so you know how you always hung out with your own clique in high school and you never ventured too far out of your own comfort zone to get to know the other kids? well, it's been years since high school and you start to wonder whether you'd missed out on some really cool people....
needless to say, facebook is a dream in terms of picking up where high school left off. without it, i'm not quite sure how i'd ever have been able to get back in touch w/joanne & silvia (both of whom never go to stuy reunions) -- and both of whom are totally fabulous and worthy of mention in this oh-so-fabulous blog. (yes, i'm totally self-congratulatory. so what?)
on the second day of this new york adventure (sponsored by mom -- thanks, mom!), i met up w/these two fabulous ladies at sanctuarytea, a cute little restaurant i found on citysearch or opentable or some combination thereof. it was perfectly lovely walking all the way from nicole's cool upper east side studio to 42nd & b'way (where i caught the subway), but it was absolutely FREEZING when i got out of the station. (OMG!! thank goodness for layers.) so i was happy that the restaurant wasn't too far away and i showed myself right in despite being 15 min early. (i mean, the door was open, right?)
the hostess seated me right away and i was mulling over the immense tea list (and i mean immense) when i saw joanne waiting outside. i dialed her digits right away (so she wouldn't freeze either) and told her i was inside. as soon as she sat down, i ordered the watermelon tea, which came right away in a super deep white cup with a rock sugar stick -- oh so classy! as i was letting my tea steep, in wanders silvia, who i literally haven't seen since the last days of high school. i'm totally serious! and until a few months ago when she and sue came out to LA, i hadn't seen joanne either! it was really an amazing little stuy reunion. who would've thunk?
at any rate, my fellow foodies and i had already checked out the menu online (such a given), but we had to scan through the printed menu again since some of the dishes had changed (including the pumpkin soup i'd wanted!). seeing as how i'd just stuffed myself on red meat the night before, i thought i'd keep dinner light. plus, i'd just walked all the way downtown, so eating heavily would've negated all the calories i'd just burnt. (so sue me for caring about my figure!)
i decided on the celery root soup (hoping that it wasn't all cream) and the crab salad (seeing as how i love crabmeat). joanne chose the strip steak and silvia had the salmon. now when you're eating out, you always consider whether you're getting enough bang for the buck. and as soon as the food came out and i *smelled* seafood, i knew i wasn't -- at least not for the seafood. b/c as all foodies know, you're not *supposed* to smell seafood. i wasn't quite sure whether it was my dish or silvia's, but that was *so* not appealing. plus, the portions were WAY small considering what we were paying -- and the fact that we weren't at a michelin-starred restaurant. i mean, seriously. even though joanne's dish looked pretty enticing, i was still a bit unnerved until my celery root soup came out. if anything was going to make up for paying too much for mediocre, funny-smelling seafood, it was going to be my big bowl of soup.
b/c it was SO good. i'd been worried that it was going to be all cream, though i really shouldn't have been. i mean, does celery root even go w/cream? then again, what doesn't go w/cream? at any rate, i suppose i could've asked, but i seriously didn't taste any cream at all! so either there wasn't any in there, or else they were really darn subtle about it. either way, i was very pleased. i couldn't even fish it b/c it was so thick and filling! though i'd wish i'd order two soups rather than paid way too much for a pathetic crab salad that had no flavor. that and i hate olives and i don't remember any matcha genmaicha tea jelly on my plate. needless to say, i was disappointed.
silvia's fish looked pretty basic (i wonder if she could taste the tea), so i think joanne's dish got best in show. though i noticed that her plate was completely lopsided, with the meat all on one side of the plate and a few streaks of sauce on the other. (quite odd, i must say.) after dinner, joanne & silvia both said their dishes were pretty good, though we all agreed that the portions were quite small. i'm sure they were being polite when they said that it was a good meal to treat yourself to every once in a while. but seeing as how i eat out all the time, my attitude is that your food better be worth your money. and this place needs quite a bit of work before it has the right to charge what it's charging.
seeing as how i can't end any meal w/o dessert, i ordered the green tea panna cotta. to be honest, it was quite good actually. i guess it would've been nicer in a dessert dish (b/c it was in a plastic cup from what i can remember), but it tasted pretty yummy. plus, at that point, i was already so distracted by our hilarious conversation that i wasn't too focused on what i was putting into my mouth. i mean, how can anyone focus w/coffee prince on the mind? (ladies, i need that link!)
sanctuarytea
337b west broadway
new york, ny 10013
212.941.7832
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