dresese

Cappuccino successes

I have some great successes in cappuccino making. But I've decided to put it on my food blog, so just pop on over and see my latest creation. Further cappuccino-related news and lessons will appear there.

db

I live in Forest Hills Gardens. It is a beautiful place, and I enjoy living there. However, the neighborhood of Forest Hills is a bit lacking in terms of food. Well, almost. It has Nick's, a pizza place that regularly ranks among the best pies in New York. It has 5 Burros, a very tasty East-Coast style Mexican place (meaning they have lobster tacos). We have a few decent Thai restaurants and a pretty good Greek place, a good Cantonese style restaurant, and a great bagel shop. But even with all this, the restaurant scene feels bad. The main street, 71st Ave, is filled with fast food restaurants. There are no good slices (Nick's serves whole pies only). No good cafes either, in fact no cafes I can remember except for Starbucks. Lots of mediocre restaurants. Very few restaurants opening.

One new restaurant has just opened, though. "db" on Metropolitan. It features Spanish and Italian fare with a clean, modern style. The menu is small. The wine list is interesting, and overall it's about ten times classier than any other joint on Metropolitan. My friend Adam and I ate there a few weekends ago. We had Serrano ham croquettes with garlic aoili, a hanger steak, mushroom risotto, and a crisp for dessert. The food was well prepared with exception of some greens that came with the steaks, that were not properly washed and therefore gritty. The mushroom risotto was a trifle under-salted. But the flavor of the risotto had a great punch, and the consistency was perfect, which is unusual even for good restaurants.

db may not be much, but it is what could be a very solid restaurant. Maybe not so awesome that someone may come from Manhattan to eat there, but good enough so that you don't have to go to Manhattan to get food of this quality.

Aburiya Kinnosuke

A few weeks ago, I went to a great Japanese robata-style grill called Aburiya Kinnosuke. I think this is the first time I've ever been to such a place, and it was quite interesting. For much of the food, they grill it around an open vertical fire, from which the chefs place vertical food around the perimiter of. It's a nice idea, which strikes me as not only efficient (you have more area to grill), but also tasty: the juices from the topmost things run down and flavor the meats and vegetables on the bottom.

Pictured here is one of the strangest things they had. To the naked eye, it is a cracker. But up close, it looks like a nighmare a small fish would have, since it is a "skin" entirely composed of tiny smelt. This one was grilled at our table on a portable charcoal grill. It was nice, not crunchy but rather firm and pliant like a flatbread. But the best item on the menu was probably a sea bass stuffed with herbs. They stuffed it with an intense amount of thyme, and it was amazingly tasty and fragrant.

For more pictures, see my flickr set. Sea bass not pictured.

Cappuccino @ Via Quadronno

I recently heard about Via Quadronno, which many claim is the best cappuccino in the city. It's located on 73rd & Madison, a location where I rarely go. But last weekend I went boating in Central Park (pictures will probably appear on the Hyatt family blog before long), and that put me roughly parallel. I managed to convince Greta that it wouldn't be troublesome to walk over there so I can enjoy some coffee, so I found myself outside a completely packed coffee house, which had a little bar outside selling gelato. Getting a seat there was impossible, but they didn't mind giving me a real cup for me to drink from, outside.

The cappuccino they made was wonderful. It was both completely smooth, and very thick. Probably the best I've had in the city, but the cappuccino at Casa and Zibetto are nearly as good.

Check out the Via Quadronno website for some more great photos of cappuccinos, and other drinks.

More cappuccino progress

The last time I wrote about my experiences with making cappuccinos, I was having better success. The key was the water pressure - as soon as it was fixed my froth became much better. Still, I haven't been that happy. My frothing frequently turns out too bubbly, or too thin, or both.

For help, I went to Zibetto and asked the barrista there about how to make the proper froth. He was very willing to give some tips. First he made some froth and showed me the consistency - it was thick but there were no bubbles. He said that's how it should be, thick & smooth, like yogurt. He said there was nothing to the frothing, you just position the wand at the right place (he sort of rested the pitcher of milk on the upper corner of the wand), and get a whirlpool. He did this for a few seconds, then tilted the pitcher of milk slightly so that the tip of the wand was just at the surface, creating froth. After just a second of this, he moved the wand to the center of the pitcher, all while keeping the whirlpool going. He said the whirlpool will whip air into it, and break up all the little bubbles. He kept this going until the pitcher was too hot to hold, then stopped.

I've attempted the same thing, but found that I tend to get big bubbles at the end, but just on some machines. On others, everything goes great. So for the moment, I'm sticking with the good machines. Even so, I'm not getting the volume of froth that I want. Perhaps I either need to work on my position for the few seconds I spend at the top of the milk, or extend that time period. Or maybe just none of the machines are powerful enough. My latest effort, which was fairly good:

Al Dente

One of the hard parts about cooking is that so much of it is based on knowledge that is only trasmissible through shared experience. Al dente pasta is a good example of this. Every cookbook says the same thing - to cook pasta "al dente", meaning it should not be too soft. Of course, how much is too soft, or how much is too hard? I used to cook my pasta fairly soft. After eating at some nice Italian restaurants in New York, I realized that my pasta was way too soft, so I cooked it much firmer, and found I enjoyed it a lot. Was this al dente? Or too much, or too little? First of all, I've never been to Italy, so I have nothing to compare my pasta against. Second, even in Italy, there probably is a fair amount of disagreement, something I imagine Italian grandmas bicker about while playing canasta.

When I first had pasta that was fairly firm, it was a revelation. I had a similar revelation a few months ago when eating at a restaurant in the West Village called BellaVitae. They had a pasta there that was beyond any al-dente that I've had. The spaghetti was actually cooked just to the point of having a slight crunch in the center, which was a delightful surprise. Surprisingly, they did this with the rest of the pasta not tasting undercooked at all. I'm not sure how they did it, perhaps they just have the timing down to the millisecond in which it perfectly cooked. Perfectly cooked, that is, if you like your pasta a bit crunchy.

But is that al dente? I may never know, and in fact such a thing may be unknowable, and maybe not even a question work asking, because there is no real standard on this.

Di Fara

Last week I got a chance to visit Di Fara, a pizza joint beloved by chowhounds. This is not a restaurant, it is basically a classic slice joint, except with fanatical devotion to quality.

I've been trying to get there for a while, but it's all the way in Midwood in Brooklyn, which is far out of my way.

The thing about Di Fara is that everything is done by Dominic DeMarco, an older man whose been running this pizza shop for decades. There's a photo of a much younger version of him, standing in the same place he is now, with what looks like the same equipment as he has now. It must be something to work in the same place for 40 years. I tried to imagine myself 40 years old working in my cubicle, but the chances of me being in the same cubicle for even 2 years in a row are pretty much nil.

The strategy of eating at Di Fara is a lot like Dumpling House. You have to go there, shoulder your way up to the counter, make eye contact when Dom has a free second, and blurt out your order. Then repeat it to make sure he got it. Unlike Dumpling House, though, you have to stay and make sure he actually makes it, because his ordering is haphazard to say the least. People who walked in way later than you will be eating before you are, and he may just forget your order entirely.

When Dom makes your pie, he carefully puts the sauce on, then grates his cheese right onto your pizza. Then he pours olive oil on it, and puts it in the oven. It takes a while to bake. Unlike most high-end New York pizzas, this takes longer than 5 minutes to cook. Then again, this is not a high class pizza. It's more like a high-end low-class pizza. He takes it out of the oven to put more cheese on. When he finally pulls it out, the top is bubbling and molten, as if someone had spilled pizza soup on it. Out of the oven it comes, he peeks at the bottom, then takes his basil out and snips some basil right onto the pizza. Very nice.

The taste is great, completely unlike other pizzas. Mostly it is because of the cheese combination. It has a tangier and saltier taste. Also, richer. Two slices is pretty much all anyone needs.

We got not only the plain pie, but also one with half artichokes, half porcini mushrooms. On the plus side, he is generous with his toppings, and the toppings are excellent. The artichokes were not some sort of canned artichoke hearts, but instead little triangles of real fresh artichokes. The porcini mushrooms weren't thin pieces of rehydrated mushrooms, but instead large whole marinated mushrooms. The problem was that these toppings made the pizza very soggy, and you could only eat it with a knife and fork. I liked the toppings, but probably the plain pizza was the best.

The crust, by the way, was good, but not as good as the more high-end pizzerias. On the whole, I think other places had a better pie, but this was certainly the best slice joint I've ever eaten at.

Naeng Myun

A recent article in the New York Times called my attention to Naeng Myun, Korean cold noodles. Not just room-temperature noodles, but noodles in which the broth actually has ice in it. A group of coworkers and myself went to try it out. We went to You-Chun on 36tht St., a Chowhound recommendation.

We started out with a seafood pancake, which I've never had before at a Korean restaurant. It was a little greasy, but fantastic. The crunchiness of the crust of the pancake was a great contrast to the soft creamy inside & chewy seafood.

I got the soup, which they had several varieties of. I had the simple version with the ice. They also had varieties without ice but with hot sauce. When the soup arrived, it was monstrous, a giant metal chilled bowl filled with a sort of slushy broth with buckwheat noodles. The noodles were very good, firm and chewy. On the side they served a white-colored hot beef broth. The whole experience was less strange than I had initially envisioned, and drinking icy broth on a hot day felt very natural.

This was a lot of food, by the way. I would recommend splitting a noodle soup with a friend, if that is possible.

I would recommend this place, the soup was very good. Also, it is open 24 hours, although the place may be much more karaoke oriented late at night. Even at lunch we sat next to a giant TV showing Korean performances, in this case a guy playing classical to a sort of a house beat, while dancers dressed as cats performed. But, hey, they make good noodles.

Shalimar

When in San Francisco, there is no better place to eat than Shalimar. The deliciousness per dollar spent ratio is probably the best I've ever seen. They are a triple-threat of Pakistani cuisine - they have the best naan I've ever eaten, the best tandoori meats, and the best curries. Oh wait, that's not all, they also have really interesting and occasionally great meals such as lamb brain curry. Oh yes, and the restaurant is a hole-in-the wall filled with mouth-watering smokiness. Your clothes will smell like smoke & curries after you leave. And if you are like me, you'll have a hard time washing these clothes, preferring instead to sniff them for a reminder of the best Pakistani food you've ever had.

I was back in the Bay Area last week and went, and took more pictures of the wonderful food there (previous pictures are in this post.

I ate with just a few other friends, and so we couldn't sample every delicious thing possible. We had to get the tandoori chicken, because no one does tandoor like these guys.

After that, we had to get my all-time Shalimar favorite combo, Bhuna Gosht and onion kulcha. Each of these two things is incredibly delicious, but they work really well together. The only complaint I have is I didn't get any marrow bones in my curry. When I do, it is always the highlight of the meal. If you go there and get a bone marrow, for goodness sake don't leave it there, suck out the marrow!

We also ordered some classic vegetarian options. Most prominent among them is the dal, which my friend Ben swears by. It does taste pretty good, but to me most dals are pretty boring.

Also we had palek paneer:

I was happy.

Una Pizza Napoletana

Last weekend Adam and I went to the East Village to try Una Pizza Napoletana, a pizzeria that burst on the New York scene a year or two ago on a wave of incredible hype. At the time, the story was that it was made by a pizza purist, who was dedicated to the pizzas of Naples, and determined to bring a good pizza to New York. When you say something like that in New York, be prepared for a controversy. When the review came in, they tended to fall along two lines: 1) This is the best pizza ever, wonderful in its simple use of high quality ingredients and techniques , and 2) The pizzas are nothing special, overpriced, and the place charges for tap water.

Una Pizza was ranked among the best in books, magazine articles, and various blogs. So I suspected I would like this pizza. The pizzas are $20, and I feel that if I have one of the great pizzas in America for $20, then it is well worth it.

The place only serves 4 pies, all of them fairly simple. We split two pizzas, both of them topped with buffalo mozzarella cheese, one with cherry tomatoes and garlic, and one with a sauce and basil. They were both incredible, although I preferred the plain Margherita pie. First of all, the crust was awesome, perfectly charred and with the right amount of chew. In addition, the buffalo mozzarella was so creamy that ever bite of it was precious to me. And the sauce, mozzarella and olive oil combined in a really harmonious way that went beyond what I've experienced in other pizzas.

I wouldn't say that it is makes me think less of the other Neopolitan pies in the city. For instance, La Pizza Fresca is probably 70% as good. But to me, this is Neopolitan perfection. Eat there, go now.

Oh yes, and they don't charge for water anymore.

Lin Taiwanese

Also known as David's Taiwanese, Lin Taiwanese is in Elmhurst and serves up a variety of interesting Taiwanese dishes. If you like blood and intestines, this is the place for you. I think of any Chinese place I've been to, it has the most blood-based dishes. It also has stinky tofu!

Ben and I ate here for lunch today. It was quite tasty, although we didn't eat any blood or stinky tofu.

We first got a spicy, salty smelt as an appetizer. It was good, but the fact that this one dishes required about 100 fish to die is not exactly pleasing.

I'm a sucker for stir-fried udon, which I first had in Hong Kong. This was a very good version, with crunchy vegetables and thick chewy noodles.

For our vegetable, we had "si gua", which is a type of Chinese squash. This was really delicious, but this dish almost always is.

Finally, Taiwanese sausage. Strangely, it comes with raw garlic. I'm usually not one to eat raw garlic, a trait I share with most of the human race. I did try a bit of the garlic with the sausage, which is how I imagine one is supposed to eat it. It was a nice combination, but I still felt the garlic was a bit too spicy.

Overall, a solid Taiwanese eatery. Nothing blew me away, but that's fine, because nothing was at all disappointing.

La Pizza Fresca

I've mentioned La Pizza Fresca before. It's a great Neopolitan-style pizza restaurant. It doesn't get as much press as some of the other places of the same style in New York, but it really is one of the best pizzas in the city. I don't have much else to say about them, just wanted to plug them again.

At a Flushing food court

Flushing has got to me my favorite food destination right now. It is so jam packed full with wildly good Chinese food that just choosing where to go is perplexing. Like Buridan's donkey, you might just starve before deciding where to eat.

Last weekend, Ben and I went to a small food court in Flushing. We ate about half of the stalls there. My favorite was the Sichuan stall, where you can order from a man who speaks no English at all. Pointing at the menu won't help because the menu is only a sign that he can't see, and faces towards you (and it's all in Chinese). But the food is spicy and has an abundance of those wonderful Sichuan peppercorns. It's a great, cheap way to eat.

We got the Sichuan cold noodles. The noodles, like the rest of the food, was pleasantly spicy although not overwhelmingly so. The real spice came from the mouth-numbing Sichuan peppercorns.

We also got a big bowl of cold, smoked rabbit. Compared to the rest of the dishes, it was a little plain. It was so much, though (I think Ben accidentally ordered a double order), that I took it home. Eating it on it's own was a revelation. It was not only smoky, but had a wonderful subtle heat to it. I couldn't stop eating it!

Finally, we got some dumplings. Unlike other ones I've had, these were topped with sesame seeds. Strange. It was quite tasty however, although I've had better elsewhere.

At the other stalls, we got an green onion & egg stuffed bread from an Islamic Chinese vendor, which had a wonderfully hearty and rustic taste. We also got a peanut & chicken soup from a Cantonese stall. That one was much more refreshing that I would have guessed. Very pleasant.

Zibetto

Last week I tried Zibetto, a new and extremely tiny espresso bar near 56th St. and 6th Ave. I can't call it a café, because you can't even sit down. It's just a counter. However, the espresso and cappuccinos are expertly crafted. I recommend it highly, so go there and try it out! This is one of the best in the city.

Portions

How many people can one pound of pasta feed as a main course? I ask, because I subscribe to Cook's Illustrated magazine, and they had a segment on pasta. They claimed that one pound of pasta can feed "4 to 6 people as a main course". Now, I probably eat a little more than average. However, I feel I can comfortably eat more than half a pound of pasta myself. My wife Greta, who is a fairly small woman, eats less than me, but still around half a pound of pasta.

So why would Cook's Illustrated, a magazine that is pretty well informed, have such a bizarre estimate? I figure it is because they really are talking sort of a dinner-party style entree. People have eaten soup, maybe some bread. By the time the main course comes around, perhaps they aren't very hungry. And of course they have to save some room for dessert. Oh isn't that typical of that whole Vermont-style living that the editor of that magazine loves so much.

Really, though, I feel that this is deceptive. I don't normally have courses. Who has time to make more than one meal, or clean more than one set of dishes? So I feel that one pound of pasta can feed 2 people as a main (and only) course normally. Less, of course, if there is more food. But that case is unusual and not really even worth talking about.

Some moderate cappuccino success

After the water pressure got fixed, my cappuccinos have been getting better and better. This one I decided to froth a fair amount of milk, more than I could drink. I hate wasting, but I thought it might be necessary to get a truly superior froth.

I think that is the case. Just look at that beauty! It's wonderful! Sure, no latte art yet, but this style is definitely what I was aiming for. I still need to increase the amount of froth a bit, I think, and be able to make this quality of cappuccino more consistently. More recent tries have looked much less smooth. I believe perhaps that I need to be more careful during the initial phases of frothing the milk not to make any big bubbles.

Mountain View trip

I just got back from a week-long trip to Mountain View. I managed to see my good friends Erik and Vladimir (plus wife Maria) who I worked with at Intellicorp, Shibani, Emmett, Michel, Arthur & Kevin, who I worked with at Intraspect, Patty, Jon & their family, whose lab I worked in at U of I, and Samantha, who I worked with at Intellicorp and Intraspect.

For food, I had at least one of the Bay Area's best hits. With Michel, I had Zachary's absolutely authentic Chicago-style pies.

I had some decent food with everyone else, but nothing mind-blowing. Probably the other really nice thing I had was a mini-pizza with really nice tasting heirloom tomatoes at Charlie's. I'd ask where they got heirloom tomatoes at this time of year, but at least two people told me the high-end supermarkets import them from Chile now and sell them year-round.

However, two disappointments: I did not get to eat at Shalimar, which is pretty much my favorite place to eat in the world. And I didn't get to drink a good pearl milk tea. I'll have to leave that for when I go back.

Oh yeah, and the weather sucked. It was relatively cold and rainy, and at one point while I waited for Caltrain one day, very cold and very rainy. I swear I almost got frostbite. Meanwhile, in New York, the weather was incredible, with highs of more than 60 degrees.

Cappuccino progress

Some interesting updates on my cappuccino progress. My progress has been very slow. For weeks, I just was unable to get any decent froth at all. I didn't know why, it just seemed like it was impossible. I was disheartened.

Then, one day I went to make a cappuccino, and there was a guy working on the water system. Evidently the water pressure had been low for the past few weeks, which was effecting the espresso quality. After he fixed it, I found I could make froth quite easily. The difference was huge. Which is odd, because steam is steam, right? What difference does the water pressure make?

I might not understand it, but man, I was happy. I could quite easily make the smooth emulsified foam that I like so much.

However, all was not perfect. My foam was quite good, but I still wanted more of it. At the Steps of Rome, my favorite coffee shop in San Francisco, their cappuccinos had very stury foam, and lots of it. Which was amazing considering it was all emulsified, and not spooned out seperately. But I couldn't quite get so much foam.

A few days ago, Google was hosting a group of students from NYU. I met one of them by the cappuccino machine, and he demonstrated his latte art skills for me. It was quite impressive, and the results are shown in the picture for this post. However, he made more of a latte, and I'd say his cappuccino was only somewhat better than mine.

Next time I take my camera to work, I'll snap a picture of my cappuccino results. I'm going to start trying to make patterns soon as well.

Shalom Kosher Restaurant

Last weekend, Adam and I went to a new kosher kabob place, one that was written up in a New York Times article I previously mentioned. Read on some pictures of the delicious food we had.

We started with some pickled vegetables: tomatoes, beets, and cucumber. Very nice and refreshing. The pickled beets had a surprising kick to them.

We also had the nice bread. Normally I wouldn't take picture of bread, but the bread at these places is sort of unique, with a distinctive bagel-like shape. This picture has nothing to judge the size of the bread by, but the bread is medium sized. It can feed two people.

We had lamb soup, which was very nice and hearty. I like how they use plenty of parsley. It's not just for decoration, they really put it there to give the lamb a subtler flavor.

More interesting was the "lagman", a hand-pulled noodle soup. The thick chewy noodles were great, and the broth was perfectly seasoned.

Next was the chebureki, a sort of giant oblong deep-fried soup dumpling, which could be filled with beef, or mushrooms, or other ingredients. They both had some nice juice inside, with the mushroom one being incredibly juicy.

And of course let us not forget the kabobs. We got the some healthy kabobs: a deliciously salty and strong-flavored salmon, mushrooms (which could have been cooked a little more, I feel), and tomatoes.

We also got a lamb kabob, and a beef skirt steak kabob. Both were excellent. Unfortunately, unlike Cheburechnaya, no lamb fat kabob was offered.

But that's not all! We also got a plate of cabbage, which was about as good as cabbage can be. Which is not incredible. But good.

And finally, dessert, which was something called Chak-Chak. Basically it was sweet noodles. Like those noodle baklava you see, but with really thick noodles, and arranged in a tall block.

Looking back at this, I'm really amazed we could eat of all of it. I'd say it was cheap, but all this food came to about $40. Not expensive, certainly. But there are cheaper meals to be had. Overall, everything was well done. The standouts for me were the lagman and the salmon kabob. However, I feel that most people would find the salmon kabob too salty.

According to one of the workers there, Martha Stewart is planning to do something for her show at this place. You heard it here first. I was pre-Martha for the Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, and now this. Get out of my head, woman!

Patsy's pizzeria

Patsy's pizzeria is one of the oldest pizza places still around, and a classic pizza of the coal-fired variety. The original is in Harlem, and Patsy's and their offshoot restaurants have been among the best pizza in New York for as long as anyone can remember.

Today some friends and I went to eat at the Patsy's on 23rd Street. It was surprisingly empty at 12:30 on a Friday. We ordered two pies, a plain pie, and an olive pie.

The pizza was quite good. Like many of it's kind, some of the slices were partially soggy. However, the rest of the pizza was excellent, with a great crust, a tasty sauce, and excellent quality mozzarella.

After this pizza, I still need to try Grimaldi's (a Patsy's offshoot, in fact), DiFara's and Una PIzza Napolentana.

The frothing begins again

My espresso making and frothing experiment began last week. Google has some nice machines:

I've been able to create an OK espresso. That is, it's better than many you will find in New York. But still I have a long way to go.

My cappuccinos have not been so successful. I've made two so far. The first one was fairly good, but the second one basically had no froth at all. The whole frothing thing is very hard to do, since one of my hands has to be on the steam button, and the other holds the milk. The machine is powerful, and so the milk heats up fairly quickly. So far, I haven't gotten things down quick enough to get a good froth yet.

Also, I need to get a cappuccino cup. It's hard to even judge how good froth is when drinking from paper cups. When I get it, stay tuned for pictures. My goal is to be able to create good foam and some preliminary latte art by springtime.

Bukharian cuisine in Queens

The New York Times has an excellent article about Bukharian Cuisine found in Queens. This stuff is close to where I live, although not within walking distance, unfortunately. I really like the pictures and some of the tidbits, especially about the Bukharian Jews not being either Ashkenazi or Sephardi, but instead descended from the Jews of Babylon. I had no idea.

Le Pain Quotidien

Yes, it's a chain, but Le Pain Quotidien has my respect. From Belgium, they have locations internationally, and many locations in Manhattan, and Los Angeles. They specialize in dense, chewy, rustic organic breads. I've bought their bread many times, and it is expensive ($10 for a loaf), but the loaf lasts a long time due to its denseness. On Friday, my family, myself, and my friend Adam ate lunch at the branch in the Upper West Side (84th & Amsterdam).

I got a Tuscan bread platter (or something like that). It had a farmer's cheese, a pesto & olive tapenade, prosciutto, shaved parmesan, and a selection of bread. Very delicious, and a deceptively large amount of food.

When in a Belgian place in mid-winter, there's nothing better than a nice Belgian Hot Cocoa. I've never had one like this, which was a separate bowl of froth, and the molten chocolate on the side. It worked fairly well, and the cocoa was wonderful.

Adam got a Sardine & Beet sandwich, which I tried. It was salty with an mild sweetness, and not as odd as one might imagine.

Greta got a couple of tarts. Shown below is the apricot tart. I didn't try it, but she reports that it was really good.

I really like this place. Their whole philosophy of organic, rustic food is something I think New York needs more of.

Mama's Empanadas

The empanada is a food I never really encountered before moving to New York. I haven't been to many empanada places, but I have gone to a local place many times. From my experience, empanadas can range from fairly large (3 would be a meal), to about half that size. Outside the Queen's Center Mall is an excellent empanada place, which has a small sized empanada, Mama's Empanadas.

Their menu is fairly large, with about 20 different types of empanadas, along with other miscellaneous items. They have two types of empanadas, flour ones, and corn ones. They both are good, but I prefer the corn ones, which have a great bite which is both firm, crunchy, and tasty. The insides of the empanadas usually works well, except the spinach & cheese, which I thought was too watery.

Overall, I recommend this place highly. The best empanadas I've had so far, although my experience is too limited for that claim to mean much. By the way, this place is takeout only.

Din Tai Fung

Every year, legendary Taiwanese dumpling masters Din Tai Fung come to the Flushing Sheraton for a week. They bring not only their prodigious skills, but also all of the raw ingredients from Taiwain!

I was fortunate enough to find out in advance when this would happen, and today a group of 9 of us went to gorge ourselves on the Din Tai Fung's legendary xiao long bao (soup dumplings) and other food. We not only got to eat this great food, but we saw the dumpling masters in action. I think they were somewhat surprised and amused that someone would be taking pictures of them.

It wasn't all dumplings. We started with a couple plates of "salty vegetable" which turned out to be some baby bok choi. It was perfect. Nicely salty, crunchy without tasting raw, and of course with bok choi's normal pleasant taste. This disappeared amazingly fast, especially for a vegetable dish!

We next ate some wonderful chicken soup. It was, as the waitress described it, "from real chicken, not frozen!" Taiwun Fun magazine describes it as "wild chicken". It had a perfectly clear broth, with a subtle, fresh flavor. The dark meat in the chicken was slippery and had a wonderful texture. One of the best chicken soups I've had.

Finally, the star of the show, the xiao long bao (or soup dumplings, as they are called here). We got two versions, one with just pork, and one with crab & pork. These were little miracles. They were small, perfectly sized, and had a dumpling skin that was both thin, strong, and tasty. The soup inside was much more elegant tasting than others I've had. The ones I've had in New York have had a sort of greasy, strong tasting broth, with the actual crab or pork somewhat of an afterthought. Not these. The broth accentuated the filling, and the filling was probably the most amazing thing about it. The crab & pork had such a nice, fresh, crab taste, with the texture of real crab. This was the only crab xiao long bao that actually tasted like crab. The pork xiao long bao also had a great filling, with an assertive taste, and a somewhat rough texture. For me, this was unusual, and a pleasant surprise.

We had many other dumplings, most of which I didn't get a picture of. They all were excellent. The strangest dumpling we had was a dumpling filled with sticky rice. This is a strange concept to me, and sort of reminded me of the pizzas you see in New York with ziti pasta on them. They were tasty, though, although they didn't blow me away.

All in all, I found the ingredients used to be top-quality fresh ingredients. The preparation was done extremely skillfully, and it all combined to form a wonderful and memorable meal. I don't know if I'll ever top these xiao long bao's, but I can only hope that I'll at least eat there again next year when Din Tai Fung comes around.

Chikubu Ramen

On a tip from Chowhound, I checked out Chikubu, a Japenese restaurant that, on Fridays, serves some of the best Ramen in the city. So I tried it out with some co-workers. It really was good, with a nicely flavored broth, to good quality noodles, and everything. Probably the best part was the pork in it, which was both flavorful and melt-in-your-mouth tender.

My co-worker Brody took some more photos, but I can't figure out how to link to his public photos (although Flickr says I should be able to do this). So blogging one photo from Flickr is all I can do. Sorry!

The Hummus Place

I love a restaurant that knows what it does best, and sticks to it. Nick's Pizza, for example, in Forest Hills does pizza and very little else. Similarly, this week my co-workers and I went to a place that serves hummus, hummus with chickpeas, and hummus with fava beans. Oh, and a tomato stew. That's it.

The hummus was very good. It was so smooth, and they put lots of different spices in it so that it keeps your interest. And there's egg in it. Everything in this restaurant had the capability of having an egg on top. I wish more restaurants were like that.

Not only was the hummus very good, but the pita bread was excellent, and obviously freshly made. I really enjoyed this bread.

I did not have the hummus, however. I just tried someone else's. What I had was... well I can't remember the exact name, but it was a tomato stew with some vegetables. And a fried egg on top. Yes!

And if that delicious meal wasn't enough, there was Turkish coffee. I love Turkish coffee!

All in all, a very enjoyable experience. I'll be coming back here.

Sweet-n-Tart

I've heard good things about Sweet-n-Tart, a nice Chinatown Cantonese spot with dim-sum type items. I tried it out with a friend last week, and thought it was pretty good.

We had some standard dim-sum type dumplings, along with a slightly unusual shrimp & asparagus dumpling. We also ordered chicken and clam congee, a strange combination that worked better than expected. Also, we had a beef noodle soup. The beef flavor was unexceptional, but we liked the noodles.

All in all, a nice meal, and it wasn't too expensive (although it was expensive by Chinatown standards). Nothing was greasy, and everything tasted fresh. I'd go back, especially since there aren't that many good Cantonese places around New York.

More on Spicy & Tasty

I previously blogged about Flushing restaurant Spicy & Tasty. I went back and got some different dishes this week. As usual, it was all very good. This place uses real Sichuan peppercorns, which means that not only is the food spicy, it also has this strange mouth-numbing taste. Pictures after the jump.

So, I got a certain type of boiled dumpling, soaked in red chili oil. I love this type of dumpling, and this one manages to be elegant in appearance, but with a straightforward, rustic taste at the same time.

I also got some cold Sichuan noodles. A classic to try at any Sichuan place. The noodles here were very good.

I also had a slightly different kind of cold jelly than I had the last time. This one had the distinction of having a huge amount of raw garlic on top. The spiciness, numbingness, and bite from the garlic was quite exciting to my palate, but this is only recommended to those who can stomach so much garlic.

Finally, there was the cold, spicy bamboo, which had the familiar spicy taste that all these dishes had, plus a refreshing texture.

Fleur de Sel

Last week a few coworkers and I ate lunch at Fleur de Sel, a well-regarded modern French restaurant. They have a $25 prix-fix lunch. The lunch was three courses, the first was a frothy parsnip soup, with the cutest little parsnip raviolis you ever saw. Really good. Next I had duck & duck confit combination, which was an interesting contrast. The duck was perfectly done, and the light sauce complimented it nicely, without overwhelming the taste. Finally, I had a trio of fruit sorbets that had a really nice natural flavor to it. I didn't have anything that totally blew me away, but the parsnip soup came fairly close.

I'm getting to be more and more a fan of the prix-fix lunch. You can have a really nice, elegant three-course meal for a reasonable price. Yes, it is expensive, but a few cheap meals at other times will more than make up for it.

Another one I had recently was at Nino's Tuscany, where I had probably the best cooked pasta I've ever had. It was perfectly al-dente, which is really tricky to do and requires precise timing.

And, is it prix-fix or prix-fixe? I see both spellings.

More on DeMarco's

I've written about DeMarco's before. After a few trips down there over the past year, my final verdict is the pizza is very good, but inconsistent. The problem is the crust. About half the time, the crust is as it should be: firm and with a good chew. The other half of the time, though, the crust gets a little water-logged, and comes out soggy.

The soggy crust problems sounds worse than it actually is. The pizza is still edible, and in fact still tasty, with the soggy crust. However, it is nowhere near as good as it could be.

By the way, in my previous post, I had not noticed that you can get quick slices from a different door around the corner to the sit-down restaurant's door.

So, eat at this place if you are in the West Village, and hungry for a slice. I recommend getting both a square slice and a round slice. DeMarco's is on the corner of MacDougal and Houston.

1111 Mississippi

When I was in St. Louis, Greta and I ate out with our friends Brian, Amanda, and Greg (who, in the linked picture, has the "1000 yard stare"). We decided to go to a hip little restaurant 1111 Mississippi, a self-described "wine country bistro" which was in the very nice Lafayette Square neighborhood. The menu was quite interesting, and had lots of stuff I would love to try. We ordered two bottles of Saint Gregory wine (which turned out to be very nice). For an appetizer, we had a selection of "regional cheeses", which I thought meant Missouri cheese, but evidently it merely means the cheese came from some region in the world. Not very meaningful.

For dinner, I couldn't resist ordering the "Red Deer Osso Bucco". Anytime you eat deer, it is an interesting experience, however, it tends to be dry and tough. Part of the osso busco was indeed dry and tough, although with a nice flavor. However, other parts of the meet were nice and tender. And the marrow was great. I'm not sure I can recommend the dish, but if you have wanted to try venison, it's not a bad thing to try.

This was a nice place, definitely. They paid attention to their ingredients, and offered interesting dishes. I think what would make it better would be a stronger focus on local ingredients, and perhaps rethinking some of the items like the venison. But I'd love to go back and try out some of the other items.

Ted Drewes

My next culinary stop on the St. Louis trip was Gino's, a great old Italian restaurant near the Hill. After that meal, my family and I went to Ted Drewes, which is one of my favorite places to go in St. Louis. And I'm not even an ice-cream junkie. But the great thing about Ted Drewes is that everyone comes here from all over St. Louis, it's always crowded, and on a hot August night you can stand there with everyone else and cool down by eating a delicious concrete. It's just one of the great communal experiences in St. Louis. When I was there, I saw all sorts of people, including a just-crowned beauty queen chowing down on some ice-cream (I can only imagine how long she had been waiting to do that).

Ted Drewes evidently invented the concrete, when a particular customer kept asking for a shake made thicker and thicker. Concretes are now all over the midwest, and I'm sure that the origin story I've heard is hotly contested. It's even in New York now, in Danny Meyer's Shake Shack in Madison Square Park.

So, next time you are in St. Louis, Ted Drewes is a must. Until then, I leave with only a picture of the wonderful concrete:

Lion's Choice

Last weekend Greta, the twins, and I went to St. Louis to visit my family. I have lots of different posting to make about the trip, but none of the postings could be done in St. Louis, mostly because a huge storm hit the area on Saturday, and my parent's house had no power. When I left on Monday, it still had no power.

First off, I went to Lion's Choice, which I go to every time I'm in St. Louis.

Lion's Choice is the absolute best fast-food burger-like option I know of. It specializes in roast beef sandwiches. The roast beef is cooked medium-rare, and is densely piled on a sesame bun. The beef is beefy, tender, and nicely salted. Eating it, you will be amazed at the difference between a good fast-food roast beef sandwich, and Arby's.

Au jus sauce is offered as a condiment as well as ketchup and mustard. Stick with the au jus sauce. One sandwich costs around $2.50, but you probably want to eat two. If you are in St. Louis, I highly recommend this place.

Waldy's Wood-Fired Pizza & Penne

About 10 months ago I heard about the soon-to-be-open Waldy's Wood-Fired Pizza & Penne. I don't know if the article I read got it wrong, or things were just late, but it opened about 8 months later than it was supposed to. I've been waiting mildly for months now. There already is a great pizza place by where I work, La Pizza Fresca, so I wasn't exactly desperate. But good restaurants in the 6 blocks north of where I work are pretty much nonexistent, so I was curious and hopeful. I went almost as soon as it opened. At the time of writing this, I've been there twice so far, both times with my co-workers.

Waldy's is a tiny, tiny place. Probably only about 10 people have room to sit, with standing room for 4 more. Everyone else must get takeout. I got there early, but there was a huge line at around 12:30.

At Waldy's you can order a fairly expensive pizza (something like $14 for a small pizza, $18 for a large), and can choose from about 10 different varieties, most of them unusual but tasteful.

As you probably guessed from the name, everything is cooked in a wood-fired oven. From what I've read, it is an interesting ventilation design. There was no ventilation for this shop to use, so all of the smoke gets piped out of the front door.

The pizza crust is thicker than normal. It has a tough, hearty consistency. The first time I went, it was undercooked. The second time I went, slightly overcooked. I think even if perfectly cooked, it is not the best crust, certainly, but it isn't bad.

We got, the Margherita Pizza, which was very nice, with a combination of cheese, as well as some cherry tomatoes. This is almost always the best pizza to get at any wood-fired pizza joint in New York, and this time was no exception.

We also got a Clam pizza, which was not generally liked. The clams were nice on the pizza, but there was no sauce, and the pizza was unpleasantly dry. This was the first time I've experienced a clam pizza. Maybe all of them are too dry, but I doubt it.

The "Beacon" pizza was better. It is named for Waldy's restaurant, The Beacon. It has wild mushrooms and onions. A nice mushroom taste, far better than most mushroom pizzas in the city.

And now, one of the most interesting, a pizza with arugula, garlic, and two fried eggs! A wonderful pizza, I thought. The garlic is quite noticeable, so if you don't like garlic, don't get this pizza. And as you can tell from the picture, the egg yolks have broken. The first time we got this pizza, they were whole. Either way, they were runny and delicious. Isn't everything better with fried eggs on it? However, they were not evenly distributed on the pizza, just two fried eggs right beside each other, leaving three quarters of the pizza egg-free. Quite unfortunate. Still, a good pizza, but it really needs more fried eggs.

Waldy's was, on the whole, good. The strength here is the toppings, not the crust. Great pizza has the crust as the strength, so this is not great pizza. But I thought the toppings were interesting and really worked well together. Due to the price, I doubt I'll go here that often, but I'm happy I tried it a few times, and I'll look forward to an occasional visit.

Red Chopsticks

This is yet another in a series of queued-up restaurant posts. I think it was two months ago I ate at Red Chopsticks in Flushing with my friend Ben and his visiting friend from Pittsburg. I've seen this restaurant several times in my wanderings there, and it was always full, which is a good sign. The food was Cantonese in style, with an emphasis on fresh seafood.

We ordered a variety of dishes. As a vegetable we had Si Gua, or Chinese Okra as it is called. I almost always like this vegetable, and this time was no exception. It is sweet and slightly crunchy, which was a good contrast to some of the saltier, tangier dishes we tried.

A specialty of Red Chopsticks was the sticky rice in bamboo. There were several kinds, we got the plain sticky rice, which was delicious. And, as you can see, quite elegantly served.

We also got one of the unusual dishes on the menu, basil snails. The snails were out of the shell, which is the first time I've had snails like that. They had a semi-crunchy, semi-chewy texture, not unlike conch. The dish was surprisingly spicy. Not overwhelmingly so, but more than I would have guessed.

Also slightly unusual was the dish with stir-fried deep-fried anchovies with peanuts. A bit salty, as you might expect. However, it was full of flavor, and had a great chewy texture. This would be good bar food, I think. The most amazing thing about it was contemplating how many creatures actually had to die just to give us an appetizer.

All in all, a very good meal. I'd say this is the best Cantonese-style food I've had in New York, although that isn't saying much. The Cantonese offerings here are fairly limited in comparison to San Francisco. However, this place is good on it's own merits, regardless of location. Keeping in mind that I didn't have any of the fresh seafood that they specialize in, for what I had I'd say that it is perhaps not great, but it certainly was good.

Decent Pearl Milk Tea

Or, as they call it here, "Bubble Tea". A block away from the B/D station in Chinatown, I noticed a Pearl Milk Tea place I never saw before. As I've written before, getting decent Pearl Milk Tea, even in Chinatown & Flushing, is not easy. A few months ago Ben took me to a decent place, Sago Tea, in Flushing, but although it was good, with later visits I found the place inconsistent.

At any rate, this place in Chinatown was called "Quickly".

I was immediately impressed by the look of the tea. I like it when they cover it with plastic that you have to punch through with a straw. It's a great design, and I think it correlates fairly well with the better places. When I tried the tea, my thoughts were confirmed, and the tea was just as good as I had hoped. Not the best I've had, but maybe the best for New York so far.

I'll definitely come back here on my frequent visits to nearby Dumpling House.

Bicycle Messenger World Championships

My coworker Brody just went over to Jersey for the Bike Messenger World Championship, where he witnessed all manner of fun. Read all about it on his blog posting. While you are at it, check out his great post about New York vocabulary weirdness.

Westville Market

One night Adam, Ben and I were wandering around the West Village, in search of some food. We wandered by a very interesting looking little restaurant, Westville Market. And it was a very little restaurant indeed, with a sort of rustic Napa Valley-esque charm.

We chose to wait outside, and shortly afterwards we were seated and attempting to pick out which of the many delicious things on the menu we wanted to get. The vegetables were supposedly great, but they were out of the Cuban-style corn. The turkey burger was especially recommended, but no one opted for that. Instead, we got a platter of 4 vegetables: shaved fennel and parmesan, asparagus, mushrooms, and beets. Each of them were delicious in their own way, and the taste of the vegetables really came through.

Adam and I both ordered the same thing. Normally I'm reluctant to do that, but I really couldn't say no to the fish taco offering. It was very tasty, although more like a burrito than a taco. And the fries that it comes with were perfect too.

Ben got a steak sandwich. It looked delicious, but I didn't taste it.

This is a very solid place. Maybe not worth traveling long distances for, but if you are in the neighborhood, try it! I gotta remember to try this place for lunch as well.

WuLiangYe

I first heard of WuLiangYe in China, when I had some of their strong and tasty liquor, and someone bought for me a glass of their liquor with a glass ship inside. It was quite cool, but Greta never let me open the darn thing to drink! I guess somethings are just too nice to use.

The second time I hard of WuLiangYe was at Little Sichuan in San Mateo, California. I had lunch with a few fellow Intraspect employees, and Qingyang told me that as good as Little Sichuan was (and it was oh so good), on her recent trip to New York, she found WuLiangYe's restaurant in Manhattan was even better.

So, after I moved to New York, I was determined to try WuLiangYe's restaurant. After some research, I found that it was probably one of the best Sichuan in Manhattan, competing for that title with Grand Sichuan.

After trying both, I find both excellent, but I slightly prefer WuLiangYe. The latest time I went was with my ex-Intraspect colleagues and friends Tash and Hollander, who probably were there in San Mateo when Qingyang told us how good this place was. We went to WuLiangYe on 48th Street.

First up was the classic dumplings in hot oil. I actually prefer Little Sichuan's to all others, but I can't explain why. I was actually addicted to Little Sichuan's dumplings at one time, and that craving never left. These are more delicate, and really delicious. And look at them. They are beautiful!

Ah, next the Cold Rooster. I love this dish. I've had it before, and it wasn't a huge hit with anyone except me. It's cold, a little salty, and full of those mouth-numbing Sichuan peppercorns. What people dislike is that there are many bones, and not huge amounts of meat. However, I feel that this is all the better for enjoying the wonderful spicy sauce that contains it. The waiter told me we wouldn't like this dish, and he was sort of right, because Tash and Hollander weren't huge fans. But I ate out almost the entire thing. Glorious.

We also got the Sichuan "yu-xiang" eggplant, which is a classic vegetable I usually get at Sichuan restaurants.

Finally, we got the classic "Ants Climbing a Tree", which is cellophane noodles with pork and green onions, in a spicy sauce. Very tasty here.

There's many more great dishes here. If you go, get plenty of things off the inside cover of the menu, and the first two pages of the menu. And be sure to try to WuLiangYe liquor, which has a very interesting robust rice-liquor taste.

Uncle Vanya

I have a bit of a backlog of food posts to make. While I have some free time, here's some info on a lunch I had a few weeks ago at Uncle Vanya in Midtown.

I went there with two of my good lunch-partnering coworkers. The style was individual dishes, so I can only vouch for the dish I got, which was the stuffed cabbage. Which was excellent. We also got a chicken in aspic (not pictured) which was good, but when you added the grated horseradish, it became really good. Oh, and there was nice dark rye bread served as well.

All in all, a nice change of pace for lunch. I'm no Russian food expert, but one of my co-workers is semi-Russian and thought it was good, but not truly great. But realize that this shouldn't give you pause; it is my experience that any countries ex-pats will never enjoy restaurants of their own cuisine. My Persian friend Farhang would often claim that there are no decent Persian restaurants in the Bay Area, which I always found odd seeing how there are so darn many of them. I mean, no good ones at all? But to him, his wife or mother's cooking is far superior to what you get in the restaurant. But for the rest of us who can't just invite themselves over to Farhang's house, the best we can do is a restaurant. So, in that vein, unless you can go eat at your Russian friend's house, go to Uncle Vanya and you will be happy.

Uncle Nick's Ouzaria

Last weekend, my friend Adam and I ate at Uncle Nick's Ouzaria, a place that was panned by Chowhound. After eating there, I disagree with the Chowhound reviews, I found it a solid Greek place. It was easily as good as Forest Hill's Corfu, which has good Chowhound reviews. My review follows after the jump.

First we got a selection of four dips, an eggplant, a cheese, a garlic, and a salmon roe dip. It came with a supply of nice fresh pita bread. It was very nice. After the meal, I took this home with me, and the garlic dip really smelled up the subway car. Very few people were on my end of the car, but on the other end it was more than twice as crowded.

Next, we got a huge and delicious Greek Salad. I'm not a big salad eater, but this was great and simple, just tomatoes, olives, and feta cheese.

We also got a shrimp dish in a tomato sauce, which was nice, but nothing special. Adam thought the sauce was quite good, while I thought it was merely OK.

Last, and best, was a grilled octopus and squid. Very simple, tender, but with a good texture and nice grilled taste.

All in all, fairly solid. There are better Greek places, I know, but at least if you get these items, you won't be disappointed.

More Flushing treats

Tonight Ben and I went to eat another fine meal in Flushing. First, we stopped by Takoyaki on Prince St to have some Octopus Balls. Unlike the Fish or Cuttlefish Balls I've had previously, this was some sort of light batter with vegetables and a chunk of octopus in each one, with mayonnaise, wasabi, pepper and other things sprinkled on top. Even cooler, you could watch the guy make it, which involves filling six concave holes in a griddle, then rotating, refilling, and transferring the mix to other holes about a dozen times. It was surprisingly labor intensive.

After that, we went to eat some Shanghai food at the Yangtze River restaurant. Chosen somewhat at random.

We ordered some Si Gua. I'm unsure what the English name is, I've seen it called Loofah before, though. This was the best Si Gua I've ever had. It had a really great sweetness to it.

Next came the Xiao Long Bao, or the Soup Dumplings as they are called. They were being made by two little ladies in a window near the entrance, which I always like to see. The dumplings were nice, but could have used more soup inside. And I prefer them smaller, which no one in New York seems to do.

Finally we had some enormous pan-fried dumplings. Very interesting, I've never had dumplings like this before. There had a thick wrapper probably made with something very fattening by the look of it. The inside had crab and pork and a slight amount of soup, and the filling reminded me up those pinkish meatballs you get at dim sum. It was nice, but, perhaps because I was getting fairly full, it seemed a bit much.

Taste of West Lake

Ben and I went to eat in Flushing last weekend. After wandering around Main Street for about half an hour, we had about six great-looking restaurants we wanted to try. We eventually settled on Taste of West Lake, because neither of us has had that regional cuisine before.

The restaurant was downstairs, in a plain-looking room with a few long tables and a bar. The menu was not extensive, having a list of 8 or so West Lake specialties, about 6 appetizers, 6 desserts, and about 10 or so regular items.

We ordered a variety of dishes. one of the highlights of which were a set of 4 giant pork belly cubes.

When eating this pork belly, I started out by eating a lean piece that was falling away. I found it tough and dry, although it had good flavor. After finishing that, I couldn't see how eating the rest of it would be an enjoyable experience. However, when I ate a mouthful with both lean and fat layers, the whole thing magically transformed into a succulent, juicy piece of meat. Amazing how the two kinds of layers to the pork belly and complement each other so well, and essentially fool the tongue.

Probably the most interesting dish we got was the raw salted crab. It came with a sweetish dipping sauce that I could not identify. The sauce was a good complement to the salty meat. But the crab meat, being raw, was amazingly tender. In fact it was nearly liquid, and a complete delight to eat.

Another interesting dish was the shrimp with tea leaves. It sounded more interesting than it was. As you can see, there are tea leaves there, but the shrimp itself didn't seem to pick up any of the flavor. Don't get me wrong, it tasted very nice. But nothing special, I think.

When I was taking the pictures of the food, an amazed waitress came up and said "Hey, why are you taking pictures?" I was sort of at a loss what to say. Was she mad at me? Or just curious? I couldn't tell, so I said "I'm just like taking pictures of food." Then, to make myself seem a little less strange (or perhaps more so?), I added "I put these pictures on my internet site". This made her very happy, and she thanked me. Which I felt a little strange about. I didn't tell her that hardly anyone reads these things, and most of them that do read it don't live anywhere near Flushing. So I guess my taking pictures of the food was really as crazy as it initially appeared to her.

Casa

One thing I've missed in New York is great espresso and cappuccinos. New York just doesn't have the same cafe culture as on the west coast, and besides the ubiquitous Starbucks, there isn't many good places to choose from. But I have had some good coffee here. One of the latest places I've been going to is Casa, around 40th St and 9th Ave, right by the Port Authority overpass.

I went by there yesterday, as the 9th Ave. international food fair was in full swing outside, and met my friend Adam.

Casa has probably the best cappuccino's and espressos I've had in New York. The most well-regard barrista there is Andrew, who is evidently a real coffee geek. He's there most of the time on the weekends. However, I've had fairly good luck with the other barristas as well, so it seems like most of them know what they are doing.

Ah, look at that espresso. You can see that wonderful brown crema on top, a great sign. How many times have I gotten espresso in New York and gotten no crema at all, or a fairly wispy one? Ah, so many espressos wasted.

Here is Andrew making Adam's cappuccino. Evidently the espresso machine you see is one of the best you can buy. It has pipes going down to the basement, where they have some sort of system to deliver steam or something like that.

Above you can see Casa's owner, in the red Caffe Trieste shirt. It's a good sign that the owner is a fan of that place.

There it is, a great cappuccino. No latte art, but that's OK, what really counts is the foam, which in this case was silky smooth, and super sturdy. Great stuff.

More on confusing bathrooms

You heard it here first, folks. Now the Times picks up the story with an article on different restaurants confusing restrooms. They do mention wd~50, and the scary thing is, at first that place didn't even have a sign saying to push on the wooden panels.

I think in a few years this will be a trend looked on with some amusement. Ah, yes, 2005, the time when New York high-end bathrooms became unusable...

wd~50

Yesterday I went with Adam and ate at wd~50 a restaurant that has been getting a lot of attention. It was recently on a list of the best restaurants in world, at a rank of 34.

wd~50 has a reputation for being wildly inventive. I knew this was true when I walked in, and went to the restroom. I saw some nice sinks, with some tiny fluffy towels. Delightful. But where were the stalls? All I could see was the sink, and a nice looking wall of wooden paneling. Then I saw a small sign saying to push on the panels to use the bathroom. When I did, the panel moved on a very well hidden hinge to reveal the actual stall with an actual toilet. This was the first time that my life imitated nethack, and I had to search for secret doors. If that didn't work I might have to just quaff from a sink and see what happened.

But wait! The story doesn't end there. I had to figure out how to flush. There was no button to be seen. I put down the toilet seat. Nope, not there either. And it wasn't an automatic flushing system. Wait, I thought to myself, maybe it's so advanced, that when I unlock the stall, it will flush. I unlocked the door and opened it a crack. No flush. Stupid idea, what was I thinking? Then in desperation I pressed what looked to be a little metal door to a trash receptacle, and finally with a soft and gentle noise, it flushed! I was very happy, but at the same time I felt that for all the cleverness, these guys really needed to read their Don Norman. Oh yes, and did I mention that the stall played me some music? It did!

After that bit of brain-stretching business, I was eager to see if the food was so perplexing. It wasn't perplexing, but it was really original, and had many new ideas and techniques. Adam and I got the tasting menu, so we tried quite a few of their dishes. Each dish had 1 or 2 main elements, and 2 or 3 supplemental elements, plus a sauce. The fun came in trying each of these things in combination, to see how they pair up. For example, one dish I had a substantial round of foie gras, inside of which was a caramel sauce. On the foie gras was a piece of crisp seaweed. There was slightly dehydrated grapefruit (which seemed more like pomelo to me) with tiny little basil leaves. So one bite I just try the foie gras (wonderful, of course). Then I try the foie gras with the caramel, and it goes fairly well together, bringing out the rich taste of the foie. Next, I have to taste the foie gras with some caramel and some grapefruit and basil. That works better than I would have expected, the acidity of the grapefruit cuts the rich foie gras, but the sweetness of the grapefruit doesn't overwhelm everything. And the basil added a unique little touch.

Each course was like that. The standout dishes was a lamb belly with grated chocolate and other items, an egg poached at exactly 153 (if I recall correctly) degrees for an hour, and combined with sev (Indian dried noodles used in chaat), and a shrimp cannelloni, where the cannelloni was actually made out of a shrimp somehow pounded flat and used as wrapping, with a chipotle emulsion. So many of the dishes had some element that was so original. Besides the shrimp wrapper, there was tiny cubes of translucent lettuce, dehydrated onion cubes, deep fried mayonnaise, a grapefruit sorbet somehow inside a grapefruit meringue and many more things I'm forgetting right now.

All in all, it was a great experience. The food was delicious and not only artistically interesting, but also interesting as "food science". I kept asking how on earth they did this stuff. As far as taste, I thought the French Laundy and Jean-Georges was more delicious, while still being fairly inventive. This food I think trades off pure taste for experimentation, which is something I welcome as a change. These things are experiments, and some of them work better than others, although none failed to be delightful. I look forward to seeing what these guys some up with next.

Spicy & Tasty

Last weekend I went up to Flushing to check out Flushing Meadows Park, and while I was there I stopped by Flushing Main St., and went to Chowhound favorite, Spicy & Tasty.

I was by myself, so I only ordered two dishes. The dishes were cheap, though; together they cost around $11 and I took some home with me. Not a bad deal at all.

I perhaps should have chosen slightly more carefully. Both dishes I got were cold dishes. But, actually, after my long, warm, walk through Flushing Meadows cold food was just what I needed. The dish pictured above is a cold jelly with hot oil (spicy hot, not hot hot). Although you can't tell it from the picture, there was more than enough hot oil to go around the noodles, and it was a delicious, spicy dish, with plenty of those numbing sichuan peppercorns.

This was a cold, spicy, diced rabbit. The sauce was spicy and very numbing with all the Sichuan peppercorns. Somehow that numbing taste goes very well with cold food. The rabbit had a lot of bones, but this is something I really appreciate with this kind of dish. The more bones it has, the longer it takes to eat it. And the longer it takes to eat it, the longer that delicious sauce stays on your tongue. If it was boneless, you would just pop it in your mouth, chew and quickly swallow. It would be merely tasty. But with the bones, you have to put it in your mouth and work it around, or hold it in your hand and gently nibble all around. In either case, you really are tasting it much more than you would otherwise. So remember, the bones are your friend. Just like living without a car and having to walk everywhere, a little bit of inconvenience is good for you.

My meal at Spicy & Tasty was wonderful. They had many interesting things on the menu, and because I only tried two things I can't really compare it to other Sichuan places like Wu Liang Ye or Grand Sichuan (two Manhattan-based Sichuan restaurants). I personally like Wu Liang Ye a little more than Grand Sichuan (although both are great), and so far Spicy & Tasty seems like it could be as good as Wu Liang Ye, or perhaps even better. But I would have to eat there again to find out.

Aki

My friend Adam and I went to eat at Aki on Friday. I was intrigued by the thought of Japanese cuisine with little touches of Jamaican cuisine, which is the style of this restaurant. Evidently, the chef used to cook for the Japanese ambassador to Jamaica.

Located in the West Village, on West 4th street, in a stylish little space, which seats probably around 14 people. I had to make reservations, but it wasn't too difficult to get in.

Adam and I got a medium-sized amount of chilled sake, which came in a very elegant little carafe that I neglected to photograph. The sake was excellent, and cost $20, which was slightly pricey, since we could have drunk twice that amount quite easily.

We ordered five appetizers, some hot, some cold. We stayed away from the sushi, mainly because we've had sushi before, and it just didn't seem that exciting. However, there was a few interesting Jamaican-fusion sushi, such as sushi with banana, or heart of palm or other interesting ingredients.

The first appetizer we got was a dumpling filled with tofu and various mushrooms in a light broth. The picture above has a bit taken out of it to show the inside. Well, actually it looked so good I temporarily forgot to take a picture of the pristine dish. The soup and dumpling tasted even better than they looked. The broth was so light, but yet the flavor was assertive and delicious. The dumpling had a filling that was mostly soft, due to the soft tofu, but had other varied textures because of the mushrooms. It was flavorful and fresh tasting.

The next dish we had was yellowtail tuna sashimi, with apple slices and starfruit. This was probably the best dish of the night. The sashimi was perfect, and so naturally tender that it almost melted in your mouth. The crunchy apple and sweet starfruit made a nice contrast, and I thought the whole thing worked well together.

Ah, this dish. My memory is a bit fuzzy. I believe it is some sort of minced fish in a thick syrup. It was very nice, and interesting because I never enjoyed fish this way before. That last sentence was brought to you by Troy McClure.

This dish was a dish with yam chips, fried tofu, and some other interesting things, none of which I can remember right now. I really should take notes or something. I'm such a lazy food-blogger. At any rate, it was an interesting break from the other dishes, and it had a great combination of crispy, soft, and firm textures. Not to mention the combination of salty, mind, and slightly sweet flavors as well. A very interesting dish.

There was also one other dish, but I neglected to photograph it. It was a soup with sake-marinated fish. The fish was firm and had an nice bite of sake to it, and the soup was mild and pleasant.

All in all, the restaurant was great. This is the kind of Japanese restaurant I've been looking for. Let's face it, sushi is boring, ramen and other noodle soups seems only fit for lunch, and in general it seems hard to find a dish that serves modern, inventive Japanese cuisine. This place is a start.

Tung Shing

Yesterday, I went with Ben and his friend Charles to Tung Shing, around 64th Ave on the North side of Queens Blvd. Ben, who grew up in Queens, says his family has been going there since he was a small child, so it has be fairly old. I usually distrust old restaurants, because I believe restaurants are getting better and better with time, as the dining public is getting more and more educated about food. But this restaurant defies my theory.

When we sat down we were treated to an complimentary set of little appetizers. Not unusual for Chinese restaurants, but this is the first time I've seen four dishes given. One was sweet red beans, one was broccoli, one was pea shoots, and one was cabbage. I liked the pea shoots, which were a bit spicy, the best.

We ordered a leg of pork, which was succulent and tasty, but not the best version I've had. Although I rarely get a dish like this, I'm thinking it could have used a stronger flavored sauce.

We also got the specialty of the restaurant, Peking Duck. It came with a huge bowl of hoisin sauce, and the meat had the skin separated. There were tortilla-like flatbreads on the side. It was excellent. The skin was crunchy, the meat was tasty, and putting everything together in the flatbread made a wonderful little package.

Also, we got a vegetable, but I can't remember what we ordered! Some type of Chinese watercress, perhaps. It was properly light, but tasty.

All in all, a very good meal. I'm so happy to find a good Chinese place nearby, although it is not in walking distance of my house. Next time I want some Chinese food, I just might go here. I have little choice, the offerings in Forest Hills are very slim.

Tagine cookery

Two event conspired to convince me to buy a tagine. First, my Chinese clay pot broke. Secondly, I read this discussion of tagines on E-Gullet. E-Gullet is a great forum for various foodie discussions. There are a tremendous amount of very knowledgeable folks, and in this discussion on tagines, including Paula Wolfert (a cookbook author of various Mediterranean-themed cookbooks), as well as many a culinary instructor from Tunisia, and others. So, I figured I don't cook much Chinese food anymore (I'm trying to be parsimonious and restrict myself to just a few cuisines), so I'll replace my clay pot with a clay tagine.

Originally, I meant for my friend Greg, who makes nice pottery, to make me one. But I figure I better try on this one first, since I probably have a good chance of breaking it. Although I know the rules for clay pots (avoid changes of temperature, cook with liquid inside, etc), I just seem to be having bad luck lately. Possibly due to not properly seasoning or re-seasoning my clay pot. So I will learn more about tagines before asking Greg to make one.

I bought my tagine from tagines.com, and got my Rifi Tagine a few weeks later. The next weekend, which was last weekend, I made my first dish, a chicken with prunes and dried jujubes (red dates).

The tagine is like a slow cooker, so I started everything out all together, with my chicken (whole, cut up, including liver), carrots, dried fruit, cumin, turmeric, ginger powder, and paprika. The picture here is of the tagine on a heat diffuser, without the distinctive tagine "hat".

I then set it to cook somewhere around medium-low. Much like a slow cooker, it didn't start boiling until almost an hour later. Luckily, I had anticipated for a two-and-a-half hour cooking time, so I just cooked it at a little higher temperature than I ordinarily would have, and it all worked out.

After it started simmering, I put on the top, and let it work it's magic. My two-and-a-half year old daughter came in and pointed at it and said it was a castle. Ah, the charm of the tagine!

Finally, it was done. The sauce was very thick. I finished the chicken pieces off by broiling them (following the e-Gullet thread which mentioned browning at the end of the braise). I served it in the tagine, and it tasted great! And best of all, I didn't break it!

Street Food

Ah, street food. Is there nothing better? I thought so, and so was excited to try a lot of the street food in New York. After trying some of it, though, it seemed to lose its appeal. Most of the food carts are not that great. I've found a few of the more famous ones, like the Daisy May food cart, which is nice. But most of the typical rice and chicken, or kabobs on hot dog buns, are not that great.

So I decided to try a few of the more well known places recently (before I was sick, basically). I went to Kwik Meal, hearing about their sublime lamb on pita. It was quite tasty, and the lamb was melt-in-your mouth tender. However, that tenderness comes at a price, which is flavor. The lamb was not well-browned, and so didn't have a strong lamb flavor. Overall, not good enough to keep me coming back. When I was there I noticed that it was St. Patrick's day, and went to check it out, and quickly got caught in a huge crowd, in which it took me about 15 minutes to extricate myself.

But after I got out, I did see some cool groups in the parade coming down 43rd street, joining the parade.

I did take a picture of the Kwik Meal cart, but it came out blurry. Now I know, to be a food blogger, you have to take more than one picture.

My next excursion was that Friday, where I went with my friend Tash to a famous Trinidadian food cart in the Financial District. This was excellent, very authentic Trinidadian food. I got a double (two deep fried chick-pea flour bread, with curried chickpeas inside), and a oxtail roti. In the Trinidadian style, it's like a burrito with curried meat and potatoes inside, with the meat frequently having bones. Mine, being oxtail, obviously was very bony. But it was good, although I thought the oxtail could have been cooked longer so it more easily came off the bone. We had a Mauby each, which is a wonderfully bitter and sweet drink, great for fighting off the heat (at the time a sweltering 50 degrees!). The cart offered a wide range of items, most off the menu. Next time I may try a classic like a cassava pone, or some of the other treats they have. I would have taken a picture of the food, but my hands were way too messy with curry!

Jaya

Earlier this week I met a friend for lunch in Chinatown. He suggested we go to Jaya, a Malaysian restaurant (one of many in Chinatown). We went there and had a really great meal.

We had some Roti Canai, which was delicious as always. The sauce they served was spicier than usual, although the roti was not as large as the ones I am used to from California. Still, it was very tasty.

Due to the cold weather, we decided a soup was a must. We got a soup called Asam Laksa. At least, that's what I think it was called, I'm trying to recollect by looking at the takeout menu online.

The soup was dark, and very fragrant. It was a bit sour (did it have tamarind in it?), and it was spicy, and all the flavors came together very nicely. The soup contained pieces of fish, assorted vegetables, and thick round noodles.

We also got the classic Hainanese Chicken, a simple steamed chicken with a spicy dipping sauce. The chicken was simple, sure, but it was tender and full of delicious chicken flavor.

Finally we got some vegetables (I'm drawing a blank on their name) with the usual Malaysian shrimp paste. It was spicy, tangy, and just so flavorful. A nice compliment to the simpler chicken.

There was so much else on the menu that looked good. I'm definitely going back soon.

Zabb

Yesterday Ben and I went to Zabb, in Jackson Heights. After reading a review in the Village Voice, it sounded interesting enough to try. Evidently it is not just a Thai restaurant, but a Thai restaurant of the Esan (or Isaan, depending on the romanization) region of Thailand. If there is one thing better than ethnic food, it is regional ethnic food. In fact, my rule of ethnic food is that the more specific the region is, the better the restaurant is. Avoid, for example, a Chinese/ Japanese restaurant. Also avoid Chinese restaurants that say things like "we specialize in Shanghai, Hunan, Sichuan and Cantonese food". That's just another way to say "All our Chinese food is equally crappy". But if you can find just a Sichuan restaurant, or a Cantonese restaurant, then the food has a decent chance of being good.

At any rate, this was the first time I've eaten at any sort of regional Thai restaurant, so I was excited. Also fortunately, Zabb was open until 2 am, so I didn't have to rush. Zabb is right under the 7 train, a few blocks away from the Jackson Heights/74th St station.

On walking in the restaurant, one surprising thing is how small it is, and how nice it looks. Hey, this is Jackson Heights! Isn't everything here a hole in the wall?

The menu was extensive, mainly focused on salads. In the usual Thai style, the salads were mostly meat-based, with either beef, pork, squid, or even catfish. There was a tremendous variety, so that our decision was a bit agonized. As I learned from Chowhound, they also offer a special Esan-style hotpot. I asked for this, and was informed it was supposed to be on the menu, but they forgot to insert the page. They showed me the disenfranchised page, which listed two "steamboats", a Esan-style one, and a normal one (I think the normal one was even called "Suki Yaki", although I thought that was Japanese-only). The Esan-style hotpot was spicy, we were warned. We got that, and a papaya salad with calamari. Later in the meal, we added another dish: a "superball" combination, of pork balls, shrimp balls, and beef balls, all either grilled or fried (we chose fried).

The hotpot was great, easily the best hotpot experience I've had. The broth was dark, garlicky, spicy, and had a very robust flavor. The light color in the broth in the above photo is just due to the flash. We chose chicken and liver as the meat, and they also brought out some cabbage and some leaves that looked to me like dandelion greens, but were not bitter.

Our papaya salad was sweet, and had very interesting calamari, fried so crisp it was almost like a pork rind. In fact, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it was a pork rind. it was a nice contrast to the spicy hotpot, and it was tasty, but it didn't blow me away.

Finally, we had the "superballs", a name which makes me think of Stephen Chao's movie God of Cookery. They were glazed with a sweet sauce, but were fairly tasty. We neglected to see how well they bounced. Again, it didn't blow me away, but it was good.

Overall, it is an interesting place. I need to go back a few more times to try out some of the other salads, and perhaps an entree or two, before I can really pass judgment. But just the fact that it is not the typical Thai restaurant, with the same typical Thai menu, is enough to make me eager to try more.

Sullivan Street Bakery

I was browing on Chowhound yesterday and came across a post on Pizza Bianca (no link provided, Chowhound would break the link within a month). I've never had such a thing, but according to the thread, the place to go is Sullivan Street Bakery. So I went down there, and tried some of their pizzas. Cold pizzas, and pizzas without any cheese, and mostly without tomato sauce. But they were all really good. The slice of Pizza Bianca was huge, but quite light. It had a taste of olive oil, with some rosemary and olives too, and had a pleasant bit of natural sweetness. I also had a slice of pomodoro pizza (great tomato flavor, nice crust), and funghi slice. The latter was unusual for the densely packed mushrooms, creating a wonderfully woodsy taste. For those three slices, I spent $5.75. I wanted a bit more to eat, and got a lemon and cornmeal tart, which was dense, but not uncomfortably so, and fresh tasting.

Maharaja Sweets & Snacks

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently ate with my friend Ben at Maharaja in Jackson Heights. I went back there myself yesterday to try a few more dishes. One that looked good last time was a Chana Masala made with pomegranate. When I ordered it, the waiter asked me if I wanted it spicy, and I said yes, very spicy. It was indeed very spicy when I tried it. The pomegranate was subtle, only present for a bit before the rest of the flavors took over. It was delicious, and was by far the most flavorful chana masala I've had. Then again, I usually stay away from that dish, since it tends to be bland. The nan and tandoori roti I ordered with it was decent, but unspectacular.

I also ordered some chaat, but I cannot remember the name of what I got. But here it is: chickpeas, yogurt, chutney, and some eggplant on bottom. It was spicy, tangy, and slightly sweet. Wonderful!

Rickshaw Dumpling Bar

There is a distinct lack of nice food in the 1-block radius of my office. All there is are chain restaurants. Maffei Pizza is good, but that's about it, and even there is almost exclusively take-out. So I was excited in November to hear that a new restaurant called Rickshaw Dumpling Bar is opening a block north of our office. Not only an interesting sounding restaurant, but dumplings! I love dumplings! And there is no dumpling activity even remotely near my office. I couldn't wait.

So, in November, I went over and checked it out. It was still closed. I went back in late November. Still closed. I went back a few times in December. Still closed. In January, it was still closed. Then I hear it is supposed to open in February on the first Monday. I go there with some coworkers, but it is closed. Someone with a video camera is there, and tells me it will be open at the end of the week. I go back on Friday, and there is a sign saying it will be open next week. I know other people are frustrated because when I'm looking at that sign, other people stop by, look at the sign, and mutter some curses. Then I hear definitely it will open on Thursday next week. So I go there, and it is indeed open, and the line is so long, they tell me it is closed for lunch due to the backup.

So, Friday, I went back early with coworkers and got there when there was no crowd. They had several types of dumplings, and you could get each dumpling steamed or fried, and with a salad or in a soup. I got vegetarian dumplings, fried, in a soup.

The dumplings were great, perfectly seasoned, with a thin well-made wrapping. They could have been more fried, but it was no big deal. The soup was less good, and needed more salt at the least. But the service was quick and efficient.

When we finished, the line was huge. Now I know, go before 12:30.

One more interesting thing. The woman I saw before with the camera was there today too, filming the workers. Evidently this is part of some MTV reality-show about immigrants' first years in the country, and they are filming one of the workers specifically.

Two meals with Ben

My friend Ben has moved back to New York, from LA. Last week we celebrated his arrival by eating at Cheburechnaya (see Ben's blogging of this). Yesterday we went to Jackson Heights, and tried two places I've never been, "Desi Chinese Palace", and "Maharaja Sweets and Snacks". At the former, an outpost of the omnipresent "Kebab King", we had some tandoori beef called Bihari (which I've never seen before), and the typical Desi Chinese-style "Cauliflower Manchurian". They also had another type of cuisine I've never seen before, but it was not currently ready yet. The owner described it as huge meatballs, although there seemed to be some items of that cuisine that could not fit that description, such as steamed chicken. Everything was excellent except for the service, which was fairly awful. At the sweet shop, we got a selection of Indian sweets, and some Bhel Puri. One of my co-workers, on trying that dish for the first time at another restuarant, said that Bhel Puri was like "wet, spicy trail mix". Looking at their menu, it seems full of wonderful vegetarian dishes - several types of Chaat, a Chana Masala with pomegranate, three types of Dal, including a black dal, and many other items. I'm going to have to go back there. Finally, we had a Paan, a betel leaf wrapping a variety of ingredients, including a seed mixture, a rose water-based paste, coconut, and two types of betelnut. Wonderful, and only a dollar.

Neopolitan Pizza

Neopolitan pizza seems to be the hot new thing in New York. There seems to be a bunch of new places specializing in pizza as they make it in Naples. There are strict rules about this sort of thing: you have to use Italian tomatoes, buffalo mozarella, etc. Near my work is La Pizza Fresca, which is certified by an Italian pizza association. I've eaten there several times, and it is wonderful pizza, although the center of the pizza tends to be a bit soggy.

This stuff is good, although tends to be a bit expensive and not incredibly filling. This trend probably won't keep on spreading, since the knowledge and skill to make Neopolitan pizzas is rare. Or, perhaps, the trend will spread, but most new places will be crappy.

Interesting enough, a comment on this blog posting claims that real Neopolitan pizzas are not round at all, but square. Could be, I had pizza at "No. 28", and the larger pizzas were all oblong, two slices deep by 6 or 8 slices wide. Great pizza there, by the way.

Recent Forest Hills Eats

I've had some interesting Queens eating experiences recently. A few weeks ago I went into one of the Russian groceries in Rego Park. I saw this same large, round, concave, flatbread that I've seen in Cheburechnaya and Beautiful Bhukura. I've always wondered what it is. So, I asked, and while I was expecting a strange Russian word, I got a simple familiar one: matzoh. So I took two, and ate it at home. It was the best matzoh I've had, it was so fresh and light. My kids loved it as well, they just kept eating and eating until I refused to give them any more. I took a picture of it:

Today I went back and got more, but this time it was a different type. It did not have the same holes you find in other matzohs, but instead it was smooth and had caraway seeds in it. Also delicious, with an amazing crunch. I think I prefer plain, though.

Also at the Russian store I bought some dried fish. I've seen these things before, but was puzzled at what to do with it. Recently, though, my co-worker DB (not his real name, although it is what everyone calls him) and I were eating at a Korean place that served us an appetizer of small dried fish. He commented how it tasted like the Russian dried fish, which evidently you eat plain, usually accompanied by beer. So I got five smallish dried fish, which cost $5. I ate one the other day, and it was tasty but strange. I felt queasy for a few minutes afterwards, perhaps just because I realized I was eating fish that had been at room temperature for a week at least. The feeling past, but I still have 4 fish to go.

Finally, this weekend I ate at Hot Bialys, a stupidly named, but nice little bagel shop on Queens Blvd. near Union Turnpike. It is, according to some, one of the best bagels in Queens, as well as New York. Strangely enough, it is owned by Thai immigrants. Today they were very nice to me, and the owner rush towards my daughters and gave them both a little bagel, just because they were twins and she likes twins. The bagels there are a bit sweet, and have a good chew. They taste a bit like H&H Bagels.

Also good - a new Greek restaurant called Corfu Grill, which has some great dishes. I especially like their grilled octopus; it is not tough at all, and it is nicely flavored.

Katz's Deli

I ate at Katz's Deli for the first time today. The word on the street was that their pastrami was the absolute best, but that everything else was better at other places. I'm not sure about the latter part, but the former is absolutely true. Their pastrami was so fresh, so juicy, so wonderfully tender. They take a complete side of pastrami out of a big steaming vat, and slice it up right in front of you for your sandwich.

I also tried an "Egg Cream". I'm still not sure what it is, but it tastes like cream soda plus a syrup.

DiMarco's and St. Alps Teahouse

Yesterday for lunch I went to DeMarco's, at MacDougal and Houston. It is an offshoot of the much loved Di Fara's in Brooklyn. I've never been to Di Fara's, so I can't compare. However, this was the best slice I've had. Not the best pizza, but the best slice. The crust was nicely charred, the sauce was smooth and garlicky, and the cheese was high quality. Plus, they grated real Parmesan on top. Nice. I also had a square slice, which had a thick, crunchy, charred bottom, and a nice saucy top with some cheese. The sauce tasted different than the slice sauce: the square sauce had a bit more assertive flavor.

The place had a strange setup. Ordinarily, you just go up to the counter for a slice, but the counter had no pizzas at all. You have to order at the counter, sit down, and get served. Weird.

Afterwards, I went around the corner to St. Alps Teahouse, which my friend Brian recommended in a previous comment. The tea was too ice-creamy, which is my main complaint with the Pearl Milk Tea's in New York, and in fact some of the places in California suffer from this too. It might be a taste thing, though, so I can't say for sure it is a flaw. However, some of the pearls were quite dense, much denser than normal. So, not so great.

Cheburechnaya

Forest Hills evidently has a large number of Jewish immigrants from Uzbekistan, since there are at least three Uzbek restaurants, and at least one or two Uzbek grocery stores here. I've only eaten at one of the restaurants, Beautiful Bhukura on 108th St. Since then, I've heard of a few more, one of which is Cheburechnaya.

Recently, the Village Voice gave Cheburechnaya an award for "Most Audacious Kebab", which is a lamb fat kebab made from the lamb fat from the tail of the lamb. Supposedly, that's where the best lamb fat comes from. This jives with what my friend Farhang told me about the lambs in Iran, which have huge fat tails, and are prized for the wonderful fat.

Today I went to try it, and it really was great. The place is Kosher, and I noticed that many of the patrons were Sephardic Jews. I had a lamb fat kebab, a lamb rib kebab, a tomato kebab, and an onion kebab. Also, I had the chebureki, which were a large delicate packet filled with one of a few things; I had mushrooms. The packet itself almost reminded me of the Indian chaat dish with a fried bread and garbanzo beans (I can't remember the name of it). The chebureki was sort of refined and greasy at the same time. As you can imagine, it was delicious.

The lamb fat kebab really was awesome. It truly was nothing but lamb fat - no actual meat on it. But the fat was soft, salty, and tasty. Even if eating a whole blob of grilled lamb fat seems objectionable, one taste and you'll be craving it. Everything else was very good.

The only problem here was the service, which was poor. The server never came by, forgot to bring me bread, and never gave me any water! It doesn't matter too much to me, though. The food is the important part.

Four days of Maffei

My experience has always been that the closest place to the office should always be avoided. It always tends to be drab overpriced food for office workers. And it always annoyed me that people insisted on going to these places, day after day, even when much better and cheaper food was readily available at a greater distance. Somehow, convenience usually trumps everything.

Now, though, the closest place to where I work is Maffei's.

It's a great pizza, pasta and sub joint on the corner of 22nd St. and 6th Ave. The pizza is not among the city's best, but a nicely made greasy slice. I love the grease. I almost always get the pizza, even though about one out of every five slices I get is unbearably chewy (I mean this in a bad way). I don't know why this is.

I hate to compulsively go to the same place, but for some reason I ate there every day this week. Let's review:

Monday, I just wanted pizza. So I went to Maffei's, which is where I usually go if I'm by myself and want pizza.

Tuesday, we had lunch in the office. The lunch was fairly poor, it was a choice of chicken drowned in a white sauce, overcooked tuna in a tasty sweet sauce, or huge slabs of pork in a unknown sauce. I had the tuna. But there was no bread in sight! I had to have something else to tide me over, so I went down to Maffei's and got a grandma slice, which has plenty of nice tasty carbs.

Wednesday, I went to the farmer's market at Union Square. I wanted to go somewhere different for lunch, so I picked l'Annan, a Vietnamese place near there. I ordered the Pho, of which I didn't have high expectations. Places that only have one menu option for Pho generally don't have good Pho. The more menu options, the better it usually is. Anyway, it comes out, and it is completely, completely tasteless. I do not exaggerate. It had no taste at all, it was like water. I'm not sure what happened. But I hate to complain at restaurants, so I dumped some salt in it to make it taste better and ate the meat and noodles. On second thought, I should have complained. After the meal I was dejected, so after buying some tomatoes and strawberries at the market, I went over to Maffei's for a good old dependable slice. Thankfully, it was good. If I had gotten a too-chewy slice, I would have probably broken down in tears.

Today, Thursday, errands this morning took way too long, and I had no time to spare at work. Down to Maffei's it was. This time, I had a nice pasta.

It's a good place. But I'll be damned if I'm going back tomorrow.

Tibetan Yak

It's not everyday I get to try a new cuisine. Yesterday I took the opportunity of my kids nap to sneak out and grab some Tibetan food in Jackson Heights. There is a place there called Tibetan Yak there that the Village Voice seems to like. I went there, and there were only Tibetan / Nepalese looking people there, however it was not very crowded. Service was slow. It took a few minutes for someone to even come in the dining room and seat me.

When I was seated, I was brought some Tibetan tea, which has both butter and salt in it. It sounds gross. Indeed, when I first sipped it, I recoiled in horror. A few sips later, though, and it began to grow on me. By the time I finished my cup, I wanted another one, but to get more I had to pay $3.50 or so for a pot of it. Being the cheap bastard I am, I convinced myself I was content with my single cup.

I ordered a stew of beef, radish, and a thick kind of rolled noodle. On the side I got some Tibetan flatbread. The stew was great, very hearty, and the noodles were perfect for the hearty stew. It would be great on a cold winter day. The flatbread was small, round, thick, and must have been steamed. In fact, is was a lot like Chinese steamed bread. It tasted good, but not my favorite flatbread.

When it gets cold, I'm going back. The menu is small, but there are at least a few other things I'd like to try. And it's only one express subway stop away.

Chelsea Food Market

I recently found out there was an interesting collection of food shops somewhat nearby called the Chelsea Food Market. I went there the other day, and it sort of reminds me of the San Francisco Ferry Building. They have a great Italian shop with an amazing assortment of Italian products, a nice fish market, a small Thai grocery that sells cooked Thai food as well, a good kitchen supply store, a butcher, and a bunch of other things. I wonder if the San Francisco Ferry Building was modeled after the Chelsea Food Market, or if they both are just part of a trend of high-end food courts.

Koreatown Window Shopping

There's a few simple, reliable rules on how to select restaurants. One of these rules is not to eat at any chain restaurant with its own style of architecture (for example, Lyons). Then there are a few things that could indicate a good find. When there is a window where you can see people make things out of dough, this is a good sign. I discovered this phenomenon in San Diego, after eating in the Old Mexican Cafe in the old, historic section. It was a restaurant that initially looked cheesy and touristy, but looking in the front window, I could see two old ladies making both flour and corn tortillas by hand, and cooking them. It looked wonderful, and when Greta and I ate there, we found their tortillas to be so wonderful it singlehandedly changed how I thought of them.

Today I went to one of these places that feature windows in Manhattan Koreatown, called Mandoo Bar. There were two ladies making different colored dumplings in the front window. They them out, stuffed them, and then handed them to someone to cook. The dumplings were excellent, and they tasted just as fresh as they were. The dough was a medium thickness, pleasantly chewy, and the stuffing was well flavored. It was a bit expensive - $10 for just 12 smallish dumplings. But, it was worth it.

Walking back, I noticed another of these places, with a man making noodles by hand in a window. He did this the Chinese way - which was to take a huge mass of dough, and by a combination of stretching it and spinning it, he winds up with a huge amount of long noodles. Watching it, I knew that, without a doubt, it will be my next Koreatown destination.

Murray's Bagels

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I go work out at the Gold's Gym on 54th St (right around the corner from Letterman's theater). After that, I like to eat something for breakfast, so I get a bagel at the furniture shop (previously mentioned here). The last few times I've gone, they haven't had a bagel yet, which has infuriated me and made me walk a whole avenue length (a good distance) to go to the only other bagel place I know. There has got to be a better way.

I have started walking over to 8th Ave for lunch, which is more into the proper Chelsea district. I happened to notice that a very well-known bagel place, Murray's Bagels was there. Bagels as good as these were supposed to be are worth altering my whole transit plan. So now, instead of coming to work from the gym on the R Train, and walking from Broadway to 6th Ave, I now go on the E Train, and take it to 8th Ave, almost straight to Murray's Bagels. The bagels there cost, with cream cheese, $1.75, as opposed to the other places which cost $1.25. Murray's also offers many other topics, and at least 7 types of smoked fish slices. Unfortunately, the various lox bagels cost from $7 to $10. But the bagels are great. They are quite obviously superior to the ordinary New York bagel. They rank up there with the best bagel's I've ever had, along with H&H Bagels on 46th St, and a few of the bagels from Bagelman's in Champaign, IL.

I'm very excited to be able to eat a bagel of this quality three times a week. For someone who used to eat 2 to 3 bagels a day in High School (me, in other words), this is heaven.

More on Pizza

Reading the Village Voice a few days ago, it mentioned a blog on New York pizza called Slice. Not only does it look like it has good content, but it has a downloadable file with pizza reviews you can stick on your iPod!

Speaking of pizza, I went to John's Pizzeria today. It's always mentioned in the same breath as the great pizzerias of New York. This may be because they have a coal-fired oven, which is fairly rare in New York. I went there, and it really was good. The crust wasn't as thin as some, but it had a great crunch and chew, and the sauce was terrific. I could tell they put the sauce on after the cheese, since the sauce wasn't on every bite, but rather scattered around. By the way, check out the website, the page of celebrity visitors they have is hilariously bad. Not only that, but the celebrities aren't exactly A-list celebrities. In fact, Vanilla Ice is there! Nothing says "These celebrities aren't exactly A-list celebrities" like a prominent Vanilla Ice inclusion.

New York Style Pizza

Before my New York move, I always thought I understood what New York pizza was all about - namely a thin crust (but not as thin as St. Louis style), and big, greasy slices. Greasy in a good way, mind you. I wasn't wrong, but I had a very limited understanding.

The big, thin, greasy slice does exist, and is quite good if you can get it fresh. Reheated slices are not so great.

Beyond that, there is a better pizza, which is very thin (thinner than normal for New York), a very crisp crust, and uses fresh mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella is whiter than the normal kind, and has a higher moisture content. Because of the higher moisture content, the cheese is used sparingly. Still, the center of the pizza tends to be a bit soggy. For this type, fresh basic is usually used to top it off. Even with the sogginess, the pizza tastes wonderful, and the sogginess actually adds a bit of textural contrast. Nick's, by my apartment , has this kind of pizza.

Another type of pizza they have in many places here is the "Grandma Slice", previously known to me as a Sicilian pizza. There may be a difference, the corner pizzeria by my office has both Sicilian and Grandma slices, but I'm not sure what the difference is. At any rate, these pieces are square, the tomato sauce is on top of the cheese, and the crust is thick but light. In most places, this is not so great, but some places top this with a very nice sauce and use the fresh mozzarella, and this makes for a really good pizza.

I'm eating way too much pizza these days. I'm almost back up to my college consumption of 3 pizzas a week.

Pearl Milk Tea in New York

I'm not too happy about the offerings of my favorite drink, Pearl Milk Tea, here in New York. I've tried about half a dozen places so far, prices ranging from $2 (in Flushing, which I previously wrote about), to $4. The last one was in Chinatown, at a place called "Tea & Tea". I figured, a place like that has to have something good. Nope. First of all, it was nearly $3.50 for a small little tea (about half the size of regular), and the usual New York tea problems soon emerged. The drink was far too sweet and milkly, and tapioca was tough and chalky. As usual, I threw it out before I even finished all the tapioca balls.

By far the worst tea I had here was the one they sell at the festivals they have on the Avenue's on the weekends. There is one particular seller with $4 teas. The tapioca was rock hard, and they all stuck together, so that you had to practically chip them away. Probably the best tea I've had here was the one in Flushing, which was only $2, and not too horrible.

What the hell do I have to do to get a decent Pearl Milk Tea out here?

Jean Georges

I ate at Jean Georges this weekend with my friend Adam, to celebrate our birthdays (mine was on Saturday, his is at the end of the month). It supposedly is one of the best restaurants in New York, and in fact this completes my "hat trick" in eating at the top three of Epicurious' best restaurants. The meal was really wonderful, creative, expertly prepared, and using the highest quality ingredients. Notable moments included a fizzy shot of sugar plum juice, sashimi with fresh wasabi ice, a wonderful crunchy-topped foie gras with strawberries, and homemade marshmallows at the end. Certainly one of the best meals I've ever had.

Flushing

Yesterday I went to Flushing, which is fairly close to where I live. It has a reputation for having the best Chinese and Korean food in New York. Flushing also happens to be the home of my friend Ben. I walked all along Main St, which was a vibrant scene, full of Chinese shops, street vendors, restaurants, groceries, and more. I even went in a very nice Chinese restaurant supply store. For food I grabbed a skewer of Xin Jiang-style barbecue (this is the first time I've seen that style), which was full of spices, smoky, and very tasty. Next I went into a small dumpling shop and had some pork and fennel dumplings. They were OK, but not fresh - they were basically reheated frozen dumplings. Cheap, though. I also got some pearl milk tea, which was not as good as California ones. That's a big problem in the New York area, I can't find any decent pearl milk tea places! Finally, I went to Sichuan Dynasty, which got a Village Voice Best of New York award. I tried the mentioned spicy rabbit stew. And it was very, very, spicy. Not to mention delicious. Loved it.

It was a nice trip, I'll have to go back sometime. Ben tells me there is a great xiao long bao place there, so I'm sure I'll be trying that soon.

Recent restaurants

Some recent restaurants I've eaten at since moving to New York:

• Dosa Diner - in Jackson Heights, Queens, one of my new favorite places, in the Little India section. I had a great dosa with chili and paneer. They also had Desi-Chinese food, including one dish that surprised me, Hakka Noodles. I'll have to try that next time.
• Wu Liang Ye - on 48th St between 6th & 5th Ave. Great Sichuan food, a slightly different flavor than Little Sichuan in San Mateo. I think I like the flavor of Little Sichuan slightly more, but Wu Liang Ye has a great variety of dishes I've never seen before. Today I got deep-fried fish skins. Yummy!
• Russian Vodka Room - on 52nd St, between 8th and Broadway. This seems like a quintessential Manhattan place. It's small, trendy, has live music, and just a feel to it so that you might imagine you are in a movie and Woody Allen is there having a conversation with a group of intellectuals and a girl much too young for him. This restaurants has a huge selection of vodka, and they make their own flavored vodka too! I had one with a dill and spice flavored one, it was like drinking vodka while smelling a pickle.
• Beautiful Bukura - One of the many Russian Jewish places on 108th St by my apartment (about a 20 minute walk or a short bus ride). I believe it is specifically Uzbeki, like all of the other places around. Cheap - a huge bread for $1, skewers of meats and vegetables for $2-$5 a piece, great soups, and interesting drinks (I had a tarragon-flavored soda). Everything is delicious, too! I'm sure I'll be going back there, or at least ordering food delivered. That's one of the great things about here - almost everywhere delivers.
• Golden Pond - a great Chinese Cantonese-style restaurant with tons of live seafood. You can tell it's good because the tanks of live fish, crabs, shrimp, etc. look so pristine. I've only gone there once, but the food was excellent!

Strange combo-cultural food

Another Manhattan oddity I've been noticing: the deli places that have odd cultural combinations. Next door to my office is a place seeing sushi and bagels. I saw another place today that was pizza and pearl milk tea (which they seem to call bubble tea here). What's next, a place that serves steaks and dosas?

Himawari

I have eaten at Himawari twice now. The variety is good, and has sort of a "create-your-own ramen" feel going. You order a basic flavor (salt, soy sauce, miso, or spicy miso), and add condiments (green onions, seaweed, corn, etc.) Besides the ramen, they also have a few other noodles dishes, including "jar-jar men", a Korean noodle dish popular in Japan.

The food is quite good. The broth is lighter than Santa's powerhouse of a broth, and for the miso flavor, the broth had a notable sweetness to it. Those who think Santa's salt-flavor ramen is too salty will like this version, which tones it down a bit. The presentation is excellent, and the noodles themselves were decent.

I chatted with the owner. He operated a ramen shop in Japan before starting this restaurant with a partner. He plans to start advertising in the papers soon, but now he wants to get some word of mouth out. The place was empty this evening, but the first time I went for lunch, it had about 4 or 5 people in it.

I still think Santa is the best, but Himawari one probably is my next favorite. If I was in the mood for a subtler broth, I would choose Himawari over Santa, though. I think it may do well, it certainly is a little classier than Santa, and right in downtown instead of way down B Street.

In other ramen news, Ro-Zan Ramen will close down and become a Shabu Shabu place. That takes the number of downtown San Mateo Ramen shops down to 3.

More ramen

Wow. Yet another Ramen place has opened up this past week! This one is called Himawari. I noticed it today, and talked with a Japanese guy who was waiting on his friends to go eat there. He told me he already ate here a few days ago, and he thought it was the best Ramen in the Bay Area. I asked him if it was better than Santa, and he said yes - he doesn't particularly like Santa's soy sauce flavor, but Himawari has a good version of that. I agree, of Santa's three flavors they offer, I always thought soy 1000 sauce was the weakest. I can't wait to try Himawari! I'll report back as soon as I do. I don't have much time left here, so expect it soon.

Oidon

A new Ramen shop opened up in San Mateo recently, bringing the total to three Ramen shops in downtown San Mateo. This one is called Oidon and is located next to Suruki Market (a wonderful Japanese market) on 4th Ave. It is on the second floor, which is a relative rarity for San Mateo restaurants.

I had the Tonkatsu Ramen for around $6. I found the portion size smaller than the other two Ramen places. The broth was clear and lighter tasting than in Santa Ramen. It was slightly oily, though. And the pork was a bit too salty. Other than that, it was a nice noodle soup.

Best of San Mateo restaurants

So, now that I'm leaving my home in San Mateo, I thought I'd share a list of my favorite San Mateo restaurants. No one I know that reads this blog lives in San Mateo, but this is good search engine fodder. I'm sure it will be of use to someone.

• Little Sichuan - in downtown San Mateo. The Sichuan-style food here is incredible. Not only spicy, but also so tasty it's hard to stop eating it. The dishes I like to get are Family Style Noodles (Song Sao Mian), Dumplings in Hot Oil (Zhong Shui Zhao), Scallion Lamb, and a spicy tripe (Ma La Niu Du). There are a ton of other good dishes, ranging from the well-executed familiar (Ma Po Tofu) to the more exotic (powdered steamed beef). One piece of advice - stick mainly to the back of the menu where the traditional Sichuan items are, those are the best items. The more un-Sichuan the menu item is, the worse it will be.
• Happy Cafe - a tiny little Shanghai restaurant. This is famous throughout the bay area for it's Dragon Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao). I've eaten at many very good Shanghainese restaurants, but this one has the best dumplings. It's even as good as I got in Hong Kong. Besides the dumplings are a small assortment of other items such as Wonton Soup, Chicken with House Dressing, Radish Cakes, Shanghai Noodles. Generally, these are pretty good. But get enough Dragon Dumplings.
• Santa Ramen - A very popular Ramen joint hidden away slightly south of downtown. The broth can be slightly salty, but it is very tasty. I've had other Ramen in the Bay Area, and this really is much better than any of them. Get here early, and plan to wait as much as an hour.
• Sinbad's - Excellent middle eastern deli. You can get a great Shwarma, some excellent Zaatar Pie, and their daily specials are wonderful. The specials often include eggplant with ground beef, or Persian-style zucchini stuffed with rice and spices.
• Amici's - Billed as East-Coast Style Pizza. While it's not exactly similar to the pizza I had in New York, it's very good. Good thin crust pizza is all about the crust, and this is one is perfect - thin, crusty, chewy, and flexible. On the negative side, it's quite expensive. A large feeds 2 people and costs over $20! It doesn't sell pizza by the slice. This place is all over the Bay Area now.
• Pizza My Heart - Another place that's all over the Bay Area, or at least it's also in downtown Los Gatos. It does have pizza by the slice, and the slices range from $2.25 to $3.00. I wasn't incredibly impressed at first, but I then started getting just the cheese slice, which is really wonderful. This actually tastes more like the pizza I had in New York.
There's much more. I haven't really even gotten into the nicer (more expensive) places. But these are the places I'd go to the most.
Posted by ahyatt at 01:59 PM | Comments (3)

Boar's Head Mushrooms

About a year ago, I went to Chinatown and noticed some strange looking mushrooms called "Monkey's Head Mushrooms". They were dried, black, lumpy, and hairy looking. I didn't pick one up, but I probably should have.

A while ago (I intended to blog it right away, but forgot), I went to the Tuesday Farmer's Market in San Francisco, and the mushroom stand had a lumpy, hairy, white mushroom called "Boar's Head Mushrooms". I asked, and they were in fact the same thing as Monkey's Head. I bought some at $8 a pound, went home, and cooked it. It had an unusual, spongy, seafood-like texture, and a nice sweetness to it. They were delicious! Here's a picture:

Upcoming Ferry Building places to eat

Evidently, some famous chefs are opening up small casual places, many in the Ferry Building. For example, the chef of Slanted Door will open a kiosk there selling pho. Sounds great, but knowing these guys it will be a bit too expensive to eat there regularly.

New food types in San Mateo

Two new types of food in downtown San Mateo recently appeared. The first is Krazy Krepes. A somewhat dorky name, and everyone who hears it thinks it's a chain creperie. But it's the first creperie in downtown San Mateo, maybe the first one in San Mateo at all. If it is, I can't find any evidence of it. I went there with my parents, who were visiting. I got a mushroom crepe, which had cream sauce, and a nice touch of tarragon. It was well made, and delicious.

The other new food type is Korean food. The restaurant Kyoto is now Kyoto Tofu House. Besides their old Japanese menu, they have a Korean menu. It seems that many, if not most Japanese restaurants in the Bay Area are either operated by Koreans or Chinese. At any rate, I had the tofu pot (they also had a small selection of other Korean dishes), which came with all the Korean appetizers one would expect. It was tasty, and spicy (as I ordered it). Although not cheap (it was about $7), the tofu pot and the appetizers added up to a very nice meal. I would go there again, but menu changes like this almost always indicate a restaurant in it's death throws. So try it before it disappears forever.

Cheap food

Via the excellent food blog Saute Wednesday, a great article from the L.A. Times - The High Price of Cheap Food (registration required). It's a great argument on why organic meats make sense. Something I've felt for a while. But even though I believe in it, it's just hard to pay more sometimes. Lately I've been thinking that it's best not to eat too much. I mean, you can eat some tasty Indian Daal (basically lentils with spices) for next to nothing. It's so cheap. And no animal has to suffer for it, and it's very healthy. Almost no fat, and high in protein. Eating things like that makes sense. I'm no vegetarian, and I wouldn't want to be, but I'm starting to think it makes sense to eat meat only a few times a week.

More cheap eats from Chinatown

I've discovered another ultra-cheap eatery in Chinatown, where I can get a lunch for around $3.50. It's called Hon's Wun Ton House, on Kearny. It's a cheap noodle place, just the kind I like. Ever since I moved from the south bay, I've missed Tung Kee's ultra-cheap noodles. And actually the soup selection is better than at Tung Kee, I think. Now I have two cheap options - Dim Sum at Stockton, or soup on Kearny. I still need to try "Dol Ho", which is supposed to be a good cheap dim sum in Chinatown, but probably not quite as cheap as the ones I have started to frequent.

Speaking of dim sum, I ate at Yang Sing a few weeks ago. It was pricey. I paid $20, but I could have eaten more. The dim sum was quite good. They had a lot of stuff I've never seen before, like Striped Bass steamed dumplings (interesting taste, but I preferred the firmer texture of shrimp). They also had lobster dumplings and a few other types, but I didn't want to overspend. Besides the nice variety of dumplings, they had most of the rest of the standard dim sum fare, and some other more western-style items such as a portabella mushroom baked with cheese (delicious). They didn't have some of the more interesting dim sums items such as tofu soup, pork meatballs, or bowls of tripe. Everything they did have was very elegantly executed, and it all tasted clean and light. They also had a nice innovation in the way of tea serving, where their teapot for the table was clear. That way, servers would know exactly when to replace it without having to be asked (either verbally or by opening up the teapot lid). Great idea.

Ben-bought beer

As mentioned in my friend Ben's blog, he visited town last weekend and he bought me one of those huge bottles of beer I often see selling. I've always been curious about these beers, but the $7-$10 price tag per beer always made me unwilling to buy it. But Ben is into these things, and when he saw my local high-end supermarket's selection of these things, he was very impressed. He bought many beers for himself, and he gave me one of them called Maresdous.

When I drank the Maresdous beer, it surprised me. It was very flavorful, much richer than other beers I have tried. The bottle contained around two pints, and it left me feeling pleasantly buzzed. It was a perfect amount.

Dinner at the Fifth Floor

To celebrate our wedding anniversary, Greta and I went to eat at the Fifth Floor in downtown San Francisco last weekend. We had previously eaten there a few years ago, but they have a new chef now, Chef Laurent Gras, previously of the Waldorf Astoria. The restaurant was awesome the first time we went, and this time it was even better. Greta and I got the chef's tasting menu, and here's what we got:

• An amuse bouche - Greta got a two cherry tomatoes in some sort of sauce, and I got a piece of chicken in some sort of rich tasty sauce. These details have escaped me, sorry. It was very good.
• A wonderful dish of a base of (raw) hamachi tuna, with oyster on top, and a light sprinkle of caviar on top of the oyster. The hamachi tuna had been marinated briefly in lemon, ceviche-style. It was absolutely wonderful. The hamachi tasted so fresh, and the oyster and caviar tasted like the sea.
• Scallop, in some sort of sauce, with very thin strips of chorizo. It went very well together, and it's the first time I've had chorizo so nicely prepared. I usually have it on a taco, with onions and hot sauce. That's good too.
• Skate-wing, on artichoke puree, with some sliced artichokes. This was the best skate-wing I've had. It was fried. Was it perhaps very lightly breaded? I can't remember, but it was perfectly cooked.
• Capon breast, two ways. I can't remember what those two ways were, but they were good ways. You may be wondering what capon is. So was I. I asked, and it evidently is a neutered male chicken. After it is neutered, the breast enlarges, and it is very tender. It was in fact very tender.
• Braised pork belly with black truffles. Not only was is braised, but it was exceptionally well carmelized. So much so that the bottom of the piece of braised pork belly was quite hard, like a piece of rock candy. I've never had a piece of braised meat like that. There was also braised apple and potato, each piece just beautifully done - a perfect brown glaze on everything.
• A lime sorbet in watermelon juice. To cleanse the palate. It not only cleansed, it also amused.
• Chocolate mousse and passion fruit sauce. The tangy passion fruit was a good balance to the rich chocolate.
• A selection of little desert things. It seems like every nice restaurant we eat at does this now.
• Little donuts with passion fruit sauce inside. This was a special for our anniversary. The plate had "Happy Anniversary" written on it, in chocolate. It was very nice, but we were so full it was hard to truly enjoy it.

It was a great dinner, and I would recommend it to anyone. As far as nice meals we've had, I'd say only Chez Panisse and the French Laundry have been better. Perhaps Charles Nob Hill was as good, but my memory is too faded to be a good judge.

Ferry building

Have I mentioned that Vignette is acquiring my employer, Intraspect? It happened a few weeks ago. Keep tuned to this blog, you may get more breaking news two weeks after the fact.

So anyway, yesterday I went to downtown San Francisco to have a meeting at Vignette. After the meeting, before I headed home I looked at the recently renovated Ferry Building. It's quite nice. It not only has a Farmer's Market on Tuesday, Thursdays, and weekends, the inside has many nice stores. Some stores sell organic produce, some sell organic meats, or nice chocolate, or other nice things. It also has an outpost of LuLu's restaurant, and will have an outpost of the Imperial Tea Room (the only Chinese tea house in the U.S.). I suppose some might call it a yuppie haven, but in my experience, the food from the farmer's market really is the best, even though it does cost quite a bit. If the rest of Ferry Building has such high quality, it will be a great resource if I spend more time at the Vignette offices.

San Mateo Oyster and Mussel Festival

Today there was a festival in San Mateo, right at the Caltrain station outside my apartment building. The festival was an Oyster and Mussel Festival. It was not well attended, probably because it was over 90 degrees outside. Greta and I went over and checked it out. Strangely, there was only two booths selling mussels, and only one selling oysters. I had some nice raw oysters from Kingfish's booth, and Greta and I had some Ethiopian food from another booth. Everything was quite delicious, but we could only stand to be outside for about twenty minutes before we fled home. With the low turnout, whether it happens again next year is doubtful. If it had more mussel and oysters, and the weather was better, it would be quite nice, though.

Bhuna Gosht

The week before last I ate at Shalimars with an Indian coworker. We were talking about Indian and Pakistani food, and she mentioned how her family operates some restaurants in India. She gave me the tip that these curries are frequently thickened by a mixture of poppy seeds, melon seeds, and cashew nuts. We were eating Bhuna Gosht, and she mentioned that she thought that was how they were thickening it, and it was very common in Pakistani cuisine. A good tip, I thought.

Today, I was looking to make a lamb curry to take to work tomorrow. I remembered this tip about the seeds thickening the curry, and decided to try it out. While trying to decide what to make, I realized that I could just try and make bhuna gosht. I searched and came up with a recipe. Evidently, "bhuna" is a method of cooking where a dry curry is sort of stir-fried, adding water when it becomes too dry. In western terms, I figure what is happening is that the food is getting successively carmelized and deglazed. After this process happens, water is added to make a nice curry sauce. So I made the recipe, thickening it with the poppy and cashew nuts as well as some yogurt, and it turned out very good, although I didn't end up with as much sauce as I would have liked. The bhuna gosht at Shalimars is swimming in a delicious, somewhat runny sauce. But my sauce is pretty good. Not quite Shalimars good, but it's a start.

Evil Yerba Mate

Yesterday, I was tired. After I took a little nap, I decided to drink some Yerba Mate I had around. Although it supposedly it supposed to help with insomnia, I found I couldn't sleep last night, which is fairly unusual for me. This is actually the second time this has happened, so though I don't get this every time I drink Mate, I think this is it for me. No more Mate. I'm sure I have lost face in the eyes of many Argentinians today, but I have to put my foot down.

Incidentally, there are those who do say that Mate can cause insomnia. Others argue about any psychoactive properties it may have. But I'm here to tell you that it's evil, man. Evil! (Of course, my insomnia might also have something to do with the fact I also drank half a bottle of wine, and some Pearl Milk Tea, but I really do think it was the Mate).

Lunch at Chaat Cafe

Today some coworkers and I had lunch at Chaat Cafe, on 3rd St. and Folsom in San Francisco. Right by the Moscone Center. I believe I've eaten at the Berkeley Chaat Cafe before, and it was good. This was one is larger, and has a selection of about 8 or so chaat's (vegetarian Indian snacks), with about that many wraps and a small selection of curries. I tried the Papri Chaat and a Lamb Wrap. The Papri Chaat was delicious, kind of crunchy, milky, and with a healthy dose of a strong chutney. The wrap was also good, but not as good as the one in Vic's Chaat House in Berkeley. I found the naan used in the wrap was a bit chewy for my tastes, as if it had been sitting around for too long. But on the whole, it was quite tasty, and I would recommend it for anyone who is in the area and wants a fairly quicky bite to eat. Prices are reasonable, about $3.50 per Chaat (two is probably enough for lunch), and around $6 for the wraps.

Joy Luck Place opens

The San Mateo branch of Joy Luck Place has opened this weekend. I dropped by and had some of their dim sum items. I was excited. Being able to walk around and eat some dumplings as a snack is something I thought I would only be able to do if I lived near Chinatown. They had a small selection of dim sum items and other stuff like chow mien and Hunan-style eggplants. When I went there, they only had about half of what would eventually offer. But just the dim sum they offer is a huge step for San Mateo. They didn't have any of their barbecued pork, or their custard tarts, or any of their other dessert items. What they did have, however, was quite tasty. I had shrimp & lobster dumplings, potstickers, and barbecued pork buns. Everything was delicious. The shrimp tasted fresh, and the barbecued pork was succulent. On the downside, it was a bit expensive. Stay tuned for further reports when I eat a complete meal there.

Tales of Culinary Disaster

The Straight Dope Message Board has a couple of threads on stories of culinary disasters. A great read. I didn't realize everyone else hated Miracle Whip as much as I do.

Dinner at Koi Palace

This past week I turned 30 years old. To celebrate, I went out for dinner with my wife and kids, and my wife's cousin Adriane and her family. We went to Koi Palace, a restaurant well known in the Bay Area for it's great dim sum. I've had their dim sum many times, and it really is good, although lately they've stopped pushing around dumplings on the carts - you have to order them all off the menu (or perhaps it's just because the last few times I've gone have been on weekday lunches). The dim sum is beyond popular - I've had to wait two hours in one case just to get seated. But I've never eaten a regular meal there, so I decided that this birthday I'd eat there.

We had four dishes: A double-boiled pigeon soup, a scallion and ginger crab (from the tank), steamed chicken with ginger sauce, beef with enoki mushrooms, and "garlic flavored pea vines". The soup had a deep, complex flavor, while still being light. The crab had a delicious sauce, which was a trifle salty, and the crab was fresh and tasty. The beef with enoki mushrooms had a great beefy flavor, the meat was a perfect balance between tenderness and body, and the mushrooms were a nice textural contrast. The "pea vines", were quite tasty, perfectly seasoned, crunchy, and full of flavor.

The place was expensive, though. Each of those dishes cost more than $10. But I paid, and I was happy. It was a good meal. And I learned it gets almost as crowded for dinner as it does for lunch. If you want to go there, get there before 6:30 pm.

Homegrown tomatoes

This summer I've pledged to grow some tomatoes on my balcony. I'm not really an experienced gardener, so I can't say I really know what I'm doing. So I initially bought a Sungold cherry tomato plant (supposed to be very good) and put it in a standard herb pot. I later learned this was a mistake, and I should have put it in a big pot with a lot of soil. But it did well. I was encouraged, and so bought an heirloom striped pineapple tomato plant, and put it in a huge pot. But this one didn't do so well. It grew, but not too fast. The problem was that the soil did not retain water very well, it seemed to just flow through the soil and wind up below the pot. I've heard I should mulch, but I haven't had time yet to buy some. A third tomato plant was given to us by our friend Monica, who has several more at home.

That was all a month or two ago. Now the Sungold plant is doing well, but I now realize that there's no way I can use those for a recipe, since only one or two cherry tomatoes are ripe at any particular time. So they are pretty much just for tasting. I did taste one ripe one, and it was very delicious. Very sweet. If I had to do it again, I probably would buy four or five of those plants. My tomato plant that Monica gave us is doing well, with about 8 or so tomatoes on it, but nothing is ripe yet. My Striped Pineapple tomato plant is doing OK. There's no tomatoes yet, but there are some flowers that should yield a few tomatoes. All I ask for is a few.

Further investigations into frothing

I still have not been able to make a good cappuccino at work. A coworker who used to be a barrista was back in the office this week after six months in Italy. I asked him to see what he can do with the office espresso maker, a Jura x90. He put on the steam, and noticed immediately a few things. He said first of all, there was not as much steam as in the professional espresso machines. Also, the steam was not hot. He said that the steam should be so hot as to instantly burn you. Steam burns evidently come with learning the art of frothing milk. But the steam here was warm, not hot. Also, he said the steam didn't seem to have as much power as in the professional espresso machines. He tried to make some froth, and only could make what he described as "barely adequate" froth. It seems the machine just might not be adequate to manually froth up some milk.

I had previously tried the automatic frothing attachment. It does actually produce some OK froth. Not quite "microfoam", but not as bad as I get in many cafes. I think that with the right equipment, a manual froth could be much better.

In day to day work, I'm drinking espresso rather than cappuccino there days. The Jura x90 does produce some nice espresso. I put about half a teaspoon of sugar, and with the small amount of espresso it produces (it does a half shot by default) I get a nice sweet gulp of coffee. I think I've given up on cappuccino.

Update on dried limes, cast iron seasoning

As I have previously written about, I've been on a quest to make Persian-style dried limes. It's a sort of silly quest: I've only eaten a dish with these dried limes in it a few times. I don't really even remember what they look like. But it's something interesting to do. Anyway, my dried limes I have now, according to my friend Farhang, are probably not quite correct. He says they should be "rock hard, light weight and dark brown colored." Mine are soft and pliable, like a raisin, not all that light, and very light colored. So it seems it was not a success. But I'm not going to throw away the limes, they probably are useful for something. And perhaps all I need to do is further dry it out, perhaps in the oven, for it to be like a Persian dried lime. What I need to do is to go to a Persian store and ask them how to do this thing.

On a more successful note, as I mentioned in another blog entry, I have discovered that seasoning cast-iron on a grill works very well. I had previously said I couldn't season my large pot, since it was too large for my grill. However, I discovered that I could remove the grating, and place it either right side up, or upside down on the coals, and have it pretty much covered, with just the handle sticking out. This has worked very well, and I just coat it with Crisco and leave it there until my grill cools down. I now have a completely black pot, perfectly seasoned. I did this again the next time I barbecued, since it can only help the seasoning, and doesn't waste the heat that the charcoal is giving out. I recommend it.

Dried lime outcome

I previously detailed my experiments in preserving lemons and drying limes. I have further news on the dried lime front. I had said that they all went bad, but that was not quite true. Two of them seemed to dry out and not rot. I supplemented that with some Mexican limes I got from the local carniceria, and they dried out fairly quickly when I put them on my balcony in the sun. One Mexican lime I left behind became hardened. I wonder if that is another form a drying. At any rate, here's a picture of what I have right now. I'm going to contact my friend Farhang to see if these limes look like the dried limes he knows. Or perhaps they need to further dry somehow, although I'm not sure if that is possible.

Seasoning cast iron

There are approximately 10 trillion webpages that talk about how to season cast iron pots. However, like a lot of cooking resources, they don't really talk about what to do when something goes wrong. As mentioned in my last posting, I recently bought a large cast iron pot. It was technically a Lodge Chicken Fryer, but I don't intend to fry any chicken in it. I'm just using it to braise meats, making stews, curries and the like. I like cast iron a lot - it's cheap, nearly indestructible, cooks well, and when properly seasoned, has a nice nonstick coating. The only bad part is you have to create and maintain this nonstick coating.

There are a lot of different methods of seasoning nonstick cookware, from coating it with Crisco and putting it in the oven, to heating it with oil on the stove. I did both methods to season this pot. I first heated it with oil on the stove, but that method isn't very good. The problem is that cast iron does not have good heat conductivity, so the sides never really get hot enough to properly burn the oil in. Plus, anytime you season cast iron, you are going to generate a lot of pretty noxious smoke. Having two kids, I'm a bit reluctant to subject them to this smoke, but doing this outside on a burner means that other people in my apartment complex are probably smelling this smoke. So it's not a great solution. But, seeing as how the stove method was not working that well, plus having an lid to season as well, I had to resort to using my oven. The result of all of this was that I had a pot that was somewhat well season, but for some reason had some streaks and spots that apparently had no seasoning at all.

At this point, I didn't know what to do. All I knew is how to season something. I don't know how to fix the seasoning on an improperly seasoned item, which this appeared to be. If I simply put more oil on it and put it back in the oven another day, would it damage the seasoning that's already there? I didn't know, so I called up Lodge's customer service number, and asked them. They told me that streaks are normal, and it should even out over time. What they recommended, is to coat the pot in oil, inside and out, and put the whole thing on a grill for a few hours. They told me it would be nice and black after that, and doing this would not damage the existing seasoning. It just makes everything better!

I couldn't follow this advice, however, since my grill at home is not big enough for my pot. I have a very tiny grill. But I decided to season it outside over a burner again. This time I was for some reason less concerned with the smoke, so I coated it with oil, put it on medium-high heat, and just let it smoke and smoke for more than half an hour. At this point the bottom surface was almost all black, which was great, with no streaks. However, the next time I cooked with it, the streaks came back. They still exist to this day. Cooking with this pot has not made them disappear, but perhaps its because I never fry things without finishing it out as a stew.

Two weekends ago, I was grilling, and after I finished, I decided to try to season my lid again. So I coated it with oil and left it on the grill, while the charcoal burnt itself out. The great thing about is that even though it generated noxious smoke, it didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary since it was coming from my grill. Everyone expends a grill to make lots of smoke. When I retrieved the lid later the same day, it was nice and brown. The grill did a much better job than the oven did. There is a large communal grill downstairs from me, which anyone in the apartment building can use. I may try to season my pot one more time on this grill. Hopefully, I'll have a good seasoning one day.

Pizza My Heart review

Not much interesting has been happening lately, so let me share my thoughts on Pizza My Heart, a small chain pizza restauarant that's recently opened up in San Mateo, on 4th Ave. Reviewing a pizza place is pretty easy. You don't have to eat a variety of dishes, all you have to do is eat a pizza, or even a small part of a pizza, and you have all you need right there. So let me cut to the chase. The pizza is pretty good, if you like a nice thin crust.

Pizza is essentially about the crust, it basically just is a form of flatbread with some stuff sprinkled on top. So it should taste like flatbread: dense, chewy, and a bit dark. Places like North Beach Pizza don't get this, their crust is thick and actually tastes like bread, which strikes me as totally wrong. In San Mateo, I think Amici's gets it right. However, the problem with Amici's is that they don't offer slices. Pizza My Heart is not as good as Amici's, but it does offer slices, so for a quick lunch, I would recommend it without hesitation.

Joy Luck Place

The SF Chronicle has a review of Joy Luck Place in Cupertino, which I noticed is also opening up soon on 4th Ave in San Mateo. I will definitely be going once it opens, and I'll report back here.

Dried limes and preserved lemons

Last month, I started an experiment to see if I can make preserved lemons. These are often used (chopped up with the peel and all) in Moroccan cuisine, and they taste very nice. It was my lunch at Baraka in San Francisco's Potrero Hill which made me appreciate it so much. The lemon recipes you find on the web are a bit confusing. Here's an example of part of the recipe from the Seasonal Chef:

Set a lemon on one end and make a vertical cut three quarters of the way through the fruit, so that the two halves remain attached at the base. Do not cut in it half. Turn the lemon upside down and make a second vertical cut at a 90-degree angle to the first, again three quarters of the way through fruit.

Well that makes no sense. If you stand it on end and make a vertical cut, then turn it upside down and make a second vertical cut, they won't be perpendicular, they will be parallel. But the idea is simple, salt a lemon inside and out, stuff them into a jar, press them down. They should be in a mixture of salt and a little lemon juice covering the entire thing. Leave them there for 1 month I think I had too much lemon juice to salt, since my lemons came out mushy. But they tasted nice! I already have made a Moroccan Chicken Tagine (without a tagine), with saffron, olives and preserved lemons. I'm having it for lunch at work today, but I tasted the sauce last night, and it's quite tasty.

Last month I also received a bunch of limes. I didn't really need them, so I decided to continue by citrus preserving experiments by trying to make Persian-style dried limes. I know that the things we call limes in the store are not what Persians call limes. In fact, they aren't the true limes. The true limes are the Mexican / Key limes / Persian limes. What is commonly sold in the stores in a cross between the true limes, and lemons. But I wanted to make do with what I had, and Google wasn't helping in my quest to learn how to dry a whole lime, so I called up my Persian friend Farhang, and asked him what to do. He had no idea, and neither did his wife. He did manage to find something on the internet which said to boil it in salt water, then dry it. Well, that seemed good enough for me. I boiled them in salt water for about 5 minutes, then left them on the balcony to sun-dry. It didn't work. After a few weeks, they all went bad. There must be a better way. But if I need them, I think I'll just go and buy them.

Trejo salsa

When my friend Ben was in town, I had made a batch of "Trejo Salsa" for my friend Jay's barbecue. This is a great salsa recipe, it's definitely the best salsa I've had. It was told to me by my friend Trejo, who I met at the University of Illinois when he was a professor. He grew up in Mexico City, and lived in San Diego for a while, and I believe it was in San Diego he discovered this recipe.

There's certain recipes that you know are good just by knowing the ingredients, and this is certainly one of them. Not that the ingredients are surprising in any way, in fact they are not surprising, and that's one of the great things about it. Like beer, you can make this great salsa with the bare minimum of 4 ingredients. Here's what you need:

Tomatoes: In the late summer, use fresh ones from the farmers market. Otherwise, use canned tomatoes. Not canned roma tomatoes, but canned normal tomatoes. Definitely don't use anything with basil in it. For one batch, I usually need a little bit less then 2 24 oz cans of tomatoes.
Peppers: I usually just use six jalapenos, with one or two poblanos. If you want it hotter, use more jalapenos and less poblanos. For milder, more poblanos and less jalapenos. For really hot, throw in a habanero, or a few serranos.
Cilantro: One bunch will do.
Onion: One onion, in fact just a small part of an onion is enough.

First, roast the peppers either by putting them on a barbecue (best), or on top of a griddle, or in an oven set to broil. The point is, just more or less blacken the entire thing. You don't need 100% charred skin, but go for a majority of char at least. Next, do not peel the peppers, but just chop them up, throwing away the stem part. I use a cuisinart for this, but if you don't, just chop them very fine. Put them in a bowl.

Next, chop up your tomatoes, again throwing away the stem part of the tomatoes (there's usually no stem, but there's a hard bit where the stem once attached to). Try and get rid of as much juice as possible. What I do these days is to chop it into a bowl, then drain the bowl of all juice. If you are using a cuisinart-type food processor, just throw in big chunks, otherwise chop it finely, and put it in the bowl. You should do this with about 3/4 of your tomatoes, because you want to adjust the heat. The more tomatoes you add, the milder it will be, so put in less tomatoes at first, then add more and more tomatoes, tasting as you go, until you reach the spiciness level you like.

Next chop up about half a bunch of cilantro. Chop it finely, and put it in.

Chop an onion coarsely, but we only want about a tablespoon full of onion. Too much onion can overwhelm the salsa, we want a scattering of onion, so that not every bite will have onion in it.

Finally, add salt to taste. I find most salsas have too little salt, so don't be afraid to add enough salt so that it tastes good.

You now have what I call "Trejo salsa".

The quest for the perfect froth continues

I still am attempting to make perfect cappuccino froth. I try every day at work. It's difficult. We have Jura x90 machine, which only comes with an automatic frother. I refuse to automatically froth the milk, I think there's almost no way it can create the "microfoam" described here before. We, however, have a manual frother attachment, with a Pannarello wand. I didn't know that. I spend a few weeks trying to get good froth and failed miserably. The CTO of my company, a very smart guy (as CTO's tend to be), pointed out that this wand had holes on the sides as well as a large one on the bottom, and that this was designed to mix the milk and air in the wand (instead of in the cup). As I thought about it, he was right. It will probably make a lot of froth, but it won't make "perfect" froth, and by that I mean the microfoam you can see in the best cappuccinos.

So I pondered what to do, and realized I could take off the outer sleeve and it would turn into what is more or less an ordinary frother. This has been tried by several people, as I soon found out. Many people have complained about this accessory, some saying you can remove the sleeve to get good results, and other saying the inner part is useless.

I tried using the inner part and did not get good results. These days I usually start with a metal frothing pitcher half full of cold 2% milk. But I never could get a "whirlpool" effect, as is mentioned in the articles on how to create microfoam. My cappuccino's, I must say, blew. This morning I got a decent foam going by using about 1/3 or 1/4 of a pitcher, and letting the steam run a bit before stopping and starting again (the theory being that I need more pressure). I never got a whirlpool, but I sort of whirlpooled it myself.

But, that's not enough for me. I need to do it right. And even today's success is not close to the perfection I'm after. So I'm still investigating. Supposedly, people say, you need a larger quantity of milk to work with, but this seemed to work OK. But I still have hope. Some people have gotten great results in home machines, but I have yet to duplicate that and it's unclear whether they can even duplicate it. My quest continues.

Modern food

The Guardian newspaper has a special 3-part story on modern food. Part 1 is on the web now, and deals with the changing diet. While it clearly is slowly getting better from the 50's, which must be the low point in all forms of human culture, problems such as obesity and children getting adult-onset diabetes are on the rise. As they point out, healthy eating is only affordable for the wealthy. This is a great series, and although I pretty much knew most of this before, it really is a great summary and reminder, especially now that I have two baby daughters, whose future health I am of course concerned about.

Note that the site layout is a bit confusing. Reading all the parts in the Food section is the correct way to read this special.

Pictures from Shalimars

I love Shalimars. It's a well known Pakistani restuarant in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco. It's a wonderful hole-in-the-wall type restuarant, with an open kitchen and tandoori smoke ambiance. I've been there before many times, and have taken my parents there. In fact, a picture I have on the web for that gets a few hits a day from people that have searched for "pakistani food pictures". But it's not a good picture to show Pakistani food. I feel bad that people are not finding what they want at my site. So I decided to go back to Shalimars and take some good ones. Here they are: a dish of saag and paneer (I forget the actual name of the dish), mixed vegetables, bhegan bharta (eggplant), bhuna gosht (Shalimar's amazingly good lamb curry), and brain masala. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Further frothing articles

My quest for the perfect froth continues. I'm now able to get OK froth, but I still need to improve to be satisfied. David Schomer, of Espresso Vivace in Seattle, has a page on espresso and cappuccino tips. Among other things, there is a good article on milk texturing for cappuccino, which is a good summary of the 20+ page article I linked to previously in this blog. If I was opening up a cafe, this would be my bible.

50 Best Restaurants

The 50 best restaurants in the world, via Sauté Wednesday. I've eaten at two of them, the French Laundry (which is, according to this list, the best restaurant in the world), and Chez Panisse (#12). I gotta say, that's pretty good for a fairly regular guy who is not rich and does not travel. I've eaten at the French Laundry twice now, and it truly is wonderful. So is Chez Panisse, but the larger portions there mean you don't get the wonderful variety you get at the French Laundry. I gotta go back.

In other restaurant news, a few folks from work and I went to Portrero Hill today and ate at Baraka, a fairly new restaurant. It was a French-Moroccan cuisine. The food was excellent, I had a rabbit tagine that was truly delicious. It was one of those dishes that has enormous taste and wonderful harmonious flavors.

Bay Area escargot

It turns out the snails we have in the SF Bay Area are the same variety as the one so prized by the French. SF Gate's Urban Animal column has details on how to cleanse their systems, cook, and eat them. Yum! I would definitely like to try this, but my wife won't let me.

Garlic fries

My company had an event on Wednesday where we went to Pacific Bell Park to see the Giants play the Chicago Cubs. It was a good time, and it was the second time I've been to Pac Bell Park, which is quite nice. I took the opportunity to sample some of the Gilroy Garlic Fries I heard so much about. There was a huge line, which is always a good sign. It took me one and half innings to get these things. But I didn't think they were all that good. They were soggy, and the garlic was raw. It was so strong it made my beer taste bitter after I ate it. I think I still smell of garlic. So now you know. Stay away from the garlic fries.

State of the Cappuccino

As previously noted in a previous entry, I have become fairly interested in making good capuccinos. As part of that, I decided to go to local San Mateo coffee houses and see who makes a good cappucino. So far, I've hit three stores in two months. Not a good rate, but it's tough to get out when you have kids. I would like to go twice to see if the cappucinos are made consistenly, but I just don't have the time. Anyway, here are the cafe's and short review of their cappucinos.

• Walsh's Coffee Roaster: When I got one at this cafe, I knew I was in trouble when they started preparing my cappucino by putting espresso in a coffee cup. This is a bad sign. Cappucino's just don't work well in a coffee cup. With not enough surface to roam, the froth seems to lose it's importance. You tell how good a cappucino is by just watching them pour the frothed milk. At my favorite place, Steps of Rome, it comes out in a thick luscious stream, naturally making the milk and froth layer. No spoon has to touch it. At Walsh's, they poured the milk, then spooned out the froth. Another bad sign. When I drank it, the froth was gone by the time I finished, partly because it was served in a coffee cup, partly because the froth was wimpy.
• Draeger's: Draeger's market has a nice looking cafe in front. Draegers is home to a lot of nice things, so I had fairly high hopes. My hopes were raised when I saw that they actually had Italian barristas. There's no logical reason why Italians make the best cappucinos. After all, good technique can be taught to anyone. But, in my experience, they do. They served in a nice cappucino mugs, but when they poured the froth, they helped the froth along with a spoon. They didn't quite pour, and didn't quite spoon, but evidently they had a lot of froth. The cappucino was fairly good. The froth wasn't quite as smooth as it could be, and it wasn't quite as long-lasting as you could hope, but it was OK.
• Bean Street Coffee: This is a newly opened coffee house. So I went in a few months after it opened and gave it a shot. This was one strange cappucino experience. The barrista frothed the milk, and started spooning out froth. No pouring, just spooned out spoonful after spoonful of froth. Weird. After making it, the barrista asked me if I wanted it "wet". "What does that mean", I asked. Evidently, it meant if I wanted any milk at all. I said "yes", and she gave me a smidgen of milk. So I drank this strange beast of a cappucino. The espresso below was a bit bitter, and there was an insane amount of froth. The froth was pretty darn sturdy, but not all that smooth. When I drank it, it was like drinking a somewhat bitter espresso, poured through a hole in some foam. When I was done, none of the froth was gone. I had to eat it out with a spoon. Thinking about it, this is the exact opposite of Walsh's Coffee Roaster cappucinno.

So, I'd say Draeger's was the best, followed by Bean Street Coffee, then Walsh's. Of all of them, I'd probably only drink Draeger's cappucino again. But I'm still searching for a truly good cup. It's ridiculous that I could make better froth in the office. Doesn't anyone try anymore?

Everything you ever wanted to know about frothing milk

I've always wanted to make perfect froth, ever since saw what froth can be at the Steps of Rome cafe in San Francisco. It's not just hot milk on bottom and froth on top, good froth is an emulsion of the two - a thick cream with no discernable layers. I recently found this guide to frothing which goes over the science and technique of frothing. This is what I've wanted to know for a long time.