at the sign of The Pink Pig

Fascinating Cosme

[Pigging by Wilfrid: November 24, 2014]

Let's give thanks, in Thanksgiving week, for a new restaurant which stimulates the appetite, palate, imagination--and intellect. Because Enrique Olvera's Cosme throws into sharp relief many vital questions about eating out in New York today.

 

More than this review can raise and address, in fact. The short version: it's a fine restaurant--go and enjoy.

Eating Thanksgiving: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  November 24, 2014]

Well this was a great week of eating to look back on.  Three fine restaurant meals, and of course a home-cooked Thanksgiving feast. A lot of good casual eating too.

To start at the beginning, does everyone remember what a very good sushi restaurant Jewel Bako was in its heyday?

Buzzing Round King Bee's Hive

[Pigging by Wilfrid: November 19, 2104]

There's a certain irrelevant randomness to King Bee, recently opened on East 9th Street--and part of a new wave of serious restaurants coming to the EV and LES.

Irrelevant, because if you just come to eat and enjoy dinner, it doesn't matter at all.  It only matters to someone who sits down to write a few hundred words about the place.

Torishin: Nobody Here But Us Chickens

[Pigging by Wilfrid: November 17, 2014]

This is another one of those reviews which is kind of easy to write.  Nice grilled chicken, and plenty of it. You want more?

Okay, I'll do my best, although I am not going to pretend I have amazing powers of discrimination when it comes to yakitori, which I've eaten several times in New York but never in Japan.

A Real Mix Of Meals: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  November 17, 2014]

Mid-November 2004, with the temperature dropping, I was all over town for a series of meals in quite different styles, in a whole bunch of different neighborhoods.

It's like I said to myself, let's eat a dish or two just everywhere.  Okay, here we go.

Eating In The Neighborhood: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine: November 10, 2014]

Nothing really to distinguish the first week of November, 2004. I ate at a few local places, called in at the Holland Bar and the Mercantile Library, was reading Chernyshevsky and Edwin Muir.

You know, just another week. Lowlight was dinner Sal Anthony's Lanza.

Quick Bites: Empire Diner, Eisenberg's

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  November 7, 2014]

Running around town recently, I stopped off twice to refuel on sandwiches at historic New York diners. Not much to say about any of this, well...gastronomically. Fuel, you know.

I did have a definite preference between the two experiences. But anyone grossed out by greasy meat in bread is not going to enjoy the ride.

Republished below, my 2007 celebration of L'Absinthe, which sadly and suddenly closed on November 1. With thanks to Jean-Michel Bergougnoux and team for many wonderful memories.

http://labsinthe.com/

Marchons! L'Absinthe, Or "Ou Sont Les Bistros D'Antan?"

[Pigging by Wilfrid: November 9, 2007]

The main question which arises with L'Absinthe, is whether to look it up in any directory under "L" or "A".

Really, everything else about it is predictable in a good way, from the cheery "Hoop-la!" from your greeter as he seats you, right through to the cheese course.

Quick Bites: Back At Alder

[Pigging byWilfrid: November 3, 2014]

This seems to be Wylie nostalgia week, with WD-50's closing program announced, but it was really coincidence which found me outside Alder on a weekend evening, and I knew there'd be dishes on the menu which were new to me.

Not that that prevented me starting with the always good pigs-in-blankets.