East Coast trip highlights

I was doing my Alaska writeup and realized that I forgot to write about last month's East Coast trip, except to detail our fine dining experiences.

The highlights (mostly food-related)...

I finally got to try a Five Guys burger. It was good, but I still prefer In-N-Out. I would say the burgers are juicier and heartier than In-N-Out, but less flavorful and with a soggier bun. I loved the free peanuts though.

When I visited my brother in Baltimore several years ago, he took us to Obrycki's for Maryland blue crab, and I loved it. I was determined to get more blue crab this trip, but we weren't really near Baltimore, so instead we went to Harris Crab House. I wasn't sure what "soft-shell clams" were so we got those too, in addition to the crab. Both were satisfyingly delicious.


We drove out to Assateague Island off the coast of Maryland. There were nice beaches where we found lots of seashells, and we saw the famous wild ponies. It seemed very un-touristy; we encountered mostly locals who were RV camping.



We spent one day in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. My original motivation was to go to Longwood Gardens and to see the "mushroom capital of the US", but it was a cute town to visit, too:

• I was very impressed with the Half Moon Restaurant & Saloon, which served a wide variety of wild game. D and I had crab nachos, antelope, and wild boar ragout, all of which was yummy. I especially liked the homemade pasta that was served with the ragout.
  
• For dessert we got ice cream from La Michoacana, where we decided against the corn and avocado flavors in favor of nutella and toasted coconut. The nutella was really good; both the chocolate and hazelnut flavors came through clearly. The toasted coconut was yummy as well, and had bits of bittersweet chocolate in it. I soon discovered that they were best swirled together, which was easy to do as the ice cream was very creamy/sticky (not sure what the right word is; easy to pull into long strands, kind of like gelato).
  
• The next day we ate breakfast at the Country Butcher cafe, where they offered a variety of breakfast sandwiches as well as omelets and pancakes.
  
• We spent the rest of the morning at Longwood Gardens. I'd last been there when I was about 6 or 7 months old, so needless to say, I didn't remember a thing. Both D and I were pleasantly surprised by how expansive and how beautifully landscaped everything was. We quickly stopped complaining about the $16 entrance fee.
  
  
  
• Before leaving Kennett Square, we stopped at two little shops downtown. One was a used bookstore in which all the books were donated, and all proceeds benefited the local senior center. The prices were good and we bought several books. We then went to The Mushroom Cap, where I bought "Snack 'N Shrooms" - spicy dried mushrooms which were absolutely delicious. Unfortunately the 3oz bag was horrendously expensive at $8.50, so I only bought one, but I finished it before the end of our road trip. Sigh.
  

We drove through Philadelphia but spent almost no time there at all. We did swing by Cosmi's for some very tasty cheesesteaks and hoagies. The surrounding neighborhood is definitely working class, and Cosmi's itself is a tiny grocery store/deli, but the owner was super friendly. We had a pretty funny conversation with him (copying from Buzz): As we walk in, he says to us, lemme guess, West Coast? Everyone who comes here who's not from Philly's from the West Coast. So I say yes, and he says, is it San Francisco? Again I say yes, and this time he's surprised; he says really? I only guessed that because there were two other people from San Francisco in here earlier, or I might have guessed Seattle instead. I told him, what can I say, Bay Area people know good food and are willing to travel to get it. He was amused.

Despite having lived five years in Boston, neither D nor I had ever been to Nantucket, so we decided to go. We took the ferry from Hyannis Port, which took a couple of hours.

After arriving, we had lunch at Sayle's Seafood which was really more of a takeout counter and bait shop than a restaurant, but their fried clams and lobster roll were very good. Generally speaking though, we were not that impressed with Nantucket. The stores were obscenely expensive, and although it was cute and charming we quickly got bored.

I imagine it would be different had we gone with a large group and stayed in a house for several days, but I don't recommend going as a day trip. We did get some tasty chocolates from Sweet Inspirations but even those were unjustifiably expensive.

In Boston, we had a fabulous dinner with some friends at Oleana. I am quite fond of Middle Eastern food, and Oleana executed most of the dishes impeccably. My friend and I polished off a giant bowl of labne (hot yogurt?) probably before the guys got their fair share, and I also enjoyed the grilled octopus and even the moussaka, despite my aversion to eggplant. It probably helped that the four of us simultaneously drank through two bottles of wine and some after-dinner drinks. Yum.

I'd been back at MIT about three years ago, for campus recruiting, but D hadn't been in six years, so I took him there and showed him all the new buildings. We also spent some time just walking around campus, which was kind of fun and nostalgia-y. There was gorgeous weather that day.


We had several good food experiences in New York.

• First we had brunch with our cousins at Five Points, where I liked my lemon-ricotta pancakes very much. We all enjoyed our pitcher of "morning punch", too.
  
• Next, we went to Momofuku Milk Bar where D and I tried the soft serve sampler. It came with four kinds of soft serve: cereal milk, purple drink, creamed corn, and bbq. There were also three types of toppings: cornflake crunch, potato chip, and chocolate fudge.
  
  The cereal milk and purple drink flavors were pretty good (purple drink was really more like purple soda). The creamed corn flavor was okay, but I've had better corn desserts. The bbq flavor was terrible. It was well-executed in that tasted exactly like bbq sauce, but for me that did not work at all. The toppings were all pretty good, including (surprisingly) the potato chip one.
  
• Finally, we went to Le Pain Quotidien. There's a bit of a story behind this: in July we attended a wedding in DC with a bunch of college friends, and they fell in love with LPQ's praline spread. They bought several jars of it, but it was all confiscated by the TSA on the way home, as it was deemed "gel-like". Since D and I are United Premier this year and can check bags for free, we decided not to bother with cramming our week's worth of stuff into carry-ons. Then, sometime during our drive, I realized that meant we could bring home praline spread for everyone! We ended up buying four or five jars. As an aside, it's really ridiculous that there are no good Belgian bakeries in the Bay Area, while there's one on every other block in New York City.

WD-50

During our East Coast trip, D and I spent a total of two nights in New York City. During those two nights, we ate dinner at Blue Hill and at Wylie Dufresne's restaurant, WD-50. I am aware that this is completely ridiculous. I justified it to myself (and to D) by pointing out that I hadn't been to New York in over two years...okay fine, ridiculousness persists.

Also, before booking the reservations, I'd already talked to a couple of my high school friends about meeting up for dinner on Saturday. So, when I told D that I wanted to go to WD-50, he was afraid the others might not be up for it. As it turns out, he needn't have worried.

At D's prompting, I dashed off a slightly sheepish email to both friends asking if they'd be up for some over-the-top dining, and within an hour, I had my responses: "fierce!" and "LOVE over-the-top!". I was also further admonished that when one chooses to live in New York City, one commits to a life of delicious decadence, among other things. I love my friends.

We had pre-dinner drinks at one of their apartments in the Village, so it was a short cab ride over and we were still quite happy when we arrived at the restaurant.

Upon arrival, we quickly decided on the tasting menu for all, and started munching on flatbread while we waited for our first course to arrive. Either the flatbread was super yummy, or we were very hungry, because over the course of the evening they refilled our flatbread container I think three times.


The tasting menu soon began, with this dish of "cobia, verjus, arugula, chickpea fry". I thought it was a little bit bland except for the nice texture of the chickpea fry.


Next up was "everything bagel, smoked salmon threads, crispy cream cheese". After tasting this one, we collectively declared the smoked salmon "threads" the exact consistency of pork sung. It was cute but again not super impressive, so I was starting to feel a little let down.


Luckily, the next dish was delicious. It was described to us as "foie gras, passionfruit, chinese celery". The passionfruit flavor came as a kind of curd which was packaged inside the foie gras mousse. The Chinese celery manifested itself in the green crunchy bits on the plate.



This dish was listed as "scrambled egg ravioli, charred avocado, kindai kampachi". The ravioli texture was really well done, but I am not a big fan of very eggy things and I actively dislike avocado so overall I was not that fond of this dish, although it was very well executed.


This "cold fried chicken" (with "buttermilk-ricotta, tabasco, caviar") was spot-on. They'd done the chicken sous-vide and then encrusted it in something that tasted like cold fried batter but I think it was something else entirely. I liked the chicken part better than the batter part. The tabasco-based sauce had a good kick to it and I always like caviar.


As usual, I avoided eating cooked fish. This one was a striped bass, and it came with chorizo bits, pineapple, and a popcorn sauce.


My favorite savory dish was this beef and bearnaise. The dumplings were superb; they were a little more liquid-y in the middle and when you bit them they popped a little. I admit I was a little disappointed at first when this dish came out and there was no actual beef, only beef consomme, but in the end I liked it very much.


The last savory dish was "lamb loin, black garlic romesco, soybean, pickled ramps". The romesco sauce was very thick & pasty; too much so, I think. The lamb was fine, but I really liked the crunchy bits of soybean. As an aside, I'm starting to wonder what it is these days with pickled ramps. I first remember eating them at Moto earlier this year, and now I feel like I see them everywhere.


I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a palate cleanser or a dessert, but it was described as "chewy lychee sorbet, pistachio, yuzu, celery". It was very refreshing and the chewy sorbet was fun to eat (not sure how they accomplished the extra chewy texture). My verdict on this one was that it was successfully creative, as the pistachio and celery both went surprisingly well with the lychee. I felt the yuzu flavor in the foam could have been stronger (I love yuzu).


Everyone else at the table loved this one: "hazelnut tart, coconut, chocolate, chicory". I thought it was yummy but less interesting than the rest of the courses that we'd had thus far. The chocolate flavor was dominant, even when eaten with the chicory foam.


The opposite was true of this dessert, a "rainbow sherbert" made with tarragon, rhubarb, and mandarin orange. I believe there was some olive oil involved as well. The flavors were unexpected and delicious, and the presentation was super cute. I liked it best of all the desserts, but at least one person at our table thought it was too weird and did not finish it.


The last course was entitled "cocoa packets, chocolate shortbread, milk ice cream". The cocoa packets were extremely chewy to the point where they got stuck in my teeth. Interesting, but kind of annoying. The rest of the dessert consisted of shortbread crumb-covered ice cream balls, that we all liked very much.


As we were wrapping up our meal, our waiter asked if we'd like to have a tour of the kitchen! We were somewhat surprised as during the four hours we'd been there, we hadn't seen any other diners go into the kitchen, but of course we accepted immediately. The waiter went and asked his manager, who came by and led us into the kitchen, where he proceeded to give us a rundown of each station and which course(s) it handled.

Finally, he introduced us to Wylie Dufresne himself, as well as chef de cuisine Jon Bignelli, both of whom were very gracious, despite the entire kitchen being very busy. The service had been consistently good throughout the evening, but that tour was really the icing on the cake; we walked out of the restaurant extremely satisfied.



I think I had been expecting something similar to Moto, but instead the molecular gastronomy techniques were used much more subtly, plus the overall feel of the restaurant was much more comfortable and less edgy. My friend said that before we went he'd been slightly apprehensive about the food being too strange (and thus less tasty) but afterwards he concluded that it hadn't been gratuitously weird at all.

Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Last week, on our way from Boston to New York, D and I stopped by Blue Hill at Stone Barns at a friend's recommendation.

Stone Barns is a 80+ acre non-profit farm/educational center that teaches visitors about healthy and sustainable food. All of their food comes from the surrounding land, Blue Hill Farm (in Massachusetts, owned by the same family), or from other local farms in the Hudson Valley. There is a Blue Hill restaurant in the Village as well, but after having been to the one at Stone Barns, I'm fairly certain that it's much more worth it to make the trek out to Pocantico Hills to experience the farm as well as the food.

(amusing aside: We didn't want to spend all day driving in nice clothes as the restaurant is "jacket recommended", so we stopped at a Courtyard Marriott about fifteen minutes out, traipsed into the lobby restroom, changed, and left. I wonder what the hotel staff thought...)

As we arrived at the property, we were greeted by sheep pastures, herb gardens, and a rustic-looking farmhouse complex.



The dining room is spacious and airy and has a nice view of the surrounding fields. D was especially enamored with the pastoral painting at the far end.


The tasting menu started with a variety of "tastes" which were heavy on fruits and vegetables (the tomatoes were delicious!) but also showcased their own cured meats, eggs, poultry, lamb, and even veal marrow. The mini tomato burgers were my favorite out of this sequence.

garden vegetables with shots of chilled tomato juice:


baby zucchini wrapped in prosciutto and mini tomato burgers:


"space bacon" (super crispy!):


home-cured charcuterie:


veal marrow and caviar:


The "real" courses started with this lobster and "wahoo" (fish) dish. I did not eat the fish, but the lobster and the tomatoes underneath were tasty.


The next dish was particularly interesting; it consisted of a slow-roasted onion which was cooked with homemade charcoal that was produced by heating wood, bone, & other organic material to a very high temperature.

The onion (served with accompaniments of summer vegetables, beets, blueberries, and olive tapenade):


The charcoal:


This one was described to us as "grilled celtuce" with almond and pinenut butter. It was my favorite vegetarian dish.


The service was excellent; not stuffy, very attentive, and quite educational. The waiter even brought by this display of eggs and identified the various types for us...


...before serving a delicious curry, egg, and summer bean dish. I am not that fond of egg and I made D eat my yolk, but the flavors were fantastic.


To my surprise, my favorite meat dish was the chicken and not the lamb. The chicken was extremely tender, and the accompanying peaches and tomatoes were perfectly sweet and ripe. To be fair, I am also not the biggest fan of eggplant.

The chicken:


The lamb:


The tasting menu consisted of eight courses, of which six were savory. After we finished with the meat dishes, we were invited to go out on the patio to enjoy our dessert courses. The view was even better from outside.


We were given the option to add a cheese course, which I did (D did not, although he tried a few bites of mine). They were both American sheep's milk cheeses (one Vermont and one New York), served with peach chutney and pickled ramp. They were both fine but I was not super-impressed.


The first dessert was very light: blueberry, goat cheese, and honey "granite".


I liked the second one much better; it paired sweet corn ice cream with grilled peach, fresh raspberries, and a non-descript sort of cake. The sweet corn flavor was extremely strong and surprisingly good. I think the cake was really just to sop up the melted ice cream. The peach was also very good.


Finally, we wrapped up dinner with red jacket apricots, local sugared currents, and chocolate covered almonds. The almonds were meh but the fruits were yummy.


We had booked a very early reservation as we had to return our rental car to midtown Manhattan before 11pm that night, but it was still well after 9pm by the time we left, on a warm (but not hot) beautiful evening. We had a great time and I highly recommend a visit.

parents are crazy

Apparently New Yorkers are sending their three-year-olds to test prep classes. I distinctly remember my parents being cranky when I refused to go to SAT prep classes, but I'm not sure I would have been stubborn enough to protest had they tried to send me to some kind of class at the age of three...

transportation issues

Last weekend I performed the following sequence of actions:
- Took a subway from to Port Authority (A).
- Took a bus to Clinton, NJ (B).
- Got picked up by a relative who took me to her house in Asbury, NJ (C).
- Drove in said relative's car to Somerset, NJ (D), where I checked into a hotel and stayed overnight.
- Woke up at 7am and drove to Newark airport (E) to pick up an arrival.
- Drove back to my hotel in Somerset (F) to get dressed for a wedding.
- Drove to a wedding in Warren, NJ (G).
- Drove back to Asbury, NJ (H) to drop off another relative who had attended the wedding.
- Drove to New York City (I) for dinner, and stayed overnight.
- Drove back to Asbury, NJ (J) for lunch.
- Got a ride to Newark airport (K), where I caught a plane back to San Francisco.


I feel like things could have been arranged a little better, somehow.

culinary tour, part 3 (New York)

Finally, I ended the week in New York:

Bouley - I was determined to finally try Bouley this time in New York, since it's one of my sister's favorite NYC restaurants, so I booked a reservation to celebrate a friend's birthday. Unfortunately, I had not properly prepared for my visit, since I had had a normal sized lunch.

We started out with apple raisin bread and a baguette, which was soon followed by an amazing amuse; I can't remember any of the details except shrimp and some kind of jelly, but it was sweet and tangy and had great texture and turned out to be my favorite dish of the evening. Next up, my appetizer, the "Return from Chiang Mai - Chilled Maine Lobster, Mango, fresh Artichoke, and Serrano Ham with Passionfruit, fresh Coconut and Tamarind Dressing":

It was quite good except that the Serrano made it hard to cut, but not as awesome as the amuse.

After a selection of bread from the bread cart (I chose black & white pepper and pistachio, and preferred the former), I had "Tea-Smoked Organic Breast of Long Island Duckling with Vanilla glazed Baby Turnips, Oregon Porcini Mushrooms, Lima Beans, and Quince Purée" as my entree:

The duck was perfectly tender and the layer of skin and fat on top was delicious, but I only made it about halfway through the dish, since we were given a complimentary potato puree as a side, and I also wanted to save room for dessert.

Good thing too; first we were treated to a vanilla mousse in passionfruit coulis with espresso gelee, and then to a lychee ice cream and fruit sorbet. Those were followed by the desserts we actually ordered; a warm chocolate brioche for my friend, and a strawberry and white chocolate parfait for me:


At that point we thought we were done, but the waiter came out with a strawberry and rhubarb "gratin" with white asparagus ice cream, with a cute candle stuck in a raspberry, as a birthday treat:


Finally, we were served a selection of petit fours (which we had boxed immediately) and were sent home with loaves of Bouley's signature lemon tea cake:


Yes, mega dessert overload. My favorite was the lychee ice cream; the flavor was quite strong and it went well with the lighter sorbet. Sadly, I didn't eat the petit fours until I was on my flight home from Newark three days later, and half of the tea cake is still sitting in my kitchen.

Morimoto NYC - I really enjoyed Nobu, both in New York and Las Vegas, so I jumped at the chance to go to Morimoto NYC. Looking at the menu, the appetizers looked more interesting than the entrees, so we ended up ordering five appetizers, two entrees, and three desserts, for four people.

The appetizers:
- "beef curry bread - panko crust" - A bit too much like one of those beef curry Chinese pastries, for my taste.
- "wasabi noodles - chilled coconut broth, lobster, yuzu, basil" - Sounded cool in concept but the wasabi and coconut flavors weren't very strong.
- "spicy king crab - tobanjan aïoli, micro cilantro" - I think this was better than the king crab at Alexander's. Delicious:

- "yose dofu - fresh tofu prepared tableside, lobster ankake, dashi soy, fresh wasabi" - This was a really fun dish; the waiter poured some hot liquid into a clay pot and eventually it turned into really soft yummy tofu, which was eaten with a lobster dashi sauce.
- "kobe beef carpaccio - yuzu soy, ginger, sweet garlic" - We ordered this at the end because we weren't full yet, and it was an excellent addition. The beef was sliced super thin, and the top was cooked and the bottom raw. The sauce had almost the consistency of sesame oil, but was lighter and more flavorful:


The entrees:
- "duck, duck, duck - foie gras croissant, roast duck, soft duck egg, red miso sauce" - Definitely the most interesting looking entree; I'm not a fan of egg yolk and I'm not hugely fond of foie gras either, although I will eat it, so I stuck to the roast duck, and it was good, although unspectacular. It appeared that other people particularly enjoyed the duck egg:

- "braised black cod - ginger-soy reduction" - I stuck to my "no-cooked-fish" rule and didn't eat any of this.

The desserts:
- "tofu ‘hot & cold’ - soy milk soufflé, tofu cheesecake, maple ice cream" - The tofu cheesecake was yummy, but I liked the soy milk souffle even more; it was served with ice cream and the combination of hot and cold was amazing. Strongly reminiscent of tapioca pudding.
- "blood orange panna cotta - kuzukiri noodles, satsuma mandarin sorbet" - The "noodles" were yummy but the panna cotta was a bit too creamy and not fruity enough for my taste.
- "chocolate-hazelnut mousse cake - pomegranate gelee, green apple sorbet" - The combination sounded strange, a bit like the chocolate with lime at Charlie Trotter's, but it turned out really well; the chocolate was rich and not too sweet, and paired well with the tartness of the apple. It was hard to decide whether this or the tofu dish was my favorite dessert: