Where to Dine in NYC

Book mark this! New Yorkers love to eat. We love to go out to eat, and we love find the best places, with the most interesting ambiance at various prices.

Here are the sites that I use to find where to go in my home town.

Yelp! Here I list my reviews for places to eat. It is a great user created reference on a variety places to visit as well.

Menu Pages List of restaurants with customer reviews, menus and more. Excellent resource!

Our favorites that we book marked on Delicious

Buen Provecho!

New Years 2010 Survival Guide/ part 1.

New Years in New York is alway filled with expectations. As a city of extremes some of us have gotten use to it and some of us have not. ( I am of the latter.) Yet with the right preparation and the right frame of mind we can come ahead to usher in the new year with joy and laughter. For us, the big night always starts with food and then party, we all like to be with friends. Yet the question remains where to begin especially when you are new to the city. The secret is in knowing that the entire city is a party. There is something always happening and everyone too is celebrating the beginning of a New Year. So there are no places, just "starts".

For starters, read the reviews to find great place to eat. I will check out the following sites and look by area. On New Years, restaurants and clubs often offering pri fixes specials with champaign. You can find these specials offers in the Village Voice , Time Out New York and New York Magazine. I also suggest exploring Yelp and City Search. For events around Time Squares see the Time Square.com. So this is where I will begin. I will add more information as we get nearer to the New Year's Eve. Cheers!

My favorite ramen/Eat these noodles! - Tami's Words to Eat by

My friend, Tami Wasserman wrote this for for me. She is my main source on dinning and food in NY. If like Japanese like soup and noodles, then please read this. You can't go wrong. And if you have any suggestions then please let us know. Thanks! -- Rafael

It's hard not to notice that New York is currently in a serious ramen renaissance. It seems like there's a new place opening every day. If you consider yourself a serious "noodie" (or connoisseur of noodles), as I do then read on. I have made it my personal mission to try every reputable noodle joint in town in order to give the scoop, or more accurately, the slurp. There's a spate of traditional Japanese ramen-yas that are worth visiting, and possibly even waiting in line for. I would include on this list: Ramen Setagaya (141 1st Avenue between 8th-9th St), which is a chain from Japan and has only a few items on the menu to choose from. I recommend the Shio Ramen (ramen in the house special broth with grilled pork slices) or Cha Shyu Men (same thing, extra pork). This is a small place with only counters and stools, so it's no place for a leisurely meal – just slurp it down with a beer and go. Also worth trying is Ippudo (65 4th Avenue between 9th-10th St). This is a more upscale ramen-ya, also direct from Japan, and their menu is a little more diverse. Try the noodle salad with grapefruit dressing, saikyo style pork (Berkshire pork grilled in miso sauce) or the chicken karage (Japanese fried chicken). There's also a selection of interesting ramens, which feature different broths and different amounts of pork. My favorites are the Akamaru ramen, and the Shoyu Ramen, both laden with pork (sorry vegetarians). For a change of pace I like the Tsuke Men, which is cold ramen noodles served separately from the broth and fixings. You dip the noodles into the broth one mouthful at a time, which allows you to savor the contrast of the cold chewy noodles and the steaming salty pork broth. For more traditional Japanese ramen head toRai-Rai Ken (214 East 10th between 1st and 2nd Ave) which is a teeny tiny sliver of a ramen-ya with just a counter that seats about 8 people. Here you will find only the 3 most common types of ramen – Shio, Shoyu and Miso – all are cheap and delicious.- For a more catholic menu tryMenkui-tei (65 Cooper Square, between 7th St-St Marks) which features a more robust variety of soups including Spicy Miso Ramen (actually not very spicy but very tasty), Tan tan Men (Soy Sauce Flavored Noodle Soup Topped w/ Spicy Ground Pork – actually spicy) and Hiyashi Chuka (Cold Noodle w/ Soy Sauce & Vinegar Sauce). The gyoza (pork dumplings) are a must, but there's also a hugemenu of little dishes to choose from. Try the Daikon salad, Mabo Tofu (Sautéed Spicy Ground Pork & Tofu) or the Onigiri (rice balls made with different ingredients). I hope your next bowl of ramen will be good to the last slurp!

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th ave at 82nd streetArt and Love in Renaissance Italy. through Feb 16

Metropolitan Museum of Art 5th Ave. at 82nd Street

Usually when you think about Renaissance Italian art you think about religious and mythological art, and more often than not art commissioned by the Catholic church. One of the things that's unusual about this show is that it consists solely of privately commissioned, primarily secular paintings and objects. There are a number of beautifully crafted wedding gifts and dowry objects from wealthy families, like jewelry and ceramics. There are also quite a few childbirth trays, which sound like something an obstetrician might use, but are actually wooden trays that have images painted on one or both sides and are used to commemorate a birth.

the paintings in the show are mostly portraits of couples on the eve or just after a wedding, or in some cases children, or parents and their children. The quality of these vary a bit, but there are some masterful works by big names like Lorenzo Lotto, Dominico Ghirlandaio, Bronzino, Georgione, Titian, and one amazing double portrait by Fillippo Lippi that may be the best thing in the show. There's also a strange and haunting painting of a woman from Loranzo Di Credi.

One gallery is dedicated to paintings commissioned to decorate the "camera" or bed chamber , which I guess was a common practice among rich horny people at the time. A lot of these works are not up to the same level as those in the rest of the show, but there is one Botticelli which is actually part of a larger series that's absolutely stunning.

A lot has been made of the erotic art in this show, but it's a relatively small part of the exhibition and fills only two rooms with prints and ceramics. It seemed to me a lot more comic than sensual, partly because most of the other works in the show uses images of flowers or fruit and vegetables as discreet symbols of fertility and sex, and it's pretty amusing to see in this section how those symbols are replaced with actual genitals. The other reason I thought it was funny is that "the renaissance" by definition is the rebirth of classical thought and culture, so you don't really think of crotch shots and giant dismembered penises. By today's standard these works are pretty tame though, so if you're looking for something Mapplethorpian you may be disappointed. Actually there are two wonderful Titian's in the last gallery that I thought were far more sensual than anything in the "erotic" section. These paintings seem somehow to magically turn paint into flesh through some wild libidinal alchemy. I'm not sure how he did it, but I guess that's why he's an old master.