Restaurant review: Locanda Verde

My sister is back in town this weekend for some work meetings, just in time for yet another messy snowstorm here in NYC, and we decided to check out Locanda Verde, Andrew Carmellini's relatively new Italian restaurant in Tribeca. I'd wanted to try it ever since I read Frank Bruni's fairly strong review last summer, but then Kate told me about a very disappointing dinner she'd had there. Still, I had some very fond memories of two particular dishes from A Voce, which Mr. Carmellini had opened several years ago before he left to open Locanda Verde: the fresh ricotta crostini and duck meatballs. (For future reference, A Voce lives on, just without Andrew Carmellini in the kitchen.) If you had ever ordered either dish, you too would follow the man who made them wherever he went next. And so, armed with our unfashionable but weather-appropriate footwear, we headed down to the corner of Greenwich and North Moore in search of ricotta and meatballs.

My sister was running late, as is her custom, so I snacked on some tasty candied nuts with caraway seeds at the bar and tried one of the 6 or 8 Italian white wines they have by the glass. I normally really enjoy Italian wine, but I wasn't crazy about either of the two I tried last night, a Falanghina and Vespaiolo. I guess I'm just a Chardonnay girl.

Once my sister arrived, we were seated at a small table near the window along the Greenwich Street side of the restaurant. It was a little cramped, but not in an unpleasant way. Good news: the same exact sublime creamy ricotta -- imported from Sardinia, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with fresh herbs and sea salt, and served with warm grilled bread -- is on Locanda Verde's menu. Ordering that to start was a no brainer.

Next up: lamb meatball sliders with caprino (perhaps that is a cheese?) and sliced cucumber. First of all, they had me at meatball. The fact that the meatball was served as a slider was just icing on the cake. Sliders have certainly become fashionable in the last few years. I think Joey Campanaro might have single-handedly revived them when he put gravy meatball sliders on the menu at the Little Owl, my favorite restaurant thanks in part to these glorious little sandwiches. The cucumber slices on these sliders called to mind the equally unforgettable steamed pork buns at Momofuku Noodle Bar, which are some of the most delicious things I've ever eaten, and whose crunchy sliced fresh cucumber so beautifully contrasts the greasy tender pork belly.

We shared two pastas, which in retrospect was too much. We should have just ordered one pasta. And the clear winner between the two we ordered was "my grandmother's ravioli" - delicate beef ravioli with a light tomato sauce and a heavy dusting of grated cheese. As Frank Bruni cleverly quipped in his Times review, it was good enough to make you want to "swap ancestors." We also ordered "spaghetti friuliano" which was tossed with wilted cabbage, bacon, and smoked pecorino cheese. I didn't think the cabbage was cooked long enough and I found the raw cabbage flavor a bit overwhelming. But the combination of ingredients otherwise would have worked, especially on such a cold and snowy night.

We shared a short rib special with roasted root vegetables and a side of roasted brussels sprouts as our entree, despite the fact that we were both completely stuffed by the time it arrived. The short rib was fantastic - perfectly tender and rich, but I really couldn't properly enjoy it because I'd already eaten so much. The brussels sprouts, on the other hand, were a hair too salty for my taste and I normally find that most things are under-salted.

Why on earth did we order dessert when already uncomfortably full? Research. And my sister has a sweet tooth. So our way over-the-top meal ended with a few scoops of delightful rice custard gelato and some sweet shortbread cookies. It tasted like the love child of rice pudding and ice cream, just as its name suggested. Yummy.

The next time I eat at Locanda Verde, and there will certainly be a next time, I will definitely get the ricotta crostini and sliders, and maybe share two pastas with no entree, or share one pasta and one entree -- two pastas plus the entree was overkill. I honestly felt sick as we bundled back up and headed home. But isn't that often the sign of a really great meal?

***

Details:

Locanda Verde

377 Greenwich Street (at North Moore)

New York, New York

(212) 925-3797

Dinner for two: ~$200

Restaurant review: Kefi

I love Greek food. But in New York City, good Greek food can be pricey! For example, you can easily spend a lot of money on fresh imported Mediterranean fish by weight at Kellari or Milos. And Avra, Molyvos, and Periyali are slightly too expensive for a casual weeknight dinner when you're just craving something smothered in feta cheese with a side of tzatziki. Usually, when I am in the mood for Greek, I shlep out to Taverna Kyclades in Astoria, which is well-worth a ride on the N train, though there is always a long wait. They have excellent versions all of the standards, including my favorite saganaki ever (pan fried kasseri cheese!) as well as delicious and reasonably priced seafood. I love their scallops.

So you can imagine my excitement to check out the new Kefi, Michael Psilakis' casual greek restaurant on the Upper West Side. In case you haven't heard of him, Michael Psilakis is a young chef who was honored as one of Food & Wine Magazine's Best New Chefs in 2008 and whose fancier Greek restaurant, Anthos, has been nominated for a James Beard award. He also wrote a cookbook last year, How to Roast a Lamb, which was frequently featured on many best-of lists for 2009. I had been to the original Kefi, which was on West 79th Street, two or three years ago, but had not been back since it moved into a larger space on 84th and Columbus. I had read Frank Bruni's fairly mediocre review last year, but was not deterred.

On Wednesday night, I met my friends Margaret and Alex for my long-awaited and much anticipated meal at Kefi. We started by sharing three appetizers. First, a selection of spreads: tzatziki, a taramosalata (it has caviar in it - not for me), a chickpea and sun-dried tomato spread, and a smoky eggplant spread with warm pita. I enjoyed the eggplant spread and tzatziki in particular. Second were crispy (i.e., battered and fried) cod pieces with garlic mashed potatoes and stewed tomato which were really delicious. Third up were sublime beef and pork meatballs with a tomato, roasted garlic, and olive sauce. We all agreed that they were delightfully tender and tasty (meatballs can be dense!) and that the large chunks of olive and roasted garlic in the tomato sauce were perfect for scooping up with some crusty bread.

For my entree, I ordered the pork medallions with spicy peppers, capers, and lemon. You would not have guessed from this description that the pork would be covered with a shaved fennel salad, but it was. That was ok because I am starting to like fennel, though I still am not at the point where I'd order anything with raw fennel. Still, I liked this dish, though those little pieces of pepper were quite spicy!

Alex ordered a chickpea, eggplant, and bugler fritter wrapped in pita. I didn't try it, but it looked good and came with a small greek salad and homemade potato chips. She liked it.

Margaret chose the orzo with shrimp, tomato, spinach, and feta. I tasted it and liked it, but it didn't taste particularly Greek or even Mediterranean to me, despite the obvious Greek ingredients.

For dessert, we shared rice pudding which was topped with a lot of whipped cream and toasted almonds. I loved it. But again, it didn't seem too Greek.

Pros: Kefi is cheap and cheerful! We shared two bottles of inexpensive but forgettable Greek white wine, and if we hadn't I think we would have ended up spending only about $25 each!? There are no entrees on Kefi's menu that cost more than $17, and most were in the $10 - $15 range. As my mother would say, you can't beat that.

Cons: We were seated all the way in the back of the subterranean part of the large bi-level restaurant, and the acoustics back there made it hard to hear it other as there were lots of people excited to eat at Kefi and it was very crowded. Our table was also right next to a door to the kitchen so there was a lot of traffic in and out. Finally, the service was terrible. Our waitress was very hard to track down and had disappeared entirely by the end of the night.

I'm willing to give Kefi a few more tries. Especially if it means eating more of those meatballs!

**

Details:

Kefi

505 Columbus Avenue (between 84th and 85th Streets)

New York, New York

(212) 873-0200

Dinner for three with two bottles of wine: $175

Beef braised in red wine

I made the tastiest dinner on Monday night: beef braised in red wine, polenta with parmesan, and sauteed brussels sprouts. It was a slight variation on a recipe for beef braised in Barolo wine that I'd cut out of a 2005 issue of Cooks Illustrated magazine. I did not use Barolo, but some other dry Italian red wine that I happened to already have. Barolo is widely recognized as Italy's best red wine, and as a result it can be pretty pricey. So to pour a whole bottle of it into a pot seems crazy! And my sauce turned out just fine with a less-expensive substitute. Here's the recipe:

Beef braised in red wine

1 boneless chuck-eye roast (3-4 lbs)

1 thick slice of pancetta, about 4 ounces, cut into cubes

2 onions, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

6 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons tomato paste*

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1 bottle dry red wine

1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes

2 sprigs thyme, plus 1 teaspoon thyme leaves

2 sprigs rosemary

10 sprigs parsley

salt and pepper

*I buy tomato paste in tubes, not in a can, so you can just use the amount you need and not end up throwing any away.

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In the meantime, pat roast dry with paper towel and season generously with salt and pepper.

2. Heat large dutch oven over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook until browned and crisp. Remove pancetta cubes with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate lined with paper towel.

3. Turn heat to high and add the beef roast to the same pot and cook until brown on all sides. Remove roast and set aside on a large plate.

4. Reduce heat to medium and add the onions, carrots, celery, and tomato paste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften and begin to brown. Add garlic, sugar, flour, and reserved pancetta. Stir until all ingredients are combined. Add wine and tomatoes and stir, trying to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Add sprigs of thyme, rosemary and parsley. Return roast and accumulated juices to pot and bring liquid to a boil.

5. Place a large sheet of foil over the pot, then fit the lid on top, and place pot in the oven until the meat is fork-tender, about 3 hours, turning the beef every 45 minutes.

6. Remove meat from liquid and set on large plate. Add fresh thyme leaves to liquid and bring to a boil on stove, mashing the vegetables to break them down. After about 5 minutes, remove the liquid from the heat and strain through a mesh colander over a bowl, pressing on the vegetables to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the mashed up vegetables in the strainer and return strained liquid and beef to pot. Sample sauce and adjust salt and pepper seasoning. When everything is piping hot again, serve over polenta or egg noodles. The beef should be easy to break up with a fork and can be served in chunks. Or you could remove it from the sauce and slice it.

The best part of this recipe is the leftovers! Tomorrow night, I will shred the remaining beef, heat it with the remaining sauce and some pasta cooking water, and toss it with cooked rigatoni for dinner. I think I'll make a salad to go with it since it will be very rich.

Guacamole

I love guacamole. With chips, as a garnish for soup, fajitas, or quesadillas, or just eaten with a fork. All of which I enjoy guilt-free since avocados, while very high in fat -- but the healthy kind of fat -- have lots of potassium and fiber.

This year, I made it for Steph's Superbowl party. In fact, Steph took this picture of my guacamole sitting on her coffee table in between chips, crudite, and a delightful array of unhealthy hors d'oeuvres. I don't love professional football, and I didn't have any particular interest in this year's game, but I do love snack food and Steph and her boyfriend served an impressive spread of the kinds of things I really should only eat once a year or during the cocktail hour of weddings including mini-quiches, pigs in a blanket, and chicken nuggets.

Guacamole is so easy to make. The key is ripe avocados. Since the Superbowl was on Sunday afternoon, I bought the three avocados I'd need on Wednesday night. I recommend the Hass variety. When you buy them, they'll probably be green and rock hard and they aren't ripe until the skin gets really dark -- practically black -- and is soft to the touch. I let mine ripen in a basket on top of my refrigerator until I needed them. The avocado will slip right out of its peel with a spoon when its ripe.

The only other thing to keep in mind is that avocado flesh will oxidize and turn an ugly brown color once it is cut up. So don't even think of making guacamole a day ahead of time. You will have a few hours of bright green guacamole if you use enough lime juice. But that's it. Here's my recipe:

Guacamole

3 ripe Hass avocados, peeled and cut into cubes

the juice of one lime

1/4 cup finely chopped white or spanish onion

1 jalapeno, seeds removed and minced

about 15 cherry or grape tomatoes, cut into little pieces

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 teaspoon salt, and more if you think it needs more

Mash the avocado and lime juice in a mixing bowl. Stir in all remaining ingredients. Taste to see if you need more salt. Adjust accordingly.

Serves at least 6 people, and more if you're serving lots of other things too.

Restaurant week recap

New York City winter restaurant week ended last night. This year, as has been the case for the last several years, restaurant week actually lasted two weeks, so it should really be called restaurant weeks. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this biannual event -- there's a summer restaurant week, too -- here's how restaurant week works: 190 restaurants offer special three-course pre-fixe menus for a flat reduced price. Lunch will set you back $24.07, while dinner goes for $35. That price does not include drinks, tax, or tip. Some places just offer a restaurant week menu for lunch, others just for dinner, and some places have both. It's a great opportunity to try out some new places, especially the higher-end variety.

Restaurant week started as a one-time promotional event in the summer of 1992. Back then, it was one week long and participating restaurants offered a three-course lunch only for $19.92. The next year, the price was $19.93 etc. I first heard about it from Ben Eakeley, a fellow intern during the summer of 1998, when I was working at Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. I will always remember our elegant restaurant week lunch together that summer at Lutèce, one of NYC's most celebrated French restaurants, which subsequently closed in 2004. And what I'll remember most about it was that the kir royale (also introduced to me by Ben) I ordered with my $19.98 lunch was $18. But I didn't care, because I was only 19 and had just gotten served a fancy cocktail at a very fancy french place with my new and sophisticated friend (who lives on the Upper West Side, and whom I've recently run into at Fairway!).

I can't remember when dinner came into the picture, or when the price changed such that it no longer mirrors the year, or when a winter week was added. But over the last twelve years, I have gone to dozens of restaurants during these annual restaurant weeks. And there were definitely hits and misses. The hands-down best places to go are any restaurants owned by Danny Meyer. Specifically, I recommend Grammercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe, Tabla, Eleven Madison Park, and the Modern, where you'll need to reserve a table exactly one month in advance, at around 9:30 in the morning.

This year, since I work in lower Manhattan (a.k.a. dining Siberia), I did not have a single restaurant week lunch. But I did enjoy three dinners at places I'd never tried before, which I will now tell you about.

Tuesday: Telepan on West 69th Street. This was a fairly unusual menu since it had two savory first courses instead of a dessert course. The meal started with three amuse bouches: a tiny mug of winter squash soup, a single gougère, and a crostini with some kind of tuna topping, which I gave to Steph, my dinner date, as I do not like cooked tuna. Next, I ordered "egg in a hole" - a poached egg nestled in a piece of perfectly-toasted garlicky bread with raw spinach leaves and hen of the woods mushrooms. The egg was underdone and I don't like raw spinach, but the mushrooms were fantastic! Next: braised beef brisket perogies with a beet sauce and grated horseradish, which were excellent and the highlight of our meal. Finally, I had sea scallops -- which was actually only one scallop sliced in half -- with manilla clams, house-made chorizo, roasted fennel and risotto. The flavors were great, but one measly scallop does not a dinner make. Bottom line: pretty good, but not great. And Steph got food poisoning later that night.

Wednesday: Tribeca Grill on the corner of Franklin and Greenwich Streets, co-owned by Robert DeNiro (yes, the actor) and Drew Nieporent (restauranteur behind Nobu - where I actually had my worst restaurant week experience ever back in 2000). I had honestly forgotten this place was still around. Actually, I hadn't heard much about it in years and figured it must have closed. So you can imagine my surprise when I walked in to an enormous and completely packed restaurant to have dinner with two of my lovely coworkers. And, after a fantastic dinner, I know why Tribeca Grill is still around after opening in 1990 - the food is really good! To start, I had a baby beet and goat cheese salad with pine nuts, apple-raisin chutney, and a hazelnut vinaigrette. Next, a giant red-wine-braised beef short rib with Brussels sprouts, pancetta, and chanterelle mushrooms. It was so rich and delicious! I want to eat it again right now. Last up was a New York style cheesecake with a vanilla-berry compote. Verdict: fantastic.

Thursday: Delmonico's on Beaver Street in the financial district, a very old-school steakhouse, and America's first fine-dining restaurant. They have been in business since 1837 and claim to have invented baked alaska and eggs benedict. I believe it. To start, I had a baby iceberg wedge with bacon and blue cheese -- it's a steakhouse, after all. Then, a perfectly cooked 10 ounce filet mignon with potato hash and brussels sprouts. For a $15, my mom upgraded to a New York strip steak which she really enjoyed. We also decided to share a side of creamed spinach which is really a must for any steakhouse meal, even if it wasn't part of the restaurant week deal. For dessert, I went traditional and ordered cheesecake again. Delmonico's was kind of stuffy inside -- think Palm Court at the Plaza -- but my steak was yummy. And they had some reasonably priced restaurant week wines by the glass, too, which was a nice touch.

It was a great winter restaurant week and I look forward to checking out some more new places this summer.