Recent hits and misses

Between work and two recent vacations, I have not had as much time to tell you about some of the wonderful and not so wonderful things I've been eating lately. Here are some highlights and lowlights:

Thumbs up

Shredded pork empanadas and ropa vieja (shredded skirt steak in garlic sauce with tomatoes, onions and peppers) at Havana Alma de Cuba, a delightful and inexpensive Cuban restaurant on Christopher Street in the West Village. Add sangria and live latin music (Thursday through Saturday only) and I can't think of many ways I'd rather spend an evening.

A decadent selection of homemade pasta at Maialino, Danny Meyer's new and very refined Italian trattoria at the Gramercy Park Hotel. On our recent visit, my sister and I shared spaghetti alla carbonara (black pepper, guanciale, and egg), green lasagna (spinach pasta with bolognese), and an incredibly rich spinach and ricotta ravioli with a whole egg inside, the yolk of which was just barely cooked, allowing it to deliciously ooze into the sagey brown butter in which it was served. We both felt like we had died and gone to pasta heaven. The fior di latte gelato was also excellent.

An assortment of boldly-flavored and unhealthy starters at Fatty Crab on the Upper West Side including steamed pork buns, steamed veggie buns, fatty sliders (mini spiced pork and beef burgers), and a fatty dog (spicy sausage, pickled chile, radish and aioli on a little hot dog bun). Beware - the food at Fatty Crab is extremely spicy. The sauce for the steamed buns was particularly hot. But it all went perfectly with beer.

Thumbs down

Overwhelmingly salty paella socarrat (chicken, beef, cuttlefish, cockles and fish) at Socarrat Paella Bar in Chelsea. Actually, almost everything about Socarrat annoyed me from the uncomfortable mirror-topped communal table and pricey tapas to the long wait time (since when does it take 40 minutes to cook a little rice!?) and $8 they charged to replace the mussels in our paella with two measly scallops. I will admit that the crust on the bottom of the paella pan nice and crunchy, but it didn't make up for all of other flaws.

Nasi Lemak (curried chicken with coconut rice and a poached egg) at Fatty Crab . Chicken on a bone grosses me out as do dark meat chicken, slimy chicken skin (i.e., the non-fried variety), super-undercooked egg whites, and anything besides Caesar salad dressing with anchovies. This chicken was a complete strike out. I tried to find something on my plate to enjoy, but the practically-raw egg white had spilled all over the coconut rice, and I bit into a little piece of anchovy that had been hidden underneath a pile of garnish peanuts, which nearly made me gag. Such a disappointment!

Tonight, since Judd got unexpectedly detained by a document production at work, I had a very satisfying dinner for one: spaghetti with some of the marinara sauce I made last weekend and a dollop of ricotta cheese followed by a piece of toast with crunchy peanut butter and sliced banana - one of my favorite snacks/breakfasts/desserts of all time.