An Astoria Wine Bar Crawl

The wine bar/small plate trend has spread to Astoria. Many options now await the oenophile who takes the N/W to the last stop (Ditmars Boulevard):

• (4/29/09 NOTE: I've just received word that the following wine bar has just discontinued its live music, and intends to close at some point to become a catering facility. Sad news.) At one of my personal favorites, Vino di Vino (29-21 Ditmars Blvd., 718-721-3010), you can try 18 varieties of Italian cheese, five cured meats, or a delicious brick oven pizza while you quaff from a truly encyclopedic wine menu that includes everything from South African sauvignon blanc to Portuguese cabernet port. For jazz lovers, the terrific Jed Levy Group entertains a couple nights a week. (Note: Vino di Vino serves no dessert or coffee, and it's closed on Sundays!)

• Alas, today was Sunday. My friend and I attempted to go to the above wine bar, but it wasn't open. So we ended up at an unnamed (yes, it truly has no name - 2009 NOTE: And now it is closed!) wine bar at 31-13 Ditmars Blvd. (212-777-0012). Unnamed used to just be a coffee shop, but underwent a drastic change a month ago. Now, you can order the most delicious white anchovies with garlic, or cannellini beans flecked with dill and parsley, or a plate of three cured meats and cheeses with onion jam and fruit, or some house-cured olives with preserved lemons. You can order the olives by themselves, or they also come with the excellent sandwiches on toasted Pain D'Avignon bread. We had the leek/Swiss chard with herbs and crumbled manouri cheese. There are lots of Mediterranean wines, and coffee is from Porto Rico Importing Co. And there's baklava, too!

• About a year ago, the cozy little Crescent & Vine set up shop at 25-03 Ditmars Blvd. (718-204-4774). It serves up a nice selection of charcuterie and cheese like Serrano ham, Stilton and Gruyere, as well a couple salads and a Nutella sandwich for dessert.

• If you like sangria, and you fancy some live singer-songwriter or classical music, you will definitely want to visit Waltz-Astoria (23-14 Ditmars Blvd. 718-95-music). There are live performances several nights a week, as well as cheesecakes from Junior's, both red and white wine sangrias, and wines from Chile, Spain, France, Argentina and Australia. What more could you want!
  

Kampuchea Restaurant

"Do you mind if I have just one more bite?" I asked my friend, somewhat ruefully.

We'd both ordered the Cambodian Num Pang tasting plate - three hefty toasted baguette sandwiches with a choice of eight different toppings. I'd already managed to work my way through the tiger shrimp, the crispy ginger-rubbed catfish, and the grilled tofu. Not to mention, we'd already chowed down on large ears of corn slathered with chili mayo and shredded toasted coconut, and some blue crabs, sticky-sweet with honey ginger soy sauce. Yet here I was coveting my friend's house-cured bacon sandwich with pickled Thai chilies, and her Duroc pork.

"Well, will you let me have some of your pickles? I love these pickles," she answered. I ceded some of the prized pickled cucumber slices. It was a deal.

Kampuchea Restaurant has always served 11-inch num pang, along with noodles, crepes and small plates like crispy pork belly, seared monkfish liver with spiced apricots, and tamarind baby back ribs. But in April, Chef Ratha Chau started offering the sandwiches in smaller sizes, because diners wanted to try more than one kind. They've since become a runaway hit. According to the manager, the most popular variety is catfish, followed by shrimp, bacon and oxtail. (My favorites were the catfish and the bacon; I'm all about the crunch!) All sandwiches arrive on toasted Parisi Bakery bread, with sweet julienned pickled carrots, thinly sliced cucumber, pungent cilantro and chili mayo. (Parisi was the only place that would give Mr. Chau hands-on access to the bakery, where he could experiment with different ratios of wheat and semolina, eventually producing the perfect baguette for his tasty toppings.)

Although I was familiar with Vietnamese banh mi, I hadn't been exposed to the deliciousness that is Cambodian num pang. But now I see why there are so many devotees!

Kampuchea Restaurant: 78 Rivington St., (212) 529-3901.

Allegretti

On my way to Lunetta last night, I spied Allegretti, the brand-new brainchild of Le Cirque alumnus Alain Allegretti. The menu looked so enticing that I had to return today! Although it was only the restaurant's second night, everything went swimmingly. By 8 pm, there was barely an empty table in the house, and people kept stopping by to look inside.

The room was elegant, with hardwood floors, silver light fixtures, cream-colored walls and navy banquettes and chairs. Soothing instrumental music emanated from the speakers, but the restaurant soon became loud and lively with excited patrons. What were they excited about? Well, bigeye tuna tartare, Colorado lamb with spinach ricotta gnocchi, tagliolini with baby cuttlefish and almond pesto, duck breast with honey-lavender vinaigrette, and Perugina sausage with sweet peppers. See, I told you this was exciting!

After choosing a pesto roll (there were also plain and olive varieties), I munched on a complimentary goat cheese/sunchoke toast, and then decided to begin with the waiter's suggestion of heirloom tomato/burrata salad. Often, when eating a Caprese, I end up picking at the tasteless tomatoes while devouring the mozzarella in total. But Allegretti's indescribably delicious rendition showcased intensely juicy, variegated red and yellow tomatoes which equalled the rich burrata in flavor. Sharp-tasting scallions were scattered over the creamy cheese, which melted milkily into little pools of tomato or basil coulis, and the whole dish was seasoned with sea salt and extra-virgin olive oil. A salad to remember.

My main course consisted of four rafts of bright rouget fillets atop a bed of paper-thin zucchini coins, nutty pignoli and red peppers. Woodsy-tasting fried parsley adorned the fillets. The server brought by a thin sauce which tasted of the sea; it was shot through with saffron threads. He poured the sauce on the plate at the last minute, so the full-flavored fish maintained its crisp top layer while being moist on the bottom. (By the way, Allegretti will soon have a working brick oven, which will be used for another exciting fish dish.) I drank a glass of 2007 Convento Muri Gries Muller Thurgau white wine with dinner.

Dessert was a tough choice. Jasmine semifreddo? Licorice panna cotta? Lavender-honey creme brulee? I usually can't resist chocolate, so I chose the grappa chocolate fondant. The dome of dark chocolate mousse was covered by a thick layer of chocolate ganache and served with a scoop of ricotta ice cream, which was studded with almond slivers. Just when I thought I'd had enough, a plate of meringues and anise-scented butter cookies arrived at the table.

Hurry up; soon, you won't be able to get in!

Allegretti: 46 West 22nd St., (212) 206-0555.

Sweets News

First we had free money, now we have free brownies. On Wednesday, August 13, from 11 am to 4 pm, Greyston Bakery will offer free "Do-Goodie" brownies made with Belgian chocolate and cage-free eggs at Columbus Circle (Central Park South @ Central Park West). You can try four flavors, including walnut fudge and espresso bean!

Lunetta

I'm a semi-regular at Bar Stuzzichini, but tonight I decided to try Lunetta, another Italian restaurant a block away in the former Mayrose Diner. (Both restaurants serve a personal favorite: fried artichokes.) I met a favorite dining partner; we ended up being alternately delighted and disappointed with our various choices.

The meal began fortuitously; we had the aforementioned fried artichokes, which were really wonderful. Four delicately crispy artichoke halves were served with fried rosemary and sage, and a lemon slice (no herbs at Stuzzichini). "Artichokes are the most crustaceanly of veggies, aren't they?" I pondered. Next was a salad of baby greens, lightly dressed with anchovy vinaigrette. "Just the right amount of anchovy!" exclaimed my friend. (Stuzzichini serves a much sharper-tasting chicory salad with anchovy dressing; I quite like it as well.)

My friend's linguine with eight Wellfleet clams and roasted garlic was terrific - the pasta was livened up with a bit of hot pepper. I ordered the Monday special: spinach malfatti with brown butter and sage in a tomato sauce. I realize this is a rich dish, but I was expecting something like the ricotta malfatti at Al Di La. The Lunetta rendition consisted of five leaden packets of butter-laden spinach; I couldn't finish the dish.

Dessert was also a mixed bag. A blood orange panna cotta suffered from an overwhelming excess of vanilla, but contained no blood oranges. "Out of season," explained our excellent, helpful waiter. "Would you like something else?" "How about the strawberry-rhubarb crostata and chocolate torte?" "Sure thing," he said, and these two desserts were a perfect ending. The crostata sported a light buttery crust and lots of summer fruit, while the warm chocolate cake was deep and rich and topped with curlicues of candied orange peel.

Lunetta: 920 Broadway, (212) 533-3663 and 116 Smith St., Brooklyn, (718) 488-6269. Restaurant week continues through August 29.

Urban Rustic

My horoscope was certainly off-base this weekend:

Be picky. Spread before you is a magnificent buffet. However, if you try to take a little bit of everything, you’ll be stuffed before you’ve sampled half of it. You need to recognize the limitations you’re stuck with and pick and choose which things you’ll pick up to taste, and which you’ll have to regretfully pass by. Sure, you might accidentally miss out on something that looks horrible but tastes great, but that’s always a risk. Being choosy now will make you more likely to discover the flavors your soul is craving than being gluttonous ever could.

How can one be picky, and not gluttonous, when visiting Urban Rustic, Williamsburg's "farm-to-market" cafe and grocery? Caeriel, the writer of the above horoscope, couldn't have been aware of the freezer full of Adirondack premium ice cream or the produce section overflowing with beautiful berries and apples from Red Jacket Orchards, sugarplums, heirloom tomatoes (both miniature and regular-sized), Satur Farms arugula, and zucchini and summer squash from Bruno Farms. And she couldn't have known about the wealth of maple products like Toad Hill maple syrup and double maple yogurt from Evans Farmhouse Creamery; and the natural-casing chicken-apple sausage from Aidells, organic skirt steak, Hardwick grass-fed beef patties, and center-cut smoked salmon.

Urban Rustic also features a small cafe, where you can tear into a Mission fig-arugula-goat cheese sandwich and accompany it with a bag of North Fork potato chips. Or maybe you feel like ham and Swiss, and you'll finish your meal with a bittersweet chocolate brownie or a Mast Brothers chocolate bar (locally produced from bean to bar) or even a chilled coconut ("We drill, you drink!"). Then again, you might be intrigued by the "Santanoni," an egg/tempeh bacon/pico de gallo wrap, which you'll consume with a bag of Urban Rustic's own banana chips, or pineapple rings, or milk-chocolate raisins...

I'm no astrologer, but I think that a trip to Urban Rustic might be part of your destiny.

Urban Rustic: 236 North 12th St., Brooklyn, (718) 388-9444.

Single-Origin Chocolate Ice Cream!

"Single-origin" is quite the buzzword these days; not only you can buy coffee beans from Colombian farms, but you can decide whether you want your chocolate bar to be Venezuelan or Ecuadorian. Now, you can eat chocolate ice cream from Costa Rica, Ghana, Dominican Republic or Borneo! Choctal, a company which claims to offer "an essential chocolate and vanilla experience," distributes single-origin chocolate ice cream through Trader Joe's. I picked up a package of four cups today at the Queens location. Apparently, the Costa Rica cup features caramel notes, the Ghana has undertones of tropical fruit, the Dominican is aromatic and dark, and the Borneo has a "long, sumptuous finish."

Unfortunately, I'm only going to be able to try three cups, because the fourth is mysteriously absent from the freezer. I'm going to have to ask my companion about this.