The Food Maven Diary
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Dieting in Restaurants
Since I returned from Europe, I have been on a diet. And it's about time. I have inflated to a size I cannot bear. How did this happen? Easy. For two years, I sat and wrote and edited a book instead of going to the gym. Simple as that.
Of course, I could have gone to the gym and written the book, too, but I am such a slow writer, and I was in a constant panic about finishing on time. I wanted the book to be published before Thanksgiving of last year. (It was.) People forget or don't realize that when you write a book you have to actually sit and write the book -- for hours and hours and days on end. It doesn't magically happen. And "Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food" isn't only a collection of recipes, which, truth be told, wouldn't necessarily require long sentences. My book is, as the subtitle says, "an opinionated history." Both opinions and history require many sentences. About the only exercise I got doing this project was to pop up from my desk every so often and cook, or even cook for days on end. But then I would eat what I cooked.
Anyway, I didn't exercise and I grew larger and larger.
Then I thought I would lose some weight while busy doing book promotion at the end of last year. I wasn't going to be able to eat a proper dinner for months, because I was always going to be out at stores and events signing books and schmoozing. I thought I would skip dinner and lose weight. Instead, I ate the wrong things, and late at night when I cam home from going to the stores and events, signing books and schmoozing.
For me, it has never been so much about the food anyway. To put it mildly, I do tend to eat too much. But exercise has always been the key to my many major weight losses (and gains). Move more, eat less (and better). There is no sliver bullet -- no low-carb, low-fat, or other faddish solution.
To that end – I mean move more, eat less end -- I have been walking every morning with a friend. And on the few days this last week when it was too steamy to walk outside at 7 a.m., I have been going to the gym, which is air-conditioned and convenient – practically around the corner. I have no excuses.
Meanwhile, I am finding going to restaurants a real challenge. I have been limiting myself to sushi and restaurants that prepare fish particularly well. Even with that, it is hard to sit at the table for more than two hours and not eat too much or something I shouldn't.
On the sushi front, I recently visited Taro Sushi on Dean St. in Park Slope, just off Fifth Ave., close to Flatbush. Some friends raved about it, including the Japanese director of the TV documentary I just made. He lives in Brooklyn, too. It had to have been a very different place when he went. I was under-whelmed by the sushi, which were no better and maybe not as good as my favorite Brooklyn Japanese restaurant, Geido, on Flatbush Ave. near Seventh Ave., which has delicious cooked food as well as sushi. And I was appalled by the shabbiness and the hygiene of Taro. The men's room and the floor were disgustingly dirty. Japanese restaurants, no matter how humble, are generally immaculate.
For fish, I recently went to Lure Fishbar, at 142 Mercer St., at Prince, in Soho. The place is magnificent, built to look like a swank yacht (as if there were any other kind): Port holes high on the walls, wooden ceiling, shiny stripped ship's decking on the floors, big trapezoidal windows between the bar and the dining room. The décor may be just distracting enough to compensate for being below street level, an awkward restaurant location that has spit out several predecessors. My only complaint is the noise. Such a stylish and expensive place, serving food that isn't just frou-frou but actually deserves some attention, should have a more civilized noise level. Interesting, how quiet has become the ultimate luxury in New York. We even discussed this at dinner. (Where to go for quiet? Write to me at mavensmail@aol.com . I'll print your answers.)
The food at Lure can be sublime. If you like raw fish, chef Joshua Capon, is offering a "raw fishbar," as is fashionable nowadays. But he blessedly does not call the dishes "crudi," the Italian word for raw things, as everyone else does, even when they are not Italian. Chef Josh's raw fish tidbits are totally Chef Josh's original creations. They include "yellowtail (with) lemon-jalapeno condiment (and) baby mint." I liked that one. And there was one with gelatinized olive oil – very interesting, as well as delicious. Then there's the lobster with golden garlic (crunchy nut-colored mince) and chilies on the thinnest slice of sourdough bread. It was a case of you'd never know the sourdough was there unless you were told and you looked, but I know it completed this fantasy, and would be missed if it wasn't there. We ate a series of these tidbits, courtesy of the chef who was (it's too long a story) connected to one of my friends at the table. I liked them all. But shining in my memory is the yellow-tomato gazpacho with big chunks of beautifully tender and sweet lobster – you know, your ideal of lobster.
I enjoyed my swordfish (with soy ginger marinade that tasted like it had a miso base – very Japanese in any case), which came with a salad of sweet yellow and red (I supposed "heirloom") tomatoes. But my friend across the table thought hers was cooked too dry. Someone ordered the roasted halibut with pink peppercorn vinaigrette, mainly because it came with a potato puree (and silken it was). I didn't like the "grilled whole dourade" (sic) because its coating of herbs was much too aggressive. The desserts were knockouts, but, you know, I tried not to pay attention at that point. I ate fresh berries.
Figure at least $75 a person for a full meal with one of the least expensive wines on the list and no cocktails. With double-digit appetizers and main courses that start in the mid 20s and top at $32 (for plain grilled fish), it's likely to be more. And for my (limited) money, a list that virtually starts at $40 and very soon tops $50, has very little to offer. We went with a superb Soave. I will venture to say it is one of the few Soaves worth serious consideration – Pieropan, and the bottle we selected for $48 was La Rocca, Pieropan's top of the line.
P.S. Just a reminder – This Saturday, tomorrow, June 17, from 1 to about 3 p.m., I will be meeting, greeting, and signing books at Brooklyn's best cookware shop, Cook's Companion on Atlantic Ave. Check the Maven's Appearance page on my website for details.
