Manhattan, New York: Salume

I had gone back and forth a lot on my first Italian Food Find in New York. New York is known for its authentic Italian community so the stakes were high, and I didn’t want to disappoint. I decided that my Italian Food Find in New York must be as always, affordable, rooted in Italian heritage, and so delicious I’d have full faith in this review.

Michele Colombo, a former Italian advertising executive recently opened a panini cafe in SoHo bringing authentic Italian to trendy SoHo.

Colombo, a new resident to Manhattan, arrived five years ago with one intention, to teach New Yorkers the fundamentals of Italian food. Interestingly enough, these fundamentals coincide with the fundamentals of organic food. (Win-win for you organic readers)

According to Colombo, Italians, are all about fresh, locally grown food. Food should look and taste similarly on your plate as it did in the ground.

Colombo warned me that a true Italian Panini from Salume would not come squashed, but rather toasted on baguette-like bread, and due to this preparation I could appreciate the flavors of the panino better. (Another fact from Colombo, pannini, is Italian for plural sandwiches. Panino, is a singular sandwich. So to order a Panini makes no sense to Italians!)

I enjoyed the Langhirano, a classic Italian-American sandwich consisting of Prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, and Tomato. I would also recommend the Valtellina a serving of thinly sliced lemon and brie on crusty baguette type bread available only at Salume. The thin sliver of lemon almost goes unnoticed but creates a fresh mist in between the bread and cheese.

To test Colombo I asked which panini was his favorite. Proving to be impartial he could not pick one, but let me know that my favorite, the langhirano, was his best seller.

They are indulgent sandwiches, at over ten dollars a sandwich, but worth every cent, and still cheaper than a trip to Italy.

$| 330 West Broadway at Grand St. New York, NY |212.226.8111

Ocean City, MD: Shenanigan's

I’m a big fan of pubs, especially authentic ones, where the bar tender has an Irish accent, the menu is predictable, and the beer list is miles long. I wasn’t expecting to find a truly great pub outside of New York, Philadelphia, or Boston but I found one in Ocean City, Maryland of all places. And the fact that this ocean front pub has the best crab cakes I’ve had in Ocean City is just the icing on the cake.

Shenanigan's has the ambiance of just about every other pub I’ve been in. They seat patrons on wooden pews, the décor’s color palette is green, and orange, with shamrocks on their front sign. It’s also a tad classier than most of the family-friendly restaurants in Ocean City, decorated with Norman Rockwell era pictures.

As always, I ordered the crab cakes and fries, (I promise very soon I’ll review a non-crab cake place) although I’ve tried their salad too. Both were fresh, crisp, and wonderfully affordable. The crab cake came flakey, and had barely any filler, served fresh on a toasted kaiser roll with waffle fries or salad.

Their crab cakes tastes similar to mine which makes me wonder if they use parmesan cheese with their bread crumbs. Their salad is a mescaline mix which I enjoyed with house balsamic vinaigrette. The total was about eleven dollars, (not including tip).

I’m not a big beer drinker but I was impressed by their beer menu. They had a generous list of international and domestic beers. I am not unpatriotic, but I prefer the taste of international beer over domestic every time.

Shenanigan's was wonderful for its convenient location, low price, friendly service and most importantly it’s high quality food. 

$| Shenanigan's |309 North Atlantic Avenue, Ocean City, MD |(410)289-7181

Ocean City, MD: Brass Balls

I have ad-hoc’d my way through a good amount of restaurants on the boardwalk of Ocean City, Maryland and my experience has taught me that it is very unlikely to find bad food in Ocean City, MD. It is important to keep in mind that most of the food here is more or less the same genre; American-boardwalk type food. Think, funnel cakes, cotton candy, hot dogs, and crab cakes.

Ocean City is well known for its boardwalk. The Travel Channel noted it as a top ten boardwalk in America. Upon entering Ocean City, a sign boosts its title as 2001’s best family vacation spot. I have learned the hard way that this sign forewarns visitors that most of Ocean City is kid-friendly. The adult scenes are few and far between.

Recently, a co-worker recommended Brass Balls, one of the older restaurants on Ocean City’s boardwalk. Brass Balls is one of three restaurants in the same building. All three restaurants host the same atmosphere; a fun, young ambiance, with a clever, raunchy menu. If you plan on taking a child here beware, the menu has inserted the word “ball” in every applicable situation where it could be turned into a joke about oral sex. I was tempted to try the “Brass Ball BJ,” a shooter with no real description, but I decided to stick to the crab cake sandwich.

The crab cakes came with an order of waffle fries, and since they wouldn’t let me substitute fries for a salad I ordered a salad on the side, which came down to $10.00. Truthfully, it wasn’t the best crab cake I ever had.

I have higher standards when I’m eating Maryland crab cakes in Maryland.

But it was the best crab cake I ever had for ten dollars. There was a good amount of filling in the crab cake but not too much. The salad could have used a little more imagination, but for $10.00 I’m just glad they had a spring mix, I don’t eat iceberg lettuce, even in Ocean City, Maryland.

Brass balls, along with most restaurants in Ocean City serve malt vinegar with their fries, an English tradition that inexplicably made its way to Ocean City.

The really outstanding thing about Brass Balls isn’t solely its food but its adult territory. This is only the third adult-friendly place I’ve found on the boardwalk, I’m determined to find more.

$ | 1105 Atlantic Avenue Ocean City, MD 21842 | (410) 289-0069 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (410) 289-0069      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

New York, NY: Indigo

My experience with Indian restaurants in New York City has taught me two things. One, never judge a book by its cover, some of the best Indian food I’ve had came from a restaurant with the ambiance of a pizzeria. Two, if you think the Indian restaurants in Manhattan are good try one in Jackson heights.

But in order to be a Food Find you have to be centrally located, fabulous and frugal!

I am especially critical when eating Indian food, as I’m half Punjabi. Finding an Indian restaurant that featured good food, a fabulous atmosphere and location, as well as low prices is tricky but I found it. It’s called Indigo, and it’s located in East Midtown Manhattan.

Indigo is a fairly small sized restaurant, but because it is off the beaten path, (all the way on 1st ave.) it is usually fairly empty.

Dishes are about ten dollars a plate, more or less, and the servings are very generous. The tandoori chicken, at twelve dollars features a large plate of parts of a whole chicken with a bowl of rice. Indigo pleased me with their ability to create a broiled, juicy tandoori chicken. A rookie mistake I’ve found at other restaurants is they bake their chicken leaving it too dry to appreciate. I’ve enjoyed just about everything on their menu at this point, but I couldn’t mention Indigo without suggesting their tandoori chicken, samosas, and chicken tikka masala.

Their service is superb as well. It is quick, friendly, and generous. I can’t mention generous enough when reviewing Indigo. The last two times I went they offered a free plate of Indian vegetable fritters, called Bhajias to get us started.

One appetizer, entrée, and dessert could easily serve two. So the more people you bring the more you can share. They also offer a buffet at lunch for seven dollars and fifty cents. Indigo is a win-win. I’ve gone twice in two weeks, and I plan on coming back many more times.

$ | Indigo | 357 East 50th Street, New York, NY 10022 | (212) 421-1919 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (212) 421-1919      end_of_the_skype_highlighting‎