cia – Page 201 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Snack Taverna

63 Bedford Street on Morton
212/929-3499
about $150 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥

I always write about eating at Snack, my favorite Greek spot, so I decided to try its new sister restaurant, Snack Taverna on Bedford. It has a more grown-up menu with some French influences and the ambiance is a lot less casual than its counterpart. I later learned that its chef, John Fraser, cooked at The French Laundry in Napa for almost three years.

I had my first excellent dinner of 2004 at Snack Taverna. I started with the veal cheeks served with hostas, or giboshi to the Japanese, a green plant that could be as tender as an asparagus. The loukaniko, a Greek hot sausage with oh-so-savory fennel and diced pear was excellent, I almost forgot about my crispy lamb’s tongue. We shared a braised lamb shoulder with bitter dandelions and a small serving of the monkfish. A mix of Cabernet and Merlot from Greece was the perfect match. At Snack Taverna, the meals are better than the desserts, but I couldn’t resist the chocolate soufflé with raspberry sauce even though our waiter warned us about the fifteen-minute wait. He served us a complementary piece of baklava for being patient.

Esca

402 West 43rd Street off Ninth Avenue
212/564.7272
about $700 for four, with a lot of drinks, with tip
â™¥ â™¥ â™¥

Some friends I met while traveling in Ireland were in town. Remembering how much we all liked our seafood while we were traveling, I booked a table for four at Esca. At least two people are required to order the tasting menu per table, so my companions opted for that while I ordered the crudo appetizer, or tasting portions of raw seafood: uni served on its shell, an oyster, scallops with chervil, razor clams with chilis and hamachi with scallions. I’ve never had seafood worshipped this way. I salivated over the carpaccio yellowfin tuna and the linguine with mahogany clams and pancetta. The shrimps with caper and thyme vinaigrette, the squid-ink spaghetti with cuttlefish and the striped bass with caramelized apples were all delicious. The Maine halibut was a little bland if not eaten with the burdock root and black trumpet mushrooms, but the scallops were perfectly seared. I loved the warm fruit turnover and the raspberry ice cream for dessert. Unfortunately, I could not find room in my stomach to accommodate the creme brulée.

There was no Guiness beer but there were plenty of other wee-drinks: a bottle of Marchese di Gresy, another bottle of Moscato D’Asti and yet another bottle from Piemonte for dessert. Champagne, vodka and gin and tonics were also ordered several times before the main courses were served. Esca, which means bait in Italian, is a great place for groups–just don’t bring Irish friends who can outdrink you.

Gigot a la Moutarde, Leg of Lamb with Mustard

Gigot is French for a leg of lamb. This recipe was adapted from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I’ve used more expensive lamb chops with this recipe as well. You just have to call it cÃ´te d’agneau to refer to the ribs. For more flavor, allow a couple of hours for the lamb to pick up the flavor before roasting. To give this a spin, I served it with some sautéed julienned vegetables wrapped in nori, or roasted seaweed.

Ingredients:
1 leg of lamb
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
3 cloves garlic, minced
a couple of rosemary sprigs
2 tbsps soy sauce
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Blend the mustard, soy sauce, garlic, rosemary and ginger in a bowl. Beat in some of the oil to get mayonnaise consistency.
2. Brush the lamb with the mustard mixture and set it on a rack of a roasting pan. Roast until medium rare, a little more than an hour.

Related post/s:
A much simpler lamb steak will do

Pumpkin Ravioli with Maitake

Di Palo’s in New York City sells different kinds of pasta. In the fall, I like to pick up their pumpkin ravioli and buy mushrooms from the farmers’ market to match. Maitake mushrooms, also called hen of the woods mushrooms, are capless and look more like a cluster of wings. They’re very fragrant and can get expensive when they’re in season. You can substitute shiitake mushrooms if you don’t have access to them.

Ingredients:
1 package of pumpkin ravioli
a few ounces of maitake mushrooms
3 garlic cloves, minced
half a stick of butter
salt, ground white pepper

1. Add ravioli in salted boiling water. Remove and drain after 10 minutes. Set aside.
2. In a skillet, sautÃ© garlic in butter until light brown. Add mushrooms until tender. Serve along with the ravioli.

Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca

110 Waverly Place between MacDougal and Sixth
212/777.0303
about $200 for two, with a few drinks, with tip
â™¥ â™¥ â™¥ â™¥

Our first time at Babbo, we went all out, asked questions about never-heard words written on the menu (braciole! francobolli! scottadita!) and picked out a bottle of red wine to match. I started with spicy lamb tartare with mint crostini and a quail egg in the middle. It killed me.
The boy chose the grilled octopus with “borlotti marinati” and spicy limoncello vinaigrette. You know how octopus can be chewy sometimes even in the best Japanese restaurants? This was perfectly tender.

For primi, I had the one-pound lobster with spicy budding chives, sweet garlic and what seemed to be four pounds of spaghettini. The boy opted for beef cheek ravioli with crushed squab liver and black truffles. I was so full after all that, sharing the secondi became a good call: guinea hen braciole with favas and pecorino.

Ufortunately, we had to draw the line on desserts. There was just no way I could have squeezed in another bite but our waiter gave us complementary cookies anyway.

On our second visit, we managed to control ourselves. We decided to share a lot of the offal starters since we knew the pasta dishes were too much for us. We finished the night with four of the best dishes we’ve eaten in our lives:

Warm lamb’s tongue vinaigrette with chanterelles, pecorino Toscano and a 3-minute egg
Calf’s brain “Francobolli” with lemon and sage
Goose liver ravioli with balsamic vinegar and brown butter
Fennel-dusted sweetbreads with sweet and sour onions, duck bacon and membrillo vinegar

Sharing the appetizers was definitely the way to go. It allowed us to get a better sense of the Mario Batali behind Babbo.