Recipes

May 31, 2014 Michelin

Le Bernardin {Lunch Tasting Menu - Snapshot}

This is the first post in the Quick Spring Weekend to New York series.
This is the 31st (and final!) post in the 31 Posts in 31 Days Series. I will most certainly write a re-cap of the experience tomorrow!!

I typically try not to repeat a restaurant when I travel.

Even though it's tempting to visit my favorite places over and over again, I know that for the sake of the blog, I need to continue exploring, researching, and finding those new spots on which I can report.

However, sometimes I give in.

Just about a week before we were to leave for New York, Bryan found an open reservation for Le Bernardin, one of my favorite restaurants in New York, for lunch. I hesitated, wondering whether I wanted to eat such a heavy meal right before I had to squeeze into my fancy dress for our black tie event that evening.

I finally gave in, knowing that Bryan really wanted to go, and that any meal there would be pretty incredible.

Jen with Chef-owner Eric Ripert! I was floored he happened to be in the restaurant the last time I visited! That's us in the immaculate kitchen at Le Bernardin.

Furthermore, I knew that the lunch portions at Le Bernardin are actually reasonably sized. You can do a three-course lunch for $76 per person. This also includes other free little add-ons, such as the complimentary salmon spread that comes with the bread at the beginning (pictured at right above), and the mignardises at the end.

Contrast this with the dinner menu, which starts with the four course for $135 per person.

Of course, Bryan saw this as his only "splurge" meal the entire weekend (I mean, how often does one eat at a three Michelin starred restaurant?), so he really wanted to do a larger tasting. Again, I finally relented and we ordered the Le Bernardin Tasting Menu ($155 per person; $246 with wine pairing), which is available at both lunch and dinner.

The Le Bernardin Tasting consists of smaller portions of dishes you also find on the a la carte menu. There is also a Chef's Tasting Menu ($198 per person, $336 with wine pairing), which has even more dishes and may include courses that are not on the regular menu.

Our first course was simply called Tuna, and included layers of thinly pounded yellowfin tuna on top of a thin, toasted baguette, foie gras, chives, and extra virgin olive oil. This was served with a Amigne de Vétroz, Romain Papilloud-Cave Vieux Moulin, Vallais, Switzerland 2011.

I absolutely loved this dish. The tuna was oh-so-soft. You really didn't need a knife at all. There was not a hint of stringiness. The small amount of fresh olive oil was delicious, and I loved the thin layer of crunchy baguette underneath. Each bite was a perfect mix of bright lemon, grassy chives, fragrant olive oil, creamy foie gras, crunchy baguette, and melt-in-your-mouth soft, thinly pounded tuna.

The next course was the Barely Cooked Scallop, which was served with a brown butter dashi. The dashi broth, which they served tableside with a teapot, was super rich and unctuous, full of deep, rich seafood accented umami. We later learned that the scallop was poached in the dashi, thus contributing some of the rich flavors. The scallop was incredible - super soft, sweet, and extremely fresh. This course was served with Grüner Veltliner, Hasel, Birgit Eichinger, Kamptal, Austria 2012.

The next course, called Lobster, was actually a "lasagna" made with layers of celeriac, truffle butter, and whole slices of black truffle.

Bryan's first words out of his mouth upon taking a bite was, "it's very truffly, buttery, and lobstery."

So descriptive.

The pasta was softer than a typical al dente, though I think that was intentional because it made cuting the lasagna much easier. The lasagna was covered with a rich, black truffle cream which made the whole dish extremely rich and decadent. It was good, though I can only take such rich bites in small quantities.

Bryan loved it.

This was served with Godme Pere et Fils, Brut Reserve, Champagne, NV.

The next course was a Barely Cooked Wild Salmon which was cooked just briefly on one side. You can see how it's still rare on the other side. The fish was topped with sweet and sour pickled hon shimeji mushrooms and served with a flavorful maitake (hen-of-the-woods) consommé filled with sliced lotus root.

The salmon was insanely soft and perfectly scoopable with a spoon. I loved the briny pickled mushrooms and the broth, which was so flavorful and full of earthy, mushroomy umami. I slowly savored this one, one bite at a time.

This came with a Gevrey Chambertin "Champ", Domaine Duroche, Burgundy, France 2010.

Our last course was the Wild Striped Bass served with Bhutanese red rice, green papaya salad and a ginger-red wine sauce. The fish was cooked perfectly (not a surprise) and was quite delicate. This was nicely complemented by the rich ginger-red wine sauce and the tart and crisp green papaya salad. Overall, the dish was nicely balanced and quite tasty.

This course was served with a Pago de los Capellanes, Crianza, Ribera del Duero, Spain 2009.

We had two different desserts. The first was the Confit Buddha Hands,which came with blood orange sorbet, mint meringue, confit pieces of Buddha Hands (a citrus fruit), and olive oil oil. I was astonished at how wonderful of a pairing citrus and olive oil make. It was really, really good! It makes me want to try to make olive oil ice cream (or maybe powdered olive oil) and pair it with some citrus dessert.

This was served with Moscato d'Asti, "Vigna Senza Nome," Braida Giacomo Bolgna, Piedmont, Italy 2012.

Our second dessert was equally fantastic. The Dark Chocolate Parfait was a ball of chocolate covered in cocoa nibs and served with candied marcona almonds, milk sorbet, chocolate sponge, and a rich pool of dulce de leche.

I loved the knobby, crunchy exterior, which also included very high quality chocolate chunks. This dessert was paired with Beernauslese Alois Kracher, Burgenland, Austria 2010.

Finally, we ended with two simple cortados (one of my favorite coffee drinks). It was so good we asked where they sourced the beans.

"Illy" said the server.

Fancy that. A French restaurant serving Italian coffee.

We ended with some simple brown sugar citrus financiers.

* * * * * *

I wasn't surprised at all, but the meal was virtually flawless. There's a reason why Le Bernardin consistently garners three Michelin stars and four New York Times stars. It is also the only restaurant in all of New York to score a 29 on Zagat, one point shy of the perfect score. Even Per Se and Eleven Madison Park only get a 28. Perhaps that's why all dining guests get a free copy of the Zagat guide to New York upon getting their check (which is handy to have, by the way!).

If you love seafood, especially near-raw seafood, you will not be disappointed here, I promise.

Eric Ripert is a master when it comes to seafood and pairing it with various sauces and consommé. The food is top notch here, and the service is very good as well. I love how every course is seafood, considering I'm usually not a big of a fan of the latter meat-focused courses in a typical multi-course tasting menu.

If the price seems kind of steep, come during lunch for the three course. I've done it several times and it's just as good. You're essentially ordering from the same menu as the dinner menu, but just with one less course.

This is one of those restaurants that's worth revisiting, over and over again.

May 31, 2014 Australia/New Zealand

Chef's Gallery {Sydney, Australia}

This is the third post in my Eating Down Under series. Other posts in this series include Din Tai Fung, Sydney, and Three Fun Food Finds Unique to Australia.

This is also day 30 of the 31 Days 31 Posts Challenge.

We had just landed in Australia after close to 30 hours of sitting in airplanes and airports. Because Bryan and I had used miles to book this long trip, we flew this crazy route where we first flew to New York, then flew 14 hours to Hong Kong, stopped over for 3 hours, and then flew another 10 hours to Sydney.

By the time we arrived we were pretty jet-lagged, tired, and hungry!

We met up with Bryan's parents in Australia (they had flown from Los Angeles through Honolulu!), also using Bryan's umpteen million miles (retirement gift). We also met up with his sister, who flew direct from California.

What does a hungry Asian family do upon arriving in Sydney?

Get Chinese food, of course.

We were tickled to find a Chinese restaurant that makes hand-pulled noodles, handmade dumplings, and lots of other delectable looking dishes. Even though the US dollar was pretty weak at the time, the prices at Chefs Gallery seemed reasonable, with most dishes in the $15 - $20 range (trust me, this isn't bad for Sydney!).

There are huge windows that line an entire side of the restaurant. You can peer into the kitchen and watch the many chefs scurrying around, pulling noodles, making dumplings. etc.

This guy's making a huge pile of pork dumplings by hand.

After seeing the chefs pull noodles in the window, we knew we had to order some. We opted for the green spinach noodles, which seemed a bit more unusual. This simple dish of wok-fried seafood noodles ended up becoming one of my favorite dishes of the night.

We also ordered some normal hand-pulled noodles, such as this zhajiangmian dish.

Or this beef noodle soup.

We always get stir fried vegetables whenever we eat Chinese, so in this case we ordered Bryan's favorite greens - hollow heart vegetable!

The restaurant offers a ton of fun looking appetizer-like dishes. I'm so glad we had a large party (of 5), because it was hard to choose just a few things to order. Thankfully, with such a large party, we were able to try many things.

Pictured above is their Chinese Roti with Pork Floss. It really reminded me of the Malaysian version of the snack, except with the Chinese pork floss topping. This was delicious.

I also loved these homemade Spinach and Egg Fried Tofu, which were topped with preserved vegetables. This was fantastic as well. Why doesn't anyone make food like this in Boston?

We got an assortment of dim sum, such as Taro Cake, Calamari Wontons with Seawead, Crab Meat Spring Rolls, and Fried Bread.

Here you can see Shumai, Crystal Dumplings, Baos, and an interesting Vegetarian Crystal Dumpling.

We got one clay pot (or is it hot pot?) dish with mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and vegetables. It was OK, but it wasn't our favorite.

We didn't get any desserts, but they have the CUTEST desserts. Like little steamed buns with pig faces on them, or what they call a marshmallow "Totoro" (though I think it looks more like a bunny than a Totoro). You can see photos on the menu at their website.

We were most certainly satisfied after this filling dinner our first night in Sydney. I don't think we knew it at the time, but we soon came to the realization that Chefs Gallery offers excellent product at its price point. We loved the homemade noodles (the stir fried spinach one was our favorite), and I personally loved the spinach tofu.

Out of all the restaurants in Sydney, this is the only one that we visited twice. Granted, it was walking distance from our hotel so convenience had something to do with it. Nevertheless, we also went back because we really liked the food, the prices were reasonable, and it was fun to visit.

The second time, we skipped the dimsum and just ordered noodles and a few of our favorite appetizers.

May 30, 2014 Canada

La Porte (Montreal)

This is the first post in the Our Neighbors to the North - Celebrating Canada! series. This is also day 29 of the 31 Posts in 31 Days Challenge (Almost done!!!)Usually when I visit Montreal I try to arrange meals with my Canadian colleagues or Canadian associates I know in the area. This has generally worked out well. My local colleagues know the city and many of them love food and thus are able to share with me some of their favorite places.

However, on one of my recent trips, I ended up having one free evening by myself. After a significant amount of research, I chose La Porte, which had excellent reviews as well as the advantage of being a 20-minute walk from my hotel right near McGill University.

La Porte is a family owned restaurant from Thierry and Pascale Rouyé, a French couple who closed their high-end restaurant in Brittany (Bretagne) to move to Montreal. They opened La Porte in their new home city, with Thierry and his son Maxime cooking in the back while Pascale ran the front of the house.

There are many different options on the menu at La Porte. The Menu Plasir is a 5-course tasting for $65 CAN while the Menu Gourmande is a 7-course tasting for $85 CAN. Since I was dining alone (and Bryan wasn't around to pressure us to get the larger tasting), I went with the 5-course. I could have also gone a la carte, although it's not as good of a "deal." Even just two courses on the a la carte menu costs close to $60 CAN, which makes the 5-course a much better value.

Plus, I love variety and would much prefer to eat more small bites than a few big bites.

My first course, the amuse, was an Oyster and Scallops Tatare served in a parsnip velouté and decorated with parsnip chips. I was blown away by the flavors of this dish. It was delicate, subtle, and sweet. The seafood was super fresh and had that sweetness you associate with really high quality scallops. There was a slight smokiness from the chip that reminded me of bacon. The dish was phenomenal and a great way to start the meal.

The next course was the Seared Big Scallop, which came with a blood pudding purée, apple crisps, a celery purée, diced apples, almonds, and an apple cider foam. The blood pudding purée had a really deep, rich flavor that was nicely offset by the bright and crispy apples and celery. The scallop was warm and perfectly cooked. I also really liked textural contrast of the crunchy almonds. All in all, it was a well-conceived and well-executed dish.

The final savory course was the Cod infused in Milk. served over a mashed potato "cream" filled with anchovies and olives, roasted grape tomatoes, watercress foam, and these tiny little cannoli-like bites that were actually rolled up potato chips filled with milk soufflé (so cute!).

The potato mash had really strong umami flavors from the anchovies and the salty olives. The delicate potato chips cylinders became soft fast, though perhaps it was my fault for taking a bit of time to photograph the food before tasting it! In any event, the mini potato chip milk soufflé "cannoli" were still tasty despite their softer texture. The cod was the only part that was a bit disappointing because it was cooked slightly more than I would have preferred.

Finally, I couldn't help but order the Kouign Amman for dessert. After all the rage over this dessert in the States (and because I knew it was a signature dish here), I had to get it.

This particular one was served on top of a salted caramel base, really soft apples, and a buttermilk ice cream. The whole dessert was interspersed with a cider foam. It was flaky, butter, and overall excellent. I enjoyed every single bite.

The final parting mignardises included a salted caramel macacron, which was nice and chewy with good flavors, an apricot paté fruit, and a lovely dark chocolate square with lime and salt (yum!).

It was an excellent meal. The service was great and the food was very, very good. I almost felt like I was in Europe. Around me, I could hear a mix of languages: French at that table; English at another. I even though I might have heard some German, though I wasn't sure.

Typically, I hate eating alone at nice restaurants. However, because I was in such a food city I felt compelled to take advantage of what this city has to offer. I would have felt terrible if I had just ordered room service in my hotel and wasted the night away. Thankfully, the staff took really good care of me.

They gave me a table where I could sort of sit off in the corner and enjoy the gorgeous space around me. It became a totally fine place at which to dine alone, and I felt perfectly comfortable.

I'm so glad I did it, because this meal turned out to be one of the best meals I had on that particular business trip.

La Porte
3627 Saint-Laurent Boulevard
Montreal (Quebec)
H2X 2V5
(514) 282-4996

May 29, 2014 Canada

Our Neighbors to the North - Celebrating Canada Series!

This is day 28 of the 31 Posts in 31 Days Challenge

Has it really been over a year since I've written anything about Canada?

I'm surprised because I go there, quite a lot, actually.

Starting about two years ago, I took on a new role at work where I started working really closely with our colleagues in Montreal. Up until this point, I had worked mostly with people near Oxford in England. I loved those trips to London (and Oxford) and the eating there is pretty phenomenal. However, I do like how Montreal is so close by (only a 6 hour drive!), looks and feels like a mini-Europe (they speak Quebecois!), and has fantastic food.

I've been visiting Montreal about twice a year, slowly gather photos from all the restaurants I've visited. I've blogged a bit about my experiences there, such as their awesome bagels, phenomenal smoked meats, and all around great restaurants.
On top of Montreal, I visited Toronto and Vancouver and tried several restaurants (mostly Chinese!), including a fake Din Tai Fung (which I actually did blog about). We even took a boat to Victoria and traveled around that beautiful part of the country.

Clearly, it's time to start sharing with you all my wonderful food experiences in Canada. Here's a peek at what to expect ahead!

I dined solo at this excellent restaurant less than a mile from my hotel where I enjoyed a lovely four -course tasting menu ending in this delectable Kouign-amann with cider foam, salted caramel, and apples.

A beloved high-end restaurant from Quebec opened its second location in Montreal inside the Hôtel Le Germain. Come here to experience the full "made in Quebec" experience, where everything from the designer of the plates to the terroir of the food are decidedly Quebecois.

This quaint little 40-seater in the Outremont neighborhood of Montreal garnered immediate praise when it opened in 2011 (6th best new restaurant in Canada by EnRoute magazine).

Squid ink macaron? This and other fun, creative dishes from a popular restaurant in Old Montreal.

And because it's been so long, I'll re-post some of the "promises" or more accurately, "teasers" that I posted the last time I tried to start a series on Canada . . . in 2012 *hangs head in shame*. Although I did manage to publish a few Canada posts, the ones below are the ones I never got around to posting.

It's totally clear why I needed to do this 31 Posts in 31 Days series. Man, even posting every day this month I still haven't even come close to catching up on the backlog . . .

And just a tiny small peek into Toronto . . .

A simple Chinese chain serves up solid, fantastic Chinese dim sum dishes and congee. *Sigh* - Why can't we have such Chinese chains here??

What can I say? Chinese food in Toronto is just pretty freaking awesome.

And Vancouver . .

World famous roasted squab that people supposedly fly all the way from Hong Kong to eat.

I hope this time around I can complete my posts about Canada. Stay tuned!

May 27, 2014 Argentina

Oviedo (Buenos Aires)

This is the eighth post in the Hello Argentina Series detailing my week-long trip in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other posts include Hello Argentina, La Cabrera, La Rambla, Empanadas, Tamales, and Beer, Oh My!, Cabanas Las Lilas, Buenos Aires - Three Most Famous Ice Cream Shops, Chila, and Elena.

This is also post 27 on the 31 Posts in 31 Days challenge.

It may seem surprising that a country full of descendants from Spain would have such a shortage of good seafood in its midst. Legend has it that when the Spanish first settled in Argentina, they were blown away by the vast amounts of available grasslands (pampas) for grazing. The Spanish had always loved beef, but it was very expensive back home due to the small amount land available in Spain.

In Argentina, the new settlers started raising cows on the abundant grassland, and the cows multiplied like crazy. A healthy beef export industry arose. The Argentinians developed a new found love of steak which still strongly predominates today.

What resulted was a city that is filled with parillas (grill restaurants) and surprisingly lacking in good seafood.

Enter Oviedo, one of the oldest, most established seafood restaurants in Buenos Aires. This place has won numerous awards, including the number 27 spot on S. Pellegrino's Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants list and number 7 on USA Today's 10 Best restaurants in Buenos Aires. Though cost is on the pricier side, it's worth a visit for the excellent seafood (the best in the city), well executed Spanish/Iberian fare, and one of the best wine lists in the city.

Bryan and I came here with an Argentinian colleague and her husband (the same person whom I had lunch with at Elena just a few days prior). We started out by sharing a number of appetizers, which are all piled on my share plate pictured above.

On the left is Tortilla Española, a fluffy Spanish omelette chock full of potatoes. On the upper right is Langostinos a la Plancha, or langoustines (a relative of the shrimp) grilled on a metal plate. On the lower right is Cebiche en Honor a Gaston Acurio, or citrus-cured fish (ceviche) in honor of Chef Gaston Acurio, A Peruvian chef.

Everything was fantastic. Nothing particularly fancy, just good, solid Spanish fare perfectly executed in every way.

For my entree, I decided to try the Bacalao Desmigado con Huevo, Salsa de Pimientos y Papas al Horno. This hearty Spanish dish consists of flaked salt cod, eggs, and baked potatoes tossed together with a red pepper sauce.

I loved the combination of flavors in this dish. It was hearty and satisfying, sort of like a soft, custardy omelette filled with salt cod and doused in a creamy pepper sauce.

Bryan ordered the Risotto con Chipirones y Calamares, or risotto made with squid ink sauce served with squid. This was also fantastic. The dark squid ink flavor really shone through. It was intense, strong, and extremely flavorful with tons of oceany umami.

We shared several desserts. My favorite was the Flan de Dulce de Leche, a traditional Spanish egg custard with the Argentinian twist of dulce de leche. It was sweet, creamy, and had lots of caramel flavors.
We came away from Oviedo extremely impressed with the overall quality of the food. The seafood is fresh and the flavors of the dishes were excellent.

My Argentinian colleague told us "this is one of our favorite restaurants. We live just around the corner and we come very frequently."

I can totally see why.

Throughout our Buenos Aires trip we ate at several fancy and award-winning restaurants. Although Ovieda is far from being the most high end place we visited (you can tell by its more rustic and simplistic plating), it was one of my favorite meals the entire trip.

May 27, 2014 California

Crisp Bake Shop (Sonoma)

This is the fourth post in the Quick Weekend Getaway to Napa / Sonoma Series. Other posts in this series include: Benzinger Family Winery, Jack London State Park, and Mayo Family Winery.

This is also post 26 on the 31 Posts in 31 Days challenge.

I love cute little bakeries like this one in Sonoma.

Crisp Bake Shop is a family-owned business that is barely two years old. It started when Andrea Koweek, a pastry chef who's worked at places like The French Laundry and The Girl & the Fig, saw a need for a bakery in Sonoma Valley after seeing many clients go outside of Sonoma to order cakes and desserts.

At that time, Moaya Scheiman, a chef who had taught at the Ramekins Culinary School for years before moving to San Francisco to work at Tamal Vino y Mas, was just about ready to call it quits in the kitchen. He said he was "done"- ready to move to Panama, relax, and retire.

And then Andrea suggested her idea and dream:

What about opening up their own place?

Before you knew it, a perfect location had miraculously popped up. One day while in the neighborhood, Moaya and Andrea saw a person hanging up a "for sale" sign at a well-revered bakery called Artisan Bakers. They approached the person, expressed interest, and nabbed the space before it went on the market.

Crisp Bake Shop opened in 2012 and has been going super strong since then. The wedding cake business is booming, and the bakery cafe itself is popular among locals and delightfully warm and inviting. We were so excited to stop by on Easter morning right before church to sample a variety of their baked goods.

Crisp Bake Shop sources its coffee from Equator Coffee, a local coffee roaster from San Rafael, California that strongly believes in growing and roasting its own sustainable coffee beans. We tried both the drip coffee and cappuccinos and thought they were both good.

There are all different kinds of pastries, both sweet and savory. This breakfast pastry reminded me of an empanada (after all, we had just returned from Argentina).

Inside, it was filled with eggs, bacon, and potatoes. It was satisfying and delicious.

This muffin-like pastry is actually another savory breakfast pastry.

Ta da! Inside there's a fried egg along with crumbled bacon and other goodies.

This coconut topped mini-cake was soft, delicate, and moist.

Cut it in half to reveal the delicious cream inside.

I really enjoyed the twice baked strawberry & rhubarb stuffed croissant, which was filled with ultra fresh, local hand-picked strawberries.

Since it was Easter, they had this super cute cake in the display. It spilled out "Easter eggs" (actually, Jordan almonds), when you cut into it.

How cute is that?

Finally, we took a box of cookies to go with us on the road to try later at home. These cookies are fantastic. Andrea had told me that cookies were her favorite thing to make, and I can attest that she's extremely talented at the craft.

My favorite was the Chocolate Chunk Cookie with Sea Salt, which was perfect in just about every way. The chocolate "chips" were layered throughout the cookie, almost like they had put chocolate ribbons in the cookie dough. I loved the addition of sea salt to the cookie, which really elevated it to another level. Andrea admitted that she loves mixing salty and sweet, and in general leans towards the side of salty when it comes to desserts (I love that!).

The other cookies were excellent as well. One of my friends loved the dulce de leche filled sandwich cookie so much she finished it before I had a chance to try it.

We had a wonderful time at Crisp Bake Shop and enjoyed everything we tried. I only wished we had time to try their lunch menu, which includes a variety of delicious-looking sandwiches. Lunch is the only time you get to try their own freshly baked bread.

We learned that the kitchen is super energy efficient (they don't have any stoves!). Moaya told me they rely on a lot of modern technology, such as induction burners and sous vide, to save energy and increase efficiency.

We also had a chance to look at their album of wedding cakes and we were floored by the complexity and beauty of the cakes. I can totally see why they are so booked already!

All in all, this is a great place to stop by for breakfast, lunch, or a box of cookies to take away. If you're looking for a special cake, definitely consider coming here. They also have fun seasonal stuff going on. For example, during Easter they sold Easter cakes as well as $1 hand-piped peeps (if you look closely you can see them in the photo above).

You really can't go wrong with whatever you choose.

My personal favorite? The Chocolate Chunk Cookie with Sea Salt.

Disclaimer: This tasting was set up for me by the Sonoma Valley Visitor's Bureau. Bryan and I did not pay for the tasting. All opinions are my own.

May 26, 2014 New York

A Quick Spring Weekend in New York

This is the 25th post in the 31 Posts in 31 Days Series.

We have finally concluded the New York Thanksgiving Series. Well, sort of. I did have Thanksgiving Dinner at Daniel, Daniel Boulud's flagship restaurant. However, I think it makes more sense to post about that meal closer to Thanksgiving, so stay tuned for that one once the weather starts getting colder again.

Instead, I'd like to kick off yet another New York Series. Yes, I guess I go to New York on a pretty regular basis, at least enough to provide steady content for this blog!

Every year for the past few years, Bryan and I travel to New York to attend a black tie event at the Waldorf Astoria. It's an annual meeting for intellectual property attorneys (of which I am one), and involves a fancy dinner, a talk by a famous figure (this year it was Ken Starr - yes, of Clinton era fame), and lots of networking.

Usually, I like to make a long weekend out of this business trip, which means visiting friends, family, and checking out some fun restaurants in New York.

We'll kick off this new series detailing the places we visited during this trip. Here's a peek!

This lesser known one-Michelin starred restaurant at the top of the Time Warner Building was one of the few places that offered brunch on our last day in New York. Above: truffle poached eggs with creamy mashed potatoes.

Eric Ripert and Jen at Le Bernardin kitchen

I rarely return to 3-Michelin starred restaurants I visit, but I've been to this one multiple times. The food is phenomenal and I never tire of it. The first time I had lunch here, I had the privilege of running into chef-owner Eric Ripert.

The best part? They are also open at lunch and have a more attainable 3-course tasting. Of course, you can always opt for the 6-7 course tasting as well if you please.

We visited one of Daniel Boulud's more casual restaurants which focuses Mediterranean fare inspired by Sardinia, Greece, Tunisia, Gibraltar, and Beirut.

And finally, right before we left, we stopped by Gotham West Market to try out a hot, new ramen place opened by a "Jewish kid from Long Island" who became famous by the success of his first ramen shop, which he opened in Tokyo, a crazy feat for a foreigner in such a competitive field.

Stay tuned as I publish blog posts in detail about my thoughts for each of these places. I gave away quite a bit of information this time, so I'm guessing several of you can already guess where I went!

Stay tuned!

May 25, 2014 Las Vegas

Jaleo (Las Vegas, Cosmopolitan)

This post is part of a larger series from my trip to Las Vegas in January 2014. Other posts in this series include I'm Going to Vegas and Why I'm Excited, Whirlpool CES 2014 - I Made it to CES!, and CES Post Conference Reflections, and L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon.

Even though I've never been to Spain, I love the Spanish concept of tapas, or small plates. It's super fun sharing a bunch of little bites with a group of friends. You get to try a much larger variety of dishes, and you don't have to commit to eating the same thing for an entire meal.

Jaleo is a Spanish tapas restaurant by well-known Spanish chef José Andrés. It started in Washington DC. over twenty years ago and has since grown to many locations around the country. I visited the original DC location for cocktails and snacks a couple years ago, and loved it. Also, I've been a huge fan of José Andrés' other restaurants, such as é by José Andrés (also in Las Vegas), Samm in Los Angeles, and minibar in DC.

So it seemed natural that I would someday want to try having a full meal at Jaleo. A perfect opportunity arrived while we were in Vegas during CES back in January.

That's right, there's a new Vegas location conveniently located right on the Strip inside the Cosmopolitan.

Cocktails are a big part of Jaleo.

José Andrés loves gin & tonics and has a classic version he calls Jose's Favorite which I tried and loved in DC. When I tried to order it here, the server convinced us to try the Cítrico instead, which was made with Oxley gin, Mediterranean tonic, grapefruit, lemon, coriander, and mint. It was different, but also quite nice.

Here's Bryan adding the tonic to the gin filled drink. Love that huge ice sphere!

We (as a table) ordered several other cool cocktails. Unfortunately, I regret I did not get the names of these cocktails, so please just enjoy the photos!

Of course, we weren't just here for the drinks, but to actually taste the food. The first thing we couldn't help but notice was the paella.

Paella is a huge part of Spanish culture and it's featured front and center at Jaleo. Right in the middle of the restaurant is a GIGANTIC charcoal grill where you can watch chefs making monstrous-sized pans of this Spanish rice based dish.

It's luck of the draw which paella will be available when you are ready to order, and they rotate between several of them. Every 20 minutes a new one is available. A party of six or more can custom order an entire paella. Otherwise, you order a la carte depending on what is being made at the time.

We had wanted the lobster paella, but it was going to take a long time (we had just missed the last rotation). So instead we ordered what was available: Paella De Pollo Y Setas Silvestres, a traditional paella of chicken and chef-selected mushrooms.

It was fantastic! It also came with tons of garlic aioli, which was awesome. The rice was slight crunchy, slightly chewy, and I loved the flavors from the mushrooms. It turned out to be one of my favorite dishes.

Pan De Cristal Con Tomate Fresco (literally "crystal bread" with fresh tomatoes) is an extremely light, airy, and crispy bread from Spain. It's a ton of work to make the bread. In Spain, they have these special machines that stretch the dough like bubble gum over and over again. The constant stretching causes the dough to incorporate tons of air pockets, which really gives it a unique texture.

At Jaleo, they ship the bread directly from Spain because they could not find anyone in the U.S. who could make this incredible bread.

I first tried this bread in DC and loved it. I especially liked how the unique, crispy bread absorbed all the tasty flavors from both the cheese and the fresh tomatoes. The airy, crispy, yet elastic texture is something that's quite unique and definitely worth trying.

Jamon Iberico is cured Spanish ham made from a particular breed of black footed pigs called Iberian pigs. The highest end and most expensive type of jamon Iberico is the jamon Iberico de Bellota, which are made from free-range Iberian pigs served only acorns during the last part of their lives. The ham is aged for 36 months and has a deep, rich flavor resulting from the acorn diet as well as the long aging time.

Jaleo's jamon Iberico de Bellota comes from a company called Fermin, and you can order it at the restaurant for $35/oz. It's very good, though it's no different than if you had purchased it at a specialty market. Jaleo pretty much serves it straight up, sliced.

Another decadent dish we got was the Coca Con Erizos De Mar ($26), a wam crusty cristal bread topped with butter, sea urchin, and jamon iberico lardon.

Setas Al Ajillo Con La Serena included sautéed wild mushrooms with La Serena (a region in Chile) potato purée ($14). It was tasty, but did not blow us away.

Similarly, these cute little Endive cups topped with orange slices, goat cheese, and sliced Marcona almonds were refreshing and beautiful, but didn't necessarily wow us in terms of flavors.

This next dish, Aceitunas Rellenas Y Aceitunas "Ferrán Adrià" ($14) is a tribute to Ferrán Adrià, one of the fathers of modernist "molecular" cuisine and one of José Andrés' mentors. This dish was a play on the concept of olives. In the bowl was a pile of real olives stuffed with anchovies and piquillo. In the fancy spoons were spherified balls that looked like olives but were actually a salty, spherified olive-flavored balls that burst open with olive liquid inside.

Though the concept was fun, the dishes were a bit too salty with strong anchovy flavors.

The Huevo Frito Con Caviar ($18) was a fried organic egg topped with caviar.

Finally for dessert, we had Pan Con Chocolate, a chocolate custard with caramelized bread, olive oil and brioche ice cream.

All in all, our experience at Jaleo was mixed. We thought the cocktails were excellent and the paella was a definite winner. It was my personal favorite dish of the night. I also loved the pan de cristal con tomate fresco (crystal bread with tomatoes), and could eat tons of that.

The rest of the tapas varied. Most were reasonably tasty, but none were truly amazing nor did they blow us away. Everything was OK, but we came away a bit disappointed, perhaps because of overly high expectations. If I were to come back, I would get a nice cocktail, a nice pile of cristal bread (with tomato!), and share a bunch of paellas. I think it's what they do best.

Jaleo Cosmopolitan
3708 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109

May 24, 2014 Michelin

Babbo (New York City)

This is the sixth post in the New York Thanksgiving series. Other posts in this series include Momofuku Ssam Bar, Momofuku Ma Peche, Gramercy Tavern, Booker and Dax, and Casa Mono.

Babbo was always an elusive restaurant for me.

For those that don't know, Babbo is one of the many restaurants from the B&B (Batali and Bastianich) Hospitality Group. I've always enjoyed their other restaurants, like B&B and Carnevino in Las Vegas, Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles, and Casa Mono in New York.

Babbo was elusive to me because they didn't take reservations for dinner.

Friend shared horror stories with me about how they had to wait over an hour for a seat. Sure, the food was supposedly fabulous, but the idea of waiting for an indefinite amount of time while starving just didn't sit that well with me.

So for years I didn't go.

Not until this past Thanksgiving when I learned that Babbo does take reservations, at least for lunch. Not only that, it was November, which is . . . you guessed it, white truffle season.

Babbo was having a crazy deal: a three course white truffle tasting for only $99. Yes, I know $99 sounds kind of high for a tasting, but you must understand that white truffles are really expensive. There are many places that will charge an additional $40-$80 to a dish just to shave a few grams of white truffles on top of one course. $99 for three courses (including the white truffles) is insanely cheap.

Once I learned that, I pounced on the lunch reservation for two.

Similar to B&B, we started with a free chickpea over crostini appetizer, which always curbs the hunger just enough.

We were given an option to spend an additional $5 to try their nuovo olio, or first harvest olive oil. Although the free olive oil was already delicious, it was fun to try the new harvest, which is grassier, more intense, and also very delicious.

We decided to share one white truffle tasting (three courses) as well an additional pasta dish and an appetizer.

The first course of the tasting was a delicious Duck Egg + Toast & Bacon topped with generous shavings of white truffles from Piedmont, Italy. This timeless, winning combination was as good as it sounds.

The duck egg was barely cooked, which allowed the rich, runny yolk to spill all over the bread. The bacon added a lovely crunch and saltiness. Tiny leaves of arugula added a nice, bitter contrast to the richness of the rest of the dish.

It was phenomenal.

The second course was Agnolotti with Brown Butter topped with tons of shaved white truffles.
The aroma of the white truffles permeated the air and we almost fainted with joy. We loved the fresh pasta, and the sauce was savory and rich. The overall dish was delicious.
The last course the Grilled Veal Breast Tornado with arugula, Parmigiano, and lots of shaved truffles. The veal was very tender and white truffles were (of course) wonderful. The dish itself was not the most exciting dish, but it was still a nice way to eat white truffles. Sometimes you don't just want to overpower the white truffles.

Outside the tasting, we ordered an additional pasta, the Black Spaghetti with Roe. This pasta was made with squid ink pasta, lots of parsley, and possibly bacon or pancetta? It reminded me of a squid ink pasta Mario Batali recipe I had cooked awhile ago. This dish was fantastic. The pasta had excellent texture and the portion size was huge! It was much larger than similar dishes at B&B or Carnevino. I guess Las Vegas is just much pricier.

The Pappardelle Bolognese was also really, really good.

Check out the super wide ribbons (or shall we call them sheets?). The sauce, made from veal, prosciutto, and pancetta, was hearty, deeply flavorful, and seriously satisfying on so many dimensions.

We also ordered Grilled Octopus which came with oven roasted mushrooms. The octopus was nicely charred but certain parts (the thicker parts) were tougher (borderline dry) compared to the thinner parts of octopus, which were perfectly seasoned and cooked.

For dessert we had a delicious Olive Oil Cake with olive oil ice cream and a drizzle of the olio nuovo (new harvest olive oil). Both the cake and ice cream were less "olive-y" and sweeter than others I've tried, though overall the cake was still delicious - warm, crispy, moist, and fantastic with the ice cream. Yum.

It was a lovely, lovely meal. All of the food was excellent, and we really felt like the prices were reasonable. The pasta eishes are much more generous in size and less expensive than similar dishes at B&B and Carnevino. This white truffle tasting is a steal at $99 considering how many courses you get and how much white truffle they give you.

Too bad it's seasonal. Or maybe it's just too bad that white truffles are seasonal.

Anyway, it's really quite alright. I'm sure the food here is good all year round. We loved all of the non-truffle dishes we had, especially the pastas, which were our favorites. There's no denying that Babbo makes great pasta.

Babbo
110 Waverly Pl
New York, NY 10011

May 23, 2014 Australia/New Zealand

Three Fun Food Finds Unique to Australia (Sydney)

This is the second post in my Eating Down Under series. Other posts in this series include Din Tai Fung, Sydney. This is also the 22nd post in the 31 Days 31 Posts Challenge.

I love seeking out unique aspects of a culture's cuisine, even if it's just a slight variation on what I eat in my own culture. It's fascinating to see how geography, local ingredients, and neighboring cultures shape the cuisine of a location.

Australia itself is interesting because most of the people there originally came from England, thus it's natural that the cuisine will be strongly European. However, with time and distance, groups eventually develop their own little quirks and nuances.

We only spent a few days in Sydney Australia. However, it was fun to try some food that was definitely unique to Australia. Here are the top three.

1. Flat White

A flat white is an espresso-based drink that involves two shots of espresso topped with a layer of microfoamed milk. Although similar to a cappuccino, the foam is flat and the bubbles are much finer and creamier. Furthermore, a flat white has less milk compared to a cappuccino, more like a cortado or a Gibraltar.

In Sydney, every single coffee shop offer "flat white" as an option alongside cappuccinos, lattes, and espressos.

Perhaps it was the novelty of it, or perhaps it's just because they are really, really tasty, we always ordered "flat whites" when we went to a coffee shop, which was like, everyday.

2. Pie Face

This Australian cafe serving cute pies of all different flavors (and facial expressions!) can be found all over Sydney. In fact, there are 70 locations throughout Australia.

Each face stands for a different filling. They have many savory fillings as well as sweet ones.

We ordered a few as a fun breakfast since we lived just around the corner from one of these cafes. They are pretty tasty, and definitely a convenient way to eat a meal on-the-go.

We were surprised just a few days ago to see one in New York City. Apparently this is the first one they have opened in the U.S. and so far it seems to be doing really well!

So now all I have to do is travel 4 hours via train to get my Pie Face fix.

3. Harry's Cafe de Wheels

Harry's Cafe de Wheels is a historic pie cart that has continuously operating for over 70 years. The founder, Harry Edwards, opened the cart first in the 1930's to provide late night fast food options such as "pie & peas" and "crumbled sausage." It closed during World War II (Harry fought in the war), but he reopened it in 1945. It has been open ever since, and has become an Australian icon as well as popular tourist attraction.

The most popular and signature item is the Tiger, a beef pie topped with mushy peas, mash potatoes, and gravy. It's satisfying, hearty, and very filling.

Hot Dogs were added to the Harry's menu in the 1970's to serve hungry American sailors. The Hot Dog de Wheels consists of mushy peas, garlic, onion, chili con carne, cheese and chili sauce.

Finally, if you're just not a mushy peas person (and not everyone is!), you can always get a simple meat pie (they have several kinds), which serves as a great little snack.

Looking at all these Australia photos really makes me miss it. Sydney is such a beautiful city, with so much vibrant life, great food, and stuff to do. I'm having so much fun sifting through my photos from this trip. Can't wait to continue sharing more and more of it with you!

May 22, 2014 Argentina

Elena (Buenos Aires)

This is the sixth post in the Hello Argentina Series detailing my week-long trip in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other posts include Hello Argentina, La Cabrera, La Rambla, Empanadas, Tamales, and Beer, Oh My!, Buenos Aires - Three Most Famous Ice Cream Shops, and Chila.

This is also Post #21 of the 31 Posts in 31 Days Challenge

They whisked me into a car and told me they were taking me to lunch.

I had no idea where I was going.

Don't worry. It's not nearly as scary as it sounds. I was meeting colleagues from a local Argentinian law firm. Though I had never met them face to face before, we had worked together for years.

About 15 minutes later, we stepped out into a leafy, wealthy area of town called La Recoleta. I had actually been here a few days earlier to visit the famous Recoleta Cemetary and to eat much humbler food. We were at the lobby of the Four Seasons Buenos Aires.

It was beautiful out. The sun was strong.

We stepped into the hotel and entered a restaurant called Elena.

Elena is named after Elena Peña, wife of the rich aristocrat and architect Felix de Alzaga Unzue, who built this soaring mansion in the style of Louis XIII for her as a wedding present. Elena the restaurant is located on the first floor of this former mansion, now the Four Seasons.

The space is absolutely stunning.

The soaring ceilings, majestic staircase, and retro, antique-like, yet warm, elegant decor immediately put me at ease.

We were there at lunch during a weekday, and thus were able to take advantage of the warm sun shining through the enormous skylight above.

Elena has only been open since 2012, but it's already received much recognition. It currently sits on San Pellegrino's Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants list, barely sliding in at number 50.

Though this restaurant is most famous for its Sunday brunch (hello dulce de leche pancakes!), our weekday lunch here was excellent as well. We sampled lots of charcuterie, savored their vast selection of high quality steaks, and had a chance to try their artisanal gelato, supposedly one of the best in Buenos Aires.

There were three of us, so we shared one of the many charcuterie plates on the menu. This was called Felix Selection (195 pesos, undoubted named after Elena's husband. This particular plate included fuet (Catalan thin cured dry sausage), prosciutto (Italian cured meat), brie (French soft cheese), and peppered cacciocavalo (stretched cured cheese from Italy). Everything was very good. I especially enjoyed the solid pieces of honeycomb, which complemented the rest of the items so well.

Of course we had to have some local wine. This is the 2011 Clos de los Siete from Michel Rolland. The wine is a result of a collaboration project between seven French winemakers using grapes grown at the foot of the Andes Mountain in the Uco Valley.

Two of us decided to order the Angus New York Strip (155 pesos / $19 USD). It came with a chimichurri dipping sauce as well as a simple salad on the side. It was a smaller portion, which is why I chose it.

Our other colleague ordered the Angus Tenderloin (385 pesos / $48), which looked phenomenal. I don't think I've ever seen such a tall piece of steak. It looked delicious, though I did not actually try any.

Elena is known for its excellent selection of gelato, and these did not disappoint. I especially loved the unusual black cone in which it was served.

We ended our lovely lunch with a simple canelé each (one of my favorite desserts!) as well a lovely cappuccino. It was a perfect place to have a relaxing business lunch. The soaring ceilings and huge skylight made us feel almost like we were eating outside.

The partner had to go back to work, but the other attorney, his daughter, ended up taking me around Buenos Aires for the rest of the afternoon. We talked a lot.

About the state of things in Argentina right now. About her kids. About what it was like raising children in an urban environment that (lately) has become less and less safe. She even shared with me top ice cream places, telling me exactly how to get to one of them on my way home.

I was so touched by the warmth of theses local hosts and, at the same time, saddened by the state of things in Buenos Aires right now.

The food was delicious here. However, what I took away most from this meal was a friendship and a new appreciation for the people of this country.

Elena
Four Seasons Hotel,
Posadas 1086/88, Buenos Aires
+54 11 4321 1628
menu here

May 21, 2014 California

Mayo Family Winery {Best hidden 7-course tasting in wine country}

This is the third post in the Quick Weekend Getaway to Napa / Sonoma Series. Other posts in this series include: Benzinger Family Winery, and Jack London State Park.

This is also post #20 on the 31 Posts in 31 Days Challenge. Two thirds of the way!

This has got to be one of the best kept secrets in Sonoma. A 7-course tasting of delectable, sophisticated mini-courses paired with a winery's reserve wines for only $35?

I had never heard of Mayo Family Winery before I visited their reserve tasting room for this delightful late lunch. After all, they are a small, family-owned winery that specializes in single vineyard wines. They make their wine in small batches. You can only purchase their wines directly through them - whether it be through the wine club, the website, or at the winery store. It's not distributed nationwide.

Despite it being less well known, it has still received high praise from wine reviewers around, most notably Eric Asimov, food and wine critic of the New York Times.

In fact, that's how they got their first big break.

As the story goes, Diane Mayo, who had lived in and around Sonoma pretty much her entire life, decided to grow some chardonnay grapes in 1990. Her husband cleared the valley and planted 3000 chardonnay vines. In 1993 they bottled their first chardonnay, which they made in a family barn on the property that served as a makeshift winery. They were mostly drinking the wine themselves, sometime offering it to friends as gifts.

Their son, Jeffrey Mayo, was living in Southern California at the time working a high-powered finance job. He came home one day and saw the huge pile of wine and asked his parents if he could try "peddling" their wine in southern California.

Jeffrey ate at local restaurants a lot and knew many people in the industry. One day, he brought some of his family's wines to one of the restaurants for a tasting.

A stranger who happened to be sitting nearby expressed interest in trying some.

He loved the wine.

The stranger turned out to be Eric Asimov. He wrote about it and overnight, Mayo Family Winery was put on the map.

The winery is a much bigger operation now compared to the barn winery they had back in the early days. They have since purchased another property in the Russian River Valley, as well as hire a dedicated winemaker, Michel Berthoud, who has been with them since 2004.

We visited their Reserve Tasting Room, which is actually about a mile away from the rest of the winery. The tasting room is just reserved for this 7-course food/wine pairing.

We entered and met Chef Clayton Lewis, who took us on a fun, story-filled, and delicious journey through 7-courses and 7 glasses of wine.

White Wines

Chef Clayton set down a sheet of paper with our tasting menu in front of us so we could follow along. He poured three large glasses full of three different white wines.

"Chardonnay. This is how it all began . . ."

As he unfolded the story that I just shared with you above, we began slowly savoring each pairing, studying how the wine brought out the flavors of the food, and vice versa.

The first course, Pea Tendril and White Anchovy Salad, also included bacon, tomatoes, piment d'esplette (a chili), and tiny little croutons for textural crunch. The overall dish, which had strong tart and briny notes, was nicely balanced by the 2012 Roussanne from Saralee's Vineyard, Russian River Valley ($40/bottle), a white wine made from a Rhone varietal with hints of grapefruit.

Apple Blue Cheese and Pistachio Raviolis with Yuzu Gastrique was delicious, with a strong, pungent blue cheese flavor balanced out by the bright and citrusy yuzu gastrique. This was paired with a 2010 Reserve Chardonnay from Laurel Hill Vineyard ($40/bottle), which was rich and buttery. In fact, the yuzu gastrique enhanced the buttery flavors of the chardonnay.

Boneless Beef Shortrib, Baby Arugula, and Orzo was fork-tender soft (no need for a knife!), hearty, rich, and delicious. It was served with a 2008 Reserve Barbera from Kunde Ranch Vineyard ($40/bottle). The wine was quite acidic, with elements of pomegranate and strawberry. Chef Clayton admitted that this is a wine meant to go with food and actually tastes too tart on its own. In this case it nicely cut the richness of the shortrib. At the same time, the shortrib cut the acidity of the wine - a synergistic pairing.

Red Wines

We then moved onto the red wines, which were paired with dishes based on beef and pork.

Talk about rare beef! This next course, Grilled New York Strip and Beluga Lentils came served on top of a gorgeously rich veal demiglace. This was paired with a 2010 Carbernet Sauvignon from the winemaker's own vineyard, the Berhoud Family Vineyards ($50/bottle). The beef was delicious (we loved how rare it was!), and it went well with the wine, which had elements of blackberry and cherry oak.

Pork Al Pastor and Papas Bravas was excellent. We learned from the chef that the pork was prepared sous vide (thus the soft texture). We paired this with a 2010 Zinfandel from Ricci Vineyards, Russian River Valley ($40/bottle). The zinfandel definitely had elements of jamminess ("zinberry" is what the chef called it) and was generally a fruit forward wine. However, it also had a good amount of earthiness and tannins. It worked really well with the food.

Porchetta and White Bean Ragout was paired with 2011 Primitivo from Rossi Ranch, Sonoma Valley ($40/bottle).

"Do you know the difference between Primitivo and Zinfandel?" asked Chef Clayton.

Blank stares.

It turns out that primitivo is genetically the exact same grape as the zinfandel (which we had just tried). They are both clones that descended from a rare Croatian grape cvarietal Crljenak (I don't know how to pronounce that either). The zinfandel is American while the primitivo is Italian. Well, in this case these primitivo grapes came back to Sonoma Valley from Italy.

We found the primitivo to be much earthier and less fruit forward, which might be due to its terroir. Primitivo grapes grows in volcanic soil in Italy. As Chef Clayton said, the primitivo has a "tortured past" from those harsh conditions. These characteristics make the primitivo a better food wine.

For dessert, we enjoyed an Orange Dreamsicle paired with a 2011 Late Harvest Gewurtztraminer from Kunde Ranch Vineyard in Sonoma Valley ($35/half bottle). The dessert consisted of tangerines cooked in saffron and topped with a light air-whipped brie. On the side was one perfect dollop of a single toasted marshmallow. The Gewurtztraminer, a dessert wine, had elements of stone fruits, bacon, and a bright acidity in its finish.

It was a fabulous, educational, delicious, and fun lunch. I still can't believe that entire 7-course tasting (plus generous pours of wine) only cost $35 ($25 if you're a member of the club). Heck, if I lived close by, I would totally become a club member and just come here to eat at least once a week.

Chef Clayton Lewis is an excellent host and really makes the whole tasting really entertaining. The Mayo Family Reserve Room is dedicated to these tastings. It's in a building that's separated from the rest of the winery (thus you aren't bombarded by normal visitors dropping by just to taste or purchase wine). We came at an odd time on a holiday (2:30PM), so we had Chef Clayton to ourselves for the first hour or so, which was nice. If the room is filled up (I think there are six tables?) then he does hop between tables.

I would highly recommend coming here. The food and wine pairings are excellent and the overall experience is fun. Keep in mind the food portions are bite-sized and the entire tasting is not designed to be a full meal. For me it was a perfectly sized lunch, especially since we had enjoyed some decadent baked goods in the morning (post coming soon!) and would be heading off for a fancy tasting menu for dinner later on that day.

For more information on this tasting, click here.

Disclaimer
This tasting was set up for me by the Sonoma Valley Visitor's Bureau. Bryan and I did not pay for the tasting. All opinions are my own.

May 19, 2014 Philadelphia

Marigold Kitchen (Philadelphia)

This post covers the one meal I didn't describe in detail in my 24 Hours in Philly post. It's also
post #19 on on the 31 Posts in 31 Days Challenge!

It was the perfect night in Philly.

I had just finished giving a workshop at U. Penn with the Penn Taiwanese Students association. The students were delightful and the organizers were awesome. We all had so much fun. I walked away from the event feeling energized, motivated, and all around pleased with the way the day had gone so far.

The weather was perfect out. Unlike Boston, which received rain and chilly weather all weekend, Philly was blessed with warm sunny skies. Furthermore, trees were blooming full force and the cute neighborhood streets around U. Penn were bursting with color.

Finally, to top it all off, a breathtaking sunset began forming in the sky just as I stepped out to walk to my dinner at Marigold Kitchen.

Marigold Kitchen is a BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) establishment. I love this commonly seen feature in Philly (Boston doesn't allow it) because I hate the insane markup prices on alcohol in restaurants and I like having the flexibility to bring wines that a restaurant may otherwise not carry.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I did not bring a bottle of wine for dinner this night because my friend wasn't able to drink, and I knew there was no way I could finish a bottle on my own (where's Bryan when you need him?).

Marigold Kitchen recently changed its format so there's no more menu. Everyone enjoys the same tasting ($85), with just one choice. On our particular day, that choice was salmon or beef. Everything else is a surprise, though I knew that in general the chef dabbles quite a bit in modernist (common called "molecular gastronomy" though chefs hate that term) techniques.

Our first course was the Shrimp Puff Ceviche served with an "Avocado Cloud". It reminded me of a really fancy chips and guacamole, but replacing the chips with the shrimp puff, which had the texture of a pork rind. It was light, crispy, and flavorful. I personally enjoyed it quite bit, though for some reason my friend wasn't a big fan.

The next mini course (more like a bite) was a single spoonful of their Foie Gras Muesli. A small pile of savory meusli sat on top of a small dollop of foie gras creme. The spoon was a bit colder than I would have liked (perhaps these were stored in the refrigerator?) but the bite was overall pleasant.

The next course, Fruits de Mar, included a wild king salmon rillette, smoked oysters (in the bowl), and marinated boquerones (anchovies) on skewers.

Here's a closer look at the salmon rillette.

The dish came with little toasts on the side, which we piled up with various combinations of the seafood. This version I made includes a bit of the salmon rillette, smoked oyster, boquerones, and pickled baby turnip.

One of my favorite courses of the entire tasting was the Butternut Squash Cappuccino, a smooth and creamy blended butternut squash soup came topped with a cinnamon foam. The velvety soup itself was sweet, fragrant, and utterly decadent. The foam added a lovely dimension delivered in a creative vehicle.

The next course, the Tuna Tartare, was definitely unusual in that it came with fava beans, strawberries, and a tamari-lemon vinaigrette. This dish was unique but in the end, I was not the biggest fan. I wasn't convinced that strawberries and fava beans made the best combination with the tuna.

The Duck Egg was topped with salt and pepper and served with English peas, guanciale, grilled spring leeks, and sour dough croutons in a Parmesan broth. The egg was delicious and the Parmesan broth added a lovely, salty richness and umami to the entire dish.

The next course, General Tso's Sweetbreads came with with broccoli florets, broccoli blooms, and broccoli puree. The flavors were less sweet and had more umami (reminded me of miso) than your typical Chinese-American restaurant glazed version. Overall the dish was OK, though the flavors and overall preparation did not strike me as particularly exciting or complex.

The next course was a classic Pork Belly Bao with cute little Sriracha mayo dots on the side. The bun was satisfying and pretty tasty, though it wasn't too different from other pork belly buns I've had.

For our final course, we both chose the Wild King Salmon, which was seared with "Everything spices". On the side were pickled potato "noodles" tossed with salmon roe, new potatoes, and thinly sliced radish served over a pesto-like "sauce Verte".

The grilled salmon was fine, though I didn't find its flavors to be particularly exciting. I did really like the crunchy pickled potato noodles, which reminded me of the semi-raw potato salad that I love from northwestern Chinese restaurants.

We enjoyed three local cheeses, all from Valley Shepherd Creamery in New Jersey, which were served with grapes (excellent!), walnuts, and a fruit jam.

Along with the cheese came this delicious puff cheese bread, which we devoured.

Finally came a dessert simply called Strawberry, which incorporates a lot of modernist techniques. Pictured above is the frozen mint foam, which sort of has the texture of chocolate but melts upon contact because it's so airy.

There's also pieces of a lemon sponge cake and plumped pistachios. It was a fun dessert, and I especially enjoyed the texture of the frozen mint foam.

The next course, just titled Follies, ended up being these cute little chocolate presents that in reality were chocolate liquid filled bombs!

They were fun to eat and delicious, as long as you didn't try eating them in two bites (oops!).

I really loved the final mignardise, a simple Green Tea Macaron that was delicious and a nice way to cap off the meal.

I had a wonderful time at Marigold Kitchen catching up with my friend. We had not talked in years, so we spent much of the meal just talking about all sorts of stuff. A long meal is a great way to spend more time together, and the folks at Marigold Kitchen were great in accommodating our timeframe. The servers took great care of us, gently asking for permission each time they had to interrupt our lively conversation to explain each of the thirteen (!) courses.

Overall, my impression is that the food ranges from excellent to ordinary to sometimes a bit weird. My favorites were the Butternut Squash Cappucino (which seems to be a general favorite) and the Duck Egg.
The menu changes frequently, and with their current menu model you don't have much of a choice anyway about which dishes to order. This means that it's a fun place to take your chance at really innovative and unusual flavor combinations that make use of the latest modernist food techniques. Just don't expect all of those cutting edge experiments to always work.

Some have said that if this meal were in New York, you could charge $150 for it, and thus it's a great value. That may be true, except I would argue that most restaurants in New York that charge those types are prices are a bit more refined and sophisticated in the flavors of their dishes.

Nevertheless, Marigold Kitchen is most certainly a creative, fun, and unusual restaurant. The ambiance is cozy and the overall experience is fun. I do like the BYOB aspect of it, and there are enough winners on the tasting menu that it's still worth visiting, especially for $85, which is quite reasonable for so many courses.

Marigold Kitchen
University City 501 S 45th St
Philadelphia, PA 19104

May 18, 2014 Boston

Ribelle (Brookline, Washington Square)

Chef Tim Maslow is sort of a local chef rock star.

This Boston native grew up in the kitchen, helping his father out in the family restaurant. After studying at the French Culinary Institute, he trained with David Chang at various Momofuku establishments, eventually becoming chef de cuisine at Momofuku Ssam Bar. He moved back to Boston in 2011 and took over the culinary direction at that same family restaurant, a nondescript simple diner of sorts in Watertown called Strip-T's. He completely overhauled the menu, and before you knew it, people were taking special excursions to Watertown to sample his innovative cuisine.

A little over a year ago, rumors started floating around that Chef Maslow was thinking of opening up a second place.

For those that have been anxiously waiting, that day finally came in August 2013 when Maslow opened up Ribelle (pronounced rih-BELL-ay), a Mediterranean inspired restaurant with communal tables and menu items that are meant to be shared.

Hype grew for this restaurant when Boston Globe restaurant reviewer Devra First gave Ribelle a perfect four star review. For those who don't live in Boston, this is a ridiculously high score and very hard to get. The last restaurant in Boston to receive a perfect score was Menton, back in 2010. In fact, according to my brief search, only three Boston restaurants have ever received this perfect score: Menton, Rialto, and now Ribelle.

So why have I waited this long to try it?

It's hard for us to get to Ribelle. It's in Brookline where parking is iffy and traffic from Cambridge is bad during rush hour. Nevertheless, a warm Friday a couple weeks ago, we bit the bullet and fought crowded roads during rush hour to arrive at Ribelle for dinner at 6PM. Traffic was so bad that no one made it on time. Finally, around 6:30, we breathed a sigh of relief as the last members of our party finally found parking and joined us.

We settled into the end of the long communal table and excitedly began perusing the menu.

The menu is not super large and takes up just one side of a sheet of paper that is printed daily. The items get larger as you go down the sheet, though the server told us that the dishes were all meant to be shared.

We had a party of six, which meant we could order a pretty big chunk of the menu (love dining with large parties).

The Sprouts Salad is a healthy salad that includes a variety of sprouts (mung bean sprouts, pea sprouts, etc.), tossed with wheatberries, sea salt feta, and honey sumac butter. I enjoyed the crisp flavors and wished for more (a single serving size is hard to split among six people).

If any diner sitting around you orders the Sicilian Semolina Bread you'll instantly know it. I'm not sure how they grill the bread, but it smells absolutely heavenly when it comes out. It's smoky, charred, and super fragrant.

As soon as I smelled it I knew I wanted some. The bread is quite good and comes with an eggplant, olive, and pine nut caponata ($8) that is way too big for the amount of bread they give you. We ended up getting another order of bread in order to finish the caponata.

I ordered a Carpaccio, which I believe included some head cheese, but I can't for the life of me really remember. [I can't believe I forgot to take a photo of the menu] I do remember this was a dish that was highly recommended by the server and I did enjoy it quite a bit.

One of my favorite dishes was Ribelle's version of ramen - their homemade noodle soup with fiddleheads. The best parts were the superbly chewy handmade noodles and the deeply flavorful broth. The fiddleheads added a nice spring-like touch, but the star was really the meat and the broth. I would totally order one of these just for myself.

Another excellent dish was the Chittara Carbonara, which came with grilled ramps, pancetta, and pecorino. The pasta was perfectly al dente and the creamy rich sauce had a great balance of flavors. Our friends had originally ordered this for their 18-month old daughter, but the adults couldn't help but pick at it too.

The server highly recommended the Steamed Crayfish, which he said was really flavorful and popular. Our table of ambitious eaters decided to get two orders, which turned out to be way too much. It's hard to predict with these dishes, but this one was a really generous portion.

I loved the flavorful crayfish broth that was served with the crayfish and I kept dipping my bread into it. I'm not one of those people who adores picking apart crabs or lobsters, so I didn't exactly enjoy picking at an even smaller crustacean. Be forewarned - it's really messy. There's no way to appear elegant when eating this.

The others at the table didn't mind one bit and happily consumed several crayfish each, sucking out the brains, guts, and all different parts of the crayfish.

The Smoked Fish Gnocchi, which was served with spring favorites like fiddelheads and fava beans, had a nicely flavorful sauce that was just slightly tart. The gnocchi were pillowy soft and overall I enjoyed the dish, eating way more than I had planned because my spoon just kept gravitating towards the bowl. Bryan said there was some distinct flavor in the dish that he didn't like, but he was unable to pinpoint it.

One of the best looking entrees of the night was the Pappardelle + Bolognese, which was served with large amounts of kale and pork rinds ($25). The bolognese was hearty and delicious; and the pasta had great texture. I'm a huge fan of kale, so I love the idea of making bolognese healthier by adding one of my favorite vegetables.

Bryan ordered the Lamb, which was perfectly cooked (see how rare it is?), and came with all sorts of spring vegetables. Bryan said the seasoning and flavors of the dish were excellent, but the meat itself was a bit tougher and gamier than he preferred.

Similarly, the Dry Aged Steak ($28), which came with peas and radish, was an excellent preparation but the steak itself was less tender than what you might find at a high-end steak house. Now keep in mind this entire dish costs $28, which is a steal for dry aged steak compared to the $50-$60 you might pay at a steak house. Perhaps it's not quite fair to compare with a steak house. Nevertheless, it's useful to know what to expect.

Though we were all stuffed, we had to order a dessert to round out the meal. I immediately decided to get the most interesting item on the menu: Avocado Mousse with dulce de leche, tapioca, wild rice puffs, and hibiscus berry.

I am a huge tapioca fan and I love all things avocado, so it's no surprise that I really enjoyed this dish. The avocado mousse was definitely sweet, but mild and creamy. The tapioca had nice texture, and I really enjoyed the slight crunch from the wild rice puffs. Most of the other diners were so stuffed at this point, I think I singlehandedly ate most of this dessert.

All in all, Ribelle churns out innovative, interesting, ever-changing dishes that really reflects Tim Maslow's creative and multi-directional spirit. We had heard that this was an "Italian" restaurant, but it's really not. Many of the dishes are grounded in Italian roots (e.g., pastas), but there's really inspiration from all over, especially from Asia (not a surprise considering Tim's Momofuku roots).

My personally favorites were the pasta dishes, which I think are among the best in the city. The texture of all the pastas was excellent, and accompanying sauces were flavorful and satisfying. The meat dishes were superbly seasoned, but the tougher texture of the meat took away some of the enjoyment.

As we left the restaurant, we were a little puzzled at the four star Boston Globe rating. Yes, Ribelle is very good, but there are many other restaurants in Boston that we think also reach its level, if not (in some cases), surpass it. Nevertheless, it's hard to gauge a restaurant completely after one visit. I can confidently say that the food at Ribelle is very good; the ever-changing menu is fun, unique, and full of creativity; and the dishes are well executed by a very talented team.

We're lucky Tim Maslow didn't decide to stay in New York.

May 18, 2014 Michelin

Casa Mono (New York City)

This is the fifth post in the New York Thanksgiving series. Other posts in this series include Momofuku Ssam Bar, Momofuku Ma Peche, Gramercy Tavern, and Booker and Dax.

We have always been huge fans of restaurants from the "B&B" group (Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich).

We love the pasta tasting menu at B&B in Las Vegas and had a phenomenal white truffle tasting at Babbo in New York not too long ago (post coming soon!). Bryan swears the 9-month dry aged riserva steak at Carnevino is the best steak he's ever had in the US (bested only by those in Japan), and I am a huge fan of the pizza at Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles.

Despite all that, we had no idea the pair had a Spanish tapas restaurant in New York City.

In fact, we found out about Casa Mono not because of its celebrity chef roots, but because we knew one of the sommeliers there.

Meet Miguel de Leon. We first met Miguel in 2012 at Chef Jason Doo's home during a phenomenal multi-course "Taste of Kinsay" Asian-inspired meal showcasing some of Jason Doo's finest work.

Miguel was the sommelier at that event, and paired wines with the food Jason had prepared.

When Bryan and I decided to visit New York over Thanksgiving, we contacted Miguel and found out he was working at this 1-Michelin starred Spanish restaurant. It was the first place we visited as soon as we arrived in New York.

Casa Mono is cozy, a bit tight, and seemingly always crowded. Because it's a tapas bar, it's best visited with friends with whom you can share multiple dishes and try more things. Though it was just the two of us that evening, the server recommended we get 2-3 dishes per person, so we sort of went all out. Tapas range in the $15-$20 range per dish, so it can add up pretty quickly.

To go with our food, Miguel recommended his favorite wine on the menu, a biodynamic wine from the Catalan region of Spain called Planetes de Nin, Vi de la Vila, Porrera 2009.

Cauliflower + Uni sounds incredible and was indeed delicious. An uni-flavored custard came topped with fresh uni and roasted cauliflower. The dish was rich, creamy, yet balanced at the same time.

The deep fried Baby Squid Encebollados with Sherry Balsamico and Basil ($15) was nicely fried but not the softest squid I'd ever had (OK, it was a bit chewy). The fried squid was hot while the accompaniments were cold, which was unusual. I personally really liked the intense, deep, sweet, caramelized onions (the almost black mass in the photo), which added a lovely sweet and salty touch to the dish.

Nantucket Bay Scallops Ceviche with Fresh Yuzu ($20), which were served in a yuzu sauce, were fantastic. The scallops were sweet, and the yuzu contributed a bright, floral essence that was nicely balanced with just the right amount of salt.

The crunchy deep fried Crispy Pigs Ears with Market Apples, Kohrabi, and Montcabrer ($15) would have been heavy alone, but were nicely offset by the tart crispy apple and kolhrabi slices, Montcabrer (a goat's milk cheese), and fresh parsley.

The Spanish Mackerel with Autumn Fricassee and Black Olives ($16) was a special of the day and was very good. Rhode Island Mackeral was grilled "a la plancha" and topped with a mixture of crispy roasted Brussels sprouts, leeks, cauliflower, black trumpet mushrooms, and kohlrabi. This was finished off with a flavorful black olive and balsamico de Jerez (sweet Spanish balsamic vinegar) tapenade.

One of our favorites (and also one of their signatures dishes) was the Duck Egg with Mojama and Black Truffles, which came with a few lovely slices of mojama (salt cured dried tuna), shavings of black truffles, and roasted fingerling potatoes. The egg was barely cooked, and once broken, the runny egg made a lovely sauce that bound everything together. It was an excellent dish.

Another favorite was the Tripe + Pork Belly Stew. The pork belly was beautifully charred and the thick broth had both an intense, sweet tomato flavor as well as a spicy and smoky richness from the pork belly. It was simply fantastic.

Our dessert, Bay Leaf "Beignets" with Creme Brûlée, was a bit unusual, because it seemed to be almost savory in some ways. Whole bay leaves were breaded and flash fried. These individual "beignets" were then served with a traditional creme brûlée.

It was definitely interesting, not too sweet (barely sweet!), and tasted like what you would expect. It was fun to try but I wouldn't recommend ordering it if you generally enjoy more traditional sweets.

We had a great time at Casa Mono. Despite the fact that it was cold, wet, and pretty miserable outside, the cozy and lively atmosphere inside warmed us up immediately. The tapas are very good here. Chef Andy Nusser, who is also an owner, uses excellent ingredients. The kitchen staff works hard to executes the dishes at a very high level.

It's pretty amazing that the restaurant celebrated its 10th anniversary in January. Kudos to this hardworking staff for all that they do, especially in such a tight kitchen space!

52 Irving Pl
New York, NY 10003

May 17, 2014 Australia/New Zealand

Din Tai Fung (Sydney, Australia)

I've talked for ages (almost two years!!) about starting my Eating Down Under Series, which would highlight the three week trip that Bryan and I took with his parents at the tail end of 2012 to celebrate both of his parents retiring. Usually I like to start out a new food series with a bunch of teaser photos giving you a glimpse of what's to come. However, in this case, we were in the southern hemisphere for THREE WEEKS, which is just too many teaser photos to fit in one post. So instead, I am just going to dive into this series. Enjoy!

My birthday happened to land on one of the first few days of our trip down under, while we were still in Sydney, Australia. Bryan's family was so sweet.

"It's Jen's birthday! She gets to choose where to eat tonight."

Ooh, where to eat? Honestly, for me, the answer was easy.

You know about my little mission, right?
My goal is to eat at every Din Tai Fung in the world, that's all. I've made reasonably progress to date. I visited the original one in Taipei, of course, as well as the one in Los Angeles opened by the family's son. There are franchises around the world, and I've gone to the ones in Beijing and Shanghai as well as the one in Bellevue, Washington. Heck, I've even been tricked and gone to a knock-off one in Toronto.

I knew that there was a Ding Tai Fung in Sydney. Once I found out that it was reasonably close to where we were staying, my mind was made up.

I dragged Bryan's entire family (his mom, dad, and sister) to Din Tai Fung in Sydney to celebrate with me. What sports they are!

The marinated cucumbers are one of my favorite cold starters. Bryan's dad also loves them, so we got two orders for the five of us.

The spicy wontons are doused in a flavorful, soy-based chili sauce. Though they are pretty tasty, I still think it's best to save stomach space for the steamed dumplings and the soup dumplings (xiao long baos).

We always like to get stir fried vegetables on the side, and hollow heart vegetable (Chinese watercress) is one of Bryan's favorites. In general, I think Din Tai Fung does a great job on their stir fried vegetables. The vegetables are usually very tender, cooked just the right amount, and seasoned nicely.

Beef noodle soup comes in a generous portion, and is pretty satisfying.

One of my favorite steam dumplings is the "Vegetable Pork Dumpling", though to be honest, it hardly has any pork. You can see how green it is even from the outside. I personally love this dumpling because it is so veggie-centric. However, I think the name is confusing, and I've noticed more recently that the servers warn you and tell you that it's like 95% vegetable.

And then . . . the moment of truth. The famous soup dumplings arrived!

Oh no! Bryan picked one up with his chopsticks and the skin broke!

We've always said that the hallmark of a really well made soup dumpling is one which can be easily picked up with chopsticks without breaking. In general these were good, bu we could tell they weren't as good as the best ones we'd had in Asia.

For dessert we got a number of things. Bryan's sister wanted to get some black sesame sweet steamed buns. These are filled with a sweet paste made from ground up black sesame. It's very fragrant and sweet.

I had to get my favorite, the sweet taro dumplings, which are filled with a whipped taro filling that I find crazily addictive. Seriously, I'll often eat just 3-4 soup dumplings and and an equivalent amount of taro dumplings at the end of the meal.

The family also shared a refreshing mango pudding dessert.

I had an excellent birthday celebrating with Bryan's family at one of my favorite chains in the world. The food was delicious, though overall we definitely thought it was a step down from the ones in Asia. It was closer in quality to the one in Bellevue, which we think is not quite as good as the one in California.

So the current order of quality, in our minds, goes like this:

China / Taiwan > Arcadia > Bellevue / Sydney >> Fake one in Toronto

Surprisingly, I have never visited the one in Tokyo. Perhaps there is too much other good, tempting food around that I can never bring myself to go (or more realistically, I can never convince Bryan to come with me).

Stay tuned as we eat our way first around Sydney, before heading to Cairnes (Great Barrier Reef), the Outback, and then to New Zealand!

May 16, 2014 Argentina

Chila (Buenos Aires)

This is the fifth post in the Hello Argentina Series detailing my week-long trip in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other posts include Hello Argentina, La Cabrera, La Rambla, Empanadas, Tamales, and Beer, Oh My!, and Buenos Aires - Three Most Famous Ice Cream Shops.

My goal in picking restaurants in Argentina was simple: explore and experience all different facets of the local cuisine at its best.

This takes a lot of research and patience. After all, with trips typically being quite short, you don't have that many meals to spare. It would be a waste to even have one bad meal when you only have a limited amount of time, money, and stomach space.

In Argentina, I knew steak was a highlight, so I made a point of dining at the most famous steak house in Buenos Aires, plus another very popular one for good measure. Ice cream is another local favorite. I purposely visited three of the most famous ice cream shops in Buenos Aires.

I checked out several popular local lunch spots, sampling the best tenderloin sandwich in the city (yes, beef again) as well as excellent empanadas.

Finally, I also wanted to explore the up and coming "nouvelle Argentinian cuisine", where local chefs - many of them European-trained - offered creative, seasonal cuisine focusing on local, Argentinian ingredients.

After consulting several sources, including the S. Pellegrino's Top 50 Restaurants in Latin America, Chowhound, and other travel sites, I decided to book Chila in Puerto Madero, which also (conveniently) happened to be within walking distance from our hotel.

Chila opened in 2006 in Puerto Madero, a beautiful, newer riverside neighborhood on the modern side of Buenos Aires. It has gorgeous views of the Rio de la Plata and serves new Argentinian cuisine.

The chef, Soledad Nardelli, has trained in both Paris and Barcelona. Her philosophy for Chila is to apply haute cuisine techniques to Argentina's rich supply of quality products, "always respecting their essence and seasonality."

The restaurant is highly acclaimed, boasting the 28th spot on the S. Pellegrino Top 50 Restaurants in Latin America (No. 3 in Buenos Aires after La Cabrera and Tegui).

The menu has a three course menu (450 pesos / $56 USD*) and a seven course menu (650 pesos / $81 USD*). Of course we went for the seven course.

We started with an amuse of zucchini, eggplant, red pepper, and goat cheese. Since I'm not the biggest fan of stronger goat cheeses (and this one was quite strong!) I didn't love this starter. Bryan, who loves stinky cheeses, really enjoyed this small bite.

On the side we had several breads from which to choose: bacon bread, blue cheese and nut bread, cereal bread, and red wine & brown sugar bread.

Wine prices in Buenos Aires are not bad at all, and will definitely seem cheaper than in the US. Perhaps they don't have all these expensive liquor licenses they have to get, and therefore the up charge is never nearly as crazy as it is in the U.S. Bryan decided to splurge and we got a lovely bottle of 2010 Cobos malbec, which cost us about $160 USD (similar if not lower than retail prices in the US).

Our first course consisted of raw, sashimi-like slices of Silverside (a mild white fish) served with capers from Cordoba (a city in Argentina) in a clean, cucumber turnip sauce. The capers added just the right amount of salty zing, contributing pizzazz to the otherwise clean, subtle, and light dish.

The second course, called Chubut, was quite involved. The server brought over several pieces of glassware that totally reminded me of my days in the chemistry lab.

Is that really a round bottom flask? And a glass Buchner funnel?

First, the server poured some sort of broth into the round bottom flask.

Then he added a vial of dried seaweed liinto the funnel. He turned on the flame.

The liquid began bubbling and soon started boiling. As the liquid boiled, it traveled up into the funnel. Once the flame was gone, gravity caused the liquid to travel back down the filter. Now it was a much darker, amber color.

The server poured this beautiful flavorful liquid into our plates.

Aside from the liquid, our plates contained two small pieces of albacore tuna served with seaweed, celery, and salicornia (wild sea beans). The flavorful, clear consomme was an algae-based broth infused with seaweed in the round bottom flask. It was extremely aromatic, clean, yet full of umami from the seaweed. Overall it was a very balanced dish with beautifully refined flavors.

This next course features a very local fish, the Boga, which is a freshwater fish from the Parana River. It came served with a nutty pecan sauce and topped with eucalytus. The fish reminded me of mackerel because it was rich and fatty, though there was not a hint of that fishiness that you sometimes taste in mackeral. The skin was crispy and nicely salted. Overall, the dish was great.

Keeping with the very local, Argentinian theme, the next course was Cow Sweetbreads and Corn. The server explained to us that the sweetbreads are first boiled in water and then grilled. This was served with popcorn, egg yolk sauce, sweetbread jus, and a potato chip.

The sweetbreads were solid: meaty like I expected, though not juicy, fatty, and tender like the ones at Cabanas la Lilas. The sweetbread jus was pretty good - deep, raisiny, with a strong red wine beefy essence.

On the the other side of the plate was a duo of mashed cornmeal and mashed potato. I loved the flavorful, maizy, earthy, and creamy flavors. The tiny grilled baby corn was a nice little added touch that also happened to be delicious.

"I think the last time I had baby corn was high school" quipped Bryan.

I was surprised because I see it in my salad bar at work all the time. Let me tell you, fresh baby corn is a world of a difference from the canned variety you get in your local salad bar.

The next dish was Bryan's favorite dish of the entire tasting menu, and I also agree it was excellent. Like a risotto of sorts, this was Quail over rice from Entre Rios (central province of Argentina), served with peas and shaved dried quail egg.

You can see the dried quail egg in the photo above. The egg yolk haD been salted and cured for 28 days. It added a lovely salty depth of flavor to the entire dish.

For the finale, we got to try some more of Buenos Aires's famous beef. Here, it was a dry aged tenderloin served with a wheat grass foam and Lincoln cheese.

On the side they also gave us a little cup of wheatgrass juice to go along with the steak.

The steak was very good. It was beefy, meaty, and very tender. Bryan missed the smokiness that he remembered from our grilled steaks at Cabanas Las Lilas (probably Bryan's favorite steak in Argentina). I'm guessing these were pan seared (or maybe ous vide?), and thus didn't have that chargilled smoky flavor.

In general, Argentinian beef has less fat and therefore it's never quite as melt-in-your-mouth soft as American corn-fed beef. It definitely has a stronger, "meatier" flavor and has a slightly tougher texture.

For our palate cleanser before dessert, we had a simple cherry granita.

Our final course was a fun play on the traditional flavor combination of cheese and jam. The "dessert" was called Cheese and Sweet Potatoes Jam, and came with pate fruits from various parts of the north (confiture), and a lovely dollop of sweet potato ice cream over shredded white savory cheese.

Though it sounds a bit strange, I was floored by how delicious this combination was. I loved the sweet and savory combo of the potato ice cream and the salty cheese. In general, cheese goes very well with jam, so it's not a surprise that the little pate fruit blocks paired so exceptionally well with the cheese and potato ice cream.
All in all we had a lovely meal at Chila. We really enjoyed the beautiful views of Puerto Madero right outside our window. The service was excellent, and most of the workers spoke English really well. Out of all the restaurants we ate at while in Buenos Aires, this one had the most sophisticated dishes and highest level of food execution. We were genuinely impressed and pleased with the meal. Furthermore, the 7-course tasting menu was an excellent value, both at the official rate ($81) and especially at the US cash rate ($55-$65 USD).

I would highly recommend coming here. It's the perfect blend of everything I was looking for: excellent sophisticated food; a focus on local Argentinian ingredients; a great (convenient) location with gorgeous views; and a great value.

Best yet, you can walk off the meal afterwards with a romantic stroll around the river at Puerto Maderos.
Chila
Alicia Moreau De Justo 1160
Puerto Madero C1001
Buenos Aires ARGENTINA

*this is the official exchange rate (8 pesos / $1 USD) and what you would get if you used a credit card. Many restaurants are willing to accept US cash and will give you a much better rate.

May 15, 2014 California

Jack London State Park (& Glen Ellen Market's Amazing Sandwiches)

This is the second post in the Quick Weekend Getaway to Napa / Sonoma Series. Other posts in this series include: Benzinger Family Winery.

Sometimes there comes a point where you just can't eat and drink anymore. Yes, you can visit winery after winery after winery between your meals, but at some point, you hit a wall.

Bryan and I generally like to be active on our food trips. In certain large cities like New York, Rome, or Las Vegas, it's easy to burn off our meal calories by walking a lot between lunch and dinner.

Napa and Sonoma, however, aren't quite built that way. The rolling vineyards are beautiful, but it's hard to walk between wineries and restaurants. The town squares for most of these cities are small, and you'll go from one end to another in 10-15 minutes.

So we seek out physical activity.

On our last trip, we took a multi-hour cycling trip around Sonoma, which was fabulous. This trip, we spent several hours hiking through Jack London State Park. The park conveniently happens to be located just a couple minutes (by car) away from Benzinger Family Winery, where we'd had our tour earlier in the day.

Jack London State Park was the home of the famous writer Jack London, author of books like White Fang and The Call of the Wild. His family donated the property to the state of California after his wife's death in 1955.

Jack London was the richest, most famous, and most prolific writer of his generation. He was also an entrepreneur, an innovative farmer, and a world traveler. He died tragically young, at the age of 40, but lived an insanely full and adventurous life.

If you have time, take a guided tour, which is what we did. They are free and well worth it.

Our tour guide was passionate about the park and Jack London's life, and it showed. Even though I knew nothing about Jack London before I visited the park, I came away from the visit fascinated by his short, extravagant, and productive life. Throughout the park, you get different glimpses of all the crazy things he tried in his life.

Here is the House of Happy Walls, which is where Jack London's wife lived up until her death in 1955. It is a museum that holds a lot of souvenirs that Jack London and his wife picked up from their 27-month voyage (via a boat Jack London built) to the South Seas.

The Pig Palace is a piggery that Jack London designed and built for pigs that he raised. It's full of technological advances and is probably one of the most luxurious pig homes of its time, each family pig getting its own little "apartment."

The Wolf House ruins show the mansion that Jack London almost completed before it was destroyed by fire just a few weeks before he was slated to move in. The loss of the house made Jack London go into depression, though he still forced himself to keep writing.

It's haunting to see the ruins of the house today. They have been untouched, and basically look the same as they did right after the fire in 1913, just over a hundred years ago.

Left: another view of the Wolf House ruins. Right: view from Jack London's cottage where he died.

The grounds of the park are really pretty and there are all sorts of different trails for hiking, horseback riding, and cycling. You can see a map of the entire grounds in this brochure.

Horseback riding is a popular activity at the park, and you can go for miles through those trails. We visited our tour guide's horses, who happily ate the cookies that Bryan was feeding them.

In the summertime, they often host performances in this large open-air "theater". A popular act is a concert by Broadway singers from New York.

The park has picnic tables and barbecue pits. In fact, our original plan involved a lovely picnic at the park. Unfortunately, because our schedule was all messed up, we ended up eating our sandwiches early, during the Benziger tour.

I still would like to share about these sandwiches with you though, because they were absolutely fantastic. The folks at Jack London State Park were kind enough to pick up some sandwiches for us from Glen Ellen Market, which is just down the street from the state park.

This sandwich is called the Jack London and was my favorite. I loved the unique textured bread, which I can't even begin to describe except to say that it was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. This huge sandwich ($7.99) had turkey, crispy bacon, sprouts, avocado, lettuce, and Jack cheese.

The Spicy Roast Beef Panini was also excellent, and consisted of rare roast beef, horseradish sauce, Sonoma Horseradish Jack cheese, jalapeños, tomato, and bacon.

I would highly recommend the sandwiches at Glen Ellen Market. The market is also just located a couple minutes from Jack London State Park, so it's a great place to get sandwiches if you want to have a picnic there.

Hiking around this park was the perfect afternoon activity before dinner, where we would again consume more excellent food and lots of great wine.

It was really nice to take a break to enjoy the outdoors, learn some history, and get some exercise!

Jack London State Park
2400 London Ranch Road,
Glen Ellen, CA 95442 ·
T: (707) 938-5216

Disclaimer: this tour was organized for us by the Sonoma County Visitor's Bureau. We did not pay for the sandwiches, which were provided by the kind folks at Jack London State Park. All opinions are my own.

May 14, 2014 California

Benziger Family Winery (Sonoma Valley)

This is the first post in the Quick Weekend Getaway to Napa / Sonoma Series. It's also the 13th post of the 31 Posts in 31 Days Series.

This trip did not start out on a good foot.

Our original plan had been to leave early Friday morning from San Francisco, head to the rental car agency, and then drive to Sonoma in time for a 12pm tour of Benzinger Family Winery. After a pleasant picnic lunch, we would head out to Jack London State Park for a refreshing hike.

We knew things looked bad when we arrived at the rental car agency. The line wrapped around and around, and our name wasn't on the board (which means even though we had pre-reserved a car, they no longer had one for us). The gorgeous weather that weekend had caused a spike in last minute rentals. The agency had "oversold" its cars and now there were lots of angry people in line.

I won't belabor the details of what happened. Suffice it to say that Bryan held his ground and fought hard for us and won. After TWO hours (I kid you not), we finally drove out of the rental car agency with the convertible that Bryan had booked (plus free gas, one day free, and lots of free points for future rentals).

Amazingly, we actually made good time. We had to completely rearrange our afternoon schedule but it ended up working out.

We arrived at Benzinger Family Winery, one of only six biodynamic wineries in all of Sonoma, right in time for their 2PM Partners Tour.

There are two types of tours that are available: the Tram tour and the Partners Tour. The Tram tour is 45 minutes long, costs $25, and runs every half hour. You ride around the vineyard in a large tram and visit the fermentation facility, crush pad, and the barrel caves.

The Partners tour is similar but longer and a bit more intimate. It's closer to an hour and a half and involves more behind the scene stories and also includes a seated wine tasting. You ride in a small electric open-air golf cart which can access places the tram cannot . . .

. . . such as this little area on the hill where you see views like this.

The views were beautiful, and the wine was tasty.

What I found most interesting, however, was learning about what biodynamic really means.

Biodynamic farming is an organic farming method that also incorporate sustainable practices. It takes a holistic approach to create a diversified, balanced farm ecosystem. A biodynamic farm sets aside a large portion of its land for cows (manure / natural fertilizer), fruit trees, and other plants to create a habitat for animals and insects that would be beneficial to the ecosystem. It's a higher standard that organic or sustainable since it incorporates both and more.

Our tour guide made an excellent point when he said, "knowing the cost of land here in Sonoma, it truly takes a huge amount of commitment to give up more than half of that land in order to create a habitat for biodynamic farming."

He has a point. Land here is crazy expensive. It's eye opening to know that Benzinger sets aside 50 acres of land for the habitat, while only reserving 35 acres for grape growing.

With the exception of sewage, all water is recycled. Pictured above is a pond that holds this water.

After seeing the vineyard, our next stop was the fermentation facility.

Because it's not harvest season yet, there's really nothing going on in the fermentation department right now, so we just saw photos of what the process looks like. We learned that workers actually hand sort the grapes to pick out the bad ones.

They also use the grape's own native yeast (from the skin of the grapes) for fermentation instead of adding extra yeast. Though it's less efficient to make wine this way, the resultant wine has more character in its flavor.

Finally, our third stop was to visit the wine cave.

Inside the cave, temperature and humidity are pretty constant all year round, which is important for wines as they barrel age.

Inside the wine cave, we sat down in their tasting room to try four different wines:

2011 Signaterra Bella Luna pinot noir (Russian River Valley)
2010 Signaterra Three Blocks Cabernet Sauvignon (Sonoma Valley)
2011 Obsidian Point (Sonoma Mountain Estate)
2008 Port from Sonoma County

We also had a chance to try one of the wines in a barrel tasting. We were told to expect it to taste young and less complex, since it wasn't done "aging" yet. It was fun to compare the difference in flavors.

Our final stop was back at the Visitor's Center where there were lots of people milling around. We entered yet another tasting room and had a chance to try even more wines. Seriously, for $40 this tour is starting to look like a pretty good value.

Here's our second flight:

2012 Paradiso de Maria sauvignon blanc (Sonoma Mountain)
2012 Signaterra West Rows charonnay (Carneros)
2012 de Coelo Quintus Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast)
2011 Tribute Bordeaux blend (Sonoma Valley)

The wines were delicious. We both especially liked the Tribute.
We liked it so much, in fact, on the last day of our trip we came back to pick up one special bottle to enjoy with our Michelin starred multi-course tasting dinner. In Sonoma and Napa BYOB is widely practiced, so we thought it would be fun to bring our own bottle.

The 2009 vintage scores exceptionally well, so we paid a bit extra to get the older vintage. It was most certainly not a bad way to enjoy our last meal in wine country.

Disclaimer: Benzinger covered the cost of the tour tickets. We purchased the wine on our own.

May 13, 2014 Beef

Steak Au Poivre with Cognac Cream Sauce

This is the 12th Post in the 31 Posts in 31 Days Challenge that I imposed upon myself. It's been quite a ride so far! Exhausting, but also eye opening and fun at the same time. Only ⅓ of the way through!

Out of all the recipes that I post on this blog (and I admit, that's been dwindling a bit lately), I'm sort of shocked that there are hardly any steak recipes.

Oh sure, there are the ones from a couple years ago, back when we lived in the tiny urban condo and couldn't really grill. Back then I found ingenious ways to make fantastic steak, such as the oven-to-pan seared method that reduced a lot of smoke (essential for not setting off the fire alarm for the whole building - oops); using my sous vide machine (often my method of choice); or just simply pan-grilling.

Funny thing is, once we moved into our new townhouse and got an outdoor grill, all those techniques flew out the window.

Bryan bought a super high temperature Weber Summit grill soon after we moved into our house, and it's been our preferred tool for cooking steak.

Except we'd never tried making filet mignon on the grill before. After all, filet mignon has less inherent flavor, and thus it's more often eaten with a sauce. Most sauces benefit from a jus made from the browned bits you get from pan searing a tenderloin. It's harder to make a sauce when you have no jus.

So we thought we'd do an experiment. We invited our friends over for some steak. We divided four tenderloins into two preparations. Bryan would take two of the steaks and cook them on the grill. My friend Peter would pan sear the other two, making a sauce at the same time.

We would then use the sauce to eat with both steaks.

I love this steak au poivre recipe because it's dead simple. I hate having to gather a bunch of random ingredients when there's already so much stuff going on. This particular recipe only requires a few ingredients: kosher salt, peppercorns, butter, oil, cognac, and some heavy cream.

Easy. No need to chop shallots. No need to look for beef stock. It's so easy.

First step is simple. Remove the tenderloins from the refrigerator about an hour before you plan on cooking them so they can come to room temperature. Liberally salt the steaks on all sides.

Meanwhile, crush the peppercorns in a mortar and pestle. Once complete, put the peppercorns in a plate and coat the steaks with pepper on all sides by pressing them into the pile of peppercorns.

Set aside.

Bring a grill pan or normal cast iron pan to medium heat and melt the butter and oil. When the butter/oil mixture begins to smoke, add the steaks and begin cooking. In my case, open the windows and stand guard near the fire alarm in case it goes off!

Cook for about 4 minutes on each side for medium rare. Set aside, tent with foil and let the steak rest. Pour off any excess fat, but keep all the tasty browned bits in the pan! That's where your flavor is going to come from!

Prepare your cognac. Peter wanted me to take a picture of the cognac to show that "we don't use just any cognac."

Pour out about ⅓ of a cup.

Remove the pan from the heat (or just turn off the heat). Gently pour the cognac into the hot pan.

And then ignite!

Whoaaa! Honestly, I am so scared of fire I don't know if I could ever be the one igniting it. Definitely use a long match or a firestick. The flames will die pretty quickly. Shake the pan until the flames completely die.

Turn the heat back on to medium heat and add the cream. Bring the mixture to a boil and whisk until the sauce thickens to the point that it could coat the back of a spoon. Add another teaspoon of cognac and season to taste with salt.

Note: if you use a grill pan, it will be a little awkward to whisk since the cream and browned bits get encrusted over all the ridges. For saucemaking purposes, a normal cast iron pan works better. However, a grill pan gives you those nice grill marks on the steak. It's sort of your choice what you would prefer.

Add the steaks back in and coat them with the sauce.

And then serve!

Yummmmmm . . . soooo good.

Meanwhile, outside in the backyard, Bryan had cooked up two other filet mignon pieces on the grill. He cooked them for quite a short amount of time, about 1 ½ minutes per sides on a super hot flame (close to 700 ° F!).

We each got a piece of each style. The one on the left is the grilled steak. The one on the right is pan seared.

Can you guess which one was favored?

Even though the grilled was ever-so-slightly overcooked (due to the fact that the grill was a tad too hot), everyone preferred the smoky char that you can only get on a grilled piece of meat. The pan version was delicious, and we wouldn't have had the fantastic creamy cognac sauce had we not made a pan seared steak. However, we all much preferred the crispy, slightly charred smoky crust from the grilled steak.

I've read some recipes that suggest getting a cheap "throw-away" steak to use to make the sauce. Buy a tough cut that has a lot of flavor, and use that to make the pan sauce. Grill the tenderloins, and then use your pan sauce on the grilled steaks. Best of both worlds!

Most importantly, begin with good steak. We spotted some beautiful USDA prime filet mignon steaks at Costco several months back. The marbling on those steaks were superb, so we snatched some up and kept them in the freezer until we had a good day for grilling.

Now that the weather is starting to get better, I'm definitely looking forward to a lot more grilling!

Steak Au Poivre
Alton Brown
Link to original recipe

Ingredients
4 tenderloin steaks (filet mignon)
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons whole peppercorns, crushed with a mortar and pestle
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
⅓ cup cognac, plus 1 teaspoon
1 cup heavy cream

1. Remove the tenderloins from the refrigerator about an hour before you plan on cooking them so they can come to room temperature. Liberally salt the steaks on all sides.

2. Crush the peppercorns in a mortar and pestle. Once complete, put the peppercorns in a plate and coat the steaks with pepper on all sides by pressing them into the pile of peppercorns. Set aside.

3. Bring a grill pan or normal cast iron pan to medium heat and melt the butter and oil. When the butter/oil mixture begins to smoke, add the steaks and cook for about 4 minutes on each side for medium rare. Set aside, tent with foil and let the steak rest. Pour off any excess fat, but keep all the tasty browned bits in the pan!

4. Remove the pan from the heat (or just turn off the heat). Gently pour the cognac into the hot pan and ignite. Shake the pan until the flames die.

5. Turn the heat back on to medium heat and add the cream. Bring the mixture to a boil and whisk until the sauce thickens to the point that it could coat the back of a spoon. Add another teaspoon of cognac and season to taste with salt.

6. Add the steaks back in and coat them with the sauce.

7, Serve!

May 11, 2014 Davis Square

Saloon (Somerville, Davis Square, speakeasy)

Bryan's a huge fan of whiskey.He discovered his love for whiskey when he started traveling a lot. As his travel increased, his opportunities for upgrades shot up the roof. All of a sudden he found himself with ready access to all sorts of free liquor in airplanes (first class), airport lounges, and on business dinners.

It was during this time that he began trying all different types of liquors, quickly honing in on whiskey as one of his favorites. He has since amassed a nice collection in our home, including several scotch whiskies that he regularly picks up at Heathrow whenever he passes through London.

In light of all this, it was hardly a surprise when our close friends found out about the new award-winning restaurant/bar called Saloon and immediately told Bryan that they had to take him there.

Saloon is a pre-prohibition style speakeasy right in the heart of Davis Square. It is the brainchild of Ken Kelly and David Flanagan, the same folks who opened the extremely popular Foundry on Elm in 2010.

Just a few months ago in February 2014, Thrillist named Saloon one of the top 21 whiskey bars in America (the only one in MA to make the list). The article cited the bar's extensive collection of whiskies (150+) as well as their excellent pre-prohibition cocktails. On top of all that, Saloon also has over 30 beers.

Though drinks are definitely their specialty (the cocktails and spirits menus overwhelm the food menu), the food - Irish and British pub food with a bit of a new American creative flair - is surprisingly good.

We visited early on a Saturday evening with our friends and their one and a half year old daughter. The energetic, buzzing atmosphere and noise level made it perfectly fine for them to bring a small child, and the staff was more than accommodating. We decided to go for dinner as well as drinks.

The entrance is surprisingly hard to find. Look for an unmarked door with a single gaslight that says "Saloon" in small letters (I regret not taking a photo of it). You then walk down a flight of stairs before emerging into a brick and wood paneled dark room filled with leather seats.

It really does feel like a speakeasy.

The menu is definitely more meat focused (after all, it's inspired by British pub grub). It's hard to find a lot of vegetables on the menu. The closest we got to getting greens was from ordering the Caesar Salad ($12), which consisted of romaine lettuce, Parmesan, and croutons. The salad was simple but pretty unremarkable overall.
The Beer Battered Pickled Peppers, on the other hand, were a hit. These little fried balls are actually cherry peppers (deseeded so they're not too hot!) stuffed with Boursin cheese and ranch dressing. The resultant ball is hot, crunchy, and rich and gooey in the center. I found it to be quite heavy so I could only eat one, but Bryan happily popped several of them.The Saloon Chicken Wings ($13), which are served with a with savory honey mustard sauce, are also very good. The marinated wings have excellent flavor, and we really liked how it went with the mustard sauce.
I opted for the one vegetarian item on the menu, the Wild Mushroom Risotto, which is made with Carnaroli rice (an Italian short grain rice commonly used to make risotto) and includes various wild mushrooms, bitter greens, Parmesan, and extra virgin olive oil.

I enjoyed the dish a lot. Overall the dish was light but it had plenty of umami from the mushrooms and the Parmesan to make it a very flavorful dish.

There was a special that day which consisted of the Wild Mushroom Risotto but with the addition of beef cheeks. Since Bryan usually prefers meat in his meals, he opted for his version, which he preferred (though I preferred the vegetarian version!).
Our friend ordered the Beef Two Way special, which consisted of a duo of Braised Beef Cheeks and Beef Belly served with a side of popovers.

Drinks
After finishing the meal, Bryan and my friend Peter started tasting a bunch of different whiskies (mostly bourbons, since a vast majority of their whiskey collection - about 105 - consists of bourbons).

Because Bryan hadn't tried a lot of them before, he ended up asking the bartender to help us in tasting several, which he was happy to oblige. It was interesting to sample a variety of small tastes all at one place and figure out which particular regions or styles we liked better.

Initial Thoughts
All in all, Saloon is a fun place to visit especially if you enjoy American whiskey. They have an extensive collection (see the entire menu here), and it's fun to try different ones. The food is solid as well. I wouldn't exactly call it a destination restaurant for the food alone. However, if you're really into whiskey, you'll appreciate the fact that you can enjoy your whiskey along with many classic gastropub dishes that are well executed and quite enjoyable.

255 Elm Street
Somerville, MA

May 11, 2014 New York

Booker and Dax (David Chang) NYC

This is the fourth post in the New York Thanksgiving series. Other posts in this series include Momofuku Ssam Bar, Momofuku Ma Peche, and Gramercy Tavern.

Booked and Dax is not your typical bar.

Behind a simple looking menu and a seemingly normal exterior is a cutting edge laboratory experimenting with flavors and textures using the latest technology.

Fruits are transformed into completely clear liquids that still retain the flavors of the original fruit. Called "clarification", the technique involves blending fruit with an enzyme to remove all the pectin and hemicellulose before spinning it in a high powered centrifuge and straining it.

Infused oils such as horseradish oil are created by distillation in a rotary evaporator.

There's a lot of liquid nitrogen and dry ice around, which are used in everything from condensing vapors in the rotary evaporator to cooling down your glass before a cocktail is poured into it.

The presence of smoke is not uncommon.

Nor are huge flames.

Booker and Dax is a partnership between cocktail wizard and French Culinary Institute trained David Arnold and David Chang of Momofuku fame. In 2012, after the two had worked together on other projects, David Chang let David Arnold open up his dream cocktail bar in the space next to Momofuku Ssam Bar, previously occupied by Momofuku Milk Bar.

We stopped by here after our early dinner at Momofuku Ssam Bar (a 5PM dinner was the only way we were able to avoid waiting in line!). After I told the bartender my preferences (I don't like cocktails that are too sweet; I like spicy; and I enjoy citrus), he suggested their version of the classic cocktail, the Holland Razor Blade.

This cocktail comes with Genever (a juniper flavored gin from Holland), lemon juice, simple syrup, and Hell's bitters. The bitters definitely added a spiciness to the cocktail, which I liked. Overall, the cocktail was sophisticated in flavors and delicious.

They served a tiny cup of complimentary snacks to go with it, which included Kimchi "Cheez-its" and freeze fried corn.

We also tried the Corn Star, which consisted of corn, rye, lemon juice, and black pepper tincture.

This drink was surprisingly clear yet definitely had a strong essence of corn. I wondered whether there was clarified corn used in the cocktail.

The signature drink is anything from the "Red Hot Poker" section of the menu. The production of these crazy drinks is a show in and of itself. The bartender plunges a 1500 ° F flaming hot poker right into the drink. The intense fire caramelizes the sugars, evaporates a bit of the alcohol, and warms up the drink a lot.

If you can, try to snag a seat at the bar seats facing the bartender so you can watch this up close. It's fascinating and fun.

I love how the fire is still flaming in the cup after he's poured it.

This final hot drink is served in a simple coffee cup.

We stayed for about an hour, sampling 3-4 drinks and spending quite a bit of time just watching the bartender perform his "magic." The place wasn't too crowded at first. When we went after our early 5PM dinner, we had no trouble getting the coveted seats facing the bartender. The bar did fill up fast, and within 30-40 minutes, it was packed.

All in all, Booker and Dax is definitely a fun place to visit. David Arnold most certainly puts a lot of thought into his cocktails, and they are excellent. The nerdy science focus makes it all the better and more fun.

Booker & Dax
207 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10003

May 10, 2014 Appetizer

Soy Braised Beef Shank

Sometimes there are those days you just feel like eating simple, home cooking.

I definitely felt that way earlier this week. Perhaps it was the crazy traveling we've been doing. Or maybe it was the steady stream of restaurants we've been visiting lately. Whatever it was, I craved the simple flavors and dishes that my mom used to make when I was growing up. Dishes like Taiwanese meat sauce over rice (lurofan), tea eggs, stir fried vegetables, or anything with 5-spice tofu.

Even though I was already at work late, I made a point to stop by the Asian grocery store on my way home. When Bryan called to ask me what was for dinner, I said,

"I'm going to stop by C-Mart to pick up some stuff. I'm going to cook Chinese food."

"Why?"

"I don't know. For some reason that's all I feel like eating tonight."

All I wanted was simple Chinese food with rice. Maybe when things get busy, we long for food that's comfortable, familiar, and satisfying.

It was at the store that I saw the beef shanks. I was reminded of one of my favorite packable, freezable, all-around-super-handy dishes that my mom makes for me all the time.

It's not easy to find beef shanks cut in this way at normal American supermarkets. At most American supermarkets, the beef shanks are sliced across the bone and with the bone in place, sort of like osso bucco. I usually head to a Chinese market if I want to make this dish.

It's possible Korean markets sell it this way as well. I'm not really sure. Does anyone know?

This dish is easy. It just takes time.

Cut the shanks into equal sizes pieces (I cut each shank into three pieces about an inch or so thick).

Briefly "clean" the shanks by blanching them in boiling water for just a couple minutes. During this time some blood bits and other impurities will float to the top. Dump out this water and rinse the shanks.

In a pot, combine all the ingredients together (like ginger, scallions, star anise, wine, vinegar, and rock candy) plus water and soy sauce. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce to simmer for several hours.

There's a part of me that wants to try making this in a pressure cooker to see if I can save time. My mom thinks it's important for the liquid to evaporate, which means a pressure cooker alone would not work. However, I do wonder whether it could cut some of the time that it takes to soften / tenderize the shanks.

For my first try, of course, I decided not to take any risks. I cooked this dish the conventional way. After bringing the mixture to a boil, I brought the heat down to a simmer and let it cook for hours (at least two hours, if not more).

Over time, the liquid evaporates and the beef becomes softer and softer.

Finally after 2-3 hours (when much of the liquid will be gone), you can stop cooking. Remove the beef shank pieces from the pot and let it cool.

Important: Don't eat it right away! You must let it cool in the refrigerator overnight. It is much easier to thinly slice the meat once it's cold.

This dish is typically eaten cold. You can put it in a sesame flatbread sandwich with scallions and hoisin sauce or serve it on its own topped with cilantro and sesame oil. I find it super versatile, and love having some on hand in the freezer for those times when I'm in a bind and just need some meat to go with a makeshift beef noodle soup, as a topping over rice, or whatever I might be eating that day.

Soy Braised Beef Shanks
time: 3 hours
serves 4 as an appetizer

2 beef shanks, cut into 1-2 thick slices
1-2 scallions, cut into 1 inch segments
2-3 slices of ginger, julienned
1 star anise
½ cup soy sauce
enough water to cover shank
1 tablespoon cooking wine
1 tablespoon black vinegar (or Worcestershire sauce)
"coin sized" rock candy

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and quickly blanch the shanks for 1-2 minutes. Dump out this water and rinse the shanks.
2. In a clean pot, place the shank pieces in one layer at the bottom of the pot. Add scallions, ginger, star anise, soy sauce, cooking wine, black vinegar, soy sauce, and enough water so that the shanks are covered.
3.Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
4. Cook uncovered for 2-3 hours, or until the meat is very tender and soft.
5. Remove the shank pieces and let cool overnight in the refrigerator.
6. Thinly slice and serve! You can drizzle sesame oil (and possibly chili oil?) on top plus cilantro (or scallions).

*note - in the photos I was only cooking one shank. I think the recipe works better if there are two shanks. My pot was almost too big for just one shank.

Epilogue
My random weeknight home cooking really hit the spot. I made lotus root with pork and scallions (love lotus root!), 5-spice tofu with Chinese chives (one of my favorites), and simple stir fried baby bok choy (another quick standby that I love). Even though I was tempted to make the beef shank again that night, I didn't buy the shank because I didn't want to wait 3 hours before eating dinner.

Definitely save this one for a weekend!

May 9, 2014 Philadelphia

24 Hours in Philadelphia

Happy Friday!

March and April were crazy months. It's nice finally to take a step back and relax a bit in May. In March Bryan and I spent a week in Argentina (series still ongoing on the blog). Bryan proceeded to travel to Macau and then California while I held down the fort in Boston.

After that we traveled to New York City for a weekend (as part of one of my work trips) and then to Napa/Sonoma Valley for a quick weekend getaway following Bryan's work trip to San Francisco for a week.

Upon returning, Bryan hopped on another plane to visit North Carolina for work. We saw each other for two days before I hopped on a plane to visit Philly.

For just 24 hours.

It was a whirlwind trip, but very productive and fun.

I was visiting the Penn Taiwanese Society, who had invited me to come and share a little about myself as well as to give a workshop on food photography. They took such good care of me, taking me to their favorite local Chinese restaurant, the world's top gelato shop, and showing me around campus.

I took a 10AM flight and arrived just in time for lunch. The Penn Relays were going on, so the city was mobbed with runners. It was fascinating and inspiring at the same time.

I met up with several students from the Penn Taiwanese Society, who took me to Han Dynasty, one of their favorite restaurants, for lunch. One student even said he eats there every week (!). We had some delicious Beef and Tripe in Chili Oil (my favorite!), Dan Dan Noodle (one of their signature dishes), Stir fried Pea Shoots (another classic I love ordering anywhere), and Hot Sauce Style Fish.

The weather was perfect, so we sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. I took the opportunity to teach the students a little about food photography, emphasizing how outdoor "overcast" (or shadowy) areas provide better light for food photography than direct sunlight, which looks harsh.

After lunch, a couple of the students took me to Capogiro, one of the most famous gelato shops in Philly.

In fact, National Geographic rates Capogiro as the best ice cream shop in the world (yes, even above the ice cream in Argentina!)

I was super excited about this place. I had even mapped it out before arriving, knowing that it was within walking distance of my hotel.

The gelato is in fact delicious. My favorite was the dark chocolate, which was decadently rich, bittersweet, and super smooth.

I then briefly met up with food blogger and entrepreneur Vijay from Noshon.it, who used to live in Boston but recently moved to Philly. We met over excellent coffee at HubBub Coffee (also very close to U Penn), where I enjoyed a locally roasted pourover coffee while we traded thoughts about the best restaurants in both Philly and Boston.

At 4PM I headed straight for U Penn, where we prepared for my 4:30 workshop. I was giving a similar workshop I had already given at several other Asian societies around the US, including ITASA (Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association) in Atlanta, BAASIC (Boston Asian American Students' Coalition) in Boston, and TAP (Taiwanese American Professionals) in Boston.

This talk, however, was slightly different. Instead of just giving a food photography demo, I also shared extensively about myself.

I talked about my experiences growing up as a Taiwanese American in the US (more specifically, in the middle of Ohio where there weren't that many minorities). I shared about my own personal struggles with career choices, and detailed how I made the switch from chemist to patent attorney and what I've learned along the way.

Finally, after giving them some food photography tips (you can see a summary of my food presentation at this post), I had them go for it! They got into teams and food styled to their hearts' content.

I was floored by their creativity.

Check it out!

Oxo was kind enough to sponsor part of the event, donating mixing bowls (which I LOVE), wooden spoons, tongs, cutting boards, and measuring cups (see it all here). We ended up giving away a few sets as prizes for the event. I also gave away a precious copy of the excellent cookbook Taiwanese Homestyle Cooking, written by Taiwanese moms across America.

Unfortunately because I was busy teaching and talking during most of this event, I took way too few photos. Thankfully, PTS did a great job taking tons of photos, which you can see at this album on Penn Taiwanese Society's facebook page.

I had a fabulous time, and everyone was so awesome. Thanks for being such great hosts!

That evening, I watched a stunning sunset while walking to dinner through the lovely quaint neighborhoods of University City in Philadelphia.
I met up with an old college friend who lives in Philly now. We had a unique molecular gastronomy - inspired tasting menu which will be described in a separate post (because it would really make this post way too long!)

My friend and I traded stories and had a richly memorable evening catching up - reminiscing about the future and sharing about our current lives. I was so touched. Her husband was out of town that weekend so I thought it might be difficult to meet up. Somehow she managed to get her mom to stay over at her house for the night to watch her four (!) kids so that she could come out to the city to have dinner with me.

Times like this I realize how precious my college friendships really are. Trust me - it's harder to make friends once you graduate, get married, and (I'm guessing) have children. Hang onto those friends you made in college - they will be friends for a lifetime.

The next morning, I got up super early to catch an 8:30AM flight in order to make it back to Boston in time for church. It was a whirlwind 24 hours. I feel richly blessed to have been able to meet so many amazing people, experience so many angles of this fantastic city, and also to be able to catch up with old friends.

May 7, 2014 Las Vegas

Scarpetta (Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas)

It's easy to get suspicious of a restaurant's food quality when it's situated in the middle of a happening area with breathtaking views. These types of places attract people because of the views they offer, not necessarily because of the food. More often than not, these restaurants are overpriced, have mediocre food, and are aimed towards tourists and those that don't know any better.

After suffering through my share of the touristy-type restaurants mentioned above (especially in Italy!), I've learned to be immediately suspicious of any restaurant with a breathtaking view.

I've also learned to do tons of food research before traveling to a destination so that every single meal is worth my time, stomach space, and money.

In Las Vegas, one of the most breathtaking "views" in the city is of the fountains at Bellagio. I love the fountains and could spend hours just watching them.*

There are only a few, select restaurants that have the privilege of facing the fountains. Diners at these places can enjoy their meals while soaking in the phenomenal show outside.

Knowing that a good view often equals mediocre food, it's no surprise that I was suspicious of these restaurants along the fountains.

I'm so happy to report that so far, my experience in Las Vegas has far exceeded my expectations. Our dinner at 2 Michelin-starred Picasso (which faces the fountains) was lovely, and I loved every moment of the fountain experience.

Similarly, my dinner at Scarpetta, a relatively new Italian restaurant in Vegas (one of five worldwide), was excellent, with fantastic Italian favorites in a beautiful space.

Scarpetta is located inside the Cosmopolitan, a relatively new but extremely popular (and hip) casino, opened up in 2010 right next to the Bellagio. The Cosmopolitan has a gorgeous bar (complete with a 3-story tall chandelier!), a collection of excellent restaurants, and a buzzing energy inside the place.

Bryan and I met up with some local friends here because they had heard great things about the restaurant. Furthermore, they knew Bryan loves Italian, and we were looking for something non-steak since my friend would be eating steak again in a few days (and we had just enjoyed another 9-month dry aged Riserva steak just a few days prior at Carnevino).

We started with a beautiful shaved salad of zucchini, summer squash, and radicchio served with shaved Parmesan cheese and toasted hazelnuts. It was light, well balanced (loved the crunch of the hazelnuts!), and had a good level of umami from the salty cheese.

All of their pasta is homemade and is beautifully al dente. The tagliatelle came with winter vegetables, truffle zabagalione & guanciale. It was rich, creamy, and very satisfying.
One of the restaurant's most famous dishes is the simple Spaghetti Tomato & Basil ($24). Frank Bruni from the New York Times was so blown away by Chef Conant's command of the tomato flavor in this dish that he calls it "tomato sorcery" and asserts this dish stacks up again any dish he's had in Italy.

That's a pretty crazy claim.

All the pasta dishes were delicious, but this one was definitely my favorite. The homemade spaghetti is thick and chewy, and the tomato sauce is vibrant, sweet, and oh-so-tomatoey. It's fresh without being too acidic. It's really, really good.

We loved the Short Rib Agnolotti, ($25), which was simply served with brown butter, horseradish and toasted breadcrumb. These are tiny little pockets filled with a rich and savory burst of ultra tender short ribs. We were surprised at the reasonably generous portion size, especially at a nicer restaurant like this. Again, we loved the pasta texture as well as the flavorful filling.

This beautiful duck breast was cooked a perfect medium rare, and it was delicious. It came with roasted baby carrots, purple cauliflower, butternut squash puree, and a savory duck jus.
The Fennel Dusted Black Cod was also excellent, and was served with mantecato (a creamy whipped salt cod mousse), intensely concentrated tomatoes, and roasted fennel.

We ordered two sides dishes. The Mushrooms came with a mix of trumpet royale, beech, and Shitake mushrooms topped with shaved Pecorino and tossed in Trucioleto vinegar.

We also got a side of Brussels sprouts, which came with pancetta, breadcrumbs, and pecorino. It was solid though nothing particularly groundbreaking.
Our first dessert was the Coconut Panna Cotta, which came with caramelized pineapple and a bright guava “soup”. It was refreshing and a perfect way to cleanse the palate.

The Chocolate Souffle, served with gianduja crumble, cookie dough and a side of spiced hot chocolate, was fantastic. I loved the deep, rich chocolate flavor as well as the warm - almost creamy yet spongy - texture of the souffle. Totally worth the wait.

The meal finally ended with simple Italian cookies as our mignardises.

All throughout dinner, we tried our best to peer out the window to enjoy the fountain show. We weren't sitting at one of the coveted window seats, so it was admittedly a bit harder to enjoy the show. Nevertheless, the food was excellent; the conversation with our friends was good; and overall we had a wonderful time at Scarpetta.

I would definitely recommend this place if you're looking for a place on the Strip with nice views and very good Italian food. It's worth the trip alone just for the fantastic Spaghetti Tomato & Basil.

*In fact, that is just what I did several years ago when we scored a great price on fountain-facing rooms at the Bellagio in dead heat of the desert summer (many discounts abound during this time in Vegas). All night long, I just listened to the music (which is piped into all the rooms via the TV) and watched the shows outside my window.

May 7, 2014 Michelin

Gramercy Tavern (New York City)

This is the third post in the New York Thanksgiving series. Other posts in this series include Momofuku Ssam Bar and Momofuku Ma Peche.There are some restaurants that just get it right.

I have heard about Gramercy Tavern since seemingly forever ago. This should not be a surprise.

After all, it's been open since 1994 and has won numerous awards since then. Zagat gives it a 28/30, which is extremely impressive considering the competitive New York market. For reference, consider the fact that Michelin three-star restaurants get similar scores: Per Se, Daniel, and Eleven Madison Park all similarly scored 28; Le Bernardin scored 29).

Gramercy Tavern also boasts one Michelin star as well as a three star rating from New York Times.

It's always been on my list, though for some reason I never made it out until that blustery, November Thanksgiving weekend last year when Bryan and I braved freezing temperatures to stand outside and watch the Macy's Parade.

The decor is cozy and comfortable. The front area, called the "Tavern", is bright and sunny, due to the huge windows at the front of the restaurant. The Tavern does not take reservations (walk-in only), and offers a la carte dining.

The inside area, the Dining Room, is darker and more cozy and romantic. The Dining Room offers tasting menus and fixed price menus, as well as a la carte during lunch. Here's the view from my seat, where you can see the Dining Room on the left and the Tavern on the right.

We went at lunch to the Dining Room, and were pleasantly surprised at the reasonable prices considering the quality of the food we were getting. I started with this beautiful lobster dish served with diced apples and multicolored cauliflower over a beautiful parsnip purée.

Here's another view. Overall the dish was lovely - subtle yet everything was perfectly balanced and well seasoned. The lobster had perfect texture and the creamy parsnip puree was not too sweet.

Bryan ordered the homemade parpadelle dish with smoked duck, Brussels sprouts, and hazelnuts in a gorgeous duck jus sauce. It was excellent. The sauce had a beautifully rich umami flavor and thick ribbon pasta had the perfect al dente texture.

I absolutely loved my entree, which was a vivid green risotto made from barley in a green arugula oil sauce. Although it was just a tad oily it had a beautifully deep, rich mushroom flavor as well as tons of umami. I also really enjoyed the al dente texture of the barley.

Bryan got the lamb, which was beautifully cooked (look at that lovely rare meat!). It came with nicely charred sun chokes, a whole grain mustard that wasn't too spicy, and mushrooms. Overall the dish had excellent flavor.

We decided to share one dessert -the one called "Apple". It had many components of apple, including an apple "gel" tube on top, compressed apple, and thin slices of fresh apple. In the middle was a lychee rice pudding (with basmati rice blended within) on top of a black sesame crust. The overall dessert was quite light, and you needed to take pretty big bites to taste the whole complex realm of flavors. It was good.

We are so happy that they "forgot" and accidentally brought us an extra dessert, the Pear. I loved this one. I found it to be my favorite by a long shot. This dessert came with cubes of compressed pear, dried pear "chips", and a pear creme brûlée in the center. These were paired with a delicious caramel and a crumble "deconstructed" crust sprinkled throughout. I loved the complex mixture of flavors, textures, and even temperatures. It was excellent.

The desserts were a tough act to follow: maybe a bit too tough. I found the mignardises to be too sweet. Maybe I should have asked for some coffee. From left to right: nougat, macaron w/ poppyseeds, and a chocolate truffle filled with fruit.

Despite being slightly sweetened out at the end, I still left the restaurant extremely happy with my meal. The food was excellent, and the prices were surprisingly reasonable. Appetizers range from $12 to $18; entrees range from $21 to $25; and desserts are $12 each. You can also get a 5-course tasting menu for $58.

Dinner tasting menus start at $92 for three courses, with special tasting menus costing either $120 (seasonal) or $102 (vegetarian).

The Tavern menu, which we did not try, has similar prices as the Dining Room lunch menu, but is available at night as well. They offer a fun looking 4-course dinner tasting menu for $48, which comes with an optional $20 beer pairing (fun!).I was very impressed with the food and would not hesitate to come back again. I am especially curious to try the Tavern menu, which looks pretty exciting. In general, I see Gramercy Tavern as the type of place where you know that anything you order will be very good - designed with thoughtful creativity and executed with precision. It's the type of place I could totally imagine visiting regularly if I lived in the area.Highly recommended.

Gramercy Tavern
Gramercy/Flatiron
42 E 20th St
New York, NY 10003

May 5, 2014 Japan

Sushi Taku (Tokyo, Michelin)

This an addendum post to the Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka series. Other posts in this series include the intro post: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, Matsugen (soba), Sushi Iwa, Ramen Honda (Tokyo Ramen Street), Ryugin, Omen (udon), Shouraian (tofu), Dotonbori in Osaka (street food), Taian (3-star Michelin), and Sushi Sho/Shou (Chef Keiji Nakazawa), and Nakamura (3 star Michelin kaiseki)

You thought I was done with the Japan series, didn't you?Well, technically I am done. Nakamura, the last post in my series, was most certainly meant to be the pinnacle post of that series. However, I had sort of forgotten about two very, very nice meals that Bryan enjoyed in Tokyo when he was there solo.

After rolling off of a 12 hour flight from Boston (arriving at the hotel around 9PM), Bryan asked the hotel concierge for late-night restaurant recommendations.

"There is an excellent soba place just a 10 minute walk away."

Bryan had already eaten there, twice, during our last trip to Japan, so he asked for something different.

"I see you are eating sushi later this week, so maybe something different?"

Without hesitation, Bryan replied "No, I'm always happy to eat sushi."

The hotel concierge immediately booked Bryan a last minute (10PM!) reservation at a Michelin two star restaurant, Sushi Taku, in the Nishiazabu neighborhood. Armed with his new snazzy Sony point-and-shoot, Bryan attempted to channel me on this trip, taking photos of every piece of fish, writing down notes, and frankly, doing a pretty good job of providing me plenty of content to use for this post.

Sushi Taku is unusual in that its chef owner, Takuya Satosushi, is both a sushi chef and a sommelier. Unlike most traditional sushi restaurants, which more often pair sushi with sake or beer, Sushi Taku is known for pairing sushi with wine.

Takuya Sato opened Sushi Taku in 2005 at the ripe age of 30 after having trained at well-known places in Tokyo like Kyubey and Zorokusushi.

The meal started out with a delicious crab and crab roe wakame salad (not pictured because the photo was just too blurry!). Because it was autumn, they also served baby potatoes and ginkgo nuts (my favorite!).

Below is a rundown of the whole omakase. There won't be as much detail about the flavors of each dish since I wasn't actually there (Bryan took quite a few notes about the details of each fish, he didn't really provide tasting notes!).

1. Red snapper (tai)
2. Butterfish (ebodai)
3. Round clam (bakagai) was supposed to be eaten with a bit of salt.

4. Needlefish, or sayori, is also known as the Japanese half beak. This version was cooked and eaten with salt.
5. Eggplant sashimi
6. Uni from Hokkaido

7. Spanish mackerel that was lightly cooked
8. Yellowtail (hamachi) sushi
9. Sea eel (anago) served grilled on a stick

In general the chefs at Sushi Taku were really friendly. If they couldn't explain something in English, they would bring up the book and show you a picture of what you were eating. Bryan took many pictures from book pages, which was invaluable in helping me figure what the heck he ate.

10. Sushi rice cracker
11. Cooked oyster, eaten with either soy sauce or salt
12. Steamed lotus roots with shrimp (ebi) and sea eel (anago)

13. This next course was rice topped with salmon roe (ikura) and sea urchin (uni). You use the spoon to mix all the lovely flavors together.

14. Daikon paper thin sheets
Check out those mad knife skills. If you want to see what this looks like in person, I have a pretty cool video of it in my Kyubey post.

15. Tuna (maguro) nigiri sushi
16. Fatty tuna (toro) nigiri sushi
17. Gizzard Shad (kohada) nigiri. An interesting fact is that the chef does not make sashimi from kohada. He only uses it for sushi.

19. Gorgeous grilled kamasu (Japanese whiting) served with Japanese yam (reminds me of taro)
20. Spanish mackerel (sawara) sushi
21. Shrimp (ebi) sushi

At this point the chef asked Bryan, "how much more?"

Even though Bryan had eaten quite a lot, he asked for three more pieces.

Before the last three pieces arrived, out came a bowl of baby clam and shellfish soup.

This was followed by a gorgeously seared baby snapper (kodai) sushi.

Sea eel, or Anago, sushi (also cooked).

And finally, a beautiful seared piece of golden eye snapper (kinmedai) with skin.

Every sushi meal ends with a sweet egg, tamago, and this meal was no different.

What was different were the five (yes, can you believe it?) kinds of ice cream for dessert. I would have loved to try these flavors: soy sauce, ginger, roast tea, brown rice tea, and kinako (roasted soy bean flour).

Overall, Bryan enjoyed Sushi Taku quite a lot. It turns out, however, that the best dish he's ever had (in his entire life!) would come just a few days later on this same business trip, also in Tokyo, of course.

Stay tuned!

May 4, 2014 Argentina

Cabana Las Lilas (Argentina steak)

This is the fifth post in the Hello Argentina Series detailing my week-long trip in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other posts include Hello Argentina, La Cabrera, La Rambla,Empanadas, Tamales, and Beer, Oh My!, and Buenos Aires Three Most Famous Ice Cream Shops.

"Who has the best steak in Buenos Aires?"

You can try your hardest to search as much as possible on this subject, and you'll soon realize that there's no real agreement.

Sure, there are the obvious famous ones, like La Cabrera, which not only can be found in every single guide book, it's also listed on prestigious lists such as the S. Pellegrino Latin American Top 50 Restaurants list.

But there are always naysayers to these popular destinations, saying that they are "over-hyped" and not as good as people think. It gets overwhelming and confusing pretty fast.

I knew I had limited time in Buenos Aires and, more importantly, a limited number of meals. Just like every food-obsessed tourist before me, I tried my best to choose my restaurants wisely.

Part of me knew I had to try La Cabrera, since most sources still cited it as one of the best. However, I was intrigued by the many people who would often point to other steak parillas (grill places) as being better than La Cabrera.

Were they right? Was I missing out?

And if I were to pick one, which one should I choose?

It was a hard and agonizing decision. I finally sought the advice of my food friend and food blogger, Cindy, from Chubby Chinese Girl. Cindy grew up in Argentina and was just back there a few years ago.

Cindy gave me tons of advice. She personally preferred Cabanas Las Lilas over La Cabrera, which she found underwhelming.

Cindy told me to make sure to get the sweetbreads, which were amazing.

At the end of the day, I decided I trusted Cindy a lot more than the mixed messages I was getting from all these food forums, so Bryan and I booked dinner at Cabanas Las Lilas our very first night in Buenos Aires.

Cabana Las Lilas is located in the modern Puerto Madero neighborhood, a beautiful riverside area that's lined with shops and restaurants. Some people say it's the safest neighborhood in Buenos Aires.

Though the neighborhood is a bit further from some of the sites, it's a beautiful place to walk around at night. It's also where our hotel was located, which made it an easy place to visit on our first night in a new foreign city.

If the weather's nice, diners can sit outside with lovely views of the river.

The minute you walk in Cabanas Las Lilas, you feel like you are in a restaurant that's serious about its steak.

We walked by multiple huge grills as well as saw all different cuts of meat laid out. It was pretty incredible.

It's a bit sneaky, but without asking, they bring you a plate full of antipasti soon after you sit down. It consists of tomato and mozzarella salad, prosciutto, grilled zucchini, and smoked salmon. It's nice to get food immediately if you're super hungry, though they do charge you for it.

In general, we found the starting antipasto to be ordinary and nothing special. Part of me wished I hadn't used up so much stomach space eating it, though it was nice to get some food right away.

Now the accompanying (unlimited) cheese bread, on the other hand, was a completely different story. This bread reminded me of the Brazilian cheese bread that I love so much. I popped these like candy, and happily accepted a second helping when they came around and asked.

In general the service was good, despite the fact that the restaurant is HUGE and there is a ton of activity going on. Each table got a fun pretzel shaped bread (I believe it was rosemary flavored?) which we split between us.

Totally due to Cindy's recommendation, we knew we had to order the sweetbreads. These were indeed fantastic. They were beautifully grilled and delectably juicy.

These sweetbreads do have a bit of that liver-like offal flavor, so if you're not a big fan of liver or similar types of offal, you may not love this.

Our server highly recommended this 2009 Black Tears malbec as one of his favorites, and it was good and pretty reasonably priced (around $50 USD?) though most wine in Argentina's restaurants will feel cheaper than wine in the US.

Sides are all ordered a la carte. Although simple grilled vegetables may not have been our first choice, our server highly recommended this side, so we got it. It was good - nicely grilled zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, and mushrooms.

The server also recommended that we get the sauteed mushrooms in butter, which were pretty tasty. You can see him serving them to Bryan here straight out of the copper pot.

And then finally, finally, our steaks came. I decided to get hangar steak since it was a bit smaller and I'd heard that they are really flavorful. The steak was very good. I had to cut the steak sideways (not the way you would expect) in order to cut against the grain. Cutting this way made the steak much more tender.

Bryan got the ribeye (ojo de bife), his favorite cut of meat. He loved the smoky flavor that came from the high heat charcoal grill. The steak was also very flavorful and much less fatty than American beef. Most Argentinian beef is grass fed, and you can definitely tell.

Bryan realized after tasting this lean, grass-fed beef that he actually preferred fatty beef, like American style corn-fed beef or especially Japanese A5 Wagyu beef.

At the end of the meal, they brought over two pretty large bottles of complimentary after-dinner dessert drinks: limoncello and grappa.

Bryan much preferred the grappa and finished the entire bottle (!!).

For dessert, we ordered my favorite - flan. I'd had it at Spanish restaurants but this was my first time trying it in Argentina.

One major difference between Argentinian flan and Spanish flan is that Argentinians are obsessed with dulce de leche, a caramel made from milk and sugar cooked at low temperatures for hours. EVERYTHING seems to have dulce de leche as an accompaniment, including this flan.

The dulce de leche was delicious, so I was not complaining at all.

All in all, we had a really great meal at Cabana Las Lilas our first night in Buenos Aires. The ambiance is definitely more casual than that of La Cabrera (which felt more like a nice steakhouse), though we found the service to be fine. In general we thought the sides and other dishes were executed with more finesse and higher quality at at La Cabrera. However, we both preferred the steak at Cabanas Las Lilas. Consistent with what Cindy recommended, their sweetbreads are indeed fantastic.

All in all, it probably wasn't worth stressing so much over which restaurants to choose. We ended up enjoying every steak we had in Argentina. After all, steaks are inherently pretty tasty over there. Between Cabana Las Lilas and La Cabrera, you won't go wrong.

May 4, 2014 Tidbits

31 Posts in 31 Days - My Personal May Challenge

Uluru - in the Outback in Australia

The other day I was looking through my old blog posts. I was shocked that I had reached over 1000 posts on this blog (can you believe it???!!) and was looking back through the years. One thing that sort of blew me away was how often I blogged in 2010 (255 posts that year!). It was a crazy year that culminated in the epic blog posts that I wrote while competing for Project Food Blog (which I eventually won).

The month of February particularly caught my eye.

28 posts in 28 days.

Really??!!

How in the world did I do that? I can hardly get out three posts a week now. I can't imagine 7 posts a week.

Shining Sea Bike Trail, Cape Cod (Falmouth to Woods Hole)

And then I thought, "why don't I try?"

I know. It's a bit crazy, and it's been years since I've written at that intensity.

But I like a good challenge. Plus, there's SO MUCH content that I've been wanting to share on the blog, but I just keep falling behind.

Like our weekend trip to Cape Cod last summer, where we biked a ton of gorgeous trails, enjoyed some of freshest and best seafood I've ever tasted, and soaked in the peaceful scenery.

Or my trip to Atlanta, Georgia, where I visited one of the most famous southern restaurants and had the best shrimp & grits in my life.

And then there are my multiple trips to Montreal (my work has an office there), which I've covered somewhat on the blog, but nowhere close to completion.

Speaking of Canada, there's also the boat trip we took from Vancouver (beautiful city!) to Victoria through the islands . . .

. . . where we saw the most impressive botanical garden I've ever seen in my life.

And finally, I still can't believe I haven't written a single post about our three week trip to Australia and New Zealand with Bryan's parents to celebrate their retirement.

The Outback had such unusual landscape, and it's there that we tried some more exotic game meats, such as kangaroo, emu, and bison.

And New Zealand is most certainly one of the most beautiful countries I have ever visited.

Milford Sound, New Zealand

I've resolved to try this challenge.

31 posts in 31 days.

I can't guarantee that I'll be able to regularly write a new post every day, but my goal is to have 31 posts by the end of May, even if it means I publish two posts on certain days (if I skip one, ha ha).

New Zealand

I'm hoping I can take the opportunity to "catch up" a bit on my growing backlog of posts I want to write. It may mean writing in a slightly different way - perhaps writing shorter posts, more compilations (versus individual posts for each restaurant / site), or whatnot.

Milford Trek, New Zealand

Whatever turns out, I see this as an interesting experiment as well as a chance to motivate myself to go above and beyond what I normally do for this blog. I tend to be goal-driven anyway (competing in Project Food Blog most definitely showed me how intensely crazy I can get when there's a goal in sight), so I'm hoping this internal goal will help me to explore new ways to write, be more creative about the content I post, and most importantly, to HAVE FUN.

I hope you enjoy this next month!

May 2, 2014 California

Quick Weekend Getaway in Napa / Sonoma Valley

Cheers!

Bryan and I took a short getaway trip to Napa/Sonoma Valley a couple weeks ago when it was still bitterly cold here in Boston. Frankly I must say, I'm a little jealous of Bryan, who's managed to pretty mush escape the depressing weather we've been having here. He's traveled a lot the last couple months.

After our trip to Argentina (where it was summer), he headed straight to Macau (where it's always hot), and then to California before spending a week in Indiana (OK, admittedly cold). Meanwhile during this time I hung out in Boston, wishing so much for just a hint of spring.

Finally, just a couple weeks ago, we hit the tail end of Bryan's crazy travel schedule. He would be spending a week in San Francisco. Would I like to join him at the end and maybe we could head to wine country again?

You must know by know that I absolutely love visiting wine country. The scenery is breathtaking, the food is top notch, and the weather is always beautiful around this time of year.

The mustard flowers are just blooming, covering the plains with a rich blanket of yellow. It's the greenest time of year for the area, where rolling hills are verdant.

It's seriously the perfect getaway from the Boston winter.

Before we drove up to wine country, we spent one evening in San Francisco, enjoying a fantastic 2-Michelin star Moroccon restaurant.

The prices were surprisingly reasonable (are certain ethnic foods just always a little less expensive?) and it was fantatic and just as exquisite as a French restaurant at twice the price.

I met an old friend at one of the few places in SF that makes its own mochi in-house, and tried several. YUM.

And then we were off! Though we ran into some snafus trying to get our rental convertible (they had "oversold" their cars and ran out by the time we arrived), we eventually got the car we needed after Bryan held his ground and fought hard (sometimes it's nice to be married to a fighter if you're on his side).

We first stopped at one of only six biodynamic vineyards in Sonoma. It was fascinating to learn about how much land is "sacrificed" for the habitat of animals that are friendly to the grapes growing on the remaining land. The wine was also delicious, and we ended up buying a bottle to bring to dinner later.

We then took a beautiful hike through a state park whose land used to be owned by a famous author.

It was a refreshing, physical break from the food and wine of the rest of the weekend.
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For dinner we enjoyed an excellent dinner in Sonoma Square with a well-known winemaker and Hollywood name.

We stayed in the heart of Napa at the Westin, which was not only conveniently located, it was lovely in and of itself.

Bryan and I walked over to the Napa Wine Train station, which was right across the street from the Westin. We relaxed and had a lovely multi-course meal during a three-hour train right across the wineries.

Napa itself is a fun town to visit, and we enjoyed some excellent coffee at the local upscale marketplace just a few minutes walk away.

For dinner, we headed into Sonoma to have pizza that was (ironically) inspired by the East Coast, the famous pizzas in new Haven, to be exact.
On Easter morning we visited to a fantastic family-owned bake shop in Sonoma where we tried a number of delectable pastries as well as the best salted chocolate chip cookie I've ever had.

We enjoyed an inspiration Easter service in Petaluma where we learned some great new songs, saw several people get baptized, and were overall blessed by the warm congregation.

That afternoon, we stopped by another family winery where we enjoyed one of the best tasting menus and wine pairing values (7 mini courses for only $35 including wine!) in the area.

Finally, for dinner we had a great Michelin-starred fancy meal right in our own hotel. The food was excellent, and it was nice to just "roll" into our beds upstairs after this extensive tasting menu.

It was tough to leave after such a short trip, but it was time to go back home: back to work, back to reality. We drove over the new Bay Bridge while watching them break down the old Bay Bridge. I knew it would be the last time in a long time we could enjoy a convertible with the top down!

Stay tuned the several weeks as I go into detail on all these places I visited.

May 1, 2014 Back Bay

Precinct Kitchen in the Boston Loews Hotel (Back Bay, Boston)

It's been about four months since my offices moved to Boston city proper, and I'm loving it. Sure, there are a few drawbacks. My commute is about 50% longer than it used to be. The seaport area is cold and windy. Walking around that area was especially challenging this past winter.

However, there are the many, many perks.

I love being so close to Chinatown. Now I regularly stop by C Mart (near South Station) to pick up Asian groceries on my way home. I love having ready access to baby bok choy, Chinese hot sauce, and fresh (packaged) hand pulled noodles.

I also love being close to so many great restaurants. I'm just a block away from Fort Point, where there are fantastic coffee shops and restaurants. Downtown Boston and Chinatown are only a 15-20 minute walk away. Similarly, the North End is only about 1.5 miles away. I often jog there and back in the middle of the day.

Finally, it's so much easier to check out new restaurants in Boston city proper. In the past, it felt cumbersome to head "into Boston" from Cambridge in the middle of the workweek to try new restaurants.

Now, everything is on the way home.

Just a couple nights ago, I took full advantage of this newfound advantage. Bryan and I visited Precinct Kitchen, a beautifully appointed and completely renovated new restaurant that just opened about a month ago in the Boston Loews Hotel in Back Bay.

Precinct Kitchen has a warm and inviting decor. I felt immediately at ease after descending down the stairs into this cozy space. There are rows and rows of logs as well as a warm fire right at the entrance. Though it was too cold the day I went, there is also a large outdoor patio area with fire pits that will be really fun in the summertime.

They have a spacious bar area which serves charcuterie, cheese, bar snacks, as well as a selection of cocktails and other drinks. Bryan tried the Nor’Easter (bourbon, maple and ginger) while I tried their Bloody Melinda (vodka, tomato, clam juice). It was a solid drink, with a definitive spicy kick as well as real clams inside.

Precinct Kitchen aims to serve charcuterie from various family farms. On the night we went, the server told us that the cured meats were from Pennsylvania. Our Charcuterie Board ($16) came with Berkshire prosciutto, Napoli salumi, chorizo, duck parfait, grain mustard, and mostardo. On the side we received four slices of toasted "rustic bread."

Bryan (who loves all things liver and duck) really enjoyed the duck parfait, which was decadently creamy and had a pronounced liver flavor. I really enjoyed the mostardo, which consisted of caramelized shallots cooked in white wine and mixed with mustard seeds. It was creamy, sweet, and had a nice blend of flavors. Overall the cured meats were solid, and I enjoyed the accompaniments.

We paired this with single glasses of the Justin Cabernet Sauvignon ($12).

The server highly recommended the Burrata Crostini, which was delicious. Three crostini came topped with roasted red peppers, basil, mint, marcona almonds, and tons of pine nuts ($12). I really liked the sweetness of the roasted red peppers as well as the textural contrast from the pine nuts. Overall there was a great balance of flavors and textures.

We always try to order some sort of greens to balance out the meal. This particular salad actually had a lot of my favorite ingredients. Baby kale and arugula were tossed with quinoa salad, orange segments, sunflower seeds, and shaved feta in a citrus vinaigrette ($10). Although the arugula was milder than I prefer (I like it quite bitter!), overall I thought it was an enjoyable salad.

Precinct specializes in New England cuisine with a focus on seafood. They have steamed mussels, east coast oysters, and even a whole clam bake complete with all sorts of steamed seafood (including lobster!).

I went ahead and ordered the Seared Georges Bank Scallops which came with parsnip purée and a marinated warm mushroom sauce ($28). The parsnip purée was pretty sweet and buttery but was balanced out by the umami of the mushroom sauce. Overall, the dish was solid but nothing special. Additionally, the scallops were cooked just *slightly* over what I typically prefer.
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The Branzino, which came served with roasted fennel, citrus, and shallot vinaigrette, was excellent and probably one of the best items we had that night. The skin was nicely seasoned - salty, lemony, and slightly crisp - and added a ton of flavor to the tender white meat inside. We enjoyed this with a glass of 14 Hands Cabernet Sauvignon, which was more tannic and less sweet than the Justin Cabernet.

I can never stay away from Parmesan Truffle Fries ($6). These were solid and had decent flavor, but weren't quite up to par with the best fries I've ever had. They were also a tad cold. We still polished off the entire bowl, though.

Similarly, the Broccoli Rabe side dish (served with lemon zest - $6), was fine but nothing I couldn't make at home.

The sleepy side dishes were totally made up by the signature dessert, Strawberries & Cream Brioche Toast, which was divine. The brioche toast is covered in a layer of burnt sugar caramel, which not only adds a bit of sugary "crunch" to the toast, but also contributes a deep, caramel-y, almost bitter, burnt sugar flavor. I loved it; Bryan, who found the bitterness distracting, not so much. I thought it went perfectly with the fresh strawberries and cream on top.

All in all, we had a great meal there. If I were to go back, I would recommend getting the charcuterie plate (or maybe a cheese board?), burrata crostini, the branzino, and the strawberries & cream brioche toast. Those were definitely our favorite dishes.

The night we went the bar was packed but the dining room was only half full. Perhaps it's because it's still so new. It seems like this place hasn't quite gotten on everyone's radar screens yet, even though it's in a pretty convenient location.

All in all, I see this as a great place to take business clients or to meet friends after work. The dining area is really beautiful and pretty quiet. The bar area is louder and more happening. Both feel warm and cozy. The food is all around solid with a few standouts. Prices seem reasonable overall. The seafood and charcuterie focus along with the decor makes the place feel very farm-to-table New England.

May 1, 2014 (today!) is their grand opening.

I spoke with the sous chef, Andy, who told me that once things settle down from the initial few months, they hope to roll out more specials. They will be changing the menu seasonally, and expanding the menu once they get comfortable.

Disclaimer - I did not pay for this meal. All opinions are my own.

April 30, 2014 Sponsored

Spicy Tomato Jam

One of my earliest memories of tomato jam was at a restaurant near my house.

It was made by one of my favorite local chefs, Will Gilson (now chef-owner of Puritan & Co), who used it as a topping over bacon. It was fantastic. I loved the deep, intense, and sweet tomato essence paired with the smoky, salty bacon.

And then I had it again, this time at a pop-up called Whisk, where they served it alongside beef tartare and a sunny side up egg.

I've always wanted to try making it myself (even saying so in this early, early post at Menton), yet never had the time or inclination to actually figure out how to do it. After all, jam making sounds hard, and the idea of standing over a pot for hours sounded intimidating.

A couple weeks ago I became re-inspired to try while having a conversation with a woman from Sonoma Valley.

She told me that homemade ketchup was delicious but a real pain to make. It usually takes days and then it disappears just like that. She said it was so much work she stopped doing it.

"Now tomato jam, on the other hand, I make all the time. I love it. You throw everything into a pot, boil it down, and in a couple hours you have tomato jam."

"That stuff is so good I could eat it all the time."

I remembered my old promise to myself, that someday I would try making tomato jam. After searching around the internet a bit (the woman told me she used Mark Bittman's recipe with her own tweaks), I ended up following a similar path.

I picked up some Backyard Farms tomatoes as part of a partnership we're doing together right now. I decided to get the cocktail tomatoes (the little ones) because they are sweeter and I felt that their intense flavors would really shine in a tomato jam recipe.

Mark Bittman's recipe uses ginger, cumin, cinnamon, and cloves. To be honest, I'm typically not a huge fan of those flavors, so I most certainly hesitated. I finally decided that I would be OK with ginger and cumin, but I decided to omit the cinnamon and the cloves.

There's a sizable amount of lime juice (30 mL / 2 tablespoons), which I barely managed to squeeze out of one of my jumbo limes. I grated my ginger with a Microplane zester and finely minced one jalapeno pepper and one serrano pepper.

Finally, the recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar. I just couldn't bear to dump the whole amount in (I'm typically sensitive to things that are too sweet), so I added just ⅔ cups. Bryan always says not to mess with a recipe the first time, but I am impatient, I was pretty confident that adding less sugar would be OK because many commentors online confirmed as such.

It was just as easy as advertised.

Once you chop the tomatoes (I didn't even bother coring them since these little cocktail tomatoes have such little cores), you just throw everything into a pot, turn on the heat until it boils, and then simmer.

The simmering can take 1-2 hours depending on how juicy your tomatoes are. Once the jam thickens, turn off the heat.

Taste and adjust flavors accordingly. I was shocked to find that the one serrano and one jalapeno were not enough, and I craved for more spice. I ended up adding about one teaspoon of red chili flakes before the jam had the level of heat I wanted (I like it pretty spicy!).

The resultant jam has an intense and rich tomato flavor that's also bright (from the lime juice). The ginger works in this recipe, and overall I found the flavors to be well balanced.

As for the sugar, I thought it was definitely sweet enough. I'm so glad I did not add the whole cup. Frankly, I could cut down even more on the sugar and still enjoy it. At its current state, it's just a bit too sweet to enjoy straight up, though it's excellent paired with other things.

Many have successfully used their canning skills to seal up several jars of this glorious spread for future use. Since I was a newbie at this canning business, I just waited for the jam to cool before storing it in one of my cute little glass jars. It the refrigerator it will last at least one week.

Enjoy this as a spread on toast, combined with cream cheese as a spicy dip, or served on top of savory meats. The spicy sweetness complements the umami of meat beautifully. It's super versatile.

Enjoy!

Spicy Tomato Jam
Adapted and slightly modified from Mark Bittman's original recipe here

30 oz Backyard Farms cocktail tomatoes (3 packages), quartered
½-2/3 cup sugar
juice of 1 lime (about 2 tablespoons)
zest of 1 lime (optional)
1 tablespoon fresh grated or minced ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1-2 hot peppers, stemmed, seeded, and finely minced (e.g., jalapeño, serrano)
red pepper flakes or cayenne to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in a heavy medium saucepan (like a Dutch oven!)

2. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often.

2. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has consistency of thick jam, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, then cool and refrigerate (will keep at least a week).

Yield: About 1 pint. Disclaimer - this post was sponsored by Backyard Farms Tomatoes. All opinions are my own.

April 28, 2014 Davis Square

The Painted Burro 2nd Annual Guac Off 2014

Holy guacamole!

I am a huge fan of avocados. I've always loved their intense creamy flavor, high nutritional value, and overall versatility. I love eating them in sushi (even though it's not particularly authentic to Japan); I've made avocado ice cream and it's divine; and I regularly make guacamole at home.

Imagine my excitement when the Painted Burro invited me to come and be a judge at their annual "Guac Off".

I, along with two other judges, Somerville firefighter (and Burro Churro Challenge winner) Jay McKenzie and Somerville Scout writer and blogger at The Economical Eater, Michelle Lahey, would be solely responsible for picking the ultimate winner of this competitive event.

Here's how the contest worked.

Earlier, interested competitors had submitted their guacamole recipes to the Painted Burro for consideration. Out of all the entries, the Painted Burro picked twelve finalists to feature in the Guac Off.

These twelves finalists picked up their avocados from the Painted Burro a day before the event. They prepared their masterpieces at home and brought them in on the day of competition.

While the contestants personally prepared their guacamole for the judges, the staff at the Painted Burro helped prepare larger portions of the same recipes for the general public to sample.

The public's vote would determine the People's Choice winners, while the judges would determine the ultimate winner.

Aaron Goldman presented his dish called Smoke and Fire. He made a smoky bean dip to go along with his guacamole, which had a kick. A nice touch was his homemade pita chips, which were really good.

Lauren Wentworth presented the Caribbean GiacaMANGO!, which included chunks of chopped mango. The guacamole had an overall sweetness caused by the fruit.

Christina Oliveria made Crispy Pork Belly & Mango Guacamole, which also included chunks of fresh mango but had crispy pork belly, which added a nice salty umami to offset the sweetness of the mango.

Ellen Wong presented Cilantro Lovers with a Twist. Her guacamole included Asian fish sauce as the secret ingredient, which added a subtle umami to the dish without overpowering the fresh avocado flavors. I really enjoyed this one.

Nicole Leavenworth presented "Abuela Irene's Guacamole". The presentation for this dish was definitely one of the most unique. A man came out with a tiny little guitar (ukelele perhaps?) and sang us a song that he wrote for the guacamole, which included lyrics revealing the secret ingredient - "dried oregano". The dried oregano was very pronounced and most certainly defined the dish.

Jay Nungesser presented GuacaMOLE! Verde, which had toasted seeds on top. I really liked the textural contrast as well as the nutty flavor that the seeds added.

Isaac Hendrick presented the Granada Guacamole, which had fresh pomegranate seeds mixed in. I really enjoyed the slightly tart pop that the pomegranate seeds added to the guacamole.

Adam Riegel presented Buffamole!, an avocado mixture topped with a shredded buffalo chicken served with tortillas and carrots. It was a playful take on buffalo wings and had great flavor.

Maya and Andy presented "A-Town's Great Guac", which was beautifully presented in an avocado shell, complete with tortilla stars and an umbrella. They pointed out that the stars were edible and most importantly, there was no cilantro, because some people do not like it.

Aditi Pai presented A Smoky Summer Night, which included chopped cantaloupe for a unique, sweeter flavor profile.

Dasha Smirnova presented Dasha's Dynamite Guamacole. This was by far the spiciest of the entries. It was made from smoked ghost chilies from Dasha's own backyard. She included a ghost chili in each bowl, but told us it was just for decoration and recommended not eating it.

One of our judges, Jay, decided that he was going to eat it since it was in the bowl. You can see his reaction as he's eating the ghost chili.

He couldn't taste anything for quite awhile after that bite.

Lyle Bradley presented the Eastie Special, a classic guacamole that was just downright delicious. It was balanced in flavor, had a nice citrus (lime?) kick, and was one of the few that was perfectly salted. I felt like I could eat this one forever.

It was a hard decision for me. We were supposed to judge them on various aspects, including creativity, presentation, and taste. After repeatedly crossing out numbers and changing things around, I finally reached my decision.

The manager, Alec, averaged all our scores to figure out the final winner.

We had no idea who it would be.

Here's Alec, getting everyone's attention as he prepared to announce the winner.

The winner of the People's Choice Award is . . . . a TIE! We have two winners! They are:

Ellen Wong for her Cilantro Lovers with a Twist and Lyle Bradley for Eastie Special!

I really enjoyed both of their guacamoles and thought that prize was well deserved.

And now . . . the runner up winner of the 2nd Annual Guac Off is Lyle Bradley (again!) for Eastie Special! Clearly this guy's guacamole was really good.

And then the crowned winner of the Guac Off?

Isaac Hendrick with his Granada Guacamole!

Congrats Isaac!!

Isaac won $150, bragging rights, as well as the honor of having his guacamole featured on the Painted Burro menu.

I really liked his guacamole because the pomegranate seeds added a lovely, surprisingly zing to the guac that made it strangely addictive.

Congrats Isaac! Can't wait to try your guac at the Painted Burro!

April 25, 2014 Argentina

Buenos Aires - Three Most Famous Ice Cream Shops

This is the fourth post in the Hello Argentina Series detailing my week-long trip in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other posts include Hello Argentina, La Cabrera, La Rambla, and Empanadas, Tamales, and Beer, Oh My!It's no surprise that an area known for its beef will also be known for its leather and milk-based products. Although I had always heard about Argentina's famously good beef, I never quite made the mental connection to ice cream (or leather, for that matter).

It wasn't until I arrived in Argentina that I realized that Argentinians are obsessed with good ice cream, and the standards are ridiculously high here.

Although I only had a week in Buenos Aires, I made it my mission to at least try the three most famous spots (and then some).

I purposely made a point of trying flavors that are not as readily available in the U.S., such as anything with dulce de leche, alfajores, or other more local flavors. The summer weather made my ice cream project all the more fun, and I came away with the conclusion that you almost can't go wrong when it comes to ice cream in Argentina.

1. Freddo

Freddo is one of the most well-known and largest chains in Buenos Aires. It started as a family-owned business in 1969. According to most reports, Freddo changed the landscape of ice cream in Argentina, raising people's standards and expectations of what good ice cream should be.

Freddo is most famous for its dulce de leche ice cream, which is fantastic. It's super thick, creamy, smooth, and has a lovely rich flavor. It's most similar to the texture of Toscanini's ice cream back home.

What I love about all ice cream shops in Buenos Aires is that they have a whole section devoted to dulce de leche, a rich, caramel-like Argentinian sauce made from cooking milk and sugar over low heat for hours until it slowly caramelizes. It's fabulous and Argentinians are obsessed with it. They put it on everything!

At Freddo, dulce de leche serves as a base for a variety of flavors, including ones that incorporate chocolate, nuts, brownies, or all other sorts of mix-ins.

Of course, if you can't find the mix-in you want, Freddo offers a variety of additional toppings.

One fun special item they had were ice cream alfajores. An alfajor is a popular sandwich cookie in Argentina that contains dulce de leche sandwiched between two chocolate cookies. The entire cookie can be covered in chocolate, but not always.

Freddo offered a fun ice cream version that contained dulce de leche ice cream inside instead of the traditional dulce de leche. Although it was fun to try, I soon realized that I don't actually really like the flavor of the alfajor cookie (I'm not sure what spice they use, but it's something that I don't like).

I still loved the dulce de leche ice cream from Freddo, which became my benchmark.

2. Un Altra Volta

Interestingly enough, the top three ice cream chains in Buenos Aires are all influenced by the same family. The original founding family sold off Freddo in the 1990's to a corporation. They then opened Un Altra Volta in 2002, which sold that same fantastic ice creambut also offered coffee and pastries.

The ambiance at Un Altra Volta is modern and chique. There is a nice assortment of fun cone sizes (I love the waffle bowls!) as well as many flavors, including (again), a separate dulce de leche section.

I couldn't help but get one of those super cute waffle bowls as well as a couple different flavors. It's perfectly normal in Argentina to order two flavors, even if you're only ordering one "scoop." I always took advantage of that feature.

This ice cream was very tasty too, but for some reason I slightly preferred my ice cream at Freddo. I'm not sure why - I think this one had a slightly less dense texture, which was something I really liked about the one I had at Freddo.

In some ways it's not fair the way I'm comparing these ice cream shops because I am not ordering the exact same ice cream at each location. I also think I didn't like this particular scoop as much because I found it to be too sweet. Instead of ordering a plain dulce de leche scoop, I ordered one that had extra nuts, caramel, and all sorts of other sweet goodies. For some, this would be heaven. For me, it turned out to be too sweet.

I still think the ice cream is generally excellent. I would just stick with my favorite, plain and simple flavors.

3. Persicco

Persicco is the third rung of the ice cream triumvirate in Buenos Aires. Also opened by the family that originally opened Freddo (yes, this family has revolutionized ice cream in Buenos Aires!), Persicco offers different types of waffle bowls (just as cute, but slightly larger) as well as an assortment of cute bean-shaped take-out containers.

We stopped by Persicco on our second full day walking around Buenos Aires. The first day I had tried the dulce de leche at Freddo so I wanted to try something completely different.

Our tour guide, Nestor (who took us to some fantastic food places a well), highly recommended the marscapone with strawberries ice cream flavor, which he said was another one of his favorites.

The marscapone ice cream was good, but for me, the fruit jam was way too sweet. I think in general the Argentinian palate is sweeter than a typical Asian palate, so it's generally harder for me to adjust. I found that I most preferred the plain flavors, most notably dulce de leche.

I wish I'd had a chance to try more of their flavors. Many people cite Persicco as their favorite of the top three chains. If I'd had more time, I would have loved to try their version of dulce de leche or other interesting flavors.

4. Banova Helado Artesanal
Banova Helado Artesanal {website} was an ice cream shop we just stumbled upon while walking around in Buenos Aires. I was craving an ice cream cone at the time (it was hot there!) and this place seemed pretty good.

At this point in the week I had learned my lesson about my ice cream preferences and stuck with dulce de leche. It was delicious here, which makes me wish all the more I'd had time to go back to all the other ice cream places again to try their dulce de leche.

Next time.

Revisiting Freddo

No, I'm not doing the Asian "peace sign" thing. I'm actually indicating that it was my second ice cream that day. On our last day in Argentina, we took a day trip across the water to visit Colonia City in Uraguay. It was there that I had my first really bad ice cream cone. I can't even remember the name of the place anymore. I was just so disappointed that deep down inside, I felt like I wanted another good ice cream cone to make up for it.

Domo in Colonia City

At the end of the day (right before we had to board the boat to cross back to Argentina), we spotted a Freddo in Uraguay. I was hesitant, but Bryan knew my deep down desires and dragged me into the Freddo so I could get my redemptive cone.

And it was so worth it.

And that was my last ice cream cone in South America before we boarded an airplane to head back to the States.

* * * * *

I really can't complain about not having access to Argentinian ice cream now. Boston has some of the best ice cream in the country and I'm very happy eating at my local favorite places. However, I've never seen such a variety of dulce de leche ice cream flavors under one roof; nor are there countries I've visited (with maybe the exception of Italy - mmmm, gelato), where ice cream everywhere is just really, really good. It's truly something unique to Argentina which I'll miss a lot.

Sweet potato ice cream from Chila

April 19, 2014 New York

Momofuku Ma Peche (Midtown NYC)

This is the second post in the New York Thanksgiving series. Other posts in this series include Momofuku Ssam Bar.

It's a well known fact that it's really hard to get into David Chang's restaurants. Securing a reservation at Ko involves setting up a special online account on the restaurant's website and then logging in exactly 10 days before the date you want to reserve precisely at 10AM. The reservations are gone within seconds.

Similarly, you can't make a reservation at Momofuku Ssam unless if you are a big party eating a Bo Ssam. If you don't arrive early, expect to wait in long line before getting a seat.

The last time I was at the Milk Bar, I almost missed our taxi to the airport due to the long line of people waiting to buy cookies and soft serve.

Yet interestingly, David Chang's newest restaurant in Midtown, Ma Peche, is never full. Some say that the Midtown location just doesn't attract as many diners. Others blame the weird ambiance - those cold, high celings and weird pink lighting doesn't make for a cozy environment in which to eat. And then others say that the food is just not as good as the other two places.

Despite all these reasons, Bryan and I decided we still needed to complete our "tour" of David Chang restaurants. This was the only one left in New York that Bryan had not visited yet (I still haven't visited Noodle Bar, but Bryan's been there before).

Around 6PM on our last night in New York, we showed up at Ma Peche - luggage and all - for dinner before catching a taxi to the airport.

We started with the Broccoli Salad ($14) which came with smoked golden raisins, crispy kale and nori seaweed, and a sesame mayonnaise. Bryan wished for more crunchy broccoli but thought the overall dish worked OK if eaten together with the kale. I liked the overall flavors but wished for less raisins because I found it to be a bit too sweet. Overall, however, the dish was pretty good.

Inpired by the childhood favorite combination of apples, celery, and peanut butter (something I never ate as a child but something Bryan always ate), our next course was the Apple Salad, which consisted of fresh apple and celery shavings tossed together in a sweet peanut butter and celery root dressing. Crispy rice on top provided a textural crunch to the salad.

I personally thought the salad was too sweet, but Bryan really liked the combination. Perhaps it made him reminiscent about his childhood?
After falling head over heels for the rice cakes at Momofuku Ssam, we were anxious to try the Spicy Roasted Rice Cakes, which came with pork sausage "ragu", water spinach, and tofu. These rice cakes were overall less crispy than the ones from Ssam Bar. They were inconsistent. Some were crispy while others were not. Though the flavors of the dish were perfectly serviceable, the execution was clearly subpar compared to the ones at Ssam Bar.

Despite our disappointment with that dish, the next dish totally made up for it. We ordered the Fried Chicken ($48), an entire chicken deep fried and served with habanero, coriander, and black pepper.

We asked if we could order a smaller portion. Unfortunately, it's all or nothing.

We convinced ourselves we could take any leftovers on the plane back to Boston, since we were leaving that night.

So we ordered a whole chicken.

It was huge.

But it was so worth it. The chicken was fantastic.

"This is the best fried chicken I've ever had in my life. I like this better than the one at Ad Hoc," Bryan declared.

The chicken was delightfully crispy and had a really nice deep, smoky habanero pepper flavor.

It was definitely quite spicy though definitely tolerable. Bryan was sweating by the end of the meal. It tasted especially good with a squeeze of lime.

We ate several pieces but just were not able to finish the entire thing. We knew we were pushing it by letting it sit out at room temperature for about five hours (we'd get back to Boston around midnight). However, the chicken was so good we just had to take that risk.

Before we left, we enjoyed a nice pot of China Green Tea from the Rare Tea Company ($5).

For dessert we had the White Chocolate, a delicious white chocolate mousse topped with popcorn, popcorn brittle, popcorn caramel powder, and popcorn butter. We were told to just "mix it all together". I was surprised how much I loved this dessert. It was not too sweet (something I'm often sensitive to) and it had a lovely strong corn flavor.

For the second time at a David Chang restaurant, I found myself scooping up the last bits of mousse with my spoon. I was this close to licking the bowl clean.

* * * * *

There is a Momofuku Milk Bar Midtown that's right next door to Ma Peche. After dinner I took the opportunity to pick up some corn cookies (my favorite!).

All of a sudden, Bryan rushed inside the Milk Bar.

"Jen, the taxi is here. We have to go."

I glanced up at the 5-6 person line in front of me. I forlornly looked down at the corn cookies I was holding. You could hear this collective sigh of sadness from the people in line. They all UNDERSTOOD.

"Awww, let the girl get her cookies."

The next thing you know, the cashier turned to me and asked me what I was getting.

"Just these six cookies."

Everyone kindly let me cut in line to get my cookies before we rushed out to the taxi.

Whoever you all were. THANK YOU. Thanks for letting a girl get her cookies. I will never forget your kindness.

We rushed out of there and made our flight in time.

We got home at midnight, exhausted.

I'm happy to report that we happily ate the leftover fried chicken the next day for lunch. After a brief reheating in the toaster oven, it still tasted just as phenomenal the next day.

And dessert?

Corn cookies, but of course.

Ma Peche
Chambers Hotel
15 W 56th St,
New York, NY 10019

April 16, 2014 Asian

{Snapshot} Qing Dao Garden

This is a continuing series exploring the restaurants around my "hood" as part of the larger "Welcome to My Hood" Series. Other posts in this series include Rafiki Bistro (now closed), Super Fusion Sushi, Temple Bar, Giulia, Cambridge Common, and Ten Tables Cambridge.

I admit it's probably a stretch to say that Qingdao Garden is part of my "hood", which up until this point has been limited to the restaurants between Harvard and Porter Square. However, Qingdao Garden sort of sits in that amorphous area on Mass Ave just north of Porter and before Arlington. I don't have enough restaurants there to call that region a separate category, so this is as good as any.

This is technically a {Snapshot} post, since I wrote about Qingdao Garden a long time ago; Seven years ago, if you can believe that this blog has been here for that long.

Clearly my blogging style was really different back then. I find it a bit amusing to compare.

Anyway, back to Qingdao Gardens.

Qingdao Gardens is a self-proclaimed "Northern-style" Chinese restaurant that specializes in dumplings and noodles. In my mind, it's one of the best Chinese restaurants in Cambridge, serving up excellent handmade dumplings and a large variety of both authentic Northern and Sichuan style dishes as well as your typical American Chinese fare.

I usually get the dumplings and potstickers when I go, since that is definitely what they do best. Not too long ago, however, Bryan and I decided to branch out and try a few other things on their menu.

Pictured above is the Pork and Pickled Cabbage Noodle Soup, a classic soup I like getting at Taiwanese restaurants. The soup flavor was good, although we found the noodles to be a bit too mushy for our preference. It was acceptable, but could have been better.

We were thrilled to see Shredded Potato Salad, a classic Northeastern Chinese dish that I order all the time at Golden Garden (my favorite Northeastern Chinese restaurant in Boston). The dish was decent, though I must say Golden Garden's is significantly better.

We tried their Chongqing Fried Hot Chicken, which had fantastic flavor. This well-known Sichuan dish consists of deep fried and slightly breaded cut-up chicken wing pieces stir fried with garlic, onions, and lots of chili peppers.

It's fiery, intensely flavorful, and really good. For those not used to eating authentic Chinese food, you may not be used to all the bones in the dish. After all, you are eating cut up bone-in chicken wings. If you can get over that, this dish is pretty tasty.

On weekends the restaurant offers a variety of weekend dim sum breakfast items, such as steamed buns, fried crullers (you tiao), and soy milk (sweet or salty!).

Both of these were fine. Nothing particularly exciting, but OK.

All in all, I came away with this conclusion:

Come to Qingdao for the dumplings: it's what they do best.

I think they have some of the best dumplings in Boston. I especially like the potstickers at Qingdao, which most closely resemble (in shape and flavor) the ones I love from California. I also love how they sell their handmade dumplings in packs of fifty, frozen, ($14-$16 a bag) that you can take home. It's so important to have a few bags of frozen dumplings on hand for unexpected snowstorms and such. Why not have handmade ones versus the mass produced supermarket kind?

The rest of their food is decent, but there are other Chinese restaurants that do those dishes better. For Northern style, I think Golden Garden in Belmont is one of the best. For Sichuan, there are several restaurants in Boston that do a great job, including Shangri La, Szechuan Gourmet, Szechuan Garden, and Gourmet Dumpling House.

Of course, if you don't feel like trekking out very far, it's still wonderful to have access to such authentic food less than 2 miles from my home.

Qingdao Garden
2382 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge 02140

April 14, 2014 New York

Momofuku Ssam Bar (New York City)

We finally start our New York Thanksgiving series. I guess it took me longer than I thought to get through all those Japan posts at the beginning of 2014! This is the first post in the series detailing meals from my trip to New York in November 2013.

I am a huge fan of anything from David Chang's empire.

I will never forget my phenomenal tasting menu at Momofuku Ko or the delicious lunch I had at Momofuku Ma Peche when it first (temporarily) opened. I always stop by Momofuku Milk Bar to pick up my favorite sweets, usually the corn cookies but sometimes I'll get cereal milk too. Heck, I've even tried cooking a few recipes from his cookbook, such as his 48-hour short ribs and his pork belly buns.

And yet, surprisingly, I actually had never been to most of his other restaurants.

That is, not until this New York trip where I managed to try two of them: Momofuku Ssam Bar and Momofuku Ma Peche (not the temporary one, but the full-fledged one).

I think I was scared away for a long time because of the nightmarish lines I'd heard about. You can't reserve a seat at Momofuku Ssam Bar unless if you are a large party enjoying one of their famous Bo Ssams. Since it's usually just Bryan and me, we knew that would be impossible.

During this trip, we finally decided to bite the bullet and try coming. To optimize our chances of having no line, we showed up right around 5:00 PM.

Score! There were many seats open.

Within half an hour, the place became completely packed. We were thrilled that we showed up just in time to grab some bar seats.

I was so excited.
We started with a beautiful plate of Striped Bass with Lychee and Salt. I loved the textural addition of tiny little rice "crispies" on top. The fish was fresh and the entire dish was well seasoned and beautifully balanced.
The next dish had the classic combination of uni (sea urchin) and ikura (salmon roe), but was unique in that it was served over a bed of warm tofu and topped with wasabi peas for crunch & heat. The warm + cold and soft + crunchy combination was unexpectedly pleasant. Not surprisingly, the flavors worked together well.

I had no idea if I would like this next dish, the Apple Kimchi Salad. Fresh apple slices are tossed in kimchi and served with house cured jowl bacon and arugula over a thick labne (a type of strained, Greek yogurt) mixed with maple syrup.

I really liked it. The dish had the perfect balance between sweet (apple), salty (bacon) and tart (kimchi). There was even a nice textural contrast from the thick creamy labne to the crunchy apples and bacon.
Because it was right after Thanksgiving, They had a special on the menu, a Turkey Bun made with confit duck, smoked mayo, and sauerkraut. I found this one to be pretty average - the only thing we ordered that I thought was a miss. I felt like the sauerkraut lacked the tart punch that was needed to offset the really rich turkey and mayo. Bryan thought it was good, and I agreed that it was fine, but overall it was the weakest dish of the lot.

In contrast, the signature Momofuku Pork Belly Bun was good. The pork belly was soft and tender, different from the version I had at Uni Sashimi Bar just a few weeks earlier, which is crispy. The bun is excellent, super soft and just a tad sweet. I thought the pickles added just the right amount of tart crunch and balance.

My favorite, favorite dish of the night was the Spicy Pork Sausage Rice Cakes. These were incredible and definitely unforgettable. Crispy pan-seared rice cakes came tossed in a zippy and flavorful chili sauce, similar to Korean gojuchan but not as sweet. It had a good amount of spice that gave a decent kick but didn't burn your tongue into flames. The crunchy, fried garlic "strings" (or are those "chips") on top really just brought the entire dish together.

The rice cakes definitely had that perfect addictive combination of flavors and textures. I just could not stop eating the heavenly combo of chewy and crispy rice cakes, spicy and slightly sweet sauce, and those crunchy fried garlic chips.

It was all phenomenal and it's the one dish I would most certainly order again if I returned.

Dessert is a shot in the dark for me. Sometimes I love it; other times I think it's too rich or too sweet. This particular dessert was just the perfect balance of sweet + salty (I think David Chang is just really good at that). A savory black pepper shortbread came with a savory ice cream (was it miso honey?) and pieces of fruit. It was fantastic. I loved how the entire dish was more savory in nature - it almost reminded me of a warm biscuit with butter, honey, and fruit.

I seldom wish for more dessert, but this was one of those rare instances where I was scraping the bowl with my spoon to capture every last bit of that beautiful, creamy, savory sauce.

I loved my meal at Momofuku Ssam Bar and I can't wait to go back. I still hate lines, so I guess I'll just have to go back at 5PM again, or some other odd time in the middle of the afternoon.

I've heard a lot of these dishes are actually available in his cookbook. Man, maybe I can try making those rice cakes sometime. It sure would be easier than heading to New York on a whim!

Momofuku Ssam Bar
207 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10003

April 12, 2014 Italian

Homemade Pizzas with an 800° F Pizza "Oven" in my Grill

I can probably count the number of times I've "made" pizza on one hand (and honestly, I'm being pretty lax in how I define "making pizza").

One of the first times in recent memory was in Round 4 of Project Food Blog, a national food blogging competition in which I competed (and won!) back in 2010. For round 4, I made pizzas in the shapes of various flags of the world.

I didn't really learn how to properly stretch out a pizza dough until several years later, when I traveled to Vermont to attend a two day intensive baking workshop at King Arthur Flour's headquarters. There, we learned how to make pizza from scratch, and I baked my first pies.

About half a year ago, I had the chance to try rolling out dough again, this time at Posto Pizzeria in Somerville, the only certified Neapolitan pizza restaurant in Boston. There, under the supervision of one of their chefs, I made a delicious Margherita pizza in their 900°F wood-fired oven.

Finally, this past week, I made pizza at home.

Applegate was kind enough to send me an entire "kit" for making pizza, complete with their uncured pepperoni, provolone cheese, a box of King Arthur Flour's pizza crust mix, and even a pizza wheel and apron!

I must confess - because I was doing this on a weeknight and really didn't have a lot of time, I made the pizza dough in my bread machine, which was so easy. I threw the flour mixture, yeast, warm water, and a little bit of olive oil into the bread machine and then pressed the "dough setting".

The dough was ready in about one and a half hours.

It was a bit wet when it came out, so I ended up adding a bit more semolina flour until it resembled normal pizza dough. Thankfully, based on my limited past experience making pizza, I had a sense of what consistency pizza dough should be like.

I did try stretching the dough into a flat found base (using techniques I had learned at both King Arthur Flour and at Posto), but it was surprisingly difficult! My dough kept breaking, and I wondered whether the bread machine had either over-worked or under-worked the gluten.

After trying a few times (with time being short and my guest arriving soon!), I resorted to using the rolling pin, which worked fine as well.

Making the dough is the hardest part. Once you have that, the rest is easy. Choose whatever toppings you want - the sky is the limit!

I decided to make some roasted garlic for one of my toppings. I cannot believe I waited this long to try making roasted garlic in the toaster oven. It's so good and so easy.

I had a bunch of bulk pre-peeled garlic from Costco that I really needed to use up. I put a single layer of garlic cloves in my toaster oven pan, added a generous amout of olive oil (enough so that every clove can be tossed and coated in it), and then seasoned liberally with salt and pepper.

I roasted a whole bunch in the oven at 350 ° F for about an hour. They all became beautifully caramelized, super soft and spreadable, and oh-so-tasty.

I tried roasting garlic the traditional way as well. I cut the top off of an entire head of garlic, drizzled olive oil on top, and added salt and pepper. I wrapped the head up in foil and roasted it in the same toaster oven.

I ended up preferring the single cloves mostly because they became much more caramelized than the wrapped up ones.

Honestly, though, they were both really tasty.

Bryan and I have this crazy Weber Summit gas grill that can reach 800 ° F. We thought this would be perfect for making pizzas, since the professional wood-fired ovens usually bake pizzas at those extremely high temperatures in less than 2 minutes.

It took a bit of experimentation.

The first pizza (cooked straight on the 800 ° F pre-heated pizza stone), charred quite a bit on the bottom even though we only cooked it for one and a half minutes. We lowered the temperature just a bit by turning off the extra burners in the center of the grill. At closer to 600° F, our next two pizzas turned out with much better crusts (no charred blackened bottoms), though the crust on top bubbled a lot less than our first pizza.

I guess there is some happy medium that we must achieve. I would love to have a high "rising" crust (with many air bubbles) but I don't want to burn the bottom of the pizza either.

Because the cooking time is so short, it's best to pre-cook most of your toppings and only using the grill to cook the crust and melt the cheese.

For example in our case, we pre-roasted the garlic. If you want to add potatoes, for example, it's best to pre-boil those as well. Some of our pizzas had "raw" ingredients on top (like the fresh arugula), which makes it really easy since you add that after baking.

We put half turkey pepperoni and half pork pepperoni on the pizza. Although it was hard to figure out which was which before we baked the pizzas, once we baked them we could tell. The pork pepperoni curled up more and seemed to be a bit crispier than the turkey bacon. Both were pretty tasty though. If you hadn't told me that the turkey bacon was made out of turkey, I'm not sure if I would have noticed.

Here's the bottom of one of our pizzas. As you can see, it's a bit charred, but not too bad.

We ended up making three pizzas, cooking each one just shy of two minutes on the hot 600+ ° F grill. In retrospect, I sort of wished we hadn't cooked all three before eating them. These pizzas are so thin, by the time we finished cooking the third one, the first one was already getting cold.

Seriously, next time we are eating our pizza the minute it comes off the grill. With the weather getting nicer, perhaps we can actually just eat outside right next to the grill.

I am itching to experiment some more because I really think we can perfect this. There has got to be some trick to achieving that super hot 800 ° F air temperature inside the grill while maintaining the pizza stone at a temperature that won't burn the bottom too quickly.

Despite our inexperience using the grill, I am still very pleased at how these pizzas turned out.

Really, for a first try, these pizzas were delicious. The King Arthur Flour dough mix, which is mostly semolina flour, has a wonderful flavor. It was also a cinch to use.

I was beyond pleased with how my roasted garlic came out (it was addictively good). I loved the resultant pizza (pictured above) - a roasted garlic, fresh mozzarella, and provolone pizza with a simple crushed tomato sauce.

This second one is a prosciutto, mozzarella, and arugula pizza. Don't you love how bubbly the crust is? This must have been the one cooked at the hottest temperature.

And finally, the classic pepperoni (half pork, half turkey) and provolone pizza. This one has a nice bubbly crust too and wasn't as burned on the bottom (probably because the other two pizzas had cooled down the pizza stone a bit by this point).

The flavors of the pepperoni was very good. Better yet, I appreciated how it was "uncured" and made without nitrates using meat raised without antibiotics or hormones.

There were three of us, and I would say we made a pretty good dent in the pizzas.

I'm still curiously exploring how I can better use my crazy hot grill to best emulate a professional wood-fired pizza oven. We love a good pizza, and it would be so cool to be able to make it at home on a regular basis using all sorts of fun ingredients.

Disclaimer - the pizza kit above was provided by Applegate. All opinions are my own.

April 10, 2014 Argentina

Empanadas, Tamales, and Beer, Oh My! (El Sanjuanino + my thoughts on Argentina)

This is the third post in the Hello Argentina Series detailing my week-long trip in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Other posts include Hello Argentina, La Cabrera, and La Rambla.

Sometimes ignorance breeds the greatest amount of fear.

This was our first time in South America. Bryan's co-worker had gone to Buenos Aires not too long before our trip, and had told Bryan horror stories of how unsafe the city was.

Coworkers and friends of mine told me similar things. Don't open our mouths and speak in public (you'll reveal you're a foreigner). Don't take taxis by yourself (gypsy cabs are known to rob or swindle people). And never flash your cash around or wear expensive designer things, especially watches (Rolexes are especially popular).

It wasn't until we arrived that we realized that Buenos Aires is not that different from any other major metropolitan city. Yes, you should be aware of your belongings. And yes, the current economic situation is not great, and as a result there has been more petty crime and vandalism. However, when I walked around the city, it really did not feel that different from big U.S. cities like New York, DC, or LA.

Day to day, it actually felt really normal. In fact, after spending a few days there, I got to the point where I felt comfortable enough to walk around by myself in well-known, crowded areas (with the normal vigilance I would keep in any big city).

Of course, we didn't know all this before we arrived. Because we were not familiar with the city, we had hired a tour guide to take us around our first few days in Buenos Aires.

It turned out to be great. Our tour guide Nestor from BA Concierge was a local who spoke excellent English. Not only did he give us an interesting local's perspective on the current state of things in Buenos Aires, he also helped us feel much more comfortable maneuvering the city on foot.

The best part? He took us to fun little eateries known for very classic Argentinian dishes, such as lomitos (steak sandwiches), Milanesa, and of course, the famous empanada.

The first day of our tour Nestor tried taking us to La Rambla, a fantastic little cafe that serves the best steak sandwich I've ever had in my life. Unfortunately, La Rambla was closed that day (Bryan and I went back later on our own).

Thankfully, Nestor knew about another really famous and popular spot known for its empanadas, El Sanjuanino.

The line out the front door most certainly validated the popularity of this place.

It took us about 20-30 minutes before we finally made it to the front of the line. By that point Bryan and I were starving. I think it was close to 3PM, which feels extremely late for us. Argentinians tend to eat really, really late (restaurants don't even open until 8:30PM for the earliest dinner seating), so I'm guessing the time was perfect for most people.

Clearly, all these people in line were perfectly content to eat so late.

El Sanjuanino is famous for their empanadas, so we made sure to order many different types. We got a few deep fried ones (top) as well as some baked ones (below).

Although I like both, I found that I actually preferred the baked ones a bit more. They taste a bit lighter and healthier - more like real lunch food versus a deep fried snack. There were all sorts of empanadas on the menu, such as carne suave (beef, onion, and olive), carner picante (spicy meat, onion, olives, and eggs), pollo (chicken, onion, bell peppers) and various vegetarians ones such as caprese (cheese, tomato, basil), roquefort (blue cheese), choclo (corn), and jamon y queso (ham and cheese).

We tried a nice variety (about 2-3 empanadas per person). They were all great.

Surprisingly, my favorite item turned out not to be an empanada. Instead, I totally fell in love with the tamale.

I can't even explain it, except that I absolutely loved the flavors of the filling. It was full of meaty goodness, from the bold seasoning to the tender chunks of meat inside. The whole tamale was just extremely satisfying.

I so wished we had ordered more than one.

Bryan tried the local beer, called Quilmes 1890. The beef is reasonably light, but pretty tasty.

Lunch Number Two

We had empanadas both days we spent with Nestor. The first day, Nestor took us to this little cafe on a random street corner that I absolutely cannot remember. It was very, very local (not a tourist in sight). We were very thankful to have Nestor with us, who could translate the menu and also order for us.

We tried the classic beef empanada, which is traditionally filled with seasoned ground beef, onions, egg, and olives. It was very good.

I also loved their Caprese "empanadas", which looked more like open-faced pies but with the empanada skin as the "crust." Nestor told us that it was typical for restaurants to make empanadas of all different shapes to keep track of the various fillings.

Finally, Nestor told us about the most unusual and interesting dish - something I had never seen before. This, my friends, is called the Milanesa a la Pizza.

Yes, the Argentinians love their beef so much they have invented a pizza that replaces the crust/dough with a breaded and pounded flat piece of beef.

It's brilliant, and pretty tasty as well. This particular "pizza" was topped with ham, tomatoes, and melted mozzarella cheese.

There's a huge Italian influence in Buenos Aires, and thus a lot of Italian-inspired food. Nestor himself ended up ordering a simple dish of cannelloni topped with a beautiful meat sauce.

* * * * *

It was a fun two days touring with a local. We enjoyed asking Nestor what kinds of food he liked (milanesa and lomito steak sandwiches), what his daily life consisted of, and what it was like to grow up in Argentina.

It was eye opening to learn about the current state of things in Buenos Aires. I won't go into detail here, but the country's battling crazy inflation, a rocky economy, and increased petty crime and vandalism.

The people I've met are wonderful and the city itself is beautiful - much more European in feel than any other city in South America. Argentina has an amazingly rich history and culture. In some ways this trip was bittersweet because I could see the glory that this city had in its not-so-distant past as well as the current struggles.

Let's hope things look up for this country really soon.

April 8, 2014 Italian

Tomato Risotto

It's been really hard to cook lately.

There's not one single reason, really. Part of it is that Bryan has been traveling a lot lately. I become surprisingly lazy when I only need to cook for myself. Perhaps it's from being so tired at the end of a busy day at work; or maybe I'm just not motivated to go all out cooking a meal when there's no one with whom to share it.

On top of all that, I got the same bug that I think has been going around in Boston. A few days of fever followed by a couple weeks of coughing probably zapped any remaining energy out of me.

I'm feeling much better now.

Additionally, the longer days (it's still light out when I leave work now!) have put me in a much more pleasant and less sluggish mood.

This past weekend Bryan and I finally had a chance to slow down and relax on a Saturday afternoon. It's something we haven't had for a long time, between my work trip to New York City last weekend, Bryan's work trip to Macau, and our week in Buenos Aires.

I savored the slow-paced Saturday where we took care of general house stuff, shopped for groceries, and enjoyed a lovely lunch right near our house.

And then that evening, I had the luxury of spending an entire evening at home trying out a new recipe. Bryan opened up a nice bottle of wine (one of my favorites at the moment!) and we hung out at home. Just the two of us.

As part of fun new partnership I have with Backyard Farms, they sent me some recipes to try that were created for them specifically by Mary Ann Esposito (chef and television host of Ciao Italia). Of course, they gave me some of their delicious tomatoes as well (yay!).

Bryan loves Italian food, and I was feeling like something a bit lighter, so I chose a tomato risotto recipe. I was intrigued at the idea of a risotto that did not use any broth, but instead relied solely on tomato juice (made from fresh tomatoes!) and a little bit of red wine as the liquid.

I gathered a huge pile of Backyard Farms cocktail tomatoes (these are the small and sweet ones!) and pureed them all in a food processor. I was surprised to see that the resultant juice was actually quite a bright pink color!

I tried my best to strain out the seeds and solids, though my "juice" still seemed a bit thick. In the interest of time, I gathered all my juice. Unfortunately, I did not have the 3 ½ to 4 cups of tomato juice that the recipe said I was supposed to have. I had a little under 3 cups. Nevertheless, I soldiered on.

This recipe calls for pancetta or bacon. I was able to get thick cut pancetta, which cooked up nicely in the pot (I chose a pot that would be large enough to fit all my risotto). After setting aside the pancetta, I decided to use the fat as my base for the rest of the dish.

The recipe actually says to add olive oil, though I found that there was plenty of fat that had rendered from the pancetta and I really didn't need to add more.

Saute chopped onions in the oil/fat first until soft. Then add in the rice and stir around until well mixed. Slowly add the wine (about ½ cup at a time) and stir, letting each portion be absorbed by the rice before adding more.

Once the wine in completely absorbed, add the tomato juice portion by portion (again, about ½ cup at a time).

I added all my tomato juice, yet after almost an hour my risotto was still not cooked fully through.

It was at that moment that I realized risotto making is really an art. I started scouring web sites trying to figure out how to solve this problem. What had I done wrong? Was my burner on too high? Should I have heated the tomato juice before adding it? Was it too "pulpy", and thus harder to incorporate into the rice?

I eventually started adding water in small batches.

Finally, after about an hour and a half, my risotto was done. I stirred in the pancetta I had set aside as well as a lot of grated Parmesan cheese (I added maybe ¾ cup to 1 cup, significantly more than the recipe called for!). I also felt it was a bit undersalted, so I added some salt as well.

I know it shouldn't have taken this long, though I'm not sure exactly how to improve the cooking time. I'm sure it was a combination of factors that led to this long, long prep.

We finally ate dinner at around 9PM. I'm so glad Bryan was patient and totally cool with our unplanned late dinner.

Thankfully, the risotto was delicious.

"It's very tomato-ey" were Bryan's exact words.

There's something about the flavor you get when using fresh tomatoes that's totally different from the canned variety. It's much brighter, sweeter, and overall much more flavorful (in a good way!).

The red wine is an interesting addition, and not something I would immediately consider. It makes the risotto an unusually deep purple/pink color, which is not what you might expect for a tomato-based risotto. The flavors work in this recipe. Ha ha, we also used really nice wine since Bryan had already opened a nice bottle of wine to drink.

All in all, the dish is a keeper. I just need to refine my risotto making technique!

Tomato Risotto
Recipe courtesy of Mary Ann Esposito (Ciao Italia Family Classics)
My notes are in italics
Serves 6

3 pints washed and stemmed cocktail tomatoes (I'd suggest 4 pints just in case)
¼ pound bacon or pancetta, diced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (optional)
1 small onion, minced
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup dry red wine
½ cup grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
⅓ cup minced thyme leaves

With an immersion blender, or in a food processor, (or maybe a juicer to squeeze out more juice??) puree 3 (I would say 4 to be safe!) pints of cleaned and stemmed cocktail tomatoes. Transfer the pulp to a fine mesh sieve placed over a large bowl and strain out the juice. Discard the seeds and skins. You should have between 3 ½ to 4 cups of tomato juice. Set aside. I had closer to 3 cups of juice. I wonder if I had used a juicer whether I would have gotten more juice. The amount turned out to be insufficient for 2 cups of arborio rice, and I ended up adding quite a bit of water).

In a two-quart heavy duty saucepan brown the bacon or pancetta until crisp. With a slotted spoon transfer it to a dish and set aside.

Add the oil to the saucepan (or use the fat rendered from the pancetta) and over medium heat cook the minced onion until very soft (about 5 minutes). Stir in the rice and coat well in the onion oil mixture. Stir in the wine ½ cup at a time and cook, stirring constantly until the wine is absorbed.

Add ½ cup of the tomato juice to the pan and cook until the liquid is absorbed. Continue adding more tomato juice ½ cup at time, allowing the rice to absorb each addition before adding more. Stir occasionally during this time.

As the rice cooks it will increase in volume. The consistency should be creamy. Taste the rice for doneness. It should hold its shape, be cooked through but still firm. If necessary add more juice until the rice is cooked. If you've run out of juice, water works, but won't add additional flavor.

Stir in the cheese and thyme.

Serve immediately and sprinkle the bacon over the top as a garnish. Oops! I added the pancetta and stirred it in throughout, which works fine too.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer - this post was sponsored by Backyard Farms Tomatoes. All opinions are my own.