Archive | November, 2010

Lincoln Ristorante

3 Nov

When browsing for a great place to take Mike for his birthday, I was debating between an old NYC classic or something completely new.  And by completely new, I mean opened less than 2 weeks prior.  I decided to take the risk.

I had heard about Lincoln Ristorante across the foodie blogosphere as it was being opened by Jonathan Benno, the former Per Se chef.

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It is located in an absolutely beautiful location at Lincoln Center in a fully glass walled space with sloping wood ceilings.

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I loved the space.

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The entire kitchen is visible behind a glass wall as you walk into the dining room.

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You can even take a peak around the glass wall (making it more of a decoration and less like a fish bowl).

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It even looks out on the beautiful new Julliard School.

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I was even impressed with the candles which were plain on the outside but revealed a very pretty tree and bird design on the inside.  I want these!

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The bread that came out was 2 different variations of a flat bread that was crispy (and just so so) and some yummy, buttery breadsticks.

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The menu changes regularly, so I’ll give you a glance of the menu for the night we were there.

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I was sad that there wasn’t a tasting menu, but the a la carte options sounded great anyway.

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And we were very torn on what to order.

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But in the end, Mike decided he wanted to try the beef (which I had read explained as “if we are going to put steak on the menu, it had better be the best steak we can find.”)

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We were first served with a chick pea cake with a puree that I recall being delicious, but not delicious enough to commit to memory exactly what it was.

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We started with the foie gras, sweet bread, and rabbit terrine.  It was good, but honestly, this was my least favorite part of the meal. I expected it to be a bit more flavorful.  It tasted earthy, but lacking in depth.

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And then the steak came… it was presented to us beautifully until it was whisked away to be carved.

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And it came back perfectly plated for each of us.  It was probably the softest steak I have ever eaten.  You could probably have cut most of it with a butter knife.  And it had delicious char.  The cipollini onions were so sweet and so delicious.  A perfect pair for the meat.  The greens (which may have been spinach) were forgettable and obviously there just for color.  The marrow, however, was insanely delicious and  buttery.  Mike went so far as to describe it as “the creamiest cream you could ever cream.”  I promised him I would quote him on that and wrote it down.

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We ordered a side of gnocchi and it was the best gnocchi I have ever had.  It was pillowy and buttery and cheesy and everything you could want.

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The dessert menu came and and we opted to also do after-dinner drinks.

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I chose the amaretto, and it was the best damn amaretto I have ever had.  Commit this brand to memory if you like Amaretto:  Luxardo.  As someone who only usually drinks DiSaronno (which is good, don’t get me wrong), this was eye opening.  I will find this again and drink it forever.

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Here is where things get fuzzy.  I have no idea why I took a picture of a fork on a glass of water.  Perhaps I liked the vantage point with the glasses behind?  One can only wonder now.

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The birthday boy ordered the trio of gelati: milk chocolate, caramel, and fior di latte.  They were nice enough to light a candle, write a birthday message, and not sing.  Perfect.

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I chose the Monte Bianco.  The chestnut sorbetto just sounded too good to pass up.  When it came, it looked like a Tartufo.

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And it had a pretty center.  The chestnut was good, but I wanted more chestnut flavor.  I enjoyed it thoroughly, however, and eagerly cleaned my plate and wished I could pick it up and lick it.

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We received a final plate of mini cookies.  I was especially pleased as they served 2 of everything, so as to avoid any uncomfortable “who gets which cookie” scenarios.

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Overall, Lincoln was a fantastic choice and I’m so glad we went.  The food was fantastic and the atmosphere and appearance of the restaurant was some of the best I’ve ever seen.  The service was impeccable and I was especially impressed that they asked about food allergies when I made the reservation and paid close attention to it throughout the meal.  I was impressed with how reasonable the prices were, especially from the chef who came from Per Se (the still-out-of-reach restaurant in NY that I’m dying to try but cannot rationalize spending the $ for).  I highly recommend it for special occasions.  It was definitely in the top 10, if not top 5.

Total Nom Points: 9 out of 10

LATimes Food Festival

1 Nov

I happened to be traveling to LA on a weekend that happened to contain BOTH the Beverly Hills Food Festival and the LA Times Food Festival.  Unfortunately, I had to choose, so I went with the LA Times Food and Wine Festival that happened an inexplicably long time ago (September 5th, to be exact).

Perhaps it’s just because I’m not from LA, or perhaps our tickets purchased online were lacking in information, but we seriously had no idea where to park, and there were no signs.  A bit of digging and we figured it out.  The festival was actually right on the Paramount Pictures Studio Lot… which was pretty damn cool.

It was an insanely hot day, yet we sat in the blaring 90+ degree sun for an hour to hear the first talk: Food Blogging & Beyond featuring Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman); Aarti Sequeira (Aarti Paarti/Winner, The Next Food Network Star” Season 6); & TBD, moderated by Rene Lynch (Assistant Food Editor, Los Angeles Times).  This is where I got to know about The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond for the first time.

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The panel was really interesting and completely inspired me.  Aarti convinced me to try to  do a video blog (coming soon) and Ree really showed me how artful recipe photography could be.  They were very down to earth.  I don’t know if I really learned much, but it was great to see them and I really enjoyed it.

We were so warm by the time this was done, that we needed a drink.  The lines were quite long at each booth, so I high-tailed it to the very back of the lot and found The Sweets Truck there selling homemade lemonade and limeade.

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I’m not sure if it was just because of how parched we were, but I would say this was the best of both I’ve ever had.  I was looking forward to coming back to try their baked goods at the end of the day, however, they were sold out by then!  Glad we snagged the drinks when we did.

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While I was on a quest for liquid, Mike stood on the long line for the Nom Nom Truck (as featured on The Great Food Truck Race on Food Network).

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When I heard they were going to be at this festival, it really sealed the deal for me.  Not only do I love Bahn Mi, but COME ON, they are called the NOM NOM truck. It is meant to be.  Even when the line was soooooo long.

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So long, in fact, that I accidentally took a picture of the ground while waiting.  I liked the shadows, however, so I will share it.

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Finally we drew close.

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And we ordered the lemongrass chicken tacos.

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And of course the banh mi.

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Which was filled with deliciousness.  I actually liked the tacos even more than the bahn mi.  But it was all delicious and all worth the wait.

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As we walked back into the main grounds, I noticed Alex and CJ from Top Chef talking about “Life After Top Chef” as  moderated by  Krista Simmons. I only stuck around long enough to shoot this quick pic.

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I was fortunate enough to meet up with my very cool Aunt Farrell at the festival and she ordered a custom made ice cream sandwich.  I think it was potato bread cookie with bacon ice cream.  Unfortunately, the picture is blurry… but it was DELICIOUS.  I really wanted one of my own, but by the time we got there the line was prohibitively long and we were excessively tired and on our way to catch the plane.

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Our next stop was at a cooking demonstration by Noelle Carter.

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She made shrimp skewers.

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However, they had spices… so I missed out and gave my bite to Mike.

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Our next stop was for dessert at Nana Queen’s Puddin’ and Wings (also featured on The Great Food Truck Race).

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While I’m sure the wings are good, we were in it for the puddin’.

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It was good, but nothing special.  I’m pretty sure it was advertised as coffee/toffee and neither of those flavors were really present.  But the texture was perfect.

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We didn’t stop at many of the tables selling food due to the lines, however, we heard good things about the Mark Peel station so we decided to try it.  He had a beautiful cookbook displayed.

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They were out of most things, however, the duck confit sliders were left, which was fortunate since that’s what we came for.

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I knew the chef’s name sounded familiar and he looked like someone I knew, however, I didn’t put it together until later that he was on Top Chef Masters.  Luckily, he made an appearance while we were there.

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I somehow missed taking a picture of the duck sliders, but they were REALLY good and I will definitely be trying Campanile next time I’m in LA.

Our final stop of the day was supposed to be dessert, but this was when we couldn’t get online at the ice cream sandwiches and found out that The Sweets Truck was out of stock.  So we went with Korean food! I got a bulgogi taco (which was basically the meat and rice in a taco shell) and it was goooood.

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I think the best talk we did all day was actually the one that didn’t lend itself well to being photographed.  We went to a wine chat with the head wine guy at The Palm, Jonathan Mitchell.  I learned so much about wine in that half hour and he was an excellent speaker.

This was a lot of fun, however, we paid $55 to get in and there was basically nothing to eat without paying more.  You got drink tickets, but we weren’t gung ho about getting wasted before driving to the airport for a 6 hour flight.  I guess that it makes some sense since most food festivals with free food cost closer to $100, however, it made the lines move very slow and I wish they would have told us more details about there being no free food with the entry price.

I’m glad we went and had a chance to try so many places that we definitely wouldn’t be able to try in NYC.  It was a fun and a great way to end our LA trip.