I’ll be in Paris for the next nine days, so the blog will go temporarily dark (boo.) But I’ll be back soon, with plenty of eating adventures from France!
Eataly (Finally) Opens
Anyone that knows of my slight obsession with markets can imagine how much I had been looking forward to the opening of Eataly. When I first heard in February that Mario Batali was opening a new Italian megastore, with a market and vegetable butcher, a handmade pasta counter, a bakery and winery, along with six new restaurants and a beer garden and microbrewery, it felt like I had won the lottery. I love Mario, I love markets — what could be better?
Eataly was scheduled to open August 31, so naturally, I “casually passed by” that day, hoping to grab a quick lunch. Much to my dismay, Eataly wasn’t opening until 4 p.m., so I missed out on the market’s first day.
I did go back the next day of course (what did you expect?) and found complete market heaven. The space is huge, with salumi and cheese counters, a pastry shop, fresh meat and fish, a panini counter, gelato and pretty much anything anyone would ever need to make anything Italian ever. Granted, the swarms of people in every section of the warehouse-sized space were overwhelming, but that will probably die down as the weeks go on. …
Transportable Treats
Last night, I won my Emmy pool. Granted, I only guessed four out of 11 categories right, but some of the winners were so surprising (Archie Panjabi, what?) that four is respectable. And hey, I won a drink, so no complaints here.
But the real star of the Emmys — other than Jane Lynch, with her love for Buddhists and her fabulous amethyst dress — was the white bean and roasted red pepper dip Keith and I made, along with homemade pita chips. Sadly, I was too busy lamenting Glenn Close’s loss to Kyra Sedgwick to take pictures.
The dip is easy to make and great to bring to a potluck or picnic, if you’re planning to celebrate the last real weekend of summer (tear, tear). The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, a food blog that I’ve recently become obsessed with and now read for leisure on my phone, the way most people read Huffington Post. No, I don’t have any friends. …
Gazpacho: Making the Most of Summer Tomatoes
This weekend, my family and I road-tripped to Detroit for a wedding. The bride looked gorgeous, the food was great and we had a fun time. More importantly for this site, we came home loaded with fresh vegetables, grown by my great uncle in his backyard — lots of greens, a summer squash that’s as long as my arm and twice as wide and a bag full of ripe, sweet tomatoes.
Now, in full disclosure mode: I hate fresh tomatoes. The juice slobbers, the seeds have a weird consistency and the insides are mush. Cooked tomatoes? Yes, please. But in original form, tomatoes are a no go. It’s a shame, because the cherry tomatoes would have made an excellent Caprese salad with fresh mozzarella, basil and olive oil.
Perhaps then it doesn’t quite make sense that I love gazpacho. I first tried it in Andalucia, the southern region of Spain (where white gazpacho, made with day-old bread, almonds and cucumbers, is also very popular) and fell in love with this delicious chilled summer soup. Traditionally, the tomatoes aren’t actually cooked, just pureed with other vegetables, olive oil and vinegar.
The beauty of gazpacho is that you can take this basic guideline and turn it into whatever you want. Some recipes call for grilled vegetables, others for watermelons. Melissa Clark at the New York Times even creates a gazpacho smoothie.
I loosely followed a Food & Wine recipe from Teresa Barrenechea. Because my family likes its food spicy, I added a jalapeño. While passing through a farmer’s market this morning, I nabbed a purple bell pepper, which was slightly sweeter than a green pepper but too pretty (yes, that’s the technical term) to pass up.
The gazpacho is tangy, spicy, sweet and showcases summer’s tomato bounty perfectly. Top it with a diced cucumber and red onion salad, a little olive oil and make sure you have plenty of bread for dipping. …
Paris, Here I Come!
The Eiffel Tower, circa 2008.
Naturally, I’m already planning what to eat too: macarons and pain perdu from Ladurée, all the fleur de sel caramels I can stomach, ice cream from Berthillon and crepes from just about every stand I walk by. And if I don’t fit on the plane back, well, what better place to be stranded?
Since I’ll be there for about a week, there’s plenty of time for suggestions. So please, send any and all my way!
Mango-Black Bean Salad
While running errands this morning, I realized that it’s now much closer to the end of summer than the start (clearly there’s a real genius over here … ). Instead of, you know, being an adult and embracing change, I made the summeriest salad I could think of: mango-black bean salad. My friend Nila used to make this when we were roommates and I couldn’t get enough of it, then or now.
It’s not quite a salad, but it’s a little too chunky for salsa (though I suppose if you dice your mangos a little smaller, it could be). Whatever it is, it’s totally delicious.
Best part? It’s a cinch to put together and takes advantage of the season’s bounty. …
Chicken Curry, Without the Hurry
One of my favorite parts of going home is, of course, the food. All the dals, curries — and if I’m lucky, biriyani — a girl could ever hope to eat!
Though I love Indian food, I’ve never tried to make it myself. There’s a ton of steps, too many expensive spices and it could never be as good as my mom’s. Traditional Indian food takes time: roasting spices, building layer upon layer of flavor, developing complex tastes. Rachael Ray may make it in a hurry, but the chicken curry I grew up with is at least an hour-long affair.
Our power finally came back on late Friday night, so Saturday, I decided I needed to make something. My mom had been planning to make chicken curry, and she convinced me to try it myself. It was a long process, but so worth it — the curry was amazing. Almost exactly like my mom makes! …
Rain, Rain, Go Away
I took an impromptu trip home on Wednesday (blueberry crumb bars in tow), and on the bus ride to D.C., started mentally planning out all of the delicious recipes I wanted to make over the next few days. I had dreams of this summer vegetable casserole and that shrimp and corn salad and maybe even these strawberry shortcakes. I was ready to start immediately, excited by the prospect of cooking for more than one (or two).
But the weather gods had other plans in store for me. After a furious early morning storm on Thursday, during which the sky turned an eerie shade of gray and I literally ducked under the covers to escape the thunder and lightening (yes, I am actually 5), the power in our house went out. And stayed out. More than 33 hours later, it’s still out.
So as I write from a nearby Starbucks (thank goodness for free wireless!), we have a fridge full of food on the verge of spoiling. Needless to say, we’ll be eating leftovers until everything finally goes.
And my dreams of cooking? Hopefully next week, they’ll come true.
Blueberry Crumb Bars
I kind of had a case of the blahs today, so I decided to put my faith in the power of baking. I’ve always loved to bake — in fact, my first forays into the kitchen were for cookies, cakes, breads, pies — you name it. Something about the combination of butter and sugar always put a smile on my face.
With the berry season nearing its end, I wanted to make something that took advantage of summer’s bounty. Blueberries were on sale at the grocery store today, so this recipe for blueberry crumb bars from Smitten Kitchen seemed like a perfect fit. Blueberries, lemon and plenty of sugar and butter? Sounded delish!
In a stroke of genius, I thought I’d double the Smitten recipe and leave some in the freezer for my aunt and uncle (they come back this week) and take some home as well. Like most of my kitchen ideas, this worked a lot better in my head than in reality. The bowls weren’t big enough for this doubled-up recipe, so I ended up with a lot of mess. It was totally worth it though — the bars were amazing. Not too sweet, just a little tart, buttery but light and lemony and delicious. Baking comes through once again! …
Chicken Cutlets and Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
Unlike Sammi Sweetheart on Jersey Shore, I am not excluded from Chicken Cutlet night (p.s. Food & Wine is all over JS! Who knew?). In fact, to celebrate the second episode of the second season of MTV’s biggest hit, I made chicken cutlets for dinner.
While I was at Westside, I saw that brussels sprouts were on sale. Keith and I made delicious brussels sprouts with bacon over the weekend, so I pounced on the sprouts. Granted, I ended up paying $8 for hand-cut peppered bacon, so perhaps the sale was a fail. Oh well.
It was my first attempt to cook two separate dishes simultaneously, and it turned out better than I could have hoped for (my aunt’s apartment is intact and I still have all 10 fingers). …
Fried Pickles and Other "Jersey Shore" Goods
The "Jersey Shore" cast is in Miami for season 2. (Photo courtesy of: NY Daily News)
Confession: I love everything about Jersey Shore. The eight “guidos and guidettes” are the most entertaining set of wackos to ever grace the small screen, and I can’t get enough of them. (To figure out why, look no further than the premiere of the second season last week: while hand-washing clothes, Snooki exclaims, “I feel like a pilgrim from the ’20s!”).
Needless to say, I was very pleased to find this Food & Wine slideshow on how to eat and drink like the most famous residents of Seaside Heights. Perhaps a Jersey Shore watch party, complete with these treats, is in my future!
A Smashing Chickpea and Olive Salad
I’ve been spending $7 at least once a week for Tom Colicchio’s chickpea sandwich at ‘wichcraft. I’ve already waxed poetic about my love for the sandwich, and as my dad helpfully pointed out, this is not a sustainable addiction, at least for a soon-to-be-unemployed intern.
Since I can’t buy one every day, I decided to try to make one of my own. Of course I’ve been thinking about it for weeks, but I finally bit the bullet this afternoon. Sadly, Smitten Kitchen beat me to the recipe, though as it turns out, my chickpea salad is pretty different from both hers and Tom’s (we’re on a first-name basis). Part of the reason is that I didn’t want to buy parsley or roasted red peppers, and part of the reason is that as I tasted while making (which I’m very prone to do), I realized that I didn’t really miss the olive oil or the salt. …
Micheladas: Mexico’s Answer to Summer
Micheladas seem ubiquitous this summer. They showed up in the New York Times magazine last week and quickly appeared on the Huffington Post’s food blog soon after. They were on the menu at my graduation dinner at Rosa Mexicano and have been a part of the brunch deal at Roots & Vines, the coffee shop around the corner from Keith’s apartment, for as long as I’ve gotten my iced coffees there.
The michelada’s omnipresence makes sense: a spicy beer cocktail is a great way to cool off when it’s hot. Traditionally, micheladas consist of some form of beer (to keep it traditional, the Mexican Tecate), tomato juice, a few drops of Worcestershire or Tabasco, lime juice and some mix of cayenne or jalapeño powder, with a seasoned-salt rim. There’s a million ways to make it, which makes it all the more perfect for a sweltering summer day. …
Heaven, in Pie Form
Allison Kave, founder and head baker of First Prize Pies, has been getting a lot of buzz this summer. She was featured in T Magazine and in NY Mag’s list of this year’s Cheap Eats.
I met Allison when the Hester Street Fair first opened. Drawn to her table by mom Rhonda Kave’s Roni-Sue’s Chocolate’s (I still have to try that chocolate-covered bacon!), I noticed Allison’s bourbon ginger pecan pie displayed on the table. She mentioned that she had a root beer cream pie as well, but that the heat prevented her from selling those at the fair.
“Root beer cream pie†remained rooted in my brain, stubbornly taking up space where I needed to remember interview tips and editors’ names and email etiquette. I ran into Allison again when buying bacon buttercrunch from Roni-Sue’s and couldn’t shake the idea of a root beer float with a pie crust out of my mind. Finally, one frustrated afternoon, I decided to just go for it. …
My New Food-session
I’ve been in a job hunt since April. It’s frustrating, to say the least. I feel like I’ve sent out thousands of resumes and received a handful of “Thanks but no thanks” emails back — and those are the nice ones. Most people don’t even bother to respond.
The only thing keeping me mildly sane through this time has been food (of course). What better to do than munch while writing yet another cover letter, filling out yet another electronic job form? A few weeks ago, my go-to brain food was roasted almonds: they were a little salty, a little sweet and had the perfect crunch. Then it was summer berries, juicy and tart. Now, it’s ricotta, specifically the Salvatore Ricotta I bought from Saxelby Cheesemongers this morning.
Saxelby is a tiny stall at the Essex Market, which houses another recent favorite, Roni-Sue’s Chocolates, and First Prize Pies (more to come on that later). The cheese comes from upstate New York and Vermont, with the sole exception of Parmagiano Reggiano, because, well, no one makes Parmesan like the Italians.
The Salvatore Ricotta is made in Brooklyn from whole cow’s milk. It’s strained with cheesecloth after it is made, creating a thick and rich cheese with a slightly lemony finish. For breakfast this morning, it served as an excellent accompaniment to leftover clafoutis (in lieu of whipped cream, for instance), and would be simply delicious with berries or honey or even a little truffle oil and baguette. At a price of $15 a pound, it’s expensive for sure, but Salvatore Ricotta is on my shopping list for the time being.
Plenty of Good Food at Po
For my first go-round with Restaurant Week Summer 2010, Keith and I picked Po, a teeny-tiny former Mario Batali restaurant in the West Village. Our reservations were for 11 p.m. on Friday, which is usually my bedtime, but the menu looked so good that I decided it was well worth the wait.
Verdict? There was plenty of good food to go around. The white bean bruschetta was delicious, a light and refreshing start to our meal. For the Antipasti, Keith ordered the white bean ravioli with a delicious balsamic brown butter sauce, while I got the spinach tagliatelle with ragu Bolognese. It was a nice contrast of sweet tomato, spicy red chili and rich meaty-ness. Perhaps I should have gone with a salad though – there was much more pasta than I could handle for a starter course.
For the Secondi course, I tried the Guinea Hen with roasted corn. The hen’s salty, crispy skin contrasted nicely with the sweet corn, which was my favorite part of the dish. Keith’s skirt steak with green beans, roasted peppers and Gorgonzola butter was a little on the rare side of medium rare for me, but the piece I did have was pretty good. I was tuckered out by the time dessert came around, and poor Keith, who had been looking forward to ricotta cheesecake with Vermont maple sauce, was disappointed to hear that the kitchen was out of it. Instead, he ordered the panna cotta with amarena cherries, while I got the chocolate terrine with espresso caramel sauce. Keith’s panna cotta was light and airy, though the cherries tasted slightly like Robitussin. My chocolate was too much for me (did you ever think I’d say “too much chocolateâ€? Neither did I). …
Blackberry Clafoutis: Baking for Bastille Day
While I’m not the biggest Francophile, I spend a lot of time with someone who is. Bastille Day is the biggest French holiday of the year, commemorating the storming of the Bastille, a fortress-prison in Paris, by revolutionaries on July 14, 1789. It became a symbolic act of the French Revolution, so today, France celebrates with fireworks, parades, parties (and perhaps a guillotine … ?)
In honor of the holiday, and because I have the day off, I decided to bake a blackberry clafoutis. The custard-type dish hails from central France, where it is traditionally made with cherries. I found a very easy-looking recipe at Food & Wine, from Alix de Montille, a winemaker for Deux Montille and Domaine de Montille in Burgundy. Montille used raspberries to make her clafoutis, though apparently the term refers only to the cherry dessert (flaugnarde refers to similar dishes with other berries). But we’re not picky here.
At the supermarket, raspberries were $4 a pint while blackberries were 2 for $5. Being a low-paid intern, I grabbed the blackberries instead, and crossed my fingers the swap would work.
It did. It came out a little rustic-looking, but I suppose that’s fitting for French country-style food. The blackberries were a little tart and a little sweet, which contrasted nicely with the light custard. The lemon really shone in this very refreshing dessert — it’s a great sweet for summer! My aunt suggested that next time, a tad more sugar and a little bit of vanilla extract might be nice, so I’ll have to try that soon. …
A Hunt for Macarons
If you read this blog semi-regularly, you’ll know that I go through food phases. In February, it was DessertTruck Works. In May and June, it was lobster rolls. Come July, it’s macarons.
I had my first macaron on the top of the Eiffel Tower a few years ago, and assumed it was one of those things you can only get in France. Oh, how wrong I was. After discovering macarons at Financier in the Financial District and then again at La Maison du Chocolat, I began to stumble upon them everywhere. Walking from Chelsea Piers back to actual civilization? Check. Madeleine Patisserie on 23rd Street is la maison du macaron (or so they say), with over 50 different flavors. I tried the caramel fleur de sel and fell in love with it. I may dislike regular caramel, but I have a new passion for the salty sweet goodness of fleur de sel caramels.
Macaron Parlor at the Hester Street Fair first caught Keith’s eye when he saw candied bacon macarons, and we visited at least once a weekend for the maple cream cheese and deliciously sweet bacon (apparently salt + sweet is a winning combo when it comes to macs). …
The Craft of Simple Food
Tom Colicchio wears many hats. Top Chef judge. James Beard Outstanding Chef. Springsteen enthusiast. Creator of the best sandwich ever, a zesty, refreshing chickpea salad on bread. Owner of a dozen restaurants across the country, including Craftbar, where Keith and I went to dinner last night.
Colicchio is known for using fresh, quality ingredients in simple ways (hence why I have grand designs of making his chickpea salad sometime soon). That style was on display yesterday. Since we had dinner at 10:30, Keith and I ordered a bunch of small plates: polenta fritters with golden raisins and jalapeños, pecorino risotto balls with spicy tomato sauce, pork shoulder with tomato molasses and butter lettuce and a fava bean salad with gorgonzola, hazelnuts and crisp prosciutto.
The risotto balls are a staple of my visits to Craftbar, and the wine-y tomato sauce is the perfect balance of acidity for the cheesy richness of the risotto and the crisp fried outer shell. The polenta fritters were delicious too, a little sweet and a little spicy. The pork shoulder was tender and the tomato molasses tasted like barbeque sauce with its tangy sweetness.
But the star of the night was the fava bean salad. The fava beans were crisp and paired well with the pungent gorgonzola and salty prosciutto. Had me wondering if fava beans are hard to make. …
Summer Berry Parfait: Festive Fruit for the Fourth
Happy Fourth! Nothing like an afternoon eating, drinking and grilling to celebrate American independence. Any good meal needs a good closer, and there are plenty of scrumptious red, white and blue desserts out there, including this summer shortcake from Martha Stewart and this fruit tart flag from Food Network.
But those desserts take a while in the kitchen, which means time away from the summer sun. Instead, why not take advantage of the berry bounty this time of year, and make a simple, colorful dessert in no time at all?
Full disclosure: I woke up dreaming of this parfait, which means it could be much better in my head than in real life. But I don’t think so. …
Ten NYC Foods To Try
Greg Morabito of NYeater.com posted his list of 12 epic New York meals to try before you die today. The list includes a 12-course $275 Chef’s Tasting from Per Se, the 11-course $175 Gourmand Tasting at Eleven Madison Park and the $240 20-course tasting at WD~50.
I have no doubt that each meal would be divine, and I’ve already added the restaurants to my new bucket list. But considering that they each cost an arm and a leg (some of them a kidney too), who knows if I’ll ever make it there. So I made my own list:
Top 10 NYC foods everyone should try, regardless of when they’re going to die (in order of when they came into my head).
1. Goat cheese cheescake with berries from DessertTruck Works: Sometimes I dream about this. ‘Nuff said.
2. Crème fraîche gelato from Otto: Not too sweet, not too tart, just perfect. The olive oil gelato is a very close second.
3. Potato waffles Benedict from The Smith: With a side of candied bacon and a complimentary mimosa (only on Sundays), this is my favorite brunch in New York. The spinach and caramelized onion sauce is divine.
4. Great Hills Blue burger from BLT Burger: Blue cheese, mushrooms and caramelized onions on a perfectly juicy burger.
5. Espresso frosting / vanilla cupcake combo at Butter Lane: Coffee and cupcake – what could go wrong?
6. Chickpea sandwich from ‘wichcraft: The perfect summer sandwich, with chopped chickpeas, black olives, lemon, roasted red peppers and parsley. I’ve been eating it at least once a week since I discovered the underground Rockefeller Center location.
7. B.E.L.T. from Community Food & Juice: Granted, mine is a B.E.L. since I don’t like tomatoes, but the combination of bacon, a fried egg and lettuce is so delicious that I don’t even mind the mayo.
8. Chili cheese waffle fries from Crif Dogs: Though I come for the hotdogs, which are pretty good in their own right, the waffle fries are always the best part of my meal.
9. Spring rolls from Cafetasia: Part of the rolls’ charm is that they come free as a part of Cafetasia’s prix-fixe lunch (or early bird dinner special) for less than $10. But a friend once astutely described the pineapple dipping sauce that accompanies these rolls as “the sauce of the gods.â€
10. Bacon buttercrunch from Roni-Sue’s Chocolates: Okay, this might be on the list solely because I’m craving it right now. But bacon, spicy peanuts, chocolate and buttercrunch toffee are a pretty amazing combination regardless.
It’s an incomplete list for sure, but I can’t wait to add to it!
Foodies and Freebies: Where’s the Line?
By now, most everyone in the foodie world has heard about Josh Ozersky. The food critic recently got married, and wedding guests were treated to Sullivan Street Bakery breads, lasagna from Marea chef Michael White and other tasty treats from high-profile chefs. He wrote a column on the food, published on June 15 on Time’s Web site. In it, he encouraged would-be brides and grooms to ditch the caterer (whose only job is to “to put something edible on the table that looks fancy and is warmer than the average body temperature,” Ozersky writes) and hire restaurant chefs to provide a wedding meal. A fine notion if you happen to be friends with the likes of Ed Brown and Michael Psilakis, though perhaps not as meaningful for us hoi polloi.
Ozersky foolishly neglects to mention that he received all of these favors for free, prompting Village Voice restaurant critic Robert Sietsema to call him out in an open letter posted on the Voice’s site last week. The most controversial part of the letter not-so-subtly accuses Ozersky of trading meals for column space, what one might call a big no-no:
“One of the assumptions the reader might make is that you’d promised these chefs, many of whom do high-end catering and expect big bucks for it, to mention them in your magazine column. If you did, I would think Time would take a dim view of that.”
Ozersky responded in a clarification at the bottom of his original post, explaining that he asked his chef friends to contribute meals in lieu of gifts, and admitted that full disclosure would have been prudent on his part. …
Brooklyn Bites
I’ve been spending some time in Brooklyn recently, and every time I go there I wonder “why didn’t I come to this neighborhood earlier?” While at the Columbia J-school, I visited DUMBO/downtown Brooklyn/Brooklyn Heights pretty regularly, since those neighborhoods were my beat in my reporting class. There’s a lot of cool stuff going on in those neighborhoods, and some of the restaurants in Bk Heights are really nice.
This summer, I’ve moved a little further down the F line, traveling to Park Slope and Red Hook for the first time. On Father’s Day, Keith and I went to the Seventh Heaven Street Fair in Park Slope. It was pretty much your typical street fair food-wise, with plenty of Mozzarepa and gyro stands. We weren’t in the mood to eat outside in the 90-degree weather, so we ducked into a little hole in the wall for a bite.
Beer Table turned out to be a very cool surprise. The restaurant’s beer list features a rotating draft menu and there are plenty of random bottled beers to please even the most picky connoisseurs. I really liked that the list had descriptions for each of its offerings, and the staff (of one) was really knowledgeable and helpful — always much appreciated. We chose a light, straw-colored brew from Cologne, Germany to cool us off. I think it was Kölsch, but the downside of blogging a few weeks late is that I don’t remember (bad blogger, bad!). But I do remember the waitress telling us that Germans tend to drink it in shots, since it’s so light. Sounds like my kind of beer.
To go with our beer, Keith and I shared pickled eggs, a waffle with ricotta and strawberries and a side of bacon. The pickled eggs were much better than I imagined, a little tart and salty (due to the dusting of jalapeño powder and sea salt on top), but still slightly sweet from the egg yolk. The waffles were delicious too, a little salty from the ricotta to match the sweetness of the maple syrup and strawberries.
Perhaps my favorite part of the meal was the bacon. It was thick-cut slab bacon, with the fat still on. Sounds a little gross, I know, but the fat was caramelized and delicious with the maple syrup. Just typing that out makes me want to go run 100 miles right now … …
NYC Restaurant Week Summer 2010!
Though I’ve been swamped with work and haven’t been able to post about my recent food experiences in Park Slope or Red Hook, Brooklyn (bad blogger, bad!), I couldn’t ignore this.
The Summer 2010 Restaurant Week menus are out, and boy do they look good! For $24.07 (lunch) or $35 (dinner), diners can enjoy three-course prix fixe meals at some of the best restaurants in the city. It runs July 12-25, so look for plenty of blog posts (I hope!) during that time.
I did this for the winter RW, so here’s a quick list of the best-looking menus:
1) Le Cirque: I went here last spring for my graduation dinner, but sadly they were out of their famous crème brûlée. That’s plenty of reason to go back, though the pistachio-crusted lamb and sweet corn soup sound like a delicious summer dinner too.
2) The Bar Room at the Modern: One of the downsides of RW is that the menus are often limited to two or three options per course. Not so at the Bar Room at the Modern, which offers plenty of choices to please even the pickiest of eaters (though veggies might have some trouble … ). Tomato and almond gazpacho, shaved asparagus salad with goat cheese, tarte flambée with crème fraîche and bacon — how will I choose?
3) Rayuela: Three words for meat-lovers — Piramide de Carne. Beef tenderloin, duck breast, pork loin and chorizo come together (with a poached egg) in this carnivore’s dream course.
4) Butter: I went to Chef Alex Guarnaschelli’s restaurant a few years ago and enjoyed it despite the limited options, so I’m excited to see so many options on her RW menu. Coffee-rubbed bacon, roasted beet greens and chocolate butter cream sound delish!
5) Kittichai: Thai food isn’t usually my favorite, but banana spring rolls with burnt honey ice cream sound amazing, as do corn fritters with chili aioli.
Hopefully I’ll get time to try these places out, and many more!
Note (from 6/30): Here’s the full list of participating restaurants. Some of them don’t have their menus up yet, but I’ll let you know when they do.