...food/ACTUALLY...

Skate, tomatoes, & thyme!...

2010-04-19T21:19:00.018-05:00

I lurve skate! It's so springy! The fishmonger said it has a 'scallop' like texture but I think it's kinda closer to chilean sea bass (not as fatty) but, not fibrous like scallop, not thin and flaky or stiff like other fish...sea bass with a bit of oomph! I lurve it!

The last time I had skate it was er...not...so awesome. I didn't know skate breaks down faster than other fish (since it's not even...fish...really! Case in point.) But anyhoo, so when skate breaks down, it releases uric acid from its skin. I hadn't kept it *that* long but uh...when I was eating it I thought to myself, "HRMM hrmm HRMM. this tastes rather...menthol-y. And intriguingly...reminiscent of...hair dye -.- in terms of smell." And there you go! The urea translates to a pungent ammonia smell/taste! VOILA!! GENIUS MOVE!

SUPER ZOOM!

I was congested that night and...hadn't noticed anything prior to cooking. Except that the skate fillet had released a bit of liquid in the paper package. Silly, silly, daft, incomprehensibly oblivious fooooool that I am. BRAVAAAAA. Anyway, the sauce I made that time was *the BizzoOomB*! It didn't taste that pungently of Pine-sol and cleaners, esp w/ my kick ass reduction so bow chicka bow wowww I've recreated the dish tonight. With fresh skate!!

I used borsari salt on the skate, sauteed it skin side down with butter & olive oil and garlic for about 1 min, flipped that bitch and left it on for about 40s or so b/f adding the tomaaaters! Which...of course I seasoned with sprigs of thyme and a few dashes of fish sauce! :D :D :D

The first two below show the early. Yummmaaay. Springy springy! The thyme makes it kinda...bright/subtly minty feeling. Thyme and dill! i sure like'em. Rosemary more for roasting, esp mah starches but...I don't care to use them for much else.

I broke the wing in two. A giant brown fan isn't that interesting to look at. The skate wings are pretty massive--about $6.99/lb which is essentially one wing! MASSIVE!! Corrugated looking! Wee! The combo of fish sauce and browned butter added a *lot* more color to the fleshy side of the skate fillet but WHATEBBS i lurve the coloring! You can see the liquids bubbling for a bit up there.SEE? I dunno, I can see how fun it is for me to poke this fish repeatedly and how it has a mild flavor which the texture complements (or at least adds to the fun of the fish, in my opinion). It doesn't flake at all like other white fish, and doesn't come off in chunks or glistens like chilean sea bass. BUT YAY!

I much prefer eating this with soba noodles, kind of like the chicken I make similarly to this but diff seasoning in the sauces. The tomatoes get pretty thick and coats the noodles really well (I for some reason don't really like it with italian pastas--i think b/c the soba has a much cleaner taste, esp the buckwheat!).

I don't want to rewrite the recipe again b/c I'm *lazy* so just...saute & season skate wing skin side down with garlic for 1 min, flip and saute for a bit then throw in tomaters and sprigs of thyme, add water if necessary (depending on how much tomatoes u put in). At the end I kind of leave it on low heat w/ the lid on to steam a smidge to maintain springiness and for the tomato sauce not to reduce too much! throw in some butter last min if u want!! :D

Blue Bottle Coffee and Shiny Things!...

2010-04-13T02:01:00.004-05:00

Can we say...summer is here? Or well, springtime with a dash of wack weather and dee-lishousss iced coffee is here?

I know I know, I've fallen off the face of the earth since November with nary a peep and I apologize--but now I'm back! And not to worry, I've been eating and snapping away (and had a photo show of my best foodstuffs!) since then. Good news is I'll be starting my second Masters in Fall 2010 so I'll have *plenty* more time for food photography for at least another 2 yrs! Five yrs if I can continue on w/ my PhD! WOOHOO! But for now I'll start with Blue Bottle Coffee, new spankin'ly opened in Williamsburg on Berry between N. 4th and N. 5th st. And Relish for dinner. and...Pulino's in another post!!

For expediency, I'm gonna not research the coffee & the shop (originating in SF), u can read it on NYTimes.com. So, I say we gaze further at pretty pictures I took :) Onto other pictures with relevance and substance! like...interior shots and of the machines! :D And human workers!

I don't know much about coffee. I can't really drink it since I bypass the energy boost and go straight to jitters, nausea, and clammy-ness across the board! I get soy chais @ starbux and the blended mochas at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf once in blue moon. I have done espresso shots and some coffee here and there so I can definitely taste the difference and nuances in flavor. Alls I know is, the best coffee I've had is Sant Eustachio in Rome (seriously, and not b/c of my n00b palate but...sweet jebus!) and worst I've had is Champignon on 7th ave b/w 22nd and 21st!! deeeeskusting!

This is the slow drip they do--kind of fun to watch, one might assume this is exactly why they put it right up front by the register with a mere sheet of glass between the plebians and baristas so we can watch the magic happen!

So, again, I know nothing of fancy coffee and equipment--except the machines. mmmMMmm damn those are nice. Anyhoo, I can only suppose these shiny contraptions below are elaborate drippers of sorts. Part of me is reminded of O-Chem lab back in the day when we did fractional distillation with similar looking things, except I spent most of the time making tin-foil hats and watching the beakers boil. YAY education!

The three of us got the New Orleans iced coffee (which had a bite to it! very nice tho, good flavor, we're told it needs milk and some sugar tho, even at home).

The only other ice coffee offered was the Kyoto which when I coincidentally ran into our friend Gary afterwards, who said he got the Kyoto and it tasted not like coffee at all but liquid dried blueberries. My mind and tastebuds are still processing that description. And coming up blank. Kinda grossed out. But not really. Mostly...blank. :)

Some offerings to for at home roasting!...

And thus concludes my official post back. :)

...AAAaaAaannd I leave u with a giant picture of some knobs on the espresso machine and the grinder. And a dirty towel. *the end*.

Piggies, Sformato, and Sauces galore @ Maialino...

2009-11-19T08:22:00.054-05:00

Yesh, I haz returned. From...a...hiatus..ish. Just hadn't been feeling up for publishing much but I do have stuff about Roberta's in Bushwick, Kerrytown Farmer's Market in Ann Arbor, and...I forget what else but nonetheless that will all follow this MASSIVE EPIC RETURN post :)

So me, Karen, Shanaz, Megan, and Frances went to Maialino at 2 Lexington (b/w 22nd and 21st st by the Rose Bar), another Danny Meyer venture that opened last wk. I think I'm still full from last night...no I'm...sure that's the case, but that suckling pig was a BEAST and for the first time I said "Nein! no more!...I can't finish" while hanging my head down in flabbergasted defeat. Anyhoodle, let's get to it:

We spent a bit of time going over the menu (the five of us are...greedy-foodie-PowerEaters...I like to think :D) so we tried to maximize dishes and took quite some time to decide--so the waitress brought us Guanciale Rolls on the house :D :D :D Think cinnamon buns w/ pecorino & guanciale (pork cheek/jowl reminiscent of pancetta) but w/o the sugar & whatnot. YUMMAAAAY!

Great bread bowl but it's of little significance compared to the rest of the dishes SO...for antipasti we got the sweetbreads w/purple and weirdly green broccoli, and...the Octopus Carpaccio w/ purple potato mash & arugula. Sweetbreads were abysmally ordinary and it only came with about 3 pieces! >:( Kefi's sweetbreads will always be my #1--that and I am really not digging breaded & fried sweetbreads. No...significant flavor. Carpaccio was nice but still not that oomph i was hoping for--a bit too much taters if u ask me!

Onto pasta dishes! Megan had been stalking Raviolo di Uvolo for a while so needless to say she was quite jazzed to order it--everyone thought it was too much cheese which overwhelmed the egg itself. I just wanted another raviolo on my dish! >:( Nice tho, rather rich, but tasty. Bit of spinach to balance it out. Buccatini all'amatriciana was QUITE GOOD imo. Had a nice heat (turned up a notch), great sauce--some people thought it was a smidge salty but tasty fine-ness to moi! Carbonara was a letdown. All the other reviews raved about it--I say hizzeck no, I can make better sauce and i *HAVE* so suck it. Pasta was a bit too al dente for my liking, as in I truly thought it was undercooked for an italian resto esp but...whatebbs, Amatriciana saved the day :D

But as u can tell below--we pretty much dug all three :) Really wanted to try the Cacio e Pepe but...another time! There was quite a lag b/w sitting down, getting the antipasti, and the paste--quiiiite a while. But then the porky pig came to us quickly...but in the meanwhile, a lampshade fell and freaked everybody out and we...stalked the cheese/meats/breads/dessert bar--kind of a fun addition to the corridor b/w the front dining area, and very nice to see all these things done right in front of u and everybody looking so chipper, eager, and...raring to go.

They had a pretty crazy wine list. Shanaz and I got a couple but...I dunno. whichebbers , food was the focus :) Also...Anita Lo was seated across the roooom!! WEEEEEEEE!!! I've met her before at James Beard but...I still like....to...run into...chefs I recognize and no say anything at all but giggle massively to myself. The embodiment of "tittering", really. :) TEEHEE!!

Anyway, really low key atmosphere and just a great space. We really oggled the room(s) for a bit while we waited...and then...was...the piggy!! Maialino = little pig in Italian, I'm told. I should know better, but...we didn't cover 'little piggy' in vocabulary back in college :) The entire staff was rather effervescent--they were really excited to bring out the and made it a point to notify us way early of the coming presentation of said piggy (and goading me to take pictures, almost giving me cues--like to get a picture of the raviolo midcut :P), and then...choppity chop the piggy returns w/ taters as u will see...

SEE?? they're so happy @ Maialino. Anyhoo, this thing really was a beast--there wasn't too much meat (in terms of what u expect a $68 hunk of pork to be) but my effin' gawd the cracklings was magnificent and the meat was so tender!! Potatoes very aromatic w/ the rosemary, well seasoned too.

JUST LOOK AT THAT SKIN!! ees so bootiful and deleeshus. Taters really tempered the porky fatty savory gamey-ness but...jebus there was a lot of added oil which kind of...made me max out after 1/2 a strip and a quarter more. Marrow was also very very rich but awesomely tasty and 3 of us spent a good amt of time gnawing it to bits to get every morsel.

K so this pic is, in all honesty a redo--but when the suckling pig just came back all chopped and ready to go, everyone literally jabbed in both knife and form simultaneously and let me tell ya...even in a little viewfinder tho super zoomed in, that freaked the *crap* outta me seeing this succession of metal...crazy jabby prison rail East Berlin/USSR iron curtain lockdown gauntlet bizness all come jamming down. BUT FUN! so I made them redo it so I could illustrate what ravenous piglets were were too :D This serious killed my stomach for the night BUT then we made room for...DESSERRRRT!!

Yes yes...we liked it all sufficiently, but that Sformato was HEAVEN--not too rich, not too sweet, ephemeral, smooth...just...heavenly & with a bit of figs and complex flavors w/ the buckwheat honey that gave it a whiff of rum-myness! Olive oil cake was meh--tartufo was GREAT (b/c of the crunch slightly dark choco shavings imo) and the ice cream itself was tasty. We were told all their gelato is in house--the brandied cherries in the tartufo however,...kind of insane and made me want to (in the future) dig it out and smash it in spite for how it overwhelms my tastebuds. SMASHY SMASH!

Great service--so amiable! Some lag time in the beginning, but all the servers were great and spunky and knowledgeable w/o gagging u with perkiness or dogmatic recs. YAY. Def will go back to try the pig's feet, other pastas, and maybe something seafood-y.

See they're so happy and such busybodies they're a blur :D :D

An Nhau: so good I wrote my mama about it...

2009-09-10T02:44:00.062-05:00

No seriously, I emailed my mom that I was excited about An Nhau opening and she responded:

Good luck to your friends' business, it's good for U to have a good place to hang out but hope U don't waist [sic] time joining them & their cool business.

Mama Ly's cheeky no? I'm half certain she thinks my foodie devotion and food photography has somehow stolen me from my rightful path to Med School :D ...and possibly serves as a looming threat to steal me away from my second Masters too :P I'm also under the impression my mom thinks I'm at Bayside High (go tigers! ;)) and this place will be my new "Max's" ...which...you know, I don't remember any asians on Saved by the Bell!! >:( Hehe. ANYHOODLE, Mama Ly didn't know the name of this place was....An Nhau...which would...make quite a diff initial impression :P More on that later :) This is going to be quite a disjointed entry for now--I'm trying to just rush this one out.

Kinda looks like a lovingly gnawed thumbs up right? hehe...and it is!! super perky pokey enthusiastic thumbs up with 3 snaps in Z formation for An Nhau! :)

What you need to know is, this is one of my fave spots now EVER in the city and it has galvanized me to publicize the place and the owners vigorously b/c they're so earnest, dedicated, and chill. They get my beef with the ills and ilk of 'vietnamese' crap and pseudo vietnamese hotspots blowing up in the city that the dilletantes fawn over in the new exoticization of a cuisine and leaving some like us in the dust when all u want is a taste of home--or just a taste of food you are accustomed and entitled to! :) I don't have a lot of fave restaurants in the city--or in my life period...I think An Nhau has become the 3rd ever! :) I'm probably imbuing more to the presence of this restaurant in my life than just...a new restaurant I've been looking for ever since I moved out East. I'm definitely not looking through gossamer-veiled eyes...An Nhau has room for improvements and I anticipate some growing pains, but the potential and promise, and based on what I've gustatorially lived with the stuff they've given me, I'm positively glowing with optimism!

In Vietnamese ăn nhậu refers generally when to the older menfolks get together for (many) drinks and tapas-like feasting. Think...a home-grown edition of lads at the pub gaily, raucously feasting on various meats and homegrown beers. Think...a crew of Bourdains with Bourdain-sian appreciation of asian charcuterie, complete with Bourdainsian cheeky dialogue wherein the mens rib on each other and heartily chortling and beer flows as freely as the small plates do. I dunno it's been a while since i've been anywhere near the vicinity any of my dad and his friends' festivities, which could vary in mellowness as well but just...u know, overall lads at the pub feel! with the vitality of youth...for the most part :)

The thing i'm MOST excited about is that food we/vietnamese eat at home--the staples we eat w/ rice that we don't eat in restaurants when I grew up in Sai Gon (kinda like the 'loofah' soups and claypot fish thing and rau moung etc)...the stuff that's always around for family events, at temple (no not as in yeshiva but buddhist) and communal meals etc--like trung duc or the braised pork belly w/ eggs and our version of curry and....lots of things that don't even pop up in restos in California and vietnamese-central BOLSA! Strikes a low timbre, thick, hearty chord in me :) That...is new and edgy indeed :)

Don't you love that little nub of tendon/ meat?? I always get such a kick out of it when I eat drumsticks and that pokes out more often than on ribs. TEEHEEE!! I really liked the ribs--the seasoning is vietnamese though I can't place what's in it right now since it's been a couple days, but I loved it! You wouldn't think of it as Vietnamese but a lot of things like 'trung thit kho'--which is the long awaited braised pork belly w/ eggs isn't somethign strikingly Vietnamese when u look at it but it is...definitively so (and a northern dish) that u eat with rice. My grams makes me tubs of it when I visit and it stores well so I can eat that with pickled mustard greens by the barrel when I get back to the city :D

ANYWAY, the restaurant itself (on N. 8th & Bedford) adjacent to its bánh mì shop (which i heart many times!) is meant to be more of a slowed down, chilled out version of what I remember the dins and vibrancy of when people ăn nhậu (yes it's a verb phrase)...kinda like the idea of tapas bars as in Spain minus the frenzy and bustle but who knows, maybe that's what Dung (the owner) is looking for (in my interpretation anyway). Mellow spot where ya'll come and hang out and grab something to eat,bounce out w/ relative ease and quickness.

The bestest was...pretty much a deconstructed banh mi and very typical fare for...an nhau hehe. Honestly, they invited a bunch of us over for a tasting of a small fraction of the menu and had this around just to nibble on--which we special-requested during the soft opening too! ^_^ and then we proceeded to convince the people adjacent to try some and then pushed it on more people like pate-crack! :) the Mayo...seriously...this is a whole 'nother entry...which kinda defeats my usual elaborations on the food period, but I'll fawn and nitpick and digress to semantics in cooking but....yeah!! i even made...hearts of it after! :P

And...this is what i proceeded to do! Honestly I just felt very at east and relaxed and filled with youthful enthusiasm for everythign they brought out! The salad could've been a little bigger, with more of the green than red cabbage (personal reference)--which could expand into other things but anyway...RIBS were my fave, the imperial shrimp was mystifying--it was apocryphal but I knew what I was eating tho it didn't look wholly familiar!

The back patio is lovely w/ about 4-5 garden day bed with awning things and other tables. Having watched Dung and his partner Vu/David put together each piece slowly over the past couple mos, it's been interesting to see it come together, the stories of where each piece was picked up, what for--the mantle of the bar itself is pretty much...a giant sliver of a tree complete with gaps and nooks and crannies where the tree divides or took root.

Then there's the pho--rocks! my socks! My grams said the key isn't so much how long you need to let the stock simmer or reduce--but that you season it well prior to adding the bones (which should def be roasted to bring out more flavor prior to adding to the stock!) She was really confused and gave me a 'bish pls' look when i gawked at her saying good stock only takes 2 hours generally. HHEHEHEHEEH...

That's a proper piece of beef my friend. And--I think Chi mentioned there was meatballs available!! ^_^ our meatballs are diff from....other cuisine's meatballs, and comes often as a variant on pho which isn't readily available in nyc it seems!

ANDDDDD...if u look at closely at the preceeding pics, u can see a golden ephemeral film of fatty micelles which comes from the nước béo!! It's like...the In-N-Out secret menu dude...u just gotta know the off menu things. This...is the mark of 'authentic' I HATE THAT WORD but...Dung obvy knows what he's doing and gives a shit enough to have it around and put it to use instead of watering down or sterilizing things here and there to make it a commercial success.

Here's dessert b/f I start railing about tangential things...

So back to the inclusion of the fatty skimmings from the broth (which is what is is so u know it adds more depth of flavor too ^_^)...Like I've mentioned w/ Sorella, there are times when you can tell the chef/restaurant is thorough and thoughtful with a dish. Sometimes things seem so small and insignificant but its inclusion kinda just shows you the dedication and attention to detail that's is very heartwarming to see. It's about the food, about something to take pride in!"Scary" ingredients, components and all--it's insulting when people get 'scared' of certain things in a dish--i don't mean the hesitancy and whatnot, but the resistance to get the real deal, as is, when people 'want to experience' the food of other cultures. (I hate the word "other" in context of 'othering' and 'normative' -.-).

Sorry but good 'ethnic' food is how food is in its genuine form, not scrubbed out and spiffed up with a polish to be accepted and questioned as 'authentic' by dilletantes with a itchy trigger finger on yelp. And the restauranteurs so anxious to placate the noob tongue with an inflated, egoist sense of taste -.- that's another story :) And the younger new vietnamese restauranteurs in the city--I get the difficulties in having straddled the cultural/generational palate divide but...just b/c u can get away with being sloppy with construction of a dish and a little thoughtless/forgetful in the enormity of what goes into a dish...or maybe you want to add a new twist to it (which I'm guilty of consciously or subconsciously)...but just b/c u can get away with it and perpetuate it past the aforementioned n00b tongues doesn't MEAN you've done grand task for yourself or your foods -.-

There's been a proliferation of crap in the hype of Vietnamese food being the next "it" thing, and with the cult-like fanaticisms for all things hip and trendy in NYC, it seems other parties are at the helm which only inwardly fuels further miseducation and misappropriation of a culture and its foods--this is much different in this day and age, and in this city given the power of the twitterati and the mentality of millenials and those on the cusp of this new...crazy user-generated rage...but...there's more, and this isn't the forum and my blog is far from a soapbox. I RANT...and digress...and...I end here. When their full menu is up, which...will cover so much important ground neglected in restaurants in CA and anywhere else--tapping into that home cooking that seldom sees the light of day let alone the food that still hasn't made its debut to the NY/East Coast culinary stage and palate.

Seriously...so good I wrote my mama about it...a gleeful bridge in culture and generational gap--let alone the...pop culture gap :P

Brunch w/ Claudia @ Five Leaves...

2009-09-01T12:00:00.009-05:00

Sorry but this is gonna be a GIANT-ASS PHOTO mode of an entry for Five Leaves (yes, the Heath Ledger joint). There are so many textures that I want to articulate There's really nothing I can say that the pictures don't--honestly, in terms of freshness, texture, vibrancy of flavors...this is the only time I've felt the pictures leave me with little to elaborate on. My made up onomatopeia jargon isn't on par :P

Firstly--sugar beets and regular beets with arugula, some kind of yogurty vinaigrette. Possibly w/ some macadamia nuts--the purple-ness is purely from beets. Arugula > spinach > frisee for salads! actually no I take that back, frisee > spinach >> romaine >>>>>>>> iceberg lettuce -.- MMMmmm...this was more like beets with a splash of arugula but I thought I'd cover it up and make it look like a crazy nest :P

And.......then.........ROASTED TOMATERS!! u'd think it'd be a bit much to have a ton of roasted foods for brunch but this was *lightly* roasted, a *kiss* of fire if u will--not a tongue bath teeny bopper dress down of fire. A little sweet--can't remember all the spices, but it had a nice savory kick to it. Portions were good--we just...got thru a lot b/f I decided to take a photo :P

Hashbrowns--delightfully different in texture, seasoning, and form. A welcome change to breakfast/brunch hash that's all soggy and plain potato-y! No ketchup required/needed. WEE!! Then we have...an egg sammich!! This was a lighter take on egg sammiches...

But as you can see, it's simple but well executed. Lightly seasoned. Not too savory. No bacon--nice herbs. YAY. We kind of...ordered a lot b/w the two of us but...it was kind of a long meal and def took stuff home :P And then there's....my....best....pancake...EVER. I mean look at it!! ^_^ so fluffy, so scrumptiously balanced and subtle!

I couldn't try this shot for a lot of frames b/c then my pancakes would be swimming in syrup (as light/not-overtly-viscous and touch of sweet as it is). :( But times like these I sure wish I had strobe equiment to get that globule of syrup touching down! Then again...that'd be a lot to lug around, esp to greenpoint-ish. :)

LOOK AT THAT DRIP!!! :) I was too lazy to...test it out further for the perfect globule prior to actual pouring, but either way--I was HUNGRY! That and pouring while snapping and balancing w/ slow iso is pretty tricky to maneuver.

:) *sigh*. LOVE. THESE. RiCOTTA PANCAKES.--looks like it was used with the nitrous oxide cream whipper, u know, notorious for all those fancy 'foams'/espume. Judiann had posted a demo of her using the whipper for iSi so that's how i...deduced!! Except maybe not I dunno--but this ish was thick and airy and wonderful!! and the SYRUP!!! as I mentioned in the Spoon brunch entry--this syrup was amazeballs. YES i said "amazeballs"!! Not too viscous (sorry purists!), i could just...suck it up in a beer hat all day--or, as mentioned, intravenously :D

Jaime's bday brunch @ Spoon...

2009-09-01T08:09:00.008-05:00

Look a little...familiar?? Possibly, oh, from THIS lovely set??

I'm a little behind--this was from near end of July--I put the camera down for a bit and just...ATE :) Birthday is coming up so gear up for Stone Barns, possibly Marea (!), L'artusi or Otto, and a new vietnamese place in Williamsburg whose owner I've been in touch with since back in...June? ^_^ so excited!! Should be effin' TASTY for once :P It's a watermelon/champagne concoction from the house.

ANYHOODLE...so brunch was a whole ordeal @ tblsp brunch (at Spoon, of course). About...10-11 womensfolk and LOTS of food. We all hovered around similar egg skillets, pancakes, etc and there were so many of us I didn't want to be that d-bag holding everybody up while shooting their food!

That was Mansi's fruit/granola yogurt parfait. This shit u don't get @ McDonald's or...some deli, amigos. Look at the grains!! :) I tend to not get yogurt granola berry thing-a-ma-bobbers @ restos b/c I feel like I can cobble together a much better version and pay infinitely less for infinitely tastier--but, Spoon's got me smackin' mah lips and rubbin' my hands together.

I also like judging a place by the scones/breads/muffins they put out--and Spoon had some tasty stuff, of course. There was a cornbread with...I'm not even gonna try to remember--BUT i remember a raspberry scone (perfectly, thinly/delicately crisp on the outside and moist on the inside--without being cakey), a brown sugar/maple muffin, and some other thing that was good but I don't remember. *note to self--take notes while eating...and possibly start new series of photos with me and fork/knife and plate*

Doesn't that look like something I need to consume in a cabin but not in some disgusting hermit eating dirt way?? This had 2 eggs, home fries, bacon, spinach--i forget what else but it was by far the healthiest (and yes filling) version of crazy breakfast eggs I've had in terms of recognizable roughage and...whatnot :P There were 2 other variants of this egg skillet bizness, rotating tomatoes or whatever else int here. I didn't get one which wasn't in skillet form--I think it was Abby's that had bruschetta and artichokes or something. YARR...i was debating on getting that and my egg skillet stuff too. Sorry it's so vague--I can barely remember. So much for just enjoying food and not noting it for the blog!! :) Breakfast pizza maybe? Damn you Spoon for not having the brunch menu up!

Besides being farm-to-table fresh (which totally had that vibe in decore anyway that put it over-the-top quaint see mason jar drink!), they have ur obligatory Stumptown coffee to make it JUST that...'artisanal'-y :) Piece de resistance methinks would be the yummay house blueberry maple syrup (available for purchase, I believe!). I'm no syrup fan--so excessively viscous and saccharine...makes me gag (not in that repulsive way, in that....compulsive way!)

BUT...this and the syrup @ Five Leaves...mmmmm I will intravenously consume ANY DAY!!! And that is *not* ice cream, homeskillets, that is...pure...buttery...heaven. Oh little blueberry oblivious to the frothy warm silk enveloping it! YOU SILLY LITTLE BLUEBERRY!! YOU DON"T EVEN KNOW!!! :)

That's all. I'm tired. I still have more july brunches to post!! Aug was full blackout of meals tho I did enjoy quite a few--like Moules Marinieres and Provencale ^_^_^_^^

Payard @ Bastille Day Festival!...

2009-07-12T21:12:00.046-05:00

I...just can't describe...just...very balanced, not too sweet, decadent. MMMmMMmmmmMmMMmmMMmmmMmmmmMmMMMMMmmMMmMMMM.

.....MmMMMMMMMMMMMM. :)

That, amigos, is a raspberry mousse cake. It wasn't too tart, the creme tasted egg-y, teh cake was moist and dense, but not spongey--a bit on the crumbly side. Very nice...very nice INDEEED. Anddddd that's why it opens this little show :)

Then there was some apricot pastry thing and a lemon tart. I'm not particularly fond of lemon tarts/cakes/WHATEVER so...that was a no-go. I don't care if it's good. I don't like! booo! I do find the smell of lemon cleaning products kind of nice. There might be a connection here :). Onward--there was also an "opera" cake...chocolate..something. There were raspberry AND strawberry tarts. Also good--wasn't as striking as the raspberry mousse but, well, what is. :)

I didn't eat the chocolate caramel tart until I got home. I have to say, it was pretty resilient bouncing around in my bag all and being dragged thru Central Park and the heat! I didn't really know what to think of it first--to be honest I bought it just for pictures and to balance out the fruit stuffs I bough. Opera cakes don't appeal to me so...had to fill my chocolate quota somehow! BUT, just like the raspberry mousse cake and everything else--it was very nice!

I was actually quite surprised that this chocolate caramel tart was one of my favorites of the day--I'm not a fan of caramel but this was like a waterfall of caramely infused chocolate or something reminiscent of such. NUMMAAAAY. sure licked mah fingas clean w/ this one.

Here's some more of the mousse and the...i dunno...but...yay cake! Don't you want to pet it like a pretty, edible chinchilla of sorts? :P TEEHEE!! Too bad Payard...has closed :( le *sigh*. Back to my mousse. So...slick lookin' and so jiggly looking! So good lookin', made me wanna stab it. AND I DID! :) TEEHEE!!!! *whispers*iloveyouuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!** :D

There was a whole sequence capturing the mousse/bomb in various stages of being devoured which makes for a funny series but...it'll just make me sad seeing it all gone w/ enticing little crumbies left :( Maybe I'll insert it later (I did think the ending shots of the mousse's demise was picturesque and evocative :P)

Nonetheless, here's a picture of its innards!...

Bistro 61 @ Bastille Day Festival!...

2009-07-12T21:07:00.026-05:00

Grilled sardines with some kind of salsa of onions, tomatoes, pine nuts, lemon juice..I don't even know but YUMMAAAAAY!! :) I DON"T EVEN KNOW. but It was nice--good charring, nummay num num.

I was gonna open with the fish bones but well--that might be a bit gross :P so...there! And here's the sardine bein' eaten, with my Merguez sausage sammich w/ ratatouille!! :) Not enough ratatouille if u ask me, but tasty. I'm not a big fan of sausage but this was nice--I think it was lamb? Didn't taste too gamey, very minty, a bit of heat--there was some bit of veggie in the ratatouille that was particualarly citrus-y and explosion of tastiness in my mouth! but I couldn't discern :(

I really liked Bistro 61's booth--mostly b/c they were so jocund and feisty and effervescent. The chef made me take a picture of him serving me :) What I loved watching was the grill--one side had a nice smolder going to grill the sardines...the other was...ON FIYAAAAAAAH!!!! :D

Secret pyro in me was hypnotized. Made me want to...burn things. HEHE. You can see the contrast in 2 grills below :):

We had to take pause b/c Albee got some curried beef with potatoes & olives from Le Souk--which was suprisingly very very very good! I mean...not that it was mindblowing, but I don't think much of curried stewy things but this was delightful. This will be in another post with other misc foodthings from the rest of the festival. Picked my sardine clean @ central park, and washed it down with orangina! :) Viva la France! :P

YUMMMAAAY. will for sure be going back to Bistro 61 :) Maybe I can stalk them to participate in Project by Project :)

Tailor's!...

2009-06-17T08:00:00.019-05:00

"Early bird special"--3 course tasting menu at Tailor's on Broome & Thompson with Albee! Since there were two options for apps, entrees, and desserts, we just got one of each--between Karen and Albee, I have the two most optimal dining homies to maximize tasting menus and...testing restos period :D Karen's sis used to work here as pastry chef--took me a while enough to eat here! Did have drinks w/ Albee here last winter--butternut sqash & palernum (and rum) was AAAAAAWESOME!! got me...toasted...real quick too :P

Again, to open with whatever I ended with!--some gelee. and butter. shhhh! The red pepper gelee (yes, as in bell pepper) came with the check--nice, cleansing, a little sweet, a little peppery :) The butter well--of course that was at the beginning with them breads--just look at it!! ^_^ Pretty, non? Not the best tasting butter for how crafty it looks with some herb & salt speckled on it, but soft it was and still enjoyable. Nummmay num num....

I just like when butter or ice cream is scooped out like that :) Plus this butter seemed whipped and thus scoopable like that. Couldn't really taste the salt or herb sprigs--the olive bread that came with it was yum (no exclamation mark, just as is :P) and the raisin/walnut bread was fragrant--but not that flavorful. I def liked the olive bread--it's reminiscent of the stuffed bread they served @ Il Satollo in the Testaccio neighborhood in Rome--but his bread was more stuffed with goodies and maybe some spinach I think? We even asked to bring the breadbag home for breakfast the next day--OH ROME. Anyhoo, this was a nice bread offering for NYC but I thought...but I just didn't really feel like finishing the bread =/.

First up--sesame sweetbreads (poached before deep frying!) with banana puree and purple mustard paper. Also had seared red snapper with watermelon, olives, coconut 'caviar' and charred ramps!

The sweetbreads were an early favorite--def like this better than the Sorella sweetbreads!! Damn that quince marmalade there! The waitress mentioned that part of why they're so good is that they poached it b/f frying, which of course keeps it moist/tender, and gets a better crust! The frying @ Sorella does render a consistent crustiness but--it was boring and a little on the small side -.- LOVED the mustard paper--tasted a little curry-y in aftertaste but only mildly. Thought it went excellently with the sweatbread and the taste and texture of the puree! Nice little booster/kick to bring it all together.

Seared snapper was refreshing--a little raw so it went cooly w/ the watermelon--which I'm sure has been messed with (in a good way) somehow given Tailor's penchant for molecular gastronomy here and there and infusing stuffs--def had more color and consistent flavor in all the melon chunkcs. If i'm wrong then that's just damn good melon! The snapper once in a while smelled a little fishy which translates to not the freshest--but by my discernible nostril I'd say it went well overall. Def a summer dish--on the fence if I'd order it again. OH!! and the COCONUT CAVIAR! :) crunchy, a little sweet, great texture to complement the dish. Charred ramps was actually nice and a new way to have it for me--which actually, refreshed my feelings for it since I reaaaally burned out on ramps :P Upon hindsight, I quite liked this dish actually...

DEFINITELY would've wanted to try the maple infused snail with bacon, parsley, and toast!! Next up--miso butterscotch pork belly w/artichoke & green apples, and black garlic chicken with long beans and shitake!

LOOOOOOOOOOOOVED the black garlic chicken--the breast was cooked sous vide...had great texture, very moist. The dark meat--which is my fave anyhoo!--was pulled and had a beurre blanc sauce with somethign else I can't remember :( :( but so yum! LOOOOOVED the sauce. The white meat was eh compared to this. The shitake, as shitake tends to, soaked up MUCH MUCH of the sauce so it was pretty salty and intense--but awesome nonetheless b/c i lurve it! and it was balanced out with the chicken. The cooking method, I'm a rube to the super infused biz so...I can't begin to deconstruct in my head. ORDER THIS. and...lots of other stuff :)

Pork belly--I'm a bit in a pork belly overload but this was nice. Which is why this picture is smaller :) Miso butterscotch sauce was VERY nice. Rich, viscous, but not saccharine or too savory--very nice. I've cooked with honey miso so this was easier to process in my head for me haha. Pork belly was a bit...wait for it...wait for it...too fatty. Blasphemy I know! *shrug*. As much as my palate's tired of pork belly this was nice. I think it could be a smidge more fall off the bone like @ Perbacco. mmmm. damn i need to hunt down pics of that from Claud's cam!!

Desserts--kinda hit or miss :( There was an eggless lemon curd with lemon chips, huckleberry sauce & shiso foam, and chocolate cake with malt ice cream, mushroom paper, candied maitake mushrooms, and peanuts.

The cake looked like it had gone thru those NO2 containers that people make the foams/espuma with--and it def looked like what I remember seeing when Anthony Bourdain went to Spain and they made the foam choco-cake nuked in the microwave at El Bulli w/ the brothers Adria!!! Too bad it could've been a little sweeter, a little more chocolatey :( Ice cream was fine--mushroom paper tasty & fun. Candied maitake!! Makes a lot of sense actually! Pretty nice, interesting texture--a little hard to grasp at first but...tastes just like any other candied fruits except way less artificial and achingly sweet. I like--It didn't...really seemt o make sense with the choco cake & ice cream but...nice to have separately.

Lemon curd--I don't like lemon pastries, lemon creams, lemon...desserts :( This however, was very very very much infused with lemon goodness and was pretty tart and punchy--good for any lemon lovers...esp since it left behind the artificially sweetened and chemically extracted...lemmony-ness. Shiso made NO sense on there--u know how i LOVED the mint ice cream @ Craftbar for tasting just like a mint leaf in all its leafy goodness? This jsut tasted like...garnished cilantro--it calmed down the intense lemon flavor but...just felt like I was eating feed. Lemon chips however...i liked! go fig.

Here are the remnants of my cake & 'shroomies! I have another pic I might upload but...eh!

Lastly--ended with a sugar coated red pepper gelee shown above--yes, red pepper. I like :) Overall--tailor has some really good dishes in how they infuse certain flavors and sauces and utilize molecular gastronomy and technical cooking to punch up the dish. A lot of edgy mixes of ingredients are sucessful (others like the lemon curd and shiso well...*shrug*). THe gelees pop up in the drinks menu too which I def think is a nice novelty. It's obvious this is somethign they're much more comfortable with and has been worked on quite a bit.

I'm def excited to go back to try other dishes here--Tailor's rotates what's offered for the $45 3 course tasting menu (available b/w 6 and 7pm), besides the 5 course tasting menu for $80 bucks.

Ramps & Fiddlehead Ferns!...

2009-06-02T01:35:00.046-05:00

More greenmarket offerings--this time from Union Square market.

This is a little behind, but I'm always behind! After overloading on pickled ramps at various venues, I was uber-stoked to cook my own. After much google-age, settled on sauteeing--totally forgot to cook it with bacon tho! Also had Shitake from the greenmarket, and since I was running out of time I threw it all together.

Probably for the best hat I didn't throw bacon in there w/ the shitake mushrooms, it would've been too much of a melange of flavors and directions. I could see though how it'd be tasty given how mild the actual ramp flavor is! SOOOO taken back by that! Wonderful pungent smell once the leaves were cut--hell, it smelled just sitting in the bag! Best. smell. EVAAARRRRR (yes, with an A!)

Fiddlehead ferns > ramps in my book--a bit pricey too, but they are like a really well-encased asparagus. It has that same texture but a little more crunch. They turn super bright green when cooked and coil up nice and tight. Definitely more fun to play with--but then again my palate might've been worn out on ramps to produce such a bias and thus it fell out of my favor :)

The idea of such a hodge podge of in-season veggies in pan isn't that weird--I think ramps and fiddlehead ferns were on the menu at Spiaggia in the same dish as morels and more craziness too! Next season it'll be fiddlehead ferns as the masthead of spring for me...

I'm kinda glad ramp season is so short--def prefer them pickled since they add more flavor and depth to the little bulbs. Next season mehbeh I"ll just try the diff applications like the pickled ramps on hotdogs @ shake shack...and ramps pizza @ Otto!

I actually made a version of spaghetti carbonara with ramps too--definitely added another texture (like with the asparagus/snow peas) that went well with the dish. Again, mild flavor but served the dish well since the carbonara is pretty rich to begin with. Kind of cut thru the 'heaviness' of the sauce!

ALSO--ramps are actually....SWEET! Mildly sweet, but still sweet! The leaves very much have a spring-onion-y texture to it when cooked, and just as sweet as wilted/sauteed spring onion bits. That's all. yay greenmarkets!! :)

Bacon wrapped scallops & giant asparagus!...

2009-06-01T07:57:00.003-05:00

Cooking w/ Fulton Stall market goodies:

Scallops from Shore Catch, purple asparagus from Sang Lee Farms. The asparagus is amazing--just gorgeous, crisp, refreshing--I'd eat it raw if anything. I still have one bunch left. Never would've thought asparagus was good to eat raw but these ones from Sang Lee are effin' fannnntastic. Not fibrous in the least, sturdy stalks, really robust. Wish I had had a small bunch of regular asparagus from the grocery store to do side by side comparison but...here u go :)

I have to say tho--I truly despise pan-frying with bacon. On the second batch I burned the garlic so that can't have helped. But the underlying problem is the heavy grease smell that lingers in the air that's like in a thick of mist infused with lard rendering. The bacon was a little thick so it took a while to cook thru. With how hot the oil was and how long I had to cook (and the number of batches), it was just vastly irritating even with the stove fan on and my swabbing down the pan after finishing a batch.

Maybe I'm just doing something wrong--maybe I should've broiled it in the oven after slightly browning the scallops. Maybe I should've taken the garlic out a lot faster. Maybe I should've used thinner slices of bacon. MAYBE A LOT OF THINGS. But it was just a dense mist of stifling bacon cooked humidity!! Not really dense but i mean it LINGERED for long time and I DON'T LIKE IT!!! I HATE BACON WRAPPED CRAP! I really probably should've oven baked after browning like I do my sea bass. Hrmm. Whatever. I'll try it some other time but I'll stick to my damn prosciutto and pancetta.

* * * * *

THat's kind of the other thing--u realize how shitty general-quality stuff is and u start to realize how unhealthy it all breaks down. That SMELL! If you watch BBC America, there's the show "You Are What You Eat" or something like that and it breaks down a lot of esoteric but...simple things about how food translates into your body when it digests it. Down to the general body odor, geography of your tongue (too much salt makes those little bumps on ur tongue stand out more, and 'white'-ish), etc.

I dunno--maybe I'm drinking their kool-aid but after this, I realy can see the significance in cooking with certain type of oils, how 'healthy' they are or how 'flavorful' they are without just masking it in the general enhancement of cooking in any chunk of 'fat'. I'm not feeling particularly articulate right now--it's like a fiery net of clustered thoughts that's picking up momentum without any particular linear direction for coherent expression :P BUT YES, there IS a TANGIBLE DIFFERENCE in the kinds of FATS you use and all that CRAP and quality of ingredients in relation to health, more so than I previously thought.

Bánh mì truck...

2009-05-26T08:55:00.011-05:00

It wasn't so good--permissible compared to some places in NY. It was super slow. A little disorganized. The bánh mì wasn't really an issue as opposed to the summation of slights in regards to other offerings and pure laziness in effort here.

The tapioca in the bubble tea was INSULTING--it was like little balls of super old red bean paste that's dessicated and covered with a slimy boba casing. Teeny little truck on Pearl St & Hanover.

Sammiches--barely any fillings which is APPALLING for 6 bucks. At least Baoguette and An Choi charge for sammiches that actually has more than ONE THIN LAYER OF MEATS. The "do"/vietnamese bologna fish cake type of processed pork meat-ness was WEIRD. I'd consider eating this if I worked on this far downtown and I was hot mess in withdrawal of sammiches...or snowed in. This is the #1 (special combo).

The tuna was Bumble Bee Tuna (canned of course), the eel was the frozen packaged stuff u can get from JasMart or whatever. The other meats looked legit but again, thin single layer and not much else. Really is just...passable--granted I"ve had more offensive sammiches but...WHATEVER.

Julia got the grilled chicken. Jay got the eel sammich.

The only gripe I have with this place--whereas I majorly ripped into Bep is that Bep lacked flavor and panache (and in many regards "authenticity"), this place has the seeds of 'authentic' flavor but was just so damn slow and poorly executed in everything else and lazy.

If you want to even separate it further--my problem with Bep was that it just...didn't know any better. Something that can def be improved upon. This place, however, knows at least SOMEWHAT better but is completel haphazard--not that it knows so much better and wants to screw you over for a dollar, but that it seems indifferent--as if to just cover the bare minimum b/c it can't do any more and doesn't want to, but will just sweep over the flaws a little and call ti a day.

And, as always, this remains fairly popular and had good foot traffic when I was there (on the way to Fulton Stall Markets--entry belooowww!). Baffling really--but I guess until there's some other

Fulton Stall Market...

2009-05-26T08:41:00.024-05:00

First summer Fridaaaaay! :) Went to Fulton Stall Market w/ Julia and Jay. made a pit stop @ the Banh Mi food truck (separate post to follow).

There weren't that many vendors but not many greenmarkets will have 3 little kids play cello and violin so deftly and amusingly :D I was hoping for more offerings, though there was plenty of coverage in terms of greens, baked goods, cheeses, and seafood. I know this looks all fall-y but it was still tasty!

YAY. These eggs were huge--at least 30% bigger than the EXTRA LARGE eggs at the grocery store. Even those are rather big compared to the regular 'large' ones. Is it just me or is the naming convention a little off? Didn't buy any but was very tempted since I'm also sorta in a fritatta phase. MEHBEH next time.

Onto animals!...

Shore catch only had like 3 types of fish but they were purty and ...substantial looking! I have no idea what the fish were except one might've been flounder since it looked like the underside of what that just went thru the transformation! :) and Scaaaaaaallops! And some fish that was blue with yellow speckled dots!

My favesies was Sang Lee Farms--their asparagus was HUUUUGE but SWEET! and crisp, tasty, vibrant! Not to mention their various sauces--the pesto was "eh" since honestly after bringing back pesto from Liguria, Italy--it's a little hard to readjust my set point. Anyhoo--the ginger scallion dip was surprisingly addictive and "punchy'--u'd think ginger/scallion would be mild which in subtlety it is, but it's a damn good dip.

My only gripe is Sang Lee producs are a little expensive--except the asparagus was $4.50 a bunch and that was enough in one bunch as 2-3 bunches of regular asparagus! And purple asparagus! woohoo! The dips and pesto (which are the same size as those plastic containers of hummus) were $8.50 and $9.50 respectively. Yummay...but hell no I'm not paying that much for dip. :(

The goat cheese chevre and hot pepper jelly the Sang Lee table had out for tasting was REALLY GOOD. I like expanding my palate but hot pepper jam isn't exactly my cup of tea--but this was grrrrrrEAT! :) The goat cheese was milder and a bit creamier than what I identify with goat cheese, which I would suppose make it go even better with the jelly :) YUMMAY JELLAY!

This is from Breezy Hill Orchard & Knoll Crest Farms--which also had some bad ass apples. I'm partial to their Fuji since I usually prefer fuji and gala apples anywa. BUT, their wine sap was interesting. I forget what the third is.

The apples were smaller than I thought they'd be--I mean I tend to think farm fresh fruits and veggies would end up being smaller than the ish @ supermarkets--but given the ginormity (yes, ginormity :D) of the asparagus and tomatoes etc, I thought they'd at least be a little...bigger. These fit in your palm for the most part =/ Great texture tho!--one thing I dislike about apples sometimes is it has this..disintegrated papier mache feel to it. Dunno how else to describe it--but not crisp! And the supermarket ones are nowhere near crisp and well ripe like these!

Stony Hill Farm also had some tasty looking fruits. If u click on the photo u'll see one funky lookin' strawberry. Quirky! Me likes. Fairly certain this is also from Stony Hill. They also seemed to be purveyors of italian goods too--there was ur usual offering of Loacker sweets--but there were other biscottis I don't usually see around. Some were more breakfasty type like S'Doro's or whaver they are! EHHHH.

I didn't really care to take pics of the baked stuff but it looked pretty solid. *shrug*. Also ignored a good chunk of the cheese and the wine vendor. OH WELL. wasn't that interesting. There's a photo of Cupcake Express on my flickr but i don't really care about that!

Instead, here's a questionable picture of fresh mozarella cheese from Hoboken Farms, with purveyor of said cheese. hehe.

Julia and I also go the mozarella--while it was creamy and had that...mozarella musk to it, I might have to say the mozarella @ Whole Foods (whatever it is) might just be a bit better b/c the texture for the Hoboken one is a little firmer and smidge drier than I'd like. Good color tho!

Overall--not sure I'd make the trek all the way down to South Street Seaport so much--but def would come back if I was to hit up Water Taxi Beach and DEFINITELY for those damn apples and scallops and asparagus!! pretty much most of Sang Lee :P... and mozarella (maybe!)

Crawfish!...

2009-05-18T00:03:00.040-05:00

I've had a thing for crawfish and crawfish boils for a while now--my bro has been doing them @ our house back in CA for some time but...now I've got the fevah, and the only cure is more cowbell! er...crawfishies!!! ^_^ woohoo!

Very much into eating seasonal and I hope to sweet jebus that it's crawfish season--sorta. Summer...boiling...i dunno. BUT it's here!! This wkd I went with Albee to the Ninth Ave International Food Festival in midtown--just a glorified street fair, but a couple more cuisines than usually at these things. The only place that had the crawfish was the Delta Grill booth (also based in midtown, 48th & 9th ave). WEEEEE!!

Nummy num num. There was rice and...i don't know to be honest I didn't pay attention. There was jambalaya--the pic abouve is of the sausage, rice, crawfish boil, and crawfish etouffee--which I must try for another time b/c me likes etouffee and that whole smother everything over rice concept :)
There were 2-3 carribean food joints that were pretty good--I wanted to try some conch fritters but 1. you know it's not fresh conch, and 2. it wasn't ready yet :P. Didn't pay attention to where I got this from :(

This was the oxtail & rice we had--complete w/ plaintains and some pickled cabbage-y stuff that was...decent. I thought the oxtail should've been more tender and be of the "fall off the bone" kind of texture and yumminess but alas. The sauce itself was pretty good--but I think had the oxtail been simmered longer that sauce would've had a creamier consistency and more intense flavor as well. Can't complain tho! mmmmm nummy nummaaaay. Plaintains were simple--i think just sauteed with some garlic and that was it!

BACK TO CRAWFISHIES!!

This makes is evocative of some...great crawfish battle that seems to have transpired--a la the Zach Snyder film 300. Except u know--instead of Spartans, these little critters tried to fend off the mighty hordes and dieeeeeeeeeeed! Their teeny little carcasses stacked up in the wake of the most nom-able epicurean war.

Also makes me want to quote Braveheart :D HEhehehehehe...

"Make haste, Dilios! Back to Spartaaaaaa!" ......................"Okieeeeeeeees!"

All right--one more with a caption and whatnot cuz...it's fun to play with your food and I was far too behaved as a wee littl'un to have used or fathomed making my critters prance and speak with accents--or switch nationalities and storyline mid-food-'n-play :P...

"Mah nem eez Claude! I am ze damn crawfeesh! Un'and meeh! Zut alors stoopeet countrayman! I am go-eeng to keel you! Mon dieu you ahr 'eartless, I am how you sey...veray deddd!!"

:D I haven't been much of a fan of sucking on the crawfish brains but--I get it for the most part. It's the juiciest bits and soaked up most of the seasoning during simmering...that and dammit if u're paying that much for boil and let's be honest, the damn tail meat is meager in terms of shell/mass to meat ratio, you bettah make the most of its bits to make it worth it!!!

How might one--"de-husk" a crawfish, per se? Wellssssss....I like to pinch it lengthwise and crack the shell along its back. Then I hold it with its underbelly towards me then I splay it backwards...against that initial cracking if u will. This then thrusts the tail meat out in tact as u peel back the broken swimmerettes and all!

et voila! ze crawfeesh! eet eez ready for ze consumption!

And that's not grease btw--it's just how the seasoning stains your hand a bit cuz you hafta get all up in the crawfishies and dismantle them and all.

That was pretty much it :) Albee wasn't much a fan but ohhhh I still am. Unlike with ramps, my singular fixation with crawfish has not waned (and far from abruptly :P).

Oh...and we had "the best cannoli" from the Fortunato bros (which I hafta say...is pretty damn good). Not too sweet, had some mini chocolate nibs inside.

I def prefer this over Ferrara's cannoli's since F-bros' are made with ricotta! Hate the pastry cream filling otherwise!! booo! Also had some forgettable greek sweet, and savory pastries which were soggy and cold (and a bit bland) from...wherever. WHATEVER. :)

Ramps Rampage at Craftbar!...

2009-05-07T08:01:00.026-05:00

This past Sunday, after a very very long work week, and...very long couple weeks of feenin' for ramps--I overloaded w/ RAMPS(!) @ Craftbar with Albee. Actually, I debated getting the chicken pate & ramps sammich @ Num Pang, then ramps on the menu at Mas, Savoy, Lupa, Otto (ramps pizza!), Bar Artisanal (white asparagus + bottarga with RAMPS! ), Beppe, A Voce, and Spotted Pig (RAMP SOUP! TEEE!! and ramps w/ fried duck egg!) and anywhere I could google ramps on the menu to my heart/stomach's desire. Back Forty in the EV should have it--as should a lot of restos in the city this season. Ramps are wild leeks that are like if Onion and Garlic married--or rather, had an orgy with lots of onions and lots of garlic :D

Albee & I settled on Craftbar b/c they were open on a Sunday, had a seasonal (and appetizing) menu, was close by, and...hearty-seeming meal to be had :) To start of with--desserts!! The mint ice cream on my brownie was DIVINE b/c it didn't taste minty--it tasted mint-leaf-y! Made me as delighted as I was to have culantro/long coriander! SO refreshing, SUCH a better version of 'mint' compared to the processed, saccharine mintiness. I def can see how people might prefer 'mint' to be a more tactile/taste-buds tingling experience but this is FLAVOR! and REFRESHMENT! not...slapping your tongue around a bit trying to get a sensation.

BUT--this is actually the pistachio 'sorbet' :) Very VERY pistachio-y in that it tastes like actual roasted pistachios! And (as much as I like the pistachio spumoni @ Spumoni Gardens) incomparable to the unholy fluorescent green and fake pistachio flavoring to most ice creams--except the Haagen Daaz pistachio is actually pretty damn tasty but it tastes more like pistachio cookie than quintessence of the pistachio nut itself! My mint ice cream & brownie to punctuate this entry latah...

First...pork shoulder w/ tomato molasses and RAMPS MARMALADE! and then hamachi w/ pineapple puree and RAMPS!

Then for entrees--Albee and i got MORE RAMPS! :) We split the Tagliatelle w/ tomato ragout and RAMPS! See that sprig pulled up to the corner? That's a limp but roasted ramp :) TEEHEE! Isolated just for you ;P

Very simple dish--tomato ragout had deep flavors (obviously had a lot of time to reduce--*ahem-popupshopinwilliamsburgwhoneedstolearnthisidea!*). LOVE a tasty roasted/super reduced, well seasoned (as in lightly) tomato (whole tomaters methinks--and totally not overpoweringly dense tomato-y flavor either).

And also split the casunziei (kah-soon-zee-ay) which is a stuffed half moon pasta with BEETS(!), grana padano cheese, ricotta, brown butter, spinach, and pooppy seeds.

If they had RAMPS ice cream I'd totally eat that--I had garlic ice cream @ The Stinkin' Rose in LA and fundamentally ramps is...wild leeks with a more spring-onion-y look...AND is sweet-ish in pickled form so I'd see that as a tasty possibility ^_^. Brownie was nice, whip cream was light! MINT ICE CREAM IS SO MINT-LEAFY!! It was like eating a real leaf minus the cellulose and chewing :D So subtle, delightfully airy ^_^ Happy happy. (tewtally elevates the idea of brownie a la mode as some pedestrian diner-food or playdate with rugrats kinda thing!--for certain, the ice cream is made fresh, all natural in the BEST of the word as opposed to...super-ascetic-granola-birkenstocks-recycled-plastics way. Respecting the ingredients!)

I heart Ramps!! Must go to union square market...buy...ramps...now! YARG!

Bếp pop-up shop...

2009-05-05T08:43:00.022-05:00

Mondays @ Simple Cafe on S.3rd st & Bedford in b-burg, BK. One of my friend majorly panned this place for the Pho so I had lowered expectations going in--I figured since it was a pop-up shop that's managed to be around longer than most people thought it would be AND hopefully since it *has* had more time on the block then things theoretically would've been tweaked with continued customer feedback...that mehbeh it wouldn't be so bad, eh?

EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. That's pretty much how I would sum up eatin' @ Bếp. not "eh." but "EHHHHH." with maybe a shoulder shrug held for about 5 seconds in addendum. Followed with a crooked turn of the cheek kind of "eh" smirk. This be the crew. Long bench tables, small slate chalk board for specials menu. Small print-out menu w/ commie looking font and a star. Comrades, COMMENCE!

I'll start off with the best thing of the entire meal (the only palatable thing!)--THE FLAN! :)

I lurves me some flan--and the firmer it is the better. Not...too fond of the custard-y texture, it's not what I grew up with. That, and the custardy texture creeps me out. Could've used a little more carmelization to amp up the sugar/smokey top AND would've added a little more depth and viscosity to the subsequent sauce. A little strong in the coconutty flavor which is a little strange but totes mcgoats fine by me! :) Not THE best, but better than lots I've had in the city. Doesn't compare to Bar Bao's pandan flan with the other ish--but the highlight of Bếp.

Here's the deal--everything was decent except one rather EPIC FAIL that supersedes any thought one might possibly have as to what epic fail could be. A NEW SET POINT FOR EPIC FAIL. But first some fairer foods:

There were a couple specials--the mango/red cabbage gỏi with shrimp and the shrimp chips, the flan--and something else but we got those 2. Something they could've done was squeezed the water out of the cabbage since it was shaved super finely and thus watered down the already sweeter fish sauce mix/dipping sauce as u people refer to it ;)

You can see here that everything's a little flaccid--even the damn shredded banana flower (brown stuff on top)! It SHOULD BE FRIED! and crispy! Adds a diff texture to the whole thing period! Limp limp limp! Julienne the salad! Shred it! not finely shave!! Or...just give it a good squeeze b/f u plate it dammit. Otherwise, not as crunchy either. Could've used a bit more straight up fish sauce (which was readily available in a squeeze bottle :) I couldn't identify the brand or type but it was less earthy and lighter with a smidge more tart-ness to it). Other than that, generally well received by the group--well as in "eh" well with an "all right this is doable" head nod, no head shake. :)

Consensus on the egg roll/spring roll was goodish. I got carried away breaking it apart to looka t the insides--looks like morel or some other mushroom was used instead of wood ear. I nitpick b/c wood ear has a diff texture and more flavorful factor to enhance the meat mix. Meat mix itself was too finely processed--didn't feel very meaty at all. Generally both this and the "summer roll" should've been a bit more robust and better tightly packed. Too much carrots in there given the ratio of meets to veg. The outside/roll part was I think the thin rice paper (same used for the summer roll) which isn't...the best but still actually made it better received than expected b/c the homies liked the diff texture it brought when it was fried. (a good chunk of us are from heavily asian-populated communities in California.)

Summer roll: pack it tighter, pack it it with equal meats--or rather, more proteins, period! Shrimp is aiites as well as a pork substitute (tenderloins slow cooked please!). I can't remember if this was the one with the wrong cut of meat or the pho. Probably the pho. Otherwise, the pleasant surprise about the summer roll was that it had the mint and other herbs in there--should've been better distributed and more amply so as discusseds in prior prior paragraph! Flaccid and under-fed looking rolls and anemic salads :P ALSO--there is NO SUCH THING AS SPRING/SUMMER ROLL. see endnote. -.-

Vermicelli with seared shortribs, egg roll, veg & 'dipping sauce'. Hard to really screw this up. THey didn't. But they didn't do much with it either. Again, things were weak in flavor, composition, substance. Not much to add to it. They ran out of the "Bún bò Huế " (Hue style noodle soup) which I was lookign forward to trying out b/c you don't see it on lotsa menus here AND it's actually pretty effin' delish to have sometimes--just manifests itself as a really specific craving b/c the taste and ingredients are quite distinctive from general Vietnamese seasoning and whatnot. WHATEVER. not on menu here anymore either. :( Back to the vermicelli. I give it a 6 outta 10. Given that everythign else hovers around 5/6...and ou of the entrees, this fairs much better than that wretched pho. -.-

So wretched I only want to show u part of it. jk :P Real pic following, but first just..focus on that broth. LOOK AT IT. It looks like..shit's emulsifying or...well, i dunno if u can really look that closely or discern but...the broth...looks like the meat particles/residuals are just floating around like a supersaturated solution. YES i used a chem ref BUT SERIOUSLY. Major sign that it's not simmered enough OR rather...I don't know what they could've done to muck this up but the broth has no depth, no body--not even comparable to CANNED CHICKEN BROTH or beef broth, let a lone pho broth. O.o

This was like--having the beef strips soak in hot water for an hour or something instead of the BONES. Did they not use the right bones? Was it not reduced enough? Simmered @ wrong temp so the flavor bits and whatnot didn't integrate into the broth as well? DID THEY USE WATER TO START WITH?! what is GOING ON?! It's really baffling b/c--i *never* would've expected the broth to be this wack. Not just wack--UNIDENTIFIABLE! I mean...canned chicken broth from Gristedes would've been a better and complementary substitute! The beef strips were "ehh." One of the cuts was wrong--I can't identify the diff cuts but one of the strips they used had tendon on it and was chewy/stiff and striated--it resembled more of the pork or beef cut that's usually slow-cooked in a crock pot, usually served a bit pink in the middle and sliced to use as stuffing in the "summer rolls". WHAT THE EFF?
the VERY VERY POSITIVE thing...(the only positive thing and could never actually redeem this damn pho AT ALL but does redeem the...intentions of the owner's/chefs)...is that they had mint leaves AND culantro!! CULANTRO!!!!!! ^_^ I love the smell of it, it MAKES the pho pho (er..not in this case but whatebbs.) They didn't plate a lot of bean sprouts either, but they had culantro!!! ^_^ Also known as long coriander and...a bunch of other names. It's vibrant, a little citrusy (but very very low note of citrus). Can't describe the taste--not that close to cilantro but that'll suffice. They were missing this other smooth leaved herb which I can't rememer the name of but it's in that trifecta of herbs w/ culantro and mint :D WEEEEE! thai basil? who knows.

If this pho had a rating, it'd be negative 5. YES. B/c it's not even PHO. it makes no sense. maybe negative 2 for the inclusion of culantro :D All in all? everythign's a little too sterile, a little anemic, a little lacking in flavor. Would I go back? no. Would I if I was in Williamsburg for some reason on a monday? Maybe--if they had the flan and I had free reign of the fish sauce squirt bottle for teh rest of the stuff! :) Which--I also commend them for having the straight up fish sauce out on the table as a staple condiment :P And so, I leave you with a picture of my comrades--at least it was fun getting us all together on a bench. Very...pinko aesthetics no? Guess that's what they're going for--at least that was better executed than at Republic in Union Square!

--
(btw--highly vexing: there's no such thing as spring/summer rolls, we call it fried, or plain ol' translation as 'salad roll' which actually isn't even that close of a translation b/c "gỏi cuốn" means rolled salad-y thing that's shredded. "Gỏi" means a mix of shredded (usually) cabbage, maybe papaya, mehbeh carrots mixed in etc. most of the time with the fish sauce mix (with rice vinegar, garlic, lime juice, pickled jicama and carrot shreds--julienned for the most part), and sometimes with this vinegar mix with a bit of salt and pepper. Even effin' wiki refers to it as both--who the eff is responsible for this american etymology?!)

Tia Pol w/ the roomies!...

2009-04-15T00:25:00.005-05:00

Good friday brunch @ tia pol :) i def don't eat around in my 'hood enough. Still haven't gone to Co. for pizza or John Dory for...welsh rarebit!! :P and other things of course hehe...

Got TONS of food--this is the fried artichoke hearts salad, the spanish version of bruschetta but with 3 diff spreads with saffron on it! ^_^, ham and bacalao croquetas, rice and squid ink--I'll show how you just how inky!!...later...hehe...but first...a preview of some tasty strangeness--Emily got the chorizo and chocolate crostini (essentially)...

The sangria @ Tia Pol is the best I've had in the city--nay in ...EVER. not boston, no CA, not...wherever else I've been granted I've still not been to spain :P or any major latin-american country. :P Really enjoyed the tortilla española! essenetially a fritatta with potatoes, onions, red peppers and some sauce that's just like the one in the patatas bravas....

I hafta say...the patatas bravas with paprika and whatever the heck that sauce was was friggin' TASTAAAAAAY. yes. tastay. not y. ay. Sop it up after everything is gone and ask for more bread tasty. The squid ink sauce was even super duper extra tasty compared to that!

Back to the...CHORIZO & CHOCOLATE!!!... :)

MY MY MY. super rich salty but then rich smooth bittersweet--and then...bread! I thought it was gonna be like a thin smear on the toast but NOoooOoo...whole slather! glorious! I like I like...(I couldn't decide to tempt you with that decadent shot in the beginning or the middle of the entry but...obviously one of them won out :P Pretty salty tho!! luv me some chorizo...

...but still not as much as the squid ink.. YUM. See?!?! inky inky goodness!! :D

MMMMmmm...so I still haven't posted my Rome foods or the rest of Sicily or Cinque Terre..or...Florence foods actually but we ate all the regional foods and I did get a chance to try the squid ink pasta in Palermo and it was so fresh and AWESOME b/c it was so gritty and inky and savory. However...this...squid ink, much smoother in texture and flavor (waaaay less fishy) and just...strangely enough, exponentially better (but maybe by like..squared instead of cubed :P). hehehehe

...One more of the patatas bravas "leftover" sauce :P. Cuz honestly--what's a tran post without half eaten, smeared, gloppy food that makes you wanna wipe it off with some napkins--or lick it off the screen?! Aioli...it's aioli..with...whatever in it they won't list on the website. BOO!! :)

Spaghetti Carbonara....a la tranio!....

2009-04-14T23:33:00.019-05:00

I'z made two batches--but it'll just look like I magically turned snow peas into asparagus with a slight of hand. Because I am just THAT magical.

This was my fabulous second batch--with TWICE as much white wine, 30% more eggs, and loads more pecorino ^_^ I have to say tho, that extra white wine really does add a lot more depth to all these flavours and...yummaaaaaaaay. aaaaaaay. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

It's kind of...really about timing with carbonara. You should boil the water right before you cook the bacon and sautee the greens so that hopefully by the time you're sauteeing and it's going off the pan, the pasta is just a couple min away from being taken out. It's kind of like garlic & oil pasta but hopefully not THAT much oil to work with b/c....that's a whole lotta bacon fat and ur veggies are gonna be greasy--and if that coats ur pasta then it'll make it hard for the carbonara sauce to coat the linguini.

This be the pre-tossing and pre sauce--i'll write up the recipe below. Purty much what I like to do is cherry-pick from a handful of diff recipes and then fudge the amounts and (possibly throw in some fish sauce HEHEHE...*ahem*) modify i to my liking and...adventuresome. The prep pics and the one under is of the 1st batch--i think I actually thought "EFF IT!" to the wine in the first batch b/c I've neve really cooked with wine...that and I dunno...the wine I had was pretty random from Astor wine.

The big thing is NO CREAM. none none none. I think cream is gross but that's from...some bad experiences with cream growing up. Plus it's a little cheating no? I really don't think you should use parmesan cheese (SERIOUS) and never cream. Parmesan is just..overplayed and for the most part pales in comparison in terms of adding flavor.

* * * * * * * * *
SPAGHETTi CARBONARA
....w/ White Wine, Pecorino, Pine Nuts, Asparagus,
Pancetta, & Crushed Black Peppers!...

1 box of linguine (bigger surface area!)
1 bunch of asparagus (I might have split that half green & half white asparagus)
1/2 pound of bacon or pancetta
1-1.5 cups of white wine (cheap is fine, if not perfect. somethign tart and vibrant)
6-7 eggs (if it's the smaller eggs then yeh go w/ the extra)
1.5 cups of shaved/grated Pecorino cheese
a buttload of garlic :D

Prep the sauce stuffs first!!! So...crack all those eggs in a bowl, some seasoning (like fishsauce :D) if u please but REALLY sparingly b/c the pecorino packs a punch. Anyway--so the other recipes called for like 1/2 a cup but I kinda eyeballed it at first--then I thought OH WHAT THE HAY and poured in as I liked. I'm guestimating 1-1.5 cups of white wine :D. Now to balance that out, I ended up grating in more pecorino to balance it out and add more texture. Visually you'll know what you want in terms of viscosity so...do what u will. Black peppers, whisk whisk whisk.

Cut up asparagus into i guess..1-2cm chunks whatever u want. Slice up the bacon/pancetta/guanciale if u can get it into strips the width of your ring or pinky finger--throw it into the pan (no butter or oil). Render the fat blah blah--I tend to end up skimming out some fat cuz it's kinda...insane how much comes out. I use this to toast the pine nuts or whatever nuts you want. I had extra snow peas one night so I used that--but I def like the asparagus. Sautee either one (snow peas if u want more crunch) briefly in with the bacon. Needless to say there was a ton of garlic in there already--sometimes I end up using like...6-7 cloves. HEEHEH...*ahem*.

* * * * * * * * *

NOW--tricky part...per se. MAKE SURE THE PASTA IS STRAIGHT FROM THE POT and pretty damn hot (don't really rinse...just pull it out with that pronged pasta thing, quick couple flicks of the wrist to remove excess water and then straight into that pan with bacon & greens). You can see my pasta cover the bacon/greens bits but DON"T mix yet. Pour in the carbonara sauce--it's raw eggs so the hot pasta will cook it through--but I just put the whole thing on super low heat and constantly tossed and stired just to be sure.

* * * * * * * * *

It's like omelletes--u still want it a little runny. Otherwise it's like...scrambled eggs and spaghetti. NO. no no no no. :) Pine nuts in there, toss toss toss, chopped parsley for some color and some freshness. My version removes a lot of the pasta and overloads on the sauce b/c it's creamy and I wants creamy and a bigger sauce to spaghetti ratio!! 1lb pasta might be much. I think I might've just used 80% of the box. Again...lotsa eyeballin' :P

I'm tired. good luck. f*ck around with it! This is the basis for some bangin' carbonara. HONESTLY the pecorino (and EXTRA pecorino cheese :P) and extra white wine helps. I think I really lucked out that my white wine was pretty tart but still mild and bright. It was some cheap bottle from Astor wines. Sleepy time. PEACE.

Kee's Macaroons!!...

2009-03-19T00:07:00.009-05:00

Went to pick up Angie's bday chocolates last wk--and then...got carried away with macaroons and bought one of each :P

There were only 11 there that day...

That smashed one is i think passion fruit. The green tea jasmine one was a nice touch b/c of the jasmine--green tea is a little overplayed to me in pastries (but i still likes mah goodies!). Rosewater lychee one was subdued and the lychee added to the general flavor. The Madeleine macaroon with rosewater was so overpowering (and ugly blemished macaron top part!) that it really reminded me of eating soap or those...skin toners :(

lavender was just plain pretty photograph :)

^_^ weeee!!! My favorite so far--TRUFFLE OIL macaroons!! strange right?? It hits u as an after-taste the way the thai chili chocolates gets you. I'm not big on truffle oil in my pastas and this def was...an oddball choice but YUMMAAAAAAAY!

Sour sap--the orange one--very tasty! a little tart, can't quite place it. Not a citrus flavor. I wanna say in the same family as...tamarind-y kind of tart/sour.

Verbana mint was all right (that's the speckled looking one next to the blood orange stripes. I've been spoiled by Parisian macaroons and whatnot :P Blood orange was pretty nice but...eh. Kaffir lime--I thought it'd be kitschy as too much like lime candy or key lime pie, but nope! still very restrained :)

Bottom line? Quite pretty, very flavorful with lots of interesting combos that add an edge what macaroons tend to be. I wish the chocolate lining wasn't so "chewy" but I'm assigning that to the temperature it was stored. Kee's gave me one to try @ the store b/c I was pretty much fawning over the wares :P (and mentioned the blog hehe and my inability to ...well...not buy everything all at once for the sole purpose of photographing them and not to indulge in some phantom sugar glutton :P). She's really nice!

Like the chocolates, the ingredients come across really well articulated on ur palate but of course restrained, very enjoyable and...gleeful! :) It's been such a long time since I've had my Sadaharu Aoki macarons, but this tides me over a bit. I do wish the cookie part of the macaroon was a little more substantial. I know they're always really airy and light--but it felt like there was...no cakey part to be airy, just a really good crust and then some bits of the cookie on the bottom. Can't complain though, they were all refreshing ^_^

Park Ave Winter...

2009-03-18T23:56:00.024-05:00

*sigh*. that's all I'll say about...the context of this dinner. *wink!* i'm half joking. It was the Gossip Girl promo @ Park Ave Winter wherein you get your entire meal comped (1 appetizer, 1 entree, 1 dessert, 1 sides per 2 people, and 2 rounds of drinks per person!) if you...wore...garbs...resembling...plaid skirts, button ups...etc. O.o hehe

ANYWAY...so since there were 12 of us we were able to dabble in most of the menu in all categories. (see pic of the bill at the end! :D we ran them dry)

Wouldn't have this been a nice shot if I had managed to hold still?

They were carving up and moving about rather quickly, and people kept on effin' walkin' past my shot and I kept seeing asses blocking the meat carving and multitude of hands serving so much -.- ANYHOO...

For appetizers, we got the calamari salad (salty--i very very much liked over some others), the Park Ave Winter open faced scallop sandwich with brown butter and bacon with...some other stuff, sashimi of hamachi, the Nantucket Bay scallops in some..sweet sauce and what I remember as panko crumbs?

No venison tartare :( we were sad. I think our other table got salmon tartare, but I don't remember anyone getting butternut squash soup (which i love! esp as a drink w/ palernum & rum at Tailor's hehe) or the porcini mushrooms (very sad to not have tried that one =/).

And here you see my Nantucket Bay scallops. Was thrown off by how sweet it was--made even sweeter with the thick cream. Not sure...how...I feel...about that! Otherwise, perfectly cooked :)

SiDES!! BROCCOLI and CHEESE! I don't...understand, but eh. yum. VERY yum were the brussel sprouts w/ apples which--can't make what the sauce was but it was buttery and savory :D Also had the creamed spinach and parsnip puree since the Crispy Cauliflower was actually in tempura batter =/ EH.

Entrees! Had to hurry it a bit w/ taking photos b/c the ladies were ready to dig in and with my--obsessive shooting things would er...get cold and whatnot :) hehe Opted for flash, kinda wish I edited some more but...OH wellllzzzzz. :) Miso glazed lobster with citrus fennel salad, John Dory w/ brioche encrusted poached egg & black truffles,

Filet mignon braised short ribs w/ root veggies, Dover Sole filet with herbs & brown butter (there was even a brown butter pecan ice cream! they lurves their brown butter...and so does the rest of the word ^_^)

Seared yellowfin tuna w/ avocado, grapefruit & ginger--and I think someone got the Organic scottish salmon w parsnip puree blah blah...Can we do more pics of lobster? mm surely!...

DESSERTS! - Chocolate flourless cake w/ Kentucky bourbon and peanut brittle mousse, Pistachio brown butter cake with red wine pears & Bartlett pear sorbet, Preserved plums with Ricotta custard, polenta crepes and pignoli...and THE CUBE! :) Chocolate cube with caramel mouse and chocolate cake bits inside, with what I remember as a coffee/chocolate-ancho ice cream on top of a meringue. Desserts were HUGE. :)

I really liked what they did with the sugar components in a few of the dishes--I mean nothing extraordinary in terms of flavor but made it quite memorable and enhanced my experience with the desserts--just...threw in some edge and complexity in it!! :) I mean honestly--kind of gimmicky but it really displayed a kind of mastery and playfulness u usually encounter when people are more than capable at what they do so it frees them up to play around with what's 'basic'! :) love love!!

B/c I'll never post if i have to discuss at length--everything was SCRUMPTIOUS. If I could afford it I'd eat here on the regular. Entrees are on average ~$40 bucks with appetizers and desserts clocking in at ~$15-20 each. This...is worth it. Butter--similar pricing, maybe a little less--more of a scene...food was WHATEVER. Can't wait to see the other seasonal incarnations of Park Ave Spring/Summer/Fall!

And this be our bill...notice on top the Gossip Girl promotion :P HEHE...miscellaneous items not listed in order of....order...-.O And then somewhere in the 6.50 tax. HEHE. I guess for that capuccino (was not included in the comping)...Needless to say, we left quite a tip.

A lil' shout out to Juan Carlos--our baddass and cheeky server with lovely suggestions to ensure we maximized our fun potential--and foodie potential!--at Park Ave Winter! A rare break in the lack of people appearances in the blog...but well deserved and noted :P This was only our table. Not gonna post the other ladies on here cuz that just might be weird to have ur face blasted on the interweb no? :)

I am conveniently absent since I'm taking the picture :D ANYHOO...The staff was extraordinarily nice and accomodating. A smidge cheeky, as I prefer it :P, all in good fun sorta spirits and helpful. Everyone was really nice and jocund--I'd say 85-90% of diners were 'school girl's including what I can tell was a mid-50's yr old woman in super pig tails. ROCK ON. reappropriating the whole trope as a sort of...empowerment...foodie thing! :)

Oh, and featuring the fellas from www.brokeassstuart.com who partook in such revelry :) Enviable gams, gentlemen!

Chilean Sea Bass pt 2!...

2009-03-02T00:04:00.007-05:00

Dinner per due (for 2): 2 filets of patagonian toothfish! ;) pan seared for 2-3 min each side then oven baked for ~3 min. Rosemary & borsari salt crust.

Garlic and oil pasta tossed with sauteed asparagus, heirloom tomatoes, leeks, and basil.

Yummay yum yum. we keep this one short and to the point. :)

Thurs was roasted sweet potato with roasted brussel sprouts and pancetta with tons of garlic and lemon zest/juice. Eaten with some sweet potato soba noodles and FISH SAAAAUCEE!! light hand, mixed with a little (tiniest bit) of rice vinegar and lemon juice.

...*sigh*. i need to work on my lighting and...stop FORGETTING stupid white exposure when i shoot =/ BUT STILL so yummay. *smacksmacksmack*...

A Foray into Spicy...and Baby Octopi/Octopodes/Octopuses!....

2009-02-23T00:33:00.009-05:00

Betcha didn't know all 3 forms of plural "octopus" was correct!! (insert suleyman and...progeny joke here). Here's what I made on Fri for dinner: slow simmered baby octopuses in a spicy tomato reduction with asparagus, scallops, shrimp, and squid.

back story! :)...so all day Friday @ work I had this major fixation with making seared scallops again, but with the porcini risotto i had posted about--and maybe some baked asparagus b/c I was feenin' some greens and baked produce. And when I went to Whole Foods I saw baby octopuses, mussels, shrimp, bass, mexican scallops in addition to the jumbo Cape Cod ones my head kind of exploded!

...and after seeing all these pictures of my friend's crawfish extravaganza and all these clam bakes on Man vs. Food in Boston and Seattle...I had all these ideas running thru my head--and remembering my flight on JetBlue a while back wherein Mark Bittman showed u how to cook octopus around the time I discovered grilled octopus (period) @ Kefi...

I paced back % forth at the seafood counter for like a good half hour and the guy at the counter thought i was nuts b/c i bought half a pound of everything :P I wisely left back the mussels for another day.

Strangely...NO FISH SAUCE in this one!! But I think in some other incarnation of this (which will resemble my mom's shrimp in a tomato/garlic thing...it's nuts...it's like casserole level thickness in sauce).

I also decided that since the octopus/seafood orgy was going to take like at least 45 min to slow simmer, I'd bake myself a version of the asparagus I used to do--but this time with shaved pecorino, lemon, and this Borsari citrus salt I got @ Whole Foods that was particularly intriguing!

I also decided to go with white asparagus to try to break down the difference for my own palate...and with manchego cheese slivers of course. And for shiz and giggles--threw some fresh pecans in there to roast as well!! Def helped calm the flavor :)

I grossly underestimated the flavor reduction in the prosciutto (AGAIN) with the "reduced" pecorino shavings too, so the drippings mixed with the Borsari citrus salt (pretty light hand this time around) with the lemon juice was WAY intense but SO FRICKIN' AMAZING. I mean it felt like I was scrounging around for things to sop up the drippings and was a pretty big hit w/ my roomies too. The manchego melted well and balanced out the strong tart savory flavor with a little musky, "creamy" taste. Maybe a little smokey? I can't pin point the descriptor!

* * * * *

"RECIPE" for SPICY SEAFOOD PASTA:

...not giving it the long sexy foodie fetish name :P...

1/2 pound baby octopus in a sauce pan with 1/4 cup olive oil, 2-3 bay leaves, lightly sauteed shallots/garlic (just personal preference to have both--and I like to put in like half a bulb or more of garlic!!) :) season as u will...dump 2 cups of halved grape tomatoes in there (I ended up throwing in about 4 roma-sized tomatoes diced in there too b/c i like my reduction really thick and tomato-y esp since I don't wanna use tomato paste).

1/2 pound shrimp (maybe less is better), 1/2 pound scallops (the baby/mexican scallops are probaby a better choice), 1/2 pound squid sliced. I seared these lightly b/f dumping them all into the pot to slow simmer for ~45 min on REALLY low heat, stirring occasionally. I tried to add in chili pepper (i usually don't cook spicy) but couldn't taste anything and was worried so I put in pepper flakes...and then cayenne pepper eventually :) It was of adequate heat, suffice to say--even for a chili n00b like me :)...

* * * * *

BAKED ASPARAGUS:

wrap thin slices of prosciutto--I think stripping the normal slice into 3 long strips would be ideal. Don't be fooled that it doesn't look pretty or whatever proportional when wrapping it around the thin strips of manchego around the asparagus stalks. Shave some pecorino or parmesan or whatever other cheese u wanna play with. I squeezed half a good sized lemon over it all with a nice sprinkle of the Borsari salt. Bake @ 350-375 for about 15 min. YAY.

Cafe Euro in Balestrate...

2009-02-23T00:00:00.005-05:00

Down the st. from Scott & Ange's place in Balestrate--one of the better pasticcerie in all of *ITALY* that we got a chance to go to...I guess...we wanted more of a panificio (bakery) than a sweets shop--but even still...most of them didn't deliver in terms of the breads, pastries, etc in texture etc. Their cornetto/croissants are pretty dense...as is most their...carbs we thought =/ Or the pastry cream was wack! Either way...

SO YUMMMAAAAY!!!!!!

...lotsa ricotta in these...a bit overwhelming at times but I mean...these things are massssive! TEEHEE!!!!! Their sfoglias and croissants and other stuff are far from flakey either.

The tarts were rather good--the wild strawberries--MAN the fruit toppings/fruit themselves make such a HUGE diff when abroad!! The pastry cream here is also one of the better ones I've tasted in my life too....and look they wrap everything up so prettily!...

It's also really interesting the diff in bread rise and airy qualities the farther down south you go. Mostly plain jane breads--they serve their purpose =/ But...these from Cafe Euro we thought had the right amount of sweetness and compromise in airiness/bready...whatever it is.

We had what looked like 2 massive cakey/doughey things overflowing with Ricotta--but actually one is like a bombolone (italian donut/beignet) and the other is more...brioche-like.

As u can tell the Italians (esp Sicily) love their almond cookies and pistachio or pine nuts! I can't complain. I think I prefer ricotta over marscapone as well!...SUPER CLOSE-UP OF PISTACHIO COATING!!...:) it was so ...deliciously green and coloured!! And almond-y!

I think this is one of the most fun/funny shots I've taken b/c u can clearly see Karen smiling w/ glee in the background over the foods hehe...

It was perfect weather, perfect lighting, perfect mostly everything in Sicily after so much rain and some ish in Bologna and Florence when we first came in! :) Except for the slow ass non-existent trains that take longer than the bus to get from outside the city into Palermo hehe...SUPER ZOOM on the pistachio topped almond cake!!

Pasticceria Maria Grammatico!...

2009-02-22T10:32:00.009-05:00

I was google-ing Pasticceria Maria Grammatico for the address and to freshen up my memory of the 5 diff pastries I had there. Surprise surprise! They have a website (an oddity for many Italian businesses)....AND apparenty Maria Grammatico had released her own biography a while back called Bitter Almonds/Mandorle Amare.

Long story short--born 1940, after the war was sent to orphanage ~11, taught by nuns how to make Sicilian sweets to sell in town, left convent @ 20 to open her own stuffs. I didn't see Maria @ the shop when we were there, just some youngin'.

CLOSE UP WITH BITE MARKS!! :)

This is what most of Erice looked like--narrow cobblestoned alleyways up and down some crazy hills and nooks and winding and...super medieval. Made me wanna gallop on a horse!! and maybe knock over some plebeian dragging a cart of dirty produce! :) more on this later...

A random purchase was a sfoglia with nutella--ur general phylo dough/puff pastry w. chocolate hazelnut-y goodness! Plus we hadn't really eaten brunch yet :P So...i figured I wanted some carbs...in such a healthy form! ;) didn't want to ruin my appetite for late lunch :P

I wanted to get the 12 or 24 pack of assorted Sicilian sweets but 1--this sh*t is EXTREMELY almost intolerably sweet if ingested in such volume. That and I didn't wanna hafta carry it all back and have it disintegrate on the train ride back to Balestrate! That up there would be the Paradiso cake, the Sospiri, pignola/pine nut almond cake, and pistacchio...marzipan? thingie. Felt like mochi!

There was this...specialty to the region...marzipan with jello and...almond cake i think? We weren't big fans of any major ingredient in there so...we effed it and skipped out. And sat on some mini-porch in the alley by the Cyclopean walls and ate away :) I'm reading all this stuff about how the walls, the convents, church, and castles are dated 1600, 800 B.C. CRAAAAAZY! ^_^

A little bit about the town of Erice--TEENY TINY as HELL. I'd say maybe as big as...what comprises the Lower East Side or maybe....tinier? IT IS TEENY!! But it is the awesomest speck of a town entirely unperturbed by development and commercial tourism. Must post scenic pics later...giant archive...tired...yar! :)

Dinner in Balestrate!...

2009-02-20T09:00:00.041-05:00

We're starting w/ Sicily in my....way overdue postings from the Italy trip! Why? b/c I lurved Del Capo market, the sweets in Balestrate & when Angela and Scott (and Karen) made some fantasmic fish and risotto and arancini! and...then the pics from Erice/Trapani! woohoo! and Palermo pizza!

A little..."preview" if u will...(of artsier shots i might not be able to make work in the rest of the entry :P...

We'll start this all with the dinner in Balestrate complete with my silly "chocolate" tasting with the stash I bought in Pisa. That'll be saved for another post b/c this one is just massive, hehehehe. Now...from the beginning...

We had lovely fennel w/ grated orange zest plus half anorange but u just can't see it in the pics. Fennel fennel fennel...kind of have an odd relationship with fennel--didn't like them grilled in a salad @ Olive's in Soho, kinda really enjoyed them raw and shaved with the diluted fish sauce aka nuoc cham aka dipping sauce (which btw totally makes badass salad dressing)...

...but here, we sauteed with some stock (if i remember correctly?) with the lemons and orange and pomegranates totally rocked and had a new depth of flavor....which i can't rightly describe since it's been so long :) but it was great with the risotto too :P

Getting out the pomegranate seeds for the fennel! Easiest way to get it all out tho--is to cut the pomegranate in half and then pat the back of it with a spoon and all the seeds come flying out :) Okay so you can see all that orange half and other stuff here... :)

The ladies workin' hard stirring away @ the fennel & risotto...

We also had a artisanal porcini risotto from one of the vendors (?) that works with Scott's company (yummers! I took home a pack and Karen took home a pack of saffron risotto!). Here are innumerable pics of that going down too :) Simmer simmering away!

In the meanwhile...Scott preps the fishy fish with capers, then salt & pepper--olive oil, then garlic! So...I forget what kind of fish we got at the market that day, but it was large and bootiful! Angela broke down the whole thing and descaled it and all!

Beautiful fish no? Shame we couldn't figure out what kinda fish it was but it sure was ginormous when it locked eyes with us and the fish-man :P

...and we even tried to go buy tweezers to remove the little bones but all i could remember to say was "Stiamo cercando per una pincetta per a prendere l'osso nelle pesce"...but i couldn't remember how to say "take out" or "remove" and kept making pinching motions and saying "sopraciglia" for eyebrows. Needless to say, my Italian has gotten supremely rusty! Anyhoo--so tons of pics of Scott drizzling the fish in olive oil after patting in some lemon slices, capers, garlic, and sea salt.

WEEE!! All packed up and ready to go...but see we actually forgot the garlic for a minute so...back open it goes :D...NUMMY NUM NUM...So that was a final "before" look @ our pesce...and....AFTER roasting in the oven! :D So many pictures...so little space hehe.

WOOHOO! so purty...and yummy! Note this is actually ish "other" people make but i'm still super jazzed eh? :P...seriously even putting all these photos back in sequence makes me a little giddy. In the midst of all this, I did a whole chocolate tasting set-up on the table as well and went back and forth stalking everybody in the kitchen and having them re-stage taking things out of the oven etc... :P

...and this!! yes that's STEAM...lots of it! bootiful bootiful steam! (and not a dirty wall hehe) ^_^

Scott gave us each some risotto from his co. to bring home. VERY VERY excited to crack it open! Anyhoo...back to dinner. Some of these are out of sequence back to the table with just the plates set up! :) To the table! But first some vino!...

Yes i'm a little crooked with this but I thought it kinda quirky and fun. When i rotated .75 degrees counterclockwise it just kinda looked generic. At least that's the story I'm sticking to anyway :) That and angela looks like a ghost! (do you know how impossible it is for me to keep still sans gorillapod with a b-shot?!)

This is the bottle of olive oil that Scott and Angela had freshly pressed the week prior, using olives from Scott's boss's orchard and pressed in the neighboring town. Apparently...everybody around there does it. WEEEE!! Look how thick it looks and almost opaque! That's how it's *supposed* to be. Nom nom nom...

We also had some fresh mozzarella (just from the supermarket--yeh SUPERMARKET, not the market market...but OMG infinitely better than anything @ the markets here, except maybe Murray's cheeses! or Odika? whatever it is...

AAAAaaaaannnnd done. :) I usuually don't post pictures with people in them on the blog...but Scott and Angela were pretty effin' awesome hosts and fun to hang around in Balestrate and Palermo so...here they are!! Thanks so much guys!! We sure licked the plates clean ;)

YAY SICILIA!!....oh hell one last look at that fantastic fish :D...

Restaurant WK @ BarBao!...

2009-01-30T01:39:00.010-05:00

So...hands down, best Vietnamese food is in Orange County. I've tried really hard to debunk this (including in San Jose/SF, Wash DC, Boston, and NYC--granted I haven't been to TX yet where I guess mah peoplez congregate). We just have more *types* of Vietnamese cuisine across the board--northern, Hue, blah di blah blah and the innumerable seasonal and artisanal (ish) dishes. BUT ANYWAY....

Can we start with dessert? cuz it's pretty? and it's my blog and i'll do as i damn well please!! :)

THE FLAN!! OH! That saved the DAY!!! I love me some flan--some other countries' versions are usually a little more jiggly, or more custardy, ours is a little firmer--but this one is a nice balance. AND it has a little coconut foam on it! ^_^ Sweet little surprise! ALso came with gingko nuts and i think dates but...like our version o fit. IT reminds me of this drink we have with longans, the gingko nuts, some julienne seaweed, sometimes with a little coconut milk, and little cubes of agar/grass jelly. I *never* would've thought those two flavors would go together. YUM!!! Lovin' that foam!

Gary got the Vietnamese bread pudding--whatever the hell that is, haha. But it, was interesting enough. Good texture, nice ice cream on top--and they had the candied fruits that I remember them usualy serving on Lunar New Years. I for the life of me cannot recall what they're called in English with most of what I know the foods to be in Vietnamese--so everytime I eat out at a new "fusion" or haute-cuisine-y place it's like unjumbling a puzzle and saying OH!! so THAT's what that is! :)

I've eaten at Bun and Baoguette (2 Michael "Bao" Huynh enterprises) and u know, it suffices for swanking it up to be upscale with wagyu beef in the Pho, berkeshire pork belly w/ the vermicelli noodles, the frog legs, the blah di blah blah with a lot of "enhancements" while retaining as much of the Vietnamese quintessence. I've eaten some stuff in Chinatown here and it works. We're big on our sauces, our flavors--they're strong, distinctive, crisp, not muddled etc, lots of respect for each individual ingredient and taste. Anyhoodle....we'll get back to how this is relevant.

I had the tiger shrimp carpaccio with shaved fennel and sprouts (a version of this is in the regular menu too, also recommended in the NYtimes review by Bruni). YUM YUM FISH SAAAAAUCE!! WOOHOO!!

Strangely enough--FENNEL...works really well with fish sauce! That light citrusy, licoricey flavor and the diluted "dipping" sauce or "nuoc cham" as it's now been relegated to be (even tho the real name is "nuoc mam pha" which really just translates to diluted fish sauce--but u know, with garlic, lime juice, usually some chili, and a little vinegar). YUP!! FISH SAUCE!! :) not olive oil. TEEHEE!! made me so happy--and the sauce was done right :D However, the tiger shrimp was a little tough--i dunno i thought it would be more crudo than cooked, chewy shrimp. still yum enough with a diff kind of "goi" or salad/shreeded cabbage/frisee/greens kinda thing.

Gary had the Mekong soup...whichebbs--i don't remember the name they assigned it, but for you cognoscenti (mainly just if u're Vietnamese really :P) it's canh chua ca thi la....minus the dill, some other veggies, and tilapia. tolerable form. a little lemongrassy, had some bean sprouts, two puny shrimp, tomatoes. Flavors still on point YAY. quantity of stuff and authenticity not so much. I mean look at it. I didn't even want to try to take any more pictures it just wasn't doing much for me. BUT--the flavors still were strong and all there and admittably tasty. Just disappointing the "girth" of the soup if u will.

ENTREES!! I wanted the Wild Boar Ragout--we like our ragouts to be honest, and with a little french baguette and some braised pork so tender it just falls to pieces at the prodding of a fork. UNFORTUNATELY, they were out :( *tear*. So i went with the frickin ' fish since Gary was already gonna take the Grilled sirloin with carmelized onions etc.

So Gary's grilled sirloin, which is just really "bo luc lac"...which honestly i dont' really know the etymology, but it's sorta close to meaning "beef shaken about"--but it's just cubes of really good beef well sauteed in lotsa butter sometimes a little rare with some vinegar, salt & pepper with some onions. THIS ONE...was DAMN GOOD--like lick each finger eat it wih my hands screw the rice that came with it kinda good. It's been a while since I've had good "bo luc lac" :)

Anyway--honestly, i really like red meat. I was trying to go on a limb with the mackerel @ Convivio, and I really didn't want to eat more fish and honestly i don't even remember what the fish was b/c i didn't really want to, it wasn't memorable and frankly, disappointing even just as a fish dish. Sea bass? Cod? Catfish? i wanna say catfish...but i doubt it since BarBao probably wants to swank it up more. Perfectly cooked technique-wise, really--moist, flakey, but bland underseasonsed and far from stellar.

AND THE PLATING!! WHAT the EFF?!?! brown, brown, grey, dark brown, dark grey, pale pieces of mushroom--from the looks of it when it came out, I thought the skin of the fish--or that side of it rather would've been seared a little more to be a little crispy or almost tender crust-like, followed with heavenly soft and fluffly fish with a little ginger kick maybe with the brown sauce, and i thought the chanterelle (?) mushrooms were the yellowy pickled sliced asparagus that usually comes with it--kinda like in the "ca kho to" or the claypot stuff that they also serve there--at Pho So 1 on Mott St it's pretty damn good. great sauce.

*sigh*. Really anticlimactic and buzzkill of the night--i was really excited after the soup and the tiger shrimp carpaccio (more for the essence of Vietnamese flavors in these very recognizable dishes presented in a new way, more so than total execution).

* * * * * * * * * *
...so that's it really. Seldom do I write this much--but hot damn if i go quiet on Vietnamese food if I can help it :)

BTW--all the Bao endeavors I have to say are a huge upgrade from Viet Cafe in Tribeca--swank with the most muddle and lacking Vietnamese flavors and intensity ever, I don't even know why they call themselves a Vietnamese Restaurant even tho the people who own the Vietnamese gallery next door and their shar-peis are absolutely fantastic :) Honestly tho--I can see how upgrading some of the ingredients really do up our cuisine well while maintaining the integrity of the food but...for what it is--Bar Bao is a little pricey, but I'd def go back for the cuttlefish and other stuff. I'm more pleased with their adventurous side more so than their dressing up old faves. If u're gonna change a good thing, make it notable and new! like that damn flan! even if it's just a reinvention w/ familiar flavors ^_^

That's all. I've eaten enough. Italy pics--those are next I promise....b/c I have to redeem my suffering photography and compensating for lighting skills lately. =/ *sigh*.

Restaurant WK @ Convivio!...

2009-01-28T01:09:00.010-05:00

A little in the boonies side of midtown east--sammiched between some hard core old residential buildings, aptly named Tudor City Place... :) Overall? Decor is a little bipolar in warmth/woodsy, soft and a little cold gray. Food--a little on the pricey side but split a few things and u're good to go--pastas, anything braised is AWESOME. fish is eh. duck eh. go for more sumptious ingredients and u can't go wrong :)

Appetizers! There were 4 of us so we got the Sfizi (pickled things), the Pane Cotta (bread soup with pancetta, buffalo ricotta, blahblah),

and 2 of the Duck Sausage over lentils...

First Plates! Again, we divied it up nicely :P Karen insisted on finding out about Convivio's infamous handmade pastas--sauce was GREAT...same kind of rustic, fresh, light and creamy feel as Pisticci's (yes, my measuring stick per se!), and the texture of the spaghetti was also good.

I got the mackerel but I was torn with the pork shoulder--but Roger and Albee got it so i figured EH...why not round it out :) I was drawn to it mostly for the mustard-caper sauce since I *lurves* me some capers!! The sauce did not fail--the fish was EH, but the sauce and potatoes/salad underneat was a nice touch. :)

Braised pork shoulder w/ soft polenta was *yummaaaaay!* That's yummy in a crescendoed high pitched tone if u couldn't tell! So tender, well seasoned--polena much better than i thought! Creamy, rich, not so gritty as I anticipated. Lick the plate kinda tasty! Maybe rub polenta on my face a little in circular motions like a crazy olive oil drenched moisturizer. MmmmMmmm.....*ahem*. ;)

Desserts were WHATEVER. the Chocolate gelato that came with my cannolis were good--except the cannolis weren't all that extraordinary though it had a little citrusy top note to it. The affogato was sufficient--it's a shot of espresso over gelato, and after having it done right in Italy well...no comparison :)

The VERY AWESOME thing was that we got a $25 gift card off our next meal!! Recession special/restaurant week gimmick if u will...I don't care, I'm def coming back to try the grilled octopus, the gnocchetti, and tortelli with crab meat and sea urchin!!

NEVER MIND my lighting. I'm having some off problems eyeballing lately :( Esp in unnatural light. *bah!* :) Enjoy--I promise to put up italy food pictures from...3 mos ago soon. It's like a trove of...orgasmically lit and fresh and...exciting food!! Bar Bao for Restaurant week also coming up...maybe Dovetail. EH.

Honey + Miso chicken...

2009-01-05T00:19:00.011-05:00

I think my obsession with leeks has overtaken my obsession with brussel sprouts. >.<

Didn't wanna let the giant leek stalks go to waste so I thought I'd make some chicken out of it since I still had a ton of miso leftover (and tomatoes as u can tell). I made the same thing in CA for that giant post-xmas dinner w/ the famiglia except I used a honey miso soy sauce marinade/glaze. Ran out of soy sauce (incredible fail as an asian, I know!) but I still had my fish sauce HEHE!! Didn't do too much with the fish sauce tho except to season the leeks b/f i dropped in the chicken.

we also had some salad--the dressing was sesame whatever mixed with the juices from when i sauteed my spinach in garlic with some tomatoes and fish sauce (not shown). YUMMAAAAY!

Again, I don't...really...measure much when I cook. It's just straight eyeballin' and in my head so..here it is!:

* * * * *

Honey-miso marinaded chicken!...

cube chicken breasts (big chunks--1-2 inches?)
drizzle honey over it--just enough to splatter most of the chicken but not cover EVERY inch. drizzle like u would olive oil cruet.
1 tablespoon-ish for every couple pieces of chicken breast...granted i kind of add as i go along, but i always mean to start with a generous tablespoon (heaping really).
massage that sh*t in! i like using my hands when i have to marinade with oils and meats--always feels really productive and visceral and connected to ur foods i feel...
saute garlic and leeks (and i threw an a$$load of leeks cut thin in there!) olive oil or butter (or if u will a combo of both to get the taste and...unsaturated goodness--btw i've been meaning to switch out of using olive oil b/c it's a heavy/flavored oil and the italians only dress with it and not actually cook anything in it and use sunflower seed oil insead but i haven't found the right alternative =/)
pour in the marinaded chicken (it doesn't need to sit too long to season the chicken bits) and let it cook on med high heat w/o turning it for about 1-2 min? then toss all around. throw in some tomatoes just towards the end so that it wrinkls and maybe chars the peel a little--then put a lid on the whole thing to let steam it thru--maybe 2 min like that?

Scallops + Soba noodles w/ sugar snap peas & cherry tomatoes in a yuzu miso honey vinaigrette!...

2008-12-28T01:27:00.010-05:00

I made this for a post-xmas dinner for my fam in CA, and I've decided to do it for NYE dinner too :) So...onward!

This is the scallops--seared 1.5 min each side with nothign but salt & pepper...plus sauteed in butter with leeks and garlic. LOVE LEEKS!! My mom's pot for some reason--was pretty tough to get super hot--u know how u gauge that it's gonna brown your proteins w/ that sizzle, and apparent when u throw in the garlic and it browns pretty quickly. Couldn't get the same browning/carmelization but..whatebbers, still tastay! me likes scallops!

This is the soba noodles after I've tossed it with the yuzu miso honey vinaigrette plus blanched sugar snap peas and raw cherry tomatoes.

ANNNND...this is the vinaigrette!

* * * * *

RECIPE to make the Honey-Yuzu vinaigrette (to serve about 6 or more really)...

1 cup yuzu juice (~5 oz)
2 heaping table spoons of miso sauce
3 tablespoons of honey
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of lime/lemon juice
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons olive oil (but I think sesame oil is the better way to go).

Tons of pepper, a smidge of salt--but if u like the savory from the miso then maybe nix the salt. I def didn't really like the olive oil in mine so I actually tried to split with 1/2 of it as sesame oil to compensate. Yuzu is pretty frickin' strong--granted the "juice" they provide is pretty...mixed in with a bit of other citrus juices and garlic etc so...eh.

---
So...I dunno wtf happened to my memory card but it seems to override images/naming convention so...i effed up on my xmas post :( it was bootiful. Jaime bought us a tree for the apt with quaint lil' ornaments etc--and we had purtay kate spade boxes wrapped all nice and presents that I wrapped myself with an embossed white parchment paper with a cherry tomato red wired ribbon double bowed and all. AND...we had Amadei hot chocolate with some Kahlua and Bailey's AND Jaime's gingerbread cookies!! >:( very displeased to have lost these images!! they were quintessential holiday pics!! boo!

preview of Kee's chocolates...

2008-12-18T01:33:00.004-05:00

OMFG.
got an xmas gift: box of Kee's chocolates...ended up ordering a box of 12 to bring back to CA for the holidays--this is just a light smattering of...the silkiest, delicate/ephemeral, intoxicatingly complex flavored, hand rolled chocolates you'll find anywhere. Godiva/Lindt/et al. be damned! *shakes fist!*

not gonna tell you what these are just yet--or what I ordered...but with flavors like yuzu, kaffir lime, lemon basil, honey saffron, creme brulee, fennel, smoked salt, thai chili, cognac, elderflower, pistachio, black sesame, different teas, honey kumquat....i just realized that's A LOT of the menu I gave away :P

but she makes macaroons too!! So much for "preview"...

WELL...you'll just have to wait for the pictures of them half bitten! :)

Sorella!...

2008-12-18T00:38:00.016-05:00

2 girls eat up Italy particularly Piemonte food and bring it back to the city! That's the concept behind Sorella on Allen b/w Broome & Delancey. Cute name. cute concept--it's pretty much how Karen and I felt after our little trip in October--except we ate the crap out of all of italy and were struck mostly by the modern Italian tastes of each regions (the homey, simple, rustic, pride of the land kinda dishes) and esp the modern emerging Italian cuisine at Pane e Vino in Florence and Il Satollo in Rome! [I PROMISE i'll post about these 2 soon--tied for 1st in favorite restaurants in the the 5 countries i've been to!]

It's a little hard to replicate the experiences and meals we had in Italy--so much gets lost across the AtlanticHad a little xmas dinner with Albee and grubbed up on the small plates.

We had the Hearst Ranch Beef Carpaccio with a parsley treviso sald, crosnes (apparently teeny artichoke like...'tubers'), and smoked salt. A little heavy I thought on the oil--but the smoked salt was badass.

We also had the Crispy Veal Sweetbread with a quince-bacon marmalade. I like the texture of the sweatbread--the breading's interesting. I don't have the mindset to really debunk what it comprises it at t he moment--the marmalade was a little like a variation of hoisin sauce I've seen used at some asian places...I still like/LOVE the Kefi sweetbreads better! Well cooked tho...

the best BESTEST was the Pate de Fagato: duck fat english muffin bread with chicken liver mousse, bacon, and a teeny little egg on it. Sounds heavy and artery-clogging but MY GOD very smooth, very subtle, and quite light. never mind my lighting! just look at that pate mousse!! so airy!

THENNNNN...we had the GNOCCHI!! Also one of my faves here! So light! So subtly rich! So smooth! The potato gnocchi so delicate and melty and subtle! Had some chives, roccaverano fresca cream sauce (heaven!--and light light light!) with brown butter pears--added a very nice light sweet contrast and harder texture to the whole thing. Seriously--best tasting and best cooked gnocchi I've ever had. I did not know...what gnocchi was supposed to be like...until this one. HAHA.

Needless to say we ate a lot.....a lot. Albee & I totally dug the Pate di Fegato the most--like...lick the plate clean if that was socially acceptable. But i did take a picture of our ravished gnocchi plate :P

Gnocchi was #2--but we did squeeze in dessert, and the Spiced Panna Cotta I have to say--just like what we liked about the Pate & Gnocchi--rich but subtle, smooth--melts in yo mouf! Perfect temperature and consistency...

I can't find the listing for dessert on the menu--but I remember the Spiced Panna Cotta having pomegranates, brown butter (methinks) pumpkin, pears, roasted pumpkin seeds...and a pretty damn hard crust on the bottom actually. Like--hard core stab and wiggle to break the crust/bottom. We REALLY worked that spoon. It wasn't as difficult to break down in your mouth but...i mean *damn*. Good flavors tho. Perfect little winter dessert feel :) WEEEE!!!

And then afterwards I went to drop off Karen's xmas gift nearby and she gave me Kee's chocolates. RICH RICH RICH just like Sorella's...(more intense actually)...but not so sweet over overwhelming either!! Just a less subtle, stimulating punch to the palate :)

Defintely...DEFINITELY coming back for the brussel sprouts from what I hear the barkeep says--he made really great recommendations and was a little chatterbox in the most amiable and natural sense :) Also got to chat w/ the chef a bit--lovely people who seem a little nervous but very proud of their venture :) Definitely transparent the thought and love that goes into plating, composition, and...ingredients and all! Some dishes weren't mindblowing but def above average esp for NY Italian fare. Anxious to also come back for the grilled quail and lamb ragu!

...BTW, the panna cotta--inn the chef's words--"It's like sex in your mouth!"...I'd have to say...it's more like really good making out sesh when you're a wee enamored teenage brat and the excitement lingers on warm flushed cheeks and twinkled eyes...u know, back in those uncorrupted days. ;)

That Pate di Fegato though...Albee said I was erm...having a sort of...."la petite mort" moment with it :)

brunchy-brunch-brunch @ French Roast...

2008-12-16T02:37:00.010-05:00

I have no idea why but I really really like poached eggs. Other than that I love my eggs sunny side up for the most part--and when I was a wee lass in Viet Nam, my mom would soft-boil eggs for us before any big travel dates, sprinkle a little salt in there, stir it up and breakfast a-hoy!

ANYWAY...so I've taken a shining to eggs benedict mostly out of my adoration for poached egginess, and affection for smoked salmon as well.

And a weird curiosity as to what the big deal was with hollandaise sauce based on hearing about it in multiple movies back in the day. Yes--some obscure reference to hollandaise sauce or somebody screwin' up how to make it. Don't even remember which movie it was :)

Anyhoodlekins...I went to French Roast the other weekend w/ Julia for brunchy brunch brunch on the UWS. We initially were going to go to the Polar Rink by the American Museum of Natural History but well--let's just say it was a rough night so I opted for food.

I like French Roast for the most part--but the 'taters were greasy and bland (and...a strange color which I'm assuming is due to whatever...weird..possible chili oil they used but...it wasn't even spicy!). The english muffin the eggs benedict were on were a little on the paltry and far from hearty side--the hollandaise was a bit heavy, but the egg was poached to perfectionnnnn.

Julia got the salmon omelet with sweet potato puree. A little odd w/ sweet & savory--but I'd grub on that orange pile of mash any other day.

Not too sweet. Still a lot of texture as u can see with little yammy-spokes protruding from the pile :) I have to say tho--FR plating aesthetics not so hot. I want my food PRETTY!! Not slopped on and rushed out! "Rustic" plating...is only for the really good sh*t! :D

The other dish I like @ FR? The Salad Lyonaise (which I surmise isn't on the wkd menu--neither is the french onion soup WTF?!). What's in a salad lyonaise? POACHED EGGS. yes. on a bed of frisee, with some bacon bits, and bits of taters and other salady-goodness. including tomatoes. SUPER CLOSE UP TIME!

My fave place for eggs benedict--which you can get WITH spinach AND smoked salmon (woohoo!) is at Cafeteria. Brunch here of course is notoriously...crowded. BUT SO TASTY. esp the mac & cheese with smoked gouda and bacon. Everything just tastes cleaner and healthier and leaner yet heartier there. Not that much more expensive either.

Ippudo w/ Mama Ly!...

2008-12-12T01:21:00.004-05:00

Thanksgiving w/ Mama Ly in the city --> Ippudo, Pommes Frittes, Ronnybrook Milk Bar, Chelsea Market, Amy's Bread, and...some cooking but for now...more pics of the porkiness that I love esp with the coming brisk winter days/nights!

Pork belly bun.

Akamaru Shin-aji ramen.

YUM YUM YUM.

Kampuchea Catfish Sammich!...

2008-12-12T01:08:00.001-05:00

I met up with the girls after an NYurban vball league game @ Karen's (when we had made beignets and apple tarte tartins) so I was STARVED and feeling portable foods. Claudz took me to Kampuchea on Rivington & Allen. She had raved about the sammiches particularly the Ginger-rubbed catfish.

I was torn between that, the Hoison Pork sammich, and The Kampuchea sammich (with headcheese terrine)...but something about the cleaner finish of fish and the prospect of honey/peppercorn/ginger just grabbed me. It was a pretty big friggin' sandwhich and they definitely weren't stingy with the catfish. The sauce and the way all the flavors came together was subtle, a little sweet with a little heat from the peppercorns but just overall quite quite pleasant. It was an unbutton ur pants kinda filling and satisfaction :)

What pissed me off a bit was that it was $12 bucks. REALLY?! with tax it came to be about $14. -.- The girls told me it used to be like 9 bucks when it just opened and then they ramped it up. Granted it's a nice restaurant and the portions are nice from what I saw of their noodle dishes as well. Everything's fresh and the quality of the food fares well but just...does not justify the price jacking.

So it's supposed to be Cambodian food but obvy very much like the Vietnamese sandwiches. I ate a Catfish sandwich with Dave @ Baoguette (a Vietnamese sandwich place that recently opened up on 25th and Lex) which was $7 and though the texture of the fish was subpar compared to Kampuchea's...flavor, fixin's, and overall experience is just as good though less exciting.

GIVEN the name, I couldn't help but think maybe it was a Michael Bao endeavor...AND IT WAS! :) I thought maybe it would've been a little more elevated like Bun (Grand & Crosby) but I'd be happy to have something closer to Chelsea with reasonable enough pricing and taste. I did enjoy Bun tho--i haven't had certain things in the city or a few places that had the same flavors as back in CA or the way my mom made it. The butterd frog legs were...effin' AWESOME. that's for another post...

Amy's Bread & Ronnybrook Farm Milk Bar!...

2008-12-11T23:01:00.004-05:00

Part of turkey day brunch avec Mama Ly in the city. Ate @ Chelsea Market (on 16th and 9th ave) since Momofuku Milk Bar was only open for pickup! :( Then got groceries (pancetta, porchetta, olive/black truffle tapanade etc etc) to make Turkey day dinner & grubbage for the drive down to DC the next day...

And yes, they quoted There Will Be Blood below.... heheheheeh

Eggs Kaush..something. Eggs in casserole! like at Viceroy (18th & 8th ave) and Relish (North 3rd & Wythe in Williamsburg). Came with roased potatoes w/ pepper & chives.

I swear though...somethign about poached eggs...i'm still fixated with them...

Mama Ly got the free range roast chicken w/ what looks like fresh mozarella, tomatoes, and a salad with really good vinaigrette!

Apparently it's diff from what the menu says (some kinda...cheddar. WHATEBBS). it was tasty. organic and all that ish but all that matters was that it tasted fresh and was prepped quite well yaaaaay.

The Ronnybrook Farm chocolate milk is whole milk but INFINITELY "thinner" and cleaner taste than most chocolate milk--even the chocolate soy milk. No aftertaste, no...lactose-y...intolerance...harshness. Tastier than Horizon Organic Chocolate milk (omg did i...did i blaspheme? HA!! HOCM def pales in comparison exponentially...and i once thought very highly of it. esp when buying it in bulk @ costco :D or whole food's :))

That said...Mama Ly's hot chocolate was also damn festive and good...

And to end with: almond buttered toast from Amy's Bread. Very soft--brioche-y kind of bread, subtle almond paste (not crazy sweet like how the Sicilians prefer it!--sweeter than Almondine)...

Brussel Sprouts & Bacon!....

2008-11-25T00:26:00.006-05:00

Claudz got me some brussel sprouts the last time we were @ Karen's making beignets & apple tarte tartins so I decided to test drive them out for Thanksgiving, along with chicken in bacon fat and lotsa rosemary...

and by "we were making beignets and tarte tartins" i mean I showed up uberlate after my NY Urban game and got a sammich nearby and ate while Shanaz made the tarte tartin and the other girls made beignets (and deep fried snickers!) while I noshed and bitched about being sweaty and tired :P more pics of that some other time.

In this version, I had about...3 cups of brussel sprouts halved, sauteed with shallots, pine nuts, and about 1.5 lemons. Didn't have pancetta so I used center cut bacon (b/c it was like..10pm on a Sunday when I decided to do this little culinary experiment and Gristedes isn't exactly...gourmet central :P). Prosciutto would've been nice but it's so thin and when I've crisped them up before it's just TEEEEEEEENY!!

So...I was reading a lot about how to prepare them sprouts--and I opted for a compromise of boiling for 3 min and then sauteeing the rest. I'm going to have to say...I'm going to just nix the boiling and do fullon sauteeing or roasting next time.

I really lament the loss of color w/ boiling and the texture is like any boiled cabbage would be. I think w/ all the layers it's so much better roasted or whatever to maintain the crispness of each layer. It's like if u had a soggy crepe mille cake. EES NO GEWWWD. Crispy! Also...note the diff b/w flash and natural light...

That's brussel sprouts I had in Italy--really really fresh sproutsies! ^_^ boiled, with a little olive oil. granted it didn't taste all that exciting b/c it was fully boiled, but the quality of the produce--YUMMMM. and the sprouts were much bigger than here. I also hafta say...the bacon really darkens and chars the chicken and sprouts well, but since the sprouts were already soft and boiled it didn't add much dimension to the coloring. FULL CHAR NEXT TIME! :)

That's mah full meal. let's hope turkey day sprouts will be much more interestingly plated. Also trying to switch up my cakes this year. still befuddled. HRmmmMMmmmmm....>.O...

I'm also hoping I can buy the brussel sprouts on the stalk at the Union Square farmer's market when my mom's in town (tomorrah!) and we'll be makin' my first Turkey day dinner in NYC!

Almondine!...

2008-11-09T22:36:00.010-05:00

We had the bestest sammich EVER today at Almondine!...

Karen & I got the ham and cheese sandwich with bechamel cheeze on top today...and it was gloooooorious and tasty. I don't think it was bechamel inside--maybe it was I dunno...I DON"T KNOW. but the butter Pam got with her bread was very good as well.

THe bread was a little dry/hard as it should be (i forget the type of bread). Granted we came like at 2pm so everything was practically out and I do realize and appreciate the potential of this sammich fresh out the overn and I'd be remiss if I never got to taste it that way but...MY GOD even in its "off" form, it's still so...so very tasty!! The bechamel (never had it before) was a little creamy and more spreadable--blasphemy, but it's like a cross between the Laughing Cow color/texture crossed with Brie.

It was quite an enormous sammich, cut in 2 (and I had some fresh squeezed OJ) and I still couldn't finish it. Fortunately, it was a nice little snackeroo when we were at the Brooklyn Flea in the cold, cold, cold wind. :) YUMMAY!!
Zees was un eclaire i got...

I lurves ze boysenberries!! SO TASTY!! So very....

nom nom nom nom....their custard cream is really good--light, clean, and just a smidge sweet. Great texture too--not too dense or viscous.

This was also my first attempt at bread pudding...

i have to say...not that tasty, but better than I thought. Just a little bland in my opinion--and i also just dont' really get bread puddings to begin with. My friend got me christmas pudding one year, from England...yeaaaaaah i dunno. Rustic I suppose. but not pour moi!!

Okay, gotta cut the commentary short b/c i'm backed up with posts and I gots a post on brussel sprouts and baking adventures with beignets and apple tarte tartins to put up besides all the old stuff from italy!!! ^_^

Here's one more loving peekture of the crusty bechaaaamelllll!!!!

Death by chocolate....cake! in b-burg

2008-11-01T21:32:00.010-05:00

Went to brunch @ Relish in Williamsburg on N. 3rd and Wythe. Came late (as I tend to) and noshed on half of Claudia's eggs in casserole (everything was on point, much better than the one at Viceroy b/c it had other elements--potato slices etc that made it a heartier meal), and then the 4 of us split THE CAKE. :)

Quite a decadent little sucker--not as moist as *mine* ;) but ginormous layers + pretty tasty frosting + pretty yummy to begin with cake = yummyYumYUM. HERE's the ODD thing...we all ate it with the whipped cream! We all *had* to eat it with the whipped cream--it was...compulsion beyond comprehension. About halfway thru--we were angling on asking the waitress for another dollop to finish the cake with...except...my god. I normally HATE whipped cream O.o it's just *garnish* like...cilantro! (we'll get to that some other time)

I'm sure the cream was made on premise (or something) or specially sourced since it had none of that airy bland lardy-lightness --> my version of "buttery" in an undelightful (read: uninteresting) slant. We couldn't exactly pin point why the cake tasted so much better with the whip cream--or rather, just...tasted really incomplete without it even tho the cake itself didn't taste like it was lacking. *shrug*. Regardless, it was still magnificent!

I've only wandered in Williamsburg in daylight a handful of times (got some new cords at the Built by Wendy sample sale, my awesomest new winter coat at In God We Trust blahblahblah). Today--LO AND BEHOLD--we came across the Bedford Cheese Shop--which is SO MUCH MORE THAN CHEESE!!!

it's perfectly what I needed after being in Italy and since then avowing to really be good to myself w/ products, produce, artisanal foods etc. I've fallen into a slump of eating just to feed myself and move on b/c I get so carried away with life as a whole and everything becomes such an arduous task (as I tend to make it) that even cooking and eating is laborious.

Will do a full blown post of it some other time....but here's another pic I took there :) They sell jams, pickles, breads, sweets, oils, condiments, snacks--general goods from Italy, England, Germany, Switzerland, Holland--and wherever else. All in one shopping. YESSSS.

This is the same brand as my Oven Roasted Lemon & Thyme Chicken potato chips :) Just mine were Walkers' Sensations and these are regular. MY GOD. i love the british crisps!! :D

...oh what the hell...one more shot of the cake--tipped over! :)

WEEEEEEEE!!!

iKEA Swedish Almond Cake!...

2008-09-08T09:01:00.010-05:00

First time I had this was a few wks ago back when I was visiting family in CA--when my bro and his gf took me to Ikea for BREAKFAST....and *tasty!* it was O.o So, on Sunday when I drove w/ Carolyn to the new Ikea in Redhook I had to buy a whole cake ^_^

It's very moist, light, not very sweet--bordering on NOT sweet--but just perfectly tinged with a sweet flavor. There's also, surprisingly, a complete lack of that strong almond extract essence that I'd normally expect with anythign 'almond' (i.e. almond buttercream...see SSS entry).

Also bought the chooooooocolate version! This plain white one--from the ingredients page I guess it's just buttercream? but much gooey-er than the cupcake buttercream frosting which I'm assuming is just not whipped, more oil, *way* less sugar. YAAAAAY!

I lub me some Ikea...I lub me some Ikea food.

Celeste...

2008-09-03T03:08:00.008-05:00

Went to Celeste on 84th and Amsterdam last month w/ Carolyn!! YAAAAAAY to Carolyn moving back from Espagna (I hadn't seen her in like 5-6 yrs!), and yay to Celeste. Jun took me here a while ago and ever since our office relocated uptown I pretty much go here as much as I can.

Italian gets thrown around here a lot so it's great I get to practice (sorta, when I'm not too meek or caught up to start tossing phrases out here and there). The ownder is a lean faced man with bony features, longer hair...an affable man that I guess goes to the fishmarket all the time so much that the Sushi chefs know him (just not by name!).

I only recently got into mussles--this is a basic garlic and white wine sauce but the quality of the mussels are amazing (which makes the owner's little stories believable, and endearing vs. some ridiculous braggadoccio BS!) It has a tinge of sweetness, succulent, well seasoned but lightly seasoned so u really just get...the quintessence of the mussels in what you're slopping around in ur mouth as opposed to stuff that sits in the yummy broth you're sucking down.

I had the Homemade Papardelle Special which is reminiscent of their old Shrimp Papardelle (which now comes with cabbage, goat cheese, and i forget what else). CLOSE UP!!...

But this incarnation has scallops, asparagus, and a light tomato marinara sauce. The pasta really is something to experience (well, the paparedelle anyway) b/c u can more plainly feel the different texture of hand-made/rolled/whatever pasta versus the shit u just pop in and boil at most restaurants.

Carolyn got the Butter-sage cheese ravioli that Julia's gotten too. It was def tasty and the sage was strong but pleasantly so b/c i feel like i don't get to really enjoy sage in a lot of things, and not as a focal point. (pumpkin ravioli @ fig & olive still def rocks my socks!!)

The thing I like about Celeste better than Pisticci's is that Celeste has more distinctive and rustic flavors, a little more pungent in comparison--but I mean the two are so restrained in their seasoning and composition, everything works together well and stand on their own. It's simple, and clean--just Celeste is a little more hearty, but...Pisticci's has so many different and refreshing ideas in their dishes! It's like talking about 2 very diff things joined by an effortless composition of tastes and fantastic ingredients!

...i like to finish my plate :D

Redhook vendors (@ the Bklyn Flea!)...

2008-08-17T20:32:00.011-05:00

Went to the Brooklyn Flea w/ Claudz so she could buy an arm chair--also to pilfer the foods and find Salvatore ricotta cannolis!! And of course...the Redhook ball field vendors! woohoo! Now, being originally from southern CA (see post on Tijuana!), the "Mexican food" here in NY has never quite...hit the spot. BUT...dare i say...could this be...LOVE??

Huarache (...and NO, NOT THE SANDALS):
They're pretty much just giant corn tortillas (fried masa?) with refried beans inside and then stuffed like tacos etc..

....mmmmmmmm. makes me wanna really have some good Mexican food when I go back to CA to visit for mah niece's bday...

...what's brooklyn flea market without a little...cafe habana outpost GRILLED CORN!!!:

...and....YUM look @ them all ready to go...

Oh what the hell, one more shot:

*sigh* l'amour. you know how I feel about grilled corn.

It was really great seeing them hussle about and make all the food and see how it was kept. I love all the random street fairs b/c I like seeing all the prepwork, all the whatever whatever all up in my face. I think it's riveting seeing them in action not in a kitchen (granted i never get to see the kitchens in restaurants anyway--but it's...hard to describe what I'd imagine is the rush of working in an entirely different, and very minute space! OH! contact high from all that quick thinking and organization and pre-calculation!!

...it's pretty much a giant block of preseasoned/marinaded chicken meats that they're breaking down. YUMMMAYYYYY. I have to say though, the pork in my huarache (choice of meats) was pretty damn tasty and well seasoned. A little hot, a little salty, great texture, a little fatty--fresh pico de gallo was great, the hot sauce was well (pretty hot but on point).
Anyhoodle...so we got a plethora of things including....PUPUSAS!!

Pupusas:

A pupusa (from Pipil pupusawa) is a thick, hand-made corn tortilla (made using masa de maíz, a maize flour dough used in Latin American cuisine) that is stuffed with one or more of the following: cheese (queso) (usually a soft Salvadoran cheese called Quesillo), fried pork rind (chicharrón), squash (ayote), refried beans (frijoles refritos), or queso con loroco (loroco is a vine flower bud from Central America). There is also the pupusa revuelta with mixed ingredients, such as queso (cheese), frijoles (beans), [1], and chicharrón or bacon.

the accompaniments (which I think is pickled red cabbage, other ish, salsa, sour cream? (honestly I liked this stuff much better than the pupusas themselves, but they were a fun little alternative):

...the making of...

Claudz got me the mixed meats pupusa i think--and she got the vegetarian one. I like the texture--kinda grainy but not inasmuch as a regular corn tortilla is (a little heavy, a little dry and not so doughy). This was light, full, and not polenta-y either.

The horchata was really creamy but at the bottom u could see the gunk of all the cinnamon and whatever else the drink was loaded with--however, still pretty damn good b/c it's perfecdtly seasoned as opposed to overly sweet like most horchata I've ahd--although the one in Tijuana was much cleaner and more refreshing. (mmm. yeah forgot to take pics of this.) Also had hibiscus tea and watermelon juice. YUMMY YUM YUM YUM. That's all...there are still 3 posts coming in regards to the cupcakes and other crap at the brooklyn flea. be patient, childrens.

Veniero's (confection heaven!)...

2008-08-11T21:12:00.007-05:00

Oh HEY--yeah what's up?
It's...it's been, uh, a while, huh?
Yah...I know, I should've called but...you know, you know how it is.
Um yeah so...
Me? OH just fine, good times, good times.

So....
...yeaaaaaah....

...VENIERO'S!! After a month and a half lull..I present you...yummy yum yumness u don't even KNOW homeslice. It truly is a uh...a post to reintroduce mahself with.

In terms of italian pastries and just...pastries period, I've never been that big a fan of Ferrara's, and I truly thought that was the best NY had to offer (a little tear drops down my cheekie-poo). Mike's pastries (esp the cannoli) in Boston...seriously. It's the ricotta cheese and the shell and just...how fab it is PERIOD. Ferrara's uses a custard-y filling but Veniero's....RICOTTAAAAAA!!!

I'd like to go to get some cannoli's from Salvatore Brooklyn Ricotta (at the Ft. Greene flea market too!! ^_^) but this bodes well for me since Veniero's just in the East Village. I had just eaten dinner w/ Albee and he took me to Chickalicious and then "oh this little place it's pretty good you should come back to try stuff if you're too full now"...and OH. MY FRIGGIN'. COW.

Rows and rows of impeccably constructed large and mini versions of tarts (multiple, endless types) The colors, the rows, the freezer...THE EVERYTHING!

Albee, love, you sure know how to make a girl feel giddy! ;)
btw...Veniero's is on 11th st between 1st and 2nd ave...it's 110 yrs old (as in how long it's even been in NYC), and has outposts in Rome and Bologna.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine (final cupcake showdown!)...

2008-06-30T00:30:00.012-05:00

I've gotten in the habit of screening a new restaurant or dish before coming back to write about it. I just dont' like lugging the d-SLR around if I don't need to, complete with gorilla-pod, filter, flash, blahblahblabh. It's mostly b/c I'm a gelatinous pig. HA!! GET IT?? gluttonous, gelatinous, was being off kilter funny. *ahem*. anyway...

The first time I had Sugar Sweet Sunshine was @ Karen's bday when Claudz got her the pistacchio cake. Cakey cake cake...yummmmmm. ANYWAY...

The next time I actually had Sugar Sweet Sunshine was an abysmally long time after...like last month actually, before heading out to some BBQ (memorial day mehbeh?) in Billy-burgh. We got the Ooey Gooey (chocolate cake w/ chocolate almond buttercream), Pumpkin Spice (pumpkin cake w/ cream cheese icing),

...and Sexy Red Velvet (red velvet w/ satin buttercream), and Pistacchio (pistacchio cake w/ satin buttercream aka "the moose"). There was also the Sassy Red velvet--which just had the chocolate almond buttercream instead of the regular ish but that was saved for another day.

BOTTOM LINE: I think SSS is the bestest EVARRRRHHHHH because they color outside the lines a bit with flavor combos and whatnot--PISTACCHIO??? yum. Again, the icing on the pistacchio--the satin buttercream--is reminiscent of yet has a lighter consistency than the Marshmallow Fluff spread and I SWEAR...cannot be plain ol' buttercream but whatebbs.

One more shot of the Ooey Gooey w/ Milk b/c it was pretty :)

ALMOND EXTRACT in the buttercream--this ALSO is brazilliant, regardless of how innocuous almond extract really is. It blows my mind here and there when I haven't used it for a while in my cake b/c I kinda forget how aromatic and strong even a smidge of it is. CRAZY LIKE A FOX!!

Anyhoodle, when I came back to SSS the second time around w/ Julia, I got all the same stuff again and then some. Just a note, I've never found yellow cake to be that appealing--but SSS yellow cake, me likes. I wouldn't necessarily order a yellow cake cupcake over chocolate any given time, but for SSS I'd eat that shizz instead of letting it sit or pass it off to somebody else as I tend to. Yellow cake normally is just incredibly pedestrian to me. PSHHHHH...b*tch please. ;) No seriously, it's a little pedestrian.

Besides the fact that it's located in the Lower East Side in what looks to be a run-down, dirty hipster version of the light-Connecticut-Montauk white and pastel decor found at Billy's or Magnolia's where you might feel like making a patriotic pound cake or short cake topped with whipped cream and strawberries for stripes and blueberries for star emblem, drinking mint lemonade out of a mason jar with straw decoratively tied around the edge in the wicker basket of your bike as you pedal around Hyannisport or Nantucket or some crap....

Sugar Sweet sunshine looks like you're in a fonder memory of the 1960's going into 70's complete with requisite avocado/lime/whatever colors and peeling faded pink, playing in the attic with an E-Z oven while a fudgsicle stick drips down your wee little hands while scratching at your scraped up knees from the day's rowdiness in the sand pit watching the light bulb bake intently, while in the background ur older cousins or brother/sister played vinyls from Van Morrison or Stevie Wonder--hell maybe even the Steve Miller Band and possibly locking you out of the attic so they could try their hands at being mid-day tokers instead.

Or in my case, my brothers locked me in a closet so they wouldn't have to watch me when they sneaked out to play soccer w/ the neighborhood kids. I don't even know what that last imagery was like/came from b/c quite frankly my toddler years were in Vietnam playing on our third floor giant patio and watching this man who rented out some portion of my family's building make chalk. Seriously. Chalk making. pretty cool to watch. :)

But yeah--Sugar Sweet Sunshine in a nutshell: more homey-goodness and explorations into interesting cupcakery beyond that banal tripe of a competition between Magnolia's, Crumb's (bleah), Buttercup (bleaaaaaah), and Billy's--not to mention the kajillian offshoots from Magnolia's spreading in the outer bouroughs and such. PLUS SSS cupcakes are only $1.50 while the others are well above $2--not to mention stupid Sprinkles in CA is dry and I swear left out in the open for a long time and not fresh is close to $4 if memory serves me right. I lost pictures of Sprinkles when I went with Peggy the last time I was home =/ *curse you busted hard drive covered by warranty!* *shakes fist!*

....aaaaand *end scene*.

I heart Pisticci's (and you!)...

2008-06-26T00:41:00.013-05:00

TO mark the end of my grieving period for my failed & irreparable hard drive, here is (what I think) is ze best food pizzorn on zees blog. Pisticci's on 123rd/LaSalle & B'way.

Fig & goat cheese salad w/mangos, heart of palm (yummers!), strawberries, and dijon sauce.

Another looksie at the salad...NOMNOMNOmnomnomonoNOMnoMoNOmNOMMMMM...first time I had heart of palm. I like. Me also likes heart of artichokies...

The garlic bread, avec goat cheese--they don't...usually have this on top, but either way it was damn tasty.

The house tea (black tea with peach...syrup?). As refreshing as it looks...

I always get the homemade fettucine w/ wild mushrooms--this time with the truffle oil added (oooooooooh...not really, there is a diff but i like the diff in some other medium besides this dish). BUT ME LOVESSSIES this dish!! ^_^ Julie-boolie got the same thing sans truffle oil.

Dan (Julia's sis's hubs) had the peppercorn-crusted filet mignon with cognac and something sauce. It was a beautiful peace of meat and I took a picture of it sliced up and splayed but it's a little blurry :( But here it is!!

There were more entrees but they're not as pretty--but seriously, any specials, anything at Pisticci's is phenomenal. Fresh, simple, well seasoned, perfectly balanced, finger lickin' good and despite the Italian starchy fare, very light and not heavy at ALL. I had the seafood special and meat entrees before too and that shiz is the bizzomb in terms of preparation. Pisticci--fave restaurant in Boston, California, or NY (except maybe Kefi :P...and all the cupcake places.

Anyway...onto desserrrrrrt. Always on the menu but best in season (now): fresh berries and hand-whipped cream. Nothing else holding it up!

I disdain desserts topped with whipped cream--anythign w/ whipped cream really. I just think whipped cream is unnecessary and the devil. BUT, with that said, this cream could convert even moi-self :) Also--tiramisu and Frangelico mousse (tasty!but again both not that pretty so whatebbs :P) Here's the coconut-yellow cake w/ some sauce.

You'd think it'd be a little innocuous for such a place I rave about--but the cake is rich but (like my crazy triple chocolate cake) not that sweet, not that heavy or too airy, and the sauce is great with it. A lot of people seem to be averse to coconut but it really shouldn't be the slightest issue here.

another pic of the fig salad just cuz I think it's purty--that and I've only had fig maybe 3x in my entire life (no even a Fig Newton!) The whole fruit is fascimamating and its applications as well. :)

YAAAAAAAAAy. prepare for the last cupcake entry in the cupcake trifecta/showdown, lemon-and-thyme-roasted-chicken flavored chips from England, comped breakfast @ the Hilton in McLean, and purple 'taters coming this wk!

...and one more of the garlic bread :)

Mama Ly's mama's Bún Riêu...

2008-06-05T23:59:00.019-05:00

The Moms' moms (my maternal grandmother, duhhh ;)) has been a devout Buddhist and vegetarian probably for 50+ yrs--but she still cooks savory/meat-filled meals for the fam. She never tastes it given her practices, and yet it's always jussst perfect.

Whenever there's a congregation of the Le progeny* in Washington, DC where my grandmother usually is, she cooks up giant beasts of a feast--which she's inclined to make all the time anyway, but we get the hometown favs when it's the big extended crew. Since the extended fam is in DC, and the my nuclear family is in CA and not hear in NYC, I've spent many a holiday noshin' on some majorly finger lickin' shizz.

A few wks ago my mom and aunt flew over for the couz's graduation and she made us bún riêu. What *is* this bún riêu you ask? Pshhh...you just know, homeskillet--You DON'T EVEN KNOW. teehee! See Noodlepie.com for more pics of bun rieu as vendor food in Viet Nam.
bún riêu as vendor food and more pics.

Bún riêu is a noodle soup (in the same vein as pho and other things) with a pork based broth, vermicelli (the thin white noodles), sometimes congealed pork blood, processed crab and shrimp meat (kinda lumpy scrambled-egg-like consistency but a little more liquidy/viscous), lime, fermented shrimp paste(^_^)

Seriously, it's a little interemeresting smelling but don't be knocking it!!--douchebaggery neither desired nor required. Eat or go home. Don't talk ish on mah people's shrimp paste .

Usually purplish-grey, salty but not in the fish sauce or sea salty way--pungent, maybe give u a little "agita" but OH SO FRIGGIN" good and utterly unfathomably completes the bun rieu.

It's a pretty tedious process making all of this. Mostly tedious to me, because it gets very time consuming for me and consuming mentally to go out and select all the ingredients (all the diff veggies etc) b/c I get really carried away touching/smelling/burping produce. (joke). It's not that I'm picky--I just really like to learn/experience everything tactilely and visually and...every other thing I can imagine it's just really enthralling.

For my little bowlsie, I nixed the pig blood and beignet equivalent (mostly used to sop things and add another texture). I forgot about the other shredded-stuffs. OH WELL. Almost forgot--there's also the SHREDDED BANANA FLOWER!! Courtesy of Bhakshanam.wordpress.com (great entry on making banana flower salad).

The banana flower stuff--it's so pervasive I forget sometimes! and so counterintuitively what it is! It's got a crunchy/hardness/thread-iness like celery crossed with jicama (maybe even green papaya?)--I forget which place/city/state I had it as a salad (maybe with roasted mussels) and it's friggin' awesome. It's a giant bulb--the one at the end of those giant bunches of tiers of bananas from tree--giant and purple.

Oh and we also had tomatoes and "do" which is pronounced like "yaw"--the "d" without that top part crossed like a "t" has a "y" as in "yellow" pronunciation where as the "d" crossed like a "t" is the natural "d" as in "dork" sound. I totally dig me some tomahters do any day of the week.

I also didn't inherit the caffeine addict gene or the super spicy Huế gene. But I like watching them make it from those french presses. I hear it's the shizzzzz. *le sigh*.
Last pic of bun rieu with the beignet-like things and congealed blood so ya know. So NOW YOU KNOW :) Pic courtesy of gastronomyblog.com

Grilled Corn @ Cafe Habana...

2008-05-26T22:59:00.004-05:00

It's summah time. and I'd like to go to the Habana Outpost for a change. Still, it's all about the corn. This picture alone--reeks of summer to moi. This was from last year (first time actually) when I ate @ Cafe Habana with Claudia and Henry. It was night time--and we actually ate at the takeout window side instead of the cafe. I also had some kind of dandelion salad there (I think) and it was fanplasmico. mMmmMmmMm.

Yay summah in the citay!

Corn et al in Tijuana 2007...

2008-05-26T22:55:00.005-05:00

Anyway, so all this corn-ness segues into my quest for grilled corn in Tijuana actually (as in Mexico). I went there back in January 2007 with my elementary school posse Giang and Marvin (who apparently is MIA now), and Christina. All for the corn behbeh. ALL FOR THE CORN. and cerveza. and lucha libre gear. :) and...just to go to TJ for shits and giggles (FYI: u park, and walk across.)

It was not the usual cheese, and it was boiled instead of grilled. I was disappointed--nay--I was loathe to find it subpar to my aggrandizing...corn..ness...internal dialogue..of...corn. :( le poo!
But we DID get some kick ass ceviche, beef tortas, tacos, and horchata (rice milk thing w/ a little cinnamon).
And beers. All for like 8 or 18 bucks i can't remember but there were 4 of us and we ate a lot and drank a lot. not just the dos equis. horchata. HORRRRRCHATA! (think shikaka but...horchata. you don't even know what i'm talking about.)
We also had churros--fresh and greasy as hell!! You know it's good when it's transparent :P
We also bought a huge stash of those chili lime pasted watermelon lolipops, and the lime/salt powder (lucas limon) that u could put on fruits and veggies (or if u were redonk like me, eat it as is). OHhHGhghaghghhghghhg (homer noises). This...is the crazieset thing u'll ever eat--totally beats Warheads and all that other sour crap. Utterly abysmal thing to do to ur tongue but who CARES (also comes in spicy). TEEHEE!
Good times to be had in TJ--even if u didn't buy prescription drugs, feed a painted mule, or party w/ DJ Quik like another underaged gringo from Newport Beach as we're all familiar with. See exhibit Uno above of Barney the mule-zebra.

And exhibit Dos...(complete with Tamiflu!):
The walk over & back is quick--the wait to cross back into CA at the border is a BIATCH b/c it's so damn long...but overall...delish :) Also...what's a trip to TJ without a lucha libre mask? (complete with cape?)

There's some bread in my corn...

2008-05-03T17:06:00.005-05:00

Also a JASmart goodie--a little bland really! I personally LOVE corn in a can. (I almost typed can in a corn.)

I added some seasoned feta, it helped. You'd think with the little green garnish it'd mean somethign else was int here other than bland ass corn and bland ass bread.

JASmart you disappoint!! WTF?! Even corn has a natural sweetness--see corn ice cream in Sundaes & Cones!

And bread--carbs! sugars! wtf?! *shakes head*...

But I'm a fun-gi....

2008-04-23T01:02:00.011-05:00

Went to Jasmart on 23rd & Lex hoping to get fish sauce without having to go down to Chinatown (I'm averaging 1 bottle a year--by myself!! :P). Did NOT find fish sauce--instead found mushrooms, chrysanthemum leaves, and (baby bok choy...sold by...THE PACKET?!?!).

Do not know what I'm gonna make with them--probably a steam packet with fish sauce (maybe soy or MISOOOOO), lemon, butter...like at Typhoon on St. Marks & 1st ave (fanplasmic japanese 'tapas' and whatnot...plus they're open super late. Cow tongue was good--so's other shiz but that's for another post).

So I bought enoki mushrooms too but I couldn't find a suitable idea for how to shoot them (as in pictures, not...pistols). Plus...why bother with ordinary enoki when you can feast your eyes on BEECH MUSHROOM!!!! ^_^ They're much bigger than enoki, but they're like enoki crossed with the Super Mario mushrooms :)

I also got "maitake" which just reminds me of shitake but less fun to say, maybe like SHIKAKA! (anybody for what movie that's from? it's a little tran-sian. :)) Anyway, according to Wiki:

Grifola frondosa, referring to a mythical griffin, commonly known as Sheep’s Head, Ram’s Head and Hen of the Woods or Maitake, is an edible polypore mushroom. It grows in clusters at the foot of trees, especially oak. The Japanese call it "maitake" (pronounced [maitake]), literally meaning "dancing mushroom." Hen of the woods should not be confused with the similarly named edible bracket fungi, chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus), also known as "sulphur shelf".

But anyway...I really do love mushrooms (the Princess Toadstool kind, not the druggie kind). When I was about 10 or 11, I used to just sautee mushrooms in a wee pot with onions and soy sauce and eat it. by itself. when I was 16 I ate rice and bbq sauce. by itself. The other day I ate leftover Southern fried chicken with basil marinara tossed in, with rice, and tabasco sauce. IT WAS FRICKIN" DELISH. *shrug*.

The chyrsanthemum leaves tho...I know in Vietnamese cooking it's used in "canh"/soupy soup or tossed in with meats. I don't even really know what they're called in Vietnamese--I didn't even know what the hell they were with the label from Jasmart, I had to google it from the Japanese phrasing on my receipt. BY GOLLY I WILL MAKE SOMETHING OF IT!! Think spinach meets arugula with a less citrus/bitter flavor. Look u can see the little chrysanthemum bud in the middle rightmos area :)

I like cold honey chrysanthemum tea from Cha for Tea (in Ca, a little too sweet) and Lee's Sandwiches (also in CA, not as sweet, way too much ice). I honestly bought all this stuff from Jasmart just so I could take pictures with them--but maybe 2% to experiment with various mushroom flavors, possibly making fancypants mac & cheese with fancypants mushroom for my "roast on the roof". EH. we'll see.

All right, one more shot of the shroomies--but the little beechies nestled in the big beech shroomies! :P

Bbq in the 'Burg + Chocolate Zucchini cake!

2008-04-21T00:19:00.007-05:00

BBQ in williamsburgh--felt like I was in the backwoods of...Appalachia. There was a pit in the backyard (and damn i twas a roomy backyard) and the fire raaaaged within a circle of concrete slabs and hipsters (ha!) Anyway...here's the pasta salad I made:

Here's also the chocolate & zucchini cake Claudia made--this was from the Chocolate & Zucchini foodblog (which we just looooveetthhhh sooooo). It was nummy--had bittersweet chocolate in it. Claudz & I will be presenting an encore @ my own rooftop BBQ this coming Sunday.
There was also fish. it was uneventful. There were saussages and whatnot too but my frickin' camera was acting up--they would've been quite pretty pics tho. :P

And...there's the pic of the fun-ness...except less hipsters visible here and oddly disproportionate number of males. They climbed the tree and broke off branches for kindling--and those watching threw volleyballs etc at them. There was a little bit of rowdiness at the festivities. :)

See entry below for recipe for bastardized pasta salad!...

Bastardized Pasta Salad recipe...

2008-04-20T16:10:00.018-05:00

Everyone's been asking me about my recipes for stuff like the Bastardized Pasta Salad (again I can never seem to fully separate my palate & affinity for Mediteranean meets Southeast Asia). SO...since I don't really measure and kind of gamble with portions & ingredients, here's what I used:

Bizzastardized Pasta Recipe!

GIANT corkscrew pasta (fusilloni)
heaps of basil, one entire bulb of garlic (~10 bulbs? hahaaah)
sliced half a red onion
seasoned Athenos feta cheese (garlic & herb says ze packaging)
non pareile capers (which I guess means having no equal--but just means it's from the South of France)
halved cherry tomatoes (1 basket)
half a lemon (maybe a little more)
....and here's the good stuffs--> FISH SAUCE!!! ^_^ OH YEAAAAAH.

Fizzzziiiish. Sizzzzaaauce. THAT's RIGHT--you don't even KNOW ese! ;) ...btw, I really prefer using Phu Quoc fish sauce over the other brands--the crab one is good, i can't remember others. MEH. I'll ask Mama Ly.

Direzione!

Start out sauteeing the giant-ness of minced garlic bulb in a relatively thick layer of oil (just like making the garlic & oil pasta except put on low heat after the garlic gets a little color, throw in the tomatoes, squirt in the lemon juice & fish sauce (i pretty much eyeball it all since I use lemon juice, fish sauce, and garlic a lot so I just...have an intrinsic gauge for what it'll be like I can't describe =/). I also like the tomatoes a little raw still in most the crap I cook but I like to bleed it a little (per se) cuz I guess the glycopene in the tomato makes the sauce congeal a little, and thicken the "sauce" and coat better.
Mix it all around a little, and if you want, throw in the cooked pasta (straight from the pot with a little of the water from boiling too it's still yummy) and mix around. OR, u can saute the red onions before throwing in the pasta but I like it with a little kick and purity in its own flavor in being a little uncooked and whatnot.
If you need to, add in a little more olive oil to coat the pasta, salt & season as u will (i only used pepper, the fish sauce adds a diff kind of salty flavor), and more fish sauce! but not too much b/c you'll get the savory & bite from the capers and cheese too so keep it on the bland side. I also don't add the sliced/shredded basil until the end but I add a little in the beginning to let it wilt and add some flavor. Mix in the other half of the shredded basil, mix mix mix!

Plate, break the feta over the pasta, scatter some capers over, stick some sprigs of fresh basil in it and call it a day.

The Lazy Soba/Salad...

2008-04-16T20:36:00.006-05:00

What happens when you have excess of dry goods and ingredients? YOU MAKE A SALAD! :) [I don't make casseroles, I'm not THAT white.]
I dunno, I don't COOK-cook lately...I just assemble. So, just had some leftover arugula from my sammich-ing, pickled daikon from my unagi-don days (not THAT long ago). That's also some deli-shaved (whatever u call it) chicken that I shredded hehehhehee :) Talk about leftovers. (You'll have to click for the larger image--the resolution and general shiny factor is de-lovely.)
Also had some soba noodles (bought a pack of the green soba noodles so I wanted to finish this buckwheat one off quick). At Sunrise, they had whatever frickin' greens in their "soba salad" sans meats so I figure the soba sauce makes for good salad dressing. (and that nuoc mam pha, a.k.a. diluted/seasoned fish sauce--or dipping sauce according to the blasphemy/lies the "Vietnamese" restaurants here label it.) Anyway--supposedly it's also called "cha-soba", I'm assuming as in maccha soba. MEH! Pretty no? (pic taken from robskee.com)
That arugula--sure is frickin' bitter w/ the soba sauce. Maybe the liquidy goodness brings out the flavors of arugula (which by the way is a little citrusy if u ask me...citrusy and bitter.) UTTERLY CONFOUNDING!! :)

A while ago I wrote about that ginger salad dressing--I'll take pics of it eventually. Asians--we sauce propahly.

Whitefish + Arugula!...

2008-04-09T00:54:00.015-05:00

"Fresh" whitefish salad from Murray's Bagel across the street with Pepperidge Farm's Dark German Wheat (with grain balls & whatnot!) with some baby arugula. nomnommmnomnomnomnomnom..

That's a tran-size bite no? hehehe. u can't tell but i'm making that face! *chomp chomp chomp!*

Uploading it made the image a little dull but the original resolution just shows how frickin' AWESOME the whitefish salad is, glistening, a tinge of gold...just...perfection. A bunch of people @ my office got laid off today, this was comforting--the pictures i mean. Food photography makes me a little zen and alleviates me from the ulcer I've got from stalkerazzi I've been experiencing. I'm sorry there's no bite marks on this one, but I really wanted to capture the flakiness of the fish on its own.

ANYWAY, I like the combination of flavors--the dark german wheat has a real heartiness to it, a little bitter, but diff from the bitterness of the arugula (which I wouldn't really say is bitter) coupled with the slightly clean but a little fatty taste to the salted whitefish. You'll see, it complements well :) [and don't bother checking, that's the *correct* usage of complement!]
Right before we went to the Murakami Pre-Opening viewing/party on Friday, I made Kaoru a turkey breast sammich on Honey Flaxseed wheat bread (Pepperidge Farm) with some mushrroom/truffle pate, and a garlic and lime marinade as seasoning plus arugula. It was weird and tangy but it oddly went well with the pate as an aftertaste. *shrug* who knew. That and the bread was a little SWEET!! so confusing, but tasty :P

RAAAAMEN/ippudo...

2008-04-06T22:49:00.012-05:00

went to ippudo post volleyball match. all the j-folks were psyched and a half for the 2ish wks leading up to the opening. all attempts to sneak in for the soft opening failed miserably (except for traitorous/defector Kino's). We were all taken back by how shi-shi/hip the place looked given the nature of EV japanese joints around st marks--great ambience tho, good looking sake bar and booths--i'd say u'd get laid takin' yo lady friend here. or ur lady man friend. whatever floats yo boat. just get the shochu or sake + hard liquor drinks instead of the courvoissier, even Leon Phelps would concur.
I didn't bring my D80 so none of the artsy fartsy food porn pics (borrowed Kaoru's camera--and it had been so long since I touched an SD500 that i just couldn't remember settings. that and it takes too much thinking and i wanted to eat so WHATEBBS!). Just lots and lots of fatty rich ramen colors :) Here is a picture of Lei's, the shiromaru moto (regular ramen pork brothness).
We also got the glazed chicken or whatever it was with lotus chips. Lotus--big thing I'm sensing...this was also at Typhoon. (<--love love love asian tapas there, and the 50% off sushi which by ny standards is awesome in terms of taste, not just the pricing.) Me, Kaoru, Muju Charlotte all got the Akamaru modern (like the shiro maru but with Ippudo's secret sauce: red miso + garlic oil etc). ME LIKES. the broth is def thicker, the noodles are made on site--the Berkshire pork pieces just fall apart b/c they're so tender. But--it's 15 bucks.
All the online reviews and previews (like Gothamist's) all note that the key to it being of thicker consistency and general all around ab-fabulousity is owed to the pork bones stewing for 15-18 hours and reducing the broth 3 times in all. I LIKE REDUCTIONS. mmmMmmmMMMmm. they always pack a punch (i like intense flavors and salty foods--but that's okay b/c I have low blood pressure so then I won't black out or have heart palpitations w/ my savory tooth :P)

Why, honestly, would u pay 15 bucks (2+ for extra portion of ramen) when u could go to Sapporo or Ramen Setegaya for 8 bucks? Quite frankly, I've seen horribly shi-shi-frou-frou attempts at making certain asian comfort foods (and cuisine altogether) go high class w/ wagyu beef and whatever whatever that completely delineate from the original flavors and comfort that the "poorer" dishes imbue *coughshittycafevietnamintribeca* and it's not that Ippudo tries to fancy-pants up the ramen...it's just that u can tell the difference with whatever forethought and attention goes into making the ramen on site, the broth with the triple reductions, and how the consistency and texture of the ramen(s) here are markedly different in a more interestingly complex way than at other places--for such a simple dish anyway. And on that note I will continue eating my cheapie ramen :)
I was really hoping that after the soft opening they'd feature the gelatinous cube of something or other that changes the broth flavors as it dissolves, according to that Gothamist article. Oh well. I'm sure they'll get around to it.

Flake by Cadbury...

2008-03-31T22:09:00.008-05:00

Foodblog no longer on hiatus. I know it has been like...18 days since my last post. BUT VOILA!! I have returned. (Sort of). I'm severely sleep deprived, rather stressed, and been prodded with all sorts of crazy combative encounters (supershuttle, JetBlue, TSA employees, regular ol' people..YARGH!!). Trust me though I've been eating--just...wait for it. It takes a lot out of me to do pictures and post, oddly enough. Lots and lots of love goes into it ;)
I meant to do a giant review of all the British candies I ate while working abroad last summer...and there's a draft of it somewhere but I felt like Flake needed its own post--mostly b/c I like the pictures better, and u can bite my sh*ny metal @$$.

What is flake u say? It looks like somebody who was really into food porn decided to drizzle ribbons and ribbons of chocolates on a cold marble slab and blew cold, brisk air as it cascaded down to let it temper as it fell into some wrinkly, convoluted mess. Sensual? or accidental?

According to Wiki:

The product was first developed in 1920 and was founded by an employee of Cadburys. When the excess from the moulds was drained off, it fell off in a stream and created folded chocolate with flaking properties. ^[1]

When we were chillin' at the Tate Modern lawn, Albee bought a "99p" or whatever it was called (I swear b/c it cost 99pence but anyway), which consisted of soft serve in cone with a giant Flake jammed in the middle. Violent, graceful...*shrug*.

Do you enjoy the sexy side to flake and ice cream? Other people obviously agree with me. That one's borrowed from flickr (@ brighton beach courtesy of Ben Lawson's photostream.

I miss my natural light and my flake in natural light--maybe I'll reshoot soon, but I'm too busy during lunch what with the eating and walking the dog and you know, going back to work and all to really catch the light. Plus it's been dreadfully gloomy and drizzling these past couple days and you depress me.

Initially I hated the damn flake. I thought it was disgusting, crumbly, and chalky. Coincidentally, there was an article in the NYTimes about how "the shizz" all the British chocolates were. I LOVE Crunchie. that's for another day. That is all!!! I'm spent!

Irish Soda Bread....

2008-03-13T22:37:00.013-05:00

I deed not make zees, my roomie Jaime did. FROM SCRATCH. and like...at midnight last night :) brazilliant.

This is for the St. Patty's Day kick-off this weekend. FROM SCRATCH!!!
Recipe from epicurious.com. For the xmas party she made this shrimp spinach dip--or crab...or some kind of shellfish...nummy num num num nummm.....

Her cupcakes are badass. She's making them now. I'm a fan of people making food and me eating it. and taking pictures of it. wooooorrrrrrrdddd......

She makes her own frosting, too and this time it's gonna grizzeeeen!--she's got the hostessing/chef gene that my mom's been trying to pound into my veins since I could remember. HA!!

You bet your tush there's much more food on the way. MMmmMmmmMmmMmmmmm...
(there will also be pics of Hans in green. YAY puppy torure!)

Nuts & Bolts...

2008-03-13T22:14:00.006-05:00

I like to pick at food. I do well when I pick at things when I need to eat efficiently and maintain productivity and focus. I'm over my whole Nutella with dark german wheat bread with my morning tea (me loves PG Tips breakfast tea). I'll do a post about teas some other time.
ANYWAY. I've never been a fan of trail mix type of crap but lemme say--I enjoy the little package of mixed nuts, kashi, and raisins I found in the bodega under me.
Seriously badasssss bodega. I had planned on doing a post on all the imported plain jane candies they randomly offer there--like FLAKE! and Hausnutta (yeah tewtally oddball) but ze mood--eet struck me.
There was a giant brazil nut in there too I though that was kind of random and weird. The container itself was....$3.50 and methinks that's actually pretty good considering it had pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, kashi, giant ass raisins, cashews, balhblabhlabhl. Not salted but well roasted.

Surprisingly nummers. It was the lighting. couldn't resist. we have good window. It was a good lunch (my work is 3 stops away--but alas, we're moving offices uptown >:().

How very deseeding...

2008-03-10T01:07:00.001-05:00

Just an excuse for food related pictures.This pretty much confirms I will take a picture of anything, at anytime, anywhere. OBSESSIVELY.
Not too fond of the coloring on this, but the idea is good. oh well =/
That's all. You may scroll down and read about my Grom-ing.

Gelati Grom-ness...

2008-03-09T16:46:00.015-05:00

I am an italo-phile. no to the francophile. yes to the...anyhoodlekins.
Had some Grom on the UWS (Broadway b/w 76th & 77th st) w/ Jules-ster--she got the pistachio, I got the crema di grom.

I gotta say--it's a little refreshing, but disorienting to see Pistachio gelato/ice cream not in unearthly green form (see spumoni gardens pics). The pistachio also tasted nutty (as it probably should) and u can really taste the "toasted" side to it. Warm, not too sweet, delish.

My crema di grom is egg cream, Battifollo "meliga" biscuits (which evidently just means they made it with corn flour instead of wheat and...Grom's rather prideful about their snootiness in ingredients), and Ecuadorian chocolate. Some other flavors had Venezuelan chocolate--u should read about the crazy chocolate wars b/w Amedei and Valrhona...it's a little inSANE. **

Here's more of my ice cream b/c you love ze peektures. (Btw...a little too pricey for the sizes--what u see there was 5 bucks each.People are getting uber snooty about chocolates particularly the cocoa content, where the beans are from (likened to the origins of ze grapes and regions for ze wine and whatnot) and of course the recent NYtimes article on the emergence of snooty Milk Chocolate. The site 70% (referring to the % of cacao powder blahblahbl) is a good resource to edumacate urself on fancy chocolates (and buy them!).

In Italy, it was 3-4 euros for gelato the size of 2 of your fits clinging fervently to a sugar cone. Packed fo yo FACE!!) This one is a little...diminutive ain't it :P

I tried the Marrons de Glaces (good, i can't pinpoint the flavor but possibly red-bean-y or taro-y). The stracciatella is a good vanilla/cream-ish with chocolate and whatnot. Surprisingly they had Hazelnut AND Gianduja--but I gues that makes sense since gianduja is essentially Nutella (hazelnut chocolate) whereas the other one is just singular. I'm not a fan of sorbet so...I didn't try any. The Zabaione i think has the egg cream base like the Crema di Grom but with Sicilian Marsala wine.

I've had a few gelati downtown but I dunno...this does taste a lot cleaner/crisper and while creamy, just not as heavy as most gelati. My favorite was this place in Rome (I can't remember the cross streets but this was possibly near Piazza Navona on the way back from the Vatican near the bridge where that castle is. VAGUE yes? Whatebbs yo). Florence gelati was good but for some reason...that one in Rome always stuck with me.
There was a great gelato/coffee shop in the Belmont Shore strip in Long Beach. That you can look up yourself but I think it was called Cafe Roma--dun dun dunnn....

--
**(Valrhona refused to let the Tessieri bro/sis work with them, Tessieri goes straight to make a deal with the chocolate plantation folks in South America to work exclusively for Tessieri's AMADEI!!)

Sammiches...

2008-03-07T11:14:00.016-05:00

According to http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com, one of the few things white people like (along with difficult breakups, renovations, kitchen gadgets, coffee, knowing what's good for poor people, etc., etc.) is expensive sammiches. Is that monetarily speaking? or INGREDIENT speaking?

Other than white folks, I suppose hipsters, foodies (gourmands rather? :P), bougeois people--and general sammiches people alike--just enjoy a little variation in our sammiches. I present to you--my lunch. Simple, cheap, a hodgepodge of flavors:

Zomick's Egg Challah roll (I've also really liked the Pepperidge Farm Honey Flax Wheat, and Dark German Wheat breads--I neither have the time or energy to stalk down artisanal breads at a bakery--btw those little rye bread party sized...square things are freakin' awesome), spinach (I usually use arugula), "roast beef" (this one is just Hillshire Farm, it does not look like roast beef, it looks like processed beef that was probably roasted....also interchangeable with shaved deli rotisserie chicken....I'm not feeling smoked honey ham lately), with a garlic-lime dijon. I toss sliced tomaters in there somewhere--and not those giant flavorless sh*ts from the supermarket!

Pretty no? Do you enjoy my bite marks? You can use it for forensic evidence should I go missing. Or if I guess if I got kidnapped and then...bit...something and left it at the crime scene so u could determine who went missing (namely MOI), and...I was watching a lot of SVU and CI yesterday. and also alluding to Without a Trace. O.o

Thoughts:
Call it the semi socialist/people's party in me but I don't really like the idea of spending all that much money on food--to an extent! I will buy my Grana Padano, the nicer brie or gruyere, sometimes fontina, WHAEVER, and spring for the good Prosciutto (also fanplasmic substitute for ze sammich meats but just...less in quantity cuz it's so punch). I might pay highly for shoes and preferrably on superduper sale (but I also spent 80 bucks on a Rodnick gown that used to be $1500 @ the Barney's warehouse sale so THERE I am ze frugal!) , but in general I just think there's a price cap on things, including food. btw I also live in my Hane's Men's Premium cotton V-necks--3 foh 10 dollah! :)
In the end...it's just food you're gonna crap out anyway (vulgar yes? mmm classy). Like expensive shampoo (but sometimes I do like my pricier products!), clothes etc etc b/c after a certain peak in price and value u just start to see that it is just plain cotton (or cotton jersey), just plain 80-90% water with 2ish % detergents (and they even add in a chemical for FOAMING!) that will just get washed down the drain. (Don't get me wrong, I'm still picky about shampoos & conditioners but u get my point).

....also...it's JUST LUNCH. and it is...in fact...JUST FOOD. but makes for pretty pictures :D

JUNIOR'S Devil's Food CHEESECAKE...

2008-03-03T01:05:00.007-05:00

My mom's birthday and both my brothers's bdays are in February.
I decided the only proper New York thing to do would be to ship home Jr's cheesecake.
Behold the wonder that is...the BIRTHDAY DEVIL's FOOD CHEESECAKE!!
Most of the cheesecakes are $10 to ship (overnight) and $39.95. I can say from reports from back home that this cake was 1. delicious, 2. way too rich & decadent, and 3. I am the freakin' awesomemest daughter/sister for sending such a freakin' awesome cake. I might've added that last one.

Fig & Olive...

2008-02-29T00:39:00.019-05:00

Was trying to go for Mia Dona, but alas uber-booked up (and super late) & the hostesses were a bit...incompetent and well...anyway. FIG & OLIVE! very into the mediteranean cooking and lately what I've noticed is Greek & Vietnamese has much fresher, more succinct--punchy tastes and cleaner flavors. Simple. fanplasmico. Complex flavors with little but rich herbs and seasoning.

Mythili got the Porcini, Ricotta, Pumpkin & Sage Ravioli which had caramelized pumpkin, sauteed mushroom, shallots, ricotta cheese & fried sage. Sweet, tart, great flavor with the caramelizing.
Wanted to go for small plates/meze like at Kefi but options were limited and I was hungry--I ordered the Fig & Olive Mediterranean Tasting which comprised of grilled chicken with chorizo, tomatoes, chickpeas, oregano, pimienton, black olives/ grilled lamb on rosemary skewers, bell peppers, Greek yogurt & honey, couscous salad with figs/ grilled shrimp on oregano skewers, risoo, tomato, Pimenton Olive Oil.
I have to say that the shrimp was perfectly cooked, the embodiment of succulent. The sides that came with the meats were all really good--the risotto was great but the couscous salad was freakin' AWESOME with the Greek yogurt & honey. Shrimp. Seriously.
Lamb too. Chicken was good but I was really surprised by the shrimp & lamb. I'm picky with shrimp. meh to lamb. you look now!...
Def would want to come back to try the other pastas and the small plates. ANYWAY...decor was cute, price was a little overpriced but I also had some wine to wash down my grumpiness.
I had the cream cheese creme brulee--so light! just sweet enough, the figs were great b/c they weren't candied like in the meals--I've never had so many figs in my life and I say...me likes. Rosemary infused...creme brulee maybe? The wafer was just the right crunchiness and texture to the fluff. I'd go back just for the cream cheese creme brulee alone.

Analysis!--yay for once in a while, possibly with a group to share (especially with a group to share). Chicken was meh, shrimp yes, def felt good after--but also a little smashed from the rosee. :)

EEeeeeeeEEEeeeEEeeeEeeels...

2008-02-25T00:59:00.011-05:00

Unagi-don/eel rice bowl. Apparently I have a penchant for poor/country folk comfort foods (see entry on canh chua rau day and whatnot...). I caught the eel with my bare-muscled-hands. The little bastards eluded me numerous times, but just before day's end, one of them darted in my periphery and like a gazelle--or something really crazy phonetically, maybe OCELOT--i went for it and here you have....MY UNAGI RICE BOWL with the...pickled...daikon...or something. BEHOLD:
I frolicked home with the eel in my little reed basket. (I keep thinking of the poem "L'Anguila" or whatever the crap it was called--about the eel in Italian Lit). Anyhoodle, the wild daikon that grows (yellow and pickled natrually) in my backyard yielded magnificent perfectly cut wedges (as if bought at a store and cut with a very sharp Wusthof knife!).
We had seaweed salad also but I don't think you'd really give a shizz about it. BUT we did have dessert: a green tea swiss roll. with red beans inside. mmmmMMmmMmMmm.
Ever since I was little I loved the swiss roll cakes--given the french influences growing up (briefly) in Viet Nam we had a lot of yule logs for "father Noel" and all that crap and wandered off to get a eucharist one xmas when I was 5 b/c I was curious as to what people were waiting in line for. I was promptly plucked out of the line when they noticed I had gone a bit..missing.

Mike & I had also picked up some "aloe soft drink" (non carbonated) from the JasMart and he had to be fancy and drink it in a wineglass whereas the uncouth beast that I am chugged it out of the bottle.Analysis:

1. Green tea swiss roll = moist, light, a little crumbly, but adequately intense in green-tea flavor, not so sugary, red beans add a nice flavor and texture. BUENO (this is from the-prepackaged refridgerator section of JasMart).

2. Frozen Unagi = meh! for 5 bucks it could serve 3-4 people. This I got at the Sunrise...mart...thing in Soho (broome & spring?--I'll activate links later). You could oven bake it, microwave, or boil in the bag. I'd say for 5 bucks it makes a good alternative to a $12-$18 rice bowl. I didn't make the egg thing but whatever that's easy to put in some other time. The texture was a little flakey but still very soft--at Tono Sushi or Tokyo Pop and a couple other places, the unagi is broiled lova-ly and it just...melts in yo mouf! There was frozen unagi that sold for $11 per filet as opposed to my $5--this might just make up for the difference in texture.

3. Aloe drink = ...? I'm just conflicted b/c the bodega under my apt sells the Korean aloe drink and it's a little sweeter but yummy too--a little cleaner/crisper in taste. The one I go at Jasmart u can taste the artificial sweetener tho it's lighter. BUT--the one at Jasmart sells for 2 bucks whereas the bodega sells it for FOH DOLLAH! >:( I'll buy both :)

Icebox Cake...

2008-02-18T22:52:00.010-05:00

Icebox cake from Billy's Bakery--just some homemade whip cream, layers of chocolate wafery-ness.
YUM-O. just kidding. i don't like rachael ray. Yes I lower-cased her name on purpose.
Le sigh. such a pretty little cake. As always, Billy's frostings/creams are on point.
i lobe u. (more for aesthetics than taste but whatebbs...)
Me & J spent a whole day eating super rich foods. This was 2nd to last :)
We went to Elmo's for dinner on 20th & 7th ave--that my friend, was quite delish. will save for another post. Had the Harvest Salad, Chatham Cod (perfectly cooked, with sweet potatoes and scallions), and a chocolate creme brulee to end. Lounge downstairs, will have to consider for Birthday. Very nice space, very modern, loungey--edgy and whatnot for 7th ave in Chelsea. Good date spot, nice electronica-y/downtempo music. Better than Kion in terms of ambience in spread.