Since there’s not a ton going on now, in the depths of winter, we’ve been scouting all over and eating at places that are new to us.  Coming up we’ll be sharing some food adventures we’ve taken recently, but right now we want to feature two restaurants in Manhattan.  As with many places we try out, these were both Italian spots, and they happen to be very close to each other – just 1/4 of a mile apart in the West Village.  We liked both places and their different vibes, and we’ll share here what we enjoyed at each place, but just be warned that we’ll feature one image of meat here.

First, on a pretty chilly day recently, we headed to Ferdi, right on 7th Avenue.  This new spot is small and has a pretty quiet vibe, so it’s nice for a laid back dinner.  We started our meal there by splitting the casalinga salad, which is a rather unique salad:  there’s no lettuce but instead it’s made with apples, green beans, onions, cherry tomatoes, basil, and Yukon Gold potatoes, all in a vinaigrette dressing.

Then we shared two vegetarian pastas – the rigatoni Siciliani, made with eggplant and ricotta affumicata cheese in a marinara sauce …

… and the penne alla russa, with shallots in a tomato cream sauce.

And we ended our meal with one of the dessert specials for that evening:  this poached pear, served with raspberries, hazelnuts, and vanilla ice cream.

Just a few blocks north is Suprema Provisions, which is Italian inspired but also has foods from other cuisines on its menu.  This place is big and popular, and also has a grocery store attached, so it can get kind of crowded and loud with a really energetic environment.  For an appetizer, we got the ricotta crostini, spread with whipped ricotta, hazelnuts, truffled honey, and chopped mint.

Then Miriam had the truffle gnocchi, made with a cream and black truffle sauce.

And Cyril had to try the Suprema burger, which bills itself as one of the best burgers in the city.  It’s made with a combination of short rib and brisket, then topped with roasted tomatoes, a black garlic sauce, aged cheddar cheese, and a jam made from Iberico bacon, all served with a side of charred brussel sprouts.

These are two hyper-local places, since they’re within just blocks of each other – and they’re both good examples of the food you can get in the West Village.  Italian reigns supreme in New York, so there are a ton of options if you want that type of food, and we think these two places are excellent examples.  You can have a meal in an intimate space at Ferdi and get some classic pastas as well as a creative salad and some fun dessert (they’ll also make liquid nitrogen ice cream right at your table, if you’re looking for a spectacle).  And at Suprema Provisions you can eat in a pretty lively atmosphere, get some decadent food, and see for yourself if they do indeed have one of New York’s best burgers.  This list is a great start if you happen to be in the West Village and start to get hungry, and we hope to inspire you to try some new places.  And soon we’ll be sharing some more of our food journeys!

Where We Ate: Molyvos & Friend of a Farmer

If your goal is to try new things in this new year, we’re hoping to inspire you by featuring some cool restaurants from around New York.  We love going out on the weekends and trying places we’ve never been to before, and so today we want to write about two new spots we visited recently.  Both are in midtown Manhattan, in very accessible locations, but they’re definitely not your typical tourist restaurants.  We found some interesting and unique food at each place, so read on to see our recommendations (just know they we will show some images of meat here).

First, we recently got to try Molyvos, a Greek restaurant that’s been in the city for over 25 years but recently moved to a new location, on 43rd Street near some of the Broadway theaters.  There’s plenty of pre-show restaurants that can be very mediocre (trust us, we’ve been to some), but Molyvos has really interesting options, including some meat-free dishes.  We decided to start our meal there with a three spread sampler, which you can mix and match for yourself.  We chose the melitzanosalata, made with eggplant, tomato, yogurt and herbs (in front); the skordalia, with potatoes, almonds and garlic (in the back right); and the Tirokafteri, made from feta and roasted red peppers (in the back left).

Miriam then tried the stuffed red bell peppers, which are filled with rice, veggies, and manouri cheese, then covered in a tomato sauce.

And Cyril decided to explore the whole fish section of their menu, where you can choose the type and weight of your fish based on what the restaurant has available that day.  Here’s the grilled lavraki in a lemon and olive oil sauce …

… plus a side of lemon garlic fingerling potatoes.

Then for dessert we shared this milopita, made with apples, raisins and walnuts in phyllo pastry, topped with cinnamon ice cream and caramel.

A little further south, around Union Square, we also got a chance to check out Friend of a Farmer, which focuses on seasonal and farm-to-table meals.  They’ve also got a pretty cool space, in a two-story townhouse filled with antiques to look like a rambling Victorian home.  We started our meal with their complimentary cornbread, topped with an apple compote.

Then we split the arugula salad, made with apples, raisins, watermelon radish, and shaved fennel, with a side of lemon mustard dressing …

… plus the harvest crostini, topped with whipped feta, roasted butternut squash, honey, herbs, and a fig chutney.

Friend of a Farmer is especially famous for their generously-sized pot pies – they’ve got one with chicken, plus a shepherd’s pie, but Miriam went for the vegan version, which is stuffed with several different kinds of vegetables.

And Cyril had the orecchiette pasta, with sausage, fennel, kale, butternut squash, and shallots, all in an olive oil and Parmesan cheese sauce.

These two spots were very different from each other, and we’re glad we got to sample from both.  Molyvos was a great place to go before seeing a Broadway show:  we got to try some interesting dips that we’d never had before, and Miriam had a tasty and substantial vegetarian entree while Cyril tried a pretty impressive fish.  And at Friend of a Farmer we sunk our teeth into a hearty vegan pot pie plus pasta, salad, cornbread and crostini, all made with some really good seasonal veggies.  Both of these restaurants are really convenient to get to, considering they’re smack in the middle of Manhattan, and they’re interesting and creative, which is not always what you encounter when you try to find somewhere to eat in tourist-heavy areas of the city.  We’d recommend either of these spots if you’re looking for somewhere good that’s also easy to get to, and we enjoyed getting our hands on some Greek food and some farm-to-table comfort dishes.

Where We Ate: Some Quick Meals in Brooklyn

Let’s kick off this new year with some food recommendations around New York!  Today we’re specifically writing about Brooklyn, and some cool spots there where you can grab a quick bite.  The places featured here are the result of us taking some weekend journeys, wandering around the borough to get a wide variety of food.  So check out our ramblings – but be warned that there is one image of meat here.

First up, some slice joints.  We discovered a few fairly new pizza places in three different Brooklyn neighborhoods, starting with Fini Pizza in Williamsburg.  Their menu is pretty simple, so we tried a few different slices:  one plain cheese (on the left); one tomato, with just a sprinkling of Parmesan on top (in the middle); and one with mozzarella, shallots, and long hot peppers (on the right).

We also headed to Baby Luc’s in Carroll Gardens, which is a spinoff of the nearby and very popular Lucali.  While Lucali’s serves whole pizzas in a table service restaurant, Baby Luc’s specializes in slices – particularly grandma slices – in a more casual setting.  So we tried a margherita slice and a ricotta and broccoli rabe slice …

… plus Cyril had a pepperoni slice.

One more pizza place we went to check out was Brooklyn D.O.P. in Park Slope, which started out as two guys cooking and selling pizza out of their apartment but has now turned into a storefront location.  Here’s what we got there:  one cheese grandma slice, one margherita slice …

… and one spicy slice with mushrooms, shallots and red pepper flakes.

But if you’re looking for an easy meal that’s not pizza, we also decided one Sunday to head down to Brighton Beach, which is well-known for having a huge population of Russian immigrants as well as other people coming from countries in the former Soviet Union.  We first headed to Varenichnaya, which serves up quick plates of Russian food.  We decided to split this order of vareniki, which are Russia’s version of stuffed and sautéed dumplings.  We got a mushroom and potato version topped with fried onions, but you can also have plain potato, cabbage, cherry or farmer’s cheese as vegetarian fillings.

And just around the corner from Varenichnaya is Little Georgia, a tiny storefront serving up Georgian baked goods.  There’s no space to eat there so you have to get everything to go – we settled on one imeruli khachapuri, which is a flaky, folded pastry filled with cheese …

… and one lobiani – this round bread stuffed with mashed kidney beans.

All in all, we had a pretty good adventure tracking down and trying all these foods.  Pizza is something many people associate with Brooklyn, and while it can be hard to find some truly standout places in a sea of options, we think the three new spots we tried were a good sampling of some tasty and creative slices.  Then, in heading down to Brighton Beach, we got to experience some really interesting and authentic food from a part of the world whose cuisine we don’t often get a chance to sample.  If you’re up for a trip (or two) around Brooklyn getting a taste of some diverse and interesting foods, these are some great spots to check out.

Where We Ate: Amarone Scarlotto & Elio’s

In between sharing our Thanksgiving food and starting to bake up some fun Christmas treats, we’re going to take a moment to share not a recipe but some New York restaurant recommendations.  The places we’re featuring today represent just two of the many, many good spots in the city for Italian food, but beyond this shared cuisine these restaurants are actually pretty different.  They’re in different neighborhoods, have different histories, and give off different vibes.  But they represent the diversity of food experiences here in New York, even within restaurants that serve food from the same part of the world, so check them out!  Just as a warning, though, there is one image of meat here.

First up is a brand new restaurant, Amarone Scarlotto, which came about recently after two separate Italian spots merged together.  This is a really convenient place to get a bite to eat:  it’s in midtown Manhattan, close to Times Square and all the Broadway theaters, so it’s great if you want a good meal that you don’t have to travel far for.  When we visited we were able to make ourselves an entirely vegetarian meal, starting with the insalata Amorone, which comes topped with artichokes, roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella, and shaved Parmesan.

Then we split two pastas:  first, the rigatoni Siciliana, made with eggplant, tomatoes, and mozzarella …

… and the fettucine ai funghi, with mushrooms in a white truffle oil sauce.

A few weeks later, we managed to squeeze into Elio’s on the Upper East Side.  In the 41 years that it’s been around, Elio’s has become an establishment in the neighborhood – in fact, it’s reportedly one of Gwyneth Paltrow’s favorite New York spots, and there was a kerfuffle earlier this year when Sarah Palin ate there twice in the same week.  With all that, we knew it would be tough to snag a table there, so our strategy to get in was to call on a random Thursday and ask if they had any same-day reservations – and they did, due to a cancellation.  Since we were so excited to get in, we decided to try a whole bunch of different things, starting with the chopped salad, made with mixed lettuce, onions, mushrooms and strips of red peppers.

And also the asparagus and artichokes, topped with a tomato sauce.

Then Miriam had one of their pasta specials of the day – this pappardelle with pesto and chopped tomatoes.

Meanwhile, Cyril had their famous paglia e fieno, with a prosciutto, pea and cream sauce.

And we finished off our meal with their crème brulee.

We were really glad we got to squeeze into Elio’s and try this famous place, but we also enjoyed visiting to new pan-Italian spot as well.  Elio’s was a good celebratory treat (we went there for Cyril’s birthday) and we splurged a little there, while Amarone Scarlotto was a good place to try a variety of vegetarian pastas before going to a Broadway show.  Of course there’s wealth of Italian restaurants in New York, and so many of them are great, so in order to help cut through all your options we’re happy to feature these two interesting places.

Where We Ate: BZ Grill & Kiki’s

As we’ve settled into fall, we’ve been out and about all around New York, and that means we’ve been checking out a bunch of cool places to eat.  Today we wanted to highlight two spots that are similar on the surface – they both serve Greek food – but in every other way they’re very different.  You’ll have to travel to two separate boroughs to get to both these places, and the food and the atmosphere at each is very distinct as well.  Check out what we got at both of these restaurants and you’ll see that even within the same cuisine you can get very different food experiences – but just be warned that we have one image of meat in this post.

The first place we went was BZ Grill, in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens.  Astoria has had a Greek community for the past 60 years or so, which is why you can find some excellent Greek spots there.  BZ Grill is a place to grab a quick bite – their menu is mostly sandwiches and other finger foods, and you can get your order to go or have it in the small seating area at the back.  Miriam’s choice these was the halloumi sandwich, made with grilled strips of halloumi cheese plus lettuce, tomatoes, onions and a white sauce, all wrapped up in a pita.

And Cyril had to try their gyro, because they advertise it as the best in the city.  Here it is on a pita, with tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and a tzatziki sauce.

And we also shared an order of Greek fries, baked with feta, oregano and olive oil.

But if you want to head over to the Lower East Side in Manhattan, you can find a Greek restaurant with an entirely different vibe.  Kiki’s is a spot that exploded in popularity over the summer – when we went, it was absolutely mobbed with people, many celebrating and snapping dozens of pictures with their food and their friends.  We liked that the menu goes beyond what you typically see at a Greek restaurant and offers some dishes that are lesser-known in this country, plus there’s a ton of vegetarian options.  We were actually able to put together an entirely meat-free meal, starting with this tirokafteri:  a cheese and red pepper dip, served with pita wedges.

Then we sampled the saganaki, which is kefalograviera cheese baked into phyllo dough and then topped with honey and sesame seeds.

We also got the briam, made with potato, zucchini, eggplant, onions and peppers, all in a tomato sauce …

… plus some roasted potatoes in a lemon butter sauce.

But the best thing we tried was these fried zucchini chips, covered with grated kefalograviera cheese.

We don’t eat Greek food all that often, because in our experience many Greek restaurants tend to serve just the same few dishes:  moussaka, souvlaki, Greek salad – many meat-based foods, and the vegetarian options can sometimes be a little boring.  But we think both of these places show just how expansive and vegetarian-friendly Greek cuisine can be.  And you’ve got two different restaurant scenes going on here too:  one quick and unassuming spot in a traditional Greek neighborhood, and one mega-popular place where you can sit and enjoy a meal.  If Greek food is on your mind, both these places are excellent for trying some interesting things to eat in New York.