Rye Restaurant, Brooklyn

J’ai beau en essayer d’autres, Rye reste toujours mon restaurant favori à Brooklyn. Ok, à Williamsburg, du moins. Pourquoi? Pour l’ambiance bistro, mais juste un peu plus feutrée – on dit speakeasy, paraît-il. Le décor y est chaleureux, mais élégant. La carte, elle, est remplie de viandes et poissons locaux. Et que dire des cocktails… ou plutôt du cocktail, puisque je ne m’aventure que rarement au-delà du Old Fashioned, servi sur un seul, immense cube de glace sur le quel le barman dépose une pelure d’orange flambée.

Le moment parfait? Un début de soirée, au bar. On commence avec un Old Fashioned, on continue avec un verre de vin blanc et un plateau d’huîtres, on décide ensuite si on se partage leur superbe sandwich au pain de viande, au bar, ou si on sort remonter vers Metropolitan ou Bedford, pour poursuivre sa soirée avec du barcebecue au fameux Fette Sau, pour un plateau de fromages et charcuteries accompagnées de bières rares chez Spuyten Duyvil ou encore pour un un burger au bar chez DuMont Burger.

Rye Restaurant: 247 S. 1st Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211, (718) 218-8047

Nouveau restaurant – East Village: Goat Town – cuisine locale

Restaurant à essayer: Goat Town.

Photo par Daily Candy New York

Goat Town ouvre cette semaine dans le East Village. Je n’y suis pas encore allée mais considérant les noms qui y sont associés, je l’ai immédiatement mis sur ma liste. En effet, Joel Hough et Nicholas Morgenstern sont des vétérans du mouvement locavore à New York, ayant longtemps travaillé chez Cookshop dans Chelsea et chez General Greene, à Brooklyn.

Excitant? Oh oui. Voici pourquoi:

• Tout se fait sur place: boucherie, cornichons et fabrication de glace au sous-sol, potager dans le jardin
• En plus de servir des viandes locales (agneau, canard, porc), le menu regorge de classiques américains: steaks, oeufs farcis, crabe et autres fruits de mers de Long Island: huîtres, moules, etc.
• Le décor est signé hOmE, un duo barbu basé ici même, à Greenpoint, et qui est derrière quelques uns des plus beaux intérieurs rustico-urbains de New York.

Ce qui m’intrigue vraiment? La liste de cocktails maison, qui devrait mettre l’accent sur le vin… (attention, je sens l’article sur Tag:Wine dès qu’on aura essayé!)

Et pourquoi s’appeler “Chèvreville”? Ça serait, dit-on, l’origine anglo-saxonne du fameux Gotham, autre nom de la ville de New York.

 

Goat Town, 511 E. 5th St., (Ave. A) 212-687-3641

Eat Café, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

We have a new local favorite. Eat Cafe, in Greenpoint, is good for our health, fantastic for our wallet and is also very indulgent of our wine habit. Get all the (English language) details on Tag: Wine or read below for some French immersion.

Pour être bien honnête avec vous, je vous dirais que non, le quartier de Greenpoint à Brooklyn ne vaut pas le détour si vous n’avez que quelques jours à New York. En gros, il s’agit d’un quartier polonais niché au bord de la rivière de l’Est, le dernier quartier de Brooklyn avant Queens, juste en face du quartier général des Nations-Unies.

Si vous avez un dimanche après-midi à passer à Brooklyn et que vous ne vous passionnez pas pour les boucheries est-européennes, non, Greenpoint ne vaut pas le détour. Si, cependant, vous êtes prêts à sortir des sentiers battus pour bien manger et que vous rêvez d’envie de découvrir le terroir new-yorkais alors oui, il faut y aller.

On trouve à Greenpoint un restaurant comme je n’en ai jamais vu à New York. J’irais même jusqu’à dire qu’il s’agit du meilleur rapport qualité-prix à New York. Toute une déclaration, je sais. Le menu y est très limité, et pour cause: tous, tous les ingrédients proviennent de fermes bio locales. Le menu change donc à tous les jours et dépend des trouvailles de Jordan, le chef propriétaire. Tout y est donc local, bio et, surprise, hyper abordable (lors de notre dernière visite, aucun plat ne coûtait plus de $8). En plus, on y apporte son propre vin, ce qui réduit évidemment l’addition.

Le local a ses limites et j’ai bien hâte de tester ce menu en été. En hiver, on retrouve évidemment énormément de choux, haricots, pommes de terres et champignons au menu mais la variété reste surprenante vu les limites que s’impose le chef. Notez que les jours de semaines sont surtout végétariens mais que Jordan prépare souvent poissons et fruits de mers le week-end, parfois de la viande rouge. Le prix impose aussi ses limites: pas de serveur ici, ni de menu imprimé. On choisi soi-même sa table et on consulte l’ardoise avant d’aller passer sa commande directement à Jordan, dans la cuisine. Verres, ustensiles et tire-bouchons sont à la disposition des clients sur une grande table sous l’ardoise et on ouvre soi-même sa bouteille en attendant que notre repas soit livrés à notre table. Bref, c’est à la bonne franquette et, comme le prix, c’est plutôt rafraîchissant.

Eat Café, 124 Meserole Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, ouvert du mercredi au dimanche de 10h à 22h.

Un conseil: profitez d’une journée chaude pour commencer à Williamsburg puis remonter Franklin Street, à Greenpoint. Vous y trouverez Dandelion Wines (153 Franklin), un superbe marchand de vins où les employés se feront un plaisir de vous recommander la bouteille parfaite pour votre dîner.

*Photo cred: Subactive Photo, Flickr

Breakfast in Cuzco

Just got off of yet another long night bus ride, this time from Arequipa to Cuzco.

Starving, we found a street block packed with small local restaurants. We chose one that advertised a S/.2,50 (about US$0,80) breakfast, in whoch the women of the family were all gathered, peeling potatoes.

So this is what we had. It was sublime.

Chicken, potatoies and carrots in a light (yellow?) gravy with rice. Bon matin!

Bangkok Donuts – the Answer

Tadam!

The answer to last week’s donut question:

Chocoholic, peanut butter and green tea (this was me insisting on getting something even slightly remotely Asian).

Lunch à Panama

Nous sommes à Panama City, en route vers le Pérou et le sud de l’Amérique du sud.

Dans un récent post, je partageais ma peur de me retrouver à ne manger que du riz et des pommes de terres pendant cette partie du voyage. Et bien je me rétracte: le riz et les patates, c’est bon!!!

Voici ce que nous avons mangé lors de notre premier lunch à Panama City, dans la vieille ville, à un bar en inox, coincés entre 3 officiers de la police nationale: una comida con pollo soit du riz avec du poulet, des haricots et… des patates!!

Et on n’était même dimanche! …mais vous savez pourquoi c’est si bon?

Le sel mes amis, le sel. Tout est cuit dans le bouillon en cube… et c’est bon!

Bangkok Donuts

Yes, donuts. Not noodles, not soup, not street food – donuts.

We stumbled upon this donut shop in one of our attempts to escape the city heat in the air conditioned malls.

D was hooked right away and insisted to get one – or three, actually. The choice was quite impressive. For those who know him, you can easily guess which ones he went with, right?

The answer in one week!

Big Apple Donuts – in you favorite Asian mall – http://www.bigappledonuts.com/

Lima Food Planning

My sister made up this song when she went to Peru for the first time and as much as D likes potatoes, we both agreed that we’ll get enough of them even by trying to eat well.

Lundi, qu’est-ce qu’on mange – des patates!

Mardi, qu’est-ce qu’on mange – des patates!

Mercredi, qu’est-ce qu’on mange – des patates!

Jeudi, qu’est-ce qu’on mange – des patates!

Vendredi, qu’est-ce qu’on mange – des patates!

Samedi, qu’est-ce qu’on mange – des patates!

Dimanche, qu’est-ce qu’on mange – des patates et du riz!!!!!!!

I have been looking forward to the food in Peru for the past year and to be honest, the song kind of scared me. I know one can eat well in Peru and I hope to be able to do it even on our budget so here are my research notes from Chowhound.

Chinatown: Peruvian Chinese seems great and I really miss Asian food

–  “Pato con frutas” is one of my favorites.. it’s a sort of sweet and sour duck.

Get anticuchos from a street vendor: marinated, skewered, veal or beef heart. We’ve had some at one of my favorite restaurants in New York and also had a Laos in Vientiane. Can’t wait for the real Peruvian thing.

Try andean trout

And, of course, potatoes:

There are over 200 types of potatoes in Peru.. so keep your eyes out for the SMALL cafes — they’re more likely to have the locally grown ingredients.

Cancha, the toasted corn kernels, served before the meal at cebicherias – I really want to eat ceviche!!!

Coca tea – we have some at the hostel here in PC, will try tomorrow, should be an appetite suppressant, which may help our budget…!

Alpaca meat:

– Pachapapa in Cuzco had an AMAZING alpaca anticucho

– Alpaca loin

Alpaca meat in Cusco from mmm-yoso on Flickr

May want to try Astrid y Gaston, a classic that has been recommended by many although it is quite pricey for Peru.

Again, if we feel like spending more than $5 per head , Huaca Pucllana for gourmet traditional Peruvian food.

Pepino Melons – fruits!!!

Marinated sliced radishes – veggies!!!

A few more Cusco notes:

– Parallel to Avenida del Sol is a street called Pampas de Castillo, there are several Chicharonerias lining the street. During lunch they wheel some of the fryers into the street, so all you smell is pork and chicken frying.

Enough planning now – off to get some parilla now.

What to do with only a few hours in New York: Eat Pizza!

We are in Panama City for a few days, were in New York  yesterday and in Zurich, Québec and Montréal before that. We are off to Peru on Monday.

We almost missed our flight again today. This time however, it was simply due to gluttony.

Since moving to London 2 years ago, we almost stopped eating pizza altogether. I know some of you are big Pizza Express fans but to be honest, it never really did anything for me. I’ll sound arrogant but honestly, you just need to have New York pizza to understand why.

Being back in New York for a little over 24 hours, we had pizza last night, and then again today. Last night did not really count though as it was at Otto and although their pizza is wonderful, we really go there for the wine, the bartender and the pasta. But after a long evening with friends, a lot of wine and too little sleep, we woke up starving.

We thought about going for Chinese or Vietnamese food in Chinatown. Although I love cheese (I ate cheese for every meal since we left Asia), I have been sorely missing my Asian food since we got to Zurich last week. I really got used to having at least one huge bowl of noodle soup per day, ideally for breakfast. We are however about to go to one of the Americas most interesting Chinatowns as far as food is concerned – think chinese with more spices and fresh seafood – so I thought I could still wait a little. One thing we may not have soon is good pizza.

We have our favorites: Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn, Totonno’s in Kips Bay and Otto for the gourmet fix but I had never been to the legendary Lombardi’s Pizzeria, in Soho, which is meant to be the first pizzeria in the United States. People have been raving about it everywhere and for ages which is why, when I lived in New York, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to like it. I was a Grimaldi person and I had no interest in trying the competition. Now, after 2 and a half years in London and 3 months in Asia, I am completely pizza starved and undiscerning. They say it’s good, so we went.

Well… it was fantastic. Friendly service, good beer selection and thin, crispy pizza with plenty of tomato sauce and mozzarella on it. As far as the pie is concerned, I am not sure I can pick one that is better than the others: is it Grimaldi’s, Lombardi’s or Totonno’s? If you are not a (slightly obsessive) connaisseur, the margheritas are all very similar.

Lombardi’s location and atmosphere make it a lot more tourist friendly than the others. It’s not as intimidating as Grimaldi’s with its long queues and rough staff and it is actually in the middle of the touristy action, much easier to find. Totonno’s is great for a real New York atmosphere as there are no tourists there but at the same time, there really isn’t much to see and it is definitely off the beaten path for tourists. There is, however, a great, great beer bar and a few more good Irish pubs in the area.

And the plane you may say? Well, we did not miss it but rushed to the airport as we spent way too much time eating pizza. We ran like mad, skipped queues and finally realized that our flight times had been changed, we had one more hour before departure!

Lombardi’s Pizza Corner of Mott and Spring streets Manhattan.

Totonno’s 462 2nd Avenue, between 26th adn 27th streets, Manhattan

Grimaldi’s Pizza 19 Old Fulton street, Brooklyn

Otto Enoteca, one 5th Avenue, Manhattan

Island breakfast

Banana and honey French toast with crushed peanuts and some extra honey, just because…