JGV Day 3 - Soho Experience

Mercer Kitchen is located beneath the trendy Mercer Hotel. JGV was offering a winter promotion in most of his restaurants with a prix-fixed lunch and dinner menu. Since the world is in recession, we took advantage. Apparently when we made the reservation, the staff was not clear about prix-fixed being served only before 6:30pm. But I was very pleased that the chef made an exception to accommodate us.
Glazed salmon with ribbons of celery root, capers, and creme fraiche was a great choice to start off lite. Then followed by the Grilled pork chop and spiced pears with wild rice and mushrooms. The pork chop was perfectly cooked with the juice contained inside which kept the chop moist. And the spiced pear gave a hint of sweetness to the over dish. Last but not least, the Spiced cake with egg nog ice cream with pineapple-mango salad was a great way to fullfill my sweet tooth craving with a healthy fruit salad. The experience was good but not amazing enough to be unforgettable.

Soho: 99 Prince St, NY (x Mercer St)

Specialty Brunch

James located in Prospect Heights just started their Sunday brunch recently. The brunch cost a bit higher than the typical egg and bacon brunch you see elsewhere. The brunch menu was well worth the price.

Flying pig farm pulled smoked pork with cheddar scones topped with a poached duck egg. The pulled pork marinated with spices created the smoky flavor in the pork and accompanied with a side of coleslaw.Blueberry Stuffed brioche French toast was filled like a jelly donut with blueberry cream and topped with fresh blueblerry. The broiche was soaked into egg and toasted to its perfectly crisp.
Prospect Heights: 605 Carlton Ave, Brooklyn (x St.Marks Ave)

Gourmet Slim Jim

Dogmatic Gourmet Sausage System is the new hotdog joint in the former -Mandler's Original Sausage space. The space was renovated with cool modern white tiles with a cartoonish mural of Union Square lining the walls around a big butcher block cafeteria like dining table. Even though the renovation has brought new life to this old space, the sausages are missing the Mandler's sausage magic.

Dogmatic has a new twist on the pig in the blanket. They grill the mini french baguette on hot pokers creating a hole for the gourmet sausage. The presentation is original but the taste is disappointing. The skinny sausages were jerky-dried like a Slim Jim. The jaw-breaking hard baguette was injected with so much of their blend of specialty sauce that it proceeded to ooze out the bun and onto your hands.Union Square: 26 E17th St, NY (btw Broadway & 5th Ave)

Southern Bourbon Whiskey Bar

The distinct scent of charred oak bourbon barrel enriches the smell of whiskey as you walk past the 300 whiskey bottles in Char No.4. The smoky sourthern barbeque permeates throughout the small dining room and out to the intimate outdoor garden seating area. The perfectly grilled pork sausage over sweet red onion, scallion, and saute spinach was so juicy that a bib might be a good idea to avoid splatter on your nite-out dress.

Carroll Gardens: 196 Smith St, brooklyn (btw Baltic & Warren St)

Cremated Kobe

Going back to my old neighborhood Lower East Side, the vibe has changed dramatically. Artsy and intellectual group is long gone. Now it's more like frat party. Nonetheless, there are many new resto in the LES that are worth the adventure. The warmly decorated wood interior has attracted me to try the Spitzer's Corner. The selection of beer on the tab was extensive. Kobe burger sounded like a good idea and Vegetable pappardelle is a good compliment dish with the meaty burger. After a long 45 minute wait, my Kobe burger was totally cremated to a dry, salty jerky patty. And the garden fresh veggi pappardelle was tasteless. The overall experience was disappointing. But i hope my food-porno will not misrepresent the taste. 

Lower East Side: 101 Rivington St., New York (Rivington St x Ludlow St)

Allen x Delancey

An elegant restaurant with notable chef Neil Ferguson serving the unique contemporary American  in Lower East Side. The dimly lit windowless space was cozy decorated with comfortable horseshoe-like seating booth. Celebrating the special occasion with close friends, we started off with the old English favorite beef-bone marrow with caviar and puree shallot, seared fois gras, peekytoe crab ravioli, Hamachi topped with pink grapefruit beads, and yellowfin tuna were all amazingly prepared with its own distinct taste. The meals gets better as the night goes by. Even though we're stuffed after our entree, we all had our sweet tooth moment. So we ordered almost all the desserts from the menu and the combo cheese plate. We took our time enjoying the meal for at least 2 hours and was never rushed from our waitress. But on the other hand, our bus-boy really tried to keep our table clear before i can even lick my plate clean.

Lower East Side: 115 Allen St ( x Delancey), New York, NY

Beast

Beast, a rustic decorated bar has a great selection of beer and wine, and also serves fine American cuisine.  Moulard duck breast with port reduction was amazingly juicy and the sweet potato puree gave a slight sweetness to the dish. The braised short ribs was slowly braised with Blue Point Lager for hours. The meat was so tender that it falls off it's bone with a feather touch. The price was very reasonable for the quality of food you get. Worth a 2nd visit.

Prospect Heights: 638 Bergen St, Brooklyn (x Vanderbilt)

Chicago Food Hunt - Day 1

Chicago deep dish pizza is my first stop. Giordano is one of the well know Chicago deep dish pizza in the city. But after talking with the locals, they've suggested Lou Malnatis Pizzeria. The first impression of Lou Malnatis.... hmmm... "Friday's" like resto and frozen pizza for sale at the entry, not that impressive. I was really curious to see how good the pizza is. Lou Malnatis is their signature deep dish pizza so it must be their best if it's name after them.


This 9" pizza is quite heavy-duty even when it's shared. I was amazed with the amount of cheese and dough contained in this small deep dish pizza. After 1 slice and a mega size ice tea, I was done. Coming from NYC, I still think our thin crust pizzas are the best.

After consuming this enormous cheese pie, I had to walk at least 5 miles around the city to burn off the carbs for my next good meal.

Blackbird was another local recommendation. We managed to get a 10pm reservation on a Friday night. The restaurant was nicely decorated but it was a bit too loud for a relaxing dinner. Lucky enough we got a outdoor seat on the sidewalk.

Braised organic pork belly with grilled spot prawn, cornbread and gumbo consomme. Interesting combination .... organic = healthy; pork belly = high cholesterol. The prawn was well grilled, the pork belly can be more tender, and the gumbo consomme was ok.

Seared tasmanian sea trout with cherry molasses, baby turnips, and black rice. Fish is always a good light dish for late dinner. The fish was really fresh, the skin was perfectly seared and the sauce is pretty tasty.

Let's keep this short, Blackbird was good but not good enough to be great.