3 on Thursday

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas yesterday!  I'm spending my X-mas break in Vail so it's sure to be a white one - even more so than today's background pic of NYCs first real snow of the season.  Happy holidays!

1. As a Southerner, I didn't grow up watching hockey but am happy to adopt the sport.  It's easy to follow and [particularly when fights break out] fun to watch.  Go Rangers!
2. I recently went on a work outing where I was able to pick up these fab Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses.  There is actual gold leaf in the frames.  I feel like a lady of leisure wearing them.
3. My lobby gave a nod to both the Jews and the Christians in my lobby with a menorah and a tree.  I had zero decorations in my own apartment so I was very happy to have a festive lobby to walk into.

Smoked Mozzarella, Broccoli, and Greens Panini

I know I wrote about Dominque Ansel Bakery yesterday but who cares - here we go again.  This time, we're talking savory.  While the bakery is famous for their desserts, they serve a couple soups, salads, and sandwiches that are, apparently, not to be knocked.  One such sandwich was profiled about eight months ago and it is pure coincidence that I re-created it at home on the same day I went to pick up sweets at the SoHo shop.  (Coincidence, because I forgot the bakery was the source of the sandwich in the article I had read so long ago.)

Since I've never actually had the sandwich at Dominique Ansel, I can't say how it compares, but I can say that I thought my version was delicious and hearty, be it vegetarian.  I made a couple changes: first, instead of using fresh mozzarella, I used fresh smoked mozzarella to give it a little something extra.  The smoky flavor reminds you of meat (since that's the usual beneficiary of the smoker) which sorta makes you forget that this sandwich is vegetarian.  Second, I swapped the spinach for sunflower microgreens.  Why?  Because I have never heard of sunflower microgreens before.  Have you?  Of course you haven't, which makes me baller for being the first to use them.  They sound fancy and exotic, making me fancy and exotic by extension.  They actually tasted great, too.  They're mild in flavor, but the leaves are firm so there's something to chomp on.

   

Monday Reads

1. There are plenty of women willing to be a surrogate.  Here's why.
2. I hurt just thinking about female circumcision.
3. Binge watching TV has become standard.  Since success of a show is often based on live ratings, I'm worried this is why so many of my favorite shows get cancelled.  I still miss Happy Endings.
4. Apparently people are kinda racist when they shop online.

Dominique Ansel Bakery - Part II

I try to refrain from blogging about the same place twice, but when I can't stop thinking about a restaurant you deserve to hear me sing its praises. Dominique Ansel Bakery is my favorite bakery in the City, maybe even my favorite bakery of all the bakeries there ever were. This is huge considering how obsessed I've been with Milk Bar over the years. I still love Milk Bar and see it as a close second, but Monsieur Ansel has secured a special place in my heart.

I would like to do anything as well as Dominique Ansel does pastry. The magic soufflé is the perfect example.  I don't know a ton about baking, but I do know that soufflés have a reputation for being temperamental and difficult to pull off.  You have to time and measure everything just so if you don't want the whole thing to collapse.  Somehow, Ansel manages to do this with the soufflé INSIDE another cake.  How the soufflé retains it's light texture all while an entire second cake has to bake around it, I have no idea.  I've decided Dominque Ansel has voodoo powers and that's the end of the story.

The soufflé part of the magic soufflé is chocolate grand marnier flavored and is encased in an orange blossom brioche.  I'm not big on orange desserts but the flavor is not overpowering and it's not too sweet, which is good because I have a theory that super sweet desserts are trying to compensate for something.  I ate the whole thing in the street like an animal and feel no shame.

3 on Thursday

Yes, I know we're racing towards Christmas, but I still can't get Thanksgiving out of my head, which is why my Thanksgiving plate graces the background of today's post.  I suppose it's time to stop living in the past and start thinking about the other major holiday that's almost here.  If it's half as good as Thanksgiving, we're in good shape.

1. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Mark and Allison decided to host a wine tasting party.  They went to their favorite vintner and selected six wines (not too shabby for our group of eight drinkers), each chosen to represent one of those snobby wine terms that's always spouted at restaurants.  We had grassy, smoky, buttery, spicy...all of the Seven Dwarfs.  We sat around and discussed whether the descriptions were real or b.s.  Getting drunk, all in the name of science.  I'm sure there are plenty of times you sit around drinking wine - at least make a game out of it like we did.
2. Bagatelle brunch gets crazy.  3 PM there feels like 3 AM in Vegas.  It had been a long time since I last went but I found out when Steph and I recently partied it up in the afternoon with some out of town gal pals that it's just like riding a bike.  We made friends with a table of guys and the next thing you know we're getting bottles upon bottles of Dom.  I'm not a club kinda girl, but every once in a while it's good to make an exception...especially when that exception leads you to drink wine out of a really long straw.
3. I may have been one of the youngest people there, but Elton John can straight up play the piano.  At his recent MSG concert he played all the hits and I crocodile rocked with the best of em.  

Book Review: Tough Jews

The mafia is a rarely discussed piece of Jewish history, one that is overshadowed by major events like the Holocaust or minor events like "my son, the doc-tah".  When most people think of Jews, they think of the stereotypes.  The smartypants.  The weaklings.  But guess what: in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, it was a group of Jews who ran a large portion of the mafia.  They were as ruthless as the Italian mafia that is publicized and even glamorized in the media, but most people have all but forgotten they existed.

The only mob boss in history to be executed was Jewish.  Outwardly, most Jews will wince at this fact, ashamed at the black mark the Jewish mafia has left on our history, afraid it unravels all the accomplishments the Jewish people have racked up ever since.  But a small part of [most of] them is happy to have the mafia on their ethnic record.  It defies the stereotype of the nerdy Jew and makes them a little more like everyone else.  The men Rich Cohen describes in Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams are ones who made things happen.  People answered to them, not the other way around.  Is this behavior ok?  Absolutely not.  But is it exciting?  You bet.

4 out of 5 stars.

Porchetta

For my December restaurant pick, I wanted someplace that was similar enough to Albert's choice of 5 Tacos so we could make a fair [enough] comparison between the two.  It didn't need to be tacos or even Mexican, but I did want it to be someplace casual with only a few chairs that served simple, authentic food.  With a total of six chairs and only about two items on the menu, Porchetta seemed to fit the bill.  The pork sandwich has appeared on many "best of" lists so it gets packed, but since I don't live around the corner, it's preferable to actually sit inside.  The solution, apparently, is to go at 5:30.  That's octogenarian supper time and those old fogies aren't frequenting small East Village sandwich shops so you'll score a stool.

The greatest compliment I could have received was Albert telling me I won the December battle of the restaurants.  I had a feeling he was going to tip his hat to me when I looked to see him hunched over his porchetta plate, inhaling his food.  He went silent as he stuffed pork, greens, and beans into his mouth with fervor.  Porchetta is basically Italian bbq and since bbq is Albert's fave, I should have known it would be a hit.  He stopped only when he realized there was a bowl of porchetta salt (made with herbs and fennel pollen) that he could sprinkle over his plate.  Side note: porchetta salt is used just like regular salt, but it tastes so much better.  While Albert got the porchetta plate, I went with the sandwich and was very happy with my decision because the ciabatta bread was perfect.  I guess it just depends on what you're in the mood for that day.  If you order to-go, your sandwich will be wrapped in butcher paper and if you eat in, you'll be eating off toile patterned china.  Both options will leave you feeling like you just had a meal prepared by your nonna.