2007 February 02 « The Wandering Eater

I went to Café J’Adore for their croissants. I know it’s been months since I’ve actually eaten a croissant but I think I’m mentally prepared to eat another croissant. For those of you who read my two croissant posts, you know what I mean.

Interior shots/menu boards inside

I’ve read from a plethora of posts from Chowhound pertaining to the topic of the “best croissants” and I saw this place mentioned quite a few times. So, I thought of coming here one day, and today’s the day.

First of all, I don’t like this location. It’s teeming with businessmen and businesswomen who come for their coffee (which kinda suck in comparison to Joe’s coffee; it cost me $1.50 for a small) and breakfast. I also ordered their chocolate croissant ($2.50) since many posters from Chowhound indicate that it’s really good. Well, let’s take a look first.

Innards!

The croissant was still slightly warm (and this was 8:45 AM). The color seems fine: golden brown but lack the sheen on the surface, but that’s ok. When I tore the croissant in half, I was hoping to hear the shatter effect that I always seek but it was to no avail but it was flaky. At least the chocolate is on the generous side and it’s still gooey. When I bite it, it still didn’t have any shatter; it’s more like the flakiness of phyllo dough. The pastry lacked the butteriness in flavor and the texture. The chocolate is more like the 60% semisweet type. It’s not a croissant in technicality but it was a decent chocolate filled, flaky pastry.

For lunch, I went to Otto.
It’s actually been 3 years since I went here for lunch (yes, it was before my blogging days) and ever since Robyn influenced me on the gelato craze and NY Magazine published a recent article about their hot chocolate, so I thought, “Heck, why not? I’ve got nothing to lose; only gain a pound or two, or run a few more miles.”

Otto’s atmosphere is really more like a casual Italian wine bar meets pizzeria. It has a really laid back attitude with a large emphasis on the wine. How can I tell? Well, their wine list is huge and my waiter kept on asking me do I want any wine in the beginning and I kept declining kindly. He finally stopped once I ordered my hazelnut hot chocolate, the gianduja calda and my pasta. Yes, I passed the opportunity of eating the famed pizza. I have eaten the Margherita pizza three years ago with my friend, Seungmi and it was delicious but that’s a whole ‘nother post.
Back to the current food and beverage. The gianduja calda ($4.50) was luscious. It had a copious amount of hazelnut flavor, smooth, and creamy. It’s not as thick as City Bakery’s; it is a medium bodied hot chocolate that it’s thick enough to coat the tongue. The whipped cream makes it more decadent (and caloric), also the crisp, orange shortbread cookie was a nice accompaniment to this hot chocolate.

Texture shot of the bread

Bread with the grissini

The bread that was served reminded me of Sullivan Street Bakery’s Pane Pugliese. It’s wonderfully dark, thin crust with a spongy, soft interior. Mmm… The grissini tasted fine. Nothing particular to note.
The pasta, Linguini con Cavolo e Speck ($9), was so freakin’ good! The pasta is perfectly cooked (al dente), creamy (from the bitto cheese), and slightly salty (bitto cheese and speck). The cabbage gave the dish some substance besides the pasta itself and it gave some crunch and bitterness. I really love it but I couldn’t finish this entire plate. I ended up eating about half the dish and asked them to wrap up my leftovers (that’ll be my lunch for tomorrow). Another reason I didn’t (or wouldn’t?) finish my pasta was because I wanted to save some room for gelato! I’ll let the photos do the talking for this moment…

Presented side

Back side

Close up of the gelato “sundae”

Lovely creaminess…

This is called the “olive oil copetta” ($9). Mmmhmm…pretty darn expensive for a gelato sundae (it is, technically). It’s basically a large scoop of olive oil gelato (with specks of vanilla bean), topped with sliced, candied kumquats, pomegranate seeds, slices of blood red orange, drizzled with olive oil. Wow… that’s all I have to say. It’s one mind blowing dessert to eat. If I ever come back here again, I will come here just for the gelato. I mean, it’s that good. It’s a transcendent experience for gelato.

Addresses:
Café J’Adore
2 W 23rd Street
New York, NY

Otto
1 5th Avenue
New York, NY

This is basically two short reviews lumped into one. I guess it makes sense, since I don’t want to mix two inexpensive places for something that is on the moderate price bracket (as in Otto, which will be the follow-up posting).

The first one up is Oms/b. I ate there around 9:30 AM just because I didn’t get the chance to eat breakfast. So this, in my case would be my breakfast and lunch, per se. I ordered their “Breakfast Set” which contains two rice balls, pickles and a cup of miso soup for the cost of $4.75. I picked the grilled salmon (photo below, on the left) and a salmon roe rice ball (on the right). (I happen to like salmon a lot.) They were made fresh, the woman who took my order made them in front of me. The pickles are the bright yellow chunks that you see in front of the rice balls. They aren’t spherical shaped at all but they’re still called “balls.” Anyways…

Photogenic rice balls, don’t you think?

Cup o’ miso soup

The miso soup tasted ok. It wasn’t as salty as many other places I’ve eaten that over-salted their soup. It had flecks of scallions (or green onions depending upon where you’re from), a few small cubes of firm tofu and a few shreds of mushroom.

The grilled salmon rice ball was chewy (from the nori, also known as seaweed, and the rice). The rice was sticky but more like sushi rice. It was salty since the description of this particular rice ball indicated that it’s a salty fish. So, no surprise here. There was a good amount of salmon in there too, so it was satisfying to eat. The salmon roe rice ball was tasty as well. The roe gave it a buttery, creamy flavor and texture to the chewy rice and the slightly salty nori.

It’s not a bad place for a quick lunch since it took about a minute or less for them to make these rice balls and it’s relatively inexpensive. There are other sets for lunch that have the option for more rice balls and a choice of an appetizer but still it can be made under $10.

Next up, Le Pain Quotidien. I ate at the location nearest to my campus, located at 7th Avenue near 58th Street. I tried their brownie (really fudgey and delicious) and croissant before. So, it’s not my first time here. I just chose to eat in here for once and try their sandwiches. I was seated in their communal table amongst the other diners there. There were other tables available, but I didn’t really care where I sat.
After perusing the menu for a good while, since I’m indecisive about what the heck I want to eat, I end up ordering a cup of cafe au lait (since many diners are ordering that; cost $2.95) and a chicken curry salad sandwich ($9.75).

More like a bowl instead of cup of au lait.

The sandwich platter

It took about 5 minutes for my cafe au lait to show up. It seems really odd for a cup of coffee and steamed milk to take that long to make. It tasted a bit too milky for me. The coffee flavor was quite diluted or muted by the milk. It’s not awful but it’s fine.

The sandwich platter was another 10 minutes wait. By the time it came to me, I was somewhat surprise to see the spread: a stone cheese board that serves as the platter, filled with my curry chicken salad open-faced sandwiches (or tartines, they call it), two slices of mango and cantaloupe and a mini mesclun salad and a chunk of tomato. The tiny bowl in the center is cranberry chutney. The sandwich s were delicious by itself but it tasted even better with the chutney. A small flaw was the bread. It was sliced a bit too thin to support the topping or the filling of the tartines that if one just picks it up by the edge, the toppings will fall off. The salad and fruit were nice accompaniment.

I would eat here often but it is a bit too pricey to eat this everyday for lunch.

Also, I went for a cup of City Bakery’s hot chocolate ($4.50). I like their thick, ganache-like, creamy hot chocolate. Just to let you know, their annual Hot Chocolate Festival didn’t start yet.