The Long Lunch

Does the long lunch exist in the United States? I would say, barely. Too often you hear the New Yorker people announce, almost proudly, they are way too busy to have lunch out and instead eat at their desks while still working. I do that too, but not proudly. Only because most of the year it's too cold/uncomfortable in NYC to go out and eat lunch in the park. It's a shame, because it seems the lunch-at-desk norm says something bad about your identity as a "worker" - so everybody ends up skipping lunch entirely or minimizing it's importance in the day. Well. I think that's so wrong. I've already had two outside cafe lunches this week.

I used to work near Central Park, and lunch was an Event. A nice group of us would begin the lunch process by setting up an AOL chatroom to decide where to go and what time to meet at the elevators. When the warm weather started, the topic of the chatroom became your deli sandwich order. A lunch designee put in the group order and 15 minutes later we picked it up from the deli, walked over to the park and found the best rock from which to eat and watch the broadway softball teams play. Then we'd all kind of lounge on the rocks and sunned like turtles. I happened to have a strict 30 minute lunch limit, so while everyone else was still sunning, I had to grudgingly run back to the office to avoid getting in trouble. I have to say I broke that rule as much as possible. Until of course the office tattletale (lunch hater?) prompted my boss to speak directly to me about it...

Now I happen to work in a neighborhood where lovely cafes and restaurants abound, and when the good weather starts, the chairs and tables come out onto the little slivers of sidewalk. Meredith and I enjoyed a leeeeeisurely lunch at Max Caffe today, sharing two kinds of the crusty panini oozing with roasted vegetables and cheese. Eggplant and roasted red pepper, mozzarella, roasted zuchinni and gorgonzola. Max Caffe is a good place to experience lunch like the rest of the world does. People are actually drinking wine and Italian beers. You sit there in the half sun and shade, and refills of your water glass keep coming after you're done eating. One of our Morningside Heights colleagues ran into us there and ordered some afternoon chocolate gelato. Good reason to stay 10 minutes more. We practically had to put a search party out to get the check.

My advice is to not feel a bit guilty. Go on a long lunch.

The Grilled Cheese Sandwich

The grilled cheese experience has come in many flavors in my life. And it's always paired with tomato soup. I don't have any deductive clue as to how this became the standard, but it inarguably works. We'll start with the absolute worst, but indulgent best of grilled cheese - the school cafeteria-white bread-american "cheese" type of sandwich. Paired with thinned out pseudo-tomato soup. And Oyster crackers. Blech - I cringe to think of it now, but in the days of my public school youth, that was the day to get hot lunch.

Then I found out that grilled cheese could actually be quality upon eating the antithesis of the school lunch variety. My Western Maryland hometown had a restaurant called Gandalf's where all the college-hippy and professor types went for delicious-healthy food. This grilled cheese had big, thick multi-grain bread and your choice of two cheeses melting inside, plus caramelized onions, pickles and tomatoes, if you wanted it delux. It was three inches thick. And the accompanying soup, African peanut stew, was a thick and nutty blend of tomatoes and peanut butter. $5 combo. Very unfortunately, Gandalf's caught fire, thus the end of the very high point of grilled cheeses for me.

Now Nathan has brought me to a restaurant in the city that's entirely dedicated to grilled cheese - Say Cheese. We went there last weekend after spending nearly an hour on the phone, hungry, and deciding where to eat for dinner. Don't ask me how we ended up with grilled cheese after deciding on French, but there we were at the edge of the Manhattan earth, the lone diners on Saturday night, in what is probably a hot Hell's Kitchen lunch spot. Kind of like a surreal episode of the last lunchers. It was no Gandalf's. But it was delicious. And they treated us better than the French restaurant would have. The sandwiches are pressed in a grill and oozing the filling. Mine had jack cheese, onions, and roasted red peppers. We shared the very good tomato-cheddar soup.

Long live the grilled cheese!

Say Cheese!
649 9th Ave (Between 45th and 46th Sts)
Hell's Kitchen, New York
212-265-8840

Cookin' In: Quinoa and Chocolate

The Alix and Christine show could be quite the hit. That is, if you'd like to watch two ladies drink wine, talk, cook and eat for hours on end. I think I was home by 4:00 am.

We decided to simplify the meal, knowing a complex recipe could really slow our leisurely pace even more. Made a Quinoa salad with fresh corn, black beans, red pepper, lime and cilantro. Quinoa is evidently one of the more perfect foods as far as nutrients and protein go. The Aztecs were cooking it 6000 years ago, yet it's still hard to get in your typical grocery store. If you've never had it, the texture is somewhat grainy, somewhere between rice and cous cous. But it's officially a seed and not a grain.

Along with the quinoa, we made tacos with sauteed portobello and green peppers, fresh homemade salsa, and avocado. Light, spring fare, made to save room for the chocolate course from The Chocolate Room.

I had no idea chocolate, herbs and fruits could live by perfect symbiosis in one little chocolate.

Around midnight we methodically and slowly enjoyed an entire plate of chocolate. To describe it is to be one with the chocolate. Among the sensuous bites: Caramel and lavender in dark chocolate, passion fruit and ginger ganache, coconut truffle in toasted coconut, white chocolate ganache with Grand Marnier, apricot basil ganache in milk chocolate, passion fruit ganache in white chocolate, mint ganache with bitter chocolate pieces, red chile and tangerine ganache, and strawberry, lemon and thyme ganache.

We ate all of the above.

I don't know what I will do while Alix is gone traveling for an entire month. Go to chocolate school, perhaps.

The Chocolate Room
86 5th Ave (between St. Mark's and Warren St)
Park Slope, Brooklyn
718-783-2900
www.thechocolateroombrooklyn.com

Kitchenette

If you want urban farmhouse food, Kitchenette is the place. Gingham, pink, flowers, cookies and cupcakes - there, you are surrounded by all of those things. That's about as farmhouse as you can get in the middle of the city.

Ryan and I had a recent Sunday brunch there, sitting on bar stools at the counter and staring directly at the frosted layer cakes at eye level display. I had a fantastic omelet with turkey, pepper jack and apples, along with a delicious biscuit smothered in pink strawberry butter. The most adorable brunch you have ever eaten. The brunch menu is overwhelmingly packed with homey-sounding things like mixed-berry pancakes and cottage breakfast (scrambled eggs with bacon and cheddar and dill onion toast). Soups are great, and sandwiches are always overstuffed and flavorful. You will leave with a Belly-ette.

There are two locations, one downtown in TriBeCa and one in Morningside Heights, so whenever I'm feeling indulgent and leisurely, I take my lunch there and bring a cookie back to work.

Kitchenette Uptown
1272 Amsterdam Ave (between 122nd and 123rd Sts)
Morningside Heights, New York
212-531-7600

Kitchenette
156 Chambers St. (and Greenwich St)
TriBeCa, New York
212-267-6740

Friends who can cook

Chef Verlander of the East Village cooked up a beautiful feast in celebration of Sebastian's birthday and Edith's housewarming.

The menu:

Antipasti: Cured meats (S Daniele Proscuitto, Spanish Lomo, Genoa Salami), Olives, Marinated Roasted Peppers, Roasted asparagus, Marinated mushrooms, Caprese

Insalata: Arugula and Mesclun with pears, toasted walnuts, with Roquefort and Dijon vinegarette

Pasta: Pappardelle Bolognese, sauce made with skirt steak, pancetta, ground pork shoulder

Formaggi: Four-year aged Gouda, Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese, Fromager Des Clarines

Dolce: Ice Cream Cake!

I wouldn't mind if Chef Verlander opened up a restaurant - all food was superb. And he sure does not look Italian, but if you were at the table blindfolded, you would think Nonna had made the Pappardelle Bolognese. Absolute perfection.

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