Farrah Olivia

Food is art and the art is delicious.

Farrah Olivia is fine dining without the stuffiness. No jackets, ties, or designer watches are necessary to eat there. They take all kinds and all kinds should be going.

After ordering, we were treated to a tiny morsel which was described as a black bean fritter. The fritter sat atop what I can only describe as an orange sauce. I didn't know what it was and don't remember the explanation. All in all, the fritter and it's perching sauce were tasty.

As an appetizer I had the vanilla poached lobster. A mountain of foam covered several delicious pieces of lobster which sat on a bed of tapioca risotto surrounded by a lobster bisque. Fantastic.

The main course was juniper cured quail. The quail was stuffed with chorizo and cumin and some other flavors and sat atop a celery root puree. I could definitely give the celery root puree a pass, but the stuffed quail was awesome. I was a little worried about having to dig through bones, but the only bones that were served on the plate were little tiny quail drumsticks that were hilarious and easy to maneuver.

Dessert was called a gingerbread trifle. 3 pieces of gingerbread intertwined with cranberries, pears, creme fraiche, and a red hot cinnamon sauce (their description). Really good.

After dinner, to thank you for dining with them, you are served three tiny desserts: a marzuipan cookie with pine nuts, a chocolate truffle, and a raspberry jelly cube.

Awesome.

600 Franklin St
Alexandria, VA 22314

black bean fritter (complimentary)

vanilla poached lobster

juniper cured quail

gingerbread trifle

petit fours (complimentary)

Thanksgiving

I like Thanksgiving for the sole fact that it is a celebration of food. People get together and eat until they can't possibly eat any more and then they eat some more. This is fantastic.

I ate turkey liver. It's edible, that's all I can really say about it.

Everything else is pretty standard. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry relish, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, wine, and pie.

the menu

the turkey's liver

turkey

chestnut corn bread dressing (stuffing)

cranberry kumquat relish

green been casserole

Carnegie Delicatessen

Carnegie Deli is like the Costco of restaurants. Nobody needs a 12 gallon jar of mayonnaise unless they are trying to feed a family of 40. Likewise, nobody needs to be served the mammoth portion sizes delivered at Carnegie Deli. That kid who can eat 70 hot dogs in 10 minutes would be intimidated by this place.

It was my friend's last day in town and he hadn't had a New York Egg Cream. For some reason, egg creams are popular in the city of New York. At the same time, I'm entertained by the idea of an egg cream because egg creams don't have egg or cream in them. Instead, there are 3 ingredients; chocolate syrup, milk, and seltzer. Wa la... egg cream.

I ordered the pastrami reuben and my friend went for the lox and sturgeon. Portions were ridiculous and the deli was considerate enough to match portion size with price. The Pastrami at Katz's is far superior. I wonder if Carnegie Deli survives merely on tourists.

854 7th Ave
(between 54th St & 55th St)
New York, NY 10019

Chocolate Egg Cream

Pastrami Reuben

Sturgeon and Lox

Katz's Delicatessen

I guess this place was in a movie. It also costs too much, but the food is good.

We ordered two sandwiches, the reuben with corned beef and pastrami on rye. The reuben was good but mostly because thousand island dressing, sauerkraut, and cheese make a lot of things taste good. The pastrami was amazing. Thick and juicy and delicious. The pastrami sandwich was topped with a bit of mustard and was much tastier than the reuben.

The deli itself is a little crazy. Everyone in your party is given a green ticket upon entry and one of the many guys behind the counter will write what you owe for what you order on that ticket. When leaving, everyone must present their ticket to the cashier. There is a sign that says lost tickets will be charged at a $50 value. It's wonderful how Katz's deli has so masterfully captured the delightful essence of a parking garage.

205 E Houston St
(between Avenue A & Essex St)
New York, NY 10002

Reuben w/corned beef

Pastrami

Blue Ribbon Brasserie

Eat snails. Seriously. I've had escargot a few times before and was pretty sure that the main draw was the buttery garlic sauce you dipped them in. That is not how the Blue Ribbon Brasserie serves their snails. I really don't know how to explain what they do here because i didn't write down their explanation, but the escargot involved a wine reduction and fruit and deliciousness. The snails themselves come out tender and do not taste or even look anything like snails. If you weren't told what you were eating, you would have no idea, which is the only reason why I can't call this dish fantastic. They could probably switch the snails out for cardboard and it would still taste really good.

The raw scallops were also quite good. My friend and I had never really had the entire scallop before. Then again, it might have been the marinara and vinegar that made it taste so good.

The fois gras terrine was good and resembled a unnecessarily expensive fois gras flavored cream cheese. We also ordered rock shrimp and steak frites, which were both just okay.

The Blue Ribbon Brasserie is open until 4 am and is one of the best late night dining experiences in the city. My next visit here will entail the fondue and bone marrow with oxtail marmalade

97 Sullivan Street
(between Prince St & Spring St)
New York, NY 10012

escargot

fresh, raw scallops

fried rock shrimp

steak frites

Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar

I should really take notes when I go to places like this. Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar, or J-LOB as it's called, is very small and very easily overlooked as you're cruising along 2nd avenue. It is well worth a visit.

Everything is served tapas style so we ordered an assortment of dishes. The fresh oysters were delicious, served in 6 different ways, and required that we order them twice. We also ordered the fresh shrimp which was also quite good.

We then had the following:

A salad consisting of honeycrisp apple, aragula, black pepper caramel, melted aged cheddar and pistachio vinaigrette
Crudo of Yellowtail: served with pickled watermelon, creme and rice
Clams and Chorizo: served with tomato and garlic "en staub" (not sure what that means)
Wild Striped Bass with watercress, mushrooms, fried rice and conconut-sea urchin broth.
Butter Poached Lobster with favas, carrots and horseradish jus
Fresh Linguini with pheasant meatballs, crispy pheasant skin and tomato
Duck Liver Pate with port gelee and truffle.

and for dessert:

Blueberry Sorbet with coconut soda
White Chocolate Nougat with bruleed banana and run-raisin

The best dishes were the lobster, the duck liver pate, the oysters, yellowtail and salad. The others were by no means not good, they just weren't as good as the former bunch.

101 Second Avenue,
New York, NY 10009

one piece of shrimp

the oysters

yellowtail

linguini

salad

striped bass

clam and chorizo

lobster

duck liver pate

white chocolate nougat

blueberry sorbet

Crif Dogs

Crif Dogs has good hot dogs but the most interesting thing is that it contains the sole entrance to the bar next door. On the left side of the eatery is a sliding door to a phone booth. Once in the phone booth, you pick up the phone and the person on the other side listens to your pleas for entry. If that person is in an amicable mood, they might let you in. The whole thing sounds stupid to me, so instead of that hoopla, I was at Crif Dogs for the hot dogs.

I ordered the spicy redneck. Hot dog, bacon, cole slaw, chili and jalapenos. Pretty darn good for a hot dog. The cref dogs truly resemble the goodness of a dirty dog in LA (hot dog wrapped in bacon sold on the street late at night). Not sure why what I ordered is called a spicy redneck, but oh well.

We also ordered the tater tots covered in cheese. Not because we thought this would actually be good, but rather because of the sheer novelty of it. It was pretty gross but that was what we expected.

113 Saint Marks Pl
New York, NY 10009

cheese covered tater tots

spicy redneck

Keen's Steakhouse

So mutton is actually real. The only reference to Mutton I was aware of was from Billy Crystal's character in The Princess Bride when he refers to a nice MLT: mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean...

Mutton is sheep and apparently old sheep. Meat from young sheep is called lamb but the meat of an older sheep is mutton. Mutton is old and wise and not as delicious. Our mutton was half delicious lending from perhaps a younger rebellious side to the sheep we were eating. Perhaps this particular sheep had an earring and liked to surf. Half of our mutton (you can see this in the picture below) was soft and tender and delicious and the other half was a bit tougher and less tasty. Overall, mutton is good.

We also ordered crab cakes and were treated to authentic crab. I think I'm continuously surprised by authentic crab because of the vast number of california rolls I've eaten in my life.

Keen's steakhouse is fancy and really good; pricey but worth a visit.

72 W. 36th Street
(between 5th Ave & Avenue Of The Americas)
New York, NY 10018

crab cakes

sliced mutton

Barrio Chino

One margarita, two margarita, three margarita, dinner.

Well, that's how it went at Barrio Chino on Tuesday night. Barrio Chino is a small Mexican place in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It has no sign and decorates its walls with Chinese art and its ceilings with Asian hanging lamps in what appears to be a blatant attempt to make it nearly impossible to find the place. Apparently, though, this does not work as the restaurant is packed on a regular basis.

While we waited I began to sample their much-touted margaritas. First off was the Raspberry Paloma margarita's fruitful flavor. My friend ordered the Jalapeno infused lime margarita which tasted more like an alcohol infused hot pepper so I decided it was worth trying the other hot pepper flavored margarita; the Habanero infused grapefruit margarita. Wow. If you don't like spicy, stay the heck away from this. If you do like spicy, you too might want to stay the heck away from this. The Habanero infused grapefruit margarita is the most intense margarita i've ever had. Drinking from the glass produced a mild habanero taste as the true spice had decided to settle at the bottom. Inserting a straw into said margarita and drinking from it produced a spicy flavorful wallop that left my mouth burning. Perhaps it was the novelty of an intense spicy flavor coming from my drink or perhaps I'm a tad bit crazy, but either way I think I really liked the spicy margarita. Third margarita was strawberry vanilla and tasted like candy.

There was food too. Their chips and guacamole were above average and the chorizo quesadilla was quite tasty. I could tell it was an authentic quesadilla because it was ridiculously greasy, which is both gross and delicious. For the main course I ordered the Chile en Nogado. A grilled poblano chile stuffed with shredded pork, pears, apples, almonds, and raisins covered in a creamy walnut sauce. Very very good. My friends ordered the strip steak and the enchilada de Mole. Both of these were really good too.

For dessert we had the coconut flan (really just flan with shaved coconut on top) and the strawberry tacos. Get dessert somewhere else.

Barrio Chino
253 Broome Street
New York, NY 10002

Rasberry Paloma Margarita

Habanero Grapefruit Margarita

Strawberry Vanilla Margarita

Chile en Nogado

Strawberry Tacos (technically crepes but this is a Mexican place)

Supper

Supper is an Italian restaurant with a ridiculously awesome wine list, a rude hostess (well, rude at least during the two minutes we interacted with her. Two minutes is hardly enough time to gauge a person's true personality, but at the same time she didn't need to react the way she did to my friend walking right past her as she chatted with her friend), and a weird, dark, and nefarious setting. While you dine at Supper you can't help but feel as if at any moment you will be attacked by vampires.

We sat in some sort of basement type setting at a long table in a skinny room. The room had multiple entry ways that sprouted from different stairwells and was decorated with chandeliers and plenty of mirrors (the mirrors were important as we were able to confirm that those dining next to us and passing through did in fact have a reflection). The waiter often disappeared out one doorway and re-entered though another. It was dizzying to keep track of.

As an appetizer we ordered the sauteed calamari which came with a delicious glaze. My entree was butternut squash ravioli in a butter sage and asparagus sauce. It was just okay. We had asked the waiter what he recommended and then proceeded to not listen to him at all so I don't think my dining experience allowed me a true reflection of the kitchen staff's skills.

156 E 2nd Street
(between Avenue A & Avenue B)
New York, NY 10009

sauteed calamari

butternut squash ravioli and asparagus

Dell'anima

It was cold, and raining, and around 10:30 but there was one table available for us to sit at. We waited a few minutes for them to prepare our table and I noticed that at the table directly behind the hostess sat none other than Shrek. However, he was disguised as the guy who does his voice, Mike Myers. A clever disguise indeed.

We were told that the bruschette was most excellent and were not disappointed. The bruschette comes with your choice of 1, 3, or 5 toppings (the toppings come in individual bowls) and after discussing which 2 of the 5 we should skip we decided it was a moot point and ordered all 5. There was avocado with olive oil, ricotta cheese with sea salt, diced octopus chilies, one with mashed egg and another with garlic and onions in some kind of glaze. The avocado was okay and the garlic and onions dish was a little difficult to maneuver, so those would have been the two we would have cut in hindsight. The bruschette itself was okay at first. The first bowl was good and we quickly devoured it. Our waiter took the bowl and then didn't return with a new one for a few minutes. I thought it was strange that it took that long, but errored towards the idea that new bruschette were not ready to be served. This turned out to be true, and boy did that work in our favor. The new batch was amazing. So good, in fact, that it was almost a shame to add a topping. I'm pretty sure we ate 4 or 5 bowls of bruschette.

My main course was a risotto with two different kinds of meat. It was good, but my friends bolognese with three different kinds of meat topped it. Not only did he have an extra meat, but his dish had a nice spice to it that really made it.

Everything on the menu looked really good and the dishes we saw the people around us order looked great. This place is definitely a winner. Plus Austin Powers eats here so it must be good.

38 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10014

bruschette w/ 5 flavors

RISOTTO ALLA PILOTA housemade sausage, salumi, pecorino romano

Mason Dixon

It's always interesting to find a bar that sells something that is not only hard to find but really not worth looking for.

Every area of the country has their unique beer and a good amount of the time it's not very good. In Chicago they drink Old Style even though it tastes like dirty water. In Texas they drink Lone Star even though it tastes like nothing. These beverages shouldn't make it out of their home states yet somehow I was able to purchase Lone Star at a bar in New York City called Mason Dixon.

Mason Dixon has a mechanical bull. For $5 dollars you can ride said bull, strain all the muscles on the insides of your legs and get tossed on your ass in less than two minutes. Girls seem to like it.

As usual, I was more interested in food, likely because I was hungry. I ordered the Mac and Cheese and the Southern Style Grilled Cheese, which really just means it had peppers in it. The mac and cheese was okay once you dug through the crusty cheese top layer that shielded all of the elbow macaroni. The bites that had the bacon and the scallions were good, the macaroni by itself was just okay.

The grilled cheese was good too. The bread was toasted just right and didn't taste like a stick of butter and the peppers added a favorable kick (in truth I would have liked more peppers). The grilled cheese came with fries. They didn't suck.

133 Essex St
(between Rivington St & Stanton St)
New York, NY 10002

Mac & Cheese; crispy bacon bits, sliced scallions, elbow macaroni and cheddar cheese

Grilled Cheese; red pimento peppers and cheddar cheese

Lone Star is Texan for crap

Di Fara

This place is wicked far. Deep, deep into the bowels of Brooklyn lies an old old man who has either never figured out that the inside of an oven is extremely hot or has burned his fingers so many times in said oven that he can no longer feel.

Either way, he still makes a pretty good pizza at least half of the time. We ordered two pies, one half cheese / half pepperoni and the other a square crust half cheese / half artichokes and mushrooms.

Di Fara's is a tad bit chaotic. There's really no rhyme or reason to anything. You order your pizza and then hang out and hope to get it. Sometimes your pizza gets made before the people who were before you and sometimes not until everyone else in the place, no matter when they arrived, gets theirs. The half cheese half pepperoni came first and was really good. After the pizza has cooked, the proprietor douses the pizza with Parmesan cheese, fresh basil, and olive oil and then wields the pizza slicer with the type of skill and precision that one would expect to see from an amateur axe murderer (I was convinced he was going to lose a finger).

The half cheese half pepperoni was really good. The second pizza, square crust, artichoke and mushroom was burnt on the edges and not nearly as good or really not nearly good at all.

1424 Ave. J
Brooklyn, NY 11230