Apologies

Oh my readers. Moving takes so long. And it makes me so tired. I promise to get back to blogging very soon. But alas and alack, not tonight.

We'll take Manhattan....

Oh moving. You take up all of my time and leave me no time to blog about the nice meals that I eat/make. I just know that you're all out there thinking "Hey, didn't Lena go to Bar Boulud recently? I kinda wanted to know how that was." Well the wait is over, my friends. I am taking a break from packing/moving/painting to tell you all about it.

My mom and I ventured up to Lincoln Center last Sunday night. I've told you before about how I feel strange on the Upper West Side, like I'm in a movie about New York (see here). Well, that night was no exception. As the hostess leads us to our table in the back, we walk right by none other than Woody Allen and Soon-yi (at least I assumed it was Soon-yi. I can't recognize her by her looks, but it seems safe to assume that Woody doesn't have a new Asian child-bride). It just doesn't get more New York than Woody Allen (at least for me - I've seen Annie Hall at least ten times). To me, this boded well for the restaurant.

We started off with some "charcuterie gilles verot" which apparently means "cold pressed meat" in English. I guess I should have drawn that conclusion from seeing all the terrines and foie gras under it, but what can I say? I'm a little slow sometimes. We chose one made of beef cheek and got some beets with horseradish to go along with it. Here it is.


It reminded me of leftover corned beef, with some spicy mustard and tiny pickles. I could have used way more mustard. It was alright, but I think cold pressed meat is not my favorite dish to order. I'll know for the future. The beets were very good though.

We moved on to a "Frisée Lyonnaise" which had chicory, chicken liver, poached eggs, lardons, and a big sourdough crouton. I liked it quite a bit. I love chicken livers when someone who isn't me cooks them. The egg yolk was delicious, we mixed it into the salad and it made everything nice and creamy. The lardons were much bigger than I was expecting. I think of lardons like little sticks, these were the size of very large croutons. I wasn't crazy about them, but what can you do. Both my mom and I commented on how well the Frisée worked in the salad. We thought we didn't like Frisée but we were wrong. I was so into the salad, I forgot to take a picture. Whoops.

Then it was on to the main courses. My mom had a traditional Coq Au Vin.


It was good but very heavy. I had the lighter, but super amazing Artic Char. It came with Braised Fennel in an olive oil herb broth.


They actually brought a little cup of broth to the table with my fish and poured it over the plate as they set it down. I liked that. This was probably my favorite dish of the night. Perfectly cooked fish, yummy broth, fresh basil and mint....oh so good.

We ended with a seasonal dish - Rhubarb Tart with Berry Ice Cream.


It was excellent. I love rhubarb. In fact, I bought some yesterday. Maybe I'll make a tart.

Overall, I'd say it was a nice dinner and we certainly enjoyed ourselves, but it's not on the same scale as say, Babbo or Gramercy Tavern. The food got progressively better as the night went on, but it didn't have the overall excellence in either food or service. Go in with moderate expectations, order the Artic Char and a dessert and you'll probably be fine.

Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir? (or, my night at Boeing Boeing)

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Stalling

Oh my readers, I am so tired. I have so much to tell you about! Dinner at Bar Boulud, my review of Boeing Boeing, the growing cuteness of my brand new apartment. But alas, after a day of many fiascos and my boyfriend back in America, I shall instead leave you with this video of my current obsession, In The Heights (I saw it again this week. My mom had to see it. You understand).

Jackson Heights has all the awesome food

Today me, my mom, Uncle Steven, Titi Ana and Terry all headed out to Jackson Heights for Columbian food. Did you know that you could get good Columbian food in Jackson Heights? I sure didn't. Ana has been telling me about it for what seems like a very long time at this point, and so we decided to head out there and see it for ourselves. I've been hearing about the lunch specials for a while - apparently they're only $5.95 and very good. So we all ordered some. Today's special was Sancocho de Gallina. I thought that meant chicken soup, but I was wrong.

First they brought out the soup.


It's kinda blurry, but it had nice flavor. The broth was really savory. I liked the bits of cilantro. The big chunks floating in the soup are potato, yuca (a root vegetable) and chicken gizzard. I thought that this was the whole meal. But then they brought out this:


Blam! Crazy. I liked the chicken quite a bit. It had a nice sauce that tasted good mixed with the rice. My chicken was mostly skin and bones that I picked around, but my mom got a nice big piece of meat. The plantain was a little too dense for me - I like it when it's cooked a long time and kinda falling apart. C'est la vie. There's a corn cake on the plate as well, but it was too thick and very bland. I didn't like it.

Overall, the food was very good and a huge value for the price. Check it out! La Boina Roja Steak House II in Jackson Heights, Queens. I would link to it, but there's not a website. It's at 7705 37th Ave - take the 7/E/V/R to Roosevelt Ave.

I got Schooled

Sorry for the delay in posting (I went one whole day without writing anything. Most people probably didn't notice, but I like to think that some people are obsessively checking to see if I wrote anything yet. Maybe that's wishful thinking). Anyways, my mom is here and we've been very busy. This past week, we had dinner with Ana at L'Ecole ("the school" in French) which is the restaurant connected with the French Culinary Institute in Soho. I've been there twice before, about six years ago with Ana and her mom, Mary Jo, and once with Meredith for our college graduation. So it had been awhile.

The menu remained similar, but the decor was very different (or so said Ana. I couldn't remember what it looked like before). The 5-7pm menu is a four course pre fix that professional chefs are in charge of. If you want the students to cook for you, you'd have to go later in the evening (and you'd have to have five courses. Me, I'm fine not having a separate fish course).

I resisted the urge to order the salmon gravlax with potato galette for the third time in a row (I love salmon. Especially when it's raw/smoked/cured. Delish!) and instead opted for Fresh Corn Soup with Lobster and Pancetta.


It was good. Nice and simple, with a creamy consistency but no actual cream (I asked). The pancetta was crisp and yummy, but the lobster lacked some flavor. Oh well. I still enjoyed it.


Ana got the salmon that I usually order. It's pretty, yes? Oh it's so yummy. There's a little cucumber salad wrapped up in the salmon. Love it!


My mom had the steamed asparagus with deviled quail eggs. It was chilled. She and Ana liked it, but I'd rather have my asparagus hot. Next came the main courses. I chose Grilled Skirt Steak with Cippollini Onions and Creamed Spinach.


It was very good. Nice and rare with great flavor. My mouth got all full of spit just typing this. Sigh. It came with these French Fries.


They were nice and crispy. My mom thought they were almost like potato chips. See the bread behind it? The bread was good. I love sourdough bread with butter. It's one of life's simple pleasures. My steak came with three sauces as well - some sort of parsley sauce, mustard and a fancy bbq sauce that I didn't like. Don't fault the sauce though - I just don't like bbq (I know, I'm weird. I grew up with four California vegetarians. It's a miracle I like anything).

My mom and Ana both ordered the chicken, despite our discussion about how you never should order chicken in a restaurant (which I heard for the first time in this restaurant six years ago. Ana's mom said it. I think they ordered the chicken just to spite me).


It was nice, the skin was crispy and rubbed with rosemary and thyme. However it's just chicken, right? I could make that at home. I could make steak at home too, but I won't buy such good cuts. The chicken came with these little pots of vegetable ragout.


I thought that was cute. There were lots of mixed vegetables in it and bread crumbs on top. Next came our third course. I was expecting salad with goat cheese (that's what we've always gotten before) but instead they brought us three little sorbets.


They were Coconut, Passion Fruit and Cantaloupe. Passion fruit is very big right now. We got little tastes of passion fruit meringue at the Gramercy Tavern, but I forgot to include it in my blog. I'm telling you now though, so we're okay. Phew. The cantaloupe was my favorite, but possibly because it was the only one that hadn't melted to soup before they served it to us.

We got three different desserts to maximize our sugar intake. I got Chocolate Ganache Cake.


It was good, but a little one-note. I could have used some ice cream with it, or maybe a fruit sauce. Ana got a Strawberry Rhubarb Financier (Try the financier, peak of his career) with Thai Basil Ice Cream.


This was my favorite. The pastry was nice and buttery and crisp, and the fruit was warm and yummy. My mom got a Cheesecake with a macadamia nut crust.


I liked the crust a lot, but found the cheesecake slightly too dense. It was still good though.

On the way out, they gave us cookies that the pastry students had made in a little bag. Is this a new thing? Gramercy Tavern gave us little Chocolate Cherry Strudel Cakes to take with us as well. I hope it is a new thing. I like it.

Overall, the food was very good. It's a fun, not overly expensive for fancy food (our meals were only 39.95 for four courses), destination.

Dumplings are universal

I was not always such a foodie. There was a time that I lived on Annie's Mac and Cheese and never touched red meat (I know, it was crazy). But it wasn't so long ago. My culinary horizons really expanded in New York City. One of the first "different" foods I tried? Pierogi. Pierogi are dumplings filled with meat or cheese or whatever the cook feels like putting in (tradition be damned!). My favorite pierogi come from Veselka - probably because they're the only pierogis I've ever had that didn't come from a package. Also, you can get them fried instead of boiled. Not as traditional (or healthy), but twice as delicious (at least). The ones pictured are the special of the month (if "month" means "last five months") - arugula and goat cheese.


I got these with Zack and Joe (Zack's dad) last weekend. There was a time when I took everyone I knew to Veselka all the time. It was cheap and the food was good and I lived around the corner. I think I burned Zack out on it, because he refused to go there for a while. But he surprised me by suggesting we go there on Saturday night (possibly because the show he was designing was across the street). I was especially glad because I thought that the world (and by the world, I mean readers of my blog) should know about it. And now you do.