Mario Batali's Otto (NYC)

During my trip to New York a few weeks ago, I had the chance to spend the day with one of my most awesome friends, Lanny. During this day, I decided Lanny might be one of my favorite people to eat with. Why? He's always hungry and excited to eat something delicious! I don't mean to disparage any of my other friends, but I'm sorry, but it's no fun to go to a nice restaurant and eat a salad! Lanny wanted to wait until we were starving to eat, so we checked out the Stand Bookstore and I found a really nice copy of Patricia Wells's Food Lovers Guide to Paris for $1! Who knows when I'll be in Paris next but I can't wait to use it.

Anyways, by the time we got to Otto, it was around 4pm and we were starving. First off, I'd like to note that I love restaurants that stay open (with a full menu) between lunch and dinner. It may not be profitable, but people gotta eat! The Otto menu is great because its diverse and has a variety of types of food. Like Westville, they had a long list of small plates that were very vegetable heavy and surprisingly affordable. I love checking out restaurants of chefs whose recipes I use and I had a great time a couple years ago at Bobby Flay's Bar Americain, but man, that place burned a hole in my wallet! Otto was pretty affordable and I really appreciated that (I've even, for the first time in 1tsplove history, included prices!).

Lanny and I decided on three small plates: Summer Corn Salad ($4), Roasted Beets ($4), and the Mussels, Peperonata, Mint ($7). All three were delicious. All were served cold, which was surprising for the mussels but refreshing on a hot August day. Lanny, who I think had never had beets before, did not enjoy the roasted beets, but I loved them (perfect doneness!). Both of us agreed that the corn salad was good, but nothing to write home about.

As our entree, we split the Pane Frattau Pizza which was topped with Pecorino cheese (very lightly, I might add) and an egg. Lanny was very intrigued by the egg and I knew that you just can never go wrong dipping anything in egg yolk, so I was definitely on board. The pizza did not disappoint. Lanny thought there should have been two eggs for the size of the pizza, but I think then it would have just looked weird (or at least not as good). The pecorino was light, because I know some people (*cough*Idris*cough*) really don't appreciate excessive (or any) cheese on pizza.

For dessert, we got the gelato and the flavors we chose were olive oil, strawberry, and hazelnut. The olive oil was my favorite, even though the olive oil flavor was very subtle.

OTTO

1 Fifth Ave, NYC (+ 8th St)

Subway: 8th Street - NYU

212 995 9559

Westville (NYC): A Vegetable Lover's Paradise in the West Village

Westville's interior: simple and cozy

My last trip to New York City was in August, but I was just too darn busy (grrr classes, thesis, GRE, graduate school applications...go away!) to post these pictures earlier. One of the carefree summer afternoons I was there we had lunch at Westville to celebrate Yasmina's birthday. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed my dining experience.

the always lovely Yasmina, patiently waiting for me to stop snapping photos and order already

First of all, the menu is great. It's long and varied and creative. Second of all, it's small. This annoys some people, but I don't particularly enjoy eating in restaurants the size of Walmart. I prefer a smaller, more cozy space in which you really feel like you and the other diners are sharing an experience. But my favorite thing about Westville was how vegetable-heavy the menu was! I freaking love vegetables and I don't always feel like having meat or seafood with them. Westville's menu really let fabulous vegetables shine on their own without masking their flavor with excessive craziness.

Westville's menu includes a long list of smaller, mostly vegetarian dishes that are meant to share. Yasmina and I decided to share four: sweet potato fries, ginger & garlic snap peas, roasted beets with goat cheese, and a black bean salad. I can honestly say every single one of them was DELICIOUS. After sampling all of these simple, fresh dishes, I was still hungry and ordered the crab cakes, which I was pleasantly surprised to find were not loaded with tons of nonsense fillers. Now incase you didn't know: I'm from Maryland (i.e. I take my crab cakes very seriously). Westville crab cakes were great because they were mostly crab meat but had just enough finely diced extra excitement (my guess would be green onion and red pepper?) to keep them interesting. When Lanny joined us, he had some sort of steak sandwich which he enjoyed. If you're in the West Village and looking for a delicious, simple, fresh meal (especially if you LOVE vegetables!), I cannot recommend Westville enough.

Garlic Ginger Snap Peas, with Sweet Potato Fries lurking in the background

Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese

Black Bean/Corn Salad

Crab Cakes

Lanny, sick and tired of having his picture taken while eating by this point

Westville

210 W 10th Street, NYC

(between Bleecker and West 4th Street)
P: 212.741.7971

Pitango: Organic Gelato in Dupont Circle

A few weeks ago, after a visit to the National Museum of Women in the Arts to see their Frida Kahlo, the lovely Dora and I finally checked out Pitango. After lamenting the dearth of good gelato in our area (Dolcezza excluded), we were desperate for something good. I'm happy to report that Pitango did not disappoint. Unfortunately for me, the two flavors I was looking forward to, Creme Fraiche and Cinnamon, were not offered that day. I have since called, and they told me I can look forward to them in a few weeks (apparently they are seasonal, autumn-only flavors). Another downside to Pitango is the gelato is in these metal tins so you can't see the flavor before you taste it. This doesn't matter for most flavors, but for some it's crucial (mango for example, should be a deep orange color, not pale yellow). I decided on Almond and Mango Sorbet. The almond was fantastic! I normally don't like Almond-y flavors because they taste too much like marzipan (ew!), but this one tasted like pure delicious almonds. I was less wild about the mango. The flavor was pretty subtle and I definitely would have preferred a mango punch in the face.

Dora chose Dark Chocolate Orange and Concord Grape Sorbet. The Dark Chocolate Orange was sublime. The grape was fairly good, in that it tasted like real grapes, but it was nothing to write home about (especially when compared with the Raisin Framboise at Arlequin in Nice). Ultimately we concluded that their creamy flavors are infinitely better than their fruity ones. However, more tests will have to be conducted in order to validate this hypothesis. As always faithful readers, I will keep you posted!

Pitango Gelato

1451 P Street NW
Washington DC
202-332-8877

Other locations in Baltimore & Reston

Gelato at Dolcezza

In my last month in Nice, I was terribly distressed about the possibility of not having delicious gelato nearby. Thankfully, I came across a slew of good reviews for gelaterias popping up in DC, including Pitango (in the Washington Post) and Dolcezza (in the New York Times). Even though I have been excited about their existence, fear of disappointment has kept me away since I've been back. Dolcezza for example: their site immediately made me think that they take themselves too seriously. Look at the fancy schmancy photo in the "Gelato" section! In case I'm not being clear, I'm not interested in some trendy, bougie gelato shop with mediocre product. I want the real deal, with exciting flavors and reasonable prices. Last weekend my craving for cinnamon gelato became so intense that I told myself to suck it up and headed to the Dolcezza in Bethesda. They ended up not having cinnamon that day (yeap, they make new flavors every morning), but I was quickly consoled with the plethora of other flavor options. Dear readers, I was wrong about Dolcezza. Oh so very wrong. The gelato was magnificent--the type of thing that's so good it makes you want to throw down your spoon and belt out some opera. I had the Thai Coconut Milk and the Yellow Peaches & Cream and both were phenomenal. If you're on the look out for delicious gelato in DC, allow me to recommend to you Dolcezza. I'm hoping to try Pitango soon and when I do (never fear faithful readers), I'll keep you posted.

Saturday's flavors, including Blueberry Lemon Thyme and Blackberries & Cream.

Dolcezza also makes their own churros. These are stuffed with dulce de leche. Avec plaisir!

My flavor choices: Thai Coconut Milk and Yellow Peaches & Cream.

What could be more straightforward?