Sushi Seki

After I met Cedric from Perry Street, I had a new list of recommendations for restaurants to try. Sushi Seki is popular amongst the chef crowd because it’s fresh sushi and the restaurant is open late so chefs are always going in after their shifts end. The chef trained with Gari, owner of Sushi of Gari, and the restaurants all get their fish flown in from Japan. Justin and I met up on a Friday night for a catching up session and sat at the sushi bar for their sushi omakase. My co-worker, Aaron, loves Sushi Seki and also recommended the restaurant; his favorite bite in New York at one point was actually the spicy scallop roll (the last course of the sushi omakase). We decided to both try the sushi omakase:

Our first piece of sushi was toro with fresh wasabi sauce:

The toro was absolutely fantastic; sweet, buttery, and so delicious. Justin and I were both very pleased with the first piece of fish.

Our second piece was the red snapper with Okinawa sea salt:

We weren’t as pleased with the red snapper; it was too chewy and gummy-like. The texture was quite different from the toro, which literally melted in your mouth.

Next came the seared king salmon:

The king salmon was the same texture as salmon you’d usually order, but the searing of the skin really heightened the flavor of the fish.

Next, the Japanese baby yellowtail:

We compared this fish to the Chinese jello candies that are filled with lychee; it was quite chewy and almost gelatin-like.

One of my favorite pieces of the night was the unagi with avocado:

It was slightly crispy, sweet, and very creamy. It really seemed like they were trying to balance the meal by giving us one good piece and one mediocre piece, although, our next piece was also a favorite – the whitefish:

It was a hot dish that was creamy, a little salty, and lightly fried.

Justin and I weren’t fans of the next couple of pieces, starting with the chopped toro with Japanese yellow pickle:

The toro would’ve been delicious, except the Japanese yellow pickle had a weird sweetness to it from the brine.

The salmon with scallion sauce and fried seeweed also had a weird taste from the pureed scallion:

The Japanese mackerel was okay tasting, but definitely nothing amazing:

The fried oyster with miso sauce was a little too heavy:

And our last dish, the spicy scallop, what I’ve heard so much about, was a complete let down:

I was surprised Aaron liked the dish so much; it was very crunchy and mayo-heavy, but had probably one chunk of scallop in the entire roll. I told him on Monday morning that the spicy scallop was a let down and he actually went to the restaurant later in the week to confirm; the chefs started using a lot more crunchy bits and a lot less scallop!

There are a lot of great restaurants for sushi in the city and Seki just didn’t impress me enough to add it to my list of favorites (although I do like that it’s more of a neighborhood restaurant and they have long hours). I’d definitely return with friends again (thank you, Justin, for joining me!) but probably just to grab a couple of pieces, not the sushi omakase.

Rouge Tomate

Getting through all of the one-starred Michelin restaurants has been quite an endeavor; luckily, I have great dining companions who are always ready to eat out with me. My dining partner for Rouge Tomate was my mom, who visited me a couple of weekends ago. We went on a Saturday night after spending the afternoon shopping on 5th Avenue:

Rouge Tomate is quite different from the other Michelin-starred restaurants because they don’t use butter or fry anything, have a nutritionist on hand when the chef creates recipes, and they still have a coveted Michelin star. I was really excited to try the restaurant, especially since I’ve been eating about a stick of butter at every Michelin restaurant this year.

We started off with bread and carrot orange spread:

I missed the butter a little, but the carrot orange spread was very interesting; the texture was similar to hummus and the orange zest and carrot were a nice balance of sweet earthy flavors. I probably wouldn’t make this myself because I still prefer butter with bread (especially whole wheat bread!) but the spread was an interesting sampling of how to substitute a healthy and tasty alternative to butter.

Rouge Tomate used to have a tasting menu but they split it into little bites that can be ordered separately so people could get more variety and order as they pleased. We started off with some Greenmarket Autumn Squash Soup with apple, pumpkin Seed and anisette:

The chef sent over the soup and it was actually my favorite dish of the night; the soup was hearty and creamy (with no cream) and had just the right amount of sweetness from the apples. There were also toasted pumpkin seeds that my mom absolutely loved and the anisette foam added a nice licorice flavor.

Our next appetizer was Diver Scallop Carpaccio with American Sturgeon Caviar, poppy seeds, lemon oil, and chive:

I am a huge fan of scallops but the dish just didn’t do it for me; the combination of toasted poppy seeds with caviar led to a strange taste in my mouth and there were just too many flavors going on at once. My mom actually liked the dish but thought the poppy seeds and other flavors weren’t distributed evenly (very true).

Next, we had an order of their market oysters with concord grape mignonette, apple, and crispy ginger:

The oysters were topped with a wedge of concord grape, bits of apple, and shavings of crispy ginger; while it’s an interesting concept to add flavor to the oysters, the concord grape *really* did not belong with the oyster. I know concord grapes are really perfect for this time of year, but its sweetness, size, and general taste really messed up the wonderfully briny taste of the oyster.

In the pasta and grains section, we ordered the house made gnocchi and freshly dug potato, six minute farm egg, foraged mushrooms, fines herbes, and sherry vinegarette:

The six minute farm egg was so large that my mom had to ask the server what it was (it was seriously almost the size of an ostrich egg!) The gnocchi was slightly overcooked and a little mealy, but the foraged mushrooms were very meaty and delicious. And we’re still alive so the foraged mushrooms must not have been poisonous…yay!

Next, we ordered the agnolotti with chunks of lobster:

The tiny bits of agnolotti were filled with ricotta and very delicious but the sauce that accompanied the dish was actually too salty to taste. Although Rouge Tomate doesn’t use butter, they’re definitely very liberal on their use of salt.

After the pasta courses, we received our mains, the local veal sweetbreads with honeycrisp apple, turnips, endive, and horseradish:

My mom and I both enjoyed the sweetbreads; we were talking with a father and daughter that sat next to us and we somehow got comfortable enough in our conversation that we offered them some of the dish. The daughter had never tried veal sweetbreads before and ended up taking a bite and finding it absolutely horrid; I guess it’s quite an acquired texture.

Our last course for the evening was another favorite – Alaskan Black Cod, shelling bean stew, fennel, lacinato kale, and provencal oil:

Although some of the other previous dishes didn’t have the right flavors/an excess amount of salt, the cod was cooked perfectly and the flavors of the stew and kale was great accompaniments to the meaty and delicious cod.

I enjoyed my meal at Rouge Tomate and definitely didn’t feel like I’d eaten too much (even though now that I’m reviewing the photographs, we ate quite a lot!) The service was very attentive and the servers were very knowledgeable about their produce and the farms they used. I saw a lot of women dining/getting drinks at the restaurant; they have a juice bar next to the main dining room that makes delicious (and healthy) smoothies. I’d probably return to try some of their lunch items or their smoothie bar after a day of shopping!

Braeburn

Last week, I was invited by Braeburn to a tasting with some fellow bloggers. I’ve never visited Braeburn, but was very excited to try it because I walked by it after a lunch at Perry Street. Braeburn is located on Perry Street and was named after the Braeburn apple; the owners came up with lists of potential names and the first name they all liked was Braeburn.

We started at the bar with some appetizers:

We moved to the ground floor where we had a private dining room (which is also used as a wine cellar). The chef prepared a four course tasting for us so we could sample their new menu offerings for fall and the owner paired them with his favorite wines. We started off with warm smoked trout with roasted butternut squash, toasted pumpkin seeds, apple-celery salad, and brown butter vinaigrette with a riesling, Vielles Vigne Albert Boxler:

I’m not that knowledgeable about wine, but I really enjoyed the crisp and sweet riesling with the trout. It’s funny to eat with food bloggers; most of the time, I’m the only one with a camera at the table but we were all taking pictures before we started eating!

Our next course was the Long Island Fluke with creamless celery root clam chowder, bacon, early squash, paired with sauvignon blanc, Daniel Chotard:

I thought the fluke was a little heavy with the clam chowder, but the clam chowder was creamy and none of us could believe that there was no cream in the chowder! There were also bits of lobster meat and clam meat in the chowder that made it very decadent.

For our next course, we were presented with an uncooked oyster and trumpet mushroom:

Then servers came around to all of our seats and poured soup into the bowl to poach the oyster for our creamless trumpet royale soup with poached wellfleet oyster, crispy potatoes, paired with Voignier, “Chery” Andre Perret:

I actually had a large oyster shell in my soup, which kind of ruined the dish for me, but the trumpet mushroom had a full fall flavor that was delicious. I wasn’t a fan of the oyster to begin with (some things should just be slurped down raw) but the soup and trumpet mushroom were delicious.

My wines from the evening:

I felt terrible that I wasn’t drinking more, but I really couldn’t drink so much after I had a campari drink at the bar (also, I’m so used to not drinking wine when I eat that it doesn’t seem normal to me now).

Our final savory course of the night was the breast of Long Island duck with kohlrabi, wheat berries, duck confit, and prune puree:

The duck was tender, moist, and very well done.

After our savory courses, servers came and cleared our plates and then brought a slew of desserts for everyone to try. I started with the apple cobbler with ice cream (with apples picked from the chef’s house in Connecticut!):

Then I tried the yogurt souffle with concord grapes:

A reconstructed Almond Joy:

Beignets filled with chocolate:

And my absolute favorite of the night, banana pudding:

The banana pudding had whipped cream that was so light and airy that it was the exact opposite of Magnolia’s (although I do love Magnolia’s as well). If Magnolia’s banana pudding appeals to children and people with a sweet tooth, Braeburn’s banana pudding appeals to the adult crowd; not cloyingly sweet, light, airy, and every bite had just the right combination of banana, pudding, and cake.

After dinner, Brian Bistrong, the chef and part owner of the restaurant, joined us at the dinner table and talked to us about opening the restaurant, his family, and restaurants he likes to visit in the city (a lot of restaurants in Chinatown, surprisingly). Braeburn has a fried chicken dinner on Wednesday nights and the chef also mentioned their weekend brunch, which is also very popular. I definitely want to return to Braeburn for brunch or for dinner; the restaurant is cozy, well lit for a date, and has really great food!

Lunch with Friends

On Monday, I had the pleasure of dining with two of my friends at their offices in Chelsea. I ate lobster mac and cheese, handmade cannoli’s, gelato, gigantic shrimp with cocktail sauce, and lots of fresh fruit:

It was the perfect afternoon to dine on their rooftop and we definitely enjoyed the sunshine and wonderful weather. Can you guess where I ate? 🙂

Chinese Stir Fry: Celery and Pressed Tofu

Stir frying vegetables and tofu is a great weeknight dinner that also gets you all of your necessary nutrients. My mom taught me how to make this dish and David and I have recreated it more than a couple times with great results. The key to making the stir fry is getting Chinese celery, which is smaller and has more concentrated taste than American celery.

Celery and Pressed Tofu Stir Fry

1 Pound pork
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1 bag pressed tofu
2 bunches Chinese Celery

Mix together the pork with the corn starch, garlic powder, and soy sauce, similar to the mapo tofu recipe.

Remove dirt and any sand from the Chinese celery:

Cook the pork with a bit of oil (we usually use peanut oil):

Dice the pressed tofu:

Make sure the pork is all cooked through and set aside:

Next, place a little more peanut oil in the pan and cook the pressed tofu:

Then add the Chinese celery, which you can cut into pieces similar in size to the pressed tofu:

Finally, add back in the pork:

Mix all of the ingredients and it’s ready to eat:

The dish has lots of proteins from the tofu and the pork and also tastes very light because the Chinese celery is so fresh tasting (much more concentrated than American celery). I’ve never seen it in a regular grocery store in New York, but it is easily found in any grocery store in Chinatown!