Bun Rieu (crab cake poached in tangy pork tomato broth w/ rice noodles)
by Celia Cheng
April 29th, 2008
TET
83 Ave A
(5th & 6th St)
212-253-0800
$
Tet is the Vietnamese New Year, the celebration of a new beginning, and it’s a good name for Steven Duong’s new restaurant in Alphabet City. Mr. Duong also owns Nam in Tribeca and O Mai in Chelsea, both longtime local favorites. Nam is one of my top choices in Vietnamese restaurants, especially for the seafood dumplings in soup, so I was eager to try Tet and see what other treats were in store.
Modern, bold and dark, the décor of the restaurant makes me feel at ease while I enjoy the mouth-watering dishes coming out of the kitchen. At Tet, maroon and purple colored walls are accented by beautiful cream-colored, crocheted lampshades. All of which speak of good taste. Likewise, the menu is straightforward and the staff friendly.
I really enjoyed the food. The ingredients are fresh, and the flavors are balanced and subtle. My friend and I started with the chia gio, shrimp, pork, crab and vegetable spring rolls deep fried in rice paper and served with fresh herbs, lettuce wrap and lime dipping sauce. This is my favorite type of spring roll throughout Asian cuisine, and though they seem like a staple on most Vietnamese restaurant menus, good ones are not always easy to come by. Chinatown offers many that are greasy and laden with MSG. Other fusion Vietnamese restaurants often vary the stuffing and lose the balance of flavors. But Tet’s spring rolls are just right. The fried rice paper is thin and light but also chewy. There were only two pieces of lettuce for four spring rolls, and they were used as garnish sitting underneath everything else, which led me to believe that most people don’t use the lettuce as a wrap, but they should, as it tastes so good and fresh with some herbs tucked in.
On my second visit, looking for something a little lighter, I chose the banh xeo(coconut rice flour crepe filled with scallions, shrimp, chicken, bean sprouts, served with fresh herbs, lettuce wrap, and lime dipping sauce) as an appetizer. Though similar, this was even better than the spring rolls. The coconut rice flour crepe is so light and crisp, and the lettuce wrap and dipping sauce are the same, so depending on your mood, spring rolls or crepes are both good starters.
The goi sua, jellyfish, shrimp and cucumber salad topped with peanuts and tangy chili dressing was less spectacular. I like my jellyfish crunchy even though it’s slimy, but the jellyfish in this salad was a bit limp. Still the ingredients paired well, especially the crushed peanuts that added a nutty flavor and the crunch I was missing.
Dinner’s highlight was the bun rieu, poached crab cake, meatballs and rice noodles in a tangy pork tomato broth. In fact, I returned two nights later just to have this dish because I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The juicy little meatballs are made with pork and a crab paste that’s ground and sautéed with lemon grass and hot peppers. Plump pieces of halved tomatoes complement the thin strings of rice noodles in a wonderfully tasty tomato pork broth. But the most fabulous part is the fresh crabmeat coated in egg, which, when poached, becomes incredibly tender and floats delicately to the surface. Bits of Thai basil add a burst of fresh flavor, and shreds of raw cabbage create a crunchy contrast. There are quite a few ingredients here, but the flavors, working in unison, are both luscious and subtle. It’s high-end comfort food at its best.
My companion ordered ga nuong, lemon grass chicken, for main, and, being a food snob, I wasn’t planning on touching it. In my mind, lemon grass chicken is as banal as Vietnamese food can get and the thought of a piece of boring roasted white meat arriving at the table was devastating. However, Tet’s lemon grass chicken is delicious. Both dark and white meat are served sliced, and while by nature white meat will never be as tender as dark, it was not dry and, in fact, very flavorful. Dipping the chicken in the garlic-heavy, tangy lime sauce made it even better. This is a real pleasure to have with white rice. What a pleasant surprise!
The only disappointment was dessert. We ordered a coconut tapioca soup with banana, palm seeds and jackfruit topped with toasted sesame seeds. It arrived lukewarm (it should either be hot or cold but not in between) and tasted rather bland with the tapioca too soft from overcooking. I’m a sesame seed fanatic and these should have been toasted so as to bring out the aroma and also create a crunchier texture. Instead, the seeds were stale.
I am happy to skip dessert, so if we don’t count that blunder, Tet is very good. I look forward to adding it to my list of Southeast Asian favorites, which also includes Fatty Crab and Café Asean.
Posted in Alphabet City , Noodles , Pork , Seafood , Vietnamese
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Concord Fizz
by Celia Cheng
October 18th, 2007
BACK FORTY
190 Ave B
@ 12th St
212-388-1990
Peter Hoffman’s new East Village restaurant, Back Forty, doesn’t disappoint. The atmosphere fits both the neighborhood and the concept. Referring to the undeveloped quarter of a 160-acre homestead, the “back forty” was where farm families would go to relax and unwind. Likewise, the restaurant is a great laidback joint to gather for food and drinks and take a load off.
The interior space is large and sparse. In addition to the indoor dining areas — one immediately at the entrance to the restaurant, a back room, and a large bar room that also has a table for communal dining — there’s also backyard seating when the weather permits.
Though Back Forty’s menu is more rustic than that of Hoffman’s other (seventeen-year-old) downtown restaurant, Savoy, it keeps with his philosophy of using locally sourced food and beverages, and the flavors of each dish are equally radiant!
I started out with a cocktail, the Concord Fizz, made with Barbancourt white rum, muddled Concord grapes, soda, lime juice and simple syrup (see recipe below). It was so delicious and refreshing that, though I moved on to the wine after my first drink, I had to come back to end the meal with another Concord Fizz. Don’t get me wrong, the food is every bit as good as this drink, but two Concord Fizzes in one meal definitely deem it a craving.
The shaved fennel salad with parsley and crispy chorizo was a savory delight. With fennel in season and ubiquitous on menus all around town, I was worried that I would start to tire of the refreshingly light anise flavor, but the crispy chorizo added another dimension to the vegetable. The cauliflower, a gratin of Parmesan and lemon zest, brown butter and breadcrumbs, was not the least bit heavy; in fact, the accompanying ingredients made this produce shine.
Fries have their own category on the menu and are priced at $6, which is about the same as the starters in The Garden category. This is not unreasonable considering the amount of fries that comes in the basket. It was enough for us to share among three people. The fries are not golden crispy, but rather soft and moist, seasoned with rosemary and sea salt. I enjoyed eating them most with Back Forty’s spicy homemade ketchup. Yummy!
The grass-fed burger was another pleasant surprise. Served on a sesame bun, the beef patty was juicy and cooked to a perfect medium rare as requested. The Heritage bacon was crispy and the Farmhouse Cheddar lightly melted on the patty. The spicy homemade ketchup once again gave the burger a boost in flavor. It was satisfying, but it didn’t weigh me down. Now this is a burger I will come back to!
For dessert, the current seasonal fruit pie is, of course, apple! A taste of this apple pie, a la mode, reminds me of what really good apple pie is and why this American recipe is a gem. The apple cider doughnuts gave me another reason to love Back Forty. These cake doughnuts sit on a plate of apple cider reduction. I initially thought it was aged balsamic vinegar, given the color and thickness, but apple cider reduction is not as tart, and its sweet cider aroma made these tender but dense crumbly doughnuts even more palatable.
I love Savoy, whether for an afternoon snack at the bar or a special dinner (like the recent “Beyond Nose to Tail dinner with Fergus Henderson”). While Back Forty is quite a change of pace from Savoy’s niche in SoHo, it’s a good alternative when you just want to let you hair down and have some good eats.
CONCORD FIZZ
Makes 1 drink
2 ounce Barbancourt white rum
½ ounce lime juice
¾ ounce simple syrup
10 to 15 muddled Concord grapes
Soda
Posted in Alphabet City , American , Drinks , Vegetables
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Bacon Royale (Bacon Cheeseburger)
by Celia Cheng
October 7th, 2006
ROYALE
157 Ave C
(9th & 10th St)
212-254-6600
After reading Peter Meehan’s review on “the city’s best new hamburger” in The Times, I couldn’t get to Royale fast enough. I planned to try it that very evening but didn’t make it. Still, there was little else I dreamt of for the next three days.
Burgers are a hard one. Any time someone recommends a burger as the City’s best, it’s almost a sure setup for disillusionment. How can a single burger live up to that kind of expectation and pressure?
When it comes to burgers, I always go in hopeful because I LOVE burgers and am constantly looking for good ones. I’ve relinquished the search for the “best” burger because I’m not sure such a thing exists. Not that there aren’t amazing ones, but there’s always (hopefully) something better. That’s what makes the quest fun.
Well, there are many positive things to say about Royale’s burger. The meat is juicy and the buns are amazing, with both top and bottom fully encrusted in sesame. (If you’ve read my Grilled interview on A Hamburger Today you’ll recall that I love sesame buns.) Each burger is made with care and attention to detail. Medium rare comes out medium rare — hooray! But… ultimately, the burger is tasteless. :(
I ordered the bacon Royale, the bacon cheeseburger, because I can’t resist bacon (despite the fact that Peter’s review warns that the bacon there is “wafer-crisp diner-style”). My advice: Heed the warning. After I finished my burger I realized that I didn’t even taste the bacon, although I had seen the slices on the burger when it was first served to me. An ingredient that doesn’t add anything to a dish is a waste.
As for the rest of the burger, it was one of those cases where, because you don’t taste anything, you think that if you keep eating you’ll find the flavor. It did not occur to me until the very last bite that it just wasn’t going to happen. Flavor wasn’t miraculously going to grace my burger unless a burger fairy exists. I could have added more ketchup, but I didn’t want to just drown my burger in condiments.
I enjoyed the steak-cut fries, especially after sprinkling pepper and dipping them in mayo. My friend, Adria, and I shared one order but piggy me liked them so much we got another.
The bar itself has a strange feel. It’s new and clean but lacks any sense of personality. However, the open terrace in the back is truly charming! Unfortunately, it’s getting too cold to hang out in the back, but during the summertime, this joint is going to be bustling like you wouldn’t believe.
Royale is the new sister restaurant to the neighboring Cafecito, another fun hangout in Alphabet City with relatively good Cuban fare, though service is consistently slow. I’m a fan of Cafecito’s mini-burgers with chorizo, although those sliders also rely on a condiment for taste, the accompanying garlic sauce.
For the time being, given the choice, I would choose the sliders at Cafecito over the Royale if I wanted a burger in the vicinity. But I will give Royale another chance. There seems to be so much potential. With a little more time, since the restaurant only opened last month, perhaps it’ll find some personality, and maybe its burger will find some flavor, too.
Posted in Alphabet City , American , Burger
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