Nage

My trip to DC wouldn't be complete without seeing Mr. K. He met Ms. O and me for brunch at Nage. I chose Nage because of the opportunity to use my Scoutmob discount. It is located in a hotel so I was a little skeptical but figured it would be worth it. Our waitress forgot our order and brought us the wrong things and also took extremely long before she came to ask for our order. Eventually all was well and food arrived. Mr. K and I ordered the Smoked Salmon Frittata.

The eggs were cooked with red onion, tomato and dill. The dish was served with soffrito potatoes and a choice of toast. I went with English Muffin. The eggs tasted great. The balance of flavors was excellent. It did not taste too fishy which sometimes happens with smoked salmon. The potatoes were pretty good but I was slightly disappointed because when I saw soffrito I thought they'd be stewed or at least more flavorful.  Ms. O ordered Buttermilk Pancakes and a side of eggs. 

Her pancakes arrived with cinnamon-bourbon butter, which was apparently very flavorful. I've been thinking about trying more butter flavors so I might make that one sometime soon.

The food at Nage is good. I wasn't even that upset when I realized I forgot to use my Scoutmob. The service was somewhere between bad and awful but thankfully that didn't affect the quality of the food. I recommend trying Nage. Especially if you remember to use Scoutmob!

Hungry yet?

5 & Diamond

After repeatedly stating that we would brunch, S-dot and I finally got together.  I heart my neighborhood and all the new restaurants.  We decided that brunch at 5 & Diamond was the way to go.  The restaurant is kinda tiny and only seats about 30 people.  They have a bar area that seats an additional 5 – 7 people.  On the rainy but warm day, I walked over there pretty quickly so I was early.  I spent time looking over the menu and couldn’t wait to order.

We decided to share (I know! Me…sharing!) The Pancakes, eggs, scrambled eggs and chicken sausage were served with a side salad.

The pancakes were pretty good. I’m still convinced that my pancakes are better than most restaurant pancakes.   Everything else on the plate was pretty average.  The most spectacular part of it is that they served all those items together. It’s surprisingly difficult to get pancakes and eggs together at brunch.  The Fried Chicken dish was pretty good.

The chicken was a little dry, but well seasoned.  It was also served with a ridiculously rich mac and cheese.  

The biscuit brought everything together nicely.  

There are other reasons to go to brunch at 5 & Diamond, but I’ll let you go there to figure it out yourself ;-)

I’m hoping to try out the dinner there at some point. The menu definitely holds promise.

Hungry yet?

Birthday Brunch Part Deux

After a fabulous dinner at Momofuku, we sang our hearts out for several hours at a Karaoke spot then hauled back uptown to sleep for a few hours before brunch.  Yes, it's true, all I did for my birthday was eat! Il Bastardo was so good the first time I went that I decided that a few weeks later it would be the perfect place for my birthday brunch.  Since David Chang is so limiting in how many people can attend his meals, I made sure that I could have at least one meal with as many of my favorites as possible.  I’ve already adequately described what makes this place awesome, so this will be strictly about the food.

The French Toast gets top billing again and several of the diners ordered this fantastic dish. It was just as good as last time.  I also made sure to get a side of the sautéed potatoes. Yum yum yum!!! My next homemade brunch will certainly include my version of these stewed potatoes.  Several people also ordered the Steak and Eggs accompanied by potatoes and spinach.

While I can’t attest to the taste, I noticed several empty plates so I’m sure they were spectacular (or my friends were REALLY hungry!)  

Another popular dish was the Eggs Benedict with Maryland Crab Cakes.

Negative on the soupy eggs for me, but I was all over the crab cakes.  Even my Marylanders complemented the cake. Woohoo!  I also had a chance to sample the pancakes.

They were delicious! Not quite the flavor of the Lemon Ricotta ones, but hey you can’t win ‘em all!  They definitely won on the pasta front.  Ms. O ordered the Rigatoni.

I was a big fan! Al dente  pasta and sauce cooked perfectly.  Il Bastardo was nothing short of awesome. Yea their service was a little slow, but they were very generous. The atmosphere was lively, the company was spectacular and it was a great way to end the fantastic weekend of eating.  Can't wait to go back!!

Hungry yet?

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

VBRAT et. al. arrived over the course of the weekend, but by Saturday morning we were close to complete.  Since the weekend would consist of many meals out, I thought it right to use my new cookbook to make sure we had something spectacular to eat.  Ms. A selected the lemon ricotta pancakes the night before.  After a quick run to the grocery store, we were ready to rock.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 ½ cups buttermilk

2 large eggs, separated

¼ cup sugar

¾ cup ricotta cheese

1 tbs grated lemon zest

2 tsps butter, melted

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg yolks, sugar, ricotta and lemon zest.  

Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until blended. There will be some lumps – don’t over mix.

In a separate bowl, using a mixer, beat the whites until soft peaks form. 

Using a rubber spatula, carefully fold the beaten whites into the batter just until blended.  My stove has a built in griddle so I set that to medium heat and went to work.  Ladle about ¼ cup of batter on the surface and cook until small bubbles form about 2 – 3 minutes. 

Flip the pancake over and cook until other side is lightly brown about 1 ½ minutes.  The recipe makes about 16 pancakes.

I tried to be decorative so I topped with some strawberries.  

The pancakes were incredibly light and fluffy. There was a hint of lemon in every bite.  We also used the fantastic syrup that Ms. O and Mr. M bought for me.

These pancakes were incredible. I will definitely be making them again but there are so many other fantastic recipes in my cookbook.  Can’t wait!

Hungry yet?

Revel NYC

Brunch fest continued last weekend.  I met up with the 7 lovely ladies who brunch and was really looking forward to dining at Good.  Alas, the 8 of us were too much to handle so I recommended walking over to Little West 12th and seeing if there was a place to seat such a large party.  We ended up at Revel.  It was an up and down experience that leaves me writing this lukewarm review.

Revel does have a beautiful space with an enclosed garden, high ceilings, exposed brick walls and LOTS of sunlight that's to the retractable roof.  However, the okay food and subpar service left much to be desired. Luckily, the conversation was lively and the sun shined brightly upon our table.  We were seated almost immediately which was great considering our large group.  As soon as the menus were distributed, I knew I would have a hard time deciding.  There were several options and considering how hungry I was everything looked great!  Since I had fantastic french toast the day before, I decided to go with the eggs.

Three eggs scrambled well were served with toast, potatoes and a small bed of mesclun greens.  Not bad.  I mean it wasn't great but I sure did eat every bite.  The greens were a welcomed addition on the plate.  The toast was also pretty good, especially because it was served with an assortment of spreads.  The eggs appeared as though they were cooked on the same pan as something else and in fact Ms. R found a piece of spinach in her eggs. Ugh I hope they don't just have one big griddle that cooks everything. yuck.  The potatoes were tasty but could have used a little more umph.  Ms. R ordered pancakes with mixed berries.

There was nothing spectacular about the way the pancakes looked. They definitely had the extra ring which appears when more batter is added after the pancakes have already started cooking. tsk tsk. Apparently the fruit made all the difference and the strawberries were spectacular.  After finishing my eggs, I assisted Ms. R with the rest of her pancakes.  They definitely didn't taste as good as my chocolate chip or pumpkin.  Even my buttermilk taste better. Ms. G ordered the Scotch Eggs

Two poached eggs cradled in brioche, fontina & truffle.  Truffle is always a good look.  Ms. M ordered traditional Eggs Benedict.

I gotta tell you all this brunching really has me thinking I may try the whole runny egg thing again. Not too soon though, I still love well-cooked eggs.  Ms. D and AA ordered the Garden Omelette.

It was "surprisingly good."  Ms. S also thought her French Toast was good.

But she did remark that it was warm rather than hot.  Which leads me to why this review is lukewarm.  I’ve said many times that my main objective on this blog is to focus on the food, but on occasion if the décor or service is notable, I will provide my comments. I was hopeful when we walked in because Revel was bright and sunny. However, the service almost ruined the experience.  There were multiple issues regarding the water. Dirty glasses, objects floating in water - things that you should not have to be bothered with while at a restaurant.  Ms. A ordered coffee and imagine her surprise when she started stirring and felt the grit at the bottom of her cup. Coffee grains? Seriously? It's unclear whether this was instant coffee or they had reached the bottom of the batch.  Either way, it’s unacceptable. As though the coffee incident wasn't bad enough, the orange juice and grapefruit juice were both served with ice.  I mean really Revel, are you trying to cut costs or does your staff not know any better? Shameful.

Last and definitely least was our waitress' inability to get it together.  She was super slow to come take our order which I can sometimes understand. When there's a big group you want them to have time to think about what they want, but in this instance, I saw her socializing with another table.  That's right not servicing, but socializing. Hugging and conversing while another table waits unattended is not okay. When she finally did take our order, she forgot to enter some items and brought some items for the wrong people.  When our check came, that was the final straw. 

There were two additional items on our bill that didn't amount to much, but was just enough to make our math a little more difficult. So we worked it out so each person would pay an even amount and once the extra items were removed, the waitress would actually end up with a little bit extra. Nice right? Wrong.  She came back and informed me that we had miscalculated, her manager had redone the calculations and the three credit cards were charged a little bit more.  Ordinarily I would take issue with this anyway because I don't think anyone should swipe my card if they are going to charge me more than I’ve instructed them to charge, but in this instance I was even more irritated because she had failed to remove the additional items from our bill.

Everything was eventually resolved and she came back to our table sheepishly and stated that we would all laugh about this some day.  Not funny. Brunch at Revel was nevertheless a success because it was the first time we all got together in far longer than I care to remember. It was a bright sunny day, which was a great contrast to the weather the day before.  The food was fine. Nothing spectacular, but certainly not bad. I'd reluctantly eat there again but only if there were no other options in the neighborhood and we could somehow arrange for better service.

Hungry yet?

Pumpkin Pancakes

I remember back when fall first started I was excited about all the pumpkin I would eat and the chili I would make.  In truth I’ve done very little about both.  I started looking around for recipes and found one for pumpkin pancakes!

Although it was monsooning in NYC, I decided to venture out to the grocery store and pick up some milk and a few other items.   It was a late night so I didn’t actually get around to making this until around 1:30.  Definitely a simple recipe so if you have some leftover pumpkin – or plan to make some muffins too – make it happen!

1 ¼ cups flour

3 tbs brown sugar

2 tsps baking powder

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ginger

¼ tsp nutmeg

dash of cloves

4 eggs, separated

4 tbs melted butter

¾ cup pumpkin puree

1 ¼ cups milk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix flour with brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and salt.

Put the egg yolks into a small bowl and mix in half a stick of melted butter, pumpkin puree, milk and vanilla.

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until they are just stiff.

Mix the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture, and then carefully fold in the egg whites.

Fire up the griddle to medium heat and make some magic happen.

Definitely an easy and awesome Sunday recipe! 

P.S. The recipe makes about 16 pancakes so it was also a delicious Monday dinner ;-)

Hungry yet?

Kitchenette Uptown

After an enjoyable dining experience in Philly, I was excited to return to New York and continue my good eating streak.  Once my train arrived, I made a quick stop at my apartment then raced over to Kitchenette to meet my mentee Ms. A.  After rescheduling and postponing a few times, I was happy we were finally able to get together.  We waited outside in the brisk October weather for quite some time before being called for our table.  Kitchenette has an insane rush on weekends from about noon – 1:30. 

When we finally sat down I was a little nervous because the menu was printed differently and I thought that meant the contents had changed. Luckily, my favorites were still in there.  I ordered the Lumberjane and recommended either the Farmhouse or Lumberjack to Ms. A.  While you may wait a while for a seat, you certainly don’t have to wait long for your food.  My Lumberjane was out within a few minutes.

Two thick slices of French toast, 2 eggs any style (hard scrambled for me!) and two pieces of the best homemade turkey sausage ever!  I was in food heaven! Kitchenette truly does have the best turkey sausage ever.  I recommend digging into it right away because the freshness when it’s warm is unrivaled.  The French toast was very thick and sweet.  Ms. A’s Lumberjack also arrived pretty quickly.

Her two mixed berry pancakes topped with strawberries looked amazing.  She also agrees that the turkey sausage was fantastic.

It was great meeting and chatting with Ms. A and of course stuffing myself silly with delicious eats from Kitchenette.  If you’re ever in the Morningside Heights neighborhood and craving brunch, this is definitely the spot to go to.  Almost makes me miss being in law school.

Hungry yet?

A Delightful Sunday Brunch

Earlier this week, Mr. G and I decided to have a lil brunch festival for a few friends we haven’t seen in a while and to celebrate daytime eating J I developed the menu on Friday and couldn’t wait to try out so many new things.  I was excited because I thought this would be post 200, but turns out I’m one short! Oh well, still a fantastical brunch and totally worth writing about.

I started out with the French Toast.  On Saturday night I mixed up a slightly altered version of this recipe I found on Epicurious.

4 large eggs

3/4 cup half and half

1/4 cup + 1 tbs orange juice or Grand Marnier or triple sec

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 potato bread slices

Whisk first 6 ingredients to blend in a wide medium bowl. 

Dip each bread slice into egg mixture and arrange in 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish or cookie sheet. Pour the remaining egg mixture evenly over bread. Let stand until egg mixture is absorbed, at least 20 minutes. I prepped it on Saturday night and made it around 12:30 on Sunday morning.

When you’re ready to make it, place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat to 350F. Heat up a griddle to or medium sized frying pan. Add bread slices and sauté until cooked through and brown, about 3 minutes per side. Place on baking sheet in oven to keep warm. Repeat cooking until all pieces are done.  Cut each slice in half, transfer to a plate.  Sift powdered sugar over. Voila!

Looks good right? They were a big hit, but I think the Chocolate Chip Pancakes hangin out next to them were even better.  I fully intended on making this recipe, but realized I didn’t have any whole-wheat flour.  Instead I adapted this recipe for blueberry buttermilk pancakes.

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 250°F. Place baking sheet in oven. Whisk first 4 ingredients in large bowl.  Whisk buttermilk, eggs, and 2 tablespoons butter in medium bowl; stir into dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips.

Heat large nonstick griddle or skillet over medium heat. Drop batter by 1/3 cupfuls onto griddle. Cook pancakes until brown and hard around the edges about 2 minutes per side. 

Transfer to sheet in oven to keep warm. This was my first time eating chocolate chip pancakes and they were amazing! While I am very familiar with the power of chocolate, I didn’t know it could do just great things to pancakes. Yum yum yum!!!

While those two items turned out great, I had a little bit more difficulty with the Cranberry Scones I made from this blueberry scone recipe.

1/4 cup butter, cold and cut in pats

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 cup granulated sugar

1/8 cup light brown sugar

Pinch kosher salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup half-and-half

1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and on low fan speed, if using a convection oven.  By hand in a large bowl, blend the butter pats with the flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt and baking powder until the butter has been combined. Add the cranberries and mix well.

In second bowl with a whisk, blend the cream, half-and-half, and the egg. Stir in the flour mixture and mix until the dough comes together. This is the scone dough.

Remove the scone dough from bowl and knead on floured counter, rolling 5 to 6 times, ensuring not to over blend; this will result in a tough dough. Unfortunately I added too much sugar to the mix so I had a really hard time because the dough was EXTREMELY sticky.  I kept adding flour to try to make it less sticky but it didn’t quite work out.  I managed and kept following the recipe.

Divide the dough into 12 even triangular shape portions.  These aren’t exactly even triangles but they’re triangular.

Arrange on a cookie sheet and bake until the tops are slightly browned, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer the scones to a serving platter.

In the end the scones got pretty good reviews even though they didn’t look as good as I wanted them to, they still tasted good.  You'll notice the mini blueberry muffins next to the scones.  These were courtesy of Betty Crocker.  I needed a backup plan ;-)

Based on the amount of leftovers (only 4 pieces!) the Apple Coffee Cake with Crumble Topping and Brown Sugar Glaze was by far the favorite!!  Hats off to Mr. Lagasse, another fantastic recipe.

Cake:

1 stick plus 2 teaspoons unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups peeled, cored and chopped apples

Crumble Topping:

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Brown Sugar Glaze:

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13 by 9-inch glass baking dish with 2 teaspoons of the butter.

In a large bowl, cream together the remaining stick of butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  If you’ve never worked with brown sugar before, be warned that there’s a lot more splatter than white sugar.  I covered the bowl with a paper towel until the mixture was a little creamy.

Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating after the addition of each. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients, alternating with the sour cream and vanilla.  Sour cream is kind of hard to measure, so it’s possible I added a little more or less than a cup.  Fold in the apples. Pour into the prepared baking dish, spreading out to the edges.

To make the topping, in a bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter, and mix until it resembles coarse crumbs.  I used my hands to mix and that worked out pretty well.  

Sprinkle the topping over the cake and bake until golden brown and set, 35 to 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes.

To make the glaze, in a bowl, combine the sugar, vanilla, and water and mix until smooth. Drizzle the cake with the glaze and let harden slightly. Serve warm.

This cake was a HIT.  I served it as dessert and even though everyone was already stuffed, they were still all over it.

We also had some home fries which I made in the wok.  I shared this recipe earlier and I made it essentially in the same way.

Mr. G also made some incredible eggs with special cheese, onions, red and green peppers. 

Of course needed even more protein so some turkey sausage and turkey bacon was also served.

For the calorie counters I included yogurt, granola and fruit.

The cranberry-pomegranate punch was also very well received.

Although the plan was to have a little brunch, we definitely threw down in a big way.  Brunching on Sunday definitely helps ward off the Sunday night blues.  Hopefully Monday will have some inspiring eats as I edge towards my next milestone post 200.  

Hungry yet?