"The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star." - Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Month: May 2016

When I Returned to Bonnie Vee

When I Returned to Bonnie Vee

  Sitting at the bar at Bonnie Vee, which I had recently wrote a less than stellar review about, I considered why I would keep (I’ve probably been there five times since I wrote it) returning to a place I felt was so mediocre at […]

Tasting Collective at Pig & Khao

Tasting Collective at Pig & Khao

Tasting Collective is a cool new company operation that comes in to restaurants on nights when they are closed and begs and pleads (and pays) the chef to create a huge multi-course meal to be served at one communal seating and served totally family style. […]

Crispy Skin Salmon

Crispy Skin Salmon

The crispy skin is the most important part. And since the skin is where all the good for you omegas and stuff are– why not show it off!

First, make sure that there are no scales on the skin, because that would be gross. Scrape them off with a knife if there are.

The key to really crispy skin salmon is to dry the skin thoroughly…  take a dish towel to that thing if you have, especially if it was marinated first, which is totally okay. Dry the skin completely. Then salt the skin generously and put it in the fridge for a few. When you take it out, you’ll see condensation on the skin. Dry that off too.

Next, take almost room temperature butter and mush it into the skin all over. Do not be shy with the butter! Then rub a healthy amount of salt into that buttered skin. Let it cool in the fridge for a few minutes. You don’t want the butter sliding off the skin.

Put a tablespoon of high heat oil in the pan and heat a cast iron skilled to medium high heat. Let the pan get really evenly hot before you (carefully! it will sizzle!) place the salmon skin side down into it.

The perfect dried skin, buttered and salted will immediately sizzle (the oil will keep it from sticking too). Let it hiss and crackle for about 5 or 6 minutes. Flip it, and turn off the heat. Let the salmon sit in the pan on the stove for about 30 seconds before removing it.

Add lemon, whatever else you like and crunch right in.

Learning About Georgian Dishes

Learning About Georgian Dishes

I will start with the two most popular tradition and  unique Georgian dishes served at Georgian restaurants in Manhattan. Georgian cuisine is both national and regional. Both of these dishes are present throughout the country but have many regional differences in style and ingredients used. […]

Post-Dinner at Le Turtle

Post-Dinner at Le Turtle

Le Turtle measured up to the hype. It also measured up to the atmospheric oddities I had previewed (on the website) and heard about. Servers were, in fact, in grey jumpsuits. Fortunately they were all young and fit and pulled them off well. The host […]

Clean Plates helps reduce your anxiety that the menu might be terrible for your body and the environment

Clean Plates helps reduce your anxiety that the menu might be terrible for your body and the environment

Clean Plates is a guide and company started by Jared Koch to help you lower the anxiety that menu in front of you is unhealthy, unsustainable, or generally bad. Jared Koch created company which “curates the market place, products, advice… what’s real practical changes for people to find better restaurants, products, and recipes that are also healthy and sustainable.” The book is “part restaurant guide, part… my rant about nutrition.” Titled Clean Plates New York City 2016: A Guide to the Healthiest, Tastiest, and most Sustainable Restaurants, Koch is trying to retrain our brains from the fad-diet, processed foods, and “healthy” foods that we have grown up pummeled by incessantly.

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We’re all different, just as some people are lactose in tolerant– not all foods are as good for all people. He recognizes these difference in terms of peoples’ individual microbiomes. But, since he cannot individually guide us to the perfect menus for our bodies, he can advise people on food that is generally best for the most people.

The five aspects of this that he mentions in the book are:

  1. Bio-individuality: There is more than one right way to eat.
  2. Quality over Quantity: Eat natural, high quality, whole foods.
  3. Plant-Based Foods: This doesn’t mean he vouches for exclusively vegetarian or vegan diet. He wants people to focus on, “high quality, real foods, plant based foods, as your main part of your diet.”
  4. Eat Meat Responsibility: “If you eat meat, do free grazed, pasture raised, grass-fed, no antibiotics. Be a smarter animal eater, if you will.”
  5. Choose Better Foods:  “This is about other categories of food, choosing wisely. Reducing sugars, reducing poor quality oils. This section gets into beverages and caffeine.”

Q: What was the process?

A: We brought on a food writer with a lot of experience. Literally within three months we ate at 125 restaurants. Basically compiled a list of all possible restaurants– trust your instinct. We find all possible places that might meet our criteria, fact check incessantly. We asked questions every time we dined, were very annoying.  Then we got a Fact Check form; turned it in to a whole proprietary survey over time. If they can’t name vendors, you need to get proof from receipts. It’s hard to be 100% fail safe. The same way that USDA Organic Certified foods are disproved– we may have been duped before. But we do our best.

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This is a great resource to use if you want to follow these ideals when you eat. Good for your body, good for your soul, good for the environment– and above all– still tastes good!