Po Restaurant

(100 posts and still going strong! Thanks for reading, y'all!)

Occasion: Dinner with Winnie (in town for a conference), Tom and Melisa

Location: Po Restaurant on Cornelia between Bleecker and W4th (porestaurant.com) [Note: There's another one in Brooklyn]

Edibles: cannellini bean bruschetta amuse-bouche; Tom and I shared the cured tuna app; I had the skirt steak with gorgonzola butter, roasted fingerling potatoes and escarole for my main; Tom had the orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe for his; Melisa had the grilled portobello app start, followed by the pumpkin ravioli in sage butter; Winnie had the roasted beets to start, followed by the pappardelle

Musings: I'm a bit obsessed with Mario Batali and have been to most of his restaurants in the city: Babbo, Otto, Esca, Lupa, Del Posto, Casa Mono and Bar Jamón. I include Po in this list, even though Batali's no longer affiliated and hasn't been for quite a while.

Overall, I thought the food was great. The tuna was a little hard to pick out from the pile of fancy coleslaw it was served on, but once we started excavating, we uncovered a good number of slices. My steak was cooked perfectly and the gorgonzola butter melted into a very rich sauce.

I also sampled everyone's pasta. The pumpkin ravioli was a tad on the sweet side and I don't know if I could have eaten a whole plate, but one bite was perfect. Whoever makes Po's fresh pasta obviously knows his stuff - the pappardelle and the ravioli had great texture and elasticity. Of the three pastas, the orecchiette was the weakest, simply because it was the only one made with dried pasta.

I was very tempted by the ricotta cheesecake, but didn't really have room. Next time.

[Note: They have a six-course chef's tasting for $52. I had it a few years back with some friends and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.]

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 8

Original Air Date: October 14, 2009

1) Why does Robin cook so much goo? Fennel flan, corn panna cotta, avocado mousseline. Also, she really needs to learn how to read a room. And when to shut up.
2) Ash, episode 8 is a little late to START cooking "your" food. The top four have been doing it since Day 1, and doing it well. Unlike you. Buh-bye!
3) As much as I hate to admit it, Eli's Quickfire dish did sound yummy. As did Mike V's root beer braised pork cheek.
4) The Brothers Voltaggio really do have classic older sib / younger sib personalities.
5) Eli derided the other chefs for having "candy palates" for wine, yet he later described his own wine as having "cola and vanilla properties" - hypocrisy, ho!
6) Would it be possible to have a crappy dish that went great with the wine? Now that really would be Top Sommelier!

Piece of Chicken

Occasion: Take-out lunch

Location: Piece of Chicken on 45th between 8th and 9th, closer to 9th
Edibles: rib special ($3) and candied yams ($2)

Musings: The ribs were disappointing - serves me right for getting ribs at a place called "Piece of Chicken." When you need to hack at barbeque with a knife, they haven't done it right. Sauce was good, though.

I feel like I need to have the fried chicken before I can really review this place. Stay tuned.

Cafe Fiorello

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

El Parador

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

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

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

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

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

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 7

Original Air Date: October 7, 2009

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

Little Italy Pizza

Occasion: Workday lunch

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

Edibles: one slice each of sausage and chicken parmesan pizza

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

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

Koronet, I still love you bestest.

The Manor

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

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

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

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

Then coconut wedding cake showed up:

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

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

Barbone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Halal food truck

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

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

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

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

Tarallucci

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

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

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

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

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

Hing Won

Occasion: Workday take-out lunch

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

Edibles: roast duck on rice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5) Collect your food and pay.

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

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

Pongsri

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

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

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

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

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

Mmmm... Oktoberfest leftovers

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

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

Cream of Mushroom Soup

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

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

Mmmm... Oktoberfest

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

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

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

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

In slightly greater detail:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Móle, part II

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

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

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

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

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

Top Chef Las Vegas Ep. 6

Original Air Date: September 23, 2009

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

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

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

Schaller & Weber

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

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

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

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

Party time!

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

Mamoun's Falafel

Occasion: Pre-theatre (Othello) snack

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

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

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

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

Hmmm... lobster stock

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

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

But where would lobster stock fall in the spectrum?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dunno - I'm stumped.