ABC Kitchen

Hello there!  It's been a while.  I was busy the last few months.  Getting ready to get married this October :D.  Food-wise, I've tried not to miss out on too much though.  Here's my latest update on ABC Kitchen.  This is Jean Georges Vongerichten's newest restaurant, located inside/beside the ABC Carpet and Home store by Union Square.

ABC Kitchen
35 E 18th Street between Broadway and Park Avenue South

I've been wanting to try this restaurant since it opened.  At first, the buzz was light and the description of the restaurant was not super exciting ... something along the lines of "white," "spartan" and "organic" came to my mind.... like a plain white t-shirt...  then the reviews started coming in, to the point where I could no longer brush off this newcomer as yet another restaurant in the whole farm-to-table genre.

Reservations seemed predictably difficult to secure but I managed to score a reasonable one a few weeks in advance for a large party on a Friday night at 7pm.  Note that there are 2 entrances to the restaurant, one on 18th street and another through the ABC Carpet and Home store itself.  It was a little weird, the entrance through the store because it is technically the 'back' of the restaurant and I was awkwardly looking for a hostess to announce my arrival to... the reception desk was positioned only at the front of the restaurant so you need to walk through the entire length of the restaurant in order to speak to someone that can help seat you.

That aside, the restaurant space that greeted me was gorgeous.  Lots of white, as I had always expected, but softened with warm lighting, plenty of pale wooden tones and softly edged furniture.  Our table was made from a patchwork of wooden pieces formed to look like a giant slab of tree trunk - kinda cool.

Our waiter was sleepy in his manner but he delivered the specials without much fanfare and showed up whenever he was needed - service was adequate in summary.

The restaurant wasn't full throughout our meal.  Especially before 8pm and later around 9pm, I saw plenty of empty tables... I suppose everyone only really wanted to be there at prime time but not otherwise?

The menu was quite simple, organized and with just a few selections per section:
1. Market Table - small bites to share
2. Appetizers - salads, soups etc
3. Pastas
4. Pizzas
5. Entrees
6. Sides

My overall verdict of ABC Kitchen is that I want to come back again! The food was generally tasty with lots of clean flavors. There was one disappointment (the overly salty black bass) however, the calm atmosphere of the restaurant plus the generally good food makes me really want to come back again. We tried a lot of dishes that evening, my favorites were all the toasts (crab, tomato and liver), the halibut, the bowtie pasta and the donuts with bacon chocolate sauce. Here's the break down:

The tomato toast - simplicity on a crusty piece of bread, it was simply thick-ish, well-toasted slices of bread, seasoned with what tasted like gruyere cheese and topped with a generous layer of freshly sliced, raw tomatoes - SO much flavor with these few ingredients, it was brilliant:



The peeky-toe crab toast - it had a generous layer of fresh and sweet crab. It was also served slightly warmed so the wonderful aroma of crab was enhanced and wafts up enticingly whenever you take a bite:



The chicken liver toast - nothing much to look at but it was packed with a lot of flavor. It was rich, earthy, gamey and luxurious, all in one bite:



The roasted portobello and celery leaves - another winner. I don't know what they roasted the portobello with but it was like concentrated mushroom essence. The celery leaves was a wonderful juxtaposition to the meaty, juicy mushroom flavors:



The pretzel-dusted calamari appetizer with marinara sauce and mustard aioli - I thought this was the most pedestrian although most of my dinner party really enjoyed it. The calamari was crunchy and tender; well-made, but nothing extraordinary:



The roasted carrot and avocado appetizer salad - there were a lot of rave reviews online about this dish so I was expecting a lot and.... I was a bit disappointed. It all tasted good, the roasted carrots were sweet, the micro greens gave the dish a nice touch of chic-ness but there was nothing out of the ordinary in the flavor combinations:



The kasha and bowtie pasta w veal meatballs - definitely a stick-in-your-ribs dish. Kasha is another word for buckwheat. The sauce was just really rich, savory and tasty, perhaps not a great choice for our hot summer weather but that aside, it is just such a great dish on its own:



The organic crispy chicken w escarole and mashed potatoes - this dish was very simple but in a good way. The skin was definitely very crispy and the chicken was very juicy. All the flavors were super clean.:



The black seabass with chilies and herbs, red bliss potatoes and spinach - this broth in this turned out to be overly salty. We didn't send it back to the kitchen but we should have. I really wish they had bothered to re-taste their sauces because the seabass was otherwise cooked perfectly:



The steamed halibut w shitakes, avocado and asparagus juice - the halibut was definitely better than the seabass. The fish was super moist and tender. The sauce was a bit overly citrusy to me. However, it was definitely another tasty entree option:



The sundae with salted caramel-peanut ice cream, candied popcorn, whipped creme fraiche & chocolate sauce - there can be nothing wrong with this dessert:



The donuts with bacon chocolate sauce - the texture of the donuts were amazing - cakey but still light as air. The bacon chocolate sauce went so well with the donuts, I'd definitely highly recommend this dessert:

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! (part deux) - Guu Izakaya & Black Camel

I'm here again!  This time to process some visa-related issues.  Nevertheless, the eating continues!

First up:  Guu Izakaya - I first heard about this place from a fellow foodie friend.  Rumor has it that people will wait an hour to get into here.  A line?! I'm in!  After some googling, it seems like this joint is a bonafide foodie destination worthy of my trekking (although to be honest, it doesn't take much worthiness for me to trek for food).  It is an offshoot of a popular Vancouver chain.  It is located within downtown Toronto and easily walk-able from where I'm staying this time (One King West).  The reviews seem to all indicate a few things: (i) long wait (ii) delicious tori karaage (fried chicken) and (iii) very noisy.

I decided to try Guu out on a Monday evening.  Since I was leaving from work, was unable to hit it at its opening (5pm) but still didn't want to truly end up with an hour-long wait alone in the cold, I decided to scrap the trekking idea and sped off on a cab instead.

I arrived at about 6.30pm.  The restaurant is located in a somewhat deserted block on Church Street, amidst the university area (great idea since a lot of students would be willing customers at such a place).  I lucked out and immediately got seated by the bar since I was a party of one.  The restaurant is very loud indeed.  The entire wait staff would bellow out in Japanese periodically, greetings, goodbyes, order pick-ups etc.  It made for a very communal and festive atmosphere.

The menu is actually surprisingly simple.  A few items each of oden (Japanese soup-braised foods), grilled, fried, cold and dessert dishes.  There is a separate sheet of photocopied paper listing the specials of the day.  I selected the kinoko cheese bibimbap, ebi mayo, tori karaage (how could I resist) and tontoro.

Kinoko Cheese Bibimbap
This is your typical stone-pot rice bowl but made with chunky pieces of button mushrooms sauteed with garlic and seasoned with a nori-flavored seasoning.  The whole mixture is topped with shredded cheese and served up sizzling hot.  It was really delicious!!!  There was something totally addictive about the nori-flavored sauce and the combination with the meaty pieces of mushroom was such a winner.  I don't know why such a simple idea hasn't been repeated at the many izakayas in NYC!?

Ebi Mayo
This is deep fried battered shrimp topped with spicy mayonnaise.  The shrimp was really fresh, plump and juicy.  However, the batter took away from it.  Overall, I wasn't too impressed with the dish, I suppose I found it rather ordinary.

Tori Karaage
This is a very typical Japanese izakaya dish of ginger/garlic-seasoned deep fried chicken chunks.  And it was made really well here.   Chunky pieces of dark meat chicken that has been well-marinated and fried till it's perfectly crispy outside and so juicy, tender and delicious inside.  Definitely the best of the lot, second to the bibimbap.

Tontoro
This is grilled pork cheeks.  The pork was tender, quite oily and more about the texture than anything.  On its own, it wasn't particularly original but it was very interestingly matched with a smudge of grated yuzu peel and wasabi as a dipping condiment.  This yuzu wasabi dip was really wonderful with the somewhat bland pork.

For dessert, the creamy almond pudding was a winner after all that rich food.

And, as a nice final touch, a little pot of frozen grapes with the check.

I had a good time here.  The service was really friendly.  The food was mostly interesting and well-made.  Would come back again if I'm in Toronto.

Guu Izakaya
398 Church Street, between McGill and Granby Streets

Second up: The Black Camel up in Rosedale.  This restaurant is located in the suburban neighborhood of Rosedale.  It is right off busy Yonge Street and is just at the outer rim of the main downtown area of Toronto.  Walking there is possible from downtown Toronto, but may take over half an hour of brisk walking, depending where you are starting from.

The buzz about this place is its pulled pork sandwich, firstly, and its barbecued meats in general, secondly.  It is a small, take-out type of an establishment.  You place your order at a counter and may choose to take-away or eat-in at one of the two small tables or the more plentiful bar stools.

I went with the pulled pork sandwich and added extras - cheese, horseradish sauce and sauteed onions.  My first comment is - don't bother getting the extra toppings, they don't give you much of it and you therefore barely taste them so what for.  The only exception is the horseradish sauce, if you enjoy horseradish, the taste will be strong enough to come through in the sandwich, and it does go well together.

The sandwich is huge.  It comes in a fresh and soft kaiser roll that is split in half.  The pulled pork is piled generously into the bread.  The sandwich comes wrapped in a large sheet of aluminum-lined paper, which serves as a very handy 'plate' for all the drippings that will come.

The pulled pork was very tasty.  The flavor of tomatoes came through most strongly.  Unfortunately, my only complaint is the texture of the pulled pork - it tasted as if it had been sitting in a warmer all day and had gotten a little stringy.  I could tell that when freshly cooked, this pulled pork would've been perfectly textured.  However, as I came around 7pm when closing time was 8pm, it had probably been sitting around for a long time.  That was definitely a shame.

I noticed signs around the little shop that indicated menu items here (most likely including the pulled pork) sell out early oftentimes and that their twitter site would be the best place to confirm availability beforehand.  I guess I was lucky to get what I got going there so late in the day.  Wouldn't mind trying this place again but definitely earlier during the day.

Black Camel
4 Crescent Road, NE corner of Yonge Street

A Delightful Lunch

How simple and delicious - room service at the Intercontinental Hotel on Front Street West, Toronto - a grilled shrimp caesar salad with an added side order of sauteed mushrooms mixed in:

Has W 48th Street (btn 6th & 7th Aves) become a mini restaurant row of sorts??

Mondays - NYC Cravings food truck - taiwanese fried chicken or pork chop on rice w marinated ground pork sauce and pickles, siu mai, dumplings, rice dumplings (zhong zi).  The aroma of the marinated ground pork sauce and the fried chicken wafts through the entire perimeter of the truck; it's the best marketing tool they have!

Wednesdays - Schnitzel and Things food truck - constantly sold-out - so it must be good!

Thursdays - Wafels and Dinges food truck - belgian-style sweet waffles.  You can choose between the 'soft and chewy' style or the 'light and crispy' style.  I personally prefer the 'soft and chewy' - so much more toothsome.

All the time - Financier Patisserie - This is one heckuva wonderful pastry shoppe.  My favorites are their prepackaged almond macarons, their financier cake, the mini financier cakes that are complimentary whenever you buy a hot beverage and on Wednesdays, the heady mushroom and gruyere quiche - ooh la la!

Dinner at A Voce (Madison Ave)

I’ve been to A Voce once before, many years ago when Andrew Carmellini was still the executive chef at this restaurant.  In my memory, that was a pleasant, elegant meal.  This past Thursday, I went again.  The chef now is Missy Robins.  The memory created this time was a little marred in spite of the good food.

A Voce

41 Madison Ave (at 26th Street)

The space is still as before, warm with wood finishing  and modern. The smooth, wood-topped tables were beautifully matched with swivel chairs that were upholstered with caramel-colored leather, and the wall lighting faded pleasantly between various shades of vermillion and orange.  The food was delicious and generously portioned.  However, the service seemed to have deteriorated.  For an upscale restaurant like A Voce, I would have expected staff that was warm and knowledgeable.  Instead, it was very brusque and unpolished.  Other than the service hiccup, the food saved the day.

The menu offered a nice selection of appetizers, pastas and entrees.  For appetizers, we tried the mackerel (sgombro) and the mushrooms (funghi al forno).  The mackerel was panfried, drizzled with a light sauce and dressed with mandarin segments.  It turned out to be more delicate than expected although I would have preferred a stronger mackerel flavor.

The mushrooms were heady and had the most appetizing aroma when served because of the white truffle oil that it was cooked with.  The King mushrooms were sliced in half and pan fried and served with a very creamy, savory sauce.  So delicious!  The meaty mushrooms were perfectly cooked with a lightly crisped crust but still retaining plenty of moisture and texture in the flesh.  Such a delight.  This ended up being the clear winner of our dinner that evening.

We were so enticed by the description of the pastas on the menu we decided to order four of them among the three of us- the beet-stuffed ravioli (casunziei), spaghetti and shrimp, foie gras ravioli (raviolini di fegato) and linguini with crab (linguini al granchio).  My favorites were the linguini with crab and the shrimp spaghetti.  First off, the quality of the hand-made pastas at a Voce were nicely chewy and absorbed the flavors of their ingredients very well.

The crab linguini was made with fat lumps of sweet crab meat and was rich with the promise of the ensuing spring.

The shrimp in the spaghetti was very fresh, so fresh it had a slight elasticity/crunch to it, which was quite toothsome.

The foie gras ravioli popped with its rich, gamey flavors.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of this dish.  The only slight disappointment to this repertoire of pasta dishes was the beet pasta.  The little beet raviolis had an attractive red hue and the first taste was also enjoyably sweet.  Then after a few bites, the sweetness became cloying.  This dish may have been better as an appetizer.

We were very full at this point but we decided to endure our serious pasta hangover and to conquer dessert.  We shared two desserts, the mini donuts with chocolate (bomboloni alla toscana) and the semifreddo di espresso.

The bomboloni was freshly fried and stuffed with what tasted like zabalione and sugared on the outside.  The little dish of chocolate dipping sauce completed it.

The semifreddo was meh.  It certainly tasted fine and of all the ingredients it was described to have - hazelnuts, sea salt caramel.  The biscuit crust below the mousse was delicious and buttery but otherwise, everything was just ok.