Sunday, April 11, 2010

Random Food Pics (food)

Between tax season, earnings season, the start of the baseball season, basketball playoffs, the search for a new place, and the subsequent move, I expect to be very busy in the coming month plus. So until I move (I hate moving it's such a pain) and can post more regularly, here's some food porn for everyone to enjoy.

The first of these come from a lunch at EMP with my buddy BL.

Big eye tuna tartare. Tuna tartare is still such a tired dish for me. The one at Momofuku Ko was the last one I really enjoyed.

Lamb done many ways, with loin, merguez, sweetbreads, and confit. Every part was delicious and full of lamb flavor.

I'd never had the chicken for two before, because the description on the menu is rather plain, but it came highly recommended. So I tried it and now I crave it. The piece on the right is the breast, cooked beautifully, with crisp skin and a layer of foie/truffle mixture between the skin and the meat. The mixture reminds me of the pate and duxelles layer in a beef wellington and is very flavorful.

Accompanying the chicken breast is a fricasee of pieces of chicken thighs and legs, so that one can have both white and dark meat. This is really good but I wish that they threw in some chicken liver into this fricasee as well. Then again, I can understand how that might not appeal to everyone.

The meatball from Gramercy Tavern (tavern side). Made of beef, pork, and veal, then stuffed with fontina cheese. Served on top of potato or parsnip puree and onion marmalade, this thing is delicious and the meatball is incredibly moist. However, it's been quite a while since I've been to Gramercy Tavern and the meatball looked smaller than I last remember it. That matters considering it's $18.

Pastitsio brought in by coworker PS. PS's wife and in-laws are Greek and so they cooked a ridiculous amount of food for Easter Sunday and I partook in the leftovers at work. I've loved pastitsio ever since I had it as a kid at the neighborhood Greek diner when I grew up in Queens. It's essentially layered pasta and meat sauce, topped with a bechamel sauce and baked. It's like a lasagna with cream sauce. Everyone should love it. While some think that the bechamel sauce makes the pastitsio, I find that the most important thing is the seasoning on the meat and meat sauce. I don't have any photos, but the following day PS brought in huge chunks of lamb with home-made tzatziki (his wife made the yogurt herself) which was also delicious.

Happy hour is always happier with food, and so we tend to go to 1849 every now and again for their 20 cent wings and $3 beer and well drinks 3-6pm every day. The wings are actually really good and of decent size, as seen in the photo. They come in hot/medium/mild and bbq with ranch or blue cheese dipping sauce.

3 comments :

Memphis MOJO said...

You do eat well, I have to say. Nice shots.

Gastronommy said...

have you been to Croxley's for their wing's night as well? I haven't been to 1849 for wings, but I wonder how the two would match up against each other!
http://www.croxley.com/

The Pretender said...

I haven't been, but my friend DGW used to go to Croxley's a lot a long time ago and doubts that they're better than the ones at 1849.

Since we're mostly there to drink, 1849 is just a better deal overall. And more convenient. I would recommend it for when you get back to NYC.