Double Feature: Bar Toto and Burger Joint

Well, should I get the urge, I know who to call to grab a burger. Carlos and I have had a couple of great burgers lately. But we need to soon eat some salad to thus avoid major growth in the tummy region.

Bar Toto is the place to go on a nice spring or summer night when you can sit on the patio forever drinking white wine and eating panini burgers. It's a relaxed brasserie atmosphere inside, and if the doors are open, and breeze is coming through, life is perfect. Big mirrors and windows, cool little black and white tiles, and the buzzing sound of people enjoying themselves. It definitely feels like a neighborhood spot, and you see the owner saying a lot of hellos throughout the evening.

The panini burgers are fantastic. Toto burger is gorgonzola and red onion between a crispy, grilled flat bread. Big stack of thin crispy fries. I've rarely been beyond the burger, but the rest of the menu is mostly pasta and panini and some great-sounding antipasti and ensalate.

Upon departing, the Toto effect sets in and you must walk very slowly back up the Slope.

Bar Toto
411 11th St. (at 6th Ave)
Park Slope, Brooklyn
718-768-4698
www.bartoto.com

Burger Joint is another planet. My co-workers and I first "discovered" this place when working one night we experienced a mass burger craving. Googling for burgers in the Columbus Circle neighborhood will leave you almost dry except for here. We had the address but wandered up and down the block looking and asking around until a concierge pointed us to Le fancy pants Parker Meridien Hotel.

If you are suitcaseless, they might look at you funny, but walk confidently past the front desk to the floor to ceiling curtains in the lobby, which conceal a burger joint, circa timeless mid-West. Turn right at neon burger sign. Wood paneling, movie posters, good music, burger flippers with attitude. The menu is hamburger, cheeseburger, french fries, shake. They have 1-2-3 instructions on how to best order: hamburger or cheeseburger, how you want it cooked and what you want on it. Don't mess with the system.

It's all super delicious. They have won many awards. I've known people to become addicted and find themselves going back again and again.

Burger Joint
119 56th St (between 6th and 7th Aves)
(in Le Parker Meridien lobby)
Mid-town West, New York
212-708-7414

photo: Carlos

We made gnocchi!

Alix and I are moving into new culinary dimensions with our cooking. First of all, we will eventually end up writing a cookbook highlighting various underappreciated foodstuffs. Parsnips will be the subject of the first chapter. We know of no others who like parsnips the way we do. Sometimes peppery, sometimes sweet, this root vegetable has been the subject of several of our email conversations. Oh, we are high caliber.

We made a parsnip soup combining a potato, a parsnip, a leek, and an onion. Root vegetable heaven.

Alix had suggested making a sweet potato gnocchi, which I would have assumed to be an all day cooking affair. But in fact, she mixed and rolled out the dough while I put together the soup. We had the gnocchi with a simple sauteed fresh spinach, garlic and tomatoes. And of course finished our meal and talking around 1:00 am. And this was partly because we began scheming for a summer cook-off event...oh, this will show up in your local newspapers...

And in other big news, after 10 weeks of physical therapy Alix can walk again!

From the archives: Malatesta Trattoria

I eat much faster than I write, therefore sometimes food experiences get backed up. This is good for a night like tonight, when it would be very boring for everyone to read about my leftovers. I can recall one of my last great meals and give you all a new restaurant to try.

So if you're not tired of hearing about Italian food, I will tell you about Malatesta. Nathan and I went there on a recent Sunday night.

Malatesta can be kind of fun to find, like a game of wandering 'round the tilted perpendiculars of the West Village. I mean, fun if you're not starving like Nathan was, but thankfully he has a good sense of humor and believes I will eventually lead him to good food. Enter the cozy, glowing oasis on the corner of Washington and Christopher Streets and have a seat. It's a buzzing atmosphere (how else do you describe people having a good time?) with at least one incredibly handsome waiter. He will give you extensive eye contact if you do the same.

We started with verdure alla griglia and a crostini misti with four different toppings - a funghi, gorgonzola, bruschetta and a proscuitto with fresh mozzarella. The gorgonzola had eye rolling qualities, meaning look slowly toward ceiling and wish you never had to swallow. We sipped on a carafe of Pinot Grigio and had our usual great conversation. Out came the pasta - I had a spinach gnocchi soaking in a sauce of that amazing gorgonzola. For dessert a perfectly light and creamy panna cotta with strawberry sauce. Nothing fancy, any of it, just really satisfyingly delicious. Afterward we somehow found our way back through the West Village again and spent several more hours at the favorite V Bar with the good wine, Lambic Framboise and perfect atmosphere. Here's to Sunday evening - may it never be spent in front of a television.

Malatesta Trattoria
649 Washington St and Christopher St.
West-West Village, New York
212-741-1207

Spring Italian Dinner Party - La Felice Vita!

Ann asked me to housesit and then encouraged me to throw a dinner party. She told me that her house has great party karma, and that, in fact, if I had a bad party it had to be my fault.

It was a very good party.

Once again we find there is something magic about putting a bunch of good people in a good space with food and wine. That, after all, is the food effect I have been trying to describe in entry after entry. I put together a fairly simple menu and invited the most charismatic and friendly people I know, asked them to bring wine and figured all would take care of itself. This was true.

Ann's house is big and at the same time cozy. The dining room is all warm, deep wood and goldenrod colored walls. Wonderful tiles with barnyard animals and vegetables line the kitchen and breakfast bar. Ann had told me no matter what, everyone would congregate in the kitchen and dining room, despite the other fantastic spaces.

Luckily, Emilia is now visiting from Rome, and she came over to help me prep the afternoon of the party. We chopped, pureed, mixed, sauteed, simmered, and talked and talked for hours, not believing the time had passed so quickly. My wonderful friends began rolling in after work and school, carrying in bottles of wine. Drinking and eating antipasti, everyone gathered near Ann's big, round wooden table, which was filled with crusty bread, fresh mozzarella, proscuitto, sopresseta, and verdure misti - zuchinni, yellow squash, carrots, and fennel - roasted with capers, garlic and olive oil, and bowls of two simple spreads of kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes, both floating in pools of a piney, herby and sweet olive oil. There was a huge ensalate of mixed greens, beets, cucumber, dill and green onions, with a olive oil, fresh garlic and lemon juice dressing.

Being hostess means one is not quite as carefree as the guests, but one still gets a nice bird's eye view of the whole scene. Every now and then I floated around and just listened to the great conversation, glad to hear that even the small talk was lively.

The pasta came out and the people all lined up. There were two pastas - one rotini with roasted red pepper, artichoke hearts, olives, mozzrella and fresh parsley. The other was a pasta primavera, a linguini with crisp green beans and asparagus, a light creamy sauce of parmaggiano-reggiano and pine nuts, and topped with fresh basil and grape tomatoes sauteed in balsamic vinegar and fresh garlic. I was not sure how to make pasta for 20 people, but it practically made itself.

The pasta and bread did not slow anyone down - the merriment continued when Ann's little poodle, Grace, came to visit, jump around and sniff about. I pulled the pears out of the oven, which had been roasting and simmering in butter, apple juice and brown sugar, dolloped them all with vanilla ice cream and watched everyone spoon feed themselves.

The trickling out of guests began around eleven, but the dinner party die-hards stayed until after four in the morning, when the tired hostess had to end the shenanigans only because she had to catch a train the next day.

La felice vita! Grazie, amici.

Assenzio - Tanti auguri a te!

I have an unfair affinity for Italian food. It cannot be helped. On Saturday we went to Assenzio, a Sardinian charmer in the East Village. I'm sorry that I forgot my camera for the whole of this food weekend, so I will test my descriptive writing skills.

I would camp out at Assenzio for a long time. Pitch a tent and eat the antipasti all day. Tables are all crammed together in a cozily lit room with light sea foam green walls and (probably) creaky wooden floors. Italian phrases scripted on the walls, with little candles lighting your way. You must go here. We were a good-sized party celebrating two birthdays, and we were lucky to get a table in a little alcove.

Our jubilantly tall Italian waiter taught us the Happy Birthday song in Italian and came to check on us many times. He was cheery, brought us good wine, and we had great fun.

The sun-dried tomato and olive oil spread on bread made me deliriously happy. I must try to replicate this. We shared lightly battered calamari and zuchinni with a tomato sauce for antipasti, along with a melted hunk of mozzarella between grilled slices of juicy portobello. For primi, I had a perfectly al dente fusilli with tuna, capers, and olives. Although I thought all together it would be very salty, it was in fact truly balanced. Dulci? We shared three among us: a pear tart, fried bananas crusted in cinnamon and sugar, and a chocolatey chocolate tort, all with gelato on the side for good scooping.

We walked over to Avenue C and in true birthday fashion, tried to go dancing. Maybe it was too much pasta, so we finally settled at Yum Schneider, a wonderful German bar. With a disco ball and stuffed animals perched in paper mache trees, it's certainly peculiar. But very nice and with a wide range of German beers and food. If only my pasta has not expanded, I would have sampled more...

Buon compleanno, Ryan and Brad!

Assenzio
205 E 4th St (between Avenues A and B)
East Village, New York
212-677-9466


Yum Schneider
229 E 7th St and Avenue C
East Village, New York
212-598-1098
www.yumschneider.com

Scottadito

Brooklyn restaurant week is a genius invention. It means you can get a three course meal at any number of fantastic places for a reasonable $21.12. The only flaw is that it does not include wine or dessert, which we know must come with every meal.

My charming party was a bit late for our dinner at Scottadito, osteria Toscana, but that gave me some serendipitous time at the bar to eavesdrop for a moment...The lovely and very pregnant bartender and a man that appeared to be a neighborhood regular were having an agreeable exchange in Italian. I have no idea what they were saying, but it was something about good food and life, I'm sure.

Turns out the restaurant is new to the neighborhood, though I was so sure it had been around forever - it looks comfortably settled in, with sturdy butcher block tables, worn brick walls and low, heavy wood beams. Like a homey cave of good food and nice, mellow tunes - anywhere from Dean Martin to Brazilian bossa nova. My friends and I sat by the front window, which is huge and looks out onto Union St in Park Slope.

Delicious food, of course. For antipasti, a vegetable souffle in a pool of tomato and basil coulis. For primi, an orecchiette with beets, arugula, black olives and ricotta salata. Orecchiette is a thin, ear-shaped pasta named for it's shape - orecchio is "ear" in Italian (both vocabulary and stomach grow). For secondi, a nice tilapia coated with dry herbs, along with steamed greens. We drank a delightful Montepulciano and for dulci, a heavenly tort of rich dark chocolate and some creamy chocolate gelato, with our steamy lattes and cappucinos.

Also for dessert we had a deeply involved and intense discussion about the concept of the moustache - what it symbolizes, it's shifting power dynamic, and the female equivalant. Everyone had an impassioned opinion on this topic, and by the end we were no closer to consensus. The Italianness of Scottadito must have rubbed off on us!

Scottadito
788 Union St (between 6th and 7th Aves)
Park Slope, Brooklyn
New York
718-636-4800
http://www.scottadito.com/

Presto! Pesto!

I'm not in Italy yet (this summer, E!) but I can try to cook like I am. The Italians have put some lovely ingredients together, with incomparable results. Fresh basil, garlic, olive oil, garlic, salt, parmesan and pine nuts. What is like pesto? Nothing. Put in the food processor and hit go. Mix into pasta al dente.



Let us appreciate the little green textured flecks up close.



I recommend comparing several recipes for the correct ratio and variations of ingredients. Search pesto alla genovese for the classic recipe. Dream in shades of green!

Sotto Voce

, a little Italian place in Park Slope. Warm colored orange and brick walls, with black and white photos hanging - it's very simple and friendly. Abby and I met there for Sunday brunch. If you cannot decide between pasta or more typical brunch fare, you don't have to! While some brunch menus are spare, this one is a huge list and would be good for any food mood. I had a giant plate of smoked salmon on toasted bread with cream cheese, tomatoes and capers. Mmm, salty and filling. Abby's challah french toast was a delicious-looking mountain of fluffy bread and fresh fruit. We chatted about updates in life, school and travel and determined our next Brooklyn brunch spot after Abby's spring tour of Europe's fashion capitals!

Sotto Voce
225 7th Ave (and 4th St)
Park Slope, Brooklyn
New York
718-369-9322
http://sottovocerestaurant.com/

Via Della Pace

In the East Village, Villa Della Pace is cozy and warm. You feel like you're in front of the campfire ... with delicious Italian food and wine on your lap. I mean, they do give you a table. It's just very feel good, you know. The East Village is the best neighborhood in the city for Italian food. I will probably expand on that topic at a later time.

What were we celebrating this unfortunately cold January weekend? Mmm, nothing special - just happy that Justin was visiting the city. Our table shared a nice antipasti misto, with some basics - olives, tuna, roasted eggplant and peppers, grilled zuchinni, and fresh, salty mozzarella. Drank a Vermentino wine that was light, crisp and appley. Ate a rigatoni special dish with eggplant, mozzarella and capers. Liiiight and slighty chunky tomato sauce. I want to be best friends with that sauce. BFF. And with the capers, too - magical, little bursts of salty, lemony mouth spasms. I guess we were all too full for dessert, which is very sad. I always want to go against the grain in those situations, because it is very rare that I will turn down dessert. But I also want people to share in the joy of food and feel a little silly when I am the only joyous one. It looks a little strange when only one person is in sugary raptures at the table.

The place is very reasonably priced, especially when you're short one bottle of wine on your bill. But then again, if you are with highly moraled people, they will correct the waitress and you will still make up the difference without feeling poor at the end.

Via Della Pace
48 E 7th Street
New York, NY
212-253-5803