First Taste: Char No. 4

The day started with a return trip to Rutt's Hut in Clifton, NJ. Despite what you see in the photo, I did not have 4 rippers all to my preggo self. DMR and I had two rippers each, accompanied by a cup of chili, sauerkraut and disco fries with gravy on the side. Very Jersey, very good.

Then we spent too much time at Best Buy and Babies R Us in Secaucus. And then even more time getting back to Brooklyn. So with some time to kill before Christy's birthday drinks at the Clover Club (where I wound up having a sour cherry fizzy thing, minus the egg whites and booze. Verdict: disappointing), we decided to get some food at nearby Char. No 4.

Much to our surprise, the place was packed at 6:30. All the tables were taken, and nearly every seat at the bar was, too. Thankfully there was an empty stool at the end where I could wistfully stare at the wall of bourbon bottles. We were told the wait would be about an hour or more, but were seated after only about 30 minutes.

DMR and I shared the apple and fennel salad with bleu cheese and pickled turnips to start. The turnips were hiding at the bottom of the bowl and I had completely forgotten about them. When I crunched into one thinking it was a piece of apple, it was a nice, salty and tangy surprise.

I wasn't super hungry so while DMR opted for the chopped pork sandwich (shown above with a side of baked beans and some pickled onions and peppers, and which he loved, loved loved), I made a meal of the smoked and fried pork nuggets appetizer and roasted delicata squash side. The squash was served as two roasted rings, with a mount of swiss chard on top. Chopped pecans were sprinkled into the mix and the entire plate was blanketed with parmesan. I would have liked either a little more salt or sweetness (maybe more caramelization from the roasting process?) but otherwise, this was enjoyable and I also convinced myself it was sort of healthy.

There were 5 nuggets to my order and much to my surprise, instead of whole pork chunks underneath the breading, there was rich, fatty minced meat. I'd probably order these again, but definitely not just for myself. DMR helped me out, but I did feel a little porked out.

To end the meal we shared the homemade butter pecan ice cream, which was super delicious. The description kind of undersells it as the super smooth ice cream is studded with nobs of praline. It's served with bourbon, but we asked for it on the side. DMR was able to pour it all over his ice cream for an even more decadent treat. In an act of jealousy, I poured a tiny drop onto a spoonful of ice cream for a wonderful bourbony bite all to myself.

Lotsa Eating, Little Writing

Some meals of late:

Taro Sushi - Jim popped his sashimi cherry this night, while Beth and I tried the omakase here for the first time. I went with the sushi and sashimi combo, while Beth was sashimi all the way. We started with an appetizer of monkfish liver atop a ponzu dressed sunomono. The liver had a really interesting texture. It was denser than I thought and reminded me of a smooth version of mentaiko, which I ate a lot of when I was younger. Anyway, everything tastes great with ponzu, IMHO. Next came the fish parade, including sardine, mackerel, butterfish, hamachi and a red-skinned whitefish which I think was called kinmae. Following that was a fatty tuna roll and a California roll made with real crab. But there was still so much more to be had, including variations on tuna such as bonito, which I love and some uni, which is not really a favorite. The uni nigiri was composed of two small orange oblong pieces atop the seasoned rice and I ate one of the pieces but left the other. I was incredibly stuffed after the meal, which I feel does not happen often when eating sushi.

Jim tried many new tastes and I think hamachi and mackerel came out on top as favorites. Hooray for Jim for trying new tastes!

Kushi Q - I discovered this futuristic hole in the wall Japanese place the other week when I had to stop by a friend's office to drop off Mets tickets. Though only half a block from Oms/B, where I go for lunch from time to time, I'd never noticed it before.

I ordered a atsuage tofu bento set with salad (you can also choose rice) and miso soup for $6.50. There was a trio of sticks, each with three cubes of battered tofu. Underneath the light and crispy shell was soft, creamy tofu. The salad was basic, composed of chopped romaine, carrots and corn, but filled me up nonetheless. I'd like to go back and try the butabara (bacon) and so-se-ji (little Berkshire sausages with pineapple). I've read some complaints about the portions not being big enough, but I felt more than satisfied.



Hibino - I did a bunch of small plates with the CLC and Dani before heading over to Floyd for bocce practice. The presentation on the fresh tofu is so cute, it's hard to pass up. It's amazing how rich and nutty tofu can taste. On this night, it was like eating a custard. It's also difficult to pass up the beef kakuni, a big hunk of braised short rib sitting atop a round of daikon. I rounded out the meal with one of the special daily obanzai - shitake and shisito pepper tempura, which unfortunately came sitting in sauce. I prefer to keep the tempura as dry as possible to maintain crispiness and do my own saucing.



Brio - I had lunch at this Upper East Side restaurant on Thursday with my coworkers Molly and Kendel to celebrate the latter's birthday. Molly knows the family who owns it, so we got treated to some lovely surprises, like a bottle of Prosecco and these two ginormous portions of tiramisu for dessert. To begin we noshed (am I allowed to say that to describe an Italian restaurant?) on a cheese plate and carciofi fritti, pan-fried baby artichokes. The cheese plate featured aged provolone, parmegiano and a deliciously milky salted fresh mozzarella. Kendel and I then shared the garganelli in salsa aurora rivista, which was a tomato-bechamel sauce, green peas, prosciutto and porcini. It was super rich, so a half-portion was the perfect amount. Then I wanted to take a nap, but I had to go back to work. Boo.

Sura - This Korean restaurant has undergone a bit of a makeover since I've last been. The setting seems a lot more serious and mature as the servers now dress in hanboks. The food was just as tasty as I remembered. Heidi and I shared the "pear and pork delight" to begin with. Layers of barbequed pork alternated with slices of Asian pear to create a nice contrast in textures. I just wish the kitchen was a little stingier with the sauce, which was a mixture of chili miso, raspberry and soy. It was too much and too gloppy. A light brushing of one of those flavors would have been more than sufficient. My main, the doobu kimchi bokeum suffered from the same over saucing but otherwise it was pretty damn tasty. The kimchi was gently sauteed with discs of rice cakes and surrounded by wedges of plain, steamed tofu. It was served with a small ping pong sized ball of mashed potatoes with cubes of Asian pear, what I guess is one of their trademark touches. It sounds weird, but provides a nice, cooling crunch in between bites of spicy.

Dinner at Hibino

Friday night, I met up with the CLC for an early dinner at Hibino, a newly opened Japanese spot in Cobble Hill. The restaurant is just a block or so away from Floyd, which is great, because it now gives us a new option dinner when we have Monday night bocce.

I had first read about Hibino in one of the elevators at work. All are equipped with these little screens that broadcast something called "The Captivate Network." Most of the time they just summarize USA Today stories and offer up factoids and celebrity birthdays, but the other week, I briefly caught a blurb about Hibino. Whatever I must have read completely captivated me, so anyone who advertises on these things should note that it's totally effective! So for the past month or so, I've been checking their blog on a daily basis to read about the daily obanzai specials and re-reading the menus over and over, changing my mind each time about what I would order on my firt visit there.

Hibino is totally cute, if you couldn't already tell from their blog. The owners have done well by not trying to cram in tables so diners eat elbow to elbow. The big windows and wood tones give the space a nice open feel that's modern but not stoic at all. Their logo is stamped onto the chopsticks and it takes on various situational mutations which I'm not skilled enough to explain in words and you'll just have to check out for yourself. Though we had a choice tables, we opted to sit at the bar, where we'd have an up-close look at the sights and smells. Not to be picky but on the counter to my right was some sort of water filter/compressor looking thingy which I wish someone would have moved. It just felt weird to have this metal container with a gooseneck plastic hose sticking out in my presence. It was really the only negative of the meal, and I'm hesitant to even call it a negative, because my experience wasn't hindered at all. But it's just one of those things.

To begin with, the CLC and I shared a Kyoto style futomaki. Normally, I'm not the biggest fan of futomaki or its Korean cousin kim bop. I find the ingredients overly sweet most of the time and when I was younger and my family would go on picnics, I remember kim bops (which transport nicely and thus a staple of Korean outings) always giving me a headache. This one was awesome - a combination of tuna, shrimp, ell, avocado, cucumber tamago and tobiko. A small pool of lemon mayo was served in the center and I alternated dips into that and soy sauce. For entrees, Beth went with the house sashimi plate and I opted for the beef kakuni (braised short ribs) teishoku style (meaning a meal set of entree, rice, miso soup and a mini obanzai, or Japanese tapas). The mini obanzi turned out to be chef's choice and I was really hoping he'd be in the mood to serve me the fried baby octopus I spied on the daily specials chalkboard. Alas, my short ribs were paired with the spicey gyu-sunji (beef tendon, served wtih daizu soy beans and carrots). The non beef part of the dish was ground soy beans mixed with carrots, shitake mushrooms and hijiki. Tasty, but nothing I would go out of my way to order again. The beef kakuni was a nice portion of three boneless ribs with a big hunk of daikon. Only the light soy broth was left at the end and though Beth implored me to drink it, I was too full to be tempted. I liked that all the fish plates were served with a mound of blanched green vegetables, all carelly arranged by one of the sous-chefs. There was a duo of snow peas, a halved okra and asparagus nuggets placed atop broccoli rabe. I had an Orion, an Okinawan beer I love if only for it's "The Beer of Beers" slogan, to accompany my meal.

I'm looking forward to getting back to Hibino so I can try their homemade tofu, which is served in the most adorable glass bottle with the logo etched on the side, and the panko crusted eel roll, which we saw being plated up for another table and made my eyes open real wide.


Photo stolen from Hibino's Flickr.