rave and slave

How can people file grocery shopping away as a chore? Especially when there is a Whole Foods popping up every 5 blocks in the city? To me, it’s a privilege to stroll thru the aisles, sniffing dragonfruits and squeezing heirloom tomatoes. My imagination just goes wild! I imagine strawberry and spinach salad to start, roasted fish stuffed with wild veggies and herbs, homemade cream cheese custard with blueberry compote, and then I imagine myself chomping on all those food, and oh! Maybe a nice artichoke salad in between courses, plus a pureed squash soup, and maybe …. Then of course, the thought of dish washing and cleaning usually gets to me, so I give up and head to the butcher counter.

Whole Foods is great for so many wonderful things (artisanal cheeses, fresh veggies, great seafood), but I love them for their steaks. Yeah, Whole Foods steaks are pricey, but damn are they delicious. I’m partial to the rib-eye cut. It’s juicy and flavorful on its own. No need for fancy sauces or marinates.

Steak is also the easiest thing to make. Here’s how: Buy your favorite cut of meat, depending on your preference. Make sure you take it out of the fridge 30 min prior to cooking to let it stand at room temperature. Pat it dry and then season with kosher salt and fresh black pepper. You need quite a bit of salt and a whole lot of ground pepper since the steaks are pretty thick (oh, did I mention you should get a thick steak rather than a thin and wide steak? Well, you should, it retains more moisture).

Heat up your heaviest pan to really really really really hot. Melt some butter (maybe 2 tablespoons) with olive oil. Once your fats start smoking, lay down the steak. DO NOT move or touch or jiggle or poke your steak for 3-4 minutes, no matter how tempted you are to stick a fork in it. Your patience will pay off in the form of a nice flavorful crust and sealed in juices. Then you flip the steak over and cook for another 2 min or so. That’s it! A perfect medium rare steak.
Me secret to a delicious compete meal? Buy some greens, I love swiss chard or spinach. Mince some garlic. Throw the garlic and the greens into the steak pan – you know, the one with butter, olive oil, and rendered steak fat. Sautee and serve with the steak.

Simple, elegant, and your boyfriend will rave and be your slave for the night. Oh yeah, and there are 3 dishes to wash later.

heat and wine

It is so hot. So hot. SO HOT in NYC for the last 3 days. It’s so hot that by the time I get out of the train and amble home, I’ve lost 5 pounds from sweat pouring out of pores I didn’t know I had, like toe knuckle and earlobe. It’s too hot to drink my usual glass of red wine – too heavy and too room temperature (which is about 80 degrees in my apt, no thanks to the weak AC circulating warm air so faithfully). This is when I pop open a brachetto d’acqui. Yes, I know, it’s really a dessert wine, but since I’m not sophisticated enough to pair food with wine, I happily drink this beautiful bubbly with everything. Besides, I’m forever pushing bubbly wines (champagne, prosecco) as dinner wines.

Brachettos are made in the Piedmont region of Italy. It’s a red wine, but it's incredibly light - lighter than some chardonnays. Brachettos have a slightly honey flavor, but less sweet than most moscatos. I love watching the tiny bubbles fizzle and pop around the ruby liquid. Paired with some dark chocolate, you just can’t ooze more romance than that.

But when I really want to cool off, I reach for a beer. Not ale, not lager, but a bottle of good ol’ pilsner. But that’s another entry.

sunday afternoon part II

I admit, I love brunch. I know, it’s so contrived. But really, nothing beats a yummy meal with your friends on a nice New York Sunday afternoon over bloody maries (marys? mary’s?) Alright, I love brunch because I LOVE bloody maries-marys-mary’s.

A great bloody mary is probably the best cocktail out there. It’s all at once tart, spicy, salty, sweet (kind of like Thai food now I think about it). But a great bloody is more rare than Michael Jackson on a real date. Bloodies should be chock full of horse radish, Tabasco, and black pepper without being thick and mealy. The tomato juice should be tart and salty with a slight hint of the fruit’s (yes, it’s a fruit) natural sweetness, but not cloying sweet (*cough* Pastis/Schiller’s *cough*). There should be some sort of solid chewables accompanying the drink. I’ve tried everything from the tried and true celery stalk to the more adventurous shrimp. But my all time favorite is probably pickled veggies. The sour and salt brine goes so nicely with the tart and spicy cocktail.

Jane serves up a great bloody with their great brunch. It’s spicy, not too thick, tart and garnished with pickled tomatoes, olives, and the requisite celery stalk. The vodka is smooth and leaves no alcohol-fumed aftertaste. The bloody is incredibly addicting and free with brunch! Prune offers an extensive list of bloody variations for brunch. Though the flavor is not as smooth and well blended as Jane, Prune’s bloodies are still delicious and get points for originality. My personal favorite is the Chicago Boxcar – a classic bloody garnished with various pickled lovelies, from radish to green beans to brussel sprouts, rounded off with a shot of beer. YUM!

Being slightly tipsy (okay, drunk) by 3:30 on a Sunday afternoon is so deliciously wicked. Being drunk because of bloodies, that’s just delicious.

dessert? yes please

I was never one for dessert (surprise!). A glass of port, some dark chocolate, and the occasional cookie, were enough for me. That is, until I met my boyfriend, J-me.

J-me has the worst sweet tooth. He can plow through a cake, chomp through a slice of pie, and slurp through a tall milkshake as quickly as I can chow through a hunk of cheese. But after dating someone who insists a large cookie and a sweet muffin equate breakfast for a year, I slowly, but very surely, came around.

It all started with rock-paper-scissors. J-me and I play this game on Saturday mornings to decide which unfortunate soul will need to climb out of our comfortable bed and get the morning coffee. The first time J-me lost, he brought back coffee from Clinton St. Baking Company and a few surprises. In the brown paper bag waited a blueberry crumb muffin and a citrus oatmeal raisin cookie – that was the size of a saucer. I was of course annoyed, why didn’t you get the delicious savory herb goat cheese muffin, I said. And why did you get the raisin cookie?! You know I hate raisins!!!

But of course, I couldn’t let food sit and not taste. I pulled off a little piece of cookie and popped it in my mouth, then another, then another. It was absolutely wonderful. I’ve always loved the slightly chewy texture of good oatmeal. The raisins kept the cookie moist and added a complex tartness that contrasted well with the buttery flavor.

That morning was the beginning of the end. I now ask for the dessert menu as I munch on my après-meal cheese plate. I now plan my route so that I “happen” by a bakery. Dessert is no longer an afterthought – it’s something to be savored, along with my glass of port.

"fast" food

“Fast” recipes are all the rage now. Every food magazine worth its kosher salt is coming out with new sections/supplements/sister magazines filled with delicious dishes a frenzied cook can whip in 30 minutes. But if you actually buckle down and try to recreate one of those recipes, you will find that half of the ingredients, save salt and pepper, are a little more exotic than what an already frenzied person would have on hand. Pancetta? figs? Unsulphured molasses? petit peas? Any given time I may have one of the 8 things you need to complete one dish (okay, I probably would never have petit peas, don’t even know what that is), but never would I have all 8. (I’m a 20 something New Yorker living in a shoebox disguised as a human dwelling, with unlimited access to delivery and limited access to supermarkets, so I do have an excuse.) By the time I gather all the ingredients required, I could have ordered and digested Village Mingala. The other option is to plan your meals for the week and shop on the weekend. But, I can’t even pick out my shoes for work, let alone think 2 days in advance.

There are a few food basics everyone should have in their fridge and pantry: eggs, some fresh herbs (I’m partial to rosemary or thyme since they don’t rot so quickly and are easy to work with), garlic (again, they don’t go bad). Get a couple of tomatoes, a package of sliced ham, and an onion at the deli on the corner and you got yourself an herb omelet. Me? I like to scramble diced tomatoes with eggs. Get the tomatoes nice and soft so that the juices infuse the scrambled eggs. Add a dash of soy sauce and sesame oil, and voila, homey Taiwanese dish.

Another thing to do in a pinch is fried rice. Take any Chinese stir-fry take-out leftover (garlic pork, broccoli beef, etc), dump it in a wok or pan and heat it up. No oil is necessary since Chinese food is pretty well slicked already. Scoop out your day-old rice from the carton and throw that into the mix. Once the rice starts to brown and harden slightly, crack an egg or two over the wok and mix in. Squirt on some Sriracha and your boyfriend will never know he’s eating leftovers.

sunday afternoon

We all know why Sunday is called the day of rest. What else can you do but rest with a massive headache and a gooey taste in your mouth. Yeah, you were invincible Saturday night, dancing on bar tops and singing with stray cats. But when Sunday rolls around, you're whimpering for your mommy and cursing the sun for being too bright.

You stumble out to find nourishment, hoping the right food combo will calm the storm brewing in your stomach. You have $7 in your wallet from buying one too many $12 mojitos last night. So you drag your sorry butt to Pho Grand.

A nice steaming bowl of pho arrives within seconds of ordering. You dip the thinly sliced beef in Sriracha and Hoisin sauce, waking up those dulled taste buds. You slurp down the broth, fragrant with lemongrass and Thai basil. Warm, filling, delicious.

You top off your late lunch with a glass of their beautifully crafted Vietnamese iced coffee, rich and freshly brewed espresso sweetened with condensed milk. Fully awake now finally (at 4PM) and invincible again. Heck, you're ready to do it all over again next weekend.

hot hot hot

The other day I saw my favorite chili sauce being used by my favorite chef, Mario Batali. Okay, he's not just my favorite, I idolize him. The man is a genius! Seeing him wielding Sriracha on Iron Chef just reaffirmed my adoration.

I've long known that the greatness of Sriracha has no cultural boundaries. Though Thai in origin, Sriracha has adorned everything in my kitchen from fried rice to empanadas. Want some spice in your pasta? a squirt of Sriracha will take care of it. Bland ribs? no prob, just dab some of that bright red chili sauce and voila!

Sriracha's genius is in its smooth and perfectly blended flavor. There isn't one flavor element that overpowers the others. Tobasco has its vinegar, Chinese chili paste has its garlic, some sauces are too peppery, the others, too sweet. Sriracha is the Goldilocks of chili sauces, just right.

Of course Batali won that round. What can I say, the man is a genius.

gari of the gods

Okay, so my friends expected that I would write about the out-of-body experience that was Sushi of Gari. I expected myself to swoon and go on and on about the transcendental experience that was Sushi of Gari. But I hesitated... why? you ask? I didn't think (and still don't) my limited culinary descriptions could justify the restaurant.

Imagine now, the delicate creations of this avant garde artist, which combined mutlicultural cusine with traditional Japanese fare . Have you ever thought of chopping up creamy toro with pungent yellow Korean daikon? Or charring the same toro ever so lightly so that the dark smoky flavor, usually reserved for yakitori, mellows as it melts with the perfectly seasoned sushi rice? Well, Gari had, and the results were unforgettable.

It was the first time I had a purple shrimp (cooked). The texture was more lobster than shrimp. There was tiny roe hidden in the shrimp's belly - the dimension of the flavor was subtle but lingered on and on. There was also salmon topped with grated raw daikon - the pungentness cuts through the fatty fish without masking the taste of the ocean.

It was one of those meals that made you wish your wallet and tummy were big enough to accommodate every thing they can throw at you. Thank god the restaurant is insanely far from my LES abode, or else I would have make-believed I'm in possession of both Gari essentials every other day.

finger lickin

Fried chicken, comforting, simple, humble, and my fav food. If I can eat something every day, it would probably be sushi. But if I can eat something everyday and NOT die of coronary failure, it would be fried chicken (with a nice cold beer) (and stuffing w/gravy) (and collard greens) (and corn bread - really the cake's excuse to be savory). It's an internal battle whenever I see fried chicken on a menu, the battle between the greedy eater and the health-loving conscience. Of course the chubby greedy eater always wins out the emaciated (but healthy) conscience. And so fried chicken is consumed yet again.

I was uptown at my alma mater visiting a friend of mine the other day when I strolled by Miss Mamie's Spoonbread Too with a giant sign that said "Best Fried Chicken and Collard Greens". Oh man, that's the combination code to my stomach.

Settling down in comfy restaurant, I browsed the menu with a nice cold Sugar Hill ale (brewed by Harlem Brewery, nutty and sweet, delicious). A mini panic attack hit. What to choose! Plain fried chicken or smothered, stuffing or mac and cheese, collard greens? Oh no! I want to devour them all! After much deliberation and almost finishing a whole bottle of Sugar Hill, I settled on the smothered chicken with collard greens and corn bread stuffing. Confident in my choice (and appeased by the fact my co-eaters were ordering all the other stuff I wanted to try), I waited impatiently as my stomach grumbled to the fragrant smells wafting through the restaurant.

The generous platter came out, all smothered in rich, brown gravy. The chicken (I requested for all dark meat of course) was beyond tender. The meat was almost creamy, I imagine from buttermilk. The spices penetrated through the entire piece, every bite exploded with flavor. I loved how the crispy skin softened and flaked in the pool of gravy, deepening the richness and adding texture to the entire dish.

I also loved the assorted sides/apps I tried, notably, the gumbo, collard green spinach. The meal closed with a mug of Miss Mamie's sweet tea - thoroughly refreshing after the hearty meal. The mint tea, lightly sweetened, cleansed the palate - though I was pretty happy to allow the fragrant meal linger.

lamb, raisins, coffee, oh my

Everyone has a particular food he/she hates, sometimes an entire food group. Though I’m not picky, there are a few things that I absolutely can not choke down. But because I hate limiting my food intake, I made it a rule that I must try (and retry) my hated food items once a year. It started simple like pineapples and daikon radishes. I tried them once a year, year after year. And now they’re two of my favorite foods. Then I moved on to conquer goat cheese and lamb. Yes, I hated goat cheese and lamb before, hard to believe, but true… now I can’t resist ordering anything with goat cheese or lamb. I still can not stand raisins though…

Good thing I love lamb now. Or else how can I live with myself if I can not devour the delicious lamb tangine at Café Mogador? The tender and juicy pieces of lamb fall right off the bone (and right into my tummy). Fluffy cous cous tops off the dish – the perfect medium for soaking up the sauce. Of the five sauces they offer, I’m partial to Casablanca – chick peas, raisins, and onions. Raisins and onions both lend sweetness to the sauce and bring out the natural sweetness of the lamb. The dish is warm and homey, good for the soul. In case you’re wondering, I construct a raisin graveyard on the side of my plate when I eat this dish.

After the satisfying meal, you must have the Turkish coffee. The coffee comes in a miniature bronze pitcher, all swirling and dark and mysterious. Cinnamon-y and nutmeg-y, the coffee beckons for you to return.

village mingala

One of the greatest things about NYC is delivery. When you’re hungry and lazy, a great meal is just a phone call away. But contrary to popular belief, all deliveries are not created equal. For example, the most popular delivered food, pizza, tastes much better fresh out of the oven at a restaurant than after bathing in its own steam in a pizza box while the delivery guy bikes around in circles looking for your apartment. The crust gets soggy and the toppings (the same ones you spent 30 minutes arguing with your boyfriend over) slide off when you try to take a bite. You end up with stained jeans, mushy pizza, and a grumpy boyfriend.

On the other hand, many Asian foods deliver well. Your fried rice, chow mein, curry, stir fried dishes, even marinated salads (like Thai beef salad), all taste great right out of paper cartons. It’s no wonder then that Chinese, Thai, and Indian are some of the most popular take-outs. What if I told you that you can get all three flavors from one delivery? Get out! You must be thinking. But you can! The answer is Burmese.

Village Mingala is on my speed dial. I love their delicious and refreshing mango salad; actually, it’s more slaw than salad. Crispy young mango slices are tossed with shredded cabbage and lettuce then topped with ground peanuts and fried onions. This tangy mixture is the perfect refreshing accompaniment to their heartier pork fried rice. The bar-b-q pork slices are slightly charred on the outside but juicy and flavorful all around, complementing the naturally sweet rice. I also love their Nungyi Kyaw (#N6 on the menu) – stir fried rice noodles topped with an egg pancake. The rice noodle is much thicker than the type served in Chinese restaurants. It’s kind of like udon but made with rice. Chewy. Satisfying.

Burmese cuisine balances the sour/spicy/sweet Thai flavors with Chinese cooking techniques, and adds a dash of rich Indian spices like coriander and tamarind. It’s quickly becoming my new comfort food. When I moved from the East Village to LES (all 6 blocks away), I worried that the great Houston divide would deter Mingala from delivering to me. Then I called and the sweet delivery man came. When I opened the door, he smiled in surprise and said, “Hey! You moved!”

ode to old speckled hen

It is my firmest belief that beer is a fine art. No other beverage is so widely enjoyed, so easily enjoyed than beer. Beer is to Van Gogh (loved by all, understood by few) as wine is to Picasso (appreciated by all, understood by none). I love gulping a cold, crisp pilsner on a hot hot day just as much as I love nursing a complex ale while chilling with friends.

Unsurprisingly then, that one of my goals in life is to taste all the beers on tap at my favorite pub, The Ginger Man. Sadly to say, after 5 years, I’ve only tasted 1/10 of their repertoire. Partly due to the extensive list, partly due to the distracting rotation of seasonal beers, but mainly due to my one true love – Old Speckled Hen. How can I waste my belly room for other beers when Old Speckled Hen is available on tap? (note to OSH fans, DBA also offers it on tap)

OSH is named after a car. Quirky? Yes, but the fact that it’s English should explain it. The luscious amber color is set with a thick white head. The creamy consistency rolls down your throat, leaving behind a nutty richness offset by the faint fruity aftertaste. In cold weather, order the hearty and satisfying Guinness Stew at the Ginger Man. When it’s warm, have the perfectly assembled turkey BLT. But always leave some belly room for Old Speckled Hen.

merits of whole wheat

The NY Times wrote an article last week on the improvement in whole wheat pasta. This voracious reader (eater) of the Times was not convinced. Ever the hedonist, I shun all food stuff that you can only get in stores frequented by yogis. That is, except when eating with my beautiful and “my body, my temple” friend, Joanne (and finding myself, much to my chagrin, enjoying grains I can’t pronounce – quinoa?! amaranth?!).

For Joanne’s last dinner as a New Yorker, we decided on, what else, Italian. Gnocco, with its comfortable space and amazing pizzas, was to send Joanne off in culinary style. I zoomed in on the tagliatelle with sweet sausage and roasted fennel, while Joanne, true to her form, ordered the fresh homemade whole wheat pasta with chickpeas and Italian bacon.

As the dinner progressed, I found myself reaching over to her plate more and more, stealing tastes and bites of her pasta. I couldn’t quite pinpoint the reason for my fascination with her dish. Was it the lovely rosemary infused sauce punctuated by the unexpected spiciness of jalapeños? Was it my affinity to anything bacon? But then, I realized, much to my chagrin, it was the fascinating texture and flavor of the pasta. The sauce was just a supporting player, bringing out the slight woodsy flavor of the pasta. The ingenious ring shape gave the pasta an interesting and chewy texture. Not to mention, you got maximum surface area for sopping up the sauce. Delicious. I think maybe I’ll consider the merits of whole wheat in the future – or better yet, I’ll wait for Jo to visit and eat off her plate.

groovy kind of love

My friends say that I have an addictive personality. I like to think of myself as an enthusiast. When I like something, I won't ever get over saturated... until I get distracted by something else.

When I first had the exquisitely made grasshopper at Angel's Share, I was instantly ... enthused. My love affair with anything creamy made me an easy target for this classic cocktail. Spiked melted mint ice cream in a martini glass - my kiddie cravings delivered in a decidedly adult package.

Long wait lines at Angel's Share and nasty NYC weather never deterred me when my ethusiasms hit. Grasshopper was the apple of my eye, my bee's knees. That is, until one day, I met groovy.

Groovy is an Angel's Share concoction. Think of it as a Japanese mojito, well balanced and understated. Instead of mint there is shiso. Nothing tastes quite like shiso. slightly grassy, slightly minty, and very very unique. Shaken with vodka and lime juice, it's the perfect summertime cocktail - crisp, refreshing. But then the shiso is complex enough to keep me... enthused.

sakagura

Okay, so the real reason I started this blog is to extol the yumminess that is Sakagura - an izakaya located in the basement of an office building in midtown. Sounds strange, and actually, it looks strange from the outside. But once you pass through the weird staircase/hallway and into restaurant, it’s another world – one that’s out of a vacation video of Japanese tranquility.

My friends and I called for a reservation earlier that day and were shown to our table as soon as we arrived – even with one of our friends missing – a rare phenomenon in the city. Usually you cringe under the hostess’s evil eye and start to break out in sweat because you’re about to lose the table you waited 45 minutes for. Not Sakagura, don’t think I’ve met nicer servers/hostesses anywhere else.

We ordered about 10 dishes for the four of us. Can’t remember the dish names due to my inability to recall foreign pronunciations and the unnecessary fourth bottle of Sapporo I consumed. But here are the highlights…

My favorite was a chilled soup with uni (sea urchin roe) dotted with salmon roe and topped with a poached egg. The broth was deliciously cold and fragrant with bonito and kelp. The salmon roe popped softly in my mouth, gave bursts of saltiness to the delicate uni and broth. The complementary texture of poached egg and uni was offset by the salmon roe. The soup was both light and rich at the same time.

Another outstanding dish was a thinly sliced radish salad with dressing made with Japanese mayo and flavored with seaweed and shiso. Radish tends to be spicy when eaten raw. But the pungentness cut through the heavier mayo, keeping the dish light and refreshing. Cod fish roe added that lovely crunchy texture and salty sea flavor to the dish.

Being the biggest (piggiest) supporter of anything pork and pork fat related, I had to try their stewed fatty pork – and was not disappointed. The pork, stewed in a sweet soy sauce marinade, melted in my mouth, sweet silky fat lined the tender meat... mmm…

Another notable was rice balls wrapped in mackerel and then grilled. The naturally sweet rice was enhanced by the mackerel.

You can’t go to Sakagura without trying the innovative desserts and truffles. Black sesame crème brulee. Need I say more?

green apple sorbet

I can never resist il laboratorio del gelato, even with the long line of natives and tourists clamoring for a taste of sweet sweet heaven. I’m a sucker for their smooth-as-silk gelato in unexpected flavors. Each one seems so foreign in the freezer, but becomes logical when melting in my mouth.

The other day I decided to veer from my all dairy diet and try the icy sorbets. Watermelon was sold out, so I got my next favorite fruity flavor – green apple. Wow…. Far from the sweet green apple bubblegum flavor that I expected and thought I wanted, this was all apple, and I mean ALL apple. It was as if someone grinded up a bushel of green apples and packed them in a freezer for a few hours. It was icy, slightly sweet, and refreshingly fragrant. Little pieces of sweet apple skin floated throughout the pale green sorbet – adding a welcome texture to the cool iciness. Hmmm… I thought I liked all green apple flavored food stuff… now I’m just spoiled.