recent eatings

I haven't talked about food for maybe a whole post! Or not. Anyway, there were a couple recent restaurant outings possibly worth mentioning, so I'll mention them.

A couple weeks ago, during the second Dine About Town this year (are there usually two?), I went with some friends to One Market.

The DaT menu included:

Spring Vegetable Salad (banyuls vinaigrette)
- or -
Black Bean Soup (salt & pepper calamari, cilantro, lime)

Braised Berkshire Pork Short Ribs (butter beans, chorizo)
- or -
White Poppyseed-Crusted Skatewing (wild arugula, niçoise olives, herb vinaigrette)

Fresh Strawberry and Grand Marnier Trifle
- or -
Peach Brown Butter Tart

I chose the salad, the short ribs, and the trifle. The salad was pretty good, with lots of green beans and such, but I thought the black bean soup was actually more interesting; it was so thick it was almost like a puree. I stole several spoonfuls of soup from other people at my table.

The pork ribs were good, but unspectacular, I thought, and of course I didn't try the skatewing. Those who did said it was so-so. One person chose off the regular menu, and his Roasted Liberty Farms Duck Breast was excellent.

We all picked the strawberry trifle for dessert, so I didn't have a chance to try the peach tart, but I didn't really care, because the trifle was really good; crispy sweet strawberries, hardly any custard/cream at all, with just enough sweetness in the shortbread. I ate the entire cup in about a minute, and got made fun of for several minutes afterwards.

Overall I thought the food was generally well executed, and worth the price ($32 for 3 courses), but there was no one dish that blew me away. I may go back sometime, but I don't think I'll go out of my way to do so in the near future.

I also recently went to afternoon tea at The Rotunda, on the top floor of the Neiman Marcus in Union Square. I was unimpressed with the tea; after we ordered, we were brought teapots of hot water and bags of Mighty Leaf. I am fond of Mighty Leaf and drink it on a regular basis, but I guess I expected loose leaf tea. Plus, they were out of the flavor my mom wanted, the White Lotus, although she did enjoy the White Orchard that she got instead.

I was pretty happy with the food; the finger sandwiches were fine (hard to get wrong, I suppose), the scones were light and flaky, and the cookies and tarts were yummy (my sister especially liked the crumb cake), although a few of them were a little too sweet. The portions were generous, and we ended up taking home enough to eat for breakfast the next day. I'm glad we went because it was a nice experience sitting under the Rotunda and I've been wanting to check it out for awhile, but I think I prefer the teas at the Ritz or the Palace, and I definitely preferred the tea I had last month in New Orleans at Le Salon. Mmm, caviar.