I was the supper of the waxwing slain

Kale salad with golden raisins and pinenuts

2012-02-12T18:04:00.003-05:00

Katie & Brina came over for dinner & we had kale salad (with golden raisins and toasted pinenuts) plus a casserole with tortillas, butternut squash, black beans, corn, chiles, etc.

Guero's tacos

2012-02-04T19:22:00.003-05:00

recently a new taco place opened near Samir's. we checked it out on Thursday night.

Fried chicken taco:

Fried avocado and jalapeno taco:

really good and we'll definitely be back! additionally, they accidentally put their buttermilk sauce (yuck) on my taco after I asked for No Buttermilk, and the gentleman instantly grabbed us a new round of drinks on the house while they replaced it. whoa, for a $3 taco! really nice!

Mina's brussels sprouts salad

2012-01-31T20:47:00.004-05:00

Mina, who makes delicious lunches for the studio where Priya works, is in the process of producing a cookbook, and Priya brought home a recipe for a raw shredded Brussels sprouts salad with toasted almonds to try out. We followed the measurements pretty exactly to kinda "test" the recipe.

It was so delicious, and super easy to make on the mandoline. I think I would add a little less almond--maybe 3/4 cup to 1lb of Brussels instead of a full cup--but otherwise wouldn't change the seasonings/proportions at all.

check out Mina's blog at http://twistycookies.com/ (for the time being)

Momofuku Ssam Bar Duck Lunch

2012-01-28T11:40:00.004-05:00

Finished grading Regents exams, so Yvette, Wooh, Sowiski and I celebrated by having the Momofuku Ssam Bar Duck Lunch:

So, if you look closely, each of those pink rounds is actually two things: a duck breast with duck sausage laid atop it, and the whole thing wrapped in duckskin and then rotisseried and sliced. Confit duck legs and scallion pancakes along the side, and a watercress salad with duckfat dressing (and a bunch more herbs like mint and coriander) as well. And of course a lot of stuff on the side I didn't snap, like butter lettuce for wrapping, ginger-scallion-duckfat sauce, various hoisins and the like, crisped shallots, etc.

Came with two sides--we chose the fingerling potatoes with black bean paste and the pickle plate (I've never had Jerusalem artichoke pickles before, and this seemed to have them--pretty good!).

$140 for 4-6 people. Pricey lunch.

But it was kind of amazing. I think I've made the circuit of the David Chang special-dinner things, and some of them were outstanding (bo ssam) and some were just pretty good (fried chicken) but this is one of the few I would do again, despite the price. DUCK 4EVA.

Priya's birthday brunch 2k12

2012-01-16T11:36:00.007-05:00

raw kale salad with butternut squash, cheddar cheese, roasted almonds, lemon juice (this got destroyed, almost nothing left. I guess kale is popular now)

baked brie with pepper-pear jam and walnuts

deviled eggs with garam masala, shallots, and coriander leaves (made with Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise so I actually had one)

smoked salmon from that factory in Greenpoint where you have to get up early on a Friday and stand in line to buy it

blueberry boy-bait

poha with raisins, chiles, peas, tons of coriander leaves

quinoa salad with curry dressing, apples, dried cranberries, slivered almonds, and mint

French green lentil salad over baby spinach

kielbasa from Kiszka

almond cake

also we had two pans of baked French toast casserole and two pans of baked egg-chile-tortilla casserole (from Katie), and Peter Pan doughnuts (from Brina) and mini cupcakes from Crumb (from Sirin).

Priya's birthday dinner at ABC Kitchen

2012-01-11T20:29:00.011-05:00

We went to ABC Kitchen for Priya's birthday... It was outstanding, and we're already planning to return. The menu and waitstaff seemed very Brooklyn (impeccably sourced farm-to-table food served on mismatched vintage plates by hipsters wearing uniforms of plaid shirts, chunky eyeglasses, and Chuck Taylors), but the Manhattan prices, link to a celebrity chef (Jean-Georges Vongerichten), and servers stepping in to refold our napkins whenever we left the table made it very clear which borough we were in...

Since we're not drinking right now, I started with an $11 glass of juice (The Local," with beet, carrot, apple, and ginger, I think?) and Priya had a ginger-lime soda... Both were delicious:

Terrible picture because we were in a hurry to eat, but this was one of the best things we got... a fried egg over roasted cauliflower with onion and walnut crumbs:

Crab toast with lemon aioli...believe it or not, I ATE MAYONNAISE!

Per a friend who works there's recommendation, we tried the egg-and-mushroom whole-wheat pizza. It was a little oversoaked in mushroom liquids in the middle, but still really good. We wanted the special brussels sprout pizza but the last one was ordered out from under us. Maybe by Arianna Huffington, who was at the next table interviewing someone I didn't recognize...

Celery root and apple salad. How do they get the spicy tarragon croutons to be so amazingly crispy/soft/delicious? We thought they must have been deep-fried...

Cornmeal-crusted skate wing, squash with maple syrup and lime (and probably more than 50% butter), kale:

Completely boneless (but with all the parts--breast, dark meat, etc--all fused together--maybe with meat glue?) piece of super-crispy fried chicken over collard greens with hot-sauce butter:

Chocolate cake with malted chocolate ganache and toasted-marshmallow frosting:

Next time we're going to order a bunch of appetizers and small plates instead of entrees, I think, just because so many things on the menu look so good.

Shopsin's

2011-12-28T19:17:00.003-05:00

Priya and I took advantage of the holidays to hit up Shopsin's as part of an epic Manhattan trip involving new glasses at Moscot, the Maurizio Cattelan show at the Guggenheim, the Sherrie Levine exhibition at the Whitney (though the Real/Surreal thing was cooler), etc.

this was the best Shopsin's run I've ever made. the mac-and-cheese pancakes, when doused with peppery hot sauce and maple syrup, were so different from anything else I've had...we made a mistake by ordering 6 instead of 3, though. so much food.and the "Symphony" was the best dish I've ever had there. it's a stack of pumpkin French toast (with big chunks of sweet pumpkin studding the bread somehow) with cheese, and a ton of bacon marmalade (dark-cooked, caramelized onions and bacon pieces in maple syrup, I think...not exactly the same as the Brooklyn-made "baconmarmalade"). and a column was punched right through the middle of the stack and filled with a stack of oozy-middle poached eggs. Un-fucking-believable.

I had been planning to order the steamed cheeseburger, but didn't see it on the menu--I probably should've asked if they still made it, but in the end I am very glad I tried something new.

Keema matar & kaddu

2011-12-07T22:54:00.001-05:00

Tonight we made keema matar and kaddu.

Momofuku Milk Bar Arnold Palmer Cake

2011-12-05T18:24:00.001-05:00

from Lucky Peach #2. I am probably not capable of making this. Still.

gobi and dal @ home

2011-12-04T15:13:00.003-05:00

gobi with scallions and mustard seeds, masoor dal with chhaunk, mango chutney Priya's mom made, dahi, and whole-grain parathas (a new thing for us; we usually make the non-whole-grain ones). also ginger soda we made from P&H syrup from Eastern District. ate it while watching Being John Malkovich, which I think I last saw in the theater. still good.

Peter Chang's China Grill

2011-11-26T14:18:00.005-05:00

in Fairfax VA for Thanksgiving, we took a day trip out to Charlottesville to visit Kristin & Ian. We went to lunch at Peter Chang's China Grill, a new Szechuan restaurant opened by the elusive and famed Peter Chang (see the New Yorker piece for details).

Double-cooked pork (moister and with fewer leeks than the versions at Little Pepper or Spicy and Tasty):

Spicy braised fish:

Fried rice:

Dry-cooked green beans (not quite as dry, and not quite as good, as those at Little Pepper et al; still great though!):

Scallion bubble pancake with a coriander-heavy curry sauce; these were really reminiscent of poori (but pretty good):

Dry-cooked eggplant (a specialty we'd heard a lot about; sooo good, covered with cracked Szechuan peppercorns and with an amazing flavor) and pan-fried dumplings (a cut above the five-for-a-dollar dumplings I get for lunch at Prosperity Dumpling in Chinatown):

Excellent place, and I'd definitely be back when I'm back in Charlottesville. Consider me a Peter Chang fan.

Henan Taste

2011-11-04T13:17:00.003-04:00

went to Henan Flavor for lunch today. my students SWARM the place at lunch--not to eat the delectable Henan delights, but because the restaurant (wisely) keeps a gross-looking shitty tray of "pepper chicken" and "sesame chicken" in the front near the cash register, which they sell for like $2 for a styrofoam container + rice.

I got the black bean hu mei (with ground meat, bok choy, etc.) in a super dark, flavorful broth. even with the hot oil they provided, it's not as spicy as I'd like (I like Szechuan-level spice), but it was really good and only $5 for the giant large size.

I did NOT try the swine blood...this time.

Pickle Me Pete

2011-10-01T17:25:00.004-04:00

Stan & I went to the San Gennaro Feast to try to get some of the new good stuff they had, but were disappointed to find that the booths we were most looking forward to were weekend-only. A shame--so we ate at Torrisi instead.

I did happen upon a booth selling homemade pickles and bought a quart. Pickle Me Pete has no location, but does fairs and delivery. I thought the pickles were pretty great--ever since Guss' closed, I haven't really had a place for great pickles. The Pickle Guys on Essex don't really do it for me (too salty, maybe?) and the new Guss location is so far (Borough Park). I hope Pickle Me Pete gets a location nearby--I'd return.

Smorgasburg, and Brooklyn Grange CSA #16

2011-10-01T17:12:00.005-04:00

Kind of a small load this week--lots of nice tomatoes, but otherwise just spinach & lettuce.

We did get a Brooklyn Grange tote bag, so maybe that was thrown in to make up for the size of the share this week. I think I'd rather have had the food. Can't wait to eat the tomatoes, though.

We wandered around Smorgasburg and had breakfast there. We had a $5 tray of blistered shishito peppers from Bocata (so good), two cold-concentrated chicory iced coffees from Grady's Cold Brew (funny thing...I usually put a ton of sweetener in my coffee, but the Grady's guy advised me to try this without sugar, because I guess the chicory cuts the bitterness and adds its own sweetness? He was totally right--I drank the whole thing happily without adding a single bit of sugar), hibiscus & plain doughnuts from Dough, and a bamberg chicken-schnitzel sandwich with mustard and grated pickled daikon and cucumber on a pretzel loaf from Schnitz. We also sampled a lot of great stuff, most notably the insanedark & light maple syrup from Crown Maple Syrup. We also spent a bunch of time sampling stuff at the Lush chocolate booth. I liked the Indonesian cashew and keffir lime/lemongrass brittle, but Priya ended up buying a quantity of dark chocolate toffee with almonds.

Brooklyn Grange CSAs #13, 14, and 15

2011-09-25T22:36:00.002-04:00

Whoops, haven't been posting these pix the past three weeks!

Little Pepper in College Point

2011-09-05T12:56:00.003-04:00

an ass-kicking Labor Day weekend for food...we went to Little Pepper for dinner last night with my in-laws, their treat (thanks!).

We've been a handful of times already, but never to the new (College Point) location. It's funny; they seem to have broadened the menu with Hunan and Americanized stuff as more white people come to the restaurant (General Tso's chicken, hot and sour soup, etc.) They still don't speak English worth a damn, though, which is nice.

Dan dan noodles with ground pork:

Cucumbers with crushed garlic and sesame oil:

Enhanced pork (well, that's what I ordered, but the guy said, "Double-cooked pork" as he put it down. I've ordered both enhanced and double-cooked pork like twice each and cannot for the life of me tell the difference. What IS the difference? It seems like even the restaurant workers think they're interchangeable):

Shrimp with chili sauce:

Plain ol' broccoli, I dunno why I photographed this:

Lamb with cumin:

Eggplant with garlic...oh God, this is so good:

Locanda Verde

2011-09-04T13:54:00.007-04:00

We've been angling to eat at Locanda Verde for some months now, but have had difficulty getting reservations for dinner at the times (and for the party sizes) we want. Having heard that they have one of the best brunches in the city, we got up early and went into Manhattan this morning for brunch there with Adam & Adam, visiting from Canada. We arrived before 10 and the place was pretty empty--probably partially a function of the Labor Day weekend as much as the early hour.

Focaccia--pretty light, not dense and oily--with sweet caramelized onion:

Pastry mista del giorno: blackberry scone, brown butter cinnamon roll, zuccharino muffin (kind of like a sugar doughnut--the best thing there, I think, while Priya preferred the scone):

The pastry chef, Karen DeMasco, put out a book that we've read (The Craft of Baking), and there were tons of other delicious pastries we didn't get a chance to try (the blueberry doughnuts looked particular awesome to me).

Uovo Modense with cotechino hash, spinach, and tomato hollandaise:

Wood-fired uova al forno with corona beans, mozzarella, and black Tuscan kale:

Lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberry and Meyer lemon curd:

Zucchini Frittata with roasted tomato, goat cheese, and basil:

Outstanding brunch; everything was great. We also got a side of bacon that everybody liked, though it was too smoky for me (probably just a passing thing, as I usually like smoky way more than Priya). Expensive, though, coming out to $35/person with tax, tip, coffee, etc. I am excited to return and try the dinner at some point in the future.

Brooklyn Grange CSA #12

2011-09-04T13:52:00.001-04:00

A slimmer bounty this week. Green tomatoes instead of red (but big and beautiful ones), tomatillos, arugula, carrots, a bunch of tiny hot peppers, Thai basil, cukes, and purple beans.

Kale & egg, prune-plums & yogurt

2011-09-01T23:21:00.005-04:00

Getting rid of leftovers & ended up with a great meal.

Fried eggs over kale/garlic over quinoa with pignoli/raisins with tomatoes on the side:

Prune plums with Greek yogurt sweetened with honey, and ricotta on toast:

Hurricane Irene dinner

2011-08-28T11:16:00.002-04:00

holed up for the hurricane, we made fava beans + ricotta +chiocciole. mmm.

Brooklyn Grange CSA #11

2011-08-28T11:10:00.004-04:00

due to Hurricane Irene, Smorgasburg was cancelled and we had to pick this up at the Brooklyn Kitchen. Pretty good spread! we made miso eggplant with last week's haul and are looking forward to something else delicious with this one.

Brooklyn Grange CSA #9 and #10

2011-08-20T18:27:00.003-04:00

CSAs #9 and #10. We've gotten eggplants, peppers, baby beets, some cherry tomatoes, "Asian braising greens" (what's that?) and this week some purple tomatillos. Best of all, though, last week's okra...absolutely giant pods, which we made bhindi out of and ate with chicken saag.

Cucumber-mint soda

2011-08-16T13:58:00.002-04:00

Priya had the idea to make cucumber-mint sodas with some of our CSA bounty. She made some mint syrup by boiling down sugar and fresh mint leaves, and I made a bottle of cucumber juice by seeding, pureeing, and straining a handful of CSA cucumbers (and then adding a lemon's worth of lemon juice). We keep them in the fridge in bottles, and when we want a soda, we put about three tablespoons of each (syrup, and juice) in a glass and then fill it with seltzer. Really delicious and super easy to make.

M. Wells spaghetti sandwich!

2011-08-09T18:40:00.005-04:00

in the waning days of M. Wells (they say it's going to find a new location and open soon...but who knows?) we hit it for brunch on one of our waning summer days off. Finally, they had the spaghetti Bolognese sandwich I've been itching to try. A fried patty of spaghetti with chunks of hamburger meat and tomato sauce all throughout...so good.

My brunch companions got the seafood cobbler (which I tried and which was excellent--much better than I thought it would be, with big chunks of white fish), the old favorite egg sandwich, and a few donuts to take home. But I'd also eaten a biscuit with plum jam, and was feeling pretty carbed out, so I had to leave half my sandwich on the plate so I wouldn't explode.

Brooklyn Grange CSA #7 & #8

2011-08-06T13:32:00.002-04:00

Been eating a lot of lemon cucumbers due to this CSA...delicious!

And my wish for tomatoes came true this week! We also got a boatload of ground cherries, which I've never cooked with before and need to figure out how to use. They emailed us a recipe I'll check out.

Rockaway Taco

2011-08-06T13:28:00.004-04:00

Sirin, Priya, and I went to the beach on Sunday, and made a run to Rockaway Taco (the location a block from the beach, not the beach stand) for lunch.

I got a fish taco (no white sauce) and a carne taco; after eating the super-crispy fish taco, I wished I'd ordered two. Then I ate the carne taco and was happy I'd had one of each. We also got a side of chips and guac (get two if you have three people...our mistake) and a Ziploc bag of cucumber, mango, and jicama spears covered with spicy chili powder. Pretty awesome beach food. I was too sandy and sticky and lotion-y to take pix of the food, sadly (and we ripped through it too fast), but definitely Rockaway Taco is not just some crappy beach-food place. Next time we'll check out Ripper's.

Brooklyn Grange CSA #5 & #6

2011-07-24T23:08:00.003-04:00

I was in Boston and Maine during our CSA pickup #5, but my lovely wife was kind enough to take a picture for me after she picked it up.

I did make it for CSA pickup #6.

We were very happy to get a nice batch of green beans, and I was really happy to see more of the incredibly delicious carrots and cucumbers. I'm not sure what the greens on the far right were--looks like they'd been lopped off a white root, and not sure what I can do with them. The parsnips were a little disappointing--they're so tiny I don't think they're even peelable, but maybe that means the skins are edible without being too bitter.

One thing that's tough about a weekly CSA pickup at the Greenmarket is seeing a bunch of things for sale on the table--delicious-looking beets, for instance--that don't show up in our bag. Maybe they'll show up in future weeks as they get more?

Fudgsicles

2011-07-23T19:49:00.001-04:00

after seeing Katie post about making smittenkitchen fudgsicles, I was inspired and did it myself while sitting around on the hottest day ever. we didn't have popsicle molds so I used our kulfi molds and teeny metal spoons for handles.

Street & Co, Portland ME

2011-07-22T18:49:00.003-04:00

went to Street & Co. for dinner during my visit to Portland. it was kind of a placeholder before we went to the vaunted Fore Street (as we do every year) the next night, but it was kind of amazing and arguably I enjoyed my meal more than I did at Fore Street! sorry for the terrible pix, but I was reduced to using my phone and it didn't do well as it got darker.

excellent, excellent Peeper Ale beer:

Salad of grilled onions, Valdeon cheese, reduced balsamic vinegar, and greens:

The salad was two-thirds sweet/vinegary onion--the greens were almost incidental.

for dinner I had a whole branzino surrounded with clams. it was outstanding, so fresh and delicious.

I want to go back next year!

M. Wells

2011-07-14T15:50:00.001-04:00

went to M. Wells for brunch. it was almost completely empty at 10:30am (on a Thursday) but full by 12:30. They were, sadly, out of the spaghetti sandwich I wanted, so I had to settle for an egg and tomato bowl (which was pretty delicious).

Mumbai Xpress

2011-07-14T15:36:00.005-04:00

went to Mumbai Xpress in Floral Park for some chaat. these pictures are awful because we decided to go on the spur of the moment and didn't bring a camera (so these are my cameraphone pix).

Mango lassi and chikoo shake:

they put elaichi in their mango lassis, which is really weird--I liked it, but I like it better without.

Tokri chaat (in a fried potato basket):

Mumbai grilled sandwich:

This actually reminded me of India more than anything else we had--this is the kind of stuff you don't see in (non-chaat) restaurants here in the States but which Indian people make for you when you go over their houses in India. Cheese, peppers, potatoes, spicy coriander chutney.

Pao bhaji, which I had 3 times in India and liked each time, even when I had it on the plane. This version is great:

We got "special pav bahji" which comes with the heavily spiced rice.

We ordered this off the menu...rabdi:

they had a dessert of "rabdi kulfi falooda" but we didn't want kulfi or falooda. rabdi is the best mithai there is but it's impossible to get awesome rabdi in the States--in fact, we couldn't get good rabdi outside of Jaipur. this was OK but not great, very brown and caramel-tasting. still can never match Jaipur.

Jackson Heights is old news; Floral Park is the new Indian-food mecca!

Chez Pascal in Providence

2011-07-12T22:31:00.004-04:00

for our first wedding anniversary, Priya and I drove up to Providence for a movie (Midnight in Paris) and dinner at Chez Pascal. The movie was OK, but the dinner was excellent!

Pate & charcuterie plate, including a duck liver pate & a bunch of pork pates, including a country pate and a head pate, and some house-made sopressata:

Marinated Beets with Fried Hazelnuts, Honey Vinaigrette & Shy Brothers’ Farm Hannahbell Cheese:

Roasted Brined Bone-in Local Chicken Breast with Potato Purée, Wilted Greens & Caramelized Onion Sauce:

Roasted Local Fluke Filet with a Ragoût of Fava Beans, English Peas, Radishes & Bacon, Seared Gateaux de Riz and Citrus Compote:

Chocolate Molten Cake with Espresso Anglaise, Chocolate Cacao Nibs & Mint Ice Cream Sandwich with Coconut Milk Jam, and Whipped Cream Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse with Four Town Farm Strawberries:

Definitely recommended; I feel like this restaurant could have stood its ground even in NYC.

Brooklyn Grange CSA #4

2011-07-12T19:21:00.003-04:00

CSA pickup #4 (I missed the 3rd because we grabbed it on our way to Rhode Island):

basil, mint, cucumbers, peas, collards, salad greens, kale, a little baby cabbage, and another big head of fennel greens. I wish we were getting fennel roots instead of greens!

Roasting & grinding zeera

2011-07-12T19:19:00.003-04:00

Our existing supply of cumin was over 3 years old, so I roasted and ground a pile of fresh seeds today.

Rhode Island #2: Del's

2011-07-09T20:17:00.002-04:00

on the drive home, saw a Del's Lemonade truck, had to pull over and get one.

Rhode Island #1: Matunuck Oyster Bar

2011-07-09T20:10:00.002-04:00

wanting a break from the beach house during our Rhode Island vacation, Priya and I went for lunch to the Matunuck Oyster Bar with her parents.

I had my very favorite type of clam chowder: Rhode Island clam chowder, far superior to the creamy New England style or the tomatoey Manhattan style. I've often made it with a chicken broth base, but the waitress said this version was totally clam broth. Also, it had dill in it, which was an uncommon addition (but since I love dill, a welcome one).

I also had a plate of oysters: two small, sweet Matunuck oysters (from the pond right next to the restaurant) and two large, briny Quonset oysters. they were delicious enough that we ordered another plate of Matunuck oysters and even Priya had a couple.

more CSA chard

2011-07-09T20:05:00.002-04:00

Making good use of our CSA chard that keeps coming: pumpkin ravioli sauteed with shallots and chard. the sweet pumpkin was a great counterpoint to the chard. Priya invented this dish.

Sadly, we grabbed our 3rd CSA pickup on the door out to Rhode Island, so I didn't get a picture of it. some delicious cucumbers, though!

CSA pickup #2 plus more Smorgasburg

2011-06-25T19:54:00.005-04:00

our second Brooklyn Grange CSA pickup today: green kale, lavender, chard, scallions, mixed salad greens, purslane, and fennel greens. We felt it was a little skimpier than last week's, and were hoping to get some of the peas or baby beets or other veggies that were for sale at the stand; maybe next week!

we also grazed at a bunch of stands while we were there; the crowds have REALLY died down since the first week, so you can easily get anything you want without a huge line. It's strange to see that some places that seemed popular when I walked by in previous weeks are completely missing now (and new ones have taken their places).

fried anchovies with pickled peppers & lemon from Bon Chovie:

maple cotton candy from Liddabit:

We also had apple-ginger and rhubarb-mint sodas from Brooklyn Soda Works, another chicken and pickled tomato sandwich from I8NY, and blood orange and plain glazed doughnuts from Dough--all outstanding.

Chard and purple kale from the Brooklyn Grange CSA

2011-06-19T20:04:00.002-04:00

So far, our Brooklyn Grange CSA has made up the bulk of two dishes (and bits and pieces have found their way into a bunch of other foods, plus of course a few days of salads).

Chard with carrots, orange, and shallots:

Purple kale with quinoa, chickpeas, chives, and garlic scapes:

Keep it comin'!

the Fatty Crab

2011-06-18T15:34:00.004-04:00

Tami & I had a nice early dinner at the Fatty Crab this week. wish it weren't so remote!

Special scallops with kumquats:

Heritage pork ribs with black vinegar glaze:

Chicken claypot with ginger, green chili, and tofu and coconut rice:

Fazio Farms Fatty Duck with pickled mustard greens, thai chili, gula jawa

I8NY @ Smorgasburg, plus Brooklyn Grange CSA

2011-06-18T15:12:00.005-04:00

went to pick up our first load of vegetables from our CSA through the Brooklyn Grange:

Kale, chard, Bordeaux spinach, salad greens, basil, thyme, carrots, and chives/onions.

also, a little while later, returned to Smorgasburg to have a sandwich (grilled chicken, pickled tomato, salsa verde) at Jonny Meyer's I8NY booth and a malted-ball vanilla milkshake from Milk Truck. The sandwich was great; too often grilled chicken sandwiches are boring, bland breasts, but this was comprised of pieces of dark meat ripped off the bone, and had a ton of flavor. The milkshake was also great; I didn't even have time to take a pic of it because I drank it so quickly.

Louis' Lunch

2011-06-11T22:37:00.003-04:00

coming back to CT from NYC with my parents, we stopped in New Haven for lunch at Louis' Lunch, home of the very first hamburger ever. We were in line before it opened at noon (and good thing, too--super tiny, super crowded space). The burgers are cooked on an ancient vertical grill and served on toasted white bread with onions, tomatoes, and cheese--nothing else.

they were pretty good, and I understand why they will kick you out if you so much as request ketchup...the sandwich had a really intense, focused, simple taste you lose with heavily dressed burgers. still, I do like the ketchupped style that regular burgers have evolved into very much.

one minor gripe: Priya's burger was totally grey all through, while my mom's was nicely rareish; mine was more on the medium well side than anything else. wish they were all consistent.

no pix due to the dim lighting, sadly. I'll hotlink a picture taken by someone else for a visual aid. thnx to them:

http://guestofaguest.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/food.jpg

Smorgasburg

2011-05-21T18:48:00.004-04:00

Today was the first day of Smorgasburg, a weekly event several blocks from our home that brings together a host of local awesome food stuff. As predicted, it was a total shitshow, but a delicious one. I think some kinks are still being worked out with lines and staffing--several places ran out of food at various times, and enormous lines stretched from most vendors (the Red Hook pupusa people...the lobster rolls...man, EVERYTHING), but that stuff can be worked out.

We stood in a half-hour line for Kelvin slushes--I had an Arnold Palmer with mint, and Priya had a ginger with mango. Mine was good, but the ginger slush was outstanding. The long line happened for a couple of reasons...first, there weren't very many places to just get a drink you could walk around sipping on while you looked at or stood in line for other places; second, the machines kept running out of mix, so we had to keep waiting for the new batch of mix to refreeze. Easily fixable problems in the long run.

While we were waiting for the slushes, I popped over to the Porchetta line for some $5 porchetta mini-sandwiches. Although the line was longer, I was in and out in five minutes--it was run super-professionally, and I mean they're serving a single item that has two pieces, so it's very fast-moving. The sandwich was also great--just as good as the East Village location (if smaller).

We weren't done eating after the porchettas, so we stood in another very long line for Meat Hook hotdogs and "rupture/rapture" dogs (including cheddar cheese). This was maybe my second or third hotdog in the past twenty years and it was pretty good.

We also nibbled on samples and shared a cornflake cookie from the Momofuku Milk Bar tent. There's so many other things I want to try, and will in future weeks (but will have to arrive earlier, or just brave the lines). A lot of stuff was pricey, but nothing was mass-produced...even the shaved ice was made by hand at the shaved-ice stand:

One thing I did not want to try: the mayonnaise stand. I was appalled and disgusted by its very presence, but I'm sure it's good as far as mayonnaise goes (not very far).

I also was a bit disturbed by how the whole thing was basically just a huge value-add for the luxury condos for the wealthy that have eaten up the waterfront, but...well, I guess the money they will pour into artisanal food stuff is important to supporting it.

Eastern District

2011-05-21T18:32:00.004-04:00

A few months back, Greenpoint got a fancy-food store of its very own--with craft beers, a cheese and meat counter, and all sorts of delicious stuff. Eastern District is just what the neighborhood needed.

Some things are quite expensive, but there are plenty of things which are equal to or even cheaper than their prices at other fancy-food stores in NYC. I've probably been there biweekly since it opened; it's a nice place to get gifts (I got my mom some Brooklyn Brine pickles, a Mast Brothers chocolate bar, and a bottle of pear cider for Mother's Day) or dinner (they have a nice sandwich menu) or a snack to bring to a party (Ovenly bacon popcorn, etc.).

Dinner the other night was a country-pate sandwich with Brooklyn Brine pickles and My Friend's whole-grain mustard, a Nectar IPA, and some moong dal (not from Eastern District; I just like it instead of chips with sandwiches).

Great place; patronize it as frequently as you can!

M. Wells diner

2011-05-07T15:21:00.005-04:00

We've been trying to go to M. Wells for a long time, and after seeing it mentioned in the New Yorker this past week, we knew we had to go soon before it got even more crowded than it has been. So we woke up early and got there early (10am) so we could beat the rush, and had a nice brunch with Adam & Clara. It never got super-busy while we were there, so I think the trick is getting in early.

Cinnamon doughnut:

Egg & sausage sandwich with pickled jalapeno, cheddar, and tomato on a fat English muffin:

Bacon hash with fiddleheads, morels, and egg:

Pickled pork tongue with mustard and soda crackers:

Gravlax pie with dill, potatoes, and creme fraiche:

Banana cupcake with peanut-butter icing:

Maple pie:

Really excellent; it's only a 20 minute walk from our house (and an even shorter bike ride) so I hope we'll be back again soon.

Ssam Bar

2011-05-06T20:22:00.003-04:00

David Chang has been transforming the old Milk Bar space into a Ssam Bar extension with a big duck rotisserie and an eye towards replacing the Ssam Bar prix fixe lunch with an all-duck meal; since we had a half day today, Wooh, Dena, Yvette, and I went over to check it out. Unfortunately, the duck lunch seems behind schedule and wasn't ready, but we had a great Ssam Bar meal anyway.

Steamed pork buns:

Spicy honeycomb tripe with ginger-scallion, sesame, pickled tomatoes:

Duck confit with duck liver mousse and raw beets:

Veal sweetbreads with nuts, saurkraut, and Thai chili:

Spicy pork sausage with rice cakes (maybe my favorite thing at Ssam Bar):

Quark ice cream with malt, chocolate mousse, and beet-maple:

Tanoreen

2011-04-25T14:38:00.006-04:00

I'd been to Tanoreen (the famed Levantine restaurant in Bay Ridge) before, but not since they moved to their newer, much bigger space a few years ago. Still delicious!

Hummus:

Fried halloumi cheese:

Fried cauliflower with pomegranate & tahini sauce:

Brussels sprouts with pomegranate & tahini sauce:

Eggplant Napoleon (with babaghanoush):

Kale:

Dandelion greens:

Fava beans & pods:

Cheese & spinach pies:

Mujadarra:

Stuffed cabbage:

Kibbe:

Baklava:

Knafeh (with rose syrup and cheese inside fried vermicelli):

Roberta's

2011-04-22T11:19:00.002-04:00

no pictures, but a very nice meal at Roberta's last night w/ Priya, Katie, and Dave. waited almost an hour for the table at 9pm! I think it's crazy all the time now.

I had a sausage and fennel pizza; Priya had a Good Girl (sausage and kale); Dave had a Cheeses Christ (so good; did it always have honey on it?) and Katie had linguini with cockles. We had a traditional Bibb lettuce salad before the meal, and also a snap peas with black garlic and pickled ramps salad (small, but delicious).

chicken tagine with preserved limequats

2011-03-29T22:42:00.002-04:00

My preserved limequats were ready, so we made a chicken tagine with honey, tomatoes, and preserved limquats (a mixture of several recipes, plus limequats, from Claudia Roden's cookbook):

also Israeli couscous and a cucumber-tomato-feta salad with sumac and lemon juice.

candied kumquats

2011-03-20T23:33:00.002-04:00

after this pic I picked them out of the syrup and tossed them in sugar so they wouldn't stick together as much. not nearly as good as the ones I had in Paris, but still pretty good.

Paris, Day Six

2011-03-02T10:01:00.004-05:00

We had a lunch reservation at Chez L'Ami Jean, a Basque-influenced little place which used to have a €25 lunch (but it was €42 when we arrived. Ouch). However, it was outstanding.

Croustillant de moelle et sardine en filet de St. Jean de Luz (crispy bone marrow and sardine fillet):

Coques et moules, thym frais et sauge (pot of cockles and mussels with fresh sage and thyme):

Supreme de volaille jaune, cuisine en toute douceur, arome de coriandre (roasted chicken):

Onglet de veau 'blanc', roti au poelon, legumes de Blot au jus (veal, including the kidneys and glands and other innards):

A Basque white wine:

Pamplemousse d'ange...perles Japonaise...onctueux vanille (angelic grapefruit, Japanese tapioca pearls, and vanilla):

Riz au lait grand-maman, en disposition...nougtaine...beurre sale (rice pudding with salted caramel butter):

Once again the rice pudding blew our minds, and the roast chicken (and even the pureed potatoes) were The Best Roast Chicken And Potatoes We Have Ever Had, Bar None. Seriously.

Stuffed from the big lunch, we dropped off some vacuum-packed cheese purchases at home and then roamed Belleville. Unfortunately, a lot of stuff had closed early, and the FRAC (the gallery we wanted to view) was inexplicably closed--probably because it was school vacation week? We also decided against keeping our reservation at the restaurant we'd picked after viewing the menu--it looked good, but was so heavy and focused on lamb, and we couldn't eat another huge heavy meal after our astounding lunch. So we went back to the Marais and ate at Café des Musées. It was low-key, not expensive, and pretty good. I had decent escargot and an excellent steak tartare, and Priya had a nothing-to-write-home-about cocotte of vegetables and a cheese plate (we really were totally stuffed):

Paris, Day Five

2011-03-01T08:01:00.006-05:00

The next morning, we walked through the Bastille market. All these markets are basically like the very best Brooklyn farmer's market to the tenth power. I was shuffling through some pinky-sized cucumber-looking things that turned out to be teeny avocados (no pit, either) and the proprietor cut one open and gave it to me to eat on the spot. I bought some for plane snacks (and unfortunately we couldn't finish them all and had to throw some of them out before hitting Customs).

That started off a long day of walking, as we walked through the islands towards Notre Dame, passing the ice cream shop Berthillon (sadly, closed for the week).

We stumbled across Jean Leblanc, a shop we'd heard of, a tiny place that sells artisanal mustards, oils, and vinegars. I bought some whole-grain mustard and champagne vinegar:

Macarons and salted chocolate cookies from Pierre Hermé:

I have to say, the white-truffle macaron was kind of gross.

Then we went to Place de la Madeleine, which is a plaza absolutely full of amazing food stores. We had a coffee and a not-very-good palmier at Fauchon before visiting several chocolate shops and the very nice Hédiard. While very expensive, we couldn't resist buying squares of fruit jellies (kiwi, grapefruit, pear, and blueberry), which were incredibly delicious:

We arrived just a bit too late to buy mustard on tap from Maille. Oh, well, next time.

We returned to our neighborhood for dinner at Breizh, a Breton crepe place (which apparently has several branches in Japan, where it's very popular--the owner's wife is Japanese as well). We had a couple of bottles of Breton cider (served in bowls) and, for an appetizer, a forme d'ambert cheese, honey, and pinenut galette:

Our dinner galettes had ham, eggs, and Gruyere, but mine also had artichoke, while Priya's had onion confit. Both outstanding, but I preferred the onion confit:

Astoundingly good dessert crepes, mine with pear and caramel, and Priya's with vanilla ice cream and caramel. The caramel was very dark, almost "burnt" tasting compared to sticky-sweet American caramel, and so good that we bought a jar of similar stuff to bring home:

Paris, Day Four

2011-02-28T13:06:00.003-05:00

After returning, we went to the Musee d'Orsay to see Impressionist works, and then to Gallery Lafayette for Priya to buy some French face cream. By the evening, we were starving, having not really eaten much all day. Our dinner was at La Régalade Saint-Honoré Bistro and was another incredible meal. This time, we both got the "menu".

At the beginning of the meal, they gave us a loaf of pate as big as a loaf of bread and a jar of cornichons. You eat as much as you want and they take it away when your food comes (presumably to give to the next guest).

Coquilles Saint-Jacques marinees a l'huile d'olive au citron, pistou et copeaux de parmesan (raw scallops with olive oil, lemon, pesto, and parmesan):

Thon rouge mi-cuit au citron confit, carpaccio de betteraves et salade de mache (seared tuna with lemon confit and both raw and cooked beets over mache salad):

Paleron de boeuf cuit lentement, carottes condantes, oignons grelots et champignons comme un bourguignon (beef bourguignon):

Poitrine de cochon fermier moelleuse de chez Ospital, la couenne croustillante, lentilles vertes du Puy cuisinees comme un petit sale (pork belly over French green lentils):

Souffle chaud au Grand Mariner and riz cuit au lait et a la vanille comme le faisait ma grand-mere, caramel laitier (Grand Marnier souffle and rice pudding with vanilla and milk caramel):

The rice pudding really blew the lid off this meal--a softball-sized portion (of course we didn't finish it) that wasn't soupy at all and was leagues beyond any rice pudding we'd ever had. OMG dessert.

Paris, Day Three (Things Start To Get Awesome)

2011-02-28T11:09:00.004-05:00

The next day, we got a late start, and began by walking over to the Jewish area on Rue de Rosiers. We had lunch at the famed L'As du Fallafel. We had a beef merguez sausage appetizer and inexpensive falafel sandwiches that were very good and very stuffed, though perhaps with a bit too much cabbage:

We had dinner at Cafe Constant, one of four restaurants on the same block run by Christian Constant. I don't know if it was actually amazing or if I just perceived it as such because it was our first excellent Paris dinner out, but it really blew me away.

Oeufs mimosa comme autrefois (old-style devilled eggs):

Terrine de foie gras de canard maison, pain de mie toaste (duck foie gras):

Vollaile "Patte Bleue"" rotie au beurre d'herbes, pommes Grenaille rissolees ("Patte Bleu" roast chicken with herby butter and pan-fried new potatoes):

Tete, langue, et cervielle de veau croustillante, pommes vapeur, sauce gribiche (Head, tongue, and brains of veal). This was sooo good; the head was cooked in an almost scrapple-like slab and when I bit it it instantly coated the inside of my mouth with fattiness:

Ile flotante, a puff of meringue floating in caramel:

Some random Paris food items from the store

2011-02-28T11:03:00.002-05:00

Mustard-flavored potato chips (not bad):

Speculoos, a peanut-butter-like spread that tastes like crumbled-up cookies:

A MacMacaron (we didn't buy it), which is both cute and sad:

Paris, Day Two

2011-02-27T16:05:00.007-05:00

We went shopping at Marché aux Puces St-Ouen de Clignancourt in the morning and stopped in Cafe Paul Bert for lunch, which was very crowded with French people. I got the "menu" (a prix fixe including an appetizer, a main, and some wine) while Priya decided to get stuff a la carte--probably a mistake in retrospect, because it cost twice as much and was not very good. Our vegetable soups were just creamy broth, and my flank steak with shallots (bavette a l'échalotte) was fine, but Priya's croque Paul Bert was kind of gross--no ham and an absolutely gigantic amount of cheese over toasted (not grilled) bread. However, the bottled grape juice she ordered was fantastic. As we ate, we saw three separate French people around us order hamburgers--and eat them improperly (discarding the bun entirely and cutting off pieces of meat which ate with a fork, buttering each piece with ketchup as they went).

Note: we've heard of a Paul Bert Bistro nearby here as well, which is supposed to be good--this isn't it, and it's not that good. The Alain Milliat grape juice was fantastic, though.

After the Louvre, we went to La Grande Epicerie de Paris fancy-food store attached to the Bon Marche department store. We ended up spending hours there--it was amazing. Forbidden from photographing some of the food, we snuck in a few pix anyway. We ended up returning the the Epicerie a few days later to buy more stuff because it was so good.

There is a whole molecular gastronomy section...agar-agar, sphere-making kits, foam stuff...:

In the end, everything looked so good (and we were still tired) that we decided to have dinner at home with stuff purchased from the Epicerie...some ham and sausages (jambon torchon, jambon bayonne, and chaudin poivre vert), a few cheeses (St. Marcellin, 18-month Comte, and Ossau Iraty), some baguettes, some crystallized kumquats (so good, much better than fresh kumquats), some French apples, a mangosteen (I was super-excited to find these; since they're illegal to import in the US, I've been looking for them for ages, and only found a bag of previously-frozen mangosteens on the street in Chinatown that were really nothing special), some tamari almonds (actually from the Co-Op in Brooklyn), some wine, and some of the grape juice we'd had earlier at Paul Bert. And for dessert, some packaged chocolate mousse that was really very good:

Paris, Day One

2011-02-27T15:35:00.004-05:00

Our flight arrived early on Sunday morning and we moved into our rented apartment in the Marais. Very close by was Rose Bakery, where we had our first meal. We were excited because Priya has had their cookbook (Breakfast, Lunch, Tea) for ages. I had bacon, eggs, mushrooms, and tomato--I know, English without the beans--and a cinnamon bun while Priya had a maple scone and a mini quiche (with sweet potatoes, broccoli, and green beans) plus two salad sides--a very interesting/cooling salad made of cucumber and paper-thin slices of cauliflower and romesco cauliflower and green herbs like tarragon, and an eggplant/fennel salad. We ordered too much, really--a scone came with my breakfast, and delicious bread and butter and preserves came with the whole meal.

For dinner, we were near the Pompidou, so we went to Black Dog, a metal bar full of guys with Terran Olson beards. Black Dog served dinner starting at 8, so we ate there--most of the menu is steaks. Some of the high-end ones are giant and cost like €60 each, but I just got the regular ol' rib-eye. It was decent, but overcooked, I thought--almost completely grey throughout, "medium" at best (surprising, because isn't France generally known for its bloody meat? Maybe they gave it another run through the fire when they saw I was American). Priya had a couple of passable-but-not-great empanadas.

valentine's day

2011-02-17T21:38:00.003-05:00

Beet roesti with rosemary and pistachio-crusted cod

simple, good.

Preserved limequats

2011-02-17T21:30:00.004-05:00

Priya brought home some limequats (a tiny, cute cross between Key limes and kumquats). Unsure what to do with them, I preserved them. In two months or so we'll make a chicken tagine.

And when we get back from Paris next week, the regular preserved lemons I made several weeks ago should be ready for a lamb tagine! This time, I added black peppercorns, coriander seeds, and bay leaves to the brine...usually I only do salt and lemon juice.

Northern Spy kale salad

2011-02-06T11:42:00.003-05:00

Kale salad from Northern Spy (where I went a couple of weeks ago with the ladies from school). We've made it a couple of times, using butternut squash instead of kabocha, and it's always come out great!

Maple cream puffs

2011-01-30T23:18:00.003-05:00

for Beth's Iron Chef birthday party (theme: "stuffed"), we made maple cream puffs (maple mascarpone filling, maple glaze, big-grain maple sugar sprinkled on top). Really easy, actually. Our biggest regret was not piping them out prettier--we thought they'd lose shape so didn't put much care into it. wrong!

Má Pêche: Beef Seven Ways

2011-01-25T20:19:00.004-05:00

with some food-lovers from my school, went to lunch at David Chang's "business lunch" (doesn't that sound horrible?) place Má Pêche for Bœuf Sept Façons.

Niman Ranch tongue in a spinach and basil salad with plum vinaigrette and peanuts. Never had tongue quite like this before; usually it's grey and chunky and in a lengua taco. :)

Not beef, but a duck banh mi we got on the side, just to try.

Wagyu with ginger, scallion, and radish. Shockingly beefy!

Cote de bœuf with butter, thyme, and garlic and Niman Ranch beef sausage with lemongrass, thai basil, and shallots. The sausage might have been my favorite thing of the whole meal.

A lot of stuff went well in lettuce wraps with spicy hoisin, crispy shallots and garlic, and pickles.

The crowning glory: oxtail with soy, sherry, and apple juice and beef shank with crab paste, onion, and chili. The oxtail vied with the sausage for the Best Thing; the beef shank was, of course, very very good (and very very large).

Finally, to finish off, a cup of delicate consomme with lime and Thai basil.

Was it as good as other "event" meals Momofuku restaurants offer, like Ssam Bar's Bo Ssam or the fried chicken feast at Noodle Bar? Not quite, I don't think--beef is a tough dish to like, especially seven ways--but it was still excellent. Doesn't hold a candle to Ko, though.

And it sucks having to go to midtown to eat, and it sucks eating around dudes who appear poised to ask me about my TPS reports:

Priya's b-day brunch 2k11

2011-01-24T20:20:00.004-05:00

January. Time for Priya's annual b-day brunch, when we squeeze dozens of people into an apartment that does not fit four comfortably.

Kiszka kielbasa, poha, French green lentil salad over baby spinach, egg-chile casserole, Rob's mom's baked French toast, quinoa salad with apples, cranberries, mint, and curry, smoked salmon, Rzeszowska cheese babka, blueberry boy-bait, deviled eggs, beet-avocado salad with pepitas, halwa, Peter Pan donuts, and b-day cake.

Garam masala

2010-12-29T16:06:00.002-05:00

making garam masala on a snowed-in day.

cinnamon, zeera (cumin), elaichi (cardamom, black), peppercorns, bay leaves.

warmed in oven for 20 min or so, cooled, then ground in our Krups "coffee" (spice) grinder. put through a sieve and reground a couple of times, to make...

Traif in South Williamsburg

2010-12-28T23:51:00.008-05:00

having been a regular cyclist through South Williamsburg (and having been directly and personally affected by the sulky demolishing of the Bedford Avenue bike lanes, as Bedford was my bike route back home from the Co-op each month), I am pleased to see anyone poke a stick in the eye of the Satmar Hasidim. So I wanted to try Traif for awhile. Although there was a three-hour wait for a table a few weeks back, Priya and I found the place not too busy when we arrived just before 7 on a Friday night (within an hour, though, the place was teeming--probably back to the multi-hour wait).

ultimately, the stick-poking idea is funny for maybe a minute, so it's nice to see that the food was able to hold our attention for the other hour and 29 minutes of our dinner. it was really very good.

Bacon broth:

Strawberry-cinnamon glazed baby back ribs:

Seared foie, fingerlings, ham chips, sunny egg, maple, hot sauce:

Bacon-wrapped dates with blue cheese:

Brussels sprouts, mint, grapes, crispy rice cakes, chili viniagrette:

Pork belly with quince:

Spicy bigeye tuna tartare, tempura eggplant, kecap manis (the eggplant formed, like, the "crackers" that the tuna would normally sit on...very good):

Bacon doughnuts, dulce de leche, coffee ice cream:

Torrisi Italian Specialties for dinner

2010-11-21T22:26:00.006-05:00

Dan recently left WD50 for a job at Torrisi Italian Specialties. Wooh and I had been there for lunch before, but I was interested to try the new dinner service: $50, prix fixe, period. Katie, Lena, Priya and I met there at 6:30 on Friday and there was already a TWO HOUR wait for two people! Thanks to Dan for getting us seated right away. And the meal was astounding.

Garlic bread:

Warm mozzarella, DaVero oil, Milk Thistle cream:

Cucumbers New Yorkese (tasted mustardy):

Blackened mackerl, pickled eggplant, and celery:

Sweetbreads nha trang (think General Tso's sweetbreads):

Potato gnocchi, Brussels sprouts, Gulden's mustard (tasted kinda like a delicious grilled cheese sandwich):

BBQ lamb shoulder, fresh beans, molasses:

Cornbread polenta:

Striped bass, pickled green tomatoes, house olives:

Prime rib (cost $30 extra, served two):

The very end of the prime rib:

Swiss fudge swirls, Hudson bourbon cream puff, pizzelle cannoli with Salvatore filling, rainbow cookies, Concord grape cheesecake tart:

NO MAYO

2010-11-07T12:11:00.004-05:00

ran next door to Mikey's Burger during happy hour for a quick burger. they were having some kind of kitchen meltdown, the cooks rolling their eyes as the clearly-new order-taker was screwing everything up. usually takes 5-10 min to get your order...I ordered a burger with no mayo. 30 minutes later, I got this:

birthday dinner at WD-50!

2010-10-23T15:30:00.006-04:00

Priya took me to WD-50 for my birthday dinner with Katie & Dave. Our friend Dan, who cooks there, is leaving shortly for a new job, so we wanted to get in and check it out while he was still in the kitchen.

We eschewed the tasting menu in favor of ordering a bunch of entrees and appetizers--cheaper and more satisfying, we figured. Right off we were sent an amuse-bouche of everything-bagel ice cream, dried smoked salmon threads, and a crispy piece of cream cheese.

Shrimp spaghetti, tomato, basil, garlic (the spaghetti itself was made out of shrimp--no pasta dough here):

Aerated foie gras, pickled beet, mashad plum, brioche:

Peekytoe crab roll, salt 'n' vinegar tiny chips, and celery mayonnaise (I dodged the mayo and found the dish to be pretty good without it):

Eggs benedict (deep-fried cubes of hollandaise sauce, cylinders of poached egg yolk, crispy ham sheets):

Veal brisket, honeydew cubes, crispy olive, and amazing fried ricotta:

:

Lemongrass mousse, jackfruit, lemongrass foam and lemongrass ice, brown sugar crunchy pastry thing, and whole-wheat ice cream:

Hazelnut tart, chocolate and coconut, chicory foam:

Edible cucumber-mousse candle with cucumber sugar sheet (for my birthday!):

Rainbow sherbet (of apple, orange, and tarragon sherbets) over olive-oil cake, wrapped up in a sugar sheet:

Kuaie La Mai

2010-10-13T20:32:00.002-04:00

Beef Lanzhou noodle soup & Fukhinese wonton at the former Eastern Noodle on Forsyth. I never had Fukhinese wontons before, but they seem to be very tiny with huge billowy poached-egg-like noodle feathering off around the snip of meat.

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Momofuku Noodle Bar fried chicken extravaganza!

2010-10-12T21:03:00.004-04:00

Yvette got reservations for the fried chicken lunch at Momofuku Noodle Bar. Like Ko reservations, you have to get online at just the right time to score them, and they only have a fixed number per day. One Korean fried chicken, one Southern fried chicken, plus some sides.

http://www.momofuku.com/noodle-bar/faq/fried-chicken-faq/

of course we had to have the pork buns first. omg.

K. LaMay's Steamed Cheeseburgers in Meriden

2010-09-28T22:28:00.005-04:00

Kevin LaMay, formerly of the famous Ted's Steamed Cheeseburgers in Meriden, opened up his own joint (K. Lamay's) recently, and we (Jenna/Rob/Priya/I) hit it on our way back from Boston. It was outstanding! A few ways I think it surpasses the (ever-classic) Ted's:

1) Bigger burgers
2) Better cheddar cheese--I hear Ted's switched to a lower quality cheese recently, and it shows
3) Actual cheese fries, not cheese homefries
4) Foxon Park sodas (I got birch beer)
5) Next door to Les' for some classic Meriden soft-serve afterward

The steam cabinet itself:

(thanks to the lovely Priya for the photos)

Bartley's Burger Cottage

2010-09-27T22:32:00.003-04:00

in Boston for Bill & Maureen's wedding, and Priya had never been before, so we went all over, stopping for lunch in Harvard Square at Bartley's Burger Cottage. very crowded, quite delicious; the burgers had a dark taste on the outside but a rare taste on the inside. Not sure if they outpace some of my favorite burger places, but they were good. (and the onion rings were super crispy).

Helsinki

2010-09-21T19:50:00.008-04:00

We were only in Helsinki for one night, so we made it count: dinner at Juuri, a well-reviewed place downtown that had been mentioned in the NYT. We stuck entirely to the sapas menu (small plates; Finnish tapas, I guess).

Buttery mushroom soup with rye breadstick:

Smoked reindeer heart with rowanberry-wine gelee:

Finnish snow ham with marinated plums (the menu says "blums"; we asked what blums were in English and the server looked at us blankly and said, "Blums. That's all they are.")

Eggcheese spiked with oregano, baked with straws:

Whitefish tartare, spinach mousse, and crisp bread:

Roasted rutabaga with cauliflower puree:

Crayfish-cottage cheese-filled cabbage leaves in dill butter:

Fresh sausages a la Juuri with vodka mustard:

Salted trout with root vegetable salad:

Beetroot and nut stew with small mushrooms:

Outstanding!

Mumbai

2010-09-20T19:47:00.003-04:00

I don't think this is an accurate phonetic pronunciation of "poutine".

We got chaat at Elco in Bandra, a quality shop where we could (finally) eat the pani puri!

Rabdi (not very good--it's only good in Jaipur, I guess), pani puri, pao bhaji, chaat papri, and bhelpuri.

Jaipur

2010-09-20T19:34:00.004-04:00

Lagged on posting the rest of the food pix. Will rectify that now.

Ice cream at Jal Mahal. I had chikoo (sapodilla) and tried flavors like fig (anjeer).

Rajasthani food (lal maas--lamb in red spicy sauce--and tandoori fish) at Niro.

Mysore dosa at Dasaprakash, a South Indian chain:

Dhoklas and other treats from Chawlas, a sweet shop.

Me in kurta pyjamas and Tanu Mausi at a dinner at Nanaji's and Nanima's cooked by Sweetie Mausi.

Kesar pista kulfi (saffron and pistachio ice cream) from a roadside stand.

Agra

2010-08-22T22:48:00.003-04:00

A Pinch of Spice restaurant in Agra. We had tandoori chicken and paneer tikka, both of which were phenomenal; the chana masala was good but a bit strange (and had paneer in it as well, oddly). The waiter took our order and then asked, confused, why we were only getting one meal; we said, "We're getting a whole tandoori chicken too?" and he said, "But that's dry." I think the general idea is that an entree has to have a gravy to be considered suitable for a main dish.

Varanasi

2010-08-22T22:46:00.003-04:00

Giant jackfruit tree at our hotel, the Taj Benares!

Amritsar

2010-08-15T18:02:00.003-04:00

Flooding in Amritsar meant that we weren't able to try Amritsari fish nor Amritsar-style jalebi. We did get to eat at Moti Mahal, which is a growing Indian chain, and had excellent, excellent butter chicken (a Punjabi speciality) and rogan josh. Too dim for pix, sadly.

Dharamsala

2010-08-15T17:57:00.002-04:00

At Tsongkha, a rooftop Tibetan cafe, we had Chinar apple beer (delicious) and two kinds of Tibetan vegetarian noodle soups: thankthuk and thukpa, both of which were amazing. Also, we had vegetarian balab (empanada-like dumpling), which was a little too "fried"-tasting for me.

Manali

2010-08-15T17:49:00.004-04:00

Tibetan momos (vegetarian) in Vashisht.

Aloo paratha, with a spicy chili sauce different from the Indian-style pickles or chutney I'm used to.

Apple juice and mango lassi. Himachal Pradesh is famous for its orchards, and the apple juice was amazing.

Pretty good Italian food (spaghetti that was supposed to be spicy but wasn't, pizza with horrible canned sausage, odd but okay chocolate cake) from Il Forno, towards Old Manali. It's run by an old Veronese woman and Priya got to practice her Italian.

Manali is famous for its trout, which we had a bunch there--crappy picture of trout with ginger sauce at Chopsticks, a Chinese restaurant in Manali center (it was delicious; Priya thought it looked gross but ended up eating half of my dinner!), and tandoori trout from Khyber (where we also had outstanding chicken tikkatuk).

Chandigarh

2010-08-15T17:45:00.003-04:00

At Sai Sweets in Chandigarh, we had chhole bhatura, samosas with paneer/peas/cashews/raisins inside, and khasta kachoras.

Delhi

2010-08-15T17:36:00.004-04:00

Peanut chaat (at the Executive Club)

Pani puri (which I wasn't allowed to eat, because it was made with dirty street water. In Mumbai later I would get to eat some made from good water).

Iddly and a ghee roast masala dosa from Saravanaa Bhavan, a pretty good South Indian chain.

From Karim's, an old famous Muslim Indian place, seekh kebabs, chicken burra (kebabs on the bone, after being marinated for ages in yogurt and papaya), jahangiri chicken, sheermal roti (never seen that in the States before--soaked in ghee, made with sugar in the dough, very good). So good.

Dinner in London with Craig, Stuart & Sophie

2010-08-15T17:30:00.003-04:00

en route to India for our honeymoon, we stopped in London for a couple of days, staying with Craig in Stoke Newington. We intended to go out for dinner to Ottolenghi, but couldn't get a reservation, so Stuart & Sophie had us over to their beautiful flat in Pimlico and made dinner themselves: leek fritters (from Ottolenghi's cookbook), roasted fennel, roasted chicken, and crystallized-ginger ice cream.

My wedding at Roberta's

2010-07-06T14:52:00.011-04:00

Priya and I got married on Saturday, and one of our goals for our wedding was to ensure that we had it at a place that had outstanding food--we didn't want regular "wedding food". Through the help of many friends, we were able to have our wedding at the incomparable Brooklyn restaurant Roberta's, where we've had many an amazing meal!

Our menu:

Bibb salad

gorgonzola, walnuts, dried cherry vinaigrette

…

PIZZAS

Margherita

mozzarella, tomato, basil

Da Kine

tomato, mozzarella, jalapeño, cotto, pineapple, ricotta

Guanciale & Egg

mozzarella, tomato, guanciale, egg

Cheeses Christ

black pepper, mozzarella, taleggio, parmigiano, heavy cream

RPS

tomato, mozzarella, soppressata, roasted red peppers

Millennium Falco

tomato, parmigiano, onion, pork sausage, bread crumbs

White & Green

mozzarella, arugula, lemon, parmigiano

…

Heritage Pork Butt or Eggplant Parmesan

…

Fork Crushed Fingerling Potato Salad

with lemon, shallots, and herbs

Beet Salad with celery and caraway

And for passed appetizers, we had lemon-pecorino crostini, prosciutto bread balls, Medjool dates stuffed with gorgonzola and wrapped in basil & bacon, and spring pea crostini with ricotta. (Every one was delicious; although I didn't get to try the prosciutto bread balls--still coming off the ceremony nervousness when they were served--I heard they were amazing).

The bounty of food for dinner was also unbelievable--it just kept coming and coming, and I think everyone enjoyed it; afterward, tons of people told us it was the best wedding food they'd ever had. We'd also been really keen on having a good vegetarian entree, not just an afterthought or a cobbling-together of sides, and the eggplant parm really fit the bill--fantastic for anyone, not just vegetarians (and so large that a single order could've fed the table).

For dessert, we had delicious cupcakes (made by our friends Jenna and Lisa and frosted by them and their assistants-slash-husbands Rob and Dan) and Van Leeuwen ice cream (we hired the cart to come to the wedding and give it away) in five flavors: pistachio, ginger, Earl Grey tea, vanilla, and chocolate.

Our rehearsal dinner, the night before, was held at iCi in Fort Greene, and the food there was top-notch as well. We chose from a menu of chilled potato-leek soup with garlic scapes, market salad, roasted Violet Hill chicken with Anson Mills polenta, green beans, and mushroom fricasse, seared Arctic char with summer squash and herbed Israeli couscous, summer vegetable ravioli from Savino's, mini chocolate cakes, and Il Laboratorio del Gelato rhubarb and peach ice creams.

Sadly, the craziness of the wedding meant that I wasn't really photographing food, so there are certainly missing pictures. No matter; the memory is enough!

Roberta's

2010-06-18T23:38:00.006-04:00

Dinner @ Roberta's with Priya, Chris, Sarah, Katie, and Katie's mom.

* cheese plate
* carrot salad with bacon and smoked ricotta
* tripe
* linguine with uni and chiles
* white & green pizza with sopressatta
* Cortes pizza (with cilantro, radishes, pickled onions, spicy sausage, crema fresca...kind of like a taco pizza)
* duck prosciutto
* olive oil gelato with sweet crystallized olives

outstanding!

we'd also had brunch at Roberta's last week, and I got one of my old favorites (guanciale and egg pizza) while Priya had delicious rhubarb pancakes.

The Meatball Shop

2010-06-16T19:51:00.003-04:00

Lunch from The Meatball Shop in the LES...I got spicy pork meatball + tomato sauce + provolone, and traded half a sub with Prado's chicken meatball + spicy meat sauce. Both great, but, as Chopp advised, the chicken meatballs were actually better! (or was it the spicy meat sauce that did it?) I also had a taste of Wooh's pork meatball + pesto sauce + mozzarella, which was excellent but not quite my thing (I love red sauce).

for $9 with a side salad, not a bad price for a great lunch, either.

Joe & Pat's pizzeria on Staten Island

2010-06-16T19:44:00.004-04:00

in Staten Island for a PD last week; making the most of that rare occasion, Lauren & I went with Stan to one of the favorite pizza places of his youth: Joe & Pat's. very thin crust, sweet sauce, pretty delicious even reheated for dinner later back in Greenpoint!

Torrisi's Italian Specialties

2010-06-15T18:37:00.002-04:00

after much recent press, Wooh and I checked out Torrisi's Italian Specialties during our lunch break.

the eggplant parm ($10 for a chunk), which I didn't get but will in the future.

the incredibly juicy-looking roast turkey, with thyme and huge hunks of salt all over it.

Wooh got a turkey sandwich, which looks a little yucky in this picture because he got it with mayonnaise :(. Next time, I'm definitely getting it (mayo-free).

Chicken parm sub ($9), for me. Very good sauce, mozz, chicken, and the leaf of basil really adds to the sandwich.

Roasted cauliflower ($3 for a quarter-lb) to split for a side--lots of rosemary, very dark/crispy/roasted.

Fatty 'Cue

2010-06-13T22:48:00.003-04:00

Jenna mustered the troops (well, Tami, Rob, and I...Priya was, sadly, crippled by work deadlines) and gathered us at the Fatty 'Cue in South Williamsburg for some barbecue-southeast-Asian-fusion-type yumminess.

Cucumber salad with brown rice vinegar, smoked chiles, and sesame.

Coriander bacon with yellow curry mustard.

Bowl of noodles with meat juices and sambal.

Pulled lamb shoulder with goat yogurt, Vietnamese mint, and homemade pita.

Whole pig (a special only on Sundays) with pineapple curry, Thai basil, and four bao.

Red curry duck with pickled daikon and smoked red curry sauce.

Fatty Bar "dark" (with roasted almonds, chili, and Maldon sea salt) and Fatty Bar "milk" (with crystallized ginger, puffed rice, and crisped rice).

S'mores pie with homemade toasted marshmallow topping, chocolate ganache, and graham cracker crust. Cream on the side to pour on top.

outstanding meal. The s'mores pie was kind of insane, as desserts go, and I really couldn't pick a favorite entree--they were all that good. I can't wait to return with Priya!

Bo ssam at the Woohs'

2010-06-11T21:49:00.002-04:00

over Wooh's house for the last Finer Things dinner of the year...homemade bo ssam. Wooh spent several days cooking pork butt, which we ate with black rice, oysters, ssam jang, butter lettuce, and corn on the cob with mint and cheese. Outstanding.

2010-06-04T23:07:00.004-04:00

after happy hour, Prado & I stopped by Mrs. Kim's for dinner. I was keen to try the green garlic/pickled ramps/pancetta lo mein I'd seen last week, but a special salad of watermelon with black vinegar, lime zest, cilantro, and szechuan-spiced cashews sounded interesting enough that I had to get that as well. Prado got the Korean fried chicken (which I've had a handful of times here; it's terrific) and we also both got to try duck-lardo dumplings.

the dumplings were 3 for $11, and coming from Chinatown (where they're 5 for a buck), it would be a little hard for me to pay that. but a bite of them erased any reservations. they had a super-dark-meat, super-delicious duck flavor that far surpassed the pork-and-chive cheapo dumplings from Prosperity.

the strange flavor combinations of the watermelon salad worked perfectly together. I'd never have pictured any of those things working in tandem, but it was a real winner.

and the lo mein was also very good, very satisfying. dark-colored and salty. mmm.

my first cake

2010-06-04T22:29:00.003-04:00

for Brina's birthday. obviously I've decorated a thousand and one cakes (when I worked at WMC) and obviously this is from a mix, but the frosting is from scratch and so is the decoration.

Engrish in Bushwick

2010-05-31T01:54:00.002-04:00

Mrs. Kim's

2010-05-30T18:58:00.002-04:00

dinner at Mrs. Kim's; no camera and too dim for cameraphone, so no pictures, but you know what? the food was great, so I have to note it here. maybe I can steal some pictures from other websites.

pork bun (image from http://www.greenpointnews.com/news/from-river-barrel-to-mrs-kims):

grilled fava beans with mint, fish sauce, and kochukaru (image from http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/mrs-kims/18623):

also spicy rice cakes with asparagus (no picture), a damn good hamburger (no picture), and pig-trotter croquettes over pureed pineapple (no picture).

excellent all around. I think I prefer my rice cakes to have a bit of a crispier skin, but I still could not get enough of these. Priya and I left sooo full.

Tulcingo Del Valle

2010-05-18T20:59:00.002-04:00

after our fun shower in CT, Priya and Ahmad and I arrived back in the city late Saturday night looking for some food before making the last leg of the journey to our respective homes. Priya had the names of two near-ish Mexican places she wanted to try, so we picked (more or less randomly) Tulcingo Del Valle and walked over to 10th Ave.

two lengua tacos, two carne enchilada. the spicy pork was actually very, very good, just the right amount of crispy and not-crispy. the lengua was pretty decent. The taco-ordering logistics on the menu were extremely confusing--it has a list of all these delicious-sounding tacos, and says, "$2.75" next to them. how many tacos per order? doesn't say. OK, so I order four different tacos. "No, two per order," says the waitress. "Must be the same taco." Two tacos for $2.75? Great deal! "No, one taco for $2.75. But you must order two. And they must be the same." Bleh.

chicken mole and mole enchiladas. I thought the mole sauce here was fantastic--very bright, spicy flavor.

the guacamole and salsa was good, too--I could've used more spice and raw-onion chunks int he guac, but the salsa was spicy enough to make up for it.

Recommended when you're in the 40s and need some food that doesn't suck.

pan-fried trout

2010-05-16T22:22:00.001-04:00

pan-fried trout with rosemary and garlic. replicating a technique we learned at the Brooklyn Kitchen/Meat Hook fish class we took a few months ago.

St. Anselm

2010-05-10T23:19:00.004-04:00

in the neighborhood doing tasks like getting Priya's computer fixed, trying (and failing) to rendezvous with a friend recently in India for travel tips, buying Priya's wedding ring (!), we stopped in at the new St. Anselm on Metropolitan for dinner.

clearly new and not yet fully up and running, St. Anselm's was almost completely empty and did not have paper menus, liquor, most desserts, or a bunch of the offal- and otherwise "haute snack bar" items that we'd been reading about. We went simple, then--draft root beer, a slider, a hot dog, a "Newark dog" (two hot dogs inside a sliced-open pizza-dough "roll", with breaded fried peppers and potatoes and other goodies inside), and disco fries (fries with ricotta cheese and brown gravy, sort of poutine-esque).

I literally had not had a hot dog in more than 20 years before tonight; these were pretty good, I have to say, but I still can't conceive of a situation in which I choose a hot dog over a burger. The slider, incidentally, was outstanding, as were the disco fries and the complimentary chocolate-covered almonds we tried for dessert.

no pictures, as it's sadly very dim inside.

Red cabbage and ramp slaw

2010-05-04T15:31:00.002-04:00

Maybe because of my Slavic heritage, I love red cabbage and eat it a few times per week. I made a simple salad/slaw of red cabbage, ramps, sherry vinegar, and oil.

Fiddleheads & ramps

2010-05-04T15:29:00.002-04:00

thrown-together dinner: fiddleheads, blanched then sauteed in oil with chopped ramps, fish/onion rice from the sayadiyah a few days ago; Quorn cutlet on rye; radishes with fleur de sel

Fava & ricotta

2010-05-04T15:27:00.002-04:00

Fava bean, mint, and ricotta (from DiPalo's) puree on perciatelli. A little more fava and a little less garlic was needed, but it still tasted great.