two dinners, two restaurants.

Two new restaurant in two days, sweet!

Thursday was at Mario Batali's Otto in the West Village with Joanne and her minions. It was good, not mind blowing. We ordered antipasti and shared two pizzas to start with. Couldn't really remember which was which. For my main I had the Taccozette con Stracotto which is a pork shoulder, tomato and basil pasta. The dessert however was just amazing. I already knew that I had to try the olive oil gelato so I initially got the gelato sampler of olive oil, salty caramel & Guiness Stout bu change my mind to the Olive Oil Coppetta instead. The scoop of olive oil gelato was resting on a bed of candied blood oranges and on the side was piped with concord grape sorbet and lime curd. They sprinkled it with fennel brittle and topped off with a waffle cookie wedge. I noticed that the olive oil gelato was drizzled with this green colored liquid and didn't really know what it was. Turns out to be savory which made me assume that it was an olive oil concoction of sorts but later found out to be a basil sauce with sea salt, genius. I couldn't put my finger on the olive oil gelato as it was delightfully mysterious. The balance of the savory and the sweetness of the gelato, with ocassional spurts of saltiness from basil sauce, is cut by the sharpness of the lime and grape's acidity. The blood oranges and the crunchy fennel were a nice touch too. I would go back just for this dessert, seriously. I'm already tracing a pattern here with my dessert choices: I love trying out unexpected oddball endings such as this. Makes me think about that Earl Grey creme brulee at Prune. So good. I wish I had taken a photo of that Olive Oil Coppetta.

Last night was at August with Keith along Bleecker. All I can say is that this place now joins my list of favorite restaurants in the city. Might even declare it to be moving to the top. The dinner I had was the tastiest I've had in a long time. I had a Roasted Beets and Gjetost Cheese salad which had Glogg gelee and pickled mushrooms. I've started to love beets a few months ago, who couldn't resist a root that leaves a bright magenta stain on just about anything?! The cheese was extremely rich, almost having a thick consistency that of pastillas. Very sharp and tasty. For main, I picked Cochinillo Asada which is a roasted suckling pig on a bed of kale and had coco beans on the side. The pork, was ofcourse, tender and juicy. It wasn't bland nor salty. I could actually taste the pork and thank god it wasn't dry. I loved every bite of it. I picked at Keith's plate as well. He had the Grilled Onglet of Beef which had a smoked potato terrine and sherry braised onions. The potato terrine was something else. I guess it was a version of frittes in steak fritte. The smokiness of the crunchy shell had a resonance to bacon and mushy inside was just as good and the onion, wow. Who could've thought that onions could taste as heavenly as that? I'm still thinking about my dinner from lastnight. Everything was just really clean tasting and simple. A little pricy, but worth every bite.

I have a little holiday gathering to go to later in the evening at Kate's apartment. I'm making my pavlova but I'm not entirely sure if its going to push thru with a blizzard coming. Flights are getting canceled and people are planning to stay in. It's suppose to snow around 5pm and the city is expecting about two feet of it. White white xmas after all, last year it didnt even snow until January!

Enough blogging. I need to to laundry and maybe make lunch. Wait, I havent even had breakfast yet.