En- Round 2

Guess where we went again? EN! We took advantage of the Google Offers "groupon" and had an early dinner at our fav Japanese restaurant.

I have to admit tho, this meal was pretty disappointing in terms of quality. Not quite what we expected from EN.  But I still have to commend them on a visually beautiful meal.

First, bring on the alcohol!

Sake Flight, Plantain Chips

Pineapple sake

I have to comment on this pineapple sake I had. I've ordered this drink every time I've been at EN (so 3 so far). Why? Because it is the most delicious thing you can drink and still be buzzed. Usually, you just taste the fresh sweet citrusy flavor of the pineapple and not really the alcohol, but you definitely feel it so they did not skimp on the liquor.  The past two times a handsome Japanese bartender was the one mixing drinks.  I saw him take out a fresh cut pineapple and actually juice it on the spot! This most recent trip, it was a female bartendar (asian as well), and the drink just came out bland. No strong alcohol flavor but also no pineapple taste either. SO disappointing.

Salt Grilled Edamame

Beautiful dish that has such a zen like presentation. But it is crazy salty! I know, it is rock salt grilled, what do you expect? How exactly are you supposed to eat this elegantly without going into a sodium induced coma?

Blue Crab Miso Soup

This soup was MEH. It wasn't bad per se, but I feel like the crab might not have been super fresh.  Plus, the crab meat was not really edible so I'm not sure what the point was of being in there.

Lobster

I think this lobster was covered with miso. This dish was also crazy SALTY. It overpowered the lobster meat.

Mussels

This dish was decent, still a bit on the salty side, but by this point I don't know if it was the salt from the previous dishes lingering on my tastebud or the actual dish.

Miso Black Cod

Another signature dish of EN's that we typically love. The execution on this was a bit disappointing too. Oye, so sad. The skin was not crispy and the meat was not flakey, but more mushy.

Not sure what happened to EN. We left around 7:30/8:00pm and the restaurant was still quite empty.  Our waiter seemed to be pretty new and not quite sure what he was doing, and it seemed like the entire kitchen staff was new too!

I hope to give EN another chance in the future to redeem itself, but another disappointing meal would mean it gets cross off the "faves" list.

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.