Lupa

Occasion: Black Friday lunch with my mom and sister
Location: Lupa on Thompson between Houston and Bleecker(luparestaurant.com)
Edibles: antipasti to start - broccoli rabe with ricotta; beets with pistachio sauce; roasted butternut squash with red onion; octopus with garbanzo beans; I had the spaghetti carbonara; my sister had the gnocchi with tomato sauce; my mom had the tonarelli with pork shoulder ragu

Musings: After three chilly hours of shopping in Soho, we stopped off at Lupa for some much-needed carbs. Luckily, we beat the lunch rush and were seated immediately. (Lupa can be tricky to get into. They take reservations, but for such a small percentage of the restaurant that you need to call more than a week in advance. If you're taking your chances without a reservation, go early. Being willing to eat at the bar also helps.)

It's been my experience that the vegetables are always amazing at Batali restaurants. I don't know what the story is behind it, but if you're at Otto, Casa Mono or Lupa, be sure to get some. Today was no exception. I loved the pistachio sauce on the beets in particular.

The octopus was the most expensive starter at $10 for a little cup, and it was a letdown. The octopus had a very strange texture, sort of spongy and mealy. It actually felt a little gross to chew and swallow it.

We did two rotations of the pastas so that everyone could taste everything. I was in raptures over the carbonara: the perfect amount of sauce, the perfect amount of salt, lots of pancetta bits and cracked black pepper. YUM. The tonarelli was also excellent, a hearty winter dish with tender shreds of pork and fresh pasta. The gnocchi were pillowy and satisfying but paled in comparison to the other two dishes, which were simply outstanding.

I just love Lupa. I had my birthday dinner here last year and, while the group dining menu is not cheap, the courses was very generous and everyone had a great time. For its relaxed atmosphere, excellent veggies and knock-your-socks-off fresh pastas, Lupa easily makes the NYC Hall of Fame.

Mmmm... Thanksgiving

Occasion: Turkey Day! Except with no turkey...
Edibles: maple-roasted brussels sprouts; roasted carrots with butter and cilantro; beurre noisette mashed potatoes; spiced ham with cranberry applesauce; chocolate fruitcake

An orgy of recipes below.

Maple-Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Trim and clean brussels sprouts; halve any large ones. Toss with a 50/50 mixture of olive oil and maple syrup, like you'd dress a salad. Sprinkle in a little salt and pepper. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake at 375° for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of the brussels sprouts. Garnish with toasted, sliced almonds.

Roasted Carrots

(This was a last-minute addition to the menu, after my mom got worried that we wouldn't have enough food.)

Peel, then slice carrots on the diagonal into ½-inch slices. Toss with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake at 375° for 20-30 minutes. I finished them with a little butter and chopped cilantro for interest.

[Note: If you've roasted one vegetable, you've roasted 'em all. The above method works for everything from peppers to potatoes to butternut squash to asparagus. Just remember that the bigger the pieces and the harder the vegetable, the longer they have to cook.]

Beurre Noisette Mashed Potatoes

Peel, cut up and boil some Russet potatoes - however many you think you will need for your guests. When cooked, drain and mash by hand* with beurre noisette (see next paragraph) in whatever quantity you like. (I like the equivalent of one tablespoon of butter per potato. At the upper limit, Joël Robuchon's famous pommes purée uses an insane one stick of butter for every pound of potatoes.) Thin with hot milk or hot stock until you get the texture you like. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg (freshly grated is best).

Beurre noisette (a.k.a. brown-butter) is made by melting butter at medium-low heat. Continue to heat on med-low, stirring frequently, until the milk solids have separated and browned. The result should be a toasty amber color and taste nutty, hence the name en français. You can choose to use the speckled brown bits or not. They're flavorful, but will mar the unblemished creamy whiteness of the potatoes.

[*Note: If you have a food mill or potato ricer, you can use that. You cannot, however, make mashed potatoes in a food processor or blender - you will be making glue instead.]

Spiced Ham
(based on Nigella's recipe)

a 6lb boneless mild-cured gammon
1 bottle of red wine (something decent)
1 cup cranberry juice
water
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 large onion, halved
2 star anise
1 tbsp coriander seed
1 tbsp fennel seed
1 tbsp whole peppercorns

For the glaze:
whole cloves
some sort of preserve (Nigella calls for red currant jelly, heated and doctored with smoked paprika, cinnamon and red wine vinegar; I used cranberry apple butter from Trader Joe's, straight out of the jar)

Place the ham in the smallest pot that it will fit in (to minimize the amount of water you'll need to cover it). Glug in the wine and juice, and put in all the aromatics. Add enough water to (mostly) submerge the ham. Bring to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 2 to 2½ hours. Remove the ham to cool and discard the cooking liquid. Preheat the oven to 440° F. [Note: even if they will all fit in your oven at the same time, the temperature is too hot to roast vegetables.]

Once ham has cooled slightly, trim off the rind and most (but not all!) of the fat. Score the remaining fat in a medium-sized diamond pattern. Stud a clove in at every intersection. Cover the ham with the glaze you've chosen and bake for about 15 minutes to burnish. Unlike turkey and most other roasts, ham does not need to rest before you carve it.

[Thanks go out to Kathy, Bess, Yining and Liliana for sharing their spices!]

Cranberry Applesauce

5 apples, peeled and cubed (I like Granny Smiths)
½ cup fresh cranberries
½ cup cranberry juice
sugar and honey to taste

Heat the fruits and juice over medium heat. Stir occasionally. You're done cooking when the apples fall apart into a smooth, lump-free sauce. (You can help it along with a potato masher.) For sweetening, I start with about ¼ cup of sugar and then adjust while it's cooking. How much you end up using will depend on how sweet you like your applesauce, but remember that cranberries are VERY tart.

I added the cranberries for the holiday, but it turns the sauce an alarming Hubba Bubba shade of pink. Compositionally speaking, it's also too close to the color of the ham. I'll probably just do plain applesauce (with a little lemon juice and zest) for the next ham.

The Butcher Block

Location: on 41st, just off Queens Blvd in Sunnyside (close to the 40th St / Lowery stop on the 7 train)

Instead of a turkey, my plan this year was to bake a spiced ham based on a Nigella recipe. The recipe listed a "mild-cured gammon," and called for it to be boiled for 2 to 3 hours before going in the oven. I knew that I could find a fully cooked, spiral-cut ham or a fresh, uncured ham (a.k.a. pork roast), but this recipe seemed to require something in between.

I called Lobel's to confirm. Once I got past the call center to the store itself, a butcher named Paul immediately said, "What you're looking for is an Irish ham. We don't have it, but The Butcher Block will." And indeed they did.

From the name it sounds like they just sell meat but they're actually a grocery / market that stocks all sorts of Irish and British foodstuffs. The guy I spoke to on the phone was very friendly and informative; the butchers were likewise in person. My six-pound ham cost a very reasonable $30. Recipe to follow.

I was particularly tickled by the fact that everyone in the store, from the employees to the customers (except me) had the full-on "they're after me Lucky Charms" Irish accent.

Mmmm... chocolate fruitcake

I had never eaten or baked a fruitcake in my life, but Nigella convinced me. I'm pleased to inform you that her promises were not empty ones.

On the first bite, my immediate impression was that it tasted sort of like a brownie with raisins in it. That might sound icky to chocolate purists, but to me it was better than a standard brownie. It had that same dense, decadent, concentrated fudginess, but without the unrelieved mono-sweetness. There's variation in texture from the occasional nugget of fruit and subtle hints of citrus, spice and liqueur. In other words, very yummy.

I am emphatically NOT a baker, either by skill or personality. However, this cake is very friendly to non-bakers. Instead of making a cake, think of it as making a stewed fruit sauce, adding some dry ingredients and bunging it in the oven.

It's a very forgiving recipe, as it doesn't have many "structural" elements. For my test run, I did an approximate half-recipe, which came out about 1½-inches high and somewhat torte-like. [Postscript: For Thanksgiving, I did a three-quarters recipe.]

Chocolate Fruitcake

(based on Nigella's, as published in "Feast"; her product, not mine, pictured above)

2 cups prunes (yields 1½ cups when chopped)

1½ cups raisins

1 cup dried currants

1½ sticks of butter
¾ cup dark brown sugar (Muscovado if you're really fancy)
¾ cup honey
¼ cup coffee liqueur (Kahlúa or Tia Maria)
juice and zest of 2-3 oranges
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg)
¼ cup cocoa
3 eggs
1 cup flour
¾ cup ground almonds
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 300° F. Carefully butter and line a round cake tin, preferably a spring-form, with parchment paper on the bottom and sides. (The full recipe, as you can see by the picture, yields a very tall cake so you will need a deep cake tin. If you only have shallower ones, split the batter into two tins or use a reduced recipe.)

In a saucepan, cook the fruit, butter, sugar, honey, coffee liqueur, orange zest and juice, spices and cocoa for 10 minutes. Take off heat and let cool for 20-30 minutes, until it's only slightly warm to the touch.

Add beaten eggs. (The stewed fruit must be cooled enough that it will not cook the eggs!) Sift the four dry ingredients together and add. Stir to combine. Pour into buttered and lined cake tin and bake for 1¾ to 2 hours, until the top is shiny and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from tin and cool.

Nigella decorated hers with gold balls and a mound of chocolate coffee beans. I served mine plain, with a dollop of lightly-whipped cream.

Substitutions: You can pretty much sub in any dried fruits for the ones she uses. If you don't have currants (I always do because I like them in couscous), try dried blueberries, cranberries or cherries. Think twice about subbing out the prunes - I was skeptical myself but they keep the cake really moist.

My half recipe: 1 cup prunes; ¾ cup raisins; ½ cup currants; ¾ stick of butter; ½ cups brown sugar; ⅓ cup honey; one of those tiny airplane-size bottles of Kahlúa; juice and zest of one orange; ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice; 2 tbsp cocoa; 2 eggs; ½ cup flour; ⅓ cup ground almonds; ¼ tsp each baking power and baking soda (check cake after 1 hour of baking)

My three-quarters recipe: 1½ cups prunes; 1 cup raisins; ¾ cup currants; 1 stick of butter; ½ cup brown sugar; ½ cup honey; two tiny bottles of Kahlúa; juice and zest of 2 oranges; ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice; 3 tbsp cocoa; 3 eggs; ¾ cup flour; ½ cup ground almonds; ⅜ tsp each of baking powder and baking soda (check cake after 1½ hours of baking)

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 12

Original Air Date: November 18, 2009

1) They hyped it pretty hardcore for this episode, but the Bocuse d'Or seems to celebrate a rather passé style of cooking to me. I mean, mirrored platters?

2) OK, so Padma's only a pseudo-judge but what an awesome moment when she tasted Jen's Quickfire dish and said, "Welcome back."

3) Eli obviously didn't read Jay Rayner's rant on the Scotch egg after Art Smith made it on Masters.

4) ... And Kevin didn't watch the last season, when Carla's ill-advised sous-vide steak basically sunk her. I was super nervous for him but he pulled out the win! I'm just glad he's still in it, considering the risks he took in this challenge. I think of all the chefs, I'd most like to eat in Kevin's restaurant.

5) Were the judges being extra-picky or did four of the five (if you include the bone in Mike's salmon) really flub their proteins? It really does seem like they're holding these guys up to a much higher standard than in previous seasons.

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 11

Original Air Date: November 11, 2009

1) Nigella! Love, love, LOVE her. My Thanksgiving menu this year is based on her Christmas special. (More on that in the next few days.)
2) Poor, dumb Robin. Your Quickfire was a confused mess. You cooked yet more goo for the Elimination, and couldn't execute the one thing that tied it to your casino. You came a long way... because you lasted far longer than you should have. Farewell!
3) Spending 5 of only 30 minutes cooking time cleaning your station is not good decision-making. Also, it's usually a bad sign when your stuff is on fire. Mike V. somehow pulls it off anyway.
4) Shit on a Shingle?! That's what Jen chooses to make at this stage in the competition? Crazy or ballsy, you decide.
5) OK, I thought Shit on a Shingle sounded gross. Then I tried to imagine vanilla sauce on crab and asparagus. Or Eli's Elimination dish, which sounded like stuff you'd scrape off the bottom of your shoe after going to a carnival. Some funky dishes this ep.

Dintai(?) bakery

Location: I'm not 100% sure about the name, but it's on Main St about a block south of the LIRR station in Flushing

A great little Chinese bakery. You can walk out with a bulging bag of breads and pastries for $5. They're finally re-opened after weeks of renovations! Yay!

Really good man tou (a dense, fine-crumbed white roll of sorts). They last over a week if you toss them in the fridge immediately. I like to bring them back to life by slicing and pan-frying them with a little butter or oil. Though too bland to eat on their own, they're excellent for breakfast slathered with dulce de leche or your jam of choice, or on the side with a big bowl of soup.

I like their sesame sao bing but my mom (who has more a more authentic Taiwanese palate) found them too doughy.

They also make good individual sponge cakes (the tall, reverse-pyramid-shaped ones) and pineapple buns (pictured on the right).

Chop't

Occasion: Workday lunch
Location: Chop't on 51st between 6th and 7th (choptsalad.com) [Note: three other locations]
Edibles: Palm Beach salad with grilled shrimp, hearts of palm, avocado, tomato, cucumber and a simple lemon vinaigrette

Musings: Detox! After ten days of dulce de leche, empanadas, steak and wine galore, I've put myself on salad lunches this week.

I was a regular at the eastside Chop't in the Death Star days, and was glad to find a location within walking distance of my new office. My patronage here has been an exercise in trying to figure out how to maximize toppings per dollar.

Their house specials are one way to go: the Palm Beach is priced at $9.75 before tax but would cost $11.45 if you'd created it yourself à la carte (the avocado is $1.25 extra and the shrimp is a whopping $3.25). To anyone not living in NYC, the idea of $10+ for a lunch salad might seem obscene. I guess it is, but what are you going to do?

The other salad I like to get is my own creation: fried chicken, apples, grapes and cucumber, with the lemon vinaigrette. (I know, I know, it sort of violates the spirit of salad to put fried chicken in it. But it's REALLY good.)

Manolo

Occasion: Lunch in San Telmo
Location: Manolo Restaurant on Bolívar and Cochabamba in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires
Edibles: a cold marinated eggplant dish and tortilla española for me; ham-and-cheese omelet for Elizabeth

Musings: Meh. Manolo is basically an Argentinean diner. Definitely not as nice as Time Out Buenos Aires would have you believe.

I sampled the local beer, Quilmes, which was pretty good. The eggplant needed salt but the slippery coolness of it was delightful after all the morning's running around. My tortilla española was huge, if clumsily made and overcooked.

Elizabeth's omelet, on the other hand, was so runny in the middle that a moat of uncooked egg formed at the edges of the plate. After I pointed out that it wasn't melted cheese, she freaked out, thinking she'd get food poisoning and be miserable on the flight home. (Thankfully, she was okay.)

I was a little grumpy that they said they had free WiFi, but it didn't work. I had to bum a password from a guy staying at the hostel next door. Ahh, the kindness of strangers...

[Whew! Finally caught up on Argentina posts.]

El Viejo Almacén

Occasion: The dinner part of a tango show package
Location: El Viejo Almacén on the corner of Balcarce and Independencia in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires (viejo-almacen.com.ar)
Edibles: I had the empanadas, followed by a fish dish and cake for dessert; Elizabeth had salad, ravioli and fruit salad

Musings: A COLOSSAL waste of time and money. I'm actually still angry that this is where we spent our last night in Buenos Aires. Grrrr. Hate.

If you find yourself in B.A. and feel that you simply must see a tango show*, please do NOT get the dinner package. You will be tempted to do so because of the awkward scheduling: the show starts at 10:00, around the same time Argentineans eat dinner. (Restaurants are generally still prepping for the start of service at 8:00.) But trust me, you will be able to find something better than the in-house prix fixe.

In quality and preparation, the food was about the level of airplane food, listless and perfunctory. Elizabeth succinctly described it as "disgusting." She picked at her salad, which featured an inexplicable selection of canned vegetables, and only ate three out of her five ravioli. My empanadas were mass-produced, microwaved travesties. Just criminal, consider the fantastic and reasonably-priced food otherwise available in the city.

The piss-poor wine that they served (included in the prix fixe) was so cheap that they were willing to open two bottles for us, white for me, red for Elizabeth. At $50 a head, you'd think they could spring for some decent local wine - for example, on our wine tour we tasted an excellent sauvignon blanc that we were told retailed for under $4 a bottle.

Bottom line: Blechh.

[*Note: The tango show itself - another $50 per person - was amateurish and cheesy. The dancers barely had space to move around on the tiny stage and the show contained about a 3:1 ratio of filler to actual dancing. What a racket.]

Finca Adalgisa

Occasion: A quiet dinner at our boutique hotel
Location: Finca Adalgisa in Mendoza (fincaadalgisa.com.ar)
Edibles: informal tapas dinner - spicy artichoke hearts; goat cheese sampler; jamón; lots of bread and house wine

Musings: We stayed at two boutique hotels in Mendoza, Lares de Chacras and Finca Adalgisa. They were about five minutes apart, in a neighborhood that was basically a nice suburb. Of the two, I liked Lares de Chacras better - bigger, more charming room and cheaper rates - but Elizabeth liked Finca Adalgisa better for the atmosphere and food.

Finca Adalgisa is ostensibly on a vineyard, but that "vineyard" is a bunch of grapevines in the house's backyard. They make some table wine once every few years but mostly sell their grapes to real winemakers. While I enjoyed our stay, I thought their advertising bordered on fraudulent.

They do have a very lovely Greek-influenced sunroom where we spent a lazy evening nibbling on simple tapas and playing Scrabble (with a letter distribution based on Spanish - tricky). [Coincidentally, we ran into some guys who had been on the ferry with us to Colónia. They contribued their two cents on some disputed Scrabble words, but didn't help us much as they were split themselves. Later, I was vindicated by Merriam-Webster online.]

O. Fournier Winery

Occasion: Wine tour lunch
Location: O. Fournier winery in Mendoza (ofournier.com)
Edibles: crispy pastry over caper cream; sliced, deep-fried eggplant with croutons and a tomato sauce; choice of lemon risotto with ginger and cherry tomatoes or steak with blue cheese; orange sorbet and a molten chocolate cake with coffee ice-cream and almond foam for dessert; and, of course, a selection of O. Fournier's wines to pair

Musings: After touring the Salentein and Andeluna wineries, the finale of our Ampora wine tour was lunch at O. Fournier. O. Fournier is a modern and high tech winery, but its owners also place a high premium on aesthetics: the main building (first picture) has won awards for its architecture, and the dining room (pictured above) was designed to offer a stunning panorama while you eat.

The lunch we had was extravagant and absolutely up to the high standards of the winery and the surroundings! While the style of the food was a little gimicky and molecular-gastronomic for my taste, I greatly enjoyed the lunch and we were all completely stuffed when we were done.

You could really tell that the head chef (who I believe is the owner's wife) was intellectually curious about food and prepared everything that came out of the kitchen with love and care. Our tour guide Myfanwy (Welsh, pronounced mee-van-wee - it gave me problems all day) asked for a simple salad instead of the offered mains and got an artistically-arranged, colorful plate of veggies with all manner of flourishes and garnishes.

I must point out that the steak was the superior main course option, as evidenced by the fact that the steak-eaters (myself included, naturally) trounced the risotto-eaters in cleaning their plates!

Las Negras

Occasion: Dinner on our first night in wine country
Location: Las Negras in Mendoza (lasnegrasrestaurant.com.ar - as listed on their business card, but the site was down when I tried it)
Edibles: I had three apps for my meal - the empanadas, followed by octopus, and beef carpaccio; Elizabeth had the chicken rollatini

Musings: A swanky but intimate restaurant within walking distance of our hotel. (It's a strange walk, though. Mendoza doesn't have many sidewalks so you're either on the side of the road like a hitchhiker or on the gravel shoulder, alarmingly close to the deep irrigation ditches.)

By this time in the trip, we were both getting a little glutted from our indulgent vacation meals. Instead of steak, I went with the carpaccio. (My version of light eating.)  They say the better the ingredients, the less you have to do to them. By this measure, Argentinean beef proves its mettle by being superb without any cooking at all. Subtle, buttery and coolly unctuous, I could have eaten this dish all day.

The other dishes were less exciting. They make their empanadas with a puff pastry, which I found too greasy. The empanadas also came out room temperature on the outside but burning hot in the middle, which made me suspect that they had been microwaved. Elizabeth's rollatini was slightly dry, but that's a pretty endemic problem with that technique.

The wine was cheap and excellent, no less than we expected based on the location.

Enfundá La Mandolina

Occasion: Dinner with Elizabeth
Location: Enfundá La Mandolina on Salguero in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires
Edibles: I had the mixed seafood plate (battered and deep-fried white fish, clams and baby octopus), followed by steak; Elizabeth had the pan relleno ("stuffed bread" with tomatoes and cheese), then a baked casserole dish I forget the name of

Musings: We tried this place on the recommendation of a guy who worked at our hotel. He told us it was "very authentic" and once there, I agreed. The place is low-key, dim and shabby-chic, and (major plus) had zero tourists other than us as far as I could tell. The downside is that the rather complicated menu is only in Spanish and the waiter's English was a bit spotty. However, he was very friendly, tried really hard to help us understand the dishes, and never gave off any hint of impatience.

I liked my app - the waiter's rec - a lot. The fish, in particular, was wonderful - piping hot, moist and flaky. The three dips that came with the dish were all distinct from each other and all very tasty. My steak was just average, by Argentinean standards. (Here three days and I'm already totally spoiled!) Elizabeth's pan relleno was sort of like a calzone, but one made with great market-fresh ingredients, and the portion was big enough to serve as a main.

While our dinner was very good, I had the feeling that there were really amazing dishes to be had if you could read the Spanish menu in detail or knew more about South American cuisine than I do. If I'd had a second chance to go, I would have just walked around the restaurant, shamelessly looking at other tables' food and ordered by pointing.

El Drugstore

Occasion: Lunch in Colónia del Sacramento
Location: El Drugstore, just off the Plaza de Armas in Colónia, Uruguay
Edibles: I had garlic shrimp and a ham-and-cheese omelet; Elizabeth had the chicken breast with roasted pumpkin

Musings: Led astray by another bad recommendation. Now, I don't take restaurant recs from just anyone, but the guy who suggested this place to us seemed to have solid credentials: 1) he lived in Tribeca for a few years; 2) he now lives in San Diego; and 3) we met him at Casa Felix. When he learned about our upcoming daytrip, he warned us about the 1-hour time difference between Buenos Aires and Colónia, which caused him and his friend to miss the ferry. They spent the majority of their 3-hour wait for the next ferry at El Drugstore. "The name is cheesy," he said, "but the food is great."

What I'd like to know is, what did this guy order?

My overall impression was of tourist trap mediocrity. The food took forever to come. When it did, my shrimp had charred bits, but strangely so - as if the pan hadn't been washed in ages, or the chef burned the garlic REALLY badly and then threw the shrimp in anyway. Elizabeth's chicken was pretty average and the pumpkin was cold and under-seasoned. The omelet was the best of the three items; it was monstrously huge and stuffed full of ham and cheese. Between the two of us, Elizabeth and I only finished about half. (I was very tempted to give the rest to a very cute and earnest-looking stray dog that was hanging around.)

Colónia seemed pretty touristy in its entirety so I don't know that the other choices were much better. But if you find yourself there, try your luck somewhere else; this place is a definite loser in my book.

Mmmm... dulce de leche

Dulce de leche, or caramelized milk, is a real wonder. Strongly reminiscent of caramel sauce, dulce de leche has all the rich gooeyness of its sister confection, but a more complex flavor and sweetness. (Caramel owes all of its sweetness to sucrose, or table sugar, while dulce de leche takes advantage of the native lactose in milk.)

Put it on some toast and you've got yourself a breakfast of champions. YUM!!!


Dulce de Leche
(based on Alton's recipe - a video clip from Good Eats with the demo is available here)

1 quart milk
1 to 1½ cups sugar (I like it with just 1 cup; Alton's original recipe calls for 1½)
½ tsp baking soda
1 vanilla bean or ¼ tsp vanilla extract (not both)

Add the sugar to the milk and, while warming slowly, stir until all the sugar is dissolved. When the milk is just below a simmer, add the baking soda. If you're using a vanilla bean, split it and add it now. Keep the milk at a bare simmer and cook, uncovered, for 1 hour. Stir occasionally. It will gradually start to darken in color.

(You will need to fiddle a bit to find the right stove setting. Be careful not to let it bubble over - you'd be surprised how easily it can happen once the baking soda is in, even at low temp. I didn't keep a close enough eye on my first batch and the result was edible, but had a grainy texture. Also, don't worry about the foam that forms on top. Try to leave it as undisturbed as possible when you stir. If it really bothers you, you can skim it off.)

One hour in, remove the vanilla bean. Continue to simmer and stir for another 1½ to 2 hours, until the mixture had reduced to a quarter of its original volume. It should be a dark caramel color. If you're using vanilla extract, add it now and cook for just a few minutes to incorporate. Strain.

The dulce de leche is thin in the pot but will thicken as it cools. Refrigerated, it will keep for about a month. As Alton says, "it will keep longer than it lasts, if you know what I mean."

Serving suggestions: The possibilities are practically endless. Off the top of my head, it would be great with Greek yogurt or cottage cheese. As a dip for sliced fresh fruit and biscotti. The Argentineans use it to fill cookies called alfajores. You can use it to make homemade dulce de leche ice-cream, or as a topping for store-bought ice-cream. Make a trifle with pound cake and whipped cream, maybe some toasted sliced almonds. Fill crêpes. The sky's the limit!

Bar Uriarte

Occasion: Dinner with Elizabeth
Location: Bar Uriarte on Uriarte in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires (baruriarte.com.ar)
Edibles: burrata cheese with confit tomato app, followed by the skirt steak; Elizabeth had the white polenta and risotto croquettes (two separate dishes) to start and ordered the zucchini salad for her main but got a spinach one with apples, radish coins and avocado instead

Musings: A modern and trendy place with a Meatpacking sort of vibe.

The meal started off with a great selection of breads. Which we wolfed down, as it was 10:00pm. New Yorkers think they eat late, but they have nothing on Argentineans. As we were leaving, at well past 11:00, several tables were just sitting down to eat.

The first course was a home-run - Elizabeth loved her polenta and I practically swooned over my burrata, fresh, plump and serenely simple. It makes a certain amount of sense that a country so famous for its steak would also have really good dairy. The mains were a bit anticlimactic. There was a mix-up with Elizabeth's salad but she decided to just keep the one that came. My skirt steak was good, but got increasingly rubbery as it cooled.

Still, we continue to be impressed with the calibre of Buenos Aires' restaurants.

La Biela

Occasion: Lunch in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires
Location: La Biela on Avenida Presidente Manuel Quintana, at the large intersection in front of La Recoleta Cemetary
Edibles: I had the tuna salad; Elizabeth had a turkey and roasted red pepper sandwich

Musing: The "Tourist Central" location should have tipped us off, but we tried it on a friend's recommendation. The service in the outdoor area was a chaotic mess. At the same time, this place can't be making much money since everyone around us seemed to be just drinking coffee. (Another tip-off, now that I think about it.)

Elizabeth's sandwich looked pretty rudimentary. My tuna salad was sort of reminiscent of a Niçoise, with tuna, tomatoes, potatoes, a hard-boiled egg and (way too much) raw onion. It was sizeable and filling but nothing to write home about, and pretty expensive. Oh yeah, and the food costs more when you sit outside - the first time I've ever encountered this in all my travels.

If you desperately need a place to rest your feet, and maybe people-watch a little, take a hint from the majority and stick to coffee.

Las Familias bakery

Location: the corner of Armenia and Honduras in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires

I had a ham and cheese knot and a meat empanada (I think it was beef, with chopped-up hard-boiled eggs, olives and mushrooms). Awesome and dirt cheap at just 5 pesos (a little over a dollar) total. With a cup of overpriced coffee from Starbucks - purchased only to be able to sit at their outdoor tables, mind you - it was the perfect breakfast and prelude to an extended ramble in La Recoleta Cemetary.

[Note: I had empanadas three more times during the trip, including once in a fancy restaurant, and the ones from Las Familias were the best. If your hotel is nearby, I recommend picking some up for the plane ride home.]

Casa Felix

Occasion: A much-anticipated dinner
Location: Casa Felix - literally, Chef Diego Felix's house in the Chacarita neighborhood of Buenos Aires (diegofelix.com)
Edibles: mango pisco sour apéritif; first course - sautéed oyster mushrooms over lime mashed potatoes with argula flowers, suico sauce and chili-infused oil; second course - papaya and cucumber salad with a mandarin vinaigrette; intermezzo - apple and mint granita; main course - achiote-marinated sandperch with pea and fennel purée, broccolini and salsa criolla; dessert - coconut and lavender panna cotta

(Note: At some point, I will get around to uploading my pictures from the dinner. Until then, you can find pictures of Diego's gorgeous food - though not the exact stuff that we ate - here.)

Musings: Amazing. Amazing. Thanks go out to Sabrina for the rec!

The evening started with drinks in Diego's backyard. He showed us his herb garden, still in progress, and talked a little about his background and food philosophy. He spoke animatedly of his love for obscure local ingredients and his fascination with the indigenous cuisines of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. As it turned out, he'd just returned from an impromptu North American tour, where he cooked for private parties and supper clubs.

All the guests briefly introduced themselves. Everyone there had heard about place by word of mouth and Diego speculated that every guest could be traced back to one of his friends, the original guests of his home, now restaurant.

Eager to start tasting his creations, we all headed inside to our little tables in their living room. (When the weather is warmer, everyone sits together at the big table in their courtyard.) From the first course of his pescetarian tasting menu on, Diego surprised and challenged us with his dishes.

For example, I never thought cold mashed potatoes with lime would be good, but they were an amazing base for the oyster mushrooms in the first course. The edible flowers from his garden were a charming touch. I wasn't crazy about the slightly slimy manioc pancake in the second course but the salad was lovely, the citrus in the dressing picking up the lime note from the previous course. I think there was an accident with the intermezzo in the hall (all we heard was a loud crash with shattering glass), but they were still able to serve each of us a tiny scoop of the refreshing granita.

The sandperch main course was lovely, substantial and satisfying but still delicate enough to stay in line with the rest of the light menu. We finished the meal with vegan coconut panna cotta with lavender. Coconut makes me gag so I couldn't really evaluate this one objectively, but it was silky-smooth and I loved the crust. The lavender was perhaps a touch overpowering.

The bill was a ridiculously low 110 pesos (about $30). In my opinion, he could easily charge twice, if not three times, as much. Wine is extra, but as Argentina is a robust wine-producing country, the local selections were great and very reasonably priced.

I simply cannot recommend this place strongly enough. Diego's passion for fresh and modern food was evident in everything that came out of his kitchen. A truly spectacular dining experience.

Minga

(Munchings and Crunchings abroad! The first of our many wonderful meals in Argentina...)

Occasion: A first taste of Buenos Aires!
Location: Minga on Costa Rica in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires (mingaparrilla.com.ar)
Edibles: I had the ojo de bife (ribeye) with a side of spinach gratin; Elizabeth had a penne dish that I barely paid attention to, so focused was I on the luscious grilled meats being served all around me

Musings: Only a few hours in Buenos Aires and I was already champing at the bit for some steak. Elizabeth, who doesn't eat red meat at all, amiably let me pick our lunch spot.

When ordering, we tried to communicate the medium-rare doneness I wanted by using the Spanish words for "red" and "rose" but I guess it didn't translate. When my steak came, I gave it a quick prod with my fork and my heart sank when it barely gave at all. I sliced into it to confirm. The meat proved to be well-done, brown all the way through. Sacrilege, really.

I showed it to the waiter. My Lonely Planet guidebook helpfully supplied us with the word "jugoso" (juicy) to better describe what I was looking for. With a minimum of fuss, he whisked it away to be redone. A part of me winced to see an entire prime steak go to waste, but they really had cooked the bejeezus out of it.

Without being asked, our superlative waiter brought me a second skillet of spinach gratin with the new steak, as the original one was now cold. Full marks for service. Steak #2 was everything I had hoped for. Argentinean beef, famous for being free-range, grass-fed and really delicious, absolutely lived up to the hype. It was rich, tender, and had a robust gaminess that American steak generally does not. If you are a steak-lover, you need to get yourself to Argentina pronto. Oh, and did I mention that this steak cost about $10 USD?

All in all, a great start to our South American adventure!

Top Chef Reunion Dinner

Original Air Date: November 4, 2009

1) The people who were annoying in their original seasons are still annoying. I'm looking at you, Tiffani, Marcel, Ilan and Lisa.

2) Speaking of Marcel... The head-shaving incident was way over the line, even in retrospect. But I can see why living with him would have driven people to it. He's got this jittery-obnoxious-immature bravado thing going and it hasn't gotten better with time. Grow up and chill out, dude.

3) Fabio and Stefan really need to have their own show. The way they interact is somehow just naturally hilarious and watchable. And it would be the most quotable show ever. My favorites from Season 5 went something like: "Skinning an eel is like riding a bicycle" (Stefan); "We could serve monkey ass in empty clam shells" (Fabio); and "I'm sweating like a goat at the beach" (Fabio).

Aoki

Occasion: Lunch with Nellie
Location: Aoki on 48th between B'way and 8th (aokinyc.com)
Edibles: 3-roll sushi lunch for both of us; my rolls were the spicy tuna, eel and cucumber and California

Musings: Can't beat the price: miso soup or salad plus three rolls clocks in at a mere $11. The rice in the sushi was a bit mushy but the seasonings on the eel and the spicy tuna were nicely done.

The space is pretty posh, too, with nice wood floors and furniture. Big Boss (my boss' boss, the CIO) LOVES this place.

Bettola

Occasion: Pre-opera (Aida) dinner with Mamie
Location: Bettola on Amsterdam between 79th and 80th
Edibles: shrimp app special and cremini mushroom farrotto to share; I followed it with the salmon; Mamie had a pizza

Musings: When Mamie and I walked past it (our Good Enough to Eat plans foiled by a gas leak), I was really excited to eat here again. I had come here ages ago with PA and Bettola made a really deep impression. I can still remember the awesome scallops I ate with a startling amount of detail.

I was a little nervous upon discovering that the restaurant was completely empty - though I guess it was only 6:30. (There were five other tables by the time we left.) They really deserve to be doing better. One quibble: the waitress blew through the specials like an auctioneer and we had to ask her to repeat herself on several items.

I had eaten a late lunch, but it didn't take much convincing to go in on two shared apps. The shrimp dish was okay, but they need to prep and trim their asparagus more carefully. I ran into several pieces of inedible, woody stalk. The farrotto was HUGE and they didn't skimp on the mushrooms. Delicious. My salmon was a touch overcooked for the medium rare I ordered but it was a good-sized portion, well-plated and with nice veggies on the side. Next time, I'll probably have a glass of wine, the farrotto and the tiramisu (I was dying to try it but there just wasn't room, alas).

With the equivalent of an app and main per person (but with no wine), our total bill came out to $67. Although it's a bit of a stroll to Lincoln Center, I think Bettola is a great pre- or post-theatre option.

Gina La Fornarina

Occasion: Post-marathon cheering (Go Amy!) brunch with Abby, Jill and Chrissy

Location: Gina La Fornarina on 2nd between 81st and 82nd - just look for the fuchsia awning (gina-lafornarina.com)
Edibles: the Gina frittata with sweet Italian sausage, potato and onion for me; focaccia with robiola cheese and prosciutto for Abby; focaccia with scrambled eggs and truffle oil for Jill and Chrissy

Musings: Gina is just a few months old - and evidently still working out a few kinks in their service and supply. (What brunch place doesn't have orange juice?!) Still, it's a great addition to the UES. Tasty food, reasonable prices, a fun vibe and hardly any wait even on Marathon Sunday! Chrissy, our sole UES-dweller, mentioned it's good for a late-night drink and cheese plate too.

My frittata was lovely and fluffy, but I think I liked the two focaccia dishes a little bit better. They consisted of an entire wheel of toasted focaccia, split open and filled like a sandwich. Definitely big enough to share between two people - I ended up eating about half of one myself, between Jill and Abby's leftovers. Yum. An auspicious start to November.