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May 28, 2004
barbecuing areas
Just in time for the holiday weekend: NYC Parks designated barbecuing areas [via BS]
May 27, 2004
beautiful food
Photos from a recent visit to Whole Foods at Columbus Circle, courtesy of Anil
May 26, 2004
barbecue how-to
Barbecue how-to, see also Weber World
Inko's White Tea
Inko's White Tea is made from the silvery white buds of the tea plant rather than the leaves, the source of black and green teas. (official site)
Nobu is moving uptown
Nobu is moving uptown: 13,000-square-foot restaurant at 40 W. 57th St. to open within a year.
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: Balthazar, Gumbo Cafe, Vento, Megu, Cricketer's Cafe.
NYTimes Restaurants Amanda Hesser gives Balthazar two stars (80 Spring Street; 212-965-1414):
After seven years in business, Balthazar has reached that stage in the life of a restaurant when diners' eyes soften as they call to mind memories of meals past, memories of Lillet and oysters and crisp, peaked croissants and the evenings of carefree youth. A married friend recently gave me a sentimental tour of the many tables at which she had had dates.
Balthazar is no longer hip, but it's still bustling. . .
The menu is much the same as always. Most of the best dishes are still there, and so are the less successful items. . .
But the Balthazar salad, romaine, frisée, asparagus, ricotta salata and truffle oil all mashed together, is as good as ever in its slick and wilted way. The escargots drew my companions' attention, large brown coils filled with juicy snails with plenty of the most important part — the butter, garlic and parsley at the bottom of the baking dish.
I adore the brandade, which is coarse and rustic, a mound of potatoes and salt cod marked with rivulets of olive oil, and topped with thin shards of toast. You spread a patch of brandade on the toast, and the delicate toast shatters in your mouth. And the crisp, salty French fries, which are served with the steak and a few other dishes, are still the best in the city.
The menu maintains a backbone of classics throughout the year, as well as an ample infusion of seasonal dishes. Right now, for instance, there is navarin d'agneau with baby turnips and carrots, and asparagus spears, which are warm and come blanketed with a tangy hollandaise and small fragrant morels.
One reason the food has held up so well is that Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson, the co-chefs who started when the restaurant opened, are still here.
May 25, 2004
Per Se vs French Laundry
On the ocassion of the reopening of the French Laundry last week, The SF Chronicle has a story on the challenges and pressures Thomas Keller has faced in opening Per Se, and some comparison of the two restaurants. Included in the story is the chart below, comparing the two restaurants by the numbers.
By the numbers, Per Se/French Laundry
Number of seats: 62*/62
Five-course menu: $135/$135
Nine-course tasting menu: $150/$150
People served per night: 85-100/80-85
Reservation requests a day: 400/300-350
Dining room space: 4,000 sq ft/2,100 sq ft
Kitchen space: 6,000 sq ft/1,800 sq ft
Selections on wine list: 700/650
Waiters: 54/34
Receptionists: 6/5
Full-time employees: 130/90
Yearly projected revenue: $12 million/$6.2 million
* plus 72 in private dining rooms
Related: NYMag on Keller, lengthy (and growing) eGullet thread on Per Se, including French Laundry comparisons (worth poking around)
May 21, 2004
Josh tours Stone Barns Center
The Museum as Edible Complex: Josh tours Stone Barns Center
2nd Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party
Get ready for the 2nd Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, June 12th & 13th
May 19, 2004
The Food Section Agenda
Lots of good food events this week, be sure to check out The Food Section Agenda
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: Jacques-Imo's, Itzocan Bistro. [Shortest review roundup ever!]
NYTimes Restaurants Amanda Hesser reviews Jacques-Imo's (366 Columbus Avenue; 212-799-0150):
Jacques-Imo's (the name is a play on Jockamo, the Mardi Gras character in the song "Iko Iko") is Jacques Leonardi's second restaurant. His first, Jacques-Imo's Cafe, is in New Orleans. Mr. Leonardi, who is from upstate New York, cooks traditional New Orleans cuisine. That is, steaks that are respectable only when topped with oysters and hollandaise; tomatoes that are not worth their salt until they are fried; and crème brûlée that is stingy unless served in a pie dish.
Mr. Leonardi's food is hearty, plentiful and aggressively seasoned. You will not go home hungry but you might go home thirsty for water. And you might be deaf from shouting over the music.
. . . Chicken with béarnaise and acorn squash with coconut curry can be had, but I found the best dishes were those that were unapologetically Southern. A pork chop stuffed with beef and shrimp could feed a family of four and is pleasantly juicy, spicy and awash with, well, Meat Magic. The shrimp creole is aromatic and nicely textured, like a highly seasoned porridge, and the blackened redfish is moist and peppery — "Blackened Redfish Magic" — a long flat fillet with no disruptions.
These are the best. Many of the other dishes are just too much — all substance, no style.
Perhaps the best dish is the Key lime pie. It comes from Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pie in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and I admire Mr. Leonardi for accepting that Steve Tarpin really does make the best Key lime pie, Mason-Dixon line or no.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Jambalaya; gumbo; fried chicken (dark meat); swordfish with Jack's voodoo mojo sauce; blackened redfish; corn macque choux; sweet potato pie; Key lime pie.
NYTimes $25 and Under Eric Asimov reviews Itzocan Bistro (1575 Lexington Avenue; 212-423-0255):
Mr. Bello's cooking is quiet and engaging. He takes the bistro repertory and adds Mexican touches that tweak the dishes in unexpected directions but do not overwhelm them. Nor does he settle for easy choices. He'll offer a chayote gratin, but no French fries. Typical of Mr. Bello's gentle approach is an appetizer of steamed mussels ($8), subtly different in their spicy broth of tequila, lime juice and serrano chilies. A disk of goat cheese ($6) is warmed and plopped down on a bed of greens, but its spicing of epazote and jalapeños adds a delicious nutlike flavor that makes it hard to stop eating.
Perhaps the least Mexican dish of all was a special of half-moon-shaped shrimp ravioli ($6) in a creamy white wine sauce. Perhaps I imagined a little burst of chili heat? I'd eat this anywhere, unlike a duck confit and mushroom quesadilla ($7), which bogs down with gluey Brie.
Main courses are almost all winners, and modestly priced, too. It's hard to imagine a better roast chicken ($14) than Itzocan's, crisp and juicy with a tangy tomatillo sauce and potatoes mashed with corn, and I can't remember enjoying a piece of filet mignon ($16) as much either. This cut, normally tender but dull, was full of flavor and made even better by its deep, complex red-wine-and-chipotle sauce.
BEST DISHES Steamed mussels; mushroom and huitlacoche cake; pumpkin and shrimp soup; shrimp ravioli; roast chicken; filet mignon; seafood pozole; pineapple crème brûlée; chocolate-pear tart.
May 14, 2004
Cupcake Porn
Magnolia Bakery
401 Bleecker St
Phone: (212) 462-2572
Related: NYTimes audio tour and slide show on the NY cupcake scene (Nov. 03), The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook
May 12, 2004
A scoop of indignation
One of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon with out-of-town guests is to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan to enjoy a pie at Grimaldi's, followed by ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, and a ride home via the water taxi. Great views and great food -- what more can you ask for?
The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory serves traditional ice cream flavors made from all natural ingredients. It's good ice cream served from a great location, and the long line snaking out the front door and down the ferry landing is proof. This would be a perfectly acceptable ice cream experience, except for one thing -- the Ice Cream Factory's indignation about just about everything, as expressed in the various signs and framed letters throughout the store. A giant sign board in the front of the store announces,
"Unanimously hailed by the New York press and public as New York's best ice cream . . .
yet overlooked by Zagat?
THE BROOKLYN ICE CREAM FACTORY
only the finest, purest, natural ingredients"
As you approach the counter, there are several framed letters on view from the owner, Mark Thompson:
"DESPITE THE FACT THAT SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE AREA HAVE TOLD US HOW THRILLED THEY ARE WITH THE BROOKLYN ICE CREAM FACTORY, THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE WHO WILL COMPLAIN, INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH, NEVER ABOUT THE WONDERFUL ICE CREAM WE MAKE.
THE CITY OFFICIALS TEND TO LISTEN TO ONLY THE RARE, ODD INDIVIDUAL WHO COMPLAINS BUT NEVER HEAR FROM THE MASSES OF INDIVIDUALS WHO THINK THAT THE BROOKLYN ICE CREAM FACTORY IS A WONDERFUL ADDITION TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
KINDLY LEAVE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS IN OUR GUEST BOOK SO WE CAN HAVE A RECORD OF WHO OUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS ARE AND WHAT THEY REALLY FEEL."
So now the quality of ice cream has been appropriately defended, and the "RARE, ODD INDIVIDUAL" that has complained about what we can only assume from this letter is the location of the Ice Cream Factory, has been drawn to our attention as being "RARE" and "ODD."
What's that you say? The ice cream here is overpriced? Well, maybe you should read this letter:
"I am very proud of this ice cream.
The ingredients and care that each batch receives is unparalleled. Cost increases in every ingredient and material used in manufacturing this ice cream are forcing me to raise prices.
I refuse to compromise the quality due to cost increases. If you want quality, you are in the right place.
Thank you for your patronage and understanding..."
Without a doubt, this is my favorite sign in the store:
Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory
Fulton Ferry Landing (Brooklyn Hts/DUMBO)
Between Old Fulton and Water Sts.
718-246-3963
Reviews: Citysearch, NYMag
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: Zona Rosa, Cafécito, Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar, Mancora, Mas.
NYTimes Restaurants Amanda Hesser reviews Zona Rosa (40 W 56th Street; 212-247-2800):
The chef, Adrian León, is originally from Mexico City and clearly has ambitions for Mexican cooking. For the most part he is following through with stimulating ideas that do not take the easy route of blunt fusion cooking — if you have ever had mashed sweet potatoes with chipotles, you know what I mean.
Mr. León's efforts are more subdued, and in most instances, more sophisticated. His hamachi tostadas came on two crisp curled tortillas spread with refried beans and a habanero marmalade. On top was a pile of raw hamachi cubes and pickled onions, blanketed with a tiny dice of tomato, cilantro and queso fresco. The hamachi padded each crisp and spicy bite with a burst of fresh fish.
Sometimes Mr. León's ideas are small but effective improvements on familiar dishes. It was pleasing to find quesadillas that weren't a wad of melted cheese. These were thin, delicious tortillas wrapped around a scant but powerful filling of Oaxacan cheese, almonds and spinach.
His empanadas contain mushrooms, huitlacoche and corn and are wrapped in masa harina, or corn dough, so delicate that when fried, the outer layer puffs up like a lace veil. Enchiladas are filled with pork ropa vieja and a fruit mole.
May 10, 2004
May 06, 2004
May 05, 2004
May 04, 2004
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: Wallsé, Alta, Manhattan Ocean Club, Franny's, No. 1 Chinese, Eastern Nights.
NYTimes Restaurants Amanda Hesser gives Wallsé two stars (344 West 11th Street; 212-352-2300):
Mr. Gutenbrunner opened Wallsé after working for four years as the executive chef at Bouley. David Bouley's influence, coupled with Mr. Gutenbrunner's Austrian background — he is from Wallsee — made for a stimulating blend of elegance and brawn. Delicately poached lobster and light asparagus soup coexisted happily with venison and lingonberries, goulash and potato pancakes.
. . . Mr. Gutenbrunner has also remained loyal to his menu. It may be a bore for his cooks, but it was a delight to return and find kavalierspitz, a boiled beef shoulder, still among the entrees and spaetzle with braised rabbit as an appetizer.
Mr. Gutenbrunner has a fondness for vegetables and herbs and uses them wisely to offset the heft of some of the Austrian dishes. If you are not tempted by goulash with spaetzle (a perfect dish), you can have wild striped bass, topped with a tuft of freshly grated horseradish. A buttery disk of foie gras terrine conceals a salad of green beans, wax beans, shallots, pistachios and thyme. A potato rösti, or pancake, is layered with lobster, horseradish crème fraîche, herbs and fennel, creating a wonderful spectrum of textures.
His lengthy menu of daily specials often engages seasonal produce, and right now on the main menu is a frothy pea soup that is as green as moss and animated with an infusion of pineapple mint. Giant spears of white asparagus are prepared classically, with folds of baked ham and creamy slices of potato, all resting in a swirl of béarnaise.
. . . Mr. Gutenbrunner, once seen as a pioneer among chefs, has not been fazed by contemporaries like Ferran Adrià and Thomas Keller. He continues to be a great cook without foam, without powdered kumquat. It is a pleasure to order Wiener schnitzel and know you are going to get a breaded and fried piece of veal, and that the roasted venison does not involve roasted venison essence infused into potatoes formed in the shape of a venison chop. The venison chop here is big and hearty, and is surrounded by leaves of Brussels sprouts, slack and toothsome.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Pea soup; foie gras terrine; tomato and artichoke terrine; skate salad; Wiener schnitzel; roasted venison, Viennese savarin; Salzburger nockerl.
