This relatively new ramen joint just offered up a Groupon deal that included two bowls of ramen for $19.
We tried the tonkotsu (pork) and beef bowls. Both were a little bit weak in terms of broth strength, and the noodles themselves were a bit too soft/overcooked. The beef bowl came with straight alkali noodles, two slices of beef short rib, bamboo shoots, corn, cabbage, green onions and bean sprouts.
The broth had more of a Chinese soup flavor as opposed to the characteristic Japanese flavors you might normally associate with ramen. The meat was tender, but I think the use of cabbage watered down the broth too much and took away from what was meant to be a more full, thick and murky stock.
The better of the two was the tonkotsu, mainly because it came with seasoned boiled egg, which was the best part about both bowls of ramen here.
The pork meat was better too, and this came with mushrooms as well as the bamboo shoots, corn and green onion. The noodles in this were wavy egg style.
They offer a good happy hour with $3 beer and $5 wine, which is cool, but outside of using a Groupon I am not sure this place is ultimately worth your while. At full price I would have been annoyed at the quality, but since it was only $19 for two bowls it didn’t hurt as much. Caveat Emptor.
Adding to my repertoire of cocktails made with aloe drink, I went a little deeper into that family of aloe/cactus plant lineage with this mezcal-based drink:
1 part aged mezcal
2 parts aloe drink
1 teapoon agave syrup
1 packet of sugar in the raw
a squirt of lime juice
Shake with ice, and serve on ice. Very refreshing.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying to make a dent in some booze that I haven’t touched for a while in the liquor cabinet. I offered to make my wife a cocktail and she said “surprise me,” so I figured I would concoct something new and unique.
I have a LOT of scotch, so that was the first ingredient I picked. I took the lemon juice out, and grabbed a packet of sugar in the raw. But it needed something else. I opened the fridge and saw some aloe drinks. Perfect! It has a lychee-ish, grape-ish, elderflower-ish flavor to it, and a bit sweet but refreshing at the same time.
So I threw one part scotch, two or three parts aloe drink, lemon juice and sugar into the shaker with some ice and went to work shakin’ that shit. The result was a foggy yellow colored drink that was absolutely incredible!
Strong, sweet, refreshing and unique. You can swap the lemon for lime if you want, and you could add a dash of spicy ginger beer if you have it, or perhaps a splash of cherry juice. I garnished with a cherry.
I’ve been meaning to check this place out for a while and finally got around to it this afternoon.
I went with the miso ramen based on the waitress’ suggestion between this and one other bowl I was considering.
It was okay. The broth was a bit bland, likely due to the cabbage watering it down a bit. But the egg was perfect, the pork was really nicely cooked (although only two small pieces was a slight bummer), the bamboo shoots were fresh and tasty, the wavy egg noodles were cooked properly, and the scallions were nicely chopped rather than shredded. I think if the broth punches up a little, and if you order this without cabbage, it would be a better bowl of noodles.
Since I had a credit with Carnivore Club, I ordered a regular box. The quality is once again incredible. Take a look at the unboxing below. This time I had four sausage items from Charlito’s Cocina:
Inside, there is a card that tells you all about the meats you are about to eat, along with suggested pairings like cheeses.
Here’s what they look like unwrapped – like shriveled penises:
While a shriveled penis is admittedly not the greatest look in the world, I’m pretty certain that these taste much better than a shriveled penis. If any of you have had both, give me your opinions.
So as I was going over my note card along with my packaged meats, I noticed something. The “salami picante,” #4 on the note card, was swapped out for “campo seco.” It seems the provider ran out of the salami picante and substituted the campo seco instead, but Carnivore Club was unaware and unable to update the note card in time for the shipment.
No bother to me, really, other than the fact that campo seco and cerveza seca were somewhat similar in both look and flavor. Cerveza seca was a bit leaner, however, while campo seco had large blobs of delicious fatty white spots throughout – most of which were surprisingly tender.
The chorizo was good. Not too potent and garlicky, as some can be, and it had a mild heat to it that didn’t overpower.
The clear winner by far, however, was the “trufa seca” truffle sausage. It was coated with a sea salt and was vibrantly flavored with that earthy and robust truffle flavor. Absolutely delicious. I’ve never tasted something so unique in this kind of product.
I highly recommend purchasing meat from this supplier, Charlito’s Cocina. And if it isn’t obvious, I am a big fan of Carnivore Club. This box alone would cost WAY more if all items were purchased separately, so you’re getting a good deal along with such great service. I let Carnivore Club know about the swapped sausage issue for #4, and they, along with Charlito’s, insisted on sending me the salami picante even over my protestations. Good people!
So after keeping a close eye on this supplier, I noticed they set up shop at the Union Square Holiday Market (I am always stalking their Instagram feed) for the 2015 Christmas season.
I went down after I was all out of their delicious sausages and picked up three packages of trufa seca. While I was down there I got to meet the owner and founder, Charles (left). He threw in a package of chorizo for me to sample!!! I am really excited to bring this sausage out to my folks for Thanksgiving!
My buddy picked up a pair of jerky bags and shared them with me. Once again I preferred the turkey jerky to the beef in this taste lineup of lemon garlic turkey vs pineapple orange beef.
Both the texture and the flavor of the turkey variety seemed better to me, though the beef was indeed tender.
I thought I’d like the pineapple orange beef more. Perhaps it needed a spicy element. The lemon garlic turkey had a kick from the cracked black pepper that was on it.
Some more flavors I picked up:
Here we go: first up is chili lime beef. This was pretty good. It is somewhat similar to the chili garlic, but a bit brighter from the citrus. Definitely liked the spice level and the texture was soft and tender.
Next up was basil citrus turkey. Once again I find that i like the non-beef meats better in jerky form for some reason. No idea why that is, but this flavor was spot on: you get that great herby basil flavor and the brightness of citrus in each bite.
Next was lemon garlic turkey, which I already reviewed above.
Then came this black cherry barbecue pork jerky. I had high hopes of this one but it fell flat on flavor. I’m hoping that it was just an errant piece that didn’t absorb a lot of flavor for whatever reason. I will report back if the remainder of the bag is better.
Continuing through the color wheel was this red bag of chili garlic beef jerky. This was distantly similar to the asian style dry jerky products that I know and love so much. Big winner here. And the pieces of tender beef are really large, so that’s good too.
Grilled sweet teriyaki pork was very nice, and a great texture. A worthy selection in the jerky game.
Last was this sweet chipotle beef. Here, the pieces were even BIGGER than the chili garlic slabs. This had a nice mild flavor that will please any jerky connoisseur.
A gentleman named Derek over at Wine.net reached out to me and asked if I’d feature his post on pairing white wines with steak. I know what you’re thinking: BLASPHEMY! RED goes with steak! But hang on a second… Chef John at The Pines recently paired a very white-esque rose with a Denver cut blade steak…
So is it really that absurd? After reading the post at Wine.net, and after my experience at The Pines, I don’t think it is anymore. Whatever works, right?
Anyway, upon further browsing the Wine.net website, I realized it was probably a worthy resource to share with my readers. So there you have it. Go poke around, especially if you’re a wine connoisseur. Shit, even if you’re an amateur like me, or just looking for something like what wine to pair with your Thanksgiving turkey dinner, this is a great resource. Check it out.
This is a simple twist on an Old Fashioned that I decided to make with the tail end of a bottle of whiskey and some hibiscus tea that my wife brewed and left in the fridge. Other ingredients include agave syrup, sugar in the raw, lemon juice, lime juice and candied ginger.
I put some ice, whiskey, sugar, lime juice, lemon juice and agave in a shaker and shook the living fucklights out of it. Then I poured it over an ice sphere (because cubes are for pussies) and garnished with a couple of pieces of candied ginger that I had sitting in the cabinet.
The result was a great, sour-yet-sweet, tangy take on the classic Old Fashioned cocktail.
Nestled below a pole dancing and twerking school (I shit you not; you can see the poles in the windows above the right hand side of the entrance in the photo), is Akbar Palace.
We scored a flash deal for this joint: $20 gets you $40. The management was nice enough to honor our Groupon even after the expiration date too, which was cool.
Each table gets some flat cracker type bread with some chutneys.
There was tamarind sauce (left), apricot chutney (center), and a really nice tomato, onion and pepper chutney that I never tried before (right). That was my favorite of the three.
We started with a pair of apps that sounded delicious but ended up being a bit flat from our expectations. First was the pepper crusted scallops. I liked that they had a good grilled-on-the-flattop flavor, but the portion size was a bit small.
Same goes for the crispy calamari. The tempura-esque coating was interesting, though I didn’t get that curry leaf flavor that I expected from the menu description.
My wife ordered a boneless lamb dish but got semi-bone-in goat instead. No matter – it was really tasty, and the meat was tender.
I had chicken makhani, which is like chicken tikka, but served in a mildly spicy tomato and yogurt sauce. This was pretty good. The meat was of good quality and the sauce was nice over rice, or on top of the naan bread.
The naan was good. It was soft, yet crisp, and had good texture from the tandoori oven flames. It was lightly coated with olive oil as well.
We skipped dessert since we had the lassis earlier. They were smooth and creamy, tart and sweet, and ice cold. Perfect. This place is known for its mango lassis. They are truly excellent, so if you go here, make sure you try one.
I felt that the bill was a bit high even after applying our $40 credit to it. We still had to shell out $50 for the remainder, the tax and the tip. Does this look like a $90 meal to you? I don’t know… I’m starting to think that some of these Groupon deals aren’t so good. As Admiral Ackbar would say (namesake of this restaurant?): IT’S A TRAP!
My official recommendation on this flash deal: skip it, but stop by for a mango fucking lassi if you’re in the area.
Taureau is a French fondue joint down in SoHo that’s owned and operated by the same badass chef dude, Didier, who runs neighboring La Sirene and cross-town East Village gem Le Village.
My wife and I were invited here to round out a trio of press dinners for Didier’s restaurants.
The atmosphere here is cozy, with dim, warm lighting. Taureau derives its name, logo and decor concepts from the Taurus zodiac sign. It’s an earth sign specifically, and everything served and used for decor is of the earth (no fish on the menu, lots of natural objects for decor, dark wood and earth tones for the seating and tables, etc).
The concept of fondue is pretty simple: melted cheeses, hot oils, mulled wines and melted chocolates, in which various meats, veggies, fruits, breads and other items are dunked and dipped prior to eating. It’s not complicated or messed with here at Taureau. As with his traditional French bistro La Sirene, Didier has kept his fondue concept restaurant straightforward, and I believe it’s the only fondue gig in town.
The fondue experience is inherently communal. No guys: there’s no LSD, cult leaders, hippies or outdoor multi-day music festivals. I only mean “communal” as in everyone is using the same cooking vessel. As such this lends itself to be a good place to go both with a group of friends, or even for an intimate date. After you share cooking vessels, you can share a bed together. And with music like Barry White playing during the meal, the mood for such behavior is subconsciously set. One caution I will give you is this: be prepared to come away with a scent of cooking oil on your clothing. Didier has some good air circulation in the restaurant, so it wasn’t as thick as I expected. However sometimes the fondue pots can smoke up a little bit, and the oil smells can cling to your fabrics – JUST the oil smells though; the cheese and chocolate smells don’t cling. So even though Barry White may have lubricated your libido while you were indulging in chocolate covered strawberries with your lover, you both may come away with a “fast food employee” smell on your persons that could ruin the mood. I suppose you can simply double down on the sexy and eat topless if you want; then there will be no smell on your clothing. However, while it’s perfectly legal to go topless in NYC, it may be frowned upon by the restaurant and its diners, and if you drip hot oil, liquefied cheese or melted chocolate on your nipples, you may regret the topless dining decision very quickly (unless, of course, you’re into that weird shit).
I have to be honest here: I had been to a fondue joint out on Long Island once and I didn’t like it very much. It felt over-priced and the food was underwhelming. But here, I knew I was in good hands with Didier. Everything I have ever tasted from his kitchens was high quality and really delicious. As such I was excited to dive in.
Okay so, basically, you choose your price point and fondue accompaniments (very reasonably priced, ranging from $43/pp to $52/pp), and soon the food starts to come out as the fondue pots heat up on built-in electric heaters that are embedded in the tables. They serve wine too, so you can pair your cheese fondue with white, and then transition over to red for the meats:
The first course is a salad along with some croutons, which is unlimited if you choose to gorge yourself:
The salad is mixed greens, lightly but evenly dressed. The croutons are for your cheese fondue course that comes out with this. We tried four different cheese concoctions. The first was a nutmeg-infused cheese, which smelled like fall:
Then a combination of various Swiss cheeses:
And a cauldron of Monterey jack and cheddar cheese:
But my favorite was this earthy truffle perigord cheese:
It went perfectly with our side items for dipping, which consisted of broccoli, chorizo, fennel sausage, and portobello mushrooms:
In particular, the mushrooms with the truffle cheese was an incredible “double-down” on the earthy flavor notes. And the chorizo went really nicely with the nutmeg cheese. The spice of the sausage was off-set and balanced by that touch of sweetness from the cheese. We kept diving in, dipping food, and dodging and ducking from any errant drips of melty cheese as we reached over and across each other. Dodge, dip, dive, duck and dodge. Just like the five D’s of dodgeball, from the Dodgeball movie:
Some drip-catching plates could have been helpful, I suppose, and I guess we could add a 6th D for the dodgeball reference, for Didier. He has truly created some really amazing cheese combinations, and that truffle cheese was the big star of the show for the evening. I just kept going at it, even when all that was left to dip was the broccoli!
After about 15 hits of truffle cheese, I thought I might be full, but then the meat course came out. Our cheese fondue pots were swapped for four new pots: red wine, vegetable oil, olive oil and peanut oil. The idea here is to dunk your meat in for varying amounts of time (depending how thoroughly cooked you want it), and then add a little sauce to it before eating. The sauces included a dijon cream, truffle red wine reduction, peppercorn gravy, gorgonzola cream and Hollandaise.
The sauces paired in unique ways depending on which meat you chose, and which fondue pot you used for cooking the meat. The meats are all marinated and pre-sliced, by the way, for maximum tenderness. Our meat selections were as follows:
Pork (cook for 45 seconds):
Chicken (cook for 45 seconds):
Filet Mignon (medium rare 15 seconds):
Hanger Steak (medium rare 15 seconds):
My favorite pairings were (1) hanger steak cooked in olive oil and topped with the truffle red wine reduction sauce; (2) filet mignon cooked in red wine and topped with the gorgonzola sauce; (3) pork cooked in red wine and topped with the peppercorn gravy; and (4) chicken cooked in peanut oil and topped with the dijon cream sauce. Really good shit.
Dessert, as you can imagine, involved copious quantities of melted chocolate. We tried both the milk and dark chocolate varieties:
We were served a plate of sliced fruit and dessert breads for dipping. Bananas, pineapples, apples, kiwi, grapes, strawberries, banana bread, white chocolate bread and even marshmallows were all involved.
You can mix and match to your heart’s desire. I was actually surprised to find that I liked kiwi with milk chocolate. Pretty interesting.
But you can’t really beat the simplicity of a chocolate covered banana or marshmallow:
That about covers it for this really fun fondue night. If you’re up for something unique and different for dinner, this is definitely the way to go. When you go, tell Didier that Johnny Prime sends his regards.
