This may have something to do with how I learned to cook – as a child seeking distraction from home-sickness, with a Granny whose honor lay in the size of the bicep of her whisking arm.  She taught me to make pastry at 5-years-old, and we made it often.  It may also have something to do with my general habit for taking the hard road. (I am a playwright.)  I have used electric mixers, purchased pre-baked pizza shells and frozen, de-veined shrimp, but there’s romance in knowing that I know all the steps.

What this usually comes down to, is that even in the heat of summer, the oven will be blasting, all four stove tops will get used, and there are alpine ranges of dishes in the sink and on the rack.  This is atypically mild, for the prep alone:

But for a few self-inflicted labors, today’s dinner was relatively simple, and perfect for a summer day.  No ovens!

Shrimp and Potato Salad

1 Pound of Medium Shrimp (straight from the fish counter, raw.  (Or pre-cooked if the thought of digging your fingers into squishy invertebrates, ripping off their legs and flushing their intestines doesn’t make you happy or hungry.)

1.5 Pound of Red Baby Potatoes

1 Red Onion – Thin Sliced  (you could also halve this.  There was an awful lot of onion)

Optional: 1 Cup Mozzarella pieces (I quartered the mini bocconcini, but you can also just cube a big hunk of the stuff)

5 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVO)

5 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar

1/4 Cup of White Wine

Salt and Pepper

1.5 Cups Tomatoes – sliced into wedges (I used cherry tomatoes, halved)

1.  Toss the Sliced Red Onion with the Red Vinager.  Set aside.

2.  Boil a pan of salted water, add potatoes.  Boil on medium/medium-high for 30 minutes (or less if they are weeny.  You want to be able to pierce them with a fork, with only a bit of resistance. )  Drain, cut in half, and put into a bowl.  Pour in the white wine.  Toss lightly, with salt and pepper, so as to minimally disturb the skins.  Let marinate for 5 minutes.

3.  Peel and de-vein shrimp.  (De-veining involves slicing into the circumference of the back, and rinsing out the dark brown vein therein).  Saute in butter until they go pink, about 2 – 3 minutes.  Cut in half, or butterfly (cut crosswise down the middle.)

4.    Add Chopped Tomatoes, Shrimp, Mozzarella, and EVO to the onions.  Toss.  Add about 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper.  Let sit for 5 minutes.

5.  Combine the two mixtures.  Toss.

6.  Refrigerate until serving.

For all you purists out there, I know that fish/cheese is usually a no-no, but I had the bocconcini in the fridge, and if I didn’t use them, I would have found myself throwing them away a week later.  As much as the white wine does WONDERS for potatoes, the cheese lent a bit of body to the salad.

Granny would be proud.

- Lucy

p.s. I should note that the kitchen used in this, as well as in Two Spoonbreads is not my own kitchen.  Cooking there is a part of my day job.  How lucky am I!?

I absolutely love them.  I’m trying to figure out how to color-coordinate the entire room to match that gorgeous shade of blue.

- Lucy

It was at the Tipsy Parson – a restaurant that Time Out New York never shuts up about, so I was very excited.

Quite the jewelry box of a restaurant, it is.  Currently painting and decorating my own apartment, I was totally in love with the color scheme of elegant ivory, dark, woody green, and the whimsical plates that speckled the walls.  Also, I have a pet peeve of dull brunch menus – line-ups that scream “They didn’t want me for dinner, so the chefs added eggs!”  The Tipsy Parson revels in brunchiness:

There’s a whole section devoted to the sanctity of baked goods.  From the Pecan Sticky Bun, so densely packed with ripe, warm promise that the tiny ladies at the next table practically had to sit on their knives to get them through the things  – to the biscuits – sweet, or savory, with complimentary butters and marmalades, and terribly, terribly inventive.  Also note the doily, and the charming creamer.

The main course menu is an ode to pork.  (Actually, the entire concept of Brunch seems to have been founded for the promotion of pork consumption. )  I’m always disappointed when I get the “eggs, plus” option, or when I settle for oatmeal or granola.  I wasn’t in the mood for the Migas (breakfast tacos), and I knew I wanted grits.  This left me with three options:

1.  Shrimp and Grits

2.  Pigs in a Poke

3.  BBQ Pulled Pork Spoonbread

Well, which would you have chosen?  Yeah.  Me too.

Spoonbread, according to my charmingly be-plaided waiter, is a cornbread souffle.  No flour – just grits fluffed up with eggs, and baked.  Oh my.  It was a little bit mapley, with a powerfully satisfying cornmeal bite.  It was just perfect with the BBQ pork, and luscious when met with the pierced, over easy eggs.

(That mound of green behind it, by the by, is Avocado on Toast.)

I was so surprised, so lifted by this airy, corny delight.  I vowed to replicate it!

The recipe is very simple.

Make Grits:

1 Cup Yellow Cornmeal

2 Cups Milk (I used non-fat)

1/2 Cup Heavy Cream

1 tbs Butter

2 tbs Sugar (any kind)

1 Cup Fresh Corn (or fresh frozen)

3 Large Eggs, separated (at room temp)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the milk, cream and butter in a saucepan.  Bring just to a boil, then pour in the Cornmeal and sugar in a steady stream, stirring constantly.  Once thick, remove from heat and stir in the corn.  Set aside.

Beat the egg yolks, then add them to the grits.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff (when you upend the whisk, the hat of foam stands straight up – does not flop over).

Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the grits.  Fold the remaining egg white in – it’s OK if egg white is still visible in the mix.

Decant into a Souffle Dish (or an 8×8 Casserole dish).  Bake for 30 minutes.

And:  Served with Grilled Salmon, Green Beans and Lemon Hollandaise:

- Lucy

At least once a visit, there would be a big trip to the Original House of Pancakes.  The kids sat on one side of the table eating chocolate chip pancakes, pigs in blankets and drinking hot chocolate with whipped cream.  The grown ups sat on the other side of the table eating…

It’s big because it is BIG.  You CANNOT finish it alone.

And now…. I can MAKE IT!

The Original Pancake House Dutch Apple Pancake

2 Medium Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced (16-20 slices each)

3 Tablespoons butter (salted)

Put a plate on top of pan and invert the pan and plate together so that the pancake comes out upside down on the plate.

Brian made dinner for Valentine’s Day.

We went to the Chelsea Market for groceries.  He sent me to the Fruit Exchange with a list, while he hit the Lobster Market.

Eight hours and many errands later, the kitchen looked like this:

For this:

Kumamoto, Malpeque and PEI Oysters.  Endives with clementines and cabrales cheese.

Seared Tuna Steak with black and white sesame seed crust, sticky rice, sauteed spinach and grilled cauliflower.

Then, pears stewed in wine with creme fraiche.

Mmmm Love.

- Lucy

This is a whole new strange, alien thing.  I stood at the Flour Rack on the second floor of the Fairway Market for a good hour; furroughed brow, lip curled, eyes askance, at products such as “Garbanzo Bean Flour”, “Glutinous Rice Flour”, “Sorghum Flour” “Buckwheat Flour” (How is that not Wheat??!)  and “TVP” (textured vegetable protein).  Would my brownies taste like Hummus?  Would they stick to my teeth like Mochi?  Or worse, like Tapioca balls in bubble tea?  Would I never again know that sweet, moist swell, that thick and giving cushion of crumb that is a perfectly made brownie?

Were it not for the fearless avant-garde of Gluten-Free bakers, I would have left Fairway that day with a Cinema-sized Tube of British-Imported Smarties to weep my disappointments into.  I settled for a bag of Bob’s All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour and a bag of Guar Gum (a stabilizer – apparently you need a stabilizer, and of the options of xantham and guar gum powders, guar is the less distinct-smelling).  In collaboration with the above, Corn Starch, Almond Meal and a shit-ton of jumbo eggs, I really got something going.

This is how it went down:

COMBINE THE FOLLOWING IN BOWL:  1/2 cup Bob’s Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Flour

1/4 cup Almond Meal

1/2 cup Corn Starch

1 & 1/2 tsp Guar Gum

Pinch salt

MELT THE FOLLOWING IN DOUBLE BOILER:  60z Chocolate (72% dark in my case)

1 Cup Unsalted Butter

THEN ADD 1 Cup Sugar AND REMOVE FROM HEAT

WHISK 5 Large Eggs

1 Cup Sugar WITH COMMITMENT (I don’t have a hand-held mixer – commitment is all I have to offer an egg.)

ADD 1/2 EGG MIXTURE TO CHOCOLATE/BUTTER COMBO.  MIX

ADD 1/2 DRY MIXTURE.  MIX.

ADD REST OF EGG.

ADD REST OF DRY.

MIX.  ADD 2 Tsps Vanilla Extract.

BAKE in 9×13 greased/lined pan at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

I brought them to a Christmas Party and told no one that they were Gluten-Free (when you have a dietary “thing”, I have discovered, you’re asking for trouble if you bring it up).  They were eaten!  By kids!

- Lucy

NYC

Sit-Down Restaurants:

5 Napkin Burger

Burger/American $$

UWS/Hell’s Kitchen

*Great burgers, pretty decent brunch.

Capital Grille

Steakhouse $$$$

Various Locations

*Old school service, quality food all around.

Daisy Mae’s BBQ

BBQ $$

46th and 11th

*Righteous BBQ. Gotta have the beef rib if you can shell out for it.

Donburi-Ya

Japanese (Noodle, not sushi) $

47th b/t 3rd and Lex

*Fantastic unknown gem. Cheap to boot.

Fatty Crab

New Southeast Asian $$$

UWS/West Village

*Unique cuisine, hip atmosphere, tapas style.

Grand Central Oyster Bar

Seafood $$$

Grand Central Station

*Cozy setting-can’t tell you’re in a train station.

Le Petit Cafe

American $$$

Carrol Gardens, Brooklyn

*Fancy gorgeous garden patio hidden by a quaint coffee counter

John’s Pizzeria

Pizza/Italian $$

Midtown/West Village

*Best pizza in NYC, hands down. Midtown location is spacious and beautiful.

Paradou

French $$$

Meatpacking District

*Go for unlimited champagne brunch and get the back patio.

Peacock Alley at the Waldorff Astoria

Buffet $$$$

Midtown East

*Ridiculous splurge for the Sunday Brunch.

Popover Cafe

American $$

UWS

*Our favorite brunch place. Stuffed Popovers are to die for.

Patty and Bun

Burger $$

Greenwich Village

*Interesting array of burgers, unique flavors.

Solera

Spanish $$$

Midtown East

*Very romantic. Paella and tapas.

Veselka

Ukrainian $$

East Village

*Great for brunch or 24/7 peirogies.

Take-Out/Small joint

A Salt and Battery

Fish & Chips $

Greenwich Village

*Bangin’ Fish and chips joint. FYI, he beat Bobby Flay in a F&C throwdown.

Burger Joint

Burgers $

Midtown

*Novelty burger joint hidden in the lobby of Le Parker Meridien Hotel.

Burrito Box

Mexican(ish) $$

Midtown

*Huge burritos, good combinations.

The Lobster Place in Chelsea Market

Fresh seafood $$

Meatpacking District

*Mostly a seafood market, but you can get the freshest oysters on the half shell, lobster rolls, sushi, etc.

Shake  Shack

Burgers $$

UWS/Gramercy

*The lines are out the door for a reason. Give the Shake Stack a try. Your arteries will hate you.

Tebaya

Wings $

Chelsea

*Delicious asian-style spicy/sweet crispy wings.

Street Fare

Lobel’s in Yankee Stadium

Meat $$

Yankee stadium on main concourse near left field foul pole

*Only one menu item: $15 Sliced meat sandwich. Best thing in the park for the common people.

Piece ‘O Chicken

Soul Food $

Hell’s Kitchen

*Amazing fried chicken for a buck. Don’t forget the sides, though! Also a treat.

Pommes Frites

Frites (Fries) $

East Village

*Belgian style frites with vast array of dipping sauces. Perfect midnight snack.

Pub Grub

Galway Hooker

Pub $$

Midtown

*Unintentional burger encounter surprised the hell out of me; great quality burger.

Lansdowne Road

American Pub $$

Hell’s Kitchen

*Sports bar with good grub. Sliders are A-OK.

South’s

American $$

Tribeca

*Bring a partner to take down the nachos.

Studio Square

Beer Garden $$

Queens/Astoria

*Enormous place to drink beer by the liter, but also has good burgers, dogs, and even sushi

CT

Sit-Down Restaurants

Azu

New American $$$

Downtown Mystic, CT

*Superb quality, inventive dishes, amazing seafood, bustling atmosphere even in the off season.

The Broken Yoke

Diner $

New London, CT

*Great greasy spoon breakfast. Bang-up reuben as well

Kitchen Little

Breakfast $$

Mystic, CT

*Out by the Mystic Seaport, hotspot breakfast joint. Get there early.

Liv’s Oyster Bar

American $$$

Old Saybrook

*Nice atmosphere, great oysters, decadent menu.

Olio

New American/Italian $$$

Groton, CT

*Still Brian’s favorite upscale CT restaurant. Same owners as Azu. Amazing specials and drinks.

On the Waterfront

American $$

New London, CT

*Nice spot on the water. Will get the House Chopped Chicken Salad every time.

The Recovery Room

Italian $$

Waterford/New London, CT

*Good thin crust pizza, salads.

Tony D’s

Italian $$$

Downtown New London, CT

*Feel like an authentic mobster here. Food is top notch old school italian.

Take-Out/Small Joint

Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock

Seafood Shack $$

New London, CT

*Fry shack to die for. Hot lobster rolls, lobster bisque, fried oysters, fried scallops, all on the docks. BYOB for a real New England summer meal.

Fred’s Shanty

Seafood Shack $

New London, CT

*More or less Captain Scott’s little, cheaper brother. Still good stuff with the addition of burgers and such.

Pizzetta

Pizza $$

Downtown Mystic, CT

*California themed thin crust joint. Order by slice downstairs or sit down and share a pie in the well-decorated main room.

Saeed’s International Market

Mediterranean $

Waterford/New London, CT

*International market, but go to the back to get fantastic gyros and hummus.

That’s all I can remember for the moment. Check back later for full reviews and more recommendations!

This fancy night club – and I think it was called the Love Shack – is what I picked up as soon as we stepped into the Hillstone on 54th and 3rd.

It was crowded as all heck, filled with people who could and would also be described as “cats”.

Brian and I stood on the staircase (going down, not up, but down – Down!  DOWN into the restaurant – I love it!) hypnotized by the guy on grill in their open kitchen.  Patty, squeeze, toss.  Patty, squeeze, toss.  Press, flip, shuffle.  Press, flip, shuffle.  Avocado, split, flick out the heart and slice slice slice slice slice.  Toss skin into trash.  Plate, plate, plate.  Back to burgers; press, flip, toss.  All the patties in a row, he reached over and lifted a prehistorically humungous, tulip-shaped paintbrush from a bath of barbecue sauce and slapped a thick coat of paint over a smoking stack of ribs.  Press flip toss.  Plate.  Send those California burgers on out.

Carly sat us and took our drink orders, a secret smile on her lips.  The Grilled Artichoke Appetizer came out lickety-split, seeming uncannily large.  Or else I had shrunk or/and was being served sizzling mega-fauna of the cretaceous forest.  In any case, the leaves were silky smooth and rich, with the perfect amount of rock salt, and a deliciously mischeivous remoulade.

This was my entree:  Seared Ahi Tuna salad, with miso vinaigrette, mango, jicama, avocado and mixed greens.  A mandala of complimentary flavors chasing eachother lustily around the plate.   Everything went so damn well together.  So.  Damn.  Well.

The dessert, too, was good.  I did not get the Apple Crumble, which I wanted.  But I have yet to turn my nose up at a hot, homemade brownie covered with ice cream.  And if they’re going to put Champagne in the Creme Anglaise, I have no choice but to salute them for it, and sally forth with pride into battle.

I don’t know if it was the food, the fact that my Date was quite charming that night (as he is every night, of course), or Carly’s demure way of moulding her routine check-ups into witty, familiar sit-com cameos, but I felt compelled at the end of the night to write “Best Service Ever!” on the check.  Somewhere in between Daisy Buchanan and Dita Von Teese she was, and I was utterly, speechlessly in love.

And rightly so.

At the Looooooooooooooooooove Shack.

(Love shack bayyyybeeee)

Love Shack!  Duh-duh Love Shack!

Lucy and I have been passing by this place at least twice a day every day for the past year, saying every time that we should go there “sometime”. Why it’s taken us so long, I’m not really sure, but we happened to be volunteer gift-wrapping upstairs at Barnes & Noble and I started to smell the luring scents of grilling meat and as soon as we were finished, I rushed her downstairs and put our name on the waiting list. NOTE: Hillstone does not take reservations, and it can be quite busy on a weekend evening. We went at around 9:15pm on a Friday and it was quite packed and had a 40 minute wait for 2 people. Fortunately, we live nearby, so we dropped our things off at home and went back. After a little more waiting while watching the open kitchen (most notably, the grill-master tossing on rack after rack of ribs onto the flames), we were taken to our table. As noisy as it seemed in the entrance way (there is live jazz and a bar area that can get quite loud), our booth was surprisingly private and relatively quiet. The decor was simple, elegant, and the dim lighting provided that classic steakhouse feel that never hurt any establishment’s ambiance.

We were quickly greeted by our server, Carly – who, for the record, is easily the best waitress I have ever encountered in New York City. Because of the dent holiday shopping had already put in our wallets, we just weren’t inclined to splurge where we didn’t necessarily need to (but we have to eat, of course!), so we opted out of drinks (despite being told the martinis are great here and the wine list was calling to me…). Never before has a server not only NOT made us feel guilty for not ordering a drink , but she went so far as to re-assure us for our healthy decision! Well played, Carly. Well played.

Now onto the crux of the review: The Food!

For our appetizer, we eagerly ordered the grilled jumbo artichoke with sauce remoulade, and out came this:

The picture isn’t that flattering, but let me tell you: I’ve never been a great fan of artichokes. I think they’re ok, and will eat them when made for me, but I don’t usually go out of my way to seek them out.

I’ve never been so glad Lucy chose this dish.

3 massive artichoke halves appeared in front of us, smelling unlike any artichoke I’ve ever had (most artichokes I’ve had have been steamed). On our first dip and bite, we were hooked. Brushed with butter, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and probably grilled on the same grill they put their steaks and burgers on, these bundles of heaven were well worth the $14 price tag. Every time I put a leaf in my mouth, it was like a mouthful of juicy steak flavor without all the weight. And getting down to the meaty heart was the most worthy endeavor undertaken in appetizer-land. It was simple, exquisite, and we could have eaten it all night. Our only problem with it was that it made us question every other restaurant with “why haven’t we had this before?!”

After we were finally done delicately demolishing this dish, Carly came in with a surprising touch: warm, wet towels for our unabashedly oily fingers. Not too many places will offer this sort of courtesy and it was definitely a nice, unexpected gesture. Then came our entrees…

I’ll let Lucy speak for her dish, so I’ll go over my California Burger:

Again, not the most photogenic (though, honestly, I had to borrow this image), but this is pretty close to what landed in front of me. The California burger comes topped with jack cheese,avacado, arugula, tomato, and red onion. Carly asked me earlier if I would like some dressings for my fries, and I said mayonnaise and ketchup would be fine, thinking they could also be applied to the burger if push came to shove. Well, I should have never questioned that the dressing was offered for the fries only. At $15, this burger is far from your budget, street fair, but this is a well-crafted between-the-bun experience. The meat was grilled perfectly and seasoned beautifully, none of the toppings overpowered the ensemble, nor was there any need for extra condiments. Lucy and I saw someone at a nearby table thoroughly dousing her burger with salt and were utterly stunned. Why would you do such a thing? There was more than enough seasoning on this burger; any more salt and it would have tasted like a salt salad.

On the side came a heaping mound of crispy thin, hand-cut fries. Not to be put to shame by anything else we had, these little morsels also performed their role to a T. By the end of our meal, there was not a morsel left on my plate.

Now, we could has easily left by that point, but we just had to ask out of curiosity for the dessert menu, which Carly rattled off with gusto for us. Split between the cobbler and the brownie sundae, we landed on the sundae, as Lucy makes a killer peach cobbler of her own (recipe forthcoming). Though a pretty standard dessert, there were some nice, personalized touches to the dish. The brownie was crusted with pecan, walnut, and almond shavings and rested on a layer of champagne caramel sauce, topped with a heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream. The champagne caramel sauce was a really nice touch, and the sundae definitely hit the spot.

Overall, a very pleasantly surprising experience, and a great place to go on a date or if your family is in town. Our meal of the artichokes, burger, and sashimi tuna salad came to about $60, which isn’t too bad (keep in mind, we didn’t have drinks). Just be aware that you may have to wait, but I think it’s worth it, especially since so many other restaurants in the area are either incredible small, incredibly loud, or both.

I first got Jamaican Jerk Chicken from Veronica’s about five months ago and could not believe I had made it 24 years into life without ever having had it before. It’s the closest thing to a full meal that a chicken can become. All of the spices mingle to make a dish that, like Willy Wonka’s magical chewing gum dinners – keeps on releasing bursts of succulent flavour, bite after bite after bite after bite after – oh it’s gone…

Even after the heat has taken hold of your tongue, each new morsel is a brand new love affair. It is spicy though. Lordy Lord. Thankfully I’m the type to ask for advice – and the potato salad – simple, honest, clear-voiced and fresh – sits beneath to provide sweet, savory relief.

A small Jerk Chicken (or one of many other entrees) is only $5.5o, and comes with two sides (of which I highly recommend Potato Salad, Collard Greens, Candied Yams and Fried Plantain – but you can’t go wrong really).

Veronica’s is a food cart that banks at Water Street, just off where it crosses Wall Street from 11am – 2pm or thereabouts. If you’re going for lunch, I highly recommend going early if you want to get what you want – or anything at that.

-L-