Dining In New York, May 2015, Part 1

It had been a year since I'd sniffed and eaten my way around New York, and high time I did it again. So I made arrangements to go up one Friday morning to check out as many restaurants and perfume counters I could squeeze into a quick 30 hours.

I planned to begin my scented tour in upper midtown, so I wanted to eat lunch in that neighborhood. Quality Meats is on 58th Street, just down the street from Bergdorf's. Despite being primarily a steakhouse, they had a number of interesting chopped salads on their luncheon menu. The salad varieties included classic, green goddess, roasted beet, Mediterranean, and Eastern (pan-Asian), all of which could be topped with one's choice from a list of proteins. I went with the roasted beet salad (baby beets, radicchio, frisee, arugula, and toasted walnut vinaigrette) with seared yellowfin tuna.

Arrestingly plated, the large portion of bitter greens and beets was topped with perfectly cooked tuna. While the salad itself could have used both more dressing and more seasoning (thankfully there was a tiny salt cellar on the table), I thought the tuna was nicely seasoned and appreciated the subtle hint of cumin.

I also tried a side of the restaurant's signature corn creme brulee. I had originally also planned to order ice cream for dessert, but the brulee was sweet enough to stand in for that course. Extremely rich and creamy, the generously-portioned custard was more cream than egg, and the burnt sugar topping added a pleasant bitterness.

Much later that evening, I found myself wandering through the West Village. Not having made a dinner reservation left my choices wide open...or as wide open as they can be at 7pm on a bustling Friday night. I remembered enjoying Harold Dieterle's Kin Shop on my last trip to NY; at that time Mr Minx and I sampled several outstanding items. A quick check of my OpenTable app revealed that the next available reservation wasn't until 10:30pm. Undeterred, I walked up 6th Avenue anyway to try my luck. I scored a seat at the bar where I enjoyed a fragrant Siamese Smash (Heaven Hill bourbon, calamansi, yuzu, lemon bitters, & thai basil) while perusing the menu.

I ended up ordering two appetizers. The first was a steamed peekytoe crab & spicy pork crepe in a coconut broth with chili oil and fresh herbs. The light rice flour crepe was wrapped around a sausage-like cylinder of pork and crab and set atop a gorgeous broth redolent of coconut and fish sauce. A side order of sticky rice was employed to soak up all of the delicious juices.

A special of crispy lamb ribs with a crab dipping sauce served as my entree. The four ribs were small but meaty, lightly crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. They were lightly seasoned, but when eaten with a bit of everything else on the plate--sauce, herbs, pickled onions--the flavor shone.

I find that eating alone at a bar can often be amusing. First I got a laugh from a guy showing off his brand new Apple watch...which refused to work in the restaurant. Money well spent. When he left, he was replaced by a Latino man with a very heavy accent. He seemed to think that Kin Shop was a garden variety Thai restaurant and that he could get pad Thai with chicken. If he couldn't get pad Thai with chicken, could he get something else with chicken? If he had examined the menu at all, rather than playing with his phone, he would have seen there was not a single chicken dish on the menu. Equally amusing was that the bartender, who doubled as our waiter, insisted that not only could he not get pad Thai with chicken, he could not get pad Thai. But pad Thai (with shrimp) was clearly available. (Perhaps not so clearly, as it was spelled "phat" Thai on the menu.)

After dinner, I walked in search of gelato. There are actually many places to get gelato in the neighborhood, but all of them had a line out to there. I stepped into Cones, on Bleecker Street, and opted for Argentine-style ice cream--helado--instead. Similar to gelato in that it has a lower fat and calorie count than American ice cream, helado is still decadently creamy. I enjoyed two flavors, sweet potato studded with bits of brie cheese, and corn, both richly sweet.

For sure, my sniffing adventures weren't nearly as satisfying as my eating adventures on this particular day.









Posted on Minxeats.com.

Kin Shop

Back in 2008, in my write-up of a meal at Harold Dieterle's first restaurant, Perilla, I said, "I'll be back." Unlike Arnold Schwartzenegger, I lied about that. I never did go back to Perilla, but not because I didn't like the place. Au contraire--I enjoyed the food there very much. But there are so many terrific restaurants in Manhattan, and I hate not giving all of the others a go. Dieterle himself has two more restaurants, Kin Shop and The Marrow, and on our most recent visit to New York, Mr Minx and I gave the former a try.

Billed as "contemporary Thai," Kin Shop's menu is full of items familiar to lovers of Thai food: laab; tom kha; massaman; chu chee. But that laab is made with duck and is so spicy that it merits 4 asterisks. The tom kha soup has features uncharacteristic snake beans and crispy taro, the massaman is made with goat, purple yams, and mustard greens, and the chu chee involves monkfish and Meyer lemon. And it all sounded so good, we weren't quite sure what to order.

The dish that caught my eye first was a salad of fried pork and oysters with celery, peanuts, mint, and a chili-lime vinaigrette. It was a pretty generous portion, with three large, crisply-battered, tender oysters and three slabs of battered and fried pork, topped with shaved celery, pickled red onion, a ton of green herbs, and a smattering of peanuts. What's the Thai word for delicious? Aroy mak mak! (Very very delicious.)

Mr Minx chose the papaya and gem lettuce salad for his starter. Unlike typical Thai papaya salads that are made with unripe green papaya, this one had chunks of ripe fruit, along with plenty of candied cashews and pieces of asian pear, all coated in a bright yellow ginger-yogurt dressing. Apart from finding the yogurt-y-ness of the yogurt a tad disconcerting, I enjoyed the mild sweetness and crunch.

Having had a large lunch, I wasn't sure if I was hungry enough to eat an entree. Having also had a very expensive lunch, I was also feeling on the cheap side, and decided that the $12 preserved Siamese watercress fried rice with a poached egg and sriracha would be perfect. And it was. I had no problem scarfing down the rather large pile of greaseless rice ornamented with lightly pickled greens. I haven't had fried rice this good since I was a kid, when Dad and I would buy a quart of pork fried rice from Chung's on Cold Spring Lane, douse it in duck sauce, and eat it in the car with plastic forks. Kin Shop's rice had the sweetness built in, and was also savory, salty, and spicy to boot. Really stellar stuff.

Also quite fine was Mr Minx's stew of pork cheeks with tiny sugar snap peas, chiles, and what appeared to be wood ear mushrooms (those snappy, flat, black mushrooms commonly found in Chinese mu shu dishes). The pork was incredibly tender, and Mr Minx was able to cross that particular protein off his "must try" list. While I did love my rice, it wasn't hard for me to share if I got to snarfle up some of that delicious pork concoction.

One thing we noticed was that people around us were ordering lots of food--salads and noodle dishes and curries. And had we been hungrier, we certainly would have wanted to try the soup dumplings, the lobster summer roll, the peanut noodles, and maybe even that incendiary duck laab.

Baltimore needs a contemporary Thai restaurant like this, someplace that's not afraid to experiment with Thai flavors combined with non-traditional ingredients. I really want to say, "I'll be back," and mean it this time, but I have a feeling that the next Dieterle restaurant I visit will have to be the Marrow. Only then I can go back to revisit Kin Shop, and yes, Perilla. Unless of course Dieterle opens a fourth restaurant....



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Apropos?

Top Chef season 1 winner is looking rather like a picnic ham these days.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Perilla

On Wednesday I was in New York to attend the Shear Genius Finale Viewing party with the lovely Laura K of Blogging Reality Television (Blogging Project Runway). A very Bravo sort of day, we went to dinner with designer Malan Breton and model Amanda Fields (both of PR). And where should we go but Top Chef season one winner Harold Dieterle's restaurant Perilla?

While Laura and I waited at the bar for our dining companions to arrive, we sampled a Village Mojito, made with silver rum, fresh watermelon, cucumber and mint. It was summery and refreshing, tasting mostly of cucumber, and dangerously easy to drink. We stopped at one each because we knew there'd be plenty of opportunity to drink later at the party (not that we would, mind you....)

Once they arrived, we got to sit in one of the curved booths in the back of the restaurant. After a bit of chattering, we ordered.

Malan and I both chose to start with the "Crispy Rock Shrimp Salad mizuna, piquillo peppers, red onion & spicy mushroom soy vinaigrette." I enjoyed the contrast of the crisp shrimp and the soft mizuna. The dressing was subtle and there was just enough of it to moisten things. The piquillo was a nice addition but I wished there was a little more. We were all so busy chatting, I forgot to ask Malan what he thought of the salad.

Laura K got the "Heirloom Tomato & Lomo Salad toasted pine nuts, red mustard greens, feta cheese & brown butter balsamic" Lomo is a dry-cured Spanish ham, like Serrano, but better. Laura was kind enough to give me a piece to try, and I found it to be seriously delicious.

Amanda had the Edamame Falafel with lemon-tahini sauce and she had already dug in before I got out the camera, so no photo of that one. Basically it was a fairly large serving (6 pieces?) of greenish orbs. She said they were delicious.

Laura chose the Seared Diver Sea Scallops plum kimchi, radish sprouts & chilled corn sauce as her entree, which was something I was also eyeballing. As we ordered appetizers as entrees, the portions were too small for me to go sticking my fork into everything to try, so I can't tell you what this tasted like. The scallops appeared to be perfectly cooked, however, and Laura had no complaints.

Malan chose an actual entree, the Summer Truffle & Sheep's Milk Ricotta Ravioli lobster mushrooms, snap peas & truffle butter which looked and smelled beautiful. Again, I didn't partake. We were so busy chatting, I kinda forgot to ask for a nibble.

Here's Amanda delicately salting her Faro Risotto artichoke confit, parmesan & chili-grape salad. We had a bit of discussion about what risotto was as we perused the menu, and I hadn't noticed at all that this particular one was made from faro, a grain popular in Italy. So that wasn't rice you ate, Amanda. Sorry for telling you otherwise. :)

Here's my entree, the Crispy Berkshire Pork Belly pea tendrils, trumpets & banyuls-vanilla gastrique appetizer. I *did* get to taste this one, of course. The pork belly was perfect - meltingly tender with a thin crispy layer on top, and remarkably un-fatty. The trumpet mushrooms were appealing earthy nuggets dotting the greens and the vanilla in the gastrique was not at all distracting. Of course, having eaten nothing since a yogurt at 7 AM, my palate was registering mostly the sensation of eating really good food and not paying much attention to the subtleties of the dishes.

Judging from the table full of clean plates, I'd say we all thoroughly enjoyed the meal. The bread was really good too.

Laura K's mantra is "it can't hurt to ask" and she did ask our waiter if we could meet Harold. So after we finished our meal, he ushered us into the kitchen where we found Chef Dieterle. I pointed out that we were having a Bravo evening, what with Laura from BPR, myself from BSG, and Harold from Top Chef. Not to mention Malan and Amanda.

I even got my picture taken with him. Laura told him I was a food blogger, at which point he turned to me and said, "please go easy." Ha! Of course - Harold was my favorite cheftestant that season and I pegged him to win from the beginning. I knew I would enjoy his food. This was Laura's second visit to the restaurant so she obviously enjoyed it as well.

I'll definitely go back. :)

Perilla
9 Jones St
New York, NY 10014
(212) 929-6868