Ted's Bulletin

Occasion: Brunch with Sylvia
Location: Ted's Bulletin on 8th St SE in Washington, DC
Edibles: I had the biscuit with sausage gravy and Sylvia had the French toast

Musings: Ted's Bulletin is a cute place for brunch. The décor has a sort of retro, deco thing going on but not in a fussy or pretentious way. As you can see from the pictures, they serve extremely generous plates of hearty food. Prices are reasonable too. A place like this would be mobbed in New York.

Biscuits and sausage gravy - when it's on the menu, I pretty much have to order it. Ted's Bulletin's version of it involves a beer biscuit. Great in theory, but in practice it gave the biscuit an unfortunate bitter aftertaste. The sausage gravy was excellent, though, and I scraped up every little bit of it.

The French toast was tasty too.

For next time: I noticed they had homemade Pop-Tarts on the menu. I was intrigued but - alas - didn't have the room to try them.

Sylvia - great catching up with you!

A Matter of Taste

Directed by Sally Rowe (amatteroftastethefilm.com)
Featuring Paul Liebrandt, chef-owner of Corton
(cortonnyc.com)

My review: 3/5 stars

This film follows Paul Liebrandt over a decade and stints at three restaurants. It's not so much about cooking, or even food, but rather the career trajectory of a chef.

Liebrandt's story shows how difficult it can be to find and maintain success in the restaurant industry, even when most people agree that you're a damn fine chef. He encounters such obstacles as a horrible economy for restaurant financing, a horrible economy for fine-dining customers, the capricious decisions of management, and a new Times critic who intrinsically likes another style of food. Through all of that, he sticks to his guns and keeps cooking the food that he loves.

The film does have a happy ending with his current restaurant, Corton, backed by Drew Nieporent. Finally, finally, it all comes together. He even manages to squeeze three stars out of Frank Bruni.

I happened to see the premiere screening at Tribeca, and Paul Liebrandt and the director did a Q&A afterwards. The poor director was pretty neglected; all the questions were for Liebrandt. He talked predictably about having passion and perseverence. (That's him at the podium. The director is in the yellow blouse, to left.)

[Postscript: The film premiered on HBO July 13, 2011.]

Doughnut Plant

Location: 23rd between 7th and 8th

Doughnut Plant makes these huge, very chewy, very bread-y doughnuts, $3 each. I got one of the fresh strawberry and one peanut butter and jelly.

The strawberry had a nice scent, but any flavor of fresh strawberries was overwhelmed by the amount of sugar in the glaze. I liked the balance of the PBJ doughnut (a jelly-filled doughnut with peanut butter glaze) better. But I personally thought they both had way too much glaze, which tended to crack and get all over everything.

An interesting novelty, but I don't think this is going to be the next dessert craze.

Momoya

Occasion: Post-movie dinner
Location: Momoya on 7th Ave and 21st (momoyanyc.com)
Edibles: chef's choice sushi dinner

Musings: Of course, I walked out of "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" just starving, and dying for sushi. After a few blocks of aimless wandering failed to uncover a sushi place, I asked a gay guy walking his dog for a recommendation (because a dog's a good indication that the walker lives in the neighborhood). The guy sent me to Momoya. (Hilariously, he didn't remember what corner it was on in terms of ordinal directions, but did remember that it was where some bar or club named Merkin used to be. Oh, New York.)

The chef's tasting included ten pieces of nigiri sushi and one roll. The Black Dynamite roll I picked had a bit too much going on with two sauces and multiple fillings.

The sushi was likewise overly complicated. There were lots of garnishes piled on top that made it impossible to dip the sushi in soy sauce. And they didn't make much sense, e.g. a slice of jalapeno and some caviar on the fluke. The best pieces were the eel and the rock crab.

A nice dinner, and one that certainly hit the spot after the movie. But not worth $50.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Directed and produced by David Gelb
Featuring Jiro Ono of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a three-Michelin-star sushi restaurant in Tokyo

My review: 4/5 stars

If you like food porn, this is the movie for you. Macro shots of the sushi just fill the screen with their vibrant colors and varied textures. The way with slices of fish repose, glistening under a thin glaze of sauce.... it's sexy stuff. From the visual style alone, you can tell that the filmmaker loves good food.

Jiro clearly loves food too. His dedication to his craft is simply mind-boggling. His work ethic, and attention to detail, his drive to innovate and perfect - he puts even NYC workaholics to shame. The movie is a great character study, and provides interesting insight into Japanese culture. Not just Jiro himself, but his staff and his suppliers all pride themselves on being shokunin, the very best at what they do. And almost none of their knowledge comes from formal education - instead, it's built on decades of practical experience.

The rice dealer: [I'm paraphrasing] "The Grand Hyatt asked to buy the same rice. I said, only Jiro's apprentices can cook that rice. You can't cook that rice with just big talk. If Jiro says you can buy it, I will sell it to you." (At which point Jiro agrees that the particular rice he buys is very hard to cook, requiring a lot of pressure.)

[Note: The film picked up a North American distributor, Magnolia Pictures. In fact, it was the first sale at Tribeca this year. So hopefully it'll be publicly released soon!]

Northern Spy, part II

Occasion: Pre-movie (Cinema Komunisto at TFF) brunch with Josh
Location: Northern Spy Food Co. on 12th between A and B (northernspyfoodco.com)
Edibles: I had the biscuit and sausage gravy, with two baked eggs; Josh had the sausage, egg and cheese sandwich.

Musings: I've been wanting to come back here, ever since that first dinner with Winnie and Gabrielle - gosh - a year ago. Not too much to add. The décor is as charming as ever, and the food is hearty and unfussy. My gravy was good, the biscuit was nice and fluffy, and the egg yolk provided the perfect amount of unctuous ooze over everything.

One niggle. They did seat their dining room sort of awkwardly, i.e too many people at once. The kitchen got slammed and our food took ages to come out.

Souvlaki GR

Location: Foodtruck on the corner of 21st and 6th (souvlakigr.com)

It's hard to see in my crappy bb picture, but the guy taking orders had a handlebar mustache, with the waxed curly ends and everything. Made me smile.

I ordered the chicken pita souvlaki, which is a chicken kebab (de-skewered) wrapped in a pita with some sliced tomato, onion, french fries (oddly enough), and tzatziki. It was okay, but not much food for $4. Really just a little snack. Even for lunch, you'd have to get two.

Alternatively, you can get 5 skewers for $7 (or one for $1.75). For a meat-tooth like me, that seems like the better bet.

Part II, 4/28 - I came back and got the mixed skewers. (The truck's really close to the Tribeca Film Festival Volunteer's Lounge.) MUCH better deal. They threw in an extra skewer, so I had six - three each of the pork and the chicken. Comes with little pita triangles and two containers of tzatziki. I was stuffed when I finished!

The pork is a wee bit dry. If you're getting the pita wrap, I'd definitely get the chicken. With the mixed skewers, one or two pork one at most.

Social Eatz

Occasion: Lunch with Meredith and Mike, with lots of ex-Death Star crew
Location: Social Eatz on 53rd between 2nd and 3rd (socialeatz.com)
Edibles: I had the bulgogi burger and fries, and a bite of Meredith's spring rolls and chop salad

Musings: Social Eatz is the new eatery of Top Chef Season 7 finalist Angelo Sosa. It's Asian fusion - not exactly a shocker for anyone who's seen Angelo cook on TV. But I actually like the concept here - Asian-inspired burgers, tacos, etc. Casual streetfood, in a yuppie diner setting. The menu's got some cheeky, fun items like the Imperialist Hot Dog, and some cringingly pretentious ones like the Chili-Kissed Tilapia Tacos.

The shrimp and chicken spring rolls were flavorful, but surprisingly heavy considering the ingredients. The chop salad not a hit with the table - it's a tiny little portion, and the so-called six minute egg was barely cooked long enough to hold together. Meredith rightly avoided the egg; the runny yolk would have completely drowned the small amount of lettuce.

I got the bulgogi burger with a side of fries. First of all, potatoes are dirt cheap, Angelo - your burgers should come with fries. Second, my burger was way underdone. I mean, it was literally half raw. Not rare. Raw. I practically like my steaks still mooing, but that burger was on the borderline of what I'd eat (v. what I'd send back and ask them to cook longer). Another person in our group left her burger patty half uneaten for the same reason. So please ask your diners how they like their burgers.

That said, I think the concepts of the bulgogi burger, bibimbap burger and Korean taco are genius. I love the salt-sweet flavor of the beef, accented by the tart bite of the pickles. I'd come back to try those latter two.

Mmmm... steak fajitas

Occasion: Movie Night (The Cutting Edge - how's that for craptastic?) at Mike and Gerald's

Steak Fajitas

I based the marinade for the steak on Tyler Florence's (original recipe here) - I feel like that justifies using his glamour shot.

Steak Marinade:

juice of 1 orange

juice of 2 limes

2 tbsp adobo sauce

a fistful of chopped cilantro
a good glug of olive oil
1 tsp cumin

salt & pepper

Marinate the steak for about an hour. No more than two - there's too much acid in this marinade to let it sit overnight.

Traditionally, you'd use flank steak or skirt steak but since I don't have any experience cooking those notoriously finicky cuts, I went with ribeye. Which is fine, except that ribeyes are much thicker and the marinade will not penetrate as well. (You can compensate for that when you cook it.)

For cooking the meat, I'd recommend a good sear at high temp for color (and flavor). Rest for 10 min. and slice. If you've used a thick steak like I did, try giving it a quick stir-fry with some more adobo sauce or reduced marinade. (Note: normally, you would throw out a marinade you used with raw meat. But it's safe to use if you bring it to a boil and cook it through, so to speak.)

Serve with sautéed onions and peppers, on warmed flour or corn tortillas. Sour cream, guac and salsa to garnish.

Salsa

I also made a tomato-corn salsa, based on a Martha recipe (original here). It's just 1 ear of fresh corn, de-cobbed and sautéed in butter, and one or two tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped. Dressing with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. I also threw in some chopped cilantro, because I just love the stuff.

Guacamole

I made some standard guacamole. You know the drill - avocado, tomato, red onion, cilantro, jalapeño, salt and pepper.

On the avocados: Don't expect to buy avocados from a grocery store and make guacamole that day. They will be underripe. In a pinch, you can sometimes get ripe ones from those little outdoor fruit stands. I had the boys get the avocados two days earlier and leave them out at room temp to soften. But even then there was one that stayed waxy and hard and couldn't be used. The avocado has to be pretty mushy to make good guacamole, in my opinion.

Some ideas for leftover steak and veggies: Make quesadillas. Do a makeshift pasta puttanesca with some olives, or a chicken cacciatore. Make a frittata or omelet. Throw in some Asian sauce (hoisin, bbq or sriracha) and make a stir-fry to serve with rice. Throw together a hearty lunch salad with some greens. It's all good.

Pylos

Occasion: Dinner with Josh
Location: Pylos on 7th between First and A (pylosrestaurant.com)

Edibles: beets; saganaki; octopus; lamb chops; walnut cake and Greek coffee

Musings: Really funky interior - the ceiling is strung with hundreds of clay pots. Very distinctive.

They start you off with some warm pita and hummus, and it was soooooo good. Possibly the best part of the meal, in retrospect. Which is not to say that the rest of the food wasn't great - because it was. But that pita was REALLY amazing. Mmmmm.... warm bread.... one of life's simple pleasures.

The beet salad was massive - definitely good to share. The octopus was not - just two smallish tentacles for $14. It was cooked perfectly, though, not rubbery at all and with the perfect amount of char. Saganaki's pretty uniformly delicious and hard to mess up. Pylos' tasted pretty much like every other one I've ever had, but it did go great with that warm pita.

Since we got so many apps, we just shared a single main. The lamb chops we got were yummy. Also perfectly charred, and they got the doneness spot on.

I really just had a bite or two of the walnut cake. It doesn't say anywhere in the description, but it's got tons of cinnamon. Gag. The Greek coffee was tiny but incredibly potent - the kind of stuff that's often described as being able to float a horseshoe. I'd get the unsweetened, and try to do it myself next time; the pre-sweetened version was too much even for me, and I put about five sugars in my regular coffee.

Pylos is a good option for fancy Greek. I'd definitely come back to try some of the other things on the menu. And hey, if you want to keep it economical, just load up on that maaaaarvelous pita....

La Follia

Occasion: Drinks with Amy... that sort of slid into dinner.
Location: La Follia on Third between 19th and 20th
Edibles: prosciutto, caponata, and burrata crostini to start; then we shared an arugula salad and the pappardelle with braised pork ragu

Musings: La Follia has a good selection of wines by the glass, and the food is very cheap compared to the likes of Bar Jamón. The prosciutto, caponata, and burrata crostini (two pieces of it) were all $6 a plate. It's good, too. I particularly liked the caponata, which had a few more ingredients than the standard version, but tasted wonderfully bright and fruity.

The pappardelle is also worth a mention. A mere $15, the homemade pasta is great and they're generous to a fault ladling the sauce on.

The décor is understated but classy, and it looks like a place for adults. Hopefully, that will keep the NYU hooligans at bay. I did see a lot of banker-looking guys, but I guess that's not too surprising considering the proximity to Credit Suisse.

In general, a nice addition to the neighborhood. If only it was ten blocks further north....

Part II, 5/2: I came back here for dinner with Mamie after an anniversary showing of Top Gun at AMC Village 7. I ordered a bunch of the same stuff - can't resist caponata! - but Mamie got the salmon main. I can report that it was masterfully done - a gorgeous, tender piece of fish with a nice hard sear on the skin.

I'm really liking this place. Hope they can keep their quality up and their prices where they are.

BXL East

Occasion: Another Tax Day under our belts! This clearly calls for beer....
Location: BXL on 51st between 2nd and 3rd (bxlcafe.com) [Note: There's another one on the west side on 43rd]
Edibles: moules à la Grand Mère (mussels with cream, onions and bacon)

Musings: With our tax returns zipping their way to the guvmint electronically, and our third annual Tax Day an official success, Yining and I headed out for some celebratory beer. Sadly, as we feared, Hofbrau Bierhaus has been completely overrun by obnoxious frat boys. We slunk out to find quieter environs.

We found BXL pleasantly deserted. Because we're suckers for a cute logo, I started with a Delerium and Yining, with La Chouffe. Man, those Belgian beers are strong! Halfway through my second Delerium, I decided that we needed some food or I'd be asleep in an hour. And, of course, nothing goes better with Belgian beer than moules frites.

The mussels were fantastic. I don't think I've ever had a cream-based mussel broth before, but it's AWESOME. (The bacon probably helped.) I was flat-out drinking it with a spoon towards the end. It's also great to dip your bread into, if you're not as willing as I am to be uncouth in public. Yum!

Ember Room

Occasion: Pre-theatre (Importance of Being Earnest) dinner with Amy, Howard, Brigid, John and Josh
Location: Ember Room on 9th between 45th and 46th (emberroom.com)
Edibles: I had the miso eggplant and the oxtail; Josh had the shrimp satay and Korean BBQ fried rice; we also had the mushroom salad, chocolate baby back ribs and the slider trio on the table, among others (I don't remember precisely who ordered what)

Musings: Ember Room is a new Todd English restaurant in the Hell's Kitchen / theatre district area. Unsurprisingly, the service felt like it hadn't quite settled down into a comfortable routine yet. We were eating pretty early and the restaurant was half-empty, but they had a bit of a delay in seating us and then didn't have enough menus to go around once they did.

The waitress recommended that we order tapas-style and share, but the portions are so small that they're really only practical for two people to share, not a whole table. The only dish big enough for multiple people to try was Amy's mushroom salad.

I was not impressed by the food, as I'm generally not by fusion cuisine. I thought my two dishes tasted overly sweet, and flavors were heavy-handed and muddled. It's like the food that was all the rage twenty years ago when chefs though it would be rad to put soy sauce, miso and wasabi in everything. With all the delicious, authentic and cheap Asian food available in the city, why bother with this junk?

The hunt for a good theatre district restaurant continues....