Grilled Mahi Mahi with Pesto Sauce and Brown Rice Vegetable Medley

This meal was all about getting rid of all the stuff in the my fridge. I had a bunch of basil and parsley left over from Ursula's bday dinner, plus a container of extra brown rice from another meal I made earlier in the week. I also had a piece of frozen seasoned mahi mahi from Trader Joe's in the freezer and a container of sauteed shitake mushrooms and snow peas from Woorijip. I decided to throw all this stuff together and it came out pretty well. I made a pesto sauce, grilled the fish for about 8 minutes (4 min per side), combined the brown rice with the mushrooms and dinner was done!

Recipe for Pesto Sauce:

Ingredients:
1/3 cup of olive oil
1 clove of garlic
juice of one lemon
dash of salt
1/3 cup of chopped basil leaves
3-4 tablespoons of chopped flat leaf parsley
handful of walnuts

Directions:
mix all the ingredients together in a food processor

Tiny's, Sugar Sweet Sunshine, Le Grainne

A-man and I spent this past Sunday strolling around the city. We checked out Mike Nelson's exhibit "Psychic Vacuum", did some light shopping, of course, ate lots of good food continuously throughout the day. After I had a mild tantrum over not wanting to eat sandwiches, we went to Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop on Rivington Street. Tiny's is a small shop serving a variety of sandwiches and not much else. They serve the basics - turkey, BLT, ham and swiss, tuna, veggie, grilled cheese, roast beef, plus a few twists on basics: Chicken Po'Boy, Crab Cake sandwich, "Silly Philly Portobello", which is a philly cheese steak made with grilled portobello mushrooms and onions. I ordered the Crab Cake sandwich and Amar ordered the Chicken Po'Boy. My sandwich was pretty good...although I tasted more breadcrumbs than actual crab meat. Amar's sandwich was by far the better choice. The chicken was tender and the cheddar was perfectly melted and gooey. The toasted semolina bun had a crunchy outside and soft inside. Tiny's doesn't seem to serve up anything creative or particularly memorable, but it is a good choice if you find yourself on the Lower East Side and don't feel like spending too much for a fancy schmancy meal. Prices range from $4 - $8.

After our lunch at Tiny's, I of course had to pop into Sugar Sweet Sunshine and pick up one of their amazing cupcakes. I always pick the Ooey Gooey: dark chocolate cake with chocolate almond butter cream frosting. But this time I forced myself to pick something different. I settled on the Sassy Red Velvet: red velvet cake with chocolate almond butter cream frosting. Look at it...isn't it a beauty? I sunk my teeth into that cupcake and squealed with delight. I hate to say this, but I think the Sassy Red Velvet might have a slight edge over the Ooey Gooey. The frosting holds its shape, without being too stiff, a problem that a lot of cupcakes have. It's thick, creamy, melts in your mouth and has a delicious hint of almond underneath and initial taste of chocolate. The red velvet cake is moist and not too dense - my favorite kind of cupcake.

Later in the day, we ended up in Chelsea on 9th ave. Had I not already had something sweet just a few hours ago, we would have ended up at Billy's Bakery. But instead, we crossed the street over to Le Grainne Cafe, a French bistro, to get something to drink and to rest our feet. Le Grainne Cafe is really cute and laid-back...the interior has a rustic feel, the tables are covered by brown butcher paper, there are rooster motifs everywhere and ceiling fans whirl gently overhead. The restaurant serves all the things we provincial Americans think of as being French: mussels, crepes (savory and sweet), croque monsieur, coq au vin, ratatouille, croissants and tarts and a extensive list of coffee drinks and wines, and a bad attitude! (I kid I kid.) Neither of us were very hungry, so we just ordered iced tea and Tartine: a toasted french baguette served with soft butter and apricot jam. Since we didn't really eat there, I can't vouch for food, but the restaurant itself is nice and has that rare neighborhood feel to it. I can't wait go back to Le Grainne on a chilly winter night and warm myself up over a nice glass of red wine and some entree that sounds really French. And speak in an obnoxious fake French accent the whole time, of course. How romantique!

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Juice Truck in Chelsea

There's this awesome new juice truck that's parked at the northeast corner of 19th street and 6th avenue. The truck (i didn't see a formal name) serves up 25 kinds of fruit shakes and 10 kinds of vegetable juices for prices starting at $3 for a small. I got the #25: a pineapple, strawberry, mango and orange juice shake. It was cold and refreshing. It could have been a little thicker, but that's about the only complaint I have. It definitely beats waiting in line at Jamba Juice for 20 minutes and paying $5 for a tiny little drink. I spied a vegetable juice that includes celery, spinach and ginger. Gross or tasty? I'm not sure. The juice truck is on location at least Mon-Fri 9-5 (i'm not sure if it's there on the weekends) and is parked about 5 steps away from a Halal truck. It's a brilliant idea really - why aren't there more juice trucks around the city? Lets hope it cuts into Jamba Juice's market share...that place annoys me. AND they still use syrofoam cups in this day and age.

Flurt Yogurt

On my way to dinner in Battery Park last night, I walked past a bo bo Pinkberry. At first I thought to myself, "hmm, is this another new Pinkberry store? What a random out-of-the way place for them to open up a store..." The logo of Flurt is similar to the Pinkberry logo, their whole concept - minimal interior design, plain yogurt with fruit toppings is exactly the same as Pinkberry's whole shtick. But, with a plus: the prices are cheaper. No green tea flavor though, which is unfortunate. Curious about the taste, I had to sample Flurt's yogurt. The taste is virtually the same, but the consistency of Flurt's yogurt is creamier and thicker than Pinkberry's yogurt. While Pinkberry has that light, almost grainy consistency, Flurt is much thicker and heavier (although it claims to be as calorific as Pinkberry.) I - a self-proclaimed P'Berry fan - might have to side with Flurt. The consistency is much better, I don't feel like I'm sour-flavored airy puffs of yogurt. Flurt has one location in Battery Park on South End Ave and one location in Gramercy on 3rd ave between 22nd and 23rd streets.

Daniel by guest bloggers "Urandalla"

Ursula: Hiiii! Randall and I are guest blogging today to tell you guys all about our experience at Daniel. How exciting! We went there last night for my 25^th birthday and it was pretty ridiculous. First, a quick background on Daniel. I was interested in going after reading Ruth Reichl’s book, “Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise”. She used to be the food critic for the New York Times and I remember her always mentioning Daniel as the best restaurant in NYC, giving it the maximum 4 star rating, and since then I’ve been itching to try it. Its French cuisine, owned by chef Daniel Bouloud (Top Chef guest judge!) and it’s located on the UES, on 65^th and Park. We knew it would be pretty chi -chi, especially since the suggested attire was tie and jacket, but we were excited for the food and service, which we knew would be amazing and make the night memorable.

So we arrive at the restaurant, the décor is really fancy…red velvet chairs, chandeliers, high ceilings, mostly couples-only tables, very romantic. We were greeted by the hostess, who was wearing a very conservative black suit (as was most of the serving staff) and chic prada glasses. As Randall excused himself to the bathroom, she immediately ushered me to the “lounge” so I could have a drink while we waited for out table. I ordered us a couple of glasses of champagne, the house of course which was also name Daniel (that guy has some serious ego…can you imagine naming a restaurant Ursula or Meng?), and the waiter brought us this delicious olive cracker to munch on. We were shortly escorted to our table…we were lucky to have a corner table so we could snuggle closely (ha) and were offered the wine list. Ok, so the wine list had a table of contents! There were bottles for $10,000, no joke! We decide to continue and stay with the house champagne since it was a celebration (and the cheapest thing on the menu)! The amuse bouche soon arrived, lobster on a bed of cauliflower mousse, broccoli mousse with goat cheese, and a parmesan cracker with more goat cheese, it was delicious. For dinner, which was a 3 course prix-fixe, I got the pressed poularde and foie gras terrine with black trumpet gelee, young turnip salad and a port reduction to start and a paupiette of black sea bass in a crisp potato shell with tender leeks and a syrah sauce as my main course. I was super bummed the special course of the day wasn’t available, “milk-fed baby pig”! The food was pretty delicious, but I must admit that it wasn’t the best that I had, I think David Burke and Donatella was much better.

A note on the service and then I’ll let Randall finish the post with what he ate and the rest of the night. All the waiters and waitresses had a charming and thick French accent, and when they served you or removed plates from the table they did it in unison…so it was like, “1, 2, 3 remove plate” or “1, 2, 3 place plate” ha! They actually covered our table cloth with a matching cloth napkin so that our food stains wouldn’t be visible (and believe me there were a few food stains, I blame it on the champagne!). They had a bread guy with 6 or 7 different types of breads, including a delicious olive loaf which I think I had two pieces of…they were all super nice, our waiter even took a picture of us (I know, super cheesy, but we were excited!), so it wasn’t pretentious and they definitely didn’t discriminate because of our age (we were the youngest couple there by 20 years!)

Randall: In my attempt to make this the best and most memorable birthday for Ursula, I felt I needed to pick a place that you would only go to on special occasion. I couldn't have found a better restaurant as this was the most fancy décor I have ever seen and from the moment I walked in we felt like English Royalty. Everyone in this beautiful house was there for a special occassion and that made it extremely special (especially to be so young, but feel so mature). I was wearing a suit and felt underdressed!!! Many restaurants take on a unique character, whether it is in the decor, the service, or most importantly the quality of food. I must say that this was top notch in each of those categories. For an appetizer, I had the tasting of heirloom tomatos which included a chilled soup with aged feta, “en salade” with goat cheese, red bell peppers bavorais and socca “nicoise” and for my entrée I had the trio of colorado lamb which included roasted chop with garbanzo-fava bean croquettes, fig leaf shoulder papillotte and tenderloin with fennel confit. The appetizer was amazing... the vegetables were so ripe and everything was prepared so delicately. Our waiter made us feel very important and had his eye on our table, ready to serve us for every time we finished a small glass of champagne. I must say that it was the best LAMB I have ever had and will have for the rest of my life (I am sure of it). It was tender yet dry and still possessed a very strong juicy flavor even though nothing was bleeding on to the plate.

My only reservation about the entrées at Daniel (and many other restaurants in NYC) was the size of the portion. I felt like I could have indulged a bit more and for the price and maybe gotten a little more meat, but I was so happy with my surroundings so the food was not the only priority... The high ceilings, polite waiters and overall sense of Royalty makes Daniel a top notch restaurant in my book. As we finished our entrees we had another glass of champagne (which was being poured in our glass at the perfect time) and went in for the final celebration... DESSERT! This was quite cute because they broke the dessert menu into Fruit and Chocolate so that you could satisfy your cravings with one theme or the other. I thought that was very neat because Ursula ordered raspberry-lemon vacherin with thai basil topped with lemon meringue and raspberry marshmallow and I ordered the warm chocolate financier with bergamot (a type of orange) gelee and lady grey earl tea ice cream recommended by our waitress. As we were smothering ourselves with chocolate and fruit (was not a big fan of Ursi's dessert -- too candy oriented) they brought out the b-day desset which was just awesome. YESSS I took a picture because in fine chocolate cursive, they wrote "HAPPY BIRTHDAY URSULA" and it was just amazing. I had a tear in my eye for my girlfriend. Romantic and well done... and the birthday dessert itself was a mix of chocolates that just excited the taste buds.

At that point I decided that this was one of the best restaurants I have been too (I’m only 23) and one of the best birthdays I had planned. It couldn't have been better executed and I noted that when pointing out to Ursula what was different about our table. Yes, it was the flower arrangement that I bought from L'Olivier who delivered it to Daniel that the morning and which they had placed on the table when we arrived.... It was an arrangement of the most beautiful fall sunflowers in a nice wide square glass vase...They escorted us out and then we went to finish off the night with an after-dinner drink in the lounge (where we first started). I think the food was top 5 in my book and rates 2nd to all the restaurants I have been too. My rankings are below:

1. Buddakan (braised short ribs -- spectacular)
2. Daniel
3. David Burke and Donatella
4. Mercer Kitchen
5. Smith & Wollenski's / Elephant

Ursula: So yeah it was a great time, the flowers were a great surprise and such a nice touch…definitely worth blogging about as I sit here at work feeling hung over from the champagne. Thank you Randall for an amazing dinner and thank you Meng for letting us write about it!

Whole Wheat Pasta with Broccoli Rabe

This dish is cheap, healthy and easy to make. Three factors that are very important to me. It's a good meal but not good as leftovers. This dish dries out really quickly and I haven't figured out how to make it not taste like dry pasta and shriveled greens after it's been re-heated. If you can fix this problem let me know.


Ingredients:
1/2 box of whole wheat pasta
1 package of broccoli rabe
3-4 cloves of garlic
salt
olive oil
lots of parmesan cheese
reserved pasta water
3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar or more depending on your preference

Instructions:
Boil the pasta, drain and save about 1/2 cup of the liquid
Chop the garlic into thin slices, saute garlic in olive oil for a few minutes
Add the broccoli rabe and saute on medium heat until the stems are tender, approximately 10-15 minutes
add salt and stir in balsamic vinegar
Stir in the cooked pasta
Add the reserved pasta liquid
Add the parmesan cheese

Sultan Grill

The General and I biked all the way down to Coney Island Avenue and Newkirk one night with the intention of eating at Bahar, this Aghan restaurant I read about. It was a pretty hot night and the restaurant wasn't air-conditioned, so we nixed the idea of eating there pretty quickly. We wandered a few doors down to the corner of Coney Island Ave and Parkville and saw what appeared to be a spanking new restaurant called Sultan Grill. We gave it a go and it turned out to be a really good find. The restaurant has two menus - a Pakistani menu and a Turkish menu. We ordered the Chicken Tikka, Daal, Roti and Naan off the Pakistani menu. The Pakistani menu offers the basics: curry, tandoori, grilled meats, biryanis, etc. The portions were perfect, not too big so that we were stuffing ourselves but just the right amount of food for two people. The Chicken Tikka was smokey and juicy, without much excess oil. The Daal was also very good...a little different from daals I've had at other restaurants. The lentils weren't as mushy and the dish wasn't as liquidy as most other ones that I've had. The fresh ginger topping was a little bit too strong but other than that the dish was very light and non-greasy. My favorites might actually have been the breads. The naan and roti appeared to be freshly baked and steam was still coming off the top as the waitress placed it on our table. The naan was light and fluffy without any charred burnt bits that you often see. A good, simple meal that didn't make me feel the slightest bit sleepy afterwards. The atmosphere isn't great - bright florescent lighting, drab walls and tiled floors, but the food is fresh and satisfying. Thank you Mr. Sultan for making my stomach happy. Now I am going to watch Britney's VMA video for the 11th time and THEN watch her I'm a Slave for U VMA performance and cry tears of longing for the old awesome Britney.

Province

Alright, so I'm not sure whether or not i've already written about Province, but I'm going to plug it again. Every time I go in there, it's always empty and I don't understand why because the food is EXCELLENT. Really good. Really authentic Chinese sandwiches. I blame it on the not so great location of the restaurant - it's at the corner of Church and Walker streets in Tribeca. It's kind of a random spot...straddling both Chinatown and Tribeca, but not in the center of either neighborhood. It's really too bad because if it was on a busier street, I think it'd do really well. The buns they serve are much better than the crap that's being doled out over at Momofuku Ssam. My favorite is the braised pork shoulder sandwich. The thick slabs of pork are tender, fatty and salty. A couple sprigs of cilantro, a few slices of pickled cucumbers and a thin layer of hoisin sauce accompany the meat. All of this is sandwiched in between two slices of chinese-style bun: soft and pillowy pieces of white bread that tastes much better than your average ho hum baguette or ciabatta. Province also serves chicken, steak, kimchi and pork sandwiches, soups, salads and dumplings. Best of all, each sandwich only costs $4.25. A pork sandwich and a cold Tsing Tao will only cost you $10. Side of shrimp-flavor chips included. Ok now I'm going to go watch Britney's VMA performance for the 10th time and cry into my pillow.

Madeleine Patisserie

I walked by Madeleine Patisserie on the south side 23rd between 6th and 7th a few weeks ago and did a double take. A cute and clean little bakery in an area mostly inhabited by hardware and 99 cent stores? It can't be. But indeed, my eyes weren't playing a trick on me and my stomach. I ventured down into the below ground-level store and was immediately engulfed in rich and buttery air. The bakery is bright and sparsely decorated, there are a few tables, chairs and coffee tables pushed up against and walls. The first thing you see when you walk into the bakery is the display case full of madeleines in all different colors. The flavor of the goodies come in interesting combinations: hazelnut and prune, chocolate and lemon and pistachio among others. They also sell croissants, loaves of various breads and the standard assortment of coffee drinks. The chocolate croissants are fantastic: the chocolate in the middle is rich and heavy and the croissant is buttery and flakey.

Madeleine Patisserie is an oasis of chocolate and deliciousness in an otherwise grimey and run-down stretch of 23rd street. They sell these mini chocolate croissants for 75 cents a piece that are the perfect after-work snacks, for that loooong walk from the store to the F train.