Not much to report here - it was my birthday on Saturday, so didn't cook much except Sunday dinner.
Maybe I'll throw in some thoughts on restaurants, which all were good with few exceptions.
Grilled Vegetable Tostada
Zucchini, Corn, Chard and Tomato
w/roasted tomatillo salsa, chili salsa with Beer battered squash blossoms
Positive - This tasted pretty good. Did a better job frying the squash blossoms. Salsas tasted OK; tortillas were okay; I need to remember to work in lard. The few times I've used it, they taste great.
Negative - I got these tomatillos at the NJ Tomato stand at the Greenpoint market, they weren't great. For some reason when I make tomatillo salsa I roast them; don't know why, just a habit...I mean rut.
Beer Battered Corn Fritters
Positive - Had a lot of extra corn and extra batter - they were light and very corn-y. I've heard people say that the real skill in making fried foods is having them taste good cold; and these were still crisp at room temp, I'll consider that a success.
Used Grey Lady from Cisco, the batter just tasted like beer batter. The beer itself is pretty good, it's a weiss beer with cinnamon. Totally makes sense and tastes good.
Negative - The batter was kind of tempura-like, so it was really loose and made a mess. Had a hard time getting the corn kernels out of the oil and they started exploding.
Zucchini, Radicchio and Tomato Egg White Omelet
w/ Roasted Broccoli/Scape Pesto
Positive - Gretchen had a bunch of whites left from the cake; and I had leftover broccoli/scape pesto leftover from a weeknight dinner. Finished this with some basil too. The filling actually tasted great. I think most of the food I'm actually happy with is breakfast.
Negative - I wish this had some yolk in there.
Pickled Jalapenos and Serrano
I bought some at the greenmarket since they just started coming in; and had extras from the tostadas. Picked in white vinegar, with carrot, garlic, coriander, cilantro. Haven't eaten any of the pickles I've made so far, wonder how they're doing.
Waterfront Ale House
At first this place seems like your typical bar with a good beer selection, then your like, oh, this place has food.
Then you look at the menu closer and see that all the food is pretty much prepared with beer, how cute...oh they have a 'wild game' burger of the day....that will really get the attention of the male clientele who frequent craft beer bars.
But wait, they name all of the sources of the meat, and the ketchup is 'house made'; ok you're starting to get my attention, I'll place an order.
But wait, they name all of the sources of the meat, and the ketchup is 'house made'; ok you're starting to get my attention, I'll place an order.
We'll have the venison burger and 'texas dip'
Get the texas dip now. It's a smoked brisket sandwich with barbeque sauce on the side for dipping. This seriously has the best smoke flavor of any meat I've had recently in the city; it beats Hill Country and Fette Sau. Gretchen got this and I got the venison burger medium rare. The burger was pretty good, and the ketchup was homemade; nothing better than ketchup you could make yourself at home, but I appreciate the effort. Burger was cooked properly (more than I can say for some places, I'm looking at you General Greene).
Go for the Texas Dip and stay for the beers.
This is the type of place that should be in every neighborhood. I'd put The Harrison in that category too.
These places can really cook. I mean if a place makes 100 orders of fried chicken a night they should be damn good at it, 95% of the time it should come out great, or why am I paying for it?
These places can really cook. I mean if a place makes 100 orders of fried chicken a night they should be damn good at it, 95% of the time it should come out great, or why am I paying for it?
I can cook some mediocre fried chicken at home; but I only make it twice a year at most, how good could I get at it. Restaurants have no excuse in my book for being just OK with their technique.
The Redhead has some damn good fried chicken and a good burger, the cornbread was good too and it was priced appropriately.
It shouldn't be worth going out of your way for, every neighborhood should have a place like this but most don't; ours doesn't (although it does have some badass thai and mexican), it has a place that tries, but fails (Quaint).
Momofuku Ssam Bar
Went for the prix fixe. $25 bucks for some of the best food in the city. It's places like this and Roberta's that fit right in with the French 'new bistro' movement (is it new if the 'movement' is 15 years old). There's a whole generation of French chefs who do this same thing.
They're all about taking down all of the pretense and making it all about the ingredient and technique. I'm sure I respond so much to these places because I'm the same age as the chefs, and they play really 'cool' music like Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma, and Television; but if the food was crap it wouldn't matter.
Double Windsor
Another craft beer bar in another neighborhood. We stopped here after riding to Coney Island and eating way too much pizza at DiFara's on the way back.
All I can say is I got a flight of the four single hop Mikeller IPAs for 4 bucks...What? I've heard of happy hour but this is ridiculous. I can also say I'm as confused as the owner about these new fangled beer ball contraptions he was showing us.
Also - beers should have multiple hops, it was interesting to taste each one, but they really work together better. I would still suggest trying the Chinook by itself.
DiFara
Finally made it- dude's a NYC institution and people line up for hours to get it. It's really good, definitely a perfect NY slice, but with better ingredients. The parm and fresh mozz really work well together and the crust is pretty good. Watching him work was amazing, so slow but paced perfectly; it was definitely an experience.
Do I need to go again and pay $25 for a cheese pie- no.
Can I get a more interesting pizza for less at Paulie Gee's, Roberta's or Motorino - Yes.
Can I get a surprisingly satifying NY slice for $1 - yes.
Can I get a more interesting pizza for less at Paulie Gee's, Roberta's or Motorino - Yes.
Can I get a surprisingly satifying NY slice for $1 - yes.
Am I glad I went - Yes.
Annisa
Gretchen took me here and it was great. It topped off a week where we had a lot of food with at least some Asian influence (Nobu, Gyu Kaku, Ssam Bar, etc). I don't have a great palate for these flavors but you can generally tell if something isn't working.
I know people doubt the soup dumpling, but it was really good; but the fish custard dish was awesome, really sweet, but somehow not dessert like.
The service was great too; the sommelier got all excited when I asked him about his favorite new white on the menu, it's good to see these guys get excited. I know there's a tendency to think these guys are all stuck up, but sommelier's are just people who love drinking and get to do it for a living. Why wouldn't they be excited.
Gretchen went celebrity spotting when Anita Lo came out, since she was on Top Chef Masters; but she's got no other restaurants, where else would she be? Where else should she be?
Gretchen went celebrity spotting when Anita Lo came out, since she was on Top Chef Masters; but she's got no other restaurants, where else would she be? Where else should she be?
Blind Tiger Ale House
I think I'm over Blind Tiger. It's the only real craft beer place in the West Village, but too ofter all the taps are taken over by one brewery. We walked in and it was all Victory; I like some victory (the two pils and the lager are real good), but what if it was just Victory night at Sunswick (who only gave them 5 taps by the way) - I'm screwed.
Plus it's always packed.
Plus it's always packed.
I was luck that they had their single hop beers up. Again interesting since the hops I had in the Mikeller's were more American, and these were European/belgian- but again, interesting exercise but you need more than one hop.
Marlow and Sons
Your day is done Marlow and Sons. You are overpriced, your outdoor seating sucks and the hipster waitresses (who were better at their job than they needed to be) feel almost passe.
Gretchen seemed happy with her pedestrian pasta dish, but my braised goat sandwich with grilled peach was some half-assed crap I would come up with. The amount of goat on there was pretty sad too.
Gretchen seemed happy with her pedestrian pasta dish, but my braised goat sandwich with grilled peach was some half-assed crap I would come up with. The amount of goat on there was pretty sad too.
We can all source great ingredients now and make the freshest thing at home. You're going to need to make me want to come because the cooking is better than what I can get at home; and I'm questioning your abilities.
Combined with our over salty dinner at Diner; I think the whole Marlow family is going down.
Combined with our over salty dinner at Diner; I think the whole Marlow family is going down.
Oh yeah - Your beer list sucks thanks to your fastidious locavorism. Don't you know Kelso and Sixpoint are crap?
Heartland Brewery
Speaking of Kelso (who makes Heartland's beer)- these beers all taste like metal. I'm only drinking Brooklyn from now on, and maybe the Captain Lawrence Kolsch.
This is probably the most exciting development of the week. I run by this run down diner in Long Island City once a week or so, and always thought it would be a really cool place to open a restaurant and it turns out that a couple of people (front/back of the house) who used to work at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal just opened a diner there.
Pied de Cochon is one of Montreal's most celebrated new(ish) restaurants, so I was excited. They're open for Breakfast and lunch now, and had some real interesting things on the menu. We got the sausage egg and cheese, pickled pork tongue, and the tortilla (total bill came in at 15 bucks).
I thought Gretchen was being boring when she went with the tortilla espangola, but it was really good. The sausage on the egg and cheese was homemade (of course) and had a well emulsified springyness to it. The english muffin was good, but maybe the crumb was a bit short, and too crumbly. The pickled tongue was really good; very mild in all ways, and the texture was nice until the very end, where the tip of the tongue got a little chewy.
Overall you could tell the cooking was skilled and inventive; they really want it to be a destination. I can't wait to go back when the menu expands.
M. Wells Diner
This is probably the most exciting development of the week. I run by this run down diner in Long Island City once a week or so, and always thought it would be a really cool place to open a restaurant and it turns out that a couple of people (front/back of the house) who used to work at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal just opened a diner there.
Pied de Cochon is one of Montreal's most celebrated new(ish) restaurants, so I was excited. They're open for Breakfast and lunch now, and had some real interesting things on the menu. We got the sausage egg and cheese, pickled pork tongue, and the tortilla (total bill came in at 15 bucks).
I thought Gretchen was being boring when she went with the tortilla espangola, but it was really good. The sausage on the egg and cheese was homemade (of course) and had a well emulsified springyness to it. The english muffin was good, but maybe the crumb was a bit short, and too crumbly. The pickled tongue was really good; very mild in all ways, and the texture was nice until the very end, where the tip of the tongue got a little chewy.
Overall you could tell the cooking was skilled and inventive; they really want it to be a destination. I can't wait to go back when the menu expands.
CSA
Zucchini
Scallions
Swiss Chard
Corn
Basil
Cucumber
Toscano Kale
Romaine Lettuce
Broccoli
Blueberry
Peaches
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