Eats around town
March 21, 2016 § Leave a comment
Blue Ribbon Sushi at Hudson Eats at Brookfield Place
Favorite dishes – bombolotti all’Amatriciana (sauce of spicy tomato and guanciale) and roasted sunchokes with almonds and brown butter – at Maialino during a leisurely lunch while between jobs
Introducing Laura to Toro‘s grilled corn and bone marrow (look at those gorgeous colors!)
Sadelle‘s pick up (sesame bagel with smoked Scottish salmon, chive cream cheese, red onion, tomato, capers). I was obsessed with their bagels for a while but now the lines have gotten too long and I’m pretty sure they upped their prices.
Matcha latte at Chalait – gorgeously prepared but not sure I’ll be getting on the matcha trend train any time soon
Spaghetti alla vongole at Rafele Ristorante, my parents’ favorite restaurant whenever they come to visit (though we introduced them to OTTO the last time they were here so now they may have a new favorite Italian place)
Lovely Sunday brunch with Bohee at the beautiful Untitled at the Whitney
Booze-free dinner at Balthazar with Cindy (clearly not skimping on French fries though)
Delicious and super spicy spread at Pok Pok lunch (finally tried it after years of wanting to go) with Wes
More Sadelle’s – this time dining in with the full-on smoked fish tower and endless bagels (much better than just picking up)
The Grand Gelinaz! Shuffle
August 20, 2015 § Leave a comment
In early July, I was lucky enough to take part in an event called the Grand Gelinaz! Shuffle, a one-time only dinner where 37 of the world’s top chefs switched restaurants (and lives) for a single night. We wouldn’t even find out which chef drew Momofuku Ko (the venue we chose – other NYC restaurants included Mission Chinese Food and Blanca) from the lottery until the night of the dinner itself but I had chosen Ko out of the three New York locations due to its awesome interior and at-the-counter dining format. However, on the day of, some early sleuthing – Gelinaz had provided a posting wall for each restaurant and there were some hints (rainbow cookies from Carbone, red-white-green lasagna components) posted the morning of the event – as well as a too-conveniently timed Instagram post at Union Square Greenmarket had Chris, my co-diner, and me freaking out that it might just be Massimo Bottura, chef at Osteria Francescano in Modena, #2 restaurant on this year’s San Pellegrino’s best restaurants list.
Lo and behold, when we finally arrived at Ko, we were greeted with an enormous wheel of 27 month old Parmigiano Reggiano, a bottle of Massimo’s proprietary Villa Manadori Balsamico 2014 and refreshing spice-infused pink grapefruit and campari cocktails. And because I am lazy, below are photos of each course with just whatever notes I can recall months later but needless to say, it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of a meal chock full of intriguing, beautiful and above all, seriously delicious, food and Massimo was as charming, funny and warm as he seems on Chef’s Table (which I highly recommend you go and watch, available on Netflix):
Signed menu and personalized place settings
Massimo explaining his approach to the menu for the night and showing a component of his lasagna course
Corn off the Cob in Textures and Temperatures,
paired with Shimaoka Shuzo ‘Izumi’ from Yamahai, Junmai, Gunma, Japan
the essence of summer and so rich and flavorful
Wylie Dufresne of the dearly departed WD-50 joining us to explain his course, “Shrimp & Grits a la Wylie”
His “shrimp and grits”,
paired with Dom Perignon 2004
One of my favorite courses of the night: Naples to New York passing through Hokkaido,
paired with Villa Bucci Riserva 2010 from Marche, Italy,
pasta tossed in the richest uni sauce with smoked clams to evoke spaghetti alla carbonara and black-out good
The famous lasagna dish: Spaghetto wants to be the Crunchy Part of Lasagna with Bone Marrow and Bolognese
paired with Punta Crena 2013 from Liguria, Italy,
evoked the highly coveted corner piece of the lasagna which Massimo said was prized among children in Italy but ramped up with fatty, fatty marrow
Plating the lasagna with his trusty lieutenant, Taka
Beautiful Sonic Disco of Love and Hate at the Gate of Hell Painting with Wicked Pools of Glorious Color and Psychedelic Spin-Painted Lamb, Not Flame Grilled
paired with J.F. Mugnier 2006 from Burgundy, France
Yes, that is the name of the dish (the inspiration was art by Damien Hirst) and yes, it was as amazing to eat as it was to look at.
Massimo plating the Salad in Bloom course
Salad in Bloom
paired with Acqua Panna (a.k.a., fancy water) from Tuscany, Italy
Perfect palate cleanser and possibly the first dessert salad ever. Loved sommelier Jordan Salcito’s explanation for choosing water as the pairing and it made perfect sense.
Shaved Foie Gras, Three Cherries…Three Acidities
paired with Vollenweider 2008 from Mosel, Germany
Massimo’s take on Ko’s famous foie gras dish with pine nut brittle and Riesling gelee
(I actually liked his version more than the original thanks to the candied almonds and tartness of the cherries =X)
Oops I Broke the Cannolo as an Apple Pie
paired with Marco de Bartoli from Sicily, Italy
a mash-up of cannoli and apple pie, bringing together the best of American and Italian desserts
The super talented and hard working brigade who put up such an amazing meal
North wants to be South
A super refined version of pizza that we couldn’t get enough of!
All of the beverage pairings from the night along with Massimo’s book, “Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef”
Lunch at Charlie Bird and a Nebbiolo tasting
January 14, 2015 § Leave a comment
Started an Italy-centric Sunday at Charlie Bird, conveniently just down the street from my apartment, for lunch with Cindy. Both of us had only ever been there for dinner, when it’s usually packed, bumping with old school hip hop and you have to wait around 30 minutes to get a seat at the bar, but the restaurant was pretty calm when we arrived around 1 pm. We both ordered a Bloody Mary, which unfortunately wasn’t as strong and spicy as I would’ve liked.
For my main, I stuck with the classic crisply roasted half chicken and herb salad. The portion is always very generous; if you’re a fan of family-style, which I am, you could probably order a pasta dish, this and a side or two to share with another person) and though you can’t see it in the photo, the juicy chicken, which by the way has the most insanely crispy skin ever, is perched atop a huge shmear of rich and creamy chicken liver pate and accompanied by an herb salad that I just forked around for a bit.
Cindy ordered the poached egg with polenta, charred onions and a duck crackling crumble (!) and we also shared a side of the Roman-style artichokes, nicely seasoned and crispy with a romesco sauce.
After Charlie Bird, I tried to work off lunch by doing some window shopping in Soho but most of the time was spent fetching things for the evening, a Nebbiolo tasting at Artemis’. Each of us brought a bottle of either Barbaresco or Barolo (nothing younger than 2010) and we went from the youngest wines (which included some surprisingly smooth Barbarescos) to the oldest, including a standout 1985 Ceretto that Chris generously shared with all of us. What started out as a fairly civilized affair eventually devolved, per usual, into a wine-cheese-salumi-pizza 6-hour eating and drinking marathon that ended with us all pretty tipsy and dreading work the next day (compare photo directly below with the last one). A super fun, gluttonous night with a great group of people that led to a somewhat painful Monday morning, especially since yours truly had wisely decided to sign up for a juice cleanse that day. C’est la vie…
Notes on Food 