Dinner Club - Almost Alsace

Dinner. Dinner with friends. Dinner with friends and booze...now you're talking. And that's how dinner club started - with booze, I mean. You see, about two years ago a few friends and I were out drinking (Pegu Club, I believe) when the idea of each of the four of us (and our s.o.s) hosting a rotating dinner party was bandied about - and dinner club was born. And since then, every month and a half or two months, a great night of dinner and booze takes place. The guys do most, if not all, of the cooking.

Dinner club is great fun - each of us trying to outdo one another with our meals. The planning and procuring process that goes into each dinner can be quite extensive. Whether it's running to Whole Foods, the green market, the butcher, the baker or the boozer, a lot of thought goes into each dinner. One of our dinners was actually a market dinner, each of us shopping for and preparing one course; that one was at chez johnder (as he has the biggest and best kitchen) and was documented by special guest Miami Danny on his blog. Danny was lucky - there aren't many special guests. One night the host actually set up a barbecue right in his kitchen; we all enjoyed the Korean bbq that evening. At another dinner, we had 5 or 6 separate pasta courses - can you say carbo-load...that one was written about in Saveur magazine.

Dinner club at chez weinoo happens about once every four to six months, and this past Saturday night, it was my turn. For the main course, I had been thinking about and wanting to make a certain dish for a long time - and it's a dish that should be eaten in cooler weather, so the timing was just right. Many other courses had to be planned as well - hors d'oeuvres, first course, dessert, booze, etc.

The star of the show was choucroute garni, an Alsatian dish which is sauerkraut cooked with onions, white wine, spices and various and copious amounts of pork products. What better place to shop for the ingredients than at this classic NY institution, opened in 1937...

Schaller & Weber is great - it's like stepping into another world; the senses of smell and sight are overwhelmed - I mean just take a look at one of their display cases...

Here are the raw materials I picked up for the choucroute, which is all about the shopping, since I'm not exactly butchering and curing my own hogs...we've got bacon, smoked butt, salt pork, kielbasa, knackwurst, franfurters, bratwurst, weisswurst and sauerkraut. As Alice always says, start with good ingredients, prepare them properly and don't fuck them up (well, maybe she didn't say it quite like that).

Of course, you always want to start with something that appears healthy, so for a first course we had a fennel and tomato soup. Sweat fennel, onions, potatoes, garlic and plum tomatoes for about 10 minutes. Add 2 quarts good homemade chicken stock. Simmer an hour or so. Puree. Reheat - taste for seasonings. A tablespoonful or 2 of Pernod is good. Serve in hot bowls thusly...

Next up, the main. I poached the sausages separately, only because my largest cooking utensil wasn't big enough for it all - and because I like these sausages best when they're heated gently - basically they're my own dirty-water dogs, and everything was served on two large platters...


To go with the choucroute, we had a vegetable, roasted...

and we had some Sam Kinsey home-made rye bread...notice the Kinsey arm, that's not a sleeve!

We put quite a dent in those piles of meat (and the pork-shoulder hash I made the next morning for breakfast was good too).

My tip of the day has included the one about not cooking something for a fancy-schmancy dinner party that you haven't cooked before - but for dinner club, we all make exceptions. And there have been some monumental mistakes; both my Venetian dessert and bread pudding are still talked and laughed about to this day. Marshmallows that we were unable to cut without electric hand tools. And a few others along the way.

So just to make sure we'd have something to laugh about, I set out to make a lemon custard tart - tart making is something I haven't done in many years. And while it wasn't a total disaster (as it was actually edible), it needs work; as soon as the deep cut on my finger heals, from when I was trying to remove the damn tart from the tart pan, I'm giving it another try. That's why to make sure I'd have something to serve when and if the tart failed, there was also vanilla ice cream as well as these Pierre Hermé Korovas; chocolate sablés topped with fleur de sel...

A nice end to a great evening with good friends. And of course, looking forward to the next 3 dinner clubs, when all I have to do is eat - and drink.

Why We Love 'inoteca

Rome is one of our favorite cities. It's not like we've been to lots and lots of cities, because we haven't - but of the ones we've been to...I'd guess for Significant Eater it's probably Paris; for me, it's gotta be Rome.

The reasons are many and varied. We love the people, not just of Rome, but of Italy in general. They take life at a different pace and it's a pace we enjoy. There is time for a quick cappuccino and a cornetti in the morning - and if it's a cappuccino, it's before 11 AM. Order one after 11 AM, and you'll draw some concerned looks, because after 11, it's espresso only. There is time to linger over a great work of art, or just to stop and chat with your friends in the piazza. There is time for a glass of vino in the early evening, there is the time honored tradition of La Passeggiata and there is always time to linger over a meal - be it lunch or dinner.

So, what to do when we spend 99% of our time in New York? Other than hopping an Alitalia flight (not always feasible, unfortunately) and cooking at home (I've gotten really good at Bucatini all'Amatriciana and Spaghetti a Cacio e Pepe, 2 Roman classics), there are a number of restaurants in New York that do an admirable job of cooking Roman and Italian cuisine.

Perhaps our favorite is the extremely casual 'inoteca. The original 'inoteca opened almost 6 years ago on the corner of Rivington and Ludlow Streets, on the lower east side of Manhattan. Ever since day one, 'inoteca has been a place we frequent when we are craving a few small plates or perhaps a panino, accompanied by a nice glass of reasonably priced Italian wine. It's also a place we go when we want to feel like maybe we're in Italy; perhaps even Rome. Because that's when the owners come in - you see, 'inoteca is co-owned by Jason and Joe Denton, along with its executive chef Eric Kleinman. Trust me on this - there are no more welcoming owners than Jason and Joe. While Eric may be busy at work in front of the stoves (after a long stint at Lupa as sous-chef), it's Jason or Joe who greet the customers, with a warm friendly hello - just like you might get in Italy. As an aside, they both honed their craft from a rather famous uncle, restaurateur and raconteur Harry Denton in San Francisco - and in a strange twist, I used to frequent Harry Denton's in San Francisco's financial district during my long stint in the Bay area...Jason may have even been working behind the bar during one of my visits, though my memory of those nights is a bit hazy.

Recently, a second location of 'inoteca opened; the more uptown ‘inoteca, vino, cucina e liquori bar, formerly Bar Milano, located at 323 Third Ave. at 24th St., a neighborhood which isn't exactly food or restaurant central. And after a wait of about a month, Significant Eater and I finally got a chance to try the "new" 'inoteca and we were not disappointed.

Arriving at around 7:15, we were told a table would be available in just a few minutes - certainly not the case 30 minutes later. I had wanted to step into the bar to check it out, but the hostess said it would be best to take cocktails at our table, and one look into the bar (virtually unchanged from its previous incarnation) assured me that she was right - it was packed.

The first thing we noticed after being brought our menus was that the cocktail list had expanded dramatically. Not only are the original cocktails developed for Bar Milano still on the list, but classics as well as not-so-classics (the Widow's Kiss, for example) are there as well. We opened with a Last Word (SE) and a standard Manhattan (me), which were both finely executed. Oh, did I mention the Last Word is made with V.E.P. Chartreuse (at least for now) and comes in at $10. As do all the cocktails...it appears the Dentons are intent on getting this crowd to drink some good cocktails - selling them at perhaps the best price point in the city.

As for the food, uptown 'inoteca doesn't disappoint. Additions to the menu include about 5 or 6 pastas, as well as a similar number of spiedini, with the rest of the menu essentially a carbon copy of downtown's.

Starting with suppli, the gooey, cheese filled balls of risotto - deep-fried to a nice crisp - is always a good idea. They go surprisingly well with the last sips of a Manhattan. Quickly we tried a couple of the new dishes - and both the spiedini we had hit the spot. 2 skewers of quail, crisp and juicy at the same time, came atop a farro salad. Octopus spiedini was tasty as well, hunks of grilled octo-mom dressed simply with olive oil and sitting on a bed of, for want of a better word, Italian potato salad.

Dying to to try a pasta from the expanded menu, we ordered the tagliatelle con ragu - perfectly cooked pasta enhanced by the sweet and meaty ragu. (The other pastas look good as well - think Lupa pasta, and how bad can that be?) And that thing about pasta that most Americans don't get - pasta is the main ingredient (cooked al dente) and the sauce is the condiment and that's just how it's served here. Kudos to Chef Kleinman.

For an old favorite, we had the polpette, 3 large, tender meatballs (I'm guessing a combo of beef, veal and/or pork) on a bed of caramelized onion and tomato. Nice, and the leftovers were good for lunch the next day as well. Of course, at this point you might think we were being gluttons - okay, we were. So we also tried the beet salad, the earthiness of the beets enhanced by mint and pecorino; and the grilled calamari with fennel, a nice combo, the squid cooked just so and as good as always. Dessert, which we didn't have room for (but which we ate none the less), was the affogato, which is vanilla gelato with a shot of espresso (we had it minus the espresso), and the budino di cioccolata, basically an intense bitter chocolate pudding. At $5 and $6, these desserts compete with many of the $10 options around town; not in fanciness, 'cause they're not fancy, but in taste - and I'll take a delicious dessert any day of the week.

In these tough times, retooling the high concept Bar Milano into 'inoteca seems to be a good bet. To be able to have a couple of nice cocktails, or a half-bottle of wine, along with a few winning plates and get out for let's say $50 - $75 for two, is no doubt going to make 'inoteca "uptown" as tough a ticket as the downtown location has always been. That's why it's nice that they're on Open Table. So reserve and go.

If you want to make that Last Word at home, it's equal parts good gin (Beefeater is fine), Chartreuse (preferably green or VEP), Maraschino Liqueur and lime juice, shaken like crazy with lots of ice.

For a Widow's Kiss, it's 1.5 oz. calvados or applejack (we use Laird's Bonded), 3/4 oz. Benedictine, 3/4 oz. yellow Chartreuse and a coupla dashes of Angostura bitters, stirred like crazy with lots of ice. A cherry garnish is optional - but not if you only have those weird red fake cherries in a jar - in that case, leave it out.

I didn't take any pictures during our meal at 'inoteca, so I'll leave you all with a few shots from our last trip to Rome. Enjoy.

Here's spaghetti con vongole, and note that all the sauce has been absorbed by the pasta...

And some shots from around town, including the Fontana del Moro in Piazza Navona...

behind the Colosseo...

Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano from across the Tiber...

and the Fontana di Trevi, from right down in front...

Hot Diggedy Dog

Here in NYC, the hot dog is practically a cultural icon. Oh sure, other cities like Chicago have their dogs, but from my research on the web, the first hot dogs were sold in 1867, by one Charles Feltman, a German butcher, from a stand in Coney Island; he is also credited with the idea of the warm bun. And then, wouldn't you know it, one of Feltman's ex-employees went into competition, undercutting his former employer by 50% - that's right, charging a nickel to Feltman's dime - his name was Nathan Handwerker, and thus was born Nathan's Famous; the rest is history. (By the way folks, you're not really having a Nathan's hot dog when you buy one at a rest stop on the NJ Turnpike - it's gotta be in Coney, honey.)

Hot dogs are available everywhere in this town. Of course, there are dirty-water dogs, lukewarm and at a corner near you...usually Sabrett's, but other varieties abound. I haven't had one of those in a long mother effing time - I just don't trust 'em, not because they're Sabrett's but because of the dirty water. There are the dogs at Shake Shack - with all sorts of toppings, etc. Feh (meh?). I mean really, once you've taken the plunge for a hot dog, do you really want a salad on it? Shake Shack's for burgers, dude. There are dogs from vendors at the stadiums (although this year they'll probably cost $10 a pop) - usually warmed only by the residual heat of the surrounding air. Pass on those.

Don't get me wrong - there are some damn good dogs too. For instance, Crif Dogs, on St. Mark's Place, rocks. But to really enjoy the hot dog, you gotta enter the inner sanctum, that of PDT, where you can enjoy a deep-fried beauty with one of Don 's, John's, Jim's or Johnny's great cocktails. And who can forget Katz's, where the dogs are griddled - perhaps my favorite method.

Back when I was driving a cab, there was a great bar on the corner of Main and Roosevelt, in Flushing. Hot dogs and draft beers (Schmidt's, iirc) were a quarter each - and when you ordered a hot dog with mustard and kraut, the barman would call out - 1 Frank Sinatra, fully dressed. Those were the days.

Fast forward to today (well, yesterday) and one of the best bargain dogs to be had in the city. Yes, it's...

at Broadway and 72nd St. There are at least 3 Gray's Papayas listed on Menupages, and another 2 Papaya Kings, and I'm sure there are many more. I don't know if Gray's is a spinoff of Papaya King, or vice-versa, but this location is my favorite. If you're wondering about the name(s), they offer a papaya "drink" with many purported health qualities (rich in Vitamin A) . I love Gray's, and not because it's soothing and calming inside...

because it's not. But where else can you get a deal like this...

The recession special = 2 hot dogs + 1 drink ( not including pineapple or orange juices, freshly squeezed, or so we're told). But seriously, 2 dogs and a drink is $4.45...and that's after a raise in the base price of the dog from $1.25 to $1.50. And what a dog it is - griddled, as I like them, and just check out the griddle in action...

That's some serious dog action folks (from my count, about 100 dogs at any one time), along with steaming vats of some sort of onion product and sauerkraut. And when you can't decide how to have your hot dog, you gotta go both ways. Or, as I like to say, 1 Frank Sinatra fully dressed and 1 with mustard and onion. Half naked, or something like that. Bon Appétit.


Addendum: Some (one) commenter wonders why I like Gray's (well, other than the reason I stated in the comment immediately following Miami Danny's, i.e. the price). Basically, my favorite dog is a natural casing griddled dog - Katz's, Nathan's, Gray's and many of the older delis all cooked their dogs like this (let's leave kosher dogs out of this for now). It's snappy and it's crunchy and it's garlicky - and gets some flavor from the browning process, as opposed to the poached or boiled dog, i.e. the dirty water dog.

But it's often hard to tell the difference between Katz's, the various "papaya" places, Sabrett's, etc. and there's a reason...

They're all the same dog, manufactured by Marathon Enterprises, of East Rutherford, N.J., the parent company of Sabrett. They may vary in size, preparation and condiment selection (and Papaya King has Marathon add a secret spice to its mixture), but they're the same ol' dog. In fact, until a few years ago, Marathon made Nathan's hot dogs.

Read the whole story in this NY Times article, by that great Serious Eater, Ed Levine.