SethG

Returned yesterday for an early dinner. Assorted mezze (of course), some turmeric-stained cauliflower, lamb brains, rabbit, and a few glasses of wine. The secret to his rabbit, he confided, was that he just cooks it in the same pan simultaneously with his duck, so it winds up covered in duck fat. I don’t know what the secret to the lamb brains is, since it looks like he’s just hammering them in a hot skillet yet they come out better than any brains I’ve had anywhere. Once again we were the only patrons, a couple of late lunch diners leaving as we sat down. Free-wheeling conversation ensued, covering everything from business (not good, lately) to the economy to his sister’s recent visit / kitchen takeover (the best chef of the siblings, he insists) to Noguchi (“He should be made the Saint of Queens”) to French brain cookery (not a fan) to Catherine of Medici, to some of his favorite things around the borough - foods (Taiwanese “fly heads” in Elmhurst) and bars (LetLove Inn for music, Irish Whiskey Bar for… well, Irish whiskey) and museums (Louis Armstrong House) - to the Gaza protests (I won’t repeat his opinions here, ha…) i don’t think he ever plans on retiring. I’m not sure he could. But there’s that mono no aware in the air with every visit, an acute sense of the inevitable impermanence of this.

We go a couple times a year. There was a period after the revelations about Batali surfaced but before his divestment that we didn’t go, though. After he sold his share I got a text from a friend, “is it ok to get the tripe again?” - so of course we did. The room was quite sparse, though admittedly we had a late post-movie reservation. During the pandemic they had one of the better games going. And it seemed like people picked up on it, as it got busier each time we went. And post-pandemic it just stayed busy. Not impossible-rez busy like in their early days, but there’s been a reasonably full house every time we’ve been since. The crowd has gotten a little older… but then so have I.

We went early on and I decided not to post about it. Honestly, the only thing I remembered about the meal was the champagne (which was extraordinary, and actually priced below any retail I could find) and… literally nothing else. Until just now, when I was reminded of the leeks. The execution was perfect nothing was bad. Nothing was interesting or memorable, though. (OTOH, we just had our first post-Kent meal at Saga the other night. While maybe not perfect, it’s in good hands.)

We enjoyed Bridges overall. We managed to snag a rez early on-ish (it was around Halloween) - I hadn’t really seen any press yet, it was just this new place that popped up on Resy and seemed to be inexplicably booked solid from day one. The website had no menu at the time, just an address and a link to an Instagram page But I found a menu someone had posted online, looked interesting so when a Notify hit I grabbed it. So the wine list is certainly… (annoyingly?) esoteric. Gringet… Manseng… Valdiguie… Marechal Foch… look at us with our atypical list. Is a “gringet” even a grape? I dunno, it could be an apple? Or a fish? Wasn’t Marechal Foch a Star Wars prequel character? My general experience with uncommon varietals is finding there’s a reason they’re not more common. Over here there’s a wine from North Carolina. Here’s a Mexican wine. There’s one from Vermont that costs three digits. I’m distrustful. Anyway… I give the somm a price point and she gets us a decent wine that has an even better story behind it. Vineyard burnt down, yada yada, okay fine we’ll get that one. As to the food…. The lime-leaf Béarnaise with the crab, agreed, leaned a bit salty. But the crab itself was fine, if the portion could’ve been a little bigger. Tête de cochon was excellent. Uni custard also very good Eel dumplings were fine, but it almost could’ve been anything in there for all the eel one could taste The advertised horseradish was hard to detect. Not a re-order Our sweetbreads weren’t burnt. Well done, if not as creative as some of the other options. Could’ve used a little more acidity somewhere. Cocktails we tried were kind of meh. A gimlet was aggressively limey Some concoction that involved tequila and what I’m sure was Kadoya toasted sesame oil didn’t quite click for me. Would I go through the reservation rigmarole again? I dunno. Would I go as a walk in to the seemingly not-as-busy bar area? Sure.

Oddly we had been thinking about getting takeout from Yong Chuan tonight, so I took that as a sign. I had been slightly wary of them, due to the presence of “Jinhua Ham” on the menu. Jinhua Ham is illegal in the US, and I doubt they’re secretly importing it and advertising an illegal product openly. So it’s obviously some other country ham they’re passing off as Jinhua… it could even be something good, like Lady Edison’s “Jinhua-style” ham (probably not) - but that’s a pet peeve of mine. A silly peeve, perhaps. Fine. Anyway, that aside… dinner comes in a nice reusable foil-lined bag: The order: seafood noodles, stir-fried eel, Ningbo pork patty, and a shockingly priced ($32 for a small) duck and bamboo shoot soup with aforementioned “Jinhua” ham. You may notice I listed four dishes but there are five in the picture. That’s because the “small” soup took up two giant bowls and contained half a duck. So I guess the price tag made sense. i really liked the noodles, there was a rich nuttiness to the oil that slicked it. Reminded me of when I make homemade XO sauce with Serrano ham. Fat from that “Jinhua” ham? Maybe. Eel was very good. Well-balanced bright flavors, good counterpart to the meaty protein Soup was okay. Very mild. There’s still some in the fridge. It’ll make an okay lunch with some rice tomorrow. Not a re-order though. If you unrobed twenty uncooked pork dumplings from Vanessa’s and mashed the filling together you’d have the Ningbo pork patty. Well, with an egg on it you would. I mean, it’s fine. Just not terribly exciting. And a bit much, unless you’re sharing it four+ ways.

Stretch Pizza I was a little torn on. Like, the pizza is fine...? Some clever flavor combos. There's a bit of a "2AM stoner fridge raid" vibe now and then, but that can still be good. Some of the side dishes I found duds. There are a couple likeable ones (like the chickpea fries) that have brief flashes of the old Wylie, but overall there's not much whiz-bang to a meal there. I think at this point, many of those techniques and chemicals and whatnot that Wylie, Heston, etc were playing with... a lot have become more commonplace. They're just in the background of many dishes at many restaurants, no longer the point. So you don't see the work so much, even though it's there. Honestly, right now, in terms of interesting modernist food manipulation that really shows -and that I've been to - my first thought is EMP. There's also the Jose Andres Bazaar (which I haven't been to) that I imagine will sate any desire for clarified scallop snow and goat cheese balloons. Cafe Mars for sure has me curious, though. It looks like silly fun.

Oh they look fun. How did that not pop up on my radar before?

Skimming over Resy openings for tonight, places we’ve had decent meals - Osamil, Van Da, Tuome (though it’s been a few years), maybe Sakagura? They’ve changed chefs a few times since last time I was there, though. Ddobar for an inexpensive tasting menu Haven’t tried Phoenix Palace yet, but they’re the cool new kid on the block. We’ve had takeout from Uluh a couple times and I’ve enjoyed most of it. The menu is kind on pan-Chinese, not just Szechuan. If you’re interested in Filipino, Naks or 87 Ludlow perhaps.

Everything we had ranged from good to very good. Everything we had also ranged from uninspired to totally forgettable. (Except the wine, that was phenomenal. I’d go buy a bottle for home use if it didn’t cost more at the store.)

On the subject of champers markups, a bottle of Jacquesson Terres Rouge we had at Time & Tide was about 40 bucks below the nearest retail price I could find. Nice to see the Crown Shy pricing continuing.

Dynamite dish. Had it last night. Pig ears were fun, too. Crazy rich & unctuous - maybe too much of a good thing. It was a porky evening.

If you can go on a weekday afternoon, you might be the only one(s) there as we were, and get the full Ali experience to yourself. Although he told us a bluegrass band comes in on Saturdays (or maybe it was Sundays) now, which might be fun. Where they set up I haven’t a clue. There are only three tables, one of which is his “office” - but I guess they make it work somehow. For today we got his old jazz mix, mostly Louis-es Armstrong & Prima. Good to know he’s still going strong. We’re going to try and do Mombar in a few weeks. SO has never been. I described it to her as basically a living work of American folk art. But with food.

Went for lunch fit the first time in… fifteen years, give or take. Let it be known that Ali is as much a delight as always. A simple meal: a mezze platter (hummus, baba, foul, mini falafels, fried kale, assorted veggies and fruit) and a dish of braised lamb cheeks. Which, because lamb cheeks aren’t rich enough, he finished by cooking an egg in it shakshuka-style and mixing the raw yolk through. Two dishes but it left us well-sated, and his aggressively-spiced food still kicks. It’s almost shocking how much cumin and cardamom was in the lamb, but… it works. Were it dinner we’d have ordered much more - there were all sorts of things available, meat and organs of lamb, beef, chicken, and rabbit, plus a few whole fish. Yes, he still just kind of makes up the prices at the end. $71 after “tax” for the two dishes and three drinks, which sounds egregious but we were well-stuffed and frankly it was $30 less than a brunch at Eataly last week and you don’t get Ali’s conversation there. So it’s worth every penny. It is clear that he’s getting older. It was never smart to dine here if you were in a hurry fifteen years ago, and even less so now. Food is ready when it is. It’s a one-man show, and when it ends it’ll end, and unlike Shopsin’s there’s no next generation to take it over and keep the legacy going. Enjoy it while it’s here. Our original plan was to have lunch at KC, hit the Noguchi Museum, meet up with some friends and then return to his brother’s restaurant (Mombar, also around 15 years, and which also may not be around much longer) for dinner. But alas, Noguchi was closed, so on a whim we trekked out to the other side of the borough to the Queens Zoo. The Mombar return will have to wait until another week.

Haven’t been in a decade or so. Apparently there’s a new chef now (though Iacopo Falai is still overseeing it to some degree) Looked at the website today and… wow. RW menu notwithstanding, the prices have gone astronomical. They’re up there with Marea et al now.

I’ll say upfront I’m not an Al pastor specialist. It’ll usually be one of a number of tacos ordered and while usually good, among the less interesting to me. It’s often more like a palate cleanser between the buche and tripa. I find a narrower spectrum of difference between the high and low than I will with other cuts. Not necessarily better, but perhaps around but same level - aforementioned Taco Mix. Assorted street carts along Roosevelt, but especially the one with the big pot of bubbling lard around 79th/80th or so. Also one of the two directly outside the station - I think it was Charly, but it might have been the other one. (Admittedly, the carts are all typically midnight-or-later eats when things inherently taste better and my memory is foggier.) There are decent Sunset Park options. Bronco and Poblanitos are in my regular rotation. Maybe Matamoros and/or Ricos but it’s been awhile. Haven’t tried it at Rancho Grande yet but I’ve liked most things I’ve had there so far.