NYC Food Fest
10/3/2007

Culminating a week of cooking and feasting at the Culinary Institute, Laura and I met for the weekend in New York City to catch a show and do some “international traveling” from a cuisine point of view.

Friday evening was spent with a fine bottle of Sangiovese at Petrarca, a little wine bar/eatery in Tribeca, with the primary goal of not eating too much.  Saturday brought renewed eating energy, so it was off to Katz’s Deli on Houston, which is one of the oldest and largest Jewish Delis in the City.  Our meal started with a big plate of three of four different kinds of pickles, all made on the premises and served as whole pickled cucumbers, cut in half.  Some pickled green tomatoes were on the plate too!  Brunch proceeded with matzo ball soup, a combo pastrami and corned beef on rye sandwich, lox on a bagel and blintzes to finish up.  Full on Woo-Hoo!

After a matinee of Les Miserable, and a Cosmo or two in the evening, we were off to Mesa Grill on 5th Avenue, Bobby Flay’s first restaurant.  From the street, only the black entrance awning is visible, with the just the words “grill”, so it’s easy to miss.  The food is very contemporary and based on southwestern ingredients.  We arrived about 45 minutes early and felt like we really were in New York City – crowding our way to the bar through a huge throng of people, “sipping” cactus pear margaritas while people-watching and waiting for our table.  The food was outstanding, especially the crab cakes on green tomatoes and the soft shell crabs.  This night added a big “check mark” on my ‘list of restaurants I want to eat at’!

Sunday morning found us on Mott Street in Chinatown at the Mandarin Court for Dim Sum and a Tsing Tao, then off to shopping and browsing in Greenwich Village.  Finally, a quickie pasta at Pellegrino’s on Mulberry in Little Italy, and our international travels came to an end.  Many hours later, home in San Francisco, we welcomed ourselves back with an In-n-Out Burger at midnight!

– Chris

The spread at Katz’s Deli.  Ohhh, sooooo good!

Pigs & Ketchup
10/2/2007

Couldn’t resist mentioning a couple of blurbs from today’s Wall Street Journal:

First, in anticipation of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing next summer, the Chinese government is establishing a special program to raise pigs specifically for Olympic athletes.  While I don’t know how many athletes eat pork during competition, apparently the quality of pork in China is suspect enough that special (organic) diets, exercise regimens, etc. are necessary.  There’s a bit of fuss since the Oympic pigs are getting better treatment than a typical Chinese worker…

Meanwhile, back in the old US of A, Heinz is trying to increase the sugar content of tomatoes so they don’t have to buy as much corn syrup for making ketchup.  Apparently, demand for corn by ethanol producers is driving up the cost of syrup faster than the price of ketchup.

Speaking of global warming (we really weren’t, but since I mentioned ethanol, I get to use it as a segue), over the weekend the New York Times had a piece “worrying” about what we’ll do for Spring and Fall fashions when there’s no more seasons.  I guess in about 10,000 years or so that might be a reasonable concern.  I wonder what will happen to winter wheat …?

– Chris

Day 5: CIA Boot Camp
9/28/2007

It’s graduation day for the boot camp crowd as well as the graduating class of regular students at the CIA.  The school has a different feel today – less frenetic and busy – but maybe that’s just the Friday mentality.   Our day got started with a game of boot camp “jeopardy” pitting the five teams against one another.  We’re a competitive crowd, and aside from some low level sniping, it stayed fun.  The grand prize was a Chef-autographed book about the CIA boot camp, written by a former student of the course and featuring our instructor, Chef Hinnerk von Bargen.  Team 4 (that’s us) didn’t win the book, though.

With the competition over, it was off to the kitchen to build the dishes we had been planning throughout the week.  Our appetizer was smoked quail, stuffed with a wild rice, apple and cranberry sauté, presented on a bed of arugula that was mixed with a few chopped walnuts and very thinly sliced red onions and coated with a light dressing of balsamic and walnut oil.  Finally, the quail were drizzled with a reduction made by cooking leftover quail winglets with shallots, butter and port wine.  Really good stuff!  The main dish was roast pork loin, served over parmesan cheese risotto and complemented by sautéed heirloom cherry tomatoes and stir fried bok choy.   The pork loin was topped off with a roux thickened sauce made from roast drippings and mirepoix.

This is our fifth day in the kitchen and we at least know where the ladles, strainers, slotted spoons, whisks, etc. are stashed.  Severe shortages of most utensils and small tools are a constant, typically occurring right when the missing tools are needed to avoid burning a sauce or averting a similar catastrophe.  There’s a lot of activity in the kitchen.  We’re following untested recipes that don’t anticipate the omissions and mistakes we’re making and the dishes themselves are more complex.  As a group, we pulled off some pretty good dishes.  The quail, which we smoked on the stove over a medium of raw rice, tea leaves, pepper corns, cinnamon, and anise  (with a little bit of water as needed to quench the flames) held the stuffing well and really turned out nice.  Lots of credit goes to Chef von Bargen for that!

David and Eva and I comprise Team 4 and we’ve jelled into a good team based on knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses and can deploy quickly and effectively on the various tasks.  We were way busy near service time preparing two sauces, one cold veggie, two hot veggies, two meats and the risotto and bringing it all together while it was still hot.  We pulled it off, but just barely!

After a great lunch and a review of our dishes, followed by some picture taking, group congratulations and ‘thank-you’s to the Chef, I headed south from Hyde Park and was sad to see the campus entrance sign fade in my rear view mirror.  The CIA boot camp takes a revered place high on my list of “all time really cool things I did!”  A quick stop for a Starbucks, a fly through at the UPS store to mail uniforms, books and equipment back home (Jennifer from Team 2 gets credit for this good idea!) and I start the hike back to JFK to meet Laura!  Steve, who is with the army and is at the CIA evaluating training methods for military cooks, pointed out that I will be driving right past West Point on my way back, and given my stories about #2 son, who at the age of 12 has mapped out his entire career to five star general, “strongly” recommended I get a picture.  Couldn’t do it this time, but its on my list.  Tonight, I’m in New York City with Laura, where we are hoping to NOT eat anywhere that has white tablecloths.  I need a break from structured dining … just give me a bottle of wine and a small table with a candle and a simple menu and I’m good!

Tomorrow we eat at Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay’s NYC restaurant.  And I’m hopeful we can dig up some excellent, traditional jewish food off of Delancey Street near our hotel in Tribeca.  Will keep you posted on that one!  And of course, no Sunday afternoon is complete without a traditional Italian lunch at a restaurant near Mulberry Street.

In a few days I’ll summarize my CIA experience and highlight the key learning points.  Check back in a day or three …

– Chris

Still at it – service time is coming!

The smoked, stuffed quail appetizer:

And the entree dish of pork with risotto, heirloom tomatoes and bok choy: