190 Eighth Ave. (20th St.)
212-243-9421
This simple Chelsea restaurant serves up Cuban classics, including Cubanos, baked chicken, and roast pork. Ignore the sometimes slow service and don’t miss the daily specials.
Neighborhood: Chelsea (Map)
Subway: C, E to 23rd Street
What to Order: Black Bean Soup + Cuban Sandwich + Cafe con Leche = $8.50

We asked two very different chefs to create a three-course meal for two using the same $20 budget. Then our chief restaurant critic, Adam Platt, judged their creations.

Harry Hawk of Harry’s at Water Taxi Beach
O this sun-blasted summer afternoon, the deserted Long Island City beach complex that’s home to Harry’s feels like the backyard of a fraternity house after a weekend-long binge. Flies buzz under the flapping orange dining tent; the bar smells of old beer. Harry is dressed in suspenders and chef’s clogs, and he presents the components of his seven-course bonanza all at once. The first thing we sample is a pile of grilled asparagus, which aren’t high-quality (the Greenmarket’s too expensive) and seem to have gone limp in the 100-degree heat. Ditto the grilled corn, which is flavored with enough cayenne to choke a horse. Harry’s buttermilk onion rings are excellent (they’re sweet

, generously cut, and not too greasy), and I spend most of my time eating them, instead of the dry, fishy salmon burger, served on a piece of desiccated toast.

The main course—chunks of salty-sweet, char-grilled lamb cured for several hours in brown sugar, salt, and cumin—is excellent, and worth the entire $20 price of admission. The strawberries with sour cream are unimpressive, and Harry’s biscuits would be okay provided I hadn’t pounded down all those onion rings. The second dessert course is a single Klondike bar whipped milkshake style and spiked with amber Dogfish Head ale. It tastes like a White Russian mixed with chocolate truffles. It’s a touch of cheap-eats genius, albeit one served in plastic Champagne flutes.

Verdict: One star for the lamb and another for the Klondike shake. No stars for the vegetable sides, the dry salmon burger, and the greasy venue.

Total cost: $13.78

Source

WASHINGTON – Slow down, Senate Democrats told President Barack Obama on Thursday, dashing hopes of rushing his sweeping health care overhaul to a summertime vote and adding to the troubles the plan could face as the year wears on. “That’s OK,” the president replied gamely. “Just keep working.”

No one is suggesting that delay equals defeat. In fact, the Senate’s top Democrat promised a bipartisan bill in the next two weeks. But Obama has been pushing hard for quick passage of legislation he can sign to expand coverage to all Americans and control ruinous medical costs. And he’s counting on fast action while his first-year popularity holds.

Republican foes have stepped up their attacks in hopes of weakening if not killing the historic changes in the way America provides and pays for health care. But they’re not the source of the immediate problem. Divisions within the ranks of Obama’s fellow Democrats have stalled the legislation.

While confirming there will be no Senate vote before Congress goes home in early August, the chamber’s Democratic leaders spoke optimistically of wrapping up a bipartisan bill in the next two weeks.

That offered no reassurance to Democrats in the House, many of whom are reluctant to vote on a $540-billion tax increase to help pay for the overhaul unless senators also stick their necks out before an election year. Exiting a contentious leadership meeting, Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking House Democrat, called for canceling the August recess if a bill isn’t passed.