fat tuesday at good enough to eat

I may have overdone it this time. I already have a problem with ordering more food than my 105-pound  frame can handle, but when you're at a restaurant with the owner's son and an enabler of a friend, things can get out of hand. Buck and Alida introduced me to the delicious comfort food at Good Enough To Eat last night, and I was torn between wanting to hug them and choke them for the food coma I suffered from afterward.

It seemed like a good idea at the time to order one starter, entree and dessert each. I picked the mac and cheese to start, and it was quite possibly the best I've ever had in my life. This mac and cheese was serious business: big plump ziti noodles generously coated with velvety melted gruyere, parmesan, cheddar and mozzarella. And when you happen upon the nicely browned cheese bits? Good lord ...

Ali has never been able to steer clear of the chicken fingers, and with good reason. Having a younger sibling and niece, I've had to eat many chicken fingers in my life and none of them ever tasted as good as these. Underneath the light and crisp beer batter were super tender and juicy pieces of chicken. Ali came up with the idea of having a bite of mac and cheese with a chunk of chicken tenders, and it was so delicious I felt enormous guilt at having it. It just wasn't right. The world might implode if those two things were served on one plate.

Buck got some cheesy quesadilla goodness going on because there can never be too much carbs and cheese within a 1-meter radius ...

Good Enough to Eat does a weekly "Traveling Tuesdays" menu, and since it was Fat Tuesday, they had a special Mardi Gras menu, which we took full advantage of. I ordered the jambalaya, which was the perfect hearty dish to enjoy on such a godawful chilly winter evening. I loved how they did not skimp on the heat and meaty goodness.

But the truth is, I didn't have all that much of the jambalaya because I got distracted by the catfish that Buck ordered. That's some of the most flavorful catfish I've ever had, made even better with a dollop of avocado sauce. And that bed of creamy mashed potatoes tucked under the fish? Best argument on the planet against going on the Atkins diet.

Ali ordered spinach fettuccine tossed with shrimps and crawdads. I've come to the conclusion that if you ask a crawfish, "Who's your daddy?" it would point to the crawdad. I'm sorry I don't have more to say about this dish. I was too distracted with the catfish, which in case you already forgot, was wonderful.  

As you can imagine, at this point, we were stuffed to the gills. But did we stop? No. I ordered some Good Karma (that's coffee, Godiva liqueur, Frangelico and Baileys) hoping a warm drink would help some of the food go down. Even though I was completely stuffed, I still ended up getting the berry crisp. They had me at homemade ice cream. OHMYGOD.

There was also some Devil's food chocolate and banana walnut cake, but I was too overwhelmed by then to have anything more. Well, maybe another cocktail ... I concede that GETE's Garden of Eden is indeed the best pomegranate mojito in the city. And the Autumn Leaves (Amaretto Disaronno, Cointreau, apple cider and OJ) will have me constantly wishing for the leaves to turn.

To close, here's me defeated by all that food.

I hate losing though, so I'm definitely going back for another round.



Good Enough To Eat is located at 483 Amsterdam Avenue (at 83rd Street), New York, NY 10024. Tel. (212) 496-0163