Eat a Duck’s Top Meals of 2014: Part I

2014 is gone. We can’t go back to the past. And we surely can’t go Back to the Future Part 2! (Hey! remember when movie sequels were just numbers and didn’t have these —–> : <—– ) But we can reminisce. We can prepare for future eating!! The future of eating is now! And although October 21^st   2015 marks the date we will all be rocking our double ties, fax machines in telephone booths and hoover boards, I seriously doubt one of my top dishes of 2015 is going to be consumed by way of “The Hydrator.” I would like to extend the Chicago Cubs a heartfelt congratulations on winning the World Series this year. You beat Miami in a 5 game sweep.

Lets look back at Eat a Duck’s best dishes and where they came from shall we?

5. KFC at Namu Gaji – San Francisco, CA

My fifth best dish of the year comes in the form of an incredibly moist, tender, briny, crunchy, sweet and spicy piece of fried chicken. To quote myself “The dashi gravy was the figurative icing on the cake, to what was the single best dish I had that day.”

4. The Cuban (RIP aka The Never Was) at Buddy Brew – Tampa, FL

In fourth, and possibly the best sandwich I ate all year, was one of the top contenders in our #Cubano Apuercalypse sandwich crawl. It was the perfect balance of modern and classic, and you can’t have it because no one can! We, nay, the people, were promised it would make its way on the menu, if nothing else than to be a limited edition commemoration of our fine work. That never happened. We never got a reason. Please bring it back. Please, oh please realize what a gold mine you have on your hands and make it a fundamental part of the food board!

3. Yummy Fries at The Root – Lakeland, FL

If you didn’t know, we started a little fry cart that we roll out every so often called The Root, based in Lakeland, FL. Every service we aim to bring new flavors to the table, while still satisfying the desire for old favorites. While we haven’t been very regular, it has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever been involved in.“The Yummy” turned out to be a favorite with everyone in front and behind the counter. We had the idea to riff on Yummy House Chinese Restaurant’s signature blend of herbs, spices and fried bits that they throw on various menu items, dressing our fries with it and adding some scallion oil mayo. The final product met with much fanfare. Hopefully we’ll get The Root out for more services in 2015 and maybe you’ll see a return of the “Yummy”.

2. Croquette at Kappo – Orlando, FL

The pork cheek confit, milk poached veal sweetbread croquette with pan roasted shimeji mushrooms, shiso dressing and a nori schmear was a nod to the more complex and time-consuming methods that the French have taught us to toil over. I was working on the road from the beginning of February through the end of August, and this was one of my single greatest bites.

1. Roasted Mushroom W/ chargrilled toast @ Rooster and the Till – Tampa, FL

 

Even though it’s been way too long since my last visit, this may have been my most ordered dish of the year, as I probably ate it a half-dozen times. Hopefully this masterpiece stays on the menu long enough for me to get another crack at it. My own rules dictated that there could only be one finalist per restaurant, otherwise, the angel soft, Parisienne style gnocchi with smoked ricotta, braised short ribs and pickled pepperonata would have easily made it as well.

Saus – Boston, MA

Writing up tasty meals in one of America’s greatest cities is a tough job, thankfully, my little sister is up for the task. It’s been a while, but we’ve got another guest post on deck from the author of Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill. Take it away Lobe!

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Diana and I just took a trip to Boston. Mostly for the rich history, but also to explore the food! We asked the proprietors of Eat a Duck to guide us in the right direction, food­wise. They gave us a chunky list to choose from (two restaurants which will be featured here later) and we chose Neptune Oyster Bar as one of our first stops for lunch. Neptune doesn’t take reservations, so we figured going for lunch would give us a better shot at getting a table. Upon arriving, waiting at the front of the restaurant and being ignored by staff for an entire five minutes, we were informed that it would be an hour and a half wait. So we bailed, and headed to Saus instead.

Saus was exactly what we needed. A comic-­clad “street food” shop offering all manner of frites, poutine, snacks and sandwiches. I chose the plain frites with “SamuraiSaus,” a chili and mayo combination with the shrimp and scallion fritters with a deliciously refreshing chili dipping sauce, fittingly named “green monster”. The shrimp and scallion fritters tasted like the shrimp cheong fun from La Maison Kam Fung in Montreal, only fried (‘murica.) I couldn’t decide whether to dip the fritters in my Samurai Saus or the green monster sauce. Both complimented the fritter and left a lingering heat.

Diana ordered the “Legit corndog” and plain poutine, something I think she’d been craving for quite some time. The corndog’s perfectly crispy batter made for a truly “legit” corndog. The poutine was classic. Delicious gravy drenched cheese curds over crispy frites. Both snacks came with quick pickles and pickled onions. The pickles were on the rare side, with enough of a cucumber twinge to make the pickle sweet and counter all the salt we were consuming.

The staff was wonderful, candid and prompt with our order. The walls were covered with framed Tintin covers (Jimmy would be pleased) which made me feel right at home. The location of this establishment is also pretty choice, it’s on Union, next door to the Union Oyster House and Bell in Hand Tavern. If those two historically rich restaurants can’t seat you right away, and you’re starving, make your way over to Saus and get satiated. You won’t be disappointed.

Painter’s Palate – Sarasota, FL

The following is an excerpt from a conversation I had with a newly acquainted food friend.

JP: Hey do you want to go to lunch?

JT: Sure, where are we going?

JP: This place called Painter’s Palate.

JT: What kind of a name is that? What kind of food do they serve?

JP: Thai-Italian fusion…

JT:…oh dear god.

Admittedly, fusion cuisine doesn’t have a great reputation here Eat a Duck HQ, so I kept my hopes in check as I made my way to the newborn restaurant from the folks behind Sarasota’s Thai outpost, Drunken Poet. I was the first to arrive, so I had a moment to study the menu, hoping to glean some information on the upcoming meal. I was happy to see that most of the menu was rooted firmly in Southeast Asia with a few exceptions, like the pizza and tartine sections. Thai pizza sounds enticing…but with marinara sauce? Brie and curry tartine? Suffice it to say I was concerned about Painter’s Palate. Thai-Italian fusion, a name that gives no clue about what kind of food you might find, an empty dining room, things were looking grim.

My concern didn’t have time to change to worry before my compatriots arrived. Since we were the only diners, we asked to see the dinner menu as the lunch version was missing a couple of items we had heard good things about. The first glimmer of hope came as we read through the appetizer section…and then proceeded to order every item, along with a spicy basil pizza for good measure.

Any worries I had were immediately assuaged when an order of duck rolls arrived. An intriguing tartar-like sauce bound the crispy, golden rolls to the plate. I was knocked out by the succulent duck meat, juicy and full of spices. The Thaicos followed and were another early hit. Healthy slabs of lightly seared ahi tuna topped with fresh seaweed salad laid in a crisp shrimp chip were delicious. In my opinion it could have done without the imitation crab underneath, but it didn’t take away from the dish.

The crispy wings were a small misstep as they seemed to have been left in the fryer a touch too long and the accompanying jar seemed to contain straight duck sauce. I can’t blame the chef too much since we did bombard him with a large order, at the same time as I said, we were the only ones there. At the time, Painter’s Palate had been open less than a week, so I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The appetizers continued to arrive at machine gun pace. Crispy shrimp in a creamy sriracha sauce were a unanimous winner. Perfectly cooked with tender meat and a nice crisp fried shell. I found this sauce to be much tastier than the one that came with the wings.

Simple inari pockets stuffed with more seaweed salad were a welcome, and very tasty reprieve from the fried assault…which was continued by two fantastic Thai “corn dogs”. The now familiar creamy sauce was present to brighten up the panko breading and was helped along by a refreshing hit of kaffir lime in the dog itself.

We heard the chef hails from Belgium, so it was only right to sample his frites. They cut them thick at Painter’s Palate, leaving a soft interior , a good fry and were paired, as is the custom, with a clearly homemade mayo. It was a touch salty, but a strong citrus note helped offset.

The aforementioned red curry and brie tartine arrived to three pairs of raised eyebrows. Unfortunately this dish fell flat due to the clunky ingredient combinations. Three pieces of toasted bread topped with melted brie and bacon weren’t bad in and of themselves. However they sat on a warm bed of spinach, peppers, tomatoes and walnuts all in a red curry sauce which was noticeably missing any curry flavor.

The spicy basil pizza arrived to settle our debate about marinara sauce at a Thai joint. This did not suck. Far from it in fact. It was a beautiful pie, with a crisp crust, not underdone despite the copious amounts of ground beef and sweet caramelized onions riding on the dough. A fried egg was a nice touch but didn’t add much to the flavor. I actually think the pizzas could take to Thai flavors quite well. Get rid of the cheese and marinara sauce and throw in some spicy red curry, shrimp paste pizza and pickled lemongrass. I’m no chef but I can see the possibilities! I’d like to see the chef get creative here, they’ve got that pizza oven, so why not stray from Italy in lieu of Thailand?

In restaurant terms, Painter’s Palate is still in its infancy, only a couple of weeks old, but they’re already off to a great start with some truly impressive dishes. If they can tighten up some small mistakes, rework that tartine section and really commit to exploring what’s possible when Giuseppe and Pravat put their heads together, they could have a real hit on their hands. This place deserves to be packed, so beat the hipsters and get to Painter’s Palate before it gets too cool!

2013 Eat a Duck Food Crawl – Tampa Edition

Everyone has their own special way to wave goodbye to the past 12 months. Fireworks, champagne, kisses with strangers. Here at Eat a Duck, as you’d expect, our farewell involves food…and lots of it. Logan and I had been stewing over embarking on a food crawl for some time, and seeing 2013 out with a feasting trip seemed like a perfect fit. Todd from Tasting Tampa and his lady friend were kind enough to join us, rounding out a foursome with the ability and appetite to conquer the larder of any given municipality.

Naturally, as we were in Central Florida, we had a choice of Orlando or Tampa. We went with the latter and in our best Lemmy impression, we played it fast and loose, adding and substituting eateries on the fly, the final lineup is seen below.

Eight restaurants are no laughing matter. With this many places, one must pace themselves or run the risk of hitting a wall long before you reach the end, which in our case, would have been a tragedy. We made our rendezvous with Todd at our first stop, Yummy House. We had sampled the dinner menu on Christmas day, but today it was all about dim sum. Pork and ginger dumplings, pork siu mai, Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, and fried calamari in their famous salt and pepper preparation. I’m cautiously confident in stating that this dim sum is the best in Central Florida. The only thing to keep it from knocking Ming’s off its throne is the lack variety on the menu.

It took everything I had not to overdo it here as I was famished, but we had a long road ahead of us. So I laid my chopsticks down and hopped in the car for our second stop, Cigar City Brewery. Both Logan and I had decided not to spend any of our crawl money on alcohol, but the call of a hoppy IPA was too much for my colleague. For eats, we kept it light with a small bowl of duroc pork chicharrones with mojo salt and lime. It was a perfect intermission to get us ready for our stop number three…

Woodfired Pizza. As is usually the case in the Tampa area, Todd was received like a conquering king, this time by a wise looking pizzaiolo working a smoking wood oven. Introductions were made and we were granted a VH1 style story from the owner himself, Peter Taylor, of his decades long quest to make (not bake!) the perfect pizza. Needless to say, we were anxious to get a taste. Todd took the lead and ordered two “must have” pizzas, the Pistachio and the Dante. The former came with pistachios, fresh mozzarella, raw red onion, olive oil, pecorino romano, rosemary and organic herbs. This was by far the most aromatic pizza we had ever sampled. The pistachio and herb mixture made a sort of pesto that filled your nose with an earthy aroma. Subtle and creamy with a slightly sweet crust as a compliment. The Dante on the other hand was bold, with its sriracha spiked tomato sauce. Smooth ricotta managed to shine through the heat and served to balance the dish. Sliced meatballs and grated Dante cheese rounded it out. We unanimously agreed it was the best pizza we had all had in a while.

After a bit of a drive, we landed at stop 4, Anise Global Gastrobar. Logan has sung the praises of this eclectic temple of food before, so I had taken this opportunity to try it for myself. Half a dozen oysters with hibiscus mignonette got us started. Crisp, clean and tender, they were a perfect appetizer for the stinky bunz that followed. The Eat a Duck boys covered four out of five of the bunz, Chinese BBQ pork, beer battered shrimp, red curried crispy chicken and braised pork belly. After a bit of each I was sold. They more than lived up to Logan’s praises. I was sad to leave without being able to sample more of the menu. The food crawl giveth and the food crawl taketh away, we had to continue!

Not far from Anise, we arrived at our fifth stop, Pané Rustica. Lo and behold, Todd spotted a couple more friends and lovers of food. After little coaxing, we managed to detour them from their plans in favor of joining us on the rest of our crawl, but not before we each devoured a quarter of a two storey burger topped with ham and cheese.

No building sized sandwich was going to slow us down. Élevage was our sixth stop, and I had high expectations following Logan’s recent post. We set up shop in the bar, just outside the main dining room. The menu in the bar was only a fraction of what Élevage has to offer, but in the name of efficiency we ordered the first three items the group agreed on. Deviled eggs with blackened blue crab, escargots parmesan and reuben beef tartare with comte, 1000 island, brussels kraut and rye bread. Surprisingly, these three items were underwhelming. The deviled eggs were a tasty but hardly eye-opening. Sadly the flavor of the escargots was lost beneath the layer of cheese and tomato sauce and the beef “tartare” was cooked all the way through. From what I read about this place in Logan’s post, Élevage is set to be a food destination for any serious eater in the country. However the lounge menu needs some work to say the least. The items sound amazing, but the execution leaves much to be desired. In any case, I’m in no way writing it off as every new venture needs time to work out the kinks. Onwards and upwards stop seven…

Sidebern’s. Anyone with an appreciation for food in Central Florida has been here, so we knew what was in store. We wasted no time and ordered up a pile of moules frites, duck rillettes, oysters, a stack of fresh ham with stone ground mustard and a couple of beautiful scallops with a striking herb pesto. Each item was executed to perfection. Fresh mussels bathed in a broth that could satisfy the strongest hunger all on its own. Moist duck settled in a layer of fat coated the tongue, only to be cut by the clean flavor of the oysters. This is what the folks running the Bern’s empire are truly capable of once they get in the zone.

Seven restaurants down and we were still going strong, our stomachs hadn’t betrayed us yet as we steeled ourselves for the eighth and final stop, Rooster and the Till. In hindsight, the place that excited me most. The entire restaurant is the size of a large living room. The kitchen resides just behind the bar, so everything is on display. The chef and his minions, armed only with three hot plates and a meticulously prepared mise en place, were pumping out food to the crowded room at an impressive pace. Even more impressive is that the menu changes with the wind, so don’t expect to find everything we did on your own visit. We had to wait about 30 minutes, but once we took our places at the bar, we were rewarded with truly inspired food for Tampa, or anywhere for that matter. Lamb heart tartare with a golden duck yolk was outstanding. Raw littleneck clams with pickled radish and grapefruit was addictive. Pork belly with cornbread and pickled apple with peppercorn honey showcased genius flavor combinations. Cauliflower in brown butter with pickled raisins and braised turnip with white beans and pickled celery in a pork fat vinaigrette wowed even this staunch veggie hater. Dessert was a pear and cranberry parfait with granola and homemade whipped cream. Rooster and the Till has the hunger and passion of a newly formed band looking for a label. I hope they hold tight to that hunger in the years to come as I plan on becoming a regular so as not to miss a single dish.

The first ever Eat a Duck food crawl was more than successful, starting with an explosion of salt and pepper and ending with a lamb heart attack. This could very well turn into a tradition, so keep your eyes and ears open this year for more Eat a Duck crawls, we’d love to bring some of our readers along on our next adventure!

The Savory Side of Dough

You’ve already heard our soliloquies of the fantastic things Datz Dough is doing in the pastry world. But if you thought sweet treats were all they had to offer, you don’t know the half of it.

Photo: Kevin Tinghe

It’s no coincidence that as soon a new talented, and dare I say, infamous chef was hired, a sea change washed in from the orange-purple horizon. Now I’ve read the stories about some of the behind the scenes drama involving past employers. Non-compete clauses and threats of law suits. For us, the consumer, the final product, not any extenuating circumstances, should be the deciding factor of how and where we spend our money. Here at Eat a Duck, we’ve resolved to save the drama for our mommas. For me, I know the pedigree. To win over an unbiased food lover like myself, you only need three words, “duck fat fries”. Those words might as well join Chef Domenica’s copious ink, as the two go hand in hand.

I can attest to the legitimacy of the hype surrounding this particular chef. By all means, if you have yet to try her interpretation, I would chug my way to Palma Ceia for an order. Thrice is not only the world’s greatest mid-2000s post emo/post hardcore/post melodic hardcore emo/ pre-post-experimental post-hardcore, modern-melodic rock outfit, it’s also the number of steps it takes to properly cook frites.

I find joy most often when Eat a Duck actually gets to eat duck. Not only did I get my first fill as technically I ate duck in the fries, they also have the best preparation of foie gras I’ve found in the Bay Area, in quality and in taste. For a fair enough price, you can get a small slider of brioche crouton, with a nice little slab of foie gras, perfectly cooked with a layer of sear to keep the fatty liver from completely melting away. As with any competent take on foie, a sweet and acidic addition of figgy jam with balsamic will not only cut the fat, it also causes a the whole affair to foiemoneously linger on the tongue. This little foiemuse will make you think about it so often throughout the rest of the day, you’ll begin speaking in foienglish.

“Truly, there isn’t a party like an Eat a Duck party, cause the eating of the duck at the party doesn’t ever stop. Wherever we go, best believe we got our confit. Rolling down the stylish peak, to get a taste of duck with berry gastrique.”

To complete the tour de canard, I have to mention the confit of quarter. A generously sized portion, enough to share with a good friend. I suggest possibly Todd Sturtz of Tasting Tampa fame, as he resides dangerously close to this particular eatery. Again, you are going to find a great deal of balance. Simply eating an order of such a luscious menu item would probably make your head gravitate skyward toward Dough’s heavenly ceiling. The bite of lemon from the dressing that coated the accompanying bitter green salad was what I needed to pull everything back from exceedingly gluttonous levels. The same can be said of an agrodolce type, berry drizzle.

The table also feasted on some other great items such as sweet, creamy cornmeal polenta, with a mound of expertly roasted mushrooms and a drizzle of high-grade truffle oil. This might not sound like it works, but the pungent early flavor of mushroom and truffle go well with all the natural sugars that come from the sweet corn. Finally, black mussels cooked in bourbon barrel ale, plenty of butter, garlic and lemon composed last dish. For the vital few who love moules frites, you have Dough to thank now, as the gold standard in the area. I felt as if I was drinking a tiny piece of Belgium with every slurp.

There are about ten more items that are as equally intriguing on Datz Dough’s new savory, bistro menu. They can be had for lunch or dinner, with what I’m assuming will be additions and tweaks down the road. Maybe even off menu, super top-secret stuff, featuring yours truly perhaps? Now if they only served dessert!

Summer Apps: Fries, Sauce and Pickled Okra

It has been far too long since I’ve had a couple of days off to concentrate on simply relaxing and cooking. My hobby is more often than not, the pursuit of better eating. We all enjoy activities that we’re good at don’t we? Cooking, or the preparation of food is no exception, at least for me.

I’ve played with the idea of starting up my own food cart at the local Farmers market starting in September. An idea that feels more and more real as the days go by. Although it’s not a sure thing until I actually take possession of the necessary equipment.

It has been decided after many months of being mentored by my good friends at The Poor Porker, that an ideal option would be to specialize in the most amazing french fries you can find, something most of us absolutely adore. I’m betting on this reasoning at least.

After months of researching and testing different fry techniques, I’m confident that I’ve got the process to where I can put out a high quality product that will be easy enough to execute at a high level of output. Well, higher than what we home cooks would be used to. Unless of course you normally cook 50 lbs of Potatoes at a time.

With the “perfect” fry, which is what I strive for, comes the other important goal. Giving my local friends and acquaintances of the Farmers Market a change of pace in the flavor department. I want to help show off some of the incredible tastes the cuisines of the world have to offer. I know it will start off by being simple, maybe just using different spice blends and sauces. But I think everyone deserves to take a trip to Paris or maybe the coast of Morocco, even if you can’t afford the airfare. Honestly, I’ve never had a chance to go to Europe. That doesn’t mean I have to limit myself to my region of the worlds typical flavors. Why would I want to punish my tongue for my own financial inadequacy?

This leads me to this past weekend where once again, I found myself practicing fries, my sauces and hospitality in general. I’m not going to keep my technique a secret because the process is widely known. I use a double fry method, where you cook the potatoes at a low temp to cook them through. Then you follow with a higher heat, and a shorter cook time after freezing them overnight. This makes them creamy on the inside, crispy and golden brown on the outside. I know you can make these at home. Although, you don’t need to now that you have me!

Saturday I tested out my cookery accompanied by my homemade Ketchup that I will actually not give many details about, except that it has my wife’s approval which is the most important thing in the world to me. Everything else I think will be fair game.

Such as the Meyer Lemon Aioli I plan on serving every once in a while.

You can do it by hand, which I think everyone should do at least once in their lives, to really appreciate the old world elbow grease that goes into it. Or you can be a weak little baby and use a food pro. All you need to do is this:

Throw 2 garlic cloves (or if you’re Jimmy, 5 or 6), the juice and zest of a Meyer Lemon, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 room temp egg yolk, and 1 teaspoon of cold water in a small food pro. You should have set aside about 3/4 of a cup of Olive oil into some sort of easily pourable container. First pulse the food pro with little drips of the oil at a time. Literally, drip by drip. As the mixture begins to emulsify, slowly add a little more oil. Just a little at a time. Listen. This isn’t swing dancing. It’s not slow, slow, quick, quick. It’s slow, slow, slow, slow. From experience I know that doing it too fast isn’t a wise course of action. On the same note, going super slow has never produced a failed attempt. Hey pal, I’m talking about aioli!

If you do choose to make fries and this aioli, maybe you can make a little spread of vegetable based apps to counteract the luxurious richness of the frites and sauce.

My recommendation would be this play on an old southern classic, okra  pin wheels. This only has 3 components and they all come pre-made so all you have to do is be like the Avengers and ASSEMBLE!

Here’s what you need:

1/4 of cured meat such as Speck, Serrano, or Prosciutto. Or just smoked ham if you can’t find anything else. I would highly recommend finding you closest purveyor of La Quercia  meats, and stocking up on their quality goods.

1 Jar of Pickled Okra. Don’t freak out about this. It’s not slimy when you pickle it. Trust me it’s awesome.

1 tub of either European style sour cream or just regular cream cheese.

Take your meat and lay it on a cutting board. Take a schmear of the cream and spread it to make a thin layer on the meat. Take a stalk of okra and cut off the top and place at one end of the meat cream marriage. Roll up like a cigar. activities into 1 inch pieces and place on serving dish. Willingly accept the hugs and kisses of your loved ones as they shower you with praise for concocting such a triumph in simple elegance.

The Mercer Kitchen – New York City, NY

Ah, the rare office lunch. It isn’t often that the boss is in the mood to treat all of his employees to a meal. Fortunately, yesterday mine was in one of those moods, and fortunately The Mercer Kitchen is just 2 blocks from our office at 99 Prince Street.

This cozy little joint, nestled underground beneath the Mercer Hotel, is one of the many establishments of the world renowned, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. While the food was very tasty and the atmosphere sexy, I got the feeling that this may have been more of an afterthought for the great chef. Let’s start with the food, we had a 9 top so we started with a few flatbreads:

Raw tuna and wasabi creme with pickled daikon, carrot and ginger

Black truffle and crispy fontina

Last but not least, a traditional Margherita with fresh bufala mozzarella, basil, garlic and tomato sauce, which was gone so fast I couldn’t get a shot! All three were delicious, the Margherita was an excellent example, all the ingredients were super fresh, the tomato sauce was bright with a tangy zip. The truffle, surprisingly, was the letdown of the three. It didn’t have that strong, earthy, truffle aroma that any good truffle dish should have. It tasted like they just drizzled a little truffle infused olive oil…that’s a no-no in my book. I’d gladly pay extra to see a few slivers of shaved truffle on my flatbread. The tuna wasabi flatbread was the winner for me, fresh sashimi grade tuna, a little kick from the wasabi creme and an awesome tartness from the pickled veg, too bad I had to share! I ordered my own app as well, fresh salmon over crispy sushi rice with a chipotle mayo and ponzu, topped with a little watercress and mint.

This was pretty awesome, the fish was fresh, the sauces worked well together despite the cultural divide and the rice, which reminded me more of a nice moist risotto ball, had a warm succulence that tied it all together. For an entrée, I sprang for The Mercer Burger, with pepperjack cheese, avocado, crunchy red onion, Russian dressing with a side of frites.

It was wonderfully juicy and perfectly cooked medium rare. The Russian dressing added a nice tang, with the onions there for fantastic flavor and texture. Paired with a nice buttery toasted bun, it was a fine specimen of a burger. Of course, dessert followed, I chose the warm roasted apples in puff pastry with a caramel glaze, dried cherries and french toast ice cream, yum.

The meal was very tasty and everyone seemed to enjoy it, but I just felt like it lacked in creativity overall. The salmon app and tuna flatbread were bright spots in a somewhat uninspired menu. The flavors were all there, spot on, everything tasted great, but come on Jean, I know you can do better than this, don’t just give me a good burger, wow me! Knock my socks off, give me something I’d never expect, because what I DO expect out of you, Mr. Vongerichten, is to blow me away with your culinary artistry. While The Mercer Kitchen was a nice meal, and I would recommend it if you want to go have a nice lunch in SoHo, I feel like it should be running at a higher level than it is. Don’t get lazy Jean, I’ve got my eye on you.

L’Express & Bocca di Bacco – New York City, NY

L’express 249 Park Ave. corner of Park and E 21st

photo: www.hipparis.com

The best restaurant I’ve ever been to at 3 am. Order le lamb burger. Steak tartar is amazing. Great steak frites, and duck mousse, flavored with capers rosemary and mustard. All desserts were excellent. Maybe one day you might have a sweet tooth but feel like eating breakfast at midnight. Well you’re in luck. Just order yourself a Logan special. A stack of pancakes with an order of creme caramel on top. I wasn’t even under the influence at the time, I’m just a glutton. Maybe one day you’ll feel like sushi so you go get some. However, upon exiting the sushi establishment, you find yourself outside of L’express. The steak tartare is so good that even if you are stuffed you won’t be able to resist. I will certainly go back, and I have. At least five times in two trips to the city. Where else could you go at this time and get food this good?

photo: www.lexpressnyc.com

Bocca di Bacco at 848 9th ave that’s where. Dont confuse this with the subpar Buca di Beppo. You will be extremely disappointed. Maybe you went to nobu for dinner but you were on a tight budget so you couldn’t spend a thousand dollars. You’re feeling snacky so you and your brother-in-law decide to fetch a cab at 2 am down to hells kitchen to a nice little Italian wine bar for some grub. We enjoyed house made proscuitto, and porcini crostini as apps. Then on to a wonderful pasta, (mind you it’s around 2:45 am by now and we are having the second course). James got his old faithful fettuccine alla bolognese. I had gargenelli osso buco. This is how pasta is supposed to be made. Homemade and handcut. The sauces were grand and rich. The osso buco sauce was very “stroganoffy” as well as “dijonaisy” if that makes any sense. I can’t remember a better Bolognese that I have had. The service was horrible, however it was far past 3 in the morning as our meal wound down, so I have to give them some slack for that. I give both places 8.5’s based on quality of food and the fact that they were open at all.

photo: www.boccadibacconyc.com