True travel tales: your most exquisite, delectable meal .. & the one that left you shuddering ..

One person's opinion, olga. I've had some of the best meals and dining experiences ever in NYC. And some very disappointing ones. Sad to say that the difference is money, dinero, the green stuff. Which is not to suggest that you can't get a decent meal for cheap here. But money helps. Most memorable meals in NYC.

Barbetta's. VERY EXPENSIVE. The oldest Italian restaurant in the city. The building has landmark status. For al fresco dining, here's the garden:



And here's the dining room:



The food is northern italian. Prepared impeccably. Delicate sauces. Tender veal. Fresh veggies. This place is like a dream.

Did I mention it's very expensive?

Another favorite of mine is Joe Allen's. Very theatrical. Menus on blackboards. All skylights. Wonderful varied, imaginative food. Some great comfort food. Not cheap but nowhere as expensive as Barbetta's. I had lunch here one day. At the next table were Robert Altman, Cher, Sandy Dennis, and one other person discussing a show they were working on at the time.

And for the best and most affordable lobster dinner in town. there's a place in da Bronx.

I'll stop now.

You did mention expensive, Roberta.

And it certainly looks it!

I guess an exquisite meal in that fabulous outdoor setting is a once in a lifetime experience? (For poor folk like us, anyway.)
But never to be forgotten, though!
Wow.

You don't have to, you know!

I ate at Barbetta's many times, olga. Usually indoors. The table on the far right closest to the window was my favorite. Never had a disappointing meal. And I'll never eat there again. (Very expensive.)

There was once a double restaurant in Hanford, a small town in central California. A professor of my husband's - serious food maven - and husband and I drove up there one weekend in 1979. Before we settled in motel rooms in Visalia we drove up into the Sierras to see the big sequoia trees. I proceeded to get car sick on the way back down to the valley - so I wasn't right then looking forward to the planned dinner at Imperial Dynasty. Luckily the dinner hour was about four hours later.

I just looked it up on Wiki, and there it is --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Dynasty_restaurant

The chef was Richard Wing, who had previously been George Marshall's (US army chief of staff in WWII) chef de cuisine, and had studied at Cordon Bleu.
There was a chinese restaurant, The Chinese Pagoda, next to the Imperial Dynasty, on the main floor, and in the basement, a terrific wine cellar run by Richard's brother, Robert Wing (not sure of the Robert part).

We ended up so ecstatic about the food that we went back the next day for another prix fixe meal, of a more moderate amount of platings.

I'll copy the handwritten menus, probably with some mistakes as it is a little hard to discern some of the french words, me not knowing french. I'll use italics to give a bit of the flavor of Richard's writing. It says on the bottom of the menu that the restaurant had been operated continuously by the Wing family for three generations, since 1883. Wiki says it closed in 2006 - so Richard must have found someone in the next generation to take over, a matter he was worried about at the time, as the kids all had other interests in life, at least that day. (We all talked a lot with Richard as the meal was long and we were the only ones in the dining room that first evening.)

Ok, first day,
Saturday Sept. 8, 1979, 7:30 pm
Dr. G.
3
Gourmet Dinner. $35.00 person
Plus wine selection
Tax & Gratuity not included

Filet Mignon Steak Tartare
Escargots a la Imperial Dynasty
Consomme Riche de (Faisan?)
Petite Homardo a la Diable
(Spring Mountain Chardonnay 1972, $16.00)

Cailles a la Chinoise
Filet D'Agneau Grille Celestial
(Heitz Cabernet (didn't mark what year, '70's, $12.00)

Salad de Romaine - (a word I can't read starting with K)
Mango a la Creme
(Chateau (Induisant? Seduisant?), 1970, $11.00, 1/2 bottle)
Demitasse



This is a photo from google - I honestly don't remember what the restaurant looked like.. the bricking might be more recent

Day 2
Sunday Sept 9, 1979
5:30 pm
Dr. G
3
Special Dinner $20.00 person
Plus wine selection
Tax & Gratuity not included

Scampi a la Imperial Dynasty
Potage du jour
Fruits de Mer Imperiale
(Raymond Chardonnay 1977, $14.00)

Tournedo de Boeuf Bordelaise
(Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon 1968, $25.00)
Salade
Four a la Creme de Fromage
Demitasse


Osso and Dr. G looking at menu..

I used to love dining at the Russian Tea Room. It was established in the 1920s my dancers from the Russian ballet. The best herring I ever had in my life EVER (don't tell my grandmother I said that). This jernt is also on the pricey side.

I don't think I was ever there - that was just a year we were in NYC, after all, and I was a kid that needed to be taken to Schraft's or the Automat or Woolworth's counter - but I've sure heard of it.

Staring at the Imperial Dynasty photo some more. I think it was more ordinary store front-y in '79. I bet the Imperial Dynasty enlarged (a good idea, from my pov, or maybe not, given the difficulty for the not yet foodies to get to the central valley town, and what I take as an ongoing longtime chinese population) and took over the old Chinese Pagoda. Aside from the new brick look, I see the whole sidewalk is a new pour.

Answering msolga, whom I miss hugely (or is that chuge or however Trump says it), now long years later on a thread reread -

In my many times in Mexico, I was only sick twice, and the first one maybe a matter of different bacteria battling (but I remember the name of the restaurant, The Deer, in Guadalajara, no fault ascribed, as maybe it was a generalized bacti fight. I remember a photo of me, sitting on a patio, my hair looking good for a change, and me the poor wan thing. The second episode was more dramatic.

Early seventies, me with boyfriend I was in love with. We went to Mexico twice, once a relatively few number of days in Baja, and towards the end, he was cranky, irritated, felt unwell. (He was/is a well regarded m.d. with good reason). We got over it.

Sometime later we went there for a couple of weeks. My friend (male friend of a girl pal of mine) in Mexico city annoyed him, a matter I figured out some decades later, but basically the majority of days of that trip were full of interest and not problematic. We stopped in Puerto Vallarta and I was suddenly ill like I'd never been before. It was helpful that the toilet and the shower were close. Propulsive vomiting was just the start.

We caught the plane back to LA and I was semi ok until the long slow line for Customs, when, after the excruciating wait, I couldn't make it and they let me out quickly to throw up some gallons in the US. He had clued in the customs person while customs checked our suitcases.

Later we dispersed. I went with my pals and had a simple sort of scrambled egg breakfast and he escaped for good reason. The eggs stayed down.

Far as I know we are still friends, but I don't have good email access now.

I remember walking in front of this establishment many decades ago. Never dared go inside. It was bad enough that my hamburger and beer cost something over $40 at the Rockefeller Center restaurant. It was memorable, though.

If I ever spent $40 for a burger and beer, it would be more than memorable: it would be unforgettable.

On my 60th birthday, we flew to Rome.
I don't know why, but I really couldn't get anything of the Italian language, forgot even all my Latin knowledge which would have been helpful.

Leaving aside some of my minor mistakes ... on my birthday, after having visited the Vatican museum, we had my birthday lunch. I paid the equivalent of more than $60 for an escaloppe Milanese ... and after that, I suddenly I understood Italian ...

Was it chicken or veal?