weinoo

Keith Don't Go is the name of a song on Nils Lofgren's 2nd album, Cry Tough. It has absolutely nothing to do with the new Keith McNally restaurant Cherche Midi, which is in the same spot as the old Keith McNally restaurant, Pulino's, which closed six months or so ago - I just thought it sounded like a good title for my blog post. In any event, in a mere six months, Keith has transformed what was once Pulino's, an Italian pizzeria slash trattoria into Cherche Midi, a French, well, bistro slash brasserie, I guess. In early visits, I liked Pulino's food; there was some cool stuff on that menu - I particularly remember a dish with smoked sable, a guilty pleasure of mine. What I didn't like about Pulino's was the corner; to be exact, the southwest corner of Bowery and Houston Streets, in my mind one of the most heinous corners in Manhattan on which to put a restaurant. As someone on a website I frequent, and where I started an argument about this particular corner, noted: "There is no joy going to the corner of Bowery and Houston." Additionally, the place had windows that were thrown open to that corner; why exactly, I'll never know...my memory fails, but there may have even been cafe tables outside, which is great if you like eating at a bus stop. Fast forward to now, and even though you can't change the corner, the windows are gone, and once inside you'll barely know where you are; if your imagination works well, maybe you'll think you're on the right bank - although that might be pushing it. Suffice to say - it's a hell of a lot nicer inside now, though if you're sensitive to noise, it's as noisy as any of the McNally places, especially as the evening progresses. Significant Eater and I had stopped in about two weeks ago for an after dinner drink and last night I made my way back, specifically to try the burger, which has been raved about in various articles, in blogs, etc. So when I arrived early last night, I took a seat at the practically empty bar, and checked out the drink menu... The head bartender just happens to be a bartender I've known for years from another McNally joint, Schiller's Liquor Bar, and he rightly steered me towards a Julia's Blush, a riff on a Jasmine (a drink I first had made for me by Kenta Goto at Pegu Club). It's Campari heavy, with gin, lemon juice and agave taming the bitter - and it's delicious and perfect for a hot night. It's also $15, as are all the cocktails, which in this day and age in NYC is not crazy, but once the price creeps up to $17, all bets are off. I enjoyed it as I decided what to have for my appetizer; thankfully, the menu is simple compared to the new style of menu. You know the ones - with starters, small plates, middle sized plates, larger plates, in-between plates, pre-desserts, desserts, and on and on, until you end splitting like 7 things and paying twice as much as you used to. Here, it's appetizers, entrees and sides - what a concept! I decided on something cold for my appetizer, an heirloom tomato gazpacho with pickled shrimp... And it was quite good. Thick and rich, not too smooth, with the pickled shrimp adding a nice, well, pickled note. For my entree, the burger. A LaFreida burger (is there a freakin' burger that isn't LaFreida's?), it's allegedly made from dry-aged trimmings from the dry-aged prime rib, which is also on the menu, along with some short-rib, which isn't. It's topped with roasted mushrooms, bacon marmalade and aged gruyere, and I'm guessing the buns are made somewhere in the McNally world - like at Balthazar bakery. It comes with fries, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle slices, and it looks like this... It's good. It was cooked to perfection. It's really good, as a matter of fact, the dry-aged beef adding that cheesy funkiness I happen to like. If I have one complaint, it's that the bun may be a little too big for the burger, but it was toasted and held together beautifully, and you can't ask for much more than that. And the fries - still some of my favorite fries in the city. From Balthazar, to Minetta, to Schiller's - the fries are fine. And just to pretend I might be in France - I dip 'em in mustard - try it, you might be surprised. The tariff for the burger and fries - $21. Not bad, when you consider that a side of fries is $9 on this menu. Same price as the Spotted Pig's and cheaper than Minetta Tavern's Black Label entry. It'll be interesting to me to see if Cherche Midi has a long run. As I mentioned above, I felt that one of the main reasons for Pulino's closure was specifically the location. But now the Bowery is home to a dozen or more restaurants, all on a stretch that was unimaginable a decade ago. The crowd is different than Schiller's was, back when it was the lower east side's hottest spot and they could squeeze 8 models into a booth made for 4. So it remains to be seen whether the crowds will continue to come (and it was crowded by the time I left last night), with all those other choices nearby. Me - I'm heading back with Significant Eater soon. The menu has lots to explore, and it's the kind of food we really like to eat. My guess? On our next visit, she's gonna want that burger too. COMP DISCLOSURE: A good glug of wine to top off my wine glass.

I'm quite fond of my Dalla Piazza.

Actually, the real reason California is in drought is because where most of the people live, it's a fucking desert.

What's so hard about it? Don't wines from different places taste differently?

I mostly drink black coffee, but always make sure both my drip receptacle and filter cone (especially important with a ceramic Hario) are preheated.

Uh -oh. You might be getting the hang of it !

Interesting that even after you're given the correct answer, your questions still stand. Why not triple the baking powder and see how your baked products taste? Why not make sure you have the proper, fresh ingredients on hand before you use them in a recipe?

Another trick I do with the Cuisi when toasting is to toast on 2 - rotate the item being toasted, and toast on 1!

I'm a fan of 4.75 oz. per cup.

That microwave is sure taking up a lot of real estate.

Ummmm - find the store where FeChef shops?

And this is why we miss Jefferey. Those chuck eyes he would sell to us were often from prime sides.

New York City has never been short on bagels. At least not since the early 1900s, when the International Bagel Bakers Local 338 was formed. Hundreds of bagel bakeries existed - my paternal great-grandfather was a bagel baker in the Bronx - as a matter of fact, he and my great-grandmother are buried in the Bronx Baker's Mutual Aid Society plot at a cemetery in Springfield Gardens, Queens. (I also have a seltzer-man in my background, who sold seltzer off of a horse-drawn cart, but that's another story). Of course, hundreds of bagel bakers and bakeries meant that there eventually were competing unions, non-union shops, strikes, strife, walkouts, lockouts and all that good stuff that comes along with a good product, the labor that it takes to make a good product...and ownership. Socialism aside (and Socialism is what was behind those early labor unions and why they were important), along came Harry Lender, who basically screwed the pooch, by first mass-producing bagels (with a machine he bought, but didn't invent) and then by perfecting the slicing and freezing of his mass-produced bagel. Eventually, all hell broke loose, bagels grew to ginormous size, and whoever first put a blueberry into a bagel should get 30 smacks with a stale bialy. When I moved to California (a long time ago), I was sad and missed bagels (and don't get me started on pizza); that is, until I found a bagel place where they actually made bagels the old-fashioned way - hand-rolled, boiled and baked - in San Jo freakin' se. I patronized them for years until I moved back to New York...the land of the giant bagel (I'm looking at you, you decrepit, old, morally, spiritually and physically bankrupt H&H) - the better to make a sandwich on - something a bagel was never meant to do, in my opinion; that's what sliced bread, baguettes, rolls, lettuce leaves (please) and god-knows-what are all for - NOT BAGELS! Fast forward to 2014 and within the last three months, two brand-new bagel places (Baz and Black Seed) have opened (and I think there's another on the way). Both claim to hand-roll, boil and then bake their bagels the old-fashioned way - even if one is Montreal style, and boils in honey water and bakes in a wood-fueled oven, and blah blah blah (I imagine old Harry is spinning in his grave about now). So, what better way to spend some time, with Significant Eater available as a taster, than by trying these two new offerings? Let's first take a look at the products side by side. Hmmm..... I detect some ginormity in the Baz bagel, as well as a rather generous hand with the toppings... When put on a scale, the Baz bagel weighed anywhere from 2 - 3 ounces more than the Black Seed bagel - which was right in the ballpark of what a real bagel should weigh (just under 3 ounces). Here's an interior view for perspective... But really, it's all about taste, isn't it? And to be honest, to really taste-test a bagel, they should be eaten fresh - not the next day, not frozen, not whatever, but because of time constraints, I had to use the toaster. One half of each bagel was cream cheesed, and one half was buttered... The far-from-final analysis gave us a clear-cut favorite. The density, the weight, the crustiness and the taste of the Black Seed bagel did it for us...though Sig Eater did note that they were a bit sweet from their honey-water dip. The wood-burning smoke is evident while the bagels are still in their bag, but not really so much in the finished product. And the Baz bagel, which had a nice flavor, just did not have enough crust-to-crumb ratio for us...it's sandwich sized. Additionally, and don't tell Sig Eater, I tasted the bagels before they were toasted - and liked Black Seed's more that way as well. Oh - one little thing - I still prefer the minis that Russ & Daughters sells - they're specially made for R & D by the Bagel Hole in Park Slope, and they're my favorite. You can't make a sandwich on them, and why would you? Bagels were always meant to be enjoyed, a half at a time, with a schmear and a bit of lox. So don't worry, great-grandpa Harry. Someone will get it right one of these days.

Of course they are different versions - one offers steam and one doesn't. The large Breville holds a quarter sheet and the Cuisi doesn't. They both have a large footprint. I own both, but they are in separate apartments. The Cuisi toasts better, in my opinion, and offers a whole set of different functionality than the Breville. The Cuisi has a cool light.

By the way, you did use the bread bake function and not the steam bake, right?

Try a loaf in a loaf pan. Success is yours! And I think earlier in the thread we discuss pizza components - but this is never gonna be a pizza oven. In my mind, this oven is a great tool, but can't have too much asked of it. It's not a $3000 combi - it's a $300 really cool toaster oven.

I think they're pretty lousy for baking anything that you might want to eat.

I'm sure you read back to page 4 of this thread and my experiment with the same bread! Just reading the recipe you know it has to suck - the recipe isn't even what the title says it is! I'm sure with a little experimentation your breads will be just like you and we like 'em.

After toasting a few items in our DC BV-medium, I give the Cuisinart a higher grade when it comes to toasting. Much more even toasting.

Exactly. If you want a filet mignon, just buy a filet mignon.

Jeffrey used to sell "eye of chuck" to me to grind for burgers!

Some things really annoy me; which I guess if you've read some of my posts over the years isn't that surprising. Here's the latest I've seen - and it's actually being pitched as some great new discovery: The Manhattan Filet Steak. This yutz on the Food Wishes Blog actually has the gall to call it a new cut. It's not. It's just a NY Strip totally trimmed. But he learned about it on a "foodie field trip to Las Vegas," so it must be great. And then, to top it off, a video showing how to do it. What the video is good for is showing how a pan-fried steak gets nice and grey around the edges; in other words, a good reason to sous vide.

I do it too, when I want a dice. Does that make me a super duper too chef as well?

One of my friends called me last Friday - she wanted to buy her husband a grill for father's day. Ended up with a Weber Summit. Not that specific model, but one that cost more than my range. He loves it - I told him to be prepared as I will send him links to various necessary attachments!

Unless you carbonate them .