Momofuku Milk Bar

I usually don't fall for hype. Spotted Pig? Eh. Corner Bistro? Utterly overrated. However, I have joined the masses in being completely won over by all things Momofuku. My latest obsession is Momofuku Milk Bar. I have been several times so far, sampling many of the sweets on the abovc menu as well as the great, if overly expensive, Momofuku pork buns. All of the desserts I have tried have a nice combination of salty and sweet. Some may find them to be overly salty, but I find them perfect. Not to be missed are the corn cookie, cornflake marshmallow chocolate chunk cookie, and best of all, the compost cookie, a wonderful mix of pretzels, potato chips, butterscotch chips, and, chocolate chunks. Try it before you knock it! The cereal milk soft serve is nice as well, and I was pleased to find that the flavor of my cereal milk panna cotta was dead on. I can't wait to try the breads, pies, and cakes, on subsequent visits.

Kefi: Greek Comfort Food on the Upper West Side

Last Friday, after feeling guilty about the giant slap in the face we gave the recession by attending a yoga, chocolate, and wine tasting (it was free, but still...), my girlfriend and I redeemed ourselves by having dinner at Kefi on the Upper West Side.

Kefi had been on my list of restaurants to go to ever since it opened a few years ago in its original location, where it gained renown for delicious Greek food served at bargain prices. Kefi's co-owners Michael Psilakis and Donatella Arpaia have since become rockstars in the NYC dining scene, opening other two other well-acclaimed restaurants (Anthos and Mia Dona), and even cooking at the White House. As with most inexpensive and good restaurants in New York, Kefi was a madhouse in it's old location and Psilakis and Arapia recently moved the restaurant to a much larger location on Columbus Avenue between 84th and 85th St. It remains a madhouse, for at 9:45 on a Friday night, it was packed to the gills. Psilakis and Arpaia have certainly found one way to get by during the recession.

I was surprised at just how large the new location is. Although, I had never been to Kefi in the old location, I had eaten at its previous incarnation (and Psilakis' very first restaurant) Onera, and it was a fairly small space. Kefi now takes up two floors, each with multiple dining sections. I would call the decor Greek isle kitsch, with Greek trinkets hanging on the walls and ceilings. The servers wear royal blue t-shirts with the restaurant's name in large print. A date restaurant, Kefi ain't.

Many reviewers have complained that the new location of Kefi is not as the original. Among the detractors, consensus is that the new Kefi is cooking by the numbers, serving unrefined Greek food to please the masses. The food we had was fairly formulaic in preparation and the plating was not pretty by any means, it was very good and comforting.

My girlfriend and I started with the fried calamari, an menu item that we order at nearly every restaurant that serves it. Kefi's version was as good as any; simply prepared and served with lemon wedges. Intermixed with the calamari were fried chickpeas, a very nice surprise; a few fried lemon slices were also on the plate, a not so nice surprise that I assume a sloppy chef must have dropped into the fryer.

For a main, I ordered the braised lamb shank, which was served with orzo and lots of what I believe was a red wine-based braising liquid. The lamb was fairly sloppily plated, with the sauce all over the place, but the bad plating was fairly endearing, reminding me of the comforts of a homecooked meal. The lamb, I should add, was delicious, especially at $15.95. My girlfriend went with the seared striped bass, which was served with potatoes, green beans, capers, and olives. Again, the dish did not look so pretty on the plate, but that did not detract from the taste. The fish was cooked nicely, and the capers and olives gave it a nice briny flavor.

Kefi is one of those rare Manhattan restaurants where I left feeling like I made a steal. I would have been pleased with the restaurant even if the dishes cost just a few dollars more. Kefi is not fine cuisine, but in this economic climate, that is not a bad thing. It is on the other side of town from me, but Kefi is still worth the small cab fare, and I will certainly return.

Chicken Adobado

Tonight's dinner was Chicken Adobado from Molly Stevens' All About Braising. It's so simple: your marinade about 10 chicken thighs marinated for an hour in a mixture of a half cup each of water and white vinegar, zest from two limes, a large splash of soy sauce, two teaspoons of brown sugar, two bay leaves, and salt and pepper. Then you cook the chicken in a covered skillet for about 45 minutes, flipping the thighs occasionally. Finally, you brown the chicken in a second skillet while reducing the braising liquid in the original skillet. You add the chicken back to the sauce and serve it over rice with a simple salsa of chopped tomato, chopped onion, lime juice, and cilantro. My camera battery died, so the only evidence of the deliciousness that ensued is this iPhone photo:

My First Attempt at Baking Bread

Today, I finally got around to a project I have wanted to do for quite some time: homemade bread. I used the widely praised technique from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François' Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. If I had known just how easy it was to bake my own bread, I would have embarked on this project long ago. Although the rising, resting, baking times took made the recipe take much longer than five minutes from start to finish, the active time is under five minutes.

Of course, any recipe can be abridged to death with varying results; it's the taste that counts, and considering that this was my first ever attempt at bread, I was pleased with the results. This technique definitely will not make you question the intelligence of bread bakers who have been baking bread the old fashioned (read, well over five minutes a day) method. The bread I made a nice crust, was not all that flavorful, and the crumb was much denser and much doughier than a great artisan bread should ever be. These shortcomings were partly my own faults: I substituted whole wheat flour for half of the white flour, and I was overly eager to cut into the bread and failed to follow the instruction to let the loaf cool completely before cutting into it.

The use of whole wheat flour most likely contributed to the dense crumb, and I should have cooked the bread a bit longer as I have read that whole wheat flour requires a longer baking time. Once the loaf finally did cool down, it was less doughy, so next time I'll restrain myself when I am tempted to try a slice of still warm bread. Nonetheless, my first attempt at bread encouraged me to give this method another try. I have enough dough in my refrigerator to make three more loaves, and I know that my subsequent bread baking attempts will be more successful than my first.

The dough before it went into the oven (I was a heavy handed with my flour "dusting"):





Out of the oven:





Sliced before it had cooled:

A Great Brownie Recipe

If you like your brownies super fudgey, definitely give this brownie recipe from Scharffen Berger a try. I don't have any pictures because my girlfriend and I absolutely demolished the batch before they had cooled enough to cut nice squares. It was absolutely worth it. Be sure to use high quality chocolate in this one; the Scharffen Berger we used gave the brownies the fruity flavors that Scharffen Berger has; it was like eating a bar of their semisweet chocolate, only better.

Carnitas

During the week, I rarely have much time or energy to cook anything more than the simplest of dishes. For this reason, I tend to spend my Sunday nights tending to a braised dish on the stove or a roasted meat in the oven. This Sunday, I prepared carnitas, a Mexican dish consisting of cubed pork butt that is braised in spices until all of the liquid evaporates, and then fried in it's own fat (hey, I ran 15 miles this weekend!). The nice thing about carnitas is that it is so versatile. Having researched a number of recipes, I found that nearly anything combination of ingredients can be used so long as the basic technique is followed. Realizing that it was not necessary to follow a recipe, I decided to make my own, and I was proud of the result, which follows. In order to use up some the lager I bought for the pork, I served the carnitas with Drunken Beans made with Rancho Gordo vaqueros.


Carnitas

Ingredients:

• 3 lb. pork butt, cut into 1.5 inch chunks
• 2 yellow onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 poblano pepper, chopped
• 1 chipotle pepper in adobo, minced
• Juice of 1 orange
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 Tb cumin ground
• 2 tsp. dried ancho pepper, ground
• 1 Tb dried marjoram
  
• Salt, for seasoning
• 12 oz. lager beer
• Cilantrol leaves, for serving
• Lime wedges, for serving
• Tomatillo salsa, for serving

Directions:

1. Add first 11 ingredients (up to the salt) to a large dutch oven. Marinate for several hours.
2. Pour in beer and add water to barely cover pork. Simmer pork over moderate heat until meat easily falls apart, approximately 2 hrs.
3. Increase heat to medium-high and continue to cook until liquid has completely reduced, another hour and a half.
4. Once the only remaining liquid is the pork fat, watch pork carefuly. Cook the pork cubes or shreds, turning occasionally, until brown and crispy.
5. Serve pork over rice or in warmed toritillas. Garnish with cilantro and serve with salsa.

A Letdown at Craft

I can't help but compare my recent meal at Craft to my recent meal at Gramercy Tavern. Both restaurants are at the same price point and operate along the same similar premise, expertly sourced ingredients prepared simply. It is no wonder that they are so similar; after all, before Tom Colicchio, no longer chef but still owner of Craft, made a name for himself on Top Chef, he was making a name for himself as executive chef at Gramercy Tavern.

Unfortunately, my meals at each restaurant were not so similar. My dinner at Gramercy Tavern was perfect in nearly every aspect, from service, to ambiance, to the food itself. Craft, on the other hand, missed on both service and, more importantly, execution. The service my dining companion and I had at Craft was not bad--our server was perfectly amicable and did nothing wrong-- but did not make me feel that the restaurant really appreciated or cared that I was dining there as I felt at Gramercy Tavern. Again, I was spoiled by my experience at Gramercy Tavern, but in this economic climate and at the price point of both restaurants, I think they should both go out of their way to make the diner feel welcome. I will note that the dining room at Craft was not entirely full on a Friday night, so it is not as if the recession should not be a worry to the restaurant.

Quibbles about the service aside, Craft's biggest fault was in execution. My dining companion ordered several of our server's recommendations: arugula & lemon salad, a roasted octopus special, roasted monkfish, and roasted Berkshire rack of pork. Aside from the monkfish, which was superb, something was missing from every dish. Both the octopus and arugula salad were lacking in flavor. While I understand and respect the idea that well-sourced ingredients require little extra flavor (see Gramercy Tavern), both of these dishes had a flavorful sauce or dressing, but there was so little of the sauce or dressing that it left both my dining companion and I wanting more. The rack of pork was a disappointment on another level; the flavors of the meat and smoky sauce (my apologies for recalling so few details of my dishes) were absolutely wonderful, and the pork was one of the best pieces of pork I have ever tasted. However, the meat was cold in the center. It was also slightly undercooked for my tastes, and I usually enjoy pork rarer than most people. As I consumed each dish, I thought of how Gramercy Tavern would have prepared the same dishes; based on the perfect execution of my meal there, I could assume that Gramercy Tavern would have done much better.

While my meal at Craft was by no means bad, it was certainly disappointing. At this price point and with enough NYC restaurants operating on similar concepts as Craft, I do not see myself returning. Nonetheless, my man-crush on Tom Collicchio is as strong as ever.