Degustation

Gabe and I are co-writing our first blog post! You would think that since most of my dining out experiences in NY are with him, we'd co-write more often, but I guess not.

For our big dinner during my short visit back to NY, we went to Degustation, a really small "tapas bar" in the East Village. It's counter-seating, surrounding the little kitchen. It adds for a very unique dining experience to be able to watch the three chefs and single waitress in action. It may not be the most romantic, but it's certainly ideal for foodies. Gabe and I had planned to do the 10-course tasting menu. I had some doubts about it, afraid that I wouldn't be able to finish my food, but I went for it anyways since it's only $15 more expensive than the 5-course. We also each got a glass of txakoli wine from the Basque region - very crisp and refreshing white wine!


We got an amuse-bouche of pork croqueta and quail egg tortilla done in a new way. The tortilla was shallot with quail egg wrapped in a sheet of potato.


Course 1 - chilled almond soup with muscat grapes. We absolutely loved this one, and it was one of my personal favorites. It was very nice and smooth, and the grapes added sweetness, bite, and crunch to the soup.


Course 2 - Crudo of Hiramasa. The fish was very fresh and tasty. It was drizzled with good olive oil and garnished with tomatoes, shallots, and some other vegetables that we can't remember in order to add a bit of acidity.


Course 3 - Fried artichokes with blood orange supremes, an oyster, and grapefruit foam in a mussel broth. I didn't like this one at all. Gabe liked the individual components but didn't think it worked as a whole. The mussel broth was a bit fishy to me, and I just didn't think the artichokes were good with the other components of the dish. Personally, I'm not a fan of artichokes or grapefruit, so that's another reason why I wasn't a fan of this dish.


Course 4 - Sardines 3 Ways. This one was awesome, but in my opinion, the portion was too big. Sardines have such a strong flavor that I didn't think it was necessary to make each piece as big as they were. The marinated one on the right was accompanied by a potato salad. This one was my least favorite because it just had too much of the salty sardine flavor. The fried sardine sandwich, accompanied by pickled onions, in the middle was both mine and Gabe's favorite, however he didn't particularly like the pickled onions. The grilled one on the left was accompanied by red peppers and was also pretty good, but Gabe said he had a little bit of bone in his.


Course 5 - Grilled squid with some kind of mushrooms in a dashi broth. Gabe liked this dish because it was an interesting departure to Japanese flavors. I honestly don't remember much about this one, but Gabe said that I just thought it was ok because the dashi broth and seaweed was too fishy to me. I also thought the squid was too chewy.


Course 6 - Slowly scrambled duck egg in brown butter, with lamb bacon and migas. This was probably both mine and Gabe's favorite dish of the night. It just shows how sometimes, simplicity is key. It was rich and creamy, but flavorful. The migas (breadcrumbs) added texture, and the little piece of lamb bacon added additional crisp.


Course 7 - Pork belly with quinoa, grilled ramps, soft-poached egg, and a green sauce that neither of us can remember. The pork belly itself was nothing out of this world, but it was cooked right, and the skin was so crisp. The grilled ramps and egg were perfectly cooked. The quinoa gave a nice crispiness and was probably there more for the texture than anything else.


Course 8 - Grilled sweetbreads in a white bean + something else sauce sauce. This wasn't the best sweetbreads I've had, but it was cooked right. The sauce was a bit spicy, but added good flavor to the sweetbreads.


Course 9 - Oxtail cannoli. The very flavorful oxtail was wrapped around by potato, and it was garnished with fried shallots and radishes. I liked the shallots but didn't try the radishes.


Course 10 - Torrija. This was an awesome dessert. The torrija is like french toast, but was so moist, almost like custard and with a bruleed topping. There was blood orange on the side, but I'm not such a fan, so only ate a little piece of it.

While some dishes had a minor fault or two, it was, overall, a wonderful meal at such a "bargain." The 10-course meal was $75, and as you can see, we ate a ton of food. This would, however, be ideal for someone interested in eating a large tasting menu without the $150+ price tag. If I were to go again, I would probably just go with the 5-course at $50 because the 10-course was just too much for me (even though I've had a bigger tasting menu at Eleven Madison Park). We both also really enjoyed watching the chefs prepare our food, so anyone who enjoys cooking or is curious about the way chefs work in the kitchen would enjoy this. Highly recommended!

Degustation
5th St. btwn 2nd and 3rd Ave
New York, NY

The Modern - Bar Room

For one of mine and Gabe's dates during my visit to New York last weekend, we went to The Modern's Bar Room before enjoying a few hours at the MoMa. It's the cheaper alternative to the dining room, but obviously with a more casual atmosphere. The menu is pretty flexible such that you can eat as much or as little as you like with as few or as many courses as you want. The menu is split into 3 categories called "one's", "two's", and "three's." The One's and Two's are single person appetizer size while the Three's are half-entree portions. Gabe and I just picked a One and Two each and shared a One. Is that confusing?

They gave us bread and butter to start with. For me, the mini-baguette was way too hard. I had to pull on it with my hands and teeth, and even that was difficult.


We decided to share the Arctic Char Tartare with basil and trout caviar. I really liked this one. It was a light and refreshing way to start out our meal. The caviar added just the right amount of saltiness without overpowering the arctic char.


My next dish was the Steak Tartare with quail egg. It's unlike me to get two of the same type of dish, but I was deciding between the arctic char and steak tartares, and since Gabe wanted to share a first dish, I ended up eating two wonderful tartares. While the steak tartare wasn't anything out of the ordinary, it was pretty good with the soft-poached quail egg. I think it could have used more flavoring, but overall, it was pretty solid and just the right portion.


My last dish was the Slow Poached Farm Egg "In a Jar" with Maine lobster, sunchokes, and sea urchin broth. This was the dish that piqued my interest in going to this restaurant, and it certainly delivered. There was a very generous serving of lobster. The egg, when broken, and the sea urchin broth created a sort of soup. It was a pretty rich dish, so for what looked like a small portion in a cute jar, it satisfied me pretty well. The flavoring was wonderful, but my only critique is that it was on the salty side for me. My taste buds seem to be sensitive towards salt, so this might not be noticeable to everyone.

Even though I would have liked to end the meal on a sweet note, I decided against dessert because not only was I already decently full, but I knew it was already getting to the expensive side for lunch.

Here's what I gathered from Gabe about his dishes:

This was the Wild Mushroom Soup with Chorizo Ravioli. The toasted chorizo and the earthiness of the wild mushrooms were both very strong flavors, but they complimented each other very well.


Gabe's next dish was the Roasted Long Island Duck Breast with peppercorn-crusted apples and toasted truffle pistachio dipping sauce. He liked this one and thought the truffle pistachio dipping sauce provided a unique flavor to compliment the duck and apples.

I would definitely recommend anyone to go to The Modern's Bar Room. We both basically paid around $60 each, including tax+tip, so it's definitely not cheap for lunch (or even for dinner), but the food is delicious and unique, while still maintaining a classical style.

The Modern - Bar Room
9 West 53rd St (btwn 5th and 6th ave)
New York, NY

Spacca Napoli

For my last meal in Chicago before I headed back to Dominica, my parents and I went to Spacca Napoli in the Ravenswood neighborhood. Minus the big city pace, it does have a very authentic Italian feel with al fresco dining, Italian art and music, and a custom built stone (I think?) oven. They even serve wine in regular glasses, not wine glasses, just like in most casual places in Italy.


We started off with the prosciutto e bufala mozzarella antipasto. This was quite a generous portion, as they gave us an ENTIRE ball of bufala. The cheese was ridiculously amazing. I've been a huge bufala fan ever since my first trip to Italy, but for some reason, not many Italian places in the US use it, which is too bad. Spacca Napoli is quite liberal in their bufala servings, and that made me happy.


One of the pizzas we shared was the Salsiccia with Tomatoes, Fior Di Latte Mozzarella, Basil, Italian Sausage, Olive Oil. The pizzas are meant to be individual portions (like in Italy), but 2 pizzas and that big antipasto was good enough for my parents and I. This pizza was just like in Italy. It was very thing with a nicely charred 1" crust. The crust might be millimeters thicker than most pizzas I've had in Italy, but maybe that's being too picky. Either way, it was awesome. The pizzas here are VERY basic, so there aren't too many choices if you want meat on your pizza. This one was a great choice though.


The other pizza we got was the Bianca con Bufala, which was a Pizza Bianca with Mozzarella Di Bufala, Basil, Olive Oil. Even though this one was much more simple, I may have liked this one more only because the bufala and olive oil were brought out so well. They top the perfect amount of cheese, so the flavor of the bufala stood out. It really is one of my all-time favorite cheeses, so you can see why I'm a fan of Spacca Napoli.

When outsiders think of pizza in Chicago, they think deep dish, but honestly, most Chicagoans don't eat that kind of pizza, at least not on a regular basis. Spacca Napoli is one of the few great options for true, authentic Neopolitan pizza in Chicago (possibly even in the US), so I highly recommend it. Get there early or be prepared to wait. The restaurant is moderately-sized, and it was mostly full when we got there at 6:15 or 6:30pm, and that's early for a Friday night. By 7:15, a lot of people were waiting. Overall, fantastic Neopolitan pizza...just like in Naples!

Spacca Napoli Pizzeria
1769 W. Sunnyside
Chicago, IL

Baoguette Cafe

To follow mine and Gabe's "snacktime" starting with Momomofuku Bakery&Milk Bar, we then decided to try the classic bahn mi at Baoguette Cafe on St. Mark's btwn 2nd and 3rd ave. It took over the old Bahm space, and I'm pretty sure it'll do much better in business since I don't think Bahm was too successful.

The classic bahn mi is filled with pork terrine, pate, pulled pork, pickled vegetables, and cilantro. We went for the mildly spicy level. Not too many people are very familiar with bahn mi, but as a Chicagoan who grew up eating a lot of Vietnamese food, it's something I know fairly well. Bahn mi in Chicago is pretty cheap...like $3 cheap. Baoguette's classic bahn mi is $5, which is actually still pretty cheap considering it's NYC. It's also quite a reasonably sized sandwich. Gabe and I split a sandwich to follow up on our pork buns, and I was decently full after half of that sandwich. The meat was incredibly flavorful, but what stood out to me was the bread. It was a GOOD baguette. Warm and fluffy on the inside with the right amount of crunch on the outside.

If you don't feel like trekking to Chinatown to get your bahn mi at a shady video store, then Baoguette Cafe is a VERY good alternative.

Baoguette Cafe
St. Mark's btwn 2nd and 3rd ave

Momofuku Bakery and Milk Bar

For the first of mine and Gabe's big eating extravaganza during my visit in NYC last weekend, we stopped by Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar for a pork bun and a couple of cookies.


We each had a pork bun with pork belly, cucumber, hoisin, and scallions. Of course, the pork belly was melt in your mouth. My only complaint is that after having so much pork belly lately, I think Momofuku's pork buns are a bit overpriced for only a few bites per bun. Maybe it's time to seek out equally good pork belly buns in Chinatown. If anyone knows of any, please let me know.


We also bought a couple of cookies - the Compost cookie and the Corn cookie. The Compost pretty much has everything in it - chocolate, oatmeal, some nuts, and I don't remember what else. I'm picky about my cookies, and this one was a bit too sweet for me, but Gabe loved it. I did, however, LOVE the corn cookie because, well, it wasn't really sweet in the way cookies usually are. It basically tasted like sweet creamed corn, which is a flavor I'm quite fond of.

Even though I still think Momofuku's tiny pork buns are a little overpriced, they really are quite tasty and tender, so it's definitely worth the try. I didn't try enough sweets, but from what I've read, Momofuku goes heavy on the sugar, so beware if you tend to be hyperglycemic.

Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar
207 2nd Ave
New York City, NY 10003

(oh man, that's my old zip code...::tear::)