#EATING

Filet mignon with pesto sauce, roasted fennel, sautéed mushrooms. Ryan made the majority of this. The beef is from Trader Joe’s, at $14.99/lb it’s pretty cheap. I made a tomato-anchovy-red onion salad which we ate while we were prepping dinner. One thing about filets, they are often seen as the best cut since they are so tender, but they are actually the most tasteless part of the cow, which is why the pesto sauce was so good on them. The perfect cut of meat is actually a porterhouse, which has the sirloin on one side (which is the tastiest cut) and the filet on the other. That’s the kind of shit you learn from working at a steakhouse. That and you must slap anyone who orders their steak medium+.

Leftover pesto…we made pasta. Penne with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, homemade breadcrumbs. I realize that pesto on pasta is pretty standard but what really set this off was the breadcrumbs. Toast the bread in the oven, then drizzle with olive oil and season with whatever. Cheese, salt, garlic, pepper, herbs, etc. Then smash them up and sprinkle on the pasta just before serving. It’s super delicious. You’re welcome.

Tacos & ceviche at Gran/Electrica. This does not even deserve its own post – the tacos were decent as well as the ceviche. However, EVERYTHING NEEDED SALT. Luckily there was a little container of Maldon on the table. If you are an annoying recent grad who likes to yell about how great you are and what connections you used to get your job instead of talk normally, come here. If you live in DUMBO and want to pay ridiculous Manhattan prices for ingredients and food you don’t know, (What’s eh-pa-ZO-tay??) come here. If you want a $10 Tecate with Clamato and spices branded as a Michelada, come here. So I don’t have to deal with you when I want to eat real tacos. If you must, lengua & sweetbread tacos were good but needed a healthy dose of salt and salsas.

BK Ramen Event at Chuko

Our neighborhood favorite Chuko has gotten steadily better in their ramen preparations. Wmsburg newcomer Yuji Ramen teamed up with them last night to do a ramen event. $40 for four courses. Ryan and I met Tohm and Mimi there and we chowed the f down.

I didn’t take photos of the first two courses, which were Spanish mackerel with fish sauce, fried scallions, vinegar, and other toppings as well as a softshell crab bun with ramp mayonnaise. With all the shutterbugging going on I expected to find more online but I guess these were just posted to Facebook or Instagram. I’m too lazy to search. The first course was really good – I enjoyed all the flavors, however they overpowered the fish. The softshell crab bun kicked ass in my mouth. So much so that I burnt my tongue and it is still hurting 2 days later. I hope it goes on the menu for the (too-short) season.

Below are the two ramen courses:

Uni miso mazemen by Yuji Ramen. This has shiso and seaweed. I was hoping for way more uni than this but with the way the dinner was structured I’m not that surprised – that’s a lot of portions of the same dish to put out at the same time. Still pretty damn good – I love the shiso/uni combo. I want giant shiso leaves to wrap uni in. Nishiki rice on the side. Very little soy sauce. Furikake or shredded nori on top of the rice. I’m drooling. Someone make this happen for meeeee!!

Tsukemen by Chuko. By this point I was ready to bust my gut. I was only able to finish about a third of the noodles. The rayu broth was super rich, a little bit spicy, and mine had a piece of roasted garlic floating in it which I sadly but wisely avoided eating. At this point I was ready to fall off my chair because I was so full. I think smaller portions of noodles would have been better but I think they were accounting for the typical “more is better” mentality…or maybe they just didn’t know how the courses should be portioned since this was the first time.

My only gripe is that the table next to us had a couple of ridiculous girls that sounded like warblers on helium. Which is not that terrible I guess if you’re all enjoying yummy food. Looking forward to more of these dinners. Good job, ramen makers.

#EATING

The Beauty at Mile End. Just your typical bagel-lox-cream cheese-caper-onion-tomato combo. FROM MONTREAL. I’ve decided I like Montreal bagels better – they’re not as dense and have a slight honey flavor. We ate here with Ryan’s old roommate Kyle, who is also a chef, visiting from Boston.

Ma-Yu Ramen at Hide-Chan. This meal consumed after Patty’s superstar karaoke party. At 5pm we were jamming out and getting twisty. After 3-4 Jameson’s on the rocks I needed this. We also had tako wasa and fresh tofu to start AND MORE ALCOHOL. The charsu this time was on point – so fatty! I also needed the 1:30am puke session. Pro tip: if you make yourself puke you will only be really tired, not hungover.

A dozen $1 Blue Point oysters at Cornelius. I got through most of these before I started feeling queasy – BP’s are not my favorite. I didn’t puke but I didn’t feel great either. Not sure if it was the oysters or the Irish ale I was drinking.

Beer & Brats by Ryan. He and Tyler went to Schaller & Weber to tour the facilities and they gave them both a shitload of meat. Ryan brought home bratwursts and twice smoked bacon. This is just grilled brats in sauteed bacon, onions, garlic, jalapenos. Then 2 tallboys of Bud and a 1 lb. pack of sauerkraut. Simmer for one hour. Consume with massive amounts of spicy German mustard. And brotchen if you can find it. We could only find shitty Portuguese rolls at the supermarket. I didn’t even attempt to eat it on the bread, but Ryan did and complained when it fell apart. Because he tried to jam TWO sausages in it. Then forgot he did that until I was poking around in the sauerkraut bog looking for the others. Haha!

Catered office lunch from Fisherman’s Dawta on Atlantic Ave. Pictured are steamed cabbage, rice & peas, and jerk chicken. We also got ackee & saltfish, brownstewed chicken, sweet plantains, curried goat. I love goat. When I was in Kenya I watched one get slaughtered and was happy to note that I still wanted to eat it afterwards. The food from FD was really good – it tasted homecooked.

More adventures to come. Stay tuned.

Also I’m on Instagram right now, so come find me: lzsd.

In case you were wondering

I’m still f-ing eating. Proof:

Ying’s birthday was on Wednesday but we celebrated yesterday at Gyu-Kaku in the East Village. It’s Korean style BBQ with Japanese marinades and drinks. That pretty much sums it up. Lunchtime, it’s happy hour so you get 50% off drinks and also a discount on food. Needless to say we ate the shit out of that beef.

At the end of the meal they took the grills off and gave us S’mores set ups.

And then for dinner Ryan and I went to Chuko. Their vegetarian miso ramen is getting better and better. I like it with the poached egg:

They are also now (FINALLY!!) serving beer. Sapporo on draught and also Six Point (can’t recall the beer) and Pork Slap in cans.

Also the weekend before this one, we had brunch at Black Swan (see pic of the Bloody Swan below) then immediately headed to Dough for doughnuts and coffee/tea.

After looking at apartments and stopping by No. 7 Sub, we walked down to Metropolitan Ave to Fette Sau and stuffed our faces with smoked brisket, pulled pork, and beef cheeks. And then had a “light” dinner of miso soup and oyakodon. And that was just Sunday.

God I hate my boyfriend.

Cross-country homecooking

I’m not Filipino but my parents were born and raised in the Philippines and I went to high school there. I don’t miss it at all. I have friends that I miss dearly, and the beaches are beautiful, but really – I have no desire to go back to sit in traffic, see the same party people over and over again, and feel like I’m missing out on life (that’s a whole other story). But I really really really miss the food. We have restaurants here but they are in Queens and not convenient to get to. So when I went to Vancouver this weekend for Grandma’s 90th bday reunion I put in a request during some downtime to have some homecooking.

This is a spot in Coquitlam, BC called Kulinarya:

Sago at Gulaman – basically this is Filipino bubble tea. Usually it’s scarier looking, in a black liquid w/ black grass jelly.

Sisig – all the meat and cartilage from the pig’s head chopped up and served on a sizzling platter with soy sauce, garlic, onions, and traditionally a squeeze of kalamansi.

Inihaw na pusit – basically grilled squid stuffed with tomatoes. Really simple and good.

Bagoongan – pork belly cooked with green beans in spicy bagoong (fermented shrimp paste).

Ginataang Kalabasa – squash, okra, eggplant, pork, and shrimp in a coconut milk sauce. There is no such thing as vegetarian in the Philippines.

Of course we ate all of this with a giant bowl of garlic rice. My only gripe was that they didn’t actually cook the rice in garlic, they only topped it with fried garlic. I like it when the rice gets burnt a little bit…when I make it at home I even go as far as to use both fresh and powdered garlic to get the full dragon breath effect.

This was probably the best meal I ate there…we also ate a shit ton of Chinese food and after a couple of days of this my body finally revolted and wouldn’t take anymore. The only thing that fixed it was eating some of Ryan’s chorizo tacos when I came home.

Dear Dale, I’m not stalking you…

…but seriously your food is delicious. I’ve been to Talde three times now. The first time was with a larger group and we ordered pretty much everything on the menu – great way to try out a new restaurant. The second time was last week with two of my oldest and bestest, and the third time Wednesday night with Ryan, who missed the dinner last week and wanted to hit that Oyster & Bacon Pad Thai again. These are not my photos, but wanted to give you an idea of what the food looks like. You can click on them to go to the user’s Flickr pages.

I’m 99.9% sure that Dale Talde is Filipino, but his influences range from all over Asia. Standout dishes are the Perilla Leaf, Shrimp Toast, Lobster Tom Kha, Oyster & Bacon Pad Thai, and Whole Market Fish. And the Black Pepper Toast, which sounds weird but is super buttery and fluffy and good. I thought it was Texas toast at first but later learned it’s sliced bread from Tai Pan Bakery. Even better because I don’t like Texas toast.

Another thing I love is the Halo Halo, which is a riff on the traditional Filipino shaved ice dessert. Usually it’s made with evaporated milk, crispy rice, red beans, coconut jelly, jackfruit, saging (mini bananas), taro paste (or ice cream!), and topped with flan. But this craziness is nata de coco (the coconut jelly), Cap’n Crunch, roasted bananas, colored sago (tapioca balls), shaved buko (young coconut) and jackfruit. I think they use regular milk. What ensues is a kind of breakfast trash bowl on crack. It’s amaaaaaazing.

Korean fried chicken is cooked perfectly but the sauce coating reminds me of kimchi juice and the skin is sadly not as crispy as the typical twice-fried Bonchon/Kyochon/Mad For Chicken/UFC variety. The Kare Kare Shortribs need more flavor – sad because this is one of my favorite dishes, traditionally made with fatty oxtail. I kind of want him to come up with his own version of sinangag, which is basically garlic rice.

If you DO want to stalk Dale Talde, check this out. Ryan and I spotted him at Mile End last-last weekend.