Summer cooking update

What did I cook this summer? Nothing. It's been mainly tomatoes cut up with some olive oil and basil, grilled zucchini slices that I brush with a mixture of olive oil, salt, dried herbs and tomato paste, and roasted eggplant slices that make my mouth itchy (ugh, allergies). The few things I have managed to make this summer:

Sopes after I had to make refried beans from my over-pressure-cooked pot of black beans topped with shredded chicken breast with achiote

Turkey tacos because I wanted to try out the new Rick Bayless frontera grill skillet sauces. I used my mini muffin tray turned upside down to hold these

Cherry brown butter tart because we had an over abundance of cherries after we went cherry picking in Jersey. Not a huge fan of this actually

Roasted carrots that I decided I had to make after I had the roasted carrot and avocado salad at ABC Kitchen

Peach crumble a la Orangette because our peaches were going to go bad. I later made this with plums. With plums it's better.

Speculoos ice cream with speculoos cookies I brought over from Paris. Might try this using the spread next time since letting the cooking dissolve in the ice cream base liquid made it a little grainy

Kimchi pancakes although I didn't notice that the kimchi had MSG in it (boo!)

Soba noodles with zucchini which is a great summer dish. Actually, soba with anything is a great summer dish. Even plain soba.

Spaghetti with spinach pesto, Parmesan and pine nuts

Slow-roasted tomatoes which I then packed in olive oil for later use. These are getting ready to go in the oven

Hester Street Fair

One of my friends has a stand at the Hester Street Fair for her baked goods company which features cookies and cupcakes with Asian-inspired flavors (think green tea, jasmine, black sugar). On her first day selling, JP and I paid a visit to say hi and to fill ourselves with everything the fair has to offer. He didn't really know that we were eating there until we got there and I asked him to get in line for tacos at the Brooklyn Taco Company. Poor kid stood in the blazing hot sun for 10 minutes for those tacos! But they were good - particularly the chilorio brisket taco.  

The elote, which we actually got because the tamales would have taken too long, was also good - every square inch was covered in cheese. What wasn't good was the agua de sandia. I supposed I can't fault them if the watermelon wasn't ripe but don't use it if it doesn't taste good!

I also polished off a whole shaved ice with condensed milk mochi, kiwi and mango, and a scoop of green tea ice cream from The Shaved Ice Shop. 

I was a little upset that JP didn't like it, but I think it was because there was a LOT of condensed milk - even I found it a little too sweet and cloying. He did like the paletas from La Newyorkquina enough to get two of them. I have La Newyorkquina's book which I keep bringing to places I think she might be at so I can get it signed but no luck so far. Maybe next time.

Midtown food trucks that parked near my work before the ban

I wrote this post before all the food trucks were banned from Midtown. Hopefully they're allowed to come back soon...I used to have a list of trucks that rotated daily. Nowadays you'd be lucky to find one in the area. Although some trucks have started setting up carts - I can still get waffels on Friday. So here's a run-down of what used to park near work.

Mexicue I've only gone once and ordered the chili bowl and a beet taco. The chili bowls was disappointing - it was a hollowed out bun (a little stale at that) with beans and meat ant toppings, but not enough of them. Maybe 4 forkfuls of filling. The roasted beet taco on the other hand was really good.

Kimchi Taco This is probably my favorite truck that used to come by. The first time I tried this truck, it was parked in front of Le Bernardin (which isn't all that if you ask me) and a cop came by and made them move (the poor guy was actually really nice, and they tried to bribe him with food but he made a good point that the building will just call them again). Anyhow, their rice bowls are ridiculously good and super filling (enough for two meals but since I am a goldfish, I eat it all at once).

The multigrain rice is definitely the way to go. Not sure what's in it but it looks like lots of other legumes that make the rice almost purple (it's way better than the purple rice+beans they have at Korean restaurants). I got this with spicy pork and scarfed it down. Problem is, leftover bits of kimchee start smelling after a while and I think I scared away several coworkers during the course of the afternoon. But I'm shameless and the next time I got tacos (one bulgogi, one spicy pork and one chicken). I'm not a fan of the bulgogi they serve - it was extra heavy on the cumin I think (or was it corinader? I forget). I think the bowl is a much better value and better tasting. So I'll be sticking to the spicy pork from now on. And, I have to add that their kimchi arancini were really good - even JP enjoyed them (he got a kimcheesesteak minus the kimchi). Oh, and one more thing - their mild sauce is very mild so stick to their hot sauce

Taim The vegetarian option. I've had falafel from here four times so far. One regular falafel sandwich, one special tomato and basil falafel sandwich which turned out to be dry, one hummus sandwich which I will get next time with extra cabbage salad and no quinoa salad (is it bad of me to admit that I don't think I'm a huge fan of quinoa?), and one Sabich. Secretly (maybe because I love cabbage so much), I still think L'as du Falafel in Paris was the best falafel sandwich I've had. But my go-to here is now the Sabich (it's a special so they don't always have it). Deep fried eggplant slices (not breaded) stuffed into the same pita with tahini and hummus and salad as the regular falafel sandwich. It comes with a sliced hardboiled egg inside for those of you who like it. I don't. Next time I will ask for it without. The guy taking the order steered me away from the whole wheat pita for the Sabbich and he pretty much knows what he's talking about. The regular pita soaks up the greasy eggplant juices better but I didn't find the sandwich to be too greasy overall. Don't forget to ask for the spicy sauce (S'rug) inside the pita - it makes a big difference. One thing I wasn't a fan of was their Date-Lime-Banana smoothie. But their fries are really good - on the thinner side and nicely crispy.

Joyride  A froyo/coffee truck. I got their original and topped it with blackberries and croquantes (chocolate covered rice krispie ball type things). It reminded me of Pinkberry although a tiny bit icier and with a richer mouthfeel. Too bad no trucks in midtown anymore as I would've become a regular customer for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up during the summer as there is no Pinkberry within a 5-minute walking distance from here. Although I'm scared to ask about the calorie count

Mad. Sq. Eats

Somehow I've missed this mini-food market the past couple years. Mad. Sq. Eats, appropriately taking place next to Madison Square Park (non-NYers - that's different from Madison Square Garden, very very different), brought together some great restaurants/food purveyors who set up stalls with food and drinks that you can either eat at one of the tables, at the park, or take home.

There were some purveyors I was really excited to see like Sigmund Pretzel Shop (I had a pretzel during the winter), Roberta's (it's all the way out in Brooklyn), People's Pops, Nunu's Chocolates and Stuffed Artisan Cannolis. Most of these places I'm either too lazy to go to (LES or Brooklyn) or are available only at food-oriented street fairs which I may miss.

I tried Calexico, which I think was one of the first "trendy" food trucks/carts, about three years ago. I didn't think much of it then. This time was much better. I got a pollo verde taco, which came with two tasty corn tortillas and moist chicken. Unfortunately, the overall flavor was nothing mind-blowing. Their chipotle pork quesadilla on the other hand was ridiculously good (although they could tone down on the cheese). The "wrapped" quesadilla was gooey and salty from the cheese, sweet and moist from the chipotle pulled pork and warm and crunchy from the griddle.

Other tasty bites were the hot dogs from AsiaDog, which have asian-inspired toppings like kimchi and seaweed flakes, thai-style relish with cucumber, red onion, cilantro, peanurs and dish sauce, and a banh-mi style topping, among others. I'm a huge fan of theses. Not a fan of tons of toppings on burgers, but on hot dogs yes.

And also a pretty delicious fresh-made pie from the aforementioned Roberta's featuring speck, mushrooms and red onions.

The event is over, but it seems Calexico has stuck around for a while.

Hecho en Dumbo (Manhattan)

So since coming back from Paris, I've been getting into the whole coupon thing. First I signed up for Lifebooker and have booked a manicure and salsa classes on it already, in addition to other things. Then I signed up for Groupon, although I haven't found anything yet. And I've also bought 4 coupons for a 2-person $40 brunch with a pitcher of sangria at Boutique Eats in Chelsea. We will be brunching there shortly. But I find myself turning to blackboardeats.com and scoutmob.com for a lot of NYC-based restaurants. Scoutmob gives you percentages (30% or 50%) off your total check (usually with an imposed limit) but these are free. Blackboardeats used to be free and it still sometimes is, but other times you have to pay $1. And so I paid $1 to get 30% off (maximum of $15) at Hecho en Dumbo (although it's the Manhattan location so maybe it should be Hecho en Manhattan?). 

JP and I went for brunch after one of our apartment-searching weekend mornings a while ago now. We sat at the table overlooking the kitchen (which I love). The guacamole wasn't memorable but margaritas were appropriately strong (tamarind and jamaica, of course). 

What I really enjoyed was the small plate of mini-pastries they gave - two palmiers (these are really popular in Mexico) and two small sweet buns with jam and butter on the side. It's little things like this that count and make you remember a restaurant. That and watching the staff make our food. 

My enchiladas were alright, a little too cheesy for me. JP really liked his huge bowl of pozole. I can understand that. Pozole isn't something I would order regularly but sometimes it just hits the spot. And with $15 off the check, we were quite happy. 

I wouldn't go out of my way to go here but if I was in the area, this is definitely a contender. On the plus side, they're open super late and have a late-night menu if you're out in the Bowery area.

Visting the twin in Durham

I've been unpacking/making house since the day we moved into our new apartment (April 7th). That moving day was fairly hell-ish. It started with me waking up at 7:30am to finish anything that needed to be finished/packed in our corporate apartment, to going to our new apartment at 9am and having all my stuff from Paris finally delivered (yay!) to picking up our UHaul truck and going back to the corporate apt and picking up all our stuff and then dropping by JL's to pick up the TV, dresser and chair, then back to the new apartment to drop things off (mind you, this is in the middle of the day so traffic in NYC is not so fun), and then going to IKEA in Elizabeth and spending lots of time and energy there and basically we finally dropped the UHaul off at around 8pm and they charged us an extra $30-$50 because apparently we were supposed to have the truck inspected before we left with it but we didn't because they told us to JUST GO PICK UP THE TRUCK. so there we went with keys in hand. ANYHOW. 

Thankfully, the weekend before that hell-ish weekend, I spent some quality time in (unfortunately not too warm) Durham, NC with my twin, SK. I figured since she's graduating Duke Law this year, I should go down there one more time (I make it seem like I've been a lot, but no, only once before). Plus, I love me some barbeque. The other time I went, it was non-stop eating, including taco-truck-hopping that we devised. This time was fairly similar as we were pretty much in a food coma all weekend (although a pleasant one).

After arriving in the morning, we had lunch at Toast, a paninoteca which seems like nothing special from the outside. But our sandwiches were ridiculously good and I give them points for not using bread that is overwhelming (e.g., ciabatta). No, they used some kind of hearty wheat-type rustic italian bread which made me think what I was eating was way healthier than what it was. We ordered two paninis and split them. I went for a spin on a classic pasta dish of rapini, italian sausage, roasted garlic and asiago fresca cheese, while SK got the panini with grilled chicken, roasted peppers, mozzarella and salsa verde. Not, I'm not a huge fan of bell peppers/roasted pepper but SK's pick was ridiculously delicious with just the right amount of heat from the salsa. I would have ordered a second one in a heartbeat had we not had other eating plans lined up. Oh, I also tried Cheerwine which has been getting a lot of traction in NYC recently it seems. It's cherry soda. Tastes kinda like Dr. Pepper to me. And contrary to what the name may lead you to believe there is no alcohol content.

We followed up our paninis with a little bit of walking, some window shopping and locopops, gourmet popsicles that are pretty much the equivalent of paletas. And you know I love paletas. I don't think I picked the best one (black raspberry and tangerine) but it was still good and I remember the one I had two years ago was really good too. Whatever, I eat pretty much anything that's put in front of me except for some things.

Our trip to locopops was followed by a fruitless effort to locate the NC Bulgogi truck. Firstly, we are twitter-inept and secondly, the truck lied. They said they weren't doing lunch service that day but they didn't say anything about dinner, and so we kept driving by their spot but they just weren't there! We decided to give them an extra 30 minutes to show up while eating the new Ben & Jerry's Late Night Snack ice cream. You know, I thought I'd really like this one since I'm a huge fan of the sweet/salty combo but it just didn't win me over. The ice cream base was too sweet and the chocolate covered potato chips weren't salty enough. In fact, they weren't even chips, they were kind little pulverized balls of potato-chip-stuff that was more mushy than crispy. Fail. And NC Bulgogi truck fail by this time as well. 

So what to do when you can't have korean tacos and kimchi quesadillas? You go and get mexican tacos as a place called Chubby's Tacos whole logo is an overweight, belly-sticking-out cousin of Speedy Gonzales. My tacos: Carnitas (juicy! flavorful! yumyum!) and Al Pastor (why is this so cloyingly sweeeet???). The best part about this place is the serve-yourself salsa bar with about 10 different salsas to pick from. That and the fact that it's so cheap. Each of my tacos were $2 and came with two tortillas. I also had their agua de melon but I wouldn't bother again - it's artificially flavored and tastes funny. 

If you think that's all we are that day you'd be mistaken. We went out in Chapel Hill where I had one of my first encounters of a real-life campus college, complete with a bar filled with fraternity/sorority people coming back from some kind of formal, and a ton of southern-looking blonde girls. After said bar? Fried chicken and cheddar biscuits at Time-Out at 1:30am. This thing is a monster for $4.50. SK and I shared although she did get herself an extra biscuit. They basically cut open a hot biscuit, put some fried chicken breast in there with a few slices of cheddar which end up melting and provide the right amount of moisture to the sandwich. And the chicken was hands down one of the moistest (is that a word?) pieces of fried chicken I have ever had. Not even fried chicken, just chicken in general. It was surprisingly super juicy. Needless to say, we went home quite happy that night.

And our food adventures continued the next day as how could I go down to North Carolina and not have some pulled pork and hush puppies? That's the thing I was most looking forward to! Last time we went to Q-Shack, a place where the hush puppies are so good I still drool thinking about them. This time we went more traditional and went to Allen & Sons. Yelp reviews made it seems as if it was down some sketchy dirt road in the middle of the woods in who-knows where. No, its just on the corner of a pretty large paved road surrounded by trees. Maybe a little further down are the boonies but we didn't venture that way. Plus, I think Audis and BMWs in the parking lot signify something other than middle-of-nowhere. Behold the sole barbeque I ate that weekend: a pulled pork sandwich with hush puppies and sweet tea followed by a pie-ish banana pudding. 

The sesame seed bun was super soft and I liked how they didn't sauce the meat for you but let you do it yourself. The only strange thing was that I got a couple of unchewable black pieces in my pulled pork but I guess it's just the super burnt parts. But I had to discreetly (not so much actually) take them out of my mouth and put them aside. Hush puppies were super-fried and really sweet. I think I prefer mine with a thinner crust but these were still good. And unlimited refills of sweet tea. Sigh. This is the good stuff right here.

But the banana pudding wasn't enough. I had read about Scratch Bakery before coming down there and had to go. I was warned that they sometimes run out of things but they seemed pretty well stocked (maybe they've gotten used to their popularity?) when we came by around 2pm. I was looking for their peanut pie which Serious Eats ranked as one of their favorite but apparently it's a seasonal special. So we went with a slice of buttermilk sugar pie and a slice of lemon chess pie, although as some point we were considering getting two more slices (vanilla carrot cream and I think the mexican chocolate cream). I loved the buttermilk sugar pie. It reminded me a little bit of tvorog, a russian farmer's cheese. And I was amazed at how the crust stood up to the fillings of both pies. Unfortunately, we were so full that we didn't finish both slices completely, but almost. I was proud of us. 

Since we didn't want to be complete fatties, we went shopping to walk it off. I, of course, had to go and buy something at Anthro (pants! $20!) but we were really looking for a semi-formal dress for SK, which we found at Urban....we also had an Apple Pie Apple while shopping from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. It's a Granny Smith apple covered in caramel, then some white sugary candy stuff, and finally rolled in brown sugar and cinnamon. Most impressive was how they cut it to make it more manageable to eat!

Sunday eating did not end there but with a fancy dinner at Nana's. We had gnocchi carbonara (peas, pancetta, etc) and really good wheat foccacia, as well as fried oysters and calamari to start, followed by some fish (what fish did I order...I forget), and a cast iron grilled chicken with a butternut squash risotto cake. Neither of us finished our entrees (this is the danger of eating so much food during the day!) but somehow we managed to have room for dessert...a meyer lemon bavarian mousse with mini honey-almond madelines and raspberries. 

Ridiculously delicious weekend.

Jersey weekend

I've been hibernating this winter since coming back from Paris it seems. Desculpe. (See, I'm semi-making an effort to learn Spanish....). So now that I'm back in NYC lets do a Jersey post. 

Jersey is where we went for President's day weekend. My mama's house first, where of course we stopped by Taco Bell. Don't hate, the Taco Bell near mama's house is really good, and fresh and their fresco tacos do in a pinch since rarely is there anything to eat back home thats not pre-packaged/processed especially when eating a cold cut Polish/Russian sausage and a yogurt is the equivalent of dinner. 

Next was JP's mama's house where she does not reside at the moment (+1 for beach house in Mexico). 

I think Player kinda remembered me even though he hadn't seen me in over a year, but you know, something about dogs having really good memories....regardless, he was super happy to see us and even happier to be taken for a walk or two on the beach although he did get a sticky-thorn type thing in his paw that made him bleed but we got it out and he was fine. 

Here's Player on the super-windy beach.
 

Here's Player with squinty eyes. 
 

Here's Player getting his belly rubbed by yours truly.

 

After watching Toy Story 3 with JP (who hadn't seen it before and held a grudge against me for seeing it without him) and his brother EP, getting some eye drops from CVS because one of my eyes was bright red from allergies, and visiting Tia C but finding no chamoy salsa at the store, we drove down to Cape May where we had dinner reservations at The Ebbitt Room. By the way, I blame Mittens the cat for my allergies, even though Mittens was locked in a room the whole time and didn't come near me. And Mittens is not her real name but a bagillion times better. JP's top names for cats that we will never have are Mittens, Kibbles and Sprinkles. Dog names are harder to come up with.

Back to The Ebbitt Room. It's a fancy-schmancy place in an old Victorian house that is now The Virginia Hotel. I don't know what was up with the waitress, but it seemed like she thought the three of us were a bunch of punk kids. After ordering a round of cocktails (which the waitress semi-messed up), we got three appetizers and three entrees. I think that made her be a little nicer to us. That, and the bottle of wine we ordered following our cocktails. Then again, if I'm in a nice restaurant and planning to spend that kind of money, the waitress shouldn't be snooty to begin with. I don't know when you go to a restaurant and expect a level of service that just isn't achieved and then ruins your meal. That happened at Rat's back in October/November.

The food was good overall, but there seemed to just be too much stuff going on. I was underwhelmed by the appetizers. A spicy ahi tuna tartare came with orange segments, hearts of palm, cucumber, avocados and plantain chips. I can't say much about it because I didn't try it.  

The calamari with lime-ginger aioli and micro greens were light in batter (rice flour maybe?) but a little greasy and definitely too chewy. The seared scallops with cauliflower puree were nicely seared and meaty, but the puree was way too sweet.

My main of duck two ways with beet risotto was good but nothing to write home about. On one side I had a duck leg confit, and on the other side a rare duck breast (maybe it was a magret, it was pretty fatty...). I did like the duck but the risotto wasn't creamy and a little dry. And then I don't know what was up with the clump of greens in the middle of my dish.

JP ordered what I wanted to get originally - an apple and brie stuffed pork-chop with roasted root vegetables and tarragon-cranberry jus. I thought he wouldn't like it because of the brie but it was barely noticable. This was actually quite tasty except the pork was a little dry...perhaps because there was barely a bone there?

EP had grilled prime 10oz NY strip steak which came with butternut squash and goat cheese gratin, a chili and red wine poached coffee and coffee demi. Whoa, lots of stuff on a plate. The gratin was delicious but I'd call it more a lasagna than a gratin. Although I don't know if there was pasta in it or just potatoes. There was definitely something other than squash and goat cheese. And the poached pear was really good. Just not sure how all of that goes together.

For dessert, we shared the special of the day, a steamed sticky toffee pudding, as well as a panna cotta. The pudding was delicious, but never have I seen a panna-cotta not in a vessel...it was almost like a cheesecake! And it came with a biscotta and other stuff. Everything about this restaurant just screamed that they were trying too hard and putting way too much stuff on one plate. Good but I'm not sure the prices are justifiable...

The next day, after pancakes and tater tots and toast and sausage at a diner, we of course went to eat TACOS. Full disclosure: Comercial Mexicana (no relation to the public company of the same name down in Mexico) in Wildwood is owned by Tia C. Although the prepared food part in the back may or may not be called Ricos Tacos. I still can't figure it out.

You proceed to the back past the wall of chilis and spices, and past the refrigerated (and non-refrigerated) cases of Boing and Jarritos (by the way, a bottle of Jarritos has 220+ calories, so you're better off getting a Mexican Coke) to the counter with the refrigerated cheeses, and order. Your choice - burritos, tacos or quesadillas with a ton of different meats (asada, barbacoa, pollo, lengua if you're into that kind of thing). I, of course, went with the chorizo tacos and picked cilantro and onions as my topping (you can also get lettuce, tomato, sour cream and queso). Comercial Mexicana has ample seating in back (8 booth-type things? And a jukebox!) so we sat ourselved down and waited. But not for long. Four tacos with double-tortillas. 

The tortillas are really good but I actually left the second tortilla from each taco on my plate...too much for me. Along with your order, you get limes, a red salsa (heavy on the dried chiles) and a tomatillo salsa. I preferred the cleaner, lime-ier tomatillo salsa to for an acidic kick to the chorizo. 
 

JP ordered the enchilada tacos but topped them with the lettuce/tomato/sourcream/cheese - I think they would've been better with just cilantro and onions, the way EP got his. Much cleaner and you can taste the meat flavor better. 

Then we went to get a slice of pizza (what can I say, we're fatties) at Sam's Pizza on the Boardwalk. Apparently they burned down a couple years ago and rebuilt but miraculously their really cool old-school cash register survived the fire (insurance fraud?). This was the pizza that two (three?) summers ago burned my tongue. I'm still not a fan - mainly because the sauce on the pizza is too sweet and you can clearly taste the dried oregano in it. Too bad Britton's Bakery wasn't open. I could have totally finished my weekend glutton-fest with an apple fritter. At least I finished it with some Bent Spoon ice cream the next day.

Rice and Beans

I've recently had people raving to me about Rice and Beans, about how cheap and good their California-Mexican food was. Centrally located in the 2nd, there's four or five seats at the counter, and a second adjoining room with two communal tables. I guess the counter seating comes from its previous life as Rice and Fish, a sushi restaurant. I was actually impressed to see not only Cholula, but also Tapatio hot sauce bottle on the table, as well as thick, paste-like homemade salsa with lots of chilis. And the menu was really promising too. I went for four tacos - one braised short rib, one fish taco (special of the day), one carnitas with salsa verde and one chorizo (also special).

And they looked so yum - artfully arranged on a plate, on mini, freshly-made tortillas. The first sign of trouble should've been the fact that these mini-tortillas were overloaded with filling. The chorizo taco was honestly delicious. It wasn't oozing the usual orange grease, but the taste was spot-on. And I guess that's what set the bar and it went downhill from there. The short rib, although fall-apart tender, were too sweet (cinnamon?). The carnitas were kinda soggy instead of the crispy edges you'd want from them. And don't even get me started on the fish taco. Bland, bland bland - so much so that even a more-than-healthy dousing of hot sauce didn't help. I took a bite and put it down. Maybe the burritos are good, I don't know. But their beans seemed to be refried pinto beans, while I prefer black beans. 

Again, might be just me talking but in general, aside from the chorizo, the hot sauces and the mini tortillas, this place is just MEH.