Megan Blocker
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Posts posted by Megan Blocker
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Don't know if this is comprehensive (it's been a criminally long time since I've boarded the 7 train for a Sripraphai fix), but here's the menu listed by New York Magazine.
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I think someone liked the case at Payard, eh?
I am so glad you had a good Degustation experience - what was your favorite dish of the night?
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Grilled asparagus are also great at room temp!
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I like roasted cauliflower at room temp, but that could be a weird "me" thing. Building on Kerry's idea, some roasted veggies (I'm thinking carrots, potatoes, parsnips, onions) with balsamic would be nice at room temp.
How about smashed peas with mint? Nice and springy!
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Just bought a roll (torpedo shaped) today, at Garden of Eden.
How was it?
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...and a box of macarons which were savored at home with my husband and some friends. Never having tasted a macaron in my life, I wasn't sure they'd live up to the hype, but they did.
Well, you picked the right place to try your first ones, Klary.
What flavor is that one with the jelly? Is it raspberry?
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One thing which I found interesting that BK doesn't plan to use these initiatives in their marketing campaigns.
Except by releasing statements quoted in articles in the NY Times and on sites like eGullet!
But not in their official campaigns/ad dollars, huh?Eater has a post today about the book The End of the Line by Charles Clover, about overfishing. Apparently:
The agenda of the book is clear, and no one from fishermen to eaters avoid Clover's there-will-be-no-fish-left-if-you're-not-careful wrath. Included in the mix is a serious attack on restaurants Nobu and Koi, and at least two other bigtime New York chefs, Laurent Tourondel and David Bouley. The core issue: there is a hell of a lot of endangered fish on our city's best menus; with all the attention we pay to fur and and foie gras, you'd think we could have some concern for the fish too.Their post includes a link to some excerpts (haven't had a chance to read them yet, myself).
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An odd ingredient from Abruzzo, or at least a surprising ingredient, that I adore is the saffron. There is a small amount cultivated, when it is steeped it is the color of compari, and it's taste is full and smooth and just incredible. If you happen to come across Abruzzo saffron....snap it up. It's worth it.
I didn't know this, and just spotted it in a bit of Googling action. Apparently its flavor is quite different from the saffron found in Spain.
The saffron from the town of Vanelli, near Aquila, has a different flavour from the saffron used in Spain. The first saffron bulbs were brought to Italy in 1400 by a Domenical friar named Santucci who brought them to his birthplace Navelli from Spain. He planted them in his convent with success, and saffron was used not only to flavour food but as a curative herb.Unfortunately it is getting more and more difficult to find the pure saffron from Aquila as it is difficult and costly to gather and dry the flowers neccesary for the extraction of the pistils. Strangely enough, the valuable flavouring is used much more in cuisines far from Aquila than in Aquila itself.
The pages I found list spaghetti aglio olio (with peperoncino, of course) and bucatini all'Amatriciana as Abruzzi dishes...should be a good month.
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I'm a bit late as well, but Gourmet had a cute little piece this month on "eggs and toast," custard served with a bit of lemon curd, in an eggshell. Alongside, a couple of anise cookies cut from a loaf and crisped to look like toast.
Very cute.
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Oh, Shaya...I am so jealous! You and Chufi in Paris...sigh.
Tell us all about the tarte citron...I almost got that when I went to Pierre Herme, but the Tarte au Cafe won out in the end. Details, please!
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Great post Megan, I saw Lady M on one of Martha Stewarts shows, she was eating lunch there and they showed a demo of the crepes being made with some japanese tool called "aborahiki"
quite interesting.
The cakes looked good.
What were you taking a picture with and at what point did they actively say you could not take pics, just curious ?
I actually discovered the rule about photos back when I was doing my first eG foodblog in early 2006 - I wanted to take some pictures of the display, and they told me absolutely no pictures were allowed, which jibed with some of what I'd read about the place.
Since I was with someone else, I probably could have feigned taking a picture of him and snuck a few of the food...hmmm...
Is that tool the one they use for caramelizing the top, or for cooking the crepes? (Folks interested in an in-depth discussion of making a mille crêpes cake should check out this thread.)
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When we were in NY last week, we went by Lady M. It is really beautiful and I got a couple of good shots through the window (I will never understand the hysterical "no pictures" thing - they put much better and clearer (i.e. - more 'copy-able) pictures on their website than I could ever take), but we just 'window shopped' because we weren't really ready to sit down and have a dessert right then and weren't sure how amenable they would be to 'take out'
!For future reference, Kim, they are very amenable to it...you can get slices or whole pastries...they even do two sizes of the Mille Crêpes for your take-away ease.
Though, I hasten to add, I've never taken advantage of that option.
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Hard to believe there isn't a topic on this one yet!
I try to go to Lady M (at 78th and Madison) at least once every couple of months to sample the Mille Crêpes and an individual pot of the Lady M Grey tea. I've found the service to be...um...not so much lacking as it is ditzy. Everyone is sweet as pie, but it can be a nightmare getting seated or asking for the check.
Today it was the former. I met my brother around 4:45, and we went in. There was a small line for tables, and we put our name down. A couple came in behind us and put their name down as well, then ran out to check out a store. They came back in, stepped in front of us, and were seated ahead of us. Not usually a problem (and not the couple's fault at all), but my brother was in a time crunch, and I was peeeeved.
We ended up being seated quickly after that, and all was fine.
Jeremy had a sort of banana cream pie type thing (sorry, they don't allow pics, and this one isn't on their site) - it was fabulous. Crisp, super-flaky pastry. Mountains of cream. And bananas galore. It was perfect with his hot chocolate.
I made myself deviate from the usual Mille Crêpes and instead went for the Choux fromage (labeled Gateau au Citron on the website). It was delightful - cheesecake filling (though light as air and lemony) sandwiched between layers of pate à choux.
Our check came uncharacteristically quickly.
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I just don't understand how my experiences can be so different from everybody's here. Really, a majority of parents let their kids run wild in restaurants? As in, more than half? Here in Charlotte, people bring their kids along everywhere, and even fancy restaurants have kid menus and high chairs. I just haven't seen much of that behavior - either before or after I became a parent - and I spend way too much time and money in restaurants. This week, I took my mother and my son to a medium-upscale place that has a kids menu, but in no way is kid-targeted (no games, toys etc.) It was early evening, and at least a third of the tables had kids there - but no one was making a fuss, running around, or being obnoxious. That's been my experience all along.
Honestly, most of the obnoxious behavior I see takes place in coffeehouses and places like that, where the etiquette is fuzzier. In the daytime, in a coffeehouse, it's harder to work up the nerve to complain about the child who looks in your purse or spills juice on your pants while doing sprints around the couch.
I've been lucky to only have witnessed a few situations in which children (or, rather, their discipline-impaired parents) took away from the experience of other diners in an actual restaurant. Most of the kids I see out are either older and well-behaved, or tiny little babies asleep in their bassinets.
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Yes, I'm disregarding comfort and the trappings of fine dining (though I hasten to add that the service at Momofuku Ssam Bar is excellent: friendly, knowledgeable and attentive).
Except for the time they banged me in the forehead with a plate.
Megan, was that you??? I'm sorry.
Anyway, I hope is was at least one of their best dishes.
I'm pretty sure it was when they were clearing the table for the Bo Ssam, so I'm cool with it. Was a bit tender on the spot for a few days...
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Finishing with an immersion blender has been key for me...and I agree with Rebecca that you should just give out bars of chocolate and a fabulous recipe. Pierre Herme's Classic Hot Chocolate is ridiculously good, and the closest I've come to replicating a Czech hot chocolate (the best I've ever tried) like this one:
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Don't think anyone's linked to Platt's review yet (if I missed it upthread, let me know), so here you go:
Like Mario Batali and the great British chef Fergus Henderson, Chang is a card-carrying member of what one of my dining friends calls the “Refined Meathead” school of cooking. Meathead chefs have a fondness for pork products and for offal (“We do not serve vegetarian-friendly items,” says the menu at Momofuku Ssäm Bar), and the best of them, including Chang, have a knack for creating big, addictive flavor combinations that get under your skin.(Three out of five stars, BTW...)
Yes, I'm disregarding comfort and the trappings of fine dining (though I hasten to add that the service at Momofuku Ssam Bar is excellent: friendly, knowledgeable and attentive).Except for the time they banged me in the forehead with a plate.
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The story was in the New York Times this morning, here:Ollie’s, one of Manhattan’s best-known Chinese restaurant chains, was sued yesterday by 43 waiters, deliverymen and other workers who accused it of violating minimum wage laws by paying some employees as little as $1.40 an hour.
At a news conference and protest rally outside the Ollie’s Noodle Shop and Grille at 68th Street and Broadway, several dozen workers carried signs saying, “Slave Labor” and “Ollie’s Pay Back Our Sweat-Earned Money.”
It's not hard to see that this is going to start happening more and more. Restaurants would be wise to get ahead of the game and get their employment practices in order. Once a restaurant gets into a big labor dispute involving back wages and penalties, the costs really mount -- most restaurants can't survive that hit.
I was thinking about this yesterday...popped into Fresco on the Go on 52nd for a quick chicken sandwich, and saw a sign reminding employees to put their dibs in for their week of vacation...which is nice.
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From Eater: Ollie's Workers To Sue Restaurant Over $1.40/Hr WagesLast week it was the delivery workers at Saigon Grill who resorted to legal action as their employer allegedly mistreated them in a myriad ways. This week, the same staff subset but at Ollie's Noodle Shop on the Upper West Side are taking legal action against their bosses. Represented by the Urban Justice Center and the law firm of Shearman & Sterling, the workers are claiming all sorts of labor law violations, including being paid as little as $1.40 an hour.
Hmmmm...if this is true, it's just another reason not to eat at Ollie's.
Has anyone crossed a picket line to get into a Saigon Grill branch yet? Care to report?
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While you can find hypocrisies in BK's move, to me it's at least a little encouraging that there are enough food producers that work in this relatively more humane fashion to supply the US's (world's?) second largest fast-food chain. I don't think Burger King would have switched if they weren't absolutely positive that they could keep the same volume of meat or whatever moving through their stores.
We-ell, it's a pretty low percentage of overall food that they're talking about...2% of eggs and 10% of pork. What about chicken? Beef? Organic/local veggies?
I think it's a great symbolic move, but I wonder how much farther down the road they'll be able to get before they have to start raising prices...is it a sustainable model for such a large business?
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NPR's humorist Brian Unger weighs in on Wolfgang Puck's move toward cruelty-free dining.
Have a listen...it's short and funny (though not terribly full of topical material).
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Why Niman?
I have not found their products to be all that inspiring flavor wise.
Their beef in my experience is mediocre and the pork is ok.
I must be missing something.
I think we're focusing on Niman's philosophy (and Chipotle's ability to market that philosophy and make a profit doing so), rather than the flavor of their meat, which is a possible topic for another thread, definitely.
The question is, can Puck do something along those same lines?
I think that is a very real part of the issue.
Not that ethical treatment and flavor are neccessarily mutually exclusive but....
Somewhere flavor and quality needs to come into play.
Of course - but since I was replying to a comment about the business end of things ("Is this really a feasible model?"), I do think Chipotle is a good example of a phenomenally successful business that not only sourced ethically, but parlayed that sourcing into marketing and business - their pork is loudly and proudly touted as Niman Ranch product, and it sells well, from what I know (will try to find some actual sources on that). Why can't Puck do the same?
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As for Chipotle's beef and chicken -- i don't think they have them. the one near me is pork only. it's also a model of efficiency, really ingenious. they have (IIRC), pork prepared three ways (carnitas, barbacoa and grilled), you can choose it in a taco, a burrito or in a salad, it comes with three salsas. as you walk down the line, you make the choices at each stop and by the time you get to the cash register, you have good, hot, freshly made food. the efficiency expert in me is dazzled (and the eater is usually pretty happy, too).
We may be getting a bit OT, but they definitely have them...just had a steak fajita burrito a couple weeks back. (Though they may serve different meats in different locations.)
Dessert/Pastries in NYC
in New York: Dining
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Wow, that's amazing.
I applaud your stamina.
Now, I have to ask - did you have the hot chocolate at Chocolate Bar? It's my favorite in the whole city. Their Salty Pretzel bars ain't too bad, either.