28 1/2 Bowery at Bayard St
Subway: J, M, Z, N, Q, R, W, 6 to Canal St
Ph 212 349 0923
I can’t remember how I found out about this place but I’m glad I did. On a rainy day with ducks hanging in the steamed-up windows and hardly a word of English being spoken, you could be in Hong Kong. Good for more than just noodles.
Palma
28 Cornelia St between Bleecker and W 4th Sts
Subway: A, C, E, F, V, Grand St S to W 4th St
Ph 212 691 2223
Family-run Italian restaurant in this very foodie street in the West Village with good, simple food and a lovely courtyard out the back in warmer weather.
Pastis
9 Ninth Ave at Little West 12th St
Subway: A, C, E to 14th St; L to Eighth Ave
Ph 212 929 4844
I was addicted to this Parisian bistro lookalike until I noticed that the coffee was cold and watery and the staff rude and inattentive. Took a while though.
Pearl Oyster Bar
18 Cornelia St between Bleecker and W 4th Sts
Subway: A, C, E, F, V, Grand St S to W 4th St
Small café-style restaurant famous for its lobster rolls, which I actually haven’t tried but I can vouch for the fries.
Peasant
194 Elizabeth St between Prince and Spring Streets
Subway: N, R, W to Prince St; 6 to Spring St
Ph 212 965 9511
Lovely Italian food, much of it cooked in a wood-fired oven. Try the sardines.
Per Se
4th Floor, Time Warner Center
Ten Columbus Circle
Subway: A, C, B, D, 1, 9 to 59th St-Columbus Circle
Probably the most amazing meal of my life. Thomas Keller’s West Coast restaurant The French Laundry is already a legend and I’m sure this East Coast one will be too.* The nine-course chef’s tasting menu did not hit a single sour note and the service was impeccable and friendly to boot. Simply wonderful. Worth the arm and the leg it costs.
* Per Se has since been awarded four New York Times stars.
Peter Luger
178 Broadway at Driggs Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Subway: J, M, Z to Marcy Ave
Ph 718 387 7400
Porterhouse steak served by crusty old waiters in a rustic setting. A must. And I’m usually a vegetarian.
Sueños
311 W 17th St at Eight Ave
Subway: A, C, E to 14th St; L to Eighth Ave
Ph 212 243 1333
Gorgeous Mexican with a modern twist and as many Margaritas as you can handle.
The Red Cat
227 Tenth Ave between 23rd and 24th Sts
Subway: C, E, to 23rd St
Ph 212 242 1122
Very yummy food in relaxed surroundings: this would be my local if I lived in Chelsea. Its sister restaurant on the lower East Side, The Mermaid Inn, is also worth a visit especially if you love fish.
Union Square Greenmarket
Union Square
Four days a week this busy downtown square is transformed into a bustling market with local growers selling their wares — and it is a must-see in my book. Wander around on your own or even better take award-winning cooking teacher Richard Ruben’s market tour, then follow him a few blocks north to the Institute of Culinary Education and make lunch with your purchases. One of the best things I’ve ever done in New York City. Check out the institute’s website at www.iceculinary.com.
*The Time Out New York Eating & Drinking guide (available everywhere in Manhattan or go to www.eatdrink.timeoutny.com) is an invaluable companion, nicknamed TONY, if you’re serious about eating out in New York. And for places to go in Venice, I can heartily recommend the expensive (for something so small) but nonetheless excellent Time For Food, Venice.
‘Do I miss going out for dinner? Nah. Cooking is a great joy: I go home, pour myself a glass of wine and go into the kitchen, the guys come in and peel the cucumbers or whatever and then we have dinner. It’s the best part of the day, that part where you put on your blue jeans and a T-shirt and start cooking. It’s just everybody there being themselves, and it’s much more satisfying.’
Ruth Reichl
Editor-in-Chief, Gourmet Magazine, New York City New York Times Restaurant Critic 1993–1999
Esme has an adoring husband, a wonderful son, an evil goat, some angry bees and a suspicion that she will never be happy again. Even baking her precious sourdough no longer works its usual magic. All it does is transport her back to the salty little French bakery where she found and lost her first true love, Louis, the village boulanger. When a chance meeting with this bewitching morsel from her past breathes fresh hope into Esme’s life, the grass starts to look greener on his side of the fence. But is Louis really the secret ingredient she needs for a blissful future? Or is the recipe for happiness closer to home?
‘Witty, charming, faithfully passionate to its subject and emotionally adept. If only this book was a man.’
‘Truly, madly, deeply humorous novel.’
Next
‘Clever, moreish, light yet strangely satisfying.’
Canvas, New Zealand Herald
Blessed are Corrie and Fee, for theirs is the kingdom of the world’s tastiest farmhouse cheese. Tucked away in a corner of Ireland, the lifelong friends turn out batch after batch of perfect Coolarney Blues and Golds, thanks to co-operative cows, pregnant milkmaids and the wind blowing just so in the right direction. Add to this mixture Corrie’s long-lost granddaughter Abbey, fresh from a remote but by no means backward island where her husband has been on a mission — just not the religious kind — stir in New Yorker Kit Stephens, heartbroken, burned-out, hung-over and hung-up, and what you have is a lot of spilt milk.
Corrie and Fee don’t have time for crying over it, though, they must use their charm to turn bitterness and betrayal into happiness and love — or the secret ingredient of Coolarney cheese will be lost to the world for ever.
‘Funnier than anything I’ve read in recent years.’
The Press
‘Seductive, feelgood but not pulpy. It fills you up, like cheese itself. But it bubbles, too, like champagne.’
Weekend Herald
‘For anyone who loves to laugh when they read, Blessed Are is an essential buy.’
The Gisborne Herald
When jilted bride-to-be Molly Brown arrives in the seemingly sleepy Irish seaside town of Ballymahoe, she has greasy hair, a fractured arm, a broken heart, three extra kilos and no time at all for the charm of the locals.
It’s been a crappy few days and her wedding dress is starting to smell, so if she could just lose her terrifying aunt and find Tom Connor perhaps everything, herself included, could return to normal. Unless, of course, there’s no such thing …
‘The most hilarious and irreverent New Zealand novel in many years. A wickedly funny debut.’
Sunday Star Times
‘I loved it!’
Dunedin Star
‘Fast-paced and funny.’
Waikato Times
About the Author
Former restaurant reviewer Sarah-Kate Lynch lives in Queenstown, New Zealand. She has a full-time job explaining how travelling to places like Venice and New York to research food and wine is work, not fun. Her next book is set in Champagne, France. You can find out more about her at www.sarah-katelynch.com.
ALSO BY SARAH-KATE LYNCH
By Bread Alone
Blessed Are
Finding Tom Connor
Stuff It! A Wicked Approach to Dieting
Copyright
National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Lynch, Sarah-Kate.
Eating with the angels / Sarah-Kate Lynch.
ISBN 1-86941-624-4
NZ823.3—dc 22
A BLACK SWAN BOOK
published by
Random House New Zealand
18 Poland Road, Glenfield, Auckland, New Zealand
www.randomhouse.co.nz
First published 2004
© 2004 Sarah-Kate Lynch
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
ISBN 9781775533658
Cover photograph: Brendan O’Hagan; styled by Mark Robins
Cover design: Sciascia Brothers Advertising
Text design: Katy Yiakmis
Author photograph: Monty Adams
Printed in Australia by Griffin Press