Four days in New York City gives you just enough time to see some sights, eat some good food, stroll through neighbourhoods and get some shopping done. This was our second trip to the Big Apple and although much of our time revolved around preparing for the Arctic Forage dinner at the James Beard House, we did manage to get some touristy stuff done too. And eat…boy did we eat.
After the prep was done at the Food and Finance School in Manhattan, we walked a couple of blocks away and found a Thai Restaurant that was serving $3 Chang beer. Sold!
Fish in chilis and an ice cold Chang to wash it down.
Steamed shrimp dumplings packed with flavour: ginger, garlic, scallions. Heaven on a spoon.
The beer was cold and the food was great, but for the life of me, I can’t remember the name of the restaurant…oops.
Here’s one I do remember: our first dinner near Time Square at ESCA, a restaurant owned by David Pasternak, Mario Battali and Joe Bastianich. Pasternack has been called both a fish whisperer, and the Pope of Fish. He is a chef extraordinaire and co-author of The Young Man and the Sea: Recipes and Crispy Fish Tales from ESCA but most of all, David Pasternack is a fisherman who understands what a fish needs. Sometimes, it doesn’t need much.
After sampling each other’s crudo (raw fish Italian-style), we dug into our mains and sighed. Così buono!
We sat on the patio under a canopy of lighted trees: me, Steve and five chefs from Ontario. As you can imagine, the talk revolved around food. It was interesting to listen to the chefs discuss the attributes of razor clams and just why, exactly, Italian wine tastes so good when you’re in Italy.
The best dish of that first round was the the foie gras of the sea: seared monkfish liver with rhubarb, pecans and millet. The liver was the size of my fist, and succulent beyond belief.
We had a few martinis and a little bit of wine which may explain the degradation in photo quality and the lack of memory as to what we ordered as the night went on, but I can tell you one thing for sure: what happened at ESCA was a night of incredible food — the best execution and presentation of seafood I’ve been served at a restaurant to date, and that’s the truth.
It was a packed house that Thursday night so we were surprised that Pasternack took the time to come out and regale us with fish tales and tidbits about his life, the restaurant and the fish scene. I like this guy. No muss, no fuss. Tells it like it is. In a city overflowing with world-class eateries, I’d seek out ESCA in a heartbeat.
The next night wasn’t as memorable…foodwise. After a night of seafood, us meat-eaters needed beef. A restaurant called Primehouse caught our eye because of one thing: they claimed to dry-age their beef for 65 days. That’s a lot of days. Surely it would be fall-off-the-bone-tender and flavourful. Surely.
Not.
There we sat, a table full of people involved in the food industry, scratching our heads and wondering what the missing link was in this production. Yes, the steaks were cooked to perfection but why did I have to saw through this rib eye like I was a lumberjack in a pole-cutting contest? Who stole my flavour? I’m still stumped. Maybe “Prime”– the company-owned Angus bull apparently responsible for keeping the cooler stocked with cuts of his offspring– doesn’t have the right stuff anymore. Time to put Prime out to pasture. Alone.
An early breakfast the next morning had us in Tribeca, just a few blocks from the hotel, at a place called
Bubby’s — a little piece of the farm in the concrete jungle. This is a cool (and pricey) joint that was hopping by 8 a.m.
Pancakes and plantains ($16)
Organic, grass-fed, raised without the crappy stuff. If you want that type of food, you pay the price. Hopefully someday, “organic, grass-fed, no crap food” will be the norm, and all of us can afford to eat like this everyday. Make some noise people…seriously, GMO has gotta go.
Saturday night we presented our
Arctic Forage dinner at the James Beard House. Steve and I were lucky: we got to actually sit down and eat the food. The chefs, however, did not and because of that, we found ourselves on the Lower East Side at 2:30 a.m. snorfing down pastrami sandwiches and dill pickles at
Katz’s Deli.This is, of course, the famous deli in the movie, When Harry Met Sally and where Sally had the Big O. “I’ll have what she’s having.” Remember?
On our last day in NYC, Louis took us to his old ‘hood of Queens — specifically the Astoria area where he used to live when he was the Executive Chef at the Canadian Consulate General. During that time, Louis was part of a Canadian team who presented meals at James Beard House, so our Arctic Forage dinner wasn’t his “first time at the rodeo”, as they say.
As it turned out, our little foray into Queens resulted in a food highlight of our trip when we stopped in at Stamatis Greek restaurant and had mind-altering octopus. Sweet mother of God, it was incredible.
Grilled squid and octopus
Three happy eaters: me, Steve and Louis at Stamatis Restaurant
We said goodbye to Louis after that meal. He headed north, back to Ottawa, and Steve and I headed southwest to the Flatiron District in Manhattan to explore the latest piece of real estate in the BataliBastianich food empire:
Eataly.
The first Eataly was opened in Turin in 2007 by Oscar Farinetti. Today Farinetti and his partners own six Eatalys in Italy, four in Japan. Now partnered with Mario Batali and Lidia and Joe Bastianich, the New York location is the 11th outlet: 32,000 sq ft of food, wine and kitchenware.
The nice thing about Eataly is that although the food is Italian, many of the products and ingredients are sourced locally.
Much of the product at Eataly is organic — like the Maple Hills Creamery’s drinkable yogurt made from organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.
Who’s responsible for the fish? Funny you should ask: none other than the Fish Whisperer himself, David Pasternack of
ESCA.
The meat: grass-fed Montana cows of Italian ancestry, Angus from Kansas, pigs from Iowa, lamb from Michigan.
Bread at Eataly NYC is made with o
rganic stone-ground flour from Don Lewis’ Wild Hive Farm in Clinton Corner, NY.
Fresh pasta – made in-house everyday.
Passing up on Eataly in NYC would be like passing on the the Eiffel Tower while in Paris. You have to go.
Our final food stop of the trip was at celeb chef,
Aarón Sanchez’ restaurant, Centrico, in Tribeca. We ate Italian, Thai and Greek food in 3 days so having Mexican food on our last night was a nice way of rounding out our ethnic food orgy.Sunday night and the restaurant was very quiet.
Homemade tortilla chips, smokin’ hot salsa and guacamole to die for.
Guaranteed to put out the fire: a frozen caipirinha.
Pollo con Mole ($20) – pan-roasted chicken, mole sanchez, wild mushrooms with smoked kabocha squash puree. Good price but lacking in flavour.
Braised beef short rib enchiladas ($16?) Filling, tasty, tender beef. Nice.
So many restaurants in NYC, so little time. What surprised me the most is the amount of organic and locally-sourced products that are available in the little food stores and markets that line the streets. And not only the stores, but restaurants are making a point of using those ingredients and products themselves. Very impressive.
If you’re planning a food-centric trip to New York, check out
Edible Manhattan first to find out what’s happening in the world of good food. Buy a Metro pass, put on a pair of good shoes, and walk through the districts…you never know where you’ll end up. Oh, and go to Stamatis’ for the octopus. You’ll thank me.
