December 2005 Archives

Name: Hee Jin Kang

Occupation: Photographer

Borough: Brooklyn

What did you eat today?

Christmas day...

Breakfast:
-Bewley's Explore Kenyan coffee
-wild Irish Atlantic salmon
-Wiltshire farm free-range scrambled eggs
-Irish wheaten loaf
-Kingdom County butter
-Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose pink champagne

Pre-dinner snack:
-Garvey's Manzanilla Sanlucar de Barrameda sherry
-Waitrose country pate on crackers
-Noires a la grecque olives

Dinner:
-rib of beef on the bone (Hereford-Abedeen Angus cross) bought from Roses Butcher, Devizes, Wiltshire
-red rooster potatoes
-Irish cabbage and carrots
-breaded mussels from Kerry Fish
-Valencia scallops
-red wine - Don Ramon Perez Juan Campo de Borja-imported by Point Bar at Rennard's Point
-Christmas pudding made by landlord's wife at George and Dragon, Rowde, Wiltshire
-Cote de Rhone from Gidden's - Chateau La Renjardiere

Dessert:
-brandy sauce with Courvoisier
-HB ice cream
-Monbazillac, imported by Wadworth...
-Ashmore Cheddar, Dorset
-Cashel Blue cheese
-Camembert
-crackers
-belgian truffles, Duc d'O
-lychees

[Wow.  I'm coming over for Christmas next year. --Ed.]

What do you never eat?
Tripe.
Marmite.
Liver.

[I do love me some Marmite on buttered toast with a cup of PG Tips, like once a year.  --Ed.]

Complete this sentence:  In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Kimchee.
Soymilk.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

my Wagenfeld teapot

Where do you eat out most frequently?

DuMont, Marlow & Sons, Max's, Cheers.

World ends tomorrow.  What would you like for your last meal?

A Korean dinner: rice, bulgogi and kalbi (marinated beef), kimchee, hot spicy jigae (stew), seaweed sheets, marinated spinach and beansprouts, tofu, and a glass of Chateau d'Yquem for dessert.

Scope out Hee Jin's genius at her website.

Bill over at Soundbites links to a fantastic page at Sushi Yasuda's website on how to eat sushi properly.  I didn't really learn how to eat sushi properly until I started dating a man who had lived in Japan.  It breaks my heart to see people drown their rice in murky wasabi shoyu, even when it's cheap sushi.  And doesn't it make so much more sense to eat sushi with your clean, hot-toweled fingers than to try and struggle with chopsticks?

I love Sushi of Gari for omakase.  It's less traditional than the midtown places, but the fish and rice quality are amazing.  Toro sushi is served quickly dipped in garlicky shabu shabu sauce.  King salmon tiles come topped with a thin slice of hot broiled tomato.  And the first uni I ever had was there, tempura, like a crisply housed burst of sweet jellied ink.  The tiny white ama ebi is to die for.  The kitchen also turns out wonderful dishes like mozuku slimy seaweed and little fried silver fish with a squirt of lemon. 

I'm dying to try Sushi Yasuda and $350 omakase at Masa (which may not happen in this life).  It's funny, actually, I was on a blind date a few weeks ago with a very nice guy, but we both knew the date was over when he said, "If given the choice between the three best pieces of toro in the world or a huge plate full of sushi, I'd rather get the huge plate."  Could he have said anything more antithetical to my worldview?  I'd rather hold out all year for one meal of incredible sushi than to eat cheaper grade sushi once a week.

I learned some important lessons this Christmas that I thought I would share with you, adorable readers.

• Christmas goose (served for Christmas dinner at the St. Regis with red scallions, quince, and tart rutabaga sauerkraut) -- it's fatty, it's dark, and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and duck.  Me likey.

• Mark Bello steered me towards a fine selection of cheeses which I brought as a welcome gift for Anel, Chris, Lucas and Ethan.  The kids liked the Nord Hollander aged gouda ("the orange one!"), which had the pleasant crunch of amino acid crystals and a nutty, caramel-y flavor; Chris loved the Cremeux de Bourgogne -- a super rich, buttery soft brie-like triple creme made with pasteurized cow's milk.  I went for the tangy log slice of Monte Enebro, a super creamy paste goat cheese covered with ash and blue-cheese mold.  And Wellington cracked pepper crackers are a little too peppery for my taste.

• The St. Regis makes the most delicious coffee, especially when you order it up to the room in the super-insulated sterling carafe with fine china cups and saucers, a mini pitcher of cream and a vase-sheathed white rose on a silver tray carried by a butler in coattails.  FA-NANCY!

• The one night Anel and Chris left Lucas and Ethan under my supervision, I let them get all hopped up on the lollipops and Nerds they had scored at Dylan's Candy Bar til they were bouncing off the walls like cracked out cherubim.  (For the record, Anel & Chris bought them all that sugar and then left the kids with me while they went out for dinner and a Broadway show.)  Later that night, when I was waging a battle to get them ready for bed, I got them both to start brushing their teeth in the cavernous St. Regis bathroom.  As Ethan tried to turn the faucet taps on, he fell off the makeshift stool, banging his butt, then his little head on the cold marble.  I nearly had a heart attack.  I was worried I was going to have to make the Interruptus Emergencia call.  Thank God he stopped crying after a few minutes.  He didn't get a very good tooth brushing in, but I'll take a little baby tooth decay over a concussion any day. Of course as soon as I got them in bed, their Uncle Mike came over to say good night.  And what do you think the first thing out of Lucas's mouth was?  "Uncle Mike!  Ethan fell on his head!  He has a boo-boo!"  Ratted out by a four year old.  I spent the rest of the night trying to get a good look at Ethan's pupils to make sure they weren't dilating funnily.  I love Anel's children, but I'm not ready to have kids yet.

• Serendipity 3 was probably a charming, kitschy place at some point in its existence, but now it is a bit in too in love with itself.  The whole front of the place is like a souvenir shop with Serendipity cookbooks being signed by the owner, Serendipity lip balm, Serendipity t-shirts, merch merch merch galore for sale to the tourists who wait on line in the cold to get in.  And the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate?  It's a big icy chocolate milkshake top heavy with schlag-hard whipped cream and a couple of chocolate shavings.  Nothing you couldn't make at home with a blender.

• The Radio City Christmas Show is TOTALLY OUT, man.  You must see it.  The kids were crazy for it.  Midgets, leggy beauties in sparkly spandex, live camels, a mini ice-rink with pairs figure skaters, dancing Santas, that amazing toy soldiers sequence, a 3-D movie with free 3-D glasses...I won't lie, when the big light bulb encrusted ROCKETTES sign came rising out of the stage in front of a backdrop of the NYC skyline, I got a little verklempt.

• New vocab word: chirl n. child + girl, e.g. Chirrrrrrrrrrrrl, I know you're not gonna pretend you don't want dessert.  Even your eyes are salivating.

• Christmas is so much better with kids around.  Lucas woke up in the middle of Christmas Eve night only to discover that Santa had eaten all of his cookies, drank all his milk, and set up his new Thomas the Tank Engine set.  That kind of excitement, wonder, and totally unbridled joy is really amazing and precious, especially to a jaded old fart like me.

Thank you to my homeslice Anel, Chris, Lucas & Ethan for sharing their glamorous New York Christmas at the St. Regis with me.  I loved experiencing my city through knee-high eyes with you.  No bodily harm to your tots next time, I swear.  I miss you terribly already.

See my Christmas flickr set here.

I try to describe food in a way that a reader will taste in his mind's palate, though there is still a bit of a "dancing about architecture" element to it.  I therefore hope I am doing a better job than the girl working behind the Jacques Torres counter who described the marron glace (candied chestnut) as having the texture of a "gummy bear."

I am sure Mr. Torres would be horrified to hear his chestnuts compared to fruity tooth gnashers.  I would say that the starchy chestnut cells are heavy with crystallizing syrup, giving it more of the texture of marzipan; the outside has an crisp onionskin film of hardened sugar, like the coating of a glazed cake donut.  It reminded me very much of a Thai dessert of yucca root drenched in sugar syrup -- not my favorite dessert, but not unpleasant.  They're probably delicious to people who grew up with them. 

But it was no gummy bear.

Marrons Glaces are available at Jacques Torres' Chocolate Haven
350 Hudson Street, 1 block South of Houston
212-414-2462

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

I'm off to the St. Regis Hotel to stay with my girlfriend Anel, her husband Chris, and their two scrumptious munchkins Lucas and Ethan.  I won't be back in Brooklyn til Monday probably.  Hope the strike is over by then.  I may or may not have a new YAWYE up, depending on my ability to access a computer.  (I know, I know, I'm only going to midtown, it's not like I'm going to the Cambodian backwoods, but you know how it is...)

So eat well, my friends, I'll be back with pix and picks next week. 

Working from home on TWU's first strike day would be far more enjoyable if I had thought to have some food in the house and I wasn't too agoraphobic to go out and buy some groceries.

I gotta get up at ass in the morning tomorrow to try and catch the Bay Ridge ferry.  SUCKS.

But at least I'll get some food.

Who died and made champagne king?  I mean, I love champagne, but I'm not sure that the low end champagnes are better value than the higher end sparklers of other varieties.  For the holiday festivities, I'm perfect happy to have gotten a case of Prosecco Sorelle Bronca for $40 more than what I spent on one bottle of Krug last year.

And I just had a taste flashback of a lovely sparkler I got from the Hudson Wine Merchants when I took my little upstate outing in September.  Hudson Wine Merchants is the kind of charming, not-intimidating place you'd love to have around the corner from your house.  The adorable bespectacled proprietor suggested a fabulous Phillipe Foreau Sparkling Vouvray NV at about $25/bottle, which he was planning to serve at a party of his own.  From France's Loire Valley, it had an elegant texture and a yummy tropical berry flavor, without the yeastiness that I (apparently) don't like.  I haven't been able to forget it (especially because Doug accidentally left the second bottle in the rental's refrigerator.) 

Not going to be in Hudson anytime soon?  Me neither (sadly).  You can also buy it at Smith and Vine (who have a very classy website).

Need a case of something?  Hudson Wine Merchants has plenty of city-dweller patrons, and they're happy to deliver cases in NYC.

Read their newsletters (with a nice piece on a variety of sparklers) here.

FIVE POUNDS OF BUTTER, TWO DAYS IN THE MAKING: Presenting the centerpiece of this year's Winter Wonderland party chez Adam & Lindsay, my roommate's igloo cake -- six layers of chiffon light chocolate cake slathered in peppermint buttercream, blue peppermint buttercream piped icing, all on a bed of snow white coconut. 

Name: Mark Schwartz

Occupation: Writer & Editor

Borough: Brooklyn

What did you eat today?

Yesterday was better. Asopao de pollo with a side of tostones, Spanish coffee, the best fake-meat Chinese and spicy eggplant (Vegetarian Palate, on Flatbush), a glass of Cotes du Ventoux.

What do you never eat?

Hard-boiled eggs. [Not even deviled? --Ed.]

Complete this sentence:  In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Capers, seltzer, vermouth, half ‘n’ half, Goya salsa taquera, five or six parmagiana rinds, and of course, fish sauce.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My Bialetti Brikka stove-top espresso maker, with the aerator that actually simulates crema.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Grand Sichaun (9th Ave.), Havana Chelsea, Tavern on Dean, Tempo.  [Have you ever read the Grand Sichuan guy's Who Moved My Cheese screed under the China Tour tab?  Bizarre. -- Ed.]

World ends tomorrow.  What would you like for your last meal?

Jerk lamb (sorry, God) from The Islands on Washington Ave., with rice and peas and a side of mac and cheese because they will be out of roti. If there’s any room left, I’d try to get Tempo’s black pepper panna cotta with figs and rosemary. Espresso to finish. And the case of Garnacha that we just bought.

I'm singing (a little bit) with the ever lovely Miho Hatori at Tonic on Friday night, 8 pm only. With Mauro Refosco (percussion), Shelley Burgon (harp), Thomas Bartlett (voice / pump organ / piano / wurlitzer), Gilmar Gomes (percussion) & me on backing vox, and maybe more peeps.

Come buy me a drink, give me my Christmas present, argue with me about cauliflower, whip me with gladiolas, whatever.  It's your ten bucks.

Tonic
107 Norfolk at Delancey
Friday, Dec. 16
8 pm
$10