June 2007 Archives

I think the last movie I saw in the theaters was King Kong, and I slept through 1 hour of it. I just don't like being trapped in a dark room with a bunch of people for 2 hours (or, in the case of that movie, 3 loud dinosaur- and penis creature-filled hours). But when La Doug suggested we go see Ratatouille, I lifted the embargo.

I'm not going to lie, I totally wept during the movie. Several times. (Shut up!) I might even go see it again. Also, I can't wait to go to Paris. If you have ever eaten food, or if you have had a father at some point in your life, go see it. The movie made me miss Julia Child, but it also made me so happy that we live in 2007. I'll shut up about it now.

Name: Michael Harlan Turkell

Occupation: Photographer, BACK OF THE HOUSE Project (www.harlanturk.com)

Borough: Brooklyn

Relationship status: Domesticated

What did you eat today?

For breakfast, some homemade fennel seed sourdough toast, with a little bit of butter and the best damn greek honey, given to me by Karen Waltuck of Chanterelle. My friends over at Marlow & Sons in Williamsburg sell the heather and pine varietals, "must trys". A cup of Leelanau's Yrgacheffe, and snuck a bit of coconut chocolate birthday cake from Betty Bakery in Brooklyn.

Lunch, just some of the same bread with Zaytoons hummus, and a glass of iced Avalanche Rooibos tea made by Portsmouth Tea Company.

My girfriend's real birthday, so we went for drinks at Freeman's. Had two blackberry brambles, she had a mint julep and a Manhattan, while splitting a hot artichoke dip. Dinner at Prune in the East Village. Fried chickpeas on the table to start. She had the pasta kerchief with poached egg and brown butter, I had the fried sweetbreads with bacon and capers (some of the best in the city). Sides of broccolini with yellow wax beans and artichokes with brown butter vinaigrette. Dessert was greek yogurt with stewed rhubarb and sugar "hay". Nice bottle of Routas, Rouviere Rose 2006 to boot.

What do you never eat?

Raw white onions (thinly sliced red onions are okay) and shrimp (allergic).

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

A plethora of beverages from tea/coffee to wine/beer. Try to keep a growler of Sixpoint Bengali Tiger in the spring/summer, and their Brownstone Ale in the fall/winter, and almost always...seltzer. Many a trial batch recipes, my latest, homemade bitters (way too peppery, but am convincing myself of otherwise). Just made some tristar strawberry and rhubarb vinegar. Have dark, sweet, and sour cherries ready for inspiration. Greenmarket fruit, veggies, fish, and meat when in season. I go to Saxelby Cheese in the Essex Market for whatever Anne suggests, and Stinky on Smith Street for their fresh sheep's ricotta.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

Take-out tupperware, for my array of mise en place. And my Super Benriner Japanese Mandoline.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Good question. This is the season I love to cook, but like going to restaurants for little snacks rather than meals. The Monday Room -- Brad Farmerie of Public Restaurant uses this space to test his amuse bouches. The confit duck, foie gras and vanilla ballotine is amazing and only $2.50 for a taste. The "old school pig's head terrine" is awesome. I go to this place El Nuevo Portal on Smith Street in Brooklyn for my BLT's (favorite sandwich). Love sitting outside at Frankies 457 for their fennel, celery root & parsley salad, oh, and all things pork.

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

I'll go to Boston for pasta by Chef Barbara Lynch of No 9 Park. Have dreams about her Prune Stuffed Gnocchi with seared foie gras, vin santo glaze. My girlfriend can cook her famous peach cake (which I've instituted as my birthday cake), but would have to have it ready two days before the world ends, because I love it so much the day after for leftovers.

Visit Michael Harlan Turkell's plog.

Bright blue = Nature's way of saying, hey, don't eat this.

There's nothing like a little R&R with friends to recharge the old batteries. Doug's mom went out of town, so we moved in for the weekend bearing groceries, liquor, and bathing suits. We were laughing at what a bunch of old farts we've become -- who'd've thunk we could get so excited about hanging out at mom's house?

But what's not to love? An adorable house on the Cape, a deck festooned with pink roses, a dreamy kitchen with all the amenities, peace and quiet. You could hear and smell the sea from the woodsy neighborhood we were in. We noshed all weekend on nubbly shrimp butter toasts, Pimm's cup, and pan-fried cod. Doug baked and frosted a giant four-layer pecan spice cake with lemony cream cheese icing. It pretty much set me back about 3 weeks in exercise maintenance, but it was worth it. Oink oink.

I'd never been to Cape Cod, and being from California, I didn't really have any preconceptions of what the Cape would be like. Big houses with white decks and pebble gray shingles sit on unbelievably lush hills of grass. We were just blocks from a private beach, where mossy rocks jutted out onto a boisterous ocean and seabirds were kamikaze diving for fish.

A few highlights:

[At the McDonald's drive-thru.]

DOUG: I just need a little caffeine. I'm going to get a Diet Coke. Anyone want anything?

GANDA: No. Ooh, I want a caramel sundae if they have it.

BOX: Can I take your order?

DOUG: Hi, yeah, can I get a medium Diet Coke and a caramel sundae?

BOX: We don't have caramel, just chocolate and strawberry.

DOUG: [to me] You want?

GANDA: No.

DOUG: Okay, then, I'll just get a cone.

HEE JIN: Wait, get me a small fries.

GANDA: Make that a medium fries.

DOUG:[to BOX] And can I get a large fries?

**

The Raw Bar in Popponessett, where the steamers dipped in clarified butter were the best I've ever had; the lobster roll runneth over with scarlet, sweet lobster hunks just barely anointed with mayo; the oysters were so tantalizing and icy, I had to try one though I don't usually touch them in the summer. I asked the bronzed teenage waitress what kind of oysters they were, and she gave me this look like, "Jigga-wha?" I'll tell you what they were -- they were quivering, fresh and briny, perfect with a squeeze of lemon and a squirt of horseradishy cocktail sauce, and that's all you need to know.

**

Francis proclaimed these the best muffins he's ever had. I'm not disagreeing. The French butter gives them a crispy top and the sour cream keeps the crumb moist. I used a Barefoot Contessa Family Style recipe, which I changed just a bit to suit the ingredients we had. I should have doubled the recipe though -- I could have eaten five of those muffins myself.

Fruity Coffee Cake Muffins

5 tbsp. unsalted French butter at room temperature (I used Lescure)
3/4 c. sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. sour cream
1/8 c. milk
1 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. blueberries
2 large strawberries, diced
1/2 ripe banana, diced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin tin or line with paper cups. Beat sugar and butter together. Add vanilla, eggs, sour cream and milk. Beat some more. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Mix dry ingredients into wet with a light hand til smooth but not overbeaten. Fold fruit in. Scoop into muffin tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes til golden. Makes 9 muffins.

**

We spent all day Sunday chasing the shade across the backyard while drinking sangria. We nibbled on russet chips and Franwiches^TM, Francis's genius contribution to the culinary world. (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to divulge his recipe, so you'll have to use your imagination for now.) La Doug brought the clock radio out and blasted Tracy Chapman with Pavarotti, Mariah, and enough other pop fluff to chase the cardinals away. I thought, wow, if this is what Doug's mom's life is like every day, maybe I should start looking to buy a house outside the city.

Road trip tip: It never hurts to bring a loaf of bread, olives, cheeses, and a bottle of wine to enjoy when you arrive at your destination. Nobody wants to cook after a long drive, and liquor stores will be closed by the time you get there.

I'm going to the Cape tonight with La Doug, Heej and Francis, so there won't be any You Are What You Eat this week. (Heej's work, by the way, will be featured in the next issue of Blind Spot magazine.)

These last few months, I've been working like a dog, practically every free minute of the day. I'm getting sort of contracted and hard, like a steroidal zit. I've also been going to the gym to try and alleviate the stress, but I think it's only concentrating my aggression. I really need this weekend to step back and take measure of my life. Clambake or bust!

Winnie invited me to taste some lambruscos at her work event, so for you, I sacrificed a few hours maxing out on refills of bubbly over some suckling pig, lobster claws, and platters of petit fours. (Hey, you could start a food blog too.) I learned that lambruscos are most often chilled, sparkly reds, except when they're not. And though I liked the sharpish Lini rosé okay and the buzzy blackberry Labrusca Rosso even better, it was the Labrusca Bianco from Emilia that won me over. This white lambrusco is a touch drier than the pear-scented proseccos I usually drink in the summer, with a humming fizz. It's sunny and gentle -- ideal for drinking with rolled up cuffs and white cotton. You can get it at Vino for $15. Apparently they've got a few bottles of champagne method lambrusco too if you're into the yeasty thing.

Vino
121 E. 27th St. between Park and Lex

Your friend is in town with her kids for the weekend. At the crack of dawn, they'll jump out of bed, engines blazing, while you know you'll be nursing a bad hangover. Alright, maybe you'll still be drunk. You want to send them to breakfast while you get a few more hours of sleep, but the place has to be open early, kid friendly, and not have a long wait for a table. Send them to Sarabeth's, Central Park South. The menu is plain enough to satisfy the pickiest tyro palate but interesting enough that the adults will enjoy the few bites they shovel into their maws between refereeing the tots. The buttery bran muffins with soaked raisins are especially dreamy. If your ass is still drunk by the time they finish breakfast, send them into Central Park to play so you can buy enough time to find your sunglasses and wait for the Advil to kick in, you terrible, terrible role model.

Sarabeth's Central Park South
Between 5th and 6th Ave.

I'm madly in love with these (new-to-me) raspberries from Fruit Valley Orchards at the Greenmarket. I had the same palate revelation that I did when I first tried a tri-star strawberry -- like, wow, raspberries can taste like this? These greenhouse grown jewels are gorgeous, with hulls that hide little conical cores. They're sweet, complex, floral and firm -- nothing like those tasteless Driscoll's monsters. (I really think Driscoll's epitomizes everything that's wrong with big agritinkering -- scentless, overgrown fruits bred for people who only react to visual cues from their food.) This is fruit you eat one bite at a time, no cream/sugar/pie crust necessary. They're from Oswego, NY, they're wicked expensive ($6/half pint), and summer is short so I'm going to buy them as long as they're around.

Fruit Valley Orchards stand
Union Square Greenmarket, southwest corner on Saturdays
$6/half-pint

Name: Wirt Cook

Occupation: cook/caterer

Borough: Manhattan

Relationship status: fine, thanks

What did you eat today?

One of those Naked Red Machine drinks, an iced coffee and some cold pizza with pepperoni and olives, and some cold pasta with black olives and black truffle.

What do you never eat?

Cauliflower, pesto, kimchee, natto, pine nuts, raisins. [Natto I get, but no kimchee? You and Steingarten. I don’t get it. A piece of young kimchee wrapped around a hot ball of rice and a little beefy bit? How could you kick that out of bed? –Ed.]

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

Several varieties of mustards, pickles, lots of hot sauce, beer, Coca-cola, unsweetened iced tea, sardines, goose fat, bacon fat, butter.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My Le Creuset skillets -- or my deep fryer -- which I do use an awful lot.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Katz's is my favorite, or Blue Ribbon Sushi cause its open so late, Lombardi's, if I’m over by Dirty Bird or Corner Bistro I try to stop in.

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

Well...I would definitely want some of the barbecued shrimp from Pascal's Manale in New Orleans, then I’d probably ask Alex Guarnaschelli -- the chef at Butter -- if she'd make me a tasting menu -- there would also be a substantial amount of whiskey involved.

Full review of Pacificana forthcoming on NYMag.com, but their stew pork with preserved vegetables is my dish of the day -- big, streaky hunks of pork belly are stewed in a sweet soy broth with anise and plenty of preserved cabbagey bits, all poured into a clay casserole atop wilting iceberg. Divine. You could split the dish between two people and still have enough leftover to make pork buns a la Momofuku the next day.