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

Great brunch deal

New York was literally awash this weekend – would not stop raining. Sunday morning I had plans to meet the girls for manicure, brunch and Barneys.  It was not a pretty day: cold, really windy and dreary but if there’s anything that will get me out of the house, it’s food and shopping.

I suggested Bar Boulud near Lincoln Center as I knew my two friends were quite the downtowners and most likely never been.  Turns out Bar Boulud has an amazing brunch special. For $28 you get a four course meal!  We started with a plate of the award winning headcheese to whet the table’s appetite before our courses came out.

After a cup of coffee and a cheese danish (it’s the first course — you get a choice of pastry with your coffee), I started with the pate grand mere. YUM. This is easily one of my favorite terrines on the menu. It’s made with chicken liver, pork and cognac.  It’s as rich as you would think and goes down like really expensive, meat-y butter.

I like to start eating it purely alone with a bit of mustard to cut the richness and eventually move on to slathering atop crusty bread.  It is divine and no, I do not leave any leftovers.

Next I had Bar Boulud’s croque monsieur which is essentially a decadent ham and cheese sandwich only the ham is the expensive cured variety and the cheese is gruyere and arrives bubblingly crisp at the edges.

A bite of this can send you into cardiac arrest but hey, I wouldn’t be the Hungry Korean if my stomach couldn’t take it right?  It’s rich and gooey and very very cheesy.  I loved that there is heaping amounts of thinly sliced ham entrenched between the bread and cheese.

For the fourth and final course, I had the Island.  It is a meringue sitting in a pool of creme anglais (translation, creamy custard gravy).  How pretty is this dessert?

The meringue was light and not too sweet, the custard was creamy and very vanilla-ish and those pink sweet pecans added a nice textural crunch to the plate.  I really liked this dessert.

Now, THIS deal, you can’t beat with a stick!

Bar Boulud, 1900 Broadway, New York, NY

For the

Not your packaged variety

Once a month me and three of my girlfriends meet for a night of food and catch up.  We refer to it fondly as the “Joy Luck Club.”  Last night, with the weather becoming increasingly crisper (aka colder), a steaming bowl of hand made ramen seemed incredibly appropriate.

Over the past couple years, NYC has seen a steady stream of hand made, fancy schmancy ramen noodle shops.  They are “just like” Japanese ramen noodles found in Japan with home made noodles and a broth that has been slow simmered for hours.  I’ve been to most of them here: Minca (broth was way too thick), Menkui Tei (pretty darn good), Setagaya (one of the first to really move NYers to wait for Ramen) and Momofuku Noodle Bar (surprisingly the worst of the bunch since i’m such a diehard David Chang).  So it was about time I came to Ippudo. People wait up to an hour and half for a table at this popular ramen joint.

We started with the ever famous pork buns. They are similar to Momofuku’s buns but i had actually heard they were BETTER. (is that possible?)

I can’t believe i’m about to say this, but t-h-e-y w-e-r-e!!!!!  The pork is just as soft and meltingly tender but it was drenched in some delicious type of sauce.  There was some cucumber and the outer pillow buns were just as soft and light.  But the main difference from the Momofuku buns was the lettuce and mayonnaise. My friend remarked it tasted like a Whopper. I dunno what kind of Whoppers she’s had but this was no Whopper. Wow. It was tangy and sweet and salty — fresh and crispy and soft — meaty and delicious.  I wanted more than one. I would come back for these for sure. FOR SURE.

We also had the lotus root appetizer stuffed with minced shrimp but we ate those too fast… portion was teeny.  It was good.  It’s fried so how can you really mess that up. It had an interesting presentation though, you dip it in some sauce and it’s served with powdered green tea.

For main I had the house specialty and what i hear is the most popular ramen dish of all: Akamaru Ramen.  

Pork bone has been simmered for hours to create this incredibly rich and flavorful broth.  If that isn’t enough pork for you, you then have chunks of tender pork belly scattered among the homemade noodles along with shredded cabbage, onions, garlic and scallions.  What you get is a delicious mouthful in every bite.  Here’s a closer look:

Highly recommend you get yourself over to Ippudo one of these cold wintery nights. You’ll walk away with a warmed belly and warmed heart.

Ippudo Ramen, 65 Fourth Avenue, New York, NY

Doing it Jeremy Piven style

Had a strong craving to gorge on sushi last Friday so without much effort, I convinced SFAM to hit up Hasaki sushi in the East Village for some fresh quality sushi. Hasaki is located on what is “little Japan” here in Manhattan and is sparely decorated. Pretty much your standard decor of bamboo, lots of beige and Japanese screens. But the first thing you’ll note when you walk up is the line of people waiting to be seated. That’s your first indication that you’ve picked the right spot. It means the food is good but also that the turnover of fish will be rapid and therefore the likelihood of you getting old seafood is greatly decreased.

After about a 30 minute wait, we sat down at the sushi bar and started with some sake and decided to share one of the specials: homemade tofu in a mushroom broth.

Tofu was well, tofu, and the broth really had no flavor to it. It might as well been hot water. The mushrooms imparted no flavor to this dish at all. The appetizer was blah. This was not what i expected. I expected homemade tofu like the one served at Soba Totto. Wrong.

We both had the sushi/sashimi dinner — but I had to add my two favorites: uni sashimi and raw scallop sushi.

Fish was incredibly fresh and the best surprise was they actually served a piece of toro sushi! (Toro is the fatty underbelly of tuna and quite expensive). It was the perfect amount of sushi — a little more than moderate and a little less than gluttonous.

For dessert, SFAM had green tea ice cream but since i don’t like ice cream that much (yes yes, get over it) — I opted for the most interesting thing on the dessert menu: goose berries. Now the name alone was very intriguing to me so I ordered it.

They are essentially berries that have a sour/sweet taste to it. When you bite into it, think of a cross between a cherry and tomato. The inside is just like a tomato — speckled with seeds and soft to the tongue.

Innards:

It was interesting — the sour/sweet aspect — but nothing I’d order again. It was all about the experience

If you want fresh delicious sushi at prices that aren’t Nobu, go to Hasaki — you get your money’s worth and can pretty much eat a ton of sushi without breaking the bank.

Hasaki, 210 East 9th St, basement, New York, NY

Sex and the City filmed here and I thought it was just eh

Finally after all these years, made it to Buddakan in NYC. It’s a GORGEOUS restaurant and it’s been around for several years now and for some reason I’ve just never made my way over. Well I did last night. If you saw the Sex and the City movie — Carrie had her engagement party at this location.

My friend Leggy and I just shared a bunch of appetizers.

We had the popcorn shrimp.

Deep fried shrimp doused in a spicy tangy asian sauce. The sauce was way overpowering and well, anything deep fried tastes, deep fried. It was of course good because anything deep fried also tastes delicious for some reason but there was definitely too much sauce.

We also had the tuna tartare spring rolls.

The raw tuna was delicious and I ate two of them but I will say it’s a very strange thing. Spring rolls are usually hot — or you expect them to be because they are crispy fried. But in this case, you take a bite and it’s cold. I think it was just unexpected but I still enjoyed them.

The dumplings we had were stuffed with edamame and truffle oil.

As you know I’m not a big veggie anything and vegetable dumplings fall in that category but these were actually pretty good! Probably cuz they had truffle oil on them though.

Leggy had a salad but I didn’t try it so i can’t really speak for that dish.

Maybe I’ll come back but with so many amazing restaurants in NYC, this place doesn’t really inspire me to make a second visit.

Buddakan, 75 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY

Surprisingly delicious!

I met my friend Scarf the other night for a much needed catch up dinner. Fashion week just ended in NYC (thank god) and there were parties galore. He was headed to the Philip Lim after party (swank) and i was just looking to have a nice meal (gluttonous) on a crisp fall evening — so dinner was all set.

We went to Emporio in Nolita. I had been to this restaurant for drinks but never eats. The place is very cute, cozy and rustic. Think of the most charming restaurant in Italy and this restaurant is probably what you would think of. But what was the most shocking is how good the food was!

I started with the octopus with potatoes and capers.

Could the octopus have been more tender? I couldnt believe the texture of this dish! It was so delicious. Usually I find octopus at restaurants overly cooked and tough but that was not the case here. Perfectly seasoned octopus sat on tart potatoes and capers. Delicious.

I often get food envy and well, Scarf’s appetizer rocked the night. He had the steak over a bed of arugula, parmesan and truffle vinaigrette. I mean look how visually appealing this dish looks? It could wow you just by it’s colors.

The meat was so tender, the cheese was salty, the arugula was peppery and the truffle vinaigrette makes you feel like you did something special. How quickly can I get back to this restaurant for this appetizer?

For main, we both had the garganelli pasta with spicy sausage and pecorino cheese.

Simple sauce of olive oil, meat and cheese. My kind of sauce

Close up:

Yummers. Along with several glasses of wine, we were very satisfied customers. Scarf went to his party and I skipped off into the cold brisk night.

Emporio, 231 Mott Street, New York, NY

Marea is that good

This is an update to a previous post vowing that I would visit this restaurant upon hearing that they had a fusili dish with braised octopus and marrow. So I went and it was delicious.

The restaurant itself is really beautiful but it does have that “central park south” stuffy vibe to it.

As an amuse bouche (little bites to tease the palate) I had the uni and lardo.

Uni itself is sweet and decadent and rich. It imparts the tongue with a briny sweet richness unlike anything else found in the sea. Some hate it, most adore it. Lardo is cured pork fat sliced super thin and eaten on bread — it’s salty and fatty and well, it tastes like a “really bad for you” slab of butter. If you like uni, you need to try this plate. The lardo added a new layer of sinfulness to the thick layer of uni. I could eat a plateful of this. This is true and pure uni in it’s best presentation to date. Nothing is taken away from the beautifulness of this spiny creature.

I started with the langoustine crudo. Crudo means raw. Langoustine: think large shrimp/smaller lobster. The shellfish is about the size of a large prawn however has the sweetness of a lobster. It was delicious. There is an indescribable bite and texture to raw lobster and shrimp that is sort of an acquired taste. The meat is sweet and slightly gelatinous and tough but I actually like that texture. I really enjoyed the appetizer.

Now what did I have for main? The exact dish I vowed to have and it lived up to its expectations.

Pasta is hand made here. The sauce is a sweet tart tomato sauce with bone marrow. Since the marrow is heated, it literally melts into the dish and coats every strand of delicious pasta in it’s shiny fatty goodness. There is slow braised octopus speckled throughout the dish but the small bites of marrow still intact is where it’s at. Wow. It’s like a small party in your mouth. The crisp breadcrumbs add a nice textural bite. I thought the portion was a perfect size as it wasnt too little but it wasn’t too much that you would push the plate away – the plate is quite rich and every bite packs a punch.

Of the other dishes that were served (and of course sampled by me) at the table, there was one other dish that I feel the need to note: the scallop crudo. Scallop crudo was so good. The sweet raw scallop was sliced thin and so fresh. It was served with fresh mandarin oranges that imparted the right amount of acid balance. I love raw scallop in it’s simplest form, don’t you?

Marea, 240 Central Park South, New York, NY

A little bit of Habana

I rarely ever eat beyond a 20 block radius from where I live here in New York City but recent events have led me to venture from my comfort zone and seek out new foodie destinations. So last week my very new favorite dining companion, Sugar baby, and I went to a restaurant located in his neighborhood Midtown West.

It’s a two story Cuban restaurant with an interior very reminiscent of South Beach Miami. It’s got that latin flair to it and the space is quite spacious. We walked in on a Friday night and were seated 10 minutes later.

I started with the tuna ceviche.

It’s hard to see in the photo but the tuna was excellent quality: bright red and incredibly fresh. It was accompanied by a mango salsa and sprinkled with a little bit of acidic dressing. The tuna itself outshined the other ingredients in its quality — I ate most of this dish without any of the mango salsa (Im not a huge fan of fruit in my dishes) and loved it.

Sugar baby had a salad with frisee, apples and asparagus. Hungry Korean doesn’t do salad unless she has to so…

We shared the shrimp and chorizo empanadas.

Although tasty, I found the empanadas overly doughy. They are a brilliant orange (think of those Jamaican beef patties commonly found in pizza parlors around New York city) and could have used more stuffing. I couldn’t really distinguish the shrimp or the chorizo from the dough. The flavors all sort of meshed together for me. There is a sour cream dipping sauce that neither of us really used. I let Sugar Baby eat two as I wasn’t a huge fan. I think he liked them though.

For main course I had the fish of the day: a halibut encrusted with ground almonds sitting on a bed of baby bok choy and cilantro. Ok let me be clear. I hate cilantro. And hate is an understatement. The baby bok choy was completely INFUSED with cilantro and after one bite I was done with that.

The fish was meaty and tasty but the almond crust was a bit thick for my taste and incredibly salty. It was a fair dish but nothing raveworthy.

Sugar baby had an amazing dish of slow braised spareribs that we both absolutely died for. I will not post the photo I took due to the low quality but let’s just say, should I ever go to this restaurant again, the spareribs is what I will order. The meat was fall of the bone with the perfect balance between fatty richness and beefy goodness. I definitely think I over-helped myself to his plate I simply could not resist.

Overall the space is nice, there was no wait for a Friday and the spareribs more than made my night.

Agua Dulce, 802 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY

Dainty little sliders

Actually not so much.  Had brunch with PublisherGal and Chicken Sunday at Yerba Buena.

FYI — $12 gets you unlimited brunch drinks. Pick from mojito, margarita, mimosa, bloody mary.  You like your boozy brunches? Come here.

I had the beef and suckling pig sliders for brunch with a side of fries and salad.

Little sliders were super juicy and bite sized. A little heavy on the salt though.  The accompanying salad was delicious! Whatever vinaigrette dressing they used worked really well to cut the grease of the burger. There was chopped jicama in the salad too which I really liked — it added a nice sweet crunch.

Lunch was good but nothing spectacular.  I dunno why but I guess I expected something different from a burger that had suckling pig in it. I did have some food envy. Chicken had this amazing looking sparerib arepas that I wanted bad. I’m going to have to come back to try those.  PublisherGal had the huevos rancheros. I’m not a fan of that dish so I didn’t even try it.

*sigh* I am totally “meat-ed” out from this weekend.

Yerba Buena, 23 Avenue A, New York, NY