Featured Dish: Triomphe’s Scallops in Foie Gras Butter

GutterGourmet — May 12, 2010

Scallops with Porcini Mushroom and Foie Gras Butter.

Though overshadowed by its neighbor, DB Bistro Moderne and its infamous $32.00, foie gras-stuffed Original db Burger, Triomphe, the French restaurant tucked into the Iroquois Hotel, has a similarly luxe signature dish: Chef Steven Zobel’s Scallops with Porcini Mushrooms and Foie Gras Butter.

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Featured Dish: Gambas Com Acorda at Pão!

The Gluttoness — August 11, 2009

Gambas com Acorda at Pão!

Pão! co-owner, Frank Coelho, a native of Portugual, didn’t set out to reinvent the Portuguese culinary wheel, just recreate it on a quiet corner in SoHo. His regulars, many of whom are Portuguese and looking for a taste of home, rely on this quaint eatery at Spring and Greenwich for authentic Portuguese fare. Specialties at Pão! (restaurant page) include Caldo Verde, a kale-based soup with potato and linguica (mild Portuguese pork sausage) and Bacalhau and Braz, traditional sautéed cod with egg, onion and straw potatoes.

Pão means “bread” in Portuguese so it shouldn’t be a surprise that bread is a prominent ingredient in one of its signature dishes, Gambas com Acorda, Grilled Tiger Shrimp with Lemon Shellfish Bread Pudding. The beautiful, monochromatic dish features six juicy, butterflied tiger shrimp, which are practically bursting from their glistening orange shells to kiss the lemon-rosemary cream sauce dressing the plate. The shrimp tails are anchored in a mound of savory shellfish bread pudding that is riddled with bits of shrimp, scallop, clams and mussels. The pudding is made from the same broa de milho (wheat and corn bread) that adorns every table.

Gambas com Acorda is much like an Iberian shrimp and grits, with the warm bread pudding offering a smoother sensation than grits. The firm flesh of the shrimp complements the silky texture of the pudding, and the tangy lemon sauce balances its richness. The dish is perfectly paired with a crisp glass of vinho verde, a bright, clean, slightly carbonated ‘green wine’ made from unripe grapes.

AlwaysInformed: Mushrooms (Grand Army Plaza)

Michelle Kiefer — July 16, 2009

Oyster Mushrooms at the Grand Army Plaza market (Mycomedicinals Madura Farms, Goshen, NY).

If you’re a fan of greenmarkets and mushrooms you’ve been missing out if you haven’t visited Dan Madura at his stand on Saturdays at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket. Dan is the mushroom man of Grand Army Plaza— he eats mushrooms everyday and started cultivating them on his family’s farm, Mycomedicinals Madura Farms in Goshen, NY, seven years ago after taking an interest in their medicinal value.

Ask Madura one question about mushrooms and he launches into endless facts about the vitamins and health benefits of each type. Maitake mushrooms, for example, he said, have anti-cancerous and immune-boosting benefits, and are used by yogis to make meditation tea. Shiitake mushrooms are used by the Japanese to combat the effects of chemotherapy. He noted that mushrooms are best stored in a brown paper bag in the refrigerator, and that one good way to save them is by leaving the bag out on the kitchen counter and allowing them to dry out.

But Madura’s knowledge about mushrooms isn’t limited to storing them or their purported medicinal value— he’s also full of suggestions for pairing and preparing them in the most tasty ways possible. He called King Oyster mushrooms, “the filet mignon of the mushroom world,” and recommended cooking them with scallops or slicing them into linguine-thin slivers and sautéeing them. He claims to be the sole cultivator of Piopinno mushrooms in New York, and said they’re excellent in risotto.

Yellow Oyster mushrooms, Madura explained, have a more delicate flavor and are awesome when added to omelets or any egg dishes. But, he reminded us, mushrooms are well-paired with most egg dishes. He raved about one of his favorite breakfast combinations, oyster mushrooms cooked with scrambled eggs or in an omelet along with a toasted English muffin.

Madura’s favorite mushroom dish? Homemade mushroom pizza, assembled with the tomato sauce he makes from the heirloom tomatoes he also grows on his farm.

SEARCH: Stuffed Clams in the City

June 10, 2009

When summer comes around we go crazy for clams. We like them every which way, but especially when they’re stuffed with extra goodness, like with Baked Clams and Clams Casino.

For some of the best baked clams in the city, we recommend:

Spark’s Steak House 210 E 46th St

Don Peppe 135-58 Lefferts Boulevard

Porter House New York 10 Columbus Circle

For Clams Casino, try one of the following places:

Pietro’s 232 E 43rd Street

Porter House New York 10 Columbus Circle

The Palm Tribeca 206 West Street

Il Mulino 86 W. 3rd Street

Of course, if you’re a purist and you want to test out the theory that clams, like oysters and scallops, are an aphrodisiac, there are tons of great places we’d recommend. Just enter Tasting Bar, Raw Bar and Date Place into our Very Advanced Search to discover them.

Dish by Dish: L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Jeff Zalaznick — May 18, 2009

Les Burgers
Beef & Foie Gras Burgers with Caramelized Bell Peppers

It seemed as if I had missed the work of Chef Joël Robuchon when he closed, Jamin, his small, three Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris. I had never been. The food became something that I dreamed about, his famous mashed potatoes, purée de pommes de terre, haunted me in my sleep. Lucky enough, my prayers were answered, and six years after retiring, Robuchon’s L’Ateliers began popping up. First in Tokyo, then Paris, Las Vegas, and finally at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City.

They could not have found a better home for L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon. The bar at the Four Seasons has always been a power drinking scene, but it had never really had the food to go with it. A Michelin-rated restaurant where one can order Asian and French influenced cuisine from one of the world’s most renowned French chefs seemed to fit the bill. As the location will reinforce though, this restaurant blurs the distinction between bar and restaurant, just as it does between bar food and fancy french. Over half of the menu is offered as small plates, including a game-changing rendition of sliders topped with seared foie gras (pictured above). This dish could be interpreted as a symbol for the restaurant as a whole.

The remarkable presentations, ingredients and flavors of Chef Joël Robuchon’s cuisine consistently impress, and since they opened in 2006, there is no question that L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon is one of New York’s best restaurants. It is what it’s supposed to be—excellent— and it does what it’s supposed to do: fine dining with out the fancy. It could be that you can sit at one of the twenty bar seats and watch Robuchon-protegé and genius in his own right, Yosuke Suga at work, or it might be that you can order an entire meal as tapas, but either way it is incredibly successful at making you feel comfortable eating foie gras in your jeans. And everyone is served a dish of mashed potatoes alongside the meal.

The world has gained more Ateliers (London and Hong Kong) since, and there is another one planned to open in Philadelphia in 2010. If you have one in your city, and enough money in your wallet, go there now.

Signature Small Plates: Les Burgers (Sliders), L’Anguille (Caramelized Eel Layered with Smoked Foie Gras), Le Calamar (Sautéed Squid with Violet Artichokes & Chorizo in Tomato Water)

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AlwaysPartying: Fiamma Las Vegas Preview

The Hungry Goat — March 26, 2009

The New York dining scene may have lost Fiamma and the much-praised cuisine of Chef Fabio Trabocchi to the economic climate, but Steve Hanson wants us to know that the chips are still rolling in to Fiamma at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Executive Chef Carlos Buscaglia was in town yesterday to whet the media’s appetite with a preview of the restaurant’s upcoming spring menu. Held at the former Fiamma location on Spring Street, which now operates as a B.R. Guest event space, Chef Buscaglia impressed with a host of delectable, beautifully-presented tastes. Most impressive were the signature handmade gnocchi with Maine lobster and black truffle crema, a luscious foie gras mousse drizzled with honey, and a perfectly seared diver scallop over fava bean purée.