...more recent posts
Today was a beautiful day, spend a few hours at the brooklyn botanical garden: rose garden if full bloom, fragrant garden where you can rub all the plants and smell, local plant garden with seseme seed, sunchokes, jimson weed.....
The daily news had a devastating review of Opia (130 E. 57th) which contained this gem of sentence describing the "plaster mound of chickpea purée" that came under the grilled bass: "If taupe had a flavor, this would be it." Ouch.
Argentina again ...
Argentina has the best store-bought mayo I've ever had. Good oil, good
eggs, and lemon juice.
Mike, that monkfish you cooked last night was first rate. Any tips for the rest of us less gifted over the fire? Also, do you have a favorite spot to buy fish?
Thanks for dinner!
had some extremely tasty and clean chinese on the upper east side last night Henry's Evergreen 1288 First (69 st)
sautewednesday.com is a food weblog that might be interesting.
In the first-century A.D., the Roman poet Martial sent his friends the following invitation:
Impressions of Argentine food
Basic food groups: beef, sugar, caffeine.
Produce: Tomatoes and lettuce rival Salinas, CA quality -- whether in Buenos Aires or at a fruit stand on a dirt road in the remote northwest provinces. Fruits and veggies are plentiful, high quality, and cheap. Can't speak for produce quality in Patagonia, suspect may be similar to Scottish and Welsh produce quality. (Gotta love them root veggies!)
Seafood: I've never seen such a dearth of seafood in a country with such a long coast line. (See "beef" under basic food groups.)
Beef: $5 bucks at a sitdown restaraunt for a large, tasty and tender steak from sirloin or beef tender.
Cabrito: If you're ever in Salta, check out the cabrito asado -- an explosion of flavors
Empanadas: Favorite snack food in Argentina. (See "beef" under basic food groups.) They consist of filling held in a small round "tapa" of dough which is folded in half. Beef, chicken and sometimes onion/cheese are the most common. Baked or fried, but baked is best.
Salteño Empanadas: People in Buenos Aires and the pampa speak in reverential tones of the empanadas from the Northwest. "My grandfather is from Salta, and he always makes Salteño empanadas -- the best." BA empanadas are very simple, but the Salteños use a dozen different ingredients in the mixture for the filling.
Mate: The people of Argentina are obsessed with mate, a bitter and mildly stimulating (i.e., caffine-like substance) tea made from yerba mate. To add sugar or not is a touchy subject. Mate preparation and consumption is a group activity, which plays into the close personal interaction typical of Argentines.
Dulce Leche: Can be described as a jam-like substance made from camelized milk. It's sweetened, carmelized condensed milk -- much more condensed than typical US condensed milk. Argentines love to have bits of bread coated with dulce leche as an afternoon break during the long interval between lunch and late-night dinner. Dulce leche with peaches sounds like an odd combination, but is a delightful dessert.
get stuffed
It's chili in Terlingua TX
last night linda and i had our last meal at 71CFFood with Captain Wylie at the helm, it was without any question the best meal we ever had there too, the pasta made of pure squid rocked but so did all the other 16, as we yum yum'd through a 6 course tasting menu with a different creation for all three quests (my pal passed on dessert to have the squid pasta again) so it was a mere 17 different...:>)....see you at 50 Clinton....and thank you for a real good time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eric Asimov reviews AKA in todays New York Times.
Let's get pickled! The first annual New York international pickle day is tomorrow. The fun is on Orchard Street between Houston and Stanton from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Best meal and wine night ever at Manducatti’s
for me was 9/25 following a fantastic
Madeira Seminar from 1875 to 1977:>)
1985 Valentino Bricco Manzone $60
1982 Marcarini Brunate $65
1978 Brovia Rocche Riserva $45
*1978 Pira Riserva $45
1982 Ceretto Bricco Rocche $65
1982 Valentino Raul $80
**1978 Prunotto Bussia Riserva $80
**1978 Giacosa St Steven Riserva $225
*1977 Taurasi Riserva $60
* Bottom two wines of the night
** Top two wines of the night
well not really into posting but need to get going
being in the wine/food industry i felt that i should be out supporting restaurants in my area in this downturn
note: we dont eat meat, birds are my new favorite food though, linda fish only so we cant report complete and we only ate at each place once...
Smith St, USA
Grocery--nice food no tingle, need to try again
Saul--too heavy just ok, not going back anytime soon
Patois--we had a great dish here (old friend / ex chef of Nosmo King long ago) of trout served over mashed potatoes in a soup plate with a broth added containing corn and yelow beets, must return
Uncle Pho--we had one yummy and one super yummy here (the Jims Special Tuna!!!), hope they deliver
Banania--great brunch, ok dinner
Ytournel--my chicken as ok, Bill liked his cod gratinee very well, Linda's mussels were week, but we really like this place for the feel, try again soon
Smith St Kitchen--everything purrfect so far, yes its a mostly a seafood joint so its up our alley, we need to try more main courses to fully bless it, cant wait:>)
Not tasted:Cafe LULUc (owners of Banania), Bar Takac,
Ferninando's Foccaceria (open since 1904) which close's at 6pm, The Red Rose......
The New York Post likes AKA.
AKA (49 Clinton) is now open for lunch. Kitchen hours are noon to midnight. No empanadas during the day, but otherwise the menu is the same.
Adventures in Sabayon
I find myself needing useful distractions to get my mind off recent events. One of these distractions is doing homework for a cooking course. Last week's class included four desserts, with a heavy emphasis on eggs. I settled for doing about 1/3 of one dessert for my homework. I took on the task of whipping up a chocolate sabayon which had been used as a filling in a multilayer sponge cake.
I'm using the French spelling for sabayon, 'cause the Italian seems to have entirely too many vowels, especially for a southerner. We often get two or three syllables out of a single vowel, so a word like zabaglione can't help but be bruised.
My first attempt was really quite good until I added the Marsala wine. I had a nice pale yellow custard-like sabayon going, but forgot to add the wine along the way. So I kinda sorta dumped it all in at once, after the egg/sugar mixture was pretty much done -- with nice yellow ribbons, the real deal. With the abrupt addition of wine, the smooth ribbony texture was lost, leaving me with the fluff of air bubbles but without the sensual viscosity of a nice custard. And most of the wine never incorporated. Sugary egg foam floating on fortified wine -- interesting, but not exactly the desired effect.
On my second attempt I drizzled in the Marsala as I whipped up the yolks and sugar over mild heat. I think I now know why I've never been a z-bag fan. I don't really like Marsala. But there's a zillion other alternatives. Sauvignon blanc, grand marnier, cognac or citrus juice come to mind.
I folded in melted bittersweet chocolate, which deflated the eggs a bit, and folded in whipped cream, which added some fluff back. The result is a chocolate mousse-like substance that would be great as an ingredient in most any chocolate concoction as a topping or filling. It's light and fluffy in texture, but intense and heavy in impact. I popped the leftovers in the freezer to see if it sets up as a frozen treat.
Each time I learn some new technique or ingredient, I try to think up a variation of some sort. A warm, light and tart lemon sabayon layered with fresh berries is a prime candidate for experimentation this week.
in this whole week of sadness, i am feeling like my sences are heightened (mostly taste and sight), i had to go to the market today like Dr Wilson goes to the park, its my ritual, the colors almost blind me, the union sq park is a memorial as jim saw, linda and i went one night, i'm sad