Maison Harlem

As a Harlem resident for the last 10 years, I’m all for new bars and restaurants in the area. The neighborhood has definitely changed. You see more new faces walking around, cafés and boutiques, but its growth is still slower than Brooklyn’s.

Maison Harlem tries hard. A well-dressed gentleman–and may I say good-looking too–approached our table to ask how the food was. He told us that when he opened the place his main priority was good food, and now he’s working on improving the service. His next to-do is to refine the bar which is much needed because when we were there, they didn’t have a cocktail list and could not make me a Dark and Stormy because they didn’t have ginger beer.

Notables:
1. Space – The interior is beautiful and you can’t tell that from its on location on St. Nicholas Avenue. May I request for coat and purse hooks under the bar and by the booths though?
2. Crowd – It was nice to see more Harlem adults out for dinner. It was a mixed crowd on a Saturday night. Harlem is changing indeed.

Watch out:
1. Food – While the food wasn’t bad–my poached egg on my frisée de lardon came out perfectly and my hanger steak was medium-rare–it lacked oomph. We weren’t extremely satisfied after eating as if something was amiss. My steak could have used some salt and the truffled mac and cheese could have been more hearty and cheesier. Props for having Roquefort cheese as an option with the burger; I haven’t seen that cheese on any uptown menus, I swear.
2. Bar – The drinks are on the strong side until they create and refine their signature cocktails.
3. Service – Waiting on 5 ladies is difficult enough and I think we challenged our waiter with our decibel level and flustered him with our endless questions. But we kept him on his toes and he passed our test. I hope they keep it up when it gets more attention.

Thit Heo Nuong, Vietnamese Pork Chops

Vietnamese grilled pork, or thit heo nuong (insert Vietnamese characters in there), remains to be one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes. I still remember when my parents and I would eat in Chinatown’s Nha Trang restaurant every week. The dish did not cost much and it always came with a lot of rice; to my family, there was no better deal than that. Even my brother, who now lives in Singapore, makes sure that Nha Trang is still one of his stops when he visits us here in the States.

Even though I work a few minutes’ walk from Chinatown these days, I find myself too lazy to shop and eat there unless a specific craving knocks on the door. I recently saw some beautiful pork chops at Fairway supermarket in Harlem and thought about this dish as soon as I picked up one stalk of lemongrass from their produce section. Say what you will about being uptown, but I’m grateful I can find fresh lemongrass when I need it.

Lucky you if you have access to an open grill. I used my frying pan here but also my iron grill press to flatten the meat and cook them faster on each side. The caramelized marinade on the pan is great as dressing if you have a bunch of mixed greens to serve as a side–just wipe the bottom of the pan with the leaves!

Ingredients:
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped in 3 pieces
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tbsps honey
2 tbsps fish sauce
4 pieces bone-in pork chops
juice from 1 lime
pepper
oil

For the dipping sauce:
fish sauce
white vinegar
1 small knob of carrot, finely grated

1. Whisk lemongrass, garlic, honey and nam pla in large bowl. Add lime juice and pepper. Place pork in the bowl and turn to coat. Let stand and marinate, or refrigerate for up to 24 hours.
2. When ready to cook, heat a frying pan with some oil. Add marinated pork chops and fry, turning over to cook the other side every 3 minutes to avoid burning the marinade. Use an iron grill press if handy to cook the meat faster. Remove to a chopping block and let rest.
3. Make the dipping sauce. Combine a few jiggers of fish sauce and vinegar in a small bowl. Add the carrots and mix well. Serve with the pork and some white rice.

Cocoron Soba

61 Delancey Street between Allen and Eldrige
$30 each for 3 people, with tip
212/925.5220
♥ ♥

The temperature dropped and all we wanted was soup. Lisa and I would have gone to one of our usual haunts, but when Christian posted a photo of his soba bowl on Instagram over the weekend, I marked Cocoron as a place to think about when I’m in the area and in the mood for hot soba.

Best:
1. Pork kimchi soba – Very hearty and filling
2. Bathroom – They made a very small Tokyo-style space work!
3. Everyone behind the counter – It’s tight in there, but they cooked and served happily

Off:
1. Service – Our waitress seemed like she had a long day. She asked if we were ready to order as soon as we sat down and took off our coats. Oh? Give us 5 minutes, maybe? Girl, wipe that grouch off your face!

Kimchi Chigae, Korean Soup with Pork Tenderloin and Tofu

Chigae, or more appropriately jjigae, is a Korean stew made of a variety of vegetables and meat cooked in a broth seasoned with kochujang, or red chili paste. It’s more of a soup to me, really, but I’m not about to correct whatever the Koreans say.

Recipes online ask for pork tenderloin, but I find that a waste of perfectly good meat when all you’re doing to it is cooking it for hours. I think pork shoulder is more economical here so long as you have that big hunk of meat cut up in manageable pieces.

Ingredients:
1/2 pork tenderloin, sliced crosswise into 1/4-inch thick pieces
salt
pepper
sesame oil
scallions, chopped, whites and greens separated
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsps kochujang
chili powder
1/2 lb extra firm tofu, sliced into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cups cabbage-based kimchi, with liquid
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
steamed white rice

1. Season the pork with salt and the pepper and set aside. In a large pot set over medium-high heat, add the sesame oil. Once it starts to get hot, add the pork. Cook until the pork is browned on all sides. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
2. In the same pot, add the sliced scallion whites and cook until soft. Stir in the garlic until browned and then stir in the kochujang. Add the kimchi, rice vinegar, soy sauce and enough water to make sure everything is half submerged. Season with salt and bring to a simmer for about 20 minutes.
3. Add the tofu and return the pork to the pot along with any accumulated juices and simmer for 3 more minutes just to cook the tofu and reheat the pork. Serve the soup in bowls sprinkled with the sliced green scallions and steamed white rice.

Ajiaco Bogotano, Colombian Chicken and Potato Soup

When I traveled to Colombia a few years ago, I learned that it was soup country. Everywhere we ate, there was always ajiaco or sancocho on the menu, the two soups that easily became my favorites. When I first made my own version of ajiaco, I mistakenly added plantains because I remembered liking them from the sancocho. My version was so comforting then that I used some again when I made it this weekend post-Hurricane Sandy.

I added arborio rice here as well because I wanted an everything-in-it kind of soup. Feel free to skip it if you don’t want your soup too thick. When I heated up leftovers, I simply scooped a glob of it in a bowl, poured some packaged chicken broth with it and nuked it for about 3 minutes. They key is the capers–they make your second, or third, batch fresh.

Ingredients:
chicken carcass to make chicken broth
salt
1 bunch scallions, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch cilantro, tied in kitchen twine
3 potatoes, peeled, chopped
1 large plantain, peeled, chopped
2 pieces boneless chicken breasts, chopped
1/2 cup of arborio rice
capers

1. In a large pot, place the chicken carcass with about 12 cups of salted water to make broth. Let boil until the impurities float to the top. Skim them off and let the broth simmer for up to an hour to reduce. Strain the broth to another large container to separate and remove the disintegrated chicken carcass.
2. Return the filtered broth to the pot. Add scallions, garlic, twined cilantro, and potatoes and simmer for another 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Discard the cilantro. Add the plantains, chicken, and rice until cooked through.
3. Ladle soup and distribute the meaty stuff in bowls to serve. Top with a teaspoon of capers.