Panca Revisited (New York, NY)

Over the years, Panca has become one of our most reliable neighborhood standbys. I love the place, not because it serves the best Peruvian food in town. In truth, it does not. Main courses, which include standards like aji de gallina and lomo saltado (but no longer the delicious arroz con pato or arroz con pollo, sadly), are sometimes just a smidgen off: over- or undersalted, overly acidic, etc... But there are certain things Panca does consistently well -- very well -- including ceviches, tiraditos and anticuchos that are as good as most any version you can find in town. Pisco sours are competently mixed. And perhaps most importantly for winning our undying loyalty, the restaurant is dog friendly. They are awfully nice about letting us sit in the sidewalk enclosure with Julius.

Zabb Elee Delivered! (New York, NY)

Sai Kroog Esan / Thai Sour Pork Sausage

At some point, I'll have to stop reviewing Zabb Elee every other time I eat there -- but it is so exciting to try new menu items and share the fun. Today, we discovered a most wonderful thing, thanks to rrems on Chowhound: Zabb Elee will deliver to us in the West Village for a very reasonable $3 delivery fee. Although probably unfortunate for my waistline, this does further other nefarious aims of mine: I'll be able to try every dish on the extensive menu sooner than I'd thought!

El Almacen (Brooklyn, New York)

Papardelle con Rabo

There are plenty of restaurants in Manhattan that rely on their good looks to get by, rather than good food or good service. I wasn't expecting to encounter one in Brooklyn, where one is more likely to find the most delicious version of X available on the East Coast being served in the most humble of mom & pop-operated establishments. But this, my friends, is the sad tale of good-looking El Almacen, a cozy, charmingly decorated Argentinian restaurant. It features lots of old wood, the sort of rough-hewn reclaimed lumber so common in Williamsburg, a feeling of dignified age and rusticity, and an absolutely mouthwatering-sounding menu. Sadly, the food and service completely failed to live up to the lovely decor.

Chez Michelle & Justin: The Best (Gluten Free) Oatmeal Cookies Ever

This recipe for oatmeal cookies is far too delicious to keep to myself. With their buttery aroma and perfect crispy-on-the-outside / chewy-on-the-inside texture, these gluten-free cookies are as good, if not better than, any wheat-based cookie I've had. It's a bit of a pain to assemble the "weird" ingredients like potato starch flour, rice flour, tapioca starch and xanthan gum, if you don't already have them on hand. But once you do, take comfort in knowing that you can make many more of these cookies. Trust me: You'll want to.

I source many of my gluten-free baking ingredients from Barry Farms, which has a good variety of flours and starches, at a fair price. Bob's Red Mill is another popular source and it probably has wider distribution around the country. Ingredients like rice flour and tapioca starch are readily available at Asian supermarkets, as well. In New York City, Hong Kong Supermarket is a good one-stop shopping destination to pick up these items, but pretty much any market with a dry goods section will have them.

Zabb Elee Revisited (New York, NY)

Yum Koon Chien

On a recent, beautiful May evening, I went back to Zabb Elee, this time with Justin in tow. He's not terribly picky about his food, generally (happily for me and my often less-than-delicious efforts in the kitchen), but he does have a healthy appreciation for good Thai and I was incredibly excited to share my find with him. At around 6 p.m. on a weekday, the restaurant was already packed. It only became more so as the evening progressed and the line of diners waiting to be seated snaked out the door. 

Chez Michelle and Justin: Mexico City-Style Tamales... Made in a Chinese Bamboo Steamer

Tamales have a street rep. They're known to be hard, mean, unmanageable by anyone except for the toughest abuela. I've had a package of corn husks kicking around my kitchen since around 2006 (the same package, mind you), but never mustered the courage to attempt tamales. Today, in an effort to procrastinate on something else, I finally found the right moment to make them. The results were fantastic.

Traditionally, tamales are steamed upright in a tamale steamer. Since I didn't feel like buying another piece of kitchen equipment without more tamale making experience under my belt, I used a Chinese bamboo steamer I had on hand, instead. The bamboo steamer worked well, but it does affect the way you wrap the tamale (described in more detail, below). The number of tamales you can steam at once is also more limited than if you use a large, upright tamale steamer.

Chez Michelle and Justin: Pao de Queijo

Pao de queijo... fresh out of the oven! 

I don't usually dabble in gluten free breads or baked goods, since I've expended far too many grueling hours in the kitchen in the past, only to end up with hideous-tasting results. But a little while ago, at Nuela, we had such a lovely pao de queijo, brought out as an amuse bouche, that I was inspired to try my own hand at baking these Brazilian tapioca-flour based rolls.

Atelier Monnier (Miami Beach, Florida)

The Macarons

Sunday mornings are my favorite time of the week to visit Lincoln Road. The intensely touristy strip of international designer clothing stores (the same stores that are right around the corner from us at home, on Bleecker Street, incidentally) is relatively quiet and low key. There are stands set up, everywhere, selling everything from orchids, loose-leaf teas made of exotic flowers and juice "elixirs" designed to combat the excesses of the night, before, to produce, ceviche and something you can't find at your average farmer's market or street fair: macarons.

Joe's Stone Crab (Miami Beach, Florida)

I'm not sure why, exactly, we thought Joe's Crab would be a informal crab shack. On a recent evening, just as the sun was setting, we showed up at this South Beach institution after a fast bike ride, with wind-whipped hair, sandy feet, me in a sundress and Justin in shorts -- only to find ourselves at a restaurant with valet parking and a beautiful wooden bar that would be at home in any downtown Manhattan steakhouse. After a bit of debate (noting with dismay a gentleman in a bowtie escorting his wife into the restaurant on his arm), we decided to put our names on the wait list anyway. A few open glares from the maitre d'hotel and a well-mixed old fashioned later, we sat down to a meal that Justin said was the best he'd had in Miami, yet.

Since this was our first time at Joe's, we went for the standard combos. I had the East and West Combo, which included two Alaskan king crab claws and four "select" (medium sized, higher quality) stone crab claws. Both of our orders came with a mustard dipping sauce, clarified butter and lemon wedges, and all the crab claws were nicely pre-cracked so all you had to do was pull the meat out of the shell.

Michy's (Miami, FL)

Chef Michelle Bernstein's Michy's is a study in contrasts, starting with the location. The restaurant sits on a slightly downtrodden-feeling strip of Biscayne Boulevard, where previous reviewers have noted that one can sometimes still see working girls... working. Inside, the room is an elegant shabby chic, with dangly chandeliers, white tablecloths, well-trained wait staff and pretty bathrooms that Justin observed smell like cotton candy. The restaurant serves comfort food, "low" food, made fancy. And even though the menu draws from a plethora of far-away influences, including Peruvian, Italian and French, ingredients are more often than not sourced locally.

On the evening we went, the appetizers we tried were better executed than the mains. I loved the nicely balanced Peruvian style ceviche with seafood of the day, ginger, lime, chilies, corn and sweet potatoes. The "seafood of the day" was, in our case, cobia, shrimp, calamari and red snapper, which had been marinated long enough in leche de tigre to really absorb the flavors, without "overcooking". No single ingredient overwhelmed the others. Fresh ginger can be a tricky ingredient to use in a restrained way, especially in combination with delicate fish. Here, the touch was slight, but present -- perfect.  

Sustain (Miami, FL)

Walking into Sustain, a four-month-old, eco-conscious newcomer to Midtown Miami, is a bit like walking onto the set of a Wagnerian opera. There are large, battle-ready (recycled aluminum) shields hanging from an exaggeratedly high ceiling, curved (sustainably grown) wooden bows slung from the walls, and an upside-down mangrove tree by the entrance, whose naked, inverted roots loom above the host. The decor has a distinctly theatrical and vaguely martial vibe. Even the heavy front door requires a struggle to open as a fortress gate might.

Happily, Alejandro ("Alex") Piñero's menu is rather more down-to-earth. The food is comparable in style to what you might find at Market Table in NYC, but with occasionally more avant garde plating. Most ingredients are sourced from within a 50 mile radius of Miami, according to the restaurant.

At a recent dinner with Sat and Jay, we tried a range of dishes. The 50 Mile Salad (so named because it included only ingredients from within a 50 mile radius of Miami), contained Paradise Farms brassica (a general term that includes many types of cabbages), Swank Farms carrots, Borek Farms beets, Teena's Pride heirloom tomatoes, pickled onions and Hani's fromage blanc, according to the menu. The version we tried also included an unlisted, crispy white vegetable that I'm fairly sure was jicama. The vegetables were good and fresh. The young carrots were a tad hard, a sign of having been underwatered in life, but lightly pickled in a vinaigrette, I think, and overall a pleasure to eat. The tomato was ripe, juicy and delicious, despite the fact that it was tinged with green. I'm not sure I share Fred Bernstein of the New York Time's Magazine's enthusiasm, when he called this salad a "wonder" in a recent review; vegetables in my version were good, but not revelatory, unlike equally simple preparations at, say, JoLe in Calistoga, California. But this was a competent salad. The small dab of fromage blanc (the cottage cheese-looking white blob in the middle) was very good.