The first time I went to Blue Ribbon Brasserie, I sat next to John Mayer at 2 in the morning and ate bone marrow while listening in on his conversation (unsuccessfully). On this visit, I went for a late night meal and ended up sitting next to no one because the restaurant was empty (maybe because it was past 11 on a weeknight?) I was in the mood for French bistro food and as soon as I saw escargot on the menu, my heart skipped a beat. I love the garlic and parsley mixture and dipping the bread into the small divots of the escargot plate and was very excited to do this so late into the evening, but the waiter told me that the escargot was prepared differently at Blue Ribbon; instead of the garlic, olive oil and parsley mixture, it’s a bourguignon preparation and stewed with red wine, bacon, mushrooms, carrots, and bread:
The dish was on the sweet side; it tasted like lots of brown sugar was also added to this dish and turned me off completely. I couldn’t finish the snails because it was so rich and sweet – almost like dessert!
We went with a staple, the Blue Ribbon fried chicken:
The fried chicken is served alongside collared greens and mashed potatoes – the ultimate comfort food. It doesn’t compare to the fried chicken we had at 
A few weeks ago, Ken and I had a double date with Anna and her husband, Carlos. To continue on the Michelin 2015 list of restaurants, we decided to go to Telepan, a farm-to-table restaurant on the upper west side near their apartment. The restaurant was very packed for a Friday evening (and also very loud). We were seated in the back area next to two larger parties (one of the tables ordered the last of the lobster pasta right before we got there, too!)
We started off with the whole wheat bread:
And then shared two orders of their house smoke brook trout with celery root blinis and green apple onion sour cream:
Anna was a little hesitant to try the dish because she doesn’t like smoked fish but the three of us (Carlos, Ken and I) liked it a lot when paired with the sour cream. The fish was tender and had a slight smokey flavor and the sour cream added a nice tanginess to the dish.
We also ordered the seasonal vegetables with roasted and marinated fermented slaw, grains, and grape gelee:
As well as the roasted cauliflower with herb oil, crushed shell beans and flan:
Both dishes had a great natural sweetness to them and the vegetables that were fermented were actually quite delicious with the grape gelee.
For Anna’s main course, she went with the Atlantic cod served with sunchokes, spinach and mushrooms:
While my first choice was the lobster bolognese, the waiter notified us that the table next to us got the last order and I had to settle for the wild striped bass red snapper:
I ordered the dish because it was served with linguine and clams, three words that make me very happy.
Ken and Carlos both ordered the heritage pork with lentils, cabbage and fingerling potatoes served in multiple ways:
The dish had pork belly, pork sausage (made in-house), and pork loin. A lot of pork, but all of it was quite dry (and the pork sausage was a little on the tough side).
For dessert, I read rave reviews about their pastry chef, Larissa Raphael, so we had to order a few things. We shared the peanut butter and chocolate gianduja with peanut brittle ice cream and grape gelee:
And the pecan Madeline’s dusted with powdered sugar:
Both desserts were rich, sweet, and delicious. I preferred the Madeline’s and thought they were just the right amount of sweetness and had a wonderful texture to them, but also enjoyed the peanut butter and jelly dessert.
We all enjoyed our meal at Telepan and I love that the owner, Bill Telepan uses local and fresh ingredients. I thought the appetizers and the desserts were both very good but the main courses all left a little to be desired. Definitely worthy of their Michelin star.
I recently dined at Delaware and Hudson, a restaurant on the Michelin list for 2015,with my friends Keegan and Denise. I’ve known Keegan since we were both in high school; we both grew up in central Illinois (he grew up in Bloomington, I was 45 minutes away in Champaign) and competed against each other on the speech team! We saw each other every Saturday morning and I even asked Keegan to drive to Champaign for one of my high school dances (if I had the photo, I would post it!) Anyway, Keegan and I have stayed in touch and he now lives in Los Angeles but comes to New York every couple of weeks for work. He also knows my friend, Denise, because they’ve worked together in the past so we planned to have dinner and go to a show at the Knitting Factory afterwards.
Michelin has a lot of Brooklyn restaurants on their list, mostly on their one-star list. Delaware and Hudson is a long rectangular restaurant that seats 38 and serves homey American food with influences from the Pennsylvania Dutch. There’s only one menu for dinner, so there were very few choices you need to make before they bring food to the table. On the evening we were there, they served us lots of small plates –
Freshly made warm pretzel rolls with fresh butter and pickled vegetables:
Chicken liver with green apple jelly and toast points:
Very rich and dense chestnut soup with freshly grated nutmeg:
Scallops with kohlrabi slaw:
The green tomato pie that Pete Wells spoke highly of:
Potatoes with a cheesy sauce:
All of the appetizers and finger foods were okay but none of them wowed me. I really enjoyed the pretzel rolls and warm butter, but was not a huge fan of any of the others. It seemed like we were at a potluck and everyone just brought their favorite dish; there wasn’t anything that brought them together or made sense as to why they were being served together.
For our first course, we had the ricotta dumplings with swiss chard and pickled walnuts:
These are homemade and very good, although a little too soggy and without enough bite.
For our main courses, we all ordered different things and shared. Staring with the pork belly with parsnips:
The vegetarian roasted porcini mushrooms with parsnip puree, green beans and crispy shallots:
And the pan roasted cod with leeks and mushrooms:
My favorite was the porcini mushrooms with the parsnip puree; it didn’t make me miss meat and potatoes at all and tasted very meaty to me.
For dessert, we all received the panna cotta with local honey and roasted pears:
And a final dessert plate with chocolates, macarons, and pate de fruit:
We had a really fun time at dinner (and at the show afterwards) and it was really nice to enjoy a meal with both Keegan and Denise:
While I enjoyed the meal, I would have preferred to order a la carte because I probably would not have tried all of the appetizers or even the entrees. It felt like I was in the chef’s home, not in a restaurant, and I think if anything, it should be a notable Bib gourmand, not a Michelin 1-star restaurant.
Last week, I made a delicious banana pudding for Jordan’s birthday celebration at the office. I gave him a few choices of what I could make for our office treat and he picked the banana pudding. I have experience making banana pudding (and have documented it here) but here is the actual recipe:
Magnolia’s Banana Pudding Recipe
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 c cold water
1 (3.4 oz) box vanilla instant pudding mix
3 c heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 c sliced bananas (this ended up being about 5 bananas)
1 (12 oz.) box Nilla Wafers
First, combine the sweetened condensed milk with the cold water. Once those have been mixed together, add the instant pudding mix and make sure all of the pudding mix is blended with the condensed milk and water. Refrigerate until firm (about 2 hours).
While the pudding is firming up, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form:
Once the pudding is firm, mix with the whipped cream and add vanilla extract:
Fold the pudding and whipped cream together (by hand):
Now you’re ready to put everything together! I have a trifle bowl that makes banana pudding look good – you start by placing nilla wafers on the bottom of the bowl and sliced bananas on top of the nilla wafers:
Then a layer of the whipped cream + vanilla combo:
Keep layering until you run out of ingredients (I ended up with about 5 layers and a little leftover for individual containers):
And the happy birthday boy:
When David and I used to live on 19th street, there weren’t too many shops and stores on the street. Now, however, there’s a SoulCycle, an international bookstore, Muji, and a Dough Doughnut Shop:
The first time I tried Dough was at Brooklyn Flea; the passion fruit with cacao nibs doughnut was sweet and tangy but a little soggy because it had been sitting around for a while. This time, however, I went straight to the source – the actual doughnut shop for their freshly made doughnuts. This location has a bakery behind the storefront and had a pretty long line the morning that I visited. Their service is still working out kinks but they had lots of fresh doughnuts so I didn’t care about waiting:
I ordered a dozen doughnuts for my coworkers – cafe au lait, glazed, hibiscus, cinnamon sugar, and Valrhona chocolate:
All of them were amazing; they’re yeasty doughnuts with different glazes and my favorite was the chocolate, but all of them were fresh and delicious. When I visited (before 9am) they were already out of their flavor of the day, the Pumpkin doughnut! My theory is that people do Soulcycle in the morning and then walk over to Dough to reward themselves. What a dangerous combo of stores! I guess they’ll keep each other in business…we are so happy Dough is finally in the city!
