- There are many hot sauces on the market, but my favorite is Frontera Chipotle hot sauce. It has the same heat as Tabasco, but the smoky sweetness gives it a depth of flavor. Available at grocery stores or www.fronterakitchens.com.
- Sauce Aioli by Delouis fils is a garlic mayonnaise that is a great dipping sauce. It’s a great alternative to a cocktail sauce or tarter sauce. It works well with shrimp, scallops or mussels. Available at gourmet markets.
- Maile Dijon Mustard continues to be my favorite mustard. It’s a sharp acidic blend that Maile has been making since 1747. Although they now make many flavored mustards, the traditional Dijon is my favorite. Widely available at grocery or specialty stores.
- Casa Mano is a Spanish Tapas restaurant recently opened by Mario Batali. It’s a tiny place with only 13 small tables, and an additional 13 stools at the bar. The food is fun, well prepared, and boldly seasoned, typical of a Batali restaurant. A few favorites were pumpkin & goat cheese croquetas, brussels sprouts a la plancha, ramps with romesco, scallops with cava & chorizo, and wild boar with escalivada. For those bored with the routine, try the cock’s combs, sweetbreads or the tripe. An extensive Spanish wine list is available. It’s located at 52 Irving Place, NYC.
Posts Tagged ‘NYC’
Worth seeking out…
Monday, April 19th, 2004Three tiny gems… museums
Friday, February 27th, 2004The Louvre, the Uffizi, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art are certainly some of the finest museums in the world. However I prefer the tiny gems. The small museums that focus on only one, or perhaps a handful of artists; yet their collections will amaze you. I have three favorites: the Villa Borghese, the Frick, and the Rodin.
The Villa Borghese, which is located in the Borghese Gardens in Rome, is absolutely breathtaking. The Villa was designed in 1605 for Cardinal Scipione Borghese and exhibits sculptures on the ground floor and artwork on the second floor. The collection of Bernini sculptures, including Apollo and Daphne, is the most impressive I have ever seen.
The Frick Collection on Fifth Ave in New York City is housed in a mansion built for Henry Clay Frick in 1914. Paintings and sculpture are placed throughout the mansion in much the same way as Henry Frick did when he lived here. It is this relaxed atmosphere that makes the Frick so unique. The Living Room, Dining Room, East & West Gallery are adorned with such masters as Rembrandt, Degas, El Greco, Turner and Vermeer.
The Rodin museum in Paris is another treat. A beautiful chateau built around 1730, surrounded by perfectly manicured gardens, provides a great venue to appreciate the works of Rodin. He actually lived there for 6 years prior to his death in 1917. He donated all his work, including his private collection with pieces by Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh. Rodin’s sculptures are fabulous, and the collection includes The Thinker and The Kiss. During the warmer months, a walk through the garden of boxwoods and roses intermixed with sculpture is particularly enjoyable.
Sometimes it is much more moving to visit a tiny museum and appreciate just a few pieces of exquisite art, than diluting the experience by being overwhelmed by too many choices.
NYC Wine Bars
Tuesday, January 27th, 2004Wine bars are a fun way to learn about wine. In the early ’80s I remember taking a wine class where the instructor said that the best way to learn was to pull plenty of corks. This makes a lot of sense, but it’s not practical to open 4 bottles of wine just to compare them. Alas, wine bars are the perfect solution because of their broad selection of wines by the glass.
Wine bars have become very chic in NYC, and the selections are far better than the old chardonnay, cab and merlot. One online directory listed over 50 wine bars in NYC; which would be nice, but unfortunately many of these establishments were restaurants with a good wine list. This article will focus on the best true wine bars in NYC. Those places that offer a large selection of wines by the glass with no prerequisite to buy food. I see the wine bars falling into three separate tiers: the large global wine bar, the ethnic wine bar and lastly the amiable wine bar, which may not have nearly as extensive a list as the first two, but is an enjoyable place to have a glass with a friend.
The two wine bars with the most diversified lists are: Morrell and Divine. Both have extraordinarily large lists of wines by the glass, with selections from over 10 countries. But they are also quite different. Morrell has a very high-end list with over 110 wines by the glass, with a large offering of sparking wines and dessert wines. The prices are very steep, and the atmosphere chic. Divine has a more moderately priced list of 75 wines, and stores them all in a cruvinet. A cruvinet looks like a giant tap, but it works because it removes the oxygen from the bottles, thereby improving their shelf-life. In addition to wines by the glass, Divine offers a smaller “sample” size with prices ranging from $2 to $8. If you want to compare wines, this is the place to go.
Another way to taste and enjoy wine is to select a bar that focuses on the wines from one particular region, most typically France or Italy. Although the wines are limited to one region or country, they usually have a much deeper selection from that specific area. Two places have an outstanding selection of Italian wines: I Trulli Enoteca and Otto Enoteca. The Enoteca at I Trulli, attached to a restaurant of the same name, has a broad list of 50 Italian wines by the glass; with an especially large selection from southern Italy. Also interesting, although with not as large a selection, is the Enoteca at Otto, which is also attached to a restaurant. Otto offers about 25 wines by the quartino (1/3 of a bottle), with a strong focus on wines from northern Italy. Although both offer a great opportunity to taste Italian wines, there is the added advantage of excellent food.
For French wine I have two favorites: Le Bateau Ivre and Rhone. Le Bateau Ivre serves over 100 wines by the glass, and uses a vac-u-vin to keep the bottles fresh. Although small, it is a great place to sample French wines. Rhone perhaps has the smallest selection of all the places listed, but I enjoy it because of its specific focus on the wines of the Rhone Valley. After 10 P.M. Rhone becomes quite a scene, but earlier in the evening it is a comfortable spot to enjoy wine.
Sampling wine is fun, and there are many other places to meet friends and just enjoy a few glasses of wine. Here are a few you might enjoy: Bar Veloce, Belly, Etats Unis, In Vino, Paradou, and Punch & Judy.
Wine Bar Locations (all in NYC)
Belly: 155 Rivington St, (212)532-1810
Bar Veloce: 175 Second Ave, (212)260-3200
Bar Veloce: 17 Cleveland Pl, (212)966-7334
Divine East: 244 E. 51St, (212)319-9463
Divine West: 236 W. 54St, (212)265-9463
Etats Unis: 247 E. 81 St, (212)396-9928
I Trulli: 122 E. 51 St, (212)481-7372
In Vino: 215 E. 4 St, (212)539-10011
Le Bateau Ivre: 230 E. 51 St, (212)583-0579
Morrell Wine Bar: 1 Rockefeller Pl, (212)262-7700
Morrell’s Restaurant: 900 Broadway, (212)253-0900
Otto Enoteca: 1 Fifth Ave, (212)995-9559
Paradou: 8 Little W 12St, (212)463-8345
Punch & Judy: 25 Clinton St, (212)982-1116
Rhone: 63 Gansevoot St, (212)367-8440