The Book & The Cook - PA

[percyn]

The Book & The Cook has some interesting events. I am hoping that we can discuss upcoming events and select a few to attend.

[percyn]

The "original" Chinese celebrity chef, Martin Yan will be featured as part of the Book & the Cook series (http://www.thebookandthecook.com/KitchenAid/schedule/) at Margaret Kuo's in Wayne, PA on Fri March 18, 2005.

There are 2 seatings - 6pm and 8:30pm

$55/person (website says it includes wine)

Menu -

Tempura Shrimp and Tofu Rolls

Peking Duck w/Mandarin Pancake

Creamy Walnut Jumbo Shrimp

Rack of lamb w/minted orange sauce

Seafood Fried jasmine rice

Lychee Ice Cream w/Chinese dates pastry

It says that guests will enjoy a cooking demo by Martin Yan during dinner. There will also be a book signing 1/2 hr before.

Cheers

Percy

[shacke]

I am going to Mark Bittman's dinner at Fork. He is the author of the "minimalist" column in the NY times every week and publishes great easy to use cookbooks. He is terrific and I am looking forward to it. I don't even know what book its about - just being released now.

evan

[Holly Moore]

Just a reminder, this thread is for the discussion of The Book Book - interesting events and pairings of chefs and restaurants and a discussion of any events after the fact.

Please use the ISO thread pinned at the top of the PA Forum if you are looking to find others to attend a specific meal with you.

Thanks.

[arice]

i'm headed to sansom st oyster house (katie's place) on the 19th for the dinner with John Uglesich. I stuffed myself silly at Uglesich's in New Orleans when I was there about this time last year. Had the most amazing oysters, soft shells and shrimp... I'm hoping this meal will bring back some of the delicious memories of that meal in NO.

looking forward to picking up the Uglesich's cookbook as well.

I think it's $50 per person.

-- arice

[Rich Pawlak]

I'm signed up for a full slate of dinners during TBATC. It's my favorite time of the year, hands down. Doing my two Golden Age of Beer Tours actually feels like a vacation after all that restaurant hopping:

3/11 Michael Jackson Beer Dinner at the U of P Museum

3/14 Greg Moore at Django

3/15 Bob Kinkead at Bookbinders

3/16 Frank Stitt at Jack's Firehouse

3/17 Marc Silverstein and Jill Cordes at the Joseph Ambler Inn

3/18 Waldy Malouf at Smoked Joint

3/20 Mary Ann Esposito ( an old dear friend) at Davio's

And I'll report everything right here, of course.

[gbredben]

I will be attending the Stephen Beaumont Beer Dinner at Monks on March 15 and the Waldy Malouf dinner at the Smoked Joint on March 18 . Plus add St. Patrick's Day, and it should make for a fun week.

[KatieLoeb]

Looks like there'll be quite a few of us at Smoked Joint on 3/18! I'll be there as well with a few friends in tow.

I'll undoubtedly be working on the evening of the 19th for the John Uglesich dinner at Oyster House. I definitely want to try some of his food! The dishes in the cookbook, which I've been thumbing through feverishly at work, look great.

[g_camper]

We are doing two -

Waldy Malouf - used to go to Hudson River Cafe in NY years ago - at Smoked Joint

Gaia's - at Angelina.

Look forward to seeing the gulleteers at TSJ.

[cinghiale]

Got to Bookie's last night for the appearance of Bob Kinkead, of Kinkead's in DC.

First off, the restaurant looks fabulous. Gone are the tired, dowager-like trappings. Still looks like a seafood house, just a modern one now. One nice touch: a large table, maybe an 8-top is set into a large, curved wall that is painted a delightful salmon. I chatted with the long-time manager, who said that the restaurant is now 1/3 the size of the old place. The kitchen's been redone and is now semi-open. Business has been brisk. The place was certainly full last night, with 80 in the books for Kinkead and the rest coming for the lobsters, I guess.

Service still needs polish. Our server was pleasant enough, but lacked much to say about the pretty thin wine list. And the runners made several gaffes, the first being that we had our first course before we got the amuse. That said, the staff are very friendly -- the sheer opposite of the service in the prior incarnation.

On to the food. I don't think Bookbinder's was the proper forum for Kinkead's dinner, a sentiment which he seemed to share. Granted, his cookbook is about seafood, but with a decidedly different approach. From what I could see on other tables, people were there for lobsters and crabcakes. Bookie's can try to modernize their menu all they want, but people, especially the tourists, are gonna come for the old standbys.

Amuse: Grilled Oysters and Pancetta:

I don't know that I've ever had oysters paired with a pork product before, but this was really good. The pancetta, surprisingly, did not overpower the oysters.

Primo: Wild Mushroom Ravioli with Mushroom Broth, Creamed Leeks, and Frigo Parmesan:

A standout. All the notes were perfect in this. The ravioli were done just right, the mushrooms (including morels) were terrific, and the broth was powerful. Man, together with the leeks ... I could eat this everyday.

Fish: Pepita-Crusted Salmon with Chilies, Corn and Shrimp Ragout:

This dish was well executed. I'm not a big salmon fan, but the pepita seeds (which Google tells me is a type of pumpkin seed) gave the fish a nice zest. The spicy corn ragout was delicious.

Meat: Muscovy Duck with Clementines, Port, and Viriginia Ham:

Very, very good. An excellent composition. The duck was perfectly prepared and balanced so well with the citrus and port combo. Simple yet elegant.

Dessert: Pecan Carrot Cake Roulade with Brown Sugar Sour Cream Ice Cream:

Unremarkable, other than having too long a name.

Wine was a Duckhorn SauvBlanc for, I think, $60, which would be a very reasonable mark-up. After dinner cocktails were downright cheap -- I had a Rusty Nail for $5.50.

The bar is very spacious and recommends itself for happy hour if you happen to be in Old City.

[shacke]

What an enticing post, Cinghiale - grazie! I am off to Fork tomorrow for my Bittman dinner and will post my experience sans photos, sorry.

evan

[Rich Pawlak]

Got to Bookie's last night for the appearance of Bob Kinkead, of Kinkead's in DC.

First off, the restaurant looks fabulous.  Gone are the tired, dowager-like trappings.  Still looks like a seafood house, just a modern one now.  One nice touch:  a large table, maybe an 8-top is set into a large, curved wall that is painted a delightful salmon.  I chatted with the long-time manager, who said that the restaurant is now 1/3 the size of the old place.  The kitchen's been redone and is now semi-open.  Business has been brisk.  The place was certainly full last night, with 80 in the books for Kinkead and the rest coming for the lobsters, I guess.

Service still needs polish.  Our server was pleasant enough, but lacked much to say about the pretty thin wine list.  And the runners made several gaffes, the first being that we had our first course before we got the amuse.  That said, the staff are very friendly -- the sheer opposite of the service in the prior incarnation.

On to the food.  I don't think Bookbinder's was the proper forum for Kinkead's dinner, a sentiment which he seemed to share.  Granted, his cookbook is about seafood, but with a decidedly different approach.  From what I could see on other tables, people were there for lobsters and crabcakes.  Bookie's can try to modernize their menu all they want, but people, especially the tourists, are gonna come for the old standbys.

Amuse: Grilled Oysters and Pancetta:

I don't know that I've ever had oysters paired with a pork product before, but this was really good.  The pancetta, surprisingly, did not overpower the oysters.

Primo: Wild Mushroom Ravioli with Mushroom Broth, Creamed Leeks, and Frigo Parmesan:

A standout.  All the notes were perfect in this.  The ravioli were done just right, the mushrooms (including morels) were terrific, and the broth was powerful.  Man, together with the leeks ...  I could eat this everyday.

Fish: Pepita-Crusted Salmon with Chilies, Corn and Shrimp Ragout:

This dish was well executed.  I'm not a big salmon fan, but the pepita seeds (which Google tells me is a type of pumpkin seed) gave the fish a nice zest.  The spicy corn ragout was delicious.

Meat: Muscovy Duck with Clementines, Port, and Viriginia Ham:

Very, very good.  An excellent composition.  The duck was perfectly prepared and balanced so well with the citrus and port combo.  Simple yet elegant.

Dessert:  Pecan Carrot Cake Roulade with Brown Sugar Sour Cream Ice Cream:

Unremarkable, other than having too long a name.

Wine was a Duckhorn SauvBlanc for, I think, $60, which would be a very reasonable mark-up.  After dinner cocktails were downright cheap -- I had a Rusty Nail for $5.50.

The bar is very spacious and recommends itself for happy hour if you happen to be in Old City.

←

Damn , we were sitting next to each other and we never introduced ourselves. I thought the dinner was quite good too. My duck didnt look like yours, and I didnt enjoy it either, chewy and off-flavor to me. Damn sorry I dint introduce myself. I've always wanted to meet you.

[cinghiale]

Damn , we were sitting next to each other and we never introduced ourselves.  I thought the dinner was quite good too.  My duck didnt look like yours, and I didnt enjoy it either, chewy and off-flavor to me.  Damn sorry I dint introduce myself. I've always wanted to meet you.

←

I second that damn! Were you at the table with the people from Bliss? Did you see me giving Chef the razz treatment? I came equipped with barbs from his daughter, fellow eGer kellytree.

Maybe I got a better duck because I told our server to hold off firing it until we could have another round of oysters. That probably put us into one of the last plates of the night, since it took forever to get the damn things (they came out together with the duck, a gaffe I didn't feel like going into upthread).

BTW: I found Kinkead sitting alone at the bar when I went for a smoke after dinner, and we chatted a bit. I was a tad loopy by this time, so did I dream that he said John Mariani was there for service? Do you know? If so, there's probably gonna be excellent PR coming up for Bookie's.

Also had a little tete-a-tete with him. From my email to kellytree about the meal:

Got into argument over the Philly restaurant scene.  “Name 5 good restaurants.  Right now,” he sorta snaps.  OK.  How about Le Bec Fin?  Extends thumb for Choice 1. “Forget it.  20 years past its prime.  No clue.  Next.”  LBF is one of the top French restaurants in the country.  Lacroix?  Used to cook at the Four Seasons?  Nod.  Hmmm, Susanna Foo?  “She’s eaten at my restaurant a couple of times.”  How about Django?  “Never heard of it.”  Well, it’s a small BYO, creative young chef/owner.  Recently got 4 stars from the local paper. He mentions some BYO near the restaurant that I’ve never heard of (I think he got the name wrong), citing that as “pretty good”.

Those were the best choices I could come up with in my condition

Edited March 17, 2005 by cinghiale (log)

[Rich Pawlak]

Damn , we were sitting next to each other and we never introduced ourselves.  I thought the dinner was quite good too.  My duck didnt look like yours, and I didnt enjoy it either, chewy and off-flavor to me.  Damn sorry I dint introduce myself. I've always wanted to meet you.

←

I second that damn! Were you at the table with the people from Bliss? Did you see me giving Chef the razz treatment? I came equipped with barbs from his daughter, fellow eGer kellytree.

Maybe I got a better duck because I told our server to hold off firing it until we could have another round of oysters. That probably put us into one of the last plates of the night, since it took forever to get the damn things (they came out together with the duck, a gaffe I didn't feel like going into upthread).

BTW: I found Kinkead sitting alone at the bar when I went for a smoke after dinner, and we chatted a bit. I was a tad loopy by this time, so did I dream that he said John Mariani was there for service? Do you know? If so, there's probably gonna be excellent PR coming up for Bookie's.

Also had a little tete-a-tete with him. From my email to kellytree about the meal:

Got into argument over the Philly restaurant scene.  “Name 5 good restaurants.  Right now,” he sorta snaps.  OK.  How about Le Bec Fin?  Extends thumb for Choice 1. “Forget it.  20 years past its prime.  No clue.  Next.”  LBF is one of the top French restaurants in the country.  Lacroix?  Used to cook at the Four Seasons?  Nod.  Hmmm, Susanna Foo?  “She’s eaten at my restaurant a couple of times.”  How about Django?  “Never heard of it.”  Well, it’s a small BYO, creative young chef/owner.  Recently got 4 stars from the local paper. He mentions some BYO near the restaurant that I’ve never heard of (I think he got the name wrong), citing that as “pretty good”.

Those were the best choices I could come up with in my condition

←

We were the table of two sitting to your left as you arrived; we chatted a little bit but obviously not enough.

I did not see Mariani in the house while we were there, so I wonder if he came before the crowds, as he had a dinner that night at Bliss for hios own book. If Mariani did visit, you wont read about it in Esquire until late fall, and only if he liked it.

I did make it back into the kitchen to chat with Kinkead and Bookie's chef David Cunningham, who, I am convinced, will bring the new Bookie's back to prominence. Was able to munch on warm frico sitting in a bowl on the chef's line, much better than the rubbery ones in the ravioli appetizer.

Should you make the next DDC dinners, we definitely should chat.

[shacke]

Last night we had a really pleasant dinner at Fork with Mark Bittman cooking from his yet to be released book. The food was good and we got to hang out with him quite a bit. He hails from NY like 3/4 of the folks at our table. I look forward to his weekly recipes and articles in the NY times.

The premise of the new book is pitting simplistic home recipes against four star chef recipes to prove that great food can be made at home with few key ingredients. The courses offered a "star chef" recipe paired with one of his own.

No pics - that would have been cool - but I had....

Lemongrass rack of lamb (Slanted Door) with his skewered squid in black pepper sesame lemon sauce. I love Slanted door restaurant in San Francisco so I had to try this.

Lemon Peppered duck breast (Gary Danko's) along with braised duck confit on an aromatic potato hash.

Dessert was brioche bread pudding (AOC) along with his tartless tarte tatin - basically the highly sweetened top of the pastry.

My wife had Stuffed crab (Jaleo) along with his very tasty garlic soup.

Skate with Brown butter and Honey (Jean-Georges) with chive spaetzle and greens. That seemed to be the table favorite. I am a big skate fan.

I got the wine flight and my wife got the job of driving home. It has been a couple of years since I did the restaurant series but look forward to next year. Too much food for $50.

Evan

[shacke]

That reminds me that the next door annex of Fork - called Fork etc. has a prix fixe 3 course dinner every Wednesday with chef Ngo. I hear the range of ingredients can get quite "interesting" - that sounds like just my style! $40 including wine, first come first serve. Here is a sample menu

http://www.forkrestaurant.com/chef_bistro_menu.htm

Anyone been here yet? Sounds great.

Evan

[g_camper]

Went to the Waldy Malouf Book & Cook at the Smoked Joint. I dined at one of Waldy's prior ventures in NY many times, and was looking forward to it, but found it a little disappointing.

Started with Roasted Oysters which were served on rock salt intermingled with peppercorns. While tasty, they were somewhat overmatched by the shallots and I missed the oyster flavor almost entirely.

The smoked pork chop was very good, but could have had some sauce (I ended up using Smoked Joints BBQ sauce, and it added a great deal. The pickled vegetables were very good. It was served with Waldy's view of Mac & Cheese, but neither SWAMBO nor I liked it, but our friends (French) loved it. We preferred the Smoked Joints' own Mac & Cheese.

The dessert was blood oranges, bananas, ice cream and a nice closing dish.

I am uncertain how good the turnout was for this event. It didn't seem too crowded for the earlier seating, but was getting somewhat crowded when we left.

[percyn]

Did anyone make it to Lacroix on March 19th when Patrick O'Connell was there?

Unfortunately I am recovering from a cold, so my tastebuds are shot, otherwise I would have been there.

[KatieLoeb]

Went to the Waldy Malouf Book & Cook at the Smoked Joint.  I dined at one of Waldy's prior ventures in NY many times, and was looking forward to it, but found it a little disappointing.

Started with Roasted Oysters which were served on rock salt intermingled with peppercorns.  While tasty, they were somewhat overmatched by the shallots and I missed the oyster flavor almost entirely.

The smoked pork chop was very good, but could have had some sauce (I ended up using Smoked Joints BBQ sauce, and it added a great deal.  The pickled vegetables were very good.  It was served with Waldy's view of Mac & Cheese, but neither SWAMBO nor I liked it, but our friends (French) loved it.  We preferred the Smoked Joints' own Mac & Cheese.

The dessert was blood oranges, bananas, ice cream and a nice closing dish.

I am uncertain how good the turnout was for this event.  It didn't seem too crowded for the earlier seating, but was getting somewhat crowded when we left.

←

What time were you there? I know that the other eGulls I knew were in attendance around 8PM or so. Myself and guests, Rich Pawlak and guests and Cherie Vallance and fiance were all there up on the left riser area as you enter. Gary Bredbenner was on the floor with a few friends and then at the bar below my table chatting with my friends and I. I had been hoping to meet you, but I guess next time we should all arrange to wear red carnations or something, a la Looney Tunes, so we can recognize each other.

I really enjoyed the dinner immensely. Had a really nice chat with Waldy, who is very charming and fun to talk to. I thought the oysters were really good. Sort of a twist on a standard Oysters Rockefeller recipe. I thought the presentation on the rock salt and peppercorns was beautiful visually. That Smoked Pork Chop had to have been the best pork chop I've ever tasted. I wasn't so crazy about the pickled veggies that accompanied, but the pork was astounding. Moist and incredibly smoky. Yow! And well paired with the Gewurztraminer they offered as a beverage pairing option. Dessert was good. Not so sure about the shortbread/cookie underlayer that seemed a bit hard and dry, but the blood oranges, carmelized bananas and blood orange sauce were very tasty and mingled well with the vanilla ice cream on the side.

The real fun started at the Book & the Cook after party that followed dinner. All of the participating chefs and restaurants were invited, and several local wine & spirit purveyors made donations that kept the libations flowing free and freely until the wee hours. Met and chatted with a few of my Food TV faves including Mark Silverstein and Jill Cordes of The Best of, Tyler Florence (he's so dreamy ) and Giada DiLaurentiis. There was a Karaoke DJ in attendance and suffice to say that a few Food TV celebs got into singing after enough drinks. Also managed to catch Waldy downing some Irish Car Bombs at the bar with local bad influence Chef Guillermo Pernot of Pasion. Much drinking and wild singing and dancing followed. The Smoked Joint and especially our own Ali Waks were wonderful hosts.

[g_camper]

What time were you there?  I know that the other eGulls I knew were in attendance around 8PM or so. 

←

We were there around 6:30 and left around 9. Sorry we missed you too. It is interesting to hear that you enjoyed the Pork Chop more than I did - mine was dry and not very interesting at all - at least to me.

I agree with you on the shortbread.

Waldy is charming and fun to chat with.

We were sitting down on the floor near the window.

I will stop by SSOH one day this week and find you.

[Lurch]

Did anyone make it to Lacroix on March 19th when Patrick O'Connell was there?

Unfortunately I am recovering from a cold, so my tastebuds are shot, otherwise I would have been there.

←

I did get to Lacroix on the 19th. Chef O'Connell did a 5 course menu based around dishes from the book.

They were::

A demitasse of Apple and Rutabaga Soup

Truffle Flecked Diver Scallop with Cauliflower Puree and Red Wine Butter Sauce

Pan Roasted Lobster with Rosemary Cream

Pot au feu, Beef Tenderloin and Breast of Chicken

Chocolate Mint Fantasy

Because I was driving, I did not partake of a sommelier tasting, but I did have a glass of the Philippe de Rothschild Viognier 2002, which I thought was very good.

Chef O'Connell came to talk to us when we were finished, very gracious and signed my copy of his book.