How to Get To Promise...

There's a great little deli that offers up good food and peculiar sandwiches. That place is Promise Deli, and it's a pain to get to on foot. Walking there with my friend, Ryan, we usually have no issues walking on the side of the road that has no side walk and is very close to the cars (overly dramatic), however it's worth it.

Promise offers up traditional deli fare to your liking and as well, they have a variety of hot (and a few cold) sandwiches that will likely not be found anywhere else. The famed "Sandwiche" which is a combo of buffalo grilled chicken, mozzarella, bleu cheese on a garlic hero. A weird combination, though it works and I like to add bacon to it. Other specials include the "Boulevard," "Fire Island Chicken," "The Brooklyn Bridge" and many more.

The reason I'm writing this deli up other than the fact that I admire the business is that I had a really hard time getting there today. Normally, we do walk on the side of the road with not much room for movement on our side, only in front and behind, though that's never a problem. However, there were landscaping trucks parked all along our route to get there, and I wanted lunch. I'm making sure I eat after what happened this past Saturday.

Anyway, if the road is on our right side, to the left of us are overgrown weeds and bushes. Doesn't seem so bad, except we couldn't really get around the trucks on our right side without being in the middle of the road. I tried to make my way in on the left, and Ryan smartly waited for me to come back because I was stuck all over with barbs from rose bushes, which I wasn't going to do. We ended up looking and running, and we made it easily in one piece.

On the way out we decided to use the side walk even though the truck had left at that point. It was a good lesson learned, because I'll do a lot for food, though I'm not going to get killed over one lunch.

A Nice Rosa Mexicano Meal After Not Eating All Day

In my entire life, I have never once become dizzy from not eating all day. It's just never happened and it occurred to me that this passed Saturday, I just didn't have any time. Spontaneous recitals and rehearsals set me back when it came to food. Luckily enough for me, instead of going home after a long day, my dad was at the opera (for the second time and I haven't even gone once this season!!!) and I could go out to dinner with my parents. The only question was, where am I going to be able to go without fainting.

It had to be that good that I would walk all the way from the upper west 80's to Lincoln Center to get food. That place was Rosa Mexicano. I haven't been for a while and I just got the craving for a really good Mexican meal and I knew exactly what I wanted. The only trouble was getting there without a reservation on a Saturday night right before the night showing of the opera was getting in.

My parents were very skeptical about the idea, though I just had a feeling that we could get to the restaurant and get a table. It was a crazy feeling, though a feeling never the less. There was no way they were going to give me the satisfaction of taking a cab or the subway there. They were going to make me work for it and I knew it, so I walked in my fatigued state in hopes of finding a table at the most popular restaurant in Lincoln Center under the conditions we had.

Finally getting down there, we walked into the restaurant and they told us that we'd have to wait about 30 minutes, and I would wait it out if I had some thing to drink and then they told us that they had a table ready. I felt like a psychic and I was really pleased with perseverance to get to this place. It turned out that they actually had a few open tables that night.

Like I said before, I knew exactly what I wanted. We first ordered the guacamole to share amongst us and then I got the carne asada which is one of my all time favorite dishes (only from there though, and maybe La Condesa) and a coke (to wake me up and satisfy my caffeine addiction). It was exactly as I envisioned it and perfect. A nice table and I nice meal, I'm glad I work for food. After we ate my dizziness had subsided and I was finally full for once in the day!

Vegetarian Lunch?!?

On Saturday I was in a major rush to get something to eat in an hour, and something new to me. I stupidly went down to the Lincoln Center Library from 85th Street to look for out of print music that wasn't even available to look at... Anyway, I took a cab all the way to 83rd, because time made it look like I had to go to Hale and Hearty (which isn't bad, I just eat there too much). However, the cab was going down 83rd and I saw this "Cafe Lalo" which I had always seen and had never gone into. This is what it looks like from the outside:

So, I stop the cab, get out and go into this restaurant hoping that I can get a seat, eat quickly, and get back to the conservatory. I walk in and I was bombarded with a massive conglomerate of great smells and I knew that I was in the right place. I walked by the main counter to see all of the incredible desserts that they had to offer there and I was sat at my table.

I almost had a heart attack when my waitress said that there was no meat being served at this cafe. However, I didn't have time to waste. I ordered a mushroom-gruyere quiche and an order of hand cut fries (which is another weakness of mine).

My order came out very quickly with this beautiful slice of quiche sitting on the plate that was definitively the best combination of puff pastry, German cheese, and mushrooms on the planet. Moving on to the fries. Some of the best, most flavorful fries I have ever had, and it was served "David-Size" in a small red bucket which was hard for me to finish with that heavy quiche.

It turned out to me that what was the scariest thought of not having meat turned out to be one of the best lunches I've ever had, next to Jean Georges Nougatine.