Seasonal Spotlight: Sweet Potatoes

The Gluttoness — November 10, 2009

A sweet potato-centric meal from: Yerba Buena Perry, Blue Water Grill, Gansevoort 69, & Kyotofu.

Sweet potatoes don’t require much more than baking and butter to be tasty. And while some chefs do keep things simple, other restaurants use them in more exotic dishes from ceviches to Japanese desserts.

Click Here for a Sweet Potato-Centric Meal from Four Restaurants >>

AlwaysInvestigating: Sandwich Holy War at Shopsin’s

Arthur Bovino — November 09, 2009

The following food adventure is told in the style of A Prairie Home Companion’s Guy Noir:

Interior of Shopsin’s General Store, in the Essex Street Market [www.gracenotesnyc.com, image].

CLICK FOR VOICEOVER “A top secret lunch in a city that knows how to keep recipes secret, but on the fourth floor of AlwaysHungryNY.com HQ in the Flatiron District, one man tries to find the answers to food’s persistent questions. Fry Noir, Private Eye.”

I was eating cold Philippe Express when she entered the office, my colleague, The Gluttoness, a food reporter known for getting a scoop. She’d come from the side of town where when it rains hipsters don’t get wet, and when they do they look good. She was writing a story about two Shopsin’s sandwiches on the verge of holy war in the Middle Feast — the Jewboy and Jihadboy — which one was better? But there was a hitch: Kenny Shopsin.

Click Here for Fry Noir's Food Escapade in the Case of Shopsin's Sandwich Holy War >>

Featured Dessert: Cafeteria’s Chocolate Crème Brûlée

The Gluttoness — November 09, 2009

Cafeteria’s Chocolate Crème Brûlée, $9.00.

Cafeteria (view) is known for its trendy, 24-hour comfort food, but their desserts are spectacular too. Apple Pie Ravioli, White Chocolate Bread Pudding, Waffle Banana Split, Deep-Fried Oreos, and Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Oreo crust and Caramel Bacon Popcorn— they’re all as good as they sound.

The Chocolate Crème Brûlée has become a staple of Cafeteria’s dessert menu, but its executive pastry chef, Matt Joyce, decided to give the dish a little pop, literally. The dark chocolate crème brûlée used to be served with a chocolate chip cookie in the center. Now, two warm, freshly baked cookies are served on the side, making way for Cafeteria’s signature dark chocolate spoon, which is emblazoned with the Cafeteria’s logo. But the spoon isn’t there just to add another jolt of chocolate. It also delivers a heaping spoonful of strawberry Pop Rocks.

While eating the Pop Rocks with the chocolate custard doesn’t create the exaggerated reaction of Coca Cola, they do impart an effervescent sensation to custard’s thick creaminess. You can eat the Pop Rocks in one bite or break the burnt sugar crust and mix them throughout the crème brûlée. Either way, their chatter gets your mouth singing a sweet, happy song. Once your chocolate spoon is gone, don’t bother with other silverware. The soft chocolate chip cookies make the perfect utensils for scooping up the rest of this rockin’ chocolate dessert.

Featured Brunch: Daniel Boulud Does Brunch

The Gluttoness — November 06, 2009

Summer Fruit Parfait with Yogurt, Granola and Berries, $9.00.

Hot off the heels of its two-star review from The Times, DBGB Kitchen & Bar (view) has experienced the expected surge in business, and not only during prime dinner hours. Turns out it’s not all about the sausages, especially during brunch, when DBGB serves sweeter delights like Belgian Waffles topped with chocolate or berries and whipped cream, and a Fruit Parfait featuring figs, yogurt and granola. You can still order a juicy Yankee Burger, and those sausages (nine varieties) well, they get even better— any of them can be topped with two eggs, any style for $6.00.

Breakfast favorites abound, whether you’re looking for Brioche French Toast, a simple stuffed omelette in the velvety, uncolored French style, or poached eggs “en cocotte” with caramelized onions, mushrooms and bubbly Gruyère. Best of all is the classic Croque Madame, topped with an oozing sunny-side egg, and the super crisp, triangular hash brown cakes served in a miniature iron skillet.

For little kids, the horribly hungover and serious sweet tooths alike, nothing will end your bountiful brunch on a better note than DBGB Kitchen & Bar’s spectacular sundaes. There’s a Cassis Beer Yogurt with Speculoos Cookie, Rainbow Meringue, and Black Currant Compote too. But for the sake of the season you might consider the Caramel-Cider (with braised apple, marshmallow and oatmeal crumble). Of course, it’s impossible to go wrong with the indulgent chocolate chip cookie and brownie-flecked Coffee Mocha. Looks like Daniel Boulud has spent some quality time with a pint of Half Baked.

Haven’t we all.

DishDoppelgängers: Farinella & Momofuku Milk Bar

The Gluttoness & The Hungry Goat — November 05, 2009

You know you’ve been caught looking at celebrity look-alike features in tabloids on the supermarket line or when surfing online. Well, we’re applying the concept to well-known dishes and others that resemble them. And why not, for those of us interested in food, Thomas Keller’s Oysters and Pearls dish is just as iconic as Jay Leno’s chin. As soon as a doppelgänger dish emerges, you better believe we’ll spot it.

We know, we know. doppelgängers are supposed to look alike. But this edition of DishDoppelgänger is switching things up a little, featuring two potato dishes with matching flavor profiles: Farinella’s (view) Panzerotto and Momofuku Milk Bar’s (view) Volcano.

Continue Reading >>

AlwaysInformed: Blue Smoke’s Peanut Butter & Belly

The Gluttoness — November 05, 2009

Peanut Butter & Belly: Berkshire Pork Belly on Raisin Toast w/Poblano Jelly and Peanut Sauce, ($11.95).

One of Blue Smoke’s (view) latest lunch additions, Peanut Butter & Belly, may employ a cute play on words and dainty tea sandwich proportions, but it’s actually nothing to scoff at. It features a complex combination of textures, flavors and temperatures: slices of crisped pork belly portioned to the size of small raisin bread rectangles. The toast is warm, the pork is soft and the golden raisins add surprising bursts of chewy sweetness.

The accoutrements are where you’ll find the classic combination of peanut butter and jelly. There’s a sticky peanut glaze and a salty crunch from a pile of chopped nuts. Poblano jelly acts more like a decorative hot sauce, delivering subtle heat. The sweet and spicy accents are the perfect finishing touches.

Peanut Butter & Belly is an inventive new appetizer— a tasty bite with which to begin a barbeque binge at Blue Smoke. After all, no meal there is complete without running the gluttonous gamut from wings, ribs, and burgers, to pulled pork, fried chicken, and of course, one of Manhattan’s best renditions of macaroni and cheese.

Featured Dessert: Kyotofu’s Sweet Potato Cake

The Gluttoness — November 05, 2009

Warm Sweet Potato Cake w/Satsumaimo, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Sweet Potato Caramel & Pecan Tuile.

Slashfood recently penned a piece about the obscurity of Sweet Potato Cake. They’re right, sweet potato pie is probably the first dessert to come to mind when people think about sweet applications of this ingredient, but the creative minds at Kyotofu (view) are doing something to throw the spotlight on this lesser-known sweet potato treat. Kyotofu’s tofu-centric dessert bar is known for delicately blending eclectic Asian ingredients with classic French pastry techniques, and their Warm Sweet Potato Cake ($10.00) follows suit.

This stylized interpretation features two different textural implementations of sweet potato. The cake is moist and spongy. Warm slices are presented on a creamy purée of satsumaimo (a purple-skinned, Japanese sweet potato) and topped with a sticky, sweet potato-infused caramel. A scoop of vanilla bean ice cream offers a cool contrast and pecan tuile brings a nutty crunch.

Seasonal Spotlight: Just Beet It

The Gluttoness & The Hungry Goat — November 04, 2009

A beet-centric meal. Dishes from The Harrison, Enoteca Barbone, Lupa and Momofuku Ssäm Bar.

Beet season is in full swing and chefs in New York City are capitalizing on the versatility of their natural sweetness in both savory and sweet applications. Whether they’re roasted or turned into something greater than themselves, the following dishes combine to create an un-beet-able meal.

Click Here for a Great Beet-Centric Dinner >>

AlwaysInvestigating: Trifle-Spotting

The Gluttoness — November 04, 2009

Left to right, The Standard Grill’s ‘Deal Closer,’ Yerba Buena Perry’s Tres Leches Parfait and Gansevoort 69’s Banana Cream Pie.

During my fall tour of new restaurants, I’ve noticed three desserts that use the trifle composition to reinvigorate familiar dishes. You may recall one, The Deal Closer. It was recently a Featured Dessert.

The Standard Grill’s (view), “The Deal Closer” ($12.00) is fun to eat just because you get to do it with a spatula. Putting that aside, this ginormous dessert actually features trifle-like layers of bittersweet chocolate mousse and moist chocolate cake.

Yerba Buena Perry’s (view) three-layered Tres Leches Parfait ($9.00) features traditional Tres Leches Cake at the bottom of the glass topped with Pisco Panna Cotta and a slightly spiced Mexican chocolate mousse. Tres leches is fantastic alone, but even better topped with two complementary, sinful sweets.

Gansevoort 69 (view) also re-imagines a classic with a trifle composition: Banana Cream Pie ($10.00) built for two. A fudge brownie serves as the “black bottom crust” and a gooey coating of chocolate ganache makes for additional decadence. The rest is true-blue banana cream pie—thick banana pastry cream and bananas, topped with whipped cream that spills over the edges of the ceramic dish.

AlwaysLearning: Hiroshima-Style Okonomiyaki

The Gluttoness — November 03, 2009

EN Japanese Brasserie’s Yama-imo No Okonomiyaki, $10.00.

You don’t usually pair pancakes with beer, but a Hiroshima-Style Okonomiyaki goes best with a cold brew. Tonight from 7pm to 10pm, pecopecony.com will repurpose Jimmy’s No. 43 (view) as an izakaya, filling the space with an Okonomiyaki demonstration, Japanese food and beer. In honor of the event, here’s a brief introduction to Hiroshima-Style Okonomiyaki.

Click Here for AlwaysLearning: Hiroshima-Style Okonomiyaki >>

SEARCH: Marathon Pasta Bender

The Gluttoness — October 30, 2009

Clockwise from top left: Penne Bolognese from Vinny Vincenz, Enoteca Barbone’s Spaghetti Carbonara, Il Bagatto’s Gnocchetti Verdie Blu, and Max’s Lasagna Fatta in Casa.

Every experienced marathoner knows that the night before the big race the best thing to do is load up on carbs. While the sponsored Barilla Marathon Eve Dinner may be satisfactory to some, if anyone at AlwaysHungryNY.com were going to run in the ING New York City Marathon, industrial vats of pasta just wouldn’t cut it. We’d prefer to shake things up with some variety, a little Bolognese, some Carbonara, maybe some Lasagna and Gnocchi.

Keeping in mind the Barilla Dinner’s $15 price, we used AlwaysHungryNY.com’s Advanced Search Engine to create a Marathon pasta bender using good, but moderately priced pasta dishes from four conveniently located cheap eats restaurants. The East Village was the perfect neighborhood for a budgeted excursion.

For the sake of finishing the marathon we’d recommend skipping wine, but the following four restaurants should help you build the perfect starchy base for your 26.2- mile run.

1st Stop: Vinny Vincenz for Penne Bolognese ($9.75)

2nd Stop: Enoteca Barbone for Spaghetti Carbonara ($11.00)

3rd Stop: Max for Lasagna Fatta in Casa ($10.95)

4th Stop: Il Bagatto for Gnocchetti Verdie Blu ($12.50)

Featured Dish: Accademia Di Vino’s “Pumpkin Pie”

The Gluttoness — October 30, 2009

Accademia di Vino’s Pumpkin, Pancetta and Caramelized Onion Pizza alla Griglia, $18.00.

Ah, pumpkin pie. That sweet, autumnal confection that makes you yearn for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s best when adorned with candied nuts, caramel or butterscotch, and of course, a huge portion of schlag. But this particular pumpkin pie isn’t set in a crust— it’s on it. Recently added to Accademia Di Vino’s (view) menu, the pumpkin-topped Pizza Alla Griglia treads a fine line between sweet and savory.

Pumpkin purée is spread atop smoky, grilled flatbread. Had it been paired with crème fraîche and honey, the dish would undoubtedly be a dessert. Instead, the warm, fragrant nutmeg-scented spread is a creamy base for pancetta and sweet onions. The pancetta’s crispness echoes the pizza’s crunchy crust, and the pork’s saltiness balances the sweet one-two punch of the rich pumpkin and caramelized onions.

These multi-faceted flavors are unlike those on any other pizza I’ve had before, and the insanely thin crust makes it way too easy to devour the whole pie. This simple dish demonstrates that bacon, not schlag, might be the ultimate topping for pumpkin pie.

Featured Desserts: Guinness Cake and Shake Pairing

The Gluttoness — October 30, 2009

Left, Guinness Chocolate Cake at Vinegar Hill House ($8.00). Right, MARK Burger’s Guinness Milkshake ($6.50).

We totally agree with Celia Cheng’s latest craving: Guinness Chocolate Cake at Vinegar Hill House (view). We too crave its dense, fudgy flavor. The cake is supremely chocolatly, but with a tempered sweetness, one supplemented by its cream cheese frosting. It almost mimics an Oreo, coating the mouth with that nostalgic combination of chocolate and cream. Milk is the obvious accompaniment, but we stumbled across an even more perfect pairing. Something with Guinness, of course.

MARK Burger’s (view) Guinness Milkshake is a rich reincarnation of a classic Irish Car Bomb. It’s Chef Erik Rubin’s favorite party drink, and he told me he couldn’t believe no one had thought of this before. Rubin first tried to make it a float, but ultimately he realized that you just can’t go wrong with that classic combination of a milkshake with a burger and fries. His secret method? Rubin reduces the Guinness with a little sugar to create a caramel syrup. Each shake blends four ounces of syrup with Ciao Bella’s Tahitian Vanilla Gelato. The first sip of this thick milkshake has crazy Guinness flavor, but eventually the hint of dark beer becomes lost amongst the shake’s creamy decadence.

Now all we have to do is get these two together.

How To: Cesare Casella’s Spaghetti Carbonara

The Gluttoness — October 29, 2009

Cesare Casella’s Spaghetti alla Carbonara.

Some people are all about lasagna, others love gnocchi or vongole. I’m all about Carbonara. Endless attempts at finding worthy replicas of this classic Roman dish have ended with disappointment. That was until Secession opened, and Cesare Casella, who was consulting on the Italian portion of the menu, brought his incredible Carbonara recipe to TriBeCa. Alas, Frank Bruni trashed the restaurant, the pastas were taken off the menu, and in a few months Secession was closed. I dreamed about the Carbonara, and every time I ran into Cesare Casella at an industry event, I essentially begged him for his recipe.

At Salumeria Rosi, Cesare Casella finally demonstrates his secret Carbonara recipe.

Recently, Cesare’s recipe finally landed in my inbox. But I wanted to learn from the master, so I met Cesare in the kitchen at Salumeria Rosi. His secret to perfect Carbonara? “Simplicity,” he said. “You’ve got to respect the traditional recipe and good ingredients—organic eggs, the best guanciale.”

Classic Carbonara uses eggs, pecorino Romano, guanciale, and black pepper, yet Cesare doesn’t have a problem with including cream (“Cream lets you make a mistake”) or blending meats and cheeses for more complex flavors. I’ve ruined many Carbonaras, but Cesare’s recipe was remarkably simple and the results were unparalleled. For anyone who loves Carbonara, this will be the ultimate rendition.

Click Here for Cesare's Carbonara Recipe & Photos >>

AlwaysInvestigating: Sick of Tuna? Try Nicky’s Sardines

The Gluttoness — October 29, 2009

Nicky’s Sardine Banh Mi, $5.

The “Classic Vietnamese Sandwich” is the obvious order on any visit to Nicky’s Vietnamese Restaurant (view). It features pâté, Vietnamese ham and roasted ground pork beneath the customary banh mi garniture of slightly pickled carrot, cucumbers and cilantro. But recently, I was tempted by a Sardine Banh Mi, which I was surprised to see as one of the menu’s few alternatives. The proliferation of Asian fish sandwiches is evident at even the simplest establishments.

When I was young, my Grandfather made sardine sandwiches for me all the time. Considering my earlier days were marred by pain-in-the-ass eating habits (including three years of vegetarianism), I’m surprised now that I always accepted these canned fish sandwiches. Nicky’s rendition doesn’t include the tomato, onion and vinegar accoutrements of my childhood, but it still made for a nostalgic lunch.

Both sandwiches begin with toasted bread. But Nicky’s warm baguettes are far superior to my Grandfather’s sliced rye. They’re a worthy base for any great sandwich. The slathering of mayo instantly melts into the toasted roll’s soft underbelly. The oven-roasted sardines lose some of their natural oil, but the creamy bed of spicy mayonnaise moistens them. The combined flavors taste much like your typical, albeit spiced, tuna sandwich, although the hefty handful of cilantro and hearty vegetable crunch creates a distinctly Vietnamese profile. With a squirt of sriracha, the sardines’ mild fishiness disappears.

The Sardine Banh Mi is definitely different, and satisfying on its own, but ultimately, if you’re into heat and not averse to swine, then when it comes to grabbing banh mi at Nicky’s, nothing beats the classic.