One of the perks of writing for an awesome website, Food2.com, is that I can get tickets to food events like IRON CHEF AMERICA. Yes, that’s right – back in October, I went to the Iron Chef taping:
I was a VIP guest! I’ve NEVER been a VIP guest ANYWHERE! We waited in line for quite a while with all of the other VIP guests:
Kitchen stadium is located right in Chelsea market and it is quite amazing (that’s pretty much all I can say…if I tell you the secret ingredients or who won, I’d be in big trouble!) The episode won’t air until next year, but it was a really exciting event to attend and it was definitely one of the highlights of my year! Maybe I’ll be a guest judge someday 😉
This version of French fries is a popular dish in Chinese restaurants and was eaten a lot during the cultural revolution because of the food shortage. My mom learned this dish from one of her friends from China and I must say – it’s much more delicious than Americanized French fries (even the ones from restaurants that triple-fry them!) The ingredients are very easy to access – in fact, you will probably have the majority of them in your pantry! Julienne potatoes, Chinese style are great for parties because they don’t require much time to prepare and the presentation of the matchstick-like potatoes is very ascetically pleasing.
Julienne Potatoes (or Chinese french fries)
Ingredients (this can easily be doubled, tripled, etc):
2 potatoes
1 – 2 jalapeño peppers
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2-3 cloves of garlic
White pepper and salt to taste
First things first, peel the skin from the potatoes and begin thinly slicing the potato lengthwise:
After slicing the potato lengthwise, lay the pieces flat on a cutting board and cut them again (to make matchstick-like pieces of potatoes). If you have a mandolin, I’m guessing it will be a LOT easier, but I don’t have that luxury so I cut my potatoes very carefully:
Immediately soak them in cold water:
The cold water removes starch from the potatoes and prevents them from browning. Wash the julienned potatoes until the water is clear:
Next, remove the top of the jalapeño pepper, cut the pepper in half, and remove the seeds:
Then slice the jalapeño into thin slices lengthwise:
I suggested to my mom that she should wear gloves while cutting up the jalapeño peppers to prevent the oils from seeping into her fingers, but she said it would be faster to just cut them up without gloves. She’s quite a superwoman, I tell ya.
Next, heat up a pan and add a tablespoon of peanut oil (or oil of your choice) to the bottom then dump in your potatoes:
After stir-frying for a couple of minutes so the potatoes can all get a little coated with peanut oil and heated up, add your jalapeño and apple cider vinegar:
And then your minced garlic (I minced up about 50 bulbs of garlic for a party we had so I had a buttload left for this dish and didn’t need to mince anymore):
Stir fry until the potatoes start to brown a bit and serve:
The potatoes have a slightly crispy exterior but are very soft on the inside and have a slightly sour taste from the apple cider vinegar that makes this dish so delicious to eat. After we prepared a batch for a party we had one weekend, I insisted we make more because I loved this dish so much.
Cost Breakdown:
2 potatoes – $.50
1 – 2 jalapeño peppers – $.50
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar – $.10
2-3 cloves of garlic – $.10
White pepper and salt to taste – free
Total: $1.20 – definitely enough for 3 people!
Last week, I attended the launch party for Ed Roth’s new stencil book, Stencil 101 Decor. The Chocolate Bar provided lots of delicious chocolates and brownies and Ed Roth created some cool stencils that he used on the brownies.
The Chocolate Bar employees:
Stencils Ed made for the event:
The amazing brownies that were the perfect combination of fudge and cake:
The Chocolate Bar sells them everyday and I recommend RUNNING there to buy some because they’re amazing.
Ed’s friend made some cookies as well:
Chocolates that The Chocolate Bar made for the event:
A fan from the event:
Ed created about 20 different stencils in his new book and some great ideas for decorating with the stencils. I loved the stencils – Ed made stencils of cassettes, headphones, antlers, and a lot of cool designs that you can decorate your house/furniture with. The event was really fun and the brownies were delicious (the chocolates, on the other hand, were not that great, although I do love the box sets The Chocolate Bar sells).
My friend, Azim, mentioned that he recently had a great dinner at Joseph Leonard, a new and trendy restaurant near our office. I’ve read a lot about Joseph Leonard, especially for brunch, and finally decided to go try their food (Azim warned me that since they don’t take reservations, getting a seat at the small restaurant can take up to 2 hours on busy nights). One night before Thanksgiving, I went to the restaurant and put my name down (thinking it would take two hours) HOWEVER, there was no wait and I could’ve been seated right away. Too bad my dining companion wasn’t going to be ready for another 2 hours. I couldn’t put my name down (no reservations = no putting names down if there are seats available) and the suggestion that I come back in 30 minutes to put my name down for dinner in two hours was just too much work. I couldn’t write off the restaurant since so many people raved about it, so I decided to try again on a Friday night – my plan: go to Fat Cat with my coworkers, run over to Joseph Leonard around 7pm, put my name down and expect at least an hour wait, and go back to Fat Cat until they called me with a table.
The plan worked! The wait was more like two hours, but definitely worth it – me and Lou after some light drinking at Fat Cat, ready to eat dinner:
The lighting is very dim in the restaurant with a candle at every table, and some awesome cornichons:
The waitress came by to tell us about the oysters for the day ($1.50/oyster is a pretty good deal in NYC). We went with 6 from Maine and 6 from Rhode Island:
I overheard the waitress say that before she started working at Joseph Leonard, she didn’t know that there was more than one type of oyster in the world. Luckily, she works at Joseph Leonard and she gets to try all the different types. The oysters from Maine were very plump and delicious – this was possibly the best bang for your buck at Joseph Leonard.
We asked our waitress about the dishes for two (Boeuf Bourguignon or Roasted Chicken for 2) and the waitress said that we COULDN’T order the Roasted Chicken for 2 because it takes an hour to prepare and we would’ve had to order it right when we walked into the restaurant. Well, that would’ve been nice information to know before we ordered!! We weren’t upset with going with the boeuf bourguignon, especially since we ended up with the last one (a couple seated next to us also wanted to order it but the waitress informed her that we had the last one).
For another appetizer, we ordered the salt cod brandade:
The brandade was served cold with curry oil and sweet pepper relish with crostini on the side. I suppose I was expecting a preparation similar to Balthazar’s, but it was packed into a small jar, very cold, and the curry oil totally threw off my familiarity with the dish. A good try, but not worth ordering.
Our waitress came by with a bread basket and offered us sourdough brioche or onion bread:
I asked for one of each, of course, and was told that I could only have one. I guess you can’t be greedy at Joseph Leonard because they will refuse your requests! This would never happen at per se. Both breads were decent, but the onion bread was nowhere near as delicious as Peter Luger’s.
For our main course, we ordered the Beouf Bourguignon:
The dish was short ribs, carrots, potatoes, pearl onions, egg noodle and cuisson. I wanted the dish because I had just finished watching Julie and Julia and Julie Powell makes Julia Childs’ version in the movie (I’ve never made it before, but it looks delicious in the movie). The short ribs were tender (the dish is pre-made since it needs to be cooked for quite a while) and the vegetables and egg noodles complemented the short ribs and wine very well but held their individual flavor. It’s quite expensive ($49 for a pretty small portion) but definitely worth it.
I had a very enjoyable meal at Joseph Leonard but would’ve liked to know more about the roast chicken rules (if you want it, you better order it WHEN YOU WALK IN) and I would’ve liked MORE BREAD! I’m definitely heading back on a Sunday – they bring in an entire pig and sell it in parts (the pig is drawn on a blackboard and when parts of the pig are sold out, it’s erased from the board) and I definitely want to try their brunch. The area Joseph Leonard is located in is nice enough that you could walk around while you waited for your table.
A few pictures from our last meal in Boston – we went to the Boston Beer Garden to watch the game (a football game…I have no idea who was playing) and also enjoyed some bloody mary’s and deep fried foods.
The bloody mary’s were a little watered down, but we added a lot of pepper and tabasco sauce:
We started with some super nachos with chicken for the table:
A turkey burger with waffle fries:
A take on Thanksgiving: turkey wraps with cranberry sauce and sour cream:
Delicious French onion soup:
And my French dip with sweet potato fries:
We sat in the patio area and enjoyed the surprisingly sunny Sunday afternoon. The beer garden is a nice place to watch any sporting event because they serve bar food at decent prices.
