Saturday, February 11, 2006

Its 6:30 am and Greg and I have both been up since about 3am with insomnia. Of course now I am getting tired and so will probably go back to bed or go to the gym...but its like 2 below out and, well, BRRRRRRRRRR! No wonder the dogs are still buried under the covers.

Thinking this morning about the restaurants in NY I visited with friends or as business dinners. An auctioneer in NH threw a big party at a rustic French restaurant on 56th and 2nd called Sans Coullotes, which I of course translate to "Without Pants" which was pretty apropos considering the group of folks there. Lots of drinking and waving of chicken legs from the peanut gallery. I walked in and an old boss of mine from 15 years ago was there. She is a big time Chicago auctioneer, but she wasn't invited to the party...wierd to see her there after so many years and wierd to see her slink out when the host kind of made a scene about her being there. Anyway.....1/2 way through dinner I realized that I had left the iron on in the apartment, so I dashed up, fled in a cab, turned the iron off in the apartment and dashed back to the party...my roast chicken was still warm too. The place was good but the whole scene was so surreal that I can't really review the food since it was a preset menu..but I had to share the iron story.

A few nights later some old friends took me to Patsys Pizza on 69th and 2nd. Its a very convenient place for the neighborhood, very hipster place to take your family and babies if you are a young upper east sider. Personally, I would rather have real New York Pizza from Rays or someplace else. Trendy pizza has its place, but not in the pizza capital of the world. I can't believe that by the time we left, there was a waiting line of about 40 minutes....I just can't imagine that anymore. I have a tough time standing around waiting for a table for an hour in an overpriced, crowded restaurant. Gimme the diner down the street and a patty melt with fries and I'll be so much more content.

Enjoy,
Seth

Friday, February 10, 2006

Made pot roast the other day for Greg so he can have pot roast sammiches for lunch during the week. I took the broth, strained it, separated out the fat and had a beautiful beef broth to which I added lentils and carrots. It didn't make much more than two bowls full, but it was a perfect treat for me. Tres hearty, but healthy too.

For a soup today, I thawed some frozen chicken stock and added it to two Yukon Gold potatoes, a bunch of cut up baby carrots and a diced leek with garlic. Then added some yellow curry, salt and pepper and let it simmer down and cook. When tender, I added a bunch of fresh baby spinach, and a broccoli head and cooked for a bit longer then ran the whole thing through a blender to puree. It was a healthy alternative to cream of spinach soup and hugely tasty.

Enjoy,
Seth
I was reading our local online paper www.villagesoup.com and found that they have a new auction site where lots of restaurants I never knew exitsted seem to be offering gift certificates for food. The White House, a B&B in Belfast, has a dinner menu on the weekends. The Mermaid Restaurant at the Homeport Inn in Searsport is another place I've never heard of....jeez, I think ole' Maine Foodie has to get out more. Anyway I am tempted to bid. Dinner for two with a value of $50.00? hmmmm sounds like a bargain, I wonder what the fine print says!

Enjoy,
Seth
Amidst my rambles about our trip through NY, I wanted to stop and add a review of the Cedar Crest Motel Restaurant in Camden. We stopped there the other day after hiking the hounds on some coastal mountain land trust trails. Hungry and tired, we walked in and immediately noticed the changes from the "diner" it used to be. The kitchen has been closed in, save for a window to the pizza oven. The new walls have been painted a great deep yellow color. The owners put in a pizza and bread oven and hired a pizza chef. I have to tell you that the pizzas are fantastic. The crusts are hand thrown and have a great texture I had a sausage pesto pizza and Greg had fish and chips which he said was soggy and not as good as it used to be. That aside, the place was packed, almost every table was taken up. The establishment was also giving out samples of crusty artisan bread that they were baking on the premises. $3.00 a loaf and it was really very good.

Nicely done Cedar Crest.

Enjoy
Seth

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Ok, ok, here I am. Did you all email each other and decide to inundate me with emails about my not posting for weeks and weeks? It was very touching to get so many emails in the last few days asking where I was and if I was alright. Thanks, I'm fine...its just winter here and there are projects to get done. Greg and I were in New York for a week and made dinner at home just one night...meaning that there is a lot to discuss...now if I could just remember the names of the restaurants!

The first night we were in New York, our friend Joan, of Joan and David, which is how she introduces herself, took us to this marvelous Greek restaurant called Pilos. It is down in alphabet city on 7th between 1st and A, an area where I used to live when I was just out of college and interning at a museum in NYC. Well let me tell you, that neighborhood has changed a bit. Its very swank now, the chic hip urban place to live...yuck.
The restaurant's entrance is very unassuming. When you walk in, you are enveloped by the warmth of the place. The owners comissioned a local potter to make hundred and hundreds of terra cotta vessels which they hung from the ceiling all tight together. Some have light fixtures installed inside the jugs and vases. The tables are close together and I was struck by the fact that there were two greek couples eating at the table next to us. The food was incredible. We ordered a bunch of appetizers, including stewed fava beans, broiled cheese, marinated, grilled prawns, hearty meatballs in savory sauce and a grilled vegetable platter. It was enough food to feed an army. We were completely sated and rolled ourselves into a cab after dropping Joan off at her place.
For any reader who might remember wearing Joan and David shoes or clothes, know that Joan is well and is now a professor at Columbia School of International Business. As she likes to tell it, she picked me up at Sotheby's one afternoon several years ago when I had my head under a chest of drawers. She came over to inquire why the chest had such a bold auction estimate. We ended up having lunch and have been great friends ever since.

Enjoy,
Seth