Author: F C

Teabag

Went to the Teabag NYC Film Show yesterday with P to support one of my friends. He was showing the intro to a movie that they want to produce, “Pretty to Think So”, and promoting the DVD to their documentary on the Korean/Chinese party scene in New York, “Party“. Good stuff.

Afterwards, went to Jaya, a Malaysian restaurant. We had Roti Chanai, Ipoh Hor Fun, Yee Noodle in casserole with Black Mushroom, and a Chendor bing ice. Ok, not anywhere as good as Ipoh, but pretty good for New York, and we didn’t even break $20, so you can’t complain.

Taking the New York out of NYT?

I think that the whole point of the New York Times is to give a New York view of the world, and a world view of New York. Otherwise, it might as well be USA Today with the Life magazine insert.

In this week’s New York Times Magazine, there is an article celebrating Gazpacho, when the late NYT food critic Craig Clairborne first popularized the Spanish cold soup in 1968. Gazpacho has to be one of my favorite delights, especially for a light late summer meal.

They then proceed to update it for the 21st century by providing a deconstructed version. Who do they go to for the task? Michael Tusk, who has an Italian fusion restaurant in San Francisco. I’m sure the guy is a fine chef, but you mean to tell me they couldn’t find anyone in New York that could do a deconstructed gazpacho? It wasn’t even like Tusk wanted to do it:

Earlier this summer, I gave the Málaga gazpacho recipe to Michael Tusk, the chef and an owner of Quince Restaurant in San Francisco, to see what it would inspire in him. Deceit, at first: Tusk said he had to sneak around the San Francisco farmer’s market in a hooded sweatshirt with a bag of local hot-house tomatoes, hoping that none of his watchdog chef friends would catch him with the contraband.

An Italian chef having a bag of tomatoes is going to pique the curiosity of other chefs? Come on. And they don’t read the NYT food columns, either. Right.

Gramercy Tavern

The heat broke today for restaurant week, and P and I tried out Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio’s restaurant Gramercy Tavern. We were in the Main Room, where you have the choice of a regular, veggie, or premium prix fixe. On the regular prix fixe, which is not part of restaurant week, you have the choice of a dozen appertizers, and a choice of 6 fish dishes and 6 meat dishes. P had sea scallops and the lamb dish, while I had fried oysters in a fava soup and the sirloin with marrow and spätzle. We had fresh lemonade and limeade, accompanied with a small pitcher of simple syrup for sweetener. There were two free micro appertizers, a bean dip on crouton, and a cube of watermelon with micro feta cubes and aged balsamic vinegar. Afterwards, we had a free micro dose of berry sorbet on a custard, that was included. We ordered for dessert was a blueberry panecotta with a dose of lavender honey ice cream with chinese-style micro egg cakes, while P had a dark chocolate confection. The other novelty was the chance to try real English mead – which had a wheat ale flavor with high notes of honey. Everything seemed not so big, but the waves of dishes caught up with us. It was a very remarkable meal with immpeccable service.