Best Dining Marathon

Well, I returned to New York on Thursday and brought my folks with me. To get dinner. And lunch. Sure, we caught some shows, I kept up the culture level, but really, eating was our business. Here's the rundown.


Here's Mom and Dad at Dumont with the lobster bisque Thursday night. Dad wondered what was up with me taking him out to Brooklyn for dinner, but I'm all "Dad, don't worry about it, I'm just taking you to the best restaurant in the world that's across the street from a gas station." Aside from the lobster bisques all around, we had sea scallops with potatoes and bacon, the mad-delicious crab cake, Dad had the duck, which was crazy good, Mom had the strip steak, and I had the skirt steak, the only thing I've ever eaten at Dumont that didn't make me almost fall out of my chair. For dinner, some fallen chocolate cake and the insane chocolate custard.


Our first stop on our two-restaurant lunch Friday was at Cafe Habana. Here's Mom and Dad with the Mexican-style corn on the cob (ah, sweet street-food memories). I'm always impressed with Cafe Habana, like, it does not need to be nearly as good as it is. Mom had some salad, Dad had the excellent black bean + avocado + white cheese torta and I had the fancy synchronizada, which, if I may repeat myself, did not need to be as delicious as it was.


Then we went over to the Dumpling House on Eldridge, because my parents demand dumplings when they come to New York. Here's Dad with the sesame pancake with beef.


And Mom with the dumplings. Dumpling House is insane, almost as insane as the various gazillion-star reviews they have posted on their walls now.


For dinner we went to the Burger Joint. Perhaps you have been to the Burger Joint, and if you so, you then I need say nothing more than "We went to the Burger Joint" to make you jealous.


Dinner Saturday was at the Stip House. Very good, Mom had the Rib Chop, Dad and I both had filets, we had their truffled spinach and goose fat potatoes as sides . . . unfortunately, truffled spinach and goose fat potatoes sound a lot more decadent than they taste. No complaints, though. Man, I just love spinach these days.


Sunday we got a brilliant hookup for Five Points brunch. My folks demand Five Points brunch when they come to New York, and I am not one to deny such a demand. We had some polenta, the churros y chocolate (as seen here), Mom had a frittata with olives and stuff in it, Dad had the oven-roasted eggs and tomatoes, I first ordered the pork shoulder, but they ran out of pig shoulders, so I had a fine, bloody burger (that's a positive, y'know) -- although I now wonder why I didn't order a brunch speciality, I mean, one can get a burger at any time. There isn't much in this world that surpasses a Five Points brunch.

Later I'll talk about the other stuff we did. Later. Until then, lots of people had better leave lots of comments about how cute my Mom looks in these pictures.