Daisy May’s New York

Patrick American, New York, Restaurants

There was a lot of press about the joint venture of Jamie Oliver and the “BBQ King of NY”, Adam Perry Lang when they first opened up Barbecoa. Unfortunately most of that press hasn’t been good and I hadn’t really expected to given that it’s a formula that caters for the banking crowd. I figured that we should go straight to the original source, to Lang’s original Daisy May’s BBQ on 11th Ave.

This particular place could not be further than from the modern monstrosity that is Barbecoa. Wooden panels line the walls, communal dining areas, and more of a canteen style serving area where you order first and then take a seat takes priority over atmosphere. Having said that, it seems appropriate when you’re talking about this sort of cuisine and fits in aptly with it all.

The most logical choice when arriving is to get one of the plate combos – something from the BBQ and two sides. I opt for the sweet and sticky pork ribs with coleslaw and baked beans with burnt ends.

To drink, a sarsaparilla made by Wild Bills.

Some signage showing you how it works.

And a beautifully large and patriotic sign.

Hilarious tip jar.

Most importantly the ribs were really good. Smoked as you could taste it, and the meat easily falling off the bone. I’m surprised that the portion size was quite big, but not big by classical American standards. I think the sticky sauce was great as well. I think without it, the ribs would have been much drier and definitely needed something saucy on it. It was a really cheap meal and some great sides that we couldn’t finish either. Be warned though, this is not really the place to bring vegetarian friends.

Name: Daisy May’s BBQ
Found at: 623 11th Ave, New York, New York
Website: http://www.daisymaysbbq.com/

Sushi Samba

Patrick American, Asian, Japanese, New York, Restaurants

Craving some sushi rolls (the more westernised ones than the traditional ones), I decided that whilst in New York, we should head back to Sushi Samba, where latin america meets the east. I have to say that this visit wasn’t as great as the first time, but we some some nice things to eat.

My favourite dish of the night was the umami rich miso eggplant. Hearty chunks skewered and delicately roasted before being finished off with some miso sauce.

The rock shrimp tempura had a great kick, though failed to be as crisp as good tempura should be. Love rock shrimp though.

The corn fritter tempura definitely made up for that lack of crispiness and went well with the wasabi mayo they served it with. Could do with more kick.

Here’s the sushi bar.

And our yummy Samba 7 roll with lobster chunks.

And another roll that we had (can’t remember the name of this one)

I see on their website that they’ll be opening a London branch soon, so that will be interesting to watch the bloggersphere for how it’s taken. There’s a lot of brazilians in London so I hope they live up to the real thing.

Name: Sushi Samba 7
Found at: 87 7th Ave South, New York, New York.
Website: http://sushisamba.com/

Eleven Madison Park Round 2

Patrick American, Michelin Starred, New York, Restaurants

Out of all the places that I ate at last year, I was most impressed by the experience of the then, two-starred michelin restaurant. Obviously others had been as well since it’s gained an additional star in the meantime. The lunch menu is definitely a great value if you manage to get a reservation, and we were lucky that we were able to (thanks Grace!)

It was an extremely cold day when we went for lunch, made even colder by the wind chill factor. I’ll say that revolving doors make a great way of making sure that gusts of cold air don’t make their way into the dining room. Stepping through these doors, you’re welcomed almost immediately by a member of staff, coats taken and then quickly escorted to the bright, airy dining room (below). Weirdly enough, we were seated at exactly the same table we were last time!

The menu format still hasn’t changed. A four course menu depicts a journey that you get to pick the main attraction, but all scenery provided by the kitchen. This allows the restaurant to change the elements of the menu with seasonal produce and also produce some vastly different experiences (all good, rest assured).

Whilst deciding, we get to pick on some cheesy Gougère, strong in flavour, light in composition.

Followed almost immediately by the wonderfully velvety chicken veloute and parsely oil served from a teapot into a tea cup for easy drinking. It’s a great way to warm up after walking around outside.

Different from the amuse bouches of our last visit, we then received a foie gras paste perched perfectly atop brioche with chives. Yummo.

And like last time, had a wonderfully rich american sturgeon custard served in perfectly cut egg shells. The custard was more like a foam (maybe I’m getting it wrong) with the sturgeon eggs providing a wonderful contrast in flavour and texture as your spoon dips in. A little bit more flavoured oil (not sure what) sits in the bottom adding another dimension to the dish.

Fortunately there was no pork fat served with the bread, with the lighter butter made from goat’s cheese and the creamy yellow a French style. This time the bread was more like buttery croissant pastry turned into small parcels and hand delivered warm and fresh in a little pouch.

My first dish, was a crab roulade with avacado, apple and lime. Soft creamy elements and carefully adorned with fresh herbs and green leafs along its length. I really enjoyed the beautiful presentation and the flavours of this dish.

Following a seafood theme, the lobster poached with autumn mushrooms and spinach arrived looking like a work of art, carefully arranged in a single line unevenly offset on the right side of a huge plate. The pieces were generous and that mushroom/lobster foam was so rich and velvety but was carefully not overpowering the sweetness of the lobster flesh.

My final course before the desert was the guinea fowl roasted with pear, salsify and foie gras. This dish was a superb ascent to the top with rich, deep flavours that built on the previous ones. I suspect the guinea fowl had been cooked sous vie before being finished off under a broiler – there’s no other way I could imagine it retaining so much of that succulent juices.

After the previous course, a small cart got wheeled up. We had anticipated this after watching a number of other tables being served the same, wondering what it was. It’s a beautiful show. Decanters of lime juice, and cocoa milk tipped into a small glass before orange oil being dabbed in from yet another bottle. The finishing touch was a spray of seltzer water fizzing up the entire drink. I was reminded of drinking a light, liquid version of a Terry’s orange only much cleaner on the palette and an experience to remember. Now where do I find cocoa milk!

We then had another pre-dessert cleanser, made up of a custard and some fresh berry sorbet. I can’t remember the other elements as I was still thinking about the wonderful glass that preceded it.

For my main dessert, I’d ordered the hazelnut meringue with sorbet, chestnuts and pistachio. I was surprised at how fruity this dish was, considering hazelnut is classically paired with chocolate but it worked out surprisingly well.

Last year, I missed not having a coffee, so thought we would try the entertaining tableside coffee.

The petite fours arrived as well just as the coffee was being prepared. A beautiful white truffle chocolate bonbon with a creamy explosive centre full of truffle-essence.

Followed by a cocoa black truffle ganache providing a complement to the white.

Ok, I’ll admit I still prefer espresso to siphon coffee but I like the spectacle of the way they prepare it here. This is a picture of the tableside siphon coffee being prepared. First they allow you to smell the coffee, explaining its origin and then all the details about the temperature and time that are needed for the perfect brew.

And voila, the final product.

Another wonderful dining experience at Eleven Madison Park, and very deserving of their three stars.

Name: Eleven Madison Park
Found at: 11 Madison Avenue New York, NY
Website: http://www.elevenmadisonpark.com/

Brunching at Giant Robot

Patrick American, Brunch, Coffee, Restaurants, UK

I remember hearing about Giant Robot when it first opened to much hurrahed fanfare. I understand there’s a shortage of restaurants serving good American food, but it seemed there was a bit more fuss than there should have been. Turning up for a Saturday morning brunch, it seems like the patrons agreed with me – we were seated pretty much immediately.

I ordered a flat white that was served in a mug. Decently flavoured and no real complaints about it.

We also ordered the brunch burger that was apparently pretty good. It had the bright yellow melty cheese one would expect from an American diner.

I went for the three-egg omelette, served with a huge slice of sourdough toast.

Perhaps it was just what I ordered, but I can’t say I was particularly impressed by the food. The dinner menu looks a bit more interesting but for brunch, I’ll have to try somewhere else next time.

Name: Giant Robot
Found at: 45-47 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1M 5RS
Website: http://www.gntrbt.com/

SHO Shaun Hergatt

Patrick American, Asian, Michelin Starred, Restaurants

The last time I was in New York, we were going to have dinner at SHO Shaun Hergatt, one of the handful of two-michelin starred restaurants in the city. I was very pleased to see that the financial crisis and the downturn in the economy had yet to close this restaurant, although I was slightly suspicious when I found I could book a dinner for two quite easily in the next couple of days. Nevertheless, we headed on downtown to Wall Street to try it out. The location of SHO is odd, on an entire second floor building, not even inside a hotel right in the middle of the financial district.

Given the high cost of their rent, I’m surprised that their tasting menu was a reasonable US$85 for five courses (without tax, tip, supplements or wine). What they have done with the place is very chic – it’s almost very oriental in feeling and the high ceilings contribute to the air of spaciousness to the entire dining room. The tables are extremely well set apart for a NY restaurant, although it did feel like the dining table itself was pretty wide to begin with.

There was an open kitchen, and we could see the large number of chefs bustling about preparing and finalising all the intricate components for each dish, although I was sat along the wall, slightly behind a case so missed out on most of the view for the evening. A few lucky tables (I believe reserved for people on special occasions like an anniversary, etc) were seated right next to the kitchen when I believe the view would have been excellent.

Before even deciding on which five courses we wanted, a series of amuse bouches arrived. This one was a light, airy apple foam with some creamy cheese concoction, and then topped with a sprig of dill. Tiny apple cubes sat suspended in the middle of the foam, providing a nice crunchy contrast to the otherwise smooth dish.

The next arrived in a huge conch shell, effectively small balls of mashed potato with black squid ink encasing foie gras and rolled in breadcrumbs then fried. Each bite had a great amount of flavour, and contrast but each small enough for a bite full just enough to enjoy and start the appetite.

Next up were the mussels although other than being fresh, can’t remember what they were served with. Nice but obviously not particularly memorable.

Bread is generally always enjoyable in places like this. Each table received a small fresh loaf of, I’m guessing, some sort of sourdough bread. The crust was crunchy, the insides bouncy although I do think it was slightly overbaked. I could forgive this when they gave us three types of butter (truffle, classic french and a sage). My favourite of course, being the umami-rich truffle butter. The sage butter was very subtle and was overpowered by the crust of the bread.

For each course, you get to choose one of three different dishes. The first, Hudson Valley Foie Gras Sandwich with pain d’Epice Wafers, Banyuls Reduction, Sicilian Pistachios is the one that I didn’t order so can’t really comment on the flavour.

I selected the Chef’s Garden Beets with Hibiscus Tuile, Vermont Creamery Goat Cheese Pave’, Beet Dust, a classic combination of sweet and salty that was beautifully presented and even more delightfully tasty. The pave, like a small cheesecake was the perfect size to accompany the red beet, the crisp tuile working to contrast the soft textures.

The next dish that I didn’t personally order was the Griggstown Farm Coxcomb with Veal Tounge Ribbons, Chicken Skin, Autumn Mushroom Pave’. We had no idea what a coxcomb was before ordering this dish (it’s the fleshy bit on top of a rooster’s head, for example), let alone that you could eat it. I tried a little bit of this one and was surprised at how tender it was. No comment on the other elements.

Instead, for my next course, I ordered the Satur Farms Celeriac Espuma with Crispy Potato Curls, Black Truffle Powder, Truffle Creme. They brought the bowl to the table where you could see all the small tiny components, before they carefully spooned the celeriac espuma (foam) on to the plate where it settled down into a rich, creamy sauce. The balances in this dish were fine – truffle flavours rising to the top with each spoonful, a rich velvety and tasty foam with three, tiny but perfectly crisp potato curls floating around. I could have had a whole bowlful of that celeriac foam.

Next up was the East Coast Flounder with Langoustine, Black Truffle Cauliflower Puree, Romanesco, once again not my dish.

I had gone for the Nova Scotia Lobster with Garlic Chives, African Basil Seeds, Chilli, Coconut. This tasted a lot more like a rich, red curry sauce (chilli and coconut), though it was a perfect combination with the sweet lobster flesh. It definitely had some kick to it, but more of that type that gets going as soon as it touches the tongue, leaving a lingering impression for a good time to follow. Also, not listed was the crispy rice balls that helped provide additional contrast.

Next up, the Three Day Beef Cheek with Baby Leek, Potato Parchment, Perigourdine Sauce (not my dish).

Instead I went for the Upstate New York Guinea Hen with Caramelised Salsify, Quinoa, Garlic Cream, Rillette. The quinoa was much smaller than I anticipated, and though slightly more like oatmeal in appearance, was a much better size for the dish. Crispy skin perched atop the perfectly round rillettes and the meat was amazing soft and gorgeous, no doubt cooked sous vide to keep all that juiciness in. They did well to reduce the sauce to a really thick concentrated texture that literally stuck to the meat as we wiped it through. Delicious.

I didn’t order the Satur Farms Candided Yam with Canadian Maple Mallow, Cranberry, Burnt Milk but the dish certainly looked impressive.

Instead I went for the Blue Cheese Roulade with White Wine, Quince Puree, Walnut, Celery, something a little bit different. There wasn’t a huge amount of cheese, instead this dish was perfectly balanced with all the components you would assemble yourself, but much more lovingly arranged.

I ordered some fresh mint tea to finish off the evening and the petite fours arrived. Fresh, tiny cinnamon donuts (no bigger than a thumbnail) and deceivingly big in the picture below. Fresh, light and airy.

Accompanying them were freshly made hazelnut macaroons that I’m sure the French would be very happy to eat. I don’t claim to be an expert in these delicate bites, but this one was definitely great – not too sweet, light and flavourful.

Finishing off the trio was a black sesame truffle, the earthy elements almost hidden away by the bitter cocoa dust surrounding them. A great way to finish off the meal.

Whilst not the cheapest of dinners, I was very impressed by the entire experience. Service was impeccable – topping up tap water without us even realising it, dishes being whisked away not too quickly, but not too slowly and we even noticed the small details like having two staff put down the plates at almost the same time. In a place like this, there is definitely the slight airy of pompousness – napkins appear refolded on the dining table when you return from the restrooms although I’m pleased they didn’t go to the extent of replacing them entirely. There was no pressure to drink if you didn’t want to and the food, most importantly was a wonder to enjoy. The only thing to note if you go is the supplements they add on if you order the dishes with more expensive ingredients (fair enough). Total for two of us with tax and tip (no alcoholic drinks was US$306).

Name: SHO Shaun Hergatt
Found at: 40 Broad St, New York, New York
Website: http://www.shoshaunhergatt.com/

Cafe VN

Patrick Asian, Restaurants, UK, Vietnamese

My sister was constantly talking about going to this vietnamese place called Cafe VN that wasn’t so far from me, so we decided to go for dinner one night. It’s a place that hadn’t really registered but thought we’d try to give it a go.

Bright green lighting draws diners in, like a moth to a flame.

We started with some spring rolls and then the chilli salt squid. I was a bit disappointed by the spring rolls. For a Chinese equivalent of a spring roll, it was pretty decent – large and filled with lots of real filling instead of simply just wrapper. Unfortunately I was looking forward to the great crispy skinned vietnamese spring rolls when they use rice paper wrapping instead.

The sqiud was actually pretty good and a huge serve as well. Pieces were soft and juicy though there could have been much more chilli around.

Being a huge pho fanatic, I ordered the house special that came with prawns and beef. The serving size was huge and, even I didn’t finish all everything the came. The prawns were huge and there was plenty of meat, the only thing of note was that they didn’t use very traditional pho rice noodles, instead flatter, thicker noodles I’d expect in a stir fry.

It looked the same when my sister ordered the pork bun (rice noodle) dish with the wrong noodles.

Service was great and friendly, mostly due to a warm Australian waitress helping us out. Food was okay, although not very authentic.

Name: Cafe VN
Found at: 144 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DP
Website: http://www.cafevn.co.uk/

The Little Owl

Patrick American, New York, Restaurants

On one of my previous Foods of New York tour, they brought us to The Little Owl, a small non-de-script tenement building made famous by the Friends TV show, and also just highly recommended as a great place to eat.

As you can see from the picture below, there were heaps of people being shown the same famous building, though it didn’t really detract from our overall dining experience.

We were really lucky, turning up shortly after midday, and only being told a table wait would be about a half hour. I was a bit worried since it was a really popular restaurant with only 28 people and reservations generally recommended. They did mention they reserve some tables for walk-ins, and we were lucky enough to nab one. We walked around the area for a bit, before returning for a short five minute wait before being seated.

There’s not a lot of room for movement, and with my back turned to the rest of the restaurant found my chair constantly niggled, either by the patrons leaving and going, or the waitress coming and going as well. It’s your typical, NY tight style seating where people were almost sitting on top of each other.

The menu is pretty interesting, definitely inspired by the Mediterranean but brought up to American standards with items such as the burgers, and their famous gravy meatball slides that I had to order.

My sister order the bacon cheese burger (US$16) that came with a series of condiments.

As you can see, it was a pretty big burger, served with melting american, bright yellow cheese, and then the pickles and salad sitting on the plate.

I ordered two appetisers opting for the crunchy artichoke heart (US$15) and the gravy meatball sliders (US$12). The artichoke was served with a light, lemon black pepper parmesan broth and some tasty green rocket leaves. Superbly crunchy and a delicious combination.

The sliders, or mini-burgers were rightfully famous. Each was moist, juicy and packed full of flavour. The meat combo was a mince of beef, pork and veal and then topped with grated pecorino and then topped with a bit of sauce to keep it really moist.

We also shared a side of mushrooms served with truffled breadcrumbs (US$6), a delicious rich, but probably not needed accompaniment.

To finish off the meal, we split the beignets served with raspberry sauce and nutella (US$9) that were beautifully made super fresh. The raspberry sauce brought a good level of tartness to the dish and the nutella, an additional richness to the dish. I definitely enjoyed the food overall. Everything was very well made and service overall very good – water topped up all the time and we didn’t ever feel rushed to be moved off our table. Highly recommended! Total price with tax, tip (no alcoholic drinks) for two people was US$77.41.

Name: The Little Owl
Found at: 90 Bedford Street, New York, New York
Website: http://www.thelittleowlnyc.com/

Cart Fun Dim Sum at Jing Fong

Patrick Asian, New York, Restaurants

London doesn’t tend to have so many places that do dim sum Hong Kong style with the carts, so it was nice to visit Jing Fong in New York’s chinatown and experience the real deal. Though we were told it would be about a half hour wait, in reality, it took us only 20 minutes to get a table.

This is the waiting area to which the guy checks numbers and is constantly calling out numbers. They have a constant stream of people going up and down, so it’s quite easy to wonder what the restaurant looks like

More of the waiting area.

As you can see though, the entire dining room was massive – my estimates were that it held at least 600 people and almost all the tables were constantly full. I’m glad they don’t do a lot to cram huge numbers of people at a table – we shared a single table with another couple though there were a few small places for lone diners to also share.

In true fashion, you’re given the dim sum ticket guide where the cart attendants would stamp small, medium, large or special depending on the dish you order.

The classic steamed pork buns were pretty good. I was pleased not to encounter unpleasant globs of fat although the bun was pretty small of itself.

We ordered a prawn rice noodle roll (cheung fun. Two giant prawns in each roll and the serving was extremely generous.

The har gau (prawn dumplings) were also a very generous serve made up of huge prawns. The only complaint was that the dumpling wrapper on these turned out to be a little thick and stuck to the paper rather than peel off a bit more delicately.

We ordered the taro croquette that I can image would have been tastier had it been hotter and to its left (in the picture below) a durian dumpling crossing our fingers it was going to be mooli (it wasn’t!) but also wasn’t as offensive a flavour of durian it could have been.

Tofu wrapped duplings were freshly made and delicious.

And although the portions of the turnip cake were massive I found the mixture too mushy and tasteless for my liking.

Here is a picture of the durian dumpling on the inside. As you can see, it’s like a sweet custard that lifts the strong durian flavour away.

I really enjoyed our experience at Jing Fong. The carts add a lot of drama to the entire experience, as does trying to hunt down your favourite dumpling on the carts, fresh before other people do as well. I was hugely impressed at the sheer size of this place and glad to see it doing well when I hear many of the places in Chinatown really struggling.

Name: Jing Fong
Found at: 20 Elizabeth Street, New York, New York
Website: http://www.jingfongny.com/

Brunching at Norma’s

Patrick American, Brunch, New York, Restaurants

As I mentioned in a previous post, we were definitely returning to places that I enjoyed and Norma’s is a fantastic place if you’re hungering for an American style brunch or breakfast menu. At lunchtime, it’s worth booking – we were lucky we got a table in about half an hour as some people after us were told they’d be seated after a whole hour!

The menu is divided into plenty of sections but their real strength is in their very large breakfast menu, all of it orderable 24 hours a day. Prices are steep although be warned that the portions are even larger than most American style portions. This time, we went for a real brunch instead of a breakfast, so my sister thought it’d be more appropriate for the lobster mac and cheese (US$28). Though being pricy, the dish was literally chock-full of lobster – each spoonful bringing a healthy chunk. The only bad thing that we experienced was half-way through the dish, finding a bit of foil-like wrapper (we think it may have been the foil-wrapper that typically covers butter). Nothing extreme or what not, but kudos to the waiter – as soon as we told him, they went back to the kitchen to make a new one and took the dish off the menu!

Last time I went for the Irresistible Banana-Macadamia Nut Flap Jacks With Whipped Banana Brown Sugar Butter (US$21) and they were really good that I thought I’d try them again. I’m pleased to say, despite the price tag, they were really just as good as last time, a very good sign about the consistency of the restaurant. It was served with caramelised walnuts and macadamia and the banana brown sugar butter really went well with the huge pancakes, lasting the entire amount. I remind myself I’m on holidays and not worrying too much about the amount of working out I’ll have to do to burn this dish off.

You can’t really have pancakes with a side of bacon, and this one was perfect as well. The streaky, British style bacon, slightly peppered and bring a great saltiness to an overall sweet dish.

The only thing to be warned about is the US$9 orange juice and US$4 coffees that you’re offered as soon as you sit down. Sure the juice was good, but a glass for that much is a bit of a stretch.

Name: Norma’s
Found in: Inside the Le Parker Meridien, 119 W 56th St, New York, New York.
Website: http://www.parkermeridien.com/normas.htm

Hunan Kitchen of Grand Sichuan

Patrick Asian, New York, Restaurants

We took our family out for dinner onto the main part of Flushing, arriving at the glamourous sounding Hunan Kitchen of Grand Sichuan after reading about it in the paper. 7:30pm is peak dinner hour and it really showed – even though we had a reservation, we still had to wait for our table to be freed from the previous set of diners. Even then, when we sat down, we found out they ran out of small bowls (in a Chinese restaurant!) just because they had been so busy.

We ordered a lot of food, many of them on recommendation from other reviewers and just those that we wanted to eat, such as the green pea shoots with the typical accompaniment of garlic.

As well as a whole fish roasted with vegetables, an earthy, but very oily dish with lots of subtle flavour. I think it would have been much better with a lot of more kick.

The star of the evening was definitely the cumin lamb, the typically strong lamb flavour disappearing into the soft, melting bits of meat.

We had a number of other dishes that the photos (iPhone quality) didn’t really turn out so good but I would order again such as the aubergine and the vinegared wood-ear mushrooms. I wouldn’t order the Mao pork again – it was just a bit too fatty for me, but overall pretty tasty. Like any Chinese place, turnover is fast and prompt. At least they let us pay by credit card (though wanted the tips in cash).

Name: Hunan Kitchen of Grand Sichuan (Flushing branch)
Found at: 42-47 Main St. Flushing, New York
Website: http://www.thegrandsichuan.com