Gastronomical Me

Two new favorite restaurants in NYC

2010-04-04T16:50:00.003-04:00

On my trips back to NYC over the past six months or so, I've tried several new restaurants but these two stand out in my mind: Hundred Acres in the West Village and Ippudo in the East Village.

Hundred Acres: was all-around fantastic. I made a reservation for 8 PM on a Friday night and we were taken to our table by 8:10, which is pretty good for New York. The atmosphere was warm, relaxing and casual. The tables were spaced far enough apart so that we didn't feel like we were sitting on top of the other diners and the noise level was just right. The wine & beer list was thoughtfully curated, with a focus on local brews. The butter that came with the bread was ridiculously good - we asked for two additional baskets of bread, just so we had an excuse to eat more of the butter. It was creamy, soft, with a slight sweet hint. Later, the waiter told us that the butter is made with honey. All of our entrees were delicious and appropriately portioned. I recommend everything. It's a great place to go to catch up with old friends!

Ippudo: hands down the best ramen shop in NYC. And everyone else in the city seems to think so because I went for lunch on a random Tuesday and the wait was 30 minutes! This place blows Ramen Setagaya out of the water. I finally figured out what it means to have a broth with depth and complexity, because Ippudo's ramen has both. After drinking a full bowl, I wanted more because with every sip, I tasted a new ingredient. The pork was tender and fatty, with just enough salt. The noodles were the perfect consistency, chewy but still tender. I had a truly delightful dining experience at Ippudo and left the restaurant with a full belly, runny nose, flushed cheeks and feeling like I had just eaten something really special.

Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers

2010-04-04T16:18:00.002-04:00

I'd like to take a moment to praise the merits of Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers frozen meals. These things have pretty much gotten me through grad school. I've eaten my fair share of frozen meals over the past year and these by far are my favorite.

They are really easy to make, relatively low in calorie and sodium content and most important of all: tasty! I've seen them go for as low as $2.50 each at Target.

My favorites so far:
Grilled Vegetables Mediterranean
Grilled Basil Chicken
Chicken Red Pepper Alfredo
Grilled Chicken Marinara

Spinach Quiche

2010-04-04T15:59:00.004-04:00

Ok it's been awhile since I last posted...and that's because school has been crazy hectic and I've been eating frozen meals for the past month. Pretty sad.

Anyway, I had a couple of friends over for dinner last night and I decided to make Spinach Quiche, mostly because I already had most of the ingredients in my pantry. It was very easy (took less than 1/2 hour of prep time) and a big hit, so I think I'll be making this more often. I cobbled this recipe together from a couple of other recipes I found online and added a couple of ingredients of my own:

Ingredients:
1 9" pre-made pie crust
1 10 oz package of frozen spinach, thawed
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 scallions, 1 thinly sliced and 1 cut into long pieces
1/2 cup of cottage cheese
1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup of roasted chicken, chopped
4 eggs
salt and pepper

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Saute onions in olive oil for about 5 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the thawed out spinach and saute for about 8 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add two liberal pinches of salt and a pinch of pepper.
While the spinach and onions are cooking, combine the eggs, various cheeses, chicken, 1 sliced scallion.
After the spinach and onions are cooked and have cooled down, add that in to the egg and cheese mixture.
Pour everything the pie crust, garnish with the long pieces of scallion
Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 40 minutes, or until the quiche has developed a golden brown color on top.

America's Foodiest Small Town....

2010-02-10T22:34:00.001-05:00

I came across this article while researching some new restaurants to try in the RTP area. I didn't realize there was so much good food in Durham!

Google Homepage Goes Gourmet

2009-11-19T18:24:00.001-05:00

Check out Google's new food themes!

Chocolate Pudding Pie

2009-11-08T11:45:00.003-05:00

I had to make a dessert for a potluck last night and only had 30 minutes or less to churn out something presentable. I always turn to Smitten Kitchen when I'm in need of a dessert recipe and this recipe for Chocolate Pudding Pie did not disappoint. A couple of time saving tips:
- use pre-made pie crust, pick it up in the frozen aisle of the grocery store
- canned whipped cream, definitely not as tasty as self whipped cream, but it'll look just as nice
The pudding itself only takes about 15 minutes to make and anything in the shape of a pie always looks impressive.

Remember to constantly stir the pudding while it's cooking over medium heat, otherwise the bottom will burn and your dessert might or might not taste like burnt chocolate.

Enjoy!

Chicken with peach salsa

2009-08-25T16:27:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile since I last posted. Moving to Chapel Hill and starting grad school has kept me pretty busy! For the first few weeks right after I moved down here I was eating whatever I could scrape together - ramen, toast, canned soup. It was pretty crappy. I'm finally slowly getting back into the swing of cooking on a regular basis. I've got a much bigger kitchen to work in, plus a dishwasher, so it's pretty exciting! Amar came down for a quick visit this weekend and he cooked a delicious Sunday night meal. I wish I took a photo of the dish, it was bright and colorful.

I usually go into a grocery store with a meal in mind and buy the ingredients that I need. Amar likes to wander around the produce section until he's inspired by something that he sees. This time he was inspired by a package of store made peach salsa from Whole Foods:

Chicken:
Marinade:
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 liberal splash of orange juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
juice from one lime
pinch of salt

Combine the marinade ingredients in a food processor
marinade 2-3 large chicken breasts for 3 hours
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Pan fry the chicken for 3 minutes on each side
Put the chicken in the oven, cover with aluminum foil, bake for 8-10 minutes
Meanwhile, cube one ripe avocado
combine with fresh peach salsa (or mango or pineapple salsa)
Take the chicken out of the oven, pour the chicken and juices over the salsa
combine so that the salsa is warmed

Serve with rice and beans

And I'm Back

2009-06-28T20:18:00.003-04:00

I'm back from an awesome trip around China and Southeast Asia. I stuffed myself to the brim with noodles and fresh juice shakes. I had my first glass of red wine in 7 weeks last night at Lil Vinny's, a little Italian restaurant in Somerville. It was delicious! Food pics from my trip coming soon.

Taste of New York

2009-05-03T19:16:00.004-04:00

I bid New York good-bye yesterday. I'm going to miss a lot of things about NYC, especially all of the fantastic food that's a phone call or a subway ride away.

A list of all the food I'll be craving, in no particular order:

The Ooey Gooey cupcake - Sugar Sweet Sunshine
Lentil soup - Zaytoon's
Beef hand-pulled noodle soup - the shop at the corner of Catherine and East Broadway
Gnocchi, linguine with fresh fava beans, stewed prunes in red wine sauce and pretty much everything else on the menu - Frankie's 457
Chicken and rice - any street cart, but especially the one by MOMA
Tortilla soup, quesadillas, quarter chicken with rice - Los Pollitos II
Margarita pizza - Anthony's
Chicken katsu lunch special - Tebaya
Shrimp tempura udon noodle soup - Foodworks
Soup dumplings - Shanghai Cafe
Breakfast burrito and poached eggs - Miracle Grill
Sushi boxes - Woorijip
Miso ramen - Ramen Setagaya
Green tea frozen yogurt - Pinkberry
Hotdogs and PBRs - Gowanus Yacht Club
brunch - everywhere

Slow Poached Fish

2009-05-03T18:49:00.003-04:00

Following my summer cocktail recipe, slow poached fish with braised asparagus and a glass of white wine is the perfect early summer meal. Plus, there's not much heat involved, so you won't be sweating away in the kitchen. The fish recipe is adapted from this sweet and hunger-inducing article from NYTimes.

The recipe calls for halibut, but I substituted catfish, which is cheaper. I didn't taste the mint, so I wouldn't recommend using any. I also replaced rosemary with some thyme.

A Summery Cocktail

2009-05-03T18:28:00.002-04:00

Summer is just around the bend and to get summer '09 started, I'll share with you a recipe for a refreshing summer cocktail. This drink from one of my favorite restaurants in Brooklyn, Frankie's 457. It's pretty much liquid summer:

Ingredients:
1-2 shots of Absolut Citron, or another citrus vodka of your choice
handful of mint leaves
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
Juice of one lime
Juice of one lemon
1/4 cup of club soda

Recipe:
- Make the simple syrup ahead of time: in a small saucepan, bring the sugar, water and mint leaves to a boil, stir until sugar is dissolved, cook for another 5 minutes. Refridgerate overnight.
- In a cocktail shaker, combine the vodka, lemon juice, lime juice and 1/4 cup of simple syrup. Shake with ice
- Pour mixture into a tall glass with ice
- Top up with the club soda

Indian Recipes

2009-03-05T19:23:00.002-05:00

I had dinner at my friend Alex's apartment last night and he made a really great curry. While he was cooking, Alex rushed between the stove and his laptop, reading the cooking instructions from a website, showmethecurry. I've always been a little scared of making Indian food...the recipes all look so long and complicated. This website is really useful and well organized, there are lots of instructional youtube videos with awesome muzak playing in the background. I'll report back when I make a recipe from the site.

Harefield Road

2009-03-02T19:13:00.001-05:00

Recommended: brunch at Harefield Road in Williamsburg. $12 gets you a
brunch cocktail, bottomless coffee/tea and an entrée. My poached eggs
with smoked salmon was delicious. And something must be said for high
quality English Breakfast tea. The worst is weak and watery tea. If
you want an post brunch snack I hear there is a White Castle nearby.

JFK Terminal 5

2009-03-02T12:47:00.002-05:00

I flew out of the new Jetblue terminal at JFK last week and check out
my meal! Doesn't it look edible? And it tasted quite good actually. And I'm not just comparing that to standard airport food. I was quite impressed actually. I ordered the tofu stir-fry with mongolian sauce from Lucy's Asian Kitchen, one of the stalls in the terminal's food
court. The food court also has a pasta place, a sandwich shop, pizza, full salad bar and a bunch if hot soups. There's also 3 full service restaurants: a sushi bar, tapas restaurant and a steakhouse. I was definitely very impressed with the food options. Now if only Jetblue's flights could ever leave on time...

Bacchus Wine Bar

2009-02-22T17:37:00.003-05:00

I was pleasantly surprised by my meal at Bacchus Wine Bar. I picked this restaurant purely for its location. I was in Carroll Gardens, Sarah was in Bed-Sty and Samantha was in Lefferts Gardens, and I had to find a place that was relatively easy to get to for all of us. I was expecting decent french bistro food, but our meals were really good, above and beyond what I was anticipating. The restaurant is tiny - only around 7 tables. We went on a Thursday night and place was pretty much empty, but don't let that deter you. I recommend the escargots, scallops, mussels and the skate. Bacchus Wine Bar is located on Atlantic btw Bond and Nevins.

Baked

2009-02-01T17:01:00.000-05:00

Down the street from Hope and Anchor is Baked, a bakery that serves
the best hot chocolate. It has a perfect consistency - not cloyingly
thick and not too watery. Their cupcakes, which rival those from Sugar
Sweet Sunshine, are also highly recommended.

Hope and Anchor

2009-02-01T16:51:00.001-05:00

Hope and Anchor in Red Hook serves classic diner food, with less
grease. They have an expansive burger menu, all-American dinner
entrees and a fun snack menu. I have my eye on the mac n cheese
fritters. I went there Saturday morning for brunch and my meal was
lovely. I got the vegetable hash, which comes with mushrooms,
tomatoes, spinach, potatoes and a few other unidentifiable veggies.

The food is simple, nothing crazily inventive, but very satisfying.
Prices are very reasonable!

Tortilla Soup

2009-01-31T08:53:00.003-05:00

Thanks Molly for the recipe!

Ingredients:
1 chipotle chili pepper in adobo sauce
1 14 oz can of black beans
1 14 oz can of chicken stock
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 package of frozen corn
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 corn tortillas, ripped up
2 zucchinis, chopped
1 handful of cilantro, diced (optional)
lime juice (optional)
avocado (optional)
salt, lots of it
water, lots of it
1-2 tablespoons of cumin, adjust accordingly
1-2 tablespoons of ground coriander, adjust accordingly
1 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
1 teaspoon chili powder (optional)

Instructions:
Heat up a good amount of olive oil in a large pot, saute the garlic and onion for about 5 minutes at medium/high heat
Chop up one chipotle chili, take out seeds if you don't want the soup to be too spicy
Add the chopped chili to the pot, stir for a few minutes
Add the crushed tomatoes, chicken stock, black beans and frozen corn in all at once
Add water to dilute the mixture. Add as much or as little as you want, depending on how thick you like your soup. I added about 2 14 oz can's worth of water to the soup
Add the spices and the salt
Add the chopped zucchini
Continue to salt to taste
Put a lid on the pot and simmer at low/medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally
Take the tortillas and cut/rip them into thin long strips
Add the tortilla strips to the soup, stir and simmer for another 10-15 minutes or so.
Optional: Garnish soup with cilantro, lime juice and avocado

Picture of my Saturday lunch soup

2009-01-04T15:35:00.001-05:00

Saturday Lunch

2009-01-04T14:59:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday, after blowing all of my cash on take-out, I had to make myself lunch. I've been so spoiled over the past week...my parents made me three meals a day! Whenever I come back from a trip home, I get really lazy about cooking and don't make myself anything for 3 or 4 days. Anyway, I looked in my mostly bare cupboard and fridge and this is what I found: 1 old lemon, 1 can of chickpeas, 1/2 a bag of red lentils, 2 cans of tuna, a couple of tomatoes. Not all that much I could do with this stuff, so I went on a quick trip to the grocery store to supplement what I had to make a decent soup and sandwich combo. I ended making an italian-style tuna sandwich and a lentil, tomato and chickpea soup (an adaptation of a Rachael Ray recipe.) Turned out surprisingly well given I was just trying to eat whatever I could find in my house. Recipes below (serves 2 with some left over):

Italian-Style Tuna:
2 cans of tuna packed in water, drained
a handful of pitted kalamata olives, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped (try to get rid of as much juice and seeds as you can)
a handful of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt & pepper
Combine all of the ingredients, spread on a roll and add a few large basil leaves.

Lentil, Chickpea and Tomato Soup:
1 can of chickpeas
1/3 cup of red lentils
1 can (28 oz) of fire roasted tomatoes (or just regular whole tomatoes)
1/3 cup of chicken stock
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin

Puree the chickpeas and onions in a food processor
Cook the garlic in olive oil at medium heat
Add the chickpea and onion puree, combine with the turmeric, cumin and salt(liberally)
Stir for about 5 minutes
Add the can of tomatoes (juice included), chicken stock and lentils, stir and combine
Simmer the soup at medium heat for about 20-25 minutes, or until the lentils are mushy
Stir occasionally, use your stirrer/spatula to break up the tomatoes if necessary
Taste and add salt if needed.

Easy Sorbet

2009-01-04T14:47:00.006-05:00

I just made a sorbet (recipe courtesy of Mark Bittman/NY Times) that was ridiculously easy and really tasty. It only requires 3 ingredients and takes less than 5 minutes to make. Also! It tastes any overpriced sorbet that you would buy at a place like Ciao Bella. Now that I've made my own home-made version, i don't think I'll be going out to buy sorbet anymore.

Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen fruit (I used strawberries)
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
1/4 cup of sugar
A few tablespoons of water

Instructions:
1. Combine ingredients in a food processor
2. Blend until the fruit is broken down and the ingredients form a smooth consistency
3. Serve

Eldo Cake House

2008-12-25T13:09:00.000-05:00

My favorite bakery in Boston's Chinatown. These cakes are made of
fluffy vanilla sponge cake with a layer of light cream and fresh
strawberries in the middle.

Breakfast at home

2008-12-25T10:52:00.000-05:00

Rice porridge
Pickled vegetables
Hard-boiled egg
Steamed bun with red bean filling
Mmmm

Hibino

2008-12-14T18:21:00.006-05:00

I finally made it to Hibino last night, a Japanese restaurant on a residential stretch of Cobble Hill. Located at the corner of Henry and Pacific streets, the restaurant serves the usual Japanese fare, as well as daily "Obanzai" specials, or home-style Japanese version of tapas. The food is very good - simple, unfussy and satisfying. The sushi was also the best I've had in a long time. The service was also great, our waitress was attentive but not obstrusive, appearing at all of the right times.

To start, we ordered one of the obanzai specials: the curry croquette, which came with a thick ponzu dipping sauce and the Hirousu, which are tofu cakes served with a mild soy broth. The curry croquette looked like a McDonald's hash brown and tasted sort of like a samosa. That description doesn't sound appetizing, but it was actually my favorite dish.

Our bill for two obanzai (obanzais?), two rolls of sushi, a glass of wine and a glass of beer came out to about $35. That's a pretty good deal.

http://www.hibino-brooklyn.com/

Tablespoon

2008-12-09T19:51:00.005-05:00

The cute and delicious new cafe, Tablespoon, on 20th between 5th and 6th aves. The lemon meringue pie is very good, the coffee will make you jittery for the rest of the day. They also serve breakfast (egg dishes and pastries) and lunch (salads, sandwiches and a daily entree.)

Vegetable Soba Noodle Soup

2008-12-08T19:31:00.003-05:00

I love this dish because it's healthy, versatile and super quick and easy to make. It's the perfect meal on a cold winter night...it's guaranteed to warm you up! You can use whatever vegetables you want....spinach, bok choy, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage...my favorite is a combination of carrots, tofu and enoki mushrooms. The following recipe serves one with a little bit extra.

Ingredients:
Half of a brick of firm tofu, cubed
1 scallion, chopped loosely
1 carrot, sliced into thin pieces
1/3 package of enoki mushrooms (the weird looking ones with the long white stalk and a very small head)
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of hon-dashi (seafood flavoring, you can find this in any japanese grocery store, M2M in Manhattan sells it, it comes in a small round jar with a red cap. you can find it in the spices aisle)
1 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of miso (available in many regular grocery stores and all japanese grocery stores)
1 small fistful of dried soba noodles

Directions:
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil
stir in the hon-dashi and soy sauce
Add the carrots and bring down to medium heat
After a few minutes, add the tofu
After another 5-7 minutes add the mushrooms
In a small dish, mix a spoonful of the broth with the miso, until it turns in to the consistency of a thick paste
Add the miso paste to the broth and stir
While you're working on the broth, bring another pot of water to boil
Add the soba noodles and cook according to the instructions on the package (probably will instruct you to cook the noodles for 6 minutes)
Drain the noodles, place in your serving bowl
By now, your soup will be done. Ladle the soup into the bowl with the soba noodles
Garnish with scallions
Sesame seeds would also be a nice finishing touch.

Really Easy & Healthy Fried Rice

2008-10-07T19:01:00.003-04:00

2 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen edamame
1 stalk of scallion
1 egg, beaten
sesame oil
soy sauce
optional: diced bacon

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a wok, mix in the peas, corn and edamame, saute for about 8 minutes.
Make a space in the center of the wok, pour in the beaten egg, scramble and mix well with the rest of veggies

Mix in the brown rice, add a small splash of sesame oil and one splash of soy sauce, mix well

Add the scallions at the end. Plate and serve!

Some things i learned....

2008-07-29T14:54:00.001-04:00

...flavoring turkey burgers with turmeric and cumin is really tasty...
...mixing cucumbers with chopped beats in a salad is no good...unless you like your cucumbers bright pink....

Pasta with Arugula Pesto and Roasted Tomatoes

2008-07-16T19:10:00.003-04:00

This is the fourth week in a row that I've gotten a big quart of arugula in my CSA share. I needed to find a way to use up all of the arugula in one meal, preferably something that I can freeze and eat over time. Georgia suggested that i make arugula pesto, which i've never done before. And pesto freezes really well and goes with anything - pasta, chicken, fish, as a spread, and the argula leaves tend to go bad really quickly in my fridge, so i really needed to cook all of it immediately. Arugula pesto isn't much different from regular basil pesto, you just substitute the one leaf for another. Argula is quite bitter, so I added basil olive oil and walnuts to mellow out some of the bitterness in the pesto. Even with the basil oil and walnuts, the pesto was still very better. So, when making my pasta dish, i added some roasted grape tomatoes to boost the sweet flavor. I topped it all off with some basil from my CSA. This was literally the best basil i've ever tasted....the flavor was bright and strong, and had a lemony after taste. The basil gives this dish a summery taste!

Arugula Pesto
Ingredients:
1 quart of argula
3 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 cup of walnuts
1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons of basil olive oil (or regular olive oil)
salt to taste

Directions:
combine all of the ingredients in a cuisinart and blend until it has smooth consistency

Roasted Tomatoes:
Dice half a quart of grape tomatoes
Mix with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil
Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees

Orecchiette and Chicken Meatballs

2008-06-25T22:22:00.003-04:00

I made pasta with chicken meatballs for my little dinner party on Sunday. It took a long time and rendered my kitchen a big mess of dirty pots and dishes, but it was worth it because it was surprisingly good. There's something really satisfying about making meatballs....mixing the lifeless ground meat with breadcrumbs and parsley and turning it into something that's hearty and satisfying is really fun.

I've never made a pasta dish with orecchiette...it seems like it's always placed on the highest shelf in the grocery store...the shelf that i can't reach. It's got an interesting texture and a bit more interesting looking than your everyday ziti or rotini.

Ingredients:
1 box of orecchiette pasta
1 pound of ground chicken
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup of bread crumbs
1 tablespoon of ketchup
1 tablespoon of milk
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
5 cups of cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup of chicken stock
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
a bunch of basil leaves, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Meatballs:
Mix the ground chicken, 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese, parsley, bread crumbs, eggs, milk, ketchup, salt and pepper together and mix well
Heat the olive oil in a large pot, roll the mixture into small balls, fry on both sides for two minutes each, in batches

Sauce:
Add the tomatoes and chicken stock in the same pot and bring to a boil
Return the meatballs back into the pot, simmer sauce and the meatballs for another 15-20 minutes.
Add the cornstarch to thicken the sauce

Pasta:
Cook the pasta according to the instructions, drain the pasta and reserve a 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid
Add the remaining parmesan cheese to the pasta and add a little bit of the cooking liquid
Add the meatballs, sauce and chopped basil leaves and mix well

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

2008-06-25T22:04:00.003-04:00

This is my second ever rhubarb dessert and it was much better than my first try. I got two stalks of rhubarb in my csa share a few weeks ago and I used it to bake a rhubarb and chocolate cake...which was ok but too dense...it looked like one large thick cookie. I definitely preferred the rhubarb/fruit combination over rhubarb with chocolate. I adopted this recipe from Simply Recipes and it came out really well...it was a bit on the tart side, so next time i increase the proportion of strawberries to rhubarb. Served with a big scoop of good vanilla ice-cream....it is really delicious.

Ingredients:
2 frozen pie crusts
3 cups of rhubarb cut into smallish pieces
1 cup of strawberries, halved
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons of quick cooking tapioca
1 tablespoon of lemon zest
pinch of salt

mix all of the ingredients together
fill one pie crust with the mixture
cover the mixture with the other pie crust, crimp the edges of the two crusts together and slice a few vents on the top
Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes and then another 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees

Treats Truck

2008-06-20T14:23:00.002-04:00

I finally caught up with the elusive Treats Truck this afternoon. Parked down the street from my office, at the corner of 6th Ave and 19th street, it was a silver gleaming thing of beauty. For a mere $1.50, I got a "chocolate trucker treat", or as the Treats Truck lady described it, a home-made oreo cookie. It's a generous-sized cookie, consisting of a thick slab of vanilla buttercream sandwiched between two moist chocolate chip cookies, which had the consistency closer to a brownie. I chatted with the lady briefly and she'll be parked at this corner for the most of the summer from 12-3 on Fridays. Hooray!

Garlic Scapes

2008-06-19T22:09:00.001-04:00

From my CSA share...doesn't have much flavor, kind of like green beans.

Bar Q

2008-05-18T14:03:00.002-04:00

Bar Q, Anita Lo's new restaurant in the West Village, doesn't look like your average bbq restaurant. Everything is crisp and white - the walls, the seats, the linens. The food also isn't what you'd find in your average bbq restaurant...all of the dishes have an asian twist to ithem: baby back ribs with a korean-style sauce, kimchee seafood stew. Everything on the menu sounded inventive and promising, so I was expecting a lot. But, i was sorely disappointed. Every dish i had was underwhelming and slightly off, and at a minimum of $20 an entree and $11 for a small plate, that shouldn't have been the case. We started with the baby back ribs and the unagi and scallion fritters. The ribs were all bone and very little meat and what meat was therewas quite tough and chewy. The unagi and scallion fritters were extremely bland and tasteless and every bite was all dough and no fish. I might as well have been eating a greasy funnel cake with a slight hint of fish flavor.

I ordered the Tea Smoked Chicken with Sweet Rice and Chinese Sausage for my main entree and that was also mostly forgettable. The chicken was on the dry side and the skin was incredibly oily. The chicken was seasoned unevenly, some bites were bland and some bites were very salty. The dish came with a bed of sauteed chives, which were tasty but soaked in a puddle of residual oil from the chicken.

The only redeeming part of the meal was my cocktail. I got a bubble tea spiked with vodka and it was frothy, green and refreshing. I won't be coming back here for dinner, but I'd recommend stopping by for a nice drink at the bar.

Cajun-ish style Catfish

2008-05-07T22:45:00.004-04:00

This is the first and only real meal Amar and I have made and eaten together since we moved into our new apartment last month...which is a little pathetic really. It's just so easy to get lazy and order take-out or go out to eat in this neighborhood now that I have so many delicious options right at my fingertips.

It was a very tasty and colorful meal...the stir-fried green beans and asparagus we just sauteed, and the mashed sweet potatoes were also pretty straight forward. The fish recipe came from Foodnetwork.com, courtesy of Emeril. For the sauteed vegetables, i first cooked 3 cloves of thinly sliced garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes, then i added the string beans and a pinch of water and cooked it over medium heat for about 7-8 minutes, with a cover over the skillet. Then I threw in the asparagus last and cooked everything for another 5-7 minutes, because those cook through pretty quickly. If the vegetables start to look a little dry, add some more olive oil.

For the sweet mashed potatoes, peel and dice the sweet potatoes into one inch pieces, boil starting in cold water for about 15 minutes, mash together with a few splashes of milk and a tablespoon of better...more milk if you like it creamier. Add lots of brown sugar, otherwise it'll taste slightly bitter.

Onto the fish. This was the first time i used a broiler to cook anything and the fish came out pretty well. Broiling the fish gave it that blackened char around the edges, but still retained the juiciness of the fish.

Ingredients:
2 large filets of catfish
3 pinches of salt
2 cloves of garlic, minced
generous amount of olive oil
1 teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
1 tablespoons of paprika
1/2 tablespoon of garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon of black pepper
1/2 tablespoon of dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon of dried thyme

Directions:
mix all of the seasonings
Season the catfish with salt and seasonings on both sides
combine the olive oil, fresh thyme and garlic, spread over the catfish filets
drizzle the lemon juice over the filets
add the bread crumbs to the top of the filets
add some more olive oil over the bread crumbs
put the fish in the broiler for about 12-15 minutes (the directions said to flip the catfish, but that made the bread crumbs all soggy...so i wouldn't advise doing that)

Frankies 457

2008-05-04T08:21:00.002-04:00

Last night, Sam and I had dinner around the corner from my house at Frankie's Spuntino. The meal was amazing, I ordered one of the best pasta dishes I've had in a long time. My linguine with fresh fava beans and tomato sauce tasted like bowl full of spring...the fava beans were bright green and tender, the tomato sauce was light and subtle. The pasta was cooked perfectly al dente with that great chewy texture. The dessert was possibly even better than the meal. I was initially opposed to ordering the red wine stewed prunes with mascarpone cheese, because i don't usually associate prunes with dessert, but Sam talked me into it. It. was. good. The mascarpone was so smooth and creamy, it literally melted in my mouth. It tasted like a thicker and creamier version of clotted cream. The red wine sauce was rich and only slightly sweet, which was the perfect compliment to the light flavor of the mascarpone. The prunes were sweet and meaty doubled as receptacle for scooping up the cheese. Oddly enough, this dessert felt more decadent than a piece of chocolate cake. The meal was great and i spied an outdoor garden that is going to be awesome when the weather gets warmer. Now i understand why there was a 45 minute wait at 8 o'clock.

New Kitchen!

2008-04-26T09:36:00.003-04:00

My new kitchen. As you can see, I don't have much space to work with.

Broadway East

2008-04-26T08:55:00.002-04:00

Whoah i haven't written a post in 4 months! Life got really busy and for about two months i was eating really crappy food like bland whole wheat pasta with semi-cold pasta sauce dumped on top. But I'm going to start posting more regularly now. So, last night I went to Broadway East with Ursula and Nikki after checking out the Cai Guo Qiang exhibit at the Guggenheim. Which, by the way, was really great. I'm really glad I got to see it before the show closes later this month. My favorite piece was the snake in the bag, aptly called "Snake Bag". Broadway East is situated at the far end of East Broadway, past all of the Chinese bakeries and shops and basement restaurants. The restaurant has a very simple, almost sparse decor - polished wooden floors, dark wooden tables and velvety red banquettes lining the sides of the main dining room. The restaurant is very dimly lit, with the only light coming from small round globes that appear to float down from the ceiling.

I was a little skeptical at first, $21 for a plate of vegetables? Seemed a little outrageous to me. But, the food turned out to be delicious. I ordered a dish that came with grilled polenta, bread crumb encrusted and fried portobello mushrooms, a ragout made of porcini mushrooms and sauteed leafy greens (said kale on the menu, but i'm pretty sure what i ate wasn't kale.) The polenta was the perfect consistency, the ragout had a rich and salty, but not completely overpowering flavor. The light sauteed greens balanced out the hearty ragout perfectly. Our pear crostata dessert was a little disappointing - there was too much crust and too little pear. The presentation of the dish was also unappealing, the caramel sauce was hastily drizzled around the plate, the crostata looked like it hadn't been formed perfectly before it was baked. That said, the other dishes on the dessert menu sounded really good, there was a spiced chai bread pudding and a fig and hazelnut tart.

Overall a very good experience. This is a good choice if you're in the mood for vegan/vegetarian food, but don't want to eat at some hippy crunchy restaurant. Broadway East presents haute hippie food in an upscale setting without a hint of patchouli scent.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

2008-01-20T17:34:00.001-05:00

We had a little dinner party last weekend...I gotta mention Nikki's delicious butternut squash risotto...it was excellent. Creamy and starchy, with hints of sweetness from the butternut squash puree. I made roasted brussels sprouts...I tried to replicate The Smith's brussels sprouts, but it didn't have the same lemony flavor. But still, it came out pretty well, the flavor was mellow and almost sweet, with a bit of crunch from the charred outsides.

Ingredients:
2 lbs of brussels sprouts
3 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 lemon
salt and pepper

Directions:
- Preheat oven at 400 degrees
- Cut off the stems of the brussels sprouts and peel off the first layer
- Salt the brussels sprouts with 2-3 generous pinches of salt
- Combine olive oil with juice from half of the lemon
- Zest the lemon and add the zest to the olive oil/lemon juice combo
- Pour the olive oil/lemon juice combo over the brussels sprouts and mix so that it's all coated evenly
- Roast at 400 degrees for 40 minutes
- Shake the baking pan occasionally so that all of the sides are roasted

Beef Stew

2008-01-09T19:12:00.000-05:00

This hearty beef stew is a great winter dish. It also freezes well, so you can make a big pot of it and eat it slowly over many weeks. Chop the potatoes and carrots into large chunks, so you get big meaty bites with each spoonful.

Ingredients:

2 pounds beef chuck for stew, cut into 1-inch cubes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
4 medium carrots, peeled, halved and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 14 oz cane of chicken broth
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 8 oz cans of tomato sauce
1 box of baby Portobello mushrooms, chopped
5 red potatoes, diced
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans reduced-sodium beef or chicken broth
1 bay leaf
handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
two pinches of dried thyme
two pinches of oregano

Instructions:
Season the beef cubes lightly with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy 6-quart pot over medium heat. Brown the beef in two batches, for approximately 5-6 minutes per batch.

Scoop out the second batch of beef, then add the carrots and onions and raise the heat to medium-high. Cook until the onion starts to turn translucent, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the flour.

Add the chicken broth, wine, tomato sauce and herbs and bring to a boil

Simmer for 20 minutes

Add potatoes and mushrooms, simmer for another 45 minutes

Stir in parsley at the end

The Smith

2007-12-20T11:58:00.001-05:00

Ursy, Nikki and I had a fabulous pre-holiday dinner at The Smith. Nikki had some subway complications and showed up at the restaurant looking a wee bit tired, but the bread, butter and wine melted the stress right out of her! I've read multiple reviews of The Smith by various bloggers and New York Magazine and was really excited to try this place out. I always have to wrack my brain when I try to think of a reasonably priced restaurant that serves a good mix of pasta, seafood, steak and other miscellaneous entrees in a laid-back and fun environment. The Smith fits the bill perfectly and I think I might have found a new favorite place!

I was the first to arrive, so I took a seat at the bar and waited for the others to arrive. The bar takes up the entire length of the right side of the restaurant and can seat approximately 25 people. While I sipped my glass of wine quietly in the corner, I had time to note the details of the decor. The Smith is located in what used to be the Pizzeria Uno on 3rd Avenue and 11th street. And although I never stepped foot inside the Uno, the floor tiles in the restaurant looked similar to the floor tiles of Uno's that I have eaten in: small dingy white octagonal tiles with pieces of black tiles interspersed throughout. The walls are also covered with shiny white tiles, sort of like bathroom tiles, which sounds gross but it looked quite nice actually. Once the others arrived, we were seated in a cozy wooden booth that had wooden hooks on the side (thank you! All restaurants should have more space to hang coats and bags!)

Ursula and I split the green bean salad, which was really delicious. Crisp green beans tossed with thin slices of ricotta cheese, cherry tomato halves and toasted almonds, the dish was delightfully cool with several different layers of texture. For my main, I ordered the chopped steak with a side of salad. The chopped steak looked like a cross between a meat loaf and a hamburger patty. It was a small round of meat that had a stiff and thick crust-like texture on the outside. When I cut into the middle of the steak, the meat was crumbly and juicy, like a hamburger almost but only much better. The mushroom gravy that came with my dish was thick and flavorful and I generously slathered the sauce all over my steak. Another great dish I need to note is the side of roasted brussels sprouts. The Smith's brussels sprouts have a, to quote Nikki, "great citrus-y flavor, there's lemon rind in here or something." For dessert, we split the Pink Pussy Cat: red velvet cake with two scoops of strawberry ice-cream, fresh strawberries and whipped cream. REALLY good. Who can hate strawberry ice-cream and whipped cream?

I want to come back here again for dinner, for brunch, for drinks at the bar, for drinks AND dessert at the bar! Our waitress was friendly, attentive and came at all the appropriate moments. The whole place just made me really comfortable and I left completely satisfied, and you can't ask for much more than that.

Dos Caminos

2007-12-09T13:51:00.000-05:00

We went to Dos Caminos last night to celebrate Kashmira's birthday...she wanted to have dinner at a place that was "fun and fabulousth". Walk through the heavy red velvet curtains at the front entrance and you'll find yourself on the ground floor of a spacious bi-level restaurant. The walls are painted a soft pink color and chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The crowd is a mix of tourists, couples old and young and many groups of females in sparkly tops out for what appeared to be mostly birthday dinners. We were seated at a long table on the basement level of the restaurant and directly in front of me was a DJ in a fedora and tight v-neck tank top spinning Britney - lots of it. The music gave the restaurant a clubby atmosphere, although most of the diners were pretty quiet and reserved, eating and chatting away. Even though the music was quite loud, we were still able to talk across the table without too much yelling...ahh the magic of good acoustics.
I'd read numerous reviews lamenting the poor quality of service, but our waitress was very polite and prompt, taking our orders right away and making sure our water glasses were always full. We started with the famous guacamole (which you can see bits of inside Kashmira's mouth) and it was quite good. There were plenty of sizable pieces of avocado and the texture was a perfect balance between smooth and chunky. I ordered the Pescado Tacos, served with grilled filets of mahi mahi, spicy cabbage slaw and fresh tomato salsa, all wrapped up in two warm flour tortillas. The fish tasted great - fresh and meaty. The thin strips of cabbage was tart and crunchy, with the fresh tomato salsa giving the dish a nice cooling effect.

My favorite part of the meal came at the end in the form of a pistachio flavored chocolate cake served with a scoop of pistachio ice-cream. The ice-cream had a nutty texture and the chocolate cake was rich but not too thick, with a few pieces of pistachio in the middle.

Dos Caminos is a fun spot for group dinner, festive and loud, but no so much that you can't hear your friends.

Chocolate Truffles

2007-12-05T20:42:00.000-05:00

Twas Amar's birthday last week and I made he-who-has-a-major-sweet-tooth (seriously, the dude belongs in a Cathy comic) bittersweet truffles. I tried to make truffles last year and all I got was a hard lump of brown goo. This year, I measured everything to the T and hunkered down for 6 hours to make these damn things. Truffles aren't particularly hard to make, just extremely time consuming. So if you're just lounging around at home on a blustery winter day, tis a good time to make truffles. My truffles tasted pretty good but looked a bit off...I got sick of waiting for the truffle base to solidify, so i started rolling the chocolate concoction into balls before it was fully firm...thus my little balls of chocolate wouldn't hold up..it started to droop and flatten out as soon as I placed them back in my baking dish. So, wait at least 4 hours before you start rolling them into truffles...you can try to put them in the freezer for an hour, that might speed up the process.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
9 1/2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped - for the truffle base
8 ounces of bitter sweet chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped - for the outside shell
3-4 handfuls of walnuts, finely chopped

Instructions:
Bring cream to a simmer, remove from heat and pour over the 9 1/2 ounces of chopped chocolate
Stir until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate is fully melted
Refridgerate the base until it is firm enough to roll into balls, at least 3-4 hours
Once it's firm, take a large spoonful of the chocolate mixture and roll into a small ball, repeat until you've used up all the mixture
Chill the balls for another hour
Place the other 8 ounces of chocolate in a glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and melt the chocolate by stirring the chocolate chunks until its smooth and completely melted
Take each ball of truffle base, roll it in the melted chocolate and then roll in the chopped walnuts
Refridgerate the truffles for another hour.

Spaghetti Bolognese

2007-11-27T12:40:00.000-05:00

I craved pasta and meat the whole time I was in Spain...one can only eat some much ham, cheese and hard as rocks bread. I wanted to feel the comfort one gets from eating a bowl full of heavy pasta. Cold little bocadillos just don't do it for me. So i made Spaghetti Bolognese at my earliest opportunity. This dish was both tasty and economical. Recipe makes enough for 4. Prep and cook time: approximately 50 minutes.

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 boxes of whole wheat pasta
- 1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 lb of ground beef
- 1 medium sized yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1/2 cup of chopped basil
- 1/4 cup of grated pecorino romano cheese
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- olive oil
- salt and pepper

Instructions:
- Heat the olive oil in a pan, saute onion and garlic for about 3 minutes or until the onions become translucent
- Add carrot and green pepper and saute for another 5 minutes
- Add ground beef and saute for about 10 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink
- Salt to taste
- Add can of crushed tomatoes, simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes (sauce should thicken up)
- Salt to taste
- Add chopped basil and cheese at the end

Molly's Birthday and Red Velvet Cupcakes

2007-11-12T15:07:00.000-05:00

Most of the gang was down in DC this past weekend to celebrate the disappearance of Molly's youth and the onset of middle age. We had a great meal at Indique, although I spent of the rest of the night feeling my food slosh around in my stomach alongside champagne, bloody mary mix and birthday cake shots. Yum.

During the day we made a batch of Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. For my first attempt at baking red velvet cupcakes, it came out decent enough, although it was more pink than red and was a little bit on the dry side. It also didn't have that hard to pinpoint red velvet "flavor". I used a recipe from Epicurious and had to substitute skim milk for buttermilk. After doing a bit of research on the web today, I think that the lack of buttermilk was the cause of the pink-ness of my cupcakes. Apparently, the chemical reaction from combining white vinegar and buttermilk is, in addition to the red food coloring, what gives the cupcakes that deep red color. (See! I told you people there is some sort of chemical reaction involved!) Also, most recipes called for three eggs and I only used two. An extra egg and buttermilk is probably what gives the cupcakes that moist and rich texture. Word to the wise: don't think that skim milk is an acceptable substitute for buttermilk.

Click Here to read the recipe I used. I would recommend adding an extra egg and another 1-2 teaspoons of red food coloring. Makes 12 cupcakes.

Chicken and Vegetable Orzo Stew

2007-11-05T21:01:00.000-05:00

Daylight Savings Time is in effect and that means the sun sets at approximately 4 in the afternoon. Which means that it's soup season! This soup is very easy to make, takes only about 45 minutes. If you like hot, steamy soup and mushy vegetables, then this dish is for you.

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 zucchini, diced into big chunks
- 1 package of frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon of thyme
- 1 teaspoon of oregano
- 1 teaspoon of basil
- 2 chicken bouillon cubes
- 2 cups of water
- 1 cup of orzo
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
- Sautee the diced onion in olive oil for a few minutes, until the onion pieces are translucent.
- Add the chicken and sautee for another few minutes
- Add the zucchini and spinach and sautee for another few minutes
- add the can of diced tomatoes, 2 chicken bouillon cubes and 2 cups of water
- add all of the spices
- bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes
- stir in the orzo and simmer for another 15 minutes
- add generous amounts of salt and the tomato paste at the end
- stir continuously throughout the cooking process

Sariwa

2007-11-01T21:24:00.000-04:00

I noticed a new restaurant...actually I wouldn't call it a tiny restaurant, it's such a tiny space...it's more of a take-out place, on 16th street at Prospect Park West. The new restaurant, a Filipino place called Sariwa, has a short menu and serves up foods like Chicken Adobo and Beef Empanadas. Best part has to be the fact that it delivers to my neighborhood! Amar and I decided on an order of Chicken Adobo, a beef empanada, Vegetable Lumpia (spring rolls stuffed with green beans, jicama, carrots and tofu) and Pancit, a traditional Filipino dish of rice noodles sauteed with cabbage, carrots and green beans.

Overall, the food was pretty good but it appears that Sariwa is still working on its delivery skills. The food was a bit late and while Amar's food was piping hot, my Chicken Adobo was icey cold.

The Chicken Adobo reminded me of a dish my Dad often cooks back home: he stews chicken or pork, potatoes and hard-boiled eggs for hours in a soy sauce mixture until the the meat is falling off the bones. It's the ultimate comfort food and is just the right thing on a chilly and windy night. Anyways, this Chicken Adobo had a very similar taste. The Chicken is stewed in a soy sauce, vinegar and garlic mixture until the meat is tender and has both a salty and tangy flavor. The extra soy sauce and vinegar sauce was a perfect dressing for the rice. I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner, too bad I had to reheat it first.

Amar decided to order a mish mash of things: two empanadas, spring rolls and a noodle dish. The Pancit was very good - the noodles were also cooked in vinegar so it had a very tangy and tart flavor. The spring rolls had a very distinct taste - different from Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai spring rolls. The spring rolls are lightly deep fried and stuffed with green beans, so the flavor is light and subtle, but has an almost meaty texture. I can't say much about the empanadas - it was dry and cold by the time I got to it.

Given a few more weeks, maybe a month or two, I think Sariwa will be really good. I'm just so excited that there's a new delivery option in my neighborhood! Click here for the menu.

PS - the Izzy/George storyline on Grey's is really getting on my nerves.

Billy's Bakery

2007-10-23T13:35:00.000-04:00

Today has been one of those days when you are woken up at 6 AM by the sounds of garbage trucks and migrating birds and everything goes downhill from there. The train was packed, at the deli I got white toast instead of whole wheat toast with my scrambled eggs (i know i'm being nitpicky, but I am very particular about my breakfast sandwiches and I am not going to apologize for that!) And THEN at work, I come down with a severe case of writer's block and i'm sitting in front of my computer staring blankly at the screen and getting annoyed because i can't read my boss' handwriting and you know how there are those days when everyone at work is getting on your nerves, for no particular reason? All the while thinking about how much work I have to get done by the end of the day. Ugh.

So, I decided to march out of my office and over to Billy's Bakery on 9th Ave to buy myself a chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream icing. Even though I am still a little pissy for no reason, this perfect little mound of chocolate, butter and sugar has made me feel much better. The cupcake looks and tastes exactly like the cupcakes at Sugar Sweet Sunshine. Creamy icing, moist and cakey cake. They also offer yellow cupcakes w/ vanilla icing, red velvet, german chocolate and carrot cake. Goodbye.

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

2007-10-21T12:21:00.000-04:00

The Chinatown Ice Cream Factory is a small, easy to miss shop located on Bayard at Mott Street. I went on a Saturday night and the line was out the door. The shop offers "regular flavors" like Lychee, Red Bean, Green Tea, Black Sesame, Chocolate Pandan, Zen Butter and "exotic flavors" such as Pistachio, Mint Chip, Coffee, Vanilla and Strawberry. The Chocolate Pandan was amazing. According to Wikipedia, Pandan is a type of tree whose leaves are used in Southeast Asian cooking to add a distinct aroma to rice and curry dishes such as nasi lemak, kaya preserves and desserts such as pandan cake. Pandan is said to be a restorative, deodorant, indolent and phylactic, promoting a feeling of wellbeing and acting as a counter to tropical lassitude. It may be chewed as a breath sweetener or used as a preservative on foods.

The chocolate was rich and creamy and the pandan added a level of nutty flavor that's hard to describe. All I know is that I want more and I need to make a trip back to Chinatown to get the another scoop of the Chocolate Pandan really soon.

Chilean Sea Bass with Cauliflower Polenta and Asparagus

2007-10-08T11:39:00.000-04:00

I got my hands on some really fancy totally awesome Chilean Sea Bass (courtesy of Merrill Lynch) this weekend and I wanted to use it as the centerpiece of a great meal. I cooked with the fish with an Asian-ish marinade and paired it with a polenta side dish I whipped up on the spot and a few stalks of braised asparagus. It came out pretty well, although the polenta needed a lot more salt and the fish marinade could have used a lot less mirin (turns out mirin can be cloyingly sweet.) The meal was a wild carnival of tastes, textures and colors!

First the recipe for the sea bass marinade (adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe)
-1 tablespoon of miso (white or red)
-1/2 tablespoon of mirin
-1 tablespoon of soy sauce
-juice from one lemon
-2 dollops of yellow mustard

Whisk all the ingredients together, pour over the fish and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes
Would probably work well with salmon as well.

Now, the recipe for my very own baked cauliflower polenta:
-1/2 head of cauliflower, cut up into small florets
-2 cloves of garlic, sliced into large pieces
-1/2 cup of course corn meal
-1 1/2 cup of water
-salt
-generous amount of parmesan cheese
-optional: shredded sharp cheese, like a gruyere or something

- mix the garlic and cauliflower and steam for about 20 minutes, or until the cauliflower is soft
using a potato masher, mash up the cauliflower into small bits, stir in a pinch few pinches of salt
- bring water to a boil, add the corn meal and cook for about 8 minutes (you might have to add more water if the polenta is starting to look really thick and dry)
- combine the mashed cauliflower, polenta, parmesan, generous amounts of salt and the optional sharp cheese
- transfer the mixture into 4 greased ramekins (if you don't have any ramekins, a small baking pan will probably work)
- bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes

Turn the ramekin upside down onto your plate and voila you have the cutest little mound of baked polenta!

Atlantic Antic

2007-10-07T18:49:00.000-04:00

This post is a week late, so lets see if I can remember everything. Amar, Jordan, Ursula and I strolled through the Atlantic Antic last Sunday, tasting all the offerings of the festival vendors and of the restaurants residing on Atlantic Ave between 4th ave and Hoyt street. First the good: Key Lime pie, Red Velvet cake, mozzarepa (surprisingly!), and the bad: corn dog (that thing was as dry as a bag of popcorn) and cucumber-flavored lemonade (vegetable does not mix well with lemonade.)

We started with veggie samosas from a Thai (or was it Malaysian?) restaurant close to 4th ave. They were pretty good, the samosas tasted strongly of curry sauce and were awesomely greasy and drippy. It was a little hard to eat these things and walk at the same time...so I think we were all walking around with our mouths wide open, hunched over our little styrofoam plates (see picture.)

Next up: mozzarepas, the bi-racial child of an arepa and a mozzarella cheese stick. I was a little skeptical, but one bite and my uncertainty - over a food that sounds like something Rachel Ray would come up with - quickly disappeared. Cause that thing was good! Gooey cheese sandwiched between soft cornmeal pancakes...a little bland perhaps but also oddly satisfying. (Hey, nice mani!)

I made a beeline for the stand that was selling red velvet cake. No complaints here...moist and rich, with a nice cool cream cheese icing. This cake was pretty good, but i think i still prefer Sugar Sweet Sunshine's red velvet cake with chocolate almond-flavored icing. I like the cream cheese icing, but i like a chocolate icing better. Also, Sugar Sweet's cupcake is more dense.
And finally, Key Lime Pie from Steve's Authentic Key Lime in Red Hook. I'd heard a lot about his key lime pies and had been wanting to try one for a long time. It was good - not as amazing as I had originally expected. The pie was very tart and although I'm not sure if authentic key lime pies are supposed to be so tart, but I definitely prefer pies that don't taste so much like a sour patch kid.

It was really interesting to walk down Atlantic and see how the ethnic/cultural make up of the neighborhoods change so quickly and so suddenly...from West Indian to yuppiehood to Middle Eastern to old, rich Brooklyn.

Grilled Mahi Mahi with Pesto Sauce and Brown Rice Vegetable Medley

2007-09-26T20:06:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-24T17:48:00.000-04:00

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!

My Google Map of Favorite and Queued Restaurants

2007-09-18T13:37:00.001-04:00

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Juice Truck in Chelsea

2007-09-18T13:07:00.001-04:00

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

2007-09-18T12:55:00.000-04:00

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"

2007-09-14T13:01:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-12T22:39:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-12T22:17:00.001-04:00

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

2007-09-12T21:18:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-11T19:33:00.000-04:00

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.

Supper

2007-08-29T10:22:00.000-04:00

I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post, but the restaurant was very dimly lit and all of my pictures came out fuzzy and blurry. You're just going to have to use your imagination, aren't you?!?! So, Nikki, Alex and I went to Supper in the East Village Monday night. The restaurant felt very familiar, even though I'd never been there. The ambiance and decor reminded me of Lil' Frankies, the little hard to spot pizza place on 1st Ave and 2nd Street. Come to find out, Frank, Lil' Frankies and Supper are all owned by the same (going out on a limb here, assuming he's Italian) dude. The decor of both Lil' Frankies and Supper is very clean and simple - smooth wooden floor boards, dark wooden tables and chairs, minimally decorated white walls and dim lighting. We arrived around 7:30 and the place was about half full. We got one half of a curved six-person table in the back room, past the open kitchen. The waiter presented us with an amuses-bouche of spicy and tangy cannellini beans mixed with red pepper flakes, parsley, lemon juice and olive oil. The chewy sourdough bread that came with the beans was the perfect receptacle for sopping up the leftover oil in the bowl.

Nikki and I both ordered and Priest Stranglers with marinara sauce and fresh ricotta cheese. Priest stranglers, also known as strozzapreti, got its name from a popular legend about a priest who choked and died after eating the pasta too quickly, because it was so delicious. The priest stranglers looked like stretched out rigatoni - thin and hollow tube-shaped pasta, but with the texture and taste more closely related to gnocchi - chewy and tender, with an almost creamy consistency. I've never had this type of pasta before, but it was excellent! Oh and I haven't even talked about the sauce. The marinara sauce was perfect - sweet and salty at the same time with a little hint of tang behind the flavors. The fresh ricotta cheese served on top of the pasta and sauce was also pretty much perfect - adding another level of creaminess to the dish. I was literally still scraping the sauce off the sides of my plate as the waiter was clearing our dishes off the table.

Nikki also ordered a side of french cut green beans in garlic sauce, which was had a beautiful light green color that made me think of spring....OH SO FAR AWAY. Sigh. Alex ordered the half roast chicken with mashed potatoes. I didn't try the chicken, but the mashed potatoes were dense and rich. Oh yeah, and we got dessert! We ordered the hazelnut panna cotta, which came surrounded by apple slices, strawberries and the biggest raspberries I've ever seen. We were about to tuck in to our dessert, but oh, it wasn't complete yet. A runner came to our table with a brass pot of bubbling chocolate sauce, which he proceeded to pour all over our lovely dessert. The panna cotta was really thick and gooey, it was actually hard separating a spoonful from the rest of the dessert. A few drizzles of chocolate sauce might have been nice, but our plate was drenched in the stuff and it was just a bit too much for me.

All in all, it felt like a very decadent dinner, even though it really wasn't. The atmosphere is very laid back and casual, the prices are reasonable. This would be a great place to go either with a group of friends or one on one date-style. I definitely plan on making a trip back.

Mushroom Barley Pilaf

2007-08-22T19:53:00.000-04:00

I got this recipe from newly discovered blog called 28 Cooks. I love mushrooms and barley is packed with fiber, so this is the perfect recipe for me.

Ingredients:
1 cup of pearl barley
2-3 cups of water
1 box of baby portobello mushrooms. loosely chopped
1 1/2 onions, diced
2 pieces of garlic, chopped
handful of parley, chopped
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinagrette
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Instructions:
- combine barley and water and simmer for about 45 minutes - 1 hour (or until the barley is soft)
- cook the garlic and onion in olive oil for a few minutes, then add the chopped mushrooms. Sautee until the mushrooms are cooked through
- Whisk together the balsamic vinagrette, lemon juice, olive oil and a dash of salt
- combine the barley and mushrooms, stir in the sauce, add the chopped parley
- stir until everything is mixed together

It's super easy and tastes good with a side salad or as a side with some grilled/roasted chicken.

Babbo

2007-08-02T09:26:00.000-04:00

My highly anticipated birthday dinner at Babbo has come and gone. The food was excellent - I highly recommend the gnocchi with oxtail and the duck. The wine was fabulous - the Sommelier recommended exactly what we wanted. The service was impeccable - the waiter, runner, house manager and sommelier worked seamlessly together. Everything came out at the right time, my wine glass was constantly full, we weren't bothered too much and yet I still felt everyone was very attentive. The atmosphere was great - we got a corner table on the second floor, prime location for people watching! Babbo was such a treat...the perfect choice for a special occasion.

I think the following snippets of conversation throughout our dinner pretty much sums up the whole experience.
"I think I saw Larry David downstairs."
"No you didn't!"
"Is that Lauren Bush? Nah, too old."
"That dude's moustache is nasty!"
"Yeah, but he's probably a Sultan."
"Chianti is an Italian wine, right?"
"Do you think they imported the Sommelier from Italy?"
"Definitely. Look at him, he's so foreign and intense."
"Oh man this wine is good."
"Do you taste the wood?"
"No."
"I think our runner has a French accent." (He's Latino.)
"No he doesn't!"
"Wow, the gnocchi just melts in your mouth!"
"I know."
"This is like beef butter."
"I know."
"Dude I'm drunk."
"Me too."

Di Fara Pizza

2007-07-31T20:11:00.000-04:00

On a balmy and breezy Tuesday night, the A-man and I made a pilgrimage to Di Fara in Midwood. If you've never biked down Ocean Parkway in the early evening hours, i highly recommend it. The benches lining the street are packed - old smelly dudes playing chess, their counterpart old lady friends sitting around gossiping, little brown kids squealing and running around, Hasidic couples strolling along with their 9 kids, young Eastern European guys lounging around and staring at you suspiciously...it's like a tour of the EU. Anyway, after biking down a quiet and deserted stretch of Avenue J, we arrive at our destination: an unassuming, almost run-down pizza parlor at the corner of Avenue J and 15th street. We walk in and immediately smell fresh out of the oven pizza and see the herd of people crowded around the counter. The most adorable old Italian man, Dom DeMarco the owner of Di Fara, is slowly and methodically making pizza after pizza: stretching the dough, pouring the sauce marinara sauce, spreading the mozzarella slices and sprinkling the parmesan cheese, drizzling the olive oil, adding the finishing touches once the pizza is out of the oven. It seems like he's in his own world, barely noticing the crowd gathered in front of him, anxiously waiting for a taste of his amazing pizza. The decor isn't anything to talk about - bright and uncomfortable florescent overhead lights, grimy tables and chairs, aged linoleum floors.

The walls are plastered with articles from every major magazine and newspaper proclaiming Di Fara as the best...best pizza, in brooklyn, in new york, in America! The pizza is good. Damn good. Probably one of the best slices I've ever had (although Totonno's in Coney Island is pretty good too.) The crust is thin and both crispy and chewy. The cheese has a slight tang and saltiness to it and the sauce is just perfect - a tad sweet. The pizza is greasy, but not in a gross-i-feel-sick-after-three-bites sort of way. The olive oil increases the intensity of all the other flavors and gives the pizza an added richness. I'm not quite sure why this pizza tastes so much better than all the countless ones I've eaten...maybe it's the combination of sweet and salty that just hits your taste buds spot on. Make the trip to Di Fara, it's worth it. Oh and stick with the plain slices, the best parts are the sauce and cheese.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine

2007-07-27T10:17:00.000-04:00

The Zagat Guide named Sugar Sweet Sunshine best cupcake bakery in NYC. And I completely agree. I'm not impressed by the cupcakes at Magnolia, the frosting is too sweet and heavy. I've have cupcakes from another bakery in midtown somewhere, run by someone that either used to work at Magnolia or owns Magnolia and I wasn't impressed by that either. The Ooey Gooey cupake at Sugar Sweet Sunshine is my favorite - dark chocolate cake with chocolate almond buttercream. The cake is moist and fluffy and the frosting is amazing - creamy and buttery with that perfect subtle almond taste. I always want to try something different, like the red velvet cupcake, pistachio cupcake or carrot cake, but I always end up getting the Ooey Gooey. Chocolate on my mind, makin me crazy.

Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls

2007-07-23T20:30:00.001-04:00

Vietnamese spring rolls are the perfect summer dish - simple, light, healthy, satisfying and no stovetop cooking necessary (well if you include rice noodles in your spring rolls then you'll have to cook the noodles, but other than that, you don't have to get near the stove.) It's also surprisingly simple, once you have the right ingredients and know how to make the spring roll wrappers. (Before I made spring rolls myself, I never understood how the wrappers were so translucent.)

Ingredients:
10-12 round rice spring roll wrappers (available at asian grocery stores)
handful of dry rice vermicelli (also available at asian grocery stores)
1/2 lb of cooked shrimp (or cold shredded chicken)
1 cucumber, thinly sliced length-wise
handful of mint leaves and/or basil leaves
spoonful of hoisin sauce
spoonful of rice vinegar

Directions
For the spring rolls:
1. Boil the shrimp until the meat is turns pink (about 5-6 minutes), boil the vermicelli (approx. 5 minutes), slice the cucumber and arrange all the ingredients plus the mint and basil on a dish:
2. Fill a large bowl halfway up with room temperature water.
3. Submerge a piece of the rice wrapper in the water for about a minute or two, or until the wrapper is soaked through and soft.
4. Put the slightly wet rice wrapper on a flat surface, place a few pieces of the shrimp, cucumber slices, 3-4 mint leaves and a pinch of the rice noodles in the center-bottom of the wrapper and roll everything up like a burrito.

For the dipping sauce:
1. Combine the hoisin sauce and and rice vinegar in a little dish, whisk until the sauce is smooth.

See? Really simple and fast - prep time is only about 20 minutes. You can serve this as an appetizer or as the main meal.

Red Hook Ball Fields

2007-07-23T19:56:00.001-04:00

I finally got the chance to try some of the offerings at Red Hook Ballfields a few weeks ago, when Jia (chinese school friend/fellow food enthusiast) was in town. There was so much to choose from - tacos, quesadillas, empanadas, ceviche, tamales, roasted corn, papusas, fresh fruit, freshly squeezed fruit juices...I didn't know what to eat first! After wandering out in a salivating daze for about ten minutes, I decided on a bean and cheese papusa. The dough was chewy interspersed with a few chewy crispy bits. The bean and cheese filling was salty and soft - a perfect consistency.

To wash down all the salty goodness of the papusa, taco and empanada, I bought a fresh watermelon juice from the vendor selling the roasted corn and fruit juices. There's a lot of talk on the internet about all the great food available at the ballfields, but how come nobody ever talks about the fruit juices? I don't know if it was because I was really thirsty and sweaty, but I swear that watermelon juice was the best drink i've ever had. It was refreshing and slightly sweet, without being too sweet. I could have had another two cups of the juice, but I was already on the verge of bursting. Anyway, I would back just to get the juice.

I might have been very full, but I still had enough room in my belly for a roasted corn on a stick. It was a little bit shocking to see the cook scoop a gigantic chunk of mayo out of a Costco sized mayonnaise jar and slather it on the roasted corn, but oh well. The cook then rolled the stick of corn in a large box filled with cheese (parmesan i think?) The corn was juicy, the cheese was crumbly and salty and even the mayo didn't taste bad. Cafe Habana can suck it.

The food stalls at the Red Hook Ballfields are open on Saturdays and Sundays through October. Go and get some delicious and cheap Mexican, El Salvadorian and Ecuadorian food.

Les Halles

2007-07-20T09:52:00.000-04:00

After watching Kitchen Confidential I had to read the actual book. After reading the book I had to eat at Les Halles. The whole experience - the food and the service - was bad. Almost comically bad. Our waiter was literally completely cracked out, he could barely keep his eyes open and was having a hard time standing up. He comes up to our table, leans against a chair and mumbles the specials to us, stuttering through most of it. His eyes have that droopy look, you know when you're in class and you're really bored and tired and doing your best to stay awake. Then i watch up knock over an entire bottle of wine at another table, candle wax gets on everything and everyone's fumbling around, trying not to get red wine on their clothes. Again, the waiter looks utterly confused and out of it, like he has no idea what's going on.

The food was completely forgettable. I'm pretty sure I've had better steak at TGI Fridays. I ordered the Les Halles "classic": steak, frites and salad. The salad seemed like a complete afterthought, as if the chef was thinking, "oh crap, this dish comes with salad. Oh well, who the fuck cares, lets just drench some limp mesclun greens with dressing and serve that." The salad had no flavor whatsoever, the leaves were limp and disgusting, there was way too much dressing...the whole thing tasted like balsamic vinaigrette soup. The steak also lacked any sort of flavor or juice. I had a really hard time cutting through the steak, even though I ordered it medium. The edges of the steak were extremely tough and hard the chew. AND it was lukewarm by the time it got to our table! Nothing is worse than almost-cold steak. The fries were pretty decent, but uh, I'm pretty sure I didn't come to Les Halles to eat fries.

The decor was decent albeit a bit dingy. Looks like the place could use a good scrub down. The restaurant felt a little humid, and our neighbors must have complained about it, because our idiotic waiter pointed this huge fan in our direction, completely drying out my eye balls.

And to end the whole thing, our droopy-eyed, idiotic waiter comes up to us and mumbles, "uh, so, do you guys want to see the dessert menu or something?" We respond with a polite "no" and he shrugs his shoulders and slinks away. And he proceeded to pass out and drop dead in the middle of the restaurant. Ok the last part didn't happen.

Les Halles isn't much more than a gussied up 99/Ground Round/your local crappy steakhouse. Bourdain makes his food sound amazing in his books, too bad it's terrible in real life. AND! I also read online that he and his high school sweetheart got divorced a few years ago and he remarried some Italian woman. And they just had a baby! Tsk. Tsk.

Ramen Setagaya

2007-07-19T12:22:00.000-04:00

So there's been a lot of hype about Ramen Setagaya being waaaay more authentic than anything you can find at Rai Rai Ken, Momofuku, Minca, or the dozens upon dozens of other Japanese noodle bars around the city. As I'm always on the quest for the best noodle bar, I had to go to Setagaya, even if it meant waiting in line for 45 minutes. Jia, Jordan and I got there at 7 on a Friday night and the line was out the door. (Note: the restaurant is tiny and not conducive for big group meals. You shouldn't go with more than three other people.) We patiently waited in line for about 25 minutes, enviously watching the eating customers pick bouncy noodles out of their bowl and slurp their broth with gusto.

We are seated at the bar facing the chefs (yes! I get to wink and wave at the solemn Japanese cooks grilling pork!) I ordered the Shio (salt broth) ramen with BBQ pork (you have the choice between ramen, ramen or more ramen...not a restaurant with too much variety.)

They're not kidding when they say salt broth...cause that shit was salty! I mean like unbelievably salty...like I had to drink 2 pints of water afterwards before I felt normal again. That said, the broth was really flavorful...i can't believe they can make water taste that good without adding even a sprinkle of msg. The pork was soft and came apart really easily, almost like shredded chicken. The grilled edges added a nice bit of crunch to the meat. The egg was perfect - the yolk wasn't too runny, but also not chalky and crumbly...soft without feeling like you're drinking raw yolk. The bland taste of the egg white was a great compliment to the salty broth.

Oh and those noodles. The noodles held up incredibly well in the broth - they didn't get at all soggy or mushy, even after 15 minutes. It had the most interesting texture...it almost didn't taste like ramen. The noodles were chewy and had a slightly elastic feeling to them, like i was pulling long rubber bands out of my bowl.

Rai Rai Ken vs. Setagaya? Setagaya is the clear winner. Although, I prefer Rai Rai Ken's atomosphere. Hopefully Setagaya won't be such a zoo in a few months. I think I'll be making quite a few trips back to this place in the wintertime.

Update: I don't know a fig when I see one

2007-07-19T12:18:00.001-04:00

Ursula notified me of a grave error in my previous post, when I called a fig a passion fruit/guava/some fruit or other. The fruit adorning the deliciously creamy yogurt I had at Reservoir restaurant in Montreal was indeed a black mission fig.

It looks like a....well you all know what I think it looks like.

Montreal and Vermont Recap

2007-07-07T15:43:00.000-04:00

I was just in Montreal for the Jazz Fest and in Grand Isle, Vermont for some R&R. It was a serious eating fest...here are some highlights:

Chez Doval
corner of Rue Marie Anne and Rue Bullion, Montreal

Chez Doval is a small neighborhood restaurant near our hotel serving amazing Portuguese food. I've been dreaming about their steaks ever since last summer, when I had it for the first time. Amar and Carrie both ordered the Portuguese steak, which is a huge chunk of grilled steak with a fried egg on top. Our waiter made the executive decision of ordering Carrie the "lady" portion of the steak.

If you can't tell, the huge white blob on top of the steak is the fried egg. The combination of the two was delicious. The meat is ridiculously tender and juicy. It felt like the pieces of meat were literally melting in my mouth. Even though the steak was cooked medium, the meat wasn't stringy or too bloody. I think it's the best steak I've ever had, anywhere.

The restaurant is an awesome neighborhood place with cute old-man waiters, what a find!

Reservoir
corner of Rue Duluth and Rue Hotel de Ville

Someone on Chowhound recommended that we go to brunch at Reservoir restaurant around the corner from our hotel, off of St. Laurent Boulevard. After pulling on the wrong door and pressing my nose up against the window like an idiotic American tourist, we got a table and ordered our food. I started with the fruit and yogurt. I've never had the fruit that was on top of the yogurt; Carrie told me it was passion fruit...or was it guava? I don't remember. Whatever it was, it was really really good. The fruit had a hint of sweetness and had a meaty texture. The yogurt was really creamy and didn't have much of a sour aftertaste. I couldn't tell if they added honey to the yogurt or if it was a special type of creamy yogurt. Look at the picture, doesn't the yogurt look like gelato?

I also ordered the scrambled egg with truffles dish. You know how I feel about mushrooms and this dish did not disappoint me. The scrambled eggs were incredibly rich and the mushrooms had a great thick, woodsy, almost smoky flavor. The eggs came with watercress in a light vinagrette and a sourdough-like bread with a soft chewy center. This meal was perfect - I need to find a place in New York that serves eggs with truffles!

Onto Vermont.
We had some pretty great meals in Vermont, notably our dinner at the Ruthcliffe lodge. I had an amazingly fresh steamed lobster, which i hacked to pieces and shoved into my mouth. I must have looked like a complete barbarian - cracking the shell with one hand, pulling out the meat with the other.

We also went back to the Vermont Pub and Brewery, located in downtown Burlington. The food is your standard pub fare - burgers, steak and cheeses, a few basic pasta dishes, breaded and fried shrimp,
breaded and fried calamari, breaded and fried fish, breaded and fried chicken...you get the point. We started with the breaded and fried shrimp and I also ordered the mushroom philly cheese steak - sauteed portobello mushrooms and onions sandwiched between a toasted roll, topped with melted cheese. After a long day of biking around Isle La Motte, it felt really good to eat some heavy, fried food. The food was pretty good - pretty familiar territory, nothing too exciting, but well made. The best part about the restaurant is the wide selection of microbrews, brewed in the basement of the restaurant. And at rock bottom prices! Amar and I were shocked that a pint of beer costly only a measly $3.00. For that much money in New York, I wouldn't be able to get a bartender to even look in my direction.

I ordered the six-beer sampler, with flavors ranging from a light and fruity to dark and bitter. The beer on the far left was very light and freshing, with what seemed liked a hint of fizz somewhere in there. The one on the far right was the heaviest of all the beers and tasted like it was brewed with coffee grounds. All the beers were excellent, I think my favorite was the Baseball Lager, #3.

The best way to drink the beers was like this: take sips from two different beers, swish it in your mouth and feel the frothy goodness slide down your throat.

Kitchen Confidential

2007-07-06T10:15:00.001-04:00

I just finished watching the first 6 episodes of Kitchen Confidential, the short-lived show on FOX adapted from Anthony Bourdain's novel of the same name. FOX pulled the show after only four episodes, which is too bad because so far, I really like it. Most of the scenes take place in the kitchen, you get to see lots of cooking action, there's a chef with a funny British accent, the obligatory gay waiter, unnecessary cleavage shots and a dumb blonde. Now that is a recipe for a successful show. But seriously, I like Bradley Cooper and I love John Cho and the show made me laugh out loud a bunch of times.

The show stars Bradley Cooper, whom you may all know from Alias. Kitchen Confidential has featured two Alias alums, Bradley Cooper and Michael Vartan, who played a rival French chef in one of the earlier episodes. HOT. John Cho plays Teddy, the head fish guy and he's really hilarious...it's a throwback to his character in Can't Hardly Wait. DOUBLE HOT.

John Fancis Daley, the actor who plays Jim the Sous Chef is also a really funny character. Apparently, he was also in Freaks and Geeks, which I have been wanting to see. Too bad there's a "long wait" for it on Netflix.

I'm not sure why FOX didn't give it a chance, but at least you can watch all of the un-aired episodes on DVD. Get it on Netflix now.

Barefoot Contessa's Tomato Sandwich

2007-06-25T22:50:00.001-04:00

Ina Garten's recipes are usually chock full of butter, oil and sugar. The dishes are also usually too fancy and time consuming for me (who has time to make a crab salad or angel food cake from scratch?) But I do love watching her show, if only to watch her waddle around her massive kitchen or hop into her shiny Mercedes for a quick trip to a gourmet grocery store before swinging by the beach for a fun-filled clam dig. Ugh. Bitch.

But she did make a tomato sandwich on one episode that looked simple and delicious. You're probably thinking...hmm...a few pieces of bland tomato between two slices of soggy tomato juice soaked bread...doesn't sound appealing to me. I was skeptical too, but it turned out really well. It's the garlic and basil in the mayo spread that makes the sandwich tasty. So, if it's a hot summer day and you want a light and refreshing sandwich, this is a good bet. I recommend using a firmer bread such as whole wheat or sourdough. The tomato juice will soak through white bread very quickly, and i hate soggy sandwiches! It's the worst.

To make the spread:

a few scoops of mayo
2 teaspoon of lemon juice
minced garlic (1 clove)
handful of chopped basil
pinch of salt

Spread the garlic basil mayo on the the bread, add the tomatoes and you're done. I bet this spread would go really well with some sliced turkey and avocado.

Anyway Cafe

2007-06-18T12:16:00.000-04:00

I am seriously behind on my posts, I still haven't put up the pictures from Good and Spoleto! So before Kashmira's housewarming this past Saturday, Amar and I went to the East Village to grab some dinner. On our way to Soba Ya, we spotted a cute restaurant with some outdoor seating on 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue called Anyway Cafe. The menu sounded pretty good and the words "crepe" and "cream sauce" lured us away from the noodle restaurant. So Anyway Cafe serves a odd combination of French and Russian food and has an impressive list of infused vodkas. The decor is...actually I'm not really sure because it was so dark in the restaurant that I couldn't see much of anything.

I ordered the Wild Mushroom Pelmeni - Pelmeni is the Russian version of Italian ravioli. The raviolis came in a runny, dark sauce (call the Anyway Special Sauce). It had a sour cabbage flavor, but with a hint of tangy sweetness as well. The Pelmeni lacked flavor, the ravioli skins were extremely slimey and slid down the back of my throat. The dish came out lukewarm, so I had to ask for the dish to be reheated. A cold dish REALLY kills the dining experience.

Amar got the Chicken Crepe w/ a light herb sauce, which was decent...at least better than mine. The crepes were a bit too soggy and spongy, so by the time I managed to coax a piece of crepe onto my fork, it looked like a sad, wet noodle. The chicken tasted fine, although not particularly fresh or tender.

Overall, it was a pretty below average meal. I would go back to try the vodka martinis, which sounded pretty tasty.

First Annual NYC Food Film Festival

2007-05-31T11:41:00.000-04:00

Water Taxi Beach is hosting the first annual NYC Food Film Festival. The festival will be held from June 14 - September 8th and is broken down into three parts:
Part One: Hamburgers and Asparagus
Part Two: Hot Dogs
Part Three: BBQ

While tickets are "free", you have to order food ahead of time, which will grant you access to the film fest.

Here are two of the films that's part of the line-up:
Asparagus: A Stalk-umentary
Living on the Wedge (Wisconsin's Artisan Cheesemakers)

I haven't had the chance to get out to Water Taxi Beach and this is the perfect reason to go!

Click Here to learn more

Dim Sum Go Go

2007-05-13T15:18:00.000-04:00

The DC gals were in town this weekend for Nikki's birthday and I came up with the brilliant idea of getting dim sum on Saturday. The food at most dim sum places are extremely oily - I usually leave the restaurant feeling like there's grease oozing out of my pores and not wanting dim sum for another 6 months. Dim Sum Go Go is a bit smaller than the average dim sum restaurant, so it's not as loud and crazy as some other places. The dim sum is also served a la carte style - you check off the dishes you want on an order form and everything is made to order.

We ordered at least 10 different dishes - i didn't get to try everything but here are my favorites:
Snow Pea Leaf Dumplings
Shrimp Balls
Sesame Balls
Rice Roll with Shrimp

I've never had snow pea leaf dumplings before and these were delicious. The dumpling skins were thin and not too tough and the snow pea leaves were flavorful without being too salty. The shrimp balls were deep fried and crispy on the outside with soft pieces of shrimp inside. I love the consistency of rice rolls - the soft and slippery rolls just slide down the my throat.

Everything tasted great and best part about it was that nothing was too greasy. Even the sesame balls, which usually have the tendency of being overly oily. The portions were a little smaller other dim sum restaurants but well worth it anyways. I left the restaurant feeling perfectly satisfied and not gross and greasy. I'm definitely going back to try the other dishes on the menu!

A Map of My Favorite Restaurants

2007-05-04T11:57:00.000-04:00

Inspired by Jim Leff's map of obscure food carts in Jackson Heights, check out a map of my favorite restaurants in NYC. Check back periodically, cause I'm going to keep adding new places!

Giada's Stuffed Shells

2007-04-29T21:14:00.000-04:00

Giada is clearly the best Food Network star. It's hard to not be charmed by her bobble head and ubiquitous cleavage. So much better than Rachel Ray, who has the audacity to make asian noodle soup with semolina spaghetti pasta. The horror! And I don't even want to get into her "chowda mac" and "stoup". On one of her shows, Giada made Stuffed Shells with Turkey and Artichoke. It looked really good and relatively easy. I generally don't like stuffed shells because there's usually so much ricotta cheese, I can only take a few bites before feeling full...but not in a good way. Her stuffed shells are really delicious, the recipe calls for ricotta cheese, but it still tastes light and healthy. Another great thing is that you can make a whole batch, freeze the ones you don't finish and eat them for a month! You just pop the frozen ones in the oven for 45 min - 1 hour, and dinner is done.

Here's the recipe (Giada made her own sauce, but I used a jar of 365 brand marinara sauce and it tasted just fine)

Ingredients:
1 box of jumbo shells
1 pound ground turkey
1 package frozen artichokes, thawed and chopped
1 (15 ounce) container of ricotta cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup of chopped basil
handful of chopped parsley
3/4 cup grated parmesan
1 cup grated mozzarella
1 smal onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
olive oil
salt
pepper
1 jar of marinara sauce

Instructions:
- Preheat oven at 400 degrees
- Boil the shells in water for 5 minutes
- Sautee the chopped garlic and diced onion for a few minutes, add ground turkey, salt and pepper and sautee for another few minutes. Make sure the ground turkey is broken into small pieces
- Add the chopped artichokes and sautee for another 5 minutes, or until the turkey is cooked on the outside.
- In a large bowl, mix the cooked turkey and artichoke combination with with the chopped parsley, basil, 2 eggs, ricotta cheese (almost the entire container) and parmesan cheese together.
- After everything is evenly mixed together, start stuffing the shells with the mixture. Stuff the shells up to the top, it's ok if it's messy and there's stuff coming out of the top.
Cover the bottom of a baking pan with a layer of marinara sauce, put the stuffed shells on top of the sauce, cover the top of the shells with another thick layer of sauce, top it off with shredded mozzarella
- Bake at 400 degrees for 30 - 40 minutes, until the shells are soft

For you vegetarians, you can substitute the turkey with mushrooms, or just add more artichokes. It tastes really good, ask Nikki! It's not too heavy, and goes wonderfully with a salad and glass of white wine.

Maoz Falafel

2007-04-23T15:15:00.000-04:00

A new branch of the Maoz Falafel Shop recently up, on Union Square East between 16th and 17th Street. I've been to the London and Barcelona branches of Maoz and the new one in Union Sq is just as good! Excellent falafel (not to greasy), a variety of toppings and sauces and great lemonade!

Apparently, some people don't understand the concept of falafel because i watched a grossly anorexic woman stare at her meal with shock and disgust and ask, "Is that what falafel is supposed to look like? Oh my god, it's just not what i expected. And also, can i have the falafel on a bed of lettuce instead of in a pita? I don't eat bread."

Kuma Inn

2007-04-02T19:45:00.000-04:00

There are those rare meals that you know you'll always remember. Not only does the food taste out of this world, but it also makes everyone at the table simply ten times happier and more energetic. I think tapas especially has this sort of effect on people, because you're not just having a meal together, you're sharing the experience of eating. I had one of those memorable dining experiences last night at Kuma Inn. The occasion was for Samantha's 24th birthday. Now, I know you all are going to think I'm biased towards this place, because I love any sort of Asian cuisine, but Kuma Inn really is amazing. Samantha and Sarah both raved about every dish and we all breathed collective "wow"s and "oh my god this is amazing"s after we tasted each dish.

The restaurant is located on a dark and run-down stretch of Ludlow street between Delancey and Rivington. It took me a while to find the place, because there's no awning or visible sign. Just a piece of white paper with the the words "Kuma Inn" printed neatly on it, tacked to a propped open door. The restaurant is located on the second floor of what appears to be an apartment building. The only things that give away the identity of the place are the dozens upon dozens of restaurant reviews and ratings from all the various newspapers and magazines, taped to the foyer's walls. You walk into the restaurant and practically walk smack dab into the open kitchen. Kuma Inn is small, there are no more than 12 tables. The decor is simple...actually it's kind of bland...blonde wooden tables and chairs, hard wood floors, white walls with minimal decoration. But it's great, because there's nothing to distract you from the food.

We decided to order two tapas each, so six in total. The first dish that our waitress served us was the Mixed Seaweed Salad with sesame and chili oil. The bright green seaweed strands were cool and refreshing and the sesame oil gave it a rich coating of flavor.

Next came the barrage of seafood dishes: steamed mussels in kaffir coconut lime curry, drunken spicy shrimp with sake and thai chilis and seared ahi tuna with a thai chili-miso vinagrette. The mussels were perfect tender little morsels of fresh meat. The mussel shells were perfect scooping vessels for the delicious lime curry sauce at the bottom of the bowl. The squares of seared tuna were a toasted brown color on the edges and a deep reddish purple at the center. The meat was amazingly tender - it was like eating sashimi...only 100 times better.

After the seafood dishes were delivered, the sauteed green market mushrooms with baby bamboo shoots, pork dumplings and chinese sausage arrived shortly thereafter. The chinese sausage is supposed to be one of their signature dishes, but I didn't think it was that spectacular. I thought the seafood dishes were way better. The meat was a little too tough and the sauce was extremely sweet and tart.

I was too busy wolfing down my food that I didn't remember to snap this picture til the end of our meal:

For dessert we ordered the coconut lime panna cotta and fried plantains. The pale green panna cotta, topped with one mint leaf and three blueberries, was served in a small glass tumbler. It was smooth, rich, fragrant, think...it was like a thinner custard. AMAZING. One of the best desserts I've had in a long time.

For 6 dishes (actually...now that I'm thinking back, i think we ordered an extra dish, so 7), 2 desserts and a coconut water, the bill came to about $80...a steal in my opinion for food that tasted so good.

Other highlights:
Sam Rockwell and the Mac Commercial Guy dining behind us!
BYOB!!
Foxy Brown and Lily Allen blasting from the speakers!

Go immediately...bring your friends, your loved ones, just tell someone about Kuma Inn!

Lazy Meal

2007-04-01T19:24:00.000-04:00

This post is for Jordan, who wants to see a show that can top Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals...5 Minute Meals perhaps. This dish takes little preparation - all you have to do is chop some stuff, stick it in the oven, slap some sauce on it and it's good to go. So I don't know what to call it....so I'll just call it Lazy Chicken with Hummus

Ingredients:
3 pieces of thinly sliced chicken breaast
handful of chopped parsley
2 medium sized zucchinis, chopped
cumin
juice of one lemon
olive oil
salt & pepper
hummus and/or babaghanouj
bagged salad

Directions:
Preheat the oven at 350 degrees
Slice the chicken into little pieces
chop the zucchinis
chop the parsley
combine the chicken, zucchini and parsley in a baking pan
Sprinkle some cumin on top (maybe 1 teaspoon? i kind of just eyeball it...less if you don't really like the taste of cumin)
sprinkle the salt and ground pepper on top
Whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil (again, just eyeball it...enough so that all of the chicken and zucchini will be be covered, but not drenched in the lemon juice and olive oil)
Cover the chicken and zucchini with the lemon/olive oil combination, shake the pan a little bit or combine everything with your hands
Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes (or until the chicken is cooked)

mix it in with the bagged salad and add a few generous dollops of hummus and/or babaghanouj on top.

Not exactly the most flavorful thing you'll ever eat, but it's good, filling and healthy.

Weekend Wrap-Up

2007-04-01T18:40:00.000-04:00

This was quite a weekend eating fest! A bunch of us went to Nikki's Grandma's house in New Jersey to celebrate Passover. It was so great to get away from the city, even if it was only for a day and a night. What's more relaxing than driving down tree-lined, winding dirt roads, swerving to avoid beavers on the road and listening to Kashmira sitting in the back of the car singing along to a song with the lyrics, "drop Ds on that bitch"?

The Passover dinner was amazing. I got my annual fill of haroses. Everything from the matzo ball soup to the brisket and matzo and vegetable hash was delicious. The chocolate cake was fantastic - it definitely didn't taste anything like those flat and hard flourless chocolate cakes that I've had before. Apparently the matzo meal is what makes the cake so moist.

I'm so glad Nikki is my friend. And Jewish.

In addition to the Passover meal, here are some other culinary highlights from this weekend:
- Essex Market Restaurant
This is the restaurant attached to the Essex Street Market. The dishes are a cross between Jewish and Latin cuisines - reflecting the ethnic and cultural diversity of the lower east side. Unfortunately, the waiters and waitresses were not wearing tight graphic tees and skinny jeans. I ordered the blackened catfish, which came on a bed of potatoes, chopped scallions and shrimp. The fish was tender and flaky, and the cream sauce that came with the dish was rich without being too creamy and nauseating. Everyone else's dishes look great as well - I saw crab cakes, potato pancakes, filet mignon and mac & cheese. Despite the difficulty with the reservations (you have to put down a credit card and will get charged a fee for missing your reservation), I have nothing bad to say about the service. Especially since our waitress so graciously gave us 8 drink tickets so she could make room for another party. The atmosphere was laid-back and the decor was simple: high, airy ceilings, simple black tables and chairs, lighting that was dim enough so that everyone appeared to have a rosy hue, but bright enough to still see what you were eating. Thumbs up!

-Sally Lunn's
An adorable Tea Shop in Short Hills, New Jersey - Molly has been raving about this place for years. We stopped in to have scones and tea on Saturday afternoon, before the Seder. My scone was warm and moist and came with clotted cream and fruit jam. Nothing is worse than a hard and dry scone! Eating pieces of a warm scone topped with cream and jam, following by a few sips of earl grey tea from a dainty teacup is the best thing in the world. It makes me feel like a little girl and an old lady all at the same time.

Battle of the Brooklyn Noodle Soups

2007-03-27T22:10:00.000-04:00

Yes, I know this is my second post in a row involving noodles - what can i say, I love mian tiao. I've made a few trips to the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn over the past few weeks. One time I was in the neighborhood picking up some groceries (ok, I was stocking up on rice), and I just happened to drive by a hole-the-wall noodle shop serving hand-pulled noodles. Hand-pulled noodles are made by stretching and twisting a solid chunk of dough into strands of thin and delicate noodles. It reminds me of a game of cat's cradle, except no string or children are involved. Just dough and old Chinese men. The noodle shop I'm referring to is called Lan Zhou Hand-Pulled Noodles and is located at 60th street and 8th ave.

Aside from the beef and noodles, the soup also includes spinach, cilantro and a spoonful of preserved vegetables. The noodles are soft and chewy at the same time. The broth is flavorful, without being too salty. I am generally not a fan of preserved vegetables, but this time it added extra flavor to the soup.

My second trip to Sunset Park was caused mostly in part by a raving review of a Yunnan Noodle Shop I read on Chowhound. I had Yunnan rice noodles (mi xian) once in Bejing and I was curious to see if this place was truly authentic. Yunnan is a province located in the southwestern region of China. Their noodles are made with rice flour and are whiter and plumper than your average Chinese noodle.

Yunnan Snack Shop, another hole-in-the-wall restaurant located at 49th street and 8th avenue, similar to the Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles set-up. The soup looks pretty much the same too, but the flavors and textures are completely different. The Yunnan rice noodles are much chewier and kind of hard to swallow. I had to swallow a lot of them whole because I was having trouble biting down. This broth is also very spicy and more salty. Interesting flavor, but I'm not sure if I'll go back again. I definitely prefer the hand pulled noodles over the Yunnan rice noodles.

UK Noodle Invasion

2007-03-27T15:08:00.000-04:00

Wagamama, the British Noodle Shop chain, is opening its first US location on April 23rd! The first restaurant will be located in the touristy Fanueil Hall area of Boston. Another one, situated in Harvard Sq., is slated to open this summer.

Boston has always been lacking in quality Asian food, Wagamama is exactly what the city needs! Havard Square especially doesn't have a great Asian restaurant - sure you've got Penang, Pho Pasteur, a handful of easily forgettable Thai and Japanese places and that random "pan-Asian" place that used to be where Finale is currently located, but it's definitely not the place to go when I'm hungering for some noodle soup. If I could spend a Saturday afternoon in Harvard Sq., casually perusing Jasmine Sola, the Urban basement, Le Foot AND have the ability end it all with a steaming bowl of ramen or a plate of veggie katsu w/ curry, I would be in heaven. It could change my whole perspective. On life.

I equate Wagamama with my year abroad. It was where I had one of my first and last meals in London. I loved the long communal wooden tables and benches, the crisp white plates, the bursts of steam coming from the open kitchen, the noise of constant chatter, soup slurpage, and cutlery clinking against the plates. Ohhhhhh MEMORIES. That's all we have in this world. The fruit juices are excellent - not too sweet or tart. I remember the carrot juice being particularly thirst quenching. The Yasai Katsu Curry is one of my favorite dishes on the menu - slices of breaded eggplant, sweet potato and squash, fried and topped with Japanese-style curry.

I hope they'll open a Wagamama in New York. This city could use another restaurant that serves $12 bowls of ramen, right?

Click here to read the full menu.

Wined It Up

2007-03-27T14:59:00.000-04:00

Some sort of Italian wine competition happened in New York recently. Most of the winners cost from $50 - $80 a bottle, but this one, the Lis Neris Pino Grigio only costs $20 a bottle. According to the Gothamist, the Les Neris had "layers of pear, hazelnut, with soft toasted wood notes". Run out to your nearest wine shop and buy a bottle to toast the beginning of spring!

Food for Thought

2007-03-14T14:37:00.000-04:00

I received my adorable little The Economist 2007 Facts and Figures handbook yesterday in the mail. Thought I'd share with you something interesting factoids that you might not have known to be true.

- Best air quality score: Uganda
- Worst air quality score: Bangladesh
- Highest concentration of ozone: Belize
- Highest life expectancy rate: Andorra (can someone tell me where Andorra might be located?)
- Highest military spending (as a % of total GDP) - North Korea, at a whopping 25%
- Most expensive office space rental: London (west end neighborhood) at about $2000 per square feet. Damn! New York (at about $575/square feet) seems cheap in comparison.
- the US doesn't even place in the 40 countries with the highest % of women in the workforce

Maybe some of these will come in handy for quiz night!

Eggs and Polenta

2007-03-12T22:36:00.000-04:00

I stole this recipe straight from the New York Times, and although my plating doesn't look as pretty as the picture from the newspaper, I still thought it tasted pretty good. The whole meal essentially cost about $1.50.

It's a combination of cheesy polenta, a fried egg and sauteed swiss chard. (I used to be a swiss-chard-a-phobe because of the swiss chard that the Smith dining halls cooked up were always kind of gross, but it's actually pretty good.) This meal is great for breakfast or dinner.

To make the swiss chard, just sautee the leafy greens w/ salt and garlic in olive oil for 5-10 minutes, until the leaves are soft.

To make the polenta:
Combine coarse corn meal (available in the Goya section of most supermarkets) and water in the ratio of 1:6...holy crap this is like the perfect GMAT math question: the ratio of cornmeal to water is 1:6, if 4 more cups of water are added to the mixture, the ratio is now 1:8. How many cups of water are in the original mixture? Yeahhh....can somebody please shoot me and put me out of my misery?
Anyhoo where was I....right, so combine the water and cornmeal, with a pinch of salt. Boil over medium heat, stir the mixture constantly so it doesn't all clump at the bottom. After 10 or 15 minutes, the mixture will thicken up and start to look like polenta. Add a few handfuls of grated parmesan or cheddar, what the hell, add blue cheese if you want to! It'll probably taste nasty though. And voila, you have made polenta.

Fez

2007-03-12T22:34:00.000-04:00

It was a cold and blustery night. Trash bags were being blown around by the wind, similar to the that trash bag scene from American Beauty. Prospect Avenue was dark and mostly deserted. I felt like I was in a scene from a film noir movie. Too bad it wasn't foggy, otherwise it would have been perfect. Fez's storefront is tiny, it's very easy to walk right by the restaurant if you're not looking too carefully. I stepped into the restaurant and was immediately engulfed in warmth and delicious smells. The walls are painted a dark orange/reddish color and adorned with Moroccan-style lamps and wall sconces.

I started with the Harira soup:

Harira is a tomato-based soup chock full of lentils, chickpeas and long-grain rice. It came piping hot and was the perfect way to warm me up.

Next came the Tilapia Tagine:

(Where was the tall conical lid that come with tagine dishes?!)

The fish came with tomatoes, carrots and potatoes in a light and tangy lemon sauce. The fish was incredibly tender and flakey. Although the flavors of tagine weren't incredibly strong and more subtle, it was still very satisfying.

Every time I have Moroccan food I think of the meal I had during my trek to the desert near Marrakech. We were staying in bivouacs in the middle of a desert, our tour guides (who looked about 18) pull two bunsen burners, a big old pot, raw carrots, potatoes and onions out of their rucksack. I was a bit skeptical - can a decent meal be made without a kitchen and decent cooking utensils? The tagine our tour guides made was ridiculous - it was probably one of the best meals I've ever had. I ate until I thought I was going to throw up. Anyywayyys...sidebar.

Fez is a great choice if you're looking for a light, but filling meal. I liked the Harira soup so much that I decided to make it myself! It's a really simple soup, you basically throw all the ingredients into a big pot, stir and simmer. Just like the story of Stone Soup! Perhaps if the Israelis and Palestinians could join forces to make Harira together, each taking turns stirring the soup...oh look, the Iranians are here to add their own contribution to the soup....and oh my, is that Kim Jong Il here to add some kimchi to the pot....and of course good 'ol Condi Riz-ice is there overseeing the whole operation....then there would be peace in the Middle East.

Recipe for Harira Soup:

Ingredients -
2 16 oz cans of diced tomatoes
1 can of chickpeas
1 cup of lentils
1/2 cup of long-grain rice
1 can of chicken stock
4-5 cups of water (depending on if you like your soup thick or thin)
a few bunches of flat leaf parsley
2 medium-sized onions
salt

Directions -
Sautee the diced onions for a few minutes, until the onions become translucent
add the drained chickpeas, sautee for another few minutes
add the can of of chicken stock
After the chicken stock has come to a boil, add the salt, 2 cans of tomatoes, water, lentils, rice, chopped parsley to the pot
simmer for 45 minutes - 1 hour, or until the lentils are tender
add additional parsley at the end, salt to taste
Stir in few tablespoons of lemon juice give to give it an extra tang

The original recipe I used called for saffron threads, but i didn't use any since it is way too expensive. The soup came out fine without the saffron.

Korea Town

2007-02-24T16:53:00.000-05:00

Kunjip is my favorite restaurant in KTown and nothing's more soothing than a spicy casserole on a cold night. Kunjip was packed as usual last night, around 9 o'clock, so packed that the hostess took our orders while we were in line, waiting for a table. Even though the place was crazy busy, the waitstaff was still incredibly courteous and efficient. About 45 seconds after we were seated, a waiter served us the Korean equivalent of a bread basket: little dishes of kimchi, jap chae (glass noodles stir fried with vegetables, seaweed tossed with some sort of vinegar sauce, pickled cucumbers, cold spicy potatoes and a steamed egg dish, with the consistency of a soft custard. The egg dish is almost exactly like a dish called dan geng my parents used to make when I was little, whenever i complained of a stomachache. All the little dishes are very delicious, a variety of different flavors and textures; it's alternately chewy and crunchy, spicy and sour. All this food even before we get our main course!

I ordered the Soon Dubu Chigae, which is soft tofu in spicy seafood broth, served in a clay pot. A side of steamed purple rice comes along w/ the chigae. I like to take a small spoonfull of rice and dip it in the steaming broth. The broth is so fragrant and flavorful, it warmed up my entire body. The texture of the tofu is smooth and soft, a nice compliment to the spicy broth. Amar orded the Bibimbob, which is rice, ground beef, fried egg and assorted vegetables served in a sizzling stone pot. The presentation of the bibimbob is enough to make anyone salivate. Brown ground beef, green and pale white sliced vegetables, bright yellow yolk and a dollop of deep red spicy paste.

A satisfying meal, completed by two complimentary bowls of cool cinnamon tea, a perfect way to end the meal and cleanse the palate.

And what just happens to be next door? Pinkberry, the crack of LA that recently made its entrance into New York. The place looks so Asian, I was expecting there to be a giant Hello Kitty stuffed animal waiting to greet me at the counter. I ordered the original flavor with a topping of fresh raspberries. The frozen yogurt tastes literally like frozen plain yogurt, not like the usual crappy frozen yogurt at other places that is pretty much tasteless and bland. Pinkberry's yogurt is distinctively sour, without a hint of sugar. I was a bit apprehensive after the first few bites, but the peculiar sour taste kept me intrigued. I've been thinking about the taste of the frozen yogurt all day, I'm definitely going back for more. Maybe I'll try the captain crunch topping next time.

Momofuku Ssam: 2 Stars

2007-02-21T12:03:00.000-05:00

Click here to read Frank Bruni's gushing review of Ssam. He recommends the Steamed Buns with Pork Belly. I do not.

Clinton Street Baking Company

2007-02-19T17:06:00.000-05:00

I had great hopes for this place. From the outside, it looks like a homey, unpretentious place. The decor is lovely. Our table was all set and waiting for us when we came in, and our waitress was incredibly nice. We gave her 5 credit cards to swipe and she didn't even skip a beat! With all this said, I want to say nice things about Clinton Street Baking Company, but...the food simply was just not good enough. Everything was competent, but nothing was worth talking about. It was one of those dining experiences where the food is decent, but not exciting in any way, and you kind of just chew and swallow without much thought to the flavor, trying to finish everything as quickly as possible, so you can move on to the rest of your evening. My eyes lit up when I saw Shephard's Pie on the menu. I was expecting the typical Shephard's Pie that I know and love - ground beef, mashed potatoes, loose corn and some other vegetables all thrown together to produce a comforting brick of cholesterol. But what i got instead was a crappy version closer to chicken pot pie. The chunks of beef were too tough and hard to chew. The roasted vegetables were way too salty. The puff pastry was too greasy.

I'm not alone in thinking that my meal was below par. Some comments from my fellow diners:

Ursy - "the chicken was a bit dry."
Jordan - "the burger is boring and uninspired."
Molly - "the fish tacos gave me a bit of a tummy ache."

If the entrees were around $10 each, I might be a little more forgiving, but since each place was closer to $20, there's no excuse for such mediocrity.

Abistro

2007-02-19T16:30:00.000-05:00

It's been quite an eating frenzy this weekend! Friday night, I went to Abistro, a French/African restaurant in Fort Greene, on Carlton Ave. at Myrtle. The restaurant is tiny - not much bigger than a studio apartment...I counted about 8 or 9 tables. The outside of the restaurant is completely unassuming, no sign above the door or awning, just a plain white facade. The interior of Abistro is just as simple: dim lighting, cream-colored walls, basic wooden tables and chairs. A short, square dark wood pedestal holding a shiny red apple acted as the centerpiece of each table. Since the restaurant is so small and the kitchen is completely open, I felt like I was bathed in delicious garlic flavor all night. It's definitely a quiet, relaxing restaurant where you want to linger for hours.

The five of us started with the plaintain gnocchi and crab cakes - both of which were excellent.

I ordered the grilled tilapia w/ mushroom risotto and sauteed swiss chard. The risotto was fantastic, the consistency was perfect - thick and almost gooey, but not mushy. There was definitely a strong mushroom taste, but also subtle enough so that it wasn't too overwhelming. The fish was incredibly flakey and tasty. I've made tilapia and it always comes out a bit too bland.

For dessert, we split the chocolate cake and bread pudding. Both were great, but I liked the bread pudding better. There was a hint of spice, from the cinnamon and nutmeg.

The restaurant is byob...which made the food taste all that much better! Definitely a new favorite.

Dinner at the Country Home

2007-02-13T11:08:00.000-05:00

We had a very dignified dinner affair at the country home (i.e. our apartment in Brooklyn, which is enormous in comparison to Nikki and Lauren's shoebox in Manhattan) a few weekends ago.

The menu:
Rosemary and thyme roasted chicken - made by me
Salad - Ursy
Potato Gratin - Lauren
Cupcakes - bought (ahem ahem) by Nikki

I used to scared of whipping up a roast chicken...do i have what it takes to produce a juicy and succulent bird that is both tasty and aesthetically pleasing? But, turns out it's really not so hard at all. The key is to constantly baste the chicken with the juices that start coming out of the meat while it's cooking. This roast chicken recipe is from the Bon Appetit cookbook, with a few of my own variations:
1 whole chicken, quartered (quartered chicken is easier to deal with than a whole chicken)
1 tablespoon rosemary
1 tablespoon thyme
olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
2 bay leaves
salt
pepper

for gravy:
1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar
1 inch-wide piece of butter
handful of parsley, chopped

separate the skin from the meat, rub the salt, pepper on the meat, underneath the skin
stuff portions of the rosemary, thyme and broken up bay leaves underneath the skin
Spread olive oil and lemon juice over the chicken
Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, basting the chicken every 10 minutes or so.

For the gravy:
heat the balsamic vinegar over medium heat until it has been reduced to half the amount of the original liquid, combine with chicken juices from the roasting pan and butter and boil for about another 10 minutes or so. Add the chopped parsley at the end.

The cupcakes Nikki brought are from Buttercup Bakery, which is owned by the same owners as Magnolia Bakery. The cupcakes are delicious, although don't try to microwave the cupcakes. I tried to warm up one a few days after our dinner and after about 20 seconds in the microwave, the frosting completely melted off the cupcake and was shellacked to the glass plate. Oy, what a nightmare.

A Glutinous Affair

2007-02-10T19:02:00.000-05:00

FINALLY, after weeks and weeks of salivating just at the thought of eating some half-decent Chinese food, Amar and I went to Spicy and Tasty in Flushing last night. I've been to Flushing a few times, whenever my parents are in town. I think it's the eating in Flushing aspect of the trip to New York that excites them, not the precious time they get to spend with their only daughter. Sigh. Anyway, so I've only eaten around the further end of Main street, near the library. I've never ventured off onto the side streets before. Spicy and Tasty is located at the corner of 39th and Prince Street. I had no idea that Prince Street is a corridor of Asian epicurean heaven! Walking from the car the restaurant, we passed by two noodle shops, a malaysian restaurant, a seafood restaurant, a few standard chinese restaurants and a bubble tea salon. I was wild with hunger and desire.

Spicy and Tasty was everything I had hoped for...the food was spectacular. And I never use the word spectacular to describe anything. The cold dishes are prepared by a chef near at a food station near the front entrance. It's a great way to pump up customers waiting for a table. I practically had to ask for a tea cup to use to catch my drool. Clearly, as you can see from the picture below, I got a little too excited about the food. We ordered enough food for 4 people. Oops.
The appetizers were all excellent. I was a bit disppointed with the dan dan noodles. The noodles were a little too mushy and congealed. And the presentation was definitely a little lackluster. The shredded cold chicken and chengdu jelly were both outstanding. The name chengdu jelly is misleading - it's actually rice noodles, which just look like and have the consistency of jelly. The chili oil in both dishes were extremely fragrant and tasty. The shredded tofu and celery was very good as well, a cooling relief from all the spiciness of the other dishes. The tofu and celery dish had an after taste of whole peppercorns and some sort of herb - either dill or fennel (i think?) It filled the roof of my mouth with flavor.

Onto the main dishes. The Gong Bao Ji Ding (General Tso's Chicken) was pretty good. But, General Tso's Chicken is like Beyonce to me: OVER IT. The Fish in Chili Oil was extremely tender and not too oily, given that it is drenched in oil. I was expecting a whole fish swimming in a bowl...actually more like a basin of chili oil, which is how the dish is served in China. But, the dish is composed of fish filet. The sauteed pea sprouts was excellent - tender, soft leaves, with an extremely delicate flavor. The waitress recommended it as the best vegetarian dish.

Everything was amazing, but I think the appetizers were the superstars of the meal. The leftovers are in my fridge right now and every time i hope the fridge door, the amazing chili oil scent wafts out. They should bottle that stuff and call it "Eau'd Chinois". Or maybe "Szechuan" by Stella McCartney. Dab a little bit of it behind your ears and the girls will come chomping.

Follow Up to Momofuku Experience

2007-02-08T10:59:00.000-05:00

So this is the photo shoot that was going on at Momofuku when I ate there last week:

The laptops and dude wrapped in a big scarf make more sense now.
Click here to read the full NY Times article.
Thanks to Ursy and Adam for the tip!

Park Slope Ale House: Still Good.

2007-02-07T22:54:00.000-05:00

What's better than a solid burger, medium-well please, and some some obscure yuppy beer? A good burger, a good beer and a job offer! Yeaaaaaaah. Oh, and the Tuesday night 50 cent wings deal at is pretty good too. Although I swear the last time I went on a Tuesday night, like 8 months ago, the wings were only 10 cents each. Maybe I'm wrong. I love the decor of Park Slope Ale House, it's so warm and inviting. The vintage lamps in each booth, the dark wood panelling, the antique ceiling fans, it all makes me feel warm and mushy.

Good Pizza, Good Wine

2007-02-07T22:27:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, during supposedly the coldest night in New York in twenty years or something, Amar and I ordered from Anthony's the BEST ITALIAN PLACE in Park Slope. I've never had a bad meal there. Their pizzas are amazing - light and fluffy, fresh tomato sauce, perfect crust and texture..mmm. The gnocchi is also excellent. See picture:

Just looking at the picture of the practically empty pizza box is making my mouth water.
And the perfect drink to pair with pizza and gnocchi?

Barefoot wine. I usually don't like cabernet sauvignon cause I find it too dry and chalky, but this one isn't bad at all. It doesn't make the back of your throat feel dry like a piece of parchment paper. So far I've tried Barefoot's Cabernet, Merlot and Chardonnay and all three have been excellent. And it's only about $6 a bottle...i think it's the best wine for the under-$10 price range. And can the bottle label get any cuter? NO. P.S. - no comment on cocoa krispies.

Momofuku Ssam

2007-01-31T22:11:00.000-05:00

I've never been that interested in trying Momofuku Noodle Bar. Why wait 20 minutes outside in the freezing cold just so i can get a seat in a cramped restaurant and pay outrageous prices for ramen? I can just walk half a block to Rai Rai Ken and get a hot, piping bowl of Shoyu Ramen at lightening speed. But, I've been curious about Momofuku Ssam since it opened back in the Spring. I know they're know for their Ssams (Asian Burritos), but I wanted to try their steamed buns and see if theirs is any better than the ones at Province. The steamed buns come in a pair, I got one pork and one chicken. The shredded pork and chicken were both extremely tender. The pickled cucumber and carrot slaw were a cool, refreshing compliment to the meat. But, the buns were drenched in so much sauce and oil, that it started dripping everywhere the moment i picked up my bun. Not only did it get all over my hands, the excess oil rendered the bottom part of the buns wet and soggy! A nice, clear broth or noodle soup would have gone perfectly with the buns, but Ssam doesn't sell soup. How can you call yourself a Asian-themed restaurant if you don't have noodle soup! The only non-alcoholic beverages Ssam carries are Dr. Pepper, Smart Water and San Pellegrino Limonata. A strange grouping if you ask me. Call me a typical Asian, but what about a nice Oolong Tea? Or even Jasmine Tea, I'll take that.

Had I never tasted better buns, I probably would have thought that these were pretty damn good. But I have. At Province. The Pork Shoulder steamed bun at Province is amazing. The meat is tender and even the fatty part of the pork is delicious. The hoisin sauce and pickled cucumber are the same at both restaurants, but the extra sprig of cilantro in Province's buns adds another layer of freshness and taste.

Aside from the food, my experience at Ssam was pretty bizarre. When i first walked in, I thought the restaurant was closed for a private event. The restaurant was completely empty, aside from the a crew of photographers shooting a group of people surrounded by their macbooks and ssams. Seriously, I counted 3 macbooks. The cashier tells me the group of people are from the New York Times. I was trying to figure out if any of the dudes was Frank Bruni, but I have absolutely no idea what Frank Bruni looks like. I imagine him to be a middle-aged man on the heavier side, jolly and michievious, spreading alternately joy and dispair. Not unlike Santa. I couldn't figure out the theme of the shoot. Everyone was dressed in their normal writer/editor attire, you know, vintage...i mean...thrift shop flannel shirt, slouchy jeans, tousled hair, unruly beard/other form of facial hair, like they'd woken up at noon and had spent the majority of their day writing at the neighborhood Starbucks. Except one guy, who was wearing a pair of Nicole Ritchie-sized black sunglasses, with a large, thick scarf wrapped around his face.

So, it was me, eating my bun in a dark corner of the restaurant, and the entire staff of the Dining section of the New York Times laughing it up in the other corner, under bright spotlights. When I walked past their table to throw away my trash...ok fine, i specifically went to the garbage can in their corner so I could spy on them, I overheard the crew debating the merits of Padma Lakshmi as the host of Top Chef and the attractiveness level of Gordon Ramsey. Oh come on, how predictable. If they were talking about the Superbowl, who is going to win: the Patriots or the Green Bay Packers (or whatever teams are in the Superbowl this year), or....I don't know...how some girl in Canarsie found a fried rat mixed in with her Chinese take-out meal (seriously, that happened. I just watched the story on Fox) , now that would have a surprise.

Anyway, I think my experience at Ssam pretty much exemplifies the general position of Momofuku Ssam: loved and praised by the critics, mixed reviews from the masses.

Yup...still love Felicity

2007-01-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this isn't exactly food-related, but I don't really care. Felicity...i mean...Keri Russell is pregs and engaged! Two co-workers of mine recently saw her walking around near my office one day during lunch time. They said Keri looked fabulous (especially her hair) and pregnant. And that she was with a mystery man, probably a boyfriend or something. And today I read on JustJared that not only is she pregnant, but she's also engaged as well. The mystery dude is Shane Deary. His last name is Deary, how adorable is that. If she took his last name, she'd be Keri Deary. What a Julia Goolia name. Here is a picture of all the cuteness that is Keri Russell from the Just Jared website. She looks so happy and cute...love the hat too. He's got that hey-i-was-just-wandering-around-Williamsburg-and-boom
-i-impregnated-Felicity look going on. Everyone may mock and ridicule me for liking the show Felicity, and yeah, so what if I watched Season 4 for 3 months straight, and ok, maybe the last episode made me tear up, but I don't care! I'll always be a Keri fan.