Crepes And Corks: December 2016

Saturday, December 10

Select Oyster Bar Boston

When I was in Boston for an interview, I stayed an extra day since I was crazing some New England seafood. I snuck in a few oysters after my day of interviews, then saved the rest of my appetite for a great meal at Select Oyster Bar. I did happen to go on election night and the restaurant was fairly empty, which surprised me since I had heard from multiple sources that a reservation is necessary here. I sat at the bar by myself, ate way too much food, but enjoyed every second of it. The flavors and colors were exquisite. This should be a definite stop if any of you are ever in Boston.

Lucky Day Cocktail with Tequila, Smoked Honey and Fresh Citrus

Oyster and Raw Seafood List of the Evening

Dayboat Scallop Ceviche with lime marinade, shallots and cilantro

Spanish Octopus (with a surprising amount of octopus hiding down there) with roasted tomatillo, chimchurri, and blistered snap peas

Faroe Island Salmon Crudo with togarashi, pistachio oil (yes it was really that green) and lime

Thursday, December 8

ABC Cocina

Here is the final post from my NYC trip this fall, written again by my friend Pateel. Enjoy!

When Nicole and I were trying to plan out our NY dinners, we knew we wanted to try one of the ABC farm-to-table restaurants--ABC Kitchen & ABC Cocina. The sister restaurants by Jean George literally neighbor each other (and Carpet & Home, a home decor store in between), with ABC Kitchen being the original, big sister, and ABC Cocina being the younger, more contemporary & international sister. After some back and forth, we decided to go with ABC Cocina.

The space is open and glamorous and loud - a place you get excited just walking into. The menu had so many great options, making it hard to narrow down our choices, but we were ready to feast! First up, we ordered the lentil salad, with chorizo, chilies, and chives. If this dish was any indication of the rest of our meal, we were totally into it. We ate every bite.

Lentil Salad

Next, the mezcal-cured salmon with cucumber-yogurt relish and golden potato flakes. Fish and dairy are not often paired, but these two made for a super refreshing dish. The potato flakes made for a perfectly textured bite!

Mezcal-cured smoked salmon

The octopus dish was served with smoked paprika creme fraiche and guajillo vinaigrette. The octopus was chopped up into bite-sized pieces. It had a nicely charred skin on the outside, but super tender on the inside.

Octopus

We also snacked on an order of guacamole (or two), beet salad, and a perfect chorizo sausage.

Chorizo

Roasted Beet and Citrus Salad

Guacamole (with the orange hot sauce in the middle)

Our last few dishes were tacos! We narrowed our choices down to sauteed mushroom tacos with cashews, mole, kale, and lime; griddled fish tacos with aioli and cabbage-chile pickle; and savory glazed short rib tacos, habanero relish, and frizzled onion. Surprisingly, the mushroom taco was the unanimous favorite, while the short rib was fairly heavy and disappointing.

Mushroom tacos

Fish Tacos

Short Rib Tacos (with and without crispy onions)

Since we didn't want to end dinner on that note, we had to get some dessert! Tres leches cake and flan are two fairly popular Latin American desserts, but ABC Cocina served them with a twist. The tres leches cake was served with a cranberry pear compote, while the flan was a salted caramel flan. The flan was pretty boring, but the tres leches made up for that and more! We couldn't stop eating it, even though we were stuffed. Overall, ABC Cocina lived up to its hype--I'd definitely go back (especially for their hot sauce - see below!).

Their amazing hot sauce

Salted Caramel Flan

Tres Leches Cake

Monday, December 5

Russ and Daughters

Hello Everyone! I wanted to introduce you to my friend Pateel. Her and her mom joined my mom and me in NYC this fall. She is a foodie, like me, and we had a lot of fun picking restaurants and eating our way through the city. I unfortunately had an interview the morning that everyone else got to enjoy the amazing bagels at Russ & Daughters so I thought who better to write this post than Pateel. Enjoy!

Russ & Daughters has been on my list for as long as I can remember. Each time I've been to New York before this, I wasn't able to make it out to the smoked-fish paradise. This time, I made sure I had a taste of it, even if it meant rushing over a couple of hours before our flight. Originally opened in 1904, the company has an older deli location in the Lower East Side (which has been at the same spot since 1920!) and a trendier, more Instagram friendly cafe just around the corner.

We decided to go to the cafe, but were a little bummed to find out that there was a 40 minute wait to get seated. Luckily, a few spots opened up on the counter just for us! The bartender brought out the menu (the very same one that serves as a great background for all those trendy photos of smoked salmon you've probably seen all over social media--and here!) and we immediately started to discuss options. I definitely wanted to go with the classic bagel and lox (aptly named, The Classic), but also wanted to sample another dish. Looking around, I saw lots of people snacking on a pink-hued spread with some bagel chips. The bartender told us that was the Hot Smoke / Cold Smoke, made with a combination of baked and smoked Scottish Salmon and served with everything bagel chips.

The food did not disappoint (even after the years-long anticipation leading up to it!). The salmon spread was salty and smokey, but perfectly balanced when placed on top of the bagel chip. As for The Classic, I was in smoked salmon heaven! The dish comes as sort of a make-your-own sandwich board, with Gaspe Nova smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomato, red onions, and capers, plus your choice of bagel, bialy, shissel rye, or pumpernickel (and they DO have gluten-free options!). I went with the sesame bagel, spread some cream cheese on top, and layered the salmon and the rest of the goodies on there. The smoked salmon is without a doubt the best I've had--perfectly flavored, melts in your mouth! We washed it all down with some housemade cucumber soda, with some jasmine, anise seed, dill seed, fennel seed, and lime.

To top it all off, even though we were completely stuffed, we HAD to order the halva ice cream. I'd never seen halva (which is made from sesame paste) on a menu before, but this was definitely a great way to end the meal. Surprisingly not too sweet, but some really great textures. Russ & Daughters was really a great note to end a delicious trip.

Hot Smoke/ Cold Smoke

"The Classic"

Halva Ice Cream

Saturday, December 3

Atoboy

I had the pleasure of spending a few days in NYC with my mom and another mother-daughter duo. My mom recommended we try some "ethnic" cuisine on one of our nights. I saw Atoboy listed on the Eater list of hottest restaurants in New York City at the moment, listed as a "modern Korean restaurant". That qualifies as ethnic...right? We were more than pleasantly surprised. The chefs are a husband and wife duo, Junghyun and Ellia Park. Junghyun is the former Chef de Cuisine of Jungsik -

a two Michelin starred Korean restaurant in New York. The restaurant just opened this summer, and has already made the 2017 list of Michelin's Bib Gourmand Selections.

Despite all those qualifications, the atmosphere was refreshing and quite casual. The menu allows diners to select three small dishes for $36-per-person, served with a bowl of rice. Chef Park's idea was to bring Banchan, the side dishes usually served with traditional Korean meals, as the focal point. Being four people at dinner, we each selected our choices from the three categories, and enjoyed them family style. And of course we ordered all three dessert options as well. This was one of the absolute highlights of the trip. I can't recommend Atoboy enough!

Amuse-bouche of salted pumpkin seeds and seaweed crackers

Selections for the first course, starting top right and going clockwise - Beef tartare**, Cobia (white fish, with Korean pear, sesame seed and perilla), Eggplant with Crab, and Leeks** (with Doenjang, Cheddar and Walnut)