I am a big proponent of getting prime cuts when it makes sense. Generally speaking, the difference in quality is outstanding. However, you have to be careful. Don’t buy blind at the grocery store. Look at the photo below. Choice is $14.99/lb and prime is $21.99/lb. The up-charge is primarily for more and better marbling. But look with your own eyes. Does that boneless prime rib eye on top look any more marbled or better than the bone-in choice rib eye? In this case, I might buy the choice cut, even though the prime cut has a bigger Spinalis / fat cap.
Oh you wanted pictures? Are you kidding me? Look at the ingredients. Ask yourself: What would it look like? Probably very similar to what it’d look like in the toilet bowl. No pics this time, folks.
Actually… with the benefit of post-publish-editing, I can present to you an actual photo of this shit. Rod Budget, over at Hungry Dads, tried this recipe out. The Easy Cheese didn’t sit well with him, and he was not a fan of how the flavor of that product worked with the other items (despite his love and affection for Easy Cheese, mind you), but the combination of chips, coleslaw and bacon were a success, in his view.
This is just a quick and dirty review of Miss Lily’s jerk ramen. The verdict? Jerkworthy. Really fucking good. Take a look:
So what we have here is jerk chicken, pork belly, shoyu marinated ackee, egg and fermented scotch bonnet paste in a jerk broth. Jerk broth… Hehe…
Every element was fantastic. The chicken was flavorful and juicy. The pork was nice and fatty. The shoyu marinated ackee, which I had to google, is a fruit. However it was presented in such a way and with such interesting texture that I thought I was eating some kind of offal meat like kidney, fois gras or brains. It was freaking great! The egg was perfectly cooked. The scotch bonnet paste, I thought, could have used a bit more spice to it. I was expecting HOT. But if you need some spice, just add he “rass hot sauce” to your bowl and you’ll be good to go. The broth was really flavorful and hearty as is, but the sauce really punched it up.
We also had the coconut grilled jerk corn, which was really tasty – sweet and savory/spicy at the same time.
My wife is friends with Mark Hannon, who is the chef over at Ca Va. We came in initially to try out restaurant week, but Mark had something else in store for us. Something amazing.
Mark grew up with a chef for a dad, so it only seemed natural for him to follow in his footsteps. He spent some time running kitchens at some of Thailand’s nicest hotels, and he got close with Todd English over the course of about a decade of working for him. He married an Australian chef, and is now back here in NYC, where he was essentially given free reign over the contents of the Ca Va menu (aside from a few things that needed to stay on or be done a certain way). Since taking the helm at Ca Va in the last moth or so, reviews and diners’ reactions have changed in a significantly positive way. When you see what I have to say below you’ll understand why.
First we ordered a couple of cocktails that were really nicely prepared.
Then, before we knew it, this really cool stand of deviled eggs with caviar and winter truffle came out. It was delicious. Creamy, earthy – a perfect way to start the meal.
Next was escargot with fried sea beans, some interesting purees, stuffed snail shells and crisp ham. The crispy ham was a great way to add a little salt into the dish, and the snails were perfect – soft, tender, buttery.
Next was grilled octopus with cannelini beans, chorizo and dehydrated olive powder. We’ve been having a lot of grilled octopus lately, and this dish sits among the best of them. So tender and juicy. I cleaned this plate off so well it was shining like a mirror when I was done.
Next came kale salad with goat cheese mousse, fava beans, dehydrated prosciutto, radish and snow peas. The big star here was the potato chip-like dehydrated prosciutto. Instantly my mind was imagining bags upon bags of them being consumed while watching movies at home on the couch. Fucking delightful.
Then came a scallop dish. It was seared perfectly and garnished with a trail of mushroom dirt (mushroom, shallot, almond flour, dextrose, garlic) and truffles, topped with caviar, and sitting atop asparagus and braised pulled oxtail. Holy shit. This was insane! This represents the best scallop I’ve ever eaten. Mark blew it out of the water.
Next was, by far, the most interesting plate of food of the night and possibly of the year. Duck breast and seared fois gras with toasted marshmallows, chocolate sauce, peanuts, cinnamon, huckleberries and roasted kale sprouts. It was savory yet sweet, but not too sweet, which is what you might expect when you see the stuff listed above. Combining the elements with the duck really made for some taste bud-awakening flavors.
Oh yeah baby – here it comes. Aged New York strip with tangy mustard potato salad and bone marrow powder, drizzled with a bone marrow bordelaise. Let’s just say that the meat man went home a very happy dude. Perfectly cooked to medium rare, sliced and plated beautifully, TONS of flavor and juiciness.
The first dessert was a bread pudding. I have a pic of the ingredients here but I was embarrassed about whipping out the cell phone camera to shoot the plate because Mark was sitting and chatting with us as we ate this course. I would’ve felt like a d-bag sticking my camera in his food instead of just eating it. It was great. Lots of times the texture of bread pudding isn’t right. Either the soak doesn’t hit all the bread and you get some bricks in there, or you are really just eating it for the sauces and toppings. This bread pudding was different. I usually don’t like white chocolate but I loved every bite of it here. The bread pudding itself was very silky and smooth, with really nice texture.
Last came a little plate of cookies and chocolates. The cookies were great, made in-house. The chocolates were pretty good too, nice and rich, but not made in-house.
Jordan, our waiter, was really great. We made sure to give him a good tip seeing as though he had to deal with us for about three hours.
My wife has this really cool credit card from Chase called the Chase Preferred Sapphire Gold-Trimmed Special Sparkly Platinum Elite Card. Among other cool perks, it entitles her to get discounted, exclusive and advanced-entry/VIP-type tickets to things that regular people would not normally be able to get (for example, our tickets were cheaper and we were allowed in early at 7pm for this event).
One thing we’ve been privy to in the past was the Top Chef Masters Premiere Party. This season’s re-imagination of the Top Chef brand is called “Duels.” We had a lot of fun last time, and got to meet all the chefs, so grabbing hold of my wife’s perks this time too was a no-brainer. I love my wife’s perks.
Top Chef Duels is set up to be 10 one-on-one battles of the masters, where the chefs actually choose their own challenges for each other, and the dishes are then judged to see who is the winner. Cool concept. I like a good fight!
So they had the place set up with three major battle stations, featuring six of the chefs and the dishes they dueled with. The main station was Marcel Vigneron vs. Richard Blais.
The challenge: Lobster Roll.
The winner according to me: Marcel Vigneron’s “Open Face Knuckle Sandwich”
While I enjoyed Richard’s lobster roll, I felt like the filling itself was too watery, and yet the bread was dry. Go figure. I was really pulling for Richard too, because he was one of my favorite contestants to watch, and he’s a fellow Long Island native. It was still way better than any regular old lobster roll you may find in the northeast, but Marcel’s was just really nicely executed. I think the potato roll was a big plus, and the addition of pickled onion really made all the flavors pop.
Richard’s roll (Rick Roll?)
Marcel’s rolls
We wandered around a bit, taking in some free booze, when we stumbled upon the second battle station. The chefs featured here were Dale Talde, who I met at the Dynasty Project Casino Night event, and Tiffani Faison.
The challenge: Ribs
The winner according to me: Tiffani Faison’s “Spicy Sticky Thai Ribs”
Dale served up some Korean style short ribs, which I absolutely LOVE in general. However, he served them in lettuce cups as if they were de-boned and ready to pop in your mouth without any additional work. I took a bite and came right down on the bone. No worries though. Once I knew what was up, I put the lettuce cup down and used two hands to pull the meat off the bone.
If you have any familiarity with Korean style BBQ short ribs, you’ll know they are a very fatty (and sometimes gristled) cut of rib meat where the bones and meat are cut on the bias, so that you have cross-sections of bone connected to the surrounding meat. Often times you will get two or three circular rib bones per slice of meat. My first exposure to this was with my wife’s family. My wife isn’t Korean (she’s Vietnamese) but the style of BBQ and the actual cross-section cut of rib meat is popular in many Asian cuisines.
So anyway, Dale’s dish had just one bone circle with the surrounding meat attached, so I thought it was boneless when I picked up the lettuce cup, especially since the bone piece had toppings on it and was not readily visible in the dim lighting. In any case it was very tasty, but I think Tiffani nailed it with the layers of delicious sticky sauces she had going on her traditional style rib cuts. She even sprinkled some fried shallots on top to add some crunch and texture. All the familiar Southeast Asian flavors were there. This was a perfect rib in every way.
Dale’s ribs
Tiffani’s rib
Ribs cooking
The last station was Kevin Gillespie vs. Art Smith. I saved this for last because I think the winning dish here was probably the best of the night.
The challenge: Fried Chicken.
The winner according to me: Kevin Gillespie’s “Closed On Sunday” Chicken Sandwich.
One thing I appreciated about Art’s dish was that it was a nice, full piece of fried chicken on the bone, readily identifiable as such, like Tiffani’s rib (and unlike Dale’s). In typical southern style, Art’s dish contained a hint of maple syrup to throw your taste buds back into breakfast mode. It was good! But Kevin’s sangwitch was masterfully created. He was working like a powerhouse all night, didn’t mix and mingle too much. He just kept right on working his station. Amazing. And his passion for cooking shines through his food, because that chicken slider was one of the best poultry-based dishes I’ve ever eaten. People were going up for seconds and thirds. Even Top Chef alumnus CJ Jacobson asked me to run and grab him one while he was stuck in the cattle pen pretending to be interested in talking to, and taking pictures with, obsessed fans. I earned a solid fist bump from that human beanstalk for being his sandwich bitch.
Anyway back to this fucking juicy, delicious sandwich… I mean let’s be honest here: it doesn’t look like much. But the taste… Holy fuck. Look at the list of flavors you’re getting!
Art’s chicken
Kevin’s sandwiches
Okay so that’s it for the battle food. The passed hors were nice too, but I didn’t shoot pics of them and I don’t remember all the details about them. They weren’t prepared by the chefs (they were catered or made in house). One notable item was the mini-mac – a miniature McDonald’s-esque Big Mac in slider form, donning the special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle, and even stacked two-high on tiny sesame seed double buns. It was everything you love that’s delicious about the McDonald’s version, except for the ammonia bath and fake-ass, grade-F beef.
And last but not least, here are some other pics from the night, mostly me or my wife with other chefs, and various famous and quasi-famous people from the TV food world. Enjoy!
TiffaniArtRichard & Antonia LofasoThe Cake Dealer & Takashi YagahashiDavid Burke & AntoniaGail Simmons & Curtis Stone posing with fansMe, Curtis & The Cake DealerShirley Chung & The Cake DealerCJ Jacobson & The Cake DealerKevin hard at workArt & usRichard & The Cake DealerMaster Chef Season 2 Alumnus Derrick Prince & meMe & KevinMe eating Tiffani’s rib
Okay so listen up. I saw this awesome photo on Chef David Burke’s Instagram feed. I showed my wife and we immediately decided that we needed to go.
We made a reservation for an hour or two later, psyched as all hell to dig into that incredible looking hunk of beef.
When we sat, the waiter brought out a little shot of strained cold gazpacho; tomato with melon. Very refreshing.
I had the “rabbit hunter” cocktail: bourbon, lime, ginger beer and mint. It was good; like a bourbon mojito.
My wife had the “antica Manhattan,” which was made with buffalo trace bourbon, antica carpano, maple syrup, bitters and brandied cherry. It was excellent, except for the fact that later on during the meal we found a gnat floating belly up in it. Doh!
We started with a pair of apps. First was the “skin and bones,” which was essentially chicken liver pate sandwiched between two pieces of crispy chicken skin, and served with chicken dumplings drizzled with vindaloo sauce. The cool thing about these dumplings was that they were “bone-in.” The chicken bones were little handles to grab the dumplings. Observe:
Next was octopus tacos (can we call them tactos?) with guacamole, chipotle sauce and salsa. These were excellent. The octopus was nice and charred but tender inside, and the sauces were great. Maybe a few jalapeno slices or some lettuce would have made this dish perfect.
We ordered a side of chic pea fries to go with our steak too. These were interesting. Crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. The dipping sauce was more of the chipotle cream from the tacos.
So now for the big fucker. The Bronx filet for two, with bone marrow. The presentation is gorgeous, isn’t it?
Even that first slice up front. Looks delectable, no? Hmm… Maybe just a little too much grey on the edges?
Oh FUCK. After that first, nice looking piece, it looks like whoever sliced this puppy was trying to hide the incredibly overcooked portions!
I kid about the hiding. But, yeah… It turns out that the rest of the steak was really well done. We ordered it medium rare. I guess with these big hunks, lots of chefs have trouble getting an even cook across the meat. The bone still had blood on it. It certainly was an awkward size and shape. What a shame. When it’s done properly it is probably an incredible meal.
When the waiter came around to ask how everything was, I mentioned that it tasted good but that it was severely overcooked. He grabbed a manager and she agreed, though she relayed what the chef said, which was that the edges are over but the middle is okay. Unfortunately that just wasn’t the case. There were about 3 or 4 bites of medium rare combined from all slices, and the rest was hockey puck. The manager generously offered to have the chef fire up another for us, which would be ready in 25 minutes, but we declined because we had to get back home to field some interview calls for a New York Times story that is being written up about the two of us. The steak normally takes 40 minutes to cook, and we were already pushing it on time. So we put on our big-boy pants and ate the dry, grey meat as best as we could. It was still yummy, but really dry and over done. I imagine it to be a great item when properly cooked. 5/10.
The manager was kind enough to send out some free desserts for us, and we were not charged for the overcooked steak. For dessert we had the “Burke-n-bag.” This one is great for photo ops. It is essentially a really amazing candy bar dolled up to look like a purse, and served with a little scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.
We also had the frozen yogurt banana split. This was pretty good. The fro-yo was actually delicious, and the pink stuff you see is the sauce that was poured over and then hardened into a shell. Magic Shell!?! Total blast from the past. The banana was just so-so; maybe a little under-ripe. The brownies weren’t really needed, I don’t think.
Last are the cheese cake pops with bubble gum whipped cream. I wasn’t a big fan of these, but I can see how someone could love them. When it comes to all-things cheesecake, nothing can compare to my sister’s cheesecake. MY sister’s cheesecake is so good that it’ll make you want to murder YOUR sister.
So anyway – moral of the story is this: beautiful pics of food can be deceiving. Also the table next door had a wrong item taken to them. Red snapper instead of tuna. So maybe this place was just having a bad night. Our steak was ruined, there was a gnat in my wife’s drink and the table next door had the wrong item delivered to them that apparently no one at any other table had ordered. Ehh, whatever. We all know David Burke is an amazing chef. It’s just too bad he wasn’t actually there cooking for us this evening.
FABRICK
Archer Hotel New York
47 W. 38th St.
New York, NY 10018
My wife purchased a steak for two deal at this Latino steakhouse down on 14th street, but soon after the joint closed down. WTF! Anyway, the restaurant group honored the deal at one of their other joints called The General. We had heard some good things about it, so we were happy to take the deal to that location. Instead of steak, though, we went with their Peking duck. It was fucking amazing.
So the deal went like this: any two apps, then the Peking duck, a side, and any dessert to share.
Drinks were not included but we had some good ones. I had a blueberry compote and vodka drink called “The General’s Elixir.” Garnished with a sprig of rosemary for aroma. it was nice. My wife had a traditional sake box.
We started with the seared toro – normally a $30 menu item. It was really nice, delicate, and packed with flavor and just a little bit of heat from the jalapenos.
Then there was the Kate roll, which involved Alaskan king crab, salmon, and a cucumber wrap. Really fresh and delicious. We were sort of wishing that we tried the artichoke and hamachi app instead, but this roll was really good. If the Peking duck wasn’t to filling, we would have tried that as a third app.
Then the shit hit the fucking fan, and this bitch came out to the party:
Here’s the actual presentation after slicing, with the steamed buns and everything. This was one of the best Peking ducks we’ve ever had. The skin was crispy, yet juicy. The meat was tender and moist, packed with deliciousness. It came with sliced scallions, cucumbers, and pineapple. And that’s a little sauce pan of watery hoisin sauce to drizzle on your buns. Fuck yeah!
The only down side: those beautiful red chili peppers were NOT sliced and presented with the duck. Sad.
The rice we ordered as a side was a bit greasy for our liking, but it was really tasty, with shrimp, Chinese sausage, a whole bunch of other yummy tid-bits, and topped with a fried egg. My wife makes a much better fried rice, but this was fine for me as a side.
For dessert we shared an assortment of frozen treats and pops called “The General’s Freezer.” It was like they took inspiration from a little bit of everything you’d find on an ice cream truck (toasted almond, strawberry shortcake, ice cream sandwich, etc), elevated them to gourmet, miniaturized them, and served them in pairs so we could each try one. This was fun!
My buddy celebrated his 40th birthday out back in the garden here at Butter, and when we got good and hungry, my wife and I went inside to eat some grub at the bar.
My wife had the restaurant week menu, which came with veal bacon, hake (fish), and chocolate cake.
The veal bacon was the real star here, drizzled with a nice mustard seed sauce, and accompanied with a side of sesame oil cabbage slaw.
The fish was better than alright. Nice and clean, good flavor, and pretty tasty overall. Maybe I was just too hungry for my rib eye to pay any real attention to the fish bullshit.
Here’s the “butter cut” rib eye, served with crispy purple potato wedges and a hay stack of onion straws. Really juicy, good fat content, and cooked correctly to medium rare. This would hang with the big boys in the steak house world for sure.
Fuck the chocolate cake. I didn’t take pics of it. it was really good though. Dark chocolate, very rich but not too sweet.
A shot of our drinks from earlier at the birthday party. I had the Alagash, and my wife had the pink lemonade thingy.
Check this shit out: this isn’t the original flagship location or anything, but the restaurant is big and beautiful inside, and the burger was pretty much fantastic, with the exception of a bottom bun being too thin. My wife and I took my parents here for lunch when they came in to see the new apartment.
I started with an amazing bloody Mary called “Sister Mary Walks Funny” – it involves sri racha sauce. Spicy and perfectly mixed, with blue cheese olives to boot.
My burger was called “the Cadillac” – mostly I ordered it because it had American cheese and bacon on it. Look at the perfect cook job done on this bitch:
The fries were nice and crispy too.
My wife had some mussels with olive oil, garlic and tomato. An interesting change up from the typical white wine preparation. We dug it.
On the side we put down some bacon mac & cheese. Yup. Good shit. That’s wide fusilli, muthafucka!
I’m thoroughly impressed. I saw that on Saturday’s they offer a rib eye. I might have to stop back in for one of those.
On a second visit, I quickly noticed that they stock my favorite gin when I was reading over the cocktail menu: Fifth Pounds Gin. AWESOME! I ordered up a nice martini with that shit.
My wife ordered a “Tall English Redhead,” which was a very refreshing, summery type drink with mango iced tea.
Since it was Sunday, and the rib eye is only offered on Saturday, I went with the skirt steak frites. It was okay. I’ve had better, but it got the job done at a relatively cost-friendly price.
My wife got a breakfast plate of baked eggs and cheddar cheese with fingerling potatoes and sausage. Pretty good substitute since they were out of their bubble & squeak, but it was a bit greasy.
We also shared an order of creamed spinach, which was pretty good for a non-steakhouse. We finished the whole crock of it. Not too salty, not overly creamed, and you could still make out the distinct spinach flavor so you FEEL like you’re eating healthy, even though you aren’t.
