Old School Spaghetti - With Clams From Cans

Oh, what the hell. And what else is there to do?

SPAGHETTI WITH CLAMS

I call it old school, because it's like the spaghetti with clams I used to make when fresh clams were unavailable to me (hey, I lived in San Jose for 16 years!). So - what follows is my recipe for spaghetti with clams (okay, some are cockles) (and all clams are from cans).

Here's the recipe (it serves 2);

225 grams good spaghetti - don't use anything but real spaghetti (yeah linguini works), not that shit made out of lentis or corn or quinoa. I happen to use Setaro, because it's good. As a matter of fact, for a dish with canned clams that's old school, Ronzoni or DeCecco are fine.

1 can Bumble Bee (nee Snow's) chopped clams (they also make a minced product, but...no)

1 can Matiz Berberechos - that's just a fancy word for wild cockles, but good ones - you can eat these right out of the can, which I don't suggest for that Bumble Bee product.

You know how you know it's just a fancy word for cockles (other than the fact it's translated for you right on the front)? Well, they also package a can like this - either is okay with me.

1 nice, big, fresh (yeah, farmer's market stuff) clove of garlic, sliced thinly, like from that scene in Goodfellas, where Paulie is slicing the garlic in jail. If you haven't seen Goodfellas, stop reading.

Crushed red pepper - let's say 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon

Handful of chopped flat parsley (yeah, farmer's market), chopped even finer than I did
Extra virgin olive oil - let's say 3 - 4 tablespoons
Salt - you won't need much, the clams are a little salty
Pepper - if I have to tell you how much, and if I have to tell you freshly ground...oy

Fry up (yeah - sauté) the garlic and crushed red pepper and some of the parsley in the olive oil until the garlic is lightly browned; not burnt, cause that'll fuck your dish up. Add the juice from both cans to this pan, and drop your spaghetti (linguini?) into another pan in which you're boiling about 3 liters of water, lightly (in this case lightly, because as I already told you, the clams are salty) salted water. Reduce the clam juices while the spaghetti is cooking. Since I use Setaro spaghetti, that takes about 10 minutes.

When your spaghetti (linguini?) is almost done, remove it with tongs into the pan where you are making the sauce. At the same time you do that, add all the clammy stuff to that pan, and a little pasta water - like 1/4 cup. Now, keep tossing that spaghetti (linguini?) and clams and sauce till almost all the sauce is absorbed - if you don't think there's enough sauce in the pan, this is where your pasta water comes in handy, and also why you don't just dump the pasta into a colander in the sink (well you can, but save some of that water). Add some pepper. Taste it - see if it has enough salt - if it doesn't, what are you smoking?

Plate the stuff (tongs!), scrape up the schmutz (if any) that's left in the pan, and put it on top of the spaghetti (linguini?), and sprinkle the rest of your finely chopped parsley on top.

A crisp white (with a little salinity) would work. From Lazio. The Veneto? Spain. Even a sherry. You figure it out - I've already done enough, and let's face it - it's really too hot to make spaghetti (linguini?), but...

P. S. If you are lucky enough to have access to good, fresh clams (yeah, farmer's market or better), then you could make a dish like this...

Happy As A Clam

Or, if you just want to fancy this one up a bit, add a little (okay, 1/4 cup) of the wine you're drinking to the pan after the garlic is browned, and let it evaporate before adding the clam juice. You won't taste the difference, but you'll think it's better.

By the way, if this isn't better than 99% of the spaghetti (linguini?) with clams you've ordered in a restaurant (well, unless that restaurant is in Rome or Venice or the restaurant is using fresh clams and the pasta station really knows what they are doing), don't blame me. After all, look what happened to Joey Gallo after his spaghetti (linguini?) with clams.

Buon Appetito!

One or More Reasons I Loathe Delivery Apps

I confess - I loathe delivery apps.  I confess - I've never used a single delivery app for a single delivery of a meal. Years ago, when they (grub hub, seamless, door dash, uber eats, et al.) first were rearing their ugly heads, I had a friend who was an early adopter; I complained to said friend that all the apps would do would be to increase the cost to consumers, as well as to chip away at the meager profits of small restaurants. He didn't cook at home and he didn't care; case closed.

Oh sure - let's face it - I used delivery. But didn't we all back in simpler times, simply by calling up our local Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese/Pizza/sandwich/bodega place (A friend literally used to order Tab and cigarette delivery from her bodega - those were the days!)?  

I knew that when I ordered a bowl of wonton noodle soup, some stir fried pork with mixed vegetables (don't tell my rabbi) and some shrimp with black bean sauce from Tang Tang (now New Tang's Garden) on 76th and 3rd, it would arrive at our apartment practically before I'd hung up the phone,  And the guy would climb 4 flights of stairs to deliver it. We had a relationship.

I knew, for years after we'd moved downtown and started to order Saturday lunch sandwiches from Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop, that it would always be the same guy who would deliver said sandwiches to us - without getting lost trying to find our building or apartment. We had a relationship.

And when my delivery guy from Noodle Village arrived with a sack full of noodle soup, some sandy pot chicken mushroom rice and a small order of stir fried greens with garlic, looking all sorts of disheveled, and I asked him if he was ok, his response was (I'll keep this clean): "Too much f*^%ing last night!" We had a relationship.

And those relationships now? Well, let's just say they've gone the way of rotary phones, touch-tone phones, talking on phones and black & white TV's.  I mean after all, if 95% of one's life is spent looking down at an iPhone while walking the crowded streets of NYC, or worse yet, riding on a damn electric scooter that gets dropped off and picked up via an app, what should I expect?  Delivery apps are here to stay, I guess. Doesn't mean I should like or accept them, does it?

Take a look at what the grey lady had to say yesterday (my guess is it's not just limited to France):

Food-Delivery Couriers Exploit Desperate Migrants in France

QuoteThese jobs have become more precarious,” said Jean-Daniel Zamor, president of the Independent Deliverymen’s Collective in Paris, a group that works on labor issues for couriers. “The fact that there is less money from the platforms has pushed poor people to outsource to people even poorer than them.

   

And The Wall St. Journal just weighed in last week, about the issues restaurants face with using the apps:

Some Restaurants Get Served in Delivery Boom

QuoteMany independent restaurants say they work with multiple online-delivery apps because they have become so pervasive; without them, they fear missing out on business. But that doesn’t mean they come cheap. Last year, Modern Restaurant Management reported that Uber Eats was charging restaurants a service fee of 30% of the bill. Similarly, a 2018 analysis by Business.com found select New York restaurants that opted for sponsored listings, in addition to delivery services, ended up paying a minimum of 30% to Grubhub.

Just who do you think is paying that 30% folks?

So, let's just say I was ahead of the curve in my dislike of this particular segment of the gig economy.  And let's just say that instead of Uber Eats, why not cook a meal or two at home?

P.S. Get off those fucking scooters, too!

Make Mine Mazemen, It's a Niche

I was thinking about my one blog post a year thing, maybe even blogging about it, then decided - fuck it....lemme just talk about mazemen, since I imagine within the next 12 months about 100 more mazemen places will have opened, in the 3 or 4 boroughs of NYC that matter.

But first, just as I wrote 5 years ago on this date, I need to point out I'm a lucky guy, cause  21 years ago (!), Significant Eater and I tied the knot, in a lovely ceremony, in the lovely city of Las Vegas, Nevada. So - Happy Anniversary to the love of my life! Here's to 21 more, and 21 more after that! And may our mazemen always be al dente...

Where was I? Oh yeah, mazemen.  Mazemen, according to some of the crap I've read, is the "dry style" ramen, which in my mind is kind of an oxymoron, since isn't ramen what we generally associate with a bowl of noodles - in some sort of broth? Be that as it may, I've been enjoying ramen for a long time. I remember there was some place in midtown, maybe 20 or more years ago, where a nice bowl of ramen could be had for lunch. And I was going to Japantown, in San Jose, CA way back in the early 80s, certainly indulging in my first bowls of ramen (while making my own avocado toast at home); but that was before butchers wore fedoras, and grain bowls were all the rage (are they still?).

Anyway, you can't walk more than a block or two in this town w/o stumbling over a ramen place. It's usually next to a poke place, which is next to a grain bowl place, if you get my drift. I expect that the poke places, and the grain bowl places, will, like every trend, all but disappear within a year or two, and the ramen places will thin out, but overall ramen is here to stay. And why not - ramen, made well, is delicious. But I (and many others I'm sure) have a problem with ramen; the broth is usually so insanely salty that I really shouldn't be eating too much of it. Also, and this is disgusting, sometimes it goes right through me, but let's not dwell.

So, enter mazemen, and the latest entry into that sweepstakes, a new place called Niche, on Delancey Street hard by the WillyB. Niche opened a few weeks ago, brought to us by the proclaimed ramen maestro Shigetoshi Nakamura, who is one of only 4 "ramen gods" in all of Japan! Pretty cool, and his ramen, from personal experience, is pretty damn good.

So I was itching to try his mazemen, and this week Significant Eater and I made the short walk up Clinton Street, past the new Trader Joe's/Target building, across Delancey, and settled into one of 14 seats (okay, stools) at the one long table running down the middle of the room. The lone server was awesome, because if there's one thing a server should do, it's to bring booze as quickly as possible, and that she did...

Sake and scallop @ Niche

I like the little vending machine sized cans/jars of sake, and these were just right for this meal. The scallop appetizer shown arrived very quickly, as did Significant Eater's app order, chilled Mapo tofu. Then, the main events...

Steak mazemen @ Niche

Yuzu dashi vongole @ Niche

On top, steak mazemen, delicious hunks of ribeye, smoky from torch grilling, along with menma and spinach. There's a little sauce at the bottom of the bowl, and when it's all mixed up, you end up with a really, really wonderful bowl of noodles. Just great. But even better, in both of our opinions, was the bowl of Yuzu Dashi Vongole, aka clam mazemen, literally one of the best renditions of pasta with clams to be found in this city.

To say we were pleasantly surprised would be an understatement - we were wowed! I certainly can continue to make ramen (below, top), or even mazemen (below, bottom) at home...

Jamon and pea ramen @ Hacienda Weinstein

Mazemen @ Hacienda Weinstein

But it's also nice to know that we can find mazemen (and yes, when necessary, ramen) this good, and just a 5 minute walk up the block.

Niche and Nakamura - 172 Delancey Street, New York

French Connection

Maybe NYC has always been awash in French restaurants; maybe we just never frequented the right neighborhoods; maybe they were out of what I considered our price range for a non-occasion dinner; or maybe they were just too friggin' snooty for my black jeans and black T-shirt wearing self.  Whatever it was, it seems the tide has turned, and that "reasonably priced" (of which there's no such thing any more in Manhattan) Italian trattoria that was opening on every other block (oh, how I long for the early days of 'ino, 'inoteca, Lupa with Ladner not mario, etc. etc.) has morphed into that more casual French bistro, and ain't that dandy? I mean, Italian food cooked at home is just so much better than the dreck served up at lousy Italian restaurants dotting the city (I'm currently looking at you, Serafina), that I'm happy to be donning my Francophile hat now, when Significant Eater and I head out for dinner.

Don't get me wrong - these won't necessarily be inexpensive nights out; but if you choose your drink(s) wisely, very nice dinners may be had without breaking the bank. Three additions to the French scene have opened recently (though you might have to hurry to one of them), in addition to the openings over the past few years of Le Coucou, Mimi, Le Coq Rico, Le Turtle, and Rebelle (sadly, closed). The latest batch includes La Mercerie, helmed by Marie-Aude Rose, and reviewed here by my friend Danny B.; Frenchette, in Tribeca, which opened at the beginning of April; and though it's not new, Racines, where they've brought in chef Paul Liebrandt, late of The Elm and Corton, for a residency expected to last through the end of May.  And having tried all 3 of this latest batch, I'm happy to report that the French bistro is alive and well here in NYC.

La Mercerie you read about by following that link above; certainly delicious food, but I think better for a nice lunch than dinner out. And certainly great if you've got $23,000 burning a hole in your pocket for that couch you must have!

Next up, Racines, where the short-term residency of chef Paul Liebrandt had us smacking our lips in anticipation. Racines (in my opinion) has always had an identity problem; is it a wine bar with restaurant style food, or is it a restaurant with a great wine list? Right now, with Paul, it's certainly a fancier restaurant with a great wine list. This is far from casual bistro fare, however. And it's got, to my taste, a lot of elements from both Japanese and Nordic cooking happening - Japanordica? For instance...

Kampachi at Racines via Paul Liebrandt

A first course of not so simple kampachi, with smoked yogurt and ossetra caviar, of a 5-course tasting menu, which included a crab/foie dish, turbot with Comté gnocchi, aged duck, and a fine chocolate dessert.  Serious Paul Liebrandt food, gorgeous plating, no punches pulled, for $90...a veritable bargain in our city today.  As I mentioned, the wine list is deep, and loaded with value.  Those who know way more about wine than me will study this list, and surely find something amazing. We were happy with a bottle of a 2010 Alsatian riesling blend at barely above retail, followed by a 2014 Janin Moulin-a-Vent, which went nicely with the duck (and chocolate), and also was bargain priced.  Here's the catch: if you want to eat food from a Michelin starred chef - go soon...he may be gone in the blink of an eye.

But then there'll always (we can hope) be Frenchette, perhaps my favorite of all the openings; certainly of the current crop, though it's hard to get Le Coucou off my mind. If you don't know the story of chef partners Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr, read a little about it here. And from the welcome at the front door by a few of the industry's finest vets, to the casual yet pro service in the dining room, to the wine list "curated" by Jorge Riera (profiled recently in The Times), it's all good food & fun. The room rocks, and not with music that's too loud. I've been 3 times already, and can't get enough; other than the Italian food I cook at home, this stuff hits my sweet spot.

So, for instance, start (as I did on my first vist) at the bar with pig's foot croquettes, served atop a beautiful sauce gribiche. The roast chicken for 2 is no slouch either, all crispy skin and juicy meat, with a pile of pommes puree that's either half cream or half butter...or both. Try eating that at the bar (we did), and watch your neighbors covet your plates.  Last night, in the dining room, we more sedately started with a rare treat...

Goose neck barnacles at Frenchette

Percebes, or goose neck barnacles, all saline and finger-licking good, with a sauce meant to be sopped up with the excellent (FREE!) bread. You can't come here and not order the scrambled eggs...

Brouillade at Frenchette

No, I mean the brouillade, scrambled eggs so soft and creamy, you'll wonder why you don't make these at home (hint - they're a pain in the ass). Currently, they're topped with a taste of snails, but it's really all about the eggs, and brunch may never be the same. Now, it being spring, I must have lamb...

Spring Lamb Stew at Frenchette

In the form of a delicious lamb stew, with a sauce to die for. At home, I make lamb stew with lamb neck; here, I believe they're using leg, and I'm gonna give that a try the next time. Perfectly sweet peas, asparagus, baby turnips, carrot, and potato made this dish seem positively healthy. 

Dessert last night was a merely delicious mille-feuille...

Mille-feuille at Frenchette

Made all the better by its tri-star strawberries, from where I don't know.  But - does it really matter?

Digging once again at the low end (price wise) of the wine list, we opted to open with an Alsatian riesling, this one from Julien Meyer, and barely double the retail price (if you can find it).  We followed that up with another 2014 Beaujolais, this one a Fleurie from Marcel Joubert, and also priced to sell. In case you're thinking Sig Eater and I always down 2 bottles of wine at dinner, be good - there were 3 of us!

If we're entering into an era of moderately priced, French bistro-style restaurants (bistronomy?) here in NYC, I'm all for it. If these are places where sharing isn't "recommended" by the kitchen, and where the food comes out on normal plates when it is supposed to, then I'm all for it. After all, isn't it about time we all learned how to dine like grown-ups? Or, more to the point - let's make that French Connection.

What's a Year Between Friends?

Yeah, it's been a year since my last post. Could it be that things weren't exciting enough to write about, or that nothing new and interesting happened during that time?

Or maybe it's just that since November, 2016, things felt really crappy. There were any number of times where I may have said to myself, "write something." Anything even.  Plenty of new restaurants have been tried. A few trips have been taken. Sitting down at the computer and writing about those things; a whole other story, evidently.

So now, only a year late, let me restart Tasty Travails with an old post. History repeats, evidently. It was almost 8 years ago (!) when I blogged about this:

Renovation Week One - Refill Xanax Prescription

That post was about our semi-permanent DC home, right after Significant Eater landed a job down there. That apartment is only a memory, but now we're beginning a similar adventure - renovating our NYC apartment's kitchen and bath.

Should be fun - and hey, it gives me something to complain write about.

Remember? It sorta looked like this:

And last week, it looked like this:

Stay tuned...and I need a refill!

Bronx Tales

Every now and then, in my continuing quest to explore "the boroughs" (and no, I haven't gotten to Staten Island yet, other than multiple trips to a friend's house for great dinners), I decide to head north and that borough up there, known colloquially as: da Bronx.

Not the largest borough (Queens), and not the most populous borough (Brooklyn), the Bronx might just be the most fun borough to visit. (And sorry if I forgot to explain what a borough is; essentially, in New York, the boroughs are counties...but not exactly.)  There's the Bronx Zoo. There's the New York Botanical Gardens.  There are Van Cortlandt and Pelham Bay Parks. There are beaches. Rivers. You get the picture, right? And oh yeah - there's food.

Take Sammy's Fish Box, for example...

Sammy's Fish Box

Located on City Island (yeah, there are also islands in the Bronx), the food is pretty good if you stick with the tried and true, and it's served in what may only be called brobdignagian proportions. It's old school, so everyone gets bread and "crudités." And if soft-shell crabs are in season - they'll probably be as delicious as these...

Soft-shell crabs at Sammy's

But men and women do not live by seafood alone. So when you're in the mood for something a little different, head over to the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, where you'll find the great...

Louie & Ernie's

The pies rank right up there with our favorites anywhere. In nice weather, you can sit in the backyard and enjoy your pie. The sausage is sourced in the Bronx (where else?), and it's delicious...

Louie & Ernie's Half Sausage Pie

If seafood doesn't move you, and you're not in the mood for pizza, how about Cuban food, at one of the 2 locations of Havana Cafe? 

Havana Cafe

I've only been to the one pictured above on East Tremont Avenue, and only for lunch, but the ropa vieja I enjoyed was sure worthy of another trip for Significant Eater and me in the near future. I'll bet the bar scene there is hopping on a weekend night!

Arthur Avenue, which many call the "real Little Italy" in New York (though that's debatable at this point), is still worthy of a visit and probably another blog post. There are a few great butchers on the Avenue and the fresh mozzarella at Casa Della Mozzarella is superb, but you need to pick and choose your spots, as a lot of what's on offer in the neighborhood is touristy junk.

Up in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, a couple (literally 2) of old-skool Jewish delis still hold out. Liebman's and Loeser's are the big names, though Sig Eater and I have only visited Liebman's so far. It's certainly good enough for a pastrami sandwich, a bissel of this and a schitckel of that, but it won't stop us from continuing our quest for the best. Here's a 2011 story from Back in the Bronx magazine about the remaining delis, with some excellent pictures.

Anything else? Oh, the Yankees, a great Etruscan Museum at Fordham University, Orchard Beach, and lots more to explore in the largest of our 5 boroughs. Me - I'm still looking for the "bodega" called Stubie's that my grandmother used to send me to in order to buy some farmer's cheese. One of these days... 

So, Sonoma...

Significant Eater and I just spent a great week in northern California, beginning with 3 nights in Sonoma wine country, followed by 4 nights in San Francisco. You know, leaving NYC for a week during the miserable weather of late August may become habit-forming.

Central to the 6-ish northern Sonoma County wine appellations is Healdsburg, a beautiful town with nice restaurants, a few bars, and in its center, numerous tasting rooms - all within walking distance from the Camellia Inn. One of the oldest houses in Healdsburg, the Camellia Inn is a fine starting point for exploring the area, whether you set out by bike, by car, or by foot if you're just heading "downtown." Breakfast is generous, the pool out back is chill for hanging out, and the rooms are welcoming. The inn even hooked us up with some nice wine tasting freebies, as I imagine many of the lodgings in Sonoma do.

After a 3 hour drive from the airport (the traffic on Saturdays is a nightmare, but not a surprise), after checking in, and after having a quick nap, we headed into town to taste a bit before dinner. Stonestreet Winery has a room in town; we buy a few bottles from Stonestreet via their wine club - so post the standard tasting, we were treated to a vertical tasting of their 3 most recent Rockfall Cabernet Sauvignon releases - 2010, 2011, and 2012...the 2010 is already a beauty, while the 2 later vintages will benefit from a few more years of age...

Stonestreet Rockfall Vertical

Dinner that night, after catching a bit of a buzz from the travel and wine, was at SHED. Not The Shed...just SHED. SHED's a place where you can shop; where you can gather; where you can drink switchels and shims and shrubs; where you can kibbitz; and - where you can dine quite nicely, thank you. The California aesthetic is in its full glory here...

Monterey Squid, Eggplant, Red Curry, etc.

Remember back when David Chang caused a stir a few year ago, saying: "Fuckin' every restaurant in San Francisco is just serving figs on a plate. Do something with your food!" Was he talking about this rabbit liver terrine, because it is figs on a plate - and so much more...

Rabbit Liver Terrine with Figs

We loved SHED, from the dishes shown, to the King salmon tartare, to the Liberty Farms duck, the lamb, the roasted peaches, the wine...it doesn't get much better than this. Great meal.

Don’t go crazy trying to visit as many wineries as possible; instead choose 2 or 3 places a day, in different appellations, so that you’re able to see as much of the scenery as you can. Me, I'm driving - so I'm not drinking, and how much wine can Sig Eater drink before dinner anyway? One of the highlights this trip was Rochioli, a pioneering Russian River Valley winery that produces Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Some of their vineyards...

Rochioli Vineyards

And pinot noir "berries" just about ready for picking...

Pinot Berries

Heading west from Rochioli towards the coast (stop at Porter Creek Vineyards - it's on the way), you'd hit the town of Guerneville, where we lunched at Boon Eat+Drink, a little joint that's an outpost of the Boon Hotel+Spa (what's with the ++ signs?), and where I had a good burger and eschewed the truffle fries. Walk around town after lunch, soak in the...well...remoteness of it all, along with the beauty of the redwoods that are left after the logging of the 19th and 20th centuries. Dinner this 2nd night in Healdsburg, after a sip of wine by the pool at the inn, was at Baci Cafe and Wine Bar. A fantastic wines by-the-glass list is the real draw here, in my opinion. The menu is expansive, and physically imposing, but we kept it simple, local, and somewhat light, starting with this tomato salad...

Baci Tomato, Plum, Asian Pear Salad

On a Sunday night, Baci was ready for us to leave at 9, and we got back to the inn just before the sidewalks were rolled up. Next morning we stopped back at SHED, for a fermented drink from their fermentation bar, and picked up a couple of sandwiches and great pickled stuff for a picnic lunch at Bella Winery, a property with a tasting room in their wine cave; it's at the northern end of Dry Creek Valley. Here we found one of the elusive 2015 rosés we'd been hearing about; evidentlyt 2015 was a good year for Sonoma rosés, which had sold out by Father's Day this year, but Bella had a bottle or two left - Sig Eater declared it one of the best California rosés she'd tasted. After I was unceremoniously chased off of the Bella property by a belligerent bee, we headed east, back over the Russian River to the Alexander Valley and the Robert Young Estate Winery, known for their Chardonnays and Cabs, as well as some lesser known Bordeaux varietals. Jordan, Stonestreet, and a slew of other wineries are in the Alexander Valley, and they're each a nice stop on any wine tour; check first, you may need a reservation to visit.

Down to our last night in town, we started off the evening heading to a brand new place, Duke's Spirited Cocktails. Open for less than 2 months, but helmed by some real cocktail pros, Duke's back bar is a looker...

Duke's Spirited Cocktails

And the drinks we had were unique and delicious. Here's Significant Eater's...

Duke's Rangpur Me Some More

Perfect for a summer evening, a blend of Opihr gin, Rangpur lime shrub, saffron bitters, house tonic and pink peppercorns. And my Mic Drop, a Dickel Rye based Manhattan-ish cocktail, also was good. But it was my no-name cocktail, concocted on the spot out of these ingredients, which led me to believe that in another life, if we were living in Healdsburg and I was still bitter, we'd be spending way too much time at Duke's...

Duke's No-Name Cocktail

Originally, we had scheduled dinner at a restaurant called Chalkboard, which took over the beloved Cyrus space a few years ago (we'd had a great meal at Cyrus once). But then I'd heard some whisperings about a newer place, with high aspirations, called Valette. Curing their own meats. Local boys (brothers!) made good. So we switched things up, and had dinner at Valette instead. Was it a mistake? I can't say for sure, because obviously we didn't get to taste the food at Chalkboard. And while some of what we ate was just fine, both Sig Eater and I found a few of the plates to be way too salty; for salt lovers like us, that's kinda hard to do. The wine list was a standout, however, and desserts were great, so the meal ended on a high note.

We left Healdsburg the next morning, driving south to San Francisco, which at a light traffic time on a mid-week day, takes a little over an hour. On our way out of town, we stopped into Flying Goat Coffee, a Healdsburg mainstay for 20 years. I grabbed an iced, Sig Eater an Americano. Both were just fine, and we were on our way.

A little more Healdsburg info:

Michael Bauer's Top 10 - January, 2016

Don't Read This About Michael Bauer

More Best Restaurants

Zadie's Oyster Room

Zadie's Oyster Room is the latest incarnation of Chef Marco Canora's tiny restaurant space on E. 12th St.  Previously, it was Fifty Paces, due to its location 50 paces from his much larger flagship up the block - Hearth. Before Fifty Paces it was Terroir, a much-liked wine bar, with some good snack-y food to go along; but that was ages ago in restaurant years. And now it's Zadie's. And now it's damn good.

Marco opened Zadie's as a tribute to the great oyster bars that once dotted lower Manhattan as Starbucks does today. As he explained in an interview with local blog Bedford and Bowery:

“I always had it in my mind to make a turn-of-the-century grand oyster bar,” he explained. “I would go to the New York Public Library and did a boatload of research and gathered old menus from that era,” he said, describing his fascination with the oyster industry that thrived in the city’s harbors in the late 19th and early 20th century. During his research, he was struck by their sheer proliferation of oyster bars in Manhattan. “They called them oyster rooms, oyster cellars – because a lot of them were underground, oyster saloons… there was all this verbiage around oyster bars, there were a lot of words for oyster rooms,” he said.

Marco's research also pointed out to him how oysters at those grand oyster bars were served in a variety of cooked styles, and that's exactly what's on the menu at Zadie's. Oysters at Zadie's can be ordered baked, broiled, steamed, fried, pickled, poached, and raw. Each prep is slightly different from another, but they all contain a special ingredient (shhhh - it's seaweed), as Chef likes the way seaweed punches up the flavor of the bivalve.

He's also offering an oyster-friendly wine list, with lots of bubblies, including a half dozen half bottles, as half bottles are a favorite of mine. So Significant Eater and I started off with this...

Cremant de Bourgogne

A fine, dry sparkler that went perfectly with our eats. And oh - the eats.  We began with crab cake sliders, 2 to an order; nice, generously crabby crab cakes, served with a textbook aioli and cucumber for a little crunch.  We also tried the shrimp cocktail, with beautifully poached shrimp and a nice, tangy cocktail sauce...turns out I'm not the only one who can cook shrimp properly.

But - it's an oyster room, so save room for the oysters. I've never seen so many offerings of oysters in different states of recently deceased...

Baked oysters and shrimp cocktail

Starting with the baked oysters (and obviously the shrimp cocktail), which were practically perfect. Oysters topped with prosciutto cotto, seaweed butter, egg, and leeks per the menu, and why can't I get a baked clam prepared as deliciously as this oyster is? Just one please.

See that picture? There are 3 baked oysters ; the cooked oyster dishes are served in 3s ($9.75) or 5s ($16.50) - and it's an arbitration process for Sig Eater and me at this point to see who gets the extra.

Moving on to a couple of glasses of wine to have with fried oysters, which were awesome atop their fennel slaw; we were advised to eat all in one bite with fingers; one delicious, crunchy, messy bite. The fried oysters are a must. The poached oysters, well -  I didn't love as much - though I think Sig Eater qvelled.

There's so much we missed. Broiled oysters, Pickled oysters. Steamed oysters. Smoked whitefish paté. Anchovy butter with brown bread. Even a classic Caesar, which I'm guessing Marco does right. Raw - of course there's happy hour Mon - Fri, with some oysters at half price. We'll be back soon, for a nice, casual, fun meal. If you're oyster fans like we are, head on over - you'll be happy you did.

Zadie's Oyster Room - 413 E. 12th St., NYC

Crazy for Le Coucou

Le Coucou is the new restaurant (opened for reals last week) collaboration between restaurateur Stephen Starr and Chef Daniel Rose of Spring, an acclaimed restaurant located in Paris. That backstory need not be explained here; suffice to say that Significant Eater and I have had the pleasure of dining at both the tiny Spring 1 (once), and the more ambitious Spring 2 (a number of times), and it was always a fun and delicious time.

Plenty of restaurants open in New York City; often they come with lots and lots of hype. Le Coucou is certainly one of them, as the PR bandwagon got rolling a while ago. And normally we like to give restaurants at least a little while to get their footing, but with this one we just couldn't wait, so off we were to Lafayette Street - on night two of service. I didn't even know if we'd get a table, since we were sans ressies, but we figured we could just grab a cocktail, even if we couldn't have dinner. But arriving early, we were offered a table by the charming Maître D' and lovely hostesses and hosts, though we did have a drink first, in their rather intimate lounge area.

Now, I'd introduced myself and Sig Eater to Daniel at Spring years ago, as a friend of a friend. And again, when we were lucky enough to dine at the new Spring. But here, even before I was seated, Daniel (who had zero idea we were coming to have dinner) was by our side, greeting me by name and with hugs and cheek kisses - you know, that lovely French way. And even though he looked like he wanted nothing more than to pass out on the extremely comfortable banquette, he returned to our table any number of time during our meal, to make sure we were enjoying our dinner, to see if there was anything we'd like him to "whip up." Basically the consummate host.

French has been seeing a serious revival in NYC over the past couple of years, and that makes us happy, as we love French cooking.  I mean, one need look no further than Rebelle, or Racines, or MIMI, or Chevalier, or...well, you get the picture. And here, with classic French technique executed almost flawlessly, we were in heaven. One of our favorite dishes is a simple Poireaux, poached leeks served in a bracing vinaigrette. Here, chef adds a little something extra, topping the leeks with sweet, roasted hazelnuts. What about fried Delaware eel? Normally, my eel exposure is limited to sushi bars, where the earthy eel get a sweetish topping. At Le Coucou, the Anguilles frites au sarassin are as light as a feather, the eel's buckwheat batter playing well with curried vinaigrette and a subtle brunoise of citrus.

Mimolette is a French cheese that as recently as a few years ago had its import halted by the food police, aka the FDA. It's back, and here it graces Asperges au vinaigre de bois. It's a simple lightly-roasted asparagus salad, made special by a smoked wood vinegar sourced somewhere in the wilds of Canada.

Asparagus salad

One of the dishes chef sent to our table was a knockout - a whole sea bream stuffed with lobster - and my guess is the menu is changing daily, because as I look while writing this, it's not on the online menu now. But here's a picture anyway.

Lobster stuffed sea bream

 A classic of the French culinary canon is Quenelle de brochet. As Julia says in Mastering the Art I, "A quenelle, for those who are not familiar with this delicate triumph of French cooking, is pâte à choux with a purée of raw fish...formed into ovals or cylinders and poached in a seasoned liquid. Served hot in good sauce, quenelles make a distinguished first course. A good quenelle is light as a soufflé..."

Quenelle de brochet, sauce américaine

Yes it is. And indeed it was. Our main course, which we shared because we wanted to save room for cheeses, was Bourride, a Provencal fish stew that might be known in places like Nice as bouillabaisse. Here, the fabulous fish fumet is stocked with halibut, mussels, clams, and Santa Barbara spot prawns. Served alongside, a thick slice of toasted baguette, slathered with aïoli. Suck the head of those prawns, dip the bread, and pretend you're somewhere other than Chinatown - it's easy enough, once inside, because this is a lovely space.

Our 3-cheese selection (all American) was swoon-worthy to Significant Eater, and served alongside was an accompaniment of 3 different beverages, which I don't really know if everyone gets - or if Daniel was just being extra nice to us.

Speaking of nice, the service staff is super. There was a horde of people working on both the floor and in the kitchen. The front of house people were professional, yet casual. There have a been a few notable restaurant openings this year, where service has been a bit "clumsy." Not here, where everyone is on the same page, and that enhances the experience greatly.

What else can I write? Well, I am sad we didn't get to enjoy dessert - we just ate too damn much, but next time! And while we were unexpectedly treated like old friends, with 3 comped dishes from the kitchen and a couple of glasses of champagne when we sat down at our table, I looked around the restaurant any number of times, and everyone sure looked happy. The wine list is extensive - maybe that's part of the reason? There are tablecloths on the tables. There are comfortable chairs. Reservations are taken. All grown-up stuff. But most of all, once you taste this cooking, I think you're going to be happy as well.

Le Coucou

One Chicken. 17 Meals.

One chicken - 17 meals...now how the hell is that possible?

Quite frankly: it's not. Well, maybe it is, but you'd for sure have to eat some pretty small portions. The whole 17 meals thing - I just thought it might be a good way to get your attention.

In any event. lemme show you how many dishes I recently stretched a single, high-quality bird into, using some pantry and fridge items I always have around...

Roasted chicken

First, I roasted the chicken on a vertical roaster, while a bunch of cut up potatoes cooked in the drippings below. The next day, I pulled the remaining meat off the bird...

Salad and stock

Which I made into a chicken salad. The bones (along with a few chicken scraps saved in the freezer) made a quart and a half of a nice, rich stock. Once you've got stock...

Making risotto

You can use it to make risotto; in this case, mushroom risotto, with both fresh and dried mushrooms (the soaking liquid from the reconstituted dried 'shrooms also goes into the making of the risotto)...

Mushroom risotto

The mushroom risotto was a big hit with Significant Eater. I always make a little more risotto than the 2 of us can eat in one sitting, because...

Frying risotto pancakes

With the leftover risotto, I make risotto "pancakes." And who doesn't like a nice, crispy rice pancake...

Risotto "pancakes"

 Served alongside a tart, peppery arugula salad?

Not quite 17 meals, but that one bird sure made for some nice eating. Next up, going to the source (almost) for a real chicken.

Kosher Ish

Every once in a while (make that every once in a great while), I get the urge to eat some real kosher deli. Of course, I could just walk up to Katz's Deli, or head up to the 2nd Avenue Deli, but Katz's isn't really kosher and the 2nd Avenue Deli isn't really on 2nd Avenue (in either of its damn locations), so that knocks them out.

For a number of years I'd heard and read about a couple of far-flung kosher delis in the Bronx - though we'd never been to any of them. So this past weekend Significant Eater and I took a road trip; there were 2 delis I had in mind, located within 10 minutes of one another - Loeser's Old Fashioned Kosher Deli and Liebman's Delicatessen.

Now I'm not gonna get into a whole discussion about kosher and the laws which govern kashruth - it would take a few battling rabbis and other scholarly types, with way more knowledge than this lapsed Jew, to do that discussion justice. Suffice to say that I was surprised, when checking out the two Bronx delis for their hours of operation, that both are open on Saturday...the Jewish day of rest. Evidently, pastrami and corned beef rest for no man, though Loeser's is closed on Sundays - go figure. So, we ended up here...

Liebman's Menu

At any real Jewish deli, your waitperson will always bring to your table (if it's not already on your table) a little snack. An antipasto or hors d'oeuvre, if you will. And Liebman's doesn't skimp on those...

Cole Slaw and Pickles

The pickles were just fine, nice and sour. The cole slaw you shouldn't know from (look at that barely wilted cabbage) - let's just say my cole slaw kicks its ass.

But our goal was to try some other dishes from the Jewish deli canon; in this case, we ordered kishka (aka stuffed derma) with gravy, because it you tried to eat this stuff without gravy, they'd have to perform the Heimlich maneuver on you. Even with gravy, we're talking some ummmmm, heavy, dry food - the stuff that my ancestors existed on - when they weren't being raped by Cossacks. Then there was the latke (aka potato pancake), which didn't measure up to mine or my Bronx grandmother's; grandma could make a boatload of delicious latkes in her small kitchen, without any food processor bullshit - one of the few things she cooked while we'd actually stand around the stove (otherwise, you wanted to be as far out of her reach as possible).

But truth be told, we were really here for the meat. While I'm a fan of all the potential meats in a Jewish deli, including tongue, Significant Eater turns up her, well, nose, at tongue. So we decided on the 2-meat combo - pastrami and corned beef, on rye...

Half Sandwich

And how did it stack up? The pastrami had nice flavor (milder than what I enjoy, but Sig Eater liked the spice), and was too lean for my liking; when I go to Katz's, I generally order "moist" pastrami; in the case of pastrami, moist means fatty, the deckle portion of the cut. And the corned beef, to be honest, was a little bland and dry. But hey, the rye bread was nice and fresh, so the sandwich had that going for it.

Am I glad we went? Yeah, sure. Will we head back to the Bronx for more pastrami? Perhaps - but next time to try Loeser's.

Oh - a few week ago I was out in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn...

My Brisket House Pastrami Sandwich

Where I got to try the pastrami at My Brisket House. Nothing kosher about this joint at all, but guess what? The pastrami was better than Liebman's. And the rye bread - feh.