December 4th, 2011 by bonniedavidson
To eat is human; to feast, divine. I realized this when I was about eight years old and experienced my first food epiphany. Before then, I was pretty indifferent to food and, to be honest, remained an unenthusiastic eater for many years afterward. But one fateful day I learned that, aside from simply providing sustenance, food can be one of life’s greatest pleasures, when my great-aunt from New York City, Aunt Cecile, came to visit us in suburbia. Inside her shopping bag of goodies was a small jar of beluga caviar, filled with tiny, perfectly round black orbs that glistened in the fluorescent light above our kitchen table. I had never seen anything more beautiful . . . or appetizing. My sister and I used our fingers to each taste one little bead, then a few more. Soon, we were using teaspoons and, before long, slathering our rye toast with the magical foodstuff, which was as salty as pretzels and gently popped on our tongues. Even the fact that it was fish roe didn’t turn us off. In fact, it only heightened our sense of wonder and increased our appetite for the delicacy.
As the Editor in Chief of IN New York and Where New York magazines–and writer of the monthly “Dish du Jour” column–I get to eat at some pretty amazing restaurants and frequently sample mind-blowing dishes by the most creative chefs in the culinary capital of the world (I know, it’s a tough job…). But there’s one dish that I simply can’t get out of my head even six months after it was served to me at the counter of L’Atelier Joel Robuchon in the five-star Four Seasons Hotel New York. The pivotal dish, which will forever define my gastronomic life into before and after, is L’Oursin, humbly described on the menu as sea urchin in a lobster gelée, topped with a cauliflower cream. It was presented in a large glass egg decorated with flecks of gold, on a plate with a single rose petal and tiny pearl of edible gold. A thick layer of unctious sea urchin was on the bottom. The love-child of jello and lobster was in the middle. Cauliflower with the consistency of custard was on top, dotted with a ring of parsley chlorophyll. It was briny, sweet, creamy, oddly refreshing … and life altering.
Have any dishes changed your life? Leave a comment here, or send me an email: bonnie.davidson@morris.com.
Tags: L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon
Posted in Hotel Restaurants, L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, Modern French | 1 Comment »
May 6th, 2011 by bonniedavidson
On a personal crusade against “palate fatigue” caused by dishes that “taste the same with every bite,” Ben Pollinger, executive chef of elegant seafood restaurant Oceana, says that he layers textures and flavors in unlikely ways: “I like to have some blend of crispy, crunchy, chewy, creamy, meaty. In regard to flavors, I like to have a balance of sweet, sour, and salty. Bitter is best left as an undertone. A good example would be a dish I had on the menu long ago, sautéed Nantucket bay scallops with a mamey puree (mamey is a tropical fruit with a creamy orange flesh and a flavor like a combination of mango, pineapple and banana) and citrus salad. The scallops are naturally sweet, as is the mamey. The citrus segments were sweet but acidic at the same time. I used to use six or seven different kinds, like cara cara oranges, Persian limes, sweet lemons, pomelos, satsumas. I would candy the pomelo rind and dot a few pieces on the plate, so that as you were eating a few acidic bites of citrus, which would create ‘high notes.’ You could come around to a piece of candied pomelo rind, which would bring you back down with its sweetness. The whole concept for me is kind of like creating a built-in palate cleanser in a dish, but not so extreme. Just enough so that you don’t get bored with the same flavor and texture halfway through a dish.”
These days, he plates sweet white tuna sashimi with tart peach chutney studded with crunchy macadamia nuts and drizzles steamed black bass with tangy carrot-citrus sauce. Moist, fleshy dorade filet (chewy) is wrapped in a thin, crisp taro crust (crunchy) and served with a piece of basmati rice cake and a mound of baby bok choy, Chinese long beans and blanched peanuts, seasoned with chilis, ginger, Thai basil and kokum (a tart dried Indian fruit). Tableside, a server pours a sauce that Chef Pollinger tells me consists of ginger, shallots, garlic, coriander, cumin, black cumin, mustard seeds, curry leaves, fish fumet and coconut milk, and finished at the last minute with cilantro puree. It’s the color of a freshly mowed lawn in early springtime and is just as aromatic, in an exotic, Asian sort of way. No two bites are ever the same…and my palate was at a constant state of attention.
Posted in Oceana, Seafood | 1 Comment »
September 15th, 2010 by bonniedavidson
With enough enthusiasm to fill the Taj Mahal, my friend Tarik Currimbhoy, a sculptor and architect, guided me through the construction site of his latest project, Junoon, an 18,000-square-foot, high-end Indian restaurant he’s designing at 27 W. 24th St. (in the space formerly occupied by a nightclub called Eugene’s) , which will probably open the first week of November. For reasons both culinary and architectural, it’s perhaps the most eagerly anticipated new restaurant this season.
Power tools whirred as we stepped over thick orange extension chords and around ladders, giant wooden crates and all manner of building materials. Workers sawed, banged and did lots of noisy things in this vast, unfinished space, while Tarik spoke in the present tense. “This is the ‘Tree of Life’ painting,” he said, gesturing to a bare wall. “Over here is the lounge…open kitchen…reflecting pool…tent-shaped light fixtures…” Already in place are ornate 200-year-old columns that define two areas of the 150-seat dining room. A long, double-sided swing, like a porch swing for a palace in Jaipur, is pushed off to the side and will be moved into the bar as soon as the saw horses are removed.
Most spectacular is the restaurant’s exterior and interior walls made of hand-chiseled kaddappa, a black limestone from India. Tarik holds the design patent for the process of sculpting the stone so that it appears to be woven, then polishing it until it’s literally as smooth as silk.
Owner Rajesh Bhardwaj told me that in a spice room on the lower level, cardamom, cumin and all sorts of other aromatic seeds, pods and leaves will be ground every morning, so that Chef Vikas Khanna can prepare regional dishes using farm-to-table ingredients and only the freshest seasonings. “We’re taking Indian food to a higher level,” he said, adding that the restaurant will be the first in New York City to highlight the five traditional styles of Indian cooking: curries and other sauces, tandoor (clay) oven, cast iron griddle, stone for searing meats and char broiling.
A short walk from lovely, leafy Madison Square Park, home of the original Shake Shack, this block is fast becoming a veritable Restaurant Row. It’s diagonally across the street from Eataly, Mario Batali’s much-buzzed-about new Italian foodworld; directly across from quirky Thai restaurant Planethailand 212; beside cozy but sleek Italian roost San Rocco; and two doors down from Nuevo Latino extravaganza Nuela.
Posted in Eataly, Italian, Junoon, Latin, Nuela, San Rocco | 1 Comment »
July 21st, 2010 by bonniedavidson
The slate patio at New Leaf Restaurant & Bar is one of the few places in New York City where you can dine outside and the sounds of birdsong at lunch and crickets at dinner are louder than the hum of traffic. A charming stone country cottage tucked into Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan, within walking distance of The Cloisters, the eatery is part of the New York Restoration Project, a non-profit clean-up-the-parks group founded by Bette Midler. During the growing season, Executive Chef Scott Campbell plucks two types of sage, rosemary, lemon thyme, oregano, basil, lavender, chives and red and green lettuce from his small garden–three triangular beds of greenery right beside the patio–and uses them in his seasonal, modern American food.
On a recent balmy evening, my dining companion, who happens to be an amateur astronomer, was gazing at the small amount of clear sky visible through the branches of stately oak and elm trees and noticed a bright light, very high in the atmosphere, moving steadily from south to north. ”It’s the international space station,” he said between bites of spicy salmon tartare and ravioli with truffle butter and thin slices of duck prosciutto. “Yeah, sure,” I sniffed, taking another sip of my fragrant tea rose martini (organic Earl Grey infused gin, St.Germain liqueur, fresh lemon, rose water). He proceeded to point out his sighting, as well as Saturn and Venus, to a few members of New Leaf’s very hip waitstaff, who seemed fascinated by the impromptu science lesson.
When I got home that night, I checked the website Heavens Above and, alas, he was absolutely correct. On July 1st, 2010, at about 8:56 p.m., the international space station passed over Washington Heights. Thanks to Chef Campbell, NASA and the space agencies of Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe, I had an astronomic gastronomic experience—and it was delicious.
Have you seen any satellites, meteors, northern lights or other celestial phenomena while dining in the moonlight beneath the stars? Send me an email (bonnie.davidson@morris.com) or post a comment below.
Posted in Modern American, New Leaf Restaurant & Bar | 1 Comment »
May 17th, 2010 by bonniedavidson
I think lavender tastes like soap and dandelion greens like, well, weeds, but a rose is a rose is a really nice flavor. When the lovely blossoms’ petals are plucked, dried and steeped like tea leaves, the result is fragrant, not perfumey; delicate, yet strong. At Bhojan, the cool creaminess of a rose lassi, a yogurt-based non-alcoholic Indian drink, is a lovely way to extinguish the fiery green chiles in dhokla (steamed lentil cakes with the consistency of corn bread), which can stage an incendiary sneak attack on the tip of the tongue.
Everything is coming up roses (thru Sept. 30th) at Rosewood Hotels & Resorts. To celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary–and as a tribute to founder Caroline Rose Hunt–the chefs and mixologists at 16 Rosewood properties throughout the world have been charged with creating rose-infused dishes and cocktails. Here in New York City, Chef James Sakatos at The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel is serving up distilled springtime. Using dried rose petals from Greece, rose water and rose cordial, he’s turning gelée into a light, floral foil for rich Hudson Valley foie gras terrine, which he plates with crisp brioche toast, a whole lychee and a drizzle of raspberry ice wine reduction. Also on the rosey menu at The Carlyle Restaurant and Bemelmans Bar is a rose-essence infused Champagne granita cocktail and two desserts: frozen strawberry-rose soufflé and berry salad garnished with sugar-dusted rose petals.
Here is Chef Sakatos’ recipe for Rose Gelee:
INGREDIENTS
1 Cup dried rose petals, packed
2 Cups water
1/2 Cup sugar
8 oz. rose water
2 oz. honey
3 oz. rose cordial
14 gelatin leaves (or 8 teaspoons of powdered gelatin)
PREPARATION
1. Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Remove and let steep (similar to a tea) for approximately one hour.
2. Bloom the gelatin leaves in cold water, placing the leaves in one at a time.
3. Strain the tea and reserve the rose petals for another use.
4. Add the gelatin leaves in the tea one at a time and gently stir until dissolved. The liquid must be warm to dissolve thoroughly.
5. Place liquid into a pan and refrigerate over night.
6. The following day, dice the gelée into very fine cubes or chop. Serve with foie gras.
Have you had any noteworthy experiences cooking with or eating flowers? Send me an email or post your comments here.
Posted in A Rosewood Hotel, Bhojan, Hotel Restaurants, Indian, The Carlyle | No Comments »
February 26th, 2010 by bonniedavidson
The concept of “small plates suitable for sharing”–which is becoming increasingly popular in New York City restaurants and “gastropubs” these days–seems oxymoronic to me. A portion designed to be divided and conquered by more than one person should, in fact, be larger, not more diminutive, than the average serving. And it should consist of multiple bite-size pieces on a single plate, so that forks can attack it from all sides. Otherwise, someone is bound to feel embarrased about turning a beautiful-looking dish into an unappetizing mess or, even worse, cheated because he or she has gotten the smaller half.
Most of the time, my husband (and most frequent dining companion) Michael and I share everything we order, whether or not it’s officially sanctioned by the restaurant. We carefully eat 50 percent of all elements including sauce and sides, then switch plates. We did this not too long ago at Centrico with an appetizer of tamal de huitlacoche, a fat cigar-shaped tamale made with the Mexican delicacy huitlacoche, a fungus that grows on ears of corn and considered by South-of-the-Border chefs to be as precious as truffles. It tasted like an earthy, smoky corn cake and no matter how emphatically I told the waiter that I liked it, he didn’t believe me, because the plate he had delivered to my side of the table was in front of Michael 10 minutes later. Let it be known that I wasn’t passing off distateful fungi on my mate. I was simply sharing with him the taste sensation. Honest.
I recently sampled a perfect-for-sharing dish at Recette: crispy razor clams– five fingers of crunchy, chewy, briny sweetness. Dipping (and double-dipping) these morsels into a ramekin of spicy red chili compote and popping them in your mouth is a fun activity to share with table mates–and that’s what the experience of dining out should be. The only problem was cutting that last finger in two. One of us made a mess, the other wound up with the smaller half.
Posted in Centrico, Gastropub, Mexican | 2 Comments »
January 14th, 2010 by bonniedavidson
Welcome to “One Dish at a Time,” my fresh new blog about NYC chefs’ creations that taste so amazing they prompt me to close my eyes, dismiss every sensation other than the ones in my mouth, breathe deeply, chew slowly, swallow eventually and purr “mmm.” Between you and me, however, I don’t find the word “blog” particularly appetizing. It reminds me of the sound one makes when he or she is, shall we say, relinquishing what has already been ingested, perhaps after a multi-course meal and one too many lychee martinis (not that it’s ever happened to me, of course). So, please consider this my “mmmlog.” Come back often. I promise to spare no adjective, simile or metaphor as I share with you some of the most spectacular things I’m lucky enough to eat in restaurants big and small, fancy and humble, in the five boroughs.
And now, my Top 10 mmms of 2009:
1. A half-moon of creamy foie gras torchon glazed with hibiscus-beet gelée and blood orange at Corton
2) Celery root and almond panna cotta topped with peekytoe crab and grapefruit at Rouge Tomate
3) Foie gras torchon “PB&J,” an open-face riff on the classic lunchbox sandwich (peanut butter and jelly), consisting of velvety foie gras, two grapes coated with cornflakes and port wine, strawberry-vanilla jam, brioche toast and macadamia nut butter at The Oak Room at The Plaza Hotel
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Aureole, Corton, Japanese, Marea, Matsugen, Modern American, Oak Room at The Plaza, SHO Shaun Hergatt, Seafood, Veritas | No Comments »
