The New York Sandwich Challenge

Gourmet Supermarket
60th Street between 4th and 5th ave.
Cost $7

After some hardcore Christmas eve shopping (which didn't really result in many purchases) at 5th Avenue I went in search of some lunch, and after walking 10 Blocks (1 mile) it was a relief to find a supermarket that offered meals to go. The 10 block trek across Midtown took in several sandwich bars only to find that they had essentially run out of food and I wasn't really in the mood for a full restaurant lunch. What still amazes me after a few days here is the amount of meat that can be squeezed between to slices of bread let alone a roll or a bun. Pictured is my Turkey BLT, with turkey essentially being the beach mark for evaluating

Pastrami Queen
Lexington Ave between 77th and 78th streets.
Cost $15

Every sandwich / Burger / salad came with a quarter pound of pastrami. It tasted good and being a Jewish establishment made it by far the best meal you could buy on a Christmas Day.

Fine Foods Supermarket
Bryant Park
Cost $8

Toasted turkey,brie and avocado sandwich. One word 'awesome'. You can taste all the other ingredients when the sandwich is not completely stuffed with meat.

Market Wrap: Dean and Deluca

When down in SOHO yesterday I dropped into Dean and Deluca for some snacks.

What impressed me was the 50 odd types of chocolate, the fresh black and white truffles and the 10 types of fresh mushrooms. Unfortunately most of the ingredients cost much more than comparable stores. I guess that’s the price you pay for convince.

Market Wrap - Wholefoods Columbus Circle

I’ve landed in New York and found myself an apartment for the 10 days just south of Columbus Circle in Midtown.

My first stop before I was even settled was the Wholefoods market. Not that I knew where this was; my food radar must have been in tune coupled with an empty stomach lead to lead the way.
Well I didn’t even get past the front door before hitting the sushi bar, where I had an awesome assortment of sashimi and sushi.
Exploring the store I loved the fruit salad section, if only for the colours.
I was impressed by the aged rib fillet in the meat section.
And I couldn’t pass the cheese at which point I was caught taking photos by the Wholefood’s staff (or was that drooling on the cheese).
My favourite new products being burrata mozzarella and goats butter. I’ll have to go back an try these when the let me back in the store ;)

Iron Chef America

I'm headed to New York on Friday for another round of gourmet jet setting. This time I can speak the language and I've done my home work.

So I thought I would share my favourite New York food website with you. Savory New York

Run be a husband and wife team this website provides excellent video bites on the restaurants that have a vibe to them. So its not centred on expensive restaurants just ones that people are raving about.

It should be fun. BTW, friends in Canada have stipulated that I must bring a bottle of wine from Australia if I intend to visit. Hope it doesn't break and leave my clothes smelling of red wine!

Dinner party made easy

I had a dinner party the other night. Being a Wednesday night, I tried to make it as easy as I could.
So got myself a butterflied lamb from the markets which I BBQ'd and served on toasted slices of turkish bread with spinich leaves and aloli.
Also made a mint and feta tabolli salad.
All very easy and it tasted awesome.

Chocolate Car

While in Japan last year I found this Fait Bambino which had been dipped in chocolate. It was absolutly amazing as you could smell it from about 100 metres away. The chocolate road also looked good enough to eat!

Coconut Mango Chicken

Cous Cous Salad

The cous cous salad my flatmate made tonight.

Bacon and Egg Salad

Jamon de Pato

While walking the streets of el Born, Barcelona I stopped at the supermarket to grab a few ingredients for a quick snack. One of the ingredients I grabbed was Jamon de Pato. At the time I was attracted by the rich colour compared to other hams, and given the price concluded 'This stuff must be good'. Well it was awesome. To the point were I went looking for a translation of 'de Pato'. I must admit I was rather shocked. It wasn't ham at all. It was duck cured like ham. I doubt that I'll ever find this in Australia. If I ever find it, I'm sure you'll see it on one of my salads.

PS.
Just found a recipe by Stephanie Alexander (well she stole it too). So I'll have to jump into this one, although it will take about three weeks.
Duck Ham

Licorice Smoked Steak

This was a bold experiment that I performed the other night. After eating pork and duck almost exclusively for 3 weeks I felt like a steak, but not any steak. A smoked one.

I smoked this in the oven using a couple of baking trays inside each other to separate the smoking mixture and the steak. Then wrapped the trays in aluminium foil to prevent the smoke from escaping.

The smoking mixture consisted of licorice tea, rice and brown sugar. Although aniseed would probably work better.

Score: 1 Chef
The process worked well but the texture of the steak was to soft. It really needs to be charred on a grill following the smoking. The licorice flavour transferred well to the steak but as expected could only be tasted on the outer surface. This is much more suited to thin pieces of meat.

Ensalada del Carmen – Redux

When in Valencia had a rather nice salad but it lacked any creativity. This is my attempt at enhancing the experience. The main replacements here are snow pea leaves for lettuce and goats curd for cheddar cheese. I added the chives to spice up the flavour.

Ingredients

Snow Pea Leaves
Chives
Grape Tomatoes
Red Onion
Prosciutto

Dressing

Goats Curd
Honey
Salt / Pepper
Balsamic vinegar and Olive oil

Method:

Toss it all together!

Score: 3 Chefs

Excellent! The goats curd and honey work really well together. Furthermore when the salad is tossed they coat the all the other ingredients providing a complex taste with every bite. The chives and prosciutto are a must.

Restaurant Review - Living, Barcelona

After walking the back streets of Barcelona for several hours looking for some modern food. (Tapas and Paella for every meal is starting to wear a little thin.) I stumbled across the little place called Living not far from Las Ramblas. I ordered there Menu del dia (set lunch in Spanish) for 11 Euros which is about the standard price.


The first course was a pineapple and tomato salad, which although quite simple was very nice. Main course was salted cod (sorry, I've forgotten the Spanish name) with some type of bitter vegetable.
Desert was apple pie.

Overall, It was great simple lunch.

PS. Hello to the girl sitting opposite me who broke out laughing every time I went to take a photo of my food.

Just Because I can!

I've obtained in flight Internet on my flight home and as I just looked up and saw that we are over the Black Sea. I thought I would post a picture I took at Club Del Gourmet a food store at El Cote Ingles in Barcelona.

They had the best of everything including Iranian Caviar from the Black Sea. (on the right)

The Smoked Salmon Terrine also looked very nice.

One Lucky Blogger

The guys over at Chocolate and Zucchini where lucky enough to get a meal at El Bulli.
They have a great post about the experience. El Bulli
As they put it:

... every single item managed to amaze and entertain, making the whole experience quite dazzling, both on an intellectual and sensory level.

Now I was it was open and I was going :(

Nou Teller - Barcelona

The other night I meet up with a Canadian girl and her boyfriend and went with them to a restaurant that was recommended by one of there parents.
Entree: Duck Carparcio - A simple and great tasting plate. I'll have to try this at home. Main Course: You have to be kidding me! A couple of calamari rings and a slice of lemon constitutes a main? I was trying to be smart about what I ordered. The logic was that squid is quite plentiful in the markets. So I assumed that it would be the the most likely to be a good meal.

Desert: A lump of cheese. It was twice the size but I ate some. I have no idea what type of cheese as the menu listed it as cheese and I guess that what I got.

If it wasn't for the duck carpaccio I think I would have cracked. I really hate to say this but Spanish restaurants has been a huge disappointment. I have struggled to find good meals. And luckily i won't go home thinking that it was my fault for been the silly tourist and eating at bad places. At one stage we recruited a Valencian guy to take us out, the meals didn't get much better.

Behind the Brown Door - El Bulli Taller

I did it!!!

After walking past it for three days I finally found the Headquarters and Workshop of Ferran Adrià head chef at the legendary El Bulli Restaurant.
El Bulli is currently ranked as the worlds best restaurant and I have been told that 600,000 people tried to get reservations last year. The restaurant itself is located at Costa Brava (about 60km North of Barcelona) and according to by Lonely Planet guide is a nice place to eat if your in the area.
The workshop itself is located just of Las Ramblas in Barcelona in a very busy shopping street and even though I knew the approximate location I've had to walk the streets for three days to find the "exact" location. (OK, I've found the building. I think the workshop is on the top floor). Maybe I should go over and knock on the door. As its only 50m from the Mercat de la Boqueria I could ask Ferran for a guided tour. ;)

Inside - By some lucky journalist

El Bulli website - Note the instructions of how to arrive via private jet, sea
or (for the unfortunate) road.

Best Market in Barcelona (Yeah its a Carrefour)

During a long stroll around Barcelona yesterday I made a stop off at the Carrefour Glories' store. After visiting a lot of the local markets I was very surprised by the range and quality of food on offer at Carrefour. I would assume that the local markets have essentially turned into tourist traps and that Carrefour is where your local Barcelonian person shops for their everyday needs (including 170Euro hams).

Valencia, Spain Markets

Discovered the markets in Valencia the other day. Really it wasn't that hard; They are huge.

They have an amazing array of meats, cheeses and seafood. Many of which are legal in Australia for customs reasons. Its cool seeing a leg of ham with hoof attached.

I bought myself some salami and pate which was an extremely difficult task given I don't speak Spanish (or Catalan for that matter) and the crowds where huge.

I wish I could that one of the hams home. Maybe next time I'm here I'll rent an apartment with kitchen so that I can have some fun.

One thing that I have noticed is that there was a very small variety of vegetables. Without including Asia vegies and parsley was about the only fresh herb. I guess the Spanish like there meat.

Lost in Translation

Its been a while since i last posted. I have a confession to make. I've legged it to Spain where i'm savouring the Spain food and wine.

Now that i've got my hands on an internet connection i'll make a quick post now and fill in the details latter.

Last nights dinner. :)

Where have I been hanging out

Friday "Lunch" at Koko Black. (with the deligitfull Miss V)
Ate: Belgian Spoil
Drank: Moacha Esspresso
TakeAway: Five assorted chocolate truffles
Verdict: The Champagne Truffles are awesome

Sunday Lunch at VegOut Chapel Street
Ate: Pumpkin Red Curry with Brown Rice
Drank: Green Tea

Tuesday Night at Ginger, Fitzroy
Ate: Crumbed Fish Filets with kampfer leaves
Drank: Some weird ass Tasmain Beer
Verdict: I'll have what she's having ... well that what i should have said when i saw the bar satff making a "Blazer" (cognac, peach liquur, rosmery and oraange zest)

Where have I been hanging out

Friday "Lunch" at Koko Black. (with the deligitfull Miss V)
Ate: Belgian Spoil
Drank: Moacha Esspresso
TakeAway: Five assorted chocolate truffles
Verdict: The Champagne Truffles are awesome

Sunday Lunch at VegOut Chapel Street
Ate: Pumpkin Red Curry with Brown Rice
Drank: Green Tea

Tuesday Night at Ginger, Fitzroy
Ate: Crumbed Fish Filets with kampfer leaves
Drank: Some weird ass Tasmain Beer
Verdict: I'll have what she's having ... well that what i should have said when i saw the bar satff making a "Blazer" (cognac, peach liquur, rosmery and oraange zest)

Journal Café, Melbourne

I found myself with an hour today between meetings at around lunch time. Rather convenient I dare say. I choose to revisit a café that I found a few months back when trying to kill some time on night. Attached to a side of the city library in Flinders Lane, Journal only has two tables, offering a communal eating experience. Suspended from the cafes 14” ceilings above each table hangs a inverted pedestal hosting a manner of reading material from newspapers, magazines, novels and encyclopaedias. The adjacent bar / kitchen stands with a floor to ceiling bookshelves behind, in which the content morphs from books to a neatly arranged panty.

Today I ordered a Caprese Salad and was taken aback by the meal presented. In front of me lay hearty chunks of bright red tomatoes sitting atop of jagged mozzarella balls and basil. Upon presenting my meal the waitress leant over and whispered in my ear “This is my favourite dish … the buffalo mozzarella came in fresh from the farm this morning.” I was certainly impressed for my $11 I wasn’t expecting super fresh ingredients that would cost me more to buy at the market than the meal before me.

On finishing my meal a familiar voice returned … “Farmers market. ST Kilda. 7am. First Saturday of the month. Get in early.” And with that will come a whole new set of adventures ….

Egg Pasta with Scallop and Saffron Sauce

Ingredients:

• Scallops
• Cream
• Saffron Stamens
• Pasta
• Garlic
• Dijon Mustard

Sundries:

• Butter
• Nutmeg
• Salt
• Pepper
• Tabasco
• Lemon Juice

Le Procédé de Cuisine:

Sauté scallops in pan with butter. Prepare Dijon Mustard, Garlic, lemon juice, nutmeg, and Tabasco separately. Add to pan with cream. Add salt, pepper and saffron. Done

Score: 2 Chefs

The saffron gave the sauce a rich yellow colour, added to the subtle flavour provided by the mustard and the garlic.

Kitchen Fun - Multi Flavoured Poached Eggs

I had “lightblub” moment the other morning, while debating what I was going to make for breakfast.

This spark of inspiration followed the lines of poaching eggs in plastic bags so they can each have a different flavour. To my amazement this turned out to be really easy.

I tried three flavours:

• Sumac and Parmesan
• Five Spice
• Chilli Flakes
  

All of which tasted great, although I’ll try some more adventurous combinations next time e.g. chopped herbs and fetta. Having everything sealed in a plastic bag means I don’t have to worry about making a mess.

The process was rather simple:

Take a zip lock sandwich bag turn it inside out and place over cup or small bowl. Crack in an egg and our chosen ingredients.

For poaching I recommend a double pot (one inside the other) as the walls of a single pot could be hot enough to melt the plastic bag. With a double you know its not going to exceed 100degC.

PS: remembered where the inspiration came from. I was reading an interview by the guys from Circa the Prince who love to cook fish in cryo vac bags.