Heirloom Endive, Roasted Cauliflower and Croznes w/ Fried Soft-Boiled Egg, Kabocha Squash Purée
by Celia Cheng
November 24th, 2007
THE TASTING ROOM
264 Elizabeth St
(Houston & Prince St)
212-358-7831
Brunch, in theory, should be a fun meal, but over the years I’ve stopped enjoying it and pretty much stopped eating it all together. I prefer just to have regular lunch, mainly because few restaurants come up with original brunch menus, and one can only have so many eggs, no matter what the variation or twist…or so I thought.
Imagine my surprise to find The Tasting Room’s brunch menu to be a breath of fresh air. We’re not talking crazy innovation, but rather good ol’ home-style cooking with a lot of heart, soul, and fresh, local ingredients.
Everything my companion and I ordered was good. I started with the Cock and Bull Bloody Mary made with chicken and beef stock and garnished with a pickled egg. For me, no weekend is complete without a Bloody Mary, and this one was the perfect way to start the day. For fear of getting bombed before my friend arrived, I decided to munch on a buttermilk biscuit and corn bread. The order includes one of each accompanied by homemade elderberry jam, chocolate ganache and sweet butter. I tend to go for jams rather than chocolate spreads, for fear the spread will be too sweet and overpowering, but the chocolate ganache was as light and pleasant as the elderberry jam. The buttermilk biscuit was light and flaky and, with the corn bread, it really hit the spot.
After my friend arrived, we decided to share three dishes: mizuna and butterhead lettuce salad; fried soft-boiled egg with kobacha squash purée; and the buttermilk-battered and fried duck leg. The salad, tossed with miso dressing and popcorn, was surprisingly unusual as the popcorn added a unique texture to the dish, making it fun to eat.
Both entrées were outstanding! I’m still savoring the taste of the fried soft-boiled egg with kabocha squash purée. I didn’t think there was a variation on the egg that could still impress me, but the idea of combining these two egg-cooking techniques, both of which I love, is brilliant. The egg is deep fried after being soft boiled, which makes the yolk solid though not hard, and the outcome is beautiful, like a pouch holding the yolk and a tail of egg white, crispy from being fried. It’s served over a sweet kabocha squash purée that’s made from cooking kabocha with herbs and maple syrup then the skins are removed and the squash is puréed. To add some greens to the mix, cooked heirloom endive, coznes — a strain of mint — and roasted cauliflower completed the dish and offset the sweetness of the purée. This egg-related brunch dish is unarguably unique, healthy and delicious!
Our last dish, the buttermilk-battered and fried duck leg was another knockout. The duck leg itself, topped with chili vinegar, honey, molasses and chili paste, was perfectly deep fried with a crispy skin that we gnawed on until it was all gone. Like all ingredients at The Tasting Room, the chili vinegar is no ordinary off-the-shelf sauce. It’s made by taking all of the ribs and seeds from the chilies brought in at the end of summer and adding them to champagne vinegar. Each time a little is used, more vinegar is added to the bottle. Fried duck leg cannot be complete without a potato accompaniment, and, in this case, it was a salad made with Japanese sweet potato, diced carrots, roasted shallots and crème fraîche — a subtle and refreshing mix to balance the fried duck.
Our brunch was delightful, a combination of stellar and original food, friendly service and relaxing atmosphere. My faith in brunch has been restored, which is no small feat and a testament to Chef Colin Alevras’ talent!
Posted in American , Brunch , Eggs , NoLIta
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Linguine al Pesto e Clams
by Celia Cheng
February 21st, 2007
CAFFE FALAI
265 Lafayette St
(Prince & Spring St)
212-274-8615
Caffe Falai is ideally situated on Lafayette between Prince and Spring, slightly separated from its sister restaurant (Falai) and bakery (Falai Panetteria) on Clinton Street. The decor resonates as modern and fashionable, subtle yet eye-catching, even though the dominant color palette is white. Though there’s no street sign shouting out to let passer-bys know that it’s a Falai establishment, pedestrians walking by invariably do double-takes, intrigued by the pretty interior and the crowd of BP’s (beautiful people) on display.
There’s a brunch menu that’s served until late afternoon but my main attraction to Caffe Falai are its pastas, being the carb girl that I am.
For lunch, to cleanse my system a little, I ordered a salad, in addition to two pastas: the potato tortelli with Bolognese ragu and the linguine al pesto e clams. I love how the menu is laced with a mix of Italian and English at will, Italiglish! Cynthia and I tend to communicate in a mix of languages as well and rather than a bastardization of tradition, I prefer to think that it’s modernization and evolution. Anyway, back to the pastas: YUUUMMMMMMY!
One of my absolute favorite pasta dishes is linguine with clams. As you may know, I am always on the prowl for a perfected linguine with clams, and in the City I can only cite two restaurants that serve my favorites: Celeste and Babbo. Well, here comes the third, at Caffe Falai. The linguine is so fresh that when it’s cooked it doesn’t have the hardness of dried pastas al dente. Instead, the fresh pasta has a springy quality (like fresh ramen) and soaks in the mouthwatering pesto sauce. The little clams are also fresh and clean – sandy clams are a major pet peeve of mine – and the rich flavor of clam juice a nice accompaniment to the pasta and pesto.
The potato tortelli was also delicious! The homemade tortelli skin is thin and the potato filling inside is so fine it’s like a purée. The ragu is also minced and ground so smooth that it’s more like a mash. I have to say, while it’s scrumptious, I prefer when meat sauce is not so delicate. In this case, the texture of the potato inside the tortelli and the ragu outside is too similar. I’m not asking for course ground meat, but something slightly less silky would give it more contrast. I think what I’ve just said must be blasphemous to the Falai cooking philosophy, as they tend to stress refinement and delicacy. This is not a complaint though, just a thought. The dish is good and I’d go back for more.
Open from 7 am to 8 pm, The Caffe sells Falai breads and baked goods at the front counter to stay or to go. It’s waiting for its liquor license so the kitchen currently closes early at 8pm. Even without alcohol, for the time being, it’s a great little café and hangout for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Posted in Italian , NoLIta , Pasta
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Shrimp Tacos
by Celia Cheng
January 31st, 2006
CAFÉ EL PORTAL
174 Elizabeth St
(Spring & Kenmare St)
212-226-4642
When I read this item on the menu, “Shrimp Tacos: 3 Tacos served on Flour Tortilla with Avocado, Chipotle Sauce and Rice,” it immediately jumped out at me.
When it comes to Mexican food, I love the way shrimp are prepared and always gravitate towards them. The slightest mention of avocado and Chipotle sauce and I’m sold. It was very reassuring that the waitress told me and my friend that this was the best taco dish on the menu. We also ordered the fish tacos, which while fresh, were not nearly as tasty as the shrimp ones.
The shrimp were cooked just right — firm but not too tough — and the smoothness of the avocado and Chipotle sauce complemented perfectly to make the tacos so easy to eat. I love flour tortillas, so all in all, the combination was really perfect for my palate. Although I should have been less greedy and shared the second one with my friend instead of eating the whole because, as light and refreshing as the tacos seemed, there was a lot more food to come, and as usual, I left the restaurant overstuffed.
We also tried the guacamole and chips, pork tamales and caramel flan. The “family recipe” guacamole was surprisingly not very good. It had a creamy consistency that seemed diluted and, forgive me for saying this, a bit like the guacamole from those Chinese-Mexican restaurants all over the city, but higher quality. The pork tamales were good but not too memorable, and the caramel flan was disappointing. I was expecting a light and custard-y flan but instead, this one had the consistency and texture of cheesecake — dense and a bit chalky.
Café El Portal is a pleasant and cozy restaurant in NoLIta with reasonable prices. The service is very friendly and you feel at ease, which is so important for a dining experience. It’s a lovely neighborhood restaurant and there are still many items of the menu I would like to try. All the tacos sound yummy, but I’m not sure if any can top the shrimp tacos — its number one on the menu under the list of tacos and easy to understand why.
Posted in Mexican , NoLIta , Seafood
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Corn Soup w/ Poblano and Fish Taquito
by Celia Cheng
September 18th, 2005
ITZOCAN CAFÉ
438 E 9th St
(1st Ave & Ave A)
212-677-5856
map
LA ESQUINA
106 Kenmare St
@ Cleveland Pl
646-613-7100
map
I was wavering about doing a write up on La Esquina but after my meal at Itzocan Café I have an opportunity to talk about both places and do a little compare and contrast.
Luckily, Itzocan Café is my neighborhood Mexican. It’s very much a neighborhood spot: small, inconspicuous, and authentic. At the same time, it’s popular and known for its good food and reasonable fares, so naturally the dinner waiting line is unfortunately always long. (They also have another restaurant by the same name on the UES now.)
The menu is short and sweet and the food is just downright good. Unlike other Mexican joints that just slap the same ol’ ingredients together in the form of a burrito or quesadilla, Itzocan takes real care and genuine pride in putting together their menu and dishes. It’s this passion that makes a difference and the diners not only sense it but taste it too.
The soup special today was corn with poblano peppers. I wasn’t going to order it but when I passed by the kitchen on the way to the restroom and saw the fresh ears of corn I knew I had to try it out. The soup arrived as a light creamy green with speckles of poblano throughout. With every sip the poblano kicks in toward the end of the taste so it comes as a pleasant surprise in every spoonful. The overall effect was very refreshing and kept me wanting more. This dish really reflects the food at Itzocan – always an unexpected sensation that keeps you wanting more.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, La Esquina is a faux neighborhood joint that is relying on the hype of publicity to keep it as the “in” place to eat.
I only visited the café on the ground flour, as the gimmicky “hidden” restaurant is part of the New York restaurant scene that I hate. It tries to be exclusive and self-important by sending out publicity around town about its secrecy, how you enter the door labeled “Employees Only” to make it to the underground restaurant where you must have reservations to be seated, in spite of the fact that their number is not listed.
Well, judging from the food of the café I can spare myself the agony of trying so hard to go to a restaurant like this just to say I’ve been. The fish taquito might be the best thing on the café menu but it’s not really as fab as it should be. I tried three different taquitos, none of which hit the mark. Of course, I just came back from San Francisco where I tried tacos from taquerias in the Mission so you understand what I’m missing out on here in Nueva York. Okay, so La Esquina’s café is a taqueria, but its attitude is too full of “I’m novelty,” and perhaps it is in New York City.
Yet, I still believe that food like this should be simple and true to itself. It should taste fresh, and make you nostalgic for Mexico, even if you have not been. I think the problem here is the attitude: not enough care is given to the food because they know they can get away with it. I feel like this food is dumbed down for an East Coast crowd that doesn’t know better. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s when someone talks down to me.
Posted in East Village , Mexican , NoLIta
