i heart nyc

Caramel Chicken

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OK, that name sound odd, but I assure you that I am not putting syrup on my chicken. I will say that the "caramel" sauce on this Asian inspired dish is a bit gooey and "salty, sweet". The main ingredient is dark soy sauce which is different then your standard water soy. Dark soy is aged longer than standards soy sauce with molasses added at the end of processing which makes it almost black in color. It's available in most Asian markets but may be hard to find in your local grocery store.

The reason why I love this dish is because it's so easy to make after work and the chicken always comes out real tender. The recipe calls for boneless chicken thigh and I would use breasts or anything with a bone. You can serve this with some fluffy jasmine or basmati rice and some greens. I usually use simple buttered green beans because I love them so much. It could be equally as good with some spinach, baby bok-choy or even matchstick carrots. The recipe below is good for 4-6 people. You can easily cut this in half if you want less.

Here's the recipe;

Chikalicious, dessert bar

East Village | 203 East 10th Street (1st & 2nd Ave) | NYC, NY | 212-995-9511

Subway 6 Astor Place | L 3rd Avenue

Web Chikalicious

Menu

 

I think my friend brought me to a tea parlor. OK, I had fair warning. His girlfriend said I wouldn't like it. I insisted that we go so I could experience a place New Yorkers love to wait in line for. New Yorkers really love to wait in line. It's a form of self-torture. I really don't mind a short wait but I am likely to walk away if there is a line or a wait longer than 15 minutes. My rule of thumb is to double whatever wait time they give you.

Tonight we are in luck. We call Chikalicious in advance and they tell us there is no wait. Perhaps because it's a Sunday night or maybe because everyone was at the "festivities" in the city all day and just went home and had a Devil Dog instead.

Chikalicious is a dessert bar and one of the most unique in New York City. The interior is stark white and very modern. There are a few tables and a counter and the eatery seats 20 people. They say it's more fun to sit at the counter because you can see the desserts being prepared. Since we are sitting at a table, I have no idea what we will be served. The menu is a 3 course prix fixe for $12 per person and changes seasonally. A wine pairing is an additional $7. Along with your main selection you get an "amuse, dessert of choice and petit fours. 

[amuse?]

Tonight our "amuse" is a sweet green tomato puree with lemon sorbet. I hope I got that right but I was more "amused" by the "amuse" because of it teenie, tiny size. I feel so dainty. I guess this is a palate cleanser.

For our main dessert I don't remember the exact name of mine but it was a pat of wine flavored ice cream topped with marinated cherries and a thin slice of cinnamon shortbread. My friend got the Warm Chocolate Tart with Pink Peppercorn Ice Cream and Red Wine Sauce. Both desserts had amazing flavor and are truly inspired by creativity. This is not a gooey dessert place. It's a treat for the taste buds and art to the eyes. Sensory overload. At Chikalicious you get everything, except full.

[the tease]

After the main dessert they bring a small plate of petit fours. Petit four is French for a small bite size cake. On each plate is a small homemade marshmallow, a almond cake and a chocolate truffle. Each one is delicious and had a great depth of flavor. One catch. The pieces were so tiny I remarked to my friend that, "I could snort each one up my nose". Don't worry, Mom, I didn't.

[in my opinion...]

OK, I joke. Everyone knows I love desserts. I tend to like homemade stuff like fruit tarts, crisps and layer cakes. It's unlikely that you will find any of these at Chikalicious but for a nice experience which is sensual to the eyes and palate, it's a good and fun choice. I give them a lot of credit and a 4 heart rating for originality and sensuality. Can we go for a big dessert now?

Oh, and please, don't snort the petit fours!

Grand Sichuan

Chelsea | 229 9th Avenue (@24th St.) | NYC, NY | 212-620-5200

Subway C, E (23rd Street) | 1 (23rd Street)

Web Grand Sichuan

Menu

Yesterday, after a hot day in the city, a friend I decided to go on an eating binge. Our restaurant of choice was Grand Sichuan since there are so many things we haven't tried there yet. We got to Grand Sichuan at about 6:45pm and snagged the very last table in the place. After that a small line formed with people eagerly awaiting tables and Chinese delicacies.

Grand Sichuan was very crowded tonight and the service was friendly but not attentive. It took a very long time for us to get our first dish (Soup Dumplings). That was odd because it is usually very fast. I noticed that a table of people who arrived after us were already well on their way through their meal even before our starter arrived.

[let's eat!]

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On our quest to try something new. I ordered the Crab/Pork Soup Dumplings. My friend has had these but I never tried them. He says that the soup dumplings at Grand Sichuan aren't the best in the city, but they are still pretty good. I really liked them. What's a Soup Dumpling? It's a steamed dumpling which is filled with meat and very hot flavorful broth. You put the whole thing in your mouth and when you bite you get an explosion of broth. Hopefully you let them cook down first, otherwise you can really burn your mouth! A great new experience for me!

[now for the good stuff]

For our first entree we got the "Red Cooking Pork & Chestnut" ($9.95) which is on their list of "Mao's Home Cooking". I am trying to picture Chairman Mao in a red apron with a wok in one hand and little red cookbook in the other.  When we ordered our server asked, "Would you like lean pork or fatty pork?" She explained that the lean pork was more dry, as she wrinkled her nose to gesture that this was not her style. Being good health conscious diners, we choose the lean pork but then just before our server left our table we decided to be bad and went for the fatty pork. Our waitress raised her eyebrow with pleasure is said, "You will like". What the hell.

When the dish arrived, the appearance was a lot different than anything I ever had at a Chinese restaurant. We knew we were in for a treat. There were chunks of fatty pork, sort of like a cross between spare rib meat and fatty unsmoked bacon. The meat was mounded a top fresh spinach greens with a few chestnuts mixed in. All this was in a tasty broth. Its a shame there weren't more chestnuts because they were delicious!

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Shortly after our first dish arrived it was topped with our second dish, Gui Zhou Spicy Chicken ($8.95). I have seen 2 spelling of this dish (Aui Zhau and Gui Zhau). I don't know all the specifics, but Grand Sichuan prides themselves on making their chicken dishes with fresh killed chickens. Was that the noise I heard in the kitchen? The dish presented to us looks savory and beautiful and is bits of chicken with a caramelized red color. I immediately reach across my chopstick and try a piece. One in my mouth it seemed sweet and had a soft spicy flavor. Very nice. Then comes the heat. The spice in this was a 4 alarm fire starting with a burning taste, then a hot bitter aftertaste on the back of my tongue, immediately followed with a sweet mouthful of rice to cool it off. Then repeat! This is a delicious dish but obviously made for people who desire the taste of hot red dried chili's. I believe that the way they get this so hot is to saute the dried hot red chili's in oil until charred, then they add the chicken. There were a few pieces of Chinese vegetables in the dish, but that was secondary to the meat. Seriously its a good dish but very spicy. The chicken had a great taste but I think if I order this again I might ask them to tone down the spice!

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The third dish (yes third) we ordered was the Dry & Sauteed String Beans with Minced Pork ($7.55). This is a simple dish of fresh string beans sauteed in soy sauce and garlic with minced pork. It was a huge dish and could have served 4 people with normal eating habits, but we ate the whole delectable dish. A classic!

When all was said and done, we walked away with the roofs of our mouths burnt from the soup dumplings, belly's full of pork fat and our lips red hot and burning from the spicy chicken.

"What now?" I asked my friend, he replied, "Lets go to Chicalicious". OK! I can never turn down a good dessert.

ANZAC Biscuits

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On my recent vacation to Australia (see "i heart australia"), I really enjoyed my afternoon tea breaks in my hotel room which I often had with Australia's famous "ANZAC Biscuits". Well, I guess these are only famous in Australia because I have never heard of them before my "down under" vacation. ANZAC biscuits are named after Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

During World War 1, the wives, mothers and girlfriends of Australian soldiers were concerned for the nutritional value of the food being supplied to the troops. Food which was sent to the fighting men had to be carried on the ships of the Merchant Navy with no refrigerated facilities.

The ingredients used to make ANZAC biscuit's were rolled oats, sugar, plain flour, coconut, butter, golden syrup or treacle, bi-carbonate of soda and boiling water. The recipe did not include eggs to bind the ANZAC biscuit mixture together. Because of the war, many of the poultry farmers had joined the services and eggs were scarce. The binding agent for the biscuits is golden syrup.

Since my vacation coincided with Australia's ANZAC Day (the US equivalent to Memorial Day but with a lot more beer), I was lucky enough to see these treats throughout Sydney and Melbourne. While at the United Airlines Red Carpet lounge, they had a big basket of these which I swiped a few and ate on my return trip to Newark.

All but one...

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I have been hoarding one package from my trip to consume with fond memories of my Australian vacation. Yesterday, I did a search on the net and found a few recipes. Now I can finally eat that last package. It's actually quite simple and there was little variation from recipe to recipe. I made them last night and they were easy to make and came out excellent. The biscuit is a hard crunchy biscuit with a sweetness unlike an oatmeal cookie. You can really taste the oats. The go great with tea of a cold glass of milk.

I did notice that on the packaged ANZAC biscuit, it says it is "with wattle seed". What the heck is wattle seed?

Here is how you make them (without wattle seed!);

Chermoula Tilapia

As I mentioned in my prior post I made myself a tilapia marinated in a flavorful "chermoula to eat with my Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand". I'm not sure what I was looking forward to most, the fish or the wine.  I think it was the wine. Regardless, the fish was delicious.

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Chermoula is something new I just discovered. One of the main ingredients in chermoula is cilantro, which I  am normally not fond of because of my dislike for Mexican food. The Chermoula preparation is a Moroccan recipe used to cook fish in a tagine with vegetables or broiled in the oven. Chermoula can be prepared in advance and be saved in a bowl in the refrigerator.

Here's the recipe;

No More Wine

I've been hoarding wine. On a few trips to Los Angeles, Sacramento, Sonoma County, Orange County and a vacation to Australia's Hunter Valley, I've managed to drag a few bottles home with me. Heck I even got a bottle of wine on a recent trip to Charlotte, NC. Right now I have about 55 bottles which should keep me through the Summer and Fall seasons.

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Please Mr. Wine Retailer, don't suggest anymore jammy reds, crisp whites or sparkling treats. I need to exercise self restraint.

But I am low on Italian reds...

Three of my favorite wine stores;

1. Wine House, Los Angeles, CA

2. Astor Wines & Spirits, NYC, NY

3. Shoppers Vineyard, Clifton, NJ

Grand Sichuan

Chelsea | 229 9th Avenue (@24th St.) | NYC, NY | 212-620-5200

Subway C, E (23rd Street) | 1 (23rd Street)

Web Grand Sichuan

Menu

I came to Grand Sichuan on the advise of a friend who says this is the best Chinese restaurant in New York City. As I sit here in the Chelsea branch of the restaurant it seems that he was not a lone with his thoughts. Many people here seem to be "in the know" and come here often. They seem to be scouring the menu to try something different in addition to all their favorites. I've made 2 trips to Grand Sichuan so far. The first time I wasn't satisfied I ordered the best thing on the menu so I returned to try something different. 

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[the service and menu]

Grand Sichuan is a bit cleaner and a bit more friendly then you typical Chinatown Chinese restaurant (but not by much). This is not a large place but it has about 25 tables seating 2-4 people each. My first trip was on a Thursday evening and the place filled up to capacity shortly after I arrived. My second visit was on a rainy Saturday evening and they never filled up due to the downpour outside. Service on both visits was brisk with plenty of servers to assist everyone.

The menu at Grand Sichuan is divided into 2 sections, "American Chinese Food" and "Sichuan Chinese Food". There are also Shanghai and Cantonese selections. Be sure you flip through the menu past the American Chinese Food if you want authentic cooking. Prices are typical Chinese ranging around $5 for Soups and typical starters and $8-15 for main courses. Most menu items have typical poor descriptions of the food you will be getting. If you want wine with your meal, forget it, the list is uninspiring. They do have Tsingtao  Chinese beer though.

Blue Ribbon Manhattan

Soho | 97 Sullivan Street (bet. Spring and Prince streets) | NYC, NY | Tel 212 274 0404
Web  Blue Ribbon Restaurants

Last night a friend and I went to Blue Ribbon for dinner. We have seen rave reviews about the place and thought it was worth a try. Knowing that they can get very busy, we arrived before 7pm to be assured we got a seat without a wait. Our strategy was good because about 15 minutes after we arrived, the place was packed and had a wait. I was really looking forward to this!

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The atmosphere was very nice and basically comfortable. It was far from luxurious. The walls were painted in a warm cover and the tables covered with white butcher paper. There is a small bar in the front where you can have a drink while you wait for a table. The restaurant only has about 15 tables so I see why they fill up fast. Service was very friendly and unpretentious. We had a really nice guy as our waiter. Upon seating, we were greated with a delicious crusty loaf of bread with butter.

Elephant & Castle

Greenwich Village | 68 Greenwich Avenue | NYC, NY | Tel  1 (212) 243-1400

Subway 1, 2, 3 (14th Street) | 1 (Christopher Street) | A, B,C, D, E, F (West 4th)

Web Elephant & Castle  (the websight also has menus)

Once upon a time I was a young guy living who left a small rural town in New York State and moved to New York City to claim my independence. Back then (in the early 80's) I was poor and made about $145 a week which was about $112 a week take home. Of course, my rent was only $225 a month but I still I had to be careful with my bucks.

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For 25 years I often passed Elephant and Castle but never stopped to eat. I wasn't sure what type of food they served. I remember thinking it was a brunch or sandwich place or maybe an Indian inspired restaurant. Years later I always stopped to read the menu and as my income went up, the prices never seemed expensive. Unfortunately I was always on my way to somewhere else or not ready for a meal. 

Twenty five years later, after I moved back to NYC from California, I was strolling through The Village and I finally decided to stop at Elephant & Castle for dinner and have been pleased with every visit thereafter. How did I miss this place for 25 years? Elephant & Castle is not the type of place where you find tourists or "fashionistas", but just local people having a real good meal.