The Nacho Transgression

Ban Mian

2009-07-14T19:52:00.004-05:00

Noodles with minced pork, cabbage, bok choy (I think), and tiny dried fish in a simple broth.

This couldn't really be more satisfying. The noodles are firm, chewy and filling. The cabbage is sweet. Minced pork bits are good dipped in red chili on the side. Dried fish is salty and a little chewy.

3.50 SGD

Jen's First Gumbo

2009-02-12T09:58:00.007-05:00

Jen made some kick ass chicken and sausage gumbo tonight. She got everything right at the beginning somehow... we didn't have to re-season it at all when it was done.

One thing we have a hard time getting in Singapore is green bell peppers, so she had to use red. I thought it might make things too sweet, but it turned out really nice, and the red looks good too.

Mixed Rice

2009-01-23T23:29:00.000-05:00

There are these "mixed rice" counters at most Singapore hawker markets
or food courts. They'll have about 15 or 20 choices of things to go
on a plate of rice. This was pork belly, squash, and greens for $3.50
SGD

Porridge. 1st Meal in '09

2009-01-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

Garlic shrimp

2008-12-31T06:22:00.000-05:00

At Sin Huat Eating House. An insane amount of garlic on giant
shrimp. Good, but 1/10th that much garlic would do the job. Chili
sauce was nice. ( these guys are famous for their crab bee hoon, and
I think that's the only thing you should go there for )

Nacho Thought: All on one chip

2008-12-30T23:41:00.000-05:00

Make your nacho all on one big round chip and then cut it into nacho
wedges.

Big piles of chips with random crap on top -- yeah, they're nachos,
but it's the TGIFridays way to do it.

Compose your nacho.

Peeps & Big Beak

2008-12-25T01:22:00.008-05:00

We now have a pair of chickens.

Peeps. She came to us as an egg in June. Jen built a homemade incubator and hatched her. She spent her first couple of weeks indoors in the incubator until she was ready to go outside. Then she was on our back porch. We'd let her out to roam around and pick bugs out of the plants (she like to eat the plants, too). We moved her a few weeks ago to our middle atrium outside the bathroom. She seemed like she needed a buddy.

Big-Beak O'Reilly. He came to us a few days ago, already several weeks old. He's a feisty bastard - a real twerp - and if you move too quickly towards him, he'll peck your stupid hand. He tries to crow, but it doesn't really work yet with his fledgling pipes. I'm sure he'll be waking us up soon.

Experimenting with Photo Zoom

2008-12-21T10:57:00.003-05:00

I'm checking out the Microsoft Labs site and playing with PhotoZoom and Seadragon.

Kraze Burger (Seoul)

2008-12-20T03:10:00.000-05:00

When you haven't had one in months, a burger tastes pretty awesome.

Places I've Been in '08

2008-12-20T02:59:00.001-05:00

It was a crazy year for travel. Here's the list.

Korea (Seoul)
Australia (Sydney)
India (New Delhi)
Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi)
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Rawa Island, Labuan Island)
Hong Kong
Japan (Tokyo)
Thailand (Bangkok)
Singapore

Jen and I are kicking off 2009 in the Philippines...

Korean Garbage Soup

2008-12-20T01:58:00.000-05:00

Just before adding noodles, they stirred in a slice a American
cheese. Somehow it was good.

Kaya Toast in Singapore

2008-01-13T08:01:00.000-05:00

This dish is supposedly unique to Singapore. Kaya is a sweet coconut spread. You break up the soft boiled eggs with white pepper and soy sauce and dip the kaya toast in the egg. Yesssss!

Jen's Got Vino

2007-10-24T20:45:00.001-05:00

It's scooter mania over here. Back in August, I got a Genuine Buddy.
I named it "Bialy", which continues my streak of naming my motor vehicles after bread products, an homage to "Melba Toast" from Dazed & Confused:

With Jen sitting with me on the back of Bialy, we've been scooting around our neighborhood in Brooklyn to run errands and try new restaurants without having to walk 20 minutes.

Jen found a good deal on a Yamaha Vino on Craigslist the other day, so now she's the proud owner.

We haven't picked it up yet, but it's hers. We went yesterday to the West Village to test drive it, and we'll bring it home Sunday. (After test driving it, Keifer Sutherland passed us on the street. I'm just sayin'). Thanksgiving weekend, we're going to motorcycle safety school just to learn to ride a real bike in case we ever decide to upgrade and to get a motorcycle license.

Brooklyn Fish Camp

2007-10-14T10:59:00.001-05:00

This might be my new favorite restaurant. I love their menu because
it doesn't give you descriptions of the dish. It will just say
"Grilled Octopus", but it comes out and it's so much more than that.

They really know how to fry stuff here. The onion rings are perfect! There's an option to have your fries or onion rings seasoned with Old Bay, which is cool, but they don't need it.

Pictured above...

// Raw oysters, fresh horseradish, cocktail sauce, mignonette sauce

// Grilled octopus and tomatoes with quinoa black bean salad.
Seasoned with some kind of Mediterranean spices that worked really
well, although a little strong. The grilled tomatoes were totally
delicious and a break from the spices.

// Pan-fried trout B.L.T. Crispy trout, arugula, tomato, grilled
bread, and "bacon mayo". They said they cook the bacon and then put
it in food processor, add eggs and make a mayo out of it. Awesome!

Dapper

2007-07-17T22:56:00.000-05:00

There's this cool service called Dapper that lets you create XML feeds from any website. This one below is a feed of pictures from flickr. You just have to play with it to understand. Even then, though, I still haven't figured out good uses for it, but I'm sure there are some.

Add to your site

Grilled Cheese Month

2007-04-28T17:23:00.000-05:00

According to Stinky Bkln cheese shop around the corner from my place (and NY Magazine), April is "National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month". Good enough for me, because it might be my favorite thing to eat. Got my technique down and everything.

My mom taught me how to make grilled cheeses, and I've developed strong opinions about how they should be done. As a kid, I made them all the time for myself after school. I had five rules back then.

The old rules:

Bread: had to be Mrs. Baird's or Sunbeam thin white bread
Cheese: had to be Kraft Deli Deluxe (never the "cheese food" crap)
Butter: had to use butter
Had to be SMASHED! Take your spatula and smash the whole thing down, so you get a crunchy thin layer of bread and oozy cheese in the middle
Had to be cut on a diagonal into two triangles

Optional additions: tomato soup on the side, pickles, or Lay's potato chip

I was convinced back then that I made the best grilled cheese. I still like that version for what it is, but I've updated and upgraded my rules lately.

The new rules:

Bread: now that i've learned to make awesome bread at home, that's all I need. I prefer rustic white bread. And I love when there are holes in the slices so that the cheese melts down onto the pan and makes kind of a cheese chip that becomes one with the bread
Cheese: I'll try anything that melts these days, but I buy a good cheese from a local cheese shop (Stinky). I make it a point to try a new cheese every time I go in. I like to grate the cheese. Some of the gratings hang over the edge and, again, melt down to the pan and form kind of fringe cheese chips! I'll still by Kraft in a pinch and for nostalgia's sake, but there are too many awesome cheeses out there...
Butter or Olive Oil: depending on my mood, I might use olive oil. Like if I'm putting slices of tomato in the sandwich, for some reason olive oil sounds better to me
Weighted instead of smashed: I like to weigh down the sandwich with something, whether it's a smaller pan, a plate, or whatever. This is mostly to make sure that the entire surface of the bread touches the pan and gets brown, because when you're slicing your own bread, you might not have an even plane
Low heat: I like to cook them slowly. It should take 5 to 8 minutes. The cheese slowly melts, the bread gets really crunchy and brown

Options: I like putting other stuff in the middle. Tomato, dijon mustard, proscuitto or serrano ham, salami
Other options: Soups. Grilled cheese just works with soup. You can dip your sandwich in it

Recently, I made some chipotle flavored red bean soup with grilled cheese. The cheese was the "cheese of the week" from Stinky, Neal's Yard Appleby's Cheshire

I've got a little ceramic baking dish weighing down the sandwich in a non stick skillet.

Ethiopian Food in D.C.

2007-04-17T22:18:00.000-05:00

Jen and I took a bus to D.C. (photos) two weekends ago to visit Jen's friend, a grad student at Georgetown. Every street in Georgetown looks like it belongs in one of those coffee table books about America and "our dream" and all that. Cobblestone streets, people dressed in blazers and turtlenecks, row houses with their white fences. It's was a little surreal, but really cool, too.

The weather was stupid cold that weekend. It even snowed that Saturday... in April! We went for a bit to the capitol and saw the monument and the holocaust museum and White House, but it was too cold for walking around too much.

We had planned on checking out a Spanish restaurant called Jaleo, owned by Jose Andres who is probably considered the top Spanish chef in the country. We thought to go for dinner, the only time they serve paella. But when Saturday night came, we weren't hungry enough to go, because of lunch...

A co-worker had mentioned to me that D.C. has the largest Ethiopian population outside of Ethipia, which apparently is true. He told me I should check out an Ethiopian restaurant. So we got online and decided to go to place called Etete that was highly rated. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip...

I'd never had this style of food before. You don't use utensils. The give you these soft and kind of sourdough-like pancakes called Injera. You rip pieces off and pick up your food with it.

The dishes served on a big round platter (just like a pizza pan). They put one big round Injera on the bottom to cover the pan, and they put each of the dishes on and around the platter. Here is what we ate... one of the best meals I've had in a while:

Doro Wat: Chicken leg seasoned with onion, garlic, fresh ginger, hot pepper, cooked and simmered with berbere sauce (served with hard boiled eggs)

Yebeg Alicha:: Seasoned and marinated strips of lamb sauteed with onion, garlic, and jalapeno

Yemisir Wat:: Slit red lintel cooked in Ethiopian red pepper sauce, meten shiro, oil, onion sauteed together

Yeataklit Wat:: Fresh green, carrot, potato, green pepper and onion sauteed with garlic, ginger and tomato

Yekik Alicha:: A dip of delicately spiced cooked legumes

Gomen:: Fresh green, carrot, potatoe, green pepper and onion sauteed with garlic, ginger and tomato

Tegabino Shiro:: Mitin Shiro, oil and onion sauteed

together

Azifa:: Choppen onion, green pepper, garlic, lentil, lemon juice mixed with Ethiopian mustard

Preserved Ginger

2007-04-17T22:09:00.000-05:00

While I'm on the Korean topic...

I ordered a ginger tea from a Korean cafe the other day and noticed them scooping this kind of jelly from a jar into some hot water. The tea had like 8 or 10 paper-thin slices of ginger in it. Really spicy and sweet.

I found some of this stuff at the Korean supermarket down the street from my office. It's ginger preserved in honey with a little salt (you can't really taste salt). Since I bought it I've been addicted. I think I drank six cups of the tea the first day I had the jar of the stuff. I also dissolved some of it in just a bit of hot water and then added ice and club soda... better than most ginger ales you can buy!

Not sure where you would find this unless you have a China/Korea town near you...

K-Town

2007-04-17T21:21:00.000-05:00

I work in Manhattan's Koreatown, which is really just one block of Korean businesses - 32nd St between Broadway and 5th Ave. Actually, 35th & 36th St between the sames avenues both have their share of Korean restaurants, but that block of 32nd is where the action is.

During the day it's loud and crowded with a mix of business people and tourists wandering around the Empire State Building. Korean bankers are walking around in suits. (I work on the corner in a Korean bank building, the tallest on the block.

There are lots of restaurants. A mandoo (dumpling) bar serves several kinds of dumplings. My favorite are the kimchee pork. A full-service noodle shop has just six items on the menu, all noodles. A Korean sushi shop (Korean sushi rolls usually have pickled radish in them) sells rolls and miso soup to go for $4.50.

A narrow little shop called Woorijip - kind of a fast food place - is always jam packed. They have a few seats in the front, a few in the back, but in the middle is a hot buffet that charges by the pound, a window where you can order soups and noodles, and racks of packaged ready-to-go lunches like kimchee tofu with rice, bibimbap (beef with rice), bulgogi (beef with noodles), pancakes, fried dumplings...

At the full service Korean restaurants, the lunch menus are mostly soups and rice dishes. Some of them come out in these scalding hot stone bowls so that, if it's a soup, it's BOILING. Some places give you a raw egg to crack into the soup and then stir up, which is my favorite. If it's a rice dish, the rice gets a little crispy on the bottom by the time you get to it.

Korean meals start with a bunch of little bowls of assorted appetizers. You don't order them or pay for them, they just show up. It's typically a mix of preserved foods and vegetables: sweet salty anchovies, kimchee (pickled spicy cabbage), cucumber salad, seaweed salad, bean sprouts, potatoes, fish cakes, turnips.

Dinners are usually more elaborate and best with four to six people so you can justify - and afford - ordering several dishes and sharing. There's Japchae, a noodle dish with beef, greens and red bell pepper. When it's done right, it tastes like fire... like it was cooked in a smoking hot wok. Korean pancakes are savory and usually have vegetables in the batter and sometimes seafood.

But Korean BBQ is what people get worked up about. They bring out marinated meat to the table - pork, beef tongue, short ribs - and grill it in front of you. The better places have grills in the middle of the tables so you can grill your own. You eat this wrapped in lettuce leaves with raw vegetables.

Koreatown at night is even louder and more crowded. The street is lit up by the signs of bars and restaurants. Karaoke is really popular, and the restaurants stay open late to feed the drunk people.

When I finally leave New York, this is one of the neighborhoods I'll miss most.

I Got My Wings...

2007-02-21T10:57:00.000-05:00

Since moving to New York, I've struggled to find hot wings that are good enough to go back to. Considering where I live, they must exist, but I haven't found them.

Problem solved.

I was shopping at Target here (very close to where I live) on Monday, and Jen spotted a Buffalo Wild Wings in the same building!!! So, now I can have my fix of Wild and Spicy Garlic on a regular basis. Eventually, maybe I'll discover good wings somewhere else in the city, but I doubt I'll try very hard now.

Then, there's this Korean fried chicken that I haven't tried yet but it's getting a lot of buzz. A few shops have opened up in the city, one of them two blocks from my office. It's supposed to be super crispy, due to a two-step frying method, and fried in "good" oil (no trans fat). I've had chicken wings at a Korean buffet that were awesome! So, if it's anything like that, I'm excited. I plan on trying this by the end of the week. I'll report back...

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

2007-02-21T00:01:00.001-05:00

Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Originally uploaded by nderrett.

Maybe the best gnocchi dish I've had!

Jen came up with this on the fly, using the sweet potato gnocchi she made with potatoes from our farm share. When you saute the mushrooms, the pan has to be HOT... let them get good color.

Gnocchi, sauteed mushrooms, shallots, garlic, scallions, cream, butter, parmesan

Vegetables Out the Wazoo

2007-02-11T19:26:00.001-05:00

Veg Plate
Originally uploaded by nderrett.

Jen and I participate in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). We pay a set amount per season to receive a weekly share of produce from a local organic farm.

Many farms in the area participate - we use Garden of Eve. Each Saturday, Garden of Eve sets up pick-up stands at a local farmer's market and other spots in Brooklyn and Manhattan where we go to pick up our vegetables. Luckily, one of their pick up locations is just two blocks from our apartment.

They break the year up into two seasons: Summer/Fall and Winter. We signed up for both this year. The summer share goes from June to November, winter from January to April. Each week's share effectively costs about $20, but buying the same basket of goods (organic) at Whole Foods would easily cost $30-40.

It's a lot of fun but also challenging to receive vegetables that you don't commonly see or purchase. Different varieties of kale, oddly-shaped turnips, beets & beet greens, mustard greens, squashes, tomatoes...

In the winter, it's mostly roots - potatoes, turnips, celery root - with a few surviving lettuces and greens. They threw a few apples in with the last batch that have such a unique flavor and balance.

So this veg plate was the product of trying to be creative and make sure we eat our groceries before they go bad:

Roasted Carrots

Carrots
Butter
Cardomom
Powered Ginger

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Olive Oil, Salt & Pepper

Butternut Squash Relish

Shredded Butternut Squash
Rice Vinegar
Sugar
Scallions

Recipe: Nutella-Coffee Hot Chocolate (and cupcakes)

2007-02-11T18:40:00.000-05:00

We made some cupcakes at home today but didn't have any frosting, so I suggested frosting them with coffee-flavored Nutella. I dissolved a some instant coffee in hot water - just enough to dissolve it. Then I mixed in Nutella and added hot water as needed to thin it out and make it smooth.

We had a lot of frosting left over, so I wisked it with hot milk to make hot chocolate.

This was a good idea...

Brother's Pizza

2007-01-17T19:15:00.001-05:00

White Pie with Spinach
Originally uploaded by nderrett.

We took a trip to Staten Island to visit Brother's Pizza, owned by Giorgio Giove and his family. Giorgio won second place for best-tasting pizza at the World Pizza Championship in Naples, Italy last year. His pizza was a white pie with zucchini, pancetta, ricotta, and herbed cream cheese.

We were hoping to try the winning (almost) pie, but for some messed up reason they don't make it at their restaurant - a load of crap! We ordered what seemed like the closest thing to it: spinach and ricotta pie. Plus, we had a regular cheese pizza. Both were really good, but maybe not worth making a the two hour trip again.

The ferry ride to Staten Island is pretty. The coast guard passed us with their big guns on the front and back of their boat. We passed the Statue of Liberty. She just stood there.

Sourdough #1

2007-01-08T22:22:00.001-05:00

Sourdough #1
Originally uploaded by nderrett.

I ordered some sourdough starter from King Arthur Flours, and this is the first loaf I made with it. I cooked it for the same amount of time and at the same temperature as the other loaves, but the sourdough scorched more than usual... not sure why.

No-Knead Bread

2006-12-15T20:12:00.000-05:00

Last month, Mark Bittman wrote an article in the New York Times about how to make bread at home. The recipe came from Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery, and the results are incredible - both the looks and taste. I've baked seven loaves so far, and all but one were as good or better than any bread I've ever had.

There are four things that make this recipe different from others:

Very little yeast is used
You don't knead the dough
You let it proof for at least 18 hours
You bake it in a preheated pot with the lid on

I've passed the recipe on to several people who are also getting excellent results. I've added chopped calamata olives to one loaf, serrano ham and piave cheese to another. I took each of those to a different Christmas party. People flipped out. It's hard to believe that it didn't come out of a professional bakery.

The base recipe is this:

430 grams (3 cups) of Flour
335 ml (1 5/8 cups) of Water
1 gram (1/4 teaspoon) of Instant Yeast
8 grams (1 tablespoon) of Salt

See the article for detailed instructions...

I've had the best results using King Arthur unbleached bread flour. Bread flour has a higher protein and gluten content, which is essential for bread. Flours with over 12% protein content are preferred for bread making. I've also added as much as 100 grams of whole wheat flour and 40 grams of buckwheat flour. Both turned out great.

I've also had some failures recently. A few of my loaves turned out small and dense. The dough looked fine after 18 hours, but when I shaped it and waited for the second rise, it didn't rise as much as usual. I think maybe the yeast I had wasn't great, but I also realized later that I was putting in 10 grams less water than I was supposed to. I've since redeemed myself.

There's no reason not to make bread at home anymore. It's as good as the bakeries, and each loaf costs about one dollar to make. Do it.

Anticuchos

2006-11-21T23:26:00.001-05:00

Anticuchos
Originally uploaded by nderrett.

Jen and I recently made "anticuchos", a traditional Peruvian dish of marinated and grilled beef hearts. We had the dish a few months ago at a place down the block from us called Mancora.

On a visit to our butcher shop, Staubitz, Jen asked if they had any beef hearts. The butchers - not to mention the other customers - were a little puzzled about why we wanted to cook a veal heart. They said they normally sell them to hospitals and schools. "Gotta practice on something", says the butcher. Nice. They gave us our big (about 3 lbs), bloody veal heart in a plastic bag and asked if we need anything else. "One whole chicken, please". "Well, how pedestrian of you", said the butcher.

So we took the heart home and, without consulting any resources on butchering, I went at the thing with my sharpest boning knife. It took a few minutes of handling before I could touch it without involuntarily cringing my face. I expected to have to cut around a bunch of sinewy, tough cartilage, but it really was no big deal. You can pretty much lop off the top of the heart where all the tubes are and most of the fat collects. Then, you just split open the three valves, cut away some of the weird-looking web-like tissue, and slice the muscle thinly.

If you haven't vomitted yet, read on.

Traditionally, the marinade has water, vinegar, chili, oregano, and cumin. I decided to do a sort of chimichurri using jalepenos, celery leaves, cilantro, garlic, and vinegar. We marinated the slices for a day. Then, I laid them out on a rack set over a sheet pan and put them under the broiler (we can't grill on our property).

They turned out okay. Pretty good, really. It tastes like beef, with the faint taste of something... organy? It's probably all in your head, but then again it really is an organ. At least it's not a piss-filtering kidney.

On the side, I made some sauteed potatoes. Making potatoes this way is my new favorite thing:

Criggly Potatoes
Slice potatoes
Put them in a pot of cold water and bring to a boil
Let them boil for 30-60 seconds, then drain and let air dry
meanwhile...
Heat a pan over high heat and add olive oil
Add diced onions and cook until slighly caramelized
Add diced red bell pepper. Season.
Remove onions and peppers from pan
Saute the potatoes, tossing frequently to brown all over
Add back the onions and peppers, plus some chopped garlic
Season and cook until the potatoes are done
If you're afraid of them burning, add some water. The steam will help them finish cooking

My Fuji

2006-10-11T16:55:00.001-05:00

My Fuji
Originally uploaded by nderrett.

Got a bike last weekend. Jen wanted a bike for her birthday, so we went to Frank's Bike Shop on Sunday to go shopping. Before Sunday, I was dead set on getting a scooter (like a Vespa), but I decided to join Jen and get a bike and maybe get a little more exercise. Oh yeah, and I guess scooters cost a lot more, too, so double bonus.

Bike theft is a big problem in New York, so we bought these crazy six-pound Kryptonite chains and locks, which cost half as much as the bikes! We rigged Jen's bike up with a basket on the front in case she wants to throw a chicken in there or something.

We rode home to Brooklyn over the Williamsburg bridge, but about halway through the trip Jen had a blowout on the back tire. I guessed they pumped it up a little too much. So we had to take them on the subway to get home. She had it fixed the next day and we went for a ride through Prospect Park.

I wish we'd thought to do this in the beginning of Summer...

Grass Fed

2006-09-08T08:38:00.000-05:00

Last night, Jen and I went to a free event in Midtown where author of “Pasture Perfect” Jo Robinson talked about the environmental and health benefits – health for both us and the animal – of raising animals naturally on grass. The event was sponsored by The Sustainable Table, a website on a mission to educate consumers on what they should be eating and how to source it. Jo Robinson presented slides comparing the conditions on a typical “factory” or “feed” farm versus a grass-fed farm. Apparently 98% of the beef sold in this country is raised on factory farms, where cows are taken from there mothers at an early age, fed growth hormones and unnecessary antibiotics, and stand around in their own poo for most of their life. The overuse of these antibiotics causes bacteria to mutate to build immunities, which means scientists are constantly having to develop new antibiotics. Also, while manure can be good for fertilizing the land, on a factory farm it is so abundant that it has to be shipped out to a dumping area where it seeps into the ground and eventually into nearby waterways.

Another interesting point is that, according to a study, two quarts of fuel (gasoline) are used to produce every pound of beef. Factory farm animals are grain fed, which means it has to be grown somewhere. Fuel is used in the farm equipment to plant the seeds, spray the land with fertilizer and insecticides, harvest the grain, and ship it to the farm to be fed to cattle.

For grass fed beef, there are only two things that have to be done: let the cows eat grass one area of a pasture, rotate them to a new area so the grass in the first area can grow back.

Another woman, Jessica Applestone, owner of Fleisher’s Grass-Fed and Organic Meats, talked about her business and the difficulties of being a butcher for grass-fed meat. It’s not easy to find grass-fed beef right now – the demand far outweighs the supply. She encouraged people to seek it out and be open to cooking with different cuts of meant, because you might not always be able to find grass-fed tenderloin or ribeye.

Jen and I were both inspired by the presentation. I picked up Jo Robinson’s book “Pasture Perfect” last night, but also picked up these books in the last few weeks:

Labor Day & Ritz Carlton Milkshakes

2006-09-07T21:16:00.000-05:00

My mom and brother came to visit me for Labor Day weekend. We were all worried that Ernesto's crap weather was going to delay their flight on Saturday, but they actually landed about 20 minutes early.

Saturday's weather was still awful, but we still managed to eat at Nyonya, take a tour of the newly renovated French Culinary Institute, try samples at the Spanish gourmet market Despana, and have pizza for dinner at Lombardi's. I've been touting this other pizza place L'Asso that's on the same block as Lombardi's. I hadn't been to Lombardi's in a while, and I was making foolish claims that maybe L'Asso's pizza had moved into 1st place on my list of favorite pizza. We tried a regular slice at L'Asso immediately after eating at Lombardi's to do the comparison. Lombardi's still wins (but L'Asso does make some awesome gourmet pizzas).

Sunday they came to Brooklyn to see our new apartment.
Click to see more

We had lunch a a Cuban restaurant in Carroll Gardens, then made a trip to Chelsea Market, Balducci's and Perry St, just to check them out.

Mom and Jason stayed at the Ritz Carlton Battery Park, which has the most comfortable beds I've ever flippin' laid in. Since Mom's birthday was on August 27th, I made her a massage appointment at the Ritz spa for 5 o'clock on Sunday. And because my birthday is September 12th, she decided to get me a massage also! So we both went in at 5 for deep tissue massages. I'd do it again. After that, Mom stayed in the room to relax. Jen, Jason, and I went to Haru sushi in Union Square. I'd do that again too.

Monday, we went to Columbus Circle and Central Park in the morning, then up to St. John the Divine cathedral.

We had lunch at Les Halles (Tony Bourdain's place), where I had a "ground-to-order" burger with a slice of foie gras terrine on top. The best dish was a calamari and shaved fennel appetizer.

Before they left for the aiport, we tried to get a milkshake in Battery Park. I ordered one from this tourist trap of an Italian restaurant. What I got was more like vanilla-flavored milk - thin and tasting nothing like ice cream. I took it back and asked if they could make it again, but they said if they did it would come out exactly the same. No remorse. They gave me my money back. So, we ended up back at the Ritz, ordering milkshakes at the bar. Keving made us proper milkshakes with Ciao Bella gelato plus half and half. They didn't actually have milkshakes listed in the computer system, so he had to make something up. On our bill was a charge for 2 orders of chocolate milk: $14. Next time you want $7 chocolate milk, you know where to go.

There's Kevin and the Milkshake

My Cubicle

2006-08-04T08:20:00.000-05:00


This is my favorite video.

Watermelon Screwdriver

2006-08-04T07:25:00.000-05:00

Jen made a drink the other day that turned out pretty flippin' awesome. She had bought a watermelon two weeks ago, cut it up and put it in the freezer. We were about to make a frozen screwdriver, but we decided to use frozen watermelon instead of ice. I added some elderflower cordial to mine, which worked.

Frozen Watermelon
Orange Juice
Vodka
Elderflower Cordial (optional)

Chicken Wing Eating Technique: The Smash

2006-07-30T11:05:00.000-05:00


Imporant, important stuff... Scott "The Cluckbucket" Roth demonstrates the famous chicken wing eating technique, "The Smash" at Fire On the Mountain in Portland, OR

Restaurant Week : DB Bistro

2006-07-14T13:02:00.000-05:00

It’s restaurant “weeks”. For two weeks every January and two weeks every July, New York restaurants participate in “Restaurant Week”. For those weeks, restaurants offer a special tasting menu at discounted prices: about $25 for lunch and $30 for dinner. Last year, I took advantage of restaurant week by trying Bobby Flay’s restaurants Bolo and Mesa Grill, as well as Tocqueville (Jen’s favorite restaurant).

I think they tend to put less-popular dishes on the restaurant week menu, so I’ve always found it hard to not to order from the regular menu (which means I end up spending twice as much as expected).

Today, Jen and I had lunch at Daniel Boulud’s DB Bistro Moderne. They are famous for their $30 burger: ground sirloin stuffed with foie gras and truffles with tomato confit on a parmesan bun. Once again, was hard to stick to the discount menu, but we did.

The soup was about as good as potato leek soup could be. I liked the balance of potato / leek flavor, and I think they cheated by using cream in a cold soup, but it was smooth and rich. The salad was pretty classic, about what you’d expect. The tomato salad with the mahi mahi was awesome. So were the ravioli, which had some monster fava beans that were sweet and balanced out the short rib filling and buttery sauce.

Dessert was no big deal.

Next week: Scott Connant's Alto...

Calendars & Notebooks

2006-06-29T13:54:00.000-05:00

Check out the sidebar to the right

Now, there are links to my Google Calendars and Notebooks that I’ve started working on. More to come.

Carnitas is Tasty!

2006-05-07T18:03:00.004-05:00

For Cinco de Mayo, we went to Chevy's near the Trade Center for happy hour with Jen's co-workers. It was a night of beer, tequila shots, and free toys: keychains, rattles, and hats (both regular and sombreros). After Chevy's we headed to La Esquina (The Corner) for some tacos.

On el seis de mayo, we made carnitas based on the recipe in the Niman Ranch Cookbook, which happens to be the recipe used by Chipotle, the chain restaurant. Chipotle founder Steve Ells is really doing a good thing. As the chain becomes more and more established, he leverages that to invest in better-quality ingredients. The most impressive investment - at least to me - is the pork that they buy from Niman Ranch. Below is an exerpt from an awesome article on the relationship between these two companies:
Link to Article
Niman Ranch Website

"For test after test, Niman shipped Ells hundreds of pounds of small
industrial batches of pork. Once he was satisfied with the flavor of Niman Ranch
pork, Ells asked to tour Niman’s farms to investigate the husbandry and animal
welfare standards. Ells was seeking many answers. Would the pork production
standards of Niman’s cooperative fulfill the vision of Chipotle’s Food With
Integrity philosophy? Could Niman’s network of independent family farms in the
Midwest deliver meat with a consistent eating experience? Could Niman’s
old-fashioned pig farming live up to modern standards of food safety and
butchering? “It was rigorous,” Niman says of the investigation. “[Ells] did all
due diligence. He is an incredibly driven person who, when he is interested in
something, focuses on every detail and goes in depth in his analysis and
investigation.”

Chipotle is the future of fast food, I think. Why won't all of the other chains do this??? Chipotle is buying sustainable, high-quality ingredients and charging maybe, what, a dollar more per meal than you would pay at McDonald's?

So, we made carnitas Saturday morning. I bought a three-pound piece of pork shoulder from Whole Foods (who happens to buy their pork from Niman Ranch!). You start off by tying up the pork - this keeps it together when you have to remove it later - seasoning with salt and pepper and searing it all over. The I moved the pork to a crock pot while I sweated onions and garlic, then added beef stock. That went into the crock pot with bay leaves, cloves, tomatoes, dried chipotles, and cumin. Four hours later in the crock pot, the meat was falling apart. I removed it and the sauce was finished by pureeing and adding oregano and cinnamon. That was tossed with the shredded pork. Awesome!

I've gotta make a plug for the Crock Pot! The weather in New York has finally warmed up, so when most NY apartments have no central a/c, having the oven on at 325 for three hours can really heat up a place. The crock pot is a great solution for braising. You don't have to worry about your place burning down and it doesn't put out all the excess heat that an oven would.

Roman Food

2006-03-26T20:13:00.000-05:00

A sweet article on the food of Rome from The Times.

If the link doesn't work, look for "The Bounty of Rome" on the nytimes website.

Misguided Eating

2006-03-23T23:58:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been reading a lot about sustainable farming, food policy and making responsible food choices. I guess I've also become more aware of what other people are eating. It's kinda gross, actually.

I was in the elevator at work today, and I overheard this conversation:
Guy1: "Where are you gonna eat?"
Guy2: "I think I'll go to Burger King because I went to McDonald's yesterday"
Guy1: "What about Chinese food or somethin'"
Guy2: "Nah, Chinese food is all greasy!"

Obviously, this dude is seriously un-aware of the crap he's eating every day. What's scariest to me is that I believe he probably just doesn't care. Even if he were given all the information, I think he'd still make the same food choices. Why? We've lost our sense of taste.

The average person growing up in the city is out of touch with what comes from the earth. Crappy meat, salt, and foamy buns are what people crave now. I see people reach for salt without even tasting their food first!

My roommate witnessed a scene in a grocery store recently. A father purchased a bottle of Mountain Dew and immediately handed it down to his crying baby, no more than two years old! Who are these people!

Anyway, more and more each day I want to make responsible food choices. They say Americans spend the smallest percentage of their income on food compared with other nations. Sounds good on the surface until you pay attention to the crap we eat here. I think we need to send our kids to food boot camp in Italy.

Consumer Awareness

2006-03-07T22:49:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to make a plug for the following websites. I've just found these sites thanks to a podcast I've been listening to called "The Gastrocast" (podchef.motime.com).

Orion Grassroots Network
"Stories from the Grassroots"
http://www.oriononline.org/pages/ogn/members/st.html
http://www.oriononline.org/pages/ogn/index.cfm

The Meatrix
http://www.themeatrix2.com/
Flash movie exposing the evils of the meat industry

The Sustainable Table
http://www.sustainabletable.org/
Educating consumers on sustainability

Eat Well Guide
http://www.eatwellguide.org/

Blizzards, Butchers & BBQ

2006-02-21T23:58:00.000-05:00

I took another stab at making smoked pork spare ribs this past weekend. I used the same rub recipe as before, but this time I had a new variable: 25-degree weather.

BBQ means different things to different groups of people. Up here (New York), when you tell someone you're going to barbeque, they see it as throwing a piece of meat on an open fire. Grilling, whether it's a steak or a bell pepper, is often referred to as barbeque. It's more of an event than a process.

In Texas - and other bbq savvy areas - the definition of bbq is more strict: cook it low, slow, and with smoke. The idea is to take cheap, flavorful pieces of meat and transform them into something slightly spicy, slightly sweet, and hopefully fall-apart tender.

Quoting McGee: "Meats with a significant amount of tough connective tissue must be cooked to a minimum of 160-180F to dissolve their collagen into gelatin, but that temperature range is well above the 140-150F at which the muscle fibers lose their juices. So it's a challenge to make tough meats succulent. The key is to cook slowly, at or just above the collagen-dissolving minimum, to minimize the drying-out of fibers." (p.163)

Ideally, when BBQ-ing, the cooking temperature is 220-250F. For pork ribs, about 4 hours does the job. I had trouble maintaining that temperature in the cold weather, so after 3 hours I put the ribs in a 225-degree oven for another 1.5 hours. They came out very tender. Jen and I ate one rack and chopped up the second rack to use as a tamale filling!

Gotta thank Staubitz Market, my newly found butcher, for the meaty ribs.

Good ole Houston

2006-01-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

Jen and I made a trip to Houston this past weekend. Although we were delayed 5 1/2 hours on the way to Houston (fog in NYC), we made the most of our short trip.

We had planned on having wings late Friday night, but getting in at 3am kind of cancelled that idea. When we finally made it to my brother's place, had a beer and went to bed.

Saturday:

woke up at 10 and went to the Midtown Farmer's market (Monica Pope was a little surprised to hear that I wasn't cooking anymore)
met up with my mom and granny at Yia Yia Mary's for some Greek food... sat out on the grass after lunch it the 70-degree weather!
TOOK A NAP!
went to Cune's place to meet up with Jeff & Liz and had some Popeye's for the MLK celebration
dinner at Goode Co BBQ... Jen's first Texas BBQ experience!
had drinks at Volcano's and Little Woodrow's

Sunday:

drove around Bellaire to show Jen where we grew up
popped in on Ryan and Lady to see the new (giant!) house
had lunch with dad and Jeanette at Goode Co Seafood (keeping them in business)
hung out at dad's and played with Hannah (the dog)
went to visit Matt & Donna at their new townhome. We were introduced to the 20 Questions ball - the stupid ball that can guess what you're thinging. Scary
Had our wings that night at b-dubs... finally! Best wings I've every had!

Monday:

had lunch at Irma's with dad and Marty
back on the plane to NYC (the flight back took about a third as long at the flight there)

photos on Flickr

My Greatest Accomplishment

2005-12-27T21:14:00.000-05:00

Until I have a son and put him through college - or something like that - this friggin' golf ball globe is at the top of my achievement list.

Christmas Dinner 2005

2005-12-27T21:13:00.000-05:00

Jen and I had a relaxing Christmas weekend. It was a little strange for me, as it was my first Christmas spent without any family members. We had a great dinner, though, with some friends.

Amanda, one of the pastry chefs at Perry St, invited us over to dinner with her, her husband Cory, and Kim (another pastry chef). This was our menu:

Jen:

Chickpea, Cumin, & Coriander Flatbread

Nick:

Brined, Bacon-wrapped, and Roasted Pork Loin
Cranberry & Walnut Stuffing

Amanda and Cory:

Roasted Butternut & Acorn Squashes
Mashed Potatoes with Roasted Garlic

Kim:

Peanut Butter Pie with Peanut Butter Cookie Crust

We had a great time drinking wine and trying desperately (with absolutely no success) to get Amanda's dog Lucy to SHUT THE HELL UP!... but she's a cute dog.

Transit Strike!

2005-12-27T11:54:00.000-05:00

As you may have seen in the news, the New York transit workers’ union went on strike last week for three days. This was my first experience with a big city “crisis”, and it was as cold as it was interesting.

Last Tuesday, when the strike began, I walked from Brooklyn to Manhattan via the Manhattan Bridge (about 3 miles). From Chinatown, I hopped in a cab with three other strangers and went 34th street to get to work.

The first day was chaos. Cab drivers didn’t know what to charge, so they just bargained with riders. Cars had to have at least four passengers in order to enter Manhattan, so drivers were inviting strangers into their cars before crossing bridges.

The next two days weren’t so bad getting to work. My company and many others provided bus services to and from work. It turned out my company’s bus picked up a few blocks from my apartment. I did a lot of walking after work, though. To meet up with friends both Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I walked about 30 blocks in 20 degree weather. This week, it’s in the 40’s and feels like spring!

In-SANE Party!

2005-12-16T11:50:00.000-05:00

Last night (12/15) was my company’s holiday party. Since I started, everyone was hyping it up saying how great these parties had been in the past. This was just ridiculous, though.

The party was at a club called Crobar, a kind of exclusive celebrity hotspot. The venue is huge with one small lounge area, a much bigger lounge area, and an enormous room with a dance floor and sort of box seating on an upper level overlooking the whole room.

From 7pm until 1am, they had waitresses running around with crab cakes, shrimp, bruscetta, lamb chops, and whatever else I missed. There was a seafood bar with raw oysters, clams, and shrimp cocktail. Later in the night, they broke out with a whole baked salmon, roast beef, sushi…

When they opened up the room to the dance floor, music was blasting, flat-screen tv’s were showing pictures from past company parties, and there were two girls hanging over the bar from cloth streamers doing Cirque du Soleil type acrobatics.

The day of the party they gave out raffle tickets at the office. I think they gave away about ten prizes: gift certificates, an iPod video, plane tickets for two anywhere in the world, a five night vacation to Disneyworld. Grand prize: a flippin’ Mini Cooper S, red with a white top.

Craziest party I’ve ever seen.

Trip to Oakland / San Francisco

2005-12-10T21:47:00.000-05:00

Jen and I took a trip to Oakland last weekend. Jen grew up in Oakland went to school for architecture at UC Berkeley, just north of Oakland. As cool as New York is, I can see why Jen is ready to move back to San Francisco - it's beautiful there! We started with Oakland/Berkeley, SF the next day, then to Sacramento to visit Jen's brother Lun.

Luckily, Jen and I travel well together because we like to plan our trips around food. We landed in Oakland late Thursday night, and had a midnight dinner at some hole-in-the-wall "ABC" (American-born Chinese) restaurant. I had some weird spaghetti dish with tomato sauce, mushrooms, and a pork chop on top. We also had fried salt&pepper prawns.

Friday we ate a greasy American breakfast at Ole's Waffle Shop in Alameda. Not to worry... I found this pic on the web and didn't actually ingest that much butter. Not on that day, anyway.

There's a coffee chain called Peet's over there - the coffee is like flippin' motor oil! Really good motor oil.

After checking out Berkeley - including the UC campus and Berkeley Bowl - we had lunch at the Alice Waters'Chez Panisse! Jen had this incredible spaghetti with octopus appetizer. The rest of the food was just right - not too flashy - and the restaurant is cozy and just what you expect from relaxed California. Here's what we had:

Bob's butter lettuce salad with creme fraiche and herbs
Spaghetti with octopus, red wine, and garlic
Haddock and clam stew baked in the wood oven with sorrel and aioli
Grilled Laughing Stock Farm pork leg with winter squash and cavolo nero (kale)
* We had dessert at Masse's Pastries up the street

The rest of the trip was more eating:

Mexican at La Fonda
Dim Sum at Peony in Oakland
Ice Cream Sundae at Ghirardelli
Salt & pepper dungeness crab at R&G in SF
Pyramid Brewery in Sacramento

Check out photos on Flickr.

Texas Olive Oil

2005-12-10T21:32:00.000-05:00

Just to show some support for the home state, I saw in Saveur Magazine - in a segment they call "The Saveur List" - a list of 12 new recommended olive oils. One was from Texas!

alfresco
extra virgin olive oil
First Texas Olive Oil Company
Wimberley, TX

Back to "Normal" (whatever that means)

2005-12-10T13:07:00.000-05:00

new job... again

Three months since my last post, hmm. That's no good.

Apparently I'm going for a new record: most W-2's in a year. Yeah, I changed jobs again and - perhaps to the disappointment of some - I'm no longer working in a restaurant! I'm back working in IT for Kids' Headquarters, a company that designs, manufactures and distributes clothing for kids (Skechers, Calvin Klein, Ecko, Beyonce's new line, Hillary Duff's new line). I started on November 14th.

It came down to a lifestyle choice, really. Working at Perry St was awesome - I really did like the food and the people. However, the only reason to work as a cook is because you want to become a chef someday. I didn't have that desire. I looked at my sous chefs'lifestyles and knew that, as much as I admire them and respect what they do, I don't want their jobs. Noon to midnight. No holidays. No benefits. Even if they did have a vacation time, they couldn't afford to go anywhere.

I wasn't even looking for something new, but at the end of October I got a random call from a headhunter who had seen my resume on Monster. She set up an interview for me and I went, just curious what my options were. Within a week I had an offer, and it was solid enough to make me really consider what lifestyle I wanted to live. I just couldn't justify cooking, barely being able to pay bills, and knowing that I didn't want to be a chef.

So far, I'm enjoying being back in an office, having a lunch hour, and problem solving. I went back to visit Perry St last week and, suprisingly, I didn't really miss it. I miss the people and the food, but what I really love about cooking is sharing the food with family and friends. You don't get that working in a restaurant kitchen.

Of course, I'll always be obsessed with food and cooking. Maybe someday I'll find a niche in the industry that fits. For now, I just need to work on paying back a loan...

Time Flies

2005-09-14T20:22:00.000-05:00

I don't want to make excuses - I've certainly been lazy about posting to the blog - but the last month has gone by so fast. In the last post I talked about taking a job at Perry St. I am now settled into my position there and I'm growing to love it more every day.

Restaurant cooking is like a sport where you practice the same motions until you get them down. Every day, my job is more fun as I learn to be more fluid and rhythmic. You are constantly organizing and re-organizing your station so that you can put a plate together in the least number of moves. When you're bogged down with a lot of tickets, you're thinking five steps ahead. You're also worried about timing with the other cooks: you don't want the asparagus to get cold while you're waiting for the other station to finish crab dumplings.

My days begin at 8 am. The first thing I do is grab every container I'm going to need for the day and set up my station: three full sheet pans, three half-sheets, eight 6-pans, seven 9-pans, mixing bowls, etc. Then I get a pot full of oil on the fire and start chopping up frozen snapper skin. When the snapper comes in, we roll up the skin and freeze it so that it can easily be sliced thin. The skin is fried and becomes a crunchy, salty garnish to red snapper sashimi.
***I can't give away all the secrets to our dishes or I might get fired

After doing the skin, I make whatever I need most. Glazes, vinaigrettes, roasted pistachios, sweet "crystallized" wasabi, grilled shitakes, asparagus, soft boiled eggs are all made daily. Some days go more smoothly than others. You get everything prepped and ready before service starts at noon and you have a few minutes to relax and eat lunch. Other days, for whatever reason, you're behind and going as fast as you can to get ready. Then, before you know it, your first orders start coming in and you just do your best to catch up on your prep.

For instance, the other day, I didn't slice enough tomatoes for the heirloom tomato salad. I got bombarded early with orders for tomato salad, so for 2 hours I was behind trying to slice tomatoes to order while worrying about other plates too. Pretty trivial, I guess. It's not like we're saving the world here, but it's interesting how stressful putting food on a plate can be.

Honestly, I have no idea what the atmosphere is like in the dining room during service. I've only peaked through the window a few times. As employess, we're not allowed to eat in the restaurant for the first six months after it opens to leave space open for the public. The restaurant critics from the Times and Daily News do a better job of describing the decor than I could ever do. Links to those reviews are below.

We're located in the far West Village (as far west as you can go), which is arguably the most charming neighborhood in NY. Every morning walking to work, I wonder if and when I'll ever be able to afford to live in one of those brownstones. Who knows, by then the West Village may be a bunch of run-down shanties because all the rich people decided to move to the Lower East Side. Really, though, if I'm ever doing that well financially, I'll take my money to another city.

Daily News Review

New York Times Review

Perry St

2005-08-02T07:33:00.000-05:00

In the last post I talked about the trails I had scheduled. After completing them all, I took a job at Perry St.

Saveur Magazine was only looking for an intern, so it was cool to see what they do but I have to pass. The trail at Gramercy Tavern was uneventful - just standing around watching. It turns out they're not hiring at all right now. Next.

I wanted to check out corporate dining. I met someone who had worked in the corporate "club" kitchen for Sony in NY and said the food was amazing and the hours were 9-5. So, I looked around and found job openings in the kitchens at Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Sony. I never heard from Merrill or Sony, but set up a trail at Lehman Brothers. Unfortunately, there's a difference between corporate dining and "executive" dining. Sony does "executive", where you're serving high-end food to execs and their guests. That's what I was hoping to see. The Lehman Bros corporate kitchen is no more than a cafeteria. I arrived at the trail and told them I wasn't interested.

I trailed at Lupa, part of the Batali empire. The food is good and I'd love to eat there, but I just wasn't super impressed with the work environment.

Perry St is a new Jean-Georges restaurant. Jean-Georges is considered to be "the most influential chef in NY for the last decade". The menu at Perry St is just clean and simple. The kitchen is well-designed and brand new (the restaurant has been open for just three weeks). The chef (Greg Brainin) and I seemed to hit it off from the start. There was a bit of time pressure in making the decision. They needed someone to start ASAP and I needed an income. The restaurant starts serving lunch next week, so they need me trained this week to take on the lunch shift. My hours should be way better than at Aquavit and the pay about the same. Check out the link below to read about Jean-Georges. I'll post the Perry St menu when I get a chance.

On the 13th, I'm going home for 8 days!!! I'm really in need of a break from NY right now. Luckily, Perry St was willing to work around my vacation. I'm flying in Saturday the 13th and heading straight to New Braunfels to meet up with my family. We're stayin in a lodge on the river until the next Wednesday, then I'll be in Houston until that Saturday. Can't wait!

Article on Jean-Georges

Trust your gut... literally

2005-07-23T23:50:00.000-05:00

Well, it was a short run, but I'm done working at Aquavit. Finished this past Monday. I spent six weeks there trying to find something I liked about the job. I always enjoy the cooking process, but I don't really like cooking their food. They combine flavors that don't go together and try to pass it off as daring... I find it beyond gimmicky. I'm not saying it's all bad. They do some good things on the menu, and they use good ingredients. It's just not my kind of food. Overly complicated with questionable results. Aside from the food, the group I was working in just didn't work well together. Lots of finger pointing and shrugging off responsibility. The people teaching me how to cook rarely had more than a year of experience. I'd rather teach myself. So, it's hard to justify working 75 hours per week, getting paid for 40 hours, and not liking your job. (I hope this blog doesn't burn any bridges if anyone from Aquavit ever happens to read it... haha)

So, I talked to the chef at Aquavit on Monday and told him it wasn't working out. He was very understanding, as I expected. He's always a class guy, and he's an incredible cook. Still, I have to move on from there, and this time I'm looking for simpler food - a place where I can concentrate on technique and taste before aesthetics and tricks.

I've set up trail shifts at several different places so far. Yesterday, I trailed in the Saveur Magazine "test kitchen". They have an internship available, but unfortunately there's no guarantee of a paid position at the end. It's a really cool job for the lady who runs the kitchen. Basically, you work in a small, home-like kitchen with good equipment and test two or three recipes per day that eventually end up published in the magazine. It's very different, though, from cooking in a restaurant or even at home. You're constantly taking notes on weights, volumes, yields... you even have to specify which burner you used to cook something! These notes are filed away so they can make adjustments where necessary and hopefully publish a fool-proof recipe. They offered me the internship on the spot yesterday, and I wish I could afford to take it... but I've gotta pay rent.

I will be trailing this coming week at Gramercy Tavern, Lupa, and Perry St (links below). I recently ate at Gramercy, and the food is awesome - simple and done just right (www.gramercytavern.com). Lupa is one of Mario Batali's restaurants with a "Roman osteria" theme. I've heard the food is great, but I expect nothing less from Batali. We'll see how that trail goes. The last place, Perry St, is a new Jean-Georges restaurant. Jean-Georges is a four-star chef who owns a bunch of restaurants in New York and elsewhere. This is the front-runner for me of places I think I would enjoy working. Perry St is brand new, with a shiny new kitchen that seems to be well designed and an easy place to work. Although I haven't actually seen any of their food yet, the menu is simple but interesting. They're looking for a morning Garde Manger person, and I'm really hoping it's what I think it is. We'll see.

As for now, I'm waking up early tomorrow morning to smoke a pork butt (Mr. Brown, as it's called). Wish me luck : )

Saveur Magazine | Gramercy Tavern

Lupa Osteria Romana | Jean-Georges

Mr. Brown Recipe

My Own Bullet

2005-07-10T22:34:00.000-05:00

Ribs
Originally uploaded by nderrett.

As a graduation gift, Cune and my brother got me a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker (also known as the "WSM" and the "Weber Bullet"). I did my first run today making pork spare ribs. Using one charcoal chimney full of briquettes and some hickory and mesquite chips, I smoked the ribs for a little over three hours. Holy crap they were good!!!

Here is the rub recipe that I just kind of threw together:

4 parts Ancho Chili Powder
3 parts Dark Brown Sugar
2 parts Black Pepper
1 part Guajillo Chili Powder
1 part Granulated Garlic
1 part Salt
1/2 part Mustard Powder
1/2 part Ginger Powder
1/2 part Sweet Hungarian Paprika

Rub all over some ribs and let sit overnight.

13-Hour Days

2005-06-24T00:44:00.000-05:00

There's not much of a life outside of the restaurant. Thirteen hour days are the norm at Aquavit. Working the dinner shift, I go in at 11am and get done just before midnight. I don't sit down at work... ever. Lately, I've been working the lunch shift: 7am until 7:30 or 8pm. I like lunch better than dinner, because I can at least see my friends and girlfriend when I get off work at eight. Dinner is crazy, though. The subways run less frequently after midnight, so getting home before 1am is making good time. Then, up again at 9am to be at work by 11. To be honest, I'm not sure that I like working at Aquavit. I'm giving it a chance, though...

First Yankee Game!

2005-06-23T01:29:00.000-05:00

DSCN0673
Originally uploaded by nderrett.

Once again, my brother is the greatest. Last week, he called and said he wanted to send me to a Yankee game. I had an incredible seat for what turned out to be an awesome game. The Yankees were losing by one to the Pirates in the 9th. With two outs, Posada hit a double to knock in one runner... the winning run was tagged out at the plate. Then, in the 10th, Giambi bombs one to win the game... check out a few of the pics

Day Trip to the CIA

2005-06-15T00:58:00.000-05:00

Manhattan, with all the noise and the crowds, can be smothering if you don't get away from it every once in a while. I needed to get away, so I took a train up to Poughkeepsie, NY to visit The Culinary Institute of America's campus. I had applied to the CIA before deciding on the FCI, but I never had seen the campus. It's gorgeous! It's the only culinary school with on-campus housing. They have five (I think) residence halls, all just yards away from the Hudson River. Their kitchens and their restaurants are all first rate. I sat in on a Garde Manger class for a while. The chef of the class, Olivier Andreini, took and PASSED his Certified Master Chef exam this past weekend! He seemed like an awesome teacher and all of his students think he's a god.

The train to and from the CIA hugs the east side of the Hudson River the whole way. Whenever you hear the words "New York", you always think of buildings and smog. I never really thought about the possibility that the rest of the state might be beautiful. It is.

Lobster and Star Jones

2005-06-15T00:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I broke down a huge bucket of poached lobster to make a lobster salad. Chopped lobster, roasted shitakes, mayo, lemon, and mint are mixed and rolled up in slices of pickled green apple. That's served with bacon and "egg dressing".

Star Jones had dinner at the restaurant last night. Not much else to report on that... just that she was there. Service was busier than expected. Not many reservations, but it seemed like everyone came all at once. Still, I made about one tenth as many herring plates as I had on my first day.

First Day of Work...

2005-06-12T23:38:00.000-05:00

Day one was busy to say the least. I went in at 1pm and prepped a few things before service.

Made some crispy shallots for the salmon plate: slice shallots, toss in chestnut flour, sprinkle a small amount of shallots into cool oil and put over high heat, fry until golden. I spent most of my time peeling red pearl onions and then slicing them all on a mandoline. The slices are then pickled and used as garnish for the herring plate.

Ahh... the herring plate. Plain pickled with the above onions, horseradish, and dill. Tomato-flavored herring with chopped dill, red onion brunoise, and quail egg. Cucumber-flavored herring with salmon roe, chives, and fried capers. Curry herring with apple and chive. All of that served with potatoes and Vasterbotten cheese. I started work during the restaurant's annual "herring week". We sold about sixty herring plates last night, so that means I was busy.

I thought six hours per day on my feet at school had conditioned me psysically, but after standing for twelve hours at work I was feeling it. Still feeling it today. I should be good in a few weeks, but I expect to be physically exhausted early on.

I go in tomorrow to start officially, have Tuesday and Wednesday off, then work Thursday through Sunday. This is the new life... instead of 9-5 it's 12-12.

Recipe: Spice-Crusted Scallops

2005-06-09T23:09:00.000-05:00

Spiced Scallops
Originally uploaded by nderrett.

One of my favorite recipes we did in school was spice-crusted scallops in a coriander broth. I wanted to post this recipe. It's not something you would necessarily make at home, but at least the spice mix could be used in other applications.

(Serves 8)
Scallops and Spice Mix
16 large sea scallops
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon fennel seed, toasted and ground
2 teaspoons ground mace
1 teaspoon ground star anise
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
2 teaspoons fine salt

Garnish
16 medium asparagus, blanched and cut into 1" pieces
50 grams snow peas, blanched
1 red bell pepper, peeled and seeded
1 tablespoon olive oil
150 grams zucchini
16 baby carrots, peeled and blanched
3 tablespoons butter, in small cubes
Salt and Pepper

The Broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
500 grams (1 lb) crab bodies, cleaned and chopped
2-inch piece of peeled ginger
3 garlic cloves, chopped,
150 grams of onion, small dice
A strip of orange zest
2 points star anise
3 cardamom pods
1 stalk lemongrass, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup white wine
750 milliliters water

4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Cilantro sprigs for garnish
Lime juice

1. Mix all of the ground spices together and reserve until it's time to cook the scallops.
2. Blanch the snow peas, asparagus, and carrots and cut into bite-sized pieces.
3. Cut zucchini into 1" x .5" x .5" pieces. Blanch in salted water.
4. Cut the bell pepper into diamonds and saute in oil until cooked.
5. Mix all of the cooked vegetables together.6. Heat oil in a large pot until very hot and saute the crab bodies until red-orange in color. Add ginger, garlic, onion, lemongrass, zest, and spices. Sweat for about 5 minutes until softened. Add tomato paste and cook for a few minutes.
6. Add wine and reduce completely. Add water and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let infuse another 15 minutes. Strain.
7. Heat a non-stick pan with a little oil. Season the scallops lightly on both sides with the spice mixture. Sear scallops on both sides until golden.
8. Reheat the vegetable in a pan with a little water and butter. Season with salt and pepper.
9. For each serving, place some of the vegetables in a shallow soup plate. Arrange the scallops on top. Sprinkle the chopped cilantro around and pour in a little of the broth. Drizzle a little lime juice and olive oil over the top. Garnish with a sprig of cilantro.

A Note on Summer Weather in NYC

2005-06-08T14:21:00.000-05:00

The heat here is worse than it is in Houston. Sure, it's not 100 degrees, but most businesses have poor A/C and you have to walk everywhere and you're a sweaty mess.

I'm just saying.

First Post!

2005-06-08T11:22:00.000-05:00

Hello! I'm Nick and this is my first blog. On November 30th, 2004, I moved from Houston to New York City to change careers and go to culinary school at The French Culinary Institute (FCI). Because I am starting this blog after having graduated from cooking school, I will begin by looking back at my experiences at FCI. I will also try to let you know what's going on with my new job at Aquavit in New York.

For all of you who have been receiving my email updates, I hope it's not boring to read about what I've already told you. I'll try to summarize my FCI experiences into a few long posts so I can move on to new events and establish some kind of chronological order here. I am also going to "back date" some posts, so bear with me for the first few weeks as new posts won't necessarily be the first thing you see. I've also set up a new picture site. I put the link in another post called "Photo Site".

Graduation

2005-06-08T09:29:00.000-05:00

graduation photos at... http://www.flickr.com/photos/chefrogi/sets/429789/

I graduated from The French Culinary Institute one week ago with a "Grand Diplome in Culinary Arts with Artisanal Baking". Graduation day is also the day of the final exam. All went well. Everyone passed and nobody freaked out or cut their self too badly.

The final exam is based on L'Ecole's (the school restaurant) menu. For the last six weeks of school (Level 4), we have 30 different dishes we prepare for the restaurant. They choose 16 of those dishes for us to study for the final. One the day of the final, we draw from a hat to see which 2 dishes we have to prepare for the test. We have roughly four hours to make four servings of each dish, so it's not that tough. We serve the plates to a jury who critiques and grades our performance.

The graduation ceremony was short and fairly entertaining as graduations go. The chefs' French accents help to keep things interesting. There are four awards given out at the ceremony. Anne Marie and Ben won the "Perfect Attendance" award. Anne Marie also won "Best Final Project" and "Outstanding Service" awards. I won the award for "Highest GPA".

I wish I had more pictures of the ceremony. My girlfriend Jennifer took as many as she could with my camera before the batteries died. After the ceremony, we went to Toad Hall for some beers and that was it. It was strange. It didn't feel much like a graduation. One day you're starting culinary school and the next day you're done. Weird.

Photo Site

2005-06-08T07:37:00.000-05:00

You can view my pictures at...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chefrogi/

Much better quality and you can download large versions of the files if you like.

Level IV Menu

2005-04-20T07:14:00.000-05:00

Here is our entire Level 4 menu (30 Dishes) for each day of the week by appetizer, entree, and dessert:

L'Ecole Level IV Menu: 4/20/2005 - 6/1/2005

Monday

Duo of Asparagus Cream and Mushroom Cream soups OR Spice-Crusted Scallops in a Coriander Broth
Bass Braised with Artichokes OR "Pot-Roasted" Pork Loin, Eggplant Sauce
Rhubarb Triangle with Ginger Ice Cream-Filled Profiteroles OR Chocolate Souffle

Tuesday

Vegetable Soup with Sorrel and Watercress OR Baked Whiting Fillets with Herbed Butter Sauce
Red Snapper on a Bed of Spring Pea Risotto OR Seared Duck Breast and Braised Duck Thigh with Rhubarb
French-Style Fromage Blanc Cheesecake OR Mango and Apple Tart with Puff Pastry Leaves

Wednesday

Beef Consomme with Spring Vegetables OR Warm Salad of Shrimp and Artichokes with Basil
Atlantic Fish Stew, Marseille Style OR Braised Veal Shank with Vegetable Medley
Walnut Tart with Creme Fraiche Ice Cream OR Creme Brulee Trio

Thursday

Chicken Consomme with Spring Vegetables and Greens OR Molded Vegetable Salad with Goat Cheese and Tomato-Watercress Sauce
Poached Skate Wing in Lemongrass Broth OR Roasted Leg of Lamb with Provencal Herbs
Italian Beggar's Cake OR Trio of Lemon Delights

Friday

Spring Pea Soup with Herbs OR Steamed Clams with Roasted Red Pepper, Almonds, and Ham
Sauteed Codfish Fillet, Yellow Tomato-Tarragon Emulsion OR Sauteed Beef Fillet with Spring Vegetables, Red Wine-Marrow Sauce
Honey Crisps with Strawberries OR Warm Chocolate Tart with Seasonal Fruit