Pasita, New York

I had a quick trip to NYC last week so thought I'd do a quick wrap up on some of the food highlights. First off, my friend Steve took me to Pasita, a new Venezuelan-style pizza place and wine bar in the West Village. Pasita specializes in thin-crust pizzas and these didn't disappoint--my prosciutto and arugula pizza was excellent as was Steve's white pizza with artichokes and mushrooms. Jesse's South American-style pizza of shredded beef and manchego may have been my favorite. We also sampled the yucca fries. We'd had so many glasses of the Chilean Carmenere that the owner was nice enough to charge us for a bottle rather than a glass which we learned only when we'd finally stopped drinking and asked for the bill after all the other restaurant patrons had gone home.

Pasita
47 8th Ave (West Village between Horatio Street and W 4th St)
(212) 255-3900

Olives, New York

It wasn't my idea to have lunch at Olives in the W Hotel on Union Square. It was pouring rain and I was drenched by the time we got there, but it turned out to be well worth it. I had the special three-course Greenmarket menu from which I selected minestrone soup (easily one of the best I've ever had), saffron-yellow pillows of agnolloti stuffed with braised lamb shank on a bed of tomato ragu (incredible) and, for dessert, a pairing of homemade sorbets. I also tried my friend Rika's prosciutto and fig pizza which is her favorite and a seasonal specialty. Todd English has restaurants all over the world at this point (I ate at the Beacon Hill branch of Figs while in Boston over the summer) so it was nice to find this outpost (and in a hotel no less) delivering such quality. The next time I'm in New York lunch at Olives may be my idea.

Olives
W Hotel, Union Square
201 Park Ave South (at 17th St)
(212) 353-8345

Country, New York

I've eaten at Country, Jeffrey Zakarian's restaurant in the Carlton Hotel, a number of times since that's usually the hotel I stay at while in NY. I hadn't been particulary impressed until this trip when, while waiting for my car to JFK, I decided to grab a quick bite at the bar. I ordered the clam chowder which is served ceremoniously by the waiter who pours a small carafe of clam broth and heavy cream into a bowl filled with freshly cooked clams and small chunks of smokey bacon. Enough said. Even better though was the Tuna Pizzette, an open-faced tuna sandwich with alternating strips of sourdough bread topped with sashimi-grade raw tuna on half of the pieces and what must have been olive oil-poached albacore on the others. All of this was garnished with thinly sliced, slender long French radishes, some fresh greens and a little fleur de sel. Now that's a tuna sandwich.

Country
90 Madison Ave (at 29th St)
(212) 889-7100

La Diferencia, Tijuana

What could be a better antidote on a day trip to the relative grime and mayhem that is Tijuana than to find an out-of-the-way restaurant where you can relax in a colorful but quiet tiled courtyard listening to a gurgling fountain and the chirp of caged birds while sipping from a cold bottle of Sol? La Diferencia is a far cry from the places along Avenida Revolución where barkers shouting "hey buddy" try to hustle you in for a shooter of Cuervo Gold. In fact, it's on a relatively elegant Restaurant Row about 15 minutes (and only a $6 cab ride) away from the border itself. The menu features elegantly presented and rather sophisticated takes on Mexican cuisine.

I'd long wanted a chance to try cuitlacoche, the corn fungus prized as a delicacy in Mexico, and was happy to see that La Diferencia offered it in several different preparations. I opted for the appetizer of cuitlacoche crepes in tomatillo sauce which was delicious. The crepes were light little bundles filled with the earthy, black cuitlacoche and tied closed at the top with a small amount of corn husk. The cuitlacoche reminded me a bit of black beans but with a slightly funky corn aftertaste. As a main course I opted for the chile relleno de jaiba, which, as the name implies, is a chile poblano stuffed with crab. This was no greasy, batter-fried chile, but instead had been baked in puff-pastry to a golden brown and dusted with sesame seeds. The same puff-pastry showed up as an edible lid on Buddy's soup through which he could poke through to the light, clear mushroom broth hidden below. He especially liked his shrimp enchiladas which I tried and can also say were excellent. The service at La Diferencia is excellent too, which, the food aside, must account for the popularity of the place among the crowd of well-to-do tijuanenses with whom we dined. I'm not sure that a trip to TJ will ever be complete without a trip down the donky-painted-as-zebra sideshow that is Avenida Revolución, but it sure was nice to find a top-notch restaurant turning out inventive, excellent Mexican cuisine only slightly off the beaten path.

La Diferencia
Blvd. Sanchez Taboada 10611-A
Zona Rio, Tijuana B.C.
(011 52 664) 6 34 33 46