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bellastraniera
a.k.a. Marcy Swingle - obsessed with food and fashion.View my photography website.
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Category Archives: food
Chez Janou
This little Provence-style bistro on a quiet corner in the Marais is no longer a neighborhood secret. If you arrive here on a nice evening, you won’t be the only one looking wistfully at the sidewalk tables, hoping to be seated.
So if the hostess tells you they’re “complets” (the French version of “we’re fully committed”), she’s not kidding. After two failed attempts to dine at this Chez Janou on two separate nights, I walked up for the third time, at the very start of dinner service, and tried again for a table. (more…)
Posted in food
Tagged bars, French food, Le Marais, Paris, Paris restaurants, restaurants
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Robert et Louise, Paris
If you’re a stranger in a strange land, sometimes it’s better to ditch the guidebook and get lost, as former Frugal Traveler Matt Gross recently did in Paris. After all, all the other tourists are probably reading the same guide books as you are.
But when it comes to walking into a restaurant blind, what should you consider? First of all, don’t be afraid to keep walking. It would be easy to settle on the first vaguely familiar place that comes along. (Presumably this the secret of Olive Garden’s success in NYC, a city full of good Italian restaurants, and the baffling success of Starbucks in Paris.) But the best finds usually come after some investigation. (more…)
Posted in food
Tagged bars, French food, Le Marais, Paris, Paris restaurants, restaurants, steak
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Le Petit Marché, Paris
The Marais neighborhood on Paris’ right bank may be known for its excellent shops, cool crowd and Galliano’s meltdown, but for great dining, most Parisians head elsewhere. Seemingly as soon as the area became trendy several years ago, the restaurants started catering to tourists looking for convenience over quality.
There are still some very good meals to be had here for a reasonable price, and since we were staying in the Marais this past trip to Paris, we decided to dine in depth in this one particular neighborhood. One key is to head away from main drag and look for places off the beaten path – as on the quiet rue Béarn just north of the Place des Vosges. Here a local crowd gathers at the outdoor tables of Le Petit Marché, a modern Parisian bistro with a pan-Asian spin to the classics.
Posted in food
Tagged Asian food, French food, Le Marais, Paris, Paris restaurants, restaurants
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Hammer and Claws Blue Crab Festival
If you live in New York and love food, chances are you’ve been to some pretty disappointing food festivals. Many are plagued by long lines, small portions, huge crowds, dwindling food supplies, limited selection and VIP favoritism. So it was a relief to find that last weekend’s Hammer and Claws Blue Crab Festival, an all-you-can-eat crab feast in NYC benefitting the Chesapeake’s Save the Bay Foundation, was the exact opposite. This was really all the crabs you – or anyone! – could ever eat. Perhaps in a lifetime. (more…)
Frankies 570
Whatever x-factor makes for a successful restaurant, the Franks have figured it out. Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli, owners of Frankies 457, Prime Meats, and Cafe Pedlar in Brooklyn plus Frankies 17 in the Lower East Side, have expanded again to open another Frankies Spuntino, this time in the West Village. They’re already the Keith McNally of Carroll Gardens, and now they may have their sights set on Manhattan. (more…)
Recipe: Banana Buckwheat Bread
Like a lot of culinary inventions, this recipe for banana bread came about by accident. I had enough white flour to make half a recipe originally given to me by my college friend California Girl, but not enough to make the whole thing. Rather than make a sad, small loaf of banana bread, I decided to substitute 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour for the missing white flour.
The results were surprisingly good, since buckwheat flour adds a slight edge of bitterness to balance out the sweet bananas and sugar – I often find banana bread to be too sweet. This banana bread is like the ideal banana pancakes, in loaf form. (more…)
The Lot on Tap
It may seem like just yesterday that the August sun was beating down on us, but guess what? Oktoberfest officially begins on September 22nd. Instead of hiking out to Queens this year, Manhattanites only need to go as far as the Lot on Tap, the Colicchio-orchestrated spot under the High Line. It has the feel of the real thing in Germany – but it’s also quintessentially New York. (more…)
Posted in food
Tagged bars, beer, Chelsea, lobster rolls, New York, outdoor dining, pizza, restaurants, tacos
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Tertulia
New York tapas restaurants tend to serve as a reminder of what Spain is not. Imagine average New Yorkers drinking wine into the wee hours on a weeknight (I can’t – my job!), strolling into whatever decent restaurant happens to be nearby (Is it buzz-worthy?) and generally putting food second to the act of drinking up the wine, the atmosphere and the company.
We’re just too type A to be Spanish. So the amount of hype surrounding a new, hot tapas place by former Boqueria chef Seamus Mullen almost invalidates it as a Spanish restaurant. It’s supposed to be food without thinking – cuisine that’s tipico. (more…)
Recipe: Toasted Corn and Tomato Salad
Corn is wonderfully good right now. If, like me, you find yourself buying more than you can eat, this toasted corn salad is a great use for extra corn and tomatoes. Farmer’s market produce like this should never go to waste when it’s sweet as candy in late August. (more…)
Jeffrey’s Grocery
The past few years have seen a huge influx of “foodies” on the New York scene, Yelping, Chowhounding, and Four-Squaring about every bite. But don’t worry, New Yorkers haven’t been totally domesticated yet. For every one person jarring and pickling Union Square Greenmarket produce at home, there are probably four with nothing but a jar of pickles in the fridge.
Jeffrey’s Grocery in the West Village started out as a gourmet corner store with limited food service. Freshly cut flowers occupied the front, and the shelves were stocked with fancy pastas, olive oil and other top notch pantry supplies. Then the store closed and reopened as a plain old restaurant, with two- and four-tops where the flowers were. The lesson? As much as New Yorkers talk about food, they don’t actually prepare it themselves. (more…)
Posted in food
Tagged American food, bars, Gabriel Stulman, New York, restaurants, Southern food, West Village
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