Becco, or Italian (mono)mania

As I said on Facebook, microblogging the New York trip, good Italian food is thin on the ground in South Florida. That's one reason B. and I went to dinner three times at the same restaurant in New York, Becco, in the Theater District, on Restaurant Row, owned by PBS celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich.

As I see it (and B. might disagree), there are four basic reasons we went to Becco so often (well, add a fifth).

First, the good food. There's nothing exotic about the dishes at Becco--the ideas for dishes are common ones, or variations thereof. Pollo al limone, for instance--a common dish, exceedingly well executed. Although our first night there, one of the pasta dishes was an exquisite semolina gnocchi, sauced with a cream sauce, then baked or broiled. Marvelous! (I must see if I can get a recipe.) The key is the execution, which at Becco was impeccable.

Second, the great prices. Becco is comparable in price to the restaurants--good ones--in South Florida. In fact, Michael's Genuine Food and Drink, a touchstone of our Miami fine eating experience, is, while excellent, comparable in quality to Becco--and probably half again as expensive.

Third, the fabulous service. Becco just takes care of its customers. An example: on our last night, Saturday, Halloween, the resaurant was quite busy. My entrée was late arriving, to the point where Marie, our waitress, at one point came by and asked if I was okay. (I was a bit restive, understandable under the circumstances.) Angelo, one of the floor managers that evening (and dressed as a quite creditable Burgess Meredith-era Penguin), without asking me, noticed my restiveness and inquired with the chef about the status of my entrée. He then came over--again, this was without being prompted--and told me that my entrée would be ready in a few minutes--which it was. Excellent.

A fourth reason dovetails (Dovetonsils?) with the above reasons. As those of you who know me well know, my father went to medical school at the University of Bologna (Italy), and my mother lived there with him for a time. My mom was a good cook before she went there, and when she came back, she had been schooled in the dark arts of Northern Italian cuisine. (Bolognaise lasagna has, I believe, two different sauces: Bolognaise ragú and what can best be described as a Bechamel sauce on steroids.) As a result, I know a little bit about Italian food, good Italian food. Becco delivers on this. The semolina gnocchi were a standout, but all their pasta, even the dishes we didn'tlike so much, were well executed. All the entrées we ordered were first-rate. My salmon filet the second night was on a bed of braised cauliflower so good that I ordered a side order--and we ate it all--with my hanger steak the third night. And I don't even like cauliflower. As our waitress Marie said, Becco is very good at making tasty vegetables (another dark art).

The fifth reason is simple: when dinnertime rolled around, B. and I were (I trow) so exhausted that picking a restaurant became a chore.

Well, picking Becco for dinner was never a chore. Becco has my highest recommendation.

New York, New York

Hully gee, but it's been a long time since I posted a blog entry.

Well, dear readers, exciting things are happening. I'm in New York, sitting in the New York Public Library's (NYPL) main branch reading room in Bryant Park. I just got an NYPL library card! (Well, a Visitor's Card--I don't think I can check out materials.) B. and I leave New York tomorrow, which would be sad, but... on Monday I start a job at an excellent academic library, at the closest law school to my home.

Wow. About the job, much more than that I do not know. No thirty, as we journalists say. It's temporary, and probably part-time, and the duties are nebulous. But I can't wait.

Ummm... impressions of New York. Why do New Yorkers have a reputation as being rude and unfriendly? I love New York (obvious enough--you can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can't take the Brooklyn out of the boy). But I also love New Yorkers. They're polite, friendly, and cheerful. They don't suffer fools gladly, but they make allowances (sometimes wide ones) for tourists.

Broadway. I keep swearing (or affirming) that I will start blogging about everything we see, on Broadway and elsewhere. But that particular to-do item never bubbles to the top. Well, here are my brief impressions of the three shows we've seen this trip.

Next to Normal: Strong meat. A musical, and not a typical one, about a mother with bipolar disorder (almost certainly bipolar I disorder, for those of you that know the difference and/or care). My quick take is that the show does a great job of showing the ramified nature, and interactions of, brain chemistry and environment. On some level, it's all chemistry (whether you're a reductionist or not). Sometimes, the causes of mood are difficult to tease from the skein of life. Other times, the causes of mood are as obvious as a scream.

The Royal Family: Great fun, but also with its serious elements. About a family based on the Barrymores, it shows that actors are both like the rest of us, and very much unlike some of us. As big a theater buff as I am, I appreciated this distinction. I also understand why The Royal Family is such a popular show with insiders--it's very much like a 1930's version of 30 Rock.

Wishful Drinking: Before I saw this, I thought well, although not often, about Carrie Fisher. Now, I love her. It's true, as one review said, that she's less confessing about her own self than taking a created character (the one that played Princess Leia) and confessing from that perspective. But that self is quite entertaining, and extremely revelatory. Two more points. First, her show (from my lawyerly perspective) is a tribute to two black-letter rules of U.S. law: you can't defame the dead, and truth is an absolute defense to an action for defamation. Second, as she says in the show, if you name something, and own it, it takes much of the power away from that thing.

Well, I have an article (on library job interviewing) to pull, reading to do, and a lunch appointment with a friend of B.'s who is here for the same conference that brings us to New York. A quick 570 words--in 25 minutes, no less!

Later, gentle readers--but hopefully not this much later.