STUDIOKITCHEN

New York Stories

 

It's fun to see what other restaurants are doing and what better way to spend an evening off that roam around NYC, with passover and the pope in town it was a recipe for no waits anywhere, you could just walk right in and eat.

I much rather prefer sitting at the bar and haven't made a reservation in months.
Now that Wylie is all over Iron and Top Chef, I thought what the hell lets just go to WD-50 on an off night. Guess who was standing at the pass...Ha!
It's impressive to see New York Chefs actually in their kitchens on a Saturday night.
After having a quite tasty Escabeche of Sawara at the tasting room earlier, I thought it would be a great time to finally try Alex Stupak's desserts finally. I have to say the boy makes some good stuff, pistachio tube being my favorite.

They were quite nice enough to do a dual 3 course dessert tasting. Sadly no camera besides that would have attracted too much attention.

What next ? Thought I would find my pal Amador Acosta and headed to TAILOR for some chicken wings I heard about. I love whimsy when it works.

If you are in NYC, go try the "Tailor made wings".
As I am eating my perfectly geometrical wings, I said to the quiet looking Brit, "are you Paul Liebrandt"

Why yes indeed I am.

You never know where the winds blow in NY, after being dragged to Milk and Honey by Mssrs Freeman and Acosta, the  evening ends at 3am on the lower east side.

New York stories indeed.

Sugar-up at WD.

Liquor-up at Tailor.

The Mouth.

A conversation last night with 2 chefs brought up some interesting points. The mouth is the most overlooked single component of the tasting process. What is flavor relative to  the last thing that was in your mouth, toothpaste, mouthwash, high fructose corn syrup, pickles or cigarettes.
One chef does not hire smokers, another forbids soda consumption in the kitchen and prior to service. Of course it makes sense but how does one enforce these rules ?
We concluded that the best way is to show them the relativity of the last thing you consumed and how it affects your perception of salt and sweet, perhaps even acidity.
Dont tell them.
Show them.

After a very detailed cleaning, things indeed do taste different.

Funniest picture ever.

The rack of rabbit with a wine cork to scale.

Summers End

Nothing beats tomato season in August. Celebrated the bounty of the season last night with two fantastic tomato salads. Nothing to hide behind, no feta, mozzarella, burratta, just great fruity olive oil, salt, pepper and basil.

Best Food Shots

This blog is officially 4 months old. It is amazing all the time I have spent on the computer despite always being "busy". Here are some of the best highlights of food photographs. I hope you enjoy them.
Thanks for reading.

Rants.....

Observations can be good or bad, lets start with the bad. I am hoping I am not crazy and other people may have noticed this too, there is a habit that bothers me when I go shopping in particular to farmers markets, you pick up you fruit and vegetables, hand them over to the farmer/grower to be put in a bag and TOO MANY people lick thier fingers to separate the plastic shopping bags, grab your fruit and put it in the bag. Ostensibly you are going to wash the fruit and vegetables before you eat it but does that really need to happen ?
I am resigned to the fact that it might be a conditioned reflex as opposed to willfully bad sanitaion habits so my issue is how to deal with it when it happens.
What would you do ?
What would you say ?
I suppose I could go elsewhere but those Kosui asian pears are rocking good.
The one time I said something in one particular place, the seller actually got offended.

Here I was walking through the grocery store buying basics for the weekend, I assumed frozen pre-made thaw and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were the apex of laziness and mediocrity, now we have microwave panino. The Medicis must be rolling over in thier graves, what kind of parents are American kids raising these days ?