Over the past couple of months I have become quite the food blogger. I or (CT) bring a camera to every restaurant we go to. Since Yvo has been busy with school, I am stepping up and will now have a weekly column, Tuesdays with TT. Bon Appetit!
I was invited to the Metromix.com Hot Plates Live event at Chelsea market last night. As described in a Gothamist email, “When it comes to these increasingly popular “tasting” events, wherein local restaurants offer menu samples to a crowd of gluttonous gourmands, you can’t beat the value of Hot Plates Live. The low low price of $15 gets you three hours on the feedbag from restaurants such as 5 & Diamond, Bar Suzette, Beba, Dickson’s Farmstand Meats, D.O.B. 111, Lucy’s Whey, Mikey’s Burger, Pain D’Avignon, Satay Junction, and Vareli. Sponsored by Metromix, this third installment goes down at Chelsea Market, and also features booze samplings like Highland Park’s scotch whiskey and Samuel Adams’ Boston Lager and Summer Ale. As if that wasn’t lubrication, Employees Only will be mixing cocktails all night.” Who wouldn’t want to go to this event?
CT & I got there a little early, so we took some pictures before the crowd got in.
First up was Satay Junction. They were offering Beef Satay & Vegetable Mie Goreng(Fried Noodles). We were one of the first people to try the beef and it already got pretty tough sitting in the chafing dish. They offered 3 dipping sauces; peanut, soy, and a relish. The noodles were tasty, but a bit greasy.
Next up was Bar Suzette. They have a crepe stand inside Chelsea Market. They were running a little late so they only had their dessert crepes ready. We would have to go back for the savory. The sweet crepe was a strawberry shortcake with elderflower cream. The menu said there is Nutella also, but I think they forgot it. The savory crepe was french onion with gruyere. It was ok, my piece was more crepe than filling.
Next was Lucy’s Whey, an artisanal & farmstead cheese stand also in Chelsea Market. They offered a slice of what I believe what a goat’s milk cheese. It was good. It was very similar to Parmesan but softer.
Next was Pain D’Avignon. They are a new artisanal bakery that just opened their first retail store in the Essex Street Market. They had an abundance of different breads to try out. CT got a mini baguette with butter. It was quite good with the right amount of pull you get from munching on a roll. I had the onion sourdough roll. It was ok. You could see the onion, but not really taste it. The portions we were given were quite big and we knew we didn’t want to fill up on bread since there was so much more to try, so we only had half of each.
CT’s mini baguette on the bottom left. My onion sourdough on the bottom middle.
Next was Dickson’s Farmstand Meats. They offered Barbecued Short Rib Sliders with Horseradish Pickles. These were quite tasty. Each had some nice hunks of meat, but I didn’t detect any horseradish in the pickles. This was one of the few tables that we went back for seconds.
5 & Diamond(no website) the new restaurant of Chef Ryan Skeen(formerly of Resto, Irving Mill, and Allen & Delancey) presented Grilled Portuguese Sepia with Piquillo Pepper Puree, Sherry Shallots, and Olives. Basically this was a version of seafood salad. It was nice and refreshing and worked well with the white sangria they offered. Chef Skeen was also secretly offering Hamachi, Grapefruit, and Uni on a pork rind. It was by far our favorite bite of the night. I was pretty shocked that they brought uni with them as it is so expensive, but I am glad they did. It was the perfect meld of flavors and textures.
Hamachi, Grapefruit, Uni on a pork rind.
mmm, box full of pork rinds.
Next up was two of Michael Bao Huynh’s newest restaurants in his ever-growing empire, D.O.B. 111 and Mikey’s Burger. His table had some power issues so they got off to a late start. All of the other tables picked up the slack and kept people happy, but a large crowd formed to get at this food. I was about to write off these offerings, but CT convinced me to stick it out. D.O.B.’s offering of “‘Mind of Lamb’ ravioli with prawns, coral sauce & golden chive” were coming out quickly since they were made ahead of time. It was tasty and had some nice spice. The holdup was the “Mikey’s Sliders.” These were being grilled fresh on a small electric flattop. The natives were getting restless on this one since there was no organization to the line. Luckily, CT was determined to get her slider. After about 15 min, she got hers and was nice enough to give me a bite. It was a beef slider with sauteed onions, some sort of pork product, topped with homemade mustard & ketchup.
CT adds: The burger was quite delicious! With the mad rush of people about to break into fights, I wasn’t sure it would be worth the wait, but I was also too stubborn to give up. The burger was cooked pretty well under the circumstances and still very juicy inside! If that’s what they can do under those pressures, I’d definitely be interested in checking out the restaurant.
For a refreshing dessert on a humid day, La Newyorkina offered “Hibiscus Flavored Mini Paletas.” What is a paleta? It is a popsicle. Apparently, popsicles are becoming the hot food trend of the moment with all sorts of unique flavors. This was very good. The flavor lasted until the very end, so you could tell these were made properly. It wasn’t just flavoring added to water and frozen. Real juices were used.
To wash all of these offerings down, Employees Only was there with drinks. They offering two cocktails, a Gimlet and some pink vodka drink with grenadine. The lime and grenadine mixers were house made at Employees Only. Both were tasty with the gimlet being especially tart. One of the sponsors was Highland Park, so there was also scotch to taste. Sam Adams Boston Lager and Summer Ale were also on hand.
Gimlet on right, Pink Vodka thing on left
Scotch, scotch, scotch. I love scotch.
All in all it was great event with a huge turnout. I think all of the paying customers were quite satisfied with the amount of food and drink available. I would recommend going to the next Hot Plates Live if you get a chance. Thanks to Metromix for providing the passes for CT & I.
T.C. says
Def. need better focus on some of the food porn, TT.
Looks like you and CT had a nice time though with Metromix and their samplings. Sliders from Mikey’s and Dickson’s lookin’ good!!
Maikenike says
Hey, I used to have the same kind of problem with the photos. I use just a regular canon point-and-shoot. However, there’s a feature that allows take very decent close-ups and even macro-shots. The little tulip/flower icon. You choose that, instead of automatic setting, and you can take close-ups of food, bugs, flowers, you name it. Anyway, since your writing is nice, the topics good, I just thought to maybe help you out a little in the photography department. Hope to read more of your posts! 😉
TT says
Thanks Maikenike!
My pictures will be improving for future posts now that I know how to use my camera correctly. Stay tuned.