Author: cia
-
I spent my Friday afternoon at Kam Nam in Chinatown buying the necessary tools: plastic pail, check; cleaver, check. I perused my Fergus Henderson book for a brine recipe but I had to make a few adjustments because I didn’t have juniper berries on hand. The Dr. cut Rog in several sections to make him…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
232 Elizabeth Street between Houston and Prince 212/625.2345 $57 for one, with four drinks, with tip ♥ ♥ Both times I’ve eaten at Bar Bossa, I sat in the back room with a group of friends where bathroom visitors always say, Oh, I didn’t know there was a table back here. Sitting in the back…
-
One Fifth Avenue on 8th Street 212/995.9559 $90 for three, with several drinks, with tip ♥ ♥ When a group of my friends and I just want a laid-back night with good food but can’t afford the other Batali establishments, we end up at Otto where we can eat thin-crust pizzas cooked on a flat-iron…
-
I bought The Food of Spain and Portugal to skim through during my flight back from Barcelona and made marks to the recipes I’d like to test at home. Not wanting to let go of our Catalan experience just yet, I picked Extramadura’s puchero de castañas con garbanzos, or chestnut and chickpea hotpot to get…
-
After a nice dinner at Peter Luger and a few drinks in the lower east side, we went back to Harlem, drank some coffee and drove to da Bronx. It took a lot of effort to stay past 3am. We visited the Fulton Fish Market a couple of years ago, and when they decided to…
-
The clouds finally lifted after seven days of rain and mist. We all woke up to the sun shining through our windows. Just in time, too, because this is our last hurrah for the summer. It took a while for us to get ready because of last night’s festivities in a few Fort Greene bars…
-
280 5th Avenue between 1st Street and Garfield Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn 718/840.0404 about $300 for three, with several drinks, without tip ♥ ♥ It’s been years since I’ve been to Park Slope. The Dr. used to live there and it was back then when he took me to Blue Ribbon for dinner. My brother…