daveena's Profile
Best burgers in the Bay Area 2011
The burger at American Oak in Alameda deserves to be on this list. Ranking it over both Flora and Sidebar right now. Coarsely textured, juicy meat, perfectly seasoned, good toasted bun. Every time I have it I try to think more critically about what makes it good but I can't think when I'm eating this burger. Their cocktails are good too.
A rave for Market Hall Caterers [Oakland]
I assumed it was a shared kitchen - some of the catering menu items are regular items in the prepared foods case.
Recent C'era Una Volta experiences?
Old thread, but I'm going to piggyback on it.
We had a really good experience using C'Era Una Volta for our rehearsal dinner - they can comfortably hold 60 people on one level, and have a very reasonable minimum ($3K for a weekend dinner, including wine and service).
At the trial dinner (they give a generous discount for the tasting), we realized that their strength is definitely in long-cooked sauces and meats - I wonder if this accounts for most of the discrepancy in our experience with most of the reviews I've read (they get panned on Yelp for frequently not having menu items available, so I wonder if some of these items don't get made daily, or run out early). The one dish that was really not good was the vitello alla milanese, which seemed dried out and had a stale-tasting crust, but the gnocchi with chianti meat sauce was very good (gnocchi are definitely not house-made and are probably frozen but I actually liked their supple chewiness and thought they would appeal to the large, Chinese and Korean rice-cake loving contingent of our party), the lamb cacciatore with polenta was outstanding, and the side vegetables (roasted brussel sprouts and roasted root vegetables) were also well received.
Based on this experience, I'd definitely go back, but I might call ahead to make sure my favorite dishes are available that night.
A rave for Market Hall Caterers [Oakland]
Market Hall Caterers doesn't seem to ever come up in the budget wedding caterer discussion, and it should. We'd looked at a few other caterers - perennial CH favorite Ann Walker (I liked the food at my friend's wedding, but they literally served every item I would have been interested in and I didn't want to duplicate their menu), Le's Kitchen (possibly the most intriguing menu I'd seen, modern Vietnamese cuisine similar to that of La Vie, but they were not available the day of our wedding, and anyway they would have needed a full kitchen, which we our venue did not have), and Daniel Ripley (was not able to work with a number of our limitations).
We had quite a few conditions and were really grateful Market Hall was able to accommodate:
1) The kitchen at our venue only had rewarming equipment, so we had to think about food that tastes good precooked and rewarmed - one of the things that sold me on Market Hall was the inclusion of a braised chicken with bay leaf and figs dish - obviously a brown, mushy looking dish that would be delicious. I loved that they were willing to prioritize taste over looks.
2) For cocktail hour, we wanted to bring in tacos and ceviche from Taqueria Sinaloa and Korean fried chicken and kimbap from Koreana Plaza. MHC was not only willing to let us do this, but they helped us with the plating, serving, and clearing.
3) We wanted to stock the bar with our own alcohol - this was not an issue for MHC. They were also able to make a champagne punch for us from ingredients and a recipe that we provided.
Another giant plus - once I had given up on the idea of modern Vietnamese cuisine, I decided I really wanted Acme bread at the wedding - this was actually how I came to consider MHC in the first place, as they have the largest selection of Acme bread I've seen outside of Acme itself. We were able to specify which types we wanted.
Things I loved about them:
1) The extensive cookbook collection in their meeting room - a lot of the catering menus I looked at were mind-numbingly similar - MHC's menu is extensive (email them for the whole thing, the samples online barely scratch the surface) and while they can do food from a lot of different cultural traditions, Cal-Mediterranean is pretty dominant, and they offer a lot of dishes I didn't see on other catering menus. We ended up serving a baby green salad with Asian pears, dried cranberries and candied walnuts, the above mentioned braised chicken dish, tri-tip marinated in pomegranate molasses with rosemary reduction sauce, cannelloni filled with balsamic butternut squash and spinach, truffled potato and porcini gratin (tasted more of good dried procini than of fake truffle oil).
2) Their cake selection. We actually ended up having friends do the buffet table, but every cake we tasted was really good - they don't do standard large cakes, they'll just stack a small, medium and large cake on top of each other, and provide sheet cakes for the rest - I don't particularly care for wedding cake, so this would have worked for me.
3) They itemize everything, so that food costs are separate from service, linens, china, etc. With a fixed cost on service and rentals, it made it much less stressful to manage the last minute cancellations and additions, as only the food costs had to be altered. Their literature states the average cost usually runs between $30-70 pp if you get full service with linens, but if you wanted to go super-budget, you could just order the food (which is *very* reasonably priced), pick it up yourself, and serve it on your own dishware,
4) Great vegan items. They have an extensive, separate vegetarian/vegan menu - I got a taste of the peppers with quinoa, the cauliflower with capers, and the smoky roast blue lake beans with shallots - everything was really, really good.
5) The food at the wedding tasted better than at the tasting. Not sure how this is possible. This was especially true of the cannelloni.
6) Service was outstanding - these are not college kids cater watering on weekends for extra cash. Servers and bartenders were warm, friendly, professional, and efficient. And our coordinator, Matthew, was super-organized and helpful through the entire process.
So - yeah, we were really happy with them. I wonder if they don't get mentioned much in the catering discussions because they do so many different types of catering jobs people don't consider them as much for weddings, but they did a really great job.
Seattle (and Bothell/Woodinville) Trip Report - long
I'm usually an obsessive planner - research for my annual trips to New York usually starts 3 months in advance, and involves a meal matrix (days X meals) as well as lists of restaurants by neighborhood. For our honeymoon, however, my husband and I were burned out from planning a wedding in four months and showed up with little more than plane tickets and hotel reservations we made the night before our flight.
We took the light rail in from the airport, got out too early, and walked to our hotel (the Inn at El Gaucho). Along the way, we passed Local 360, and something about it drew me in. I think they were advertising some sort of interesting alcohol on a chalkboard, and the warm, reclaimed wood and industrial fittings decor resonated. My instinct was spot on - it's a place I'd probably go to every week if it were in my neighborhood. We ended up eating there three times in three days.
First of all - their Dine Around menu. I generally avoid Dine Around/About - my experiences in the Bay Area and New York have generally yielded dumbed down menus featuring mostly chicken and salmon. Local 360's $30 Dine Around menu featured fried pig ears and all sorts of rabbit. The pig ears were thinly sliced, fried, and dressed in a lemony blue cheese sauce. The texture was perfect - crisp and chewy without the toughness that can mar lesser fried pig ears. We also ordered a rabbit crepinette with red flannel hash and a bacon wrapped rabbit loin (both perfectly executed but with some redundancy in the flavor profile, dominated by cherry and rabbit jus), shepherd's pie (good but not as memorable as their other dishes), and apple fritters with maple ice cream studded with bacon brittle (very good).
On the way out we took a peek at their brunch menu and spotted chicken fried steak, my husband's favorite food ("The problem with fried chicken", he says, "is that there's no beef."). 14 hours later, we were back, to order that chicken fried steak (possibly the best I've ever had - perfect craggy crust, and good quality steak. My husband wasn't crazy about the gravy, which committed the grave(y) sin of not having sausage bits, but I quite liked its mushroomy intensity). I also had a chicken soup with mushroom dumplings, which was just ok.
We really liked the concept of the local liquor flights - each was presented attractively on a sheet describing its provenance and characteristics, and paired with mixers and ice. We tried the whiskey and gin flights - while none of the whiskeys really impressed, we actually found our way to two of the distilleries (Woodinville and Mischief). The gins were really fun - I especially liked the lemongrass-y Cricket Club, by Indio Spirits.
We then made the obligatory Pike Place visit, where we had a mushroom and onion piroshky from Piroshky Piroshky (fine), mac and cheese from Beecher's (good, and the cheese-making theater aspect makes it even better), fried cod, halibut and salmon from Jack's Fish Spot (cod and halibut were great, salmon generally doesn't take well to frying, fries were forgettable), a chowder sampler from Pike Place Chowder (Seafood Bisque was my favorite, with fisherman's chowder second; DH liked the smoked salmon, and neither of us were impressed with the New England).
Dinner was at Serious Pie, where we enjoyed the frisee with egg and the clam pizzas, as well as the Elliot Bay Brewing 3.14 ale.
The next day was a travel day - we drove up to Vancouver, and along the way, we did what DH dubbed "The Triple" - a winery, a brewery, and a distillery in one day.
First up was Mischief, a recommendation from our waitress at Local 360 - the tasting room is super-cute, and the gin is terrific. We then stopped by Theo Chocolates next door - this may be the only place I've ever been that offered so many samples I actually couldn't try them all. We bought a lot of stuff here, but my favorites were the Ghost Chile chocolate bar (the burn is slow and potent, but the chile is also exceptionally flavorful) and the Bread and Chocolate bar (chocolate studded with buttered bread crumbs). We went back to our car to find the single most maddening parking ticket ever (no parking within 30 feet of a stop sign? And no red curb? WTF?)
We then stopped by Red Hook Brewery for their fun, inexpensive ($1 pp) tour with generous tastings, and Château St Michelle (they're pretty broadly distributed in the Bay Area, so it was fun to be able to try a bunch of their wines at once).
On our way back from Vancouver, we stayed overnight in Bothell (DH did some research one rainy afternoon in Vancouver and found something on the Bothell Wine Walk ($25 pp for 10 tastes)- we had briefly considered going out to Yakima to taste, then dismissed it, so we were happy to find a way to do some wine tasting without too much driving). It was located in the shopping center on Bothell's main street and 15 wineries were represented (most offered 2 types of wine to taste), each hosted by one of the local shops. Most of the wineries are located in the warehouse district in Woodinville and are run by young winemakers. My favorite was Open Road Wine Company, run by a young couple with an adorable baby. They had a really delicious non-oaked, non-secondary malolactic fermented chardonnay blended with a bit of viognier that took off the astringency that type of chard often has.
On our last day, we made our way to Woodinville. My husband had read up on Pacific Distillery, which operates out of a garage and makes gin and absinthe - per Washington State's liquor laws, they cannot offer tastings or sell from the distillery itself, but we wanted to see it. We found it tucked amongst a thousand other identical looking spaces in the warehouse district and gingerly knocked on the metal sliding garage door - up came the door, and we were enveloped by the most intoxicating perfume of absinthe. It was bottling day, and the whole family was involved. The owner/distiller/father greeted us and apologized that he wouldn't be able to spend as much time with us as he normally would (we were just grateful to be able to see the operations - the website suggests emailing in advance before visiting). As we chatted, he gracefully multitasked, wielding a heat gun to shrink wrap the foil caps on each bottle while gently admonishing his daughter not to push the corks in quite so far. With the bizarre transition in liquor laws in Washington now, he wasn't able to tell us where we might be able to by his product in Washington, but one of the well known wine shops in the Bay Area does carry it, so we at least have an outlet near home (their Voyager gin is pretty popular with some of the better cocktail places at home).
Next up - Woodinville Whiskey. We loved the vodka made from soft winter wheat - it was lush and smooth, and only the second vodka I've ever tasted that i like enough to drink straight (the first is from Hangar One, a few miles from my house). The whiskeys were good, and my husband couldn't resist the age your own kit, so we came back with three bottles of their unaged White Dog and a mini-cask.
While we were in the parking lot trying to decide where to go next, a lovely, slightly tipsy woman knocked on my window, commented on our California license plate (a total coincidence, as it was a rental car we picked up in Seattle), bonded with my husband over their respective freshman dorms at UC Berkeley, and directed us to JM Winery, where we spent the rest of our afternoon. Their red blends are terrific - they don't hew strictly to either Bordeaux or Rhone profiles, and manage to have big, lush fruit without high alcohol.
Before returning to the airport, we paid one more visit to Local 360 for another round of pig ears and chicken fried steak, then hit up Via Tribunali in Fremont for their exceptional happy hour deal - small, $5 pizzas (margherita, marinara, salame), perfectly executed. I'd read that their style was pretty purely Neapolitan, with the softer, wetter center, but maybe because of the smaller diameter, ours were crisp throughout (while still having desirable flexibility).
In retrospect, it was pretty amazing that we had zero misses on a trip with minimal pre-planning. We owed a lot to the friendliness and generosity of locals, and a little to serendipity. We had a blast, and apparently it poured in the Bay Area the entire time we were there, so we didn't even lose out on weather!
New to SF. Perfect tasting menu at 5star place for 30th bday?
Wish I had the funds to properly answer your question :) With only two visits under my belt, I'm also extrapolating from reviews and other people's reports. Look forward to adding more firsthand data in the future!
New to SF. Perfect tasting menu at 5star place for 30th bday?
If you take Farallon or Jardiniere as the reference points, I definitely agree with you. I was thinking more about the pine essence and licorice flavors she seemed to favor early on, and were not at all present this time around. I saw a much stronger shift toward Japanese technique and flavors this time, in a way that felt really cohesive.
New to SF. Perfect tasting menu at 5star place for 30th bday?
It took us 4.5 hours, but we had an additional cheese course before dessert (the selection is limited - only 5 cheeses - but I hear they were all very good. I was too full to eat anything at that point). We thought the pacing was brisk, but we were also only one of three tables. Seriously, a restaurant this good should never be this empty, not even on a Tuesday night.
I feel very, very confident both you and Porthos would love this place.
New to SF. Perfect tasting menu at 5star place for 30th bday?
You should have heard my partner's wails of distress when I told him we were going to a restaurant featuring foams, meringues, and almost no meat. He looked skeptical all through the amuses, was entertained by the kir breton, impressed by the prawns in hay, and smitten by the time we got to the oysters.
A couple of people downthread mentioned that AC's flavors can sometimes be challenging or odd - I've only been twice, but based on my two experiences, plus reviews from early on, I think she's moved away from some of the more envelope-pushing combos and can probably be considered accessible to most palates at this point (without being boring or cliched).
New to SF. Perfect tasting menu at 5star place for 30th bday?
The 18-course tasting menu I had at Atelier Crenn last night was easily the best high-end meal I've had in the Bay Area (I have not been to Saison or Manresa, but rank it over Coi, Quince, Benu, Ame, Gary Danko, and even French Laundry). She uses some molecular gastro techniques, esp foam, gels, liquid nitro, but ultimately what I remember last night was the pristine, glimmering seafood (the menu leans heavily seafood, with courses featuring prawns, oysters, mackerel, razor clam, and dungeness crab - the two "meat" courses were foie gras and squab). The quality of the seafood rivaled that of some of the best sushi I've had. I'll go out on a limb and rank Atelier Crenn over Le Bernardin, too. I've only been to Morimoto's Napa location, but AC was leagues better. There's quite a bit of Japanese influence in Crenn's work, and it's incorporated seamlessly.
The food is fancy, but the room is not - no tablecloths, even.
Pastries for the Lunar New Year at Masse's (Berkeley)
Great!
It was actually my first time there - Masse's comes up in all of the chocolate cake threads, but I'd never been there because of my aversion to Gourmet Ghetto traffic and parking. I will definitely go back for all my future special occasion cakes. I thought that for the quality of the cakes, and the amount of work that clearly went into them (I'd also purchased a coconut layer cake with chocolate glaze that had adorable little dark and white chocolate coconuts on top), the prices are really reasonable (mid-30's for a 9" cake)
You didn't by any chance find out how long they're going to have the lunar new year specials, did you? I didn't, so can't help out rworange upthread...
CSA recommendations for 2012?
That's funny - the produce I got from FFTY looked like conventionally grown produce I could have bought at Safeway. It was so clean it could have been grown hydroponically. The apples were waxed, the pears were super green and underripe, and the overall selection was really disappointing. I cancelled after one box and am going back to the Mariquita Mystery Box.
Please help us get excited about SF again! (a little long)
The two best SF meals I had in the last year were at Cotogna and Atelier Crenn, but the thing that makes me fall in love with the Bay Area every time I get it is the Mariquita Mystery Box. They only recently started delivery to the East Bay, so I don't even know what it's like during peak season, but even in the dead of winter the produce is stunningly beautiful and delicious.
Pastries for the Lunar New Year at Masse's (Berkeley)
I went up to Masse's to find a chocolate cake for a family member's birthday and was blown away by the gorgeous pastries they made for the Lunar New Year - yuzu eclairs with pale green icing and pale pink cherry blossoms, orange chiffon rolls decorated to look like firecrackers, macarons in lychee rose, yuzu, pandan coconut, mango, and green tea flavors, green tea financiers, green tea opera cake, mango miroir torte, and more.
I of course left my phone in the car and couldn't get a picture of the full array, but I did take a pic of the yuzu eclair and mini firecracker when I got home. The eclair, which had both yuzu cream and icing, was very good. The firecracker had more mousse than cake for my taste, but the presentation was exceptional.
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Masse's Pastries
1469 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA 94709
Grand Lake (Oakland): What to Eat and Where?
I know for a fact that pane's done firsthand "research" at Camino, Sidebar, Grand Tavern, and Boot and Shoe Service, but if would probably not look good if the entire Chow Digest was just her quoting herself.
The Lanesplitter can be good, depending on who's making the pizza (there's a heavily tattooed guy with black hair who's really good at it, but I haven't seen him in a while).
Do farmer's market eats count? With Starter Bakery, Scream, Phoenix Pastificio, Barlovento and Oktoberfeast all having stalls on Saturday, you have a compact collection of excellent East Bay vendors.
Haven: Stick-to-your-ribs fare (and the tiniest bread oven in the world)
I like this place a lot, and will definitely come back. The bone marrow was one of the better ones I've had - the top had developed a really nice, toasty crust, so there was a great textural contrast with the luxuriously fatty core. It was served with three or four little croutons of the soft, addictive rolls, which disappeared in a second - the three of us scooped out the rest of it with spoons and ate it straight, with no carbohydrate intermediary. Then we waited for another order of rolls to come out so we could soak up the remaining pools of fat.
A note on the brussel sprouts - the lime note was unusually bright, much more so than I would have expected from lime juice alone. We think they used dehydrated lime powder - I remember having chicharrones flavored with lime at Plum Bar that tasted very similar. We didn't ask, though - while a lot of the servers I've had at Plum Bar seemed like food-nerd types who knew everything about every dish and welcomed questions about them, I didn't get that vibe off the Haven waitstaff. They were professional and efficient, and very busy, so it didn't seem right to bombard them with questions about how things were made.
The fried fingerlings, which had an odd seaweed topping, didn't quite work for me - the textures and flavors seemed to negate, rather than enhance each other.
Timing between courses seemed a little long, but aside from that, there were no major service mishaps.
Lard crusts at Safeway
Anti-trans fat hysteria has finally swung the pastry pendulum back into the pro-flavor camp - the box of these Safeway-branded, refrigerated crusts proudly proclaim "0% trans fat!" Their secret? Lard!
The crusts come rolled up and are easy to handle. They're less flaky than a good butter crust (or, for that matter, the Trader Joe ones I use when I'm short on time), but they're tender and flavorful. I used them in tarte tatins today and was pleased by how well they kept their structure, compared to my usual 80-20 butter-shortening homemade crust. These were purchased at the Alameda South Shore Safeway, don't know how the availability is throughout the Bay Area.
OCT 2011 Trip Report (long, but not as long as usual)
Opted for no sushi this time, but Kajitsu gave me the same blissed-out buzz Yasuda did. Didn't have a chance to meet up with my usual sushi buddy on this trip, but he says he found a new awesome place and won't tell me anything else about it.
Oh, I still think Minetta > PL for steak (and for the burger, too), but with my meat consumption dropping, I don't know if it's worth it for me to go back. You should definitely go though - I think the wine list alone will make you a convert.
OCT 2011 Trip Report (long, but not as long as usual)
I wanted to try the chocolate dessert but was already overstuffed - is it usually on the menu? Hope I get another chance to try it!
OCT 2011 Trip Report (long, but not as long as usual)
I actually went to Txikito last year thanks to your rec and loved it - it's on my "happy to go back" list. I'm not familiar with Tertulia but the menu looks great - going to the top of my list for my next trip.
When did Tien Ho leave Ma Peche? I am so behind.
When I asked about the R&D bagel, the guy who fixed my sandwich said they came from "a small bakery in in Brooklyn", and I didn't press for details. Did R&D always have babka and rugelach for sale? I wondered whether those came from the same bakery (they were both good).
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Txikito
240 9th Ave, New York, NY 10001
Tertulia
359 6th Ave, New York, NY 10011
OCT 2011 Trip Report (long, but not as long as usual)
Thanks - have a great trip! Which places are you considering so far?
OCT 2011 Trip Report (long, but not as long as usual)
I didn’t have a chance to do any real research for the few months leading up to this year's trip – luckily, I had so many leftover recs from last year I was able to go off those. In the past, I landed in NYC with a full slate of reservations - this time, I only made a few, and opted for last-minute reservations and walk-ins for the remaining meals.
Winner of the Week: Kajitsu’s Maitsutake tasting menu. Bless you, Chow Digest editor, for featuring this one in the Digest the week before my trip. I didn’t get a chance to read the whole thing, but the title stuck in my head. When I checked OpenTable for next day, Friday night reservations, Kajitsu was open, and to my surprise, the maitsutake tasting was not yet sold out. The entire meal was gorgeous, subtle and delicious. I will be returning every NYC visit from now on.
Will be happy to return: Maialino, Bar Room at the Modern, Ma Peche, Red Rooster, Mile End, Momofuku Milk Bar
Maialino – the pork products in their bombolloti all’amatriciana and spaghetti carbonara are insane. Loved these spot-on renditions of Roman classics and will definitely be returning.
Bar Room at the Modern – terrific, beautifully executed, luxurious dishes (I had the slow-cooked egg with lobster and uni foam, and the buckwheat spaetzle with foie gras), stellar service. Not cheap, but a great value (see my comparison with Casa Mono below).
Ma Peche – I’d actually stayed away from Ma Peche for the first few years because the lunch menu never really appealed to me, but a glance at the dinner menu showed some of my favorite classics from M. Ssam Bar. I don’t think there were any misses at this dinner – I especially loved the scallop, with its oddly brilliant pairing with coffee and dehydrated brown butter nuggets, and the striped bass, with its umami-bomb accompaniments of mushroom, marrow and miso, For dessert, we ate an entire wheel of Jasper Hill Farm Harbison.
Red Rooster – out of every restaurant I’ve ever been to in NYC, Red Rooster’s vibe is the closest to that of my adopted home of Oakland. I loved the ultra-diverse crowd, the excellent jazz, the potent yet balanced cocktails, and the food – the meatballs and fried yard-bird are justly lauded, but the sweet potato donuts seemed less inspired.
Mile End – good lord the poutine is good. The fries are outstanding – super-flavorful, perfectly crisp on the outside, tender on the inside – and manage to hold up under the gravy and cheese beautifully. I also loved the smoked chicken. I liked the pastrami but found it a bit stringier than ideal – ladylike bites proved an impossibility, as every attempt ended up in a giant mouthful of pastrami that would not separate as easily as I’d hoped.
Momofuku Milk Bar – I wasn’t crazy about the rye croissant with pastrami and hated the dulce de leche cake balls, but I loved the intense butterscotch of the cornflake-marshmallow cookie, and the play of textures and flavors in the candy bar pie.
Glad I went, most likely will not return: Annisa, Minetta Tavern, Clinton Street Baking Co., Roasting Plant
Annisa was good – I’m glad I finally got to try the foie gras soup dumplings – but ultimately, I couldn’t remember what I ate the next day. There were no misses, but no big standouts either, and on a trip with this many good meals, it ended up ranking in the bottom half.
Minetta Tavern – I’ve been dreaming about the Blue Label Burger since last year and opted to walk-in for brunch at the bar. I also finally got to order the Balthazar Bakery panier (been wanting to do this for years but the lines at Balthazar are always too big of a deterrent) – luckily, I had a friend with me who was game for ordering the duck hash and the shirred eggs as well. The burger texture was as I’d remembered – incredibly juicy – but the flavor was less intense than I’d hoped. The other items were fine but not amazing – I don’t think I will be returning.
Clinton Street Baking Co. – the blueberry pancakes are really good, probably some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had, but I guess I just don’t love pancakes enough to stand on line. I’m sure the freezing cold rain that day played a part in perception of time-value, though.
Roasting Plant – I went for the chocolate chip cookie but also tried out their coffee – the cookie was good, but not better than a cookie made at home with properly aged dough, and the coffee was weak.
Would go back if in the neighborhood: Café Boulud – I had scheduled an appointment nearby and decided to schedule a late lunch here afterwards – I’d been here years ago, before Kaysen, and have read such stellar reports of it here that I thought it would be a great opportunity to retry it. It was very good – loved the arancini to start and the madelines to end, was thoroughly impressed by the scallop crudo, and enjoyed the rustic flavor/refined texture and presentation of the mushroom veloute with toasted barley.
Will not return: Casa Mono, Mud Truck
I’ve been to Casa Mono several times in the past, but I think my last visit was two, maybe three years ago. Have the prices gone up significantly? I know that it was never cheap, but I was a little stunned that my two small plates and a quartino of txakolina came out to $56 pre-tip. I did think the txakolina was overpriced, and I was a little annoyed that there were no options for wines by the glass – it was lunchtime, and all I wanted was a glass. The food was very good – no complaints there. I had monkfish pinxtos and the fideos, and thought the execution on both was impeccable. Service, while not rude, was disinterested at best. I did appreciate being offered a table rather than the bar (I find their bar seats the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been on), despite their general policy not to seat solo diners at tables. It was 3 pm and there were virtually no other diners at time, hence the special exception.
In comparison, for about $15 more, my lunch the next day at the Bar Room featured generous amounts of lobster, foie gras, a much better (but admittedly smaller amount of) wine, gracious professional service, comfortable chairs with armrests, and roughly 10X the personal space of Casa Mono. While the food at CM was good, the overall value was not there compared to the Bar Room (or Café Boulud, for that matter).
Mud Truck – the line was short and I needed caffeine, so I gave it a shot – unfortunately, the espresso was super acidic and bitter without being particularly aromatic.
Staying on my To-Return list: Russ and Daughters, Tarallucci e Vino
R&D corrected the one major problem I had with them - their bagels. Apparently they switched bakeries last week - the new bagel is smaller, shinier, denser, and chewier. It is actually dense enough that a fair amount of filling of my Super Heebster tried to escape through the sides, but it was a fair tradeoff. I also picked up some smoked sable, whitefish and salmon salad, a chocolate babka, and some chocolate-orange rugelach to take home.
Tarallucci e Vino - the almond cornetti are as good as ever, but I have to say I think the cappuccinos have gotten weaker and milkier over the last few years. Nonetheless, the East Village location is an old favorite of mine - I love the cozy booths in the back. I did try to get an espresso at Abraco (definitely my favorite in NYC) but they were apparently having problems with their machine, so back to Tarallucci I went.
Overall, a very high hit rate - thanks to all the Manhattan regulars, as well as visitors posting trip reports, for making my research so easy.
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Roasting Plant
81 Orchard St, New York, NY 10002
Cafe Boulud
20 East 76th St., New York, NY 10021
Casa Mono
52 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003
Minetta Tavern
113 MacDougal St, New York, NY 10012
The Modern
9 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019
Tarallucci e Vino
163 1st Ave, New York, NY 10003
Annisa
13 Barrow Street, New York, NY 10014
Kajitsu
414 East 9th Street, New York, NY 10009
MudTruck
4th Ave and E 8th St, New York, NY 10003
Clinton Street Baking Co.
4 Clinton St, New York, NY 10002
Maialino
2 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Ma Peche
15 W 56th St, New York, NY 10019
Momofuku Milk Bar
15 W 56th St, New York, NY 10019
Red Rooster
310 Lenox Ave, New York, NY 10027
King Wah (oaktown) closed?
Oh no - really?
I'd never been to the old King Wah, but under the most recent chefs (reportedly previously from Peony?) their lunch plates were actually really good - I kept meaning to write them up but have been crazy busy these last few months. They've been on my weekly lunch rotation but I've been away for the past week, so this is the first I've heard. They were never really busy when I went... that's too bad.
Cooking from my CSA (Oct 2011)
Thanks to a tip from JasmineG, I've joined the cult of the Mariquita Mystery Box, and I have to say, it's seriously reinvigorated my cooking.
The box for 10/5/11 (Oakland pickup @ Camino):
Romanesco cauliflower
Yellow cauliflower
Red peppers
Fresh chile de arbol
Chile peppers
Celery
Gala apples
Potatoes
Basil
Tomatoes (mixed heirloom, New Girl)
Cilantro
Day 1:
Romanesco cauliflower with chili, fish sauce, basil, garlic - this was a riff off a Momofuku recipe - I sauteed the cauliflower instead of frying it, and used basil instead of mint because I didn't want to buy any additional herbs beyond what I had. It was ok, but this dish definitely works better with mint.
Day 2:
Beef and cauliflower tagine - this was a new recipe for me - Eat Your Books helped me find this Paula Wolfert gem (from Couscous and Other Good Food), which also used chilis and cilantro. The beef is flavored with onions (I used shallots), cilantro, paprika, cumin, ginger, and cayenne (I added a chopped fresh chile). The cauliflower is parboiled and added at the and put in the oven for an additional 15-30 minutes. I was amazed at how much flavor the cauliflower picked up in that short time, and it absorbed the stew juices beautifully, like an Atkins friendly mashed potato substitute.
Salad caprese - obvious, and perfect.
Apple galette (I had a scrap of leftover Trader Joe pastry, rolled it out, thinly sliced 2 of the little apples, fanned them out, sprinkled a tablespoon of turbinado sugar, and baked at 450 until pastry was brown)
Day 4:
Gnocchi with pesto - I had already committed to making gnocchi when I peeled the skins of my boiled potates (which looked like small russets) and discovered yellow, slightly waxy flesh. They made for slightly gummier gnocchi than usual - I think they would have been perfect for rosti.
Roast red peppers - these were used in 1) frittata (with parmesan and basil) and 2) romesco - garlic, chili, almonds, tomato, olive oil - I used it as a dip with blanched celery - am planning to use the rest with manchego for crostini). I didn't think about the combination of red peppers and potatoes, but just realized I could have done the Yukon Gold + romesco combo from Suzanne Goin's Sunday Suppers at Lucques (I really love Goin's romesco but it takes more time and effort than my version.)
The celery is probably the biggest challenge at this point - it was an enormous head, and I usually only use celery in mirepoix. I'd love to know what other people decided to use with theirs.
Kitchen 388 (Oakland, Grand Lake area) - Four Barrel coffee and excellent homemade pop tarts
I think I asked for the Ethiopian coffee, and they did the pour-over (which I actually hadn't expected). Sorry you got stuck with thermos coffee!
Top 5 Dishes at Koi Palace?
They're all listed on the check-off menu - I literally just read through the whole thing and order everything that sounds new.
Pizza Pilgrimage to Bay Area
Have you had a chance to try it right out of the oven yet? I think Lanesplitter's thicker crust and copious toppings hold up better when reheated, but out of the oven, there's no comparison for me. I have a Lanesplitter's within 1 minute walking distance of my house and I pretty much stopped going there after Emilia's opened, 15 minutes away (by car).
Pizza Pilgrimage to Bay Area
I usually call between 5 and 6 and order a pizza to eat-in around 8 - I only go during the week, but I've never had to settle for a pizza later than 8:15. The pizza's really good even as take out, but eaten there, it's magic. Lately, my go-to has been sausage with Calabrian chili.
Cowgirl Creamery Drake cheese sighting
They had it at the Cowgirl Creamery stand at the Oakland Grand Lake Farmer's Market on Saturday, about $16/ round (I guess there was more variance in size in this batch - they varied by a dollar or two, depending on weight). Found it had a slight, almost blue cheese tang. Interesting cheese, though I think I like a properly ripened Red Hawk more.
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Cowgirl Creamery - Petaluma Facility
105 H St, Petaluma, CA 94952
Greens or ???
Atelier Crenn has incredible veg dishes - it will probably be too late for you to do a whole tasting menu, but they do have a veg tasting menu available. Last seating is at 9:45.
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Atelier Crenn
3127 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA 94123
