Babbo

[moosnsqrl]

"Maple Cream," basically a maple pot de creme topped with some crunchy bits of nuts and served with three warm perfectly round fried dough balls that were "pumpkin-spiced."  I don't want to call them beignets, as they had a specific Italian name (which also began with a "b") - can anyone help me with this one?

They sound suspiciously like zeppole to me, although clearly that doesn't begin with a "b" so perhaps not.

[ulterior epicure]

Try again. They very well may have been zappole, technically, but the menu referred to them as "B....." - with quotes, which makes me think it's a cute Italian descriptor for the shape, or some such (e.g. cannonball or bowling ball), like the "francobolli."

[plattetude]

Try again.  They very well may have been zappole, technically, but the menu referred to them as "B....."  - with quotes, which makes me think it's a cute Italian descriptor for the shape, or some such (e.g. cannonball or bowling ball), like the "francobolli."

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Well, maybe this offers the answer. Bignè di S. Giuseppe, perhaps?

Christopher

[slkinsey]

Those are more commonly known as sfinci di San Giuseppe, at least down South.

Edited March 28, 2007 by slkinsey (log)

[sadie_siamesecat]

"Bombolino" or "Bombolini" were the fried doughnuts that they had about a year ago--they came with dipping sauces and we were truly dismayed when they left the menu!

[ulterior epicure]

"Bombolino" or "Bombolini" were the fried doughnuts that they had about a year ago--they came with dipping sauces and we were truly dismayed when they left the menu!

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Well, they're back! No dipping sauces in this incarnation, but with maple custard. Thanks - bomboloni - that's exactly right.

[slkinsey]

That must be it. Bomboloni are, more or less, fried doughnuts, usually filled with something. The "-oni" ending indicates larger-than-usual size (and also plural -- it would be "-one" in the singular). Change that to "-ini" (or "-ino" for just one) and you get something with smaller-than-usual size. Hence, these would be "small-sized bomboloni."

Edited to add: "bomba" means "bomb" or "bombshell" -- i.e., something spherical -- and is used much like "bombe" in French with respect to foods.

Edited March 28, 2007 by slkinsey (log)

[larrylee]

Regarding the reservations gauntlet - for the heck of it, I dropped in one day to see if I could get a dinner reservation a few days ahead. The receptionist called the reservation number using the house phone (I guess the bookings are made somewhere else... maybe a quiet office) and handed it over to me. I got my table (albeit early) and the whole experience was extremely pleasant and took all of 3 minutes.

u.e.: And about bar dining - As sneakeater and Nathan mention, bar dining is great for dining solo... in addition to the times when you want a meal at a "fancy" place without having to plan ahead. OR if your planning ahead fails to secure the table you want.

Edited March 28, 2007 by larrylee (log)

[ulterior epicure]

u.e.: And about bar dining - As sneakeater and Nathan mention, bar dining is great for dining solo... in addition to the times when you want a meal at a "fancy" place without having to plan ahead. OR if your planning ahead fails to secure the table you want.

I guess I didn't make myself clear enough in my previous comments regarding the bar. I do not disagree that the bar is usually an excellent choice for solo, and often for couple, restaurant dining. However, I personally *hate* crowded elbow-on-elbow decibel-on-decibel situations. Regardless of how good those sweetbreads were, I, for one, probably would forego enjoying them just to avoid the mayhem that I saw in Babbo's bar that evening. That's just me, though.

Edited March 28, 2007 by ulterior epicure (log)

[rich]

u.e.: And about bar dining - As sneakeater and Nathan mention, bar dining is great for dining solo... in addition to the times when you want a meal at a "fancy" place without having to plan ahead. OR if your planning ahead fails to secure the table you want.

I guess I didn't make myself clear enough in my previous comments regarding the bar. I do not disagree that the bar is usually an excellent choice for solo, and often for couple, restaurant dining. However, I personally *hate* crowded elbow-on-elbow decibel-on-decibel situations. Regardless of how good those sweetbreads were, I, for one, probably would forego enjoying them just to avoid the mayhem that I saw in Babbo's bar that evening. That's just me, though.

←

When I tended my father's bar, we would have a regular clientele for breakfast. Most would have a beer poured over a raw egg with a shot (scotch or rye) as a chaser - ahh, the good old days when men were men and women drank them under the table.

[Nathan]

u.e.: And about bar dining - As sneakeater and Nathan mention, bar dining is great for dining solo... in addition to the times when you want a meal at a "fancy" place without having to plan ahead. OR if your planning ahead fails to secure the table you want.

I guess I didn't make myself clear enough in my previous comments regarding the bar. I do not disagree that the bar is usually an excellent choice for solo, and often for couple, restaurant dining. However, I personally *hate* crowded elbow-on-elbow decibel-on-decibel situations. Regardless of how good those sweetbreads were, I, for one, probably would forego enjoying them just to avoid the mayhem that I saw in Babbo's bar that evening. That's just me, though.

←

When I tended my father's bar, we would have a regular clientele for breakfast. Most would have a beer poured over a raw egg with a shot (scotch or rye) as a chaser - ahh, the good old days when men were men and women drank them under the table.

←

the latter is still true in Australia.

[ulterior epicure]

ulterior epicure, you had what I think are among the best dishes at Babbo (tripe, beef cheek ravioli, fennel dusted sweetbreads), so I am not surprised you had a good time.  I've also had excellent experiences with Babbo's wine staff, who always seem to take my vague ideas and recommend something special and extraordinary costing less than I was planning to spend on wine.

Interestingly, the one thing you write about with which I'd take exception is your description of the ravioli as "perfectly al dente."  The one time I've been disappointed with the pasta at Babbo was an order of the lamb's brain ravioli (which, similar to your reaction, I'd like to see a little more "brainy") that I felt was al dente.  I say this because I don't think fresh pasta from the tradition in which Babbo is operating -- which is to say, in the larger Emilia-Romagna tradition as opposed to some toothier fresh pasta styles from the South, like orecchiette -- is meant to bite back.  Rather, I think this style of fresh pasta should be tender, and when a raviolo has a texture that I'd call al dente,  it makes me think it's been frozen too long, or made with flour that's too hard.  This is not to say that I like it mushy, of course, but to my taste pasta can't be "tender" and "al dente" at the same time (in general, I'd only use "al dente" to describe dry pasta).  I've never found the beef cheek ravioli at Babbo anything other than tender.  Just curious if you could expand on your perceptions of the texture of the fresh pasta dishes.

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slkinsey.

I just now found your post amidst all the jabber about bar eating.

I will not pretend to know everything (or anything) about Italian regional cooking. Although it's the European country I've traveled the most extensively throughout other than France, it is such a gastronomically sub-cultured country that I could only wish to master a small portion of Italian cuisine. Certainly, I am no expert.

That being said, I do have my own preferences and thoughts about pasta, which is what I can offer. Regarding the "al dente" comment: I suppose there are shades of "doneness." As you point out, pasta can be tender, yet still have a sturdiness. I think you and I mean the same thing.

When it comes to filled pastas, for me, the level of sturdiness of the pasta generally should increase with the thickness/sturdiness of the filling. For example, as you point out, the pasta for the Beef Cheek Ravioli is "nothing but tender." I would agree - the pasta was markedly more delicate than the one used for the lamb's brain francobolli. The thinner, silkier pasta complimented the soft silkiness of the beef cheek filling - which I learned from the Babbo cookbook is actually pureed in a blender. However, the pasta still had an elasticity and slight toothiness that made it a pleasure to eat - what I consider "al dente."

The pasta for the Lamb's Brain Francobollil, on the other hand, was thicker and heavier - the heft met nicely with the thicker ricotta-brain filling. It too was tender, but abundantly more sturdy than the beef cheek pasta. It too was "perfectly al dente" relative to its purpose and filling.

Does this make sense? I'd like to know your thoughts. The next time I go (I'm determined there will be a next time), I'll have to try the goose liver ravioli and some of their non-filled pastas. Which would you recommend?

Edited March 29, 2007 by ulterior epicure (log)

[slkinsey]

Does this make sense?  I'd like to know your thoughts.  The next time I go (I'm determined there will be a next time), I'll have to try the goose liver ravioli and some of their non-filled pastas.  Which would you recommend?

I think I see where you're coming from. Personally, I found the extra chew of the lamb's brain ravioli a little off-putting, but that's a matter of preference of course.

If I'm reading correctly, you're using the words "al dente" more or less to convey the meaning: "the ideal state of done-ness for each particular kind of pasta." My confusion arose because this is not the way that term is typically used in my experience. Rather, it's used to describe the firm bite of not-quite-cooked-through dry pasta. I don't think one would find too many Italians describing fresh pasta as "al dente" (or at least not in a positive way!), because fresh pasta in the Emilia-Romagna tradition is supposed to be tender. I remember an episode from Batali's original show where he spoke about how he learned not to use egg wash to seal the edges of ravioli: he said Italians thought this made the edges of the ravioli unacceptably tough, and they tended to cut the edges away and set them aside. A lot of Americans, however, like the idea of fresh pasta with some bite to it (usually achieved through the use of durum wheat), and I've had any number of ravioli at Italian-American places that I considered tough and therefore might have (negatively) described as "al dente."

Anyway, back to the topic of Babbo... The goose liver ravioli are definitely a must-try, in my opinion, as are the "mint love letters" (rectangular ravioli filled with mint and sauced with a spicy lamb ragu). In the non-filled pasta category, I highly recommend the maccheroni alla chitarra with oven dried tomatoes, red chiles and bottarga di muggine, as well as the fettuccine with house-made pancetta, artichokes, lemon and hot chiles.

[ulterior epicure]

Does this make sense?  I'd like to know your thoughts.  The next time I go (I'm determined there will be a next time), I'll have to try the goose liver ravioli and some of their non-filled pastas.  Which would you recommend?

I think I see where you're coming from. Personally, I found the extra chew of the lamb's brain ravioli a little off-putting, but that's a matter of preference of course.

If I'm reading correctly, you're using the words "al dente" more or less to convey the meaning: "the ideal state of done-ness for each particular kind of pasta." My confusion arose because this is not the way that term is typically used in my experience. Rather, it's used to describe the firm bite of not-quite-cooked-through dry pasta. I don't think one would find too many Italians describing fresh pasta as "al dente" (or at least not in a positive way!), because fresh pasta in the Emilia-Romagna tradition is supposed to be tender. I remember an episode from Batali's original show where he spoke about how he learned not to use egg wash to seal the edges of ravioli: he said Italians thought this made the edges of the ravioli unacceptably tough, and they tended to cut the edges away and set them aside. A lot of Americans, however, like the idea of fresh pasta with some bite to it (usually achieved through the use of durum wheat), and I've had any number of ravioli at Italian-American places that I considered tough and therefore might have (negatively) described as "al dente."

Yes, you are reading me correctly, however I do stand educated by your post. I did like the sturdier, thicker, pasta with the lamb's brain, but again, that is my preference. I also tend to like pasta that is more "toothy" than soft (and, I think that is true universally for my palate). To be sure, the pasta at Babbo was, what I think you would consider, "tender" - not the al dente that I now realize you are describing - that near-gritty under-cooked state common, as you note, to dried pasta. That, certainly, is not how the pasta that I had at Babbo was.

Anyway, back to the topic of Babbo... The goose liver ravioli are definitely a must-try, in my opinion, as are the "mint love letters" (rectangular ravioli filled with mint and sauced with a spicy lamb ragu).  In the non-filled pasta category, I highly recommend the maccheroni alla chitarra with oven dried tomatoes, red chiles and bottarga di muggine, as well as the  fettuccine with house-made pancetta, artichokes, lemon and hot chiles.

Both sound excellent - especially the maccioroni alla chitarra, which I don't recall seeing on the menu (but then I wasn't really paying attention to the menu as the chef had organized our tasting), but I have read the recipe many times.

[Nathan]

I second the recs of the goose liver ravioli and the mint "love letters"

[tupac17616]

The pumpkin (or sweet potato, depending on the season) lune are also delicious. As is the black spaghetti with rock shrimp, calabrese and green chiles. Oh, and about this time of year, the stinging nettle pappardelle with wild boar ragu. Oh man. As far as pasta dishes at Babbo go, you can hardly go wrong, it seems.

[BryanZ]

Although my dining "luck" may pale in comparison to some others, the fates smiled upon me last week. A friend was willing to give it to me an extra reservation she held at Babbo. On the exact day I had planned to go out to dinner before leaving for Chicago for the next few months. A Saturday. At 7:45. Stuff like this usually doesn't happen to me.

Anyway, the meal was a solid one, but I found myself a little bit less moved by Babbo than on my previous two visits. The meal was not so much a step off or down as it was evidence of my changing tastes. I actually found my meal at Insieme a couple weeks back to be more compelling, showing a more refined side to Italian cuisine, both traditional and contemporary.

While waiting for a table to open up upstairs, we had glasses of prosecco at the bar. The mass of supplicant foodies that surround that bar and small waiting area never seems to disperse and, as usual, barred the progress of the servers trying to get to the corner row of two tops that runs perpendicular to the bar. The maitre d was his typical douchey self, never outright insulting but slyly passive aggressive. In other words, all seemed right.

We ordered what many would consider a "ton" of food. My mother, sister, and I started off by sharing the lambs tongue salad and grilled octopus appetizers and the sweetbreads entree. A nice but not mind-blowing start. People talk up these dishes like whoa, but I didn't find them to be amazing. Really good, yes, but not amazing. I thought the lambs tongue could've used more acid, the octopus more char, and the sweetbreads less sauce. The dishes were fundamentally very tasty, but it was easy to see how to make them better.

Then we had the pasta tasting menu, subbing in the beef cheek ravioli for the some dude's pyramids/letters/whatever. As usual, very delicious, toothsome pastas and a great introduction to how good pasta can be, but I was looking for something a little more. Possibly because I've had and made these same dishes or ones very close to them in the past couple years (it was my first visit to Babbo that got me and my family on a MAJOR fresh pasta kick), we all felt like we were eating merely a slightly better version of things we've had before. There was no "Ah-Ha!" moment. I sound overly critical, the food is quite delicious, but nothing more, if that makes sense.

Desserts showed some restraint, which was nice. A slightly-too-tough sesame cake with blood orange marmalade, a small fiore di latte with fig, and a different main dessert for each of us. The stewed blueberries with buttermilk gelato that came with the blueberry tart was one of the best things I ate all night. I also got to try the saffron panna cotta for the first time and really, really enjoyed it.

There's a temparanillo/syrah blend quartino that's quite tasty and not expensive and moscato d'asti which is also really nice.

Service was solid, everything taken care of in a timely manner. Our captain looked sooooo young but was a nice guy if a little bit spread too thin. Our meal clocked in at exactly three hours, which is probably just perfect for most people, but I would've liked things to move just a smidge faster. My family is boring, what I can I say.

To my unique tastes, both Babbo and Del Posto miss the mark slightly in serving as the "quintessential" Italian restaurant. Nevertheless, Babbo is certainly worth visiting if you can get lucky in the reservations game as I did.

ETA: Babbo is well known for its eclectic and sometimes loud musical stylings. On the night I went it was not so much the latter as the former. They actually played the entirety of the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! self-titled album, widely hailed as one of the most annoying, if critically acclaimed, discs to grace mainstream indie pop in the past couple years. For those unfamiliar with the band, it's literally like nails on a chalk board. I laughed, while rocking out the whole time.

Edited May 22, 2007 by BryanZ (log)

[markk]

I found myself a little bit less moved by Babbo than on my previous two visits.  The meal was not so much a step off or down as it was evidence of my changing tastes. 

Though your tastes may be changing, I'd say that Babbo's standards are definitely slipping. As I wrote upstream (and I must say, I felt a great sense of deja-vu reading your extremely kind post just now), I think the food at Babbo is phoned-in now. I don't think it's your taste.

Culinary excitement doesn't necessarily have to be about re-arraging food molecules in ways that have never been done before, which I say because I know how much you're into this movement, to give just one example. What may be great about a particular molecularly rearranged meal is not the rearrangement of the molecules itself, but the fact that the energy with which they were rearranged in the kitchen tranlates to energy and excitement in the mouth, and on the brain. But this is not to say that old fashioned, or traditional foods should be written off. When you have them prepared by somebody who's making them as if they've just invented them, with all the care and excitiment that have obviously disappeared from the Babbo kitchen, you realize this. There are still villages in Italy where you can eat traditional dishes that convey the same, if not more culinary excitement, than the latest molecule-and-foam meal. A Bolognese sauce made with love and caring can be a mind-expanding experience. The one at Babbo, however, is anything but.

So I don't think that your experience reflects a change in your tastes. I think it reflects boredom and complacency in the Babbo kitchen.

[BryanZ]

It could be a combination of the two factors. The dishes I had at Babbo two years ago, one year ago, and this past week were very similar. To a certain extent perhaps boredom of the palate can be interpreted as boredom from the kitchen. I feel like Babbo is executing its dishes quite well, it's just I've had them before and am looking for something new. New, in this context, could be that generations-old bolognese recipe in some village in Italy.

With that said, I agree that passion from the kitchen can make a simple or familiar dish extremely compelling. Although I've had only one meal there, and it was admittedly not a spectacular one, Insieme showed this to me. Chef Canora is not only creating new Italian-inspired dishes but is also recasting true classics like lasagna or linguine with clams. These latter dishes are not at all modern or new in the "molecules" sense but in that they represent a new vision of a talented chef.

[markk]

I'm with you on all of that. But though I don't know if you had Babbo's Bolognese dish at this meal, I had it with three friends a few months ago, and thought it was simply lousy -not even good enough to call "ordinary". Then I noticed that the three friends dining with me had all left significant portions of theirs uneaten too - and this was the second course in the meal, not a time when food usually goes uneaten. So I'm taking Bolognese ragu not just as a theoretical generations-old dish that could be a masterpiece anytime a chef wanted it to be, I'm taking that as the constant by which I'm judging their approach to their cooking today. In other words, I'm saying that Chef Canora (whose food I have not yet eaten) could very likely take any of the dishes on the Babbo pasta tasting menu and make them as if you were tasting them "for the first time", which is to say, exciting once again. I don't mean to drag us in circles, but the something more that you were missing at the Babbo meal could just have been the care with which they were made; when I had the pasta tasting menu, which I believe we something like doubled in courses, every one of the dishes was pretty much a "toothsome" but lackluster pasta, dressed in a sauce that it was completely disconnected from. So I'm not sure of your use of the term "vision of a talented chef", in that I don't think it's necessarily vision that makes lasagne, or linguine with clams, great (though at the moment, I'm not finding the word I want).

I do admire that you haven't cast aside traditional foods as part of your love of molecular cuisine. I would definitely urge you to seek out those parts of Italy and France where the food is old, old fashioned, and as traditional as can be, yet thrilling and exciting at the same time. I've had dishes as simple as Mozzarella and Tomatoes on the island of Capri where the tomatoes were green and sinfully delicious and the mozzarella just hours old from Sorrento (by ferry), with nothing more than spectacular olive oil and fresh basil, and a sprinkle of salt, that made me think that they hadn't invented enough stars in the guidebooks.

[Nathan]

dude, Marco's Pyramids are really good...seriously!

hmm...I haven't been in about a year...I think I need a visit soon to compare to the past.

[Megan Blocker]

I have to agree on most counts, though I did really enjoy the sweetbreads on my last visit about three weeks back (which was the first time I'd tried them). Yeah, there was a lot of sauce, but since the sauce was so good, and since we were sharing and I had just grabbed a sweetbread and taken it to my plate, it didn't bother me too much (all the better to sop up with my bread).

I was less impressed with the spaghetti with lobster and chives - it was fine, but nothing extraordinary (Sort of what Mark notes above - the pasta was good, the sauce was fine, but why together, and what was up with all the tomatoes?).

The one other dish that really made an impression was the goose liver ravioli with balsamic vinegar and brown butter. Hard to mess up anything with those three ingredients. It was really delicious. Maybe it's just me, but I don't go into Babbo expecting to be blown away by the creativity, but more by the intense flavors in each dish. It's not a place where I expect a huge amount of subtlety.

Maybe that goes to show that when in doubt at Babbo, one should stick with the organ meats?

[ulterior epicure]

Maybe that goes to show that when in doubt at Babbo, one should stick with the organ meats?

Perhaps that explains why I really enjoyed my meal there (a month ago) - I had almost all offal.

The octopus was nicely charred when I had it. The sweetbreads did have a healthy amount of the membrillo sauce, but I didn't mind - as it was more tangy than sweet.

Desserts were the weakest part of our meal.

[Pan]

So it sounds like you all are suggesting offal, not a pasta tasting menu anymore? I've promised to take a friend for a pasta tasting menu when he defends his dissertation. He's been to Al Di La' (actually, both of us have, separately). Will he be disappointed by comparison? Neither of us have ever been to Babbo.

Edited May 22, 2007 by Pan (log)

[ulterior epicure]

So it sounds like you all are suggesting offal, not a pasta tasting menu anymore? I've promised to take a friend for a pasta tasting menu when he defends his dissertation. He's been to Al Di La' (actually, both of us have, separately). Will he be disappointed by comparison? Neither of us have ever been to Babbo.

←

I have not been to Al Di La', and I have only been to Babbo once, so I am ill-qualified to answer your question. However, I did have two pastas that evening, and they were both spectacular. Then again, both had offal incorporated into the pastas (Lambs Brain Francobolli and the Beef Cheek Ravioli (which, I think is a stretch to call 'offal,' but it is categorized as such).

You can find my post upthread about my meal (a month ago). It was one of the best meals I've had in New York. Caveat, I was VIP'ed.

u.e.