Subsidized Meal Week - The Second Half

After going out 4 nights in a row for some great food, it was time to relax for a night at the hotel, right? Hell no. Have you met me? I had two short nights to try out some great food, and I wasn't about to squander the perfect opportunity to try some great (subsidized) meals in one of the greatest cities in the world.

Thursday Night - Union Square...again.

Japonica Sushi, Sashimi, and Maki

So after my week of various cuisines, it was time to get some good sushi. I made my way to the PATH and noticed that it looked a bit cloudy. My umbrella was ALL the way back at the hotel (next door) and after a tough run in hot weather, I was ready to eat some good food. I got off of the PATH at the World Trade Center stop and made my way north a bit in search of a cab. Of course, downtown Manhattan isn't exactly the most populated of areas, so this turned out to be a struggle. Then, my earlier prediction turned true: rain. And not just some rain that you can run through, but a full-out downpour. I was stuck! Luckily, I was standing right by some construction scaffolding that provided adequate shelter. Of course, when it rains like this, cabs are nowhere to be found. Or maybe they just didn't want to pick me up because they had heard of me. But I digress - as the rain started to let up about 20 minutes later, I was able to find a cab, where I made my way to China-Town. This visit, sadly, was not a stop for food or chopsticks, but for some luxury goods. Pretty quick job, and once we got done with some completely legit transactions, we finally made our way to Union Square (yes, I love Union Square. It's got a lot of great restaurants and attractive, young people) for some grub.

We had done some research earlier in the day, and decided on Japonica for some sushi. After some deliberation on a starter (of which edamame was definitely NOT an option), we got a shrimp and vegetable tempura as my coworker friend had never tried. Strange. But it was, as fried foods typically are, predictably delicious. But onto the main - what to get...well, for me it was easy. I for one am more of a sushi purist - nigiri and sashimi all the way, although I'm not opposed to trying some maki rolls. An obvious choice for me was the sushi/sashimi combo with a spicy tuna roll. Why not. We also decided to order the Fire Cracker Roll which included avocado, cucumber, jalapeno, crunch, spicy sauce, and topped with yellow tail and tuna. The sushi and sashimi included the typical salmon and tuna, but also some yellowtail and quite possibly a piece or two of blue fin tuna and seared tuna. Awesome selection of fish, and everything was EXTREMELY fresh. The temperature was a bit cooler than I expected (which beats the lukewarm temperature that I've often been subjected to). The rice had a proper rice vinegar and sugar mixture with a small smear of wasabi between the fish and rice on the nigiri just like there should be. Overall, this sushi was great - and the seared tuna really tasted fantastic. We might have gone a bit overboard since I was literally forcing the few remaining rolls down my throat. But I had no choice. I've had nightmares about great food that I didn't finish. All in all, a great representation of what good sushi can and should be!

Friday Night - Midtown

Basso 56 - For the Table - Bruschetta and Olives

My last night in Manhattan, and one thing that I hadn't yet tried was any Italian cuisine. Not even pizza! But after some travels throughout Italy's great cities like Florence and Cinque Terre, I was left a bit unimpressed with the normal run of the mill Italian restaurants I typically found myself in living in the States. A bit of a rant, if you'll humor me - Italian food has become such a staple here in America that Barilla pasta and Prego sauce seems to be all a restaurant needs in order to stay in business. Italian food is one of the easiest foods to find in America - but GOOD Italian food is really hard to find. After spending an hour on Yelp, I ran across Basso 56 - it got a number of GREAT reviews, and it was within a 10 minute walk from my hotel, so why not? Let's see if New York can put up some good pasta!

Baby Artichoke and Shaved Parmesan Salad

I started, at the bartender's suggestion, with a baby artichoke salad. The artichoke was fresh, and there was some olive oil, a sprinkling of truffle oil, and that lemon you see there. Overall a light salad, and just what I needed since I was about to ingest a couple of pounds of carbs.

Seafood Risotto

As I was scanning the menu, I knew I had to have the risotto of the day...and I was hoping it would be of the wild mushroom or seafood variety. To my great delight, the risotto of the day was indeed seafood. And they weren't joking - there was a LOT of seafood in here. Most notably was the calamari and mussels, both cooked perfectly. There was also some clams and shrimp thrown in but in a smaller portion. Onto the risotto - it was done just right. It had a great consistency so it stayed together but creamy enough to slowly settle around the plate. It was exactly what a risotto SHOULD taste like, and it even rivaled the best risotto I have ever had, which was at Fresco Baldi in Florence where I had an amazing wild pigeon risotto. Ok, so Basso 56 didn't really match that risotto (a meal I had almost 3 years ago), but it was really good.

Spaghetti with Lamb Ragu

For my third course (or 4th? I've lost count, but please note that I'm not a complete lardo and got half-orders of the pasta dishes), I got what was deemed the specialty of the restaurant. As I understood it, the Chef was from a part of Italy just south of Rome where Ragu sauce originates from. Within the sauce was the meat from a shank of lamb. The lamb itself was extremely tender and flavorful. After my time in London, I have really grown an appreciation for lamb, and often want to give it a try anytime I see it on a menu.And the spaghetti was made fresh in the restaurant, as any good Italian restaurant should do. What I thought was the downfall of the dish was the amount of the Ragu sauce. Now the sauce was good, if not a little bland. But there was too much of it. I wanted to taste more of the lamb and more of the delicious spaghetti. But it was far too heavily masked by the sauce. I don't like it when there's too much sauce, and that's for almost every type of cuisine.

And if you're wondering...it was just me at dinner. I know as you were scrolling down, you were wondering who all this food was for. ALL MINE. And besides the olives, I ate Every. Last. Bite. It was actually THAT good. My faith in American-Italian food has been sufficiently restored.

My week in Jersey/Manhattan was a COMPLETE success. Yea, I got some work done, but more importantly I tried some mouth-watering food and got to explore a lot of Manhattan. But as I ate at all of these great places, I realized that I haven't been spending nearly enough time in the great restaurants of Chicago. So if you need a friend to go eat somewhere you've been dying to try - count me in.