Gotham Gal

Hotel Griffou

2009-07-16T12:02:58-04:00

Last night we had dinner at Hotel Griffou. One of the questions of the evening, as there were many, was about transparency in blogging that I wrote about earlier this week. Would I be
honest about the food this evening considering I know one of the investors?
Would I accentuate the positive and sweep the negative gently under the
carpet? Good question.

So, I need to be honest about my connection to Hotel Griffou. I was introduced to
one of the investors in the deal and then through that met the owners, etc.
I saw the restaurant when the walls were being put up. Conceptually a great idea. The attention to the physical details was impressive. They were raising a lot of cash, considering the times, and the guys
behind it, although seasoned in the restaurant business have never had their own place. In essence, they were not the guys making payroll, they were the guys that had managed and created the ambiance.

The restaurant itself is really well done. A variety of different rooms with
different themes and a total hipster vibe. Nice big bar area, low ceilings, feels a little bit like an old time
speakeasy. When I first saw the whole concept, the one thing that
threw me was the menu as I figured it was a work in progress. I didn't say a thing because I wasn't going to invest. We are invested in one restaurant now and figure we will see how that goes first. Now that the restaurant has opened and customers are streaming in, I have to say, whats up with the menu.

The menu is reminiscent of a 1950's dinner party. My guess is that as the owners did research on the place, hence the name Hotel Griffou which it was once called, that they would do something retro with the menu. I should have come with a bouffant hairdo. When we sat down, the four of us couldn't find a thing on the menu that even appealed to us. What really made me take pause was the pork dish that
actually has in parentheses that the recipe comes from 1892. Why would I
want to eat something that was first conceived of in 1892? Did the chef
come from that generation too? The food is honestly inedible, from
appetizers to dessert. We tried a lot of different things too. We ordered 4 appetizers, one extra came thanks to my friend so that makes 5, 3 entrees and 2 desserts.

I could go through the list of things we tried but why bother? Everything
is heavy handed, laden with sauces and tarragon, even the french fries are
awful. Oh, on second thought, I must comment on a few things, how can I not. Sliced duck
covered in beets, sauce and pieces of orange and heavy pepper, a block of
beef, overcooked and tasteless hamburger, where are the asparagus underneath
all that sauce, what's up with the lobster thermador fondue (mac and glue with some lobster tossed in), slabs of bone marrow with sauteed red onions on toast, freezing cold shrimp with a bitter
mayonnaise laden celery root salad, steak tartare with what in it, not sure
and a special of trout belly but where was it under all the sauces and
veggies and oh, what was that cookie on the plate that my friend spit out.
Ok, I've had my fun. I figured we should go all the way and try a dessert or two to see if that could possibly be awful too and it is. The cookie platter is disgusting. The cookies taste like
they were the first batch made from Sara Lee in the 1960's. Its not easy
making an inedible chocolate chip cookie. The banana butterscotch pudding
tasted like it came out of a can. Perhaps it did because they were still
defrosting the chef from 1892. I don't think I have ever been this harsh in a food post but honestly, it was one of the worst meals I have had in recent memory and not cheap. When a restaurant looks that good, they should try to match it with a good meal.

On another note, the front room, which is located under the sidewalk, is a private room for 12. There is something very humid and moldy smelling in there which they should seriously look into and quick.

Such a complete waste of cash. The space is cool, the location is great,
the people behind it are really nice and care....fire the chef, change the
menu and get into 2009 and out of 1892 but quick or the only thing that will
be roaming around those rooms come January are the ghosts of 1892 still
looking for leftovers of the pork dish.

Josh has a job

2009-07-15T15:46:21-04:00

Putting Josh to work this week. Hauling boxes for Ricks Picks. Love it!

Return to the Standard Grill

2009-07-15T11:25:17-04:00

Second time back to the Standard Grill was last night. I want to like the grill for so many reasons. Great space, in the neighborhood, the location is perfect, right under the Highline and the outdoor space is sweet. But as my friend put it, at the end of the day, the chef just isn't that great. It really is unfortunate. I wonder that as time goes on will the long lines that are there nightly as the crowds pour out into the street during the warmth of summer subside?

I tried different dishes last night. Half a dozen oysters that were just ok. For a main, I had the lamb chops. Saturated with so much seasoning that I couldn't really taste the lamb but just a mixture of spices and peppercorns. The side square deep fried polenta. was cheesy and dense. On the side was a heavy thick pesto with bits of something in it. The only other thing I tasted was Freds humble pie dessert. It comes in a small singular pie dish. I took a bite and almost spit it out. Fred said it tasted like a frozen grocery store pie. I found it so incredibly bitter that my mouth puckered.

The waitress forgot to come back and get my wine order. The ice cubed in my cocktail were the size of half my fist. Need I go on?

I so want the Standard to be good. We bumped into our friends on the way out and they said the same thing, the food is mediocre at best. The night is young, the crowds are there. Change the kitchen and change it now.

Black White and Jewish

2009-07-14T17:58:25-04:00

Autobiography's are interesting books for many reasons. First of all, it is like looking in someones closet which is always fascinating. Reading about someone else's life and experiences is interesting. But I do always keep in mind what one person recalls about their life isn't always what the other people who were part of the party remember. Case and point with James Frey's book and others autobiographys that have reached the shelf. When 2 people are having a fight, there are always 3 sides to the story. One persons side, the other persons side and the real truth. Yet at the end of the day, our own personal perspective of what happened to each of us growing up is all that counts.

With all that being said, I really found Black White and Jewish to be really thought provoking. Rebecca Walker was born in the late 60's to a white Jewish civil rights lawyer dad and a black (soon to be famous writer ) mother. The marriage which had all the trapping of the times and desires for change, didn't last. Rebecca was the product of that marriage. Although black in appearance, she was always white and Jewish in her head maybe more so.

Her parents, who went their own separate ways, decided to send Rebecca to live with each of them in 2 year intervals. At her father's home, she was living in a predominantly white community and while at her mothers, she was living in a predominantly black community. She was accepted readily into the black community but not so easily in the white community. She was going back and forth between two worlds and had a very difficult time searching for her own identity.

As an adult, there is no doubt that she has probably found her sense of self as she is an incredibly accomplished writer. I would be surprised if many scars didn't remain from reading about her anger towards both her parents as she tried desperately to fit in somewhere.

At our kids school, there are more than a handful of kids from mixed racial marriages and each of those kids, one in particular, has found a real comfort level and sense of self in this community. Also, in the world that we now live in, it is much different from the world that Rebecca Walker grew up in. Even President Obama had a white mother and black father yet he was raised by the white mother, he ended up marrying a black woman. Perhaps because of the color of his skin, he identified more with marrying a black woman.

Certainly we have come a long way of accepting people for who they are inside not outside but I would hope that other people do not have to find themselves searching so hard to feel comfortable in their own skin as Rebecca Walker did. A worthy read.

Holding bloggers accountable

2009-07-13T15:20:34-04:00

There has always been a fine line between journalism and their advertisers. It is not an easy line to draw in the sand. You don't want to write bad things about your blood supply but on the other hand, I believe there should be honesty and transparency.

Today, in the NY Times, there was an article about bloggers who are given products and basically only praise the ones they like and choose not to write about the ones they don't like. Again, who wants to bite the hand that feeds them. Certainly if a company has backed and created a product it is hard to hear that it isn't what it is cracked up to be from a blogger. Particularly a blogger that is getting freebies from a company hoping that they praise the product and reach the variety of niche markets out there.

I believe I have been transparent, but maybe I haven't. I get a few books a month from publishers that I read and review. Sometimes I just post the book in my blog roll and other times I write a longer post. Some books I haven't even bothered with because I couldn't get thru them but if I read the product, I say what I think. Figure it isn't worth saying, "hey I got this book and it was awful and couldn't get past the second chapter" or maybe it is.

I get a shipment from Foodzie every month to review products. Some good, some great, others just ok and I have tried to give my opinion for what its worth to who ever reads my posts.

The blogging community has really created niche markets for themselves that advertisers are interested in targeting. Makes total sense. If 10 people buy a book because I recommended it, that makes a market and these days that is fantastic for any company.

Not sure how bloggers are held to a standard of morals that are applied daily in the world of journalism (although the Washington Post surely pushed that enveloped recently) but I hope that I do.

Lentil Dip

2009-07-10T18:43:55-04:00

I made this last weekend and it lasted a few different visitors. So simple to make and keeps well in the fridge.

2/3 cup red or french green lentils ( i had green so that's what i went with )

olive oil
2 tsps. grated fresh ginger
1 sweet onion, chopped
2 tbsp. cumin
14 ounce can of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp. fresh cilantro chopped ( you can always omit this if you hate cilantro )

Wash the lentils in a strainer under cold water, and really drain well. Cover the bottom of a frying pan lightly with olive oil. Heat the oil and then add the onion and ginger and cook for about 4 minutes or until soft.

Add the cumin and lentils. Cook for about one minute or until thoroughly mixed. Add the tomatoes and another cup of water. Crank up the heat to get the mixture to boil, then turn down to simmer.

Watch the pot. As the juice starts to boil down, just continue to stir so the mixture doesn't burn. It takes about 20 minutes to get thick and get rid of all the juice.

Transfer the mixture to a cuisinart and mix until really processed. Add cilantro ( or don't ), season with salt. Serve with tortilla chips or pita chips. The other bite in the pic is crostini with a slice of goat gouda and a dollop of Handy Corn from Ricks Picks (which you can only buy online).

Peach, Apricot, Cherry Pie

2009-07-10T18:27:48-04:00

I love entertaining in general but have always wondered what it is about the beach that makes me cook even more. My guess is that I find cooking incredibly relaxing and cathartic and out here, there isn't much to do so I occupy my time by whipping up food in the kitchen.

Josh and I made this pie today. He did all the lattice work, pitted the cherries and was a great sous chef.

You can either buy already made crust or make it. We made it. Made the crust around 11am and rolled it out around 2pm.

Pate Brisee (classic pie crust )

Use a cuisinart, makes life much really easier.

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup really cold water

Put the flour, butter and sugar in the cuisinart. Use the dough blade. Turn it on until the butter looks like coarse crumbs. Now you add the water. This is the tricky part. I am at the beach, so the air is so full of water that you actually need more water than less. So in the city, I use 1/4 cup but out here I use 1/2 cup water. Pour in the water, and pulse until the mixture becomes dough. Divide in half and roll each piece in plastic wrap, put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. You could actually keep it in the fridge over night or in the freezer for a month but I've never had success keeping it in the freezer.

Roll out each dough separately between either plastic wrap or parchment paper. Makes it easier and less mess. Then put in the fridge again, rolled out, to get cold before working with the dough again, about 15 minutes. Put the dough over the pie crust, push down and let the extra dough hang over. Use a fork to prick holes on the bottom. Put back in the fridge. Next time, I will take step by step pics as I make a lots of pies over the summer.

We made a lattice pie so it is a tad more complicated. Take the other half of the dough that you rolled out, and use a knife or pizza cutter and cut even strips. Then on parchment paper, over lap the pieces to create the effect. Take the pie out of the fridge, pour in the fruit ( recipe below ) and flip the lattice over very quickly and crimp around the edges. If you don't want to do this, just lay over the other piece of dough you have rolled out and cut an X in the middle so when the pie cooks, steam gets out.

Take the egg yolk and cream, whisk together and then brush over the top of the pie, and sprinkle sugar over that.

Before putting the pie in the oven, I take tin foil and curl it underneath the edges of the pie ends so when the pie is in the oven, the edges don't melt over but stay in place. It is truly key for a beautiful pie. They actually make gadgets for this but I don't have one.

Put in the oven at 400, for 20 minutes and then take it down to 350 for about 40 more minutes. After 20, I put tin foil lightly over the top of the pie so the crust didn't burn.

Filling:.

4 large peaches, pitted and sliced into about 8 sliced, not to thin and not too thick.
1 lb. of apricots, pitted and sliced into 6-8 pieces depending on the size of the apricot
1 lb of cherries (we used half red and half yellow) a pitter is an essential accessory to do the job, cut in half
2/3-3/4 cup of granulated sugar depending on how sweet the fruit is
3 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
half of a really juicy lemon ( 2 tbsp. )
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. cream (although not essential)
I picked up sugar that is made for sugar cookies to sprinkle over the top

Mix together all the fruit with the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and salt. Filling complete.

Momofuku Noodle Bar

2009-07-09T20:16:54-04:00

David Chang is truly one of those chefs that has changed the way that other chefs think about food, imho. He has taken flavors, ideas, concepts and reinvented the way they are put together and served. There is a reason for his success, it is not only the people he works with that help execute his vision or the vibe at each of his restaurants, at the end of the day, the food is just simply delicious.

I was treated to a meal yesterday at the Noodle Bar. We had a combo of a variety of things. Keep in mind that the prix fixe, 3 course lunch there is only $20. A price not to be beat based on what you are getting which is a trip down culinary lane.

We began with crudo. 6 pieces of thinly sliced raw fluke that had small strawberries placed inside and around the fluke with thinly small slices of lemon that had been pickled and a few pieces of greens. The sweetness of the strawberries with the sour of the lemon tossed together with the fish was sublime. We also had raw tasmanian sea trout, a neon orange color, that was sliced a tad thicker over a cinnamon yogurt and a rhubarb tasting gel. Also good and the yogurt was different and clever.

Next out were 2 deconstructed salads. A round plate with thinly sliced green and yellow zucchini, each gently folded on the plate. A few thinly sliced pickled beets perfectly placed on the squash with a light tofu vinaigrette over the top and a tiny pieces of pine nut brittle. The sweet brittle changed the entire complexion of the dish. I really love a sweet nut in a salad, makes your whole mouth explode. The other dish was thinly sliced pieces of rare duck over miniature brocolli rabe ( it was probably something else but I can't recall ). There was something else on the plate but I can't remember.

2 more dishes came out. A bowl of roasted scallops served with a fresh crisp vinegar dressing, pieces of cucumber, sorrel and freeze dried into a potato chip pieces of nori. Simple. This round came with a ridiculously rich over the top seared foie gras. Foie gras served with a thick boiled down cherry sauce and sauteed greens. It is wasn't for the fact that I was with people I have yet to get to know, I would have licked the plate clean.

Keep in mind, all the dishes were not that big but I admit, I was starting to get full. Next out was a bowl of roasted rice cakes. Reminded me of the signature Nobu dish of rock shrimp. This is much better. The size of your thumb, cylindrical rice cakes that are chewy on the outside and soft in the middle, fried and tossed with roasted onions and a red chili pepper sauce and then topped with sesame seeds. They are ridiculously addictive. Once you eat one, you can't stop.

Last out was ramen. I seriously considered ordering one of these soups to go for the road to eat again later. A bowl of carmel broth with a few pieces of braised pork belly and pork shoulder, a thin slice of daikon over a bowl of thin noodles and a perfectly cooked poached egg glistening on the top. Mix that all together and you have heaven in a bowl.

Dessert was essential. A small cup of a swirled cherry/lime twist like soft ice cream topped with a crunchy coconut granola concotion. The perfect end.

Honestly, all I can now think of is how soon I can get back to the Noodle Bar for another meal. Another bonus is the menu changes daily so I get an opportunity to taste more innovative brilliant dishes. Can't beat it.

Some more products from Foodzie

2009-07-09T15:12:03-04:00

I received a couple of new products to try out from Foodzie. So far, I have only tried 2. The other 2 need a little prep but plan on doing it this weekend.

The first product was the Fleur de Sel Peanut Brittle. In full disclosure, I am a peanut brittle lover. As the products come my way, there are obviously some that I like more because it is something I enjoy. Others, I wouldn't pick up on my own although it doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the product. I adored the peanut brittle. Everyone else did too because when I went back for another piece, the box was empty except for a few lone crumbs. There are a few flavors available. I am definitely going to order the combo box and taste them all. Btw, I have made peanut brittle before, and without fail, I end up eating the whole thing. A total fave.

Next up was a Shallot Confit with red wine. I admit, it sat on my counter for a full week before I even opened the jar. The confit happens to be rich, tasty, layered and delicious and no doubt a nice accompaniment to a good steak but this is one of the products that I would have never taken off the shelf to buy myself. Quince Apple, the company, makes the products and is women owned and small which is a bonus and I certainly appreciate the love that goes into the product but I can't imagine this being a big seller.

More to come...

Gifted Show, July 8 - July 30th

2009-07-08T17:10:18-04:00

Jessica's work was shown in a gallery over a year ago. After the success of the show, the gallery, Synchronicity Fine Arts, decided to choose from the many artists that were in the show and highlight 3 of them that the committee thought was the best. Jessica is one of those artists.

Her work is being shown, and sold, at the Gifted Show at Synchronicity Fine Arts located at 106 West 13th between 6/7th Avenue, 12-6 pm, Wednesday - Saturday.

I checked out the opening today. She takes over about 75% of the gallery and the front room so that is quite exciting. I took a few pictures but they don't even begin to give them justice as you can see my reflection in the photo.

If you get a chance, come on by.