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Hot Plates Restaurant Tastings January 25th

Elaine, Emily W., Melissa Z and yours truly all happened upon each other at the Hot Plates new restaurant tasting on the 25th. The tastes were generously portioned, but it was a definite case of quantity over quality! There was Good, Bad and Boring. Nothing life changing, but it was fun to get through 10 restaurants so quickly.

The sliders from Mark were good, but it is pretty hard to create a bad slider. My favorite were the lobster rolls from Luke's. Not life changing, but really tasty! The lobster was not overcooked, and anything drenched in that much garlic and butter is going to be delicious. Emily W.'s favorite was the octopus and potato stick from Corsino. She felt that the flavors and textures were more interesting than anything else there. Elaine and I liked the toasted tortillas topped with beans and pigs feet from Ofrenda, though the pig's feet were lacking.

The biggest loser of the night had to be the saffron pasta from Spina! Elaine has been to Spina and eaten that very dish and enjoyed it. Tonight the dish they served was a mushy, bland bowl of orange pasta. It was truly terrible. Another disaster was Artisan Cannolis. Their cannoli stuffing was not the delicate, subtle mascapone you would expect. It was thick and overly sweet frosting. The nuttella cannoli clearly was nothing but piped-in nutella. As much as I love nutella, I don't want to eat an entire cannoli full of it!

The others were just not really worth feeling one way or the other about. Bia Garden's hash was fine, just pretty unmemorable. A crostini is a crostini, perhapse not the best choice for Corsino to define itself. The beef rib from The Norry was too fatty for my taste and had okay flavor. The whipped cheesecake from Spot was fine, but lacked the lushious, richness that makes cheesecake so good. The pretzels were thick, over seasoned and though we are a bit ashamed to admit it, we ladies agreed that we would take an Auntie Anne's Pretzel over a gourmet Sigmund pretzel any day!

Bia Garden- Crispy Pork Belly, Daikon Hash, Pickled Vegetable

Verdict: Eh

Corsino- Crustini w/ goat cheese and honey, octopus and potato stick

Verdict: Crustini: Eh, Octopus: Emily Approved

Luke's Lobster- Shrimp, crab and lobster rolls

Verdict: Good

Mark- Fresh sliders w/ homemade sauce

Verdict: Good

The Norry At Kampuchea- Beef Rib

Verdict: Eh

Ofrenda- Toasted Tortilla w/ pinto beans, braised pig feet, rice and green tomatillo salsa

Verdict: Fine

Sigmund Pretzel Shop- Caraway Pretzel w/ horseradish sauce and Gruyere-smoked Paprika w/ mustard

Verdict: Wah, Wah, Wah

Sina- Saffron-in fused malloreddus, hand rolled and topped with bolognese

Verdict: Almost unforgivable

Spot- Whipped cheesecake with huckleberry, walnut and passion fruit foam

Verdict: Eh

Stuffed Artisan Cannolis- Chocolate Peanut Butter and Nutella

Verdict: Super Boo from Felicia (I love cannoli and took this affront personally)

At the end of the day, I have actually been back to two of these restaurants: Mark's and Luke's. Though Mark's dish was a lowly slider, you cannot beat their concept during this recession. They offer $2 sliders, $3 fries and $4 beer and wine. Their simple, cheap concept in the heart of the East Village is a winner. Perhaps not the most innovative, but just what the broke hoards of hungry and thirsty New Yorkers need right now!

The same goes for Luke's. Not as cheap, but still a slammin' deal for lobster and shrimp rolls compared to other places in the city. $9 for a good quality seafood roll works for me!

As always, we had fun tasting, judging and talking about our favorite subject: food.

Bo Ssam January 24th

Well, the EWI ladies did it again! We held our own in the Bo Ssam throw-down. Our roster included: Zoe, her guest (a self-proclaimed "recovering vegetarian" who now is a complete carnivore!), Elaine, her friend Wendy, Melissa Z, Melissa's Guest (the only lucky man), Laura, Kaitlin, New Emily and myself.

We started our feast with pork buns and a pickle plate, very ambitious considering the side of pork coming our way. Then came the main event. The pork shoulder came out sizzling! The glistening fat was perfectly caramelized with a distinctive hint of sweetness. It was accompanied by kimchi, kimchi paste, scallion sauce, sea salt, fresh bib lettuce and oysters. Our waiter explained that traditionally kimchi is made with oyster, but because theirs wasn't, they provided the oysters to top the pork lettuce wraps.

I added an oyster to my first wrap, eh! Oysters simply taste like the ocean to me, so I did not feel that the "taste of the sea" added much to the pork, but that is just my opinion!

We ate, and ate, and ate! Some of the ladies even chewed on the bone for the marrow. We sadly did not finish the beast, but we came pretty close! I think it is safe to say that we all left on the verge of a pork coma. It was fantastic though. Of the big pork dinners I have experienced thus far in New York, this one certainly was the best.

Leave it to David Chang! The man rarely disappoints me!

I have posted pictures of all the glorious gluttony at the link below:

http://s358.photobucket.com/albums/oo25/kcampbell84/EWI%20Bo%20Ssam/

Chilean Wine @ Louis 649 January 19th

Hi EWI,

Last night's tasting was really fun! Andrew and I met some really great fellow foodies there and the wines were all pretty good and really affordable retail. Here is a breakdown, if you are interested:

Santa Rita Reserva Sauvignon Blanc, 2008
Casablanca Valley, Chile

-This wine was incredibly light and crisp. It did not have any of the "funky" notes that I have found in French Sauvignon Blancs.

1865 Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, 2007
Leyda Valley, Chile

-This SB had a bit more depth, still crisp, but with more interesting, earthy notes.

J. Bouchon, Las Mercedes Carmenere Reserva Especial, 2007
Maule Valley, Chile

-The J. Bouchon was a very light red. It is made from 100% Carmenere grapes, which to me tasted like a young Tempernillo.

Concha y Toro Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008
Central Valley, Chile

- I loved this one! I swear to God it smelled and tasted like bacon! Perhapse that does not sound like the most palatable thing to drink, but somehow it worked. I would love to try this one again with food or use it in braising.

Maquis Lien, 2006
Collchagua Valley, Chile

-Egh. This was a very anticlimactic wine to end on last night. It just tasted like a bland table red. But that's just my opinion! I honestly cannot remember anything more about it than its lack of memorability.

All of these wines are sold at Puro Wine on Grand Street for under $20 a bottle.

Hope you are all having a great week!

Felicia

Favorite Ingredient @ Young’s January 17th

Hi EWI!

We had a small, but lovely dinner last night at Young's house. We all must have been on the same wave length because our "favorite ingredient" theme was very Italian in nature!

I made eggplant Parmesan sliders (I love veggies as an ingredient), Sahi made Bruchetta with fresh mozzarella (she loves tomatoes and olive oil), Young was going
to make an olive oil marinated steak (but we got distracted by the Jet's game!) and we were drinking Chianti. Sahi's friend brought the beer and interesting conversation (always an acceptable substitute for a dish!).

Beer and Cheese Party January 9th

Hi EWI!

Thanks to Laura's beer and cheese expertise (and Young's gracious hosting), we had quite the tasting adventure on Saturday night!

Apparently, beer and cheese are a sure-fire way to ensure attendance, we had a staggering 23 people show-up after a 20 person RSVP list. A good time was had by all! I think the most surprising beer for me was the one that tasted like soy sauce, forgive me for not remembering the precise name, but I was washing down the beer with martini's! (I did
say it was a good time!)

The cheese selection was great! Laura could probably give much better (and more accurate) descriptions of them all, but needless to say, they ran the gamut from intense Swiss to mild creamy goat's cheese to an array of blues: all delicious. The aged beers were met with interest and caution by most of us. As the aged bottles were passed around and poured, they were eyed with suspicion! I am no beer aficionado, so far be it from me to pass accurate judgement, they were all interesting. One tasted like lemon and mustard, there was the aforementioned soy sauce beer, deep grainy dark brews and Kaitlin even brought a raspberry beer that tasted like soda! It was definitely an experience!

Laura's List:

I want to thank everyone for showing up.. It was exactly what I was looking for to share those beers with, and I'm glad everyone enjoyed. I'm super impressed how fast that cheese went, too!

Here's the list:
Brooklyn Black Ops '08
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout 05-06, 07-08, 09
Brooklyn Monster 2002
Captain Lawrence NorEaster
Captain Lawrence Smoke from the Oak, wine barrel
Unibroue Quelque Chose
Unibroue 2004
Deiu du Ciel Peche Mortel (the coffee stout)
Cantillon Bio Geueze '05, (the first, sour 'lambic')
Kiuchi (Hitachino) Commemorative Ale '09
Russian River Salvation '08
Rodenbach.. at least '05
Sam Adams Triple Bock (the soy sauce beer :) )

Plus reinforcements from Lindemann's Cherry Lambic (or was it raspberry?), Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and a few others..

Cheeses:
Lake's Edge La Luna
Jasper Hill Bayley Hazen Blue
Cabot Clothbound Cheddar aged at Jasper Hill Farms
Westfield Farm Hubbardston Blue
Lazy Lady Lady in Blue
Quattro Portino Casatica (buffalo)
Vacherin Mont d'Or
Ewephoria sheep gouda
Capriole O'Banon

At the risk of advertisement, all the cheeses came from the shop I work at, called Provisions in Fort Greene. We've got a huge handful of new labels, about 200 varieties, and a lot of fun supporting small farms across the US and europe.

Back 40 Brunch Jan 2nd

Hi EWI!

I hope your 2010 is starting off on the right foot! I am quite pleased to announce that I have broken my "Brunch flake-out curse", and only two days into the new year!

We had a great time and made our way through a good portion of the menu! We started-off with Homemade Doughnuts and Pork Jowl Nuggets with a jalapeno jelly. They were amazing! The Jowl Nuggets were the star (but you all know my pork bias). They were lightly fried with a crisp outer crust and a melt-in-your-mouth center. Mmmmm!

We then had: Chicken and Waffles, Blintzes with Farmers Cheese and Cinnamon Apples, Poached Eggs with Baby Green Wheat, Homemade German Sausage and Mustard Greens over Grits, Sweet Potato Pancakes, and the Burger. The Chicken was great; moist with perfectly crisp skin (Though Eboni threw down the gauntlet and said she makes better. It is now my
mission to coax her into making Fried Chicken for us!). The Blintzes were flavorful and light, the Burger was good, though I have had better. The Sweet Potato Pancakes did not have much sweet potato flavor which was a bit disappointing (I adore Sweet Potatoes!). The Sausages were really good, they had almost a corned beef flavor. The surprise hit of the morning was the Baby Green Wheat. I have never had it before, it was similar to Quinoa: grainy, yet tender, with amazing earthy flavor. A few of us had cocktails as well (myself included in these numbers, of course). I started with a Mimosa which was pretty weak and then moved to the Spiked Cider which was super strong! They definitely used a strong hand with the Whiskey! The Bloody Mary's were decent as well.

The venue was beautiful, very open and light, not the usual cramped restaurant you would expect in the East Village. Melissa and Kaitlin took pictures of the food and should be sending those out shortly.

Purple Yam December 29th

Hi EWI!

We had an amazing meal last night! It was actually worth the trip in that horrendous weather (and worth breaking my pre-NYE diet)! Every dish was unique, flavorful and had wonderful texture. Let's see, we had Chicken Adobo, Oxtail Curry over white rice, Shrimp and Scallion
Pancakes with a sesame-soy sauce, Se Sic (sounds like Sea Sick?) which was pig ear, snout and hoof with rice, Korean meatball sandwiches with kimchi and spicy sauce, Fried Pork belly, Pork sliders, Creamy Curry Vegetables, Fried Vegetable and Shrimp Cakes, Bi Bim Bop (?), Goat
curry with scallion pancakes and mango chutney,a Shaved Ice, Purple Yam Ice cream concoction, and a Young Coconut Cream Pie. Whew! Yes, it was a glutinous feast and your EWI ladies represented! Surprisingly, considering all the fried dishes, everything was light, nothing was over or under seasoned or greasy.

By far, my favorite was the Goat curry wraps. As I mentioned to the ladies, it may have been my low expectations, I had bad goat experiences in Iraq! lol! It was surprising and flavorful, I loved it! I also adored the Korean meatballs with kimchi, yes my "Kimchi Curse" has been broken! The other favorites were the Oxtail Curry and the Fried Vegetables. Everything was divine, so it was hard to pick favorites. My personal least favorite (although several of the girls
enjoyed it) was the Se Sic. It just didn't do it for me, but it was certainly not a bad dish.

The following link will take you to pictures of the glorious food!

http://s358.photobucket.com/albums/oo25/kcampbell84/Purple%20Yam/

Cookies w/ Melissa Dec 19th

Melissa Z braved the weather tonight to come help me make some experimental holiday cookies! We made chocolate chip cookies with white chocolate surprise centers and my new creation: the cheesecake cookie. We used cookie dough to line the bottoms of mini-muffin pans,
baked them, topped them with cheesecake batter, baked them again, cooled them and drizzled the tops with fresh made chocolate gnash. We are feeling fairly festive and awesome at this point!

Tomorrow I will be attempting a 4-layer cookie bar: sugar cookie topped with brownie topped with peanut butter cookie topped with chocolate chip cookie drizzled w/ chocolate and sliced into bars. Why not? It's the holidays!

Hope you are all staying warm and feeling the holiday vibe :)

Felicia

EWI Holiday Mixer @ Pooneet and Mike’s December 12th

Our darling Bro-friends Mike and Pooneet suggested that we have a party to help foster relationships between the original and new members. They also offered to host.

I decided to make a beautiful stuffed fig dish. I wandered around the Chelsea Market gathering the perfect ingredients: a pungent blue cheese from Lucy's Whey, fresh figs from the fruit market and paper-thin sliced bacon from the meat market. At the market I met a fellow foodie working behind the register. I invited her to join the group and left the market filled with a sense of beautiful certainly in the direction of my life. I love food and people, and the people who love food are a special breed of people: my people.

I headed over to the party and started cooking. I halved the figs, pressed the cheese into the halves and wrapped them in little bacon bundles. The boys popped them in the broiler for me. They had made a chick-pea bruchetta and lamb meatballs. Deepa brought fresh-baked ginger cookies and everyone brought wine!

The party was set to start at 4pm.People trickled in at their own pace, but it really didn't matter, we have a great time whether there are five of us or fifty.

Ironically, there was not all that many new members there to meet original members! As I said before, not that fact (or any other) would stop us from having a grand time. Judging from our long history of partying into the night, I should have known that this would not be a quick party, regardless of what time it started!

We drank, and talked and laughed and then conversation turned to Bourbon. Yes, Bourbon. Pooneet happens to be quite the connoisseur, and I happen to be of the opinion that if you don't like something that just means you haven't tried enough of it. That lead us to a Bourbon tasting. I was feeling no pain before the tasting, after the tasting everything got a bit surreal!

Somehow Rock Band was turned-on and the most incredibly bad singing and playing commenced. After exhausting the original Rock Band line-up, the Beatles's Rock Band was queued-up and the resulting butchery of such classics as "Lucy in the Sky" are thankfully nothing but a blur to me.

It was around this time that we noticed the time. It was nearly 11:00pm. Yes, we had been drinking for close to 7 hours. Naturally, it was time to move the party to my friend Mark's! Our original party had dwindled to a group of four as we shuffled into a cab.

We arrived to Solas in the East village and stumbled out of the cab and over to the club. The bouncer hassled the guys (I still don't know why), but submitted to letting us in. Once inside I began looking for Markie. The crowd did not seem very Gay, and considering his sexual preferences, I was confused. We struggled through the crowd and I tried to call him. We decided to leave, but on the way out I ran right into Mr. Mark himself. He was as drunk as I was and we hung onto each other outside the club, slurring compliments to each other. He asked us to stay, but at this point the bouncer was evil-eyeing us again and so we begged-out.

Rather than rolling on home, the crew suggested that we check-out a bar on the corner. Why not? We sauntered into Hi Fi and promptly ordered drinks. Let's see, after an evening of red wine, white wine and Bourbon, a Dirty Martini only makes sense, right? Ah, the drunken mind! I enjoyed Erin's comment about the evening; poetically she told us that our evening was merely an "adventure for our livers"!

Adventure it was. After we secured our cocktails we moseyed on over to the pool tables. Now, I am a firm believer in the fact that alcohol impairs your abilities, with one striking exception: Pool. I suck at pool, I mean really, really suck! When I drink though, I get good. We played in teams and I was actually on the winning team the first round! Even in the subsequent losing rounds, I held my own. In fact, I kicked some ass! It shocked me every time the ball miraculously found its way into the pocket. As you can imagine, I was very vocal in my satisfaction with myself. Ah, booze!

Well, EWI members certainly know how to ring in the holidays!

Cheers!

Felicia

Daisy May’s BBQ Dec 4th

Hi EWI!

We had an interesting dinner at Daisy May's tonight. It was a whole hog dinner. The picture is my trophy hoof and leftovers! There were some great pics taken at the restaurant that I am sure will be sent out by members. It was fun tearing into a pig and ripping out your pieces! We all agree that although good, we have had better BBQ, but it was great fun as always!

The sides included "sweet potatoes" , coleslaw and baked beans. The sweet potatoes were whipped with banana, which I found to be downright offensive. The coleslaw was very mustardy and fine. The baked beans were also very mustard based and had a wide variety of legumes as opposed to the traditional Navy bean variety. Some thought this was fine, I am more of a purist and again found it off-putting. There was only one sauce and it was, again, mustard based. Everything was passable, except those atrocious "sweet potatoes", but as a woman who spend many a year in the south, this place was an overpriced atrocity. (perhaps that is too strong a condemnation, but BBQ is a bit of a religious thing for me! lol)

We enjoyed the experience, especially the final dismembering of the hog. I think we would all agree that we are glad to have done it, and not likely to do it again. That is all part of the adventure of culinary exploration in New York; the good, the bad and the ugly. As long as it is an EWI event, perfect company is guaranteed,a perfect meal is not!

EWI Thanksgiving Leftovers Remix @ Young’s November 29th

As a fun way to use our Thanksgiving leftovers, we decided to have a leftovers re-mix dinner! Young provided wine, Deepa brought homemade butterscotch pudding and I made turkey and apple cornbread stuffing sandwiches on cranberry bread with a port wine cranberry reduction spread.

After the whirlwind of family holiday madness, the wine was the most popular dish! It was so popular in fact that we munched on sandwiches and got so tipsy that we did not make it to dessert!

As always, with EWI you are always guaranteed a good time, and more often than not, a bit of a hangover! Isn't that what the holiday's are all about?

EWI Sweet and Savory Tapas @ Young’s November 23rd

Hi Guys!

We had a really fun Tapas event last night. I think it was the first time in EWI history that the sweet dishes outnumbered the savory!

Kyung made a delicious dark chocolate-banana bread pudding, Young Son made "sweet potato crunchies" which were basically fried sweet potato souffle balls (yum), Alice Lam made toasted crostini's with a lima-bean humus and a black olive and tuna tapanade and Adam prepared garlic-butter poached shrimp and a blue cheese-fig-caramelized port crostini. I rushed there after work and sadly made nothing! There was plenty of wine to go around and the dishes were all fantastic!

Beard on Books Food & New York Nov 18th

Afghani restaurant Nov 15th

Hi EWI!

We had an interesting dinner tonight at Bamiyan in Kips Bay. We started the meal with pumpkin turnovers, fresh hummus and Afghan bread (which surprisingly is nothing like naan or pita, more like a soft bread stick) and a beef and kidney bean pasta. The pasta was fine, the hummus was great and the group was divided on the turnover. The turnover was quite sweet which was a turn-off to some and a bonus to others!

The main course consisted of a lamb kabob over sweet brown rice with raisins and orange peel, chicken kabob over white orange peel rice, okra in red sauce and chicken in a yogurt sauce. The rice was actually the star of the evening. The lamb was quite good, very flavorful and not gamey and it paired beautifully with the sweet brown rice. The chicken was tender and the orange peel rice was also a big hit. The okra was ok, but nothing special, lacking any really identifiable flavor and the chicken in yogurt sauce was the least favorite dish. I thought it had some nice subtle flavors, the okra being the more offensive of the two for me personally.

We ended the meal with Afghani tea made with cardamon, rose petals, sugar and cream and a dessert called "elephant ears" which was fried dough drizzled with honey and pistachios. The tea was nice, but the elephant ears were little more than fried tortillas with honey, the pistachio dust was nearly unrecognizable.

Overall, everyone was surprised by the subtly of the flavors, nothing bold like you would find in India cuisine. There were some winners and losers, but the meal was all-in-all delightful. The staff was friendly and helpful and the conversation at our table was as enjoyable as ever!

Tasting at Louis 649/ core members meeting Nov 10th

On the heels of our huge new member's mixer, the core group decided to meet and discuss the future of our beloved EWI. What better forum than an East Village free liquor tasting? Kaitlin, Pooneet, Mike, Emily W., Alaina, Erin and I congregated at Louis 649 and discussed the fact that although growth was a good thing, we did not want to become a huge, impersonal mega-club. We value the personal relationships and familiarity that is only possible with small to midsized group. It was decided that we would stop our monthly recruiting events until we had become familiar with the 20ish new members we just added. Then it was time to start the drinking!

The tasting happened to be an Italian bitters tasting. Generally used as an ingredient in cocktails, they are making a bit of a comeback and we were subjected to tasting a wide range of them strait! The enthusiastic young presenter held us captive for a two hour comprehensive history of the stringent stuff. Most of us simply choked down the bitter brew, but leave it to our Pooneet to actually like the stuff!

At the end of the presentation there was a Q&A competition with the grand prize of a two foot tall bottle of Campari. As people tried and failed to answer the obscure questions about dates of production and countries of origin, we heard Pooneet mutter the answer under his breath. We all immediately started cheering and bringing the host's attention to our table. He of course had the correct answer (again, leave it to our Pooneet!) and ended the evening lugging the huge bottle home!

It was an interesting evening to say the least!

Empire State New Members Nov 8th

Every month we try to put together a new member mixer to give other people the opportunity to come meet the group and see if it is something they would like to be a part of. Thus far the events have had modest turn-outs, usually around 5 new members. Well, this month the response was tremendous. Our thread got so many hits on seriouseats.com that it was featured on the home page of Eater. The responses kept rolling in. The list of yes's, no's and maybe's kept growing. In total we had almost 100 responses, 58 of which ended-up rsvping for the event. It got to the point where I dreaded opening my email. I was somewhat terrified!

Where could we possible have an event of this size? I thought about contacting the James Beard Foundation about borrowing a space, but then I realized that I worked in a potential location already. I asked The Boss if I could use our office for "a little meeting of my culinary club", she agreed.

By the end of the week I had submitted all fifty-some-odd names to security and sent out the final instructions to the group. The magnitude of the response made me realize how special this group is and how many people are out there in New York, seeking connections with people who share their special passion. Some of the core members were a bit concerned about growing at such a rapid pace, not wanting the group to become impersonal.

I prepared a dish of stuffed mushrooms, filled with bacon, cheese and braised in marsala wine,which was fabulous. I also threw in two bottles of wine for good measure. I arrived, checked in with security and headed up to the office. Upon walking into the office I saw a light had been left on, then someone came around the corner. I nearly had a heart attack! My coworker was there working overtime, after I composed myself, I invited her to join the party. Thankfully a core member arrived shortly and helped me set-up.

I arranged food in the conference room, overlooking the east side of Manhattan, and set-up the bar in the reception area. Then they began to arrive. Thirty people came in all. I greeted and mingled and drank and drank and drank! I met an amazing group of people and five hours later stumbled home with a few of them in tow. They were so enthusiastic, and they liked us, they really liked us!

I added 20 new names to our permanent roster. Some have left, but some have truly become part of the family!

EWI is here and we are a force to be reckoned with!

William Grimes @ Tenement Museum- Nov 4th

EWI Appetizer Event @ Felicia's October 18th

On October 18th I hosted a small appetizer event at my apartment. Kyung just returned from her gastronomical adventures across Asia, Erin schlepped through the rain from Williamsburg, and Emily G came strait from class at ICE.

We few brave souls were rewarded with a veritable feast! Kyung made some absolutely delicious Korean tacos. The tender chicken was marinated in red chili paste(?), topped with a cabbage slaw and wrapped in corn tortillas. Erin made a hearty, rich beer and cheese bread and a gorgeous stuffed Acorn squash. Emily G. make white fish fritter and pickled pumpkin. The pickled pumpkin was truly extraordinary, it took on a sweet and sour flavor and the texture was transformed to almost a soft fruit mouth feel (think firm mango). I made mini mac and cheese bites with baked in panchetta.

We drank and gorged and had a delightful time in true EWI fashion!

Yerba Buena Tasting September 28th

Our dear Kaitlin is friends with the managers of Yerba Buena and kindly set-up a tasting for Emily W, Deepa, Mike, Deshon, Ajay, Pooneet, Emily G, Alice and I on September 28th.

Unfortunately, I do not have a clear memory of all the glorious dishes we sampled that evening, but the two that still haunt my memory are the braised short ribs and the signature Yerba cocktail, The Poquito Picante.

After ordering our cocktails, we had a very nice guacamole and excellent blue corn meal crusted calamari to start off with.

Soon there after our drinks arrived. The Poquito Picante was a spicy cocktail made with tanqueray gin + jalapeño + cilantro + cucumber + cointreau liqueur + fresh lemon juice, with a lovely red chili floating in the glass (adding heat as it stewed in the liquor!)

The overwhelming parade of dishes that followed were all good, there were chicken, beef, pork and oxtail dishes. I don't recall the least favorite of the group that night, but I do remember the reigning favorite: The Braised Short Ribs. Costilla is yerba mate braised beef short ribs + papas a la provenzal pomegranate glazed. The melt-in-your-mouth meet disappeared from the table with an alarming swiftness.

As I mentioned, I don't clearly remember all the dishes we sampled, but I do remember that we all left with the feeling that though a bit pricey, the overall meal was a fantastic one. If anyone has more specific commentary or memories from our Latin Feast, please post them! As for my impaired memory, I'll just blame it on the Poquito Picante!

Tasti spicy September 26th

Second New Member Mixer on September 20th, 2009 at Kaitlin's

Six weeks after our first official meeting of Eating With Impunity, we posted an invitation on Serious Eats and sent invitations to those who had been interested but unable to attend the first meeting. Our Second New Members Mixer was held on Kaitin's roof again and we welcomed four new EWI enthusiasts into the fold.

The only original members in attendance were Kaitlin and I, we shared wine, cheese and tales with Melissa Z, Deepa, Ajay and Emily G. Among these new enthusiasts were two culinary professionals. Melissa Z, our new sweet tooth extraordinaire is also know as The Spatula Queen and works with a non-profit cupcake organization. Emily G. works for the Food Network website and is a current culinary student at ICE. Deepa is another food crazed lawyer and Ajay is a hungry salesman trying to break into the film industry. All four new members brought another layer of personality and excitement to our epicurean family!

Sripraphai Thai Tasting August 25th, 2009

Sripraphai was not as close as I thought it would be, so I ended-up 20 minutes late walking through some very unfamiliar territory! As I approached the restaurant, I knew it must be good. There was actually a crowd out front waiting to get inside. Mike, Alice Lam, Christine, Emily W, Pooneet, Erin, Alaina and Christine's friend had arrived and begun order deliberations.

I am quite unfamiliar with Thai, so I left it up to them to pick-out a feast for us. The service was just perfect, and probably by accident! The dishes came out one-by-one, allowing us to sample tapas style. I took pictures and passed the dishes. We had a great time overall, and time flew by us as usual.

We had dishes ranging from a whole steamed fish to Pad Thai, but the majority of this dishes were seafood. The beef curry was quite good, but the most amazing thing I ate all night was a tiny bite of squid in the fried watercress salad. That squid had the perfect texture, easily pulling apart with a fork, and the brightness of the flavor shocked me. It had a light, crisp, sweet flavor that was bigger than the bite itself, it felt exactly like a summer meal should. This may sound over-the-top, but in a meal filled with bold, spicy, heavy dishes, it was a breath of fresh air.

The worst dish of the night was a fish dish I mistook for eggplant. I only realized my error when I scooped it onto my plate and a bone popped out, there was quite a bit of that dish left over! It did not taste much better than it looked, but I suppose I have never been much of a catfish person. That aside, it was a truly satisfying meal.

We came, we ate, we conquered! Sampling all that the restaurant had to offer, eating and sharing and comparing notes, it was the perfect format for all our restaurant tasting events to come.

Pictures of all the fabulous dishes are posted at:

http://s358.photobucket.com/albums/oo25/kcampbell84/EWI%20Thai/

Cooking at Pooneet and Mike's- August 16th, 2009

Our first cooking event was hosted by Pooneet and Mike, the theme being "Recipes that Represent You". It was a very fun little dinner party.

Mike made his mother's Lasagna (he is a classic and classy guy). Pooneet make a Mexican Pizza (he loves entertaining and this is a common starter he brings out in a pinch). It had a fantastic cornmeal crust topped with a roasted tomatillo sauce, chicken or beef and a light crumbling of cheese. Emily W. brought Beef sliders with horseradish sauce from Baltimore (She is a Baltimore girl, and proud of it!). Erin made a delicious squash pie (She is a green market fan, and loves cooking with seasonal ingredients). Alice make a light and flavorful apple crumble (She has a pension for sweets). I made sausage stuffed artichokes braised in white wine (I love playing with Italian flavors in unique ways).

I do believe we all brought wine as well. We spent the evening feasting on the dishes, sharing stories and drinking wine. It was a fantastic first dinner party.

The First Event: August 9th, 2009

Kaitlin and I met on Friday to discuss where we should have our first meet and greet, where to take our culinary club from cyberspace to an in-the-flesh party.

Our initial thought was that we needed to find a neutral, public place in case there were any crazies in the bunch! In fact, Kaitlin was a bit concerned about meeting me in person. Ironically we both envisioned each other as old ladies, it was rather amusing when we finally set eyes on each other, both in our twenties, wearing matching strands of pearls.

After meeting each other, we decided that anyone into epicurean delights was probably too happy to be a mass murderer, so she volunteered to host our mixer on her condo's rooftop garden.

It ended up being nine of us, a conglomeration of all backgrounds! We had a paralegal (Kaitlin), a lawyer (Emily W.), two finance guys (Mike and Pooneet), two lucky ladies in publishing (Erin and Alice), one international banker (Kyung) and a lowly assistant, Me. We were all in our twenties/early thirties and we all bonded instantly over our shared passion for all things culinary.

I would say 7 out of 9 of us love to cook, though no one has a culinary degree. We all find our passion for the edible to be our salvation from the mundane realities and disappointments of our respective lives.

Erin, one of our lovely publishing girls, came up with our name. A name that falls just shy of pretension into the silly and ironic: Eating With Impunity (EWI for short)!

We EWI members sat and drank ten bottles of wine, laughed and shouted, and finally ended-up at an after party of sorts at the finance guys' loft (Mike and Pooneet). We were there to preview the space for future dinner parties and ended-up helping Pooneet make fried risotto balls, while slugging down even more cocktails!

This was the first of many EWI events, fueled by good conversation, tasty food and copious quantities of alcohol, that left us with a happy glow and practically debilitating hangover on Monday morning! Our little group is proof positive that gastronomic passion overrides religious, economic, ethnic and professional affiliation, food truly is the great equalizer and EWI is an ode to that fact.

The Birth of EWI: August 1st, 2009

Sitting in my girlfriend's West Village Apartment last August, I decided that there simply had to be a better way to meet fabulous, like-minded food enthusiasts. There had to be a better way to set-up dinner parties for people who would actually appreciate the cuisine.

Searching for answers on the Internet (I know, always the best place to look for answers!) I stumbled across the wild world of underground supper clubs. I was intrigued by the "speak-easy" style dining experience. I also stumbled across several bland looking diners clubs, basically a generic group that meets at various restaurants so they don't have to ask for a table for one. I decided to turn to seriouseats.com and scour the boards for other culinarians who might have an underground supper club I could join. I wanted a group where cooking was as big a part of the experience as dining out.

I found one post asking for members, but it was a year old. Not to be detoured, I thought for a moment, and then started a post of my own. It was a call to other New Yorkers who wanted to come together in the celebration of food, cooking and possibly illegal underground restauranturing!

The responses were varied, some criticizing the idea that I would try to organize an "underground club" in an open forum. Nonetheless, the next morning "avideater", a take-charge blogger from my post, had congregated 7 people in some online corral and they were ready and waiting to do this thing!

The type-A superpower of Kaitlin (aka "avideater") and I brought everything together and by the next Sunday we were sipping wine with the first seven members of Eating With Impunity. Our group designed a club where a passion for food is the only requirement, where restaurant tastings and dinner parties get equal billing. The eclectic group of individuals who make-up this special group are bound by passion and energized by diversity.

All it took was an open invitation for a culinary family to be born.