lil brunch

lilfrankie
Originally uploaded by i_eat_ny.

When is a meal blogworthy? When it’s fabulous and you want to share the knowledge and experience? When it’s horrible and you want to warn others? How about when it’s just pretty good?

I think that Lil Frankie’s (19 1st. Ave. bw 1&2nd St.) is a pretty good place to go when you want a pizza and a salad. Their pizzas don’t disappoint and the lil’ Frankie’s salad is awesome—greens, beets, haricot vert. I order it every time. Although the service can vary from mediocre to good, it’s also a good place for groups. The dining room is spacious and they recently added another room on the side. But you probably know all of this. The brunch is pretty good, but stops short of spectacular or reliable.

I went there with Ted one Sunday before he had to catch the Amtrak. There were only a few other folks in the back alley garden room. I can’t remember what was playing, but whatever it was, it was up a hair too loud for a Sunday morning. The coffee kind of bugged me, too. It was that Dasani-type coffee that is just like bitter brown water. Note to self, only order their espresso drinks.

Now I’ve always been a fan of food that makes use of leftovers: old bread becomes lovely French toast, leftover rice becomes fried rice, that kind of thing. Ted’s omelet made use of old spaghetti. I imagined it would be more of a pancake type creation where the noodles and eggs were mixed and then put into a fry pan so the bottom of the pan toasted the noodles to add texture and flavor. Instead, the omelet was just that, eggs and spaghetti, and the side of potato cake was browned and dry.

I had the baked eggs with mini meatballs and sauce. The word for mini meatballs, polpettine, looks like mini poops and they resembled Chef Boy Ardee meatballs but with real meat and no filler. I asked for my eggs to be a little runny because I like to sop up the yolk, and the marinara from the meatballs made a nice gravy for their good bread. It was a yummy but gross looking concoction. I feel like I should make some allusion to birth, but I’ve already referred to poop in this description and it wasn’t a bad meal by any means. In fact, it was pretty good. But blogworthy? I’m still not sure. Maybe you should try it yourself.

Good & Plenty

My co worker Christine got me hooked on the banana pudding at Good and Plenty (410 W. 43rd St bw 9/10th Ave). That stuff is amazing. I want to put it on my face and lick it off. Actually, I want to put it on Clive Owen's face and lick it off. But I digress.
I won't show a picture because my camera is broken, and it's not much to look at. They serve it in a to go container, so it gets smushed, but the taste. Man, the taste! The texture! The smell! The pudding is actually vanilla. And I'm not a vanilla person, but this pudding is AWESOME. Between bites of velvet, you get the chunks of sweet banana that add the flavor. Instead of damp 'nilla wafers, the luscious bits of cake really elevate this dessert. The real whipped cream is just the pudding on the cake. Sort of.
However, like most obsessions, this one is complicated. The demand is greater than the supply. They don't serve the banana pudding everyday. There are only two employees that make pudding. One woman only works on Sunday, so the chances of pudding are greater on Monday. That is if they don't run out of it. The second lady works more regularly, but you just never know if she'll make it. I just called into the store (212.268-4385/86) and asked if they ever have butterscotch pudding. Sadly, they haven't had it in a month. I'm dying to try it!!!