FORK PLAY June 28, 2010
Where I Really Eat. Eli's Taste. Prime KO. Plaza Food Hall.
Dear Friends and Family,
I have three faces. What I love. What I liked. And where I really eat. Since even my friends and sometime
 working-dinner-companions can't always tell what I love, I decided it was a perfect moment to look at the year's BITES so far and tell you where I've gone back and why I never returned to some spots where the food sounded so good. Why am I wary of places that draw tall women for dinner at 10? (And it's not just that I'm not up to spike heels anymore.) I even warn you away from places that used to be favorites in my neighborhood. Where would I eat tonight if Daddy Warbucks invited me? Click here to read my latest confessional BITE.
***
What's Cooking at Eli's?
Perhaps if I were not so totally an Upper West Side apparatchik but had been deposited by accident on the heights of the East Side, Eli Zabar's Taste might be an occasional retreat on a non-working night. It took my one-time New York magazine colleague Dan Dorfman and his devoted Harriet to lure us there for dinner. Unshackled from home turf discipline, I ducked into Eli's 81st Street Market bent on caloric mayhem and waited an unseemly long time in line to pay for a chunk of my favorite raisin-cinnamon-crumble coffee cake and a cut of Eli's Poilane-like country bread. More of that great bread was waiting in the basket on our table.
Having had surprisingly listless soft shell crab at Jean-Georges recently, I was shocked and thrilled by tonight's splendid rendition, nutty and crisp from a sauté in brown butter with wilted frisée. I longed for plumper mussels, not these scrawny minis, to drag through the tasty basil and garlic puddle, but perfectly cooked Alaskan King Ivory salmon on quinoa with local veggies - favas, carrots, peas - almost made up for my bizarre starter. Calf tongue tonnato seemed like a great idea but it was not. And Eli's knack for grandiose pricing was reflected in $26 for the same quinoa served as a vegetable plate. 1413 Third Avenue between 80th and 81st Streets. 212 717 9798.
***
Good for the Neighborhood
A Japanese Kosher steak house with sushi from the team that owns Solo and Prime Grill has jumped off on the Upper West Side. Prime KO could have something for everyone. But not for me. If you slivered all the deep green from a head of Romaine you'd have fodder for the actual Japanese mushroom salad advertised "over Romaine hearts." Curlicues of plum ponzu and vinaigrette decorate the plate. The fire drago n roll and the salmon spider roll would probably impress me if I ordered them in Utah but here they lose in translation. I worry as I bite into the sashimi tacos because the yellow tail and the tuna are alarmingly warm. The 8 oz. cut of "lightly aged prime KO reserve" for $36 is better than mushy pepper steak though not what we think of as a New York steak. Go for the tempura, like the frail elderly man next to me with ear phones and a mysterious machine (Was he doing dictation or listening to a precursor of the iPod?). He ate half and took the rest home. From the smiles on the faces of the crowd, still piling in at 9:30, Prime KO may be a hit with the many young families in our neighborhood who want to eat Kosher. Alas, it doesn't crossover. 217 West 85th Street. 212 496 1888
***
A Food Hall Pops up at the Plaza
I'm not sure if The Road Food Warrior and I accidently chose the best dishes Saturday night or if the Plaza Food Hall by Todd English is hitting its stride. A few lackluster items from the Asian menu at a previous lunch are forgotten as I discover the elegant little trio of tasty lamb gyros, a luscious tuna-two-ways-sushi roll and the house's sensational pizza - the dough bubbled, scorched and full of flavor. Click here to know what to order when you join the hungry tourists and savvy New Yorkers at these handsome food stations designed by Jeffrey Beers. FYI, I promise you I wrote my BITE column before I learned that English will host a very affordable celebration of the new food hall to benefit Citymeals-on-Wheels July 30. For more information, click here www.citymeals.org/plazafoodhall or call 212 687 1290. One hundred per cent of proceeds from ticket sales will go to deliver meals to our city's frail homebound elderly.
***
Silver Spoons Triumph
Everyone I talked to that night said Citymeals Silver Spoons anniversary party hosted once again by the Patina Group in the Garden of Rockefeller Center was the best ever. It was especilly moving to see chefs from the early years doing the dishes they cooked in the 80s at the first tributes to James Beard, my Citymeals co-founder. Here are the chefs taking their bow.
***
Photographs
of The Breslin's caesar salad, Taste's soft shell crab and Prime KO's sushi rolls may not be used without permission from Steven Richter.
|
Photos of Silver Spoons chefs by Levi Solove.
|
Fork Play copyright Gael Greene 2010.
|
