may 19, 2010
photo © anita aguilar
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Showing posts with label restaurant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label restaurant. Show all posts
midtown's bright spot: la fonda del sol
am i the only new yorker who failed to notice that the metlife building is shaped like a lozenge?
it's been in my sights every day for at least the last two years, as the lite-brite background to grand central terminal and the helmsley building, but...i haven't really looked at it. isn't that though what you get when you plop something (even something so stocky and glaring) behind a city's major transportation hub? if you're walking anywhere near there, you'd better not be staring up while you do it.
this might also be the peril of situating a restaurant, even a very fine one, in the same spot. so convenient, yet so easy to overlook? la fonda del sol is a shiny modern spanish marvel tucked under the huge concrete overhang on the west side of the metlife building, facing vanderbilt avenue and 44th-45th streets. is anyone ever really strolling on vanderbilt avenue? hustling to and from the station i imagine folks, if they are looking around at all, peer through the restaurant's etched glass, admire the bold spanish reds and the striking floor squares of black and white and think, i should go there sometime... (mañana...)
and it would be a pity if mañana never came because the "inn of the sun," while hardly a neighborhood joint (for those of us who call this neighborhood home) and perhaps too proper and pricey for a mere pit-stop, spins traditional spanish ingredients and flavors (garbanzos, chorizo, fresh fish, citrus and saffron) into special little events.
if you're in deal-hunter mode (like me and my friends), there's a pretty good one to be had during restaurant week (now through feb 5, and probably again later in the year). but beware the $11 glass of sangria.
***
(the 50mm experiment continues)
chickpeas and chorizo soup. a smoky, spicy start...
skate wing a la plancha, with pickled peppers, olives, and saffron orange sauce.
the bits of orange rind are startling. i loved the briny jalapenos.
does this look like a chocolate dessert? it's red-wine braised beef cheek, with pomegranate and celery root. the deeper, richer iberian cousin of the turkey and cranberries, if you will. my favorite part? a downy puree, which is impossible to see in this photo, but according to our waitress is made of celery root and chick peas.
roasted cod romesco. hearty black olive oil.
but i think the shaved zucchini is the star here, with nice summery basil scattered about.
poached pear with turron ice cream. bright citrus rouses this sweet, sophisticated number.
and the best bread pudding (pudin de pan!) in town. maybe the world. with caramelized bananas and spiced whipped cream.
all photos © anita aguilar
it's been in my sights every day for at least the last two years, as the lite-brite background to grand central terminal and the helmsley building, but...i haven't really looked at it. isn't that though what you get when you plop something (even something so stocky and glaring) behind a city's major transportation hub? if you're walking anywhere near there, you'd better not be staring up while you do it.
this might also be the peril of situating a restaurant, even a very fine one, in the same spot. so convenient, yet so easy to overlook? la fonda del sol is a shiny modern spanish marvel tucked under the huge concrete overhang on the west side of the metlife building, facing vanderbilt avenue and 44th-45th streets. is anyone ever really strolling on vanderbilt avenue? hustling to and from the station i imagine folks, if they are looking around at all, peer through the restaurant's etched glass, admire the bold spanish reds and the striking floor squares of black and white and think, i should go there sometime... (mañana...)
and it would be a pity if mañana never came because the "inn of the sun," while hardly a neighborhood joint (for those of us who call this neighborhood home) and perhaps too proper and pricey for a mere pit-stop, spins traditional spanish ingredients and flavors (garbanzos, chorizo, fresh fish, citrus and saffron) into special little events.
if you're in deal-hunter mode (like me and my friends), there's a pretty good one to be had during restaurant week (now through feb 5, and probably again later in the year). but beware the $11 glass of sangria.
***
(the 50mm experiment continues)
chickpeas and chorizo soup. a smoky, spicy start...
skate wing a la plancha, with pickled peppers, olives, and saffron orange sauce.the bits of orange rind are startling. i loved the briny jalapenos.
does this look like a chocolate dessert? it's red-wine braised beef cheek, with pomegranate and celery root. the deeper, richer iberian cousin of the turkey and cranberries, if you will. my favorite part? a downy puree, which is impossible to see in this photo, but according to our waitress is made of celery root and chick peas.
roasted cod romesco. hearty black olive oil.but i think the shaved zucchini is the star here, with nice summery basil scattered about.
poached pear with turron ice cream. bright citrus rouses this sweet, sophisticated number. 
and the best bread pudding (pudin de pan!) in town. maybe the world. with caramelized bananas and spiced whipped cream.all photos © anita aguilar
testing testing: the sigma, at aldea
i recently invested in new lens on the advice of one of my cousins, who's an amazing photographer. i expressed to him that i was having a problem getting great, indoor photos of people without a flash, on a consistent basis (a lot of "blur," which i like sometimes, but didn't always want). he gave me a few ideas, i chose a sigma 50 mm F1.4 ex.
first use: a gelf magazine event. i started to miss the zoom on my other lens. i was happy enough with the photos, though, and was glad i didn't need a flash.
second time around: i took some headshots for a friend--and my cousin was right. the lens is much faster and the portraits looked good. in that particular session, there were very few shots that were not crisp. but again, i was missing the zoom...
third time, the real charm? i took the lens with me to dinner at aldea. and i started to discover the limits to its use. the camera actually wouldn't take a lot of shots that i wanted. and several that i did manage to take were blurred. below are the better ones of the bunch. if i took a little more time, these might have been better, but, at some point we needed to dive in to the meal...
but these aren't really the quality that i was hoping for..clearly, i have a some things to figure out with this lens..what it can do, when i should use it best...
sea urchin toast, with cauliflower cream, sea lettuce, and lime
lightly cured spanish mackerel, with meyer lemon, almond milk and crunchy soy
sea salted chatham cod, with market cranberry and fava beans, lemon basil mussel broth.
caramelized brioche, with blood orange gel, creme fraiche pink peppercorn ice cream
lens issues aside, the dinner at aldea was elegant.
this is my iberian summer--i've had a season full of good food, but dinner here, and at txikito on 9th avenue, were the meals i craved. (i have been longing for a seaside vacation?) txikito stands out as distinctively iberian--a marriage of the simple, quintessential spanish flavors: smoky, cured meats paired with sea salty cod and anchovy. their portions are smaller, but they are richer and heartier (quail eggs..chorizo hash sandwiches...croquettes).
aldea takes the same flavors, but presents them with a far lighter touch. the result is cuisine that is less distinct to a region (asian notes in the sea urchin toast, the lightly cured mackerel, and the caramelized lychee), but meals that reflect strong french tradition and technique and a modern, green-market sensibility. to wit: meyer lemon, coriander yogurt, green garlic, crunchy soy, cauliflower cream, creme fraiche pink peppercorn ice cream...
my lovely friend allison (one of my favorite dinner companions: we have the same sense of adventure, the same approach to the menu. she arrives to our meals very well-schooled-- i can rely on her to remember critic's picks and pans. but we regard everything before, during, and after the meal...and she lets me take photos) had her first taste of sea urchin (liked it!) and we had the requisite "umami" discussion. i somehow imagined that the sea urchin would have been whipped into some sort of spread, and broiled, open-faced, in a toaster. but i love sea urchin raw, so i wasn't disappointed to have whole pieces presented on a long, crispy flatbread. the contrast in textures was new and good. we loved both the chatham cod and the arroz de gato. and the caramel brioche! when i think of brioche, i think of stretching and pulling pieces of sweet pastry and popping them into my mouth. but this brioche yielded so easily under the fork, like my mother's chiffon cake. it was wonderful. and the pink peppercorn in the ice cream was the best surprise--no heat, just a mild, peppery crunch.
the lone disappointment of the night were the "sonhos," little munchkins, rolled in sugar and presented with 3 dipping sauces--a too-dark chocolate sauce (allison rightly compared it to baker's baking chocolate); a zingy apricot sauce, and a hazelnut sauce, a nice cross between whipped cream and a pudding). but the dough in the doughnuts tasted uncooked. that they were doused in sugar didn't help. the sauces just put it over the top, and not in the best way.
but the service throughout was impeccable: attentive, polite, and generous. and, aldea offered a lovely little dessert amuse bouche (chocolate caramels, brown butter financiers and white peach pates de fruit) that would surely set any little wrong right.
first use: a gelf magazine event. i started to miss the zoom on my other lens. i was happy enough with the photos, though, and was glad i didn't need a flash.
second time around: i took some headshots for a friend--and my cousin was right. the lens is much faster and the portraits looked good. in that particular session, there were very few shots that were not crisp. but again, i was missing the zoom...
third time, the real charm? i took the lens with me to dinner at aldea. and i started to discover the limits to its use. the camera actually wouldn't take a lot of shots that i wanted. and several that i did manage to take were blurred. below are the better ones of the bunch. if i took a little more time, these might have been better, but, at some point we needed to dive in to the meal...
but these aren't really the quality that i was hoping for..clearly, i have a some things to figure out with this lens..what it can do, when i should use it best...
sea urchin toast, with cauliflower cream, sea lettuce, and lime
lightly cured spanish mackerel, with meyer lemon, almond milk and crunchy soy
sea salted chatham cod, with market cranberry and fava beans, lemon basil mussel broth. (not pictured, because i couldn't manage a good shot: arroz de pato: duck confit, chorizo, olives, and duck cracklings)
caramelized brioche, with blood orange gel, creme fraiche pink peppercorn ice creamlens issues aside, the dinner at aldea was elegant.
this is my iberian summer--i've had a season full of good food, but dinner here, and at txikito on 9th avenue, were the meals i craved. (i have been longing for a seaside vacation?) txikito stands out as distinctively iberian--a marriage of the simple, quintessential spanish flavors: smoky, cured meats paired with sea salty cod and anchovy. their portions are smaller, but they are richer and heartier (quail eggs..chorizo hash sandwiches...croquettes).
aldea takes the same flavors, but presents them with a far lighter touch. the result is cuisine that is less distinct to a region (asian notes in the sea urchin toast, the lightly cured mackerel, and the caramelized lychee), but meals that reflect strong french tradition and technique and a modern, green-market sensibility. to wit: meyer lemon, coriander yogurt, green garlic, crunchy soy, cauliflower cream, creme fraiche pink peppercorn ice cream...
my lovely friend allison (one of my favorite dinner companions: we have the same sense of adventure, the same approach to the menu. she arrives to our meals very well-schooled-- i can rely on her to remember critic's picks and pans. but we regard everything before, during, and after the meal...and she lets me take photos) had her first taste of sea urchin (liked it!) and we had the requisite "umami" discussion. i somehow imagined that the sea urchin would have been whipped into some sort of spread, and broiled, open-faced, in a toaster. but i love sea urchin raw, so i wasn't disappointed to have whole pieces presented on a long, crispy flatbread. the contrast in textures was new and good. we loved both the chatham cod and the arroz de gato. and the caramel brioche! when i think of brioche, i think of stretching and pulling pieces of sweet pastry and popping them into my mouth. but this brioche yielded so easily under the fork, like my mother's chiffon cake. it was wonderful. and the pink peppercorn in the ice cream was the best surprise--no heat, just a mild, peppery crunch.
the lone disappointment of the night were the "sonhos," little munchkins, rolled in sugar and presented with 3 dipping sauces--a too-dark chocolate sauce (allison rightly compared it to baker's baking chocolate); a zingy apricot sauce, and a hazelnut sauce, a nice cross between whipped cream and a pudding). but the dough in the doughnuts tasted uncooked. that they were doused in sugar didn't help. the sauces just put it over the top, and not in the best way.
but the service throughout was impeccable: attentive, polite, and generous. and, aldea offered a lovely little dessert amuse bouche (chocolate caramels, brown butter financiers and white peach pates de fruit) that would surely set any little wrong right.
hot child in the city
i do look forward to the few times of the year when i can sport something of a savage tan, but i've only ever been interested in acquiring a tan in the course of pursuing some kind of activity: tennis, running...at the very least, i'd have to be at the beach, with the prospect of running or flopping around in the water. but lounging outside on a towel, just to get a bit of color seemed boring. and it seemed somehow sad to have to do it on the roof or on a fire escape or in a city park. but i must be getting old and lazy, because when my friend andy suggested whiling away an afternoon in central park on this the first of surely many scorching ny sundays, i didn't have to think twice about it. and i didn't even think twice about stripping down to my bikini. it was too hot for much modesty, too hot for much just beyond lying there, with lots of water. and cherry popsicles.
all that doing nothing in the sunshine really did wonders for our appetite though. after winding our way all through the west side of the park, we hit up the new uptown outpost of fatty crab, and feasted on fatty sliders (mini pork and beef burgers, served on soft square rolls, with luscious sambal aioli--maybe my favorite dish on their menu), green mango salad, fatty duck, the near- perfect mess known as the chili crab, coconut rice, and...the fatty dog...
our table was quite a scene, especially when we were done.
this new restaurant is a smart extension and a good fit for the neighborhood: it doesn't sport the elbow-to-elbow, knee-to-knee intimacy and down home charm (and the lighting is less amorous), but the trade-off is great service, and a shorter wait for a table (more tables!). the tweaks to the menu (no quail egg shooters! and a curry sauce for the chili crab, rather than luscious, piquant tamarind sauce) might be a minor disappointment for the downtown regulars who fiend for those particular delights, but it at least ensures the original location won't be forgotten.
our meal was a nice, if super-indulgent coda, elevating an afternoon of simple pleasure to a summer holiday.
***
i love "hot child in the city" but had forgotten it was sung by nick gilder. or maybe i never really knew that. he doesn't do much to sell this song, but it's catchy anyway...
if you check out the wikipedia link, you'll see a connection to john mcenroe's wife, patty smyth...
(hint, hint: "bang, bang")
pure junk
the compost cookie™. thanks to the inventive mind and high-fructose palate of christina tosi,
nyc. march 21, 2009.
my new favorite cookie is a perfectly crazy union of sweet/salty, chewy/crunchy, "blondie"and "brownie". it's rich and altogether cloying. it's not for the timid.
i brought some home and asked my dad what he thought.
i barely started wowing him with the list of ingredients (potato chips! pretzels!) before he declared, good!
since he's a man of few words, i didn't think i'd get much more than that (and maybe an approving nod) out of him. he's decidedly no nonsense about food (as he is with everything, really). and while he's definitely of the "you can eat everything in moderation" school, he's not at all a fan of "junk food." i had been curious to know what he'd make of this debaucherous little experiment.
after a few more quick bites, he asked me to recite the ingredients again:
coffee grounds.
potato chips.
coffee grounds.
potato chips.
pretzels.
chocolate chips.
butterscotch chips...
chocolate chips.
butterscotch chips...
i watched his brows start to wrinkle and i thought, uh-oh, he gonna balk...
then he laughed, "puro junk, eh (it's all junk)! that's why it's so good!"
he tossed back the last bite, and clapped the crumbs from his hands.
yes.
a game changer, and the over/under(rated)
the game changer: the 8oz kobe beef foot long hot dog, with schaller & weber sauerkraut (braised in beer). and fries.
at five napkin burger. nyc. march 18, 2009.
five or so years ago, when everyone was whispering hot about kobe beef and kitchens were converting the stuff into burgers, i succumbed to the hype--i ordered it a few times at different fancy-pants midtown restaurants, in part because the burger "format" was likely the only way "kobe" was going to fit into my freelancer's budget. i didn't much care if it was real kobe beef (not likely) or kobe grade or kobe style, i just wanted a little taste.
those ventures were enough to kill my interest altogether. prepared on the rare side, "so as not to lose the kobe tenderness," it was consistently an unremarkable mess. (but at least i learned a couple of solid tips: even the best quality meat deserves a touch of seasoning to enliven it; and, if meat can't bind itself together, best not to sandwich it. serve it as tartare.)
anyway, i've been passing it over on menus ever since. until last night.
i was at five napkin burger, and since i've already tried their nice, oozy signature burger, i opted for the "kobe beef" foot long hot dog. (my friend allison and i had seen someone order it "5 N" style: with mustard, cheddar, relish, onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos, and we stared shamelessly at the thing once it hit the table.) i decided to keep it simple, and have it with "just" sauerkraut.
i don't know what exactly was "kobe" about it, but the hot dog was perfectly prepared: grilled, not boiled, it had a nice, crisp snap to it. there was "tenderness." it was --what's another fun word for juicy? and the deeply tasty sauerkraut was so generously portioned, i thought they'd read my mind ("the more sauerkraut the better"). i sat there, working my way though it with my steak knife and fork, thinking this was the stuff of my dreams...
now, less than a half day later, i've decided that meal changed everything, and not in a good way. oh, i still think the hot dog itself is the tops. but i haven't experienced this sort of gastronomic remorse in years. was that dog only 8 oz? it eats like 16. and i shared it! (btw, i am no lightweight--i've eaten two foot long hot dogs at a knicks game--as my friend's husband kindly pointed out, that's about half my height in hot dog. so...) it may have actually ruined me for baseball season and the us open! it was just too much. a kobe beef hot dog itself may not be overrated, but the wisdom and allure of eating one, foot-long and buried under an avalanche of beer-braised kraut that is too unwieldy to be picked up with two hands, surely is.
***
on the other hand, i'm starting to wonder if roasted, salted peanuts aren't the most underrated dessert topping.
a couple of months ago, i dined at joe's stone crab in miami--their key lime pie is stunningly good. i raved and spoke about having one shipped to my mom for mother's day, prompting liam, my server that night, to ask what my favorite dessert in nyc was. i couldn't think of one. he left me to attend to other tables, returned, and i still didn't have an answer for him. kind of embarrassing! maybe i was just slow that night? or maybe i don't love dessert the way i should, or the way others do. i've had some great desserts here, but i told him my preference is for simple things: ice cream or cookies, more than any sort of mousse-y affair.
but i may have found a favorite dessert in ny. true to what i told him, i love its simplicity: it's five napkin burger's brownie sundae (vanilla ice cream, an espresso brownie, caramel, and salted peanuts). but i think what really makes it stand out are the peanuts.
i like walnuts, but unless they are candied, they can be soft and waxy and fade into their surroundings. i love hazelnuts--but everyone is doing hazelnuts. and almonds--also a nice touch, but sometimes too sweet.
what does a roasted salted peanut give you? solid crunch, an assertive nutty-ness, and salt--the perfect counterpoint to cold, sweet ice cream, deep chocolate, and feather-light whipped topping.
peanuts are an old standby, maybe we even take them for granted (do we enjoy them beyond the baseball stadium anymore? do we even enjoy them on planes anymore?), but they can be a real goodie...
see if you agree.
if you're ever at 5 napkin burger, try to make room for the sundae.
if you're in la, at pizzeria mozza, treat yourself to the caramel copetta.
and if you have suggestions--or contradictions--by all means, please send them my way.
saturday: "milk", grits and a fried egg
sunshiney saturday spent in the slope.
my lovely friend zovig and i decided to check out the takashi murakami exhibit at the brooklyn museum. it was "cuteness!" for sure. i'm not at all a fan of the louis vuitton collaboration, but those "superflat eye love" designs were quite appealing on a larger scale...i especially loved the color combinations in the "eye love" and jellyfish eyes series, on silk...it's all so much more striking on that fabric...i also liked milk, 727-727 (i actually loved all the paintings that were "sanded" ), cosmos (1998), and this daruma (i open wide my eyes but see no scenery. i fix my gaze upon my heart, 2007). the exhibition is bright and cheery and ominous and overwhelming...odd and funny and interactive...it is, to a degree, kid-friendly, if you're prepared to deal with questions about anatomical correctness/distortions. we had a little "overheard in ny" moment while standing in front of inochi (boy--maybe 7 years old: "mommy, his penis is on his stomach!" mommy: "why yes, it is..."). ha.
walking into the "vuitton exhibit/store" and taking the kooky wallpapered staircase to the floor below, which is a funhouse all its own--toys and t-shirts and other collectibles, all impeccably sorted and contained-- it struck me what a kick this show must have been to put together--and how sad it would be to have to watch all come down (show ends on july 13, btw)...
if you're as interested in behind the scenes stuff as i am, check out the terrific flickr slideshow that the museum has posted on its site...
and if you'd like a peek into the kaikai kiki studio sanctum, check out this ny sun article and its accompanying slideshow...
after the museum, zovig and i moseyed over to fifth ave...and stopped for brunch at stone park cafe. it took me about 3 seconds to decide that i wanted the hangtown fry: eggs, oysters, bacon and vermont cheddar cheese...how good does that sound?! but then...i took a longer look at the menu... i saw that they had grits, with shrimp and a fried egg. i remembered being deeply envious of the shrimp with grits at bar americain, which my sister ordered the last time we brunched together...so i changed my mind and went for the "anson mills white grits, with shrimp and fried egg."
the fact that the grits' brand name was proclaimed on the menu--as if i should recognize it--aroused my curiosity, so when i got home i did a little research. there's quite an interesting story to tell! turns out that the anson mills white grits come to us thanks to one man, glenn roberts, who was so deeply interested in the history of the south, especially its culinary history (cheers!) that he set out to revive--by organically growing, harvesting, and milling--varieties of corn, rice and wheat that were nearly extinct. he was able to find and harvest a "famous" carolina gourdseed white corn (that was "revered for its high mineral and floral characteristics, and its creamy mouthfeel"), which dated all the way back to the 1600s. this is the white corn that was milled into the grits that became my brunch!
and they really were creamy...i've only had grits a couple of time in my life (LOVE the cheddar grits at freemans...ooohhh. those are very different...toothsome...GRITTY) but this dish was nearly like a pudding. thick and rich and creamy, completely indulgent. i will admit, a little smoky, salty bacon would have livened it up. but it was very, very good.
anson mills white grits...
Originally uploaded by ata08
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