The Modern Dining Room

The Modern is located in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) space. There are two parts to this restaurant, the bar room and the dining room. The restaurant design is beautiful, there is a sleek tunnel/corridor leading into the restaurant space from 53rd street, next to the entrance of MOMA. The dining room has this incredibly high ceiling and it overlooks the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden.


The Modern is one of Danny Meyer's creation, his other "babies" include Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Park Madison etc etc. I did the three course pre-fix for $88 when I went to The Modern Dining Room (they only have pre-fix menus).

The amuse-bouche, the spinach pie on the top right corner was delicious.

For appetizer, I had the seared Sullivan country foie gras with medjool date and lemon confit, chestnut tuile. The foie gras was fatty and the date was a great compliment. I love anything foie gras in general, this dish was good but it wasn't life-changing in any way. AX had the Dorade Royale - flashed cooked with sea urchin, yuzu & American caviar. I thought the dorade was quite fishy, and the sea urchin wasn't as fresh as some of the ones I've tasted in say 15 East or Le Bernadin.

For entree, I ordered the chorizo-crusted codfish, with white coco bean puree and harissa oil. The chorizo crust was a great touch, the codfish itself was quite soft, but the sauce was just ok. AX ordered the fine herb braised suckling pig with parsnip puree, roasted pineapple & natural jus scented with cardamon. His dish was pretty amazing, the suckling pig was strong (a tad porky for my liking) but tasty, the crispy layer on top was the winner. He definitely had the better entree dish in comparison to mine.


For dessert, they bought us an amuse-bouche which was actually the highlight of the evening for me. It was a cream cheese ice cream on a mini waffle (no picture unfortunately). It was very refreshing and palette cleasing. AX got the baba grand marnier, vanilla ice cream & lime sabayon. The baba cake was very soft and delicious and completely soaked in alcohol. The grand marnier taste was very strong (recommended for my alchi friends :P). I got the recommended signature dessert, milk chocolate & hazelnut dacquoise with raspberry sorbet. Again, it was good, not mind-blowing. They also bought us a small tray of complimentary chocolates, macaroons and sweets...by then I was beyond stuffed.




I thought the overall dining experience at The Modern was pleasant, but I think the space outshone the food. The menu was a bit tired and needed a facelift in my opinion. The French-inspired cuisine was neither traditional nor inventive. Perhaps the next I'll try the food in the bar room, which is Alsatian-inspired, and see how that goes...

On a completely separate note, I took a few pictures of the cutesy art installation at the Lever House building (on Park $ 53rd) on my walk over to The Modern.


Address: The Modern, 9, W 53rd Street (between 5th and 6th Avenue), New York, NY 10019

Full set of The Modern Photos

Aburiya Kinnosuke

Aburiya Kinnosuke, Yakitori Torys & Yakitori Totto are Japanese robata grill restaurants owned by the same restauranteurs. Of all 3 establishments, Aburiya is my favorite because it has the most extensive menu (I think...). Also, they take reservations. Totto's & Tory's on the other hand do not accept reservations during peak hours.

Robata grilling is a form of Japanese barbecue method which is simple and rustic. At Aburiya, a pile of charcoal is built on top of a sand pit, and instead of grilling above the fire, they stick the skewers into the sand around the charcoal, and the ingredients are slowly roasted/grilled vertically for 20-25 minutes.

I loved the tsukune (grilled ground chicken), they brought us a raw egg and we poured the raw egg over the lightly marinated tsukune, and it was heavenly...

The kurobuta (black peppered bershire pork) was slightly fatty and had a great texture and flavor. The mushroom was very smokey and juicy.


We also ordered the homemade cold tofu, which was simple & clean.

The kakuni (organic berkshire pork with brown sugar soju) was soft with equal lean and fatty part, and it required very little chewing, it just melted in my mouth....mmm....

I also had the miso & houba leaf special on the shichirin grill over bincho-tan charcoal. The sichirin grill is basically a small portable grill, and the binchotan charcoal is also called "white charcoal" which produces little smoke (COOL!!) and apparently quite costly. They brought out the fish (can't remember for the life of me what fish it was) and the grilling process was really fun. Although it didn't have the same smokey taste of the robata grill, it was very tasty with the miso and scallions.

Address: Aburiya Kinnosuke,213 East 45th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenue), New York, NY 10017

I ordered other stuff at Aburiya Kinnosuke, and the rest of the photos are here.

Nice Matin & Harlem Walking Tour

On a recent Saturday morning, I woke up wanting to have a nice brunch at a new brunch spot, in a different neighborhood, and this, is how I ended up at Nice Matin on the Upper West Side. Nice Matin is a french restaurant that serves bistro type food. I ordered the creamy parmesan polenta, which came with two fried eggs over grilled radicchio, grilled asparagus & polenta, with shaved parmesan cheese on top. Mr. PIC (Partner-in-crime) had the scrambled eggs with spicy lamb sausage served with a salad. I loved my brunch dish, the grilled radicchio & asparagus was very tasty, and I LOVED the polenta & egg combination. Interestingly, I am currently reading "heat" by Bill Buford, and there is this whole chapter about polenta-making which is absolutely fascinating.


After brunch, we decided to head up to Columbia for a little walking tour and for Mr. PIC to visit his old playground. While we were walking around,2 asians approached us, and their first question was "are you Christian?". Knowing what they wanted to tell us, I politely declined their offer to join the church, they kept asking questions and by then I got irritated...




The ironic part was, we did end up going to a church..haha..well, not to pray but to sight-see. Church? Sight-see? In New York? YES my dear. It's called the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Amsterdam Avenue & 112th street. I've seen the church from the outside quite a few times, it's gothic and looks a little bit out of place in New York.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine was first built in 1892, until today, it's unfinished. The church is really big, and cool part is, there are seven chapels inside the church - French, Italian and so on....catering to the diversed immigrants of New York city. There was a school tour while I went so I stalked the guide and heard some interesting anecdotes & stories about the church.


This is not the Notre Dame or the Duomo, but you know, like all things New York, if you look carefully, there are important treasures to be found. :)

Address: Nice Matin, 201 W 79th St, New York, NY 10024
Address: The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10025

All photos here

Curry-Ya & Udon West

Japanese curry rice falls under the comfort food category for me. Curry-Ya is located in the East Village, next to Rai Rai Ken (ramen place), and is co-owned by the same folks. A few weeks ago, I went to Curry Ya for the first time. I ordered the berkshire pork curry rice and a hamburger on the side. The waiter asked if I wanted "mild, medium or very spicy". Not knowing what to expect, I chose the middle road, medium spicy and a ramune soda. Ramune is a Japanese soda that comes in a cute glass bottle with a marble in the middle. More on Ramune here. There are no tables in Curry-Ya, only stools alongside the bar. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of food there. I found comfort in the fact that they cooked in front of me and I knew exactly what went into my curry. Another thing I really found great was the condiments they provided on the side, the picked onions & raddish were great!





The only issue, an a significantly one (considering the economic situation we are in now) is the price tag of the curry rice. It's $10-$15 for each dish, my pork curry rice was $15, I found it a little hard to justify paying so much for curry rice when the instant ones cost about $2. I know....I know, it's not the same but you get my point.

A slightly cheaper option for Japanese curry rice is Udon West on St. Marks. I had the shrimp tempura curry rice when I went for lunch a few months ago and it came up to around $10. Perhaps Udon West is less refined than Curry-Ya but it hit the right spot. Their udon dishes are also delicious, perfect for a cold cold day like today (weather.com says "32F, feels like 28F")..brrr..

Address: Curry-Ya, 214 East 10th St. New York, NY 10003 (bet. 2nd & 1st Ave).

Mercat

Dining in Mercat was a spontaneous dining decision on a late Saturday evening. Mercat means market in Catalan, Catalan is a language spoken widely in Catalunya, the Northeastern region of Spain. Spanish cuisine varies a great deal from region to region, I am more familiar with the basque cuisine & catalan cuisine. Having been to Barcelona a year ago and loving the food, I knew I was in for a real treat at Mercat.

Mercat is located in a beautiful lofty space in Noho. The right word to describe the restaurant is "sexy". I particularly loved the split upper loft filled with wine bottles. I got pretty lucky too, with a last minute reservation, I somehow ended up at the chef's counter.

The tapes (tapas) on my AAA (awesome, awesome, awesome) list are:
The Col de Brusseles - brussel sprouts with chesnuts and romesco. The outer layers of the brussel sprouts were crispy, it was lightly salted. The remesco sauce, which is a Catalan specialty, was pretty good, although I ate the brussel sprouts mostly without the sauce.

Fideua Negra Amb Allioli - short noodle wih sepia in its ink. The noodle reminded me of the beehoon (thin rice vermicelli) often used in Southeast Asian cooking. This dish was very similar to what I had in a semi-hidden restaurant somewhere in the hip El Born area in Barcelona, where my friend Anja took me. That was when I had "omg, I love Catalan food" moment.

Coca D'Anec - coca bread topped with duck, pearks, spinach & hazelnut. This was my ultimate favorite dish of the night. The duck made me want to do a happy happy joy joy dance around the restaurant! It was seared, a little fatty, drizzled with some sweet/savory sauced with chunks of hazelnut, served over a bed of spinach on top of the coca bread (Spanish flatbred)....it was pretty darn great!

The tapes on my AA (pretty awesome) list are:
The Bombas - chicken, pork & beef meatballs with aioli was really delicious. Initially, I thought mixing chicken, pork & beef might be weird but the minute I bit into the meatball, I changed my mind. Somehow it worked, and the aioli added a lot of flavor, and the spice they dusted on the outside and had a hint of "Indian" to it.

Canelons "Mar I Muntanya" - oxtail canelone served with shrimp, lobster caramel & shaved manchego. This raicons (large tapas) was delicious. The shredded oxtail was wrapped in canelone (thin pasta sheet) & the shrimp was grilled. I couldn't really tell where the "lobster caramel" was though.

The tapes on my A (kinda awesome) list:
Patates Braves. It was a simple deep fried potato dish with garlic & spicy sauce. Most of the reviews I read highly recommended this dish. I was a little underwhelmed by it, it was good but it wasn't that memorable.

While cooking, the chefs were drinking from the wine porrón and passing it around to the customers. The first time I saw a porrón was on Anthony Bourdain's Spain episode. A porrón is a wine pitcher with a long nose, and you pour the wine directly into your mouth. Some experts can pour wine accurately into their mouths while holding the porrón very far away. The chef offered for me to try, but knowing how little hand-eye coordination skills I possess, and wondering simultaneously how difficult or expensive it would be to get the red wine stain out of my sweater, I politely declined. Maybe next time I'll wear a black top. :D

All Mercat Photos
Address: Mercat, 45 Bond Street (between Lafayette & Bowery), New York, NY 10012.

Mary had a little lamb? 小肥羊

Hot pot ("steamboat") restaurants are something I wish I can easily find in New York City. Besides Quickly Shabu Shabu on Grand Street, which is decent but very small, I can't recall a hot pot restaurant that I really like in New York until....*drum roll*.....Little Lamb hot pot restaurant in Flushing came into the picture.

Little Lamb hot pot restaurant is great in many ways - the fresh meat, the amazing sauces & the most important, the SOUP!

When I went there a few weeks ago with a bunch of friends, we ordered a pot of plain herbal soup, and a pot of half & half. The half & half was half herbal soup & half sichuan spicy soup. The Sichuan spicy soup was as usual, very spicy, filled with peppercorns. My favorite was the herbal soup, it reminded me of the herbal 六味汤 my grandmother used to make.

We ordered the lamb meat, pork & beef, and they were all fresh. The lamb meat in particuarly was very tasty. My evil friends also ordered the "drunken shrimp", but luckily we didn't eat it alive. Drunken shrimp is a dish originated from China, the shrimps are often eaten alive, but stunned in strong alcohol (according to Wiki). The waiter brought out the shrimps in a plate, he then put a lid over it and slowly poured the alcohol into the small hole on the lid. The shrimps were all jumping around, I didn't really want to look because for once, I actually felt a little guilty sending them to their deaths. Once they were heavily intoxicated (about 15 minutes of shrimp-struggling later), we poured them into the hot pot to cooked it briefly. I have to say, as soon as I tasted the shrimp, my guilt was out of the door! They were very sweet, very fresh & very drunk.



On a side note, I am currently developing an addiction to the lamb skewers from the Xinjiang (an autonomous region in the North West of China) Barbeque cart on 38th Avenue, near Main Street (by the Flushing public library). The lamb meat is fatty, tender and smoky. And for $1 per skewer, you really can't go wrong.


Little Lamb Photos
Address: Little Lamb Hot Pot, 36-45 Main St, New York, NY 11354

Lower East Side

Since I was writing about 'inoteca, I figured I should follow up with another post somewhat related to 'inoteca. Below are a series of photos taken from inside 'inoteca about 10 months ago. It was one of those New York City nights which I felt sentimental for no particular reason. I remember that night so clearly like it was yesterday - how the city smelled, how the air was a little crisp, how I thought the shadow from the street light made everything looked so perfect but imperfect...





All photos here

'inoteca

I've been to 'inoteca on numerous occasions for suppers. 'inoteca opens late, until 3 a.m. everyday, so on weekends, it's usually buzzing with hip looking Lower East Side crowd even at 2 in the morning. I always wonder how these folks can still look so fabulous at that hour in their tight skinny jeans, shoving cheese & cured meat down their throats.

'inoteca' serves mostly small plate style, which is how I like to eat - small on portion, big on variety. The price is pretty reasonable, and the food is of good quality, the variety of cured meat in particularly is superb.

Last weekend, I made 'inoteca my destination brunch restaurant because I had to go to the Lower East Side to run some errands. I tried the prosciutto with fruits, fried egg over suckling pig & my personal favorite, truffle egg toast with bottarga (Mediterranean cured fish roe).

The prosciutto came with slices of apple & pear drizzled with some honey. The prosciutto went well with the pear, not so much with the apple, and I am not a big fan of the honey over fruits.

The fried egg over suckling pig on the other hand was pretty intense. The suckling pig was sliced, and there were some herbs stuffed in between the meat, the taste was strong but the fried egg with runny yoke on top was a great compliment.

The truffle egg toast was rich and decadent. The bottarga was really tasty and this dish reminded me of eggs in a basket, but the rich man version.

Also, a few weeks back I saw the 'inoteca' sign somewhere along 3rd avenue. I looked it up and found out that they are opening another branch in Gramery Park, see below for the address of their new location on 3rd avenue.

Address: 'inoteca, 98 Rivington St (Rivingston Street), New York, NY 10002
Address: 'inoteca, 323 3rd Ave (24th Street), New York NY 10010

Rockmeisha Izakaya

Rockmeisha Izakaya (an izakaya is a Japanese drinking place that also serves food) is tucked in a quiet street in the West Village. Unlike most drinking establishments, Rockmeisha isn't loud or chaotic. On the contratry, it is quiet, intimate, and un-fussy. In other words, it's a real gem.

I went with my regular food-hunting "kakis" - Sar, G & AX. We ordered six small dishes to share.

First came the mentai (pollock roe) rubbed chicken wings. The marination was superb, and the wings were juicy. The skin was not crispy, so if you are looking for Popeye's fried chicken type of thing, it might disappoint.

Next up was the elephant garlic croquette. When we cut into it, a BIG garlic was revealed, and BIG in a "I've-never-seen-a-garlic-this-big" kind of way. The croquette was made with little pieces of chopped daikon, not the regular potato so it was less creamy but I actually preferred this version.

The Nanban (fried chicken with tartar sauce) was pretty mind-blowing. We analyzed the delicious tartar sauce, there were chopped egg whites in it, and we suspected that it was tartar sauce but perhaps mayo with vinegar.

The tofu steak with mushroom actually tasted more like a Chinese dish than a Japanese dish but it was very appetizing. The mentai dumplings were mediocre. I'm typically not into chicken feet, pig toe (although I'm unmistakenly Chinese), but I the tonsoku (grilled pig toe) stole the show. It was slightly sticky, a little crispy & very very flavorful.

The price tag for a small bowl of hakata ramen was a little steep at $14 but it was worth it, I think. It was less rich/heavy than the hakata ramen in Ippudo, but you could still taste the porky-ness of the soup (in a good way) and very hearty. Again, they used the thin noodle and they gave us about 4/5 slices of chasu per bowl.

Rockmeisha, rocked my world!

Rockmeisha Photos

Address: Rockmeisha, 11 Barrow St, New York, NY 10014