Shopsin's Visited 1/27/2013 4 Forks

Shopsin's Essex St Market, 120 Essex St, New York, NY 10002

Shopsin's has got to be hands down the most insane restaurant I've ever been to.  It's craziness lies in its incredibly ridiculous menu that must have at least 500 different dishes.  I am being totally serious, I stopped counting at around 100.  The menu will make your eyes go blind and if you are someone who is indecisive or has a hard time making up your mind, I would definitely not come here or else you'll probably have a complete melt down.

Shopsin's is also very well known for their "rude" staff.  If you go on Yelp, you will see countless stories of people who were yelled at, had their food taken away from them and asked to leave.  So I approached my brunch here with great trepidation.  I knew not to ask questions or cause trouble.  I also knew to line up quietly against the wall across from the Saxelby Cheese shop inside the Essex Street Market to wait to be seated.  Aarti and I waited about 20 minutes for a table which was fine and given that there are only 15 seats total in the whole place, I was surprised that the wait wasn't longer.  When we looked at the menu, we must have both changed our mind about 100 times on what to have.  I had read that the mac and cheese pancakes were a hit but there were so many other things to try that I didn't want to limit myself to just pancakes.  The menu has a wide variety of stuff like duck fat fries, fried pickles, kati rolls, pastrami with kimchi steak, duck and egg, bread pudding, slutty cakes, 20 different types of breakfast sandwiches, french toast sandwiches, and variations on dishes called The Pete and Blisters on my Sisters.  After almost 30 minutes of agonizing decision making, I opted for the Mo'Betta ($18) because it incorporated the mac and cheese pancakes with bacon and eggs.  Aarti got the Pete Moss ($15) which was veggie sausage, jack cheese and tomato on spicy bread and 3 poached eggs.

While we were waiting for our food these two girls next to us (who totally over ordered) offered us bites of their donuts (which I couldn't even find on the menu - that's how big the menu is) and their duck fat waffle fries.  Oh my god.  They were both warm and amazing.  And for all the duck fat fries I've had before I could actually taste the duck fat in these crispy waffle fries.  Amazing.  When our food finally came, I couldn't believe my eyes.  The 2 pancakes were literally the size of my head and sandwiched in between them was about 5 fluffy scrambled eggs and 6-7 strips of honey glazed bacon.  The dish is also came with its own bottle of delicious sweet maple syrup, but I couldn't bring myself to pour on any more calorie inducing ingredients to my meal.  While mac and cheese pancakes sounds gross, the first couple of bites were pretty damn amazing.  It's exactly as it sounds.  Each bite tasted of fluffy sweet pancake coupled with cheesy salty goodness of a mac and cheese dish.  Mixed with soft scrambled eggs and chewy honey glazed bacon and you get a mind blowing insane experience in your mouth.  I tried to keep going and to eat at least half of it, but after about 4-5 bites I literally felt my body reject anymore food.  But I did manage to try Aarti's dish and it was basically 2 Stouffer's garlic bread pieces covered with melted cheese (which was mixed with chopped jalapenos -which is why the bread was called spicy bread) and large giant poached eggs.  She also took about 4-5 bits before shutting down too.  Luckily the whole time we were there, we were not yelled at but I did hear someone scream "Fuck you!" in the back. 

This place is truly unique and would blow anyone's mind away.  It would probably be better to go with more than 2 people but I believe that they don't have any tables that would accommodate more than 4 people, so plan accordingly.  But with so many crazy sounding dishes to try, it's just easier to try everything with more people.  While the atmosphere is very divey and diner-esque, don't let that fool you as it is a bit pricier than a diner.  Many dishes (while huge and can feed you for days) are over $20.  While Yelp says that they don't take credit cards, they actually do (via the Square).  Our total bill: $47 with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Yelp

 

Friend of a Farmer Visited 1/26/2013 2.5 Forks

Friend of A Farmer 77 Irving Pl (between 18th St & 19th St), New York, NY 10003

I've been to Friend of A Farmer many many times and every time I go I want to really really like it.  I mean, it's in a great location and its got this super cute decor (it essentially looks like a quaint cottage with wooden furniture and other homey design features).  But each time I go, I leave remembering that the food is just never that amazing and there's always a crazy line outside that doesn't make it worth the whole experience. 

Luckily, Virginia and I didn't have to wait too long for a table.  But our table was in the worst place, right next to the kitchen where they were expediting food and every time the waiter came out of the kitchen, I felt like I was going to be burned with a skillet.   But luckily I never did.  The menu here is quite extensive and I'll admit they have a great brunch line-up.  They have what seems like endless egg and griddle options, that's why I always think of this place as a good brunch option.  In an effort to be healthy, I decided to go with the Egg White Scrambled ($13) and Virginia and I shared a side of four cheese grits ($7).  The egg white scrambled was served in their signature trademark mini skillets and came with onions, spinach, mushrooms and American cheese and a side of potatoes.  Honestly, the dish just looked a bit messy and seemed like the kind of scramble I make at home.  Plus there were some weird stems in my food (I want to believe they were stems from some kind of herbs).  The dish was fine but I just wasn't impressed by it.  The grits were a bit under seasoned and weren't very creamy.  In fact they clumped together a bit and it just seemed more like cream of wheat instead of grits.  

Despite all of this, I continue to hold on to faith that this place could still be a decent brunch place.  Maybe the cozy interior got to me, but I still want to really like this place, but for this review, I just can't say that it was a best brunch experience.  Total bill: $25/pp

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Swine Visited 1/25/2013 3.5 Forks

Swine 531 Hudson St., (between 10th St & Charles St), New York, NY 10014

If you expected a place called Swine to have a menu full of pork and not much else, you'd be correct.  With the exception of maybe 2-3 dishes, everything on this menu has some kind of pork component to it.  I mean, I knew what I was getting into when I had dinner there but there was just something about eating an entire dinner of pork that just really makes you feel kind of gross at the end.

While the waitress suggested that we start with a meat board, we just couldn't find a combination of meats that we were interested in (I'm an adventurous eater but just not into terrines, head cheese or tongue).  Instead, Holly and I started off our meal with the grilled cheese which was served with chimay cheese, tomato and bacon ($15).  It tasted exactly like how it was described...a good old fashion grilled cheese.  The bread was nice and toasted on the outside and there was plenty of bacon to get the meal started.  Next we shared the razor clam appetizer ($16).  Ok, ok, this dish did NOT have any pork or bacon product in it.  It was served with a lobster broth and tons of crunchy bread to soak up the broth.  Holly wasn't a huge fan of this dish and I will admit that the clams were a lot fishier tasting than other clams that I've had in the past so I can see how the flavor can be off putting for some people.  The razor clams were actually pretty plumb but some them seemed to have some sand in it which also didn't lend well to the overall experience.  While I liked it, it was kind of too much to eat the entire dish by myself.  As for the lobster broth, it didn't really have a strong lobster flavor to it and I didn't feel the need to use the bread to soak up the broth. 

For our entrees, I got the famous bone marrow and brisket burger ($18) and Holly got the hudson valley duck breast ($21).  The burger has been written up in a few blogs as being one the best burgers in the city and I kind of have to agree.  The bone marrow is baked into the patty which kept it incredibly moist and delicious.  It comes with gruyere cheese and caramelized onions smothered on top of it and a side of potato wedges.  The cheese was super melted and each bite was heart stopping and heavenly.  It was a fantastic burger but definitely not something you should be eating on a regular basis.  While I couldn't taste the marrow in it, I could tell that there was something good different to this burger.  The burger was so filling that I couldn't even bring myself to eat any of the potato wedges.  I tried the duck as well and thought it was very tender and moist as well.  It was a little bit fatty but what else would you expect from a place called Swine?  The dish was served with chesnuts, brussels sprouts, squash and cranberry demi-glace but I didn't get a bite of any of that stuff.  You'd think after all of this we'd take a pass on dessert but no.  We had to get the bacon flavored ice cream because neither of us have ever tried bacon flavor ice cream before and were curious.  The dish also came with a chocolate covered strip of bacon.  Well, first of all, the ice cream most definitely tasted like bacon.  The combination of the salt and sweet was nice but it got a bit tiring after a while and I realized that I just like my ice cream to be sweet and not salty.  As for the chocolate covered bacon, it was just gross.  I rarely say that about food but it was seriously not good and kind of ruined the whole dish for me.

All in all, I enjoyed my experience there but you have to go there knowing that your cholesterol level is going to sky rocket and you might just feel super guilty afterwards.  But it's worth checking out at least once if you're looking for an indulgent meal.  Total bill includes a bottle of wine: $74/pp with tax and tip.

Photo Credit: Zagat.com 

Iceland Day 3 - 4.5 Forks

Fish Market Adalstraeti 12, Reyvjavik

Our last dinner of the trip was at another well known place in the city center called Fish Market, not to be confused with the Fish Company where we ate at the night before.  Similar to the Fish Company, the menu here is also upscale Icelandic food but they also have an entire section dedicated to sushi as well.  The decor here is a bit dark since it's located on the bottom floor of an old building but the inside is sleek with accents of bamboo.  The starters on the menu varied from the traditional (minke whale and smoked puffin) to the amazing fine dining options (lobster soup and giant king crab claws).  One of the most popular Icelandic dishes is their fish soup and since this was my last night here, I decided that I had to have the lobster soup (2400 ISK = $19 USD) since it was the closest thing to fish soup.  For my main dish, I opted to try something different from fish for the first time and got the grilled fillet of lamb (5700 ISK = $44 USD).  Iceland is also famous for their lamb.  Their lamb is the ultimate in free-range, hormone free and organic as they let their lambs wander the freely in the country side before they are killed.  Allison got the tuna steak (5900 ISK = $46 USD) which the waiter highly recommended.

The meal started with an amuse bouche (I love how the restaurants here start with something nice from the kitchen).  It was salmon served sashimi style on a crispy wonton drizzled with a soy dressing.  It was fresh and amazing and made me excited for more food.

The lobster soup was served with all the ingredients in the bowl (lobster,  roasted coconut flakes, mussels, and mandarin oranges) and then the waiter pours the broth slowly on top of everything.  The broth had a hint of coconut milk which gave it an Asian flare to it.  It was an amazing soup.  It wasn't too oily or heavy but it was hearty enough to make it almost worth the $19.  Strangely enough the mandarin was an interesting touch to the dish and didn't weird me out at all like I thought it would.  Sorry that this photo makes it look kind of gross but trust me, it was delicious.

Although I have loved all the fish I had here, I was excited for a little red meat.  The lamb dish was served with sauteed jerusalem artichokes, beetroot and fried mushrooms.  The lamb itself was done medium rare and perfectly red and juicy on the inside.  I haven't had lamb this tender in a really long time and there was a lot of it too (thank god since I was paying so much for it!).  The mushrooms and artichokes were tasty as well and had the right flavor profile to compliment the soft lamb.

The restaurant was a mix of tourists (there was a gaggle of girls on what looked like a bachelorette party) and locals.  While it was a pricey endeavor, it was one of those meals that is totally worth it every once in a while.  I do have to say that I liked the Fish Company a tiny bit more than the Fish Market but they were both fabulous and totally changed my mind at what Nordic food could be like.  I had assumed that the food in Iceland would be all about smoked fish and fermented meat.  But the fine dining places that I went to (and even the casual place like the Laundromat Cafe) were right up there with some of the places in NYC (and even the prices are similar) and really impressed me.   Don't let the stereotype of Scandinavian/Nordic food fool you.  If you can find the right places, you can have a really wonderful meal. 

Iceland 2013 - Day 2 4.5 Forks

Iceland 2013 - Day 2

Fish Company  Vesturgötu 2a, Grófartorg - 101 Reykjavík

The Fish Company was recommend to us by this couple we met at dinner the other night during the lobster dinner.  They swore that it was one of the best meals they had in their entire life, that's saying a lot since they also live in New York and have been exposed to great gourmet food.   I had also read about The Fish Company in the local Iceland paper as being one of the 3 best restaurants in the city, so I figured it was worth a try.

First off, it's a bit difficult to find.  It's located in the basement/bottom level of a building on a quiet side street and there's not much signage on the outside, so it did take me a while to find it.  But I was so happy we finally found did because it was totally worth the walk about.  The menu here is "global" in that they describe each dish as coming from a specific country but I think it's more of an "influence" than actual recipes from that country.  For starters, we had originally wanted to get the sushi (from Japan) since the couple at the lobster dinner had raved about it.  Unfortunately, the sushi rice wasn't ready yet, so we opted for the Tahti starter of grilled and marinated tuna with pineapple salad, parsnip purée, butter milk foam, crispy sichuan pepper biscuet and soya glaze (3300 ISK but the restaurant kindly charged us for the sushi dish which was 2800 ISK = $22 USD).  For entrees, I ordered the Iceland dish of perch, artic char and another white fish with kale and mashed potatoes (4900 ISK = $38 USD) and Allison got the Sweden dish of fried salmon and grav lax and dil foam, goat cheese cream, pickled cucumber, celery jam and marinated potatoes (4400 ISK = $34 USD).

Before we got our dishes, we were served this amazing warm bread (that was sour and slightly undercooked) with a trio of fantastic dipping sauces.  One was a sweet butter, another a sweet chili sauce and the 3rd a Icelandic yogurt like sauce.  They were all delicious and I wished every place started a meal like this.   I would have actually paid for the sauces if they didn't give it to us for free.

On to the appetizer.  The tuna was served rare in cube formation and sashimi style.  While the buttermilk foam sounds like some kind of pretentious WD-50 style addition, but it was a nice light touch to the dish.  I also wouldn't have thought that tuna and pineapple would go together, but it surprisingly worked.  Each mouthful was sweet from the pineapple but still had this clean seafood taste to it.  The quality of the fish was super fresh and right up there with the Japanese sushi grade fish you'd get at a high end sushi joint.

Moving on to my entree.  I love fish in all forms, so I was extremely excited to have not one but three different kinds of local fish on one dish.  The 3 types of fish were all covered in a slightly thick sauce that wasn't too far off from something that reminded me of a hollandaise-like sauce.  Ok, I know that probably sounds kind of gross but it wasn't.  The fish, especially the Arctic Char, was cooked to perfection...medium rare to the point it was almost raw.  Each piece was also a very generous cut of fish, so even though the dish was almost $40, I could see many restaurants elsewhere charging about $20+ for each piece of fish on the dish individually.  They were each moist and tender and really re-affirmed my love for fish.  The kale (how the heck did they manage to find kale in Iceland?) was sauteed and tasted great and of course you can't go wrong with a mashed potato base when it's made with lots of butter. 

I also tried Allison's salmon dish and also thoroughly enjoyed the pieces of salmon as well but can't give much of a detailed description of it since I just had 1 bite.  The picture doesn't really do it justice at all (in fact now that I'm looking at the pix - it kind of looks like a hot mess), but trust me, it was good.

I really did want to try their dessert but after spending almost the entire night eating 4 different kinds of fishes with endless amounts of sauces on them, I just really couldn't fit anymore food in my stomach. 

I do want to mention that the staff there was impeccable.  I felt like I was in a high end NYC style restaurant based on all the attention we received from the staff.  They were all very knowledgeable and seemed to take food seriously but not in a stuffy manner.  The overall decor was dark but still casual and comfortable.    While there wasn't much of a crowd when we got there for dinner (we ate at 6pm because we had a 8pm Northern Lights Tour to catch), I could see this place being filled up by locals as well as a food loving tourists  too.  All in all,  I was really blown away by the food and service of this place.  It really changed my mind as to what restaurants in Iceland are like.  I could see this type of restaurant in New York or London but I would haven never guessed Iceland.  But now I'm a believer and have to say that some of my most memorable meals of have come from Iceland.   Total bill: $104 for 2 people. 

Iceland January 2013 Day 1 - 4 forks

Iceland 2013 - Day 1

I'll be honest, I never thought of Iceland as a culinary wonderland.  I always thought of it as kind of a wasteland of fermented shark meat, smoked puffin and horse meat.  But I must say that I was pleasantly surprised at how awesome the food was there.   I would totally recommend every place I ate at and I would love to come back to Iceland to try out a bunch of other places I saw or read about but didn't have time to try.

The Laundromat Cafe -  Austurstræti 9, Reykjavik

On our first day in Iceland, Allison and I asked our hotel for a recommendation and they mentioned that there was great new place that was down the street called The Laundromat Cafe.  Usually I am a bit skeptical of recommendations from hotels because I feel like they just get kick backs from the places they suggest.  But I actually didn't get that feeling here.  It seemed like the guy just really liked this place a lot and I can see why.  This place is on one of the main drags in the middle of town and its got this super cute beatnik cafe type feel without being overly pretentious.  And yes, they apparently also have an actual place to do laundry downstairs as well.  The clientele here was hipster and yet family friendly also.  There are tons of books surrounding the bar and pictures of laundry mats around the world on the walls (strangely there was a picture of the place I used to do my laundry at in Park Slope which totally freaked me out).  The menu has a nice mix of brunch type stuff (like pancakes and eggs) and lunch dishes such as sandwiches and burgers.  I was torn if I should try their version of brunch but in the end I opted for the cubano toast (2,190 ISK = $17 USD) and Allison got the vegan toast.  When they say toast, they really just mean open faced sandwich.  The cubano toast was served with braised pork, chipotle salsa, and sour cream on a toasted slice of bread.  Unlike cubanos in the US, there wasn't any ham or pickles and the pork was almost like a  pork chop without the bone in it.  It was definitely tasty and different.  The bread was a bit tough and hard to cut through so I ended up just eating the pork with the salsa and sour cream but that was filling enough in itself.  Of course the dish also came with thick cut french fries and mayo and I pretty much devoured the entire thing.  It was the perfect place to come after a red-eye to just chill out, enjoy the people watching and fill your stomach with some good comfort food.  I really loved it here and could see myself coming here over and over again if it was in my neighborhood.

Fjorubordid - Eyrarbraut, 3A, Stokkseyri 825

For dinner we indulged at a seaside seafood place in this town called Stokkseyri which was probably 1-2 hours outside of Reykjavik.  It was part of our Northern Lights Jeep tour and I'm usually skeptical about any group meal that's part of a tour.  But it was actually a great meal.  The dinner came with a few sides of marinated tomatoes and cucumbers and salads to start and fresh warm baked bread.  But the main star of the show was the giant pot of lobster tails and potatoes soaking in butter.  When I first heard lobster,  I thought of the big Maine ones we have at home, but the lobsters here are small - almost like a crayfish or large shrimp but if you eat enough of them, you can most definitely get full.  They serve just the tails here and you can easily peel/de-shell them.  The meat is very tender and sweet and some of the meat fell apart as you were eating them.  I think part of the sweetness has to do with the 2 lbs of butter that the tails are soaking in but hey, it was still delicious.  The whole meal felt very homey and quaint, much like the town we were in.   It was nice to check out a small town far from the city center once on the trip.  This place was different than what I expected but sometimes different is just perfect.

Photo credit: Icelandguest.com and fotothing.com 

Calliope Visited 1/13/2013 4.5 Forks

Calliope 84 E 4th St., New York, NY 10003

The space where Calliope is located has gone through so many iterations in the past few years, most recently Belcourt, that I was starting to think that the space was cursed because none of the restaurants seemed to last more than 1-2 years.  But I think Calliope may change that streak.  Calliope has been written up in several Best of 2012 lists so I figured that tons of well respected blogs can't be wrong, right?

I met a childhood friend (we hadn't seen each other in 20 years, how crazy is that?!) there for dinner on Sunday night and it was pretty packed.  I will say that I wasn't a huge fan of the lay out of the seating.  We were almost sitting on top of the table next to us and the table behind us, but eventually the table next to us left pretty early on in the meal so that freed up some space.  We started with Nantucket Bay Scallop crudo ($15) for an appetizer and then split the rabbit pappardelle ($27) and the black sea bass ($30) entrees.  The meal started with toasted bread with an anchovy spread.  I'm not really a huge of anchovy but the spread here was a nice touch and not too fishy tasting.  The crudo came out and the dish was gorgeous.  It was served with slices of fresh grapefruit and sprinkled with olive oil.  While it wasn't quite like a ceviche, the combination of the fresh citrus slices and raw seafood was amazing.  These were smaller scallops but there was a surprisingly decent number of them.  I was seriously in love with this dish.  It was so clean and refreshing that I could have had ordered 10 more of these.  But I was also very eager for the other 2 dishes.  I tried the sea bass first and I was immediately impressed with the texture and firmness of the fish.  It was cooked perfectly and the mild flavor of the fish was paired well with the saffron mussel broth, the leeks and romesco toast.  The romesco sauce was fantastic and who would have thought that toast and fish went well together?  This was one of the best fish dishes I've had in a while and I hope that my 2013 meals continue on this course.  On to the rabbit dish.  I can't say I've had rabbit recently but this one was pretty damn good.  I thought the meat tasted like a mix of chicken and duck - not gamey at all.  My only complaint was that the dish was overpowered by the taste of butter.  I just had these visions of all the cooking shows I've seen on TV and watched in horror as they ladle heaps of butter into a sauce pan.  Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the dish but it was a bit heavy handed on the butter.  Just when I thought I couldn't eat anymore we were lured into dessert.  We opted for the Baba Rhum with whipped cream and rum ($9) and oh boy was it an intense dessert.  It's a warmed brioche pastry that is cut in half at the table, then the waitress pours the very strong rum on top of the bread (which soaks the bread immediately and intensely) and then covered with the fresh whip cream.   It was basically a rum cake or bread and when you get to the bottom of the bread you could also feel yourself getting drunk but in a good way.  The whip cream was so light and fluffy that we actually put the entire ramekin of it on the bread.

The food here was fabulous and the service was spot on.  I do think the entrees are priced a bit high but unlike my last meal at El Toro Blanco I can see a slightly better justification here than there.  I wouldn't necessarily say that this is a place to come to over and over again given the prices, but it's definitely a solid place for a great meal.  Total bill: $109 for two people with tax and tip

Photo Credit: NY Magazine