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A Good Dish

making food simpler

Planning to find a good meal on the road (and getting lucky)

October 5, 2016

Chupe de Mariscos (Seafood Chowder)
Chupe de Mariscos (Seafood Chowder) Mezón Tapas Bar &Restaurant

 

Finding a decent place to eat while driving on the highway is often a challenge. Recently, I met my mother for lunch in Danbury, Connecticut on a strip of road that one could find almost anywhere in the country running alongside an interstate. There were plenty of chain stores, gas stations and and I thought our choices for lunch would be between the local diner and a sub shop. Happily, I was wrong.

 mezon

I am often leery of online reviews – you need to read them questioningly. This time a little research in advance proved rewarding. Yelp and TripAdvisor steered me to Mezón Tapas Bar & Restaurant, set back slightly from the hum of route 6 on one side and the roar of I-84 on the other. Inside there was music playing (which they very accommodating turned down when my mother asked them to) and plenty of space between tables. The restaurant is divided into 2 rooms, one with a bar and the other more of a dining room. Since it was lunch, we ate in the bar and watched it fill up quickly with locals. Our waitress was friendly and patient, explained the “Spanish/Latin/Caribbean fusion” menu, kept our water glasses full and even got the chef to write down the ingredients in a sauce Mom liked.

Yucca Fries - crispy and tender
Yucca Fries – crispy and tender
Grilled Asparagus
Grilled Asparagus

Everything we tried was delicious. From the yucca fries ($5) and grilled asparagus ($5) to the fish tacos (3/$14) and seafood stew($14) with sea bass and rice, the food was well seasoned and flavorful without being over salted, my main complaint with most restaurants. We didn’t order them but the sandwiches looked appealing and there were many tapas, salad and meat choices, as well. Prices were quite reasonable for lunch and portions were generous. If you are heading north to see the changing leaves, to ski or for any other reason, remember Mezón. I’m happy to know a tasty place to stop off the highway and you will be, too. And for those of you who live too far afield for this specific information to be of any use, remember to do a little research before getting in the car. You, too, may be rewarded with a surprisingly pleasant meal en route.

Generous Fish Tacos
Generous Fish Tacos

 

Mezón Tapas Bar and Restaurant

56 Mill Plain Road, Danbury, CT 203-748-0875

mezonct.com

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Filed Under: Places, Restaurants

The Big Apple Barbecue Party

June 15, 2016

Smokers at work on Madison Avenue
Smokers at work on Madison Avenue

Barbecue isn’t something for which New York has always been known but that is changing. We now have several great barbecue restaurants dotted across the boroughs but the epic annual BBQ festival in and around Madison Square Park is where New Yorkers can really satisfy their cravings for smoked and grilled meat.

The Big Apple Barbecue Block Party took place last weekend and was so successful that when we arrived in the late afternoon, but almost 2 hours before the event ended, many venues were completely sold out of food. We were fortunate to get tastes of ribs and chopped, smoked pork from 3 of the more than the dozen participants who were cooking that day. Pit masters from New York establishments were joined by those from Illinois and many southern states, providing us different styles of regional barbecue. There were beer tents and tastes from local bakeries along with some live music, both bluegrass and jazz.

New York has lots of outdoor events during the summer months but this has to be one of the tastiest, plus it is a fundraising benefit for the park. Here are some photos to entice you to next year’s party.

Cutting and plating ribs at Dinosaur BBQ booth
Cutting and plating ribs at Dinosaur BBQ booth
Hungry but willing to wait crowds
Hungry but willing to wait crowds
Chopping smoked pork with cleavers for sandwiches
Chopping smoked pork with cleavers for sandwiches
Happy rib eaters
Happy rib eaters
Once happy rib providers
Once happy rib providers
Preparing pork for the next day's bbq
Preparing pork for the next day’s bbq

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Filed Under: Events, Meat, Places, Restaurants Tagged With: Barbecue, Madison Square Park

A Big Walk Has Its Rewards

May 11, 2016

Painted gates on upper Broadway
Painted gates on upper Broadway

New York is a great walking city and a great place to eat. When my husband and I found ourselves in Inwood (around 215th Street) for a wine tasting a few weeks ago, we decided to walk home down Broadway to the 90’s. An interesting thing about a big walk on unfamiliar blocks is that you really get a feel for the different neighborhoods as they flow one into the next and you see the city with different eyes than the ones usually focused on errands or a routine destination. The other perk of a long city walk is that you pass all kinds of little diners, bodegas and restaurants with many kinds of foods we don’t find any more in our now-gentrified hood.

IMG_2360

As we headed south toward Washington Heights, I remembered a little Central American place where some years ago we had eaten tamales so delicious they had stayed in my memory. I hoped it would still be there and it was: La Cabaña Salvadoreña – 187th and Broadway. At 3:00 in the afternoon we didn’t want to eat a meal but we couldn’t resist getting a sweet corn tamale. So we got two tamales de elote to go and happily ate them in hand as we continued our walk. The masa (cornmeal) was hot and fresh and just sweet enough to be a treat, if a bit greasy. Delicious and satisfying.

IMG_3216

La Cabaña is a friendly, neighborhood place with a homey, family-run feeling. There are lots of items on the menu I would order another time – papusas (made with rice flour), maduros (sweet plantains, here served with sour cream), rice and beans, soups, salads and fresh squeezed juices – but I wouldn’t leave without having a sweet corn tamale or two or three. I’d bet their coffee is terrific, too.

IMG_2362

You may or may not live in New York but wherever one lives, there is a walk to be taken, a little restaurant or cafe or pub for us to stumble upon, a meal to discover. It is fun to get out of our usual comfort zones and explore other neighborhoods. When we took our walk last month, I was afraid creeping gentrification would have run out all of the little places I remembered. Now I’m happy just to know that some “mom and pop” joints like La Cabaña Salvadoreña still exist, requiring us to patronize them before development bulldozes them away.

sweet corn tamale
sweet corn tamale

La Cabaña Salvadoreña
4384 Broadway (b’twn 187-188th Streets)

 Lacabanasalvadorena.com

 

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Filed Under: Places, Restaurants Tagged With: tamale, washington heights

Searching for a Good New York Bagel

April 10, 2016

bagel1

Maybe it’s just me, but have you noticed that bagels have basically become doughy rolls with holes? The iconic bagel in my memory, and the one for which I am always searching, is moist (not dry) and takes a bit of effort to chew. The flavor is slightly sour but also sweet and the texture is DENSE. My mind’s eye bagel is smaller than the bagel boats out there now, perhaps 3-4 inches in diameter not the 4-5 you get now and certainly not 2 inches high. Growing up, we mostly had water (plain) bagels and they were enormously satisfying and toothsome. As I got older, my preference shifted to a pumpernickel or multi-grain for the full flavor, texture and density. Looking back, perhaps it was a self-deception; I assumed the whole grains made it a healthy (read not fattening) munch.

As a kid, I was introduced to bagels when visitors from New York would bring us a dozen. The grocery store in the north end of Hartford where my mother shopped occasionally sold bagels, but they were nothing special. When we heard about an actual bagel bakery opening in a neighboring suburb, my adventurous mother drove us over the mountain to a strip mall in Avon to buy a dozen. There we first experienced the warm-from- the-oven bagel – glorious! Eventually our town got its own branch of a bagel chain and we had to settle for convenient over delicious.

Over the years, bagels started to get bigger and airier. I credit (or blame) H & H, the NYC institution whose outpost on the upper west side was where generations of kids grabbed breakfast or an afternoon snack and upper west siders stocked up for Sunday brunch. But, like the growth of restaurant portions and fast food drink servings, their bagels grew larger and larger until they were the size of a kaiser roll. And with size we lost density and chew.

bagel2

Bagels used to be a bargain bite. My father-in-law loved West Side Market’s frugal 5 for a dollar (most recently 3 for $2) and just a few years ago, we could to buy a dozen with 3 free for $8 at Lenny’s on 98th street. Now bagels are $1 a piece and you get the classic baker’s dozen – one free when you buy 12. Lenny’s was home to our favorite variety, the “New Horizon”, a rye and whole grain mix with flax seeds and raisins. It was scrumptious, especially toasted. But nothing lasts forever: Their wonderfully dense, hand rolled original gave way to an airy, machine-made version when they got new equipment a year or two ago. It still has a pleasant, even if milder, flavor but no more chewy texture. So, so sad for us. People seem to love Absolute Bagels, up near Columbia: there is often a line out the door on weekends. Their bagels are fairly tasty with a decent chew, especially the whole wheat sesame, but they are still quite rotund. They do make a few varieties, including plain, in a mini size, perfect for kids and the less voracious among us. Zabar’s offers one of the best tasting and moistest bagels in the city for 95 cents but it is pretty zaftig, as well.

On a recent trip to Montreal’s Mile End neighborhood, we sampled bagels from the 2 famously competing bagel bakeries – Fairmount and St Viateur. Both still hand roll their bagels and bake in wood fired ovens. Montreal bagels have shiny, sweetish crusts from being boiled in water with honey but are drier than the chewier New York style and, for my taste, need a little more salt.

hand rolling at St. Viateur
hand rolling at St. Viateur

But there is good news in New York. A hand rolling revival is underway! Bagels are rolled in many corners of Brooklyn and Queens, even in downtown Manhattan. Last week, I collected a variety of samples from highly rated bagel sellers all over the city and my husband, a friend and I conducted an unscientific tasting of plain bagels. Prices ranged from 67 cents to $2 apiece, thin to thick, small to huge. I am sorry to report that most were disappointingly dry, cardboardy and tasteless.

The runner up in the plain bagel category is from Zabar’s. It has good flavor, moist bite and a decent price. If you like a big bagel, this might be your favorite.

varieties at Zabar's
varieties at Zabar’s
Baking at Black Seed on Elizabeth Street
Baking at Black Seed on Elizabeth Street

Our unanimous winner is from Black Seed Bagels, a lower east side bagelry (Elizabeth Street between Broome and Grand), where they hand roll and wood fire small, dense, delicious bagels, quite similar to Montreal style but moister and even tastier, even if $1.50 each.  Their web page describes their product as a cross between Montreal and New York styles, a “love bagel” of sorts.  They make good tasting plain and seeded varieties. My favorite is the flavorful rye – a killer toasted with butter.

Wood fired oven and bagel bath at Black Seed on First Avenue
Wood fired oven and bagel bath
at Black Seed on First Avenue

Black Seed recently opened another location in the former home of DeRobertis (a charming old Italian bakery where you could get wonderful pignoli and sfogliatelle but which recently went out of business) and is churning out terrific bagels, which they also sell at a kiosk in Hudson Eats at the World Financial Center.

And more good news – bagels left out over night in a paper bag were still soft enough to cut the next morning. We will happily make the trek downtown to stock up. Lets just hope they don’t lose their chew!

bagel by Black Seed plate by Margaret Bohls
bagel by Black Seed
plate by Margaret Bohls

(Note – if you go to the Black Seed on 1st Avenue, remember to stop at 2 venerable New York institutions around the corner on 11th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues – Russo’s Mozzarella and Pasta (est.1908) – wonderful cheese, taralli and sausage – and Veniero’s Bakery (est. 1894) – amazing Italian cheesecake).

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Filed Under: Breakfast, Restaurants

Rethinking Watercress

April 6, 2016

I never paid much attention to watercress. For most of my life, it appeared only as an occasional garnish or in a salad in an upscale restaurant. Then one day, wanting something other than broccoli or bok choy, I ordered it as a cooked vegetable at our local Chinese restaurant. I was hooked! Bright green, garlicky, good texture (not mushy) and none of the bitterness of raw watercress – how could I resist? It was so flavorful that I was certain there had to be drawbacks: Surely it must contain MSG to make it taste so good? When I tried to replicate the dish in my kitchen, I was surprised when it was so easy to make. Just some chopped garlic sautéed in oil, a sprinkle of salt, a splash of broth or water and a lot more watercress than you might imagine – it shrinks almost as much as spinach. If you like a hearty helping of greens, plan at least one bunch per person. Leftovers are always welcome in our home – another vegetable for tomorrow that is already prepared.

Watercress is high in vitamins A, C and K among other nutrients and very low in calories (Let me Google that for you). More importantly to a cook, it is one of those green vegetables available at all times of year, especially valuable in winter and early spring when you are tired of kale and cauliflower. This simple recipe is especially delicious with mashed or boiled potatoes.

bowl by Mary Barringer
bowl by Mary Barringer

SAUTÉED WATERCRESS

  • 2 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1 Tablespoon olive, avocado or grapeseed oil
  • 1 big pinch of kosher or sea salt
  • 2 bunches of watercress, washed and cut in half (or smaller if you prefer more delicate bites)
  • 1/4 cup stock or water

Heat a large sauté pan and then add oil.

Add garlic and salt, turn heat to medium and cook about one minute – do not brown.

Add watercress and stir until beginning to change color and wilt.

Add the broth or water and stir occasionally until most of the water has evaporated and the watercress has softened, about 3-4 minutes. Some like it still crisp while others prefer it limp. Try it at various points in cooking the first time you make it until you figure out how you like it prepared. Taste for salt and add more if you feel it needs it.

Feeds 2 (in our home) -4 people as a side dish.

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Filed Under: Restaurants, Uncategorized, Vegetables

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Here you will find recipes and ideas for easy to make and tasty meals, sources for interesting dinnerware on which to serve those meals and resources for ingredients, classes and food related travel. My goal is to make daily cooking simpler and to inspire you to try different recipes beyond the handful you already make repeatedly. I hope that relaying my experiences will enhance yours. Follow along and let me know about your own cooking and food journeys.

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