Writing With My Mouth Full

P*Ong

150 West 10th Street off Waverly Place
212.929.0898
about $145 for one tasting menu and two extra dishes, with two drinks, with tip
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Where do you go on a first date? If you feel unsure about the other person, you may want to go to a small bistro where the fare would be safe and expected. If you’ve known the other person for a while and feel comfortable enough to eat with a very sharp knife, you may want to go to a steakhouse. If you want to be playful but still slightly impress, you might go to P*Ong.

It’s hard not to think about desserts as soon as you step inside P*Ong. The first whiff you catch is of a bakery’s. From the red wall down to the glossy paper used for the menu, the Dr.’s first reaction when we sat down was, “Are we eating precious little things?” He was skeptical and he was hungry.

I went over the short menu and bravely ordered the suite which consisted of ten savory dishes. They are adventurous, yet well thought out. No one lackadaisically combines the ingredients like chef Pichet Ong does at P*Ong. Who else would think of a stilton soufflÃ© encrusted in crushed walnuts and then pair it with a basil-arugula ice cream?

A fava bean and sugar snap pea dish sprinkled with thinly-sliced almonds and dusted with Parmiggiano reminded me of summers in Vermont. The sweet Maine crab with tarragon, lemon and chives was matched with green apple mousse, while the shrimp ceviche was flavored with Thai chili and mango purÃ©e. They were my two favorites even though I could have used more of the natural taste of the shellfish. Both were bright and cooling on the tongue. The bigeye tuna was overpowered by the olive dressing. I wanted to taste more of the fattiness of the tartare. The Wagyu carpaccio was biting with the arugula and the maldon salt gave it some extra texture. I barely had room for the goat cheese and the peaches served on a bed of smooth ricotta and brittled aloe vera. I was full and drowning in whimsical adjectives in my head.

The Dr. selected two dishes a la carte after the kitchen allowed us to order only one tasting menu. He loved the smooth polenta covered in a generous serving of morel mushrooms. A foie-gras brulÃ©e started off beautifully and interestingly until the smell of burnt sugar reminded him of something else in the hospital. Unfortunate and unpleasing, I know, and not to be blamed on the kitchen, but this was when the watermelonade cocktail worked its magic.

The Dr.’s skepticism dissipated as it got late and the house music was upped one level. P*Ong is certainly not the place you take your father to, but if your companion thinks stilton has some sexiness to it, you may just have to go out on a second date.

Grilled Nectarines with Honey-Balsamic Glaze

This recipe came from Bon AppÃ©tit Magazine. The original one uses creme fraiche, but I decided to skip it to make the nectarines stand out. Nectarines are bountiful in the summer and they don’t really need any accompaniment–they’re bright and juicy on their own–but the glaze makes for a prettier presentation. A dollop of good vanilla ice cream doesn’t hurt, though.

Ingredients:
3 firm but ripe nectarines, halved, pitted
1/4 cup honey
a few jigs of balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Heat stove-top grill while making the glaze. Whisk 1/2 cup honey, vinegar and vanilla in small bowl. Brush glaze on nectarines.
2. Grill nectarines until heated through, about 3 minutes. Gently turn over and grill the other side. Drizzle remaining glaze before serving.

Golden Beet and Fennel Salad

The heat is on! There were some beautiful golden beets in Whole Foods the other day but I was too lazy to cook. This recipe doesn’t require much work, but it does take an hour or two of your time to cook the beets. The good thing is you can just put them in the oven and leave the kitchen to avoid the heat. Cameron served this at her apartment when the Dr. and I came over with a dozen and a half of blue crabs. We covered her table with the Sunday Times and had a very nice summer night dinner. I made my own salad later and matched it with a pan-fried branzino.

Ingredients:
1 bunch golden beets, tops trimmed, thoroughly washed
1 fennel bulb
1 tbsp cumin seeds
lemon juice
olive oil, salt, pepper

1. Wrap beets in foil and put on a baking sheet. Broil on high for about an hour and a half. When done, let completely cool. Gently peel off the skin using your hands. The skin should come off easily. Chop in small chunks.
2. While beets are cooking, slice fennel thinly and set aside in a bowl sprinkled with fresh lemon juice. The lemon juice will keep the fennel from turning dark. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until ready to assemble the salad.
3. Using a small pan, toast the cumin seeds. Ground using a mortar pestle. In a small bowl, whisk oil and some lemon juice with the grounded toasted cumin. Season with salt and pepper. Toss with the rest of the ingredients.

Searching For a Good Taco: Staten Island

For non-New Yorkers, here’s a quick lesson about my city. New York City is made up of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island. In my quest to eat more often outside of Manhattan, Staten Island is the least represented on this site. Although it has the most suburban feel in all of the five, it has been experiencing a large growth of Mexican immigrants in the last 12 years.

The Mexican community–documented and undocumented–have contributed to the diversity of Staten Island, especially on the north shore. Staten Island has historically been known as the “whitest” borough in New York City, but now, almost 2% of its entire population is composed of Mexicans. According to the 2000 Census, Mexicans were the second largest foreign-born group in Staten Island. Besides more affordable housing, the mighty Verrazano-Narrows Bridge helps connect the borough to Brooklyn, Long Island and New Jersey, so a lot of contractors seek out workers there to fill jobs.

I visited to seek out the best taco. I started this food project last year and it’s gotten hot enough outside to warrant a continuation of my search, so I enlisted Staten Island locals Sean and Jane, and of course, Cameron’s stomach, to help me find the best tacos in the neighborhood. I had a few stores in mind from a few Google searches, but we let them walk us to the neighborhoods where the Mexicans live and hang out to find the more authentic tacos. When available, we always bought the chorizo because it was the easiest to compare. I’ve had so many chorizo tacos in the last year and a half that I think I know a good one when I taste one. When the offal kinds were on the menu, though, I gravitated towards them since I didn’t have a lot of them the last three times I went around Manhattan.

My favorites were the longaniza and chorizo from La Conchita, the suadero from Tacos La Abuelita and the cabeza from Tulci-Mex.

Here’s the complete rundown:

1. Taqueria El Gallo Azteca, 75 Victory Blvd., 718/273.6404

We were famished when we arrived in Staten Island via the free ferry ride from downtown Manhattan. We walked past the Taco Bell and made our first stop in St. George. (Who is by the way, not a real saint, but someone who was treated like one because he bought all the land the community at the time needed.) Even though we knew we had to make room for a lot of tacos, we still ordered one apiece from El Gallo. With the semi-chewy bistek, the spicy and salty al pastor and two of the lengua, or tongue, we were off to a very good start.

2. El Campesino, 718/447.1215

The cecina taco was the best. Cecina is a traditional cut of beef in Mexico, sliced thin, salted, and then laid out to dry under the sun. It’s like their version of jerky, really. We also had the lengua, the overdone bistek and of course, the chorizo. Everything was deliciously salty which is why I love simply-prepared tacos–they bring out the Filipino in me.

3. La Mixteca Poblana, 104 Victory Blvd.

They only had the al pastor kind here which is skewered in a vertical rotisserie. Like any gyro store, it slowly spins while cooking. The meat is seasoned with adobo and sometimes pineapple or avocado. What I liked was their brown tomato sauce. It added a toastier taste to the tacos.

4. Tulci-Mex, 108 Victory Blvd., 718/720.1221

They had the most offal selection here, but no one spoke English so it was hard to get a translation. I ended up ordering the only ones familiar to me. The cabeza was a favorite, or the head, because the gelatinuous stuff melted in our mouths. We had the orejas, or the ears, which had some crunch to them. Oh, those little earlobe bones!

5. Las Jarochitos, Port Richmond, 718/876.9090

Finally, a barbacoa kind, or goat! Like any goat stew I’ve had, this one was stringy and gamey. Unfortunately, tiny sharp bones were included. They are really difficult to separate when you’re stewing a goat for several hours and everything falls apart. The cecina and the chorizo were included in our order but they took a while. Thank goodness for cold Coronas.

6. La Conchita, 244 Port Richmond, 718/448.0154

In the Philippines, we use longaniza and chorizo interchangably, but both were available here. We didn’t really care which was which because both were the best we’ve had all day even though at first look, all you can see was cilantro. They were crunchy and the tips were a little burnt, which made a lovely snack when Mexico scored a third goal against Paraguay.

7. Tacos La Abuelita, 229 Port Richmond, 718/273.4648

The tacos here were a dollar each but they had the “especiales” for $2 and $3. We didn’t ask what made them special but the dollar ones tasted good enough. We ordered the buche, or the stomach, the cueritos, or pork skin, and the suadero, which is like stewed beef with all the fat included. The buche was a little unnerving to some of us because it obviously looked like chopped up intestine. The pork skin wasn’t as cripsy as I would have liked, but the suadero reminded me of lechon paksiw without the sour taste.

The best part of this trip to Staten Island? Ralph’s ices after all those tacos!

Asparagus-Stuffed Branzino

I was in the mood for fish after eating too many tacos, so I stopped by the Whole Foods in the Time Warner Center to buy one. It was getting late on a Sunday. I didn’t want to deal with the Fairway crowd and there was not enough time to go to Chinatown. I knew I had no choice but the expensive produce and the long lines in Whole Foods. Their stock was low that late in the day, but I managed to find a whole branzino. I like branzini–in plural form–because of their fleshy, flaky, white meat. They remind me of the Filipino bangus, or milkfish, without the perseverance requirement to pick on small fish bones. Branzino is essentially a Mediterranean sea bass, or to the French, loup de mer, and farm-raised. I also like that they come in smaller sizes than black sea bass or red snapper; perfect for one serving.

I walked over to the vegetable section and found some nice bundles of asparagus. I’ve been eating them grilled lately–watch out, smelly pee!–since they are so easy to cook. If I didn’t end up making a light sauce with them to go with the fish, I thought I’d use them as stuffing. Almost 15 minutes standing in the checkout line led me to go the easier route when I got home.

Ingredients:
1 branzino, butterflied, deboned
4 pieces of asparagus, cut in short pieces
1 shallot, sliced thinly
olive oil, salt, pepper

1. In a large wok, heat some olive oil. SautÃ© onions and asparagus until onions caramelize a bit and asparagus pieces are tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from wok and set aside.
2. Lay the butterflied branzino on a chopping board. Season the inside with salt and pepper. Scoop some of the asparagus-onion mixture and stuff the fish. Using kitchen twine, close the fish to keep the stuffing inside. You can either use a giant kitchen needle or just gently wrap the fish with the twine to hold the butterflied pieces close together.
3. Using the same wok, heat some more oil. Add the fish and cook one side until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Using a heat-resistant spatula, gently turn the fish over and cook the other side for another 5 minutes. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate.