Eating In Translation

The Chart House

The amazing, rich cream of crab soup ($9), aswim with lump crabmeat, was reason enough to take my shore leave at Dobbs Ferry (another is the marvelous view, especially if you sigh over the Hudson River School). Grilled swordfish (about $24) with a baked potato, sour cream, and broccoli, and pan-seared sea scallops (about $22) in a soy-ginger broth with spinach, bok choy, and coconut ginger rice, are substantial entrees, but after placing an advance order for dessert, I was already biding my time.

The kitchen needs about 25 minutes' notice to prepare the "lava cake" (about $9), a hot chocolate soufflé with a molten center, topped with vanilla ice cream and crunchy chocolate, surrounded by chocolate sauce. It's well worth the early decision on dessert.

The Chart House
At the foot of High St., Dobbs Ferry, New York
(one of many locations)
203-978-0268

Citarella

From the upstairs cheese department, Brin d'Amour ($20.99 per pound) was bedecked with rosemary, peppercorns, and juniper berries and drizzled with olive oil, but cheese gave no account of itself beyond a firm yet pliant foundation.

On numerous later occasions:

La serena ($11.99 per pound). Sandy brown with a dusting of white outside, off-white inside; soft-to-semisoft interior with small, irregular pocketing; acrid.

Vacherin Fribourg ($11.99 per pound). Caramel-colored outside, with tiny white mold spotting, butter yellow inside; faint aroma of overripe milk; firm but creamy smooth; nutty overtones.

Fig cake with walnuts and hazelnuts ($6.99 per pound). Mislabeled, it turns out; this one has whole almonds. The fruit flavor is just too much, and even when a bite contained a nut, the contrast in textures made me want to chew the fig, or the almond, but not both at the same time.

Manchego madara ($12.99 per pound), an unpasteurized sheep's milk cheese from Spain, paired with Corazon del Sol brand membrillo (240 g.; $4.99).

Montasio ($7.99 per pound) matched up with Lazzaris salsa di pere (120 g.; $4.99), pear puree with a kick of mustard.

Citarella
2135 Broadway (at 75th St.)
212-874-0383

Camille's

Walk-down dining room that offers a $7.45 weekend brunch: coffee, juice, a bread-and-muffin basket, and a choice of ten mains including this mozzarella-tomato three-egg omelette with rye toast and home fries. All told, lacks a certain something.

Camille's
1135 Amsterdam Ave. (at 116th St.)
212-749-2428

Jeffrey's Meats

(This venue is closed.) This fourth-generation family butcher, the final remaining original tenant in the bustling Essex Street Market, served up gourmet prepared foods; beef, lamb, pork, veal, game, and off-cuts; and workaday meats for sandwiches and stews. Chateau Royal lamb merguez (not shown, 12 oz., $6.75) delivered a concentrated cloud of peppery, oniony, garlicky smoke when I raised the lid of my frying pan.

In its waning years Jeffrey's added a sandwich menu. Above, Jeffrey Ruhalter himself slices through corned beef, pastrami, Genoa salami, and monterey jack. The bread, slathered with Dijon mustard, came from neighboring stall Pain D'Avignon; Jeffrey walked over to select it himself, on the spot.

Jeffrey's Meats
Inside the Essex Market, 120 Essex St. (Delancey-Rivington Sts.), Manhattan
www.JeffreysMeatMarket.com

Thai Son

These frog legs don't have any jump left in them, until they touch down on your tongue.

Murray's Cheese Shop

Fiore Sardo ($14.99 per pound). Close to its dark brown rind, the "Sardinian flower" actually tastes faintly of flowers; otherwise the hard, crumbly tan body of this sheep's milk cheese is tangy and grassy, with very mild smoky notes.

Meadow Creek Dairy Grayson ($18.99 per pound). This cow's milk cheese from Galax, Virginia, has a tan washed rind; beneath, it's a creamy pale yellow, somewhat pungent, soft and yet beefy.

From the West Village location, this slice of coffee cake ($2.50) had a crunchy, walnutty, cinnamon-flavored top; inside it was moist and springy, with playful touches of dried fruit.

Murray's Cheese Shop
254 Bleecker St. (at Cornelia St.)
(one of two locations)
212-243-3289

Morgan Stanley Cafeteria

Most of this building's employees work in the firm's very large tech department (as does the friend who invited me), so the gray tones in the cafeteria don't compare with the spendor that the investment bankers undoubtedly enjoy downtown. And though Indian selections are still a regular feature — today, chicken in butter sauce — the menu has been whittled down because so many of the expats prefer to pack home cooking.

From the "international buffet," this creditable Jamaican sampler (40 cents per ounce) included jerk chicken, spicy potato salad, cod, curried vegetables, rice and peas, and a papaya-shrimp salad.

Morgan Stanley Cafeteria
(not open to the public)
750 Seventh Ave. (49th-50th Sts.), 4th floor

The Night Cafe

(This venue is closed.) A drink, and perhaps a sandwich prepared off-premises, are typical fare at this Morningside Heights hangout. Special occasions are another matter.

Jacques-Imo's

 

(This venue is closed.) This New York outlet has "licensed the concept" from the New Orleans original, according to its website. During Sunday jazz brunch, biscuits and gravy ($7.95) arrived in under five minutes — too fast, I say, if the tasso turns up so stiff, or the peppery gravy, so runny.

Jacques-Imo's
366 Columbus Ave. (at 77th St.)
(one of two locations)
212-799-0150

Ear Inn

This Irish pub takes its name from an old neon "Bar" sign that no longer get lit like it used to; service, though amiable, loses focus when not simply refilling your pint. An appetizer of smoked trout ($6.50), which arrived with the entrees, offered more fixings than fish; Irish beef stew ($10) and herb-roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and a half-cob of corn ($11.50) were workmanlike belly-fillers; for that matter, so was a slice of apple-pear pie ($4.50).

Ear Inn
326 Spring St., (Greenwich-Washington Sts.)
212-226-9060