You always hear about pregnant woman craving strange food combinations, like pickles and ice cream.  We 've been craving fried pickles and we've discovered quite a few places to get our fix.  

Mara's Homemade
342 East 6th St., btwn. First & Second Aves.
(212)598-1110
One of our favorites are the fried pickles at Mara's Homemade, a small, southern spot in the East Village.  Mara's pickles are dusted in cornmeal and served with a creamy remoulade dipping sauce.  The fried green tomatoes rank pretty high on our greasy fix list, too.

Whiskey Tavern                                        
79 Baxter St., Bayard & Walker Sts.                              
(212)374-9119
An unexpected find in Chinatown, Whiskey Tavern is known as much for its vast whiskey selection as for its pickle offerings.  Supplied by The Pickle Guys, these excellent specimens are cut into spears and breaded in panko before being fried to a golden crisp.   They're served with a thick, herbed sour cream that's almost as tasty as the pickles themselves.  You can even order a shot of whiskey with a pickle back!

SoHo Park                                                   
62 Prince St, btwn. Lafayette & Crosby Sts.                 
(212)219-2129                                                         
This popular clubhouse in Soho offers a number of local beers on tap as well as fried pickles from our very own, Guss' pickles in the Lower East Side.  A basket of Southern Fried Pickles are practically a rite of passage here and  there are plenty of dipping options to choose from.  We recommend you pair your pickles with their feisty sambal ketchup or their garlic aioli.

Southern Hospitality                                     
1460 2nd Ave, btwn. 76th & 77th Aves.                               
(212)249-1001                                                   
The menu at this Upper East Side barbecue spot, is an homage to Southern cooking, like fried catfish and bbq chicken and deep-fried pickle chips, which apparently are a “Memphis classic”.   They're salty, greasy, delightfully crispy and served with a tangy side of ranch dressing.

Brother Jimmy’s                                         
1485 2nd Ave, 77th & 78th Sts.                                      
(212)288-0999                                                  
Frickles are the name of the game at this neighborhood sports bar with locations all over the city.   A mash-up of fried and pickles, Brother Jimmy's frickles come with a potent horseradish sauce that makes this a piquant bar snack that goes well with a dark beer.  You can up the ante further with by adding a little hot sauce. 

BLT Burger                                                                           
470 6th Ave., nr. 11th St.                                          
(212)243-8226                                                   
The servers and the bartenders all wear t-shirts that read, “We are what we eat."   The starter of fried dill pickles is the dish to order at BLT Burger.  They're delicately battered and potently sour at the center, accompanied by a  ranch-chili dipping sauce.

Calling all beachbound foodies: Some of the city's most celebrated chefs will be on hand to celebrate the 2010 Great Chefs Dinner this Sunday, August 8th in Bridgehampton, New York.   The evening will begin at 5 pm with a cocktail party where Craft's Tom Colicchio, Surf Lodge's Sam Talbot, Lure's Josh Capon,  Nick & Toni's Joseph Realmuto will be serving hors d'oeuvres.  At 7pm, there will be a more formal, sit-down dinner prepared by such luminaries as Le Bernardin's Eric Ripert, Laurent Tourondel & Marc Meyer.   All proceeds will benefit Hayground School's Jeff's Kitchen and the Jeff Salaway Scholarship Fund. 


When: Sunday, August 8th
Where: Hayground School
151 Mitchells Lane, Bridgehampton, NY
Tickets: Cocktails at 5-7 pm for $150; Cocktails & Dinner 7-9 pm for $750
Info:  (631)537-7068 or www.greatchefsdinner.com

Joey Campanaro isn't very trendy.  He's a low key, Italian guy who likes to cook things like roast chicken and ricotta cavatelli.  But he took New York by storm with a 28-seat eatery named The Little Owl and his gravy meatball sliders.  Four years later, it's just as hard to get a prime-time reservation at this charmed, Greenwich Village spot.

Now, you can also try Campanaro's sliders at Kenmare, his newest, Nolita venture and collaboration with nightlife impresario, Paul Sevigny.  But that's not really what diners are fawning over.  Oh no, it's the cheddar fries.  These crazy crispy fries are Campanaro's riff on cheese & gravy-smothered "disco fries." (There's a disco ball in the buzzing lounge downstairs.)   Kenmare's golden-brown fries aren't doused, but sprinkled with a phenomenal combination of English farmhouse cheddar, green onions, curry, cayenne, and salt.  The crowning touch is a side of chicken gravy that the chef makes for Thanksgiving, which you'll want to pour on just about everything but dessert. 

Side Dish: This beloved fried creation originated in Canada and is known as poutine.  Disco fries were a New Jersey & New York diner phenomenon of steak fries covered in mozzarella & chicken gravy.  A lot of people confuse disco fries with Elvis fries, but Elvis liked his fries doused in sausage gravy & cheddar. 
 

Technically, it's spring.   Though the weather's not cooperating, there are signs on menus all over the city.  Delicate ceviches, arugula salads, rhubarb desserts, meyer lemon, mandarin, and other species of citrus are cropping up at some of the finest restaurants. Which makes feel a little closer to T-shirt weather, even if it's just indoors. 

Rouge Tomate

Address: 10 East 60th St, btwn. 5th & Madison Aves.

Phone: (646)   237-8977

www.rougetomatenyc.com 

The thought of "healthy food" makes most people depressed, but you don't feel that way at Rouge Tomate.  Not only is there an in-house nutritionist, but also a chef who trained under Daniel Boulud and Joel Robuchon.  That's a great combination when you're gearing up for less layers and warmer weather.   And the food happens to be delicious.  Chef Jeremy Bearman recently introduced a local seafood ceviche with kumquats, fennel, blood orange, cucumber, & avocado.  While it's brisk outside, you can take comfort in meyer lemon gnocchi with broccoli rabe, grapes, raisins, pine nuts and feta.  It's hard to believe that James DiStefano's desserts are accounted for by the nutritionist as well.  Even if they weren't, I'd end the evening with the "Citrus," which features a lemon & olive oil cake, with mandarin, blood orange and housemade ricotta.

 

The Harrison

355 Greewich st (at Harrison)

(212)   274-9310

www.theharrison.com

After a long stint on Chopped, Amanda Freitag's back in the kitchen at this Tribeca favorite with al fresco seating.   Her Mediterranean cooking style happens to be perfect for spring.  She's already added a number of new dishes to the menu, including chargrilled octopus with fingerling potatoes, fresh mint and feta as well an entree of pan-seared arctic char with meyer lemon preserve and Sicilian green olives.  As for dessert, Colleen Grapes has come up with a lemon and rhubarb tart finished with thyme and vanilla creme fraiche. 

 

Diner

Address: 85 Broadway

Phone: (718)486-3077

www.dinernyc.com
When a restaurant updates its menu daily, you can expect very seasonal cooking.  It also makes a little difficult to recommend anything, because they never serve the same thing two days in a row.  You'll just have to find out for yourself, but chances are they'll be something unexpected on every plate.  Last week, they offered a pear salad with fennel fronds, parsley and chives as well as as unusual combination of veal carpaccio alongside poached swordfish with a caper aioli and chervil.  Diner doesn't miss a beat with dessert either.  Expect something along the lines of rice pudding with candied kumquats or almond cake with citrus and candied almonds.

 

Blue Hill

Phone: (212)539-1776

Address: 75 Washington Place, at Washington Sq Park                                           www.bluehillfarm.com                                                                                                                               A pioneer of the Greenmarket, Dan Barber paved the way for a generation of seasonal chefs and sustainable cooking.  Guests literally eat farm-to-table at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.  You can even take a tour of the farm to preview your meal to come.  If you can't make it out of the city, you can still sample some of Stone Barns' produce with a fruit and vegetable salad with Stone Barns greens and soy bean puree or emmer and quinoa with both Stone Barns' guanciale and Berkshire pig.   Dan Barber only buys local, so expect Hudson Valley chicken and veal as well as locally grown vegetables and artisanal cheeses.

 

Park Avenue Spring

Address: 100 East 63rd St., at Park Ave.

Phone: (212)644-1900

www.parkavenyc.com

This restaurant takes the notion of seasonal to a new level.  Not only does the menu change every season, but also the entire dining room.  Winter's officially over here and spring has inspired dishes, like peekytoe crabcake with raspberry and avocado (pictured right,) lamb chops accompanied by rhubarb panzanella, and a side of sweet pea crumble.   For dessert, you can sample the scope of Richard Leach's talents with rhubarb & semolina fritters and a warm strawberry & violet meringue pie.

Over the past few years, I've become a Dear Abby of the food sorts.  It wasn't something I advertised, but when you write about restaurants, you become an obvious resource for advice for the majority of eaters who can't afford a personal restaurant concierge.  I would get emails from people asking where to their wife for a 30th anniversary or a first date suggestion with a vegetarian or the best Thai restaurant in the city.  I couldn't ignore a fellow foodie's plea for help. 

Suddenly, there was new competition.  Eatery Expert  launched a few weeks ago, offering free restaurant advice as well.   Of course, I felt compelled to investigate their "expert" status.  There are plenty of great restaurants, but they're not all great for every occasion.  Picking the perfect restaurant involves a number of factors, like  cuisine, company, price and noise level.  I wouldn't advise you to "meet the parents" for the first time at a place that doesn't take reservations.  You could end up waiting for an hour and run out of conversation before you even sit down for dinner. I also wouldn't recommend you to take a vegetarian to Momofuku Ssam Bar, The Breslin, or any other pork-centric place in the city.   Would this "so-called" Eatery Expert take into account any of these circumstances?

I sent them several questions from three different email accounts with different names on each account.  I also sent the same question from two different accounts to see how consistent their suggestions were.   My biggest concern  is that they don't cover the the dining possibilities in Brooklyn, Queens, or any of the boroughs, but we'll get to that in a bit.   Before I get into recommendations, I have to give them props for being prompt.  They returned all three of my initial emails within 24 hours.  However, they don't work on the weekends.  (My Saturday email wasn't returned until Monday.)    They're also extremely polite.  "Thank you for giving Eatery Expert a shot,"  was the first line of every response I received.  They even wished my hypothetical foodie friend a happy birthday before rattling off  suggestions for an affordable restaurant to celebrate the occasion with twelve friends.

In the birthday case, they offered me three options, listing La Carbonara first as their first choice, then Macondo followed by Supper and Alta.   Supper and Alta are both respectable suggestions, but I can think of much better options than La Carbonara and Macondo like Il Buco, which has better food and a better wine list.  Personally, I think foodies like to get creative with birthday dinners, like going for the bo ssam at Momofuku Ssam Bar or the fried chicken in Koreatown or at Locanda Verde on Sundays.  So I inquired again, thanking them for their initial suggestions and asking for "something more chef-driven."  The second time around they proposed Yerba Buena Perry, Sorella, and L'Artusi, which are all great, but why did I have to ask twice to get their best recommendations?   
I also wrote them from a male user's account, asking where to take a vegetarian on a third date.  I explained, "I don't want to take her to a vegetarian restaurant, just somewhere she can actually eat that has good food and wine."  They came up with Bottega Organico, Paprika, and Agave, which are fine for everyday, but a little generic for a special occasion.   So I asked again, steering them toward something more special.  The second time around, they came up with Craft and Cafe Boulud, both excellent choices.  They've obviously done their homework, but why not give me the best advice you've got right away?  Fortunately, they did just that when I asked for a sushi spot with very fresh fish and traditional rolls somewhere on the Lower East Side or the East Village.  They had me at Kanoyama, which happens to be one of my favorites in the city.   

But not once did the folks at Eatery Expert suggest a restaurant in the boroughs.  After I posted this piece, Eatery Expert updated me that they had added "Manhattan" to their website for clarification and pointed to the 212 in their logo, which I didn't initially assume was literal.  This becomes a problem when you're looking for the best Mexican food and tacos in New York.  They proposed Cascabel, Mercadito, and La Lucha.   What about La Superior or Ricos Tacos, both in Brooklyn?  Or La Casa De Los Tacos in Harlem?  When I asked for the best Mexican from another account, they came back with the same recommendations, so they're certainly consistent.  Overall, I was impressed with their suggestions, but I might considering changing the name to "Manhattan Eatery Expert."