10 Snacks

 1

I wrote about this rosemary mayo (from Empire Mayonnaise Co.) the other day. It is a pleasant, rosemary-inflected mayo that I have been enjoying (or rather enjoyed, as it is all gone) on many things.

I had leftover pork from the nachos I made, so I slathered some of the rosemary mayo on half a Trader Joe's lavash, added some pork, rolled it up and consumed it. Delicious.

2

A typical post-workout breakfast: one egg, half a cup of egg whites, diced bell peppers, and crumbled wild boar sausage.

3

Elizabeth and I both caught what was probably the nasty flu that everyone has been talking about. I had it first, just after Christmas. She had it a week later. One day when she was completely zapped of energy she said latkes from Teresa's sounded good. So I went there (it's less than 100 yards away) and got an order of five. I loved them this time; I've now had them four times over the last two and a half years - twice were great, twice were lousy. I added mustard sauce to one, which I liked much more than the traditional sour cream or applesauce.

4

Last weekend Elizabeth attended her sister's baby shower so I was all alone. This was just fine with me: there were two great football games to watch. At the store, this package of Tyson boneless wings was on sale and I snagged the "bourbon bbq" variety. They were just fine, although not as good as the ones I make myself at home. (But already-cooked chicken that has been sitting out can't really expected to be better than chicken that is cooked to order.)

5

I decided to try the scallion pancakes from Fortune House. I really like that place, but these were the worst scallion pancakes I have ever had. As tough as jerky.

6

I decided to try "smoked bbq" flavor goldfish. The bag was right next to the checkstand at the store and on sale. Talk about an impulse buy. The name is redundant - true barbecue is always smoked - but the flavors are pleasing. Not really barbecue, but that shouldn't surprise anyone. Just a salty, smokey flavor, like a good barbecue potato chip.

7

We made it 9 months without a microwave but we finally broke down and got one. It's too damn cold now and the microwave makes it too asy to heat things (like tea, soup, sauces). But the first thing I cooked was one of these Lean Pockets. The spinach flavor was mild but the three cheeses were good. These were on sale - $2 at Target - and worth it at that price. I don't think I would pay full price for this flavor, though.

8

Elizabeth asked if I wanted anything from the drugstore one evening. I said "surprise me." I have to give her credit: this was a total surprise. I was expecting a six-pack of beer or perhaps porn. I don't believe I have ever tried these before. And they were damn tasty. Not really sour like advertised (really it was just sugar) but tasty.

9

I went to a new bagel shop for the first time and they had aromatic garlic bagels, so of course I got one. I ate half in the morning by itself (it was delicious). Later in the day I ate the other half with some roasted-pepper pizza sauce, a couple of slices of cheese, and roasted yellow pepper. Also delicious.

10

Also at Target, Elizabeth bought a box of Welch's fruit snacks, thinking she could take a pack or two with her to work each day. It was a big box - 22 packs - so she asked if I would eat some, too. I said probably, but wasn't really sure. They looked like something you stick in your kid's lunch box and figure he trades away for half a cookie.

It turns out, they're really good. I ate half of the packets in less than two days.

Totonno's Pizzeria Napolitano

I've never done this before: I ate at Totonno's six years ago and the restaurant has been closed - their Upper East Side location; the original Coney Island location is still open - for a few years. But the subject came up yesterday and three different people wanted to see the pics, so here we go.

It was a Friday night in August and I had just been to Yankee Stadium for the first time. The night before, a massive storm had cleared out all the humidity (and also forced us to wait on the tarmac for 5 hours before they let us off the plane) so the night was just about perfect. The Angels hit three home runs and won the game.

Afterwards, six of us took the subway back to Manhattan and stopped at Totonno's for pizza. They were nearing closing time but the manager assured us "As long as I keep telling [the cooks] to make pizza they'll make pizza." So we ordered four pies in succession, ordering the next one as soon as we were halfway done with the previous.

The two I've photographed here were Margherita and meatball, and they were the best pizza I have ever had. Well, so far...

Table 87

After I wrote about Fascati and Monty's Q last week, a reader sent me an email suggesting I try Table 87 for a slice. It's only five blocks away, down on Atlantic. I was aware of the place - I've walked by it dozens of times - and I knew that it had opened last summer, but I did not realize they sell pizza by the slice. (I thought it was a sit-down restaurant.)

Trying a slice of pizza is never a problem, so I headed down there a few days ago in the mid-afternoon.

It was about 2PM and no one else was in the restaurant. The man working behind the counter said hello and I noticed a Margherita pizza sitting on the counter. "I will try a slice of that," I said. He slid it into the oven, I paid ($3.75) and took a seat in the window.

The menu is written on a chalkboard and I snagged a paper menu, too.

$24 for a Margherita pie seems high (and that's without getting any additional $4 toppings), though I must point out that if it's the size of the one sitting on the counter, it's quite large. Unless I was very hungry, there is no way Elizabeth and I could finish a whole pizza in one sitting.

You have to love a place that sets out containers of roasted garlic and spicy peppers for you to use.

In August of 2006 I caught my first game at Yankee Stadium, the Angels beat the Yankees, and six of us took the subway back to Manhattan and went to Totonno's for pizza. We had four different pies and they were the best I have ever had in my life.

This slice of Margherita at Table 87 reminded me very much of that pizza. I'm not saying it was quite as good - it wasn't - but it was still great: it had the same sweet tomato sauce, high-quality cheese and fresh basil. The crust was wonderful: just pliable enough to fold if you want, but strong enough to hold all the toppings if, like me, you prefer not to fold your slice.

Unlike another place I wrote about last week, the employee at Table 87 was very friendly. He asked me how the slice was when I was halfway done and seemed genuinely happy when I told him it was delicious. I thanked him when I threw away my paper plate and he responded by saying "Thank you sir, have a nice day."

Table 87 probably won't become my go-to place when I want to get a whole pie, but I will absolutely be stopping back in when I want a slice or two.

Miller High Life & Carnitas

There are only a handful of people who understand the significance of this post but let's just say it was time to guarantee a Ravens victory last night, so for the first time in more than a decade I bought a 40 of Miller High Life.

It worked but that is no surprise; it has yet to fail.

Ani Sushi

Ani Sushi opened in November, a block away from me. On the second floor of a building on Montague, I'd noticed several times that the place looked full. It seemed popular. So the other night, after Elizabeth and I had gone to Target and returned to our neighborhood very hungry, we were craving sushi. I suggested we try Ani; it was 8:30 and I hoped it wouldn't be too busy.

It turned out only one other table was occupied.

We sat in the room looking out on the street. I loved the way it looks: elevated platforms, sleek white tables, purple-ish lighting.

Wanna see some photos of the menu? Okay.

We took several minutes to decide what to order. I was thinking about getting one of the "dinner sets" with tempura and karake, but decided that if I liked the food I would just come back and get those items as a lunch special one day. We settled on three different kinds of sushi, figuring that if we were still hungry we could order more. At the last minute I said I wanted gyoza, too.

First things first: I wanted a cold Sapporo.

And then I wanted another.

Let's start with the best: the lobster tempura roll was outstanding. We both loved it. Tempura-battered "baby lobster" on top of tuna, with sesame-soy sauce and a spicy mayo (that was actually spicy). I did not like this quite as much as the Fire Snow at B.A.D. Sushi that I wrote about last month, but it was still one of the three best sushi rolls I have had in the last year.

The "Crispy Rice Spicy Tuna" roll was good, too. The crispy rice base tasted like a rice tater tot, topped with decadently fatty tuna and a sliver of jalapeno. When the plate was done, I wasn't left wanting more - like I was with the tempura lobster roll - but I enjoyed these.

Someone snagged a gyoza before I could take a picture of the plate. The gyoza were fine. Nothing special and no different from scores I have had before at dozens of Japanese restaurants, but still pleasing. The sauce was the highlight: a touch sweet with plenty of vinegar to it. Often these kind of sauces are dominantly soy and thus a bit too salty for me, but this one was great.

The Jupiter Roll: sauteed shrimp with garlic butter, cucumbers and green onion. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. The flavor was good, no question. Very light with the unmistakable kiss of garlic butter. But something just seemed missing. Maybe I was expecting more shrimp in each bite. Maybe I was getting frustrated at the way every roll fell apart. Or maybe I just found it silly that this cost the same amount ($9) as the tempura lobster roll, which was much larger and much better. At any rate, I liked this just fine, but I won't be ordering it again.

The waitress came to check up on us and saw that we had finished everything. "Wow, you ate that fast," she said with a look of astonishment on her face.

I definitely enjoyed my meal at Ani Sushi. But if not for that tempura lobster roll, I would not return. Within three blocks of me are Iron Chef House, which I love, Nanatori, which I really like, Tenda, which was good, and Ozu, which I did not really like. And there is still another place I have not yet tried. (And this is just within three blocks; if I expand the radius to ten blocks, there are at least a dozen more places I have yet to try.)

I could see myself returning to Ani, but I could also see myself never stepping foot in there again. I loved the tempura lobster roll but I merely liked everything else.