Writing With My Mouth Full

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    • Rai Rai Ken

      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 simple bowl of ramen. Separating the curtain at the door, I immediately get transported back to winter Japan. Rai Rai Ken’s narrow space and wooden bar remind me of cold cheeks and frozen hands after my usual bike commute through the suburbs of Tokyo. There is a simple menu of three kinds of ramen bowls: shoyu, a soy sauce-based broth, shio, seafood-based and miso, made of soy beans, all served with bamboo shoots, spinach, roast pork, nori or roasted seaweed and scallions, and then topped with the ever-so Japanese pink fish cake. Long strands of ramen noodles complete the package that require pulling, twirling and slurping. You can order fried vegetables and pork gyoza, or dumplings on the side, as well as edamame, or boiled soy beans, and white rice. Sapporo and Kirin beer overflow for those who want to extend their stay.

      In New York City, the temperature does not drop as low as it does in Japan during the winter months, but it is nonetheless cold. It is so cold only an imaginary trip back to Japan at Rai Rai Ken can warm me up.

    • Artichokes with Pork Sausage

      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 the light green flesh.

      The white hairs and the pink leaves should be scooped out and discarded after simmering in the flavorful broth. They are easier and cleaner to remove cooked than raw. You need 8 artichokes for this recipe to have enough by the time you clean them out.

      Ingredients:
      8 artichokes, trimmed down and halved
      2 large pork sausages
      1/2 cup chicken stock
      sage leaves
      2 shallots, minced
      4 garlic cloves, minced
      the other half of the lemon, thinly sliced
      2 tbsps unsalted butter
      salt, pepper, olive oil

      For the flavorful broth:
      1/4 cup of dry white wine
      2 quarts of water
      a handful of fresh parsley
      4 cloves of garlic, crushed
      2 bay leaves
      half a lemon
      salt, pepper

      1. Bring the flavorful broth to a simmer in a large pot. Add the artichokes, cover the pot over medium heat for a little less than 20 minutes, until there is no resistance when a knife is inserted into the base of the artichokes.
      2. Spoon out the artichokes carefully and try to leave the halves intact for a better presentation. Carefully scoop out the hairy choke from the center and discard.
      3. In a hot, deep skillet, pour some olive oil and brown and cook the sausages for about 10 minutes. Remove and set aside. Using the same skillet, add a drizzle of olive oil to the pan and cook the sage leaves until fragrant. Add shallots, garlic and lemon slices and cook for another 2 minutes. Add chicken stock, bring to a simmer and emulsify with butter and a little bit more oil until reduced and thickened.
      4. Return artichokes and sausages in the pan and cook over low heat for a few minutes to warm them up. Spoon out and serve by topping with leftover parsley.

      Related post/s:
      Don’t throw away those leftover sage leaves
      Good ol’ chicken stock

    • Tortellini with Butter Sage Sauce

      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. Toss and cook for less than two minutes.

      Related post/s:
      Another pasta I like is ravioli

    • Pumpkin Bread

      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 flour, baking soda and baking powder.

      Ingredients:
      3 cups fresh pumpkin, shredded
      1 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
      2 cups flour
      1 tsp baking soda
      1/4 tsp baking powder
      3 eggs
      2 tsps cinnamon
      2 tsps nutmeg
      half a stick of butter, melted in the microwave
      1 1/2 cups sugar
      3/4 cup vegetable oil
      1/2 tsp salt

      1. Preheat oven to 350é while you shred the pumpkin meat.
      2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix sugar, oil and eggs.
      3. Combine both mixtures and fold in the pumpkin meat. Pour into a baking pan coated with butter and a little flour. Bake until golden brown. Test the middle section with a toothpick until it comes out clean.
      4. While baking, toast pumpkin seeds in a hot skillet with a sprinkle of salt. Sprinkle on top of the pumpkin bread before it completely sets.

    • Snack Taverna

      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 a lot less casual than its counterpart. I later learned that its chef, John Fraser, cooked at The French Laundry in Napa for almost three years.

      I had my first excellent dinner of 2004 at Snack Taverna. I started with the veal cheeks served with hostas, or giboshi to the Japanese, a green plant that could be as tender as an asparagus. The loukaniko, a Greek hot sausage with oh-so-savory fennel and diced pear was excellent, I almost forgot about my crispy lamb’s tongue. We shared a braised lamb shoulder with bitter dandelions and a small serving of the monkfish. A mix of Cabernet and Merlot from Greece was the perfect match. At Snack Taverna, the meals are better than the desserts, but I couldn’t resist the chocolate soufflé with raspberry sauce even though our waiter warned us about the fifteen-minute wait. He served us a complementary piece of baklava for being patient.

      Related post/s:
      For a more casual night out, try Snack

    • Esca

      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 two people are required to order the tasting menu per table, so my companions opted for that while I ordered the crudo appetizer, or tasting portions of raw seafood: uni served on its shell, an oyster, scallops with chervil, razor clams with chilis and hamachi with scallions. I’ve never had seafood worshipped this way. I salivated over the carpaccio yellowfin tuna and the linguine with mahogany clams and pancetta. The shrimps with caper and thyme vinaigrette, the squid-ink spaghetti with cuttlefish and the striped bass with caramelized apples were all delicious. The Maine halibut was a little bland if not eaten with the burdock root and black trumpet mushrooms, but the scallops were perfectly seared. I loved the warm fruit turnover and the raspberry ice cream for dessert. Unfortunately, I could not find room in my stomach to accommodate the creme brulée.

      There was no Guiness beer but there were plenty of other wee-drinks: a bottle of Marchese di Gresy, another bottle of Moscato D’Asti and yet another bottle from Piemonte for dessert. Champagne, vodka and gin and tonics were also ordered several times before the main courses were served. Esca, which means bait in Italian, is a great place for groups–just don’t bring Irish friends who can outdrink you.

      Related post/s:
      It’s not surprising that Esca includes Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich
      Seafood worship?

    • Gigot a la Moutarde, Leg of Lamb with Mustard

      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 lamb to pick up the flavor before roasting. To give this a spin, I served it with some sautéed julienned vegetables wrapped in nori, or roasted seaweed.

      Ingredients:
      1 leg of lamb
      1/2 cup Dijon mustard
      3 cloves garlic, minced
      a couple of rosemary sprigs
      2 tbsps soy sauce
      1/4 tsp powdered ginger
      olive oil

      1. Preheat oven to 350º. Blend the mustard, soy sauce, garlic, rosemary and ginger in a bowl. Beat in some of the oil to get mayonnaise consistency.
      2. Brush the lamb with the mustard mixture and set it on a rack of a roasting pan. Roast until medium rare, a little more than an hour.

      Related post/s:
      A much simpler lamb steak will do

    • Pumpkin Ravioli with Maitake

      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 get expensive when they’re in season. You can substitute shiitake mushrooms if you don’t have access to them.

      Ingredients:
      1 package of pumpkin ravioli
      a few ounces of maitake mushrooms
      3 garlic cloves, minced
      half a stick of butter
      salt, ground white pepper

      1. Add ravioli in salted boiling water. Remove and drain after 10 minutes. Set aside.
      2. In a skillet, sauté garlic in butter until light brown. Add mushrooms until tender. Serve along with the ravioli.

      Related post/s:
      Where to buy pumpkin ravioli
      What else can I use maitake mushrooms for?

    • Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca

      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 with spicy lamb tartare with mint crostini and a quail egg in the middle. It killed me.
      The boy chose the grilled octopus with “borlotti marinati” and spicy limoncello vinaigrette. You know how octopus can be chewy sometimes even in the best Japanese restaurants? This was perfectly tender.

      For primi, I had the one-pound lobster with spicy budding chives, sweet garlic and what seemed to be four pounds of spaghettini. The boy opted for beef cheek ravioli with crushed squab liver and black truffles. I was so full after all that, sharing the secondi became a good call: guinea hen braciole with favas and pecorino.

      Ufortunately, we had to draw the line on desserts. There was just no way I could have squeezed in another bite but our waiter gave us complementary cookies anyway.

      On our second visit, we managed to control ourselves. We decided to share a lot of the offal starters since we knew the pasta dishes were too much for us. We finished the night with four of the best dishes we’ve eaten in our lives:

      Warm lamb’s tongue vinaigrette with chanterelles, pecorino Toscano and a 3-minute egg
      Calf’s brain “Francobolli” with lemon and sage
      Goose liver ravioli with balsamic vinegar and brown butter
      Fennel-dusted sweetbreads with sweet and sour onions, duck bacon and membrillo vinegar

      Sharing the appetizers was definitely the way to go. It allowed us to get a better sense of the Mario Batali behind Babbo.

    • Portobello Salad with Smoked Yellow Peppers

      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 all sides are dark brown. Place the broiled peppers in a brown paper bag, close and let steam for about 15 minutes. The skin removes easily after this process.

      Ingredients:
      fresh portobello mushrooms, brushed off dirt using paper towel
      2 yellow bell peppers, julienned
      mixed greens, thoroughly washed, patted dry
      2 tomatoes, chopped
      1 medium red onion, chopped
      a drizzle of balsamic vinegar
      salt, pepper, olive oil

      1. Grill yellow bell peppers until slightly black. Let them cool down before slicing.
      2. Drizzle olive oil on portobello mushrooms and put in the broiler until soft. Let them cool down before slicing as well.
      3. In a large salad bowl, toss all ingredients together and season with salt and pepper.

    • Taleggio and Mushroom Tart

      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 do.

      Ingredients:
      1 medium-sized deep-dish pie crust shell
      Taleggio cheese, rinds removed, thinly sliced
      a few ounces of shiitake mushrooms, sliced and stems discarded
      1 tbsp cumin seeds
      1 small shallot, finely chopped
      2 tbsps crème fraîche
      salt, ground white pepper, olive oil

      1. Preheat oven to 350º and bake pie shell for about 10 minutes.
      2. While baking, sauté cumin, shallots and mushrooms in hot olive oil until mushrooms are starting to brown. Season with salt and pepper.
      3. Let the pie shell cool and then spread crème fraîche and cover with the cooked shallots and mushrooms. Top with Taleggio. Bake in oven for about 15 minutes until cheese melts.

    • Lamb Steak

      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 hot Dutch oven, heat some olive oil and brown both sides of the lamb steaks.
      3. Using a shallow baking pan covered in aluminum foil to catch excess fat, cook steaks on a rack until medium-rare.