Small portions of tripe at Maialino
Last week I heard about this great breakfast at Maialino from Serious Eats New York. The review mentioned the roast pork sandwich was worthwhile. On the menu it's listed as a porchetta sandwich. $14 dollars for a breakfast sandwich is not like something I do often, but you know when it's brunch it's justifiable. Too bad they ran out when Steph and I went. We also wanted to try to house-made sausage ($9, fat sausages not little breakfast links) but they were out of that too. My question today is, what do you do when there's not much else on the menu that really catch your attention? How do you let the friendly waitress know that golly gee, we seriously don't know what to order because we know your portion sizes are small so what the fuck is the point to eat $14 eggs? This chink ain't down with that (anger random people points +2!!!) I told Steph that we needed to hold a one-hour special interview to let our server know we wanted to take our eating talents down to South Beach. She convinced me that wasn't tactful, so we just stayed and at some $12 dollar eggs and tripe. For the record, the tripe was delicious but not filling enough for $12 dollars. I could get twelve breakfast sandwiches at Burger King with that. Seriously. Twelve (because they're on sale right now). Also for the record, Al Di La still has the best tripe ever. Better than Loconda Verde, better than Maialino. And y'all oughta pay attention because Danny goes to nice restaurants and order low-brow food like tripe all the time. Shit, now I'm talking about myself in third-person. Maybe I do need that one-hour special...
Disappointment was in abundance last weekend. I also discovered that I don't like Pernod (the liquor). This came to light at the bar at ABC Kitchen and the offensive drink was this thing called Green Kitchen or something like that. And you know what that means... I must not like licorice either. This was a devastating blow to me. See, I feel like it's possible to train my palate to enjoy things that millions of people around the world like to eat/drink. Listen, we're not counting a food if like 6,000 indigenous people eat it. For example, I've seen those Bourdain/Zimmer shows where they eat some grilled feces-packed colons because some people wanna eat the whole animal. No, that shit don't count. I'm talking about if someone doesn't like carrots and then doesn't eat carrots ever. It just makes no sense to me. Maybe licorice is something that not EVERYONE loves, but there must be fans of licorice out there. Steph tells me it goes great with coke. I have yet to try it like that, but I did manage to buy a little bag of it. This week will involve some force feeding myself of black licorice candy. Mmm... yum yum. How do you feel about licorice? And Pernod?
Maialino
2 Lexington Avenue.
New York, NY 10010
212-777-2410
Hell yeah I love black licorice! The saltier the better, as well.
Ben
July 15, 2010 2:23 pm
Hrm, I liked it for as long as I can remember. I used to eat my friends black jelly beans when I was little, and I still do...
bionicgrrrl
July 15, 2010 3:41 pm
I'm on the same boat as you are. I don't like licorice (and durian) and I tried it at least ten times over different times of my life. I guess there's more licorice for the rest of the world to eat.
Tina
July 14, 2010 10:38 pm
Oh I love black licorice, black jelly beans, Black Jack gum, Pernod, Sambuca.... It's good stuff!
bionicgrrrl
July 14, 2010 11:44 am
@Tia,
Did you grow up eating black licorice? I'm having problems learning to like it. haha.
Danny
July 14, 2010 12:03 pm
@Nicholas,
haha, well rationalizing it with bulk purchase price is exactly why i always go back to fast food. mmm... gotta love it. Anyway I had some black licorice again yesterday. Still no progress... haha
Danny
July 13, 2010 10:21 am
That's also something like 60 Chicken McNuggets. Glad to see I'm not the only one who rationalizes decisions based on bulk purchase price haha.
I agree though, if a lot of people like a certain food, then there must be some merit in it. That's not to say I'll force myself into enjoying it (props to you on the licorice thing), but I feel like it's incredibly dumb for anyone to dismiss a food without ever giving it the light of day.
Nicholas
July 12, 2010 10:52 pm