{"id":1017,"date":"2016-02-24T23:50:09","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T03:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/?p=1017"},"modified":"2016-02-25T14:06:49","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T18:06:49","slug":"new-york-minutes-196","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/2016\/02\/new-york-minutes-196\/","title":{"rendered":"New York minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

New rule: When the menu mentions chorizo, said ingredient had damn well better be perceptible, either visually or as you chew and chew. But the missing element was one of only two flaws when we stopped at the newish Tasca Chino<\/a> in search of something different after a rare Saturday outing to the Greenmarket on Union Square. Bob chose those pallid losers (for once the taste-free chicken deserved the clich\u00e9 description of rubbery), but I scored with another steamed dumpling option, the Woodland, which had a filling with seriously meaty mushroom flavor inside the light wrappers and a broth with intense and complex taste. We also split patatas bravas, perfectly cooked with crisp outsides, fluffy inners, with yin-yang dipping sauces in a too-small ramekin\/portion: \u201cSzechuan aioli\u201d and tamarind barbecue. The restaurant itself has style to burn, with oversized paintings of, say, Mao overlaid with bullfighting images; it\u2019s clearly designed for nighttime action. But at that most dread eating occasion, brunch, it\u2019s quite pleasant, huge table of drinkers of $20 bottomless margaritas to our left notwithstanding. And I can\u2019t remember the last time we left a resto with so many big smiles and \u201cthank yous.\u201d WIGB? Yeah, actually. For that dread eating occasion, the menu had quite a few clever huevos, plus duck & waffles. I would be tempted by the \u201cnested eggs Benedict,\u201d in a blue corn tortilla with miso hollandaise. But the menu said chorizo. And you never know.<\/p>\n

Old rule: Always head to Baker & Co.<\/a> after a movie at IFC; we have not found a more affordable hospitable option anywhere for blocks. On the occasion of our meeting two friends for the slow but powerful \u201cMustang\u201d (lots o\u2019 food in that film, BTW), we ran ahead and made reservations for dinner after the show. And so we wound up with the table in the window right after an obnoxiously entitled mom with stroller the size of a Cuban Buick strutted in with her husband and another guy and told the hostess that that six-top should be their spot. The din level was even more bearable there, and the food and service were, as always, a notch above. We all shared a jazzy special of anchovies laid over blood orange slices with red onion, capers and microgreens. And when we all passed plates, I scored again, with the lasagne packed with pork slices and ragu, enough for dinner and then lunch for two next day for all of $17. Garganelli must have been house-made because they were not little rolled handkerchiefs but unfurled, under a lavish layering of burrata. Bob\u2019s pappardelle with veal ragu was almost more meat than pasta, not that there\u2019s anything American-wrong with that, while our other friend\u2019s orecchiette with shrimp and roasted cauliflower landed with a whiff of rancidity, and there is something wrong with that. (The bread crumbs? WTF?) With two bottles of food-friendly Grillo from Sicily, the bill was about $50 apiece. WIGB? Undoubtedly. Despite the one-holer bathroom where you can only feel the dread rising as the person taking too long is a guy. Still, as someone said over to FB: Sometimes they like to sit and think, too.<\/p>\n

In between N & O Rules: We ducked into Amy\u2019s Bread<\/a> on Bleecker to pick up bread (olive fougasse, just like I\u2019d pictured it) and were seduced into trying a new item, a croissant pistachio twist. Which was sensational, with just enough balance of nutty paste and buttery dough that made you long for a swig of coffee. Somehow it was fitting that we shared it on the sidewalk just steps from a homeless guy going through a trash can and pulling out unfinished hot dogs still in buns. It was a survival model: Station yourself near a tourist attraction where the food actually sucks. And scoop up what they leave behind. Side note: Said homeless guy was annoyed when a family pulled up in a car and a kid inside jumped out to carefully deposit what was apparently an unfinished large coffee drink atop the debris. The intended recipient was not happy it could have leaked onto \u201cthe food.\u201d Sadder side note: We saw all this after passing yet another homeless guy on Sixth who had a big bleak sign (where do they get the Sharpies?) laying out how desperate he was. While he sat and ate a presumably donated sandwich offa which he had pulled all the crusts. Beggars\/choosers? This is someone\u2019s America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New rule: When the menu mentions chorizo, said ingredient had damn well better be perceptible, either visually or as you chew and chew. But the missing element was one of only two flaws when we stopped at the newish Tasca Chino in search of something different after a rare Saturday outing to the Greenmarket on… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,27,110,39,48,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bakery","category-dumplings","category-gramercy","category-italianesque","category-tapas","category-west-village"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1020,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions\/1020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}