Sunday, May 27, 2012

Austria!
















Hosted by Diane & Harlan

wiener schnitzel with a side of erdäpfelsalat and grüner salat
wine: 2009 FX Pichler Loibner Burgstall Federspiel Riesling

linzer torte
wine: 2009 Husch La Ribera Vineyards Mendocino Muscat Canelli


salzburger nockerl
wine: 2010 Navarro Late Harvest Anderson Valley Gewürztraminer

sachertorte
wine: 2010 Husch Late Harvest Anderson Valley Gewürztraminer

Thursday, May 24, 2012

NYC

BROOKLYN

Lucali Pizza **** nice place very cozy. Neopolitan style nice tomato sauce, more cheese than I'm used to, but still good. I'd return. Go at 5:30 to put your name in then have a few drinks at Bar Bruno.

Culture ****- nice pure yogurt flavor, added honey and almonds.


Maison Premiere ***- oyster happy hour, great place nice cocktails, would return and sit in the outdoor patio.

Buttermilk Channel ***- fried pork chop and cheddar waffle, delicious pc, waffles were ok, but pc needed seasoning.


Scratch Bread ***- great bf in a cup, Anson Mills grits w a soft cooked egg bacon and a jalapeño pesto, excellent. Also got a some Parma Bread, shortbread and a tamale to try.


Franny's ***- peas and house made ricotta, trotter and tongue terrine nice, striped shrimp w chili garlic and lemon head on and delicious, chittara w bottarga great, malfade w bass very nice use of the whey from their house made ricotta, herb zeppole well fried and seasoned very good, clam pie had some sort of cream on it, I thought it was tasty!

Ample Hills **- cool place with interesting flavors executed in a traditional American IC style. I had the chocolate pb and pretzel flavor, nice on the sweet side, but liked the salt from the pretzels.

Brooklyn Larder - sister to Franny's, boutique grocery got some mortadella and napoletana salumi for the plane as well as the pistachio cake.

Isa **- Very comfortable hip environs. Interesting food combinations such as strawberries and scallop. The food was well executed and unusual. The housemade bread and the steak tartar was particularly good. I also liked the broth with foie gras.

Sottocasa *- pizza, crust was chewy and lacking flavor, thought the salciccia sausage was good and the tomato sauce appropriately bright and tangy. The pies with more toppings were the better ones.

Dough - interesting varieties of raised doughnuts. Cafe au lait, cheesecake, hibiscus, blood orange, lemon poppy.


Coney Island - wonder wheel and free fall. Nathan's dog w chili and cheese, horribly salty. Thought Totonno's was closed, but it's there!

Olea - ok bfast good coffee. Greek yogurt w granola looked good.


MANHATTAN

Cocoron ****- soba - stamina dipping a meaty broth with pork and bonito labor a slice of pork and a chicken tsukune excellent broth. Also tried the house made tofu, very nice, and the daikon salad, refreshing, though not out of the ordinary. Tried R's pork and kimchi soup, delicious, but drowned out the taste of the buckwheat in the noodles.

Shanghai Cafe Deluxe ***- good crab and pork xlb filling, the skins a little thick, but good texture. I thought the soup and the filling of the rather large xlb were worth the visit. The tofu knots with red braised pork, was just ok, as was the hot pepper beef strips with dried tofu. Service was fast, I'd come back for the xlb.


Don Antonio ***- pistachio pest and sausage pizza. Nice whey crust puffy cornice pizza. Liked the flavors.

Annisa ***- fluke crudo loved this with nice hits of salt, razor clam ceviche great flavors pop fresh crunchy, Foie Gras soup dumplings. Little dumplings topped with Foie, very strong umami flavor, the skins thick enough to stand up to the bold flavors. Makerel w korean pepper paste, the mak was fresh and didn't have the fishy taste, the red pepper paste was a bit strong and needed to be cut a little. Frog legs with lobster was delicious, crispy light and had a wonderful sauce over grits and grilled okra - nice treatment of okra.

Minetta ***- black label burger delicious, lots of good fries, great service. Nice coconut layer cake.

Kin Shop ***- crispy pork belly and fried oyster salad excellent, liked the fried broccoli but not much Chinese sausage, duck larb good, spicy well balanced. Cilantro nam prik condiment good, Roti good. Duck breast decent but tiny portion. Jungle curry w skate and calamari very good, tender almost crab like skate, balanced spicy curry. Sesame squid soup, liked it a lot despite its saltiness, soft shell crab also excellent fried and fresh - excellent, coconut cake excellent, moist, array of sorbets: lychee, calamansi, mango all good, of ready to melt.

Totto Ramen **- arrived for lunch on a rainy weekday to find at 20 person line for this little place. The host was very nice though. I squeezed in without much of a wait and tried their patient ramen w a boiled egg and spicy bamboo shoots. The broth is chicken based and appropriately milky colored. It was nice, not as rich as pork based ramen, very clean flavor, no seafood or hints of other additives. The noodles were the thin hakata style, nothing remarkable.  The egg was well executed with a gelatinous yolk and the spicy bamboo shoots were coated in red pepper nice when added to the ramen.

Soba Nippon **- Soba salad w chicken, chix was dry I prefer the traditional soba.

Parm - dry chicken parm sandwich, rather bland and unremarkable. The cheese was fresh though. Service at the counter was unfortunate, as I listened to the person behind the counter (who appeared to be a manager) talking rather loudly to the server about his disdain for the customers. Such a shame as I loved dinner at Torissi last time I was in town.


Chikalicious - green tea shave ice, sweeter than I remember, but I finished the whole thing.


Charles' Pan Fried Chicken - use the M10 and M60. Chicken is super simple and delicious reminded me of the chix I got when traveling in the South. Candied yams pretty sweet almost dessert like. The Mac n cheese was good typical, black eyed peas ok. The thing is the chix.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Boot & Shoe Service ***

In order of preference:

Boudin Blanc
Pasta
Toast w ricotta and fava beans
Pizza w sausage, panna and hot peppers
Dessert with a chocolate sauce Asparagus w beets

Grand Ave, Oakland