Stuff I've Learned: Celebrity Sightings More Likely In Restaurants

City Guy and I celebrated one year of blissful marriage today. *blush* And to celebrate he surprised me by taking me to Blue Hill, Dan Barber's celebrated Hudson Valley fresh restaurant. I started with the smoked shrimp gazpacho; City Guy with the sweet corn ravioli--both so good I closed my eyes and made moaning noises. Our main courses were the Berkshire pork and spring lamb respectively. And for dessert, chocolate bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and peach cobbler. Oh god. Now I know what the fuss is about...

But what topped off the entire experience was sitting next to Kim Cattrall of Sex and the City fame, who was having dinner with the director of some new project she's starring in (I gather from my eavesdropping). I wanted to tap her on the shoulder and say "I loved Sex and the City! It inspired me to move to New York!" but I figured I'd let her enjoy her dinner. She doesn't look or sound like Samantha in real life, btw, which is probably a good thing.

The whole experience made me recall other celebrity sightings, and more often than not, they're in restaurants: Helen Hunt at Franklin Station Cafe, Gael Garcia Bernal at Hampton Chutney Company, Willem deFoe at Kori, Christy Turlington & Ed Burns at Odeon, Rick Ocasek & Paulina Porzikova at Shabu Tatsu, Oliver Platt at Parea...I did pass Colin Firth once a crosswalk in the West Village and John Slattery of Mad Men was at J&R Music the day we bought our TV, but even famous people gots to eat! So if you want to see celebs (don't ask me about bars & clubs--I'm a married woman) hang out at a> a hot new restaurant like Blue Hill or b> go to a neighborhood favorite in a celebrity-hood like Tribeca.

Funny enough, when I lived in LA, I seemed to run into celebrities while shopping--saw Ellen Degeneres at American Rag CIE and Sarah Michelle Geller at 3rd Street Promenade, for instance. Though I did see Charlie Sheen eating at Crustacean once...and my all-time favorite sighting - Al Pacino - was at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf!

Stuff I've Learned: Don't Believe the Hype

I'm just as excitable as the next gal...perhaps more so. I did used to live in LA. When someone says there's a hot new [insert food trend] restaurant in town, I think, Could this be the one? The food equivalent of true love? Will I eat there once and be unable to forget the delectable pleasures?

I have this reaction despite of the fact that I have been burned by this town too many times. When I first moved here, I ate at all the hot spots of the moment--Mixx, Public, Town, BLT Fish, Del Posto--and you know what? I've never gone back. I went through a bit of a mourning phase. This town's all glitz and show and no substance, I thought. Nothing I could sink my teeth into, literally.

I learned that the greater the hype, the fancier the digs, the more celebrated the chef, the greater the expectation, the higher chance of disappointment. This is not to say some restaurants don't live up to the hype. When they do, you really want to shout it from the water towers, "This is amazing!!" Eleven Madison Park did that for me. Megu and Le Bernadin too. That's why you keep slogging through, eating at culinary equivalents of plane movies, just to find that one gem.

I had that "no big whup" experience a couple times this week. First, ordering burgers from the newly opened Wall Street Burger Shoppe. I was all set to post a glowing review. It's not every day a new eatery opens up in the FiDi. But the patty was dry and the bun flaccid. The sauce was underwhelming, and there wasn't even a tomato or onions. Just shredded lettuce. If I find myself saying I'd rather have a Big Mac, you know I won't eat it again.

I also tried another dessert bar this week--Kyotofu. It's a beautiful space, and the food is presented beautifully, as you would expect from the Japanese. But if I find myself saying I'd rather be eating at the Mitsuwa food court, you know you've got a problem. It wasn't bad. I had the lavender tea (pretty good) and the dessert prix fixe. Every course was tasty, but I guess when I paying $30 for dessert, I guess I expect more. I want to be transported. I want to leave craving the food. Thus, the catch-22, as stated above. I probably won't be going back.

In fact, I'm sick of this dessert bar trend. I can't even remember what I ordered at Room4Dessert, over a year ago. That's how memorable it was. Sometimes, the simpler, the realer the better the food. Sometimes pretty plating and fancy furniture doesn't add to the experience. When it comes to food, the only sense that needs stimulating in the end are the taste buds. Everything else is gravy...

So, score is NYC: 2, The Girl Next Door: 0. But that's part of being a New Yorker. Knowing you'll get had 4 times out of 5, but boy, is that 5th time worth waiting for.

Escape From NYC: Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, NJ

This may be a blog about my life in NYC, but living in NYC means sometimes getting out of the five boroughs. Leaving gives me fresh perspective on the city, even if it is just by going across the river. So, I've started this new category for whenever I leave NYC, and my first entry is about Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater NJ, a Japanese-food supermarket chain/mecca, which I used to frequent in LA.

Miss Fashion, who lives in Hoboken and has a beautiful car (ah! how I miss driving!) was kind enough to take me. We were like two kids in a candy store--almost literally. My taste buds were raring to go the minute we entered the store. Could be because there's a food court filled with udon stands, curry places, bento shacks, bakeries....the list goes on...right at the entrance.

We started off getting matcha manju at the mochi place. Check out their wares:The matcha manju we had were wrapped up like so.......and put in a pretty little bag for us.
Gotta love the Japanese--every little thing is done beautifully. The motchi was sooo perfectly flavored--mild, with a hint of the more astringesnt matcha--and the softness of the motchi combined with the silky manju inside was just heaven, and heaven is a good way to start any trip.

The stall next to the mochi store sold French-style Japanese cookies (like everything else, the Japanese have made French pastries all their own). Creme-filled pirouettes, financiers....yum!
We also had some black sesame soft serve ice cream--nutty, sweet, but not too sweet--so good!We finally made it out of the food court and into the market part of store. The fish selection at Mitsuwa is amazing, and Miss Fashion did stock up on her sushi fish, but let me tell you, by the time we made it to check-out, our shared shopping cart was filled with a kaleidoscope of Japanese junk food. After gorging on yummy sweets, you'd think we'd have had enough, but I alone came home with shrimp chips, lychee candy, sweet green tea powder, spicy cuttlefish, rice crackers, chestnut manju, green tea chocolate, green tea McVities, some banana shaped cake thingy that Miss Fashion vouched for and a few non-snack items, including ume (mmmm!), enoki mushrooms, a bento lunch, a curry vegetable kit, and two boxes of mabo tofu, which we sampled here:In true Japanese supermarket-style, Mitsuwa had at least 3-4 sampling stations available on Sunday. Who doesn't like samples? As you can tell from my excessive use of "yum!" and superlatives, I left happy. I wish shopping for groceries were always this much fun.

At the end of th day, I had forgotten my grandma cart at home, so it was me impersonating a pack mule again...and that PATH train is slow on the weekends! I complain about the MTA a lot, but after taking the PATH, I think I found a newfound love for the subway system. Going to Mitsuwa made me nostalgic for my car and for the days I could load the trunk up with a couple weeks worth of groceries and drive home. Anyhow, it was pouring like crazy when I left Hoboken, but the gods were shining on me. By the time I got to Manhattan, the sun was shining and there was not a drop of rain. It was good to be home. :)