Apologies to the three people following this blog. I have been lax and I do apologize. It stands to reason that the thing that would start blogging again would be my friend Nadine. Gorgeous light of my light that she is she called me today to talk about a number of things. A minor footnote in our conversation was about food, and I thought what better way to restart this dormant blog than to convey this anecdote.
Friends of Nadine often chide her about her dinner choices. Not when she's out, though sometimes those can also at times be slightly dubious (chopped salad at Bonitas? I love you regardless). She is not a bad cook, I do not mean to give that impression, she made me a wonderful omelet once. But what she is most famous for is "boiled chicken breast". As a lover of food nothing strikes more terror in my heart than those words. What a terribly bland bit of meat the chicken breast is. It can be tasty at times, but most of the times it is just anonymous protein that depresses me to no end. Nadine is a fervent defender of her boiled chicken breast which frankly i just don't understand.
So imagine my surprise when she lectured me about my choice of dinner for tonight. As most of you realize our economy is well in the shits so to speak. As I came home I wondered, could I make dinner with simply what was in my kitchen? I could and i did. I had a steak in the freezer, and a cup o' noodles in the cupboard. And for the record do not balk at my ramen, times are tough, leave me alone. I cut the steak up into thin slices, stir fried it with some garlic, dried chilies, ground ginger, fennel seeds, Chinese black bean sauce, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. I added my paupers noodles let the sauce reduce and had a fantastic dinner.
I guess long story short, boiled chicken breast ain't got nothing on me.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Kefi
Last Thursday I went to go see Nosedive’s production of “A Colorful World”. Based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel “The Watchmen” it was clever, witty and all in all well done. Kudos to all involved with special nods to James, Pete and Patrick Shearer, who is a devastingly talented actor. But this ain’t no theater blog kids. The show was on the upper west side, where I spent many a year slaving over a hot stove and subsequently getting kicked out of Citrus only to retreat to All State Café (R.I.P. to the saddest bar I’ve ever been to)
Now originally I wanted to eat at Ouest or Telepan but it seems that my friends are not nearly as eager to spend all their money on food (weirdos). I had heard good things about it and the chef Michael Psilakis who is now hotter than hot (he also is the chef at Anthos and Mia Dona). I looked up the greek menu online and found that it was pretty inexpensive and right around the corner from the theatre so it seemed perfect.
I rushed in my customary 10 mintues late to find Maria, Marsha and Teresa sitting at the bar waiting for me, which was an absolute joy . The bar is small and the front lounge was filled with people waiting for tables. Our waiter, who was also apparently a manager was quite gracious in giving us a table for 5 (Nadine joined us 5 mintes later after she found a power bar- upcoming blog, my thoughts on replacing a meal with a bar).
The dining room was packed and we got a roomy table in the back. Our waiter/manager told us the specials of the night and was incredible knowledgable and passionate about the food and wine. He recommened a greek red (all the wines are Greek) which was absolutely delicious. Marsha and I decided to start our meal by sharing Sheeps Milk Dumplings with Pine nuts, Sausage and Tomatoes. Teresa ordered the selection of spreads and Maria opted to start with a simple greek salad. The sheep’s milk dumpling appetizer was wonderful . Savory and delcious, the dish was perfectly balanced, and the sausage had a little kick, not too much but enough for me to appreciate. The selection of dips was also a great way to start a meal, served with warm pita bread, I love nothing more than having warm bread with something warm to slather over it. Now I have always loved taramosalata, (creamy fish roe spread), but for me the real revelation was the eggplant caviar spread. I don’t really like eggplant. Growing up my mother would serve it fried, in oil that was never hot enough rendering it into essentially a flavorless oil sponge (my mother is a good cook, just not with the eggplant, I love you Ma), served as a spread it was smoky and wonderfully flavorful.
For entrees I opted for the “broken mouska”, which was basically a free form mouska, Marsha the pork medallions with spicy peppers and capers, Teresa, sheeps milk ravioli with brown butter and sage, and Maria shrimp with orzo and feta. Everything was fantastic, I have only had mousaka at diners so it was a real treat to see the dish elevated into something a bit more special with care towards ingredients and method. Marsha’s pork was the perfect dish for her, peppers, capers, lemon with pork worked beautifully and was perfectly balanced. Teresa’s sheeps milk ravioli were delicious ( I feel like if someone ran in and put brown butter on my computer, I might eat it). And sweet Maria, a practicing vegetarian who for some reason feels compelled to eat fish whenever I’m around, her shrimp with feta and orzo was wonderful. The flavors were fresh and the dish worked wonderfully. Everyone enjoyed the food a lot and we had a great time eating talking and laughing like ladies who lunch (or dinner).
Unfortunatly we couldn’t stay for dessert,we had to run to the show, but Kefi with no entrée over $15 is defiently worth treking to the Upper West Side for.
Now originally I wanted to eat at Ouest or Telepan but it seems that my friends are not nearly as eager to spend all their money on food (weirdos). I had heard good things about it and the chef Michael Psilakis who is now hotter than hot (he also is the chef at Anthos and Mia Dona). I looked up the greek menu online and found that it was pretty inexpensive and right around the corner from the theatre so it seemed perfect.
I rushed in my customary 10 mintues late to find Maria, Marsha and Teresa sitting at the bar waiting for me, which was an absolute joy . The bar is small and the front lounge was filled with people waiting for tables. Our waiter, who was also apparently a manager was quite gracious in giving us a table for 5 (Nadine joined us 5 mintes later after she found a power bar- upcoming blog, my thoughts on replacing a meal with a bar).
The dining room was packed and we got a roomy table in the back. Our waiter/manager told us the specials of the night and was incredible knowledgable and passionate about the food and wine. He recommened a greek red (all the wines are Greek) which was absolutely delicious. Marsha and I decided to start our meal by sharing Sheeps Milk Dumplings with Pine nuts, Sausage and Tomatoes. Teresa ordered the selection of spreads and Maria opted to start with a simple greek salad. The sheep’s milk dumpling appetizer was wonderful . Savory and delcious, the dish was perfectly balanced, and the sausage had a little kick, not too much but enough for me to appreciate. The selection of dips was also a great way to start a meal, served with warm pita bread, I love nothing more than having warm bread with something warm to slather over it. Now I have always loved taramosalata, (creamy fish roe spread), but for me the real revelation was the eggplant caviar spread. I don’t really like eggplant. Growing up my mother would serve it fried, in oil that was never hot enough rendering it into essentially a flavorless oil sponge (my mother is a good cook, just not with the eggplant, I love you Ma), served as a spread it was smoky and wonderfully flavorful.
For entrees I opted for the “broken mouska”, which was basically a free form mouska, Marsha the pork medallions with spicy peppers and capers, Teresa, sheeps milk ravioli with brown butter and sage, and Maria shrimp with orzo and feta. Everything was fantastic, I have only had mousaka at diners so it was a real treat to see the dish elevated into something a bit more special with care towards ingredients and method. Marsha’s pork was the perfect dish for her, peppers, capers, lemon with pork worked beautifully and was perfectly balanced. Teresa’s sheeps milk ravioli were delicious ( I feel like if someone ran in and put brown butter on my computer, I might eat it). And sweet Maria, a practicing vegetarian who for some reason feels compelled to eat fish whenever I’m around, her shrimp with feta and orzo was wonderful. The flavors were fresh and the dish worked wonderfully. Everyone enjoyed the food a lot and we had a great time eating talking and laughing like ladies who lunch (or dinner).
Unfortunatly we couldn’t stay for dessert,we had to run to the show, but Kefi with no entrée over $15 is defiently worth treking to the Upper West Side for.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
top chef you suck
i know i have really never blogged about top chef this season, but honestly HONESTLY, this season BLOWS, yeah lets keep lisa on, you know fuck it let her win because this season is all about sending home talented chefs to keep a retard who makes peanut butter mashed potatoes on. Yeah I'm bitter, no reality show has ever made me this angry, thanks colichicco you bald fucker, and same to you padma. Honestly? HONESTLY? LISA. This show blows. I'll see you at the finale bravo. I hate you.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
He's the Hugo Chavez of Gastronomy. . .
this articles rocks my socks off.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/world/europe/01spain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=dining
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/world/europe/01spain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=dining
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Congratulations!
My old chef from 'cesca Amanda Freitag got 2 stars in the times, she's the new chef at the harrison and and seems happier than ever. I couldn't be happier for her. Here's a link to the review. I hopefully i'll be able to stop down there soon.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Damn Brazilians
I’ve been pretty lax in posting lately sorry. Late nights, good times, regrets the same old same old. I heard a story last night about, that I found particulary interesting in terms of how you deal with difficult service.
Memorial day, table of brazilians they order an $800 bottle of wine. Our sommlier goes to un cork the bottle and the cork disintergrates. It’s from 1971, so this is bound to happen. Protocol for this situation is to decant the bottle (through a coffee filter) and to serve it to the guest. When the matire d goes to tell the table they freak out and insist on a new bottle. Now there is nothing wrong with the bottle that they have. In fact it’s quite a nice bottle. And it’s not cheap, we can’t just give you an $800 bottle of wine for free without good reason.
Now I’m not the kind of person to order a bottle of wine that expensive. I don’t have that kind of money. But here’s the thing. If I did, I would trust the estabilishment selling the wine to know how to serve it (which we do). I would not get beliegerent and accuse a two michelin star restaurant of trying to sell a 90 dollar bottle of wine as an 800 dollar bottle of wine. And no matter how bad the service was. I would not leave no tip on a $2145 check. NO TIP. The matire d ran after the party on the street, and convinced them into giving the restaurant a 15% tip. Retarded man. Retarded.
In other supernon related news I’ve been listening to the violent femmes a lot. I suppose I’m late to this party. Oh well I’m late to everything.
Oh related news interesting article in the observer about ironic food.
Memorial day, table of brazilians they order an $800 bottle of wine. Our sommlier goes to un cork the bottle and the cork disintergrates. It’s from 1971, so this is bound to happen. Protocol for this situation is to decant the bottle (through a coffee filter) and to serve it to the guest. When the matire d goes to tell the table they freak out and insist on a new bottle. Now there is nothing wrong with the bottle that they have. In fact it’s quite a nice bottle. And it’s not cheap, we can’t just give you an $800 bottle of wine for free without good reason.
Now I’m not the kind of person to order a bottle of wine that expensive. I don’t have that kind of money. But here’s the thing. If I did, I would trust the estabilishment selling the wine to know how to serve it (which we do). I would not get beliegerent and accuse a two michelin star restaurant of trying to sell a 90 dollar bottle of wine as an 800 dollar bottle of wine. And no matter how bad the service was. I would not leave no tip on a $2145 check. NO TIP. The matire d ran after the party on the street, and convinced them into giving the restaurant a 15% tip. Retarded man. Retarded.
In other supernon related news I’ve been listening to the violent femmes a lot. I suppose I’m late to this party. Oh well I’m late to everything.
Oh related news interesting article in the observer about ironic food.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Interesting
Here's a little slideshow from the new york times about chef's knife bags. Frankly I think it's fascinating, but that's just me.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/06/16/magazine/20060618_CHEF_SLIDESHOW_1.html
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2006/06/16/magazine/20060618_CHEF_SLIDESHOW_1.html
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