Archive for October, 2009
Blue Water Grill – A “Caper” Caper, or, Why are there two capers in my dessert?
This past Saturday, I went to Blue Water Grill for a friend’s baby shower. I was pretty excited because I’d never been there before, and I heard their fish dishes are delish. It turns out the crush and noise level one experiences there during the brunch rush is not so appetizing. Neither was my “Warm Chocolate Molten Cake w/ Bittersweet Chocolate Crisp and Malt Crunch Ice Cream.”
I don’t know why I always fall for the molten chocolate cake thing. It’s usually a disappointment– with dry, tasteless crusts, and pudding-like, gelatinous insides. It’s like people think if the words “molten” and “chocolate” are put together, all will be right with the world. This one certainly fell into that slot, but with the addition of bland, Breyer’s-like ice cream and a weird green gel squirted along the plate’s perimeter. Neither myself nor my companion could place the gel’s flavor– it really tasted like those cheap colored frosting gels you decorate cookies with when you’re five years old. I also noticed a couple things I swore looked like capers lining the plate atop the gel. “What could they be?” I thought. “Cardamom pods, perhaps? Hmm, but no one else who ordered this cake has those things on their plate. But they can’t possibly be capers, because that would be so disgusting.” Well, it turns out they were capers, in all of their salty, pickley glory… and I was turned off of dessert for the rest of the day.
(Sorry no pics, but I felt it would be disrespectful to photograph my interloping capers as the baby momma’s momma had very kindly treated us to the brunch, and she was sitting right next to me.)
Mike & Son Sharpening Service – Coming soon to a street corner near you
**I know this isn’t about dessert exactly, but knives are just a liiiiitle bit important in the culinary world, wouldn’t you say?**
While perusing the interwebs at some point recently, I came across something about there being a mobile sharpening truck that comes around periodically. I thought to myself, “I think I read about that kind of thing in Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables, but that takes place in 1850s New England! I have, like, 5 knives that are so dull I’ve basically stopped cooking. Remembering to bring them somewhere to get sharpened is such a hassle, and I’m too lazy to make a special trip into town. I would love if that old-school sharpening truck came around here.”
I’ve lived in my current spot for more than 9 years, and on weekends, my subconscious has vaguely registered a ringing noise occasionally coming from the street. As a resident of busy Brooklyn, you come to accept all kinds of noises and learn to just ignore them. And so I did, until today.
So I’m sitting on my couch checking out pastryscoop.com, when I hear that familiar-ish ringing noise again. But it’s not exactly a ringing noise– my mind transforms it into more like metal getting ground. WAIT! Is that by any miracle the sharpening truck?! I look out the window, and there it is, this ancient-looking green truck with drawings of knives and scissors on the side. What luck! I quickly grab every cooking knife I can find in the house (3 chef’s, 2 paring, 1 bread), wrap them in a towel, and rush outside like a crazy person, hoping like hell that 1. the truck is still there, and 2. that none of them slip out and stab me in the foot. Here’s the truck!
WD-50 – A Dessert Blogger’s Paradise
At the suggestion of Pastry Chef Chavigny of Daniel and a generous birthday gift from my brother, the next stop on my explorations was WD-50, a restaurant known for its use of weirdo ingredients and au courant culinary tools like liquid nitrogen (for flash freezing), hydrocolloids (or various “gums” for changing the consistencies of liquids), and dehydrators. Leading the charge in the pastry kitchen is Chef Alex Stupak, formerly of Alinea in Chicago, another major player in the world of cutting-edge cookery.
For just $38, you can get your own 3-course dessert tasting. Since I was with a friend, I asked our waiter whether Chef Stupak would condescend to give us 3 different desserts each, so that we could try a total of 6. We waited on tenterhooks for him to return from the kitchen with the verdict… which was Yes– huzzah!
Every plate was like a playground for the senses and also a puzzle… for my mind. I hardly knew where to start with each one. Some dishes had delicious elements all around– you could enjoy each one alone, or combine them with others. Other dishes were truly deconstructed desserts, where each element alone tasted either bland or downright nasty, but when combined with others created a perfect balance of sweet, bitter, salty, etc. Here are some observations, which you should follow along with the fine pics above, as this can get a mite complicated.
Bouley Bakery / Café – The Ultimate Lunch Option [NOW CLOSED]
If you work in or near Tribeca, please don’t read this post. If you do, and you gain a ton of weight as a result, then don’t say I didn’t warn you.
To get an idea of how good the food is here, just imagine actually eating at Bouley, the restaurant, but instead of having waiters serve you, you get it yourself. To call it a buffet, however, would call to mind– very inaccurately– memories of, say, Ponderosa. I mean, this place has duck à l’orange and the most decadent croques monsieurs of your life, for pete’s sake! You get to take your spoils into a fancy-pants dining room. Sure, the plush seating is somewhat stained and grotty, but what do you expect? I just like the fact that they trust the public to keep the mess in check. Plus, they’ve got real silverware and washable plastic water cups all ready for you, so yay for the environment. They’re only open until 8:30pm, and they’re not open on Saturdays, which makes me wonder if they’re worried people will decide to save some major dough and come here instead of Bouley. It’s really that good.