Kin Shop (New York, NY)

In general, I don't like to chase after trendy new restaurants. It's hard to predict how an establishment will develop once the opening furor has died down, on the basis of the first few days or even the first few weeks. Service is often disorganized for at least the first week. And worst of all, there are often big crowds and long waits, both of which dampen my appetite and enthusiasm for a place considerably.

Luckily, Harold Dieterle's much-publicized new restaurant, Kin Shop, which opened on October 11, suffered none of these shortcomings on a recent evening when we dropped by for an early dinner. There were only a handful of other diners around 7 p.m. and happily, we were able to walk in without a reservation.

Chez Michelle and Justin: Gingery Granola for a Catskills Camping Adventure

Tomorrow, we go on an overnight backcountry camping trip in the Catskills -- our very first one, together, where we hike up a mountain, pitch a tent and stay in it! "Backcountry" means you don't have toilets or -- sigh -- showers. That explains why it's just an overnight trip: I don't know if I can stand to not bathe for more than a day. Yes, I know that's pathetic.

Here's our tent, which we pitched in our living room, today:

Isn't it lovely? Note the dog door at the bottom right! (It's actually a window, I think, but Julius fits through it perfectly.)

Of course, one of our favorite things about camping is the eating: You get to eat outdoors, under the open sky and no matter what you're eating, it tastes amazing after a long day of hiking.

In preparation for the trail, we made a few things tonight: homemade granola, a filling for corn tortillas (which I'm freezing overnight; it'll thaw by dinnertime tomorrow) and some edamame pods for snacking.

Ame (San Francisco, CA)

689 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94105-4126
(415) 284-4040

http://www.amerestaurant.com/home.html

In a word: Disappointing! I was so excited to dine here after seeing the words "sea urchin" plastered all over the menu, and having a few wet dreams about Lissa's Staff Meal, a dish of cuttlefish noodles tossed with sea urchin, quail egg, umami soy sauce and wasabi (Sonoma tezukuri natto optional). Well. It just so happened that on the night Justin and I went with three friends, the restaurant was completely sea urchin-less. So we had to change our game plan in a serious way...

Europe Correspondent: Restaurant Hirschen (Sulzburg, Germany)

This is a review from Stefan, the Europe Correspondent:

Restaurant Hirschen
Hauptstrasse 69
D-79295 Sulzburg, Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 7634 8208

Photo from Hirschen website

Nomen est omen. The latin idiom comes to mind when you enjoy the Cuisine of Douce Steiner at Hirschen in Sulzburg. Her French first name means sweet or soft and one of the specialities of her cuisine is the outstanding patisserie. Even with another name her goal in life was probably determined as her mother is a French Sommelière and her father used to hold two stars at Hirschen before she took over. Douce Steiner trained with Georges Blanc, Fritz Schilling and finally Harald Wohlfahrt. The latter was particularly important since his Restaurant Schwarzwaldstuben was where she met Udo Weiler whom she later married. Together with him she moved back to Sulzburg in 1998 and gradually took over responsibility of Hirschen.

Europe Correspondent: La Société (Köln, Germany)

This is a review from Stefan, the Europe Correspondent:

Kyffhäuserstrasse 53

50674 Köln, Germany

Tel.: +49 (0)221 / 23 24 64

http://www.lasociete.info/

Photo from e-concierge

When you walk into Kyffhäuserstrasse of Colognes neighbourhood “Kwartier Latäng” you don’t expect a restaurant with 16 points from Gault Millau and one Michelin star. The street is lined with bars catering to students of the nearby Cologne University. Not really appealing when you walk down the deserted street on a easter Sunday at 7 p.m. in bad weather.  Once you enter the restaurant the atmosphere changes instantly. The place is small and cozy bordering on kitschy. The service team is very observant, immediately present when needed but never intrusive. Once they figure out that the guest likes it more informal the tone gets, well, colognian. If you don’t believe in the concept that good restaurants should have the atmosphere of a monastery, you feel relaxed and welcome after a few minutes.

On the Silverado Trail (Napa Valley, CA)

Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge

Flashing back to California for a moment.... Justin and I had two days before Dana and Luis's wedding in Berkeley, so we drove up to Napa Valley to visit some wineries. It's a trip we'd been talking about for years, so we were really excited to finally go. After breakfast in San Francisco with my old college buddy, Dave, and a pleasant stroll through Pacific Heights, we left for the Meadowlark Country House in Calistoga.

Chez Michelle and Justin: Dan Barber's Cauliflower Steaks with Cauliflower Puree (Blue Hill)

Tonight, after a week on the road, it was a real pleasure to just stay in and dine Chez Michelle and Justin. I was still feeling somewhat swept up in the locavore, seasonal eating thing, so in honor of that (and because I happened to have two small heads of farmer's market cauliflower in the fridge), I made Dan Barber of Blue Hill's fantastic cauliflower steaks with cauliflower puree recipe.

For the puree, the cauliflower is steeped in milk and then baked, which really brings out the vegetable's sweet, creamy notes without the addition of cream or butter. The result is deeply satisfying comfort food that also happens to be very healthy.

It's not high protein, so if you have this as a main, make sure you combine it with higher protein sides like a salad that includes walnuts and blue cheese. Or perhaps just have yogurt with fruit and honey for dessert.

I've paraphrased the recipe, below. It serves two people as a light main and could serve more as a side or starter if you cut the cauliflower steaks in half.

Ingredients

• Two small heads of cauliflower totaling about 1 1/2 pounds
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup milk 
• Olive oil to sautee the cauliflower steaks in the pan 
• Salt (I used ground sea salt out of the grinder, but mostly because I ran out of Morton's. I bet the dish would be delicious made with smoked salts.)  
• Fresh ground pepper

Preparation

Preheat oven to 250 F.

Wash and clean cauliflower heads. Then cut two, one-inch wide slabs, vertically from the center of the cauliflower head, including a portion of the stem. (The slabs, or "steaks" as Barber calls them, should look like little trees.) Set aside the steaks. Then cut the remainder of the cauliflower head into one-inch florets.

Boil the florets with milk, water and salt & pepper to taste, until tender (about 10 minutes). It's better to err on the side of too little salt than too much. Remember that you'll be using some of this cooking liquid to make your puree.

Drain the florets, reserving approximately 1 cup of the liquid, and spread florets onto a roasting pan. Bake at 250 F for 10 minutes or until mostly dry, remove from oven. Increase oven heat to 350 F. 

Meanwhile, rub the cauliflower steaks with a thin layer of olive oil, salt and pepper. Sautee the steaks in a pan with olive oil, about 2 minutes per side, until it develops a golden brown crust. 

Transfer the cauliflower steaks to the oven and bake until tender, about 10 minutes. (This took more like 15 minutes for me.) 

While steaks are baking, puree the florets with the 1 cup of reserved cooking liquid. (I used my handy dandy immersion blender.) Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

To plate, spoon half of the puree onto a plate, top with a cauliflower steak. I loved the white, minimalistic look on the plate, but you could garnish with roasted beets, greens or herbs for color -- or with a pork chop as the case may be. :) Justin looked so hungry and sad at the prospect of eating only cauliflower for dinner that I relented and prepared a quick, pan-fried pork chop, rubbed with kosher salt, pepper and freshly roasted cumin, and served with gravy.

Since this was my first time making this recipe, I followed it fairly closely. I think next time, I'll throw in a few cloves of garlic with the florets and add a sprinkle of whole cumin seeds to the cauliflower steak. It might also be delicious to puree the florets with a wee bit of cayenne instead of black pepper. 

Chez Panisse Cafe (Berkeley, CA)

1517 Shattuck Ave (Near Vine St)
Berkeley, CA 94709
510-548-5049

http://www.chezpanisse.com

Chez Panisse is something like hallowed ground. On the off chance that you need an introduction, this legendary restaurant, which Alice Waters and others opened in 1971, was one of the early hotbeds of the organic and local food movements in the United States. It has since established itself as a mecca for locavores, while Alice Waters has gained status as a cultural icon.

Despite the reverence some have for the institution, its vine covered, sun dappled home in Berkeley wears this history with unassuming grace. On the unseasonably warm autumn day we visited, the front door was thrown open invitingly and sunlight streamed in through the Cafe's beautiful stained glass skylights.

The space is divided into two parts: The downstairs, prix fixe-only Chez Panisse Restaurant is more formal, more expensive and, as we discovered, quite difficult to reserve, even one month in advance. Upstairs, the Chez Panisse Cafe's a la carte menu and close-set tables make for a far more low-key vibe. When we arrived at the Cafe for our lunch reservation, we found the small reception area thick with customers waiting to be seated.

Our 20 minute wait gave us some time to drool over the menu, though, and drool we did, especially as we watched the chefs in the open kitchen roasting meat, seafood and vegetables in the wood fired oven. (I'm starting to realize that almost every restaurant that aspires to serve California cuisine seems to have one of these.)

Here's what we eventually settled on:

Appetizers

- Avocado and beet salad with ginger vinaigrette. Generous chunks of perfectly ripe avocado and roasted golden and red beets -- all unevenly cut to somewhat charming effect -- were perfectly and expertly dressed with lemon juice, olive oil and the tiniest hint of ginger, then sprinkled with sprigs of what I think was mache (aka rampion or lamb's lettuce). The mache was slightly tough, perhaps because of the late season for it, but overall this was a simple, elegant little salad.

- Cannard Farm rocket with pecorino and pine nuts. The greens were flavorful, but again a bit tough, and simply tossed with olive oil and vinegar. Pecorino was of excellent quality and pleasantly pungent, pine nuts were fat and tasty, recently toasted to judge by the flavor. Another enjoyable, but not life-altering salad, that could've been made in a competent home kitchen after a visit to a reasonably well supplied farmer's market.

Mains

- Northern halibut with green beans, ratatouille, and aïoli. The halibut had been roasted in the wood-fired oven, which imparted a very slight, pleasant wood smoke flavor and a gorgeous golden crust -- but sadly, it was quite overcooked and dry, as well as oversalted by several degrees. It helped to eat the fish with the full-flavored, moist grilled ratatouille, however, which was incredibly flavorful. (The secret, I think, was in the anchovy marinade and the grilling.) This was head and shoulders better than any ratatouille I've ever made -- and I've made many. Green beans were cooked to crisp tender and quite fresh. I was less a fan of the barely emulsified, liquidy aioli, which left a film of unpleasant grease on the lips.

- Monterey Bay squid roasted in the wood oven with shell beans, cipollini, and tomatillo salsa. This was probably the most delicious dish of the meal, though it wasn't the most beautiful to look at on the plate, with its stewy mix of brownish shades. Squid was quite nicely prepared and tender and sat in a good, flavorful stew of cooked down cipollini onions and fresh shell beans. The stew was also oversalted, but not as egregiously as the fish. Tomatillo salsa didn't add that much for me, flavor-wise. I though the dish would've been slightly more coherent without it.

Dessert

We shared a dish of bittersweet chocolate ice cream with caramel sauce and hazelnuts. The chocolate ice cream was richly flavored, the caramel almost certainly house made, the hazelnuts nicely toasted and it came with real whipped cream and a twist of meringue cookie on the side. All the elements were solid, but I guess I'm not enough of a dessert lover to really appreciate a simple confection like this. It didn't excite me very much. Luckily, Justin didn't need much assistance to dispatch it.

Very oddly, the Cafe's wine list included almost exclusively foreign wines, despite Alice Water's commitment to local foods and the restaurant's obvious proximity to California's viticultural bounty. The glass of South African sauvignon blanc I had with my food was straightforward -- and frankly nowhere as good as the wines we'd been drinking in Napa Valley.

The verdict? I'm not really sure the Cafe half of the Chez Panisse institution lived up to my admittedly overblown expectations. To be fair, we'd been utterly spoiled by the incredibly good food we'd been eating in Napa Valley just prior to this meal. But truth be told, Chez Panisse Cafe just wasn't as good as either Sol Bar or JoLe. Perhaps the Restaurant is better -- but unfortunately we'll have to save that for another trip.

Udupi Palace (Berkeley, CA)

1901 University Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704-1023
(510) 843-6600

We went to Udupi Palace in Berkeley for a late lunch, today, to eat dosa. Instead, we ended up with a dosa that nearly ate us. With a wingspan of something like four feet, the paper dosas, here, are the largest I've ever seen. When waiters bring them out to a table, people sitting near the isle have to duck out of the way. Crikey!

Once we collected ourselves off the floor, though, we realized that most of the food was pretty middle of the road. Both paper and regular dosas were expertly made thin with minimal amounts of grease. But the masala filling that came with the dosa was bland and didn't include cilantro or green chiles or urad dal for textural contrast. Sambar didn't include a variety of vegetables, but was instead mostly cooked down dal and potato. Coconut chutney was standard issue bulk purchased stuff from a plastic bucket.

Justin ordered a regular dosa combo, which also came with vada and iddly. Iddly was a bit dense, but the vada was quite fair: a bit greasy, but texturally light and well fried.

Overall, it's a nice place to pop into for a quick lunch. If we lived in the neighborhood, we'd surely bring friends back for a plain paper dosa -- if only to scare them. But it's not so good we're tempted to come back, again, tomorrow.

JoLe (Calistoga, CA)

1457 Lincoln Avenue
Calistoga, CA 94515-1417
(707) 942-5938

I'm starting to lack variety in my reviews, I know, but we've been eating a helluva lot of fantastic California style cuisine as of late. Tonight, we hit up JoLe, a remarkable small plates-only restaurant in downtown Calistoga, after a long day of wine tastings. Again, the food blew us away despite the fact that our tastebuds were pretty tired after the day's workout. The restaurant is distinguished by its wood fired oven, like the sort used to make pizza di Napoli. Here, it's used for braising, roasting and baking.

We ordered the four-course tasting menu, which allows you to pick three small, tapas sized plates and one dessert. Pacing was perfect, with a nice, long pause between each course to allow us to digest and enjoy each others' company.

Between the two of us, we ordered:

First Course

- An heirloom tomato salad with red, orange and yellow tomatoes, ricotta cheese and pesto. What is it about California grown tomatoes anyway? We've eaten some of the best tomatoes we've had in our lives, here, in Napa Valley. They're even better than the tomatoes I grew myself in my garden this summer, which we ate ripe off the vine. This preparation happily didn't mess with the perfection of the ripe, sweet, juicy tomatoes in any way and they came completely naked (without vinegar or olive oil or salt) so you could taste them clearly. Pesto, plated underneath the tomatoes, and ricotta, set off the side, offered a nice touch of salt if you needed it. Most of these tomatoes didn't.

- Seared scallops with a puree of celeriac, cranberries and caramelized bacon. Gorgeous. Scallops and bacon are one of my favorite, classic combinations. Celeriac brought out the sweetness of the perfectly seared scallops. Cranberries (in the form of a sauce) added a nice acidity. All of the elements of this dish worked seamlessly together.

The scallops went very nicely with a glass of a bright Marsanne/Viognier blend made by Stagecoach Winery as part of the Ma(i)sonry Wine Collective (Napa Valley 07). This tiny production wine (I think they made something like 200 cases of this wine) had strong aromas of melon and a hint of mineral.

Second Course

- Chicken livers with pears, radicchio, bacon, blue cheese. This dish was dressed with a beautiful balsamic vinegar. Livers were breaded and fried. Radicchio was sauteed with a fine dice of lardons. I loved the slivers of sweet pears with the liver, blue cheese and balsamic. Another very well thought out combination of flavors.

- Wood fire oven roasted quail with roasted figs, fingerling potatoes and sauteed spinach. Roasted figs are amazing. If they had been the only thing on the plate, I would've been happy. The wood oven roasted quail also happened to be nice and tender and well flavored. Sauteed spinach added an interesting bitter component, but was slightly jarring. Fingerling potatoes were nicely roasted with a sprinkling of sea salt.

Third Course

- Braised beef cheeks with turnip and winter squash (butternut, I think?). Beef cheeks were very nicely braised with star anise. Turnip, boiled, would have been boring on its own, but it went nicely with the beef cheeks and cut the sweetness without competing with the spicing. If I'd made this dish, I probably would have roasted the turnips, though. Squash came in the form of both a dice and a gently sweet puree.

- Parmesan and salt crusted beef ribeye with roasted grape tomatoes and gnocchi. Justin was incredibly fond of this dish. Ribeye was very moist and perfectly seasoned. Roasted tomatoes added a bit of sweetness. Gnocchi wasn't the fluffiest version we've ever encountered, but it was competently made. The parmesan crust elevated an otherwise ordinary, but well prepared dish, to something very, very nice.

We paired our mains with a Madrigal Winery Zinfandel (Napa Valley, CA 2008). This fruity (cherry, plum), slightly peppery and softly tannic zinfandel was a perfect match with both the beef cheeks and the ribeye.

Dessert Course

- Carrot Ice Cream Cake with cream cheese ice cream and bourbon pecans. Pecans were cooked with brown sugar and bourbon and tasted disconcertingly similar to derby pie, minus the chocolate. Cream cheese ice cream was true to that flavor and had great mouthfeel. Carrot cake was frozen (a very nice twist), but was a tad dry.

- Coconut cream pie with with chocolate ganache, macadamia crust. Wow, this pie was incredible. There were bits of what I think was toffee in the chocolate ganache and the contrast of these crispy bits with the cream and coconut filling set off fireworks in our mouths. This has to be one of the best desserts I've had in the past year.

The night before, we ate at the Michelin-starred SolBar. Based on both the truly lovely food and service, JoLe really ought to have one of its own.

Sol Bar (Calistoga, CA)

755 Silverado Trail
Calistoga, CA 94515
(707) 226-0850

Sol Bar, a one-star Michelin restaurant, won't bombard you with amuse bouches or mignardise, unlike many other starred or Michelin-aspiring restaurants. Decor is comfortable, even casual, with the sort of environment friendly to both young children and socks-with-sandals wearing men. But the food is absolutely serious. It embodies the best of California cuisine, focusing on the extreme freshness of ingredients and presentation of unadulterated flavors.

We started with three small plates:

- Chilled Tomales Bay Kumamoto oysters with California sturgeon caviar, cauliflower mousse and white miso-apple gelée. The Kumamoto oysters were served out of the shell, a preparation I don't usually love, since the delicious brine goes somewhere other than my mouth. But the three or four oysters on the plate were quite fresh, and paired nicely with the micro greens on the plate (not mentioned on the menu, interestingly), and the rich cauliflower mousse. I didn't see a gelee on the plate, but there were delicately julienned apples, as well as a few odd and slightly jarring sunflower seeds in the salad. Overall, a nice-to-eat and nice-to-look-at composition, but it didn't seem to be true to the menu description.

- Golden tomato soup with double-cheese biscuit. This soup was the essence of tomato and summer, served warm just as the evening began to cool. I can't describe to you just how much better this soup was than any other tomato soup I have ever had. I'm guessing it was just roasted tomatoes, skinned and then pureed with good broth. But it was remarkably delicious -- probably the most delicious dish we had the entire evening and absolutely perfect in its simplicity.

- Justin also had the hearth-baked sea salt flatbread with salsa verde, romesco sauce, and white bean purée, pimentón de la vera. He raved about the light, crispy, and yet chewy texture of the flatbread. I tasted and liked the three dips, but did not find them to be extraordinary.

We paired our appetizers / small plates with the "sweet and spicy" wine flight, which included a Palmina Winery Malvasia Bianca (Santa Ynez Valley 2009); Atrea Winery's "The Choir", which is a Roussanne / Viognier blend (Mendocino 2008); and Tatomer Winery's "Vandenberg", a very dry Riesling (Santa Barbara 2008). I adored the nose on the Malvasia Bianca: very floral, a bit reminiscent of honeysuckle and peach. And I loved the fact that it was so dry on the tongue, despite the huge floral leadup, which I often associate with sticky sweet Gewurztraminers. The Choir was really pretty interesting, with a bit of the flintiness of Viognier and the lightest touch of something floral. I think this a blend I'll look for in the future. I wish I could do the Vanderberg justice in my description, but I don't think my palate and nose are good enough to detect the nuances. It was complexly fruity on the nose, very dry to the taste and a very sophisticated, grown up wine overall.

Our mains were:


- Painted Hills Ranch smoked beef shortribs, Half Moon Bay butterbean, pico de gallo, beer battered onion and sweet corn. Shortribs were hardly spiced and slightly undersalted -- but I think I actually liked the salt level because it focused attention on the clean flavors of the meat. Shortribs were lightly smoked and very tender, attractively served with a sprinkle of what I thought were finely chopped chives on top. Butterbeans were just lovely, both in pureed form on the plate, and mixed in whole with the vividly flavored pico de gallo and corn. The fried onion ring was a tad salty and a tad greasy, but the batter was very light and fluffy.

- Snake River Farms bavette (aka flank) steak, yukon gold potato gnocchi, garlic creamed leeks and sauce bordelaise. Justin requested the steak cooked medium rare. I was happy to see that it actually came quite rare, with a lovely sear on the outside. Steak sat atop caramelized onions and a lovely, lovely bordelaise sauce that I think included some marrow. Garlic creamed leeks were classic comfort food. There were also delicate, fried matchsticks of potatoes sitting atop of the meat, which somehow managed to remain crispy until the very last bite about half an hour after it was brought to the table.

We had a half bottle of Storybook Mountain Zinfandel with our mains, vintage forgotten. It was very fruit forward, with a lot of plummy, dark berry notes, but fell short of jamminess. It paired very nicely with the shortribs, but not with the pico de gallo part of that plate. It was absolutely made to go with the steak.

Unfortunately, we were too full for dessert, but the menu looked fabulous....

I'm trying not to let our beautiful views of the sunset, the incredibly talented classical guitarist who plays at Sol Bar every Friday night, and the fact that the manager walked around and visited every single table to inquire about our meals influence my take on the food. But truth be told, these factors really did complete the experience. The music was gorgeous and I was torn about whether to clap after every song or focus on our conversation. (For the record, Justin is a pretty good conversationalist, but the music was just that good.) One topic of conversation: We wondered whether or not we should move to Napa Valley, make our own wines (Mr. Barkypants' Barbarossas?) and eat at Sol Bar every Friday.

Asuka Ramen (San Francisco, CA)

883 Bush St
(between Mason St & Taylor St)
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 567-3153

It's neither authentic nor particularly delicious, but on a cool night after a six hour, food-free flight from NYC, Asuka ramen didn't seem like such a bad spot to duck into for a late dinner. We got in there around 9:25 p.m., five minutes before closing, but the really nice folks who ran the restaurant sat us down and fed us anyway. Unfortunately, the food wasn't very good.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Y.

We had the tonkatsu ramen (with boneless pork chop, one hard boiled egg, kelp and one slice of pink and white swirl fish "cake"), tantan men (spicy chili miso flavored noodle soup with ground pork, bean sprout) and beef curry. The beef curry was the best of the bunch, with potatoes and onions melted into the curry by dint of long cooking. The curry had too much corn starch as thickener, so beef flavors were diluted. But it was likable and reminded me of the curries my dad used to make for me when I was a kid... except with a bit more water and corn starch added.

Photo courtesy of Karen L.

The ramen dishes, on the other hand, tasted irredeemably washed out. (I'm not sure this was because we'd come so late in the evening that they had to water down the broth to extend it, or whether it is watered down all the time.) Tonkatsu broth was slightly better than the other, but it was still a far cry from the thick, rich broth that distinguishes a bowl of truly good ramen from the Top Ramen packets you can buy at Rite Aid. The tantan men was hardly edible and tasted of spice, salt and grease, but little else. You could see bits of ground meat in the bowl, but you couldn't actually taste it.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Y.

On the bright side, the pork chop in the tonkatsu was nice and tender and the noodles in both ramens were cooked just the way I like it for ramen: a little bit softer than what Italians call al dente, but not to the point of mushiness.

The service was very nice, which always makes it hard to give two stars. But sadly, that's all the food really merits.

Recette (New York, NY)

October 2010

328 W 12th St
New York, NY 10014
(212) 414-3000

Recette is the sort of restaurant where a somewhat classy stoner would want to go if she had the munchies. Everything about the place--the digs, the food, the service--is comfortable and comforting. It's dark and candlelit. The vibe is casual, but not sloppy (wait staff are dressed California business casually in jeans and button-down shirts). And the food is good. Very good.

The menu includes only "snacks" and small plates, though some are far more substantial than others. Dishes like the rack of lamb are actually about the size of something that other restaurants might call a main course, though minus vegetable and starch sides. Soups and salads were portioned like appetizers. In general, all of the meat preparations were brilliantly prepared, while seafood was more hit or miss.

Here's a list of the dishes we ordered, with comments:

- Marinated Hamachi, Uni, Sea Beans, Harissa. The uni was about the same level of quality as Yasuda's, but not in the same league as Soto's--in other words, it was from frozen, but on the better end of that spectrum. Hamachi was probably slightly less than sushi grade, but the vinegar helped masked some of the fishiness.

- Smoked sea bass with brunois of red beets, sliced, pickled golden beets, barely sweet nut brittle. The menu described the fish as smoked, but it actually just tasted like straight up sashimi-style sea bass. It was probably not fresh enough a cut of fish to be prepared with so little adornment. The brittle was great, but it didn't really make sense with the rest of the dish.

- Heirloom Tomato Salad, Peekytoe Crab, Burrata, Basil Vinaigrette. Burrata was silken, tomatoes were juicy, ripe and bursting with flavor, even this late in the season. Crab was the only weak point. It wasn't bad, just a bit stringy and not very flavorful. It didn't come in a large enough portion to really taste with the other ingredients.


- Chilled Corn Soup, Roasted Foie Gras, Parmesan Tuile, Thyme. Great combination of flavors. The generous cut of foie gras lobe was beautifully grilled and the corn was a great foil to the foie gras: not too sweet and subtle enough for the foie gras to really shine. I love parmesan tuiles, and I appreciate what they were trying to do with texture. But by the time, it was served, the parmesan had turned slightly rubbery. You could lose the tuile and the dish would be ever better.

- Crispy Sweetbread, Escarole, Brown Butter, Lemon, Capers, Parsley. This classic preparation could pass as exceptionally good fried chicken. It was perfectly moist on the inside, perfectly crusted and crispy on the outside, nearly greaseless when served, very nicely seasoned. I tend to like other preparations of sweetbreads better than the fried, but this might be one of the best fried versions I've had.

- Rack of lamb with red and golden baby beets. Holy mother... This plate was substantial, but I didn't want it to end. Another perfect preparation. Very straightforward, perfectly seasoned and perfectly cooked, perfectly fresh lamb. It takes real talent (and maybe some cojones) to make something this simple so good, without gimmicks.

- "Le Concorde," Hazelnut Dacquoise, Strawberry Sorbet, Chocolate Mousse, Blueberries, Lavender-Chocolate Sauce. This is how it was listed on the menu, but actually, the strawberry sorbet tasted like passionfruit (perhaps this evening's substitution?). I'm not usually so much of a dessert person, but the crispy, delicate dacquoise was just wonderful with chocolate mousse.

I thoroughly enjoyed this meal. Seafood doesn't seem to be a strong point, but no matter. Next time I'm going to use that as an excuse to order two extra plates of the lamb.

Red Hook Ball Fields (Brooklyn, NY)

September 2010

Clinton St & Bay St
Brooklyn, NY 11231

If you live in New York City for any length of time and love food, sooner or later, you'll probably find yourself trekking the streets of Red Hook in search of the famous Red Hook ball field food vendors. This cluster now includes about ten regular trucks and stands (fewer than there were in the heyday, before every food blogger and restaurant critic had reviewed the place). They're devoted to a few different Latin and South American cuisines and set up shop on the corner of Clinton and Bay Streets every Saturday and Sunday, starting around 11:30 a.m., between roughly May 1 and October 31.

Now, those of you who know me know that I am an incredibly lazy subway commuter. In fact, the only thing that outweighs my gluttony is my hatred of long subway journeys. Partly, I blame my aversion on the fact that I am a total space cadet and sometimes still take the wrong train in the wrong direction, despite having lived in NYC for nearly a decade. And partly, I just blame inertia. In any event, it takes a lot for me to rally for a one-hour subway schlep. The Red Hook food trucks actually make me kind of want to do this on a regular basis.

A buddy and I recently made a stop at Antojitos Chapines, a stand that sells Guatemalan tamales, wrapped up in a banana leaf and tied with a string, then wrapped again in paper and steamed. This vendor sells chicken and pork versions (both $3.50), seasoned with recado rojo, sweet peppers and one green olive (sometimes with the pit in, so be careful). The masa was a little bit washed out in flavor and didn't pick up the beautiful scent of banana leaf, I think because it'd been steamed in paper and was also slightly waterlogged. But the meaty innards were tender and flavorful.

The same vendor (a very nice lady) also sells sweet corn tamalitos de elote, smaller corn-husk wrapped sweet tamales eaten with sour cream ($2).
This version was very fragrant from the corn wrapper, just barely sweet and absolutely delightful warm. Once it cooled down, however, the consistency became a bit too hard to be pleasant. So eat 'em fast.

We also went to El Olomega for pupusas. El Olomega makes fairly decent ones ($5 for a plate of two). The pupusas are served with a basic, but serviceable curtido (made sans carrots). They didn't volunteer any salsa roja for our to-go order, but I think there were some in ketchup bottles at the front of the cart we could've used. Our queso con loroco pupusas were bland, tough and undersalted, but the pork and chicken versions that I brought back were good, even reheated. The masa "skin" was tougher than my favorite versions.

The really fabulous thing we had at El Olomega were the humble fried plantain chips. They fry theirs fresh and sell these long strips of salty, greasy deliciousness for $2 a bag. When they're warm, these chips are indescribably good in their simplicity.

I wasn't a huge fan of the service. After I placed my order, several men edged their way to the front and were served almost immediately (with my pupusas -- boo!). I ended up waiting quite a while before the ladies who worked that truck got me my order.

It wasn't long ago that folks pooh poohed NYC for its non-existent Latin and South American food scene. It still isn't the most amazing in the United States (D.C. has fabulous Salvadoran food and even the unlikely island of Nantucket has a restaurant that makes better pupusas than El Olomega does). But if the Red Hook vendors and their growing popularity among even lazy, subway averse New Yorkers like me is any indication, we are coming up in the world. We are.

Co Ba (New York, NY)

September 2010

110 9th Ave
Manhattan, NY 10014
(212) 414-2700

Co Ba is the girl / boy next door. It's pleasant and enjoyable -- but it's no Angelina Jolie or Justin S.

Although I give Co Ba major props for originality -- it serves a number of Vietnamese dishes that are hard to find in Manhattan -- and for the very sweet service, I don't think it really lives up to the hype. After the Village Voice published its writeup, even the lady who cuts my hair was urging me to go.

The food isn't poorly made for the most part, but flavors are without a doubt blunted for American palates: There's little to no fish sauce in the food and few of the aromatic herbs that so define the cuisine. The kitchen also takes a few shortcuts that a real Co Ba ("third auntie" or slang for food stall owner) would probably never take.

A few notes on dishes we tried most recently:

- Chim Cut Roti (pan roasted five-spice quail served with short grain rice cakes and toasted sesame seeds) -- Subtly flavored, but dry, overcooked quail. The bones were grilled to the point that some of them were actually kind of fun to crunch on. Rice cakes -- which were slightly sweetened, interestingly -- were only barely pan fried. I was hoping to find the incredibly delicious, possibly deep fried kind with the well developed, golden crusts that Justin and I had in Vietnam and Thailand.

- Suon Nuong (grilled lemongrass baby back ribs, topped with crushed peanuts and served with short grain rice cakes) -- Nicely marinated meat, fairly tender. The predominant flavor was of a sweet, I believe plum-based glaze, not of lemongrass.

- Banh Duc Man (steamed shrimp coconut rice cakes topped with ground pork, jicama, wood-ear mushrooms, scallion oil, and shallot crisps, with lime sauce) -- The shrimp were the tiny, dried ones. A nice, simple dish that was true to form, with tender, soft, savory "cakes" contrasting with the crispy, crunchy toppings. I have no recollection of the lime sauce on the plate.

- Goi Vit (ginger poached duck with cabbage salad topped with vietnamese coriander, shallot crisps in a lime ginger dressing, served with shrimp cracker) -- Duck was tender and subtly flavored; salad was robustly zippy and acidic even though it was short on the stinky fish sauce I so love in this dish. The advertised Vietnamese coriander was not rau ram, but "ordinary" cilantro. In general, the dish wasn't as interesting or complex as the versions I prefer.

- Ga Kho Xa Ot (curry lemongrass chicken clay-pot with onions in a hot pepper and dried shrimp paste sauce) -- This was a tasty dish, but at least some elements of it hadn't actually been slow cooked. The onions weren't caramelized and soft; I think the chicken may have been cooked more quickly, too.

- Goi Du Du (green papaya with basil, shrimp, coconut juice braised pork belly, peanuts, spicy soy dressing) -- This salad came with three slightly fishy-tasting shrimp (probably previously frozen to judge by the texture) and a generous sprinkling of tender, shredded pork belly. I might have a bias against sweet dressings in this sort of salad. There was little to no acid, little heat and no pungency from fish sauce, so to me, the dish just came across as being bland, even with the addition of pork belly.

- Banh Mi Thit (assorted cold cuts, grilled honey plum-glazed pork, house-made-pickles, cilantro, jalapenos and mayo on a french baguette) -- Justin's banh mi was made using French baguette and not the more tender, lighter, crispier Vietnamese baguettes made out of rice and wheat flour. The roasted pork was excellent: nicely marinated through, just the right balance of fatty to lean, with a beautifully caramelized crust. The other cold cuts (head cheese and Vietnamese ham, I believe) tasted like standard issue packaged products, exactly the sort that a street vendor in Vietnam would use, really, except sliced more thickly. There was no pate used in this version. (Only the more expensive banh mis in Vietnam include it, though in NYC, the classic banh mi thit usually does include a nice, thick schmear.)


- Pho Bo was consistent across several visits, with fairly decent, not-very-complex, broth; meat that was cut too thickly; and no bean sprouts unless you specifically asked for them. The pho did come with lime, though, which was a plus. (Many Vietnamese restaurants in NYC serve it with lemon for some reason.)

I'm sure I'll find my way back to Co Ba at some point, since it is better than the area's alternatives for Vietnamese food. But it's not so good that I'd think of it as a must try.