Sea Pearl

We went to the Sea Pearl restaurant this past weekend because one of our friends had recommended.  It’s out in Merrifield, VA.  I thought it was an Asian Fusion cuisine, but apparently I can’t read.  The website clearly says that Sea Pearl serves modern American cuisine with a California flare.  More important than all of this is what’s on the menu.

I ordered the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes … simply amazing.  They weren’t too heavy, but were pretty rich and deliciously sweet with the distinct lemon flavor that made me eat the whole stack.  Marjie ordered an Egg’s Benedict with smoked salmon over a bagel.  Um, delicious doesn’t really go far enough to describe it.  The eggs had the perfect amount of run and mixed deliciously with the salmon and bagel.

I highly recommend the place and look forward to going back for another round of pancakes.

Salmon Benedict

She Eats!

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Slow as(s) Chocolate

Today, Marjie and I went to Artfully Chocolate, Kingsbury Cafe for brunch with some friends.  I had heard about this place from someone in our dance class last year, as in last December or so.  They have two places, one in DC and one in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, VA.

What sold us on the DC location was the bottomless mimosa for brunch.  Only, I’m not a huge mimosa fan and it cost $10, not including the brunch.  Ah well.  We arrived around 11.15am, were told it would be a half-hour wait for a table of four, then waited for about an hour and fifteen minutes for a table to open up.  Why double the time?  First, the cafe is tiny and there are only a few tables for groups larger than two.  That’s not terribly conducive to Sunday morning brunch.  Second, the kitchen staff was either super slow, short-staffed, or an optimal combination of both that allows for maximum hunger to set in with potential diners.

We got lucky in only having to wait an hour plus for our table.  If our friend hadn’t been diligent, the baffled host would have given away our table to a group that arrived about twenty minutes after us.  As soon as we sat down, we ordered.  Starving!  Thankfully that killer combo of a slow, understaffed kitchen gave us plenty of time to think about how hungry we were because it took another thirty or forty minutes for eggs, french toast, potatoes, and sausage to show up.

All told, it took over two hours to get basic food.  Not my ideal Sunday brunch.

How was the food when it showed up?  It was absolutely fine.  I ordered the Lavender Chocolate french toast.  Though I know there are few places that make french toast the way I like it, I thought I’d try this.  The thought of lavender and chocolate was too much to resist.  It’s a fine dish.  I thoroughly enjoyed the hint of lavender, but I can’t I loved it.  I certainly would never wait an hour and a half for it.  Everyone else’s food was thoroughly enjoyable, but none of it worth the long wait, either.

At least the person looking after our table was very attentive.  In all, I would return for one of their delicious hot chocolates, to go, but I would not do a brunch.  It seems like a cool afternoon coffee or hot chocolate hang out, not a thoroughly thought through brunch place.

Má Pêche blows ma mind

For my birthday, Marjie took me to Má Pêche for lunch.  This is one of David Chang’s new restaurants in Midtown Manhattan.  Though we are known on occasion to blow a crap load of money on an extravagant meal, Marjie was devilishly devious in finding an awesome restaurant that did not break the bank. The lunch prix fixe was three courses for $25.

We had the choice of:

• squid salad or summer roll,
• grilled trout, spicy rice noodles with lamb, and something else
• corn meal cookie or double chocolate cookie from the Milk Bar.  Apparently, you can order them online.

We ordered both first courses.  I got the trout and she got the lamb and pasta.  I have never really been a seafood person, but let me tell you, that squid salad was delicious.  Hints of cilantro, lime, and basil all evoking thoughts of Hanoi to be.  The summer roll was fine, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as my salad.  For the main course, the trout was made with some sort of cashew sauce, tiny potatoes mixed with more cilantro and ginger (I think), and it was absolutely perfect.  Marjie’s dish was not what we expected, being spicier and more French dish than an Asian dish.

We both could not get enough of the trout.  I would go back and order that dish again in a heartbeat.  Too bad I don’t have a photo of either the interior space or the dishes, but the whole experience was great.  The restaurant is below street level with ceilings that must be on the second floor.  It creates a huge space that long, light-colored tables fill.  Absolutely delightful.

On your way out, if one cookie per person wasn’t enough, you can get more at the Milk Bar, which we did.

Below is a map to Má Pêche in case you’re ever in NYC for lunch or dinner, on your dime or the company’s.

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Deliciousness in NYC

So, this weekend we might have gotten a bit extravagant with the choice of restaurant we went to, but it was worth it.  Marjie and I went to Asiate to celebrate something special.  We got the 7 course chef’s tasting menu.  I had mine paired with wine.  Unfortunately, I’m writing this post about 5 months after the meal, but I still remember it.

What was most memorable?  I don’t like seviche, but one of the first courses had a crab meat seviche where lime juice did the seviche-ing.  Amazing.  There was also a buckwheat noodle with tiny egg course that was similarly delicious.  With each course, I had a different wine or sake.  By the time we got to course 4, Marjie tapped out.  She couldn’t eat any more.  Not one to waste food, I ate all of the remaining courses.  Needless to say, this gluttony was rewarded with the need to stop on a bench near the Waldorff Hotel on our way to the Metro.  Or maybe we took a cab.  After all that wine and with such a full stomach, it was a long, long, long time before I was able to go to think about anything else.

Was it worth the big price tag?  Beyond a doubt.

Mmm, delicious

Tonight, I put together a red bean sauce, using the base recipe from crockpot.com.  I started it last night around 7pm.  It began to smell super delicious right around the time I wanted to sleep.  The intoxicating aromas made me think about eating, rather than sleeping.  The night began restlessly, then moved to down right maddening when the bubbling sauce caused the lid of the Crock Pot to rattle, incessantly, at 4am.  Never again will I cook the red bean sauce overnight.

That said, it was delicious.  I put it over brown jasmine rice and devoured it.  Wow!  What was in this deliciousness?

• 1 red onion
• 1 green pepper
• 3 stalks celery
• 3 tbs chopped garlic
• 1 package chicken andouille sausage
• 1 lb red beans (boiled for 10 min, left to soak for 60min, and rinsed)
• 25 oz beef broth
• 2 cups water
• Emeril’s Creole seasoning for flavor (needed more)

I can’t wait for lunch tomorrow.

Lower East Side Food Tour

Today was a delicious day.  It began with a peanut buttered flat bread and coffee for breakfast.  Although not necessarily considered one of the world’s greatest culinary delights, I thoroughly enjoy it as a morning starter.

The real fun, though began with the food tour.  In October 2008, when my mom came to visit, I signed us up for a food tour through the UVa Club.  We did a dessert and wine tour around the 70s on the Upper West Side.  The company that provided the guides and was City Food Tours.  We enjoyed it so much, I thought it would be great to go on another.

Fast forward to today and I’m on a tasting tour of the Lower East Side.  It’s the place of immigrants.  Early in the history of the city, it was farm land, but soon after the Revolutionary War, it began to become a merchant’s district.  In the mid 19th century, the successive waves of immigrants seemed to find their way to the dilapidated tenements that characterized the area and left their ethnic imprint.

Although we saw quite a bit of Chinatown’s spillage into the Lower East Side, Nicole pointed out quite a few Jewish places that show the Old World past of the businesses and neighborhoods.

The Doughnut Plant

We began the tour with the Doughnut Plant.  I’m not really a big donut fan, but these are made with fresh, organic, homemade ingredients.  Apparently the creme brule donut is to die for.  The owner spent a couple months perfecting the donut.  We had pistachio donuts and cranberry jam filled donuts.  They were light, sweet, and delicious.  When we finished, I didn’t have any of the heavy feeling I usually get after thinking about eating a Dunkin Donut.

From there, we moved to the Bialy place, Kossar’s.  I’d never heard of a bialy, much less tried one, before I moved here to New York.  They are similar to a bagel, but not quite.  They are not boiled before they’re baked, they don’t have a hole in the center, and usually there is a sprinkle of real onion in the middle.  The result is a tasty treat – when well done – that hits the spot.  Not too heavy, not to light.

Pickles!

Next stop was the Pickle Guys.  I’m not really a pickle fan; I enjoy a good relish like everyone else, so I wasn’t terribly excited.  Still, how do you expand your horizons without trying something new?  Nicole, our guide, gave us three varieties of pickles – a new pickle, a sour pickle, and pickled carrots.  The carrots were soaked in vinegar and had a heated kick to them.  They were my favorite.  The pickles were cucumbers soaked in the brine solution for varying lengths of time.  The full sour pickle has soaked the longest and tasted, well, sour.  Imagine that.  The new pickle tasted more like a salty cucumber.

We wandered north, toward Houston Street, where we stopped for a coffee at the Roasting Plant.  There a former Starbucks executive, and manufacturing engineer, had designed a machine to roast, grind, and brew your coffee to order.  Guatemalan coffee too light and the Yirgacheffe too bold?  No problem, just ask the staff to mix them to your preference.  The system looks like a 1980′s sci-fi mail chute with the vacuum tubes that connect the roaster to the storage spots to the grinder.  Still, you have to admit, the coffee was delicious.  I would highly recommend a visit, paired with a tour of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, to kick start your day.

Coffee!?!?

After the Roasting Plant, we went to Piada for a sandwich.  I had La Dolce Vita, which is bresaola, parmigiano, and arugula.  There was also a balsamic vinegar to give it a little umpf.  Delicious.  No two ways about it.  Simple and delicious.  We chased the sandwich with a chocolate bon bon from the Cocoa Bar.

It was a great morning with beautiful weather – sunny and mostly above freezing – that complimented the gastronomic delights we sampled.  I highly recommend this tour – Nicole was a great guide – not only for the food, but also the wander through the ancient history of New York.