NYC: Friday Supper: Gramercy Tavern

Sweetbreads and Squash

Friday night supper with Monsieur P. Gramercy Tavern is our go-to restaurant when it's just the two of us and we crave something more upscale than our affair with Otto, but nothing fancy.

We often take advantage of the $38 three-course dinner, offered every evening after 5:30pm, but this time around I went the a la carte route while Monsieur P did the three-course menu.

I started with an appetizer of Sweetbreads (pictured at top), served with summer squash, shishito peppers on a base of creamy, earthy mushroom purée and then had the Mushroom Lasagna as my entree. Do you remember the very first time I had this pasta? April 2008! The dish, most thankfully, has not changed at all. A classic.

The three-course menu gives you a pick from three appetizers, three entrees and anything off the dessert menu. Lamb Pappardelle is our favourite of the appetizers and seems to always be one of the three options. The pasta is made in-house, wide, supple ribbons tossed with a lamb ragu, black olives, lemon confit and swiss chard.

The Roasted Hanger Steak is also a mainstay as one of the entree options. Accompaniments to the steak change with season, and for the fall it comes with fingerling potatoes, red Russian kale and killer bourbon sauce that we proceeded to wipe clean with the bread.

And for dessert? Though there were pumpkin sweets on the menu, I can never pass on Nancy Olson's Apple Pie, a generous wedge of tender apples neatly tucked into the buttery crust. I like to chip off the entire crust edge first, spoon some cinnamon sour cream ice cream over the crust, and get it all in one big bite. Oh, the pleasure! And yes, that goes for the base of candied walnuts as well ;)

There were a few minor service mishaps (the waitress forgot what we ordered - multiple times throughout the meal), and the kitchen graciously sent out the Chef's Selection of Farmstead Cheeses. From left to right, Cremont, beautiful and perfectly ripe, all oozy right beneath the rind, a goat and cow's milk from Websterville, Vermont; Maidenhead, a raw cow's milk from Lawrenceville, New Jersey; and on the right Ewe's Blue, a sheep milk cheese from Old Chatham, New York. Monsieur P was too full by this point, so I gladly had all the cheese, almonds & honey, and bread on my own.

Then. Close to midnight, it was back out into the cold and wind after an incredibly satisfying meal. A 10-minute search for a cab before diving under the covers at home, hot tea on the nightstand and heater on high. It feels like winter already!

Gramercy Tavern
42 East 20th Street
New York, NY 10003
(212) 477-0777

Sugar Rush'ed...

...for the week at Serious Eats New York. Plus 'Lunch for One' at Rai Rai Ken and Radiance Tea House ^_^

Lunch for One: Mapo Ramen at Rai Rai Ken

Sugar Rush: Pistachio Icebox at Little Cupcake Bakeshop

Sugar Rush: Robicelli's Butternut Spice Cupcakes

Lunch for One: Radiance Tea House

Sugar Rush: Danish Bread at Panya

Sugar Rush: Caracas at La Maison du Chocolat

Sugar Rush: Root Beer Cookies and Ice Cream at Ruby et Violette...
...here's the Black Forest Ice Cream, and here's the cookie dough ice creams menu :)

NYC: Matcha Gelato at L'arte del Gelato

Sorry I haven't been much of a blogger as of late. Real estate work has me fully consumed (which manages to be both thrilling and exhausting at the same time!), and I've barely had a day to sit and breath ...brreeeeathhh...

But there always is time for gelato.

And will you look at what I recently spotted at my favourite gelateria in the city, L'arte del Gelato...Matcha Gelato! It's a surprisingly mild, creamy matcha, no intensity of any sort, just clean and simple goodness. If you're curious, the pale yellow scoop hiding in the back is Banana Gelato. Now that's intense. A pure, sweet, overripe banana in the luxurious form of frozen cream. Once in big while the owners churn out batches of banana gelato with dark chocolate streaks, like a gorgeous banana stracciatella (only they give it the more boring, straightforward name of Chocolate-Banana Gelato). Either way, deliciousness all around.

L'arte del Gelato
75 7th Avenue South
New York NY 10014
212-924-0803

Sugar Rush'ed...

bisous, ciao on the LES

...for the week at Serious Eats New York. Plus 'Lunch for One' at Locanda Verde and Akdeniz, and a quick peek at the new Lower East Side macaron shop, bisous, ciao.

Lunch for One: Akdeniz Turkish Cuisine

Sugar Rush: Black Sesame and Pumpkin Cheesecake Soft Serve at Momofuku Milk Bar...
...and the Concord Grape Butter! :)

Sugar Rush: Honeycomb from Liddabit Sweets

Lunch for One: Pumpkin Agnolotti at Locanda Verde

Sugar Rush: Macarons by bisous, ciao

Sugar Rush: Pumpkin Doughnuts at Doughnut Plant

Sugar Rush: Zenzai at Cha An

Hope everyone has a great weekend! ^_^

France; Pierre Hermé. In Paris...

...we ate sweets, all day and all night. Early morning wake up in the cool air, and a jaunt to nearby Pierre Hermé where even Monsieur P's jaded eyes were won over by colorful rows of macarons, chocolates and picture perfect Ispahans and mille-feuilles.

Croissants were on the agenda, both a fine original and a decadent Ispahan croissant, the latter donning a glazed exterior flecked in crushed rose petals, and an interior filled with rose marzipan and raspberry and lychee gelée.

With goodies in hand, it's only a block away to Café de la Mairie, where they gladly allow you to devour the pastries with a daily café express.

But don't you forget, man cannot live by croissant alone! That's why there is canelé! At Pierre Hermé they were thoughtfully arranged next to the croissants (and to the left of gingerbread brioche, which will get to later ;), like little soldiers, each one a vision of perfection. Dark, caramelized crusts, and a creamy, custardy interior dotted in vanilla beans. I deeply regret not tucking away a dozen in my suitcase for the return trip to NYC.

Would you like to see the interior? Apologies, it's somewhat ragged looking and doesn't do the canelé justice. Monsieur P had bite, I had a bite, and only then did I think to take an interior photo!

And here is the brioche! Gorgeous, no? Not simply any old brioche, but one with a finish of crunchy chocolate pearls, and paired with a gingerbread and banana-kissed marzipan.

Almost, to beautiful to eat.

That, for us, was Pierre Hermé in the mornings. Pierre Hermé in the afternoons were a completely different affair. After lunch and lots and lots of shopping, we'd duck back into the comforting arms of the patisserie for our afternoon goûter.

For what in particular? Macarons, of course! The Olive Oil + Vanilla Macaron was the unanimous favourite, and featured a sliver of salty green olive at the very center...

...my love affair however, was surprisingly not with macarons, but the Deux Mille Feuilles, which translates to "2000 Feuilles" and is truly a magical creation. Layers upon layers of caramelized puff pastry, with a trio of fillings. At the bottom, luxe chocolate cream, rich enough to border on ganache and studded with hazelnuts, then a thin layer of praline right above and finally, whipped hazelnut praline cream closest to the top. Yes, swoon.

I'm about thisclose to successfully convincing Monsieur P that perhaps we need to/should/would love to return to Paris again this winter. After all, we've utterly failed to find a remotely comparable mille feuille (much less deux mille feuilles!) in NYC. Wouldn't you agree that's reason enough?

Pierre Hermé
72, rue Bonaparte
75006 Paris
+33 (1) 43 54 47 77

NYC: Weekend Eats: New Amsterdam Market, Otto, and ABC Kitchen

Jasper Hill Farm: Moses Sleeper (Raw Cow's Milk Cheese)

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'll get all the France posts up soon, but here's a taste of NYC in the meantime :)

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After my Open House yesterday, I went down to the New Amsterdam Market for some quality alone time. The market is at the Fulton Fish Market all the way downtown and it took me an hour to get there from Chelsea with all the subway and bus changes...everything was out of service! Man. Once I was there, I dove straight for a beautiful loaf of Cabernet Rustica ($3) from Orwasher's Bakery. This bread is one the four types of wine breads that Orwasher produces from their Upper East Side bakery.

I then walked a few stands over to Saxelby Cheesemongers for a quarter pound of Moses Sleeper from Jasper Hill Farm, a bloomy, soft, and mild raw cow's milk comparable to camembert (though this is more earthy, mushroom-y) and priced at $20 per pound. Oh! And if you're a fan of blue cheese, Jasper Hill Farm also makes my favorite blue of all time: the Bayley Hazen Blue, nutty and grassy, a dry blue. You might recall this as the cheese I used to sneak into the movies with a bottle of wine, hehe ;)

And just to balance out my lunch, one last stop at Table Tales for a small serving of penne pasta with Sunday Gravy ($5), a truly warm and hearty concoction of slow braised pork, sausages, and beef meatballs, and San Marzano tomatoes. I also got a jar of their Tomato-Basil Sauce ($6) for a simple weeknight dinner. I brought my pile of food to a nearby bench and had an afternoon feast with views of the water. Not bad, huh? ;)

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Two seasonal favourites at Otto. This is the single restaurant I visit most often in NYC, and for good reason! Seats at the bar are best, for it's a completely different (inferior) dining experience when you're at table in the dining room (loud! impersonal! chaotic!). But onto the good things! First, the Bucatini alla Pastora ($12), an addictive saucy pasta finish with plops of creamy, silky fresh ricotta. You'll want extra bread to go with this dish...soak up alll the gravy. They featured this same dish around January last year, so here's hoping it will appear frequently as a weekly special during the cold months.

...and the Heirloom Caprese Salad ($16). Sliced local tomatoes, a drizzle of olive oil, sea salt and a whole ball of fresh mozzarella, quartered. All the other Otto salads are priced at $8, so this one is a double splurge, but definitely worth it.

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ABC Kitchen: Chicken Liver Toast

Monsieur P and I have been on a movie watching spree lately, watching one a week for the last three weeks! Can you believe that tickets are nearly $13 a person for the theatres??! Crazy. We saw The Social Network the first week, then Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps the following week. I absolutely loved the first Wall Street, but this sequel was mediocre at best. The only thing I enjoyed about the movie was seeing the loft that Shia LaBeouf's character owns. He sells it for $4.5M in the movie (with original asking of $6M). But in "real life" that loft is not a 1-bedroom loft, but a 10-bedroom penthouse loft at 31 West 21st Street for sale at $15M. Mind boggling.

ABC Kitchen: House Cut Fries

This week we saw The Town which was a solid, action/suspense film. In one scene of the movie they mention Dorchester, a not-so-safe neighborhood in Boston that happens to have a ton of great Vietnamese restaurants. My parents and I drove to that neighborhood when we visited Boston in August and there was a shooting in the neighborhood that very evening. Scary, and won't be returning, but our dinner at Pho Hoa Restuarant was quite good.

Our movie finished just after 11pm and we walked a block south to ABC Kitchen for late and light dinner. Cocktails and a few shared dishes...Chicken Liver Toast ($9), and a bowl of House Cut Fries ($6) tossed with fried parsley, ketchup on the side. They were kind enough to split our potions of Housemade Ricotta Ravioli ($14) onto individual plates, served with sauteed field greens, olive oil, and lemon.

My favorite dish of the night was the Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad ($13). The carrots were spicy and tender, the avocado perfectly ripe. A mix of toasted, crunchy seeds and croutons topped the salad along with a dollop of sour cream. Who needs dressing when you have sour cream, right? :) Note, the photo above is also of a half-portion.

...And that was my weekend! Now onto another week...fingers crossed this will be a good one!

Addresses:
New Amsterdam Market
Sundays 11am-4pm at the Fulton Fish Market
Check website for schedule as they're not open every Sunday

Otto
1 Fifth Avenue
NY, NY 10003
(212) 995-9559

ABC Kitchen
35 E 18th Street
NY, NY 10003
(212) 475-5829

Sugar Rushed...

...for the week at Serious Eats New York. Plus, my top five favourite desserts from SWEET 2010, and 'Lunch for One' at the newest location of Birdbath Bakery in Tribeca.

SWEET 2010: The Top Five Desserts

Good Morning: Spice Muffins at ABC Kitchen

Sugar Rush: Honey and Agave Lemonade and Limeade at Three Tarts


Lunch for One: Birdbath Tribeca

Sugar Rush: Raspberry Lemon Pudding at Buttercup Bake Shop

Sugar Rush: Christopher Norman's Hot Chocolate and Brownies

Sugar Rush: Les Canelés de Céline

Hope everyone has a great weekend!