After what seemed like the longest semester EVER, I caught up with an old friend I hadn’t seen in ages over dinner at Landmarc in the Time Warner Center.  I’d been to the location down in TriBeCa – twice – although looking at those reviews, what was I drinking when I wrote them?  I bash everything and then say I like the place.  Haha I guess I’m a lot pickier now – in any case, I didn’t re-read those first, I just remembered writing positively about those experiences and enjoying my food.  Plus Blackboard Eats had a special deal that pushed us in that direction – 30% off dinner or lunch, plus a free dessert tray for Visa Signature members.  Guess who’s a Visa Signature member?   

The bread was fairly standard. 

Unfortunately, I can’t find the cocktail menu online, but I do know I had a lemonade type drink with gin in it.  I’m discovering within me a fondness for gin.  I liked this drink quite a bit.  I wish I could remember the name or what was exactly in it, though! 

I remembered that I’d enjoyed the ricotta fritters previously, and suggested we order these.  I thought I’d referred to them as biting into cheese-flavored-air…

but was disappointed to find these were soggy, no crisp exterior, and the inside tasted more soggy than like whipped cheese air.  Sadface.  My friend seemed alright with them, but made no positive nor negative comment, just ate her share. 

And then she ate her steak, which was also consumed without much comment on the food.  Well, not everyone is as food obsessed as I am, to be fair.  She happily nommed as we caught up on each other’s lives. 

I’d tacked on an order of creamed spinach for us to share, which I liked.  It was creamy, slightly garlicky, and tasty.  She must’ve liked it even more, since she basically inhaled the rest of it before I could eat too much…

Since I wasn’t that hungry, I decided to make a meal of the bone marrow appetizer alone, knowing how filling marrow + bread can be (for me, anyway – that beefy fatty goodness!).  I eagerly dug in and was immediately confused.  Running through the marrow in each shank were thin bones, about the width of fishbones, but stuck to the bone.  Like the cow had had… weird… extra calcium deposits or something, or grew thin bones inside its shank.  I don’t know that the restaurant could have known about that, but it really ruined the experience for me as they got more and more frequent and actually made it near impossible to get more than a teeny bit of marrow at a time.  I hardly ate any after that, digging briefly through each bone just to see what I could get, and then gave up.  I was pretty disappointed – I know you can’t compare, but I’ve had such good experience with marrow (both at home making it myself, and with ordering it – notably, at Blue Ribbon).  So… fluke, or regular occurrence? 

Our free dessert tray, courtesy of BlackBoard Eats’ special deal.  Normally $16, it includes one each of the desserts on its menu.

Closer up – blueberry crumble, chocolate mousse, creme brulee.

Cream puff; lemon tart; tiramisu and chocolate mousse. 

Honestly, none of the desserts were bad (maybe the tiramisu… but I won’t get into that) – and the lemon tart was pretty fab! the blueberry crumble was pretty good, too! – the rest were pretty standard.  Pretty cool that it came free of charge! 

With our check came a dish of caramels… so good!  I ate my two very quickly and hid the wrappers, hoping she’d think there were only two.  Haha just kidding.  I ‘fessed up.  These were bangin’ though! 

Yvo says: Our check came to $55ish, plus a generous tip (tip on the PRE-DISCOUNT AMOUNT, please!!!) … about $80.  Totally awesome BlackBoard Eats deal, and overall, a positive experience – we weren’t treated differently even though we had to tell them from the start that we were planning on using the deal.  Our service was fabulous, and though I didn’t like my actual meal that much, I felt like it was a fluke and I could go back and enjoy another meal there.  Or just stick to the steak there, like I once conjectured…

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blackboard Eats, dessert, marrow, Steak

I had dinner with StB and the new fiance recently; she was back in town for the weekend, so we headed over to Ducks eatery because she’d heard a lot of good things about the food.  Cute, right?  Except the above is not what I saw when I was looking for the place (that photo was taken a few days later when I walked by and finally noticed it). 

That’s what I saw.  See?  The ducks are on the left side of the door.  Why is it called Spin?  Because it’s actually the eatery inside a ping pong club.  I mean, table tennis.  Yes, table tennis.  There were people playing table tennis all night… Apparently it’s really popular now.  Balls of Fury, anyone? 

I ran a little late so when I got to the table, StB and StBf had ordered the wings.  I tried one, and they were ok but nothing special. 

StB also ordered the cocoa + coconut popcorn, which I definitely didn’t try (I’m allergic to coconut).  I know she really liked it because she took it with us and ate a lot of it

StBf ordered the Philadelphia sandwich, which he thought was good – not amazing, but solid. 

StB ordered the Saigon: ”It was decent but I wouldn’t order it again. It was a little too sour. The pickled veggies and lemongrass pate overpowered the other ingredients. However,  I did enjoy the crispy bread and cracklings.”

After a lot of pondering, I ordered the Korean tacos.  I wasn’t sure I’d like it because it listed kimchi as a topping, and I’m not big on kimchi – especially the super spicy, super fermenty kind. 

But these tacos were REALLY GOOD.  The tortillas used were flour (hooray!), the meat was super tender and flavorful, and all the little toppings on the side you could add really made these delicious.  Soft meat, slightly tangy kimchi, refreshing bean sprouts, and a squirt of lime juice… mmm, I think I could eat these all day.  But $9.50 for two… maybe not.  Can someone start selling these from a truck please?  Oh, wait…

StB and I ended the meal with boozy-pops, cherry vodka pops that is.  Pretty tasty – very strong on the cherry – but too messy for either of us to eat that happily.  The bags were pretty sticky and both of us hate being sticky.  A nice little novelty, but not “OMG YOU HAVE TO GET THIS” by any means. 

Yvo says: Considering our varying opinions, I definitely like the food here and the very quirky atmosphere of watching people play table tennis as we ate.  Also adjacent to the eatery area were two large glass windows that peeked directly into the 28th Street 6 train station, another avenue for people watching, very nice touch for the nosy people.  The food is alright, but I’m not sure I can justify the prices… maybe once in a while as a treat or if I actually want to play table tennis?  (There’s so many other places in the area to eat more cheaply too!) 
iffy, some hits, some misses, some alright…

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: sandwiches, tacos

Recently, post-class, I snagged a friend and off we went to Blue Ribbon.  It wasn’t quite late enough to catch the chefs as they came off shift, but it was late enough but still packed, so we sat at the bar right in front of this lovely sight: the yummy seafood display.  We even watched as the guy put together a seafood tower that looked awesome, but alas, two people cannot justify eating all that.  (Well… we could… but I had eaten dinner and just wanted a light bite.) 

CL opted to get the shrimp remoulade; I believe happy with the choice.  I don’t remember trying any (maybe I did?), but I am not a big fan of shrimp in general, so…

The whole reason I really wanted to go was for the beef marrow appetizer.  OMG.  Oxtail marmalade – I’m not sure you can get beefier flavor than this combined; I spread some of the marrow over a piece of toasted bread, then scooped some of the onion & oxtail marmalade atop it and happily munched myself into bliss.  PURE.  BLISS.  I think a return visit just for this dish is in order… SOON.  (I’m literally drooling a little right now.  Doesn’t help that it’s lunchtime right now, but still.  It was that good.)  Oh, and sprinkled with a bit of crunchy sea salt… transcendental.  But you know, so many people have raved over this dish before, it’s nothing new that I’m saying.  Just go get it.  Because it’s wonderful.  Sigh. 

Sweetbreads.  I like sweetbreads, I really do, but I didn’t like these.  Not a good example of sweetbreads, sadface.  Thusfar, the only place I’ve had amazing sweetbreads was at Regate, which is now closed, ugh.  These were also a bit chalky, and just not flavored well.  I was sad because I’ve really enjoyed the vast majority of things I’ve eaten at Blue Ribbon (having only been there twice, that’s pretty easy, though).  I wanted to like this dish, but much of it remained untouched. 

Yvo says: Blue Ribbon takes normal dishes to another level.  But it’s also at a price point that might not be the most comfortable for everyone – for the above, plus a few drinks, tax and tip, the total was $91.  I’m not going to say that was expensive (although it was the sweetbreads that boosted the price the most – $30!)… but considering this was just an after school snack, it definitely wasn’t cheap.  Definitely yummy though.
recommended

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: marrow

This year, I got it in my head that I wanted to go to Blue Hill at Stone Barns.  When I get things in my head like that, they don’t usually go away. 

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realize just how impossible it is to get a reservation there.  I tried for lunch.  I tried for dinner.  I tried for everything, and still, no luck.  They take reservations up to two months in advance and I was never lucky enough to manage to get a reservation, not even one that I couldn’t use.  I thought it was hopeless, despite my stubborn insistence and desire that this would be where I go for my birthday this year. 

Then, the fates intervened.  Well, Facebook.  I wrote one final, desperate plea as my status message: “wants to go to Blue Hill at Stone Barns for her birthday but totally cannot get a reservation. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!” or something along those lines.  And… suddenly… the sun shone through those clouds of grey, a miracle happened, and someone I don’t even know offered to get me a reservation. 

And then he did (for October 17). 

As you can see by the above photo, yes I went!  BF took me for my birthday. 

We were led to what really was the best table in the house.  (My friend’s got connections, k?)  — In fact so much so, that when we were seated, we were immediately served glasses of sparkling wine, on the house  

The bread plates were adorable, designed with bits of farmhouse-living in mind. 

The “menu” – basically a list of what we might see in our food – and we opted for the larger farmer’s feast, to try more things. 

Fresh veggies skewered sadistically on this contraption.  Lightly salted or dressed, each piece was bright and sweet, a reminder that everything was grown right outside and harvested daily. 

Shots of fennel soup.  I was surprised when BF took a sip and liked it; I tentatively sniffed it, waiting for the licorice scent to assault me.  It didn’t.  The soup was creamy and lightly sweet, which made me think that fennel bulb in my fridge might befall the same fate…

Smoked kale chips, yukon potato slices, and farrow something.  I apologize for the awful photograph, it was awkward photographing this block of wood with notches cut into it.  In any case, I picked up the smoked kale, bit into it, and immediately blurted out, “This tastes like camping!”  It had that intense smoky taste, slightly salty, and melted in my mouth like so much ash – delicious, delicious ash.  The farrow was alright, but I liked the potato slice because it tasted like a potato chip and had an herb threaded through it.  (I would tell you what but I don’t want to inform erroneously…)

Eggplant wrapped with coppa?

Closer up but blurrier.  I think the sesame crust overwhelmed the creaminess of the eggplant a bit, but it wasn’t bad, overall, though I didn’t taste the coppa (or meat.. there was a meat involved).

Prosciutto wrapped around farmfresh egg that had been scrambled and made into a pressed piece of egg with green stripes – I think peppers – this was a nice little bite, though BF didn’t seem to like the (sweet) peppers, as he left some on his plate. 

Beet burgers!  These are just about the size of my thumb.  I liked the sweetness of the roasted beet with a lil schmear of goat cheese… yum!  BF ate it but made no comment. 

Braseola, liver with chocolate, and I believe coppa… I really liked the liver with chocolate, it was surprising and different.  BF took a bite (aren’t you proud?!) but didn’t like the textures – the chocolate was more like a chocolate candy, insomuch that it was crisp and crackly versus being a melty chocolate.  The other meats were fine but neither top my list of favorite cured Italian meats, so. 

Bread… delicious, rustic, housemade bread… with housemade butter (left), fresh ricotta, and tomato salt.  The tomato salt didn’t taste like much to me, but the ricotta was pretty amazing and delicious… and the butter, out of this world.  BF also really liked the bread.  I didn’t eat much of the butter because right after they brought the bread, they brought over…

veal shank topped with sturgeon caviar.  I love how they cut the bone down the longway… but even more, I love the pure genius behind using caviar instead of sea salt, which seems to be the norm.  I mean, come on – cut out the middle process – because what does caviar taste like except the sea?  Totally awesome.  I was in heaven digging out the marrow, inhaling it, and finally convinced BF with my faces of bliss that he should try a little bit (when there was very little left already, oops!).  He took a bit, ate it, and then said, “Hmm, tastes like… meat butter.” 

How can I not love this man???  Unprompted, he writes gold for my review.  Meat butter.  Heavenly, heavenly meat butter, spread on wonderful rustic bread (and topped with tomato salt a bit sometimes).  Amazing. 

Bonito topped with farm fresh egg, pig ear, and something else… with pears underneath.  I have had bonito before and hated it; it was leathery and disgusting.  This was no bonito like that!  Completely tender and melt-in-your-mouth, the crunchy bits of pig ear contrasting the texture nicely… yumm!  BF only ate half and decided he would rather eat my pears. 

Trout topped with pig snout and concord grape reduction on the plate.  The trout was nice, firm, with a very fresh taste… I didn’t mind the snout except would have liked it crispy instead of what it was, which was little bits of chewy fat.  BF ate the trout happily (!!!), but the snout, after one, he pushed them all to one side. 

This course appeared when I went to use the ladies’ room – this meal had, thusfar, taken about one and a half hours.  The total time… well.  You’ll find out.  In any case, fresh veggies with cream cheese.  I liked the course, though BF didn’t eat most of his (so I snuck over and ate all the veggies I’d really liked, hehe).  It was very refreshing and light. 

Our next course was preceded by our server coming over with a nest… containing eggs.  She explained that our next course was going to feature farm fresh eggs, which have a better taste and brighter yolks.  Out came a poached egg with squash and Shiitake mushroom broth.  I ate this happily, though my father’s words resounded in my head: “Soft yolks are best *face to plate* slurped up in the privacy of one’s own home, or sopped up with some good bread.”  I wound up eating parts of this with a spoon, though some yolk still escaped… so I took a piece of bread and discreetly mopped some up.  Mmm, mmm delicious. 

BF gamely tried some of this – I’d mostly been eating whatever he wasn’t, but this dish I couldn’t get myself to eat his share as well (seeing as I was getting very full), so he left much of it on his plate.  Our server came over and noticed this, and asked him if it was alright; he responded that it was fine, just not his thing.  She insisted on bringing out a new plate of something for him that would only take a minute, though he said it wasn’t necessary.

She brought out chestnut gnocchi with ricotta.  BF actually wound up really liking this dish; I’d thought gnocchi weren’t filled but just puffs of potato, but here they were semi filled with airy ricotta and quite tasty. 

Our next course was meant to be lamb, but the server came over to check with BF if he would eat lamb brain.  Initially he said he would try it, but I pressed him and finally said “You can have some of my brain if you want to try it.”  So he opted to have a slightly different dish than I – the above is chicken slices (that look like abalone to me), a bit of lamb, and brussels sprouts.  I tried the lamb and it was really good – meaty, tender, with a crisp skin (? but I swear it had skin, like duck… it’s in the bottom part of the photo).  BF liked the chicken well enough, but was pretty full at this point, so wasn’t too keen on eating more food. 

My lamb brain!  Little bits of lamby deliciousness.  Okay, that’s a lie.  I’ve had brain before and this was about the same.  Creamy but with no real discernible taste of its own.  Nice complements but overall… I don’t feel the need to seek it out and eat it again.  If it’s served to me, or offered to me, I would eat it… but as an offal, it’s not particularly interesting. 

Berkshire pork medallions and one piece of Berkshire pork belly with a schmear of smoked Fuji apple puree.  This was absolutely one of my favorite dishes of the night.  The smoky sweetness of the apple puree, like apple sauce taken to a new, adult level, worked with the meaty tenderness of the medallions so well… I was in heaven.  Of course the little piece of pork belly on the side was excellent simply by itself… mmm, fatty goodness…

And finally, yet almost too soon, we were onto our dessert courses.  Unfortunately, I don’t recall the above dessert too well; I remember ‘apple’ but that’s about it.  I called my boyfriend to ask if he remembered, and he railed on about the green part being “Jolly Rancher Green Apple” and “that just goes to show you, if it was good, we would remember it.”  I remember both of us liking the sorbet part, but the green liquid had some fibrous items in it that made me go “bleeh” and just wasn’t a favorite. 

Our next dessert course was pumpkin and fig.  Another alright dessert, both of us were again more into the ice cream/sorbet scoop (especially with crunchy bits sprinkled on top!).  The plummy cake on the bottom was not to my liking, and the plums/figs on the side were a bit too tart. 

That should have been our last course, but I think the waiter overheard me talking about my birthday with my boyfriend because he asked us if we’d care for some chocolate.  I said “Alright, how about a little bit?” and he came over with plates for both of us.  (Throughout the night, we’d seen servers approach various tables around us with desserts lit up with candles, but BF made the right choice by not requesting this.)  This was chocolate brulee, with Asian pear sorbet – which I loved! but the chocolate was thick and just at this point in the night, I was so done… though BF did enjoy his. 

Nearly 3+ hours after we’d been seated, the check was presented along with this – homemade marshmallows, raspberry chcoolates… pretty yummy but I could only sadly nibble the edges before putting them down, lest I explode onto the table.  Boof. 

All in all, truly an experience and quite a delicious meal. 

Yvo says: BF’s opinion was strong enough and markedly different from my own that it bears noting: he did not think this was worth the amount paid, and “for that amount of money, the entire meal should be memorable and amazing, like ‘that dish’ doesn’t leave your mind.”  I would even venture that he practically hated the place.  On the other hand, while I can’t say I loved the place, there were memorable dishes through the night that I don’t believe I will ever forget: the marrow with caviar, the wonderful bread and butter, and definitely the Berkshire pork dish.  I did, however, enjoy the other savory courses much more than he did as well… perhaps because of my great affinity towards veggies and fresh veggies even more so?  Take that as you will… this meal (everything you see above plus 2 glasses of wine) came out to just under $400.  Definitely not for everyday dining; this was a special occasion (and regular readers realize I don’t eat like this often!)… if you can manage to fork out that kind of cash, and to score a reservation, I think it’s a great epxerience to have at least once.  If not, I don’t think you should feel badly or like you’re missing out on the most amazing thing ever. 
(Point to note: service was on par with the price/place; superbly attended to but never rushed or imposed upon.) 
recommended

Blue Hill at Stone Barns
630 Bedford Road
Pocantico Hills, NY 10591
(914) 366-3600
http://www.bluehillfarm.com/

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

The House that Hospitality built… hehe.  HB and I had recently discovered we both wanted to try Union Square Cafe, and she had the foresight to make reservations for a night we were both free.  Away we go…

The decor as you step in immediately explains the name.  It looks like a very cute cafe.  A nice cafe, but a cafe nonetheless.

Something that I must say immediately: our service was extremely odd.  I won’t say poor, because we were not ignored, nor were we treated rudely, just… our server gave us our menus, but did not offer us a wine list, nor did he ask us if we wanted anything (besides water) to drink.  He didn’t offer us coffee at the end of the meal, either, and in fact, gave us little to no guidance whatsoever.  However, a table that was seated next to us – also two women, though considerably older – were offered all of these things, by the same man who did not ask us.  Very weird. 

He also brought us our side order with our appetizer… and removed my bread plate and knife before I was done, while leaving HB’s bread plate and knife.  (Was he telling me to stop eating bread because I’m fat enough as it is?  I really do not know.)  And, perhaps even more strangely, I’d moved the olive pit dish to my side of the table (the bread board were on the opposite side of the table, as far away from me as possible), as HB doesn’t eat olives and it seemed gross to leave my pits over there by the bread… or to put the pit in my hand or on my fork in order to deposit it (and by “put” I mean “spit”).  But as soon as the server appeared, he took it away from me to put it back next to the bread board.  Again, I thought perhaps to make room for our entrees, but no entrees were forthcoming for another good, long while. 

And on to the food, which is the real reason anyone comes on here, right? 

We opted to start with the seared yellowfin tuna tartare with pantelleria capers, lemon, extra virgin olive oil and spicy fennel cracker.  I thought the flavor was spot on, lemony and with the spicy fennel cracker, great, but eating the tartare solo, as HB opted to do, I found the texture severely lacking.  A big pile of mush, tasty mush but mush regardless.  I chose to eat it with the cracker, which fared much better, but still, something with a bit of crunch strewn atop or throughout might have worked better for the dish.

The side dish we ordered, hot garlic potato chips, was absolutely delicious, though I question why our server brought it out with the tuna tartare.  I really enjoyed these, though HB noted how full she got and how quickly from the chips alone.  Put it this way: I would definitely go back to eat these with a cocktail or two at the bar.  I really love garlic, though.

HB ordered the fresh Gulf shrimp and roasted heirloom tomato brodetto with grilled filone.  Filone is the big hunk of grilled bread in the center.  HB commented that this was a ton of shrimp, somehing she hadn’t expected, and that while the shrimp was cooked to perfection, and the dish was good, it certainly wasn’t anything amazing or interesting.  It was as to be expected for what you’re paying (which, in this case, was $31). 

I ordered the grilled king salmon with toasted farro, sweet corn, cherry tomatoes and basil vinaigrette.  I was impressed with how exceedingly crispy the outside was, yet how moist the inside remained.  Otherwise, the salmon had no real flavor to it aside from “salt”, which probably added to the crispy exterior, and lacked any sort of oomph or other interesting counterpoint.  The sweet corn was barely evident (I had two small sections of corn, about an inch long by a half inch wide, hiding under the salmon), and the farro, cherry tomatoes, basil vinaigrette all were regrettably unremarkable.  It’s tomato season, and this is inexcusable.  The salmon was large enough that I actually couldn’t finish it, my stomach feeling so full from the chips and all. 

As I mentioned before, though the server brought us a dessert menu without us requesting one, he failed to offer us coffee, tea, any sort of hot drink to round off our night.  We were way too stuffed to order dessert, though there were some items that piqued our curiosity.  We probably won’t be back just to sample dessert, though; what we did sample was so mediocre as to be enough for us. 

Yvo says: Sure, things were tasty here and there.  Yeah, I liked some dishes, I think I even liked more things than I didn’t like.  The weird service could have been just a fluke (we had a weird server at the next place we went to, a wine bar – after ordering a bottle, the waitress asked us how many glasses we wanted.  There were only two of us; did she think the bottle was for just one of us???), and I can overlook that.  But for $53/person (with a decent tip), no alcohol and just what you see above, I think I’ll pass on the extremely standard food offerings and spend my money elsewhere. 
I wouldn’t go out of my way, but nor would I avoid it – tasty enough to receive a mild recommend rating

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Seafood