Ko

We never finished the story about Ko and what happened after we got an elusive reservation there.

I was so nervous about getting there late and having our reservation voided that we got there about 20 minutes early. The entry way was intimidating.



Once we went inside, we were told that we were a little early, but they seated us anyway. The counter, large enough for only 12 diners, was L-shaped. We were seated at the short horizontal part of the L, which ended up being the best seats because we could see the chefs' hands and watch their every move. As the other diners trickled in, I wondered, "Who are these people, and why do they have an entire Friday afternoon free?" The lunch menu is actually more extensive (and more pricey) than the dinner menu. We were there for 3 or 4 hours.

We didn't want to get the wine tasting because we wanted to stay lucid during the entire meal. We started with 1/2 a bottle of sake. We finished it and ended up getting another full bottle anyway.

There were too many dishes to count. They were all delicious. I'm a big fan of bento boxes because you get to taste a lot of different things with one visit. So it was even better that Ko did an omakase ("it's up to you" in Japanese, meaning entirely of the chef's choice) menu. One standout was the Shaved Torchon of Freeze-Dried Foie Gras over Rieseling Gelee with Lychee and Pine Nut Brittle. Shaved freeze-dried foie gras is a brilliant innovation. It tastes like fois-gras ice cream - creamy, melting, and rich. We were tempted to ask for a second helping.

I was a little afraid of talking too loudly and initially wasn't sure where to look. But the music was just loud enough to provide cover for our voices without being distracting, and I think Ko had been open long enough that the chefs were used to being observed. One of them nonchalantly brought out an enormous wheel of blue cheese, cut out a wedge, and returned it to the fridge, afterwards casually checking his Blackberry.

David Chang made an appearance during our meal. He poked around the back, whispered in a few chefs' ears, adjusted the stereo sound once or twice, and then left.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Baily

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Baily came to New York City! I had never been to the circus so I bought tickets straightaway.

The circus was at Madison Square Garden. I missed this, but apparently the night before the circus opens at around midnight, they close off the Queens Midtown Tunnel and march the elephants in. You can go and watch. Something I also didn't know was that an hour before each circus performance, you can go to the part of the arena that is blocked off and pet the animals. I was pretty bummed about missing that.

But the circus was fun! The whole thing was kind of like a ballgame, with the food coming to you. It was, however, ridiculously expensive. We bought an icey in this plastic cup that lighted up in the dark, and it was $14!!



A bag of popcorn was equally expensive, maybe $10-12. But we went along with it. It was a festive atmosphere. We felt like little kids.

The acrobatics were not as impressive to me having been spoiled with Cirque du Soleil. However, I loved watching the animals. The dog show was incredible. There were dogs of all sizes and types doing clever antics and jumping over and off various objects. They also brought out zebras (!) and horses and had them run around in a circle. Which doesn't sound that amusing now, but was somehow extremely amusing to me as I was watching. The zebras were not as bright as the horses and tended to clump together despite the trainer's encouragement. The horses ran around their circle pretty evenly. I couldn't help but clap to encourage them along.

And there were elephants!!!!!!!



The only animals that did not seem happy and content were the tigers. I felt a little sorry for them. One of them was a particularly bad troublemaker - Princessa - and she wouldn't stay on her stand. The trainer had to constantly reprimand her and she would roar irritably. I was a little afraid he would get eaten.

Overall, it was a good time. Go to the circus the next time they're in town!

S'mores in our fireplace

This is from a while ago from the winter.

We lit a fire in our fireplace and roasted marshmallows. Then we made s'mores with graham crackers and Hershey's milk chocolate. It was fun! We couldn't remember the last time we had s'mores.


This is when one of my marshmallows caught on fire.

Daniel

Two days after Bloomsday, it was our 4th anniversary. So we went to Daniel to celebrate. We planned on getting the prix fixe, but our resolve crumbled after we saw the menu. We justified our change in decision the way we usually justify our weakness of will with such matters - we work hard, we don't buy nice clothes, we may not be in the city in a few years, and therefore wouldn't we regret not getting the tasting menu?

So we did. The food was delicious - more obviously and satisfyingly so than at Le Bernadin. The timing of some of the dishes were off, but we didn't care - we weren't in any hurry. We speculated that someone was on vacation. The restaurant was beautiful. It is hard for me to remember specific dishes, they were all so good. It is just all awash in one long memory of spending four happy hours at Daniel.

The wines were excellent, though not as life-changing an experience as at Le Bernadin. The pours were quite generous and Dave had to take a quick break at the pinot noir, though he bounced back quickly. We liked our sommelier a lot even though we couldn't understand his descriptions very well due to his thick French accent.

There was a point in the dinner when I dropped a piece of food on my dress. We were startled when two or three people rushed over with a real look of concern in their eyes to ask if everything was okay. It was a funny moment.

Towards the end, as the restaurant was emptying out, it seemed like some of the staff were feeling a little giddy. Our sommelier took this photo of himself with our camera:


Then we decided to take a nicer picture of him and the person-who-took-our-order-and-orchestrated-our-dinner:


At the beginning when we told the person-who-took-our-order-and-orchestrated-our-dinner that it was our anniversary, the look that flashed across his face made me realize how neat it must be to work in the kind of restaurant where people come to celebrate such events.

And that's us - we're 4 years old!




Daniel
60 E 65th St
New York, NY 10065
(212) 288-0033

Le Bernardin and Bemelmans Bar

Dave took me to Le Bernadin for my 30th birthday. We realized en route to the table that there was Le Bernadin staff everywhere. I was pretty nervous when we sat down - I had a feeling we were going to be watched pretty closely. But we had a cocktail, and the uneasiness melted into the sensation that we were actually in one big Le Bernadin hug, and that the staff was going to take really good care of us. It was an excellent cocktail.

We ordered the tasting menu with the wine pairings. The flavors at Le Bernadin were clean and delicate, but perhaps a bit too muted. The real accolades belong to Le Bernadin's impeccable technique. That which was supposed to be crispy was perfectly crispy, the dish components were cut incredibly precisely, and all the seafood was cooked exactly as it was supposed to be cooked with not a surplus moment under the heat. I have never encountered this kind of execution with food. Eric Ripert runs a tight ship.

Even better were the wine pairings. You could tell which of the staff were sommeliers because they had silver necklaces with these large silver medallions. The sommelier we had was very nice, and she led us through a variety of wines that were classic examples of their type. The whole experience was actually pretty incredible, but the wine I loved the most was the chablis. I learned that I am a huge fan of minerally whites.

At the end of the meal, there was one awesome moment when one of the staff came by with a second set of petit fours by accident. There was a glitch in the flawless machine that was Le Bernadin! She grimaced when she found out there had been a miscommunication, paused for a microsecond, and then resolutely gave us the second set anyway.

We felt a little shy about taking pictures in such a nice restaurant. But we snuck one of this painting:



We love the dog!



After dinner, Dave and I met up with my brother at Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle Hotel. The bar was beautiful; there were murals all along the walls and this feeling of old-time swankiness. I felt right at home in my cocktail dress. The cocktails were excellent, as was the live jazz. It was the perfect place to hang out, relax, and end the evening.


Le Bernardin
155 W 51st St
New York, NY 10019
(212) 554-1515

Bemelmans Bar
35 East 76th Street
New York, NY 10021
(212) 744-1600‎

Back & Foot Rub (and Minca)

One of the peculiarities of the West Village is the density of cheap Chinese massage places. I had found a gem on Carmine Street that charged only $48 for an hour ($40 between 11 am and 3 pm, if you can believe it) for an extremely intense and effective shiatsu/deep tissue massage. I was looking forward to getting a massage one day when, Jane-Eyre/burnt-Thornfield-style I found the store cleared out and a sign tacked on the window stating, "Thank you customers, Moving to 10th and McDougall." I was crushed, but not truly heartbroken until I looked for 10th and MacDougal and realized that it didn't exist.

Fast-forward a few months. Fleurise convinced me to go on an expedition to find my old massage place by walking up and down MacDougal. I got pretty discouraged, but then on the intersection between 8th and MacDougal, we found this:



And it was the right place!! Fleurise and I got our massages and then went to Minca to top off our day with ramen (which, by the way, is my new favorite ramen place; get the Shoyu ramen with thick noodle - the broth is flavorful and rich, and the noodle has an addictive and perfectly calibrated amount of chewiness. Better, I'm sorry to say, than the hand-pulled noodles at Food Shing.)

Falai Panetteria

I have been semi-obsessed with tomato tarts ever since I had one on a flight to Paris (can't remember the airline - Northwest?). Maybe it wouldn't be that great if I had it again now, but I was new to savory tarts at the time, and I really enjoyed it. So when I found out that Falai Panetteria in the Lower East Side made tomato tarts, I knew I had to make a trip.

The first time I went they were out. I went back a second time and I bought two tarts for $4.50 each. Given that Iacopo Falai was the former pastry chef at Le Cirque, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised at how delicious the tarts were.


That day, I decided that I love places where I can get a glass of wine with lunch. It was a laid back and comfortable little corner restaurant when I went, although I heard it can get busy, crowded, and hectic during the peak hours. I'm definitely going back - to get more tarts and also to try their other pastries.

Shopsin's General Store

Note: Dave and I are both on vacation, and we are hoping to get a bunch of posts in before the next onslaught of rotations. Here are some of our adventures from the past few months...

Fleurise and Jeremy (both post-call) and Mike and I (on our vacations) decided to go to Shopsin's General Store for brunch on a random Wednesday morning.


Contrary to its name, Shopsin's is actually an eatery (Stall #16, Essex Street Market, Lower East Side), although if one expects to be able to buy most anything at a general store, then their ridiculously extensive menu does contribute to a feeling of being able to order anything you might possibly feel like eating, or at least something very close to it.

Seating is extremely limited, and once the establishment found out that I was running late and not yet with the group, they made the other three get back up from the table, leaving them to pace anxiously while a few hipsters took over one of the other tables. I did show up soon thereafter and the four of us ordered blueberry lemon ricotta pancakes, lemon ricotta pancakes, slutty pancakes, and a combination of pancakes, along with bacon, fried brussel sprouts, and andouille sausage.


The ricotta pancakes were made as regular pancakes but with a ricotta filling; they were light and delicious. The slutty cakes (peanut butter, pumpkin, pistachios) and combo pancakes (3 way between slutty, lemon ricotta, cinammon raisin), with their unusual fillings, had a nice texture, and were fun to eat. The bacon was incredible!! It was crunchy with honey or maple syrup drizzled all over - probably the tastiest way to serve bacon, ever. We liked that we could order brussel sprouts for brunch and were tickled to discover that the dish comes with a bottle of Brussel Sprout Sauce.


Definitely come here for brunch, although be warned that Shopsin's will not serve groups larger than 4, requires that everyone order a meal, and takes only cash. Afterward, you can stroll around the market and maybe pick up cheese from Saxelby Cheesemonger for later (she is in the stall next door and has a small cheese cave you can view.)

Big Apple BBQ 2009

Mabel and I just got back from the 7th annual Big Apple BBQ at Madison Square Park.


It was fun, the weather was perfect. We went for lunch.

The strategy was to go to 2 places, a rib place from Texas and a pulled pork place from the Carolinas. But there were ridiculously long lines at some of the places we wanted to go, so we skipped them. And the portions were very small so we went to 3 places.

The first place we went was to Baker's Ribs which is based in Dallas Texas.


The ribs were pretty good. There was a unique flavor to them that was nice. They weren't so smokey, and didn't have that pink smoke ring, but they were still good to eat. The cole slaw was fantastic and had some jalepeño kick to them.

Then we went to 17th Street Bar & Grill which is based out of Murphysboro, IL and Las Vegas.


The baby back ribs were really good. There was a satisfying chewy quality to them, and they were nice and smokey. I could probably eat two racks of these if given the chance.

We walked around a bit and ran into this useful sign.


So we turned the corner and went to our last place of the day which was a whole hog place, The Pit run by Ed Mitchell in Naleigh, NC.


It was good eats.

On our way out of the park, we passed by this probably illegal cupcake stand.


At least it's for a good cause.

All-in-all a fun lunch. We went in, ate, and made a quick getaway. I like BBQ.

Fish

I've been craving lobster rolls for a few days now, and I was set on getting one today. Pearl Oyster Bar is closed on Sunday, so I figured I'd give their rival Mary's Fish Camp a try. But we found that Mary's is also closed on Sunday. Do they have to copy everything?

So the decision was between trying a new, unknown place or punting and going to Home and eating their Fried Oyster Po Boy sandwich. We decided to try for lobster rolls at Fish. Well, when we tried to order we were told that they had no lobster for the day. So we went for the fried oyster roll.

I have to say that it was not bad. The fries were good and the fried oysters were good, and that's what we cared about. Everything else was not so great. The rolls were warm, but you could taste the freezer burn on them. The coffee was notably bad. The service was nice but the kitchen was very slow. And the tables were dirty. But the price was just right. I guess you get what you pay for.

There's a 6 oysters plus PBR for $8 deal which sounds pretty tempting in the future. Maybe we'll return for that.

Fish
280 Bleecker St
New York, NY 10014
(212) 727-2879

Tax Day 2009

We got our taxes done yesterday. I can say for sure that it wasn't as fun as last year.

We dropped off Mabel's computer at the Apple store before taxes. Bad hard drive. On the way home, we picked up some smoked mozzarella from Joe's Dairy and had lunch next door at PetalBelle.


I like PetalBelle. My eggs, bacon, and toast were $6, and it was a nice spot. Not someplace to go out of the way for, but an uncrowded, solid place to get breakfast food and coffee.

Going with our tax day dinner tradition, we had a light dinner at Blue Ribbon Bakery. I really like this restaurant. I like it even better at midnight when it wasn't crowded, even on a Saturday night. It feels like our neighborhood place. We got bone marrow, leek vinaigrette, a steamed artichoke, and some soup.

PetalBelle
158 Sullivan St (at Houston St)
New York, NY 10012

Irving Mill

We went to Irving Mill last night on a recommendation by one of Mabel's fellow residents. She was having a bad day and needed to get out of the apartment.


We somehow got an 8:15 reservation an hour beforehand, showed up, waited the customary 10 minutes to be seated so that we'd buy a drink at the bar (not this time), and got shown our table. I liked the atmosphere, which was cavernous but warm, and the service.

We ordered fluke crudo, their small charcroute plate (for 2), a crispy pig's ear salad, and split an entree of bavette and beef cheeks. The crispy pig's ear salad was the real winner. The pig's ears were like croutons. Everything else was a bit too salty, way too salty for Mabel. You could say that they were trying to get people to order more drinks. They make good Manhattans.

Irving Mill
116 E 16th St
New York, NY 10003
212-254-1600

De Gustibus with David Chang

Today I went out with a few other people to De Gustibus to meet David Chang, creator of the Momofuku empire.

De Gustibus, a self-proclaimed "School of Good Taste," is located on the 8th floor of Macy's and hosts regular events featuring different chefs who cook and talk about their work. I've been to Macy's a lot, and have even shopped on that floor, but I never realized that beyond the peacoats was a door leading to a secret wing. Once you get past the surly guard, there is a room with rows of tables and a kitchen at the front with a mirror on the ceiling tilted so that you can get a good view of the cooking.

David Chang talked to the audience and fielded questions as he demonstrated the preparation of different dishes (the food we actually ate came out of another kitchen where his team worked). We had Fluke with Spicy Buttermilk (with Sriracha sauce giving a nice kick!), the ever famous and delicious Pork Buns, Slow Poached Eggs in Bacon Dashi (I think soft eggs are the most delicious way to prepare eggs), Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Fish Sauce Vinaigrette (a subject of intense rumination and study in our household), and Braised Pork Belly with Daikon (with the daikon as this pleasantly thick round topped with pickled mustard seeds). We started with champagne (Taittinger Brut La Francaise), and also had a Chardonnay (Pouilly-Fuisse) and a Pinot Noir (Pommard). At the very end, they passed out these tasty cookies with corn flakes from Momofuku Milk Bar.

A few observations: David Chang was struggling with a head cold and breathing a bit loudly throughout the evening. It didn't detract too much from the event, but at one point, the four of us were mildly concerned about the work he was putting into his breathing. Although, if things had really gone south, he probably would have been just fine with two full-fledged anesthesiologists, a recovery room nurse, and an anesthesiology resident in the audience (I guess I would have been the person running around trying to gather any kitchen tool that remotely approximated airway equipment).

David Chang himself seemed like a pretty down to earth guy. He talked a lot about how some of his most famous creations evolved from accidents (mostly of forgetfulness), and how once he had a surprisingly tasty substrate, how that was thoughtfully constructed into dishes like the Pork Buns and the Shaved Torchon of Freeze-Dried Foie Gras over Rieseling Gelee with Lychee and Pine Nut Brittle. Our general sense was that he carried a touch of incredulity at his own success. Dr. R was gracious enough to obtain an autograph from David Chang for me!

The crowd, I have to say, was a bit tough. Not that they were giving him a hard time - there were only Pork Bun worshippers in that room - but the questions they dogged him on were...pretty annoying. I'll leave it at that.

And finally, pork belly is just awesome. I can eat it all day. One day, I will write an Ode to Pork Belly.

August

Mabel and I went to August about 1.5 weeks ago. We hadn't spent more than a waking hour or so together all week, and it was a nice place to catch up. I would characterize August as a more romantic version of Home Restaurant.

Their main dining room is a covered garden. Mabel got suckling pig which came with pearl onions, Brussels sprouts, and some sort of sour condiment. I got cassoulet. Everything was very nice. To start we got Tart Flambe which I thought was going to be a flaming pie. It turned out to be a thin crust pizza with perfectly caramelized onions on top.

Anyway, this is my kind of place.

August
359 Bleecker St
New York, NY 10014
(212) 929-4774

SobaKoh

Just got back from dinner at SobaKoh with Mabel, Priscilla, and Crystal. This restaurant has been on Mabel's eat list since 2006 when she first saw their NYT review.

Mabel and I like the place. The dishes are all very nicely put together. We split chawan mushi and tempura. I got cold soba with salmon roe. It wasn't the dipping style. It was the pouring the sauce over the noodles style. I like the texture of their noodles. Mabel got cold soba with sea urchin. Priscilla got hot soba with duck. Crystal got a hot soba with soft shell crab. The crab came on the side. It was essentially tempura with a whole crab which was pretty awesome.

The only other place I've gone for soba is Soba-Ya, and I like this place better. The price was a bit more than I expected, and the portions might not be completely filling (though you can order extra noodles), but for the quality I think it's worth it.

SobaKoh
309 E. 5th St (near 2nd Ave)
New York, NY 10003
(212) 254-2244