Tea at Claridge's

Claridge's Hotel
London

The Laurent Perrier Rose Brut was nice.
The sandwiches were kind of stale.
The clotted cream was practically frozen.
The dessert was not memorable. Too much gelatin, maybe.

And the tea? It was cold, mostly.

All this for 39.50 GBP per person.

Otto

Otto
8th Street & 5th Ave

Funghi funk. The mushroom pizza topped with taleggio, tasted fermented. I made an ugly face.

Fudgie the Whale & Cookie Puss

Retro birthday fun.

The Good Fork

The Good Fork
Van Brunt Street Red Hook

I feel like I've died and on to kimchi heaven. I feel like this is food that was designed for me. I am so happy I could cry.

The room was full of young hipsters, a marked difference from 360 across the street, which always seems to be filled with old people. When we walked in, there was a big camera-phone-happy crowd celebrating a birthday. Couples were nuzzling in banquettes. A table of wide food loving men eating slowly. A handful of diners at the bar. I felt right at home.

If my mother ever made me a plate of skirt steak with kimchi fried rice with a fried egg on top, I might have been nicer to her.

It's hard to categorize food like this, since it borrows from Korean, New American, French influences. Please don't even think about saying fusion. And it's seasonal!

The Wings gave serious heat. This is beyond spicy, it's a furnace. The Bitter Greens were paired with a potato pancake that even my Kraut approved, paired with ricotta and some caramelied onions. Some roasted beets too. We ate braised Berkshire pig atop Kimchi and polenta. I think there were some ramps in there too. And of course the steak. The apple tart was lovely, made me wish I ordered the Flourless Chocolate cake too. I was so inspired by this meal, that I did what I do when I want to contemplate the meal I'd just had: order an after-dinner drink, a sweet Azzurri Sauvignon Blanc. Sweet and slightly chilled.

This is exciting, flavorful, affordable, delicious food. Ben and Sohui are my heroes.

Tacos Maramotos

Sunset Park
45th & 5th

When someone says "this is my favorite Mexican place in the city" or "it's so fuckin' good" or something to that effect, I usually feel incredibly inspired, or at least feel compelled to go try it out, so that I can either corroborate their high opinion or challenge them.

Did i order the wrong thing?

Burger Joint

Le Parker Meridien
56th and 6th/7th

I'm sure that I've written about Burger Joint before, but I must do it again.
Its basically an In-N-Out burger meets McDonald's. The special sauce is similar. K and I just inhaled thousands of calories in minutes. It took us a few seconds to order, then the food arrived a few minutes later, and then it took us 6 minutes to consume it.

Brooklyn Fish Shack

5th Avenue
Park Slope

I'm not sure that I would necessarily have ordered anything at all, but the blonde waitress was so friendly, and her tone so soothing, that I almost felt obligated to do it. Then I saw the plate of squid sail by, and suddenly, the mouthful of oyster crackers just weren't satisfying.

It was the texture of the squid. Maybe they'd never been frozen. Maybe they were undercooked. Maybe they had been tenderized.

It was also that it was the first time I'd had a cherry tomato in about 2 months. Delicious zing, acid kick, juicy pop pop. The pignoli-like pesto sauce was a bit odd, but it sure was delicious.

Fresh Salt

Beekman Place

I love pleasant surprises. Why anyone would go to Pizzeria Uno or the Heartland Brewery when they could go to a joint like Fresh Salt is beyond me. But that is entirely the point: the tourists have no idea that this place exists. I don't think the joint wants to be known to the visor wearing fanny pack wearing people.

K and I watched the Derby there. I drank 2 mint juleps, and then we biked home over the Brooklyn bridge.