Buddakan is big. It’s 16,000 square feet and seats 325 people for food and drinks. I tried to take pictures of the main dining room to capture its immensity, but this one from the the New York Times review does it much better justice. We sat in the “library” off to the side, which was more intimate but no less stylish, with glowing book spines lining the walls.

I don’t usually trust places like this — such size makes me think of noise and the mediocrity of mass food service… and such an emphasis on style makes me think of lounges and clubs with tepid food and watered down drinks. And then there’s that whiff of gimmickry about the whole thing…

But the modern Asian food at Buddakan was great, often fantastic. And sure, it was loud, but it felt more fun than obnoxious. And the service was friendly and thoughtful. I may sound shocked and I may open my eyes a little wider than normal if I were to tell you this out loud, but I highly recommend Buddakan.

Btw, the building used to be a Nabisco cookie factory, so a visit to Buddakan means a visit to the place where the Oreo was invented. Somehow I was charmed by learning the quaint heritage of such a brashly modern place.

Shaken Chili Beef Tartare with Tapioca and Shaved Shallots. A revelation. Tuna tartare has become so trite, and so returning to a classic tartare with beef and incorporating tapioca and shallots seems brilliant to me. It was so silky and full of flavor. The spicy sauce on the side of the plate wasn’t even necessary to bolster the flavor for me, but I liked the occasional crispy contrast of the chip and its black sesames.

Boneless Spare Ribs with Chinese Mustard. Again, the sauce wasn’t even necessary. The ribs were so tender and juicy, with a just sweet and spicy enough glaze.

Crab Fried Rice with Wok Scrambled Egg. I loved how the herbs on top added a dash of vitality into this already fresh dish — the crab was delicious and plentiful amongst perfect rice, and the eggs added just the right degree silkiness and background flavor.

Mao Poe Tofu with Minced Pork and Red Chili. The NYT review calls this “the most crazily addictive thing I’ve tasted in months.” I wanted to find it crazily addictive, too, but mine hit much sweeter notes than the spicy fieriness that Bruni experienced. The tofu was incredibly silky, and the dish was still fine, with the pork asserting itself most, but I was expecting more.

Cantonese Steamed Sole with Ginger Scallion Oil. I love it when steamed dishes are so full of flavor. And the sole was so tender.

Crying Chocolate with Malted White Chocolate Ganache, Coffee Ice Cream, Milk Caramel. Excellent. That little chocolate tart that oozed the warm dark chocolate and white chocolate ganaches seemed like a clever play on chocolate lava cake, and the coffee ice cream was a worthy ally — creamy and just sweet enough. Those dots of chocolate seemed a bit unnecessary, but I guess it’s for style and supports the name.

White Peach Sorbet and Blackberry-Lime Sorbet with Thai Basil Gelee, Spicy Ginger Seltzer, Basil Chip. I tasted the gelee first, and found it off-putting, but after a bites of sorbets, I went back to it, and found it utterly wonderful and refreshing. I really liked how the sorbets were full of ripe fruit on their own, but as time passed and they melted into the seltzer, the dish turned into a kind of flavored soda in a bowl; it reminded me of those drinks in France, where you pour syrups into water a little at a time. I also respect how this rather light dessert has so many wonderful flavors and textures. Interestingly, even though it was “the sorbet dish” it was listed first on the menu.

Drinkwise, it was hit or miss. The Charm with passion fruit liqueur, apple, fresh berries, and prosecco was downright astringent; I can understand the concern of serving overly sweet cocktails, but this was ridiculously unsweet and rather undrinkable. Meanwhile, the Heat with tequila, cointreau, and chilied cucumbers was very sour and quite sweet and barely spicy. I had better luck with a Harushika “Tokimeki” (Heart Aflutter) — a sparkling Junmai — that started out like a sweet wine, until you felt the bubbles, and then tasted the sake. It was different and good.

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!