Eating Out

Since the day I moved into my current apartment in Chelsea I've often passed a building flying the Spanish flag and frequented by large, cigar smoking Spanish speaking men. I never quite knew what it was until Marvin sent me this review from the New York Times. Apparently, the building houses La Nacional- a gathering spot/restaurant for Spanish ex patriots that supposedly had the best paella in New York.

Marvin and I are always up for trying a new restaurant so we decided to check it out (and invited Rich to join us). About half way through the meal Marvin started to look a little nervous --- later explaining that he thought he had seen a LARGE RAT run from one corner of the dining room to the other. Marvin's sighting was confirmed when one of the Spanish men exclaimed "Mira! Rattone!" and called over the waitress.

The worst part of the whole experience was that when Marvin voiced his complaint over our rodent companions the waitress pretended (badly) that this was the first time she had heard of something like this --- the woman literally walked over to the corner where the rat had ran earlier - took a quick look and shrugged her shoulders.

Needless to say this restaurant has been put on our dining black list - and is the first restaurant to be blacklisted with distinction.


The following evening I went from fur to feathers when I visited The Peking Duck House in Chinatown with my coworkers.



I'm not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd like to believe that the meat I eat originated in the supermarket -- needless to say, I did not like the fact that everything I was served at the Peking Duck House HAD A FACE.

I'm sure people who enjoy more authentic Chinese cuisine would have loved this restaurant, but the presentation was a bit too "real" for my tastes.

From Fish to Foul everything seemed to be looking at me - but at least at this restaurant all the animals around were of the dead kind.