Thursday Club NYC

End of an Era (maybe)

2010-05-23T12:34:00.011-04:00

OFFAL IV was billed to be one of the last formal Thursday Club meals in the Man Cave. With an onslaught of life-changing occurrences blipping on our Thursday Club radar as of late (pregnancies, births, switching apartments, switching jobs, et al), it has been increasingly difficult to gather everyone to honor the cornerstone ideals of our Club - celebrating food, drinking Herculean proportions and being downright silly.

For a special meal like this one, it was great to see the all-offal menu (minus dessert thank G_d) combining some contemporary classics and a few of Teddy’s own creations. Mostly everyone showed up relatively on time and sober…..surprising. Chilled martinis and microbrews greeted one and all…far from surprising.

The table was set for seven:

- Chicken liver toasts

- Terrine of duck and asparagus, crispy duck tongues, dandelion & orange

- Calf's tongue with celeriac remoulade

- Sweetbreads with bacon, capers and lemon

- Bone marrow with oxtail marmalade

- Lemon tart

The starter was far more rustic than the oft-seen chicken liver pate. Going with the whole offal theme, the liver played the lead role with nice undertones of spices and aromatics. For a brief moment, the banter ceased and the sounds crunchy toast echoed throughout the Cave.

Predictably, by the time the first course was plated (approx 8:50pm), served, and demolished, the empties began to pile up, the volume got louder and the scene began resembling the slightly uncouth, albeit comforting Thursday Club.

The terrine dish was a work of art. Bright green baby asparagus spears studded each slice across the top and bottom. I’m not sure what parts of the duck went in (all but the quack no doubt), but each bite had different flavors and textures. The crispy duck tongues were an amazing addition. I could have really made a serious dent in the worlds’ duck population and polished off a hundred of those things. The bitter greens and citrus punch of the dressing and orange segments kept everything in balance.

Tongue appeared again in the next dish in the form of slow-cooked calf’s tongue. Each thin, tender slice was topped with a gelatin parsley cube. Yet another 'shake your head in disbelief' moment brought to us by Teddy.….why put a conventional sauce on top when you can add another texture to the plate? How obvious, right? The celeriac remoulade resembled cole slaw, and added a similar creamy, but bright flavor and the necessary crunch that the dish needed.

This next dish was probably the clear-cut favorite of the night. First of all, the plating not only looked great, but also proved functional as we got every component of the dish in every bite.

Starting from the bottom:

Pea puree – smooth and sweet.

Sweetbreads – hot out of a shallow fry. Perfectly crispy on the outside and moist inside. They would easily replace chicken nuggets in my diet if they were ever in my diet and gout wasn’t a major concern of mine

Bacon –salty, porky and crisp. A staple of any great dish.

Sauce – an emulsion of butter, white wine and capers.

Yup, imagine that combo for every single bite. Can’t say anymore about it, I’ve already drooled all over my laptop. Vile.

Trying our best to keep up with the demanding wine schedule, we were popping open roses, crisp whites, and bubbly Cavas at an alarming rate. The next dish needed a heavy red to stand up to it. Good thing we had 3 or 4 to do the trick.

The oxtail marmalade reminded me of an upscale sloppy joe. It’s pretty damn difficult to take something that has ‘sloppy’ in its name and polish it up, but it totally worked. Teddy used prune juice to add sweetness to the tender, braised meat. Unfortunately, most of my bone marrow escaped out of the bottom of the bone in liquid form. But that made my grilled toast that much happier when it was used to scoop up all of the rich gravy that formed in the bottom of my dish.

With a limited amount of space left in our stomachs and on the table, our dessert made its way downstairs (approx 12:50am). Sweet dessert wines and pretty much all remaining bottles were crammed onto the remaining table space not covered by bottles, ash trays, glasses (broken and non), Mike Phillips' wild gesturing, or J Boogie’s head. The sour lemon tart and accompanying raspberry sorbet was just what we all needed to spruce up our palates again after the five courses of unctuous assault.

This meal was truly one for the ages. Sitting in the dim of the Man Cave, a night of sinfully rich food and plentiful wine swirling ‘round my head, peering through the thickening curtains of smoke, laughing to the point of losing my breath listening to the same stories that all know the ending to - it all kind of hit me. After nearly 5 years of Thursday Club meals, the combination of all of this is really why we get together. Tonight, everything went exactly to plan.

Big ups to Chef Teddy and the Man Cave.

The Man Cave Moves Upstairs...

2010-02-25T15:10:00.002-05:00

After what seemed like an impossibly long hiatus during the Holiday Season, etc. the gang finally reconvened at Teddy's house for a meal that promised not to disappoint. I arrived early & surprisingly sober for a meal that had my mouth watering ever since I got the menu email the day before.

Teddy moved us into the kitchen as the Man Cave has now turned into his home office. No matter though as we were now much closer to the food & action on the stove. There was a cornucopia of alchohol flowing around as we waited eagerly for the first course. My personal favourite was the growler of Rouge Deadguy ale which really didn't last long at all (boo!)

First course: Snails, parsley and bacon on duck fat toast. Teddy powered up his panini press & churned out this excellent opening dish. The smoked bacon was an excellent addition, but surprisingly not salty at all. I had expected it to overpower the dish, but the flavor was extremely subtle. The snails (w/tarragon & rosemary) were really tasty. Velvety, rich (thank God for duck fat!) & morish... Teddy knocked this one out of the park.

We moved right on to the second course; Duck and pork terrine with apricots and pistachios, English Cumberland sauce. Oh Lordy! I was so excited about this dish after seeing it on the menu. The terrine had pistachios, prunes & apricot & was wrapped in bacon (which Teddy called 'the stockings'). It was really dense & tasted awesome. I thought that the Cumberland Sauce (port, citrus, honey, mustard & stock) was a bit on the sweet side, but it went right down my cakehole like the rest of the food.

We took a break here to compose ourselves & sign our DNR agreements. Skate, ragout of onion, peas and chives, fennel custard, caper crumbs. I was so glad that this course was on the light-side. I could already feel my arteries constricting... The pan seared skate (which was dusted with salt, pepper & flour) was light & fresh. The fennel custard (which, unfortunately, is impossible to see in this picture) was the first savory 'flan' that I've ever had. I say Flan because that was the general consistency of it & boy was it good. Basically made from fennel seed & cream, I have no idea how Teddy came up with this idea, but I'm glad he did. The peas were prepared with fish stock, cream & chives. All in all, a light, buttery dish. The caper crumbs added an awesome little crunch too.

The waft of beefy goodness leaking from the oven had us all begging for this course: Orange and ginger braised beef short ribs, quinoa with wild mushrooms, confit baby tomatoes. The ribs literally fell apart at the slightest touch. I didn't even need a knife for this dish. The ginger & orange was a nice spicy/sweet touch & tangy as well. The sauce was a bit on the oily side, but I'm not going to complain about that. This was by far the heaviest dish of the menu, probably due to the truffle butter (I wish you guys could smell this!)

After another break & lots of drinking, we moved on to the last course: 'Manhattan Special' affogato, dark chocolate Marcona almonds. Honestly, this was the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted since Mike P's Bacon Martini, Hence the lack of pictures. I don't like floats in any way, shape or form, so this was NOT my cup of tea! I did manage to pick out most of the coffee ice cream which was awesome.

I'm glad that the club is back in full swing & as a side note, Teddy & Serena had a baby girl today, so I'd like to give a huge high-five to them. Baby Rome is going to be the best fed child in America!

JC's Thursday Night Explosion

2010-02-21T12:15:00.011-05:00

August 20th, 2009.

It's almost embarrassing how much time has passed since this date. It is February 21, 2010 today, and 6 months have passed to this day. But I could not let JC's Thursday Night be left without my attempt at a proper acknowledgement.

8/20/2009 was my first night at JC's home and prior to arriving he had warned us that we should be prepared for a very warm night as his A/C was not cooling off his home on this particularly hot summer day. What he did not tell us is that he was offering us showers of sweat with his wonderful meal. I recall that Teddy phrased it nicely: "It's like we walked into a lung!", while Adam mentioned that he at least now knew what it would be like to be cremated.

So drenched and drooling, JC began to show us how he does TNC.

Bacon Explosion & BBQ Sauce.

A meal former President Bill Clinton would thoroughly enjoy no doubt. I had yet to try this American terrine surrounded by a criss-cross of crispy, thick bacon. I had obviously heard about it, but did not realize just what exactly it was that I was missing out on. But now I understand the infatuation with this dish: your fork penetrates through the crisp piggy outside, then draws delicious juices from the porky moist inside... simple right? Simple or not, it is truly an amazing all American dish. I must say, it reminds me a little too much of the Superbowl for some reason, which I detest. But it is a great recipe for bacon lovers, and for those who want to venture exploring the extreme deliciousness of bacon and pork.

Macaroni & Cheese with Lobster and Truffle Infusion.

Even before this plate hit the table, we couldn't help but notice the truffle aroma lifting off of the gooey layers of pasta and cheese. Bite after bite, the taste of truffle and lobster consistently teased my palate and made me want more. This meal was paired with a wonderful sharp white pinot grigio that cut through the tasty bechamel that included cheddar, fontina and Parmesan. I also recall that this cool wine also made survival in JC's cheesy human stove possible. We were also all very happy with how the meal was baked under a perfect parsley, chive and breadcrumb crust.

Meatloaf with Millionaire Mash.

This wasn't just any meatloaf. Elk, veal and pork all made an appearance. And it wasn't any old mashed spuds. This was a version of Hester Blumenthal's mashed (Teddy explains that Hester studied cookery under the great Marco Pierre White, and and was responsible for a wonderful restaurant known as "Fat Duck"). As JC put it, he "did a bit of butter, then thought I should add some potato." But the real star was definitely the meatloaf. The celery in the meatloaf added a little crunch to the meaty goodness. But the moist meat was just so perfect... paired perfectly with the BBQ sauce. I wish I had a better photo, and perhaps one of the inside of this meatloaf. You just have to trust me: this was hands down the most delicious meatloaf I have EVER had, and JC should be damn proud.

Banana & Ginger Pudding.

JC made a big deal about not being happy with the pudding. He wanted it to be more "solid" and less floury, and perhaps it should have been a little more cooked. But I thought it was still delicious and the chocolate sauce over the pudding and the spice ginger and tender pieces of banana were quite tasty.

Despite my delay in acknowledging his wonderful meal, I suppose it says something about JC's skills in the kitchen that I still remember, 6 months later, how delicious it all was. As I sit here writing, I especially crave the meatloaf - oh, that perfect meatloaf. Perhaps I am hoping that JC does another night soon, although I know my own turn to host is long overdue. Hmmm, maybe I can just do JC's meatloaf for my turn to host... it is certainly a dish that could be the centerpiece, no, a masterpiece, to any dinner.

Trio of Holiday Meals

2010-01-03T11:46:00.021-05:00

The holidays are a time for family gatherings, reflection, but most importantly, planting oneself at a table to nosh with those closest to you. I put together a trio of meals for my family and friends on the day after Thanksgiving, as well as Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.....these are their stories.

*BUM BUM*

November 27th

- Roasted Vegetable Soup

- Stuffed Tomato Provincal

- Whole Snapper with Sausage and Clams

- Mini Cranberry Tarts

- Assorted Cheeses

The soup included a tremendous dish from the day before actually - a combination of oven roasted squash, parsnip, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and maybe some others. The base for the Veg Version 2.0 was onion, garlic and mixed dried herbs followed by the leftover veggies. I added chicken stock, simmered, then blended until smooth. Amazing results if I do say so myself.

The tomato recipe was lifted from Jacque Pepin and Julia Child, but altered with a hefty bit of Manchego cheese and crispy pancetta in addition to the bread crumb and herb mixture. The sweet yet acidic tomato was the perfect vessel for the salty, cheesy topping. And luckily it kept it's structure and didn't turn into mush.....a holiday miracle!

The snapper course was cooked using a technique that I am becoming growingly fond of. All of the ingredients were thrown into a large foil packet and steamed. With all of the different ingredients involved (blanched fennel and fingerling potatoes, gigantic clams, browned kilbasa, olives, lemon, herbs to name a few), the fish absorbed a ton of flavor and the initial splash of white wine transformed into a sauce that left me pining for more.

A final cover of fresh orange zest pumped the flavor up even more. As you can tell, the fish fell apart into beautiful filets and made for easy clean up.

The dessert was again from leftover department....more from the forgotten side dish department to be honest. The tarts were made with cranberry sauce that never left the fridge on Thanksgiving Day. Oops. No worries, as they made a great bite size cap to the meal.

Everyone was stuffed, but there's always room for cheese and dessert beverages.

For Christmas Eve, I had my parents and brother traveling in from Buffalo to spend the extended Holiday weekend with me in Boston. With a monster meal in the works for Christmas Day, I thought it would be best to make a simple dinner that would warm everyone up and make sure we would eat on time (i'm slowly gaining a reputation for making meals that start too late and last too long - frowned upon in some circumstances). With a little assistance from my Dad's hunting buddies, I had a gorgeous venison backstrap to play the lead part in a Guinness Stew.

Mikey liked it.

Pretty basic prep - parsnips, carrots, bacon, Bambi, and Brew. Simple, but effective.

For dessert, instead of stuffing down more sweets (the afternoon was filled with multiple leftover trays of Christmas confections) I dropped by Cambridge's new specialty shop for some local cheeses.

Ewes Jersey - Cow's and Sheep's Milk

Townsend, VT

Humbolt Pie - Cow's Milk

Westin, VT

Lakes Edge Blue - Goat's Milk

Leister, VT

All Vermont, all delicious, and all a great variation of texture and taste. Just as we planned, a filling but not gut busting way to set up what turned out to be a long week of over consumption.

Christmas Dinner

- Smoked Salmon Rilletes

- Seafood Soup with Shrimp and Andouille

- Roast Pork Tenderloin with Red Wine-Black Cherry Sauce

- Parmesan Pave, Sauteed Spinach and Mushrooms

- Mint Chocolate Fudge Cheesecake

The starter was a pulled from a previous dish I made for Thursday Club (recipe), but like all replays it needed to be tweaked. Fresh dill replaced the parsley and this added a classic, but welcomed taste combo of salmon, lemon and dill.

The soup was made using my first homemade seafood stock. This included a few bags of Maine's finest from Cape Cod. The smell from the lobster stock alone was enough to rip off a hunk of bread and start dipping, but I held off long enough to finish off the tomato-based broth with sweet shrimp and spicy andouille. Strange as it sounds, the green onion garnish really added a necessary crunch and onion flavor to the shrimp and sausage studded broth.

We Johnson's agreed that this was truly a great soup.....good thing, being alone with these three all day could have ended up in a minor riot if I didn't deliver the goods.

The main course was also a standby of mine - pork tenderloin. It's no secret that I enjoy a bit of four-legged protein on my plate when I can (see blog posts - A Man and His Meats, The New Steak King, etc.), and a nice lean tenderloin fit the menu perfect for me. Simply coupled with a cheesy parmesan potato side and some greenage to make sure we were getting our daily vegetable intake and we were all set.

It didn't take too long to dispose of the lot. Clean plate bonuses all around!

Clearly, no day of gluttony is complete without a decadent dessert. In this case, a homemade (not by me thank goodness) cheesecake.

A mug of black coffee, a silky sliver of pie and a sink full of dishes was the perfect end to Christmas Day 2009.....and to all a good night.

Barbecue Chicken Stew with Puffy Tortillas

2009-10-10T18:46:00.006-04:00

After a lengthy tussle with Verizon, I am finally hooked up with the power of the internets and ready to start blogging again (hold for applause).

In the last meal Thursday Club meal that I cooked, my barbecue chicken tacos were met to rave reviews. Recipe Time!

(4-5 servings)

You will need:

6 Large Chicken Drum Sticks (skin on, bone in)

1 Green Pepper - halved and rough chopped

1 Large Onion - halved and sliced thin

4 Cloves of Garlic - minced

2 Tsp. Tomato Paste

Barbecue Seasoning (mix of paprika, cumin, ground coriander, allspice, pepper flakes, etc.)

1/4 Cup Whisky (nothing too good, Johnny Red will do)

1/4 Apple Cider Vinegar

2/3 Cup Ketchup

1/3 Cup Dijon Mustard

Chicken Stock

Hot Sauce

Brown Sugar

Salt and Pepper

-Preheat large pot with light flavored oil (Veg or Canola)

-Season chicken with S & P and brown until skin is crisp on all sides. Remove and set aside.

-Drain most of the excess oil and fat leaving all the brown bits behind.

- Sweat onion, pepper, garlic until soft on low heat. About 10 minutes.

-Add tomato paste, barbecue seasoning. Coat veg and brown a few more minutes.

-Remove the pot from burner and deglaze pot with whisky-cider mixture. Make sure not to singe your kitchen/self in the process. Back to medium heat for a few minutes.

- Add ketchup, mustard, stock. Simmer and taste. Add hot sauce, brown sugar, S & P to your taste.

- Place chicken back in. Make sure the liquid almost covers the drumsticks.

- Cover allowing a little steam to escape and simmer for an hour, periodically moving the chicken around to make sure all of the little guys get attention from the sauce.

- After an hour, remove chicken again, shred meat off of the bone (it should be falling off).

- Place the bones back into the sauce, turn up the heat and reduce the sauce until thickened to your liking.

- Heat off, bones out (make sure they're devoid of all meat), and shredded chicken back in. Stir it up and taste again. Season accordingly.

Serve with toasted flour tortillas (puffed up in the over/toaster to create a nice crunchy shell), smoked cheddar, avocado slices, and sour cream......or whatever else you like.

Tuck Shop (115 St. Mark's)

2009-09-24T13:02:00.009-04:00

Is there anything nobler than a pie filled with meat, delicious meat? I've been spending a fair amount of time at the St. Mark's branch of Tuck Shop (the original is located at 68 1st St. Between 1st & 2nd Avenues).

I honestly was not sure what to expect as I'm so used the English meat pies & Cornish Pasties etc. There is a definite difference & I think that the Aussies have a wider variety of fillings. As soon as you walk into the joint, there's a waft of 'pie-goodness' & generally a tray or 2 of pies coming out of the oven.

I went straight for the Traditional, a ground beef pie which is still my favorite. I've tried the Steak & Guinness (thick & incredibly rich... just how I like my women!), Thai Chook (a spicy Thai Chicken concoction) & the Pork & Sage (nothing extra to say about that one).

Last weekend, was the St. Mark's Block Party to benefit the George Jackson Academy. Loads of restaurants on St. Mark's participated & Tuck Shop held the 1st Annual Pie Eating Competition.

11 'maniacs' lined up & tried to scoff as many pies in their entirety in 4 minutes. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this & was taking action on the number of pies that could be eaten.

The competitors lined up & off they went. There were 2 clear leaders after a few minutes (#2 &#3), but watching grown men (& 1 brave woman) dunking pies into glasses of water & shovel them into their gobs was great fun. Thank God for Charity!

Our Champion!

They also had a Mac & Cheese pie which I got to try for the first time. We all had great fun @ the competition & I'm sure a lot of money was raised for the Academy. Check Tuck Shop out if you want a quick snack or want to try something new.

Campanilismo at Dan’s

2009-09-22T17:18:00.008-04:00

Something about Dan’s shower curtain bothered me.

I had a sense of déjà vu as soon as I entered the bathroom. I remembered feeling the same last time I was here, some months ago. But I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, which was perplexing, because at first glance it’s a fun and completely inoffensive affair from Target: a world map of cartoon-like cartography, hand-written text and brighter primary colours than a traditional Rand McNally. So what was it? I conducted a quick global geographical survey.

It wasn’t because it represented the typically US-centric view of the world you get here, from the TV news (and some maps); it was a standard projection, centred on the Greenwich Meridian. No geo-political bloopers stood out. The myriad former Soviet republics appeared to be accounted for, although there could have been a nasty dispute over what the freehand drawing style meant for the India-Pakistan border.

I did notice a slapdash application of the colour scheme. As most cartographers know, the four colour theorem states that the regions of any map can be shaded using at most four colours, in such a way that bordering regions, other than those connected at a single point, do not share the same colour. Five colours give you wiggle room; six, chosen for a more aesthetically pleasing look, should be plain sailing. So my design-minded self was disappointed to see Italy and Austria were both orange, Russia and Belarus the same shade of blue.

But it wasn’t that either. It was something closer to home. I turned my gaze to the UK.

Sunderland! That was it! London and – inexplicably – Sunderland were the only two cities in the UK to be labeled. What about Edinburgh… Cardiff… Belfast? Manchester? Even Birmingham would have been better.

Target, nonspecifically, says the product is “Made in the USA or Imported”, which does nothing to rule out the possibility of a Chinglish-like cartographical error made by a graphic designer in a Guangdong province shower curtain factory. But I think it must have been designed by a native of Sunderland – a Mackem. I could think of no other reason the erstwhile self proclaimed Largest Shipbuilding Town in the World, whose biggest claim to fame these days is as the site of the UK’s biggest car factory, a rare dose of economic development injected into the depressed North East by the Thatcher government after the coal mines and ship yards closed, would be elevated to the status of world cities like Paris, Rome or Tokyo.

Sunderland bloody Sunderland. I grew up a few miles away, but in the catchment area – geographically and culturally – of the larger, neighbouring city of Newcastle. This makes me a Geordie. Geordies and Mackems enjoy a fierce local rivalry, these days mainly on the football pitch (but not this season – Newcastle were relegated while Sunderland stayed in the Premier League, a bitter pill for us Geordies to swallow), but previously in the shipyards, and even as far back as the English Civil War. Due to the irksome Sunderland-centrism displayed in Dan’s bathroom, this rivalry now extends, improbably, to world map shower curtain design.

Thankfully, and in keeping with the recognition of the Prime Meridian on the map projection, it was a belief in Euro-centrism, rather than Sunderland-centrism, that was suggested by Dan’s Italian menu. (I don’t know what the local specialty in Sunderland is – puppies, probably – but I wouldn’t recommend it.) But just like Geordies and Mackems, cats and dogs, rivalry – campanilismo – has always been an integral part of Italian regional identity, and by extension, Italian food. So by way of an appetizer from Venice and the Veneto, a fish course from the often disregarded coastline, and a Tuscan entrée, Dan took us on a short tour of Italian cuisine, with regional bragging rights at stake.

The antipasto (admittedly not unique to particular region) drew first blood with the grace of an Olympic fencer. A simple green leaf salad was deftly dressed with a delicate honey and sherry vinaigrette, and served with goat cheese, lightly fried in breadcrumbs. The wine pairing of Hess Chardonnay, with its bright fruit, complemented to the goat’s cheese well.

The Rollino Veneto con Tomato-Basilico – pizza roll with wonderful smoked mozzarella and sweet, caramelized onion, served on a bed of intensely fresh tomato, basil and garlic salad – was the kind of simple, rustic taste sensation that makes Italian cuisine so popular with cooks and diners alike. Although Dan expressed a little dissatisfaction at the density of the pizza dough, it wasn’t so heavy that I couldn’t finish what J Boogie left when he said “basta!” A pretty even fight so far, but that was all about to change.

It’s rather surprising that, despite its 5,700 mile coastline, pesce plays a relatively minor role in Italian cuisine when compared to meats, cheeses and pastas. While not technically a region, the Coppette di Pesce alla San Pietro represented the coastal areas. The ceviche, served in a martini glass in the style of California’s Trattoria Grappolo, featured halibut, salmon, melon, cucumber, lemon, coriander, champagne and, with a little tropical license, mango and papaya. It was, Teddy said, simply the best he’d ever had. Bravo. With this course we drank an Italian white, appropriately enough from the seaside of Campania. The Sibilla Falanghina’s mineral acidity was a perfect match for the fish.

It wasn’t over yet, however. The fat lady hadn’t sung. A fantastic aroma announced the challenge of Tuscany. Pollo al Diavolo – Devil’s Chicken – was mustard and black pepper rubbed roast chicken, basted in jalapeno pimento oil served with fried goat’s cheese. And very tasty it was too. More by coincidence than design I’d brought a Tuscan red – San Polo Rubio – which worked well as an accompaniment. The devil usually has all the best tunes, but when the fat lady did sing, she was still singing the praises of the ceviche. Nice try, Tuscany, but the coast was still out in front.

It was hard to believe Dan didn’t have an ice cream maker when he produced the gelato, a peppermint and custard-based Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream alla San Daniele. But maybe he’s just some kind of ice cream saint. It was a revelation, but ruled out of the competition on a technicality: like the antipasto, gelato is omnipresent in Italy.

After finishing the meal, and with the Coppette di Pesce alla San Pietro, representing the coast, the campanilismo victor, I revisited the bathroom. The two Italian cities on the world map shower curtain, Rome and Naples, are both on the coast. (Well, Rome is 20 miles inland, but as I said at the top, the map is kind of freestyle.) Was that a coincidence? Why not Milan, Italy’s second city, and almost 100 miles from the sea? Maybe there was more to this map than I first thought. Maybe it wasn’t drawn by a Mackem. Maybe this Chinese graphic designer knows more about regional rivalries than I gave him credit for. After all, unlike Newcastle and the Geordies, Sunderland and the Mackems are still in the Premier League.

Bond Night

2009-09-03T22:50:00.016-04:00

Last Friday, the gang all met up in Teddy's aptly named 'Man Cave' for a James Bond themed 8 course meal (w/pairing) & some poker. Some dressed up as Bond himself or popular villains while Teddy & Pete cooked & a Bond-themed ipod mixed blared in the background.

In true Teddy (& Bond) form, we started with a cocktail.

'GOLDFINGER' COCKTAIL
Latvian vodka, Kina Lillet, Goldschlager

I'm not much of a cocktail drinker, so you can imagine my delight/horror when I took a sip of this concoction. My mouth was on fire & all I could really think of was the fact that this stuff could take paint off of walls. It was a fitting beginning to the night though & gave me a nice buzz.

CANAPE: SCRAMBLED EGGS JB
Fingerling potatoes, scrambled eggs, creme fraiche, Oscetra caviar
Brut Rose Champagne

I was really intrigued by this particular dish. Most of us were still upstairs milling around the kitchen & finishing our cocktails while Teddy & Pete were putting this together. Eggo Waffle Minis were the base of this dish, then topped with scrambled eggs, creme fraiche & caviar.

I watched as Pete put a dozen eggs into a non-stick pan on the lowest temperature setting & for roughly 15 minutes stirred them with a spatula. The result was the lightest scrambled eggs I've ever had in my life! Once assembled, this was a great little snack to start the meal. The caviar added delicious little bursts of salt when you took a bite. I don't get to eat caviar much, so I loved this dish!

DR KANANGA'S ALLIGATOR SOUP
Florida 'gator' cream soup with chili oil
Chilled Sake

I've eaten gator before, deep fried in Miami, but I was somewhat worried about how the texture of the braised meat in the soup would be like. The soup was amazing. Teddy had thickened it with rice, which added an entirely new dimension & mouth-feel for me. The hot oil drizzle on top was great once you mixed the soup together. I liked the taste of the alligator, but I don't think I'll be making it myself any time soon.

EMILIO LARGO'S SHARK 'PALMERAS'
Pan roasted shark, lobster mashed potatoes, Caribbean-spiced shellfish veloute
Don David Torrontes

Unfortunately, Teddy had to substitute the shark with Halibut, but I didn't mind one bit. The veloute was spicy & rich & once mixed with the silky mash, it was a marriage made in heaven. The dense halibut was lovely with an amazing crust.

SORBET ‘SOLITAIRE’
‘English Rose’ sorbet

Named after Jame Seymour, this couldn't have come at a better time. This refreshing sorbet gave us a chance to compose ourselves, drink more booze & prepare for the final push! (Sorry about the photography!)

HUGO DRAX'S 'PHEASANT D'ETAT'
Pheasant 'En Salmis', game sausage, chestnuts, Brussels, redcurrant, game jus
Nuits Saint-Georges Pinot Noir

The presentation alone on this dish was simply breathtaking. I almost didn't want to disturb the dish, but I knew there would be a mad dash for my plate if I didn't dig in. This was just pure bliss. The pheasant was moist & tender. The game sausages had a hint of fennel, the chestnut puree was amazing with the foie gras. Teddy hit this one out of the ballpark!

LAMB 'SCARAMANGA'
Nick Nack's Thai lamb, lemongrass, galangal-coconut milk, green papaya
Fetzer Gewurtztraminer 2006

Teddy had marinated the lamb overnight in curry paste which gave the meat a spicy twang, offset by the sweetness of the papaya & coconut milk, this one was a real winner. Nick Nack's Mum would be proud!

PUSSY GALORE
Simply: Bananas, whipped cream, walnut and chocolate

By this point of the meal I was pretty much reaching my breaking point & was eager to play some poker. When the dish arrived, however, I devoured the entire thing. The chocolate sauce was very thick & sweet (yet not overpowering) & the airy whipped cream was a perfect compliment. Teddy, being the clever fuck he is had shaped the banana into the dish's namesake, which was also a nice touch!

After a few more drinks, we began to play poker. Unfortunately, I had to leave early so I don't know who won. This was a night totally worthy of 007!

Delicious Links

2009-09-03T22:32:00.005-04:00

1) The Economist introduces the world to the Big Mac Index.
2) The Highline Challenge from Immaculate Infatuation.
3) Meat-Loving Brooklynites will soon get another Playground.
4) Maine Lobster finally coming to the East Village.

Have a good link? Post a comment & maybe it'll make it to the next installment!

Home Smoking

2009-08-23T01:13:00.003-04:00

For the past month, there have been 6 guys working incredibly hard on remodeling bits of our new house. Well, 5 guys working really hard and one guy who always reeks of booze and unashamedly keeps beers in our fridge for his mid-morning treat. Well, four guys working really hard, one alcoholic and one guy that actively goes out of his way to avoid work and has been caulking the same moulding for over a week. Well, one guy working really hard, one alcoholic, one lazy bastard and two guys who turn up every other day. Even the remaining hard working guy rarely turns up on time.

Let me start again.

I bought a smoker recently and wanted to test run it but we haven’t got any mates yet in Santa Barbara so we class the people who we are paying to work on our house as our closest friends. As such, I fed them yesterday with a gourmet, all-American spread of ribs, slaw, mashed potatoes and beans. I have very little to say about the sides as the ribs were the main attraction.

First, a few choices to make.

Wet or Dry? Personally I’m a dry rib kinda guy meaning that the ribs at Rendezvous in Memphis are the Holy Grail that I’d be shooting for.
The cut of meat. I went for Back Loin Pork Ribs as they are meatier and come with an extra blanket of meat across the top that results in the inability to eat more than three or four of these bad boys in one sitting.
The wood. I went with hickory because...well, because I had a big bag of it in the shed.
The rub. As we have just moved in, my pantry isn’t very well stocked so rather than go out an buy the dozen or so spices that make up most rub recipes, I went for a pre-mixed rub and beefed it up with a wad of smoked paprika and chili flakes.

Given that this was going to be lunch, my alarm went off at 6:30am to get the fire going. We haven’t been here long but we can’t have made a good impression with the neighbours as most days the guys are drilling and hammering from 7:30am but today they had the added bonus of being on the receiving end of 5 hours of smoke that bellowed from our Brinkman. Ah well, neighbours are only ever a bunch of leeching sods anyway so who needs ‘em?

Like I say, I haven’t cooked with a smoker before (beyond curing the grill a few days ago) so I was a bit nervous about maintaining the temperature between the recommended 200 and 220 degrees fahrenheit but it turned out to be a fairly low maintenance affair. In simple terms, when it’s getting low, shove on some more damp wood or charcoal and if it’s getting too hot, cut off the air. Not exactly rocket science which explains why even those from the Deep South can excel at it.

Despite being tempted to open the lid about a thousand times during the 4 1/2 hours of cooking, I was a good boy and opened it just once to flip them over but it was clear at the turn that things were going well as they were already beginning to develop a crust that would have made Mr Maillard himself weak at the knees. Still, they could still officially be a failure if they weren’t as tender as a nun’s quim and I’d have another two hours to wait until that question was answered. Allah has blessed me with good looks, a schlong that could knock out an elephant and the wit of a stand-up comedian (not to mention humility) but patience does not appear on my resume so the countdown to midday felt like a lifetime but I heard that all good things come to those who wait so I waited. And waited. And put together some furniture. And waited.

Finally, with just over 30 minutes left to lunch, I pulled the ribs, wrapped them in foil and let them redistribute their juices for half an hour. At approximately 11:53 (specific pacific time) came the real test - cutting the slabs into individual ribs. To my vast relief, the ribs nearly cut themselves although they did still have some structure and required just the slightest amount of tension to separate the meat from the bone. The inside was juicy and tender whilst the outside was charred and crusty. Dare I say they were perfect? Maybe one step down from perfect as next time I would have them further away from the firebox as the smaller, edge ribs were a littler closer to cremated than charred.

The good news about using three mighty racks of the back loin pork ribs is that, after feeding seven people, there were loads left so I took some to work that night. If you ever want to make instant friends in a new job, take in some home smoked ribs. I was the kitchen bitch equivalent of a rock star for the evening.

Next time I want to smoke a 30lb pork butt for 10 hours and see if I can’t make me some decent pulled pork. The downside is that I’ll need to replace the roof on my house in order to have enough people to feed.

Boudin w/Mash Potatoes & Caramelized Apple

2009-08-07T21:08:00.005-04:00

Fooling bored & lucky enough to have Boudin (1 Blanc, 1 Noir) in the fridge, I decided to make dinner. I'm not too sure where my Dad got the sausages from, but I couldn't be more grateful when I remembered that I had them in the fridge.

I diced an onion, 2 apples & 2 cloves of garlic & sauteed them with butter, spicing with dried thyme, oregano, salt & pepper as they browned. Meanwhile I cut up 3 small potatoes & put them in a pot to boil with 2 cloves of garlic & the Boudin Blanc. The Boudin Noir went into a baking dish under the broiler with a bit of olive oil.

To the apples were added calvados which I brought to the boil, then added apple sauce & a little chicken stock.

Once the potatoes were done, I removed the Boudin Blanc & mashed them with cream & butter. I strained the apple sauce in a small sieve with the back of a wooden spoon & voila, instant dinner that took about 30 minutes & tasted great!

Mr C's (102 Avenue C)

2009-07-30T16:34:00.002-04:00

I finally had a chance to visit Alphabet City's newest Italian Trattoria, Mr C's, located at 7th Street & Ave. C. I braved the rain with my Mom around 8pm last night & we found the place pretty empty. After standing around the door for a bit, we decided to seat ourselves. It didn't take that long for our waiter to bring over our menus & explain that they were BYOB. I had already known that & gave some thought to going to Alphabet City Wine Co. next door & picking up a red, but I wasn't in the mood for drinking.

The service continued downhill from there, we sat around twiddling our thumbs till our water came by, so we ordered an appetizer while deciding that to get for our mains. After a further wait, we ordered our main dishes & asked to ensure if our appetizer had been fired (it had). We started with the fried calamari which were cooked very well, the marinara sauce that accompanied it was somewhat bland. Not a bad start to the meal at all though.

I ended up getting the rigatoni with tomato sauce & prosciutto. It was really light & tasty particularly with the flavor of the cured meat. My only real gripe with this dish is that whoever had prepped the prosciutto had been lazy. He had obviously stacked several slices to be cut into lengths, but they were just dropped into the dish/sauce as a whole & not separated, so eating the prosciutto was like biting into a big chunk of meat, I had to separate the individual pieces myself.

My Mom ordered the lasagna which was absolutely massive! I think everyone has their own view on how lasagna should be served; mine would be a small square with layers of meat, tomato sauce, cheese & pasta stacked vertically. Mr C's dish was nothing like this, it was a served on it's side, with thick layers of pasta (3-4 deep, all stuck together), meat & cheese, the tomato sauce seemed almost an afterthought & was spooned on top of the dish. Needless to say it did not look very appealing & the cheese overpowered the entire dish.

The food was passable (particularly considering the price; $8-9 for pasta), the BYOB policy was a plus, but the service was pretty atrocious. Our waiter was more interested in sitting down & talking to his friends that were dining there than attending to his customers. We had to scream to get salt & pepper and there was a lengthy wait for him to pick up my credit card after we had asked for our check.

Not sure if these are teething issues as this is a fairly new place, but I doubt I'll be going back there any time soon.

Friday Funnies

2009-07-24T12:34:00.001-04:00

Highland Pacific (3934 W 32nd Avenue Denver, Co)

2009-07-22T12:34:00.010-04:00

Highland Pacific is one of my favorite Denver restaurants & quite possibly my favorite seafood restaurant (which still amazes me as Colorado is landlocked). Every time I'm in town (particularly after Man Camp), I make sure to stop by for great seafood & even better service & atmosphere. My sister & I (& whoever we drag along) make sure we get a seat at the bar, which I think is the best seat in the house.

Luckily her husband doesn't eat oysters, so we were able to share a dozen oysters this year. We got Island Creek from MA & Hammersby Oysters from WA, both excellent. (a small note, Island Creeks are now available in 100 count bags, via FedEx next day! Click Here). We really enjoyed the oysters, but these were merely some small nibbles to keep us busy till the next course.

We got a pound of Dungeness crab legs next. Not quite my favorite, but we enjoyed them. In early 2008 I had come to Denver with NY friends & had eaten at Highland Pacific 2 nights in a row. They had Opilio crabs on those nights (made famous by the Deadliest Catch TV show) & honestly we must have gone through about 10lbs!

I ordered 2 appetizers, fried calamari (which Audrey helped herself to) & the Mac & Cheese which was really good. Audrey had the Ahi Poke (Big Eye Tuna with seaweed salad & avocado) & the Besos Calientes (Grilled shrimp over jalapenos with pancetta & pepper jack cheese). Josh opted for the Crawfish Po-Boy.

We ended the night with an insanely delicious dessert, the Foster a la mode. This humongous beast is basically bread pudding with bananas foster & ice ream on top! This (and all the Stella we had drank) put us well over the top. A great meal...

No exam nerves for Adam's final

2009-07-21T19:59:00.010-04:00

With his move to glorious Boston getting ever closer, Adam said this last boozy Thursday Club was to be his very best. We were to witness his coming of age, to gaze on as he demonstrated the glittering zenith of his culinary talents. The Buffalo Kid makes some delicious American-inspired food and on this occasion as before, he did not disappoint.

The party began with a very amusing anecdote from one of the chaps, who had, the night before, made Thai food with a wheelbarrow full of Scotch Bonnet chillies, scarfed it down and then performed an act of oral love on the lady he was with. With watery eyes and considerable embarrassment, the young lady announced that she had "the fire of Hades" between her legs, and politely asked for ice cubes and lots of cold yogurt. Of course, our friend obliged. He might have caused the lady less pain had he casually inserted a pair of fresh Red Savinas into her vagina. I had my own anecdote about marinating some chicken for a party Pistol Pete and I catered a couple of days before. I made a jerk marinade which contained two punnets of Habaneros and thought nothing of turning the meat in it, sans gloves. What a prize knobscotch I'd been! My hands fizzed for about 6 hours. I doubt Wilbur Scoville would have made a similar mistake.

Balancing flavours and taming heat (whether it be that of the cooking range or Scoville-measured kind) is what cooking is all about. Those who master these skills will become very good cooks indeed. I do believe Adam is getting there.To kick things off, after a couple of bottles of delicious Loose Cannon IPA from Clipper City in Baltimore, he surprised us with some of the best shrimp cakes I've ever eaten. With crunchy jackets and soft, perfectly seasoned interiors mined with chunks of shrimp, they were little miracles, exhaulted further by their marriage to a clever remoulade of coriander leaves and lime zest.A chilled smoky tomato soup had serious depth of flavour with a fair whack of heat and might have been a one-note battering ram of spice and smoke were it not for the thoughtful addition of a paprika-flecked sour cream. I will admit that I am a bit of a sucker for heat and ate the soup slavishly, saving the orange blob of dairy for the last pain relieving mouthful. Yin. Yang.

For his entree, chef had cooked a stew of chicken and served it with warm tortillas with the classic Mexican/SW accoutrements. The chicken was braised until it literally fell apart in the braising liquor, and absolutely packed full of flavour. I could taste cumin, paparika, chilli, garlic, some brown sugar. This was one serious dish. Crisp tortillas were strewn with guac, some onion, a slick of sour cream and a spoonful of the sauced meat. I don't think anybody uttered a word for a few minutes, until one of us said proudly "that's the best damn tortilla I've ever had!", and nobody could deny it. Fucking superb.Those chicken tortillas would be a hard act to follow, so I don't admitting that I was a touch dissapointed with the pork ribs up next, with pineapple and jicama salad. The sauce sticking to the ribs was excellent though, a playful mixture of soy sauce, tangerine, ginger, garlic, pepper flakes and brown sugar. He struck a perfect balance with sauce, but there just wasn't enough of those flavours actually in the meat. (Maybe he should have flash-braised the ribs in that sauce and then crisped them up?)A satisfying seasonal dessert of watermelon ice was flanked on either side by some beautiful home-flavoured vodkas: A pear & ginger and a blueberry-lime. The ice was OK, but the drinks were the real star of the dessert packing huge amounts of their advertised flavours with every sip.A cigarette was all that was needed then, to finish off what was without a doubt, the best meal I've ever had at Adam's. He shall be missed, and I do hope that before he goes, he'll give us the recipe for his signature chicken tortillas.

Don't judge a book...

2009-07-12T02:32:00.007-04:00

Living in the rapidly gentrifying East Village for so many years has turned me into a bit of a snob, or at worse, a complete asshole. I normally shop for grocery staples at Associated or Key Foods, often overlooking the less well known supermarkets. For my recent collaboration with Adam a few days ago, I decided to go to Fine Fare on Avenue C & 4th Street.

They seem to cater to the Latino community in the area & I had often dismissed the place as 'ghetto'. I was pleasantly surprised to find a well stocked, clean grocery store. After buying some hideous leeks at my local Associated further up Avenue C earlier in the day, I was amazed at the freshness of the produce. Adam & I were able to find everything that we needed for our co-op meal (well, nearly everything, we had to substitute Gorgonzola for Goat's Cheese, but this turned out to our advantage) & then some.

Cuts of meat that I never find at other stores, plus varied vegetables & spices. Now most grocery stores have a 'Goya Section', but this one was truly amazing. More Goya products than I've ever seen in my entire life! One in particular; a bright orange Beef Tripe Stew (Mondongo) caught my eye & I just had to have it. I'm not a regular tripe eater (actually, I really try to avoid the stuff), but I was feeling adventurous & I actually ate it tonight with some bread & an avocado salad. It was pretty damn good and from a can no less! I'll be cooking my own tripe stew soon enough!

Basically, the point of this post is not to dismiss any store or ingredient, sometimes you find hidden gems behind an otherwise ugly exterior! Note: some canned goods are more appealing than others!

Stop. Collaborate and Listen.

2009-07-11T11:19:00.007-04:00

With just two of us able to buck the chains of work, travel, laziness or prior obligations, Boogie and I decided to give a Thursday Club duo a shot. He had a starter and dessert in the works but we decided to pull our culinary resources and think up a main dish with inspiration provided by his local Mexican food market. Passing through the extensive protein aisle filled such intriguing items as pork maws, beef kidneys, and chicken backs (You've got to love these types of markets), we opted for a fairly pedestrian meat choice to base our meal on. A few thin sheets of sirloin would do to start our creative juices. How about we stuff it, roll it up and lacquer it with a rich wine sauce? Meh, this evening had a laid back feel compared to the usual high-octane Club meals - what I could really go for is a sandwich actually. Done. A sandwich for the ages though. A few other items thrown into the basket and we were off. Here's the menu:

- English Onion Soup w/ White Cheddar and Crouton

- Steak Sandwich a la Boogie
Potato and Pea Salad

- Chocolate Mousse with Cherry-Port Compote

The soup was slowly bubbling away for a few hours by the time we returned from shopping. Some last-minute spice tinkering with pepper flakes and balsamic, a quick corn starch addition for texture and we were all set to top them with bread, cheese and bang it under the broiler. The final product was similarly close to it's French counterpart, but the sharp cheddar added a delightful punch to the sweet onion base. It was a hearty start for a meal that featured a sandwich for the main course, but not many things have the raw appeal of soup with a pipping hot and gooey bread and cheese lid.

We scarfed it.

The super steak sandwich took a few components from traditional steakhouse menu. Sauteed spinach with garlic, seared steak, mushrooms in red wine and a creamy Gorgonzola crumble. Really nothing too controversial about those ingredients. Let the stacking begin.

The bread was perfectly crusty and the monstrous concoction stayed glued together surprisingly well. A few pockets of liberally sprinkled Gorgonzola occasionally overpowered the bite, but it was good enough for me to finish my portion in record time. I whipped up a quick cold potato and pea salad to compliment the hoagie as well. A simple mayo and dijon based dressing with some dry herbs and lemon zest were spot on despite the imprecise measurements that went into it.
A nice slow pace allowed us to clean up as we went along and most importantly digest and prepare for one more course.

The dessert started off as a mousse, but was morphed into a gelatin/pudding/ganache due to the off-timed addition of cream. No matter though as the end result, although unidentifyable, was absolutely delicious. I put my ramekin in the freezer in hopes of solidifying it enough to flip it upside-down, but it refused to budge. Shoveling into my face right out of the cup would have to do.

The lemon-juice spiked cherry sauce added a nice bright acidity to the rich chocolate pudd...eh, mous....uh, whatever the hell it was. A great way to end the leisurely evening at any rate.

Regardless of how many people were there, one thing remains a constant; the contented, slightly wobbly walk through the chaos of the Lower East Side to the subway and a nice nap on the F train back to Brooklyn. I wouldn't have it any other way....and rarely do.

Fat Hippo Revisted!

2009-06-29T15:45:00.007-04:00

My Dad recently celebrated his 77th birthday & we went to Fat Hippo (71 Clinton St. @ Rivington) for food & drinks. My brother, Stefan (Sous Chef Stef) had flown in a few days earlier to surprise my Dad. The menu has progressed from my last visit (click)

We started with the Burger Fondue which was really well received. A really fun whimsical play on fondue. The cheeses were delicious (unfortunately, I can't remember the names) & we really enjoyed this starter.

Earlier I had shown the group the picture of the monstrous sized Pork Chop that we had the last time we were at Fat Hippo for the soft opening party, so my Dad was really looking forward to ordering that. Unfortunately, they put a pork loin on the menu in it's place. Stefan got the steak which was delish. I opted for the Crab cake (my real motivation was the mac & cheese which is among the best in the city). The chicken was ordered as well as the seared tuna (highly recommended).

It was nice to try some of the dishes that I missed at the opening & everyone enjoyed the meal.

The Clerkenwell (49 Clinton Street)

2009-06-27T20:34:00.010-04:00

Grant & Kate were only in town for 1 day last week, so I shuffled down to Clerkenwell, a gastropub on Clinton St. between Rivington & Stanton. I'm somewhat skeptical of places that label themselves as 'gastropubs', so I was eager to taste the food here. We took over the entire bar area & downed pints of Stella & Strongbow, but as the night (& drink tab) progressed, we got hungry.

We started by sharing the pate which did not disappoint. Topped by a thick layer of butter & a side of caramelized onions, this dish got even better as the butter softened & melted.

I opted for the Toad in the Hole. Honestly, after spending 8 years in an English boarding school, I was expecting the same disgusting, dry fare, but I was pleasantly surprised. The dish was basically 'deconstructed', with Yorkshire pud replacing the normal flaky pastry & a delicious jus topped the sausages, onions & mash. The real star of the plate were the sausages which are made fresh in the kitchen. They were well spiced & delicious, a far cry from school lunches!

Adam got the fish & chips which he devoured, so I can only assume that they were good. The chips were thick cut, English style (as they should be). The plating of the dish was not what you'd really expect from a gastropub, but it did look good.

Clerkenwell is a stone's throw from my house, so odds are I will be returning. The food is good, our bartender was very friendly & we all had a good time. You can't really ask for much more than that.

The Shrimp Butler

2009-06-24T13:51:00.002-04:00

I love to cook shrimp. I really don't mind peeling them, but it's the de-veining & butterflying that drives me insane. Repetitive, tedious & downright annoying. Luckily, some clever bugger has invented the Shrimp Butler. This ingenious machine does all the work for you & is reasonable priced at $35.

Although you need to be making shrimp by the bucketload for this thing to be worth the money, I think it's a pretty cool little gadget. They have a demo video on their website, check it out.

I have a head for fashion....

2009-06-23T22:46:00.001-04:00

I'm glad that certain things go full cycle under the dark and mysterious cloak of fashion. Flares came back. Or at least they did in Manchester, England, circa 1992. I like a nice flare, me. Pearls, not seen since 1950, are back in vogue too. No NYC ladies are without them. In my twisted and offset opinion, pearls (fake or real) give a woman an aloof whiff of class. Whether the lady in question has actually availed herself of a decent upbringing and education, or she's the kind of woman that says "Like," and "You know," while searching her pitiful vocabulary for something altogether more descriptive is beside the point. Pearls say something about a woman.

In the food arena, fads come and go too. We've seen monkfish liver come and go. Sweetbreads came and stayed, but will no doubt fall out of fashion soon enough. The new trend in NYC is pork. Not discount Valu-Pak plastic wrapped ten-a-penny pork, but well-bred pork. Pork from breeds nobody has heard of. And not just your average Jo Bloggs pork chop, bland loin, picnic ham or Boston butt. Now we hear about trotters, tails and ears from well-bred pigs. Cooks are starting to look beyond the boring fillet, the steak. The possibilities are endless when you engage the whole animal. I'm glad fashion has finally caught up with me. Inspired in part by Samuel Pegge's famous 1390 tome The Forme of Cury, and a handful of pork disciples in London and New York who are rolling their sleeves up and getting to grips with some very unusual cuts, I wanted to reinvigorate an old English favourite, the Bath Chap. This boned and stuffed pig's head was the height of fashion in 1890. I can't believe something so delicious fell from favour in the first place, but I'm so happy it finally came back into fashion over 100 years later.

Daunting as it is, dealing with a whole head, the recipe is simplicity itself. Like taking candy from babies....

First procure a decent looking piggy head, one with a long jowl, from a decent breed, and most certainly one that has a life of mischief and varied diets.

Bone out piggy head with sharp knife. This isn't as easy as it sounds. I found a great video on YouTube featuring a bloke with a big knife cutting into Porky. He's obviously a skilled and practiced hand. It took literally seconds, and he was no doubt distracted by BBC Radio blaring in the background, but he does make it look easy. The trick is to get as much meat off the bone and attached to the skin as possible, paying particular attention the the cheeks. That's the best shit, that is. My boning technique differed from Matey because I boned it out resulting in one piece of skin and not two, as he does in the video. Two pieces are traditional. Those who know me will testify that I like to fuck with tradition a bit.

Take out the tongue, and wash it thoroughly. There is no easy way to remove it, just cut where you think you should and remove it in one piece.

Now the tricky bit: Roll. Place the tongue in between the two cheek meaty bits, lying it on the underside of what would have been Porky's hooter. Roll as best you can, making sure you have string at the ready to tie. I like a nice snouty look to my Bath Chaps. Wrap in cheesecloth, and brine for 5 days.

Take Chap out and give him a good rinse. Still wrapped, poach in a mixture of pork stock (from the skull) white wine, the usual aromatics and some bay leaf and peppercorns fro about 1.5 hours. Remove, cool, and unwrap. Re-wrap in cling film tightly as you can, and press under weight in the fridge. leave overnight.

Unwrap.

Cut inch-thick slices from the Chap, dip in seasoned flour each side, and fry in butter to a crisp and golden finish.

You will marvel at the crisp bacony exterior, and your knees will buckle when you savour the fat, moist and porky cheek and tongue meat at the Chap's core. I served my guests their Chaps with Colman's mustard (of course) and some caramelised apples.

Recipe: Split Pea Soup w/Ham Hocks

2009-06-23T02:24:00.008-04:00

I've been cooking a lot recently, both in an effort to stay away from my local boozer & clear out my freezer, so here goes yet another recipe. I had this soup at my parent's house a few weeks ago & I was really eager to try it out for myself.

Ingredients:

2 Ham Hocks
1 lbs Split Peas
1 Medium Onion
4 Cloves Garlic
1 Pack Frozen Peas & Carrots
3 Cups Chicken Stock
Spices: Bay Leaves, Thyme, Oregano, Pepper Flakes, etc.

Add ham hocks to small pot & fill with water (about 6 cups) & boil for 1-1.5 hours (the more, the merrier). Be sure to test for tenderness of the meat & skim off any 'scum' from the surface of the water & reserve boiling liquid. Rinse & pick through your peas, removing any impurities.

While your pork is boiling, dice onion & add to large stockpot with olive oil. Sweat for 5 minutes. Add diced (or pressed) garlic & cook for 2-3 more minutes. Add majority of the pack of carrots & peas, reserving some.

Then add rinsed split peas. Incorporate ingredients & add chicken stock (in this case made from the strained remainder from my Warm Potato & Chicken Salad) & liquid from boiling your ham hocks. Add spices (be careful about the use of salt, the pork stock will be somewhat salty) & bring to a boil & simmer gently, covered, for 90 minutes or until peas are soft..

Remove bay leaves & using an immersion blender, blend the soup. Add remaining peas & carrots for texture & color. Debone & chop ham hocks into bite sized pieces (particularly the skin, which may become chewy). Add the meat to the soup & simmer for a further 15 minutes. Serve with warm, crusty bread.

Recipe: Steamed Mussels w/Shallots & Chorizo

2009-06-19T14:26:00.013-04:00

For some reason I really wanted to eat some mussels & I hate cooking/eating alone so I had invited a few friends over for an impromptu dinner party. In a bit of a rush, I braved the rain with a buddy & headed to Whole Foods on Houston where I picked up some chorizo & 7lbs of mussels (3 bags).

I washed & debearded the mussels as best I could as we chopped the chorizo, shallots (4), parsley & garlic (a full bulb). The chorizo went into the pans with a bit of butter & olive oil, leaving a delicious, red/yellow color in the pan. The parsley, shallots & garlic were added next, along with more butter. Once cooked through, I deglazed with a white wine that has been sitting on my wine rack for ages (I used the entire bottle).

Salt & pepper was put into the pots, the mixture was brought up to a boil & the mussels were added. I covered the pots & lowered to a simmer to let our delicious little bivalves steam away happily. Once they had fully opened, I served with warm bread & butter. Simple yet effective & really really good to eat. I particularly enjoying dunking my bread in the broth. One of these days I'll give making French Fries a shot.

I'm surprised that I don't cook mussels more often. They're dead easy to make & pretty darn inexpensive. I spent $30 on a meal for 6 (plus the bottle of plonk) & everyone left full. There were enough leftovers for me to make my Fried Beer Battered Mussels. I could have spent even less if I had gone to Chinatown for the mussels ($6 a bag at Wholefoods) & the chorizo was a bit overpriced, but I was pushed for time (read: Lazy). All in All, a good meal, I really enjoyed it.

Recipe: Warm Potato & Chicken Salad

2009-06-15T20:47:00.013-04:00

Sort of like Teddy's Fridge With Cupboard Sauce situation, I was sitting around today hungry & not wanting to leave the house as it looked like it was going to rain. I looked through what I had lying around & with suggestions from my Dad, came up with this great salad.

Basically, I filled up a small pot with water, added 2 chicken thighs (skin on) & some crushed (just with the side of my knife) cloves of garlic. Then came the fun part; I didn't have much in the way of fresh herbs, so I just opened my pantry & let my hands fly along the spice shelf. Salt & Pepper (obviously), garlic powder, oregano, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, plus some other stuff that's been gathering dust in there. I turned the heat up & let my two little babies simmer away (round about 40 minutes, give or take).

I had a smaller pot in which I boiled 4 red bliss potatoes cut mouth sized & skin on. When my potatoes were nearly done, I took the chicken out of the broth/stock & began work on the dressing; olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, the juice of half a lemon & mustard (both regular & grain). I'm glad I only added half a lemon as it was a bit tart. I ended up putting in just a dollop of honey to smooth it out.

The chicken was shredded roughly & put into a mixing bowl with the potatoes & some parsley. On went the dressing & some coarsely ground pepper. Mix & plate! I really enjoyed the salad, but I have a few things I'd love to add/change. It really could have used some red onion & secondly, I wish I added more chicken. The meat to starch ratio was a bit lopsided. There are infinite variations for this basic salad. Such as adding slow roasted grape tomatoes which I have bottled.

There's also a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! You're left with all of the liquid that you boiled the chicken in which by now is delicious & rich. I haven't strained it as yet because I don't know what I'll use it for.

Downright Comforting

2009-06-09T08:49:00.012-04:00

Somehow I think Houman's reasoning behind his recent comfort food menu was less because of the unseasonably cool Spring temperatures and more a chance to showcase the firepower of his sparkling new dual tier, 4-burner, salamander-packing stove. Not to disappoint my mind's picture of this contraption, from the minute I stepped into the apartment, all burners were whopped up to high with pots gleefully bubbling away.

The smell that filled the room (and entire building) was enough to get me drooling. Here's what we had in store:

1. Rustic brandade
2. Teddy's boudin noir with caramelized apples and onions on celeriac puree
3. Porterhouse, sauteed kale, pancetta
4. Guinness braised short ribs with rosemary-maple glaze
5. Melon with basil-lime granita and cornmeal cookie

Our starter, the rustic brandade, was the classic salt cod and potato combo with an added twist. A deep fried fritter (same as the brandade recipe with added herbs and chives) was placed on top and the whole thing was covered in a pungent garlic aioli.

The garlicky waft and the sight of a perfectly browned croquette on top of a chunky bed of starch was pretty to admire, but lasted mere seconds as we all tore in and made quick work of it. The salt cod added a great fish taste without overpowering the dish with salt and the smooth/crispy texture worked wonderfully.

The second course included a familiar ingredient, as Teddy's homemade blood sausage made a cameo appearance to the delight of all of us. I would have munched away happily on nothing more than the sausage and a smear of tangy mustard, but it came plated beautifully with maple-drizzled onion and apples, and a smooth puree of celeriac. As if that wasn't enough, a veal stock based gravy was spooned around the plate. A fabulous dish overall - the rich spiced sausage, a tart celeriac, and sweet onions and apples to tie everything together. Relatively simple, but loaded with flavor and a definite crowd pleaser.

The porterhouse steak course (strangely not the main course) was as amazing to watch being prepared as it was to eat. First of all, the uncooked piece of steak itself was beautiful with a labyrinth of marbled fat running throughout.

It started out on the stove top in a smoking hot pan, then was flipped and moved to the oven which tops out at around 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. More than enough to add a nice char to a steak without over cooking the glistening pink center. It was quite a show, at one point Teddy and JC were on all fours peering through the oven's tinted window just to get a glimpse of the bubbling, browning porterhouse. The seasoning was simple, ("salt, pepper, and butter is all you need is you need for a steak, man" to quote tonight's chef) and the results were sublime.

As good as any restaurant that I have been to. I guess the secret is slicing off a bit of the sun and stuffing it inside of your oven.....nice if you can get it. The side dish was nothing to scoff at either, with some nice braised kale and pancetta. A tiny bit of maple syrup found it's way inside also (not a big surprise considering our Canadian host) which added a nice sweetness to the salty accompaniment. The steak was center stage though, and rightfully so.

Short ribs have been done before, at one point in back-to-back-to-back weeks which threatened to change our name from Thursday to Short Rib Club. They are delicious though and when done correctly, few things can top it. Houman's take had the ribs braised in Guinness and finished with a maple rosemary glaze.

The meat was fall apart tender and the glaze added a nice sticky coating to the meat that took on the dark color of it's braising liquid. No knives needed for this course as the meat shredded off of the bone (which I used as a shovel-like utensil just to drive home the meat-tastic nature of this meal). The combo of the meat and creamy mash was amazing and the realistic portion, uncommon for us at times, left us pining for more.....which there was.

Luckily for us the dessert was a cooling and light one, honeydew melon balls with a lime-basil granita. Never using basil in desserts, the combo was foreign to me, but really opened my eyes to using herbs in cooperation with sweet dishes. Unfortunately the heat of the kitchen had turned the granita a bit soupy near the end, but fortunately Teddy our in-house mixologist had the smarts to throw it into a cocktail shaker and stretch the dessert further by making it into the nicest lime-basil based drink I've ever tasted.

It was truly a night of excellent classics dishes. Even though they had a familiar ring, the subtle twists made them unique and a welcomed change from the ordinary comfort foods we were used to. And the stove was damn impressive.....

Crouching Tiger, Peking Duck?

2009-06-05T12:01:00.003-04:00

'Feast' your eyes on the trailer for Kung Fu Chefs. The name pretty much explains it all. Complete with kung fu action, Iron Chef references (not sure about the bid cage though), some insane pig butchery skills & atrocious music, this looks pretty awesome! Hungry anyone?

Man Camp 2009!

2009-06-03T20:36:00.028-04:00

This is probably one of my favorite times of the year. Having just returned from a gluttonous camping trip, I get to recount all of the food I ate & fun I had. Despite the rain, hail & general bad weather, this year didn't disappoint.

Day 1; Thursday.

2 cars with 6 eager campers arrived at the grounds in the early afternoon rain & proceeded to get our tents & sleeping quarters set up. Having been drinking for pretty much the entire day & soaking in the rain by nightfall, we realized how much we missed our resident cook, John (he was arriving on Friday).

We had managed to make a fire & were listening to the Lakers/Nuggets game on a car stereo as we cooked up some bratwursts on a small Weber grill. No condiments, just a brat & a bun. I'm pretty sure we looked like Neanderthals!

Day 2; Friday.

Our misery was compounded as we waited for John to show up, no breakfast for us! More people did arrive though & in time Scott had the jockey box set up & cold Coors Light was flowing.

There were other luxury items in the camp that I had missed from my absence the year before. There were now 2 large tents, one for the kitchen & another for the house band; The Texas Creek Massacre. In the band tent was booze on a rope (see the 1st picture), which did well to keep us warm as night.

The kitchen tent had several massive coolers, a serving/buffet table, a fully stocked pantry & a new 3 ring gas cooker with griddle that John had picked up, along with a very ingenious folding bench system that provided all of the room needed for him to prepare the meals that I'll be talking about soon enough. Outside of the tent was a large deep fryer & a coal BBQ for grilling.

Before we knew what hit us, John & crew were fast at work with an early dinner. Chicken Fried Steak, Gravy, Tater Tots & Jalapeno Poppers w/BBQ Sauce (both deep fried). Delicious! Finally, a proper meal!

John had some TCM Blueberry Cobbler baking in a iron pot, so we were treated to a dessert as well. Full, we retired to the band tent to hear some music & do more boozing.

Day 3; Saturday.

Finally, we were treated to our first breakfast. John didn't spare the horses. I think that every year our new 14" TCM burritos are getting more & more insane...

Meats (chorizo & bacon), vegetables (onions & peppers) & eggs were sizzling on the griddle, green chili on the hob while tater tots & spam got a dip in 350 degree oil. Josh had also made some cornmeal mush.

This is basically cornmeal that is boiled till cooked, packed into a convenient shape to firm, then fried. In this case in a skillet. Topped with cheese, hot sauce & other additions, it made one hell of a start to the day!

George was nice enough to hook up some Bloody Mary's as well. I'm not normally a fan, but these were great. Really strong, with pickles & pickle juice added & beef jerky stirrers!

Josh began to prepare his signature pulled pork shoulder. 1 was done with a rub, the other simply with salt & pepper. 7lbs of pork when it was all said & done!

It was getting around to dinner time, so 24 8oz Sirloin Steaks were seasoned & sizzling away on the charcoal grill.

Tater tots (yes again, we had loads of them!) & beer battered Vidalia onion rings were dunked into the deep fryer. The tots were topped with a little cheese for added flavor.

As you can see, dinner could have fed a ravenous animal! Not pictured, was a peach cobbler that John made much in the same way as the previous nights blueberry dessert. As usual, the night ended with most of us in the band tent. By this time, we had graduated onto our second handle of Jack Daniel's whiskey (3rd & final handle consumed).

Day 4; Sunday.

The previous night was a bit heavy & most of us woke up with raging hangovers. Breakfast was insane again, just way over the top! Corned beef hash, bacon, breakfast sausages, eggs, melted cheese, peppers, Josh's green chili & more.

Some rolled their breakfast up. Others (myself included) opted for the 'plate-method'!

Around lunch time, 2 batches of wings were put into the deep fryer; 1 hot & the other with a whiskey BBQ sauce. The band played their hit single; 'The Wings Are Ready' while people piled into the kitchen tent.

Ted began to work on his monstrous bacon roll and soon that was in the smoker & the pulled pork, was well, being 'pulled'. No use of utensils here, Josh & Lem went caveman & did it all by hand.

Served on a bun, with BBQ sauce, smoky baked beans & coleslaw, I really enjoyed the final dinner of the trip.

Day 5; Monday.

The last day was pretty simple. Hangover recovery. A breakfast of Pancakes, leftover Pulled Pork, Breakfast Sausages & generous helpings of maple syrup. After that we cleaned up the camp, took the tents down & anything that didn't go 'BOOM!' went into the fire for destruction.

We skipped our usual stop at The Coyote Cantina in Buena Vista, so our trip ended there. A great time was had by all, so rest assured that I'll be going to Man Camp again next year.

Delicious Links

2009-06-03T20:01:00.005-04:00

1) Men's Health discusses in length how to buy & cook an entire pig.
2) Kid's Restaurant Week launches on June 20th.
3) DoggyBloggy gets brave & braises alligator.
4) The nation's first Japanese butcher shop opens in NYC.
5) Topless coffee shop in Maine burns down due to arson.

Have a good link? Post a comment & maybe it'll make it to the next installment!

NYC Food Film Festival

2009-06-03T19:28:00.005-04:00

While traversing the internet (as you do), I came across the website for the 2009 NYC Food Film Festival. This is a unique opportunity to watch films about food & get a chance to taste dishes featured in the movies. Pretty damn cool. The Astor Center is hosting 2 screenings/tastings on June 13th & 14th ($35 & $85 respectively), I'm going to go to the one on the 13th if possible.

The festival runs from the 13th to the 19th & has free screenings at LIC's Water Taxi Beach.

Check out the festival trailer below:

Recipe: The Beast

2009-06-03T16:57:00.009-04:00

Known lovingly as the "Bacon Explosion", we dubbed this mound of deliciousness 'The Beast'. Basically pork on top of pork on top of pork with a few of Ted's additions & smoked, this thing was amazing (pictured to the right with some smoked sausage).

Lem's new smoker made short work of this delicious little bundle of porky goodness.

1. Weave 12 slices of thick cut bacon into a lattice. It should measure about a square foot.

2. Flatten out 1 lb of Italian sausage meat & lay flat out on the bacon.

3. Add 2-3 slices of cooked, chopped bacon. Dousing in BBQ sauce is optional.

4. Add cheese. Again, this was optional, but I thought it could have used more cheese.

5. Roll up the Italian Sausage.

6. Roll the Beast into a tight package.

7. Season lightly & add to your smoker with your favorite lump wood. Smoke for 2-3 hours, slice & enjoy!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the finished, sliced product as it was devoured pretty damn quickly. I'm not sure what type of wood was used for the smoking, but the bacon had a really sweet flavor that I loved. Nice work Ted!

This was a nice change in both taste and texture to most of the other foods were were eating on this year's Man Camp (full culinary coverage to follow!)

Recipe: Cream of Mushroom Soup

2009-06-03T16:40:00.009-04:00

I made this delicious soup a few weeks ago for my Mom who was feeling a bit under the weather. Serves 4. (From Wolfgang Puck)

Ingredients

* 1.5 lbs mushroom, coarsely chopped (I put the entire lot in the blender, but I recommend doing it in portions)
* 2 tablespoons lemon juice
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 2 teaspoons minced shallots
* 1/4 teaspoon thyme
* 1 small bay leaf
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon pepper
* 2 cups heavy cream
* 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
* 1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tbs water
* 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

Directions

1. Sprinkle mushrooms with lemon juice.
2. Melt butter in large heavy saucepan and saute shallots.
3. Add mushrooms,thyme,and bay leaf, saute for 10 minutes.
4. Add salt, pepper, cream and chicken broth and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Add cornstarch and simmer another 10 minutes,stirring.

Adam To The Rescue!

2009-05-16T21:37:00.009-04:00

I feel like a bit of an idiot at the moment as I brought my roommate's camera by mistake (most of the pictures came out blurry) & I washed my jeans before taking the notes I had written out of the back pocket, so those are destroyed. Nonetheless, we went to Adam's last Thursday for what he called 'A night of stuffed things'. We started with plenty of beer & one of my personal favorites; Banks, a great drink from the Caribbean.

Tomato and Olive Focaccia Stuffed with Smoked Mozzarella

Cabbage and Duck Bacon Pierogies with Apple Sauce

Turkish-Style Stuffed Eggplant

Apricot and Nut Phyllo Dough Packets with Vanilla-Honey Drizzle.

I wish I had more infor on this meal, but my notes were unreadable.

Hog Wild in California

2009-05-02T12:55:00.011-04:00

It was with great joy that I received an invitation from Lori's (Houman's girl) brother, Jake, to come out to California and hunt some wild boar. Having recently made a decision to curb my purchases of 'commercial, factory reared' meat due to some frankly hideous animal husbandry practices, I relished the opportunity to get closer to my meat, to put a face on it, to see how my pork lives in the wild. The boar we were to hunt roamed free in the picturesque hills of Coalinga, in the San Joaquin Valley. Variously described as "wild boars" and "wild hogs", "European" and even "Russian" wild boars, California wild hogs are all properly termed "feral pigs." They are descendants of domestic swine that were allowed to roam free, and they established breeding populations in the wild. After just a few generations in the wild, their physiology changes considerably. They become longer and rangier, with smaller hams and more powerful shoulders. The tail unkinks, the ears become straighter, and the snout appears longer.

Jake had heard through Houman about how I love to cook offal, and he was keen to learn how to prepare such variety meats, so that he could make the best use of all of the animals he culls. It was to be a meeting of the minds - I was to learn from Jake the rudiments of hunting, and I was to demonstrate to him a few simple cooking techniques to coax the flavour out of some unusual cuts. I was to go as a non-hunting guest, sadly, but I would enjoy observing and learning the hunt, and getting stuck into the gutting, skinning and butchery of the carcasses.

Jake and his hunting buddy Rich had hunted elk, deer and black bear for years but this was to be their first boar hunt. Neither of them had eaten commercial meat for years, choosing to live on the elk, deer and other wild creatures they kill with bow and arrow. I was very impressed. Four of us, (the 2 experts with bows and the two novices) gathered in Sacramento to round up supplies, licences, pig tags and weaponry, lots of beer.

To waste no time regarding his offal cookery education, on the first night, Jake had presented a selection of bollocks for me to cook (longhorn sheep, and elk) and I was encouraged to get 'peeling', (removing the rather attractive outer membrane) dredging them in curry flavoured flour and setting them into hot oil. After tasting, I think we all agreed that the elk knackers were the best, reminding us as they did of Italian sausage.The next morning, we set out. After considerable confusion at a hunt shop in Sacramento involving a genetically challenged individual who didn't understand simple requests made in English, and some frantic driving and much expense at the California Dept of Game & Fish, we had licences for all hunters and about 5 (!) pig tags, just in case we hit a rich seam of wild pork.The drive was about three hours from Sac to Coalinga, and along the way I got to know Rich, a fireman from Eugene, Oregon who had some fabulous tales of firefighting and similar political views to myself. We got along just fine, though on occasion I felt I had to help him navigate some of my alien phraseology. I guess I was the first drunken Northern English monkey he'd ever met.

Coalinga is undoubtedly beautiful. The town itself is set just at the feet of the rolling hills of the Diablo Range, part of the Pacific Coastal Range, and is surrounded by citrus, vine and olive agricultural flatland. We were headed up into the Diablos, to hunt in the scrub and deciduous forests. Our camp was fairly basic, and for a brief moment I was concerned about the outdoor 'kitchen'. The cabin was comfortable and set on top of a hill surrounded by boar country. I was reminded of the countryside in Umbria. Despite our bloodthirsty intentions, the scene was one of total tranquility.

We didn't waste any time in setting out. The bowmen were the first out and H & I were to be picked up later on by Jeremy, the owner's son, when the sun starts to set. We were told that early morning and late evening were the best times to hunt as it's much cooler and the boar come out of the shade to eat and drink. After two hours of 'glassing' (a hunter's term for searching for game through binoculars) an awesome view, we set off up to the top of a hill to flush out what we could find. On turning a corner, a huge black boar scampered across the road and paused to look at Houman, who was busy trying to prepare himself for a shot. Jeremy whispered, "Shoot that son'bitch!", but Houman's rifle wasn't loaded, his scope was turned up too high. The boar mocked us and trotted off up the hill. We tracked for a while but the swine was too clever for us and had hidden in dense bush where we would never find him. Disappointment for sure, but now we had seen the meat and Houman was sure he'd get another opportunity.With a setting sun now long gone and the landscape plunged into darkness, we returned to camp for cold beer and some dinner. What a sight awaited us! Jake had nailed a 200 lb boar with his first shot, and it was hanging in gambrels from a large tree outside our cabin. He was busy skinning and trimming, covered in blood, with a wild glint in his eye. Rich had a shot that night too, sticking a pig with an arrow right in the ribs, but it had evaded him and ran off into the bush. It amazed me that a stuck pig can continue running for a couple of hours after such an injury. These little fuckers are quite resilient. With Jake's dead hog smelling musty and swinging gently in the night air, there was no way I was missing out on the fun! I grabbed my knife, rolled up my sleeves and got to grips with it. What a beautiful animal it was. Big muscular legs, round firm shoulders, and encased in a layer of delicious fat. Jake had saved the liver, heart and kidneys for our dinner! I trimmed the skin from its subcutaneous fat, sliding my hands between the two to ease it away rather cutting it. It reminded me vaguely of rubbing sun tan oil on the missus at the beach, the feeling of lubricated warm muscle. The skin came away easily, Jake bagged and tagged his hog, and I set about making a saute of heart and kidneys for dinner. With some fat rendered from the fresh kill, I sauteed shallots, with thyme and garlic, threw in the sliced organs, some red wine and simmered for a few minutes. Delicious! I don't think I've ever had organs that fresh. The heart tasted delicious, the kidneys could have done with a good soak though, and we would save the liver for a magnificent pate when we got back to Sacramento.That night, we got to meet other hunting groups in the camp. There was Alan, an 65 year old ex-Army sniper, who now taught marines how to shoot and he messed around with ballistics in his spare time. He hadn't eaten commercial meat for 25 years, and he'd been to Coalinga for hogs a few times before. Rumour has it that he could hit a dartboard with a rifle at 1000 yards. Chuck, next door, was an ex-Navy bloke who'd retired a long time ago and had just lost his wife. He'd come to hunt to find himself again, with his step-son, Dan, who lived in San Diego. With Mike, an IT consultant from LA, Houman, the lawyer, Rich the fireman, and Jake and I, currently 'taking leave of our careers', we were a mixed bunch.

We went out the next day, again with no luck. We didn't see a single hog that day, but we did help Mike, who shot an impressive sow, lug his kill up a steep scree and into the jeep. We weren't sure whether the sow had piglets who could survive on their own without their mother, but her teats were swollen with milk and we feared the worst. I felt bad that afternoon. Rich never found his pig from the first night, but he shot another, who evaded him again! Two pigs, two shots, two hits, no meat. Rich was, quite understandably, a tad pissed off.

On the last day at the camp, Houman and I were split up, and I ended up hunting with Dan and Chuck. At 5.15am we left camp. By 6.15 am, Dan had shot a beauty. We were crossing the fields behind the ranch where we hunted that weekend, and Jeremy spotted a big hog at about 1000 yards. The jeep parked, we hid behind trees and Dan and Chuck loaded clips while I looked on through powerful binocs. Jeremy knew the pig would cross the field, come right past us, on it's way back from a nocturnal feed. I watched this pig do just that. What a beauty! The shape reminded me of a farmyard pig, but this one had more prominent features and chocolate brown hair all over its body, big floppy ears that dangled and bobbled in a carefree fashion as porky made his way towards us, unaware of his immediate lack of future. At maybe 90 yards, Chuck and Dan were head down, rifles steadied up along some fence wire, poised to shoot. I heard a click as Chuck pulled the trigger and realised the safety was on, then a crack! as Dan hit the sucker with a perfect shot, straight through the ribs, lungs, and out the other side. I watched porky spin like a top as it tried to work out what had just stung him, then as it flopped to the floor and kicked out for a few minutes. By the time we'd made it across the field, porky was dead on its side, eyes glazed. Ensuring a loaded sidearm, Jeremy approached the pig. These wild hogs can be dangerous at all times, but especially when wounded and we wanted to be sure. Sometimes, it's a good idea to pour water in their ears. This one was definitely dead. 120 lbs of Handsome Pig was gutted, and slung onto the back of the jeep. This was the last kill of the hunting weekend. On Sunday afternoon we packed up and left camp, heading for Sac.I was reminded of how bad captive animals can be treated before slaughter for meat, when we passed a huge burger farm. We could smell it miles before we saw it. Cows, nose to tail as far as the eye could see, some lying dead in pools of shit, others trampling the dead in an effort to reach the feeding trough first, for mouthfuls of corn, antibiotics, pharmaceuticals and ancestors. We were horrified.

I was looking forward to butchering the pig, keeping in mind the demonstration I'd seen by Tom Mylan in New York. Jake and I took the beast apart in about two hours. I enjoyed every minute: slicing muscle, removing whole loins, prying apart shoulder muscles, shaving sinew and silverskin, trimming fat. The head was taken apart for brawn. For my efforts, and because Jake is fantastically generous, H and I were handed a whole leg. I had mentioned to him that I wanted to cure one for proscuitto, and I promised to send him some sweet slices when it had finished the air cure.That night, we feasted on elk tongue, boar headcheese, boar liver pate, salad and bread. This was Jake's first taste of pate surprisingly, and I'm not convinced he understood the texture, being as he is a lover of leaner meat products. "Just think of it as meat butter, Jake." Maybe that did the trick.Back in New York, I bought 30 packets of salt for the cure. The bird at C-Town must have thought I was running some sort of meth lab. It's in the salt downstairs, to be rubbed down with vinegar and white wine tomorrow, bandaged and air dried after that. Should be ready, just in time for Christmas. I don't know how the flesh of the boar tastes yet, though I'm sure Jake has cooked some of it already. I bet it's brilliant. When a pig has a wild diet of acorns, grass, roots and flowers the meat and the fat can only taste fantastic.Houman & I are already planning a hunting trip in New York. I think he feels a little jipped at not coming home with any boar to call his own, and I am keen to go now that I know the basics and how much meat I can go and get for myself, without having to rely on the shameless American meat industry.

An Almost Porkless Jaunt in the Mancave

2009-05-02T11:07:00.029-04:00

Sometimes for some reason or another people will depart from what is traditionally expected from them. This can be a good thing as it invariably requires further exploration of other things out there in this world. And certainly this was the case when Teddy decided a couple Thursdays ago to break away from his piggy parts and other odd bits in favor of what he referred to as lighter fare and even a little molecular gastronomy, as evident by wonderful elixir of Cava and orange zest froth.

Teddy's jaunt into what he thought to be lighter fare was not. I will say that Teddy is incapable of making tasteless food. So, I think he does define light a little different than the rest of us, or at least me. Having nothing to do with the infusion of butter and fat into sauce and flesh, Teddy seems to refer to "light" food as foods better paired with Cava, rose and white wines instead of copious amounts of red. And to do this, Teddy focused his attention on the cuisine from a country he loves very much indeed: the culinary influences from Spain.

To start off, Teddy wanted to introduce our palates to some tapas. So he provided a nice variety of olives as well as Pintxos 'Gilda', classic skewers of select olives, Guindilla peppers and anchovies. He also provided a wonderful bonita on sweet tomato onion puree smothered on toast. I enjoyed this very much. But at this point, the conversation had somehow shifted to pork, and I may have single handedly (and in a very uncharacteristic manner I might add) insulted our guest of honor by injecting perhaps some odd theories on pork prohibition in Islam and Judaism, the basic concept being that perhaps god didn't actually whisper in the ears of the script writers to stop eating the flesh of animals who "cheweth not their cud." Ultimately, the resulting response concerned me. Given the scare about swine flu these days, were the fragile thinkers of our time going to do everything they could to ensure that pork was going to make its way off the menu? Could it be that Teddy could some day decide to stray away from swine because his delicate mind had been sabotaged and he was now of the opinion that pigs are the root of all evil? After all, he is on this "health kick" and eating less meat. Perhaps our friend had unwarranted concerns about the H1N1 influenza, which got me wondering as to whether our wonderful wild boar prosciutto curing in the back corner of the room was at risk of getting incinerated. So, I can say that I felt much more at ease when I noticed that Teddy had not forgotten his brethren and did include a wonderful tapa of toast bits with chorizo on a white bean puree. I ate our guest's portion happily.

Teddy also provided a very important dish of Quail egg-stuffed artichokes, which was rich and creamy and allowed for the diner to get to the heart of what is important in the artichoke. The picture below does no justice to explain how delicious these were:-

But, one of my favorite courses involved fish on top of a puree of peas, with braised lettuce (avec orange zest) and bread perfectly fried in EVOO. An acknowledgement of his British heritage, Teddy can do wonderful things with peas. For me, peas have typically been an afterthought; a side dish or perhaps one ingredient in a soup or a stew. Never have I thought to puree this vegetable with butter and cream, but Teddy had. And that sweet, nutty butter of peas became the foundation of a perfect seared fillet of cod. This was served with a sauce of capers, parsley and lemon, or 'Grenobloise' as Teddy explained.

Our final meal prior to dessert was roast chicken with a decadent sauce of almond and sherry (with perhaps some garlic, cream and olive oil, I believe), together with courgettes rehydrated with sherry, raisins, pine nuts and thinly sliced orange peel. I know that Teddy's preferences lay towards the darker birds, and my chicken leg was perfectly roasted and held that classic browned crisp skin you'd come to expect of any chick cooking in Teddy's oven. As for the aubergines, these were thoroughly enjoyed and devoured by all.

As a final compliment to our taste buds, Teddy served a very simple dessert of clementines in a shallow syrup of mandarin juice, or perhaps it was 'Moscatel soup', as he stated, topped with yoghurt, slivers of lemon peel and crumbled De Leche cookies. I was told, that he had tried his hand at producing mystical spheres of the wonderful yoghurt topping, but was not able to coax the solution into his desired product. Although he had a couple theories as to why things did not turn out, he needent have been concerned as to why this particular science experiment failed, for the magic was evidently there to allow for this exquisite meal.

Jamaican Me Crazy!

2009-04-27T15:24:00.002-04:00

The crew went to Porky Pete's house last week for a night of Jamaican food. Coming from Jamaican lineage, I was eager to see what our boy could do. I was not disappointed, Bob Marley himself would have been proud!

Jamaican Beef Patties:
There's a severe lack of good patties here in NYC (well in Manhattan anyway, I'm too lazy to go to the outer boroughs), I stock up on them every time I go to Florida & store them in the freezer (not quite the best), so I was excited to having some homemade patties. They were spicy, but not enough to kill you & the crust was really delicious.

Conch Fritters:
Now you're talking, I was really looking forward to this dish as I absolutely love conch. Pete fried these perfectly & the batter was great. They were very delicate and the conch was tender & flavorful. Most importantly of all, they weren't greasy at all.

Fiery Jamaican Jerk Chicken:
I'm such a wuss when it comes to hot food, but these were not bad at all. The jerk seasoning was delicious. I was hoping to bring some Dragon Stout which would have gone great with the entire meal, but Red Stripe served us fine.

Curried Goat & Rice and Peas:
Hell yeah. This is the one dish that totally sums up Jamaica (in my mind). The goat was beautifully colored, fragrant, slightly spicy & above all, fucking delish! Just the smell of the curry is enough to get me salivating (Pavlov's Dogs style!)

Saturated Rum Cake:
oh Lordy! There was so much rum in this dish that I couldn't taste the cake! I took a few bites & was well & truly wasted!

Guiness, revisited

2009-04-19T16:59:00.003-04:00

I had a chance to try the 250th Anniversary Guiness Stout a few weeks before it is officially released. I'm not a big fan of Guiness, but I'll admit that I really enjoyed this stout. It's more carbonated & about .8% higher alcohol content than the normal brew. Look for it on April 24th!

Food Inc.

2009-04-19T15:12:00.003-04:00

Apple.com has the exclusive trailer for Food Inc. a documentary about the food industry coming out this summer. If you've read Fast Food Nation, Omnivore's Dilemma, etc. you might want to check this out.

Paradiso (105 Avenue B btwn 6th & 7th)

2009-04-05T01:26:00.014-04:00

You can imagine my excitement when I found out that a new daytime eatery/coffee shop/bakery was opening up in the spot that used to be Bang-On (seriously, sunglasses & overpriced t-shirts? No thanks!) Since opening, Paradiso has become the new go to spot to get myself out of the house.

There are about ten different sandwiches there, either served on an Italian bread, or pressed in a ciabatta from Balthazar Bakery. I've only tried the asiago & prosciutto one, but I've heard great things about the rest of the offerings.

They also have different flavored shakes of which I've had the strawberry & the chocolate. Both good. The coffee is nice & strong & I think is a much better value for money here than at 9th St. Espresso or other coffee shops in the area.

There's free Wi-Fi (although not that many seats, but I've never seen the place fully packed) & the owner is super nice. So if you want some baked goods (cookies, muffins, croissants, etc), good coffee & excellent sandwiches, check out Paradiso!

Other goodies:

A close-up of my prosciutto & asiago sandwich:

Chicken Soup is for Suckers

2009-03-30T17:09:00.006-04:00

So last week, I had been feeling a bit under the weather for a few weeks, when I swung by teddy's for our weekly. He knocked the damn cold out of me with a great spread, covering the veritable Seven Deadly Sins of food-ing.

Lust. What Teddy described as "Uncensored XXX Porcography." Or, direct from his & Houman's class at Brooklyn Farm, care of Flying Pigs Farm. Teddy served up Head and trotter braun,(cooked pig's head combined with trotters & jelly). Just decadent- rich and flavorful with a bit of salty and smoky taste- a great start, for my favorite vice.

Sloth. The Braun was plated with braised and seared pork belly, which had a wonderful crisp texture over the supple lazy-assed belly. Piggy-laziness has never been so thoughtfully combined.

Avarice. The starting plate was completed with a family recipe from Houman's family,
called apfel griebenschmalz ( I apologize to all if I have mis-spelled), which was a rich and tangy combination of apples and onions, caramilized mercilessly in pork fat. I am jealous of Houman, if this is the way he grew up eating. Teddy finished the plate with a mustard sauce, and baked Granny Smith apples.

Greed. I damn near ate all of poor Boogie's Fish Soup, served with Lobster Souffle Cakes. The poor guy could not look away from his plate for a moment- for a big guy, my hands are lightning fast. The soup had a smooth texture, and was unlike other Seafood soups/stews I have had- it presented a more pronounced blended fish taste, but did so subtly, if that makes an sense at all. Teddy said it was a "classic English Fish Soup." Anyhow, I couldn't cram enough of the lobster cakes into my craw: they were a great rich flavorful counterpoint to the soup. Poor Boogie never stood a chance.

Pride. I have never gotten along very well with peas- as a kid, I would find clever ways of either hiding them or sneaking them on to my sister's plate. I wish Teddy was around back then to drop his Gratin of Pistacios, Peas, and Tarragon. That dish, with tang of the nut, and smoothness of the dairy, really brought out the sweetness of the peas. If only Teddy was around back then, I wouldn't have had to grow up so damn clever.

Wrath. Nothing makes one feel like a muthafucking hunter like a well cooked Shank of Lamb. Teddy prepared this poor bastard really beautifully- the meat gave way to every bite, but was still stable enough to serve as one unit. The lamb was prepared with honey, salt and black pepper, and was simply gorgeous. J. Boogie's was good, too.

and finally

Gluttony. It's not enough that I'm a large person--each Thursday Club, the limits are pushed in terms of how much good food can be shoved in my anything-but-delicate frame. Teddy closed the deal with a Turkish Coffee Delight- Cardomam & Coffee Flavored Cake, topped with Turkish Coffee Ice Cream, and Fresh Mango Compote. Ah well, a diet shot to hell again. But the good news, is my Spring cold is gone for good. Like I always say, Chicken Soup is for Suckers.

Casa Adela (66 Avenue C)

2009-03-26T00:43:00.007-04:00

There are fewer places in my neighborhood that I enjoy eating at more than Casa Adela. It's open for lunch, has a laid back attitude & consistently serves up excellent Puerto Rican food. Entering the place there are 3 things that you will immediately notice; Delicious chicken dancing in a rotisserie, Latino TV on a small set in the back & owner Adela Fargas with her army of family members & employees working away endlessly among the diners.

I normally order the half a chicken with yellow rice & black beans, but as of late I've been trying other dishes. I recently had the bacalou (dried cod cooked with veggies in a tomato sauce), the roast pork & the chicken stew. All good dishes, but the chicken is still my favorite. It has a deep red, flavorful skin (I'd really like to know how they spice this dish) & succulent, moist flesh. I've tried to replicate it at home & just cannot get anywhere as close.

The cafe con leche there is also really good, as well as the flan which is made using cream cheese & has a very unique flavor. The average meal will run you about 10 bucks or so, but trust me when I say that you'll leave more than satisfied!

This is PORK

2009-03-25T18:00:00.003-04:00

Lucky buggers being we, Houman & I managed to bag a visit to Brooklyn Kitchen when Tom Mylan was demonstrating how to butcher a pig. (This is all part of our education in advance of the boar hunt. We will need to know how to deal with Tusker once we've taken the crazy bastard down.)

Passionate about pork as he is, Mylan first starts off by lecturing us on the beauty of properly raised pork, and warns us to stay away from pappy pink putrid stinking supermarket 'pork'. This stuff is 'grown' in giant pork cities. Apparently, 90% of the pork in the US comes from just 6 pork mega-cities. Just think about it. Millions of animals penned in tightly, each highly susceptible to disease and each chewing his neighbours ears and tail off because they're all losing it in a big way. I'd fucking lose it if I was sewn into a shit-caked concrete paddock with no sunshine and fed a diet of pish studded with questionable pharmaceuticals and hormones to make me meaty real quick.

But the pig we're looking at has had a happy life. Free to roam the fields on the farm, eating declicious apples and vegetables and other good stuff, free to shag the female pigs, free to fight with his neighbours. His immune system is strong. He has a fabulous layer of fat. He is covered in thick brown hair. His meat looks dry and well aged. It has a colour not unlike beef. It is not 'wet' and hued in electric pink like the flesh of his unfortunate cousins.

Mylan strips this beast into primal cuts, shows us the loin, (probably the least tasty cut of all, and confusingly the cut favoured by most Americans) the shoulders, the picnics, the hams, he breaks down the primals into the retail cuts. We all get to select some good stuff. Houman and I scheme to get the leaf lard, the head, the trotters, a couple of wicked chops, some belly, and we are wholly successful. We have about 15 pounds of pork between us. We go straight to the boozer to celebrate.I am anxious to eat my piggy. I set about the chops, scoring the skin, rendering some of the fat, getting a nice colour on the meat, in the oven, out the oven, rest, rest, rest. I slice open the double chop I have. It's fucking glorious. What meat, what flavour, the skin is divine, lubricated with some of the tastiest pig fat ever. I roast some apples and braise some cabbage with mustard and bacon (of course) and open a bottle of plonk. I am in heaven.

Ive been a very busy boy recently........

2009-03-23T21:01:00.010-04:00

...and I've not been paying much attention to my blogging duties.

I have experienced some wonderful food recently, I have made some decent dishes, I have seen strange things, and I have been quite literally sucking the marrow out of life. (Or veal, in my case.)

So where to start? Christ, I don't know.

I visited a buddy in Florida who has oranges growing in his back garden. His fucking back garden. He also has an ace car, and lots of restaurants near him where we ate some incredible food.I taught him how to cook fish with Thai style mussels with crispy skin.I discovered braised pistachios.I've been meeting really fit birds who know a lot about food.I've been hanging out with too many lawyers.I've discovered it's OK to like burgers if they're done well. By that, I mean, with skill. I invented a UK version of the hot dog - The Ox Dog, made with oxtail, horseradish and other really British ingredients.I've been deep-frying cow's stomach again.Pete and I made about 40 feet of black pudding and we were lucky NYPD didn't come round on the off chance in the middle of it. We'd have been knicked straight away, just for being fucking weird.I did a modern take on Fergus Henderson's blood cake and eggs.I've been drinking rather a lot of wine. I also made some homebrew (not quite ready yet.)I've been demystifying Indian spices and using them more and more in my European recipes.I made the richest chocolate tart in the World, ever.

I've been eating Guinea Pig.
This little sod nearly had me pint.
Pete and I made a pork, sweetbread and rabbit liver terrine, and what a glory it was.

I've been butchering pigs.I've made some big pork pies.
And a wicked corned beef for Paddy's Day.
I cleaned out my basement and converted it into a Man-Cave for boozing and fine dining.I got the best present ever from Grant.

Butcher Bay (511 E. 5th St.)

2009-03-18T21:00:00.015-04:00

I've been doing a lot of substandard home cooking & eating out at my usual haunts recently, so I was very excited to check out Butcher Bay on 5th Street between Avenues A & B with my Dad & buddy Dan. Located in the space that used to be Seymour Burton, they aim to be a local Fish Shack.

We arrived shortly after opening & got decent seats. They are cash only (as per the huge sign in the door) & have no draft beers (seriously!?!). The decor is pretty nice though, I'll give them that. We ordered some bottled (bleh) beer & decided to start with the oyster platter while we looked through the menu.

I was somewhat disappointed in the fact that they only had East Coast Oysters, but in the grand scheme of things, I guess that is the 'look' they're going for. I'm much more of a West Coast guy myself, so I found these to be really without merit. Plus the shells were very flaky (bad shucking?) & I kept on getting bits in my mouth.

We moved on to 2 apps we ordered to share; the absolutely delicious Fried Clam Strips & Remoulade and then the hideously greasy Shrimp Hush Puppies that tasted like cardboard.

As you can imagine, this was not the start that I wanted for this meal.

The main courses were as follows:

Dan got the Scallop Pan Roast which he enjoyed. I tried some as well & I'll admit that I actually enjoyed this dish, pretty darn good.

Fish & Chips were ordered by my Dad. All 3 of us have spent a lot of time in England during our lives & we can tell bad F&C from good. I thought this was a decent attempt. Not quite what I'd expect from the UK, but good nonetheless.

I got the Maryland Fried Chicken w/Cornbread. I know what you're thinking... At a seafood joint? I only did this because the choices of mains were so damn limited & this was the only one that caught my eye. The chicken was seasoned well, but slightly greasy. The cornbread with honey, however was great.

There were no desserts on the menu, so we trudged off, dejected. I'm really disappointed by Butcher's Bay & if I ever go back, it'll only be for the scallops - In & Out quick-style.

Finger Lickin' Brilliance from Dazzling Darryl

2009-03-13T20:19:00.009-04:00

There are many reasons why it's great to be unemployed. Staying in bed 'til 1pm, a distinct lack of business targets and all the time in the World to make pies and beer are just a few. There are however, a couple of tricky aspects. One is that aloof sense of financial doom and worthlessness, and another is that it's dangerously possible to drink wine and/or a martini for breakfast when your boss nor your missus is not there to piss on your chips and put an end to the fun. While a couple of high profile projects (the generation of spectacular homebrew, building a bar downstairs) have kept me busy and out of the liquor cabinet for a few hours, there are moments when only booze will slake this bloke's rampant thirst. Especially first thing in the morning....I mean, it's after 1pm...

Last Thursday was a boozy day from start to finish, and Darryl's turn on the pots and pans for the group. Thank Goodness he fancied a truly gargantuan southern feast, because when I arrived at his place (late, half in the bag, reeking of ale) I was hungry like the wolf. (Cue Duran Duran.)The big man thrust a glass of champagne in my hand upon arrival and I popped my wine in his fridge and sat and fidgeted until feeding time. I desperately needed something absorbent, something with a different nutritional profile than a cocktail. My prayers were answered when he dragged a huge dish loaded with pasta into the dining room. What a sight for pissed eyes! Perfectly cooked macaroni freckled with bacon in a lava-like cheese sauce, lovingly adorned with sweet chunks of roasted butternut squash. Silky, sweet, toothsome, so memorable, so easy. So this is soul food? Because it satisfies the soul, yes? It satisfied mine for sure. I was careful not to carbo-load on the first course.I could detect the faint whiff of frying oil in the air. Darryl knows his way around spice-crusted chicken and a wire basket. He loaded up his Fry Daddy with his own recipe (he keeps it in a locked deposit box at the bank, just like the Colonel) and the oil began to bubble. The result was the most succulent and delicious fried chicken I've ever had. Soft moist and yielding meat juxtaposed a serious crunch and delicate, sweet heat from Mr Big's special coating. I could have eaten this shit all night, but out came waffles. The Americans immediately grabbed for the maple syrup. Some went crazy, covering everything on their plate with sugar, others just dribbled a bit on the waffles. I passed. What is it about this country and its need to put sugar in or on everything? I guess I will never understand. In England it's a bit of a joke. I covered my own waffles with fried chicken and a mound of collard greens laced with bacon and a fabulous edamame succotash. How could it possibly be more delicious? Who the frick needs sweetener, especially when everybody knew the next course would be perhaps the most calorific dessert ever?While the conversation skittered around the Middle East question, accidents involving cooking pots and throats, nails in skulls and other bizarre topics, Big D presented his final masterpiece - A classic bread pudding mined with raisins and a vat of vanilla bourbon pouring sauce. I thought I was stuffed until I started eating dessert. Somehow, my stomach instantly doubled in size and I was able to put away, like, three portions! Everybody called me a fat bastard, but I didn't care. I told myself to just keep eating, you may never have anything this good and boozy for dessert ever again...

A fitting end to a boozy beginning.

Dinner for 4, Food for 14

2009-02-18T20:00:00.010-05:00

When I saw all of the food arranged on Boogie's counter top, stacked in the fridge, and bubbling away on the stove, I couldn't help but think of the night's guest list. Me...check, Teddy...check, Boogie...check, his roommate Benji...check. Who the f*ck is going to eat all of this food then? I actually took a small spin around the apartment to make sure people weren't hiding behind furniture waiting to spring out for a surprise party/intervention of some sort. Nobody popped out of the shadows though. Well then, time to ditch the belt, do some precautionary stretches and get down to business.

Italian Sausage Soup

‘Packets of Mackerel’ in a Red Pepper & Caper Sauce

Fettuccine w/Rabbit Ragu

Stuffed Veal Breast w/ Baked Cheese Polenta

Zuppa Inglese (Italian Trifle)

The starter (it can only be referred to as that because it happened to come first) was sort of a play on an Italian Wedding Soup. Every bowl was filled to the brim with a rich, and herbaceous tomato broth and just a few handfuls of sweet and hot sausage links.

It had just the right amount of spice and was topped with a dusting of parmesan for an extra savory kick. An excellent soup (you can find the recipe below on this blog); it took a great deal of restraint not to overload on this first course because of the amount of grub to follow....so I only had 2 small bowls.

Next, I saw 6 whole fish rolled up in a pinwheel fashion and crammed into a sautee pan with herb butter, white wine and clam juice. The mackerel started with a quick sautee and ended with a lengthy bath in all the juices. They drank up all the liquid and stayed super juicey with every turn of the fork. The sauce underneath added a great punchy pepper flavor and a briny kick that could only come from the mighty caper.

Again, the portions were healthy, but the impromptu eating competition rolled on.

The pasta course was exactly what a ragu should be. Chunky, slow cooked meat (rabbit in this case) with a reduced sauce. The thick steamers of fettuccine were dyed orange from the oil of the sauce like a load of laundry whites tossed in with a lone red sock.

All of our forks twisted on to the delight of our chef....not only had we made it to the 3rd course, but clean plates to boot? The food was that good.

Damn. Spoke too soon. We should have kept on cramming in food. Instead, we took a break to chat and we lost valuable momentum. The veal breasts were immense in size and stuffed with a breadcrumb, parmesan, and caper mixture. The outside was cooked picture perfect with a nice thick crispy skin followed by moist flesh.

A beautiful pan gravy was concocted by combining the pan drippings, shallots and veal stock with another separate sauce with mushrooms. One problem though.....we didn't have much room left to fit in this monster. By the time the enormous slabs were plated next to a slice of polenta and covered in the velvety sauce, we could do little but laugh (between deep breathing and shallow belches).

We tried our very best though, and it was damn tasty. I'm envious of the leftovers that Boogie enjoyed for the next few days though. A grand sandwich indeed.....

Just a touch of something sweet to finish off of the night. Sweet? Yes. Boozy? Hells yes. The Italian Trifle contained enough alcohol to kill off any Italian and the raisins on top could double as a successful party snack if the party's theme was competitive drinking. That being said, the cake was sweet, dense and the cream throughout was delicious.

Needless to say, we ended up forgoing our usual post-meal drink and slothed all the way back to Brooklyn. Bravo Boogie, a meal fit for a king....and his wife, kids, and half the damn kingdom.

Delicious Links

2009-02-18T03:00:00.001-05:00

1) Upper Playground shows us how to prepare a Pig's Head 3 ways.
2) Dissecting the mysterious Col-Pop.
3) Self Explanatory.

Have a good link? Post a comment & maybe it'll make it to the next installment!

Recipe: Italian Sausage Soup

2009-02-07T15:50:00.008-05:00

Ingredients:
1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed if present.
1 large chopped onion
3 medium carrots (shopped)
2 stalks celery (chopped)
8 cups chicken broth
1 14 oz can tomatoes diced
1 8 oz tomato sauce
3 cloves minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Fresh rosemary
Fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup orzo pasta
Finely shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:

In a 4 qt. Dutch oven, cook the sausage, onion, carrot, garlic and celery over medium heat until the sausage is no longer pink. Drain well to remove fat.

Add chicken broth, tomatoes (w/liquid) ,tomato sauce, oregano, rosemary,basil, thyme, fennel seeds, bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.

Add pasta and return to boiling. Reduce heat and cook uncovered for 30 minutes.

Remove and discard bay leaf.

Serve with shredded Parmesan cheese.

Serves: 6

Smoked Salmon Rillettes

2009-02-04T10:07:00.012-05:00

A nice little recipe for entertaining friends....or entertain yourself into a nice little food coma. You will need:

8 oz. Fresh Salmon
3 cups Water
8 oz. Smoked Salmon
4 Chopped Shallots
3 tbsp. Dijon Mustard
2 tbsp. Vodka
2 tbsp Lemon Zest
3 tbsp. Lemon Juice (fresh is preferred)
4 tbsp. Cubed Unsalted Butter (room temp)
1/3 cup Chopped Parsley
Ground Black Pepper to Taste

Bring the water to a boil in a pan, lower to a simmer and add fresh salmon. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through.

Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, add the other ingredients and mix. Don't worry too much about uniformity of the pieces of smoked salmon, butter and shallots because all of this going to be blended.

Once the cooked salmon is cooled, flake into pieces and add to the bowl. Toss all of this into the food processor and pulse until blended. Try not to over blend, as you'll want a bit of texture. Too smooth and you will have yourself a salmon mousse....which wouldn't be terrible, but it's not what we set out for. Make certain the butter is fully incorporated, as you don't want huge chunks of butter in some bites. When finished, taste to make sure everything is balanced, cover and refrigerate. Let it set for at least 3-4 hours before serving, but it would be fine to make the day before.

Serve with dark bread (pumpernickel or the like) and enjoy!

Fat Hippo (71 Clinton Street @ Rivington)

2009-02-02T14:50:00.014-05:00

I went to my friend's new restaurant, Fat Hippo, last Thursday for a tasting night. They're not officially open yet, but wanted to get feedback from friends & family. The decor although unfinished (according to the architect), looks great. With exposed brick, vaulted ceilings & some awesome I-beams. Again, they weren't quite ready to open, so the only choice of booze was wine or beer, but we were assured that they'd have a full bar. 4 of us sat down & decided to order everything off the menu & just share, so we could all taste everything & give our opinions.

1) 'Trailer Park' Chicken Sampler

I never met a piece of chicken I didn't like, so I was excited by this dish. The fried chicken was good, but the star was the beer can chicken breast. It was insanely tender & did not last very long. There were 2 sides: collard greens which I really liked & corn bread which was a little on the dry side. The chef has been tinkering with the recipe, so I'm sure it'll be perfect when they open.

2) Chili & Chocolate Glazed Spare Ribs (foreground)
Pan Fried Mozzarella Balls (background)

I was somewhat skeptical about the ribs, but I was glad to be proved wrong. spicy & sweet, they literally fell off of the bone. Pickled watermelon (an interesting flavor) & radish slaw accompanied. We all loved this dish. The mozzarella balls with arugula & herb roasted tomatoes were also tasty.

3) Grapefruit & Feta Salad

I was really surprised how well the tartness of the grapefruit went with the salad, this dish was a hit with all of us. It featured olives, spiced pecans & a honey vinaigrette.

4) Hot & Sour Sauteed Calamari

Call me a wuss (everyone does), but I found this dish to be way too hot. Everyone else seemed to be able to manage the heat, but I was guzzling down water & beer like it was going out of style. The calamari was cooked well (no Bridgestone tire here), but my tongue was on fire.

5) Maryland Crab Cakes

Yowza! This was amazing! Served with corn succotash, roasted garlic caper sauce & a side of Mac 'n Cheese (background), I was a very happy man. The crab cake was really good, & the Mac was some of the best that I've ever had in my life. Bravo!

6) Grilled Marinated Pork Chop

I had to do a double take as this monstrous piece of pork arrived at the table, it looked like something out of the Flintstones! How any one person could finish that is beyond me. The 4 of us struggled & couldn't even do it. Served with pulled pork stuffing, bacon (yes, more pork), brussel sprouts & a maple-jalapeno mustard sauce, it was incredibly tender.

7) Steak & Eggs

I'll admit that there was nothing really special about this dish. A grilled hangar steak with green tomato gratin & egg toast. I liked the presentation of the egg, but I thought the meat was slightly overcooked & could have used more sauce.

8) Free Range Turkey Meatloaf

By this time my stomach was waving the white flag, so I didn't try too much of this dish. It was served with mash, green beans & a house made tamarind ketchup. I did enjoy what I tried though.

Not pictured were the Shrimp Ceviche & the French Fries. I have nothing much to say about the ceviche as it really was like any other. The fries were not that crispy, but they were having trouble with the deep fryer.

After this insane meal, all 4 of us has a serious case of food coma & were all sitting there happy, yet sleepy. I enjoyed pretty much every dish here, which is a real rarity. The standouts were the crab cake & the ribs. The prices (if they don't change before opening) were insanely cheap given the portion size & the quality of the food which was all organic.

Please bear in mind that this was a pre-opening meal & they were working out the kinks in the kitchen. Also several dishes were unavailable. Any gripes that I had will be sorted out before opening.

Fishtail (135 E. 62nd St btwn Park & Lex)

2009-02-01T18:22:00.004-05:00

I had a chance to have a restaurant week lunch with my mother at David Burke's restaurant, Fishtail. He'd split with his partner, Donatella Arpaia, last August & rebranded their popular eatery as David Burke Townhouse. Fishtail is his newest offering to the UES dining scene. I was a bit late, so by the time I arrived my Mom was already perched on the long bar on the first floor drinking some Campari. We were whisked upstairs to our table. The decor is really nice & the place gives the impression of an old townhouse (which it most likely was), very inviting.

I started with the deep fried oysters & calamari which was accompanied by a spicy yet sweet dipping sauce. I though that they were good, particularly the tentacles (which are my favorite). My only real complaint was that they were slightly on the greasy side & served in a small faux-deep fryer basket which I thought was a tad over the top.

Mom got the tacos, one of which was crab & the other was tuna tartare. She seemed to enjoy the dish.

Next up for me was the roasted chicken with roasted veg & a red wine reduction. I really, really enjoyed this dish. The seasoning was perfect & the skin was delicious. The sauce was also really flavorful.

Mom had the grilled swordfish steak with fries. I had a chance to try this dish & I thought it was pretty good, but it could have used more sauce. For a seafood restaurant, this dish really didn't blow me away, but for $24.07 for 3 courses, I really wasn't going to complain.

Next up come the desserts (unfortunately both of these pictures came out too blurry to post). I had the pineapple tart, which was good, but nothing extraordinary. I thought that they did a great job on the crust though. The other dessert that we ordered was the chocolate mousse which I think is probably the best mousse I've ever had.

In all, I had a good time & enjoyed the food & attentive service, but I'd like to go back & sample the full menu. One thing that I did notice was that there were a whole lot of waitstaff, which meant good service, but it did make traffic a bit congested around your table.

Kion Lounge (509 E. 6th St. btwn. A & B)

2009-01-29T17:33:00.012-05:00

I generally consider 6th street between A & B the East Village's version of Club Row. All of the bars & restaurants seem out of place (except Buenos Aires & Joe's). I was a bit skeptical when a friend suggested that we go to Kion Lounge which serves Peruvian & Japanese Cuisine. I was actually pleasantly surprised that the food was good & that it wasn't full of douchebags.

We decided to eat at the bar & started with soups. Jhonny & I got the Miso soup & my other buddy opted for Pork Ramen. The Miso was pretty much standard fare, but the Ramen was very well received. I guess I'll have to try that if I go back there.

I was really in the mood for Sushi, so I ordered from the Japanese portion of the Menu.

Eel, Cucumber & Avocado Roll. Tempura Shrimp & Avocado Roll w/Tobiko. Both were very good & suprisingly fresh.

California Roll. Rainbow Roll. Jhonny ordered this, so I can't comment on it's taste. I'm not such a big fan of California Rolls though...

Deep ordered the Lamb Shank which I tasted & thought it was very good. Served simply with veggies, a salad & mash.

I enjoyed the food, but Kion is really not my first choice for sushi in the East Village. It's more of a club/lounge than a restaurant & I can imagine it being packed to the gills on Fridays & Saturdays. If you're in the 'hood, give it a try though.

La Bottega (363 W. 16th St @ Maritime Hotel)

2009-01-29T16:42:00.012-05:00

I generally refuse to leave the East Village, but last Saturday Dan & I put on ties & ate at La Bottega on the west side. It wasn't busy at all, so we got a seat immediately. We ordered a bottle of Nebbiolo from their amazing wine selection along with the meat & cheese plates which we shared.

I really enjoyed the meats, in particular the prosciutto & the speck. There were some interesting cheeses as well, I liked them all, except for a ricotta that they had which was very dense (it must have been pressed) & unlike anything I've ever had before. With every bite, all I could think of was 'chalk'. The plate came with grapes & an amazing honey.

Dan ordered the Pork Chop w/ Roasted Veg & I got the special, a Pork Jowl Bucatini. I liked my dish, but Dan's pork chop was sublime. it was the juiciest, most tender piece of pork that I've ever had (& I've had a lot of pork in my time). I really cannot describe how good that dish was.

We had polished off our bottle of Nebbiolo pretty quickly, so we moved on to a delicious Rose Prosecco. By now it was dessert time, so we ordered the bread pudding which was served with ice cream & marzipan (which I haven't had in ages). A great end to the meal.

La Bottega is a bit out of the way for me (as I mentioned before), so I won't be going regularly, but I really enjoyed my meal & I highly reccommend the pork chop.

Peasant (194 Elizabeth St @ Spring St.)

2009-01-29T16:09:00.006-05:00

I had a chance to eat at Peasant recently, it was a spur of the moment thing & I didn't have my camera, but I'll attempt to describe the meal as best I can. It was a Friday night & the original reservation was at 10pm for 2, but as the night wore on, more & more of us decided to tag along. In the end there were 6 of us. When we arrived, or table wasn't ready, so we ended up sitting by the bar & drinking wine till just after 11.

We shared 3 starters; Mozzarella Di Bufala, Bocconcini & the special of the night, Rabbit Livers. The cheese was really fresh & creamy, but the showstopper were the livers, truly amazing. I've never had rabbit liver before, but trust me when I say that I'll be ordering them whenever I see them on a menu.

I ordered the Stuffed Quail w/Polenta which was really, really good. The Lasagne Con Capretto was also very popular with the diners. Despite the long wait to be seated (not their fault really), the entire meal was very satisfying. The food was excellent, the service was out of this world & the decor of Peasant is awesome, particulartly the kitchen. It's a bit on the pricey side, but I think that it's worth it... Go there if you like rustic Italian food & good wine.

Pete takes us to China.

2009-01-23T16:03:00.021-05:00

The Club braved the cold yesterday & headed over to Pete's house for the first meal of 2009. We had all seen the menu the day before & I was really excited as Chinese cuisine is not something I typically try at home (aside from the occasional dodgy fried rice). Upon arrival we were greeted with prawn crackers & a delicious Thai-inspired peanut & cilantro dipping sauce.

1) Maine Shrimp served 3 ways.

Pete decided to throw in an extra course, so while we were munching on crackers & downing beers, he was busy peeling shrimp & plating. Soon enough, we were at the table & getting ready to eat. The raw shrimp was insanely creamy, with an amazing texture & sweet taste.

The first one was topped simply with lime juice & zest. Simple yet very effective. Next was something that I've never seen or heard of before; Pork Sung. According to the geniuses at Wikipedia, it's basically shredded & dried pork. it was like pork cotton candy & tasted awesome with the shrimp. Finally, a tiny fried anchovy with a spicy (really spicy) hot sauce. Call me a wuss, but I downed my beer after this one - really good though! An excellent start to the night!

2) Golden Purse Pork Dumplings & Vegetarian Roast Duck Rolls.

The pork dumplings were probably the best I've ever had. Crispy on the outside & the pork inside was amazing. I'll admit that I was a bit skeptical when I saw 'veggie roast duck' on the menu, but again, Pete served up an ingredient that I'd never heard of; Seitan. 'Wheat gluten commonly used as a meat substitute', ah, it all makes sense (& tastes great). Along with our 'duck' in the rolls were shrimp and vegetables. This dish came with 2 dipping sauces, the peanut/cilantro one & basil/chili sauce; both delicious.

3) Vietnamese Spare Ribs.

More pork, YES! I never met a part of a pig that I didn't like, but these ribs were insanely good. Tender, well seasoned & awesome with a delicious, light dipping sauce. I needed to take some time to reposition my expanded belly after this course, so we took a little break while Pete worked on the final course.

4) Gen. Tso's Chicken, Yangzhou Fried Rice & Pea Shoots.

Pete whipped out the biggest wok that I've ever seen outside of a Chinese restaurant & taunted his stove top to get hot enough so he could properly cook all 3 dishes (more on that later). Normally, I'd just talk about the flavors of the dish, but I have to mention the entire cooking process as well as Pete's skill with a wok was a sight to behold.

The chicken had been seasoned & deep fried earlier (while we were eating our prawn crackers), so all they needed was a light stir fry & sauce. Pete added ginger & garlic to peanut oil, then the chicken was stir fried, followed by hoisin sauce, dark soy, sugar & other ingredients. This gave them a far darker color & a less syrupy sauce than I'm normally used to when ordering from restaurants. It wasn't as sweet either & in my opinion, tasted far better.

Again, the pea shoots were stir fried in the wok with garlic & ginger. A bit of oyster sauce was added mid stir fry & the shoots gave off a lot of liquid, making a delicious sauce. They had a slightly bitter aftertaste which I liked. Teddy was ecstatic though & couldn't stop eating them. Great stuff!

Finally, onto my personal favorite of this course, the Yangzhou (or Young Chow) fried rice. Pete had done all of his prep, so he had all of the ingredients ready to go; garlic, ginger, Chinese sausage, Berkshire pork, chicken, shrimp, peas, onions, cabbage & cold (very important) rice.

By this time, it was really hard to get the wok hot enough, so Pete decided to move outdoors & power up his jet engine of a turkey fryer. Needless to say, the rice stir fried quite nicely! Basically, I couldn't get enough of this stuff. I'd have eating the entire platter if given half a chance! There's no way to describe how good it was!

5) Honey Crisp Apple Tart Tatin with Creme Fraiche.

Totally not Chinese, but by this time I really couldn't care less. Pete could have served up his shoe & I would have been happy. Simple yet delicious, I really enjoyed the crust.

We decided to skip the coffee & go with something with a little more bite. As you can see, Teddy approves! This was a really memorable meal & a great way to start the 2009 culinary season, Bravo Pete! I'm up next week & I have no idea how to top this one, or if it's even possible. We'll have to wait & see!

Dram Shop (339 9th St.)

2009-01-22T10:34:00.004-05:00

There seems to be a lot of pickling going on on the blog... Teddy did carrots & other veggies, but I had a chance to 'pickle' my liver at Dram shop which is one of the few reasons that I leave my beloved island of Manhattan (other than cooking club).

I've been there several times just for drinks & general merriment, but this last time, I actually had some food. Ok, so they were only buffalo wings, but they were some of the best I've had in NY. I've also heard great things about Dram Shop's burger, so I'll have to try that next time.

There is a sizable selection of beers & the staff are friendly. Add shuffleboard (which I am quickly becoming addicted to), darts, board games & pool into the mix & you're sure to have a great time.

Chocolate Bar Closes!

2009-01-22T09:31:00.003-05:00

You may have (but probably didn't) read about my love for Chocolate Bar on 7th St. in the East Village. Well shortly after my post, the shutters came down & they were never open. I can report now that they've officially closed & are moving back to the West side. Boo!

Source: EV Grieve

Picking Pickled Peppers.....and Carrots.

2009-01-21T12:49:00.009-05:00

A bunch of carrots and jalapenos staring me in the face. They've been sitting in the fridge, waiting to be called up for a soup, braise or saute....what to do with them? I thought I'd try something different this time. Being a complete rookie to the pickling game, I had to find a simple recipe that utilized the meager contents of my pantry. Lazy, yet resourceful. After scouring the Internets, I was able to combine a few different recipes to fit my needs.

Here is what I did...

1 lbs. carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
3 large whole jalapenos, sliced down the side to allow the pickling liquid in
4 shallots, peeled, but kept whole
3 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed

All of the veg was tossed snugly into the bottom of a container. I used a 4 cup, unbreakable plastic jug with a lock-down lid ($10 at Williams-Sonoma).

The pickling liquid contained:

1 1/2 cup of water
1 1/2 cup vinegar (I used regular white vinegar, but cider or red wine could be used to add a different flavor)
1/4 cup of sugar
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp allspice seeds
4 tiny bay leaves (or 2 large)

All of these ingredients were brought to a boil in a medium saucepan and then simmered for 3 minutes. Pour the liquid over the veg and let cool. Snap down the lid and set aside.

I've read that they should be ready to eat in 3-4 days, but i'm going to let these puppies sit for much longer. Most likely 2-3 weeks before prying open the lid and snacking away.......if I can hold out that long.

Delicious Links

2009-01-09T14:44:00.005-05:00

1) The Lunch Belle wages war on our arteries (with bacon!)
2) Doggy Bloggy goes native (with pork!)
3) Grant & Kate meet Jaws (no swine!)
4) Brooklyn Kitchen makes a mockery of Charlotte's Web (Extra helpings of pig!)
5) Section oranges like a pro

Have a good link? Post a comment & maybe it'll make it to the next installment!

Fu Sushi (182 Avenue B)

2009-01-08T17:06:00.008-05:00

I was looking for a sushi spot to take my Mom to for her birthday & I came across Fu Sushi. F U Sushi? Is that like Up Yours Burger on Avenue A? Jokes aside, I later learned that the place is owned & run by a certain Mr. Fu, which explains the name.

They opened a few months ago in a space that was a crusty old clothing store & the decor is pretty simple, with plenty of cozy tables & the sushi bar & kitchen at the far end. We were offered tea & water as soon as we sat down as we looked through the menu.

We were having a conversation about how we both hated any sort of sushi with cream cheese on it & presto, the chef sent out an amuse bouche of tuna 'crunch' on a corn cracker with guess what: cream cheese! Oh, the irony. It was actually really good though.

We decided to order the Sushi & Sashimi combination for 1 as a starter while we looked for more stuff to order. It took quite a while to come out as it's obvious that the chef takes decoration very seriously & I'll admit that it looked like a piece of art (which we eventually defaced).

I still can't get over how much food there was. Both of us were stuffed after eating the plate (& we still had a few pieces left). The White Tuna was by far my favorite, but there was 2 pieces of clam sashimi (we had to ask what it was), that both of us really didn't like, just a matter of our own tastes.

Mom-Dukes got an order of Uni (Sea Urchin) as well, which was equally as attractive. I didn't try it, but she looked very pleased.

After we were done, they sent out a martini glass full of sectioned oranges which were deliciously sweet.

The food was excellent, the service was amazing (no teacup went unfilled!) & it was incredibly well priced. My only real gripe was the lack of booze. Community Board 3 turned down their liquor license as they're in a CB3 resolution area, a real bummer!

I certainly will be coming back here soon & I hope that the massive portions & the lack of booze doesn't lead to an early demise...

Putting up

2009-01-06T22:03:00.004-05:00

Everybody has to put up once in a while. I know I do. Try living with a Yale/Georgetown litigator. She's doing so well. I am not. And now, in the grimy (and sometimes joyous) throes of unemployment, I find myself with a lot of time on my filthy mitts. So, I find myself putting up again.

A lazy visit to my local supermarche revealed heaps of tomatoes, the sweet 100 kind, no doubt from Argentina and Colombia where the farmers have delicious sun-drenched all-year seasons while ours in the northern hemisphere wilt spectacularly. They are indeed lucky little plump red bastards, (the people and the tomatoes) dwelling in conditionales especial, as they do year-round between 30 and -30 degrees latitude.

I wanted to preserve those little kernels of sunshine and happiness (the tomatoes, not the people) and in the presence of an overwhelming glut of olive oil and jars, I set about dehydrating the little sods to augment their majestic flavour.

Take four 'punnets' of small, and I mean small, tomatoes, rinse thoroughly and set your oven to 200F. Spread em out on a baking tray covered with foil, lubricate with the olive oil of your choice, not too much, season with Maldon and black pepper, two half-heads of garlic face down on the pan so they dont' burn, and swidge all around on the tray. Scatter a few leaves of thyme, bake for one hour. Remove from the oven, sit in a warm place where they can release their useless H2o, for maybe 20 mins. Taste and revel in the the concentrated tomato flavour. Bung the results into jars, with the sweet garlic cloves squeezed from their fibrous and charred dwellings and tuck some twigs of thyme into the recesses. Top up with good olive oil.

I added a few cheeky slices of kumquat to embellish the acidity and citric sweetness. I closed the lids smugly, rewarded myself with a superb martini, stood back and admired the results. Like something you'd find in Dean &Deluca, no?

Let them chill to the max on a shelf of your choosing. Perhaps somewhere they might get noticed eh? Leave alone. For ages.

The temptation is to eat them too soon, but hold back brothers and sisters. Their taste (and the resulting oil) is far better if left alone for at least a month. Or two.

They are brilliant for garnishing braised meats to cut through the richness (OK short rib fans) or a nice piece of roasted halibut.

Splendido.

Remember Christmas Day? I don't.....

2009-01-04T22:20:00.006-05:00

After a late start, at 11am, I knew I had my work cut out. To be honest the first three hours are a blur. I peeled carrots, made an agave and ginger glaze, I stuffed and roasted a goose, cooked off the game sausages I made, made a rich oh-so-rich cauli cheese, crisped up some bacon to go on top, chopped to scallions to top the cauli too, sliced and dressed parsnips, cleaned the house, washed my head, tapped the fat from the goose to make some uber-crispy roast potatoes, wrapped dates in bacon for cocktail-hour nibbles, creamed some spud for the venison and elk shepherds pie and then nipped down the road for a quick pint with my boss and sprinted back for 3.30pm to greet my hungry guests. Talk about full-on. I thought I might be able to chill for a few minutes, but the Cunninghams turned up super-puncutally, and the game was on, again. Good job they turned up clutching a bottle of bubbles and four bottles of delicious Burgundy, I was in need of some bubbles to maintain my stamina. I did have time to mix a promising martini, which I gulped down feverishly, and two by two the others guests began to show up. All brining enormous quantities of wine, beer and spirits. Fantastic.

After the gulped vodka and the glass of bubbles, my nerves were soothed and I was able to relax somewhat and think about my serving strategy. Mike had made a creamy apple and celeriac soup, which he would annoint with truffle oil, and all I had to do was cut some bread for toast. The devils on horseback were passed around (some lucky sods got two bites of the prune), the soup was served, and all the dishes were placed in a low oven to come up to serving temperature.

At around 8.30pm, some twit suggested 'creme anglaise martinis' (maybe that was me) and the rest of the evening is a bit hazy, but pictures speak a thousands of words. Don't they?

Max assumed his rightful position at the lappy to play computer games:

Guests start to feel the Burgundy:

And the vodka:

My Thursday Clubbers did me proud:

Beerman cracks a filthy joke:

The guest of honour, crisped to a tee and juicier than a direct hit on a Del Monte factory:

Cauli cheese, flanked by the game bangers:

It's all about the nippers on Christmas Day:

The missus considers drinking her new perfume:

JC has his own ideas about dessert:

The wife passes out at 9.30pm:

I think about cleaning up:

And I consider the path all this food is about to take:

The Game is On

2008-12-16T13:42:00.009-05:00

Venison had arrived recently from Buffalo, bloody and swaddled in medical packaging. Elk and oryx had been hunted in Montana, skillfully butchered and dispatched with haste to New York state. My freezer had swallowed up all feral meats gratefully.

Today, events conspired. It's my day off. I have all this game. I have a sixer of Montreal's finest St. Ambroise ale. It's snowing outside and the tree is up, lights a-twinkling. I'm in a seasonal mood. I want to make sausages. But I want to make something for the Christmas table. We have 13 people coming round. How can I turn 4lbs of stag and antelope into delicious sausages, replete with seasonal twist and oodles of cheer?

Piece of piss.

Soak about 1 metre of natural sausage casing in warm water to get rid of some of the salt it no doubt came in. Run some water through the lumen of the skin too, to wash the salt from the inside. Let it soak some more while you have a beer and get the rest of your gear together.

Take 1lb each of ground venison, oryx and fatty pork sausage meat and whack in into a big, cold bowl. Add: 1 tbsp kosher salt, a few twists of the pepper mill, 1 tsp red chilli flake, 3 loving spoonfuls of Tiptree finest mincemeat, 2 tbsp Chivers or Frank Cooper's orange marmalade, about a tsp dried thyme, 2 tbsp unsalted butter and mix like Billy-O with your hands, punching the meat and squeezing the mixture through tensed fingers. Get it all mixed in, go on. Get 'postal' on it. (If you're feeling really fruity, you can bang in a few drops of Drambuie, like I did.) Test the mixture for seasoning and fat content by frying a little bit in olive oil. If it's good and to Sir's liking, you can move on to stage 2.

Take care to make sure the mixture stays chilled (a cold mixture restricts bacterial growth) and even put the bowl in the freezer for a few to chill it again. If you do this, you'll time to pop open another cool beer and pat yourself on the back.

When the mixture is cold, set up your sausage apparatus. (I tend to keep the non electrical parts of the sausage machine in the fridge or freezer, to keep them cold. They won't warm the mixture when it's passed through into the skins.) Load up yer nozzle with the casing, push enough sausage to the front of the nozzle so you don't end up with an air banger, and switch her on. If you're careful and not too pissed, you'll end up with about 1 metre of delicious, inspired Christmas-flavoured sausage. It does help when using a sausage stuffer if you have a sober buddy with you who can do the plunging or the forming bit.

Let the buggers chill, wrapped in butcher paper, in the fridge for a day or two to let the flavours meld. I will leave mine in the fridge today and bang 'em in the freezer tomorrow. The eating will take place on Dec 25th, of course, and they will flank a delicious roasted goose.

Song 7.2 (117 2nd Avenue @ 7th St.)

2008-11-25T23:53:00.007-05:00

Every time I pass this place, it seems to be closed, so I was glad that it was open a few days ago. My buddy Dan & I sat at a booth & flicked through the menu. The decor is very 'Student Union'; it looks like the type of place college or highschool kids would go to meet up after school & gossip of whatever. There are photos of customers everywhere, graffiti on the tables & atrocious Korean pop music blaring.

The place was pretty empty & the staff were all sitting around a huge pot stuffing their faces while we looked at the menu. Honestly, I expected a lot more. The menu is mainly comprised of 'tapas-style' small dishes & large pots to be shared, none of which looked very appetizing. I decided on the fried meat dumplings & a small plate of eel. Dan got a seaweed salad & spicy mackerel.

Looking absolutely nothing like the items on the menu, our dishes arrived. My eel had some sort of funky, tracing-paper looking oddity on top of it & Dan's mackerel, well, um. I'll admit that the eel tasted very good, minus the 'paper', but I really didn't care for the dumplings. Dan was still really hungover from the night before, so after poking around a bit, he decided to take the food home.

The place is generally pretty busy at night, so maybe we were just expecting something different. The meal ended up being insanely expensive considering the portion sizes. I'm guessing that the thing to do would be to eat there in a large group & get those massive hot pots. I can check song 7.2 off of my list, but I won't be going back there.

Chocolate Bar (127 E. 7th St.)

2008-11-25T18:48:00.006-05:00

[Updated; now closed!]
Hidden among the boutiques & boarded up stores on 7th street between Ave. A & 1st Ave. is Chocolate Bar, essentially a candy store for grown-ups. I was walking down the street yesterday in the freezing cold & decided to stop in for a much needed hot chocolate.

As soon as you enter the small store, the delicious smell of chocolate hits you right in the face; Yum! I ordered my hot chocolate & looked at some of their wares.

Candies in awesome Anime-style & graffiti wrappers, cakes & other morsels of goodness. There's a small seating area in the front, but I got my drink to go. As someone who grew up on Nesquik & Swiss Miss, I can honestly say that this is the best hot chocolate I've ever had (I'll admit that I haven't been to Max Brenner's yet, but that place has a totally Starbucks vibe). It was incredibly rich & the texture was amazing. You could immediately tell that this was made with real chocolate & not granulated, freeze dried crap. I didn't have much time to check out the rest of the menu, but bet your ass I'll be going back there again.

Naural Harvest!?!

2008-11-24T14:23:00.008-05:00

While trolling the 'internets' aimlessly (which is what I do all damn day anyway), I came across this true gem; Natural Harvest: A collection of semen-based recipes. Yes fellow readers, a jizz-cookbook. I was disgusted yet slightly intrigued, so I read on, making sure I had a bucket nearby.

"Semen is not only nutritious, but it also has a wonderful texture and amazing cooking properties. Like fine wine and cheeses, the taste of semen is complex and dynamic. Semen is inexpensive to produce and is commonly available in many, if not most, homes and restaurants. Despite all of these positive qualities, semen remains neglected as a food. This book hopes to change that. Once you overcome any initial hesitation, you will be surprised to learn how wonderful semen is in the kitchen. Semen is an exciting ingredient that can give every dish you make an interesting twist. If you are a passionate cook and are not afraid to experiment with new ingredients - you will love this cook book!"

So, for 25 bucks, you can own this 61 page cookbook, but if you ever see this on the bookshelf of someone's house you're eating at, I'd run for the hills. Then again, if you've got nothing in the fridge, this book could put a whole new spin on 'eating locally'.

I'm pretty sure Andrew Zimmern has one of these in his house & maybe a paperback for the car. If you saw last week's Bizzare Foods, he took his dad out to dinner in Maine for some chowder laced with the 'culinary money-shot'; fish splooge! Huzzah!

Ishikura Sushi (67 1st Avenue @ 4th St.)

2008-11-22T13:45:00.005-05:00

Bracing the cold last night & refusing to wait on line at Takhachi, my brother & I walked a few extra blocks to Ishikura Sushi (formerly Kura Sushi) as a friend had recommended the place. Luckily the place wasn't very busy & we were seated at a spacious booth right away. With hands warming on delicious green tea, we took a look at the menu.

Honestly, everything looked good, but I don't know why the menu is so extensive. There seemed to be a lot of dishes duplicated in different sections, which made ordering somewhat difficult. Stefan opted for the Blue Crab Miso, while I just got a regular Miso soup to start. Stefan was thoroughly unimpressed with his soup, which he said had way too much vegetables in it.

The sushi that we got was extremely fresh & beautifully prepared. The salmon & tuna were both amazing. The service was good (our tea & water glasses were never empty for more than a minute or so) & I liked the decor. Ishikura is definetely a place that I'll be checking out again.

Monday Mayhem!

2008-11-21T01:56:00.010-05:00

Last Monday was a day of firsts for me; the 1st time I cooked on a Thursday Club scale for a non-club meal, the 1st time I made Osso Bucco & the 1st time I cooked for my parents. Trust me, that last 1st was a major hurdle that I've finally overcome, but based on how the meal turned out, I think that Momma & Poppa Boogie feel that it was well worth the wait.

1) Spinach Soup

The first course was prepared by my brother, Sous Chef Stef. It was particularly good with an excellent texture, topped with a bit of cream & chives. We wolfed it down with lots & lots of deliciously warm, butter-drowned bread. A great start to the night.

2) Bone Marrow w/Parsley Salad

My feeble attempt to duplicate Fergus Henderson's signature St. John's dish. I think that the marrow itself came out very well, it's pretty hard to screw them up, mind you. Just a bit of salt & pepper & some olive oil. Brilliant! Unfortunately, I screwed up & bought the wrong type of parsley for the salad, I really didn't like the texture. I'll have to try this again.

3) Tomato, Avocado & Mozzarella Salad

A simple dish to clear the palate before the main, I think this came out very well. I added a little basil to the plate & topped it with olive oil & some excellent Balsamic vinegar that I found lurking in my pantry. Simple yet effective.

4) Osso Bucco w/Rice

This was my first attempt at Osso Bucco, so I wanted to make damn sure that I didn't screw it up. I'm pretty sure that I braised it for way too long, so that the meat literally fell off of the bone. It made presentation somewhat difficult, but the flavors were great. I really enjoyed this dish, particularly scoffing down the leftovers 2 days later!

5) Saath Padar Pastry

I found this wacky dessert recipe from the Ny Times dining section & decided to try it out. What a mistake... I think that this is the only truly unedible dish I've ever served since I joined the Thursday Club. I'm not much of a dessert guy, but this dish bordered on the ridiculous. It's basically puff pastry stuffed with coconut, pistachios, almonds, sugar & cardamon. It ended up tasting like cardboard & was as hard as Wolverine's adamantium skeleton (comic book nerds rise up!). Thoroughly dissappointing.

A good meal all in all. My parents finally got to see what Thursday Club is all about & hopefully we'll be able to get Andre-Pascal to cook for us one of these days.

Cherry Poppin' Danny

2008-11-12T12:39:00.006-05:00

The time had finally come for Dan's first meal. With his hectic work schedule, he picked Saturday to play host at Pete's apartment. With Pete, Boogie and myself in attendance (and Pete and Dan's respective ladies rolling in later on in the evening), this is what the menu looked like.

Freshly-baked focaccia with chicken liver pate

Crispy chicken, romaine lettuce and gorgonzola in a caesar dressing

Fresh Linguine with homemade meatballs

Braised rabbit with red and green peppers and puree of potato with truffle

Frozen lemon mousse with English cream sauce

This was a bit altered from the original emailed menu, but as history shows, your first meal rarely goes as planned. It started with a slight delay of our arrival, 8:00 instead of 7:00. No problem, he just needed a bit more time to finish things up. When we strolled in, onions were in the pan, bread was in the oven and Dan was hovered over multiple cookbooks plotting and planning his next move. Things got off to a rocky start when the focaccia failed to rise and turned out a bit on the crispy side. The extra cooking time waiting for the little bastards to rise had turned them into a WWF-style prop......the kind that Hulk Hogan would hit a masked opponent over the head with. Needless to say, after trying to crunch through a few bites, they ended up next to vegetable peelings and egg shells in the trash (with a resounding thud). Good thing a back-up loaf of crusty bread was there to scoop up the warm, rustic chicken livers that were mixed with butter, aromatics and a touch of red wine.

In true Thursday Club style, Dan's salad course had meat in it. The chicken was marinated in a lemon herb mixture which drew comparisons to a Chinese lemon chicken (combo meal L5 anyone?). That comparison ended when I got hold of a forkful of rich melted gorgonzola, crisp lettuce and a punchy caesar dressing. As light as our salads get around here I guess.

Up next was the soup that wasn't. Seeing Dan meticulously peeling a monstrous butternut squash could only mean one thing, squash soup right? Well.....apparently he made a wrong turn in Albuquerque and ended up with a soup less fit for a king and more fit for the sink. Again we had a chuckle, but immediately Dan shouted from the kitchen, "I swear I will make something edible tonight", and another course was in the works.

The pasta course that followed was one of my favorite moments of the meal. Fresh linguine with a bare-bones red sauce (Sunday gravy to some Italian Americans), racquetball-sized meatballs and a bright handful of basil leaves. Straight forward, but an awesome course.

The meatballs were especially good. A great crust on the outside, and moist and flavorful on the inside. Not the easiest move to pull off. Also, toasted pine nuts in the meatballs......can't wait to try that little trick.

Definitely starting to get full by this point, but Dan kept on plugging away in the kitchen while we slowly shoveled more and more into our mouths. The rabbit course was again a simple preparation. Baked bunny bits with sweet green and red peppers and mash. But this was no ordinary mash, it had an aggressive dousing of truffle oil to go along with the commonplace butter and cream. Some at the table thought it might have been a bit too much truffle, but in my mind you can't really have too much of that taste.

Now fully redeemed from the nights' previous gaffs, Dan stepped on the gas and blew us all away with his dessert. A quick peer in the freezer to make sure that the semi-freddo didn't turn completely-freddo and we were in business. It was a top dish that even a full stomach couldn't stop me from finshing. The English cream sauce was so frothy and rich, it played perfectly with the tart lemon base. It almost had a sweet hollandaise feel to it.

Contently stuffed we pushed away from the table and Dan's maiden meal was in the books. Despite all the kind-hearted ribbing, everything turned out just fine in the end. But, I'll have to wait until next time he cooks for that soup I guess.

Game On!

2008-11-01T01:57:00.015-04:00

So the gang regrouped in Park Slope a few days ago for Houman's second foray into this gluttonous little club of ours. I missed his first, gut-busting, meat-inspired meal, so I was eager to see what our boy could do. I'll admit, that when I got the menu via email last Sunday that I began to salivate; Pavlov's dog style. Continue reading & you'll see why. With enough beer & bottles of wine to sink a ship, we eagerly sat down and waited for the onslaught.

1) Asheh-Anar w/deer meatballs.

Translation in Farsi is literally "Soup of Pomegranate", but I think it should have been 'Fucking Awesome'. The flavors were sweet & sour with a subtle dill taste. The meatballs were incredibly lean (this is my first time eating deer) & were a perfect match. This is exactly the type of soup you'd like to come home to after a walk in the cold. Thank goodness for the end of summer!

2) Walnut wrapped in date and smoked bacon.

Now, who doesn't love pork? The double smoked bacon has crispy, slightly burnt edges & provided the 'savory' to the dates 'sweet'. The walnut added a satisfying crunch to the trio. We didn't bother with utensils; this is finger food at it's best!

3)Duck leg on a bed of brussel sprouts w/mustard & garlic confit.

Every time that I make a similar dish, I cheat & buy my duck already confit'ed' (is that a word?). The fact that Houman went through the effort of doing this in house speaks volumes. Meat literally fell off of the bone with super-crispy skin & a delicious outer layer of fat. I'll admit that I am NOT a fan of brussel sprouts, but these were amazing!

4) Braised Oregon Elk w/haricots verte with garlic, anchovy, shallot sauce.

I was really looking forward to the main course & it didn't disappoint. Firstly, the portions were massive. I'm not sure how big this beast was, but put it this way, there was a whole lot of meat on the plate. Braised in veal stock with bacon & veggies, the sauce was amazing. I found the meat to be a little on the tough side, but hey, I'm a pansy. I particularly liked the vegetables; the beans & capers were a marriage made in heaven.

5) Baklava.

An instant classic. Houman made his Persian style, with ground lemon-salted pistachios, walnuts and almonds. They were sweet, crunchy, crispy & delicious. Served warm with a tooth-decayingly amazing honey. Yum!

We left the meal full, drunk & happy. Nice work dude... Game On!

Teddy's Offal Night Part Deux

2008-10-25T08:53:00.017-04:00

Writing about the wonderful experiences we have eating Teddy's offal dishes brings me great pleasure. Thoughts of this meal invoke fond memories of grown men eating what far too few people are willing to enjoy. Teddy is incredibly passionate about this type of cooking. As with many talented chefs, he sees it as a way of showcasing his craft. And it is no small task to do justice to his offal-y creations with words.

The word offal is said by some to be derived from the bits and pieces of an animal that "fall off" while it is being butchered (the story goes that "offal" is then derived from "fall off"). The word is obviously susceptible to plenty of jokes, and so it certainly hasn't helped with waking up the masses to enjoy this type of cuisine. And it is probably a good thing really because chef Teddy was able to cook for his mates for next to nothing because offal is offal-y cheap. Yet, there is one other reason you may not see it much, and that is because it actually can be pretty nasty if it is cooked incorrectly. I mean, we're talking about delicate organs here - if you overcook them or don't know what to do with them, they really can taste like shit. Think of how much you hated your mom's overcooked liver. Also, unlike muscle or flesh, organs tend to be much more showing of a chef's talent. So when you see it on a menu or someone wants to cook it for you, they're telling you something about themselves. And you need to listen.

CRISPY PIGS EARS. The ears were braised in trotter gear for about 3 hours, then sliced and deep fried to allow for proper break down of the collagen. Not much needs to be said here. They were fried. They were chewy. They were "unctuous" (man foodies are really loving that word). They were delicious.

Another ingenious idea Teddy had was to provide butter inside hollowed out veal bones (which were of course properly boiled down, after the morrow was eaten I'm sure, to provide the sanitary dish). We had actually chatted about what we can do with marrow some time ago, and Teddy apparently came up with a few ingenious ideas (see the dessert). But he also found a wonderful thing to use the bones for. This man wastes nothing.

TROTTER CAKES, with fennel & bacon, maple butter glaze, apple ginger and prune relish. This was by far my favorite meal that night. Most people enjoyed the next dish (Oxtail on toast), and I'll give that dish proper acknowledgement in a minute, but these trotter cakes and relish were one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. Chef Teddy explained the dish as one of smoked bacon, fennel seed and parsley with the scraps of trotter all suspended in their own jelly and maple glaze. Every bite provided for a delightful and mildly sweet, porky flavor with just the right give. Since I'm half-dutch, I love ham, especially maple glazed ham. If you can imagine a deconstructed maple glazed ham, reconstructed into little cakes, and with much more flavor and texture, then your only part way there. And the combination of this dish with the apple, ginger and prune relish was just genius. I mean, this is the kind of dish that makes a restaurant famous. It was that good.

OXTAILS ON TOAST, with tomato confit, horseradish cream. Ok, so I said I would give this a proper acknowledgement since it was the group favorite. A simple description is oxtail braised for about 3 hours and served on buttered toast with horseradish cream (which is essentially horseradish and creme freche we are told). It's simple, but it took alot of time to make (which is the common theme on these dishes tonight I've noticed). And it has that sweet, fleshy taste that I love so much about oxtail. You know, I feel guilty writing about this dish because it struck such a high note with everybody else. I did think it was a superior dish, but I was still thinking about the trotter cakes and relish. Sorry.

At this point in our meal, Adam arrives (tardy bastard) after giving some of the local boys in chelsea some gymnastic lessons. I hadn't seen Adam in some time, and he's toned down some (you know, lost fat, gained muscle from all his rompings in the gym with the boys). So perhaps the jokes stop there before he kicks my ass.

CURRIED KIDNEY GRATIN, with beef dripping toast. OK, what do you say about a dish that reinvents the way you think about an organ that has passed uric acid for an entire animal's life? I mean, we all enjoy a good steak and kidney pie. But that is a less adventurous dish, as you can hardly tell what you are eating. Here, you have large chunks of the organ, reminding you what you are eating and sharing the limelight on their own in a curry sauce that is spiced just perfectly. Any carnivore would thoroughly enjoy this dish. This is not "adventurous" eating when you consider that the flavors are all familiar, and not what you would expect from offal. I suppose if you love offal and the rich taste of offal and you hate curry, then this dish might not even do much for you. But for me, it was a very welcome creamy curry flavor with chunks of delightful kidney that taste like, well, I guess steak. I slurped down every bit of the curry sauce. Teddy shows me his source of inspiration for this dish, which comes from a recipe derived from Anissa Helou, kind of a hero to Teddy.

ROASTED PIG'S HEAD. Hand made tortillas, radish, red onion, crema, salsa verde. The theme music from 2001 Space Odyssey begins. The chef presents an entire Pig's Head, split in two, braised for 3 hours and chilled in trotter gear, finished with a sweet maple glaze, served with fresh radish, sour cream, red onion and salsa verde (a very nice spicy variety with tomatillos, cilantro, and vinegar). These sides helped cut the fatty pieces of head flesh; Teddy explains that all offal needs to be cut with something to provide balance. The dish arrived, and a couple of people started to tear pieces off, and within 1 minute we were full-on cave men devouring the head, wrapping fatty, sweet, unctuous (there is that word again) morsels in freshly made tortillas. We probably should also give a thanks here to Guanita (sp?), who works with Teddy and initiated his inspirationto to prepare this dish. We should credit Guanita's wife for supplying the amazing freshly made tortillas. But the biggest thanks goes to Chef Teddy who did something amazing with a $12 head (yes, Pig's head is that cheap).

BONE MARROW CUSTARD, Lemon-almond gremolata. Ahhhh, bone marrow. I love bone marrow. I appreciate it's buttery flavor that accompanies a piece of toast. And I fear Teddy and I had conversed a little too much about the other uses of bone marrow. Perhaps it is just something best left to being roast in a bone, or served as part of a pasta dish (see Teddy's last Offal night; that dish was amazing). Does it belong in dessert? Well, I can say that I really appreciated this dish, and I did enjoy it. The custard was unlike anything I have had. Well, actually, it was supposed to be a custard, but it was torched and so became a creme brulee instead. However, the marrow ensured that the texture was a bit grainy, almost the same as the texture of cheesecake. Teddy did not want it to be a thin, slippery texture, but rather firm so that we cold taste the bone marrow. He confirmed that this should be thought of more as a savory a traditional british after dinner dessert, and not a sweet. But, I think I had an expectation in my head that it was going to be more like the marrow that is roasted in a bone, which is obviously impossible if you are baking it in a custard. I just wish I ate this custard thinking rationally... knowing that it was a savory baked good. If I was thinking rationally, and not completely entranced by the previous courses, I may well have been thinking a little more clearly to enjoy this dessert more. As I write this, my mind wanders back to those delectable trotter cakes... mmmmmmmm....

Persimmon (277 E. 10th St.)

2008-10-22T20:30:00.006-04:00

I had a chance to check out Korean hot-spot, Persimmon, located on 10th St. between Avenue A & 1st a few days ago. Chef/Owner Youngsun Lee honed his skills at Momofuku & has now created a prix fixe 'neo'-Korean experience in the East Village.

The menu is seasonal, changing every two weeks & will set you back $39 for 5 courses per person. They are currently applying for a liquor license, so are no longer BYOB, a shame as some booze would have really improved my meal.

I started with the fish cakes & Dan got the sliced beef with melon sauce, both of which were good. We both selected the Bossam or pork belly for the next course which I'll have to admit was amazing! Simply cooked, yet delightfully fatty & flavorful, this was by far my favorite dish.

I followed with the massive Salmon & Rice pot which I really enjoyed. The small dishes that came with the mains really added to the experience. They included kimchi, roasted baby garlic & tiny fried fish. I'll have to admit that the next 2 courses really didn't do much for me; a small soup with mushrooms & a watermelon dessert.

All in all, I enjoyed the food there. The staff were attentive (we sat at the bar, right by the kitchen) & friendly. I'll definetly be going back when they get thier liquor license & the menu has changed (hopefully the Bossam will still be on there!)

How to impress your mates....

2008-10-16T11:05:00.002-04:00

Purchase a fresh pig's head from 'Los Paisanos' and slice the bugger into two equal pieces, right through the nose.
Purchase four pigs trotters and cut them all in half.
Borrow a huge cast iron pot, big enough to hold all your piggy parts.
Find all sorts of vegetables and herbs, a bottle of white wine and enough water to cover your piggy bits, and throw into borrowed pot. Bring to boil. Simmer until everything is brilliantly soft.
Remove trotters and let cool. Use to make 'trotter cakes'.
Let head cool in stock overnight, strain and reserve stock the next day, dry head thoroughly and brush with molten maple butter, and glaze and burnish in a fabulously hot oven until Mr Piggy looks like he's had two weeks in Greece with a case of Hawaiian Tropic bronzing oil. Hey fucking presto.
Serve with lots of wine and bread.

Bussaco

2008-10-16T09:52:00.002-04:00

Bussaco is the new incarnation at the old Black Pearl spot on Union Street in Park Slope. Scott Carney, the owner, has a fine pedigree having cut his teeth and made somewhat of a name for himself at Gotham B&G under the mighty Alfred Portale. Carney has employed an equally ambitious chef, Matthew Schaefer, also with an impressive background having spent time in the kitchen at both Aquavit and Le Bernadin. There's no doubt that these two gentlemen know how to run a restaurant and kitchen. Whether they can do it together in that spot remains to be seen.

An exemplary martini was made at the bar by a knowledgeable young chap, who explained the restaurant's water policy of double-charcoal filtering and carbonating tap water. Guests pay $4 for an unlimited quantity. It would be shame if more restaurants don't follow their example. Who on Earth wants to pay $9 for a nicely-shaped bottle of Norwegian glacial fjord juice when you can drink pure water for next to nothing?

The space is fairly large for Park Slope, and it does have a nice airy feel, but it suffers terribly from bad acoustics. There is literally nothing to absorb sound and conversations bounce around the walls freely. This would be no bad thing for a professional eavesdropper or spy, but on the night I went, there was a rather too happy bar crowd and I ground my teeth every time one young lady in that crowd let rip with her atrocious guffaw. I am sensitive to noise, I know. I suggest some nice Persian rugs from up the road to damp the noise a bit.

The menu is well thought out and leans heavily on what can be found at the Grand Army Greenmarket or from local producers. A crab chowder contained more than sufficient crab meat and smoky bacon adrift in a creamy shellfish broth mined with potato. A crisp roasted quail breast shared a large white plate with a circle of foie gras mousse and pickled peaches. The peaches won over the other flavours, I suspect because there was not enough foie in the mousse to counterpoint them and assert the quail but it was a well though out, cohesive dish. Scheafer's roast pork with crispy skin was slightly dry on presentation and continued to dry out while we ate. It took us a while to find the crispy skin, until we spotted a tiny blackened disc of a porky nature, which we assumed must be it. These tiny problems will iron themsleves out, for sure. My bass and Manila clams in lemon-herb broth was wonderful and the kind of thing you'd expect to get at Le Bernadin: Perfectly cooked fish, plump juicy shellfish and a broth contrasting and supporting both protein elements. The pastry chef, Deb Snyder from 50s eyesore Lever House doesn't let the side down, perfecting both an apple-caramel bread pudding (and I know my bread puddings) and a chocolate cake with toasted almond ice cream. Domestic and international both feature in an interesting and sensibly priced wine list.

Service was very efficient, and the waitstaff smiled a lot which is nice to see. They were a little over-attentive though, re-filling our water glasses after every couple of sips. My attempt to put the bottle on my side of the table next to the wall to prevent this was useless. They simply reached across us and our food to re-fill. I can fill my own glass, thank you. It was almost like they had nothing to do and felt they needed to look busy. I can understand that. For a restaurant with some buzz about it, the place had roughly 20 guests in a space for about 60.

And this is one of the reasons I fear for Bussaco. Despite the pedigree of both owner and chef, they have opened another 'New Brooklyn' restaurant in Park Slope, a neighbourhood with too many of this ilk already, and this amid the current financial turmoil. I do wish them the best of luck, and sincerely hope they make it, because I like the place.