Choco Bolo

Choco Bolo
2058 Broadway (between 70th and 71st)

This new Upper West Side outpost of the shop previously named "The Best Chocolate Cake in the World", makes a new and much more demure promise of "Cake, Coffee and Conversation".

It's definitely a step in the right direction; the shop looks enticingly warm and elegant and the window display of cakes beckons you to step in for a comforting bite of chocolate-laden decadence.

Unable to resist the summoning of the pastries, I walked into Choco Bolo and proceeded to ask what every single pastry was, as there were no signs or descriptions. I settled on 2 of the pastel de nata (Portuguese egg custard pastry) and the house chocolate cake, which I believe was the self-proclaimed "Best Chocolate Cake in the World".

Being a new location with seemingly inexperienced staff, the woman who put together my order proceeded to drop my box of delicate pastries on the ground. She picked it up and triumphantly announced that it had fallen right side up, and handed it to me as I begrudgingly paid $11.66 for a box of damaged (albeit likely delicious) goods.

Notice in the picture above that the right side of the chocolate cake has a blurry chunk falling off the side. I felt as if I had captured that moment when an ice cap breaks off from its glacier and floats off to join its fellow broken pieces on the waves of the neglected sea. I was not particularly happy about my broken cake, as it actually had shattered from its impact with the ground because the cake is made not from your traditional spongy flour/butter/sugar/eggs combination but from light and crisp meringue, chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache. The cake is definitely a departure from your typical expectation of a "chocolate cake", which is why I believe there was such backlash on the previous name of the store. And I have to admit that I succumbed to the power of expectations, as my hope for warm, moist, soft chocolate cake was met with crunchy, achingly-sweet, chunks of chocolate meringue.

But, I will return to Choco Bolo without hesitation. Why? The pastéis de nata. Strikingly similar to Chinese egg custard tarts (蛋撻), pastéis de nata contain a dense, sweet egg custard surrounded by a light, flaky and distinctly European shell. I put them in my toaster at home for a few minutes, devoured every last crumb and did not enjoy sharing with my husband.

NY Tofu House (East Village)

NY Tofu House
6 St. Marks Pl
Manhattan, NY 10003

The East Village has New York's most enviable diversity of reasonably priced cuisine, from Japenese yakitori and ramen joints to Latin American arepas to Polish diners to mac & cheese eateries to gastropubs to Moroccan food. And a large number of these restaurants have 500+ reviews on Yelp; they are highly trafficked and highly rated. So if I were looking to open a casual, populist-appealing, ethnic or single-item-focused restaurant, some quick market research would probably show the East Village to be the perfect spot. And a St. Mark's Place address would be an ideal location. Thus, NY Tofu House seems to have made some smart bets, and I predict it will fare well. Just look at this crowd outside on a random Wednesday evening:

NY Tofu House is still in "Grand Opening" mode, so they were handing out free samples to the eclectic cross-section of East Village evening roamers, all of whom seemed to be in the mood for some free Korean pancakes. Most seemed to move on after devouring their gratis goods, but I did notice a few people who seemed to be convinced by the sample to enter the restaurant. My husband and I had already planned on going in, but pathologically drawn to free things, we still snagged some pancake bites before entering.

The menu is very simple - appetizers, bibimbap, and tofu. Unable to resist goofy names, my husband ordered the Monkey Balls for our appetizer (deep fried stuffed mushrooms with tofu and veggies). Ratio of mushrooms to tofu/veggies to deep fried exterior was good; could still taste the mushroomy goodness inside the fried shell.

And of course the requisite (free) banchan that came with our entrees: salad with a lightly sweet sesame sauce, kimchi and mung bean squares. Nothing too special here, especially considering K-Town's BCD Tofu House has free banchan that includes an entire deep fried 8-inch mackerel-type fish, which is in itself a reason to eat there.

The bibimbap tasted fresh and healthy, with a generous proportion of meat.

The soondooboo broth had just the right amount of heat and density for a chilly winter evening.

Decent fare at decent prices with a great location. Nothing too special to report, but my warmed belly sure isn't complaining.

Indie Food and Wine

Indie Food and Wine is in the new Lincoln Center Film Center on the Upper West Side at W. 65th (btw Broadway/Columbus and Amsterdam). I had read about its opening but initially wasn't completely convinced that I should try it out. Descriptions of the place were mostly replete with descriptions of the high brow theater snacks that would be served (parmesan black truffle and salt & caramel popcorn). But the name "Indie Food and Wine" made the shop sound as though it would have actual food. I also work incredibly close by, so I decided one afternoon to find out what kind of lunch I could procure.

As soon as I walked in, I fell in love with the space. Country-style, wooden tables, with sparse, minimalist decor and plenty of natural light flooding in from the large floor-to-ceiling windows, and the "indie" look of having the menu written on a chalkboard pillar.

The lunch menu looked quite promising, with sandwiches such as Apricot Jam & Camembert, Duck Leg Confit, and Milk-Braised Pork Belly. I was in the mood for something hearty, so I walked up to the above-pictured counter and ordered the Braised Beef Short-Rib sandwich with cheddar, tomatoes, red onions and dijon on ciabatta.

Although the texture of the short-rib was spot-on at tender and juicy, the whole of the sandwich was somewhat lacking. The short-rib itself was underseasoned, with the cheese, tomatoes and onions adding little depth and the dijon being the overbearing flavor. Additionally, the proportions were off, as I had expected the $15 sandwich to come heavily laden with meat and well-balanced with bread. Instead, as you can see from the picture above, the sandwich is mostly untoasted bread with a thin layer of meat.

Undeterred by this initial lackluster sandwich, I returned a few days later and purchased the olive oil poached tuna sandwich with piquillo peppers, saffron aioli and frisee on ciabatta. This sandwich had slightly more depth of flavors but was a bit too watery and cold for a $12 sandwich. I am unfortunately biased against cold sandwiches so I may just have to blame myself for the purchase.

I just so happened to purchase this cold tuna sandwich the same day I was writing my Mexicue post, and I couldn't help wishing that bold, punchy, Mexican flavors were entering my mouth instead of slightly bland, cold, drippy tuna. Maybe one day the UWS won't be overly laden with fancy sandwich places. But until then, lunchtime on the UWS may just continue to be drab.

Laduree

Macarons - they're the new cupcake. But more expensive. And tiny.

Laduree, the queen of Parisian macaron stores, has finally put its mark on the New York landscape. For many years, there were only Laduree stores in Paris and Tokyo, but now we have finally been deemed worthy. Laduree opened its doors to the upscale Upper East Side, and lines have already been spilling out its fancy doors.

I met my dear friend K for lunch and she gave me this box of macarons for my birthday. Thanks K!! You're awesome. I brought my little box of treasures back to the office and though I was stuffed from lunch, I thought I would take a peek and see what delicate flavors awaited. I saw that the caramel macaron had melted and cracked a bit from traveling all around Manhattan, so I thought I would put it out of its unsightly misery. Then I wondered, what is this pink one? Rose or raspberry? ... Raspberry. Yellow one? ... Lemon. Green? Pistachio. And on and on until only one macaron remained in my saddeningly empty box. The last one smelled like hazelnut, and since I'm allergic to various nuts, I did the magnanimous thing and saved this one for my husband.

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Update (10/27/2011):

I've been flooded by macarons. Rejoice!

Two weeks ago, I told my mother, who was visiting me in NY, that Laduree had recently opened on the UES. Having purchased macarons all over NYC during a prior trip to NY, she of course had to go and compare Laduree to the others. My mom bought a box of Laduree macarons for my sister-in-law C, because a few days prior we had bought her a box of macarons from Maison du Macaron (in Chelsea) and instead of actually giving them to her, we ate them with her. She got 25% of the macarons initially intended for her. Sorry C!! So mom bought even more macarons from Laduree to make up for it. After tasting some of the Laduree macarons, my mother declared Maison du Macaron winner of the macaron wars. She wasn't a big fan of the jam filling in some of the fruit-flavored Laduree macarons and found the variety and inventive flavors (apple cider macaron!) at Maison to be superior. Being her daughter, I agreed. Though Maison probably cannot stand up to Paris' Pierre Hermes -- his macarons are in a class / planet / universe of their own. But please don't get me wrong - I would more than happily eat Laduree macarons every single day if I could.

My dear friend J also bought me a lovely box of macarons for my birthday (along with a bag full of other foodie gifts). Thanks J!!

As soon as J left my apartment, I began my ravenous dive into the box. A few minutes later, I was getting ready for bed and my husband reached for the box, opened it and exclaimed, "You ate all of them already?!"

Mexicue

Mexicue started out as a food truck, but now it has expanded to several food trucks plus two brick & mortar locations, one near Penn Station and one in the LES. I unfortunately do not work in Midtown, land where the food trucks roam, so I've never experienced the Mexicue truck. But now having eaten at a b&m Mexicue, I'm lamenting not choosing my place of employment based on food truck locations.

I bought a Gilt City coupon for Mexicue - $24 for 1 hour of unlimited food (dinner only) + 2 drinks at the 345 7th Ave. (between 29th and 30th) restaurant. I figured that my husband and I could each eat at least $12 worth of Mexicue (the tacos and sliders are ~$3-$4 each, so that's 3-4 tacos/sliders each), so the coupon was worth it.

When we got to Mexicue, the guy standing at the cash register didn't know what to do with my coupon. This has happened to me several times with various Groupons, Living Socials, Gilt Cities, Google Offers, etc. but it's a risk I'm willing to take. Fortunately, there was another (super friendly and approachable) guy behind him who knew what to do. He looked at the curent time (7:20pm), gave us some buffer, and wrote down 8:30pm as the time our unlimited food deal would expire. He explained the deal to us, including the fact that it excluded the short ribs taco. Sad. We decided to order two of everything. See below.

BBQ Brisket Slider w/ bbq sauce, habanero aioli slaw & avocado:

Berkshire Pulled Pork Slider (left) w/ pickled red onions & avocado and
Burnt Ends Chili Slider (right) w/ brisket & ground beef, cilantro lime crema, pickled jalapenos [sorry so blurry; need new iPhone 4s]:

Smokey BBQ Beans Taco w/ cotija, habanero aioli slaw, cilantro:

Alabama BBQ Chicken Taco w/ bbq sauce, romaine, roasted poblanos, cotija

My husband's favorite: Burnt Ends Chili Slider
My favorite: Getting to eat one of everything. They were all delicious. But if I had to choose, it would also be the Chili Slider. Or the Short Ribs taco that I never got to eat.

So we ended up eating 10 tacos / sliders plus 2 yummy iced teas, which would have totaled something like $35. So Gilt saved me $11. Not bad! The friendly guy at the cash register exclaimed, "You're done?? Oh come on!!" after we announced we were finished after only 1 round of eating 10 tacos. The husband and I have gotten too old for the stuff-your-face-til-you-explode-so-you-can-get-your-money's-worth mentality. I'm proud to say we exercised some self control and kept ourselves just shy of explosion. May you manage to do the same.

Shachi's Arepas

I met up with an old coworker, D, for lunch at Shachi's Arepas near Penn Station. It's definitely a take-out lunch type of place, as there are really only 2 tables that fit 2 people each. Fortunately, D and I managed to snag one of the tables, at which we devoured our savory, Latin-spiced, deep-fried goods.

For those of you who have not been fortunate enough to eat an arepa and do not know what an arepa is, it's sort of similar to a tortilla, except it's much thicker, often made of cornmeal, grilled or fried and stuffed with various types of deliciousness. Sometimes arepas are called "Venezuelan corncakes".

D and I both ordered the $9 lunch combo, which includes 1 arepa, 1 empanada and 1 soda. I got a pernil (pork, with tomato & aioli) arepa, a pabellon (beef, plantains, beans and cheese) empanada, and a bottle of water (healthy!), while D got a pollo (chicken) arepa, a queso (cheese) empanada and a diet coke (caffeine!). We were both quite pleased with our purchases - dense, flavorful, and full of just enough variety to make our tastebuds sing.

I did find the arepa to be just a tad dry, as seems to happen frequently with arepas. And while others have raved about the pernil being supremely juicy and flavorful, I thought it was missing just a slight bit of depth. The aioli didn't add much, and the pork and tomato combination was somehow slightly flat. But the empanada was perfectly crisp, with the sweetness of the plantains adding exclamations of joy to the beef and beans. I have a terrible weakness for plantains.

I cannot help making a comparison to Caracas Arepa Bar in the East Village, since it's the only other place in Manhattan with "Arepa" in its name. I would have to say that I enjoyed the arepas at Caracas more than Shachi's because of three things. 1) The ratio of corn patty:filling at Shachi's was just slightly too high, 2) Caracas' menu is more extensive, and 3) Caracas' arepas had stronger, bolder and more creative flavors. But I unfortunately will not be returing to Caracas anytime soon. Why, you ask? Because last time I went with my husband, a single bite into his deliciously juicy pabellon arepa squirted all manner of meat sauce onto my clean-freak husband's recently pressed shirt. Suggestions of bib-wearing have been met with resistance.

So all things considered, I was quite happy have been able to re-experience the arepa at Shachi's and to have the lovely company of D to top it off. Shachi's may not make it as high on the list as Caracas, but Caracas sets quite a high bar. And Shachi's is still a fantastic choice if you're looking for something different in the Midtown West neighborhood and want to try some arepas.

Ramen Misoya

I love ramen. One summer, I ate at Ippudo almost every week, and I even ate there several times by myself. You really have to love a place to be willing to repeatedly ask for a table for 1. So I was really excited to hear about another ramen place opening up in the East Village and was eager to see if it might give Ippudo a run for its money.

While I was waiting for my husband to join me at Ramen Misoya, a Japanese man came by and took a long, tentative look at the place. I think he couldn't quite figure out if the place was open yet since there was no one inside, but being much too quiet and polite, he remained standing there for over 5 minutes until someone inside noticed him and told him he could come inside.

Ramen Misoya specializes in miso-flavored broths (hence "miso"ya). My husband and I ordered the $9 lunch specials (appetizer + your choice of various miso ramens). I ordered the Shiro Ramen (lighter broth) with the Chicken Karaage (fried chicken nuggets).

My husband ordered the Ramen Misoya (darker broth) with gyoza.

The broths were intense and flavorful, the noodles were just the right texture, the tofu on my ramen was nicely fried, the gyoza skin was perfectly thin with a balanced and tasty filling. However, the chicken karaage was very dry and (perhaps I've been spoiled (forever) by Ippudo and Totto Ramen) the broths, while tasty, felt overpowering and heavy. And they definitely were overly salty / msg-laden, because both my husband and I were really thirsty for the rest of the day.

So if you're looking for a quick ramen fix and don't have time for the Ippudo wait, Misoya (along with any of the other East Village joints) will definitely satisfy the warm bowl of noodle soup craving. But, unfortunately, you won't find me at Misoya asking for a table for 1.

New York Mart

New York Mart isn't a restaurant, but it's new and it's got a lot of food, so it still makes the cut for this blog. I had heard that a new Asian grocery store had opened in Chinatown right next to Deluxe, so after having dim sum at Jing Fong with the cousins, we went in search of this new market. When we first found it, cousin J said, "What is this? Whole Foods??" This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but there's some wood paneling covering various parts of the store. Wood paneling at an Asian grocery store?! Who ever heard of such a thing?

Was too busy loading up on cheap groceries to take more pictures, but there's also a section with big trays of various prepared foods, plus a large seating area for you to consume your purchases. I bought a huge bag of sugar snap peas, another huge bag of dou miao (pea shoots), a large bunch of chive flowers, a bunch of green onions, a gallon of Chinese soy milk, two boxes of tofu and three bags of frozen dumplings for $22. At Whole Foods I think that would have been something closer to $40.

And now to decide whether my Hong Kong Grocery shopping will be replaced by New York Mart.

Jane's Sweet Buns

The husband and I met up with some friends at Cafe Mogador and had a delicious brunch of poached Moroccan eggs with spicy tomato sauce, eggs benedict, homefries, pita, hot tea and fresh squeezed orange juice. I noticed Jane's Sweet Buns across the street and knew we had to stop in before we left the East Village.

Jane's Sweet Buns has a lot going for it.

1) The name. Need I say more?

2) The cuteness. Whimsical pink benches for you to park your sweet buns while you eat some sweet buns. And don't you love the checkered curtains in the back?

3) Jane(s). Jane Danger not only has an awesome name, but also used to be a bartender. Hence the alcohol-infused pastries. But not only is the mastermind behind Jane's Sweet Buns named Jane, the cashier's name was also Jane, and she was the perfect combination of sweet, enthusiastic and edgy. Very "on brand", as my weird husband likes to say.

4) Sweet buns. I decided to take our rum raisin bun to go, but my perpetually hungry husband insisted on eating the bun immediately. And once we started, we couldn't stop. It was everything you could want in a sweet bun - fresh, soft, sticky and sweet. The bun disappeared before we even got to the subway station.

Next door to Jane's Sweet Buns is something else sweet that's coming soon! Guess we'll have to wait and see what new chocolately goodness awaits.

Marcus Samuelsson's Global Street Food Pop Up

My office is a stone's throw from Lincoln Center and this summer I spent many lovely lunch hours sitting in the Barclays Grove, sometimes in quiet contemplation while viewing the Paul Milstein Pool and other times experiencing tourist glee while watching the fountain blast streams of water high into the air.

But at some point I decided to forgo the mixture of calm and excitement of Lincoln Center for the simple peace of Central Park, gaining respite from the worries of the day with an introvert's restorative solitary luncheon on a park bench. For several weeks I had ignored the glitz of Broadway, until I discovered there was a pop up restaurant by Marcus Samuelsson (of Red Rooster in Harlem) right across the street. I made lunch plans with my dearest friend J, who is currently on maternity leave, and may not be able to make it to Red Rooster anytime soon with the arrival of the little one. As I made my way to Global Street Food, glitz seemed to have entirely taken over the area. The ABC building had turned into a fishbowl for viewing the ABC newsroom, discount designer retailer Century21 had opened its doors, Fashion Week trailers were parked next to Richard Tucker Square, and a giant display sponsored by IBM had been installed along the sidewalk, which was flashing moving, colored particles across an extended digital screen. I made my way over to the at65 cafe, the temp location of the pop up, but was greeted by movers and men with walkie talkies wheeling large objects in and out of the building. Apparently the pop-up hadn't been completely reset after a day of not being open. I made a call to J to meet me at Tavern on the Green instead, as it appeared I was destined to remain an earthy Central Park patron instead of a glitzy Lincoln Center one.

Undaunted by my second failed first attempt at dining at a new restaurant (see BaoHaus review below), I convinced J to join me again the next day for lunch. This time we were happily greeted by Marcus Samuelsson:

Intrigued by the name, J ordered the doro wat, and I ordered the shrimp piri piri. The menu's description of the doro wat states, "Doro Wat / Injera, Ayib, Tomato Chutney". Despite only knowing what one of those things was, the doro wat turned out to be a crave-worthy comfort dish. A quick Google search reveals that doro wat, often referred to as the Ethiopian national dish, is a chicken stew in red pepper paste. Injera is a spongy, yeasty flatbread common in Ethiopian cuisine, ayib is a type of cheese and tomato chutney is delicious.

The shrimp piri piri contained skewered, grilled shrimp, with a summery, healthy mixture of grains and vegetables. The grains were a bit undercooked, but it somehow added to the healthful feeling of the entire dish.

The menu included some delicious sounding desserts, including "Swedish Pancake Cake", but unfortunately we were too full to partake, and too cheap to eat only some of our mains to allow room to partake. Thanks, Marcus Samuelsson, for gracing us with your food presence. Though today your pop up closes down, I hope we might meet again, perhaps at Red Rooster.

BaoHaus Review

I finally made it to BaoHaus (East Village) after a failed attempt to dine there at 7pm on its opening night because they weren't ready to open yet and were still putting up the sign:

Once inside, we felt compelled to order drinks, although doing so is highly unusual for us cheapos. Can't you hear your mother asking, "Why would you buy that drink? It costs 30 cents at the grocery store but they charge you $2 at the restaurant! Just get water! It's free!" But the sight of these just makes me happy:

The baos were, as expected, rich and delicious. The "chairman bao" was full of pork belly fat and full of flavor, with the perfect hint of sweetness from the crushed peanuts and Taiwanese red sugar sprinkled on top. The "haus bao", filled with shredded hanger steak, was the "healthier" alternative, and still packed with flavor. The husband preferred the chairman (to be expected from a man who immediately begins eating chips as soon as he walks in the door after work each day), while I, of course, liked having both. The decadence of the pork belly needed a good counterpoint to balance out the accompanying guilt. Spinach to balance out steak, and steak to balance out a slab of pork fat.

Sweet bao fries! No, they do not look like french fries, but they are still fried deliciousness. I always get the black sesame sauce because it's amazing and have not been tempted enough to try the taro, durian, pandan or sesame/butter/jelly. Maybe one day I will convince someone else to try other flavors so I can sample them, and then go right back to eating my own full serving of sweet bao fries with black sesame sauce.

We also ordered the marinated pork over rice with fried chicken.

Chef Eddie Huang had this Taiwanese dish in his late restaurant (Xiao Ye) that closed in November 2010. We had eaten this dish at Xiao Ye and were slightly disappointed at the quality of it, and thought / hoped that its new incarnation at BaoHaus would provide redemption. Unfortunately, the marinated pork still fell somewhat flat and lacked the depth, saltiness and savoriness that one would expect and can easily find at Bian Dang in the food court in K-town.

But no worries, we were only really meant to eat baos (and sweet bao fries) at BaoHaus! And I will keep going back for more pork fat slabs with sides of steak and fried dough. The worse it sounds, the better it tastes.

Filipino Food: Sa Aming Nayon & Maharlika

Sa Aming Nayon is a new Filipino restaurant in the East Village and Maharlika is a new Filipino pop-up restaurant in the East Village. Pork adobo, kare-kare, longanisa, sisig... who's ready for a Filipino food adventure in what might become an East Village 1st Ave-based little Manila?

Potbelly

I once ate at a Potbelly a few years ago in a Chicago airport and thought the sandwich was surprisingly fresh and delicious. Potbelly just opened up 2 locations in Manhattan (and will be opening 2 more this year) and once again I thought the sandwich was surprisingly fresh and delicious. My memory is not that great.

I went to the downtown Potbelly location, which is basically attached to my friends' 2 Gold apartment building. There was no line for dinner, but I've heard that the lunch line can go down the block -- it's all those people trying to escape the mundanity of their typical Subway or Chipotle lunch fare (the competition located directly across the street).

Out of the chalkboard of options, I chose "A Wreck", which I initially wasn't sure about because I wasn't in the mood for anything heavy and "Salami, roast beef, turkey & ham with Swiss Cheese", along with a name like "A Wreck", was sounding mighty meaty and greasy. I'm not a big Italian fan (Italian sandwiches, to be clear!), and the Pizza Sandwich sounded disgustingly greasy (my husband obviously chose this option), so out of the 3 Signature sandwiches, "A Wreck" sounded least offensive. Now as you can tell, I didn't have particularly high expectations for this sandwich.

But here is the aftermath of my Wreck, which I happily consumed after finding that the meats were not the least bit greasy, and that my addition of lettuce, oil and italian seasoning actually made my sandwich taste vaguely like a salad! I so quickly ate my sandwich that I forgot to take a picture of it sans teeth marks. My husband so quickly ate his grease bomb pizza sandwich that by the time I took this picture, he had already swallowed his sandwich whole and moved onto his second helping of chips and salsa at our friends' place.

So Potbelly exceeded my initial grease expectations, but time and the Manhattan lunch crowd can only tell whether it will soon meld into the sterility of the Subways, Chipotles, Lenny's and Quizno's that I have not found myself patronizing in months and, in some cases, years.

Baohaus (East Village)

New Baohaus location in the East Village. These baos are amazing. Also love that Chef Eddie Huang is a fellow Taiwanese-American and that he is daring to be interesting (see FAQ page. Eddie is featured in the NYMag article about Asian Americans).

KalBQ

KalBQ opening! Korean "fast casual" in the FlatIron neighborhood. Bring on the every ethnicity fast casual restaurants! Chipotle (Mexican), the upcoming Shophouse (Southeast Asian, brought to you by Chipotle), didn't-quite-make-it Spice Coast (Indian), and now KalBQ (Korean)! A Chipotle for all cuisines!

PizzArte

Always in search of the best pizza in NY, I hit up PizzArte, this new pizza place in Midtown (on 55th b/t 5th and 6th). This is not your typical New York pizza joint with large pies on display behind a clear splash screen and grimy floors along with grimy-looking people. Here, one of the hostesses was wearing a stylish black bead-and-feather-adorned fascinator. (A fascinator is a headpiece that is sometimes worn by women, commonly in Britain, in place of wearing actual hats. Note: a "headpiece" is different from a "hairpiece" - little tidbit I learned while Googling things like "small british women's hairpiece" when trying to figure out what these little "hats" were called. I kept getting pictures of creepy wigs.)

This is a decidedly upscale pizza restaurant. We entered the restaurant through a modern, clear-as-air door that I nearly walked into because it was so clean. Then we were escorted upstairs to a brightly lit room complete with crisp table linens, wine glasses, lustrous placemats and oil-on-canvas artwork available for sale. Definitely the fanciest pizza place I have ever been to.

And then there was the pizza. Oh how I love pizza. I think my husband may have clapped his hands in delight when our pizzas were placed in front of us. At every pizza place, one must order a plain or a magherita slice to effectively make comparisons of quality. So, out of principle, we ordered a lovely, albeit skimpy on the basil, Margherita pizza.

And then, as is my husband's custom, we ordered the namesake item. The PizzArte. It is beautifully (perhaps "Arte"fully) topped with zucchini blossoms, speck and burrata. Zucchini blossoms? Speck? Burrata? My husband had no idea what any of these items were but I nearly fainted at this trifecta of artisinal toppings.

As is the case with all brick oven pizzas of this style, parts of the crusts had to be sadly discarded from being overcharred. But ignoring this given sad fact of pizza life, both pizzas were absolutely delicious. I heard one of the waiters say he was from Naples and that he had therefore obviously tried a lot of different pizzas, but the pizza here was really phenomenal. My husband cast his vote for the PizzArte pizza, while I, a sucker for red sauce on my pizza, may have loved the taste of the Margherita a bit more. But in the end I called it a tie, as having the option of eating two different kinds of pizza is the reason I got married. (Okay not really. The reason I got married is so that at all meals I can eat two different things, not just pizza.) Thank you PizzArte for bringing upscale pizza in the likes of Keste and Co. to my upper Midtown food desert.

Boulud Sud

Had a lovely date with my husband at the newly opened, Mediterranean-fare-focused Boulud Sud.

The ambience was light and lively, despite my husband's observation that the clientele appeared to be skewed fairly far toward the upper end of the age range. To my right was a couple that fit that demographic. I found their interaction quite bittersweet, as I watched the husband pull himself out of his chair, amble over to his wife, and carefully tug at the sleeves of her sweater since she couldn't quite take her sweater off herself. I actually ended up having quite an extensive conversation with the wife, which included her mentioning her seven children (though not all hers), her fear of her grandchild being brainwashed in a year spent in Isreal, and her utter shock at my name because "That's not a Chinese name!"

On to the food. The food was fresh and well-prepared, and the menu was quite extensive, as you could choose from De La Mer (from the sea), Du Jardin (from the garden), or De La Ferme (from the farm?), and from each you could choose small plates to share, appetizers, and entrees. We opted for the fried artichokes to share (who can resist fried things?), which were delightfully crispy and airy, and came with a yummy garlic aioli. We made the waiters leave the aioli on the table after we'd finished the artichokes so we could dip our bread in it, too. BTW, the bread assortment is delicious! Various focaccia and "flatbread", which the husband and I both thought had exactly the consistency of 蔥油餅 (scallion pancakes). Yummy.

For our entree we had the Salt-Baked Loup De Mer (for two), wrapped in grape leaves and topped with a sauce vierge. Masterfully presented in a... coffin of salt (need a more appealing word than coffin) and then whisked away to be individually plated. The fish itself was moist and delicious but the flavors were subdued - mostly olive oil and just a hint of the grape leaf flavor - and perhaps it was missing just a bit of oomph.

Also ordered a side of roasted beets (with pistachio mousse). Can't go wrong with roasted beets. Is it strange that I've also seen roasted beets with pistachio mousse on other menus? Are beets : pistachios :: bananas : chocolate? In any case, delicious.