Sometimes Home Cooking Doesn't Cut It
Loving food is something that happens to a lot of people in a lot of different ways. My mom married into a food family and has since developed a love for fine flavors. My dad, brother, and I were born into food as were a lot of my friends, while other friends decided good food equals a good life and began nurturing their cooking skills.
When I went to college I loved good food thanks to my family, I also thought I knew how to cook. Once I moved to Whitesburg where there were no restaurants to speak of I realized I was mistaken about my cooking abilities. After five years and many, many potlucks later I can cook now. Whitesburg is the kind of town where if you want it you have to make it. The only take out is fast food and the grocery store will provide most of the ingredients you need but it certainly doesn’t have a fancy olive bar and the only prepared salads are either starch based or mayonnaise based or both.
I am happy and lucky to have found myself among friends who thrive in situations where you have to make things happen. It’s a different kind of world when you don’t have everything at your fingertips. The only caveat to all this is even if we could get all the ingredients we wanted at the store, you simply can’t cook everything at home.
This weekend my family of four plus Brian’s girlfriend was in New York doing what we do best together, eating and deciding where to eat next. For the most part we had food you can’t make at home either because of special equipment or ingredients or know-how. Know-how isn’t as hard to come by as I once thought thanks to the internet and the world’s obsession with global flavors, but equipment and ingredients are often more scarce in my world.
The first meal we couldn’t recreate at home the same way they made at Lechonera Sandy a Dominican place on 116th in east Harlem, was roasted pork, cuchifritos, and mofongo with pork. Cuchifrito seems to be the Dominican word for fried or not fried delicious treats. We had tongue, which was nothing like the disgusting piece of meat I remember my parents serving. It was tender and flavorful with a sauce. We had a whole sweet plantain fried and stuffed with vegetables and ground beef. The third cuchifrito was mashed yucca in the shape of a football as my dad said, stuffed with meat and fried. I feel like there was something added to the yucca mash because it was yellow and all two of the yuccas I’ve seen this week have been white. (the pictures are in order below.)
Next came the mofongo with pork and garlic sauce. The mofongo was turned out from a mold. There was a crisp outside, which I think came from baking, and crunchy bits that we thought were cracklins mixed in with the soft plantains.
Finally was the roasted pork with rice and beans. The rice was fluffy the beans were brown and soupy. The pork was roasted to perfection with a crispy skin. This pork was tasty and tender. My dad got a great picture of the roaster.
After a few hours of shopping and walking and napping it was on to our next dining experience. I’ve been anticipating this meal at Sushi of Gari for months now. I felt okay about the anticipation because I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed. My dad first took me here a few years ago because it was close to our apartment and had a high rating in his bible, more commonly known as Zagat’s. What I didn’t know until recently is that while Masa, another top sushi spot, is all about tradition, Gari is all about innovation. He came to America so he could make sashimi with foi gras. We ordered the chef’s choice and the platters of sushi just kept coming until we were full.
It was sashimi, fish over rice, with the most amazing sauces and toppins: bean curd sauce, miso vinaigrette, garlic mayonnaise, ponzu, and baked tomato. This meal did not disappoint. I felt so euphoric afterwards I had trouble talking. These are items that you could make at home if you had access to fresh fish, but this fish was so fresh and the sauces so creative that it would be hard to capture all the flavors.
The next morning we reconvened for brunch, my favorite meal. We went to another Nathan approved spot, Barney Greengrass. The food speaks for itself, house cured grav lox, homemade chopped chicken liver pate, bialys, bagels, lox, a pastrami omelet, pickles, and potato pancakes. The atmosphere is very diner-like but all Jewish male waiters, crowded, and delicious smelling. They don’t take reservations (I heard one teenage girl whine to her dad “why don’t they take bookings”) and there are certain requirements to getting a table quickly. The main one is your entire party has to be there. We saw a lot of crossed arms and rolled eyes because people meeting other people there were late. Also the family with a stroller had to wait a lot longer than if they had been stroller-free. It was quite the brunch scene. A lot of what we ate you could make at home, like the potato pancakes and even chopped liver pate, but it was better not to have to have been over the stove frying or searching out good chicken livers.
Despite the cooking ability present at our table, none of these meals would be nearly as tasty if we tried to make them at home. Even so, after so many dining experiences like these I’m ready to have at it again in my own kitchen. I won’t try to copy anything, but I may try to experiment with some new flavors.
Lechonera Sandy
2261 Second Ave at 116th St.
Sushi of Gari
402 E. 78th Between York and 1st Ave
Barney Greengrass
541 Amsterdam Ave Between 86 and 87
When I went to college I loved good food thanks to my family, I also thought I knew how to cook. Once I moved to Whitesburg where there were no restaurants to speak of I realized I was mistaken about my cooking abilities. After five years and many, many potlucks later I can cook now. Whitesburg is the kind of town where if you want it you have to make it. The only take out is fast food and the grocery store will provide most of the ingredients you need but it certainly doesn’t have a fancy olive bar and the only prepared salads are either starch based or mayonnaise based or both.
I am happy and lucky to have found myself among friends who thrive in situations where you have to make things happen. It’s a different kind of world when you don’t have everything at your fingertips. The only caveat to all this is even if we could get all the ingredients we wanted at the store, you simply can’t cook everything at home.
This weekend my family of four plus Brian’s girlfriend was in New York doing what we do best together, eating and deciding where to eat next. For the most part we had food you can’t make at home either because of special equipment or ingredients or know-how. Know-how isn’t as hard to come by as I once thought thanks to the internet and the world’s obsession with global flavors, but equipment and ingredients are often more scarce in my world.
The first meal we couldn’t recreate at home the same way they made at Lechonera Sandy a Dominican place on 116th in east Harlem, was roasted pork, cuchifritos, and mofongo with pork. Cuchifrito seems to be the Dominican word for fried or not fried delicious treats. We had tongue, which was nothing like the disgusting piece of meat I remember my parents serving. It was tender and flavorful with a sauce. We had a whole sweet plantain fried and stuffed with vegetables and ground beef. The third cuchifrito was mashed yucca in the shape of a football as my dad said, stuffed with meat and fried. I feel like there was something added to the yucca mash because it was yellow and all two of the yuccas I’ve seen this week have been white. (the pictures are in order below.)
Next came the mofongo with pork and garlic sauce. The mofongo was turned out from a mold. There was a crisp outside, which I think came from baking, and crunchy bits that we thought were cracklins mixed in with the soft plantains.
Finally was the roasted pork with rice and beans. The rice was fluffy the beans were brown and soupy. The pork was roasted to perfection with a crispy skin. This pork was tasty and tender. My dad got a great picture of the roaster.
After a few hours of shopping and walking and napping it was on to our next dining experience. I’ve been anticipating this meal at Sushi of Gari for months now. I felt okay about the anticipation because I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed. My dad first took me here a few years ago because it was close to our apartment and had a high rating in his bible, more commonly known as Zagat’s. What I didn’t know until recently is that while Masa, another top sushi spot, is all about tradition, Gari is all about innovation. He came to America so he could make sashimi with foi gras. We ordered the chef’s choice and the platters of sushi just kept coming until we were full.
It was sashimi, fish over rice, with the most amazing sauces and toppins: bean curd sauce, miso vinaigrette, garlic mayonnaise, ponzu, and baked tomato. This meal did not disappoint. I felt so euphoric afterwards I had trouble talking. These are items that you could make at home if you had access to fresh fish, but this fish was so fresh and the sauces so creative that it would be hard to capture all the flavors.
The next morning we reconvened for brunch, my favorite meal. We went to another Nathan approved spot, Barney Greengrass. The food speaks for itself, house cured grav lox, homemade chopped chicken liver pate, bialys, bagels, lox, a pastrami omelet, pickles, and potato pancakes. The atmosphere is very diner-like but all Jewish male waiters, crowded, and delicious smelling. They don’t take reservations (I heard one teenage girl whine to her dad “why don’t they take bookings”) and there are certain requirements to getting a table quickly. The main one is your entire party has to be there. We saw a lot of crossed arms and rolled eyes because people meeting other people there were late. Also the family with a stroller had to wait a lot longer than if they had been stroller-free. It was quite the brunch scene. A lot of what we ate you could make at home, like the potato pancakes and even chopped liver pate, but it was better not to have to have been over the stove frying or searching out good chicken livers.
Despite the cooking ability present at our table, none of these meals would be nearly as tasty if we tried to make them at home. Even so, after so many dining experiences like these I’m ready to have at it again in my own kitchen. I won’t try to copy anything, but I may try to experiment with some new flavors.
Lechonera Sandy
2261 Second Ave at 116th St.
Sushi of Gari
402 E. 78th Between York and 1st Ave
Barney Greengrass
541 Amsterdam Ave Between 86 and 87
2 Comments:
Laura,
You certainly recreated the mood of the weekend. It was a continuous feast which for me ended quite delightfully with the raspberry tart from Pain Quotidien--it lasted me beyond the roast beef sandwich I grabbed from Au Bon Pain at the airport until I got home at midnight that night. I was happy to experiment with the sushi which was quite good and the Dominican food (wish I had ordered the beans rice and pork). I guess my most favorite dish was the peking duck we had together on Friday at noon. And Peyard had some good veggies. Anyway, it was fun to do the food thing with my food loving family and especially since you had been scouting out the places to eat. And home cooking would be dull if you couldn't go out and get something better because the atmosphere in which it is prepared has a lot to do with the taste. Love MOM
"Whitesburg is the kind of town where if you want it you have to make it." Not anymore! "Delight" officially has got the top nosh in town. Anna, Amelia, Joel and I went there last weekend and man was it out of sight! Not only does the decor resemble a gulag mess hall, but the dishes served up were perhaps the most unappealing food I have ever eaten. When debating where to have breakfast, Anna asked the ageless question, "who can screw up bacon and eggs?" Now the sages have their answer. Joel liked it, but Joel likes everything.
It's been fun to read your blog, Laura -- I'm jealous. See you soon.
Sam
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