Le Bernar-din-din

It's anniversary time again for us. 5 years! Time goes by very quickly, eh? Although our tradition for going to Babbo for our anniversary died out after only 3 years (unfortunately, we became less and less impressed with each passing year) we continue to make a point of going out for a good (hopefully great) meal. This year we decided to go to Le Bernardin. We weren't exactly sure what we were in for, except that we expected some really good food (and that I was required to wear a jacket).
At first, it felt a little stuffy inside to me. Perhaps it was all the French accents, or maybe I was just nervous - but that all went away with our friendly staff of servers. I toyed with the tasting menu idea, but then felt it would be safer (on my wasteline) to stick with the four course meal. This was all decided under a prelude to dinner - a little amuse bouche of salmon tartar. To begin (the almost raw course), I chose the layers of tuna pounded thin over fois gras and a parmesan crisp. My wife started with the Scottish and smoked salmon over apple, celery and watercress with jalapeno emulsion. For the second course (barely touched) I had the seared Spanish mackerel with parmesan crisp, sundried tomato and black olive oil, while my wife had the white tuna poached in olive oil with sea beans, potato crisps and light red wine bearnaise. For our main courses (lightly cooked), I had the baked langoustine and striped bass with confit tomato agnolotti with bouillabaisse consomme and curry emulsion while my wife had the crispy black bass with celery and parsnip custard and iberico ham-green pepper sauce. Throughout the meal, we shared a bottle of Pascal Cotat Sancerre, 2007, Loire France. This was a great wine, which went down very easily, however it did not have that green apple taste I usually associate with most Sancerre wines.
Finally, there was dessert. I had the dark chocolate and peanut caramel tart with meyer lemon puree, peanut powder and praline-citrus sorbet (with a cappuccino), while my wife had the Gianduja cream, Oregon hazelnuts, honey, banana, and brown butter ice cream.
Oh - there were some petit fours as well, which were amazing, but all we can remember was the tiny cream filled bignet.
This was an amazing dinner with not a single bad note throughout. Although a quick return would be too damaging to my poor wallet, I would love to go back again.

NP: Fringe (on the DVR)

Butter and Free Parking

This weekend, my wife and I decided we needed a night out, so we got a couple of babysitters (the grandparents) and scoured through OpenTable.com looking for a place to eat. I saw that Butter had some openings, and I've wanted to taste Alex Guarnaschelli's food myself after seeing her dish out comments to the competitors on shows like Iron Chef and Chopped. Also, since Butter is always a hot-spot for the celebrities, we thought it would be fun.
When we arrived, we were seated right away in the Birch Room downstairs - at first it was a little odd, because we were the only people there. Our sense of loneliness was easy to overcome, and soon we got down to business. The waiter came over and explained the night's specials, but we had already figured out what we were going to have for dinner - we were giving the Tasting Menu a shot (mine with with wine parings).
One thing I found a little odd about Butter's tasting menu was that it wasn't the same for the entire table. My wife and I were served a completely different meal each. Luckily, we don't mind sharing, so we tasted a lot of great food last night.
Before the meal arrived, we were served some bread with butter - not a strange concept at all. It was one, however, that we were trying to avoid. With the meal we were expecting before us, neither wanted to fill up on bread. But how, may I ask, do you go to Butter and not try the butter? Some of the best butter I've ever had.
Our first course began with some soup. I was served the lentil bacon soup (it was one of the specials that evening) and my wife was served a potato leak soup with crispy onion rings in it (interestingly, this wasn't on the menu at all). Interesting side note: at the end of the meal, I asked for a list of the wines I had - they gave me a copy of our entire menu - and it appears we were given the wrong soups. Anyway, both were fantastic. I actually enjoyed the lentil bacon more than the potato leak (and my wife, the other way around), so we were happy with the serving snafu. The lentil soup was sweeter than I had expected, but those bites of bacon were awesome. As for the potato leek, it was great as well, mainly because of the crispy onion rings waiting to be found. For this course, I was given a glass of the Cleto Chiarli Sparkling Rosè Wine Rose Brut NV (Modena, Italy). It was nice, light and a little sweet. A clean way to kick off the drinking.
The next course consisted of a split of the special appetizer of the night. I received 2 deep fried crispy sardines and my wife received 2 deep fried crispy shrimp with a brown butter sauce. This was the only downer of the night for me. The shrimp were fantastic - warm, crispy and the brown butter sauce was fantastic. The sardines suffered a little because we shared the shrimp first. It was very cold in the dining room at that time, and by the time we moved over to the little guys, they had cooled down significantly. Fried food is always better hot. I imagine they would have been much better if I had gotten into them right away. This was paired with Moutard Brut Grande Cuvée NV (Buxeil, France) This was fantastic. I was a little surprised to get two glasses of the "sparkling" variety, but I was happy with the choices. This was obviously much more "champagne-y" than the first round. It had a deeper flavor and was much drier than the Cleto. I remember drinking this one pretty quickly.
After the first two courses, we began moving on to some more serious eating. Next up: pasta. I was given the Cavatappi pasta with homemade lamb sausage in a yellow tomato sauce, while my wife was given angel hair pasta with American caviar in a lemon butter sauce (I think - too much wine has clouded my memory a bit). At first my wife was scared of the caviar, but I convinced her to conquer her fears. Soon, she was enjoying it as much as I was. It had a nice, creamy texture, which went very well with the pasta. It didn't have the usual "popping" that I normally associate with caviar. My pasta dish was fantastic. The sausage was slightly overcooked and dry, but the taste was so good that I really didn't care. I could have had this for my entire meal and gone home happy. This was paired with Gruner Veltliner Fritsch “Windspiel” (Donauland, Austria) ’06. This wine was light, crisp and fantastic. I would buy this for my house - great summer wine. Mmmm.
Our next selections were more of the seafood variety - fish to be exact. My wife was served the olive oil poached striped bass with Tuscan kale, celery hearts and olives. This fish was fantastic. Buttery and light. I received the special fish dish - a nice piece of snapper encrusted with slices of purple potatoes. Again, this was fantastic. The potatoes provided the perfect crispy element to this dish. With this I was given the Albarino Burgans (Rias Baixis, Spain) - unclear on the vintage. This was a really nice Spanish white. I haven't been to crazy about most of the Spanish whites I've found in the States - although I really enjoyed a bunch in Spain. This one was one I'd have again.
At this point, we began to get a little confused. The tasting menu includes dessert, and we thought it was a 5 course meal. We had gone through 4 courses at this point, and assumed dessert would be next. I was a little disappointed to finish out the meal with a piece of fish - only because I was hoping for some meat, not because it was anything less than great. Then, to our surprise, we were brought two more plates, filled with the good stuff. My wife was given the seared Colorado rack of lamb and I was given a pork tenderloin. I can't even remember how it was cooked, but it was my favorite part of the meal. It was fantastic and it made me happy. The lamb was also great - and that was my wife's favorite on her side. This course was paired with Pavilion Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. This was good, and I was happy to finally get some red wine. However, I think it was my least favorite of the entire night. Probably wouldn't go out and buy it, but would get it if it was on a wines by the glass list, and that's what I was looking for.
Now it was time for some dessert. When they brought us the plates, my wife asked what they were. Throughout the evening, we were given enourmous details on every dish and how it was prepared. For the desserts, were were told "This one is strawberry. This one is chocolate." Short and to the point. Neither are on the menu. My wife was given strawberries in a Zabaglione. Mine - well, it was some sort of warm chocolate cake. Both were rich and terrific. My dessert was paired with a glass of Mission Hill Riesling Ice Wine. I was very happy with this because that is my favorite type of dessert wine.
And then it was done. We were there for hours and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Ready For A Throwdown?

This past weekend, my wife and I took a needed break from the kids and spent the day in the city by ourselves. We decided to head downtown and grab some lunch at Caracas - an arepa bar/restaurant in the East Village. This place was featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network and remains one of two places on that show that I've eaten from (the other being Donut Plant). We love this place but hadn't been there in a couple of years. We had no idea that they had opened a second, larger (although still tiny) place a couple of doors down the street. We decided to start with some Yoyos - which are fried sweet plantain balls stuffed with
white cheese (mmmm...). Then we moved on to the arepas. We both had de pabellón which is filled with shredded beef, black beans, white salty cheese and sweet plantains (probably the best of the bunch). Next, I had la de pernil filled with roasted pork shoulder, tomato slices and spicy mango sauce. Finally, I had a breakfast arepa (mainly because I had never had one before and wanted to try one) filled with eggs, onions, peppers and chorizo. Although this was good it was missing some seasoning and either a dash of salt or a nice helping of their salty white cheese would have made it perfect. I washed mine down with a banana-cinammon shake, which was honestly not that great (the bananas were not nearly ripe enough).
Although I thought there were a couple of misses with this meal, I still love this place and want to go back already (we would be regulars if we lived on the LES).

Like No Other Market?

I was driving around the other day getting some last minute shopping done for my wife's birthday when I saw a sign for Fairway that I had never noticed before. It looks like they are opening one up right near my house. I'm very excited about this. Hopefully I'm going to be able to get some of the things I've been missing since moving out of Manhattan.

NP: King Of The Ladies, Extreme

Morimoto!

Last night I took my wife to Morimoto for dinner (personally I like the trifecta of Morimoto, Del Posto and Craft Steak taking up 3 of the possible 4 corners - and basically the entire block - of that section of 10th avenue. A lot of great eating can happen there). It's my wife's birthday, so we braved the freezing weather (maybe Greenland is colder at this time of year) and headed on out.
When we got there, we were lucky enough to meet the man himself. Although I'm not really sure what he thought of my wife telling him that she was "a big fan" of his. (A big fan of what? His battles on Iron Chef? - btw I can't imagine why they still feel the need to overdub his voice on the Food Network - the man speaks perfect English.) Anyway, it was nice to meet Morimoto and he thanked us for coming, so that was a very cool way to start the evening.
We got there a little early, so we went down to the bar to have some drinks before sitting down. I had a glass of Square One Sake (I had never had Sake before and figured this would be a great time to try it) and my wife had a mixed drink (can't remember what it was - but it was citrus-y and served in a martini glass). While we were sitting at the bar, we were able to look over the menu and plan out our attack. In the end, we decided to split everything and try as much as we could.
We started out sharing a couple of appetizers. First up was the kakuni - a ten hour pork with congee and soy-scallion jus. This was easily the best thing we ate all night. So, I guess it was technically all downhill from here - luckily it wasn't that far down. After the kakuni we had spicy king crab - with tobanjan anoli and micro cilantro. This was at the recommendation of a friend of mine. We liked it, but it was the least memorable part of the meal. Next time I'd be more likely to try the Japanese lobster fritters or beef curry bread.
For the next course we split the roasted ocean trout, which was served with miso, truffles, a turnip puree and a nice fat crispy prosciutto chip on top. This was awesome. After all this cooked food, it was time ot move on to some sushi. Hell, we were at Morimoto after all. We both had some spicy tuna roll (which I had just seen Morimoto show Bobby Flay how to make on an episode of Throwdown) and a shrimp tempura roll. They were both excellent, but I enjoyed the spicy tuna best (it's my favorite roll). I also had a couple of pieces of sushi - nothing too out there - just some tuna and salmon, but both were terrific. It was probably the best sushi I've had yet. What was especially nice was that on the salmon, there was a tiny slice of lime, which made it taste really damn good (you took the lime off before eating it).
Oh yeah - with all of this, I was drinking Grüner Veltiner, Forstreiter, "Grande reserve", Kremstal, Austria 2006. I loved this wine and would definitely buy it if I could find it. It was desribed to be as along the same lines as a Viogner. I was looking for something white, and it was either the Grüner, a Riesling, a Pinot Gris, a Chardonnay or a Savignon Blanc. I figured I would try something new. It was nice and crisp, but also very fruity without a lot of acidity or minerality. I liked it. Mmmm.
Finally we got some dessert. It was a birthday dinner afterall. We had the white chocolate semfreddo, which came topped with green tea sponge cake cubes and also came with some burnt orange ice cream, candied kumkwat rind and a nice stripe of chocolate down the center of the plate.
My only regrets were: 1.) Not realizing I could have gotten a glass of the Morimoto Aged Sake (and didn't need to buy an entire bottle) when I got my drink. The descriptions of them just sounded really nice. 2.) Not going for the special blowfish sashimi appetizer. I was actually going to go for it, but when I found out it was $50.00 for 3 pieces of sashimi, I felt my money would be best spent elsewhere. We are in a recession after all, aren't we?

NP: Spoonman, Soundgarden

Taking A Stake in Omaha

Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I were walking around our town with our two kids trying to enjoy the nice weather when we realized that we had nothing for dinner. We thought about going out to eat since we were already out of the house, but sitting our 2 week old daughter in a crowded restaurant filled with people infected with who-knows-what didn't really sit at the top of our list. So... we needed to find an alternative. Chinese? Not really in the mood. Italian? We just had that the night before. Thai or Indian? There are no good Thai or Indian places in our town. However, there is an Omaha Steaks Store. I've never been in there before and we've never had their food. In fact, I always found it a little odd. But our car was parked right in front of the store, so we went in. Luckily, they were having an in-store sale yesterday, so we grabbed a box of bacon-wrapped filet mignon and some stuffed baked potatoes. I have to say that the steaks were awesome. Sure, a part of that was due to my grilling ability - but most of it came from the steak. I was lucky enough to get the box of 4 steaks for only $15.99 but they usually cost way more than that. Now I'm going to be wanting to get steaks from there all the time. Especially with the places around here - I've purchased spoiled meat at almost all of the major supermarkets around here - Stop and Shop, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and A&P. Only Kings and Shopright haven't disappointed yet.

NP: Comfortably Dumb, Extreme

Eating Inn Ho-Ho-Kus

Right before our baby we born (1 day before) we decided to go out for dinner and a movie. While we usually like to go into NYC for our dinner, this time we decided that we wouldn't travel so far. My wife was supposed to deliver our daughter in a little more than a day and we felt it was probably better to stay closer to home. Also I don't think my wife was really up for walking around the city streets. So... we decided to check out the Ho-Ho-Kus Inn for dinner. This place is in my sister's town and we had read a few good things about it.
The place is very quaint, but also very old inside. There was an area of outside seating set up, but it was still very warm out so we opted to sit inside. Unfortunately, that meant we were the only people sitting down for dinner who didn't have hair a shade of gray, silver, blue or white (this may have been due to our choice of an early dinner so we could make a showing of The Dark Knight later in the evening). Anyway - the staff were very attentive and nice. although it still amazes me the number of waiters/waitresses we've encountered who do not know what the word "pasteurized" means.
We both had some appetizers to start out the meal. I had a special - it was an avocado and corn chowder with king crab meat. It was actually very good, but our waiter failed to tell me that it was to be served cold and I wasn't expecting it. After mulling it over for a minute, I felt that I should have realized it was cold - but I still think the waiter should have told us. My wife decided to have the warm goat cheese over mixed greens, candied walnuts, granny smith apples with lemon herb vinaigrette. This was excellent.
For dinner, I had the crispy Long Island duck breast and leg with wild berry sauce, while my wife had the Canadian farm raised salmon with horseradish crust in a grainy dijon mustard glaze. I paired my entire meal with a couple of glasses of Barton & Guestier Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 Pays d'Oc, France. I really enjoyed this wine and our meals were very good. It was a little expensive considering the fact that I was sitting in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, but that's the general feeling I get whenever we go out to eat in Jersey. Too expensive for what you get.
Would I go back? It was definitely good enough for a second try. Is it likely to happen? With 2 kids and limited going out time - probably not.

Kugelhopf!

Every once in a while, I get in the mood to try and make something good to eat. The other day it was breakfast time and I wanted to make something good for my wife and myself (we are both off of work this week). I was perusing through the Joy of Cooking when I came across something called a Kugelhopf. The Joy describes it as similar to a brioche with less of a buttery-goodness. Even with that basic description, I really wanted to try it. It wasn't something I could make for breakfast - it takes way too long - so we made pancakes. However I began crafting my latest achievement in baking later that evening.
The kugelhopf is either from the Alsace region of France or somewhere in Germany or Austria. I've read sources that point to all different regions. Some feel it is more of a holiday bread, but it is great for breakfast. This is one of those bread recipes that needs to be started the day before you want to bake it because it's technically a 3-rise bread. The first is about 1 hour, then there's a 4-12 hour proofing time in the fridge, then another hour of rising before you finally bake it. This thing takes commitment.
Anyway, besides for substiuting dried cranberries for the currants called for in the recipe, I stayed pretty close to the cookbook's instructions. You know what? This is a great breakfast bread. Especially warm out of the oven with some butter on it.

Exploration Leads to Nice Discoveries

Yesterday afternoon, I woke up from my post-working-overnight slumber and ran to do some shopping before I had to retrieve my son from his grandmother's house. I decided to go and check out this place called Market Basket here in New Jersey. I've been missing my gourmet supermarkets that I had become very used to shopping at while living in Manhattan and I still haven't found anywhere around here that I like as much. I've heard good things about this place, so I plugged it into my GPS and away I went. Although it's not that far away, you have to take the streets there from my house, and it's a winding way - which ended up taking too long. The store itself is nice, and there were some great deals on fresh fish and steaks. However, I didn't like the vibe of this place. It's in a very rich neighborhood, where the local "houses" are about 6 times the size of my little hovel. It's the first grocery store I've ever been to where I felt like I was out of place. They did carry Cacio di Roma, which is a very important component of Cacio e Pepe - a pasta dish which is basically pasta noodles covered in this cheese and fresh black pepper - it's really good. And since I found it in this store, it's what we had for dinner last night.
I also went into the new Stew Leonard's Wine Store which just opened about 1 week ago near my house. I haven't been too happy with the wine shops around here, but in the past month this store opened and a new Best Cellars. So prospects are looking up.
I was happy to see that they had the wine I was looking for - Villa Sparina Gavi di Gavi 2006. I've had this wine before, although the last bottle I had was a 2002, and I really enjoy it. So, I was thinking of something to drink with my Cacio e Pepe, and I wanted a nice Italian white. I don't know if this is the best wine to go with this meal, but I wanted it, so I found it and bought it. This bottle seemed creamier with more of a melon taste than I remember the last bottle having. Overall, I was very happy with it.
I was also happy with the wine store. I was a little skeptical going in - it is a chain store, but it wasn't bad. It's not the best store I've been in, but their sales were good and although it had its share of Little Penguin wines, they had a nice selection of more upscale wines as well.
I'd go back. Pretty soon I'll check out the new Best Cellars...

NP: Benigno and Roberts, WFAN

Otter Pops!

The other day I took my son to Rite Aid to pick up his vitamins, and what did I see when I entered the store? Otter Pops! I had to buy them. So now I've got Alexander the Grape, Sir Isaac Lime and the crew freezing away in the ice box. Perfect timing too. It's going to be in the upper 90's this week, so some nice cold ice treats will be just what the doctor ordered.

Iron Chef Birthday

Last week was my birthday (they just keep coming), and my wife took me out to dinner for a little celebration. After a long discussion of where we should go, I decided on Bar Americain, which is one of Bobby Flay's restaurants. We had gone to Mesa Grill once a few years ago and were pretty disappointed, but I wanted to give Bobby another try. Overall, we had a very nice time. Unfortunately, our waiter was a spazz, and there were no tomatoes due to the NYC tomato-salmonella scare - but we overcame.
In general, the place was a lot louder than I had expected. It's very open inside with high ceilings and a large bar. All of these contributed to the noise-factor. Also, there's a very distinct touristy feel to the place. More so than I felt at Babbo (another Iron Chef's restaurant). Anyway, on to the meal.
To begin, I went with the Gulf Shrimp and Grits with Green Onions (and a lot of bacon), while my wife got the Shrimp Tomatillo Cocktail. She had wanted to get the Fried Green Tomato with Crispy Duck and Sweet and Sour Dressing, but no tomatoes... With my appetizer I had a glass of a nice Spanish red blend to drink (but I can't remember the name). For our main courses, I had the Porterhouse Lamb Chops with Mustard Barbeque and the Corn & Collard Green Tart while my wife had the Cioppino with Sour Dough Toast. I decided to pair my dinner with a glass of Pinot Noir Cloudline 2006, Oregon. It was good, but the Spanish wine I had first was better. Finally, we decided to split the Chocolate Praline Layer Cake with Caramel Rice Krispi Crunch. Fantastic dessert. This was paired with a fine cappuccino.
We both found our dinner at Bar Americain to be much better than what we had experienced at Mesa Grill. Where we decided we wouldn't go back to Mesa Grill again, I'd be happy to go back to Bar Americain. It wasn't my favorite restaurant, but it was a fine meal never the less.

Holy Dinner Batman!

Yesterday was our anniversary (4 years already), so my wife and I got a babysitter and headed into the city for dinner. It was initially going to be a movie followed by dinner, but work got in the way and we missed the movies (if we went to a later film, we would miss our dinner reservations). So... it became walking around the city a bit, then dinner.
Unlike our past 3 anniversaries, we didn't go to Babbo this year. Unfortunately, we forgot to make our reservation at the appropriate time (10:00am; 30 days prior to your reservation date - for those thinking of going) so we were stuck. We decided to try the Gotham Bar and Grill. This is a place we've been wanting to try for a while since everyone tells us how good it is.
The place is actually very nice inside, and the staff was very friendly and helpful. In fact, our waiter seemed like the nicest guy in the world (so nice, in fact, that it made me a little suspicious of what he did when he wasn't at work). Initially, he seemed a little disappointed when we only asked for water to drink after being seated, but he perked up after I asked for the wine list a little later on. Anyway, our meal mapped out like this: We shared the Rigatoni with Braised Duck Ragu and Broccoli Rabe for our appetizer. My main course was the Grilled New York Steak with marrow mustard custard and vidalia onion rings and a bordelaise sauce while my wife tried the Porcini Crusted Halibut with roasted cauliflower, fingerling potatoes, and hazelnut oil white verjus emulsion. Unfortunately, this was so salty she couldn't eat it and needed to send it back (not something we like to do, but what can you do?). They were really nice about taking it back and let her choose something different. This time she went with the Roasted Maine Lobster with spaghetti squash, potato puree, brussels sprouts and red wine lobster reduction (there was also some type of white foam on the dish). This was much better, although the claw meat was undercooked... For my wine, I got a half-bottle of the Chateau Larose-Trintaudon Haut-Medoc Bordeaux, 2005. I've had this before and thought it would go well with my steak without breaking my wallet. I was right. It was very good and easy to drink.
Finally, we moved on to dessert. We split the Gotham Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar, which is basically two bars of a chocolate fudge-like substance with a peanut crust, topped with roasted candied peanuts and peanut butter ice cream. It was pretty damn good. The cappuccino was excellent as well.
As far as anniversary dinners go, it didn't beat the first time we went to Babbo, but we ate a damn good meal and had a really great time.

Coffee Smells Good!

Out of all the culinary wonders out there, a good cup of coffee is near the top of my list. I've always enjoyed my coffee, but back in the day, Dunkin' Donuts was the epitome of a good cup. Then I went to Italy. Everything changed after that. I have had my Breville espresso machine for about 2 years now and I could not imagine living without it. I actually thought it broke once, and I was crushed. Luckily, it had just over-heated during it's de-calcification cycle, and was good as new after cooling off a bit.
I'm writing this now as I brew a nice latte to go with my lunch dessert. Today, I'm having some Miscela D'Oro Ciald'Oro espresso. This is a nice espresso. It does have a little more bitterness than I usually go for, but it is good. My favorite lately has been Lucaffe Caffe del'Ospite. This has a nice chocolately taste and makes a nice crema. Generally, I really like all of the coffees from Lucaffe. Apart from their somewhat racist packaging (see image below), I like this company.
Another great coffee is Segafredo, which may be my overall favorite.

The Tavern

Yesterday, my wife's dad and step-mom offered to watch our son for us so we could go out to dinner. Not wanting to waste a chance to have a nice night out, we decided to go into the city instead of heading to one of the many mediocre places here in Jersey (sure, I'll admit there have to be some good places out here - we just haven't found them yet). We didn't have any time to get a reservation at one of the places we wanted to go to (although we did scour the list on opentable.com) so we decided to try our luck at the front room in the Gramercy Tavern.
This is one of the paces I always wanted to go to, but never did get the chance. The place is split up into two parts - the front "tavern" room, and the back restaurant space. To sit in the back, reservations are required (unless you get lucky) and the dress code is a lot nicer. The front, has a cheaper, scaled-down version of the menu, with no reservations required and a more laid-back attitude. Although it appeared crowded when we got there, it only took about 15 minutes of waiting at the bar for us to get our table. Everyone was very friendly and we had really good service.
We started off with some appetizers. My wife got the carrot soup with spiced cashews, and I got the plate of restaurant-made cured meats. Both were fantastic. For our main courses, my wife got the smoked kielbasa with spaetzle and butternut squash, and I had the stuffed meatball with fontina cheese over a potato puree with onion marmalade. Of note - I decided on my dish based on the fact that our waitress said it was "pretty freakin' good." All of my dishes were paired with many glasses of the Dolcetta d'Alba Ascheri 2005, Piedmont Italy. I had initially intended to change up my wine selection as I went on with the meal. I like to do this when I'm out to try as much as possible. However, I was enjoying this so much, I just kept going with it. It was a light wine, red in color, and it went down very easily. It's a wine I could buy a case or two of and keep drinking it with all my meals.
We finished up with the apple crisp for two with vanilla and cinnamon sour cream ice creams as well as excellent cappuccinos.
Great meal, and a great atmosphere. Would definitely go back again.

NP: The Pretender, Foo Fighters.

Pistachio Cake

The other day I was in the mood for baking (in case you didn't already realize, I do almost all of the cooking in my family). It was a cold, rainy day, and we couldn't really do much of anything outside. Since I was home-locked, I figured I'd make something. There's this cake in the Babbo Cookbook that I've wanted to make for a while. It's an Italian hazelnut cake. Unfortunately, I've been unable to find all of the ingredients. So, I made my own version using pistachios instead of hazelnuts and changing a few other things around to things that would go better with pistachios. Anyway, the results were really good. It's kind of like pistachio ice cream in cake form (that's what I think, anyway). In case you're interested, here's the recipe:

1 cup shelled pistachios roasted in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 pistachio paste
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 325. Spray 9 inch round cake pan with nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment or wax paper
Pulse the nuts in a food processor with 1/4 cup flour until it becomes finely ground (basically making a pistachio flour). Mix together this mixture with the rest of the flour and the baking powder (set aside).
In a mixer cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the pistachio paste, and then add 1 egg at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla and honey. Mix in the flour mixture, 1/3 at a time.
Spread evenly in the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes (make sure a toothpick or something like it comes out clean). Remove from the pan and place on a cooling rack.
When cool, dust with powdered sugar.

I think it's pretty good, and I haven't gotten a complaint yet. Many are skeptical, but once they have it, they agree it's a good cake.

Top Chef Dinner

Wow. Last night I took my wife out to dinner for her birthday. We went to Perilla, which is the restaurant opened by the winner of Top Chef - Season 1, Harold Dieterle. We suffered through the real-feel temperature hovering near zero and parked our car somewhat illegally in the West Village and made our way into the small, but very nice restaurant on Jones Street (between Bleecker and West 4th) - not a bad location. Although there was space at the bar where we could hang out and wait, we were lucky and didn't have to wait at all to be seated at our reserved table (this is one of those places that take reservations 1 month from the day you want to go - and they fill up fast).
To start, we split the Grilled Greek Sardines over a baby mesculin salad with golden beets. I paired this with a Treixadura blend from Spain (sorry, I can't remember the exact wine). We decided to go for something different with our appetizer. For main courses, my wife had the "Jerk" Style Black Grouper with plantains and purple yams over a black bean puree, while I had the Roasted Duckling with pomegranate, white grits and mustard greens. I was tossing between the pork loin wrapped in bacon (it IS pork on pork after all) and the duck, but the waiter said the duck was Chef Harold's favorite dish on the menu. Decision made. I paired this course with a glass of Foris Pinot Noir, Oregon 2005.
Dessert included fresh warm vanilla scented donuts with two dipping sauces (chocolate mousse and meyer lemon curd) and a vanilla creme fresh panna cotta with poached pears. Amazing desserts. The other great thing about this restaurant was the coffee. It was terrific, which is always a plus.
Overall, we had a great meal. I would definitely go back.

NP: Inch Worm, John Coltrane

Donut Headache

Most mornings when I am driving to work, I make my own coffee at home and take it in a travel mug. Every once in a while I can't be bothered (I'm usually too tired) and I figure I'll stop on the road on my way into the city. There's this Dunkin' Donuts on Route 17 that I've gone to once or twice before. Never have I gotten good service there. Also, their coffee isn't that good, which I don't really understand because I assumed all Dunkin' Donuts establishments made their coffee exactly the same way (isn't there a Dunkin' Donuts University out there for prospective franchise owners?). Anyway, my wife has had similar experiences as I have had at this place and we both came to the conclusion to avoid it from now on.
Well, I didn't listen to my own advice and the other morning I stopped in there to get a coffee and a muffin. I clearly asked for 1 large coffee with milk and sugar and a banana nut muffin. The following conversation followed:

Dunkin' Donuts Lady: "Anything else?"
Me: "No, just the coffee and the muffin."
DDL: "Okay. Anything else?"
Me: "Well... the muffin."
DDL: "Yes. Anything else?"
Me: "No. Just a large coffee with milk and sugar and a banana nut muffin."
DDL: "Anything else?"
Me: "No. The coffee and the muffin."
DDL: "Anything else?"
Me: "No."
(a few moments pass...)
DDL: "One large coffee. $2.02." (rings me up in the cash register.)
Me: "Are you f*&king kidding me?!?!?!"

I don't know why this exchange surprised me... this place sucks.

NP: nothing

Rocking Horse

A couple of nights ago, my wife and I met a couple of good friends out for a pre-Christmas dinner at the Rocking Horse Cafe in Chelsea. I think we first discovered this place by just searching for a place to eat in this neighborhood one evening years ago because we had to be over there for something else. We've been back multiple times since, always enjoying ourselves. I've ever had a bad or disappointing meal here.
This time, I had the Camarones con Papaya (shrimp, caramelized onions, papaya & poblano chiles in chipotle tomato purée with warm organic spelt tortillas) after starting off with some guacamole. It was all really good. A nice blend of sweet and spicy. For dessert we shared the Tarta de Limón (lime custard in ginger graham crust with Myers's rum cream, mango & raspberry purées), which was great, but I recommend the Buñuelos with Ibarra (homemade donuts with chocolate pot au creme & spiced piloncillo syrup) if you're going to be there and saving room for dessert.
I had a great time at this place, and I was really happy that everyone enjoyed their meal. I feel like whenever we take people to a place we really like the chef has an off-night and I feel badly that I dragged people out to this place to spend their hard-earned cash on a sub-par meal. Not this night (whew). The only thing I was a little disappointed in was my wine choice. I got a Rioja (of course I can't remember what it was and the wine list isn't online), and it wasn't as good as I had hoped. Hey, what can you do?

NP: The Backyardigans...

Panettone Success!

Yesterday I decided to try my hand at baking a Panettone. For those who don't know, this is basically an Italian holiday bread. It's usually filled with candied fruit. Personally, I'm not crazy about fruit filled breads. I think I must've had some freak accident with a fruit cake as a child that I blocked out from my memory (my fruit cake hate is no where near the level of my M.A.S.H. hate, in case you were wondering). Whatever the reason, I'm just not into it. So, I made mine with chocolate chips instead (the 60% cacao ones from Ghirardelli). Amazingly, it turned out really well on only my first try (see the pics of it on this post).
Anyway, I got the recipe from the Gourmet Magazine website in case you're interested. I pretty much followed it except for the following changes.: Instead of 1 cup of raisins and 1 cup of candied citrus, I used 2 cups of the chips (it's a good idea to toss the chips in flour first so they don't sink). Instead of the lemon zest and juice I used 1 tbsp vanilla. As for the baking, I ditched the coffee can idea and actually used one of the paper things the Panettone will usually come in (I got mine at Chef Central). It was a large one, so I never divided the bread and only cooked one loaf. The instructions on the paper container says to lower to baking temperature with those, so I baked at 350 instead of 375 for 40 minutes. It worked out great.

NP: Beverly Hills, Weezer

Not Just For Breakfast Anymore

I love brunch. My wife loves brunch. While we were in NYC we would go all over the place to have brunch on the weekends (or during the week if we were lucky enough to be off from work). One place that we both really enjoy is the Popover Cafe on the Upper West Side. My favorite breakfast there is the Eggs Benedict on Popovers. Mmmm. The popovers at this place are as big as your head (well... I guess it depends on the size of your head) and are full of flaky goodness inside. They also come with home-made strawberry butter which is perfect.
Well, our son's pediatrician is on the Upper West Side, so after his appointment the other day we needed some lunch. I had never been there for lunch before, so we thought we'd give it a chance. We both (well, all three of us really) had the Chicken "Pop" Pie. It's basically a chicken pot pie served in a popover (in case you didn't get it already, basically everything either comes with or in a popover). This was terrific. It was the perfect lunch on a cold, rainy, winter day.

NP: Damage Is Done, Black Label Society