Where to Eat: N.Y.C. – The New York Times

I write a newsletter about restaurants and here’s everywhere I ate this week. I went to Darjeeling Kitchen and Cafe, and I had this amazing tomato and blue cheese soup with these little nuggets of fufu. Brooklyn Granary and Mill is a grain nerd’s paradise. I popped in for this corn cake with grape jelly. I went to Grandma’s Home, a Chinese restaurant chain from overseas. I really loved their tomato and fish stew — this kind of big pot of noodles and broth. The big tray chicken at Spicy Village is one of the most iconic dishes in the city. Spa 88 is a Russian Turkish bath house. They make a pretty good bowl of borscht. The best bite of the week was the salad at Bistrot Ha. Part of what makes this dish so special is that it is insanely spicy. The only warning that it’s going to be spicy are these little flecks of red, which are bird’s-eye chiles. It’s really crunchy and bright. It’s exactly what you want before you gorge on steak frites and these kind of heavier bistro-style dishes. It had been so long since I walked away from a meal and been like “the salad was my favorite thing I had tonight.”