Posted by Ed Levine, March 6, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Traveling makes me anxious, so I usually end up unconsciously eating a lot when we go away.
In San Francisco or Paris or Chicago this can cause me to go on binges. I make up lists of foods and places I want to try and then do my best to check off every place on the list. I convince myself that, since there's no guarantee I will return to a city, I must try everything. No matter if it takes eating half a dozen meals a day.
But in Lisbon, it turns out that it's hard to compile a list of places and foods I absolutely must try. In fact, it turns out that in Lisbon it's hard to find much of anything delicious. The city is beautiful and the people are incredibly friendly, but even armed with advice from many serious eaters and from three thick guidebooks, we haven't had one meal here that I can unequivocally say I would come back for. Now I know it's difficult to condemn the food of any large city after being there three days, but consider the evidence.
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Posted by Ed Levine, January 14, 2008 at 11:27 AM
I was passing E.A.T. yesterday, and the siren call of Eli Zabar's overpriced but usually delicious food got the best of me.
I ordered four items, all sweets; a quarter-pound of the fruit coffee cake ($3), a mini chocolate cupcake ($2), a black and white cookie, and a cup of Eboni and Ivory Pudding (chocolate and vanilla) ($4).
The coffee cake was reasonably moist and had thick veins of dried fruit, but it had too much orange rind in it for my taste. The mini chocolate cupcake was very chocolatey if a little dry. The black and white cookie tasted less than fresh.
The clear winner of the quartet was the pudding combo. It was almost obscenely rich and creamy with loads of real vanilla and high quality milk chocolate flavor. It might be the best pudding to be had anywhere in New York outside the butterscotch pudding at Sweet Melissa's in Brooklyn.
Note to all Ed Levine Diet Helpers: I adhered to my one-bite rule for all four items mentioned above, except for the pudding. I had two spoonfuls. It was just too good.
E.A.T.
Address: 1064 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10128 (b/n 80th and 81st streets)
Phone: 212-772-0022
