Entries from The Amateur Gourmet tagged with 'Franny's'
Where To Eat in Park Slope
As we close the chapter on my Park Slope existence, it's time to reflect on all the food that I'd eat there, day in, day out. The food in Park Slope is very good, sometimes great, sometimes not-so-great, but almost always consistent. It's best divided into two categories: the food you should eat if you live there and the food you should eat if you visit....
Spaghetti with Ramps at Franny's
The "r" word made its first appearance on Twitter last week when one of the many food people I follow announced that they spotted ramps at the Union Square Greenmarket. "Ramps are here!" another cheered and, as happens every year, the ramp-lovers went on a rampage. I'm a ramp liker, not a ramp lover. What are ramps? Ramps are really mild, skinny onions that pop up at farmer's markets around springtime and are prized by chefs for their delicacy and their uniquely mellow flavor. I know that David Chang likes to pickle them (there's a recipe online for that somewhere) and other chefs might use them in a sauce or a soup, but the best use for them I've yet encountered was the dish I ate last night at Franny's: a simple and beautiful spaghetti with ramps....
The Radicchio Salad at Franny's
We all get hammered over the head so often about fresh ingredients and using the best ingredients ("Use a really good olive oil," says The Barefoot Contessa; "I make my own toothpaste," says Alice Waters) that sometimes it's easy to dismiss it all as snobby nonsense. Then you go to Franny's, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite restaurants (and certainly the best restaurant near our apartment; it's only two blocks away!) and order their radicchio salad and when it arrives and you take the first bite you're struck speechless. What's so awe-inspiring about it? Is it the execution? Is it the conception? No, you realize, it's the ingredients....
