Korean BBQ

After fancier dinners on Thursday and Friday nights, my parents and I wanted something low-key for Saturday night.  We also needed something quick and on the West side since we were going to an 8 PM Broadway show.  We ended up in K-town for Korean BBQ at Kang Suh.  I have been spoiled by Korean in Flushing, which is about as legit as it gets, but Kang Suh is a wonderful substitute that is much easier to get to. 

We ordered three dishes and shared around, though two would have probably been sufficient.  We asked for the seafood pancake, but they brought us the scallion instead.  No matter, the egg dish was as airy as it should be (I see the evidence of interior swiss cheese-like pockets as a good thing) with a nice salty crust from where the edges clung to the pan.  We wanted to make sure to get one of the bbq dishes so we went with the kalbi, short ribs marinated in soy sauce.  This one was nice and salty but also a little sweet.  I thought it tasted best when I wrapped it in lettuce and topped with bean paste and pickled veggies from the bibimbap.  For our third dish, my Daddy wanted seafood so I crossed my fingers and hoped he would want to order my favorite Korean dish, squid with a red pepper sauce served with fat noodles.  This is the kind of dish that's spicy, but even as your nose starts to run and your tongue starts feeling too thick to fit in your mouth, you just can't stop eating. 

A huge positive for Kang Suh is that it's 24/7.  It can be difficult to satisfy a craving for this type of food at 3 AM.  A rowdy night of karaoke followed by late night food in K-town sounds perfect to me.  The only downside is that my hair spelled like Korean BBQ for the next four hours.  I hope the woman sitting next to me at the Broadway production of Memphis didn't mind too much.

3 on Thursday

I'm sorry if you were missing "3 on Thursday" last week, but there just wasn't enough time to update the blog while my parents were here.  Now that they are back home in Savannah, I'm back on the blogging track and ready to present you with three things I'm pretty sure you need to try.

About a week and a half ago I decided to treat myself to a nice new lipstick.  I had been seeing some beautiful corals on all the cool lips around town, so I figured it was time to invest.  I absolutely love how Emily from Cupcakes and Cashmere rocks her lip color, and she seems to use Chanel often so that was my first stop.  Kelly at the Bloomingdale's Chanel makeup counter was great.  I told her I wanted to try the coral trend but didn't know what worked best with my skin tone.  She found the perfect shade immediately.  Peregrina has a nice salmon tint that's not too orange-y.  Yes, $32 is a lot to spend on lipstick but it was worth it for a couple reasons.  If I had gone to Duane Reade, I would have spent a quarter of the price but would have inevitably chosen the wrong color and would need to go back [multiple times] for something better, spending virtually the same price.  This will be my go-to color for the Spring/Summer so I think it's worth the investment.  I applied this lipstick and felt like a new person, ready for the Spring weather and all the fun that usually comes with it.  That feeling was worth $32.

While my parents were here, we decided to take advantage of my MoMA membership and the $5 guest passes that come with it.  If you haven't been to the museum lately, I recommend checking out the Diego Rivera music exhibit.  I knew nothing about Rivera before last Sunday, but really enjoyed learning about him.  In addition to exposing me to a new type of art, the exhibit shed some light on the Rockefellers, Rivera's biggest patrons.  I love getting a little NYC history along with my art!

I love Broadway, a fondness I definitely acquired from my parents.  I often take in shows by myself (a perk of working in the Theater District), but I love going with my parents when they're in town.  I wasn't too excited to see Memphis.  I didn't think its 2010 Tony win was a big deal because there was very slim pickins that year - it felt like settling.  I'm happy to say I was proven wrong.  Memphis is a great musical about "black" music going mainstream in the 50s.  The songs had me tapping my feet and the dialogue kept things punchy.  As a nice little surprise, I walked in to see Adam Pascal playing the lead.  As someone who has seen Rent six times (including once with the original cast when they returned at the end of the show's run), it was a real treat to see him live.  Memphis does rush, but if that doesn't fit into your plans, you can get balcony seats for $66.  It's a small theater so balcony seats are still great. 

Casa Mono For the Win

There was a ton of pressure associated with Friday night's restaurant pick.  It was my Daddy's birthday and he had high expectations.  He left the picking entirely up to me, but I knew there were a few things he was hoping to get out of dinner.  My father loves game but doesn't see it all too often at restaurants in Savannah so that was on the list.  I also knew he wanted to eat at a celebrated restaurant and taste the food of a chef who was big in foodie circles.  Finally, I knew he was leaning toward Spanish flavors or at least something on the heartier side.  Tall order, right?

I seemed to find everything he wanted in Casa Mono.  The Spanish tapas restaurant is owned by the Batali/Bastianich team and is consistently ranked on the Top 101 Restaurants list.  There is also an extensive game selection on the menu.  Jackpot.

Every dish was wonderful.  Simply wonderful.  The scallops with parsnip puree and cherries was about as close to perfection as you can get.  My other favorite was rabbit with anticuchos and habanero cuajada.  That cuajada is a yogurt, so you get the heat from the habanero and the cooling factor of the yogurt all emulsified in one sauce that I slathered onto the carrots and rabbit that was served fried and [I believe] braised.  The squash gave the mole sauce that was served with the duck a different kind of sweetness that you don't get with the chocolate alone.  The waiter warned us that not everyone loves the squid ink rice and scallop dish because they find the strong ocean flavor overpowering.  I appreciate the heads up, but he didn't realize he was dealing with a Lowcountry family who regularly pulls dinner up from the river.  Salt water is a beloved flavor to us, and this dish only reminded us of that. 

Each dish was a winner.  Casa Mono came through as the perfect restaurant to celebrate my Daddy's birthday.  Now I just need another reason to celebrate so I can go back!

Scallops with Parsnip Puree and Cherries

Quail with Tomato Raisens and Baby Romaine

Pork Croquetas with Porcini and Cider Greens

Confit Goat with Creamed Kale and Pepitas

Rabbit with Anticuchos and Habanero Cuajada

Duck Confit with Winter Squash Mole

Squid Ink Bomba Rice with Taylor Bay Scallops

Flex Your Mussels

My parents' trip here this past weekend had multiple objectives: 1) help me get everything in order for an apartment I am hoping (praying) to get 2) spend some quality time with their one and only daughter and 3) celebrate both of their birthdays.  I was unable to spend my mother's birthday with her so on Thursday, the two month anniversary of her bday, we went to a restaurant that was tailor-made for the one and only Marcy Konter.  My mother loves moules frites so choosing a restaurant for her was a no brainer - no one does them quite like Flex Mussels.  There are 23 different versions of mussels on the menu which means there is something for everyone. 

Before I get to the bivalves, let's talk starters.  Daddy got a tuna carpaccio that he offered up with the warning if I didn't taste it right then, it would be gone.  That's always a good sign.  I had walked past a man eating a wedge salad at the bar and couldn't stop thinking about it so I knew it had to make it to the table.  It was perfect.  It was nontraditional in that it had radishes and grapes - the addition of the radishes didn't seem so crazy, but grapes are new to the wedge salad kingdom.  After trying it, I think I'll keep them around.  The bacon was thick and perfect and there was the perfect amount of blue cheese (I requested light dressing).  It's a $12 appetizer salad, but it really hit the spot.

They get quite inventive when it comes to mussels.  They have the normal versions on the menu (white wine and garlic), but then they sprawl into new territories.  Here, mussels take on Thai, soul food, and creamy Italian.  We each ordered a different variation to take full advantage of the menu and then argued over who picked the best one.  My Mom ordered the pesto, my Daddy went with the Acadian, and I chose the San Danielle.  I loved the large chunks of salty prosciutto and sweet caramelized onions that floated in my white wine and garlic broth.  I couldn't stop sopping it up with bread and fries.  I wasn't the only one.  We each dug into our pots with reckless abandon.  I actually thought about asking for a doggy bag for my leftover sauce so I could pour it over rice or pasta later.  I held my tongue because it seemed like a somewhat gauche request, but part of me wishes I did it anyway.  The pots, by the way, are huge and come with plenty of bread for dunking so the $18-$24 price range is actually pretty reasonable.  Where they get you is the apps and dessert.  Yes, the wedge was great, but it's not necessary.  The desserts, however, should be mandatory.

Flex Mussels' pastry chef, Zac Young has made quite the name for himself on Bravo's Top Chef: Desserts.  His creativity is embodied in the swedish fish ice cream that accompanied our pineapple upside down cake.  I would have been satisfied to stop there, but then I would have missed out on the doughnuts, and that would have been a true shame.  I apologize for not taking pictures, but I wanted to dig in, while everything was still warm and melty.  The rotating boozy doughnut didn't appeal to us that night, but the other available flavors were too appealing to mind.  We tried the meyer lemon, peanut butter and jelly, smores, and salted caramel.  I can't even begin to pick a favorite.

Flex Mussels has entered the ranks as favorite - a favorite I can afford to eat at on a somewhat regular basis.  With so many flavors on the menu, I could easily go weekly and not get tired of it.     

San Danielle

Digging in

It's a Snap

When I knew I had leftover chicken to eat last week, I decided to make the rest of the meal more interesting by trying out a new side dish.  Much like the shrimp and quinoa salad I made last week, this would make for a great picnic vegetable.  Trim sugar snap peas and cut them in half along the diagonal.  Then boil them until they're a nice bright green (about 3 min).  After boiling them, I should have plunged them into an ice bath to shock them into maintaining that great color, but, alas, I did not.  While they're cooking, slice some radishes and mix your dressing of chopped mint, olive oil, white wine vinegar, pepper, lemon juice, and sumac.  Toss it all together along with some ricotta salata.  Ricotta salata is a very light cheese, another reason this would be a welcome addition to a picnic menu.  This salad has a great crunch as well as some herbs and spices that are not quite as common.  After three cook outs featuring the standard potato salad with the same old seasonings, you'll love seeing this on the spread.

Shrimp and Quinoa Salad

I may not have been at a picnic, but I found the perfect picnic dish last night.  When cooking up supper, I didn't have outdoor food in mind, but I'm thinking it may be perfect for open air soirees this Spring/Summer. 

Mix quinoa, halved grape tomatoes, avocado, ricotta salata (or feta if you can't find it), and shrimp.  Then toss with a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, honey, oregano, salt, and pepper.  That's it.  I let the rice cooker do all the work with the quinoa and only had to bother myself to chop the tomatoes and avocado.  I bought raw, cleaned shrimp and those suckers take approximately one minute to boil up.  I can't think of a single other thing I can do in one minute.  Tie my shoes, perhaps?  Only on a good day. 

Otto

If you want to see why Mario Batali is famous but don't want to pony up the pesos for Babbo or Del Posto, I highly recommend Otto.  Batali's pizza/pasta restaurant is spitting distance from the arch in Washington Square and offers quality food at prices that draw NYU students right out of the park.

Amy and I decided to go splitskies on a pizza and pasta.  The first half of our combo was the pizza special with an egg, black truffle, and some sort of cured meat.  I love their super thin crust, perfect amount of cheese, and believe it or not an egg is the perfect topping for a pizza.  And don't forget that shaved truffle.  That topping made this pizza double the price of the others on the menu and it tasted great, though I'm not sure if it tasted doubly great.  We also ordered penne with a parsley, mint, and walnut pesto that got me nice and ready for spring.  The best part of the pasta was scooping up the leftover sauce with the bread...but isn't that the best part of every pasta dish?  As good as our choices were, I think Karina wins the best order award.  Her pasta special of bucatini with stinging nettle pesto was incredible.  I don't know what a stinging nettle is other than the waiter's description of it as an "herbaceous plant," which didn't help much.  What I do know is that once pureed with pine nuts into a pesto, it has a deep uber-spinach-y flavor that I loved.

When it came to dessert we were originally only getting one scoop of olive oil gelato for all four of us.  Somehow that turned into three full-fledged desserts and I'm not sorry at all.  We stuck with the gelato, ordering a scoop of olive oil and a scoop of salty peanut.  Olive oil gelato seems to be the vanilla ice cream of Italy that makes vanilla seem irrelevant.  Next we ordered a polenta cake filled with dried fruit and served with whipped ricotta.  Why whip cream when you could whip ricotta?  Finally, we ordered banana gelato served on top of a brownie and covered with a shell of caramelized white chocolate and salted peanuts.  This was probably my favorite.  When you read the description, it doesn't sound all that much different from what you serve in mass quantities at a sleepover, but they just make it better.

There's just something about a restaurant that is beloved by 19-year-old college kids, 50-year-old yuppies, and everything in between.  When you see a mix of sweatshirts and ties, you know that it's not trendy, it's tried-and-true.