bronihk

just got back from tuscany and had some wonderful meals, as alwyas, in florence. of note (and to reiterate): quattro leoni: my sister frequented this trattoria when living in florence about 2 years ago. apprently, back then, it was a favorite among locals and food people in the know. when we went last week, the walls were plastered with famous diners who had been there so i'm guessing its been a bit mainstreamed by now...that said, its bar none my favorite place to eat in florence 3 years standing. they're righfully famous for their fiocchetti di pere con salsa di taleggio e asparagi (little pasta purses stuffed with taleggio and pears topped with aspargus spears and a light cream sauce) which to me borders on dessert in its decadence. their peposo, beef stewed in chianti with tons of black peppercorns, is fall apart delicious in its simplicity and the peppercorns have acheived quite the perfect texture from the hours of cooking. i've had their cinghiale con la polenta serveral times and still think its the best i've ever had in tuscany. the most shockingly wonderful dish, on our last visit, was the grilled chicken. our waiter told us it was butterflied thigh marinated for an hour and then grilled a bit. i tend not to order chicken (and this actually wasn't my dish) but have to highly recommend this dish. amazing. last thing i have to push is a hot antipasto: baked artichokes with bresola and, i think, tallegio. i hate using this word in reference to food but i must here: it was simply sublime. ambience is great: tucked back in the altroarno on a little piazza with big wood beams, brick interior. my dad kept calling it 'funky', which i'm not sure is the totally accurate term but it is cozy and homey for sure. pane e vino this restaurant is mentioned in several guide books and recent reviews have been quite good, for good reason. although i tend to like florence's more casual places (trattoria style, boccadama, etc) and this one's a tad fancier with white table clothes and funky modern place settings (or at lest the plates), i really enjoyed our dinner here, especially the primi and antipasti. two people at our table got an incedibly decadent ravioli primi stuffed with leeks and breasola in what could be the perfect cream sauce with dots of pured sundried tomatoes (which they seem to really like here). i went what could be deemed the non-traditional route and started with an arugala salad with strips of sundried tomatos and chunks of burrata dressed perfectly with olio nuovo, which i think may be the way to do a salad. my secondo was rabbit stuffed with the ubiquitous porchetta and a fennel gratin. i tend to stear away from rabbit but loved this dish. very rich, very wonderful. the vegetarian entree, a mozeralla/eggplant terrine type thing, was also excellent. if you're looking for something a bit more upscale but not pretentious, pane e vino's quite a good option. pugi this isn't a restaurtant or trattoria or even a sit down place. just a forno/pizzeria place on piazza san marco (they have another spot now nearby, smaller with less hours). i'm obsessed with anything this place makes. go and get whatever comes out of the oven while you're there. salty wonderful foccia like crust. i seriously go straight from the aiport to pugi when i can. last little bit of advice: anytime a pasta is stuffed with taleggio, get it.

first off, i must note that, although they may be of the hipster breed, a ton of restaurants in the burg have great staff (DOC comes to mind right away; sweetwater has always been great, etc etc)...i find a lot of places to be a bit laid back but generally accomodating and friendly. that said: we ate at fornino last night and had a wonderful pizza. i think for some purists the crust could be a bit soggy and not quite charred enough but i found that this really didn't detract from our pie as the toppings were excellent. the rustica, which is what we had, was one of the pies that did have tomato sauce; i'm glad we got it because it was just the right mix of acidity to sweetness...the guanicale (i think its called..bacon-like) didn't overpower as it easily could have but rather added the right salty/meaty-ness to the pie; the mozzerella was creamy and applied with not to heavy a hand. fresh basil and fresh mushrooms topped it off quite well. i'll go back anytime.

i just did an early thanksgiving and ordered my bird from quattro farms in pleasant valley, NY....it was excellent (although this can probably be partially attributed to the fact that i brined it). they're at the farmer's market in union square on saturdays for sure and perhaps one other day. the number to order is (914) 635-8202...then you just have to pick it up!

i too am looking for a place for tea (probably cream tea) with my visiting sister on friday afternoon...i'll be in midtown and am thinking the st regis or the drake, where Fauchon has a salon, might be fun. anyone have thoughts on either of these? if consensus is that tea & sympathy is the way to go, i'd be more than happy to jet downtown.

yep, that was it. couldn't remember for the life of me. thanks. if anyone has a better suggestion for a good place to buy a whole bird, do let me know. although i was quite pleased with this one last year.

i'm cooking an early thanksgiving for friends this sunday and need to buy a big turkey (probably having about 20 people). i bought an excellent one from the union sq farmer's market last year but am totally forgetting who it was from and i need to call ahead to order (i think). anyone have ideas as to where i could order one from and pick up somewhere in manhattan? thanks.

does anyone know what pinchiorri's schedule is for the x-mas/new year's season? do they remain open? trying to plan new year's in florence (a few days around then) and nailing down dining is a priority!

this may be a little off for this, board BUT my family and i are thinking of going to rome for christmas as well (i'm glad to hear good stuff so far) and are looking for fun/affordable places to stay that, as an added bonus, would have good-great food. granted you are never far from a good meal in rome so walking to eat is expected if not desired...i just find it nice to have the hotel as an option. rare as the case may be. any thoughts would be much apprecited. bhk

never posted on this board but read all the time. made a tasty something the other night: --roasted eggplants stuffed with zuchinni risotto mixed with a sautee of ground lamb/rosemary/onions/eggplant plup then topped w. a little parm and but in the broiler for few. --side salad of red leaf lettuce/radishes/scallions w. a mustard vinegrette the eggplant may sound sorta odd but it was so tasty. wish i had a pic b.c it was quite pretty. shall try for it in the future.

thanks so much joyvan/bpearis. can't wait to try it now...been dying for some piquillo peppers and jamon serrano! the calamari sounds perfect. thanks!

glad to see there is a bk board here... i wanted to check and see if anyone had been to the new spanish tapas place in williamsburg on grand...i believe its called zipi zape. in walking by once a couple weeks ago, it seemed super spanish (they had the glass cases housing the tapas on the bar just as they do all over spain), which i love...was wondering how the food actually tastes. anyone been? i also must put in my plug for moto on broadway under the JMZ. its a sliver of a place, very european feeling to me. their brunch, although short on options (they do have a continental style buffet at the bar), included the most wonderful poached egg and perfectly thick smoked bacon. dinner is great too...get the deviled eggs stuffed w. tuna.

went there a few weeks ago and agree that the pork is wonderful. i also want to point out that you should try the pork 'buns'. they're served sorta taco style (the bun part folded like a taco and stuffed w. that delicious pork). the dough is slightly sweet and the texture just right...soft, a wee sticky, just dense enough. its how i remember the best pork bun ever in SF's chinatown tasting. delicious. and its all very affordable.

right; kinda stupid move on my part. i'd really been wanting to try it for a while and choose possibly the worst day to go. whoops.

went last night to angon (probably a bad idea since the times article hit same day) and although the food was really amazing (i second the halim as a great choice for an appetizer and would add that the buttery cualiflower is not to be missed), they were sadly understaffed with only 2 cooks. our meal took close to 45 mintues to arrive. they did warn us, as did the times, that it would probably 'take longer than usual' and our server (one of 2) was incredibly nice, obviously trying her very best given the lack of resources but i must say it was damn hard to sit there for such a long time surrounded by all those good smells with nothing to eat. i'll have to go back and try it once the review is but a memory and things are running a little more smoothly as it made it sorta hard to truly enjoy the food given the wait. note: this is not meant to disuade people from going, just a friendly warning.

new place on 1st Ave and 10th (i think) called Momofuku is basically just a ramen place (although he does make some amazing pork buns and pot stickers as well). the pork that they add to the ramen is stupendous. perfect noddles too!

does anyone have a good recipe for fried (perferably oven fried) chicken to take cold on a picnic? i've looked up a couple decent looking ones on epicurious but know a couple people here have mentioned it here...

someone already suggested it, but i'd like to reinforce: i did a half mint/half basil + feta/parm the other day. it was wonderful. much more fresh-tasting (i think i put some lemon in too...dont remember exactly). i had pinenuts on hand which i had toasted and was going to throw in but loved it so much as it was, i left them out.

just had a wonderful one: bresaola (the best cured meat ever), fontina, arugula, and white truffle oil on chibatta. it was quite perfect.

i love this. i was actually thinking of somethign really similar only using roquefort or some sorta of blue for the cheese. have you come close to figuring out a sort of really strong dijon-y vinegrette? if so, pls share! it is really too bad that it borders on impossible to get that extra tangy mustard here in the states...

i'm actually thinking of doing a 'fancy' salad dinner wherein guests get to pick from a variety of salads (maybe 5) to fill out a meal. thought is they'd pick 2-3 salads which would be served as courses (hopefully 2 lighter, one heaftier). so i'm looking for ideas both app style salads as well as more substancial, meatier salads. some ideas i had were: panzanella, cobb, fennel/lemon/parm, type of rice or pasta salad, greek, curry chicken etc. i want to get creative though. does anyone have any more ideas re: salad dinner party? thanks.

i had posted a few weeks back mentioning that we were thinking of going here for a graduation dinner and now feel the need to post a follow-up on our dinner becuase we loved it that much. most everything bordered on perfect, as has been noted here by a variety of other posters. i suppose i need not re-hash the fact that the buttery rib eye w. green peppercorn sauce was a delight and that the frisse aux lardon was one of the better that i have ever ever tasted (those lardons are HUGE! and the perfect poached egg!), but i did want to mention my one tiny disappointment since mussles were brought up...i got them provencal since someone at the table was already getting the basic white wine/parsley sauce and i have to say, i wasn't that pleased. maybe i just dont like big chunks of vegetables (i think eggplant, tomoto, zuchinni, all of which i love) in with my mussles but i also found it to be a bit bland; i wish had had been into them enough to sop the sauce up with 2 baskets worth of bread, but such was not the case...didn't hold a candle to my partner's tradionally done bucket (and i mean bucket...the large was gigantic) of mussles; those were excellent. the fries were heaven with the homemade (i'm assuming) mayo. not sure if this was brought up but: how awesome were the in-house caramels they give you at the end of dinner...like butter!

bosque norte is technically considered las condes, but most people consider it n. providencia, i think. our address was las condes, but really we weren't in what most people think of when they think of that area.

i lived in santiago for awhile and agree with most posters - not a huge retaurant city. i would, though, have to disagree with the above advice to head to ave. suecia. its fun to bar hop there every so often, but the food is an overpriced attempt at foreign/anglo food (irish, american, etc). i lived right off of bosque norte in las condes where many of the fancier reastaurants are located (coco loco, etc, mentioned above) and found them a bit overpriced and not that interesting, although the fish was amazingly fresh. that said, if you're going to go to santiago for food, you MUST go to the mercado central. nowhere will you find fresher, tastier, more affordable seafood of every type. frito, a la parilla, whatever your preference, its excellent. i did find abalone over cooked once, but besides that, this place is heaven. plus its such an awesome space.

thanks for the welcome, glad to be here. no, haven't been yet but i did read many positive things in the press; i asked here as i didn't get much of a sense about what people on this board thought about the food quality. i'm specifically curious as i'm considering going with a group for my younger sister's graduation...she's got quite the discerning pallate, too!

interesting thread and terribly disappointing about the service/managment as i find nothing more pleasant than oustanding service; i'm still curious re: food at landmarc, though, as that hasn't been touched upon much here. has anyone been back (i'm guessing no one who has posted to date) besides strong? is it possible that a) the service has improved as time has passed and pam has learned a bit more about the industry or b) the food has improved (since it seems the first poster here found it rather unimpressive)? bhk (new to board!)