Lunching at Del Posto - NYC

Del Posto is Mario Batali's Michelin-starred restaurant with 4-stars by the NYTimes. For dinner, the lowest cost tasting menu option of 5 courses is $115. For lunch, however, they offer a 3-course menu for $29 - one of the best lunch bargains in Manhattan, especially considering the amount of extras that they include in the three courses. They also include 3 different amuse bouches and an array of mignardises served after the meal, so it comes out to 3 courses along with 2 mini courses.

I've read about this lunch bargain a few times and this has always been on my to-do list. I finally got to try it out earlier this year and it definitely did not disappoint!

butter & lard for the bread

While I've read online that some people seem to enjoy the lard that Del Posto offers its guests for the bread basket - I would recommend passing on the lard. I did not enjoy it.

Carne Cruda with truffled salsa, parmigiano-reggiano & wild watercress (supp $10)

I don't usually like red meat at all, but I actually loved this dish - the truffled salsa definitely helped! (Unfortunately, I wasn't the one who ordered it, so I couldn't steal too many bites...)

Insalata Primavera della terra with sheep's milk ricotta dressing

The salad that I ordered was almost too pretty to eat!

Young lamb alla Romana, garlic yogurt with ceci & swiss chard ragu

Whole Wheat Tonarelli with spicy cichercie, rosemary, & shaved bonito flakes

I ordered this after reading about it as one of NYTimes food critic Sam Sifton's "Best Dishes of 2010." I've never ordered anything with bonito flakes before - when the waiter brought out the dish, the bonito flakes were moving! It freaked me out a little, but it tasted good - well as good as whole wheat pasta can taste.

Sfera di caprino celery & fig agrodolce & celery sorbetto

This was another one of Sam Sifton's best dishes of 2010. While I enjoyed the novelty of celery sorbet, I was glad I ordered the chocolate ricotta tortino instead ~ amazing & it comes with olive oil gelato, which Mario Batali is famous for!

Chocolate ricotta tortino toasted sicilian pistachios & extra virgin olive oil gelato

mignardises!

As a parting gift, they also gave me a small box of 2 chocolate truffles - extremely rich and delicious!

The service was definitely one of the things that stood out about Del Posto - this is definitely the fanciest restaurant I've ever been to and that was reflected in the service. As I was settling in after just sitting down, I hung my purse on the back of my chair. Almost immediately, a waiter came over and put a stool down next to my chair for me to put my purse on. It was completely unnecessary and I've never seen anyone do this at a restaurant before! Needless to say, you get a LOT of attention at Del Posto!

Fish - NYC

After an exhausting week (I went to sleep at 9 yesterday!), my friends and I met up at Fish in the West Village for the all-you-can-eat Maryland blue crabs for $21! The special runs from 12-4pm, but my friend and I met at 1pm and our friends joined later, as soon as they could get off work.

When we got there at 1pm, the first couple dozen of crabs that we ordered were not so good - the meat had melted away in a lot of them and the meat was mushy in others. (Since I grew up in Maryland, I have ate some pretty amazing crabs before - the best will always be the super fresh ones I ate after my friends and I went out crabbing on their boat and caught them ourselves!) Finally, around the third dozen, the crabs got really good - the meat was firm and holding together - and when you broke a claw open, the meat stayed in tact. When the crabs first get to the table, take a few seconds and let them cool down though - they come out steaming hot and they can easily burn your fingers/tongue!

Although I thought the meat in the later ones was better, there was less Old Bay flavor (although this could easily be remedied by simply adding some of the Old Bay on the table). My friends and I stayed for 4.5 hours! We ordered our last dozen at 3:50pm, and took another hour to finish that dozen, the ones we had left, and all the extra claws on the table (which we were saving toward the end as part of strategy - claws take the longest to take apart and eat!). I have definitely had enough crab for a couple weeks!

Dessert was Grom gelato nearby - pistachio and green tea :) Pistachio was my favorite!

A perfect summer Friday. My friends all commented on how fun this was - it's such a social activity! I think 75% of the time, you're not even eating but trying to crack open the crabs ~ so we were just messing around and asking each other stupid silly questions. One friend said this could be our version of a book club or knitting club, and that we should do this once a month (although depends when crab season ends...). This would also be such a fun place for a date ~ I love activity dates, and you could also see whether the girl is too prissy or not if you take her here lol.

I love living in NYC because the neighborhoods are so different from each other and you can really do so much "traveling" even within a 10 block radius. Fish was in West Village, near NYU. The area has so many great restaurants and I love the tree-lined streets between West Village and the Meatpacking District - it feels so cozy and quaint, a definite escape from the skyscrapers in midtown. Fish in particular felt like a beach-side seafood shack and worlds away from the hustle & bustle of the city. It's a nice place to escape for a couple hours.

*Oh! Another thing I forgot to mention - $4 beers! There's nothing like crabs and beer on a nice summer day.