Adventures in Dining

I've been very fortunate to eat at two very fine restaurants over the past few days.  You should eat at them, too.  :)

Sunday night, an old friend took me to Cavo, in Astoria.  Down the street from my apartment, in fact.  I've been there a few times and have never been disappointed.  I wasn't disappointed Sunday, either.   Cavo is a lovely spot, celebrated for their gorgeous outdoor garden area, but since the humidity was at about 9000 percent on Sunday, we opted to stay indoors.  In the air conditioning. 


I had a white wine I had never tried before, a verdejo, from Spain.  I thought it was very tasty, nice and crisp and not too fruity.  It was good to drink on its own, and it also went with all the food we ate.  So, thumbs up on the verdejo.


My friend and I decided to get three appetizers, then split a main course, so we'd be able to try as many of the delicious sounding dishes as possible.  For the appetizers, we got the octopus, marinated in lemon juice, grape tomatoes and onions; the trio of dips, which included hummus, tzatsiki and tapenade; and the Sunday special, shrimp fried in phyllo dough, with a honey mustard glaze.  They were all DELICIOUS.  The octopus was tender and rich, but the sauce was nice and light.  The dips were also very rich, with the tapenade being especially delicious.  I'm in a real kalamata olive phase of my life.  That salty deliciousness generally has me at hello.  And the fried shrimp was rocking.  Firstly, they were enormous, but they were also cooked perfectly.  The crunchy phyllo was a great textural contrast, and the sweet stickiness of the glaze paired perfectly.  I would definitely order all three dishes again.

For our main course, we decided to order the sea bass, served on a bed of roasted fennel and artichokes, in a basil pesto sauce.  Again, completely yummy.  It is described as the chef's favorite and I can see why.  It's very light, yet earthy, and filling.  There could've been more artichokes, but that's a quibble.  We also got a side of sauteed spinach, which was pretty unnecessary, because we were starting to get pretty full, but oh well.  It was well-done, with garlic and shallots and lots of olive oil.         



The dessert menu wasn't all that exciting, plus, we were about to explode, so we didn't get dessert.  Next time.  They do have a limoncello dessert, but it didn't sound amazing enough to try to make it fit.  Next time.


We had a very nice time at Cavo--they don't rush you, the space is lovely and the atmosphere is very conducive to conversation.  You should definitely check it out next time you're in Astoria.


Last night, I went with my gal pals to another Diners Deck locale, Candle Cafe, on the Upper East Side.  Candle Cafe is actually owned by the same people who run Candle 79 (where I went for lunch last Friday).  It's much smaller and homier, with a completely different, though still vegan, menu.

There were so many delicious sounding dishes on the menu, it was very hard to decide!  I highly recommend the lemon ginseng iced tea to start.  Then I finally opted for the Tofu Club, which had grilled tofu, tempeh bacon, lettuce and tomato, with some vegenaise.  Oh, and some incredible housemade pickles.  They were grand.  The sandwich is usually served on whole grain toast, but they made it on foccacia for me, since I'm allergic to oats and oats are in their whole grain bread.  I thought the sandwich tasted delicious on the focaccia.  I also got an order of fries (though they're referred to as fried potatoes on the menu, which makes them sound like something other than fries), which were quite tasty, but nothing out of the ordinary.  The housemade ketchup, on the other hand, was DELICIOUS!  Whoo boy, that was some good ketchup.  :)


One pal got the plate of side orders, so she could try a little bit of everything, and the other got the Paradise Casserole, which was incredible.  It was layers of sweet potatoes, black beans and millet, served over sauteed kale.  Yum yummy.  Oh, and it had country gravy to pour over it.  It deserved a photo.  I might have to get it next time...

We had a little NY street drama before we sat down--two star-crossed lovers, perhaps homeless, were having a bit of a tiff outside the restaurant.  The gent at the front desk was having a hard time explaining to them why they couldn't come in and sit with other patrons.  It just made everything a little more interesting.  :)  Oh, and all the photos were shot with the new iPhone.  They look pretty good, if I do say so myself...