Bad day at work for H. So-so day at work for me. Nothing like a combination plate of store-bought and home-made leftovers for dinner to round out this Thursday:

- my pork cabbage rolls
- cha siew rice from Chinatown
- remnants of my semi-home-made bah kut teh from last night's dinner

Ahhhhhh

Pulino's - Finally!

There's been a lot of buzz about this place.  Keith McNally's (owner and restaurateur extraordinaire of Balthazar, Odeon, Lucky Strike, Pastis, Schiller's Liquor Bar - to name a few) newest baby finally opened this month.  Eater has been tantalizing me for weeks with tiny snippets of news, updates about the status of construction, the menu, and photos of the bathroom even.  I was thrilled and surprised to be able to make a reservation for Sunday brunch very easily (12.30pm seating too!) about 2 weeks in advance, for its first week of service.  I was excited to go, mostly because of the hype.

I was a tiny bit skeptical about the food.  I enjoy going to the McNally restaurants, but, it's always more because of the scene and atmosphere than the amazingness of the food (the one exception is Balthazar's fries and beef stroganoff).  It didn't help that there didn't seem to be any overwhelming food review for Pulino's during the first few days of service either.  Nevertheless, the executive chef, Nate Appleman, seems to brought along a bit of goodwill from his days cooking in California although he still has a bit of notoriety in my mind, partly due to his armful of tats and partly due to his badass attitude in The Next Iron Chef.

I showed up for my reservation on time and relatively open-minded nonetheless.  We were seated right away once our party was complete.  The place was hopping.  There were many walk-ins who were told that the wait would be almost an hour.  Thank goodness we scored a reservation!  The interior of the restaurant is very much like Schiller's liquor bar.  There were the same white bathroom tiles, the similar bottle display.  According to one of the staff, the first level of wall-to-wall display of liquor are fake, while the rest above that are all inventoried.  So even though the display looks random, they're all been quite deliberated.

The waitstaff were all dressed in baby-blue t-shirts with police-barrier-type font printed on their front and back (can't remember what were the words).  There were a handful of picnic tables that were constructed from police barriers.  Service was really pleasant and relatively quick and attentive.

The menu gave quite a few options of eggs (on pizza, baked or on its own with sides).  There were sides and also a list of regular non-breakfast pizzas and other oven-cooked foods (roast chicken etc).  Be sure to look at all sides of the paper printed menu, we almost missed out a short list of baked goods printed right at the back.

The nutella fat baby (puff pastry stuffed with a nutella/chocolate/ganache mix) was sweet, tasty, buttery and flaky but would have been even yummier if only it was served warm.

The sable fish appetizer was a nice, light menu choice.

Grapefruit caramelized with muscovado sugar was another refreshing choice.  Although one of our two grapefruit halves turned out a little burnt (not pictured).

We also tried a salad with roasted hen-of-the-woods mushroom.  This looked run-of-the-mill but it tasted better than it looked.  The mushrooms gave a great texture and the lettuce was surprisingly buttery.

For our entrees, the first to arrive was a pasta dish (the salsiccia) that was crepe-like and layered with a very hearty and meaty ragu.  I liked this dish, it was almost lasagne-like.

Then came the pizza.  A large pie with two beautiful eggs with perfectly runny yolks.  Additional fresh cheese was grated on top.  It was really good.  The crust was so delicious!  It was crispy, very thin crust but still robust enough to hold all the hearty ingredients.  This was the winning dish for me.  I'm usually the one with a pile of pizza crust edges remaining on my plate but I actually ate all of the crust from this one!

Our final entree was the polenta and eggs.  2 eggs (cooked the way you like) over-easy served in a cast-iron skillet with creamy polenta verde (mixed with spinach I think), mushroom sauce and a spiral of spicy sausage.  I enjoyed the juicy sausage but otherwise, I thought this dish was rather meh.

Moving on to dessert.  The warm chestnut cake was definitely a treat.  It was comforting, not too sweet and definitely a flavor you grow to love more and more.

Another dessert we tried was less impressive.  It was the panacotta with burnt honey.  It came with a crisp cookie on top that had an interesting taste to it (that I can't define) but overall, the flavor was really mild and not particularly memorable.

I'm glad I finally got to try Pulino's.  Even though not every dish blew me away, I'm pretty sure I'd try to be back soon, especially for the pizzas.

Toronto Ahoy!

I'm in Toronto for a few days, attending a work conference.  The food in this city is rather renown.  There is quite a lot of character, with an eclectic mix of flea and farmers' markets, ethnic markets, fine-dining restaurants and casual cafes.  Here are a few of my top picks this trip (in no particular order):

1. Carousel Bakery's Peameal Bacon Breakfast Sandwich:

Peameal bacon is a type of Canadian bacon that is traditionally rolled in pea meal to ensure better curing and shelf life.  These days, most peameal bacon is rolled in more commonly available corn meal.  The taste of this bacon is much leaner than regular bacon, it is still juicy, tender and briny nevertheless.  When sandwiched in a soft roll and topped with fried egg and American cheese, it's divine!

Carousel Bakery
St Lawrence Market
On Front Street East, between Jarvis and Market Streets
Closed Sundays and Mondays

2. The Canadian Sausage Cart

I LOVE getting hotdogs in Canada.  They are far and away so much better than what we typically have in New York.  The 5 reasons I love them so much:
(i) Their dogs are grilled over charcoal.
(ii) They have selections of dogs - spicy, chicken, bratwurst etc.
(iii) The buns are toasted over charcoal.
(iv) There is an array of free condiments - pickles, olives, sauerkraut, ketchup, mustard, chili sauce, bacon bits, mayonnaise (sometimes).
(v) They are all over the city!  This is not a one-off gourmet truck.

Just look:

3. Kensington Market

Northwest corner off Spadina Ave and Dundas Street West

Baldwin Street between Kensington and Augusta Avenues

This area is a collection of little stores that sell everything from edgy clothing and 70's odds-and-ends to fresh produce, meats, seafoods and baked goods.  It has a wonderful neighborhood atmosphere that blends the young and the old and is a great place to wander around and stroll in-and-out of.  It's also right next to Chinatown, so another added benefit is that you have yet another neighborhood to explore afterwards.

4. The Distillary District
This is a little far out to the east, further east after St Lawrence Market.  It is walkable from St Lawrence Market on a nice day.  It is a restored distillary area.  The warehouse facades are still largely maintained, giving the whole area a really nice feel of old and modern.  One of the best foodie stops in this area is Soma Chocolates - a gourmet chocolate shope.  You MUST get a cup of Bicerin while you are there.  It is a wonderful concoction of hot espresso, chocolate and cream, soo yummy.  They have some really good chocolate confections too.  There are also little bakeries and pastry shops dotted here and there, all with thoughtful selections of goodies to choose from.

The Suckling Pig Speaks...

I was psyched to go to Maialino recently for dinner.  It's a relatively new Danny Meyer restaurant located inside the Gramercy Hotel.  The overall experience didn't disappoint.  The restaurant was bustling the way a somewhat up-and-coming restaurant should but the atmosphere remained very comfortable and the food (although a little salty for some) was generally well-executed.

Maialino
2 Lexington Avenue (at East 22nd Street)

Maialino is located on the ground floor of the Gramercy Hotel.  The restaurant is rather large.  The entrance leads from a bustling bar area through a mid section that includes the brick oven and bakery display, followed by the main dining area.  Our waitress was a lovely lady that was very knowledgeable about the menu and definitely made the whole experience that much better.

For appetizers, we ordered the fried artichokes with bread sauce (carciofini fritti), the cacio e pepe pasta (tonnarelli cacio e pepe) and the ravioli with egg (raviolo al uovo).

The fried artichokes came with a good amount of lemony flavor and the artichokes were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.  My only complaint was that this dish was a little bit salty.

The cacio e pepe pasta was a bit too gloopy.  The black pepper and pecorino cheese didn't manage to shine through the starchiness of the pasta.

The ravioli with egg was quite something.  Although its egg yolk ingredient made the dish sound heavy, it turned out to be quite light and a delight to eat.  This dish is one big ravioli, stuffed with ricotta cheese that is delicately perfumed with rosemary and a whole egg yolk.  The whole combination was wonderful.

For our entree, we ordered the restaurant's special (which our waitress stressed was 'off the menu' even though if you read any of the reviews about this restaurant, it is quite hard to miss) - maialino al forno.  This dish is meant to be shared between 2 - 3 people.  It does not look like too much food but it is because of the strong flavors involved and the richness of the meat.  It is basically pork belly that is roasted until the skin is crisp and the meat is falling-apart-tender.  The piece of pork belly is brought up in a silver tray whole and presented to us prior to the chef carving it.  Carved up, it is served all on a large dish with some crispy potatoes roasted with rosemary.  What a delicious treat.  It is moist, crispy and all around tasty.  The pork flavor was wonderfully enhanced with this method of cooking and I can't wait to be back and to try it again.

For dessert, the special was a panacotta topped with a fig and honey compote.  This was SO good it was even better than ice cream.  The panacotta was so rich and creamy.  The honey fig compote was bursting with a caramely flavor.  The combination went so well together.  It was the perfect ending.

Except, we ordered another dessert, the olive oil cake.  I'd say this was the weakest dish of our dinner that evening.  It was moist enough but did not have a good and strong olive oil flavor.  Disappointing and I'd recommend not ordering this.  Stick with the panacotta if it is available.

Maialino was a a delight to experience.  It's a great place for a casual, fun dinner.

Eggs on a Snowy Saturday Morning

Jet lag again besets me. I've been surfing the Internet since 4am this morning. We had a big snow day yesterday and I can only imagine how cold and miserable it must still be outside. The chilliness in my apartment started giving me hunger pangs. My mind inevitably started wandering towards breakfast. I had eggs in my fridge, honey ham and brie cheese. An omelette! I decided to throw in my leftover slice of emmental cheese and since brie reminds me so much of jam, I decided to mix in some strawberry jam as a new twist. It would be really quick to put together.

Ingredients:

3 large eggs

1 tsp olive oil

3 slices honey ham

1 slice of emmental cheese (optional)

1 piece of brie (approx 1 oz)

1 tsp strawberry preserve

1/2 fresh tomato for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Chop up the cheeses and ham.

2. Mix the cheeses, ham and strawberry jam in a bowl.

3. Mix the eggs in a bowl with a fork, season with a pinch of salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

4. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium low heat.

5. Pour the eggs into the pan and stir vigorously, scrambling it somewhat.

6. When the eggs begin to set more, move and slide the eggs towards one side of the frying pan, covering half of the pan.

7. Put the ham, cheese and ham mixture onto the half-cooked eggs.

8. Immediately start to fold the eggs over the ham mixture, towards the edge of the pan.

9. When the omelette is set, slide the omelette onto a plate and serve with slices of tomato.

My Observations:

- My omelette turned out to be quite watery on the inside, anyone with any idea why?

- Cranking up the heat to high at the end of your cooking time will result in an appetizing brown crust on the omelette.