Lessons From My Mother's Kitchen: Wheat Proteins

We all would love to cook as well as our mothers. My mom's cooking is centered on healthy eating, which is so important in this era of fast food and eating out. So I want to start sharing some recipes my mom makes from my trips home.

This is a great for all the vegetarians out there. It has the chewiness of meat but is slaughter free, plus it won't be always the same old tofu dish.
A warning, making the wheat protein by hand is very labor intensive.

1. Pour wheat flour into a giant bowl and add enough water for the flour to coagulate.

2. Keep replacing the water and massaging the "dough" into a solid piece. This will rinse away all other components of the flour and leave you with the protein inside.

3. The final product should look like:4. Cut out chunks of the protein ball and saute in hot oil
5. Add in green peas and salt to taste
6. Voila!

Brunch at Norma's - NYC

Norma's is one of the legendary brunch places in NYC - I've been wanting to go for a long time since breakfast/brunch is my favorite meal and especially because it was featured on Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate" show for their decadent french toast made with slices of chocolate cake instead of bread - described on their menu as "Chocolate Decadence French Toast - Covered in Strawberries, Pistachios and Valrhona Chocolate Sauce"! (The restaurant was also featured on Gossip Girl!) However, the restaurant is not only in midtown, it's also in a hotel - which means it is pretty expensive. Thus, Giltcity's $20 for a $40 Norma's gift certificate presented the perfect opportunity for me to try it out!

Walking into the restaurant, it is not what I expected. It is a lot smaller than I imagined and kind of felt like more of an extension of the hotel lobby (even though it is set apart from the lobby on a separate balcony area).

On to the food...

Complimentary banana, pineapple & guava smoothie shots to start off!

My dining companion ordered the "Hudson Valley Duck Confit Hash à Cheval" - shredded duck with peppers, cippolini onions, and potatoes. I loved the use of cippolini onions in this rather than just normal onions!

While I've been dying to try the chocolate cake french toast, I've been on a health kick lately so I opted for the "Egg White Frittata With Shrimp With Oven-roasted Roma Tomato and Spinach." I loved this frittata, the egg whites were surprisingly fluffy, and I loved that the tomatoes were roasted on top. It was a lot bigger than I expected as well - the frittata was pretty thick, and it sat on top of a pile of fingerling potatoes.

While we were waiting for the food to arrive, my dining companion and I suddenly noticed an incredibly delicious smell and looked around trying to figure out who ordered what food that smelled so delicious. It turns out to be the toast that comes with some of the dishes. I got multigrain toast with my frittata, served with butter, blackberry jam, and orange marmalade. Sometimes, simple warmed toast, spread with butter and jam just hits the spot!

Lunching at Del Posto - NYC

Del Posto is Mario Batali's Michelin-starred restaurant with 4-stars by the NYTimes. For dinner, the lowest cost tasting menu option of 5 courses is $115. For lunch, however, they offer a 3-course menu for $29 - one of the best lunch bargains in Manhattan, especially considering the amount of extras that they include in the three courses. They also include 3 different amuse bouches and an array of mignardises served after the meal, so it comes out to 3 courses along with 2 mini courses.

I've read about this lunch bargain a few times and this has always been on my to-do list. I finally got to try it out earlier this year and it definitely did not disappoint!

butter & lard for the bread

While I've read online that some people seem to enjoy the lard that Del Posto offers its guests for the bread basket - I would recommend passing on the lard. I did not enjoy it.

Carne Cruda with truffled salsa, parmigiano-reggiano & wild watercress (supp $10)

I don't usually like red meat at all, but I actually loved this dish - the truffled salsa definitely helped! (Unfortunately, I wasn't the one who ordered it, so I couldn't steal too many bites...)

Insalata Primavera della terra with sheep's milk ricotta dressing

The salad that I ordered was almost too pretty to eat!

Young lamb alla Romana, garlic yogurt with ceci & swiss chard ragu

Whole Wheat Tonarelli with spicy cichercie, rosemary, & shaved bonito flakes

I ordered this after reading about it as one of NYTimes food critic Sam Sifton's "Best Dishes of 2010." I've never ordered anything with bonito flakes before - when the waiter brought out the dish, the bonito flakes were moving! It freaked me out a little, but it tasted good - well as good as whole wheat pasta can taste.

Sfera di caprino celery & fig agrodolce & celery sorbetto

This was another one of Sam Sifton's best dishes of 2010. While I enjoyed the novelty of celery sorbet, I was glad I ordered the chocolate ricotta tortino instead ~ amazing & it comes with olive oil gelato, which Mario Batali is famous for!

Chocolate ricotta tortino toasted sicilian pistachios & extra virgin olive oil gelato

mignardises!

As a parting gift, they also gave me a small box of 2 chocolate truffles - extremely rich and delicious!

The service was definitely one of the things that stood out about Del Posto - this is definitely the fanciest restaurant I've ever been to and that was reflected in the service. As I was settling in after just sitting down, I hung my purse on the back of my chair. Almost immediately, a waiter came over and put a stool down next to my chair for me to put my purse on. It was completely unnecessary and I've never seen anyone do this at a restaurant before! Needless to say, you get a LOT of attention at Del Posto!

Casellula - NY

I love wine bars for dinner out with my girl friends to catch up. I've been meaning to try out Casellula since it is one of the most highly rated wine bars in Hell's Kitchen. Going in, it was not what I expected. I usually go to wine bars mostly for the intimate, cozy atmosphere. That is not what people go to Casellula for. Casellula seemed to be an extremely casual place, with none of the typical wine bar ambiance.

Their specialty seems to be the "pig's ass sandwich" - which was a decent cheesy pork sandwich. The grilled cheese was also delicious - although people should be aware that I think there is goat cheese in the sandwich, which they don't note on the menu. However, the highlight of the food was definitely their chocolate cake. Upon arriving at the table, the waitress poured cream over the cake, and even after sitting in the cream for a while, the cake still tasted incredibly light!

Pig's Ass Sandwich / Fiscalini Cheddar / Fol Epi / Pickles / Chipotlé Aioli
Grilled Cheese Sandwich / Tomato / Green Salad

Chocolate Cake / Meadowbrook Farm Cream

Casellula ~ 401 W. 52nd St (& 9th Ave), New York, NY.

K-Town - NYC

I hang out in K-Town a lottt. I love Asian food and it's so much more convenient than Chinatown. When I used to go with my Chinese friends, the usual was tofu "soon dubu" or tofu stew, with an occasional Korean barbeque to mix things up. However, going to K-Town with my Korean friends introduced me to a lot of new dishes, such as this beautiful cheesy creation at Arang:

김치 제육 떡볶이 와 치즈 16.95

Kimchee jaeyook Dduck boki and cheese

Sauteed kimchi, pork and rice cakes w/ melted mozzarella and American cheese

It's the oddest combination. Kimchi and cheese? Really?! But it definitely works.

Pocha would be an excellent after-dinner drinks spot in K-Town this summer if you go for the watermelon soju. When it was served, the smell of the watermelon was almost intoxicating. It smelled incredibly refreshing, but proceed with caution. You might not be able to taste the alcohol but it is definitely packed in there...

Macarons at Little Oven - LIC

I had heard about the opening of macaron bakery, Little Oven, in Long Island City and was especially excited after reading that the macarons were only $1.75. This is considerably cheaper than the macarons at Bouchon Bakery for $3 each.

Little Oven is in a tiny storefront on a less-developed stretch of Jackson Avenue – from the subway, it’s the opposite direction from the modern high-rises and more gentrified section of LIC. Once I stepped in to the bakery, I was kind of shocked at how tiny these macarons were! They are probably 1.5 times the size of a quarter! Comparing these to the gigantic macarons at Bouchon – it actually seems like Bouchon might be a better value!

I got matcha, pistachio, caramel fleur de sel (their most popular selling flavor), and dark chocolate. These are the descriptions from their website:

• Matcha: Green tea macarons filled with a green tea and white chocolate ganache
• Pistachio: Almond macarons filled with a pistachio and white chocolate ganache
• Caramel Fleur de Sel: Almond macarons sprinkled with fleur de sel salt and filled with a caramel fleur de sel cream
• Dark Chocolate: Chocolate macarons filled with rich dark chocolate

One of my favorite flavors in any dessert I try is pistachio so I started off with this.

I loved it! While the pistachio flavor wasn't too strong, it is pretty nutty. The almond in the macaron makes up for it. I was also a little hesitant after I saw that it was white chocolate cream inside - I generally think white chocolate is overly sweet, but it wasn't a problem with this macaron at all. I actually enjoyed this a LOT more than the pistachio macaron from Bouchon Bakery, which I thought was way too sweet. The texture of this macaron was also a lot better - it was very moist, while I found the macaron from Bouchon to be too crumbly (although I had gotten it later in the day so perhaps it had dried out a little as the day went on).

I also really enjoyed the dark chocolate macaron - it was very rich, but somehow not heavy at all. I enjoyed the macarons at Little Oven, but I'm still not entirely sold on them given the price. Maybe for people who are more of a macaron fan than I am.

Little Oven: 12-07 Jackson Ave (btwn 47th Rd & 48th Ave), Long Island City, NY.

OBAO - NYC

Tonight I got to try out OBAO, Michael Huynh's restaurant in Midtown East, which was recently Michelin recommended as a "Favorite for Good Value" for 2011. I definitely agree that this is an excellent value! I was actually using a discount that I had gotten online, but even without it, they have amazing deals. For their early bird dinner special from 4-6:30pm, you get a choice of appetizer + entree + soda for only $10. Their "212" happy hour specials from Thurs-Saturday 4-7pm are even more of a bargain - $2 Chang beer, $1 shot, $2 appetizer! This would be an excellent place to go for an after-work drink, especially with all the office buildings in the area! While we were eating, I also noticed a number of people coming in to pick up take-out orders after they got off work.

We were seated in the front section, and I really liked the decor of the grass-covered walls. It was definitely a nice escape from all the office buildings - definitely an oasis in the chaos of midtown. We got there pretty early for dinner so it was still pretty empty.

For appetizers, we got the crispy pork belly and crispy fried tofu with sweet and sour fish sauce. The pork belly was amazing! It reminded me of the pork often found in over-rice dishes in Chinatown, but a lot more delicate and significantly less greasy. The crispiness of the bottom of the pork was a nice textural contrast to the fatty belly - and the side of pickled papaya was a nice refreshing contrast between the bites of pork belly.

CRISPY PORK BELLY ($9)

Caramel glazed and pickled green papaya

CRISPY FRIED TOFU ($5)

Scallion oil, spicy, sweet and sour fish sauce

— soy sauce option for vegetarian

The tofu paled a little in comparison to the pork belly - although it was still good. My minor complaints would be that it was probably fried for too long and was a little dry, and I also wish they had given the sauce on the side so that you could dip the tofu in it. Since the sauce was on the bottom, it was a little hard to get to for all the tofu. You really want to get to the sauce, it's really good!

The lemongrass kalbi short ribs were also yummy, they reminded me of the flavors in Korean barbeque. However, the meat was a little too tough for me (although I heard somewhere that Koreans actually like using tougher cuts of meat for short ribs?).

SPICY LEMONGRASS KALBI SHORT RIB ($16)

Sweet Onion and sesame soy sauce marinade

I decided to go with my favorite pad thai. I had read other reviews online raving about their pad thai and I would have to agree that their pad thai is pretty unique and easily one of my favorites now in the city. It stands out first of all by featuring a poached egg on top. While it was a nice touch, it would've been better if the yolk were still slightly runny so that I could mix it in with my noodles better. As it was, I pretty much ate the egg and noodles separate. One of my favorite parts of the pad thai were the peanuts. I think they may have been slightly caramelized or something because they added a lot of texture to the dish. While other Thai restaurants also add peanuts to their pad thai, the peanuts at OBAO added a lot more crunch. Even better than the peanuts, I loved the rice noodles that they used for the pad thai. They were so light, it reminded me of angel hair pasta or capellini in Italian cooking. While carb-heavy noodle dishes would typically weigh you down, I devoured the whole wok-shaped-plate of pad thai without being induced into a food coma!

PAD THAI ($11)

Fresh rice noodles, shrimp, salted red snapper with

peanuts, poached egg, and chives

With the discount that I had, we only ended up spending $21 on all this food (it would've been $41 without my discount)! But even without any discounts, coming by for an earlier dinner or the happy hour specials would definitely be worth it!

OBAO: 222 E 53rd St (btwn 2nd and 3rd Ave), New York, NY.