Top Chef DC, Ep. 2

Original Air Date: June 23, 2010

1) Cafeteria food, sigh. Second only to airplane food for being a complete and utter tragedy. For my high school years, my mom abdicated all nutritional responsibility and just gave me $5 for breakfast and lunch in the school cafeteria. Thank God that was when I had the metabolism of a teenager. (Hey - if you think it's amazing now, you should have seen me then.) My brother got two granola bars every day, in about three rotating flavors purchased in bulk from Costco. My mom CAN cook; she just doesn't like to.
2) Jacqueline: spotty technical skills + spotty food science. If you have a grainy mixture (ep. 1), you can only fix it with heat if the bits will melt, like chocolate. Liver, not so much. (Well, I guess you can cook the bejesus out of it, until everything disintegrates into mush. But that's going to taste terrible.) For her pudding: sugar can be used to mask too much salt, or fix too much acid, but it does not break down starch - enzymes break down starch... into sugar.
3) Angelo and Amanda share the prize for Stupidest Idea. Celery in a tuile? Sherry-braised chicken? To serve to kids? Completely unhinged.
4) Awesome, cutthroat Judges' Table. Maybe the best ever. Sabotage! Two pounds of sugar! Peanut butter is evil!

Diego Felix NYC Dinner

Occasion: A private dinner cooked by Diego Felix. Elizabeth co-hosted, and our fellow diners were Jessica and Davinder, Bindi and Eric, Mamie, Brigid, Yining and Summer Brother as a last minute replacement for Jill.
Location: my place
Edibles:

Musings: Diego is the Real Deal. I am more obsessed with him than ever after seeing him in action. The man at work:

He was so happy about the fish, he kept exclaiming about its freshness, stroking it fondly, and holding filets up for anyone nearby to sniff. It was adorable.

Putting the finishing touches on the huancaina sauce. Sanra told me that in Argentina they use a locally produced cheese sold as feta. The feta in New York is more authentically Greek, and is consequently much stronger and saltier than the recipe calls for. When in the US, they substitute a queso fresco.

Looking for a place to stash the roasted veg.

Closeup of the veg. How gorgeous is that?!

The rest of the Colectivo: Sanra and her sisters. Diego explained that when they're on the road (mostly stateside to visit with Sanra's California-based family), he likes to think of their various adventures as the "Colectivo Felix." The Casa is in Argentina, and it's a separate endeavor for him. (If you're in Buenos Aires, I highly encourage you to experience Diego in his natural habitat - Casa Felix.)

The dinner was amazing. My favorite course was the app - that ceviche blew my mind. I think this is how he did it. (There were so many things going on, I could hardly keep track!) Plunge the seafood very briefly in boiling water; immediately remove to an ice bath to stop the cooking (a.k.a. blanch and shock it). Julienne some red onion; keep it and the seafood in ice water until needed. Dress with lime juice just before service (presumably to keep the acid from overcooking the delicate seafood). This method departs somewhat from the traditional way to make ceviche - that is, adding acid to raw fish, and using it to chemically "cook" the fish. I will definitely be attempting to replicate it sometime soon.

The shrimp, scallops and fish (trimmings from the fish filets in the main course) were all incredibly plump and moist and flavorful. A really refreshing dish for the weather. Just awesome.

Diego also served us each a shot of the savory, puckery ceviche liquid. He claimed it's a South American hangover cure, and I believe it.

The main was a quinoa-crusted blackfish on a bed of roasted vegetables. Although yummy to be sure, I thought the crust on the fish could have been crisper, and found the Malbec-berry sauce a tad sweet.

The chocolate-covered alfajores for dessert were just decadent. Chocolate, cookies, dulce de leche - you had me at hello. We also got to try some Argentinean dessert wine (late harvest Torrontés) and mate.

For me, the best part about the dinner was getting to watch the magic happen. It was like peeking into a restaurant kitchen, but also surprisingly like the controlled choas of my family's kitchen when we're doing holiday meals - chatty, messy, fifteen things going on simultaneously, spoons stuck in people's faces for tasting.

This meal was as good a representation of my food philosophy as any: techinque but no fuss; local, seasonal ingredients; unbridled passion and enthusiasm for food; friends and family to share it. Thanks to all the participants - hope everyone had a great time!

Top Chef DC, Ep. 1

Original Air Date: June 16, 2010

1) Welcome back, Top Chef! Though from what I've heard from Sylvia on the restaurant scene there, perhaps DC's not the most qualified city to be hosting this season.
2) I think post-baby Padma looks gorgeous and glowing, but the above outfit is just not flattering.
3) Silver fox and chef extraordinaire Eric Ripert is a new judge!!!!!!!! Hubba hubba!!

4) If you name your restaurant "Rat's", you deserve to have it go out of business.
5) Peeling potatoes with paring knives is ridiculous. I am a potato-peeling machine with my horizontal peeler, and I defy Tom Colicchio to tell me why it's any less legitimate.
6) A surprisingly high correlation between the fastest mise en place chefs and best elimination challenge chefs. Except for Tim, poor shmuck.
7) Looks like Angelo's got some skills. Unfortunately, he is a total blowhard and I hate him already. And dude? Monte Carlo is not in France.

Fishs Eddy

Occasion: Picking up some supplementary glasses and cutlery for the Diego Felix dinner!
Location: Broadway between 19th and 20th (fishseddy.com)

I love, Love, LOVE Fishs Eddy. It's cheap (I started shopping here when I was a student), functional (almost everything is sturdily made and goes in the dishwasher), whimsical and charming. I have pieces from lots of different collections, and my experience is that they mix and match very well.

My personal Fishs Eddy inventory:
- Lots of the now discontinued Cynthia Rowley line: plates with shoes along the rim, soup plates with underwear on them, and bowls with colorful people walking around.
- Three large alphabet bowls.
- Nursery rhyme water glasses. This trip completed my set - I started out with just two of the Little Red Riding Hood but now I have all four designs.
- Half a dozen of their dirt cheap and dishwasher-safe wineglasses. These come out every time I have people over, and have returned their original investment many times over.
- Four old-fashioned ice-cream cups. A housewarming gift from Karen.
- Two huge yellow serving platters. I bought these on clearance for about $2 each and have used them every single time I've entertained since. Love 'em.
- Two long, skinny platters for hors d'oeuvres.

For Karen and Josie's wedding, we New Yorkers put together a gift box of the NY Skyline collection. Fishs Eddy also stocks funky vintage china, stuff with old hotel logos, old airline flatware, stuff like that. If you're more of a minimalist, they have tons of stuff that's just plain white or clear glass. The 99¢ room in the back is a particular treasure trove for the basics.

This trip, I picked up an enormous alphabet platter on sale for $10 (same pattern as my bowls), some short water glasses for 99¢ each and extra knives, forks and spoons at the same price. I also couldn't resist a couple of glasses in the Strip Tea line. They were comparatively expensive at $6.50 each but getting to use a drinking glass featuring a guy pole dancing in buttless chaps is kinda priceless, isn't it?

Mmmm... chicken hash

Another great one pot meal. Leftovers reheat up great, either in the microwave or on the stovetop.

Chicken Hash
(based on Ina's recipe)

2 cups of cooked chicken, cubed or shredded into medium, bite-sized pieces
1-2 onions, chopped
4 red or yellow peppers, de-seeded and chopped
2 potatoes (I like Yukon Golds), cubed and cooked
¼ cup tomato paste
splash of white wine or chicken stock (or water as a last resort)
a pinch of thyme
salt and pepper to taste

I use dark meat almost exclusively when I cook chicken. Dark meat has a higher fat content and fat = flavor. The fat also keeps the meat moist. And dark meat's cheaper than white meat. Basically, it's a winner all around.

If you start with skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs, you can roast the chicken in the oven or poach it. I tend to choose poaching because bring a pot of water to the boil is always faster than preheating an oven. You can also shortcut this recipe by buying a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, though I generally find them to be dry and woody.

Cube the potatoes (skin on or off, depending on how you like it) and boil them until they are just cooked through. Beware not to cook them too long, or the potatoes will completely disintegrate when you try to combine everything. Set the potatoes aside with the chicken.

In a large pot or pan, sauté the onions and peppers in a little oil over medium heat until they're browned and softened. Add the tomato paste and stir everything around for a while, to cook out the raw tomato paste flavor. Deglaze with a splash of white wine or chicken stock.

Add the cooked chicken and potatoes. Season with thyme, salt and pepper to taste. (Instead of thyme, you could also use a pinch of cumin or paprika.) It's nice to garnish this dish with some fresh green herbs. I like cilantro, but parsley or scallions will also work.

Additions: If they're in season, it's great to add some avocado to this dish (off the heat, just before you're ready to serve). Or if you're eating it for breakfast, go ahead and throw a couple of fried eggs on top.

Top Chef Masters Season 2 Finale

Original Air Date: June 9, 2010

1) Wow, how can Rick hope to compare to Marcus and Susur's insanely dramatic life stories? (For those of you that don't watch the show, Marcus' birth mother died of tuberculosis in Ethiopia when he was three and he and his sister were adopted by a Swedish family. Susur moved from Hong Kong to Canada to be with his first wife - who was a passenger on Korean Air Flight 007, which was shot down in Soviet airspace in 1983.)
2) That picture of Rick as a child had me laughing so hard I almost fell out of my chair. What a cute, goofy-looking kid he was! Marcus was an adorable child, too. Susur looked really different when he was younger - his face filled out into a completely different shape.
3) Marcus only used half his budget?
4) Dishes I most wanted to eat: Rick's first (a glazed oyster, hamachi and scallop crudo); Marcus' second (salt-cured duck and foie gras ganache); Susur and Rick's third courses (Thai lamb with Chiang Mai sausage and venison with a stuffed cippolini onion, respectively). I don't have a lot of familiarity with either Scandinavian or African cuisine, but Marcus' food just seemed weird.
5) For new readers, I thought about my own "cook's journey" meal during last season's finale. My answers are here.

[P.S. Thanks to Summer Brother for his "technical assistance" in getting me this ep after my DVR failed to tape it. Bad Gadget!]

Taste of Times Square

Occasion: Taste of Times Square - neighborhood restaurants offer up some small plates, get some publicity
Location: Times Square, natch. Tents were set up on Broadway between 45th and 47th, and on 46th between Broadway and 9th Ave
Edibles: tickets were $1 and plates cost between 1 and 5 tickets; my choices described in further detail below

Musings: Thanks to my co-worker Charles, who threw the brochure on my desk just as I was getting ready to head out. Never one to say no to a food event - especially one right outside my doorstep - I immediately agreed to join him.

It was bright and sunny, the perfect weather to wander around and nibble. I lost Charles almost immediately, so I did a first pass by myself. Eventually, Amy was able to escape work and I did a second lap with her. The eats:

Bond 45 - Italian meatballs with olive focaccia (2 tickets). Decent but didn't blow me away.

Encore - Pulled BBQ chicken on a brioche bun with corn relish (2 tickets). Yummy. Really good flavor on the chicken.

Brasserie 1605 - Crabcakes with chipotle aioli (3 tickets). Great crabcake. Almost solid crab. Thumbs up to the chef for resisting the urge to cheap out by adding a lot of bread as filler. That napa cabbage slaw was horrible, though.

Carmine - Shrimp fra diavolo (3 tickets). Disappointing. Not very spicy and the shrimp were rubbery.

The Library - Seafood ceviche (2 tickets) and strawberry shortcake (1 ticket). The ceviche was EXCELLENT - one of the two dishes I went back for seconds on. I loved the watermelon, and the chill and acidity of the ceviche were wonderfully refreshing on a warm summer's night. The shortcake was meh.

Shula's Steak House - Blackened tenderloin tips with bbq and béarnaise sauce (3 tickets). The other dish I had seconds of. Surprisingly tender and juicy for meat cooked in advance and served out of a chafing dish.




And a special mention goes out to the Times Square Visitor's Center, which apparently sells hand-made fudge. I bought a chunk of peanut butter chocolate fudge for $3 that lasted me as many days in the office, one little bite of heaven at a time...

Travertine

Occasion: Dinner with PA.... ultimately without PA. Let's just say we had some logistical difficulties.
Location: Travertine on Kenmare between Bowery and Delancey (travertinenyc.com)
Edibles: Elizabeth and I shared the gnocchi with braised pork shoulder and crackling to start, then I had the skirt steak and she had the prosciutto-wrapped cod; Abby had the garganelli with morels and sugar snaps

Musings: I'll start with a disclaimer that this is not the most objective of reviews. We all arrived grumpy because of the scheduling snafus with PA, and the restaurant did nothing to improve our moods.

Even before the food arrived, things were rubbing me the wrong way. Everything from the Twilight décor, complete with black crystal chandeliers, to the bored aspiring models they'd hired as waitresses. Our table, too small for three people, with my chair positioned six inches from some steps. Everything irked me.

Their pricey wines are listed as quartinos, defined as little carafes holding 8 oz., almost twice the standard New York pour. I was served a fairly miserly amount in a glass, with no carafe. When asked, the waitress insisted that the pour was a quartino and I just couldn't tell because their wine glasses are bigger. Complete BS.

The food was pretty uneven. The gnocchi were about twice the size they should have been, dense and pasty as a result. (Even crackling couldn't save it!) The prosciutto on Elizabeth's cod was soggy and the portion was tiny. Abby's garganelli, supposedly voted the best pasta in the city (by who?), was good but not great. The skirt steak, I'll admit, was pretty tasty.

My inclination is to write this place off completely as expensive and mediocre. Anyone out there think I need to give Travertine another try?

Top Chef Masters Season 2, Ep. 9

Original Air Date: June 2, 2010

1) The Quickfire challenge was very poorly articulated. What were the rules as to how far you could stray from the original recipe? (The lawyer in me immediately interpreted the maximum possible latitude. This is why lawyers only beget more lawyers - we are trained to think around the rules.) Though I guess it was a moot point in the end since they all had to morph their dishes into soup.

2) I liked seeing the camraderie among the chefs this ep. They were more chilled out and complimentary towards each other than I've ever seen before on this series.

3) Susur should stay away from novelty platings. He doesn't have the subtlety to pull them off. I hated his Marge Simpson plate and cringed at the concept for his dessert in this ep. The former was like something off Olive Garden's kids menu and the latter, a Hooter's dessert special.

4) Jonthan can clearly roast a chicken like nobody's business but he was totally checked out of the competition, mentally. He just flat-out refused to play ball on the Elimination challenge. His words were clearly the hardest, but still.

Kitchenette

Occasion: Brunch with Ben and Rebecca in our old law school stomping grounds
Location: Kitchenette on Amsterdam between 122nd and 123rd (kitchenetterestaurant.com) [Note: another location downtown on Chambers]
Edibles: lumberjack breakfast for me, with berry pancakes, eggs, turkey sausage; omelet for Rebecca; blueberry French toast and a Bloody Mary (an unusual one made with white wine and wasabi) for Ben

Musings: Usually crazy crowded, we inadvertently hit the sweet spot after the regular semester but before summer session when Columbia is deserted.

Kitchenette's food appeals to that inexplicable Southern belle in me. (Also the lumberjack in me, I guess.) This plate made me SO happy when it arrived:

The pancakes were thick and fluffy and the turkey sausage was a nice departure from the usual breakfast meats. Two minor dings: Ben's French toast was too dense and cake-y for my taste, and the cheese grits that came with Rebecca's omelet were deemed too salty by her and too thick by me.

The bakery case is worth a look-see. While waiting for Ben and Rebecca to arrive, it took everything I had not to buy a whole pie to take home (knowing from experience that I would not have the room to eat any dessert). Dinner here is likewise excellent. I'm particularly fond of the turkey meatloaf, buttermilk-honey fried chicken and mac and cheese.

Crooked Knife

Occasion: Welcoming Winnie back to NYC, and to the east side!
Location: Crooked Knife on 30th between Park and Madison (thecrookedknife.com)
Edibles: a burger for me; fish and chips for Winnie

Musings: A lackluster and expensive pub. The burger had plenty of meat, but was totally unseasoned. Just a hop and a skip away, Shake Shack is vastly superior.

Fig & Olive

Occasion: Post-ballet (Don Quixote) with Brigid
Location: Fig & Olive on Lex between 62nd and 63rd (figandolive.com) [Note: two other Manhattan locations]
Edibles: I had the crostini trio (crab with lemon cilantro mayo; salmon and ricotta; bell pepper and goat cheese) and the beef carpaccio; Brigid had the tuna carpaccio and a side of sautéed spinach

Musings: The salmon crostini was bland and oddly slimy. The roasted pepper and goat cheese one was nice, but the crab one was SUPERB - I wish I'd just gotten three of those. The carpaccio was tasty but very insubstantial, sort of like the illusion of eating beef.

Good eats and conveniently cross-town from Lincoln Center, though the kitchen closes too early for it to be a good after-theatre place. We barely squeaked in after an average-length ballet with a 7:30 curtain. No way you'd make it after an 8:00 opera.

Deadliest Catch

Airs on Discovery Channel on Tuesdays at 9:00

My brother was already an occasional watcher, but I got totally hooked on this show! Narrated by Discovery hunk Mike Rowe, it's just naturally action-packed and dramatic. (Did you know that fatalities for a season of crab-fishing average out to person a week?!) And it gets bonus awesome points for playing Bon Jovi during title credits.

As a family we watched something like 15-20 episodes during the long weekend Deadliest Catch marathon. Yes, we are a family of nerds.

We also love us some crab. Dungeness is great almost year-round in Vancouver, but Alaskan King crab season is truly legendary. The price for these monster crabs - live in tanks in most restaurants - dips below $20/lb, sometimes even below $15/lb, and Chinese restaurants do a particularly tasty preparation with tons of garlic called suan long. YUM!

Broder's Pasta Bar

Occasion: Family dinner

Location: Broder's on Penn Ave South in Minneapolis (broders.com)

Edibles: clams in white wine; sausage pizza; caprese salad; pasta with salad greens, asparagus, chicken, mascarpone and balsamic; lobster fettucine; pappardelle with wild boar ragu; lemon ricotta cheesecake and tiramisu for dessert

Musings: I would totally eat at Broder's if it was in New York - and that's pretty much my highest compliment for out-of-town eats. The restaurant was bustling and close to full occupancy even at 5:30, and it's not hard to see why. The décor was clean and modern with some kitschy touches - I loved the metal collanders used as lampshades. The prices were more than reasonable and every dish was outstanding.

The pizza had a wonderful yeasty crust and I couldn't resist a second slice. My favorite of the pastas (all fresh and homemade) was the pappardelle, but an honorable mention goes to the chicken one. It had a lot of surprising ingredients that could have disastrous together but which, instead, melded together into a very unusual and refreshing dish. A great gastronomic mind conceived that dish.

Highly recommended!!

La Belle Vie

Occasion: Family dinner
Location: La Belle Vie on Groveland Ave in Minneapolis (labellevie.us)
Edibles: five-course tasting menu - gougères and a tuna amuse bouche to kick off; scallop crudo with fennel; skate with an artichoke ravioli; poussin with fava beans and ramps; a Mediterranean-y lamb dish; mascarpone cake with rhubarb compote for dessert, and petit fours

Musings: Tasty, but another restaurant for the anorexic model in your life. The portions were teeny tiny - I've never before, for example, been served a single poussin breast. There was between two and three bites of every protein. At $65 dollars a head, they really should be more generous with their serving sizes.

Dining room was a bit stiff and formal, the sort of place you might take your grandmother for a special occasion. The bar / lounge looked a little livelier, but only works for smaller parties. As I said, the food was good and certainly elegantly prepared but I was disappointed with the overall experience.

Baker's Square

Occasion: Search for nostalgic pie from my dad's student days / post-hike snack
Location: Baker's Square on W. 66th in Minneapolis
Edibles: pie all around - Hawaiian strawberry for my dad, blueberry for my mom, key lime for my brother, cherry for my sister, and strawberry cream cheese pie for me

Musings: My top priority for this Minneapolis trip was to get some of this pie, if it was still around to be had:

(Yep, that's me, circa 1982. A pie fiend since toddlerhood.)

Didn't help matters that my dad can't remember the name or location of the place. An old geezer running the tram at Lake Harriet thought it might be Baker's Square, so we checked it out.

Sadly, I don't think this is the place. You walk in, and it doesn't even smell like a bakery, i.e., like you could gain 5 lbs just from inhaling deeply. It's a Denny's-type chain and, while the pie was okay, it was hardly a slice of heaven that a person remembers fondly thirty years later.

Pie from my childhood, are you still out there somewhere?

Zelo

Occasion: Dinner with my sister
Location: Zelo on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis (zelomn.com) - blog goes on the road!
Edibles: fried calamari app to share; my sister had a salad with shrimp, goat cheese and pine nuts; I had linguine with local ham and baby peas in a cream sauce

Musings: With family members flying in from LAX, EWR and YVR, logistical difficulties were bound to arise. My flight and my sister's landed mostly on schedule, but the folks and my brother got seriously delayed out of Vancouver. So much for a family dinner on Friday. Still, after a lunch / snack consisting of airplane pretzels and a little container of bland pasta salad smuggled on board from my office cafeteria, I was determined to have a nice dinner. And a big glass of wine. (Traveling on a long weekend BLOWS.)

The lady at our hotel's front desk recommended this place. Certainly not my first choice for local info, but Zelo turned out to be pretty decent.

[Incidentally, I have yet to find a good shorthand way to describe exactly what it is I'm looking for. Namely, a place that's nice but not too fancy or expensive, where the menu is small and seasonal and the chef is creative, but not weird, and cares deeply about what comes out of his kitchen. What I'd like to say - but can't because it would make me sound like a tool - is, "I live in New York City. I know from good food."]

The Italian was solid. The serving of calamari was huge and came with a nice garlicky aioli for dipping. The half portion of my pasta was plenty, as is almost always the case with cream-based sauces. My sister's salad was a little puny, but the shrimp were good.

Here's the unexpected part. We looked over the menu to see what we could get for takeout for my parents. "Anything Asian?" asked my sister. "I doubt it - this is an Italian restaurant," I replied. But lo and behold, there was a Thai shrimp noodle dish and an Asian sesame salad with chicken. My mom quite liked both. Not a bad start to our trip.

Top Chef Masters Season 2, Ep. 8

Original Air Date: May 26, 2010

1) Complete failure of common sense in the Quickfire. Jonathan, Asian recipes generally do not use butter. Susan, chasseur is a French sauce. It's got mirepoix, parsley, salt and pepper. That's six ingredients without even thinking. Susur, garlic is not a common ingredient in classic stocks and sauces. Also, why struggle over the kind of oil in the chasseur when you hadn't even named the veal?
2) A soy sauce-glazed egg served with coconut jam on toast seems schizo to me. The inspiration was Aphrodite, Susan, not Janus.
3) The show could have come up with some more interesting gods than Poseidon, Dionysus and Aphrodite. Imagine being asked to cook a dish based on Terpsichore, the muse of dance, or Nike, the spirit of victory.

Top Chef Masters Season 2, Ep. 7

Original Air Date: May 19, 2010

1) A Quickfire/Elimination sweep for Susan! Girl power!
2) I think guest judge Jason Lezak is awesome (more below) and I'd totally make out with him - swimmers are HOT. But what does he know about judging food, exactly?
3) Susur, this whole "I don't know tailgating" routine is crap. Asians have great streetfood traditions. There's no excuse for that weird Austrian dumpling you decided to make.
4) Tony seemed pretty bitter about his loss. I'm sure the pizza was good and all, but other than making the dough, he didn't really cook anything. It was the right call.

Aside: I saw Jason Lezak swim for gold in Beijing. He swam anchor for the 4x100 freestyle relay team and heroically made up almost a body length's deficit on the French. That's them, neck-in-neck in lanes 4 and 5, just before the 0.08-second US win.

Lezak's on the far left. He totally deserves all four of the gold medals for the relay team. Incidentally, Michael Phelps (standing beside him) swam first leg and touched in sixth out of eight teams. Duffer.

Billy's Bakery

Location: 9th Ave between 21st and 22nd (billysbakerynyc.com)

Musings: For the price of Jill's one marshmallow at Recette, I got a massive wedge of red velvet cake, two cupcakes for the road, and a café au lait. The fluffy, whipped frosting on Billy's red velvet isn't quite as good as Buttercup's dense and unctuous version (cream-cheesy goodness!), but the size of the slice is generous to say the least and cake is nice and moist.

Incidentally, you can get an un-frosted cupcake for about half the price of the frosted ones. For those of you who consider this blasphemy, A) I intended to eat them for breakfast the next day and it's easier on the conscience without frosting, and B) I ended up having a few leftover dabs from the red velvet cake that I was able to repurpose.

Recette

Occasion: Dinner with Jill and Elizabeth
Location: Recette on W 12th between Hudson and Greenwich St (recettenyc.com)
Edibles: I had the pea soup to start and the veal main; Jill had the arugula salad to start, the same main and the s'more dessert; Elizabeth started with a cheese plate and had the branzino

Musings: I'm sure a lot of people love this place, but it's not for me. For one thing, it's surprisingly loud for such a small space with no music (that I can remember). We were screaming at each other just to be heard.

As for the food, keep Recette in mind if you find yourself dating an anorexic model. The portions are positively miniscule (though what there was, was delicious). The $28 veal dish - a duo of tenderloin wrapped in Parma ham and braised cheek - was about six bites of food. Elizabeth's branzino was the size of playing card, and about half an inch thick. Jill's $8 dessert was, no exaggeration, a single brûléed marshmallow, a sliver of tuile cookie and a quenelle of ice-cream.

We all walked out still hungry.

Martha Stewart's Cookies

by the Editors of Martha Stewart Living

My review: 4/5 stars

I'm SO not a baker, but even I'm mesmerized by this cookbook. Gorgeous photographs and mouth-watering ideas.

A bunch that caught my eye on a flip-through: Gingersnap palmiers. Cream cheese pinwheels. Cornmeal thyme cookies. Cashew caramel cookies. Whole wheat date bars. Oatmeal applesauce cookies. Chewy molasses crinkles. Apricot windows. Pistachio lemon drops. Iced hermits. Hazelnut orange shortbread. Maple pecan shortbread. Lime meltaways. Bourbon currant cookies. Rocky Ledge bars with butterscotch chips, mini marshmallows and chocolate chunks. Lemon madeleines. Pumpkin cookies with brown butter icing. Carrot cake cookie sandwiches with cream cheese frosting. Raspberry honey financiers. Peanut butter whoopie pies. Fresh peach drop cookies. Chocolate pretzels. Earl Grey tea cookies. Chocolate black pepper cookies. Butter twists. Cassis crisps. Alfajores de dulce de leche. Rugelach fingers.

YUM! Yining, when's the next cookie bake-a-thon?

Top Chef Masters Season 2, Ep. 6

Original Air Date: May 12, 2010

1) Tony, you had me at "fried bacon honey pizza dough."

2) I didn't know that Paul McCartney is the reason why Lisa's a vegetarian. I do remember the "There's enough gazpacho for everyone!" episode and quote it a lot.

3) What was up with the creepy taxidermied animals on the cart?!

4) This is what I know about the exotic items:

     - Geoduck: Delicious, if tremendously odd-looking. I always thought it

       looked like a clam that tried to eat an elephant, but couldn't quite manage

       the trunk. I would have picked this for sure. You barely need to cook

       geoduck - a quick dunk in boiling water, some microgreens, a little

       dressing and you have a fantastic salad. I'm really surprised Marcus

       bungled it to the degree he did.

     - Sea cucumber: A pain to prepare and tastes like fish-flavored Jell-O. The

       standard Chinese preparation involves literally days of soaking and

       blanching and peeling. I'm impressed with Susan's tempura idea; I've

       never seen it done like that before.

     - Black chicken: Flavorful but pretty scrawny. Mostly used to make chicken

       broth / stock. Interesting that both Rick and Susur decided to go French

       with their ingredients.

5) To answer Jay's question of why someone would try to eat a crazy-looking animal, the answer is obvious - they were very, very hungry. You can see some of this in French cuisine. I mean, escargots? At some point, a guy looked at a snail and thought, "If I cook it with lots of garlic, maybe it won't be so bad."

6) I usually want a big plate of whatever Jonathan cooks but versatility is definitely not his strength. (Nor is plating.)

Congee Village

Occasion: Comfort food takeout
Location: Congee Village on Allen between Delancey and Broome (sunsungroup.com/congeevillage)
Edibles: Five Spices duck; pork and preserved egg congee; fish congee

Musings: Cold weather + a touch of the sniffles = Congee Time! I can make the plain version for myself, using a short-grained Japanese rice. But today I was craving the savory Cantonese version, which has an altogether different texture. (OK, it's not unlike a bowl of paste. But be open-minded - oatmeal and grits are in the same goopy family.)

The pork congee was fine but the fish one had tons of little bones in it - I found one in almost every other bite. I think they used trimmings, or parts near the belly. Poor form there. The duck was not roasted, as I expected, but rather braised in a salty soy sauce-based broth. Didn't come close to matching Hing Won's.

Can't argue with the prices - $2.95 for a quart of the pork and $3.95 for the fish - but it will obviously take some more trial and error before I get the hang of their menu.

Mmmm... my mom's hot toddy

A cockail and a cure-all. (Don't freak out when you get to the third ingredient - my mom didn't start making this for us until we were, like, in college.)

juice of 1 whole lemon (just half if it's a really gigantic lemon)

honey to taste (I'm pretty impervious to acid so I use about 1 tbsp)

a good belt of whiskey or cognac

hot water to fill the mug

I like to throw the lemon husks into the mug - the hot water releases some of the oils in the zest. While it's hardly modern medicine, the lemon is a dose of vitamin C, honey is soothing for the throat and the booze is a helping hand to a good night's sleep.

99¢ Fresh Pizza

Occasion: Snack time! Any time!
Location: 99¢ Fresh Pizza on 34th between 2nd and 3rd
Edibles: pizza, natch

Musings: This place is not good news for my waistline. Walking past it four to eight times a day + the no-brainer price of 99¢ = a LOT of pizza. I have eaten more pizza since this place opened a few weeks ago than I probably ate in the entirety of 2009.

I think this pizza is as good as anything else you can find in the vicinity for three to four times the price but you need to manage your expectations, as we lawyers would say. The crust is bready and chewy (though I think they should keep it in the oven longer to develop some crunch), the cheese is decent, the service is fast. Business is brisk so the pizza's usually pretty fresh.

You can get toppings for 50¢ apiece, but that seems to undermine the whole point of 99¢ pizza. I load on the free "toppings" of parmesan, black pepper and Italian herbs from the little shakers. Nostalgia - just like I used to do as a student...

Top Chef Masters Season 2, Ep. 5

Original Air Date: May 5, 2010

1) I always wonder what kind of couple would choose to have their big fancy wedding catered in a day by reality show contestants.
2) Based on what they said (groom - meat and potatoes; bride - French and Asian), choosing the bride seemed to be a no-brainer. She's giving you a lot more latitude. Plus, there's no way you're going to let Susur cook his strongest cuisine if you can help it. BUT... I think Blue Team failed to account for the fact that the bride is always harder to please than the groom. The teams ended up being pretty evenly restricted, I thought.
3) Ballsy decision on Jody's part to go with lamb when the bride specifically said she didn't like it. But, then again, the judges' marks count for 75% of the total score.
4) Even before seeing the finished product, I could have told you that Jonathan Waxman wasn't the person to task with decorating the cake - his plates are always super sloppy. That cake looked like it had been trampled, or made by a 3-year-old. The couple should have gone with Susur's croquembouche for the cake pictures. (Incidentally, one way Blue Team could have made a gorgeous and easy wedding cake was to just ice it white and decorate it with fresh flowers.)
5) Why was the carrot cake green? Is that something BC hippies do?
6) To answer your bf's suggestion of marriage with a "F*ck you!" - that's pretty badass. Is Susur's gf really as blunt and salty as he makes her out to be? If so, I want to hang out with her. I bet Tony Bourdain would too.

Terrior, part II

Occasion: Drinks with James
Location: Terroir on E 12th at 1st Ave (wineisterroir.com)
Edibles: prosciutto; marinated cremini mushrooms; beet and orange salad; olive oil cake with rhubarb compote

Musings: Not as stellar a performance as on my first visit. I was a little miffed that the chef wouldn't share the secret fritata she had stashed in the oven, and the rhubarb was strangely salty and slimy (though both the waiter and the chef swore up and down that was how it was supposed to taste.)

Veselka

Occasion: Post-movie (Iron Man 2) brunch
Location: Veselka on 2nd Ave between 9th and St Marks (veselka.com)
Edibles: mushroom, spinch, cheddar omelet with potato pancake for me; French toast for Robert

Musings: Veselka has long been one of my favorite places to go after karaoke on St Marks, when the midnight munchies strike. They're more interesting than your standard diner, and the pierogies and potato pancakes really hit the spot.

I had never been here during the day before but it turns out their potato pancakes, heaped with applesauce and sour cream, are just as good in daylight when you're sober as they are in the wee hours when you're pretty buzzed (and hoarse from screaming "Livin' on a Prayer" multiple times at the top of your lungs).

Nam Son

(Post #200! Thanks to all my old faithfuls, and welcome to my newcomers!)

Occasion: Pho for Cinco de Mayo! Umm.... yeah.... The crew included Melissa and Tony, Sung and Mike, Alicia and Robert
Location: Nam Son on Grand between Bowery and Chrystie
Edibles: spring rolls; summer rolls; lemongrass noodles with beef and onion; bird's nest stir-fry; a giant burrito-like thing; three orders of pho with "everything" (assorted meats and tripes); spicy noodles; rice crêpes with ham; a colorful shaved ice dessert

Musings: All that and assorted beverages, for an amazing $17 per person after tip and tax. Thanks to Robert for sharing his pho place, and introducing us to many other Vietnamese culinary delights besides. (The restaurant recs were really flying! My fellow diners could teach a class on where to get good Southest Asian food in NYC. Mike and Sung, it was great to meet you and I can't wait to try Wondee Siam #1.)

My favorites were classics: the spring rolls, wonderfully crunchy and piping hot, and the pho. On the pho, don't be fooled by the bargain basement price of $6.25 - the bowl is absolutely HUMONGOUS and more than enough for three or more to share. The broth was great, and though I couldn't positively identify all the animal parts I fished out, hey, that's the spirit of adventure.

The lemongrass noodles with beef were good - I'd get them again, with a group. The flavors and textures in the rice crêpe dish struck me as kind of odd; it might be an acquired taste. I'd pass on the bird's nest stir-fry, which struck me as pretty ho-hum. But, all in all, it was a fantastic meal. Two thumbs up. [Postscript: I woke up the next day, still full.]

The carnage:

Top Chef Masters Season 2, Ep. 4

Original Air Date: April 28, 2010

1) I liked Maria's approach to the Quickfire. The soup-main-dessert composition was both creative and elegant.
2) Susur's pineapple ravioli idea was really cool but he should have chosen something other than red berries for the filling. Like maybe mango or citrus? The juice bleeding through the pineapple was a little CSI for me. He also threw, like, ten thousand other things on the plate and turned it into a crazy mess. A little restraint, dude.
3) Wow, Rick must have amazing relationships with both his ex and his current wife to make his situation work.
4) Is Sofia Vergara ridiculously good-looking or what? I'm glad she's not MY co-worker.
5) I wish the judges had said a little more about what made Susur's unremarkable-sounding chicken curry, like, the best food ever cooked. I mean, Julie Bowen liked it a lot, but based on the judges' table discussion I never would have guessed that he'd score as high as he did. But way to go, Susur! Go Canada!