i flew into denang and have been in hoi an for nearly a week now and i must tell you that i’d been particularly looking forward to coming here ever since bourdain mentioned his love affair with this small city awhile back. it’s well located on both a river and a beach and you’d be hard pressed to find anyplace more charming.

luckily due to an agreement during the american war, this old city escaped unscathed from any active fighting keeping the ancient buildings intact. over the years due to dwindling trade the village had slid into decline but thankfully hoi an was resurrected about 15 years ago as a big tourist destination and in 1999 received unesco world heritage status. granted i’ve seen more white people here than in any other portion of my journey, yet somehow despite all the tourists and the countless souvenir shops all hawking the "same same but different" stuff, hoi an has retained an elegance that somehow combines the very old with the very new and still holds tight to all its beauty and authenticity.

i spend my days wandering about always hitting the market first to have breakfast and to revel in the simple yet highly aesthetic nature of these people. it’s a gritty kind of beauty but it draws me in. hoi an is small, with narrow streets so there are no cars allowed within parts of the ‘old city’ although motorbikes are allowed 3 days a week. you can feel the french influence in the architecture and it’s often compared to new orleans. but there is no mistaking where you are. this is vietnam...

my first two weeks here i managed to buy nothing at all. i’m traveling light and armed with michael’s measurements my only intention was to pick up a bespoke suit for him while in hoi an, a city well known for its plethora of tailor shops. the plan was to buy just one suit that i would be able to bring back with me in my modest bag.

and then i went fucking crazy. cause you know… you can take the jew out of nyc, but you can’t take the nyc out of the jew. and people, let me tell you. i have been SHOPPING. and it’s been SO MUCH FUN. you pick the fabrics and there are thousands, you pick the style, they tailor fit it to your body – and it’s pretty inexpensive… like, troi oi. i have died and gone to heaven. still though, in the midst of an exhausting shopping frenzy it’s a bit disconcerting when you ask how much that silk dress will be and the answer is 800,000. because that just really sounds like a lot to me. it’s 40 dollars.

i’m buying a cheap suitcase as well…

food. i’m supposed to be talking about food… but really, most of my food is bought on the street and i eat for one dollar when i’m feeling hungry and as much as i love the food here and could wax poetically (or try) about the herbs and the flavors, it is not the food i will remember…

it’s the colors of vietnam…

 it’s the juxtaposition of the old and the new colliding…

but mostly it’s the people of vietnam that take my breath away. and each photo has a story…

i wish you could have seen this… the woman on the left is 90 and her face was so beautiful…

the saleswoman

the paper recycler

the live chicken lady

the wine distributor

the tailors

the salt lady

but alas, a woman’s got to eat and so here are some highlights… each of these was bought on the street and comes with a glass of hot tea

beef with tomato, some kind of sausage on a fried egg served with a perfect baguette, table salad and dipping broth… 85 cents

this was a damn fine breakfast

it came from here. they’re packed up and gone by about 9am.

 a dish from hoi an, cao lau – 75 cents

made here at the market

and this woman by the river

served me this grilled pork. you roll it yourself with first a layer of dry rice paper, then fresh rice paper, the meat and the salad and then dip and eat… 1 dollar

dinner: com ga – chicken with rice and shredded pawpaw with fresh herbs and a broth with chunks of liver – really good – 1 dollar

which came from here…

bun bo – like pho but a richer broth.  my market breakfast – 75 cents

which came from here

closer pick of the market stall  - i believe that’s a pile of pork…

bahn mi – pate and pickled vegetables with herbs a bit of mayo and some sliced pork on a fresh baguette – 50 cents. i eat these often. i forgot to take a picture but they look like a sandwich. a really really good sandwich.

more to come… i need to hit the streets

 

the fishing boats of mui ne

i’m back in saigon after spending 4 days on the south china sea, or as they call it in vietnam, the east sea. there’s been no rain to speak of and the temps have been manageable as has the humidity. this is nothing short of pure luck so i thank the weather gods for being on my side – so far, so good…

before i forget, i learned something new today. ok, i learned a few new things today – like that vietnam is a little over twice the size as ny state (but visually quite svelte as one might expect from vn), but this? this is my favorite… i learned how to say "oh my god" in vietnamese! troi oi (troy oy). there you have it. but wait, there’s more! because for all you burgeoning buddhists out there the literal translation means "oh my buddha". is that not great? i can not begin to tell you how much this bit of knowledge has entertained me this afternoon. i plan on using it every chance i get. it even sounds yiddish. this is just too good.

and now, before we go any farther, back by popular demand…

my puppy

look at this face

and check out his little back legs…

i ate at that restaurant 3 days in a row just to hang with my boy and we totally bonded. he’d come trotting over at the sight of me and i fear that the little guy fell pretty hard. but i’m already more than well aware of how the long distance thing is just too difficult…

a piece of steamed fish and a bowl of rice. heaven…

so it was yet another of my turned around insomniac nights, probably around 2am or so and i’d eaten the fish and rice at about 4pm and i was suddenly very hungry. the desk in my room had a laminated menu boasting 24 hour room service but when i called i was told "closed". i asked if there was anywhere nearby that i could grab a late night bite and the woman said to me, "i come to your room". she actually said more than that but i couldn’t make any of it out except those words so i had no idea why she was heading this way but within a minute there came a knock on my door and a lovely smiling person was standing there with her arms outstretched offering me this bowl of fried rice – her dinner. she insisted. i said i could not possibly. she insisted. i said, how about i take half. she handed me the container and said her boyfriend brought it to her and that she was not hungry. i took it from her gratefully and ate most of it. and it was actually pretty good.

oh the people here…

this just cracks me up. constantly. if it’s not a door, it’s 6 huge sacks of rice or a live pig strapped onto the back – the possibilities of what gets carried on a scooter are limitless. but things need to get moved and cars are scarce.

a cemetery 

some random natural ravine close to the ocean. we drove by it and i gasped. so we backed up to have a look.

when i hired the jeep and driver i ddn’t know that it’d be a 1970 jeep. so 30 minutes into our drive it starts making a very bad noise. dude carry’s his tools with him and within 15 minutes it’s fixed. one thing i know for sure is that he’s not jewish.

j

the things one notices while one is waiting on a road in the middle of vietnam.

entering the dunes

check. that. out…

the wind was powerful…

off in the distance – just pale shapes – the sand was blowing like crazy

in the other direction… a mirage?

 diner that night. grilled oysters of a sort… 

this was our last time together and we played some more human/puppy games, he romped and bit my feet. i scratched his belly and his head and then when he crashed i wanted to snatch him up and take him home. 

but that was just not to be…

fishing boats in phan thiet

they only fish at night and never under a full moon

so these 9 or so cages filled with tropical birds are attached to this scooter. the owner’s feet are dangling out of the hammock tied up behind the communist propaganda billboard. and you know, you don’t get this just anywhere…

dragon fruit sold roadside on the way back from mui ne. it’s only been in saigon for about 25 years, originally from south america. i bought 2 for less than .40.

3 layers of baby chicks…

roadside lunch

went for a bowl of pho

comes with table salad above and a damn fine glass of ice tea

for $1.25. the rice noodles were fresh. the broth was excellent.

look! it’s the banana scooter truck!

michael calls this a saigon station wagon. there are 6 human beings on this scooter. 

dinner for me in my hotel room. i gave the second one bought from the roadside to the clerk at the front desk as i’m off to the airport to fly to danang to spend a week in hoi an before i move on to hue.

and i’m realizing that there’s not much in the way of food going on here lately. i just mostly grab some street food and go. but there will be more to come. 

i’m falling asleep at my keyboard… i must call it a night…

one of the many astounding things i see in vietnam everyday…

i arrived in mui ne 2 days ago. it’s a haul from saigon, about 4 hours and i swear my driver takes valium for breakfast because he somehow manages to drive below the already painfully low speed limit. on the upside this allows me to practice a more zen approach to getting from a to b, which really, if it took, would be a very good thing for the likes of me who pretty much puts the pedal to the metal every chance i get. and then there’s the other benefit of the speed of life here in vietnam – i get to see everything around me for just a little bit longer.

i keep noticing how vietnam has its own static pace. whether you’re in the cities, in a village or on the water, the level of energy here feels constant. somehow this country has a certain grace to it. i feel it everywhere and it remains seemingly unchanging when i move throughout this land. vietnam just is.

for right now my travel adventures have been simple ones consisting of daily tasks such as finding a banh mi for breakfast (.50 and damn good), some aspirin (not as easy as you might think) and a few small custard apples for lunch. looking back, each of these little events were strangely fascinating in their own way – and i never so much as thought to pick up my camera. perhaps it’s all becoming ever so slightly familiar… could that even be possible?

the view from the door of my room

this place was right smack on the beach and really, just a perfect location. so there i was in my little bungalow with nothing around me but the sound of crashing waves. being that no setting could have topped this, and being that i was also a bit road weary and sleep deprived, i decided to order room service – take a chance on the food and sit out on my patio and have dinner.

if one were not to care about food, one may have enjoyed this immensely. case in point: here is a picture of my salad…

ok. the colors have been altered a bit to make this flashless night shot viewable. but what we have here is a squid salad. iceberg lettuce, tomato wedges, and chunks of battered and fried squid. it was dressed with that flawless concoction of lime juice, water, fish sauce and sugar – but still… c’mon. where are the fresh herbs? the cucumbers… and why was it fried?

to follow came a whole steamed fish on a platter which was very good and fresh. mui ne is a working fishing village – more on that in my next post – so one can expect great seafood here but the sauce was thickened with corn starch or the likes thereof and then ridden with this knorrs seasoning powder that is used over here with abandon. oh well. it was dinner and it was kind of fun in its own handicapped way. the setting was incredibly romantic and dining alone on the beach, sitting outside with the palm trees swaying in the night breeze is an interesting psychological exercise…

yesterday i didn’t follow michael’s advice and i allowed myself to be enrolled in mui ne’s cooking school on the beach. these classes are offered in nearly every town and it seems they all pretty much teach you various versions of pho, spring rolls and a salad, along with garnish cutting techniques. the instructor was sweet as she could be and reminded me of a little vietnamese wind up happy doll. her english was so heavily accented and lilted with cheeriness that i understood very little of what she was saying. 

the high points were twofold. a coconut smoothie over ice and ulricke, a very cool german woman who i went out to dinner with last night. she is lovely and we were up until 2 am drinking wine, sharing photos and swapping stories. 

ok, we talked about men. a lot.

banh xeo, a rice flour pancake with turmeric, stuffed with sprouts and shrimp

tomato skin flower. this was the instructor’s handiwork. i passed on making one of my own because i am of a rebellious nature… 

the salads here are my favorite. this one had shrimp and squid. the red pepper garnish magically reappears…

and there was more. but really, just being on the beach and in that environment was fun and funny and well, kind of wonderful. 

where we had dinner… super cheap and right on the beach… the vietnamese are very big fans of very bright lights. this, i could live without…

$11 bottle of wine. completely drinkable. the toilet paper napkins were more foreign to me than anything else last night…

grilled squid with lemongrass and chili sauce over sliced cucumbers. perfect.

and there were puppies! and this little guy and i hit it off bigtime. and then he crashed hard on my handbag.

he and i have a dinner date this evening…

i’m happily back in saigon for the night before i take off for the beach in the morning. i like it here, big city girl that i am. but not enough to go out tonight. i just ordered some room service pho ($1.50) and i am staying in. it’s just begun to storm and i could use the downtime to catch up on some more sleep – and sort through photos – and write this post. again, it will be more pics than anything. it’s gotten late.

i’m just back from can tho which is as bustling a city as you will find in the mekong, but for the likes of those like me (tourist. said in a hushed tone) it’s not much more than a jumping off point to experience the floating markets. the riverfront is abuzz with people hawking their boats. you choose one and off you go on a 20 minute ride up (down?) river.

there is this notion of a steadfast purpose when you see these people doing what they do, knowing that every single day of their lives it’s pretty much going to be the same thing over and over again. as a whole, the vietnamese are quite poor but since the land is fertile and the rivers are busting with fish, if you’re ok with living in what amounts to not much more than a hovel with a hammock, you can sustain yourself doing very little. find food, cook food and repeat.

the duck, trying to look innocent yet all the while planning his escape. the chicken has accepted its fate, regardless of what it may bring…

the mastlike bamboo poles advertise their wares…

there are boats that sell the staple ingredients of vietnamese cooking, like this woman with the dried fish and shrimp, whose entire life must be permeated with that smell, while others offer only produce. i saw one small boat outfitted like a mini cafe selling coffees to the other bigger boats that was just an incredible sight but i didn’t snap a pic in time. we circled back around to find her and i happened upon an even smaller boat with a woman selling pho. i missed that photo op as well and was sad about it all. but it’s hard to stay sad in vietnam…

beauty abounds…

dogs on boats. you see this a lot. i was told that it is for security. 

the bucket below gets pulled up and repeatedly dumped over his head and down his pants. i know this for a fact.

many people come and buy from this market to then sell at their own smaller more local market…

gidgit goes to vietnam and sells pineapples

another of my favorite shots

aqua-scooters

this house was beautiful to me. it almost had a modern vibe to it…

back in the city… where it is 90 degrees and many of the women and some of the men dress for an autumn day in the hudson valley. white skin is in and if you’re tan, it’s just not sexy. so they cover up in a big way. gloves, opaque stockings and jackets. and then what might get tan gets bleached with skin whitening creams. it is big, big business in this country. be as white as you can… i suppose since they’re already so thin, they have to obsess over something.

in a skirt and side saddled. note the heavy stockings and gloves and facemask and jacket… this is the norm.

i’m only hoping she’s a well loved pet and not, well – you know… dinner.

this was right outside of can tho. at first we thought it was a buddhist temple but it is a temple to honor the founding fathers of the city. the man in his pajamas lives there in plain view – like his hammock hangs next to a little table – and that is his spot. so roughly what is happening here is that she is praying for something or other and then shakes a can of sticks until one falls out and on that stick there is a message and then she proceeds to throws these oddly shaped shell like things on the ground and depending on how they fall this tells how her luck will be. the vietnamese are super superstitious. note her outfit. remember, it was 90 or so degrees outside… and humid. i now find her crazy for 2 reasons…

sobering…

i went to the supermarket and this was the fish sauce aisle. i have been well schooled in the powers of this elixir.

i laughed and laughed and laughed…

larvae. it’s what’s for dinner. i had many interesting supermarket shots but this one was the winner for me. oh and see the tongs? why, it’s self serve!

dinner at a local place.

this was our dinner. i picked up the tab and it was 100,000 dong or $5. two bowls of excellent chicken broth with noodles and chicken, etc. plus a plate of bbq’d duck and pork with more chicken meat, the table salad and pickles. $5. (five).

 that was my table… just so you know.

the street scene where our restaurant was.

pure vietnam.

 

i’ve been on the move, so for now this post is one in pictures… about 40 or so, briefly captioned.

i wanted to lead with this shot. it’s from the home where i stayed the night before last which you will see more of in a moment. this is a wall in their kitchen which although somewhat rudimentary was quite large. these past two days have been incredible, only marred by my sleep schedule being thrown off in a big way. i’m just now back on track and i am on my way out the door to the cai rang floating market of can tho. more on that later but in the meantime please have a look at my latest wanderings. i’ve only brought my little point and shoot camera with me as i’m traveling for 5 weeks with one carry on bag. i’m a terrible photographer but i fancy myself having a decent eye so i hope you enjoy what i was able to capture. i’ll write more soon…

now on to the pictures…
 

launched out onto the river at ben tre

a stop for lunch on phoenix island. this is an elephant ear fish which was then rolled in rice paper with cucumber and served with a dipping sauce. it was 2 days ago and so i can’t recall just what the sauce was

after the river, a stop at a beautiful pagoda. i should tell you the name of it but i can’t recall that either. and atop the adjacent building sits…

 a smiling buddha that is ginormous. kind of like vegas comes to the mekong.

we walked around the pagoda and happened upon a back kitchen area. a group of people had come from 40km away to spend the day working on the landscaping and doing repairs to the temple. i believe it’s an annual sojourn from their village. they were sitting down to lunch and invited us to join them but having just eaten we politely declined. they were so incredibly lovely and we had a really nice exchange via my guide…

the vietnamese are wonderful people…

then we drove about 30 minutes and the driver pulled into a little storefront. we got out and i was told we had to walk to the house where i’d be staying. there were no roads for cars…

along the way i got a closeup of some of the graves. they dot the landscape all through the mekong. you see them in the rice patties, the fields, next to homes… if you lived on the land and you died there, that’s where you stay.

a warning. i think he’s saying "look what happened to the last guy…"

a road less travelled…

and on that road sits this house. and in that house the tv is on… i was relieved that was not to be my house.

security gates

my home for the night… looking out.

dining area. almost al fresco…

interior space leading onto my bedroom

closer up. and through the back door of my bedroom…..

the wash room

angles and rooftops

the lovely dinner served to us by the host

that night, laying in bed and looking at the window through my mosquito netting…

kitchen wall

one of the 5 family dogs… she was my favorite

a monkey bridge, temporarily widened for me…

the next day driving towards can tho. this is one of my favorite shots taken so far

snakes for sale… the recent flooding helps business

we stopped to buy durian. this place was just visually amazing

the proprietor 

i really do like durian

while we were driving – a typical shot of a (very) local market

(update: from here down, i am in can tho which is now considered the lower river of the mekong)

in can tho by the river just talking a stroll. i’d not eaten so i bought this off a street cart. fishballs. pretty much tasted as bad as they look. i ate a few and tossed the rest.

roasted corn and bananas along with some tapioca cakes. a german guy shared his tapioca cake with me and i liked it. the corn was dry and not so sweet.

but she was really nice and we talked to her for a bit

these are everywhere… rambutans.

and these were totally weird. i’d never seen anything like them. they grow in the water and you crack the shell with your teeth. the inside is like a cooked taro root, slightly sweet potato’esque.

the red fruit they call water apples in english. the juice is milky white and they’re quite sweet. i bought a kilo of the mangosteens. they were "pricey" at $2.50 a kilo (about 20 of them) because they were from thailand. the season is over for them here. god, they’re good…

banh boa with quail egg and some spicy meat with onion. i like these things…

this banh bao man ran over to see his picture after i took it. we all laughed and chatted for a few minutes

i ate the bun at ths cafe right next to the cart with my guide nghiep and a woman who wandered over to talk to us… i had a coffee with just a touch of condensed milk and it was dreamy.

another mosquito netting picture – because i thought it was so cool…

i’ll be back soon. thanks for looking…

oh vietnam… don’t make me love you so. the time will pass so quickly and then we will be apart. 

it’s the people. it’s the vibe. saigon has this "thing’ about it. this way of being that has taken me by surprise. amidst the never ending drone of 4 million scooters with a chaotic traffic pattern that somehow moves with a slo-mo ease that feels comfortable, even strangely choreographed – perhaps even enhanced by the the endless symphonic clamor of construction going on everywhere, i feel very peaceful here…

then there are the throngs of people eating, always eating… i’ve never seen so much eating happening – on the streets – everywhere people are cooking. women setting up a little spot with a propane stove and a pan for an egg and some bbq pork with a few customers gathered around sitting on these tiny stools. the local street food scene is astonishing. if only because of the bizarreness of it here in saigon. these are not the carts that you see in thailand, these are people kneeling down and cooking simple food with squirt bottles of chili sauce and fish sauce, everywhere…

westerners are warned off this local food. there is nothing close to any ‘sanitation’ and from what i hear one might tend to come down with nasty gastro issues if one were to indulge… i am fearless in this regards but have so far mostly eaten at the markets where supposedly the food won’t make you ill. for breakfast this morning i chose a stall at random in the middle of the market and had 2 fresh spring rolls and a bowl of noodles with shrimp paste cooked around a stalk of sugar cane and bbq’d pork. 42000 dong. or about $2.25. and it was very good…

i didn’t ask but i’m pretty sure the lower bins are snake… i think everything else was shelled crab, different kinds, different parts

ladies of the tofu

hearts, livers, tongues and something else below the tongues… maybe kidney?

ears and innards…

squid and shrimp and soft shell crabs…

the wonderful herbs that make everything explode into some kind of harmonious cacophony of flavor…

a fish portion of my wanderings…

the garlic, ginger, shallot, lemongrass vendor – way up top towards the center are those tiny little purple shallots that i love

right outside the market… on a quieter sunday mornng

it all comes at you – but gently…

the french were here and it shows…

tonight for dinner i took myself out to hoa tuc, one of the acclaimed restaurants of saigon. for my first course i asked for a half order of one of the salads. spicy char-grilled beef with kumquat, mustard sprouts and white eggplant. the eggplant was uncooked (who knew?) which was a pleasant discovery and the overall dish was just plain excellent. 

for my second course i had bbq fillet of vietnamese snapper with spicy beet root and ginger sauce. on a personal note i liked that they didn’t mess around with trying to make it look like anything other than what it was. which was perfect. 

a glass of torrentes, a small bottle of water and the above was $15. at one of the top rated restaurants in the entire city. my 20 year old server, huon was incredibly sweet and since the night was slow had time to practice her english on me and share that she was sad today because her boyfriend had been caught sitting in a cafe with another girl. she ended it with him and now he is very sorry. on the upside he had bought her an electric fan for the room she rents. i advised her to keep it. we parted friends and i think she was sad to see me go as she walked with me awhile down the street towards my hotel.

perhaps i will visit her again when i circle back around to saigon, if only for the update.

 

i think the only thing that’s truly remarkable about the fact that i made this dish is the whole "presentation" thing. i’m usually short on looks and long on flavor. by the time i get a dish tasting how i want it, the way that it looks matters little to me. especially if knife skills are required and it’s only a decorative garnish. i’m just not that cook. except for today. today i spent about 6 hours with 2 guys, one who was the chef and the other who was just a lost paying soul like me looking to glean some cooking tips. there were 4 courses for our lunch which began with a trip to saigon’s biggest and best market, ben thanh. i’m going back by myself tomorrow for a longer look. the hell with the war remnants museum and the reunification palace, show me how the people live, show me what sustains them. to me the market is the life force of the city. 

dried shrimp. lots and lots of dried shrimp…
 
the banana flower salad is a relatively common dish in vietnam and one that i have seen in the states, but instead of the banana flower, cabbage is used. why i never make this at home, i do not know – but now i plan on having it often. it is simply a taste sensation and so incredibly simple to prepare. the dressing is the vietnamese classic of equal parts water, lime juice, fish sauce and sugar with minced garlic and chiles. the salad is the shredded banana leaf, shredded chicken breast, julienned carrots and green peppers (take that ruhlman) and some fresh herbs. we used rau ram and hun kay – the former i know is available in the ny area although not readily unless you live in chinatown and the latter i have seen but don’t know the english name and googling it didn’t help. but regardless, mint and thai basil would do quite nicely. the salad is finished with crispy fried shallots and chopped roasted peanuts – not too much of either, and let me just say once more: this salad is truly amazing. and honestly, it’s not even cooking, it is merely assembling. oh, and chili pepper flower and outer banana flower petal dish? optional…

nearly everything is alive and there is zero fish odor.

also at lunch there were seafood and taro fried spring rolls that were ok but not so much my thing, and pho was explained and assembled but i’ve learned from pardus how to make that and quite frankly, michael’s broth is better. but it was a lovely setting with really nice guys and we had good fun. afterwards i went and got a neck and head massage while also getting a foot and leg massage. simultaneously. for an hour. for $30. in what would be considered a high end spa. i’m not sure how physically therapeutic it was… if you’re into serious massage this is in the vein of swedish – at best, not so much therapeutic. but still, it was welcomed by my travel weary body.

for dinner, a vietnamese crepe at the night market. there were also shrimp steamed in beer and a bowl of rice noodles with some bbq’d pork that were both excellent. 

i was moving past them quickly so pardon the blur… but this is vietnam.

see this? i like this… i like this so much that i had 3 of them. in a row. on a cathay pacific first class flight to hong kong. on my way to vietnam.

oh. wait. have i not told you? 

i just got to saigon this morning. i made a decision about a month ago that i needed to do this – and that i needed to go as soon as i could. ever since hearing bourdain go on and on about this country, i’ve felt drawn here. i’ve never had much of a desire to go to asia in the past. i’ve always been the europe girl. give me italy, spain, france (in that order)… over and over, and i am pretty damn content. but suddenly it was vietnam. i had to go and now i am here. and if you’re even the least bit surprised, well you’ve just no idea… 

part display, part mise en place at the outdoor restaurant where i dined streetside.

so i’ve not been in touch for awhile (again) even after saying that i would be more diligent about posting. i mean, trust me when i tell you that there is no shortage of very fine restaurant dinners in my life and then there’s michael and me in the kitchen which is not too shabby in the least. i’ve had more than enough material to perhaps even wow you on occasion. just the night before i took off, i started dinner and then michael came home and we bounced a few ideas off each other and came up with the most remarkable dish. seared lamb over fregola with roasted and crisped kale, garlic and zest, deglazed with fresh chopped tomatoes, that was so nuanced we were giddy. cooking with that man is so much damn fun… among other things.

but listen, honestly, all those empty declarations of how i vowed to post regularly were nothing more than good intentions gone awry. and you must know that i really want to share this experience with you. because i’m here for at least 5 weeks and i’m on my own and well, you can be my traveling companion – in a way, except that you won’t be picking up any checks… which is too bad because if you were to ever take me to a fabulous dinner, saigon would be the place to do it. the food is so damn fine and it’s all on the cheap. 

dinner was to be light. after being plowed with (good not great) dim sum, lobster, duck and congee and whatever else my heart seemingly desired on all the flights, i hadn’t much of an appetitie. but i wanted to go to the night markets and so off i went, into the frenetic energy that is saigon. i took it to the streets dodging the scooters and cabs with the aplomb of a local and made my way past the 5 star hotels and the likes of louis vuitton, until it got just a bit earthier. in vietnam, you don’t have to go too far for everything to get really real.

this plate of clams in a lemon grass broth cost me $1.50. and it was stunningly good…

coconut water and beer on ice. 

i bought some durian and ate it sitting in a park, knowing i couldn’t bring it back to the hotel. it was incredibly good and nothing like the frozen ones i’ve tried in the states. if i may say, the follow up burps were a bit funky – but worth it.

ok, i’ve hit the wall and am literally falling asleep at my computer. it’s after 1am and tomorrow i’m shopping and then cooking lunch… i don’t think i’m jet lagged, it’s more like i’m really disoriented AND i’m a 49 year old woman. for example, i was so sure that tonight was thursday but i was informed under no uncertain terms that it is in fact friday night. which means i’ve been in the same clothes for 48 hours. no lie.

clean clothes or not, i’m here and it’s exactly where i need to be. 

capitol hill/12th avenue in seattle

this shot was taken on our short stroll from having cocktails at the very cool tavern law, to dinner down the street at lark.
the photo is 100% untouched and to me, it’s ever so slightly unexpected, and perhaps even a little bit beautiful…

it’s been over 2 months and i’ve not said a word about seattle which is just wrong of me for two reasons because, well, i really liked that city – and i can honestly say that i’m glad i flew the entire 47,001 miles to see it. oh, it wasn’t that far? really? because it kind of felt that way. i’m telling you… seattle? it is way the hell across and up there. all the while i just kept thinking, man, i could have flown to portugal…

so there was the distance thing – that, and who can remember where i went and what i did 8+ weeks ago? but in the name of blogging and my own personal sanity, i am going to try and recreate the 5 days. it may be a struggle, but as of late i’ve taken to doing brain-challenger exercises so that i can perhaps put off the alzheimers for a little while longer. i even went so far as to download a few of the ‘brain apps’ on my iphone, and now i sit around trying to exercise my brain – which on the upside only requires sitting, even laying down! all this to say, that between google, credit card records and my newly toned brain – i’m going to seriously try and figure out where i went…

i worked the rate at the W to where they were almost paying us to stay there… i’m such a good jew

our first day, we walked from our hotel way up to stumptown on capitol hill and had a pretty exquisite cup of coffee. i realize stumptown hails from portland, but regardless of seattle’s own coffee reputation – we were highly impressed with this place. from there we hopped on the bus to the international district and went to green leaf vietnamese restaurant.

one of a few of the stumptown’s in seattle. great coffee. seriously. go there if you can…

iphone camera alert !!! spring rolls along with a cabbage chicken salad – excellent…

pho – best i’ve ever had

the owner, a tall, handsome chinese guy, sent out these banana fritters in a pool of rich sweet coconut milk. we bonded as we’re both batali fans.

and from there the trip looked just like this…

friday – pike place market, a prius rental car, and a tour of the boeing plant, then dinner at monsoon

saturday – belle epicurean for croissants, café presse for lunch, gehry’s experience music project, vivace espresso, zig zag cafe for cocktails, nishino for dinner

sunday – pizza at serious pie, ferry to bainbridge island, tavern law for drinks and dinner at lark where i met nancy silverton, crashed her party and gushed all over her. she could not have been lovelier.

monday – lunch at long provincial vietnamese and then we flew home

below are a bunch of random shots. i didn’t take many, but as you know i’ve never been afraid to post a poor photograph on ceF – because i am a maverick.

just some of the flowers at pike place market

the seafood and produce were memorable…

an exceptionally good almond croissant from belle epicurean, just a block from the W

my other car is a llama

yasuko’s flaunts their world famous ‘extra pork’ dish – who knew?

serious pie – yukon gold potato, rosemary and olive oil

pesto, something and something

no idea – but it was great pizza…

in the bathroom at lark, ever so slightly wasted – garnering up the nerve to meet…

my new bff nancy silverton!

and lastly, out on the water on a clear blue sky seattle kinda day.

a huge thank you to brittany, the pie lady, for her various and sundry thoughtful recommendations. and to dolce & nutella who i FINALLY got to meet! and well, she is very cool, really pretty and smart and overall extremely impressive… and i wish she didn’t live on the other side of the continent/universe.

but especially a huge thanks to our wonderful friends joanna and brad who schlepped us all over town and then some. i dearly love and adore you both.

…seattle is far.

a sampling of some fresh picked wine berries, huckleberries and wild blackberries – a gift from my friend jack on my birthday last month

it’s not that i’m not cooking. because i am. there are gatherings of friends and just plain hungriness resulting in well, dinner. i even sometimes whip out the nikon and snap a few lame shots but these days not so much. and i’m not sure what’s come over me. but just the thought of posting on ceF was beginning to feel like ‘work’ and god only knows we wouldn’t want that to happen to a nice woman like me… after all, my lack of ambition is my greatest luxury. (i stole that line from my friend emily and have been using it ad nauseum but only because it is SO TRUE.)

but we’ve been to chicago and then i went to cleveland. dallas is this week and seattle comes next. i’m doing the 4 day cooking gig again come the first of october and then i’m off to nyc…  and all i want is to go back to italy. is that asking so much? IS IT? but honestly, i’m not complaining. it’s a charmed life. the past week or so has pretty much revolved around trips to the park in much appreciated cooler than normal temps, so after a 9 week hiatus i’m back on the bike and fighting the fat (albeit somewhat of a losing battle).

but mostly – if i could just say, i’m so deeply grateful for this amazing life that i get to live that i could cry. for those of you that read the sunday ny times magazine section yesterday, we are the fortunate ones…

ok – back to food…

presenting… a summer dinner. grilled corn with flaky maldon salt and a squeeze of lime. grilled tomatoes with thyme and a farro salad with a slightly overcooked poached egg on top. i’ve got just a vague recollection of what was in the farro salad but i’m thinking it was pequillo peppers and goat cheese – and something else but remembering is difficult…

best beans ever. rancho gordo cannellini’s with grape tomatoes, basil, thyme, lemon zest and juice, some potlikker, finely minced anchovy, a very good olive oil, salt and pepper. i think that was it but i’ve no idea because i can’t recall a damn thing.

lamb meatballs with a cherry sauce over whole wheat couscous finished with mint leaves. a lot of ingredients went into that sauce until it was nicely balanced and pretty damn impressive tasting. but i’m not sure exactly what i did – because of my memory…

all cary ever really wants for his birthday are two (2) angel food cakes with his grandmother’s ’7 minute boiled icing’. the icing becomes slightly hard on the outside and then yields to a slightly marshmallow like goo on the inside. ruhlman’s angel food cake from his bestseller ‘ratio‘, takes this cake to where it needs to go – from spongy and boring to totally delicious. in my opinion it’s all in the weighing of the flour and then using both lemon juice and vanilla. for your viewing pleasure i give you 4 pictures as they were all so awful i just couldn’t choose… this is the whitest cake in america and despite the absence of any fats and the overabundance of sugar, somehow it just works.

my icing technique is legendary. obviously.

moving on…

i phone pics before i bought the 3Gs. but this is the wonderful donnie madia pictured at his flagship restaurant blackbird. for my money, he and eduard seitan are the best restaurateurs in chicago with blackbird, avec, the publican and the newest addition, a tacqueria opening very soon. donnie’s attention to every detail is second to none with a modern sensibility that slays me, as i am highly susceptible to such things. with executive chef and partner paul kahan at the helm of the kitchen, it continues to be a recipe for greatness. we were in chicago for only 4 nights and ate at avec, then publican and then blackbird – finishing up with an anniversary dinner at tru, a gift from my mother. and for a whopping $425 that included only one glass of wine, it paled in comparison by such a long shot that i can’t even begin to explain the differences in the food except to say that in the end, blackbird kicked tru’s ass – big time. tru is supremely elegant and the room is lovely. it’s quiet and serious and the servers are ON IT. but dinner at blackbird was once again phenomenal. oh AND best negroni ever – hands down.

so, a few things… and please again – forgive the poor photo quality.

salad of endives with crispy potatoes, basil, dijon, pancetta and poached egg = sheer perfection. not kidding. this salad was incredible in every way.

chilled cuttlefish noodles with green garlic, red onion jam, trout caviar, nasturtiums and buttermilk = amazingness. i loved it.

wood-grilled california sturgeon with english peas, braised peanuts, crispy bacon and bourbon caramel = seriously impressive.

cary had the organic pork belly and crispy sweet shrimp with chinese broccoli, preserved green tomato and black pepper. he started with the pistachio gazpacho with ahi, watermelon confit, sea beans and cocoa. both were smashing.

this was my idea. sorry.

desserts were wonderful. donnie brought us three and each one was greatness. ricotta fritters with compari, rhubarb and pine nut ice cream, pistachio panna cotta with a raspberry consommé and brown butter ice cream and a torn black sesame cake with pineapple that looked a little something like this that was  – out. of. this. world…

avec, a bit more down to earth, is my favorite restaurant in all the land. and at the publican, albeit a bit on the loud side, we had an abundance of seriously excellent food. beer, oysters, fish and pork. just splendid.

chicago is such an extraordinary food town… thank you donnie.

south west of chicago. mies van der rohe’s masterpiece – the farnsworth house. i wept in its presence. it is genius if not impractical.

no tinkering with picassa was going to help this photo taken through the door of my oven. it was shredded zucchini and yellow squash with minced garlic, chiles and ricotta. i stole the idea from city house restaurant here in nashville. their’s was far better and i’m going to work on this because it was frustrating that i couldn’t replicate it. i need to call chef tandy wilson and ask for help. plus my chiles were so strong that they almost hurt. so, fail, although not in an epic way…

the project – buy 20 lbs of balaton cherries from earthy.com and use 10 to make some cherry bourbon hooch. i’ll get back to you in 6 weeks on how it turns out and if you’re on the short list, it’s what’s for christmas, so no surprises here. the other 10 lbs. became a salted cherry vanilla bean balsamic compote.

oh, and jack’s arm after blackberry picking. the things friends do for friends…

ok. this was good. as in very good. as in i won’t go all yoplait ad on you, but this was another definite do-over. and the sooner the better.

i take very little credit as this plate of pasta was nothing more than a blend of: the latest post from rachel eats‘ blog, along with the addition of some murray’s cheese mail-ordered burrata. i’ve since found out – and to my surprise, that trader joe’s carries "burrata", but my obvious thoughts on that were although it’d most likely do in a pinch, there’s no way it could be even close to the same quality as these delicate cream filled mozzarella balls made in italy on monday, and at my door on wednesday…

because you deserve a closer look…

it’s hot as hell in nashville. we’re on day 10 of 90+ degrees with the usual humidity issue, and well, cooking is only so appealing. the ovens are off limits but i will boil a pot of water and saute some onions – and happily.

but here’s what i won’t do. although i preach high quality ingredients and authentic preparation, here’s another ceF ruling to go along with the whole ”i don’t do pastry crusts" thing. so now you can just go on ahead and add to that – "i don’t slip the skins off tomatoes". because honestly, it just seems SILLY. yet despite this blatant admission, i still struggle with the fact (if only ever so slightly) that this conscious oversight would be sneered upon by better cooks than me. i mean the italian nonas do things for GOOD REASON. but then i quickly rationalize the whole thing – i honestly don’t think it changes the experience. and i’m at peace with tomato skins – though i have succumbed to certain other kitchen practices such as always trussing my chickens.

adding to the list of ‘do’s', i also have claimed the red onion as my personal onion of choice for nearly all cooking purposes. i just like them better. and they look beautiful on my counter.

an important component of this dish is that you barely cook the tomatoes. for the record, mine were not home grown, as those are not quite yet available in nashville, but joyously coming soon. still, what i’d picked up at TJ’s were juicy and tomatoey. i used a fair amount of chopped basil from my herb pots, adding it the same time i added the chopped tomatoes to my pan of slowly sauteed onions, thinly sliced into half moons. you salt, you pepper and you’re done in 15 minutes. if that.

and then i strayed away from the recipe because I AM A REBEL and cut a creamy burrata ball in half and plopped it on top along with some more fresh basil. it’s a perfect dish. it just is. even with the aforementioned skins still thinly present…

but by far, the best part of dinner was the company. we had new friends over – emily and kevin. they brought extra tomatoes (in case), bread (i had none), wine (2 bottles of pino grigio) and a glazed lemon almond poppyseed cake that was quite good and tangy. and while we all sat there happily digging in to our respective slices, emily took her first bite and i watched as she sat there wrestling the flavors and consistency in her brain, thinking out loud about all of the things she perhaps could have done for it to have been better – and how she could improve upon it the next time.

and i thought to myself, i’m going to love this chick…

update  – with 3 reports now in on trader joe’s burrata, i am strongly recommending that you stay far away. my good friend heidi robb who i trust implicitly says, "Take a big hearty PASS. Their Mandara buffalo mozzarella is more burrata like than this insipid stuff."

so i was recently in nyc for a week. and then i came home to my daughter’s college graduation party. at my house. and i’m happy to report that i’m back on the bike, taking full advantage of springtime and all of its rain induced lushness. the honeysuckle is intoxicating… plus, there’s a 3 day cooking gig coming up next month that i’m preparing for. all this to say that i’ve been preoccupied. but i wanted to catch up and say hello and mostly – before i forget, fill you in on ”THE FOOD”, because there sure has been quite a lot of that. <— understatement.

i barely took any photos of anything. but i thought i’d list my itinerary – just so you could see what i’ve been up to – and the magnitude of food. because really, in retrospect? it’s amazing i didn’t keel over and die from caloric excess. well, i almost did once, but then i somehow made a splendid recovery at dinner the next night.

this was something along the lines of braised rabbit over farro risotto. scott conant – scarpetta.

but first and foremost, my beautiful and amazing daughter graduated on saturday from middle tennessee state university with a 3.94 – suma cum laude. and in case you need the translation, that’s latin for "with highest honors" and we are all beyond proud. lauren, you are awesome and i love you. (she reads my blog, unlike the rest of my family… not that i’m bitter.)

and at some point, i somehow managed to convince the talented, wonderful and sexy heidi robb (she’s one of those yoga chicks and it shows) to fly in and cook for us, and then chris was kind enough to come over and be heidi’s sous chef. without them i could never have pulled off this kind of dinner and be at the graduation and then come home and still get to wear a pretty blouse. so before i launch into the nyc trip, here was the menu for lauren’s graduation party:

small nibbles
rosemary marcona almonds – trader joe’s
some kind of buttery swirled puffed cheese sticks – whole foods
botija dried olives – raw guru
————–
2 pizzas
caramelized fennel with chris’s homemade pancetta
mozzarella, fontina, tomato sauce and fresh basil
———————–
pasta
penne w/ red onion, garlic and guanciale – batali recipe from molto italiano – page 186
——————————–
main dish and sides
chicken and italian sausage with sweet peppers, garlic and lemon
grilled asparagus with walnut crema – A16′s recipe
roasted little yukon potatoes with chives and lemon
sliced heirloom tomato salad
————————————————-
dessert
tiramisu – heidi’s recipe – authentic and perfect
and…the now very famous chocolate chip cookies adapted from the one, the only – jaqcues torres by david leite

as you might expect, the food was just excellent and lauren could not have been happier with the day. she starts teaching 7th grade language arts this august.

ok – on to new york…

also from scarpetta – the most beautiful bread – a stromboli filled with fresh and smoked mozzarella, mild sopressata, tomato and basil

and to go with it – olive oil, caponata and mascarpone butter…

thursday – dinner with mom at ouest. tom valenti is a fine chef and a very lovely guy. it is said that he single handedly brought short ribs to the party. and that right there is a reason to worship him.

friday – hair appointment at warren tricomi at the plaza. dinner at del posto with amy, stephane and claire.

saturday – ‘reasons to be pretty‘, chelsea market with a serious shop through buon italia, dinner at scarpetta. thanks for a wonderful day, momma!

sunday, brunch at aquavit with nick. dinner at convivio* with michael.

monday – laid in bed until 2pm in a semi-food coma, then shopping with a purpose in soho. dinner at esca (amazing food) with robin and jim, marc, maggie and amy and jonny

tuesday – great exhibit at the met, and then dinner at otto with cooper

wednesday – a stroll through the guggenheim, lunch at centolire and a black and white cupcake from dean & deluca to cap it all off. which sucked. which was a crying shame…

and now, as peter would say, my linking finger is very broken.

but i’ll be back with more cooking of my own – and soon.

*convivio was incredible. hands down my favorite dinner of the trip. you must go… a huge thank you to chef michael white.

i used tilapia. o’charley’s perpetual "catch of the day". and really,  it’s a nothing kind of fish. farmed. not terribly exciting, yet i buy it all the time. tilapa is inexpensive. you can’t seem to overcook this fish. it crisps up with minimal oil. and it goes well with almost anything and everything. it’s definitely not the fish you have a fling with, it’s the one you marry. i have flings with, say, chilean sea bass – expensive and rich. but tilapia is your everyday fish. you can totally count on tilapia.

so my latest greatest is to chop up a fennel bulb and throw it in a pan with 2 teaspoons of oil and get it all browned up. i added minced garlic and some capers – an anchovy would work nicely too, and then a minute later some chopped fresh tomatoes (good canned are an option). and oregano. i love oregano. it’s right up there with thyme as my favorite herb. and rosemary. and basil. anyway, just season that up, add a bit of water, cook it down for a few minutes and put it on top of whatever’s going. fish. chicken. pork chops. pasta. italian sausage, giant lima beans… then add a few good olives. the fennel frond garnsh was for you – because i care. especially after the beige food assault of ’09.

while adhering to ‘the plan’, not only do i count every calorie but i weigh everything. because i am neurotic that way and because i secretly kind of like it. i realize this eccentric ‘production’ isn’t for everyone but i can’t impress upon you enough how effective it is. i am trying to set myself up for success. because failure is just not an option. speaking of which, do you remember when wynonna went on oprah, all "i need to put myself on my list because i do sooooo much for my fans and family that i have no time to eat right even though i have a personal chef and trainer on staff"? it just wasn’t pretty on so very many levels. (personally, i think she left oprah’s studio and her first stop was shoney’s… bless her heart. (fyi – this is what they say in the south.))

i often make this for dinner even with fennel at $4 a bulb. and hey, by the way, is it me or are ‘whole foods’ produce prices out of control? anyway, the good news is that you get everything on that plate for in the neighborhood of 375 calories – and that right there is a caloric bargain. and c’mon. you gotta admit. that’s awesome…

UPDATE!!! THIS JUST IN:

Farm-raised tilapia has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, but high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, new research shows. Researchers say this combination could be dangerous for some patients with conditions including heart disease, arthritis, asthma and other allergic and auto immune diseases.

The study is in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Senior study author Dr. Floyd H. Chilton is quoted in the article: "If you’re in a vulnerable population such as a heart disease patient, you need to be very careful with what you’re eating, and that includes everything. But when it comes to fish, there’s not a more important thing you can do for heart disease than eat the right type of fish or take dietary fish oil. There is evidence that you may harm yourself by eating the wrong kind of fish, and [farmed] tilapia and catfish are the two that fall into that category."

and now 2 complimentary puppy pics of grace at 10 weeks old on her 7th day at home. because she is just too damn cute not to show off.

it’s lola bistro, and i can prove it…

i went to cleveland. cleveland… of all places. and it was good. 

i went to visit my misspent youth at the rock and roll hall of fame where i saw keith moon’s velvet suit, james taylor’s first guitar and marveled at how freakin’ tiny jagger, prince, tyler and bowie are. i mean, they’re like a woman’s size 6. i’d totally break them all in half…  anyway, i had met terry stewart, the president of the ‘rock hall’ when he was visiting nashville and we talked for awhile – mostly about food, and he was kind enough to invite me to visit the museum if i was ever in cleveland. i kindly thanked him while chuckling softly, inwardly rolling my eyes. like i’d ever be going to cleveland… and then a year later he got the phone call and made good on it. and it was a fun couple of hours for which i am grateful to both him and patrick, director of guest services, for showing us around and treating me like the vip rockstar that i’ve always believed i should be.

but i mostly went because on occasion my friend carol and i devise a plan, book a ticket and then we tend to get off a plane and eat something extremely memorable. if you recall, we went here and then here – and now cleveland. let it be known upfront that i knew next to nothing about this city, let alone ohio. i even somehow forgot that cleveland is on lake erie – i must have been sick that day in 5th grade geography. and i never imagined that it was a city with great museums, a top notch symphony and restaurants and markets and well, then there are the actual clevelanders – a few in particular that i quite like. i suppose all this to say that i need to get out more – or perhaps just back to cleveland.

now, not to knock cleveland, as i personally fault the hiltons (who clearly care nothing for the little people) for this artistic travesty, but this was what i looked at for 4 days straight…

yes, residing happily side by side, literally the very same print - each precisely as unattractive as the other. although the coloring may appear to be slightly different, it was merely the lighting in the room. luckily for me this was not to be representational of cleveland. at all…

…but this was. this is a dish that was brought out by the chef de cuisine of lola bistro, derek clayton. he called it ‘fergus henderson meets thomas keller.’  all i know is that you take a hunk of the crispy bone marrow and you slice it onto a piece of toasted baguette and then top it with a good flaky salt along with parsley and then either pickled onion or the salsa verde and a squeeze of lemon and well, boys and girls – it doesn’t get much better than that.

and hey – next time could someone PLEASE remind me to forgo the vanilla pear ginger martini? because i get smashed on liquor and then you add the really, really good barbera – la spinetta ca di pian barbera d’asti ’05 – that we were drinking and well, i tend to forget things. more and more… but i could never ever forget the first dish that michael brought to our table.  it was a cold sausage of forced duck meat, studded with foie gras. ruhlman later told me the proper name for what the studded thing is, but i can’t recall. regardless, it was truly exceptional. one of the better sausages i’ve ever eaten.

this is a picture of michael symon’s entire head next to about 18% of mine.  it is the single worst photo of me ever taken in the history of my entire life. believe me, this crop job was beyond necessary and i did us all a huge service. but that really is me cradling symon’s big bald head and i can assure you the rest of his body was in fact well attached. he is, by the way, an absolute doll. totally adorable. michael symon, i love you. and when things slow down a bit in your life – like in 20 years, let’s hang out. mwah!

after the sausage and marrow, there were sweetbreads and berkshire bacon, and lamb and halibut and the righteous lola fries… and only then did michael send over the 3 desserts – which i proceeded to eat most of… and then i died. happy.

this trip, carol was arriving 2 days after me so i found myself in the amazing care of heidi robb from life in recipes. she works in culinary media and is currently involved with symon on his upcoming book as well as being a personal chef. and in the midst of all of that, she was kind enough to volunteer to schlep my ass all over town for 2 days. we had a lot of food, and a lot of fun. thank you heidi. kindred spirits and friends forever. 

heidi from life in recipes - my lola dining partner and ace tour guide

the next day we went to the cleveland museum of art and feeding maybelle gave us a private tour. she works there and is incredibly knowledgeable of the collection. sadly, we were a few weeks shy of the new exhibit that’s coming in, but still, we got the grand go around and i loved the building which has undergone the first stage of a major renovation, to be completed in 2012. after, we hit chinatown. 

this was the best dish – a petal shaped rice noodle with pork and vegetables. the 3 of us loved it.

then we went experimental and decided to get the bitter melon and shrimp with egg. there is no way to measure the sucktitude of this dish. it was both bad and boring.

white tripe with black bean sauce.  because when heidi and i mustered up whatever it took to order the tripe, she figured black bean sauce was the way to go.  those little fermented beans tend to make anything taste all right. all in all i’d have to say that it was - ummm, textural?  can you see the little villi attached to the little flaps which are attached to the bigger flap of stomach? no? look closer. yep, pretty gross. but we ate some, felt that we could then conquer anything and then went on with our bad selves. but i really took this photo so i could taunt carol (see this), and got great pleasure waving my iphone in front of her face, over and over. because i am her friend and that’s what friends do.

west side market is what’s missing in nashville. trader joe’s may be opening here next month, but they won’t be offering beef hearts and lamb tongues and hungarian bacon and tons of sausage AND cannoli.  ok, we actually have good cannoli. but STILL, we don’t have one butcher that sells calves liver or veal bones or, see below on the very left?  that’s a lamb head.  ok, so maybe i can live without the lamb head but if the brain were still inside i might be interested.

heads and hearts and livers and kidneys and tongues… as it should be. heidi bought 6 lamb tongues for pickling and it was under $5.

the happiest, nicest produce vendors in the building. i loved these vendors. they were truly enjoying themselves and it was contagious. that woman’s melons were outrageous. 

you slice this and eat it as is – cold on a good dense eastern european bread shmeared with garlic. so i’ve been told.

that night, heidi and i were joined by ‘feeding maybelle’ for a dinner at moxie. we had a cheese course that included a briny brau kase from wisconsin that i loved and am trying to track down, as well as a duck confit with pear mostarda that i thought was excellent. there were scallops in creamed corn with nueske bacon, a tomato salad with mozzarella and lemon overtones – and there were 2 bottles of a wonderful argentinian malbec.

more pork for you. ruhlman comes by his love of the stuff honestly… i think cleveland has more pork per capita than any city in america.

speaking of ruhlman, the next day carol and i made it a point to stop by the botanical garden to see donna turner ruhlman’s photography exhibit entitled ‘leaf designs in black and white.’  the prints were stunning and we were lucky to catch it.

the garden has this two level glasshouse.  downstairs, you’ve got yer costa rica – upstairs, yer madagascar.  this plaque (above) was near the elevator and for some reason it CRACKED ME THE HELL UP. poor carol… i wonder how she stands it. but c’mon! i never tire of watching leaf-cutter ants? get a life…

the botanical garden entrance, looking out to the cleveland art museum.

and then finally, that evening – my first negroni. but ruhlman? without the orange slice? we sampled 3 of his recently made sausages and i surprisingly voted for the chicken, a true taste sensation, (turkey with cherry and bratwurst were the others) which michael assured me was loaded with fatback – because i was worried i might not get my daily cleveland pork allowance…

anyway, this is michael, carol and myself (fat again and FRETTING) - photo by donna. we had a wonderful wine soaked evening and as much as i adore michael, and i really do adore michael, his wife is what makes cleveland rock. i’m sure of it.

so for that last night we chose to have dinner at the baricelli inn, owned by chef paul minnillo. we nestled into a table for 4 in a glass encased corner and began with some champagne as paul sent out a tray of salumi and a platter of the last of his garden grown heirloom tomatoes in vibrant green, yellow and red. it wasn’t a night for taking food photos but for those of you who may wonder, we had the 5 spice lamb ribs that came with a chutney slaw that was really quite good and a chilled sugar snap pea soup that didn’t quite rise to what it could have been. we also had a simple salad of greens from the renowned farmer jones, and another that had asparagus, potatoes, mustard greens, a poached egg and bacon vinaigrette – both excellent if not slightly overdressed. for our entrées we had a corn risotto with bacon and sweet peppers, a saffron linguine with lobster and pea tendrils and the duck breast with stone fruit compote, wild rice and figs that seemed to be quite well received. but well, by that time i was ever so slightly blurry, exclaiming "no, i’m fine" just as my elbow slipped off the table. charming. (le sigh…)

besides the great food, the baricelli inn is also known for its cheese and boasts a state-of-the-art affinage cooler, home to about 40 different varieties. so the evening ended with a spread of beautiful cheeses, one in particular that was made with goat, cow and sheep milk. there was a dessert that didn’t quite matter and scotch and some muscato, perhaps the other dessert wine was a sauternes but by this point – what’s the difference? you get the picture. if not, allow me to spell this out. cocktails, champagne, 2+ bottles of wines, dessert wine and hard liquor. and i lived to tell the tale and did not puke, although at 4am it was touch and go…

sunday was a bit tough for me to face. but we slept in, admired the hotel artwork a bit longer, packed up and then rallied, only to hit fire for brunch with heidi. i hate to say it, but even in my delicate state, nothing we ordered qualified as all that good. the chef doug katz did come by and totally seemed like a very nice jewish boy. admittedly, by that time, food wasn’t exactly high on my priority list. and i was hung over. but still, just fair at best. fire has a wonderful reputation and if i find myself back in cleveland, i’d love to try it for dinner.

when you descend upon a city that you’ve never been to before, and you’re there to suck the life out of it, drawing all it has to offer into your brain, your stomach, your heart – sometimes it can overload your senses. but somehow this was not the case with cleveland. somehow, despite the self induced fast pace, it felt homey and comfortable – the kind of place where it’s easy to just ‘be’, the kind of place where you could live. after all my earlier notions, the "rock ‘n’ roll capital of the world" proved itself to be a worthy destination in ways i had not imagined and i know i’ll be back sometime. and when i am, it will be because of the most important thing that any town, village or city can offer you – it will be to see my friends.

              

my rss feeder broke.  and i didn’t realize it for 3 months.  mostly because i (still) don’t even understand what exactly an rss feeder is, or what it does – talk about being oh so techno savvy… but my stat’s were dropping off and well, try as i might to just ignore the cold hard numbers, i started to take it personally.  was it something i said?  something i cooked?  where did so many of my bleaders go and why would they leave me after all we have meant to each other? 

but before i called my therapist, i called mark from simpler computing! and he quickly came to my rescue – again.  thank you mark.  you solved the mystery and now once again you are so totally my blero. 

so listen up – all you techno losers out there that just like to cook and write and take a little photo here and there, but do not want to bother your pretty little heads with html and templates and embedding and wordpress editors that suck and the like, call mark.  today.  he can tweak your blog into submission.  AND he likes to cook… (btw – ceF is still under construction as i type so please bear with…)

speaking of liking to cook… here’s the deal.  i cook a lot.  but sometimes it’s just dinner.  and sometimes it’s not my idea of a blog worthy post.  and usually it’s just that i’m too lazy to write.  but it’s totally me, not you.  you, i adore.  you make my life better, adding an entirely new fangled dimension that did not exist just 16 months ago. but still, i am often unmotivated, or perhaps even more often than that, i’m just reading OPB’s…

so what happens is that some of these dishes fall by the blogosphere’s wayside.  but i thought since we were dealing with feeds and feeding, i’d show you what gets fed around here to my immediate world.  so i’m going to hit you with a fair few of what i’ve not bothered to bother you with until now, along with some pictures. take a deep breath – here goes…

look familiar?  this one was made with the half and half, as per ripert’s recipe.  was it better?  yes.  did i LOVE it?  not so much.  it’s ok.  kinda brunchy, not desserty.  i like custard.  life is good.  and eric, you’re totally cool and sexy and hot and all those things.  but my tony still has you beat, big time. i hope you can understand…

ok so i realize i am blogger #4721 to make jim lahey’s no knead bread.  but i did it.  quietly.  and it was a good and crusty loaf of bread that if nothing else looked very, very impressive. 

i baked it in my romertopf that i dug out and dusted off.  although it stays unused and because it looks so beautiful – i keep it.  i’m sure you understand such things.  so, i soaked the terracotta in water and then baked the bread as per the direction for a dutch oven.  i felt my dutch oven was too big and i didn’t want a 2" high bread.  somehow, this worked out quite nicely.  so take a chance, dear readers – bake no knead bread.  oh, and have i made this again since?  nope.  will i?  maybe, probably not.

this was made quite awhile ago.  it was panko encrusted chicken livers served over what i think was swiss chard and finely sliced ‘delightful tiny purple potatoes’ and shallots sautéed with pimm’s and port.  what?  you think they may not have been tiny and delightful?  you are sooooo wrong….

i present to you… delightful. tiny. purple. potatoes.  i only wish i could have been in the room when the marketing team thought of that.  can you imagine what the discussion would have sounded like?  i only know they were republicans with bad haircuts.  after that, i know nothing.

so now you ask, what the hell is that?  that, my dear readers is a watermelon salad with mint leaves, chili oil and feta – topped with a very anti-locavore piece of barramundi from costco via australia.  in a previous life i lived down under (husband #1) and ate this fish regularly.  perhaps i didn’t need to sit the barramundi on top of the watermelon, but it seemed like a good idea at the time… and it was our dinner that night and we were happy enough.  so stop smirking.  thank you.

i made this last weekend and it was good and rich and saucy and chicken thighey – all that with trofie pasta thrown in for very good measure.  it’s what patricia wells eats when she’s at home in provence, a recipe that i picked up from feeding groom.  oh and it’s got sherry vinegar and garlic cloves and dijon mustard and lots of tarragon and minced sundried tomatoes… it’s more wintry than it is septembery in nashville, but i had 4 chicken thighs in the freezer and suddenly this just happened…

ok are you ready to hear what this was supposed to be?  what it almost was… what i wished it might have been and what it could be if i ever decide to take it on again?  salted butterscotch pudding with chocolate covered bacon.  thank you and goodnight.  the end.  by claudia. 

except it never really thickened properly.  and benton’s bacon is crazy salty.  so salty that i forgot just how salty it was therefore making it an out and out wrong bacon choice.  because it seems that is actually possible.  to make a wrong bacon choice.  you’d think not, but what this dessert needed was a thin cut good bacon that crisps up in a curly, artsy strip, and only then could it be dipped into lindt chocolate and put into a pudding recipe that WORKS.  because this recipe did not.  and another blogger tried it and it didn’t work for her either.  so. oh well,  we all drank our pudding and chucked the wayyy too salty pork.  seemed sinful but we got over it.  we lived and learned, moving onwards and upwards – with the comforting knowledge that bacon rarely ever lets you down…

so not even a little pretty.  AND the wrong color bowl.  but it was just a simple dinner of fresh crowder peas with bacon.  the bacon did just as it should, redeeming itself from the previous mishap.  there was something else served with this but really, i have no idea… i think it was grilled tilapia.  unexciting, quick and easy and not exactly memorable – but hey, not every night can be foie gras…

OK – EVERYBODY STAND UP AND STRETCH.  NO REALLY.  BECAUSE I AM NOT DONE.  BATHROOM BREAK?  GO ON.  I’LL WAIT….

oh, hi, you’re back.  wonderful, because i was worried… ok, just a few more…

this was lazzaroli’s sweet potato and ricotta ravioli.  i dressed it up with a side of kale, done in a sauce of olive oil, cream, honey and sage, and then dusted the pasta with nutmeg and parmegiano.  again – super fast and easy.  (tommy noodles, you are a nashville godsend… thank you for giving me an option that is first rate and still allows me to get creative.)

yes, i too jumped on the bandwagon thanks to michelle from thursday night smackdown and all the rest of you that grilled the hell outa a bunch of pizzas…  except michelle was the one who took my call on a saturday night so i could get very specific information about the whole pizza grilling process.  this particular pizza was taken from her post and it was damn fine.  i cooked down some swiss chard in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and used copious amounts of minced garlic and ricotta.  i also sliced up a big ripe yellow tomato with red stripes running through it (we will miss you beautiful heirloom tomatoes),

awesomeness, no?  well yes – but… from here on in i’ll stick to the pizza stone with my oven set to broil and 550f… because grilled pizza is too damn white on top.  and flipping it before the toppings go on doesn’t allow the cheese and sauce to bake into the dough and well, my grill runs hot (it’s infrared) so even on the lowest setting it never got the top brown and i kept having to turn the flame on and off so as not to scorch the bottom and was nervously moving it to the top rack and well, i like my pizza stone in my oven.  so if i had a real charcoal grill which i don’t and do not plan on getting because it’s too much work and i am not willing (go on – think of me what you will but there are extenuating circumstances… like a boyfriend who is also happy with oven baked pizza’s), maybe that would be better.  but as it stands, and i repeat – i am a pizza in the oven kinda gal – set to broil on super high heat with the stone on the very bottom rack.  but i made the obligatory grilled pizza.  yes i did.

i present to you… voodoo mac and cheese

do you read gild the (voodoo)lily?  if not, you need to read gild the (voodoo)lily…  heather is very smart and very funny and this bitch can cook.  and i mean that in a good way.  heather is another one of those foodcentric people that seriously knows how to put ingredients together.  like if you turned your pantry over to her, she’d blow your mind.  and you’d be thinking all, why didn’t i think of that?… and the answer is because she KNOWS MORE THAN YOU DO.  plus she’s a botanist.  a freakin’ botanist... so she’s always growing and foraging and well, it’s a little bit intimidating.  heather could totally kick your ass and never even touch you…

anyway, back in july she made something called garden mac.  for her it was merely a ‘clean your fridge out’ kinda dinner, and i’m thinking – mac and cheese with roasted tomatoes in a bechamel base?  sign me the hell up. 

the ingredients i used were as follows; mostaccioli pasta, the 4 cheeses were – asiago, parmigiano reggiano, st jerome and fontal.  and for the garden part – fresh thyme and heirloom tomatoes, kale, onion, squash and zucchini.  i drove all the ingredients about an hour south, down to my friend shannon’s house and we spent the day cooking and drinking wine and talking and laughing and then we sat out on the porch overlooking her farm and had a late lunch…

and for the grand finale i give to you an extremely abbreviated version of my veal stock mission…

bones arrive from snook’s.  i tried for weeks to find a local source.  nada.

20 lbs.

because i am awesome…

i made brown and white stock.  i followed the ruhlman way.  it is the only way. (great version here)

otherwise when you die, you go to culinary hell where you are forced to live on nothing but shoney’s buffets. (please click on the shoney’s link.  there are no words…)

and hey, thanks so much for reading.  i realize this post was a commitment. 

you can go now…

yes you did.

this post is long overdo.  but i’d been gone so long over the summer that i wanted to show you that i could still cook, or that i would cook or that yes, cooking was still a huge part of my life.  so first i wanted to present you with some of what goes on around here, in my kitchen - and well, now that i have a few posts under my too-tight belt, i’d like to talk a bit more about chicago.  i mean avec.  because avec is a great restaurant.  so great that across the street from avec there are newly constructed condo’s for sale, and i was looking at them and seriously thinking, "if i bought one of those and moved to chicago then i could eat here every single day".  oh and by the way, avec is not necessarily in an emboldened font - but in my mind it always will be…

whipped brandade

do you see what i see?  that right there is a bowl of the best brandade ever.  EVER.  seriously freakin’ awesome.  and right alongside the bowl on the wooden plank, stacked up in 2 perfect rows are the toasted baguette slices.  the perfect presentation. 

english pea crostini with lemon zest, radish, watercress and ricotta salata

questions?  i didn’t think so.

sockeye salmon tartare with marinated baby carrots, zucchini, red onion and grapefruit juice

this was freakin’ wonderful. (excuse the iphone pic)

housemade country terrine pork, sweetbreads, cherries and pistachios with cherry mustard and pickled quail eggs

excellent excellent excellent in every way.

focaccia with taleggio cheese, truffle oil and fresh herbs

this stuffed focaccia was a phenom (another iphone pic – sorry)

 
avec pic from my second (4pm) visit before my flight…

avec pic swiped from their site – i mean, just look at this place…

avec serves my kind of food, all rooted in mediteranean cuisine.  it’s owned by donnie madia, an impressive restaurateur who also owns blackbird right next door.  donnie’s undeniable attention to dramatic yet minimalist detail is exquisite to me.  his design sensibility creates a vibe that works well with my psyche, and somehow becomes a clean, neutral, even peaceful altar for the knockout food.  when i’m back to chicago, avec will be my first stop.  for sure.

blackbird was there first, sits right next door and is the french upscale version of it’s younger more bohemian counterpart.  we dined there too, and i must tell you that it was also a standout dinner but in a more refined manner.  i didn’t shoot any photos of the food – and perhaps should have, but quite frankly we got to drinking cocktails and that right there is supremely dangerous territory.  i begin to care much less about documenting the food and exponentially began to care way more about just enjoying the evening like a regular (non food-blogger) person.  and then the cocktails were followed by the wine pairing to go along with our tasting menu – well it is the sure fire way to remembering things vaguely.  case in point – the following morning when i looked over our menu – i had zero recollection of the last course.  but none. nada. zippo.  and honestly, i wasn’t even that smashed… honestly…

chef paul kahan was nominated just last year for the james beard award for outstanding chef, and in ’04 received the honor of being named the best chef in the midwest.   his devotion to both his craft and his kitchen staff is well documented - and although i know none of that first hand, i would attest to all of it if only by the level of food he puts out.  and i’m quite sure that donnie madia wouldn’t have it any other way…

the menu was as follows, and i honestly do recall being knocked out by this dinner.  the white gazpacho was out of this world, the foie was perfectly prepared and with unique accompanying flavors that were as harmonious as a bach double violin concerto - and the sweetbreads were the best i’ve ever eaten anywhere – by far.

blackbird tasting menu

chilled parmesan gazpacho with peeky toe crab, local black raspberries and pumpkin seeds

chilled cuttlefish with jicama, snow peas, cardamom and crispy chocolate

roasted hudson valley foie gras with preserved grapefruit, sherry-braised radishes, sea beans and lychee-espresso

seared tasmanian sea trout with cherry molasses, kohlrabi, baby turnips, forbidden black rice and salad burnet

crispy veal sweetbreads with cashew butter, rye waffle, black mission figs and black olive honey

braised rack of lamb with fresh soybeans, spring radishes, pickled feta and lovage

local strawberry sorbet and olive oil

kalamata olive cake with rhubarb, toffee and buttermilk ice cream

milk chocolate fritters with apricots, soy and rice milk sorbet

which brings me to my final evening in chicago, a dinner at charlie trotter’s.  so let me please officially state that the food itself was really wonderful – totally top notch - and i did take a bunch of pics but they all look like kinda this due to the lighting and my old point and shoot…

and really, this representation is hardly fair to do to a forty eight hour braised short rib with chanterelles and black fermented garlic.  just think of what the perfect bite of beef could taste like, and this would be not only in the running, but on the short list.  though there was one thing… you would think that in the forty eight hours it took to cook the rib, that they might have found the time to clean the chanterelles properly.  because our chanterelles were gritty and this was charlie f’ing trotter’s and we were both biting down on mushroom dirt.  big misstep for a kitchen such as ct’s. 

and… the service was a bit stiff and well, odd… and that rooooom was beyond tired, as in – think early 80′s fancy but stuffy hotel dining room, such as, say, the ‘pierre’ or the ‘st. regis’ – but back in the day when carpets were burgandy with leaf patterns and wall sconces were high french and gilded.  that was charlie trotter’s.  and that vibe squicks me out.    but hey, for me to complain at all about this dinner would be pretty foolish because what was really the very best part was that it was a surprise gift.  i had a feeling that something was up when they began pouring from the premium wine pairings without asking us… so thank you mr. youknowwhoyouare.  the dinner was delicious and i was so happy to be able to experience chef trotter’s food.

this is joe.  we met in economics 101 in 19muffleshhh, second semester we took philosophy together and then greek mythology and well, afterwards we never spoke of any of that again, but we’ve remained like family all these years.  one of the many reasons i love joe is that he was by far the hottest guy in the trotter dining room that night and the only one without a tie.  that and the fact that he is all irish and insists on cocktails before dinner and drinks a lot of very good wine.  joe is also a restaurateur in chicago, his place is the beloved le colonial.

and so that was chicago.  all of that and alinea, of course.  so to recap, my 5 days looked a little something like this: alinea/avec/blackbird/charlie trotter’s/avec with lunches at le colonial thrown in for very good measure…

as a true nyc girl, born and raised – it’s hard for me to admit love for another city.  but chicago, i love. 

i do… 

it’s called ‘chinese take out’.  a 6 hour sous vide short rib on a guinness gelee film with roasted peanuts and peanut puree, shaved broccoli stalks, fried broccoli and red peppercorns. 

call it theatre.  performance art.  whimsical cuisine on steroids…  call it what you will.  and then we can all simply agree that grant achatz of alinea is a genius.  because after all is said and done – and trust me when i tell you that there is a lot being done to get to where this man goes – the food tastes as extraordinary as it looks.

carol (famed writer of ‘french laundry at home‘) and i continue on our restaurant tour (see: ‘per se’ and ‘per se’), this time meeting up in chi-town with our sole purpose: this one singular dining event. and being that we’d traveled far and were ready to experience all alinea had to offer – we chose the 27 course ‘chef’s tour’, the exact menu which you see below.  the size of the circle represents the size of the dish – the smallest being one bite, the largest being perhaps 3 or 4.

it is a bit of a 3 ring circus, but a highly sophisticated circus.  courses are presented – sometimes grouped together - in a various array of sculptural vessels.  a chunk of compressed watermelon pierced on a 14" stainless steel antenna which then pierces its heavy base – balancing on the thin end of the metal.  (3rd from left below.)

crucial detail is the maker of these unique pieces.

so…

the shaved slice of wagyu (below) first defrosts on the table in a flag-like manner, doubling as table art – suspended from a diagonal cut of wood – only later to be carefully draped over a maitake mushroom and smoked date. 

from centerpiece to…

what one might dream of in a perfect world… wagyu, maitake, smoked date, blis elixir and oregano.

the foie gras course served with tapioca, fig and coffee, arrives in a glass tube that one then ‘sucks’ the contents from…

blurry, but hopefully you get the idea

i could go on… and so i will.

frozen lightly foamed mozzarella over just sweetened basil ice cream with tomatoes 7 ways – incredible

duck confit encased in chocolate with blueberries…
and 3 sauces, and gelee/jelly cubes - of which i have no recollection…

i found the duck course to be kind of, ummm, not my thing.  i mean, you can’t win them all and only 2 of the 27 courses were - for me, less than stellar.  i’d say that’s still 4 stars, wouldn’t you?  of course you would.

oh frothy lobster pea ball stuff with mint vapor, how i loved thee

hot potato, cold potato

the needle goes through a small hole in the miniature bowl where a hot potato and sliced black perigord truffle are speared above a cold vichyssoise.  the pin is pulled, the contents of the needle hit the soup and you knock it back.

lamb with sunflowers 3 ways along with potatoes… one of the better things i’ve ever eaten and perhaps my #1 course of the night

oh and this little guy here…

this is some kind of chicken liver mousse made with vin santo and encased in a caramelized onion shell with bacon powder on top.  yes it is.  no really.  this way-too-little truffle actually exists on the face of the planet.  in chicago.  on north halsted.  and you know what i did?  i asked for seconds.  yup.  shocked?  oh, but then you don’t know me…. my balls are large.  much larger than one way-too-little truffle.

bacon being waterboarded or on a sex swing?  you decide…

and this is wafer thin bacon.  it’s dessert bacon, remember?  hell yeah.  with butterscotch, apple and thyme.  suspended from – a thing.  don’t ask me… i’ve no clue except to say, bring it on grant, because i am so very your audience.

and speaking of grant, he made it a point to come out and talk to us.  he was gracious to do so and if i may say, for a boyish kinda looking guy of slight build, the man has quite the handshake and mesmerizing gaze.  grant achatz has been through hell and back.  if you’re not up on the story, you can read it here.  there are no words except, rock on.  and thank you.

but perhaps the biggest thanks goes to carol.  because as each course was presented in all its glorious detail, i would grab my camera and try to get a half decent pic – with no lighting – on my old point and shoot.  so when i finally went to eat i always, but always said to her "so what’s in this?" to the point where i was even annoying myself.

but that’s why you dine with friends and lovers and well, anyone who’ll put up with the fact that you spilled your cold potato soup all down the sleeve of your little black dress…

this may be the longest i’ve gone without posting – a solid 2 weeks.  it seems i’ve got a slight case of food blogger ennui.  there’s been no cooking of my own – none at all.  and really?  it’s been a welcome respite that shows no signs of waning just yet… but a woman’s got to eat and my camera is usually close by, so…

feel healthier yet?  lord knows i do. 

and do you see this salad?  this very, very big salad?  this is what i ate for 2+ weeks.  WITH NOTHING ON IT.  and dear readers, let me tell you what i’m sure you already know, that a salad such as this really begs – no, pleads – for just a touch of walnut oil and a fine sprinkling of guerende salt.  but no, i dutifully got that plate of produce down au natural with minimal whining.  and although a bit lackluster, i consoled myself with the anticipation that i’d be dining at ‘osteria mozza’ in the immediate future.

which was stellar.  sublime.  wondrous. 

damn, mario – we were blown away. the creamy burrata. the grilled to perfection octopus, the brilliant and mind blowing (hee) calves brain ravioli (thank you michael ruhlman), the tender duck with a pear mostarda… the wine, the attentive service, the dessert of bombolini with a lemon curd, along with a torta della nonna with pine nuts and honey… i took no photos during this 4 1/2 hour dinner.  i was too enraptured by the experience and just wanted to get lost in every moment – every bite.  it was one of the best food experiences i’ve had in a very long time (per se will always stand alone) and it was FUN.  we had so. much. fun. 

and tonight i’m in nyc and dinner is at babbo, osteria mozza’s sister restaurant in nyc.  interestingly, it’s a very similar menu.  i last ate at babbo 9 years ago. 

so, southern california, where everyday is nearly perfect.  i will miss you. 

but not tonight – tonight my heart belonds to mario.

in the meantime though, remember me because i will be back – soon…

(christina’s world by andrew wyeth, my favorite painting in the world – MoMA)

monday my last day before heading back on the 7 pm flight to nashville… somehow, through the grace of god i woke up feeling surprisingly ‘not ill’ after our mammoth meal at ‘per se’. carol and i had a cup of coffee in the hotel lobby and then she took a right on 52nd towards the train and i took a left, heading towards the ‘MoMA‘. even though it was early, the stream of people waiting to get in went all the way down 53rd. so i coyly went to the front of the line, flashed my best smile and they let me through. i’ve been doing it so long that i’ve just adopted it as one of "my special privileges". i just assume they know who i think i am, and really – it works in my favor beautifully, and on a semi-regular basis. cutting lines and flying first class. perks, to say the least.

don’t hate me cause i’m disabled…

i hit the permanent collection first because, i. just. LOVE. it. i come from an art background. my dad was an art dealer, my brother is one of the top art dealers in this country and in england. and me? well errr, i minored in art history – but that was so long ago. still, matisse, modigliani, rousseau, cezanne, picasso, kandinsky, hopper, de kooning – i just feel incredibly joyful in these surroundings. i mean – everywhere you turn there’s suddenly a party happening in your brain. total FUN. so i thought i’d share a few of the works with you that struck me this time around, with the hopes that you might get inspired to go and see them yourselves sometime soon.

(all white you say? no…. the borders are red, green and blue… see?)

(a sculpture of me by picasso)

(my favorite jackson pollack. i want this.)

(the feminine)

(the masculine)

(the very bad day)

(the turning point for andy…)

ok – i hit a few floors and viewed a lot of art and it was 1 pm and i was hungry. the museum has a great cafeteria on the 2nd floor – cafe 2. it’s rustic italian. did you hear me? at a museum. rustic roman italian – with communal tables. how incredibly civilized. you place your order at the counter. pay. sit. wait. eat. go look at more art.

(fregola with chestnuts, butternut squash, celery leaves)

(panini of braised pear, bacon and gorganzola)

(duck prosciutto, seckel pear, humboldt fog goat cheese, candied pecans, sherry vinaigrette)

next…

(disturbingly interesting)

(shadow boxing film, played on a loop. i kinda dug it…)

there were a few current exhibits i visited that were really very good. the lucian freud exhibit (sigmund’s grandson) of etchings was all about the human form, of which i am quite a devoted fan. 75 years of architecture at the MoMA was for me a do-not-miss since i live with an architect. 50 years of helvetica brought to light a new way to look at the ubiquitous font. jan de cock (hehe) – a floor to ceiling exhibition that involved photography and sculpture, was to me the coolest of the currents. this jan guy has mighty lofty plans, to say the least. check out the video. then it was back to the hotel to get my bags to hop in a cab to head uptown to spend a few hours with mom and then fly home.

(my flight was 3 hours delayed. so i did it. yes i did. and i am not ashamed if only because it was a damn fine nathans hotdog all bundled up in a buttery, pretzelly blanket – and it totally did not suck even a very little)

(one of my all time faves – the black and white.not exactly a cake.not exactly a cookie. but i grew up on these and i crave them. my mom got me one for the plane and it was GREAT…)

7 days in ny. the time went by so quickly. and i’ve been home 9 days now. this is unbelievable to me. how this life of ours, it flies. it really flies… it’s like it never happened. yet there i was. i wandered the streets. i ate the food. i kissed my friends. i hugged my mom. it was the best kind of whirlwind – filled with everything good and not even one little thing bad. so thanks for coming along with me these past 7 posts. you allowed me to relive it – to stretch it out a bit further. to unblur the edges of my ever waning memory… you, dear readers, have made a wonderful difference in my life. how i approach so many things has been altered in a new and exploratory way – and with a camera – so not like me. but now so very – me. yes, thank you. and then thank you again.

i’ll see you in my kitchen, soon.

there are a few dinners that you may have in your life that will stay with you forever – they are the pinnacle of dining in every way. i once ate at lasserre in paris, and that was pretty amazing – and it wasn’t just the food – although the food was superb, but the service was also impeccable, it was impossibly french AND the painted ceiling opened silently and suddenly we were staring up at the parisian starlit sky… it was the culmination of the entire experience that made it rise above the rest. it was a magical memory in the making. just last week i was fortunate enough to share a similar evening at ‘per se’ with my friend carol of the award winning blog, ‘french laundry at home‘. (carol recently posted a detailed account of our evening here.)

this menu was not the usual 9 course tasting. it was our menu, printed for us before we left. they had added many extra courses – nearly double, saying to carol when we sat down – as they presented her a lovely bottle of champagne, "because you cook the food…".so we began the night off with a gentle clink of our glasses – "to the best of friends and of course, to the best of food".

i took all the pics as discretely as i could (iphone) and to use these primitive shots as a recreation of the dishes that were presented before us, is almost blasphemous. but please be kind for they are for you, dear readers…

("oysters and pearls")

("citrus cured hamachi")

("white truffle oil-infused custard")

("sauteed grimaud farms "foie gras d’oie")

("terrine of gimaud farms "foie gras d’oie")

("grilled ‘pave’ of bigeye tuna")

("pan seared maine sea scallop") – chef benno forgive me for this shot

("arrowleaf spinach rigatini") – and chef benno, especially forgive me for this shot

("cavendish farm’s "caille en crepinette")

("ribeye of marcho farm’s nature fed veal, "rotie entiere")

("coffee and doughnuts")

("mont blanc")

and there were 4 more plates that i never shot. plus a few little extra courses not even on our menu (salmon tartare cornets? i am so looking at you…). and i need to tell you about one of our dishes called "smoke", as it was truly performance art. a crystal domed bowl arrived at our table filled with a pale ethereal swirling substance – and immediately, as it was placed before us, the tops were lifted and a waft of rich smokiness ascended to my nose. and there on the bottom of the bowl sat a japanese sardine with italian eggplant puree and pimenton oil. it was pretty damn cool… my glass of red wine was unlike any other i had ever tried. it definitely stood apart – it had this different vibe that i loved. and it somehow kept changing throughout the half dozen or so courses that it lasted.

i called the vineyard and they were very kind, explaining that when you fill out the waiting list form online – it then takes up to 2 years to be on their mailing list – although longer for the pinots which sell out in just over a week. before we left we were offered a tour of the kitchen…

(these low, big burnered and powerful stoves are for making stock, for instance)

(seriously perfect vegetables – rumor has it that the receiving dept turns away 75% of everything presented)

(ummm, ahhh the pacojet room?)

(where the sweets are created)

(baking the bread – also for bouchon bakery)

(a reminder for the kitchen – the definition of finesse…) when we got back to our hotel and after the bellman had brought me a cold diet dr. pepper, carol and i played the ‘if you could pick 3 courses only’ game. i struggled hard with this. and the best i could do was to narrow it down to 5 and even that was extremely difficult.

• parsnip vanilla soup with tarragon infused olive oil
• white truffle oil infused custard with a ragout of black winter truffles
• both foie gras course(s) – i can not choose between them. i just can’t, ok?
• spinach rigatini with dungeness crab, preserved lemon, basil and beurre d’oursin
• coffee and doughnuts – cause a girl’s just gotta have dessert

oh, oysters and pearls, i have not forsaken thee in all your glorious caviarness. you and the parsnip soup were so very close, but when the vanilla aroma hit my face i was a goner… ‘per se’ sends you home with a small bag of cookies to perhaps extend the experience just a bit further. i packed them and later shared them with my daughter, hoping one day i might be able to take her with me,

but for now this would have to do… a big thank you to ‘per se’ for being the most nonpretentious and exquisite restaurant i have ever dined in. the evening was a blast and your entire staff was beyond warm and kind and funny and easy going and smart and cool – with a big shout out to jonathan benno. chef benno, had you been a single man i would have kissed you on the mouth and meant it. and thanks to carol for agreeing to be my dining partner – i got very lucky on that one, no doubt. and to "M" – i owe you.

so i’m with carol in saying that we are both so incredibly fortunate. and i am unbelievably grateful and even humbled to have been able to spend 4 hours in per se’s care and experience a culinary extravaganza such as this. THANK YOU THOMAS KELLER… YOU ARE A GENIUS!

and guys? i’ll be back…

(the optimistic ‘exterior exhibit‘ on the ‘new museum’ by ugo rondinone)

saturday dear readers, i figured you might be getting somewhat apathetic, what with all the haute cuisine and such.  i mean a foodie can only eat so many fancy shmancy meals – before she needs a little… PIZZA!

(lombardi’s coal fired pizza on spring street)

ok, so do i have your attention again?  good. more on this in a bit…

yve was on her way over to the hotel and then we were heading down to the bowery to check out the ‘new museum‘ which just opened at the very end of last year. we arrived early and so we strolled over to ‘rice to riches‘, a shop modeled after a gelataria, but with ONLY rice pudding – in flavors such as ‘take me to tiramisu’, ‘perfectly legal pecan pie’, ‘sex, drugs and rocky road’… you get the picture. i opted for a small bowl of ‘man made marscarpone (with cherries)’ after sampling the ‘almond shmalmond’ and the ‘fluent in french toast’. so you know, i’m totally not into this kinda kitsch…

but i stop there whenever i’m in the neighborhood, which is just about every trip and i’m getting more disenchanted with each visit – more cutesy than worth the calories. even cary commented last time that he felt it wasn’t as good as the time before. but the whole vibe right down to the bowls and spoons really is pretty damn cool in a japanesey sorta way… i downed about 3 bites and tossed the rest.

we headed back to the bowery and proceeded to do the museum from top to bottom. the exhibit is called ‘unmonumental’ – something about ‘crumbling symbols and broken icons’, and although the museum bills itself as contemporary, i believe this enters into the realm of avant garde, because one good look around and clearly you are NOT in kansas anymore… it’s kinda like eye candy on acid. so i opted to accept it at face value and move on with my life.

(loved the elevator)

(and the bathroom)

(the skin of the museum – an aluminum mesh exterior coating)

(7th floor – vistas and parties)

okey dokey. been there. done that. next… from the bowery we headed towards houston and i decided that in honor of both our lost youth and our fine heritage, we’d hit the jewish trinity.

(‘yonah shimmel’s‘ – a potato knish with mustard – 2 bites and tossed – loved the egg cream)

so, excuse me – but while we’re on the topic of knishs… i grew up in forest hills, queens, with the mother of all knish places -’knish nosh‘ and it KICKS yonah’s ass. (except jews really don’t fight – they just tend to argue because no one wants to risk getting hurt…)

.

(‘russ and daughters‘ – the ultimate ‘appetizing store’ – just browsed around)

(and the king of all delis – katz’s. the place was a total madhouse so i asked a stranger if i could photograph his sandwich. it was yve’s idea… brilliant…)

and then we went for lunch… no really… minutes before i’d left my hotel room that morning i had gotten an email from maggie over at ‘eat boutique‘. she’d just written a post about the various pizzerias in the boston area and i commented that i was in nyc but hadn’t gotten around to pizza yet. her subject line was "my fave pizza in nyc" and in the body it just said ‘lombardi’s’. the timing was spot-on. i was right there and i’d never been, if only because i really like ‘pomodoro’s’ which is just across the street and down the block from lombardi’s.

we ordered a small pie – no extra toppings. i tend to like my pizza as i believe god intended it to be – plain. the crust was excellent, the cheese was freshly made and the sauce couldn’t be faulted. on another day i’d still happily go across the street and grab a slice at pomodoro’s. but we had to agree with maggie, that it was excellent pizza – and i’d definitely go back.  but by this time we were in a time crunch – so we slammed down some of the pie, offered up the rest to our neighboring table – grabbed a gypsy cab and headed back uptown in a rush. i dropped yve at penn station where she made her train by less than a minute, and i went back to the hotel just long enough to get it together for the evening.

(iphone self portrait – in the cab on the way to lari’s show)

my mom and leonard met me at the algonquin’s oak room bar for dinner (competent but overpriced) and a cabaret type show written and performed by my friend lari white. it’s always pretty cool to go to algonquin and i hadn’t been there in as long as i can remember. it’s lodged the country’s most prominent writers and literary personalities for over 100 years – the famous ’round table’ being legendary since it held court in the 1920′s. but we were there for the music. and for those of you that aren’t familiar with lari’s album, ‘green eyed soul’ – well then click on over to iTunes and d/l yourself a copy NOW. she will blow you away. it’s motown meets nashville meets pop – but better. chuck cannon, her husband – also a brilliant performer and one of the best songwriters i’ve ever known (and i have known many) sat with us and well, it was a lovely nyc night.

(the al hirshfield suite, between shows)

afterwards, chuck walked me back to my hotel and i went upstairs and took a long hot bath.

5 perfect days and counting…

friday since my morning was pretty much all about getting my hair cut and colored, and i could go on and on about the place and my team of guys and how they are incredibly talented at what they do and how i have given up on letting anyone in nashville touch my hair – blah blah blah… instead i’ll choose not to bore you, and we’ll just go straight to lunch, ok? because really, this lunch was to be spectacular – on two different levels. so after the coiff, i took the bus at 56th and 5th straight down to 26th street and made my way the one block to madison ave.

‘a voce‘ was jennifer’s idea. yes, THAT jennifer. you know, ‘last night’s dinner‘? the incredible food blog that makes you want to crawl through your monitor and into her brooklyn kitchen and just watch her cook night after night. you get the distinct feeling that jennifer takes her cooking seriously – and that most of what she does is deeply considered and that her dishes are weighted against both experience and experiments. this food blogger understands the individual elements of recipes in some kind of inherent way that i never will.

but i can surely recognize greatness -and jennifer is a great cook. a natural.

sooooo, i’ve been sucking up to jennifer for quite some time now in the hopes of meeting her. my last trip she was (ahem) "too busy" for lunch – but this time around i was able to get to spend the afternoon dining with her at one of my new favorite restaurants of all time. i requested that jennifer order for the table and she decided on 3 anti pasti and 2 primi’s, forgoing the secondi offerings. i conferred with her choices and then we were off…

(a perfect salad of radicchio, frisee, prosciutto, pecorino sardo and black truffle)

(grilled octopus with peperonata, arugula and lemon sauce)

(duck meatballs with a dried cherry mostarda)

(homemade pappardelle with lamb bolognese and sheep’s milk ricotta)

(spaghetti with pancetta, cabbage and pecorino)

(bombolina alla toscana ~or~ custard filled doughnuts with chocolate sauce)

(this was me, not jennifer…not proud…)

for the record,  a voce, with it’s one michelin star, was- imho – the clear winner over blt market, insieme and anthos. i realize this is based on only one meal at each place and that i am partial to a more rustic italian style of food. but there were no ‘just ok’ dishes. everything was a standout. the preparation was impecable and the flavors popped. a voce won me over, bigtime. but undoubtedly the best part of this stellar lunch, was sharing some wine and stories with jennifer…

i am such a fan.

(amai tea and bake house on 17th and third)

thursday my ‘second best friend’ in the world is tim king, who has spoiled me with love, kindness and incredible food since the day we met, way back when, in economics 101. this year we spent valentine’s day together and kicked it off with breakfast at amai. it’s vibey little shop with just a few tables, the perfect spot to drink a cup of one of 45 teas – and then choose a pastry. but it’s the singularness of that word that presents the problem. because we’re talking about a cookie selection the likes of lemongrass and ginger, earl grey and currant, white tea and strawberry with pink peppercorns… and then there are the lychee brownies and the cherry brownies and oh, the mandarin orange muffins, just laden with fruit – literally spilling out of the light and buttery cake that can barely contain the weight of the plump segments. i loved this place. ‘amai’ felt real and original – and i quite like that in well, just about anything.

later on in the day, we left tim’s apartment and headed just down the street and around the corner to ‘momofuku ssam bar‘. anthony bourdain goes on about the place and his pal michael ruhlman waxes poetically about pork belly on a semi-regular basis. i had heard the legend of the steamed pork buns and i was not to be denied.

(this is a portrait of me not being denied…)

these babies have got to be one of the single finest things that i have ever put into my mouth. it’s pork belly, hoison, cucumber and scallion on these amazingly soft and white little buns. then you squirt the hot sauce from the bottle on the table, you take a bite and immediately raise your arm, flagging down the waiter for another order. i mean, there’s the sharing quotient to take into consideration… only two on the plate and they’re small to begin with – and they are freakin’ orgasmic.

tim ordered the grilled lemongrass pork sausage that you roll up in the bibb lettuce and dip in the fish sauce. it was very good but no competition for the mighty little white buns…

after our world class lunch we meandered up 14th street past whole foods and trader joe’s and the site of the incredible union square greenmarket that is held 4x a week, and at 6th avenue i got on the bus and headed back to midtown trying to ignore the fact that i didn’t actually live in nyc anymore. that evening i met my dear friend penny in the hotel lobby. we’ve known each other over 20 years but we hadn’t been face to face in way too long and it was good for my soul to sit across a table from her and reconnect. her son, steven shaw aka ‘the fat guy’ – is the founder of egullet.org and author of ‘turning the tables – an insiders guide to eating out‘. with his blessing, we were off to dinner at ‘anthos‘ a michelin starred restaurant specializing in ‘new greek’. he had reviewed it glowingly on his site this past august and we were anxious to give it a whirl.

(is it valentine’s day or is this a dale chihuly ceiling gone terribly wrong?)

it was another impossibly lit room so please be kind… they brought us an amuses-bouche selection of taramasalata, fried calamari and grilled halloumi in impossibly small quantities – and i only say this because all 3 were great. in retrospect i could have just had more of that and been thrilled and delighted. but instead, we began with the veal sweatbreads – done with ruby red grapefruit, pine nuts and black pepper. we liked it, didn’t love it. and then, being one of the fortunate few, we got to move on to our main courses. i had a crispy turbot dish that was presented in 3 triangles with a tangle of other stuff that now escapes me (and my photo was a train wreck). anyway, it was good, i didn’t love it. penny had the roasted lamb with a white bean thing. she liked it, and i tasted it and liked it too.

all good. nothing bad. (yawn). what’s for dessert? ENTER: LOUKOUMADES…

this may look like a plate of just some sweet stuff thrown together, but dear reader you are gazing upon some sheer genius. we’re talking doughnuts filled with an orange blossom custard, nestled on bergamot cream with burnt honey ice cream and warm honey syrup. yes we are. and hey… you there – you orange blossom custard filled doughnuts with bergamot cream and burnt honey ice cream? we will meet again. come this spring. i swear. i will be back. just for you. but just for dessert, ok? see you then! kiss kiss. our other dessert was pretty good too but obviously had a tough act to follow. it was bougatza, a goat cheese cake surrounded by goat milk caramel, pear and cherries. it was wonderful. but no loukoumades, i tell ya…

so that was my thursday. not bad, huh? ok everyone. we’re about halfway through my week in nyc so it’s time for the official half-time stretch. everyone stand up and place your arms above your head. now reach high and breathe deeply. because part 4 is coming to your computer screen soon…

this is a photo of the floor in my mother’s den. the den used to be my bedroom back in 1981, but then i moved out and it was fully renovated and it’s now the room where my mom and her guy spend most of their time. and this is the large petit point area rug that resides in that room which somehow never ceases to mesmerize me. there are 30 patterns, 6 x 5, making a unique rectangle and then it repeats. i am totally OCD when it comes to this rug… wednesday when my mother heard i was coming to visit she decided to make a ‘meet the daughter luncheon’ and serve a few things from my blog. it was a sweet mommy-like concept and after i pleaded with her to just get it all catered (because i know…) we decided on 2 recentdishes that would work nicely together and then i gave her the shopping list. i’ve got to give her credit because after the initial obligatory resistance ("claudia, does it have to be this? can’t you just use that?") she hit quite a few stores really trying to get it right. pimenton, pancetta, san marzano tomatoes, fleur de sel, capers, walnut oil, swiss chard, saffron, french lentils – not her usual go-to ingredients. she cooks the basics, orders in, fine dines with the best of them and then zabars does the rest. so on a saturday morning – and knowing better, my mom heads off to ‘fairway‘ in search of the ‘right’ canned tomatoes. my phone rings and i pick up. the conversation goes something like this…

claudia? i’m in fairway and it’s packed and i can’t find the marzini tomatoes mom, they’re san marzano. san maaarzaaanooo… oh. hold on i see someone. "excuse me? do you have any san marzini tomatoes?" mom? mom! san maaarzaaanooo – not marzini. claudia, no one speaks english here, ok? mom, tell me what you’re looking at. find the ones from italy that say crushed on the can, ok? claudia, they’re all on the very bottom shelf, you have no idea what it’s like here. mom, i used to live there, remember? wait, i have to get down lower, hold on… i hate this damn pocketbook, it’s too big and heavy – hold on….. (i overhear a voice in the background – an older woman also with a very thick nyc accent) "your cart is blocking the aisle and this is no place to be having a conversation" my mother says to me "can you believe these people? HORRIBLE…"

i arrived at her home on wednesday late morning and with the help of lou ann, who works for my mom (bless you, lou ann) we began to make the roasted grape and pancetta salad so that everything would be ready to plate when we sat down to eat. i could write an entire post – and a long one at that, about my mom and the cooking and the dialogue and the arguing… we’re ny jews. she’s 73 and my mother. if you have any questions, you just couldn’t understand. it’s a comedy routine at best and a near murder scene – well, too often. somehow we get through it reasonably unscathed. my mom has a good sense of humor and a short memory. this is a good thing.

mom set a beautiful table for our pre-valentine’s day luncheon and it really was just so very lovely. big thanks to margie, marie, joan, rita and barbara for coming out on a rainy day to sit and talk and share some good food and wine – and stories. and thank you for your thoughtful gifts (all from williams sonoma!) but mostly for your time. the 4 hours flew by and it made me so happy to see that my mother’s life is filled with such great women. at about 6:30 that evening i got in a cab to meet one of my favorite bloggers for the very first time, amy of ‘minimally invasive‘. i’ve been blogging less than a year and still I can’t even recall how i found amy, but when i did, her photo’s, her food and overall demeanor kinda drew me in and i fast became a fan. she’s a natural with a camera and is a graphic designer so when i was ready for a ceF redesign, i went to her under the guise of who she might suggest to help me with a banner. luckily she took the bait and then took the time and gave me what i wanted – and i paid her as one might pay a true foodie, with a promise of dinner.

we decided on ‘insieme‘ based on both location and pedigree. last may i had a great dinner at ‘hearth‘ and insieme is now the uptown restaurant of chef marco canora where he has left jason frosolone to tend hearth. i also found out that afternoon that my mom had been to ‘insieme’ just the week before and LOVED it – which has to be in capitals because she either LOVES it, or it’s NOT good, or it’s HORRIBLE. my brother does a routine where he says: mom is never cold – she’s freezing, she’s not hot – she’s boiling, she’s not tired – she’s exhausted, she’s never hungry – she’s starving. you get the drift. funny stuff… right away amy and i decided to begin with 2 of insieme’s ‘midtown manhattan’s’ served straight up, made with rittenhouse rye and amaro. and let me just tell you here and now that that was one very fine cocktail. you know, i gotta tell you something else. i love manhattan’s. i always have. but because i love manhattan - well, it has always felt so corny to order them and so i just stopped. but from here on in – it’s manhattan’s for me. made with rye. people, you have just witnessed an epiphany. wow… the lighting in the restaurant was absolutely terrible for any photo ops, so i didn’t bother to shoot anything until dessert. we ordered the grilled sardines (truly excellent) and the fritto misto alla lucchese (truly sub par), a plate of unattractive slabs of 4 kinds of veal – liver, tongue, sweetbreads and cutlet. it was the bummer of the night, badly executed in every way. but then i had the chestnut fettucine with an elk ragu and pomegranate seeds and amy had the branzino saltimbocca wrapped in prosciutto atop cippolini onions, savoy cabbage and sage. both were very good. for dessert, we began with a glass each of pear ‘eau de vie‘ which i had somehow never heard of. we chose two, one italian and one from oregon and there was no contest. USA all the way, plus ours cost less. a double victory. shallow, but still…

(two pear eau de vie selections – italian on the left, oregonian(?) on the right) then i began looking down the long list of all the various ‘eau de vie’ selections and my eyes fall upon ‘slivovitz‘, pear ‘eau de vie’s’ kosher plum cousin. this was the drink of my people! my grandparents and their parents used to drink this back in the old country and then down on the lower east side.

(amy boozing it up) as fate would have it, amy is a savory cheese plate kinda girl, but i think when she saw the horror in my eyes she acquiesced and instead we chose a theme of orange and cheese desserts of the sweeter kind.

an orange torta di ricotta and then the westfield farm goat cheese with 5 spiced candied kumquats and a very ‘pithy’ (amy’s word and a great one) orange sorbet.

i only had to traverse the 2 blocks to my hotel, but amy had a much longer journey ahead. so our evening came to a close and we parted ways, now friends as opposed to just internet buddies. and i have this feeling that in time, another dinner awaits us…

as you may know, i just took a trip up north to my hometown. how i wish with all my might that i could be there more. i currently average about 3 weeks a year and well, it doesn’t feel like enough. so while i’m in nyc, and with every breath i take, i just soak it up with the understanding that when i win the lottery i will immediately buy a pied-a-terre – there. so i flew in and spent time with my mom, some old friends, some new friends (3 wonderful food bloggers that i can’t wait to tell you about) got a haircut, hit a few museums – and i dined and dined and then i dined some more. it was a veritable food frenzy, a bonafide eating extravaganza. i was in a food haze, side stepping my way into a food coma. i was running a food marathon and i was victorious.

i stayed where i often stay, at the boutique hotel ‘flatotel‘ which is a perfect location for me (6th and 52nd) and because of this location, everyday i was tempted to wake up early and go to rockefeller center so i could ogle matt lauer and hold up a sign like "it’s my birthday" or "hello nashville" or "i’m isaiah’s grandma" just to get al roker’s attention – but i never did. instead, i just hit the ground running every single day. and with all that i ate – and if you care to follow along with me, you will see that i am not exaggerating – i don’t think i gained more than a pound or two at the absolute most which i directly attribute to the large quantity of adrenaline pumping through my veins – a direct response to feeling more alive than usual… and i have a lot to tell you. so i thought that over the course of this week i’d write about 5 posts – a virtual mini-series of sorts – and then present you with the grand finale which was hands down above and beyond anything i’ve ever experienced on a culinary level. but first things first.

monday evening from the airport i went directly to my mom’s apartment on upper madison avenue. i hadn’t seen her since my last trip to nyc back in september and she greeted me with a late dinner of gravlox from zabar’s on an h&h bagel. it’s been a favorite of mine for at least 25 years and really, it was just perfect. the sweet dill mustard sauce that zabar’s doles out sparingly, along with the cream cheese and a slice of tomato with red onion – it’s heaven on a bagel. afterwards, i fixed her computer, showed her how to play a dvd for the 47th time, reset her FM stations on her bose radio so she could access them via the remote, made a pot of lentil soup (with her as my sous chef) to serve at the luncheon she had planned at her house for wednesday and then headed to midtown to unpack and settle in. tuesday yve has been my best friend since we’re 11 years old – and that’s 35 years of solid friendship and an estimated 5721 hours on the telephone. her 4 kids keep her pretty busy but with 2 now in college we actually got to spend a little quality time together this trip. she met me at the hotel and after checking each other for visible signs of aging and FRETing over our extra pounds, we hopped in a cab and headed for lunch to batali’s ‘otto‘, just as a few snowflakes started to fall.

we got there at noon and the place was really quiet. being that it was a batali joint, this was quite a pleasant surprise. the bread arrived wrapped in deli paper. how i have missed nyc bread. nyc bread i love youuuuu. truly i so very much dooooo… there is no bread in nashville that even comes close. but i mean, you are nyc and sure, we have provence bread and well, it doesn’t suck and i am fine with it – BUT… nyc bread you totally rock in the biggest of ways. you are crunchy and chewy and interesting. you even always smell good and if you were a perfume i would buy you and then dab some behind my ears with just a bit of butter. yes i would. (sigh)…

i ordered one of the pizza’s, being that it’s batali’s pizzeria and all. i chose a wild mushroom and taleggio pie, along with the penne con noci e zucca – hazelnuts, butternut squash and smoked ricotta. both were excellent but the salad was spectacular – escarole and sunchoke with some kind of crumbly white cheese and some kind of crunchy almonds all perfectly dressed with a very light vinaigrette of some kind. it was one of the best salads i have EVER had – period.

and the dessert… can we talk about the dessert? oh. my. god. this dessert was phenomenal. goats milk ricotta gelato with a syrup of reduced red wine and a mixture of figs, cherries and raisins stewed in the red wine with sugar (i’m guessing here) along with pignoli rosemary brittle. DID YOU HEAR ME? pignoli rosemary brittle with red wine and figs and cherries and goat milk ice cream? it was PERFECT I TELL YOU! ok, sorry, i don’t mean to yell, i just wasn’t sure if you were really listening. but if you live within a 2 hour drive of nyc and you don’t go to ‘otto‘ for this dessert, well then, you deserve your tiramisu from amerigo, carrabba’s or macaroni grill.

when we left otto’s it had begun to snow, cloaking ny in a thin veil of the palest shade of grey…

and we wandered up 8th street to 6th avenue and then took the bus to 38th street to check out the irving penn exhibit at the morgan library – a lesser known museum encompassing a beautiful complex of buildings that somehow has joined the italian renaissance style palazzo, built barely after the turn of the century – with a 75,000 square foot modern addition added in 2006 by the architect renzo piano. after spending 3 laid back and culture filled hours at the morgan, i got in a cab and headed back to the hotel. the snow had begun to pick up and i ran upstairs to change my clothes and to meet my friend bill for a dinner at ‘blt market‘ – laurent tourondel’s latest and greatest restaurant, celebrating the long overdue locavore movement. by now the weather was looking pretty dramatic – the snow was sticking and beginning to build up on the sidewalks. but our timing was good and the doorman was able to snag us a cab and we took the short ride to central park and entered through the doors of the ritz-carlton. we went through the lobby passing both peter greenberg at one table and larry king sitting at the bar. the restaurant was packed despite the cold, wet night and shortly after our first drink arrived our waiter brought us this:

now people, i’m going to have to ask you to be understanding. there’s no natural light and i’m shooting with a little cannon elph. the nikon SLR has been left at home and only at times do i get up the nerve to use the flash after first apologizing to my neighboring tables. the flash, which often blows everything out rendering it overly bright is only sometimes marginally better than no flash which result in dark and grainy pics. such are the hardships of a food blogger… BUT – regardless of any of this, please allow me to introduce to you quite the amuse bouche in the form of the infamous yet much adored ‘pig in a blanket’. but now this was laurent tourondel’s version and it was, as one would expect – mighty amazing. i know a certain ‘Mr. Pink’ that would have taken a bite and then perhaps called for a moment of silence to mark the reverence of the experience. and i challenge you to take the pig in a blanket and elevate it to its highest imaginable form. from the smooth pork and beef sausage to the perfect flaky pastry where a thin and crispy pork rind balances beneath a dollop of saurkraut – sporting a crown of mustard fit only for the king of pigs in a blanket. well, it was splendidly good enough to make me ask for seconds, if only because we ate ours so fast that i forgot to snap a picture. see what i do for you, dear readers? I ASK FOR SECONDS. and you think it’s just all about me… so it was snowing and we were drinking and talking to the table next to us where one of the guys grew up in forest hills, queens just like i did. and it was a beautiful room on a beautiful nyc winter’s night and i was with my very sweet friend bill and we were happy as could be. yes, all that – and then the bread… baked with a pretty green layer of olive oily herbs tucked inside and presented warm and in a baguette bag.

i had a mache salad with quail deviled eggs and black perigord truffles followed by the roasted amish chicken stuffed with meyer lemon provencal with porcini’s and pomme fondante crowned by a head of roasted garlic…

bill had the spiced orange glazed maple leaf duck with hudson valley foie gras and collards greens with bacon along with the roasted garlic mashed potatoes…

our dessert was the meyer lemon mille feuille. i forgot to take a picture but as one might expect, it was quite good. we finished our dinner and headed out into the messy night. the falling snow had turned a bit icey but by morning it’d all be gone, washed away by a light rain, held fast by our memory of the lovliest of dinners.

to be continued…