Omnivore - Three simple meals
Pizza at Fritti, bánh mì at Nam and roasted chicken at Star Provisions
What is it? It’s a roasted-pork bánh mì from Nam. I reported recently that these sandwiches had shown up, along with pho, on the lunch menu there. I picked one up today and found the restaurant fairly crowded at 1:15 p.m. with only one person working the door and tables. She was clearly flustered, running from table to table.
The sandwich was tasty. While it’s a bit more substantial and definitely fresher than most of the Vietnamese sandwiches you find on Buford Highway, it does cost significantly more — $6.50, compared to under $3 at many places in the burbs. There’s also one made with chicken. I’ll return to sample the pho, of which there are four varieties available.
Some weirdness: Prices of other lunch dishes are very confusing. On the menu flier I picked up, more than a few of the lunch dishes are more expensive than the same dishes on the dinner menu. I have no idea.....
Thursday was a good-eating day. My friend Christopher Howe and I went to Star Provisions. He had a baguette with prosciutto and butter and I had the day’s special, roasted chicken with beet greens and rice. While the chicken leg and thigh had good flavor, they frankly weren’t pretty with their shriveled skin (served over quite tepid rice). Since the Girl Scouts have been pounding the pavement with armfuls of cookies everywhere, I had to have a smores cupcake with marshmallow icing. You’ll want two....
After writing a post about the forthcoming Varasano’s Pizza, I was craving pizza all day yesterday, so Wayne and I dined at Fritti. We had our usual starter of fried mushrooms with truffle oil, plus a dish of fried goat cheese with arugula salad.
Wayne ordered the pizza with cotto ham and mushrooms, while I ordered the “Toscana,” featuring bufala mozzarella, peppered salami, cherry tomatoes and rosemary.
Our server warned us that the restaurant’s new chef, Enrico Liberato (from Naples), was using a new bufala with a quite salty edge. He wasn’t kidding. I quickly adapted but the initial bite stung. Enrico, who is young and very friendly, has made other subtle changes in the ingredients.
Fritti’s remains the best pizza in town to my palate. Moreover, it doesn’t cost much more than most others. We both marveled at the intensity of flavors — from toppings to the dough itself. I can’t wait for the pizza wars to begin when Varasano’s opens.