Macondo

The same people that own Rayuela on the LES also own the tapas/small plates restaurant called Macondo.  The owners basically took the idea of South American street food and packaged it in a cute wooden restaurant in downtown NYC.  The menu is separated out according to the regions of South America. I’ve had dinner here before but never blogged about it until today due to the bad quality of the photos.

Saturday I met my friend for brunch there – I thought it very appropo as she’s Columbian and I knew she’d instantly be down.   She had a spinach and egg arepa and I ordered the chimichurri chico. It’s tender spare ribs clearly stewed in delicious broth and flavors, pulled and served on a bun with peppers, onions, manchego cheese and cabbage.

YUMMY! The meat was really tender and although a bit salty (I love salt) quite delicious. The onions and cabbage lend a nice fresh crunch and the tiny burgers come with a side of the crispiest yucca fries and a pot of what tasted like basil mayonnaise for dipping. I thought the portion was perfect — the meat and the yucca fries are heavy and quite satisfying so a little goes a long way. You know when something tastes so good you can’t eat it fast enough? haha I had to sort of pace myself so it didn’t look like I hadn’t eaten for days.

We also got a side of chorizo to share.

Chorizo was grilled so it only enhanced the smokiness of this spicy sausage.  Half a chorizo was enough for me…as if i wasn’t eating enough meat for a Saturday brunch!

Macondo, 157 E. Houston Street, New York, NY

McNally continues to rule NYC restaurant life

Went to McNally’s newest (and hardest to score a seat) addition to the restaurant world – Minetta Tavern.  McNally already continues to successfully run Balthazar, Pastis, Schiller’s and Morandi here in the NYC much to the happiness of his pockets. Minetta is no failure by any means.

My friend Strawberry and I met at 6:30 (talk about early bird special!) in hopes of scoring a seat and believe it or not the dimly lit pub-style restaurant was already full with people waiting at the bar.  Lucky for us, we did not have to wait long and before we could finish our first glass of wine, we were escorted to the corner banquette seat.

The pub is very cozy and warm with black and white checkered floors, caricature drawings of people on the wall and just perfect for a cold night. I felt very comfortable and homey at the place.  It wasn’t nearly as trendy and stuffed with high heeled patrons in glamazon clothing as i thought — perhaps it was the night.

My intention was to try the king of burgers – the $26 black label burger.  But I had also heard the cote de beouf for two was also phenomenal.  Since Strawberry was going to get a steak, I thought, why not. So we started with a delicious jumbo prawn shrimp salad served with wonderful fennel and artichoke hearts. Delicious!

Then came the main event.

THREE marrow bones sit on the plate piled on top by 20 oz of dry aged cote de beouf with a side of spinach. Yes. 20 oz. We ate it all. They present the steak fully intact before taking it back to have it sliced.  When it comes back, it shines in all it’s glory.

Marrow was fatty and rich and delicious with parsely and garlic. The beef was as tender as filet but meaty and beefy like a great piece of sirloin.  It packs all the flavor without a hint of toughness.  Note to eaters: Minetta serves its steak like a steakhouse would. Medium rare (what we requested) is served what would be considered rare in other restaurants – so if you want medium rare, request to have it cooked medium.  I can’t believe how much we ate. I was stuffed to the gills. But of course we finished off dinner with the hazelnut crepes for dessert.

The meal is quite grand. It’s impressive and daunting. I have never seen a steak of that size but it was delicious. I still want to go back and try the oxtail and foie gras terrine appetizer and black label burger. Maybe i’ll try again soon – get there at 6pm.

Minetta Tavern, 113 MacDougal Street, New York, NY

A special dinner for SFAM

SFAM was lucky enough to get a private dinner from a very special chef on Sunday for her birthday.  Since neither the Hungry Korean nor Sugar Baby would be around for her actual birthday next week, we had a private dinner at Sugar Baby’s loft to celebrate.  The chef de cuisine: Sugar Baby.  Dishwasher extraordinaire: Moi. haha

I felt the need to blog about this dinner as a lot of prepping and work went into it and it turned out fabulously.

We started with the white bean soup.

The soup was creamy and comforting — it’s exactly what you want at the end of a cold winter’s day.  The chef left some cannelloni beans whole for texture and the sage really came through in the soup.

Next we had the warm arugula, cranberries, roasted butternut squash, toasted walnut and parmesan salad.

Doesn’t that look like a cookbook photo?  Squash was sweet, the arugula was peppery and the walnuts added a wonderful crunch. I am a huge fan of this dish and would try and make it at home if squash didn’t take so much work to prep.  This salad is your perfect example of savory and sweet with acid in the dressing to balance it out.  We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

For the piece de resistance:  panko crusted halibut sitting on a bed of haricot vert and wild mushroom salad.

Fish was crusty on top and juicy inside. The warm salad was so delicious. I love mushrooms and they really brought out an earthy meaty flavor to the fish.  I could seriously eat the green beans and mushroom salad on its own.

Thanks, Sugar Baby, for a wonderful Sunday night meal! Something SFAM and I will remember for years to come!

Sugar Baby’s loft, a special place dressed in grey, New York, NY

Brunch in the village

Sugar Baby and I met up with my friends Fried Chicken and Elton John for what turned out to be a boozy brunch at Centro Vinoteca in the West Village.   The place was actually pretty empty except for the staff and the occasional food tour that passed through every now and again.  Sugar Baby and I sat at the bar and waited for my friends with bellinis and mimosas on hand.  They were pretty good. Ask Sugar Baby — he really liked them that day.

Once they arrived, we were seated in the corner booth of the white tiled restaurant. There is one section of the restaurant that is completely windows – similar to a greenhouse. By the time we sat, the restaurant was receiving it’s brunch crowd.

I started with the fried zucchini fritters with a side of marinara sauce.

Really crispy and light – not oily at all. I would have preferred the marinara be served warm but it offered a nice tart contrast to each bite.  They served four.  I really liked the truffled devil eggs Sugar Baby and Fried Chicken ordered though. Had a bit of food envy and only managed to sneak half a bite of one before Sugar Baby devoured his.

For main, I had the steak stew over polenta with two poached eggs.

Although visually appealing, I wasn’t keen on the mushy consistency that happens after you break the yolk.  The texture of the dish turns soupy once the yolk runs all over and there’s no contrast to any bite.  The flavors were definitely there but they sort of all meld together.

Elton John had this amazing whole wheat pasta with mushrooms.

Yummy! I love tagliatelle pasta first of all and I love mushrooms. What a healthy delicious alternative for brunch. The mushrooms tasted meaty and earthy and the pasta had a wonderful bite. This was my favorite plate that afternoon.

Sugar Baby had caviatelle with spare ribs. If spare ribs are on the menu, you bet Sugar Baby will order it. He just finds slow roasted tender fall of the bone meat too hard to resist I think.

The spare ribs were meaty and sweet and good but I found the pasta a bit hard.

The brunch was very fun – but I think it was the company we kept.  After many more brunch drinks and one round on the house, we walked out of here much later than we anticipated. Don’t even ask what we did after ;p

Centro Vinoteca, 74 Seventh Avenue South, New York, NY

Crusty feet

Slippers that look like loaves of bread.

I think they are adorable albeit probably a bit strange to see.

Great thing is, there are different sizes: mini ones for toddlers, pumpernickel ones for ppl that prefer darker colors…you should check them out here.

Landmarc at a NY landmark

Sunday Sugar Baby and I met up with SFAM for brunch at the Time Warner Center’s Landmarc restaurant.  The restaurant is airy, bright and large enough that there is rarely a wait.  The menu offers a wide range from a selection to pastas to bone marrow as a appetizer to tuna nicoise salad.  There is quite possibly something for everyone.

I had the warm shrimp, capers and artichoke salad with romaine lettuce (salad comes with frisee but I switched it out).  The salad was offered in two portion sizes: appetizer and main. I had the appetizer portion and it is a pretty good size.

The artichokes were clearly not the canned variety and the capers were interesting in that they were dried capers.  The combination of the acidic capers and artichokes played well with the meaty warm shrimp.   I was pleased to note that Landmarc does not skimp on the shrimp !!!

Good brunch.  I’d like to try some of the other things on the menu. For next time….

Landmarc, 10 Columbus Circle, 3trd Floor, New York, NY

Corton

Went to Corton last Saturday with Sugar Baby and although I was not allowed to take photos, I thought it was still worth reporting about.

The restaurant itself is sparely dressed — almost stark. The atmosphere is very white table cloth verging on a bit stuffy. The food, although what you would find at a fancy restaurant (small in portion, inventive and beautiful), packed a lot of flavor in each bite and was absolutely glorious.

The menu is comprised of a 3 course tasting or a 7 course tasting.  My good friend works in the kitchen there and so although we opted for the 3 course tasting, we were treated to the VIP tasting of practically everything on the menu.

I chose the foie gras appetizer with beet, blackberry, cherries and cherry butter, the beef with beef cheeks, compte and black olive oil for main and apple with caramel chestnut crunch for dessert.  All plates were outstandingly presented and tasted delicious.  I cannot possibly list everything that the kitchen sent us (it was alot) but some of the highlights among them were the caviar blinis, some soup/foam with pure foie gras sitting at the bottom, a tasting of a plate with shavings of white truffle and the perfectly cooked sea bass. We both walked away incredibly full and overwhelmed by the deliciousness of it all. Thanks, Jedd!!!!

The dishes are a combination of french technique and molecular gastronomy. For example, what i thought was a cherry was actually a ball of foie gras glazed to look like a cherry.  Sometimes what appeared before you was not exactly what it seemed. I found that very intriguing and a feast for my eyes.

I cannot recommend this restaurant enough. It was an experience for my palate and although I may never go back again, that one visit satisfied me in many different ways.  Get yourself to Corton ASAP if you haven’t been already.

Corton, 239 West Broadway, New York, NY

Where Korea meets America

This was an interesting find for me as I’m Korean American.

Kimchi filled donuts:

It’s one of five ethnic donuts Dunkin Donuts is launching — Greek donut is filled with yogurt, Japanese version is filled with soy.

Click here for the other flavors — you may not be able to read Korean, but the pictures are a good indicator of what the donut is stuffed with.

I’m not sure about this one though. Kimchi is a bit spicy, a bit sour. Donuts are sweet. Is that really a good flavor combination?? Would you try it?

My kind of jam

I am not a huge jam person since i’m not a huge fan of sweets.  This invention is genius (or gross — really depends on how it tastes).

Bacon jam.

So you take a piece of toast and instantly spread bacon on top? Hm.

Buy here.

A new way to scare the kiddies this year

Halloween is around the corner and I have to honestly say, this is just grotesque looking.

created and image taken from emergencyfan2000

Assembly is not too difficult. Slather a fake (obviously!) skull with cream cheese and start pasting flesh colored meat. I’m guessing that olive loaf probably does wonders for creating the “rotting flesh” look.  Use it as a centerpiece as photographed above, or do as I will do and put it outside your stoop to scare the kids away. NO CANDY FOR YOU!

(hehe kidding. I’m not that mean. I live in an apt building. No kids ringing my doorbell unless i buzz them in)