We have a scan through the menu in front of the entrance and we are quite sceptical. The prices are extremely low, how big portions will be? We compare the menu to those in other restaurants but none of them serves Cretan cuisine and prices are too high for us – budget travellers. Eating in Amalthea is better idea.

Even if we are not going to have a filling meal, we will taste some of Crete and enjoy the view of the sea and hills bathed in pink light at sunset.

‘ How big are the portions?’ I ask the waitress.
‘ In Crete we don’t eat one big meal per person,’ she explains and smiles invitingly. ‘We share a plate with our friends or family. However, it is really filling.’

Encouraged enough, we sit at the table and look at the menu. It was in German and… Russian. ‘Why are we constantly mistaken for Russians?’ I think annoyed and look up for a site with Cretan cuisine. The biggest advantage in ordering something in the language that you don’t understand is that you don’t know what to expect. Your mind and taste are opened for new experiences.

For the beginning we order Antipasti – an appetizer composed of many snacks. We have here small slices of smoked beef, something that in German is called Knollengewächse (literally tuber vegetables), Dakos with tomato, Xinomyzithra cheese, stuffed grapevine leaves, pickled olives and yoghurt as a dip. We try everything in turn. Tastes are salty and sour but this is what I love – distinctive flavours that I’ll remember for long.

Tuber vegetables are as salty as olives. I reckon they’re pickled in vinegar and salt but I’m not a chef – I just guess. I have no idea what kind of vagatable are they but their shape resembles small onions. Sofi, the waitress, tells us that they grow only in mountains of Crete.

Dakos is a typical hors d’oeuvre in Crete. It’s a rusk or dry wholemeal bread sprinkled with olive oil, with some tomato’s flesh on and scattered with feta cheese.

But my favourite is Xinomyzithra cheese. Feta is indeed the most well-known cheese of Greece but you have to know that the Greeks have invented so many types of cheese that they’re no worse than the Dutch! The

myzithra is creamy cheese made out of goat or sheep milk and whey, that manufactured during the production of other cheeses. It’s served in delicate breadcrumbs and really melts in our mouth!

After that we order stuffed grapevine leaves. Traditionally the filling is courgette flowers but during the off-season courgette is replaced with rice. Yoghurt is served as a dip. It’s a perfect snack for those who prefer mild tastes.

After two small battles of home-made wine we are brave enough to order a popular local dish – snails! ‘If you’re not sure,’ we hear from Sofi ‘don’t look – just eat!’

I look at the bowl uncertainly. Snails, called Boubouristi, are

served in some kind of vinegar consommé mixed with white wine and rosemary. I take out from a shell a small piece of meat, close my eyes and… I’m surprised! Meat is delicate – not too hard, not jelly-like – and so tasty that I want some more! The bowl full of delicacies gets empty immediately. Now we are ready for some raki!

I think I’ll never learn which alcohol is typical for Greece and which one for Turkey: raki or ouzo? (The same is with vodka: Polish or Russian?) I used to think that ouzo is Greek and raki is Turkish but a lot of people I’ve met deny it… But who cares now? Let’s just enjoy this night (and have a shot of ouzo after raki)!

There is another mysterious dish in the menu. In German it is called Sepia mit Fenchel. As far as I know Fenchel is a fennel but I have no idea what is Sepia. ‘It’s a kind of a fish but not exactly a fish’ says Sofi and I’m even more curious to try it.

Portions on the plate look like a kind of fish fillet covered with a transparent sauce with fennel. Meat is soft and has a little bit too mild-tasting for me but I love how good it goes with the taste of fennel.

(And now I know what is this Sepia. It’s a cuttlefish, a carnivorous cephalopod with two arms and eight tentacles. Almost a sea monster.)

We ordered in Amalthea four small dishes and we are really full! Every meal was delicious, though Antipasti and Boubouristi tickled mine fancy the most. The cook undoubtedly deserves standing ovation! And for everything we pay only 25 euros! Isn’t it an incredible place? I don’t hesitate to recommend you eating in Amalthea. If you’re in Aghios Nikolaos, go there first!

You don’t believe? Check the reviews on TripAdvisor! It’s ranked #2 of 36 other restaurants in Aghios!

Where is Amalthea?

Serve your own Crete at home!
It’s easy to make some of those appetizers at home. You can buy in your shop ingredients to prepare Dakos. Want some grapevine leaves? Replace them with spinach’s leaves and serve it with some tzatziki sauce with cucumber and garlic to improve the taste.

Our second cuisine adventure happens in Rethymno, a nice but typical touristic place with many restaurants and taverns. If you are lucky enough, you can find a cosy and cheap one but it requires patience. Business is business and where are tourist, there are higher prices.

The place we enjoy with friends has a nice courtyard with plants and dark lights. Don’t know exactly where it is – usually I get lost easily in the labyrinth of streets and cul-de-sacs. However decorations climatic are, the food is not so tasty. It looks gorgeous, though.

Here we get a meal per person. One of us orders mousakka. I can’t say that I like it or not – it is hard for me to be objective because I’m not the biggest fan of that dish.

Another friend of mine orders rice with prawns. Doesn’t sound like Cretan cuisine but I think it is the best choice. However, the portion is so big, that almost half of it remains on the plate.

My choice is a real gambling. I order a grilled tentacle of octopus. It looks really delicious, so glossy and white inside, but… I don’t know if my knife is blunt or if this meat is just rubbery. I try some and now I’m sure – meat has a consistency of a tire! I chew it endlessly but it’s enough for me and my lower jaw just after few bites. I try some black eyed peas salad but it’s too sour. Well, I wanted it all at my own risk. Still, it hurts to pay almost 10 euros for a rubbery tentacle…

Remembering flavours from Aghios Nikolaos we order a bowl of snails just for try. But it’s hard to get them out from a shell and meat is jelly-like… I’m very disappointed. I used to thought naively that local cuisine taste the same everywhere… Every time since now, when I order snails, I will recollect the taste of those I had in Aghios.

I’m lucky enough that Cretan cuisine stole my heart at the beginning. If you don’t like it at first time, don’t lose your heart for it. Check some reviews, ask locals what they recommend. Give it a chance! Maybe somewhere else you’ll find your cuisine paradise!

Καλή όρεξη! (Kalí óreksi!) – Bon appetit!

Nothing better than getting a chance to doodle weird fish!

Just for fun: for a link to a Nova video of the absolute strangest thing in the ocean (and my personal favorite invertebrate), the cuttlefish, click here.

What is a haw flake? The ingredient list reads haw, cane sugar, FD & C red #40, sodium benzoate. Uhoh…Red food coloring that supposedly causes hyperactive and attention deficit disorders if consumed by children. I ate this often as a little kid, don’t worry you’ll be fine. I turned out alright.

Haw is one of the many names of the hawthorn berry. It also is known as a thornapple or hawberry. These berries are used by multiple cultures for traditional medicinal purposes. In addition to being tasty and possible healthy, the flakes were small disks so they were pretty fun to play around with too.

Vitasoy is widely popular in Hong Kong where it is based. Vitasoy is basically soymilk. It is tastes extremely sugary and what kid doesn’t like that? If you ever had the sweet tofu soup at dim sum, it tastes exactly like that except it’s cold. During my travels in Hong Kong, I spotted a few Vitasoy vending machines. I guess they’ve expanded into the a vast of flavors.

Oh the choices

Regardless of any health effects, positive or negative, I will continue to enjoy this snack from my childhood from time to time. But as I’ve grown, my tastes have also matured. My go-to snack food now is dried cuttlefish and something I just discovered, nori maki arare which is a rice cracker wrapped in seaweed. Yum.

Both of these taste exactly as snack foods should, salty. Salty like the ocean. I would prefer these over a bag of chips any day because unlike the lame salt Lays sprinkle, these have a salty brininess that you find in a good oyster. When that dried seaweed hits my tongue, I feel like I am taking a sip of the ocean in a good way. That’s quality seaweed not that cardboard they use in sushi conveyor belt restaurants. These are made to be savored, do not eat a whole bag in a sitting. Enjoy these offerings from the depths of ocean.

Dried cuttlefish or squid is absolutely wonderful. On an episode of The Mind of a Chef, aka my favorite show, David Chang picked up that same bag of dried squid as above that I grew up eating and said he recalled snacking on this as a child too. He said that if you brought it to school, you will be made fun of. I can second that.

If you have never ventured down the snack aisle of an Asian market, do it. You’ll find snacks that if not tasty at least unique.

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-jy

Fairy Penguin (Eudyptula minor)

Cuttlefish (Sepia apama) ‘bone’

Coal from shipwreck of the Willyama

Feather (species unknown) lying on rippled sand

Succulent seaweed (species unknown)

Firecracker remnant from New Years Eve

So I started this cephalopod blog a while ago.  I did a few posts and then it kind of disappeared…like a scared squid in a cloud of ink.  But the cephalopods are returning in 2013!!!  My friends now always bring cephalopod news and pics to my attention, which I love.  So I’m sure I’ll have things to post.  Not sure if anyone will be interested in reading it.  But I’ll give it a go.  Plus I’ve updated the blog to include a cool new underwater theme.  Yay!!!

2013 is going to start with something GIANT!!!  I’m talking about Discovery Channel airing the first ever video footage of a live giant squid in its natural habitat on January 27th.  So I need to get my hands on Discovery Channel somehow.  Here’s a link for more about this exciting news.

What else is happening in cephalopod news?  Well the amazing people at Cuttlefish Country have recently posted a trailer for their forthcoming documentary.  Please please please check it out.

I grew up in Whyalla, South Australia.  The surrounding area is a very special place for the Giant Australian Cuttlefish and its sad to think that their habitat is threatened.  You can check out the Cuttlefish Country website to sign petitions and take other action to help protect the cuttlefish and support this project.

Another link I’d like to share is to a 2013 Cute Cephalopods Calendar.  You can buy a calendar, which features very cute artwork of cephalopods.  And if that’s not awesome enough, the artwork also incorporates Star Wars, the Avengers, and other nerdy goodness.

Well that’s all for now.

- Kylie

Dorsal view of Ram’s Murex Chicoreus virgineus

Curio shops in coastal tourist destinations are never in short supply of the Ram’s Murex/ Ramose Murex, an astounding hit among visitors. Scientifically called as Chicoreus ramosus, this shell is a gastropod under phylum Mollusca which includes snails, slugs, clams, oysters, scallops, chitons, octopods, cuttlefish and squids.

The shell is heavy, solid and large with plenty of spinuous ornamentation. Smaller snails have numerous short spines growing closely together while the larger ones have longer, pointed spines. Ram’s Murex can grow up to 35 cms. External colouration is white or sometimes brown. The outer lip and columella are pink making it a visual treat. The numerous horn-like branching adds to its beauty, making this shell a collector’s pride.

Ventral view of Ram’s Murex Chicoreus ramosus

Ram’s Murex is found in plenty in the Indo-Pacific and Red sea. Skin divers collect them from depths of 5 – 10 meters when pearl fishing ceased in the Gulf of Mannar region. Once trawlers were introduced, these shells landed in large quantities as by-catch in trawl nets. Ram’s Murex also lands as by-catch from bottom set gill nets. These marine snails are carnivorous, feeding on bivalves by drilling a hole with the aid of their proboscis. Their habitat includes coral and rocky reefs, sand, rubbles and is often spotted by divers hidden among rocks.

In the Southern States of India, especially in Tamil Nadu, meat from Ram’s Murex is sold in the local market. First the operculum (technically defined as – A lid or flap covering an aperture, such as the gill cover in some fishes or the horny shell cover in snails or other molluscs) is removedwith the help of a specially made, indigenous bent knife-like tool. The meat is then sliced into thin chips and sun-dried by the coastal fisher folk. Small time vendors collect the dried product and bring it to the local market. It is fried in oil and often consumed as wafer with rice. The shell is then separately cleaned in shell shops by acid wash and polished. Cleaned shells are used to make lamp shades, pen stands or sold as whole shells.

Another interesting fact is that the operculum is an important raw material/ ingredient in the manufacture of Agarbathis (incense sticks). Interviews with middlemen show that adding this ingredient makes incense sticks burn slower. Further discussions revealed that the opercula of many species of gastropods are collected for the same purpose.

As a student a decade ago, I was able to taste the wafers made from the Ram’s Murex, which do have a ‘fishy’ odour, flavor and taste. Now, except for select areas like Tuticorin and Ramanathapuram districts of Tamil Nadu, it is rare to find these wafers in local markets. However, the Rams’ Murex shell with its milk white color and aesthetic charm continues to remain a best seller in shell shops or road side stalls.

Taxonomic status:

Phylum: Mollusca

Class: Gastropoda

Family: Muricidae

Genus: Chicoreus

Species: ramosus

Author: (Linnaeus, 1758)

This is copyrighted material: © Deepak Samuel

Close up of a cuttlefish head, showing the well developed eye. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tricky Cuttlefish Put on Gender-Bending Disguise

I’m a huge fan of mimicry in nature, and the cuttlefish has some impressive displays. This article talks about the disguised displays male cuttlefish do sometimes when courting a female. If there is one other male cuttlefish around, the male displaying for the female will split his body in two by color patterns. The side he displays to the female will be a male courtship pattern, while the side exposed to the other male in the area is colored like a typical female cuttlefish. This way the male has more time to court the female, while the unsuspecting second male believes that there are two females swimming together. The color displays and camouflage exhibited by cuttlefish is really remarkable. Here is a good youtube video that talks a little more about the coloration of cuttlefish:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x-8v1mxpR0. It doesn’t show the coloration mentioned in the article, but the article has a pretty cool pic of the mimicry in action. So, listen to Captain Jack Sparrow and don’t forget about the cuttlefish!! They are pretty amazing and definitely the best colored and biggest brained prey out there!

Wiki Commons: Leonard Low

• CLASS CEPHALOPODA
• Subclass Nautiloidea: nautilus
• Subclass Coleoidea: squid, octopus, cuttlefish
• Superorder Octopodiformes
• Superorder Decapodiformes
•  ?Order †Boletzkyida
• Order Spirulida: Ram’s Horn Squid
• Order Sepiida: cuttlefish
• Order Sepiolida: bobtail squid
• Order Teuthida: squid
• Family †Plesioteuthididae (incertae sedis)
• Suborder Myopsina
• Family Australiteuthidae
• Family Loliginidae: inshore, calamari, and grass squid
• Suborder Oegopsina
• Family Ancistrocheiridae: Sharpear Enope Squid
• Family Architeuthidae: giant squid
• Family Bathyteuthidae
• Family Batoteuthidae: Bush-club Squid
• Family Brachioteuthidae
• Family Chiroteuthidae
• Family Chtenopterygidae: comb-finned squid
• Family Cranchiidae: glass squid
• Family Cycloteuthidae
• Family Enoploteuthidae
• Family Gonatidae: armhook squid
• Family Histioteuthidae: jewel squid
• Family Joubiniteuthidae: Joubin’s Squid
• Family Lepidoteuthidae: Grimaldi Scaled Squid
• Family Lycoteuthidae
• Family Magnapinnidae: bigfin squid
• Family Mastigoteuthidae: whip-lash squid
• Family Neoteuthidae
• Family Octopoteuthidae
• Family Ommastrephidae: flying squid
• Family Onychoteuthidae: hooked squid
• Family Pholidoteuthidae
• Family Promachoteuthidae
• Family Psychroteuthidae: Glacial Squid
• Family Pyroteuthidae: fire squid
• Family Thysanoteuthidae: rhomboid squid
• Family Walvisteuthidae
• Parateuthis tunicata (incertae sedis)

Cuttle FishCuttle BoneCephalopoda

Cuddly fish?

I hesitate to discuss cuttlefish as my main reaction is to eating this fish is why bother?  Squid I actually like but cuttlefish is a weird and very rubbery fish.  I fortunately forgot my camera and have no snapshots to bore you with for this dish.  As such let’s talk about the other part of the recipe, gazpacho!

The gazpacho made at Cordon Bleu is likely not a recipe most Spanish would be enthused about.  This one included ketchup and bread crumbs.  How strange?  It is a soup right?  So why add bread crumb?   Or for that matter ketchup?  The most thrilling part of this class was the preparation of moijto’s in the kitchen by our wonderful assistant Emmanuel!   Cocktails with entrée awesome!!  They went down mighty nice during that late night demo I must say.  Prevented the revolt against the cuttlefish – good work Emmanuel!

Gazpacho is a very healthy and delicious tomato based soup which is served cold.  It makes an excellent amuse, first course or summer luncheon main.  The best recipe I’ve tried is from the Ad Hoc cookbook, Sungold Tomato Gazpacho, which is by famed chef Thomas Keller.  The reason I like this recipe is the use of yellow tomatoes therefore you are forced to make the recipe in the right season.

Here’s a link to Vivek’s Epicurean Adventures with the recipe and some great photos.   To add to Vivek’s recipe instructions I would add that the tomatoes should be peeled if we are to make it French style (yes even cherry tomatoes I’m afraid), but I whole-heartedly approve of the substitution of basil for chives in Thomas Keller’s recipe!

Such a book exists — actually, two such books exist, the first being Dave Freer’s CUTTLEFISH, and the second being THE STEAM MOLE, set in the same universe with most of the same characters but a different setting.

Hie thee hence to your local bookstore, online outlet or what-you-will, or if you’d like to read my review first, go here.

Then do yourself a favor, and buy both books.

Now, you might be asking yourself, “Barb, why are you pushing these novels so hard?”

It’s simple, really.  Freer wrote two books on contract for Pyr — those two being CUTTLEFISH and THE STEAM MOLE — and now has to decide whether he’ll write another in this universe (as Freer does have other options for publication, whether it’s self-publishing or through the Naked Reader Press).  My hope is that Freer will write many more books in this universe, as it seems to me there’s a great many plots that could be viable in such a milieu . . . which is why I urge you to go read my review (better yet, read both reviews, as there’s a link to my review of CUTTLEFISH included in tonight’s review), then go buy the books as fast as you can.

And, as always, enjoy!

At the end of CUTTLEFISH, Dr. Calland and her daughter were dropped off to make some sort of deal for Dr. Calland’s formula.  However, the Imperial English government still wants that formula for itself and will do anything — literally anything it possibly can — to stop Dr. Calland from giving that formula to Westralia.

This is the main reason Dr. Calland lies near death at the start of THE STEAM MOLE, originally diagnosed with a case of the flu.  Yet there’s something badly wrong here, something Clara knows even if no one else does, but of course no one’s willing to listen to her as she’s still a teenager.

This is why she goes looking for her buddy (and love interest) Tim,  thinking he’s stayed with the Cuttlefish as he is, after all, a crewman there.  But the Cuttlefish crew has split up, mostly because they need money in order to ply their trade as they used up all of their fuel and just about every other possible thing as well just getting Clara and her mother to Westralia.

Tim has gone off to work on a steam mole (used for excavation), as the way it’s powered is sensible to anyone who’s worked on a coal-powered submarine.  But the Westralians aren’t exactly friendly to anyone with a black skin, which Tim finds out in a big hurry; worse, the crew he’s with contains none of his friends and shipmates, which is why things escalate out of control in a hurry.

While Tim is able to escape from his racist temporary crewmates, it’s not without cost as he’s forced to endure the Westralian desert and cross during the day — a big no-no in Westralia due to how hot and humid the climate has become due to “the Big Melt.”  And because Tim’s without much in the way of supplies, most especially water, this quickly complicates things.

Clara, of course, doesn’t know any of this when she sets out to find Tim.  But she figures it out quickly (partly because she’s smart, partly because she has nowhere else to turn), and goes in search of Tim.

Meanwhile, Dr. Calland’s condition improves, but she’s still not in any shape to hand over the formula.  This is why the royal Duke who heads the British Imperial Empire’s secret service decides that there’s only one way left to get a handle on Dr. Calland and stopping her from giving her precious formula to Westralia– and that’s by bringing her ex-husband, Clara’s father, to Westralia as a bargaining chip.

So there’s a lot of stuff going on — first, Clara and Tim are both alone and must show initiative and fortitude if they’re ever to be together again, much less stay alive in the process.  Second, Dr. Calland has to figure out what to do with her formula, especially as she’s unwilling to deal with the Duke’s men (who are akin to terrorists in her view, though the word is never used).  Third, Clara and Tim must figure out what to do about Clara’s father, as Clara has absolutely no intention of leaving her father in the Duke’s hands once she finds out about it.

All involved must make alliances quickly.  This means they must depend on their wits, as well as their past association with the Cuttlefish and its crew, to make sure that the good guys win and the bad guys definitely lose.

In other words, THE STEAM MOLE, like CUTTLEFISH before it, is a very strong action-adventure novel with just a hint of realistic romance between Clara and Tim.  Both are strong-willed, energetic people who are self-reliant and smart.  They have just enough differences to prove intriguing and know how to work alone or together, which is a big plus for any couple — much less a couple of mid-teens like Tim and Clara.

But the best part of THE STEAM MOLE lies in the characterization of Dr. Calland, Clara’s mother.  Forced by circumstances to be apart from her daughter for a long period of time, Dr. Calland refuses to pine away despite her brush with death.  Instead, she more or less adopts one of the local young women, Linda Darlington, and encourages Linda to learn about math and science.  And because of Dr. Calland’s shining example (women really can do math and science), this young woman learns that it’s not only OK to be smart, it’s actually a wonderful thing — a life-affirming thing, to be exact.

This all goes to show that one person — one individual –  in the right time and place can make a huge difference, which is a variation on the same theme introduced in CUTTLEFISH.  This is an extremely empowering message amidst all of the action and adventure going on, yet it doesn’t slow the tale down whatsoever.

That’s a really difficult thing to do, but Freer pulls it off with aplomb.

Overall, the balance here is excellent.  The action and adventure click right along.  The prose reads well and easily.  The world is solidly built and makes perfect sense (as it should; Freer himself is a scientist, though his field is ichthyology), while the characters include many you can fully root for along with a few fully hissable villains . . . really, what’s not to like about THE STEAM MOLE?

In fact, the only bad thing about THE STEAM MOLE is that no sequels are planned as of this time, partly because Pyr only contracted with Freer for two novels.  My hope is that these two novels will sell well enough that Freer will wish to write another one, as there are obviously many more stories waiting to be told in this universe — most especially from the viewpoints of Clara, Tim, and Dr. Calland’s protegée, Linda.

Grade: A-plus.

– reviewed by Barb

On Wednesday nights, Tamara meets with a few of the ladies from church for coffee, bible study and prayer. This is especially important as we are strangers in a strange (and beautiful) land. Tamara meets with our pastor’s wife, who is from India, and another American woman. Before she went out, she made a great meal for us: soft tacos! So nice to come home from work and smell Spanish aromas!

While Tamara was out, Kaiser and I went for a long bike ride around the neighborhood. North takes us to church, east leads to the big park, west is the small park and south is where we “see the fish”. We headed south.

All of the sea food restaurants have large water tanks in the front of their shops with live: skates/flounders, prawns, octopi, cuttlefish, eels, mollusks, etc… The cuttlefish in the red basket, which is next in line, was quite large at twenty inches!

Fishing seems to be popular, there are some nice tackle shops here. When it is time to take Kyz fishing and teach outdoor skills, we will learn to catch (and prepare) cuttlefish. It’s what we do here.

Now to explain the picture of the stacked sundries. They’re rockets. Kyz took the time to stack all of these things and make rockets, he even ran the phone charger cable from the bananas to the oatmeal carton. He got out his binoculars to observe the launch from a safe distance—near the kitchen sink(!). Boys.

The bottom picture is a couple hours before bed time.  The barber gave Kaiser a “dollar” before we left his shop. The barber is an interesting guy, but I’ll tell that story below the picture if you want to read why. This picture is of Kyz with his new haircut and scoop of ice cream we bought on the way home with his dollar. He got to enjoy his dessert and an episode of Rescue Rangers. We spent the rest of the evening fighting ninja style with a foam bat and foam nun chucks. Kaiser stands on the bed to be taller, work his moves and he doesn’t get hurt when he lands.

The haircut story. During the summer, I gave Kaiser a “pineapple” or, G.I. haircut; shave the sides and trim the top. Simple, and great for these hot summers. He’ll get another one next June. Free of charge.

However, I knew his hair would grow back a little strange. And we want his hair long for winter, to help keep him warm. So I needed his hair to be fixed as well as trimmed.

The first time we went to get Kaiser’s haircut, some places said “No.”. They wouldn’t do it. Not sure why. So, we had to find someone to cut his hair. We found this barber on the way home from a denial. And this barber said “No” too. But a woman there talked him into it. He did it begrudgingly. He is a bit of a sullen character, but so sullen that he’s funny. He refuses to smile. Ever. Which makes him adorable. No one is that sullen, I know, I’ve tried.

But this barber shop has a strange atmosphere. It was clear that kids don’t get their haircut here and Tamara was not welcome; it was shocking for her to be there. Which suggested to me that it’s, perhaps, a gentleman’s club. There is a backroom, it seems. And lot’s of guys were mulling about without shirts on, watching TV and drinking coffee. But Kaiser got a haircut, a great one too. This guy is amazing!

So we went back, he said no, but the woman called us back, Kaiser got a great haircut, the barber sulked, and we walked away with ice cream money. Another normal day.

Left Bank. Location: West Village. Perry and Greenwich St. Scene: Neighborhood Restaurant. Older Crowd. Romantic. Cool. Food: Italian. American. French. Brussels Sprouts. Sauteed Mushrooms & Polenta. Spaghetti. Iron Roasted Split Chicken. Ribeye. Potatoes.

Chek Recs:

1. Cuttlefish Braised in Ink, Chickpeas, Mixed Grains (1st pic)
2. Paccheri & Cheese: Roast Cauliflower and Fontina (2nd and 3rd pic)
3. Whole Roasted Brook Trout: Sicilian Olive Salsa (4th pic)
4. Chocolate Brownie a la Mode (pic below)

Left Bank is one of the most gracious and quaint restaurants in New York City. It’s lit by candles, breezy, romantic and perched on a quiet corner street in the West Village. The staff is bright and smiley (ask for Mami she’s great), and the dining room is calm on a weeknight making dinner rush-free and wait slim to none. The mood lighting is great for couples, a fourth date, or a girls “Sex in the City” dinner. The intriguing, eclectic menu changes regularly. The cuttlefish appetizer is outstanding and very unexpected compared with the rest of the options. It comes out steaming, mixed with black beans, tender fish and addicting flavors. The Paccheri & Cheese is basically a pot of gold: round tube noodles covered in cheese with roasted cauliflower layered in between. Cauliflower, breadcrumbs and cheese are a recipe for delight and on pretty much every menu these days. The Whole Roasted Brook Trout is tasty but swimming in butter- pun intended. Portions are large so pick a few plates and dig in. Dessert is just the next layer that tops off the night. While options like maple syrup pie and sticky toffee pudding sound overwhelmingly delicious, the true gem is the plain jane chocolate brownie a la mode. Wow, this brownie is dense like a cake and soft and chocolatey as can be. It shows up what any bakery puts out and you must devour it- it’s not an option. Left Bank is a perfect spot in the West Village and something I will continue to recommend to those looking for dining in this neighborhood. I love that it’s not overly buzzed and hyped and it spits out an amazing result. When the line at Red Farm and The Spotted Pig has gotten the best of you, just skip on over to Left Bank where you know the food and service are guaranteed to give you an equally exciting experience. 

mo mhaithrin bhroinngheal by a. len bell

Siúd chugaibh mháire chinibh by a. len bell