Monday, December 10, 2007

Kefi on the UWS...

We were going to a Juno screening last wkd, but the line was ginormous and snaked almost completely full circle into Columbus Ave, so no seats =/ Claudz left so Karen & I walked about 12 blocks in the bitter cold to 79th St--I wore ballet flats, my feet froze and my toes tingled...HOWEVER, my god..kefi...mmmmmm. Gladly lose this little piggy for some Kefi meze plates :)

I forgot my camera so I borrowed these pics from a Yelp user and NY mag :) An NY Times article lamented the tapafication of dinners/restaurants, but WHATEVER. We got 3 meze plates and 1 small pasta dish but that were sufficiently full if not more so.

Firstly, we got the Grilled Octopus with chickpea salad. I don't know why, but after eating at Kión for Sam's semi-going away dinner, I just had a newfound appreciation for Octopus and more untraditional meats. Texture was great--you could cut w/ a fork, chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans were lightly seasoned and tossed in olive oil i think? (Btw, in my latest iron deficient anemic episode, I found out that chickpeas are an excellent source of iron, along with prune juice, and spinach :))

We also got some pita with melted feta cheese under a bed of tomatoes, dill, red onions, and ANCHOVIES ^_^ I can't just assume it's so good b/c it was melted--but it seems to really make a big difference in the feta flavor. *shrug*. I love dill. ohhh how I love dill. ANYHOODLE...the next thing...is SWEETBREAD!!

If you don't know, sweetbread is thymus/pancreas--u know, the ish that makes bile? :) WHO KNEW!! I used to do DNA extractions w/ my students w/ sweetbread--who KNEW indeed :) It was heavy on the garlic--as u can see in this pic, with onion rings-ish, and really tasty, but large, caper berries. FREAKISHLY large caper berries. but yummy :)

This next one is a pasta (brai) with pulled rabbit meat with Graviera cheese and other things. I was really excited b/c when I was in Florence, IT we were all at this little trattoria in the Oltrarno neighborhood that had the best olive tepanade & stuffed calamari (it was so soft we thought it was just pasta) and the local tavolo caldo that had coniglio cotto (grilled rabbit) but alas they were out that day =/ If you ever go back, it's across Ponte Santa Trinità and the other one was somewhere else =/ sorry it's been 4 yrs? But here's a picture of us outside of a giant Costco equivalent supermercato north of the Boboli gardens :)

oh yeah and here's a chinese restaurant in Venice//IT by the entrance of the ferrovia ;)

2 comments:

uhockey said...

...um, sweetbreads are thymus and neither the thymus nor pancreas make bile. ;) I will have to check out Kefi's options, though. Momofuku Noodle Bar makes some excellent fried Sweetbreads, fwiw.

obitran said...

oOh that's right! i was thinking gall bladder on acct of shape--but gall bladder only stores bile. good pointing out--this post has been up forever and nobody's corrected me :D (to think i was pre-med...shameful!)

also, have tried multiple other sweetbreads, am less of a fan of them fried than just plain poached. seems better seasoned when they are! but will def try noodle bar's.