Deconstructed Food in Top Chef

So I've been watching Top Chef and deconstructed food seems to be a big thing among a few chefs. Some excel at it while others FAIL. For example, one of the Voltaggio brothers made a deconstructed Caesar salad which I thought looked interesting and probably tasted very good. Ron, on the other hand, had to deconstruct paella and I guess he took it literally because what he presented looked like a mess.

Deconstructed food is probably more for the experience, right? I mean, you're still eating the same exact thing just separated. That piece of lettuce, the sauce bubble, and the parmesan cheese crisp will still taste like a caesar salad. It's just not all tossed in a big bowl for you.

What do you think?

bon jour~

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.

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.

I ate New York

I think the only reason I go to New York nowadays is to.. eat. Cynthia and I went to NYC yesterday and went to places mentioned in The Girl Who Ate Everything. Originally, I really wanted to try a macaron so that's how this whole thing started. I guess we were both so engrossed at the thought of eating in general we forgot. Damn. Anyway, we started our day by going to Kinokuniya Bookstore on some avenue in the city (I have no sense of direction at all) It was really big and nice and Japanesey. The second floor had a cafe called Cafe Zaiya and they sell Japanese pastries, desserts, and a $5 lunch. I got a salmon onigiri while Cynthia got a green tea pudding I believe? I didn't taste it but she had this look of ecstacy on her face the entire time she was eating it. My onigiri, on the hand, left a lot to be desired. It needed soy sauce.. or mayo. Everything tastes better with mayo!

CUSTARD!

Salmon Onigiri. Obviously.

Insides. Looks a tad dry, no?

Yeah, maybe I'm just a food snob but it needed something else to add some moisture and flavor. The other elements, such as the rice, were very good. The texture of the rice is very important and it was spot on - just chewy enough but still firm to differentiate between each rice grain.

Hiroko's Place. Kawaii ne. It's very homey

Hiroko's Place is a hole in the wall but it's a very comfortable hole in the wall. It looks like somebody's home with an abundance of tables and chairs. It's not in the picture, but there is a couch and a few more tables. There's also a bookshelf full of manga!

Cynthia sensually sipping h2o.

Cynthia's Neapolitan (?) Spaghetti. Notice the hotdogs!

So I think a dish is considered Asian when there are sausages in it. I don't know why Asian people put it in but who cares, it's damn good. I didn't taste this dish but it seemed pretty good since the plate was clean after haha

My Hamberg Rice. Mmmmmmmmmm

Oh hamberg steak and rice. No, I didn't forget the -er in hamberg. It's actually called that. It's a popular dish in japan and korea. It's comfort food.. I mean look at it! A big wad of meat, fried egg, a canelle of egg salad, and to insure that we get our daily vegetal intake, a small side salad. The steak had a tomato ragu on top, which was very different than the way I normally eat it but I actually prefer this more. The fried egg was eggtastic and the egg salad added a creamy and rich element to the dish. Twas a delicious dish.

I'm always thinking of the starving kids in Africa.
CRISPY SWEET CREAMY PUFF OF MY DREAMS

I NEVER HAD A BEARD PAPA CREAM PUFF BEFORE. According to Cynthia, I have not lived. So she took me to a store and we both bought a strawberry and a vanilla (original). I ate the strawberry first and hot damn it was good. The puff was crispy and the cool, strawberry filling had that Asian strawberry flavor (Go buy a strawberry pocky and just suck on one). I wish the puff had just come out of the oven so I could experience a warm puff with the cool filling.. oh well, it was still awesome. A++!

This is the original one (Vanilla)

I ate the other one when I got home and this time it was the original vanilla flavor. I still prefer the strawberry actually but it was still very good.. although it was.. mushier. :( boo.

apple..cider..DONUT!

This was our last stop before going back to Jersey. I got this in the Union Square Green Market. OH MY GOD THIS IS THE BEST DONUT I HAVE EVER HAD. It's nothing l ike a dunkin donut's donut.. It's substantial. It's more cakey/dense, which I really enjoy. I guess the only bad thing is that there wasn't that much of an apple cider flavor. However, that may be for the fact that I ate a donut in literally 14 seconds and thinking to myself, "OMFG THIS IS FUCKING GOOD. I WANT TO EAT YOUR BABIES." (babies = apple cider munchkins? omg, get in ma belly)

Anyway, it was a great day with amazing weather. Next time, WE WILL EAT MACARONS. Yes. Also, I also went back to Kinokuniya to steal a pin and I also got a green tea roll cake. I was a bit skeptical at first b/c all the roll cakes I have are always kind of dry and crumbly but oh man, this one was so moist and dense in the best possible way. Not too sweet and a slight bitterness at the back of your throat from the green tea. We also met up with Jason at Red mango. The only other time I had red mango was in korea and thing is, i've never had froyo before so that was DAMN GOOD. After eating froyo at different places, red mango is actually really heavy - almost regular ice cream consistency. However, it tasted so good! It had that intense yogurt taste.. you know, that kind of sour yogurt taste?

I think I get too excited about food.




HA. Nahh.

Eats!

Sorry I didn't post anything for a while - last week was disgustingly busy but I did manage to cook a few, really simple dishes to satisfy my work ridden soul.

In no particular order, here's stuff I consume during my days of rendering, sequence board making, mind mapping, user group mood board making days at RISD. uh...I'm not bitter in any form whatsoever..

In order to prevent myself from dieing due to malnutrition, I eat BERRIES. Lots of berries. I usually have blueberries, strawberries, and bananas in a bowl with a very small pinch of salt, sprinkle of sugar and/or drizzle of honey, and a healthy glug of balsamic vinegar. Yup, vinegar. I then let it macerate in the fridge until all of the delicious juices from the berries come out and scream to be eaten. It's an amazing mixture sweet and tart.. you guys gotta try it. This is on the same comfort level of chocolate cake, ice cream, and unicorn tears.



I had pork. I had miso. I had veges. MISO SOUP! It was surprisingly light with a delicate saltiness from the miso, considering how hard I tried to render what fat was on the pork because pork fat makes life here at RISD that much more bearable. The pork was fairly tender - I think it would've melted in your mouth if I had let it simmer longer but I'm impatient. :( I think my impatience is going to be the death of me someday. SIGH.



Simple food is usually the best food. I mean how much more simpler can you get? Mysteryious Luncheon ham-meat product, eggs, scallions, and white carb matter pan fried to golden brown awesomeness. The runny yolk is like icing on a cake.. but in this case it's an undeveloped baby chicken basically. Let us stick with the icing comparison.. I added ketchup and some sriracha to cut the salt and add some oomph. It was a good, not good for me, breakfast.



Ah, the star of this post. KALBI. The meat of kings. Look how it glistens in the light of my Macbook. You probably can't tell, but there is kimchi, fermented cabbage of the gods, and brown rice. If you don't know, kalbi is a Korean dish of slices of beef marinated in soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, etc. It's usually eaten during special occasions becuase the cut of meat is expensive. My special occasion? I slept the average 8 hours the night before. It's special to me.