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.

Random thoughts about Spanish food, part 2

On one of our last evenings in Spain,Barcelona's soccer team won the regional championship. As we headed home to our place in the Barri Gotic, we passed bar after overflowing bar, with enthusiastic sports fans spilling out onto the cobblestones, jumping up and down, chanting and having a great time.

The crowds thinned out as we got farther from Las Ramblas, but by late that night chanting crowds were flowing down our tiny Carre Cervantes.

While the night was still young, we dropped into a quiet Basque bar to have a drink and sample some of the pintxos (literally, a toothpick or wooden skewer, but the Basque catchall name for tapas). Each pintxo cost a Euro and was big enough for both of us to get a taste. Trays of each were lined up on the two-level stand-up bar, and servers circulated with hot pintxos fresh off the stove.

Tortilla espanola on crusty bread, piquillo peppers stuffed with tuna, ham croquettes, a kind of crab bruschetta topped with a guajillo chili and an olive, a similar smoked salmon sandwich ... We tried about 10 things, each beautifully presented. This mix of little items turned out to be surprisingly filling.

These pintxos, like much of the food we enjoyed in Spain, were each topped with a little something: a sprig of fresh rosemary, a slice of olive, a sprinkle of pimenton, a rosette of aioli. Besides looking nice, these little garnishes sparked up the flavor enough to add another dimension, a bit of complexity, a bit of the unfamiliar.

Who knew such a small touch could make such a big difference?

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.