Writing With My Mouth Full

Mulberry & Vine: The Whole Menu

73 Warren Street between West Broadway and Greenwich Streets
under $15 for lunch
212/791.6300
♥ ♥

I walked by this new spot in TriBeCa the other day and I had to stop and peek in because it looked like a cute IKEA cafeteria inside (in that yellow chair/wooden table kind of way). I’ve been working in the neighborhood for almost 3 years now and my lunch options are dwindling. If I’m not packing my own food, I almost always feel bored about the choices around me: the Whole Foods buffet that always seem to cost so much, the Halal cart right outside the Chase bank, Chipotle, or if I’m inclined to eat Vietnamese food, Nicky’s right off Fulton Street.

Mulberry & Vine is spacious and airy inside. The space’s cleanliness makes you immediately think that the food will be light and healthy. Some may think it’s a little too sparse which could translate to an impression that the food will be bland, but displaying everything in colorful enamel bakeware make it somewhat homey.

Prices vary but are comparable to the neighborhood’s: $13 for 3 dishes (1 hot, 2 cold), $12 for 3 cold dishes, $3 to $4 for soups and other sides, and a dollar here and there for extras (a bed of lettuce or arugula, a small container of green sauce, etc.)

Fourth visit, May 30, 2013
3 cold
– Farro salad – This was so much better today; the eggplant was not as tough as the last time
– Beets – The pomegranates were a nice touch and texture addition
– Roasted vegetables – Excellent and a little bit tangy because of the pickled cucumbers and onions, this actually made my day!

Third visit, May 21, 2013
1 hot, 3 cold
– Turkey meatballs – Tasty, but could use some texture. The finely grounded meat looked fake to me
– Soba noodles – Good and simple
– Farro and eggplant salad – I really liked this except for the tough eggplant skin
– Kale salad – I think it would have helped if the kale was shredded in smaller pieces so that it didn’t feel like you were eating big pieces of raw kale

Second visit, May 10, 2013
1 hot, 1 soup
– Chicken enchilada – Tasted more like a lasagna with white meat
– Lemon cardamom rice – Sounded promising but was a little too thin for me; needed some oomph

First visit: May 3, 2013
1 hot, 2 cold dishes
– Roasted cauliflower – Simple and clean; just like how you would make it at home, but it came with a so-called “green Sriracha” which tasted just like cilantro pesto.
– Curried freekeh with mango – The Arabic bulgur, this curried freekeh tasted healthy with the mango chunks.
– Spanish spice-rub roasted chicken – Although it was under the list of warm dishes, this was a little too cold for my taste. If it’s not cooked Hainanese style, cold chicken just tastes undercooked. I didn’t check what makes a rub “Spanish” but there was definitely paprika all over.

* And when I write “the whole menu”, I mean just about the whole menu. The menu changes according to the season’s ingredients and I will start writing about it this Spring 2013.

Final update: Mulberry & Vine is a great lunch option in the World Trade Center/TriBeCa area and is a better alternative to the salad bar at Whole Foods for the same price range. The food is good and is always fresh. It proves that presentation helps a lot, as well as a clean and airy space. I do find myself wanting a snack by mid-afternoon, but that’s just because I mostly chose their no-meat options. Watch out for your lunch budget as spending $15 on lunch everyday is not sustainable for me.

Fennel, Chickpea and Almond Salad

Talk about an easy salad. My friend Stacie of OneHungryMama turned me on to this salad via Instagram. She adapted it from Homemade with Love by Jennifer Perillo.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
2 tbsps olive oil
juice of half a lemon
salt
pepper
1/2 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
1 can of chickpeas, washed and drained
1/4 cup parsley, torn into pieces
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
a handful blanched almonds, coarsely chopped

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, and lemon juice until well mixed. Season the dressing with salt and pepper to taste. Add the fennel, chickpeas, parsley, and cheese to the bowl. Toss together to combine. To serve, spoon the salad onto a large platter, and sprinkle the almonds on top.

Related post/s:
Buy Homemade with Love: Simple Scratch Cooking from In Jennie’s Kitchen from Amazon.com
Check out OneHungryMama whose recipes are as friendly to children as they are to adults

Eggplant in Ginger-Garlic Sauce

Ever since I moved to my Harlem apartment, I had to keep myself from buying any more new cookbooks. It was hard enough to pare down my copies when I moved in, so I’m trying not to accumulate any more new stuff. I mostly borrow from the New York Public Library now just to get my fill of touching the cover and feeling the pages of a newly-published book, but when it comes to Fuchsia Dunlop, I make an exception.

Her books were my reference when I began my Sichuan kick a few years ago. Nothing out there compared to her work, living in the Sichuan Province and learning from the area’s cooking schools and the local chefs. I lived vicariously through her and her cooking.

From her latest, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, I ended up adapting her eggplant dish, or rou mo qie zi, from Hangzhou. I found myself in Flushing, Queens with my friend Josh over the weekend and bought some eggplants on the cheap. I didn’t have all of her required ingredients, so I played with what I had. Instead of ground pork, I used the minced beef I had in my freezer. She also required a sweet fermented sauce but I figured a dollop of chili paste will do. I also skipped the potato flour because I simply didn’t have any and I didn’t want to substitute regular flour or cornstarch with it. I have two kinds of cooking wines in my pantry so I used both just to have something else to splash in.

Feel free to eliminate the beef if you don’t want meat in this dish.

Ingredients:
4 Asian eggplants
salt
cooking oil
1 lb ground beef
1 1/2 tbsps Sichuanese chili paste
1 small knob ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
a splash of chicken stock
2 tsps sugar
a jigger of Shaoxing wine, or Chinese cooking wine
a jigger of mirin, or sweet rice wine
3 stalks scallions, finely chopped

1. Cut the eggplant lengthways into three thick slices, then cut these into thin and even slices. Sprinkle them with salt, mix well and leave in a colander for at least 30 minutes to drain. Discard the water when ready to cook.
2. In a wok or a deep skillet, heat the oil for deep-frying. Add the eggplant in batches and deep-fry for three to four minutes until slightly golden on the outside and soft and buttery within. Remove and drain on paper towels.
3. In the same wok on medium flame, cook the ground beef until golden brown. Feel free to add more oil so it won’t burn. Add the chili paste and stir-fry until the oil is red and fragrant, then add the ginger and garlic and continue to stir-fry until you can smell their aromas. Add the stock and sugar and mix well.
4. Add the fried eggplant to the sauce and let them simmer gently for a minute or so to absorb some of the flavors. Splash the vinegar in and add the scallions and stir a few times. Serve with a bowl of hot, steaming white rice.

Related post/s:
Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking by Fuchsia Dunlop

Chicken-Fried Beef Steak with Curry Gravy

This recipe is from Filipino Top Chef Dale Talde. Don’t be fooled by the name; he used a simple fried chicken batter and applied it to beef. The original version required 1/2 cup of milk to make the batter, but I only had almond milk in the fridge that I didn’t really want to use, so I decided to skip it. It might not have made the batter stick the way it should, but my beef slices looked okay in the end without the milk. I also used lemon instead of lime and cut down the amount of ingredients needed here. This could have lasted 3 meals if only I stopped snacking on the meat while I cooked the pasta.

Ingredients:
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
salt
pepper
6 1/4-inch-thick slices of top-round beef
egg noodles

For the curry gravy:
oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
a small knob of ginger, peeled, minced
1 tbsp curry powder
2 squirts of Sriracha
1/2 cup strong-brewed coffee
half a 13-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
juice from half a lemon
1 tsp sugar

1. In a shallow plate, whisk the egg. In another plate, generously season the flour with salt and pepper. Dredge the beef in the flour, tapping off the excess. Dip the coated slices in the beaten egg and dredge again in the flour, lightly patting the coating to help it adhere.
2. In a large skillet, heat 1/2 inch of oil. Working in 2 batches, fry the steak over moderate heat, turning once, until golden and crispy, about 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels and season lightly with salt. Slice in strips when cool enough to the touch.
3. In the same skillet, add a little more oil and sauté the onion, garlic and ginger. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened. Add the curry powder and Sriracha and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the coffee and boil until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add the coconut milk, lemon juice and sugar, season the gravy with salt and pepper and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes.
4. While the gravy is cooking, boil a pot of water and cook the egg noodles al dente, about 15 minutes. Drain and put in a serving bowl. Topped with the sliced chicken-fried steaks and pour over the curry gravy. Serve with some lemon wedges.

Easy Cocoa Brownies with Salt

Wow. I’m not the biggest dessert fan, but wow. I saw the photo of this recipe with the rock salt on top and I was immediately tempted to make it. Shauna was coming over with a bottle of wine to catch up, so I thought why not make dinner for the both of us while she made dessert?

Ingredients:
10 tbsps, or 1 1/4 stick, unsalted butter, sliced in small pieces
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cups plus 2 tbsps unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cold large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
rock salt

1. Position the oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325º Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. Set aside.
2. Simmer some water in a deep-enough and wide skillet. Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and set the bowl in the skillet when the water starts to simmer. Stir from time to time with a heatproof spatula until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test.
3. Remove the bowl from the skillet and set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot. Stir in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the spatula.
4. Spread evenly in the lined pan. Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack. Lift up the ends of the parchment, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Sprinkle with rock salt and cut into squares.

Recommended tool/s:
The Spatula by GIR (Gear that Gets it Right)