Restaurants: March 2004 Archives
My parents were in town last weekend, and we went to the Natural History Museum to check out the new ocean life room. In the gift shop they had some chocolate left over from their big chocolate exhibit, so I bought some Vosges Haut-Chocolat: Red Fire, with ancho and chipotle chiles and cinnamon. I was kind of disappointed, though; it tasted like a red hot to me.
It also kind of reminded me of my uncle Larry's cinnamon schnapps. He probably uses red hots to make it. It's fabulous, if I remember correctly: the heat from the cinnamon flavor and the bite of the alcohol. I added a little chipotle powder to my last mug of hot chocolate, and I liked that better than the Vosges chocolate, too. The temperature heat and the flavor heat combine for an intense experience.
Anyway, there were two other Vosges flavors I want to try: curry and coconut with milk chocolate (Naga), and ginger, wasabi and black sesame seeds with dark chocolate (Black Pearl).
Chocolate cream pie with a meringue topping is a two person job (especially if you don't have a standing mixer, although women for years made it without one). One of the key elements of putting the whole thing together is to spread the freshly whipped meringue over a piping-hot filling, so the meringue sort of cooks on contact and doesn't break down and weep. So I have my arms stretched across our small kitchen, stirring the bubbling chocolate custard with one hand while I hold the running mixer in the meringue with the other. The other key is to prevent shrinking by spreading the meringue to cover all the edges of the pie.
I did have a problem, though. As the pie sat, sweet little amber-colored beads formed on top of the meringue. It wasn't exactly weeping in the traditional sense, where there's a watery layer between the meringue and the filling. I was thinking maybe it was because the meringue was overcooked, because the recipe I used cooked it at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. But the texture of the meringue was just what I like, foamy but solid, so I'm not sure that's it. Any ideas?
Todd's birthday was Wednesday, and he chose Les Halles (on Park Ave South) for dinner. I think it's because he read Kitchen Confidential recently and was curious to see the place Bourdain wrote so much about. It's funny because if we had given it any real thought the Les Halles in our imaginations would have matched the real one, but we both imagined something less dark, crowded and noisy. We were both game, though, and really grew to like the liveliness.
Our drinks were ho-hum, but we split an order of smoked herring and potato salad to start that was my favorite part of the meal. It was one whole smoked herring fillet, draped over four big chunks of boiled potato. The herring was not flakey, but had the texture of tough cold-smoked salmon. At first Todd said the texture bordered on revolting, but he grew to like it. The best part was that the potatoes get covered in all that smokey olive oil from the fish, the excess of which I mopped up with the good bread.
I almost wish I had stopped there, simply because I was so full after eating my main course that I could hardly enjoy dessert. I ordered merguez and frites. The four lamb sausages were very unevenly seasoned from link to link: the cumin and heat of the first one overwelmed any other flavor, but the second link was more mildly seasoned, and benefitted from the spicy harissa served with. Good fries and a few greens that offered a cool break from the heat of the lamb. Todd's steak (a NY strip, I think) was so sweet and tender, with a pronounced beefy flavor, like a good hamburger on the grill. (Is it depressing that I think his steak tasted like hamburger? I don't mean it that way.).
Chocolate-banana cake for dessert, which I would've enjoyed more had my tastebuds recovered from my main dish. Happy Birthday, Todd! I hope you enjoyed it.
Todd's birthday was Wednesday, and he chose Les Halles (on Park Ave South) for dinner. I think it's because he read Kitchen Confidential recently and was curious to see the place Bourdain wrote so much about. It's funny because if we had given it any real thought the Les Halles in our imaginations would have matched the real one, but we both imagined something less dark, crowded and noisy. We were both game, though, and really grew to like the liveliness.
Our drinks were ho-hum, but we split an order of smoked herring and potato salad to start that was my favorite part of the meal. It was one whole smoked herring fillet, draped over four big chunks of boiled potato. The herring was not flakey, but had the texture of tough cold-smoked salmon. At first Todd said the texture bordered on revolting, but he grew to like it. The best part was that the potatoes get covered in all that smokey olive oil from the fish, the excess of which I mopped up with the good bread.
I almost wish I had stopped there, simply because I was so full after eating my main course that I could hardly enjoy dessert. I ordered merguez and frites. The four lamb sausages were very unevenly seasoned from link to link: the cumin and heat of the first one overwelmed any other flavor, but the second link was more mildly seasoned, and benefitted from the spicy harissa served with. Good fries and a few greens that offered a cool break from the heat of the lamb. Todd's steak (a NY strip, I think) was so sweet and tender, with a pronounced beefy flavor, like a good hamburger on the grill. (Is it depressing that I think his steak tasted like hamburger? I don't mean it that way.).
Chocolate-banana cake for dessert, which I would've enjoyed more had my tastebuds recovered from my main dish. Happy Birthday, Todd! I hope you enjoyed it.
