FORK PLAY July 15, 2009
Good Grub Pub. Veterans Deliver. Aureole Redux. Compass Still Trying. Life after Layoff.
Dear Friends and Family,
Gus and Gabriel, stuffed into the tiny pocket that once was Kefi, is like a sheltered Greek boy's dream of how
 Americans eat. I can almost imagine the young Michael Psilakis in the sequestered tradition of his transplanted Greek home, eating his feta, tomato, oregano salad and meatballs in yogurt, dreaming of BBQ pork, cheddar-jalapeño tater tots and a giant Gruyère burger with bacon and a fried egg on top, coleslaw and onion rings alongside. Well, now Psilakis has his fantasy of paradise at G&G - named for his father and his son. It's the hookup of a pop-food heaven with a soda parlor and a neighborhood bar, billed by the star-draped chef of Anthos, Mia Dona, Kefi uptown as a "Gastro Pub." Love the concept. Hate the word.
Maybe it's okay for the British, but for me, gastro evokes unpleasant thoughts of digestive vulnerability like gastroenteritis and gastric reflux syndrome. Yet heading home Monday night after sharing that caramel ice cream "chipwich" and a vanilla milk shake with Jim Beam, my mood was definitely mellow. I'll write more about loaded potato skins and fabulous peanut butter cupcake on BITE soon.
***
Front Lines for the Elderly
Every year about this time Citymeals-on-Wheels sends out a summer box of emergency meals with extra water and a flashlight in case of a summer blackout to the 17,000 homebound New Yorkers we help feed. This year, just
 before the July Fourth weekend, volunteers from the 69th Infantry, recently back from Afghanistan, did our deliveries in Harlem. World War II veterans were amazed and pleased to open their doors and see the men in their camouflage uniforms. And the young troops got to hear a few war stories from the vets.
Last week CMOW executive director Marcia Stein got a phone call. It was from an elderly woman who had just come home from a hospital stay with absolutely no food in the house, not quite able to walk. "Then I found the package waiting in the hall like an angel dropped it at my door."
What can I say? We are in our 29th year now and still delivering. To learn more, click here.
***
Lullaby of Broadway
It's shocking, if not discombobulating, to find the new Aureole on 42nd Street half a block from Times Square. Our companions last Saturday night wondered why designer
 Adam Tihany had not put a scrim or a few strands of beads on the great sweep of window to mask the view. I see scaffolding, green neon, a brigand selling fake bags across the street and the passing mélange of scruff and innocent citizenry drawn and ejected from Times Square. Still, in just one week - we've been back twice - executive chef Christopher Lee's confident take-charge ways are already producing provocative layerings of flavor in miso and sake dressed tuna tartare, slow-cooked octopus with cannelloni beans, and halibut with crisped potato gnocchi and pesto. I can imagine the two of us this fall stopping by the bar before theater for a first-rate burger and his remarkable papas fritas scattered with aged manchego and bits of chorizo to drag through saffron aioli. But I urge you to go now. There's a 15% discount while the house is still in rehearsal for the big September 15 opening Charlie Palmer has dedicated to Citymeals. Click here for my BITE lowdown on Aureole. Then scroll down to read how I feel about Compass, still trucking after a merry-go-round of chefs: Compass is not hot. It's not sexy. It's not on foodie lips. But it still plays like a three star wannabe.
***
Recipe for Making Hungry Upper West Siders Happy
Recipe is just a sliver of a spot on a stretch of Amsterdam that bustles with undistinguished eating and drinking. But inch for inch, it's full of charm and some wonderful cooking dreamed up by its owner (a veteran of Jean Georges who also runs Land, the sliver of a Thai restaurant next door) and the chef de cuisine who loves
 pickles. A rat-a-tat row of small tables for two, some seats at the bar and a setting for six near the sidewalk are usually filled by locals who quickly discovered Recipe's sweet welcome. Check out my review by clicking here and then scroll down to learn more about $6.50 salads and fabulous $11 pastas at Quinto Quarto, a candlelit bare brick hideaway on Bedford Street that looks like it was born for the Village, but was actually dreamed up in Milan.
***
Hot Weather Cooking
In the simmer of August last year I collected fabulous 10-minute hot weather cooking ideas from chefs, good cooks and cookbook writer friends.
Well, I could have guessed that my longtime chum Rozanne Gold, restaurant consultant and author of the
 wildly popular "1-2-3 Cookbooks," would have a bounty of fast tricks. Here is the secret of her fragrant tomato-cantaloupe soup:
In a blender, whirl together equal amounts of very ripe cantaloupe and grape tomatoes until completely smooth. Add a few droplets of dark Asian sesame oil. Sprinkle with sea salt and slivers (sliver again) of cilantro or mint.
What could be easier or cooler?
For more, including my own instant no-cook tomato soup, Ed Brown's marinated tuna and Arthur Schwartz's crab, orange and scallion salad, click here.
I hope you like the melon colors that border Fork Play this week. Cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon!
***
Life After Layoff
Traffic is up on my website InsatiableCritic.com. It could be that essay I wrote for Daily Beast on "Chefs and their Groupies" that has lured readers eager for more. Yesterday, Manhattan Users Guide listed IC as one of its 39 favorite New York websites. Perhaps my enthusiastic slurps and chewings and whiplash critiques as a judge on Bravo's new Top Chef Masters is drawing new eyes to BITE. A couple of Top Chef fans are asking where I buy my hats. (Tune in to
Bravo Wednesday at 10 to watch four restaurant veterans handle a daunting challenge. And of course, I'll be wearing yet another church lady hat.)
 I also suspect my relentless Tweets are having a nice boomerang effect. If I am to be honest, as I am to a fault, it seems my writing has always been somewhat confessional, so I am a natural twit. As Anais Nin said: "We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect." Of course I tell what I ate and what I crave. Why don't pastry chefs do more with sour cherries? I was asking last week. But I also love the chance to share my reactions to the news, like this response to a story in Sunday's Times Style: "Think you're hot stuff? You're not a star till Twitter reports your faux death." Recently I thought I'd try a plea for help. I asked if anyone knew an upholsterer who might be willing to fix the bottom of my green velvet sofa working in my living room. Do you?
***
|
