Gotham Gal

Gourmet.com

Gourmet just launched their new website and it is brilliant.  The group that built it must be big Internet users.  The part that was truly genius is the videos.  Videos on line, in general, are long which equals torturous.  The videos on Gourmet.com are basically less than 2 minutes.  I loved watching baking brioche.  Baking brioche takes a serious amount of time.  Bread rises, bread is kneaded, bread rises again....you get the point.  They took the whole process down to less than 2 minutes.  Genius! 

A variety of different sections,  Food + Cooking, Recipes + Menus, Chefs + Restaurants, Food Politics, Travel + Culture, Wine + Spirits + Beer, Diary of a Foodie and From the Magazine.  If the publisher of the online vehicle of Gourmet can continue to make Gourmet looking the same as today, 8 months from now, they will be a premier destination website among the land of foodies.

Prune

Prune reminds me of Paris.  Small, intimate with wonderful food and a great vibe.  We have been back many times for dinner and unfortunately have never made it for brunch.  The current menu for brunch looks fantastic.

I have three girlfriends that I get together with every few months. We all went away together this past fall.  On that jaunt we planned a dinner for the four of us with our husbands.  The 8 of us had dinner at Prune last night.  We all know each other so the company was wonderful, the wine kept flowing and we had a fantastic time.  The bonus, as always, is the food was just as good as the company and wine. 

Since the wine was flowing, I took the opportunity to order a few things for both sides of the table over the course of the night so we could all try it.  We started with the fried oysters, radishes and goat cheese from the bar menu.  Delicious rich deep fried oysters in a fairly thick covering served with homemade tartar sauce.  One to a person was perfect and all that was needed.  A nice kick off.  We also had the radishes.  I often serve this myself but not exactly how Prune serves it.  Small radishes served with a whipped butter and granules of salt.  Take the knife, slather some butter on your radish and dip it into the salt.  Quite delicious.  Butter is the emphasis here.  Butter is everywhere which is one of the key things that make me feel as if I am in Paris and what enhances the taste of food.  We also had a slab of a Spanish Goat Cheese that was really rich and had three different consistencies.  There was the rind (edible) the next layer of cheese the texture was like a brie and the rest was a typical soft consistency of a Goat gouda.  Served with two pieces of brown butter, with a thick layer of butter on it and salted thin slices of red onion on the side.  Incredibly good.  After this, I could have stopped but why?

If I could, well I could but I don't, I would eat duck, liver, foie gras, cheese, pulled pork...well you get the idea, every day.  I don't.  I eat salads and pretty much watch what I eat but once in a while, I bust out.  My friend, who loves liver was nice enough to split the monkfish liver with me for an appetizer.  Wow, wow, wow.  A large piece of monkfish liver that had been seared on the outside, gooey on the inside, like foie gras served with 3 pieces of crispy toast that had probably been soaked in butter before it was toasted and then perhaps a little more butter over the top just to insure there was enough butter on the toast.  A small piece of toast with the liver was sublime.  Someone else had ordered the kale.  Black Tuscan kale chopped up and incorporated with scrambled eggs served in a bowl in a Parmesan broth.  Creative but not as good as the liver.  Other appetizers were flowing but those were the two I tried.

Dinner was next up.  Two people split the rib eye which was huge and no surprises, served with a big dollop of butter on top that was oozing over the steak when served.  Fantastic.  The lamb which is a large loin of lamb rolled and stuffed with herbs was also quite delicious.  I went with the whole Dorado grilled with a fennel oil and lots of salt and a few herbs and of course, butter, butter, butter.  The fish was delicious and fell off the bone.  We also had a few veggies on the side.  Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and baby white turnips in a small bowl, mixed and simple.  Stewed chestnuts that had been pureed and in the middle was a dollop of ricotta and sea salt on top.  Very interesting.  Never been a big fan of chestnuts but this was different.  Hands down, the best veggie was the yams.  Small baked yams that had been sliced in half and doused with a brown butter vinaigrette.  So sweet and buttery I shutter to think how many calories were in each bite.

Dessert?  Sure, we are now into how many bottles of wine.  I picked three desserts and ordered two of each.  Flourless chocolate cake served on top of a caramel sauce and tons of whipped cream on top.  How bad can that be?  Really rich.  I also ordered an interesting dish where phyllo dough had been toasted and chopped up like hay.  The hay was spread over the bottom of the plate and topped with a rich Greek type yogurt, drippings of honey and roasted whipped pumpkin.  Really good.  But for me, the best was the butter cake.  What a better way to top off a meal of butter with a big slice of butter cake.  Like a large piece of a really good cake think carrot or zucchini.  Rich and buttery with a crumbly crust served alongside was a glass of a dessert wine.  I loved it.

We closed Prune down.  I believe we were there for about 3 or more hours.  It was such a fun evening and the food at Prune is as delicious as ever.  Next time, I'm going back for brunch. 

Smith's

We went back to Smith's.  I think it was even better the second time. 

The bar in the back is quite sweet.  A place, where if you get a seat, you could spend the entire evening there. There are now a list of bar snacks too so you could just nosh.  We started at the bar.  You kind of have to there to have the full experience.  Also, the bar is tucked in the back so has its own life.  The patrons in front don't hear or see it.  Smart. 

We sat in the front room which was rocking by the time we left.  We went with a friend from Phoenix who decided he liked a variety of things on the menu and we should split everything.  My kind of guy.  We started with the squid and a bunch of veggies.  The plate is filled with a pile of slightly charred squid that has been seasoned with pancetta, olives and lemon confit.  Light and tasty.  We also had the Glazed Vegetables which are seriously glazed with butter.  Roasted fennel, carrots and a few other root veggies.  Delicious.   Sauteed Broccoli Rabe that is crisp and flavorful. 

Dinner was a splitting of three different entrees.  Pan seared cod that was served in the shape of a round disc served over black pepper tagliolini sprinkled with a gremolata on top.  Each bite you got a piece of the fish with the pasta.  Different flavors and textures really worked.  Nice dish.  The lobster was grilled and shelled so you only get pieces of lobster ( sans shell ) on your place served with a butternut squash puree and black trumpet mushrooms.  Very rich and tasty.  The rib-eye steak was full of flavor and perfectly cooked.  A large piece of meat served over a spinach puree, bone marrow gravy on top and large light potato dumplings on the side that are similar in taste to gnocchi.

Fred ordered a chocolate brownie treat which he inhaled at the end.  Lots of wine, good food and good company, what could be bad?  Our friend had a friend meet him at the restaurant so she joined in the fun at the end of our dinner but nobody asked us to leave.  We could sit there and enjoy ourselves as long as we wanted, which was a pleasure.  The service was great.  It was really fun and best of all the food was really good.  This is definitely Danny Abrams best restaurant yet.  I went back a second time and I am sure we will return a third.  A winner. 

Gallery Night, Stephen Posen

In Chelsea, on Thursday night, you could feel the beat of the street.  Galleries were having their first openings of the year.  If you want, you could literally walk from gallery to gallery and see what is the latest and greatest.  The art world is all there.  A small segment of New York City that is a world on to itself. 

We were invited to see the opening at the Sears Peyton Gallery.  Always nice for all the friends of an artist to come to the opening give praise and support the artist.   The gallery is located on 11th Avenue on the 8th floor.  It is amazing how many galleries there are  in the Chelsea area.  Many have store front property but the majority of them are on different floors of the buildings. 

I went to see Stephen Posen's work.  Artists, be it a writer or a painter or a photographer, goes through peaks and valleys in their career.  Sometimes, you can look back at an artists life and see where they peaked.  Yet, others continue to churn out great work and at the end their life is the peak of their crescendo.  Sometimes artists, like some of the greatest scientists of our time, peak in their early 20's. 

Stephen Posen graduated with a MFA from Yale in 1964 and was awarded a Fulbright Grant upon graduation.  He went to Florence with other young up and coming artists, Chuck Close to name one.  Stephen met his wife in Florence  (who happens to be an incredibly bright and successful in her own right).  I love Stephen's earlier works.  They are beautiful, intense and layered.  His earlier works are mature.  Quite frankly I was blown away by his earlier work knowing that he did these pieces in his late 20's, early 30's.  They look like someone who has been honing their skills for 40 years. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.  I went to see Stephens work at his loft.  A fantastic loft that they have owned and lived in for over 30 years.  That was back when you had to be an artist to buy a loft in Soho.  His new work looks like the work of a young emerging artist.  An intellectual work in progress.  Gritty, beautiful and unpolished.  Not knowing the age of the artist, one can see that he is going somewhere.  One would think it will be very interesting what he does next.  This work is raw and there is such brilliance here, let's see what he does next.  Like a first novelist, flashes of brilliance and the second book is out of this world.  Then you find out he is maybe late 50's or just turned 60 and you see his early work when he is 20 that looks like an artist who did it was in his late 50's.  So, a total wow. 

Perhaps Stephen Posen is going through what ever artist hopes for.  A new beginning.  Putting out completely different work from his past yet taking his skills as an artist and putting his ideas and talent into a new body of work. 

The show is really well curated and all the other artists are young ( at least younger than Stephen ).  I have seen many artists never move past their best work and get stuck doing the same thing.  Lots of time I have seen an artist where I wonder are they ever going to move past this work.  Even artists that are quite successful and I can point to a time where I thought they peaked.  Stephen, is the first artist, that I have seen, where his is gathering steam again up the hill.  It is really refreshing and inspiring to see.

(His early work, a painting, is the jpeg on top and his current work (photos, drawings, etc.) is the jpeg in the middle of the page)

Soto

I returned to Soto last night.  When they just opened, Jessica and I had dinner there before they got their liquor license.  Not much has changed except you can now order liquor. 

Soto is located on Sixth Avenue between West 4th and Washington Place.  Big window with light wood blocking the view of diners inside. Easy to miss. 

What I like is they are very long on uni.  Two sides of the menu.  One from the kitchen and the other from the sushi bar.  We stuck with the sushi bar.  There are some unbelievable plates from the sushi bar.  The chyu toro tar tare is fantastic.  Disc shaped presentation.  Whipped avocado coulis on top about 1/8" over chopped blue fin fatty tuna and garnished with black caviar some chopped chives and served in a sesame ponzu sauce.  Special tiny spoons are given to eat the dish.  A big wow.  The kampachi tar tare is also brilliant.  Chopped kampachi also in a round shape and a crispy piece of wasabi tobiko is wrapped around the kampachi that stands tall about 2 inches.  Really beautiful with some pine nuts served on the top.  The pine nuts really make the dish.  Next to this are two foamy white gefilte fish looking pieces.  You take a spoon of the fish and dip it in the soy foam.  A total wow.  The most creative dish was the uni ika sugomori zukuri. Sea urchin that has been wrapped in thinly sliced squid in a large round shape (like an egg) with a tiny quail egg served in a small depression on top sitting in a soy reduction.  Talk about rich but divine.  The rest of our meal was just okay.  At one point, I might be interesting and trying other dishes because there are probably other wows on the menu.  I would go back too.

We also had the geoduck clam salad which wasn't that interesting.  Large chopped raw clams served in a Japanese cucumber, daikon shiso and radish sprouts salad with a ginger sauce.  The sushi is not that great either.  Way too heavy handed on the wasabi.  The sushi is not soft and buttery.  Here the sushi is cold and isn't that tasteful.  Could have been the night.  The rice is also cold and a tad hard.  Didn't enjoy that part of the meal.

The service is fantastic.  Yet at the end of the day, the one thing that drives me crazy in there is the lighting.  Reminds me a bit of sushi dives in Los Angeles strip malls.  It is so bright in there I feel like I am in a hospital ward.  If somebody could just lower the lights 30%, the entire ambiance of the restaurant would change.  Soto was not packed but full.  I think it has to do with the vibe.  A tad too sterile for the Village?  Believe me, it is just the lights.  Change them!

US Stamps

Fred's uncle, Tom Engeman, has a big heart and is just a good soul.  I liked Tom the second I met him.  He is a graphic artist and has been designing stamps for the United Postal Service for years.   His work will live on forever.  I love that. At one point of my childhood (I attempted everything at least once)I collected stamps for about 3 weeks and if I remember correctly, I was very in to it for those 3 weeks. 

Tom just sent me a link to his latest batch of stamps that will be issued in June 2008.  These stamps are a series of flags of our nation.  This series will continue for the next few years.  It is fantastic that Tom got to be involved with this project as he has been putting out stamps for years. 

Air Travel

There is something insane about air travel in the US.  Let's begin with the entire process of just getting on the plane.  That alone makes you cringe.

Our airline security system is with out a doubt, of course that is in my opinion, the worst.  OK, maybe somewhere in Africa it is not as bad.  No where else in the world makes you take off your shoes.  The process is long, the people are nasty and do they ever really find anything except shampoo that is more than 4 ounces?  Emily went through Kennedy with a huge pair of scissors in her bag ( school project )  and nobody caught it until, of course, we were on the first plane traveling inside Australia.  Flying back to the US topped the cake.  We arrived in LA, had to go through customs, recheck our bags, go to another terminal and then go through security again.  It was not smooth sailing. Stress central. Our technology is antiquated.  You know when you spend more money on installing a heating system in your home but in the long run you save money?  But then in the long run, you save money.  That reminds me of the security system in our country.  If somebody added up the cost of the people who have power to make your life miserable and sort of enjoy their new found power, we'd find out that if we spent the money on some awesome technology, we would be more efficient and wouldn't have to hire all those miserable people.  Alas. 

OK, but this tops the cake.  This afternoon, I realized that due to a variety of basketball games put in the schedule we would have to make some changes to some plane travel on MLK and President's Day weekend.  At 2 in the afternoon, changing MLK weekend would cost me $100 a person, changing President's Day weekend was going to cost me $$375 per person.  I decided to confer with the group and call back after dinner.  I did call back.  Ended up that changing MLK was now going to be $276 per person and changing President's Day Weekend would only be $176 per person.  Explain that?  In a course of 5 hours, everything changed.  Got me. 

The game of plane travel is like craps.  I'd honestly like to get on the plane and when everyone has sits down make every single person on the plane stand up and tell what they paid for their seat.  It would be a great sitcom and certainly interesting.

Books

I had the pleasure of reading really good books on vacation this year.  One year I didn’t take enough books.  After learning from my mistake, everyone has their own luggage and we take a sixth bag filled with books (and of course Boggle, Scrabble and Apples to Apples).

First book was The Gathering, by Anne Enright.  This was probably my least favorite of the group although a really well written interesting book.  The Gathering is about an Irish family told through the eyes of the middle child.  The brother is dead and the sister  (middle child) over the course of the book tells of her memories of growing up with him and a secret that she shared with her brother which she believe haunted him to his death.  Bringing her brother home to Dublin from England stirs up old resentments before and during the wake. The story unfolds and the secret is revealed to the reader over time.  This book won the Booker Prize last year.

The second book I read was Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.  A very quick read.  The world as we know it has ended.  We follow a 10 year old son and his father on the road trying to survive in an apocalyptic world that is possibly post a Nuclear war.  Survival is rare with very little left in terms of food or basic items.  There is an underworld out on the road that is evil.  Think Mad Max meets The Handmaiden Tale.  Really worth the read. 

The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.  This book was on a variety of top 10 lists for 2007.  Brilliantly written.  I am actually going to purchase his first novel after reading this.  Oscar is a first generation American who is a total overweight nerd consumed with women although that never seems to work out.  His mother is from the Domincan Republic.  Each characters development gives the reader insight into Oscar.  His mothers life, his sister, and others.  The connection to the Dominican Republic is quite interesting too.  Diaz writes about the history of the island intertwined with the story of Oscar’s family which gives you better insight into the world of the Domincan’s living in the New York area.  Tragic, dangerous, funny and clever novel.

Next up, Spud by John van de Ruit.  I got this book for Josh and he was so into it, I figured I would read it and we could discuss.  I really loved the book.  Spud has been hailed as the Catcher in the Rye of South Africa.   It is about a young boy, John, who is given a scholarship to boarding school.  We learn of his trials and tribulations, his relationships with girls, his funny crazy parents, and his life in general.  Laugh out loud and sweet at the same time.  Perfect for any 12 year old boy.

Next up, Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris, First novel and I laughed out loud.  At the very beginning of the book, I laughed so loud that I became hysterical.  I still get a chuckle when I think about a particular scene in the book.  Joshua Ferris writes about working in an advertising agency.  The agency starts out at the peak of the of the mid 90’s when money was flowing and then slowly descends down hill.  I haven’t worked in an office in quite a while but the book brings you back.  The relationships with your fellow team members, the gossip, the stories, the camaraderie, the highs and lows.  Really well written and a pleasure to read.

Last book was my favorite.  The Mascot, Unraveling the Mystery of my Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood by Mark Kurzem, which is a true story.  A man in his 60’s, who lives in Melbourne, shows up at his son’s door where he is doing research in Oxford, and tells him a story about his life that he has been keeping inside for most of his life.  He lost his family during WWII while he was living in Latvia.  Latvia, although attempting to free themselves of the Soviet Union, was actually in bed with Germany.  The father gets found roaming the woods by the Communist soldiers and becomes their mascot all the while keeping his Jewish identity secret.  His father wants to find out who he is as his memories are surfacing.  His son, through research, finds out who he is and where he came from.  It is an incredible story of another survivor of WWII.  Being Australia while reading it was a bonus since he settled in Melbourne as the war ended.  I couldn’t put it down.

Except for the Gathering, all of these will be books that I will be recommending for some time, even Spud.  Each sticks with you.  All written brilliantly and so differently that it was a pleasure to read such interesting stories in such a completely different way. 

Vacation ends...

There is something about the end of vacation.  I always feel that when I get on the plane to go back home, the timing is just perfect.  I couldn’t have stayed one more day or one more hour more.  Is it just knowing that vacation stops that moment and being prepared for it, or is it just time to go home.  More than likely it is not the latter.

We drove back to Cairns after landing on the other side of Dunk Island (which took about 10 minutes on the water taxi).  It was really an interesting drive.  The topography is dense, green and lush.  Sugar cane, bananas and lychees are grown on the coast line.  We stopped at a banana stand where you pick your own and honestly leave your money in the box.  It could have been because the last few days of food was so bad or maybe because the bananas had been picked that day but it was the sweetest and best tasting banana I have ever eaten.

Our hotel was right on the waterfront.  The town of Cairns is basically a tourist destination.  Restaurants, retail, hotels and a variety of places to take you on day trips outside the area.  We parked ourselves in the room for the afternoon and just relaxed. 

We had dinner at Oliver’s that night.  Oliver, who actually waited on us, changes the menu every two months.  Australian cuisine from Emu to Kangaroo.  The service was definitely lacking but the food was pretty interesting.  Most of us started with a fish carpaccio topped with passion fruit.  Josh had a lamb shank for dinner, the girls went with the braised trout with lotus root and Fred and I have the Bug.  Bug is like lobster which was served over paella and topped with a sangria based sauce. 

We woke up the next morning and had a late breakfast downstairs at the hotel.  The heat was high and we strolled through the town and checked out the mall.  The mall was filled with American stores that use different brand names in Australia.  There are two grocery stores next to each other there and a butcher in between.  Sort of interesting that the grocery stores weren’t anchors but next to each other.  Otherwise, it was basically a middle priced mall that was packed.

After the mall, we did the best thing there was to go in town, we head to the movies for a double feature.  We saw Atonement and Into the Wild.  Atonement is one of the few Ian  McEwan  books I could never get through although I have read most of his other books.  Didn’t love the movie or the story so I guess I am glad I never finished the book.  That book went under “my life is too short” category although I did try twice.  I really enjoyed Into the Wild.  I read the book and thought Sean Penn did a fantastic job.  Beautifully filmed, well acted and the story is so thought provoking.  Made for good conversation over dinner.

After the films, we went directly to the Red Ochre Grill for dinner which was good.  Service was wonderful.  I had the kangaroo which was served in a Thai salad.  It was really good.  Sort of like steak.  Josh went with the pork belly and scallops and the rest of the group had the shrimp with an incredibly sweet and tasty mango salsa.  For dinner, most of us went with a local fish that was a fillet pan fried with crispy skin over a spicy tomato cilantro salad and soba noodles.  Josh went with the chicken which was loaded with spices and interesting.  The first time I had seen chicken on a menu here.

We walked home and packed.  Had to leave at 530 am from the hotel and being our journey.  It is a long way home. 

Great trip.  Will definitely make my way down under again.  Interested in going to New Zealand too.  Loved the coffee, the people and their attitudes, everyone is so helpful and kind.  My favorite restaurants were Bills in Sydney and Fish Face.  Either of them would be a huge hit in NYC. 

Next year?? 

Dunk Island

We left Melbourne and flew into Cairns, switched to a smaller airport and hopped on a puddle jumper off to Dunk Island.  The short flight was beautiful.  It took us about 35 minutes.  We got our rooms and got into the island mentality.  Dunk Island is one of the resorts owned by Voyages who has a bunch of resorts throughout Australia.  We wanted to go to Lizard Island but due to age restrictions they wouldn't take the family. 

The rooms were screwed up but the resort was accommodating and it all worked out.  We arrived on New Year's Eve so there was festivities planned for the evening.  Perhaps my first clue that this wasn't exactly what we planned was the buffet dinner and the drinks we got.  Alas. 

The following day nothing was going on.  We basically chilled by the beach, played games, read and Josh and Jess did some jet skiing.  We walked down to one of the four restaurants on the island.  This one was a shack where they serve fried fish and beer while listening to a live band of four that doesn't play any music that has been recorded in the past 30 years.  It took about one and a half hours to get our food.  Gotta get into the island thing. 

One of the options for dinner was a big barbecue by the pool.  Nobody ate a thing.  You couldn't.  This, in the end, was the problem at Dunk Island. 

The next day we got up and took an all day boat out to the Great Barrier Reef.  This was fantastic.  It took us about an hour and a half to get to the location where they moored.  We were the only boat in that area.  Some people went diving, others like ourselves, snorkeled.  This adventure was worth the entire journey to Dunk Island.  Beautiful fish, coral, colors, etc.  It is a sight to see and we all really enjoyed it.  We spent the day going back and forth from the boat to the water, lunch and games in between. 

We have been very into playing a game called celebrity which my friend taught me.  Everyone writes down 10 celebrities, politicians or any people that all of you would know.  Fold up the ten pieces of paper and put it in a bowl.  It has to be played by an even amount of people because two people are partners.  The first round goes like this.  You and your partner get 60 seconds.  Take a piece of paper out of the bowl, read it to yourself and attempt to describe the person written on the paper as long as you don't use their name you can describe them any way you want.  Continue through all the partners, then do it again where the other partner is the describer.  Once every piece of paper is used, put them all back in the bowl and do the same thing again but this time you have to act out the person written on the piece of paper.  It gets easier because you know everything in the bowl.  Complete each piece and then put the papers back in the bowl again.  Next round, you get to say one word to describe the piece of paper.  For instance, Jamie Lynn Spears was one of the people on the piece of paper and the word pregnant was the description.  Since you know all the people in the bowl at this point, the round goes pretty quick.  It is fun and contagious.  Keep score and only 60 seconds. 

We made our way back to the island and the girls had massages while I attempted to get us off the island a day earlier.  As much as we liked the place, the food was so god awful it made it tough.  We were staying in Cairns the last night so we could grab a very early flight out to begin our journey home.  They had something available for another night so I took it.  We couldn't get a seat on the small plane out so we got a water taxi to take us over to the other side and I found a guy with a van to pick us up and drive us down to Cairns.  Yes!

The next morning we had breakfast and jumped into the water taxi.  Really fantastic experience out on the reef but Dunk Island was a bust.  As Emily put it "we attempted starvation and failed".  What can I say, bad food just doesn't cut it.  This food was up there with Rocking Horse Ranch which is one of those cheesey places we went with the kids when they were seriously young with groups of families.  Totally fun but at least we could order in pizza from the neighboring town.  Here, we were stuck.