Chocdoc - Noshing in NYC Again!

[Kerry Beal]

 

 

@Alleguede and I are in the lounge awaiting our flight to NYC. Saturday is the Fine Chocolate Industry Association's Summer Elevate Chocolate event. I will likely spend a day at the Fancy Food Show this trip. 

 

Only one specific plan this time - we have reservations for Dessert Bar - Michael Laiskonis's new dessert place inside the bakery Recolte

[Kerry Beal]

 

@Alleguede arrived a little after me - it's lunch now.

 

 

[weinoo]

If you get a chance, the brand new Essex Market is nice, and there are a few places doing sweets.

[Kerry Beal]

Thanks Mitch

[Kerry Beal]

So we are sitting on the tarmac awaiting news that we will take off soon. Every plane to NYC today has been late - why we would have left on time...

 

The pilots just arrived from LaGuardia and the think we might leave soon. 

 

Meanwhile they feed us nuts and pretzels 

 

[weinoo]

It has been pouring here for days. Supposed to be a nice weekend, though. Keep your fingers crossed.

[Kerry Beal]

I’ll bring the sun with me if this plane ever takes off!

[teonzo]

5 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Only one specific plan this time - we have reservations for Dessert Bar - Michael Laiskonis's new dessert place inside the bakery Recolte

 

Laiskonis is back on the plate? Great news! Can't wait for your report!

 

 

 

Teo

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

I’ll bring the sun with me if this plane ever takes off!

 

Beautiful weather at the moment.  Supposed to be nice for the next two days.

 

[Kerry Beal]

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

 

They fed me this on the plane. 

[gfweb]

Not bad for a short hop

[Kerry Beal]

We made it outside Via Carota - I was prepared to enjoy the salad of Samin Nosrat's dreams - but they suggested we return at 11pm - so that was out.

 

 

We made our way back through the pre pride festivities towards the North Square Hotel, kitty corner to the Washington Square park, which has a lovely restaurant in it. Quiet enough to talk.

 

 

 

 

 

They brought warm olives and bread. Not sure what they marinated the olives in - but they were wonderful.

 

 

I opted for a Cooper's Dream - rye, st Germain and fernat

 

 

Pork 'rib steak' for me 

 

 

 

Duck for another.

 

 

Burger for @Alleguede (I'm sure @huiray is laughing somewhere).

 

 

Bianca a little surprised to find rice in a tagine instead of couscous. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

 

@Alleguede and his new love hamming it up behind the booth.

 

A tasting table has become standard - and they depend upon it like a pack of hounds once the doors open

 

 

 

This year they gave an award to Chris Elbow so featured his chocolate on the bon bon table - then didn't let anyone have any until around an hour and a half into the evening. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

A might peckish after our ordeal at the FCIA - we headed out in search of food - only to discover that the rest of NYC had beaten us to it.

 

We finally settled on the equivalent of the food court at Jose Andres Little Spain in the 'brand new' community of Hudson Commons.

 

 

 

Cutting our iberico

 

 

 

Manchego 

 

 

Patates bravas

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2019 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Kerry Beal]

This morning we had a fabulous dosa breakfast made by Bhavani’s lovely wife Priya. 

 

 

Then a trip off to see the various warehousing and manufacturing facilities that Bhavani has for Diamond Custom Machines.

 

 

This is his bean roaster (retired) - he now roasts small batches in the oven.

 

 

 

This little baby is a tava with no edges - @Alleguede though it would be perfect when you wanted to heat the two sides of something chocolate to stick them together (and could do double duty as a grill)

 

 

 

Manufacturing the larger DCM machines. Some exciting innovations coming down the pipe. 

 

 

 

Edited June 24, 2019 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Kerry Beal]

 

Had to get a picture of Bhavani's chocolate set up in his basement. Of course an EZtemper is a necessary part of it!

 

Our time with Bhavani's lovely family was over way too soon - as we headed back from NJ to NYC.

 

 

 

Had to drop in a couple of pictures from earlier in the day after we crossed the first bridge in to NJ and drove though Pallisades park. 

 

 

 

 

The drive back took to Brooklyn for a very quick visit to Kerekes - we had 30 minutes before they turned off the lights and prepared to heave us out.

 

 

A good dig through the clearance section is always a good idea. The fellows explained that the more stuff we took - likely the better price we would get. So after quoting me a price of $80 for the Martellato melter - after I had added the two silpats, the caramel marker, the box of de Buyer mandoline blades - they charged me $120 for the lot. (Compare at $224 for melter on Amazon, silpats $25 each on Amazon, Carmel marker $130 from their own website, mandoline blades seem to be around $20 each and there are 5 in the box with one missing). 

 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

Our next step involved dropping off a DCM 20 (which is a rather large melanger) to the Gotham Bar and Grill. We were extremely impressed with pastry chef Ron Paprocki's ability to turn out chocolate from this tiny, tiny, tiny space in the kitchen. 

 

 

By now we were getting a little peckish and found ourselves down the street from the Gotham Grill at this great little place Tortaria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chips and guac.

 

 

Esquites for me. 

 

 

Cheese quesadilla for Bhavani. 

 

 

Some other sort of quesadilla for @Alleguede

 

 

Braised short rib sandwich for Bianca.

 

[Kerry Beal]

This evening we had the pleasure of checking out Michael Laiskonis's new Dessert Bar - which has been operating for about 4 1/2 months in the Recolte Bakery after hours. 

 

 

We rushed like mad to get there for our 7 pm reservation - were only about 5 minutes late - then got the reminder of my 7:30 reservation on my phone! So had a chance to walk around the neighborhood a bit. Noted the roadies outside the Jackson Brown concert happening next door.

 

Started with a cup of tea - no milk this time - an oolong.

 

 

Neglected to get a picture of the menu - we asked Micheal to just give us chef's choice. 

 

 

Carrots and peas. A pea crumble, carrot sorbet and browned butter 

 

 

Yuzu tartlet - ginger cream - the candied shiso was the perfect touch.

 

 

One of my favorites - Butter Popcorn choux

 

 

 

 

These 3 were the 'main courses' - salted caramel theme, hazelnut theme and black sesame theme. I didn't get the details down - suffice it to say they were all quite amazing.

 

 

and of course the magnardises - pistachio financier, a caramel filled cookie and a PDF (grapefruit perhaps - I've forgotten)

 

 

Bianca and I - quite replete!

 

Edited June 24, 2019 by Kerry Beal (log)

[KennethT]

8 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Our next step involved dropping off a DCM 20 (which is a rather large melanger) to the Gotham Bar and Grill. We were extremely impressed with pastry chef Ron Paprocki's ability to turn out chocolate from this tiny, tiny, tiny space in the kitchen. 

 

 

By now we were getting a little peckish and found ourselves down the street from the Gotham Grill at this great little place Tortaria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chips and guac.

 

 

Esquites for me. 

 

 

Cheese quesadilla for Bhavani. 

 

 

Some other sort of quesadilla for @Alleguede

 

 

Braised short rib sandwich for Bianca.

 

That's hilarious - I was 2 doors down from you this weekend - we went to the fish taco place for lunch on Saturday!

[teonzo]

So @Alleguede got married and we haven't seen a single photo of the marriage???

 

Thanks for the photos of the Laiskonis desserts, impressive stuff as usual!

 

 

 

Teo

 

[weinoo]

Kerekes! You were right up the block from where I get my freshly killed poultry - at La Pera!

[Kerry Beal]

46 minutes ago, teonzo said:

So @Alleguede got married and we haven't seen a single photo of the marriage???

 

Thanks for the photos of the Laiskonis desserts, impressive stuff as usual!

 

 

 

Teo

 

Don’t put the cart before the horse! No wedding so far

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

Taste testing Supermoon Bakery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

New Essex Market - great suggestion Mitch. 

 

 

 

found some interesting stuff - confectioners closed today though