Thursday, August 2, 2007

New York City! (long)

My long silence here has been due largely to traveling and to intermittent internet access. I've been in NYC (Brooklyn and Manhattan) since Friday, and have been having a great time! The eating has been spectacular, too ...



I have to admit, although I know the best idea when eating out as a gluten-intolerant person is to call ahead, talk to the chef, etc. But I'm generally too shy/disorganized/spontaneous to do that. So, I rely on recommendations from other people, personal experience, and "safe" dishes like simple salads. One great resource was these posts on Wheat-Free, Meat-Free, about their family's experience traveling to the city.

Also: I'm trying not to be ridiculous about suspending my healthy-eating plans while I'm here, but I'm not skipping dessert when it's my only chance to try something really special.

Most of my dining experiences on this trip have come from places my sister thought might work, places my friend Y. (who is an omnivore) wanted to try while in NYC, and one place I'd eaten before. So far, so good.

Friday night: Chiles y Chocolate, 7th Ave. near Flatbush, Brooklyn. Very helpful server, fantastically tasty food. There was a little confusion that resulted in my initially receiving a plate swimming with rice and beans that I'd already been told were not vegetarian (I think because two servers were sort of tag-teaming our table), but they very nicely replaced it with a new plate that had a heap of steamed/sautéed spinach in place of rice or beans. The main dish was a chile relleno with Oaxacan cheese - a dish which is sometimes batter-fried, but in this case was roasted. Dessert was pan-fried bananas covered with chocolate mousse, and a cup of the house chiles y chocolate (chipotle-spiced hot chocolate) drink! ¡Qué rico!

Saturday: Started the day with a couple of the snack bars I had along, and went to Park Slope Food Co-op mid-morning (where my sister is a member, and could buy some food for me, her houseguest). Managed to get some breakfast and lunch food - yogurt, bread, cashew butter, jelly, some more snack bars - so that we'd only need to eat out for dinner.

Saturday night: Nana, 5th Ave between DeGraw & Douglass, Brooklyn. Most East Asian foods other than Chinese are usually safe, and this was no exception. The server understood my requirement that I be served no soy sauce, and my summer salad rolls and vegetarian maki platter were both excellent, and very fresh.

Sunday night: Long Tan, 5th Ave between Union & Berkeley, Brooklyn. One disappointment in that the fresh vegetarian rolls contained wheat noodles, but I'd rather be informed than get sick! Another excellent meal, starting with heirloom tomato salad with Thai basil, continuing with vegetarian yellow curry, and finishing with mango with coconut sticky rice, all of which were delicious.

Monday lunch: Uncle Vanya, 54th St near 8th Ave, Midtown Manhattan. This was the first meal with my friend Y., at one of the restaurants she really wanted to try. We drank hot tea with cherry preserves (awesome!), and I ate the vegetarian stuffed pepper, which was liberally garnished with fresh dill. Very delicious.

Monday night: Le Souk, Avenue B between 3rd & 4th, East Village Manhattan. Moroccan restaurant with friendly server who knew exactly what I was talking about when I launched into my gluten-free spiel. I had to remind him when he came around with the dessert tray ("oh, um, I guess you can't eat any of this, then"), but still, he took very good care of me. Y. and I shared a very yummy, fresh salad, although I can't remember the details ... and then my main course was a halloumi cheese salad with baked eggplant bits in among the greens. SO good. Since I couldn't have dessert there, we went in search of gelato, and found some in a place (whose name I, alas, forget) at the corner of Houston and Allen.

Tuesday lunch: Risotteria, Bleecker St & Morton St, Greenwich Village Manhattan. The Mecca of gluten-free dining was mercifully quiet Tuesday afternoon around 2pm, when Y. and I finally got back from a long morning of ferrying and line-waiting on and between Liberty and Ellis Islands. Tuesday is pasta day, and we luxuriated in a large, shared salad and giant bowl of penne pesto, and I drank a Bard's Tale beer and ate too many breadsticks and had to take my cupcake and fudgie to go. Simply and plainly, some of the best food I've ever gotten to have in a restaurant. Y. was surprised and pleased at how good gluten-free pasta can be.

Since lunch was late and huge, I just snacked on my dessert things in the evening, rather than having dinner. They were entirely delicious.

We did have some gelato from Ciao Bella, after failing to find the gelato place we'd been seeking, in the late afternoon.

Wednesday lunch: Les Halles, Park Ave between 28th & 29th Sts, East Side Manhattan. Anthony Bourdain's Manhattan restaurant offered some truly delicious food, and the one place I felt a little as though I may have accidentally ingested some gluten. My server didn't seem to have any idea how to deal with gluten intolerance, although he made a good effort. I had a delicious sweet potato soup, served at room temperature with slivers of parsley, followed by salade d'auvergne, which included mixed greens, sugared walnuts, apple (pear? can't remember) and one tiny piece of bleu cheese. My understanding is that most bleu cheese is no longer made with bread mold, but it's possible that this was the exception. In any case, it was shortly after that course that I had some minor belly cramps. I did stay for chocolate mousse (and was feeling better by the time our server remembered us to ask about dessert), which was delicious - very rich and dense.

That afternoon, we tried again and succeeded in finding Il Laboratorio del Gelato. It was well worth the search! Some very slow service (and one inept counter person) notwithstanding, the gelato was definitely the best we had this week, and probably the best I've had outside Tuscany. Around the corner was Babycakes, where I totally bought too many baked goods, then we stopped back by Il Laboratorio so that Y. could get a second helping of the honey lavender gelato. I'd had a medium the first time, and ate a chipwich at Babycakes, so there was no possibility of my eating anything else.

Wednesday after-show supper: Havana Central, 46th St. between 6th & 7th Aves, Theatre District Manhattan. We saw Mamma Mia! on Broadway, and were still full of gelato, so saved supper until after the show. In the playbill, we read about a place around the corner from our hotel, which sounded tasty, so we headed over there. Live Cuban music greeted us as we entered, and I immediately ordered a Moradito (blackberry mojito), then shared small plates of maduritos (fried ripe plantains) and moro (black beans and rice), and a "vegetarian cobbano" salad, which was delicious but way too huge to finish.

Thursday brunch: Park Plaza Restaurant, Cadman Plaza West at Pineapple Walk, Brooklyn Heights. After crossing the Brooklyn Bridge on foot, Y. and I met my sister at the Park Plaza Restaurant for brunch. The iced coffee was refreshing in this hot weather, the "la guadelupe" omelette was quite tasty, and the grits were excellent. Also the server honored my request not to bring me toast. Turned out to be a lot of food for me, even after a week of expanding my appetite with vacation-portion eating, but very good.

After such a big breakfast, we decided to miss lunch and plan for an early dinner. In this hot weather, we spent most of the afternoon resting, but decided to venture out after some fine chocolate around 3pm.

Thursday afternoon snack: La Maison du Chocolat, 49th St near 6th Ave (NBC Studios building), Diamond District Manhattan. A selection of chocolates and a perfect single espresso were a lovely treat.

And finally, Thursday dinner: Dervish, 47th between 6th and 7th, Theatre District Manhattan. After a week of heavy, rich food, I was most interested in some light plates at this fine Turkish restaurant. Our server seemed a bit taken aback at my dietary needs, but suggested that I name the dishes that interest me, and he would confirm whether I could eat them. I ended up with two appetizers: a stuffed baby eggplant with onions, garlic, pine nuts and parsley, and a plate of stuffed grape leaves (dolma). The dolma had a sort of sweeter spice blend than the Greek version I've had more recently, and were delicious; the eggplant was excellent, too. For dessert, I had a poached pear in berry coulis with a dusting of ground pistachios, and also some of Y.'s milk pudding with almonds, which was rich and mild. A perfect ending to a really good week of eating.

Which brings us to now, the night before I return to Rhode Island. I don't have big plans for tomorrow's breakfast, so this is it for the gastronomical madness.

Coming soon: my long-overdue post on the sour cream coffeecake I baked last week.

1 comment:

Sea said...

All these posts on New York City GF Dining are making me DYING to go there!

-sea