Can You Cook Like a Top Chef Winner? Yes You Can!

Chef Paul Qui won this season of Top Chef with a multi-course meal filled with gourmet Asian flavors, we were thrilled that he won (go Team Paul!). If you’re like us and regularly watch people cooking on TV, you’ve inevitably seen someone make a dish you covet. Think you can’t cook like a TV chef? You totally can! It’s just a matter of making a recipe work for you! Take, for example, Qui’s second course from his winning meal: sea bass with clam dashi, pickled radishes and mushrooms (click here for original recipe).

There’s already a lot of information missing from the original recipe (such as what to do with the clams once they’ve opened), so take it and make it your own. Those clams with the incomplete instructions? We ditched them altogether. Once that decision was made, K started on the dashi (broth). This recipe serves two.

Dashi
2 cups water
8 pieces kombu (dried seaweed)
1/2 cup bonito flakes (dried smoked bonito fish flakes)
4 TB soy sauce

Bring everything to a boil. When the bonito flakes sink to the bottom of the pot, the broth is ready. Strain and keep warm.

Fun fact: For this dish, I forgot to buy radishes so we didn’t have any pickles. In my opinion, the lack of them did not hurt the dish.

Next, I sautéed the mushrooms.

Mushrooms
1 cup porcini or baby bella mushrooms, sliced
2 TB duck fat (or 1 TB butter and 1 TB extra virgin olive oil)

Melt the duck fat (or butter and olive oil combo) over medium-high heat in a pan. Saute mushrooms until lightly brown. Add salt and pepper. When cooked, remove from heat and let the mushrooms sit in the fat.

We decided that, to really make this a meal, we needed noodles. We picked up a package of ramen (you know, the kind you ate in college), threw away the gross, powdered “flavor” packet and cooked the noodles in boiling water until just tender (not mushy).

The star of this dish is the fish. We got two skin-on sea bass filets (not Chilean sea bass). The preparation is gorgeous and simple.

Sea Bass
2 sea bass filets, skin-on (black cod <aka Alaskan sablefish> or hake are good substitutes)
salt and pepper to taste

Rub both sides of the fish with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add 2 TB of high heat oil (like safflower, canola or vegetable) to a saute pan. When the pan is hot, place fish, skin side down, into the pan. The fish kind of seizes up on itself and looks like it’s puffing up — this is normal, don’t panic!  When skin is browned and crispy, turn the fish over and cook *just* until you can’t see an uncooked pink line in the middle of the fish. It should just barely be firm.

Believe it or not, you’re ready to plate. Get a bowl, pile your ramen noodles inside, sprinkle the mushrooms on the noodles and lay the fish (skin side up) on the pile of noodles. We added a few fresh pea shoots on top for some color. Bring your dashi broth to the table in a separate pitcher (or gravy boat) for the final flourish.

Pour the hot dashi broth over the noodles (not over the fish) and you’re ready to eat!

The fish is buttery and succulent and, if you eat it quickly enough, the skin is beautifully crisp (if you let it sit for too long, the skin gets soggy). The noodles are perfectly slurpable and the broth is rich, deep and earthy. What a lovely, warming simple and healthy dish.

And what do you drink with sea bass, ramen and dashi?

Mer Soleil Silver Unoaked Chardonnay in an awesome and unique stoneware bottle (from Costco). It’s bright, fresh and crackling. That’s it! You just cooked like a Top Chef winner. And now that you’ve started, you’ll never want to stop!

What’s the Best Part of a Pancake? Pancake Bits — Top Chef Night

If you don’t love pancakes, there is something seriously wrong with you. A humble pancake can be sweet or savory, it can be  plain or the vehicle for any number of embellishments — variety, thy name is pancake. But when chef Edward Lee reduced pancakes, not to the size of a dinner plate or even a silver dollar, but to pancake bits, we wondered why this wasn’t the gold standard of pancakes. After all, the best part of a pancake is the hot, crispy outer edge. And because everyone loves breakfast for dinner, we decided to shake up Top Chef night with pancake bits, bacon, blueberries, raspberries and bruleed marshmallow (click here for original recipe).

First things first: The original recipe calls for two strips of bacon. Who eats just two strips of bacon?!? We made a few extra pieces.

Make as much bacon as you want. Just be sure to save two pieces for your fruit “salad.”

Pancakes
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1 TB butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp sugar
High heat oil such as canola or safflower

Separate the egg yolks and egg whites. Use a mixer to beat egg whites to soft peaks. Put flour into separate bowl. Add egg yolks, melted butter and  sugar. Add the milk and whisk until batter is smooth. Fold egg whites into batter.

Fruit “salad”
2 strips of cooked bacon, crumbled
As many blueberries as you like
As many raspberries as you like
4 dried apricots, diced
2 tsp maple syrup

Toss everything except bacon in a small bowl. Add bacon at the last minute before serving.

Heat a griddle or cast iron pan over medium high heat. Add a small amount of oil to bottom of griddle or pan. Drizzle small amounts of batter to form small bits. When the batter bubbles and the sides begin to brown (2-3 minutes), it’s time to flip the bits and cook the other side for 1-2 minutes. Keep the bits warm in the oven or toaster oven (at about 150 degrees) until ready to serve. The more quickly you can serve them, the more crispy the bits will be.

To finish
Toss the bacon bits into the fruit “salad.” Put a bunch of mini marshmallows onto non-stick aluminum foil and either toast them with a small torch or place them in the oven (or toaster oven) under the broiler. Watch them carefully so they don’t burn!! You want them nice and dark brown, like the perfect campfire marshmallow. Mix 1 TB maple syrup and 1 TB butter and melt together in the microwave (25-30 seconds).

Put fruit “salad” onto plate, add pancake bits, pour maple syrup butter mixture over everything, add marshmallows to plate. Top with whipped cream if you’d like (we skipped it). And…dig in!

Holy yum. Hot, crispy, sweet, fresh and fruity, sticky marshmallow goodness and the unexpected savory pop and crunch of bacon. After you try these, you’ll make bits with every subsequent pancake. It’s the best part of the pancake, hands down.

Would we make this again? Yes! What a fun way to shake up pancakes!
Soundtrack: General Public, Joy Division, The Suburbs and more.

In case you’re wondering, the perfect beverage to accompany pancake bits is:

Chef’s Night Off at Kitchen in the Market

I would (almost) always much rather give a gift than receive one. I think it’s a glorious challenge to pick out the exact perfect present for someone and experience their joy as they unveil the big surprise. That is why it was my absolute pleasure to give K, for his birthday, a night in the kitchen to cook with Mike DeCamp, chef de cuisine at the venerable La Belle Vie in Minneapolis.

Chef’s Night Off is a hands-on, small group class hosted at Kitchen in the Market (KITM) in the Midtown Global Market. Take a class a KITM. It’s the most fun you’ll have in a kitchen … probably ever. You’ll eat fantastically and learn a lot too. As if all of this wasn’t enough, the evening also benefited Renewing the Countryside, a local non-profit organization that champions rural communities through farming, business and other creative initiatives.

Alright, enough with the gushing over how brilliant and hospitable KITM owners Molly Hermann and Tracy Morgan are, here’s the food porn!

The menu:

The hot frozen gin fizz was like a steamy, boozy frozen lemonade slushy. If @YoungChef2 (Mike DeCamp on Twitter) wants to send me the secret recipe for that drink, I’d be eternally grateful (hint, hint). Thanks to lovely celebrity assistant Joy Summers for opening our eyes to this magical cocktail.

Silky, slightly sweet egg custard with chewy, savory bacon jam — Bacon and Egg Custard.

       Tart, sweet and salty Apple, Olive and Feta Salad on crostini.

After taking a few moments to have a cocktail, pour some wine and grab some small bites, it was time to get to work. We broke into four teams and got busy prepping our assigned courses.

Fish “noodles” in action.

Important things first … does everyone have a wine glass? Good. Now let’s saute those brussels sprouts.

Chef DeCamp (and his epic beard) giving instructions before the beef tenderloin gets a quick sous vide.

A siphon, Dixie cups and a microwave oven equal a mean dessert prep.

And after toiling over hot stoves (that’s a vast overstatement), we all sat down to enjoy the delicious fruits of our labor.

Smoked char with dill, potato, mustard seeds and fish “noodle.” Paired with a lovely rosé. If you see her, ask Stephanie Meyer (aka Fresh Tart Steph) what happened to all those crispy little potato chips.

We were on Team Foie with K heading up foie duty (the assignment of his dreams). I was given the task of picking through a pile of organic arugula to find the “coolest looking” pieces for garnish and gently sautéing the rest. You don’t know pressure until you’ve been asked by an amazingly talented, high-caliber chef to find “cool” pieces of arugula.

Seared foie gras with kumquat jam and arugula. Paired with a very sweet moscato.

Sous vide beef tenderloin, beef cheek terrine and Northern Lights blue cheese with sautéed leeks and brussels sprouts. Paired with a red wine neither of us can remember at this point (not because it wasn’t memorable, but because I forgot to record the wine pairings).

Spongy chocolate microwave “mug” cake (made in Dixie cups), strawberry, crushed pistachios and puffed wild rice. Paired with a very strong bourbon that I sipped once then donated to the bourbon-loving Stephanie March (a celebrity assistant).

Chef’s Night Off — heck, ANY experience at Kitchen in the Market is well worth it. This occasion was a special splurge for K’s birthday and we both had an amazing time, got to hang out with some foodie friends, meet some wonderful new people, cook and eat a unique and delectable meal and we’ll likely be talking about it for many birthdays to come. Cheers!

Epic Valentine’s Day Dinner III

We can *always* find a reason to go out to eat at a restaurant. For us, however, Valentine’s Day has never been one of those reasons. Instead, we’ve made it a tradition to go through our fanciest cookbooks and make an epic Valentine’s dinner that will challenge our skills, delight our taste buds, give us a chance to work as a team and enjoy a quiet, candlelit dinner without the crowds. Here are the highlights of this year’s Epic Valentine’s Day Dinner:

The setting: White tablecloth (really a white sheet from IKEA, don’t judge me), Valentine-red table runner, candlelight flickering off ebony rocks and sparkly glass.

K practiced his new molecular gastronomy skills by making honey “pearls” with agar agar, cold oil and a length of plastic tubing.
Honey pearls:

To begin: Crisp crostini with creamy, tangy goat cheese, a drizzle of farm-fresh honey and honey pearls.

First course: Mixed baby greens and herbs with shrimp, avocado and creamy champagne dressing. Recipe by Jean-Georges in the Harvest to Heat cookbook.

Main course: Pan-roasted scallops with morel mushrooms and asparagus puree. Recipe by Thomas Keller in the French Laundry Cookbook.

The bubbles:

Dessert: “Tofu” cheesecake with candied lime and coffee-infused maple syrup from Morimoto. The cheesecake is made with soy milk, cream and cream cheese with no tofu in sight.

Love ruled the day and, to top it off, we got each other the exact same bizarro card. We must be MFEO.

We hope your Valentine’s Day included a spare moment to recognize the love in your life, in all its many forms.

How to Throw a Party — MN Food Bloggers Style

Step 1: Find a willing restaurateur (in this case, Stewart and Heidi Woodman of Heidi’s).

Step 2: Make sure the fates collide so the party takes place at the same time amazing local hip hop artist Brother Ali is filming a music video at the same restaurant.

Step 3: Mingle with cast, crew and fellow food bloggers and eat delicious food.

Braised beef tongue.

Crab cakes.

Lamb meatballs.

Step 4: Add cocktails and liquor.

Ginseng and deer antler whiskey.

Ginseng vodka. All ginseng courtesy of Hsu Ginseng and Will Hsu (@wphsu)

Step 5: After many cocktails, make sure a festive crowd with cameras and an appetite encourages the chefs to demonstrate mad skillz.

Giant lobe of foie gras.

Step 6: Ravenously eat rich bits of foie with fig compote. Try to save some for event organizer Stephanie Meyer (@FreshTartSteph), fail miserably. Enthusiastically instigate chefs to utilize foie fat by cooking pork in it (genius idea, @MSPFoodie)

Step 7: Get pulled into sitting at a table in front of lights and cameras with “prop cocktails” and the director’s bottle of water while music video films with you in it.

Step 8: Bust out the big guns — deadly good moonshine from @MarkDewes and gecko and seahorse liquor straight from Vietnam.

Step 9: Dance party in the kitchen and the bar. (Those photos stay with me, just in case I need a favor some day!)

Step 10: Raise money for the Sojourner Project (the most important reason for the entire evening).

Step 11:  Go home, very late, shaking head, asking, “Whose life is this?!?” And wake up the next morning asking, “Did that really happen?”

Thanks to the kind, generous hosts Stewart and Heidi Woodman, thanks to the talented and incredibly patient (can’t emphasize that enough) staff at Heidi’s, thanks to Brother Ali for the chat and the opportunity, thanks to Stephanie Meyer for organizing it all and thanks to all the MN Food Bloggers for a truly one-of-a-kind evening.

Wow. Now, *that’s* how you throw a party.

Cameron Hughes Wine Event

I am notoriously frugal. K once went shopping with me and I tried on a sleeveless shirt. He said he liked it, I told him I would only pay $45 for it if they agreed to include the sleeves. As a self-employed writer, my budget for items is often zero, so frugality is a necessity. K, on the other hand, loves many of the finer things in life, like wine. He adores wine, he learns about wine and he knows what he’s talking about. The words cheap … er, frugal, and *good* wine rarely go together. But we found a way to make that happen when we went to a Cameron Hughes wine event at the Edina, Minnesota Room and Board store.

As soon as we entered the store, we were given a wine glass and invited to sample wines, cheeses, toasts and chocolate dessert. As tempting as the food was, it was really the glass (and what was soon to be in it) that we focused on.

Cameron Hughes, you see, is a master negotiator. He goes to the top wineries across the planet and takes their extra wine off their hands. Because those wines are often in very limited release, the wineries do not allow any additional wines to be sold under their name, so Hughes releases them under his own name. You won’t know which high buck winery your beverage came from, but it won’t matter whose name is on the label because the wine is some seriously fine wine.

The wine is released in limited lots, identified only by their lot number, origin and type of wine. Sampled at this event were:
* 2009 North Coast Petite Sirah
* 2009 Atlas Peak Chardonnay
* 2002 Gran Reserva Ribera Del Deuro Tempranillo
* 2009 Santa Barbara County Pinot Grigio
* 2009 Russian River Pinot Noir
* 2009 Arroyo Seco Chardonnay
* 2009 Spring Mountain Meritage
* 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
* 2009 Stag’s Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon

K’s favorite? Lot 303 — the Stag’s Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon. It started faintly sweet and full then slowly gained deeper, dark fruit flavors. My favorite was Lot 242– the Atlas Peak Chardonnay. Normally, I don’t care for Chardonnay. The flavors are far too warm, too heavy and the wrong kind of sweet. This, however, was *un-oaked* Chardonnay which tastes more citrus and mineral, almost like a Sauvignon Blanc.

Under their original labels, these wines are very expensive. But as part of the Cameron Hughes “Lot Series,” they go for between $11-28 per bottle. The wines can be ordered online or can be found at Sam’s Club or Costco liquor stores. They definitely have a cult following and people stalk the release of the spirits, so you have to act fast to find them. The Cameron Hughes website also has a locator that can help you track down the wine near you.

Trust me, you will be a hero if you bring a bottle or two to a holiday gathering or put a bow on one as a gift. And no one has to know you were frugal and only paid pennies on the dollar for what some other suckers are paying big money for. Everyone’s a winner!

FreshTartSteph Hosts a MN Food Bloggers Backyard BBQ and Bars Bake-Off

A perfect Minnesota summer night. A gleaming and glowing home with a bustling kitchen, counters overflowing with delicious food. A sprawling green yard, surrounded by lush trees reflecting in the still pool. Smoke wafting from the MYOKebabs on the barbecue. Sweetly clinking wine glasses and warm laughter. And then…
someone said “pork in a box” and it was all downhill from there.

Stephanie Meyer (Minnesota Monthly’s Fresh Tart Steph) graciously hosted the MN Food Bloggers earlier this week for a backyard barbecue and bars bake-off. Her home is lovely. The food, provided by Tastebud Tart Molly Hermann of Kitchen in the Market, was delectable and summer perfect — cool salads, build-your-own kebabs with tons of “accessories” and sauces. Shaina and Ole from Food for My Family provided the Chinese Box, a mobile smoker, and Ole manned the great hunks of pork as it crisped on the outside and become more and more tender on the inside. The Fulton Beer guys were there with cold, crisp local beer and Kitchak Cellars were there sampling deep ruby wine that K loved.

I may have mentioned that I’m no photographer. K takes most of the photos for this blog (and takes *all* of the good photos), but I’m giving myself points for remembering a camera this time and taking a few photos — even though I didn’t remember until it was dark.

Enjoying Delicious Fulton Beer

Eating, Drinking, Chatting and Fighting off Mosquitoes

The food, the drinks, the atmosphere and the conversation were absolutely perfect. And just when the mosquitoes chased us all indoors, it was time to witness the results of the judging for the bars bake-off and enjoy the sweet fruits of our labor.

Given the competition, it was ridiculous that I attempted a bars entry and I *agonized* over what I should bring. I finally decided on Lemon Thyme Meringue Bars which were a compilation of shortbread cookie crust, lemon meringue pie filling and vanilla meringue cookies and my imagination that adding the herb lemon thyme would elevate the whole thing.

First I made the shortbread crust:

Buttery Shortbread Crust

1/2 c. Confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 cup butter at room temperature (1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup)

Mix the sugar and flour together, add butter and mash together with a fork (or your hands, if you’re impatient) until it forms a dough. Press evenly into a pan until it’s about 1/4-inch thick, make sure some go up the sides of the pan as well. Bake at 350 degrees until it’s golden brown (25-35 minutes).

Then I made the meringue cookies. It has been AGES since I’ve messed with a pastry bag and tips and it showed. These, however, would become the crowning achievement and most identifiable factor in the bars.

Post-Piped/Pre-Oven Meringues

3/4 cup of sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
4 egg whites
3/4 tsp vanilla
big pinch of salt

Beat the egg whites, vanilla and salt on high speed until soft peaks form. Combine the sugar and cornstarch and add slowly to egg white mixture, beating while you add the dry ingredients. Crank the mixer up to high and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. Put the mixture into a pastry bag and pipe into cookies (I used a large star tip). The faster you can do this, the better they will turn out.

Bake for 1.5 hours at 225 degrees then turn off the oven and leave them for about another hour (or until they’re cool and crispy).

Mine were not cool and crispy and I had to put them back into the oven where many of them burned. They didn’t end up a lovely white with the “s’mores marshmallow” streaks, they were a toasty beige color.

Lemony Lemon Thyme Filling

With the meringues chilling in the oven, I made the lemon filling.

1 1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
big pinch of salt
6 egg yolks
1 Tb. lemon zest
1.5 TB lemon thyme (you should add more, I couldn’t taste the lemon thyme)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 TB butter

Simmer the water, sugar, cornstarch and salt over medium heat in a saucepan. When it starts to bubble and thicken, whisk until it starts to get clear. Whisk in the egg yolks one at a time then the lemon juice, zest and butter. Let it simmer for a minute then remove it from the heat. Add the chopped lemon thyme. Let cool (stick a piece of plastic wrap on top and let it touch the filling, like pudding, it will help prevent a weird skin from forming). Put into the crust and bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I dipped some lemon thyme leaves into egg whites and sugared them. When everything was cool, I placed the meringue cookies on top of the lemon bars and voila …

Lemon Thyme Meringue Bars

I did not notice at the time that these very closely resemble breasts. So while I did not win the bars bake-off, at least I gave the judges a good laugh with what were alternately called “Boobie Bars” and “Nipple Bars.” I’m not even going to tell you what K called them.

If I ever make these again, I’d add chopped lemon thyme to the crust, more to the filling and even sprinkle some fresh lemon thyme over the top.

The well-deserved winner was Kelli from I Had a Delicious Time with her rosemary, apricot,  Captain Morgan creations (you’ll have to get the recipe from her for yourselves). Here she is posing with her hubby and some of those amazing bars.

Kelli and David Abrahamian with Kelli's (Delicious) Winning Bars

After briefly meeting the delightful Andrew Zimmern, a latecomer to the party who wisely stole the last of the crusty pork bits, we headed out — full, sugared up and simultaneously buzzing with energy and exhaustion from a wonderful evening. And if you’re wondering what the aftermath of a MN Food Bloggers event looks like…

What we Left Behind

Thank you to Stephanie Meyer for being such a gracious hostess and to everyone who made the evening a delicious success. We had the best time chatting with friends, meeting new people and, to everyone we didn’t get a chance to meet yet, there’s always next time. And we’re looking forward to it. We are so fortunate to have come across this amazing community of people who gather, not only online, but to share in real life the joy of food and everything that comes with it.

Basil Limeade — A Versatile Summer Refresher

I’m not 100 percent sure what happened, but we went from 35 degrees and raining to 90 degrees and sweltering. Summer has smacked us in Minnesota like the heat mass that hits you when you open the door of a hot oven. Or when you go to Vegas in July.

Take full advantage of summer. Get out there and grill, read a book in the shade, play badminton in your backyard with your friends and neighbors. When you get hot, cool off with versatile basil limeade.

Basil Limeade

Normally we do not have frozen from-concentrate juice on hand, but we have some leftover in the freezer from a successful experiment in “beergaritas.” If you’re ambitious, make your own limeade (fresh lime juice and sugar). Mix up your limeade, chiffonade (cut into small, thin ribbons) some fresh basil, mix the two together and you’ve got basil limeade. The basil tempers the sweet and tart limeade and gives it an interesting, deep flavor. For grown-ups, this is also fantastic with vodka or gin. Add a basil leaf into each compartment of an ice cube tray, pour some limeade on top and freeze and you’ve got basil limeade cubes to keep your basil limeade icy cold.

Now get out there and enjoy summer with a frosty beverage in hand!

New York Bites — Our Final Day

The final day of our honeymoon was, appropriately, a Monday. We solemnly packed our bags and left them with the front desk staff at our hotel after we checked out. Then we tried to forget about it being our last day by heading to Discovery Times Square to take in the Pompeii exhibit.

All that history made us hungry so we hoofed it to the legendary Carnegie Deli just 10 minutes before there was a very long line outside. The walls were plastered with framed, signed photos of celebrities who’d enjoyed their gut-busting meals. The tables are lined up in long, communal lines and you become quick friends with whomever is sitting next to you. Seeing the GIANT portions in front of our neighbors, we opted to share two of the dishes the Deli is most famous for — matzoh ball soup and a pastrami sandwich.

Matzoh Ball Soup

Yes, that really is the color of the matzoh ball soup and there is not a speck of green in sight. It’s very basic, but also very good. Rich chicken flavor with light-as-air matzoh balls. How they accomplished this with matzoh balls bigger than a softball (I’m not joking), is beyond me. I guess that’s why they’re famous.

Pastrami Sandwich

Above is half of the pastrami sandwich and it takes up much of the plate. I didn’t even bother with the bread and just went for the warm, tender, peppery pastrami. It was my kind of sandwich — just good, simple filling and nothing like mustard or mayo mucking it up. Of course I couldn’t finish my sandwich half and our server seemed really disappointed in me. She helpfully suggested my already full stomach might have room for a glacier-sized piece of cheesecake and I had to politely decline. She was disappointed in that too. Kind of like when my grandma used to shake her head sadly and tell the grandchildren, “Well, I guess you’re not a member of the clean plate club.”

We rolled ourselves out of the Carnegie Deli and did some more exploring of the city. We stopped in at Eataly again for a little gelato snack and sat in the cold outside of the Flatiron Building watching the city go by. We meandered into Tom Collichio’s nearly empty Craftbar (it was 3:30 in the afternoon) where the friendly bartender made K a creative, flowery cocktail tempered with fresh sprigs of rosemary and  generously accommodated my requirement for an N/A ginger “martini” (which was super yummy).

Then we wound our way back to our hotel and caught our final taxi (then promptly got caught in traffic on the way to the airport in rush hour).

Now we love New York City. We want to visit again and explore all the neighborhoods we haven’t seen yet, to eat at all the restaurants we didn’t get the chance to taste.  Next time we’ll find the neighborhood gems, the hidden jewel boxes only insiders know about. We’ll hoof it around Harlem and Queens.

The Twin Cities can definitely hold its own, food-wise. We most certainly have restaurants and cocktail “alchemists” that are “New York caliber.” We don’t have to travel to the East Coast to find amazing, diverse and delicious food. But we’ll be back. For lots of reasons. And hopefully again sometime soon.

New York Bites — Day Five

K’s birthday was in March and part of his gift was a private tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art while we were in New York City. That day had arrived and we met our guide, Victoria from Art Smart, who brought us through their modern art collection and filled the trip with fascinating history and stories. She also gave us an impromptu run through the rest of the museum so we’d know our way around for the rest of our day. Then she recommended we have lunch at Petrie Court Cafe and Wine Bar.

I enjoyed a spring vegetable angel hair pasta frittata and K loved his foraged mushroom and creme fraiche flatbread. Our relaxing lunch took place next to the sunny European sculpture court. It was like having lunch in Paris.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a HUGE museum and we couldn’t cover it all in one day, but we got a good sampling of what we really wanted to experience. We were exhausted from all the walking and everything we took in (centuries of art and history), but we rallied for the big evening we had ahead.

Our clever friends DLB and Baxter (who officiated our wedding) kindly gifted us a certificate to Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50 on the Lower East Side. The restaurant is modern, but comfortable and the dress code is casual, but we were dressed to the hilt because of our after-dinner plans.

Well known for playing with his food and being something of an alchemist, Dufresne’s menu definitely didn’t disappoint. A lover of liver, K started with the aerated foie gras with pickled beet, mashed plum and brioche. The plate looks like a bunch of artfully placed sponges, but the foie was rich and vaporous — the best kind of rich (and foie) in my opinion.

Aerated Foie, Pickled Beet, Brioche and Mashed Plum

I started with the peekytoe crab roll with house made mini salt ‘n vinegar potato chips and celery mayonnaise. This was such a strange and interesting play on temperature. The crab roll looked like it would be hot and crispy, but it wasn’t. It didn’t seem to be fried. Tepid is such a gross word, but that’s the only word I can find to describe the outer layers, but the dense and sweet crab mixture inside was cool, but not cold. The celery mayo was a great “cool flavor” to accompany the roll.

Peekytoe Crab Roll, Salt 'n Vinegar Chips and Celery Mayo

WD-50 must have hit the jackpot on a load of celery when we were there because K also very, very much enjoyed his celery gin and tonic drink. It had a distinct, but not obnoxious, celery flavor. K has since tried to replicate this at home and it was a bit too celery and gin forward. I think the secret ingredient might be egg whites. If you’ve got any insight, it would be welcome!

Celery Gin and Tonic

The light cocktail was a good pairing with the full-bodied entrée K chose: Iberico pork neck with smoked paprika spaetzle, peach and Marcona almond. This was the richest, most flavorful and “porky” pork I’ve ever tasted and the paprika spaetzle was genius — spirited with a dancing spice.

Iberico Pork Neck with Smoked Paprika Spaetzle

Straying from my apparent obsession with skate, I went with the crispy Mediterranean bass with black forbidden rice, artichokes and a white chocolate-green olive sauce. The sauce originally creeped me out a little, but the salty olive-ness was nicely (and not too obviously) balanced by the sweet white chocolate. My only complaint was that there was *A LOT* of fish — one less filet would have been perfect. I absolutely loved the black sticky rice molded into rice balls — sticky crisp on the outside and sticky tender on the inside with a nutty flavor reminiscent of wild rice.

Mediterranean Bass with Forbidden Rice and White Chocolate Green Olive Sauce

We had to skip dessert because we were short on time and going to a food-centric event, but Wylie (who we could see cooking for us in the kitchen) and staff couldn’t send us away empty-handed. Our mini desserts were frozen marshmallow cream coated in crushed Rice Krispies. Yup, frozen rice krispy treats. I never want to eat another traditional rice krispy treat again. Just … yum.

Frozen Rice Crispy Treats

After our creative dinner at WD-50 we grabbed a cab to a nearby benefit for UNICEF I caught wind of via Twitter the week before we left. The event — dubbed Eat. Pray. Heal. Japan. — was a fundraiser for children in Japan affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami. Top Chef contestants Mike Isabella, Angelo Sosa, Harold Dieterle, Hung Huynh, Kevin Sbraga and Seth Caro (from the dessert show) made small bites and appearances. Ariane Duarte, Amanda Freitag, Richard Blais and more were mingling as well. An opportunity we simply couldn’t pass up.

After meeting Ariane Duarte, an absolute sweetheart who gave us the skinny on how to pounce on the food coming out of the kitchen (you’ve gotta be an aggressive New Yorker, not a polite Minnesotan, apparently) we greeted Angelo Sosa. He is very kind (and very tall, as you can see) and has an amazing attitude about life and his success.

K+ L + Angelo Sosa of Top Chef

Before we headed out, we had to grab a minute with Richard Blais to congratulate him on his well-deserved Top Chef All-Stars win. He was also very kind, but also seemed uncomfortable with the attention and out of his element. We got the feeling he’d have been more comfortable back in the kitchen instead of in the middle of an adoring crowd.

K + L + Top Chef All-Stars Winner Richard Blais

That night was truly an NYC movie night. For one glorious evening we were leading the lives of glamorous TV/movie New Yorkers getting dressed up, having an incredible dinner, being whisked off in a cab to a fabulous celebrity benefit …
Not the *real* life anyone lives, but for one night it was a very sparkly feeling!