So I mentioned in my previous post that I saw Julie & Julia. I actually went to the Borders next to the movie theatre to see what "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" looked like. I found two copies - one is a reprint of the original while the other is one based on the movie (cover wise. The inside is exactly the same). The reprint comes in two volumes and is $20 while the movie one is a one fat book that contains both volumes with better quality paper for $40. Me being the cheapass that I am could not fathom handing over $40 of my hard earned money for a book that I could just as easily buy for $20. I will admit, the reprint is rather tacky. The cover looks like a really old wallpaper. But who cares, right? As long as the innards are goood.
I was able to make two recipes from the book so far. The first one, which I ended up making 3 times actually lol, was a simple butter spongecake. Fucking delicious. Instead of using baking powder (or soda?) I was to use egg whites whipped to a stiff peak to make the cake rise but thhis also made it extremely airy and light.. hence the sponge part of the cake. Right out of the oven was heaven in my mouth: light, eggy, slightly sweet and butter. I love you butter spongecake.
The second recipe I made was beef bourginon (I know I spelled it wrong. My bad.). It's basically a beef stew with a lot of red wine. I never made it before so this was my first time. It takes A LOT of prep work and cooking time (2.5-3 hours in the oven!) but i don't know if it was worth it. I mean, it tastes pretty good but since I've never made it before I had nothing to compare the taste too. The taste.. it was very.. savory. Lol, best way I could describe it. I'm sure if I had used a better quality wine and beef, it would taste differently better. This is definitely the kind of food I would like to eat in the middle of an uber cold winter.
Sorry for the wall of text but I'm really excited about cooking more stuff from Julia's book. Next on the list for me is a fresh strawberry tart.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Long overdue..
Hey everyone,
It's been a while since my last post! I apologize - first it was because of finals, moving out, and then just sheer laziness. I was able to go to a few restaurants during NYC 2009 Restaurant Week and had some delicious food.
I actually saw Julie and Julia today and thought it was a great movie. It was hilarious, especially watching Meryl Streep become Julia Child. The food looked awesome too.
Okay, so first restaurant I went to Brasserie 8 1/2 [Modern French/Fusion] for lunch.
Overall it was a great experience but what kept me wanting more was the appetizer. It was a pork belly slider. First of all, I was surprised to see pork belly on a non-Asian menu since nobody except Asians really eat it. Anyway, it was DELICIOUS. I believe it was a brioche bun with three slices of pork belly, a slice of avocado, a fried quail egg, and a generous shmear of paprika infused mayonnaise. The pork just melted in my mouth - everything was perfectly seasoned and cooked. On the side were housemade salt and vinegar chips. These were very good the first bite but after that it got rather soggy and too salty. What a shame.
For my entree, I decided to get the lobster salad. It was presented on a thin layer of gelatinized mango matter and it was a stacked salad. There avocado dressed in some lime juice, mango jelly, lobster, snow pea leaves (I think), shaved fennel, and more lobster. It was very light and delicious. None of the ingredients overpowered each other and it was a nice balance of texture - creamy, crunchy, and MEATY.
Dessert was blood orange mirror cake. The cake itself was pretty sweet but the glaze on top was extremely tart so it cut the sweetness and once again, balanced the dish. How I love balance. It was nice to look at too.
Sorry I'm not more descriptive this took place a while ago. Also, I took all the picture with my phone so no SLR quality pictures like previous posts. I will photoshop them to the best of my abilities. (I can't seem to place the pictures between p
Next posts: Blue Moon Grill, Cha-An, Morimoto, & Tabla.
It's been a while since my last post! I apologize - first it was because of finals, moving out, and then just sheer laziness. I was able to go to a few restaurants during NYC 2009 Restaurant Week and had some delicious food.
I actually saw Julie and Julia today and thought it was a great movie. It was hilarious, especially watching Meryl Streep become Julia Child. The food looked awesome too.
Okay, so first restaurant I went to Brasserie 8 1/2 [Modern French/Fusion] for lunch.
Overall it was a great experience but what kept me wanting more was the appetizer. It was a pork belly slider. First of all, I was surprised to see pork belly on a non-Asian menu since nobody except Asians really eat it. Anyway, it was DELICIOUS. I believe it was a brioche bun with three slices of pork belly, a slice of avocado, a fried quail egg, and a generous shmear of paprika infused mayonnaise. The pork just melted in my mouth - everything was perfectly seasoned and cooked. On the side were housemade salt and vinegar chips. These were very good the first bite but after that it got rather soggy and too salty. What a shame.For my entree, I decided to get the lobster salad. It was presented on a thin layer of gelatinized mango matter and it was a stacked salad. There avocado dressed in some lime juice, mango jelly, lobster, snow pea leaves (I think), shaved fennel, and more lobster. It was very light and delicious. None of the ingredients overpowered each other and it was a nice balance of texture - creamy, crunchy, and MEATY.Dessert was blood orange mirror cake. The cake itself was pretty sweet but the glaze on top was extremely tart so it cut the sweetness and once again, balanced the dish. How I love balance. It was nice to look at too.
Sorry I'm not more descriptive this took place a while ago. Also, I took all the picture with my phone so no SLR quality pictures like previous posts. I will photoshop them to the best of my abilities. (I can't seem to place the pictures between p
Next posts: Blue Moon Grill, Cha-An, Morimoto, & Tabla.
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