Last Friday, I worked at the Burger Bash for the New York Wine & Food Festival. It was a ton of fun; Maddie and I helped check in VIPs, we ate a ton of burgers, and took lots of pictures!
Maddie and I checked in 50 VIPs, took them to meet Spike Mendelsohn, and gave them signed copies of his new cookbook:
We also walked around while everyone was setting up:
The Coke lounge, where we rested after eating about 20 burgers:
Sweet Street Desserts had an amazing ice sculpture that held a ton of parfaits (I had the mango, tiramisu, peanut butter and jelly, and malt):
Cupcakes:
Lure Fishbar had a pretty good burger (I went there last night and sampled the full-sized version):
Bobby’s Burger Palace was setting up – I didn’t know it was Bobby Flay’s burger palace because it was in Paramus, New Jersey:
The chef from Lure telling someone about their burger:
The Dutch had some okay burgers:
21 Club joined in the burger bash and entered with a crab cake (I was not a fan):
Bill’s Bar and Burger served their burgers on REALLY STALE English muffins that were not good at all:
Maddie and I both thought the burgers from Morton’s would be hot since they were being stored under covers but we were both disappointed when we found out they were really lukewarm:
You can kind of see Bobby Flay in this picture:
Maddie and I both loved Bobby’s burger and thought he would win; his burger had melted cheese and tortilla chips on it and a really good bun. It was absolutely delicious and even though it didn’t have a lot of condiments, the unexpected crunch and salt from the chips made up for it.
Shake Shack gave out their burgers (my mom also went on Friday night and they didn’t have any onions; she said a burger without onions should not be called a burger). They also gave out apple crumble ice cream:
Minetta Tavern’s burger was probably the biggest disappointment of the night; the onions were so sweet that Maddie and I ended up throwing them out after one bite:
Spike Mendelsohn won the burger challenge last year and brought girls dressed up in Halloween costumes to try to get more votes:
Spike dressed up like a king and was parading around with his hired women:
I was a little disappointed with his burger; he tried to make it with a sriracha mayonnaise, pickled carrots, and cilantro, but I didn’t like it:
Me and Maddie with our awesome wine holders:
The wildcard entry from the night – a guy from the hamptons entered the contest without a restaurant (I think) and ended up doing really well (Maddie and I both really liked this burger):
We ate so many burgers I forgot where this one came from, but we liked the crunchy shallots:
See? We ate A LOT:
The judges hard at work:
Anne Burrell was actually running from her car to the VIP entrance because she was late – she has a personality larger than life!
Maddie and I had a great time running around trying all of the burgers that entered. Blue Moon was another sponsor and had painters at the festival painting a Blue Moon portrait, there were sponsors from Sutter Wines giving out wine glasses and lots of samples, and even the New York Times showed up and had a photo booth that Maddie and I stared at for quite some time. We were definitely feeling sick on the way home and I will probably not eat another burger in a very long time.
By
grace.g.yang
· October 11, 2010
Under:
Asian,
Desserts,
Dinner,
Drinks,
Japanese,
Michelin 2010 Guide,
My Life,
Prix-fixe,
seafood,
Tribeca 
Continuing on my Michelin tour around New York, I met up with two more blog readers to have a nice dinner at Sushi Azabu. Jeanine and David happen to also be my neighbors; Jeanette saw my brother, David, on the elevator and recognized him from a my cupcake posts! I also had pictures of my apartment in the posts and Jeanine and David live on the other side of the elevator bank with the same exact layout, so that’s how she pieced it together. What a small world!
We met up for dinner on a Friday night after work and we were very excited to have dinner at Sushi Azabu. David, Laura, and I have tried to eat at the restaurant in the past but it seems to always be booked (there are only a handful of seats at the sushi bar and then three tables in the restaurant, so reservations do get filled quickly). We decided to try the azabu course, which included a starter, Sashimi (2 kinds), Yaki-mono, Suno-mono 7 Pieces of Nigiri, Maki-mono and Miso Soup.
We sat in the corner at the sushi bar so we could watch the chefs and chat:
We started with a lotus root starter:
I’m a big fan of lotus root because it’s crunchy and adapts well with other flavors (this lotus root was infused with soy sauce and a little sweet as well).
Our sashimi included three pieces of tuna and two pieces of snapper:
The fish is flown in from Japan every day and is very fresh; the tuna was very fresh but the snapper was a little too chewy.
Our next course was tilefish with a pickled yamamomo berry:
The tilefish was really flavorful, tender, and meaty. The skin was also slightly crispy and lightly fried, which was very delicious.
Next, we had clams with pickled cucumbers:
I wasn’t a fan of the clams and also thought the pickled cucumbers were too sweet.
After our yaki-mono and suno-mono, a server presented a charcoal colored serving plate in front of the three of us so we could get started with our seven pieces of nigiri. We all started with tuna:
The sushi chef prepared all of the pieces with soy sauce and wasabi and instructed us to just eat it (it’s also very disrespectful if you dip the fish in soy sauce after the chef has explicitly told you he’s already done it). The tuna was much more delicate than the sashimi we ate when we first arrived and I liked this tuna much more (although both were very good).
I don’t remember the types of all of the fish we ate, but everything was very good:
King salmon:
The chef noticed that Jeanine was eating each piece of nigiri in two bites so he started cutting up the nigiri into two bites:
My favorite piece of nigiri from the evening was definitely the scallops sprinkled with sea salt:
For the salmon roe, the chef also split mine into two pieces because otherwise he didn’t think I would’ve been able to fit it into my mouth in one bite:
The salmon roe was much more delicate than what I’ve had in other restaurants – it really was very delicious. During our meal, we were saying how it’s so difficult to eat cheap sushi after you’ve eaten good sushi because there really is a huge difference in quality.
My least favorite piece from the night was the tamago:
I thought it wasn’t sweet enough (or flavorful enough in general), although it looked very cool because it looked like a 100 layer cake (extremely thin layers of egg that stacked up into the dish).
I wasn’t a huge fan of the maki-mono, pickled radishes:
The chef gave us one more piece of nigiri before we moved onto our miso soup:
It wasn’t a lot of food for the evening, but we finished with bowls of miso soup with mushrooms:
Jeanine also ordered dessert:
The meal was very enjoyable but a little on the pricey side. I really appreciated the chef’s attention to detail (especially when he started cutting up each piece of fish into two pieces for Jeanine) and it was really nice of him to give us one more piece of fish after he served us our seven pieces of nigiri. I’d definitely return to the restaurant, although next time, I think I might eat a little before hand because I was still pretty hungry when I left the restaurant.
I was sent a sample of Effie’s homemade baked goods and have fallen in love with all of their biscuits – they have three flavors that are all really delicious (I only have a picture of two of the flavors because I took the third kind, the oatcakes, to my office):
The biscuits are slightly buttery, not too sweet, and have a crispness that reminds me of the Biscoff cookies you used to get on Delta flights. My favorite flavor are the oatcakes but a close second are the pecan nutcakes:
Effie’s recommends eating them with cheese, crackers, or on their own. They’re available all over the US or you can order them online!
Yesterday, the guide for 2011’s Michelin starred restaurants came out (to see the full list, visit here). The three stars remained the same (Daniel, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, per se, and Masa), but the two-starred and one-starred restaurants mixed things up a bit.
Changes to the two-star category:
– Addition of Chef Table at Brooklyn Fare, Kajitsu, Marea, and Soto
Changes to the one-star category:
– Addition of Aldea, A Voce Madison, The Breslin, Danny Brown Wine Bar & Kitchen, Dovetail, and Laut
– Removal of Perry St
I’m super happy that Marea jumped to the two star category because I think their food is absolutely phenomenal and they’re absolutely deserving of their two stars. I was actually waiting to read about the two stars because I haven’t visited many even though the year is almost over and was kind of secretly hoping that one or two would drop off so I wouldn’t have to visit them (specifically, I’ve heard many quality issues at both Gordon Ramsay at the London, Gilt, and Picholine). I purchased a gift certificate for Picholine, so I will definitely be visiting, and I suppose that will be the next two-star restaurant I visit.
I’m also very excited to visit the new two stars that were bumped up from the previous year (Kajitsu and Soto) because I’m sure their food will be absolutely wonderful if they jumped to two Michelin stars so quickly (they were both new to the Michelin list in 2010).
Out of the new one star restaurants, I’m most excited to visit Brooklyn Fare because I’ve only heard wonderful things about the chef and restaurant(although seriously, going out to Brooklyn on a weeknight is not going to happen and public transportation on the weekends is absolutely ridiculous). I was very sad to read that Perry St lost their star because I was just at the restaurant on Tuesday night and I briefly spoke with Cedric about his new fall menu. I don’t think they’ll have trouble getting back their star next year because the restaurant really is wonderful, the service is fantastic, and it’s one of the best values out of all of the Michelin-starred restaurants in New York.
For 2011, I’m going to visit all of the new Michelin-starred restaurants that I haven’t visited yet (my plan is to finish this year’s list by December 31, 2010). I’d had some wonderful experiences meeting great dining partners and would love to meet more of my readers next year!
What do you think of the 2011 list? Any surprises that delighted you? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
My mom taught me how to make this dish because it’s a good way to use tofu and it’s much better than anything you’d buy in a Chinese restaurant. It’s also extremely easy to make and is good for a quick weeknight dinner – the amount of hot sauce you add to the dish is up to you, but this is a quick, healthy, and easy dish that you should definitely try sometime.
Mapo Tofu Ingredients
2 boxes of regular tofu, cubed
1 pound of pork
3 large tablespoons of Chinese hot sauce
2 tablespoons of soy sauce, divided
2 tablespoons of corn starch, divided
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pinch sea salt
3-4 Green Onions
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Peanut oil for cooking
Combine one tablespoon corn starch, one tablespoon soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon garlic powder to the pork and combine:
Cube the tofu into large chunks:
Cook the seasoned pork with peanut oil:
Once the pork is fully cooked, remove it from the pan. The pork should all be brown when you remove it from the heat:
Add a little more peanut oil to the pan and cook your tofu (don’t stir it too much or it’ll all break apart):
While the tofu is cooking, mix together the Chinese hot sauce with the remaining tablespoons of soy sauce and corn starch:
Add the hot sauce to the tofu:
Next, add the pork back to the dish:
Stir gently to combine:
Right before you turn off the heat, add some chopped green onions and sesame oil:
Ta da – mapo tofu:
We usually eat the dish with some brown rice because it’s so hot – definitely a good dish to whip up on a very cold night – it warms up your entire body!
