thick, salty deliciousness and there's no better dipping sauce than garlic aioli.

Since we were in right when it opened (11:30am), we were able to get in and out with plenty of time for me to get to the airport.  By the time we left the place, it was buzzing with people so I would recommend trying to get there early.  Even though it wasn't brunch food, the overall experience and food was satisfying and pleasant.  Hopefully this one sticks around longer than some of its other predecessors.  Total bill: $33/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Parachute Visited 9/2/2017 3.5 Forks

Parachute 3500 N Elston Ave., Chicago, IL 60618

I don't often get excited about new places in Chicago, not because it's not a city full of amazing restaurants but I've been there so many times before in my life that I know that I'll usually get an opportunity to cross many of them off my list at some point.  But Parachute had continued to allude me for almost a year.  It's been one of the most buzzed about restaurants in the city for a while and it was even awarded a Michelin Star recently.  Deanna and I had tried to go several times but it either never seemed to work out or there wasn't a reservation available. 

This time we were determined to go and made a 6pm reservation.  Eating this early usually doesn't bother me but this time around it kind of backfired on us.  We got a late start on lunch and it was so filling that by the time 6pm rolled around we were so not hungry.  We tried to move it but it wasn't possible so we decided to power through it anyways.  

You wouldn't have guessed it but the cuisine here is Korean fusion.  It's definitely not your mom and pop Korean place but it's got strong elements of Korean food complete with banchan.  It was our mistake to come here on a full stomach so I would say if you come and check it out, come on an empty stomach and get the tasting menu for $68.  The couple next to us got it and it looked awesome. We tried to order a few dishes to make it worth our while here.  We got the bing bread (half order $7), vegetable tempura ($6), broccoli ($15) and a vegetable bi bim bop ($22).  There were tons of other things on the menu that sounded great - but they also had meat in it so it was hard for me to order 5 plates to eat on my own (not that I haven't done that before).

They are famous for their bing bread and I can see why.  It's warm baked potato bread with bits of bacon in it and it's delicious.  Since it had bacon it it, I had to eat the entire half portion myself (I took some home later) which was A-ok by me.  The vegetable tempura was also great - not greasy and served with a mayo dipping sauce.  The only issue is that the mayo had some kind of fish sauce in it, so Deanna asked for some other kind of dipping sauce - something basic like soy would be ok but they were like "we don't have anything else".  How does an Asian restaurant NOT have soy sauce or some kind of other dipping sauce?!?  It was so weird.  Next came the broccoli which was super finely chopped up broccoli with pistachios and dates.  It was basically broccoli rice, which was good but it wasn't something that I felt was very Asian or super interesting.  Next came the vegetable bi bim bop - I'll be honest, I don't remember much about this dish since it was over a month ago at this point but that can't really be a good sign right?

Two other things of note.  One, the majority of the space is taken up by a long communal table.  I've never been a huge fan of communal tables and this place reminded me why.  I could hear every single word of every conversation around us - so clearly they could hear us.  It was just too close for comfort for me.  Two, the soundtrack in there is AWESOME.  It's all old-school hip hop and it did make up for the slightly annoying set-up.

Overall, I wished I had come here under better circumstances and able to order more food.  I really didn't take took full advantage of my time there and would definitely be open to going back. Total bill:  $35/pp with tax and tip

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Cozy Corner Visited 9/2/2017 3.5 Forks

Cozy Corner  2294 N Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60647

Who doesn't love a good diner?  While I don't go to them that often, I've always had a soft spot for them and every now and then crave a good diner omelet.  I was in Chicago for my annual visit there and since I had been there so many times, it becomes hard to find new cool places to go.  Deanna really wanted a Belgian waffle, so we opted for the Cozy Corner, which I actually hadn't ever been to before. 

It's exactly what you would think of when you say diner and even though it wasn't in the suburbs, it had a cozy suburban feel to it (pun intended).  As expected the menu is enormous, with everything you can think of from a breakfast and lunch perspective.  It's quite overwhelming especially when you're already hungry.    I went diner classic and got a 3 egg omelet with veggies and cheese with a side of fruit and a single pancake.  I love it when you get the single pancake option because sometimes all you want is a bite of pancake but not an entire stack and you don't want a piece of freakin dry toast.  The service here was swift and friendly - our food came out in less than 15 minutes.  The omelet is what you would expected from a place called the Cozy Corner - it was huge and very hearty.  It was stuffed full with the veggie and cheese and really hit the spot.  The single pancake was nice and fluffy and paired with gooey table syrup, I was in heaven.  The only let down was the fruit as it looked kind of old and some of the grapes looked like they've seen better days 

This isn't a place for some culinary revelation nor do is the food life changing but it is perfect for when you're looking for hang over food or no nonsense American breakfast/lunch food. Although they did have Heuvos Rancheros on the menu, so I guess you can get some Mexican style breakfast food too.  There usually is a wait but they turn tables over pretty quickly so don't let the lines deter you.  While diner food probably isn't good for your health, it's worth the visit at least once a year.

Photo Credit:  Yelp