Flashback Friday - But Was It Worth 32?

This post was originally published on  February 8, 2008
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But Was it Worth $32?

In a word, no.

I had been wanting to try the burger at Daniel Boulud's db Bistro Moderne for some time now. The all-sirloin patty is stuffed with both short ribs and foie gras and served on a parmesan bun with a side of frites. It also costs $32, $75 if you want fresh truffle shavings on top.

During a cab ride this past Wednesday, going from one Fashion Week event to another, my friend Diane and I passed db Bistro Moderne, and I thought of that burger. So on Thursday, when I fortuitously happened to turn down 44th Street while walking to the Bryant Park tents, I had my opportunity. I decided that if the restaurant could accommodate a single diner without a reservation, I'd have that burger. If not, I'd forget about it and find something else for lunch. As it turned out, there was a free seat at the bar. I ordered my burger and eavesdropped on the conversations around me.

Across from me was a Korean couple speaking in their native tongue. They were well-dressed and she had a huge Louis Vuitton bag parked on the seat next to her. On the other end of the bar (which was really just a tall table for eight) sat the most pretentious threesome I have encountered in quite a while. Two men and a woman chatted about nothing at all with an air of importance. They spoke in some weird French/British hybrid accent that sounded exactly like the Maya Rudolph/Fred Armisen Nuni characters on SNL. It was all very superficial and strange, and at one point the woman exclaimed, "I'm so glad to be here with two of my favorite people!" I kinda felt sorry for her at that point.

Before my burger arrived, I got a little amuse geule of raw salmon with a itty bitty dab of Meyer lemon sauce, a couple of juice sacs from a pink grapefruit, and miniscule shavings of cucumber. It was absolutely delicious! The salmon was impeccably fresh and the acidity of the grapefruit matched perfectly with its oceanic unctuousness.

Then came the burger. It was a huge thing, height-wise at least, cut in half to display the filling. It was served perfectly medium-rare, with bloody juices soaking into the bun. But it was difficult to eat and very messy. The bun was a little small and since it was soggy, hard to handle. The meat itself was very fresh, but seemingly unseasoned, even with salt and pepper, and far far too lean for a burger. The short rib - usually one of my favorite cuts of beef because it is fatty and delicious, was stringy and dry and also flavorless. And the small bit of foie gras was sadly overcooked (properly prepared foie should be almost melting in texture, like room-temperature butter). It also was not seasoned. The accompanying fries, on the other hand, were perfect - slender, crispy, and salted. They were served with a trio of dipping sauces: ketchup, mustard, and mayo. I would have been satisfied with some home-made mayo, but this stuff seemed to be Hellman's.

They were selling the hell out of that burger though - I saw at least a dozen come out of the kitchen, served to everyone from businessmen to skinny fashionistas who ate every last morsel. But I wasn't impressed.

Has Daniel Boulud been fooling everyone? Well, no, if the rest of his menus are anything like that amuse, he does know what he's doing. I think he should stay out of the burger business though.





Posted on Minxeats.com.

Chicken and Waffles

When we agreed to be brand ambassadors for Kahiki Foods, we received a shipment of various products, including bags of tempura-crusted chicken nuggets in two flavors. We devoured one bag of chicken with its accompanying honey sauce, but decided to use the other one in a different way...as the chicken component in chicken and waffles. Why not? without the accompanying sauce, it's just fried chicken--crusty, crispy fried chicken.

What got me started down this path was the bag of blue cornmeal I purchased at the grocery store last week. Blue cornmeal makes me think of Bobby Flay, and Bobby Flay makes me think of chipotle peppers. (Or, as he pronounces it, "chi-poh-ta-lay.") What could I concoct with blue cornmeal and chipotle peppers (both in the pantry) and whatever protein I had in the freezer (myriad)?  Every time I opened the freezer, I saw that bag of tempura chicken, and sometimes it even fell out on my foot. Why not use it, sans the bag of orange sauce (which I might be able to use for something else in the future)?

Once I decided on chicken as my protein, chicken and waffles seemed appropriate. I incorporated the chipotle into the cream gravy.  Once I added it, with a little extra smokiness from smoked paprika and a nice pinch of cumin to continue down that Southwest flavor path, the sauce tasted like queso. Even without any cheese. So I added cheese, too. Just a little, because I didn't want the sauce to end up being too thick.

It turned out really well. There are a ton of extra waffles though, which will be called into duty for breakfasts during the week. A nice bit of extra sauce, too. The leftovers will definitely get another handful of cheese, and maybe some sauteed chorizo. I hear a pile of tortilla chips calling its name.

Blue Corn Waffles with Fried Chicken and Chipotle Cream Gravy

For waffles:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 ½ cups 2% milk

For the sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken stock
1 cups 2% milk
1 chipotle en adobo, minced
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Pinch smoked paprika
Large pinch cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

To serve:
Fried chicken or chicken nuggets
Chopped scallions for garnish

To make waffles: Preheat waffle iron. Preheat oven to 250°F and place a baking sheet in the oven.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs, then whisk in the milk and butter until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined.

Spoon batter into waffle iron according to manufacturer’s directions. Cook until golden and crisp.

Place cooked waffles onto the baking sheet in the oven to keep warm. Repeat until all waffle batter is used. Makes 12-14 waffles, depending on the size of your iron.

To make sauce: Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute without browning. Slowly whisk in the milk and stock. Raise the heat to high and continue whisking until the sauce begins to thicken and the raw taste of the flour has been cooked out, about 5 minutes. Add the chipotle and scallions. Whisk in the cheese and seasonings, adding more or less to taste.

To serve: Top waffles with chicken pieces or nuggets and spoon some sauce over all. Garnish with scallions.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Dining In New York, May 2015, Part 2

My second day in NY was carefully planned; all activities revolved around a 2pm matinee of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Glee's Darren Criss was playing the lead, and he did a terrific job in what was essentially a one-man show (apart from a backing band).

Before the show, I had lunch at Xi'an Famous Foods, which had just opened a second midtown outpost on 34th Street. I got there early enough to avoid any lines or crowds and was able to spend a few long minutes perusing the menu. I wanted to try everything, especially the spicy and tingly lamb face salad, the spicy cumin lamb burger, and the spicy and sour lamb dumplings. As there was only one of me, I ordered just one dish. The pork "Zha Jiang" hand-ripped noodles were lovely. A simple dish of thick, wide, lightly chewy noodles topped with a spicy mix of ground pork and scallions made for a perfect lunch. The length of the noodles made them heavy and a bit difficult to manipulate with cheap wooden chopsticks, but I soldiered on, polishing off every tasty bite. I washed them down with a cup of cold sweetened chrysanthemum tea and went on my way.

I still had time before the matinee, so hit up Lord & Taylor and Saks for perfume sniffing on my way up 5th Avenue. I didn't smell anything worth paying retail for, which is fine. More money for food.

After the show, I walked over to David Burke Fabrick in the Archer Hotel. Both of my dining spots on this day were chosen because they were in close to places I needed to be: the hotel; the theatre; Penn Station. Fabrick had the added attraction of serving dinner uber early, useful for when one has an early train out of town.

Or, that was the original idea. There was a train accident in Vermont in the morning which delayed my train by several hours. I was panicking during dinner, really wanting to get home before midnight. A conversation with a very nice Amtrak phone rep who helped me book another train scheduled a mere hour after my original eased my mind. This gave me more time to wander about, and I suppose I could have gone somewhere else to eat, but I kept my reservation and ate dinner at the ridiculous hour of 4:30pm.

I wasn't sure at all what to order; I think the menu I had perused online was a bit different than the one I was handed at the restaurant. I ended up with the avocado panna cotta and shrimp tacos, neither of which I wanted, but seemed the best choices at the time.

The avocado dish was a panna cotta in name only. I thought a gelatinized avocado mousse would have been interesting, but it was really just guacamole and salsa layered in a bowl with sour cream and served with a dish of tortilla chips glued together with some melted cheese. It was ok, but definitely not $16 worth of ok.

The "angry" shrimp fajitas continued the unintentional Tex-Mex theme. I suppose they should have been spicy, but the wee shrimp were not at all. I ate several tiny tacos, each with far more tortilla than filling. The chipotle aioli, surprisingly, was the star of the dish. It wasn't bad, just nothing special.

What was special, however, was dessert. I have been Facebook friends with Burke's corporate pastry chef, Zac Young, for years now. (You might remember him from the first season of Top Chef Just Desserts, and from the Food Network's Unique Sweets). Despite not normally going for chocolate desserts because I find them too heavy, I ordered the chocolate hazelnut "handbag," with gianduja mousse, raspberry ganache, and vanilla bean ice cream. The whimsical pink camouflage-patterned creation also included white chocolate filled and coated raspberries, and a bit of coconut brittle, and was by far the most satisfying thing I ate at Fabrick.

On the way to Penn Station, I stopped by Macaron Cafe to pick up half a dozen of the sweet treats. I gotta say these are the best macarons I've ever tried. They're amply sized, with chewy cookies and interesting fillings, from rich ganache to a bitter matcha creme. I'm going to have to make this a regular stop on my trips to NY, although I'll have to pick up some from Ladurée next time too, for comparison.









Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Grace Garden

We've been to Grace Garden countless times. This post was written after our very first trip, on  July 20, 2008
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Grace Garden

I read a lot of local food blogs and occasionally check the Chowhound boards and was intrigued by the effusive praise heaped on a small Chinese restaurant, located in Odenton of all places. I contacted my friend LaRaine, expert on things Chinese (being Hong Kong born herself) and we arranged to meet at Grace Garden to see (and taste) what the hubbub was all about.

After perusing the online menu for a while, we both determined that there were several things we wanted to try. For our first adventure, we ordered two dishes that required advance notice - the tea smoked chicken and a dish billed as "Chinese Sea Treasures." Raine called those in on Thursday. We also determined we needed to try one of the pork belly dishes, plus something noodle-y to round things out. Finally, just in case Mr Minx was unhappy with our choices, we'd try a fifth dish of his choosing, although I strongly urged him to order from the head-on shrimp selections.

Mr Minx and I set off on our journey an hour in advance of our meeting time because we weren't too familiar with the Fort Meade area. A good thing the Web site has this photo of the restaurant, otherwise we wouldn't have spotted the unassuming store front. The inside is just as unassuming as the outside, perhaps more so - a plain room with a handful of mismatched tables, the walls decorated with photographs of the food. And what sounded to be Christian country music playing softly in the background. Am I the only person who likes to hear the appropriate ethnic music in restaurants or none at all?

But hey - one doesn't go to Grace Garden for the ambiance.

One goes for the food.

This is the Braised Pork Belly with Mui Choy - Thick Slices of Seasoned Pork Belly, Slow-Cooked with Preserved Mustard Cabbage. This was the most tender and succulent pork belly I have ever eaten. It was arranged over a dish of mui choy, a dried salted mustard cabbage that has been reconstituted and braised along with the meat in a thin, sweetish sauce. Delicious.

Cantonese Sea Treasures - Shrimp, Scallop & Sharks Fin Stuffed in Cucumber, Steamed and Glazed with Light Sauce. These were more interesting looking than tasting. The filling was extremely mild, with more shrimp than scallop and I detected no shark's fin at all. Of course, the price of that stuff is so high, it's likely very little was used. The cucumbers were hollowed out and lightly steamed so they still retained some texture. The taste was fine, but it reminded me more of a fancy dim sum dish (the cucumbers were cut into segments; you really can't tell that from the photo). It was difficult to eat, as the filling slid right out of the cucumber, and together it was nearly impossible to pick up with chopsticks. (I liked that the restaurant gave us chopsticks right away, and didn't offer Western utensils to us at all.)

Smoke Tea Duck - Whole Duck Steamed in Smoky Tea Flavored Sauce. So I mentioned above that we ordered the tea smoked chicken. Apparently whomever took the order heard "duck" so that's what they prepared. Not a problem for us duck-lovers! And I'm kinda glad they made the mistake. The duck was absolutely amazing! It was perfectly smoky, like the duck accidentally flew through a campfire before ending up on our table. The meat was tender and juicy, and the skin was imbued with smoke. Mr Minx remarked that he had never tasted anything like it. And lucky us - we have more than half the duck left in our fridge right now to eat during the week.

Cantonese Soy Sauce Noodles - Thin Egg Noodles Stir Fried with Ginger, Scallion and Soy Sauce. I thought this would be a good bland dish to order. LaRaine was expecting something more like the thin noodles we ordinarily get at dim sum at Jesse Wong's, the flavor of which comes primarily from wok hei. Those noodles are also fried to a nice crunch. Grace Garden's version were soft and redolent of sesame oil, a flavor, opined Raine, that should not have existed in the dish at all. As for Mr Minx and I - we liked it, and it was pretty much what I expected.

Golden Shrimp - Crispy Fried Head-On Shrimp Coated with Golden Salted Egg Yolk & Crisp Garlic. This dish was Mr Minx's choice. It looked terrific, and tasted pretty good too. My one issue with it was that the shrimp were perhaps too big, so the shells were a bit on the tough side. And one must eat the shells because that's where the flavor is. And if you like to eat the heads, as Mr Minx does, perhaps it's best to refrain from eating all of them, as that causes some mighty painful indigestion within a very short amount of time.

Ok - I actually have two issues with this dish. The shrimp didn't have the lovely iodine flavor that I pretty much only get at Chinese restaurants. But the semi-caramelized crisp garlic and egg yolk topping, particularly mixed with plain rice or the noodles, almost made up for it.

Overall, I enjoyed the food at Grace Gardens and wish it was more conveniently located to Towson. It wasn't the paradise of perfection that I was convinced it must be from all the accolades, but it was home to some great Chinese cooking. We'll certainly go back again to try more, particularly the Sichuan selections.



Posted on Minxeats.com.