Tag Archives: duck

East Village, French, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews

Le Village

February 11, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

UPDATE: THIS JOINT IS NOW CLOSED

Le Village is a small French bistro where I recently had the opportunity to dine for a press dinner. It’s been open for about a year, on 7th Street near Avenue A, and serves up some really great classical French dishes. It opens for dinner only, all days except Tuesday, and the best part – it is BYOB with no corkage fee! One thing that some of you diners out there may be glad to hear: the menu is very diet-restriction friendly, as it offers many gluten free, vegan and vegetarian dishes that are incredibly good, filling and satisfying; a rare trio of traits in that world of dieting.

The animated and extremely personable chef/owner Didier also runs two other locations across town on Broome Street (La Sirene, another French place, and Taureau, a fondue joint). He’s truly passionate about food, and his spirit shines through the dishes as well. They’re innovative, exciting, energetic and fun, just like he is.

As he spoke with us, I got the sense that he has very high standards in what he serves. My suspicions were confirmed when he explained the rationale for 86’ing the burger that used to be on the menu: it wasn’t perfect in his eyes (and his girlfriend didn’t like it very much either). I can respect that: Don’t serve it unless you are 100% confident that it’s you’re best version of that item. Not only does he treat his food with great respect, but he treats his staff with great respect as well. It seems that he also applies his highly selective attitude in choosing who he has working for him. Everyone who served us and waited on us was amazing, particularly Benjamin.

Didier’s perfectionist view on food translates to a perfect meal. I’m dead serious. Just about everything I ate was the best version of that particular item I’ve ever had.

For example, the French onion soup that we started with: absolutely amazing. By far the best I’ve ever had. Imagine, if you will, your Thanksgiving turkey stuffing floating atop a steaming bowl of thick, hot, velvety onion soup before being topped with a generous-but-not-massive amount of crispy-yet-melty cheese. Unbelievable. And after you let this beast cool down, the soup only gets better and better. Your taste buds sense all sorts of deep and rich flavors when the heat settles down. I can’t even fucking remember the last time I actually WANTED French onion soup, and now I can’t stop thinking about it. Didier took it to the next level, made it exciting. Amazing part about this: if you want, it can be made gluten free and fucking vegan, with ZERO GODDAMN CARBS!

Another example of bests: the best Brussels sprouts I have ever had. Want to have your mind blown into thousands of bloody little brain bits? They were served with strawberries. Fucking… FUCKING… STRAWBERRIES, MAN – YES YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY! Perfectly caramelized and crisped, the sprouts were offset with a little bit of zing and sweet pop from the strawberries. It’s an unexpected match made in heaven, that, again, demonstrates Didier’s facility with food.

Okay I’ll hit you with another best. The best Coq au Vin that I’ve ever tasted. Preparations for this dish start a week in advance at Le Village, as the chickensies bathe in wine. When finally served, what you have is a delicious, home-style yet refined stew of unbelievably deep flavor. The meat is so tender, the “gravy” so soulful and satisfying. This is where you go to learn what this classic French dish is all about, what it should actually taste like. Not only is Didier innovative, but he can really rock the shit outta the classics as well.

Okay let’s get to the other menu items we sampled. We tried these miniature ravioli. The earthy aroma and truffle flavoring really made for a unique appetizer. I could easily devour an entire bowl of these.

We’re in a fucking French restaurant, for God’s sake. Of course there is an excellent foie gras pate of sorts, with a slice of truffle right on top! Oui!

These baked gnocchi au gratin were light as pillows despite their creamy, truffled Mornay and Swiss cheddar sauce. It’s very rare to find a chef with a hand skilled at NOT making dense, heavy gnocchi, especially in a cream + cheese base. These were fantastic, and definitely a recommended item.

Finally, the seared duck breast with green beans and sweet potato was served with a unique and hearty unsweetened chocolate sauce, and garnished with pistachio nuts and red beeper coulis. Perfectly cooked, juicy, and delicious. This satisfied my meat needs for sure. And I am really excited to hit Didier’s other restaurant across town. Apparently the hanger steak there is pretty outstanding.

My favorite of the three desserts we tried was the banana brûlée. The banana pudding was rich and creamy, and beneath the cracked surface of the brûlée sugar was some banana and wafer for texture.

The lava cake was good as well, but since I am married to The Cake Dealer, I am admittedly spoiled when it comes to all-things-cake. Her cake is still my favorite.

Finally, we tried the tart. This was nice and light, very refreshing.

You should definitely check this place out if you get a chance. All the menu prices are incredibly reasonable, and you save money on booze by being able to bring in your own wine or beer for no corkage/opening fees. Get on it!

UPDATE 2/23/17

The duck rillette was very nicely crafted. It tasted authentic and home made.

While the baked mussels app was a bit small in terms of portion size (only 5), it delivered big on flavor. These reminded me of escargot in their preparation. I just wish they had rinsed the mussels better before cooking, as several of them had some sand or grain in them.

My wife got the baked aged goat cheese tart for her entree. Very different and unique.

I, of course, had steak. This was a butter poached hanger steak. It had a great flavor to it, imparted from the poaching process, and the meat itself was incredibly tender. 8/10.

LE VILLAGE
127 E. 7th St.
New York, NY 10009

Recipes

Flight of the Noble Turducken

December 9, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My industrious, ambitious and extremely brave friend and co-creator of Hungry Dads endeavored to prepare a Turducken for his Thanksgiving feast this year. Lots of people these days, who are interested in indulging in such a menage-a-fowl, are buying them pre-prepared because it is an arduous task to do it oneself. When my buddy told me he made a Turducken on his own, I was extremely impressed. Below is a write-up that he provided for me to share with you, as well as a time-lapse video of his work. Well played!

Flight of the Noble Turducken

Hugh Gallon

www.HungryDads.com

When it comes to cooking, I’ve embraced the words of my high school Driver’s Ed teacher, Mr. Woods, who preached that people who claim they can’t cook are likely lazy and/or stupid. Any idiot can follow directions. Recipes are just directions. Taking Mr. Woods’ philosophy into adulthood, I’ve boldly undertaken many culinary ventures with unwarranted confidence – yielding more than a few disasters. And when I naively committed to preparing a Turducken for Thanksgiving, I didn’t expect it to be the greatest undertaking of my adult life.

For the uninitiated, a Turducken is a turkey, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken. Arrogant and uninformed, I assumed I would just need to shove a small bird into the cavity of a larger bird, repeat, cook, and eat. It turns out the Turducken is a true Frankenstein’s monster of poultry. After 3-5 hours of web research, I began to regret my fowl hubris, but ultimately ended up with a solid strategy by combining a few different recipes. Unexpected challenges included:

De-boning all three birds. I guess I could have gotten my birds from a butcher already de-boned, but I am not lazy or stupid, Mr. Woods. The internet provided some good instructions with photos, which I promptly ignored and instead just hacked away at the poor things like I was Dexter blindfolded.

Flavor vs. poison. When you have this much raw meat, and it comes from three separate animals, there is a lot of opportunity for nasty little bacterial microbes to fester. You gotta cook those buggers out, but not at the expense of your juicy meat. If you layer up that much raw meat and put it in the oven, the exterior turkey will dry out before the inner “ducken” is cooked. The website Serious Eats (The Food Lab) had a great solution: poach the chicken and duck portions before putting it together.

They also recommended browning the duck skin over the stove to add some nice fried fatty flavor.

Structural integrity of stuffing. Bread stuffing is controversial in a normal turkey scenario (under-cooking risks and such) – but in a Turducken, stuffing is important to fill in the gaps like spackle. But web research revealed that traditional stuffing might buckle under the weight of so much bird flesh, resulting in a lop-sided or bulged Turducken. One of the goals of the Turducken is to make it look like a regular turkey on the outside, but with pure un-boned meatiness on the inside. Once again it was the Serious Eats Food Lab with a solution: stuff with sausage instead of bread stuffing. More meat = better anyway.

Duck is mushier than snot. Trying to layer and form everything was a real pain. It was the only point in the process I considered bailing out. But by then I was up to my elbows in soft, fleshy bird tissue – so I crammed raw meat to and fro until everything fit and the outside looked like any other unassuming turkey.

The process is better shown than described, hence my two minute Turducken documentary:

The verdict? Well, I am confident that I created a successful Turducken. It probably wasn’t perfect, but it looked like a real turkey on the outside. Cutting into it revealed a lovely mosaic swirl of dark/light meat on the inside. And wasn’t dry. So I’m calling it a success.

That said, in a final anti-climactic taste review, I must say that the flavor was just so-so. I didn’t think the three birds’ flavors melded particularly well. The chicken and duck skin on the inside didn’t stay very crispy and was a little rubbery. I’d have to say each bird would have probably tasted better on its own.

Nonetheless, a Turducken is about the journey more than the destination. I took pleasure in telling friends and family about the project and enjoyed merely having the opportunity to say “Turducken” on a regular basis. Regardless of flavor, the legend and legacy of my noble Turducken will soar like an eagle for many family Thanksgivings to come.

Chinese, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Mee Noodle

September 24, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This little joint looked promising as a spot to grab some Chinese style noodle soup. As we sat down, though, both my wife and I decided that we wanted dry noodles rather than a soup. I went with the same bet and picked roast pork noodles, and my wife went with roast duck. The duck was a bit greasy, and was an efforted meal, as you had to chew around small bones due to how the meat was chopped after cooking. The roast pork, however, was very nice. I went with chow fun noodles (wide ribbons) and my wife went with regular soup noodles.

While my wife wasn’t as happy with her meal as I was, I think we’d both go back at some point to try a few other dishes.

MEE NOODLE
795 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

Carcass Club/Beast Feast, Chinese, Flash Deals, Fusion, Japanese, Nolita/Soho, Restaurant Reviews

The General

July 28, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

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!

Some decor:

THE GENERAL IS CLOSED

Carcass Club/Beast Feast, East Village, Fusion, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Whole Rotisserie Duck At Momofuku Ssam Bar

January 25, 2014 Johnny Prime 6 Comments

Check this shit out, you salivating scumbags:

Keeping in line with my recent non-steak-related commentary dealing with other delicious foods around NYC, I present to you the whole rotisserie duck at Momofuku:

This particular dish is available at Momofuku Ssam Bar on 2nd Avenue at 13th Street. For $140 you get the duck (breast stuffed with duck sausage just under the skin and roasted) served atop a bed of jasmine rice; some chive pancakes and Bibb lettuce for wrapping; two seasonal sides (we chose the pickled veggies and kimchi, and the baby bok choy seasonal greens); and crispy shallots, cilantro, mint, Thai basil, watercress, hoisin sauce, Korean BBQ sauce and duck scallion sauce for toppings. They even bring out some duck broth made fresh at the end of the meal.

The duck is locally sourced too, for all your eco-assholes out there that actually give a shit. It’s from Crescent Duck in Aquebogue, Long Island.

Now on with the pics. Duck off, or go duck yourself:

First, my wife ordered a Bloody Mary. Here. it’s made with rye, sake, tomato, apple, ham, and togarashi. We thought it was a little on the small side for $11, and a little sweet, but it was meaty, spicy and otherwise good. Nice ice cube in there too.

Next we ordered an app of liver mousse. Delicious, light and creamy. Topped with pickled radish and some greens.

Here is one of the side items that came with the duck meal – the pickled veggie jars:

And the “seasonal greens” – aka baby bok choy:

Then they brought out the pre-sliced duck to show it to us:

Here it is all sliced up and presented nice-nice:

Here’s the lettuce and sauce collection:

And finally they bring out a little bowl of duck broth to finish off the meal. Very rich.

Here are some more pics of the duck. If you look closely you can see the layer where the duck sausage splits from the duck breast. Each little slice was like a two-in-one punch of roasty, crispy, juicy flavor. Fucking awesome.