food is me

The Norry at Kompuchea

78 Rivington St, at Allen; Lower East Side

A new brother pubstaurant adjacent to Kampuchea, The Nor’s curved tiled cieling, exposed brick, and wooden accents set the vibe for casual Cambodian fare including its sibling’s popular banh mi-esque num pang sandwiches and tamarind baby back ribs, plus new bites like fried chicken with chili salt, and veal meatballs w/ egg yolk and stewed tomatoes. Drinks run from a hot cider/caramel tea punch with cognac, Jamaican rum, and Cointreau, to the green tea vodka/St-Germain/Lillet Blanc “Cambodian Tea Party”, accompanied by cries of “No internment of professionals and intellectuals without representation!”.

View the Menu

via  Thrillist

To spice up lunch this week, I plan on dining at the Bon Appétit Supper Club at least once.  This week long pop up café and restaurant returns to midtown with meals created by the likes of Daniel Boulud and Mario Batali, book signings, cooking demos and best of all, Q&A’s with chefs that all foodies know and love.

Two words embody Rocco Ristorante: great service.  During my NYU days, I’ve always been curious about Rocco Ristorante but for some reason never found myself there for dinner.  When I saw that Restaurant.com had it listed as part of their gift certificate program last week, I figured this would be the perfect time to give it a try.

The interior was quite old-fashioned but it was built in 1922 after all so that did not faze us.

We were served bruschetta to entertain us as we made our meal choices. For dinner, I had the pork tenderloin stuffed with spinach, ricotta and some other savory flavors I cannot describe.  My beau tried the sauteed veal with a light layer of eggplant, tomato caponata sauce and my dad had the veal piccata which was very tender. Overall, we were quite pleased with our meal and the flavors were outstanding.  While Frankie’s is still by far my favorite Italian restaurant, the impeccable service would bring me back more often than not. After all, there just isn’t service like that anymore in New York.