This week Frank Bruni at the Times, approaching his last month with the Gray Lady, goes gaga for Aldea (photos), where "the cooking is precious, lusty, ultramodern, rustic and a host of other adjectives that don’t normally squeeze together but find themselves in a tight, mostly happy clutch here. Although Aldea has a clean, sleek and relatively spare look, it has a much more complex taste. One minute you’re nibbling on crisp pig’s ears. The next you’re carefully maneuvering your spoon under a translucent, quivering orb of concentrated mushroom broth—one of those liquid ravioli that the Spanish alchemist Ferran Adrià made famous—in an avant-garde consommé." Bruni also takes a look at artisanal pizza parlors this week. more ›

Today Frank Bruni at the Times gets around to reviewing Ippudo, the first American outpost of a popular Japanese ramen chain that opened in the East Village last year. After frequent ramen consumption at Momofuku Noodle Bar and Minca, he decides that "Ippudo’s ramen dishes—most of them, anyway—were my favorites. I appreciated Ippudo’s slender, springy house-made noodles, which manage the trick of having presence and delicacy at the same time... As the ramen slowly reveals itself, you submit completely to its spell." Bruni also compares the concessions available to the masses at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium, declaring the Mets champions of his mouth. more ›