{"id":748,"date":"2013-08-21T10:57:04","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T14:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/?p=748"},"modified":"2013-09-09T13:56:05","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T17:56:05","slug":"new-york-minutes-185","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/2013\/08\/new-york-minutes-185\/","title":{"rendered":"New York minutes\/Late July into August 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

The seriously good: Empellon Cocina<\/a> in the East Village, where my consort and I headed after getting shut out of the City Streets tunnel attraction on a Saturday and after a Twitter pal had been raving about the pork being better than Daniel\u2019s or Chang\u2019s. The menu was more eggs- and sugar-oriented because it was the worst time of the week — brunchtime — but we were blown away by the tacos, one order with short rib pastrami and the other with English peas and ricotta. We also ordered bacon guacamole with black pepper salsa and masa chips, and it had barely landed when the main attractions were set down. But that turned out to be the right order of eating. We got to concentrate on how fabulous the tastes and textures of the fillings were, then could slowly explore all the nuances of the appetizer: the avocado-bacon harmony, the crunchiness of the crisps, the way the creamy salsa amplified all the tastes. With chips, you dunk and gorge. It would be unpossible with this. The restaurant itself is also gorgeous, and everyone but our waiter was muy hospitable — WTF with bringing the check while we\u2019re still eating? WIGB? Can\u2019t wait, although for dinner and on the early side, because that dazzling array of tequilas and mezcals seemed like a pretty good indicator it might get loud.<\/p>\n

The surprisingly good: ABV<\/a> on the Upper East Side, where Bob suggested we go on one of his just-back nights rather than settling for Elizabeth\u2019s yet again and where the food, service and noise level were almost like eating at home. We split a chilled spicy tomato soup that proved you don\u2019t need to translate that concept into Spanish, especially if you add charred edamame and cotija cheese. Then we had an outstanding brisket torta with avocado, cheese etc. plus delicate but rich gnocchi with asparagus, smoked ricotta, mushrooms and more. WIGB? On the early (quiet) side, anytime. A $32 ros\u00e9 was fuel for the walk back across the park in the gorgeous light.<\/p>\n

The unsurprisingly good: Barrio Chino<\/a> on the Lower East Side, where we wound up after a stock-up trek to Di Palo even though we had set out with Parm on our minds — something about the lure of a jalape\u00f1o margarita whomped the notion of eggplant Parmesan. As always, the food was fine (chorizo quesadilla for Bob, huge and great molletes for me), and that margarita was vaut le voyage. The kitchen was kind of snoozy, but the server was at the top of his form. WIGB? Anytime we\u2019re close by. Although when we walked by empty Mission Chinese on our way to the killer black sesame gelato at Il Laboratorio, we did have a bit of eater\u2019s remorse. One day we\u2019ll make it there.<\/p>\n

The pretty good: Market Table<\/a> in the West Village, where I was treated to lunch by an editor who had offered Korean or Greek or Bar food and where the dissonance between careful cooking and craptastic acoustics was rather unnerving. (Neither of us is a loudmouth in person.) I should have picked up on her vibe and hints about the \u201croasted vegetable falafel,\u201d because it really was a trudge. The Mexican corn off the cob we shared tasted pretty great, and so did the quinoa hush puppies the chef comped her as a powerful regular. And she sounded happy with her watermelon and peekytoe crab gazpacho. WIGB? Sure, if someone else is paying.<\/p>\n

The all good again: The Smith across from Lincoln Center, Mermaid Inn uptown, Elizabeth\u2019s and Txikito. At that last one, we had much of what I\u2019d enjoyed on my first foray, including the crab gratin, but we also loved the cured pork canap\u00e9 and a salad of baby arugula, egg and crisp silverfish. And then there was Saiguette<\/a> on the Upper West Side, which really is too great to be anywhere near this close to home. The banh mi is easily the best we\u2019ve ever had, even when lemongrass-grilled pork fills in for the special pork belly. Summer rolls are exceptional and steamed (not fried) dumplings pretty great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The seriously good: Empellon Cocina in the East Village, where my consort and I headed after getting shut out of the City Streets tunnel attraction on a Saturday and after a Twitter pal had been raving about the pork being better than Daniel\u2019s or Chang\u2019s. The menu was more eggs- and sugar-oriented because it was… 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":[40,112,117,38,32,35,8,89,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-east-village","category-inventive","category-lower-east-side","category-mexican","category-small-plates","category-upper-east-side","category-upper-west-side","category-vietnamese","category-west-village","category-wigb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748","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=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":755,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions\/755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gastropoda.com\/trails\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}