Anthony Bourdain – A tribute

Today the world lost Anthony Bourdain, a gifted story teller, a great chef and someone who I’ve long considered a hero in the food world and beyond. Bourdain had an incredible way of describing food, but not just in superficial way like “this is fucking delicious,” though he did that too, but in a way that brought it life. You’d sit in your living room, riveted and drooling, as he’d take a bite of something unfamiliar, and you’d think “I want to eat that.”

Bourdain could talk to anyone, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t glean new insights, ask the right questions and bring personal insight into the conversation. He could offer a glimpse into any dish having conversations with local chefs, politicians, expats, grandmas, friends, really anyone who would have him.

What made his shows, No Reservations and later Parts Unknown, so incredible was that he looked beyond food, but food was always the window into another world. Food tells us so much about a person, a family, a city, a country – it speaks in ways that sometimes people cannot. The ability to capture 100’s years of oppression in Myanmar or Iran, through their cuisine, is something that I doubt anyone will be able to replicate.

My understanding of oppressive regimes, counter culture, off the beaten path restaurants, are all things that I learned from watching these shows. They weren’t just food shows or travel shows, they were cultural quests to better understand our world.

I can’t possibly count how many times since being turned on to his books and his shows that I have sought out hidden gems and sought to learn about why they serve what they serve. One memorable example was when I traveled to Peru back in 2009. Before I went, I found an old episode of No Reservations trip to Lima. I wanted to eat and learn from his experience – and I did. The foods they ate were different, like guinea pig and alpaca, and not to mentioned 100’s of types of potatoes. But why? What about their climate and their culture made this a bedrock to their cuisine? That was the sort of learning experience I would often have, in part, because of Bourdain and his quest for the unknown.

I’m sure I could go on, finding more examples of restaurants I ate at, meals I shared with friends, trips I took, that lead back to him, but I digress. Anthony Bourdain will be missed by his family, his daughter and everyone out there who dared to try something new.

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Paname French Restaurant – Old school meets new school

On a typically barren part of the Upper East Side of Manhattan sits Paname — a French restaurant that serves many classic dishes along side not so typical cuisine. The ability to strike a balance between the two makes it a successful menu.

The owner and head Chef Bernard Ros has been cooking in his own restaurants for over 4 decades and has made the move to this location in the hopes of capitalizing on a new 50 story residential tower, as well as the numerous businesses nearby. It is not typically an area one might seek out a delicious restaurant, but here we are.

The restaurant boasts a very cheap lunch menu as well as a 3-course dinner for just $42. Not many restaurants can offer a deal like that and with so many options to chose from for each course.

The menu consists of classics like crispy duck, with a mango sauce instead of the typical orange. A nice twist. There are also delicious non-traditional French items like tuna tartar. But you really must not miss the Pate Maison — delicious pate that is one of the best items on the menu. The aforementioned duck is a must try, along with the Cod la nicoise. A delicious southern French style dish that pops off the plate. You also can’t miss on the bouillabaisse.

Aside from the food, there are many reasonably priced wines by the glass and the bottles are also quite affordable. Along side your wine and main dishes, you will be presented with numerous amuse-bouche, that range from a single bite to delicious creamy sorbet before dessert.

I would definitely recommend coming down for some pate, bouillabaisse and a nice glass of French wine. That is before the local apartment complex fills up the reservation book.

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Nai Tapas Bar: Where traditional meets modern

Spain has long been a pioneer when it comes to molecular gastronomy. Despite the closure of elBulli several years ago, Catalonia is full of restaurants that have taken what Ferran Adrià did masterfully for decades and brought it to a wider audience. Across the ocean in the United States, restaurants have been showcasing similar techniques with great success. In NYC however, I have not seen this type of cuisine mixed in with Spanish food. Until now.

At Nai Tapas bar, which has been open for about five years, Chef Ruben Rodriguez has been serving up classic Spanish tapas from recipes from his mother and grandmother. More recently, Chef Rodriguez has steered the restaurant toward using a mix of classic and modern dishes. Dishes like fresh oysters topped with lemon air, showcase both the classic raw mollusk along with a modern molecular twist — delicious lemon air that is heavenly.

oyster 2Nai intends to expand to the second floor of the east village location with more seating and an open kitchen that will feature a tasting menu style seating of the modern Spanish delights that have joined forces with the traditional dishes like garlic shrimp. As far as I can tell, this would be the first of its kind in NYC.

Other highlights from the night include the Tostada de Lubina, which was a chilean sea bass wrapped in toast, topped with serrano ham wrapped asparagus.

sea 2The favorite of the night for me was the spicy chorizo over piquillo pepper and toast topped with fried quail egg and melted manchego cheese. I could eat the plate of these.

toast 2

In addition to the great variety of food styles and tastes, the wine list is also well designed, giving a wide range of options. There are also pitchers of sangria, because what would a Spanish tapas restaurant be without one of those.

The chocolate stuffed churro was a perfect end to the meal. I would highly recommend checking out Nai for some classics done right and for some other dishes that showcase familiar ingredients in new ways.

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La Sirene – France in NYC

rabbit stew

 

New York City is jam packed with French and Italian restaurants, maybe more than any other cuisine in the city. The problem you face when picking a French restaurant is that you either end up with a high-end restaurant with exorbitantly high prices. On the other end of the spectrum are the mid-level French bistros that offer a few decent dishes, but mostly don’t evoke the feeling of a true French bistro.

Enter La Sirene. Chef and Ownder Pawlicki Didier has been serving up some of the best French food in the South Village for more than eight years. The restaurant itself is unassuming, but charming, and the recent addition of a wine list (plus the BYOB option) make it a one stop shop for delicately prepared classic French dishes along side a nice glass of red wine.

Having been to many restaurants in Paris, I can say with certainty that the dishes at La Sirene are truly authentic. You will not find a better onion soup anywhere. There are also other delicious appetizer options including the escargots, which are not overly garlicky and a baby octopus salad with garlic, parsley, tomato and mushroom. Portions are also plentiful.

The entrees offerings range from gnocchi with truffles and a white sauce to cassoulet, which may be a winter dish, but Chef Didier couldn’t keep it off the menu. I tried a few dishes but was blown away by the rabbit stew. Rather than a big bowl of stew, the rabbit is served on a plate with a wonderful mushroom and white wine sauce and rice. The dish is outstanding and if you’re not a rabbit eater, this will change your mind.

One thing you can’t forget to do is save room for dessert. After all, the French make the best ones (well, a lot of them anyway). The best thing you can do is order the Tarte Tatin with ice cream. The next best option, if you have a sweet tooth and lots of hungry mouths to feed is get the Choux Chantilly. No place around has this chantilly stuffed profiteroles and they are incredible (and big!!).

Needless to say I have only great things to say about this restaurant. There wasn’t a bad dish served or tasted. The staff are friendly and helpful, offering suggestions when asked. Chef Didier has kept his doors open for the past eight years for a reason: French food at its finest.

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Guest Post from Baacco: Picking Quality Wines

Choosing quality wine might seem tricky – after all, how can one tell what’s in the bottle if it’s not been tasted? It’s easy if you find a wine reviewer that you tend to agree with, but not all of them have a palate that agrees with every imbiber. European reviewers tend to lean towards more balanced wines, with a solid acidic structure, lower alcohol and good varietal or regional characteristics, like this excellent Cotes du Rhone from Chapoutier.

American reviewers, such as Robert Parker or James Laube tend to enjoy over-extracted ‘fruit bombs’ that are not to everyone’s liking, such as this Cab Sauv from Stonestreet in California. You might wonder why these wines consistently receive such a high rating, but its roots are most definitely qualified and quantified, even if they may not be to your personal taste.

When we judge the quality of a wine, we look for balance of all the elements: fruit, alcohol and acidity/tannin, and not one component should stand out more than the rest. Even a hot-climate wine can have excellent balance though, like this Pinot Noir from La Crema in California. This is due in part to a gestalt approach to quality winemaking that starts in the vineyard. But can you determine the quality of a wine just from looking at the label? Probably not. And you certainly can’t depend on the price tag, either. Best bet is to do your homework. Find a reviewer whose opinions tend to align with yours, and check vintage charts when you can. A wine that is great in one vintage may not be so great in another. And then again, an excellent, boutique or small production producer, like Hartford Court (Calfornia) or Alvero Palacios (Spain) is almost always reliable, in that they are always focused on putting their best face forward.

For more information, check out the Baacco website.

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Sourdough starter: something you do want growing in your kitchen

starter 1

 

I’ve been wanting to try out my own sourdough starter for a while now, mostly at the urging of @jakqlin and her blog A Huckleberry Over My Persimmon. Seeing her pictures of sourdough pancakes and biscuits should be reason enough to want to try this out at home.

Many sites I came across, in doing research, say you need to buy an established starter from the interwebs. I opted to do it on my own. Will it be as perfect as a 100 year old starter? Maybe not. But there is something rewarding about growing your own yeast.

There are many guides to starters and I sort of used a mix of a few different ones. The three things you are going to need are a big jug of filtered water, flour (rye or all-purpose) and a mason jar (though you could use something similar). Oh, and the fourth thing is time.

The first picture on this blog is the initial mixing and just after a few hours. Below is after a full 24 hours. You can see the bubbles forming. Having had my starter going for just a few weeks, I’m not an expert. For some more tips once you start, check out the joy kitchen’s post. She has great advice on how to maintain your starter.

starter 2

 

Things I’ve learned:

  • When you feed your starter in the first week, you can use a smaller amount a few tablespoons of water/flour
  • After about a week, you can start storing it in the fridge when you don’t plan to use it
  • If your jar starts to really get nasty and crusty on the side, take your starter out and put into a bowl and clean your jar. Once you’ve discarded starter, you can go back to the jar.
  • The more flour you use to feed the starter, the more you’ll have to discard and cook with.
  • “Discard” doesn’t mean throw away starter. It means you can cook with the “extra.” Sourdough crackers are a great option, or biscuits, or pancakes.
  • You want to use starter that has been out and fed for a few days in baking bread, as you’ll want all that juicy yeast.
  • if you notice a brown liquid on top of the starter, simply pour it away. This means you waited too long between feedings or your ratio of flour to water was including too much water.

 

Recipe/Ingredients (version of this recipe from Nourished Kitchen)

Flour
Filtered water
Jar
Cheese cloth
rubber band

Day 1:
Whisk 1/4 cup flour with 3 tablespoons water in a bowl or jar. Cover with cheese cloth and seal with rubber band. Leave on counter. 12 hours later, repeat with 1/4 cup flour and 3 tablespoons water. Cover.

Day 2:
12 hours after previous feeding, in AM, add 2 tablespoons flour and 1 1/2 tablespoons water, repeat after 12 hours

Days 3-5:
By this point, your starter should be bubbly, rise some, fall, rise again. You want to continue feeding, now just 1 tablespoon flour and just under 1 tablespoon water. You will probably have around 2 cups of starter. Now you can remove 1 cup to use in biscuits or crackers. The remaining starter can be placed in the fridge, sealed or continued to be kept out, with daily feedings until you’re ready to use in baking.

If you bake a lot, keep it out and feed daily. If you bake weekly or less, simply place in fridge. You’ll need ~2-3 days of feeding to have it ready to bake with.

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Bacon and Beer Classic NYC

Bacon_and_Beer_Classic_Logo_large

Bacon is delicious. Beer is refreshing. What about lots of bacon and lots of beer. That’s even better. Where can I get lots of these in one place you ask? Queens, at Citifield, home of the Mets on April 24, 2015. The Bacon and Beer classic hits a few cities in the coming weeks, with New York next weekend.

There will be over 50 local breweries plus dozens of restaurants boasting lots of delicious pork products, among other things. Many of them I’ve never tried, but look forward to tasting.

Tickets are still available for both sessions. The early session seems to be sold out, but the evening session from 7-10 (or 6-10pm with a VIP pass) are still available.

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