On Tap

Say you need a place to go for a quick drink after work while you're waiting for other friends to show up. Say you are at Columbus Circle and don't want to stray too far from this mecca. Say you stumble into Whole Foods and realize there is a bar there! Already obsessed with grocery stores, I was so happy to learn a few months ago that Whole Foods Columbus Circle decided to add On Tap, a bar that has a very extensive selection of beer and a nice wine menu at that.

C and I descended the escalators, pushed our way through shoppers leaving the store and found ourselves in the little On Tap nook. At the bar we each ordered a healthy glass of wine and a little dish. The room is closed off enough that you don't actually feel like you are in the grocery store. Big wooden tables fill the space with a mix of chairs and benches creating a communal feel among patrons of this bar.

A few weeks ago my friend and I met here for lunch and had much difficulty locating a table to sit at in the general dining area. The trick I learned on this visit is to get your food, pay, and then plop down in the On Tap room. You will have to get a drink, but when has that ever been a bad idea?

My favorite part was not the wonderful glass of Merlot I had but the food. We ordered warm bread with ricotta drizzled with honey and strawberry preserves. My issue with bruschetta type dishes is that the bread is always so tough that when you want to take one bite of your bread you end up making a fool of yourself with pesto or mozzarella dripping down your chin as you attempt to brush the bread crumbs off your chest and lap. This bread was soft and easy to break. They served a healthy amount of ricotta that toward the end of our bread supply we had to start increasing the loads of ricotta to try and finish it all. I may have scraped some up with my finger after the bread was gone. Maybe.

This is a central location with many subway stops and shops nearby. I will definitely be stopping in again...maybe for a pre-shopping glass of beer and another ricotta bread dish.

3

Sing Kee Seafood Restaurant

My co-worker is leaving us for China! To celebrate his new beginning he and his girlfriend hosted us at Sing Kee Seafood Restaurant on Bowery. After work my team headed there to be greeted with an empty restaurant and he and his girlfriend holding down a family style table toward the back of this fluorescent paradise. A informed us that meals are typically eaten later, around 8:30pm so our 6pm dining time would be quiet for the most part.

First tea was poured and the swivel started swirling as we passed the tea pot back and forth refilling our cups. Then the food started flowing forth from the kitchen with A giving instructions in Chinese along the way to our waiter. First a dish of jellyfish 'noodles' was presented with cured meat and vegetables. B and I had watched videos earlier that day of people eating jellyfish and they were repulsive. So as I grabbed with my oversize, plastic chopsticks there was a little more then trepidation running through my brain. They don't taste like anything! I had no desire to spit them out or continue eating them. We survived.

Round 2, fish stomach soup. Like an egg-drop soup but with fish stomach in it. Nice and warm and very pleasant to eat. Although I did avoid biting down on the fish and preferred to just swallow it whole. Next up was a fried minnow dish similar to french fries. Thin and small they were easy to just pop in my mouth. B, C, and I agreed that our favorite dish was a tempura shrimp dish with a sweet sauce painted on. I did grab two of those little guys.

A dish that was fun to eat was little dough pockets cut in half which we filled with carrots, cucumber, hoisen sauce, and duck. What next...more duck, duck tongue (just like a chicken wing, bone and all), pea shoots, a noodle/vegetable dish, and a tofu/mushroom mash up. Unfortunately I don't know what the proper names are for everything nor what the ingredients were as I did not order anything except more water during the whole meal.

It was an interesting experience. Not as crazy as I had expected but still a little gutsy for me. Heck, if I can eat goat testicles in London, I can eat duck tongue and jelly fish in Chinatown. And now I sit, in bed ready to pass out.