K A Eats

Tonight Angela and I made our way to Brooklyn Academy of Music for the 3rd annual Latke Fest - a heated competition between 15 New York City chefs for the title of best latke maker.  New entrants included chefs from Mile End, Almond and several others.

I had expected the booths to be filled with fairly similar approaches to latke making, but each chef went out of their way to come up with something special.  One particularly creative booth by Great Performances served a timely paired dish: 

• The 99%er:  Potato latke topped with all beef hot dog and paired with brooklyn lager, and
• The 1%er: Potato latke topped with quail egg, american caviar & creme fraiche and paired with a shot of grey goose vodka

Other dishes include brisket, smoked pastrami, lox, cole slaw, chili and more!

After maybe 90 minutes of line hopping we managed to make it to 9 booths and try around 18 extravegant latkes - along with a few beer tastings and other hors d'oeurvres that were passed around to complement.  It was pretty fantastic - and left us full and tired.  A good deal for $30, definitely worth doing again next year (especially if the competition starts to draw more chefs).  Thanks to Sheri + Jeff for bringing us along!

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Last night we took the L train out to Bushwick to Roberta's to try out the restaurant of Carlo Mirarchi, one of Food & Wine's best new chefs.  We'd had the pizza before at least year's Madison Square Mark't, but supposedly as good as it was the pizza was just the beginning.

First, a few comments on the place.  If you weren't looking for you'd probably pass right by it.  You go in a door that looks like the back endtrance to a kitchen, but once you step in you find yourself greeted with communal tables, a nice open wood-burning pizza oven, and a bar in the back.  And the whole place is a lot bigger than appears at first, because as you make your way to the bar you see there's space for events, an outdoor beer garden, and even a garden where Roberta's grows its own vegetables.  The place just feels really friendly and fun, and I'm sure it's even better in the summer when the outdoor areas are probably filled and the garden is blossoming.

Onto what we ate.  We started by splitting a delicious margherita pizza for an appetizer, which actually makes a good appetizer because the crust is pretty thin, so you won't fill up.  For our main course Angela ordered the orecchiette, and I had the skirt steak.  Both were fantastic.  The orecchiette was the perfect texture; the skirt steak, while cooked well, was made by the unique seasonings and sides. The steak was accompanied by pressed & crisped fingerling potatos, ramps and  a homemade salsa verde which was made of a number of things including fresh mint.  We polished off both dishes quickly, impressed and even surprised by how good they were.  Then for dessert we had their "candy bar", which is milk gelato, peanuts & caramel crisp, and a few forms of chocolate.

All in all it was a great dinner- and we'll definitely be going back to Roberta's soon. The food was delicious, I love the atmosphere, it's very well priced, and it looks to offer a great summer happy hour scene as well.  I'm sure we'll have more dishes to talk about soon.

After years of walking by the place, Angela and I finally decided to grab dinner at The Mermaid Inn.  We did some research, and it turns out The Mermaid Inn scatters a bunch of discount specials across its various social media properties.  On Mondays you can pop over to Mermaid's Twitter or Facebook account to pick up a 20% discount code, and if you show the waiter your check-in on Foursquare you can also snag a free side item.  So with social media specials in hand we set off on our date.

Now for our order.  We started with an iceburg wedge salad and chilled half lobster to share and 2 oysters each.  Then for the main course we split a grilled whole fish, lobster truffle mac & cheese and fried brussel sprouts w/ bacon & almonds.  It might sound like a lot of food but the portions aren't big.  Also The Mermaid Inn doesn't have a dessert menu, but they do give everyone a small cup of chocolate pudding with your check.

With the exception of the free pudding at the end, the meal was delicious.  I really liked everything we ate, and would likely order most of it again.  It's not a cheap place to eat, but once you pile on the free side order, 20% off, and free dessert- you end up with a pretty hearty meal for an acceptable price.  So if you like sea food, try The Mermaid Inn on a Monday, and don't forget to check all of The Mermaid Inn's social media hubs.

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If you aren't familiar, Di Fara's is a pizza institution.  Dom DeMarco makes every single pizza by hand, and prepares every ingredient fresh.  To him pizza is an art- and every step from pounding out the dough, to drizzling the olive oil, to cutting some fresh basil on top (that he home grows) right before he hands you the pie is done with care.  The pizza he hands you is perfect- every bite is full of flavor.  Having heard of Dom's pizzas ever since I moved to NYC, I expected a lot.  He didn't disappoint, though- it's easily one of the best pizza's I've had.  And after watching him make at least twenty pizzas by hand with such meticulous focus I have a new appreciation for the art of pizza.

There are down-sides of course.  Because of Dom's insistance in perfection and the need to hand-craft each pie himself, pizzas come out of his oven slowly.  It takes him about 5 minutes to make each pie, and 3 pies can fit in his coal oven.  So as people line up in rows deep wanting a taste of his perfect pizzas the orders come slowly.  Our group ordered 2 pies and waited at least 1.5 hours to get them.  

Now I'm sure our immense hunger and anticipation only helped boost the enjoyment when we actually got to eat our pies, but it's also a huge pain to go through.  It means as much as I'll be dreaming of another pizza from Di Fara's I won't be going back very often.  If you decide to go, however, I recommend trying the semi-dried cherry tomatoes, and my friends seemed pretty happy with their roasted garlic & onion pizza.  Also plan on waiting a while, and that it's BYOB (though there's no public bathroom there so not sure alcohol is a good idea).

[For more, read Serious Eat's original article back in 2004]

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Tonight Angela and I had an incredible eating experience at Torrisi Italian Specialities.  Torrisi goes down as one of the best restaurants Angela's found yet, and definitely one of the best meals we've had in a long time.  Dinner at Torrisi is pretty much an all-or-nothing affair.  Each day they plan four courses: antipasti, pasta, entree and dessert, and except for the choice of 1-of-2 entrees everyone has the same dishes- with no exceptions.  The menu changes daily, with everything made fresh.  You get a full dinner designed from start to finish by the chef himself for $50 per person.  

This is the menu  we had tonight:

• Antipasti (you get all 4)
  • Warm Mozzarella in Da Vero Olive Oil w/ Bread & Tomato
  • Brussels Sprouts w/ Fermented Chili & Raisins
  • Octopus w/ Corona Beans & Pepperoni
  • Tripe Cacciotore w/ Bacon
• Pasta
  • Fusili w/ Dirty Duck Ragu & Brandy 
• Entrees (each selected one)
  • Sole in Marsala Vinaigrette w/ Mushroom Buttons
  • Spicy Devil's Chicken in Evan's Yogurt
• Dessert
  • Lemon Sorbet (palette cleanser) 
  • Assorted cookies

I won't be able to describe the food in any way that lives up to its deliciousness.  I liked everything, even the stuff I normally wouldn't (like the octopus and tripe).  The warm mozzarella is incredible; I'd go back just to have that again.  The brussels sprouts, the sole and the cookies, I think, were my other favorites, but I'd have a hard time choosing one part over any other.  

A few other things to note.  You can't make reservations for Torrisi - each day they start taking sign-ups for dinner some time between 5:15 and 5:45, and the first serving starts at 6PM.  On Saturday night we got there by 6:15 and they'd already filled up their seatings for the entire night, so that gives you a sense of how hot this place is right now.  We tried again on Sunday, got there around 5:30 and were able to get seated at first serving.  Also, while there are certainly a lot of courses and I didn't go home hungry I also wasn't crazy full either.  All of the portions are small so you don't get sick of anything and you're never feeling too full to enjoy the next dish.

If you can't tell by now, we loved Torrisi Italian Specialties and I know we will be going back soon.

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For the holidays this year and because I'm on a bit of a budget, I decided to make various treats during my family's get together instead of individual gifts.  I wanted to be different from the usual fruitcake (yuck), egg nog or any other festive treat so I went with Christmas shaped chocolate candies, candied chestnuts, and banana pudding.  I didn't realize the patience and time required for all three recipes otherwise I might have chosen to forgo one, especially since the candied chestnuts were a complete disaster (will explain further).  The chocolate and pudding were a great hit though. Both recipes require a double boiler but since I didn't have one I used a big pot and placed a metal bowl over simmering water. Works just the same.  

The chocolate candy was pretty straight forward. I bought chocolate chips best made for melting without tempering, which helped cut time significantly, and bought chocolate molds at the same shop. After melting the chips in the makeshift double boiler, the chocolate is poured into the molds, scraped to remove excess chocolate, tapped to release any bubbles and placed into the freezer. The molds only need to be in the freezer for 5-10 minutes depending on size.  The biggest difficulty was working with white chocolate, which I found melted faster while handling it. The process can get extremely messy which requires even more care and patience to avoid any messy spills or splatters.

I followed the banana pudding recipe from Joy of Baking.com.  The only change I made was using my makeshift double boiler to avoid scorching. Using a heavy set saucepan like the page recommended could help too but using a double boiler lessens the risk almost completely. The time to get the right consistency takes longer and more stirring is required.  I say I was stirring for an additional 20 minutes but I felt it was worth it especially since I wanted to avoid any chance of destroying my pudding.  I also made one big pudding in a round casserole dish layering wafers, banana, pudding in the same order.

Now for my failure, those damn candied chestnuts.  I love chestnuts during the holidays and they really remind me of my childhood.  I figured I could spice things up by bringing home chestnuts in a different way and went on google in search for something different.  I found various recipes for candied chestnuts or marron glaces and thought I'd give it a try even though all recipes called for stirring ever 12 or so hours, totaling to almost 4 days to complete.  All the recipes I found were pretty much the same so I decided to run with it.  My mistake right away was cooking the chestnuts for too long and keeping them in water for too long as I peeled over two pounds of nuts.  This overcooked the chestnuts which made it impossible to stir without the nuts falling apart.  I'm not sure what the ideal cook time should be but I would say less than 5 minutes. One recipe called for 40 minutes of boiling which I think is plain murder on those poor chestnuts. As I moved on, cooking them with sugar created a chunky mush which I hoped would go away after the constant 12 hour stirring. It didn't. By the 4th day I ended up with a pile of brown mush and roasting them in the oven did absolutely nothing.  I didn't post pictures of the disaster.  Since I was pretty much aware that it was going to be bad from the start I didn't take any during the process.  I should have cut my losses pretty early on but peeling those chestnuts for over three hours drove me to complete the task.  I'm definitely going to take a break from attempting this again but the day will come again when I face my second Everest (the first being Challah bread!).  

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's to a gluttonous 2011! :)

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Apparently the owners have been looking for a the right spot to open a location in Manhattan for years, but they'd never found something that was right for them.  When Spice Indian Restaurant closed at 72 University they jumped on it.  Not everything is the same, the University Street location won't have South Indian cousine, but their most popular feature- the $9.95 lunch buffet- is open daily.

In the last few weeks Angela and I have been to Jackson Diner twice, and we couldn't be happier. Angela used to go to Jackson Diner when she lived in Jackson Heights every weekend with her sister, so for her it's like being home again.  Also since Spice closed our area has been seriously lacking.  So we're pretty psyched and pretty lucky to have such an awesome Indian food spot down the street.

You can go any time, but I recommend the all-you-can eat lunch buffet (and don't forget to ask for baskets of naan)- and if you go, make sure to call us to join!

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Welcome to our newest category at KA Eats, our eating adventures during our travels!  Today we're featuring food in Jamaica.  As a four year anniversary gift, Kev took me to Jamaica for 5 fun days in Negirl at Sunset at the Palms.  While the resort was all-inclusive, and had some decent food selections, especially at the beach grill, we still had to venture out to dine on authentic Jamaician cuisine.

Getting off the airplane we were told by a friend to visit a restaurant called Scotchies which was the opposite direction from our resort towards Montego Bay.  Unfortunately, our cab driver didn't want to double back so he took us to Jerky's instead, which he swore was the same.  We're not sure if it is the same but we still enjoyed Jerky's Festival, Steamed fish and Jerk Pork.

For dinner one night we visited a restaurant called 3 Dives, right by the shore. It was fantastic. We ordered Lobster with rice and beans and Curry Goat with rice and beans.  The dishes also came with a veggie called callaloo, a vegetable dish that tastes very close to spinich.  Everything was tasty and so reasonably priced.

One day on an adventure trip to YS Falls and the Black River, we went to a nondescript restaurant for lunch.  The place was completely empty and the owner had our table ready.  The chef prepared fried chicken, boiled steam potatoes, Beef in Stew with a side of rice and beans and cole slaw.  Again, phenomenal.  I'm not a cole slaw fan since in the States its usually drenched in mayo and looks like a bowl of mush but the cole slaw here is fresh, light and so flavorful! I ate almost all of it.

Another night for dinner we went to a restaurant called Sweet Spice, highly recommended by one of our cab drivers.  We ordered Oxtail Stew, Seafood Special in spicy sauce (lobster, shrimp, conch) with the usual side dish suspects, rice and beans and cole slaw. Everything was tasty again but I did find my seafood special a tad on the salty side.  No worries though since I ordered the Sweet Spice Special Smoothie which included condensed milk and Irish moss.  It balanced each other out.  I never had Irish Moss before but it probably changed my life a little. It was too bad that was the last night we ate out, I would have ordered an Irish Moss smoothie every day.

Of course, whenever I'm in the Caribbean I need to get my usual young coconut and other fruit delicacies.  We managed to get our cab driver to stop by a stand where a guy was giving out coconut drinks.  We also wanted some sugar cane but it was sold out and we didn't get another chance to get some.  I asked the cab driver where we could get the coconut open to get into the meat and he simply stopped at another coconut stand where the guy was nice enough to machete the coconut for us no charge. Respect!

At the resort had a daily nature walk around the grounds and the tour guide, Shorty, gave us a taste of the star fruit growing in the resort. Tasty!

Overall, the trip was amazing. Everyone (in the resort and out) was nice, resort was amazing, weather was perfect and the food was to die for.  I will definitely want to go back since I know we just barely skimmed the surface of Jamaican cuisine.

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Whenever we get the chance we ask to sit at the counter overlooking the chefs preparing the food.  It's a fun way to experience the restaurant and you get to see how your dish is getting made.  At Lunetta we set about 2 feet from the chefs and they prepared and served us our meals directly.  For dinner we ordered:

• bruschetta (lunetta ricotta with honey & lemon, fresh tomatoes & basil)
• mixed olives, garlic & oregano
• salumi plate with house-made sopressata and apricot jam
• pappardelle, porcini-braised Berkshire pork
• spaghetti carbonara with smoked pancetta & lemon

Every part of the meal was delicious.  The pasta was cooked perfectly, and each had a rich flavor that was different from the usual fair.  The bruschetta toppings were great; the ricotta was whipped light as air and topped just right with honey.  Angela and I both want to head back to Lunetta soon to try some of the other dishes starting with the meatballs, which were a popular order.