Breaded & Fried Mushrooms
by Celia Cheng
December 10th, 2006
THOMAS BEISL
25 Lafayette Ave
(Ashland Pl & St. Felix St)
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
718-222-5800
Thomas Beisl is blessed with the perfect location — directly across BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, and two blocks away from BAM Harvey Theater. It’s always packed with diners/audiences before and after performances, even though the food is not fantastic. I love Austrian fare, but Thomas Beisl’s dishes are almost unanimously bland. I don’t dream about how tasty the schnitzel will be when entering the restaurant, but rather think that it’s a good place for a quick fix, which is probably why I’ve never written about it. The atmosphere is very pleasant and you always bump into someone interesting, whether it be a critic, a friend, or a performer from the show you just saw.
On this gorgeous Sunday, after seeing Pina Bausch’s Nefes, my sister and I hopped over to Thomas Beisl for an early dinner. We started with an overdressed mixed green salad and the breaded and fried mushrooms special. Though the mushrooms are a special, they’ve been on the board the past three times I visited. I’m not complaining as they are actually the best thing on the menu. Whereas the schnitzels can be dry and tasteless inside, the breaded then fried mushrooms are juicy. The tartar sauce that accompanies adds flavor and makes them fun to eat. We then shared the dinner special, paprika chicken with spaetzle, which turned out to be a huge disappointment. The pieces of chicken were swimming in a watery paprika sauce that was weak and this is an example of why I often steer clear of chicken on a menu — instead of bringing out the flavor in the meat, the chicken is reduced to a nondescript piece of food. The spaetzle were swimming in the pool of sauce too and was equally boring in taste. In need of more vegetables, we added a fennel salad, but in the end the only thing that stood out was the mushrooms.
I mentioned the schnitzel twice but I do want to qualify that while I find the wiener schnitzel and cod schnitzel here disappointing (can you imagine?! When I think cod schnitzel I want to jump for joy, but after tasting it I fall flat on my feet), I do like the celery root schnitzel. I’m beginning to see a common thread and that maybe Thomas Beisl’s forte is in the deep-fried vegetable category. Plus tartar sauce is so yummy! The cucumber and potato salad that come with the schnitzels are also rather lackluster, especially compared to the same salads at Wallsé.
So, after some experimentation, I think the best solution is to go to Thomas Beisl before a performance for a snack — the fried mushrooms of course and a glass of wine or beer. Then after the performance, go for a more satisfying meal elsewhere. The tastiest part of this evening was sitting two tables away from one of the male dancers from the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. That was hot!
Posted in Austrian , Fort Greene , Vegetables
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Austrian Fried Chicken
by Celia Cheng
January 21st, 2006
BLAUE GANS
139 Duane St
(W Broadway & Church St)
212-571-8880
Kurt Gutenbrunner’s latest German-Austrian bistro, Blaue Gans, has been high on my list of must-try restaurants. My eating buddy Jason Lee was in town, so we tried it together with a group of friends. I am honored once again that Jason has contributed the following review to Cravings (read Jason’s first Cravings review on San Francisco’s Quince). Two comments I would like to add: 1) The fried chicken was an unexpected knockout. I eat very little chicken these days and I couldn’t believe how tender, moist, and delicious it was. 2) A side note on the blood sausage dish — the flavor of the blood sausage when diced becomes so mild it is barely noticeable, but as a potato dish, it is perfect. So perhaps the dish should be renamed, because if you are really craving the flavor of blood sausage, you might not get your fill. The rest I leave up to Jason:
What most surprised me about the food at Blaue Gans was the remarkable cleanness of the preparations and flavors. Many of the dishes had a wonderful flavor balance that made me want to keep ordering more beer and more food, reminiscent of spending a long day at a beer garden or a long night at a Japanese izakaya.
My friends and I agreed that one of the standout dishes was the appetizer blood sausage with sautéed potatoes and sauerkraut. Although we expected the blood sausage to figure more prominently, combining it with the familiar richness of fried potatoes, the refreshing sourness of the sauerkraut and the subtle white heat of the horseradish produced a perfect flavor package.
Many of the dishes that I expected to be heavier or muddier in flavor were delightfully clean and at the same time richly flavorful. For example, the pork wiener schnitzel and the crispy fried chicken, which are both breaded and fried, were two of the most rewarding entrees: the meats were notably juicy, the levels of saltiness and flavoring were perfectly controlled and neither was greasy.
Touches to many of the side dishes — like the deep sweetness of the red cabbage that accompanied the roasted pork belly, or the refreshing (yes, refreshing) coolness of the potato salad that accompanied some of the other entrees — were carefully designed and executed. In particular, I thought the potato salad was a masterful vinegar-y, mustard-y, fennel-y treat.
I wasn’t a huge fan of every dish, however. For some reason, all restaurants seem to have a different interpretation of goulash, so I’m never really sure what to expect, but the heavy cumin flavor in Blaue Gans’ goulash was a big turn-off. I suspect the cumin flavor was from the generous use of caraway seeds, which are used in some variations of goulash, but I thought it overpowered the dish, turning it into something too reminiscent of American chili or a curry (both of which I love, but which are not goulash). In addition, I imagine goulash to be stew-like or soup-like in consistency, depending on the interpretation, and being served something that looked more like cubes of braised meat with a little reduction sauce — without any notable paprika- or vegetable-derived sweetness or heat — was also a bit disappointing. The preparation of the dish was still quite good, however (as was the case with all the other food we ordered), and others may disagree with respect to preferred flavors and consistency.
Comments about the goulash aside, Blaue Gans is a place I would eagerly recommend. Usually my main criterion for recommendation is whether I would go out of my way to go eat at a place. In the case of Blaue Gans, you can bet I’d be willing to go far out of my way to eat there. The combination of heartiness and refinement at Blaue Gans creates very accessible and satisfying food that is at the same time stimulating, delicate and smart.
Posted in Austrian , Chicken , German , Tribeca
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Green Spaetzle w/ Sweetbread
by Celia Cheng
December 14th, 2005
THOR
107 Rivington St
(Essex & Ludlow St)
212-796-8040
It’s been three months since I last visited Thor, and my experience this time was not much different than the last. Bottom line: The food is excellent, the service is tremendously lacking, and the crowd, though it’s dwindled in numbers, is still bizarre.
Let’s focus on the good thing, the food. The menu has changed slightly, and one of the new additions in the warm appetizers is a huge winner: green spaetzle with sweetbread. Kurt Gutenbrunner makes spaetzle like no one else in the city, and whether you are at Wallsé, Café Sabarsky or Thor, it’s a must-order. (I have yet to try his latest Austro-German bistro, Blaue Gans, but it’s definitely next on my list.) So of course, the green spaetzle is good, but not just good, because it is made with spinach and asparagus, then sautéed with chopped up morsels of sweetbread and asparagus, topped with crispy shallots. God, I could have that as a main and be so happy. This dish showcases the best sweetbreads I’ve had this year because you get your fill of tender sweetbreads but in small doses, interspersed with delicious spaetzle, just thinking about it makes me want more.
Overall, the food at Thor is great. My favorite thing on the menu still remains the one-bite chocolate lolli-pops and malted shake. The lollipops are breaded, and filled with chocolate and hazelnuts, and a little side glass of malted shake accompanies. I wrote this up in September, but I just want to say that I was just as fascinated and satisfied as I was the first time I had it. I did try other desserts, but none will make me crave as much as this one.
The food seems to bring me back, but each time I’m at Thor I swear I will never suffer through the experience just to have the food. I need to try Blaue Gans and hopefully cure myself of this oxymoron of bittersweet dining experiences.
Posted in American , Austrian , LES
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Breaded 1-Bite Chocolate Lollipop
by Celia Cheng
September 10th, 2005
THOR
107 Rivington St
(Essex & Ludlow St)
212-796-8040
The Lower East Side is the new Meat Packing district, and I don’t mean that as a compliment, nor is it news. What I mean is that it’s hip and trendy with too much development going on and that this is detracting from the neighborhood’s original charm. My point being, in judging by location you can usually tell what you are going to get or at least the kind of crowd you are going to run into.
Thor is located inside the new chic and hip Hotel on Rivington — negative points already. It’s a place to be seen, but who is seeing whom? I never quite get it. Okay, enough negativity.
Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner does not disappoint. The food is fabulous! The menu is not strictly Austrian like at Wallsé or Café Sabarsky, but I would call it more creative American with Austrian influence. With all the hype and craziness going on in the restaurant I wasn’t sure if the food was also going to be an attempt to be crazy, but Kurt maintains the integrity of his reputation by serving delicious dishes that are also aesthetically gorgeous, and I really mean gorgeous! My red beet terrine was a piece of art that could have been on exhibit at a gallery — slices of red beets were thinly layered between the mousse of the terrine to create a very modern design. The tomato mousse with heirloom tomatoes was stellar as the mousse was light and fluffy and the tomatoes so fresh and juicy. For dessert, the breaded one-bite chocolate lollipop was amazing! Three lollipops stick out of a square wood stand as a piece of sculpture. It is not too sweet and just the right size. It is truly the perfect way to end a meal. And the final factor considered resulted in a plus for the restaurant: The price point is reasonable.
The service is scattered. Our waiter was extremely professional and pleasant, but there wasn’t much communication amongst the staff since with every course served, no dish was properly matched with the person who ordered it. Not to mention that we were drinking sparkling water and they then came around and mixed tap into our glasses. I love tap water but just not mixed in with sparkling. When I pointed this out I received a haphazard apology but no replacement for the now flat mixture. And next, since we sat at the first seat from the kitchen servers kept bumping into my seat each time they came out.
Ultimately, my conclusion is that Thor is a good restaurant and a significant addition to the neighborhood. The diners are lucky as they really are getting top quality cuisine at reasonable prices. I prefer the elegance and maturity of both Wallsé and Café Sabarsky, but I recognize that Thor too is elegant — it just caters to a younger and more contemporary crowd. The interior space, the décor, and the design of the menus are beautiful in a dark nightlife kind of way. I don’t see myself returning to Thor any evening soon, though. The thought of trying to crawl through the nightclub crowd hanging out in the lounge at the front in order to get to my seat at the back is just not my ideal dining scenario. However, I would like to try their breakfast and see how the restaurant looks and operates during the daytime. I bet the experience is drastically different and I would venture to say that it’s probably better. Let the hipsters sleep while I enjoy my breakfast and the neighborhood. Afterall, the LES and Meat Packing district are much more bearable in daylight.
Posted in American , Austrian , LES , Sweets
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