Bouley

Bouley's front door, currently hidden behind construction scaffolds

Walking into Bouley it doesn't take long to see just how much the dining scene of NYC has changed.  In a time when restaurant decors are designed and geared towards sleek minimalism, Bouley sits as a reminder, amongst very few others, of the opulent chambers one diner can be tucked away into.

Fresh apples line the wall, perfuming the entrance

From the front door you enter a vestibule of shelves upon shelves of fresh apples.  Perfuming the air transporting you to a fresh countryside orchard.  To the left a waiting room with the hostess stand up front.  A waiting room comprised of plush couches and chairs, floor to ceiling windows and artwork, exquisite chandeliers, and hardwood floors.  Before even entering the dining room you realize Bouley is a labor of obsessive love and care for guests.  This is not the waiting area comprised of a thin banquette set against the wall at your local Applebees.  

The large, romantic, dining room evokes the feeling of the French countryside.  Large Monet paintings, wrapped in velvet no-less, of orchards and wineries hang on the walls.  Fresh flowers sit atop every table that are dressed with rich, thick tablecloths.  Deep banquettes line the walls with plush pillows to cushion your back and to keep you from falling backwards.  A vaulted ceiling is brushed with gold leaf.  A fireplace and a library are tucked away in a darker, more seclusive secondary dining room towards the back of the room.  

Kimchi Taco Truck

Every day between the hours of 11am and 3pm, a block away from North End Grill, and outside the courtyard of The World Financial Center, are five parked food trucks.  Every Monday, one of these trucks is the Kimchi Taco Truck, and unless you decide to come early, expect to wait in line of upwards of twenty minutes.  For this truck has the best food offered all week.

Phillip Lee, the founder of the truck, is a madman.  Seriously, think about it.  A man in love with Korean flavors who wants to make the distinct impact on the American public by bringing it to them in a recognizable form.  Tacos.  Who doesn't love tacos?  Who doesn't love Korean food?  Who the hell wouldn't love a Korean taco??

Now you understand.

If I'm lucky enough to have the time to wait on line at the truck before heading into work, I'm a very happy man.  For $8 you can get three tacos, and then you can eat them right in the park overlooking the waterfront.

Kimchi Taco Truck offers four different types of tacos.  Korean-marinated short ribs, spicy pork, braised chicken, and a falafel kimchi taco for vegetarians.  The rest of the menu is very diverse.  Kimchee bowls and even a kimchi cheesesteak are offered.  All ingredients are made on the truck, and set you off on an intense culinary journey, if only just for a few bites.

Atera

**Note.  If you are planning on dining at Atera, I highly recommend eating the food before reading this post, as it will ruin a lot of surprises through the course of the meal**

It's amazing how many culinary trends New York City has undertaken in the past decade.  The fall of the twin towers caused the death of fine dining, where as a nation we turned to more economically feasible comfort food options.  We looked for menus that had a recognizable burger and french fries, instead of duck and foie gras.  Fast forward a few years and we became ready to play with our food, and all the emphasis was on molecular gastronomy and the multiple ways we could manipulate nature's ingredients.  Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck in Bray, England, and Ferran Adria's El Bulli in Catalonia, Spain were the world's best known restaurants to showcase it.  When trendsetters like Alinea in Chicago, and WD-50 in New York City ran out of ideas, so did the city's interest with science.  We've seen it already, what can we do next?

Then out of nowhere the "fad" was a practice multiple chefs had been utilizing for years.  Relationships they had built with farmers and emphasis on fresh and local produce started the "farm-to-table" craze.  Like little kids showing off their newest and coolest toys, it became a trend for restaurants to show which local farmers they were using, and how they were showcasing their products.  "Here we have a strawberry soup utilizing strawberries from Berried Treasures Farm."  It was a vehicle that caused all these hard-working low-key farmers at the greenmarket to finally become celebrities in their own right, but chefs decided to push this further.  They wanted to up themselves.  Thus began urban farming and rooftop gardening.

But this is New York City.  We need to push the envelope even further.  We need to watch what chefs from all around the world are doing, and then we need to up that.  Well, New York finally has a theater in which to showcase the newest food craze.  It is called Atera, and the 31 year-old Chef Matthew Lightner has brought from Portland not just a philosophy to utilize local farms, but local parks.  The new trend is called "foraging", and foraged food is now beginning to pop up on menus all around the city.

Umami Burger

On one of my first days here in SF I did a lot of research for places I could grab a quick lunch during my day.  I realized very quickly while looking up places in SF that this city has A LOT of burger joints.  There's one major contender every few blocks, with more openings coming right after the other.  Umami Burger is one of these contenders, and even though it's an LA export, is easily recognizable by the locals here as one of the best burgers in the city.

Umami Burger is located in the Marina district, known by the locals as "where all the yuppies hang out".  Walking through the neighborhood it looks like San Francisco's version of Soho, just without the models walking around.  Small artisanal shops line up one after the other, with a great mix of food and fashion.  Walking through you will eventually pass by an nondescript building which is Umami, with nothing more on the outside of the restaurant than the strange logo and street address.

I don't really know what to make of the logo, which looks like an imprint of a woman's lips.  I get it is a sandwich bun, except none of the buns the burgers here sit on look anything like it.

In-N-Out Burger

I've never been here.  Imagine my excitement when I saw this:

Hmm...colors seem familiar..

For any east coaster there is one burger chain that you always hear about but never, ever have the chance to visit.  In-N-Out Burger only exists on the west coast (yes I know technically there are 2 in Texas now).  What is all the hype my friends have built up for me?  What is the "Animal Style" burger?  What makes everyone on the eastern seaboard flock to a burger stand the second they are in California?  Well, I'm about to find out.

I was two days into my trip when I took a photo of the outside of the restaurant and posted it to my facebook page.  Immediately I received responses from friends, "My favorite!", "Get the Animal Style!!", "The fries suck!".  Seems like I have been missing out on an In-N-Out experience...

Tacos el Bronco

I would be surprised if anyone tells me that haven't had some sort of Mexican food in their lives.  Mexican food is just a part of American culture nowadays as the hamburger.  Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, taquitos, salsa, mole, nachos, tamales, quesadillas, and guacamole.  Is your mouth watering yet?  Mine is too.

But like many cuisines across the United States corporate monkeys looking to make a quick buck destroyed the image of Mexican cuisine.  Chain and fast food restaurants like Taco Bell, On the Border, Chilis, and even Chipotle are using sub-par ingredients, dismal food pairings, and charging customers an arm and leg for it.  What's even more surprising?  People are willing to pay for it.

Mexican food is about love.  Mexican food is about simplicity.  It's not about deep-frying a burrito and covering it in three types of cheese, with a side of "Spanish" rice and beans.  It's about taking quality meats, slow-braising them until tender, and serving them inside soft, warm tortillas with onions, cilantro, and lime.  It's about taking homemade masa (corn-based dough), stuffing it with braised meats, and steaming it inside a banana leaf until tender.   In Mexico they fill their burritos only with meat and refried beans.  Whoever came up with the idea of stuffing rice, meat, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, avocado, beans, and cheese into a burrito is just looking to scam you by making you pay $12 for it.  Mexican food doesn't need all that.  As long as you have a passionate cook that knows how to handle the ingredients, you realize you don't need all the extras.  You taste the love that they put in with their own hands.

John's Famous Deli

Never heard of it?  It's ok, because before last week I never have either.  Why do restaurants put the word "famous" in their titles?

I will say one thing, though.  Even though this place is not that famous, it should be.  John's Famous Deli is a small operation located in Staten Island, with three more locations in Brooklyn.  From the outside it looks like your typical deli.  Open door, plenty of signs displaying Boar's Head products and prices, and breakfast and lunch specials.  

John's boasts that it has the best roast beef in the world.  After reading yelp reviews of the deli, I was intrigued to try it myself.  Everyone was going crazy for the roast beef sandwich.  Roast beef?  Fresh Mozzarella?  Onions?  Gravy?  This I was looking forward to.  

They offer two sizes.  On a roll for $6, or on a hero for $7.50.  I went for the hero.  The guy behind the counter then sliced the roast beef fresh, piled it on my sandwich, added a few slices of fresh mozzarella, caramelized onions, and threw it into a pizza oven to toast.

A sign on the drink fridge reads "If you're in a hurry, you're in the wrong place."  Funny.

There was just one person in the deli ahead of me.  He ordered two roast beef sandwiches for himself.  Then another guy came in and ordered a roast beef sandwich.  Then three more guys came in and did the same.  Six guys, seven roast beef sandwich orders, in a span of ten minutes.  Wow.

Meatopia 2011

"The Woodstock of Edible Animals"

Floyd Cardoz and Joshua Ozersky

The name says it all.  It's a festival of meat.  Every animal.  Every cut.  Every method of cookery.  If you're a meat lover, Meatopia is your heaven.  And that is exactly what it is to the founder of the event, Joshua Ozersky. 

Joshua is very well known in the food world as a food writer and meat lover.  He was one of the founding editors of Grub Street, has written two books including one on hamburgers and a carnivores guide to NY.  It is no surprise that he is the man that brought over forty chefs from all over the country to celebrate his favorite thing.  

Although many people think this year marked the second year of Meatopia, they are actually mistaken.  This event has now passed its seventh year, with the first five years being a small invitation-only event.  Every year was themed, and Joshua invited 5-7 chefs to cook pork, lamb, beef, etc. for about 200-300 guests.

Floyd Cardoz and I were invited to cook at Meatopia two years ago during the lamb event.  "Lamb Bam Thank You Ma'am" was the slogan.  We witnessed six chefs grilling whole baby lambs over spits.  Spraying and brushing the animals with marinades, and sitting back and waiting patiently for hours until the perfect doneness.  At the end of a long, hot day, the animals were brought over to picnic tables, and broken down to serve the diners. It was magical.

The Breslin Bar & Dining Room

The Breslin is a British-style gastropub at its finest.  I love restaurants like this.  A place you can go grab great food, in a casual setting, yet still maintains a type of elegant touch. 

The Breslin is located inside the Ace Hotel, with the main entrance adjacent to it.  I emphasize that because my first time going to the restaurant I missed the entrance completely.  I walked into the lobby of the Ace Hotel and thought “this is the strangest looking gastropub I have ever seen”. 

Walking into the Breslin you immediately walk into their bar area.  Lots of dark wood colors, lively atmosphere, and large windows which allow for a lot of natural light to come through.  They offer a wide selection of beers, and it’s a great place for friends to come in and hang out.

This then carries over to the restaurant.  Comfortable booths, wood chairs, tan paper-cloths covering black wood-finished tables, and a lot of random food and animal memorabilia which covers every piece of empty space in the restaurant.  Still-life paintings of fruit, red paper lobsters, a small bull’s head with a giant ring coming out of its nose, and so forth.  Even though the décor is all over the place, it just screams at you “I want you to be comfortable”, and that I was.