Bond Girl
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Posts posted by Bond Girl
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Went to Coompass last night for dinner...May be it's new year and everyone is off, but the place is an exercise in mediocrity. The decor is really dingey...done properly the place could have looked like a glamourous 30's or 40's supper club/dance hall, but as is it just looks run down with the flourescent light running under the frosted glass cabinets making it look cheaper.
The food was equally unappealing and uncreative. I had the hudson valley foie gras with some sort of sweet puree and brandied sour cherries, it wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. Entree was a wild salmon with what appears to be sauerkraut, dotted with black beans. The salmon was expertly cooked, but the combination was simply unappealing. Delce de leche semifreddo is barely passable, with spongey marshmellows and indistinguishable chocolate sauce. Each dish came in monster portions to make up for the totally lacking in taste or finess.
As for the service...like the rest of the meal, it wasn't the worst but could definitely be better. Then again, I could just be spoiled....I want my water glass refilled constantly, unless I say so.....I want my server to ask if I want another glass of wine when my glass runs out....unless I say so....and I don't want to have to flag a server down only to be told that it's not her table....
Then again, I may just be difficult.
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The long anticipated restaurant with Gabriel Kruther at the helm of the kitchen is set to open on January 5th, 2005. The main dining room has a view of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. For those less formally inclined there is the Bar Room, which serves a more casual menu all day. There's also a seasonal outdoor terrace and two private dining rooms.
Here is what the press release said about the food:
A prix-fixe menu will be offered at dinner, while lunch will be à la carte. Appetizers will feature Big Eye Tuna and Diver Scallop Tartare; Roasted Wild Mushroom Soup with Crispy Black Winter Truffle Ravioli; Chilled Maine Lobster with Radish Salad and Pepper Celery Sorbet. Main courses will include Chatham Cod studded with Chorizo; Pennsylvania Lamb Loin; and Fresh Niman Ranch Bacon cooked in a Cocotte with Salsify and Black Winter Truffles.
Come to think of it...This (and those waterlilies) may be what it takes to make me become a MoMA member again.
The Modern
9 West 53rd Street,
between 5th and 6th Avenues,
212-333-1220
source: press release from Union Square Hospitality Group
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Having read the Sirio Maccioni memoire, one of the more memorable quotes there was:
"The customer is not always right...but the customer always get what they want."
Some said that Daniel adopts the same philosophy for his regular customers.
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Speaking of the place, I am interested in knowing what people think of his hot chocolates. I am a hot chocolate fiend, especially when it's 18F outside. The Jacque Torres hot chocolates are $20 per can and I find that if you make the recommended dosage of chocolate to milk, it is so rich that you can only have a tiny sip before you overdose. Wondering if anyone out there has similar experiences or if I'm just a chocolate wimp needing to build up to it.
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Paula, this recipe look so good it may inspire me to bake Brioche again. I love love love brioche, but my numerous attempt at any kind of bread making have been disasterous in the past. I will try it this weekend.
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This could be interesting since I haven't tried to cook meat other than fish in my whole life. I'm definitely in.
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Here's my version, you guys will have to ask Suzanne for the pictures. The lobster salad was paired with a citrus flavor green that balanced one another beautifully, but the star of teh show was Paul's vegetable ragout which has the richness of flavor that is at once refined and complex. It walked a fine balance of intense Indian spices and delicate french restraint. The dish can turn the most avid meat eater into a vegetarian. Suzanne's smoked yellow tail was exciting with an unexpected combination of kaffir lime and subtle sharpness of chili peppers. One of the biggest crimes a chef can commit using too much kaffir lime. It turns the dish into a soapy mess (think Spice Market's Tuna Tartare with Asian Pear-Disgusting!). The kaffir lime in the smoked yellow tail at Cafe Gray played in a perfect harmony of flavors and that is something so rare that has me singing praises all evening.
The main courses ordered were a corn crusted red snapper which was hearty and intense with the sweet cron crust offering a nice crunchy texture to the snapper and ramps in asian spices giving it a twist of unexpected. I had expected my branzino to be somewhat bland, but was anything but. The branzino simply steamed was wrapped around a medly of buttery vegetables sitting in a creamy spinach sauce. Suzanne's short ribs? Well, you'll have to asked her about that as well.
Desserts left me very happy with a airy hazelnut souffle served with vanilla ice cream sitting in an intense orange sauce, we were all tickled by the cassis sorbet and the lip puckering lime sorbet. The chocolate tart was exceptional, but then again its a chocolate tart and I am not a fan of milk chocolate.
There is something about the restaurants in the Time Warner building that seemed to favored the drabness of ashy brown wood paneling that reminds of a cheesy 1970's airport lounge. Per Se has it and so does Cafe Grey. I almost expect to hear lounge dental music coupled with flight information being called over the muffled speakers.
The service was not perfect, but who really cares? It's a cafe after all.
I'm definitely going back.
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i'm in for th buchon cook book
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I never use the word omakase, when the chef ask me what I want I always just say: "you figure it out, I'll leave it up to you." It worked for me in most restaurants so far.
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Veggies in Chinatown is about all I do too. And to think I grow up on this stuff.
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Never had an experience but I once saw some guy hosing down a box of frozen shrimps on the sidewalk with hot water, and breaking it paprt with his foot on Grand Street and that was enough for me.
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Not to mention taking your own gastro-intestinal system into your own hands....
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I'm chinese and although I firmly believe that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I'd not sure if I'd be so brave as to buy fish from chinatown.
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Thatb was a wonderful experience. Thanks Doc and JJ for getting me out for a great meal. I have no comparison as I never been to Kuruma, but sushi Yasuda is definitely good value for its price and quality compared to somewhere like Jewel Bako. I especially like the fact that you can really savor the fish and the distinctive character of each pieces of sushi. The problem with places like Nobu is that everything is drowned in some kind of sauce that everything invariably ended up tasting the same.
There was also a great deal of thought that went into the tasting experience. We started out with medium fatty fish and then our palate get taken to a rich creamy high fat toro, from there we were tickled by something flavorful like spanish Mackrel with breaks of something sweet and crunchy (I suspect it was a clam of some sort).....It was a long meal that did not bore me. The problem is I had to go back to work after that and sounding coherent when you are in the throes of sushi euphoria is a challenge indeed.
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I'd rather just roast them and pack them into a jar for sauce and soups.
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Along the same line as SethG's rant, I bought a pint of Gelato at Garden of Eden the other day, and it was $10. I nearly fainted when I checked the bill after I got home. And, the gelato wasn't even good.
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Having just bought back 6 ponds of Meyer from SF, I thught of making sorbet with them. However, the marmalde took them all. I guess, I would juice them, and sweeten to taste, and freeze in the ice cream machine. Sprinkle grated peel in them while machine is turning.
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Coffee with milk. A small cup of fromage blanc with meyer lemon marmalade. Gosh, I am a lazy lima bean compared to all of you.
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I find Zen Palate bland as well. They supply the food to my mother's buddahist temple, and I simply never took a liking to the food.
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I love eggplants. I make them with ginger and lime sauce topped with a bit of cilantro, roast them and spread them on bread sprinkled with salt and pepper, cut them into strips, coat them in a bit of crumbs and deep fried, and serve it with roumalade sauce. And, if you get the small kind you can str them in oil with a bt of indian spices (ie. tumeric, cumin, coriander seeds etc) and tomatoes and serve them over rice.
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Not sure if the Gobo uptown is connected with the one in the village. If so, it's owned by the same people who owned Zen Palate. I find them to be a bit in the Hangawi vain, some people really liked it, others, like me, find it a bit bland.
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Here are some suggestions for all high school juniors out there who are cool enough to pack their own lunches..you can use a hardier bread like what Ms. foodie suggested or hardier greens like frisee or roman lettuce. Going easy on the mayo helps too. Think picnic food minus the wine. A grilled vegetable sandwich can be eaten cold, a tupperware container of ratatouille can be eaten at room temperature with some really nice bread. Pasta salads are always an option. If you have some free time, youc an also make a fritata and those keeps for a whole day. My old office didn't have a microwave, so I feel your pain.
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Ah, my favorite dilemma....Have you ever have lunch in Manhattan's Grand Central area? The other day, a sandwich and brownie ran me $13. And, what you get is a pretty stale brownie made with cheap chocolate!
You can toss a salad in the morning in no time if you wash ands spin the night before. I've also freeze a round ball of tuna tartar the night before, and let it defrost in my office fridge all morning, and eat it on top of some potato chips or topped on a bed of micro greens.
Usually, I tend to cook extra portions the nigth before and then stick it in the freezer and have it for lunch a day or two later. Current favorite is a pasta tossed with roasted cauliflowers and anchovie, a nice gumbo from two night ago which microwaves reasonably well, or a good vegetarian chili. Even if you pack a sandwich, it would beat half the stuff you get at the usual lunch places.
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I have a whole bag of little packages of herbs and spices that I used a pinch of and never seemed to need them again. I put all of them in one giant ziplock, which may be a bad idea.....not sure about crossing flavors...Here is the list:
Annato seeds
pomagranate(sp?) seeds
Anise Hyssop
smoke chili (haven't made chili this year yet)
smoke cayenne
Star anise
five spice
dried mango powder
asfitida powder
And, that's not all that I can remember....
"Tried and true" restaurants
in New York: Dining
Posted
Blue Hill, Daniels, and Lupa.