Writing With My Mouth Full

Peter Luger

178 Broadway, right under the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn
718/387-7400
about $350 for five, with a bottle of wine, with tip, cash only
♥ ♥

Our waiter spilled porterhouse juice all over my sister-in-law’s hat. She wasn’t wearing it at the time, but it still sucked when she realized it outside. It was windy and 30 degrees.

I’ve been to Peter Luger several times and like most New Yorkers, I go for the porterhouse and not for the service. Being old school is one thing but the restaurant staff can really use some manners. Our waiter was brash: he grunted and interrupted whenever we had a question and he splashed sauce and fat on our table whenever he served. The attitude could be part of the draw that makes Peter Luger “authentic”, but after paying over a thousand dollars the last six years, you’d think it would at least buy politeness.

The food also hasn’t changed. It’s still the best place to get porterhouse in New York City even though they push every customer to get more than they can eat. (We watch a group of four novices at the next table fall for their bit and order three steaks for two. Their bill was already guaranteed to be $240 before ordering any side dishes or wine.) The bacon is still to die for and the creamed spinach still a good match to a perfectly-cooked piece of meat.

Maybe when I return two years from now, I can finally tune the staff’s attitude out and just eat my steak in peace. For now though, one less heart from the last review.

Di Palo’s Fine Foods

Since I’ve been mentioning gift ideas with sausage and cheese in the same post recently, I can’t ignore Di Palo’s new online store, Di Palo Selects, as another option for the holidays. New Yorkers and die-hard Italian tourists know that they can get the best of Italy from the Di Palo family on Grand Street, but now they can get the same products without spending money on airfare. The Web site is powered by iGourmet.com but it’s less confusing because they’ve trimmed down the content to Lou Di Palo’s favorites. While there are the useful related items cross-sells, descriptions are not as overwhelming. I love the glossary page and the Ask Lou feature: you get both in person when you visit the store, which is the main reason why wait times are usually longer than my allotted lunch hour.

Some of my favorite meats and cheeses that I buy regularly from Di Palo’s:
– Piave
– Truffle cheese
– Crucolo
– fresh mozarella
– Prosciutto de Parma
– Prosciutto de Coto
– one of the sausages hanging from the ceiling
– spicy soppressata

I also restock on Di Palo’s olive oil, those glass-jarred tuna, marinated olives and artichokes, as well as Illy coffee. Lou’s brother, Sal, is my favorite. He sounds like Raymond from Everybody Loves Raymond and he makes sure that I always leave with a free treat. When it’s your turn at Di Palo’s, it’s really your turn and no one else’s. Now you can go online and every good thing is just a click away.

Di Palo’s Fine Foods is at 200 Grand Street corner of Mott in Little Italy, New York.

City Shuffle’s Diner’s Deck

At my last job, I ate lunch with a big group of people almost everyday. You can imagine how difficult it was to agree on a place that everyone liked, so one of the developers wrote a quick script where we could sort out our list of lunch places downtown and picked one for us with a click of a mouse, slot machine style. (We started with a pair of dice and each total was assigned to a restaurant, but we turned classy.)

It’s not technically food or drink, but a deck of City Shuffle’s downtown and Brooklyn Diner’s Deck came in the mail this week and I couldn’t stop showing them off because it reminded me of that story. The idea is that when you can’t seem to decide where to eat, you leave the decision-making to the cards. Each deck features fifty-two of the staff’s favorite restaurants. My deck included the ones below 23rd Street in Manhattan and some from Brooklyn. There’s also a Manhattan ($29.95) and a Bar and Lounge deck ($19.95).

They’re sleek and nicely-designed with the restaurant’s info including very useful cross streets. The best thing about it? Each card is also a $10 coupon you can use at the restaurant after you spend a minimum of $30 before alcohol, tax and tip. If a restaurant has closed, you can “swap” the card by sending it back to City Shuffle and you’ll get a replacement card to another eatery of their choosing.

They’re great as a stocking stuffer or a corporate gift to your employees.

Related post/s:
Buy your own deck at City Shuffle

Cafe Select

212 Lafayette Street off Kenmare
212/925.9322
$40 for two, with 2 drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

Everything Serge Becker touches turns into the next place-to-be. (You’ve seen La Esquina and The Box in the news, right?) A 1pm lunch date with my friend at the bar started gloomy: we were meeting to drown our sorrows about the grim economy and the prospect of losing our jobs. But by the time I was halfway through my Swiss Lagrein wine and he was done with his Stella beer, we were celebrating the fact that it’s still an incredible city to live in. People around us were drinking bottles and eating as if they have all the time in the world even though the giant Rolex clock above us ticked. (Hey, maybe they’ve lost their jobs already!) Sharply-dressed men waited for their equally beautiful partners to show up. We heard French and some other indistinguishable language behind us; ah, must be Euros taking a break from shopping.

I opted for the comforting elbow pasta with ground beef in brown sauce and it came with applesauce on the side. It was weird, but if the Swiss say they go together, I believe them. It was an unusual combination I couldn’t stop eating. The bratwurst was smooth and the rösti, or Swiss potato pancake, added good texture.

I couldn’t help but love the red and white check table napkins. It’s only one of the details that make the place whole. A diner-style bar displays the ready-to-eat breakfast items like yogurt and muesli. The small room in the back seemed like the perfect place to rendezvous with someone while the chef’s table in the kitchen would be a good place to get some friends together. The dungeon-like storage room behind the kitchen includes a mezzanine you can rent for a private party–what New Yorker doesn’t like access to “secret” places?

Where to eat in Palisades Park, New Jersey: So Moon Nan Jip

Dave drove the group to Dae Ga on Lemoine Avenue in Fort Lee, New Jersey where it was dark and, well, out of business. We didn’t have a Plan B even though the surrounding streets were peppered with Korean signs, so Dave called his brother-in-law who seemed to know all of the Korean bars and restaurants in the area. Without hesitation, he told us to keep driving to Palisades Park where it is now more Koreatown than Flushing, Queens and eat at So Moon Nan Jip.

The place was buzzing at 6:30pm on a Sunday night but we only waited for five minutes before we were seated in the back under a silver hood. Banchans were laid out and the hot coals were brought out for our barbecue. We were enveloped in smoked as we hungrily ate the kalbi with steaming bowls of white rice and discussed what our last meals would be if we were in death row. (Lamb chops for the Dr.; my dad’s Filipino sinigang for me) We also ordered the daegu muhri tang, a satisfying cod fish head stew. The bowl of naeng myun, or cold noodle soup, didn’t pass Dave’s test, but the grilled kalbi bones were a hit. A bottle of soju and OB beers were opened and shared.

I don’t go to New Jersey too much but now I have more reason to: Korean food across the George Washington bridge is so much better than the city’s.

So Moon Nan Jip is at 238 Broad Avenue in Palisades Park, New Jersey. Call them at 201/944.3998.