Thoughts & Reflections

Tag: Dinner

  • Dinner at Claudette

    Claudette interior

    Despite a slightly disappointing start with breakfast, I ended my birthday with a fabulous dinner at Claudette. My friend Q was treating that evening and we both had been wanting to check out the restaurant so it made perfect sense to go there.

    Claudette serves French (Provençal) cuisine with a Middle Eastern bent. There are so many delicious looking items on the menu and it really was hard to decide. In the end, between the two of us, there was a starter, two hors d’oeuvres, two entrées, two sides and one dessert. Just like with Q’s birthday dinner at Cosme last month, looks were deceiving and there really was a lot of food at our table.

    Pistounade, Garlic Flatbread, Charred Octopus and Autumn Salad

    First up was the Pistounade, a basil almond tapenade. It was similar to a pesto and served with a basket of warm garlic flatbread. Very delicious and it felt healthy. The hors d’oeuvres came out at the same time: charred baby octopus for me and the Autumn Salad for Q. These were pretty big plates considering; we thought they were going to be smaller dishes, more similar to tapas but they were practically full meals themselves.

    Chicken Tagine, Bouillabaisse, Frites and Grilled Eggplant

    Choosing an entrée was a tough choice since there were so many good options. I was drawn to the Chicken Tagine since I haven’t had one in a very long time and Q chose the Bouillabaisse. The plates that came out were enormous; my dish was served in a traditional tagine and it was a very huge portion considering how much food we ate before the entrées arrived. The couscous was excellent; it wasn’t dry and very tasty, having absorbed much of the juices that came from the chicken. I could eat just that alone and have been happy. I did sample a bit of the Bouillabaisse and that was terrific too. And we really should have stopped ordering there but we wanted to try the sides as well so we ordered the grilled eggplant and the frites with ras el hanout (served with an aioli). There really was no way to eat it all and I ended up taking most of my tagine home, and Q took the remaining Pistoundae and flatbread (we finshed one basket and they brought out another).

    Baked Apple

    Of course, one cannot leave out dessert. When the menu arrived, most of the sweets were either dairy or chocolate based. After all of the savoury dishes, we really wanted something light. We had settled on the orange blossom creme brulée when our waitress told us the dessert du jour was a baked apple served on puff pastry and topped with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. She likened it to a deconstructed apple pie. Fruit! And it was totally what we wanted. We devoured most of it before our tea and dessert wine arrived at the table. That was definitely the best way to end the meal.

  • Dinner at Cosme

    Tortillas and pumpkin salsa

    Continuing with my friend Q’s birthday celebration, we had dinner at Cosme. After a long afternoon spent wandering around the Met, we were both hungry by the time we arrived for our dinner reservation.

    The menu is Mexican but with a twist. There are three sections to the very short menu consisting mainly of small plates and a few entrées. Because we were going to order the duck entree, one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, our waitress advised us to order just two of the smaller plates to share.

    Paloma Cocktail and Cashew Milk Agua Fresca

    Every table received a basket of warm corn tortillas served with a pumpkin salsa. This starter came shortly after the drinks: a Paloma cocktail for me (a tequila and grapefruit soda mix) and a cashew milk agua fresca for Q. After we finished the tortillas, the pumpkin salsa remained on the table and it went well with the other plates that we ordered.

    Mussel Tostada

    First up was a mussel tostada, served with lettuce, pig’s feet, and Mexican cucumber. It was very light and tasty, reminding me a bit of the cold plate of pigs’ feet or jellyfish that one sees at Chinese banquets. Then came the roasted eggplant and cauliflower, served with sesame seed salsa and preserved lemon. This was served with some (blue corn I think) tortillas. For a vegetarian this, it was pretty meaty but in a very good way. We both liked this dish a lot.

    Roasted Eggplant and Cauliflower; Duck Carnitas

    The duck carnitas came out at the same time as the eggplant. It was a very large dish though it didn’t look it at first. The duck was so tender, falling off the bone very easily as if it was pulled pork. There were more tortillas involved as well as salsa verde, salsa roja and wedges of lime. It was all very delicious but we couldn’t eat it all. After a while, we didn’t even use the tortillas to make tacos and just concentrated on eating the meat. I think we ended up devouring about 2/3 of it and Q took the rest of it home.

    Corn Mousse with Husk Meringue; Honey Yogurt Panna Cotta

    And let’s not forget about dessert. I had read of and Q wanted to order the corn mousse with husk meringue. It was wonderfully light and airy and moist. Q thought the corn flavor was a bit light but to me it tasted of vanilla. And we also ordered the honey yogurt panna cotta with mixed berries jello, which arrived looking a bit like a wobbly waffle. This was a nice contrast to the mousse with its slightly tangy flavor and jelly consistency. Both desserts were excellent and made for a terrific ending to the meal and the day.

  • Three Meals a Day in Paris, Part 2

    Crêperie Suzette, interior

    I hope I didn’t make people too hungry with the previous post—I have a tendency to do that with food posts on every blog I’ve created in the past.

    Darjeeling tea

    Francs-Bourgeois crêpe from Crêperie Suzette

    Salade Nicoise from from Crêperie Suzette

    I had my first crêpe in Paris at Crêperie Suzette in the Marais district. It was lunchtime and tempting as it was to go sweet, I opted for a savory galette instead. Since I am anti-fromage, I ended up with the only one that did not include cheese (mine came with topped with spinach, cream tomato coulis and basil). And of course, I cannot say no to a pot of (Darjeeling) tea. P went for something different and ordered the colorful Niçoise salad.

    Lebanese plates at Zamane

    For the second night in a row, we stuck to dinner near the hotel and it was more Middle Eastern food. This time, we went to Zarame, a Lebanese restaurant. The two of us ordered shawarma plates; I think P had the chicken and I went with a mixed plate of beef and chicken. The platters were huge: slices of marinated and roasted meats with sides of potatoes, hummus, baba ghanoush, and salad. There was also a basket of warm fluffy pita bread for dipping into those delicious mezzes. And I washed it down with a pot of mint tea.

    Fried pancake from Zamane

    We were gifted a free dessert: Katayef, a Lebanese crêpe with a cream or custard filling, sitting in a pool of orange blossom syrup. It was a very nice and thoughtful way to end the meal. The staff was very friendly and the food was good (and healthy too).

    Sunday is traditionally a day when most businesses (food and retail) are closed; that somewhat limited our choices of where to eat from the (incomplete because I left the other pages at the office) list I brought with me. I definitely wanted to check out Poilâne and with multiple locations in Paris, at least one of them was open on Sunday so that’s where we went for lunch.

    Salad starter from Poilâne

    Poilâne's Tartine Sardines

    Pot of green tea at Poilâne

    The Le Marais location of Poilâne offers meal sets for different times of the day. The lunch set includes a soup or salad as a starter, a tartine or a salad entrée, a drink (wine or water) and coffee or tea. One can order à la carte as well but the lunch set was a a good deal for €14,50. I opted for the starter salad and the tartine sardines (sardines, butter, horseradish, wine vinegar, and herbs on sourdough); I was tempted to go for the tartine ecrevisses (crayfish tartine) but the sardine one appealed to me more and it was different, interesting and delicious. I finished off with a pot of green tea while P (who chose the tartine poulet) had a cup of coffee; our drinks were served with a little spoon-shaped biscuit on the side.

    Salad starter from Poilâne

    We did have Asian food one night in Paris, and of course it simply had to be Vietnamese. Fortunately, Time Out recently published a list of recommendations and after narrowing it down, we ended up going to L’Indochine. We were handed the French version of the menu (they did have English versions but we didn’t know that until another party came in well after us) but it wasn’t too difficult to read even with lapsed lessons in French. I ordered the Pho Dac Biet, which has beef served in various formats, including beef balls. P had the Pho Tai, which is more what I’m used to ordering at home. The bowls came in two sizes and we both chose the small. There were the usual accompaniments but what I liked was inclusion of shacha sauce, which is not an option at my usual Vietnamese places. The only disappointment was the lack of tripe in our bowls, but we got over it quickly enough.
    Poilâne's Tartine Sardines

    Hot bowls of pho were perfect for the cool evening weather and we washed it down with limeade (me) and a mango milkshake. And I left room for dessert too. From the menu, I went with the Che Khoai Mon: a bowl of tapioca pearls with taro, pandan leaves and coconut milk. It’s definitely not something I’ve seen in New York Vietnamese restaurants (most of them don’t offer desserts). The Che Khoai Mon was different and tasty.

    Halal crêperie on Rue la Fayette

    The last dinner (if one wants to call it that) in Paris was so plain compared to all others. We ended up walking from our hotel towards the Metro station and discovered a tiny Halal crêperie inside/next to an electronics shop. For all our walking along that street every day for a week, it was the first time we actually saw the shop, probably because we were walking on the other side of the street for once. Like La Varangue, the crêperie was a one-man operation. There were savory and sweet crêpes available but I wasn’t terribly hungry and went with a simple sugar crêpe. I wish I was more hungry though; the chicken tandoori crêpe sounded most intriguing and I wanted to try it too.

    But that wasn’t the very last meal I had in France. This was:

    Halal crêperie on Rue la Fayette

    Breakfast at the airport: a cup of tea and a vanilla whole milk yogurt from Paul, and a day-old (but still tasty) croissant from a bakery near the hotel. The yogurt was delicious and came in a black terracotta cup that I considered keeping but couldn’t come up with any good use for it (and there was no resealable cover). Actually, all the yogurt I had in Paris was good and that’s why I’ve been craving it since I returned, though I have yet to find one at home just as good.

  • Three Meals a Day in Paris, Part 1

    La Varangue, interior

    After five days in Paris, I returned home and refused to eat croissants, baguettes, other Viennoiserie and French desserts for about a week. It’s not that our local patisseries and bakeries churn out inferior goods, but I just had too many sweet things far too often during my trip so I needed a short break from them all. (Though, I did end up craving strawberries and yogurt once I was home because I ate a lot of those things and did not have enough.)

    With the exception of breakfast (included with our hotel booking, so the first meal of the day was ever constant), pretty much every meal we ate was something slightly different. From the tiny French restaurant for dinner on our first night to the hole-in-the-wall crêperie on our last, the food was pretty delicious no matter what type of meal it was.

    Here’s a look at our main meals in Paris.

    Escargot on bread at La Varangue

    Duck confit and chicken breast at La Varangue

    Slice of chocolate cake at La Varangue

    Our very first meal in the City of Lights was dinner at La Varangue. My guidebook referred to it as a ‘one man shop’, though Philippe, the owner/chef did have a young assistant the night we ate there. Tiny restaurant, simple but good food, and very reasonable prices. P started off with an appetizer of cassolette d’escargots which was fine but really, I don’t get the hype about eating snails—it’s totally not my thing. Entrées were confit de carnad (duck leg) for P and I had the filet de poulet (a moist chicken breast with potatoes and rosemary sauce). And we finished off with a slice of gâteau au chocolat, though it was hard to choose between that and the crème brûlée. The chocolate cake was delicious and not too sweet. I normally can’t eat much the first night I’m abroad but this time, it worked out well and we didn’t overdo things on our first day.

    Hotel breakfast

    We paid for breakfast at the hotel so that’s what we ate every day; I would have liked to have gone out to eat but with our crazy morning schedule, it made more sense to grab food downstairs and then head out to our first destination of the day. Each morning was a variation of eggs, meat (bacon, sausage or the charcuterie plate), beans, bread (mini baguette, croissants, or slices from rustic loaves), some veggies (tomatoes, cucumbers), fruit, and yogurt. And always a cup of tea and a glass of juice (orange or grapefruit). And this was why I avoided eating English or continental style breakfasts for at least a week after I returned home.

    Lunch and dinner were slightly more interesting during the next several days.

    Lunch at Fauchon

    A very late lunch at Fauchon on our second day meant there wasn’t as much variety left in the takeaway area of the café. I made do with a sandwich (smoked salmon with a yogurt dressing and mint), a green juice and a fruit cup that looked like a parfait of jewels. I was fascinated by the sandwich packaging; all of the sandwiches were stored in cute resealable bags ready to grab and go for an afternoon picnic.

    Nassim

    Chicken wrap and fries from Nassim

    The fancy takeaway lunch was followed by a very casual takeaway dinner. There are plenty of restaurants near our hotel and we ended up wandering down a street that had many eateries. Because of the late lunch, I wasn’t too hungry for dinner and ended up ordering a chicken sandwich (more of a wrap) at a Middle Eastern fast food place called Nassim. The sandwich was part of a set meal that also included fries and a soda; the mojito-flavored 7-Up tasted nothing like a mojito but a very sweet fizzy limeade. Maybe I should’ve grabbed the tropical flavored 7-Up instead.

    Trying to cover all our meals in one post was a bit much so more food posts will be coming up, but I think we ate well enough on our first two days in France.

  • The Paris Café

    Menu

    The South Street Seaport and Financial District are not areas where I would normally go when I’m looking for a post-work dinner. If I have to eat all the way downtown, I usually end up further west and north in Tribeca. In the end, I did what most people would do and just went to a search engine. On OpenTable, two restaurants came up for the Seaport area and that’s where M and I wound up for dinner since she’s working in the Financial District these days.

    The Paris Café is located on the far edge of the general Seaport area, directly facing the East River Drive as the lanes run above South Street. We took the scenic route over, walking down Wall Street and then along the pedestrian paths that edge the East River and north to the Seaport. It’s been a while since I’ve been in the area; I haven’t visited since the last time the New Amsterdam Market was running back in early summer. The restaurant itself isn’t new—it dates from 1873—but the interiors have been restored after Hurricane Sandy (look up to see the copper ceiling tiles above one’s head); I remember seeing a news feature about its reopening a few months ago.

    Copper ceiling tiles

    Despite its name, the food was more traditional British pub fare than French. There were a lot of people having drinks (mostly the after-work crowd) or a meal (residents that lived in the area) when we arrived but we were seated pretty quickly. We opted to sit in the back room which was a lot less noisy and had fewer patrons. After perusing the menu, the two of us settled on seafood and chips: fish for me, mussels for M. And don’t forget the drinks; it had been a very long week at work but I also wanted something fruity so I ordered a peach mojito while M had a glass of white wine.

    Peach Mojito

    Fish and chips; mussels and chips

    The food was pretty good and it filled us but we weren’t too stuffed. There was still room for dessert (we opted out of that at the restaurant) but first, a walk was in order. The night wasn’t too bad and we trekked to the west side before sitting for some cake at a supermarket (that would be Whole Foods), of all places.

  • Uncle Boons

    Uncle Boons interior

    Uncle Boons has long been on a to-visit list between me and my friend P. When we meet up for a meal, we have a habit of trying to check out new and/or interesting Thai restaurants in the city. So we finally went to Uncle Boons over the weekend as a late (but not belated since we had to work around our schedules) birthday dinner for her. The original idea was to go for brunch but the restaurant is only offering dinner service now.

    We were seated in the back room, tucked into the cozy corner booth. It was still early afternoon but the lighting inside was very dim (hence the not so great photos below) and it was somewhat hard to read the menu; there was a window directly behind our seats so we had a little natural light to help us but a group at another table required the use of flashlights (a literal flashlight and using smartphones as well) in order to read the small text. The menu itself isn’t very long and with our various food requirements (e.g. allergies, or general dislike of certain ingredients), it wasn’t too hard to narrow down what we should get. Between the two of us and at the suggestion of the waiter, we chose two small plates and one large plate to share.

    Lychee Cocktail

    We both ordered the Tong Taa “Real Gold”, a cocktail with lychee liqueur, chartreuse and sparkling wine. The waiter described it as refreshing and light but it ended up being a bit too strong for us. I really should have stuck to my usual iced tea (or Thai iced tea, in this case). In the end, I didn’t even finish the drink but I went through copious amounts of water.

    Grilled Issan Sausage

    Mee Krob

    The first dish to arrive was the grilled Issan sausage, which was P’s choice. As the room filled up, I saw many other tables had also ordered the dish. It wasn’t bad but I’m not really a fan of the dish in general. The other appetizer we picked was the Mee Krob, which was a sweetbreads salad with crispy noodles, peanuts, dried shrimp and herbs. It was definitely better than the sausage and we were both pleasantly surprised at how great the sweetbreads were. Eating offal wasn’t a big deal for us and the Mee Krob was pretty tasty (I’m usually fine with offal as long as it isn’t haggis).

    Kai Yang Muay Thai

    I was beginning to get full even before the main dish arrived. The Kai Yang Muay Thai is half of a rotisserie grilled chicken, served with green mango salad and two dipping sauces. We also ordered a side of sticky rice to accompany it. It was more than enough to feed the two of us and we did have a hard time trying to finish it. The chicken was good and we preferred dipping it into the green sauce (which was similar to a chimichurri) than to the brown one, which I think was some combination of tamarind and fish sauce. After the other dishes, I was on fish sauce overload and the taste was pretty overpowering; at that point I just ended up drinking a lot of water to try to cleanse the palette.

    When the waiter first came to our table, P wisely asked if we could see the dessert menu first. I most definitely wanted something sweet at the end of our meal and it would be helpful to figure out how much food we should order but still leave enough room for dessert. There are only sweets offered: the traditional mango sticky rice and a coconut sundae. I had wanted to order both but we ended up only ordering the coconut sundae, given our full we were and having had sticky rice as an accompaniment to the chicken. One of the tables next to us did order the mango sticky rice so we were able to see what it looked like so at least we didn’t miss out. The coconut sundae, on the other hand, was pretty huge. It reminded me a lot of the shaved ice desserts that I see in the Malaysian restaurants in Chinatown.

    Coconut Sundae

    It was coconut ice cream topped with whipped cream, peanuts, toasted coconut slivers and garnished with a butter coconut biscuit. We dug in and ate most of it, leaving mainly the biscuit (which I passed on, since I’ve eaten them often enough since I was young). We were so full at the end and the two of us totally needed to walk off all those calories after we left the restaurant. It was a nice evening and with the longer daylight hours, we ended up taking the scenic route to catch our trains home.

  • Sweet Chick

    Chicken and Waffles

    Impromptu dinner plans mid-week in my neighborhood are very rare. It happened this past Wednesday and even with a list of suggestions, my friend and I still could not decided where to eat. We ended up at Sweet Chick, a fried chicken and waffles restaurant.

    To be honest, we’ve been discussing eating fried chicken and waffles off and on for the last few weeks so I suppose we finally got rid of the cravings that night. And that’s exactly what we ordered, though she had the bacon and cheddar waffles while I chose the mushroom and rosemary version. Also available are the classic plain waffles as well as ones with dried cherries. We washed the grease away with soda, and Arnold Palmer version for me while she had the Mexican Coke. All in all, it was tasty and filling enough without being too stuffed. Unfortunately, neither of us had room (or were in the mood for) dessert, though we did eye the apple pie on the menu.

  • Dinner at Lafayette

    Lafayette

    An unexpected but very welcome invitation to have dinner with a friend on Thursday led to quick plans to meet up at Lafayette. It was also a great excuse to actually leave the office on time for once, though I still barely escaped from a very last minute phone call at my desk. The meet up time was 5:45pm which was good for me; I prefer early dinners, especially when we did not reserve a table in advance.

    Skate Wing a la Plancha

    The two of us skipped drinks and appetizers. She ordered the steak frites and I debated between two seafood dishes. I ended up ordering the Skate Wing a la plancha, served with smoked cauliflower and uni. It was delicious and the portion size was perfect for me.

    Floating Island

    To be honest, the dessert menu didn’t exactly thrill us. We thought about heading elsewhere for sweets but none of the nearby dessert places were appealing either. In the end, we chose the one item on the menu that seemed a bit intriguing: the Floating Island. A very retro dessert but when it arrived at the table, it looked nothing like what we expected it to be—it looked more like a giant toasted marshmallow. Traditionally, the meringue would sit in a pool of crème anglaise but in this variation, the custard was inside the egg whites. It was a good dessert, not too sweet nor too heavy and a tasty way to end the meal.