allister
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Posts posted by allister
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i'm not sure if there is a specific price for the pairing on the nine course, but the times that i have been there i have specified a price for pairing and they have done a good job. I believe that i have indicated to them anywhere from between $100-$150/diner.
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i have reservation for 2 at the kitchen table at beacon for tomorrow 11/29 @ 7PM. Need to give it up. please pm if interested. first come first serve.
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i had a meal there in 2006. was excellent. i highly recommend the trio of foie that included a slice of foie cheesecake.
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As a culinary school grad - here are tips off the top of my head. Trailing is a must. This will give you a good idea about the size of the kitchen as well as what duties you will be asked to perform on a day to day level. Some of the questions are what will you be doing during service? How are interns/externs viewed by the chef in the kitchen? Is there an intern/extern program in place already at the restaurant? I believe that Per Se expects a minimum 6 month commitment, but they have a strong program in place already (move you through the stations etc.) Also, it goes without saying that if you don't like the food the restaurant is serving - you probably won't like the externship.
These are just a few things to think about.
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regarding bone marrow - lonesome dove has an interesting take on it with their prairie butter. Also - their foie shooter is good as well. May be a place just to stop and sit by the bar for a mid afternoon stop.
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on the dessert front - defiantely chickalicious, Room4dessert. Also, note that if you forgo the WD-50 savory offerings, they also have a 3 or 5 course dessert tasting. A good idea to fit as much in as possible is to do savory in one place and dessert at another.
Katz delicatessen - NY deli experience.
Prune - Brunch
Gordon Ramsey new place will be open by Dec as well. If you want to go, you will need to book now - i believe that the number is in the appropriate thread.
Cru, Blue Hill (if you have a car, make a trip out to the Stone Barns edition), Annissa, Eleven Madison - all worth going to.
Masa - i know you said no sushi, but if you can afford it...
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Cru does a really nice job with tastings. Also, their menu is designed so that you can create your own multi-course meal.
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had a wonderful meal at perigee recently. it is not within walking distance of downtown, but a short cab ride away. Here is the menu. The foie trio is awesome.
Roast fillet of Tasmanian Ocean Trout with crisp pork chip on a fennel and apple salad in a chiiled fennel broth
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Cold poached tuna on chervil and foie gras sauce, torn raddichio, barbequed onion and balsamic croutons
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Seared Japanese diver scallops on avocado, mixed pepper and grilled corn slaw with double fried smashed plantain “patacone”, hagao sauce and crème fraïche
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Fried and blanched braised oxtail & Almond tortellini with sautéed green & white asparagus, artichokes and dried cherry tomato on a porcini mushroom sauce with grated gouda from Thunder Bay, Ontario
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Marsala glazed, grilled Nova Scotia lobster kebob on sautéed wild mushrooms and fresh cherry tomato in a puff pastry vol-au-vent on vanilla Marsala glaze
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Roast quail on a salad of honeydew melon with grapefruit, julienne of snow peas, star anise and mustard seed vinaigrette and a fermented black bean and brown sugar jus
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Foie gras assiette with Foie gras cheesecake, foie gras “peach cobbler” and seared foie gras with rhubarb compote, toast and crushep pistachio
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Herbal tea jelly with candied mint
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Lightly smoked bison tenderloin on warm grilled vegetable ratatouille with roast pearl onions and a parsley pesto “pistou” sauce
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Cheese assiette with Maréchal, raw cow’s milk cheese from Switzerland with apricot and nut Baklava, lavender honey and frisé & walnut salad, Stilton English cow’s milk cheese with thinly sliced white peach, candied walnuts and walnut oil.
Chaumes washed rind cows milk cheese from France over grantnéed Tartiflette of Mahon sheep’s milk cheese from Spain, house cured duck proscuitto and potato
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Garham masala sugar dusted mexican style chuiros with tamarind and white chocolate crème anglaise
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Strawberry and white chocolate cake with poached strawberry, balsamic reduction and a Lindzor dough tuille
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Daniel,
Your driver was pointing you to Joe's Shanghai - 37th Ave East of Main Street.
Interesting enough, I had a Chinese Driver this morning on my way to Jerzey. He had a really strong accent and I havent been able to find the place he suggested in Flushing.. But it sounded like Loue Ming Chwen.... I assumed it would have been spelled Lu Ming Chun.. It was Shanghai Cuisine.. Anyone know this place? He mentioned 37th street off of main I think..Haha.. Are you being serious.. How did you get Joes Shanghai from Lu Ming Chun?
Daniel - really. Not kidding. Joe's Shanghai's chinese name is Lu Ming Chun/Tswin. Of course, it is not a direct translation. I mean c'mon, how many people in china do you think are named Joe, or even allister.
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Daniel,
Your driver was pointing you to Joe's Shanghai - 37th Ave East of Main Street.
Interesting enough, I had a Chinese Driver this morning on my way to Jerzey. He had a really strong accent and I havent been able to find the place he suggested in Flushing.. But it sounded like Loue Ming Chwen.... I assumed it would have been spelled Lu Ming Chun.. It was Shanghai Cuisine.. Anyone know this place? He mentioned 37th street off of main I think.. -
2 parts starch - 1 part fat by weight is the ratio no?
Then spin in a robot coupe and pass through a tamis - i assume this would be aerating the powder no?
here is a sample recipe where you can see the ratios at work.
Powdered Orange Blossom Yogurt
Thoroughly mix 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt and 2 Tbsp of orange blossom water. Add 1 cup of tapioca maltodextrin (or tapioca starch or tapioca flour if you cant find tapioca maltodextrin). Mix with a fork until thoroughly incorporated and a powder consistency is reached. You might need more or less tapioca powder.
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I'm not sure if this is the best food, but these are the places that I've been eating at in Flushing over the past few months. Haven't touched on any of the large Canto places (the one at Fay Da bakery - which i thought was the best - closed recently) sorry. Hope this helps
For Sichuan food, i think every one already knows about Spicy and Tasty. I think their real highlights are not so much the entree type food but rather the appetizers that they make in the front of the restaurant.
I still really like Sun Lok Kee. It's on Main Street closer to Northern Blvd. Good seafood. I will say that alot of their dishes are not on the menu. Some are written in chinese on pieces of paper hanging from the wall. Probably my favorite meal there is braised fish casserole and salted fish steamed meat pancake. It's very old school Chinatown (as many know it was originally on Mott street, still the same owners).
There are quite of few restaurant on 40th road that offer 3 dishes and a soup for $16-$17 dollars. Additional dishes are about $5. Diners can choose from a list of about 40 dishes. For the family that doesn't like to cook this is really a great bargain. The one that I've been going to for some time has a name that translates to South and North Unite. It is on the north side of 40th street, west of the liquor store. It is mainly Taiwanese food. This place also does a really great job on Taiwanese Breakfast - soymilk, chinese doughnuts, soup dumplings, potstickers. You really must also have the beef roll - beef, scallion, hoisin sauce rolled up in a scallion pancake (they serve this all the time).
Of course, there's also Minni's - the individual hot pot place. If you like hot pot, you'll really like this place. It is located next to Sweet and Tart. If you like congee and glutinous steam rice - Sweet and Tart is the place to go.
These places that I've been going more and more often though are a group of stalls located on Main Street across the street from the Post Office. These mini malls consist of a few regional food stalls that offer anything from dumplings to sichuan food to chinese muslim food. It really is like outdoor food stall of asia transported into a small piece of Flushing. There is not sign on the door but if you want on Main Street it is located across from the Post office. You will see a dumpling booth and a soup booth in the doorway. If you get to a pet store, you've gone too far. There is a sichuan stall in the back of the mall. Their DanDan noodles ($3) are excellent as are their spicy beef and tendons ($6). Unfortunately, very few of these places have english menus. Also, if you are expecting white table clothe service, you will be deeply disappointed.
There is one other food mini mall on Main Street between 41st and Sanford, closer to 41st. It is in the back, there is a cell phone shop in the front. This minimall offers two stands - a dumpling shop and a muslim noodle shop. The dumplings at the noodleshop are great. The muslim store sells chive boxes ($1) which are probably the best in flushing.
Flushing is also the place to go for boxed food. This is the strofoam container of rice plus 4 dishes from the steam tray plus a small bowl of soup for $4. Makes a great meal for 1. Probably the two best places to get this are the Sunflower Cafe/Bakery located on the west side Main Street near the LiRR bridge or downstairs at East which is near Maple and Main. These places are mostly takeaway, though Sunflower has some limited seating. Also, both places allow you to purchase a large order (think about the large plastic white/clear bowls grand sichuan deliverys in) of any steam table dish for like $5.
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Hi Spiro, thanks for taking the time to answer so many questions. I have taken some food management course and i was curous about the economics of a place such as your own. I am not sure if we are covering these topics in this spotlight, and if we are not, I apologize in advance for asking.
How large a percentage of space needs to be set aside for food prep/storage? Is each location contacting and purchasing from their own pruveyours and in essence, acting in their own silo, or is order done as a group?
Also, what are the food costs like for a establishment similiar to Starwich? How different are they from food cost in a restaurant or even from some of the hotel dining that you have been involved in?
thanks.
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At those prices, I just head on down to Masa.....or Yasuda blowouts
That was my thought exactly when i finished the meal. At $250/person, then drinks, then tax and tip, why not just go to Masa. Morimoto offered no value.
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had the omakase in the special 8 person seating area. The omakase starts at $200. You can go up by $50 dollar increments. We were not told whether there was a ceiling, nor were we told how the experience would change in detail based upon how much money was spent. We were only that fugu (blowfish) and 'black' truffle were available.
As you may have seen from pictures, the special omakase table is 'L' shaped. Four diners sit facing morimoto and his sous chef that prepare the meal, the other four seats face an open kitchen and sushi bar.
We purchased our meal at the 250 price point and i was not impressed. There was not one standout dish. The memorable dishes were memorable only because they were bad. An example of this was lobster and crab risotto with black truffles. This dish did not have the consistency of risotto, rather it seemed much like rice and seafood broth. The soup was very thin. It was served with 2 slices of black truffle. As a whole, the dish did not mesh well together. I felt that there was little difference between this dish and the chinese comfort dish rice and hot water.
Service was ok, but i felt that in some ways it was lacking as well. We were never asked if we wanted coffee. We were never told when the savory portion of the evening ended, and when the dessert portion began, though this became obvious when our chopsticks were taken away. We were not given the correct instuments to eat certain dishes. What i really didn't like though was the constant 'iron chef' marketing approach. I feel like the entire evening the staff was making continuous 'iron chef' remarks, even identifing the two sous chef that appear on 'iron chef' with morimoto.
Needless to say, i will not be back.
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There are quite a few live poultry markets in Flushing. Don't know about Manhattan.
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If we could bring this back the Morimoto NYC for a moment, what are people's expectations for the restaurant. Is this going to become just another over priced, shishi, 'be seen' place? I have made a reservation for the omakase table for next friday. The omakase starts at $200 (plus beverage). This puts it on the scale of per se, though slightly cheaper than Masa. Will the food match?
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Where are these places located in cliffside park?
Thanks
While most of us don't usually resort to takeout in a town we don't live in, I think it might serve as kind of a nice long term reference thread for us to list the best takeout food in towns that we are intimately familiar with. It doesn't literally have to be the town you live in, but it does have to be a town you know well enough to state that your selection is the best in that town. The restaurant can also do table service, but if so takeout must be a major part of their operation and not some afterthought handled by some third party delivery service.I'll start with Cliffside Park (located in the extreme southern part of Bergen County), where I currently live. The two best takeout places are probably Uncle Jo's Fried Chicken and CiA do Sanduiche (a brazilian hamburger joint). Yup, old fashioned hamburgers and chicken lead the pack in this town, at least for takeout.
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i know that the guys at sumile would confit the duck tongues, remove the cartiledge in the center and then deep fry them to use as a garnish.
If the cartiledge does not bother you, i would coat them in a seasoned flour mixture and pan fry or deep fry (your choice depending on your instruments at home) and then re-season.
After that, i would approach it similiarly to any protein used in chinese stir fry cooking. you could stir fry some bellpeppers and onions and then add the fried tongues with black bean sauce. You could stir fry some leaks and cabbage, then add the duck tongues and some chili oil to make a play on twice cooked pork.
Additionally, if you wanted you could potentially take the red cooking/soy-sauce braising method and cook the tongues that way and have a sort of snack item.
Hope this is helpful.
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Oh wow, stellar idea, thanks!
For those who have done ICE's Culinary Arts program - would you take the culinary management program in tandem or is that foolhardy?
i took the arts program and worked part time. There were a number of students in my class that did not work and took both tracks as well as some that took both tracks and worked parttime some nites. If you have the ability to go to school and not work, and have the funding, i would suggest that you take both. The arts program will not only introduce you to cooking techniques, but also food handling and identification - items that i do not believe are addressed in the management course.
One issue that may arise if you pursue both tracks is fulfillment of the externship requirement. If management runs past arts, you will need to find a way to fit the externship around the management days, or wait to begin the externship after you have completed the management cycle.
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i know that there is a producer of asian goods (wonton skins, egg roll wrappers, fortune cookies) in brooklyn that also grows bean sprouts hydroponically. The gorwth cycle is very short, something like 14-21 days.
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Had dinner at bouley last nite and was disappointed with the overall events of the evening. The food was good but not great. We ordered a five course tasting. Amuse was a parmesan foam/tomato relish dish. This was very very good. Intense parmesan and tomato flavor. This was followed buy a trio of seafood served in an herb broth. The seafood were pan fried scallop, baby squid and shrimp wrapped in fried phyllo noodles. Unfortunately at this point of the meal, there was no wine. When we had first ordered, we were told that a sommelier would be coming over. Then food started to come. No sign of the sommelier. The sommelier did show when the first coarse was presented, and did pour some wine so that we would have something to enjoy the first coarse. Wine was then discussed at the conclusion of this coarse.
Second coarse was halibut, ginger scented, with pickled artichokes and shitake mushrooms.
Third coarse was a pan seared sea bass in a clam broth. I was disappointed with the dish because although the fish was cooked very well, the crispy skin of the fish was soggy. The skin had a nice brown color, but it seemed as if the fish sat on the pass for some time allowing for the skin to steam and become soggy.
The fourth coase was a seared foie coarse with figs. This was very nice was a sizable portion of foie.
The final savory coarse was baby pig with parsnip puree.
At this point, my dining companion excused herself from the table.
Before my companion had returned, a runner brought to the table the first dessert coarse, a palate cleanser of concord grape and fromage blanc sorbet. Hello, one of us is not here. The sorbet was placed in front of the empty seat.
A chocolate molten cake, a final strawberry granite and cream dish, and petite fours concluded the meal. Upon departure we were presented with a lemon poppy loaf for breakfast.
All in all, I would say that the food at Bouley was good, not great. What really hurt though was the lack of quality service. There seems to be a disjoint between the front and back. Why was food being served to use before wine was ordered? Why were they serving coarses when diners had left the table? I saw on one occasion, the sommelier sending the runner back to the kitchen with our food because wine glasses had not been changed yet. Was this why my sea bass skin was soggy? Though I tried to like the place, these small misteps truly impacted the experience.
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will be at manresa tomorrow for dinner. Will post some pictures afterwards. Any thoughts about sitting on the patio vs the dining room? We will be a large group. Thanks.
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Kang Suh is located on 32nd street between 5th and 6th. It is on the south side of 32nd street, much closer to 6th Ave. If you are walking west on 32nd, Kang Suh is immediately past a parking garage. It has two floors, the entrance is on the street level. It is literally the last restaurant on the south side of 32nd if you are walking west, or conversly, the first restuarant on the south side if you are walking east.
Hope this helps.
Do you mean Broadway instead of 6th Ave? (The address is 1250 Broadway)
yes. broadway. sorry. 6th and broadway kind of criss cross there i think.
Shanghai Restaurant Recommendations
in China: Dining
Posted
was last in shanghai 11/08 - i do remember Crystal Jade in xin tian di having good xiao long boa. they have a full menu - so that you can get other traditional shanghainese dishes as well. nb - pricing is reflective of its location in the xin tian di mall.
for traditional shanghainese restaurant - i like jesse restuarant in the french concession. had really nice red cooked pork, hairy crab (this is the very beginning of the season), steamed halibut head and collar.
i also highly recommend walking on the street near the markets to buy breakfast from the street vendors. just 10-20RMB ($1-$3 USD) bought a feast for 4 people each morning.