Potato Salad/Baked Grapefruit/Red Beer
by Cristy-Lucie Alvarado
July 28th, 2008
ROEBLING TEA ROOM
143 Roebling St
@ Metropolitan Ave
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718-963-0760
My last visit to Roebling Tea Room was a snacky and satisfying one. I couldn’t decide on a single dish, so I took the sides route. I needed something starchy (potato salad), something interesting (baked grapefruit), and something uplifting (red beer).
I was happy to find that, for mid-afternoon, the place wasn’t too crowded, so I chose a cozy corner and awaited my mini-meal. The potato salad, comprised of thinly sliced bliss potatoes with the peels intact, was cooked to just the right consistency, crunchy but not raw. A creamy pink dressing coated the sliced potatoes while capers and bits of red onion added a little zing and texture. I later found out that the salad gets its pink hue from Frank’s RedHot hot sauce, not paprika, as I had suspected. This atypical potato salad perfectly satisfied my carb craving.
Next I moved on to the baked grapefruit, which was cut open and carved like a star. Sparkly brown sugar was sprinkled on the face open grapefruit, which was then baked in the oven until parts of the sugar became nice and crusty. I wasn’t sure how my fork was supposed to find its way, so I dug in with hands and teeth. The juice was warm and the slight bitterness you typically find in a grapefruit was tamed by the temperature and sugar.
Finally, I topped my snack-fest off with a Red Beer: a Bloody Mary made with beer instead of vodka. Genius! It’s smoother than a Bloody Mary, and you actually get a taste of tomato juice. With a salted rim and slices of lemon and lime, this is definitely my new brunch cocktail!
Roebling Tea Room’s menu has a lot to offer, but these three items were a nice place to start and will secure many visits to come.
Posted in American , Dessert , Drinks , Potato , Williamsburg
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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Kyotofu Original Tofu
by Celia Cheng
March 16th, 2007
KYOTOFU
705 9th Ave
(48th & 49th St)
212-974-6012
Kyotofu is a darling little hide-away in Hell’s Kitchen. This very modern restaurant is predominantly white, inside and out, and doesn’t have any loud signage, which actually makes it stand out amongst its neighbors — it’s noticeable precisely because it is trying to be quiet.
The restaurant is small and seats around thirty, but the space is beautifully designed. The kitchen and bar space are open in plain view upon entering Kyotofu. The counter space at the bar and by the window are good hang outs, but the main seating area is through the corridor formed by the bar and kitchen: two rows of seats on each side of the wall in the back room.
Kyotofu is a dessert bar, but they also have savory bites on the menu and a fun drink list with sake, shochu and cocktails. Being the savory girl that I am, I’ve tried everything on the list other than the cheese plate: daily selection of otsumami appetizer plate, Kyotofu original tofu, black edamame, tofu chicken _tsukune _meatballs, mini onigiri rice balls. These are all small plates so even with two people you could sample all of the savory dishes on the list.
The tofu chicken tsukune is nice because the addition of tofu mixed with minced chicken meatballs made the texture softer and tender. But the real knockout of the lot is the Kyotofu original tofu.
This original tofu is served with two dipping sauces, one sweet and one savory. The sweet one is kuromitsu, a Japanese black sugar syrup, and the savory a white soy sauce. The natural association is that the darker sauce should be the savory soy, and the white a sugar syrup, but here it’s actually the reverse. The tofu is like Chinese dou hua, extremely fine silken tofu that is served as dessert but can also be served as a savory depending on the sauce. But I’ve actually never had dou hua with a texture as fine as Kyotofu’s original tofu. It’s fresh and warm and as good as tofu gets. Some people have the misconception that tofu is disgusting, either too mushy or too stiff, but soy products are actually one of the most versatile, ranging from yuba, tofu skin, silken tofu, to medium firmness that can be deep-fried, or harder ones used for stinky-tofu; there’s just endless possibilities for taste and texture! This rendition is just exquisite! It’s a fine piece of art both to look at and to taste!
As part of the otsumami plate was a tsukune gratin. Tsukune, as mentioned before is chicken meatballs, but this version is in a little dish that is baked and topped with a slice of renkon, lotus root, and it’s an interesting way to serve tsukune, which is usually served on skewers, and rather successful.
I am a big onigiri, rice ball, fanatic, and while the aojiso, pickled shiso, mini onigiris looked tasty, the rice was too firm and the accompanying tsukemono, pickled vegetables, a bit generic and lackluster.
For dessert, the black sesame sweet tofu is lovely, with the pairing of hojicha tea syrup. Hojicha is a stronger barky tasting tea that is often served after a meal. Creating syrup from this rooty tasting tea is a fun idea that works and pairs well with the gritty sweetness of black sesame. The sansho pepper tofu cheese cake is rather interesting and not at all what I expected. The sansho flavor is more for accent and subtle, which is probably good since a larger dose may numb your mouth, but the tofu cheese cake’s sourness threw me off a bit. The texture was more refined and less dense than that of traditional cheesecakes. I’m still not sure how I feel about this one.
I love shochu, Japanese distilled liquor, kind of like Japanese vodka. I usually drink it Japanese old man style with hot water and a pickled plum, though that kills the essence of the liquor. Shochu can be made from rice, wheat, potato, or other grains or starches. Kyotofu serves a shochu from the producer Beniotme in Fukuoka that’s made from white sesame. Drinking this on the rocks is really fabulous as you get the aftertaste and sweet aroma of the white sesame. I don’t mean to say that the drink is sweet, as it is a rather stiff hard liquor, but the lingering essence of the white sesame gives it a rich flavorful sweetness.
For an education on how good tofu can be, I would definitely rush to Kyotofu to try their original tofu. It’s a fun and comfortable place to hang out, although given its limited seating, it gets rather crowded so go early or late.
Posted in Dessert , Drinks , Japanese , Small Plates
Orecchiette Pork Ragu
by Celia Cheng
March 7th, 2007
EMPLOYEES ONLY
510 Hudson St
(10th & Christopher St)
212-242-3021
I first went to Employees Only on a Sunday for brunch. It was empty and charming. We sat in the outdoor covered terrace and only two other tables were occupied. I wasn’t quite sure why we had been so lucky to have this little haven to ourselves. I was even more confused when the food arrived and it was scrumptious. Was this a secret that no one knew about? My friend Julia and I shared the EO burger and poached eggs with cherry tomato bruschetta, and though tomatoes are out of season, both dishes were still plenty delicious. The burger was a pleasant surprise. The potato pancake on the patty was an ingenious substitute for fries. Tastier, too!
I returned a second time, for dinner, after my sister tipped me off about the to-die-for orecchiete pork ragu. That’s when I realized why the restaurant is so empty at brunch. It’s known more as a bar, and the menu reflects this. It has only a page or two of food and the rest is drinks. Yet the food is so good!
The chestnut and potato dumplings are delicious. I thought the chestnut would be pureed and mixed with the potato filling inside the dumplings, but there are actual chunks of chestnut that accompany the dumplings. Mushrooms and truffle oil complete the taste profile for this total comfort-food dish.
The orecchiette pork ragu left me speechless. Talk about comfort, it really hit a home run. Slow-cooked pork shoulder, carrots, onions, tomatoes and a good dose of red wine did the trick. The meat is so tender it falls apart, the large chucks of tomatoes are juicy and the little ears of pasta and gooey melted cheese make the perfect assemblage. We also peeked over at our neighbor’s pasta, the spaghetti pomodoro, which looked sublime. I love being in a restaurant where each dish turns my head.
The grape-and-arugula salad with pecorino and toasted pine nuts was perfectly pleasant. The only disappointment was the side of Brussel sprouts with pancetta. It was overly greasy. Also, the pancetta was actually bacon, so the texture of the thin, large pieces of crispy meat didn’t quite complement the Brussel sprouts — the way lardon or pancetta would — that were already drowning in oil and juices.
At Employees Only, it’s not just the food that is comforting, but also the warm and inviting atmosphere. Whether you’re at the bar or dining in the outdoor seating area, you feel at home. A nice touch is the tarot-card reader who sits in the little alcove between the entrance of the restaurant and the bar room. You see her immediately as you enter, and this mysterious touch sets the tone for the experience inside.
Dinner, late night drinks or brunch, Employees Only gets my vote!
Posted in American , Drinks , Pasta , Pork , West Village
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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