American – Writing With My Mouth Full

Umami Burger New York City

432 6th Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets
$68 for 3 people, with drinks, without tip
212/677.8626
♥ ♥

I’ve tasted an Umami burger in Los Angeles before but the craziness that surrounded its New York opening sent me on a Citibike to check it out. Jase, Dash, Harry and I put our names down around 6:45pm. We went in to try and get drinks inside but because they have reached their room capacity, they didn’t let any more people in which I actually liked because then people are not screaming at your ear at the bar or hovering over you while you eat your burger.

We opted to walk down the block instead to take advantage of Happy Hour drinks and oysters for the next three hours. The crowd that was milling around in front of Umami died down then and we were seated as soon as the next table for 4 cleared. We wondered if the staff was also shipped from California because they were so nice even after they’ve had to deal with the crowd since they opened at 11am.

Our waitress gave us the speech about how Umami is different from other burgers because of science–the meat grounded in-house and the Portuguese-style bun–but all we wanted to do was order and eat! (None of those were scientific to me by the way.) We ended up ordering four different kinds to taste as much as we can: the original Umami with shiitake mushroom and Parmesan crisp, the Truffle burger, the Manly with beer-cheddar cheese and bacon lardon, plus the duck special. They were all good but it starts to get difficult to tell them apart when you’ve been holding out for 3 hours. The truffle and Parmesan flavor from the 2 burgers stood out, but everything else melded and tasted like, oh hey, regular (but juicy) burgers!

Skip the duck with peach-apple chutney (above) though. The chutney was a tad too sweet and just wasn’t burger material to me. The caramelized fennel and “Madagascar pepper” just seemed too silly: it’s California trying to fit in New York City. We New Yorkers are pretentious, but we’re not that pretentious! The beet salad is surprisingly good, a nice respite from all the meat. Don’t miss the fries and tots as sides but feel free to skip the special sauces to get more of the unadulterated meat taste of the burgers.

So was Umami worth the 3-hour wait? Of course not; nothing ever is. But go and be nice to our California friends and show them what New Yorkers are made of: we’re there because it’s the place to be at the moment.

Betony

41 West 57th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
$120 each for 2 people, with drinks, with tip
212/465.2400
♥ ♥ ♥

The disclaimer here is that I know someone in the kitchen at Betony. I met Josh in 2008 when I went to the Spotted Pig for Fergus Henderson’s visit from the UK. Josh came all the way by bus from Delaware just to eat the chef’s food and we immediately got along and shared our plates. Since then, he’s worked in several other restaurants and we’ve shared more than just pig’s face to eat. It was a given that I would support him at his latest gig even if Betony was not started by his old friends from Eleven Madison Park.

Betony brings the food experience back to basics, or at least it makes you feel like you’re eating very simple dishes. Josh’s marinated trout roe with cucumber looks just like that: trout roe served on a rice cracker, but I found out later that the puffed rice was made from scratch, the roe was marinated in dashi and the cucumber was a bavarois using the cucumber juice that was turned into a fluid gel.

The shellfish ragout is one of their best dishes. The lobster with the season’s peas was decadent, and the cured pink snapper subtle and clean.

Eleven Madison Park won all those awards not because of how fancy their food was but because of how simple they made everything look. It’s the quiet simplicity that will make Betony successful; New York City diners will just have to make room for more excellence.

Vinateria

2211 Frederick Douglass Boulevard corner of 119th Street
$45 each for 2 people, with drinks, with tip
212/662.8462
♥ ♥

Finally, a new addition to the Harlem restaurant scene worth writing about. Shauna and I walked around the neighborhood to try and cool off from the hot Saturday weather and got a drink at Bier International before moving on to Vinateria for food. I’ve walked past it a few times while they were under construction and I’ve been looking forward to eating there since they put up their logo using a nice typeface. (Harlem is teeming with laughable typefaces on storefronts.)

Whoever thought of serving the cavatelli pasta with rabe as an appetizer was a genius. I like my pasta dishes just fine, but I never want a whole plate of it because I always lean towards trying more than 1 dish off the menu. We ended up splitting that pasta dish, which was the best out of all the lot, plus the following:
– Halibut tartare – I’ve never heard of fish tartare using halibut instead of tuna, and it felt a little short because of the usually bland white fish. There was a surprising sunchoke purée underneath–surprising because most Harlem restaurants have not jumped on the farm-to-table bandwagon–which gave the dish all its flavor, but the fish could have used some more salt and lime for added brightness. I forgot to ask where they got their fish but we trusted that they were fresh; no reports of being sick after!
– Octopus Frisée Salad – The octopus was sparse but very tender and the potatoes were a great match with the greens.
– Arugula and Radish Salad with Anchovies – We could have used more anchovies. It wouldn’t have been obvious if they served it on a small plate rather than a bowl. The vegetables were well-seasoned though and made up for it.

The service was quite attentive but they kept pushing their filtered water which is unnecessary for a New Yorker like me. The cocktails were a saving grace because I have been looking for a place in the neighborhood where I can get a decently-made drink. I hope Vinateria only gets better as the crowd starts to build up.

Chef Jose Ramirez-Ruiz’s Pop-up Restaurant at Whirlybird Cafe

254 South 2nd Street off Havemeyer, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$55 each for 2 people, without drinks, without tip
Email chezjosebk at gmail dot com for reservations
♥ ♥ ♥

Back in 2009, I had a very impressive dinner at a pop-up restaurant inside the Brooklyn Fare store for $70 per person. Three years and three Michelin stars later, the tasting menu is now $225. So when I heard that chef Jose Ramirez-Ruiz used to cook there and at the old Isa and is now running his own popup at the Whirlybird Cafe, I jumped at the $55 chance before the rest of the food world raises his prices.

You take a risk when you decide to support a pop-up restaurant. As someone who’s served dinner to groups of people on the down-low, I know how it is to cook in a borrowed kitchen without the resources one may have if they were working in a real restaurant. Not only do you prep and cook the dishes for your customers, you also serve and clean up after everyone’s left. In the end, you realize that you really only do it for the love of cooking.

Chef Jose Ramirez-Ruiz, and his sidekick of the night @wandrlstng, both love to create and cook. The dishes were grown-up and technical, and the vegetable-focused dishes were adventurous, savory, and delicious. As a carnivore, I am impressed when someone can push a vegetable’s limit to different heights.

Armed with a nice bottle of Haden Fig Pinot Noir, we sat by the window facing the street to enjoy our meal. I’m going to try to describe what we ate here. Apologies to the chefs if my taste buds misidentified something.

– Salted cod spread with warm crepe that reminded me of a Korean scallion pancake
– Vegetable broth that was so rich I couldn’t believe it was not made out of meat bones, served with small pieces of ramp stalks
– A beet green dusted with powdered yogurt
– Soft tofu with peas
– Date bread and the most delicious and evil ramp brioche served with ramp butter
– Young lettuce with Phu Quoc flavors of fish sauce, vinegar and Sriracha
– A surprising combination of strawberries, turnips and salmon roe that worked
– Asparagus, mushrooms, and olive sauce with a surprisingly technical foam made from canned tuna
– Confit of carrots, cardamom and wild watercress
– Amazing textures of creamed spinach, beets and millet with an arrow leaf spinach
– Savory parsnip brûlée with mustard creme
– Beet yogurt hazelnut bar

Mulberry & Vine: The Whole Menu

73 Warren Street between West Broadway and Greenwich Streets
under $15 for lunch
212/791.6300
♥ ♥

I walked by this new spot in TriBeCa the other day and I had to stop and peek in because it looked like a cute IKEA cafeteria inside (in that yellow chair/wooden table kind of way). I’ve been working in the neighborhood for almost 3 years now and my lunch options are dwindling. If I’m not packing my own food, I almost always feel bored about the choices around me: the Whole Foods buffet that always seem to cost so much, the Halal cart right outside the Chase bank, Chipotle, or if I’m inclined to eat Vietnamese food, Nicky’s right off Fulton Street.

Mulberry & Vine is spacious and airy inside. The space’s cleanliness makes you immediately think that the food will be light and healthy. Some may think it’s a little too sparse which could translate to an impression that the food will be bland, but displaying everything in colorful enamel bakeware make it somewhat homey.

Prices vary but are comparable to the neighborhood’s: $13 for 3 dishes (1 hot, 2 cold), $12 for 3 cold dishes, $3 to $4 for soups and other sides, and a dollar here and there for extras (a bed of lettuce or arugula, a small container of green sauce, etc.)

Fourth visit, May 30, 2013
3 cold
– Farro salad – This was so much better today; the eggplant was not as tough as the last time
– Beets – The pomegranates were a nice touch and texture addition
– Roasted vegetables – Excellent and a little bit tangy because of the pickled cucumbers and onions, this actually made my day!

Third visit, May 21, 2013
1 hot, 3 cold
– Turkey meatballs – Tasty, but could use some texture. The finely grounded meat looked fake to me
– Soba noodles – Good and simple
– Farro and eggplant salad – I really liked this except for the tough eggplant skin
– Kale salad – I think it would have helped if the kale was shredded in smaller pieces so that it didn’t feel like you were eating big pieces of raw kale

Second visit, May 10, 2013
1 hot, 1 soup
– Chicken enchilada – Tasted more like a lasagna with white meat
– Lemon cardamom rice – Sounded promising but was a little too thin for me; needed some oomph

First visit: May 3, 2013
1 hot, 2 cold dishes
– Roasted cauliflower – Simple and clean; just like how you would make it at home, but it came with a so-called “green Sriracha” which tasted just like cilantro pesto.
– Curried freekeh with mango – The Arabic bulgur, this curried freekeh tasted healthy with the mango chunks.
– Spanish spice-rub roasted chicken – Although it was under the list of warm dishes, this was a little too cold for my taste. If it’s not cooked Hainanese style, cold chicken just tastes undercooked. I didn’t check what makes a rub “Spanish” but there was definitely paprika all over.

* And when I write “the whole menu”, I mean just about the whole menu. The menu changes according to the season’s ingredients and I will start writing about it this Spring 2013.

Final update: Mulberry & Vine is a great lunch option in the World Trade Center/TriBeCa area and is a better alternative to the salad bar at Whole Foods for the same price range. The food is good and is always fresh. It proves that presentation helps a lot, as well as a clean and airy space. I do find myself wanting a snack by mid-afternoon, but that’s just because I mostly chose their no-meat options. Watch out for your lunch budget as spending $15 on lunch everyday is not sustainable for me.