New York Food Roundup

May 26th, 2009Blog0 comments

FOOD. I like to eat. I eat a lot. If I didn’t run so much, I would weigh five hundred pounds. I would have to ride around on one of those little electric scooters. In fact, I might start doing that anyway — those things look like fun.

New York City. Food. You can find the best of everything in NYC — it’s restaurant Darwinism there. If it’s not good, it doesn’t survive for long.

Through the advice of friends I discovered three new places that are now on my recommend list:

Mama’s Home Cooking is on East 3rd Street at Avenue B. This used to be a bad neighborhood — “Alphabet City”, where Avenue Q got its designation. But now it’s totally gentrified — our good friend Lloyd pointed out that it’s now home to a six dollar taco stand.

Anyway, Mama’s: Its banner has a skull on it, and you know how much I love skulls. They give you heaping hills of food — fried chicken, bacon-wrapped meatloaf, mac and cheese. It’s good and there’s a lot of it — too much for a regular human to consume. They also carry hubcap-sized cookies fresh from the oven. This is the American way on a plate.

Next, Veselka in the east village. This place recently gained some notoriety for being featured in the movie Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. If it’s good enough for George Michael Bluth, it’s good enough for you. It’s all Eastern European food, all the time. Pierogies. Stuffed cabbage. The borscht is hot, meaty, beety, wonderful. I had originally wanted diner food that night, but my friends recommended this place instead. They are geniuses.

Finally, Venerio’s on East 11th and 1st Ave. A pastry emporium like Hot Doug’s in Chicago is an encased meat emporium. Cheesecake: We ordered the Italian cheesecake and the NY cheesecake. The Italian was firmer, less sweet, a little bit more cheesy. Fine and good. However, the NY cheesecake was incredible. Sweet, fluffy like a cloud, creamy and amazing. The contrast allowed an even greater appreciation of the Italian variety.

New York City is great for getting whatever you want and getting it right now. I think that’s part of the city’s appeal for me — instant gratification. But I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the push-push-push, hustle and bustle thing. The food’s great, but there always seems to be too little time to enjoy it.