NYC Restaurant Reviews Continued

Restaurant Review #2
After my final meeting of the day I took the subway back to lower Manhattan and decided to find something to eat in between the subway and my hotel which luckily led me right through Soho. As most of my friends and family are aware, Mr. E. and I spent our honeymoon in Espana and we love Espanish food! So when I stumbled across Boqueria (www.boquerianyc.com), I could not have been more excited. Boqueria means market in Spanish and this was a Spanish tapas restaurant. In tapas style I had the house salad with parmesan shavings, a house vinaigrette, snap peas and croutons. I also had to sample their patatas bravas which are essentially salty/spicy hash browns drizzled with a spicy sauce. These would have gone beautifully with a Spanish beer but alone they were a bit salty for my liking. However, the tapas that my waiter suggested took the prize. Almond and Bleu Cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. I could not have been a happier customer.

Restaurant Review #3
During my travels this week I was able to coordinate my work schedule with that of an old high school friend. She suggested we meet at a Mediterranean restaurant near her office in Midtown. As noted in the above review, I am a big fan of food from this part of our world. Ammas has a beautiful interior with nearly a full wall covered in bottles of wine (of which we did not partake as it was lunch and I was going to be a meeting with hundreds of seventeen year-olds). For our lunch we shared an appetizer of spreads with pita and for lunch we both had a greek salad with grilled chicken. The spreads were fine—typical of these kinds of restaurants, satisfying but they did not blow my mind. The salad however, was filled with ripe (rare, I know!) red and yellow tomatoes, generous squares of feta cheese, a few lovely black olives as well as slices of purple onion and cucumber. The grilled chicken was the perfect accompaniment to move the salad from just a salad to an entrée. The meal was wonderful and I would go back again… however, it was on the pricey side so be prepared.

NYC Food reviews...

Unfortunately, I am unable to cook this week because I am traveling for work. Fortunately, I am in NYC--one of the world's best cities for good eats.... Yesterday I met up with one of my dear friends from my days in Philly and we traipsed around the city doing a little of this and some of that... Exactly what one should do on an 85 degree Saturday in NYC.

Later that evening we met up with her hubby and a few other friends for dinner at Fig & Olive in the Meatpacking District--so fun! The restaurant is dark and loud and the design is simple with olive oil bottles lining one of the walls. We had a fabulous dinner of flat bread small plates and Trio La Mer--three fishes all completed with a fig... a wonderful accompaniment. For dessert we shared a chocolate souffle as well as olive oil gelato. This is Diane Sawyer's favorite gelato and I can understand why. Did I mention that it was 85 degrees in NYC and that the air conditioners could not quite keep up with the volume of people in the city... that olive oil gelato was the perfect way to cool down at the end the meal.