And their mac & cheese croquet was wickedly good — piping hot, full of pungent cheese flavor, just creamy enough inside, and perfectly crispy on the outside.

I have to try their donuts and spam musubi… With a mac & cheese croquet on the side.

And they’re open 24 hours a day, in the East Village. Sweet, sweet Bamn!

After years of marveling at Mario Batali’s creations on Food TV, I was really excited to have dinner at Del Posto, but it turned out to be anti-climactic. There was a lot of bravado surrounding food that was only good enough… bordering on just okay. I only got excited by one dish out of the five that I had. The food is expensive for what you get, and it generally lacked pizazz — what I remember most from the savory dishes were the flavors of pepper, salt, butter, and oil. I wanted more unique flavors to come through. And frankly, the options for the main course were pretty mundane.

I also wasn’t comfortable with the service. There were way too many servers hanging about, and they didn’t seem well-trained. Instead of pulling together for a seamless level of hospitality, it was clunky, and called more attention to itself than it should have.

What I liked was that there were quite a few ingredients used that aren’t in everyday use (like perilla, rue, cavolo nero, and red wattle sausage), and they were interesting additions to the dishes. The bread basket was also great — especially the breadsticks. I also liked the design of the restaurant — grandiose, especially with the second floor ringed on the inside by opera house-like balconies with a curved metal design that enabled you to look down at the first floor. It’s beautiful.

Foodwise, I liked dessert best, so I’m going to start with that. It was all the more impressive because it’s a tricky dish to pull off…

Crostata Invertita di Pomodoro - Heirloom Tomato, Almond Cream, Fennel Seed Gelati. My first bite of this was the revelation that I’d hoped for at Del Posto. The caramel was perfectly matched to the tomato, in a way that I’d never encountered before. The waiter explained that the tomato was baked at a high temperature it a syrup, so it was primed to meet the sweetness of the caramel while still retaining its tomato-ness. I liked how the fennel seed gelati was also sweetened just right (not too much) so that it provided a refreshing, creamy backdrop to the tomato/caramel. The puff pastry crust was rather soggy from the tomato and caramel, but I was cool with that I like my chewy caramel.

Zabaglione - Served Chilled with Locally Grown Macerated Fruit. Nice. Tasted like zabaglione should.

I was also intrigued by the unique dessert tasting plates that they do — three chocolates with three rums or three parmigiano reggiano cheeses (which is all the more interesting because they’re all Luigi Guffanti cheeses, but two years apart… so it’s like a vertical cheese flight).

Petit-Fours Plate. These were plated up tableside from a large cart, and overall, they were very good — especially the mint meringue kisses.

So, anyway, back to the beginning of the meal…

Lardo and Butter. The lardo is apparently pork fat whipped with rosemary and garlic. We liked it a lot, but I’m still baffled by the fishy taste it had and the little fibers that were throughout it. The waiter insisted that there was no fish in it.

Carrot Sformato with Maine Shrimp and Cavolo Nero. I’m always intrigued when something doesn’t taste like its main ingredient. The sformato had a strong pepper-y and almost woody taste with a strong finish of cream, but I wouldn’t have been able to identify it as carrot (unless maybe it was the essence of it strongly roasted?). The shrimp were perfectly soft, and I liked the little chew and bitterness added by the cavolo nero. I’m not crazy about the combination of carrot and shrimp, but the sformato’s unique flavor made it more compatible.

I got this dish b/c they were out of the lamb sweetbreads that I originally wanted.

Funghi Misti with Guanciale, Toasted Garlic, and Zucchini. Good, with a very strong bite of salt, pepper, and garlic.

And we ordered the pasta tasting for the table, so we chose among the list of pastas available. I was expecting them to bring them out all at once, but they were brought out as ind’l courses. This was good and bad. You have the opportunity to appreciate them all in their own right, but it adds a lot of time to the meal and you feel yourself getting very full by the end (or really, early-to-middle). Some people barely touched their main courses as a result; but the restaurant has a cool doggie bag system — you are given a coat check-like ticket, and you claim your bag at the door, rather than having the bag sit on the table for the rest of your meal. A couple people at our table were given the incorrect ticket, though, so we had to swap around bags at the end.
The pasta all seemed to be cooked rather al dente, and there was lots of oil and butter involved.

Spaghetti with Spicy Crab, Saffron, and Perilla. Perilla is an herb that’s similar to mint or fennel. This was very spicy, but I wish there was more crab and maybe something to cut the spiciness occasionally. I’m not sure about the presence of saffron here — it seemed lost amid the spiciness.

Orecchiette with Red Wattle Sausage, Chantarelle, and Rue. Rue is an herb that grows as an evergreen shrub. The little brown flecks of it resembled mushrooms and truffles, and they were a delightful, deepening touch to the flavors of the sausage and the chantarelles.

Agnolotti dal Plin in Parmigiano Reggiano Brodo and Summer Truffles. These had a creamy guinea hen and veal filling.

Pike with Spotted Radicchio, Pancetta, and White Corn Polenta. Boring. The pike very fishy with a stretchy skin. I just ate the radicchio and corn, and they tasted about as exciting as they sound.

Duck Breast with Apician Spices, Apricot, Almond, and Endive Salad. Good.

Grilled Arctic Char with Potato Piccolo and Genovese Pesto. Nicely unctuous arctic char, and similar to salmon.

Pork Loin with Cipolla Ripiena and Roasted Black Figs.

I’ve been wanting to go to Slice ever since I saw a Food Network show called “Recipe for Success” that featured owner Miki Agrawal opening this pizzeria in New York with the goal of serving healthy and delicious pizza. I just happened to walk by it today, so I walked in for a slice.

I ordered the “Novice” with a honey whole wheat crust, marinara sauce, and organic mozzarella. They must parbake the slices because the counterperson put a slice into the oven that was a little stiff, but with unmelted cheese on top. It emerged fresh and piping hot.

I liked it. The crust is very thin and with just a touch of sweetness, but what I liked most was the ratio of cheese to sauce. I’ve been searching the world for the pizza that has the highest ratio of tomato sauce to cheese, and this was an admirable entry. I make it this way at home (but even more extremely saucy) because I like how the juiciness of the sauce brightens every bite and I love the flavor of tomato sauce. The sauce is, arguably, the most flavorful component of a pizza, so why not showcase it? With this style, the cheese becomes more like a condiment that adds a little chewiness and flavor, and it doesn’t weigh down the pizza with grease. You feel good after eating a pizza like this, and not weighed down yourself.

I also liked how each slice is further cut into 4 triangles, but this detail especially calls attention to what makes this pizza so different from others and what would ultimately make you for it or against it. Since the crust is so thin and crunchy, picking up a whole slice would probably be awkwardly stiff, but picking up a triangle felt more like picking up a flatbread appetizer. It’s very light… almost delicate. I’ve never been the kind to consider pizza as a snack before — it’s usually way too full of fat and carbs for that — but this felt like a snack. I could only imagine a fraternity ordering a pie of this sort… and being confused. Of course, you could always just eat more slices than you usually would to feel satiated.

My only disappointment with Slice was that even though they offer 4 types of crusts, only the honey whole wheat and unbleached herb were available by the slice. You could only get the gluten-free rice flour crust or a wheat-free spelt crust if you designed your own pizza. I walked in wanting to try the gluten-free crust, but I didn’t want to order a whole pizza of it. When I think about it, it seems unlikely that a group of friends with one person allergic to gluten would really want to order a whole gluten-free pizza. The gluten-free crust would be a good individual option for that person, so it would make sense to have it available by the slice. Or maybe I just think that because it supports me getting what I want.

Ooooookay.

Anyway, back in 1999, I had a wonderful shrimp bisque from Al Yeganeh’s Soup Kitchen International. I ate it in Central Park, where I happened to find a Broadway Show League softball game in progress. Footloose was playing The Iceman Cometh… That 1st base coach who looked like Tony Danza was Tony Danza. It was a fun afternoon.

On my way to a cupcake shop today, I discovered that while I was in California, Mr. Yeganeh was busy establishing a chain of The Original Soup Man shops (franchises available). I found the 3rd Ave & 78th St location.

Unlike his barebones soup stand of olden days, this was more like a small fast food place with counter seating on the window and softserve machines behind the counter. Upon entering, I was greeted by a friendly employee who then joined his two co-workers behind the counter. One of them — the one with the loudest voice in recent memory — was going on a tirade about how awful New York is, while the others listened on, bemused. After about a minute of alternating looking at each, one of them stepped forward to take my order — the one licking the softserve ice cream cone. I should have left. Instead, I got the $8.95 cup of lobster bisque, and all pleasant memories of that Shrimp Bisque Afternoon were cast in a shadow by this bad lobster bisque and that loud employee who wouldn’t stop talking… loudly.

The bisque had a strong red pepper flavor straight off, then a hint of carrot, and then lobster. Then I came across the stringy, almost grainy pieces of lobster that dotted — and ruined — the soup. The flavors of the lobster and vegetables in the bisque stabilized after a couple spoonfuls and were a pretty nice combination that still let the lobster flavor ultimately come through the most, but the stringy lobster didn’t let up. Consistency-wise, I thought that the bisque was too thick, and I wasn’t too thrilled by the small diced vegetables that accentuated its gloppiness. Maybe it’s just me, but when I see little air bubbles suspended within a soup, it bothers me.

I did, however, like the wooden tray that the soup was served on.

Btw, I can’t believe that the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld aired in 1995… 11 years ago!

In a perfect world, my plane would have landed in Newark at 4:30, and we would have had enough time to drop off my bags before making our way to our 7:00 reservation at Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50. Instead, my plane was 40 minutes late, and the deadlock of the Holland Tunnel and utterly Bangkok-esque jams of people and cars in the city brought us to our table at about 7:40. Luckily, my brother got there early and held the table, the staff were extremely gracious about the lateness, and I was able to check my suitcase in the coat check room… with at least 3 other pieces of baggage. Ah, home again in New York.

In all, I liked WD-50, and I want to go back to explore more. For all that I’d heard about its “challenging, arty, intellectual” cuisine based around molecular gastronomy, it wasn’t as challenging as I expected. The flavors are familiar for the most part, but I think there are two main “challenges” to the cuisine. First, the combinations of flavors seem to be put together by people who have a different frame of food reference than the rest of us. Sure, you can often identify the lineage, but I’m still stumped by a dish like this: “rack of lamb, banana consomme, chinese broccoli, and black olives.” Second, the forms of the food are often changed — usually through pureeing, paper-ing, foam-ing, cutting, or congealing — and the menu usually does not tell you what form they’ll take. Half the trick of eating at WD-50 is figuring what you’re eating, if you can’t remember the list of elements from the menu — this is especially true if something is bland or a combination of flavors. But, the waiters are extremely patient people and willing to offer explanations. And like in the TV show Lost, not everything has the most complex answer… sometimes meat is simply meat.
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This bread was made with bread flour dough that’s rolled extremely thin, and is sprinkled with sesame seeds; it was also nicely salty. I adored it. It was crispy and tasty, and you could eat it without getting too full. I also liked the box it was served in.

Pickled Beef Tongue, Fried Mayonnaise, Onion Streusel. I have mixed feelings about this dish. Everything on the plate tasted good, but it was out of balance. Since the beef tongue was sliced so thin and delicately, the rich fried mayonnaise (perfectly hot; crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside) and the pungent tomato-molasses sauce (tasted a lot like prunes) ruled the dish. Maybe the dish needed less fried mayo (or smaller cubes) or more pickled beef tongue (or sliced slightly thicker). In any case, here’s an article and recipe for this dish.

Squid Noodles, Zucchini, Grapefruit, Sansho Sour Cream. This was great. I was expecting some molecular foodplay with the noodles, but no, the squid was simply cut into very thin, noodle-like strips and briefly sauteed. The thin strips of zucchini were a perfect match, but it was the flavor of citrus that ruled the dish, with little bits of grapefruit to occasionally heighten it. The sansho sour cream seemed a bit heavy in consistency to go along with the delicate nature of the dish, but the herby/peppery flavor of the sansho worked well.

Btw, back in the day, I had a Shrimp-Stuffed Squid at Dufresne’s 71 Clinton Fresh Food that was fantastic.  I trust his squid.

Ocean Trout, Tomato-Chickpea, Cucumber, Pita Puree, Falafel Spices. We believe that those fried sticks on the left were the tomato-chickpea element, and those were the favorite from the dish — almost cheesy in their comforting crispy/moist way. The fish was one of the fishiest that I’ve ever tasted.

Beef Sirloin, Red Pepper Tart, Water Spinach, Whipped Horseradish. The beef was very good, and worthy of any beef-eaters enjoyment, but I liked the red pepper tart most — it was downright smoky, and just so good-looking. The horseradish was more like a foam… meh, was foam really necessary here? I liked the water spinach — turgid, with a slight undercurrent of fish for me.

Pork Belly, Peach, Maitake, Mustard Greens, Miso Crumbs. I was a bit disappointed by the pork belly. Instead of the meltingly tender pieces of pork belly that I dream about from Grace, this was more like pieces of humdrum pork with thick layers of fat on top. Adequate flavor and texture, but nothing more. What I did like in this dish was how the peaches (diced, dried on the outside, juicy on the inside), maitake mushrooms, mustard greens, and miso crumbs were served together as sort of a warm salad melee full of great flavors and interesting textures. On the left, btw, is a mustard greens reduction. It was good as an occasional pure sauce for the pork.

WD-50 has a full tasting menu that the whole table must order, but I had my eye on the dessert tasting menus — they had a 3 course and a 5 course… but it turned out that they were “chef’s choice” and the whole table had to order it (or else the timing of everything would get messed up). So, I struck out on my own and simply ordered 3 desserts.

This is a good time to talk about portion sizes. They’re pretty small. Depending on the dishes you choose, you can have a light 3-course meal. So, yes, I had an appetizer, a main course (admittedly, I gave away about 3 pieces of pork), and 3 desserts, but I wasn’t full by the end.

And I had read about Sam Mason’s desserts at WD-50, but I recently found out that Alex Stupak from Alinea in Chicago had taken over in August and Mason is apparently opening his own place in Soho.

Soft Chocolate, Avocado, Licorice, Lime. The light green dots are avocado, the one dark green dot is mint, the dark crumbs are cookie crumbs, the line in the middle is licorice, the ice cream is lime, and those white shards are lime curd. This worked very well. Avocado and chocolate… Somehow that works, maybe because of the sugar in the avocado puree… and the more-alike-than-normal textures on this plate… and the ameliorating cookie crumbs… and the way that lime acted as a middleman on my palate, even though I don’t think I ate all three together at once. The couple bites with licorice worked, too. And the soft chocolate was just that — I believe sorbitol is used to make it pliable…

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Black Currant Cake, Black Sesame, Shiso, Merengue. This was another stand out. I really liked the black currant glaze on the pieces cake…

The black sesame, piled on the edge of the plate, could be added to the black currant elements at will, and it somehow cut the edge off the black currant so that it was mellowed. Yet, also sprinkled on the plate seemed to be confetti of black currant paper, which was very strong in flavor, and in a way, was the opposite of the black sesame. The shiso sauce didn’t taste like much — it didn’t add even a bit of the minty/basily flavor that I expected and think would have matched well. The dots of marshmallow-like meringue were great hits of sweetness… but I don’t know why they were called “merengue” on the menu.

Peach Puree, Soy Milk, Strawberries, Buckwheat Ice Cream. This was my least favorite dessert, although I think it’s quite pretty in vaguely Spring or Ile Flottante sorts of ways. If the description sounds like a health shake or a healthy breakfast gone wrong, then you can imagine how this turned out. The disc of peach puree was like a congealed peach applesauce, and it didn’t taste more exciting than that… Why would one eschew the luscious texture of a perfect peach in favor of the drab mealiness of a bad peach? The ice cream started out nice and earthy, but then ended with a ferocious kick of buckwheat, with a flour aftertaste to boot. The soy milk was just that — water-y, not saucy. The strawberries and foam islands seemed like they’d wandered in from another plate — they just didn’t fit in taste-wise or texture-wise.

Chocolate Cream, Pecan, Beet, Kola Nut. This tasted great, and I really liked the plating, too. The chocolate cream was true to its name — creamy chocolate hemispheres surrounded by an assortment of complementary friends, including those flags of flavor-intense beet paper. Oddly enough, I’ve made a chocolate beet cake and a chocolate cola cake with pecans in the past couple months, so this this made me feel a l’il vindicated… even if I’d never thought to put them all together and I didn’t use kola.

Shortbread, Jasmine Ice Cream, Banana, Saffron. The shortbread was a kind of very moist… substance… that was very good in a dipped-in-milk way. The flavors all came together very well in this dish, except for those strips of orange peel that disrupted the mellow balance. Another striking plating, too.

Drinkwise, I was disappointed by my Royal Blush (vodka, lime juice, cherry puree, champagne), which just tasted like sour juice, but I loved the Rye & Quince (Rye, Angostura Bitters, Quince-Lemon Syrup). The quince made the aroma and flavor extraordinary. It was also a strong drink, so I was able to pace myself after the juice-like Royal Blush. Edit: There was also a great Red Rice Ale, which is good to know b/c their beers aren’t listed in the menu.

Also, the bathrooms were cool — the wooden doors were set into a wooden wall, and you’re instructed to “Push the wood” for a stall.