Cafe d'Alsace

If I lived in Yorkville, I would make Cafe d'Alsace my go to Alsatian restaurant. Now, there aren't that many Alsatian specialty restaurants anywhere in the country, and I didn't previously know that I needed to have a go-to-Alsatian restaurant, but though the food at Cafe d'Alsace isn't mind-blowing, now that I've gone, it's become clear that my life would be better if I could just pop into the restaurant after a long day. The number of things on the menu that I'd love to eat is absurd: french onion soup, weiner schnitzel, roasted bone marrow, moules frites, pretty much everything. EVERYTHING.

Just thinking about all the things on that menu almost makes me want to stomp my feet in frustration over the fact that it is either a very very long drive or annoying plane ride away in order to get my rear end in a seat at that restaurant.

Now I mentioned that the food is not blow-your-mind. This steak tartare for example is a bit too sweet.

These french fries a tad too thick.

And some of the sausage a bit more bland than I would prefer. But I will make concessions for all of these things in exchange for such an enticing menu. There are so many food cravings that I am typically afflicted with. So many cravings that could be cured.

Cafe d'Alsace, 1695 2nd Avenue, New York, NY

Bar Artisanal

Winter Break for school rolled around, and I spent ten days in New York City. For my first official meal back I wanted something that would be low-key and encourage conversation, so I ended up going to Bar Artisanal with two girlfriends.

Seeing old friends for the first time in months brought such a deep sense of comfort. I've enjoyed meeting people in a new city and a new school, but being able to speak around people who have known me for years and understand the history and personality behind all of my snarky comments felt like wrapping myself up in a soft, fluffy, warm, down blanket.

Ordering the Artisanal Blend of fondue also helped raise the happiness levels, certaintly.

We wanted some greens to lighten things up, so we went with the Beet Salad with Mache. Beets are lovely in salads, and I'd like to experiment more with them in the next few months. I like the color and gentle sweetness.

The cheese flights are the primary reason why I enjoy going to Artisanal, or in this case an Artisanal family restaurant. There is a wonderful array of pungent, spicy, mild, unctuous, firm, cheeses: something for every cheese mood. I love the oozy, pungent nature of a ripe Epoisse, so we originally gravitated towards the Sinful Experience, which had Epoisse, a Camembert, and Chaource. We eventually decided upon the Fromager's Selection in order to swap out the familiar Camembert for the Ibores, which is a Spanish goat cheese and would provide a more varied flavor profile in our tasting. [How do I get this stupid thing to align left? (stupid thing stuck on center)][Oh, that's how.][I feel like a genius.][It doesn't take much.]

All in all it was a lovely dinner. I was a bloody hour late, and my poor friends didn't even snipe at me, which is what I very well may have done.

My favorite moment of the night came when a gentleman at a neighboring, and very loud, table suddenly wiped out on the floor as he somehow managed to lose rear-end contact with his chair. The hum in the restaurant momentarily paused as fellow dining patrons turned to see what caused the ruckus, and then the restaurant chatter quickly picked back up as people went back to their own affairs. Gotta love New York sensibilities.

Bar Artisanal, 268 West Broadway, New York, NY

Last meal in NYC: DBGB

My last meal in NYC before shipping out to Chicago was at DBGB. My mom had flown out to help me move, and I wanted her to try both the pig's head terrine and the pig's foot and the blood sausage. French food does not sound good in English.

I chronicled the boudin and the pied de cochon in this post, and I've tried the fromage de tête at Bar Boulud, but it was awesome having all three in one sitting. I got a call from DBGB a few weeks ago asking for my address info, since they wanted contact details for their regular customers. It made my day that I managed to get into regular customer land. I'm back in New York for a couple of days in December, and I've already been dreaming about repeating this last meal. A couple of oysters might be nice too.

DBGB, 299 Bowery (at Houston), New York, 212, 933-5303

Balthazar

Balthazar is a New York institution, and though I've had breakfast and dinner there, and it's my go-to-stop for a decent baguette, I can't recall if I've ever gone for lunch before, which is a shame because lunch at Balthazar makes one feel civilized and happy.

My friend opted for what I think is a grilled salmon, which had a nice char on the skin but kept the fish moist.


I was pretty happy with my steak tartare, and it made me think of my first experience with the dish in the summer of 2001 at L'Express. It's shocking to realize how much I've learned about food in these few short years. On that late evening, I discovered both the joy of a steak tartare and a cold glass of Chimay, and took one step closer to enlightenment.

Skinny French frites piled high in a paper cone are one of the simple pleasures of life.

Balthazar's pavlova was light and sweet as my pavlova was dense and almost nutty. Ah technique, that elusive skills.

Balthazar, 80 Spring St. (@ Crosby St.), New York, NY

Bar Boulud

My apologies for not posting on Thursday and Friday. I'm in Chicago now and got caught up with orientation activities for grad school. But let's return to the agenda at hand and talk about a lovely lunch at Bar Boulud that I had with the Bastard Consultant.



The Bastard Consultant has his uses, as he is my closest friend who also has a soft spot for all things organ meat.

We opted for the large degustation of charcuterie, which permits one to try every sort of pate offering. Favorites include the head cheese, the compote of beef cheeks, the pate grand mere with , and the divine saucisson sec.

I could just sob at the thought of not having ready access to that head cheese.

The degustation also comes with a complete array of condiments. I particularly liked a celeriac salad, but became rather fond of the beet salad and who am I to turn down a cornichon?

By the way, as I type away, I'm also watching old episodes of Julia Child's French Chef. Good lord I love that woman.

I think she'd approve of our lunch, which we started with an order of boudin blanc. I'd like to think she'd agree with our assessment that we were slightly taken advantage of because the boudin came advertised as coming with truffles, and though I could cleary see the truffles, blessed truffles I did not taste.

We had actually wanted to start with a steak tartare, but the kitchen was unwilling to take it off the dinner menu for our purposes. Maybe they weren't done with the prep for the tartare, but that sort of sucked.

Oh Julia is showing how to truss a chicken. Crap. I just trussed three different chickens for Thomas Keller's recipe for basic roast chicken, and I don't think I did it right.

Bar Boulud, 1900 B'way (b/n 63rd and 64th), NY, NY

DBGB Quest Continues

Tuna Crudo: harissa-sesame sauce, cucumber radish, crispy rice

Skate au Pistou: artichokes, tarbais beans, tomato nicoise olive & basil broth

Oysters

Octopus La Plancha: eggplant, tomato, crispy panisse

Duck & Cherries: turnip faci, spinach subric & almonds

DBGB Dog: homemade beef weiner, sauteed onion, mustard ketchup, relish & fries

DBGB, 299 Bowery (@ Houston), New York, NY, 212-933-5300

DBGB Quest Continues

This time my roommate and I practically accosted the poor greeters at DBGB, already a few wine glasses in when we showed up and brazenly and loudly declared that they just had to seat us because we were always there. Then we proceeded to practically shout all of our visits and match them to which week of opening they corresponded to. We were awful, but it worked.



The food outside of the burgers are more impressive. This dish of asparagus with fried egg, duck prosciutto, cracklins and a mustard-egg dressing is excellent. The egg is an example of the kind of technique you can benefit from by dining at DBGB despite being at Boulud's most modestly priced restaurant: it is soft boiled, then fried, then the top is cut off, and the cracklins are sprinkled on top. Lovely broken over the warm and tender asparagus.




Crab cakes made a strong showing.

But we really loved the glazed carrots. Sorry about the over-exposed photo.

My roommate didn't like this spinach dish, but I enjoyed it. It reminded me of the spinach at Spicy Mina. A strong flavor of spice in the background that doesn't overwhelm the taste of spinach, unlike overcooked versions or sloppy spoonfuls of creamed spinach.

Guests seam to love this coffee-caramel sundae, and it's easy to see why. An unpretentious dish, one can dig in with childish delight.

DBGB - the start of a quest

Alongside my desire to try everything on the brunch menu at Prune, I've suddenly decided that it's important that DBGB learn to recognize and love my presence walking through the door. Pretty stupid when you consider that by the time I manage that feat, I'll be leaving for the Windy City.

Well, I started this new mission the first week DBGB officially opened. I'm still kicking myself for not finagling my way in during the soft open. The initial visit consisted of tipsy drinks after a meal at Double Crown.

My roommate and I came back the following week and decided to play it safe and see if these Daniel Boulud Good Burgers are really any good.

The verdict: not if you are a burger connoisseur, which I am not. My medium rare came out medium well, and overall the taste impression was generally not extraordinary. The fries, however, are fantastic.

We also got the spring bean fricassée, which was a bit bland. I tend to prefer blistered spring beans, and this lighter alternative was not yummy enough to compensate for my fallen expectations.

The shelves at DBGB are laden with copper cookware that Daniel asked his chef friends to donate. Funny how they all perfectly match. The first week of opening, many of the pots and pans sported large white tags listing the name of the donor. They've since taken off the tags and now there are white stickers affixed to the shelves with the name. The conceit does not quite work for me, but the pots are the oldest more authentic things in the gleaming concrete and glass restaurant.

DBGB, 299 Bowery (at Houston), New York, NY 212-933-5300

Prune and DBGB: an epic dinner

The globe-trotting bastard consultant and I have been talking about hitting up Prune to try their famed organ meat dishes for ages. No he's not really a bastard, but I hate seeing all of his Facebook postings of various culinary adventures across this fine land and across the pond as well. Hate seeing and can't stop looking.

Since DBGB opened up nearby, we decided to roll that in as well. Thursday night, reservations at Prune at 8:00pm, reservations at DBGB at 9:45pm. All the makings for pure gustatory nirvana.

We started out with a huge lobe of sweetbreads at Prune, deep fried and sitting in a lemon-caper sauce that broke and highlighted the creaminess of the sweetbread. My friend found it too light, but I enjoyed the almost airy texture.


Grilled marinated veal heart with mint-yogurt dressing was also a winner. The sliced heart was tender and delicious, and people it's a dying shame you don't at least expose yourself to beef heart and tongue. I promise you they are both very safe and delicious.

The roasted bone marrow with the side of parsley salad reminded both of us of St. John's preparation in London, except at Prune, they add sliced cornichons to their salad. It was the highlight in an array of strong, well-executed dishes. Topped with a sprinkling of sea salt, the glistening marrow is pure fat-loving ecstasy.

To break up the rich meat dishes, we ordered a side of fresh peas, chanterelles and ricotta. A lovely addition, where each ingredient was able to shine in its own right.

We had time for dessert and went with a huge scoop of ricotta ice cream and salted-caramel croutons. There wasn't a distinct flavor to the ice cream beyond an overarching sense of pure milk, but the cold dessert mingled beautifully with the slightly bitter caramel. The salted croutons could have used more salt and were so inundated in the sauce that it was a tad overwhelming.

All-in-all, Prune kitchen made a very impressive showing.

We had polished off a bottle of red at Prune while enjoying our delicious fare, so were in a right amiable mood but the time we walked through the glass doors of DBGB.

First up, Tablier de Sapeur, including a Lyonnaise-style tripe I had not had before. crispy fried squares of tripe. In the lettuce cup was a more familiar preparation of sliced tripe in a slightly piquant tomato dressing. The fried tripe was fantastic. The multitude of ridges in the cow stomach turned into a thin crispy shell with the application of blistering oil, encasing the pure unadulterated taste of tripe.

The main revelation of the night was Boulud's Pied de Cochon Pané. We had expected a standard preparation not dissimilar to Au Pied de Cochon in Paris, where the pig's feet are just fried whole. We're not huge fans of Au Pied de Cochon's pig's feet, but we just didn't realize life could be better -- and how much better.

Daniel appears to have instructed his chefs to cook the foot whole first, my guess is that it was cooked in a seasoned broth, but I really have no idea. Then most of the main bones are removed from the foot, the whole thing is rolled up, rolled in what appears to have been a seasoned cornmeal flour and deep fried.

At first we were shocked to see what appeared to be a long fried log, and even after we cut in I didn't fully realize what awaited me. I took a bite from what turned out to be the back end of the foot, whereas my friend cut a slice from the front. The back end has more of the meat, and it was fantastic. But then I saw a change of expression on my companion's face, pure silence (which is rare), and he leaned to rest his shoulder on the edge of the table and just chewed with a ridiculous look of pure bliss on his face.

If you are the sort of chap who likes things like pig's feet, DBGB's rendition is absolutely $@!*-ing amazing. When you get a bite with a hearty amount of the thick dense gelatinous part of the foot, which is what my friend got, you get to experience a taste that is beyond good. Go, run, try it my friend.

The food gods must have been smiling on us that night because we got to alternate bites of the pig's feet with another show-stopper: DBGB's Boudin Basque on a bed or scallion mashed potatoes. Nestled in the spicy, iron-rich boudin noir were cubes of meltingly tender meat from the pig's head. The scallion mashed potatoes were perfectly smooth without a hint of gumminess. Someone figured out how to get the potatoes to the smoothest consistency possible without breaking up anymore starchy cells than necessary. It was a bloody perfect dish I tell you.

And on any other day, if the Toulouse sausage didn't have to compete with the Boudin Basque and pied de cochon, it would have received far more adoration that we gave it last night. The cassoulet beans were perfectly cooked. The skins were barely noticeable, allowing us to enjoy the richly seasoned, creamy beans, which were topped by a thin topping of crispy bread crumbs. The sausage was stuffed with pork, duck gizzard, and garlic and had an extremely fatty and strong flavor of offal, depending on which bite of sausage you got.

By now we were finishing up our second bottle of red for the night and we moved on to close with dessert.

We chose the Gâteau Russe with pistachio mousse and rasberry. It was lovely. It was all lovely. A wonderful night.

Prune, 54 E. 1st St. (nr. First Ave.), New York, 212-677-6221

DBGB, 299 Bowery (at Houston), New York, 212, 933-5303

Landmarc for Brunch

After completing our annual AIDS Walk, my friends and I were in sore need of some sustenance. We popped over to the Landmarc in the Time Warner Center, since it was so close to Central Park.

I ordered a frisée aux lardons salad, which had perfectly poached eggs and strong, pungent blue cheese smeared across some very crisp toast. All was well until I discovered a hair, but the waitstaff whisked it away, replaced it with a brand new salad, and didn't charge me for it.

I was half-way through before I noticed the hair, and I probably ate three-quarters of salad number two. No sense in wasting all of that perfectly good bacon.

These hash browns were fantastic. I now love both the hash browns at Blue Water Grill and Landmarc and would strongly back you in any argument where you fought for either based on that side dish alone.

Landmarc, 10 Columbus Circle, 3rd Floor, 212-823-6123

The Mother of All Food Crawls

I was going to write about dinner at Uva with a high school friend visiting with her husband from California, but then I remembered that back in 2005, pre-engagement, the two of them visited and embarked upon the Mother of All Food Crawls.

We're talking fourteen food stops in 48 hours.

View The Mother of All Food Crawls in a larger map

Some were planned, some spontaneous. Myself and two high school friends (G and K) living in New York took around S and A from the Bay Area for a whirlwhind eating tour. I stole these pictures from my friend, and here we go

Day 1, ~10:30 p.m. Sushi Samba, planned
A complimentary appetizer of flash-fried Japanese river crabs because we had to wait a really long time for our table despite making 9:45 p.m. reservations.

Not pictured: edamame, blistered Shishito peppers, fried calamari.

Neo Tokyo Roll (yellowfin tuna, tempura flakes, and aji panca); Green Envy Roll (wasabi pea crust, tuna, salmon, asparagus, and aji); Pacific Roll (king crab, avocado, Asian pear, soy paper, and wasabi-avocado cream).

Two orders of Kampachi (Japanese yellowtail) Sashimi Tiradito with yuzu, black truffle oil, and sea salt.

Yellowtail Ceviche with ginger, garlic and soy.

Miso-marinated Chilean Sea Bass.

Day 1: ~12:00 a.m., Flute Bar, unplanned

Foie gras platter, smoked salmon platter, and bubbly obviously.

Day 1: ~1:00 a.m., L'Express, unplanned

Somehow we decided we needed Dinner #2.

Steak tartare with mesclun greens, moules frites, chocolate mousse cake, tarte tatin.

Day 2: 8:00 a.m., Norma's, planned

We ate family style modified for individual orders, while sitting around a circular table. Five people, five dishes, eat one-fifth, pass to left.

Seared rock lobster and asparagus omelette with home fries.

Crab cakes spice with Habanero peppers with dill yogurt mustard sauce.

Mandarin Orange French Toast.

Artichoke Benedict

Day 2, ~10:00 a.m., nap

Four friends passed out on my bed.

Day 2, ~12:30 p.m., Rice to Riches, unplanned

Marscapone rice pudding.

Pear rice pudding.

Day 2: ~1:30 p.m., Cafe Habana, planned

Mexican grilled corn with this delicious mayonnaise slathered all over; chicken diablo sandwich with fries; avocado and white cheese sandwich with fries; Cuban sandwich with fries, chicken dish with beans.

Someone couldn't wait for the food-paparazzi picture.

Day 2: ~3:30 p.m., il laboratorio del gelato, planned

Twelve flavors available, five people, 2 flavors per small serving, the solution seemed obvious.

Which two flavors did we not want to try?

Chocolate gelato, rum raisin gelato, vanilla rum gelato, peanut butter gelato, papaya sorbet, tangerine sorbet, coffee gelato, green tea gelato, raspberry gelato, lemon sorbet.

Day 2: ~6:30 p.m., Joe Shanghai, planned

Three orders of crab and pork soup dumplings, one order of pork soup dumplings, one order of string beans with pickles.

Day 2, ~9:00 p.m., A Salt & Battery, planned

It's so sad, the Second Avenue location has closed. You'll have to go to the west side for your fish 'n chips fix now.

One large order of cod bites, one small order of chips.

Gone in no time. End of a long day, but we've still got it!

Day 3: ~8:00 a.m., Le Pain Quotidien, planned

I like the 19th street location best because they bake the bread there.

One Tuscan Platter of Parmesan, ham, tapenade, the some amazing ricotta, pesto, sun dried tomatoes, olives and greens.

Mesclun greens salad.

Two orders of baguette with jam and praline spread.

Day 3: ~10:30 a.m., Artisanal, unplanned

Large basket of gougeres.

Sinful Experience Flight: Humboldt Fog (goat, California, airy yet rich, tangy finish); Brillat Savarin (cow, French, velvety, neutral to pronounced; Robiolo Due Latte (cow, Italy: yielding, lactic subtle).

Sampled of cheese condiments and some Langres to the left (cow, France, salty but not too aggressive, smoky)

Great Iberian Peninsula Flight: Serra de Estrella (sheep, Portugal, rich, intense, subtle toffee finish); Pau (goat, Spain, creamy, slightly sweet and nutty); Cabrales (3-milk, Spain, complex, buttery, numbingly intense)

Day 3: ~1:30 p.m. Alice's Tea Cup, planned

We went to the UWS location, but they've got the east side covered now too.

Scones: pumpkin, orange walnut, strawberry chocolate, banana butterscotch.

Clotted cream and jam.

Carrot-Cumin Sandwich.

Alice's tea and Rooibus Bourbon tea.

Day 3: ~6:00 p.m., Ota-Ya, planned

Sadly, this place has closed down. They had the best tempura. Now the next best option in the neighborhood is Tenzan for fantastic rolls.

Shrimp tempura.

Black Draft Roll, Crispy Salmon Roll, Mexican Roll, Volcano Roll, three orders of "white tuna" sashimi.

Day 3: ~8:30 p.m., Chola Eclectic, planned

Uttapam (rice and lentil vegetable pancake)

Chicken chutneywalla (curried mango chicken, mint, coriander, fresh ginger); Goa fish curry (spiced Chilean Sea Bass, fresh coconut, tamarind, chili-tomato sauce); Murli's chingri malai (spiced shrimp, raisins, ginger, fennel infused, tomatoes-coconut sauce); Bhindi masala (sauteed okra, onions, bell peppers, ginger, fresh tomatoes.)