Tastebuds: A Taste Catering Blog

Tales of New York…Speakeasy’s, Thanksgiving & Idiot Savant!

I ♥ NY!

Thanksgiving is a beautiful holiday for so many reasons… the one that stands out most for me is that it allows people in the catering industry a slight reprieve before the onslaught of the Holiday events leading up to Hanukkah, Christmas & New Year.

For this reason my partner Jill & I took off to New York for the whole week. We wanted to experience NY from a casual ‘je ne sais quoi’ platform….. without much preparation, without the nightly plan of decadent meals, without guide books, theatre line ups or the obligatory charted shopping plan but rather with a mysterious approach that we negotiated daily by ear or happenstance – admittedly somewhat challenging for me given that I am an obstinate and obsessive event planner in all aspects of my life. I will say that I gave it my best shot and mostly prevailed with my un-planning. Here are some of the unplanned New York highlights we came across…

Les Ambassades Patisserie-Café in West Harlem, a vibrant warm & cozy little café that lit the whole street up on Frederick Douglass Blvd near 119th, serving delicious croissants, eggs, espresso & more.

 

Wall Street 2 Filming in Tommy Guns Salon on Ludlow Street in the Lower East Side near our hotel…
We were told that Ludlow was briefly transformed into a London Street for the scene. Street signs & propping confirm. Michael Douglas was to arrive but alas NY was calling us…. We will see the movie!

 


Thanksgiving Day: Our friends DeDe & Hal gave up their Boathouse Central Park reservations and joined family in Long Island. We totally scored on this front because neither one of us had ever been to the Boathouse, let alone be handed a reservation confirmation for Thanksgiving Lunch… I might say thee most coveted seats for Lunch in NYC on that day. I knew the location would meet with our expectations for the occasion but I was not sure that the food would. We were pleasantly surprised. It was a lovely menu, beautiful surroundings & exceptional service. 

The long walk back to our hotel was perfect.

It was such a fantastic mild and beautiful day in Central Park….

OK So let’s talk about Coffee. ‘Abraço’ is the short answer. I cannot say I stumbled upon this tiny coffee joint as I would never take the chance of going without fine coffee for even a short period of time. Living in San Francisco has spoiled me rotten in this arena. I was told about this delightful joint from my friend Richard. No coincidence one of the former partners in San Francisco’s Bluebottle Coffee runs this place on East 7th at 1st avenue on the Lower East Side. It is exceptional. The coffee could not be more perfect. Only 7 blocks from our hotel I must say this was a daily ‘walk of joy'.

Speaking of Beverages…. Try sleuthing out the really unique and over the top speakeasy’s in Manhattan. These are some of my favorites:

1.  Madame Geneva. Beautifully crafted specialty cocktails know for their ‘Jam’ concoctions, this speakeasy is located on Bleecker between Bowery & Elizabeth Street but one has to enter through the secret door in the adjoining Double Crown restaurant. The nice thing about this establishment (unlike most of the others) is that you do not need a reservation and it opens early should you want to have a special beverage of the adult nature before dinner.

2.  Milk and Honey (718.308.6775) text this no. to make reservations. This started the speakeasys or so they say…Neighborhood: West Village 22 7th Avenue S / between Carmine St & Leroy St)

3.  PDT (212.614.2728) call to make reservations. Go through the hot dog shop and the red phone booth. Neighborhood: East Village 113 St. Marks Pl / btwn 1st and A (between 1st Ave & Avenue A). This place is tiny and reservations must be made the day of the visit, it's almost impossible to get a table. It is hidden behind the phone booth at Crifdogs. It is a "speakeasy" style bar with very tight confines, interesting old-school based libations.

And one of my favourites:

4.  Raines Law Room- new spot, but super old school feel. Neighborhood: Flatiron 48 West 17th St / between 5th Ave & Avenue Of The Americas). Slightly hidden entrance on 17th street. Beautifully appointed speakeasy, excellent drinks & service. The only negative was that when leaving we were charged $2 each to retrieve our coats. The host asked us on arrival if he could hang our coats (as do most establishments in NY without charge that I know of) and did not mention a fee until we were leaving. Nonetheless, I would return for the expertly made drinks & the atmosphere.

Some other interesting tidbits from my trip:

Reality check! Classic Party Rentals cruising around Manhattan.

The beautiful St Regis Bar… home of the original Bloody Mary. We stopped in here on the way to the Boathouse on Thanksgiving Day for - you guessed it, a Bloody Mary. Delicious.

Bryant Park near 42nd. This is a real find in the middle of Manhattan. Unique shopping & restaurants, Ice skating or just taking a break from the hustle bustle.

Favorite word of mouth restaurant:  Degustation Wine & Tasting Bar, 5th St. (Second Ave.) We loved this unpretentious tiny restaurant with only about 18 counter seats, beautifully executed Spanish food with exceptional service & amazing wine list.

Most unique Play I have ever seen: Idiot Savant.  It’s a wild 80 minute ride featuring Willem Dafoe that leaves you wanting to visit the aforementioned Speakeasy’s rather promptly. Exhilarating.

Something we did plan – our hotel. Thompson LES. It was perfect for two reasons…. 1. It’s proximity to everyplace with the subway across the street. We really felt that the location was excellent & 2. Our view. It doesn’t get better in NYC. Check it out:

SAN SIMEON GETAWAY

With Labor Day comes the end of long lines at California’s best attractions.  So Tom and I decided to spend a couple of days at Hearst Castle and the area surrounding San Simeon.  The Central Coast weather is great in September—clear and temperate, just perfect for touring this incredible museum.  We chose the Garden Tour, available between May and October, with a focus on the horticultural aspects of the mountain top complex.  You can choose from five tours.

 The wide variety of trees, bushes and flowering plants is truly impressive since every single plant needed to be brought in as well as tons of top soil.  Fruit trees ring the estate and, notably, they retain their fruit until the fruit drops naturally—one of the rules that Hearst established during construction.  The garden tour emphasizes Hearst’s vision of the castle as a museum framed with trees visible from the highway below.  He wanted to create a lush garden environment typical of European estates but retain the awareness of the 80,000 acre working ranch that surrounds the castle itself.  All food was raised on the ranch including prize-winning grass-fed beef that still graze, free-range today.  See www.hearstranch.com for more information and history of the ranch.

 Hearst used the castle for entertaining but he kept the guest count to no more than 20 so that he could get to know those he invited.  He was particularly concerned that the artwork would survive houseguests.  So Hearst restricted the consumption of alcohol to such a point that David Niven once commented that the “wine flowed like glue”.  Well, you can’t please all of the people all of the time . . .

The town of Cambria is about 6 miles south of San Simeon and has a number of good restaurants.  I was particularly interested in finding one that served Hearst Ranch grass-fed beef.  Linn’s Restaurant fit the bill.  The entire meal was excellent and memorable because of special house-made items.  The Linn Family has been farming successfully in the Cambria area since the 1970s when they built their farming future on the Ollalieberry.  As we made our dinner selections, we enjoyed fresh baked bread served with the Linn’s house-made Ollalieberry preserves and sweet butter.  Yum!  Visit their website (above) for help with directions and reservations.

There are a number of good hotels in San Simeon just a couple of miles south of the Castle’s visitor center.  This area of the Central Coast is sparsely populated with no intrusive highway noise so you can leave your window open and let the surf lull you to sleep.

We drove home along Highway 1 with one last notable stop very early in our trip.  Just seven miles north of San Simeon is the elephant seal rookery at Piedras Blancas Beach.  Here you see numerous elephant seals on the sand below.  These huge, bulbous creatures are fascinating to watch.  There are volunteer docents who answer questions and entertain the tourists with stories about these seals.  Check out their website (above) for information on the seals’ activities throughout the year.  Moving on, we enjoyed the ride north, winding in and out of redwood studded coves with the Pacific crashing on the rocks below.  We’re already planning our next trip back to San Simeon.

Le Pigeon

My wife, Sheila, daughter, Nola, and I traveled up to Portland, Oregon two weekends ago to both visit my best friend from high school (who has a daughter about the same age as mine) and celebrate my 36th birthday.  While we had a weekend full of activities, the trip centered on a Sunday dinner at Le Pigeon, widely considered to be the best restaurant in Portland.  We had a 5:30 reservation, as we were bringing my daughter to the dinner with us.  But at the last minute my friends volunteered to babysit our little angel so that we could enjoy the dinner by ourselves.

The restaurant bills itself as fine dining in a casual atmosphere, and so it was.  The room consists of 3 communal tables, and approximately 10 bar seats looking into the brass plated open kitchen.  There are no tablecloths, just rustic stained wood tables on which sit the antique mismatched silverware (a personal favorite of mine).  On the back wall of the restaurant, above the waiter’s station sit high shelves full of all manner of preserved and pickled foods.  While the menu is presented on a small 11 x 4 in. card stock page, both the dessert menu and cheese selections for the evening are written on small chalkboards on the walls of the restaurant.  I can honestly say that I was expecting the interior of the restaurant to be more elegant as befits what is billed as the best restaurant in the city, but after dining there I can say that the interior perfectly reflects the soulful nature of Chef Gabriel Rucker’s cuisine.

My wife and I shared two starters, both of which were delicious.  The first was a crisp pork belly on a bed of beans, tripe, and fennel jam.  The beans, the variety of which was not listed on the menu (they were small and white – perhaps a navy or marrow bean), were in a tomato based ragout with julienne pieces of tripe (another of my personal faves).  The tripe was particularly mild, but nonetheless added a richness to the bean ragout that was both subtle and restrained.  The pork belly was extremely crispy on the outside (about 5 seconds away from being too crispy, in my opinion), and yielded to a wonderfully fatty and creamy interior – just the way pork belly should be.   The second was grilled beef heart with beets, horseradish, and egg.  This dish was delicious and well balanced.  The beef heart was cooked perfectly medium rare and sliced on the plate.  The pasture egg was soft boiled, halved and presented upright on the plate very whimsically, looking like two marrow bones sitting next to the heart.  The color and richness of the beets were both a striking visual contrast and an acidic complement to the rich heart and egg components.  A real fun dish.

Our poussin entrée with black truffles and Brussels sprouts was a perfect stomach warmer on this cold, rainy Portland evening.  The aroma of black truffle filled the whole dining room and the poussin, which was served whole with crispy skin and a moist succulent interior, was simple and delicious.  I suppose some guests would be annoyed to have to break down the bird with no help from the kitchen (indeed it is rare to see a poussin served whole with the backbone still attached) but again I thought it reflected the nature of the food.  I loved getting my hands dirty eating the bird, and the periodic licks of my fingers yielded an absolutely delicious mixture of poussin juice, butter, and black truffle. 

Our second entrée was something of an impromptu choice.  We ordered the cod with dumplings, chorizo, and piquillo peppers.  My wife and I never order fish when we go out, usually for no better reason than we simply find the meat alternatives more enticing.  But my wife had fish on the brain (and the enormous steaks that we had for dinner the previous evening fresh in our minds and stomachs). So we went out on a limb.  It couldn’t have been a better choice.  For one the “dumplings” listed on the menu were in fact salt cod dumplings (another of my personal faves) and were light and airy like gnocchi.  The piquillo peppers appeared in the dish as the sauce – a wonderful subtle coulis with no shortage of butter to round out the acidity of the pepper.  And of course the cod was cooked perfectly.

To paraphrase an old idiom, “When in Rome, drink as the Romans do.”  And so we enjoyed a well priced Willamette Valley Pinot to accompany this meal.  Allow me to note the fact that all of the Oregon wines on the menu were extremely well priced.  I have a BIG problem with the fact that Napa and Sonoma wines are so expensive in the Bay Area.  We are being gouged!  In Oregon, just as it is in Europe, the local wines are cheaper – and for good reason as there is obviously not the transportation costs associated with shipping the product long distances.  But Napa wines cost the same in the Bay Area as they do at wine shops in New York, New Orleans, or even Los Angeles for that matter.  Shouldn’t they be cheaper in the Bay Area?  Of course they should.

We enjoyed a trio of Belgian Trappist cheddars for our cheese course.  Not cheeses that I am particularly familiar with, and while they don’t have the nuances of some of Europe’s more complex cheeses, I was very happy to familiarize myself with them.  And they were delicious.

For dessert, we certainly could not pass up the sound of Foie Gras Profiteroles with Salted Caramel.  In fact, I passed up the Foie Gras Pot au Feu on the starters menu because I knew that I would be ordering the profiteroles (not that I am limiting myself to one guise of foie per meal).  It was in fact a foie gras ice cream in the middle of the profiteroles, which slowly began to melt on the plate as it encountered the warm salted caramel.  Wow!  Can I have them for my birthday every year?  Sheila, can you please make this happen?

All said it was a wonderful experience, and the meal exceeded my expectations.  The price tag was cheaper than what one would pay in San Francisco for a comparable meal, as the bill after tax and tip was a tad under $200.  I highly recommend making a reservation at Le Pigeon if you are visiting the Portland area.

Tastebuds On the Road

The Friday after Thanksgiving may be the most popular shopping day in the country but, for us, it’s an excuse to go exploring away from the maddening crowds. This time of year is perfect for a drive down Highway 1. The surf at Mavericks is spectacular and the surfers dot the water like ants on a picnic blanket. This year we went south of Half Moon Bay to Pescadero for lunch at Duarte’s Tavern. Designated by the James Beard Foundation as An American Classic restaurant, Duarte’s maintains the best of the best when it comes to local produce and seafood. Artichokes in every form claim center stage on the menu as well as the local favorite, Crab Cioppino. But the real treat was a special feature—abalone. Abalone is one of those beloved childhood food memories when it was one of the most abundant shellfish on the west coast. Though always a challenge to harvest, it appeared on many fine restaurant menus. Then came the protection of the otters and export to the Japanese market so that now abalone is rarely on any menu and when it is, it is farm raised. The flavor is still the best when grilled so the tastebuds of this Tastebud were more than satisfied. 

After Duarte’s, we went south a few miles on Highway 1 to the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. No longer a working lighthouse and in desperate need of restoration, the location is just classic rugged California coastline. We watched elephant seals basking on the rocks below and used the park-supplied binoculars hoping to catch a glimpse of whales migrating south to Mexico. This is also a good spot to see the sea palms that grow on wave-battered rocks. Native to the west coast only, this type of kelp thrives from Vancouver Island to the central California coast. 

As the sun dipped into the ocean, we headed north for home. A roadside stand called for a quick stop to purchase local artichokes and the last of the season’s English peas to supplement Thanksgiving leftovers. Ah, California, does it get any better?