Robot Journal : The lameness of March was made up by eating well in April

4/26/2010

Is it already May?
What happened to April? I guess it is true what grandmother always said.

Spring

Stay at Home Spouse
Mrs. Robot's last contract as a fancy television producer came to end back in March and apart from hanging out with her family for a month she has been kicking around Brooklyn and enjoying unemployment. Whenever one of us is out of work, we always enjoy having that stay-at-home spouse who can do the housework, buy groceries, cook great dinners, and do all those annoying errands you can't ever seem to do when working a 40hr week. When she goes back to work, we may invest in some sort of helper monkey.

Did I mention great dinners? Mrs. Robot has been kicking the ass recently as far as the foods. This past week she made tabbouleh that I devoured. It was delicious (never really thought much about tabbouleh). She made lamb burgers (with feta cheese and a yogurt/cucumber dressing) that knocked my socks off. Minestrone, something that usually doesn't excite me, was exciting. Did you notice that smell in the apartment? That was the scones she just baked.

So, we've been eating like kings at home.

Al Di La
For those outside the 718, Al Di La (translates "all the ladies love cool Al") in Park Slope is a wonderful little Italian restaurant that specializes in Venetian cuisine. The rub is that they don't take reservations and the wait can be long* and I am cranky and hate to wait a long time, especially if dining in Park Slope.
Ha! Park Slope: I kid!

*although they do have a wine bar next door where you can apparently order the same menu.

We had a few of the specials (squid and octopus) and everything was very good, but the stand out was the malfatti (swiss chard around ricotta gnocchi) which is what everyone seems to talk about (Stu raved about it and then made it as did PictureMonkey).
Delicious, but it also had browned butter and sage, which I think you could have served over packing peanuts I'd be raving about those as well.

Char #4
Brunch. We rarely do brunch as I find that it interrupts my newspaper reading and also because we wake up at relatively normal hours on the weekend, so brunch time for us is really like second lunch. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It's just I always forget what a big to-do brunch is (I always say this when walking up the street on a Sunday afternoon and every restaurant has lines out the door).

But, let me point a good word for the brunch at Char #4. It's awesome. It's breakfast and comforting and rich and hearty and their cocktails are lovely. We met the lovely KMAC there recently and ate ourselves silly. Good stuff.

Nha Trang Palace
This past Saturday, while sunny during the day, got a bit chilly in the evening. On top of that, I was tired from dodging ear-bud wearing bike-riding yokels all day and Mrs. Robot had a bit of a sniffle.
So, it had to be pho.

Nha Trang is south of Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Or maybe it's in Borough Park? It's amazing how many years I have spent in Brooklyn, but get me past Prospect Park and I'm lost. Fine little restaurant with a friendly staff. They serve beer.

Pho. In my mind there is no better soup-esque food in the world than the soups that make up the pho family. I adore the basic beef pho with the thin slices of raw beef, the glorious stock, bean sprouts, random beefy bits, lime or lemon, cilantro or basil, hoisin sauce, spicy red sauce, and noodles. It heals what ails you. Nha Trang's pho was quite good.

Do the Vietnamese make the best soup in the world? Discuss.

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