Great Italian for an unbeatable price

Sometimes you just want a great dish of pasta.  You want to go all out, screw the low-carb diet and indulge.  But you want it to be good and fresh and worth it.  When I get that urge and I want to stay local, I go to Celeste, on 84^th and Amsterdam.  They don’t take reservations and there is always a line out the door, but eat there once and you will know why.  Chef Giancarlo Quadalti hails from Italy and the food is so authentic it makes you feel as if you were in Italy and not the upper west side of Manhattan.  The pastas are made fresh daily and you can taste the difference in every mouthful.   Each dish is full of flavor and cooked to perfection.  Two of my favorites are the Linguini Vongole:

and the Arrabiata:

I ventured out and had Salmon when I was there last week and it was fantastic.  And if you like pizza you can’t go wrong with the thin crust pizza from their wood burning oven and what Italian meal would be complete without a little homemade gelato?  (Yes I went all out and had the dessert too – but real gelato?  So good!!)  We also had the Lemon Pie.  It was fantastic!

The wine list is very good and the prices are more than reasonable, as are all the prices on the menu.  It is probably one of the best values you will find in Manhattan.  The portions are huge and the prices are small.  They are no longer a secret (at least among the upper west siders) so be prepared to wait a bit, but if you call ahead they will let you know how long the wait is.    Also it is cash only.   It is small, but cozy and the service is warm and friendly.  They pack them in every night, but boy do they get it right.  Every night.   Now that’s amore!

502 Amsterdam (Between 84th & 85th)

212-874-4559

Happy New Year!

Join us next week as we start our month long journey through some of our favorite spots in NYC.  Here's to a fantastic 2011!

B&H iphone app

From one of our guest bloggers Ethan Gurney, who lives in Naples, Italy:

I live outside of Naples, Italy with my three dogs, whom I love taking pictures of.   Because I love taking photos, I take my camera with me almost everywhere I go.  It is usually while I am out somewhere taking pictures that I think of an accessory that I could really use, but when I get home I forget to order it.  It is not until the next time that I am out shooting pictures that I think about it again.  Now there is a great iphone app that has solved this problem for me!  With the BandH Photo iphone app, you can order most anything you need for from your iPhone    

Twice now I have used the B&H Photo app to make an online order and twice I have been impressed with how easy the app is to use.  Let me start by talking a little about BandH Photo.  Recommended to me by a couple Navy journalist friends, BandH is everything I ever wanted in a camera store.   The Navy uses Nikon cameras almost exclusively and has contracts with Nikon and BandH for all their photography needs.   In my experience, BandH consistently has the lowest prices for camera equipment and accessories available anywhere online.  They have hard to find items such as replacement hot shoe covers and they usually ship the same day with the option of using USPS or FedEx for shipping.  I ordered my current DSLR (a Nikon D5000) from BandH on a Monday to be shipped to my military address in Italy.  Not only did BandH undercut any other price I could find online by $80, but also included USPS in the price.  The camera arrived three days later!  In Italy!  

I could go on forever about my positive experiences with BandH, including my visit to their Flagship store in NYC where I experienced the most knowledgeable and helpful staff of any retail company I have ever visited.  But if you are like me and like to take pictures, you will need to get the BandH iphone app.  Say goodbye to post-it reminders and say hello to the BandH iphone app.  Did I mention it was free?

Let it snow, let it snow, let it... ok, ok, enough! Stop snowing already!

As you may have heard, we had a blizzard here in the Big Apple.  The tourists don't seem to mind at all!  So you may be wondering, what to do in NYC if you happen to be here during snow time. So here's a few ideas that I had over the past few days:

#1. Try to get out of your apartment so you can commute three times as long as usual to be one of four people in your office.

view out the front door

# 2. When you are leaving the office after sitting all day in wet boots, stroll by and see the massive snow banks in Times Square while you are trying to find a subway entrance (that is actually still open)

look, you can stand with your friends in the middle of the street!

# 3. Take pictures of your kids in the massive snow banks in Times Square. Or in my case, take pictures of other people taking pictures of their kids on the massive snow banks in Times Square.

# 4. Go home to your local and drink a bunch of hot toddys ...or what the heck, hang your wet mittens by the radiator and make one yourself at home!  Here's how: Get a glass mug.  Coat the bottom with honey or sugar.  Pour three fingers of whisky (I like Irish whisky but bourbon works too). Add the same amount of hot water.  Squeeze 1/4 lemon into the glass and stir.  Add a slice of lemon studded with cloves and you are good to go!  Some people like a cinnamon stick as a stir, like this:

You can't go wrong with a good hot toddy on a cold day. 

Hopefully wherever you are this week, you are warm and dry.  But if you DO end up in the Big (frozen) Apple, drop us a line.  We can always be coaxed out for a good central park snowball fight with the promise of hot whisky after.

We, The People....

I guess the thing Philadelphia is probably most famous for is all the history stuff... you know that big broken bell and being the centerpiece of early American history and whatnot.  So of course, any trip there absolutely wouldn't be complete without a visit to the National Constitution Center (that, and a colleague hooked us up with free tickets. Thanks Rick!)

It was actually a lot of fun.  First, you watch a 17 minute performance in a crazy little multi-media theater.  It's basically a history of the United States with a lot of preamble mixed in. An actor talks while all kinds of images of US History are projected on just about every imaginable surface.

Then you get to the actual museum, which is bright, modern and highly interactive.  At the end of the museum there is the "signing hall" which has life size statues of all of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  What I learned from this? George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were actually quite tall (both were 6'2").  James Madison?  Only 5'4"... which is shorter than me!

The museum also has a rotating exhibit space, and we were lucky enough to be there for The Art of The American Soldier exhibit, which is a collection of artwork created by soldiers throughout history. You can view the gallery here, but it's worth the trip to see in person.

Saigon, Horatio A. Hawks, 1969

 That's it for this trip to Philly!  Whether it's food, drink, art, history or some combination of those, it's a great city to visit.  We will definitely be back.

Yum Yum Philly! wine, cheese, beer and a cozy bar

Just off Rittenhouse Square, we found Tria, a wine, cheese and beer cafe.  We were looking for something with small bites, and it was perfect.

We started with a selection of bruschetta, all of which feature one of their gourmet cheeses: Birchrun Blue and Spiced Lancaster Pear Butter, Pistachio Herbed Ricotta with Lavender Honey and Goat Cheese with Garlic and Basil Pesto.  All were good, and not expensive ($3-$4 for two nice pieces, so perfect for sharing!) After that we moved on to some small plates, (Roasted Beets with Bulgarian Feta Cheese, Olive Oil Rosemary Potato Chips with Truffle Aioli) but the standout of the night for me was the Truffled Egg Toast with Fontina Cheese.

Seriously. Ridiculously good.

 In addition to the delicious eats, we also had delicious drinks.  They have a very respectable beer list and wine list, both reasonably priced.   They do not accept reservations, so expect to hang with a glass of wine at the bar on a busy night.  Or, what the heck, just stay and eat at the bar like we did.

We are nightcap people, so after dinner we stopped at a little pub just around the corner from the hotel, called The Black Sheep.

We just had a few whiskeys there, but it was totally cozy with a good jukebox, and the bartender was  friendly.  They also have an interesting menu, which means that we'll just have to go back down to Philly sometime soon.  There just aren't enough meals in the day!!!

Happy Christmas!

Best wishes for a wonderful Christmas Eve, and safe and happy holiday travels to our Undies family all over the world!