Portugal!...

I was kind of sad b/c food in Portugal was rather MEH. I was expecting near-Spain level seafood (not so much) and/or at least same vibrancy in flavors. Moving on. I did have two good things in Lisbon: grilled sardines, and pasteis de belem (also pastel de nata). I forgot the name of the place I had the sardines but it was on the way to Castelo de Sao Jorge right off where the tram 28 drops you off near the miraduoro.

Yum diddly dum yum. Kind of a lot of food and very little greens (MY GOD i was proteined-OUT on my trip). One thing annoying in Portugal was also the couverts--appetizers that kind of seem like typical bread spread or free like the Korean stuff, but NO, not free, priced, and no mention that you can decline them (or that they aren't included in your meal).

AAAAND of course obligatory bones shot a la my Bastille Day post fr a few yrs ago :)

The other good/amazing thing was the pastel de nata/pasteis de belem.

Egg custards. NOT JUST ANY EGG CUSTARD...amazeballs eggs custards w/ cinnamon and sugar and the best puff pastry I've ever had.

Just look at that gooooooooo. Good stuff. Redeeming things for Lisbon--other than it's whole omg I'm such a quaint little place with unbelievably cute looking, classically old houses, narrow, winding alleys, random guitar/accordian music wafting in the air and lively people bursting into the alleyways all happy and dance-y and being all cinematic and all. PFFFFFFTTTT. Lisbon.

;)

Bastardized Troisgros sorrel cream sauce...

So after the shrimp in cava reduction at El Quim de Boqueria, I really wanted to get back in the kitchen and deduce the recipe. My brother & his gf were in town, and I wanted to hang out with a really good friend of mine after coming back so it was perfect to host a mini dinner! Somewhere along the planning process--what greens to serve it with etc--another friend tossed me a link to cream sauce just in case I wanted to use sorrel...AND THERE IT WAS.

Again, there was a licking of the ladle and pan. Very little seasoning involved, not that hard to do actually--lots of waiting and reducing and blahblahblah. It's actually not the straight up Troisgros brothers recipe, but one adapted by Daniel Boulud that I came across, which I also merged with this recipe for the shrimp marinade to satisfy my cava reduction needs (and also usage of chanterelle in the sauce) :) I have to say tho, the cream sauce definitely would work better with a fish in terms of matching consistency, than with shrimp. DO THAT NEXT TIME.

*********************SHRIMP in CAVA-TROISGROS SORREL CREAM SAUCE*********************
Shrimp marinade:

- 2 pounds of shrimp
- 3 tbsp shallots
- 1 cup of cava (more or less)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

Mix mix mix, and dump in a bag/tupperware. Let marinade for 30min to an hour, no more no less. Discard marinade after.

Sauce:

- 2 cups of cava
- 2 cups of heavy cream
- 5 tbsp of champagne vinegar (more or less)
- 3 tbsp shallots
- 1/2 pound to 1 pound of chanterelle (I like them so i added more than 1/2 pound)
- 4 ounces of sorrel torn in pieces, not julienned (i kind of eyeballed this one)

Sautee mushrooms first with shallots until a little soft, then add cava and champagne vinegar. Reduce until almost all the liquid is evaporated. Add cream! Reduce reduce reeeeduce on low heat until it thickens so that it coats a spoon (or more :P). Some recipes call for straining the sauce but I really like having the mushroom in there so I kept it. (Plus chanterelles are expensive!!) Add sorrel. Sautee shrimp, throw on sauce!

Serve quickly b/c the sauce cools pretty quickly.

YAAAAAY!

Barcelona pinxtos, etc...

I had a mix of pinxtos (tapas on bread pretty much) and some regular tapas. ALL WERE DELICIOUS...and not even at noted places. (Logistically, it was easier to roam nearby wherever I was at and or yelp it--yes, yelping abroad!)

Patatas bravas at El Quim de Boqueria at mercato boqueria on las ramblas. Lick the screen. just do it.

Shrimp in cava reduction--I attempted a version of this but with cream, kind of a bastardized version of troisgros sorrel sauce. WILL POST. so good. so...so...good that I gave my friend the ladle to lick in the end and she gladly, enthusiastically obliged :) I, on the other hand, took a spoon and finger to the pan to snack on the residue. No shame. no. shaaaaame!!

ON TO THE PINXTOS:

Boquerones:

Elvers:

Anchovies:

Tortilla espanola:

Iberico ham:

Discuss, while I prep the other saucey stuffs

Tchoup Shop pop up restaurant!...

Uh....so...friggin' delicious and flavorful and layeredddddd....ON WITH IT!!

Crispy chicken biscuit with handmande red pepper jelly:


Seriously. SERIOUSLY LOOK AT IT:


...AND LOOK AT IT ONE MORE TIIIIME!!!




Soft shell crab po boy with red cabbage and some kind of remoulade:




Peel & eat shrimp w/thyme (i think?), bay leaf, lemon and other goodness I don't know:


LOOK AT IIIT...



LOOOOOK AAAAAT ITTTTTTT!!!!! :) :) :)




Creole corn on the cob:


HELLO DELICIOUSNESS:



bloody mary's (from DBA, not Tchoup Shop. Twas aiites):


CLEAN PLATE CLUB!

Skate, tomatoes, & thyme!...

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!...

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...

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