STIR THE POTS

Ilili - a restaurant

During my meeting and interview recently with Kamal Mouzawak, I was introduced to Ilili Restaurant Chef/Owner, Philippe Massoud. Philippe was roasting a whole lamb on a sidewalk on 5th Avenue for a food fair in The Flatiron district, not far from his 27th street restaurant. Kamal and I tried bites of several different dishes, and with Kamal telling me that IIili is one of New York's best Lebanese restaurants, I wanted to go try it.

Recently, I took my wife and visiting brother there for lunch. The restaurant is spacious, and features a dining room that uses lots of glass and wood. On this unusually hot autumn afternoon, the space wasn't quite full. Apparently, they are ususally packed solid - the proof being we couldn't get a reservation the previous Saturday for dinner.

Our waiter was helpful, offering tips on his own menu favorites.  The truth is we had already determined to share a mixture of mezze dishes - the small samplings that are typical in that part of the world. We also ordered a rose from the Bekka Valley. The dishes were not just flavorful but surprising. My favorite dish was bone marrow. Roasted, it was served with a sour cherry tabouleh. As Kemal had told me, Lebanese food is not just a street food concept. It's refined and full of fresh ideas I would want to use in my own cooking.

Some of the dishes were certainly familiar (e.g. falafael) but presented with wonderful panache. And with flavors that were nuanced and simultaneously very satisfying. Take the house specialty of brussel sprouts with fig puree, walnuts and yogurt. Words fail to capture the exquisite pleasure of this dish.  Pita was freshly baked and was a perfect way to use as a utensil and to swab the deliciously cinnamon perfumed meatballs and the silken kibbe. My I-phone snaps don't do it justice....

This was only part of what we ordered, and believe me, it was filling. My brother invited me to DBGB's, (Daniel Bouloud's new place) but I couldn't even get my mind to tell my stomach to make some room! I hope to find some time to speak with Philippe soon and visit his fabulous restaurant, again. Just to  sample lots more great food, and this time I'll make sure to enjoy some arak to cleanse the palate.

Le pain sauve les vies

No, this isn't a call out to S&M. It's a rave for bread, "pain" the French word for our beloved loaves.  Today I spotted this street graffiti while on a mission, bringing supplies my hard working friend and fellow blogger, Shuna Fish Lydon. She's the pastry chef at the newly bustling Bowery restaurant/bakery Peels.

As a kitchen worker, it's often difficult to eat in our profession. Sometimes there are no breaks in between service. You're frequently too tired, or lack interest in the "staff meal," or just yearning for something different than what's being prepared in your kitchen. 

  

   

I got a message from Shuna this week. She was craving peanut butter sandwiches. I like peanut butter with the right bread. So I brought her some loaves. And on the way spotted the sign. Kind of captures the day.

Simply Savoy

Often finding a new restaurant you like, the second visit threatens to be less impressive than the first. Since curiosity first led me to Savoy, I was impressed and followed up on a second visit. And you know what? I was pleased again. Fast forward; it's hot the wife and I meet downtown after work. She suggests going to the Savoy. For whatever reason, I feel trepidation but agree, hoping the third time lives up to the first two.

Okay, so my negative expectations are threatened when the host seats us by the window. Then the server sets up our table and starts to explain some changes to the menu as a "work in progress." Can I now give in to my worst fears and indulge my self-righteous foodie regret? No. Because we already spied what we wanted. The entire feeling of this place - what you see, smell, and feel, it's great. I love the rustic and simple food served here. No frill or fuss, just flavor with simple and minimal product...Oh and no foam!

A snack, Confit garlic with dehydrated olive salt, tarragon and crackers.

Chiccharones sprinkled with cocoa-chili and doused with some grilled lime, simple and delicious!

Sea scallop ceviçhe with padron peppers, lean and perfect after the pork rinds, great with my Riessdorf Kölsch to cry my fat tears over the demise of the German World cup team!

 

My wife's pick, soft shell crab tempura on a cucumber julienne with a white gazpacho sauce drizzled with some picante pimenton oil.

Roasted beets with freekeh, earthy and full of flavor.

Grilled zucchini with nettle pesto.

Rhubarb and berry cobbler, I could of had another, it was so good!

Even if the portions don't look huge, I was full. So we walked back to Union Square to digest a bit...

All to say that the Savoy happily defeated that "second time rule" by giving us a third time treat! The service is so simultaneously relaxed and present (call that professional), but most of all it's a value meal with great ingredients! And what's better then when you see the "king" after digesting such great food.

Motorino

Just like me to get on the pizza craze kind of late and miss out on Anthony Mangieri's famed Una Pizza Napoletano while he was still in NY. But not to worry, there is pizze  being made there again, that of Chef Mathieu Palombino at his new outpost  Motorino.

 

It's definitely made some waves, the likes of Rachel Ray anointing it amongst others with the seal of approval...at first I was sort of turned off, with the thought of a good thing turned out or spoiled by fame, plaudits and celebrity...but I was hungry the other day  and was itching to try some pizze! I had already seen Mike Colameco's recent show where he tried some pizze at  the flagship, Motorino in Williamsburg. Mike usually is a good indicator whats hot  and I like the places he goes to.

So upon entering the minuscule storefront that is well manicured and well tended by a sharp staff, I couldn't wait, just the first sighting of a charred, puffy and steaming pie made me even more hungry.

So my wife and I perused the menu and ordered the signature Octopus and warm potatoes flecked with pepporoncino, capers, celery, parsley.The wife ordered some non-descript mixed green salad, simple unpretentious, with some health factor or reasoning I suppose?

We ordered a pizze to share, the spicy sopressata pizze along with a fabulous barley ale from Sardinia.

 

We quickly polished off the first pie and I couldn't help but order an other.This time the special of the day with chopped ramps....my wife doesn't really enjoy pizze like I do, but she helped wipe out the two, exclaiming how good it was and so lite!

The acoustics were a bit loud with the peoples voices drowning out the old school playlist of Elvis and Sinatra, but I was entrenched in my birra and fabulous pie, oh yeah, the service was tops! Vespa, taxi, bike or whatever, get some pizze!

10 Downing street

No, I haven't been to London in years. But I was asked to make a reservation for a young  friend of ours to celebrate his eighth year on our planet. And so relying on my inner food guide, I thought of my food blogging friend Shuna Fish Lydon, who is also the pastry chef at 10 Downing street in NYC.

Shuna and I met up online, both mutual fans of each other's blog. And when she returned home to the United States (her native home) from London where she had been baking professionally, we moved from the virtual to the real world, specifically New York City! While we're planning to do an interview here for Stir the Pots, for now we're waiting for the time in between both of our work schedules.

Anyway, for the birthday party, Shuna told me to get in early. "The place gets loud," she said. With people or piped in soundtracks, I wondered. Personally, I still don't know why music is needed in restaurants these days. The sound of forks knives and conversation should be the choral background to eating. But... I digress. It's the food we are talking about, and what wonderful tasting food it was... Starting with Shuna's basket of seeded and plain soda breads,and a light,crisp  foccacia. Not the wild yeast formula that I gave her, mind you, but excellent. 

Chef Jonnatan Leiva, who hails from the Bay Area, serves up a farm friendly market oriented menu. He kindly sent us some delicious tasting samplers; a demi-tasse of potato leek soup, and my favorite a simple but flavor filled beet salad with Castelvetrano olives, and burrata. Honestly, I almost ate the whole thing myself!

I could of had the foie gras or some other meat, but I wanted fish. So I ordered a delectable scallop ceviche and some local albacore tuna with sepia in a light ginger broth, it was light and lovely and allowed for some desserts later...

With two eight year old kids, you wonder if they can or will eat what they've ordered. But our young friends had good ideas on food, going for the roasted Bobo chicken and the Painted Hill Farms beef burger with truffled fries.The tuber on tuber frites were such a hit, the uneaten portion went home with our guest who was adamant when instructing the waitstaff to package them. "Truffles are expensive you know", she said!

Our server, sporting a a pierced tongue and a commanding knowledge of the food and wine selection, had me a bit hypnotized. Whether it was her striking looks or the wonderful wine, I found it hard to remember what I had ordered when Shuna came out to say hello and started quizzing me on the menu.

Shuna then let me sneak back into the kitchen to squeeze off a few candid photographs... including her and the restaurant's Sous chef Matthew Wilbur making gnocchi for a wonderful Striped Bass my wife had for dinner.

I would be remiss also if I didn't mention her wonderful desserts that our table literally devoured, leaving us all with a dessert high, I couldn't remember a thing and I didn't get a focused photo, just too busy enjoying it all!

Thanks Shuna!

Public...a slight return

Yesterday we decided to go out on the spur of the moment, and ended up at Elizabeth Street, between Prince and Spring, and home to Public, one of my favorite spots in the city. No calls ahead to the chef, we managed to get a table just as they opened at six.

Chef Brad Farmerie was doing a photo shoot in the main dining room, so we started in Public's wine tasting annex called "The Monday Room", popping a bottle of Malbec and some treats of popped corn flavored with a dusting  of porcini, parmesan and truffle oil. Then brought to a table, our waiter asked if we wanted to order off the menu or would we like to try the Chef's special tasting menu. Apparently, Brad recognized me. Thanks, Chef.  Who wouldn't go for the chef's special treatment?  With so many good offerings on the menu, it's so hard to pick from this chock full of goodies, why not just indulge?

Here is just some of the food we sampled.

Grilled scallops with sweet chili sauce, crème fraiche and green plantain crisps

Marinated white anchovies on quinoa croquettes with spicy saffron aioli

Fried Barron Point oysters with shiso, sansho pepper, and wasabi-yuzu dipping sauce

Our main course was a venison, though I was hoping for the pork belly, but I was just as happy with the perfectly cooked meat with a salsa verde and goat cheese polenta disk, it's more then likely that I will be back for that pork belly dish!(mark my words!)

Desserts were  just as good, an all time favorite  sticky toffee pudding and a really interesting play on "old school" flavors with new, apple crumble with cheddar soy ice cream, spot on!

I didn't take one picture of my meal. I was too busy eating!

WD-50, what I can't say...

While just off the operating table a few weeks ago, I invited Susan of wild yeast out to dinner at WD-50. I have been curious  about all the fuss made about these new "nouvelle" style restaurants. Failing to get a table for my first choice at Le Bernardin, I opted to try a cuisine that's less known and, perhaps even controversial in some cooking circles.

Keeping my mind open to something new sounded like a good idea, albeit with one of the leading senses not working, namely my nose due to recent surgery. As I chewed and tried to decipher flavor, it proved virtually impossible. Regardless, I had the genuine pleasure of watching Chef Wylie Dusfrene and his staff go about doing what they do, specifically their reputation for alchemy around molecular gastronomy. Most of my fellow chefs and foodies (from mainstream critics to online bloggers to just passionate eaters) are just curious about what they are conjuring from mysterious and odd sounding ingredients.

Combining new  methods and techniques that sound more like something out of a science class, these folks are not "old school" cooks and chefs  in the Fernand Point traditions of food preparations, the latter focused more on traditional flash in-the-pan rather then crayovac packets and meat glue. Trying my best to cast reasonable and grounded judgment  on this new school of cooking, I have decided to come back in the future and smell and taste - as well as see - what it's all about. Meanwhile here are some pictures to let you in on what we had that evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's the nose that knows, Bar Boulud revisted!

Yes I know, my nose is back in action, so I had to get it into some more pâté, terrines, and the like.  Today when my wife suggested we celebrate out 22nd wedding anniversary at an impromptu lunch, I couldn't say no!

First she wanted to go to Aquavit, claiming it was the food but I secretly knew it was to see that handsome chef, Marcus Samuelsson. But lunch there was finished at 2:30 in the afternoon. At two o'clock, we were still in Queens, so initially we settled for a less interesting location. But wanting to give my beautiful wife something special, I Googled a few more places on on my i-Phone. Thank you technology! It turned out we could still make Bar Boulud since they served lunch till 4 o'clock!

Pop, off we went into the taxi across Central Park. There in front of  Lincoln Center was the red canopy of the outdoor tables of the restaurant. I felt like I already knew everything about the place. Boy was I in for a surprise!

The wine list, a short one or a leather bound book of paper filled pages  was offered. We opted to do things by the glass rather then the bottle. God knows I could knock one bottle back myself if it were my choice!

 

For every bottle or glass of Summer Rose, Daniel gives a portion of proceeds to Breast Cancer Research Foundation. So my wife aptly picked a floral scented gem of a wine, Thierry Puzelat, "VDT" Touraine, FR 2008. I am gonna get that for my mom as she will love it. So will you!

I didn't snap a shot of my own wine, too busy sniffing it, a Clos Du Mont Olivet, Cotes Du Rhone 2007. The first sip was a nectar, pure cassis and fruit explosion.

The service was attentive, the staff really knowledgeable, and they were happy to hear I was blogging about my second visit as the promised to make sure I would enjoy this visit. They kept their word. First things first; nice sliced wheat bread served with butter with a flurry of salt crystals. Terrific! And to think, it's just bread and butter.

Then the choices. It's a small menu, and that makes it even more difficult to choose.The last last visit, my heart ached as I couldn't make out a morsel from the platter of charcuterie we had ordered. At the time, I was just through nose surgery. All I could sense were textures. And then I couldn't recognize any of the nuances and perfect feel to the mouth. This time was different.  I went with the braised beef cheeks. Wonderful. It  reminded me of the picnic me and my wife had on the Seine a few years ago with a bottle of wine. Just closing my eye's I could almost be back in France.

My wife had gazpacho drizzled with both  basil oil, cucumber dice and olive oil.

My entree could kill a cat, croque Monsieur, a lactic overdose of enrobed ham, bread , melted golden brown crusted cheese with an obscene bechamel oozing from the inside out!

All the while I envied my wife's choice of Boudin blanc, an airy saucisse that lay over truffled pomme puree encircled by a meat jus. Next time!

I knocked off my first glass of wine. My wife and the server suggested another to burn off the artery clogging dish I just devoured. No problemo!

A change of terroir. I chose,Terre Nere, Etna Rosso, Sicily 2008, a spicy and cherry and vanilla scented bouquet. Nice!

Then onwards to dessert. The waiters suggested the gateau Basque. Okay!

 

The missus ordered some multilayered coupe de something with cardamom mousse, brioche and chocolat.  I helped her knock it off as she nibbled the remains of my brandied cherry and anglaised gateaux Basque...whew!

Between appetizers and entrees, I quickly snapped some pictures of the bar area where the pâté, sausages and terrines are well displayed behind a glass case.  In the front of the case a large shiny slicer, conspicuously clean and well preserved. Perhaps an antique.

 

 

 

 

The visit was worth the return. This time I could taste everything. Delicious. Spot on. Before leaving I noticed the staff gathered, perhaps having a wine tasting. It made me wonder if perhaps I should moonlight and work here on the weekends. We'll see.

Savoy

Savoy

Instead of just going to my local joints or picking up my own pots to cook, my wife and I have made an effort to visit certain restaurants we've been gathering on a list in recent months. Prior to my operation, we stopped in and had lunch at Savoy.

Having passed it a million times while stomping around Manhattan's downtown section of Broadway, and seeing a story about this particular restaurant on the Colameco show, I just had to try it.

From the tiny dining room filled with sunlight from the windows open to the street, this quaint and unpretentious restaurant is by far the most relaxing environment I have eaten in New York. My wife ventured upstairs to the second story of the restaurant, where they have another dining area used in the evening. 

The menu though light for lunch, was just that - a lunch menu, market driven with surprising flavors and textures. The small plate appetizers can be ordered as a single order or as a mixed choice of three.  They're simple dishes, rooted in just two or three ingredients that lean to vegetables, with the exception to my favorite fried duck livers! These nuggets had a perfect texture and served with a deliciously spiked chive buttermilk sauce.

 

Even with a small menu of just six main courses, the various dishes all caught my eye, making it difficult to decide. Finally, I gave in to the Corned duck leg sandwich. Served with purple mustard on rye with home made potato chips flavored with black pepper and coriander, it was delicious.

Following that lovely sandwich, we shared dessert, an upside-down rhubarb cake with beet sorbet flavored with hyssop. 

The butter rich cake studded with rhubarb was a perfect foil to the earthy and yet not overwhelming sorbet that soaked up the buttermilk cream and poached rhubarb pieces.  I scarfed this baby down, no problemo!

Venture to say I am going back to this great spot with wonderful food and wonderful service. Next time for dinner.

Academia di Vino

After working a full week of Christmas parties, last Saturday my wife decided I needed a break, along with some lunch. Meaning, she thought we should go out! The weather was dismally cold and I wasn't quite in the mood for the schlep, but...when we reached an almost empty Academia DI Vino that late afternoon, it offered me a delightful surprise. Not to jump the gun, but believe me, that long walk had been worth braving winter in the city.

The restaurant's wine cellar, robust with over 500 bottles, surrounds their  subterranean dining room. It's a great space. Alan Garcia the chef is an alumn of Del Posto, Prime Steak House and Al Forno. The menu is filled with all sorts of delicious offering, from crudo's to thin crisp pizza's and of course pasta. My starter was a carpaccio of Manzo (beef) perfumed with truffle vinaigrette,fennel, mint and shaved parmigiano, delicious. Not deterred by the fact that the pizza I ordered was just taken off the menu due to seasonal issues (pumpkin, pancetta and caramelized onions - only apparently, pumpkins were out of season), I succumbed to the Spaghetti Carbonara. Studded with  guanciale, it cried out to me, wooing with its comfort-food ingredients.

My wife had a salad of escarole and toasted hazelnuts, mint and pecorino. It was wonderful. She followed the salad with a linguine Pescatore with a shellfish ragu, also good. I actually was forced into finishing it off for her, it was too much after all the bread from Sullivan Street Bakery  slathered with virgin olive oil.. We polished off the pasta and ordered a ricotta cheesecake as the coup de grace, covered with concord grapes. Not too difficult too finish especially with café macciato.

Garcia's restaurant was the site of many previously failed business's. All to say, we're rooting for you, Alan. Hopefully if they keep making the food friendly and wine list full, this restaurant will be around serving delicious food for a long time to come.Service is particularly friendly and also professional.