There were the expected highs, like spending a wonderful Saturday in Brooklyn, perusing the flea market and ogling brownstones in Fort Greene and Carroll Gardens.
There were the silver linings, like riding out Hurricane Sandy in the cozy Bowery Hotel, where strangers bonded and the staff kept us all safe, warm and well-looked after, even pouring champagne for everyone when the power failed as the storm raged outside. And getting to spend quality time with friends David and Tia in Brooklyn, who took us in when we were forced to leave Lower Manhattan, as well as with my brother.
And, of course, there were the lows: seeing such a great city brought to its knees, dark, flooded, and scarred by destruction, and seeing so many peoples' lives upended. New York City will come back - and so will we.
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| Blackout as seen from our 12th floor room at The Bowery |
Like: Perla's calamari - narrow winner of this trip's best bite food bracket. No picture (when you eat dinner at 11 pm you're too hungry to pause for photos) but it was delicious, pan fried in much larger pieces than you normally see, and served atop a bright lemon-basil sauce.
Discovery: ISH Premium Horseradish, sold at various green markets and food fairs around New York, as well as a handful of shops. They make a citrus variety with fresh oranges and lemons that is to die for, and unexpectedly perfect on a cracker spread with blue cheese.
Obsession: Making my own punch, after having a glass of the daily special at Prime Meats. It was so good I was inspired to track down this vintage mid-century Dorothy Thorpe-style punch bowl set on Etsy, and to find a few recipes, like Prime Meat's "Rosemary, Baby", to try out at our holiday party this year.
Complaint: Depressing but true: sometimes even the restaurant bathrooms in NYC restaurants have cooler interior designs than 98% of the restaurants in the Bay Area. Every place we went to had me pea green with envy that it's not in my town. The manager of Perla gave me his theory: in general, restaurants here are dealing with smaller but more expensive spaces, and that forces them to be creative in a resourceful way (versus a hire-a-fancy-designer-to-come-up-with-a-theme way), plus they have the benefit of great bones and character to build upon - tin ceilings, brick walls, old mouldings, etc. And, even when their interiors are the result of more effort and study, ala Keith McNally, they just look damn good, like they've been around forever.
Walter Foods:
Flatbush Farm and BarN:
Prime Meats:
Peels:
