There is a restaurant in the West Village with the unlikely name “One If By Land, Two If By Sea”. The building is rumored to have been the carriage house of Alexander Hamilton, one of the country’s Founding Fathers who was killed in a duel. Besides loving the idea of dining among such history, it is one of the few places in NYC that prepares my favorite beef dish, Beef Wellington. Although this restaurant is expensive, whenever I have a yen for it, I take myself there to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy an item that is much too much trouble for me to prepare at home. Albeit expensive, this restaurant is one of my favorite places to dine. Their $25 Sunday Jazz brunch is also well worth a visit.
If I am in the mood for cuisine from the other side of the world, I must go to Bukhara on East 49th St., the sister-restaurant of one I found and loved in the Maurya Hotel in New Delhi, India years ago. Although Bukhara is actually the capital city of Uzbekistan, it is on the Silk Road and the Indian food found here is everything from Tandoori chicken to goat meat stew. Their lamb dishes are especially delicious and very reminiscent of India’s northwest frontier. They offer eleven different Indian breads, all tasty. Prices are moderate and the atmosphere is lovely, with highly polished tables hewn from tree trunks and a waterfall.
