Author: cia

  • 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…

  • This recipe is from the All-Star Thanksgiving 2004 show on FoodTV demonstrated by Tyler Florence. Getting the flesh of the artichoke is a lot of work, so a Filipino father is necessary, but it’s also a wonderful Thanksgiving dish that doesn’t involve any turkey. Your artichokes should look like this after trimming them to expose…

  • Ingredients: 1 package of tortellini 5 sage leaves half a stick of butter light cream 1. Add tortellini in salted boiling water. Remove and drain after 10 minutes. Set aside. 2. In a skillet, sauté the sage leaves in butter until fragrant. Add the cooked tortellini in the pan with enough light cream to coat.…

  • Pumpkins are everywhere come Halloween time and my mother always takes one home from her kindergarten school trip. Ah, autumn. If you don’t want to spend the extra effort to bake, feel free to use Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Butter Recipe Golden mix and follow their instructions on the box instead of using your own…

  • 63 Bedford Street on Morton 212/929-3499 about $150 for two, with two drinks, without tip ♥ ♥ I always write about eating at Snack, my favorite Greek spot, so I decided to try its new sister restaurant, Snack Taverna on Bedford. It has a more grown-up menu with some French influences and the ambiance is…

  • 402 West 43rd Street off Ninth Avenue 212/564.7272 about $700 for four, with a lot of drinks, with tip ♥ ♥ ♥ Some friends I met while traveling in Ireland were in town. Remembering how much we all liked our seafood while we were traveling, I booked a table for four at Esca. At least…

  • Gigot is French for a leg of lamb. This recipe was adapted from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I’ve used more expensive lamb chops with this recipe as well. You just have to call it côte d’agneau to refer to the ribs. For more flavor, allow a couple of hours for the…

  • Di Palo’s in New York City sells different kinds of pasta. In the fall, I like to pick up their pumpkin ravioli and buy mushrooms from the farmers’ market to match. Maitake mushrooms, also called hen of the woods mushrooms, are capless and look more like a cluster of wings. They’re very fragrant and can…

  • 110 Waverly Place between MacDougal and Sixth 212/777.0303 about $200 for two, with a few drinks, with tip ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Our first time at Babbo, we went all out, asked questions about never-heard words written on the menu (braciole! francobolli! scottadita!) and picked out a bottle of red wine to match. I started…

  • This is one of my favorite salads. The yellow bell pepper adds a sweetness to it while the portobello mushrooms make it beefier. I don’t have a grill outside my apartment–I don’t have an outside!–so I use the stovetop and hold the bell pepper using heat-resistant tongs. You can also broil the bell peppers until…

  • Taleggio, a very rich and semi-soft cheese made from whole cow’s milk, has a distinct smell. When I saw this recipe in The New York Times, I knew it would be more fragrant with earthy mushrooms. It’s a great autumn recipe if you can afford some truffles or chantarelles in season. Otherwise, shiitake mushrooms will…

  • A lamb steak is my fallback dinner when my appetite requires a big, sturdy meal but I’m too lazy to cook. A glass, or two, of red wine completes this dish. Ingredients: 2 lamb steaks salt, pepper, olive oil 1. Preheat oven to 350º. Rub with salt and pepper. Let them sit. 2. Using a…