I spent a recent weekend in DC for the cherry blossom festival, and was fortunate to have absolutely splendid weather and even lovelier company. Although it wasn’t necessarily a food-centric trip, I did get to visit the Dupont Circle farmer’s market (next time I’m bringing a cooler!), and an adorable bistro called Montmartre that had excellent moules with chorizo. One of the friends that I stayed with also gave me some containers of duck fat that she’d brought back from her home in Bordeaux. Let me say that it is wonderful to meet someone new who within four hours knows me well enough to understand why I would get excited about a jar of fat. Duck confit, anyone?

Before my little retreat, though, I made a big batch of caramel bars to liven up some stressed-out, anxious-for-spring moods. These are probably rich enough to be called candies, but who says you can’t celebrate spring with rich caramel and dark chocolate? The recipe was particularly interesting in that that it uses some ingredients that are a little atypical for me — the base is made with saltine crackers (!) and the caramel layer uses condensed milk — not from my normal camp of obsessively-made-from-scratch endeavors. But I was sweetly rewarded for not turning my nose up at these little gems. They are hardly less elegant looking (or tasting) than the usual make-your-own caramel bars, and so bloody easy it’s practically a crime not to have them in your repertoire, especially for holidays or times when you need to feed a lot of people on short notice. Perhaps if forced to choose, I’d admit a slight preference toward the make-you-own version, but that’s not to say I wouldn’t make these again in a heartbeat. I squirreled a container away in the freezer to nibble on, cold, when my caramel jones strikes at odd hours.

The bars are very rich, so I recommend cutting them into quarters. The recipe makes quite a bit — around 40 bite-size bars — so they really are perfect for a crowd.

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Baking, Candy Land, Eating Elsewhere | 6 Comments »

New York was lovely for eating this time around, even though a steady rain couldn’t help but creep down and try to dampen everyone’s Independence Day celebrations. For my part, I skipped the fireworks and instead headed to Chikalicious, where the line starts outside the door and winds down the sidewalk on busy nights. Once admitted, you sit at a sushi-style bar, watching Chika and her assistants prepare a multi-course dessert for you. A fixed prix of $12 buys an amuse (coconut ice cream in watermelon soup), a main dessert (honey semifreddo in strawberry soup with a crackly sugar lace crisp) and petit fours (coconut marshmallows, chocolate-lavender truffles, and mango-lime paté de fruit). It was very fun to get such a unique tasting, and really made me wish I could open my own little dessert bar! The only slightly strange bit was that Chika and her assistants did not encourage conversation, which seemed odd to me, given they were all nearly within touching distance. I suppose a sushi chef doesn’t normally converse with his patrons either, but one expects dessert to be a somewhat more lively affair. Still, it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the place, and I definitely plan to go back. There’s also a Chikalicious “dessert club” across the street that sells ice cream, pudding, cupcakes, and other small bites, including an outstanding green apple sorbet.

We walked around quite a bit in and about Union Square where the market was in full swing. So many delicious things to see there! The bright stacks of carrots and radishes everywhere were particularly thrilling to the eye. We bought some sour cherry “stomp”, a sort of ciderlike drink from Red Jacket Orchards, which was wildly tart and refreshing.

In the Union Square area, City Bakery is a perfect pit-stop place for a lunch under $10. It has a winning combination of build-your-own-plate from a gorgeous breakfast/salad/hot bar along with a beautiful selection of cookies, scones, croissants, and other freshly baked comfort foods. I noticed that the tall, lean yoga ladies strode past this section of luscious goodies without even a cursory glance, while I myself could hardly look away.

On another day, an even longer walk past Chinatown to the Lower East Side led us to an extremely dangerous place called Il Laboratorio del Gelato, where they serve wickedly good flavors such as red grape, nectarine, mascarpone, pistachio, honey lavender, and others, among them the most diabolical of them all: salted caramel. This concoction was so powerful that, immediately after eating my modest cup, I was forced…forced I tell you, to go back and order more, eating all they had left. I think maybe it should be illegal; the stuff was just phenomenally good. Of course I now want to try making it at home, but then I may never leave the house.

Once again, I didn’t make it to Payard (must it always be closed when I’m there? I’m starting to wonder about conspiracies), but all was forgiven with the help of Korean BBQ, moules frites, 25 pounds of books from Strand, and a fun, voyeuristic dinner at Hearth (the kitchen is open so you can watch everything).

I think my palate is fully recovered now, which is fortunate: my flat of sour cherries came in while I was away. I now have 7 pounds of cherries that need to be made into something good, pronto. Tomorrow is the jam session, updates to follow!

Eating Elsewhere | 4 Comments »

I had a lovely visit this past Easter weekend with my adopted Portuguese family, who were kind enough to give me some nice gifts, edible and otherwise. I thought I’d share them here since Portugal really ought to get more attention on the global food scene, if only for the delicious sweets the Portuguese produce.

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Eating Elsewhere, General | 5 Comments »

For me, one of the most exciting aspects of last weekend’s little break was visiting the Ironbound district in Newark, where there is a small Portuguese neighborhood, complete with grocers, restaurants, cafés, and shops. There were Brazilian juice stands, churrascarias selling chicken with piri-piri, language centers galore, and even a dentist’s office with its sign in Portuguese. It was here that I could finally sample authentic versions of some of the Portuguese pastries that I’ve been trying to create in my kitchen. Outside of the Massachusetts area, I think the Ironbound comprises the largest Portuguese community in the US.

“Coutinhos Bakery - The Difference is the Taste”

We first went to two bakeries, Coutinho’s and Teixeiras, both known for specializing in the traditional pastries. My Portuguese ambassador tells me that Coutinho’s is exactly like a Portuguese café transplanted to the USA, down to the type of chairs and little cups of espresso that were imported so immigrants could feel at home. Everyone there was speaking Portuguese, from the old-timers who were clearly regulars to small children brought in by their parents. The place is so keen on providing a nostalgic experience for their patrons, they even sell Portuguese water!

Only authentic Portuguese can drink this water

Our main mission was to find pastéis de nata, which are probably the best-known Portuguese pastry and notable for their rustic, slightly burnt tops. While the natas at both bakeries were very fresh, we found Teixeira’s to be a little too thick tasting and floury on the inside. The ones are Coutinho’s were pronounced “just right” by the Mad Scientist, who chatted happily with the women at the counter, eager to ensure that I had a proper nata experience. The little tartlets are made of a multilayered, crisp dough and filled with an eggy, rich custard that bears the tiniest hint of lemon. It’s common to sprinkle cinnamon on top, but we had them plain. The ideal way to eat them is with a nice cup of espresso, which cuts the sweetness a little and allows you to consume several in one sitting.

We also tried almond tarts and a queijadas de feijao - a sweet bean one. I forgot to ask for queijadas de Sintra, the ones filled with cheese, which are almost as good as pastéis de nata. I was lucky to try them once from my friend João, who brought me a package from the original bakery in his hometown. Right now, though, I am longing for more of the natas…my only regret is not buying more of them to take home with me.

In addition to the bakeries, we wanted to find a Portuguese restaurant for lunch. This was more difficult than expected, since surprisingly few of the eateries seemed to have what we were looking for. There was not much variety in bacalhau (salt cod) dishes on the menus, which is particularly unusual since the Portuguese are said to have a bacalhau recipe for every day of the year. (They really do - I’ve seen the cookbooks). Some also seemed aimed towards tourists who may not know what to order. We finally settled on Seabra’s Marisqueira, which I think was a good choice (although I don’t have much basis for comparison). We ordered some chouriço sausage - which is rather different and not to be confused with the Spanish chorizo, a very rich dish made with bacalhau and potatoes, and a very homey and filling plate of pork with clams. I can see that the Portuguese love comfort food, and may try my hand at some of the pork and salt cod dishes when the weather cools down. I like their liberal use of cilantro, one of my favorite herbs, which adds a surprising and bright note to the stewed meats.

The best thing about this little neighborhood is that it’s only steps from the Newark train station - so it’d be a shame not to stop by and fill up on terrific pastries and espresso when in the vicinity.

Coutinhos Bakery
121 Ferry St, Newark - (973) 344-7384

Seabra Marisqueira
87 Madison St, Newark - (973) 465-1250

Eating Elsewhere | No Comments »

Dear Diary:

I think I prefer Princeton over NYC. At least for this past trip, I did. But let’s be honest here: my expectations of Princeton were pretty low, since I’d never been there before, and my expectations of NYC were rather high, since I had. So what else would you expect? NYC was fun as always, but at least four of the eight chocolate, pastry, and dinner places I’d mapped to visit had vanished, and Chikalicious, which I was particularly keen on, was sold out! Perhaps it was my punishment for spending too much time in bookstores. Also, I was somewhat disappointed by Pho Grand, which the Amateur Gourmet recommended so highly. It wasn’t exactly bad, but certainly not notably better than either of the two tiny Vietnamese places here in Pittsburgh. I did learn later on that New York doesn’t have a large Vietnamese population, which might explain something. But let’s not dwell on the negative. My wandering feet found plenty of things that were good to eat…it just happened to be that this time, they were pretty much all outside of New York.

I did get to sample the macarons at La Maison du Chocolat, which were excellent if just a touch on the sweet side. Someday I hope to get the tops of my macarons to be as smooth.

Also, the chocolates from Michel Cluizel were fantastic, especially the passion fruit filled one.

And, well…that was pretty much it for Manhattan - at least that’s worth noting. After walking around all day and searching for various places that were no longer there, in addition to perusing bookstores and other little shops, we decided not to come back to the city a second day and instead relax a bit more while seeing what Princeton had to offer. There was also a lovely morning spent in Newark, yes Newark, which I’ll write about in a future post. Still, this really ends up being more like a Princeton review post, rather than the originally intended NYC review.

Princeton
Lots of people on message boards seem to complain that there is no good food to be found in Princeton, and to that I say: Pshaw. Maybe there are fewer ultra-fine dining establishments or celebrity chefs, but there is perfectly serviceable, even excellent food to be had there. Here’s a quick selection of my favorites:
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Eating Elsewhere | 2 Comments »