Stecchino

Stecchino, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

Stecchino is a new reataurant that opened toward the beginning of November in Hell’s Kitchen (over on 9th Ave. between 52st and 53nd). A second venture by the owners of nearby Chelsea Grill (down 9th Ave. between 47th & 46th), Stecchino presents a solid drink menu – with mixed drinks worthy of a stand alone speakeasy style bar -, a good selection of Italian dishes with a strong showing in the meat section, and good prices considering the type and style of the restaurant.

I ordered the cornish game hen which came with broccoli rabe over a cream sauce. This dish was definitely a star for me. The cream sauce melded sweamlessly with the perfectly cooked hen and the broccoli provided a decent crunch and added tecture. The one point that could be good for them to work on is how the broccoli was prepared. I found mine a tad bitter tasting. Possibly blanching it beforehand would help with the color too.

Stecchino-cioppino, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

A. ordered the Cioppino – a seafood stew in a tomato broth. This is the same as Frutti di Mare (Fruits of the Sea) basically that you would find in a number of tratoria in Italy. The portions of lobster, calamari, clams and mussels were generous and the stew was also not that spicy – which is good. It was also a pretty generous portion.

On the down notes of the place: the waitstaff was definitely over tentative and seemed overly self conscious. Due in part to the crazy graphic layout of the menu – yeah, I get that they want to offer a lot of variety and offer small plates Italian/American bistro themed, but the layout was just hard to decipher – it took us a while to decide what to get. Instead of allowing us time to decide, the waitress was too overeager to come over and see if our order was ready to be taken. It was pretty empty in there that night and the tables next to us were empty so it didn’t seem to be a desire to quickly turn the tables so the next couple of diners could be seated; it seemed to be a more general unease that comes with inexperience. Minor issue though and definitely not a deal breaker.

This place seems like it should be on the way up. Its well located. Offers something that you can’t find elsewhere in Hell’s Kitchen dining/bars. And it offers decent prices. Plus the drinks were amazing! Definitely worth trying – and a good place to meet a or co-worker for drinks or a meal after work. 

************
765 9th Ave. (btwn. 51st & 52nd)
New York, NY 10019
Tel.: 212.397.2377

Tilapia with mango avocado salsa

 

Tilapia with mango avocado salsa, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

This is an easy recipe to prepare and packs a pretty powerful punch. you can also alter the spiciness of the salsa by changing the proportions (i.e.-add more avocado to make less spicy, add more red onions and cilantro to add some extra kick). The original recipe also called for some jalepeno peppers(!) but I deleted this part as the peppers would have been to intense.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 (6 ounce) tilapia fillets
• 1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted and diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 tablespoons minced red onion
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Whisk together the extra-virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, parsley, garlic, basil, 1 teaspoon pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl and pour into a resealable plastic bag. Add the tilapia fillets, coat with the marinade, squeeze out excess air, and seal the bag. Marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
2. Prepare the mango salsa by combining the mango, red bell pepper, red onion, cilantro, and jalapeno pepper in a bowl. Add the lime juice and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and toss well. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
3. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat, and lightly oil grate.
4. Remove the tilapia from the marinade, and shake off excess. Discard the remaining marinade. Grill the fillets until the fish is no longer translucent in the center, and flakes easily with a fork, 3 to 4 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the fillets. Serve the tilapia topped with mango salsa.

Meskerem

The first place I tried Ethiopian cuisine was in Adams Morgan in Washington, D.C. back in 2000.  The second, was Meskerem… a good 5 or 6 years later.  As it turns out, I eventually moved into a place that is around the corner from Meskerem so its a good option for a neighborhood spot to go to if you’re looking for Ethiopian food.

Meskerem, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

While the restaurant is (very) lacking in decor and atmosphere (ok, the atmosphere is laughable), it is worth going to if you have a sizable group and want a casual meal in the Hell’s Kitchen area that won’t cost an arm and a leg.  Their menu is well rounded and you can find tasty if predictable Ethiopian items.   As Ethiopian food is generally served on large, communal platters, it is best to go in a group of at least 3 or 4 people.

What you see above is several orders of doro wat (spciy chicken), beef tibs, fresh cabbage, potatoes and carrots, sauteed with garlic, ginger and curry (the yellowish piles above),  shro wat, collard greens and, in the center are chicken drumsticks with a hard boiled egg.

**********************Meskerem 47
468 W 47th St. (btwn. 9th & 10th Ave.)
New York, NY 10036
Website:  http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/meskerem/
Tel.: (212) 664-0520‎

 

 

Good Enough to Eat

Apparently, the Upper West Side’s beloved brunching establishment Good Enough to Eat has been temporarily shut down due to excessive gas levels in the building.  Let’s hope they can reopen soon.  After all its the NYC Marathon Weekend!  New York Magazine’s Grub Street has more:

http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2009/10/good_enough_to_eat_is_shuttere.html

************
Good Enough to Eat
483 Amsterdam Ave
At 83rd St.
New York, NY  10024
Tel.:  212.496.0163
Website: http://www.goodenoughtoeat.com/

Kyotofu – Hell’s Kitchen

Word on the street is that Kyotofu is giving away FREE cupcakes today to celebrate their three-year anniversary.  If you’re in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, def. swing by: 

***************

Kyotofu
705 9th Ave. (btwn. 48th & 49th)
NY, NY  10036
Tel.: 212.974.6012
Website: www.kyotofu-nyc.com

Hotel 414

Recently, my mom came to visit me and see my new digs in Midtown West. Here she is at Hotel 414, which is this adorable boutique hotel that just got remodelled this past year. It now has a sort of urban rustic kinda them going on in the lobby – there’s wide farmboard wood planks forming the fireplace surround, all black chandeliers, dark grey slate floor tiles and a parallelagram shaped white marble reception counter with the same farm wood planks below. The front and rear doors they’ve painted a bright red and they put in a more cohesive front patio space that include upgrades to rectangular flower box arrangements with (albeit fake) boxwood bushes in them, slate tiles for the seating area and several bright red cafe tables and chairs. I have to say this makes my morning comute – I now walk to work – yay! – a lot more pleasant as I don’t have to navigate sharp corners around the hotel patrons on the street – most of them now gather in front seated at the chairs and therefore out of the sidewalk – which is great.

Hotel 414, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

This is a shot of their back patio where they have several mosaic topped tables and chairs where you can have your breakfast outside. (I partook of the frosted flakes frequently!) My mom grabbed one of their croisants and some coffee.

**************
Hotel 414
414 W. 46th Street
NY, NY  10036
Tel.: 212. 399.0006
Website: http://www.414hotel.com/

The Post Office Cafe

The Post Office Cafe, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

Provincetown is miraculous in the number of different restaurants there are for a town of that size.  In the winter months, the streets are much less full and a number of the restaurants close down or reduce their hours until the following summer.  Some of the permanent residents, Michael Cunningham for example, have remarked that it is exactly this vibrancy and craziness downtown that make it possible for them to do there work.  They can venture out downtown to do their errands and the like and interact with all those people and then come home and have that dead silence and space for reflection and contemplation.  It is this kind of crazy contrast – the ebullient Commercial St. scene versus the quiet writing space – that makes P-town such an amazing place to visit.

In this mix, is The Post Office Cafe, situated (obviously enough) in the old post office.  Along the walls are old post office boxes with their brass covers and combination locks.  While primarily a tourist oriented joint – and by that I mean right on the beaten path of Commercial St. and offering overpriced sandwiches you could likely make for much, much less at home – the Cafe can be a convenient resting point for a bite to eat.

Above is a shot of the tuna melt that Aimee ordered.  It took a long while to arrive and when it did unfortunately it had a cantaloupe sticker resting on the orange fruit part of the cantaloupe.  Kinda not so good…. but the sandwich was (if predictable) very tasty.

Our waiter was hard to find – and when we could find him, he was usually chatting (sitting down) with friends at other tables – so this meal took a lot longer than it should have.  Really, based on the apparent lack of interest in serving food or in keeping the food presentable and hygenic (ahem, remove fruit stickers from the inside of fruit before serving), this place should be out of business.  Guess they make their money through something other than just their food.

*****************
The Post Office Cafe
303 Commercial St
Provincetown, MA 02657
Tel.:  508. 487.3892

Fig & Olive – Meatpacking

Fig & Olive could be called a New York “chain” in the way that Nobu is a (mostly) New York “chain”. Legally, once the number of restaurants nationally hits 15 restaurants nationwide, the NY branches must then display their calorie count information. So, for example, you can know that that Shake Shack cheeseburger with cheese fries and a milkshake is gonna be fattening, but… you aren’t going to see it in caloric numbers. What you can’t see, can’t hurt you right? Right. No.

We went here for Restaurant Week, so yes, possibly not the best representation of what they prepare normally – portion size, quality ingredients etc. – but still a good preview. I got the salmon tartar that came with avocado on lettuce. While I thought this appetizer was good in terms of taste, it did lose a little in terms of presentation. Once you finish, you are left with an empty bar glass on your plate filled with sticky pink and green bits. Not exactly enticing you toward the next course.

Fig & Olive, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

My mom got the tuna tartar appetizer. Which, with the addition of the avocado to the tartar, was tastier than my salmon tartar.

Fig & Olive, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

Both good though. Hers was the (weakly) better of the too in terms of presentation…. but of course, if I wanted to, I could throw some raw tuna and avocado in a .50 cent Ikea bowl and call that a restaurant worthy presentation. But. I. Don’t. 

 
Fig & Olive, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos

This dish was three types of seafood: a scallop over arugola with pine nuts, olive oil and (I think) blue cheese; then artic char; then (I think) was the trout with a different type of olive oil. While I get that figs and… olives are the restaurants main schtick, I’m just not convinced that (at least on our visit) they are using these ingredients to their best potential. Yes, the dishes are great on paper… but the execution is definitely laking. Chef’s day off?

Fig & Olive, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

This was the lamb tenderloin with couscous. Naturally, it came with figs. While the tenderloin was very well cooked and seasoned, the couscous just didn’t seem to mingle well with the lamb. The couscous was really dry and had none of the flavors of the lamb present in it. I guess they were going for the juices from the lamb combined with the sweet fig taste but it just wasn’t there. The execution hopefully was the main problem. 

**************
Fig & Olive
420 West 13th Street (Btwn. 9th & Washington St.)
New York, NY 10014
Tel: (212) 924-1200
Website: http://www.figandolive.com/

Charmed by Charm on the Upper West Side

On the Upper West Side in the middle of the block between W. 96th and W. 95th on Amsterdam, there is a cute little thai restaurant called Charmed.  I had been meaning to try it for a while as it was within easy walking distance of A’s old apt.  Last night we decided to go.

The place is fairly small (maybe 25 or so cafe size tables) but we were seated as soon as we walked in the door.   It has a cozy feeling with an exposed brick wall with decorative bowls attached to it behind a wall length padded bench.

What you see below is the shrimp shumai appetizer:

Charm Restaurant-UWS, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

The sauce and the shumai were both very good.  Its a pretty tipical dish to get so no real surprises here.  But def. good stuff.

Next, I order the pad see you (ok, that’s not how its spelled….but still funnier)… The dish arrived in a metal wok and still piping hot from the kitchen.  All the flavors mixed together very nicely and the broccoli was well cooked – not too crunchy and not soggy either.  Plus marks also for the presentation.    

Pad see-ew, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

Aimee got the lemongrass chicken.  Also delicious.  A little too much sauce though she said. 

Chicken and broccoli, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

Overall, a very filling meal.  One pet peave: I wish they had provided us with Metal chopsticks instead of the cheapo wooden snap-off kind. 

**********
Charm Thai
722 Amsterdam Ave. (btwn. 95th & 96th)
NY, NY  10025
Tel.: (212) 866-9800
Website:  www.charmthainyc.com 

Scottish Raspberry Scones

Scottish Rasberry Scones, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

 

These may look a little messy but they definitely tasty good! Ordinarily, you are supposed to rinse and strain the fresh rasberries in cold water…. which I did…but a number of the rasberries got crushed in the process.  The jam is actually from a little roadside stand on the way out of Cape Cod and is blueberry jam.  Goes surprsingly well together!

 

Scottish Rasberry Scones, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.