Highlights:
Minamoto Kitchoan
Florent
Kwik-Meal
Mercer Kitchen
Time Warner Center
I was in New York this past week for the SpeechTek conference. While days and some nights were taken up with conference activities, there was definitely time for some culinary adventure. With New York being a culinary mecca, I could have spent a month here (not to mention hundreds of dollars) and so I was only able to catch a glimmer of the scene. Here are some highlights:
Zen Palate - Union Square: Nino wrote up this restaurant when he was there - a cafe like restaurant serving vegetarian fare. I had the vegetarian cabbage rolls stuffed with carrot and soy, with moo shu rice rolls and brown rice - very fresh, comfort food.
Breakfast: I can't get over how many deli like restaurants there are in New York. On every block, at least in Times Square, you'll find multiple bakery/deli/food bar restaurants that serve sandwiches and prepared foods for breakfast and lunch. Always busy, there are salad bars, and sushi bars, and hot items for extremely reasonable prices. I ducked into one of these each morning to grab my tea and breakfast. Most mornings I ordered an egg on toasted english muffin ($1.25) and pondered the business case for establishments such as these. How much food do you need to prepare and sell to make money running a place like this? How many people do you need to employ to prepare piles of prepared foods?
Minamoto Kitchoan - Rockefeller Center: This high end Japanese confectionary shop is steps away from Rockefeller Center. Rebecca introduced it to me last year when in New York and I walked over 2 separate days to get a little something sweet. Most of what they sell are gift boxes of individually wrapped mochi, Japanese pound cakes filled with red bean jam and other well made pastries and sweets. While these are probably good, it's the fresh mochi that is mouth watering. Red bean paste wrapped in the freshest softest mochi or soy bean flour, all natural and incredibly delicious.
Kwik Meal - Midtown: Go Canada! Canada was playing Finland in the World Cup Hockey finals. After drinks and appetizers at the conference I went to ESPN Zone in Times Square; there was no way I was going to miss the game. The bar was equipped With 6 small screens and 2 gargantuan screens, one with the hockey game and the other showing the Yankees with the sound booming from the the hockey game. The score was tied at 1 when I arrived and I asked a guy with canada shirt who had scored. We got to talking and it turns out he was there for the conference as well. As I looked around I realized that the bar was filled with Canadians including a honeymooning couple directly off the plane from Vancouver, some Vermonters including the owner of Jay Peak, also rooting for Canada and even a couple of Finns here and there. I was starving after the first period and needed something quick to eat, but not ESPN Zone food.
If ever a city could serve gourmet food from street carts, New York wins. Yes, there are your hot dog, roasted nuts and pretzel carts but these are alongside the morning fruit and roll carts, and the schwarma, grilled meat, knish, and falafel carts. I remember seeing a Kwik Meal cart on the corner of 6th (Avenue of the Americas) and 45th decorated with awards and reviews from a multitude of sources including Gourmet magazine. I read the little blurb about Rahman, the owner and found that he was in fact Canadian and went to cooking school in Toronto. He suggested the lamb and chicken grilled meat over rice with salad, a heaping plate of incredibly flavorful meat with fresh rice and shredded cabbage with some yogurt tahini sauce on the side, all for $7!!! I ate fast but not without wondering if this was perhaps the best meal of my stay in New York; the second period had surely started.
I watched the rest of the game with my new Canadian pals. The cheers when Canada scored and the jeers when the Finns did echoed in the bar. In the last few moments of the game when the score was 3-2 for Canada, we held our breaths. With the hockey lockout looming, a win for Canada would remind us of the Canadian Pride associated with the game, even if the NHL players may not play all season. The period ended and the bar went crazy. I saw the Finns behind me crying as the bar erupted into "Oh Canada".
Florent - Meatpacking District: Happy Jewish New Year! David Binder and I met at his apartment and walked to the Meatpacking District for dinner. Large warehouses with chic new facades line the streets converted into hip new restaurants and clubs. We attempted to get a seat at Pastis, a French brasserie obviously popular even on a rainy Wednesday night. We decided not to wait the hour to get a table and David gave me the choice of going to the Spice Market, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's chi chi la la asian fusian restaurant. While the restaurant has received rave reviews, we decided on Florent instead opting for a French diner instead of the more upscale restaurant. Florent was indeed a diner with counter stools on one side of room, and wooden tables on the other with stark white walls and bright lights. David's friend Brigitte who I met last year, was working and we had fun sitting at the counter and catching up with her. After ordering a glass of the house pinot, and settling in, we both ordered the steak frites - thin cut salted french fries with a delicious steak in a mushroom red wine sauce and steamed green beans.
Dinner was fun and while I wasn't with immediate family to celebrate Rosh Hashannah it was nice to spend some time with David. We toasted each other for a happy and healthy new year. Jewish New Year is a significant holiday for me. I often find that this is the new year where I spend the time to reflect on the past year and define resolutions for the coming year. It always seems more appropriate than the December 31st holiday; Rosh Hashannah being in September after the summer with the change of seasons and the start of the school year. Besides a resolution to keep up and enhance the flog and seek out new culinary adventures, there are other resolutions that will hopefully bring about some change in the coming year.
Time Warner Center: This new center, already a culinary mecca in New York, is still opening stores and restaurants in Columbus Circle, the south west corner of Central Park. Much has already been written about the mecca given that some world reknowned chefs have opened hig profile restaurants in this upscale, modern "mall". I had to check it out. The entire bottom floor is dedicated to what I think is the largest Whole Foods store to date. An immense portion of the store is taken up with prepared foods and food bars and aisles upon aisles of Whole Foods regular fare, large cheese, seafood and meat counters and about 25 checkout counters. Impressive.
I also had to wander up to the fourth floor of the mall where these new restaurants are now located. Per Se is one of the restaurants on the fourth floor, Thomas Keller's now recently awarded 4 star restaurant by the New York Times, an award that is not earned or received lightly. Masa and V (Jean-Georges' steakhouse) also adorn the stark hallway of this upper floor of the mall. The floor was deserted save for the hostess and doorman for the restaurants guarding these 15 feet opulent doors where people can wait months for a reservation, if they are so lucky. These restaurants seem a little inaccessible to me, however, it does make me want to find a way to get to French Laundry, Thomas Keller's four star restaurant in Napa.
Mercer Kitchen - Soho: I met Rebecca, Carol Bleyle and Lisa for lunch here before heading to New York. The service and staff's snobby New York attitude balanced out all other New Yorkers I had come into contact with during my stay who were incredibly friendly and helpful. Lunch was good - a roasted chicken sandwich on grain bread with lettuces, heirloom tomatoes and avocado though the attitude left a bad taste in my mouth.
Afterword: Who knew? After writing this I found out that Jean Georges owns this restaurant!! I need to find out more about him and his restaurant empire.
