Search results for 'shallot'

Nommin’ Through the Hamptons: Montauk Yacht Club

29 May

It’s Hamptons Week in honor of the official start of summer! If you are going to The Hamptons this summer, check out all the posts from this week to get my recommendation on where to eat (and where not to).

Our second Restaurant Week Reservation was at Montauk Yacht Club.  We had a whole lot of trouble finding it (note: iPhone GPS puts it in a different location than it really is). The restaurant is actually called “Gulf Coast Kitchen” so be sure to follow those signs.

When you walk in, it’s simply beautiful.  Every room had a great look and feel to it.

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The view from our table was across a seating area and to the water.  

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Their menu was pretty good for Restaurant week with 4 selections each for the starters and the mains. 

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Mike chose the Chowder MYC that came with double smoked bacon, local clams, and fresh cream.  This was pretty good with some nice flavor, but one thing I love about chowder is the big pieces of clam and potato.  This was a bit more liquidy than I would prefer, but still quite nice.

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I got the Big Eye Tuna Tartar that came with shallots, Italian parsley, lemon zest, micro truffle salad, and crostini.

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This was gorgeously constructed and was a great combination of flavors.  I didn’t know what micro truffle salad was, but I was expecting something truffle flavor. Unfortunately, there was none.  This was one of those “over-promise and under-deliver” moments.  Had they never mentioned truffles, I would have eaten this happily and been on my merry way. But once the “truffle” was out of the bag, I wanted truffle.  

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For the main, Mike chose the grilled hangar steak with fresh salsa verde, roasted vegetables, and rosemary and sage potatoes.  This had good flavor and the salsa verde gave it a nice touch.

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I got a special that wasn’t on the menu but still counted for Restaurant Week.  It was a pork chop with some greens and potatoes.  Unfortunately, this was a bit disappointing. Not too big on flavor and in need of a sauce.

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The dessert selection included lemon tarts that Mike enjoyed while on his lemon kick.

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I chose the chocolate mousse cake that came with a passion fruit sauce. It was delicious but VERY rich.

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Overall, I enjoyed the Gulf Coast Kitchen at the Montauk Country Club, but I can’t say it was a brilliant meal. For $25 it was a well priced meal, but I’m not sure I can say it was great. The location, however, is stunningly beautiful and probably worth it just for that.

Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10

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Ember Room: Dim Sum Brunch and Lunch

17 May

UrbanDaddy had a Perk for One Dim Sum Brunch with bottomless Bloody Marys and beer (two-hour max) at Ember Room, a new (at the time) restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen (9th Ave between 45th and 46th Streets) that had Todd English in its pedigree. Don’t mind if I do!

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The decor is eclectic pan asian, with some really nice touches like old fashioned light bulbs, bold artwork, and a beautiful dark wood all around.

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Our Dim Sum brunch came with some varied dim sum, all of which were good… but none of which were outstanding…

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We did enjoy our endless Chang beers.

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The one dim sum I especially like were the shrimp, as it had a whole, sweet shrimp tucked inside.

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We also added some korean bbq beef fried rice onto our order.  It was quite good, but the hot stone bowl wasn’t quite hot enough to char the rice in the way that Korean Restaurants in Koreatown do so well.  Also, it was supposed to be with kimchi, but since I can’t have kimchi, we went without.  It was okay… but I think they rely on the kimchi to give it flavor, so it was a wee bit bland.  It said it came with crispy shallots, which I was especially intrigued by, but they were too small to really notice.

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It was good enough that I was curious about the full menu, so I came back for lunch one day with my coworkers.

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They started with the chocolate ribs, which were slow cooked in a spiced chocolate sauce. Sadly, that sauce included chili, so I was out, but my coworkers scarfed these down.

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We got a side of sauteed chinese broccoli.  Frankly, I prefer the leafy part over the stems, but the oyster sauce on these made them very good.

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I believe this was the thai basil chicken, which was spicy thai basil minced chicken over a fried egg, served with jasmine rice.

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More korean beef fried rice. 

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And I went with the veggie burger, after a good amount of research by the waitress as to what I could, and could not, eat.  

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It came with some sort of soup which was surprisingly flavorful… but didn’t make enough of an impression for me to remember what it was.

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The veggie burger itself was impressive. Tons of flavor, nice texture, and the fried onions on top were quite delicious.  I’m not a veggie burger fan, but this was quite tasty!

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Overall, I enjoyed both meals at Ember Room, but I can’t say I’m running back to try more.  I think it’s a pretty good choice if you’re in the area or looking for a pre- or post- Broadway Theater meal. It is definitely different from the Italian that occupies most of that target market!

Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10

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Gabrielle Hamilton’s Prune

11 May

I really love books written by chefs about their adventures in food. Anthony Bourdain was my first and made me fall in love with reading about the inner workings of restaurants and chefery.  I read somewhere that HIS favorite food book was Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton and I quickly made the purchase on my Nook (ps- I love that thing… never thought I’d want anything besides a real book, but I have read more in the 6 months I’ve had it than the entire last 3 years combined).

I absolutely loved the book, and was especially excited to read the section about her starting a restaurant in NYC.  A restaurant I had been meaning to go to for quite some time: Prune.

We were going to go for Valentine’s Day, but then I was called out to LA for a work meeting, so we had to cancel that reservation. A few weeks later, on an idle weekend with nothing to do, we made our way down to the East Village and put our names on the list for brunch.  They don’t take reservations for brunch, and I was expecting a long wait. We decided we would stroll the neighborhood for a bit, but when they told us it would be just 45 minutes, we made it a quick stroll.  We came back 20 minutes later and were seated less than 10 minutes after that.  Lovely!

What I first noticed was that Prune is SMALL.  Even smaller than what I imagined from what she described in the book.

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We started our brunch with cocktails.  While Prune is known for their Bloody Mary’s, I don’t drink vodka (long story) and I’m allergic to peppers… So that pretty much eliminates me from the Bloody pool.  I went with some refreshing, citrusy cocktail that I can’t remember a thing about, other than that I really enjoyed it.

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Mike, on the other hand, was all over trying one of these famous Bloodys.  The menu of Bloody Mary’s is quite big and quite original (scroll down to the bottom here to see).  Mike chose the Chicago Matchbox, with homemade lemon vodka, pickled brussels sprouts, baby white turnips, caperberries, green beans, and radishes.

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 It was beautiful, and he was a big fan. He never really drinks Bloody Mary’s, but after this one, he has been trying more and more.

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For noms, Mike got the steak and eggs, which was a 7 oz. prime newport steak, grilled with parsley shallot butter and 2 eggs (he went sunny-side up) witha toasted english muffin and potatoes rosti.  This was SO good. The steak alone could rival any of the best steak restaurants in the city. Everything was cooked perfectly.

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I chose the dutch style pancake.  It was one individual pancake cooked in the oven, with pears, served with canadian bacon and potatoes rosti.  This thing was DELICIOUS.  The pancake was super fluffy with a bit of crisp on the outside.  It was sweet, but not too sweet, and had great flavor with the batter and the pear.  I thoroughly enjoyed this… probably more than any other pancake I’ve ever had.

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We walked away from Prune incredibly impressed.  The atmosphere was great, the drinks were great, and the food was great.  I love brunch, but find a lot of times it’s all the same. Here, it was brunch anew.  I cannot wait to go back and try more!  

Total Nom Points: 8 out of 10

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