Smoked Trout Deviled Eggs
by Celia Cheng
February 17th, 2006
PEGU CLUB
77 W Houston St
2nd Floor
(W Broadway & Wooster St)
212-473-PEGU
The great thing about blogs is that you can add amendments, just like the U.S. Constitution, except you can do it whenever you feel like it.
So I went back to Pegu Club after a great first experience. Only this time, it wasn’t before the largest snowstorm in New York in twenty-six years, but on a normal Friday night. And here’s what I found.
I still love the feel of the place, the décor of a colonial Southeast Asian bar. However, a couple of things jumped out at me:
Pegu Club occupies the old space of Shanghai Tide, a Chinese restaurant whose main branch is still located in Flushing. It’s a long railroad-style space that spans the entire length between West Broadway and Wooster streets on the second floor. The strange space didn’t work to Shanghai Tide’s advantage, but for a bar/lounge it’s perfect. The entrance is downstairs, right next to Sweet Melissa’s, the Brooklyn-based patisserie. Pegu Club has used this two-floor complication to its advantage by placing the coat check downstairs. So when you enter, you are greeted by what seems like a bouncer, whose main duty seems to be to intimidate guests. On my way out this time, around 10pm on a Friday night, there were plenty of empty tables to choose from upstairs, but I overheard a party at the coat check asking about availability and getting typical New York attitude: “You might be able to find something.” I find that annoying. It’s unfriendly and pretentious.
This time, I tried two more dishes in addition to the smoked trout deviled eggs, which is still my favorite and so far the only thing I want to introduce. Service is slow although not entirely unpleasant. One thing that caught my eye that bothered me was the fact that they carry out Brita pitchers to refill your tap water. I find it to be supremely unnatural to see the waitresses walking around with Brita pitchers across the floor. There is just something not right about this picture. I guess I’m supposed to be glad that they actually filter their tap water, but I don’t need to see this.
I was less impressed this time and am not so excited to keep Pegu Club as a part of my regular repertoire. But at least I can say that I tried.
Posted in Drinks , Eclectic , SoHo
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Bacon Cheeseburger
by Celia Cheng
February 15th, 2006
SPARKY’S ALL AMERICAN FOOD
333 Lafayette St
(Bleecker & Houston St)
212-334-3035
The original Sparky’s All American Food is in Williamsburg. It’s the space that is shared with Egg, so before noon, it serves breakfast goods as Egg, and in the afternoon it turns into Sparky’s All American Food, focusing on hamburgers and hot dogs. I haven’t tried the original Sparky’s, but the other day while on my way to Bianca, I noticed that the sliver of a space between Bleecker and Houston streets on Lafayette was occupied by the Manhattan location of Sparky’s. This outlet has been open for four months, but it’s in one of those spaces that’s easy to miss.
Curious to see if Sparky’s is good, I stopped by the next day. It’s a very simple space with no décor except for a black and white photo hanging of whom I presume is Sparky — a loveable-looking dog. The mission of Sparky’s is plainly stated on the backside of the menu: “Sparky’s Mission is to provide the purest and best-tasting food at the lowest possible price. It’s not easy, but we believe it is important to try.” It goes on to talk about the establishment’s support of local, family farms and sustainability.
I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with jalapeños, Cheddar cheese fries and a soda, which in total cost me close to $15. I think they are pushing it when they tell me that this is considered low-priced organic food. Zaitzeff also boasts using organic and fresh ingredients and the prices are also not low, but I can taste and see the freshness of the ingredients. I don’t at Sparky’s. Other than the two kids working behind the counter telling me in a friendly but clueless manner that everything is organic, I couldn’t tell much except that I felt a bit ripped off. My burger was overcooked. Though it seemed to taste fresh, I ate most of it because of the jalapeños I had added — adding spices is always the best way to open one’s appetite.
The cheese fries seemed promising. Instead of just having cheese drizzled over the fries they actually fry the cheese with the fries so that you get them all intertwined like a ball of yarn. But they were so overly greasy that after eating a third of them I was feeling rather disgusted and had to stop.
On my way out, I was curious about the bun that the burger is served on and decided to ask the two kids behind the counter what it was. Their answer was: “It comes from some bakery around here. I don’t know which or what it is but it’s ORGANIC.” Feeling disappointed and frustrated, I left with this thought: Overkill on the organic theme and pinning up your mission on the walls is meaningless when the staff has no clue and can only regurgitate lines that I am perfectly capable of reading myself. I wonder if the original Sparky’s in Williamsburg is different, because our Manhattan version is in need of a lot of help.
Posted in American , Burger , East Village
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Pizzichi di Farro Al Forno (Farro pasta w/ porcini & prosciutto ragu baked in the brick oven)
by Celia Cheng
February 11th, 2006
BELLAVITAE
24 Minetta Ln
(6th Ave & MacDougal St)
212-473-5121
Bellavitae is a hidden treasure. Located on the small side street, Minetta Lane, between Sixth Avenue and MacDougal Street in the Village, the restaurant is inconspicuous and easy to miss, if you are not looking. Since it opened last January, I’ve passed it numerous times but I just assumed that it was an old-school restaurant that has been there for ages and never bothered to check. Guess I’ve really been missing out.
Since it’s an Italian restaurant that changes its menu frequently based on seasonal produce, you might ask how it’s different than a handful of other Italian restaurants in the City with the same premise? Well, for starters, with the focus on the ingredients and not a fancy chef showmanship, the menu is not fussy but rather traditional and ordinary. This is a compliment by all means, as it’s hard to find simple dishes that are not overly manipulated these days. But Bellavitae’s cuisine is hearty and downright good. Other key distinctions are that it’s not an annoyingly high-profile restaurant where it’s impossible to get a seat or reservations, and the prices are beyond reasonable for what you get. This is a place to which I would like to take my parents. Are you convinced yet?
Sitting at the bar at the back of the restaurant in front of the kitchen and brick oven, my friends and I got to see the preparation of most dishes. Again, there’s nothing showy about this open kitchen — nothing is meant to “wow” you for the purpose of wowing you. The chef is cheerfully and dutifully preparing each dish, and we just happen to be privy to watching this while it takes place. Bellavitae possesses a very warm, cozy atmosphere, a place where you can hang out and feel at ease. At the same time, its personality is bright and cheerful.
I’ve digressed too much, as I really want to talk about the food. There are four different types of crostini on the menu. We tried the baked Gorgonzola drizzled with chestnut honey from Lake Como. I’m not the biggest fan of Gorgonzola, but the pairing with the chestnut honey provided great balance.
The three starters we shared were all phenomenal: Cabolfiore ‘Anna’ (Sicilian style cauliflower with pignoli and currants), Insalata Italiana (Italian greens flown in from Treviso with balsamic dressing and pomegranate) and Puntarelle come a Roma (puntarelle flown in from Rome with lemon, garlic and anchovy). The cauliflower is sautéed and so smooth and sweet that it tastes as if it’s caramelized, but it’s the combination of pine nuts and currants that give it that sweetness. The salad is a knock-out featuring the Treviso radicchio, which looks more white with dashes of burgundy compared to local radicchio, and it’s not as bitter as the one we are accustomed to eating. Adding pomegranate and balsamic creates an entirely refreshing salad that makes you wonder why can’t all salads taste as good as this? I love puntarelle, which is a chicory shoot. You can buy puntarelle at the markets in Rome already picked, cleaned and shredded. The puntarelle flown in from Rome was so fresh that it spoke for itself with the simple dressing of lemon garlic and anchovy, a common Roman dish that’s simply delicious.
We tried five pastas. Most notable were the faro pasta with porcini and prosciutto ragu baked in the brick oven and the paccheri stuffed with ricotta and spinach. The richness of the porcini, the texture of the faro pasta and the flavorful yet delicate ragu — topped with a bit of parmesan that turns crispy when baked — is on the heavier side but a wonderful combination of flavors that’s not to be missed. The literal Italian translation of “paccheri” is “to slap.” These little pockets filled with creamy ricotta and spinach are baked and so shockingly good that you don’t know what hit you. One main meat dish we tried was the sliced steak with salsa verde, which was very nice, but I think the pastas are what will keep me coming back to Bellavitae.
The desserts were less spectacular, so even though we tried three, I will skip over them. Knowing this now, next time I will focus on sampling more savory goods. You are probably wondering how I could eat any more than four starters, five pastas, steak and three desserts. Well, of course my party of five shared everything, but I’m sure we could have had more. ;) I think this might be my new favorite neighborhood restaurant. I just wish it were a couple of blocks closer to me, but then again, part of its charm is how hidden it is.
Posted in Greenwich Village , Italian , Pasta
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The Old Cuban
by Celia Cheng
February 11th, 2006
PEGU CLUB
77 W Houston St
2nd Floor
(W Broadway & Wooster St)
212-473-PEGU
I consider myself a pretty open-minded person, but through documenting my food adventures, I realized that I am rather prejudiced. I tend to pre-judge a restaurant by its location, chef, owner, décor, reviews and recommendations even before I have had the chance to try it out. But then again, is it really prejudice or just trying to exert good judgment by assessing the situation with existing knowledge, information gathering, and plain intuition? Most of the time, I feel justified by my initial gut reaction, but occasionally, there are those places about which I have negative premonitions that are proven wrong by actual trial — those are always the best surprises.
Pegu Club is one such place — I was afraid it would be a trendy, pretentious and overly exotic bar that was all hype based on bought publicity — and I was happy to be proven wrong. Okay, so it is a little exotic since it aims to replicate the original Pegu Club, a British officer’s club in Burma from the late 1800s, but our SoHo version does have heart and soul. Its goal is to revive the cocktail culture. I’m not talking about the Sex and the City cocktail culture but the actual art of making good cocktails, the classic Savoy Cocktail Book type of culture — and they are doing a good job. The drinks are fun and delicious, the snack menu equally enticing and the colonial Southeast Asian décor comfortable and relaxing (when not overly crowded).
I only had about an hour and a half to spend here before dinner, but I did manage to have two rounds of The Old Cuban, a champagne mojito, (it was so yummy, one just wasn’t enough) and accompanied my drinks with the smoked trout deviled eggs, which were also supremely tasty. I had to rush off to dinner but was already planning my return to try more cocktails and snacks.
I like Pegu Club’s style. It’s elegant, with the drinks and food portions small, as the idea is to appreciate rather than gorge or get sloshed. The drinks are a bit pricey, but I find it to be the ideal place to meet up for drinks and a light bite before dinner any night of the week. The service was a bit sloppy, with waitresses gliding around as if to showcase their very cute dresses and less attractive attitudes rather than to serve, but at the end of the day, I was so delighted with my The Old Cubans and smoked trout deviled eggs, little could bother me.
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White Truffle Gnocchi Parmegiano, Melted Butter, Mushrooms & Broccoli Rabe
by Celia Cheng
February 10th, 2006
SWEETWATER RESTAURANT
105 N. 6th St
Brooklyn, NY
(Berry St & Wythe Ave)
718-963-0608
Okay, so I’m a little in love with Williamsburg. Well, actually, I’m in love with the good food in Williamsburg. I love the fact that on a Friday night, I can walk into a good restaurant or gastropub, like Sweetwater, and not have to wait for a table, eat a delicious meal, enjoy the company of not only my own party but the eclectic (though not annoying) crowd in the rest of the joint and not pay an arm and a leg. What it boils down to is no attitude, good grub and reasonable fare. Now why is that so hard to find in Manhattan?
I originally thought I would be trying Sweetwater’s burger for dinner, but when I saw the white truffle gnocchi, I knew I had to order it. White truffle, gnocchi, parmesan, butter, mushrooms and broccoli rabe are all my favorites. I do have to warn you, not that it’s not obvious, but this is a heavy dish. Although totally worth it, and I didn’t realize at the time that my system would suffer from the richness of this dish for a couple of days. But if I had to do it over again, I would still lick the plate. Well, maybe half of it next time.
I feel like this review is too short, but at the same time, I’ve said all I needed to say: why the restaurant is wonderful and what I crave. Sometimes, it’s just that simple.
Posted in American , Pub , Williamsburg
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6 Iced Oysters: Tomatoes and Ponzu, Ceviche, Caviar and Wasabi
by Mort Hochstein
February 8th, 2006
L’Etranger
36 Gloucester Rd
London, SW7 4QT
020 7584 1118
As I type the words “London 2006” at the top of this page, I quiver in pleasure at the thought of my recent trip with my wife, Rollie, and in a bit of horror over the cost of London in this year when the dollar is pitifully weak against the pound. But I bit the bullet because I wanted to get back after several years away.
We stayed at The Capital, our favorite London hotel. A small but very comfortable accommodation in Knightsbridge, we’d visited it a few years back and enjoyed the meals we had there. This time, however, the restaurant was booked solid since just last month Condé Nast Traveller anointed The Capital Restaurant the “Best Hotel for Food” in the UK on their 2006 Gold List, and on top of that, it is the only British hotel dining room to hold two Michelin stars.
Each night as we left the hotel for humble fare somewhere near the theater we were attending, we watched as ‘tout’ London jammed The Capital’s intimate bar, waiting their turn at table. And we observed the last stragglers finish late at night as we returned from the theater. One night, our play for the evening, “As You Desire me,” was scheduled to finish at 9:30 so we reserved dinner at a well-reviewed restaurant, L’Etranger on Gloucester Road in Kensington.
We chose well. L’Etranger attracted a crowd similar to the one at The Capital. At the next table, our neighbors were a show-biz mix of French, southern Californians and Bostonites, and we heard a wide palette of languages from diners at other corners of the room, all making happy noises.
L’Etranger’s interior is minimalist in color and decoration. Gray and black predominate and the eye immediately gets the impression that wine, as well as food, is important here. At one side of the dining room is a glassed-in wine cellar, which contains more than four hundred French offerings as well as a fine selection of international wines, including some good choices from Sonoma and Napa. By London standards, the prices are quite fair, a flute of Taittinger Brut Réserve at £9.50, ’93 Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill at £140 (the Brits prefer their champagne old), a ’99 white Hermitage from Jean-Louis Chave also at £140, and from Bordeaux, the ’85 Chateau Latour at £310. Brit critics like the list and the prices, though they still seem high to me when converted to dollars.
Rollie and I skipped the degustation menu — tempting as it was to think of tuna tartare with beluga caviar, yuba tempura with king crab, caramelized black cod with miso (ah, the influence of Nobu, even hotter in London than in New York), Kobe beef fillet with black truffles, tofu yuzu ice cream and a chocolate platter — a good buy at £65.
Instead, I had a half dozen iced oysters with tomatoes and ponzu, ceviche, caviar with wasabi, and Rol had a crisp lettuce salad. The oysters were tangy with enough bite of the sea to do away with the need for any fancy dressings. We continued in the seafood vein with a succulent, moist, full-flavored cut of eel for me and toro sashimi with seaweed salad and ponzu sauce for Rollie. The plates went back clean.
That was more than enough for both of us, so we skipped desserts and ended with strong coffee, black for me, light for Rollie.
Oh yes, our wine was a modest and thoroughly fitting Mercury white. I was sold on our wine experience from the start when our sommelier, Guillaume Glipa, from Bordeaux by way of New York and a half dozen of London’s better restaurants, told me he had worked at Jewel Bako and Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar, a twinned pair of outstanding albeit tiny restaurants in my neighborhood in Manhattan’s East Village. Guillaume — William by any other name — and I swapped Manhattan foodie anecdotes and became friends. You can be sure we’ll be back.
Note: The exchange rate at press time is at £1.73 to US $1.
Baked Beef Empanada
by Celia Cheng
February 4th, 2006
POMAIRE
371 W 46th St
(8th & 9th Ave)
212-956-3056
I was really excited to try Pomaire, which apparently is the only Chilean restaurant in New York. I wonder why that is. Well, if you find any others, please let me know.
Our friend, Maria Isabel, has been telling us about Pomaire since last summer. Half Chilean, Maria Isabel was delighted to show my sister and me what Chilean food is about.
We started with a typical Chilean drink, pisco sour. Pisco is a hard liquor made from grapes that is the national liquor in both Chile and Peru. Pisco sour is a cocktail that mixes pisco with lemon, sugar, egg whites and ice cubes. It is absolutely delicious. Much like the Brazilian cocktail, caipirinha, it’s sweetness disguises the strength of the liquor, but I could tell how strong pisco is, and, if I had a couple more of these seemingly dainty drinks, I could easily get into trouble.
After we ordered, servers brought out the onion and herb pan amasado and pebre, which basically are a clay-oven baked bread typical of the Chilean countryside and a crushed tomato-based salsa that goes with it. The pan amasado is extremely dense. I was so fascinated with the bread and the accompanying salsa that I had two servings. That was a big mistake, considering all the food that was coming. Word of advice, the bread and salsa are delicious but save some appetite for the main meal too.
Our first appetizer was a baked beef empanada. A single portion of this empanada is larger than most I’ve seen served in the City. The empanada is truly tasty, with a mix of ground beef, onions, black olives, hard-boiled egg and spices such as cumin and bay leaf. We also shared a celery and avocado salad drizzled with lemon juice, which was nice and refreshing to offset the beef empanadas. Maria Isabel explained how she sometimes comes to Pomaire sometimes and just orders two empanadas and a salad for dinner. That sounds like a good plan.
For main, we shared the congrio with margarita sauce — eel with margarita sauce and rice — and pastel de choclo — a meat and corn casserole served in a sizzling clay pot. As mentioned earlier, I had so much bread that I was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable due to my expanded waistline. By the time desserts came around, I couldn’t stuff in another bite. However, I wasn’t going to let the chance of trying Chilean desserts pass me by. We had the torta mil hojas — thousand layers cake — and the lucuma merengue cake. The torta mil hojas is interesting because it’s like a mille-feuille except that the layers are made of dulce de leche (or “manjar” as the Chileans call it). What really drew me in was the lucuma merengue cake. Lucuma is an indigenous fruit to Peru and Chile, often dried and made into powder and mixed to flavor milk and ice cream. The lucuma flavor in the cake was so unique because it tasted less like a fruit and more like caramel to me. I only had one bite, so I can’t go into much more description, but I can’t wait to go back and try it again.
Pomaire is located on Restaurant Row in the Theatre District, but I have a feeling that it is overlooked by many. The atmosphere is cozy and the service is extremely friendly and professional. The walls and shelving are decorated with Chilean pottery, copper work and other handicrafts. (The name “Pomaire” comes from a town in Chile of the same name where the typical pottery is heavy, solid-colored black and brown, used in cooking and serving traditional dishes.) There is a strong sense of that South American warmth, and it felt more like eating at someone’s house than at a restaurant.
Often at a loss as to what to eat in this area of town, I would definitely recommend Pomaire for a home-style meal that is rather novel in the City.
Posted in Chilean , Hell’s Kitchen
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French Onion Soup Dumplings
by Celia Cheng
February 3rd, 2006
THE STANTON SOCIAL
99 Stanton St
(Ludlow & Orchard St)
212-995-0099
In a million years, I don’t think people (including me) would expect me to write a review on The Stanton Social, the trendy Lower East Side (LES) restaurant that opened last April.
I went there by accident, albeit, willingly. I was out with friends. We were looking for some place to have drinks and ended up in the LES. Someone suggested The Stanton Social, and I said let’s go. Okay, so maybe not all that accidental, but I was curious, and I was also with a twenty-something LES resident, so that’s my excuse.
At 9pm on a Friday night, the crowd in the upstairs bar was still somewhat interesting with a few attractive, local neighborhood hipsters hanging out. But as it got later, the crowd got grosser and grosser. I don’t know how else to put it. I had to ask myself if it was possible that the guys just kept getting more and more disgusting.
Our objective that night was not food. My friends and I met up to have drinks. But really, in my book, food is always in the picture. The second floor at The Stanton Social is divided into three sections: extra dining room seating from the restaurant downstairs (in which you better have a reservation or be ready for a two-hour wait), a crowded main bar area and a lounge seating area where you can drink and munch. The wait for the lounge seating was supposedly an hour. I’m pretty sure we waited two, but since we were having fun hanging out at the bar, I wasn’t outraged by the wait, which logically speaking was ridiculous.
Sufficiently liquored up and having a good time, I had entirely no expectations about the food here, except that after a two-hour wait I was hungry. I ordered a bunch of dishes to sample, including the recommended French onion soup dumplings, and was pleasantly surprised by how good the food was. I mean, I came here to drink, not to eat, but the food at The Stanton Social is better than a lot of restaurants where I go specifically to eat. The French onion soup dumplings are severed in an escargot platter, in which six little puff-looking “dumplings” sit. The French onion soup is enveloped by cheese-covered bread balls and it’s yummy. I love the fact that they are bite-sized. The idea is rather ingenious and made me wonder why no one thought of that before? The Chinese have Shanghainese soup-dumplings, but to do this with French onion soup is rather brilliant. The hanger steak also left quite an impression on me, while the mini Kobe-beef burger did the opposite. Kobe-beef burger on a menu always seems to be more of a gimmick and rarely taste as amazing as they sound, and the one here only confirmed my theory.
I know I’ve said this several times about Thor, but with The Stanton Social I really mean it: I don’t think I would return to suffer the crowd and atmosphere. The difference with Thor is that I really crave the excellence of the food. At The Stanton Social the food is good but a two-hour wait upstairs or down — and a meat market crowd where the women all think they are in Sex and the City, and the men, happily picking them up — will certainly make me think twice about going back. Maybe brunch?!
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