Wikipages Blog

Last night, I tried a place I’d often passed, but never sampled: Dumpling Man. Located in the East Village, this place has always intrigued me with its eye-catching, adorable dumpling icon. On our way to the Public Theater to see King Lear, we wanted a quick bite to eat and Dumpling Man was perfect.

The menu is not terribly extensive. They serve veggie, pork, chicken, and pumpkin dumplings, steamed or seared. We got veggie for me, pork for Ben, and pumpkin to share. When I first took a bite of the veggie dumplings, I thought they had given me beef. I spit it out and Ben asked if they had confused our order. It turns out it was “wheat protein”. Good for you, I suppose, though I was not a huge fan. Just not what I was expecting.

The pumpkin dumplings were covered in honey and very sweet and delicious. Although it was all so filling, it was up to Ben to finish most of it.

We watched one of the women working with the dough to make the dumplings, all done in view of the diners. Very cool. Definitely a fun place for a quick bite!

It was my birthday last week, so yesterday my parents, my sister, her husband, and Ben’s parents all came into Astoria to have an early dinner with Ben and me. At Ben’s suggestion, we decided to go to Trattoria L’Incontro, the best Italian restaurant in the city according Michael Halberion, former owner of the Steinway Mansion.

The restaurant is located just a block from the subway. Of course on Sunday, this block was full of treacherous icy pools and slippery slush, which I’m sure the parents enjoyed walking through. The entrance is odd, since there is an entrance on Ditmars, but not open to the public and then there’s the main entrance on 31st. The interior is lovely, forsynthias greet you as you walk in. The place has high ceilings and walls with large paintings of the Italian country-side.

We all sat down to a comfortable table. The restaurant was fairly crowded for a Sunday afternoon. The waiter came over to tell us the specials and, to our surprise, it took nearly ten minutes for him to do so. I couldn’t pay attention after a while. But the menu itself had many delicious sounding pastas and salads to choose from.

I ordered a goat cheese salad in a raspberry vinagrette and a pasta with basil and tomato. We spent the dinner talking about childhood plays and family memories. The food was delicious, but filling. I barely finished half my meal!

We strolled past Freeze Peach on the way home and picked up some tasty Chai to drink with the cake that my mother had baked. We all came back to our cozy apartment, and enjoyed the cake and the company. It ended up being the perfect family Sunday dinner.

Ben and I met up with our friends Mairead and Tess at a place I’d heard good things about: The Smorgas Chef on Stone Street. This is my favorite part of the Financial District. A pedastrian street, old buildings, a good place to go out.

A tiny spot, The Smorgas Chef has a clean decor which Tess rightfully described as reminiscent of IKEA. Well, having always enjoyed my time in Ikea, I took that as a good sign. Mairead, who’s part Swedish, said many places in Sweden have similar decor. To which I immediately said to Ben, “We need to go to Sweden.”

The menu is a bit limiting for vegetarians, but there’s at least one vegetarian option. I, however, have recently started eating fish, so I went for the grilled salmon. There is a decent Prix Fix Menu of $30 for an entree with salad and desert. There’s also a good deal for Tuesdays where entrees are two for one. I forgot this until the end of the night when we were all happily surprised with a perfectly reasonable bill.

With delicious foods and Ikea atmosphere, this was definitely a good place to catch up with friends. I’ll be visiting it again in nice weather, when the restaurant has tables outside in the street.