LaManda's, White Plains

An old-school Italian neighborhood restaurant with large portions, reasonable prices, friendly service and lots of garlic. The menu includes mostly standard fare, though there are a variety of less-typical pasta dishes featuring tripe, anchovies and chicken livers (no, not together!).

My fave dish, linguine with white clam sauce, includes tiny clams in the shell plus tender chopped clams, probably cherrystone. The sauteed escarole is quite good and the house salad tastes like home.

LaManda's pizza is some of the best in the area, with a thin crust and flavorful sauce. We recently picked one up to take home and discovered it had the wrong toppings. They quickly fixed us a replacement, at least four people apologized at least twice each, they packed up two huge pieces of ricotta cheesecake for us and insisted we keep the pie with the wrong toppings. We had started out feeling grumpy about the mistake and our delayed meal, and ended up feeling well cared for.

Franklin Cafe

We dropped into this cafe recently for a snack after enjoying Larry Davis' photography at SoHo Photo.

The tiramisu was good -- thin cake, thick layers of creamy filling, not too sweet, nice and rich. It's a nice place, friendly service, simple decor. Lots of choices of coffee and tea. The cappuccino and peppermint tea were good, they also put a decanter of water on the table, a nice touch on a day when you're out wandering around the city and developing a thirst.

I'd go back.

El Quinto Pino

This tapas bar is about the size of a walk-in closet. It is kind of a cozy place, with very simple decor: a battered natural wood floor, a narrow dark-wood bar around the perimeter, mirrors with a patina, high stools.

We had the place to ourselves at breakfast recently, we had a nice time chowing down and chatting with our server/cook. Our desayuno choices included strong, creamy cafe con leche and a kind of do-it-yourself hot chocolate -- three or four pieces of dark chocolate, a little pitcher of hot milk and several packets of raw sugar. You assemble the elements in a stubby glass, stirring the hot milk and chocolate till it dissolves, and sweetening to your heart's content. Very tasty.

We shared several small plates. Tortilla espanola -- an egg and potato frittata-like creation -- is one of those simple dishes that everyone does a little bit differently. Some are mostly thinly sliced spuds, barely bound together with beaten eggs. This version was more on the egg-y side, a nice thick wedge, thoroughly cooked without being dry. It was served at room temperature, as is the custom, with a nice doodle of aioli on the side. The bikini -- a grilled serrano jamon and manchego cheese sandwich, cut into triangles -- was constructed on buttered thinly sliced crust-free white bread. Croquetas de jamon had crisp brown crusts and creamy, savory centers. We finished our meal with warm, golden-brown churros, dusted with cinnamon and sugar and served in a wax-paper bag.

Everything was very good, well prepared and authentic to what I ate in Spain.

El Quinto Pino is open for desayuno (breakfast) and la cena (dinner) and there's a certain amount of overlap in the menus. I'm looking forward to going back for la cena, the evening menu had several faves on it, such as bocadillos of lomo or calamar, patatas bravas, cava and jerez.

Enrico's vs. Bagels & More, Hartsdale

The most perfect day of the year, weather-wise, lured us out for a midday walk. We ended up at Hartsdale Avenue, where we conducted a spontaneous bagel taste test.

The 85-cent poppy bagel at Enrico's has a soft crust, a bread-like consistency and a slightly sweet taste. It was ok, but seemed a little stale, maybe because of the bread-y texture. As some forgotten sage told me long ago, if it ain't chewy, it ain't a bagel. Enrico's has some good-looking, great-smelling pastries and cookies, so I'd probably choose something from the sweet side of the spectrum next time around.

The 95-cent salt bagel at Bagels & More had the right consistency, nice and chewy. It was crustier and somewhat heavier, it had a good flavor, and just the right amount of salt. It was definitely the winner of the Hartsdale Avenue bagel taste test for two.

Grand Sichuan, Chelsea

It's been ages since I've been excited about Chinese food, but two visits to Grand Sichuan have rekindled my enthusiasm.


The menu is enormous and intriguing, with dishes named after green parrots and lovebirds (and then there's also Long Lift Vegetarian, undoubtedly a heavy meal, or the worrisome Grasp at Good Luck -- if you eat this?). I didn't really delve into the book-sized list, as our group of eight included several regulars who took over the ordering duties. We had a feast: old faves like soup dumplings and sesame noodles, and more unusual fare such as garlic sauteed pea shoots and fresh-killed chicken with about a bazillion dried red peppers.


I checked out Grand Sichuan again after a recent walk on the High Line. Again, we mixed and matched: crab soup dumplings, spicy sesame noodles, spinachy scallion pancakes, salt-and-pepper shrimp, sauteed three greens (baby bok choy, broccoli rabe and peapods -- a bit on the bland side, but immaculately fresh and crisp -- probably the most I've ever enjoyed broccoli rabe), and fresh killed chicken with green chilies and pumpkin (divine crisp-tender bright orange matchsticks, we debated if they were pumpkin or sweet potato -- didn't really taste sweet enough for a sweet potato, but not as watery, fibrous and bland as pumpkin can be, maybe some kind of squash).

Both meals were excellent. The dishes come out of the kitchen in rapid-fire succession, hot, savory and succulent. I'm probably spoiled forever for lukewarm takeout. The prices are surprisingly reasonable for the quality and quantity, and the preparation of even the most familiar dishes had a bit of a creative twist, like the spinach flour in the scallion pancakes.

Grand Sichuan is all about the food. It's crowded, it can get noisy, the decor is ... well ... maybe decor is an exaggeration, the service is efficient but not warm and cozy. On a weeknight you're welcome to linger and chat, but during Saturday prime time be prepared to dine and dash. About 30 seconds after our bill was paid, one of the employees announced that they needed our table.

I'm already imagining what I'll order next time.

Tapas 24, Barcelona

Tapas 24 was recommended to us as one of the less-expensive places to sample the kind of food has earned Spain the reputation of being the home of the world's best cuisine. It's a very hip place with great food and miserable chairs -- tall, virtually backless stools, with such poorly positioned foot rests that both of us were left with our tootsies dangling -- too low for me, too high for him. However, the tables have hooks underneath that are great for hanging purses, motorcycle helmets and shopping bags, keeping them out of the way of other diners and Barcelona's notorious pickpockets.

A lot of the menu items were very nice twists on old favorites. Our choices included patatas bravas (nice golden spud fingers drizzled with garlic mayo and a spicy red sauce), rinxos (curried skewered lamb, tender, succulent, rich, yum), bikini (a grilled sandwich of buffalo mozzarella and jamon serrano, cut into vaguely bikini shaped triangles), and McFoie (beef and foie gras ground, grilled, and served on a bun). For dessert we had chocolate gelato, which had a pudding-like texture. It was drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. The result was amazing: very rich, not very sweet, and so intensely flavorful it hardly seemed cold.

This was definitely one of the top meals of the trip. Everything was very familiar, but more interesting and tasty than the usual version.

Another plus, Tapas 24 is in Barcelona's l'Eixample district, with its wealth of fascinating Modernisme architecture. After lunch we walked and walked, ending up in Gaudi-designed Guell Park. Looking at the amazing mosaics made me want to cover my whole house (or at least the kitchen backsplash or a garden path or ...) with pique assiette.

Tapas tales, Barcelona

The Palau de la Musica says "Look at me!" with Chili Palmer-like conviction. With its glass balustrades, stained-glass ceiling and ornate ceramic tiling, it's glorious and over the top. Hearing music there is like sitting in the midst of a carousel, full of lights and colors and whimsical ornamentation.



We heard guitarist Manuel Gonzalez play, great stuff, full orchestrations on a mere six strings. My fingers were positively twitching with envy.


Afterward, we went into a place in the neighborhood for tapas and dessert: meat-stuffed croquettes served with pimenton-sprinkled aioli; divinely fresh oyster mushrooms sauteed with butter, wine and herbs, too salty but very good nonetheless (which could be said of much of the food I ate in Spain); fig ice cream with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Everything was very good and everything went great with a glass of cava.