For our one-year anniversary, Chris made reservations for Bouley (pre-renovations). This was one of the first tasting menus we’ve had and while it was a good dinner; I think we were both a little surprised that Bouley wasn’t on the Michelin NYC list because we both thoroughly enjoyed the food and service.
The famous door:
When you walk in, the wonderful smell of apples greets you:
The apples are all fresh and they emit a warm and very welcoming aroma throughout the restaurant. I love walking into the restaurant and could walk in and out a couple of times just to smell those apples.
At Bouley, servers don’t walk around with baskets of bread, instead, they push around bread carts (I had one of every kind!) – here’s the cinnamon apple roll:
We started out with the amuse bouche – green apple juice with a chilled goat cheese sorbet and clementine oranges:
Tuna tartare with soy sauce cubes:
Seafood combination:
Fish:
Shanghai lobster:
Layers of lobster and mango chunks – the sweet/savory combination was a little much for me, but the flavors were light. It tasted too summery, especially since we went to dinner in January!
Lamb:
More Lobster (with mushrooms):
Very buttery mashed potatoes:
Apple bun with apple gelato and vanilla gelato:
Chocolate cake with three types of ice cream:
Petite fours:
My favorites of the night were the amuse bouche (a very interesting and puckery combination of apple, goat cheese, and acidic clementines, the seafood combination (although the fried nest with shrimp tasted like something you’d get for dim sum), and the chocolate cake. Bouley was a very fun dining experience and I’m glad it finally earned a Michelin star.
After the 2nd Avenue Deli moved from 2nd Avenue to midtown east, I decided to trek on over and give it a try. The deli is now located on 33rd and 3rd (they moved because of a rent hike or something) Side note: I went with Chris when the restaurant first moved locations, so this took place quite a while ago. I’m trying to clean out my entire queue of pictures/posts, so some of these may be from a little bit ago.
When we arrived at the table, the waitress brought over lots of pickles, fried chicken skins, and cole slaw:
The full sour pickles were the best, then the cole slaw, then the half sour pickles, and my least favorite from the bunch were the fried chicken skins – they tasted like oily and crunchy pieces of fried paper.
Chris ordered the pastrami sandwich:
When we ordered the pastrami sandwich, the waitress asked if we wanted to order the lean pastrami sandwich instead of the regular option. We went with the regular pastrami sandwich to get the full 2nd Avenue Deli experience. The pastrami was loaded onto two small pieces of rye bread with a little mustard (similar to what they do at Carnegie Deli and Katz’s). The meat was a little overwhelming; why do you have to put SO MUCH MEAT on a sandwich? Can’t you just make a normal-sized sandwich that can actually fit into my mouth?!
I ordered their matzo ball soup:
The matzo ball soup came with noodles, one matzo ball, and some sliced carrots. The broth was very comforting, especially because it was very cold when we went AND I may or may not have been fighting a cold at the time.
At the end of our meals, the waitress brought along two free egg creams:
Egg creams don’t actually contain egg or cream; they’re made from seltzer water, milk, and chocolate syrup. You pour milk into a glass, then some very bubbly seltzer (it would probably be great with the Sodastream), and then add in chocolate syrup, which you stir in. I really disliked the drink when I first had one, but they kind of grow on you (although I would never seek one out).
2nd Avenue Deli’s matzo ball soup was definitely worth a visit, but nothing else on the menu intrigued me and the overall feel of the restaurant was a tad greasy.
Before the holidays, I was wandering around Soho in search of a winter coat. I found a winter jacket AND randomly walked into J. Chanceux Macarons. The macaron shop is in the same spot as Green Apple Organic Ice Cream Factory:
To be honest, I actually went in search of some ice cream. I’ve read a lot of great reviews about the fresh ingredients Green Apple Ice Cream Factory uses and was in the mood to try something out. Unfortunately, the owner is in Asia for the next couple of months and the flavors I wanted to try weren’t available. However, I found out that the extra space in Green Apple is being used by J. Chanceux Macarons. J. Chanceux is owned by a lovely woman named Vivian – she is very passionate about macarons and uses fresh ingredients for her macaron flavoring.
The macarons are beautifully displayed by the front window:
Vivian bakes all of the macarons in the store – here are some freshly baked mango macarons waiting to be placed behind the counter:
The macarons are mini and cost $1 each (if you buy 6). They come in a very cute package:
I went with dark chocolate, bergamot, mango, espresso, passion fruit, and caramel. The innards of the espresso macaron:
The macarons were all very delicious but my favorites were definitely the espresso and passion fruit. It’s hard to come by passion fruit in New York (although my friend swears it’s readily available in East Harlem during the summers), and biting into the passion fruit reminded me of the time my brother and I ate 20 passion fruits (each) in a hotel in Taipei while my dad watched in amazement (and possibly horror). I think passion fruit can sometimes taste very artificial, but the macarons from J. Chanceux tasted exactly like the tart and tangy passion fruit I know and love. The espresso macaron was also very flavorful (especially the buttercream filling). J. Chanceux creates larger macarons for special orders (I think there’s a minimum of 75 per order) and they’ve been very busy during the holiday season. If you find yourself shopping in Soho, definitely check out J. Chanceux Macarons!
Before the holidays, Soren and I decided to make ice cream with an awesome contraption he purchased online. The Play & Freeze ice cream maker has the ability to make ice cream without having to pre-freeze anything (unlike the usual Cuisinart ice cream maker that needs to be frozen 24 hours in advance). To make coffee ice cream, you need the following ingredients:
Coffee Ice Cream
Kosher Salt
Half & Half, Heavy Cream, or Milk
Ice cubes
Sugar
Vanilla Extract
Instant Coffee
First, as Vadim and Dorren demonstrate, open all of the sugar packets and pour them into a bowl:
We used about 15 packets of Sugar in the Raw from our pantry (our other option was Splenda).
Next, as Soren demonstrates, add one tablespoon of instant coffee (borrowed from Maria) into the smallest amount of water possible:
Open up the Play & Freeze and fill it with ice:
Then add kosher salt (rock salt is what you’re supposed to add, but any kind of salt is okay, as long as it’s not the salt used on the sidewalks):
Add a little vanilla to the instant coffee and water mixture:
Fill up the Play & Freeze canister with half and half:
The differences between using half and half, heavy cream, and milk: 1. the amount of fat you’re eating and 2. the amount of time it takes to actually make the ice cream. The lighter the liquid (i.e. skim milk), the longer you’ll have to roll the ball around for the ice cream to form.
You’re supposed to fill up the canister with 1/2 cup of half and half, but we didn’t have measuring cups at work and just winged it:
Adding our sugar:
We rolled the ball around the office for 10 minutes, which was quite a lot of work. Everyone got bored after a couple of minutes and stopped rolling the ball (a big no no!) OR people tried to KICK the ball, which is also a big no no because the plastic might BREAK! After 10 minutes, I shot a quick video of what the ice cream looked like:
We refilled the canister with more ice and rolled the ball around for another 10 minutes – it ended up being a really delicious soft serve, but since we wanted firmed ice cream, we scooped it out and put it in the freezer. Here are the final results:
Over the holidays, my mom taught me how to make awesome Peking duck. It’s surprisingly easy to do and I plan on making it again for the Chinese New Year. We found all of the ingredients in my mom’s huge pantry but I also have everything in my pantry, so the ingredients are definitely not hard to obtain.
Peking Duck
Ingredients:
2 ducks
2 cups of red wine (Two Buck Chuck works just fine!)
1 cup of soy sauce
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon honey
One of my mom’s friends is really handy and made her these duck rests. He cut up two pieces of wood and screwed them together so the ducks could stand straight while they were air drying. Cover the wood up completely with saran wrap or aluminum foil:
And place the wood through the duck’s carcass (after you remove all of the innards – those can be saved for a soup!):
Boil a pot of water (about 10 cups) while you prepare the other duck. Mix together the red wine, soy sauce, salt, and honey:
And while you wait for the water to boil, pose the ducks in a conga line:
After the water boils, take the ducks to the sink and pour half of the boiling water on one duck:
And the rest of the water on the second duck:
Next, place a plastic bag or saran wrap around a table and paint the ducks with the wine + soy sauce:
After you’ve thoroughly coated the duck, set aside overnight in a cold and draftly place. If your garage is clean and cold, you can store it there. Also, if you don’t have those nifty wood pieces that my mom’s friend made for her, you can use a wire hanger to hold onto the ducks and hang them. You can also use empty wine bottles to hold the ducks. Let them dry overnight (at least 8 hours).
When you get the ducks the next day, place them on the roasting rack, breast side up:
Cover up the wings with aluminum foil and place them in a 350 degree preheated oven:
After 20 minutes, take them out of the oven and brush another layer of the sauce on the duck. Also, flip the duck over so the breast is down. Do this every 20 – 30 minutes. After an 90 minutes, the duck should be done:
Yummy:
Duck is usually cut up before being served with wraps, hoisin sauce, green onions, and pancakes (skin and meat are usually separate because the skin is so crispy it’s delicious to eat on its own!) Here’s David cutting up the duck:
My mom has a great serving tray with 6 separate compartments, so we split up the duck and condiments accordingly:
We served it at a dinner party at our house with some of my mom’s good friends:
My mom’s friend made all kinds of amazing dishes (Chinese and Danish) – she brought over Danish meatballs (they’re Danish because they’re much bigger than Swedish meatballs):
Her famous fried rice (with long grain rice instead of the usual Asian short grains):
Smoked salmon with lettuce, red onion, lemon, and capers:
An assortment of Asian appetizers (including lotus root, one of my favorites!) and shredded buddha’s hand:
Sonja, her daughter, made a delicious apple pie (my mom’s colleague brought a raspberry tiramisu for dessert):
My mom also made cornbread, a mung bean noodle dish, and roasted butternut squash soup (the butternut squash was straight from her garden!) We had a great night with Sonja, Thomas, Wangling, Kenneth, and my mom’s colleagues and hopefully we’ll see them again the next time we’re in North Carolina.
