Filed under Fish · Print This Post
When I’m at Di Palo’s in New York City and they happen to have white anchovies in olive oil, I buy a small container of it and I make a separate trip to Dean and Deluca to pick up a jar of grape leaves. There was another time when I had anchovies but I could not get the grape leaves, so I used the nori, or roasted seaweed I had left in my pantry.
Ingredients:
1 small jar of white anchovies
1 small cucumber, julienned
several grape leaves
olive oil
pepper
1. On a serving plate, arrange one or two anchovies on top of a single grape leaf. Drizzle with a little bit more olive oil and add a dash of pepper.
Related post/s:
Where to buy grape leaves and white anchovies
What to do with all that grape leaves?
It all comes from Snack
Filed under Japanese, East Village · Print This Post
214 East 10th Street between First and Second Avenues
212/477.7030
about $30 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥
While Rai Rai Ken reminds me of the Japanese movie Tampopo, it is my quick trip to Tokyo a few years ago that always comes flooding back whenever I enter the shop for a simple bowl of ramen. Separating the curtain at the door, I immediately get transported back to winter Japan. Rai Rai Ken’s narrow space and wooden bar remind me of cold cheeks and frozen hands after my usual bike commute through the suburbs of Tokyo. There is a simple menu of three kinds of ramen bowls: shoyu, a soy sauce-based broth, shio, seafood-based and miso, made of soy beans, all served with bamboo shoots, spinach, roast pork, nori or roasted seaweed and scallions, and then topped with the ever-so Japanese pink fish cake. Long strands of ramen noodles complete the package that require pulling, twirling and slurping. You can order fried vegetables and pork gyoza, or dumplings on the side, as well as edamame, or boiled soy beans, and white rice. Sapporo and Kirin beer overflow for those who want to extend their stay.
In New York City, the temperature does not drop as low as it does in Japan during the winter months, but it is nonetheless cold. It is so cold only an imaginary trip back to Japan at Rai Rai Ken can warm me up.
