Almond Banana Cake
by Celia Cheng
February 22nd, 2007
MAI HOUSE
186 Franklin St
(Greenwich & Hudson St)
212-431-0606
Yuck, yuck and yuck! I somehow have regressed to being five years old, but I can’t seem to find adjectives to describe how I feel other than single juvenile words like “gross!”
Mai House is a big step back for chef Michael Bao Huynh of Bao 111 fame. The food at Bao 111 and Bao Noodles that I remember was inventive, not fusion. The difference in these two terms being that in all modern cuisine, it takes sense, skill and ingenuity to modify or use ingredients that work together, regardless of their origins. Fusion is a term that people try to avoid because much of the popular fusion cuisine that developed over the past twenty years showed bad judgment in combining flavors that didn’t necessarily work together merely for the sake of getting a reaction. Mai House is the latest addition to Drew Nieporent’s Myriad Group. Based on the success of the Bao restaurants, I would have said that it was a good idea to hire Michael Bao Hyunh to head this “Vietnamese-inspired fusion” restaurant. However, I feel that the food here is taking less direction from its chef and more from a concept that is not working.
The restaurant was relatively empty for a Thursday night. The biggest brouhaha all night was not so much that Mario Batali was there dining with his wife and two friends, but that the wait staff were fumbling all over each other to make sure the party was happy. The rest of the restaurant seemed deadbeat, its empty tables further magnifying the expansive space of the restaurant.
For me, the first sign of trouble was that, upon perusing the menu, nothing spoke to me. From cocktails, appetizers, entrees to sides… nothing looked good. I don’t recall the last time this has happened to me. My friend asked me what jumped out at me and I literally took five more minutes to try to find anything that whet my appetite. Ultimately, my choices were based on eliminating what I didn’t want to eat, as opposed to deciding between mouth-watering options.
We started with the salt and pepper cuttlefish, which initially looked good to me on the menu until I read the accompanying sweet and sour kiwi sauce. Excuse the regression again but “yuck!” After tasting it, I second that “yuck!” I ended up eating the rest of the squid without the sauce but it wasn’t all that spectacular, as the batter was not cooked through so it didn’t have the light crisp that makes great salt and pepper cuttlefish crave-worthy.
The lemongrass lamb skewers were fine. They tasted good on their own and again were pretty disgusting when dipped in the anchovy sauce. For main dishes we enjoyed a black cod special. I wouldn’t choose to come to a Vietnamese restaurant for black cod but it sounded more appetizing than much of the menu so what the hell. Lest I forget, it’s Vietnamese-inspired, not Vietnamese so if we’re going to go fusion, let’s go all the way.
The one dish that I was curious to try was the duck fried rice, with duck confit, smoked duck and duck egg. Now honestly, based on these four ingredients, rice, duck confit, smoked duck and duck egg, this dish has the potential to be fantabulous! It was far from that and less than lackluster. Where were the smoked duck and duck egg? I was hoping to taste the distinctive aromas of salted duck egg and the juicy flavors of smoked duck. But what arrived was mushy fried rice with overcooked duck meat. I had to drown the rice in hot sauce (even the hot sauce was fusiony gross with sweet overtones) and picked out the duck meat because it was too hard to chew.
The craving listed for this piece is a dessert, almond banana cake, which came with black sesame ice cream and coconut tapioca pearls. It was the lesser evil of the meal but by no means worth talking about.
Sigh! It pains me to have to share this experience in such a negative way but I have to wonder what went wrong? My friend and I just happened to be discussing The Slanted Door (Charles Phan’s knockout Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco) over dinner, which begs the question: Why don’t we have anything remotely close to that caliber of Vietnamese cuisine in New York City? But perhaps a better question is, “Vietnamese-inspired fusion cuisine in New York City and it’s 2007?” You’ve got to be kidding me!
Posted in Fusion , Tribeca , Vietnamese
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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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Pumpkin Pie
by Celia Cheng
November 24th, 2005
‘WICHCRAFT
224 12th Ave
(27th & 28th St)
map
397 Greenwich St
@ Beach St
map
Bryant Park
Four kiosks located on the 6th Ave side
(40th & 42nd St)
map
I LOVE pumpkin pie! Actually, I love all things pumpkin, but I really love pumpkin pie. For the past couple of years I’ve been on the search for one that would blow me away, but I’ve always been disappointed by what I’ve found in the city. Certainly, I have ventured out to other pumpkin sweets and found some consolation in treats like Fatwich’s pumpkin brownies, Magnolia’s pumpkin cheesecake (although it is getting worse), and Beard Papa’s pumpkin cream puffs. Most recently I discovered that Savoy’s pumpkin spice cake is delicious, but I still have not been able to satiate my pumpkin pie craving. Where O where was my perfect pumpkin pie?
Well, luck would have it that I ordered a pumpkin pie from ’wichcraft for my Thanksgiving dinner this year, and, voilà, can I just say “Oh my god?!” If I don’t say so myself, it was by far the most popular dish at our feast, and it went quickly even though everyone was stuffed from the turkey and side dishes.
’wichcraft uses roasted pumpkin in addition to the usual ingredients. The pie is extremely moist, and that includes the homemade graham cracker crust. The filling is rich and the honey added makes it very caramelly. The filling and crust work in perfect harmony and you want to savor them, both apart and together equally. The smooth filling and the granulated graham cracker crust offer a variety in texture, but certainly the two work in unison to deliver a gorgeous taste that I can’t get out of my mind. The pie is sprinkled with pumpkin seeds as a brilliant little touch to complete this perfect pumpkin pie.
Posted in Sweets , Tribeca , West Chelsea
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