Chanterelle

The next morning after eating at Le Bernardin, we headed over to a much anticipated lunch at Chanterelle in Tribeca. Once inside, Canterelle had an eclectic style of artwork made by local artists, that later we found out were all the past menu covers used in the restaurant. The menu itself was a hand written menu, in a flamboyant flowing script, then mass copied for the tables. Its was a pretty cool concept.

Chanterelle is known for its local, seasonal menu and I was excited to see what the chef was going to offer. My dad, Pam, and I decided on their 3 course pre-fix menu, and they both chose a spring greens stuffed ravioli with peas and baby asparagus in a butter sauce. I went for a more classical saddle of rabbit, which was cooked perfectly. If only the vegetables had been a bit more cooked it would have been a perfect plate. The spring raviolis were very nice, and a perfect light summer dish. For dessert, a lemon pannacotta in a rhubarb consomme was balanced perfectly between sweet, acidic, and astringent. The candied rhubarb was a nice touch as well. 

As good as the food was at chanterelle, the whole meal had a strange vibe to it. Chanterelle dining room, although elegantly set, was just too quiet and sterile. They needed some extra ambience, or some music, so you didn't feel uncomfortable talking to your own table.

Le Bernardin

So last weekend I had the unique opportunity to eat at quite a few great NYC restaurants. My dad and his girlfriend, Pamela, had decided to come to NYC to visit; and we had some amazing things lined up to do in the city.

On friday night we had a reservation at Le Bernardin, Eric Ripert's fine dining seafood restaurant. Inside the restaurant, we were given a corner table that overlooked most of the dining room floor. The table was set with some pretty charger plates, a simple knife & fork combo, and great Reidel Glasses. Being a front of the house instructor, I appreciated the attention to detail in the initial setting, and an overall level of organization that was present in the dining room itself.

We all decided to have the Le Bernardin tasting menu, which consisted of about 7 small courses with the suggested wine pairings for each course.

Some of the highlights of the meal (since the whole thing was so good) were the Kampachi Tartare, the Bread Crusted Red Snapper (which i wish I had a picture of cause it was probably the best dish) with its amazingly flavored zucchini-mint coriander compote in a citrus tomato broth, the White Tuna Poached in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and the Sauteed Codfish with Octopus sauce and basquaise emulsion. Amazing dishes, seasoned well, and beautifully plated. My only complaint would be the lack of a starch component to the dishes.

The Chateau Carbonnieux, Pessac Leognan Bordeaux 2006 was a perfect pairing with the Snapper, and the Nuits Saint-Georges, Vieilles Vignes, Daniel Rion 2003 was also amazing. Surprisingly we had a greek wine, Assyrtiko, Thalassistis, Gaia Estate, Santorini, Greece 2008, that was very good as well. Who knew!? The wines were outstanding, supporting each dish in ways that delighted the palate.

The desserts consisted of: 

The grapefruit:

Vanilla Cream, Grapefruit Sorbet, Tarragon Coulis, Crisp Meringue

which was served with a Tokaji, Late Harvest, Oremus, Hungary 2005

and

The Hazelnut:

Hazelnut Gianduja Parfait, Caramelized Banana, Brown Butter Ice Cream

which was served with Traminer Trockenbeerenauslese No. 3, Kracher, Austria 2005

which is a mouthful just to pronounce but well worth it. (you should hear my dad correctly pronounce every letter of it perfectly)

Our service was pretty good, with synchronized service for the laying in of everything and clearing of the plates. Near the end of our meal, our dessert arrived before the wine pairing for that course, and you could see the immediate disapproval of our sommelier. Overall though, few things could have been better with the overall meal. 

On a side note however, Eric Ripert apparently doesn't believe in salt on the tables of his restaurant. That drives me crazy....plus his calamari course could have used a little extra salt.

Sauteed Codfish; Stuffed Sweet Peppers; Octopus Sauce and Basquaise Emulsion

Pinot Noir, By Farr, Geelong/Australia 2005

Sauteed Calamari filled with Sweet Prawns and Shiitake Mushroom; Calamari Consomme

Chablis, Louis Michel 2007

Kampachi Tartare; Marinated Japanese Cucumber; Aged Citrus Vinegar

Assyrtiko, Thalassistis, Gaia Estate, Santorini, Greece 2008

The standard place setting for the table which was very elegant.

Black OPS Beer

Every class coming through the St. Andrew's Cafe has a designated day for a Beer lecture and tasting as part of their curriculum. Now while that is pretty cool in its own right, every once in a while an exceptional class with exceptional connoisseurship in beer happen. The current class had just the person to make this happen, a Justin Burchill; who with a good bit of knowledge about the better beers in life helped create a special tasting. While there were too many beers to mention all of them, two of them really stood out for me. 

The first of the two was Brooklyn Breweries Black OPS. Black OPs is a unique Russian Imperial Stout which is aged for four months in old bourbon barrels, bottled flat, then re-carbonated with champagne yeast. 

As you can see from the picture of it below in the glass, its as dark as the devils soul, and just as sinful. What an amazing beer! When you first sip it, you are instantly transported to drinking a shot of good quality bourbon, but then it transforms into creamy coffee-like chocolate stout of a beer. Damn good stuff. Expensive too, at about $30 a bottle. Oh, and they only made 1,000 cases of the stuff, so if you have a chance to try it then I strongly suggest you do.

The second beer that really amazed me was Innis & Gunn, another oak aged beer. Unlike the Black OPS, the Innis & Gunn was surprisingly mellow, with flavors of vanilla, spice, orange, and lemon zest. A really well rounded beer, probably one of the best I had ever tasted. What was nice was that the beer had so many flavor profiles of what reminded me of a Belgian beer, but without the strong hops flavors. I think I might just have to go buy a few of these just to do some more "research". 

Waaaasabi!

Today I thought that I would post a picture I took a while ago while at an Asian Specialty store on St. Marks St in the Village, NYC. While browsing through the vast aisles of asian products that I could only half figure out what they were, this little sucker caught my eye. Fresh wasabi eh? I had never seen the stuff before, and all I could associate wasabi to in my chef-like brain was the little green ball that is placed on your plate every time you order sushi. Surely this root couldn't be the same as that powdered green goo you squeeze from a tube, or make from powder in a can with some water? 

I decided to do a little searching and came upon this information:

Wasabi is Japanese horseradish. It is most famous in form of a green paste used as condiment for sashimi (raw seafood) and sushi. However, wasabi is also used for many other Japanese dishes.

Wasabi is a root vegetable that is grated into a green paste. In supermarkets, wasabi is widely available as a paste or in powder form. Wasabi powder has to be mixed with water to become a paste. Wasabi has a strong, hot flavour which dissipates within a few seconds and leaves no burning aftertaste in one's mouth.

Many "wasabi" powder and paste products that are available in supermarkets (and even some restaurants) contain only very little or no real wasabi at all and are made of coloured horseradish instead. This is due to the fact that cultivation of real wasabi is relatively difficult and expensive.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2311.html

Very interesting. I can't wait till I decide to make some serious sushi/sashimi and get my hands on the real stuff. I wonder how different the taste really is?

Groundhogs!

So today Jeong and I were walking back from dinner at Farquaharson hall when we came across one of our super friendly locals, the groundhogs. My friend Joe named them all Richard (in an attempt to train just one of them, surely if you name them all richard eventually one will respond??), and Jeong decided to see if it would eat some of his apple.

The little guy walked up to him, a little wary at first...and then stuck out his little paws and timidly grabbed the apple. What amazed me was that he didn't take it and run, he stood right up and started to eat it right there. We gave him a few more slices before he decided he was full and ran off.

Wild Ramps

A few days ago I was thinking about spring and how there are so many great fruits and vegetables that are coming into season. I instantly thought of ramps, (which are a form of wild leek) and how delicious they are. Ramps have a short growing season before they flower, from early april to mid july. They are great in all sorts of dishes, especially as a garnish to bring out an extra level of flavor....plus I just love to pickle them to use till the end of summer.

With a little research, I found out that the forrest around the CIA would be a good place to find some ramps. After a drive and a short trek in the forrest with my friend Jeong, we stumbled on what looked like some wild ramps. A quick dig and a sniff of garlic and onion rose through the air. We knew we were in the right spot.

After 45 minutes of harvesting, we managed to pick about 4.lbs of ramps. We brought them back to Angell hall, and began washing and separating them. Then we created a quick pickling liquid with vinegar, sugar, water and spices and blanched our ramps till barely tender, then cooled them in the liquid. MMM pickled ramps.

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