weinoo

A second visit, and MCFNY’s got some flow going (I mean it did on the first night), and as soon as all 4 of us were there, we were seated and an order of peanuts was on the way. Our niece, a foodnik if ever there was one, as well as owner of the blog Chronicles of a Stomach Grumble, commented: “why don’t we use black vinger on everything?” and our taste buds were on the way for some serious fressing. Fressing indeed, when you consider the Kung Pao Pastrami, thankfully served last because I don’t know what else you’d want to taste after it. You know, feuds have been fought over less than who has the best pastrami in NY. And I know it’s been on the menu in San Francisco. For. Ever. But it takes balls, here on Orchard Street, basically the birthplace of the delicatessen, to strew little cubes of pastrami throughout a dish (of course I asked where the pastrami was from and I was told conspiratorialy that it was sourced locally and smoked in house – wink). Wherever the pastrami’s from, it’s just one component in a dish that also has peanuts, celery, potatoes and that finishes with EXPLOSIVE CHILI. It’s the kung pao you know you always wanted…fuck the cubes of barbecued pork. Chinese food was the first cuisine I taught myself to cook when I started seriously playing with food. Szechwan food was a big part of it (indeed one of the first Chinese cookbooks I owned was Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookboook - I have the 1976 first edition), and back then you couldn’t even get Szechwan peppercorns (unless, I guess, you knew someone in Chinatown). Now, Chef Danny is using them with abandon – and it’s great. I don’t know what it is about Szechwan pepper, but it numbs and tricks your mouth enough that the rest of the spicy stuff goes down nice and easy. But do yourself a favor: like any well-constructed and balanced Chinese meal, you need to order some dishes that aren’t hot at all – and trust me, they’re good too. Like the salt-cod fried rice, salty from the baccalà and sweet from the lap cheong. I’m sorry local take-out joint – your fried rice ain’t gonna cut it any more. And the weird comfort-y taste of the winter melon soup with XO sauce – it’s hot too, temperature wise, and it works to cool you down. As does all the spicy stuff – I mean, that’s why they’re eating chilis in the hot parts of the world – they help to cool you down! As an aside, it hit a nice, muggy high of 85° yesterday (no, this isn’t San Francisco any more, my friend) and the air-conditioners were wheezing in that cute back room…I’m guessing more BTU’s will become necessary at some point this summer. The bacon (yes, Benton’s) was fine in the Thrice-Cooked Bacon, but a big surprise was how much we all like the bitter melon in the same dish. It wasn’t a surprise as to how much we loved the Shanghainese rice cakes, because there’s just something about the texture of those gummy little paddies…put ‘em all together and everyone’s happy. I even liked the soy milk poached tofu, not a product I go out of my way much for, but here it maintained a nice texture, and the sesame leaves added a not-often-tasted element. Well – what can I say? I’m pretty much excited by all the flavors going on here. And the prices. And portions. The staff. The philosophy. All, in my opinion, good. How they should be. In a way, it reminds me of those early, glorious days of both Noodle and Ssam Bar - as a matter of fact, we used to eat standing up at the back table in the original Ssam Bar...now, for good measure, even the chairs have backs on them.

daisy 17 has some fine suggestions. I'm not a big Morini fan either (I guess if I was, I'd go there more than I have), but Sorella - let me count the ways. It's nice that you're doing all this fancy-dancy dining...but do you have any kind of down and dirty stuff in your plans? Say a pizza - in which case I'd suggest Motorino (lunch is a great bargain) or Keste or Co or even, for true NY style coal-oven, Arturo's. Last week I had a couple of superb slices at Joe's on Carmine (followed by a nice gelato at Grom down the block). I think the Ssam Bar daily duck lunch is great - but I also crave the roast duck (or roasted any other protein) over rice, and any of the wonton noodle soups, at Great NY Noodletown. And my first two meals at the brand new Mission Chinese Food have been delicious. The polar opposite of any of the places you mention in your OP.

It certainly is...and I plan on ordering it Sunday . We had so many spicy things that I ordered the beef because it was a bit mellower.

Last night was "opening" night, and a friend and I were lucky enough to score a pair of seats at Mission Chinese Food, after a nominal 20 minute wait, at the ungodly dinner hour of 6:30; normally, we're drinking at that time - and aren't you? Whatever, here we were, greeted warmly by the host and hostess (Anna and Aubrey), and invited to share a celebratory beer while we waited for our seats to become available. Quite festive... Mission Chinese Food, for those who have either been Rip Van Winkle-ing or who don't check Huff Po, Eater, Twitter, et.al. obsessively every 10 minutes of their life, is the New York City outpost of, ummmm, Mission Chinese Food. Except that one's in San Francisco, and it opened as a pop-up inside an already existing Chinese restaurant called Lung Shan, on Mission St. The brainchild of Chef Danny Bowien and partner Anthony Myint, SF's MCF took the food world by storm, and ever since it became clear that Orchard Street and the lower east side would become the home of the 2nd Mission Chinese, NYC's been all atwitter (hmmm) with anticipation. All well and good. It's not like there aren't 100,000 Chinese restaurants here already; it's just that most of them suck. I've gone into that before and don't need to go into it again right now, but anyone trying to do the right thing with a great cuisine is OK in my book. And a quick chat outside with Chef (who might indeed be TV ready, looking all California-cool in his white chef's jacket, white shorts, baseball cap, hipster glasses and flowing tresses) led me to believe that he's very excited to be on this beautiful block of Orchard Street, dealing with some of NYC's fine purveyors both at the high-end (that meat guy) and the ones that supply Chinatown with a vast selection of greens and other goodies. As a matter of fact, he was simply qvelling when telling me how great some of the prices are here compared to SF - and take that, SF! The team has also taken what was home to a few less-than-successful fooderies over the years and turned it into a nice, fun space that feels bigger than it really is. I liked the atmosphere, and there are even backs on all of the chairs, which is good for the altacockers like my buddy and me. I ordered way too much food, but what the heck? The sharp tang of Chinkiang vinegar, heat from chili pepper and buzzy numbness from Szechuan peppercorns is thankfully not dumbed down, at least not in any of the dishes we tried. So, for instance, the Chili Pickled Turnips and Long Beans blow open the taste buds but are impossible to stop eating. As are the Beijing Vinegar Peanuts, meant to be eaten one at a time with chopsticks - order these immediately, so you can eat them with your beer. Lamb Cheek Dumplings in Red Oil are explosive...and good. The Tea Smoked Eel was a favorite of ours; it's wrapped in cheung fun, a rice noodle made on the spot at a few places around Chinatown; as a matter of fact, my very first blog post was about this type of noodle, made around the corner at Sun Light Bakery! I think my favorite dish last night was the Mouth Watering Chicken, a chicken "terrine" with dry-spiced chicken hearts and vegetable "noodles." The hearts are cooked medium-rare, lending them a unique flavor and tenderness, and the breast is nice and moist. They hit it out of the park on this dish. Was everything perfect? Hell no...I would've liked a little less salt (or saltiness in whatever form) in the Broccoli Beef Cheek with Smoked Oyster Sauce, impossibly tender beef nestled under a bed of some sort of Asian broccoli. But it's oyster sauce and that stuff is, shall we say, saline (and I ate all the cheek anyway). So - when am I going back? As a matter of fact, I've already made a reservation for this coming Sunday night. They're taking reservations, but only for the bar seats at this point. Otherwise, it's all walk-in. And delivery. And lunch soon. Orchard Street has been looking better and better for the last 10 years; now with Mission Chinese Food hitting the street running on all cylinders, it's gotten that much more tasty. (More pix over at my blog.)

While Esca is indeed a "Batali joint," the chef is David Pasternack, who knows his way around seafood the way Batali knows his way around, well, Crocs. It's very good - can be great and isn't cheap. Probably wouldn't even call it a joint. Another pre-theatre favorite Italian joint is the Bastianich owned Becco, where the pastas are good and reasonably priced.

I think you've dirtied 2 more kitchen tools than I do when I cut open a mango.

Is it possible that the Papa John's in Wyoming truly sucks and that there are passable Papa John's pizzas to be had in certain locations. I've never had it and doubt I ever will.

The "underwhelming" part isn't good. David Lebovitz liked it, however.

In a pickle...the last of the season. Kinda large, so blanched for about 45 seconds.

Must one, really?

As the NY Times fabulous Flo reported yesterday, Guy Fieri will be opening a restaurant with a new concept, sometime this fall and somewhere in Times Square. As he might scream, "that's money." My prediction - there's a lot of money backing this one, and it'll last as long as Jekyll and Hyde and the ESPN Zone. Will you ever set foot inside? I won't.

That's how I learned a lot of tricks!

Well, of course - Spring. We totally enjoyed our meal at La Régalade Saint-Honoré. Rino was great. Roman chef there doing some awesome stuff. L'Agrume in the 5th. And the rest of Talbot's blog. As well as Paris by Mouth. And if I was heading to Paris now, I would want to try Verjus, a restaurant that was opened by a couple who used to do private dinners in their apartment. They're expat Seattleites.

Tri-tip is what's used in the famous Santa Maria barbecue. A delicious cut. When I had "my" butcher at the Essex St. Market (sadly no longer in biz), he would sell me some special cuts. Most, if not all, from the chuck, a naturally delicious part of the animal.

You'd be right, but it's really not that new. The "seminal" butcher Jack Ubaldi, author of Jack Ubaldi's Meat Book: A Butcher's Guide to Buying, Cutting, and Cooking Meat also discovered a new steak, as the NY Times wrote in his obit:

Something quite saucy, as mjx mentions above, works nicely, Even just a tomato sauce. But do yourself a favor...try the real stuff. It's not that difficult to make, and it's light years beyond the pre-cooked.

I don't understand. His restaurant "Dinner by ..." has gotten rave reviews. Why does a menu have to change if it's great? Is there a personal grudge against Mr. Blumenthal?

To me, a lot of food (both sweet and savory) tastes best at room temperature. But I like certain cookies right out of the fridge (some friends even tell me they're better out of the freezer, too). So: Mallomars Thin Mints What others?

When you add the corn kernels, scrape the corn milk from the cob with the the back of a knife into your batter. Oh - yes I will ! Thanks.

Yes, for many years (and maybe still) the one and only vegetarian option on Momo's menu... .

Yes, his calling of pretty-boy Mr. So and So over and over again, and his general know-it-all-edness are fairly grating. I mean, I never liked his schtick, but could put up with it when guests like Shirley Corriher were explaining things (though, to his credit, he calls Bobby "chef" a number of times, and that's a plus). Bobby's gotten better and better on TV...wish I could say the same for his burgers.

Yeah, that and the preachiness I guess.

My first question, since I don't necessarily care who wins this latest competition, is: Has Alton Brown morphed into Christopher Kimball?

I think if you're wondering whether it's rancid, it's rancid.

Then I haven't been to that one! I'm pretty sure I've been to Viet Royale, though. I'm a big fan of the quail appetizers.