Lafayette (Part 1: The bakery)

Lafayette just opened on April 15th, and I was so excited to try it because it's opened by the same people who own Locanda Verde in Tribeca (post coming soon!). At the entrance, there is a mini bakery, and I ate at both the bakery and the restaurant. There's just a lot to talk about for each, so I'm going to split the review into two parts. This post is going to be about the bakery.

The bakery has some classic French pastries, like macarons and canele, as well as things like brownies and cookies.

They have some pretty unusual macaron flavors, like "birthday cake" and a signature Lafayette flavor. They all have a nice texture: crisp on the outside and gooey and dense on the inside. My standouts are the birthday cake (chocolate filling with sprinkles), Lafayette (I can't put my finger on the flavor, but it's like tea), and salted caramel. The one I didn't like so much was the pistachio matcha (green tea). It was kind of sour; not in a going-bad way, but it just has this off-note that green tea flavoring can have if it's not perfectly done.

I love that they know how to store each kind of baked good. Caneles should never be refrigerated, or else water condenses at the bottom, and you end up with a cold, soggy crust. I love these caneles for their texture; the shells are so crisp, and the insides are the texture of a bouncy, airy pudding (not the instant kind; more like Yorkshire pudding). I find that there's not much flavor variation between any canele; they all taste pretty light and slightly egg-y--really delicious, but what makes each one unique is the texture.

I also want to give a mention to their chocolate items. I think the mark of a great chocolate dessert is when it has a great, deep chocolate flavor, but isn't sweet (or at least not overly sweet) or cloying. I find that with a lot of chocolate desserts, I can only eat two bites because they're just so heavy. The brownie (you can get it with or without nuts) is the best one I've had in a long time; it's quite thin and flat, so the edges are nice and crisp. What ruins a lot of brownies for me, is when they make it too moist and too rich, and it just ends up being mushy and overly sweet. Lafayette's brownies, though, are just slightly denser than cake. The chocolate macaron is great, too. I'm almost never impressed by chocolate macarons, because they're just so basic and they all taste really sugary. This one, though, has a true chocolate flavor, which, ironically, is really rare in a chocolate macaron.

I hate that I will pass Lafayette everyday, because I am going to gain so much weight. I definitely will come back to try some of the other bakery items (like quiche and pain au chocolat) and I will do an updated post about those!

Lafayette
380 Lafayette St., at Great Jones St.

The Smith

My food friend and I love this restaurant, so we'll come here together once every month or so--so I have pictures and a review of my latest meal here. But it just so happened that one morning a few days later, I woke up very, very early and desperately needed breakfast that was not instant oatmeal. Hence, I have pictures and reviews for both breakfast and dinner for The Smith.

Let's start with breakfast. Apparently they give you a complimentary cheese scone, which was so good. It's flaky, moist, and not overly cheesy (which is nice first thing in the morning). Absolutely worth the calories.

I got the smoked salmon eggs Benedict, hot chocolate, and chicken sausage. The hot chocolate was pretty mediocre. It's a little too watery and thin for my liking, and that goes for the flavor and the foam on top as well. Plus, it was like $5, so I would rather have just made some instant hot chocolate instead for 50 cents.

I really don't think the smoked salmon eggs Benedict was anything special; although all the components were well-cooked, it wasn't particularly appetizing or good. I also found the smoked salmon to be way too salty, which in turn made the whole dish seem way too heavy for first thing in the morning.

For a side, I got the chicken sausage, which are in a medallion shape. These were my favorite part of breakfast; so juicy, and slightly sweet. My only complaint is that, for a side dish, the portion size was really big; each medallion was the size of my palm, and quite thick, and then you're getting three of them. I feel like, in this case, a "side dish" is a main course without garnish.

Now let's talk about dinner. I've been consistently impressed with The Smith's entrees. They used to have spaghetti and meatballs, which was the best thing on the menu; I'm not sure why they took it off the menu, but I'm just praying it'll come back. The Smith changes up their menu pretty often--about once a season--but there are basic items that will stay, and just the garnishes will change, like salmon and chicken. For this dinner, I got the pork chop (also a staple), with tomato chutney (aka. fancy tomato sauce), and a warm salad of grilled cauliflower, red onion, and mushroom. The pork itself was delicious; incredibly moist and tender, and it had so much flavor. I loved the garnish as well; the tomato chutney was so smooth and tart, and the vegetables were nicely cooked.

The Smith had just recently (quite dramatically) changed up their dessert menu--they used to just have sundaes--and I was so excited to try the sticky toffee pudding. However, I was just really disappointed at both the flavor and texture. It's so intensely sweet--they add dates in the pudding to enhance the toffee flavor, but it's just way too much. You can see in the picture (towards the right) that there's a small pool of toffee sauce as well, which was so heavy, sweet, and syrupy. It's baked in a small skillet, and the edges are quite nice and crisp, but the center was incredibly mushy and too moist--soggy, even. So you just end up getting warm, mushy, sugary batter in a skillet. I just don't get it; the entrees at The Smith are so nicely balanced, what happened to its desserts?

The Smith is a great restaurant, but certain items can be a bit hit-or-miss. Come here for dinner; they have some great entrees. In addition to the pork chop, I also recommend the chicken pot pie, salmon, and the potato waffle and chicken special on Wednesdays. The Smith also happens to be Jane's "sister restaurant," and you'll notice that the style of food and prices are pretty similar. However, I prefer The Smith just because there's a lot more variety on the menu.

The Smith
http://www.thesmithnyc.com/
Various locations

Minetta Tavern

I've been waiting for the longest time to try one of Minetta Tavern's famous burgers. It was incredibly hard to get a reservation here; I called two weeks ahead, and all they had left was 5:30pm and 10:30pm. If you want to eat here, be determined and plan early.

My first course was the scallop risotto--it's a daily special, so ask if they have it. It's a lemon risotto with pea puree and a giant scallop on top. The scallop was just amazing. Really nice sear, semi-translucent center, and so juicy. It was just incredible. The risotto itself was so nice; it was rich, but with the lemon, it wasn't cloying. I find that a lot of risottos are so heavily laden with cheese and cream, that you get full really fast--I tend to feel a little sick, too. However, this risotto was exactly what it should be--an appetizer; it made you want to eat more. My problem with this dish was the tangle of raw leaves and vines; I had to dig through them to find my food.

My main course was the famous Black Label Burger: dry-aged beef with caramelized onions. The effect of dry aging is that the meat becomes very tender, but at the same time it develops a gamey flavor. It's hard to describe gaminess, but it's a kind of deepness; it's in game meats like venison. Anyway, the burger is really good; it's simple, but the point of it is to enjoy the quality beef. It also comes with fries. I'm never particularly thrilled with any restaurant's fries, but these were really good. So crispy, and so non-greasy.

For dessert, we got chocolate souffle to share. I've found that hardly any restaurants make proper souffles anymore; usually they'll call it a "fallen souffle" just to sound chic and like they know what they're doing, and end up giving you a flourless chocolate cake, because they don't know how to make a souffle. I feel like Minetta Tavern's version falls somewhere in the middle. The top of it, and the crusty edges, are so nice and light and not overly sweet. But once you get inside the ramekin, the souffle is way too dense and moist, and the chocolate flavor is so overwhelming. I choked a little on the powdered sugar, too.

Minetta Tavern has some great food; the burger is definitely great, as is the scallop risotto. I'm iffy about the dessert, though. I'm not sure if it's quite worth the money, because it is quite a lot ($70 for the risotto, burger, half the souffle, tax, and 20% tip). I would recommend coming here for a special occasion with someone who is excessively generous and loves you very much.

Minetta Tavern
113 MacDougal St., at Minetta Lane
http://www.minettatavernny.com/

Spring Sweets Fair at Mitsuwa

From today until Sunday (April 21st), Mitsuwa Marketplace is holding their Spring Sweets Fair. (I posted about Mitsuwa a while ago--you can read the post here). I came today to post about this event early, but also to take advantage of the free shuttle service from Port Authority on Thursdays.

My boyfriend, who has been to a previous Spring Sweets Fair in southern California, had warned me that this wasn't going to be a big fair like the ones Mitsuwa usually does, and I said whatever. And he was right (he's always right); it's really just a few extra refrigeration units in a far corner of the supermarket, but it's packed with stuff.

My usual Mitsuwa buddy was out of town, so I couldn't try everything I wanted. So I just got my must-haves: baum kuchen, a cream puff, and a packet of green tea swiss roll cakes.

Baum kuchen is a pretty simple item: vanilla cake with lots of layers in the shape of a wheel, with a donut hole in the center. I guess it's technically mille crepe, but you can't easily peel back each layer, which is the fun part of eating mille crepe. This thing is huge--I took a picture of it with my hand to compare the size. It's super good. So light and airy, with a distinct vanilla flavor. It's also $5, which makes it one of the better bargains in the display, considering how much cake you're getting.

Next I got the jumbo cream puff (there's only one size). I just wanted to point out that all the desserts in this display are sold very much as supermarket items, and not really as ready-to-eat sweets. The cream puff is frozen, and the swiss rolls are vacuum packaged. I suppose you could eat a frozen cream puff and pretend it's ice cream inside, though. Either way, the cream puff itself is just okay; the puff is light and airy, but the cream was very bland.

My last item from the fair were the green tea-flavored swiss roll cakes. They have two kinds: one that's long, and one that has four already-sliced cakes. I assumed they were the same thing, so I got the cheaper one. They are quite nice; you can't go wrong with cake, green tea, and cream.

In keeping with the dessert theme, I also tried some from the food court. I got a small box of six macarons and a vanilla cream puff. The macarons were no good; I'm talking about soft shells and very bland fillings. Each small box contained chocolate, white chocolate, apricot, lemon, raspberry, and pistachio--very safe flavors for macarons--but I just found myself taking one bite out of each one and setting it down. However, I did like the cream puff. The puff was okay--not particularly moist--but the cream was what made it for me. It had a really rich, saturated vanilla flavor and was so light in texture. It's not the best cream puff I've ever had, but it's nice when you want a lighter dessert.

Overall, I recommend the baum kuchen and the green tea swiss roll cakes. However, the display didn't have the most unique desserts (they also had items like tiramisu and soft cheese cake), so it's not really the place to try new things.

Mitsuwa holds these kinds of food fairs every few months; you can keep up with their seasonal events at their website here.

Jane

Jane is kind of an unassuming, plain-looking restaurant from the outside, but the interior is surprisingly sophisticated and fancy. I came here on an unseasonably cold day, because the green and white awning outside looked it would serve some good, comforting food. I never judge a restaurant like this, but hey, I have to eat.

My first course was the wild mushroom soup. I order things with truffle indiscriminately, and this soup had a generous--but not excessive--drizzle of white truffle oil. The soup itself was so incredibly flavorful, as it was mostly mushroom (a lot of mushrooms soups are cream with a few shreds of mushroom in it--this isn't one of those), and had this homey, lumpy-but-smooth texture. It's a really comforting thing to eat when it's cold outside.

I got the spaghetti, which was really, really simple--an olive oil-based sauce, tomatoes, garlic, chilis, and a handful of arugula on top. It was good, but really overpriced for how simple and small it is--$16. For the price, I could've gotten two more bowls of the mushroom soup, which I wish I did.

For a side I got the Brussels sprouts. They're fried, which is ironic, since people usually eat Brussels sprouts for its nutritional value. Culinary lesson: Brussels sprouts must be a bit charred, or else they stay bitter and disgusting. These fried ones are an unusual alternative to the sauteed-with-bacon variation that seems to be so popular now, although I have mixed feelings about these. The insides retain that Brussels sprouty sweetness, and aren't bitter; however, because it takes a relatively long time to get the insides cooked through, the leaves were burnt and bitter--kind of like charcoal.

I would classify Jane's food as overpriced comfort. My lunch, with tax and 20% tip, was just over $40, which is ridiculous. The spaghetti, which I could've made myself, was good but absolutely not worth $16. The Brussels sprouts were way overpriced as well, considering a) Brussels sprouts are cheap, and b) they were burnt. But I will definitely come back, when I'm not too hungry, to get the mushroom soup and a lot of complimentary bread for lunch.

Jane Restaurant

100 W Houston St.

http://janerestaurant.com/

Spring Sweets Fair at Mitsuwa this weekend!

Update: The Spring Sweets Fair is actually a display of cakes. There is another fair starting Friday, April 19th, which is the Regional Sweets Fair and is going to be much larger. The post about this fair is now up! Read it here.

Mitsuwa, a Japanese supermarket chain, is having one of their seasonal campaigns this weekend. Every few months, they will hold a food fair with various themes (Hokkaido, crepes, etc.), usually for a weekend, but can last up to a few weeks. This weekend, they are holding their Spring Sweets Fair at the New Jersey location, which I posted about a while ago (you can read the full post here. I will be going on Thursday, and posting about it Thursday night, so you know if it's something you'll want to go to. You can keep up with Mitsuwa's season campaigns here.

Shake Shack

Shake Shack is one of those hyper-touristy places that people will wait hours in line for. I've heard many, many people say that it's even better than In-N-Out on the west coast, which is a lofty statement and, if it were true, would make Shake Shack a damn good burger place.

I got the Shack Stack, which seems to be the favorite. It's a cheeseburger with a cheese-filled fried portobello mushroom. But I have to say, it sounds a lot better than it tastes. A portobello mushroom is so delicate in both flavor and texture, the fried batter and the cheese completely overwhelm it. And you will find that, when you bite into it, the fried shell houses mostly air, because a portobello mushroom is not substantial enough to hold its shape when cooked. It's a nice, ambitious idea, but the execution was pretty disappointing. The burger itself was really nothing special. The patty was dry, and the bun was ordinary at best.

I also tried the Downtown Butter Brown Concrete--frozen vanilla custard (aka. glorified ice cream) with streusel pieces mixed in. I liked it a lot, but it can get a bit sweet. Drink lots of water.

The cheese fries were pretty mediocre--plain crinkle-cut fries with not enough fake cheese sauce. Honestly, they were pretty comparable to McDonald's fries. I'm not quite American enough to have tried aerosol cheese, but I imagine the cheese sauce is what it would taste like. Really not worth $4.

There's definitely a reason why west coast people get really defensive of In-N-Out when east coast people say Shake Shack is better--because it's not. Considering both taste and price, I'm not sure why people worship Shake Shack so much. You can get much juicier and flavorful burgers for a shorter wait at a number of places in New York. And if you were to get a burger, fries, and milkshake--a pretty common combination--you would easily spend over $20. Shake Shack is probably best reserved for tourists who want to say they've been to so-and-so place in New York, but definitely not worth your time or money if you just want something to eat.

Shake Shack
http://www.shakeshack.com/
Various locations

Bodhi Tree

I always walk past Bodhi Tree and they always have a sign outside advertising some kind of fantastic deal, on lunch and noodles at dinner. I had to find out if it was really a bargain.

For around $8, you get a noodle/rice dish and two appetizers--the price will vary depending what protein you choose. My main dish was chicken pad thai. It definitely has a lot more flavor than most pad thais I've had in New York, but it's pretty heavy--it's so sweet and sticky, so it may not be suited for everyone's tastes. However, it's still good, and the chicken is quite moist, so it might be worth trying if you're feeling adventurous and want something a little heavier than the bland, Americanized Thai food that is so common.

My two appetizers were the crab cakes and tofu tom yum. The crab cakes weren't very good, I'm afraid. They don't have very much flavor; I'm not sure I would've known it was supposed to be crab if it wasn't called crab cakes. They're fried with some kind of batter too, and there is much more fried batter than filling. However, I liked the tom yum a lot. The tofu was nice and soft, and the vegetables were well-cooked but still had some bite. The broth itself was very flavorful, and the sourness really boosts your appetite.

Last week I posted about another Thai place, Spice. I would say the noodles at Bodhi Tree and Spice are pretty much the same "level;" they're well-cooked and flavorful. The tom yum at Bodhi Tree was better, but just ever so slightly. The fried appetizers at both Bodhi Tree and Spice were misses for me, and were really not worth getting. Although the food is pretty similar in these two restaurants, I would definitely choose Bodhi Tree, for the much more reasonable prices, as well as the decor; Bodhi Tree feels much more cozy and not as gimmicky-trendy as Spice is.

Bodhi Tree
58 3rd Ave. (between 10th and 11th St.s)

Spice

Sunday was Easter, and I was hard-pressed to find somewhere open for lunch. I tried three restaurants before finding one that was open: Spice.

I ordered quite a lot, but hey, it's a holiday. My first course was lemongrass tom yum with tofu (you can choose from various proteins for many of the dishes, including chicken, shrimp, and beef). It was nice; clear broth and really flavorful. However, the tofu was the horrible Western kind; crumbly, dry, and chewy. Americans need to learn that soy curd is not the same as tofu.

Next were the curry puffs. Man, these were some nasty curry puffs. Let's start with the pastry. It's very thick, and was fried at a very high temperature for, frankly, not enough time. The outermost part of the pastry was flaky and crumbly and completely fell apart when I pierced it with my fork--the crumbs flew all over the table and I felt like a four-year-old. The inside of the crust, on the other hand, was raw. It was translucent and chewy and impossible to cut with my fork. And then there's the filling. It was brown, but so bland and devoid of any curry flavor. And it had this odd, bitter saltiness that I could only taste in the back of my throat. It's also a lot worse plated than it looks in the picture. The little dish of sauce/juice is propped on top of the curry puffs, and as soon as you move one of the curry puffs, the tiny dish tips over, giving you no choice but to try the sauce. P.S., not good either.

My main course was chicken pad kee mao (rice noodles in a spicy sauce with egg and various vegetables). This is one of the better dishes here; it has a lot of flavor and all the components were well cooked. My problem with this dish is that it, like the curry puffs, is oddly plated. The noodles sit in a bronze-looking bowl that has a rounded, not flat, bottom, so it tips and wobbles whenever you try to pick up any food. And the metal handles are directly attached to the bowl, and are way too hot to hold to stabilize the bowl.

To drink, I got the Thai iced tea. It was not bad, but I would've preferred to save my money. But I will say, the glass towered well over my mouth; the straw was actually eye-level. Now, I know I am 5'1", but this glass is built for giants; you would need to have a very long torso to drink from the straw without holding the glass in your lap.

Spice is very popular, and I'm sure they have great dishes, but I didn't get to try many of them. However, one thing they really need to reconsider is plating. My meal was an example of a restaurant whose plating was so overthought that it interfered with my dining experience. And if a restaurant is making it hard for me to eat, and almost like they don't want me to eat their food, I would be more than happy to save $30 on a mediocre meal.

I just wanted to announce here that Thai people don't use chopsticks! People make the mistake of thinking that every Asian uses chopsticks, but one of the King Ramas switched the nation to using forks and spoons after dining with westerners and finding those utensils elegant. A guy at the next table (let's just say he's not Asian) decided to impress his friends by using chopsticks to eat his Thai fried rice. The Chopstick Rice Shovel is quite challenging for even very Chinese people to perform, and I watched him eat his rice grain by grain. Around twenty minutes after his friends had finished eating, he was still not even halfway done. He finally became too embarrassed and switched back to his fork.

After lunch, he started picking his teeth with his finger.

http://www.spicethainyc.com/spice/home/index.html

Various locations

The Boiling Crab

The Boiling Crab is really a no-nonsense place; there are no dishes or utensils. You get a bag filled with your seafood of choice, sauce, and various add-ins. Everything you order, except fries, goes into the bag so it's all drenched in that wonderful, flavorful sauce.

Since seafood is charged by weight, I recommend getting shrimp--you get more meat for the price because the shell is lighter than that of crab or lobster. You have a choice between four sauces: cajun, garlic, lemon butter, or all three mixed together ("The Whole Sha-Bang"). We all got the latter, because why pick between three great things when you can get all of them? I highly recommend getting the sausage and corn, which come in the bag. The sausage seems like an odd addition, but it's moist and not too salty, and goes really great with the sauce. The corn, on the other hand, I wish I got more of. It's just the best corn on the cob you'll have, soaked in cajun butter garlic sauce.

Sorry I didn't take more pictures; once you get your hands
dirty, there's no going back.

The key to being dignified here is to realize that this is not the time nor place to be pretty. You have to wear machine-washable, dark-colored clothes. You must tie your hair into a tight bun--use as many bobby pins as you need; it should not be able to move. And you should probably not wear makeup, because juices and sauce will most definitely fly into your face. I made the mistake of wearing a full face of makeup and a red sundress, and I walked out with sauce on my arms and cheeks.

I love that this place doesn't just have great food, but is also an eating experience; there's nothing more memorable than eating with your hands and getting shrimp juice in your eye. The Boiling Crab is best when you go with a small-ish group of people with a good sense of humor; do not go with high-maintenance girls. Guys should only bring a girl who will peel her own shrimp.

The Boiling Crab
http://www.theboilingcrab.com/
Various locations