Pizza, Ice Cream, and Time Travel in Carroll Gardens

The pizza at Lucali is worth the lengthy trip on the F train.  The restaurant, dimly lit, with faded yellow walls, feels like a Tuscan trattoria.  Mismatched wine bottles bedeck the walls and windowsills, and wooden tables give the place a rustic charm.  Squint a little, ignore the American patrons, and you’re in the middle of the Tuscan countryside. 

All the pizzas boast eight oozing slices, and cost $24.00 (including tax).  My friends and I split a cheese pizza, opting for no toppings.  Simple, but excellent, was what we craved, and what we received.  The pie consisted of thin, charred crust, slightly sweet tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil for garnish.  The blobs of mozzarella had melted unevenly across the tomato sauce, as if painted by an impressionistic artist. 

It’s probably not the best pizza in the city, but it came pretty darn close.

Next we journeyed back in time to the golden age of ice cream; the age of the soda fountain.  This was a surprisingly short trip!  Turn right out of Lucali, continue a few blocks down Henry Street, enter Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain, and you’ve successfully time traveled!  

This place is as close to the real deal as you’re going to get.  They’ve thought of everything from the long counter lined with stools, to the old-fashioned memorabilia lining the walls (ranging from typewriters to old jars of medicine).  A mix of oldies and Motown hits (think “Dancing in the Street” and “All You Need is love”) completed the time warp effect; truly, they were the cherry on top.  And speaking of cherries on top…yes, they actually do that!  I ordered an “Any Day Sundae” with vanilla ice cream, which came with thick hot fudge sauce, homemade whipped cream, and, of course, a cherry on top.  I asked for toasted pecans, to add a little crunch.  The Sundae of Broken Dreams also sounded scrumptious; vanilla ice cream, warm caramel sauce, broken pretzels, and whipped cream.  "You can cry over it," the menu jokes.  Asides from sundaes, the menu includes a wide variety of ice cream sodas, shakes, and egg creams, many with intriguing names such as The Pink Poodle (hibiscus soda and a scoop of vanilla ice cream).

The only thing not from the sixties?  The prices.  The sundae cost about $8.00, $10.00 with tip.  It’s okay.  I’ll think of the $10.00 as not just purchasing ice cream, but time travel. And $10.00 to travel back in time?  I think that’s a pretty good deal. 

Lucali is located at 575 Henry Street, and Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain is located at 513 Henry Street.

Au Revoir New York – If Only for an Hour

White Christmas lights deck the trees outside of Café Lalo, so that passers-by can’t walk down Broadway or Amsterdam at 83^rd Street without becoming intrigued.  Is it a typical New York restaurant scenario of “all that glitters is not gold”?  Not this time. Café Lalo is just kind of perfect. The only downside to this eatery is having to decide what to order out of one hundred plus cakes, pies and tarts!  Go to rejuvenate (and perhaps caffeinate) after a stressful day at work or school, celebrate a birthday, or catch up with old friends.  Thanks to the décor – floor-to-ceiling French windows and fin de siècle posters – you don’t have to have any imagination to pretend that you’re in Paris.  

My first time there I split a slice of German chocolate cake with my friend Carlyn.   We both agreed it was the best German chocolate cake we’d ever had!  The cake, which had the taste and consistency of a rich chocolate pudding, was topped with particularly gooey coconut-pecan frosting. 

Tonight I tried the chocolate peanut butter mousse cake, which has four layers:  chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, peanut butter mousse, and chocolate ganache.  The mousses were airy yet intense. This cake is what happens when a Reese’s bar decides it wants to become a cake.  Oh, and then decides to change its nationality from American to French. 


Leaving the cafe and venturing into blustery February night was difficult, but made easier by my new knowledge that a little piece of Paris exists on the Upper West Side.

Rice to Riches

I was a little skeptical when friends told me about “Rice to Riches” - A restaurant that only serves rice pudding?  It sounded brilliant, if not a little down-the-rabbit-hole. 

As I entered through the mushroom shaped door I wondered if I really was in wonderland.  At Rice to Riches, the tables do not come up from the ground, but hang from the ceiling.   A balanced diet is frowned upon…signs on the wall read such things as, “Eating three sensible, balanced meals a day will only spoil your appetite for rice pudding.”

The names of the flavors instantly charmed me; whoever named them clearly had a lot of fun doing so.  Among the more memorable flavors are Sex Drugs and Rocky Road, Hazelnut Chocolate Bear Hug, and Perfectly Legal Pecan Pie. Pure poetry!

I decided on a “solo” size of “Fluent in French Toast,” with a topping of “Spirit” – oatmeal coconut crumble. The rice pudding was thick, rich, and tasted like French toast; sweet and eggy, with a bit of cinnamon to top it off, like a light dusting of snow.  Surprisingly, it was not weird, but good.  The “spirit” added a crunchy contrast to the smooth, creamy pudding. 

I find the “Riches” part of “Rice to Riches” pretty ironic; while the pudding was rich, my wallet was almost empty after ordering a single portion. It cost $6.75 for the pudding and $1.00 for the topping.  Customers who order the $6.75 portion aren’t even allowed to get two flavors; to do so you need to order the next size up.  If you go, I’d recommend sharing that next size, “Epic,”  ($8.50) with a buddy, so that you can try two flavors, and not pay as much.

Rice to Riches is located at 37 Spring Street between Mott and Mulberry. 

La Dolce Vita in New York City

If you can’t afford to fly to Rome, a subway ride to Eataly is a close alternative. Eataly, which opened last August, is an enormous marketplace, with different restaurants for pizza/pasta, vegetables, fish, steak, gelato, panini, etc, as well as a “supermarket” selling items such as homemade chocolate-hazelnut sauce, imported from Torino, (that relegates Nutella into silly putty) and pasta made in-house, in every shape and size.

A 45-minute wait for a table at the pasta/pizza restaurant provided time to explore, but by 9:00 pm I just kinda wanted dinner.  The atmosphere was less than fastastico.  We were seated in a narrow hallway above the restaurant.  Although it had a view of the marketplace, the ambiance was still not up to par with the cuisine.

The pizza margherita tasted as it should, each bite evoking Napoli: a combination of mozzarella and parmigiano reggiano, a stretchy, slightly charred crust, tomato sauce made from sweet San Marzano tomatoes, and fresh basil to top it off. 

As delicious as the pizza was, next time I plan to skip the restaurants, and simply wander around for an hour or two, perhaps buying a latte or gelato (or, likely, both).

Tutti in tutti, Eataly is well worth the voyage.  And I do mean voyage.  Just is if you were traveling to Europe, you might want to bring a camera, and get a map upon arrival!




Eataly is located at 200 5th Avenue, between W. 23rd Street and W. 24th Street.

Risotteria & Momofuku

I’m in Butler Library right now, but I simply can’t concentrate on my homework.  How can I answer “What is meant by symbiotic mycorrhiza?” when there is a new food adventure to be reported?!  Sorry symbiotic mycorrhiza.  But blueberry & cream cookies are simply more interesting in you.  Whatever you are.

Last night I went with five lovely friends to Risotteria in the village (270 Bleecker Street).  I’ve passed this place at least twenty times, and it always looked so intriguing!  A restaurant specializing in risotto?!   Was it possible?  I had the Arborio Risotto with shitake, green beans, and sweet corn.  Soooo good.  Dreamy and creamy, buttery and rich, this stuff was the real thing.  It was so good I put up a fight with the usher at West Side Story (which I saw right after my foodie adventures) who wanted to confiscate my leftover risotto! (If you are wondering, they ended up putting it in a little cabinet and I got it back after the show.) 

Tummies full and happy, we walked to Momofuku in the East Village (207 2^nd Avenue). I got three cookies:  compost, blueberries & cream, and chocolate-chocolate.  The compost cookie was my favorite.  When I first read the list of ingredients I had to wonder if whoever created the recipe was on something; it has the wackiest ingredients, yet they somehow work.  Druggie? No.  Genius?  Yes.  Every bite is slightly different, and the salt from the pretzels and potato chips helps lure the flavor from the chocolate chips.  The blueberry & cream cookie, jam-packed with white chocolate and blueberries, was a bit strange at first, but slowly grew on me, as if I was a stranger to a foreign land experiencing a bit of culture-shock, but then adapting. In the words of my friend Teresa, the chocolate-chocolate cookie was “like a sugar shock directly into the heart.”

Ahwell, that’s all for now - back to the joys of explaining Mycorthingamabobs.    

   

Photo by Margot Sturc

S'MAC

Ever stay up really late and become starved at, say, 2:00 a.m.?  S’MAC is the perfect destination.  This east village restaurant specializes in the ultimate kiddie comfort food:  mac and cheese, of course.  I ordered the “garden lite” ($7.25 for the “Nosh” portion), which tasted anything but light. (Not that I’m complaining!)  The macaroni, served steaming hot on its own pan, came with parmesan, lite cheddar roasted cauliflower and portobello mushrooms, roasted garlic, broccoli and scallions.  The top bubbled with gooey, melted, slightly toasted cheese that stretched like Spiderman’s cobwebs when I lifted my fork out of the dish, making politely eating it unfeasible - and childhood regression obligatory. (Oh how horrible, I know.)  My only complaint was a slightly overpowering taste of rosemary.

S’MAC is located at 345 East 12th Street, between 1st and 2nd avenues.

Peacefood Cafe

After a stressful week of finals, and putting muchos junk into my body  (my mantra was basically “whatever it takes to keep on going” – not a good idea if you’re trying to avoid the freshman fifteen!), I was ready to celebrate the end of the school year with some healthy, nourishing food.  Peacefood Cafe, at 460 Amsterdam (at 82^nd Street) more than satisfied my desire.  The atmosphere of this vegan restaurant was open and inviting; pastel colors, lush green plants, and plenty of windows welcomed me back to the world of the living.

My friend Carlyn and I split three side dishes:  chickpea fries, baked soy nuggets, and pan-seared shanghai-style dumplings.  All the food tasted healthy, even restorative.  The chickpea fries were delightfully and unexpectedly spicy, and came with a creamy, cool house dipping sauce to contrast the bite.  I liked that the soy nuggets were baked instead of fried; they might have been comfort food, but they were nonetheless healthy. The nuggets were served with a fresh herbed vegan mayo.  The homemade dumplings are filled with Chinese chives, shitake & wood ear mushrooms, marinated tofu and vegetarian protein, served with a ginger balsamic dipping sauce.  When I read the description on the menu I was a little hesitant – Could these dissimilar flavors actually taste good together?   Well, I needn’t have worried.  The dumplings were by far the most delicious item ordered.  Tender and slightly crispy on the outside, the mushroom flavor dominated the filling, and the acidity of the dipping sauce perfectly complimented the dumplings.  They tasted truly homemade.  All the dishes came with crunchy, fresh sprouts.

Yummy and nutritious, I like to think that this meal helped redeem my week of unhealthy eating.  While Peacefood Cafe might be a vegan restaurant, it’s certainly not just for vegans – I recommend this restaurant to everyone, carnivores included.