Deadman Eating Weblog
Deadman Eating Weblog - chronicling last meals
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April 30, 2004
April 28, 2004
Restaurant Magazines' 50 Best Restaurants in the World
French Laundry #1 according to Restaurant Magazines' 50 Best Restaurants in the World (NYC restaurants to make the list: #10 Gramercy Tavern, #11 Daniel, #18 Jean Georges, #40 Balthazar, #44 Craft)
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: Geisha, August, Megu, Citadelle, BLT Steak, Gaia, Landmarc.
NYTimes Restaurants Amanda Hesser gives Geisha one star (33 East 61st Street; 212-813-1113):
Once you reach the table, your oasis, matters improve. Somewhere beyond the labyrinth of narrow, claustrophobic rooms is a kitchen in which some very good cooks toil. From them, you can have slivers of fluke folded into a thick creamy sauce of coconut milk, ponzu, scallion and a dash of ginger oil and orange zest. You can have dumplings bathed in a green curry broth rich with kaffir lime. Stuffed inside the dumplings are black tiger shrimp that pop in your mouth. And you can have skate that is poached (so much better than sautéed), then laid in a pool of browned butter infused with ponzu and sake. Chinese broccoli, sautéed and draped over the skate, adds just the right note of bitterness.
What you can't get is the attention of the maître d'hôtel, and what you can't do is think straight, because it is a place designed for sensory overload. My advice is to get in early, say around 6:30 p.m., and enjoy the scene ramping up as you nibble on petits fours. Hope for the deft waitress with the brown hair who works in the back dining room, and hope there isn't a fire so you won't have to push through all the drinkers by the door. Then you'll have an almost very good dining experience. (And if you go at lunch, it's serene.)
The kitchen is run by Michael Vernon, who was sous-chef at Le Bernardin for four years. His former boss, Eric Ripert, is the consulting chef at Geisha, approving Mr. Vernon's menu items. There is a sushi chef as well, Kazuo Yoshida, who worked at Brasserie 360 and Jewel Bako.
. . . Many other dishes work well — so well that I would be tempted on my next visit to skip the sushi and stick to the cooked dishes. The sushi is prepared competently, but the fun lies elsewhere on this menu.
Halibut is sautéed and served with spinach in coconut milk, curry and garlic butter. As you eat it, it collapses into a shrimp sauce, so that it ends up as a rich fish porridge. The lamb chops, dark and caramelized, are served with a buttery taro root purée and tiny rounds of spinach wrapped in Napa cabbage, shaped and cut to resemble maki rolls. The chicken stuffed with mushrooms, a bit salty, is paired with a scattering of young beets, carrots, parsnips and pea shoots, each just cooked and lightly glazed with butter.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Baby mussels; miso consommé with cockles; coconut-marinated fluke; crab salad; Caesar yellowfin tuna salad; poached skate; sautéed halibut; coconut blancmange; yuzu millefeuille.
April 26, 2004
Discussion and signing: My Kitchen Wars
Today: Betty Fussell and Dorothy Lyman discuss the play MY KITCHEN WARS, at 7:30pm as part of the ongoing "Meet the Writers" series at the Upper West Side Barnes and Noble at 82nd Street and Broadway.
My kind of eating
Last night after watching the Queen Mary 2 sail by, we headed over to Corner Bistro for cheeseburgers and fries. Not quite full, we walked across town to ChikaLicious for dessert. Together, a perfect meal.
April 22, 2004
April 21, 2004
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: Landmarc, Spicy and Tasty, BLT Steak, Istanbul Seafood Restaurant, ChikaLicious, Masa and Bar Masa, Taboon.
NYTimes Restaurants Amanda Hesser gives Landmarc one star (179 West Broadway; 212-343-3883):
Landmarc's Chinese-restaurant-size menu reads like a studied survey of America's mainstream styles of cooking. Risotto and pastas mix with a section on mussels. Steaks are served with a choice of sauce. If you are in a bistro mood, there is foie gras terrine, and if you are hankering for American fare, there is a grilled pork chop with spinach and apples.
The best dishes percolate with detail. Fried calamari stings with a kick of pepper and is tempered by fried paper-thin slices of lemon. On a frisée salad, shrimp are sautéed and glazed with white wine. They mingle with sweet slices of artichoke and a sprinkling of capers. But the capers are fried, making them extra-salty and crisp, a smart textural element.
. . . With the huge menu, it is hard to do everything well, to keep every dish under control. Spaghetti Bolognese, with braised short ribs in a sweet rich sauce, would have been delicious had the spaghetti not been overcooked. A mushroom risotto suffered the opposite problem: the rice was grainy in the middle.
But two of Landmarc's elements made me feel kindly disposed to the place. One is the "No Substitutions" printed at the bottom of the menu. In other words: we aim to please but don't try ordering frisée aux lardons without the lardons! It may be a friendly neighborhood restaurant, but it has a backbone. The message reminds you that the whole point of eating out is to expand your horizons, to relax and choose trust over control.
Landmarc's other great virtue is its wine list, which could serve as a model for many others around New York. Included among a stimulating selection of mostly reasonably priced wines is a strong list of half bottles, just the thing for a weeknight, when you are out with friends in your favorite new neighborhood restaurant.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Sautéed shrimp and artichoke salad; salmon carpaccio; leeks vinaigrette; smoked tuna sandwich; egg and pepper sandwich; foie gras terrine; and endive salad.
April 20, 2004
Salsalito Taco Shop
This weekend I traveled to Sausalito, California to practice the art of leisure. By all accounts, it was a success. One of my favorite meals from the weekend was a late lunch at the Salsalito Taco Shop.
Salsalito Taco Shop
1115 Bridgeway
Sausalito, CA 94965
(415) 331-5595
April 15, 2004
April 14, 2004
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: BLT Steak, Barbuto, The Spotted Pig, Spice Market, Crave, Megu.
NYTimes Restaurants Amanda Hesser gives two stars to BLT Steak (106 East 57th Street; 212-752-7470):
It takes chutzpah to launch a new entry in a category as storied as the New York steakhouse. And a strategy to redefine expectations; otherwise you end up like the colossally bland Michael Jordan's the Steak House NYC.
Diners need a reason to shift alliances, and BLT Steak succeeds in this. In addition to well-seared meats and a serious wine list, there is a soft touch in the cooking, a sensitivity to acute flavors and seasonal ingredients.
In rethinking the steakhouse, Mr. Tourondel is renovating his own image. Previously, he was chef at Cello, a restaurant on the Upper East Side where his skill with fish earned him three stars from William Grimes of The New York Times in 1999. Indeed, two of the best dishes on BLT Steak's menu are the seafood platter and Dover sole sautéed on the bone.
. . . Here Mr. Tourondel's focus is on dry-aged meats in primal cuts. Of these, the hanger is by far the most flavorful. It is a homely cut, served with a dark crust, and a gamy interior that is dense with an iodine tang.
But oddly, the beef was the most underwhelming part of the menu, not because of the way it was cooked but because the beef itself — which comes from DeBragga & Spitler, where it is dry-aged for 28 days — lacked the depth of flavor normally associated with aged beef. Luckily, the various accompanying sauces are excellent. The horseradish is amply hot and light; the three mustards include a beguiling red wine mustard that has a fruity and lasting heat; and the peppercorn is a beautifully executed classic sauce. The servers encourage you to try several at a time, which only serves to distract your palate. Avoid this.
RECOMMENDED DISHES White mushroom soup; clam chowder; hanger steak; rack of lamb; veal chop; sautéed Dover sole; potato gratin; onion rings; chocolate tart; orange raspberry sundae.
April 13, 2004
Westville East?
Looks like the popular West Village spot, Westville, has begun work on a second location on East 14th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. No word yet on when "Westville East" will open.
April 11, 2004
April 10, 2004
April 09, 2004
Noodle Pie
Noodle Pie is a Saigon food blog. Yum!
Chanoodle
NYTimes: Much better — astoundingly good, in fact — are what the menu calls fried clams ($5.25). They aren't really fried, by the way, but cooked quickly in their shells and served with crisp slivers of aromatic garlic, nuggets of minced pork and cilantro.
As a general rule, an Asian restaurant devoid of Asian customers indicates one of two things: the restaurant serves mediocre Asian food, catering to an unadventurous palate; or the restaurant has received rave reviews and is considered a safe bet. Both thoughts crossed my mind when we entered Chanoodle and I realized I was the most Asian customer present. Fortunately, we found the reviews to be accurate and enjoyed a tasty and affordable meal. We'll have to return another time to check out the $1.50 breakfast.
Chanoodle
79 Mulberry St.
(212) 349-1495
Reviews: NYTimes, Village Voice
April 08, 2004
Meat.com: Not what you might expect
Meat.com: According to PETA, eating meat is hazardous to your health.
April 07, 2004
Dine in Brooklyn Week, April 15-22
Borough President Marty Markowitz has announced Dine In Brooklyn. A la Restaurant Week, participating restaurants will offer three-course, prix fixe menus for $18.98 (1898 is the year Brooklyn joined New York City), lunch or dinner. View a complete list of participating restaurants here.
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: Compass, Tanoreen, Delhi Gardens (NJ), Barbuto, Sant Ambroeus, La Table O & Co., Bianca, Spice Market.
NYTimes Restaurants Amanda Hesser gives Compass one star (208 West 70th Street; 212-875-8600):
While Ms. Sparks may be getting her kitchen in order, what is happening in the dining room is probably not what she has in mind. There, the menus are worn and curled on the edges, and the chairs are dirty. The red banquettes, which were installed when the restaurant became Compass in 2002, belong in Liberace's living room.
A renovation is planned, and I hope it includes the service, which vacillates between comically inept and smothering. One night, I asked the waiter if he could describe the venison entree. "It's awesome!" he said. Later, when we were having dessert, the waiter popped open a half-bottle of Bruno Paillard Champagne and began pouring.
"What did we do to deserve this?" I asked.
"It's nothing," he said. "I forgot to serve it to another table, and I didn't feel like taking it back to the bar. So here you go."
. . . Ms. Sparks has not cooked professionally since Quilty's closed in 2001. In her time off, she seems to have found new infatuations like pistachio oil and black chickpeas, and adjusted her style accordingly. Cooking that used to be blunt and brawny has grown more elegant. She now relies on singular flavors, like preserved lemons, to make a statement, as they do in baby clam and grilled rabbit arrabbiata. Preserved lemon oil perfumes the slices of rabbit and spicy sauce on the clams. Similarly, coconut milk enlivens a mound of shaved fennel that accompanies salmon carpaccio.
Ms. Sparks is particularly good at cooking fish. Maya shrimp are large, firm on the edges and juicy inside and are smartly paired with apples roasted in Calvados. She rolls wild salmon around fragrant shiso leaves and serves it with smoky lentils, dressed with aged sherry vinegar. And she steams black bass and lays it on a bed of creamed Savoy cabbage. At the center of the plate is a row of roasted baby beets in a beet and horseradish vinaigrette — it's borscht and herring, upgraded.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Oysters in gewürtztraminer cream; baby clam and grilled rabbit arrabbiata; roulade of salmon; steamed black sea bass; grapefruit and orange carpaccio; caramel parfait.
April 06, 2004
My Kitchen Wars
Last week I was invited to attend My Kitchen Wars, performed by Dorothy Lyman and currently playing at the 78th Street Theater Lab. My Kitchen Wars is the memoir of Betty Fussell, food historian and author of several books, including the acclaimed The Story of Corn.
The 78th Street Theater Lab provides an intimate setting that suits the work well. The stage is transformed into a homey kitchen, where Fussell tells us her story while she "prepares" lobster bisque, a lobster-avocado salad and a Grand Marnier soufflé. Lyman is joined on-stage by jazz vocalist, Melissa Sweeney who provides fitting musical interludes and transitions.
April 04, 2004
April 02, 2004
Diners
Classic New York Diners. Related: American Diner Museum.
April 01, 2004
Chirashi
Sapporo East
245 E. 10th St.
212-260-1330
No Foolin'
Thorax Cake (via BB)
