i eat

Hot Doug's

2009-09-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

Aside from Alinea, Hot Doug's is probably the second most heard of restaurant in Chicago. Once upon a time, it was merely a secret among Chicagoland foodies until it started to make big waves serving the famous "foie gras dog" in the midst of Chicago's infamous foie gras ban. Then, it became featured on various food and travel shows, most notably, Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. Everyone knows about Hot Doug's now. Sometimes it's sad for Chicagoans that tourists are now flocking there, making the lines 2+ hours long just to get a hot dog or sausage, but at the same time, it's great to see one guy become so successful doing what he does 6 days a week with hours just from 10am-4pm.

I had meant to go to Hot Doug's for the last year and a half or so, but somehow whenever I planned to go, the place just happened to be closed either for regular holidays or random holidays that I feel like Doug makes up himself. Another thing about Hot Doug's aside from its inconvenient hours is that he likes to close on random days/"holidays". I FINALLY made it out there not once, but THREE times during my short and wonderful two week summer break in Chicago.

My first visit was with my brother on a Tuesday. Thinking that the line would already be really long, we showed up at 10:30 to a line probably only 15 minutes long. Doug always takes everyone's orders, and what struck me the most was how incredibly laidback and NICE he is. It's clear that the fame and success hasn't gotten to his head yet.

My first sausage was the Marty Allen: Thuringer (beef, pork, and garlic sausage) - $3.25, as was recommended by a friend from NYC who had visited Chicago a few months earlier for a big food adventure. Since this one is on the regular menu where the customer can choose how it's cooked and what it's topped with, I told Doug that I'd have it whichever way he recommended, so mine came out as char-grilled (always a must for me anyways) with carmelized onions, a pickle, mustard, and celery salt. I've never really been one for pickles, but it was definitely a good call to have it on my thuringer. Other than the foie gras dog, this was by far my favorite sausage. The flavor was absolutely perfect, and the sausage itself had just the right amount of snap and bite to it. It's also incredibly cheap, as is pretty much everything else on the menu. If anyone knows where I can buy a pack of thuringers, then please let me know. Gabe would also like to know where thuringers can be found in NYC. If I could go to Hot Doug's more often, then the thuringer would definitely be my go-to sausage.

For all three of my visits, I split the Foie Gras and Sauternes Duck Sausage with Truffle Aioli, Foie Gras Mousse and Sel Gris - $9.00 with either my brother or Gabe. This one is the most expensive item on the menu, but considering the amount of foie gras mousse and presence of truffle oil, I'd say it's quite a value. I'll admit I was probably one of the few skeptics of the foie gras dog. I love foie gras, but I just couldn't imagine having it on a sausage in a hot dog bun. I was afraid it was just all gimmick, but after taking one bite of this, everything surprisingly came together so unbelievably perfectly. It was so decadent and rich, but not TOO rich. As strange as this might sound, but there was something about it that reminded me of Pepperidge Farm's cinnamon raisin bread...in a good way. Lastly, the sel gris added a nice contrast and bit of bite to the creaminess of the truffle aioli and foie gras mousse. Absolutely wonderful and a must get.

My brother ordered the The Salma Hayek - andouille - $4.00, char-grilled with everything. I also had this during my 3rd visit, and it was a great sausage with a good amount of spice and a ton of flavor. This one was Gabe's least favorite out of all the ones he had though, but that's not to say it wasn't good. The others were just outstanding.

Again on my first visit, my brother and I took the smoked portugese linguica with saffron rouille and 12-age manchego cheese - $7.50. Yet another great sausage. Good smoked flavor and spices. While I loved it, I have to say that there was a bit too much manchego cheese (and I LOVE manchego) that it masked the flavor of the saffron rouille that I would have liked to taste more. Gabe ordered this during our 3rd visit too. He doesn't like cheese, so he actually got this without the manchego. He's not one for mayo either, so it actually ended up being too much of the saffron rouille too, however he loved it. He and my mom actually ended up dipping their fries into the extra rouille that he scraped off, so at least it didn't go to waste!

I got the bleu cheese pork sausage with Sir William pear creme fraiche and roasted almonds - $6.50 during my 2nd visit. All the atypical ingredients for a pork sausage worked really well together, however out of all the sausages I tried, this was my least favorite. I didn't taste much of the bleu cheese, and the sausage itself didn't have quite as much flavor as all the other sausages I tried. I did, however, like the contrasting texture of the roasted almonds. Overall, pretty good, but my least favorite.

During my last visit to Hot Doug's, I got the The Paul Kelly - bratwurst - $3.50, char-grilled with mustard, saurkraut, and caramelized onions. I wouldn't say this was the best bratwurst I've ever had in my life, however it was pretty solid. It was juicy inside and had great flavor.

Since we went once on a Friday, we ordered the duck fat fries. I had a feeling they wouldn't actually taste like duck, but for $3.50 for a huge serving to feed the 4 of us pretty well, why not order it. And it's true, it didn't really taste like duck at all, but I think the duck fat made them perfectly crispy. We had regular fries on the following Tuesday, and there definitely was a difference. So again, duck fat fries are awesome, but don't expect them to taste like duck.

I think this is probably everything that we ordered over the course of three visits, however many if not all were repeated at some point. The thuringer and foie gras dog are, by far, my two favorite items on the menu, with one being simply flavorful and the other being incredibly decadent without being over-the-top crazy. You really can't go wrong with any of the items on Hot Dougs' menu, however don't hold me to that because I obviously haven't tried everything on the menu. It's pretty safe to say that Doug knows what he's doing, and he's doing it right.

MK Restaurant

2009-09-13T19:49:00.001-07:00

For mine and Gabe's fancy dinner date during his visit to Chicago, we decided to go to MK, a contemporary American restaurant in the Near North Side. The restaurant is in a beautiful contemporary large space that combines subtle trendiness and elegance. We were seated on the second floor balcony in a large spacious booth. Service was very attentive without being intrusive. We decided to buy a bottle Shaya verdejo white wine which was very light and crisp.

The amuse bouche was a smoked salmon with pistachios and something else which I forgot. Nothing spectacular, but overall pretty solid.

My appetizer was the chilled spicy tomato and cucumber gazpacho with laughing bird shrimp and cilantro. This was an incredibly refreshing and light appetizer, which was totally appropriate for the summer time even though it was oddly chilly outside. It wasn't really spicy at all, but rather had just a bit of a kick to enhance the flavor. Unlike the typical Spanish gazpacho most people accustomed to, this one wasn't a pureed soup, but rather was almost like salsa in consistency - maybe more of the mashed rather than dicey kind of salsa. I can imagine some people criticizing this dish for that reason, however the flavors were wonderful.

Gabe's appetizer was the housemade fettucine with zucchini, opal basil, oven-dried tomatoes, and pecorino pepper. It was very light and fresh, and just a nice summer dish. Even though it was so simple with no crazy ingredients, everything came together perfectly.

One of our side dishes was the pomme frites with truffle cream sauce. This is one of the mainstay signature item on MK's menu, and certainly for good reason. The frites were done perfectly crispy and salted. The truffle cream was incredible, and not at all with much of that truffle pungency.

Gabe and I hadn't planned on ordering another side dish, however our waiter highly suggested this, convincing us that it's very fresh and completely in season. It's the charred fresh sweet corn with fresh coriander. I was completely in awe of how well the coriander went with fresh corn. The two flavors worked synergistically, really melded together and became one.

My main course was the lake erie whitefish - pan-roasted with poached Maine lobster, edamame, radish, scallions, and lobster and cilantro broth. This was a really incredible dish. The whitefish was so fresh, and the skin was perfectly crispy. The lobster was also very tender and complimented the fish nicely. I wasn't sure what to expect out of the brother and Asian accompaniments, however everything came together perfectly. The broth was also outstanding, as it enhanced the flavors of both the fish and lobster.

Gabe's dish was the grilled pork chop with peaches, onions, croutins, and a sauce which Gabe forgot. The peaches added a nice sweetness to the pork. The croutons were hard because they were pumpernickel, however they added a nice earthiness to the dish. The pork chop itself was very flavorful, and Gabe then realized why people praise Berkshire pork so much.

For dessert, we both shared the peachy keen: warm vanilla brioche doughnuts, peach compote, makers mark sabayon, pecan praline, sarsparilla caramel, and peach ice cream. I went with this one primarily because not only do I love peaches, but peaches were also very much in season at the time. I honestly didn't love it as much as I thought I would, but there's no doubt that it was still a solid dessert. The peach flavor could have been more full in the ice cream.

Overall, the food here was spectacular. This is a very solid casual fine dining spot serving seasonal contemporary American food. I can't even think of a single flaw with this place nor the food that we ate. In terms of consistency and quality, I would compare MK to Blackbird, however MK definitely has bigger and more perfectly sized portions for the amount that you spend. Fantastic restaurant.

MK
868 N. Frnaklin
Chicago, IL

avec

2009-09-06T18:21:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I ate at avec restaurant in Chicago and wrote about it. It's one of my favorite places in this city, so I wanted Gabe to try it. He spent about 5 days in Chicago during my short 2 week summer break, and Avec was among the many places we ate at.

This was my 3rd time trying Avec's famed chorizo-stuffed medjool dates with smoked bacon and a piquillo pepper-tomato sauce. It's just one of those dishes you MUST get during any visit to Avec. They are absolutely awesome as the different flavors stimulate all taste buds. If I were to be really picky, I would actually make them smaller so that the chorizo doesn't stand out more than the sweetness of the dates.

This is the whipped brandade with garlic bread and herbs ($9), which is the other Avec signature item that always stays on the menu. For those who don't know, brandade is a puree of salt cod, olive oil, and milk, although this was so rich that I wouldn't be surprised if butter were thrown in there too. For such a rich dish, Gabe and I absolutely loved this. It was extremely tasty and well-balanced as the salt cod did not overpower the creaminess.

The last dish that we shared was the wood-oven braised pork shoulder with garlic sausage, summer squash, fideos, and basil pistou ($21). This was a very hearty dish. The pork was so tender that it just fell apart at the touch of a fork. A knife was never needed for this. The garlic sausage was, well, garlicky, but it added a bold flavor to the dish. I personally didn't really care too much for the fideos, nor did I find them necessary. Overall, this was a great dish. I was afraid it would be more suitable for the winter since it's braised and a bit heavy, but Avec "summer-ed" it up a bit with the summer squash and basil pistou. However, the dish was still deceptively filling.

This was yet another fabulous meal at Avec. One of the things I love so much about Avec is that it's a great casual no-frills hangout spot that still serves excellent food and wine. This is something that is sometimes hard to come by, but all of Paul Kahan's joints fulfill this quite well. Avec (and all of Kahan's establishments, for that matter) change their menus so frequently that you can keep going back there again and again. It's great to see chefs constantly experimenting and stirring up new things.

Avec
avecrestaurant.com
615 W. Randolph St.
Chicago, IL

Ad Hoc's Fried Chicken

2009-09-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago, my mom bought the Thomas Keller Ad Hoc Fried Chicken mix from William Sonoma. It comes with two sets of brine and two sets of coating. Ad Hoc's fried chicken is famed to be among the best, yet possibly most complicated with dozens of different spices/ingredients, fried chicken in America. So it's great that William Sonoma came out with Thomas Keller's fried chicken mix for those who want to try it without going through the hassle of buying so many ingredients nor going to Ad Hoc.

Since we couldn't find packaged non-frozen chicken with different parts, we went with just 4 pounds of drumsticks. We brined all the chicken overnight, literally for about 22 hours (recommended 8-12hrs). When we were ready to cook the chicken the following day, we first coated each drumstick in the coating, then dipped it in the buttermilk, then coated again. The actual frying part was rather messy as you can imagine. We made a mistake with the first batch of 5 drumsticks by making the fire too high that the coating got kind of burnt. For the rest of the chicken, we fried them at almost the lowest heat, which ended up being perfect.

Overall, the fried chicken ended up being quite awesome, albeit guilt-inducing in all of its fried crispy goodness. The chicken was perfectly juicy, tender, and flavored inside, and the coating had the perfect amount of spice without actually being spicy. Being the Filipino I am, back at my Filipino household, I did admittedly eat my Ad Hoc fried chicken with white rice, and I have no regrets about that. I suppose I could have made biscuits or something, but I'm perfectly happy with some moist jasmine rice.

Unfortunately, William Sonoma no longer carries the Ad Hoc fried chicken mix, so I can't actually recommend this product anymore, which is too bad because it was awesome and well worth it. I'm not sure I'd really go out of my way to make his fried chicken brine and coating from scratch. It sounds like it would just be too much work for fried chicken.

Overall, awesome well-flavored fried chicken. Who doesn't like fried chicken?

Victorian Lavender Cookies with Rose Water Icing

2009-09-01T19:37:00.000-07:00

Every time I'm bound to come back to Chicago for my in-between semester breaks, I always mean to eat out a lot and cook a lot. I've been doing a lot of the former, but not too much of the latter. I made these cookies following that exact recipe. The Spice House is an awesome store in the Chicagoland area that sells TONS of great quality spices at an amazing value. I'm talking prices are much less than your average McCormick spices. So I don't delve into a tangent, I'll have to save a review of this store for another post.

These cookies were honestly just ok to me, although my family did enjoy them. The cookie itself wasn't sweet enough, and the texture was a bit dry for my liking. The rose water icing, however, was what made the cookies at least somewhat enjoyable for me. It added a uniquely sweet flavor to the cookie. I was worried that these cookies would taste like flowers or handsoap/lotion, but thankfully, they weren't too floral in taste.

If I were to ever make these again, I'd have to play around and make some adjustments, most likely by either adding more sugar or some other spice/essence/extract to include another dimension to it.

I had extra rose water icing, so I decided to drizzle some of it on fresh strawberries. These were AMAZING. Rose water and strawberries might just be a better unique pairing than aged balsamic vinegar and strawberries. I'll have to indulge in rosewater&strawberries more before I leave for the Caribbean again.

Sun Wah

2009-08-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, my family and I went to Sun Wah, the famous peking duck place in Uptown (Chicago). It's a good thing my mom made reservations (something you generally don't do at Chinese restaurants) because Sun Wah was featured in the Chicago Tribune a few days before, so non-followers soon caught wind of this place making it incredibly busy for a Sunday night. I'm no peking duck expert, but a lot of attention is paid to the way it is prepared and even carved, and supposedly Sun Wah has it down pretty well.

My family has been here several times, but this was my first. The peking duck was carved tableside. After carving the bulk of the duck, they took the scraps and used it for duck soup and duck fried rice, which came quickly soon after. Additionally, we were given pickled radishes and carrots, as well as buns to make duck buns. The duck was incredibly juicy and tender, and the skin was perfectly crisp. I honestly don't have much to compare to, so all I know is that this was some damn good peking duck. The buns are basically like Momofuku's pork belly buns, but I must say that the buns we constructed ourselves with the peking duck were a tad better, and significantly cheaper. A peking duck with duck fried rice, duck soup, veggies, and 6 buns costs $32, which is enough to feed 4 people pretty well.

Sun Wah has always been highly recommended, but I definitely recommend reservations and letting the waitress know ahead of time that you'll be getting the peking duck meal, especially if you're going to be there during peak hours.

Sun Wah
Near the corner of Argyle St. and Broadway

Degustation

2009-05-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-09T16:14:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-09T15:51:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-05T21:39:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-05T19:56:00.001-07:00

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::)

Kaze

2009-04-29T15:50:00.001-07:00

Last night, my family and I dined at Kaze Sushi in Roscoe Village. We came here in order to try the Tuesday seasonal tasting menu which runs for $45 for 4 courses with wine/sake pairings. It's a great deal for awesome fusion sushi. This is very anti-traditional sushi, so it's definitely not for everyone. Just looking at the menu, even I was a little skeptical because I'm not used to having stuff like mushrooms with my sushi, but everything turned out to be great.

Appetizer: Whitefish wrapped around botan ebi, cheese & chives, served with wasabi custard & natural sparkling sake.

The first course was very beautiful in presentation. We were instructed to first dip the whitefish in the sparkling sake, which had a maraschino cherry, kumquat, and cucumber pieces in it, then to dip into the wasabi creme brulee custard, squeeze with lemon, then eat. This was very delicious, but what stood out to me was the wasabi creme brulee. It sounds bizarre, but it was pretty much amazing. The wasabi was not overpowering whatsoever, and there was a hint of sweetness from the burnt sugar that balanced things out. I could have had that wasabi custard on its own.

Nigiri Course:
White Tuna - East coast white tuna topped with banana-wasabi puree
Tuna - topped with butter sauteed dry mushrooms
Madai - Sea bream with steamed monkfish liver, ohba, fried tofu, pickled onions & chives
Kobe Beef - marinated in a pear & tomato puree torched with garlic butter & finished green onions & sesame seeds
Tako - octopus topped with foie gras sauce, pickled onions & chives

Clearly, there are a ton of flavors going on in here. Some ingredient pairings do sound strange, but everything really did go well together. I really enjoyed how my palette was surprised by many of these flavors. The kobe beef one was delicious and perfectly marinated. I also really loved the madai because the fried tofu provided a nice textural contrast to the softness of the fish. All of the nigiri pieces were great, and nothing came off as strange to me at all. The wine pairing was different than what was on the menu, so I honestly don't remember what the wine was other than it was white and dry. I didn't particularly love it.

Sashimi and Makimono Course:
Hotate - raw scallop with a creamy wasabi & cilantro dressing finished with a touch of yuzu
Shiitake Ebi - wrapped inside out topped a mixture of baked mushrooms in tomato-miso sauce, finished with boiled shrimp, caviar & microgreens

Even though this course was good too, it was probably my least favorite. I did enjoy the makimono because the mushroom was crunchy inside the rice. I didn't care for the boiled shrimp that much only because it didn't have a lot of taste. The raw scallop was surprisingly good with that cilantro puree though. I could have probably eaten 5 of those! The wine pairing for this was a pretty full-bodied cabernet. While I actually didn't think it paired well at all, I did enjoy the wine alone.

Entree: Crab cake - in a purple potato stew topped with uni cream & vegetable chips

This entree course was so good! The only thing is that it seemed really rich after all the other food we ate, but it was so delicious. The potato stew and uni cream was subtly sweet and provided a nice balance with the crab cake. I unfortunately couldn't even finish this course because I was so full of savory-ness by then, but if I had more room in my stomach for salt, then there's no doubt I would have happily finished that off. This was paired with sake, but I actually didn't like it. I've never been a sake fan, and this one was very dry, so I just couldn't drink it. I'm sure it's probably good for a sake lover, but it's just not for me.

Dessert: Asparagus Pudding - in strawberry puree with a touch of Hennessey cream and chocolate syrup, garnished with blackberries and whipped cream

Ok, I know asparagus pudding sounds absolutely disgusting, but this has to be one most standout desserts I've ever had. Supposedly the white asparagus is pureed in there solely for texture. I couldn't even taste the asparagus, so I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. It's almost like false advertising, but it doesn't even matter because the dessert was amazing. The pudding was firm and creamy without being rich at all. It was so NOT rich that I was able to finish it easily. As you can see, the strawberry chocolate sauce was presented in a beautiful design. I almost didn't want to mess it up.

I would recommend to anyone that they try Kaze's Tuesday $45 tasting menu because it's a great deal for a good amount of food and fresh fish. It's a very small restaurant with simple decor, but I really enjoyed the house/chillout music they played. If you are a sushi purist, you can still enjoy Kaze by ordering off the regular menu which of course has a good selection of raw sushi, sashimi, and nigiri. I would definitely return here again, but next time, probably just for the regular menu.

Feel free to check out more pictures here.

Kaze Sushi
2032 W. Roscoe St
Chicago, IL 60618

Penne with Haricot Verts and Bacon

2009-01-25T15:21:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty limited in terms of ingredients here in Dominica, especially with the little free time I have while in medical school. However, my goal for this semester is to cook dinner more often, no matter how simple and unimpressive it may be. Well, I went to Roseau (the main city in Dominica) yesterday. It's an hour away, so it's not too often I can give myself the chance to go there. On Saturday mornings, they have a huge outdoor market where tons of vendors sell their fresh fruits, veggies, and fish. I believe you have to get to the market SUPER early in the morning in order to score some fish, so I haven't had any luck with that yet. Anyways, I bought some onions and haricot verts. I would've liked to buy more fruits and veggies, but food spoils SO quickly here, so I didn't want to buy much more than that. I also had heavy groceries from the grocery store with me too.

So for dinner tonight, I made penne with haricot verts and fully-cooked bacon. Yes, bacon is VERY hard to come by here, so I had to bring a Costco package of fully-cooked bacon with me from home. I cooked the haricot verts and bacon in olive oil, salt, pepper, and red chili flakes. Overall, the pasta turned out surprisingly well. It was simple and healthy, minus the bacon part...but really, everything tastes so much better with bacon.

Sepia: Gabe's Pictures

2009-01-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

Some of Gabe's pictures were way better than mine:

The baby octopus with tomato sauce and toasted baguette.

Gabe's skate wing(s) - you can see how large the portion was.

Our pistachio dessert. It felt like we were vertically slicing meat for a gyro.

The Violet Hour

2009-01-09T09:48:00.000-08:00

I know this blog focuses on food, but I believe The Violet Hour, a speakeasy cocktail bar in Wicker Park, deserves a review. I actually ended up writing about it in my other personal blog, so please direct yourselves here. It's an amazing cocktail spot that I hope to go back to again and again. The head mixologist there came from Milk&Honey and Pegu Club in NYC, so he has great credentials. It's the perfect spot for a date or to catch up with a friend. I'm hoping I can come back every time I'm home in Chicago.

Sepia

2009-01-09T09:07:00.000-08:00

As the last dinner of Gabe's visit, we went to Sepia, another contemporary American restaurant in Chicago. We had so many other options for our dinner date during his visit, but apparently a ton of restaurants close for vacation in the beginning of January, which was a bit of a disappointment. We ended up having to settle with Sepia, however I am not disappointed by that choice at all. My attention was caught when I came across their beautiful website. The music and design had a certain allure about it that screamed romantic but casual and hip at the same time.

Upon entering the door at Sepia, the atmosphere felt cool, hip, and elegant all at the same time. The lighting is very warm (very "sepia"), and they have beautiful chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. It's ideal for a date or even a group of friends. Our waitress was very kind, attentive but not intrusive, and extremely knowledgeable. She described the dishes so well and even knew where exactly some of the fishes came from.

It seems like most people order a flatbread as one appetizer, but since Gabe and I went to Avec right before Sepia just to eat the chorizo-stuffed bacon-wrapped dates, we were no longer starving. We decided to try the charred baby octopus with a toasted baguette and tomato sauce. The portion was quite generous for octopus, and while it wasn't as amazing as Babbo's octopus appetizer, this one was also wonderfully prepared. It was not overcooked, and I loved the charred taste.

My entree was the roasted cod with spaghetti squash, wild boar sausage, and paprika sauce. There were also carrots and cauliflower. The paprika sauce was a bechamel sauce, but it was not too thick or heavy by any means. I had never tried cobia before, which is partly why I wanted to try this entree. Cobia is quite rich in texture and body, but does not taste fishy at all. It's pretty meaty and firm, so the strong flavors of the accompaniments complimented the fish well. The portion was very generous. In fact, I could only eat half of the entree, so I think Sepia is ideal for people with big appetites. Believe it or not, I think I actually enjoyed this more as leftovers haha. Gabe ordered the skate wing with braised collard greens and a grape-pine nut sauce, which I know he really enjoyed.

Our dessert was the pistachio ice cream with pistachio financier with dark chocolate sauce. This was a good way to cap off the meal, however the dessert didn't stand out to me either. I actually really liked the very firm texture of the ice cream, but the pistachio taste didn't come out as strongly as most of the pistachio ice creams and gelatos I've had.

My drink of the night was a French 75, which I believe is Sepia's most popular cocktail, as it was one of Time Out Chicago's best 100 things they tried in 2008. It was tart and very easy to drink. Sepia is also known for it's cocktails and mixology, but I'm happy I settled with a simple classic drink.

Overall, I think Sepia is a wonderful restaurant. For contemporary American, it has not reached the refinement and creativity of Blackbird, but I would say it's pretty solid. It has a great atmosphere and generous portions, so I give it lots of points for that. The food is more simple without being too simple, and the service is very good.

Blackbird Restaurant

2009-01-07T12:19:00.000-08:00

My family and I went to Blackbird Restaurant last summer to celebrate my 23rd birthday, but for some reason, I never got around to writing about it. We returned on New Year's Day to take Gabe out, and I think this visit was slightly better than the first. Probably the one major difference was that we had an early 6pm reservation this time, and since it was New Year's Day, hardly anyone was out. When we got there, there was only 2 other people there, which felt strange since our summer visit was bustling with a full house. I actually enjoy the loud, hip atmosphere that Blackbird normally has, but eventually the restaurant started to fill up, so Gabe got a taste of the normal atmosphere there.

Our amuse was a scallop tartare with avocado, caviar, and a lobster chip. This was probably one of the best amuse bouches I have ever had. The scallop was fresh, and the avocado complimented it well.

We got two orders of the crispy veal sweetbreads with golden raisins, red cabbage, banana, and pumpkin seeds. They change the preparation frequently, but this one certainly did not fail. Blackbird really cooks the thymus gland to perfection, making it taste and feel like a chicken McNugget.

Our other appetizer was the crispy confit of swan creek suckling pig with trumpet royale mushrooms, toasted walnut consomme, and pomegranate confit. I really wish they gave a bigger portion of this appetizer, but either way, it's also an amazing appetizer. The walnut consomme blew all of us away, as there was a perfect blend of sweet and savory in it.

My dish was the crispy swan creek farm duck breast with smoked cauliflower, salsify, fried chocolate and lovage. The duck was absolutely cooked to perfection, and the fried chocolate was a nice and interesting touch. One thing I noticed is that the portions seemed a lot larger this time around. I don't know if it's because a lot of people have complained about the small portions or if it's because it wasn't a full house that night, but my whole family did notice the larger portions for the entrees.

Even though Gabe and I ordered the pear cider doughnuts for our dessert, I'd prefer to comment on the kalamata olive cake with honeycrisp apples, toffee, and buttermilk ice cream. Out of all the desserts I've tried at Blackbird over my last two visits, the kalamata olive cake is by far my favorite, so I'm not surprised that it has stayed on the menu. It's not too olive-y and still maintains a certain sweetness that makes it perfectly appropriate for dessert.

My drink of the night was a Pisco Bravo. I decided on that one since I've been curious to taste Pisco. I know there was egg white and I believe nutmeg in it, but I honestly don't remember what else. It was a fabulous cocktail, and I loved how the egg white added a frothy texture to it without being thick or heavy.

We ordered plenty of other things, but I decided to just comment on the things I really tried during this visit. Blackbird's menu changes frequently. While some of the main ingredients stay (i.e. duck, lamb, sweetbreads, etc), the accompaniments and preparation changes every season. This is definitely a good way to maintain frequent customers. The service is exceptional, the atmosphere is hip without being pretentious or too trendy, and the food truly remarkable and innovative. This is really a place for foodies and anyone who's willing to try creative food. My favorite in Chicago!

Francesco's Hole in the Wall

2008-12-27T22:03:00.001-08:00

My family and I went to Francesco's Hole in the Wall restaurant in Northbrook, IL last night. I've never been too impressed with Italian food in greaterland Chicago, but this place is pretty for real. It's one of the smallest sit-down restaurants I've ever been to, which is quite interesting considering this is in the suburbs. It only has 16 small tables and has a very homey rustic charm. Normally they don't take reservations, but for whatever reason, they allowed my family and I to make a reservation last night. It's a good thing because the wait for everyone else around 7pm was a 45 minute to an hour wait.

To drink, I settled with a glass of Ruffino chianti red wine, which was very smooth and medium-bodied. For my entree, I decided on the osso buco served with a little bit of risotto on the side. As anyone familiar with Italian food knows, osso buco is typically of gigantic portions and is a very heavy and hearty dish. This was no different. I think I would've liked to have more bone marrow in mine, but the meat itself was cooked perfectly tender. The sauce had a natural strong flavor. It may have been on the salty side for me, but definitely not shockingly so.

I didn't get to try a lot of everything else, but the rest of my family ordered chicken vesuvio (supposedly one of their best dishes), linguine with shrimp arrabiata, lamb chops, and fried calamari. The fried calamari was probably among the best and most tender I've ever had, so I would definitely recommend that as an appetizer.

I'd definitely like to return to this restaurant and try one of their pastas. For anyone looking for solid food at a restaurant with character and atmosphere in the suburbs, I would definitely recommend Francesco's Hole in the Wall.

Francesco's Hole in the Wall
254 Skokie Boulevard
(between Frontage Rd & Lake Cook Rd)
Northbrook, IL 60062
(847) 272-0155

Pork Tenderloin with Apples

2008-12-25T08:59:00.000-08:00

My dad, brother, and I cooked pork tenderloin with apples for Christmas Eve dinner last night. We marinated the tenderloins in salt, pepper, and olive oil. First, we browned and seared them in a wok. While that was going on, I made the glaze which consisted of dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and sugar. I honestly don't know what my measurements were. I just kept adding stuff until it tasted well balanced. After the tenderloins were finished being seared, we poured the glaze over them and stuck them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. While that was being done, we cooked chopped green apples in the oil left over from when the pork was being seared and half a stick of butter. While the apples softened up, we then added maybe about half a cup of apple cider, about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and about 2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream.

After 20 minutes of the pork being in the oven, we weren't sure if it was really cooked through yet but didn't want to cut it open, so we just poured the apple sauce over the pork tenderloins and left them in the oven with it turned off. We figured that by leaving them in the turned off oven, it would still cook a little bit but not too much.

This was a really great Christmas dish. The pork was very lean, and the apples gave the right amount of sweetness and moistness to the dish. I think it turned out great, and it was a nice change from our usual steak dinner on Christmas Eve. When I make this again, I think the only thing I'll do differently is marinate the pork in the mustard/apple cider vinegar/brown sugar/olive oil glaze so that the flavors will come through more in the pork.

Panini maker!

2008-12-24T11:09:00.001-08:00

My mom bought a big panini maker on sale for $60 at William Sonoma. I was really excited about it because I love paninis. The picture above is of a nutella and banana panini. I also made a serrano ham and manchego cheese panini for lunch. I used Pepperidge Farm white bread for both, but I think I need to use a better bread. I didn't realize how flat the bread would get from the panini maker, so I think I'll try a good loaf of Italian bread next time.

Both the jamon serrano and manchego cheese were bought from Costco. And on that note, you can buy the culinary treasure, Iberico de Bellota from Costco too! That's the jamon that comes from pigs that are only fed acorns in Spain. Typically, you can only find this in Spain or France, but I guess it's made its way to Costco in the States. For $29.99 for 4oz, it's defintiely not cheap, but it was certainly delicious with a distinct nutty taste, which I assume is from the acorns.

Mussels with Bacon and Apples

2008-12-22T20:05:00.001-08:00

Bacon and apples together is something I've sort of had a fascination with lately even though I don't really recall eating that combination until, well...today. When I searched for bacon and apples on foodnetwork.com, I came across this recipe. I've never been a Bobby Flay fan, but the recipe sounded good, and I'm fairly confident in cooking mussels since I've done it a number of times before.

Instead of making 1 pound of mussels, I made 4.41lbs to be exact. Costco sells live mussels, and you have to cook all of them while they're live, so I didn't have much of a choice but to cook all 4.41lbs, but that was just enough for my family. I'm not really one for following recipes but rather just use them as a guide.

I ended up using about 12oz of bacon, 4 shallots (however in varying sizes), 2 Fuji apples, and whatever amount seemed appropriate of dry white wine, apple cider, and apple cider vinegar. I bought heavy cream and ended up forgetting to put it in, but that's ok because the mussels were perfectly fine without the cream.

I definitely want to make this again, possibly with the cream and maybe less bacon.

Little note

2008-12-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

As a side note, a lot of people have asked me what I've been eating here in Dominica (the random island in the Caribbean where I go to medical school, for those of you who don't know). There's really nothing interesting to note here about food. There's no variety, and what you could eat could potentially make you sick (though interestingly enough the only time I've gotten sick here was after eating Subway), but there are certainly a few things here and there that I've taken a liking towards. I'll seriously write about the few random things I like here. Hit me up if you'd care to read about it.

Also, look forward to update overload when I'm on my 3 week winter break. I plan on eating out and cooking a lot with my family and Gabe (he's visiting me in Chicago for 5 days!).

Until then, cheers!

Avec

2008-12-04T16:12:00.001-08:00

Yes, I'm updating my blog 3 months too late. It's better late than never, right? I'm actually not gonna give the excuse that med school has taken up too much of my time because I definitely have had time to write about my last meals in Chicago and New York. I just never got around to it for some reason.

Anyways, I've chosen to write about Avec tonight because it was my last nice meal before I left for med school. It has a very hip but cool and laidback vibe that's inviting and not pretentious at all. It's very Momofuku-esque, if you will. It's headed by Chef Koren, who if any of you watch Top Chef, was the judge for the beer pairing quickfire last season. She uses inspiration from Spanish and Mediterranean food and puts her own contemporary spin on it without being too out there. Seriously, everything we had absolutely did not fail, and I think this restaurant does an amazing take on tapas slash "small plates." A lot of people call it tapas, but I prefer to just call them small plates because the food is not strictly Spanish by any means.

We started out with the Housemade Baccala, with red and yellow watermelon, cucumber, pickled watermelon rind, mint, aleppo pepper, and olive oil ($11). This was an ABSOLUTE winner. I personally love baccala, but this really was an interesting take on it, and it just worked so well. It was refreshing, and not a single ingredient overpowered another. This stands out in my mind as a perfect summer dish.

Next, we had Avec's oh-so-famous Chorizo-stuffed Medjool Dates, with smoked bacon and piquillo pepper sauce ($9). While Avec changes its menu quite frequently, this is the one item you can count on staying on the menu. It is one of their signature items, and certainly for good reason. Again, every flavor blended together perfectly well, and the strong taste of the chorizo, bacon, and sauce did not overpower the sweetness of the dates.

Next was the Wood-roasted Half Chicken "Panzanella" with bread, heirloom tomatoes, kalamatas, golden raisins and mint ($16). Normally, we probably wouldn't order chicken in a place like this, but my sister wanted chicken, and they didn't have a pork dish on the menu. Surprisingly, this has to have been one of the best non-fried chicken dishes I've ever had, if not the best. Even the white meat was ridiculously moist and tender. I'm usually not a raisins fan, but the raisins went surprisingly well with this dish.

The next "large plate" was the Trofle Puttanesca with albacore, picholine olives, caperberries, and thyme ($16). This was actually a pretty large portion of pasta, which I wasn't expecting. I think I remember being somewhat iffy about this dish. It was certainly good, but it didn't speak to me as well as the other dishes. I think the overall taste of the pasta was pretty strong in a way that wasn't very summer-y like the other dishes.

Our last dish was the Pan-roasted Hanger Steak with rapini, roasted corn, smoked paprika, lima beans, and herbed butter ($12). I actually don't remember too much about this one besides the fact that it was good and perfectly cooked medium rare to our liking.

We did have dessert, but I don't remember what it was. Also, my choice of drink for the evening was a Belgian wheat beer, Blanche de Bruxelles. It was very light and refreshing.

Overall, I HIGHLY recommend Avec. It's definitely one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago in terms of food, service, and atmosphere. We didn't have to wait too long, but we went around 6:30pm on a Wednesday night. Expect longer waits if you go any later than that on any given night, and ESPECIALLY on the weekends.

Tank Noodle

2008-08-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

Chicago has a pretty big Vietnamese community, so therefore has it's very own Little Saigon. My family and I decided to go to Tank Noodle on Broadway and Argyle last week to have some pho, which this place is known for. This definitely was the best pho I've ever had!

I had the pho consisting of beef noodles soup with sliced beef, well-done flank, skirt flank ($6.95). It also came with a generous helping of lime, bean sprouts, and other garnishes on the side. The broth was perfectly tasty and flavorful with the right amount of richness and saltiness. The refreshing taste from the spices the broth is cooked with was not masked at all by the beefy flavor of the broth. The beef itself was also quite tender and freshly cooked.

Aside from the pho, Tank Noodle also has lots of fresh fruit smoothies and bubble tea. I went with the avocado smoothie which was fresh and not too sweet nor creamy.

I think Tank Noodle will be my go-to spot for a bowl of pho.

Tank Noodle (Pho Xe Tang)
4953 N. Broadway St
Chicago, IL

Cafe Iberico

2008-08-04T20:58:00.001-07:00

On my birthday, my family, friend Vadicel, and I went to Cafe Iberico for dinner. Even though it's a very large restaurant, the wait is supposedly ridiculous, especially on the weekends. We went on a Wednesday, and the place was basically filled up by the time we left around 9pm. Since we ordered a bunch of tapas plus paella, I won't post every picture. But overall, the food was really good and by far the best tapas I've had so far in Chicago.

Patatas Aioli ($4.95, red potatoes with garlic mayonnaise sauce) - this is something I've never seen in NY, but is on every single tapas menu in Chicago. This was pretty standard and good, though perhaps a bit too mayonnaise-y for my liking. Good taste though.

Jamon Iberico ($6.95, jamon iberico with pan tomate and manchego cheese) - I actually don't even know if this was really jamon iberico because I thought it's really expensive and not even really legal in the US, so it may have been serrano. Whatever type of ham it was, this was a really really really awesome tapas. Very simple.

Gambas al Ajillo ($6.95, shrimp in olive oil and garlic) - Also a very standard dish, and it certainly did not fail.

Pulpo a la Plancha ($7.95, grilled octopus with potatoes and olive oil) - I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It came in a heaping portion (for tapas), the potatoes were more like handcut fries, and the octopus was perfectly tender. While my dad would have preferred it a little saltier, I thought it was perfectly salty and seasoned for my taste.

Bacalao - This was a special, so it's not on the online menu, but I know it involved red peppers and that it was very good.

Lomo de Buey a la Brasa ($9.95, grilled beef tenderloin with potatoes and vegetables) - Really simple dish much like everything else, but I was happy that the beef wasn't too dry. Sometimes I worry about that when I'm not at a steak place and when the beef isn't doused in sauce. But while the beef was cook probably medium well (i typically only like medium rare), it still quite juicy and tasty.

Paella Iberico ($9.95) - This was your standard paella with chicken, chorizo, and seafood, and you better believe it was only $9.95 for a decently sized pan. I've read that some people don't like Cafe Iberico's paella, but this was actually really good in my opinion. Not too dry, not too watery. It was also perfectly tasty in my opinion.

For dessert, we also tried the fried plantains with vanilla ice cream. I also must mention that a pitcher of sangria is only about $13 or $14 there, and IT'S GOOD. They don't even fill the large pitcher with ice (the ice is in your glass), so it definitely comes with lots of sangria.

I would highly recommend Cafe Iberico for a big group since the tapas portions are actually pretty big. It's nothing fancy at all. Just solid, simple Spanish fare.

Cafe Iberico
739 N. LaSalle Drive
Chicago, IL 60610

Topolobampo

2008-07-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

I made lunch reservations at Topolobampo, a Rick Bayless restaurant in River North, when one of my friends visited me in Chicago earlier last week. As a little bit of background, Bayless is a chef/proprietor specializing in tradition, regional Mexican cuisine with a higher end, slightly more modern twist. What not many people know is that Chicago is surprisingly the best (if not almost the best) city in the US for authentic, traditional, and regional Mexican food. Mexican food is a BIG DEAL here, and people will constantly debate who makes the best taco al pastor, and if the meat isn't char grilled, then forget about it. However, Bayless, who has won numerous awards in the last 20 years, has brought regional Mexican cuisine to a new level. Having read a lot about Bayless and Topolobampo, I was really curious to see what it's all about.

So we went for lunch, which is usually not the best way to experience fine dining, but Topolobampo is not cheap, and I really just wanted to see what this place was all about. Needless to say, my friend Vadicel and I were really impressed. From the moment we stepped in, we were immersed in this very warm atmosphere. Everything about the interior of the restaurant was warm and inviting with the walls decorated in Mexican art, as well as ceramics adorning display shelves. Overall, the service was friendly and relaxed, but perhaps slow at times. There were a couple of times when we needed our waiter but couldn't find him, but I usually let things like that slide if the food was good, and in this case it certainly was.

We were first given tortilla chips with housemade guacamole, compliments of the chef. Not too much to say about that except for the fact that it was probably the best tasting guacamole I've had. The ingredients were noticeably fresh, which is something that's extremely important in Bayless' food.

I had the Pato Con Mole Amargo, which was roasted gunthorp duck breast with mole of pasilla and mulato chiles, coffee, chocolate and sesame. The vegetables it came with were "wilted" spinach, pickled chayote, bayless garden microgreens. chilatas and potato budin (a cheesy potato tortilla type of thing). This was a very interesting dish, and while it sounds complex, everything just came together so well. The duck was very tender with just the right amount of fattiness. Thankfully, the coffee and chocolate in the mole sauce did not overpower the dish. Everything was blended perfectly.

My friend had the Trio, Trio, Trio which was a sampling of their three types of ceviches. You can refer here for the details on the ceviches. According to her, it was all really good. I tried the Ceviche Playero from her, and I really liked it. The seafood was very fresh and well prepared.

Probably the highlight for me was dessert. I don't remember the exact name of this dessert (it's not online), but it was essentially a chocolate tart with bacon a la Vosges' bacon-chocolate. And YOU KNOW how much I love that. This dessert was basically perfect. The chocolate tart wasn't too rich nor too sweet, and the bacon was perfectly accounted for. It also came with what I think was vanilla ice cream and some sort of orange petals. Honestly, not sure what the petals were, but we ate them. Awesome dessert - HIGHLY recommended.

So overall, Topolobampo was really good and worth the experience of trying higher end regional Mexican cuisine. I definitely recommend anyone to go here, particularly those who've never had Mexican food of this type.

Topolobampo
445 N. Clark St
Chicago, IL

Renga-Tei

2008-07-24T20:06:00.001-07:00

On a weekday for lunch, my mom and I went to Renga-Tei, a no frills Japanese spot in Lincolnwood. Awesome Japanese food tends to be hard to come by In Chicago (in comparison to NY), but chowhounders rave about Renga-Tei. We went close to 2pm, when the kitchen was about to close. (Note: Many suburban restaurants here close for a few hours between lunch and dinner) We were surprised to find that the moderately sized restaurant was packed, which is really surprising for a weekday in the suburbs. Luckily, we were able to snag the last two seats at the bar before they stopped letting people in.

I ordered the Katsu-Don. Simply pork cutlets with egg, shredded dry seaweed, and broth that was lighter than teriyaki. There were also pickled veggies and rice on the side. This portion was HUGE. It ended up feeding me 3 consecutive meals, believe it or not. And I must say that this was the best katsu dish, as well as "don" I've ever had. I found it to be better than the Negi Tori Don at Yakitori Totto, even though those are pretty different dishes, but one can still compare the overall quality and taste of the dishes.

I definitely plan on coming back here and wouldn't mind trying the sushi.

Renga-Tei
3956 W. Touhy Ave
Lincolnwood, IL 60712

Hotate Bacon

2008-07-14T22:15:00.001-07:00

Whenever I go to an izakaya place in New York, I always get hotate bacon (bacon-wrapped scallops). Since my yakitori chicken skewers were a hit during Thanksgiving (yes, we grilled on Thanksgiving), I figured I'd try bacon-wrapped scallops for my sister's graduation party at home. Last time I made yakitori, I made my own sauce from scratch using soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar. A couple of weeks ago, I found yakitori marinade or about $2 at HMart and decided to just go easy and do things that way since it's cheaper and easier.

We got about 4 pounds of jumbo scallops for a total of $20, which was ridiculously cheap. Since they were so big, I cut each of them in half and padded each one dry. I then left the scallops in the marinade for about 45 minutes while my brother half-cooked the bacon. Since the scallops would cook faster on the grill than the bacon, we had to pre-cook the bacon. Then we wrapped each scallop half with bacon and put them on the skewers. This takes a little longer than you'd think.

Finally, we grilled the bacon-wrapped scallops for about 3 minutes on each side. Turns out they weren't tasty enough, so we drizzled a little bit of marinade on the finished products. Everyone loved this at my sister's grad party!

Pizza from scratch

2008-07-07T18:05:00.000-07:00

I made Pizza Margherita from scratch the other day! It wasn't difficult, but making the dough and letting it rise does take some time. I used this Batali pizza dough recipe, except I accidentally put one cup of water. I realized this before I put the wine, so I opted out of not using wine since I didn't want to make anymore dough than what the recipe called for. I was also too lazy to adjust the measurements of everything else. This dough recipe is enough for two 10" pizzas, so I actually still have another batch of dough left. Next time I need to make more, I'll definitely have to use wine to see how it enhances the taste.

I was a little lazy to make homemade marinara sauce, but since I don't like my pizza really saucy, I just spread a couple of tablespoons of canned tomato sauce on the dough. The next layer was fresh mozzarella that I sliced, then topped with fresh basil which I'm now growing myself. I baked it for about 13 minutes at 400 Fahrenheit. Overall, the pizza turned out decent. I could've kneaded the dough more to make it thinner, and I definitely could have used more fresh mozzarella and basil. My dad really liked the dough/crust though, so at least I have that down now. I'll just have to see how much of a positive difference wine makes.

Yesterday, I used the other half of the dough. I didn't have enough fresh mozzarella left to make a full pizza, but since there's always a steady supply of different cheeses in my house, I picked aged gouda. My crust turned out better this time because I flattened it out a bit more on the pizza pan. Overall, this pizza turned out better. The only thing is that I sprinkled a little bit of salt before baking it which ended up being totally unnecessary since the aged gouda was pretty salty.

I'm glad I now have pizza completely from scratch under my belt. Not that it's difficult, but at least it's a little better and more fun than getting delivery.

Some homecooked meals

2008-07-07T17:20:00.001-07:00

Now that I'm home and unemployed in Chicago, living in a house with a nice and newly renovated kitchen, I've been pretty inspired to cook and experiment a bit. Whether on my own or as my dad's sous chef (my dad is the cook in this house), I've built up my repertoire more in the last week than I did in my last 3 months in New York.

The surprising thing about Chicago is that you can find cheaper and fresher fish here than you can in New York. Maybe my mom just knows where to look here and I don't know where to look in New York, but we've been getting lots of very fresh halibut and Chilean sea bass for about $10/lb more or less.

This is some halibut I made last week. I made about 2 pounds worth for dinner. As you know, I don't like measuring stuff when I cook. I kinda just go with it. Ingredients included maybe 4-5 cloves of garlic, tomatoes, shallots, about 3/4-1 cup of white wine, salt and pepper for seasoning, and fresh basil to garnish at the end. Oh, I also added a few threads of saffron from a little jar I had bought in Corfu last year. I added this while the white wine was reducing. Just a few threads REALLY made the saffron taste noticeable. Overall, the fish was pretty good though maybe could have used more salt and pepper.

Another day, my dad and I cooked fresh scallops in a similar manner, but added a bunch of oyster mushrooms. Instead of using white wine, we used red. The flavor was really good, but my dad definitely overcooked the scallops - they ended up being a bit rubbery, which I hate, but since it tasted good, I was able to deal. I wasn't sure if the oyster mushrooms would be good with the scallops, but they actually were!

He and I have made other seafood dishes in the last week, but they're really all pretty similar. It's pretty much always either red or white wine reduction, tomatoes, shallots, sometimes green onions, sometimes either oyster or enoki mushrooms, and always always always some garlic.

My sister is having a graduation party this coming Saturday, so I'm hoping to experiment with other party-appropriate dishes for that too...

Stay tuned!

Caracas Arepa Bar

2008-07-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, before I knew anything about the New York food scene, I ate at Caracas Arepa Bar with a group of friends. I randomly felt like trying it again a couple of weeks ago, so I went to the take-out side to grab an arepa as a late afternoon/early evening snack.

I ordered the La Del Gato, which came with fried plantains, avocado slices, and a chunk of guayanes cheese...for a whopping $6. Yeah, that's expensive. The arepa was no bigger than the palm of my hand, and while it was very stuffed, I still don't think it warrants $6. Maybe I'd pay $4 for it, but $6 really seemed overpriced for a little snack. Don't get me wrong. It tasted really good and the arepa was crispy, but...ehhh. I just didn't think it was worth the price.

Basically, only go there if you're willing to cough up $6+ for a little snack that should really be much cheaper than it is.

Caracas Arepa Bar
91 East 7th St
New York, NY

Yummy Noodles

2008-07-02T11:09:00.000-07:00

As of now, I'm officially back in Chicago for the next two months. Since I was so busy hanging out with people during my last few weeks in New York, I haven't gotten a chance to update this blog much. I have a lot to catch up on! A couple of weeks ago, Gabe and I were craving some Chinese food, so we went to Yummy Noodles in Chinatown. I had never been there before, but he has with his coworkers. Ugh, why didn't I discover this place before? Everything about it was better than any other similar place in Chinatown. It was cheaper, cleaner, and better.

Gabe ordered the Salt and Pepper Pork Chops. It was perfectly crispy, salty, and flavorful. It was also a massive portion at only maybe $7 or $8. The meat itself was also very tender and not chewy or dry at all, which is a problem I sometimes have with pork chops.

I had the Rice Casserole with Chinese Sausage and Preserved Duck ($5.25). I've never had a Chinese rice casserole, so little did I know that it's like the Chinese version of bibimbop! I always love it when the rice gets burnt and crispy at the bottom, yum. Even though it was a large portion overall, there was still way more rice than Chinese sausage and preserved duck. I hate having a lot of leftover rice because I feel like it's such a waste. But I can't eat rice without meat to accompany it, so unfortunately, I didn't finish all the rice. In any case, this dish was really good and cheap considering the portion.

And perhaps the most charming thing about this Chinese restaurant are the tshirts that the waiters wear. On the front, there's a picture of a diamond, and underneath, it reads, "Noodles & Co." On the back, it says, "Noodles are forever." Get it?! To top it off, the tshirts are black, and the print is in Tiffany's signature greenish color! Seriously, I loved it. I would so totally rock that shirt too, you have no idea.

For a change of scenery, go eat at Yummy Noodles. I like it better than any other standard Chinese place in Chinatown.

Yummy Noodles
48 Bowery
btwn Bayard and Canal

Jean-Georges Lunch

2008-06-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I went to Jean-Georges with Gabe and his cousin, Erika. Jean-Georges is one of those high-end contemporary French restaurants that boasts a remarkable weekday lunch deal of 2 courses for $28. That probably sounds normal, maybe even expensive to many, but that's actually one of the greatest culinary bargains in NYC. Unfortunately, this deal is only on the weekdays, which is why it took me so long to finally eat there for lunch. So when Gabe surprised me with a halfday at work and reservations at Jean-Georges, I was really excited.

We walked into the formal dining room, which was bright and minimalistic, much like Perry St, but with a more formal atmosphere. It seemed like the perfect interior for a nice lunch. After our waiter took our orders, we were given a plate of 3 amuse-bouches.

The amuses were a warm broccoli soup with creme fraiche, beet with white chocolate and orange zest, and house made mozzarella with shiso and honeydew. From these first bites, I knew we were in for a treat. My personal favorite was the broccoli soup. It probably sounds uninspired, but it was truly bursting with flavor.

My first course was the Foie Gras Brulee with Roasted Strawberries and Balsamic Vinegar. It was AMAZING. This was my first time ever really eating foie gras, and definitely not a bad place to start. Not surprisingly, it actually tasted exactly like creme brulee with the sweetness and blowtorched sugar. It also had the texture of custard. The foie sat atop a piece of brioche, which actually wasn't super easy to cut through, but it's all good. Of course, I loved the pairing with the strawberries and balsamic vinegar as well. It's becoming a bit ubiquitous in my world, but I'm still enjoying it.

My second course was the Braised Short Ribs with Sweet Pea Puree and Baby Carrots. This was another amazing dish. It was so tender, the sweetness of the glaze wasn't too sweet, and the pea puree matched surprisingly well with the short ribs. Excellent dish. The serving looked small, but it was the perfect amount since short ribs can be a bit rich sometimes. I definitely recommend this one for any future JG lunch goers.

Unfortunately, both Gabe and I somehow forgot to take a picture of our desserts. I settled the "Chocolate" dessert ($8) which came with JGV's famous molten chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream. It also came with a warm chocolate gnocchi with gianduja, basil, and some kind of citrus-y marmalade. These came in really tiny tasting portions, but they were both on the rich side. The molten chocolate cake was, of course, beyond amazing. Definitely the best molten chocolate cake I've ever had. I didn't like the chocolate gnocchi as much. The texture was great, but I didn't care too much for the citrus-y thing it was sitting on top of.

Lastly, we got our mignardises which consisted of homemade marshmallows, macarons, and chocolates! Right now, I forgot what all the flavors were. I enjoyed the marshmallows, but the macarons were so small that they were practically hollow. These were nowhere compared to Eleven Madison Park's macarons (to come later on).

Going to Jean-Georges for lunch was a great way for me to try the place without going all out, but the dinner tasting menu is still on my list for things to try when I eventually come back to New York. Maybe later on, Gabe can write about his dishes, as I'm sure they were all superb as well.

Jean-Georges
1 Central Park West

Perry St Brunch Round 2

2008-06-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

After a wonderful Perry St brunch with Gabe a month and a half ago, I recommended it to my girl friends as a girls day out sort of thing. We went yesterday prior to watching the Sex and the City movie (Note: I really enjoyed the movie, but no we did not get all corny or dressed up for the event).

While trying to decide what to eat, we ended up choosing a bottle of Torrontes, 2007 (Sagra, Argentina) for $20. This was a wonderful white wine and absolutely perfect for brunch on a hot, summer day. I never knew what kind of wine would be appropriate for brunch, but now I do. It was very slightly sweet, pleasant, and easy to drink.

After we finally decided on what we were going to order, we were given an amuse-bouche of cold cucumber soup with some kind of foam. I want to say it was a parmesan foam, but I could be very wrong with that. I'm not sure what my friends thought of it, but I actually really loved it. Probably more than the sweet pea amuse bouche soup I got here last time. It was tangy and refreshing with a hint of salt.

For my first course, I got the House Made Mozzarella with Pickled Rhubarb and Black Pepper. The mozzarella was really good with the black pepper and the slightly syrupy sauce it came with. The pickled rhubarb contrasted the subtlety of the mozzarella really well, but the strong pickle taste had to be muted with some bites of bread every now and then.

For my second course, I got the House Made Gravlax with Poached Eggs and a Toasted Brioche. I really loved this one. Normally I don't like dill, but the accent of dill on this dish was nice. It was certainly rich with the eggs and buttery brioche, but was not overwhelmingly so. I wouldn't have minded another slice of the gravlax, but in any case, this was a great brunch dish.

I got the passion fruit sunflower dessert that Gabe ordered last time, so I won't bother to repost the picture.

Overall, brunch was pretty good, but for some reason, I wasn't as wowed this time around as I was the first time I ate here. Our waitress seemed a bit aloof, and sometimes it took awhile for the busboys to get rid of our plates and give us new bread.

Now that I've been to Perry St twice for brunch, the next step is to have lunch at Jean-Georges...

Perry St
176 Perry St
New York, NY

Da Andrea

2008-06-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

When strolling in the West Village last week, Gabe and I decided to eat at Da Andrea on a whim. I had heard about this place on Chowhound, and I've seen it get compared to Bianca, a little Italian restaurant we went to way back in the day.

Da Andrea is very much a cute, little neighborhood restaurant with a very Italian rustic feel. From the moment I stepped in, I felt like I was transported back to my previous trips to Italy, minus the fact that I don't think anyone who worked there was actually Italian. But I was definitely feelin' the homey, rustic vibe.

After we decided what to order, we were given a basket of focaccia bread served with black olives in olive oil, which I enjoyed.

I got the Cavatelli with Fresh Salmon and Shrimp and in Light Pesto Sauce ($12.50). What I did not know when ordering this is that cavatelli is similar to gnocchi and that they look like mealworms. Aside from that, this was a really good dish. I was surprised by the amount of shrimp I got. There must have been around 10 well-sized shrimps that were cooked perfectly. I've never been a fan of fish in pasta, so I was actually happy that there wasn't much salmon in this pasta. The pesto sauce was slightly thicker than what I'm used to, but it was very good and not too heavy. Perhaps the only downside is that once the pasta started to cool towards the end, it started to taste very starchy which was sort of weird to me.

Gabe got the Squid Ink Tagliolini with Fresh Clams, Cherry Tomatoes, and White Wine ($12.50). I felt that this was the better pasta of the two. The pasta was perfectly fresh and al dente, there was a generous serving of clams, and the white wine sauce was quite tasty.

As you can see, the food here is very affordable. Our two pastas were the most expensive, believe it or not. I don't think I would go out of my way for this restaurant, especially since it's a bit far in the West Village, but it's definitely a great neighborhood restaurant that's affordable and reliable.

Da Andrea
557 Hudson St
New York, NY

Momofuku Ssam Bar

2008-06-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

After relentlessly trying to get reservations at Momofuku Ko, David Chang's newest endeavor, Vivian and I gave up. Well, sort of. I'm still dying to go there at some point before I move out of NYC in the next few weeks, but we gave up on trying to go there together. Maybe I'll have more luck if I try eating there by myself, while she can wait to eat there until the hype dies down, if it ever does. So we decided on Momofuku Ssam Bar, and at least they don't take reservations. Usually, I don't like popular places that don't take reservations, but Ko's reservation system frustrates me to no end. Perhaps I'll elaborate on that when and if I ever get to eat there.

We showed up at Ssam Bar around 5:45 on a Wednesday night. That's really early for me, but we were both hungry and were worried about a long wait later on anyways. While browsing the menu (it changes daily, so I stole one!), we noticed a note on the back mentioning a tasting menu, so we asked our server about it. It's a $70 6-8 course tasting menu where the chef picks anything out of the regular menu, typically one from each category. We asked if they would allow us to pick out a few things that we were more interested in, and they were totally cool with that, so we told our server that we definitely wanted to try the pork buns, sweetbreads, and the skate. Other than that, we were cool with whatever else they want to pick out for us.

We started off with an amuse bouche of crostini topped with uni. I LOVE LOVE LOVE uni. I can still taste the brininess of the uni I had a Yasuda. Unfortunately, Ssam's uni wasn't quite as briny, but it was still great. We were also given a soup spoon with a calamari spring salad, which was quite refreshing.

To get the ball rolling a little more, we were given the plate of Seasonal Pickles. This is when I realized that there's not really such a thing as tasting portions for the tasting menu here. The portion was huge, and it came with maybe around 10 different pickled fruits/vegetables. My personal favorites were the pickled pears, fennel, cauliflower, cucumber, and kimchi. I actually thought the pickles were just supposed to be on the side the whole time - totally didn't realize it was a course on its own until we were asked a few times if they wanted us to take the pickles away.

This was the Cured Hamachi with edamame, horseradish, and pea leaves. I'm not very good at processing what the servers tell us every time they come out with a new plate, but I can only assume that the crunchy black stuff was the horseradish. I'm not sure what the green sauce was, but it added a nice touch.

The Sliced Kona Kambachi with arugula and strawberries came out at the same time, and this is the point when we realized that we don't get the same foods. Hell yeah! This must be the awesomest thing about Ssam Bar's tasting menu. It's not even like this at Ko, so yay for that. It seems like they also intend for you to share each other's plates, so they gave us empty plates for the purpose of sharing as well. Viv and I pretty much just split every dish half and half, so we really got to sample quite a bit here. Anyways, I liked this raw dish as well. The funny thing is that I frequently make an arugula salad with strawberries (and other stuff...I'll post up the salad recipe eventually). If only I could add some kampachi on my salads frequently. The strawberries and fish combination was pleasantly surprising to me, and you know I enjoy new flavor combinations. Loved loved loved it.

This was the Satur Farms' Asparagus with miso butter and poached egg. I absolutely love asparagus, and while I normally don't like runny eggs, I will more than willingly eat raw or runny eggs at a place that I trust. I definitely liked this with the asparagus, but what made this dish superb was the miso butter. The flavors all blended so well. If only I can get some miso butter somewhere and make this myself.

The Roasted Mushroom Salad with pistachio, radish, and sunchokes was another really good vegetable dish. I wanna say that the sauce was a pistachio sauce, which blended with the mushrooms really well. There were two kinds of mushrooms, one being oyster mushrooms. I'm not sure what the other kind was.

This was the monster plate of Country Hams. They gave us two kinds, but unfortunately I honestly can't tell you which two out of the four they are because I wasn't listening carefully enough. In any case, they were both good. I'm not an except on hams, but clearly they were sliced thinly like prosciutto, serrano, and the like. It was also served with coffee gravy on the side, which I actually did not like at all, and this is coming from a coffee addict (who gets migraines if she doesn't drink her morning coffee). It just tasted bizarre to me even though it was exactly what you would expect coffee in that creamy, mayo-texture form to taste like. I wasn't sure how that was supposed to be eaten with the bread and ham. But as you can see, this was a really large portion of ham. As awesome as the ham was, I would've been perfectly satisfied with half the portion.

Alas, the pork buns! Now let me just be up front about this. I used to not eat pork in it's most natural, meaty form. Sausages have been among my most favorite things in life since I was a kid, and definitely bacon in the last few years. But I formerly did not do unprocessed or uncured pork. I know this is a huge shame for a Filipino Chicago native. Really really bad. I'm sorry. But it's ok because I started to like pork just this past Christmas when my cousin made an amazing braised pork thing. I still don't think I'll eat pork chops or lechon since I don't really like the natural taste and dryness of pork, but maybe I'll give it a shot again.

Anyways, the pork buns. They were really freakin' awesome. The pork belly melted in my mouth. While of course there was a good amount of fat, it was the kind that melted in my mouth. Chewy fat grosses me out to no end. I wish I could've had like 10 of these pork buns. I kinda wanna go back for lunch now just to eat these mini pita-like buns.

Next, we both got our fish courses. This one is the Old Bay Pan-Fried Skate with roasted fingerlings, pickled ramps, and spicy aioli. I really liked how the spicy aioli went with the skate. The only thing I didn't like was the pickled ramps, and you know I love ramps. I guess the pickled taste of it was just weird to me.

This was the Grilled Mahi Mahi with sunchokes, tomatoes, and pancetta. It was probably my least favorite dish of the night. I just thought the fish itself was a bit bland. On the bright side, there was pancetta. Yay for more fatty pork.

For the last savory course, we got the Grilled Veal Sweetbreads with pickled roasted chilies and lime. I had never really had sweetbreads (thymus glands...yes) before aside from a bite from the sweetbreads my dad always orders at Babbo, so I was pretty excited for this. The lime gave an extra layer of flavor which I actually thought was necessary. The char also gave it a smoky flavor which was nice. These sweetbreads were also richer and creamier than I thought they would be. I don't remember the ones at Babbo being quite as creamy. While I really enjoyed these sweetbreads, I feel like I would prefer them to be fried a la KFC popcorn chicken-like Momofuku Noodle Bar style. I think the crunchiness would balance the inner creaminess well. I'll definitely have to try that at some point.

The other 7th course was the Bev Eggleston's Pork Shoulder Steak with zucchini and buttermilk dressing. This was yet another standout of the night. I never thought buttermilk and pork would go together, but I was seriously wowed at how well the flavors went together. The only thing is that this serving was way too large for a tasting, but nothing wrong with more pork, right?

One of our dessert courses was the Blondie Pie with cashews. I really liked this. It was quite rich, sweet, and dense, but very well-flavored.

Last, but DEFINITELY not least, was the Rhubarb Shorkcake with Kendall Farm's Creme Fraiche. I've never had rhubarb before. I didn't even know it's sweet. This was ridiculously good. The homemade creme fraiche was amazing, and it balanced the sweetness of the rhubarb and shortcake very well. The crunchiness of the outside of the shortcake was really nice too. If you have a chance to go to Ssam Bar while rhubarbs are still in season, you must get this for dessert.

So that's the end of our meal at Momofuku Ssam Bar. It was truly truly awesome, and any adventurous eater (or pork lover) would be amazed by this place. Do yourself a favor, and try this place...especially if you, too, have given up on trying to get a reservation spot at Momofuku Ko.

Momofuku Ssam Bar
207 2nd Ave
New York, NY

Artichoke

2008-05-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

I finally paid a visit to the hyped-up new pizza joint, Artichoke on 14th St near 2nd Ave. I went around 3pm last week, and it seems like the place had just opened up because there weren't any pizzas ready yet. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I ordered a slice of the first pizza that came out, and I honestly didn't even know what it was going to be. I was so hungry that I didn't want to wait for anything else. But hey, who doesn't like surprises? Unfortunately, I'm not positive if this one truly delivered. Clearly, I didn't do my research because even while eating it, I didn't know what the slice was called. I'm not sure if it was the signature Artichoke pizza, artichoke&spinach, or just spinach. Because there was only one piece of artichoke on it.

In any case, the slice was actually good if you like a lot of cheese and creamy stuff. For $3, it was a good deal because the pizza was a massive size. I don't think I would get this again though. It was too rich and creamy for my taste...although it did taste good. Sorry, no picture of that pizza. It was extremely messy though, so there's not too much to look at anyways.

But that's the slice I got yesterday - just a plain round slice, and this was way more suited to my taste than the creamy Artichoke pizza. While it may not be for everyone, I loved it. And the thing is that it wasn't perfect, but it's pizza, and as weird as it may sound, it's one of the edible things in life that's sometimes better with it's flaws. I know that totally doesn't even make sense, so I'll stop right there.

The pizza was good, and at $2.50 for a plain slice, it's certainly worth it when all the other plain slices at generic pizza joints are the same price, if not more expensive. Artichoke doesn't use fresh mozzarella, but they don't use generic shredded cheese either. Whatever it is, it's good (considering it's not fresh mozzarella). There was also a generous amount of fresh basil which I like. The narrow half of the pizza was slightly soggy while the wider half was really crunchy, but it's ok because overall, it was a really good-tasting pizza.

Artichoke
14th St. btwn 1st and 2nd Ave

Jade Asian Restaurant

2008-05-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

Gabe and I decided to take it easy this month on the food spending, so we opted for dim sum in Flushing. After reading quite a bit about Jade Asian Restaurant, we went with that and were pleasantly surprised! I absolutely love Flushing for the low prices and high quality of food, and Jade Asian lived up to that. Perhaps the only difficult thing about dim sum is communication if you're not Chinese. The women pushing the carts at Jade Asian spoke/understood English better than others I've encountered at other places, but sometimes it was still difficult, especially when we didn't know what something was. Some photos:

Fish in Peppers: This was very oily, and I don't think this was fish in its most natural form. It was like borderline normal fish texture and fish balls. In any case, it was actually pretty good.

Shrimp wrapped in Fried Tofu: I really liked this one. The fried tofu was generously filled with shrimp. We were also given a soy-based sauce to dip it in which had a bit of sweetness to it.

After this, we got what we thought were going to be mini pork buns, but whatever was inside of the breading was yellow, sweet, and very good! I forgot to take a picture of this.

Beef wrapped in Rice Noodle: We also had the option of the more popular Shrimp wrapped in Rice Noodle, but since we just had shrimp in the previous dish, we opted for beef. It was equally good as the shrimp version that I always get at other dim sum places.

Fried Bread wrapped in Rice Noodle: The nice lady pushing the cart didn't really know what this was in English but could only tell us that it's good. Since it did look good, we went for it, and it turned out to be some kind of toasted or fried bread wrapped in rice noodle and topped with sesame seeds and a soy-based sauce. It was also served with oyster sauce on the side. Noodle-wrapped bread sounds weird, but this was actually really good. It seemed like a large portion compared to everything else.

Shumai: Not too much to say about this other than it was better than much of the Filipino-bought shumai I always ate growing up.

I think we both had room for more food but decided to stop since we didn't see too much else that we wanted. Since we got there around 2:30, I do wonder if there was more selection earlier in the day. There were things I had seen in other reviews that I wasn't encountering when we were there. In any case, we were pleasantly satisfied and full, but not full to the gills. Our bill only came out to $21.20 which seemed ridiculously cheap. If only Spanish tapas were that cheap.

Jade Asian Restaurant
136-28 39th Ave
Flushing, NY

Falafels y Waffles

2008-05-16T08:30:00.001-07:00

I tried a falafel from Maoz Vegetarian last night after reading some reviews on it. For $4.95, you get a pretty big falafel sandwich in either a wheat or white pita, and all the veggies you want. $5 is a bit on the expensive side for a falafel, especially after surviving on $2.50 falafels from Mamoun's while I was at NYU, but I actually think Maoz is worth it as long as you make the most if it. The thing that puts Maoz above other falafel joints is the salad bar where you can add on all the veggies you want. It comes with a pretty good selection too ranging from several different types of sauaces (I went with the cilantro sauce and what I think was garlic tahini) to all sorts of vegetables. I just went with chickpeas which had some sort of greenery on it, lettuce, and cucumbers. There's definitely a lot of other veggies (i.e. broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc etc etc), but I didn't want to overfill my falafel. You can do that if you want though. I definitely saw a guy stack a monster salad on top of the sandwich. Not sure how that held up, but good for him.

Overall, the falafel was pretty darn good, and I'd definitely get it again. It was a pretty decent size with maybe 5-6 falafel balls inside. Perhaps the one downfall is that they're on the dry side, but it doesn't fall apart or anything. The pita itself holds up well. The one thing I always hated about Mamoun's is that their pita bread sucked. It always broke for whatever reason. However, Maoz's pita is fluffy enough that it won't rip. I just wish the place had more seating. If there were seats available, I would've been able to add more veggies/sauce once i got closer to the bottom. Apparently, I wasn't good at evenly distributing everything.

Since I'm a heffer, I wanted to try the Wafels and Dinges truck on 14th btwn 3rd and 4th Ave. Everytime I pass by it, I always really want one. Well, last night, I finally gave in, and it was worth the extra calories. I opted for the $4 liege cinnamon royal (basically a waffle with cinnamon) topped with nutella for an extra $1. Talk about a sugar overload. Note that I used to live at the NYU dorm that the waffle truck parks in front of, and I'm pretty sure I would've gained a junior 15 had the truck been there 2 years ago.

Maoz Vegetarian
Union Sq West btwn 15th and 16th

Wafels&Dinges
Location varies depending on time/day

More Ramps!

2008-05-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

I sauteed the remaining ramps that I had bought last Wednesday because they were already so unfresh and close to soggy today. That probably contributed to the lack of taste. Oh well. I separated the bulbs from the leaves and cooked everything in a bit of olive oil and garlic. The raw ramps didn't smell like anything today, so that's probably associated with the fact that there wasn't too much taste in the bite. However, I have really bad breath right now, and I'm pretty sure it's not just from the garlic. I may take another trip to the Greenmarket this week. Hopefully there will still be some ramps left. If there are, I'll probably buy another bunch and try the eggs&ramps, potatoes&ramps, or simply sautee them in olive oil and garlic again.

Ramps!

2008-05-10T19:06:00.000-07:00

I honestly had never heard of ramps before until Gabe half-jokingly told me to go look for some. All of a sudden, it's all over food blogs, food news sites, Chowhound, seasonal menus, etc. So I was pretty intrigued as to what this unappetizingly-looking vegetable would taste like. Do note that ramps are only in season for a mere 1-2 months during mid-late spring (aka now). It's unfortunately quite fleeting. Another interesting fact is that Chicago, my hometown, is named after ramps due to its strong smell. From the sounds of it, local and notable chefs in Chicago make a big deal out of ramps. There's even a Rampfest every year, which for whatever reason, I find amusing. When I described this wild leek to my dad, he said that we actually have them in our backyard!

Anyways, I finally picked up a bunch of ramps for $3 at the Union Square Greenmarket last Wednesday. The lady selling them was offering 2 for 1 for the less fresh ones (meant to be cooked that night), but since we weren't planning on cooking them until last night or tomorrow (Sunday), I asked for the freshest ones. Let me tell you, ramps smell so strong. It has this onion-y, scallion-y, garlicky thing going on. I was honestly embarrassed to carry the bag around Barnes&Noble in fear that it would bother fellow browsers.

After looking up a bunch of recipes online, we settled with Batali's Spaghetti with Ramps recipe since it was simple enough. Even though neither Gabe nor I had ever tried ramps before, he thought that maybe the pasta would be good with guanciale. After coming across this recipe, his assumption was correct. So spaghetti with ramps and guanciale it was. As I've said before, I don't really follow recipes or measurements to a tee, so Gabe and I pretty much just went with the flow and did everything to taste. We probably used 1/3 of the bunch I had bought and 1/2 pound of guanciale.

In brief, I cooked the guanciale until the fat was rendered, removed the pieces from the pan and let them sit on some paper towels. Then, we cooked the ramps (bulbs separated from leaves, but you eat everything) in olive oil, red chili pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. We then mixed everything with approximately half a box of spaghetti, and topped it with bread crumbs. I think we used way too much guanciale this time. It would've been fine with 1/4 pound. We both felt pretty nasty after since it's so fatty, but hey, at least it tasted good. And we also should've used at least double the amount of ramps. We didn't realize how much the ramps would shrink when cooked. But overall, the pasta tasted better than I thought it would.

We accompanied our meal with a nice bottle of a 2006 Lilla, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. It's a light, everyday wine that you could drink with almost anything. It's easy to drink and not dry at all.

Since we still have a bunch of ramps left, I'll have to find another way to cook them. Maybe we'll try the eggs or simply sautee them in olive oil and garlic.

Hallo Berlin

2008-05-08T13:20:00.000-07:00

I like sausages. I really really do. As someone from Chicago, I take my sausages and hot dogs pretty seriously. (Note: I wanted to cry when Lisa was giving Polish sausages smack. You just don't do that in Chicago) So today I decided to try the Hallo Berlin cart on 54th and 5th ave for lunch today. I had been to meaning to try this famous cart for like two years now, but it's only out there on weekdays during lunch hours. Finally, I realized I should take advantage of my part-time job and go to Hallo Berlin on a day when I don't work.

I was expecting a long line, but it really wasn't that bad. I waited maybe for 15-20 minutes today, and it was well worth it. I went with the $6 Single Soul Man Mix with Bavarian-Lite Weisswurst (nicknamed "BMW"), which is a veal sausage. Since it comes with German fries, crusty bread, red&wine cabbage, and sauteed onions, I was expecting a sausage in bun with fries on the side, but I was so wrong. It turns out they slice and chop the sausage and mix it with the German fries (which seem to be similar to home fries), cabbage, and sauteed onions. The bread is served on the side. I was actually somewhat upset at first since I was hoping for a normal sandwich, but it's ok because it was still very delicious.

The sausage was very tasty and not too firm at all. I forgot to pay attention to how they cook the sausages, and since mine was chopped and mixed with all the other stuff, I couldn't really tell how it was made. Whether it was boiled or grilled, the texture and taste was good for me. The "crusty bread" was pretty darn good as well. Not only was it perfectly crusty on the outside and perfectly soft on in the inside, but it was actually warm, which is pretty impressive for a cart. I know they didn't just put the bread on the grill to warm it up a bit, so I'm pretty impressed that it seemed as though the bread just came out of the oven.

I think next time (and there definitely will be a next time before I peace out at the end of June), I'll get an actual sandwich. If I'm really hungry, I'll get one of the other specials (like the Dictator's Special).

Some photos:

Hallo Berlin (cart)
5th avenue and 54th St
New York, NY

Shake Shack

2008-05-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was in the Shake Shack line for an hour and a half. Was it worth it? Not really. The only reason why I braved that ungodly line was because I had a few hours to kill before attempting to catch the Pope mobile in the UES. Believe me, it's a tasty burger, and the cheese fries certainly hit the spot, but I don't think I'd wait that long ever again. The burger just isn't that out of the world amazing for it to be worth that long of a wait nor the $4.75 price tag for a single Shack burger which is pretty small for my standards. (Note: I'm more of a big burger kind of gal) I believe the Blue 9 burger (a double cheeseburger), which I had a week and a half later, is the same price. It might not be as quality, but it's not too far off from the hyped up Shack burger.

In terms of the custard, concretes, and shakes...they're also pricey. I'm from Chicago, which is where frozen custard originated from. Therefore, I grew up on better and cheaper custard than Shake Shack's. I personally have not tried their concretes or shakes, but I don't think I can cough up $5.50 for a shake that I know I won't be able to finish anyways.

Shake Shack is good, but I don't think I'd go out of my way for a meal there again. Maybe if I pass by, the line looks short, and I'm craving a burger, then I would because it does taste good. If you're in the area, you can check the cam on the website to see what the status of the line is.

P.S. Sorry, I've been lacking photos in the last few posts. As far as Shake Shack goes, I was too hungry by the time I got my food that I forgot to take pictures of the burger.

Prelude to my real Babbo review

2008-05-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

I've been to Babbo, Mario Batali's most famous and successful restaurant, five times already and still have no written a review on it. Considering the fact that it's relatively high end and a pain to get reservations, five times at a restaurant like this is a lot for me. I honestly can't even think of one fine dining spot in New York that I've been to more than once. So this is a testament to how much I love Babbo.

While I won't write up a full out review, I can promise it will eventually come. I just love this restaurant so much that I feel like it deserves eloquent words. Unfortunately, I need to think long and hard if I want to write eloquently.

Just to give a sneak peak, these are the things I've tried at Babbo and can comment on:

APPETIZERS
Grilled Octopus with "Borlotti Marinati" and Spicy Limoncello Vinaigrette
Warm Lamb's Tongue Vinaigrette with Chanterelles and a 3-minute Egg
Warm Tripe "alla Parmigiana"

PRIMI
Black Spaghetti with Rock Shrimp, Spicy Salami Calabrese, and Green Chiles
Mint Love Letters with Spicy Lamb Sausage
Beef Cheek Ravioli with Crushed Squab Liver and Black Truffles
Spaghettini with Spicy Budding Chives and One Pound Lobster
Chianti Stained Pappardelle with Wild Boar Ragu
Gargenelli with "Funghi Trifolati"

DOLCI
Chocolate Hazelnut Cake with Orange Sauce and Hazelnut Gelato
Pistachio and Chocolate Semifreddo
Assortment of Gelati and Sorbetti

So those are all the things that I've tried for myself. As you can see, I've tried a pretty good amount at Babbo, and maybe this is why I've been holding off on a review of this place. There's just too much to say! I may be able to comment on other things my dining partners (pretty much just my family and Gabe) have eaten as we all tend to have a bit of each other's food. But I do promise that at some point in the next couple of months (just being realistic), I'll have a real review with photos. Until then...

Westville East and Pinisi Bakery

2008-05-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

I've had a grilled cheese craving lately, and after reading this post, I was reminded of the fact that I had been meaning to go to Westville for a long time. On a side note, I'm actually temporarily moving out of NYC for the next 20 months by the end of June, so for the next two months, I'm committing myself to at least one foodie lunch per week. I've been really good about making cheap food (i.e. pasta, sandwiches, and instant ramen) and bringing leftovers to work about 4 days a week in order to allow myself to splurge on one lunch and dinner per week. Not like Westville is even a splurge. In fact, it is a cheap eats considering its popularity, neighborhood-feel, and quality. But I've honestly never been one for spending more than $6 on lunch.

ANYWAYS. Like I said before, I've been craving a good and serious grilled cheese. It was between Westville and Bouchon Bakery. Obviously, two very different places. However, I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend $13 on a grilled cheese at Bouchon Bakery. Plus, Yelp reviews didn't seem too favorable. So Westville it was, and I will never look back.

I decided on the East Village location for the sake of convenience and the fact that I wanted to go to Pinisi bakery afterwards. I sat down at a booth, perused the menu and blackboard specials, but knew anyways that I wanted the grilled cheese with fries. What's even better is that I had the option of getting bacon on my grilled cheese. I'm such a bacon fiend. You have no idea. It was only 50 cents extra to get a good portion of amazing crispy bacon. How could you not like that?

Unfortunately, as a solo diner, I tend to feel self-conscious about taking pictures, so I opted for my camera phone. Now, the picture doesn't seem to want to transfer from my phone to my laptop, so no photos. I'll do my best to describe. When I got my food 5 minutes after ordering, I was surprised by the mountain of french fries ($1 extra) they gave me. Like wow. That was a ton of fries. The cheese was literally goo-ing out of the perfectly grilled Portuguese bun, and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of bacon they gave me. It was so greasy, and I loved it. The sandwich was actually bigger than I thought it would be. Can I also tell you how amazing the fries are? I'm one for very crunchy fries, and I'm pretty sure every single fry on my plate (except for the ones I didn't finish since I wouldn't know) was so crispy and crunchy. I love that.

For a total of $9, it wasn't bad. It was $1 extra for a mountain of fries (like, bigger than supersize at McD's) and 50 cents extra for bacon. Not bad at all. The food just really hit the spot today.

After happily leaving Westville, I trekked my way over to Pinisi Bakery on East 4th. I had heard of the Ghost Chili cupcakes, so being the one who tends to like contrasting flavors (like chocolate+salt and chocolate+chili), I had to try this. It's definitely a really cute bakery. I'll have to try other things next time. I honestly didn't like this cupcake as much as I thought it would. I thought the chili was just gonna give a little kick a la Mexican hot chocolate, but the cupcake was actually SPICY. I definitely needed water with this one. It's definitely interesting and not bad, but I'm not sure if I'd really want to get it again. I trust that the Red Velvet will please me more.

Go to Westville for sure. As far as Pinisi goes, if you're curious to try the famed Ghost Chili cupcake, I warned you it's spicy. It's not bad, and it's worth a try, but just giving you a heads up.

Pinisi Bakery
128 E. 4th St
New York, NY

Westville East
173 Ave A
New York, NY

Marco & Pepe

2008-04-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I could not fathom the idea of good eats outside of Manhattan. When I moved to Astoria, I realized that there certainly is some amazing and authentic ethnic food in Queens (Note: I<3flushing). What was even more beyond comprehension was the fact that there is good food in Jersey City as well. Yeah, I said it. Jersey City. One of my girl friends wanted to do a girls brunch plus shopping in Jersey City. I was curious. We ended up going to Marco &Pepe, which is in the Grove St area. Just from stepping out of the PATH station, the neighborhood seemed pretty nice and even heading towards yuppie. I was really impressed with the brunch menu here. There were certainly some interesting items, such as rabbit sausage, Fish&Chips (the fish being monkfish), and what seems to be their famous macaroni&cheese.

I opted with the macaroni&cheese, and I'm pretty sure I never want to eat Kraft again. Their Mac&Cheese was made with aged gruyere, bacon, mushroom, marscapone, and aged goat cheese. I got their smaller portion for $10, but I was definitely pushing to finish it. This was definitely a mature take on mac&cheese, and I was seriously wowed by it. Every ingredient went so well together. It actually inspired me to make some fancy mac&cheese of my own, but I still have yet to do that. What I liked about it is that it wasn't so heavy. The cheese wasn't as thick as I thought it would be, so to me, it was almost more just like eating pasta for brunch.

I also got the Chicken&Truffle sausages as a side for $4. It came with 2 almost bratwurst sized sausages. Considering these aren't your average breakfast sausages, $4 is a pretty good deal. While it certainly smelled like truffles, I honestly couldn't taste it which was a bit of a disappointment. The sausage had too much spice that it covered the taste of the black truffles. I'm pretty sure the black specks I saw in there were black truffles, but I could be wrong. If I come back here (which I'd love to do for brunch), maybe I'll try the duck&pork sausage instead.

Not on the topic of food, but Jersey City also has a bunch of really cool boutiques, though some of them are pretty expensive. I think I have to do more shopping in Jersey City too. :)

Marco & Pepe
289 Grove St
Jersey City, NJ 07302

Yakitori Totto

2008-04-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

Having frequented Yakitori Taisho since my sophomore year of college, I recently became curious to try Yakitori Totto. Totto is the more expensive and slightly more upscale Izakaya restaurant that foodies and chowhounders swear by. For me, izakaya establishments equals cheap grub, so I was a bit hesitant to spend the money at Totto, unsure of whether or not it would truly be worth the price difference.

Since Carla and I were planning dinner, I suggested Yakitori Totto because I wanted to try some place new but also had a yakitori craving. So we went for it. From the moment we stepped in, it was clear that this place is on a different level than Taisho. In spite of the long wait for a table, it didn't have that hectic and gritty atmosphere that Taisho has.

When we finally got seated, we perused the extensive menu for quite a while. I really wish I could have tried literally everything on that menu. Everything sounds so good. The one downside is that there's a $20 minimum. If I didn't care to try different things, I could have just gotten a $10 dish. In any case, everything I wanted to try the most totaled up to $20, so it didn't end up mattering too much.

My main dish was the Negi Tori Don, which is charcoal-broiled organic chicken with scallions and raw egg over rice. I'm glad that I've become a more and more adventurous eater over the years, and especially in the last year. I even refused to eat wet yolk as a child, but now I'm going for the raw egg. This dish would not have been the same without that raw egg. I simply like the fact that it made the whole dish more moist. I was also surprised at the amount of scallions they put. While I thought it would just be a garnishing of scallions, I feel that the dish was at least 25% scallions. However, no complaints because it certainly add more taste.

I tried three yakitori skewers...

My first skewer was the Tsukune, which is a chicken meatball, but it looked more like a sausage than anything else. I only chose this because so many people have recommended this in reviews and such. Otherwise, it would have been an average, boring, and dry chicken meatball. When I ordered this, I chose the Taze sauce, which is a brown sauce. I'm honestly not sure what it's made out of. Our waitress asked me if I wanted it with a raw quail egg, so I said, "Sure." If that's what's good, then I'll go for it. A raw quail egg was given to me in a tiny saucer. It didn't even really add any taste to the meatball (which I was supposed to dip into the egg), but again, it just made it more moist which I liked a lot.

Secondly, I got Bonchiri (left skewer), which is chicken tails. Yes, chicken tails. I didn't even know chickens have tails, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this one. Turns out, it's quite similar to chicken skin and fat, except better. There was more of a meatier texture, which you wouldn't expect from a chicken tail. As odd as chicken tails sound, this was definitely my favorite skewer out of the three I had. I only wish it were a bigger portion.

Lastly, I had Kawa (right skewer), which is chicken skin. It's always a popular item at any izakaya place, and since I always get it at Taisho, I was curious to see how the one at Totto compares. Sure enough, it was better and worth the extra 75 cents. It was not chewy and very easy to bite. There was also a bit more of a crunch without it being overly crispy nor burnt.

For dessert, I ordered the green tea ice cream which came with two small scoops. A bit pricey at $5 for a small portion, but it may have been the best green tea ice cream I've ever tried. It was gummier than most ice creams, hinting that it may be made in-house. Carla ordered the dessert special of the day which was rice cake served with red bean soup. I've never been much of a red bean fan, but I must say that this was a very delightful soup. Very tasty and slightly sweet.

There's no doubt that Yakitori Totto is on a higher level than Yakitori Taisho. The quality of food and friendly service is much higher, but I gotta say that I'm still and always will be a Taisho fan. If I feel like splurging a little on my izakaya fare, I'll certainly come to Yakitori Totto for more chicken tails.

Yakitori Totto
55th st, btwn 8th ave and Broadway

Perry St

2008-04-20T17:25:00.000-07:00

Gabe and I had brunch reservations for Perry St yesterday, and it turned out to be a wonderful meal! It's located way deep in the West Village - the area that people rarely venture out to just because it's so far out west. Even though it has a Perry St address, the entrance is located on the West Side Highway. In any case, it's in such a beautiful, quaint neighborhood with cobblestone streets and very few pedestrians and cars. It was perfect for such a beautiful spring day.

For those who don't know, Perry St has a $24 lunch prix fixe - 2 plates and dessert. The awesome thing is that they also offer it on the weekends, so the brunch menu includes a few normal brunch items such as housemade gravlax and pancakes. Being Jean-Georges second most upscale restaurant in NYC, a $24 prix fixe must be one of the very best deals in the city, considering the amazing quality of food and the Jean-Georges name.

Decor-wise, it's very minimalistic. Everything was white, and there were huge open windows. Even though it sort of has a sterile atmosphere, the decor and huge windows was actually really nice for a warm and sunny day. I was really surprised that Perry St wasn't busy. I guess it's still pretty under the radar. For such an affordable and high quality 3-course meal, I'm surprised not many people are flocking there for weekend brunch. However, I really liked it. The quiet and relaxed atmosphere was a very ideal contrast to the usual brunch spots in the city.

We started off with an amuse-bouche of spring pea soup with parmesan foam. I really loved this amuse. This had a really subtle and surprisingly refreshing taste to it. The only downside is that it was just an amuse. I would've happily had a full portion of that.

Sorry for an un-rotated picture. It's upright on my computer, but for some reason, it uploads like this. Anyways, Perry St has several homemade sodas, all incorporating interesting ingredient combinations. I chose the Passion-Chili soda because I absolutely loved passion fruit and was curious to see how the chili was used in this drink. This is a very refreshing soda which was perfect for the warm spring day. There wasn't any chili in the actual drink. I'm thinking it was infused into the passion fruit mix, so it gave it a very subtle kick. I highly recommend this drink, and I'm glad I chose this instead of a hard-to-beat $5 glass of wine (or $20 bottle). Gabe chose the Cherry-Yuzu soda, which I got to try. This was not overwhelmingly cherry-flavored, and it also had a subtle and refreshing taste to it.

With the many options of plates we could choose, I decided to settle with the Arctic Char Sashimi with lemon, olive oil, and crispy skin as my first course. The sashimi was very fresh, and the lemon and olive oil sauce was both subtle and refreshing (as everything at Perry St seems to be at this point). Surprisingly, the strong taste and crunchiness of the crispy skin contrasted perfectly with the rest of the components of this dish.

Gabe chose the Red Snapper poached in chili oil, with radish salad. As you can see, this is a really pretty dish with vibrant colors. It was also a pretty generous portion. The chili oil of course gives it an Asian flavor without the spiciness or hotness. It was very distinctly "chili" yet was not overwhelming on the palate at all. This was probably the standout of all the dishes we got to try. Highly recommended.

Since I felt like eating something meatier and heartier for my second plate, I decided to get the Grilled Hanger Steak with herbal spinach and liquid gruyere. The steak alone was quite tasty. As much as I love cheese, I was afraid that the liquid gruyere would be a rich creamy sauce, which would have been weird with steak, but it was quite the opposite. It was actually dilute and essentially gave the steak an added subtle taste and moistness. While I liked the spinach, I wasn't really a fan of the thinly sliced jalapenos that came with it. For me, it was sort of an odd ingredient to add to this dish, but it did not taste bad either.

Sorry once again for a picture that blogger won't upload correctly. Gabe chose the Roasted Chicken Sandwich with chipotle-lime mayo and avocado. This is also came with a serving of kettle chips which seemed to have been sprinkled with a little bit of parmesan cheese and, believe it or not, sugar. It tasted really good - a nice combination of sweet and salty in one bite. The sandwich itself was wonderful. The chicken alone was very tasty, which is something you usually don't find in chicken sandwiches. While the chipotle-lime mayo was a little spicy, it tasted good and complimented the sandwich very well. It's too bad we can't get chicken sandwiches this good everyday.

There were only two choices for dessert, so I went with the Chocolate Pudding with "crushed violets," a light cream, and a bit of chocolate cake. Each component was layered. This was a more mature take on your average chocolate pudding. The crushed violets reminded me of pop rocks without the popping effect.
Gabe got "The Sunflower" which was a a vanilla creme (I think?) with meringue, mangoes, and kiwis. I actually preferred his dessert over mine (we basically shared desserts). It was lighter in taste, and I liked the crunchiness of the meringue.

I can't recommend the Perry St lunch enough. When the dinner entrees range from $24-46, you simply cannot beat a $24 3-course lunch that is offered all year round and 7 days a week. Not only that, but you have over a dozen plates to choose from as opposed to only 3 options per course. It makes me wonder why people bother going to mediocre restaurants during Restaurant Week when you can enjoy this Jean-Georges restaurant deal any day of the year.

Perry St
176 Perry St
New York, NY

Joe's Shanghai

2008-04-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

Joe's Shanghai is famous for their xio long bao, also know as soup dumplings, so you can't make a trip here without ordering some of those. I've been to the location in Manhattan's Chinatown as well as the one in Flushing, Queens. I MUCH prefer the location in Flushing. While it is far, I find the quality, value, and portions to be significantly better. This location also isn't clogged with tourists who don't really know why they're there to begin with, aside from the fact that it's perhaps the most famous Shanghainese restaurant in the city.

These are the famous soup dumplings that Joe's attributes its fame to, and for good reason. I've honestly never tried soup dumplings anywhere else, so I can't compare, but as far as I know, these are the best in the city. If there's better, then I'd be happy to hear where I can get them. My technique is to nibble a tiny bite, slurp some of the MSG-filled broth, then eat the rest of the dumpling in one bite while leaving some of the broth in there. The broth is perfectly flavorful. What an explosion in my mouth. The only thing to watch out for is that you don't spill any of the broth because what a waste that would be.

I wish I knew the exact name of this dish, but it's not on the menu online since it's featured on the Chef's Daily Specials menu. Basically, these were crispy fried prawns (head on) with some peppers and preserved egg yolk. I wasn't really sure of what to expect from the preserved egg yolk, but WOW. It added another flavor and texture to the battered prawns. The texture was almost along the lines of cream cheese, but not quite as creamy. Even though this dish may be pretty atypical of what most people would order at a Chinese restaurant, this is perhaps the most memorable dish I've had at any Chinese place. Definitely order this if you ever make it out to Joe's Shanghai. It's only about $12 for 15 whole prawns on skewers. I'm pretty sure this would be way more expensive in Manhattan, if they even serve this there.

This doesn't look like much, but this is the Braised Pork Shoulder, which I loved as well. I've actually never been a fan of pork in it's most natural form. (Meaning, I'm all about the sausages, but you won't see me eating pork chops or lechon) There was such a ridiculous amount of meat in this dish though that it was basically impossible to finish. It was certainly swimming in a lot of sauce (not sure what kind), but the taste was not overwhelming. Since I don't like the natural taste of pork, a lot of sauce worked for me. The meat was also so tender. It really just fell off of bone. This was a heaping portion of the Pan-Fried Noodles with Beef. Some people don't like the really thick noodles. I do as long as it's pan-fried, so I really liked this dish. As long as you like the thick noodles, then get this because it's pretty darn good.

These are among my favorite dishes at Joe's. If you can, go to the one in Flushing. If not, then deal with the tourists and the more cramped one in Manhattan. I haven't been to the midtown location, but I think it's safe to say don't go there.

Joe's Shanghai
136-21 37th Avenue
Flushing, New York 11354

BZ Grill

2008-03-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

I decided to order deliver from BZ Grill in Astoria last week. Overall, everything was really good, and the platter portions are huge. Delivery came within half an hour which was pretty quick considering the size of the order.

I decided on the Seftalia sandwich, which is a Cypriot specialty. The meat is made out of minced lamb and stuffed with mint. It was very tasty, and there was almost a refreshing quality to it, perhaps due to the mint.

I also ordered a side of grilled haloumi which is a salty Greek cheese. We loved this appetizer, and it was especially good with squeezed lemon, which balanced the saltiness of the cheese. I recommend this as an appetizer, but it's definitely best eaten immediately since it gets hard as it cools.

Our other orders included the Mix Grill for two which really came with a bit of everything, plus rice and pita bread. It was $14.95, and still a ton of food for two people. I may have to just order that for myself sometime and make three meals out of it.

Perhaps due to the number of items we ordered, they gave us a TON of pita bread which was great. They also gave us little containers of what seemed to have been a goat cheese spread. I really enjoyed this with the pita bread, but of course you have to like goat cheese.

BZ Grill really does have great Greek grilled foods - your typical Greek pita sandwiches and grill platters. Out of the places I've tried in Astoria, this is my favorite. It's not in the most convenient location for most Astorians, but based on my past experiences, they have very reliable delivery.

BZ Grill
27-02 Astoria Blvd
Astoria, NY
718-932-7858

Carlos' Restaurant

2008-03-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

Gabe and I were given a $200 gift certificate to Carlos' Restaurant in Highland Park, IL. This is a very well-regarded restaurant in Chicago, focusing on contemporary French cuisine. It even has a 29 in Zagat which is the highest rating I've seen so far. Since we got such a generous gift certificate courtesy of some family friends, we decided to go with the Degustation menu. There was one focusing on meat&game and another focusing on fish&shellfish. Each were $100 which was pretty good considering the level of quality and the fact that we got to sample 6 courses each.

Here's the Meat and Degustation Menu which Gabe ordered:

Each of us got a complimentary amuse bouche. This was a smoke salmon wrapped quail egg topped with some kind of caviar and dizzled with basil oil. This was a surprisingly subtle amuse which definitely got our palates going!

To the right is the Grilled California Squab Breast with a Tart of Spinach, and Mushrooms with a Natural Au Jus. Gabe said this was his favorite dish from the Degustation. I tried it, and squab was very tasty.

This was the Pan Seared Duck and Duck Confit with Hudson Valley Foie Gras, Baby Carrots and a Grape Reduction. I finally tried foie gras for the first time. For those of you who don't know, foie gras is actually banned in Chicago, so since Carlos is in Highland Park, it's one of the few places in the greaterland area that can legally serve foie gras. Next time I come back to this restaurant, I must get the foie gras appetizer if I go a la carte.

This was the Grilled Lamb Chop with Ox-Tail Ravioli, Baby Spinach and a Caramelized Shallot and Sherry Gastrique.

This was the Cocoa Crusted New Zealand Venison with Caramelized Fennel, Root Vegetables and a Cherry Reduction. Gabe really liked this dish and said he could taste the subtlties of the cocoa.

This was the last meat/game course. It was Grilled Ribeye with Butter Poached Fingerling Potatoes, Roasted Cauliflower and a Cabernet-Rosemary Reduction. Unfortunately, this may have been his least favorite. Of course, it was still good, but perhaps less inspiring than all the other meat dishes.

I went with the Fish and Shellfish Degustation Menu:

We both received the same amuse, so I won't bother to post another photo of that.

This was my first course which was Scottish Smoked Salmon and Butter Poached Fingerling Potato Terrine with a Caviar and Vodka Cream Reduction. This was my least favorite dish. It was a tad bland for my taste. It honestly seemed more of a potato dish than a salmon dish. It was definitely not bad, and perhaps it was good to start light, but this is probably the one dish that stood out the least in my mind.

This was the Jumbo Lump Crab Meat with Kiwi, Mango and a Sunchoke Puree and BY FAR my favorite dish of the evening. I've never been much of a crab person, but the taste of this dish was surprisingly subtle. The puree was perfect as well, as it gave the crab a subtle sweet taste.

This was the Chervil and Black Truffle Crusted Ahi Tuna with Roasted Kobacha Squash and a Truffle-Thyme Reduction. This dish was on the larger side, especially for a degustation. I would've been happy with just one piece, but instead they gave two. I couldn't really taste much of the black truffle, but I really liked the reduction. The tuna itself was cooked perfectly for me.

This was the Pan Seared Jumbo Prawn with Parsnip Custard and a Caramelized Popcorn Reduction, which was another dish that I wasn't expecting much from and ended up being one of my favorites. The prawn was tender, and the reduction was perfect.

My final fish dish was Red Snapper with Braised Kale, Salsify Puree and a Stone Ground Mustard Beurre Blanc, which was incredible and a wonderful last dish. The fish was incredibly fresh, tender, and cooked to perfection. Unfortunately, I was so stuffed by the time I got this dish that I only managed a few bites from it. Gabe was nice enough to finish it off for me, and he, too, agreed it was one of the best dishes out of everything.

We each received a Symphony of Desserts. As other reviewers have mentioned, dessert at Carlos' Restaurant is nothing to write home about, but I always love dessert, so I can't complain too much. I really liked the 4 sauces it came with, which were painted on the plate. My favorite out of the trio was the banana-chocolate cake in the middle. The almond tuille with the pistachio ice cream was really good too.

So that ends our meal at Carlos' Restaurant. One flaw was that the waiter seemed to have forgotten to give us the Petit Fours. We did not realize this until we got home and looked at the menu again. Since it's the most insignificant part of the meal and is a complimentary thing that comes with the check, we didn't really care that our waiter forgot. Other than this, service was wonderful and perhaps the best I've experienced. There were hardly any customers, as it was a weeknight in the suburbs, so a lot of attention was paid to us. However, Carlos' Restaurant is famed for its incredible service, no matter how busy it gets. Carlos himself even greeted us a couple of times throughout our meal and made sure we were enjoying ourselves. I was also charmed by the fact that every hot dish came with a, "1, 2, 3 ta-da." Perhaps a bit dramatic, but it was cute, and the presentation of each dish was really good, so it sort of made sense. The waiter was also nice enough to explain each dish as it came out, so that we wouldn't forget what we were eating.

Overall, this is a really wonderful restaurant. I'd still like to know why it got a 29 in Zagat, but there's no doubt that it should be rated well as everything about this restaurant was of high quality.

Carlos' Restaurant
429 Temple
Highland Park, IL 60035
Phone: 847 432 0770

Mussels Mariniere

2008-03-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

For one of our nights in Chicago, we just decided to cook at my house. We made that pasta which I wrote about in one of my earlier posts which you can find under the "recipes" tag. People said that it was better than the last time I made it, so that's good! Gabe and I made mussels mariniere which we've made in the past. It's seriously one of the easiest things to make.

My mom bought 5 pounds of live mussels at Costco. We didn't really do any measurements, but here's what we did:

1. Heat 4tbs of butter in a large saucepan
2. Add a bunch of minced garlic (maybe 6-8 cloves worth?)
3. Add a bunch of chopped shallots (maybe 1-2 hands full?)
4. Add about 2 cups of dry white wine (we may have added more than that)
5. Once the alcohol is cooked off, add the mussels, and cover the pan
6. Mix once in awhile so all the mussels are getting some sauce and heat
7. It's finished once the shells are all open (this should only take 5 minutes or so)!
8. Add chopped fresh parsley to garnish

This was definitely a big hit with my family/relatives. 5 pounds of mussels only cost $9 at Costco. Mussels are so cheap, so this is something I have to make more often. If only we had some frites to go with it.

Portillo's

2008-03-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

The second half of our quintessential Chicago eats was going to Portillo's so Gabe could try his first ever Italian beef sandwich. For those who don't know, this is something unique to only Chicago. To my knowledge, you can't find an Italian beef sandwich anywhere outside of Chicago. It's a sandwich served on Italian bread. The beef comes from the sirloin butt, and it's roasted in a broth with garlic, oregano, and other spices until medium/medium rare. It is then thinly sliced and lightly soaked in the broth it was cooked in. Finally, the sandwich is topped with Chicago-style giardiniera peppers.

The easiest way to describe a Chicago Italian beef sandwich is simply to say that it's a Philly cheesesteak without the cheese, however based on the way it's cooked, you can already tell that the beef is a bit different, as it is tastier from the spices it is cooked in.

Even though Portillo's might not have the best Italian beef sandwich, it is a pretty reliable chain serving Chicago hot dogs, sandwiches, and foods of that nature. But people do say that their Italian beef sandwich is pretty good and not a bad place to pick one up for the first time. Portillo's is a place I grew up on, but I actually never had the famed Italian beef sandwich. The Italian sausage was more of my thing.

Gabe said that the Italian beef sandwich was very tasty and not dripping wet. From what I saw, they put a ton of Italian beef too. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of this, but I'm sure you can imagine how it looks.

I ordered the Italian sausage sandwich served with sweet peppers. The sausage is spicy, but to the level I like best. For a really good Italian beef sandwich or sausage, go to Portillo's!

Portillo's
Locations all across the Chicagoland area

Lou Malnati's

2008-03-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

I went back to Chicago for a long weekend and ate a ton of good food. Since I was taking Gabe around, we had to go for some real Chicago deep dish pizza. First of all, the Uno's Chicago Grill chain around the U.S. is really awful compared to the real family-owned Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due's. I mean really awful. Basically, you can't find real deep dish pizza in NY.

In Chicago, a lot of people like to debate who has the best deep dish pizza. Pizzeria Uno/Due, Lou Malnati's, Gino's East, Pizano, and Giordano's are some of the big names. Lou Malnati's is my personal favorite, though I have to admit that I've never had Gino's, Pizano, or Giordano's before. I just prefer the crust/dough at Lou Malnati's, and that's why it's my favorite deep dish pizza. Since it's my favorite, we took Gabe to the original Lou Malnati's in Lincolnwood which is a suburb right outside Chicago proper.

We started off with the Calamari Fritta as an appetizer. This was surprisingly very good, perhaps one of the better calamari appetizers I've ever had. It was ridiculously tender - definitely the least chewy calamari ever. This is very surprising for a pizza joint in the midwest. So if you happen to go to Lou Malnati's in Chicago, this is what I recommend if you want an appetizer.

We got a large (14") deep dish pizza with sausage and mushrooms. Between the 3 of us, we only ate half the pizza. I was full after only one slice. Like I mentioned earlier, Malnati's crust is what stands out to me, and that's why I like it more than other places. It's buttery and flaky, but at the perfect level. It's not to the point where it's greasy. Overall, it just has a really great flavor. It stays crispy and crunchy even with all the sauce, cheese, and toppings on top of it. This is important because a really soggy deep dish pizza is disgusting. They also have actual chunks of tomato in their sauce. This made the pizza a little watery on top, but it wasn't to the point of it being gross or soggy at all.

I'll be honest and say that I don't even really love deep dish pizza, but I have to admit that Lou Malnati's is really good. If anyone is visiting Chicago and wants to try real deep dish pizza (and I do think it's worth it to try at least once even if you don't think you'll like the heaviness of it), this is the place I would recommend.

Lou Malnati's

6649 North Lincoln Ave

Lincolnwood, IL 60712

Ramen Joints

2008-02-25T08:48:00.000-08:00

Whether instant or for real, I love ramen. Of course, real ramen is much different and much better than the instant kinds you make at home. I've tried a few ramen joints here in NYC, so here's a bit of comparing and contrasting.

Rai Rai Ken - ok, I actually don't remember too much from this place because it was so long ago and probably the first time I had a real bowl of fresh ramen in the city. I think this place gets mixed reviews. At the time, I know I liked it, but I think I would have to try it again in order to give a real review of this place.

Minca - The broth for the shoyu ramen is definitely tasty, but it was a tad salty and heavy for my taste. However, the braised pork basically melted in my mouth. Out of all the places I've been to, this one had the best pork. They had really good gyoza.

Naruto Ramen - This place is pretty average, but it's nice to see a ramen joint in the UES. The first time I had it, I thought the Naruto Ramen broth was slightly on the bland side, especially compared to Minca. The second time I had it, which was a few days ago, the broth was much more flavorful. My one complaint about the pork is that the pieces they give you are a bit on the smaller side. The noodles are also somewhat too firm. I personally don't care about that too much. Better to be firm than soggy. Also, the egg yolk in the egg is very undercooked when they put it in the bowl, but the hotness of the broth cooks it a bit. I actually liked that quite a bit.

Menchanko-Tei - This is by far my favorite ramen joint. It doesn't have the ramen joint atmosphere where everyone just sits at the bar. It's more of a normal sit-down restaurant. The good thing is that they have a lot of variety, and you can actually order everything in half portions if you wish, which is nice if you aren't too hungry or would like to eat something else to accompany the ramen. The broth in the ramen was perfect - not too salty, not too heavy, and not too light/bland. This is the place I would recommend the most for a great bowl of ramen.

Katz's Deli

2008-02-19T16:25:00.001-08:00

We went to Katz's Deli on a whim over the weekend since we were in the neighborhood. You just can't go wrong with the pastrami sandwich there. In spite of the hectic and sometimes questionable service, the meal is always so worth it.
The quintessential pastrami sandwich of NYC. I haven't had a pastrami sandwich at other places like Carnegie Deli or 2nd Avenue Deli, so I can't compare, but most people would say that Katz's is the best, and I totally believe that. If you haven't tried it yet, you MUST.

We also wanted to try something new, so we split a Knoblewurst sandwich. This is a garlic sausage. Not knowing much about it, I thought it would be served on a sausage bun, but it's actually cut up and served on rye as you can see in the photo. Normally, I really don't like mustard, but I put it on this sandwich, and I definitely think it tasted much better with mustard. I would highly recommend this sandwich as well - very tasty, and at least it's something different.

While Katz's Deli is a definite tourist attraction, it's one of the few in the city that's actually worth going to for us New Yorkers.

Katz's Deli
205 E. Houston St.

La Nacional

2008-02-15T18:04:00.000-08:00

Instead of doing a pricey and super romantic dinner, Gabe and I decided to be low-key for Valentine's Day. We decided to go to La Nacional, a very under the radar Spanish restaurant that has traditionally been a gathering place for Spanish expats. We weren't expecting a romantic atmosphere or a place with awesome service. We just wanted good, traditional Spanish food.

The entrance is very unassuming and easy to miss. Once you step in, it's sort of confusing. Go there, and you'll see what I mean. In all honesty, the atmosphere isn't very inviting, but at the same time, I didn't care because I actually felt like I had stepped back into Spain. Madrid has a very soft spot in my heart because I spent a summer there, and La Nacional literally felt like a typical Spanish restaurant/tapas bar in Spain. People are just chillin' there, eating, drinking, or just sitting there watching soccer on tv. Because of the fact that I appreciate anything that makes me feel like I've gone back to Spain, I actually loved the fact that the atmosphere at La Nacional was what it was.

We were given bread, olive oil, and olives to start. Out of the many Spanish restaurants I've been to in NY, this was the only one that gave complimentary olives. We also ordered a small pitcher of Sangria - this was by far the best sangria I've had in the States. It wasn't watered down, not too fruity, not too strong, and not too much ice and fruit pieces. A small pitcher ($18) served 6 glasses which was pretty good.
We started with the Sardinas Plancha. Just the right amount of crispiness and saltiness. This was something we haven't had at a Spanish restaurant before, so it was a nice change from the things we tend to order again and again. The Sardinas were actually more like what I ate when in Greece. This was definitely a good choice though, and pretty well priced at $8 for 3 decently sized sardines.

Next we were given the Gambas al Ajillo ($9). I actually sort of liked this better than all the other ones I've had elsewhere because of the sauce it came in. Sure it didn't come in a clay bowl with the olive oil still sizzling, but the sauce was so perfect for dipping the bread in. I would highly recommend this as well.
Finally we got what we were wanting the most - Paella de la Casa ($18/person). This was a very well-sized portion for two people, and as tradition, it came in a big paella pan. The rice was perfectly al dente and not too dry nor too wet. It came with clams, chicken, shrimp, and mussels. The taste was perfect. It was by far the best paella I've had in the city (Sala's version is on par), and definitely as good if not better than anything I had while in Spain. Unless all you want is tapas, you can't go to La Nacional without some of their paella.

We were so full that we decided not to get dessert, however our waitress gave us a complimentary glass of dessert wine each! I'm all for anything gratis, and this was definitely a nice treat. I'm not sure if they always do that or if she gave it to us because it was Valentine's Day and we didn't order dessert. But hey, it tasted good, and it was a nice ending to our meal. In fact, it was ideal because after tapas and paella, sometimes you just can't eat anything else after that, yet you want that sweet taste in your mouth. So the free dessert wine was a plus.

If you want traditional Spanish food in a traditional Spanish atmosphere, go to La Nacional!

14th Street, btwn 7th and 8th ave.

Pamplona

2008-02-12T21:06:00.001-08:00

I went to Pamplona for lunch with a friend today. It's a Spanish restaurant on 28th st between Park and Madison - a bit of a weird location, but at least it's close to my work! We decided to opt out of entrees and just get tapas.

1) Bunuelos de Queso - Iberico cheese, Manchego cheese, and Cider fritters. Each little bunuelo (fried ball) had a mixture of the three inside. I ALWAYS love fried goat cheese whenever i have tapas at other places, so this was a nice alternative and probably one of my favorite tapas at Pamplona. I really liked the cider that was mixed in inside.

2) Pincho de Chorizo y Gambas - the order came with 2 pinchos - one skewer over toast with goat cheese. I really liked this tapa/pincho as well, not only because I like all of the ingredients, but just the fact that it was on toast with a goat cheese spread. It really made the dish more tasty and interesting.

3) Patatas Bravas - unlike most things on Pamplona's menu, this is perhaps the most traditional/typical tapa ever. in spite of that, some places make really awesome patatas bravas. unforunately, there wasn't anything too notable about Pamplona's. it wasn't as crispy or tasty as the patatas bravas I've had at other places.

4) Bocadillo de Jamon - with Jamon Serrano and Iberico cheese. unlike bocadillos I've had before, this one used something more resemblant of Italian white bread with no crust. It was like the bread 'ino uses for their paninis. So this bocadillo was slightly different from what I've always had, but it was so good - very tasty, crispy, the bread almost dripping with olive oil which I do like. I just wish it were a bigger portion for the $9 price tag.

5) Bocadillo de Conejo - the same thing as above except with rabbit and crema de cabra. I loved this bocadillo too. It was the first time I've really ever had rabbit. The thought weirded me out at first, but rabbit just tastes pretty similar to chicken. While this bocadillo was more interesting in terms of ingredients, I think I still preferred the taste of the Bocadillo de Jamon.

6) Churros con chocolate - for whatever reason, not too many Spanish restaurants in the city serve this typical dessert. This one was pretty good. Nowhere as good as the ones I've had in Madrid, but it was good enough. I liked the melted Valhrona chocolate too.

Overall, this is a pretty good Spanish restaurant. It's not as traditional or Spanish in ambiance/atmosphere as all the other Spanish restaurants I've been to. It had a more modern decor. Since I spent a summer in Spain, a Spanish restaurant in NYC that actually has Spanish ambiance makes a big difference to me. Such restaurants would be Las Ramblas and Tia Pol, as their waiters and waitresses seem to be either Spanish born and raised or people who've spent a lot of time in Spain. Pamplona is certainly worth a try though. I wouldn't mind coming back again to try the chorizo with suckling pig hamburguesa and the paella.

Taverna Kyclades

2008-01-30T10:30:00.000-08:00

I unfortunately don't go out to eat too much in my neighborhood of Astoria, but a few nights ago, I went to Taverna Kyclades, a Greek seafood restaurant in Astoria.

We were greeted by a very warm loaf of Italian sesame bread sitting on olive oil and topped with what was probably oregano or Italian seasoning. I don't know what it was, but that was one of the best complimentary breads I've had. My friend got stuffed clams (stuffed with crab meat) as an appetizer. It came with about 10 stuffed clams for $10.95. Not bad.

I decided to order the broiled scallops upon recommendation. I chose the rice as my side. The order came with 20-24 medium-large scallops. It was a very generous portion. Greek seafood is almost always just cooked in olive oil/butter, lemon, and salt. The scallops were so soft and tender. I was very pleased, and it wasn't a bad deal for $20. I'm not sure where else in NYC I can just get a huge plate for 20+ scallops for that much.

One of my friends got the grilled calamari ($12.95) as her entree. It seemed a bit chewy, but it had that charred grilled taste that I really like, so it wasn't bad. My other friend got the grilled salmon steak which came with two huge steaks. She didn't even finish the smaller steak (which was about half the size of the big one). Again, for $16.50, that's not a bad deal at all. It would probably last at least 3 meals, depending on if you eat it with some carbs or not. Clearly, we didn't realize that these entrees are meant to be shared. At least we all had leftovers for the next day.

Finally, dinner came with complimentary Greek pudding. It was a bit too sweet for my taste, but I was able to eat half of it. It was actually a rather large portion considering it was free.

It may be worth the trip to Astoria to go to Taverna Kyclades because I highly doubt you can get such good Greek-style seafood at this value in Manhattan.

Sushi Yasuda

2008-01-23T18:02:00.000-08:00

I had been planning to take Gabe to Sushi Yasuda for his 24th birthday for awhile now. It's a REALLY big step up from our regular monthly dinner outings, pretty much in terms of cost. But after doing a lot of research on this place (by reading a ridiculous amount of reviews on Chowhound, blogs, etc), I honestly couldn't have imagined a better place to take him.

Sushi Yasuda is really in a class of its own. Of course, it's no Masa, and it's actually cheaper than some other high end sushi restaurants in the city, but not only is Sushi Yasuda claimed to have the freshest fish around, it has exceptional variety and provides such a unique culinary experience. Since neither of us have ever had quality sushi before, I not only wanted us to finally eat fresh, high quality sushi, but I wanted to give us the most traditional and unique experience possible. So finally, after much research and debate over whether or not I should make the jump to such high end dining, I made reservations to sit at the sushi bar in front of Chef Yasuda himself.

Here, you can either sit at the table and order a la carte or you can get the true experience by sitting at the sushi bar in front of a sushi chef, which is the most traditional way of eating at a sushi restaurant. There are actually very affordable sushi box sets you can order (as cheap as $20 for 5 sushi pieces and a roll), but I feel as though nothing comes close to doing omakase, which is when you allow the sushi to pick every piece of sushi you eat, in whatever progression he chooses. Not to mention, I have no doubts that the older fish goes towards those sushi boxes while the freshest fish possible is given to the hands of the sushi chefs at the bar.

We were greeted by a warm and friendly atmosphere. I was intimidated prior to arriving, thinking it would be an uptight place due to such a high reputation and expensive food, but the staff was so kind and welcoming, and the minimalist decor gave a warm and serene feeling in spite of the overall slightly fast-paced environment. After one of the staff took our coats, we were seated immediately in front of Chef Yasuda. We were given warm moist hand towels to clean our hands (something I haven't had at a Japanese restaurant in so long!) and of course the menus, though we knew right away that all we wanted to do was leave ourselves in the hands of Chef Yasuda-san. We were also given a complimentary amuse of some kind of cucumber salad which tasted good to me. I ordered a glass of plum wine, and Gabe ordered a cold, mild Kikusui sake which our waiter responded to by saying that he made a good choice and that that particular sake goes very well with sushi. He was even kind enough to offer me an extra stone cup so I could try the sake too.

Finally, Yasuda turned his attention towards us and probably assumed we wanted to do omakase since we weren't looking at the menu or fish list, so he told us that he would start by picking our nigiri. The first fish he gave us was the King Salmon. While allowing the nigiri to literally melt in our mouths, we couldn't help but just smile. It was that amazing. After swallowing that first piece, Gabe said, "I don't wanna go to work tomorrow," which essentially implies that he felt like he was on a vacation. It really did. Throughout the entire meal, it almost felt like we were in another world. Not only were we eating the most traditional and freshest sushi possible, but we really were experiencing something new.

I won't talk about every single piece of sushi we had. Between the two of us, we had 46 pieces of nigiri which probably sounds ridiculous, but Yasuda's nigiri is actually slightly smaller than all the average places. The size was perfect for me because I have a small mouth and can never fit nigiri from other places in my mouth without fearing I'm going to choke. Additionally, smaller pieces means we can try even more. Compared to other sushi places of equal (and even lower) caliber, the fish is priced appropriately.

You really can't leave Sushi Yasuda without at least one piece of O-Toro, the most expensive and fattiest toro. True, every nigiri we had melted in our mouths, but O-toro is just out of this world. Aside from toro, everyone must try the White King Salmon, Uni, and the Peace Passage Oyster. Gabe came in wanting to try the White King Salmon, but when we arrived, it had been crossed out of the menu meaning they ran out for the day. Luckily, Yasuda gave us White King Salmon without us even asking. It turned out to be the last pieces! Lucky for us, huh? Other standouts include Uni (best uni you'll ever have in your life) and the Peace Passage Oyster.

Yasuda also seemed to have given us an Unagi tasting throughout our meal. He gave us 3 different types of Unagi. He also gave us two types of sardines and literally instructed us to compare the two, as one is a bigger fish than the other. The bigger fish was certainly meatier in texture and taste, and we both liked that one more. Unfortunately, I don't know the name of it.

Some other things to note is that it's actually not normal to eat sushi with chopsticks, at least not at this place. It seems as though they want you to eat with your fingers. They even give a wet cloth to clean your fingers before each piece. Additionally, Yasuda, as with all the other sushi chefs there, put soy sauce and wasabi on everything for you. They don't want you to put any more than that because they put the right amount that's appropriate for that fish. From what I noticed, some pieces got wasabi, some got none. Just depends on what Yasuda feels is right.

Some may ask whether it's even worth it to sit at the bar because the cost will be considerably higher if you don't do the sushi boxes. It all really depends on what you want. If you want to save money and still eat great sushi, get the Sushi Matsu for $34 - 12 pieces of nigiri and half a roll. You have to choose from a limited list of fish, so it also depends on if this matters to you or not. If you order a la carte at a table, of course you can control how much you spend and what you eat, so it can cost the same as doing omakase at the bar depending on what you choose. But I feel as though sitting at the bar and doing omakase is a true experience. Do it at least once. The price will get pretty high, but it will be worth it if you value and appreciate such fresh sushi and a unique dining experience. I really enjoyed the fact that Chef Yasuda spoke to us and told us about a lot of the pieces of nigiri he was offering us. It seemed as though he engaged in more conversation with his other customers and joked around a bit with them, but I think he sort of just feeds off of them. He probably noticed that Gabe and I didn't have too many questions and were talking more to each other than anything else, so he just didn't talk to us as much as he did to other people, but that's fine. Bottom line is sitting at the bar in front of Yasuda and doing omakase is worth it at least once and/or if you have the ability to splurge a bit. I would more than gladly do it again and again...if only I had some extra cash.

Some photos:King Salmon and Toro

Toro #2 with a sprinkle of sea salt

Uni and scallops

White King Salmon

The final tally (click for clearer photo)

Thanks to Gabe for the photos!

Sushi Yasuda
43rd st. btwn 2nd and 3rd ave.

Alta

2008-01-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

I went to Alta with Gabe and his family for his birthday last night. It was an enjoyable and festive meal over small plates and LETHAL sangrias. I don't know what they put in those sangrias (though obviously lots of extra liquor), but just one glass definitely gets you going for the night. Sadly, I have no pictures from last night, but two of my girl friends actually want to go there next Saturday, so maybe I'll get a chance to take some then.

It's easy to call this place a tapas restaurant since it's all small plates, but it's technically not since it's not centered around Spanish food. It's mostly Mediterranean foods with other stuff thrown in. Many of the plates were pretty small, and they certainly added up in price quickly, but I think most of the dishes were pretty interesting. Some of the ones I enjoyed a lot:

-Fried goat cheese with lavender-infused honey: This is by far my favorite fried goat cheese that I've ever tried, and actually the cheapest. (It's double the price for the same amount of goat cheese balls at Sala and a few dollars more for tiny cheese balls at Son Cubano, so in my eyes, this was a value) I love the lavender-infused honey. There also seemed to be some herbs inside the cheese.

-Bacon-wrapped dates: Another good example of bacon mixed with something sweet (Read previous post). Unfortunately, I think this only came with 5 or 6 pieces. I could've munched on plenty of these.

-Truffle Tagliatelle with foie gras emulsion, currants, and micro arugula: I liked the sweetness of this pasta from the currants. I could've eaten a normal size portion of this. My one complaint is that for small plates, I still think the pasta portion should've been bigger since it's meant to be shared.

-Crispy brussel sprouts with fuji apples, creme fraiche, and pistachio nuts: I normally would never eat brussel sprouts, but since it seemed like everyone talks about these in reviews, we wanted to try them, and wow they were really good. Very crispy and tasty.

-Skirt steak with chimmichurri sauce: The sauce gave it a nice touch.

We ordered a lot of other things, but those were the ones I personally enjoyed the most. I think this is a fun place to go to when you want a fun and festive atmosphere. Tapas/small plates are meant to be for big groups, so it's nice that this place is actually meant for groups and parties unlike many of the good tapas places in the city. Perhaps my one complaint is the inconsistency between portions and price. Some things were a fair value (i.e. lamb meatballs, fried goat cheese, crispy brussel sprouts). Other things were way too small for the price (i.e. pork empanadas, sea scallops).

However, since I plan on returning next week, that's obviously a good sign.

Vosges Haut Chocolat

2008-01-18T18:34:00.001-08:00

Um, sorry for the stupidity of this picture. When I view it on my computer, it's upright, but then it ends up horizontal in the post.

Anyways, I first ventured into Vosges in Soho, and my friend insisted that I try the chocolate bar with bacon. It sounded disgusting to me, but WOW. It's interesting how the deep milk chocolate, applewood smoked bacon, and Alder smoked salt went together so well. I think it's the smokiness of the bacon that blends well with the chocolate. I believe this is their bestseller, and I can see why. It's definitely my favorite out of all the chocolate bars I've tried. If it sounds disgusting to you, give it a try. You'll be surprised. $7 is still expensive for a chocolate bar, but where else will you get one that has bacon in it?

For Christmas, Gabe got me a little box set with a sampling of 9 of their other exotic candy bars. Among my favorites is the Gianduja Bar - almonds, caramelized hazelnuts, and deep milk chocolate. So obviously not as intriguing as the bacon bar, but I really liked the creaminess and smoothness of this one. The most exotic bar would be the Naga Bar - sweet Indian curry powder, coconut flakes, and deep milk chocolate. Yup, I bet curry chocolate sounds disgusting, but again, you'll be surprised. My other favorite would be the Barcelona Bar - hickory smoked almonds, grey sea salt, and deep milk chocolate. There's something about salt that for some reason makes chocolate taste better.

I've also tried their hot white chocolate infused with lavender and lemon. I really liked the lavender and lemon taste - they went together really well. My big complaint with this drink is that it honestly seemed more like steamed milk to me rather than white chocolate.

Also, it turns out that Vosges originated from Chicago, where I'm from. The headquarters/kitchen is in Lincoln Park, and I got to go there when I was home for the holidays. Their store/interior decoration there is WAY nicer than the one in Soho. Not only is it ridiculously spacious, but they have nice displays, free samples, and overall better interior design. My mom bought 4 bacon bars after trying their free samples. She also got the Aztec Elixir hot chocolate - Ancho and Chipotle chilies, Ceylon cinnamon, and a few other ingredients. This drink was ridiculously good. The guy made it thick, but not too thick. This makes me think that the Soho location cheaps out on you a bit because my white hot chocolate was like nothing compared to the hot chocolate we got in Chicago. I really loved the incredibly light burn you get from the chilies after a sip of this Aztec Elixir. It definitely wasn't overpowering though. I'll have to try it here in NY, and if it's not as thick as the one in Chicago, then Soho is definitely cheaping out on its customers.

Anyways, these are my chocolate recommendations - perfect in time for Valentine's Day next month!

Aquagrill

2008-01-13T12:47:00.001-08:00

For one of my graduation dinners in May 2007, my parents, Gabe, and I went to Aquagrill, a seafood restaurant bordering Tribeca and SoHo. It was a pretty solid place - not too casual, not too elegant, and overall, really great seafood and good service. It was a good place to celebrate a non-romantic special occasion and definitely a good place to take parents and/or out of towners.

I didn't take pictures of everything that was on the table. In fact, I just took pictures of what I ate. My dad got the Bouillabaisse, which looked really interesting and appetizing. My mom got grilled Australian Barramundi, which I believe was a special of the day. I'm sure both dishes were good and very fresh.

Both Gabe and I ordered the Truffle-Crusted Chatham Cod. I know it's not good for there to be duplicates of any dish on the table, but neither of us good resist this dish. It came with wild mushroom ravioli, roasted hen of the woods mushrooms, creamed spinach, and a truffle mushroom sauce. There was absolutely nothing faulty about this dish. Everything went together really well, and the cod was perfectly cooked.

For dessert, we got the Coconut Panna Cotta that came in a mango, papaya, and pineapple sauce - very refreshing. We also got an assortment of ice cream that came with cute star cookies.

I totally recommend this place for fresh seafood in a casual yet sophisticated atmosphere.

Aquagrill
210 Spring St
New York, NY 10012

chinese sausage fried rice

2008-01-12T14:40:00.001-08:00

Since my dad (or my brother) always make chinese sausage fried rice, I figured it was time to make it for myself. Not to mention, the hole in the wall Chinese place next to Gabe's apt makes pretty decent Chinese sausage fried rice.

I started by cooking the garlic in sesame oil, then added 2 Chinese sausages (cut into pieces) after a few minutes. I next added some day old white rice and bean sprouts. Finally, I cracked an egg in there, let it cook until about halfway (sort of just on one side of the pan, away from the rest of the stuff). When it was about halfway cooked, I mixed it in with everything else, so there would be tiny pieces of egg mixed in, like how fried rice usually is.

Overall, it wasn't bad, but I should have used 2, maybe even 3, times the amount of garlic that I did.

Lupa

2008-01-09T18:52:00.000-08:00

Gabe and I went to Lupa for our "Christmas Dinner." It's a Mario Batali restaurant, and Babbo (his most famed restaurant) is our favorite, so it was about time to try Lupa, which gets great reviews as well. It's much more casual than Babbo and is more of a trattoria specializing in Roman dishes. It is also much cheaper than Babbo, most likely due to the simpler food.

We settled on a bottle of medium-bodied red wine from Piemonte. I forgot to copy down the whole name, but I believe it's a 2004 Boroli Quattro Fratelli Barbera d'Alli. It was definitely a good recommendation by our waiter. The nice thing about Lupa is that they have a pretty good amount of wines under $40 which is considered relatively "cheap" in NYC restaurants. Our bottle was somewhere around $35. We were also given really tasty and moist foccacia bread with olive oil.

For our antipasti, we decided to have the Baccala with Potatoes&Lovage ($10). I'm assuming the lovage is the greens garnishing the baccala. Gabe and I love baccala, so that's why we picked this. This was a really enjoyable, tasty, and fresh antipasti served at room temperature. Lupa seems to have a great selection of antipasti. I think I'd be happy just sharing a few of them with someone as my whole meal.

I got the Ricotta Gnocchi with Sausage&Fennel ($15) for my primi. The serving is actually bigger than what many pictures indicate because it's served in such a huge bowl. I got this because it seems to be the favorite primi at Lupa, and it definitely lived up to its hype! The gnocchi was so soft and pillowy, not chewy or super heavy like other gnocchi. The sauce was perfect as well, though maybe I would have liked more sausage. This one was definitely a winner.

Gabe got the Bucatini All'Amatriciana ($15). Since we used Batali's recipe to make this dish ourselves for my birthday, it was interesting to compare our version to Lupa's. Lupa's was definitely better. The tomatoes were pureed, while ours were diced, but even so, somehow their tomato sauce was much tastier, most likely due to better/fresher/riper tomatoes rather than canned tomatoes haha. And of course the guanciale added a great flavor.

(Sorry, got a little excited and forgot to take a picture before we started eating it)
We shared the Saltimbocca ($17) for our secondi. According to the glossary, it's veal, prosciutto, and sage. This was such a flavorful dish, and the portion was really big. It shouldn't be for one person. It's definitely a unique dish - I recommend it for a secondi.

We were so full from our food that we didn't bother getting dessert. Overall, this is such a great restaurant with very simple Italian/Roman fare. I've read that their spaghetti al pomodoro is quite exceptional, and I think that's really saying a lot. That's the simplest dish ever, yet Lupa manages to make it stand out somehow with quality ingredients and cooking. Considering the quality of the food, really warm service/atmosphere, and even the reputation, the food really isn't expensive. You can spend the same amount on mediocre pasta at blah and even commercial/chain restaurants, so it's totally worth the trip to Lupa.

Please go to Lupa (as well as Babbo and Otto...I<3mario>

Nacional 27

2008-01-06T16:24:00.001-08:00

My dad received a few Lettuce Entertain You gift certificates for Christmas, so while I was home in Chicago, we decided to use two of his gift certificates at Nacional 27, a modern/fusion Latin restaurant/ceviche bar/salsa club.

Atmosphere: Trendy, modern, very good and attentive service. Even though NY has more to offer in terms of fine dining, I sometimes prefer the atmosphere in Chicago restaurants because even the trendy and scene-y places like ths are laidback and never rushed.
Dinner started out with a complimentary amuse for the each of us. Unfortunately, all I remember is that it was some kind of Tasmanian fish ceviche served on a chip. It definitely got our taste buds going, and I knew that the rest of the dinner would be great.

Normally I wouldn't care to note the bread, but this was particularly interesting. They gave us both foccacia bread and flat breadsticks that tasted like Indian pappadum to dip into 3 sauces - one cumin-based, a red spicy one, and something else which I forgot. They all definitely had Indian influences though which was interesting for a Latin-fusion restaurant.

The meal started with the Large Ceviche Sampler which served all 5 of us. It had Shrimp and Scallop, Cold Smoked Tasmanian Salmon, Ahi Tuna and Watermelon, Sashimi Farmed Bass, Oyster Shooters. The platter was much bigger than what it looks like in the picture. All of these were SO good, especially the Shrimp and Scallop ceviche. I'm not much of a fan of oyster shooters, but these weren't bad. Everything tasted so fresh.
This was the Slow Braised Boneless Short Ribs cooked in a red wine reduction. The meat is sitting on mashed cuban sweet potatoes and topped with crispy onion strings. As far as I know, my brother loved his dish, and from what I tasted, the meat was incredibly tender.

This was my INCREDIBLE Truffle Crusted Filet Mignon served over a chorizo potato hash in a Malbec reduction. Considering this was a 9oz Filet Mignon covered with amazing shaved black truffle (I<3truffles),>definitely a winner. It was so tasty and so tender...mmmmm.....

This was a Slow Roasted Gunthormp Farms Pork "Cubano" served with black beans, sweet plantains, coconut rice, and orange mojo. My dad had this, and from what I could tell, he liked it. I, for whatever reason, didn't try it, so I can't say much.

Ok, so I honestly don't remember what this was except that it was the "catch of the day." I really don't remember what kind of fish it was, and I don't think my sister (who ordered it) would remember either...but it was good! I ate her shoestring onion fries because she doesn't like onions.

This is the Pan roasted Alaskan Halibut with melted tomatoes and spicy onion jam.

They gave us another complimentary amuse. This time it was an octopus ceviche. I preferred the Tasmanian one they gave prior to dinner, but this was good too, and hey, it was free haha. You can't really tell from the picture, but it was a pretty large spoonful on each spoon.

For dessert, we shared a tres leches cake with a scoop of coconut ice cream on top. I thought it was good, but my brother and dad said it didn't taste like real tres leches cake. I wouldn't know because I've actually only had tres leches cake at places like this.

And we also shared the "churros" with tres leches ice cream. This was really good too. There were Brazilian nuts sprinkled on top which I liked.

I don't feel like adding pictures of the drinks, but I had a mojito which was really big. It wasn't the best I've had, but it's definitely up there. My dad also had a caipirinha which WAS the best I've tried.

Overall, this was a really great restaurant in Chicago. I highly recommend to anyone who's in the area.

Photo credit goes to my photo whiz brother.

Nacional 27
325 West Huron
Chicago, IL 60610

My 22nd birthday dinner with Gabe

2008-01-06T14:20:00.001-08:00

Instead of going out to eat for my 22nd birthday, Gabe and I decided to cook a nice dinner for two. Since it was almost MCAT time, I think I was really just in the mood to do something low key. We decided on Bucatini All'Amatriciana and Garlic and Herb Crusted Lamb Chops. This was probably one of the more complex dinners we've done, but everything turned out really well. I think this is also one of the times I actually followed a recipe completely. If I did anything different than what the recipes said, it was probably just slight measurement adjustments.

We used this recipe for the bucatini - another Batali recipe. It was really quite a challenge to find guanciale, but I finally found it at a tiny Italian deli in the west 30's. I'm glad we used that instead of pancetta or regular bacon because it definitely made a big difference and added a really unique flavor. Normally I hate really fatty meat, but this was the one exception. Gabe and I were really pleased with the way this turned out - perhaps the best thing we've made together thus far.

We also followed this for the lamb chops. I had never cooked with lamb before, so this was fun. It turned out better than I thought it would, and it was very tasty. The only thing is that one of my chops was extremely rare. Normally, I do like rare meat, but if I were to make this again, I would keep it in the oven for a few minutes longer. The flash was a bit bright, but I think you can tell from the picture that it was quite rare.

We had a great bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (La Tour de By, Medoc, 2003, France) to accompany the food.

chocolate kahlua cake

2008-01-06T13:41:00.001-08:00

I made this on Christmas Eve in order to bring to my aunt's house for our Christmas Day party, but since she said that they already had too many desserts, I saved it for our New Year's party. The great thing about cakes baked with liquor is the fact that it keeps it moist and preserves it for a very long time. Last year, I made coconut rum cake for New Year's, and it was a big hit, so since my house has like 5 bottles of Kahlua (coffee liquor), I decided to try chocolate Kahlua cake this year.

In a mixing bowl, I added one box of Pillsbury chocolate cake mix, one box of Jello chocolate pudding powder, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, 1 cup of Kahlua, 1/2 cup of water, and 1 cup of sour cream. Most recipes I saw called for 3/4cup or less of Kahlua, but like I've said, my Dad and I tend to put more alcohol than needed. The sour cream probably sounds gross, but you don't taste it at all. It's just there to make the cake really moist, so maybe you can substitute with plain yogurt.

For the glaze, we heated and mixed 1 cup of sugar, 4oz Kahlua, and some Amaretto (almond liquor). I decided to throw in Amaretto because people often use amaretto flavoring/syrup in their coffee. That was a nice addition, but I think I'll put even more of that next time and/or use that instead of Kahlua for the glaze.

This turned out to be a great bundt cake. My cousin, Odette, loved it a lot as did others. Personally, I think the cake tasted a little more alcoholic than what I wanted, so I'll put less Kahlua in the cake mix next time.

scialatielli ai gamberetti

2008-01-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

This is perhaps one of my most successful attempts in the kitchen. Especially when I'm home in Chicago with my family, I never follow a recipe completely because sometimes I think it's annoying to measure everything and to keep looking at the recipe after every step. Plus, cooking is all about experimenting with what works for you and what doesn't!

I followed this recipe. Mario Batali is perhaps my favorite chef. I made some changes/modifications to this recipe. First of all, I didn't make my own pasta noodles because that's too much unnecessary work. I also didn't make basic marinara sauce prior.

1. Heated MORE than 6tbs of olive oil and 6 cloves of garlic (minced) in a wok. (My dad, who helped me cook this, likes to put a lot of olive oil in anything)
2. Added shallots (not in recipe, but we like shallots) and zucchini pieces. (I should've bought a bigger zucchini)
3. Added a lot of red chili flakes. (Recipe called for 1tsp, but we definitely added way more than that...pasta ended up being spicier than what Batali probably wanted, but it was spicy in a good way)
4. Added MORE than 1 cup of dry white wine (Recipe called for 1 cup, but my dad and I like to go overboard with alcohol when cooking haha)
5. Added 2 cans (28oz) of diced tomatoes. Added regular medium shrimp (about 1lb uncooked. I couldn't find rock shrimp at the grocery).

NOTE: So this is where I sort of messed up. Since I didn't make the basic tomato sauce prior to everything else, the sauce ended up being extremely soupy in the wok, so I had to keep it going on the stove for like half an hour until it reduced to about half of what it was upon adding the tomatoes.

6. During this reduction time, I added salt and pepper to taste, a tiny bit more red chili flakes, and probably a couple of tablespoons of SUGAR (Not in the recipe, but that was a good call by my Dad. It balanced the spiciness from the chili flakes).
7. When it reduced to a thicker and grainier texture, that's when it was time to finally add the spaghetti (used one box).
8. Chopped up a whole bunch of fresh parsley (i'm sure this ended up being at least a whole cup instead of 1/4cup) and mixed it in.

Using that much parsley really added a ton of GOOD flavor. I need to use more fresh parsley in my pasta from now on.

We made this when two of my cousins, aunt, and uncle came over for dinner a couple of days befor Christmas. Because of all the red and green in the pasta, it was good timing too haha. Everyone loved it, so I definitely have to make this pasta again.

2008-01-06T10:39:00.001-08:00

I will be documenting my food experiences, both dining and cooking.