For the NYIGF (aka heaven and hell in one gigantic catacomb), you are in luck. NYIGF blissfully coincides with Restaurant Week, which is really 2 weeks where you can eat basically anywhere in NYC for a flat fee of $35 dollars per person for a 3 course meal. I use it to try new restaurants that I havent eaten at before for one reason or another.

Enter Rouge Tomate, a restaurant on the Upper East Side( its actually across the street from Barney’s). Anyway, the “American” food was great and I love finding great new places to eat that are uptown. (Going downtown seems like so much work!) But the really interesting thing is this note attached to our menu and our bill: Apparently, this place is serving fancy health food.  Local, Organic and yummy? Sounds awesome! (I don’t get how they managed to find local mango, kiwi and pineapple for the desert cup, but whatever.)

What do you think about this SPE: A culinary & nutritional charter? Pretentious? Or something more restaurants should embrace?

Two other great restaurants I tried this week on the east side: Yama and David Burke’s Fishtail.

Just a heads up: Fishtail serves $5 dollar burgers(meat, tuna, Portabello mushroom)  between 10 Pm – and 12 Pm every weeknight. How awesome is that? VERY. Very good to know if you live in the area….

Another NYC dining tip: Milos, the best greek food and my favorite restaurant in NYC has a $24 dollar lunch special and a theater special as well. Just a little tip, DONT order ANYTHING extra! Even a drink (they can cost up to $18) will screw up your deal!!!

I write about this because I want to include you all in my local food adventures. So does Michael Pollan. You can read the little food journal he wrote while in NYC promoting his book a few weeks ago. Apparently, not being an asshole is more important than not eating tuna. I love this guy.