This week got us back to KIN SHOP and our first time to the new “grand cafe” LAFAYETTE. To the former we give a yum and to the latter a reserved ho-hum. I’ve gone on about KIN SHOP before: Harold Dieterle’s modern and fresh yet reassuring classic take on Thai. As with this Top Chef’s other ventures, PERILLA and THE MARROW, there’s a soul and intimacy to his cooking and something welcoming to his restaurant [...]
A bike basket of bao from BAOHAUS, NYC is absolute bun yum!!! Amazing taste and texture come together with these Taiwanese-edged street food eats. The BirdHaus Bao’s got 24 hours of brining and the Waygu Haus beef is from Snake River Farms at this hole in the wall where the buns could be some of the city’s best. BAOHAUS, 238 East 14th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Avenues), East Village, New York City. Open daily [...]
Welcome to the Borscht Belt circa 2013 at KUTSHER’S TRIBECA. You’ll need to use your imagination and, perhaps a reference to a bit of Dirty Dancing at this throwback, if in essence name only, to the Catskills of yore. At this Kutsher’s it’s all about up-to-date culinary takes on schmaltzy Jewish classics that make for a fine Passover holiday dine. Yes, there’s the brisket: in this age of pedigree food purveyors it makes sense that [...]
Sounds off-putting, a liquid paste of wheat flour and boiled oct0pus but, really, there’s something to these Japanese “takoyaki” balls. At OTAFUKU, NYC, the glutinous mixture of the takoyaki is grilled in special spherical pans to create a wonderfully crunchy skin. Once done they are finished off with a squeeze of sweet okanomiyaki sauce and spicy mayo and then topped with a shake of grated seaweed and bonito flakes. I’ve never been to Japan but [...]
At OTTO, the restaurant viagra cheap at One Fifth Avenue, a 1927 Art Deco apartment house at the corner of 8th Street in Greenwich Village, you’re in for some rustic Italian eats courtesy of the media-meal-man of Food Network fame, Mario Batali. He’s often in residence and easy to spot – there’s no mistaking the signature trademarks of thinning ginger frocks and fulsome girth atop the Crocs of this chef and restauranteur extradordinaire. Years ago [...]
This year for Valentine’s Day I skipped over the chocolates and passed on the flowers. Was a time these would be top items in the romance offerings but alas they seem pointless while my love remains unrequited. Nope, this year I will have to make do with a tart. Make that a yuzu tart from the Parisian ERIC KAYSER, a recent import that is nestled in the very un-Parisian environs of New York City’s Upper [...]
If a big rise is on your mind don’t get too excited about the loaves at the PALM BEACH BAKERY & CAFE. However, if dense, dark and toothsome is what you’re after in a loaf then search no further than the ruis limppu aka rye bread. Forget the seeded rye of that delicious pastrami sandwich you had at Katz’s Delicatessen – lofty and soft may be a perfect mate to that meat but the problem [...]
The hostess, dwarfed by mural-sized art and double-height ceilings, asked if I had a reservation for a table. I happily smiled and said no as I eyed my friend with the seat next to him occupied by his briefcase at the soon-to-be-packed bar at the Union Square Cafe. This defining culinary counter for contemporary-minded American cuisine has been going strong for more than a quarter century. Except for a few slight changes – the shelves [...]
Last year it was a prune, albeit an Italian one covered in dark chocolate. Mysterious, bittersweet and satisfying, I fell in love with the MARANGONI CIOCCOLATO at LA FROMAGERIE in London. In the abyss of grief following a breakup it was an all consuming experience, one that was more than I could have hoped for, proving that if you can’t have the plum then, alas, you can more than make do with a prune. This [...]
CRUMBS BAKE SHOP, is a bakery that ain’t. Ain’t what you ask? Ain’t a bakery because nothing, I repeat, nothing is ever baked at your local Crumbs Bake Shop. In the world of bakery theme park-like attractions there is something very satisfying to the nostalgia-minded Sensurround you experience at shops like BILLY’S BAKERY and MAGNOLIA BAKERY. While they are both commercial minded bakeries (no baking school grads or mom-and-pop in residence) stop by either of these cupcakeries [...]
