The Offal Truth: Part 1

[slkinsey]

So, at long last, JJ, Herbacidal and I are preparing to embark upon the first leg of our epic journey through New York's variety meats. Thus far it looks like we're going to start with a vestedda (spleen, ricotta and caciocavallo on a roll) at La Focacceria, then somewhere (GSIM?) for some Asian guts, then we'd like to finish the day with a big mixed grill.

Any suggestions? Can't-miss guts places in the City? For the time being, we're looking for cheap eats guts. The "fine guts dining" trip will be later on.

[bpearis]

The marinated goose intestines at Funky Broome are actually pretty good. But I can't say the same for their crispy pork intestines which had a distinct barnyard flavor if you know what I mean.

[slkinsey]

Hmmm... Looks like NY Magazine did a Best Offal category in their "Best of New York" ratings back in 2001. The winner was Guastavino's.

[SobaAddict70]

well when you do guts at Babbo and Casa Mono, I could be persuaded to join you.

heh.

Soba

[herbacidal]

I know kidneys are a rare find nowadays, but if anyone knows of a place, I've got a particular hankering for 'em.

[alacarte]

another offal-ly good story for you

[herbacidal]

The marinated goose intestines at Funky Broome are actually pretty good. But I can't say the same for their crispy pork intestines which had a distinct barnyard flavor if you know what I mean.

I haven't had crispy pork intestines (Chinese chit'lins) in a long time.

How are the goose intestines made? Perhaps with black bean sauce or sour cabbage?

[jogoode]

I know kidneys are a rare find nowadays, but if anyone knows of a place, I've got a particular hankering for 'em.

If we do mixed grill at Argentine Pavillion, we'll get sweetbreads, blood sausage, skirt steak, short ribs, and kidneys.

[bpearis]

The marinated goose intestines at Funky Broome are actually pretty good. But I can't say the same for their crispy pork intestines which had a distinct barnyard flavor if you know what I mean.

I haven't had crispy pork intestines (Chinese chit'lins) in a long time.

How are the goose intestines made? Perhaps with black bean sauce or sour cabbage?

it's a cold (maybe warm, it's been a couple years) dish with bean sprouts. much like jellyfish, you'd think they were noodles unless told otherwise. it's a pretty light dish, vinegary.

no one will think the crispy pork intestines are noodles, however.

Edited April 23, 2004 by bpearis (log)

[alacarte]

The marinated goose intestines at Funky Broome are actually pretty good. But I can't say the same for their crispy pork intestines which had a distinct barnyard flavor if you know what I mean.

I think offal needs its own language, like wine...

"barnyard aroma, with a hint of feet."

[Pan]

La Focacceria is around the corner from me, so let me know when you'll be there, and I'll hopefully be able to meet you.

On the next block downtown, Teresa's makes a tripe soup I enjoy.

Laifood in Flushing makes a pig intestine and mustard greens soup which is worth trying, but I doubt you'll be making such a long trip.

There's a place just south of Excellent Dumpling House on Lafayette St. south of Canal, that has soy sauce duck gizzards. I don't remember the name of the place, but I've gotten duck gizzard and bok choy on rice for lunch there for around $6, and it was pretty good - great, if you take the value into account.

[Pan]

Guys, I forgot to mention the Pig's Heart Casserole at Yummy Noodles in the Arcade between Bowery and Elizabeth in Chinatown. I really recommend it. They've got other offal dishes there, too. You can see a menu here: menupages.com Yummy Noodles listing.

[slkinsey]

Well... a good time was had by all yesterday. By following Herb's "walk everywhere you go" philosophy, we were able to consume an alarming amount of offal yesterday. There were some great discoveries and a few disappointments. All in all, a very fun time:

Our first stop was La Focacceria at 128 First Avenue near St. Mark's for a vestedda or two. A vestedda (strangely listed on the menu as "vesteddi" which is a plural form, and the wrong one at that) is basically spleen on a roll. Thin slices of beef spleen are reheated in simmering lard along with slices ricotta, then stuffed into a seeded roll and topped with shredded caciocavallo, a salty, firm cheese. The result: delicious! And the whole thing only costs around three bucks. The earthy but mild spleen along with the creamy, bland ricotta, the sharp caciocavallo and the lard soaking into the seeded bun worked perfectly. If I lived in the neighborhood, I'd have one of these at least once a week. Traditionally, a vestedda includes not only spleen, but lung as well. According to the owner, La Focacceria made them with lung 40 years ago but something having to do with Nixon that I couldn't quite get a handle on put a stop to that.

Next, we went over to Elvie's Turo-Turo, a place just up First Avenue at 13th Street serving Philippino food. We had gone there expecting to eat some duck embryo... but, alas, they were fresh out of them. Presumably there had been a run on duck embryos earlier. Who knew? So, after perusing the counter and chatting with the counter man, we got a serving of something that was described to me as "pork heart." This unfortunately turned out to be paksiw na pata, aka "pork hocks in vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, garlic and pepper with dried lily flower." Not exactly offal... Fortunately, it turned out to be delicious and we... er.. forced ourselves to eat it.

After eating that, we went back to the counter where we were able to get some kare-kare, which is oxtail, beef tripe and vegetables in peanut sauce with shrimp paste on the side.

This was good, but we all felt that the peanut sauce was lacking something to make it more interesting, and the tripe was perhaps too tender. Tripe is a difficult thing to cook just right, I think. You don't want it to be crunchy, but on the other hand you don't want it to be mushy either. Something that is tender but stands up to the tooth is what I generally prefer... not easy to do in a steam table operation lime Elvie's. None of this stood in the way of our enjoyment, however, and Elvies is definitely a cool place to check out. All the dishes are $4.25 with rice.

We then decided to walk over to the West side, towards La Luncheonette. On the way, we came upon the Chelsea Market. Having been there recently with JosephB, I knew that the Lobster Place had amazing deals on oysters. We couldn't resist.

They were selling Kumamoto oysters (my favorite) for $1.10 apice, and Hood Canals and Fanny Bays for 80 cents apiece. We got a half-dozen each of Kumamotos and Fanny Bays. They shucked them right there, and we got them back on ice in styrofoam trays.

Delicious! Oysters aren't strictly speaking offal, but considering that one eats the entire animal, there has to be some oyster pancreas or liver or something like that in there. Right? Anyway, raw oysters at the Lobster Place is one of the great undiscovered deals in the City.

Our next stop was La Luncheonette on Tenth Avenue at 18th Street for calf's brains. Yes, that's right... braaaaaaaaaains. La Luncheonette is a fun, funky little place. Although the food didn't thrill me, I have heard many positive things about their dishes that don't feature glands. First we had sweetbreads vinaigrette, an unexpected offal bonus on the menu.

I love sweetbreads, and this was a good dish... but it didn't transport me the way sweetbreads often can. Cooking glands to just the right degree of doneness is crucial, and in the case of sweetbreads, overcooking can often lead to a slight chalky aftertaste as was the case at La Luncheonette. "Vinaigrette" also led me to expect something other than the thick, creamy dressing that adorned these room-temperature bits of thymus. This is not to say that it wasn't good, but it wasn't something that blew me away. After that came the main event: cervelles au beurre noir, aka "calf's brains in black butter."

This was a serious, old-school preparation. Just brains, black butter and capers. It was okay. When brains are cooked this way, they don't tend to have a great deal of flavor. Mostly it's a texture thing, and in this case the operative word is "custardy." A squeeze of juice from the lemon did wonders for the overall impact of this dish. Overall, I felt that this dish would have greatly benefitted from some contrasting texture. In general, when I am eating offal with a soft texture, I prefer to have a crispy exterior. Sweetbreads, for example, are greatly enhanced when they are coated in flour and sautéed until crisp. So, these brains were rather one-note to me. Later in the evening I discussed this dish with chef Marc Murphy at Landmarc, an offal fan and a chef with consiferable talent in preparing it. He, too, expressed a preference for contrasting textures for this kind of offal and was a little surprised that Luncheonette's preparation seemed to simply be "brains tossed into a pan of black butter and capers." He mentioned a brain recipe he had done some time ago where he had treated brains more like sweetbreads... The brains were gently cooked and allowed to cool in the cooking liquid, then they were cut into three sections, coated with brioche bread crumbs, panéed and sauced. This sounds like something I'd like to try.

Strangely, I didn't feel any smarter after eating the calf's brains, although I did feel a curious desire to chew grass.

After La Luncheonette, we decided to stop by Blue Ribbon on Sullivan Street between Prince and Spring to see what they had going. What they had going, as far as we were concerned, were broiled marrow bones with oxtail marmelade.

The marrow was extracted from the bones and spread on the crisp toast along with the sweet oxtail "marmelade." Wash that down with a couple of beers, and what could be better? Blue Ribbon is a really nice, friendly place. No one minded that we were there only to have a couple of beers and splie an appetizer. In fact, several members of the staff stopped by to chat with us about our project and recommend places they thought we might like to see. The marrow bone dish was simple, but it's hard to describe just how great something so elemental can be. There's something about eating marrow that takes a certain part of the brain back a few million years to our ancestors sitting around a campfire, breaking open bones and sucking out the marrow.

After Blue Ribbon and a short stop at Broaway Panhandler, we made out way over to Landmarc on West Broadway between Leonard and Worth. In many ways this was the star of the trip. We had the opportunity to chat with owners Marc and Pamela Murphy about their restaurant, and the approach to offal in general. The menu features a special section entitled "Landmarc specials," highlighting a selection of offal preparations which change periodically according to the season and the chef's fancy. Marc spoke with us at some length about offal and his affection for offal dishes, and the "Landmarc specials" section really reflects the chef's interest and passion for this kind of cooking -- we all regretted that they had finished out the last week's special of house-made head cheese. Any time a chef will talk with me for 15 minutes about making head cheese, I know he's my kind of guy. Certainly the offal preparations at Landmarc we tried reflect a high level of interest and proficiency in this area. We had three dishes.

One was boudin noir with french fries, caramelized onions and apples. This was outstanding blood sausage, well spiced, rich and not too crumbly. Paired well with the sweetness of the apples and onions, and of course French fries are French fries -- always delicious if well executed, and these were. The whole grain mustard (something all three of us love) tied everything together. It was fun to try the different elements in various combinations (sausage with apple and mustard, sausage alone, apple with mustard, etc.). I always enjoy dishes that allow/encourage the diner to create/explore. All in all just a simple, peasant-ey dish done very well... and a bargain at 18 bucks. It's not easy to tell from the pictures, but there were two sausages on the plate. Another sausage is hidden away under the apples.

Another was crispy sweetbreads with horseradish and green beans. Now, this is the way I like sweetbreads! This is one of the best sweetbread dishes I've had in the City. Small pieces of sweetbread with a crispy, peppery coating sat atop lightly crunchy green beans and surrounded by a lightly acidic sauce. I didn't taste too much horseradish, to be honest, but I don't feel like anything was missing from this dish. This is the kind of sweetbread preparation that takes me to other places. I'll have a hard time keeping myself from ordering this one again every time I'm there if it's on the menu.

We also had sautÈed calf's liver with peas, scallions and caramelized onion whipped potatoes. In many ways, this was the most interesting dish among the three. As the chef explained, the usual preparation for calf's liver is to slice it very thin and briefly sear it. This can sometimes result in done-just-so liver, but often results in overcooked, leathery, iron-tasting meat. You know... the kind we all hate. This method also makes it impossible to develop much of a crust on the liver, because the meat would be overcooked by the time any crust was able to develop. So, instead of doing that, Marc takes a thick block of liver -- maybe an inch and a half thick and three inches to a side -- and cooks it most of the way on one side. This, he assured us, made it possible to develop a substantial crust and hit the medium-rare mark. You know what? He was exactly right. Landmarc's liver had an impressive crust and was not the slightest bit overdone. It was mild in flavor with just a thread of that "liver flavor" running through it, letting you know that this was calf's liver and not it's weaker cousin from the poultry family. It's one of the most interesting calf's liver dishes I've had (not that I've had a zillion of them, but since there is so little difference between the usual preparations there isn't often much incentive).

I'll definitely be looking at the menu and heading back down to Landmarc for more intereting offal.

Stuffed from our meal at Landmarc, we staggered onto the train and went North. North to Taqueria y Fonda la Mexicana on Amsterdam Avenue between 107th and 108th Streets. There, we planned to get tacos with tripa (tripe), oreja (pig's ear), sesos (beef brains) and lengua (beef tongue). Unfortunately they were all out of the first three. Undaunted, we put in an order for several tacos de lengua to go. The place was hopping, and I had a chance to watch the griddle man as he prepared what must have been 40 tacos in around 10 minutes. Not an easy thing to do, considering that the griddle is tiny.

Tacos in hand, we returned back to my place nearby to eat our tacos sip a few Twentieth-Century Cocktails where were were joined by bergerka and Eric Malson. The tongue was tender, and the tacos were delicious. Even bergerka, who is fairly suspicious of things like tongue meat, had to agree that they were outstanding. Does tongue qualify as "offal?" I don't know, but it certainly is good.

Taqueria y Fonda is a great place, and I saw plenty of things there I wouldn't ordinarily order (vegetable tacos, for example) that I will certainly be trying in the future. They melt the cheese for the quesadillas directly on the griddle, which I think is a nice touch. Herb ate his taco with great enthusiam.

Last on the schedule was a mixed grill. We originally wanted to visit La Portena or Argentine Pavillion, but as the hour was getting late we decided to walk down Amsterdam to Pampa. This was a bit of a disappointment. The food was good, but there has been serious decline in the food accompanied by a serious rise in the prices over the past several years. When Pampa first started out, they were one of the best deals in the city, they served beef from Argentina, and they served plenty of interesting things like tripe, intestines, kidneys, sweetbreads, etc. Well, hoof and mouth in Argentina put an end to the Argentine beef. Then, little by little, the interesting meats dropped off the menu. First to go was the tripe, then the kidneys, then the intestines. Finally, about 4-5 months ago, they raised their prices by around 40% and instituted a 30 dollar minimum. I still forget all the changes and go there everyu so often, but I usually regret it. This isn't to say that our meal was bad, per se, but it's not nearly as interesting (or as inexpensive) as what we could have had there a few years ago.

So... having finally rid ourselves of JJ () we were Herb, bergerka, Eric Malson and myself. We had the mixed grill, which consists of skirt steak, cross-cut short ribs, choriso, blood sausage and sweetbreads (would have included intestines, tripe and kidneys back in the old days).

Everything was good. Pampa has an excellent blood sausage, in particular. Looser textured and differently spiced than the sausage at Landmarc. I also ordered some extra sweetbreads.

Pampa's sweetbreads can be a hit-or-miss affair, but this time they were a hit. Nicely crispy on the outside, from the grilling rather than an applied crust, cooked through just a bit more than Landmarc's but not to the point that they developed any off-flavors. Very nice with chimichurri and nice red wine.

On the side we had marinated lamb's tongues. Tasty and simple.

Close to midnight as we emerged from Pampa to find our way home, I reflected that Herb's secret method for eating huge amounts of food in New York really did work. Looking forward to Part 2 already!

[kurl]

Brilliant post!

I predict that further entries in "The Offal Truth" will spur me to branch out a bit -- I've never been all that squeamish about offal (I ordered the beef tendon at Grand Sichuan on my second visit, I get sweetbreads pretty much everywhere they're on the menu, and I've been eating chopped liver (does that count?) and sampling tongue (in its rarely-good cold cut version) since childhood) but I've always internally drew a line between hearts and brains (which I've cowardlily (?) shied away from) and everything else, which I'm generally game for. When you guys find a good brain preparation, I'll probably work up the nerve and try it.

Re: Blue Ribbon -

I don't know what the history of Blue Ribbon is or anything (i.e. whether it was once Balthazar-level hip and has since tapered off, or whether it was always just a great local spot), but I love it. It doesn't seem to come up here often, but it is a great place to stop at and just grab a little something; as you say, the staff is totally amenable to your table of two splitting a $10 (or so) steak tartare and ordering a couple of cokes, even at the peak of dinner service. Those little somethings are inevitably well-prepared and tasty.

Digression-

To me, putting up with/encouraging customers who just want a bite or two is one of those nice and welcoming service touches that many restaurants simply don't engage in often enough. I've been looked at with suspicion in several half-empty restaurants because a companion and I just wanted, say, a couple of coffees and a slice of cake, despite the fact that we certainly weren't depriving them of revenue in any way. (Quite the contrary!. I think also of Gennaro's $20-minimum-order policy (though I've never tested it and they might relax it in the rare occasion that they're not full).

Digressionish return to the topic at hand-

I'm definitely going to stop at Blue Ribbon and try that awesome-looking marrow preparation at some point -- bone marrow is (at least in my opinion) some of the tastiest meat around (I'll have to try and prepare it someday).

Does anyone have any tips on other places which have great marrow preparations? A somewhat-overpriced Italian restaurant called Vespa (in my hometown of Great Neck (of all places)), serves a "marrow-heavy" simple osso bucco preparation with risotto that's fiendishly good (and devilishly listed on the menu without a price).

P.S. Is there a culinary term that lends itself more readily to punning than "offal?"

Edited April 25, 2004 by kurl (log)

[herbacidal]

Comments + additions:

Notice that Sam didn't mention how relieved he and JJ were that duck embryo wasn't available, as opposed to how disappointed I was.

Anytime you want to try and eat all day, walking is the only way to go.

I suspect the reason New Yorkers in general are slimmer than many people from elsewhere is because of just that. People walking here, there, everywhere.

Jeunefilleparis will back me up on this.

(I doubt health club membership is on a percentage par with LA, but that's possible.)

I liked the sweetbreads at La Luncheonette very much, but I didn't have a preconception of vingagrette. I did like how the cream sauce contrasted with the sour of the vinagrette.

I also liked the more classic preparation for sweetbreads at Landmarc, although I would've preferred to taste the horseradish.

[KatieLoeb]

By following Herb's "walk everywhere you go" philosophy, we were able to consume an alarming amount of offal yesterday.

I've seen him do this many times. I'm convinced it's a combination of the walking, the metabolism of a hummingbird and two hollow legs that allow Herb to eat more food than five sumo wrestlers in training combined and still remain a normal sized non-mordbidly obese person.

It's actually kinda scary

Looks like a good time was had by all and an inordinate amount of entrails were consumed.

The oysters looked really good.

[herbacidal]

By following Herb's "walk everywhere you go" philosophy, we were able to consume an alarming amount of offal yesterday.

I've seen him do this many times. I'm convinced it's a combination of the walking, the metabolism of a hummingbird and two hollow legs that allow Herb to eat more food than five sumo wrestlers in training combined and still remain a normal sized non-mordbidly obese person.

Nah, I outweigh JJ by about 50-70 pounds, and he ate just as much as me.

Edited April 26, 2004 by herbacidal (log)

[Mabelline]

Just a line here to say: YOU TORTURERS!! It all looks delicious and I may use some pictures to put under my pillow.

My one grampa used to refer to some things as 'lights' and some as offal. I reckon offal would be those things in the digestive tracts as opposed to the lights.

Another thing I glommed on in the intestine category: on our farm, us kids used to be given wooden thread spools and blew into the intestines very hard, to see holes left from cleaning...

[SobaAddict70]

Next, we went over to Elvie's Turo-Turo, a place just up First Avenue at 13th Street serving Philippino food.  We had gone there expecting to eat some duck embryo... but, alas, they were fresh out of them.  Presumably there had been a run on duck embryos earlier.  Who knew?  So, after perusing the counter and chatting with the counter man, we got a serving of something that was described to me as "pork heart."  This unfortunately turned out to be paksiw na pata, aka "pork hocks in vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, garlic and pepper with dried lily flower."  Not exactly offal...  Fortunately, it turned out to be delicious and we... er.. forced ourselves to eat it.

After eating that, we went back to the counter where we were able to get some kare-kare, which is oxtail, beef tripe and vegetables in peanut sauce with shrimp paste on the side.

This was good, but we all felt that the peanut sauce was lacking something to make it more interesting, and the tripe was perhaps too tender.  Tripe is a difficult thing to cook just right, I think.  You don't want it to be crunchy, but on the other hand you don't want it to be mushy either.  Something that is tender but stands up to the tooth is what I generally prefer... not easy to do in a steam table operation lime Elvie's.  None of this stood in the way of our enjoyment, however, and Elvies is definitely a cool place to check out.  All the dishes are $4.25 with rice.

Just a nitpick, Sam...

It's Filipino food.

Kare-kare is supposed to be that way, actually. I've had the version at Elvie's, which is as close to homemade as could be conceivable in a restaurant setting. Their bagoong side isn't to my preference -- I like it crumbly and dry with chopped raw garlic mixed in. I rate Elvie's version a 7 compared to the one my mom makes though.

Belut (duck embryo) is an acquired taste, so I've heard. I've never had it; my family isn't a fan of it. More power to y'all if you do.

Anything called "paksiw" is usually a stew in some type of vinegary or sour sauce. Kind of like adobo/adobong but not really.

Wish I'd been with y'all. You should have tried their dinuguan (beef, pork, beef and pork offal stew with a sauce of vinegar, chiles and pig's blood ). It's pretty ace.

Soba

[slkinsey]

Just a nitpick, Sam... 

It's Filipino food.

Now, why would people spell "Philippines" with a "PH" and two "Ps" and then make "Filipino" with an "F" and one "P"? It's... it's... it's like people from a country called the United States calling themselves Americ-- D'oh!

[alacarte]

Wow. Hats off to you guys for consuming all those lovely dishes that sissies like me won't touch.

[jogoode]

I've enjoyed offal ever since I had my first taste of sweetbreads as a child, but even until a year ago, walking through a Mexican or Chinese butcher shop and glimpsing lung or staring down a plucked goose made me light-headed. I can't say what behind the butchers' glass freaked me out more: animal parts that looked like they came from an animal (I'm thinking of ears, snouts and feet) or those items that if I didn't know better could be some weird vegetable (like bright white honeycomb tripe or comparatively bedraggled-looking intestines). Sometimes it was just the name of the meat that brought on bouts of queasiness and made me grab for a table, a counter, with which to steady myself – now I'm thinking of the Chinatown butcher standby, "pork recta," the other pork butt.

But yesterday, with that brain in front of me, which looked so much like a cartoon brain with its squiggly crannies, I thought about how far I've come. And I ate it casually, despite the crannies and the occasional thought about Mad Cow, like it was a piece of good old American chicken . Sam's right that it needed some textural contrast to be a dish that you'd want again, and I feel that way about a lot of offal. I could've eaten seven orders of Blue Ribbon's bone marrow on toasted bread, but it would be too rich to eat that much of it alone; the crust on our block of liver at Landmarc and the crisp fried outside of their sweetbreads make the melting meat more substantial. I have, however, had a couple of good experiences with sweetbreads without a crust when they are grilled and meaty, as at Argentine Pavillion (46th between 5th and 6th).

I was genuinely excited to try the duck embryo that Herb found, though I suppose that the persistence of my excitement would have depended on the little guy's appearance. (Anyone know what a cooked duck embryo looks like?) I was relieved when Elvie's said that it was all out.

[JosephB]

You guys are nuts.

[hspringut]

Sounds (and looks) delicious! Can I jump in for Part II?

[SobaAddict70]

I was genuinely excited to try the duck embryo that Herb found, though I suppose that the persistence of my excitement would have depended on the little guy's appearance. (Anyone know what a cooked duck embryo looks like?) I was relieved when Elvie's said that it was all out.

Not sure, actually.

Belut varies from egg to egg of course. Usually it's an intense gamy flavor. If you're lucky you might even get proto-feathers.

Click here for more belut adventures. (Not for the gulletarily squeamish.)

Soba