Le Bernardin

“I still remember that cod dish” said Cresci 10 days after our very long and large meal at Le Bernardin, where we had made plans to visit together more than a year ago but finally had the occasion to do so, him to celebrate his new job and me with my upcoming move. We chose Le Bernardin because we both share a love for the TV show “Top Chef” and an admiration for one of its frequent guest judge, the restaurant’s chef-owner Eric Ripert. While some of the chefs sometimes seem overly cocky or self-promoting, Chef Ripert always seemed down to earth, thoughtful and serious about his craft. Plus the food at his restaurant just looked so picture-perfect that we had, had to try it at least once.

Oyster flight

Since it was a special occasion, we splurged on the chef’s tasting. An amuse of poached oyster with mushroom/truffle emulsion teased the palate with an initial metallic taste of oyster ending with a rich earthiness courtesy of the fungi. After that a generous tasting of 6 kumamotos, not particularly big but fresh and sweet, each topped with a different gelee in a progression from mild to robust flavors.

Egg - Caviar

Next a simple but decadent dish, a poached egg topped by pearly grains of osetra caviar, much sweeter than the more commercial and less expensive variety. Love the contrasts of texture between the liquid silk of the creamy yolk and the pop of caviar roe in the mouth.

ScallopThe scallop dish with goat cheese was probably the dish that made me think, but also probably my least favorite. Even though the scallop was seared ultra-rare, I tend to prefer my scallops raw. The emulsion was also kind of weird and eh...Halibut

A simple dish of poached halibut then served with a light gingery broth showed off the pristine piece of fish. A mix of cooked turnips and raw radish halves, the ginger base and black sesame seeds took the dish on an Asian route, very pleasant although not too exciting for my palate.

Cod

The next course though, and those afterwards where all winners. The cod finally arrived, perfectly pan fried with just a light crust. The servers poured the squid ink sauce table side with a flourish, but even before the sauce even hit the plate, I could smell that briny, minerally iodine scent characteristic of the sea. Bright orange pepper puree artistically dotted around the plate provided not just color contrast, but sweetness and tied in beautifully with the lightly pickled rounds of pepper arranged on the fish. Like the best piece of fish and chips declared Cresci. I couldn’t agree more. The side of roasted pepper stuffed with rice and squid was ignored as we eagerly dove into the fish, wanted to dredge bread across that addictive sauce.

Surf and Turf

 

 The sauces at Le Bernardin are impressive, and the anchovy based sauce that came with the next dish, the famous surf and turf was truly beautiful, rich and complex with just a faint whiff of anchovy. The sauce paired well with both meat and fish, cutting the richness of the marbled sliver of seared kobe and the rich and fatty escolar. But the star was the sauce, definitely a sauce I would gladly eat on its own. Of course, it doesn’t hurt when they serve a dish with my favorite vegetable, the eggplant, here presented fried and dusted with a light sprinkling of sugar and cinnamon.  

Fromage Blanc

 Which brings us to dessert. Here’s a good place to also talk about the physical restaurant and service, which have been oft-maligned as charmless and cold respectively. True, the restaurant rather resembles a corporate dining room especially with the suited diners looking as though they are cutting deals whilst dining, and would not be my top 10 picks of romantic spots to eat in the city. The service while correct, is not as negative reviews have portrayed. Both the sommelier and servers were very happy to answer queries and engage in conversation. In fact, just before our pre-dessert amuse of fromage blanc arrived, our server and I launched into a short but spirited discussion of the light, tart cheese, and she made arrangements that Cresci and I got to taste different preparations of it. True to spirit, Cresci enjoyed the honey and walnut version while I practically devoured the girlier, strawberry version.

Egg

Later, as we were munching our petit fours and sipping coffee, I made a passing remark about pastry chef Michael Laisokonis’ egg dessert. Moments lately, it appeared magically, in its full chocolate, caramel, fleur del sel glory on our table. Yummy! Of course, not to give the actual dessert short shrift, we enjoyed a decadently chocolately mousse paired with a chicory flavored ice-cream that tempered the sweetness of the chocolate and gave the dish an added herbal licorice dimension. I love simple desserts and appreciated how the chef didn’t mar the composition with too many components.

Chocolate Chicory

We walked out happy, heavy and with the memory (aided by a menu) to last for a while.

Le Bernardin

155 W 51st St (Between 5th & 6th Ave)

www.le-bernardin.com

 

 

 

Benoit

bread & gougeres

First impression of steak tartare came courtesy of Mr Bean, on his “travels” to neighboring France on the eponymous show. Judging from the wild antics that ensued, there was no doubt he was more than a little perturbed by the mound of chopped raw beef. Thank goodness I share none of his squeamishness, because a good version of steak tartare, with quality hand chopped meat mixed in with sharp, tangy accoutrements including onions and my favorite capers is a light, refreshing meal. The most traditional accompaniment is golden pomme frites, making the dish even more so appealing. Benoit, a member of the Alain Ducasse empire serves steak tartare, which was exactly what I ordered, a little too dressed for my taste but still a tasty treat on a wet Saturday afternoon.

My friends whom I was lunching with picked the lunch special, an absolute deal at a mere $19 for 2 courses and $24 for 3. The menu, while severely truncated provided enough choice with only one clunker that afternoon, a very pedestrian slab of pate. Otherwise, everything else were delicious, the salmon en croute delectably moist yet with a flaky, buttery shell while yc’s slow baked pork butt had a super tender consistency reminiscent of bbqed pull pork. The red and yellow room, dressed in the classic Gallic brasserie style was bright and cheery, but serene enough on a relatively slow afternoon for us to relax, chat and eat. Remarkably, service is attentive and warm, quite unlike what I’ve read in other media and expecting. So I’ve never made it to the original in Paris, but its American facsimile ain’t bad either!
Post lunch, Cezi and I adjourned to Saks where I introduced her to one of Britain’s oldest chocolate maker, Charbonnel et Walker’s cafe for some respite from the relentless rain. The lovely cafe, hidden away in a corner of the 8th floor of Saks is an oasis of calm compared to the frantic energy of the designer shoe salon right next to it. Loubutins at 400 are cheaper than loubies at 900, but it still means I can’t afford them. Thank God for affordable luxuries like chocolate! Besides truffles and bon bons, one can also order sinfully rich chocolate based drinks and enjoy fresh pastries such as a rich brownie and butter croissants. The ganaches are pretty decently, but the shell was much too thick. Its a good stop when you’re in the neighborhood, but not something that’s going to make me give up going to Kee’s or La Maison. Still, a good place to rest and conduct post-mortem on one’s purchases, and definitely a place to impress!  

Benoit

60 W 55th St (Between 5th and 6th Aves)

http://www.benoitny.com/index.html

Charbonnel et Walker

611 5th Ave (8th Flr)

http://www.charbonnel.co.uk/erol.html#758X0

 

BCD Tofu House

A boiling cauldron of sundubu

Cold, frigid winter, meet your arch nemesis, the bubbling hot casserole of Korean tofu stew, the formidable sundoobu. At BCD Tofu house in Ktown, one can order sundubu multiple ways, with pork, beef, the broth kimchied and dumplinged. I choose the unconventionally sludgey curry tofu because I knew no one else would, and I got a pot of soft beancurd cubes bubbling away in a gooey brown sauce that is thinner than the regular japanese curry, but not by much. It is tasty, but next time I am opting for the regular broth, the blood red witches’ brew that promises burnt tongues and numbing heat. The menu suggests that no MSG has been added and despite it, the soup is meaty and flavorful, the pork and beef versions superior to the seafood, because the shellfish tasted frozen.

Like other Korean restaurants, the meal came with a full suite of panchan, Korean side dishes. The most unusual side dish must be the whole fried pollock, one each for everyone that orders sundubu. A little salty on its own, it was tasty mixed with rice. We could not resist the siren call of fried dough, and both times I’ve visited in as many weeks, we ordered the seafood pancake, BCD’s a worthy version that was crisp, not greasy, and came with good filling-dough ratio.

Apparently I am not the only one with hot tofu stew in mind these days, and last Friday, the restaurant was a madhouse. While the decor is more modern than its neighbors, the service was the same, i.e. harried and brusque. Still, when in need of a spicy antidote to winter blues, this isn’t a bad place to be.

BCD Tofu House

 17 W32nd St

www.bcdtofu.com

 

Some choice morsels

So my birthday came and went rather uneventfully. That is not to say I did not celebrate. Au contraire! In a market as crazy as it is right now, I would say a day of calm is not a bad thing at all. AND I did celebrate with many friends and a lot of food over the course of the week.

On the day itself, my boss decided to get me something good. When one’s boss is in the mood to buy one cake, one happily complies and so we traipsed to Grand Central Terminal towards the direction of Little Pie Company’s corner in the food court, and I got to pick out something I liked.

Little Pie Company's Pie

Which would be pie! And not just any pie, but an apple pie befitting of the seasons. Little Pie Company’s sour cream apple walnut pie is exorbitantly expensive yet so worth it. The tart and sweet apple and the silken sour cream is a marriage made in heaven, the pleasure of eating the pie filling only enhanced when combined to the perfectly buttery crust topped with a walnut streusel. As Alan pointed out, only vanilla icecream would have made it better.

Yasuda’s Oyster Sushi

For dinner, I opted to eat alone. My friends are still not quite convinced it was intentional, but I must say my date with the sushi chef at the sushi bar was quite a success. Since there was no dining companion, I did not have to waste time on chit chat, and the 90 minutes at Sushi Yasuda was spend singularly focused on the fish. My favorite piece was the peace passage oyster sushi. I’ve had many an oyster, baked, raw, on the half shell, in a chowder. But on rice? Definitely my first time. The combination of plump oyster and the compact mound of sushi rice was simply alchemy, the minerally and iodiny taste of oyster melding into the soft sweetness of the rice as the sushi hits the mouth and disintegrates. It is the taste of the sea and the paddy fields compounded multiple times. So magical, I had to have another piece before I was satisfied. Highly recommended, along with the rest of the super fresh seafood at sushi palace Yasuda.

Besides these, I feted throughout the week with Katherine’s homemade cake and a kickass birthday banquet at Danny Ng’s with 8 dishes for good luck. Not bad indeed, for an uneventful birthday.

Little Pie Company

243 Grand Central Terminal (In the basement food court)

www.littlepiecompany.com

Sushi Yasuda 

204 E 43rd St (Bet 2nd & 3rd Aves)

www.sushiyasuda.com

 

Nonoca Udon Salad

Udon Salad

During these last few weeks of summer, where temperatures are high and my appetite depressed, I’ve developed a slight obsession with the udon salad at the newly opened Cafe Zest. By slight, I mean 3 times a week slight. The prepacked bowl is stuffed with slithery udon and a mess of finely shredded vegetables, some lettuce, a little purple cabbage, a spoonful of corn, a sprinkle of shiso and a solo cherry tomato. Some well placed tempura bits add oily, non-vegetal crunch. Boiled shredded chicken provide some protein, but so bland and unnecessary you could hardly tell its absence. Douse the mixture with a soy and sesame seed based salad concoction, stir vigorously and you’ve got yourself a light lunch to beat summer lethargy.

It was thus distressing to find out that as of this coming week, Nonoca, the company supplying Cafe Zest with the incredibly delicious bowls of salad will no longer selling udon salad by way of Cafe Zest. It has been an intense but brief love affair, me and the udon salad. Sure, there are the Japanese buns, pastries, sandwiches and bento boxes by way of Cafe Zaiya, its older sister cafe with multiple locations, but they don’t give me quite the same amount of pleasure as slurping the cold noodles do. Oh well, maybe it was meant to be just a good summer fling.

Cafe Zest

143 E 47th St (between Lexington & 3rd Aves)

 

Starwich

Like most good things, Starwich came by the way of a recommendation. And once I shared my second-hand “discovery” of this gourmet sandwich shop to my chow-minded colleagues, they too have been ordering from Starwich with almost clockwork regularity. And why not, when the sandwiches made of superior bread are filling, inventive, stuffed with gourmet ingredients, and at an affordable price similar to, if not cheaper than other seamless alternatives?

On any given week, my colleagues and I would make at least one meal out of Starwich sandwiches and salads. Our office favorites include a deep fried soft-shell crab sandwich so greasy but tasty that Lily is willing to risk her allergies and a braised short rib sandwich packed with tender meat and sweet, slow cooked red onions. The thick tomato soup goes hand in hand with the grilled ham and cheese sandwich sweetened by slices of golden delicious and lightly bitter endive, and at $1.95 a cup is by far one of the best soup deals in midtown. There are however some missteps, and not all sandwiches are winners. The pomegranate-juniper glazed chicken sandwich sounded intriguing in theory but yielded a bland piece of chicken breast served in a too-sweet raisin bread and with a green, unappetizing and far too bitter mix of chopped greens. Make-your-own sandwiches can be tricky too and results could disappoint based on the pick of ingredients.

In the mood for a salad? Starwich does those admirably well too. The steak salad is packed with spinach, tomatoes, cranberries and strips of grilled spicy skirt steak that may at times be juicy but during other times dried out in the process of delivery. The apples, mangos, figs and more salad is even more satisfying, and does double-duty as dessert. A true dessert however is the chocolate brownie, rich, moist and unctuous, amongst the better ones found on seamless web these days. So there are times I have to work late, but Starwich and its brownie makes me return to my cubicle post-dinner feeling much better.

Starwich

Multiple locations

www.starwich.com

 

 

 

Zibetto

I know I’m my father’s daughter when coffee became my nightcap of choice. I’m far from addicted, largely due to the scarcity of drinkable coffee near the workplace, but on weekends when I’m not limited to Starbucks in the office, I’ve cultivated go-tos where I down an easy dozen cups per weekend. One of my midtown go-to happens to be Zibetto. It is a sliver of a shop space stuck in an unglamorous part of 6th Ave, serving just coffee and pastries. There are no seats, no wifi, and the bar is tight as can be. It is not a space to linger, nor does the proprietor encourage you to do so. But the shots of espresso (Danesi beans) are expertly pulled, the crema thick and always a consistent shade of tan. I like my espresso marked with a little foamed milk, aka a caffe macchiato, the foam providing an illusion of cream, making the drink even more delectable and sinful then it is. And the coffee at Zibetto is never bitter and overdrawn, goes down smoothly and leaves a tingly sensation on my tongue. A delightful tingle with each shot, that lasts till I walk the rest of the way home.  

Zibetto Espresso Bar

1385 6th Ave (Between 56th & 57th Sts)

 

Aburiya Kinnosuke

My mentor and I had one of our infrequent sit-down lunch 2 weeks ago at a hole-in-the wall Philippino restaurant, where the food was really forgettable. However, we walked past Aburiya Kinnosuke on the way back to the office, browsed through its rather appealing lunch options and vowed to have lunch together soon. This week we made good our promises and even rounded up some other coworkers for a very pleasant lunch. Since we got there really early, we even got a semi-enclosed booth that must have been the venue of many boisterous drinking sessions during evenings, but for us provided a cool lunch spot.

There is plenty to choose from for everyone in the group. Poultry lovers can choose from teriyaki chicken and the juicy and crisp fried chicken (it got Popeye’s beat, declares Rob). Pescatarians got to choose from the daily fish set or unagi-don, while avowed red meat eaters had pork katsu and beef sukiyaki (that arrives on the table still bubbling in a claypot) to choose from. None of us picked the daily vegetarian set, but one could if they chose not to eat meat.

Darius complained that the entrees were “European sized”. I corrected him by saying that the portions were in fact Asian-sized, but could empathise. I would’ve wanted more of the chicken too. But in all fairness, we also got side-salads, pickles, a bowl of tofu, rice, miso soup and a small quivering cube of nutty sweet tofu for dessert for our $13-15 sets, so I don’t think the rest of us were suffering from inadequate food. But for heavy hitters, there are $25 and $35 set meals for a more decadent lunch.

It was a shame though that the very varied ala-carte items on AK’s dinner menu is not served during the day, but it just gives us another chance to explore this place again!

Aburiya Kinnosuke

213 E45th St (Between 2nd & 3rd Aves)

http://www.torysnyc.com/aburiya.htm  

 

Yakitori Totto

3 simple rules to dining at Yakitori Totto and its eastside brethren:

1. Go in a small group, and go early – Clearly, the most fuss-free way of ensuring yourself a seat at a tiny and insanely successful restaurant is to make reservations beforehand. The catch here is that Yakitori Totto only accepts reservations before 7pm. Go there any later and you’re almost ensured of a 30mins – 1 hr wait. And when the weather is frigid and there is little room for more than 5 people to wait along the corridor, you really don’t want to try your luck at a walk in. Practically, a party of 2 has 5x more chances at scoring seats than a party of 8, plus the fun seats tend to be those at the bar where diners get to watch chefs skewer, grill and plate works of poultry art, so company really isn’t that important anyway.

2. Eat with your fingers –  Ok… fine. So there really is no need to use your fingers besides picking up your grill skewers of succulent chicken meatballs stuffed into tiny and sometimes astonishingly hot Japanese peppers, or thin crunchy pieces of chicken skin, you don’t really need to dirty your hands. But your fingers remain the best instrument for fine handiwork, such as extricating the minute pieces of meat on the tender grilled chicken wing, or nibbling away at the crispy drumlets of Japanese fried chicken, marinated in an intoxicating sake/soy sauce mix. Not to mention being able to lick the tasty meatiness off your fingers when you’re done polishing off the half-dozen or so skewers each person is at least bound to order.

3. Be adventurous – Up last Monday, I had no idea what chicken oysters were. Now, not only do I know that it is a prized piece of dark meat located on the back of the bird, near the thigh, I also know that there are only 2 pieces of oysters per chicken, and that Yakitori Totto runs out of it early every evening. And of course, how it tastes, meatier than usual, and its texture, taut and slightly chewy like gizzards, when grilled simply over a charcoal fire. Never eaten chicken soft bone, heart and liver? Here’s your chance to try it. And while one visits a yakitori primarily for sticks of grilled chicken, the other menu items are at once varied, interesting, and tasty. My favorite rice dish is a triangle of grilled onigiri (rice ball) slathered with a thin layer of salty miso. The grill produces a smoky char on the miso, while the chiffonade of shiso leaves adds a pleasing scent and added complexity to the otherwise bland hunk of rice. A very unlikely success is a salad with microgreens, mini cream cheese cubes, pieces of little fish, deep fried to a crisp, and a half-cooked egg to bind it all. Sounds weird, but tastes awfully wonderful, both salty and rich, yet light at the same time.

So three rules, be early, eat without pretensions and cutlery, and explore the menu. Got it? Now go!

Yakitori Totto

251 W55th St (2nd Flr)

 

Inagiku

For all the times I’ve ragged about restaurant week and its attendant negatives, such as menu limitations and substandard service, I have to admit that I succumbed on the first day of the 2 week event, meeting Ruoying at Inagiku for lunch.

Inagiku, situated in Waldorf Astoria is the grand dame of midtown Japanese restaurants, as well as one of the oldest in the city. The innovative dishes and prices on the ala carte also differentiates itself from the neighborhood sushi place. By contrast, the restaurant week menu, with 3-4 options per course was decidedly pedestrian, but at more down to earth prices. Never good to judge a chef’s ability by the restaurant week menu.

Between Ruoying and I, we had the asparagus and the whitefish salad to start, tempura and sushi as main courses and both chose the tofu flan dessert. My asparagus appetizer consisted of short pieces of cold, blanched asparagus stacked artistically on top of a thick flavorful sesame vinaigrette. Ruoying’s whitefish salad in contrast was hearty, savory with a bright, tangy dressing. The entrees were fine, the standard pieces of sushi (shrimp, unagi, tuna, California roll etc etc) fresh but not as good as when I had ordered ala carte (with fantastically sweet uni ) the last time I visited the restaurant. Ruoying’s tempura was not as light as expected, and the smell of frying oil lingered on as the restaurant contends with its ventilation problem.

The dessert was our favorite part of the meal, a delicate panna cotta like pudding with mild soy milk flavor, sweetened by a drizzle of brown sugar syrup and 3 types of fruit puree, the apricot being my favorite. Definitely not a dish that shouts assertiveness, but rather whispered quiet elegance.

Dessert was not the only unassuming thing at Inagiku. The Adam Tihany designed interiors, while slightly dated was faintly suggestive of the ocean, and the gold lacquered place mats understated luxury. Service was professional, prompt and very silent too. Kimono-clad servers shuffled across the carpeted room almost soundlessly, to the degree that I did not hear our server approach me from the back to attack my teacup.  

In all, not a bad restaurant week experience, and one I would recommend to Japanese food lovers who struggle to find decent sushi for lunch in midtown. Should you decide not to order from the limited restaurant week menu, the ala carte menu promises to be more varied and interesting, albeit at a higher price.

Inagiku

111 E49th St (Between Park & Lexington Aves)

www.inagiku.com