Adrienne's Pizza Bar - Stone Street

If you have time to sit down and order, Adrienne's pizza is shockingly good. My standards are lower than normal in the Wall Street area, but Adrienne's would be good anywhere. The rectangular crust is thin, with perfectly browned, thick and crispy edges. The "old fashioned," topped with a sweet and substantial tomato sauce, a thin layer of mozzarella and a sprinkling of parmeggiano, is

perfectly balanced - just the right sauce/topping ratio - and tangy, gooey and delicious. Toppings like eggplant, mushrooms and olives are of good quality, not the common canned and/or mushy versions. This pizza even impressed my pizza-obsessed husband, who is willing to come all the way down here to meet me for lunch only if he's promised Adrienne's.

Halal Food, Broadway between Cedar and Liberty

Another one in the crowded cart district on Broadway. There's no name posted on the cart, but it's on the east side, middle of the block, separated from Alan's by a smoothie cart. The line looked long and promising. Though the menu was expansive, I ordered the chicken and rice, hot sauce white sauce standby.
I think the sauces are more flavorful than average, and the chicken is really spicy. The chunks are larger than most carts, with no bone or gristle but kind of fatty - and the spiced yellow rice has good flavor but is really clumpy. I liked the big slices of green and red pepper sauteed in with the chicken. A little better than average I think.

Stony Hill Chardonnay

So sad. We just finished the last bottle in our case of Stony Hill, my absolute favorite chardonnay from California (OK, I admit to not liking many of them). We fell in love with it when visited the charming, beautiful vineyard way back in 2001. Not the normal tourist-trap Napa experience - you have to make an appointment, the numbers of visitors are limited, and it's far away from the drunken hordes, perched at the top of a mountain with a breathtaking view of the valley below. It's such a small operation - a family-run vineyard dating back more than 50 years - that it's hard to find the wines here in New York. I've only seen it in really fancy restaurants, where it's way too expensive for the likes of me. My mom visited Stony Hill in June and sent us this case. We only drank it when we thought our cooking worthy of the wine - it was not allowed to accompany take-out, or any dish we thought might overwhelm the delicate yet multi-faceted flavor. Unlike most of those oaky, huge CA chardonnays, this one is crisp and minerally, just like they make them in Burgundy. It is not timid, though - its rich, complex stone fruit flavors assert themselves and compliment a wide variety of dishes, as long as there's a little fat to coax out all the nuances. It was especially good with flounder under dill souffle (which sounds more complicated than it is), chicken roasted with rosemary and preserved lemon, and pasta with red pepper sauce and goat cheese. I want more Stony Hill! I think I'll order a case so that I can again go through the complicated process of lugging a few bottles home every day on the subway (we don't have a doorman at home, so all our packages go to my office). It will be SO worth it.

Butter is good

This is me making a sauce for some flounder we bought at the greenmarket. The recipe is just butter, butter, butter and cider vinegar, slowly whipped to creamy, unctuous goodness and poured over the steamed fish filets. For all its simplicity, the sauce tastes surprisingly complex. We had lots of green market veggies to balance this out - heirloom tomato salad with those amazing-looking mexican sour gherkins (they look like tiny watermelons but taste like lemony cucumbers), sauteed zucchini, fresh mixed greens. And an astoundingly good blueberry frozen yogurt made by Alex - it tastes like the essence of pure blueberries. Oh my. (The fish recipe is from Patricia Wells's Bistro Cooking, which I think is her most genius work. )

The Burger Joint at the Parker Meridien - 56th or 57th between 5th and 6th

Hidden behind a thick curtain in the lobby of this glossy midtown hotel lies this bizarre little greasy burger nook. The Burger Joint has saved me from starvation so many times - during Christmas shopping trips, after the opera or a concert at Carnegie Hall, after a day of museum-hopping and/or tourist-hosting. They have a super limited menu and all sorts of rules about ordering, but it's worth it. The line is long, but there always seem to be seats available just when you need them. The beer is cold, the fries are crispy, the burgers are juicy, and all the fixins are applied with care. They're thick, but not so thick they won't fit into a normal-sized mouth - a perfect quick and delicious meal. I would go to this place no matter where it happened to be, but it is a godsend in the overproduced and overpriced restaurant world of midtown.

The Modern Martini

I heard recently that scientists have isolated the gene for liking cilantro - if something in this gene is turned on, then you love it, if it's not, cilantro just smells like soap and tastes horrible. Hopefully, with the advances of modern science, the problem can be fixed - no one should be deprived of the enjoyment of such an amazing taste and heavenly fragrance. Until then, more for me, I guess. My love for cilantro explains why I worship this martini invented by a smartypants mixmaster at the Modern. It's made from cilantro-infused Tanqueray gin and lime juice, and garnished with a lime and cherry tomato. Just the smell of this drink makes me happy - it's the loveliest scent in the world and I want to wear it as my perfume forever and ever, the end. Also, it tastes perfect. The cilantro flavor is there, though it's stronger in the scent than the taste, the herbal flavor of the gin still comes through, and the lime juice (which must be a little bit sweetened) rounds it all out. This is the most excellent cocktail I know.

Alan's Falafel - Broadway between Cedar and Liberty

Alan's is one of the many carts located in the street food bonanza of this block. I decided to try it first because of the long line and limited menu, which I think are good signs with food carts. Of the two options, falafel sandwich and falafel plate, I opted for the plate which came with a dollop of hummus, babaghanoush, a stuffed grape leaf, some pieces of fried eggplant, a piece of pita, and lettuce and tomato. Everything was topped with a generous covering of hot sauce and white sauce. (I was impressed by the helping of hot sauce - most vendors seem to think I can't handle the hot sauce, being a girl and all, so they never give me quite enough. This guy gave me a man-sized portion, which I appreciated.) The falafel had a nice thick and crunchy coating, and the spiced chickpea filling was toothsome but not too dry or crumbly, like some lesser forms can be. The side dishes were passable - I especially liked all of the black pepper in the babaghanoush. The stuffed grape leaf had the vinegary tang that I look for and a nice creamy texture
with the grains of rice kind of melded together.
The falafel is the thing, though - and Alan's offers
a carefully made and delicious version. (A good bargain
too - the plate is $5, and the sandwich is only $3!)