Zoma

To celebrate Ann's birthday and give Katie a good send-off, Ann, Jamel, Katie and I went to Zoma, a new Ethiopian restaurant in Harlem. It was a cold walk there through Morningside Park, but the space inside was lit like a warm, white space-age womb. With little candles, low-lights and a minimalist-artifact decor, it was not your typical Harlem or Ethiopia, really.

I have only had Ethiopian food once or twice and am usually mystified by injera, the flat, spongy bread used to scoop and sop up the wat, or stew, dishes plopped colorfully on top of it. Injera has a slightly acidic taste and is not the type of bread to eat by itself. I've decided injera is not the end, but rather the means to a delicious food experience. I'm not sure what Ethiopia intended, however. Perhaps after my formal food education I will find out; for now I will use food sites on the internet.

We all shared a vegetarian combination platter, and along with it we had glasses of Tej, or honey-wine. Ahhh, tastes like a summery sweet nectar. I only wish I remember or knew exactly what was on the platter, but I can say it was several wats of lentils, carrots, cabbage, and collard greens and chickpeas. Spices were paprika, salt, ginger, onion, garlic, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, pepper, coriander, and fenugreek, all typical of Ethiopia and together making up Berbere, the thick red paste. Some wats were made with Niter Kebbeh, a butter of onion, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, cardamom, clove, and nutmeg. What a nice grocery list of foods and spices...and a wonderful warm spectrum of reds, browns and yellows. I think the spices, and perhaps Tej, also have some storytelling properties, because we heard great character sketches and stories from Ann about the men who adore her (and for good reason).

We shared another platter for the main dish (pictured above) again on injera, this time also with lamb and chicken wats. To wind down the meal we drank a tea, which may not have been tea at all, but hot water infused with some spices that smelled much like Christmas-time.

Happy Birthday, Ann! And farewell (again) Katie ...

Zoma
2084 Frederick Douglass Blvd (at 113th St)
Harlem, New York
New York
212-662-0620

The Gulasch Effect

Gulasch makes Mondays doable. Since I have met wonderful Erin, she has introduced me to another great thing about our neighborhood - Gulasch Night at Cafe Steinhof. For $5 (!) you can have a bowl of tender beef, onions and potatoes in a paprika-stew broth, with a hunk of potato roll to sop it up. Belly warms and fulls immediately. If you're not feeling beefy, for $6 they also have a battered trout over a simple lemony-cold potato salad.

For the famous G Night, you may have to wait at the bar, which is just fine, because they have a range of beer that I've barely begun to sample. Within a few short weeks this winter, the mealtime has become very popular among my new associates. It's sometimes hard to round up and enthuse a group of people for anything, but say the word "Gulasch" + "night" and they come running from the mountains. We somehow fit 10 people at the one round table at Cafe Steinhof, an Austrian "comfort food" bar and restaurant. Mind you, most of these 10 knew 2 or less people upon coming and now have up to 8 new friends! Strange what brings people together.

I'm happy to learn that Gulasch orginated in Hungary (a country of my ancestory), but is a dish that appears in variations all over Europe and America [wikipedia], including in Brooklyn, apparently! It's a rich burgundy color from the paprika, and the Steinhof's variety comes to the table approximately 2 minutes after ordering.

Dessert is bread pudding, if there is room to digest among the main dish. I've had bread pudding explained to me - English side dish served with the roast - but I think it's something more elusive...This one has raisins and is served with applesauce and sour cream. Wow. The 10 minute walk home helps shift things around in the tummy a little. Let's just say I dream of gulasch all night.

(They have a lot of other yummy things besides gulasch!)
Cafe Steinhof
422 7th Ave and 14th St
Park Slope
Brooklyn, NY
718-369-7776
http://www.cafesteinhof.com/

The energy crisis and the love of chocolate

The last supper. At Alix and Colin's amazing three floor abode, that is, before they move in to the next great place (with a backyard! Imagine dinner on the patio, among the plants and lawn furniture!). At least Alix is one friend who isn't leaving the city, or even the neighborhood. She treated me to some of her week's delightful leftovers, with a springy green and fruit salad. We shared a nice bottle of Montepulciano and watched a disturbing documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" According to the doc, we have several guilty parties to blame, including the government, oil industry, car companies, and consumers.

Alix was getting quite steamed as the show went on (I had seen it before), so luckily we had made another famous fruit crisp to cool the tempers. Apple and pear, with a secret weapon in the topping - candied ginger and shredded coconut. It is our dream to make the best fruit tart on the planet. There will surely be some fanfare when that happens.


Our sweet, hot beverage of choice was the "I Like it Spicy" hot chocolate from the Cocoa Bar. If you've ever balked at chilis and cayenne pepper in your hot chocolate, balk no more. This is a thick and frothy chocolate with a hot kick at the back of your throat. Cocoa Bar is a favorite place in the neighborhood that specializes in not only chocolate in all forms - drink, truffle, cake and pie - but also in wine and coffee. The search for happiness is over.

Chocolate sloshing inside, I walked home in the first lovely Brooklyn snowfall of the year!

The Cocoa Bar
228 7th Ave (between 3rd and 4th Sts.)
Park Slope
Brooklyn, New York
718-499-4080
www.cocoabarnyc.com

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Katie's Farewell Stromboli

Why must we say farewell to Katie?? It's horrible to keep saying good-bye to dear friends that have been leaving New York this year, seemingly in droves. And of course, they are some of my greatest food friends. Katie and I have shared much conversation, antipasti and after-work vino at Max Cafe in Morningside Heights and amazing lunchtime sandwiches at at Fresh Cafe (reviews forthcoming!)

The only good thing about friends leaving is that everyone gets together to share talk and eats. For Katie's down south send-off, Trish made some addictively good strombolis. They are very easy to make, and easier to keep eating ... I had one piece too many and definitely felt like a Stromboli during the train ride home.

Trish's Stromboli

What you need:

pre-made dough (Trader Joe's has a great herby one)
Sauce
Cheese
Fillings (we had some veggie and some carnie)

Spread out and flatten dough, arrange sauce, cheese and filling on half the dough, length-wise. Flip other half over the filled side, press and seal. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, or until golden browned and crispy on top.

My favorite had scallops, zuchinni and sweet peppers. Mmm. As you can see, we ate two entire trays of the delicious stuff.

Although I could have easily rolled tummy-first back to Brooklyn, for dessert I had one of the best cupcakes in the land - buttery soft cake and fluffily pink buttercream frosting. Erin brought a big box from sugar Sweet sunshine, a bakery on the Lower East Side that I cannot wait to visit. Their website alone puts me in a cakey state of mind.

Farewell, Katie...please come back and eat with me soon...

sugar Sweet sunshine
126 Rivington St. (between Essex and Norfolk)
New York, NY
212-995-1960
www.sugarsweetsunshine.com

Australia Day Game Night!

I didn't even know we had an Australia Day to celebrate, but it's a good thing we did. Although the coldest night of the year started with me sitting on Nick's stoop waiting for someone to find me (the double whammy: no phone number and broken door buzzer!) I very quickly got a tummy warming meat pie and some yummy sweets. I also learned a lot about the commonwealth and convicts!

Meat pies, according to Nick (all information here will be according to him!) are quintessentially Australian and consumed often at sporting events - in the American hot dog variety of popularity. They are a little like chicken-pot pie, and should be consumed smothered with tomato sauce or ketchup. Typically they are filled with beef, but he got a variety from the East Village Tuck Shop for us to taste - lamb, chili con carne, and one really curried chicken pie.


Then suddenly, there was a "vanilla slice" in front of me - blobby custard between layers of crispy thin dough and with a sweeeet vanilla glaze on top. Even though the sugar was already making the room spin, I could not resist the ever popular Australian Tim Tam - two layers of chocolate cookie with gooey cream in the middle and glaze all around. There is a special way to eat a Tim Tam, apparently, which involves biting off both ends, dipping it in tea and sucking the cream out. Sounds like a marvelous idea.

After consuming all of the above, along with an Australian Shiraz-Cabernet, champagne and beer, we played a rousing game of Cranium. After all the Australian comestibles, I don't think our craniums were functioning at top form, because it collectively took a while to figure out the rules. Um, I still don't know. A few notable "star performer" charades: Lena's "tongue and groove", Sal's "energizer bunny", and Erin's amazing talent for humming and drawing with her eyes closed!

Hurray for Australia!!

Tuck Shop
68 E 1st St
New York, NY
212-979-5200
www.tuckshopnyc.com

Sunday cous cous and vino

Sometimes simple is the best. Putting a few basic foods together and having a pleasant bowl of something makes me happy. Even better is a simple dish with red wine and good conversation. Especially if you are making important observations about life, you don't want to complicate things more with an elaborate recipe. Carlos came over for a late-ish Sunday night dinner.

Although the tempature was dropping by the second, we walked over to the best wine store in the neighborhood - Slope Cellars. It's worth the chilly walk and open on Sunday until 9:00! All recommendations have been perfect, and all have ranged from $10-12. Maybe $15 if I am feeling extra fancy. This time it was a beaujolais that was smooth, lightly velvety and just...nice. I have no wine description skills yet...

I made the first dish I had ever really learned to cook - White bean, zucchini and tomato over cous cous. So simple in fact that almost all the ingredients are in the title. Except for the most important, ever aromatic, chopped rosemary. One day I will write a nice song about my love for rosemary. It's very strange.

The dish: chop some zucchini, unpeeled, so that the green skin and red tomato create a visual zap in the stewy vegetable melange. Saute in olive oil and while the zuchinni is still crisp, add a can of white beans and a can of diced tomatoes. Then add as much rosemary as your heart desires, cooking until warm and herbed. Oh, and before all that, boil some water, turn off the heat and add cous cous. If you're not talking and talking like I was doing after a glass of wine, the whole thing only takes 15 minutes.

This recipe is from an excellent cookbook called Simple Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin.

Slope Cellars
436 7th Ave, between 14th and 15th Sts
Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY
718-368-7307

Via Della Pace

In the East Village, Villa Della Pace is cozy and warm. You feel like you're in front of the campfire ... with delicious Italian food and wine on your lap. I mean, they do give you a table. It's just very feel good, you know. The East Village is the best neighborhood in the city for Italian food. I will probably expand on that topic at a later time.

What were we celebrating this unfortunately cold January weekend? Mmm, nothing special - just happy that Justin was visiting the city. Our table shared a nice antipasti misto, with some basics - olives, tuna, roasted eggplant and peppers, grilled zuchinni, and fresh, salty mozzarella. Drank a Vermentino wine that was light, crisp and appley. Ate a rigatoni special dish with eggplant, mozzarella and capers. Liiiight and slighty chunky tomato sauce. I want to be best friends with that sauce. BFF. And with the capers, too - magical, little bursts of salty, lemony mouth spasms. I guess we were all too full for dessert, which is very sad. I always want to go against the grain in those situations, because it is very rare that I will turn down dessert. But I also want people to share in the joy of food and feel a little silly when I am the only joyous one. It looks a little strange when only one person is in sugary raptures at the table.

The place is very reasonably priced, especially when you're short one bottle of wine on your bill. But then again, if you are with highly moraled people, they will correct the waitress and you will still make up the difference without feeling poor at the end.

Via Della Pace
48 E 7th Street
New York, NY
212-253-5803

Famous Duo

I'm so glad Alix came back from her travels. She and I have had some mouthwatering food experiences together - and it keeps getting better each time. By the end of the year, we will hopefully be famous for our dinners (although it's usually just the two of us). We made a late dinner last night - and when I say late, I mean midnight dessert.

We started with Alix's nutty and light hummus - secretly herbed with fresh thyme and rosemary. Fruity cocktails in hand, we eventually moseyed upstairs to print out our recipes from vegweb.com, which is a great site for vegan/vegetarian food. There have been few, if any, disappointing turn outs from that site. We had decided on an eggplant casserole, steamed bok choy and blueberry crisp for dessert. When making our menu, we usually start with an inventory of our cupboards, look up recipes accordingly and then barely have to get anything at the store. Results are often amazing.

The casserole starts by sauteing the chopped eggplant, portobellos, fresh basil and onions in olive oil, soy sauce and garlic. That's added to some cooked brown rice, with vegan-rella (soy cheese) mixed in and on top. Pop in oven to bake. Then make the easiest dessert crisp in the land: sweet blueberries with a crumbly, texturous topping. Pop in oven as soon as casserole comes out. The steamed bok choy barely took 2 minutes and was a perfect mate to the casserole. Inhale the wonderous smells....mmmmm. Sit down to eat and watch on the projector a slide show of Alix's travel pictures. Dilemma: eat ravenously or watch crazy pictures...can't multi-task...music playing is perfect, too. Senses overwhelmed with joy.



The blueberry crisp was notably delicious. I am happily eating the leftovers now. Generous nutmeg and a serendipitous ginger granola made the topping almost spicy. Recipe pictured above on the big projector screen!

Here's to another brilliant success.

August

No, not summer yet, unfortunately. It's nice to go to places like August in the middle of January. Emilia, Sebastian and I went there for Emilia's farewell dinner (sniff...) and were verrry happy and full by the end. Not only is the restaurant super-cozy and had a super-cute waiter milling about (who unfortunately was not ours) but the food is deliciously "regional European," according to the menu.

We ordered the least expensive bottle of Italian red wine (still very satisfying) and shared an appetizer of raclette (Swiss and French), a cheesy, potato, ham, and asparagus mini-casserole. Mmm. Apparently, Raclette, the cheese, has been around and loved since medieval times [Wikipedia]. For good reason.

I recently became pseudo-vegetarian, meaning ... I only eat meat when something tempting comes along. I don't know why I was tempted by the menu description Pork Belly and Braised Pork Cheeks...It was beyond tender and over some delicious lentils and golden-orange kumquat halves. Pork + kumquat in the same bite = out of this world. We all shared a dish of steamed and charred brussel sprouts that were lightly salted, crisp and perfect.

Tummies said "no dessert"; eyes on menu read "profiteroles." We then wisely shared fluffy, flaky Italian cookie-puffs with vanilla gelato in the middle and warm chocolate syrup drizzled on top.

Cringed slightly at the bill ($50 each), but boy was it worth it. Plus Emilia's last great food experience in New York (before, um, going to ITALY) had to be something special. I miss you already, E ... I will eat something delicious for you.

August
359 Bleecker St. between Charles and W 10th
New York, NY
www.augustny.com

New Year's 2007

There have been several notable food experiences in my recent past that cannot go unblogged. New Year's 2007 is a good example. The holiday this year was spent in Washington, DC with Justin and Company. After looking at some of the horrendous prix fixes and "special" holiday menus, it didn't take long to decide we should make our own feast.

And so, a promising menu was put together, especially designed to maximize the utility of Justin's new Christmas gift - the "Magic Bullet" blender-toy. No magic, exactly, and a little trial and error, but it did make some tasty appetizers.

2007

Stuffed Mushrooms
w/ricotta, spinach, parmesan and walnuts

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Pear, Goat Cheese and Walnut Spinach Salad

Roasted Portabello, Prosciutto and Gruyere Lasagna

Mixed Berry Tart with Chocolate Liqueur

Signature Drink: Sparketinis
w/vodka, cranberry and lime juices, sparkling water, and muddled mint

Although both of the mushroom and soup appetizers were a smooth and bright Kermit the Frog green, they were gobbled and slurped up quickly. And the pear-goat cheese-walnut salad combination has certainly been done, but it's too brillant to go unmentioned or uneaten.

The lasagna ... it is true that this dish takes a lot of time and effort to prepare, so I recommend a cranberry-orange rosemary sprigged cocktail in hand at all times. The effort was worth it; the sauce for this dish is all butter, milk and cheese, and that richness coupled with the salty prosciutto and meaty portabello was perfect for the last meal of 2006 [recipe from epicurious.com].

Our berry tart took us to adventures in phyllo dough land, which I don't recommend going to. Phyllo is layer upon layer of paper thin dough used expertly by Greek cooks for baklava and spanakopita. The layers easily tear, and buttering each thin layer of dough can be dull, but at least Justin now has a pastry brush to call his own. The dessert itself was tarty and crisp, a light follow up to our wonderful feast.

Life in 2007 will be deliciously indulgent.

TGIVIN in San Diego

The last great food experience of 2006 must be the first post of 2007. Thanksgiving in San Diego was the best idea ever conceived. Not only is the weather unbeatable and the family lovably strange, but the food blew me away. My auntie is very serious about food, for which I am grateful.


Shown is her Pumpkin-Curry soup, smooth with just enough spicy kick to make you think. Other highlights from Thanksgiving included Michelle's fresh cranberry-mint sauce, the golden turkey brined and roasted with orange slices, and the cornbread stuffing with sage and sausage. Of course, nothing can beat desserts made by Cousin Mike and I: pumpkin cheesecake and apple cranberry pie. And nothing can beat eating everything on a table, decked out Martha-style, on the back patio. In November.



The entire week was filled with food and fun. Auntie's southwestern pork chops, Liz's fresh salsa, and, the grand finale: Tamale Night. Saturday the whole family worked assembly line style to make tamales, from the crumbly masa to the rolled up and steamed corn husks. Quality Assurance (aka Auntie) sent back the ones the didn't meet size and filling requirements. End product = Amazing. Just when we thought life couldn't get any better, the hot tub bubbled and steamed, and the cousins soaked and laughed.

All was not eating - at 6:00 am on Thanksgiving, we all woke up and ran Father Joe's Thanksgiving Day 5K. And one day we went on a fantastic hike in Mission Trails. A balanced life is a happy one, Happiest though, was after a soak in the hot tub, the chocolate concoction Liz and I made - cocoa, chocolate chips, caramel drizzles, and a nice scoop of whipped cream.

And I'll leave out the part about the cousin's all night revelry in downtown San Diego...