HungryChefs: Rice, Buttered Toast and Twix

The Gluttoness — October 26, 2009

Guy Fieri at Chelsea After Dark.

With all the panels and tasting events that have come with the new season, we’ve talked to a lot of chefs recently. So we’ve had chances to ask them questions, namely what they’re AlwaysHungry for. Here’s the latest installment of AlwaysHungryNY.com’s occasional feature, HungryChefs.

Click Here to Find Out What Chefs are AlwaysHungry For >>

AlwaysInformed: Cabrito’s Border Dogs

The Gluttoness — October 23, 2009

From top left, clockwise, Cabrito’s Border Dogs: Sonora Dog, Danger Dog and Lucha Libre Dog.

Cabrito (view) really knows how to use the flat-screen TVs they recently installed. No NY1 on these bad boys— they’re reserved for specialty events like Mexican Lucha Libre, the World Cup, and for now, football. Given Chef David Schuttenberg’s new promotional menu for his football parties, the combination of food and flat-screens may make this your new favorite Sunday hangout, especially if you enjoy eating while watching the game, but are tired of snacking on junk while surrounded by drunken frat boys at sports bars. Schuttenberg’s line of “Border Dogs” coincides with the ongoing hot dog craze, but it was his time in Tucson, Arizona (and a recent NPR article, The Sonoran Hotdog Crosses The Border), which inspired him to recreate the “Mexicanized” Sonora-style dogs.

Schuttenberg balances the Cabrito/Fatty profile (read: spicy/funky) with the regional flavors of Mexico. As per Sonoran custom, the dogs are wrapped in bacon. At Cabrito, Nathan’s (“because they’re New York”) are wrapped in bacon, Fatty ‘Cue’s smoked coriander bacon. Then they’re deep-fried. Rather than the dense, traditional bolio, Schuttenberg uses Martin’s Long Potato Rolls, which he coats in lardo then griddles. Each of the three border dogs ($8.00/each) are distinct. For him, the “Sonora Dog” represents home, the “Danger Dog” is about being a badass, and “Lucha Libre” is pure, artery-clogging gluttony.

Click Here for the Dog-by-Dog Pictures >>

Making the Grade: Hakata Tonton

GutterGourmet — July 28, 2009

Grilled Pork Tonsoku

“I have a fetish for eating pigs’ feet.

My favorite restaurant on the continent is Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal. I remember vividly my last foie gras-stuffed Pied de Cochon at the now defunct, La Cote Basque. And I recently enjoyed Chef David Schuttenberg’s rendition, A Pata de Cerdo, at Cabrito. So I could hardly contain my excitement upon entering the temple to tonsoku (Japanese for ‘pig’s foot’): Hakata Tonton in the old Taka Sushi space in the West Village.”

CLICK FOR AHNY’S FULL REVIEW OF HAKATA TONTON

AlwaysInformed: Shanks for the Memories

GutterGourmet — July 24, 2009

Cabrito’s A Pata de Cerdo

There is no question that Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal is one of North America’s greatest restaurants. As its name indicates, there are a lot of piggy amputees limping around Canada who have sacrificed limbs for our dining pleasure. The chef/owner of that restaurant is a lunatic named Martin Picard whose pig, duck and foie gras induced creations are gorgeously illustrated in the Au pied de Cochon Album Cookbook, which I highly recommend (spring for the hardcover with DVD so you don’t miss Picard and his cronies dining naked at the restaurant and their drunken attempts to reassemble an entire pig by placing the preparations of its various anatomical parts on a feasting table).

David Schuttenberg, the chef at Cabrito (formerly of Fatty Crab, which also owns Cabrito), admitted to me that he has never been to Au Pied de Cochon, but he was so inspired by the album’s recipe for Foie Gras Stuffed Pigs’ Feet that he had to adapt it to Mexican cuisine.

The original recipe is an involved process. First, the shank portion of an entire trotter is partially deboned with a hacksaw. The shank meat is browned with mushrooms and onions to make a stuffing, which is packed into the deboned shank and threaded shut. The whole trotter is then slowly cooked sous vide over several hours. Next, the cooked, stuffed trotter is brushed with egg and mustard, coated with breadcrumbs and cooked in a buttered skillet. Picard then throws layers of seared foie gras on top (as he tends to do with everything) for effect.

Cabrito’s plated “A Pata de Cerdo” and cross-section

Schuttenberg said he was faithful to Picard’s recipe and preparation (down to the hacksaw), but to bring the dish south of the border and make it “A Pata de Cerdo,” he added housemade chorizo to the stuffing. Sautéed chorizo and cubed leg meat are cooked separately with onion, garlic and Serrano peppers, then mixed with almonds, cilantro, chipotle chilies, panko breadcrumbs and mescal-soaked raisins. The stuffed trotter is braised in stock for 12 hours, refrigerated for 12 hours to set, then breaded, fried, baked and plated on shredded lettuce with tortillas and a side of cotija-topped Soupy Beans. Instead of foie gras, Schuttenberg piles on housemade pickled jalapeños, which cut the dish’s unctuous fattiness.

I recommend you get to Cabrito fast. The dish is a special this Saturday but they only serve four a night (unless they can find a hog bred with more than four legs). By the way, Cabrito (restaurant page) has some great happy hour deals on booze and tacos: “The Fatty Fix” (beer and bourbon, $12) got me in the proper frame of mind and the Taco Lengua ($3) blew away its counterpart at my standby, Tehuitzingo in Hell’s Kitchen. The eponymous Goat Belly Taco ($3), however, was the evening’s only disappointment.

Perhaps they should change the name of the place to “A Pata de Cerdo.”