Life Without a Kitchen

Three months and counting since we've had a totally operable kitchen. Not that the one we had before that was all that operable, what with two dead burners on the stove, and the rest of the space slowly committing suicide. But that's another story.

We had thought the kitchen-free period would be more of a dining-out adventure, that we'd be excited about trying out new places that we'd want to blog about daily. It turned out to be more about subsistence eating, what can we get that's quick, convenient, casual, not too expensive, not too bad for you. Guess those are some of our standard criteria, but it proved to be a challenge and we ended up going to the same handful of places, rediscovering some old favorites and ditching some of our more recent regulars.

I was surprised how pricey it has been. To keep costs down, we've mainly gone out for breakfast or lunch. When we have had dinner out, I've skipped ordering wine or a drink to give the budget a break. Even at that, it's been hard to bring in even a diner breakfast for under $30.

This week's goal is to report on some of the places we've been hitting a lot lately, and dish on the local dishes.

Frank Pepe's, Yonkers

The Yonkers branch of the classic New Haven pizzeria has the same decor as the mother ship, and the same crisp, thin-crusted pies.

We ordered a couple of individual pies, practically a light meal. The white pie with gorgonzola, spinach, mushrooms and mozzarella was rich without being overpowering. The topping combination would make a great pasta dish.

The original tomato pie with mozzarella and sausage was spicy, lusciously rich with a hearty red sauce. Much more intensely flavorful than the average pizza.

It's really dangerous to have such great pies so much closer than they used to be.

Food Parc

This new food court brings to mind an updated automat. It's a fun setup. There are four food vendors (Asian, Italian, burgers, coffee shop), you make your choices on touch-screen menus, swipe your card, get a receipt with an order number, track the order's progress on monitors, and pick up your bagged lunch at a counter.

It's a good fast lunch place, nice for mixed groups: those of us who like to mix and match and those who always order burgers.

The Red Farm Stand offers soup, dumplings and dim sum, all quite good for fast food. The mushroom spring rolls are very crispy, not at all greasy. The tasty fresh-veg stuffing has great color and texture. The shrimp wonton soup with watercress arrived too hot to eat, topped with fresh watercress, spinach, onions and ginger. The stock tasted bland at first sip, but as the veg steeped the broth became much more flavorful. The soup's four plump and tasty shrimp-stuffed wontons in translucent wrappers made for a surprisingly hearty meal.

At $9, the spring roll and soup may have been more expensive than a couple of items at a Chinese greasy spoon takeout joint, but the food was orders of magnitude better. Food Parc offers fine-dining-ish food in a fast-food setting.