Off to Boston + Weekly Wrap Up!

Am heading off to Boston today!!! Just wanted to thank everyone for all the incredibly helpful restaurant recommendations via email and comments. It's bound to be a delicious trip :)

Below, a photo wrap-up of odds and ends from the past week.

1. Sunday lunch to-go from the new Upper East Side location of Shake Shack. I went with Phyllis who was delighted by the fact that she could go straight to the C-line if she had her baby + stroller with her...aka no wait during prime eating hours! One Shack Burger and Fries to start the day. Then it was off to Open Houses and showing appointments till the evening.

2. Saturday night dinner with Monsieur P at Scarpetta. We came at 10pm, no wait for two bar seats. Their excellent bread basket arrived quickly, with a trio of accompaniments: mascarpone-butter, an anchovy-kissed eggplant caponata , and citrus-herb olive oil. I dove for the still warm stromboli first, olive oil-brushed with layers of salami, basil, melting smoked mozzarella, and cherry tomatoes.

We shared an appetizer of Raw Yellowtail with olio di zenzero and flaked sea salt, and two pastas. First their oh-so popular and insanely expensive Spaghetti with Tomato and Basil ($24!!) and the Black Tagliolini with Mixed Seafood, Sea Urchin & Minted Bread Crumbs ($26). The dishes were fantastic but not worth the price tag...not even close. You gotta read this Serious Eats post for more information on the pasta. I'm glad I tried it, but won't return for a second visit.

The service at the bar was terrible. We had a bartender/waiter hovering over us the entire meal, and he tried to swipe away dishes before we were even close to finishing...multiple times! On one instance I still had my pasta fork in hand and he slipped the plate out from under me. I had to ask for it back...at least five bites left in there! I was close to grabbing his hand and saying PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH MY PLATE. And to top it off, the bar was only half full. Incredibly annoying. Drinks and dinner was about $150 and took less than an hour.
We squeezed dessert in that hour too. A Rhubarb Cake with Buttermilk Ice Cream and Muscat Jelly. And then a plate of mignardises with the check. Service can certainly ruin a dinner. In this case it did.

3. Baguette slices, pan-fried, buttered and covered in Grana Padano. The PR people for Grana Padano recently sent me a pound of the Italian cheese, and I've been incorporating the cheese into everything this past week! Fresh pesto with fusilli, scrambled eggs, and heirloom tomatoes just to mention a few.

4. Chiangmai Noodles in Curry Sauce...my new favourite menu item from Galanga in the West Village. Monsieur P always gets the Drunken Noodles. Our orders are pretty straightforward, and we come here on nights we crave simple and reliable, no surprises only satisfaction.

5. I've been cooking dinner fairly "often" (two times a week). I usually get back to the apartment before Monsieur P, but on the nights I return later and need a little prep help, I set everything up neatly with simple notes. The photo above is for local-style Chicken Long Rice, a Hawaiian staple I grew up with in Hawai'i. I remember when the school cafeteria would have it for lunch, it was seriously the best thing ever and I would always go back for seconds and thirds!! The recipe is simple:

1 package long rice (3 bundles)
12 dried shitake mushrooms
16 ounces chicken broth
1 knob ginger, peeled and minced
1 pound chicken thighs, boiled and shredded
soy sauce, to taste
sesame oil, to taste
green onions, chopped

First, soak the shitake mushrooms and long rice (in separate bowls!) of warm water to soften, about 30 minutes. Drain the noodles, rinse, and cut in half with scissors. Drain the shitake mushrooms and slice thinly. Put the shitake mushrooms, chicken broth, minced ginger and shredded chicken in a deep saucepan. Bring to a boil and add the soften long rice. Add a splash of soy sauce, and sesame oil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until you get a consistency in which the noodles are "wet" but not soupy. Add the chopped green onions and...
...serve! Usually I have a side dish with this - a pound of crispy roast pork from Chinatown or pork lau lau. Finish with a square of haupia for dessert, and ahhh, bliss indeed!


Shake Shake (UES)
154 East 86th Street
New York, NY 10028
(646) 237-5035

Scarpetta
355 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10014
(212) 691-0555

Galanga
149 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10012
(212) 228-4267