The Wandering Eater

Caffé Falai, located on Lafayette and Bleecker, third and most recent Falai establishment that is owned by Iacopo Falai. I have chosen this place to eat for lunch not primarily for the real food but more in the desserts arena since, if you haven’t noticed, I love desserts, and many food lovers claimed that he creates awesome baked goods. So why not go there?This place is actually a small café. There’s ten tables and the bar, as seating area. The open kitchen is extremely small that I wonder sometimes how can they create such exquisite looking and more importantly, tasting food.
The interior is done entirely in white. The walls, floor, tables, chairs and the bar is white. The chandeliers that hang above the bar are beautiful; it reminds me of a miniature version from Anthropologie. (Yes, I know I have a strange addiction to Anthropologie.)


The service is really awful. Right from the very start from seating myself to the actual ordering, it took my waitress a good five minutes. There were two waitresses in the beginning, the one she had seem to do the most work, yet works in a passive attentive way. To clarify that, if she is at your table you will have her attention for that minute, after that you will be tentatively ignored unless you call her attention or she will appear at your table five to ten minutes later. Other service flaws, even though I ordered from a savory pastry and a cake, I was not served any bread. I realized that much later on after I finished my cake.

The pastry/dessert menu (Click on the photo for a slightly larger view)

(more…)

I’m thinking I’m possibly one of the minuscule number of food bloggers in New York City who ate at Momofuku Ssäm for the first time. I know, I’m a sad case. Anyways, it’s always cool to have two friends to eat out with: Julie and Robyn. But before I get to that, earlier in the morning I went to Whole Foods in Union Square for a mid-morning breakfast. Just be warned, this is going to be a looong post since I’m not planning to eat anything interesting for the rest of the week. I think I lost some readers here…oops.

I’m feeling quasi-healthy for some reason but I’m presuming my subconscious is trying to justify my future gluttony with Robyn and Julie. Eeh…who knows really? I bought two items: an 8% milkfat yogurt from Liberte and Kashi’s Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Cookie. The latter item was definitely weird just because I’m not really into Kashi’s food in general, I just find their granola bars pretty good but nothing else really. Also with the fact that it’s a “healthy” cookie, I don’t really buy into that advertising; honestly I find that it would be bull to buy a lowfat or fat-free, no cholesterol sugar-free cookie. It usually tastes like cardboard or that it tastes like chemicals…ewww. First, let’s see the yogurt.

Unmixed…

Mixed

The yogurt’s pretty good but not as great as Fage. It was definitely creamy but it lacked that intense thickness and tang Fage has. The flavor of plum and walnut was subtle. The walnut was finely chopped so the occasional crunchy toothsomeness is there. It’s nice but I still love Fage yogurt more.

(more…)

Being either stupid or brave, I went to Chinatown yesterday. In ways it was kind of stupid because of the hordes of people in Chinatown because it’s Chinese New Year’s Eve. (I should say, “Gong Hay Fat Choy” (in Cantonese), “Gong Xi Fa Cai” (transliterated in Mandarin), or 新年 愉快). I’m just brave enough to walk or sometimes shove my way through the crowds. It’s a zoo there. The reasons why I wanted to go to Chinatown were the food and the Flower Market.
I went to the Flower Market in Columbus Park first since I’m hoping it won’t be packed and the flowers will be fresher during the earlier part of the day.
So here’s my photoset in Flickr that you may click through. The food’s after the jump.

I didn’t really get real food I just want to snack on some stuff just because later on the evening, I have to go to my cousin Amanda’s wedding (which will be briefly talked about on the next post). I randomly went in and out to different bakeries just looking at what they have and see if it appeals to me. However, the one I really wanted to go to, 9 Chatham Square, was packed with people that there’s no more standing room in the restaurant, and the others were not tempting me to eat their stuff.

Eventually, I went into Golden Dragon Boat Café since there was seating and their food is not bad.
I ended up getting an egg custard tart (dan tat) and a deep fried sesame seed ball (jien duy) for a mind blowing total of $1.35.
Here’s the food photos:


The egg custard tart was good. The crust was slightly buttery, crumbly, and sweet. The custard was smooth, creamy and sweet. Not mind blowing greatness but it alleviate my egg custard tart craving. The deep fried sesame ball was even better. Why? It’s because their kitchen is making copious amounts of these fried balls of goodness since it’s Chinese New Year Eve.

Sesame seed ball (jien duy) has a symbolic meaning for prosperity for the new year. Even though these are available year-round but it has more significance for the next 2 weeks (since Chinese New Year is usually celebrated as a 15 day holiday).

Another new year food would be these:
These containers are filled with fa gao which means “prosperity cakes.” It’s basically a steamed cake that comes in the basic yellow from the eggs or dyed to a pinkish red, occasionally topped with a cherry or a red dot.

Speaking of food, my mom made some homemade turnip cakes (lo bak gao) a few days ago. This is what I always look forward to every Chinese New Year ever since my mom know how to make these from scratch (about a decade).

Turnip cakes are served on New Year’s Day as a symbol of prosperity and rising fortune, the gao is a homonym for the Chinese word for tall or high, so you’ll want to dig into this dish if you’re hoping to grow taller or move up the corporate ladder. My mom makes this with soaked rice instead of the traditional rice flour, the turnip (or known as daikon) dried shrimp, ground pork and reconstituted shitake mushrooms. It is first cooked in a wok slightly, to get the rice batter and the filling a bit thickened then it’s steamed. The option is pan frying but my mom prefers it steamed.

Take a look at the turnip cake:

Close up of the turnip cake: steamed but not pan fried
Just flipped…with the other side browning
Plated

They look yummy! It also tastes as good as it looks. The only change is that this year my dad helped. In ways this changes a good bit in the texture of this cake. You see, my mom’s knife skills are pretty bad whenever she cuts or chops anything it just looks well, bad…like someone just haphazardly hacked the poor chicken (or beef, pork, etc.) or vegetable blindly. So, with the aid of my dad, instead of the trademark texture of the turnip cake being chunky, now it’s smooooth. When I first ate this, I asked my dad, “Did you add less turnip (technically it’s daikon) this year?” He replied to me, “No. I just cut the turnip; not mom.” So this could mean two things: either my dad’s handy knife skills changes it or the daikon is really good this year.

It’s been an odd few days. On Valentine’s Day, it snowed (kind of ironic?) and I have classes. Why?! It’s bad enough that it snowed and rained ice pellets that literally blows in your face since it was so windy. But still, I have to schlep my behind to the city and be in school. Grrr…
Sorry…I want to vent. Well, on Valentine’s Day during my lunch hour, I walked over to the Time Warner Building and went to Whole Foods for some of their soup and a salad. Oddly enough, the lines were still awfully long during the lunch hour, it looks like the snow never happened. Since those foods don’t look so gloriously amazing, I’m not going to write anything about it. I just want to comment on the fact that it was really humorous that there were a lot of men buying flowers in WF. I felt kind of sorry for the two women who were working in the floral department; rearranging or creating bouquets for the desperate men who thought at the last moment to buy flowers and gifts for their significant other.

WF’s employee wrapping up some roses…

Since I wanted dessert, I went up to the fourth floor to Bouchon Bakery. Those of you who look at my Flickr gallery, you know what I ate: the pomegranate tart ($7.25). The three reasons that lured me into buying this tart was that it was seasonal, it was whimsical and pretty looking, and the way the employee described that tart made it sound amazingly good.

Side view

Top view

The tart is a butter pastry crust, embedded with pomegranate seeds on the bottom layer, topped with pomegranate ganache, with quenelles of whipped cream with an essence of Madagascar vanilla, with spiral pomegranate cookies on top. Tell me how can you not be sold into buying one of these babies!

Innards

But there were little flaws in this tart…unfortunately. The spiral cookie was getting a bit soft due to the refrigeration and the pomegranate ganache lacked that signature tartness of the pomegranate. In a way the seeds that are beneath this ganache actually helped it to bring more of that pomegranate into the party. It was still very delicious, overall. I apologize about the above photo; they only provide you meager plastic flatware to eat your food with and since this crust is very crisp (and buttery), it ended up looking like this.

Yesterday morning, I needed espresso. Since I don’t own those fancy $1,000 machines and a $5o0 coffee grinder that make a great shot and coffee ground, I wanted to try a different coffeehouse for their espresso drinks. This led me to Ninth Street Espresso.
I have heard a lot about this place for the past recent years. The reason why I haven’t been here before because the locations were too far from where I go to school or eat often. Since they have a new location on 13th Street, it’s more accessible now.
The vibe in this place is actually causal-cool. It’s a minimally decorated place. The white painted brick walls, lined with posters about plays. The seating is basically four tall tables with stools to sit on as well as the counter is along the poster-plastered wall.

Their coffee menu is really limited: only espresso based drinks, and no drip coffee here. Also they provide you with one size for your drink: not like Starbucks where you can get a tall, grande or venti. This seems purely traditional in the sense of the Italian way of coffee.

The pastries they offer are from Tisserie. They do look quite tempting but I wanted to pass since I’m planning to eat dessert for lunch.
But I have to tell you, they have some really fabulously great cappuccino!
The espresso was strong, smooth, bold, and it has great crema. Adding that leaf design is a plus, too. Not bad for $3.50. This might jeopardize my long term relationship with Joe (of almost 5 years).

For lunch, I went to Taralucci e Vino. I’ve been here once before just for their croissant (and it was to-go), so I wanted to try their real food.
Their interior is really spacious: a large bar with baked goods and sandwiches displayed, a few tables lining the opposite of the bar and a large table in the back.
I took a seat at the front end of the café/restaurant and ordered their bresaola, arugula, and speck panini ($8.95) and a chocolate tart ($5). Problems with their service: they didn’t provide me a glass of water (since I requested it) until after 3 minutes of eating my sandwich. My first waiter looked over at my direction and noticed that I haven’t gotten my water, and he said “sorry.”

Here’s the sandwich:

Innards

The panini was very good. The ciabatta bread was perfectly crisp and fresh, the meats, cheese and arugula worked together nicely. The side salad was dressed to the right amount of vinaigrette.

The dessert:
My question to you is, do you see anything wrong with this tart? If your answer is “yes” then you are correct. The first telling of there was a problem with this tart was that the chocolate has bloom on it. I was trying to oversee that flaw and hoping that it was just the chocolate, not the tart would be an issue. However, when I actually cut into the crust, it was soft and crumbly, and when I ate it, the crust was tasted funny. It tasted odd and I kept thinking to myself, “is it really stale?” Eventually, I asked my waitress that was there anything in the crust that made it taste…different? She asked, “Do you mean vanilla or hazelnut?” I replied, “No…something nutty but not hazelnut.” She said she’ll find out for me and eventually she came back with the answer that it was just a “sugar dough crust.” When she told me that I was a bit ticked off. I just let it go since I don’t want to waste anymore of my time with this place and just paid for the tasty sandwich and the disappointing tart.

Since my sweet tooth was unsatisfied, I walked over to the East Village to Blackhound.
I’ve seen their gorgeous cakes numerous times whenever I go to Dean & Deluca (which is rare anyways). When I glanced on their window display, I saw these…
How can I possibly pass up on these?! So I went in. The two people who were working there were really nice and helpful, they were also stocking up the bakery. I thought it was kind of odd at this time of the day since it’s about 1:30 PM. Anyways, it took me a good 5 minutes figuring what the heck do I want. Everything looks fabulous to eat but I could only eat one. Oh the choices…oh my stomach! I mean, could you even just pick one thing and be satisfied with it? Just take a look…(click on it for a larger photo)

Eventually, I opted for the “gift box” cake ($6). Just because it looked cute and what’s in the cake sound delicious too.Innards

The cake is basically a white cake, layered with raspberry jam, marzipan, and sliced almonds. It is then enrobed with tempered bittersweet (about 65%) chocolate, vanilla buttercream “ribbon”, fresh raspberries, and an orange marzipan flower. Yummy…this totally made up for that disgraceful tart. Heck, I want to go back to Blackhound and get their mini Busy Bee Cake.

Towards the late afternoon-evening time, I went to Kim’s office in Midtown East. Since her boss is out of town and her co-worker left early, she let me drop by early. I gave her homemade chocolate dessert presents for her half-birthday. It’s basically the stuff I made from this post (sans the hot chocolate but I gave her a shot glass of that ganache, anyways) and a chocolate parfait done by my own interpretation. I just took a random photo of her on the computer but she ended up posing.
It gotten a bit complicated for our planned dinner destination after picking up our Juilliard concert tickets. Originally she picked either Fika or the Burger Joint. But then she wasn’t feeling for either one of those things and she thought up of wanting to eat dumplings at Mandoo Bar.
I just liked the fact that they have open windows to show the cooks making these mandoos and have trays displaying them.

Little dumplings waiting to be cooked…

We ordered a plate of Mini Mandoos ($6.99) and Dolsot Bimibob ($10.99) to share. Here the mandoos:
Aren’t they cute little things? It’s basically a steamed pork dumpling filled with chives and it’s a lot smaller. Tastes good, but I love my homemade stuff more.

Here the dolsot bimibob:
It looked really awesome…and that stone pot is rocket-hot that it was radiating heat, warming our table. This pot is filled with rice, topped with a raw egg, julienned cucumber, carrots, daikon (an Asian turnip), watercress, bean sprouts, and I think it’s mushroom (the brown stringy stuff)? The waiter asked us if we wanted him to mix it for us or we should do it ourselves; we opted for the latter. But about less than a minute, we had second thoughts about putting our hands on that skin-searing pot and asked them to mix it for us.

Thankfully, he’s mixing it…

After that somewhat of a dramatic scene of a waiter tackling the semi-stuck rice onto a hot stone pot, we get to eat. The rice was different that what I’m used to…the burnt parts of the rice gave it a different texture and the vegetables are not what I usually have in my thoughts of a Chinese-style stir fried rice. I know it’s supposed to be different but it was pretty damn tasty.

The “bakeries” I’m referring to are Bouley Bakery (owned by David Bouley; located in TriBeca) and Bouchon Bakery (owned by Thomas Keller, in Columbus Circle). I don’t know why I happen to go to these famous chefs’ moderately priced establishments, but I did.

Lunch was at Bouley Bakery. I ordered a slice of their Tomato & Mushroom Quiche ($4.50), an Eclipse ($5.25), and a Chocolate Cupcake ($1.95). I know what you’re thinking; possibly you might be wondering why the heck did I order two desserts? It’s just that I want to and since Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, I might as well indulge with chocolate desserts.

Here’s what my order looked like.
(more…)

I know the advent of Valentine’s Day is the next few days. Not that I care about the romantic affiliations with Valentine’s Day; I just use this holiday to eat a lot of chocolate. That’s my kind of holiday! (Except for Chinese New Year, which is coming next Sunday…)

Since I have no classes today, I managed to spend my afternoon making all confections dealing with chocolate. I know…I have issues but I’m not the only one who is ingesting all of these goods: the gianduja hot chocolate, gianduja chocolate stuffed figs, and the traditional truffle. No, no! I’m not talking about the fungus that pigs dig out from the ground I’m talking about these…

You’re possibly thinking, “Oooh…that’s what you mean.”

If you’re actually skeptical about the chocolate stuffed figs, here’s what it looks like.

Yes, they taste as good as it looks

Since I’m not going to kill you with all of those recipes, basically you have the “master” ganache, which is basically in the following recipe. I just took the liberty of changing it as my own by adding hazelnut praline paste (which you may find in your local grocery or health store; I bought mine in Whole Foods) into the ganache. So here’s the recipe for the figs.

Chocolate Stuffed Figs
Pure Chocolate by Fran Bigelow.

1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces semisweet (I used bittersweet Calebaut) chocolate, finely chopped
24 to 36 dried Calimyra (or Turkish) figs, depending on size
1 1/2 pounds semisweet chocolate tempered (optional)

1. Have ready a 9 x 13 inch sheet pan lined with parchment (or wax) paper.

2. In a saucepan, heat the cream over medium-high heat just until it begins to boil. Remove from the heat. Add the finely chopped chocolate. Stir until smooth with a rubber spatula. Pour the mixture into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap touching the top, and let set for 6 to 8 hours at room temperature.

3. Prepare figs for stuffing by gently rolling between your thumb and fingers to loosen the seeds and soften the flesh. Insert a wooden or metal skewer in the hole in the bottom of the fig and wiggle it to enlarge the hole slightly for stuffing.

4. When the ganache is set, gently stir with a rubber spatula a few times. Spoon into a pastry bag fitted with a small round 1/4-inch tip (#803).

5. Hold each fig’s stem gently between your index and middle fingers, using your thumb to support the plump fruit. Insert the tip of the pastry bag into the fig’s bottom. Gently squeeze, stuffing until the fig is plump and full. Do not worry about leaks in the fig’s skin. They can be fixed later.

6. Place filled figs on a parchment (or wax paper) lined pan and allow to set at room temperature for at least 2 hours. Using a sharp knife, scrape the excess filling from each fig’s exterior. Stuffed figs can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Remove and return to room temperature for eating-or dipping, if desired.

7. For the dipping option, follow the tempering instructions from the link. To dip, hold the fig by the stem, dip the bottom half of each fig in the tempered chocolate. Place the dipped fruit on a parchment-lined pan and let the chocolate set. With a pair of sharp scissors, snip off the very tip of each stem, which is too tough to be eaten before serving.

As for the chocolate truffle, you take the ganache recipe and use a small spoon or melon baller and scoop out a small amount of ganache (say about the size of a walnut). Place it in an aluminum or parchment lined sheet pan and repeat until you use up all the ganache, and refrigerate for 10 to 20 minutes until firm.

Uncoated balls of ganache…sorry about the bad lighting

While you’re waiting for the ganache to chill, chop about 12 ounces (in weight) of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate and temper (use the link from the fig recipe, to temper). Take out the ganache from the refrigerator and dip the ganache ball into the tempered chocolate, thinly coating it. (The whole purpose of the melted chocolate is for the cocoa powder to cling onto the ball of ganache.)

Once you coat, then you place it into a bowl or shallow plate of cocoa powder and coat it with cocoa powder. Do not remove this truffle from the bowl yet.
The melted chocolate has not set; just go on to the next ganache ball and repeat.

Once you coat this truffle in the cocoa powder, then you take the first truffle and place it onto the lined sheet pan. Repeat until all is cocoa-ed. Chill the truffles (with the sheet pan) in the refrigerator for 10 minutes, until the chocolate has set then serve.

One last note, the hot chocolate is made basically by using that ganache and add milk (to the desired thickness/amount) into a saucepan, heat it over medium heat and stir with a whisk to remove any lumps. Once it comes to a simmer, just pour into a mug and enjoy.

I’m referring to my “diet.” It seems that I fall into the trap of eating bad every Tuesday or Thursday, just because I have time before classes that I just wander around and end up finding something to eat that isn’t good for me. Oh…whatever. I’m not going to try that hard for the sake of beauty or vanity. It’s just not worth it. As long as I’m not gaining anything, that’s fine with me.

For mid-morning snack, I went down to TriBeca to Tribeca Treats for their cupcakes since I heard about them recently from the press and I remembered their booth back in the Chocolate Show the past November. I don’t know what really drove me to go down there but I did it.

I just bought their S’more cupcake just because the flavor I wanted, “The Sweet and Salty” wasn’t available yet, and the regular flavors (e.g. yellow cupcake/chocolate frosting, etc.) wasn’t appealing to me. (I apologize in advance for the blurry photos that follow…)

Profile shot of S’more Cupcake

The cupcake is adorable but tiny for $2.17 (yes, they charged tax). The cake itself is moist, chocolatey and a touch of sweetness since the marshmallow buttercream frosting is quite sweet and it does taste like a marshmallow. The graham cracker crumbs really didn’t contribute much to the cupcake. It’s almost undetectable in flavor or texture. The cupcake is good but it’s a bit expensive for what you get.

For lunch, I went to the East Village to Chickpea.
For some reason, I just wanted some falafel or shawarma. The good thing about this place is that you get the best of both worlds: the shawafel. I had the lamb shawafel, instead of the chicken; my beverage of choice is the lemonata.

Rotating meats!

Interior shot

Lemonata

The shawarfel unwrapped

Innards of lamb shawafel

The shawafel is delicious! Crispy balls of mashed fava beans (not chickpeas, since they’re obviously green), lamb shawarma, a miscellany of vegetables, and few slices of pickles and red onion, smothered into a pita bread. Yummy and quite filling, too. The lemonata was refreshing and sweetened to the right amount. The problem is that I still wanted dessert. I know, I know. I had a cupcake earlier in the morning but I still wanted something sweet. I just got out of Chickpea, when the lunch crowd started to pack in (and that’s around 1 PM) and walked around the East Village.

When I saw a large sign from Sundaes & Cones, my brain lit up and said, “Ice cream!”
I don’t know if this whole obsession or cravings of frozen, sweet and creamy desserts is due to Robyn’s influence. When I went there, I was the only customer. No surprise since it’s 27 degrees with a windchill of 13 degrees Fahrenheit. I think I’m the only nutjob to eat ice cream in this weather. Anyways, I went in and perused the options of flavors available. Here’s the choices:

The ice cream counter…

Pricing…

It was interesting to see they had some unusual flavors like lychee, sesame, corn, and wasabi. I tried their green tea ice cream and it really didn’t taste like green tea. I end up ordering a 2 scoop cup of sesame and chocolate fudge swirl…after pondering for nearly 5 minutes (or maybe it seems like an hour for the guy who’s helping me out) what flavors I want to eat.

The ice cream!

Texture shot

It’s a pretty generous portion for under $5. It looks small from these photos but it’s probably 8 ounces of ice cream. The sesame is made of black sesame seeds but the flavor is a bit muted. There’s not much nutty flavor in that black sesame ice cream. I guess they should’ve toasted the sesame beforehand. The texture reminds me of the tong sui version of a black sesame soup but just frozen and a bit creamier. The chocolate fudge swirl is the better out of the two flavors. The vanilla ice cream is creamy and it has enough vanilla flavor that it can cut through the chocolate fudge. I guess I like gelato a lot more since it’s more creamier on the tongue (even though ice cream has more butterfat content than gelato, technically). I need to find more gelato shops in New York besides Otto and Il Laboratorio del Gelato! After eating that cup of ice cream, I went into food coma for a few moments and eventually dragged my shawarfel-ice cream stuffed self back to the streets, going uptown to get ready for class.

Addresses:
Tribeca Treats
94 Reade Street
New York, NY

Chickpea
Visited: 23 3rd Avenue
New York, NY

Sundaes & Cones
95 East 10th Street
New York, NY

Ooh! I almost forgot. Those of you who likes to read the food reviews from eateries and restaurants around NYC, go to Blog Soop. All of the reviews are written by food bloggers, some of them features stuff from meself and Robyn. So go there now!

For the past two days in New York City, it felt like the Arctic. Not like it’s unusual of New York to be this cold but I just don’t like to walk or get out of bed in this type of weather. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way for me since I have classes. Pooh. At least classes start late for me today so I indulge myself into a bit of sinful, comfort foods. I should note that I’m not supposed to eat these items just because I have to go “on a diet.” I put those words in quotes just because it’s only dieting for vanity, not really health reasons. (Even though sometimes I wonder I should watch what I eat since my blood sugar levels are above the norm: diabetes or my cholesterol and triglycerides are bad enough that I can no longer eat my beloved pastries…I hope none of those will be a problem.) My cousin’s wedding is next week and I bought a dress and well, you know the rest… So I’m screwing my diet of rabbit food (i.e. salads without dressing and/or croûtons) and non-fat Fage yogurt, for the sake of my mind’s wants due to my (and possibly your) Paleolithic ancestors for survival. How ironic.
For breakfast, I ate at City Bakery. It’s the start of the Hot Chocolate Festival! For those of you who are die hard fans of CB’s hot chocolate go there before the month’s over. Strangely, they didn’t announce it when I was there on Feb. 1st. Here’s the photos of the schedule (click on it to see it larger):

(more…)