NYC - Aldea

Someone at Aldea woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to have a very heavy hand with the salt at 11:30am. While my arugula and pickled apple salad with Casera cheese and hazelnuts came out perfectly fine, the main dish of farro risotto with pickled cucumbers, mushrooms and orange segments was like licking a salt shaker. 

Loved the coolness of the orange with the warm farro, but hated the saltiness of the dish. Although mama's skate with escabeche jus and sauteed zucchini ribbons seemed to be pretty good.

Dessert was redeeming with a smooth, not overwhelmingly sweet banana caramel bread pudding with creme fraiche sorbet and a roasted pear tarte with gingersnap ice cream . I know that chocolate and pear is a classic combination, hence the cocoa tart shell, but what I assumed would be frangipane ended up being more similar to creme anglaise - an interesting but welcome change.

I don't know if I'd go here again, but for 3-courses at $24.07 it's not a bad deal at all. My favorite part of the meal was probably the delicious Spanish olive oil (I think the waiter said it was Romanico) accompanying the bread to start. That and the fact that I got to stare at George Mendes for most of the time I was there thanks to my seat which let me see his reflection from their semi-open kitchen on the glossy wall. Stalker much? Oh, and +1 Michelin star over JP now.

Sunny Mexico (again!)

Warm, sunny Mexico where you have to drive hours just to get anywhere. We started our trip flying first class to Houston and then to Mexico because those were the only tickets left and ended up driving 6 hours from Acapulco (gracias to Tio S for picking us up) to get to abuelitas (sorry JP, it's too annoying to write JP's uncle or JP's grandma, so I'll stick to Spanish and that way you know they're yours and not mine) on Christmas eve. Luckily, tortillas, chorizo and other meats and salsa was still left so we pretty much devoured those upon arriving. I have to mention that I take spice waaaay better than JP apparently, who was sniffling after eating some of the salsa. +1 for me.

The next few days we drove ourselves around to see other Tias and Tios and each time we were fed. It was a very bad idea to have a full breakfast on Christmas day since Tia Y decided to feed us about 4 hours later, after we had been munching on roasted pumpkin seeds. And its ridiculously difficult to turn down or eat little when the food is so good. It was during this time that we discovered that Fresca and tequila are a fantastic combination. I don't think I had dinner that night. I couldn't stomach it. But the next morning was spent eating chicken mole and tortillas fresh off the tortilla machine at Tia L's and then taking her little munchkins and then some over to some hot springs nearby. And then afterwards off we went again, this time to peanut town (Cacahuatepec, which wikipedia actually tells me means "place of Cacao-bean mountain" and not "peanut town") to see some abuelas and tias and tios and primas and primos (new and old, including C and K). And to eat some more (again, was SO not expecting this especially after the chicken mole earlier in the day).

After two days and three nights at abuelitas, we set off for Puerto Escondido where JP's mama now has an almost-completed house near the beach (aka free accomodations for us!). On the way we stopped by Tia B's and Tio S's (who had picked us up at the airport) where I became a starfruit convert. That's right. Starfruit. This wasn't the green-ish stuff you see in American grocery stores or sliced onto cakes. These were bright yellow, juicy, super sweet and just picked by us. Best starfruit ever.

We came back two days later with AP and FI and went on a 4-hour boat excursion from Zapotalito through the Lagunas de Chacahua National Park which included dry land and mangrove forests, a transmission that failed, a crocodile hatchery (those things are creepy), and just-caught fish cooked to order. Pick-your-raw-fish:
 

Fish cooked to order (sauteed in oil and garlic and steamed in guajillo chile sauce), eyeballs and all:
 

Apparently, last time we were in Puerto, it was off-season because I remember having the beach to ourselves. Not so this time - these people were literally being dropped off at the beaches by the BUSLOAD. There were tour buses lined up along the sidewalks. Not a joke. No clue where they came from but it was crowded.

Huge difference from our previous trip in May 2009 when we pretty much had the beach to ourselves, so much so that the boat men asked guys on the beach for help pushing their boats into the water. This is the same beach but much closer to the far end in the above picture:

Best and worst non-homecooked meals of the trip? Worst meal - Los Tugas at Villas Carrizalillo. It looked so promising - great reviews online for the most part, located in a nice hotel on a cliff overlooking the ocean, promising menu and down a sketchy dirt road with little signage. Unfortunately, when we got there we were told they have no fish (we're on the water...can't you go catch some?), no other seafood except for calamari and mussels, and no guacamole. So no seafood and no guac. This just sounds wrong with a Mexican beach town. And then our entrees were a disaster. Tamarind chile sauce should not be slightly-spiced mayo the color of thousand island dressing. Anyhow, at least my 3 or 4 tamarind margaritas did the trick for me and numbed the pain of the final bill.

Best was of course a random place called La Juquilena which serves regional antojitos in the middle of town next to the bus station . Seating is at communal tables in a veranda-like space with no windows or doors. A super simple menu features mainly sopes, huaraches, quesadillas and tlayudas for next to nothing (accompanied by two kinds of salsa). My two sopes, one with chorizo and one with quesillo (a Oaxacan specialty that is reminiscent of string-cheese) were 4 pesos each, and the huarache with chorizo was 12 pesos. 

I think the most expensive thing was the tlayuda with meat but it couldn't have been more than 20 pesos or so. And some agua de melon to wash all this down. Total cost for the five of us, including drinks? Under 250 pesos with tip.

Somewhere in the middle comes El Cafecito, where the food is nothing amazing but at least reliable. I remembered why I wasn't a huge fan of their chilaquiles rojas last time - they're not soft all the way through because the sauce hasn't had time to soak into the tortillas. That doesn't mean I didn't eat it all, which I did. 

And I ate the molletes the next day, prepared with in-house baked bread smothered with refried black beans and more quesillo. I topped it off with some salsa rather than pico de gallo. JP also says their huevos con chorizo are pretty good too.

And, if you're pescatarian (or vegetarian I suppose), you can always go to the restaurant at the Hotel Santa Fe which overlooks Playa Zicatela. Strong margaritas, tostadas that hit the spot (despite being overloaded with lettuce), tasty guac and piping hot quesillo quesadillas. But it comes with a decently hefty price tag by Mexican standards.

The coolest thing we had had to have been the new paletas they are serving at some of the ice cream stands. Unlike regular paletas which are pretty much reminiscent of regular popsicles but better and in crazy natural flavors (tamarind is a personal favorite, but we also had coconut, chamoy and pina con chile from the store in the picture above), these paletas are long and skinny and were then (optionally) dipped in chamoy, rolled in chili and topped off with more chamoy sauce making it taste sweet, sour, salty and spicy all at the same time. Umami on a popsicle if you will.

I also scouted out hotel locations in case any of my friends want to come down one day to visit for whatever reason that may be. Now I wonder if La Juquilena would cater...

NYC - Eataly

Finally got myself over to Eataly which I've neglected on two previous visits to New York. That thing is massively chaotic. I could barely get my bearings while dodging the stay-at-homes who were more than happy to drop $8 on a bag of dried pasta. The standing-tables in the middle at which lunchers happily scarfed down salumis and salamis didn't help but I'm amazed that the waiters somehow navigated this hectic maze. By the way, who are all these people there in the middle of a work day? Do you people not have a job? You must otherwise you wouldn't be shopping here...

Anyhow, after TC and I put our names down for the Pizza/Pasta restaurant (40 minute wait) we wandered around a little bit to kill time. If I lived in the area (cross fingers) I would most definitely drop lots and lots of money here. Fresh pasta, freshly baked breads, sauces, cheeses, meats, olive oils, all kinds of balsamics (even the $200 ones) and other goodies galore. Drool. I'd justify it by cutting out one of my weekly clothing-shop trips that I tend to have more often than I should in NYC (closet in definite need of some Spring cleaning, specifically for shoes).

After finally sitting down, I couldn't not order the mozzarella after TC mentioned how good it was. And good it was indeed - everything I love in good mozzarella. None of that deli-cheese rubber ball stuff. No, this is creamy and milky, a whole ball cut into rounds and topped off with good olive oil and sea salt. I ate three pieces. No wonder I'm now tipping the scale past the higher end of what I should be.

As for our split of the pasta/pizza, the buccatini all'amatriciana was reminiscent of what JP had ordered at Enoteca San Marco in Las Vegas (maybe not so surprising considering it's another Batali/Bastianich restaurant) and the pizza margherita was quite palatable with a nice chew to the crust, a thin sweet tomato sauce and globs of that delicious mozzarella.

Now I'm really eager to try the rest of the offerings at the store - particularly Verdure, the vegetable-focused restaurant

(Pre-)Chrismas in Paris

Paris doesn't seem to be overly festive during the holidays. There are some lights here and there, the big department stores have display windows but in general it seems fairly quiet. Although there was a snowstorm this month that had Paris stalled and taxi drivers sitting at home.

There are no 24/7 Christmas songs playing here. Or maybe there are and I just don't know since I don't watch TV  or listen to the radio (slingbox!). But they do have a really cute uber-touristy Christmas market located on the bottom half of the Champs-Elysees starting from Place de la Concorde.
 
It's pretty much like a regular holiday market, with vendors hawking jewelry, scarves, wood carvings and other random gift-esque things. A part of the Christmas market is divided into "countries" with each section devoted to a particular one (eg the Germany section sold bratwurst, the Belgian section sold waffles, etc.). However, it seemed that mulled wine aka vin chaud aka Glühwein aka Glögg (this is my favorite name for it) didn't have a nationality and was ubiquitous with all. Which was good because every few booths is another potential wine stop to warm you up. Bad because with so many people, good luck in trying to walk holding a hot cup of dangerously dark red steamy liquid while trying to avoid people bumping into you causing you to spill your drink all over yourself and stain your jacket. No, that did not happen to me but it almost did. Eventually we just decided to stand off to the side and drink.

The other thing that this market seemed to have a lot of was food. Aforementioned bratwurst was eaten, as well as Transilvanian Kürtőskalács (similar to Baumkuchen) which was dusted with cinnamon sugar, some chocolate covered gingerbread cookies and these things:

They're actually kinda funny-looking now that I see this picture but they were delicious. They were called chocolat mousse meringue and supposedly a specialty from Alsace (or so I think it said but I couldn't find them on Googling and might I mention I am an excellent Googler?). Basically its a small wafer disk (pretty tasteless), topped with some kind of sticky chewy ooey gooey  cross between a marshmallow and undercooked meringue, which I guess is there the mousse meringue part comes from, and enrobed in a thin layer of chocolate (by the way, there's a dessert book called Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey out which (a) looks good and (b) has an awesome title). They had them in what I thought was different flavors but it's just a different chocolate covering. Anyhow, this was the best €1 spent in a while.

You know what else I spent money on? A mini buche de noel since I've never had one before. Maybe not the best place to get it (Paul, although they do have some killer chocolate chouquettes) and not the most traditional flavor (I got the exotique with passionfruit and mango) but it did in a cinch. But it was also meh. So meh that I didn't even finish and that rarely happens with dessert.

The other thing that's pretty awesome during the holiday season here is the ridiculous lighting along the entire facade of the Galeries Lafayette's main building. The Macy's facade Christmas tree lights and even the snowflakes on Saks are weak sauce compared to this. It almost looks like cathedral windows.

The awesomeness of the lights was quickly supplanted by the un-awesomeness of the crowds around and inside the department store. People were in there like herded cattle - you could barely move in some areas! It look me a while to find what I was looking for but after I did, I didn't spend a second longer in the store and got out as fast as I could (a feat in itself).

And since it's the holidays, I once again took over an oven, this time baking chocolate chip cookies, salted fudge brownie bites and mini blackberry cornmeal cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting (that turned into mini blackberry cornmeal cupcakes when the frosting broke) and distributing to coworkers. They seemed to be either amazed that I (a) can cook or (b) that the things didn't taste awful. You decide which one. Although I totally over-baked one batch of brownies. (Note: must not be lazy and take pictures of food I make).

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have a 7:30am flight to catch to New York.

Thanksgiving - sans pictures

What did I make for our Thanksgiving potluck the Saturday after other than the aforementioned ridiculously delicious chunky apple cranberry sauce?

Well after taking over SM's and AB's kitchen since they have an oven and I don't (although my hatred of electric stovetops has been renewed), I made some gravy which we ate with mashed potatoes, some brown butter caramelized butternut squash (yum!), some pumpkin pie pops (which I left at AB's apartment because they were pretty awful), super-easy pumpkin cinnamon rolls (which, by the way were a perfect alternative to pumpkin pie) and Dovetail's (NYC) cornbread. JP and I went to Dovetail for my birthday one year and I was ridiculously sick and didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to, but the one thing I do remember really liking was the cornbread. Sorry, I failed at pictures but trust me, its really really really ridiculously good - try it next time.

Sweet Cornbread

adapted from Dovetail (with some help from Homesick Texan)

3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup coarse cornmeal (I think I used regular...it worked pretty well)
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks cold, cubed butter

1/2 cup grated cheddar (optional)
1 cup buttermilk + 1/2 cup extra

Preheat oven to 400

Mix all the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with your hands or a pastry blender until it resembles pea-sized crumbs. Or you can whir it in a food processor if you're really lazy. If you're using cheese, add it now. Add the buttermilk and stir until dough comes together. Mine didn't come together so I added another 1/3 cup about 2 tbsp at a time or so until I got the mix into a ball

Chill for one hour. Roll out into 3/4 inch thickness and cut out desired shapes. I made circles but Dovetail serves them as rectangles

Brush the tops lightly with some more buttermilk (I think this is what gave my cornbread a nice browned top) and bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned

Note: You can cut down the sugar to make them less sweet and also mess around with ingredients like jalapenos or rosemary. Personally, I'd double the amount of cheese next time. Also, don't buy pre-shredded cheese because they toss it with cornstarch or something like that which basically makes it harder to melt the cheese

Thanksgiving - the store

Sometimes, you just want a taste of home so much that you don't care how much it will cost you. This is especially the case when that third Thursday of November rolls around and you find yourself scrambling to find the American ingredients you need for all your Thanksgiving recipes. Luckily for me, I thought ahead and came back from the US last time with three cans of pumpkin puree and a a bag of cornmeal. Those found themselves in some cornbread, some pumpkin rolls and some pumpkin pie pops. But I needed cranberries so down the street I went (literally) to the appropriately-named Thanksgiving, a store that sells American (sometimes imported from Canada or the UK) foodstuffs. 

The second I walked in, I was soooo glad about the stuff I brought back from the US. A can of Libby's pumpkin puree? €3.50. Packet of jello? €2.50. Nestle Tollhouse white chocolate chips? €7.00 (although the semisweet chips were cheaper at €4.50). They seems to be doing pretty ok with such a high mark-up! Granted, I don't know what they pay on their import taxes and their rent is probably pretty high as its in a popular area (unless they own the space, as they have been there for some time...)

But I was there for one thing and one thing only. And so I sucked up the cost of Ocean Spray cranberries at €4.50/12 oz bag and got two. Because, after all, what's a Thanksgiving dinner without some cranberry sauce?

Chunky apple and cranberry sauce

adapted from Good Housekeeping c. 2001

2 tbsp butter
4 large Golden Delicious apples peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch dice 
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 bag (12oz or 3 cups) cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup water

In a nonstick large skillet (12-inches is ideal), melt the butter over medium heat. Add the apples and cardamom, and cook about 10 minutes stirring occasionally, until apples are golden and tender-crisp.

Increase the head to medium-high, stir in the cranberries, sugar and water and heat to boiling.

Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until most cranberries pop and the mixture thickens slightly (anywhere from 6-10 minutes). Pour into a lidded container, cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

Note: Apparently allspice works as well if you don't have cardamom but I'm sure cinnamon or cloves would work too.

Spring Buvette

Spring was actually never on my list of "must-go" restaurants. When Spring re-opened in July in a new space near Louvre-Rivoli, I'd already read enough about the American-born chef and the previous Spring. A darling of the French-restaurant scene it seemed. But when I read about the menu at the re-incarnated restaurant, I wasn't really that intrigued.

But I am a big fan of the recently (September) opened Spring Buvette, or wine bar that was opened in the basement of the restaurant. The place doesn't take reservations and there are a few communal tables but this is a great way to sample some of the kitchen's food without waiting several months for a reservation, as is the case with Frenchie. 
 
We decided to go on Thanksgiving because (a) its Thanksgiving and you have to do something and (b) I was secretly hoping that since the chef, Daniel Rose, is an American, he might have something Thanksgiving-y on the menu.

We were in luck (but I think this was purely by accident) as the legume du jour was pumpkin served with a grilled aubergine puree, radish and some baby spinach. We also ordered the abricots farcis which were stuffed with roasted duck necks and a tourte du jour which was veal and foie gras enrobed in puff pastry.

The plat du jour was mutton. I'd never tried mutton before but I like it! It's definitely gamier than lamb but one of the preparations on the plate was almost like pulled pork - shredded, succulent and tender. MMMMM. There was also some kind of root vegetable puree but I couldn't figure out what it was. Although for all I know, coulda been potatoes.
 
And since it was in fact a wine bar, we also ordered fromages (blue, muenster and saint nectaire) and charcuterie, which included saucisson sec, chorizo bellota and jambon noir de bigorre (yay huge leg of black pig behind the bar! You are mighty tasty). Oh, and can I just mention that skip the Bordier seaweed butter (unless you really like seaweed) and stick to the standard butter, which tastes like cream and is perfect for the never-ending (wheat? rye?) bread that they give (sometimes warm!).
 

But the best thing that evening was most definitely the wine and the super knowledgeable sommelier who swayed me more than once with his recommendations. A lot of the wines here are either organic or biodynamic. We went first went for a Morgon which was unavailable (have I mentioned how much I love Morgon???) but the sommelier brought us a different bottle, a Morgon Cote du Py from Jean Foillard (2008 I think). It was delicious. We also didn't want to switch wines when we ordered again but we got another red that was a little spicier but also delicious. Totally don't remember what it was called (started with a V) but the sommelier said that it was, like the Morgon, bottled without sulfur dioxide which is a wine stabilizer (this makes the wine spoil more easily if its not handled carefully so I'm not sure what the point of not using sulfur dioxide is actually...I guess to keep it organic/biodynamic?). And then we just went back to the Morgon for the third bottle and it was awesome.

And to wrap up the evening? Dessert - poached apples with fromage blanc and a Parmesan-cocoa nib crisp. And also a little bowl of tangerine jelly with cocoa nibs. Us Americans call that jello (as opposed to Jell-O which is trademarked by Kraft).

Oh, and again a persuasive sommelier who persuaded all of us to get some more wine. A glass of non-port port (yea, don't ask) smelling of cherries and chocolate and hazelnuts and caramel and coffee, a glass or two of crisp Gewutztraminer 2002 from Zind-Humbrecht, and a syrupy half-bottle of late-harvest (vendanges tardives) Reisling from the organic producer Pierre Frick (who apparently caused a scandal/was arrested when he planted GMO vines in his vineyards, which is illegal in France tore up GMO vines at some research institute).

A not-too-shabby dinner on Thanksgiving. Most definitely better than last year when I was stuck in Paris with nothing to do.