lunch at restaurants i can't afford dinner: eleven madison park

Is there a more appropriate restaurant than Eleven Madison Park to continue our “Lunch At Restaurants I Can’t Afford Dinner” series? @SimpleSocial treated me to a belated birthday lunch here recently, where a two course prix fix meal is offered for $28. It’s still special occasion fare, but when compared to the unremarkable $19 burgers and insipid $12 make your own salads that are the norm in my work neighborhood, you realize even more just what a great deal you're getting. Eleven Madison Park was awarded four stars by the Times over the summer - I've never eaten at a four star restaurant before! It's part of Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group - I've never eaten at one of his restaurants before either! It's no joke when people talk about the high level of service at his restaurants. Our waiter was attentive without being overbearing and informative without being show-offy. He was knowledgeable about wines and even plated the desserts.

We began with a round of amuses. In the foreground, duo of beet marshmallows and foie gras with red currant atop a very delicate cracker. Both Molly and I broke our crackers between the plate and our mouths. We were both trying very hard to be proper and ladylike, but I guess we are too strong for our own good. Perfect, fluffy gourgeres, a dish of sea salt and butter are in the background.

Molly's first course: the slow poached organic egg with Parmigiano-Reggiano and mushrooms. Foamy deliciousness on top.

I opted for the balik salmon with pommes dauphine, frisée and crème fraîche to begin. There was also a bonus circle of salmon tartar in the middle. The balik salmon was so tender and perfectly smoked.

For my second course, I went with the day's special of pork loin, Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes. As with my first course, my protein was prepared two ways, which I didn't anticipate. Paired with the loin was basically a hockey puck made of pork, if hockey pucks were amazingly crisp on the outside and amazingly porky and fatty on the inside.

Fried pie. Just kidding! This was Molly's skate.

We indulged and got dessert. Two of them. Chocolate caramel tart.

Brown sugar and blueberry crumble.

Mother's Day feast at the Ssam Bar

For my first mother's day, team Jewrean had lunch with my parents and my brother and his family at Momofuku Ssam Bar. It's hard to believe, but there are 11 of us now - six adults, two big kids and three tiny kids! Just six months ago, we were only 8! Dan and I have barely eaten out since the arrival of Double Trouble and I've pretty much given up any hope in ever eating at Ko, but this was a nice consolation.

We ordered a couple plates of pickles and pork buns, as well as the brussels sprouts to tide us over until the bo ssam feast arrived. That would have been more than enough food, but then some comp plates started coming out!

My family's been in the restaurant supply business for over three decades now. I've had many meals where the kitchen sends out special plates, but these took the cake. The cured hamachi arrived first. Linda wonders if the guy who does the ordering in the kitchen is in the house. He was not.

The Peanut shows off her chopstick skills, which are way better than mine.

The roasted brussels sprouts that I love so much. The puffed rice that goes in the dish was, I think, cheese flavored, like mini Chee-Toes, this day. A little weird.

Meacham and Broadbent's country ham, both from Kentucky, with redeye mayo on top. Bread with Vermont sea salt butter and whipped lardo below. The last time I had lardo, it was atop a pizza at Otto years ago. I remember being completely put off by the texture, which was like thinly sliced cartilage or plastic. Not that I'll make a regular habit of eating it, but whipped is the way to go.

Sichuan beef tendon with Chinese greens, peanuts and green mango. Tendon is not ever something I seek out, in fact I go out of my way at Vietnamese or Chinese restaurants to avoid it, but this was enjoyable. It had really deep beefy flavor and wasn't too chewy. The crunch of the peanuts and the freshness of the mango were good compliments.

We all momentarily ignore the food to stare at the Dumpling, who had just woken up from her nap.

Cabbage lettuce patch kid!

Pulling apart the pork butt. The thing was huge. I ate a ton, the table ate a ton and we still had pounds of meat to take home. Served with the pork is a platter of oysters with a light kimchi consomme which I didn't love. I thought they were a little lacking in the briney taste of the sea that makes oysters so delicious. You also get rice and four condiments - kimchi, kimchi puree, ssamjang and a scallion ginger sauce. My style was to put a dab of all four on each lettuce purse I created.

In case you were wondering, Sam and Otis slept through the entire meal!

First Taste: No. 7

No. 7 recently opened on Greene Street, its entrance tucked behind the stairwell to one of the Lafayette C stops. DMR and I met up with Kristy O for dinner the other week. It's a really handsome space that the owners make very good use of. The front area has a bar, along with some loungey seating. There are some mini u-shaped counters in the middle for more casual dining, or main dining overflow. Then there's the main dining area in the back - maybe a dozen tables, although don't quote me on that because I have baby brains and absolutely no ability to remember things that like properly these days. Might I add that the scented candles in the bathrooms smelled really good?

Upon being seated, the table was presented with a ramekins of house made pickles, and this white bean garlic spread. The pickles were thinly sliced cucumbers that tasted like they had a brief affair with vinegar. The not overwhelming acidity of the pickles was a great complement to the richness of the addictive garlic dip, which had the consistency and taste of the most delicious potato soup you could imagine. I could have called it a night after those two tastes and been happy!


To begin, DMR and I opted for the cold pork and Kristy the shrimp cocktail (off the bar menu). The latter came with a really delicious, spicy cocktail sauce, almost like a bloody mary. The very thinly sliced pork was a little dry and certainly overshadowed by the tempura'ed egg, which was halved on the plate to show off its gorgeous orange yellow, perfectly set yolk.

If you squint, the picture of my plate still doesn't look like much. DMR and I shared the shell steak special, 16 ounces of deliciousness served with mini latkes, a fennel salad and bleu cheese on the side. We ordered our steak medium and it was perfectly cooked and the portion was super generous. Above is my plate after I had given Dan half my food. The latkes were like homemade fancy schmancy tater tots and the fennel provided bites of lightness in an otherwise heavy meal.
Kristy ordered the roast chicken which arrived with flourish. It comes with a mini stainless stein (like the containers of cream at a diner) filled with truffled jus that you pour over the chicken. And continue to pour over the chicken, because why would you want to waste any jus?

For dessert, the butterscotch pudding (I am a huge pudding fan) was of course tempting, but DMR and I decided to share the warm chocolate gingerbread pudding which was studded with cherries and sprinkled with bits of minty crunchy things. So yummy. Oh and I spilled my decaf during dessert. I blame the cockamamie saucer the cup was resting on 60%, pregnancy induced clumsiness 40%.

Writing about this meal is making me crazy hungry. Even with a couple of wines and beers (and a club soda for me), the bill was totally reasonable. And the restaurant is a 10 minute walk from our house (well maybe more like 15 minutes these days as a Slowpoke Sally)! I'm looking forward to the follow-up meal. Also I hear they started serving brunch, including chicken and waffles!

Cuckoo for Coco500?

Pictures from Coco500 in San Francisco, where Top Chef Season 4 contestant Jen Biesty is the chef. We were unable to catch a peek or her and her faux-hawk.

Moogle's purslane salad with radishes, boquerones and fried capers. I wasn't so much into the purslane as it had a bit of gumminess a la okra and fiddleheads. She's a vegetarian so she asked for the anchovies on the side. The table carnivores did not let those go to waste. Let's talk about fried capers for a moment - holy cow, what an unexpected bite of warm, salty, deliciousness.

The cheeseplate. I would tell you specifically what kind of cheese, but the server never told us, nor did she really give us a chance to ask, which I found annoying. We also had to ask for bread. I really like my cheese with bread or some other sort of carby vessel. Don't we all?

More cheese plate. I thought the blue could be a Point Reyes but I think the veining is a little different. There was also a wedge of manchego and some sort of aged chèvre with some ash which I am almost certain was a Cypress Grove Bermuda Triangle.

I'm not sure how I felt about the ahi ceviche, which was marinated with coconut, scallion and lime. I think I needed the temperature of the fish to be colder and the flakes of coconut smaller or maybe completely out of the recipe.

My chimichurri pork special! Halfway through it, I realized I was eating radicchio and not chorizo, which is what I misheard the waitress say. The pork was cooked wonderfully and worked nicely with the bitterness of the radicchio.

Moogle's asparagus pizza, featuring spring garlic, goat cheese, lemon zest, pink peppercorns. I had a bite and it was very springy and yummy.

Rob's whole fish of the day: a branzino with herb salad, capers, anchovies, lemon. I was too busy porking out to try a bite, but it looked really good.

To drink I had a couple of these Presbyterian cocktails: bourbon, ginger beer, lemon and seltzer. I need to recreate these this summer, they went down nice and easy, let me tell you. Anyone have a bourbon suggestion?

lunch at momofuku ssam bar

The funny thing is that I ordered the pork bibimbop but they brought me the chicken. I had a couple bites before I even remembered I had ordered pork. Anyway, I forgot to retake photos but decided to post these because they are so mouth-watering. The lunch special also includes a side of your choice, pickles and a drink. It's pricey, but the leftovers made for a tasty dinner.

Dinner at Yakitori Torys

I'm in San Francisco without the cable to connect my camera to the computer, so here are some photos from a dinner at Yakitori Torys I recently had with the CLC.


Outside signage. Throughout the evening, I was reminded of Gonpachi - the menu, color scheme, etc...


Blistered shishito peppers with a dab of mild Japanese-style kkochujang.


Age-dashi tofu. We were served a cube each of soft and firm. I preferred the soft.


Another shot of the peppers, with a skewer of garlic to the left. The grilling softens up and mellows out the garlic, basically making it even more delicious.


Little stackable dishes of black pepper and salt. I just like anything mini.


Chicken meatballs! I ordered the one on the left, which was mixed with shiso leaf and plum.


Kuro buta negi pon - organic pork with ponzu and scallions, so yummy!

We also ordered a couple skewers of chicken oyster, part of the "chicken limited" menu. Luckily we were dining early in the evening and Torys had not sold out yet. I just noticed that the above pork skewer is listed in the "chicken limited" part too! Beth got an order of "pork gut" which was one of the specials of the day.

Dan turns 35. We eat giant pork chops. Hooray!

A happy belated birthday to DMR! We celebrated the occasion with a big family style dinner at Two Tom's restaurant. The last time this happened, well, we all looked a lot younger.

Baked clams to start and antipasto start off the evening.






Pasta action shot. We got liguine and a cheese stuffed tubular pasta, both with a simple red sauce of tomatoes and garlic.


The pork chops arrive. They are even bigger, maybe even 4 fingers thick.


And I thought they were a bit dry this time around. Still, nothing like eating a chop the size of your face.

Valentine's Day dinner at Momofuku Ssam Bar

DMR made a surprise visit to Manhattan on Valentine's Day. He was trying to find me a Wii, but 15 months after its launch, those things are still impossible to track down. So instead, we had an impromptu dinner at the Ssam Bar which I'll take as a consolation prize any day.

Here's the house pickle plate, featuring radish and cabbage kimchi along with Tokyo radish, jicama, Korean pear, carrots, fennel, celery, cucumbers, beets and shitake mushrooms. Sweet, spicy, tangy and crisp.


The cured hamachi comes with radish sprouts, horseradish cream and edamame. Sprinkled atop is a furikake of dried seaweed and little round rice crackers, whose crunch works great against the butteriness of the yellowtail.


You can't eat at Momofuku without ordering the pork buns. Melt-in-your-mouth braised pork belly tucked into spongy white buns with cucumber slices and a schmear of plum sauce. Addictive.


I've previously had this dish with cauliflower, but here it's the brussels sprout that gets the fish sauce, chili and puffed rice treatment. I never imagined talking so lovingly about either of these vegetables.


For the entree, we split the spicy sausage, Chinese greens and rice cake stir fry. Rice cakes take on such an amazing texture when they are fried - the outside begins to puff and crackle like pork skin, while the inside remains chewy.


The meal was washed down with a couple OB beers, which is basically the Bud of Korea.

On the way to the subway, we encountered the Wafels and Dinges truck and I ordered up a liege waffle. I was disappointed to get a pre-made waffle that was heated up on the iron, rather than one made-to-order. The waffle didn't even get very warm.

Hill Country – Finally!

I spent the better part of the first week of 2008 trying to eat at Hill Country with little success. The first time, after spending roughly two hours at the bar doing shots of bourbon, it was announced that the restaurant had run out of food. As compensation, I believe one of the bartenders bought us a round, but like I said, I had been doing shots of bourbon for two hours… We ended up having to go across the street to Black Pearl for some of the most abysmal tasting and overpriced food I have ever eaten. The raw clams on the seafood plateau were not terribly fresh and if given the choice between eating them again and eating a colleague’s pencil shavings, I would choose the latter.

The second time I tried to eat at Hill Country, just two days later, we arrived a little before 7:00 and were informed that the restaurant would be closing at 8:00 that evening for the staff holiday party. After careful consideration of the stakes, my friends and I decided that we should abort the mission and eat elsewhere. Though, before heading a few blocks north to K-Town for some consolation BBQ, we downed a couple of cocktails and a snack (the sort of snack many would consider dinner) of the following:

• 2 Kreuz sausages (one regular and one jalapeno)
• Moist brisket
• Pork ribs
• Market chicken
• Longhorn cheddar mac & cheese
• Smokey chipotle deviled eggs

With the exception of the deviled eggs, everything listed above was absolutely delicious and I couldn’t wait to eat more. This disappointed me, as I am a huge fan of deviled eggs and never thought I would see the day I encountered one that I did not love.

Later that week, SHR and I decided to try sneaking in an early dinner at Hill Country before the barbecue hungry masses devoured all of the food again. We cruised in around 6:30 and were seated immediately. Finally – SUCCESS. I quickly ordered a Kreuz margarita (garnished with cilantro – v. tasty) and then we headed up to the counter to order our much anticipated feast, which was comprised of this:

• 1 Kreuz sausage (regular) – Very complex flavor, in my opinion better than the jalapeno variety and I LOVE spicy food, so that is really saying something.
• 1/2 lb. of moist brisket – So fatty and succulent. Anyone who would opt for the “lean” variety clearly does not know how to live. Perhaps they will outlive all of their loved ones, but spending every moment wishing they had experienced more deliciousness.
• 2 pork ribs – No surprises here, very tasty.
• 1 bone-in pork chop – SHR and I both thought it would be more juicy because of the presence of the bone, but it was disappointingly dry. The good news is, it was still a pork chop, which is nice…
• 1 Beer can game hen – The first surprise hit of the meal. One of my friends feels that this dish sounds too gimmicky, but I paid him no mind and found it to be perfectly juicy and delicious.
• Small serving of green bean casserole with fried onions – Second surprise hit of the meal. Obviously, this dish is a classic, but Hill Country’s preparation was especially tasty. The fried onions atop the mushroom soupy green beans were flavorful and resilient, never losing their crispiness.
• Small serving of longhorn cheddar mac & cheese – This side was almost as amazing as the first. One of my friends took a cooking class with Elizabeth Karmel, the executive chef, and asked her for the recipe. Not surprisingly, Ms. Karmel would not give up the goods.

For my second drink I had a Hill Country Cooler, which is made of Tang and I have no idea what else, and SHR had just about the biggest Arnold Palmer I have ever seen, served in an enormous Mason jar. Suffice it to say, the feast was well worth the wait. We even got 15% off of our bill (on my last failed visit, the hostess felt awful and gave us 15% off cards) AND I ran into a friend and gave him some golf balls and tees that I had in my purse. Here are some pictures SHR took of our visit to Hill Country:

Random pre-carnage table shot:

What everyone has been waiting for - the meat money shot: