Cafe Fiorello

Occasion: Post-opera (Barber of Seville) drink and snack with Jana.... at least, that's what we intended....
Location: Cafe Fiorello on B'way between 63rd and 64th (cafefiorello.com)
Edibles: antipasto platter - eggplant caponata; fried cauliflower; sautéed Swiss chard with pine nuts; grilled asparagus; roasted beets; bocconcini mozzarella; shards of parmesan cheese; two kinds of olives; sundried tomatoes

Musings: Being an okay-looking girl in the city - as the saying goes, that and two bucks will get you a cup of coffee. Once in a while, though....

I've been coming to Cafe Fiorello for some time now, something like (geez) seven years. It's convenient - Winnie used to live on 62nd, and Lincoln Center is just across the street. My favorite thing to get is the mixed antipasto plate. For $20 - seven years ago - you could pick four veg and three seafood from their vast selection of antipasti at the bar. They also threw in a fist-sized ball of fresh mozzarella that did not count as one of your choices. A really sumptuous brunch or dinner, in my book.

Sometime, maybe three years ago, the price went up to $28. The servings got a little smaller and the mozzarella counted as a choice. Still not too bad, if you shared it with a friend and filled in the gaps with bread. Yesterday, I took a look at the menu and it had become an exorbitant $24 for three seafood alone! Three veg clocked in at $18! Unbelievable!!

I asked the bartender (and not in a flirtatious way) if they had recently changed the menu. I mentioned that the antipasti seemed to be a lot more expensive. He took a look at us and said, "My beautiful ladies! You can pick ten and I will only charge you for three!" I generally don't turn down free food, so we were off.

I stopped after the first six things listed above. Ten minutes later, he came by with a plate of parmesan chunks, green and black olives and sundried tomatoes. Ten minutes after that, he was brandishing a block of Himalayan pink salt, which he ceremoniously grated over everything. A second quartino of wine appeared for each of us (pinot grigio for me, pinot noir for Jana).

At one point, he started chatting with Jana, who busted out her fluent Spanish. They had a long and involved conversation about the landscape and culture of Ecuador. After finding out we had come from the opera, he also offered to get us half-price tickets from a guy he knows who works there.

Now, my mom taught me that, if you're paying, it's okay to leave something on the plate; if it's on the house, you gotta finish it. So we finished the antipasto plate. Friendly Bartender took that to mean we were still hungry and so he brought another giant serving of caponata! And a third round of wine. I gave it my best effort but could only get through half of the caponata.

What a meal to remember! All those flavors and colors, textures - from the creamy softness of the mozzarella to the leathery grittiness of the parmesan to the crisp snap of the asparagus. Whew! Stuffed to the gills and pretty tipsy from all that wine, we paid our $67 tab. There was, of course, a VERY generous tip in it for Friendly Bartender.

El Parador

Occasion: Celebrating a Very Exciting Development with Yining (hers, not mine)
Location: El Parador on 34th between 1st and 2nd (elparadorcafe.com)
Edibles:  guacamole to start; we split the fish tacos and the ropa vieja (braised flank steak); tres leches cake for dessert

Musings: Pro: just a block away from my apartment and better than Qdoba. Con: not as good as Molé, and pretty expensive. The ropa vieja was definitely the better plate. The meat was very flavorful, juicy and tender. It came with a side of black beans, but went great with the rice that came with the fish tacos. The tacos were okay, nothing memorable. The fish really needed salt, and a lime wedge would have been nice too. The salsa on the side provided some zip in contrast to the blandness of the fish but it was too spicy for me to really slather it on.

[Note: Anne, who told us about the place, recommended the carnitas special but it wasn't on offer when we went.]

The cake. Oh my god. Way too rich for one person to finish - the "slice" was about 6 inches square - but SO GOOD. (Though the culinary snob in me noticed that their pastry chef burned the sugar he used for the cage decoration.)

Next time I come - and I'm sure there will be a next time, since it's so insidiously close to my apartment - I think I'll just get a margarita, guac and the cake.

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 7

Original Air Date: October 7, 2009

1) Mike V.'s two red-headed little girls are adorable!
2) It's too bad he ended up in the bottom this week. He clearly knows how to cook fish properly, but had zero margin for error in this challenge. In a restaurant setting, he simply would have started over with new fish.
3) By the way, Ash, there's a difference between collaborating with Picasso, and washing his paintbrushes. You may be outclassed in this competition but have a little pride, man!
4) The Mystery of the Salty Gnocchi: Ashley seems like an old hand at making gnocchi so it's strange that she would oversalt the dough to that degree. But if Eli was solely responsible, either in the boiling or the saucing, surely the judges would have been able to tell (i.e. it would only have been salty on the outside)?
5) The broth in the winning dish had Eric Ripert written all over it. Jen is certainly skillful, but what's HER style?
6) Robin is not my favorite, but she deserved better than Mike I.'s passive-aggressive douchebaggery.
7) I am obsessed with the wine glasses with the frosted rings they had on the table when the judges were eating.

Little Italy Pizza

Occasion: Workday lunch

Location: Little Italy Pizza on 45th between 5th and 6th (littleitalypizzany.com)

Edibles: one slice each of sausage and chicken parmesan pizza

Musings: Despite its awards for the best pizza in town, I don't think Little Italy is all that impressive. The sausage slice was good; the chicken parm, not so much.  The chicken was dry, and the toppings were so heavy they just slid off the crust. It's impossible to eat without a knife and fork, which kind of defeats the purpose of making it a pizza, you know?

My biggest beef with this place is the price. My two slices cost me $8.50. I thought it was because of my "fancy" toppings, but the lady behind me ran up a bill of $8.10 for a white slice and a cheese slice. That's just too expensive for pizza.

Koronet, I still love you bestest.

The Manor

Occasion: Kathy and Atticus get hitched!!
Location: The Manor on Prospect Ave in West Orange, NJ
Edibles: the invitation said "feasting" and they weren't kidding....

Cold buffet: sushi; bruschetta; shrimp cocktail; raw oysters; caprese salad; smoked salmon; tortellini salad; marinated mushrooms; crudités; seafood salad

Hot buffet: paella; veal marsala; chicken in champagne mustard sauce; fried calamari; shrimp and scallop Newburg; eggplant rollatini; baked ziti; tortellini alfredo; carving station with beef tenderloin and roast turkey breast

Kathy insisted that they keep the buffet open all the way to the end of the event. Just in case someone wanted a snack after their lunch. (This kind of attitude is why we're such good friends.) So we guests enjoyed this spread for five hours.... and then dessert came:

Then coconut wedding cake showed up:

It was a sore trial for the ladies, many of whom were wearing form-fitting dresses. And I'm sure I wasn't the only one who succumbed to a food coma on the ride home.

Kathy and Atticus - may your marriage be as full of variety, flavor and luxury as your buffet!

Barbone

Occasion: Abby's birthday dinner, with Juice, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mike

Location: Barbone (or as they bizarrely spell it, Bär-bō-né) on Ave B between 11th and 12th St (barbonenyc.com)

Edibles: asparagus fries for Catherine and Abby to start; beet and orange salad with ricotta salata for me and Elizabeth to start; wild boar lasagne for Mike; spaghetti carbonara for Abby; black pepper pappardelle with short rib ragu for me; cavatelli with chicken sausage for everyone else; birthday dessert for Abby

Musings: Cute little place. Overall, a bit uneven but there's a great meal to be had for a reasonable price. At our table, that meal was Abby's - the asparagus fries followed by the carbonara.

Even though I was fairly full from two hours of snacking on various gourmet cheeses and cured meats at Rachel W's housewarming party, my nose still perked up when the asparagus fries (or as I'd describe it, asparagus tempura) appeared at the table, smelling like deep-fried goodness. The aioli on the side was the perfect dip. Thanks to Catherine for "forcing" two on me! The beets were OK, but the ricotta salata tasted like pencil shavings to me. Definitely the wrong garnish.

Most of their pastas come in an appetizer size for a few dollars less. I didn't see much of a difference between my "small" plate and the full dinner portions. It needed salt, but the pappardelle was nice and al dente. As rich as carbonara is, I think the app portion would be enough for that one too.

The little birthday dessert they brought was basically a dish of cream cheese frosting. One bite was perfect - any more would have been cloying for me, but I know at least one person who would love to eat the whole thing....

They also offer a 5-course tasting menu for $37 per person, which sounds very agreeable.

Halal food truck

Location: the southwest corner of 53rd and 6th Ave, just south of the Hilton - look for the guys in the yellow shirts [Note: there's another food truck with guys in yellow shirts on the southeast corner. I haven't tried it, but there was also an insane line for that one.]

The thing about this truck is that there's a long line. Always. Always. On a sunny day, bring reading material. At lunchtime on weekdays, there are a fair number of folks in business dress. I've passed this truck at night, post-theatre and close to midnight, and the line is just as long. Cabbies come in droves, and eat in their parked cars.

(On this particular day, while waiting in the 30-person line, I was forced to listen to fifteen minutes of a very loud conversation the guy behind me was having with his girlfriend on his cell phone. They were discussing their.... er, physical relationship.... and it sounded something like this: "We're two f**king different people! I deal with sh*t my way! You deal with sh*t your way! Why do you expect us to f**king think the same way about sh*t!" Oh, New York.)

I like the chicken and lamb mixed grill on rice with white sauce and just a squirt of hot sauce (it packs a punch). The picture above is a fairly artsy rendering. In reality, it looks like a sloppy mess but it tastes as good as that picture makes it look. It's $5.00 and it's a big enough portion that it routinely lasts me for two meals - perks up just fine in the microwave.

Tarallucci

Occasion: Pre-movie (Invention of Lying) dinner with Elizabeth and Mamie
Location: Tarallucci e Vino on 18th between B'way and 5th, one of three NYC locations (taralluccievino.net)
Edibles: panzerotti alla mozzarella a cotto alle erbe (fried dough stuffed with mozzarella and rosemary ham) and fregnacce al sugo di papera (sheets of pasta with a duck sauce) for me; Elizabeth shared a cheese plate with Mamie and had the eggplant and mozzarella bruschetta for her main; Mamie had a fish dish with shrimp and scallops

Musings: I really appreciated that they were able to seat us right away and without a reservation on a Friday night. (We had tried to go to Vintage Irving and were told that the place was completely booked, even though it was half-empty at the time. The host also gave me some totally unwarranted attitude.)

I liked the vibe of Tarallucci. It was intimately dim (i.e. good date lighting!) and the noise level was chattery but not loud. The friendly wine steward recommended a nice bottle of South African white, and later brought over some tastings of dessert wines.

My app was wonderful. (I mean, fried bread, melted cheese and ham - how bad can THAT be?) The pasta dish was also good, but I think it needed more pasta to stay in proportion with the very generous amount of sauce. And this coming from a person who's been known to sit down with a bowl of homemade spaghetti sauce with no pasta at all. My dining companions likewise reported that their mains were very good. (I had a bite of one of Mamie's scallops and it was plump and tender.)

I think the reason this place isn't packed is because of its prices. The food is good and all but $60+ is what I pay for "fancy, special dinners." Tarallucci is not that. There are plenty of places where you can get a comparable meal and experience for fifteen or twenty dollars less. I'd probably eat here again, but it'd be a "definitely" if their prices were 15% lower.

Hing Won

Occasion: Workday take-out lunch

Location: Hing Won on 48th between 5th and 6th

Edibles: roast duck on rice

Musings: I love me some roast duck. There was a whole year of my life when I ate it at least once a week.

Aside: The long story is that my college dorm had a Chinese restaurant called Beijing on the first floor, and it basically became my cafeteria. Three of their dishes are forever linked to each of my years at Penn. They are: beef lo mein - freshman year; roast duck on rice - sophomore year; cashew chicken - my last year. (What can I say? I'm a creature of habit.) When the owner learned I was graduating, he actually looked saddened and gave me a free Beijing t-shirt. Grad was also when I discovered that the West Lake soup (with beef and lots of cilantro) is really yummy. If I had stayed a fourth year, that might have been the dish. Ah, the road not taken.

Back to Hing Won. I read about this place on someone else's food blog, dedicated exclusively to the herculean task of finding a decent lunch in midtown. (I've been trolling food blogs for format and content ideas, but also I just plain love to read about food.) The interior is just as helter-skelter as he described. The way you order your food is a bit counterintuitive; here's the lowdown:

1) Walk past the steam tables / buffet offerings. Good stuff's in the back.

2) There's a menu on the wall above the second cashier (the first cashier takes care of the buffet folks). Figure out what you want from the myriad options.

3) Give your order to the guy, who writes it down on a little slip of paper. Note that the people standing around in the area are probably not in line; they are likely waiting, as you will be doing shortly.

4) Retreat and wait until your order (or assigned number, which I might have missed) is called.

5) Collect your food and pay.

The roast duck is the best I've had in the city. It's greasy but that's duck, you know. In contrast to poorly-prepared duck, which is bland under the skin, the flavor of Hing Won's permeates all the way into the meat. The rice is delightfully soaked with sauce and ducky juices. The sautéed bok choi tasted a little tinny to me so I ignored it. At $6, I will definitely be back again.

[Note: By roast duck, I do not mean tea-smoked duck, which I also love and frequently order. I've still not been able to find a place to get consistently good tea-smoked duck in NYC. The closest I've come is the westside Shun Lee, but it's pretty expensive and will disappoint me about one in three times. In Vancouver, Ningtu is the place to go.]

Pongsri

Occasion: Combined review - sit-down lunch with Liliana today and a take-out lunch from last week
Location: Pongsri Thai Restaurant on 48th between B'way and 8th, one of three NYC locations (pongsri.net)
Edibles: Thai pineapple fried rice today; beef pad see ew last week

Musings: Finding lunch in midtown, especially right off Times Square (ugh!), is a challenge to say the least. (On the bright side, weaving around slow-moving tourists - and throwing the occasional elbow - is your cardio workout for the day.)

Pongsri is my boss' go-to lunch place. It's not the best Thai food I've had in the city, but the lunch prices are pretty hard to beat. The fried rice is $6.95 and the pad see ew is $5.95. [Note: those dishes go up to $10.95 and $9.95 respectively after 3pm so if you know you're going to be stuck at the office, get it at 2:30 and stick it in the microwave at dinner.]

Based on the bustling activity inside, Pongsri does a VERY healthy volume of business. And turnover equals freshness. The price and speed of service - Liliana and I were in and out in 30 minutes - make Pongsri a decent pre-theatre option, too.

[Nov. 5 Postscript: Don't get the pak tao-geaw, stir-fried mixed vegetables with fried tofu in bean sauce. It's a dish like the literal meaning of chop suey, which is "random scraps."]

Mmmm... Oktoberfest leftovers

I do love to improvise with leftovers. Oktoberfest didn't provide the same variety of materials as Thanksgiving does, but the odds and ends made for a therapeutic evening of cooking and a very nice dinner.

Edibles: cream of mushroom soup (with leftover portobello mushrooms and extra cream from the lobster bisque incident); sautéed zucchini (the heels left from the big diagonal slices for the grill) "bruschetta" on toasted leftover hotdog buns

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Sauté chopped onions and mushrooms in butter and olive oil. (If using portobellos, use a small spoon to scrape out the black gills from the underside or they will make your soup very murky.) Add flour to make a roux. Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add cream (or milk), as much or as little as you like. I usually do about a third of the existing volume. Grate in a little nutmeg and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with fresh parsley.

To make this soup completely vegetarian, you can make mushroom stock with the discarded stems (+ mirepoix and herbs) and use that instead of the chicken stock. Or buy vegetable stock. You do need something with more flavor than water.

Mmmm... Oktoberfest

Occasion: Oktoberfest party! Thanks to everyone who made it out (Mechan and Tony, Kathy and Ron, Mamie, Rachel W and Simon, Abby and Juice, Catherine and Don, Jill, Jana, Elizabeth, Marc, Ben and Rebecca, just to name a few), and to Yining for co-hosting it with me! I had tons of fun and will buy more sausages next time!

Edibles (and Potables): all sorts of beer and some wine; all sorts of würsts; portobello burgers for the vegetarians and non-pork eaters, poor darlings; red cabbage and sauerkraut; grilled zucchini with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano; German potato salad; garbanzo bean and carrot salad; beet salad (Zabar's, contributed by Ben and Rebecca); s'mores for dessert

German Potato Salad*
(based on Ben's recipe/guidelines)

This recipe is basically 1) boil some potatoes; 2) dress with vinaigrette; 3) toss in some crunchies.

In slightly greater detail:

Boil a bunch of potatoes. If you use the red-skinned ones or Yukon golds or something similarly thin-skinned (i.e. not Russets), you don't even have to peel them. Obvs, they cook faster if you cut them. I like this potato salad quite chunky so I'd cut a fist-sized potato into about eight pieces. They're done when the tip of a paring knife will go through with no resistance. Drain.

Vinaigrette: The amount of dressing you will need will depend on how many potatoes you've got. This is the process; resize as appropriate. (Leftover dressing is very versatile - on leafy salads, as marinade, etc.) Dissolve salt in a splash of lemon juice or white wine vinegar. Add a dollop of mustard and grind in some fresh pepper. Whisk in olive oil slowly. I like about 2 parts oil to 1 part acid but you can go as high as 4 parts oil to 1 part acid if you like your dressings to be richer and less tart.

Dress the potatoes while they're hot - they seem to soak in the dressing better that way - but don't add the other ingredients below until the potatoes have cooled down significantly (otherwise you'll end up cooking them with the heat and lose the crunch and freshness).

Chop some fresh parsley, pickles, celery, shallot or red onion. I used all four but I think any two would be sufficient to add some interest. You can also substitute capers for the pickles, and any number of herbs (dill, cilantro, scallion) for the parsley. Add to cooled and dressed potatoes. Toss. Serve salad at room temperature.

This potato salad will hold up well at parties or on picnics, since it doesn't have any mayonnaise in it. (Though if you mix it vigorously enough, bits of potato will flake into the dressing and make it look like it does.)

*Note: My recipes are generally quite casual about things like measurements and ingredients. I think the great thing about cooking is that you can riff - add more of what you like, less of what you don't, etc. Making exactly the same thing every time is boring. (This is why I'm not a very good baker.)

Móle, part II

Occasion: Lunch with Yining, between the final two stops of Oktoberfest provisioning

Location: Móle on Allen between Houston and Stanton (molenyc.com)

Edibles: the carnitas tacos with all the fixings and the huevos con chorizo to share

Musings: I wasn't going to post on Móle again - but then I tasted the huevos con chorizo. A new yummy! They really do deserve a post of their own. [Note: You can read my praise for the carnitas tacos here.]

I thought the dish would be scrambled eggs with chunks of chorizo sausage in it, but it's more like the sausage meat was mixed with beaten eggs and fried. There's easily as much meat as egg. It made me a little nervous since chorizo is usually pretty aggressive, but the version that's in these eggs is mild and delicately spiced with cumin and paprika (I think). I wolfed down my portion straight up; Yining reported they're wonderful wrapped in corn tortillas too.

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 6

Original Air Date: September 23, 2009

1) Great Quickfire idea. Total lack of imagination by the cheftestants in interpreting it.

2) Ash obviously didn't learn anything from his failed sweet potato ice-cream in Ep. 3. Also, asparagus custard sounds pretty gross. (Ditto Robin's fennel flan.)

3) Michelle Bernstein's "¡Barcelona!" with over-the-top Spanish accent - loved it. Who's Toby Young to call other people pretentious?!
4) While I'm not a big fan of modernist cooking, it was fun to see Mike V.'s gleeful enthusiasm for the challenge. It was right up his alley...
5) ...While it totally flummoxed Jen. Her rock-solid technique saved her, though.
6) Ron, paella is not hard to deconstruct. It has, like, 15 ingredients in one pan! You know what's hard to deconstruct? Fish and chips. I mean, what do you do? Deconstruct the batter from the fish? Laurine definitely drew the hardest dish.
7) First the bacon jam, and now coffee and fig jam and pumpkin seed romesco. I want Kevin to start his own line of condiments.

Schaller & Weber

Location: 2nd Ave between 85th and 86th (schallerweber.com)

Yining had done a lot of the provisioning for our Oktoberfest party due to my schedule constraints, but I wasn't going to miss out on this one. Recommended to me by Ben and also referenced in a Martha Stewart cookbook, this place was supposedly THE place for German sausages.

The guy behind the counter was very friendly and informative. With his help, we selected bratwürst, chicken würst, pork and veal bockwürst and pork and beef country-style brauernwürst. Most of their sausages are cooked, and only need to be reheated on the grill or in some simmering water. (Yining was wary about letting me take them home, knowing my carnivorous tendencies well, but eventually decided I was the lesser risk compared to her sister.)

We also picked up their in-house sauerkraut, red cabbage and Düsseldorf-style horseradish mustard.

Party time!

[Postscript: Of the sausages I tasted, the classic bratwürst was the best. The sauerkraut was a bit disappointing - not sour enough for my taste and the shreds of cabbage were too long and unwieldy.]

Mamoun's Falafel

Occasion: Pre-theatre (Othello) snack

Location: Mamoun's on MacDougal at W 3rd (mamounsfalafel.com) [Note: there's a second location on St Marks]

Edibles: the lamb sandwich with some falafel thrown in (sometimes called a "shawafel")

Musings: A dude I knew once cited Mamoun's as his favorite restaurant in the city. I wouldn't go quite that far, but I love it too. Their famous falafel is a recession-friendly $2.50. My shawafel cost $5.50, but the meat-tooth must be satisfied.

I took my snack over to Washington Square Park and spent fifteen glorious minutes completely engrossed in the juicy slivers of lamb, crunchy falafel and velvety tahini sauce. (It was a close-fought battle, but I successfully defended my gray tweed dress from incursionary dribbles of said sauce.) Yum.

Hmmm... lobster stock

With five lobsters' worth of shells, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to make lobster stock.

Stocks, in the broth sense, are not that different than stocks, in the NYSE sense. You make an investment; they give you a return. Chicken and fish stocks give you a decent yield of flavor for your time and effort. Veal stock or demi-glace, with its roasting step, is a huge pain to make. It's heavenly stuff, but only if your everyday repertoire includes a lot of gravies or brown sauces. Turkey stock - now there's some bang for your buck. It's easier to make than even chicken stock and about five times as savory. I like rice noodles in turkey broth, with a few shreds of meat and fresh cilantro, almost more than I like the Thanksgiving turkey the night before. And my roast turkey is quite excellent, if I do say so myself.

But where would lobster stock fall in the spectrum?

My misadventures with the stock, attempted bisque, and resulting seafood/corn chowder-like concoction are chronicled below. I know this blog only has, like, 3 confirmed readers but if anyone out there knows where I went wrong, please advise!

Here's what I did: Toasted the shells in hot oil. Added mirepoix (onions, celery, carrots) and 1 tbsp of tomato paste. Deglazed with a good glug of white wine. Added enough water to cover the shells. Added peppercorns, bay, thyme, salt. Simmered for 2 hours. Strained.

The stock came out smelling pretty good but looking like dirty dishwater. Others stocks can too, though, so I wasn't overly concerned. But how to turn it into soup? I started with a clean pot, sweated some onion and celery in butter. Added flour to make roux. In the absence of cognac, I splashed in a little port. Added lobster stock, water, cream. Brought it to a simmer.

It didn't seem like a finished soup to me. Hmmm... I added some corn (Trader Joe's frozen sweet corn - the best stuff I've found to compare to fresh).

[Postscript: The next day, I added some diced potatoes. A little better. I considered poaching some shrimp in it and adding some green herbs, perhaps something like cilantro or dill to give it some freshness, some relief from the richness, but then decided it was a Frankensteinian lost cause.]

My soup was okay and definitely edible, but it just wasn't good in that "wow, I want more" kind of way. It wasn't even as good as something from Hale and Hearty. I was extremely demoralized. Considering the amount of time, work and mess involved, lobster stock / soup just doesn't seem to be worth the effort.

Where did I go wrong? It was savory for sure - the umami practically slapped you in the face. My brother opined that perhaps the soup was too thin for such strong flavor. (It stubbornly resisted thickening, even with two rounds of roux and the starch from the potatoes. At one point, I cheated by adding a little cornstarch slurry but that's, at best, a jury-rig for a single meal.)

Maybe lobster stock is one of those things that you freeze into ice-cube trays and use very sparingly, while cooking things like risotto. Maybe you can only make it with uncooked lobster shells.

Dunno - I'm stumped.

Good Enough to Eat

Occasion: Brunch with Yining (after successfully getting Tosca tickets but unsuccessfully trying to run several other errands)

Location: Good Enough to Eat on Amsterdam between 83rd and 84th (goodenoughtoeat.com)

Edibles: the Deep South (scrambled eggs with biscuits, topped with sausage gravy) for me; BLT omelet (bacon, tomato and Gruyère - no lettuce) for Yining

Musings: I have no personal connection whatsoever to the South but I sure do love their food - deep-fried, generously buttered, blanketed in gravy, festooned with bacon.... and sometimes all of the above!

Whenever I find myself on the UWS for cat-sitting or whatnot, I try to work in a stop at Good Enough to Eat. There's usually a long line outside. (Of locals, might I add. Never trust a line of tourists.) If you're willing to sit at the bar, the wait will be greatly truncated - Yining and I were seated within 10 minutes.

My CLS girls picked this place for PA's final NYC meal. That should give you some idea of how highly we regard it. On occasions like that, I usually stick my fork into everyone's plate whether they like it or not. So I've sampled a lot of their brunch offerings, even though I always order the Deep South for myself. I mean, sausage gravy!! Need I say more?

Besides the sausage gravy that haunts my dreams, the biscuits are great, the pancakes are great and they have bacon waffles on the menu. Gotta love it!

Studio Square

Occasion: Beer garden revelry with Yining's friends
Location: Studio Square on 36th St near 36th Ave in Astoria (studiosquarenyc.com)
Edibles: a few pilfered fries [and two donuts (glazed and old-fashioned) from Dunkin' Donuts, conveniently across the street]

Musings: Sept. 19 - not done yet! This day just might be one for the history books. A meander-and-graze through Flushing, followed by an al fresco lobster feast at sunset, followed by donuts and beer? Doesn't get much better than that.

The beer garden area of Studio Square is huge, and bar is pretty slick and modern compared to the others I've been to. The crowd looked pretty innocuous when we got there but seemed to get a lot younger on average as the night wore on - the number of meathead guys and hoochie women increased exponentially after about 11:00.

Pitchers are $18 and there's a selection of about 20, foreigns and domestics. We drank a lot of the seasonal Oktoberfest offerings (by Sam Adams, Spaten, Hofbräu) and some Blue Moon. They appeared to serve a decent sausage but I was too full to try to bum a taste. For some strange reason, sushi was also on the menu. One of Yining's more reckless friends ordered some and deemed it so-so but edible.

Oh, and one more thing. The bathrooms are all self-contained stalls. While there's nominally one side for ladies and one for men, the attendant will call ladies over to the men's side when their line gets long. Equality in waiting for bathrooms - I like it!

Mmmm... lobster boil

Occasion: Spontaneous lobster feast with my brother, Yining and Anne

Location: my place

Edibles: whole lobsters with my lemon butter sauce for dipping (recipe below)

Musings: Stuffed on the bounty of Flushing's food courts, we headed to a grocery store to stock up on cheap fruit before heading back to the city. I stopped in my tracks and forgot all about the fruit when I saw that they were selling live lobsters for $4.49 a pound. That's right - $4.49! $4.49!!!!! That's practically free, I marveled.

Now, I had read that lobster prices had tanked with the economy - it's a celebratory food and nobody's celebrating very much these days. In New England, I read, lobster was now cheaper per pound than hot dogs. But that was several states away, near the fishermen. Or so I thought...

You can imagine my delight to discover otherwise. I immediately asked for three, which were unceremoniously stuffed into a brown paper grocery bag and handed, dripping, to me. It didn't take much peer pressure ("Do it. Dooooo it!") to convince Yining to get some, too.

A few hours and five murders later, we made our way to my building's roof deck with two platters of lobster, the butter sauce, a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc and a stack of The Onion to help contain the carnage. We immediately dove in with our bare hands. Shells flew. There may have been some unladylike slurping. In the fading light, we sat back, replete. And yet.... Next time, two lobsters apiece, we greedily agreed. Some corn on the cob would be nice, too.

Kathy, you shoulda been there!

Friends, cooking lobster well is not hard at all. As with all top flight ingredients, you're just trying to enhance (or at least, not ruin). My method:

Boiled/Steamed Lobster

Pour water into a large pot until it's about an inch deep. Bring water to a vigorous boil. Place live lobster inside. Cover, reduce to medium-ish heat (just enough to maintain the boil) and cook 12-15 min for a 1½ lb lobster. That's all, folks.

Some tips:
1) I find 1½ lb lobsters to provide the best value. 1¼'s have proportionately more shell and at 2 lbs, the price jumps. I don't think the 2's are as sweet, either.

2) If you don't want the rubber bands to cook with the lobster, you can remove them just before cooking. I usually don't bother. Be very careful if you do, because a lobster's claw is strong enough to do some serious damage. They don't call the bigger one the "crusher" for nothing.

3) To maximize the tastiness of the claws, clip the tips with a strong pair of kitchen shears or a cleaver so water won't collect in there and make the meat soggy. (Obviously, do this before removing the rubber bands.) This is optional; the claw meat will never be as good as the tail meat, no matter how you cook it.

4) You can cook two lobsters at the same time in a large pot but don't overcrowd. If one is completely on top of another, the bottom one will cook faster than the top one and you risk it coming out tough and rubbery.

Lemon Butter Sauce
(for dipping)

Melt about 2 tbsp of butter per lobster you're serving. Give it a squeeze or two of lemon and grate in some lemon zest (the zest makes a BIG difference). Season with salt and pepper. It looks prettier if you clarify the butter (i.e. skim off the milk solids that separate from the fat) but it tastes just fine if you skip that step.

Bonus points if you can find a way to rig a tealight under the sauce bowl to keep it hot.

Xi'an Famous Foods

Occasion: Stop #2 on our Flushing food march

Location: just across the aisle from Lanzhou, in the basement food court in the Golden Mall, 41-28 Main St at 41st Rd in Flushing [Note: there's another one - they've gone corporate! - in the Flushing Mall, which is distinctly newer and cleaner]

Edibles: cumin lamb burgers

Musings: This is the burger made famous by Tony Bourdain in his recent "Outer Boroughs" episode of No Reservations. (The shop has proudly laminated a blurry photocopy of a picture of the historic event.) Of course, we had to try it.

This burger didn't taste Chinese at all to me. All the ingredients - the lamb, cumin, peppers and onions - seemed more Middle-Eastern. Still, it was yummy and a steal at $2.50. It's a good reason to share the Lanzhou noodles and save some room. Speaking of noodles, the ones on the Xi'an menu looked pretty stellar too. Maybe next month. Stay tuned.

Lanzhou Handmade Noodles

Occasion: A second Flushing excursion with Yining, Kathy and Kathy's mom
Location: basement food court in the Golden Mall, 41-28 Main St at 41st Rd in Flushing
Edibles: beef broth noodles (one with the thick noodles, one with the hand-pulled thin noodles)

Musings: By "food court," I don't mean like the ones in your average mall, with a Burger King, Panda Express, Sbarro, etc. By "food court," I mean a collection of little dingy family-owned stalls like you'd find in populous Asian cities. Even I felt the compulsion to slather hand sanitizer on every surface. So don't say I didn't warn you. It's worth a trip, though, and it's loads cheaper than airfare to Taipei.

The noodles have so much texture and character.... al dente doesn't begin to describe it. They have a resilience and a fresh doughiness that dried, frozen or even refrigerated pastas can't hope to match. It's fun to order a couple different kinds of noodles and broths to share, even though the noodles themselves are REALLY long and hard to portion out. (You may need to use both hands to clamp the chopsticks tightly enough to break the noodles. And watch out for the recoil.)

There's a little plastic container of suan cai (Chinese sauerkraut) on the table. I mixed two heaping spoonfuls into my noodles - it's my favorite part of this dish - but you probably want to start with a light scattering.

The broth could use some work. Unlike the care they take with the broth in Japanese-style noodle shops, I got the feeling this one involved a handful of bouillon cubes thrown into a pot of boiling water. But for $4.50, they're forgiven.

The Mott

Occasion: Dinner with PA, Abby, Elizabeth and Marie
Location: The Mott on Mott (natch) at Broome
Edibles: Moroccan lamb app; Abby and I shared the duck and scallop mains; other people had other things including the pork belly app and the gnocchi - I didn't taste any of the other dishes for reasons discussed further below; chocolate cake for the table for dessert

Musings: The consensus was that the food was great - there just wasn't enough of it. The coriander-crusted lamb was incredible: perfectly medium rare, spicy but not heavy-handed. For $14, though, I would have liked more than three modest slices of lamb over some cucumber salad. The $24 scallop main came with three scallops. The $23 duck main came with five slices of duck. I think our table went through three full baskets of bread and I still wasn't full at the end of the meal.

Price-wise, it's not too bad at the moment since they don't have their liquor license yet and are BYOB. Once they get it, The Mott will likely tip over into my $$$$ category and it just doesn't stack up at that price. Good potential, but I'd only go back if they re-think their financial model. (Oh, and take down the atrocious artwork on their walls.)

Riposo 46

Occasion: Pre-theatre (Bye Bye Birdie) drinks and snacks with Amy and Brigid
Location: Riposo 46 on 9th Ave at 46th
Edibles: spinach pizza and mushroom bruschetta to share

Musings: A nice pit stop before a show. (My stomach starts yowling like a wounded mountain lion if I don't get something to eat beforehand.) The $9 bruschetta plate came with a huge mound of delicious sautéed mushrooms and would have been a light meal on its own. Definitely good to share. The pizza was trendy-gourmet-rustic. They poured me a generous glass of chenin blanc. No complaints here.

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 5

Original Air Date: September 16, 2009

1) Do you want to go camping with the Voltaggio brothers? I do! (There was a moment when Mike V. was standing in front of his tent and started a sentence like, "My brother and I are really competitive but we still..." and I finished it "...like to snuggle!")

2) Another super-specific Quickfire! And one that led to bizarro results where Mike V. was one of the worst while Laurine was one of the best?!

3) Ron was ostensibly in the bottom for his mojito. I think he would have been in the bottom anyway for his too-sweet ceviche, had Mattin not made three worse ones.

4) Oh, Mattin - you did yourself in. It's NEVER the right answer to say that you were satisfied with how your dish turned out when you're in the bottom group. Robin's drunken shrimp sounded pretty atrocious, but she saved herself by admitting the dish's shortcomings.

5) By the way, Robin, TASTE YOUR FOOD! You should never serve something you haven't tasted at least once.

Omai

Occasion: Dinner with my girls - PA (in town from Kampala!), Abby, Elizabeth, and even Catherine escaped the Death Star in time for dessert

Location: Omai on 9th Ave between 19th and 20th (omainyc.com)

Edibles: crispy spring rolls; seared monkfish app; grilled rib app; coconut curry shrimp; red snapper in chili lime sauce; satay beef with string beans and yam; sticky rice; banana bread with vanilla ice-cream for dessert

Musings: Omai is one of those restaurants where you just can't go wrong; everything on the menu is completely scrumptious. If you have the chance to go with a slightly larger party (6-8 people), they can do a chef's tasting for something like $35 per person that includes almost everything on the menu. You'll see what I mean.

The monkfish in particular is not to be missed. I'm also addicted to their sticky rice. (On the rare occasions that they run out, I'm devastated.)

The restaurant is tiny, candle-lit and charming. Try to talk the waitress into seating you in one of the cozy window booths - it's the perfect place to catch up with old friends, over superlative food.

Mermaid Inn

Occasion: Early-bird dinner with Yining
Location: Mermaid Inn on 2nd Ave between 5th and 6th (themermaidnyc.com)
Edibles: Half-price oysters at the bar, followed by the lobster roll special (the roll, a beer and a chocolate pudding for $20 if you order before 7:00)

Musings: Although we went for the lobster roll, the oysters ended up stealing the show. I tried three: the Skookum (WA), Mermaid Straight (PEI) and Pemaquid (ME). The Skookum were unbelievably good - plump, succulent and delicately briny. I had a dozen total (eight Skookum), in three rounds. Absolutely irresistible. I will definitely be back for the oysters.

The lobster roll, not so much. The lobster inside was clearly B-grade, claw meat and other scraps. The sauce was thin and insipid; the bread was a bit spongy. Yummy spiced fries, though.

Even with the great price of the special, I think your time is better spent at Pearl or Mary's. The lobster rolls are spectacular at either place and Mary's also has excellent desserts.

Hop Devil Grill

Occasion: Joining Kathy and Ron for the last leg of their NY Craft Beer Week bar-a-thon
Location: Hop Devil Grill on St Marks at Ave A (hopdevil.com)
Edibles: Beer and burgers all around

Musings: Cheap! With my friends' beer passports (I know, what a concept), beers were $2 a pint. Burgers are half off on Sundays, so my bacon cheeseburger was $4.50 - and not half bad, either. Total for the table came out to a very sweet $22.

The other bar we went to, Back Forty on B at 12th, had a great vibe and was also pretty cheap - my pint was $5. I'd love to go back for dinner sometime.

Who knew Alphabet City had such a great bar scene?

Mmmm... oatmeal

A big bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. Just what a soul needs on this rainy, melancholy morning.

Stay warm, and remember.

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 4

Original Air Date: September 9, 2009

1) Bacon jam! Bacon jam! Oh, did I mention the bacon jam? I want some NOW.
2) That was one very specific Quickfire. I can see how one could be a legitimate chef, yet never cooked this particular protein. What are escargot like to cook? Clams and mussels? Calamari?
3) I'm sure the winning trout was delicious and all but that plate looked so empty and sad to me. I'm not a fan of that modernist, one-bite-of-food business.
4) Wow, that table of guests was a pantheon of French culinary gods. (Short just Eric Ripert.) I went to Joël Robuchon's restaurant in Paris and it was one of the top three meals of my life. Be still my heart... The cheftesants were rightly terrified to be cooking for them.

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 3

Original Air Date: September 2, 2009

1) It happened here first - a contestant is part of the winning group, then ALSO part of the losing group. It happened again on Project Runway the very next day. Both Mike I. and Mitchell were rightly called out for their nonexistent contributions to the winning dish and dresses, respectively. It takes a special sort of talent, guys.

2) New England-style clam chowder is the last thing I'd want to eat on a hot day in the desert. Completely inappropriate in terms of seasonality. Also, I don't know why Jesse was so strident about the one pot Mattin was using. If you're in a hurry to reduce something, doesn't the larger surface area of a wok actually work better?

3) Man, that pasta salad was pathetic. Grocery store deli counter amateur hour. At the very least, they could have made a pesto sauce or something. Preeti, you lost me with the clueless clam shucking and never showed me anything to prove my first impressions wrong. See ya.

4) Kudos to Jennifer for a heroic performance in a completely invisible role.

Minca Ramen Factory

Occasion: Dinner with my bro
Location: Minca Ramen Factory on E 5th between Ave A and B, closer to B - it's reeeeaaaally far east, folks! (note: 5th St looks like it ends on 1st, but you can cut through the apartment complex's park and continue east)
Edibles: one each of the pork and shrimp gyoza; miso ramen (#9) for me; shoyu ramen (#4) for Edward

Musings: This place isn't quite as perfectly delicious as I remembered from before. Then again, I broke up with someone the last time I was here, so maybe it's the taste of sweet, sweet freedom I'm remembering. ;)

The pork gyoza were wonderful. The skin was silky-thin, the filling was yummy and there's a lovely crunch from the caramelized bottom. The shrimp ones were not as good. I liked the idea - a whole shrimp wrapped in a dumpling with the tail sticking out - but the shrimp were overcooked and tough and the gyoza tasted overwhelmingly of ginger.


My ramen's broth was very rich and complex. It got a bit salty towards the end, but I still drank most of it. The noodles were perfectly al dente and the various toppings (seaweed, half a stewed egg, bamboo, bean sprouts, sliced pork, corn, etc.) were high quality across the board. The shoyu broth is clear where the ramen broth is enigmatically cloudy, but it's also very flavorful and robust.


I think the ramen at Minca stands head-and-shoulders with Momofuku Noodle Bar and Ippudo, and I believe (I couldn't verify for Momofuku) it's cheaper than both. I'm looking forward to a lot more visits in the cold months to come.

[Postscript: Happy birthday, Allie!]

US Open concessions stand

Occasion: US Open with Nellie and Jim - fourth round action, Caroline Wozniacki v. Svetlana Kuznetsova and Novak Djokovic v. Radek Stepanek

Location: Arthur Ashe stadium, promenade concessions stand

Edibles: Coney Island foot-long hot dog

Musings: I had preemptively stuffed myself at Chipotle beforehand but, around 11:00, the munchies struck and I needed a snack. The hot dog was overpriced, but whatever. It's a sports event. It is what it is. (Incidentally, I think they'd sell twice as much if they lowered their prices by a third.)

What really made me cranky was that they refused to give me an empty cup so that I could get some water from the fountain. I think my $6 hot dog entitles me to a damn paper cup, dudes. (Bottles of water were an exorbitant $4 each and I refused to buy one on principle. Well.... that, and I'm a cheap bastard about these kinds of things. Don't judge.)

PJ Clarke's Lincoln Square

Occasion: Pre-movie (Psycho) dinner with Kathy and Atticus

Location: PJ Clarke's Lincoln Square on 63rd at B'way (pjclarkes.com)

Edibles: lobster BLT for me; burger for Atticus; salad for Kathy (I won't bust Kathy's chops for ordering salad because she has to fit into a wedding gown in a month.)

Musings: Like Luna Piena, this place has some heavy-duty Death Star associations. (Not this particular location, but still.) It's convenient to Lincoln Square, though, so I sucked it up and tried to ignore the reflexive twitch of my hand to check the BB.

Their burgers are solid. (I didn't taste Atticus', but I know this from the Death Star days.) I thought my lobster BLT was a bit overpriced at $19, considering the stingy amount of lobster inside. You can get a full-on lobster roll for about $5 more. On the bright side, the cilantro mayonnaise was wonderful and they were more than generous with the bacon. Mmmmm..... bacon.

OK for some pre- or post-activity nibbles, but I definitely wouldn't go out of my way.

Tampopo

Written and directed by Juzo Itami

Starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Koji Yakusho and Ken Watanabe

My review: 4/5 stars

Unlike Julie & Julia, this movie is populated with characters who really care about food. I mean, they REALLY care about it. To the point of literal life and death sometimes.

The main story follows Goro, a lone cowboy-type, as he leads our heroine Tampopo in the quest to make the perfect bowl of ramen. (The noodle theme is a play on the idea of a spaghetti western.) It's quite a journey, involving calisthenics with stock pots, espionage, bribery, a makeover and renovation, and countless rounds of practice and taste-testing. They call in various experts to consult; my favorite was the leader of a band of foodie hobos.

The story often meanders away from the main plot to a series of unrelated episodes, many involving a gangster in a white suit and his mistress, all centered around food. Every moment is novel and unexpected. The underling in the French restaurant was great, the etiquette class was hilarious, and oh my god - that little old lady in the grocery store. Fantastic.

The film felt very foreign and weird to me but I certainly wasn't bored.

Julie & Julia

Directed by Nora Ephron

Starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams

My review: 2½ / 5 stars

I wasn't crazy about the book, but thought the leading ladies were worth going to see. I went into this movie with extremely low expectations; consequently, it was better than I expected. Meryl Streep's Julia Child is pretty convincing. On the flip side, the Julie character is sort of a hateful wench and even Amy Adams' natural charm couldn't overcome it.

If you like food porn, this movie will disappoint you. (Eat Drink Man Woman - now there's a movie that will make you drool.) As with the book, there's just not enough about the food.

Which leads me to what I think is the movie's biggest problem (ditto the book): Julie doesn't see herself as a cook, she sees herself as a writer. She doesn't care nearly as much about the food as she does about her blog. Here, the interests of the creator and the audience diverge. Seeing someone cook onscreen can be interesting; seeing someone write onscreen is decidedly not.

Joe's Pub

Occasion: Dinner with Yining before the Happy Ending Music and Reading event

Location: Joe's Pub on Lafayette between E 4th and Astor Place (joespub.com)

Edibles: orecchiette with meatballs for me; frittata panini for Yining

Musings: Fun space, fun event. BUT.

Even though we arrived early and the place was more than half empty, the hostess led us to a table waaay in the back, away from the stage. When we asked if we could get a closer table, she tersely informed us that people reserve specific tables. I certainly hadn't been told about table availability when I made the reservation. Great. We also learned that the artists usually reserve the front tables. For their friends who get discounted tickets? Really? And do their friends need to be up front and center, as opposed to people who are being exposed to the artists for the first time, possible future fans-to-be? Seems backwards to me.

Yining and I both thought Joe's Pub should seriously rethink their policy of ticket price + $12 minimum food order for a table. Popular opinion is that the food sucks and is incredibly overpriced. So why not make the ticket $5 more, have a one drink minimum and forego the kitchen altogether? Joe's Pub is in the heart of NYU territory - i.e. cheap, fast, (and because it's New York) delicious casual food. In this context, it was especially galling to have to pay $17 for sub-standard pasta (the meatballs were gristly and gamey). Yining's frittata panini was better but still overpriced at $14. We could have eaten like kings at Mahmoun's for $10, had a glass of wine at Joe's, and been perfectly happy.

Think about it, Joe's Pub.

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 2

Original Air Date: August 26, 2009

1) I've spent some time mulling it over, but still have no idea how a sweet-and-sour macaroon filled with guacamole would taste good. Also not sure about that tofu ceviche.

2) Jesse needs to brush up on her basic skills. What kind of chef can't properly braise a chicken or sear a scallop? Eve is also a mess - bad palate, bad technique. Popcorn belongs in a movie theatre, not in ceviche.

3) Speaking of ceviche, if Jennifer is going to keep making it, will someone please teach her how to say it right?

4) I don't think it's ever been so clear so early on who's going to make it to the finals. Unless something catastrophic happens, it's gotta be Jennifer, Kevin and a Voltaggio brother. Duh.