A Younger Palate

Thanksgiving Food

2010-11-12T00:50:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I think everyone, especially those who care about food are starting to think about Thanksgiving dinner. Traditionally, there are several Thanksgiving staples that we tend to focus on when we think of the big dinner: turkey, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, cornbread, green beans, creamed onions, Brussels sprouts etc. Some families cook all of these things in fairly traditional ways while others cook some of these dishes and substitute for others while others, (especially in a city like New York) put their own multicultural twists on Thanksgiving fare.

Thanksgiving for me has always been about spending time with family and friends, hopefully enjoying a nice meal and then probably falling asleep somewhere warm, hours before I’m supposed to go to bed. Our family has used Thanksgiving to celebrate engagements, re-connect with friends who’ve moved away and also to travel and spend time with extended families that we don’t get to see very often. Food has always been an important part of Thanksgiving, but when it comes to eating, I think food’s importance is more in that it’s there and bringing us together, creating interpersonal memories, than that the taste of the food itself is actually memorable. We are more or less eating the same things every year, but at least in my case, we don’t always get to see the same people. I can’t remember the best thing I ate every thanksgiving but I do remember the people we spent time with and the process of working together to create a meal, and generally being happy.

In recent years, as my interest in food has grown and I’ve gained more experience in professional kitchens, we started to drift slightly from the typical thanksgiving cooking model. After reading Michael Pollan’s books, and Jonathan Saffran Foer’s Eating Animals (specifically the last chapter) I find it very difficult to buy and eat Turkey anymore, even on Thanksgiving. I understand the tradition and nostalgia associated with eating Turkey and I won’t be snobby to people who do (check out Peter Meehan’s food snob piece in NY Times magazine here) but I can’t really justify doing it myself—it just doesn’t make me feel good about my actions.

The most important part of thanksgiving for me these days is the vegetables. There are still a bounty of root vegetables, Brussels sprouts, hearty greens, apples, pears, chestnuts and squashes to form a meal around. This thanksgiving we will still buy a bird (probably a squab or a duck, something that I can trace back to a farm and has had a better life than a turkey) but we will also eat a lot of vegetables.

Here is a glazed carrot and parsnip dish I like to cook for my mother. We made it four or five years ago with a recipe from Gourmet magazine and I’ve pretty much changed everything save for the carrots and parsnips and the fact that they’re glazed. I am making it with heirloom carrots from Norwich Meadows farms because I like the size (not too thick so I can cut them uniformly and so they’re visually appealing) and I like the fact that they are so colorful.

Before I give a recipe, let me preface by saying that when I cook at home I don’t usually follow recipes. I find that all home kitchens work differently and thus set recipes never work out the way I plan. I try to be proactive in tasting, smelling and observing during the cooking process and have left instructions of what to look for when following my recipe. Best of all is that taste is subjective so feel free to alter anything to your tastes.

Orange glazed Carrots and Parsnips serves 4-6 as an appetizer or side dish

Carrots 2 lbs
Parsnips 2lbs
Whole Almonds 1/3 cup
Honey 1 tbsp
Orange Juice (freshly squeezed) 1.5 cups
Cinnamon sticks 2
Cloves 8
Coriander 1 tsp
Allspice 3
Lemongrass 1 stalk bruised with the back of a knife
Tarragon (picked) 1 tbsp
Butter 2.5 tbsp
Water or Vegetable stock as needed
Kosher salt as desired
White pepper (freshly ground) to taste
Olive oil 1.5 tsp
Microgreens for Garnish (optional) 1 cup

For the Parsnips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

1.Peel and cut into uniform wedges so that they cook evenly. Depending on the size you can usually cut the thin bottom part off and then split lengthwise down the middle while quartering the top.
2. In a mixing bowl, toss the parsnips with olive oil and salt and pepper. Everyone tastes salt differently so use an amount you think is appropriate.
3. Place on a foil lined baking tray and roast in the oven. Check after about 20 minutes, they may take as long as 40. You want them to be tender enough to eat but not mushy and to have a little bit of color. Set aside to cool.

For the Almonds

1. On medium heat , add about ½ tsp of olive oil in a pan and add about 1 tbsp butter. When it starts to foam, add the almonds sprinkle with salt cook, tossing occasionally until toasty and fragrant and the butter is browned about 4-6 minutes. Set aside to cool
2. When cool, cut the almond in half or into thirds (crosswise) depending on your preferences

For the Orange juice

1. in a small pot, lightly toast the cinnamon, cloves, coriander, and allspice (it is important to use whole spices so they don’t make the orange juice cloudy and brown)
2. Add the orange juice and lemongrass and cook until reduced by two thirds. Strain and discard the spices. Set the orange reduction aside for later use.

For the carrots and to finish

doneness)
2. In a sauté pan large enough to hold the carrots in one layer, heat up 1 tsp of olive oil until slide easily across the pan. Add the carrots and season with salt. They should sizzle when they hit the pan, stir for about two minutes so they don’t take on any color but they release a little moisture.
3. Add the Orange juice, honey and 2tbsp butter and let simmer on medium heat. When liquid starts to thicken and glaze, taste a carrot if its still raw add about 1 tbsp of water so the carrots can cook longer—you want the liquid to become a glaze and the carrots to be cooked at the same time and can add water as necessary.
4. As soon as the carrots are cooked, add the parsnips and half the almonds and toss to coat.
5. Serve either in small individual bowls or one large serving bowl, garnished with the tarragon sprigs, the rest of the chopped almonds and the microgreens.

Pickled Peppers

2010-10-26T03:07:00.000-04:00

The Spread at Eckerton Hill's farmstand

Everyone who knows me knows how much I like to shop farmer’s Markets. Even when I don’t have time to buy vegetables and cook I like to walk through the market and go vegetable browsing or even hang around and do some people watching. Even when I’m traveling I manage to find a farmer’s market to visit. During my last two trips away from the city (to Chicago and Concord Mass, a combined 4 days) I’ve managed to locate markets, buy vegetables and cook dinner. Working in the industry I also frequently run into and get to chat with former colleagues who work at other restaurants, friends from work, or even some farmers who I’ve become friendly with.

Baby Brazilians--Very floral but eating one
is like taking a prolonged punch to the
stomach

I love visiting the market at this time of year when we transition from late summer to early fall produce. I can go and still buy some of my favorite things like sweet corn, tomatoes and squash all at the same time. The main reason I like to purchase some of these things in season from farmer’s markets (particularly union square) is because there is such wide variety of each vegetable to choose from. Someone who solely shops at a Whole Foods or Gristede’s would never be able to fathom the numerous varieties of tomatoes, squashes and peppers that we get to see, buy and eat during this time of year. (Some of the farmers themselves don’t even know the names of some of the varietals they grow which I think is actually kind of cool.)

The vegetable/fruit/berry (technically) that has fascinated me lately has been the pepper. I love walking through the market and seeing peppers abundant in different sizes, shapes and colors. Peppers also intrigue me because I don’t know very much about most of the varieties on hand, creating an air of mystery and fear (because some of them are scary hot.) I love peppers because they are so different and versatile and can be used in so many different ways.

Jimmy's Nardello Peppers

While I’ve spent some time recently working with less spicy peppers like Poblanos or bell peppers, stuffing, sautéing and roasting, I’ve been try to figure out ways to use some of the spicier, extremely floral and fruity peppers in my cooking. While at work, I learned that you can capture much of the essence of these hot peppers (without the heat) by pickling them. If you make a fairly weak pickling solution and bring it to a boil you can simply pour it over the peppers and your liquid will take on many of the floral, fruity characteristic inherent in each pepper and still not be spicy. The actual pickles are still spicy (I ate a tiny Brazilian pepper whole and felt like someone had punched me in the gut for about 30 minutes until I calmed the fire by eating a pint of vanilla ice cream) but the liquid is sweet, acidic (because of the vinegar) and delicious. The best part of pickling peppers is that it allows you to buy more than you need in season and use them throughout the late fall and winter when there are no farmer’s markets peppers to be had.

Chocolate Habaneros

The liquid can be used to add acid to a lot of dishes in lieu of using lemons or limes or straight up vinegar. It can be part of a dressing, an acid to flavor mayo (one of my favorites) reduced and used as part of a glaze or just used as is as an ingredient in a dish. I did a dinner the other day where I used pickled Nardellos and their liquid mixed with corn, dressed raw fluke with cayenne pickling liquid, cucumbers, radishes and olive oil, and made mole using bell peppers, Pasillas, Poblanos, two chocolate Habaneros and about a pint of chocolate Habanero pickling liquid in my base. I currently have over 7 different varieties of pickled peppers in my fridge and because they are pickled I have all fall and winter to figure out the myriad ways I can use them.

Spain

2010-01-25T17:47:00.000-05:00

Right around New Year's I was thinking of some resolutions to put up on this site. However, I'm not very good at making resolutions and when I do make them I'm usually terrible at keeping them. That being said, I thought that since I'm entering my 27th year of life that I would come up with 27 food related resolutions for the new year....

However, due to lots of work and my general laziness while I'm not working, I haven't officially finished working on the resolutions. Until then, here are some pictures from my trip to Spain over the summer.

Leftovers

2010-01-05T23:41:00.000-05:00

I really dislike leftovers. It’s not that I mind eating day old food, it’s just that I don’t like eating the same food at the same meal twice in a row unless it happens to be breakfast. I don’t find the practice to be enjoyable (law of diminishing returns etc.) so it’s not something I do too often.

This happens to be problematic for me because, as someone who considers himself a pretty good cook, I try not to waste too much. This is easy to do in a restaurant setting but becomes much harder when you cook at home unless of course you are willing to eat leftovers.

This brings me back to my dilemma. How do I solve this problem? Sometimes its possible to create a new dish or something fun to eat but really it’s easiest to create something from my favorite food group—sandwiches.

Add some good bread, a couple of pickles, some mayo (or some other kind of sauce), something fresh and something green and you have the beginnings of a great sandwich.

Here I turned my dinner party leftovers into a nice Monday evening meal—Short Rib Banh mi with pickled carrots, watermelon radish, cilantro and ginger mayo. I enjoyed eating this so much I made a Banh mi again the next night, trading out the short ribs for leftover Chinese food and adding some Sriracha to heat things up a bit. Maybe I was being a little hypocritical but sometimes when something is really delicious you look ways to tweak it so you can eat it as many times as possible.

My Winter Dining Spots

2009-12-28T22:43:00.000-05:00

Holiday season is the busiest time of year in the restaurant industry. I also think it is one of the most fun times of the year to go eat in restaurants. There is something really comforting about stepping out of the cold, into a warm and full restaurant and eating satisfying winter food. When the weather is messy and cold, food is something that can provide us with comfort and warmth. To me, eating a nice meal in the winter time is similar to waking up in a cold room under a warm comforter and then going back to sleep—it makes me happy and I wish I could do it more often.

A week after our first snow storm of the winter I provide you with a list of cold weather restaurants. These are places that make me feel comfortable, full and happy in the cold winter months. If I was stuck in any of these restaurants during a blizzard, I know I’d feel at home. (They’re fun in warm weather too but I especially like them in the winter.)

The little owl—A tiny, cozy restaurant with dim lighting and big flavorful food. Looking at the bundled up passers through the large windows overlooking the street (and the little stone owl on the building across the street) while enjoying gravy meatball sliders and a delicious pork chop make you feel especially warm.

Char No 4. –Something feels right about drinking Bourbon and eating Southern comfort food in the winter. They have over 150 whiskeys and excellent pork anything. I really enjoy the pork jowl nuggets and their BLT with thick cut fried bacon.

The Tavern Room at Gramercy Tavern

Not only does the front Tavern room at Gramercy Tavern feature an array of seasonal fauna, most of the food is cooked in an open kitchen on a wood burning grill. Not only does the fire give the room a warm and cozy feeling, but it fills the air with comforting smells as well. There is an excellent selection of wines by the glass (and by the taste if you want a smaller pour) and the food is always delicious.

The Spotted Pig

I really like the idea of trudging through the cold and stepping into a ‘gastropub.’ The first thing I notice when I step into The Spotted Pig is the crowd. The restaurants seems to always be full and there is always a at least an hour wait for a table. That being said there are great beers on tap at the bar and I feel like Spotted Pig patrons also tend to be pretty friendly. I love eating here when I’m not in a rush to do anything in particular on the coldest of winter days. The food is always well seasoned and fairly heavy, perfect for the winter months.

Bar Veloce

I usually go to the one in the East Village and I don’t usually eat the fod here. I do however enjoy drinking a big glass (I like drinking wine in big glasses) of Italian red and having a couple of cheeses. If you can grab a seat in the closet sized space it’s a great place to start or finish a night in that neighborhood.

Shabu Tatsu

To me, the whole fun of Shabu Shabu is communal eating. You star off with a warm, aromatic broth and then proceed to cook meats, vegetables and noodles in the broth until you finally drink the (now even more flavorful broth) at the end. The whole process of sitting down and eating soup (also something I usually only consume in the winter time) in this simple yet very structured and ritualistic way makes for a fun cold weather meal.

Corner bistro

This place is a personal favorite of mine. While some may debate the quality of the burger (I think it’s delicious but consistently overcooked so order it more rare than you want) I still find myself meeting friends here time and time again. The fact that burgers are $7 dollars and beers are $2.50 mean that you can camp out here for a long time to get out of the cold and it will still be relatively light on your wallet. It’s open late night too.

Frankies 457

Had dinner there the other night and really enjoyed the whole experience. The restaurant is beautiful and cozy and the food is simple, tasty and very well executed. Everything on the menu is also very affordable (generally under $20) and there are a lot of wines in the $20 to $30 dollar range which can help make any dinner a more pleasant experience.

Dining Solo

2009-12-14T21:27:00.001-05:00

Anyone who knows me knows that one of my favorite things to do is to go out to eat. After a week of working in a kitchen and eating most of my meals standing up (cooks eat family meal while standing around the kitchen) there’s nothing more relaxing than sitting down to a nice meal that someone else has prepared for you. This is different from eating a relaxing home cooked meal, mainly because you have choices. If I don’t feel like eating chicken I can order lamb. Feeling like sweetbreads? Pork Belly? A $25 dollar glass of Barolo? Right away. In a city like New York there is a restaurant for every taste or whim.

Most of the time I don’t have a problem finding someone to go eat with me. I know enough restaurants that I can pick a place that will cater to the tastes and price point of the friend or friends I’m thinking of going with. However, every once in a while I have a craving for a sit down restaurant meal and haven’t had the time to find someone to eat with.

I really like the idea of dining alone. I see people eating alone all the time and they usually look like they’re enjoying themselves. It seems to me that eating alone in a crowded restaurant by oneself would be a sign of security—I’m alone and I don’t care what everyone else thinks of me. However, I’m also aware of the stigma attached to solo diners. I remember a passage in Bill Buford’s heat describing the sous chef referring to a solo diner as the loser at the bar. No one wants to look like they don’t have any friends…

On the other hand, at any restaurant that prides itself on excellent service, the solo diner is a prized customer. When you make the choice to eat at a restaurant alone it shows the kitchen that you either enjoy the food enough to not mind eating alone (assuming you’ve been there before) or that you expect great things from the kitchen. At the French Laundry, arguably the best restaurant in the country (and inarguably top 5) every solo diner is a VIP.

My hang up with dining out alone is taking the first step. I’m not secure enough to walk into a crowded restaurant by myself, sit down and know that I’ll feel comfortable enough to sit there for the next hour or so all by myself. What do I do while I’m waiting to order? How do I wait in between courses? What if the food takes too long and I’m sitting, and playing with my fingers or looking at my cell phone (trying to look like I have something better to do) and everyone is staring at me? I once spent an entire evening after work walking, talking myself into eating alone, then passing by full restaurants and talking myself out of it. An hour and a half later I had walked all the way home and ended up eating a take out cheeseburger from the diner down the block—not satisfying at all…

In my experience, once I’ve been able to get past my own insecurities, I had some really fun meals dining solo. One Saturday night I ended up at Terroir sitting by myself at 10 pm on a Saturday night. I found it liberating that I was able to order anything I wanted to eat or drink (and not have to worry about other people’s preferences or feelings.) I’ve also had great meals eating alone at Union Square Café, Morandi, and the Modern.

Each time however, I have followed a couple of simple rules that I think helped contribute to my enjoyment. Here they are in bullet point form.

--Sit at the bar. This is mostly if you don’t feel comfortable sitting at a table by yourself (what do you need all the space for anyway?) It’s also easier to strike up a conversation with a bartender (who can’t escape) than a waiter or waitress who has to pay attention to other tables. I also find that people eating at the bar are also likely to take an interest in you and start talking to you.

--Bring a crutch. As I mentioned earlier, one of my greatest concerns about eating alone is what to do with all that awkward time alone when you’re not eating. Having a book/magazine/newspaper as a time filling crutch helps me eschew this fear.

--Go hungry and go excited. This has never been a problem for me mostly because I’m always excite to eat, and if I find myself thinking about eating out alone it most definitely means that I’m really hungry. I’ve found that taking an interest in the food and/or the wine helps the restaurant take an interest in you. If they know you’re all about business they will (should) do their best to make you happy. Every time I’ve eaten solo I’ve been comped something and sometimes several things. Even if the free food or wine wasn’t necessary, it still felt good to know that someone cared about my happiness level.

Eating at nice restaurants alone isn’t for everyone, but if you’re into food and don’t mind your own company it’s certainly worth a try.

Wednesday off

2009-02-25T12:16:00.004-05:00

So it’s Wednesday and I have the day off. Unlike most of my other friends, most of whom are in some sort of graduate school (primarily law) I have nothing work related to do outside of work. Sure I could choose to work on cooking something, but that’s not really like working, and much more like fun.

My daily obligations entail figuring out what to eat for breakfast—almond brioche, a chocolate croissant and fresh squeezed orange juice—sleeping, and trying to decide where to eat dinner—Spotted pig or Blue Ribbon. I think I’m going to choose Spotted Pig mostly because I want to try the smoked haddock chowder and have a craving for the ricotta gnudi. It will however, be hard to pass up Blue Ribbon’s roasted marrow bones. I have a very stressful decision to make.

Of note today is the Brooklyn-centric NY times dining section. I really enjoyed the article (although it’s probably dated by now) about Brooklyn’s growing local minded artisan inclined food scene.

The one star review of Buttermilk Channel was for the most part positive and also a good read its proximity to so many of my friends means I might need to check it out some time.

The fact that I’m re-reading Heat also made McGee’s article on cooking pasta particularly interesting.
For all you non kitchen working types, Heat (by Bill Buford) is a fun introduction to the food world and a pretty quick read.

Cookbook of the week: On The Line by Eric Ripert. This is actually more of a cookbook actual book hybrid. It has features on all parts of restaurant life including the back of house staff and the sommelier. I haven’t cooked from the book yet but I find it a fascinating cover to cover read. Also a great book for people looking to introduce themselves life inside a professional kitchen.

Phrase of the week: Hipster Gastronomes (thank you Frank Bruni.) not sure how to respond to that one, is this the direction were headed in?

I'm Back!?

2009-02-22T16:11:00.001-05:00

It’s been a long time since I’ve done any writing about food and a lot has changed in my life since I last posted on this blog.

During the end of my tenure as the Washington Market School Chess teacher I did a series of trails (visits to a kitchen where one puts in a little work and gets to know the kitchen) at Gramercy Tavern and shortly after the school year I started working there as a cook.

I am now cooking, eating, and thinking about food more than I ever did while I was teaching and still writing here on this site. I suppose my original intention for the website was to act as a type of online resume should I ever decide to stop teaching and get into cooking. It was a way of showing people that despite my having close to no experience cooking (except for a couple of summers grilling burgers) that I was serious about food and maybe even had a little talent at cooking. I certainly had a capacity to think about food.

When I finally found my first food job I no longer needed my blog. And now moving forward when I seek out my next job (still a long ways away) I probably don’t need a website to show that I have some kitchen credentials.

Why then should I take the time to start writing again? When I first started working at Gramercy I intended to keep up with the blog. However, adjusting to a new life and new hours left me completely exhausted and beaten down every day for the better part of two months. I wasn’t doing a whole lot of my own cooking, nor was I dining out a lot, nor war I reading about food. I was pretty much going to work, coming home and sleeping. Also out of respect to my employers and for my own sense of professionalism I told myself that I would never write about restaurant details or life in the kitchen. I feel like there has to be something in a contract about this and even if there isn’t it just feels wrong. These several factors left me with little to no material to write about even if I did want to write.

Seven months later I am more used to the hours and find myself having the time to cook and even have a pretty normal life. My body has changed; kitchen life has caused me to lose weight (my mom tells me I’m wasting away) my knuckles and hands are calloused and I have some burns on my arms though not nearly as many as I thought I would have at this point.

I guess I’m writing again because after the initial body and life shock that I went through from working in a kitchen I’ve built myself back up and feel like I have enough food experiences worth sharing with the rest of the world. The constant prodding from my dad, “you know you should really start writing again, that was a great thing” and hearing from my friends that people actually read the site also helped me motivate.

So while this post is more or less just to catch up with the rest of the world I promise there will be more in the near future.

I would like to add that I am definitely not going to be talking about my life at work, nor will I write any formal restaurant reviews. I’ll probably write smaller type things but I don’t think (at least a this moment ) that I can bring myself to write something wholly negative about the food I eat at a restaurant. After seeing all the hard work that goes into producing a restaurant meal by so many people and after reading reviews of food that I have put out (nothing too scathing yet) it feels a little mean to write a bad review.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll post again soon.

Scoops du Jour: Blue Hill at Stone Barns

2008-07-09T09:00:00.001-04:00

Adam Miller is back with another review of a really great restaurant. This time he reviews Blue Hill at Stone Barns while also chipping in a little about Blue Hill here in New York City. Before we get to the review I'd like to mention that Blue Hill is one of my favorite NYC restaurants and is more affordable than other restaurants in its ilk. I also appreciate the restaurant as a true embodiment of the farm to table ideal, serving meat and produce coming from its farm in upstate New York (where Blue Hill at Stone Barns is located.)

Now I challenge Adam to write a review of a restaurant that he doesn't like at all.

Simple Fare Warrants Extraordinary Praise

By

Adam Miller

New Yorker v. B&T. Questions arise when a faux New Yorker claims to be from New York. Where do you live in the City? What high school did you go to? What are your favorite restaurants? Where do you go out to bars? If any of these are met with a glimmer of hesitation or the answer “Meatpacking and Chelsea,” chances are you’re not a New Yorker. Usually, said people are from Westchester or Long Island. However, these suburban areas do win in some regards…. Long Island has beautiful beaches. Westchester has… ummm… well, Westchester seemed to have nothing until this last weekend.

This past weekend, I ventured up to Tarrytown for Sarah’s birthday (for those of you that don’t know me, Sarah is my girlfriend). Since we both love food, I thought it would be best to take her to a restaurant where you can have a truly “foodie” experience. I went to Blue Hill at Stone Barns with very high expectations although I had been told that Blue Hill in the City is the more highly regarded restaurant. I came away with a truly incredible experience and the acknowledgement that Westchester had one-upped NYC in at least one aspect.

Blue Hill in the City is a simple restaurant in the vein of Gotham, JoJo, or Gramercy Tavern. It serves very strong food (at somewhat reasonable prices for NYC) and accentuates its strong suits (vegetables, fruit, game, etc.). Stone Barns, on the other hand, takes it further; it bends your mind (and taste buds), offering new and exciting fare in an original manner.

During the Summer months, Stone Barns shies away from a traditional menu and offers two tasting menus. This is the first thing that gets noticed when seated at the table. On the right side of the menu, Chef/Owner Dan Barber has listed all the main ingredients which could be featured in a given dish (asparagus, scallops, lobster, oysters, Berkshire pork, duck, lamb, etc.). On the left side there are four rows:

- Five course tasting menu $95
- Farmer’s feast $125
- Charcuterie plate $28
- Cheese $17

That’s it. That’s your choice. The charcuterie plate is designed for two people and is meant to start your meal while the cheese course (for one) is intended to conclude your meal. We avoided both while electing the Farmer’s feast over the smaller meal, deciding this was the true way to dine at Stone Barns.

While our choice ended there, the interaction with our waiter did not. He (along with the chef) was looking to design a meal which would flow easily but still meet all our gastronomical desires. He asked me if there was anything I did not want to see as well as anything I definitely wanted to see. “No oysters or Spanish mackerel. Definitely a pork dish. Otherwise, I’ll eat anything you serve me.” Sarah obviously told the waiter that she didn’t want any seafood.

The waiter also strongly recommended an excellent white burgundy to accompany the meal instead of a wine pairing. The 2005 Meursault recommended by the sommelier was an incredible bottle and half the price of a wine pairing for two. The thought process was that I could get a much better bottle for $100-150 than I would ever try during a wine pairing, and a great white burgundy would really develop throughout the meal. This recommendation was a huge success and really hit home.

The food was no slouch either. In fact, several courses were some of the best dishes I’ve ever had. The amuse bouches woke up my palate in a startling way. The lemongrass spritzer with mint and a cherry ice cube was followed by fresh snap peas sprinkled with yuzu. The face bacon (paper thin slices of bacon taken from the jowl of a pig) was followed by pancetta wrapped asparagus with sesame seeds. We also had pea burgers (surprisingly good) and “bread and butter” – little squares of bread served with ricotta (a la A Voce) and butter as well as arugula and carrot flavored salts, which were good but not necessary.

The first course was a green tomato gazpacho with yogurt cream. I am not a fan of cold soups, but this dish was an incredible way to start the meal. The slight texture of the cream was a great counter to the refreshingly light gazpacho. This dish was followed by crispino lettuce with spring vegetables and Barber’s patented lettuce broth. Although it may sound (and look) like rodent food, it was a surprisingly deep and meaty dish. I am not one to order salads or vegetarian dishes and I am generally disappointed when an expensive tasting menu is littered with vegetables rather than foie gras or lobster, but these starters were phenomenal.

I followed the vegetarian plates with a a perfectly cooked scallop with minty peas and pistachios while Sarah had saltouse, a leafy green vegetable from Southeast Asia with some flavors resembling sesame or peanut butter, accompanied by shitakes and morels. We also had the renowned soft poached egg over crushed zucchini and morels. However, this time the soft poached egg was flash fried to give it a crispy, slightly “breaded” coating.

Finally, the meat courses arrived. First, we had a braised pork belly dish (as requested) with spaetzle. If not for the sauce which was drizzled next to the pork, I thought this dish lacked a bit of flavor. But the spaetzle and the sauce really brought out the strong flavors in the fatty pork. This dish was followed by a neck and loin of lamb with fava beans; the lamb was perfectly cooked and delicious, but at this point, I was really rather full.

This concluded our savory portion of the meal and was followed by two desserts: steamed strawberries with sour cream sorbet and honey gelee, and rhubarb meringue with farmer’s cheese ice cream. Both were outstanding.

After finishing the meal, I was truly blown away by the experience and the flavors. Having followed the methodology of Alice Waters and other fine California chefs, Dan Barber has outdone himself (and his NYC restaurant). This was an unforgettable meal that will change the way you view food.

The Elusive Best Burger

2008-07-03T09:00:00.000-04:00

After eating a bacon cheeseburger at Veselka last night, I was chatting with my friend Rob about the idea of the ‘best burger in New York.’ There are many different opinions on this subject—some people prefer J.G. Melon’s, some like Corner Bistro, loads of people love the burger at shake Shack etc... After discussing, we almost came to the conclusion that the best burger in NY is an elusive concept.

While I have not had burgers at several of the consensus ‘best burger’ spots, I have to admit that my favorite burger is the one at corner bistro. I’ll acknowledge that its not always cooked to perfection and that often times its so juicy that I eat it upside down (so the juice don’t dissolve the much smaller bottom bun) but I love and am consistently satisfied. From time to time I have had better burgers elsewhere but no other ‘best burger’ spot has become a burger destination for me. I’m in love with the ratty beer drenched surroundings of the bistro. I love the fact that beers are less than three dollars and the fact that I always seem to be there with a group of close friends. I even appreciate the fact that I once saw a cockroach fly right over my head while I was sitting in the back room.

I suppose for me the burger is a true comfort food and is just as much of an experience as it is a food item. Not only should eating the burger make me happy, but the surroundings of where I eat the burger should be as accommodating to my personal tastes as possible (I don’t love flying cockroaches but I like the idea of a place so relaxed that no one seems to care that the roaches are flying.) I like the burgers at burger joint, but it’s not a place I’d like to linger and start off my Saturday night. Shake shack can be extremely satisfying at times but I am generally against waiting on long lines in the middle of the day. I liked my Veselka burger but it could have been better if I had it at 2 am instead of 7 pm (if only I lived in the east village.) In fact, one of my favorite NYCburgers is the one I get from the 24 hour food cart outside my house. I’m not sure if it’s actually good but it makes an incredible 1am to 5am snack as I sit in my bed and start to pass out. I also had one of the best burgers of my life at Florent at 5 in the morning on New Year’s day. Perhaps burgers for me are meant to be enjoyed with, or after beer?

The ‘best burger’ is a very personal thing. People tell me all the time to check out a new burger place and I always go expecting to eat the best burger I’ve ever had. And although burgers are never bad, I’m consistently disappointed. Eating is not just about taste it’s about experience. Great food is not as good when there is no one to share it with and good food can be great if it you’re eating with people you love. Most of us have been eating burgers our whole lives and to achieve a level of transcendence in comfort food, we must be reminded of how that food comforted us in the past. Luckily there are so many places in New York that we can all find a place to serve us the ebst burger ever.

P.S. if you’re interested in burgers, try any of the below mentioned spots, all are supposed to be good.

J.G. Melon’s
DB bistro Moderne
Dumont
Peter Luger’s
Spotted pig
BLT burger
Corner bistro
Walker’s
Burger joint
Shake shack
Veselka
Spotted pig
Bouley upstairs
City hall
Jackson Hole
PJ clarkes
Florent

my fingers hurt

2008-07-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

Ok, so not a whole lot to write about for now. The Friday dinner party came and went and was a lot of fun. My friend Julia took some great pictures, that she has yet to finish editing, so I’ll wait until she’s done before I write any more about the subject.

I did use the leftovers from the dinner to make s couple of delicious things for Sunday night dinner. First there was a seared foie gras with plum and apricot chutney, and pistachios after that I made a chevre fritter with sweet corn, pesto and spicy tomato sauce.

Other than that I’ve been cooking a lot more than normal. I don’t want to type too much because the other day I cut my finger and then today I definitely got a nice burn on the finger that I had the cut on. My hand are a mess…

Later this week: Thoughts on Blue Hill, dinner party photos (hopefully)

Menu and Dinner Planning

2008-06-25T09:00:00.001-04:00

Alright everyone, sorry about the inconsistent posting. I’m transitioning from one job to another and was in Calgary for a wedding for four days (the Canadian eating feature is coming next week.)

Because I see an impending dip in time/motivation to break my back and destroy my schedule cooking for large groups for absolutely no monetary compensation,I thought id break my back and destroy my schedule cooking for a large group for no monetary compensation one last time.

I’m having 23 guests over on Friday night to partake in a nine course dinner with wine pairings. The menu includes some favorites, some new stuff, some inspiration from restaurants and cookbooks and some animals and sea creatures that I haven’t cooked for large groups before.

Here is a brief rundown of what I have lined up and why it’s there.

Scallop Sashimi, mango horseradish puree, pickled ramps

Cremant de Jura

I like this dish because I feel like it really belongs to me. The scallops are nice and sweet and tossed with a little of the pickling liquid from the ramps to help add a touch of sourness. The mango horseradish is fun and different and adds a little bit of a kick to the dish and we’ll se how the pickled ramps turn out. I’m hoping they add a little texture and a different sort of bite to the dish.

Popcorn shrimp ceviche, achiote butter popcorn

New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc

I made this on a whim when I came back from Mexico and everyone loved it. I had heard of popcorn and ceviche going together and was looking for a way to use my newly purchased achiote paste. This got me to thinking about achiote butter popcorn and shrimp as a play on the term ‘popcorn shrimp.’ Achiote really tastes great and I think marinating the shrimp in orange juice, lime juice, onions, cilantro and oregano helps to compliment the achiote while the tender shrimp lend a pleasing textural contrast to the popcorn.

Arctic Char Tartare, radish sprout, celery

This dish is pretty much directly lifted from the Gramercy Tavern menu except for a few changes. I love the citrus cured arctic char and think that its partnership with grapefruit, orange, chives, shallots and crème fraiche creates a pretty perfect bite.

Fennel Crusted Halibut, Sweet Corn, pesto, Spicy tomato sauce

Obscure Sicilian White

This is another one of my favorite personal dishes. I worked on it for a while and love how it turns out in the summer when I can find corn, tomatoes and fresh basil. It has all the elements of a great dish (in my opinion). It gets sweetness from the corn, heat and acid from the spicy tomato sauce, crunch from the corn and fennel crust, earthy flavors form the fennel and basil and a fantastically juicy thick piece of halibut

Butter Poached lobster, leeks, sugar snaps, saffron fennel puree

White burgundy

I got this idea from the French Laundry cookbook and added the saffron fennel puree. Butter poached lobster has an amazing texture and a great richness that gets cut a little by the sugar snaps and leeks. I also think that saffron goes incredibly well with lobster. Either way…It’s hard to argue with butter, lobster and white burgundy.

Roasted Marrow Bones with parsley shallot salad and Pork Belly bites with pickled cucumbers and hoisin plum sauce

Pinot Noir

The marrow bones are stolen from Fergus Henderson and are simply fantastic tasting, just like a combination of meat and butter. The idea for the pork belly comes from Momofuku with the hoisin plum being my idea. I thought these would be a nice meaty interlude and give me some time to make the…

Lamb Chop, golden raisin puree, couscous, olives, pistachios, Brussels sprouts

Oregon Pinot Noir

This seems a little disjointed possibly but I really liked a lamb dish I had with olives the other day and also love the sweet salty interplay of olives and raisins to go with the lambiness of lamb. I’ve worked on this one before but it’s definitely not finished yet so I’m hoping for the best

Short ribs, potato garlic puree, carrots, turnips

Everyone loves a good short rib and because of the cost/deliciousness ratio this has been a staple at dinners. I think this is the prettiest and best tasting incarnation of the dish so we’ll see what people think.

Cheese Board—I deserve a break at this point

Maple bread pudding soufflé, bacon walnut ice cream

People have been daring me to make bacon ice cream for some time now so I think I'm going to give it a shot. I think it will go well with the bread pudding soufflé which is delicious and maple-y but definitely needs a little salt (the bacon) to cut the sweetness and a little cold because I think any good dessert has some cold to it.

Now its time to get to my million page shopping and prep list.

Scoops du Jour: L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

2008-06-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

Today Adam Miller reviews another restaurant at the top of my to-go list. Seems like he enjoyed it…

Dining with a Deity

by

Adam Miller

Normally, counters, bars, and the like are reserved for an influx of booze and inebriation. However, at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, a certain counter which seats 20 people is reserved for the lucky few who are able to secure reservations and dine at the hands of a deity. Joel Robuchon opened his New York L’Atelier branch nearly two years ago. He has other branches in Paris, Tokyo, and Las Vegas; it was only a matter of time before he tested the waters of New York.

After navigating your way through the immense lobby of the I.M. Pei hotel and ascending the staircase to heaven, you are presented with two options. On the left is the Four Season bar, a raucous locale for the richest of the rich ($30 for a glass of champagne); on the right, is L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, standing out in its red and black palette; the bar/counter adorned with beautiful flowers. As you walk in, you know this place is entirely about the food. The kitchen front and center, the chickens roasting on a rotisserie highlighted in the background, the artwork of each dish visible from all counter seats.

If you are not well-versed in the new wave of dining in Manhattan, here is an update: Tapas is in! Now, this is not so much a traditional tapas restaurant as it is a restaurant which allows you to sample a lot of smaller dishes… and ethereal dishes they are. The crispy langoustine en papillote with basil pesto is most likely the best crustacean I have ever eaten. The soft, plump juiciness of the langoustine contrasts perfectly with the delicate crispiness of the phyllo-like crust; in the middle sits an immaculate basil leaf undamaged in the cooking and preparation. The caramelized eel with smoked foie gras is layered like a rich mille-feuille – this dish hit home especially since I’m generally not an eel lover (I know it’s a sin, especially since I love Sushi Yasuda so much).

Other original dishes include the Alsatian pastrami served with chilled shaved foie gras and fingerling potatoes (strikingly and surprisingly good) and the pan-sauteed amadai in a yuzu citrus broth with lily bulbs. The amadai (a Japanese yellowtail of sorts) was cooked perfectly as the skin was just barely crispy and not at all fishy. There is also the beef and foie gras burgers, taking a lesson from DB Bistro Moderne by serving a “classy” burger. However, my favorite dish is unquestionably the caramelized quail stuffed with foie gras and served with potato puree and black truffles. The breast is stuffed with foie gras and the drumsticks are served on the side. The potato puree is reminiscent of David Bouley’s creamy mashed potatoes; however, the slices of black truffle put this puree over the top. There is nothing else I can say to describe it…. Just go try it!

By the time I get to dessert, I am usually too stuffed to want something substantial. However, at Robuchon, dessert is a must (as it should be at any top tier restaurant). My favorite, which has since been removed from the menu, is Robuchon’s staple: Le Sucre. It is a golden sugar sphere filled with vanilla ice cream, saffron mousse, and macerated berries. The sphere is fragile and bold, crafted from a blow torch to surround the sweet and sour fruits. It is the most original dessert I have ever tried (and one of the best). I also really enjoyed the Pamplemousse – large grapefruit segments served with a wine gelee and mint sorbet. Both were extremely refreshing and perfectly executed.

There are also several touches which do not go unnoticed. Given the style of dining (small tasting portions which are supposed to be shared), it is sometimes hard to coordinate the meal. However, the waiters do a very good job; most noticeably, they will give complimentary dishes so that every diner has a course in front of him at all times. This was especially true when it came time for desserts, and more often than not, several diners are too full to order $17 desserts.

Not enough can be said about this new establishment. While it would be better served in a different locale, it is a welcome addition to New York’s top tier.

Beer Me

2008-06-09T09:00:00.002-04:00

About a week ago me and a friend of mine decided that we would exchange our NYC restaurant wish lists with the hopes of coming to a consensus and going out to dinner this past Friday night. After throwing around a bunch of restaurants that were probably out of the price range for this dinner, Robuchon, Le Bernardin etc. we decided on Resto, a restaurant recognized as serving the best Belgian food in the city.

I arrived a little early and started looking at the food and drink lists and was most struck by the list of beers. There were over 60 choices in several different styles, many of which I had no knowledge of whatsoever. I ended up trying a couple of different ones that went really well with the food at Resto (mostly meat and mostly fried) and left the dinner with a new goal: to learn more about beer.

Quick note on the restaurant—I liked the food, especially the deviled eggs on fried pork toasts, the butter ballen (fried pork and veal croquettes) and the tete de cochon sandwich which was pretty amazing. I was a little disappointed by the fries (too starchy, not crispy enough) and thought the kanpachi dish we had was good but a little nondescript. Overall I think Resto would be a great place for a beer and a snack or an amazing place for a late night meal thanks to all the fried stuff. I’ll probably find my way back at some point but I’m not exactly sure when.

Anyway, my cluelessness about beer had me really frustrated and yearning to learn more about it. I felt like I had done a relatively good job of learning about wine and have started to learn more about cocktails, but how could I not know about beer? I was in a frat for two years!

I found myself on Bowery on Saturday morning, strolling through the restaurant equipment stores and decided that I should hop into the Whole Foods beer shop on Bowery and Houston. One thing led to another and I took myself on a little beer shopping spree, trying to pick up a bunch of different kinds of beers that I haven’t had and treating myself to one that I have. I think I bought a 6 pack of Brooklyn Summer Ale, a mixed 12 pack of Beer from upstate New York, two different kinds of Allegash beer, two different kinds of Hitachino, one kind of beer brewed in 2003 and aged in Calvados Casks, a Norman Apple Cider, a couple of different kinds of Belgian beer and a couple of others.
Of course, I have no time or plans to drink any of this and am clearly not jumping into this learning project by myself. Anyone up for a beer dinner next Saturday?

BIG APPLE BBQ IS HERE AGAIN

2008-06-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

The Big Apple BBQ is coming. In fact, the BBQ is tomorrow and I would feel terribly irresponsible if I didn’t remind you all about the event. I bought a fast pass last year (a good idea if you’re going with friends) and me and a group of five friends pigged out on tons of delicious BBQ.

While it is easy to eat yourself silly, the Big Apple BBQ is one of those rare chances to get food that you can’t otherwise get in NYC. I think its safe to say that BBQ in other parts of the country (where there is actual outdoor space) differs from the kind we can get at our NYC establishments such as Blue Smoke, Hill Country etc. regardless of how good our NYC pitmasters are.

Our goal last year was to try as much out of NYC BBQ as possible and to leave the stuff from the NYC guys alone. I think that over the course of an afternoon, I had two beers, two pulled pork sandwiches, two orders of ribs, cornbread, coleslaw, sausage, brisket, and one nice long nap. The best food I had was probably from Mike Mills of 17th street Bar & Grill and Michael Rodriguez of The Salt Lick BBQ in Texas, I actually still think of that brisket and sausage.

Anyway, if you don’t have plans for the weekend, or even if you do have plans and have a couple of hours on Saturday or Sunday you should definitely find some friends and make an effort to stop by the Block Party.

Eating What You Kill

2008-06-03T09:00:00.001-04:00

As the weather gets warmer and we inch closer and closer to summer I’ve developed an obsession with lobster. These days my food obsessions have been more about finding a product and trying to teach myself a method of cooking it as opposed to trying to find it at a restaurant ready and prepared for me to eat. I’m not sure where exactly this lobster obsession came from, I think it’s a combination of seeing lobster all around me (in stores/markets) and fond memories of eating lobster in Maine when I was a kid (don’t we all have similar lobster memories?)

All of last week I couldn’t help thinking about lobster, and how to cook it at home. I wasn’t interested in the straight boiling process, I wanted to learn to use lobster as part of a composed plate. Since I haven’t cooked much lobster before I turned to the French Laundry Cookbook, one of my favorites, for guidance. Using the knowledge that stabbing a lobster in the brain is the most humane way to kill it, and some direction form the cookbook, I decided to create my own variation of Thomas Keller’s butter poached lobster.

The night started out with me preparing a ton of clarified butter to poach the lobster in and to finish my vegetables with as well as a blanching of sugar snaps, and leeks. I also decided to try to make some potato chips with my newly purchased mandoline and happened to take a healthy chunk out of my thumb after a brief loss of focus.

I then had to slaughter the lobsters. While we understand that all the meat/fish we eat were once living, it’s one thing to buy the product and something completely different to kill the product yourself. I wouldn’t say that I was squeamish, but I did feel a little sorry for the lobster sitting on my cutting board moving around with no idea what was about to happen. I sharpened my knife and looked down at the little guy and started to feel a little bad. Then I found the spot on the top of its shell where the brain is supposed to be and plunged the tip of my knife down into it. It went in fairly easily only I realized that as I was stabbing the lobster in the head I found myself saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” to the lobster I was killing. I then twisted off its tail and arms as directed. After a brief steep in boiling water I removed the meat from the shells and came up with this:

The lobster poached in butter tasted amazing, as did the melted leeks and fresh sugar snaps. The potato chip added I nice texture (it was very crisp) but the sauce (lobster stock mixed with fennel and saffron) lacked body and needed to be thicker, notice the fact that it looks more like a broth. Overall, I was happy with the taste and not terribly mortified by my first time cooking lobster at home but I understand that I still need to learn a lot more about this delicious tasting creature.

***Note that butter poaching is an amazing way to cook lobster, something I plan on doing a lot more of.

Its been some time now... (get ready to read a lot and not look at pictures)

2008-05-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

I haven’t posted in a while and I can’t exactly figure out why. It’s true that I have been extremely busy (more extremely busy than normal) but even in busy times I have found the motivation to write and reflect upon my cooking at eating experiences.

I have found that in the past couple of weeks I’ve been doing more cooking and thinking about cooking than normal. Last night for example, instead of coming home and doing things that normal people do like watch TV or whatever else it is that other people do (I don’t really even know anymore) I spent a decent portion of the night reading The French Laundry Cookbook and experimenting with how to extract chlorophyll from green plants.

This weekend, instead of going out and hanging out with other human beings, I plan on cooking for my parents, playing around with some fresh Morel mushrooms and teaching myself all about how to make elegant and delicious lobster dishes.

Part of the reason I’m staying in Friday and Saturday nights is so I can bum around Bowery on Saturday and invest and improve upon our current (circa 1987) food processor so that I can actually puree things.

In the past few weeks I have been eating out a little. We went to Blue Hill and had an excellent Mother’s Day meal. I was also treated to a tasting menu and WD-50 and had just as awesome and culinarily cerebral time as my first tasting visit over a year and a half ago. I even felt the urge to dine by myself last night (before the chlorophyll experiment) and enjoyed a warm uni pannini and sepia short noodles at el quinto pino.

I guess what I’m trying to get at here is that I’ve been a little more obsessed with food than I usually am and I think that as part of this current phase I have felt a little less motivated to write about food and a lot more interested in figuring out how I can know more about food and more importantly how I can be a better cook.

In the past few days however, I have had a couple of people mention the blog to me and tell me how much they appreciate it, which made me think more about the site and how I enjoy it as a forum to reflect on my food experiences and thoughts and not keep them so bottled up and to myself—there are so many things going on in my head that I’m actually starting to feel a little overwhelmed. That being said I really want to do a better job of writing more frequently and getting my thoughts and pictures (something I haven’t been taking a lot of recently) out there a bit more. Thanks everyone for sticking with me.

Happy Mom's Day

2008-05-12T09:02:00.000-04:00

Yeah so I know that I didn’t post at all last week. I’ve been finding that recently I’ve actually spent more time experimenting with food than critiquing/writing about it. I had a night last week where I was up till 2 am making sausage. I also had a night where I ran into a friend at around midnight when I was running to the grocery store to buy more sugar for my most recent pickling project. My liquor infusion project has also been a huge hit so far. Although, now the people who compliment my cooking (I was at a BBQ on Saturday) tend to be a lot more drunk due to the fact that the melon vodka I made was extremely smooth and delicious.

After a week of neglecting the blog I’ve decided to make a glorious return. Yesterday was mother’s day, so you can bet that I spent the majority of my day cooking for mom.

I started off with a brunch/breakfast of ‘seriously good’ Violet Hill Farm bacon, a fruit salad of orange, grapefruit, blackberries and honeydew (I was using the rind for infusing more booze) and my mom’s favorite—chocolate and strawberry pancakes.

I spent my afternoon going to the gym, making more melon voda, perfecting by maple bacon walnut Bourbon and trying my hand at rosemary and lavender vodka.

Then I started on a four course mother’s day dinner.

The first course was my own citrus cured arctic char tartare (as inspired by Gramercy Tavern) with radish sprouts, grapefruit, orange, and celery brunoise. The dish looked amazing and even tasted good as well. I do, however, need to work on my fish butchering skills.

The second course was an experiment that resulted from the presence of a couple of new ingredients and my dad’s desire to fry stuff. I made a fiddlehead fern ‘tempura’ served over Chinese Forbidden Rice (which I love) pan roasted oyster mushrooms, shaved asparagus and lemon. Even though this was really a last minute hodgepodge of things it was actually pretty good. We all agreed that fiddlehead tempura is pretty tasty.

The final savor course was something I’ve done several times before—arctic char (I had bought the whole fish and needed to use it) over asparagus, ramps, favas and carrots with crème fraiche and mustard.

Finally, the light dessert consisted of shaved honeydew, AMAZING farmer;s market raspberries, and a Muscat granite.

Happy Mother’s day everyone, I hope you all cooked for your mom’s as well.

Sausage and Booze

2008-05-02T08:20:00.000-04:00

So I haven’t been posting a lot lately and I have several excuses ragning from laziness to work to etc… But this week I’ve actually been too busy cooking! After finishing the venison sausage earlier in the week I kept on thinking about how I could make the whole sausage thing better. It turned out that the final venison product was actually pretty good but I wasn’t extremely pleased with venison as a base.

This prompted me to try a couple of tried and true sausage bases, pork and lamb. With the pork I wanted to make one Asian inspired sausage and one pork chop inspired sausage (taking inspiration from how I like to eat pork chops.) With the lamb I tried to convert my meatball recipe into sausage form.

Pork chop sausage= Chopped granny Smith Apples, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, ground fennel and whole fennel seed with a little maple syrup

Asian Pork Sausage= Lots of Garlic, Onions, Lemon Zest, and some Sriracha

Lamb= dried Bing cherries, Pine Nuts, Mint, Garlic and Port Wine.

Upon early taste testing all three were tasty with the Asian inspired sausage being a home run. But we’ll see tonight when I feed these to people other than myself.

I also took my first stab at infusing my own liquor last night with the hopes of coming up with a few things for our BBQ cocktail list. My three experiments are as follows:

Bourbon infused with Bacon, Maple Syrup and Walnuts
Light Rum with a Grapefruit and Mint infusion
Vodka infused with Citrus and Melon.

We’ll see how they turn out.

A Little Home Made Sausage Party!

2008-04-29T09:00:00.000-04:00

The recent warm weather has inspired me to talk my friends into throwing a very large BBQ in a couple of weeks. The idea would be to have a more ambitious menu and drink list than any other BBQ that I have ever attended.

This got me to thinking about something I can do in addition to cooking copious amounts of food, something that might be a fun twist. I harkened back to a couple of episodes of Top Chef and couldn’t help but think of Tom Colichio sitting at the judges table, condemning cheftestants for not making their own sausage. I then thought to myself “I need to make my own sausage!”

Of course I had never made my own sausage before, nor did I have the proper equipment. I went to Ottomanelli’s with the idea of asking them what exactly I had to do to make some duck sausage. Unfortunately, my lack of a meat grinder made duck sausage impossibility. I then settled for venison cut with a little pork (for the fat) in a pork casing.

Once the meat was purchased I went home and thought about how I was going to season the sausage. I decided to try for a sweeter, richer profile with the venison using dried pitted prunes, Chinese five spice powder, juniper berries, port wine and toasted cocoa nibs to season the meat.

A little venison sausage (pre-casing) taste test.
Here it's served with some cherry-rhubarb chutney

After seasoning the meat, I quickly learned why people don’t make sausage at home very often…Getting the meat into the casings is a pain in the ass. Originally, on the recommendation of the Ottomanelli guys, I started using a funnel. However, the tip was not large enough and after 30 minutes of frantically using my fingers to force the meat through the funnel into the sausage casing and several broken casings later, I gave up. There had to be a better way. At this point I had two sausages and decided I would sleep on the project and finish the next day.

In the morning I awakened to the brilliant idea of using a pastry bag to get the meat into the casings. This did in fact work extremely well and I was able to finish the next ten or so sausages in rather minimal time.

The end result was pretty rich, but not too bad. I still think I can do better but I’m also starting to think that venison might just not be that great in sausage form. I do however have some good idea for future sausages. I’m thinking something along the lines of pork, ginger, scallion and Sriracha sausage; lamb, cherry, pine nuts and mint, and perhaps a pork apple cinnamon and maple sausage. Let’s see how many of these make it to the BBQ on the 17th.

Guest Review: Per Se

2008-04-25T08:56:00.000-04:00

To finish off the week, I would like to post my friend Josh's review of Per Se. if you have been reading this blog for a while you might recognize his name from posts about Blue Hill, WD-50, Tailor, L'Impero, Sushi Yasuda, and Gordon Ramsay at the London. Basically, he's a really good friend of mine and really knows his food. He has been eating at Michelin starred restaurants all over Europe during his grad school stint and is fully qualified to write about any fine dining experience. Per Se is pribably one of two restaurants in New York that I can't talk myself into paying for yet(Masa being the other) so I leave you with my friend's review.

Per Se Overall Food Ranking: 9/10

Time Warner Center Ambience: 9/10

10 Columbus Circle Service: 9/10

New York, NY 10019 Food Type: French

Phone: 212-823-9335 Price: $550 per person

Hours:

Monday to Thursday, 5:30 PM – 10:00 PM; Friday to Sunday, 11:30 AM – 10:00 PM

Date of initial visit: April 14, 2008

Neither skepticism nor pessimism comes naturally to me. But when it came to Per Se, I approached with a healthy dollop of each. Could a restaurant really be worth all this gushing and fussing – a restaurant in a shopping mall?

The mall quickly fades out of sight and out of mind as one enters the tranquility of a temple where ingredients are deified and dishes – many, perhaps even most – reach apotheosis. Unlike the ill fated V Steakhouse, Per Se cleverly has an entrance with enough physical space in twists and turns to wipe away any thoughts of the Time Warner Center and focus one’s mind on the view of Columbus Circle – and on the food. The mood is neither somber nor energetic, neither romantic nor business-like: it is simply hushed and respectful, a proper setting for worshipping tastes and textures.

And how taste and texture combined in that simplest of an amuse bouche: a puff pastry filled with gruyere. Gruyere that gushes, that oozes, that delights – that lets the diner know that palettes are not to be shocked here but respected, not tricked but tantalized. A canapé of salmon tartare nestled in a black sesame cone and filled with crème fraiche was slightly less dazzling (I always find slightly frustrating canapés in which the first bite swallows up all of the main taste), but completed an overture that awakened the taste buds with gentle, soothing flavors (9/10).

Next came the only constant on Per Se’s changing tasting menu, the famous tapioca sabayon of oysters and caviar. It is the texture that overwhelms you first – a creamy, thick sabayon smoothly punctuated by caviar and tapioca. And then the taste kicks in – luscious, heavy, a bold and daring way to draw the curtain, and an unforgettable one (10/10).

After a surprisingly heavy oyster dish, what would come next but a deftly light foie gras course. The duck itself sang of richness; its accompaniments of pistachio and rhubarb, along with just a touch of balsamic glaze, provided the slight spiced tang essential to bringing out, as well as filling out, true foie gras flavor. Here was the altar of subtlety and proportion, demonstrating after the oysters that Per Se can coax as well as wow. Only an accompanying brioche that was too thick and crusty for so light and delicate a dish was out of place in a triumphant harmony (9/10). And with a Domaine de Montbourgeau, a precedent of utterly successful, just adventurous enough wine pairings was set.

And then it was back to the sea for bigeye tuna grilled ever so slightly, glistening in luminescent softness yet still very much a meaty piece of tuna. Radishes, almonds, and apples were nothing short of perfect complements – indeed, reminders that accompaniments can provide life of their own not by usurping flavors but by gently tugging on just the right ones (10/10).

Indeed, sometimes – just sometimes – more than a gentle tug is in order; and when carrot butter – carrot butter! – can emerge with such depth and richness, it would be a shame not to permit it an almost starring role – even beside a gloriously poached lobster. While ever so slightly chewy, the lobster was sweet and juicy – and the carrot butter did the rest (10/10).

A bit too aggressive was the Peking duck that followed. After so many courses that gently lulled, a heavily peppered duck served with spiced turnips and sharp onion shoots jarred a bit more than one would want five courses in. But as a dish in itself, it was hard to fault the impeccably rendered duck, even if its flavoring and sides came on rather strong (8/10).

Tranquility was restored with a lamb complemented by a mint-infused lamb jus of ideal strength: not so much as to overwhelm, but just enough to accentuate the fullness of the lamb’s natural flavor. Even more heavenly was the side of fatty meat – lamb belly? lamb fat? – that was simply glorious (9/10).

Savories complete, it was time for cheese – and a rather odd cheese course it was. A delicate but unusually textured goat cheese was served with beets and wood sorrel as well as rosemary oil. Simplicity, certainly, but perhaps a bit disappointing amidst so many other standouts (7/10).

And then came the cornbread. To be fair, the dish portended to be a buttermilk sherbet with candied pecan crumble – and indeed all those elements were well and good, if short of masterful. But the cornbread on which it all sat – the tiny piece of cornbread, prepared in the kitchen Per Se shares with Bouchon Bakery – was perhaps the single greatest bite of the meal. And “bite” it would have been, had the staff not been so kind as to bring more of the cornbread – just the cornbread – upon request. And what sweet, crumbly, extraordinary cornbread it was (9/10).

Chocolate made its way onstage, adventurously laid out as mousse, caramel cream, and devil’s food cake, all accompanied by a swirl of braised pineapple and cashew ice cream. This was chocolate that made the palette work a bit – mousse that was richer than normal, cake that was a bit drier than normal – and the whole seemed to lack a certain coherence, even if the elements, when given whatever attention remained nine courses in, shined (7/10). Similarly, an ambitious reach for a dessert course was a milk biscuit served with poached pear and English breakfast ice cream. Yet again, the individual aspects shined, but such nuance and complexity asks a bit much so late in the game (7/10).

More aligned with the focused execution of previous courses were “coffee and doughnuts,” the former a thick, cold, multi-layered mousse, and the latter – well, doughnuts. Sugary, dough-laden, delightful donuts (9/10). Bourbon chocolates and chocolate-covered almonds were rich and sweet (8/10).

I am a skeptic and pessimist no more. In the midst of the Time Warner Center, Per Se serves what is, quite simply, New York City’s best food – indeed, this was the best meal I have ever had in New York. And it is no exaggeration to say that I dreamt – for the first time in my life – in shades of carrot butte

Scoops du Jour: Le Bernardin

2008-04-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

Some friends of mine have dined at some pretty amazing restaurants lately (ones that I drema of going to) and have had the generoosity to write reviews for this site. Today I'm posting Adam Miller's review of one of his favorite restaurants, Le Bernardin.

Fish Lover’s Heaven

By

Adam Miller

My parents introduced me to fine dining at a very young age. I went to Bouley for the first time in 1991 when I was eight years old. It was the best restaurant in the City (if not the country). Everything from the beautiful, understated décor to the perfect service and immaculate food was incredible. However, with the announcement of its closing, I went on a search for my soon-to-be new favorite restaurant. If there’s one thing Bouley opened my eyes to, it was seafood. And ever since the original Bouley on Duane Street closed in 1996, I have been the biggest advocate for Le Bernardin, the top (seafood) restaurant in New York.

Le Bernardin is one of the few (if not the only) restaurants in New York City to have always received four stars from The New York Times. As it is written every time the review comes out: It is harder to maintain four stars than to earn four stars a single time. If there is one restaurant that everyone should visit in New York, it is Le Bernardin. It is the single finest dining experience around.

As one may deduce, I have been going to Le Bernardin for at least twelve years. What makes the restaurant so incredible is not just the incredible food, the unwavering service, or the beautiful, wood-paneled room; it is also the variety of food and the warmth of the experience. For such a big restaurant with such a great variety of seafood, it is an extremely intimate restaurant. The beautiful bouquets of flowers dominate the interior of the room as the soft palette of the paintings line the walls. It truly is an unrivaled dining room.

Eric Ripert, the executive chef and part owner, however dominates from the inside. At one time, the restaurant had a window which allowed the diners to look into the perfectly pristine kitchen and watch the chefs paint the ginger lime mayonnaise onto the thinly pounded tuna carpaccio. That window no longer exists, but the quality of the food does. I have dined at Le Bernardin more times than I can remember over the last thirteen years and there several dishes which I will never forget (and continue to populate the menu). The thinly pounded raw tuna over a crispy baguette and foie gras covered in chives and olive oil is a great way to start the meal – the dish is refreshing and the crispiness of the baguette with the foie gras is an excellent complement to the tenderness of the tuna. Other great starters include the tasting of fluke, served four different ways as well as the kanpachi tartare (a Japanese yellowtail) served with wasabi tobiko and crisp toast. Other signature dishes include the baby barbecued eels, the spiny lobster carpaccio, the sea urchin risotto with toasted nori, and the Pizza Bernardin – a crispy phylo dough topped with a spicy tomato sauce, perfectly cooked tender shrimp, and some basil. While the pizza is no longer served, it (like old staples) can be specially ordered when the reservation is booked.

Several entrees also stand out. The “surf and turf” comprised of Hawaiian escolar and 4 ounces of kobe beef, accompanied by a brown butter emulsion, a piece of kimchee flavored lettuce, asian pear, and butternut squash is one of my favorite dishes at any restaurant ever. I also have taken a strong liking to the monkfish served “Gaudi” style as Chef Ripert dons up the fish with some spicy chorizo and patatas bravas.

The desserts have also changed over the years. Sometimes the simplicity of the fruit cup accompanied by champagne and mixed berry sorbet strikes my fancy. Other times, I get sucked up in the passion fruit tart enrobed in white chocolate and served with mandarin sorbet. There is also the mainstay – a chocolate tarte oozing with fudge and topped with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. There are also lighter desserts: a citrus/rhubarb tart, a yuzu millefeuille, or an always stellar selection of sorbets.

There is very little to dislike about Le Bernardin and a whole lot to love. Although the menu may be somewhat limiting due to the lack of meat options (there are only 3 non-fish dishes on the menu), it never disappoints. It has always received four stars from The Times, and it continues to seem justified.

Some more spring stuff

2008-04-21T12:53:00.006-04:00

This past Saturday I went to the Greenmarket hoping to see the first true signs of Spring, green vegetables. I woke up early hoping that if there did happen to be some signs of Spring that I wouldn’t miss out.

Luckily, I was rewarded with bunches of garlicky smelling ramps, and nice plum looking green asparagus with faintly purple tops. There was also an abundance of interesting salad greens and some of the usual pears, apples, mushrooms, potatoes etc…

I wanted to make use of the new Spring produce in a Spring inspired dinner. I came up with a menu of

‘Green’ risotto with asparagus, carrots and chard stems. It gets the greenness from a puree of pea and ramp greens. I thought this was probably the best tasting dish of the night.

The next dish was a salad of red spinach, mache and amaranth with soft shell crabs, pickled ramps and blood orange. This was ok, I think I was a bit too heavy handed with the salt. I think I’d like to try to refine this a but more and perhaps give a coating to the crab, I really like the idea of cornmeal.

Then there was my take on beef with broccoli. I coated a beef tenderloin with five spice powder then browned and roasted it. I served this with pan roasted shiitake and oyster mushrooms, a broccoli ginger puree, and a chili oil that was a bit too runny for this slanted plate.

Dessert is not pictured but was a pear and ricotta tart with maple syrup and frangelico. It turned out really well.

I’m looking forward to see how I can use more green vegetables in my cooking during this incredibly green season.

Market Update

2008-04-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

With the weather starting to get warmer, I was hoping for some green spring vegetables at the Greenmarket this weekend. Unfortunately, there were none to be had, and I was left to suffer another Spring weekend without any wild asparagus (I've been craving vegetables lately.)

However, I did receive some good news. The people at Mountain Sweetberry Farms had a very tiny bunch of ramps at their stand and told me that ramps, and perhaps some other spring bounty should be available next weekend. I smell a farm to table dinner coming...

I kept my spending at a minimum and made myself a Greenmarket breakfast:

Fried egg over german butterball potatoes, bacon, crosnes, apples, pea greens and mustard seed. Eggs and bacon were from Violet Hill Farms and potatoes, crosnes and pea greens were from Mountain Sweetberry.

Mexico Part 2

2008-04-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

A couple other thoughts on Mexico…

Weirdest thing I ate:

Yes, it’s a taco de ojo (eyeball taco) that I had sitting at a restaurant with an outdoor grill. Why did I eat this? It was more of a dare than anything else, coupled with my propensity to try anything. This did not taste good. Although the flavor was comparable to cow meat, the texture was terrible. Perhaps it would have been better if braised? I challenge someone to make cow eyes taste good. I actually had a beef cheek taco in the same meal (really tasty) but unfortunately didn’t have enough space to fit in the cow tongue taco, thus completing the cow face triple play.

This is me trying to make the cow eye taco look a little better.

These are Maguey ant eggs. They actually tasted pretty good and had the texture of caviar minus the sliminess. We ate these in a restaurant located inside a cave in Teotihuacán, it was actually the only thing we had in the restaurant that was any good.

I also was able to try Manta Ray for the first time. I get the sense that it’s a particularly cartilaginous fish, making it fairly hard to prepare. We had it slow braised in banana leaves with spices and fruit juices, in the same way that pork is cooked in a very traditional conchinita di pibil. It had the flavor of white fish (think cod) and the texture of shredded meat.

Drink of choice during the trip…The Michelada. For some reason, mixing dark beer with fresh lime juice and chili powder is incredibly tasty and refreshing. Here is a picture of a giant size one that we actually had while on a canoe at Xochimilco, we were able to buy it from some friendly Michelada vendors who paddles up next to us.

Its even better when you drink it sideways

Some more market pictures… I was amazed at the variety of stuff they had at the markets. From numerous herbs and spices to squash blossoms to figs to strawberries to numerous types of peppers, it was like an all star team of great seasonal produce from New York and California, another reason why I am so disappointed by the Mexican chefs and their lack of market knowledge.

Lots of Chickens
Lots of Peppers

Lots of strawberries

We actually went to two markets in one day. The first, an outdoor market was awesome. Apparently this was a ‘neighborhood’ market but it as actually the size of the Union Square Greenmarket here in New York. The second was the major indoor market in Mexico City, Mercato de Merced. I think I might have enjoyed this one had I not been completely overwhelmed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a market this large in my life. The first thing we witnessed inside was a stand with at least eight different kinds of moles in powder and paste form (I was able to sneak some into the U.S and it was good) and a man carrying to gigantic dried fish by the jaws.

The indoor Market was a little overwhelming. There was lots and lots of everything

I wish I remembered more of this market and took more pictures, but I completely choked. There were so many stands selling so many of the same things (think thousands of heads of garlic, hundred of tomatoes, tables full of tamarind) that I felt a little dizzied and was completely unable to think straight. In addition to the mole I think we bought some tomatoes and hightailed it out of there. I think this would be a better market to visit once I have some command over the Spanish language.

Finally some street food… Had an amazing meal of flautas and pambazo, a sandwich filled with chorizo, cheese and potatoes, then slathered in chili powder and fried—truly amazing.Street food in Mexico is the way to roll

A sandwich with deep fried bread

Crispy Flautas with lots of cheese, another deep fried treat

This is a fantastically sweet and juicy mango, again slathered in chili powder (I wonder if you’re sensing a theme here.)

Finally... The winner for the best thing that I ate over the course of the trip:

Churrolicious...

Yes, this is a churro. It was freshly fired and filled with warm chocolate and was like no other churro I had ever had…It was that good. I don’t even have words for this fantastic churro, but I do know that I can’t stop thinking about it. There has to be a future dish in there somewhere.

Mexico Part I

2008-04-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

Loving Mexican Markets

It’s been about two weeks since I’ve come back from Mexico, and although I haven’t written much about the experience, I have spent a good amount of time reflecting on it. Fun-wise I had an excellent trip. I saw some things I wanted to see, did a decent amount of going out, won a bunch of scrabble games, didn’t get stressed out and tired, and did a lot of eating. Obviously it is fun to have fun, but anyone that knows me understands that now, whenever I travel, the focus of any trip will always be food.

So what do I think of my eating experiences in Mexico?

I loved the street food and a lot of the more low end food we had and I was disappointed by the high end food. I was also extremely happy with the markets and grocery stores in Mexico City. Mexico has an incredibly long growing season, which means that fruits and vegetables are abundant. This also makes Mexico a fairly large exporter of fresh produce to the United States. However, while I feel guilty buying Mexican produce in New York (I’m not a big fan of the carbon footprint it leaves and would much rather purchase New York produce in New York) I have no problem about buying Mexican produce at markets in Mexico, I actually get really excited by the idea. Actually, the amazingness of the Mexican farmers markets is really what spurred my disappointment in the fine dining restaurants—there were little to no vegetables in any of the dishes they served.

Part of what I love about eating at restaurants in New York these days is the distinct influence of the seasons. Much of the produce you see in the Greenmarkets will actually wind up on your plate in a restaurant. Chefs really get to think and be creative with fruits and vegetables and the dishes they create for us are complete, pairing a protein with produce that complements it, and elevating the flavors of everything on the plate.

The finer restaurants in Mexico however, did not do this. Although I was intrigued by some of the combinations on restaurant menus, I was underwhelmed by what showed up on the plate. Certainly the food was good, but the beautiful looking produce I saw at the markets was conspicuously absent. The Duck confit with mole that I had at one restaurant was pleasing for the first few bites, but after a while I didn’t want to eat a duck breast and sauce, I wanted leeks or lettuce, or anything to alleviate the heaviness of the dish. There are several other examples of this, an osso bucco with Mexican Spices served with fettuccine; I also remember a rack of lamb seeming particularly lonely.

This isn’t to say that cheaper Mexican food is loaded with vegetables, its not. There are condiments, salsas and tiny accompaniments, but I don’t feel like I must have vegetables when I’m buying a 3 dollar torta, I do when I spend 20 dollars on a lamb dish.

Perhaps this is why some of the people I cooked for during the course of the trip were excited by some of the things I came up with. We took a day surveying a couple of markets and I wanted to cook a meal with the stuff we found. I think I was able to sue my own style with the Mexican ingredients to come up with some fairly interesting dishes.

Our dinner menu was as follows:

Roasted figs with bacon, mountain cheese and honey

Cornmeal crusted Squash Blossoms stuffed with avocado, leeks, tomatoes and Serrano

Squash with ground beef, cinnamon, cumin, raisins, almonds, cashews and a salty cheese
(I’m not really sure what either of the two cheeses we bought at the Market were called but they tasted really good)

Rack of lamb with peas, favas and huitlacoche (blue corn fungus) tequila MMMMM...Huitlacoche...The Mexican Truffle?

Fruit salad with mint and melted sugar plums

To Be Continued (with more pictures and some more ranting)

Spring Needs to HURRY UP

2008-04-03T09:00:00.000-04:00

Apparently spring was supposed to start on March 21st. However, I currently see no signs of Spring. When I think spring, I think green stuff and yet I went by the Greenwich street Greenmarket today and there were only three stands, two of which were selling bread. Really all I want out of this season is an abundance of new vegetables and new stuff to cook. I’ve really only had one to two greenmarket springs since I started cooking seriously so having the opportunity to work with new local ingredients and try new spring dishes is very exciting for me. I’ve been craving asparagus, fava beans and fresh peas for the last two weeks.

Yesterday I finally gave in. I couldn’t wait any longer for spring to simply happen. I was tired of seeing the same old beets, potatoes and sunchokes (even though I love sunchokes) at the Greenmarket and decided to buy some typically ‘spring’ vegetables from my local Korean deli. Usually I wait for produce to be in season before I go and cook with it but this time I couldn’t wait, I needed my vegetables.

I decided to pan roast some salmon and serve it over crisp fiore pasta with peas, carrots, asparagus and a light fennel cream sauce. I was able to cook the salmon perfectly so that the skin was crispy and salty and the flesh was firm but moist at the same time. (Side note: it makes me so happy when I can take a good ingredient and add salt and pepper and have it taste amazing by itself which is why I’m including the picture of the salmon while cooking.)

My parents loved the dish and I thought it worked really well too. The vegetables were really the focus of the plate while the salmon and the cream added a little weight and fattiness to the dish and the pasta added a nice textural element as well as a starch. Now I need to make this dish when it is actually Spring. Here’s to hoping that the wild asparagus arrives soon.

Tomorrow: The Mexico recap

On cooking for close to 50

2008-03-31T09:00:00.000-04:00

Saturday came and went and I can’t believe that we actually pulled off a dinner party (although it has more been described as a party with great food) for 45 people while preparing upwards of 12 different dishes. I think I ended up cooking/shopping/prepping for maybe 28 of 34 hours between Friday afternoon and Saturday night. Thanks to much help everything was finished, every guest left with a full belly and we even had so much food that I withheld a dish, the fines herbes gnocchi with zucchini and sage.

In the end I think the favorite dish was actually something that I was playing around with the night before and was really close to not serving altogether: the shrimp ceviche with achiote butter popcorn. I also think the duck confit with mole and macadmias earned pretty high marks. The favorite cocktail (from our well thought out and fairly original list) was the cava, elderflower liqueur and vermouth drink.

As I write this it’s Sunday night and I’m completely exhausted. I really enjoy cooking for people and trying to make them happy, but a party of this scale, where I do close to 85% of any cooking (not including chopping etc.) is probably a bit too ambitious even for me. When I’m cooking for fun I like cooking dinner for smaller groups of 6-12 where I can actually talk to my guests while I’m cooking and where I don’t feel like I’m ordering around all the kind people that help me. I guess I’m really happy that the party was HUGE success but I’m also kind of glad that I don’t feel like I need to throw another big party like this for at least another six months.

Bed time now, I need some rest before getting back to my real job. I’m still slightly shocked by the amount of food that was purchased, prepared and fed to 45 people over the course of a night. Thanks to everyone who helped!

P.S. I also screwed up/was too overwhelmed and forgot to bring a camera and take pictures, perhaps some will surface over the next several days that I can post...

A Big One

2008-03-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

Since I have this week off from work and haven’t thrown a very large scale dinner party I a while, I thought I would take the opportunity to invite my friends (and my friends friend’s) to what I am calling ‘dinner and a party.’

Since I’m incredibly well organized I sent out the invite before I went to Mexico. Originally responses were scarce and I thought I’d have a smaller crowd to cook for. However, as the date approaches, the number continues to balloon to what is now 48 people. I have never cooked for this many people before so I feel a little overwhelmed (more like small animals are running around inside my head) but I think I’ll be able to pull it off.

This time I’m scrapping the restaurant style plated food in lieu of family style. This means I had to give up a few dishes that I was sort of in love with. I also find it troubling that we are currently somewhere in between seasons, meaning there aren’t a whole lot of strictly seasonal dishes for me to prepare. The menu that I have come up with is below:

Lamb meatballs, pine nuts, port wine sauce
Beet salad
Strichelli pasta w/capers, asparagus, garlic, parsley, lemon, anchovy and marinated rock shrimp
Orecchiette w/ veal beef pork ginger jalapeno carrot scallion
herbed goat cheese and potato fritters
Bacon wrapped figs and fourme d’ambert
Faux gras and parsley gelee
Fennel and citrus salad
Seared scallops parsley walnut pesto sunchokes and pork belly
Eggs in a hole, brioche, quail eggs, oyster mushrooms
Parisian style gnocchi w/ market vegetables
Mole risotto w/ macadamias and duck confit
Ceviche w/ achiote butter popcorn
skirt steak w/ foie gras butter
Cheese plate
Two sweet tarts
Some form of zuccotto
Mini fudgey chocolate cakes w/chocolate sauce
Ice creams

Also, I’m awarding a prize to anyone who can figure out what is in either of these two tacos that I consumed in Mexico:

A Comforting Easter

2008-03-24T14:12:00.005-04:00

I returned from Mexico City on Saturday night but before I gather my thoughts on the trip, I thought I’d thank my mom for cooking lots of non-Mexican food for me on Easter Sunday.

Breakfast/Brunch started at about 11 with some delicious Kielbasa, babka, and fruit salad. There’s not a lot of meats that I like more than kielbasa and thanks to the polish half of my family it has engrained itself in my diet as a go-to comfort food, something much needed after all of the weird stuff I ate in Mexico.
After snacking on pie crust cookies (mad with lard, yum!) for the afternoon, dinner consisted of rack of lamb with a panko, garlic and rosemary crust, mushroom risotto, roasted tomatoes and asparagus with lemon. We also had a salad of bibb lettuce, marinated fennel, blood orange, and avocado with a grapefruit pistachio vinaigrette. The meal went very nicely with the ’06 Dutcher Crossing Sauvignon Blanc and the ’04 Miner Cabernet Sauvignon.

For dessert we had one of the all time favorite things that my mom and my grandmother make: Coconut Custard Pie. A very delicious end to a comforting return home.

In other new, I'm going to Momofuku Ko tonight!

Mexico

2008-03-14T09:00:00.000-04:00

After an incredibly busy last few weeks (I think I've worked for
something like 26 straight days) I off to Mexico City for a one week
break tomorrow. Because things have been so busy for the last couple of
weeks I've failed to think about this trip as more than a shining light
at the end of the tunnel.

Now that I'm a day away however, I'm beginning to get excited. I really like traveling without a plan and I'm looking forward to many of the things Mexico City has to offer, but mostly I'm looking forward to eating. I'm salivating at the thought of tamales and Mexican hot chocolate and mole and am looking more than anything to eat and be inspired.

I'll see everyone in about a week...

Life Status Update

2008-03-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

All of you who actually read this blog might notice that I’ve been pretty bad about posting over the course of the last week. It’s not that I haven’t done anything food related, its just that I spent most of last week prepping for my first catering job and the rest of the week being exhausted after my first catering job (it went very well but more on that tomorrow.)

For the sake of posting I thought I’d fill you in with a general life update (as my life relates to food) before I provide my thoughts on catering tomorrow.

In addition to catering, I was able to go to Mesa Grill (on a gift certificate), Telepan, and Blaue Gans over the last week. The food at Mesa grill was definitely not worth the price of admission and being in a restaurant with a bunch of tourists and NYU underclassmen made me feel significantly less cool than I really am (which isn’t that cool.)

Telepan was solid as usual and I had a very enjoyable meal there although I was a little upset that my foie gras doughnuts were seriously lacking in the foie gras department. Making foie gras doughnuts that contain more than trace elements of duck liver is one of my new life goals…

Blaue Gans is one of the more underrated causal dining restaurants in all of New York.

I also had a chance to work on a couple of simpler dishes like lamb meatballs, and fennel and pork ragu as well as a bay scallops sunchokes and bacon dish. I did not get a chance to work on my new idea of sake soy brushed hamachi over honey roasted mangos with black sesame crackers and scallion puree.

The date and location of the next dinner party (for fun) is set. Expect invites to be sent out soon.

SHMANCAKES!!!

2008-03-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

This might be my favorite book about food ever. I was incredibly excited tohear that our school recently bought a new copy today and I can't wait to share it with my cooking class. If you haven't read this book yet please go pick up a copy...

Ok, I'm off to go make some Earl Grey Ice cream. For those of you that don't know yet I have my first ever catering job coming up on Wednesday and I've been dedicating every second of my free time and thought to making sure that everything taste amazing.

Feeling Carniverous?

2008-03-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

If you took a look and thought to yourself, “I’m looking at 30 pounds of short ribs,” then you would be correct. I have my first catering job coming up Wednesday and asked my dad to go to Ottomanelli’s to pick up some short ribs for me. Along the way we had a little miscommunication and we wound up with 30 pounds.

What did I do? First I focused on prepping the short ribs for my catering job on Wednesday night. Then I cancelled my dinner reservation at AOC Bedford, called my friend Allegra over (we were celebrating her birthday) and opened up a 1967 Proddutori Del Barbaresco to go with the other short ribs that I cooked. When all was said and done I cooked about 20 of the 30 pounds of ribs.

After dinner I worked on perfecting my mini chocolate cakes and finished on some fine herbs and gruyere gnocchi. I think next Sunday comes the short ribs and red wine tasting with the other 10 pounds that are now resting nicely in my freezer.

Dining Brief: Degustation

2008-02-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

If everyone loves Spanish food, and everyone loves small plates, and diners are trending towards more casual, relaxed meals, why then is it so easy to get a reservation at Degustation?

I called three or four days ahead of time and was able to get any time I wanted on a Friday night. Then I got the flu and rescheduled for the next Saturday. Again, I could get almost any time I wanted. That Saturday didn’t work so I rescheduled yet again for a Wednesday night that was convenient for everyone—except for the extremely kind people answering the restaurant’s phones.

Easy reservations don’t trouble me if the restaurant in question is really large, or if the food is said to be average, or uneven, but Degustation, Grace and Jack Lamb’s (owners of Jewel Bako which is next door and actually connected to Degustation by a narrow hallway) 16 seat quasi Tapas/French restaurant is too small and too good to be this easy to eat at.

Chef Wesley Genovart who is 28 but looks like he could be 19 runs a small but well paced and relaxed open kitchen that is surrounded by the 16 seat wooden bar. This narrow space, dimly lit and accented by dark stone walls makes up the entire restaurant. What could arguably be a very large bathroom or closet space in a city with more space, is actually a restaurant that incites joy in those lucky enough to cram themselves in.

Watching a chef in an open kitchen is a fun experience but can also affect the way you eat your food—its not as much fun to eat a dish cooked by a stressed out and sweaty guy cursing under his breath 6 feet away from you. What impressed me most about Degustation was the way that the food and the service all seemed so refined yet effortless.

Degustation does simple dishes very well--slightly smoky and deliciously fresh shrimp prawns and langoustines grilled on the plancha and dusted with sea salt were a pleasure to eat. They also seem to make complex dishes very simply. A crudo of Tasmanian sea trouth was adorned with basil seeds, resempling caviar, little green orbs of encapsulated basil and a sherry reduction, leaving the diner with the striking mix of the bright pink fish surrounded by greens on the plate. The fish was delicious too it sweetness accentuated by the sherry and then held back by the herbal notes in the basil. Chef Genovart is clearly man who understands his fish and knows how to get the most out of them.

The one bite Spanish tortilla topped with Piquillo pepper and stuffed with shallot confit and quail egg was a nice little burst of flavor to start the meal. However, the slowly poached egg sitting in a bath of cheese foam with Serrano ham and rice cracker crusted asparagus fell a little short. The foam was too salty and the asparagus too stringy. I blame myself for this one, ordering asparagus in February was a really poor idea.

The disappointment experienced by the egg is quickly forgotten however, as you move on with the menu. Pork cheeks were extremely tender and came with a light sweet potato gnocchi, denser Brussels sprouts and salty blood sausage, a medley of tastes and textures that go really well together if you can fit them into the same bite. Our dessert of sweet caramelized bread pudding with frozen grapefruit and grapefruit foam was solid (with the foam actually working well here) but the highlight of the meal was the rabbit. Confited until tender and very juicy and served in little circles, accompanied by crispy fried artichoke and white beer sauce, it was simple yet packed with flavor with ingredients that were seemingly made for each other. A perfect example of how a well run humble little restaurant can cook up some very big food.

(Photo credit to NYMAG)

A Little Wine with Dinner

2008-02-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

As many of you readers know, last week I celebrated my 25th birthday. On Monday night I went to Picholine with my parents, on Thursday I went to Momofuku an split a Bo Ssam with some friends, on Saturday a couple of friends hosted a party for me (thanks!) and on Friday I did a little cooking so that I might have some food to eat while me and some friends drank wines from 1983.

Instead of experimenting, I cooked a couple of rather simple tried and true favorites to go with a bevy of delicious wine. This is one of the few times that I have paired food with wine and not the other way around, and I have to say I find the practice interesting and quite enjoyable.

The idea behind the meal was to start off with some seared foie gras and cherries to pair with an ’83 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes. This was followed by some fennel crusted halibut with walnut parsely pesto over pan roasted mushrooms paired with an ’05 Cakebread Chardonnay that I picked up in California this past summer. The third and final savory course was a very large braised short rib over hash with roasted beets and carrots that went with an ’83 Langoa Barton from Pessac-Leognan. Along the way we also had a ’95 Chateau Sociando-Mallet from Haut Medoc, a Marques de Rescal Riserva Rioja and some Chateau Carmes de Rieussec Sauternes. In all a very fun night with a few friends and a lot of years worth of wine. I should celebrate my birthday like this every year.

It’s now time to get back to real life and a little experimentation…

Its My Birthday!

2008-02-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

Today at 12:07 pm I turn 25. It’s funny that although I know the exact time of my birth, there is only one birthday that comes to memory on which I can remember exactly what I was doing at that time. It was my 8th birthday and I was at my friend Josh’s house eating a hot dog. Weird, I know…

What am I doing to celebrate my first quarter century of life? I’m trying to celebrate a lot (but not too intensely) so that I don’t really want to celebrate my birthday for another year. On Monday I had a truly excellent meal with my parents at Picholine (write-up coming soon) and tonight I plan on splitting a Bo Ssam with a bunch of friends. On Friday I will be cooking a three course meal featuring seared foie gras, halibut, Dr. Pepper braised short ribs and a dessert from Bouley Bakery. It will also include a pair of wines from 1983, a year lucky enough to have me born in it. Finally on Saturday, I have two friends throwing me a birthday party in their apartment preceded by a tasting of Italian wines and Vinny’s Italian American pizza.

Thanks in advance to all who choose to participate. It should be an exciting three days…

Dining Brief/ Temporary BYOB Alert: Mia Dona

2008-02-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

As I was browsing my usual food blogs on Friday I noticed a link to Mia Dona on Time Out New York. It simply stated that Mia Dona, the recreation of Dona by Michael Psilakis and Donatella Arpaia has just opened and is doing BYOB for another two weeks. Thus a restaurant that was not really on my radar jumped to front and center. As an amateur wine collector (extremely amateur at this point) the idea of BYOB at a restaurant with a highly regarded chef (Mr. Psilakis is also executive chef at Anthos and Kefi) is too good to pass up. It affords me the opportunity to open up some nicer wine (that is usually marked up 100-200 percent on retail throwing it grossly out of my price range) and to know that it is going to be accompanied by good food.

I forwarded the link to my friend who works in a wine shop and we quickly decided that we should go on Sunday night.

As we arrived at the restaurant, bottle is in hand I felt a little unsure of myself. I don’t think that I had ever done BYOB in Manhattan before and was a little confused as to how to go about the whole process. As it turned out, the house was incredibly cordial when it came to our wine (their liquor license was just approved and the restaurant is still very much BYOB) and we were promptly seated in the back room.

Mia Dona is a recreation of the restaurant Dona which Psilakis and Arpaia opened last year. Although the restaurant received great reviews, it was forced to shut down and re-locate. Mia Dona is scaled back version of the original intended to mimic the relax feel of a Sunday night dinner in a friend’s house. In fact, the restaurant does such a good job of mimicking the inside of a house, that after you walk through the rather benign front of the restaurant with its blue and white walls, you come to a room that reminds you of something you might see in an Ikea catalogue. It’s a little too bright with blonde wooden wall paneling that’s a little too pristine, and bookshelves that contain bone white books with no title and presumably no words. If you like to go to a restaurant and feel glamorous, or even cool, the main dining room is a bit of a train wreck.

That being said, other than a few hiccups that can be a part of any restaurant opening (waiting a bit too long for the menu, receiving the wrong dessert) our food was well prepared. Octopus served with olives feta and anchovies, was tender and tangy and briny all at the same time and was a real pleasure to eat. Lamb’s tongue bruschetta was tender and flavorful and went well with its poached egg and crispy rabbit morsels tasted like haute chicken nuggets (in a good way) but probably could have used a dipping sauce of some sort.

Our entrees were solid but unspectacular. The polpettone, a Florentine meatloaf resting in beef broth with mushrooms stuffed with a soft boiled egg and brightened up by a heavy dose of fennel was satisfying and filling in a very cold weather home-y sort of way. Veal breast was tender and well prepared but not any better than veal served at any number of restaurants. The pork chop, again accompanied by a fried egg and lardoons was flavorful but a bit too salty and was left unfinished. The real star of the night was the ricotta gnudi, tender and puffy with a pleasant earthy undertone provided by truffle butter sauce and texture and salt provided by a generous portion of crispy speck.

Desserts again were good (we were a little too full at that point) and highlighted by a deliciously maple-y but light, maple panna cotta. Overall, I thought the restaurant showed well for an opening week but unless it remains BYOB I probably won’t be going back—the scene caters to a crowd that is a little older than me. I do however think the food reaffirms Michael Psilakis’ cooking skills and am definitely looking forward to going back to Kefi and trying Anthos for the first time.

Cravings

2008-02-13T09:00:00.007-05:00

Every once in a while I start to crave eating. I know we all crave different kinds of food from time to time for whatever reason, whether it be sushi or fried chicken or chocolate, but what I’m talking about is a dining experience. For some reason, I start to get an image in my head of a specific restaurant and I can’t help but picture experience and taste my meal. I think of the ambience, I look at the menu and try to imagine how the food tastes and I can even see myself drinking a very specific bottle of wine. This craving is extremely visceral for me despite sometimes not even knowing what the restaurant looks like. I become fixated on a dining experience and I feel like it has to happen and won’t be satisfied until it does.

Today I thought I’d write about 5 or so restaurants that I can’t stop thinking about. I get to go to some soon, have been to some before and hope to find a reason to go to others in the future.

1. Degustation. As it turns out I’m actually going tonight. This restaurant has been on my radar for a while as I read interview after interview with famous chefs who call Wesley Genovart’s 16 seat French inspired Tapas joint one of the most underrated restaurant finds in the city. Add in the fact that it’s moderately priced (meaning if I like it I can go again soon) and there is a recipe for excitement. I can already picture myself biting into the squid stuffed with short ribs over lentils and chorizo and smiling as I finish it off with a sip of good Rioja.

All The Degustation info you could want.

NY Times Review

Degustation menu

2. Picholine. Another restaurant that I get to go to soon. However this one is more of a destination dinner with its refined eclectic European style cooking. Luckily my parent’s 30th anniversary and my birthday are both next week, giving me a good excuse to talk them into taking me here. In addition we are friendly with a good friend of the chef. I’m incredibly intrigued by the idea of chicken stuffed with liquid foie gras and adorned by chanterelles. Another interesting choice is the sea urchin panna cottawhich promises to be incredibly fresh and sea like in a totally unique kind of way. I’m hoping this meal beats the elegance and refinement of the one I had last summer at Eleven Madison Park

Dinner Menu

Tasting Menu

3. Sushi Yasuda. I’ve already been here but I think I’m going again for my quarterly blowout (Spring version) in early April. At least twice a day I have fantasies of sitting at the wood sushi counter and being fed perfectly seasoned morsels of different kinds incredibly fresh and succulent tuna from all over the world. I taste perfectly fishy slices of mackerel (more kinds than I can remember) expertly seasoned with nothing more than lemon and sea salt and I envision appreciating the subtle differences in six different kinds of fresh salmon. I love Yasuda for its amazing fish and hate it for ruining everyday sushi for me forever.

NY Mag write up

Adam's thoughts

4. Bar Jamon

I’ve been here recently but I cant help thinking of how much I enjoyed trying different quartinos of Spanish wine and eating manchego and pan con tomate ( a fantastically underrated dish.) The bocadillo sandwich is also one of the most simple (pan con tomate again, this time with aioli and serran ham!) yet delicious sandwiches I’ve had in a while, rivaling the three terrine Banh Mi from Momofuku. I think part of the reason I want to go back is because it’s so accessible. You can walk in and pick a communal table and stand and eat. Add this to the affordable prices and you have a restaurant that I should be at bi-weekly. I’ve also been on a Spanish wine kick lately. I think I need to find a buddy to go back with. Come on friends, step up.

Menu

5. Telepan/Blue Hill

Been to both recently and have to say that both seasonal farm to table restaurants do two things really well—pork and eggs. And I always have a pork and eggs craving. No rush to go but I’ve been thinking of the Telepan brunch (only 30 dollars) featuring coddled eggs, biscuits and scrapple (almost like a super sausage biscuit with egg) and the slow poached egg with oyster mushrooms in an herb broth from Blue Hill—creamy earthy green and perfect. The thought of a perfectly soft cooked egg letting its richness melt into a savory herb broth makes me want to learn how to better slow cook eggs.

Telepan Brunch Menu

Blue Hill Dinner Menu

There are others too. I want to try the Burgers at Stand and Veselka and have a strong urge to eat Bone Marrow at both Landmarc and Blue Ribbon. In fact every time I look into the cupboard at work and spot the matzos meal I cant help but think of Blue Ribbon’s matzos meal coated fried chicken. Allen & Delancey and Fiamma are other restaurants that I want to try in a very general sense while Bar Boulud has me thinking of a good Crozes-Hermitage and Charcuterie. I also feel the need to eat some more soft Brisket and Kreuz sausage from Hill country. For some reason I’ve also been thinking of romaine hearts a lot recently. I guess I’m weird like that.

Happy eating…

A Saturday in the Life...

2008-02-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

Being an only child, I think I enjoy my alone time more than most. With a busy work schedule and fairly hectic social life (I like to think I have lots of friends) it’s not all too often that I can be totally and completely alone.

One time every week that I truly enjoy is Saturday mornings. Regardless of what I’ve done the night before, I always like to wake up early on Saturday and have some ‘me’ time. What do I do during me time? I shop.

First I head up to the Union Square Greenmarket. I always browse through at least once before buying three cinnamon sugar apple cider donuts (they’re small) and inhaling them. I then people watch a bit, chat with some farmers and buy whatever I think I need for the week.

After finishing my Greenmarket shopping I tend to have a backpack full of food. I then walk West to 6th avenue and make my way downtown. At about 9th street I find myself by Citarella. Even if I don’t really need anything I always pop in to see if they are selling their fresh squeezed blood orange juice. I think its quickly becoming an addiction.

I then quietly meander down 6th avenue until I get to Bleecker Street. It is here that I am able to satisfy every other culinary need I might have. If I’m feeling hungry I’ll step into Bleecker Street pizza for a Nonna Maria slice, crispy and soft with real mozzarella, basil and sweet and tangy tomato chunks, it’s one of my favorite slices in New York.

I then make my way to Ottomanelli’s meat Market and talk myself into buying much more meat than I could ever use. If you are looking for a good place to buy meat, Ottomanelli’s is it. They’re meat is top notch and it can be up to 40% cheaper than Whole Foods or Citarella or any other gourmet food store. The guys also know meat, (you can tell by looking at them) love football (another quality you want to have in your butcher) and grind your meat on the spot. They even sell mini lobes of foie gras!

Once you have your meat its time to venture into another store where you can find delicious food that can make you slightly fatter—Murray’s Cheese. I love randomly tasting and trying new cheeses and I also really enjoy browsing their other offerings, even if they are overpriced. My current cheese of the moment is Fromage D’Affinois. It’s kind of like Brie but with more structure, more flavor and a silkier texture and it’s great with Champagne (hint for Valentines Day.)

Finally, I make my way over to Amy’s bread for some Brioche. I always enjoy having a nice loaf of Brioche around. Whether I’m toasting it for pate or using it for eggs in a hole or wandering into the kitchen to nibble compulsively, it’s always a nice treat to have around.

Yes I know, buying things requires social interaction and not being truly alone…But Saturdays do provide me some time to my thoughts and let me be with one of my favorite things in the world—food.

There you have it. Now go get some shopping done.

I hate being sick...

2008-02-05T11:21:00.000-05:00

So it turns out that whenever a New York wins a championship I get horribly ill. In 2000 when the Yankees won the World Series I badly wanted to go to the parade but I came down with a case of appendicitis and missed a week of school.

This year, after seasons of watching the Giants struggle with inconsistency, I was excited for the possibility of a New York Giants Super Bowl celebration. However…After scarfing down a ton of delicious food this weekend including a super bowl bo ssam and lots of wings, I fell horribly ill during the third quarter of the Giants game.

It was that point that although I felt terrible (without going into too much detail I pulled a muscle in my neck while hunched over the toilet) I had a sense the Giants might actually win. In the end my team came through with a 17-14 victory and again I couldn’t celebrate.

Since the game I’ve been on a steady diet of toast and ginger ale. Although today I’ve actually been able to move on to another one of life’s great joys—Kozy Shack Rice Pudding. It’s seriously good. You should get some.

To the Super Bowl Champs and to my Health…Maybe if I become chronically ill the Knicks can turn their season around.

How to Eat on Superbowl Sunday

2008-02-01T09:00:00.000-05:00

The Super Bowl is this weekend and I’m psyched! I get to spend a four hour block of time rooting for my favorite football to beat my least favorite football team (and hopefully make some townies cry in the process) and hopefully win the greatest trophy in team sports. Because this Superbowl has such large implications on my well being and sanity as a sports fan (ask my friends how I acted after the Giants lost the Superbowl in 2000) I decided not to cook or put any effort into food preparation. Instead I’m going to order pork shoulder from my favorite shrine of pig eating—Momofuku Ssam Bar. For what amounts to about 45 dollar a person (including delivery and tip) we are being treated to the following:

Bo Ssam (rice, bibb lettuce, kimchi, oysters, assorted condiments)
Kewpie cole slaw
Smoked Chicken Wings
Seasonal Pickles Cracker Jacks

Muddy Buddy Chex Mix

Pine nut/Macadamia nut brittle

In addition, if my stomach is feeling particularly ambitious this Sunday I’ll even pick up a bucket of wings from my favorite Korean fried chicken place, Bon Bon chicken.

Osi Umenyiora is a football god. It is also the
name of a consistently strong fantasy football team.

I can’t think of anything better than watching the Giants win a Superbowl and eating Bo Ssam in the same night. Now it’s up to the Giants to keep up their part of the bargain.

Restaurant Review: Blue Hill

2008-01-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

For the past year or so a couple of friends and I have been getting together for quarterly blowout dinners. Whenever my friend Josh is in from London, we get together with my friend Lee and attempt to find a really nice restaurant that we haven’t yet been to (between the three of us, these places are getting harder and harder to find) and we try to sample as much of the restaurant’s food as we can. Because this is an infrequent and celebratory venture, cost isn’t nearly as important as it would normally be and we are able to really let loose (in a civilized adult sort of way)and have a good time.

Our most recent destination restaurant was Blue Hill, Dan Barber’s haute farm-to-table restaurant that has been a trend setter in the greenmarket movement that is currently overtaking the New York Culinary scene and a recent recipient of three stars from the New York Times. Along with restaurants such as Gramercy Tavern, Telepan, Craft, Cookshop and Tasting Room, Blue Hill is one of the spots to go if you prize fresh ingredients prepared in an expert way. The restaurant is actually able to source a large share of its ingredients from The Rockefeller Farms in upstate New York. Despite the fact that Blue Hill has been around since 2000, it is a restaurant that the three of us hadn’t been to and one we were all eagerly anticipating.

The restaurant asserts itself as a champion of seasonal ingredients with it’s amuse bouche, a skewer piercing two perfect little pieces of…you guessed it—cauliflower. I was a little put off by a piece of cauliflower as an amuse but I suppose if the kitchen really wanted to drive home the simple ingredient aspect, caulilflower with a little lemon was certainly the way to do it. Despite having second thoughts about choice at this point we drank some wine and forged ahead.

Appetizers started with sweet shreds of Maine crabmeat atop thin slices of green apple, fennel, and earthy panther soybeans soaking in a sweet and tangy apple mustard broth, a light and refreshing start to a meal. We then split an enormously satisfying sweet potato tortelloni which was hearty, meaty and resonant of the winter season.

While good, none of the previous two appetizers lived up to what I thought was the best dish of the night, and what appears to be a constant on the Blue Hill menu—a 45 minute slow poached egg with pan roasted oyster mushrooms swimming in an herb broth. Upon piercing with the fork, the egg melted into the broth creating a rich, creamy and delightfully green tasting coating to the earthy oyster mushrooms. I liked the egg infused broth so much I even broke my self imposed ban on bread (so as not to fill up) to soak up every last bit.

Our entrées proved to be satisfying as well and just as much of a testament to local producers and seasonal ingredients as the appetizers. We sampled some Hudson Valley Venison, Stone Barns pork loin and belly and Veal grown by none other than the man they call Rabbi Bob. When we asked if he was an actual rabbi, our waitress who was incredibly knowledgeable and immensely helpful in every way, told us that he was rabbiesque in appearance and was great with veal.

I found the venison, cooked sous vide and accompanied by a stew of carrots to be incredibly competent and tender, but not quite as good as the venison (prepared much the same way) at Gramercy Tavern. My veal, expertly raised by Rabbi Bob was incredibly tender and well complemented and contrasted by the creamy texture and toothy texture of the cracked wheat resting underneath. The rack of pork was flavorful but not nearly as satisfying as the belly that accompanied it. Our best single bite of the night included a forkful of the meltingly fatty belly with red cabbage simmered in red and port wine- a perfect combination of savory, sweet, tart, soft, and crunchy.

The two desserts we tried were slightly uneven, brought down by the cheesecake in a jar (not on the regular menu but on the tasting menu) lacking texture. While the chocolate bread pudding with vanilla ice cream was simple and delicious, it was a perfect ending to a meal that was centered around carefully chosen ingredients, and simple yet elegant preparation.

For all the hype about the nuances of the food I would expect the dining room to be rather hushed and peaceful but I found that on a cold Friday night the exact opposite was true. The bar which is situated in the front third of the restaurant was packed and the energy in the room was palpable making the dining experience a lot more like a night out than I would have originally imagined.

Overall, the service food and general feel of the restaurant were all outstanding, and for the value, five appetizers three entrees, two desserts, one cheese plate, two cockatils, two bottles of wine and three glasses if dessert wine for less than a tasting menu meal at numerous other high end restaurants) I even found the value to be really strong. I can’t wait to go back in the spring or summer to see what Dan Barber can cook up with a bounty of new ingredients.

Who Wants a Nice Home Cooked Meal on a Sunday Night?

2008-01-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

Apprently no one...

So after a long weekend of cooking I decided to try to have some friends over for dinner last night. I was all primed to have six or seven people over and try out some Asian inspired dishes and drink some really old Riesling. However…everyone bailed with some even bailing at the last minute. What’s up with that? Instead of cooking for eight I ended up cooking for three.

The first course was one of my favorite pasta dishes—Orechiette with veal beef and pork simmered in onions, ginger, garlic, jalapenos, and soy sauce. I then made a fish dish that I used to make but hadn’t really worked on in a while. I feel like it has finally involved into a keeper. To all of you who skipped my dinner last night, here’s what you missed (Vindictive tone of voice…)

Here we have striped bass marinated in sake, soy sauce and sesame oil then crusted with black sesame and szichuan peppercorns. Its served over honey roasted mangos and sriracha. I thought the textures and flavors of the dish were really nice. If I had to re-do it I’d probably give it a little less heat and a little more mango.

Both dishes went well with our two Rieslings, a Schmitt-Wagner Spatlese from 1992 and an ’05 Kartauserhofsberg Spatlese. It was kind of fun tasting an old and a young Riesling next to each other and comparing. I found both to be nice but I really like the subtle mellow qualities in old Riesling that are a little too pronounced in the young ones.

Overall, it was a nice dinner and I definitely have a couple of new keeper dishes. Hopefully people wont ditch me next time, my feelings are kind of hurt…

Wine Dinner

2008-01-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

My interest in wine has been constantly growing over the last year or so. At first I was completely clueless. I knew a couple of wines that I liked but other than that I was completely in the dark. Then, as my interest and knowledge of food began to grow, so did my understanding of wine. I started to better understand regions and vintages, and even a little of the winemaking process. All of this new found knowledge was incredibly helpful when it came to ordering a bottle in a restaurant or pairing drinks with my own food. However, until recently, I never really had much to do with wine unless food was involved as well (except for my summer excursion to Napa and Sonoma, but that was vacation.)

This past Sunday was the first time I ever cooked something to pair with wine and not the other way around. A friend of mine who works in a wine shop recently decided to purchase a bottle of 1998 Chateau Margaux Margaux (Cost=Much more than I can afford.) and asked me if I could make an appropriate dish to eat with it. I was truly honored and decided to make a dinner of it by bringing one of the harder to find bottles from my cellar, (the closest in my room) a 1981 Kartauserhofsberg Riesling.

I wanted to pick a somewhat elegant red meat to go with the Margaux and also find a suitably luxurious appetizer to come before the Margaux and pair with Riesling.

I thought foie gras was a logical choice as an appetizer and a great pairing with an acidic , barely sweet (Riesling loses a lot of its sweetness as it ages) wine. While lamb chops would be a logical choice for the Margaux.

The end results ended up being seared foie gras over brioche with grapes, hazelnuts and Bartlett pears and lamb chops and lamb meatballs over Israeli couscous with swiss chard, pine nuts, dried cherries, crispy mint and a cherry port wine sauce. (I actually meant to buy rib chops because they look nicer but was given shoulder chops. Either way, the taste was good.)

We also ended up having a delicious dessert blend made in the
port style from California to go with chocolates from around the world and some Non Vintage Perrier Jouet Champagne to go with some cheeses.

In the end both of the main wines we had were delicious and worked really well with the food. The Riesling was a nice foil to the rich foie gras but also complimented the grape and pear flavors. It was also light and a relatively low alcohol content so as not to spoil us for the next bottle. I thought the Margaux was really high quality wine, very full and with nice structure that gave the wine a powerful mouth feel while lacking the harshness of strong tannins. (That’s the best I can do.)

Was it worth the price? Not at my income level. But I do know that creating a meal around a bottle of wine certainly makes it memorable and I was more than happy to have my first delicious sip of a Chateau Margaux.

DONUTS!

2008-01-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

I was talking to a friend the other day when he asked me if I had ever been to a little place called The Donut Pub. When I said that I had never even heard of it he looked at me incredulously, tilted his head back and threw his hands in the air “Come on! I can’t believe you’ve never been to the Donut Pub.” The little donut lover in me was also perplexed and upset by the fact that there was a supposedly great Donut place in New York City that had escaped me all these years. I made it my personal mission to buy some donuts as soon as possible.

This past Saturday I found myself standing on the corner of 14th and 7th searching eagerly for this ‘Donut Pub.’ Finally I found the unassuming little place and hurried inside. The interior is sort of a coffee shop/donut store hybrid with a whole wall of donuts and some counter seating if you feel like you can’t wait to eat.

My plan was to buy six different kinds of donuts and bring them to a friend’s house so that we might have our own little donut tasting. For this event I purchased a glazed donut a sugar donut, an original plain, a French cruller, a jelly filled donut and a chocolate frosted.

A couple of hours later disaster struck. I felt a slight twinge of hunger and decided it would be ok to tear into my bag of donuts. I started with the sugar donut. It was incredibly light and sweet but not overly so. I finished it, licked my lips and decided it would be ok to try another. I then ate the glazed donut which was also incredibly light and delicious. Both donuts blow Dunkin’s completely out of the water. They actually have the best qualities of Dunkin and Krispy Kreme without any of the faults. The donuts are incredibly light (like Krispy Kreme) without being overly sweet or rich and they have actually donut structure (like Dunkin, with Krispy Kreme being more like fried sugar) without being filling or too starchy.

After my tongue had been awakened to the joys of Donut Pub donuts, there was no going back. I ate half of the chocolate frosted, jelly, cruller, and original donuts for ‘research’ purposes and my little donut tasting idea completely fell apart. I love donuts.

Food I like

2008-01-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

This winter season I find myself turning more and more to filling comfortable food. One of my recent go-to snacks is something that I used to have a lot between the ages of twelve to sixteen and then completely forgot about: Eggs in a hole.

I can't think of a breakfast more satisfying than a well cooked egg in the middle of a golden, buttery piece of brioche, the yolk running when you cut into it. I made myself one of these for breakfast yesterday morning adding truffle butter instead of regular butter and it was fantastic. Now I need to figure out a way to add on to this so I can serve it at a dinner party.

Gramercy Tavern

2008-01-10T08:12:00.001-05:00

I love family birthdays. My dad is having a birthday next week, which means that I am able to talk my parents into coming to a restaurant of my choice that I normally wouldn’t be able to/want to pay to go to. My choice for Dad’s birthday was a restaurant that has been around since 1994 that I know is good yet have never been able to eat at: Gramercy Tavern.

Up until this point I had actually been to every one of Danny Meyer’s restaurants except for Gramercy Tavern. Given the hype generated by the food of new Chef Michael Anthony, and the general comfort I associate with Danny Meyer restaurants, I thought dinner at Gramercy Tavern would be a logical choice for a birthday celebration.

Despite much anticipation (which in my case usually leads to a letdown when dining out) the restaurant lived up to my expectations. Although pricey, I found that the food came as advertised—refined and perfectly executed while being rustic and fiercely seasonal at the same time. Chef Anthony comes from Blue Hill and the Dan Barber way of thinking where if something isn’t growing, it.s not on the menu. With this mantra, winter menus might seem sort of dull, but I found chef Anthony’s menu extremely satisfying. My smoked trout appetizer was warm and tender, full flavored and smoky and had just enough of a kick provided by a pickled red onion vinaigrette to bring all the flavors together, It was about as good as smoked fish can get. My mom’s Pappardelle with beef ragu and scallions was juicy and satisfying with the scallions again keeping the appetizer from being too heavy.

For the entrees, I really enjoyed my venison cooked sous vide served in a bowl over cannelloni beans, garlic spiked venison kielbasa, sunchokes and swiss chard. The venison was melt in your mouth tender and was accented by the awesomely flavorful house made kielbasa. Mom had a perfectly cooked striped bass and dad have the smoked lobster over pasta with a saffron broth which I enjoyed but thought could have been a bit less chewy. In addition to the beautifully presented dishes, I really enjoyed the fact that several of them were served in bowls with broths or sauces that ensured no loss of flavor and provided a nice spot for dipping a crusty piece of bread.

How does Gramercy Tavern stack up to other Danny Meyer restaurants? Without having died in the main dining room at The Modern (I’ve been to the bar room several times) I would say that the quality of the food is above that of Tabla and Union Square Café and most equivalent in quality to Eleven Madison Park. However, while Daniel Humm’s food at Eleven MP might be readily described as flashy or daring, chef Anthony’s food is much more comforting. Its grounded in good flavors and good ingredients prepared exquisitely well. I’m not sure if one is better but they’re definitely different. The grandiose décor large windows and high ceilings of Eleven Madison Park scream once in a lifetime experience while the wood beam ceilings, wood paneled floors and freshly cut flowers make Gramercy Tavern feel like a comfortable place to escape to. If I was trying to impress someone I would take them to Eleven Madison Park while Gramercy Tavern is the kind of place I’d take someone who I’ve already impressed several times and want to keep satisfied.

I’m actually intrigued to see how Gramercy Tavern stacks up to Blue Hill, Chef Anthony’s former restaurant and the place where I will be eating Friday night. Both restaurants, along with Telepan uptown, appear to be leading the way in the farm to plate movement and are serving the best seasonal produce dished up by some of New York’s top chefs. I’m interested to see how they all compare.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

My two week vacation comes to an end today and I return to work. It has been a great break for eating with two visits to Momofuku, a dinner at Boqueria, tapas at Bar Jamon, home meals with pierogis, rack of lamb, porterhouse, and foie gras (not all in the same meal) a wine tasting and a 6 course dinner that I cooked for my parents. I guess what I’m trying to say is—I’ve been eating really well.

The nice thing about eating as a hobby is that even though my free time is now severely reduced, I still get to eat. In fact I have to eat. This week I have trips planned for Gramercy Tavern on Wednesday for my dad’s birthday and Blue Hill on Friday with a couple of friends (our quarterly blowout dinner.) There are also other January visits to Bar Room at The Modern, BLT Burger and Blue Ribbon. As always, I’ll keep you all updated. Welcome back and Happy eating in 2008!

Dining Brief: Bar Jamon

2008-01-03T11:33:00.000-05:00

Last night I decided to pay an impromptu visit to Bar Jamon, the smaller tapas bar /drinking bar hybrid right next to Casa Mono. This little place on 17th and Irving is a nice low key spot for meeting for a nice glass of Spanish wine or sherry (including several 250 ml cuarto selections) and a couple of small bites. The wine list is impressive and although the food selection is fairly limited, Bar Jamon doesn’t pretend to be a restaurant that will serve you a huge meal.

Instead, indulge in one of the 12 Spanish cheeses they offer with accompaniments from honey coated Marcona Almonds to Membrillo, to fennel or tomato. Then enjoy some thinly sliced Serrano ham, better and less salty than at most other Spanish restaurants. The pan con tomate, a deliciously garlicky warm piece of bread rubbed with tomato is also supremely satisfying. What’s even better is that if you like the Serrano ham and the pan con tomate, you can combine them into a sandwich. The Bocadillo de Bar Jamon combines the two and mixes in some manchego cheese for what might be a perfectly sized and incredibly delicious bar snack. The tapas selection also includes chorizo and pickled peppers, quail, duck liver, tuna and even a soft egg with somewhat rare and seasonal cardoons—everything is $12 and under.

Although the place is tiny and you will most likely be standing the room is comfortable and I never felt crowded. The next time you have a hunger for some Spanish nibbles and a glass of Rioja and don’t want to break the bank, head over to Bar Jamon. Your wallet and your belly with thank you.

And I'm Back...

2007-12-26T11:23:00.000-05:00

Now that I have some free time I can finally start posting again...

Thanks to the few people who sent me contest entries. The winner is this one here (you know who you are.) And you have officially won an early dinner at BLT Burger followed by a night out celebrating and a late dinner at Blue Ribbon. Here is the winning entry:

It's hard for me to pin down the exact moment I discovered that I liked to eat, but it's widely assumed to be the first time I had a slice of Papa Gino's pizza. Why? I really don't know. These things start often as rumors:

"Did you hear about so-and-so?"

"No, what happened? Is he okay?"

"He's fine, but he tried Papa Gino's for the first time last night."

"You don't mean..."

"Yup. He likes food now."

And it became fact that I liked to eat and that Papa Gino's was the culprit. But really, it wasn't. No, I learned to fully appreciate food many years later when I did something else for the first time:

"Did you hear about so-and-so?"

"No, what happened? Is he okay?"

"He's fine, but he tried _____ for the first time last night."

"You don't mean..."

"Yup. He likes food now."

And there it was. I became a fan of, as the French (French will be a theme) would say, des affaires gastronomiques.

As far as the strangest thing I have eaten goes permit me to ignore the many interesting combinations that I've tried in the past. Carrots and ketchup were a favorite of mine for a period of years (delicious, but my palate is more sophisticated now) and there was the one afternoon where I drank a cup that was half whiskey and half beer (not so good). I'd save the distinction of strangest definitely for something I've eaten on a trip to India. And that varies from Tang powder to indiscernible fish parts to indiscernible animal parts.

If pressed, I'd have to go with pickled chicken and/or mutton liver: pieces of liver seasoned in a mango and spice based pickling sauce. And it was disgusting. Why did I eat it? Pride. My sister flat out refused and, to tell you the truth, I wish I had her courage. I wanted, nay, craved the respect of my family. I wanted to prove to them that I wasn't just another soft American whose fragile stomach couldn't hack true Indian cuisine. But I was wrong. And I got very, very ill.

Dining Contest

2007-12-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

So although I haven’t received too many e-mails about the dinner contest, I have received numerous personal inquiries. Because of this I thought I’d make a new post (on a Saturday when people really have nothing better to do than write to me) to clarify the dining contest guidelines.

It’s simple, here is all you have to do:

Write me an e-mail: Arun22183@gmail.com

In the e-mail describe why you like eating (eating as a simple form of sustenance doesn’t count)

Also describe the strangest thing you have eaten. Where were you at the time? Why did you decide to put such a strange thing in your mouth?

Finally talk about one or two restaurants you would really like to go to and give an impassioned plea as to why I should take you there.

The winner(s?) will have a free meal at the restaurant they choose at the end of January.

It’s that simple. If you can’t think of a restaurant here’s what I suggest you do.

Figure out which type of cuisine is your favorite.
Browse through Zagat, Michelin, NYmag, NY Times etc. to find the best restaurants in that category. Research one and write me about it.

If you still can’t think of a restaurant, try to compel me to come over to your hosue and cook you a 5-6 course meal with wine. If you give a good enough reason I’d be up for that too.

Happy Saturday

Scoops du Jour: Fiamma

2007-12-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

This week Adam Miller reviews Fiamma, a BR Guest restaurant that has recently hired new chef Fabio Trabocchi and has generated much buzz in the food world. Although I haven't had a chance to pay a visit yet, Fiamma certainly ranks near the top of my list.

Italian, French, Who cares? A Cornerstone Is Added To SoHo

by Adam Miller

I recently moved to SoHo, a foreign land for most people who grew up in Manhattan. Many people are well versed in the numbered grid system where the private schools, most notably on the Upper West Side and Upper East Side. One of the main reasons I moved downtown (from my previous apartment on East 63rd Street) was the growing number of great restaurants. Luckily for me, one of the best new Italian restaurants in the City resides 2 blocks from my new apartment.

Fiamma is located in a beautiful brownstone on Spring Street, just west of Sixth Avenue. It occupies three floors and was recently remodeled to reflect its new direction. This direction is headed by the brilliant Fabio Trabocchi, who most recently presided over Maestro, the restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton outside Washington, D.C. Accompanying him at the “new” Fiammar (formerly known as Fiamma Osteria) is the sommelier, Ania Zawieja, who previously worked at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in the Four Season Hotel in New York.

Having read incredible reviews about Trabocchi and his restaurant in the Ritz, I put Fiamma at the top of my list. I went to the restaurant with my family, expecting a delicious, laid back meal – something comparable to our experiences at L’Impero or Alto (where the prior chef from Fiamma, Michael White, now works). Instead, we sat down to a 3 course prix fixe at $75 (not including dessert).

What ensued was a meal overflowing with mind-numbing taste. To start, I had what is simply known as “Il Carpaccio.” It is wagyu kobe beef served two ways: first, the raw kobe beef is wrapped around a root vegetable and topped with a poached quail egg; second, the kobe beef is chopped into a tartare and served with chopped mushrooms and sprinkled with parmesan. It may not be Italian; it could be French. Either way, none of us cared. Each bite exploded with flavor as my eyes began to bulge. No one in my family was prepared for such a delicious meal.

Following the appetizer was the pasta dish. I had an agnolotti of spiced lamb which was bundled with Moroccan spices and a clear Mediterranean influence. The moist lamb was well complemented by the kick from the spices and the perfectly cooked pasta. Other diners had the ravioli of duck and foie gras, which were nearly perfect.

At this point, many people would expect the quality to come down. More often than not, I have found that entrees are boring and do not live up to the excitement, flavor, or quality of the appetizers. However, Trabocchi did not disappoint. The veal, lamb, and turbot all impressed and stood on their own merit. By the time dessert came, I had fully gorged myself and could only stomach some sorbet, although it was perfectly icy and filled with fruit.

It is understandably difficult to spend so much money on Italian food, especially when there is a plethora of good Italian restaurants in New York. However, this stands above the rest, on the pedestal with Babbo, L’Impero, and Alto. The service is top-notch; the décor is very nice, but not stuffy and certainly not overly trendy (like the previous Fiamma). What am I trying to say? I like my neighborhood even more now.

Dining Brief: WD-50

2007-12-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

I recently had the pleasure of experiencing a meal at WD-50. I use the word experience because at Wylie Dufresne’s Lower East Side restaurant, ‘experiencing’ your food is just as much a part of the dining experience as eating it.

Carrot coconut 'sunny side up.' I believe this dish epitomizes the experience at WD-50. It looks like a beautiful fried egg and even feels and acts like a fried egg yet it tastes like something completely different. Lots of fun.

This was my second visit to Wd-50 but my first time ordering A La Carte. The first visit was about a year ago when my friend Josh and I splurged and each ordered a tasting menu with wine pairings. We enjoyed the meal so much we even ordered extra desserts. Although not every dish on the tasting menu was a complete hit, I think we both agreed that the dining experience was one of the most interesting and fun that we’ve ever had.

On this recent visit we ordered A La Carte and bought five appetizers for the four of us. Since we all shared to an extent, I was able to sample almost as many dishes as the tasting menu, but I came away from the experience a little disappointed. It wasn’t that the food was bad, I really enjoyed most of the things I ate, it’s just that unlike the tasting menu, there was nothing that really made me say “wow.” The a la carte choices didn’t dip as low as some of the things that we had on the tasting menu, but they didn’t fly as high either.

I was trying to figure out why this might be and I decided that restaurant economics dictate that a regular menu be much safer. If someone like me goes into a restaurant like WD-50 and orders a tasting menu, it’s ok if three of the very innovative dishes aren’t that good. I’ll still eave happy if the other seven blow me away. However, if someone is only having an appetizer and an entrée and one fails, there is a good chance that diner isn’t coming back. The regular menu has to have safer choices to cater to a les adventurous, possibly skeptical crowd.

I still think WD-50 is an incredible restaurant and one that I would highly recommend to anyone that loves to eat but also likes to be challenged and think about their food. However, I think the true genius behind WD-50 really only comes out when Chef

Dufresne gets to play around as he often does on the tasting menu. It serves as a platform for him to offer you some of his most fun dishes and new creations. They might not all be great but when I taste a dish that hits, it brings an involuntary smile to my face, something that doesn’t happen often at restaurants.

In conclusion, if you go to WD-50 looking to really think about your food and to eat something delicious, you need to go all the way. If you dip your foot in the pond and try the regular menu you’ll probably be disappointed. Jump in for the full experience however, and you will leave happy.

Dining Brief: Spotted Pig

2007-12-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

The weather has been getting colder and colder and I have been getting busier and busier. This confluence of trends has led me to become more and more lazy when it comes to doing fun things that 24 year olds do. I don’t relive my college days anymore and I get angry when I feel obligated to go out partying on weekends. My general fatigue and lack of desire to go outside has me seeking comfort via food more often than normal. I suppose that’s what the winter months are really about though.

This past Saturday, after teaching 5 hours of chess I decided that I wanted to get a good nights sleep so I met up with a friend tog et a good dinner at one of the restaurants on my ‘to go’ list. We chose the Spotted Pig. Since we had nothing better to do on Saturday night, the wait wasn’t too much of an obstacle and I had heard very god things about the food. In fact, the pricing and the layout of the menu (mostly bar food intended for sharing) seemed to be right up my alley.

All I have to say is that I was very disappointed. There was nothing wrong with out meal, but from a place that gets so much hype from Beard Nominations to Michelin Stars, to the general notion that the food is awesome, I just wasn’t feeling it.

The bar has a warm atmosphere and a cool, laid back vibe that seems to draw yuppie chic late 20’s to mid 30’s types, something I decidedly am not. That being said, the spotted Pig still feels like a very comfortable place, there was a palatable warmth on what was a very cold night that made the hour wait for our tale feel very comfortable.

After we were seated, we were probably in and out of the restaurant in about an hour. Our several bar snacks, appetizer and two smaller mains seemed to come out in fairly rapid succession, discouraging lingerers, but hardly leaving enough time to truly savor the food. Out of the bar snacks, the pickles herring (roll mops)were ok but a little too vinegary and not better than those you might find at a Jewish deli. The Devils on Horseback (bacon wrapped prunes), an proven recipe that is actually really difficult to screw up, were fairly tasty but not extraordinary, and our chicken liver toasts were creamy, savory and all around delicious. The ricotta gnudi that I had read so much about were light and airy as advertised, but otherwise weren’t that memorable. They were ok, but I don’t understand what all the fuss is about.

The same needs to be said about the cheeseburger. I have heard numerous rave reviews about the Spotted Pig cheeseburger with some even claiming that it was the best in the city. These reviews are flat out wrong. I really enjoy cheeseburgers but I felt that this one was completely overwhelmed by bleu cheese. The burger was perfectly cooked but with the strong cheese flavors swarming all over my taste buds I couldn’t taste a thing. Why go through the effort of cooking a burger so perfectly if you’re not going to let anyone taste it? The burger and the chewy somewhat unappealing calf’s liver entrée seemed to complement each other in that they both had their good points but didn’t really have enough going on to make them enjoyable dishes.

I rarely dislike a restaurant that I have researched and chose to go to, but the Spotted Pig wasn’t for me. Is it a nice place to grab a drink? Yes. Is it a fun place to go if you want to be seen and feel ‘in’? Sure. Would I ever go and wait an hour to eat the food there? Never again.

Sunday Cooking Project (I apologize for the strange camera settings)

2007-12-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

Ever since eating at Telepan a couple of Saturdays ago I’ve been thinking of their smoked trout and celery root blini dish and of ways to make it my own. My Sunday project was celery root blinis, milk poached scallops, and fried leek filaments. Although my camera was on a weird setting, the final result can be pictured here:

Milk Poached Scallops, fried leek filaments, celery root blinis

Overall the dish was ok, but it was definitely missing something. I think the poached scallops probably lacked a depth of flavor of the smoked trout I had at Telepan. I did think however, that the fried leek filaments were a nice addition (they were like some delicious shoestring fry and onion ring hybrid) and the celery root blini was spot on. I really have to thank Bill Telepan for introducing me to this newfound love of the blini. Since I made the batter on Sunday, I’ve eaten at least eight of these savory little pancakes and even had more blinis, with pickled herring and green apple sour cream for dinner last night.

My other Sunday cooking project was a venison dish. I don’t know why I was thinking of venison but it definitely had something to do with the cold weather and the fast approaching Christmas holiday. My goal with the venison was to create a dish that tasted like descriptions of the smell of red wine. First I browned the venison and then I braised it in red wine with a mirepoix, red berries, roasted cocoa nibs, sage and rosemary. After the braising was finished I served the finished meat with a sauce of sautéed cranberries, cherries and cocoa nibs as well as crispy fried potatoes and roasted Brussels sprout. I thought the red and green might be reminiscent of Christmas! The flavors worked really well together and now I’m thinking of ways to improve on both of my Sunday projects.

Braised Venison with a cherry, cranberry cocoa nib sauce, crispy potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts

Dinner Contest

2007-12-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

Ok,

I am re-posting the dinner contest post that I put up last Monday. I definitely have not had enough responses yet and I can’t figure out why. All you people need to do is write me an e-mail about the restaurants you most wish to visit and I will take you there. Stop being lazy and write me something.

Here is last Monday’s post:

I’ve had this blog for almost a year now and have recently been thinking of a way to celebrate the one year anniversary of its birth. At first I thought of hosting a dinner, but that seemed like too much work. I love cooking but I wanted this to be a celebration that would require little to no effort on my part. So, I thought I’d do something fun and have a contest.

I am looking for someone to write me a fantastic e-mail about food or a food experience and list at least two restaurants that they would really like to go to and why (compelling reasons people). I will take the author of the most interesting, passionate and funny (I’d like to laugh at least twice) e-mail out to dinner at one of the restaurants you chose. While I’d like to say cost is not an issue, it does matter a little. However, that should not restrict which restaurants you choose to write about, as you all know, I’m a sucker for good food.

So…. write me an e-mail, tell me how fantastic I am, write about some restaurants, and perhaps you will have the chance to have a wonderful night of eating on me. I might even choose two people if the restaurant we pick warrants it.

Please note that the date of the dinner will be either Friday January 25th or Saturday January 26th and the contest will end one month earlier on Christmas day. I’ll post a contest reminder at least once a week.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Momofuku Ssam Status Update

2007-11-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

I go to Momofuku Ssam bar all the time so I tend not to write about it. However, some recent changes in the place have prompted me to put together this brief Momofuku update. Don't worry, nothing bad has happened and Momofuku still remains my favorite place to eat in all of New York, but I thought it would be dutiful to report some actual news for a change.

Ssam Bar now has a tasting menu. Although I appreciate the idea, I went and compared the tasting menu items and looked at how much they would cost on the regular menu (assuming two people ordered every item and split them) and found out that ordering a la carte would be about two thirds the price. Since the tasting menu only really offers one or two off the menu items (for which we made educated guesses about the price to make the math work) its not really worth ordering. I am confident however, that the ever creative Momofuku people will find a way to make the tasting menu worthwhile

The other big new is that they’ve hired a pastry chef! They’ve eschewed the Mocchi Ice Cream Sampler and started creating their own in house desserts. I’ve tried the cheddar shortcake with ham cream and really enjoyed it. Don’t worry, ham cream isn’t as completely far fetched as it sounds. I also tried the PB & J which is comprised of concord grape jelly, a sort of peanut butter cookie, saltine ice cream and crushed saltines. It was fantastic and instantly brought a smile to my face—I love it when food can do that.

I’m also starting to think that the Banh Mi might be my favorite menu item. I love the pork buns but perhaps I’ve been eating too many. Every time I order the banh mi it really hits the spot with the perfect elements of spice, freshness (the cilantro) crunch, creaminess and savoryness. It might be the perfect sandwich.

Finally…if you go to Momofuku and are thinking of ordering the chicken Ballotine...Don’t! It’s probably the only thing I’ve had there that I have actively disliked. Instead, do yourself a favor and muster up enough courage to order the pigs head torchon. Its face meat rolled up, poached, coated in bread crumbs and then deep fried (it doesn’t look like a head but more like a little disk.) It is crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside and tastes like some sort of ethereal little corn dog. Definitely a must have if you go to Ssam bar and fancy yourself an open minded eater.

Dining Brief: Telepan

2007-11-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while I take a peek at the menu of a restaurant I will be visiting and I feel comforted. I know the food will be good. However, sometimes the flashy descriptions on the menu overstate the food and I end up being disappointed. The halibut accompanied by six different obscure and precious ingredients might be dry and not that flavorful.

The menu at Telepan is very comforting to me, and after my first visit the food pulled through as well. Executive chef Bill Telepan is one of a number of chefs whose menu reflects the seasons. He is an avid greenmarketeer and even has a cookbook Inspired by Ingredients, that can help the home chef along with cooking as determined by the market’s produce. The menu wasn’t comforting to me because of fancy descriptions or tales of Wagyu and Kobe beef. There were simply a lot of things that I liked to eat. It’s filled with eggs, potatoes, pork, pierogis and blinis and even (gasp) foie gras donuts! What was even more comforting however, was that as someone who frequents the Greenmarkets, all the ingredients were recognizable and accessible.
Although I only had brunch at Telepan, the food definitely warrants a dinner

trip in the near future. The smoked brook trout on celery root blini with green apple sour cream was too good not to taste again at some point. And everything I ate involving eggs, from the coddled eggs with scrapple (yes scrapple and its delicious) to the biscuits and gravy, a combination that reminds me of some sort of heavenly breakfast sandwich, everything I tasted was a winner. The four course $64 dollar prix fixe dinner even seems like a bargain. Even though the food does look very nice on the plate, it’s really the distinct and vibrant flavors on each plate that make the restaurant so much fun. You really get to taste your food. So, if you find yourself on the upper west side, a neighborhood relatively devoid of good restaurants, you should give Telepan a try, I promise you’ll like it.

Smoked trout, celery root blini, green apple sour cream

A Contest

2007-11-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

I’ve had this blog for almost a year now and have recently been thinking of a way to celebrate the one year anniversary of its birth. At first I thought of hosting a dinner, but that seemed like too much work. I love cooking but I wanted this to be a celebration that would require little to no effort on my part. So, I thought I’d do something fun and have a contest.

I am looking for someone to write me a fantastic e-mail about food or a food experience and list at least two restaurants that they would really like to go to and why (compelling reasons people). I will take the author of the most interesting, passionate and funny (I’d like to laugh at least twice) e-mail out to dinner at one of the restaurants you chose. While I’d like to say cost is not an issue, it does matter a little. However, that should not restrict which restaurants you choose to write about, as you all know, I’m a sucker for good food. Again, please make your e-mail entertaining as I hope to post the winning entry on the site.

So…. write me an e-mail, tell me how fantastic I am, write about some restaurants, and perhaps you will have the chance to have a wonderful night of eating on me. I might even choose two people if the restaurant we pick warrants it.

Please note that the date of the dinner will be either Friday January 25th or Saturday January 26th and the contest will end one month earlier on Christmas day. I’ll post a contest reminder at least once a week.

You can find my e-mail address in the 'About Me' section at the bottom of the page

Thanksgiving!

2007-11-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

I’m about to type something that, only short while ago seemed an impossibility: Baking kicked my ass last night. Completely wore me down. I was responsible for one apple crumb cake, one cranberry tart with a polenta crust(both for thanksgiving dessert, and two tartes aux fruits which I was making two be raffled off at our school bake sale. After almost burning down the house (I didn’t notice some residue on the bottom of the oven that actually caught on fire) and a long delay I finally got to work at around 9 at night. I finished three and a half hours, and a dinner consisting solely of strawberries and crème patissier later, with what I now call the fearsome foursome. My thanksgiving prep is officially underway.

I love Thanksgiving because it’s a completely non denominational, non partying holiday. New years can be exhausting and so many other holidays involve one group of people going to a place of worship. On Thanksgiving we get to take time out of our busy lives to enjoy the company of our friends and family and eat. Just because. I also enjoy the two extra televised football games.

Here’s a look at our thanksgiving menu with origins of the recipes (when applicable). I also picked out some wines that I’ll list as well.

Maple and Brown sugar crusted ham
Shrimp Cocktail
Ricotta with pugliese olive oil and fine herbs
Cheeses—Bleu D’auvergne, Cottswald Cheddar, Tomme De Savoie, Humboldt Fog

Mixed green salad, macerated strawberries, red onion, toasted almonds, goat cheese vinaigrette
Roasted Violet Hill Farms Turkey, giblet gravy
Grandma Helen’s Stuffing
Grandma Helen’s candied yams
Bourbon cranberry sauce with toasted hazelnuts
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with parmesan vinaigrette
Braised swiss chard with pine nuts and golden raisins
Honey Balsamic glazed carrots
Creamy Parnsip puree
Roasted butternut squash with pancetta and sage

Fro dessert we have:

My version of Grandma Helen’s apple crumb cake
My mom’s version of grandma Helen’s coconut custard pie
And a cranberry tart based on the recipe provided in last Wednesday’s times.

And the wines:

1990 Vintage Dom Perignon (we're celebrating something special)
1997 Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Rioja Rose
1997 Schmitt Wagner Riesling Spatlese
2005 Francois Chidaine Montlouis 'Les Tuffeaux'
2005 Paul Pernot et Fils Santenay Bieveau (It's a red Burgnudy)
2005 Turley Paso Robles Zinfandel

I also have some 99 Sauternes on reserve for dessert, assuming were all not completely splayed out on the couches by then.

Happy Thanksgiving!

3 Part Post

2007-11-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

Part 1

Dinner Party pictures are up! I don’t have them yet but if you want to see a series of pictures chronicling the entire party and don’t mind looking at good looking people eating good looking food then click here.

Part 2

I had the opportunity to eat at Hill Country tonight for a friend’s birthday. Hill country is one of the new set of restaurant serving what they claim to be authentic Texas BBQ. I use the word to claim because I don’t know that I’ve ever had authentic Texas BBQ. While the layout of Hill Country is a little confusing, the food is really pretty good. In order to obtain your meal at Hill Country you carry a tray around the restaurant cafeteria style, stopping at stations that serve meat, sides, drinks and desserts. You then get your card punched and pay as you check out. I suppose the system is based on the premise of southern hospitality, but if you manage to get a hold of an extra card it would be possible to sneak out of the restaurant without actually having to pay.

As for the food, the meat we tried was really good. The pork ribs were piggy, smoky and peppery and were not drowned in a pool of bbq sauce, that might otherwise obscure their s delicious meaty flavor. The moist (read fatty) brisket was indeed moist and mouth meltingly good and the Kreuz sausage was one of the best sausages I’ve ever had in a restaurant. The sides were a little disappointing and were not good enough to finish off once we had eaten our fill of meat. In the end, Hill Country is a great place to go if you like meat, a poor choice if you like veggies and an above average place to watch football (there’s a huge flat screen downstairs) if you find yourself craving meat and football.

Part 3

Unfortunately, I had to leave the party at Hill Country a little early. Not only is Monday night a work night, but I also had some late night cooking to do. I’ve decided to donate two tarts to be raffled off at the school bake sale this year and wanted to get a head start on the pate sucree.

As me and my friend left the party we ran into another friend just arriving (law students don’t have the same work curfew us normal people have) with two girls. The conversation went something (more or less) like this:

Unnamed friend: Hey you guys are headed home?
Me: Yeah we have work tomorrow.
Unnamed friend (a little perplexed and needing more of an explanation): Oh.
Me: Actually I have to go home and do some cooking
Girl #1: Oh, you’re the cook.
Me: I guess that’s me
Girl # 2: What are you making?
Me: I’m donating a couple of tarts to my school to be raffled off
Girl # 1: Will you marry me?
Me: Look I even have this in my pocket right now

I pull something out for the girl to look at

Girl #1: I love guys that carry those around

It was a vanilla bean. The funny thing is I have conversations like this all the time. I admit, I’m a little strange.

Dining Brief (or not so brief): Insieme

2007-11-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

I love family birthdays. Even when the person whose birthday we are celebrating isn’t me, I still love to plan a good birthday celebration. Why do I love birthdays so much? They are a wonderful excuse to go out and have a good meal. This past weekend my dad and I got together to take my mother out for her birthday (she is still young and beautiful) and had to pick a restaurant. After consulting my list, I decided that we would take my mother to Insieme in the theater district.

I picked Insieme for several reasons: cold weather makes me crave Italian food, I wanted to go to a restaurant that we hadn’t been to yet, I wanted to support the theater district dining scene that has been hit hard in recent weeks, and I had read really nice
things about the restaurant.

Without going into too much detail, I’d like to add Insieme to my list of restaurants that I would recommend to friends. The food was very good, out of the 10 + dishes I tasted, every single one was good at worst and some were really good. The pumpkin risotto was a brilliant bright orange and was creamy, light and slightly sweet with the crumbled amaretti adding a nice crunch. I also really enjoyed my delicious fritto misto which were delightfully light and extremely savory at the same time. I also thought the pasta e fagioli was impeccably prepared and delicious for what is really a simple dish.

The concept behind Insieme is a blend of modern and traditional takes on Italian cuisine. It is this approach that makes the restaurant so interesting to me. On one side of the menu there are very innovative dishes and interesting combinations and flavor profiles that are part of what make dining out so much fun—you get to eat food that you presumably wouldn’t normally be making yourself. The other half of the menu is rooted in traditional Italian food, simple, but impeccably prepared. While some might think that the restaurant has an identity crisis, I firmly disagree. This might be true if you couldn’t create a seamless dining experience by combining options from both sides of the menu, but I thought my meal had a nice flow with dishes, that despite varying levels of complexity, went very well together.

In addition to the meal, I also thought the service almost entirely spot on. Not only did we walk in the door to a warm greeting from Chef Marco Canora (it’s always nice to see the chef in the house) but our meal was well paced and we were treated to several complementary dishes. The one very noticeable lack in service was the lack of explanation when the dishes were served. Our waiters brought our plates to the tables but didn’t really explain what was on them. At times it wasn’t hard to remember all the details of the menu, but I think it’s a bit too much to expect diners to remember every detail of the lamb or guinea hen in four preparations that they had ordered more than an hour before.

In the end however, our meal at Insieme was really an excellent one. We all left full and happy and I think my mom really enjoyed her birthday.

Dead Spot

2007-11-14T23:21:00.000-05:00

Alright, so the blog has been in a lull this week. I'm actually still working on a couple of things that will be substantial, but can't be posted just yet. In addition to eating my way through a comparative feature on burger places (went back to burger joint last night,) writing up some more restaurant blurbs and coming up with a more ordered sensible list, and writing up the dinner party from last Saturday (I have to wait for my friend to send me the pictures.) I;m also taking a class on Pasta this Saturday morning that should be blogworthy.

Hopefully I'll have all of this up and finished by the end of next week. I should have the free time during the post turkey day eating hangover next week.

Dinner Recap

2007-11-12T09:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry for cutting recipe week a little short. I spent most of Wednesday night through Friday running around like a chicken with its head cut off, getting things ready for this past Saturday’s dinner party.

I think the final count was 11 courses and 34 people and everything seemed to go off pretty well. The dinner and dessert lasted from around 830 at night to about 1230 and the only real hitch in timing was the 30 minute scrambled eggs. I couldn’t get the temperature under the double boiler high enough to cook them in a timely (a half hour kind of timely) manner so we decided to fire up a couple plates of gnocchi and sweetbreads to tide people’s appetites. Overall, I had a great time playing chef for the night and I think the guests enjoyed themselves too.

I didn’t take any pictures of the food but I have a wonderful friend who is also a photographer and has some really great looking food shots (and recipes) that I will put up as soon as she gets them to me. Until then, I’ll leave you with a picture of the tiny kitchen where we do all the cooking…

24 hours after the carnage.

Scallops, Apples, Chorizo, Pea Greens, Parmigiano Vinaigrette

2007-11-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

This recipe came from a couple of different idea combinations. The first was bacon wrapped scallops and the second was pork and apples. Instead of serving any one of those two things, I tried to find a way to combine them. I added pea greens so the dish could stand by itself as a main course and also because I think they add a nice freshness that compliments the apples and contrasts with the smoky chorizo and the seared scallops. The vinaigrette gives the dish a little acid and the creamy unctuousness to keep it from being boring and a bit dry.

Note: This dish is pictured on the side of the site but I don’t think I’ve ever included a recipe. Now is a good time to make it because apples and pea greens are available at the greenmarket and scallops and chorizo are always tasty.

For the vinaigrette:

1 tsp mustard powder
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
6 tbsp heavy cream
¼ cup grated parmigiano reggiano
1 tbsp finely snipped chives

Combine first three ingredients and set aside. Just before serving, add the parmigiano and the chives.

For the main dish

12-16 Scallops (very fresh)
2-3 Chorizo sausages
2 Apples
1 cup pea greens
Salt pepper
¼ cup olive oil + 1 tsp olive oil

Remove sausage from casing sauté in 1 tsp olive oil until cooked and then set aside or keep in low 200 degree oven

Season scallops lightly with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in sauté pan until hot and close to smoking. Place scallops in oil and let sit until well seared on one side 2-3 minutes (do not move them around in the pan) Flip for 30 seconds to one minute more.

While scallops are cooking cut apples into either half slices or core and cut into thin circles.

Top apples with scallops and chorizo, finish with fresh pea greens and vinaigrette.

Fennel Crusted Halibut, Sweet Corn, Pesto, Spicy Tomato

2007-11-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

This dish takes inspiration from two restaurants that I really like, Little Owl and L'Impero. I took the idea of Halibut corn and pesto from Little Owl and the tomato from L'Impero, the spicy part and the fennel crust is all me (I also cook my halibut differently from Little Owl.)

I love eating this dish because it incorporates so many flavorful elements that I really enjoy on their own, and it has a little heat to keep the taste buds working. Fennel, corn, pesto and tomato work really well as a team in this dish with the fennel crust adding a texturally nice crispiness to the fish while the brightness of the corn keeps the pesto from being overwhelmingly strong. The tomato sauce adds color, some acidity and a little bit of heat to bring everything together.

I don't have a good picture of this dish in it's final form but I have a few of early versions that tasted good, but not as good as the the one in this recipe. (The pictures aren't the best, which is why they haven't been on this site yet)

Recipe is below the pictures. If you decide to make this note that there may be some adjustments necessary.

Serves 3-4
Desired amount of Halibut or Cod, thickly cut, not filleted usually about 1/3 of a pound per person works
1 Tablespoon fennel seeds
2 Teaspoons kosher or sea salt salt
1 Tsp Peppercorns
½ Tsp Coriander seed
¼-1/2 Tsp Salt
4 ears corn
1 bunch basil
8-10 plum tomaotes
2 Tsp hot pepper flakes
2-3 Tbsp pine nuts
1 cup olive oil
½ cup grated parmigiano reggiano

To make crust for fish, place fennel seed, salt, peppercorns, coriander in a spice mill or grinder (or crush with a mortar and pestle) and process to make a fine powder. Mix in the flour

For the corn. Husk corn, remove kernels with a knife, toss with olive oil and salt and pepper and place in oven at 350 degrees to cook for 20-30 minutes

For tomato sauce. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Using a paring knife, cut a small X on the bottom end of the tomato. Briefly blanch the tomatoes in boiling water 3-045 seconds. And submerge in ice water or place under running cold water.

Remove the skins and the seeds (the seeds are bitter).
In a small sauté pan heat about 1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil. When oil is hot, throw in the tomatoes. And keep heat at medium. Add hot pepper flakes and salt and pepper to taste.

Let the tomatoes simmer (stirring occasionally) and crush with a masher every five minutes or so. They should simmer for about 20=25 minutes to get the saucy consistency. To get a clean sauce you can then strain or you can leave the tomatoes as is.

While the tomatoes are simmering. Pick and clean the basil leaves, place into food processor with pine nuts and ½ cup olive oil, adding the oil gradually. Process to desired consistency and mix in parmigiano, set aside.

For the fish: In a large skillet or sauté pan, heat ¼ cup olive oil until hot and close to smoking. Cut thick piece of fish into squares or rectangles and give each a generous topping of the fennel mixture.

When oil is hot, place fish in pan mixture side down and let sit, without moving for 3-4 minutes. Flip the fish and cook until cooked through 2-3 more minutes. You can check doneness of fish by inserting a metal skewer into the center of the fish and the removing it and touching the end. If the tip is warm, the fish is done.

Mix together pesto and corn, top with fish and finish the dish by swirling the tomato sauce on the perimeter of the plate.

Recipe Week

2007-11-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

I've been getting lots of requests for recipes so I have decided to dedicate this week to providing everyone with some recipes and ideas. However, since I have a cold and have lots of Nyquil in me, forcing my eyelids to shut, I only provide you with pictures today.

It's fall so I've found myself craving things like pasta, red meat and red wine. Unfortunately my cold has rendered my nose unusable, so drinking wine is out of the question. Luckily I can still cook things.

Here are pictures of the last three meals I made. The fist one is fine herb gnocchi with pancetta and butternut squash. The second is something I made for myself--Farmer's market merguez, fava beans, toasted pumpkin seeds and pomegranate. The third is a porterhouse with roasted fingerlings, buttnernut squash and pancetta, and a salad of baby fennel and pickled ramps. More to come once the Nyquil wears off.

NYC Chocolate Week

2007-11-02T10:00:00.000-04:00

I don't trust the person who doesn't love Chocolate...

Next week is New York City's first ever Chocolate Week, culminating with the Chocolate Show which runs from Friday through Sunday. Chocolate week will consist of numerous demonstrations, tastings and restaurant specials and will go from Monday through Friday.

I'm not really sure what to expect out of chocolate week, but I attended the show last year and it was a lot of fun. I managed to sample a ton of chocolate from the large number or vendors and even found some great truffles and other assorted items at decent prices. (It's nice that The Chocolate Show is right around the time of my mom's birthday.) I actually had so much fun at the chocolate show last year that my leg was trembling uncontrollably in the cab ride home. I tend to eat a lot, but something like that has never happened to me before.

In closing...I urge you to consume massive amounts of Chocolate next week. All the information you need is in the links below.

Now you have no excuse

Dinner Menu

2007-10-31T10:00:00.000-04:00

After much feedback and very little internal monologue, I've finalized the menu for dinner. as it stands, it's somewhere between 13-15 courses. I haven't had a large dinner in a while so there were some courses that I couldn't bear not to cook. Now the dilemma is serving the food so that everyone gets to eat everything and can finish the meal without exploding all over my house.

Below is the proposed menu. In order to make this post a little less self indulgent, I've also included a little dialoogue on my drink pairing ideas for each course. Enjoy!

Appetizers:

French baguettes, ricotta with pugliese olive oil and mixed herbs

Roasted pears, tallegio, prosciutto and balsamic vinegar

Bellinis and Mimosas. Who doesn’t love Bellini’s and Mimosas? A great appertif drink

Ceviche, tangerine, red onion, peach, habanero

Muscadet, I think the clean crisp taste of muscadet will help calm the heat of the habanero and accentuate the fresh fruit flavors of the dish

Raw scallops, mango horseradish puree, edamame, black salt

I have 2 bottles of the Highfield Sauvignon blanc from New Zealand. The wine has really strong tropical fruit and papaya flavors and goes really well with the mango horseradish puree

Lightly cured hamachi, black sesame, ginger scallion sake

I’d like to come up with a sake to go with this dish. I really like the idea of exploring sake, but it’s a drink I do not know much about. I’ll probably have the trusted folks at Chambers Street Wines help me out with this one

Fennel crusted halibut sweet corn, pesto, spicy tomato
Or
Cod, pea shoots, pine nuts, golden raisins, sherry ginger broth

I combined these two dishes into one course because I really like them both and couldn’t decide which one to choose. They can’t, however be two separate courses because the process of sautéing the fish for a crispy crust is very similar.

I’m thinking white Rioja here. I’m not really sure why, but it feels right. I also don’t have any wines from spain here yet.

Braised pork belly, 30 minute scrambled eggs, chives.

I think a german Riesling would be an interesting choice for this course. The eggs and belly will be incredibly rich and Riesling is a wine with enough acidity to cut the richness and add a nice little element of sweet to boot.

Herb gnocchi, sweetbreads, sage, butternut squash, brown butter

This dish has fall written all over it and I want to find a lighter, possibly smoky red wine to go with it. I had a great Temperanillo, Cabernet, Merlot blend the other night and I think I’ll be looking for something similar with this.

Duck breast, parsnips, hazelnuts, truffle honey

Pinot noir and duck is a favorite combination of mine.

Lamb chops, Israeli couscous, Japanese eggplant, port wine and cherries

Braised short ribs, potato beet puree, roasted carrots, radish greens

By this point in the dinner guests have usually had enough to drink and cant handle much more red wine. I think I’ll pick a heavier red to go with both the lamb and the short ribs simply so everyone can make it through dinner. I’m thinking Zinfandel or Cabernet from California for these two.

Frangelico strawberries, fried pound cake, espresso ganache

Apple cider donuts, praline butter, maple ice cream

Vanilla ice cream, sparkling chocolate

I don’t think there is any wine pairing that will stand up well to the frangelico strawberries, but I think I would like to serve a dessert wine. I’ll probably buy a couple of bottles of a Muscat Beaumes de Venise to go well with the donuts and the vanilla and chocolate and call it a night.

I think at this point everyone will have had the type of special meal with good friends, good food and a lot of good wine that gets imprinted in the mind and brings a smile to the face when remembered.

Gnocchi

2007-10-29T10:00:00.000-04:00

While the full menu for my November 10th dinner isn't set yet, I have decided on one dish. I'm going to make a french style gnocchi with squash, fried sage, brown butter, and crispy sweetbreads. This dish is inspired by Thomas Keller and the gnocchi he serves at Bouchon in Napa. I had the pleasure of tasting it this past summer and it was probably the best gnocchi I had ever had. This dish is also really convenient for a large dinner party for a couple of reasons:

Gnocchi is cheap and fairly easy to make in quantity, helping make my party budget more manageable
Sweetbreads, although they require some work, are also fairly cheap
They can be made ahead of time and frozen. This is incredibly helpful because it means I have one course more or less out of the way with no prep work the day before or of my dinner
Gnocchi is good

This little video also provided some inspiration:

http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/chefsexperts/interviews/thomaskeller_video

The recipe is also in Bouchon Cookbook. Of course I added my own little twists.

CORN!!!

2007-10-26T10:00:00.000-04:00

If you are reading this on Friday October 26th 2007, you still have a chance to snap up some of the last corn of the season. During my weekly trip to the Union Square Farmer's Market I asked one of the farmers about his late season corn. I mentioned that I thought it was unusual to have corn so late into the fall, and he told me that the late season corn was a result of the global warming heat that we've all been feeling. He then shed a tear.

He also gave me the good news that there will be one more week of corn available at the market.

Sooooooooooo. Buy some corn! all you really need to do with greenmarket corn is smother it in butter or olive oil, add a little sea salt and pepper and grill or roast. You will be in for a treat.

Another combination that I love is corn and pesto. It goes great with just about any crisp skinned fish.

Buy Corn!

Ideas

2007-10-24T10:00:00.000-04:00

I haven't thrown a large scale dinner party in a while so I figure I'm just about due for an epic one. With that in mind, I'm probably having my biggest one yet on November 10th and am currently in the process of developing ideas for food and drinks.

I've come up with a good amount but I find that when I think up half of these things, I'm not buy a computer and sort of lose track of my thoughts.

I also have so many option in terms of food for this dinner that I'm having a hard time narrowing them down. So, in the spirit of making this an interactive dinner party in terms of guests and eating, I'm going to post my thoughts and e-mail them out and let the guests vote to determine the menu.

Here's my current list of ideas minus several that have entered and left my thoughts over the past few days. (This is in very rough form)

lightly cured hamachi crusted with black sesame ginger scallion sake puree

ceviche cured in tangerine juice red onion, peach

fennel crusted halibut, pesto, sweet corn

maple marinated flounder pecans, pomegranates

lamb chops, Israeli couscous, crispy mint and savory, roasted Japanese eggplant

short ribs potato beet puree pea greens

cod, pea shoots, golden raisins, pine nuts

bacon and apple skewers, maple syrup

duck, hazelnuts, squash, sage, truffle honey

scallops, apples, chorizo parmesan vinaigrette

ricotta cavatelli blistered peppers, garlic rock shrimp, spicy orange

herb gnocchi, brown butter, fried sweetbreads

scallop ceviche horseradish mango puree edamame

pork belly and 30 minute scrambled eggs

pork belly, brioche toast, fried quail egg

apple cider donuts, pralines, maple ice cream

fried pound cake, frangelico strawberries, espresso ganache

Chocolates

Roasted mushroom salad

Goat cheese and acorn squash cigars

Potato goat cheese fritters, fall vegetables

Apple crumb cake, calvados ice cream, toasted almonds

Champagne granite, raspberries, white chocolate

I Know More About Chocolate Than You Do (I Think)

2007-10-23T10:00:00.000-04:00

Last week I attended a class on chocolate that I had been anticipating for a while. This class didn’t involve any actually cooking but it did involve a lot of tasting and some listening. When all was said and done I left class with a full plate of chocolate in my belly and some extra chocolate knowledge in my head.

Since almost everyone likes chocolate I thought I’d use this space today to share some tidbits from class that I thought were interesting/illuminating.

Montezuma drank 40 cups of chocolate a day. He was also 6’4 and had very good skin. Drinking chocolate is good for your skin (it actually has lots of antioxidants.)

Chocolate was first cultivated and consumed in Central America. When the Spaniards came (their skin wasn’t as good as people living in Central America because they didn’t drink chocolate) they had chocolate for the first time and loved it, shipping it back to Europe.

Cacao was one of the first mass produced stimulants. Europeans drank chocolate as an upper before they started drinking coffee and tea.

Chocolate is actually kind of good for you, at least in its less adulterated forms. The good fats in chocolate outweigh the bad fats. Chocolate with lots of cocoa butter is not good for you neither is milk chocolate.

When you look at a quality chocolate bar and its label reads X% Cacao, that number is the actual percentage of cacao in the bar, the rest is sugar. Higher percentages mean more bitter chocolate.

Chocolate has vintages! You don’t generally eat vintage chocolate but some years of cacao crops yield better cacao than others.

You can taste fruit flavors when tasting chocolate. This is actually one of the most interesting things I learned in class. The reason we most often associate flavor expressions with fruit is evolutionary. Monkeys had to train their senses to eat the ripest and best fruit and thus had great memories for fruit flavors. We’ve kept this trait and thus when we taste and smell things the easiest comparisons for us to make are to fruit.

The best way to actually experience this is to taste different brands of chocolate with the same percentage of cacao. If you let the chocolate melt on your tongue you can actually train yourself to taste some of the differences.

Chocolate also has tannins. You may be asking, what exactly are tannins? The best way for me to explain it to you is that tannins are a manifestation of polyphenol and are the sort of bitter dry taste that comes into your mouth when you eat or drink things with tannins in them. When you eat something, you continue to taste it once it’s out of your mouth. Tannins come in and basically shut off the taste buds. That’s why when we age fine wines to mellow the tannins we do it so that we can actually fully taste our wine.

Also in relation to wine… Cacao reproduces sexually while grape vines are reproduced through grafting. When you drink pinot noir from California you know that it’s genetically identical to pinot noir from France or South Africa or Australia. The differences we taste are literally due to the environment in which that particular pinot noir grape was raised in. Since Cacao goes through sexual reproduction every cacao plant is different and when we try to compare cacao from different regions its really impossible to tell whether the cacao is different because of its regionality or because its just different genetically. (That’s why buying chocolate because of its region is not worthwhile, Sao Tome can have both good and bad cacao plants, you should just buy good chocolate.)

Finally, you can actually make chocolate at home. It’s supposedly not that difficult. All you need is cocoa nibs, a spice mill or coffee grinder, and a way of taking temperature. To make the chocolate you just throw the cocoa nibs into a spice mill with the desired amount of sugar or flavorings. The speed of the mill will actually melt the nibs into chocolate. To temper the chocolate and give it a sheen, place it into a pot and bring the temperature to 110, lower it to 86 and then bring it back up to the 89-92 range and pour into a mold. It will solidify into homemade chocolate!

Hope this was helpful…

If you’re really interested in chocolate, go visit the Chocolate Show November 9-11. I went last year and it was chocolate-y and fantastic, and for $28 dollars a ticket, quite a bargain. So yeah, if you like chocolate make sure not to miss it.

Party Time

2007-10-22T10:00:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine threw a house party this past weekend that had me thinking about how I define the word party. Most parties thrown by people in my age range (22-26) seem to be not too evolved from the typical college parties that we all went to not so long ago. There is usually some music, a spattering of six packs, maybe a keg, bottom shelf liquor, mixers, bags of cheap snacks and a do-it-yourself bar. I love these parties, but ultimately they all end up being very similar.Someone commented that this is the best corn they had ever eaten. It will be in season for only one more week, so hurry over to the farmer's market and pick some up.

That’s why when my friend Jeremy throws a party I’m always happy to step in and help. Once every couple of months we get together and throw a party that really blows other house parties out of the water. Not only do we have all of the typical 22-26 year old party amenities, but we pay very special attention to food and drink (food obviously being a key for me.) While parties are fun, there aren’t a whole lot of things I like more than eating. Any time there is a party with good food I think the guests end up being happier and the party ends up being better.

Pork Butt! Since a smoker was unavailable, we slow roasted this beauty int he oven for 7 hours. We then served it with my makeshift cracklins and home made cole slaw that was brought by one of the guests. The coleslaw was so good that I was actually a little jealous.

We threw this party with that in mind and with special attention to the bar. Guests who came between 7 and 9 were treated to a menu of:

Pulled pork sandwiches
Dry Rubbed pork spare ribs
Burgers
Hot and Sweet Italian sausage
Duck and Garlic sausage
Grilled corn rubbed with smoked paprika
Corn bread with blistered Shisito peppers
And my favorite… Bacon wrapped Honey crisp apples, grilled and brushed with maple syrup

There was also a cheese plate provided by Murray’s and a couple of VIP’s were able to sample some of my home made Maple Ice cream (it was really good)

Ribs. Since we only had one oven, we cooked each rack of ribs over the roasting pork butt for 2 hours then set them aside, lightly brushed them with BBQ sauce and finished them on the grill.

In addition we had someone serving as bartender for the entire night who was incredibly well prepared to serve delicious drinks. Not only did I spend a good hour cutting lemons, limes, oranges, and kiwi’s for mixed drinks but our bartender also brewed his own sweet tea (awesome) and squeezed fresh fruit juices for mixing. We even served drinks with cinnamon sticks for aroma and garnish.

In the end I think everyone really appreciated the tasty food, the delicious and somewhat unique mixed drinks. The attention to detail and taste in regards to set up, (the back yard was very inviting) food and drink really made the party more of an event than the parties I usually attend. Bacon wrapped apples waiting to be grilled. A Real crowd pleaser.

I suppose my reasons for writing about this are to give a shout out to a friend and to let everyone know that delicious things can really bring any sort of gathering to a completely different level. This is just another instance of how good food and good friends can make any night really spectacular. I’m looking forward to it.

Fall Eating

2007-10-18T10:00:00.000-04:00

I know it’s talked about all the time, but cold weather food cravings are much different from warm weather ones. Here I am now as the seasons are changing and I look back at last fall as a time when I first started to really think seriously about food. I guess this is why, for the first time, I’m really noticing the changing of my tastes as the air cools (although it hasn’t gotten that much colder.)

While my summer cravings are usually centered around fish, or burgers and beer, or sushi or even just eating outside. I find that now, all I really want to eat is pork and duck. As a result I’ve been able to work on my meat repertoire. I cooked duck last night to inaugurate fall and it turned out really well. Instead of pairing it with fruit I tried to find fall ingredients. Here, on my friend’s blue plate, is the dish:

Coriander crusted duck breast with acorn squash maple puree, butternut squash, hazelnuts, and truffle honey.

I also used one of the methods I learned in my steak class to cook pork chops. We cross hatched the fat, rendered it, then pan roasted the pork in its own fat in the oven. The result is a well browned, juicy fantastic tasting piece of meat. My first attempt at this involved Indian spices—cumin, cinnamon, fennel, and coriander with a tamarind flavored fennel and apple slaw and another accompaniment that tasted ok but had the appearance of ‘dog vomit’ according to my mom. The pork was extremely pleasing but I could have done better with the other parts. I’m going to make a go at this again tonight with Honeycrisp apples (the best kind in my humble opinion,) caramelized fennel and arugula. I hope it turns out a little better because a piece of meat that tasty deserves some proper sidekicks.

Here’s a picture of some good looking fennel from Migliorelli Farms (USQ farmers Market) to make your Thursday a little brighter.

Fun in Class

2007-10-16T10:00:00.000-04:00

My recent cooking classes have all been a lot of fun. So much fun in fact, that I can’t help but think about culinary school as a future option. It’s really enjoybale learning more about something I like. Cooking class never seems tedious (unlike several college classes I’ve taken) and can be incredibly eye opening at times. It’s always fun and interesting to me to be introduced to new ways of manipulating many of the foods we think we are so familiar with, and finding combinations that are both comforting and brand new at the same time.

I took a class on “steak and eggs” this past Saturday with the Ideas in Food team and really had an amazing time. Not only was it a very small class (only four people) but it was very hands on. We also were exposed to a lot of different techniques that we normally wouldn’t be able to employ in our home kitchens. While a lot of amateur classes taken through cooking schools are for people who might be interested in cooking and would like to have some recipes, this class was more about exchanging ideas and inspiring the students to be able to create on their own. It was really a treat.

For more on the cooking class, including pictures, please click HERE (Please click on the link.) They also provide a run down of everything we cooked and ate during the class. By the time I headed back to Manhattan I was so happy and full that I passed out on the train for the first time since High School. The pork and apples is as good as it looks in the picture. I look forward to the pasta class I’m taking with them next month.

It's Fall Time!

2007-10-15T10:00:00.000-04:00

Leaves are turning color and falling off the trees, the air is perfectly cool, crisp and refreshing, and cooking magazines are starting to feature turkeys on their covers. Fall is finally here!
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I got through four and a half of the six things on my fall list this weekend... I managed to find a friend to eat some duck breast and drink some good red wine with, although with the offer of me coming over to cook a free dinner it wasn't hard to find a taker.

I ate some apples and they were good.

The cooking class was really amazing. More on that later

I sampled some of the fall menu at Momofuku. I didn't get to try a couple of things that looked good though. I'm dying to try the apple kimchee and for some of that meaty fragrant mushroom salad. I also made it to Tailor for some cocktails and noticed that they have a cocoa tasting menu. Intriguing...

I did not avoid Giants Stadium food. All in all I spent about 4 and a half hours commuting back and forth from Giants Stadium this past Sunday and I'm not happy about it.

I also missed out on the slice of pizza I wanted. There's only so much eating one person can do over the course of two days.

Pictures and more substantial writing to come. I'm tired from all my eating and traveling to and from Giants Stadium.

2007-10-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

Over the last couple of days we’ve had more moderate temperature and even a little rain. It’s finally starting to feel like fall. More importantly, I’m starting to feel like it’s fall.

Here’s a list of six eating things I’d like to do/ am already doing on what looks to be (let’s cross our fingers) our first fall weekend.

1. Eat some duck breast and drink a really good bottle of red wine (not by myself.)
2. Eat some apples. I’ve been eating apples like crazy lately and I can’t seem to stop
3. Take a cooking class. I’ already signed up for a 3 hour steak and eggs cooking class on Saturday.
4. Sample the seasonal menu changes at two restaurants. Realistically, I’ll probably ony end up at one (Momofuku) eating pork buns and the brussels sprouts that I always see people eating and always regret not ordering. It would be awesome to make it to a second restaurant though.
5. Avoid Giants stadium food. I’m always optimistic that it might taste good but it always ends up tasting like meat flavored rubber encased by soggy cardboard.
6. Enjoy a good slice of pizza, I haven’t had one in a while.

Have a pleasant weekend

Another Place I Like

2007-10-11T10:00:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while a restaurant comes along that makes you feel really good. The environment is just right, the food is tasty and comforting and you feel a general warmth of service there. Something about the restaurant just feels right. For me one of these restaurants is Gabriel Stuhlman and Joey Campanaro’s Little Owl. The clinching moment in this relationship came on my birthday when my friends and I ate there and Mr. Stuhlman served us wine in coffee mugs as we waited outside. Our delicious meal was served to us by a waitress in a PBR shirt while we listened to music that we would normally have on our Ipods, and we left feeling happy. In fact, I’ve left every Little Owl experience feeling happy.

My only problem with the Little Owl is that so many other people feel the same way about the restaurant, and it’s just not big enough to feed us all. The 10 tables in the place tend to fill up fast and it’s become so difficult to find a reservation at a time when I’d actually eat that I’ve stopped trying. I still walk in every now and then but it takes a little more effort than I’m willing to expend to eat there as regularly as I originally would have liked. That’s why news of a new Campanaro Stuhlman venture has me very excited.

Recently the two teamed up again to open Market Table, just down the street from The Little Owl. The place appears to be a restaurant/market with an open kitchen, a bar area that seems a bit too spacious, and a small but warm and well spaced dining room. The kitchen cooks seasonal New American with the market serving as a mise en place. If you like your cod at dinner you can buy it at the market to cook at home the next day.

I’ve only made one visit so far, but on first impressions, the food is simple, yet extremely flavorful and pleasing, just like The Little Owl. I tried some gnocchi with braised short ribs and had an arctic char special with purple cauliflower. The gnocchi were light and didn’t fill me up too much for the char which was crisp skinned and tasted buttery and sweet as it melted away with each bite. I also had a bit of swordfish that was perfectly cooked and a dessert that was good, but way too big for me to not feel overindulgent.

Overall, the meal was pretty excellent and while the place doesn’t have quite the same vibe as Little Owl its definitely a capable sequel, one that I probably shouldn’t write about if I hope to be able to return to.

Cooking Classes

2007-10-09T10:00:00.000-04:00

As I continue to toy with the idea of trying to find a food related job, I have been trying to expand my food world knowledge by reading, dining out and taking classes. I haven’t taken too many classes yet but there was the Masters in French cooking class over the summer and most recently, my class on how to roast suckling pig.

Last Friday I went to the Inn on West 23rd to take a 4 hour course on Roasting suckling pig and cooking some of the traditional suckling pig meal accompaniments. The class was fun but I wish I would have been able to be a bit more hands on with the pig. Time constraints mean that the instructor pretty much dealt with the pig (which seems fairly easy) while the students prepared the sides. This was, however, the first time that I’ve been able to experience the joy of suckling pig in its whole form, and yes, the head was still attached (it’s a good think too.) I managed to try suckling pig trotter, cheek, rib, loin, ear, tongue and brain. My favorite part was actually the tongue, it was incredibly tender, piggy and flavorful and once it’s cut out of the mouth, you kind of forget that you’re eating a tongue!

Anyway, I’m taking a class next Saturday taught by the Ideas in Food tandem on “steak and eggs” in which we will investigate and prepare steak and eggs in various forms. If it’s anything like what their pig and apple class looked like I’m in for a treat. (Click on link for something bizarrely awesome.)

In relation to yesterday’s post, here is a meal composed of ingredients solely from the farmers market:

It’s Mako on top of cranberry beans with bacon and sage in a spicy tomato broth. Simple and delicious and I have enough left over for lunch tomorrow.

On a final note…The 2008 Michelin guide to New York was released. You can see the starred restaurants here. The starrings seem to be completely arbitrary (almost as if the Michelin people skipped half of the restaurants in New York) and are not to be trusted. I have no idea how accurate Michelin is in Europe but their New York guide is of no use to me at all.

Go to the Greenmarket!!!

2007-10-08T09:06:00.001-04:00

If you are someone that doesn’t go to the Union Square Greenmarket on a regular basis, I am urging you to make a trip there this week. Despite the unseasonable heat, fall is starting and the variety of produce offered at the Greenmarket is starting to turn over. What makes this week especially fun is the fact that is has been so warm recently. This means that the farmers are still bringing in some of their summer crops that might not usually be available at this time of year. Even if you don’t cook, it’s worth going to Union Square. I guarantee there will be something you like in a close to pristine form.

On my visit I got very excited and a little overwhelmed. Here is a delicious short rib dish (Sunday dinner and probably also lunch throughout the week) with a few alterations based on what looked good. It involves braised short ribs, purple cauliflower and sunchoke puree, caramelized Cippolini onions, roasted baby carrots, heirloom tomatoes, roasted white beets, radish greens, and celery leaf, all topped off with some of the braising liquid.

Burger Wars

2007-10-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

I’ve been incredibly busy lately, often working from 9 in the morning to 7 at night. Some mornings I even have to wake up extremely early to go see a physical therapist and work out for an hour because I have the lower back of a 70 year old man. In general I like to keep a nice balance of work and play which has been really difficult lately.

Lucky for me, one of my greatest passions, food, is something that not only has to be enjoyed at least a couple of times a day, but is also best when experienced with friends.

These thoughts have led me to anew running theme for my blog: Burger Wars. I tried to think of a kind of food that I love that is inexpensive, can be enjoyed quickly and can also be found in several comparable destinations. The food I came up with is the burger. I’m actually surprised that I haven’t done something as unoriginal as a burger search already. Attempting to taste some of New York’s best burgers seems like an obvious thing to do for someone like me who once spent a summer consuming upwards of 8 cheeseburgers a week. Regardless of the reason for the delay, I now plan on using this search as a good way to keep ion touch with friends and eat something delicious at the same time. I promise to visit as many burger places with different friends as possible and bring you my judgments. (Of the burgers, not my friends.)

If you’re reading this and feel like grabbing a burger or suggesting a place please feel free to e-mail me or post a comment below. Please note that I have already stopped off Burger Joint and Corner Bistro on my journey for delicious ground meat.

It's Turkey Eating Time

2007-10-03T10:00:00.000-04:00

I tend to overlook turkey as a viable dietary option. For whatever reason, other than during Thanksgiving season, I never eat turkey. I don’t dislike turkey; I love turkey legs, and I really enjoy making a mish mash of my mom’s leftover turkey and gravy from our holiday meal, but I never seem to find myself eating turkey other than at Thanksgiving time.

Luckily for me, a couple of friends (unknowingly) have led me back to turkey land. Last week one friend invited me over for dinner and cooked a delicious pasta dish with turkey meatballs made from DiPaolo’s turkey in the Greenmarket. Then, I was having dinner with a friend on Friday who told me she had a turkey craving. I took these two occasions as a sign that I should buy, cook and eat some turkey.

On my next trip to the farmers market, I made sure to seek out the DiPaolo’s stand. If you’ve ever been to the greenmarket you probably know them as the stand that always has something delicious smelling on the grill. You then probably notice that it’s a turkey stand and pass it by, something I have done many a time (big mistake.) This past Saturday I finally decided to buy some turkey sausage to make meatballs for Sunday dinner and subsequent workday lunches. I really enjoy the strong, fennel-y flavor of the turkey sausage and appreciate the fact that the DiPaolo’s people season their ground turkey so well that I don’t really have to do anything to it to make it good.

Here I serve turkey meatballs with tomato chutney stuffed squash blossoms and a pistachio pesto (I made the smear more to be funny that for appearance.) For lunch, I’ve been eating the meatballs over roasted corn with nut free pesto, (can’t be brining nuts to school with all the allergic children these days) heirloom tomatoes, and wild Italian arugula.I find that the strong taste of the turkey goes incredibly well with pesto, something that can often overwhelm other flavors.

While these dishes might sound, and perhaps even look good, the fact of the matter is that you can’t really go wrong with DiPaolo’s turkey. Buy it at your local greenmarket today!!!!!

Wierd Food (entirely too many words dedicated to a rather odd food item)

2007-10-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

This week I’d like to take a closer look at some food products that I’ve been trying. I don’t have too much time to cook right now so I’ve been satisfying my food cravings by purchasing food in forms that require little to no preparation to taste good.

The first product I’d like to introduce you to is something that might seem a little odd, but actually tastes pretty good. It’s sweet, but not extremely so, and it fits in the dessert category, yet isn’t quite a dessert either. I’d like to think of it as a very indulgent snack.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Vosges Haut Chocolate Bacon Chocolate Bar:

This treat is made with 41% cacao milk chocolate, Alder Wood smoked salt and applewood smoked bacon. While the bacon in the bar is in small pieces and the chocolate appear normal upon first glimpse, the subtle bacon aroma you smell as you bring the chocolate to your mouth gives away the fact that this chocolate bar is a little different.

I bought this chocolate bar because I really like chocolate and I love bacon and couldn’t help but be intrigued by the combination of the two. I liked how the flavors and textures in the bar meshed well but were also distinct at the same time. As you bite into the chocolate you taste its sweetness before hitting a slight hint of salt and crunch as you get to the smoked salt. As the chocolate dissolves on your tongue you’re left with the tiny slightly chewy bacon bits that make the bar a bit meaty and very pleasing. The idea of bacon and chocolate might seem troubling to most, but the bacon here is extremely subtle. My dad liked the bar but couldn’t quite determine the identity of the mystery ingredient.

I liked the bacon bar but wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. If you like bacon and chocolate (I think most people do) this is definitely worth a try--it’s definitely a bar that I would eat again. In fact, I think I might serve some as a funny ending to a suckling pig feast.

Pearl Oyster Bar

2007-09-29T10:00:00.000-04:00

I remember a day in my childhood when I got over my fear of eating a spiny, clawed, ugly, creature with oozing green innards and learned to embrace the lobster. It happened when I was a child on vacation in Maine, and I have enjoyed the taste of lobster ever since.
After a brief end of summer stint in Maine, and a day of steamed lobster, fried clams, lobster rolls, and blueberry pie, I decided that it was time to visit the restaurant in New York that is heralded as the closest thing to authentic Main cuisine: Pearl Oyster Bar.

Until this past Wednesday, I had been reading about Pearl on a pretty consistent basis and had really wanted to pay a visit. The trip to Maine allowed me to remember how much I liked lobster rolls (Pearl’s most famous dish) and pretty much forced me to go to Pearl’s as soon as I had the chance.

Finally, this past Wednesday I had the chance to try the famous Pearl lobster roll and it was good. It was actually really good, but I couldn’t help but feel like there was something missing. I appreciate Pearl’s efforts to re-create the Main lobster shack with its wood interior, cramped seating and the little wafts of salt water air that seem to surround the place but something is terribly missing from the lobster roll experience. For several hours after dinner I thought about the tasty lobster roll and couldn’t figure out what was unpleasing about this mayonaiss-y lobster-y sandwich on its perfectly grilled sweet hot dog roll. After much pondering, I finally realized that it was the price (I was treated to dinner otherwise I might have realized this immediately.) It’s not that the lobster roll isn’t good, but at $25 dollars a piece, I believe that the concept of the lobster roll is completely misinterpreted.

As I understand it from my childhood, the lobster roll is the leftover claws and other parts of a lobster served with mayonnaise and celery and a little bit of seasoning on a hot dog bun. Because we are receiving the less desirable cuts of lobster, the lobster roll is generally a relative bargain. It’s a cheap taste of Maine that you can eat on the beach with a beer or lemonade, as you smell the sea and play with the sand between your toes. The lobster roll is the food item you purchase in Maine in lieu of regular lobster. You do so because it tastes like lobster but is much cheaper. This is where Pearl Oyster bar fails. I applaud the taste of their interpretation of the lobster roll, but I was let down by what I had heard was close to an authentic lobster shack. I like to eat my lobster rolls within sniffing distance of the water for less than what I would spend on a full steamed lobster; its not that I’m cheap, it’s just the concept. And no lobster roll no matter how lobster filled and tasty it is can even compare to a bad lobster roll on the beach in Maine.

Breakfast Fish

2007-09-25T10:00:00.000-04:00

Several months ago I had the strange idea that fish might taste good if it was marinated in maple syrup. Ever since then, to the delight of friend and family, I’ve been serving maple marinated fish. I find that the idea works well with fish like sole and flounder that pretty much take on the flavor of the things around them. Usually I coat the marinated fish in a light layer of flour and sauté it, giving the fish a slightly crunchy sweet crust that really works well with the flounder I usually use. I then pair it with corn (something else that is slightly sweet and crunchy) and either poached cranberries or sour cherries.

This weekend I decided to play around with this dish and make it more breakfast-y. I was thinking of things I eat and thing I buy at the Green Market and thought about incorporating berries and bacon into the dish. Originally I wanted to marinate the fish or puree it with maple syrup and then stuff it with blueberries and walnuts, wrap it in bacon and bake it (which I still might do) but time constraints on Sunday (thanks to football) led me in a different direction. Instead of pureeing the maple marinated fish, I coated it in brioche bread crumbs (another breakfast item) and baked it. I then served the baked fish over crispy, slightly sour, Mutsu apples; blueberries, raspberries, and bacon-sage vinaigrette. Overall I was really happy with the dish although next time I might make a spread with the raspberries and bake the apples so that they’re a little softer in texture. I also found upon baking that the syrup coating the fish becomes a little more subtle. I think I might also add a little syrup to the vinaigrette to make up for this. I like the fact that the fish looks eerily similar to a McDonald's hash brown

I posted this today because after my dinner on Friday I was thinking of my own creative process and thought this was a nice example. Perhaps this post can inspire someone else to better understand they’re own creative process.

Time to get going again

2007-09-24T10:00:00.000-04:00

I have been in a creative rut for the last couple of weeks. Every time I tried to cook something new not only was my end product something I was unhappy with, but I also felt like my food was completely unoriginal and somewhat boring. Every time I tried to write I felt like my sentences didn’t make sense and that there was something more purposeful that I should be doing. Essentially I was feeling restless and frustrated and needed something to get the creative juices flowing again.

Lucky for me, I was fortunate enough to be invited to Alex and Aki’s (of IDEAS IN FOOD) house for dinner this past Friday. Not only was the meal (menu here) incredibly enjoyable and inspiring, but I found that their kindness and their enthusiasm for food helped me to re-focus. Sometimes the proper motivation is attained simply by being around people who have accomplished more than you (in whatever creative outlet you choose) whom you respect, to get you kick started again.

The dinner on Friday helped motivate me to cook for 6 guests on Saturday night and to play around a little and create a new dish which I’ll post tomorrow (maple marinated flounder baked in a brioche crust with apples, berries and a bacon-sage vinaigrette) on Sunday.

Before I finish up I’d also like to credit Alex and Aki for reintroducing me to pop rocks, something that until recently I didn’t know how much I missed. We were served a ‘sparkling’ salt with pop rocks that gave the beet dish it was paired with a magnificent and incredibly different texture. We were also served parts of a candy bar that was made of crushed butterfingers, crushed butter cookies and pop rocks. The candy bar was one of the most amazing and memorable things I’ve tasted in a while and I really can’t stop thinking about it. The best part about eating the pop rocks was that there was nothing I could do to stop myself from smiling, which at the end of the day is what cooking she be all about.

IDEAS IN FOOD

2007-09-20T10:00:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't clicked on the links on the side of my blog, I thought I would introduce you all to one of my favorite websites: Ideas in Food. I feature this site today, not only because it is one of my favorite sites and a daily read, but also because I am lucky enough to have been selected at random to taste some of their food on Friday night. (Also featuring someone else's site means significantly less thought and writing in what has been a very busy work week.)

Anyway, if you have some time, I fully encourage you to read some of their posts and learn from some of their innovative take on the creative process and their discussion and genuine love of food.

I also encourage you to look at the pictures and be extremely jealous of the meal I will be having on Friday.

Tailor

2007-09-18T10:00:00.000-04:00

Despite the fact that I eat a lot, it’s not very often that I get to visit an ‘anticipated’ restaurant during its opening weeks. The last time I did this, it was because I was talked into Gordon Ramsay at The London, and it was a huge, soulless, disappointment. I had much higher hopes for Sam Mason’s Tailor (525 Broome Street), a restaurant/cocktail lounge hybrid, whose opening I had been following for months. Here's a peak inside courtesy of Eater.

I have to say that I was very impressed. Although I’m not exactly sure where Tailor fits in terms of the traditional realms of ‘restaurant’ and ‘bar’ the intellectualized food and drinks are as much fun to eat as they are to read about. As expected, the restaurant is still working out some kinks: food was a little slow when the restaurant filled up, the staff wasn’t entirely knowledgeable about everything yet, and the black leather cutout on our table was slightly atrocious looking, but otherwise, it shows great potential.

Mason’s menu of small plates is comprised of 12 choices, six salty and six sweet. The size and pricing of the plates makes Tailor either a place that can challenge the palate’s conceptions of what makes a meal, or simply a cool spot to grab a delicious, aesthetically pleasing snack. Part of what makes this restaurant so interesting to me, is the fact that not only are the food and cocktails taken very seriously, but it also seems like the kind of place where the chef himself would hang out.

That being said, when my friends and I went on Friday night we hadn’t hung out in a while and were definitely in a mood to live a little. After sampling a couple of the cocktails, we took great joy in saying “Give us everything one the menu.” Almost all of the dishes were hits, and the pork belly with Miso butterscotch was a super hit. The only problem with ordering everything on the menu is that due to the variety of combinations and flavors, it’s really difficult to pair a drink with each course, and the cocktails definitely don’t work if you hope to taste your food. After a little it of a struggle we ordered a moderately priced bottle of Riesling and were happy.

A rundown of the menu in order of my preference with the section of the menu it’s from. But first, here's a link to a Flickr page with pictures of all the dishes (you should click there the food is really amazing looking)

1. Pork Belly, Miso Butterscotch, Artichoke (Salty)

Far and away the best dish and not even because the others were bad. I could probably eat a bowl full of Miso butterscotch by itself, and mixing it with the super savory pork belly not only tastes great but really captures the essence of what this restaurant is all about.

2. Snapper, Avocado-Pistachio, Watermelon, Black Olive (Salty)

There was a lot going on here, but that didn’t detract from the impeccable quality of the snapper. Between the sweetness and juice of the compressed watermelon, the saltiness of the olive, and the crunchy pistachio this was also a very well thought out balanced dish.

3. Soft Chocolate, Black Sesame Ice Cream, Mole (Sweet)

I like chocolate, but find that chocolate desserts in restaurants tend to be too heavy, sticky and overwhelming—I get tired of eating them by the end. I was really impressed by the velvety texture of the soft chocolate and thought that the mole paper helped add a very slight kick which kept the chocolate from being too cloying. The black sesame ice cream added coldness to the dish which made it really pleasurable to eat.

4. Foie Gras, Peanut Butter, Cocoa, Pear (Salty)

This was a really nice foie gras preparation. Mason combines two things that are rich and creamy, foie gras and peanut butter and pairs them to create something that is pleasingly familiar (I hope peanut butter is familiar to most) but also new.

5. Caramel Panna Cotta, crunchy coffee, corn sorbet (Sweet)

This dish also had pieces of perfectly crunchy popcorn which made the dish seem like a really abstract take on peanuts and Cracker Jack. Another dish with complementing flavors, caramel and coffee scream ‘delicious frappucino’ while the popcorn adds a texture that makes the dish fun. After reading what I just wrote I supposed this dish reminds me of a lot of things, all of them good.

6. Passion Fruit Poached Char, Lime Pickle, Coconut (Salty)

I really enjoyed the texture of the poached char. Cooking it in passion fruit curd (that’s what it seemed like they did although I can’t say for sure) gave it a slightly tart taste and melty texture to go with some of the richness of the char. The fact that the dish came with spaetzle and the coconut was crispy added some texture to an otherwise silky dish while the addition flavors of lime and coconut reminded me of a ceviche minus the excess acid.

Ok, if you’re still reading this you’re probably interested in going to Tailor. I’m a little tired and the inside of my mouth is cut up from all of the Bouley bakery baguette I went through today so I’m going to go to sleep. I’ll post some more notes tomorrow.

Lazy and Full

2007-09-17T10:00:00.000-04:00

It's Sunday night and I feel incredibly full. I was planning on doing a full write up of my meal at Tailor on Friday night, but I think I might have to wait until tomorrow night to do that. My very foodie weekend included: the Tailor dinner, Little Branch, a whole pastrami sandwich and egg cream at Katz's; (I woke up Saturday with a pastrami craving?) a foray into Chinatown to buy mangosteens (they confuse me), some cured meats and cheeses from DiPalo's, dinner at Ssam Bar, fried Oreo's from the San Gennaro Festival, brunch with the family at Bouley Upstairs, and some orecchiette and lamb sausage for dinner and I now feel completely spent.

Instead of writing about Tailor, I'm going to go to sleep early with the hopes of getting in a Monday morning gym session. After my weekend I truly need it.

Tailor

2007-09-14T10:00:00.000-04:00

Tonight I get to go to Sam Mason’s new restaurant/cocktail lounge Tailor. Sam Mason is the former pastry chef at WD-50 and Tailor is his first independent venture. Unfortunately, Sam had already left WD-50 when I visited for the first time so I’ve never eaten any of his food, but the fact that he is an alumnus of WD-50, a restaurant I love and respect, has me excited for Tailor.

Mason’s menu is comprised of a salty and a sweet section with such interesting combinations as foie gras and peanut butter, pork-belly and miso butterscotch, tomato peach and black sesame ice cream. Tailor also has the bonus of having an incredibly ambitious cocktail program with drinks such as the Bazooka, consisting of vodka, bubble gum cordial and house sour mix and the Charantais made of walnut infused cognac, dandelion cointreau and lemon. They also have their own house infused liquors such as Tobacco Bourbon and Pumpernickel Raisin scotch.

I’m not really sure what to expect of dinner but I’m hoping to be challenged and impressed. I always appreciate chefs trying new things and Tailor seems like a worthy effort. I hope the food is good.

Here’s a link to a site with some pictures of the food at Tailor

Here are some pictures from WD-50’s site. The food here is both aesthetically good looking and intellectually interesting. If you have some time, it’s really a lot of fun to browse through some of the images and read about the combinations.

BYOB

2007-09-13T10:08:00.000-04:00

Ever since my trip to California my taste buds have been the pleasures of fine wine. I haven’t been looking to drink loads of it, but every night around dinner time I find myself not only thinking about what I’m going to eat for dinner (a daily, soul tormenting struggle) but if I’m going to be able to enjoy a nice glass of wine with my meal.

If I’m not eating at home, which has been the case every night this week, the wine decision becomes a difficult one. I don’t really drink wine by itself, nor do I go to restaurants and eat food without drinking wine. I’m a firm believer in the mutualistic relationship between wine and food and try to combine the two (in moderation) whenever possible.

For someone like me (a young teacher) the pleasure in a bottle of fine wine can become a pricey one. Almost all restaurants mark up wine by at least 100% and sometimes even more than that. This means that if I want to enjoy a $20-25 dollar bottle of wine, about the median price of the wines I have at home; it will often be $50 to $60 dollars. I like wine, but I like eating more and I’m really not into dropping $60 dollars on a bottle I already have at home, something that is essentially free for me if I consider it a sunk cost once it enters my closet.

This brings me to the joys of BYOB. I love going to a restaurant and being able to eat someone else’s cooking and enjoying a bottle of good wine to go with it. I went to Lamb and Jaffy with a friend last night and had some simple, yet delicious bacon wrapped dates, duck breast, summer risotto with black truffles, and molten chocolate cake, all paired with an uplifting fruity Barbera D’Alba (total cost approximately $25 a person with tax and tip ). The company, the pleasant late summer night in an outdoor garden, the good food and the relaxed pricing made this one of the more enjoyable meals that I’ve had in the last month.

I eat so much of my own cooking these days and usually drink from my wine collection with it. The combination is enjoyable, but I find it much more relaxing to drink with someone else’s food. Regardless of how tasty the meal is, I always enjoy when someone else cooks for me. And I think that in my more relaxed state I can enjoy my wine better too.

Pigging Out

2007-09-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

From http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/05/31/nyc-dining-momofuku-ssam-bar/

The tender delicious Bo Ssam in all it's piggy glory. My friends and I finished an eight pounder this past Saturday and are very proud of the accomplishment.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to eat pig products. If I could only eat one kind of animal for the rest of my life it would definitely be the pig. I can’t think of too many things that taste better than pork belly or bacon. I’m also a huge fan of all kinds of sausage, hot dogs, ribs, pork chops, cured meats and even pig’s head. My friend Aaron even went as far as to call me a ‘pigophile' the other day. This past Saturday, my intense love of pork products led me and my friends to a meal that had been months in the making: the Bo Ssam at Momofuku Ssam Bar.

For those of you that don’t know, Bo Ssam refers to a Korean style slow cooked pork butt (really the shoulder.) At Momofuku, the Bo Ssam is accompanied by a dozen oysters, Bibb lettuce, kimchee, kimchee puree, a chili bbq sauce and a ginger scallion puree.

We started off our porcine feast with a couple of non pig appetizers. These included the Momofuku pickle plate, the fried cauliflower with mint, Delfino cilantro and fish sauce, the tomato salad with fried tofu, the squid salad, and the poached Mayan prawns. After we each had a couple of sample bites, (the consensus favorite seemed to be the fried cauliflower) the Momofuku staff brought out the various Bo Ssam accompaniments. These were followed by an icy a plate of oysters and the highlight of the meal: an eight pound, crackly skinned, fall off the bone soft, rich, juicy, piggily delicious pork butt.

We were instructed to wrap the pork in lettuce and add the accompaniments along with (and this was surprising to me) an oyster! The idea of pulled pork and oysters doesn’t sound that great, but the briny fresh cool taste of the oyster helps add a lightness to the dense, rich flavor of the pork. We liked the combination so much we even ordered another dozen.

Other than the oyster my favorite Bo Ssam add-on was the ginger scallion puree. Like the oyster, the ginger added lightness to the pork that brought it to a completely different level. I can’t think of too many things that taste more perfect than Bo Ssam with ginger scallion puree, an oyster, and a little bit of kimchee for spice.

I’ve probably been to Momofuku Ssam bar 15-20 times and haven’t had an experience there as quite like the Bo Ssam. What made it even better was that the entire butt, our appetizers, a couple of bottles of sparkling shiraz, and a couple of rounds of the fantastically floral Hitachino white ale ended up being equal to, or less than my usual tab there. If you can find 7-9 friends who enjoy good food and have appetites, the Momofuku Bo Ssam is a must in the world of New York Food. There aren’t many meals that leave me sitting with a fully belly and a permanent, stupid smile on my face, but the Bo Ssam was one of them. Even though my fullness led me to be completely useless for the rest of the night, I can’t wait to go back.