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Manresa, Los Gatos (September 2013)

Quite awhile back I was talking with my good friend BLT(the Beltless Tiger) about all the meals we had intended to write posts about but never got around to. We both had a good number we were too ~~lazy~~ busy to put up promptly and by the time motivation struck it seemed to be too late or irrelevant and he (jokingly I think) made a suggestion that we start doing Throwback Thursday posts. It seemed like a good enough idea and I thought for months that I would get going on it any day now. At last the moment has come. Manresa for a few years now has been my favorite restaurant in the US. Until an accident thwarted my planned 2014 trip, the Los Gatos restaurant was the only place I had made an effort to dine at each year since 2009. My nights there are consistently among the best dining experiences of my life. As I’m sitting in my Wall Street apartment looking forward to my next meal at the hands of David Kinch and team in mere weeks, and even more so feeling thrilled at the announcement that Michelin has finally awarded them a third star, I am getting around to posting about my dinner with Rocky from roughly two years ago.

At my preferred table, ready to rock.

Petit fours “red pepper-black olive” Kinch’s signature opener of red pepper pate de fruits and black olive madeleines. Good vegetal balance in the PDF and lightly sweet, nicely dense madeleine.

Garden beignets and leaves Light savory beignets with crispy kale leaves.

25 tomatoes, coriander A beautiful expression of the fruit in the height of the season.

Almond tofu, berries and verbena, melon snow Not really sweet, but almost dessert-like. Tart dried fruit and expressive almond flavors.

Abalone and local milk panna cotta Monterey Bay abalone, braised and in gelée, with breakfast radish and panna cotta.

Summer beans with octopus, horseradish Ever slightly charred Moroccan octopus with summer beans and lychee tomato. The acid-starch balance was kickin.

Without rice, fava bean risotto, sheep’s milk cheese With summer truffle and mushrooms. Mind-blowing legume treatment combined with mushroom earth and an enchanting, almost hypnotizing truffle and cheese perfume. Rocky put this in heavy contention for dish of the trip.

Into the vegetable garden… A consistently stunning homage to Le Gargouillou by Michel Bras. A flawless journey of pea leaves, lambs quarters, nasturtium, beet, malabar spinach, ice plant, arugula, wild dandelion, and many other vegetables, leaves, and flowers.

Albacore “puttanesca,” lightly smoked, crispy cassava The acid and brine in the puttanesca was great support to smoked meaty fish.

Summer clams and beans in a pine mushroom broth Various clams with seabream in a dashi broth accompanied by matsutake mushrooms, seaweed, beans, and peas. Badass savory layers.

Duck, confit of figs and wild fennel, milk and honey An outstandingly great roasted aged duck breast with leek, fennel, and turnip and a touch of sweetness from figs and honey.

Lamb with dates and olives, onion fondue Straight forward and damn delicious.

A selection of cheese from the cart. Varying styles from California, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and New York.

Andy’s plums with butterscotch, buckwheat, black walnut Smoothly rich butterscotch with perfect plums, crisply buckwheat, and popcorn. Perfect.

Strawberries and white chocolate, malted milk pebbles, crispy yuba Fresh strawberries, strawberry ice, and strawberry mousse in a white chocolate shell over crunchy malt crumbles with small bursts of mint.

Raspberries, chocolate-coffee parfait, golden raspberry sorbet, almond

Mint bonbon and coffee macaron

Petit fours “strawberry-chocolate” The signature closer of strawberry pate de fruits and chocolate madeleines.

And a treat for breakfast. An outrageously superb meal.

Date of visit: September 7, 2013

Manresa. 320 Village Lane, Los Gatos, CA 408 354 4330 www.manresarestaurant.com

Tempura Matsui – NYC – July 2015

Published August 11, 2015 NYC + , Tempura Matsui , USA 2 Comments
Tags: Masao Matsui, Matsui, Tempura Matsui

After a ten month hiatus from posting on my blog I ran into my friends Michael and Linda, The Wandering Epicures, and got to talking about the meals we’ve had since our last meeting. We spoke mostly of restaurants in Japan and California, but it was the comparison of our recent meals at newly opened Tempura Matsui that led me to finally dust off my blogging machine and get this post up.

Since returning from our winter trip to Japan, Rocky has been on the lookout for a good place to get her tempura fix. So when we found out about Chef Masao Matsui’s new spot on East 39th we put our dining shoes on and headed uptown.

As there is only the one menu option for dinner, all we had to do was order a bottle of sake to get the party started.

Sakizuke: Junsai with Sea Urchin. The first serving was a small bowl of uni, yam, lotus root, wasabi, water lily buds, and vinegar.

Zensai:

Homemade Sesame Tofu topped with Wasabi and Dashi. The soy-wasabi dashi was great.

Simmered Octopus Sakura-ni.

Simmered Eggplant Hisui-ni. Topped with bonito flakes.

Chawan-mushi with Red Rice, Tai fish and Uni Ankake. Seemingly endless layers of surprises for such a small dish. And a generous amount of urchin.

Assorted Sashimi with Tuna, Tai and Sake-Steeped Abalone. A nice sashimi plate I suppose for a tempura restaurant. The tai was beautifully delicate, the tuna beautifully fatty, and the abalone nice and tender with a sauce from its liver.

Tempura:

Condiments: tempura sauce, grated daikon radish, salt, and lemon. Though the tempura was wonderful on its own and mostly didn’t need any dressing.

Shrimp. First bites of the tempura portion. Two superbly light and subtly savory shrimp heads.

Shrimp. A perfectly sweet shrimp.

Shrimp. And another one.

Asparagus. Clean, unobscured flavor.

Scallop. Wrapped in seaweed. An outstanding serving. The tenderness and sweetness of the scallop were balanced dead on with the savory and crisp seaweed and batter.

Cherry Tomato. Served far too hot for me, I had to let it cool awhile. Super juicy.

King Crab. Damn delicious. Like over the top amazing. My favorite of the night.

Maitake. Straight forward fried mushroom. Very nice.

Japanese Ginger Sprout. Probably my least favorite bite of the meal.

Japanese Whitefish. An outstanding show of Matsui’s skill. Very nice fish enhanced by the delicate batter.

From here we were told the planned tempura menu was finished and we were given the option to add more pieces. I elected to have one more of their choice.

Uni. Sea urchin wrapped in tofu skin. Very tasty, intense uni flavor.

Hamo with Cucumber and Plum Sauce. A decent enough plate of conger eel.

Ten-don. Shrimp tempura over rice. My second favorite of the night. An excellent handful of shrimp over a fantastic bowl of rice accented by the salty and sweet tentsuyu sauce.

Akadashi Miso Soup. Tasty enough soup. Though Rocky couldn’t finish hers because of the fairly obscene amount of sand in the bowl.

Homemade Pickles. The small dish of very nice pickles was a great condiment.

Peach Compote. Poached peaches in simple syrup. As simple as that. As much as I love the light, fresh Japanese style desserts..I was thankful there is Shake Shack a block up to fulfill ~~Rocky’s dessert demands~~ our appetite for sweets.

A very serious Chef Masao Matsui.

Our bottle of Kubota Manju.

Overall a very tasty meal. High quality products treated impeccably. Though I would have preferred the focus to be more on tempura. Especially given the name and all the press declaring it New York’s first real tempura restaurant. I look forward to seeing how Tempura Matsui evolves.

Date of visit: July 27, 2015

Tempura Matsui. 222 East 39th St, NYC 212 986 8885 www.tempuramatsui.com

Ramen Omakase at Okonomi

Published October 14, 2014 NYC + , Okonomi , USA 2 Comments
Tags: Okonomi, Okonomi Brooklyn, Ramen Omakase, Tara Norvell, Yuji Haraguchi, Yuji Ramen

When Yuji Ramen was still operating in the Whole Foods Market on Bowery, I used to stop in with moderate frequency for the fantastic mazemen ramen. I had wanted to join in on one of the omakase nights they used to hold, but I never managed to work it out. A couple weeks ago I received an email advertising that the seats were about to go on sale for the next rounds of the newer incarnation of the Yuji Ramen Omakase in their newer Brooklyn space, so I figured I would give it a try.

This past Sunday Rocky and I made our way out to Williamsburg to see what Co-Chefs Tara Norvell and Yuji Haraguchi are cooking up at their restaurant Okonomi. I was initially a little miffed by the lack of a wine list or BYO option, but ended up very pleased with how well each of the singular beer and sake offerings flowed seamlessly with the meal. With the beverages in place, we were ready to get the party started.

First up, Local Red Drum. Lovely local fresh fish to begin. Accompanied by plum soy sauce and a fairly spicy yuzu condiment.

Cured Alaskan Salmon Mazemen. With Camembert, shiso buds, and tare soy sauce. The noodles had an amazing bite and the shiso a nice pop. The fish was beautifully complimented by the sweetness of the tare.

Ikura. The roe from the same fish as the previous dish. With soba ramen orecchiette and grated pear.

Whole wheat ramen ravioli. Filled with uni miso. Topped with Maine uni and orange. Again, the dough was wonderfully textured, with great sea urchin taste.

Slices of delicate tilefish, cooked in a dashi of the fish, topped with crispy fried skin from the fish. An excellent expression of the tilefish.

‘Chips and Dip’. A chip of fried ramen dough. Alongside a Spanish Mackerel tataki with ginger, scallion, sesame, and quail egg yolk.

Nori ramen ‘agnolotti’ filled with monkfish liver and topped with fresh grated wasabi. Superb marine richness balanced by the wasabi.

Broth of chicken, pork, drum fish, and mackerel. With noodles, scallion, and nori. Purely wholesome. The broth hit on multiple savory levels without being overly fatty or salty.

Shiso tofu panna cotta with fresh pear. Light, herbaceous tofu kicked up with the acid and texture of the pear.

A super fun and remarkably tasty dinner in a relaxed and intimate setting. I’m excited to return to check out Okonomi’s Ichiju Sansai breakfast.

Date of visit: October 12, 2014

Okonomi. 150 Ainslie St. Brooklyn, NY www.okonomibk.com

Sushi Nakazawa – Sushi Counter

Published April 7, 2014 NYC + , Sushi Nakazawa (2) , USA Leave a Comment
Tags: Alessandro Borgognone, Daisuke Nakazawa, Sushi Nakazawa (2), Sushi Nakazawa NYC, Sushi Nakazawa Sushi Counter

After having dinner in the Sushi Nakazawa dining room two weeks ago, I decided I needed to get back to Commerce Street to have dinner at the sushi counter. So I kept an eye out for openings and secured a reservation for last Monday. I had been told that dinner at the bar is remarkably better than in the dining room(particularly with regards to the integrity of the fare). I wasn’t mislead. Though many of the fish selections and preparations bordered on identical to the week before, the difference between a piece straight from Chef Nakazawa’s hand and a piece that has been plated, sat on the pass, and walked through the room is like night and day. The temperature contrasts make all the difference.

I met my buddy MCL out front just before dinner time and enjoyed the sunshine on a bench until the doors opened promptly at 5:00. We took our corner seats at the counter, ordered up some sake, and got the party started.

Cherry Salmon. From Hokkaido. Supple richness with a good amount of wasabi spice to start off.

Smoked Blackmouth Chinook. From Washington. With some light peppery heat.

Sea Scallop. ‘Dancing Scallop!’ as Chef called it. From Maine. Acidic, spicy yuzu pepper contrasted nicely against the sweet flesh. Likewise, the cool scallop was great over the warm rice.

Giant Clam. Washington geoduck. A brief torching warmed the clam and gave a bit of sweetness from the caramelized soy.

Sea Bream. From Awaji Island. A real beauty. Subtly funky from ground daikon. A few days later at work MCL recalled this as the most impressive piece for him.

Golden Eye Snapper. Shizuoka Kinmedai. With lemon and sea salt. Tender, fatty mouthfeel.

Barred Knifejaw. Ishidai. Clean taste. Cool temperature.

Horse Mackerel. Kagoshima Aji. Gracefully pure for mackerel. One of my favorite pieces again.

Sardine. Straight forward sardine. The taste always takes my memory back to bars in coastal Spain.

Pickled Mackerel. Aged seven days. With just enough Japanese mustard to support the fish and almost go unnoticed.

Octopus. From Kanagawa. Massaged 45 minutes.

Tiger Prawn. From Madagascar. Boiled briefly. More rich than sweet tasting this time.

Wild Yellowtail. I think from Oita.

Smoked Bonito. Impeccably, unmistakably smoky. But just enough so to balance well with the fish.

Lean Bluefin Tuna. From Boston. Lovely, pure flavor.

Soy Marinated Medium Fatty Bluefin Tuna. With Japanese mustard. A very pretty bite.

Fatty Bluefin Tuna. Super oily and lightly torched.

Sea Urchin Santa Barbara. Hard not to like this. The uni was smooth and cool and was superb as it warmed in the mouth.

Soy Marinated Chum Salmon. A radical combination of textures and savory layers.

Sea Eel. A decent enough piece of eel with eel sauce.

Egg Omelette. Again a delightfully light, sweet, and savory egg custard.

Santa Barbara and Maine Sea Urchin. When we were asked if we wanted to repeat or add any bites, MCL asked for more uni. Chef Nakazawa asked us if we wanted Santa Barbara again or Maine. I said both. It was the right move I think.

Yuzu Sorbet. With berries. The blackberry on the bottom was frozen solid 😦

Tea.

A couple bottles of sake for the evening.

Chef Daisuke Nakazawa looking for pictures of fish to show us.

Date of meal: March 31, 2014

Sushi Nakazawa. 23 Commerce St. NYC 212.924.2212 www.sushinakazawa.com

Blue Hill at Stone Barns for Rocky’s Birthday

Published April 5, 2014 Blue Hill at Stone Barns (3) , NYC + , USA Leave a Comment
Tags: Blue Hill, Blue Hill at Stone Barns (3), Blue Hill Restaurant, Dan Barber

To finish up our stretch of co-birthday celebrations last month, the misses and I rented a car and headed north out of the city and up to Blue Hill at Stone Barns for Rocky’s big birthday bash. Since our two-a-day there last summer, Rocky has been calling BHSB her favorite restaurant in the states and has been eager to go back. So I thought a night in a castle, a day at the spa, and dinner on the farm would be a perfect present for her.

Arriving on the grounds was certainly an amusing contrast between our bright, sunny, lushly green, borderline-scorching visit in July and our brisk, stark, snow-covered wintertime return.

Making our way into the restaurant, we said hello to some familiar faces and took our seats at the same corner table where we finished up last time.

We got the party started with some bubbles(it was a remarkably bubbly meal) as our guy rolled up and showed off a guéridon boasting an attractive spread of pickled and fermented goodies, dried mushrooms, house made paprika, molasses, speck, and bresaola. Then began an impressive onslaught of snacks and small bites.

Vegetables from the garden. A colorful, flavorful lineup of fresh veggies.

Ice lettuce. Tender, fleshy leaved succulent.

Hakurei turnips.

Fighter spinach with root vegetable powder. Lightly earthy with some sweetness from the powder. Delightful leaves.

Pig heart pastrami, last year’s asparagus, cured egg yolk. The acidic asparagus with the rich yolk complemented the salty heart nicely.

Squash blossoms. From special seeds from a seed program at Cornell.

Beet jerky. Dried, sweet, chewy. Good stuff.

Crackers: Carrot with curry and seeds. And phytoplankton with tiny shrimp.

Jerusalem artichoke with curry. Soft, sweet, and lightly starchy inside with rich, thick skin.

Beet ‘sushi’ with sprouted grains.

A potato trio.

Yeasted potato. Crispy potato shell with smooth potato puree and chewy cubes of beets.

Marbled potato with creme fraiche and caviar. Sweet, salty, almost heavenly. A superb bite.

Tart with mussel, beer, and seaweed.

Kale & Cabbage. Delicately crisp and perfectly salted.

Boar sausage with some kick ass pickles.

Whelks and lardo. Sweet, meaty sea snails.

Beetfurter. A playful sausage of beets and pork. With preserved tomato.

Tiny beet burgers. Complete with bacon and a grilled sesame crown.

Pork liver and chocolate. Hard-hitting with a rich lingering chocolate finish.

Our guy rolled up again with another guéridon. This one decked out with a variety of ingredients and service ware. He gave us a spiel about how much they love beets at Blue Hill and how they sometimes go overboard with them. As he stood at his cart mixing up a beet tartare, a few other beet items arrived.

Beet borscht.

A large, meaty cut of scallop with caviar and borscht. The salinity of the caviar struck a good balance between the scallop and the beet. The best plate of the beet series.

Beet tartare with quail egg yolk. Despite all the added spices and condiments, this was still very sweet and a burden to finish.

Beet ‘bolognese’. Polenta with a meaty beet and bacon sauce.

We were presented with examples of Blue Hill’s biochar process. Then a few items prepared with the biochar. First a pretty effing delicious, dense, dark mix of squid, celery root, and charcoal. Then a badass wedge of cabbage cooked over biochar and topped with speck alongside an uninspired quince puree.

In-house ricotta. Whole wheat brioche. Kale and green vegetable marmalade. Black pepper. A welcome repeat from our last visit and a wonderful combination. Rich, fatty ricotta with sweet, vegetal marmalade, spicy black pepper, and toasty, buttery brioche.

Broccoli & Cheddar. A perfectly tender yet firm broccoli stem with cheddar foam, seeds, and sprouts.

A marvelous little bowl of fighter spinach and seaweed along with a salty, meaty cod head. Rocky didn’t do so well with this fish, so I got the majority here. It had some glutinously gelatinous highlights. The eyes were particularly chewy and tasty.

Bordelais – parsnip ‘steak’ topped with bone marrow, fried egg, and bordelais sauce with accompaniments of creamed spinach, caramelized onion, and cabbage ketchup. The parsnip was nice at first but got tiresome. The egg and onions were nice. The spinach was fairly bland.

Bread service: potato onion bread, local butter, corn salt, beet salt.

Halloran Farms venison with brussels sprouts, cabbage, and caraway. Some quality cuts of gamey venison. The sprouts were amazing – nutty, almost sweet – the best part of the plate.

Another service cart rolls up. This time with a giant wheel of Rupert, an aged raw cow milk cheese from Consider Bardwell Farm in Vermont. Our guy shaved several strips off the wheel and served them up with quince, pumpkin seeds, and rye sourdough pretzels.

Parsnip sorbet with lemon and charcoal. The tart lemon rind set off the sweet parsnip.

A vanilla caramel birthday cake for Rocky!

Honey expressions. Three textures of honey from three seasons. Spring honey with carrot and tarragon. Summer honey with Carolina Gold Rice. Fall honey with pistachio. Quite a tasting. The summer and fall were dynamite. Presented handsomely in stacking dishes resembling honeycomb cells.

A fairly serious spread of sweet treats. Sourdough biscuits with berry jam. Apple. Dried honeycomb with chocolate, stunning. Quince pate de fruits. Crispy, sweet dried carrots. Honey truffles. Blue Hill Oreos. Arugula meringue resembling needles in a haystack.

White chocolate eggs with candy cap mushroom. These sounded interesting but were overly sugary and fairly awful.

Hazelnut ‘puppy chow’. Wheat clusters. Dehydrated slices of apple. Light, melt-away carrot chips. Cookie tuiles.

As I mentioned at the top of the post, it was a remarkably bubbly meal.

My buddy Charles greeted us with some Michel Rocourt Blanc de Blancs.

We followed up with La Closerie.

And then Vouette & Sorbée fidèle.

Chardonnay into Pinot Meunier into Pinot Noir. The sharp, crisp Rocourt was a nice treat to begin. Then two amazing bottles from my two favorite producers of the moment. What Jérôme Prévost does with Pinot Meunier on his tiny two hectare vineyard Les Béguines in Gueux is magical. And Bertrand Gautherot’s Vouette & Sorbée wines are consistently compelling show stoppers. Some damn sexy grape juice to celebrate my little lady’s birthday.

Date of visit: March 2, 2014

Blue Hill at Stone Barns. 630 Bedford Road. Pocantico Hills, NY 914 366 9600

www.bluehillfarm.com

Sushi Nakazawa – Dining Room

Published March 30, 2014 NYC + , Sushi Nakazawa (2) , USA Leave a Comment
Tags: Alessandro Borgognone, Daisuke Nakazawa, Sushi Nakazawa (2), Sushi Nakazawa Dining Room, Sushi Nakazawa NYC

Last week Rocky and I made our way down to the West Village to see what Chef Daisuke Nakazawa is cooking up (and serving raw) at Alessandro Borgognone’s new spot on Commerce Street, Sushi Nakazawa. I wasn’t actively chasing a reservation, more looking through popular restaurants’ availability out of curiosity, when a table popped up in the Nakazawa dining room. So I figured we should go check it out.

We showed up super excited, took our seats, and delved into the beverage list. The range of sake on offer is impressive, but we opted to go for bubbles along with our Omakase. I got a really excited and went a little over budget when I saw Vouette & Sorbée Blanc d’Argile… amazing juice.

I’m not incredibly experienced when it comes to high end sushi, nor am I very educated about Japanese cuisine in general. So I don’t have a good base of comparison, but I thought our meal here was pretty solid. Clean, intentional, and at times very precise flavors.

I apologize ahead: I’ll do my best to name all the pieces appropriately, though some I’m not sure about and others I’m completely clueless on. Twice I was told that someone would be happy to write a menu of the fish we were served, though when it was time to pack up and go a guy asked for my email and said he would send me the list instead. Now, a week later, I’m assuming it’s not coming. Anyways..here’s how it went down.(The descriptors will go from the right side of the plate to the left.)

Alaskan King Salmon. Rich, full flavor.

Maybe Sea trout? Smoked with some very special wood.

Scallop. Yuzu pepper, sake sauce. Cool, meaty slices of scallop beautifully complimented by the sake. The pepper finish was long and spicy.

Washington Geoduck. Seared. Fantastic texture. Subtle but defined taste. The gentle sear was nice.

Cusk. Yuzu pepper, ponzu.

Sable. Nikiri(sweet soy sauce), a little bonito. A superb bite. One of the best of the meal. Rocky’s favorite.

Porgy. Yuzu zest. Slightly metallic tasting.

Aji(Horse Mackerel). Ginger, nikiri. Fantastic.

Silver Stripe Herring. Nikiri. Strongly flavored, a little fishy.

Herring. Very nice with a subtle wasabi type spice and an almost pickle-ish taste.

Madagascar Tiger Prawn. Nikiri. Good texture with a rewarding shrimpy sweetness.

Spearhead Squid. Japanese pepper leaf. I thought it was a great bite, but the smooth kind of gummy feel on one side didn’t work for Rocky.

Something that sounded like ‘Kawati’ ? A little stronger sauce was well suited on the stronger fish.

Spanish Mackerel. Cured black pepper. Soft, fleshy, buttery.

Blue Fin Tuna. An elegant, pure flavored lean cut subtly enhanced by the Japanese mustard spice.

Blue Fin Tuna. A fatty cut, marinated and seared, with a bit of the same mustard. Biting this was like an immediate fat explosion that coated the whole mouth. Rocky said: ‘That’s something special. Better than a cheeseburger.’

Maine Uni. Just wonderful. And I got to eat two since Rocky has some type of uni-phobia.

Alaskan Chum Salmon Roe. Soy marinated. Superb combination of tastes and textures between the roe, seaweed, and rice. Bordering on mind blowing.

Eel. With eel sauce. Pretty straight forward eel.

Tamago. The piece that made Chef Nakazawa famous in the Jiro documentary. A delightfully light, sweet and savory egg custard.

From here we were asked if we wanted to repeat any pieces or try some others. We opted for a little of both.

Jackknife Something. From Japan. Dense and almost tangy.

Some silvery fish.

A red-edged piece of fish of some kind with a super intense fatty and salty flavor.

Santa Barbara Uni. Velvety and supple sea urchin. I got to eat two again. Score.

Madagascar Tiger Prawn.

Aji(Horse Mackerel).

Sable.

Tea.

Yuzu. Sorbet with berries.

Pineapple. Fresh and intensely sweet.

An apparently very happy Chef Daisuke Nakazawa.

Date of meal: March 24, 2014

Sushi Nakazawa. 23 Commerce St. NYC 212.924.2212 www.sushinakazawa.com

Eleven Madison Park. NYC

Published March 28, 2014 Eleven Madison Park (2) , NYC + , USA 3 Comments
Tags: Angela Pinkerton, Chris Flint, Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Park (2), Eleven Madison Park NYC, Eleven Madison Park Restaurant, Will Guidara

My birthday and Rocky’s are eight days apart. We’ve made a habit of making the celebrations span a few weeks. Last month, between our birthdays, on a beautiful February Sunday, we celebrated with an outstanding lunch at Eleven Madison Park. We showed up ahead of schedule and sipped some bubbles at the bar before sitting at our splendid corner table.

On the table was a knife we used to open an envelope containing two punch cards offering four different flavors: maple, cranberry, fennel, apple. We were told we had to pick a flavor that would appear later in our meal. Rocky picked apple. I chose fennel.

CHEDDAR Savory Black and White Cookie with Apple. To kick off the meal, EMP’s most recent adaptation of the New York classic. A cheesy savory biscuit complemented nicely by the sweet apple filling.

OYSTER Vichyssoise and Caviar. A dense Spring Creek Oyster, dotted with caviar, resting in creamy vichyssoise. The rich sauce was a good base for the dual salinity. Good stuff.

SCALLOP Marinated with Apple, Pine, and Water Chestnut. A solid enough East Coast scallop spiced up with horseradish and cooled off with yogurt. Some apple snow gave the plate a nice lasting acidity.

BEEF Tartare with Caviar and Smoked Bone Marrow. A decadent treat. Somehow the smoked marrow and raw beef didn’t kill the caviar with richness. Great balance.

BEEF Pastrami with Pickles, Rye, Mustard, and Apple/Fennel. An homage to NYC delis. Rye bread with mustard, black garlic, and endive, pickles, a couple slices of pastrami, and sodas – apple flavored for Rocky and fennel for me. A super fun and pretty delicious course. Both the sodas were awesome.

FOIE GRAS Seared with Sunchokes, Hazelnuts, and Solera Vinegar. At the outset of the meal we were each asked if we wanted our foie gras seared or cured. Naturally I wanted both but we ended up going one and one and I got to eat the majority of each. This presentation was fantastic. The foie was superb with the sweet and earthy accompaniments.

FOIE GRAS Cured with Sunchokes and Fermented Mustard Greens. The mustard seeds and fermented greens added a nice depth to the plate, but we both preferred the seared presentation.

APPLE Waldorf Salad with Celery, Cranberries, and Walnuts. Apple and celery root dressed in lemon mayonnaise with cranberries, blue cheese, and candied walnuts. The service cart that rolled up with the mise en place for this course was impressive. The story of the dish, the preparation, and the beautiful antique cookbook were remarkable. The salad itself was mediocre at best. Rocky asked me if she had to finish hers. Though beneath the salad in the two part bowl was a granola and yogurt reinterpretation that was pretty nice. The strong celery taste of the granola was great, but it was still just yogurt and granola. Too bad the food didn’t match the grandeur of the service for this one.

Rocky and I were invited into the kitchen and shown to a standing high-top table where we were served a modernist interpretation of a penicillin cocktail. Scotch, ginger, honey…boozy fun.

LOBSTER Poached with Razor Clam, Sea Urchin, and Kale. First, a cold plating of the course. Tangy lobster salad stuffed inside a claw, sea urchin panna cotta, and razor clam with pear, roe, and kale puree. The clam and pear slices were strongly flavored and were great with the earthy vegetal kale.

LOBSTER Poached with Razor Clam, Sea Urchin, and Kale. And then, the warm plating of the course. Sweet, rich lobster tail, sea urchin foam, meaty razor clam, a nice slice of pear, and an amazing kale leaf that tasted as if it may have been cooked in lobster stock and butter. A sublimely superb plate.

CELERY ROOT Braised with Black Truffle. A sphere carved from the core of braised celery root and doused with powerfully rich and fragrant black truffle jus. Alongside was some celery root puree under which sprawled black truffle puree. Wonderful intensity of earthy flavors.

DUCK Broth with Sausage and Gruyère. At the start of the meal, another choice we had to make was between duck or pork for the final savory. I’ll choose their honey lavender glazed duck every time. The bird was presented, then carved and plated while we had a small bowl of duck broth with a kick ass gruyère and duck sausage chip with some kickin mustard seed acidity.

DUCK Roasted with Lavender, Honey, and Rutabaga. An outstanding roasted duck breast with rutabaga and citrus duck jus. The bowl served beside the feature was something along the lines of confit duck leg with a dense foamy foie gras sauce.

GREENSWARD Pretzel, Onion, and Dried Fruit. A picnic basket complete with everything we needed to have a cheese course picnic. The feature was a cut of Greensward, a raw cow milk cheese by Jasper Hill Farms(Vermont) that is washed with Ithaca Beer Co’s Picnic Basket Ale and wrapped in spruce. Alongside was dried fruit, onion jam, and pretzel bread; the latter two were flavored with the aforementioned beer, a bottle of which was included in the basket. Good times.

SWEET POTATO Curd with Espresso Meringue and Orange Sorbet. A strikingly brilliant plate. Compelling compliments between multiple sweet and multiple bitter elements and the sourish citrus acidity. This had me going until the end: ‘Wow…what’s happening??’

VANILLA Baked Alaska with Rum, Raisin, and Apple/Fennel. Vanilla ice cream enclosed in a thick layer of meringue arrived on our table and was flambéed while our guy explained the history of the Baked Alaska dessert. It disappeared back to the kitchen and arrived again later plated up with Rocky’s and my preordained flavors of apple and fennel. Between the initial presentation and the final plating the portion curiously shrunk dramatically in size. I’m guessing the rest got tossed, but we sure did want to eat it.

PRETZEL Chocolate Covered with Sea Salt. A pretty delicious mildly crunchy, sweet, chocolatey pretzel.

CHOCOLATE Sweet Black and White Cookie with Cinnamon. To finish the meal, EMP’s current sweet iteration of the NYC classic. Oatmeal flour, Saigon cinnamon, and Mast Brothers chocolate.

And some handsome birthday treats to take home. They tasted like PB&J chocolates.

Some wines we drank:

Date of meal: February 23, 2014

Eleven Madison Park. 11 Madison Avenue. NYC 212.889.0905 elevenmadisonpark.com

Little Elm at The Elm, Brooklyn

Published March 24, 2014 Little Elm , NYC + , USA Leave a Comment
Tags: Little Elm, Mazen Mustafa, Paul Liebrandt, The Elm, The Elm Brooklyn, The Elm Restaurant

Last month for my birthday, Rocky offered to take me out and buy me dinner at a restaurant of my choice. I decided to go with something new that neither of us had tried. After a little back and forth I chose to visit Little Elm, the tasting counter at The Elm in Williamsburg, to see what Chef Mazen Mustafa is cooking.

Following up a wonderful birthday lunch, a stop at the bar at the NoMad, and a quick nap at home, we made our way across the water to the King & Grove Hotel, home of The Elm. We checked our coats, dried off from the rain a moment, took our seats, ordered a bottle of bubbles, and got the party started.

An amusing trio to begin:

Sweet and tart, delicately crisp sea buckthorn.

Parmesan crisps dusted with acidic tomato powder.

Red miso financiers with yuzu ricotta. A nice savory/sweet/sour bite.

Black Bass | Hon Shimeji. A crudo of bass with pickled hon shimeji mushroom, caviar, radish, and dashi gelee. Great intensity of flavor without being too strong. It would have been nice to have another utensil; eating this with the large fork was brutal.

Foie Gras | Black Trumpet. A solid dish. Super smooth foie gras topped with gelee of black trumpet mushroom spiced with peppercorn, accompanied by compressed apple, celery root and sake puree, and a perfectly toasted slice of thai long pepper brioche.

Nantucket Bay Scallop | Tom Yum. The first service of the scallop was a crudo topped with shaved marcona almond, shio, and kombu. Not sure what the marinade or dressing on the scallop itself was, but it was superb. Effing amazing little dish all around. Even the savory aroma was intoxicating. Easily my favorite course of the meal.

Nantucket Bay Scallop | Tom Yum. In the second service of the scallop, they were roasted and served with ricotta gnudi, tom yum sauce foam, and lime zest. The pairing of the scallops with the gnudi was very nice. Though the mild lingering heat didn’t quite balance and for me the citrus in the plate stood out against the richness instead of calming it.

Lobster | Brown Butter. The first lobster plate was roasted Maine lobster tail with heirloom beets, tomatillo puree, and a bizarre but strangely good black garlic balsamic reduction. The beets were very nice though I didn’t quite understand them with the lobster. The tomatillo was far too spicy for my midwest white boy spice tolerance.

Lobster | Brown Butter. The second lobster dish was torchietti pasta with tomato and pork ‘XO sauce’ over a huge chunk of lobster mitt. A pretty solid pasta dish with a good level of lasting heat.

Elysian Fields Lamb | Eggplant. A very fatty, overly rich cut of lamb neck served with eggplant, radish, a very nice mix of quinoa and almond, and a strong sauce.

Stichelton | Pear. Stichelton blue cheese with textures of pear, vadouvan spices, and mustard oil. A great composed cheese course. The creamy spicy blue with the pear along with some riesling auslese was fantastic.

Puff Pastry | Popcorn. Damn. This was a kick ass little dessert. Popcorn mille-feuille with a little apple. Rocky and I saw a much larger version of this plate go out to the dining room a few times and we’ve been talking of returning for it since.

Chocolate | Berry. A small bar of chocolate feuilletine cake covered in dark chocolate alongside some huckleberry jam and a quenelle of huckleberry and red fruit sorbet. Delicious.

Petit Fours. Green Chartreuse cream puff. Smoked cookies & cream financier. Yuzu ricotta chocolate. Thai tea canelé. Coffee cardamom canelé. Black cherry pâte de fruit. The financier, chocolate, and pdf were tasty. The Chartreuse cream puff was superb, light and almost fluffy with a good dose of the herbal flavor I love. The canelés, while flavored well, were abysmal. Terribly textured and tasting almost of raw egg inside, I have to wonder if anyone tasted this batch before serving them.

Some wines we were served:

Overall a fun and memorable birthday dinner. I look forward to returning to The Elm to try their burger and have a giant popcorn mille-feuille.

Date of visit: February 20, 2014

Little Elm. 160 N 12th St. Brooklyn, NY 718.218.1088 theelmnyc.com

Blue Hill at Stone Barns – Two-a-day, Part 2

Published February 27, 2014 Blue Hill at Stone Barns (3) , NYC + , USA Leave a Comment
Tags: Blue Hill, Blue Hill at Stone Barns (3), Blue Hill Restaurant, Dan Barber, Stone Barns

Feeling elated from an incredible lunch and enthusiastic for our impending dinner, Rocky and I headed back to Stone Barns a little early to do a bit more exploring of the grounds before taking our seats for round two of our Blue Hill two-a-day. (click here for round one)

Once again, this post is coming eight months after the meal, so I’m going to keep it fairly brief with any details I happen to remember or have jotted down.

Vegetables from the garden.

Rhubarb strips.

Baby kohlrabi from the garden.

Pig heart pastrami.

Radishes from the greenhouse.

Pea and corn shoots. To be snipped and dragged through lemon vinaigrette with aleppo pepper and bee pollen.

Blueberry, honey, and lardo pancakes. Tremendous.

Chocolate and pork liver.

Mini asparagus burgers.

Coppa flatbread. Crispy and hammy.

Toasted yogurt. One with carrot sorbet, the other with beet sorbet.

Green garden gazpacho(cucumber, zucchini, herbs) with buffalo yogurt and a polenta chocolate wheat chip.

Local clams, peas, lardo. Superb green combination of peas, fava beans, and asparagus with lovely clams(razor and some other). Though the dish was topped with too much lardo for my taste.

Zucchini, nasturtium, almond. A lovely, juicy cut of squash.

Peas, bio-char onions, daylily. Damn. Amazing. I still think of this little dish occasionally. The charred allium taste was sublime with the perfect peas. The daylily was a lifting lightly floral compliment.

Handmade goose egg pasta(made with minimal flour) with basil and cured immature egg yolk. Another winner. Rocky still talks about this dish occasionally.

Potato onion bread with Hudson Valley butter, Tulip’s butter(Normandy cow), Blue Hill lardo, and corn salt.

Turkey breast, heart, and liver accompanied with beet and strawberry.

Hudson Valley lamb with morels and dragon radish.

Sweet Berry Farm black sheep cheese in the style of goat cheese. With rye bread and rhubarb compote.

Blueberry with frozen Stone Barns buttermilk. Tart sweet berries and rich buttermilk served super cold. Good stuff.

Strawberry ‘cannelloni’ with creme fraiche and balsamic reduction. A kick ass berries and cream plate.

Oh boy…mignardises on bark. They were something along the lines of: chocolate corn flakes, chocolate pumpkin seeds, honeyed chocolate, minty chocolate, chocolate raspberry lollipop, chocolate covered hazelnuts.

A couple wines of the night:

And that’s my recap of our Blue Hill at Stone Barns two-a-day from last June. Rocky and I are amped to join Chef Dan Barber and crew again for her birthday dinner this weekend. Hopefully I can get the post for that one done in under eight months this time.

Oh yeah…as we were leaving the restaurant, the ‘Super Moon’ was in full effect(though covered with clouds).

Date of meal: June 23, 2013

Blue Hill at Stone Barns. 630 Bedford Road. Pocantico Hills, NY 914 366 9600

www.bluehillfarm.com

Blue Hill at Stone Barns – Two-a-day, Part 1

Published February 27, 2014 Blue Hill at Stone Barns (3) , NYC + , USA Leave a Comment
Tags: Blue Hill, Blue Hill at Stone Barns (3), Blue Hill Restaurant, Dan Barber, Stone Barns

As I’m sitting in my UWS apartment in the middle of a cold NYC winter, I’m looking back on some of my dining moments from last summer. One particularly hot and sunny day in June, Rocky and I found ourselves at the hands of Chef Dan Barber and his team at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. When I was making the plans for the trip I figured that as long as we were making the trek from city, we may as well make it a two-a-day. It was quite a remarkable pair of meals. Since then Rocky has claimed the restaurant to be her favorite that we’ve visited in the states. Now, in late February, with Rocky’s birthday just a few days away, we have some solid weekend plans in place, which include her b-day dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. So I suppose now is as good a time as I’ll have to finally share our BHSB two-a-day. (click here for part 2)

We showed up early to get a snack from the Blue Hill Cafe and tour the grounds before the restaurant opened.

Once lunch time came we got straight to it. I won’t go too much into details. I think the photos(while of questionable quality) speak for themselves.

Vegetables from the farm.

First zucchini from the farm.

Radishes from the greenhouse. Cool, brisk, and pretty spicy.

Rhubarb poached in a little sugar.

Pea vichyssoise with crispy quinoa and snow peas. Out of this world. Easily among my favorite bites of the day.

Weeds from the garden with lemon verbena vinegar. Pea and popcorn shoots, to be snipped and dipped in tarragon pesto.

Fennel sausage. And Rocky with a sharp knife. Slicing away like a pro.

Parsnip, egg yolk, and pancetta ‘pie’.

Strawberry marmelade granola bars.

Charcoal whoopee pie with minty cream.

Asparagus and pancetta.

Veal bone marrow with beef heart. Sweet and rich.

Celtuce, diced and in a broth. With pinenut, Blue Hill yogurt, shungiku, and green apple. Cool, vegetal, fresh.

Fresh mozzarella, strawberry, sesame, bone marrow.

Blue Hill ricotta, whole grain brioche, swiss chard & kale.

After this we were led out of the dining room through a side exit and escorted outside to a small shed with a beautifully set table where we had our next few courses.

Certainly this was quite an amazing place to enjoy a good part of our meal. We took in the setting for a bit and then this stunning spread showed up:

Asparagus over larch. Butter lettuce with coppa. Pea stew. Borscht. And a center piece of wax beans, rapini, orach, chorizo sauce, almond saffron sauce, and shavings of almond, hazelnut, egg yolk, and Treviso cheese. Home run. I would gladly indulge in this impressive offering any day.

Next up: Tacos. Fourchu lobster, kohlrabi, ham hock, artichoke, strawberry compote, carrot puree, coriander, watermelon molasses hot sauce, and smoked salt with lobster roe.

We were invited to linger awhile, and while it was tempting to spend more of the day in the serene setting, we thought it prudent to keep the meal progressing. Moving back into the dining room:

Blue Hill egg yolk, zucchini, ham. A small, quick, and rich little plate.

Potato onion bread. Whipped lard. Butters from Annabelle and Jillian(Jersey and Normandy cows).

Blue Hill pork jowl with mulberry, wineberry, fennel, and herb sauce.

Local sheep milk cheese rolled in vegetable ‘bio-char’. With radish salad and a rye pretzel.

Tart, sweet raspberry with floral elderflower foam and frozen pistachio butter. Delicious.

Corn crumble, milk sorbet, currant compote, and almond cake.

Chocolate eggs with milk jam. Creamy and crunchy with a lasting smooth chocolate finish.

A few beverages from lunch:

An incredibly impressive and poetic first meal at Stone Barns. Rocky and I couldn’t wait to get back for dinner to see what was in store for round two of our day.

(click here for round two)

Date of meal: June 23, 2013

Blue Hill at Stone Barns. 630 Bedford Road. Pocantico Hills, NY 914 366 9600

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Archive for the 'USA' Category

Manresa, Los Gatos (September 2013)

Tempura Matsui – NYC – July 2015

Ramen Omakase at Okonomi

Sushi Nakazawa – Sushi Counter

Blue Hill at Stone Barns for Rocky’s Birthday

Sushi Nakazawa – Dining Room

Eleven Madison Park. NYC

Little Elm at The Elm, Brooklyn

Blue Hill at Stone Barns – Two-a-day, Part 2

Blue Hill at Stone Barns – Two-a-day, Part 1

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