anotherjennifer's Profile
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Dessert Destination in Westchester / Fairfield County Meli-Melo for crepes, far and away the best ice cream I've had in the area and French pastries almost at the bottom of Greenwich Ave. |
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My husband and I went Saturday night. We were surprised to be able to get a 7:30 Open Table reservation just a couple of days before. When we got there it was packed, but we were seated immediately. We had a table in a corner, so didn't run into the problems some people have mentioned of waiters squeezing by them, etc. The tables are very close together. The service was pleasant and hitch free. Loved the bread. We shared the 3 dips for an app. It came with lots of pita and we also got the cucumber. They were all excellent. I got the dumplings, which were a wonderful combination of textures and flavors. My husband had a grilled whole fish, I forget which one, bronzino maybe? In any case, he said they did a very nice job. I ordered one of their special cocktails, which was nothing remarkable. I've had more interesting cocktails other places and next time I'll probably go with wine. The galatikbourikos (sp?) for dessert was delicious. We will definitely be back. |
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I went with my husband and 11 year old to Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos for about 9 days over Christmas. Friday - Arr. ABQ. Dinner at FRONTIER. Fine. Pleasant. Not OMG wonderful. Enchiladas for everyone. We prefer green chile. Monday - Lunch at BURRO ALLEY CAFE. Funny mix of NM, French and Mideastern. Enchiladas and breakfast burrito. Again, pleasant but didn't blow us away. KAKAWA CHOCOLATE HOUSE for interesting and delicious Meso-American style hot chocolate: water based instead of milk, dark chocolate, not sweetened much. We had with vanilla and chiles. Loved it. Also bought some chocolates in interesting flavors that so far have been yummy. Dinner at LA BOCA. Outstanding! Blows away every other meal so far. Among the three of us we had quail with espresso-cardamom reduction and blood orange vinaigrette, salad with pom molasses dressing, boquerones, flat iron steak with salted caramel sauce, gambas al ajillo, almond cake, chocolate pot de creme and I'm forgetting a couple of things. All wonderful. Also couple of nice sherries. |
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Pls critique our New Mexico dinner plans My husband and I and our 11 year old will be in New Mexico for Christmas week. We're looking at mostly casual restaurants, since people seem to think those are the best examples of New Mexican and Mexican food. Here are the plans so far: ABQ: 3 nights, bookending the trip SF: 5 nights, including Christmas Taos: 1 night What do you think? |
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Where to eat on Christmas Day in Santa Fe We're going to be in Santa Fe on Christmas Day. We're not interested in a special Christmas dinner, we're just looking for a good restaurant serving its normal menu. We'd prefer not fancy/upscale, but if that's the only good thing available, we'll do that. We're spending a week in NM and, of course, want to eat a lot of New Mexican food, but on Christmas Day, clearly we'll be flexible. I've checked Open Table for restaurants for dinner and the only places with tables that don't seem fancy (eg, Restaurant Martin) or whose website doesn't show a fixe prix menu for the day are Azur and La Plazauela. I'm not seeing any reviews here for Azur and the one mention of La Plazuela was definitely not favorable. Any thoughts for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner? |
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Things you wish you could "Untaste"? Yes. Yesyesyesyesyes. Worst thing I've ever eaten. BLECH! And the stink is every bit as bad as the taste. There are a bunch of things that I eat that my husband hates the smell of and vice versa. Generally we just each live with it so as not to deprive the other, but for this, I told him that it was grounds for divorce if he ever brought it into the house again. BLECH!!!!! |
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Port Chester, of course. Sorry. Thanks for the info. |
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Bosque Baking Company - Albuquerque, NM Is that anything like having the best bagel in Albuquerque? |
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We had dinner there a couple of times this summer. We had several small plates and basically enjoyed them all, some more than others, of course. Sorry, I can't remember which ones we had off the top of my head. The first time we went it was just me and my husband, the second time we had our ten year old with us. Definitely fine with kids. One caveat, the first time we went was a normal summer evening and the restaurant was on the warm side, but ok. The second time we went was one of those really hot August days and it was HOT in the restaurant. Their a/c really is just not up to the job. We won't go back until the weather has cooled off, but other than that, we really liked it. |
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How does it compare to Q in Rye Brook? |
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We've been to Vining's a couple of times over the last two years and enjoyed it both times. We haven't tried Pisces. I should look at it. Based on recommendations here, I think we're going to try Del Mar this year. And, of course, Squire. If it were up to my 10 year old, I think we'd eat there every night, but cruelly. we'll probably limit it to just a couple of times. I like it. We've hit the occasional off night over the years, but find they can almost always be counted on to do a nice job on simple, straightforward dishes. And my son thinks their hamburgers are the most delicious burgers on the planet. I don't see it, but if he's happy. . . |
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The standard desserts at restaurants. Ruthie, here's the dessert menu from a restaurant I went to in NYC this spring: I promise you that none of those, even the cheesecake was bought or the same old, same old. The pot de creme with the scotch infused home made marshmallow was amazing. Here's the dessert menu from a restaurant in the NYC suburbs where some friends took me for my 50th birthday this spring. I'm giving you the link instead of the list so you can see the pictures. And the dessert menu at a local (NYC suburbs), traditional, very well regarded French restaurant has creme brulee (absolutely home made), profiteroles, Tarte Tartin, floating island, crepes suzette, chocolate trio (mousse, sorbet, flourless chocolate cake), Berries in spiced red wine and port “soup” with red fruit sorbet and a daily assortment of homemade sorbets. OTOH, I just checked the dessert menus at a few well regarded steak houses in NYC and out here, and yes, they do seem to fall into the chocolate cake/cheesecake/carrot cake/etc etc mold. I think when most people go to those sorts of restaurants they either want to see a certain reasonably standard sort of menu or they aren't much interested in dessert at all or aren't much interested in fancy/interesting/creative desserts. Scotch. Shrimp cocktail AS BIG AS MY HEAD. Steak. Creamed spinach. Baked potato. Chocolate Cake. Simple. Straightforward. All delicious, if done right. I've vacationed a couple of times in Montreal and the food was terrific. I'm entirely sure that creative, interesting, thoughtful, delicious, desserts prepared with care or, on the other hand, delicious, traditional, homemade French desserts are absolutely available in Montreal. But you're probably going to have to stop eating in steak houses. |
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This will be our 7th summer vacation in Chatham and we've tried the Impudent Oyster a few times over the years. Oddly, we don't love it. I say oddly because we're apparently the only ones. It's not that we thought it was bad, just not interesting. I don't know. Maybe we order wrong. OH sounds great. There are actually all sorts of things on that menu he'd eat happily. |
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If Blackfish has a website, I can't find it. But I looked at the menu on Cape Cod Chefs. My husband doesn't like red meat of any kind, cheese in even minute quantities, anything creamy or buttery, plus a few assorted other things. In addition, he has high blood sugar and is very, very careful about not eating too many carbs. So I go through the menu and there is literally not a single appetizer he'd be interested in. He'd eat the house salad and maybe the nicoise, depending on how the egg is cooked (hard boiled only, please). Of the entrees, the only one he would touch is the salmon and he eats A LOT of salmon at home and frankly the preparation doesn't sound all that novel. I'm sure it's a wonderful restaurant. There are plenty of things I'd eat. But, understandably, he'd like a bit more choice. We're fun to feed. The menu at Wicked Oyster actually works better for us, but I've kind of been left with an impression of more mixed reviews. And we're definitely going to Ocean House. So it's not like you can't feed us. But some menus are problems. |
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We ate at Mac's Shack in 2010 and were underwhelmed. Didn't hate it, just didn't see what all the fuss was about. We also tried Pearl that trip and were very enthusiastic. Then last summer we returned to Pearl and weren't quite so excited. Sometimes I think we just lose interest when the novelty wears off, which isn't necessarily a comment on the quality of the restaurant. Also, everyone in my family is a fussy eater, each in their own special way, which can sometimes mean that a terrific restaurant won't work for us because there's so little for at least one person to eat (eg Blackfish and my husband). But I digress. . . Anyway, so many people are so enthusiastic about Mac's Shack that I'm thinking maybe we should give it another try. But when I really focus on the reviews, what people seem to really like are the drinks and the sushi. My husband doesn't eat sushi. Even sushi with cooked fish won't really work for dinner for him. So, can we get a consensus (ha ha ha) on the non-sushi fish options at Mac's Shack? Worth driving from Chatham for or really, we can do just as well elsewhere? |
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where to eat near S. orleans with 9 y.o. We're heading to Chatham in a couple of weeks with our 10 year old. This will be our 6th (6th!) year in a row. We have a quirky eater. He does love chocolate, but also won't touch cheese. He has some typical kid tastes, but some fairly sophisticated grown up tastes. We also find a combination of casual places and the occasional nice place works well for a whole week of eating out. We haven't had a meal at PBB, but he adores the bread and pastries. We took him to ABBA a couple of years ago and he survived perfectly nicely, I think probably on a vastly overpriced plate of plain pasta. Look at the menu and see if there's anything that looks good. He may have been the only child there, but they were absolutely pleasant and lovely to him. We ate at Mac's Shack a couple of years ago and didn't get all excited about the food, but I think we're in the minority. It's absolutely child appropriate and family friendly, so see if the menu looks good. We've eaten at Impudent Oyster a couple of times over the years and just don't see what everyone is so excited about, but we are very definitely in the minority here. Many people love it. Again, absolutely kid appropriate, so check the menu to make sure it works for your family. The Squire in Chatham is possibly my son's favorite restaurant in the entire world. I can't decide whether he's crazy about the hamburger (which is fine, but let's not go crazy) or all the license plates on the wall and the video games, both on the bar side (fine for families - filled with families). I like their steamers and lobsters and my husband likes their smoked fish plate. Their chowder is often, but not always, good. I haven't tried any of the others you mentioned. We also enjoy: Vining's Bistro in Chatham. Years ago we read that they weren't good for children, but we tried them a couple of years ago, when he was 8. He was properly behaved. They were lovely and gracious. The food was very good. Pearl in Wellfleet. Maybe we were a tiny bit less enthusiastic last year than the year before? Does your son like olive oil, balsamic vinegar and generally tasting and trying things? If you're in Chatham during the day, walk way down Main St. to Gustare, which sells all kinds of flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegars. They have them all available to taste. So long as you're keeping a close eye on him, they're nice enough about well behaved children and we always end up buy a couple of bottles. My son loves tasting all the different oils and vinegars. |
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Adventurous kids and forbidden foods? I think very small children's immune systems aren't as well developed as adults and there's reason for being more cautious about some things with them. That said, I don't know where the woman got the age 7 rule. My son is 10, so I'm going back aways, but I think he was around 3 when I started giving him raw fish sushi. Just to be on the safe side, I double checked with my pediatrician, who I find to be a model of reasonableness and common sense and he said it was fine, his daughters were eating raw fish at that age, too. I think his basic point was to apply the same precautions you'd naturally apply to yourself, assuming you're not in the habit of flirting with food poisoning, make sure you trust the place serving you raw fish to be serving you fish that is fresh and high quality. Obviously, certain foods carry higher risks than others and a young child, including a 3 year old, may suffer more seriously than an adult, if exposed to those problems. But on those grounds, it could be reasonably argued that you should keep your 3 year old away from hamburgers and spinach and no one is suggesting you do that. I say ignore your friend's MIL and enjoy your daughter's palate while it lasts. (I hate to be a wet blanket, but it would be very, very common in 2 or 3 years for her to get much less adventurous, start rejecting foods she ate happily and generally to become a much more conservative eater. It's nothing you did and there's not much you can do about it. Hold on until she's 11 or 12 and she'll likely start to come around again.) |
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Hangar B Eatery on Chatham, MA We went for brunch on our first family vacation to Cape Cod which would have been, umm, I think 2008. We went mostly because we thought our 5 year old son would get a kick out of sitting in the restaurant seeing planes take off. We waited roughly FOREVER to be seated, the food was entirely mediocre and hardly anything took off or landed during the approximately 6 or 7 days we were waiting around to be seated and then eating our meh food. Can I take it from these reviews that the chef has been changed, the food has improved and the place is now worth it, even if we have to wait and no one really cares if the planes do anything? |
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Strategies for Dining in Barcelona with a 10 Year Old We arrived in Barcelona late this morning and so far have managed getting into the apartment, a quick lunch at a nondescript place around the corner (I wonder why a grilled ham and cheese is called a bikini here) and a little walk around the neighborhood (Eixample) to look at the beautiful buildings. My son's dessert was cookies from the supermarket, but hey, that's local culture, too, right? Anyway, I'm just seeing some of the most recent replies and they are all very helpful. I'll be sure to post a trip report. Naps now. Tapas 24 for dinner later, I think. |
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BCN: How far in advance do I need reservations? We arrive in Barcelona next Thursday for a week's vacation. We are traveling with our 10 year old, so dinners will be on the relatively early to geezer-ish side. I've done my research, so I understand that tapas bars generally don't take reservations, but that they are often important for eating in restaurants if we don't want to end up eating Chinese. Our general approach to vacations is to go with a list of restaurants we're interested in, but the whole idea of having planned exactly where we will eat lunch and dinner exactly which day way in advance just isn't us. Who knows what we'll feel like when? But I've gotten this far. . . we'll be there for 7 dinners. I'm thinking 2 eaten in the apartment from food bought in the markets, 2 tapas crawls to be designated later and 3 restaurants, most likely Allium, the back room of Berri Taktika for Basque food and Manairo. How far in advance do I need to reserve for these restaurants or places like them? Should I be panicking and just committing and making reservations now for dinners a week to a week and a half from now? Is the day before ok? Can we look up at 3 PM and decide what we're in the mood for and call for a reservation for 8:30 or 9 that night? I think we want Sunday lunch at Kaiku on May 27. How far in advance do we need to call for that? Any truth to the notion that La Boqueria is such a zoo on Saturdays that it's better left for another day and if we want to pick up food at a market on Saturday for dinner on Saturday or Sunday, we'd be better off at a different market? Our apartment is on Carrer de la Diputacio, a couple of blocks north of Gelonch. Am I correct that if we're not going to La Boqueria, we'd probably head to Santa Caterina? |
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Strategies for Dining in Barcelona with a 10 Year Old Good to know! Thanks. I think he's also going to like learning the word tapeando. |
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Strategies for Dining in Barcelona with a 10 Year Old Ha, ha, ha. I've started my research on this board and it's not the first time I've seen you refer to that post. I promise to make reservations and to save my Chinese food for New York. We're sort of used to eating geezer-early, because we've been eating at nice restaurants with our son for years. Tapas are eaten standing up? I don't think I quite realized that. I was envisioning seats at a counter or small tables, like in a bar. Thanks for the advice, though, that's all helpful. I've been reading reviews of Cal Pep on other sites on the internet. I don't expect complete uniformity for any place being reviewed. Even at the best place, someone is always unhappy about something. And there's always someone who loves the most mediocre chain. But you could get whiplash reading reviews of Cal Pep. The reviews seem to be nearly evenly split between "fantastic! delicious! wonderful!" and "terrible food! the waiters wouldn't let us choose for ourselves and everything they brought us was awful!" I'm trying to figure out if there's a trick to making sure you get the first experience, not the second. The day of the week you go? Whether you make an effort to speak at least a little Spanish? Whether you let the waiter push you into letting them choose the food? The phase of the moon? |
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Strategies for Dining in Barcelona with a 10 Year Old We're spending a week in Barcelona with our 10 year old. He's well behaved and a reasonably adventurous eater for an American 10 year old. IOW, I trust him to behave any appropriately any where we take him and we have taken him to some nice restaurants in the NYC area (where we live) and in Paris and London (where we have vacationed with him in the last couple of years). He's not trying to live on hamburgers and chicken nuggets and he's pretty excited to try some of the Catalan food I've been telling him about, but there are limits to how adventurous he's going to be. One of the reasons he's well behaved in restaurants is that we know his limits. An hour and a half or a little more for a nice 3 course meal? Sure. Three hours while we make our way through a tasting menu? Babysitter. Obviously, as an American child, he's not accustomed to eating dinner at 10, but it's conceivable that we may be able to tweak his schedule enough to make it work. I haven't really researched the thread yet, so I'm not asking for restaurant suggestions. I'm asking more about your thoughts on strategies, particularly from those of you who have traveled to Barcelona with children of about that age. Big meal at lunch and then tapas for dinner? Will tapas bars welcome a child? Just have him nap and then pick appropriate restaurants* and get dinner at 10 and let him really experience the culture? A bit of both? *In Paris we liked bistros and in London we like gastropubs, although we certainly didn't limit ourselves to those, but that's the kind of places we like to go with him on vacation. |
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I've almost got our dinners figured out. . . My husband, our 10 year old and I are coming to San Francisco over Christmas week. The adults are pretty adventurous eaters. Our son varies, so it's best if we know we can get him a burger or plain chicken or pasta, if he's not in the mood for something more interesting. Also, we've found there are only so many upscale-ish dinners he can handle in a week, so we have to mix those in with more casual places. We're staying at Hotel Monaco, near Union Square for 8 nights. So far, we've got -E&O Trading - meeting friends there one night - works for everyone I'd like to add somewhere for Dungeness crab and seafood generally, although my son doesn't eat it, so it's got to be someplace he can get a burger or whatever. Tadich Grill is an obvious choice, but I'm feeling a little spooked by some of the poor reviews here and on Yelp. I know people like the crab at Kim Thanh, but I'd also like a more traditional American preparation. We're coming from the NYC area, so I'm trying to focus on things we don't get here. Great Mexican comes to mind. I looked at Nopalito's menu and didn't feel the love. Just in case it helps, and on the odd chance that anyone knows it, we madly love a tiny Mexican place in San Diego called Mama Testa's. http://www.mamatestataqueria.com Maybe something like that? Many thanks. |
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Friday night in Great Barrington without a reservation? For all sorts of boring, logistical reasons my husband and I are probably going to want dinner in Great Barrington or not too far out of town on Friday night but may not know exactly what time until more or less the last minute, which makes it hard to make a reservation. So is there anywhere really yummy as opposed to merely acceptable that we're likely to be able to walk into around 7:30 or 8 and get a table without a crazy long wait? He doesn't eat red meat, so somewhere where he can get chicken or fish, but other than that, we'll be totally flexible on type of food. Please note, it's not that I'm not willing to do my research and figure out which are the good restaurants, I'm just trying to figure out what meets our logistical needs, which is harder to do from the posts. |
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We're driving from around Greenwich, CT to Chatham on Friday morning. I'm hoping the traffic won't be too bad and that both Johnny Ad's in Old Saybrook and Abbott's in Noank will come up too early for lunch. Any suggestions for something quick, yummy and only a little bit off the highway (95, then 195 after Providence, then 25) before we hit the Cape? Or, depending on how brutal Rte. 6 is and how starving the child is, right off Rte 6 in Sandwich or Barnstable? All my lunch ideas on the Cape seem to be off of either 6A or 28. |
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Appropriate attire for Texture? Oh, good. Thanks. It's the nicest place we're going and the lighter we can pack, the better, of course. |
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Appropriate attire for Texture? We have reservations for Saturday night and I'm trying to figure out what to pack. Pictures on the website show men in jackets, with and without ties, women in fairly dressy clothes. Does that sound about right? Jacket, no tie for my husband; linen dress pants, embroidered silk jackety sort of thing for me sound about right? Thanks. |
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Thoughts on my quirky London restaurant list? We will be in London for a week in late May with our 9 year old. We are staying in an apartment on Eccleston Square, not far from Victoria Station, so I guess this is roughly Belgravia or Pimlico. Experience has taught us that between jet lag (we're coming from New York), trying not to eat dinner too early and trying not to get our son to bed too late, we do better if we stick to nearby restaurants for most dinners. So it's a big, big city with lots of wonderful places to eat, most of which aren't even on the radar for this trip. Ah, the sacrifices we make for children! Anyway. . . The following places seem to be well thought of here and generally on the web and the menus look good to us. Are they a mistake for any reason (food really isn't good? Not child appropriate?). Are we missing anything terrific in the neighborhood that we should add to the list? Is there anything that requires a reservation made further in advance than morning of? The Orange Of course, we'll probably also do a couple of dinners in with food bought in markets or food halls. Our tastes in breakfast run more towards coffee and a pastry than a full on English breakfast and Tomtom Cafe looks good. Any thoughts? ----- Thomas Cubitt |
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There's a "best by" date on my baking soda. I made a honey cake yesterday and it fell after it came out of the oven. Now it has a giant trench in the middle. IIRC, this happened last September, too. I had double checked the "best by" date on the baking powder yesterday when I was baking and that was fine, but somehow never looked at the baking soda. The recipe called for both. I just looked now. The best by date was, ummm, July 2009. DH thinks baking soda doesn't really expire because there's nothing to expire and they're just legally required to put some sort of date on it and it's probably not the problem with the cakes. So, toss the baking soda and figure the cake will work better next year or go looking for another culprit? |
