Categories
The Chef

Pata Negra Saga – Chapter One

As announced in the NY Times Dining In section, Pata Negra will finally be open for business on Friday February 8. It has been a long arduous process with many a story to tell. I will try to relate these trials and tribulations through my next few blogs. My website has been hacked and so can only communicate thru this blog site, at least for the time being. Join me at Pata Negra on 12th street between 1st and 2nd avenue for ham, cheese and wine – true tapas! I will be serving pata negra ham, Murray’s cheeses and a reserve wine list featuring wines from my private collection. The tapas bar only has twenty-four seats, so come in early! Info can be obtained at patanegratapas.com. In the meanwhile, here’s the first installation.

Pata Negra Part I

After having successfully created a serious wine list for La Nacional, a local Spanish restaurant on 14th Street, as well as having changed the outdated menu, business is up 25% and the Times comes in for a review. Overnight La Nacional becomes a hotspot. I team up with the owner for a new venture. My friend Billy stops in and has some pulpo. He mentions 12th street for a cana bar. I take a look, and deem the place too small. At the time we were looking for a restaurant-sized space. This is June of 2006. I had just quit teaching for good. The owner wants $55,000 for the remaining lease (6 1/2 years) and space (equipment). At the same time we are approached by another man who wants to partner with us. Our attorneys deem the month to month lease no good. We say no, and pursue 12th street.

Categories
Drinking Eating Experiences The Chef

Cafe Abraco

What do you get when you cross a full-sized kitchen, an Italian masterpiece called La Marzocco, and barely ten square feet of standing room only space for its customers? Add a triumvirate of owners who know what they’re doing, and you’ll find yourself standing out on the street too. I never could understand all those lines at Café Magnolia for those cupcakes or even waiting twenty minutes for a Shake Shack frozen custard, but at Café Abraco, one cup of espresso will cause you to look around for a witness. Order java from Jamie, who churns up some of the most delicious coffee creations enough to give Joe’s Espresso a run for its money. Add a delicious olive oil cake and creative afternoon inventions such as panini and Spanish influenced fare and you’ve got a spot you wish you had on your block.

This is serious café done San Francisco style, and this will become an East Village hang-out to stay. There are different treats depending on the time of day, which is great for pleasant surprises. I’m always there when Jamie is at the helm, and his hospitality is key.

Viva café! Viva East Village Culinary Revolution!

Categories
Drinking Recipes The Chef

Coqui-to!

As the holidays are upon us, I often feel like having a large glass of egg nog.  In the Caribbean, islands have different variations and recipes for this traditional drink.  In Haiti, we drink what is called cremace.  I have many relatives in Puerto Rico, and this is the recipe we use for coquito.

Coquito Marcelin

Ingredients

2 egg yolks, beaten

1 can evaporated milk

1 can cream of coconut

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup good rum

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp nutmeg

Directions

Quick Recipe

Blend all ingredients in a blender on high for 5 minutes.  Refrigerate.

Original Recipe

Using a double boiler, combine egg yolks and evaporated milk. Stirring constantly, cook over lightly simmering water until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Transfer mixture to a blender, and add cream of coconut, sweetened condensed milk, rum, water, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and vanilla. Blend on high for about 30 seconds. Store in refrigerator overnight.  Serve cold.

Happy Holidays!

Categories
Drinking Eating Experiences

Eating Seens

How much of a scene does one need when dining out? And how much is it worth to you?

I am very much interested at the restaurant scenes where everything looks beautiful, from the décor to all the decked out people who attend, but the food and the wine don’t quite measure up.

Take Morandi, for example, a new Keith McNally staple in the West Village. The place has been masterfully redigitized to look like old world Italy. Night after night it’s filled with Balthazar and Pastis overflow where everyone is trying to outlook the other. Now there is nothing wrong with this, as beautiful people need somewhere to assemble too, but I can’t help but ask the question, “Is anyone tasting the food?”

The truth is I love the staff and will spend many a break over by the bar talking to Joe and enjoying wine or a cocktail. I invariably get hungry and try to order something different (or safe), and I often receive a bowl or plate of mediocrity. It just doesn’t measure up, and I get angry at myself for trying. One of their best dishes is the tiramisu, and that’s a dessert. Despite some other poor reviews the place remains bulletproof, and the reason is simple. The food becomes palatable amidst all of that moving beauty. It’s like eating in a motion picture art gallery, and that’s why people go there. There is better Italian fare in at least twenty other places in the city, but few can produce that type of atmosphere.

This is expected at places like Sushi Samba, where I believe there is a direct bridge and several tunnels to a place that has no business serving sushi, not with the plethora of authenticity that surrounds that neighborhood (Aki, Tomoe, Blue Ribbon, Yama etc.). But those patrons go to look at mirrors as well. Are they going for sushi or social status?

Another restaurant on seventh avenue that gets closer to serving food and sexiness on the same level is Centro Vinoteca. The former Batali protégé serves tasty nibbles, from perfectly fried pumpkin or eggplant cakes to savory stuffed mushrooms to earthy pate. Some of the entrees fall short of execution, or perhaps deep flavor, but once again this is massaged by all the eye candy at the bar edging you to order another lovely glass of Kerner gruner veltliner. The other night there was a lot of truffle madness for specials, but at $75. a pop I don’t care what type of models they’ve got strolling through there. The only issue here is that foodies have sniffed it out, and it is nearly as difficult to nab a seat at the bar as it is at Morandi’s.

A recently opened townhouse venture named Bobo’s has opened, and when you walk in you’re thrust into a romantic wonderland. Everything sparkles and glistens, and the people are decked out lovely. I’ve tried to have a drink at the bar three times without success, but I suspect, and this is merely a hunch, that the food will not match the décor.I will check to see if this holds true in the future.

A restaurant’s job is partly to evoke a mood by the change in atmosphere supported by the food, wine, and service. This is no small task, and that is why competition is so cut-throat. So the next time you’re elbow to elbow with an unusual amount of gorgeousness, beware of what you order, drink a little more than usual, and don’t believe the hype.

Categories
Drinking Wine

VDT

At one of the more anticipated tastings of the year, Louis/Dressner Selections hosted a Real Wines Tasting on October 17, 2007 at the Divine Studio revealing many Vin De Table wines that are often eliminated from official classification because they are atypical. Polaner Selections who distribute many of these wines was also present, making for a gala event of people who really care and know what’s going on in the wine industry. Winemakers such as Laurence and Eric Texier and Joao Roseira were present, as well as several wine writers such as Eric Asimov from the NY Times. I think there were a few models present too, either confused about their next studio shoot or coincidentally interested in great wines with great character, nonetheless a refreshing welcome to the red-stained shirts of tasters. Celebrities notwithstanding, there was a tremendous showing of knock-out wines whose emphasis in expressing terroir is achieved by some combination of utilizing wild yeasts, hand harvesting, low yields, natural viticulture, no or low chaptalization, and non-filtration. The result is just delicious, natural wines.

Going through all the wines tasting would require a six part report or series, so I will just impart a few impressions. A starting point was easy to choose, what with a full platter of oysters being offered for palate openers.

Larmandier-Bernier, a single grower-producer whose no dosage champagnes personify the genre was outstanding. Both the near 80% chardonnay and the Terre de Vertus were rich, full, and addicting. This was my palate cleanser for most of the afternoon. When in doubt, Terre de Vertus. Side by side was the chardonnay and gamay made by methode ancestrale, a wild effort that can only be applauded by the Beaujolais master.

Haven’t quite finished with the Blue Points yet, so I went on a wild pairing spree with Laurent Barth’s Sylvaner, Domaine de la Pepiere’s Muscadets, Domain du Closel, and the standout Luneau-Papin Muscadet d’Or, to name a few. My favorite were the Eric Texier viogniers with a touch of dulce. The Silex table was mobbed and under-bottled, so I spent a moment at Radikon, which made me yearn for truffles and foie. Those Ribolla Giallas were distinct and subperb.

Onto to Philippe Pacalet for Beaune reds made from ancient Pinot stock, where the argument is often is the Nuits-Saints-Georges better the the Chambolle-Musigny or the Gevrey-Chambertin, and which will age better?

Another jaunt to Larmandier-Bernier, and proper homage was paid to a table ripe with Beaujolias for Michel Tete, Jean Paul Brun, Clos de la Roilette, and Georges Descombes, wines which should be grace every Saturday lunch table. I skipped Clos Roche Blanche, Thierry Puzelat, and Clos du Tue-Boeuf, not only for time constraints, but also because those wines have nothing to prove. Year after year, these winemakers put out fabulous product at fantastic prices. You just can’t go wrong with any of these bottles.

I did a flight from the Roagna series, wines that are too young but allows one to speculate and dream about their futures. Then it was back to Eric Texier for the CDP and the Brezeme, one of my favorite values in the whole marketplace.

There was some noise from the west coast, with a very terroir driven Pinot Noir from Kalin. Ten guesses and I still wouldn’t believe it’s pinot from Cali. I enjoyed the Grenache blanc form Graves Monkey Wrench and some old-fashioned chardonnays from Whitehorn and White Helix too, demonstrating that care and technique works anywhere.

Chinon was well represented with Catherine & Pierre Briton, Bernard Baudry, and Olga Raffault, all limestone, gravel and clay goodness. There was a heap of Italian red and whites, but once again time was not my ally. A lasting sip of Larmandier-Bernier left a lasting impression as large as Joe Dressner’s Cuvee Buster t-shirt. VDT rocks, Vive terroir, Drink life.