Eating In Translation

Les Halles

(This venue is closed.) On the last day of "choucroute month" at Les Halles, I landed the choucroute de poisson (special, $23.50) and spoiled myself for the more typical briny kraut-and-potatoes version. Not that I'd ever send comfort food back to the kitchen, but sauerkraut smells different when it's slow-cooked in Riesling. (My one gripe: just one potato, and undercooked at that.) With seafood sausage, smoked salmon sausage, monkfish medallions, sea scallops, smoked herring, and a garnish of salmon caviar.

Les Halles
15 John St. (Broadway-Nassau St.), Manhattan
212-285-8585
www.LesHalles.net/location/les-halles-downtown

City Limits Diner

A sibling to Manhattan's Oceana and Molyvos, this is a classier version of a traditional diner; prices are bumped up accordingly. After eyeing the roast monkfish salad with field greens, faro, mushrooms, cider vinaigrette, and truffle essence ($15.95), I settled on the Italian burger, medium rare ($9.75). City Limits tops it with two slabs of housemade smoked mozzarella, which sealed in adequate helpings of grilled onions and pancetta. Fine, though it came off pre-fab. Fries were OK.

City Limits Diner
135 Harvard Ave., Stamford, Connecticut
(Just off Exit 5 of I-95)

Chocopologie

Retail shop and café for Knipschildt Chocolatier; if you like to watch (and have a measure of discipline), sit at the counter that faces onto the windowed kitchen. Today, I joined Mom and Jer at one of the tables up front (likely to be packed, come warm weather) for a nosh of two poached eggs on corncakes with sweet corn relish ($8.50). Liked it, even though the relish took "sweet" a little too much to heart; ditto with a meringue-covered grapefruit torte ($5).

Much more satisfying was the torte de la maison ($5), which came with the personal plaudits of both our waitress and the pastry chef. No wonder: Provided you like both chocolate and hazelnut (and I imagine you do), you'll find it very light, considering how rich it is. Can be shared; I managed to surrender only a few bites.

Despite the soup/salad/sandwich selections, I'm much more likely to return this winter for a cup of spiced hot chocolate by the counter in back, and in summer for a scoop of cilantro-lime sorbet.

Chocopologie
12 South Main St., Norwalk, Connecticut
203-838-3131

Haas & Co.

Gouda meets "gado-gado saus" at this gift store filled with "specialties from Holland and Indonesia." Well, perhaps, largely from Holland, even to the wooden shoes and other such items. Lakrisal brand liquorice pastilles (25 g.; $1) taste positively medicinal, but they will rid your mouth of most any other flavor. More-palatable varieties of liquorice — sweet, salty, and very salty, in assorted shapes and sizes — await a return visit.

Haas & Co.
83 Washington St., Norwalk, Connecticut
203-838-6161

Caffe Silvium

Charming Italian, smaller and always a little busier than its neighbor Spazzio, but ultimately less special than Mom and I had heard. For the table, a small white bean salad was nice; bread was indifferent, except when sopping up the garlicky broth from Mom's cozze alla barese (sautéed mussels; $8.95). The mussels themselves were good, as mussels go; funghi ripieni (mushrooms stuffed with crab meat; special; $9) were a little bready.

Branzino roasted with extra virgin olive oil and lemon (special; $21) was excellent: tender, delicate, and lemony but not oily. Roasted potatoes were very good, too; sautéed spinach was just OK. Mom's braised lamb shank over fettucine (special; $20) was falling-off-the-bone tender; by comparison, the pasta was a little too chewy.

For dessert, my tartufo ($6) was good; Mom's zuppa Inglese ($6) edged it out. Coffee ($1.50) was fine, too.

Caffe Silvium
371 Shippan Ave., Stamford, Connecticut
203-324-1651

Al di Là

Joined my friend Phil for a long-overdue dinner at this Park Slope restaurant that matches flea-market décor, catch-as-catch-can tableware, and top-notch Venetian cuisine. My favorite dish of the evening may have been my starter, trippa alla Toscana, a hearty tripe stew with prominent white-wine notes. (Because it's a favorite, tripe has also proved difficult to photograph on repeated occasions, this one included.)

A close second, though, were casunsiei, ravioli filled with ricotta and lovely fresh beets in a pool of brown butter and poppyseeds. Although I've always been fond of liver, my calf liver alla Veneziana entree did little for me; braised rabbit, baked orata, and grilled chicken will have to await return visits.

Al di Là
248 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn
718-783-4565

Le Soleil

Décor here is appropriate to a taxi-driver hangout; food is straightforward. Tassot griot (fried goat; $9) was preceded by an iceberg-cucumber-tomato salad, then accompanied by fried plantains, a sizable plate of rice and beans, and a cupful of tomatoey sauce to wet them down. Even better for livening up the rice and beans were a few big spoonfuls of spicy cabbage slaw, a standard condiment at every table. As for the earthy, dry-fried goat, it was best all by itself, though a ring of raw onion made a nice match, too.

Le Soleil
858 Tenth Ave. (56th-57th Sts.), Manhattan
212-581-6059
www.LeSoleilHaitianRestaurant.com

Café Rafaella

(This venue is closed.) This frutti bi bosco ($5.50) was topped with raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and red currants. Decent but not distinguished. Sue's black and white mousse cake ($5.50) was a triple chocolate whammy. Coffee ($2) was fine. Lots of room to sit, though I sank mighty low on the sofa.

Café Rafaella
134 Seventh Ave. South (West 10th-Charles Sts.), Manhattan
212-929-7247

'ino

(This venue is closed.) A little flavored oil, a dusting of pepper, a tad of fontina, and springy, firm, thick-cut focaccia transform "egg in the hole" into this tiny restaurant's famous truffled egg toast ($7). My dining buddy and I also split a four-panini sampler ($10) — cacciatorini, goat cheese, and black olive pesto was my favorite — and an anchovy bruschetta (special, $3) that smacked of the sea without tasting fishy. But on its own or, perhaps, over morning coffee, the truffled egg toast is reason enough to go back to the well.

'ino
21 Bedford St. (Houston-Downing Sts.), Manhattan
212-989-5769

Palačinka

(This venue is closed.) Despite its utilitarian Soho looks, Palačinka (Pal-uh-CHINK-uh) turns out namesake crepes that are extremely thin and light; this one, flavored with fresh lime ($5), displayed a wonderful balance between sweet and tart.

Palačinka
28 Grand St. (Sixth Ave.-Thompson St.), Manhattan
212-625-0362