September 2006
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Month September 2006

Entries 5 Total

Prune

Sep 29, ’06

54 East 1st Street between First and Second Avenues
212/677.6221
about $75 for three, without drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

Prune’s selections are influenced by different cuisines and that’s exactly what I liked about Chef Gabrielle Hamilton’s style. The tripe is a must-try even though you don’t like tripe. In Barcelona, I ate a lot of tripe. Prune’s version is Milenese, topped with a delicate dollop of pesto and shredded cheese. It’s light but beefy at the same time. I only wished it was served with country bread so I can scoop up the sauce. The skate wing comes with capers; simple and understated. Now, can we talk about the roast beef? I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything as good. It’s soft, it’s bloody and just so damn tasty. Both dishes came with potato slaw sprinkled with Hungarian peppercorns. You crush them with each bite and then there’s that burst of spicyness which gives the side dish its entire personality. We made room for the thick homemade apple pie with buttermilk ice cream. It was the perfect way to end a nice long lunch. The golden-brown sugared crust was such a treat.

I’ve always wanted to go to Prune but could never make myself walk over to the east side when I’m deciding where to go for dinner. I also don’t wake up early enough to make it downtown for a weekend brunch. When they announced that they are finally serving lunch during the week, I had no excuses left. I’ve seen a line outside Prune during warmer nights, but it was quiet when we walked in on a Friday afternoon. There was ample natural light which makes you just want to sit back and stay. Prune was the chef’s childhood nickname, but I can easily call it Home.

Updated, 2007: There was a long line for Sunday brunch even though it was almost 3pm. We decided to wait for 15 minutes next door with our iced coffees. We walked back to check if we can finally get a table, but we were told that we have to wait another twenty minutes. I was grouchy and hungry, so I told the Dr. that I can’t wait any longer. We started to walk away from Prune when I heard the maitre d’ call my name. She said she was going to seat us in the next five minutes and asked us to wait just a bit more until they clean the table that just emptied. I appreciated the fact that the maitre d’ just didn’t let us walk away. She could have easily picked any of the other couples waiting outside. We were lucky to be squeezed in and so we celebrated with bloody marys, stewed chickpeas, lamb sausages and a ham and cheese sandwich.

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Boqueria

Sep 29, ’06

53 West 19th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
212/255-4160
about $100 for two, with a few drinks, without tip
♥

Arabella and I discussed dinner options and cravings one evening: I am Frenched out for the moment (her) and Can we keep it chill? (me). Tapas, an eating concept from the Basque Country, could be anything bite-sized on a small plate. It’s not French and it’s definitely the most laid-back way I can think of in terms of eating dinner, so to Boqueria we went. I am still reeling from my Catalan vacation and because I had lunch at the boqueria three times while I was in Barcelona, eating pintxos (pin-chos) was an easy pick.

The quail egg was fried and served on top of a sausage sliver and a crispy baguette. It needed a good drizzle of olive oil. I liked the idea of a date stuffed with almonds wrapped in bacon, but then again, I like anything with bacon. The squid was served with a handful of limp mixed greens; perhaps stewed chick peas could have made the dish more lively.

The consolation, however, was the service. The place got crowded as it got later but our bartender-server made sure she gave us her attention. She was very patient with the mixed crowd: one actually opened up his laptop at the bar and another kept screaming for a Syrah until she politely explained that he was in a Spanish bar. Men in suits kept bumping our backs with their obnoxious laptop murses, so she made us stay by comping a glass of white and a glass of sangria. Although the space is very sleek and the buzz infectious, the food at this Boqueria could be a little more inspired.

Related post/s:
Tia Pol has the tapas down
More Catalan-inspired tapas at Casa Mono

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Applewood

Sep 27, ’06

501 11th street off Seventh Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn
718/768.2044
$160 for two, with several drinks, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥

I believe it’s called skill when a chef can take a cheap cut of veal and mask it as if it’s not part of the animal’s chewy shoulder. And I believe that it’s only a sincere love for food that can make a lamb loin taste, not like lamb, but of the combination of the complementary ingredients with it.

An amuse of roasted red beets with bloodoranges was a good start to a nicely-paced dinner at Applewood. The beets were tender but gave softly in my mouth. A seared Maine scallop sat in soup; I was only disappointed that I didn’t have a spoon to slurp all of it. A braised Vermont pork belly was crunchy and yet so delicate with the tiny pieces of eggplant, my smile stretched past my ears. The lamb loin was soft and really tasted like a nice cut of beef especially with the slightly bitter daikon and the creamy (but a little too salty) polenta. And veal shoulder, an inexpensive cut meant to be braised for hours, was naturally chewy but it was presented with such skill that you accept it just the way nature intended it. We ended the night with a small muffin of almond cake and it came with Seckel pear, the miniature sweet-sour kind excellent for cooking. A much bigger dessert, nectarine cobbler, was eaten until the last crumb was unseen.

Treading to Brooklyn for dinner is an ordeal for us Harlem residents, but we are well aware of the restaurants cropping up in support of sustainable local products and we are slowly making our way to eating in the outer boroughs. Applewood, for the last two years, has been changing their menu daily to ensure the freshness and seasonality of the ingredients. (An onion martini is a must-have before dinner is served.) An otherwise quiet Tuesday night dinner became special.

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Chinese Mirch

Sep 26, ’06

120 Lexington Avenue corner of 28th Street
212/532.3663
$65 for two, without drinks, with tip
♥

Mirch is loosely translated as spicy in Hindi and the combination of Sichuan and Cantonese cuisines happily bring out the intense flavor of Indian cooking. The positive is that the dishes are lighter than what I am used to because pork and beef are not in the menu in honor of the Muslim and Hindi diets. The negative is that the distinctive flavor of all the cuisines combined may be too much for a diner with a less friendly stomach. Indeed, mine protested when I got home–three times.

We ordered the lime coriander soup which was deliciously sour for me. It was clear broth but a little gooey, perhaps a little cornstarch made it so. This is exactly what the Chinese Indian combination was like throughout our entire meal–saucy and spicy. We also had their notorious chicken lollipops, wing meat pulled back to form a ball at the other end of the bone. My brother makes them at home but the Mirch version has enough garlic to make them addicting. They’re deep-fried to crunchy perfection that I had to order one serving to go so that my father can taste them. The deep-fried okra were served in a container fit for Belgian fries and each okra sliver was coated in batter and peppered with paprika and other chili spices. The vegetarian meatballs were quite good, too, and even after eating one of the green chiles swimming in even more sauce, we were still craving for more. The chicken and garlic noodles were satisfying although the chicken bits were barely detectable. I loved pouring the vinegar that was on our table over them.

The waiters are friendly but the service is abrupt. Our waiter tried to take plates away twice even though we were still eating. He also tipped over the okra container to see if we were done with them that I was tempted to slap him on the arm so he would chill. We ordered a bowl of rice when the two main courses were served but it never came. When it was included in our bill and I alerted the cashier, they insisted that we ate the rice they brought to our table. Our waiter pointed to a small grain of rice on our table and asked, But what is this over here? as if we would really try to skip over paying $1.39. They let the bill stand, as I suggested, and I gave them $1.39 less on the tip. Can you blame me if I just didn’t want to pay for what wasn’t served? The waiters also let us leave without giving us the leftovers we asked to take home. It was a good thing we remembered half a block away. When we opened our bag, the new order of chicken lollipops were there (I ordered two but they only gave and charged me for one) but the leftover noodles weren’t. We were just too tired to correct another mistake that we just decided to walk away.

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Braised Oxtails

Sep 25, ’06

My father denies that he bought the Mario Batali extra large Dutch oven for me. He said he bought it for himself so he can make his Filipino specialties without crowding the smaller pots we already have. I’ll let him slide, but to christen his new and glistening red pot, I braised some oxtails and kicked off autumn. Braising has got to be one my favorites things to do. A little beefy wine, a little stock, some good meat–you can just leave everything in the oven for a couple of hours. Browning is the key and it’s the step that a lot of Filipinos skip–they love their pressure cooker too much. When the meat falls off the bone without force, it’s like Christmas. If you love to cook, I think you have to give in some of your time to do beautiful things like this.

Ingredients:
6 pieces of oxtails
red wine
beef broth
1/2 stick of butter
1 red onion
5 garlic cloves, crushed
2 leeks, white parts only, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
3 thyme sprigs
3 bay leaves
1 bunch parsley stems

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Meanwhile in a large Dutch oven, add some butter over medium heat until foam subsides and brown the oxtails on all sides, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
2. Add vegetables to the pot and sauté until softened. Add the oxtails back arranging them in one layer. Add wine, herbs and enough stock to cover the oxtails. Bring to a boil, turn off the heat and place inside the oven on the middle rack and braise until meat is tender and almost falling off the bone, about 2 hours.
3. Remove the oxtails to a plate. Pour the braising liquid through a fine sieve into a saucepan and discard the other solids. Boil liquid until thick and reduced. Serve with pasta.

Related post/s:
Other oxtail recipes

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