Mmmm... Christmas Dinner

Occasion: Christmas Eve dinner at home with my family
Edibles: prosciutto butter roast turkey; gravy; classic mashed potatoes; brussels sprouts with bacon; homemade cranberry sauce; candied yams

My sister campaigned hard this year for turkey at Christmas. She argued - quite persuasively - that Christmas Day just wasn't the same without my mom's leftover turkey mi fun. So we had ham for Thanksgiving and saved this menu until now:

Prosciutto Butter Roast Turkey
(based on Martha's Turkey 101)

We do a dry rub of salt, pepper, and seasoning spice (the scary orangey spice mix they sell at the grocery store) the day before. Day of, I stuff prosciutto butter (my own invention - slices of prosciutto chopped up and mashed into a stick of softened butter) under the skin. The butter keeps the white meat really moist, while the prosciutto flavors the meat and results in a very attractive thin layer of russet under the skin when you slice into it.

Just follow Martha's Turkey 101 for roasting temperatures and timing, the basting liquid, and the cheesecloth trick. [Slight divergences from Martha: My stuffing requires the giblets and my mom likes the neck (which we roast in the pan along with the turkey), so we use commercial chicken stock for the basting liquid. I also shortcut the gravy by making a packet of the powdered stuff and adding some pan drippings.]

When carving, I use Ina's method of removing an entire breast, then slicing it on a cutting board so that each piece gets some of the skin.

I confess, I bungled the turkey this year. Alton convinced me that stuffing is evil, so this year I decided to put some aromatics (a clove of garlic, a quartered onion, wedges of orange) in the cavity and bake the "stuffing" in a dish on the side.

Problem is, when I make actual stuffing, I take the turkey out of the fridge in the morning and it comes to room temperature while I make the stuffing and wait for it to cool. This time, I didn't remember to take the turkey out of the fridge until the late afternoon, and so didn't have time to let the chill dissipate before we had to stick it in the oven. Big mistake. We cooked the turkey the same amount of time we always do, and the dark meat was still half-raw when we carved into it. (I know, I know, I need to get a meat thermometer.)

Luckily, the white meat was fully cooked so we had that for dinner and stuck the rest of the turkey back in the oven. (It took another hour and a half to cook all the way through. What a difference a few degrees make!)

I also forgot to make the stuffing. Sigh. Good thing we didn't have guests.

Mashed Potatoes

Just like my beurre noisette mashed potatoes, except you just use regular butter.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Trim and clean brussels sprouts; halve any large ones. Chop up some bacon. In a pan, cook the bacon until the fat is rendered and the bacon bits are crispy. Remove the bacon but leave the fat. Sauté the brussels sprouts in the bacon fat for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Splash in a little chicken stock. Cover and steam for about 5 min, until the brussels sprouts are cooked through but still have some bite to them. Sprinkle with the bacon bits before serving.

Cranberry Sauce
(based on Ina's recipe)

1 bag of fresh cranberries
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1¼ cups sugar
1 lemon, juice and zest
a squirt of honey
a splash of dessert wine or white wine

Wash the cranberries and discard any that feel soft and pulpy. Cook in a saucepan for about 20 min with all the other ingredients. It will look fairly runny in the pan, but the pectin in the apple will help it set up as it cools. If the cranberry skins really bother you, you can strain the sauce through a china cap. (I find that the sauce is too thick to strain well, and you will lose some volume.)

Cranberry sauce is astoundingly easy to make, and tastes leagues better than the stuff from a can. Once you taste this, you'll never go back.

Variations: To jazz it up, you can add a ½ cup of chopped walnuts and/or raisins. To give is some muscle, use grappa instead of wine.

Candied Yams

At our house, we have candied yams for dessert. This dish and my stuffing are based on recipes from my Great-aunt Angela. They're a little white trash sounding, even though my great-aunt is Chinese and firmly white collar. Not really sure of the story behind it.

yams, halved and sliced into ½-inch slices
butter
mini marshmallows

Butter a baking dish and dump the sliced yams in. Dot generously with butter and throw in about a handful of marshmallows per yam. Cover with foil and bake at 375° for 30 to 45 min, until the yams are soft and falling apart. You might give it a bit of a stir in the middle to make sure everything is coated in the syrup.

This recipe will work for any number of yams, depending on how many people you're serving. Just increase the amounts of butter and marshmallows accordingly. Increase cooking time as well if the yams get more than about three layers deep in your baking dish (it's pretty hard to overcook this dish, so I wouldn't stress out about it).

Penelope

Occasion: Combined review - brunch with my Penn girls, Kathy, Yining and Huijin (in town from Hong Kong) on 12/12, and brunch with Sylvia a week later (12/19)
Location: Penelope on Lex at 30th (penelopenyc.com)
Edibles: 12/12 - omelet for me; pumpkin waffles with dried cranberries and pecans for Huijin; egg sandwich with pesto for Kathy; a Benedict-eque egg dish with smoked salmon for Yining; 12/19 - we shared a spinach and cheese omelet and the Nutella French toast

Musings: Penelope is the sort of charming little place you'd find in abundance on the westside. Given that it's located in the dead zone of midtown east, you can imagine the locals are nuts about it. Be prepared to wait an hour for a table at brunch.

The food is worth the wait, though. I'm basically incapable of going to brunch and not ordering eggs. In that sense, Penelope's menu works against me. Their savory brunch options are solid, but it's their sweet dishes that are truly outstanding. The waffles were great on 12/12 and the Nutella French toast was the best dish I tasted, period. They also make good coffee and are diligent about refilling your cup.

If you want to avoid the crowds, Penelope's is also a good place for a regular weekday lunch or dinner.

L'Artusi

Occasion: Birthday dinner for Elizabeth
Location: L'Artusi on W 10th between Hudson and Bleecker (lartusi.com)
Edibles: I had the scallop crudo, followed by the grilled quail with pancetta and sweet potatoes; Elizabeth had the bucatini with pancetta and tomato, and the braised pork special; Abby had the pizzocheri (a pasta dish with brussels sprouts, fontina and sage)

Musings: I'd love to know what the decorator was going for. The interior screams hip and trendy for sure, but also struck me as sort of Pottery Barn meets Abercrombie, which I doubt was the intent. There is a lovely private-ish area upstairs, framed by racks of wine and more brightly lit than the rest of the tables, perfect for a larger group.

The food was good overall, if somewhat overpriced. My crudo, for example, was wonderfully fresh and delicate. But the slices probably didn't amount to more than one whole scallop, so it was pricey at $13. The quail sat in a fantastic broth. Unfortunately, the chef used too heavy a hand with the rosemary and not enough of one with the salt. Abby's "pasta" had good flavors; texture-wise, it seemed more like a cheesy dip than a noodle dish. But maybe you're into that.

Mmmm... stewed pork on rice

I hesitated over posting on today's cooking. I (obviously) did it, but I'm warning you in advance that this "recipe" is even more vague my recipes usually are. It's my mom's, and not only did she not have any quantitative measurements to begin with, but I also lost track of my own measurements while fiddling with it and trying to get it to taste like hers. My best advice for mastering this dish, if you're at all interested in doing so, is to call me up one day and have me cook it for you once.  =)

Mom's Stewed Pork Sauce
(sort of a Chinese bolognese)

2 lbs of ground pork
6 shallots, finely chopped
soy sauce
water
cooking wine (I used a traditional Chinese salted rice wine this time, but I've also used vodka in a pinch)
honey or sugar
pepper
nutmeg (my addition; can omit)

In a large pot, pour in a puddle of oil and cook the shallots thoroughly, until they're a uniform deep mahogany brown. Add the pork and brown. Break up any clumps of meat; you want as fine a texture of cooked pork as you have the patience for. Add a generous glug of cooking wine, soy sauce, your sweetener of choice, pepper and nutmeg to season (taking into account the water that will be added next). Add water until it covers the meat, plus an inch. Simmer over low heat for at least 1 hour.

About a half hour in, you can add up to a dozen peeled, hard-boiled eggs to stew in the sauce. Instant side dish!

Serve over rice.

The Man Who Ate the World

by Jay Rayner

My review: 3/5 stars

A decent enough food book, but a thought struck me early on and only became more reinforced as I read: Jay Rayner is a journalist first and a foodie second. His first love is clearly words; the book takes place too much in his head and not enough in his mouth.

Some distractingly bad copy-editing. For example, there's a hotel, the name of which is spelled two different ways on successive pages. Oh, and if there's one word you need to get right in a book about food, that word is "palate."

Worth borrowing from the library if you're into food porn (as I unapologetically am) but not a keeper for the permanent shelf.

An excerpt below from my favorite chapter - on New York City, natch. (I clipped and reformatted liberally, too much to faithfully use ellipses or any other notations. Just imagine they're scattered throughout.)

"I go straight to a food discussion board called Opinionated About. The thread I want, the one I have been waiting for, is finally there. It's located exactly where it should be: in the 'Formal Dining' part of the website, under 'New York.' The first post had gone up about an hour before and is by a man called Steve Plotnicki.

There are a couple of dozen photographs, all of them of plated food: an egg in an egg cup with a turban of cream piled high with shiny black caviar; slices of fish, fanned across the plate and drizzled with a sauce in a funky shade of yellow. There is a duck dish and a foie gras dish, and a whole bunch of other things besides. Plotnicki has invited the members of this site to identify where the meal that these dishes were a part of, was taken.

The first response had been posted just twenty-four minutes after the original. Samantha's message says simply "Per Se." I note that Samantha hasn't bothered with a question mark. She is certain she is right.

She is. "That was one of the places we ate at," Plotnicki replies.

A few minutes later someone called Ian chips in. "Eleven Madison Park and WD-50." Again, no question mark.

"That makes three," Plotnicki says. "Two to go."

Ian is on a roll. "Jean-Georges."

"You're a clever lad," Plotnicki says. "One left."

Now the first note of disbelief creeps in, from a poster called Scotty. "Five dinners in one night? Respect."

"How does one logistically eat that many meals @ dinner?" asks another.

"Some serious eating there chaps," says a third. "I applaud your bravery and your gluttony."

Plotnicki explains: these dishes were part of a restaurant crawl taking in five of the very best restaurants in the city - no more than two or three small, tasting-menu-sized courses in each place - that it was prearranged and that the two diners involved were't always served the same dish, which explains the large number of photographs. Not that any of this is news to me. I know all the details. I know all the dishes. As he has already said, Plotnicki was not alone in this adventure. He had an accomplice. That accomplice was me."

Top Chef Las Vegas Finale

Original Air Date: December 9, 2009

1) That pictures says it all, doesn't it? Congratulations, Mike! I think it was the right result for several reasons. Mike presented the most ambitious menu. Bryan already has his own restaurant. Plus, I feel like he's already the chef he's going to be for the rest of his life, whereas Mike still has unexplored frontiers.
2) Looks like the perfect meal would have been:
     - Kevin's first course: fried chicken skin (uh, YUM) with squash casserole and
       tomato
     - Mike's second: dashi-glazed rock fish with sweet and sour crab salad, squash
       and lemon
     - Bryan's third: venison saddle with sunchoke purée and orange-juniper sauce
     - a tie between Bryan's dessert (white chocolate and dulce de leche
       cheesecake and fig sorbet over dry caramel) for actual execution and Mike's
       dessert (chocolate caramel coulant, butternut squash brûlée, ice-cream and
       candied pumpkin seeds) for concept.
3) I think the match-ups worked against Bryan in the sense that his food probably wouldn't have come across as bland if it was all you were eating. But compared to Mike's complex flavors and Kevin's down-home boldness (he strikes me as a guy who seasons with a heavy hand), his dishes got a little drowned out.
4) I'm very sad about Kevin. I'm guessing the combination of Preeti's bumbling sous-cheffery and the weird ingredients in the mystery box really threw him off his game. But. Dude. Don't choose a slow-cooking method for your protein if you don't have enough time!! And what happened to all the fun sauces he made earlier in the season? Fact is, he coasted a little in these last two rounds and was scared to go outside his comfort zone.
5) I can't believe the final four accounted for 9 of 13 Quickfire wins and ALL the Elimination wins of the season (12 of 13 for the final three - another reason why it was right that Jen came in fourth). It was obvious from the start that some cheftestants would dominate, but that's pretty amazing.

And that's a wrap, folks!

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 13

Original Air Date: December 2, 2009

1) I was sad to see Jen go, but her track record was the spottiest of the folks left. I mean, she really flubbed Restaurant Wars, as well as a whole bunch of other challenges. By that measure, it was right she was the one to go home.

2) Still, a pinch of salt - that's the margin for error with these finalists.
3) Considering how lopsided this season was in terms of talent, it might have been more fun with a format like Masters. Something like double eliminations every episode and four rounds of finals. (Jen would have been booted even earlier, though.)
4) Kevin's "toothsome" comment - what a lawyer move. Too bad the judges didn't buy it.
5) I hate Padma's bangs. I think they make her look like Spock.

Mmmm... chicken pot soup

So named because I made it by accident once while trying to make chicken pot pie filling - added WAY too much milk. Now I make it this way on purpose so I don't have to fiddle with pastry for the pot pie. If you're making it for a dinner party, call it Chicken Fricassée.

Chicken Pot Soup
(based on Martha's chicken pot pie filling)

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 onions, coarsely chopped
5 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 lbs of mushrooms (white or crimini), quartered
1 packet of frozen peas (I like the bigger garden peas)
½ stick of butter
¼ cup flour
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken stock
thyme
salt and pepper

Boil the chicken in salted water with the carrot and onion trimmings (or with actual mirepoix and a bouquet garni if you're feeling ambitious). Chicken should be cooked through. Remove from water, pat dry and shred into bite-sized pieces. Reserve the chicken; discard the cooking water and flotsam.

In a large pot, melt the butter and sauté the onions and carrots. Sprinkle in the flour, and cook for a while in the fat to get rid of the raw flour taste, a.k.a. make a roux. Add the milk and stock. Add cooked, shredded chicken and mushrooms. Season with thyme, salt and pepper. Let it stew for a while, 30 min to 1 hour. Add the peas about 10 min before you intend to eat it. Garnish with fresh parsley if you have some lying around.

Variations: It's soup. It's very forgiving, so customize away! If you're a philistine who doesn't like dark meat, use white meat. For added richness, use 1 cup milk and 1 cup cream. I don't like pearl onions, but feel free to fling those in, if you like them. Other vegetables will also work - Ina's vegetable pot pie has butternut squash, fennel, potatoes, asparagus and green beans (just be careful not to overcook the last two).

Mmmm... burrata from Murray's Cheese

Location: Murray's Cheese in the Grand Central Market (murrayscheese.com) [Note: another location in Greenwich Village]

Murray's is practically synonymous with cheese in the city. And it's easy to see why: they've got excellent selection and the staff really know their business. Recently, I was thrilled to discover that, among its many charms, Murray's carries burrata.

For the uninitiated, burrata is a special subset of mozzarella, and an artisanal cheese in its own right. Burrata tastes like it was barely touched by human hands but it's actually surprisingly complicated to make. (And to my dismay, beyond the capacity of the home cook.) Basically, it's a skin of mozzarella, gathered and tied around a heavenly pulp of mozzarella scraps and fresh cream.

Murray's imports burrata from Italy weekly and though it's not as mild as ones I've had in restaurants (it ages a little more during transportation), it's still thrillingly fresh and creamy. It's expensive at $11 for a fist-sized ball, and a bit too much for one person to eat in a single sitting, but I didn't let either of those things stop me.

[Note: On my second visit a week later, I got a burrata that seemed to be less fresh. The cream had absorbed into the cheese in the center much more, and the taste was less milky and more acidic. As freshness is critical with burrata, I now know to ask about the delivery date.]

Stonehome Wine Bar

Occasion: Pre-theatre (A Streetcar Named Desire) dinner with Kristina

Location: Stonehome Wine Bar on Lafayette Ave between Elliot Place and Portland Ave in Brooklyn (stonehomewinebar.com)

Edibles: tagliatelle with mushrooms for both of us (no time for an app, according to the waiter)

Musings: The space is narrow and cosy with perfect date lighting, and just a few blocks from BAM's Harvey Theatre. I feel like I only had a quick how-de-do with this place but I'm excited for my second visit, whenever that may be. The pasta was terrific, the wine was exactly what I asked for, and the French press coffee at the end was just the thing to stave off sleepiness during the show.

I really do think we could have fit two courses in (after all, you can sear a scallop in three minutes), but that's just a quibble.

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.