Little Italy: Paesano Italian Restaurant

Every time I come to little Italy I feel like I want to be able to go to a little town in NYC that represents my country, Libya. Also, sometimes I feel a little jealous that people from China and Korea get to go to their own small town representation of their countries in NYC.

One of my favorite restaurants in Little Italy is called Paesano. Not only that it is cheaper than other restaurants in Little Italy but also it is better in quality. The decoration of the restaurant inside is unique, there is pictures of old Italian celebrities and just the way the wall is made it gives the sense of the old Italian country. This makes this restaurant unique.

My favorite dishes in this restaurant are: shrimp parmigiana, linguine with calamari and muscles, and the shrimp diavolo. My least favorite dish is the chicken Alfredo one time I had this dish and the chicken was a bit hard and not fresh. Therefore, I would mainly recommend sea food pastas in this restaurant. The desserts in this restaurant are also good, their cannoli is good, also their cappuccino is very nice. I had it at my brother’s graduation dinner about two years ago. I have tried other restaurants in Little Italy and every time I come back to Paesano. As far as the service Paesano is also excellent the waitresses are very nice and orders come pretty fast so you do not have to suffer waiting for so long when you’re hungry. Unlike my experience at another restaurant in Little Italy I don’t even remember the name of the restaurant but there was a female waitress and she was pretty rude.

The fact that there is all these types of towns in NYC makes me realize the way this city is very welcoming of different ethnicities and cultures. It is a definitely true statement when they say that NYC is the melting pot of all cultures.

The Italian Restaurant Vapiano

My all-time favorite type of food is Italian food. There is a restaurant called Vapiano, it is a unique and different type of restaurant. Vapiano is mainly self-service meaning you do not have a waitress coming to your table and taking your order. You have to stand in a line and order your dish. Then someone will cook your meal in front of you. Vapiano does not only exist in the US there different braches of this restaurant all over the world for example France ,Prague, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. The food at Vapiano is absolutely delicious. My favorite dishes there are the salmon carbonara pasta and the shrimp espinaci pasta (Spinach). However, even their shrimp pizza is very delicious. I encourage people who want to have a simple nothing fancy type of a dinner/lunch to come to Vapiano they will truly enjoy it. The only down side about Vapiano is the fact that it is crowded especially during weekends. Also, their deserts are not good at all, but their coffee is the best, probably the best coffee I have ever tried in NYC. The environment in Vapiano is usually noisy because it is mostly full of people, however at night they light small candles on every table so it makes it a bit romantic, although it is still noisy. A suggestion I can give to people especially if they are going out at night is to come to Vapiano for dinner before going to a night club or a bar/lounge. One better thing about Vapaino is the fact that it is self-service, which means you do not need to pay tip, and that makes it cheaper. Anyone who is looking to have a really nice day or night meal but do not want to spend so much money, Vapiano is the place.

If You Want to Experience the Taste of Middle Eastern Sea Food Anassa Taverna is the Place

This week am going to talk about my favorite restaurant for seafood. A Greek restaurant called Anassa Taverna it is located in uptown Manhattan. I have never tasted a better sea food in my life. This restaurant is more to the expensive side but absolutely worth it. The sea food that they have feels as if they have imported it from the Middle East. It tastes very delicious.

The environment in this restaurant is dark and romantic. They have candles on each table. Also, it is more to the formal side ,but do not worry you can always dress casual and not feel weird about it at all. The service in this restaurant is great because it is considered a bit fancy ,so that is also another thing that makes this restaurant even better.
I encourage all sea food lovers to try this place am sure you will never taste anything better. I have come many times to this restaurant and I have had my graduation dinner there and I could not have enjoyed it any better. My favorite meals in this restaurant is basically everything I love their risotto, royal fish, salmon, and all their sea food.
In fact their other types of food are also extraordinary, my brother once had their lamb and he said it was absolutely delicious. I encourage everyone who is looking to have a simple/fancy/date dinner night to come to Taverna, I promise you will not regret it, in fact you might become addicted, like me.

Tips On How to Know a Restaurant is Good

This week my blog post is going to be different from all my previous posts. Am going to give you guys tips on how to know if a restaurant is good:

1. One obvious tip and am sure a lot of people already do that is to check the restaurant’s rating on Yelp. Also, you should view the comments the good and the bad so you know what to exactly expect when you come to the restaurant.
2. If you come to a restaurant and it is crowded then this is a good sign. There is a big potential that it is going to be a good restaurant, because apparently there is a crowd of people that like it.
3. One of the main important things in restaurants I think is customer service. If the service is slow it means the restaurant is probably not good, and the waitresses are not well trained to serve a lot of people at once. On the other hand, if the service is too fast this is not a good sign either ,because it can mean that the food is stored that they have it from the previous day, so it is taking them so long to prepare it.
4. Another thing that is related to service is when waitresses are constantly asking you if you need anything and if you have finished your meal. People want to enjoy their meal and if the waitresses are constantly disturbing them, then they are not going to enjoy it.

Above all the main important thing when you are visiting a restaurant is to feel comfortable. If you do not enjoy the service and the restaurant’s atmosphere then it is just going to be a bad experience and you are not going to feel any less stressed and relaxed after a long week of work.

 

Saravanah Bhavan A South Indian Restaurant

This week am going to talk about a different and unique experience with Indian food, specifically south Indian food. For those of you who do not know south Indian food is mainly vegetarian. However, I am not vegetarian and never have been. 

The restaurant that I have tried in  downtown Manhattan NYC is called Saravanah Bahavan. The restaurant is pretty small in size, and it has many locations around the world such as the united emirates and Canada,  but its original location I believe is Singapore. 

The food that they serve is mainly in a big plates that has bread stuffed with Indian spices, and three side sauces with it. The way people eat it is they dip the bread in the three sauces. I remember the sauces were all made with coconut, one of them was mint and coconut, and one was plain coconut, and one was I believe tomatoes and coconut. At first the ingredient have sounded a little weird to me, but when I tasted it, I actually liked it because the Indian spices is what brings it together and makes the dish tasty. One thing I would warn people to be careful from is their spicy food, because spicy food is not just a little or mild spicy, IT IS VERY SPICY.  I personally love spicy food and when I first came there I choose their spicy dish, and I ended up with stomach ache the whole day, although I am used to spicy food and I eat it often. So yeah guys that is a warning! :P 

I like Indian food because Indians use a lot of spices in their food, and it is something I am used to, because in my culture we tend to use a lot of spices as well and that is what makes our food special and tasty. The only thing that I do not like about the south Indian food is as I just mentioned their spicy food is too spicy. 

Barbes Morrocan Restaurant

In this blog post am going to talk about my favorite Arabic restaurant in New York, Manhattan. I am originally from Libya, it is located in North Africa. Since I am Arab I grew up on Arabic food and I love it. Barbes Moroccan restaurant is one of the restaurants that make me experience the taste of home food, and I really enjoy it. My absolute favorite meals are Couscous and Tajine. Couscous is a type of North African semolina in granules made from crushed durum wheat. Also, there is a tomato sauce with vegetables and either lamb or fish, but it can be served with vegetables only. Back home we like to have the tomato sauce spicy. Also, we make the tomato sauce with lamb and vegetables: onions, tomatoes, chickpeas, zucchini, pieces of green peppers, and potatoes. Tajine is also a North African dish and it is basically a stew of spiced meat and vegetables prepared by slow cooking in a specific type of cooking dish, which is a shallow earthenware cooking dish with a tall conical lid. Both of these dishes are absolutely delicious.

Another thing that makes me love this restaurant is the beautiful decoration and the environment. When you walk in you feel as if you are entering a really nice romantic cozy place. Also, they usually put small candles on the tables when the sun goes down. The candles make the environment become romantic. The only thing that I don’t like about this restaurant is the fact that it is small in size.

I really recommend that anyone who is interested in trying Arabic
restaurants that they go to Barbes. Am absolutely certain
they are going to fall in love with it, especially if they come
from a country where they eat food with a lot of flavor and spices.

 

Maison Kayer French Restaurant

I am going to talk about my favorite French restaurant and the reason I have recently fell love with French food. There is a really nice restaurant in Manhattan called Maison Kayser. The word Maison in French means house, and I believe the word kayser means emperor. Thus, the name of the restaurant is the house of the emperor. The reason the restaurant is named with this name is because French people are known to be stylish, classy, and fancy. Therefore, I think this name might have been chosen for the restaurant because it best represents the French culture and the nature of French people. 

Now I want to talk about the food! My favorite dish is the smoked salmon, and they call it at the restaurant saumon fume. For people who love seafood and salmon in particular, this dish is a must try. They serve the salmon along with sunny side up egg and bread. They also put capers and that makes the taste even more divine.  The food at this restaurant is more to light side and not super filling, which for me is perfect and makes their food both delicious and healthy. I would definitely recommend this restaurant for people who are not familiar with the French food, because it gives an experience of France and its food. The only thing that I think would have made this restaurant more authentic is if the waitresses are originally French, and that is not the case in the restaurant. I have hardly seen any waitresses from France. The service at this restaurant is perfect because it is fancy and its price is more to the expensive side ,but not very expensive and absolutely affordable.

Because of this restaurant I would absolutely want to visit France and try more of their food as well as discover the country and the culture.

Carmines Italian Restaurant

On this post I am going to talk about my favorite Italian restaurant in NYC. It is called Carmines, and it is a family style restaurant. There is only two locations of this restaurant in Manhattan one in time square and one in the upper west side. The meals they serve at Carmines are all in large plates that people share rather than individual meals, which is what makes it unique and different than any other restaurant. The food style makes the experience more enjoyable, because it creates an interaction between people where they all share the food, and not just concentrate on their individual meals. I have been to this restaurant many times and never got tired of it. The taste of their food feels like authentic Italian food, it makes me experience the food as if am in Italy. During the nine years that I have spent here in the U.S, I have made my birthday dinners there twice, and every time I have enjoyed the food and the restaurant and so does my friends and family. If I were to compare this restaurant to little Italy, which is a small area in lower Manhattan essentially for Italian restaurants. I would still prefer carmines, because the experience and the friendly environment at carmines is just pleasant. The service at carmines is the best, waitresses help recommend meals for the number of parties that attend as well as have enough patience to explain the meals. Finally, I want to take about price, surprisingly carmines is not expensive and very affordable. Their large meals are usually around thirty something dollars. I mean think about it what’s better than that perfect food and perfect PRICE!!!! I think that carmines should be if it is not already one of the popular places in NYC that foreigners must try when they visit.

Bel Air Diner

On this post am going to talk about diners and the fact that I consider them authentic American restaurants. One of my favorite diners is called Bel Air it is located in New York City, Queens. Every time I come there it literally feels like home, not in the sense that am feeling like am back to my country, but it feels cozy and comfortable. The environment in the diner just makes me able to have deep thoughts and conversations. Also, the fact  the environment around me consists of noise of people talking and little sound of music makes the experience feel even more unique and comfortable for me. Unlike regular restaurants where there is sometimes loud music that even prevents me from hearing the person next to me. I am personally a quite person and I like quite and peaceful places, therefore diners are perfect for me. Now let's talk food ! 

I wanna start by saying that almost all diners have  good food but not top quality food , however Bel Air is a different case. The food there is good ,not only really good but also their meals are served in large quantities and unlimited drink refills, which is another plus for me. Thus, that is one of the things that makes this restaurant feel like home for me, I can have as much food and drinks as I want exactly as if am home. 

Now finally, I wanna say that coming from North Africa specifically from libya has made me feel the similarity between the American culture and my own culture. The American restaurants tend to have large foods and drinks. Whenever, I go to an American restaurant I notice that. This is one of the things that has made me fall in love with the American culture, is the generosity of foods, which is the similar thing to my culture. In my culture, we also tend to serve guests large quantities of food even if we know they are not going to eat all the food, but for us it is a sign of generosity and good hospitality. Similarly, this is the case with American restaurants which are of course a representation of the American culture. 

Authentic Chinese Restaurant

 My experience at the Chinese restaurant is a unique experience and different from any other experience I have had before especially with restaurants that am trying for the first time. It was the first time ever in my life that I was not able to eat anything. Although, my friend who was with me at the time convinced me that the food is really good and I should give it a try, because she saw that I was very hesitant to eat anything. So, eventually I did try one of the weirdest dishes I have ever tried, which was chicken feet, yes you heard me right CHICKCEN FEET! As soon as I put it in my mouth I had to take it out immediately, it was the most disgusting thing I have ever tried. The chicken feet I believe were soaked in some sort of soy sweet sauce, and they barely had any meet on them. Also, just so that people do not misunderstand me I like Chinese food especially shrimp and chicken dumplings but this restaurant was not like any of the ones I have tried before in NYC. The other dish that I have also found disgusting is some sort of noodle sheets you can see it in the picture soaked in soy sauce. It had a very weird gooey texture and barely any flavor. The only thing I have genuinely liked from this restaurant is the Chinese tea. The reason am saying this story is because I really find it interesting that not only restaurants of different countries are different in NYC but also restaurants of the same cuisine can be different, in this case not all Chinese restaurants in NYC are the same. Also, the other thing that I want to mention is our likeness for food depends on where we are from originally and what we are used to eating growing up.