Restaurant roundup

Whoops, I let myself get a little behind on my blogging, but as you can imagine I certainly didn't get behind on my eating! Check out this cool spot Kurt found for us to have tapas before the show a few Fridays ago.

Since the performance was at 11:30, we met Noelle at Txikito on 9th Avenue around 9:30. As soon as we walked in, I loved it! (Then again, when have I ever met a tapas place I didn't like?)

But seriously...super cool atmosphere. Thanks to NY Mag for having such lovely photos (and awesome restaurant reviews) on their website.

Kurt did most of the ordering, including these blistered Gernika peppers with sea salt. I am not a huge fan of spicy peppers, but I absolutely loved these -- just a bit of heat, perfect with the salty outside.

We also had croquetas with cod, potato and cheese. Perfect!

This was my favorite dish, and one of the most memorable dishes I've had all year. Oyster mushrooms, poached and shaved, carpaccio style with garlic lemon vinaigrette, roncal cheese (like manchego), tomatoes and almonds. It was scrumptious and unlike anything I've ever eaten.

Noelle is a vegetarian, so we went light on the meat, but Kurt and I indulged in these morcilla sausages wrapped in pastry. ("Morcilla" sounds so much nicer than "blood," doesn't it? I remember being quite skeptical when my senora tried to get me to eat morcilla in Spain. However, I do believe most things that sound disgusting are usually delicious. Case in point: blood sausage.)

I think Kurt's favorite dish was the fried baby eggplants with tomato and mint yogurt. YUM, I'm having flashbacks...one should not blog about food when one is hungry!

We also had some really tasty white beans and mussels with white wine and parsley, but that dish did not photograph well...too much white.

The next night, I met my friend Julie for dinner at Malatesta Trattoria, which I'd scoped out on one of my walks through the neighborhood. (Another great thing about living in the West Village is it's usually easy to convince people to come meet me down here since there are so many good restaurants.)

I can really see this becoming one of my favorite spots. The food was wonderful and reasonable, and the portions were generous. I had an arugula salad with figs and proscuitto; it was big enough to split, but Julie had her own caprese salad. They had a special of crab spaghetti with tomatoes, so I ordered that and enjoyed some of the leftovers the next night.

The one downside was that they had those old, stubby wineglasses (Leigh Ann says that's because they fit more easily in dishwashers), but they gave me such a generous glass of rose (that would be the "Quincy pour" to my loyal readers) that I let it slide.

Sunday morning it was pouring rain, so I decided to treat myself to brunch at Cafe Cluny across the street. The best part was that someone had left behind my favorite sections of the Sunday Times!

What could be more delightful than reading Modern Love and the wedding announcements while digging into a gorgeous plate of French toast?

Skip ahead to Wednesday. I met my freshman dorm buddy Ari for lunch on 50th Street. Ari and I hadn't kept in touch since college, so I couldn't wait to see how he'd changed since the last time I saw him in 1998. He married his college sweetheart and has two daughters. We both agreed it was as if no time had passed! He is a fantastic conversationalist and as sharp and witty as I remembered.

We met at a steakhouse between our offices and both had a Cobb salad, which I thought was so elegantly presented it deserved a photo.

For $20, it should have been good, and it was. That two-pound salad I purchased my first week here for $16 has been dethroned!
I forgot to get a photo with Ari, but hopefully we'll get one when he has me over for dinner with Heather and the kids. I promised to make banana pudding. It's too bad there is not a Chili's in Manhattan...we agreed we should have met at Chili's, Macaroni Grill or Grady's for old time's sake. (Wine on the honor system at MG, anyone??) Thank goodness our taste in restaurants has improved, even if we don't think we've changed otherwise.

Friday night, I had an impromptu dinner with a colleague who was in town from Charlotte. We both found ourselves without plans, so we headed to my neighborhood after work. After a beer outside at the White Horse Tavern on Hudson, we walked a few doors down to Spasso.

A storm was blowing in as we left the tavern, so by the time we were seated at the bar of Spasso, we could watch the sheets of rain coming down outside. We split a pasta dish and a grilled lamb chop. Both were excellent...the lamb was really rare. We walked a few blocks to get gelato for dessert.

Whew! And that's your restaurant roundup. Are you ready for a snack now too??