Traif Tasting- August 31st, 2010

Erin and I had an amazing meal at Traif on Tuesday. The experience was fantastic from the gracious hostess to the accommodating servers to the imaginative food we sampled. Our original reservation was for six, but the staff did not even blink an eye when we informed them that we had dwindled down to a party of two.

We settled in after profusely apologizing for the last minute change and ordered a few glasses of wine. Erin had a light, crisp Rose and I had a Reisling, which was billed as dry, but was a bit on the sweet side.

We hungrily perused the menu and decided to really go for it. Amidst our frenzied ordering, the waiter actually suggested we have one short rib slider instead of an entire order. He wanted to make sure we would have enough appetite left to truly enjoy the sweetbread course. His thoughtful advise was one of the many examples of the phenomenal service we enjoyed throughout the night!

While we waited for our first course, we were presented with a Watermelon Gazpacho amuse buche. It was a lovely light and refreshing start to the meal, though the watermelon gazpacho I had a few weeks ago at Degustation was much more flavorful and pungent.

Our first course was a beautiful pink fig and lardon salad, dressed in a champagne vinaigrette. The beautiful chunks of bacon and the unbelievably sweet and delicate figs were joined by artichoke hearts and a light shaving of salty cheese. This sounds like a hodgepodge of ingredients, but somehow they all worked together effortlessly.

Shortly thereafter, the hamachi carpaccio over nectarines, with thai basil,lime, and black sesame arrived. The hamachi was fresh and succulent, though I felt the nectarines added little to the dish.

Our next course was one of my favorites: stuffed corn cakes topped with marinated rock shrimp, mango, and tomatillo. The cakes were light as air, surrounding a mild cheese and the shrimp slaw that covered them was sweet and savory and perfect!

The next course was the spicy, bigeye tuna tartare over tempura eggplant with kecap manis. The tartar was both sweet and spicy with curry heat and a drizzle of what tasted almost like eel sauce. The eggplant was lightly tempura fried with a crisp outer skin and a soft, moist flesh. Individually, they were fantastic, together they were fine, but I personally would have served them separately.

The next course was our most anticipated: crispy, braised pork belly over an avocado, corn, tomato salad. It was so good. The fried pork belly melted in your mouth, but still retained enough texture to allow you a few satisfying chews. The salad was again, savory with a hint of sweetness, a theme throughout the meal. We were sad to see the last morsels disappear.

Our single short rib slider came with the braised belly, and we turner our attention to the appetizing little sandwich next. It was truly anti-climactic after the other dishes we had enjoyed. It was a fine short rib slider, but it simply wasn't in the same league as the thoughtful, flavorful dishes that proceeded it. We were again grateful to our wise waiter who had suggested sharing one instead of a full order!

Our final course was sautéed sweetbreads with artichokes, asparagus and maitake’s. This was the culmination of the luxurious, over-the-top, glutenous feast that is tapas at Traif. The rich, luscious sweetbreads were delicately sauteed, cooked to tender perfection. The accompanying vegetables balanced the richness, soaking up the buttery sauce.

This was not a meal one could enjoy on a regular basis. The sheer indulgence of the quantity, quality and unapologetic use of fat made it a special meal to enjoy judiciously. Traif is a guilty pleasure I would recommend to anyone!

1 Year Anniversary Party- August 2010

Coming Soon! Technical difficulties with photos

Queen's Culinary Crawl-July 18th, 2010

Our Queens Culinary Crawl might have been our most hedonistic outing to date! Jo, Nelson, Erin, Jake, and I made our way out to the end of the 7 line to meet Jen and Adam in Flushing. We began our gluttonous trek at Imperial Seafood, known for it’s peeky-toe crab and sticky rice.

We greedily decided that 4 dishes would suit the 6 of us. We ordered the spicy bean curd, peeking duck, something, and the requisite sticky rice crab. Though we are generally big drinkers, we thought it best to save our stomach space for food. Only Nelson had the gaul to order a beer with the first feast!

Luke regailed us with stories about his friend and founder of chowhound and the site’s adventurous beginnings while we waited for the dishes to come out of the kitchen.

The Peaking duck was fantastic. It was served with steamed buns, scallions and hoisen sauce. The skin was perfectly crisp and the meat tender and moist. What it may have lacked in seasoning, the hoisen took care of. Being a carboholic myself, it was a winner in my book! The surprise favorite of the Hunan tasting was the bean curd. It packed a delightful spicy punch and the creamy tofu played off of the ground meat. The “star attraction” was met with mixed reviews. It was fine, but not spectacular. The crab was flavorful and the sticky rice was good, it lacked any kind of wow factor. Nonetheless, it was devoured in it’s entirety!

We pushed back from the table, feeling much more full than we had intended for our first stop, and happily paid our meager bill of roughly $15 per person.

Up next was Dim Sum down the street. We congregated around the typical round table in the middle of a vast Dim Sum hall and ordered a few staples to share. We had steamed pork buns, bacon wrapped scallops, shrimp noodles, sesame balls and pumpkin sesame balls. It was all good if not a bit average. The pork buns were a bit dry, but the rest was perfectly adequate. It took a great deal of effort to get it all down considering the feast we had just come from, but we prevailed! EWI leaves no bite behind! The hands down favorite at this spot were the sesame balls, though that may just be because we were craving a little sweet! Our bill here totaled about $5 per person, we paid and stumbled out into the heat, holding our bellies in pain. Off to Corona!

I wanted to walk to Corona, thinking the jaunt might clear room in my overstuffed belly; I was informed that it was more than a jaunt and we shuffled back onto the 7 train. I’m lucky I had Jen to reel me in; even the walk from the train to our next restaurant was trying in that sweltering heat! It was well worth the sweaty walk though.

We arrived at Tortilleria Nixtamal and proceeded to order a half pound of the Carne Al Pastor and a half pound of the Carnitas. On the weekends these specials (along with any of their usual meats) are served by the pound with fresh, made on site, Corn tortillas. They even make their own masa. We also decided to get a tamale, despite Jen’s recommendation against it. For $1.75, it was a risk worth taking. Jen was right, the tamale was not only simultaneously slimy and dry, and it also lacked the CORN masa flavor inherent to a tamale. The tacos, on the other hand, were brilliant! The Pastor was insanely juicy and flavorful, with the chunks of pineapple cutting the fat and giving it a perfect balance under a splash of cooly spicy tomatillo salsa. The carnitas were also quite good, though, to me at least, they could not stand up to the pastor. It was incredible and we just kept stuffing it in, along with “real Mexican coke” (made with actual sugar) and beer. The bill? You will not believe the bill. We ended-up spending about $3 per person. Yeah, I know. It was at this point I decided that I may need to start venturing to Queens for my meals more often!

There was still one more stop to be made, so we waddled back out into the humidity and on to Tommy-O’s Frozen Custard. Prior to arriving we all decided that we would just get one scoop and all take tastes of it. There was just no way we could eat anymore food. Yeah, famous last words.

Timmy-O himself was there to greet us with samples and stories about his beloved custard. We tried the fresh churned banana, Horchata (a Mexican drink made of rice, almonds, cinnamon, lime zest and sugar), Coffee, Vanilla, and Chocolate.

The custard was so creamy and flavorful without being cloying like gelato can be at times. I was crazy about the coffee, but couldn’t resist the idea of a rootbeer float with the classic vanilla. We then all ended-up with combo cups of the stuff. Nelson and I shared the best Rootbeer float I have ever tasted, the group prompting us to pose “Lady and the Tramp Style” with the double straws. (Clearly I couldn’t keep a straight face when he gave me the crazy eye!)

We happily paid about $2.50 per person, said goodbye to Timmy, and started crawling back to the 7 train.

I didn’t realize one could get “food drunk”, but I suppose 4 restaurants + 98 degree heat equals just such a phenomenon! For around $25 we were able to eat our way through two vastly different neighborhoods and put ourselves into a near comatose state!

A big thanks to Jen and Adam for sharing their amazing neighborhood gems with us! Eating With Impunity has proved once again that no borough is too far and no weather too extreme to keep us from a great meal. This was our last culinary adventure for year 1; I look forward to more adventures as we move into our second year, eating with impunity.

Mad Men Party- July 3rd, 2010

"Cocktails at 6pm, Dinner at 7:30", the classic dinner party set-up, has gone by the wayside over the years. Well, we decided to bring it back Saturday night with a Mad Men Midcentury Modern dinner party in the West Village. The dress was retro, the food Americana, the drinks stiff.

Thankfully, the gin and vodka arrived with some of the first guests, Reese and Shannon, our newest members and friends of original EWI crew mate, Erin Madigan. I started everyone off with some dirty vodka martini's. I have been wary of gin for years, but tonight I decided to be brave and make the second round with the New Amsterdam gin they had purchased. Let me tell you, that was a damn fine drink! Throughout the evening, we proceeded to utterly destroy the entire bottle of gin, most of the vodka, two jars of green olives and a nice bit of vermouth. Somehow the spirit of the 50's and 60's was with us and none of us ended up stumblingly drunk!

Cocktail hour would not be complete without hors d'oeuvres, and it was Erin and Rajani who provided them. Erin made us a classic: cucumber finger sandwiches. She whipped together butter and cream cheese for a lighter spread and they were fantastic. Rajani did a twist on mini beef wellingtons, with a puff pastry filled with a spiced tomato and cheese mixture. (Forgive me if my description is not entirely accurate, and correct me in the comments!) They were just spicy enough and quite addictive.

Sultry swing was playing in the background, conversation was as lively as ever, and I made sure no one had an empty cocktail glass. Therefore it isn't too surprising that, in typical EWI fashion, "Cocktail Hour" lasted quite a bit longer than an hour!

Mike and Sabrina arrived a bit later, bearing a lovely bottle of wine and some chocolate truffles for dessert. We had a few more drinks and decided it was time to get the mains going before we got any drunker!

In keeping with the theme, all the dishes were full of butter and trans-fats, that sort of thing was the order of the day, and we were merely going for authenticity!

Jo made an utterly decadent squash casserole. Despite its healthy sounding name, the dish consisted of a bit of squash and onion, white bread, cheese, bacon, sour cream and butter. Yeah, it was amazing. A heart attack waiting to happen, but so worth it!

To accompany this porky side, I made pan-seared steaks in a red wine butter sauce. The sirloins were not the best choice for this cooking method, but the sauce lived-up to it's decadent name!

Sahi proved that there doesn't have to be anything healthy about vegetarianism! She made a truffled macaroni and cheese and the most amazing cayenne pepper spiced, scalloped yams. These potatoes were spicy and sweet and drenched in fat. Completely delicious!

Not the healthiest, nor the most beautiful plate of food we have ever produced, but it was delicious and the perfect antidote for the dirty martini's we were all consuming!

We continued to eat and drink and drink and drink, into the evening. We eventually moved on to the after dinner treats: Erin's ambrosia salad and Mike's truffles, though we did not end up with proper after dinner drinks. We were all too happy sipping on our martini's! Next time perhaps we will go the extra mile and end with scotch and cigars.

All in all, it was another lovely evening, filled with strong drinks, fatty food and stellar conversation. We ate with impunity, drank with reckless abandon and somehow still kept it classy!