Mikey's birthday weekend (part 1-Jean Georges)

Above is a picture of us all at Jon's bar, Highline, where we were celebrating Mike's birthday.

Before he came, Mike had two specific restaurants that he wanted to eat at while in the city (the second of which I was told I couldn't dine at until he got here, which I reluctantly agreed to...).

The first request was a lunch at Jean-Georges. After hearing Jon and I rave about our first lunch experience, Mike wanted to see what all the hype was about.

Unfortunately, this visit wasn't nearly as memorable. In fact, I would rather not remember this meal, as much of it was just plain bad.

We got off to a pretty unpleasant start with the 'Chilled Asparagus Soup with Brie and Lemon'. The dish arrived as pictured below with four asparagus tips, four ridiculously small pieces of brie, some microgreens, and lemon zest. The dish was finished with the pouring of an unnecessarily bright green asparagus puree, which was at a chilly temperature of about 38-40 degrees Fahrenheit.


It's hard to explain what was wrong with this soup, but I'll try.

To start, the soup was poorly seasoned, plain and simple. It was surprisingly bland and the texture was inconsistent and watery. Many people at the table mentioned that the soup tasted like grass, which was true. And the lemon referred to in the title of the dish must have only been speaking of the lemon zest you can see in the bowl, as the soup lacked a much needed level of acidity.

Moving on to the appetizers, we ordered 4 different dishes (2 of which were split into half sizes.)

Starting with the plate being touched and going clockwise is the steamed artichoke, then the tuna tartare, foie gras brulee, calamari, more tuna, and more foie gras.

The artichoke was no better than the dozens of artichokes I have made myself in my own kitchen. It was just a plain old steamed artichoke, a trained monkey could cook one of those. I guess the remoulade it was served with had 24k gold flakes in it to warrant the $8 price tag.

The tuna was tasty but not nearly as good as I had remembered. The ginger marinade served with the tuna was more sharp this time around and completely overpowered the fish.

The foie gras didn't compare to the first time I tried the dish and I instantly knew why. Being that we were a table of six and we only ordered one foie gras appetizer, the kitchen (without asking) split the dish into two smaller portions. This completely threw off the balance of flavors because the two 'half' pieces of foie gras were both covered with a brulee topping, increasing the ratio of sugar to foie. Each bite was so sweet, and the flavor of the liver was drowned in the sweetness of the caramelized sugar.

Lastly the calamari, which was no better than the average calamari you would get at any seafood restaurant in Florida. I can confidently say that the calamari at Gold Coast Seafood, where I used to work in Boca Raton blows this calamari out of the water (and you get five times as much).

Moving on to the main course, I ordered the slow roasted hake with cabbage, bacon, and spicy tomato.


The fish was cooked well and was very tender, however the meat was under-seasoned and bland. The tomato sauce lacked the 'spicy' component the menu description promised, and the bacon wasn't close to being crispy, which it should have been to add some texture contrast to the dish. The chicken dish that Tim ordered was far better, and I instantly regretted my decision.

The best part of the meal was dessert (which isn't saying much). I had the coffee and chocolate dessert.


The most memorable thing about this dish was the incredibly airy cocoa nib sorbet, which was more of a combination of a foam and a sorbet. It was so light and airy and melted as soon as you put it in your mouth. The dish was just too little too late, and this mediocre meal has turned me off from lunch at Jean-Georges. Luckily, I've finally found The Spotted Pig.
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Inaugural Butchering

Last week I was working in the kitchen when my boss came up to me with two whole unbutchered beef tenderloins and said, "Clean these and tie them up."

Not wanting to disappoint, I quickly agreed.

It wasn't until shortly after that, that I realized that I had never done this or been told how to do it. I had seen properly butchered tenderloins though so I knew what it needed to look like. I wanted to share my first work butchering a tenderloin.

This is what I started with...



...and this is how it ended up (complete with tips).

Embracing My Inner Jew

I am one quarter Jewish, which I know doesn't really make sense, and being that it was my father's father who was Jewish it's the least amount of Jewish I could possibly be. Nonetheless, I grew up in south Florida celebrating both Christmas and Hannukah as a small child. I also had a great number of Jewish friends, at whose homes an invitation to passover dinner was always available.


However, it was not until the first time I ate at Sarge's Deli on Third Avenue that I realized how much of an influence the Jewish culture (more specifically, Jewish food) has had on my life.


Sarge's is by far the place I have eaten at more than any other restaurant since I have arrived in New York (I'd say about 5-6 times by now). It just feels like home, and while I really like the city, I love the comfort of being in a place where there decor, food, service, and all around feel of the place immediately take me back home to a deli in Boynton Beach, where I sat with my sister and Pop-pop and Mim, two of the greatest grandparents a kid could ask for!


Sarge's is decorated with the traditional deli decor with maroon vinyl booths and the hideously tacky tiffany-style lamps. It's so bad but it feels so right.


On my first visit I was promptly greeted by my server, the sweetest old Jewish woman I have ever met. The first thing you are brought is a glass of water and a small complimentary plate of cole slaw and pickles(which are fantastic).

There really isn't any need for me to look at the menu because there is only one thing, or rather a combination of things that I ever order. First we start with the matzo ball soup. Just look at the size of that thing! It occupies the entire soup cup!



The texture is softer than any matzo ball I've eaten, but still manages to stay together perfectly. And there's just enough broth to accompany each bite of the matzo deliciousness.

Next is the hot pastrami on rye (with a side of potato salad).


I have yet to go to Carnegie Deli or Katz's Deli, which supposedly have the greatest pastrami on the planet, but I have had Sarge's pastrami, which is by far the best pastrami I've ever had. Once again, look at the size of it!

The first time my friend Jon came with me to Sarge's, he immediately complained about the $11.95 price tag of the pastrami sandwich. Shortly after taking his first bite though, he quickly said, "That's why it's 12 bucks." It just makes you want more, I never want to stop eating when I go there even if I'm too full. I feel as if I'm doing something wrong if I leave even a few slices of stray pastrami on my plate.

It's safe to say that I will be back at Sarge's in the near future. Actually, writing this makes me really want some pastrami, I gotta go...

Momofuku Noodle

I’ve previously written about Momofuku Ssam, one of the three Momofuku restaurants in Manhattan. This afternoon I made my second trip to Momofuku Noodle, the second of David Chang’s spaces which I failed to write about after my first visit.

Located on 1st Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets, the restaurant is currently masked in scaffolding, making it hard to spot unless you’re looking for it. Thanks to my fancy new phone, the place was rather easy for me to find.

Now before I talk about the food I would like to reluctantly admit that I ordered the same exact thing both times I have visited, going completely against my desire to try new things. The reason I did this was because my first visit was so genuinely satisfying, that I badly craved the two specific dishes I had originally had.

To start my meal I ordered the steamed pork buns, a dish I have seen gather numerous rave reviews, and for good reason.



Steamed buns are a difficult thing to describe if you’ve never tried one before. The texture resembles the inside of freshly baked bread, although since they are steamed, the exterior of the bun takes on no color and does not become tough or crusty. It’s simply a pillowly soft pocket of light and airy bread, the perfect canvas for a seemingly endless list of ingredients.

The oval-shaped buns are spread with a light coating of a soy-based sauce, and then assembled with thin slices of crisp cucumber, two thick slices of deliciously fatty pork, and small rings of scallion. Being someone who loves spicy food, I liberally doused my buns in sriracha (that sounds wrong), a chili sauce that packs quite a punch. If you can handle the heat, follow my lead as the sriracha adds just enough acid to cut through the intensely rich pork fat.

For my next course I ordered the chicken ramen for the second time.


As you can clearly tell, the pork buns are totally unnecessary, as the size of the chicken ramen is enough to fill up the hungriest diner. Served is a rich broth with a good amount of ramen noodles, flavorful dark-meat chicken, bamboo shoots, scallion rings, and a sheet of Nori. (I also added my usual dosage of sriracha.) The addition of the chili sauce makes my face sweat while I eat, one of my favorite side effects of spicy meals.

My favorite part of the noodle bowl is that the mound of carved chicken meat is added at the last moment, allowing the skin to remain incredibly crispy despite being submerged in the broth. I also love that it is not only accepted, but encouraged to loudly slurp your seemingly endless noodles as you eat (Having to clean errant drops of broth off of my glasses at the end of the meal is fantastic). Biting off noodles mid-slurp is bad technique. After my minimal practice, I have started to master the technique of guiding the noodles with my chopsticks, helping to minimize the mess.

Both times I have left Momofuku Noodle, I have been entirely satisfied and already looking forward to my next visit. The rest of the menu looks equally as good, and I hope that on my third trip to the restaurant my cravings subside, allowing me to explore the menu a little more.

JEAN GEORGES LUNCH!!!!

At around 9:00 am on a Saturday morning I had the great idea to go to Jean Georges for lunch. Jean George is one of three 3-Michelin star rated restaurants in New York, and while the open cafe setting is much less formal than their white linen dining room, the meal was still fantastic.

The restaurant offers a fixed price menu of 3 courses (appetizer, main course, dessert) and costs $28, a ridiculously good deal for the quality of food you are served. Of course I saw a few other things on the menu that I wanted to try so the price of my meal (sorry mom) increased pretty significantly.

I've never had foie gras, which I find a little odd considering how much I love food and how universally accepted the duck or goose liver is as a delicacy. It's not that I was ever turned off by the idea of eating foie gras, as much as that I've never really been to a restaurant that I felt could do the foie gras justice. So naturally when I see the "foie gras brulee" on the menu, I knew instantly what my first dish would be. Doesn't it look wonderful?!



The round piece of foie gras was topped with caramelized sugar and sprinkled with sea salt, the whole thing resting gently on an equally round piece of toast. The small dish that accompanied the plate was filled with some kind of fruit puree (it has been a while, and I forgot exactly what it tasted like).

If there is only one thing I could stress to you it is, go eat foie gras now! I know it may creep you out a little, but get over it, it's hands down the single best thing I've ever eaten in my life. The richness and creaminess of the duck liver combined with the sweet crunch of the brulee and the sea salt, and the crisp but chewy toast was unreal. The reason I forgot what was in the little dish was because I didn't even make it to that side of the plate. I was so mesmerized by how something could taste so good that I completely ignored the (probably delicious) fruit.

After trying something new, I wanted to try something familiar, and tuna is one of the most familiar menu items in my daily meals. The tuna tartare sounded interesting and I knew the quality of fish here would be second only to maybe Le Benardin.

When the appetizer came out it looked more like a sculpture that a plate of food, with contrasting colors and a vertical presentation that made me wonder how each radish stayed perfectly in place as the server carried them through the long dining room.


The fish was among the freshest I've had, as well as the avocado (which is hands down my favorite fruit), and was sitting in a pool of a perfectly balanced sauce that had flavors of yuzu, ginger, and chili. It created a wonderful mix of sweet, spicy, bitter, and salty, all working to accent the tuna. The sliced radishes added a needed crunch and were equally as fresh as the other ingredients.

Ok so now we'll begin the 3-course tasting menu. First we have the crab toast.


The first thing that popped into my head when I saw this is, "How the hell do I eat this?"
I wasn't sure if the crab salad-topped toast were meant to be wrapped in the large lettuce leaves, or whether the small 'salad' was only there to accompany the toast and be eaten separately. I opted for the second choice, although in hindsight I think I would've enjoyed it more had I wrapped it up.

The flavors were mediocre and somewhat unforgettable. Don't get me wrong, it was the best crab salad I can ever remember eating, but it's still crab salad on toast, pretty boring no matter how you spice it up.

For my entree I chose the BBQ pork belly with crispy sushi rice.


This was almost as good as the foie gras, but on a completely different level. If you're not familiar with pork belly, just think of a giant uncut chunk of bacon that is slow cooked until freakishly tender, then seared to create a thin crispy crust. The piece of meat is probably 65-70% fat, but that's why it's so amazing. The fat melts instantly when put in your mouth, and the attached pork meat is unbelievably tender and requires little to no chewing.

The sushi rice was a little on the dry side, but had a great flavor and the crispy crust on the outside of the rice was a welcome change from the melt-in-your-mouth quality of the pork belly.

For dessert I ordered the 'mango soup' with angel food cake, fresh diced fruit, and a sorbet of which I have since forgotten the flavor. While extremely refreshing and flavorful, the dessert ranked along the same lines as the crab toast for me, being a little too unexciting and regular for me.


Although the two dishes were rather boring, they were still executed perfectly and tasted great. However the foie gras, tuna, and pork belly all offered me something I have never tasted, which after all is why I'm eating all this food in the first place. Overall my trip to Jean Georges was memorable and I'm excited to try the more formal setting for dinner.

Daisy May's BBQ

Alright it's been a while since I've written anything so I have a lot of catching up to do. Going all the way back to Memorial Day, I was in the mood for something you're always supposed to be in the mood for on this day, barbecue. So I hopped on my bike and rode across town to Daisy May's BBQ on 46th and 11th.

I've had a decent amount of really good barbecue in my life so I was looking forward to this trip, as Daisy May's has received excellent reviews from pretty much every publication I've seen.

I ordered the 'Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich', and the 'Memphis Dry Rub Pork Ribs' with sides of Cajun dirty rice and beans, and Bourbon Peaches. I also ordered a sweet tea, which was served chilled in a mason jar.



Overall, I was honestly disappointed. I'm not sure if I caught them on a bad day, with quality of the food sacrificed due to the higher volume of BBQ seekers on Memorial Day, but there was something missing in nearly every part of the meal.

Lets start with the pulled pork sandwich, which is one of my favorite meals on this earth and the menu item I select 99.6% of the time I eat BBQ. I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but the pork is slathered with sauce like a sloppy joe. Every time I see this I can't help but think they are trying to compensate for half-decent meat. I never understood this practice, and am actually quite turned off by seeing this happen. Let me explain why.

The beauty of a really good pulled pork sandwich is the moistness of the shredded pork that just melts when you bite into the sandwich. It should consist of long but tender strands of slow-cooked pig placed on a buttered and toasted bun. The application of the sauce should be left to the individual consumer, as should the addition of cole slaw to the sandwich. By inserting the cole slaw before you send the sandwich out (as Daisy May's does), the heat of the pork softens the cabbage and reduces its crunchiness, defeating the purpose of slaw on a sandwich in the first place.

The ribs were dry, and I'm not referring to the rub, they were dry all around. Just because you're preparing your ribs without sauce, doesn't give you an excuse when the meat contains no moisture. The rub had a good flavor though so I finished a good portion of my ribs.

Neither side item is really worth mentioning. They were both decently mediocre.

The best part of my meal was the sweet tea, served how every sweet tea should be served. Sealed in a mason jar with a few sprigs of mint, the tea had been chilled to almost freezing, allowing it to stay cold enough throughout your meal to avoid the need for ice. Ice does two terrible things to sweet tea; Dilute the tooth-stabbing sweetness that makes the beverage so delicious, and occupy valuable real estate in the jar that could be considerably better served by more tea.

After eating that enormous amount of meat, I knew I couldn't just hop on my bike and ride away, so I took a walk down to the Hudson River and encountered this ship...


From what I understand it is the USS Kearsarge (LHD-3), a US Navy assault ship which was docked during fleet week.

More for My Mom

Here's a continuation of fun that doesn't include any intake of food or beverage.

While walking around with Jon and Sarah yesterday trying to figure out what to do (which we never did, and all went home), we randomly walked past Madison Square Garden, pictured below.


To be honest I though it was ugly. A very uninspiring circle of brown and gray, I barely even noticed it until we were standing under the giant flashing screen hanging off the side of the building.

Today I went to Central Park for the first time. I had been to the borders of the park a few times but hadn't really ventured inside yet. It's nuts how your surroundings within the park can be so polar opposite from the mass of concrete and steel outside of the park.

The first thing I came across was the Central Park Zoo, which to be honest I had forgetting even existed. I didn't go in because I didn't want to look like the loneliest person in Manhattan, just wandering around the zoo by myself.

However the seal tank was right along the fence, so I took a picture. Look mom, New York seals!

Next I walked down this decently scenic path as I was on my way to absolutely nowhere. It looked nice, enjoy...


OoOoOo that's nice to look at, buildings and wilderness...

For My Mother

My wonderful mother is dying to hear about something that I am doing other than eating and drinking, as well as see the area where I am living. So the next few posts will be centered around the touristy things I walk past on a daily basis.

Since I work between Lexington Avenue and Park Avenue, I walk down Park nearly every day. Littered with outrageously priced designer fashion boutiques and jewelry stores, I feel grossly out of place on this street.

The picture below is the intersection of Park Avenue and 51st Street looking south.

This is about a five minute walk from where I am staying. The large building at the end of Park Avenue in the photo (In the shadow of the MetLife building) is where Grand Central Station is located. I've only been to Grand Central once, which was actually yesterday, but I was in a hurry to catch a train so I didn't really have any time to explore. It's big though, really big, with a ridiculous number of tracks.

If I actually took time to slow down and look at all the winding hallways and towering arches, I could have gotten pleasantly lost for a few hours. But like I said I was in a hurry and operating at my newly developed New York pace, which I can't say I'm a fan of. I already miss walking with a slow stride down the streets of West Palm because nobody down there is ever really in a hurry.

This next picture is of Saint Patrick's Cathedral on 51st and 5th. About a 10 minute walk.


It is enormous (Surprise!). I have yet to go inside the cathedral, which I've heard is visually stunning, but I walk by the mammoth house of worship a lot. It occupies an entire square block in midtown. Pretty...

The last picture in this post is related to my personal interests. I encountered this building while aimlessly wandering around my neighborhood the other day.


It's a LEED existing building renovation!(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) As you can see from the signs on the scaffolding, the development team is pursuing a LEED-Gold Certification, which is rather difficult to obtain on an older building. I'll put up some pictures of other LEED buildings that I encounter in the near future.

Really?

Here we go again, another penne dish passed off as baked ziti. But this one has the added bonus of mediocre sweet italian sausage and a total absence of ricotta cheese. This came from a place called Lasagna.


The flavor of the dish wasn't all that bad, but it was so far from resembling a baked ziti it was almost comical. How many Italian places do I have to go to before I get a real, and real good baked ziti? Someone help me out!

Blue Ribbon Sushi

Being the 2nd restaurant on my mental list, and the fourth place listed in the Michelin Guide (I forgot about Lupa), I was admittedly excited. I had been looking over the menu while sitting at the bar at Peep, so I was ready to go.


I ordered four pieces of sushi (from L to R):

Hamachi
Smoked Hamachi
Makai
Jellyfish

They were all fantastic in their own individual ways. I am very familiar with hamachi, and this piece of Japanese Yellowtail was exceptionally fresh. Makai, which is Red Snapper, is very similar in taste to hamachi and was equally as fresh.

The other two pieces were new to me. Smoked hamachi immediately caught my attention and easily met my expectations. The smokiness accented the flavor of the fish nicely without being overpowering.

When I saw jellyfish on the menu I almost cried from excitement. Now I’m still not sure if the jellyfish was raw, cooked, or cured (It was in a light brown soy-based sauce), but it was excellent nonetheless. The texture is exactly what you would think it would be. Slightly chewy, with a nice briny flavor, it was a pleasant change from my arguably boring ordinary sushi routine.

I also ordered the seven-color dragon roll, which was topped with seven different types of seafood. I’m not sure what every piece was, but I do know that there was escolar (often called white tuna), hamachi, tuna, cooked shrimp, and salmon. All the fish was very fresh and the sushi was skillfully prepared.

Jon ordered the shrimp dumplings, which more than made up for the terrible dumplings at Peep, and the Sushi Special #3, an assemblage of three rather ordinary rolls. Below is a picture of the shrimp dumplings.



They were unreal. Unbelievably light and airy, biting through them took no effort at all, showing the individual handmade quality of each dumpling. I could have easily made a whole meal out of those delectable little steamed packages.

Although some menu items can get pretty pricey at Blue Ribbon Sushi, it is very easy to piece together a good meal for a reasonable price. I would definitely recommend this restaurant to someone looking for very fresh, well-made sushi and sashimi, and I’m looking forward to returning soon.

Peep

OK so I’ve made a personal vow to myself to never eat at one of Jon’s restaurants again. I have already mentioned the over-use of cilantro and the well-done pork chop at Highline. Well, I should have known not to be expecting much, as the same chef heads up the kitchen at Peep, a modern Thai restaurant in Soho.

Only being able to order from the left side of the menu because I was sitting at the bar kind of pissed me off. The left side of the menu contained small “bar-sized” dishes like calamari, scallop canapés, and chicken satay.

I opted for the scallop canapés, a relatively easy decision with my love for scallops.


When the plate came out, two things that you can clearly notice in this photo immediately disappointed me:

1. They were tiny bay scallops
2. The scallops were fried…

Neither of these two (rather important) details was mentioned on the menu. I wouldn’t have ordered the dish if I knew even one of those two things. So I started eating anyway, and became increasingly disappointed with each bite. The scallops were greasy and whoever pulled them out of the fryer decided that salt isn’t really that big of a deal and was deemed unnecessary in this dish.

The coconut-peanut sauce was equally as bland and the filo dough (?) cups were soggy and appeared to have been made at the beginning of the week. The “tomato relish” that topped the dish was also featured on many other menu items, leading me to believe that it was Peep’s version of Emeril’s essence. It was an extremely disappointing plate of food.

Hoping that the kitchen would redeem itself I ordered the steamed emperor dumplings, which contained a mixture of both chicken and shrimp.



This was the third dish I had eaten from this chef, and now it was the third bad dish I have eaten by this chef (add Jason’s well-done pork chop and it’s 4).

Well for starters you can see the swimming pool of soy sauce that the “dumplings” are generously submerged in. That actually turned out to be a good thing though, as the overkill of soy sauce muted the terrible flavor of the filling.

Biting through one of the dumplings felt like biting through a meatball, that’s bad. Dumplings are supposed to be light and soft with a pleasant texture. These were rather heavy and unpleasant. I can still feel them sitting like rocks in my stomach a day later.

Only one good thing came out of my trip to Peep. That was the large amount of time I spent waiting for Jon to get off work while I used my fancy new phone to find a good, nearby late-night place to get some food, which I did…Blue Ribbon Sushi, I’m happy.

The Best Bar EVER!

I didn't have to work last Friday, so on Thursday night I saw my friends Francesca and Eric perform stand-up comedy at the Laugh Lounge in the Lower East Side. They are both largely responsible for my own personal interest in stand-up, and I will definitely be doing a few shows with Eric while I'm up here. I'll try and put some video up.

After the show I wanted to go to an interesting place, and Jonny delivered.

I can't tell you the name of the bar or it's location (partly because I don't remember, and partly because they are very secretive about their existence).

All I can tell you is that we walked into this random food shack with scattered diner tables and arcade-style video games (very classy). Before I could ask Jon why we were at a hole-in-the-wall, he quickly jumped into a phone booth, picked up the phone, and briefly pressed the one button that was on the phone.

Before we could blink, a hostess named Ari opens the back wall of the phone booth and asks how many people we were with. We told her only two, and she asked for Jon's number so that she could call us when some space opened up. We were going through a hole-in-the-wall (God I'm clever).

After going across the street to grab a drink while we waited, I became extremely anxious to see what was inside that phone booth. We headed back over about 20 minutes later, and lied to the very polite hostess that Jon's phone was off and we wanted to check if they had called. Jon's phone was working just fine, we were just trying to expedite the process.

And it worked, Ari went in and got people to move down the bar to consolidate spaces and open up two seats. I'm freaking out with excitement by this point.

I discover that the bar was opened during prohibition, and the run-down restaurant we entered through was nothing more than a distraction built by the bar owner to deter police. The gorgeous dark wood bar was stocked with a countless number of bottles I've never heard of (which I was informed were all pretty pricey). They also boasted over 20 different varieties of bitters, most of which were one-of-a-kind homemade versions, created and donated by some of their many loyal patrons.

The bartenders who work here are real professionals and from what I understand have to be invited to work here. You can't just walk in off the street and apply for this job, although I would love to.

One thing that I loved was that every drink on the menu was $12, regardless of the ingredients. $12 is a relatively normal price for a good drink in the city, so for this kind of experience I was happy to pay the set menu price.

After painstakingly combing the very detailed descriptions of all their drinks, I decided on my first cocktail of the night, an old-fashioned with an interesting twist.

A very nice aged bourbon was infused with bacon...yep...bacon, and paired with Grade A maple syrup, a dash of bitters, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Wow! That is literally the first thing that came out of my mouth when I tasted this drink. I was previously unaware that a beverage could result in the complete bombardment of all my taste buds.

At first sip there is the freshness of the lemon juice, which is immediately followed by the deep oak flavor of the aged bourbon and the sweetness of the maple syrup. Towards the end, a subtle but clearly noticeable bacon flavor sweeps over your mouth. It was like going on a fantastical tasting journey all in one sip.

We ordered other cocktails, trying to taste as much as possible, however that wonderful sweet bacon beverage would not leave my mind. I'll write about some other drinks next time I go, which I will be doing without question.

Cheers!

(Sorry I have no pictures, they don't allow flash photography.)

Seo

5-21-08

After spending a good 2-3 hours flipping through my newly purchased Michelin Guide, I finally decided on what my first "Michelin Recommended" meal would be. (Technically Momofuku Ssam was, but that was before I got the book.)

So I made the five minute walk to Seo, a small Japanese place where the entire staff greets you with a Japanese welcome when you walk in the door. I don't want to attempt to spell the greeting out of respect for not butchering the Japanese language.

The first thing I ordered was a glass of sake which came in a square cedar cup. This is the traditional way to enjoy sake, but I've never had it before. Believe me when I tell you to always drink your sake this way! It was the best glass of sake I've ever had and the aroma from the cedar cup played a significant role in my enjoyment.

A small dish of salt with a tiny 'matchstick' spoon came out with my sake (you can see it in both pictures). I have no clue what I was supposed to do with it and out of fear of sounding like an idiot, didn't inquire about it. So if anyone knows what that salt was for, please let me know.

I started with some tuna and hamachi sashimi (I usually ALWAYS order these two cuts of fish when I go out for sushi, I know it's boring, but they're so good). It was the thickest sashimi I've had, which allowed me to better feel the texture of the meat. Both were very good, but not quite the freshest fish I've eaten. The dark portion of the hamachi right under the skin was left on, which has been significantly trimmed all the other times I've eaten the fish. It was pleasant, as it provided two different textures in the hamachi.


For my main course I ordered a miso-marinated grilled cod. The sweet miso complimented the creamy texture of the cod very well. The fish was cooked nicely, although the cut of the fish resulted in the bottom (about inch and a half) being a bit overcooked. I don't know if they normally cut all of their cod this way, but it doesn't really make sense to me. It makes it close to impossible to evenly cook the fish.


My only other gripe is the abundance of bones, which I know are a pain in the ass to remove before cooking, but it's also a pain in the ass to remove while eating.

All of the food I ate had great flavor though so overall I was generally pleased with my visit to Seo. The sake was definitely my favorite part of the meal though, and I would go back just to order that sake and sit at the sushi bar.

Best on First Pizza

As the name clearly implies, this pizza place offers the best slice on first avenue. A short, noticeably cold, walk from my current place of residence, this was my first real 'New York' style piece of pizza. The two slices I ordered were the sauteed spinach and the tomato and fresh mozzarella.


The mozzarella slice was noticeably superior to the spinach slice, which lacked any form of seasoning. The crust was crisp on the outside and nice and chewy on the inside.

Not the best piece of pizza I've ever had, but considerably better than Krunch. I'll try best on first again I'm sure.

My First Kitchen Job

Today I worked from 8 am to 7 pm, standing in the kitchen cooking for 11 straight hours. It was fun, and I got the chance to make some things I’ve never made.

Here are a couple pictures of garnishes I made for the first time today. There’s a plate of sautéed-fluted mushroom caps, a couple cucumber turtles, and a tomato rose (made out of a ribbon of tomato skin).


The mushrooms were served with a seared filet mignon, the turtles with crab cakes, and the tomato roses will pair up tomorrow with a miso glazed salmon.

I will keep documenting as my knife skills improve.

The Press Box, Momofuku Ssam, and Garbage

Yesterday I experienced the good, the great, and the terrible. Bear with me.

For lunch I walked 2 blocks to The Press Box, a small upscale pub on 2nd. My cousin later told me it was a historic pub that all the sports writers used to eat at and discuss, um…baseball I guess. (99.9% of people I have met love the yankees, it gets annoying)

Sidenote: The “AutoCorrect” on my computer tried to capitalize the word ‘yankees’. That makes me mad.

Anyways, it was a really elegant space with dark wood and a well equipped bar. They served a good bit of standard pub fare, including Fish n Chips, Bangers and Mash, and Shepard’s Pie.

So I order a steak sandwich…And Beef and Vegetable soup.

Both were genuinely satisfying. The soup had every ingredient it should have had like potatoes, carrots, onions, a rich stock, and good-sized chunks of beef. The seasoning was good but I add a little extra black pepper, as I usually do to a lot of soup I eat. The steak sandwich was cooked a nice medium rare and the bread was soft and slightly sweet. I sat at the bar and the service was great, so I will definitely return to The Press Box. However, next time I’ll try some more traditional cuisine. I will bring photos from my next visit. I’m getting better with taking pictures of my food I swear. Just look below.

Later in the day I wanted to check out the union square market, as well as visit Barnes and Noble (Which is 4 stories tall, literally larger than any Costco I’ve ever been in). I bought Anthony Bourdain’s bestseller, Kitchen Confidential, and the New York City Michelin Guide to Restaurants. It shows where a majority of the restaurants I want to eat at are located, which makes me happy.

I also checked out Paragon Sporting Goods on Broadway (Which is 3 stories tall). The market at the square was small because it was Monday, but there was still a good amount of fresh produce and herbs, grass-fed meats, and organic bakery items. I didn’t get anything to eat though because I was still full from lunch.

As I’m walking back from my little journey in the Village, I turned down a street at random in order to get to a northbound avenue for a cab. But as I turned the corner, a drawing of a small peach caught my eye on the window. There were no signs on the outside of the building, but I knew I had seen that drawing before. It was the moment I had been hoping for.

This was the first completely random encounter of a restaurant I had on my mental list. It was Momofuku Ssam, one of the many restaurants opened by chef David Chang. His restaurants have received a great deal of attention lately. When I realized what it was, I got so excited, and then so pissed because I was still kind of full. After starting to walk away I stopped myself thinking about how angry I would be later for not stopping to check it out. So I went in.
The lunch shift was almost over; it was around 3:30, so there were only about 20 people in the restaurant. That did not bother me one bit. I grabbed a seat at the bar and looked at the menu. After never really looking past the ‘raw bar’ section of the menu, I was torn between the cured hamachi and the sea scallops. After asking the bartender for a push in either direction, I decided on the scallops, which was a fantastic decision. I love scallops, but have only had scallop sashimi a few times. I eat hamachi practically every time I go out for sushi, so I was admittedly excited.

Just look at this dish. You want to eat it, I know, so did I.


Two skillfully sliced sea scallops were placed on a thin spread of lemon puree, and then topped with pickled cherries, sea salt, micro-greens, and finely chopped Nori.

The scallops were unbelievably fresh and would melt almost instantaneously when you put them in your mouth. The sweet and sour cherries, the subtle crunch of the micro-greens, and the sea salt provided a number of flavors and textures which all worked well together. I was really happy I stopped to visit my first ‘mental list’ restaurant, as it was hands down the best meal I’ve had since my arrival.

Are you still with me? I know this is a long one.

While trying to decide whether or not I was even hungry for dinner, I went for a walk and came across Abitino’s Italian Restaurant on 2nd. The dish I ordered doesn’t even deserve discussion because it was so bad, but it helps me to visually express another of my culinary pet peeves.

As you can clearly NOT tell in the photo, I ordered the baked ziti.


Why do places use penne and rigatoni for baked pasta dishes, and sell them as baked ziti? The name of the dish tells you what kind of pasta to use for crying out loud! Is ziti really hard to come by? (Answer: No. I've been in many Food Emporiums throughout the city and they all have plenty of ziti!) Just because you put ricotta and tomato sauce on non-ziti cylindrical pasta and bake it with mozzarella on top doesn’t mean you can call it whatever you want. “Hey check it out, I made this tasty lasagna with angel hair pasta. Of course it’s lasagna, I baked it in layers.”

After actually eating the dish though, I realized the shape of the pasta didn’t matter, as I thought I was eating three day old, flavorless leftovers. Never eat at Abitino’s.

First City Brunch (Sunburnt Cow)

Sunday morning was my first experience of Brunch in the city, which was a thoroughly enjoyable meal. We ate at the Sunburnt Cow, a small bar and restaurant owned and operated by really friendly Aussies.

We sat in the back, which had a retractable roof that was opened, revealing a canopy of huge trees. The brunch menu had about 10 items on it, and for $15 you could choose any one item, as well as enjoy unlimited mimosas, bloody marys, screwdrivers, champagne, and beer. Yeah, that’s not a lie. Fifteen dollars.

So I ordered the Eggs Benedict (called the Bush Benedict).


See, normally I really enjoy bacon, but for some reason I was disappointed when I saw the plate come out with bacon instead of the standard Canadian bacon. I was really in the mood for CB on my benedict, but the bacon was crispy and soaked in egg yolk so I didn’t mind. The bottomless mimosa in front of me also helped to distract.

Next time I go I’m going to try a burger, which comes out stacked 8” high, complete with a freshly poached egg. When I saw the burger come out I immediately regretted my brunch dish of choice. Not that the benedict wasn’t tasty. I’ll put up a picture of the burger next time I go to the Sunburnt Cow.

All together, it was a good first brunch experience.

Dogs and Highline

If there’s one thing I love as much or more than food, it’s dogs. I haven’t had a dog in around three years and it’s killing me. So whenever my friends have dogs, I turn into a five year old and focus 100% of my attention on the dog for the entirety of my stay at their residence.

Enter Rusty.


Rusty is a Gator dog owned by my friends Chrissy and Jason, and yes he is giving me a high five. He’s a bad-ass, that’s the only way to describe him.

The Kolacki trifecta was in New York this past weekend, which is the first time I have ever seen all three of the sisters at the same time. (My sister wants me to add more pictures of people, so here's the sisters, from L to R, Chrissy, Katie, and Joanna.)


So Jason, Chad, Jo, Katie, Chrissy and I headed to Highline, a Thai restaurant and bar in the Meatpacking district where Jonny is a bartender. I mistakenly ordered the rib-eye (so far I’ve made some poor culinary choices). It was accompanied by a bamboo shoot salad littered with an over-abundance of cilantro.


The marinade on the rib-eye was too salty and too sweet and covered up the flavor of the less than stellar cut of meat. However, the steak was cooked a nice med-rare and was the definitely the best thing on the plate, which isn’t really a compliment.

Before I could even put a bite of the bamboo shoot salad in my mouth, the cilantro bomb went off in my nostrils.

Now those of you that know me well, know that I eat and enjoy everything. I am the least picky person when it comes to food. I will try anything once because people who say they don’t like foods they have never tried really bother me.

My only culinary pet peeve is the grossly widespread over-use of cilantro. It’s just too strong of an herb, and people all over the place use it to the same extent as parsley. It completely overpowers every other flavor in the dish, and this “salad” was a prime example. It wasn’t just me; there was a general consensus at the table that the cilantro needed to be controlled.

When Jason ordered his pork chop, our server didn’t ask him how he wanted it cooked, which I thought was weird. I assumed it was going to come out medium, and the bite I had was pushing well done. Who cooks well done pork chops anymore? The sautéed mushrooms were kind of bland, and I didn’t try any of that crazy orange sauce.



Jo’s red curry shrimp was the best thing that I tried at Highline, at which point I realized I should have gotten a real Thai dish. Grilled rib-eye isn’t exactly a Thai specialty. The curry was a little mild for my personal taste, but the flavor was well balanced. As you can see the dish gets Jo’s “Thumbs Up” approval. (This was Jo’s belated birthday dinner, Happy Birthday Jo!)


Jon insists that the food is good and I should give it another chance but I wasn’t really crazy about anything. We had fun though, and closed out the night at the Brass Monkey Pub.

Krunch Pizza

OK so I’m really disappointed with myself. One of the things I was looking forward to the most was an outstandingly uber-crispy slice of New York Pizza. However my first New York pizza experience was not what I had hoped. This is partially my fault, and I will explain why.

Friday night, after getting off of my first day at work and walking 12 blocks home on a terribly rainy, 45 degree summer day, I wanted some pizza and headed for the only pizza place I had passed while walking home. Krunch Pizza Bar on 2nd Avenue is a pizza place known for its square slices topped with both traditional and crrrazy ingredients.

That was my first mistake, I should have gone with a traditional NY pizza place but it was convenient, I was exhausted, and wasn’t in the mood to go hunting for the perfect slice. Nonetheless, I ordered my dinner.

Below is a picture of the four varieties I chose for my dinner.


Clockwise from bottom left, there’s the Pepe Freddo, Margherita, Ai Funghi, and Eggplant Parmiggiana Pizza.

The Pepe Freddo was topped with tomato, fresh sliced chili, garlic, and parmesan cheese.

The Margherita boasted San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, basil, and olive oil.

The Ai Funghi had wild mushrooms, tomato, garlic, mozzarella, and basil.

Lastly the Eggplant Parmiggiana combined roasted eggplant, tomato, mozz, and basil.

The temperature at which I ate my pizza was the primary reason for the mediocre pizza experience. After walking four blocks home in 45-degree weather and taking 5 minutes to get settled in, the pizza was nice and chilly.

None of the slices tasted bad, they just weren’t that signature NY-style I was hoping for.

I’ll let you all know when I have my first great slice.

Lupa

5/20/08

So I’ve been in the city for 5 days and I have already eaten some really good food.

My first New York meal was a terribly unexciting turkey sandwich from Lenny’s. I say terribly unexciting in reference to the meal decision, not the actual sandwich which was quite satisfying. I just feel like my first New York meal should have been a crispy, piping hot slice of NY pizza, or a freshly carved gyro from a street vendor.

I did have a fantastic dinner with my cousin the first night I was here. Occupying a small space in the Village, Lupa is a very quaint Italian place that serves homemade pastas and other traditional Italian dishes. Mario Batali’s restaurant group, who opened Babbo and Esca, opened the restaurant on Thompson street between Bleecker and Houston. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I do not have any photos of the food, but I’m sure I will be back soon and I will have my camera in hand.

We sat at the bar and got a nice glass of Pinot Noir and started with freshly sliced imported prosciutto, which was cut after we ordered. The machine used to slice the prosciutto was no ordinary kitchen tool, but a machine built specifically for producing tissue-paper thin morsels of salty deliciousness. Some of the best prosciutto I’ve had.

Before I forget, I have to briefly mention the olive oil that was served with the fresh-baked bread. It was the most flavorful olive oil that I have ever tasted, and I had to restrain myself from just picking up the small bowl and drinking it straight.

For dinner, my cousin and I both ordered a homemade pasta dish off of the special menu. It was a pappardelle with a sauce made with shredded pork shoulder and San Marzano tomatoes. The sauce was slightly sweet and the pasta was cooked perfectly. I’m really looking forward to returning to Lupa, and I promise beautiful pictures will accompany the post.