Burekas
by Celia Cheng
February 27th, 2008
GAZALA PLACE
709 9th Ave
(48th & 49th St)
212-245-0709
Though the four-month-old Israeli/Middle Eastern restaurant could be considered a hole in the wall, Gazala Place seems to be on everyone’s radar. The tiny shoebox of a restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen seats less than twenty, and its rustic décor is a clear contrast to its trendy neighbor, Kyotofu. Yet Gazala Place has been very successful in drawing in customers who willingly wait, and amassing much praise from critics.
The secret behind Gazala Place’s crowds is the homestyle cooking of the eponymous chef, Halabi Gazala. All prepared by hand; it’s comfort food that warms you up inside and out. Prices are reasonable and the food always hits the spot. Though the restaurant doesn’t seem like the type of place that would take reservations, it would be to your advantage to call ahead to check availability, whether for lunch or dinner.
There are several noteworthy dishes, starting with the appetizer, kibbe: whole wheat meatballs stuffed with chopped meat, onions, pine nuts and homemade spices and herbs. Just listening to the description makes my mouth water, and each bite of the kibbe fulfills its promise.
The homemade grape leaves are also outstanding. I generally avoid grape leaves on menus because they usually come cold, straight out of a can. At Gazala, however, the grape leaves are hand rolled so they don’t all look uniformly perfect in form, yet they are consistently delectable. The grape leaves, prepared with or without meat, are stuffed with rice and spices and accompanied by homemade yogurt, and my favorite part is that they are served warm.
The lentil soup is another knockout. I tend to expect lentil soup to be heavy and full of brown lentil grains, which I don’t find particularly appetizing. Gazala’s version, however, is smooth, light, and bright yellow in color. It was so flavorful I assumed there must have been other ingredients in it, but Gazala assured me that it was just cooked red lentils. Wow! When you’re good, even the simplest of ingredients is scrumptious.
The burekas seem to be one of the most popular dishes each time I visit. The sesame encrusted phyllo dough is fluffy and flakey, stuffed with homemade goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Perfectly smooth and creamy, the sun-dried tomatoes are well mixed into the cheese, so that the filling is peach colored with little specks of tomato. The result is perfectly balanced flavor. It’s hard to stop oneself from inhaling the whole bureka, but it’s substantial, so I’d advise taking your time and savoring it.
Some of Gazala’s most notable handiwork is the Druse pita she makes at the front of the restaurant. The pita is paper thin, made of whole wheat with a dash of cornmeal. It’s not particularly flavorful but has a great texture and when served hot, the pita is the perfect accompaniment to the appetizer spreads like the hommus moudammas (hummus with fava beans) — another must-have.
I know I’ve recommended five cravings already but it doesn’t end there. I’ve saved the best for last. Though I’m not a sweets fan, I cannot pass up the dessert osh al-saraia. Gazala won’t say exactly what it is other than it’s a dessert that she learned to make from her grandmother and that now her own version is even better. The waitress describes it as shredded dough with some kind of cream on top. Each critic that has reviewed Gazala Place has a different description ranging from Irene Sax’s “custard that has the texture of clotted cream and the scent of orange-flower water” in the Daily News to Salli Vates’ “halfway between sweetened cheese and cream.” Gazala is adamant that it’s not a cream, but wouldn’t tell me any more than that. I couldn’t decipher what the mystery “non-cream” was, but it did remind me of cream cheese or sour cream-based frostings. Whatever this mystery dessert is, it’s delicious. And at the end of the day, I was happy to retire from the guessing game and just enjoy the perfect finale to a good homestyle meal.
Posted in Bread , Cheese , Hell’s Kitchen , Israeli
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Fettuccine (w/ oysters, mascarpone and tarragon)
by Celia Cheng
November 22nd, 2006
ESCA
402 W 43rd St
@ 9th Ave
212-564-7272
Well, who would have thought that towards the end of the month, my meals just keep getting better?!
Whenever my sister and I go see a Broadway play, we usually have dinner at Esca afterwards. It’s the perfect choice because by 10pm, we inevitably think that we just want something light and the crudo — Italian raw fish — at Esca fits the bill. Of course, once there, we always end up eating more than we had anticipated. But there’s nothing wrong with that, especially when your tummy is so tickled by all the good food coming out of Dave Pasternack’s kitchen. This was the night before Thanksgiving, and Dave was at the restaurant still cooking and taking care of customers until close to midnight.
So the story goes like this: Mike Osinski delivers his Widow’s Hole oysters to top Manhattan restaurants every Wednesday, including to Esca. Mike mentioned that Dave had made a soup with these oysters once, so for a week straight, I kept calling the restaurant, asking if they were serving oyster soup for dinner. The answer was always, “No. Call back tomorrow. We change our menu daily.” Eventually, I gave up. The agony of not being able to taste this soup and trying so desperately to track it down was eating me up inside. So I chose to forget about it. Naturally, I mentioned this to Dave, and he said that it was Wednesday so he would make an oyster pasta for us, using the shipment of Widow’s Hole oysters he just received, even though it wasn’t on the menu today. I was elated!
We started with the taste of 3 types of scallop crudo: Peconic Bay served simply natural, Nantucket Bay with chervil, and Diver with tangerine pressed olive oil. The Diver scallop is what’s normally on the menu and is the largest of the three types of scallops, but the other two were a special treat. I love raw scallops in general but am not a huge fan of Diver scallops. Of the three, my favorite was the Peconic Bay in its natural state. The Nantucket Bay was also yummier than the Diver, and slightly brinier than the Peconic Bay, which is smoother and sweeter. We enjoyed the scallops along with a mixed green salad that was also delicious! Despite being slightly overdressed, the quality and variety of greens were superior to most salads I’ve tasted.
The star dish of the evening was definitely the fettuccine with oysters, mascarpone and tarragon. While this pasta sounds heavy, it’s pleasantly pure and clean tasting. I prefer my oysters raw, but Mike’s oysters were cooked and well used in this instance. Combining the creaminess of the mascarpone cheese with a hint of anise aroma from the tarragon showcases Dave’s faculty in using the subtle strengths of different ingredients to create a unified masterpiece! I’m still dreaming about it. But I know I will probably have to wait until next Wednesday before I can head over to Esca again for my oyster pasta fix.
While the play we saw turned out to be a dud, our dinner at Esca was spectacular and stole the show for the evening!
Posted in Hell’s Kitchen , Italian , Pasta , Seafood
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Vanilla Cupcake w/ Chocolate Icing
by Celia Cheng
July 11th, 2006
458 9th Ave
(35th & 36th)
212-643-1200
When I first heard about Mitchel London opening a place that specializes in burgers and cupcakes, I was so excited. It’s hard to screw up these two American staples, especially if that’s pretty much all you are serving. Plus it’s Mitchel London, the gourmet prepared foods chef (formerly Ed Koch’s personal chef) who has two other stores around town.
I tried a burger and two cupcakes for lunch. It was beyond disappointing. I felt like I was at Johnny Rockets. The food certainly didn’t taste any better than Johnny Rockets, and the service was slow and unattentive. The one thing it had going for it was that it smelled and felt cleaner than Johnny Rockets.
I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with avocado, medium rare. My burger came out well-done, and the beef was completely tasteless. That’s pretty hard to do, because even unseasoned beef straight from the butcher should have a distinctive taste to it. The cheese was a half-inch thick clump stuck to just the top half of the bun — a little uneven, I’d say. I also ordered large fresh cut fries and a green salad. I’ve tasted better fresh cut fries at In-N-Out on the West Coast. Even the salad, which was supposed to have cherry tomatoes but arrived with slices of regular tomato instead, was a display of the lack of effort to create something more interesting and tasty than straight meslcun and tomatoes in a bowl.
The cupcakes aren’t much of a treat either, especially considering that Cupcake Café is just five blocks away. The fresh blueberry with buttercream icing cupcake sounded promising, but alas it wasn’t particularly moist, and the icing was kind of icky. I also got a vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing to try a different combination. I normally don’t like chocolate icing, but its richness was a winner in contrast to the disgusting buttercream icing.
Saddened by this first excursion, and thinking I might have caught them on an off day, I decided to give Burgers & Cupcakes another try. So I went back for breakfast. I guess you could say that the breakfast here is more pleasant than at a diner — less greasy and more refined. But do you really want to set your benchmark as your local diner?! I tried the scrambled eggs with chorizo, jalapenos and roasted tomato, and I had a bite of my companion’s bottomless stack of Elaine’s pancakes. Both good but not amazing. Service was as lacking and slow as on my first visit.
My two trips to Burgers & Cupcakes were not validated, and I am a bit confused. How is it that people can be so checked out? The waitresses at the joint are checked out and could not care less. Those cooking the food clearly seem to be checked out too, since they’re making the food so lopsided and tasteless. Mitchel London was there both times and seems to spend a lot of time there, but there’s a clear lack of attention to detail. Or more befitting, it’s just lacking.
Posted in American , Burger , Hell’s Kitchen , Sweets
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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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