Il Pesce @ Eataly

Eating seafood at Il Pesce @ Eataly is a great experience. We ate our way through the specials on a recent visit - starting with a gorgeous soft shell crab swimming in butter and wilted greens.

The smoked trout was a beautiful and delicious dish with rich smoky flavor, a light fluffy texture and sprinkled with capers and lavender blossoms.

Even the crudo trio was fantastic - a silk snapper topped with red lava salt, pumpkin swordfish with crushed almonds and blue fish with a salty gaeta olive aoli.

Momofuku Ssam Bar's geoduck

I have to admit, the first time I heard of geoduck (pronounced gooey duck) was while watching the exotic surf & turf episode of Top Chef Masters. When a friend and I were at Momofuku Ssam Bar and it was on the menu as a special, I couldn't resist trying it. Thinly sliced carpaccio of geoduck arrived with a cucumber gazpacho with paper thin slices of cucumber and creamy globs of apple butter. It was refreshing, delicious and utterly approachable.

Rockaway Beach concessions

Rockaway Beach has just become so much cooler. Like a mini Smorgasburg or Hester St Fair, it's a boardwalk full of mouthwatering food vendors, like Veggie Island, with mint chocolate chip and other milkshakes, cones and smoothies that are perfect after a day reveling in the sand.

Blue Bottle is also here with their amazing overnight cold brewed New Orleans style iced coffee, rich with chicory flavor. It's a great start with the breakfast appropriate la fresh arepa from Caracas Arepas Bar - tomato, avocado, cheese and tangy sauce on a corn flour bun.

The Caracas stand, right next to the Blue Bottle stand, below.


Rockaway Taco, the curators of this awesome lineup, also have a stand - although if you want a taco, you'll still have to go to the original location on Beach 96th st.

For a (vegan) sweet craving, Babycakes is on hand with doughnuts, waffles, and brownie ice cream sandwiches.

Ode to the Elephants is a yummy looking Thai stand, with everything from satay skewers to a Thai burger.

The Veggie Island stand.

The Dutch

At a fun dinner at the recently opened The Dutch, we started with fantastic cocktails – the Sullivan St Fix-up with gin, green chartreuse and celery bitters and the Aviation Royale with gin, maraschino and crème yvette.

The food started with a loaf of moist, dense cornbread with whipped butter.

The Hiramasa tartare with salsa verde was bright and fresh, and balanced by a small touch of crema and crunch of seeds.

The beet salad was also light with fresh beets, smoked eggs and dill over a yogurt sauce.

Entrees were massive and amazing – the lamb neck was incredibly tender in a deep, smoky, slow-burning mole sauce over dirty rice.

A hangar steak arrived with a beautiful onion topping dripping down the side, and a creamy smoked potato and horseradish side.