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August 25, 2004
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: 71 Clinton Fresh Food, Yolele, Per Se, Pure Food and Wine, Brasserie LCB, Happy Family Restaurant.
NYTimes Restaurants Frank Bruni gives 71 Clinton Fresh Food two stars (71 Clinton Street; 212-614-6960):
[. . .] In March, Jason Neroni took over, boldly remaking the entire menu, save one dessert, to suit his own fancies and fascinations. He is 28 years old.
Guess what. He is also an impressive, resourceful cook, adventurous without, for the most part, being absurd. He does a riveting trout tartare appetizer, which comes in a densely packed puck of roasted pine nuts, mustard seeds, chives, chorizo oil and, as a final reach for richness, a quail egg. Among his entrees is a delicately fleshy skate wing with a foam that mingles flavors in a tantalizing way, rendering each of them almost discernible but not quite, like a word on the tip of your tongue. This combination, he told me on the telephone, is clove, cinnamon and cocoa.
Thanks in part to Mr. Neroni, who worked at the Tasting Room, 71 Clinton is still vibrant, still relevant. If it no longer packs the adrenaline of a new and unlikely affair, it offers the calmer, more constant bliss of an enduring romance. The foundation of its winning formula remains the same: It weds a contemporary, eclectic culinary sensibility to the scale and intimacy of a neighborhood place, then blesses that marriage with a decidedly downtown vibe. Its servers dress, neck to toe, in black and put an irreverent and often facetious spin on what is, in fact, earnest hospitality.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Trout tartare; diver scallops with pissaladière tart; wild greens and vegetable salad; poached foie gras in dashi broth; skate wing; chicken with morels; seasonal cheeses; warm chocolate cake with peanut butter ganache.
August 24, 2004
August 18, 2004
On vacation
NYC Eats is on vacation. Back next week!
August 14, 2004
Remembering Julia Child
- Egullet pays their respects to Julia Child
- NYTimes audio slideshow (William Grimes)
- Julia Child's Slate diary
- "And though she was a t.v. world away, she was so real and genuine in her passion for food, and intimate in her approach. I'm left with the feeling that I've known her, all these years, that she's been with me in my kitchen all along, laughing in her funny way, chatting about cooking tips, commiserating in the dismay of recipes gone awry, but most of all, sharing our love for cooking. Farewell, dear lady. We shall miss you."
- "Everyone knows who Julia Child is. Not only a national treasure, she is a cultural icon. And though she passed away this morning just missing her 92nd birthday, her impact on American cooking will long continue. It's hard to remember a time before Julia Child. But it's not hard to see how she made a difference. Can you imagine a time when leeks were not commonly available in supermarkets? It wasn't so long ago. But on her TV programs she encouraged us to demand things like shallots and leeks from grocery stores and they complied."
- "As Julia said in the introduction to The Way to Cook, "Dining with one's friends and beloved family is certainly one of life's primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal." "In spite of food fads, fitness programs, and health concerns, we must never lose sight of a beautifully conceived meal." So, tonight, raise a glass of Bordeaux to her memory, sit down with a group of your friends over a well-prepared home-cooked meal, and start poring through her cookbooks in search of ways to keep her spirit alive and well in the kitchen. Bon appetit, Julia, and thank you."
- "That was the magic of Julia. She may be best known for introducing America to fine French cooking, but she could also show you how to do a simple technique just right. And her sense of humor was always wonderful too."
"I am sure she is enjoying herself now in her new kitchen."
- This morning, I was writing about lobster murder. As anyone who’s here will remember, Julia’s instructions for Homard a l’Americaine were particularly troubling. Now, bisecting a living lobster is not an easy thing to do – not for the cook, and certainly not for the lobster. I still feel a little bad about it, and this morning I was writing something maybe a little resentful about how I had visited this torture on a crustacean on Julia’s directive.
She told me I could do it, so I did, and it was hard. I don’t ever, ever want to do it again – not for her, not for anybody. But it was important that I do it once. Killing that lobster made me face up to a lot of stuff that bothers me – stuff about responsibility, and hard decisions, and carving (bad word, maybe) a place in the world I can be comfortable in. I would not have done it without Julia to tell me – “Go ahead – What could happen?”
There’s so much I would not have done. Because it would not have been there for me to do. Without you here, I would be a different person – a smaller, a sadder, a more frightened person.
So thank you Julia. Thank you. - It's hard to imagine. She seemed capable of going on forever, fueled by her curiousity and zeal, defying the health-nuts. But she won't be forgotten thanks to fans like Julie of Julie/Julia (whose book we'll someday get to read) and the rest of us who aren't afraid of butter.
- Julia Childs died in her sleep yesterday at the ripe old age of 91. Who says butter is bad for you? I had four thick slices of bacon and some brie for lunch today in her honor. Bye, Julia, and bon appetit.
August 13, 2004
Julia Child
Julia Child has died. She would have been 92 on Sunday.
August 12, 2004
“Popeye’s is better.”
Jacques-Imo's Fried Chicken: “Popeye’s is better.” (and cheaper!)
Magnolia Bakery rumors
Magnolia Bakery rumors: "Not closing anytime soon."
Shanghai Cafe
Addyourown.com: Review of Shanghai Cafe (formerly Shanghai Gourmet)
August 11, 2004
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: Kittichai, Li Hua, Trinity, Hummus Place, Dumpling Man.
NYTimes Frank Bruni gives Kittichai two stars (60 Thompson Street; 212-219-2000):
Protein as diorama, dessert as décor: Kittichai, in SoHo, is staking its claim on the same turf that other new restaurants — Megu in TriBeCa and Spice Market and Matsuri in the meatpacking district — inhabit. In that surreal and sexy place, which is more often than not downtown, upscale dining meets assiduously eccentric theater. The tantalizing seasonings of a distant land encounter the cheeky attitude of our own. The Manhattan economy may have its discontents, but an ebbing of pose-striking, scene-stealing Manhattan restaurants is not among them. That is very lucky for us, because the gustatory pleasures of Kittichai (pronounced kitty-chai) rise almost to the level of the visual ones.
The restaurant's Thai soul asserts itself through the recurrence, in dish after dish, of kaffir lime and lemon grass, Thai basil and Thai chili peppers, coriander and coconut. Its Thai chef, Ian Chalermkittichai, for whom the restaurant is named, grew up in Bangkok. But he worked and cooked in London and Sydney, Australia, and then, as the executive chef at the Four Seasons hotel in Bangkok, supervised not just a Thai restaurant but also Italian and Japanese ones. Small wonder, then, that boundaries blur in his kitchen and he readily makes concessions to the habits of New Yorkers and the culinary fads of the moment.
. . . Mr. Chalermkittichai also makes concessions to the whims of his own imagination. He uses cocoa powder, apple butter and A1 steak sauce for a glaze on baby back ribs, which he unabashedly advertises as "chocolate back ribs." Do not cringe: when I had them, they were delightful, because the meat really did fall from the bones and the hint of chocolate was just that, a hint, not an emphatic statement.
In fact, some of the best dishes on this broad menu, which emphasizes small plates by having both tapas and appetizer categories, reflect the chef's determination to find a balance of sweet, sour, salty and hotly spicy. Although he occasionally overemphasizes sweetness, he often hits his mark. Those curries are an example. So is this restaurant's exalted version of the chicken, lemon grass and coconut soup that almost every Thai takeout place offers. Here it is a gorgeous pale red, reflecting the inclusion of roasted red chili paste among other ingredients like galangal and kaffir lime.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Marinated monkfish in pandan leaves; galangal and coconut soup with chicken; crispy rock shrimp; steamed mussels; banana blossom salad; chocolate ribs; Chilean sea bass; loin of lamb; Cornish hen; short ribs in green curry; monkfish in yellow curry; kaffir lime tart; Champagne mango with sticky rice.
August 10, 2004
Pomodoro a Riso
This weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting some of San Francisco's food bloggers thanks to Amy's prompting and Heidi's fabulous hostess skills. Skimming through Saveur's Favorite Recipes for Summer special issue, I decided that I would bring Pomodoro a Riso (tomatoes stuffed with rice) to the party. As our belongings have yet to make it across the country, my resources in the kitchen are pretty limited. But with this recipe I could take advantage of the tasty tomatoes currently in season and overflowing the market, and the preparation is simple and straight-forward with no special equipment required. At the market, I decided to go with Early Girl tomatoes. They tend to be more uniform in shape than many of the heirloom varieties, and taste great. I doubled the recipe, and since I'm currently without a food mill or food processor, I simply finely chopped the larger chunks of tomato and returned them to the bowl. As the recipe recommends, be careful not to puncture or tear the walls of the tomato as you scoop the pulp out. It's also a good idea not to fill the tomatoes completely full, as the stuffing expands with baking and may cause your tomato to burst or overflow.
Pomodoro a Riso, serves 4 - 8
8 firm, ripe medium tomatoes
1/2 cup raw arborio or other risotto rice
2 tbsp. finely chopped parsley
2 tbsp. finely chopped basil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. Position oven rack in top third of oven, then preheat oven to 400°. Pull stems off tomato tops, then trim about 3/4'' from bottom of each one and set ends aside. Working over a medium bowl, use a small spoon to carefully scoop out inner pulp without puncturing the walls of the tomatoes. Arrange scooped-out tomatoes in a medium baking dish, and set aside.
2. Pass tomato pulp through a food mill or pulse in the bowl of a food processor to a chunky purée, then transfer back into bowl. Add rice, parsley, basil, garlic, and oil; liberally season with salt and pepper. Mix well. Spoon filling into prepared tomatoes (there may be a little filling left over), and place a reserved tomato end on top of each stuffed tomato. Drizzle a little oil over tomatoes, and bake until rice is swollen and tender and tomatoes are soft and well browned, about 50 minutes. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool to room temperature.
See also: Derrick's Gazpacho, Pim's Raspberry and Fig Crostata with Vanilla and Crème Fraîche Ice Cream
August 09, 2004
August 06, 2004
August 05, 2004
Singapore Chili Crab Festival
To do this weekend: Singapore Chili Crab Festival
August 04, 2004
Dumpling Man on St. Mark's
Dumpling Man on St. Mark's (because everyone knows I love dumplings)
NYC: Review Roundup
Today's review roundup includes: Ixta, Chinese Mirch, En Plo, Sun Ming Gee, 5 Ninth.
NYTimes Frank Bruni gives Ixta one star (48 East 29th Street; 212-683-4833):
Much of the nominally Mexican cuisine at Ixta, named for a volcano near Mexico City, is appealing. Some of it is even better than that, a sign that the executive chef, Linda M. Japngie (pronounced jap-EN-gee), has imagination and good ideas. If you order the right dishes, like the scallop appetizer and the lamb entree, you can wind up extremely happy.
Drinks are important here. The restaurant offers more than two dozen kinds of tequila and promotes complex, cutely tagged concoctions like the Tears of a Cloud, a kind of piña colada, and the self-explanatory Daiquiri in the Dark.
In terms of food, Ms. Japngie's menu plays with two pronounced and recurring themes. One is to tweak the fare of the city's more economical Mexican restaurants by giving it upscale twists. Taquitos are stuffed with lobster and quesadillas with squash blossoms. Chalupas come with aged goat cheese.
The other theme is to take staples of the city's more expensive, non-ethnic restaurants and give them a south-of-the-border swing. This approach translates into unexpected seasonings and colorful or crunchy accompaniments that seem designed to make the dishes look broader, taller and more bountiful.
. . . But perhaps the best dish in this bold-but-not-bullying vein is the scallops. The salsa borracha in which they luxuriate — an amalgam of tomatoes and tomatillos, garlic and onions, tequila and beer — has a punch and complexity that keep you coming back for more.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Squash blossom salad; scallops; roasted shrimp and corn tamale; coriander charred lamb; crab-stuffed shrimp; salmon; churros; cajeta sundae.
