Atlanta etc.: Marilyn Wolf's Food Blog and Restaurant Blog

My stroll through Brooklyn Heights at sunset led me to dinner at Marco Polo. This is a fine-dining Italian restaurant with a sumptuous interior. I found the service to be slightly disorganized, however. My meal started, of course, with bread. My main dish was this wonderful seafood stew: octopus, shrimp, clams. The seafood was perfect and I spooned every last drop of broth out of my bowl.

My NYU friends took me to lunch at La Defense, named after the revitalized district at the edge of Paris. The restaurant is located in MetroTech and its decor complements the work-oriented, energetic vibe of the patrons. I jumped at the chance to order a bowl of onion soup. This was an exemplary preparation with plenty of umami in the soup. The cheese on top combined gooiness with crispiness, a very attractive duo. My main course was this very nice Caesar salad with salmon. Yes, I know that Caesar salads are boring, but I like them. The salmon was very nicely prepared. And here are some sweet potato fries for the table.

I visited the Tucker Chili Cook-Off for the first time and very much enjoyed myself. Tucker does a great job of staging events downtown and generally being a nice place to visit. Five dollars gives you this pink spoon, your magic key to unlock samples of all the entrants' chili. I sampled several, by no means all. The styles varied quite a bit---some hot, some not so hot, a variety of meats. I didn't vote for a best chili because I didn't think that I had sampled enough. But I enjoyed the day, the food, and the people.

Junior's is a Brooklyn institution. I have eaten lunch and dinner at their downtown Brooklyn home on several occasions; I also blogged about the cheesecake from their Grand Central Station location. My trip to NYU gave me the chance to try Junior's breakfast. This photo gives you a sense of the atmopshere---classic mid-century coffee shop, invigorating and comfortable at the same time. These little sweet rolls were a real treat. This is my veggie omelet, which was perfectly prepared. The eggs were soft, fluffy, and rich. The potatoes were hearty and filling. And of course I ordered the rye bread.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds is a pie shop with a big media profile. Its physical presence is demure---a nicely appointed building in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn, complete with its stamped tin roof and wall paneling. The menu is simple: pie and a few additional baked goods. This is a place with a purpose. I ordered a slice of apple caramel pie with whipped cream. The whipped cream is noteworthy in and of itself---very rich and thick, both beautiful and delicious. The caramel was subtle, the apple filling was very good and fairly traditional. The crust is the star here, made with 100% butter. It was baked off to a deep golden color. You can see the pattern made of several large pieces on the top. The crust was excellent; it also communicates that this is not a homestyle pie but one for a special occasion.

My NYU friends invited me to an evening discussion at Persepolis, a very nice Persian restaurant on the Upper East Side. As it happened, everyone ordered vegetarian, making for an interesting experiment. We started with two appetizers, each of which was served on a crispy rice cake similar to the rice cakes used in Vietnamese cooking. They were hearty and very nicely spiced. A cooling yogurt sauce... and a very enjoyable carbonated yogurt drink. Next came the main courses. This looks like ribs but is a formed vegetarian dish. I ordered a vegetarian version of a stew normally served with chicken. It was served with a combination of two rices: one plain, the other with sour cherries. The stew had a wonderful mixture of savory spices that stayed on my tongue in a very pleasant way. We couldn't leave without sampling dessert. The top dessert is a yogurt parfait with fruit at the bottom. The bottom was some sort of dry jumble that was very delicate; I remembe...

I trekled two-thirds of the length of Brooklyn to come here. This unpreposessing storefront has become a regular stop for food TV video crews as an example of New York's finest pizza. Mr. De Marco was at the helm, visible in the window, making pizzas as he has done for over a half a century. Unfortunately, a sign at the door said the shop was closed for a private party. Just as I was about to trudge back to the subway, a gentleman appeared to explain that they were taking orders to be served at their satellite location around the corner. He said that it could take two hours. I hesitated, but when he confirmed that I could order slices, I signed up for two. I squeezed into the door and waited. The atmosphere as everyone waited was low-key. People tried to enjoy the wait. After about an hour-and-a-half, a pie arrived for one lucky family. I had worried that the atmosphere when a pie arrived would shift to zombie apocalypse scrambling, but everyone just looked admiringly a...