Eating With the Angels (28 page)

It seems silly for me to have done all the vital ‘research’ and keep it to myself so here are my picks of the best places to eat in two of my favourite cities, Venice and New York.

Campiello della Pescaria 3968

Vaporetto Arsenale

Ph 522 3812

Definitely on the tourist route and expensive for what it is but good all the same and in quaint surroundings.

Calle della Madonna 594

Vaporetto Rialto

Ph 522 3824

The Grand Canal’s just a stone’s throw away but it’s mostly locals feasting on fresh seafood in here. Busy, no frills, no bookings.

Calleselle 1423

Vaporetto San Marcuola

Ph 716 269

Venetian food with a modern twist: the ‘pregnant sardines’ in this
white-walled
osteria are to die for.

Calle do Mori 429

Vaporetto Rialto

Ph 522 5401

The most wonderful no-frills wine bar — when you eventually find it — with delicious snacks and more atmosphere than you can poke a stick at. Perfect for elevenses after trawling the Rialto markets.

Calle Larga XXII, Marzo 2398

Vaporetto San Marco

Ph 520 8901

We stumbled on this place our first night in Venice and although it was pricey and a bit grown-up, the service was wonderful and I still dream about my fennel and lobster risotto.

Campo San Stefano 2962A

Vaporetto Santa Maria del Giglio

There’s much debate about where to get the best gelato in Venice. This is apparently the oldest gelateria, a good spot for people watching, and I can vouch for the chocolate and liquorice flavours!

Ramo Ca’ d’Oro 3912

Vaporetto Ca’ d’Oro

Ph 528 5324

Almost impossible to find but when you do, SO worth it. Try the cichetti at the bar or even better, ring and book a table and dine with the locals. Our favourite Venice find.

Mazzorbo 7C

LN Vaporetto from Fondamenta Nuova

Ph 041 730 151

Wild duck is a specialty during the lagoon duck-shooting season at this untouched mom-and-pop backroom restaurant on an island 45 minutes
from Venice. Have the duck tagliatelle followed by the roast duck.

2 Park Ave at 32nd St

Subway: 6 to 33rd St

Ph 212 725 8585

I discovered this place researching my cheese-making story
Blessed Are
: most dishes on the menu include cheese and there is even a fromagerie in the restaurant. Exquisite. For the non-cheese version, try Picholine further uptown.

221 Smith St, between Baltic and Butler Sts,

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

Subway: F, G to Bergen St

Ph 718 624 7549

Delicious home-style pizzas and pastas on this up and coming boulevard of food.

43 East 19th St between Broadway and Park Ave South

Subway: N, R, W, 6 to 23rd St

Ph 212 780 0880

Leather walls and dim lighting make this the perfect spot for a woman of a certain vintage. Choose how you want your food cooked and share the sides. Delicious.

60 East 65th St between Madison and Park Aves

Subway: F to Lexington Ave-63rd St; 6 to 68th St–Hunter College

Ph 212 288 0033

Very grown-up four-star restaurant with sublime food and fellow diners providing a feast for the eyes. Watch out for the one dud table! We rejected it but were made to wait nearly an hour for another one. Luckily, it was worth it.

94 Prince St at Mercer St

Subway: N, R, W to Prince St

Ph 212 226 9412

Great bar, excellent shoestring fries, club sandwiches, and blackboard specials. Corner bistro meets local pub.

Trump International Hotel & Tower, 1 Central Park West at

Columbus Circle and West 60th Street

Subway: A, C, B, D, 1, 9 to 59th St-Columbus Circle

Ph 212 299 3900

Another four-star job and a truly memorable lunch. Worth it just for the theatre of watching a pineapple being undressed and having differently flavoured marshmallows chopped up in front of you.

7 Carmine St at Bleecker St

Subway: A, C, E; B, D, F, V at West 4th St

You’ll recognise it from many a movie … great for pizza by the slice, which is hard to come by these days. For the whole pie, apparently John’s Pizzeria down at 278 Bleecker St is pretty good.

205 E Houston St at Ludlow St

Subway: F, V to Lower East Side-Second Ave

Ph 212 254 2246

An institution and apparently the only deli where pastrami is still hand
sliced. Can be a bunfight but if you don’t fancy joining the throng at the meat counter, there is table service along the left hand wall, which means you can have fries with your sandwich and hot dog.

170 Thomson St between Bleecker and Houston Sts

Subway: A, C, E, F, V, Grand St S to W 4th St

Ph 212 982 5089

I’ve never been to its swanky big-brother restaurant Babbo but celebrity chef Mario Batali’s osteria Lupa suited me down to the ground, especially when it came to paying the bill. If you can’t get a booking, try just walking up and waiting for a table. Great service.

401 Bleecker St at 11th St

Subway: A, C, E; L at 14th St-Eighth Ave

Ph 212 462 2572

Step back in time at this tiny bakery famous for its cupcakes.

363 W 16th St (Maritime Hotel) at Ninth Ave

Subway: A, C, E to 14th St

Ph 212 243 6400

Modern Japanese food in an enormous stylish cavern beneath a funky hotel.

68 W 58th between Fifth and Sixth Aves

Subway: F to 57th St; N, R, W to Fifth Ave-59th St

Ph 212 583 0300

The toast alone makes it worth a visit — and the loos are pretty good as well. My cod ‘à la vapeur’ was the best-cooked piece of fish I have ever had.

28 1/2 Bowery at Bayard St

Subway: J, M, Z, N, Q, R, W, 6 to Canal St

Ph 212 349 0923

I can’t remember how I found out about this place but I’m glad I did. On a rainy day with ducks hanging in the steamed-up windows and hardly a word of English being spoken, you could be in Hong Kong. Good for more than just noodles.

28 Cornelia St between Bleecker and W 4th Sts

Subway: A, C, E, F, V, Grand St S to W 4th St

Ph 212 691 2223

Family-run Italian restaurant in this very foodie street in the West Village with good, simple food and a lovely courtyard out the back in warmer weather.

9 Ninth Ave at Little West 12th St

Subway: A, C, E to 14th St; L to Eighth Ave

Ph 212 929 4844

I was addicted to this Parisian bistro lookalike until I noticed that the coffee was cold and watery and the staff rude and inattentive. Took a while though.

18 Cornelia St between Bleecker and W 4th Sts

Subway: A, C, E, F, V, Grand St S to W 4th St

Small café-style restaurant famous for its lobster rolls, which I actually haven’t tried but I can vouch for the fries.

194 Elizabeth St between Prince and Spring Streets

Subway: N, R, W to Prince St; 6 to Spring St

Ph 212 965 9511

Lovely Italian food, much of it cooked in a wood-fired oven. Try the sardines.

4th Floor, Time Warner Center

Ten Columbus Circle

Subway: A, C, B, D, 1, 9 to 59th St-Columbus Circle

Ph 212 823 9335

Probably the most amazing meal of my life. Thomas Keller’s West Coast restaurant The French Laundry is already a legend and I’m sure this East Coast one will be too.* The nine-course chef’s tasting menu did not hit a single sour note and the service was impeccable and friendly to boot. Simply wonderful. Worth the arm and the leg it costs.

* Per Se has since been awarded four
New York Times
stars.

178 Broadway at Driggs Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Subway: J, M, Z to Marcy Ave

Ph 718 387 7400

Porterhouse steak served by crusty old waiters in a rustic setting. A must. And I’m usually a vegetarian.

311 W 17th St at Eight Ave

Subway: A, C, E to 14th St; L to Eighth Ave

Ph 212 243 1333

Gorgeous Mexican with a modern twist and as many Margaritas as you can handle.

227 Tenth Ave between 23rd and 24th Sts

Subway: C, E, to 23rd St

Ph 212 242 1122

Very yummy food in relaxed surroundings: this would be my local if I lived in Chelsea. Its sister restaurant on the lower East Side, The Mermaid Inn, is also worth a visit especially if you love fish.

Union Square

Four days a week this busy downtown square is transformed into a bustling market with local growers selling their wares — and it is a
must-see
in my book. Wander around on your own or even better take
award-winning
cooking teacher Richard Ruben’s market tour, then follow him a few blocks north to the Institute of Culinary Education and make lunch with your purchases. One of the best things I’ve ever done in New York City. Check out the institute’s website at www.iceculinary.com.

*The
Time Out New York Eating & Drinking
guide (available everywhere in Manhattan or go to www.eatdrink.timeoutny.com) is an invaluable companion, nicknamed TONY, if you’re serious about eating out in New York. And for places to go in Venice, I can heartily recommend the expensive (for something so small) but nonetheless excellent
Time For Food, Venice.

Esme has an adoring husband, a wonderful son, an evil goat, some angry bees and a suspicion that she will never be happy again. Even baking her precious sourdough no longer works its usual magic. All it does is transport her back to the salty little French bakery where she found and lost her first true love, Louis, the village boulanger. When a chance meeting with this bewitching morsel from her past breathes fresh hope into Esme’s life, the grass starts to look greener on his side of the fence. But is Louis really the secret ingredient she needs for a blissful future? Or is the recipe for happiness closer to home?

Blessed are Corrie and Fee, for theirs is the kingdom of the world’s tastiest farmhouse cheese. Tucked away in a corner of Ireland, the lifelong friends turn out batch after batch of perfect Coolarney Blues and Golds, thanks to co-operative cows, pregnant milkmaids and the wind blowing just so in the right direction. Add to this mixture Corrie’s long-lost granddaughter Abbey, fresh from a remote but by no means backward island where her husband has been on a mission — just not the religious kind — stir in New Yorker Kit Stephens, heartbroken, burned-out, hung-over and hung-up, and what you have is a lot of spilt milk.

Corrie and Fee don’t have time for crying over it, though, they must use their charm to turn bitterness and betrayal into happiness and love — or the secret ingredient of Coolarney cheese will be lost to the world for ever.

When jilted bride-to-be Molly Brown arrives in the seemingly sleepy Irish seaside town of Ballymahoe, she has greasy hair, a fractured arm, a broken heart, three extra kilos and no time at all for the charm of the locals.

It’s been a crappy few days and her wedding dress is starting to smell, so if she could just lose her terrifying aunt and find Tom Connor perhaps everything, herself included, could return to normal. Unless, of course, there’s no such thing …