Purple Pig

Spring Peas with Farro, Feta & Mint

I am quickly becoming obsessed with Purple Pig. It's really close to my apartment, and the food is so good.

Continuing on the food tour with the hometown gang: Bastard Consultant, Dr. Consultant, and Pesky Pescatarian, we hit up Purple Pig with an intention to try more of its spring-themed and seafood offerings.

Shaved Green Asparagus with Pecorino Noce & Parmigiano Reggiano

Shaved asparagus that had a touch of acidity. I prefer my asparagus more when its been steamed or roasted, but there was nothing wrong with this and PP who lives tart foods enjoyed this a lot.

Braised Baby Artichokes with Fingerling Potatoes, Asiago & Salami Toscana


Mussels with Treviso, Serrano Chiles, Citrus Fruit & Gaeta Olives

I really love this mussels dish. I've never had a salad with fried mussels and citrus before, and I wouldn't mind so much if a small craze took on and it popped up in more restaurants.

Halibut Cheeks with Gaeta Olive Aioli

Fried halibut cheeks. We were really excited about this dish, but it turned out to be fine but certainly not extraordinary.

Mixed Greens with Feta, Watermelon Radishes & Fed Wine Mint Vinaigrette

Watermelon radish is an unappreciated root vegetable.

Deviled Egg with Arugula & Caper Berries

Bastard Consultant doesn't like hard boiled egg as it reminds him of foot. BC also can't go to bed if he hasn't showered first. I love sleep, and that seems highly inconvenient.


We drank Rocca "Copertino" with our meal.

Roasted Bone Marrow with Herbs

Seeing BC's longing looks, I acquiesced to the Roasted Bone Marrow Order. I didn't approve of the salt choice. It looked like kosher, when clearly sea salt or Maldon salt was called for, and it really made a difference. Of course, the marrow was still good, but I think you need a salt with more texture for a dish like this. I'm not sure why, but I've noticed with other salts, it can really help bring out the unctuousness of the warm marrow.

Sepia with Snap Peas & Toasted Almonds

This was an amazing dish. It's no longer on the menu, so your life sort of sucks until spring rolls back around, but the combination of snow peas and squid was perfect.

Wagyu Sirloin Tip with Charred Green & White Asparagus, Spring Onions & Piquillo Peppers

I don't normally think of ordering Wagyu at small plates joints, but I'm really glad my classmate convinced me to order it at the last visit because I knew Dr. Consultant would really enjoy it. It's meltingly rich and a fine fine plate of meat.

Pig's Tails Braised in Balsamic

Bastard Consultant and I forgot about ordering this dish, but we are happy that we didn't think to cancel it, as the pork tails braised in balsamic topped with some chopped hard boiled egg was really a delicious surprise. The acidity of the balsamic helped cut the fattiness of the tail and the sweetness of the vinegar augmented the flavor of the pork.

Eating this dish made me understand why Laura Ingalls of Little House in the Big Woods so looked forward to eating the pig's tail during butchering time. I have had pig's tail once before at Au Pied de Cochon, where it was deep fried and didn't much like it. I think that restaurant is sort of tacky.

Charred Ramps & Scallions with Romesco Sauce

More grilled ramps. I've decided that I need to order ramps whenever I can because last year I thought they weren't so exciting before and didn't get my season's fill. Never again will I neglect you my beloved ramps.

The Sicilian Iris. As a reminder, it's ricotta and chocolate chip in a fried brioche.

Sinful.

A new devilishly delicious find is the Butterscotch Budino. I wish they would have taken a torch over the pudding after they pulled it out of the fridge because the sight of condensation on the dessert was unappetizing. That aside, however, this was a rich, satisfying, salty-sweet conclusion to a meal filled with a lot of laughter and general feelings of happiness.

Purple Pig, 500 North Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL

Queens Food Crawl: Street Fair

When we stumbled out of the subway into Jackson Heights, the heady aroma of beef on an open grill wafted around us, and I was greeted by this vision of beauty.

I was mesmerized and could not tear myself away. I really couldn't afford to eat a whole steak with all of Jackson Heights awaiting me, but I couldn't really bear to walk away either. Finally, the proprieter of the Brazilian meat stand took pity on me and gave me a sample. It was exactly what I wanted, a tender juicy piece of seared beef.

Schiller's

Ugh, I had people over for dinner, and as I was putting away my baking pans I slit the back of my hand against the sharp metal inner edge of the drawer underneath my oven. Stupid drawer.

This picture of a Schiller's steak frites with perfect fries and melting butter is helping me to feel a little better.

Schiller's, 131 Rivington, New York, NY

Employees Only

Bone Marrow Poppers at Employees Only. Was jumping out of my pants excited to order these, and effectively did a poor job of managing the ole' expectations. Good, but not eyes roll back into your head delicious. The puff pastry wasn't puffed enough, and who knows what in the world those microgreens are doing on top of the marrow. They add nothing.

Employees Only, 510 Hudston St. (b/n W. 10th and Christopher), NY, NY

Taco Party Part 4

The fish was sliced, marinated, battered and deep fried. And the assembling could begin!

We decided the best combination was some cabbage salad, kimchee, a spicy habanero mayo, some mango salsa and a battered fried fish piece atop a piping hot fresh tortilla.

Yum yum YUM yum yum.

Some flan for dessert to round out the evening, and all was right in the world.

Taco Party Part 1

Oh boy I'm going to do my best to make you envious. I figure, if I suffer from the deadly sin of gluttony, I don't see why you shouldn't at least take on envy. I believe in fairness, even if I don't seem to believe in staying out of hell.

My friend of taco party fame and I co-hosted another one at my place. Someone has got to be pretty hot with a skillet for me to let him cook in my kitchen, and said friend easily makes the cut. I like to believe that I added some finesse to his taco genius, by suggesting we try some fancy mayos and stuff, but mainly it was me mooching some glory off my friend.

Don't you just love meat on a grill? It's one of the better looking, better smelling, better tasting things in life.

I mean, think about it, well-marinated, juicy flank steak, hot off a searingly hot cooktop and super pink inside.

You feelin' the envy? I hope so. Just looking at this meat sort of makes me want to lick the screen.

Aburiya Kinnosuke

My intimacy with Japanese food beyond the world of sushi is a rather new relationship. Though I started eating sushi nearly twenty years ago, while still a child in elementary school, I grew up thinking sushi encompassed the bulk of Japanese cuisine, and was therefore everyday food. An invitation while in high school to a Japanese New Year celebration at a friend's home, with every available flat surface of the home covered with platters of beautifully and meticulously prepared food, was my first indication that the world of Japanese food extended far beyond the borders of maki, nigiri and sashimi. But it was only when I moved to New York that I began to slowly explore the contours of this multi-faceted cuisine.

Aburiya Kinnosuke in a restaurant tucked away in a corner of Midtown, and a recent visit had me marvelling at stumbling upon yet another Japanese restaurant in Manhattan whose menu and clientele bespoke more of their mother country than anything reflecting America's melting pot.

It can be difficult navigating menus for cuisines with which one is not familiar, with no personal history to hint at which dishes are likely to be extraordinary. At Sigiri and Saravannaas, I struggled to choose amongst an array of equally meaningless dish titles.

But at Sigiri's I started out with a guide: a friend who had visited before, and at Saravanaas, I had perused restaurant reviews. My dining companion had suggested Aburiya for dinner but hadn't visited himself, and in a moment of recklessness and sloth had failed to do the appropriate research prior to our visit.

As a result, there not was noted by its fireworks, but rather became the examination of several carefully prepared dishes that were all good, sometimes noteworthy of pause, but they also failed to elicit exclamations of delight just as often.

What I'm really saying is that I think Aburiya may be really good. But we screwed up on the ordering because we had no idea what we were doing, but I see potential.

It is also a place that screams authentically Japanese, and a visit to expand your understanding of what that means can only but do you good.

Aburiya Kinnosuke, 213 E. 45th St. (b/n 3rd and 2nd), New York, NY, 212-867-5454

Trestle on Tenth

It's a bit out of the way, but if my brunch was any indication, Trestle on Tenth is a lovely spot. We got a veal tongue and chicken liver pate. My dining companion was relatively unimpressed by the tongue, but I found it tender and loved dusting it with the crush pink peppercorn accompaniment.

The fried shallots on these roasted white turnips are really, I mean really, something to write home about. Imagine a fantasy of perfectly fried shallots and you will have imagined Trestle on Tenth's. Paper thin, crispy and deliciously salty, apparently the kitchen lets the staff take home a bowl of it there are extras that night. Our waitress commented on how this was a problem, and she had to work hard to avoid it. Now, our waitress was perfectly amiable, but who is to fuss at taking home a pot of gold? Where are people's priorities these days?

Then we finished with duck confit hash and with poached egg and sauce bearnaise. I'm not a huge fan of duck confit, preferring the more succulent Peking duck or seared duck breast, but the salty confit worked well with the creamy egg and potatoes. Well, it would have worked better had the dish been slightly less salty, but despite the sodium profusion it was still really good.

My experience at Trestle on Tenth was good enough that I wish I could find a way to go back, but with not even three weeks left before I leave New York, that's going to be a tall order.

Trestle on Tenth, 242 Tenth Ave. (@ 24th St.), New York, NY 212-645-5659

Dogmatic

If you love a good sausage, something special is happening in the Flatiron. Dogmatic has opened up this summer, and this tiny kitchen is sending out at a fast and furious pace piping hot sausages nestled in creamy gourmet sauces.

Instead of bun, the sausages are shoved into sawed off baguettes (the friendly cousin to the sawed-off shotgun), which are toasted in this ingenious contraption. Why didn't I think of this? Do you have any idea how cool you would be if you arrived in a park on July 4th and these metal poles were part of your grilling setup? You'd be king of the hill buddy. King of the hill.

My first time I got pork sausage with horseradish mustard. My second visit I knew I should branch out, but I couldn't help myself and got pork with horseradish mustard. But I did vary it up and get the mac 'n cheese, which appears to have been cooked with the truffle gruyere sauce. The third time I went I forced myself to stray the line and got beef with cheddar jalapeno along with a side of grilled asparagus.

tossed in those orders are a homemade coconut soda and ginger soda. All good.

And at $4.50 a sausage-dog, there's no reason why you can't up my three visits and just try the whole menu. It'll give yourself something meaningful to do for the rest of the summer.

Dogmatic, 26 E. 17th St. (b/n B'way and 5th), New York, NY

Amertha Bali Villas - part two

We had dinner at Amertha Bali Villas twice. The second night we had a Tom Kha soup that was a bit too watery, and you couldn't taste the coconut enough, but overall it was decent.

The Vietnamese summer rolls were beyond awful though. They had huge sticks of cucumber and carrot that were wholly unappetizing, and were inexplicably served with a soy based sauce.

We both decided to try Indonesian entrees, and I opted for Babi Kecap, which is basically pork in a sweet soy sauce. The meat in Indonesia we had was universally more tough than what I've been used to consuming in America. I presume this is in part due to the lack of a large CAFO complex to raise protein in Indonesia. Tough pork aside, the dish was not good. I generally found that the sauces for the Indonesian dished we had lacked complexity and were too sweet.

My brother's choice of Beef Rendang was not better. Same problems of tough meat, overly sweet sauce that didn't offer a very interesting taste profile.

I'll say this for Amertha Bali though, they make a really good oatmeal for breakfast. It's a tad on the watery side, but it has a good amount of cream in it, and it's served with brown sugar and raisins for you to add to taste.

Amertha Bali Villas, Pemuteran, Bali, Indonesia

Ben & Jack's Steakhouse: meat fest

A friend recommended Ben and Jack's as an alternative to Peter Luger and an alternative to Wolfgang's.

As I stressed more than I should have about what the guys from land-of-slovenly-dress aka Richmond/Sunset district in San Francisco would wear to a steakhouse that turned out to be ridiculously casual, dumb kid brother focused on getting excited about the bacon, which was delicious.

This rib eye, on the other hand, was a monster. It was bigger than my roommate's head, and she's the one that ordered it.

The porterhouse for four came out sizzling, and that first bite of great steak is always a small touch of heaven on earth.

Everything was delicious. In the end, the bastard consultant and I decided that the meat at Peter Luger's was a whisper better, just that much more silky and rich. Still, Ben and Jack's will more than do if you're like me and too lazy to do the reservation dance and make it out to Brooklyn. You can ask one of the two from me, but both at once is not something that will be easily repeated.

Ben and Jack's, 44th b/n 2nd and 3rd, New York, NY

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