New York: Part 1--Brown Cafe

Finally, I have enough energy to start my New York series of entries. So here I go.

My first day in NYC is a hot, sultry one, and it's only May 11th. The woman who owns the apartment I'm staying in is so organized and thoughtful as to leave an entire notebook of favorite neighborhood restaurants, so after a cursory perusal, my friends and I decide on Brown Cafe. It's nearby, the menu looks good, and it's not expensive. Perfect. So we head out.

After consulting maps and an accompanying sister who temporarily resides in New Jersey, we arrive at our destination: Brown Cafe.

All the outdoor tables are full, so we reluctantly plant ourselves inside in a table by the door, hoping that we'll catch a breeze and maybe be able to cool off. Not in my case, though. My seat is by the window, so the sun beats down on me, and I soon melt into an ever-increasing puddle of sweat. Oh well. Margaret's sister Diane (the New Jersey sister) suffers the same fate. Now on to the food.

I ordered a wild boar sausage sandwich, for around $9.00. Not bad. Not bad at all. It was on nice crusty bread, and included caramelized onions and roasted bell peppers, and was accompanied by a nice, although standard, salad of baby greens. I stuffed the salad inside my sandwich. That was a good idea. It was a good sandwich, but the flavor of the boar sausage didn't stand out as much as I expected.

Diane and Ingrid both ordered the same salad, which was composed of arugula (and possibly spinach, I don't remember), dried cranberries, and gorgonzola dolce (a younger, milder gorgonzola). They both seemed happy with their selection, and I tasted it too--it was an excellent salad.

Two more items were ordered: Ingrid had an iced tea--minty and refreshing, and Margaret ordered a tuna sandwich. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of her sandwich, but it was on crusty bread like mine, and had a big chunk of fish in the middle (not the mayonnaisey mess you were thinking of). It was excellent, possibly better than my sandwich, and was also accompanied by a baby greens salad.

So here are the vital stats:

61 Hester Street, NY, NY 10002, near Ludlow

212.477.2427

A website with a good overview of the restaurant is:

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/brown-cafe/

23Hoyt=My Margarita Recipe

I know, I know, you're all waiting for my New York reviews, and I promise I will write them, but I thought I would ease back into the blog with something a little less ambitious. So here goes:

Last night, I went to a restaurant down the street from where I live called 23Hoyt. I had been wanting to go there for quite awhile, especially since my neighbor Joe had said that he had taken a hot date there. If Joe can go there, so can I! Well anyway, it is owned and run by the same gang that is responsible for such hits as Saucebox and Blue Hour (both highly recommended). I ended up only having a drink, but glancing at their cocktail list, I noticed something funny. Their description for their margarita is pretty much exactly the same as the way I make mine. Same brand of tequila, same brand of orange liqueur. Odd. So who thought of it first, me or them? Maybe I should become a mixologist in my spare time. I didn't actually try the margarita, since I figured it would taste the same as mine (which is the best margarita I've ever had, by the way). I ordered a Zefiro Martini, which consists of gin and brandy and is garnished with caper berries. It was excellent. Caper berries are always a refreshing touch. Even though I only tried one item there, I give the place two enthusiastic thumbs up. Good drinks, excellent supercool atmosphere. Oh yeah, and the bartender was superhot too. Always a bonus. I will come back again and actually try the food, and write a more complete review. For now, however, I would like to impart to you my margarita recipe:

23Hoyt/Laura Margarita

1 1/2 ounces Sauza Hornitos tequila

1 ounce Patron Citronage Liqueur

Juice of 1/2 fresh lime

Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon

Combine all and serve on the rocks.

Here are the vital stats:

http://www.23hoyt.com/

529 NW 23rd at Hoyt

503.445.7400

Jackie

I know that this has nothing to do with cooking, but I just found out that my 21-year-old cat died when I was on vacation. I am very upset. She was a very good cat and I loved her very much, so I want to say something about her, because she had a very interesting life for a cat.

Jackie was born in April 1986, one of five kittens born to a three-legged stray cat that my family named Hissy (she was unfriendly and hissed at everyone). I named her Jackie, short for Jack-o-lantern, because she was a black cat with orange eyes, reminding me of pumpkins and Halloween. As a kitten, Jackie was very shy and unfriendly; she was the last of the five kittens that we were able to pet. Finally, though, she came around, although throughout her adult life she continued to be very nervous and extremely wary of strangers.

One Christmas night, I think in 1989, but I'm not sure, my mom let her outside for a bathroom break. She didn't come home that night, but that wasn't entirely unusual, so no one was worried. But then the next day, she still hadn't come back, and the day after that, and the day after that as well. Soon four weeks had passed, and we thought Jackie must be lost for good. But then one afternoon, five weeks after Jackie had gone missing, I came home from school, and both of my parents were home. Strange, my dad isn't usually home in the afternoon. They looked happy, and told me to go look in the kitchen. There was Jackie, lapping up milk from her little bowl! She was skin and bones now, her ribs showing, but she was alive! We guessed that she must have gotten locked in someone's garage and survived on water all that time.

As an adult, Jackie was tough, very muscular, and didn't get along with other cats well. She found her little niece annoying, and frequently scratched her nose.

As old age set in, Jackie mellowed out, learning to tolerate her niece, and even occasionally letting acquaintances pet her. She liked milk with her meals, and sleeping in the neighbor's backyard was a favorite pastime.

I feel bad because I usually make sure to pet my cats right before I leave for the airport, but this time I didn't, and now Jackie is gone. She liked to sit in my lap and purr, and I loved her.

Hello From New York

No No, I haven't forgotten about my blog. I'm on vacation. When I return, you will be showered with reports of a cute little Italian restaurant named Paprika, a tiny cafe called Brown Cafe, my Brooklyn non-BLT adventure, and (drumroll, please!) Anthony Bourdain's restaurant. If I am a lucky type of person, he will be there to autograph my book, but as I am generally not a lucky type of person, I will probably just have a very nice dinner. That sounds fine to me. Also, I have taken a million pictures, so the select few will appear in the next entry. Yes, that's right, hold on with bated breath. So I will return with a new and exciting entry in a few days. Please don't forget about me, I haven't forgotten about any of you. Thanks for reading!

Borscht, Bread, and Anthony Bourdain (Not Necessarily in that Order)

That's a lot to cover in one post, my inaugural post, but here goes.

I'll start with the bread. I have struggled and failed so many times attempting to make bread over the years. Let's just say I've been an expert brick-baker. But no more. A guy I work with told me about a no-knead bread recipe that was printed in the New York Times last Fall. It is, in a word, AMAZING. Apparently, it's all over the internet, with good reason. This recipe produces a crusty, bubbly, rustic loaf that rivals anything you buy at Ken's or Pearl bakery. Thanks Jeremy!

It's super easy, and turns out perfect every time; all it requires is time and patience. If you bring a hot loaf to a dinner party, everyone will be thoroughly impressed. Every time I've done so, everyone said incredulously "You made this?!"

You can find the recipe at fanaticcook.blogspot.com/2007/01/new-york-times-no-knead-bread.html

Helpful hint: I used a pan called a Doufeu to bake the bread in. It is intended for braising meat, but the condensation and steam that's created inside works perfectly for this purpose.

Next, Anthony Bourdain. I recently read Kitchen Confidential, a book by now-semi-celebrity-chef Anthony Bourdain. It was fascinating, exciting, informative. It described how he got

interested in cooking, as well as all the dirty secrets of the restaurant business. I was hooked. I started his next book recently, A Cook's Tour, and so far, am equally enamored. He makes cooking cool, hip, a little edgy (even though he is probably kind of dorky too). Super cool. I'm going to New York City next week, and hopefully, I will have a meal at his restaurant, Brasserie Les Halles. I'm so looking forward to this. I _almost_ have a crush on him, even though he is an old guy who smokes. But anyway, an excerpt from A Cook's Tour made me very interested in borscht:

"...borscht is barely a soup; it's damn near an entree: a chunky hot stew of meat, onions, carrot, cabbage, beets, and potatoes, a rib-sticking dark red concoction perfect for filling the belly cheaply on an icy winter night. The cold, watery bright pink puree you might have seen in the States is barely related." (Bourdain. A Cook's Tour. Ecco: 2001.)

This sounded good! I searched the internet to find a borscht recipe that resembled his description. Here it is: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ukrainian-Red-Borscht-Soup/Detail.aspx

I made it this weekend. I will DEFINITELY make it again. It was super good. Here's a photo of my result:

So, thanks for reading. My future posts probably won't be so long, but you know, this was my first one, I had a lot to talk about, so I was excited.