Archive for December, 2006

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A Foodie Forages in Grand Central

December 7, 2006

1) Oren’s Daily Roast (breakfast): Get the peanut butter raspberry jelly doughnut and an espresso, or the coconut cream doughnut. Both are from Doughnut Plant and both constitute a full and fully satisfying breakfast.

2) Grand Central Market (lunch): Murray’s for stinky cheese and membrillo. Greenwich Produce for fruit selection. Koglin German Hams stand for exceptional smoky schinkel and more exotic animal parts. Finally Corrado Bakery at far end for baguette and a pastry. Take your picnic downstairs or over to Bryant Park.

3) Michael Jordan’s (snack): Order your own Mac&Cheese and a beer. Service is primitive and desserts are weak, but views and Mac are spectacular, especially around Christmas.

4) Metrazur (dessert): Finish up with a well-mixed drink and another lovely vista. Look at the Metro North boards and think about heading to Blue Hill Stone Barns for dinner.

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Secrets of the Beard House: How to get maximum joy from the World’s Premier Food Performance Space

December 6, 2006

A FEW MODEST SUGGESTIONS:

1) Skip the Greens: Greens events for younger members will leave you underfed and overliquored: you’ll feel green afterwards. However, a great place to hook up with a foodie.

2) Arrive at Beard House events at the start: Get there early and position yourself close to the garden entrance for passed apps. Often chefs take more risks with the apps and reveal a little more of themselves. Alternatively, particularly if you’re shy and alone, call and ask them to hold a plate of selections for your dinner table.

3) Hotel restaurant nights are super luxurious: Hotels spend more on wine and expensive ingredients and often give party favors.

4) Friday and Saturday aren’t usually the best: Chefs don’t want to be away these nights, so you’ll rarely get top restaurants on these nights.

5) No in-town: They’re often sub-par when competing with themselves, unless the chef is gunning for a Beard Award or trying to restore a tarnished reputation. Beware of the phone-in from a chef with a recent 3-star Times review–Cru was a disaster.

6) Beware of overreaching restaurants: Check the proposed menu against the restaurant’s menu. Too big a discrepancy in scope and scale often indicates an overreaching restaurant trying to do something inconsistent with its vision.  Humble, regional places should stick to what got them the invitation.

7) Lesser known can be most interesting: I never would have discovered the Chicago Mafia (Bowles, Cantu, etc.) if I’d stuck to big names.

8. Sit with strangers: Unless you’re with a large group, you’ll be seated with some strangers. This turns out to be a central pleasure of the house. People rarely talk about themselves, the market or their second homes. Instead, they focus on fun and food, two topics worth celebrating over the usual 5-7 glasses of top-shelf wine.

9) Go solo instead of staying home: Go by yourself and don’t feel like a putz.  If you’re shy, the cocktail hour can be excruciating, so get there closer to meal-time.

10) Embrace the wackos: A few people treat this place like an eating club, and among them are some truly original characters. If you sit with one, take it in stride.

11) Chefs want to be loved: Ask chefs questions on the way out when they’re happy and unstressed, and if you don’t have a question, say thanks. Q & A session is useless, unfortunately. More of a thank-you speech.

12) Don’t get greedy: Waiters are not there for special requests (like a second glass of the really expensive dessert wine). You’re getting plenty.

13) Stand by the pig: If you’re waiting for friends, walk over to the pig sculpture in the garden; it’s quiet, the view is great and you won’t be asked by investment bank associates if you’re here with UBS, twice.

Posted in The Village | 4 Comments »

Fave 5 Happy Endings: Digestifs and Deliciousness

December 6, 2006

When more and more intense alcohol seems like a good idea:

1) Marc (Daniel): Hard to find Marc at all, especially this good and well-priced. Great light for lingering in the afterglow. Gracious service may help nudge you over the abyss, i.e. a second. See M.F.K. Fisher on what happens if you order the third!

2) High-end Grappa (Alto): Best 25 dollars I’ve spent on liquor. The oak-aged grappa was profound and complex and memorable and worth sharing. I’d take the oaked grappa over añejo or aged rum any day.

3) House-made hooch grappa (Otto): Fun flavors, relatively cheap and served with Señor Frog’s Cancún flair. This is a digestivo that doesn’t take itself seriously.

4) Blue Smoke Bourbon (Blue Smoke): Helps settle the barbecue, but beware when you settle the tab–it’ll set you back 25 bucks or so.

5) Deli-coffee and Gramercy Tavern thank-you muffin at 3AM: Best way to fight off the cold-sweats after polishing off the seven-course menu with cheese supplement. A seltzer chaser helps as well.

Posted in Favorite 5 Lists | 1 Comment »

Scholar-Chefs

December 6, 2006

Top Pedigree: Ivy League chefs

Harvard: Jeremiah Tower of Chez Panisse and Stars empire

Princeton: Patricia Yeo of Sapa; Kate Zuckerman of Chanterelle

Yale: Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger; Dave Lieberman of Food Network

Top talkers: Most erudite and articulate men of letters

Mario Batali (Rutgers): First of all, the best food educator out there. Clarity, concision and lack of condescension larded with Waverly Root-like regional specificity. He also has Calderon, Lope and Tirso de Molina in his back pocket from his college days.

Anthony Bourdain (Vassar/CIA): Voracious culture vulture. Quick Dennis Miller-esque references and also throws in some French poets.

Jeffrey Steingarten (Harvard): The William F. Buckley of food media, but a hapless amateur chef.

Top Gastro-geeks: Most gloriously nerdy use of technology to enhance taste and texture of food.

Homaru Cantu; Grant Achatz; Graham Bowles (Willy Wonkas of the Windy City)

Wylie Dufresne (LES pioneer)

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Cocina sin autor: Rock Star Chefs With Writer’s Block

December 6, 2006

Should Rock Star Chefs Do Oldies Shows?

What happens when rock star chefs lose their creative mojo? What happens when people defined and elevated by inventiveness can’t and don’t write great new songs (rock stars) or create great new dishes (rock star chefs)? In Spain they call chef-specific food, cocina de autor, author’s cuisine. In this country we call rock written by a single band, rock and roll, i.e., musica de autor; anything else is bubble gum. In short, rock-star chefs have been and must be autores, authors of their own work.

So what happens when chefs’ new work can’t surpass or even meet the standards of their signature creations, when writer’s block sets in? Batali’s mint love letters, Ming Tsai’s Miso-Sake cod, Gray Kunz’s braised short ribs, Bouley’s Welcome to Chiang Mai, Louiseau’s frog lollipops? Jean-George’s checkerboards? They were amazingly inventive dishes and are musty museum pieces. When Mid-market Muzak versions flood B-towns, or worse, Top Chef, it’s time to move on.

It’s time for something new, or at least an exciting variation (Balanchine always said there are no new steps, only new combinations). The Beatles did it with every album, Dylan with every decade. Zeppelin managed to do so right up to when they lost their beat-keeper, and then they went silent rather than blow their legacy. U2 added world philanthropy to rock and roll, but still lard their albums with catchy hooks.

What about the rock star chefs? Batali seems to launch new restaurant concepts rather than create new dishes, Jean-Georges the same. Ducasse now makes pretty picture books. Gray Kunz lets us in on the action, and it’s beautiful, but I want something fresh.

And if the muse were to return? Who would get Batali’s newest offering? Del Posto, Babbo, Esca, NASCAR? Whom would Jean-Georges bless? Vong, Spice Market, Mercer Kitchen or his eponymous 4-star? Would Bouley give his best to Danube, his flagship or his Miami operation?

And if nothing comes? Should the chefs take refuge in the past, executing cover band versions of their own work? Should they reject mediocrity, retreat, regroup and reinvent themselves? Dylan’s had an amazing renaissance doing just that.  Adrià tears it down before we can. It’s a mad dare and yet he pulls it off year in and year out.

Perhaps a third route should be considered, the fashion house model. De la Renta, Balenciaga, Cardin and Blass let young turks pitch ideas tuned to their vision then placed the best under their imprimatur. Ducasse-like, Bouley-like, Batali-like dishes,etc.  could roll down the lines and through the passes for years, authorized, approved slightly disguised mutual plagiarism: Star chefs borrow from their disciples who borrow from the chefs’ older works. This may make great couture, but it sure isn’t rock and roll.

Jagger said he’d rather be dead than singing “Satisfaction” at 50. He passed that milestone ten years ago. So will Mario still be doing beef cheeks in 2010?

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5 West Side Values For Mid-day Indulgence

December 3, 2006

1) Nougatine Room at Jean-Georges. Literally as close as you can get to 4-star food for this kind of money. Waiter service is hotel quality, with good intentions partially compensating for language difficulties, but food is well-prepared, the open kitchen theater is excellent (though no Café Gray) for those who enjoy such action.

2) Telepan: Taking a page from Compass on value, Bill Telepan has given West Siders, and discerning destination diners, a reason to skip dinner and splurge at lunch…and then return with the extra cash for dinner.

3) Compass: Upper West Side’s best claim to ambitious value, especially brunch. Brilliant use of fixed components–bread and pastry basket, starter selection plate and dessert sampler plate–keeps costs down while offering sensation and reality of luxuriant abundance. Weekend mid-day service not as soulful and informative as one might wish, a bit busboy-like, but such is Sunday on the West Side.

A short subway ride away

4) and 5) Double down on The Modern’s and Alto‘s prix-fixes: Feel virtuous on the low-cost subway then settle in for the ultimate Lucullan lunch–take in Midtown’s two new classics’ prix-fixes back to back. Such a feat requires discipline, but you’ll waddle forth fatter and happier than anyone else in Midtown.  As a bonus, if you finish with the Modern, you can take in some half-decent art afterwards .  Ask yourself if the renovations were worth it, that is, from a non-foodie perspective.

Posted in Favorite 5 Lists, Food, West Side | Leave a Comment »

Top 5 Foodie Destinations of Yorkville (Sadly, there are only 3)

December 3, 2006

1) Glaser’s: Butter and sugar generously but judiciously applied as God, if he were a German hausfrau, would intend it. Black and White cookies of exceptional quality. Fun to watch the white part change colors with the seasons (Halloween orange, St. Patrick’s Day green, etc.) Best item is the lace cookie (dark chocolate or white plus an assortment of heart cloggers to make up the crunch skeleton). This seasonal item travels well in the winter months and works great for a last minute gift to bring to a dinner party.

Poppy seed horseshoes are another favorite.

N.B. This is not a Viennese pastry shop. Aesthetics are definitely secondary to rich, homey taste. The proprietors own the building and do things their way in their own time, with great results. Best place to buy a pie if you want to pretend you made it at home. People will believe you until the third bite when genius settles in on the tongue.

2) Schaller&Weber: Masters of pork fat well before the Food Network Fueled Golden Age of the Pig. Butchers give a generous weight on the scale and know enough to steer neophyte chefs, house-spouses, etc. towards the right methods and most forgiving cuts.

3) Orwasher’s: Unbelievable rye bread. Best in the city. Long list of savory and sweet breads, including a dense, deep pumpernickel. Counter-women on weekdays are unbelievably charming: one has dreds, endless smiles, and unplaceable accent; another is a benevolent East European grandmother type. Samples of new breads (whole wheat cranberry recently) are always available.  Also great for raspberry jelly chanukah doughnuts.  Black and white  cookies aren’t in Glaser’s league, but they’ll do in a pinch.

And then there were three. Not making the cut…

Heidelberg: Ancient restaurant with great tradition behind it still manages to blow it with pricey sloppy food. Subpar mustard, in a place where fat and mustard should be coupling in full fervor, is unforgivable.

Posted in Favorite 5 Lists, Food, Yorkville | Leave a Comment »

5 Meals in France and Spain Before You Die

December 3, 2006

1) Arzak (San Sebastian): The greatest full-year restaurant in Spain. El Bulli’s only open for half the year and you might well die before getting a reservation. Older and wiser than the other Spanish Michelin 3-stars, Arzak is soulful, cutting-edge, cosmopolitan and distinctly Spanish, a heady combination. Wonderful service by all-female server-brigade is a delight, as long as you can communicate in castellano (please don’t call it español). Best orujo I’ve ever tasted.

2) Pierre Gagnaire (Paris): Far less frivolity than the naysayers would suggest. This is molecular gastronomy in the service of deliciousness. Reasonable wine a pleasant surprise and effortlessly elegant service. Tables of locals, solo-dining British rock star and rube Americans (us) all coexisted in the most convivial of the edgy French Michelin 3 Stars.

3) Jean-Luc Figueras (Barcelona): In Balenciaga’s former Barcelona mansion, this place deserves way more press than it has received. Mind-blowing food, sincere and highly competent staff with superb language skills (maintained tri-lingual dialogue with my table). Never felt so loved in a high-end Barcelona restaurant.

4) Crillon Le Brave (Provence): Plenty of Relais in this Relais Chateax hotel/restaurant. Unbelievable views, total absence of Peter Mayle Disney-Provence kitsch and great food sophisticated enough not to tart itself up.

5) Posada de la Casa del Abad de Ampudia (Castilla y Leon): Unbelievable food in the North Dakota of Northern Spain. May smell like donkeys in the streets, but inside the hotel you find a well-deserved Michelin 1-star called Restaurante Arambol: an oasis of lux et volupté and Barcelona funkiness. One of Spain’s great hidden treasures.

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Chefs as Charcuterie: Top Tummies of the Food World

December 2, 2006

Happy foodies are hefty foodies: The joy is in the jowels

1) Mario Batali:A long, sloping scoop of an avoirdupois. Encased by his fleece vest, a sort of hairnet for the belly, this front porch is a wondrous creation. Fernand Point’s Pyramide rises again.

2) Emeril Lagasse: Yes, he corsets the belly on television, but he clearly cossets it off the air. With this well earned, well-marbled roulade of a fat sweater, there’s no denying the evidence that Emeril indeed spends vast amounts of time in his restaurants.

3) Tim Zagat: A Brooks Brothers belly. Low and centered like a late term multiple pregnancy. This is a Roaring Twenties tummy, a spats, top hat, New Yorker cartoon-type tumescence. Testimony to years of self-disciplined indulgence.

4) Rachel Ray: Yes, a pork butt not a pork belly, but Ray’s pork booty is a glorious example of the shapely shaping powers of nature’s insulator.

5) Danny Meyer (the phantom belly): Highly suspicious absence of a belly, not even a shadow of a hint of a suggestion of a buddha. Even more dubious given that he admits to patronizing the Husky Section of Famous-Barr in his younger years. Clearly a Dorian Gray pact was signed. Perhaps a Botero sculpture of the real Danny hides in the walk-ins at Blue Smoke?

Phantom Belly, Honorable Mention: Unnatural forces are at work here, else these ectomorphs would look like Bibendum.

Al Roker and Drew Nieporent: Bariatric surgery.
Anthony Bourdain: Disciplined tobacco dieter.
Bobby Flay: Gynaecomastic, but no belly.

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5 Happiest Restaurants in New York: (Good value/good vibrations)

December 1, 2006

1) Gramercy Tavern: You can argue the top few food spots in the city but no place makes you feel better from start to finish. Everyone who works there wants to be there and wants you to feel the same. Chances are you’ll tell someone about it after.

2) Otto: On a good night, you float in on quartinos and float out on house grappa. Lardo pizza is provocative comfort. All the joy of your high school pizza hangout with mindblowingly better food, plus you’ll probably catch a view of Mario’s calves coming in or out of the kitchen.

3) Cafe D’Alsace: Food is excellent region-specific (Alsatian) bistro fare. Wine list covers Alsatian style whites (French, German, Austrian) better than most anyone and beer list is best in city for a French restaurant. Still, it’s the feeling that plan and place have perfectly fused, that a huge need has been filled, the gratitude of people (T-shirts and tweed coexist comfortably) tired of taking taxis for Tuesday dinner when the neighborhood could and should have offered so much more. Here it is.

4) Daniel: Of the top French temples (Le Bernardin, Jean-Georges, Ducasse, Daniel) this is the one in which you’re most likely to smile. Yes, they’re all stunning in their ways, but this one makes you feel good, hugged, umami of the body, mouth and soul. Especially wonderful on a quieter night like Sunday.

5) Joe’s Shanghai: Fast, impersonal and crowded, but filled with people getting exactly what they want. Prices are low, servers don’t upsell and a soup dumpling gives more joy per penny and per ounce than most anything.

Posted in Favorite 5 Lists | 2 Comments »

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