America Eats Tavern (Jose Andres), Washington, DC

[This posting is still in progress--thanks for your patience.]

America Eats Tavern

Penn Quarter 

Corner of 8th and D NW, between D&E 
Washington, D.C.
October 31, 2011/Dinner

 The following is quoted from the website of Open Table:  “A groundbreaking partnership between José Andrés' ThinkFoodGroup and The Foundation for the National Archives, America Eats Tavern features award-winning Chef José Andrés’ unique take on traditional American classics and celebrates native ingredients and some long forgotten regional dishes. This "pop-up" restaurant is a non-profit partnership which extends the exhibit “What’s Cooking Uncle Sam: The Government’s effect on the American Diet” that is currently at the National Archives through January 2012. The menu showcases the fascinating history of our nation one plate at a time. America Eats features a refined and elegant menu upstairs on the second and third floors and a similar but slightly more casual menu offered on the first floor. Open Table Reservations are for the upstairs dining rooms, while reservations for the first floor tavern area can be made by contacting the restaurant directly at 202-393-0812. Both menus are available for viewing at the America Eats website.”

Fig & Olive Restaurant, New York City

Fig and Olive - Fifth Avenue
10 East 52nd Street
New York, NY 18079

Tel. 212-319-2002

November 8, 2011/Lunch

 

It was the day after my son’s concert (“Suites by Sondheim” at the Lincoln Center, November 7, 2011), and some family friends from D.C. who came to see the show joined us for lunch at this wonderful Mediterranean restaurant in New York City.  As their website says, the Fig & Olive's signature dishes embody Executive Chef Pascal Lorange's passion for the best olive oils and cuisines from the Mediterranean region. And, as to be expected, olive oil was ubiquitous on the menu. I loved this place – the service was cheerful and super efficient, the ambience very bright but relaxed, and all the dishes we sampled were exemplary (great plating too!).

Cassava Bibingka (Cake)

Today I attended the monthly meeting of CHoWDC (Culinary Historians of Washington, DC). I love it that the group has this very nice tradition of members bringing a home-made dish or two. I decided to bring Cassava Bibingka, to give them a taste of Filipino desserts. This is another Chef Romy Dorotan recipe, from his and Amy Besa's cookbook, Memories of Philippine Kitchens (reviewed on this blogsite). I made a few minor changes, but basically remained faithful to the recipe--the bibingka was delicious, and they loved it (somebody even asked for the recipe). 

Today's guest speaker was Joan Nathan, the doyenne of Jewish cooking, and she gave a very interesting and informative account of the history of Jewish food, which is the subject of her latest cookbook (more on this in a separate blog posting).

Maharlika Restaurant, New York City

Maharlika Restaurant
111 First Avenue & 7th St.
646-392-7880
maharlikanyc.com

Maharlika is still young, having started out in January 2011 as a "pop-up" place serving only brunch on weekends at the Resto Leon (East Village), and then at the Alias Restaurant (Lower East Side). Their food earned consistent raves from critics, and now, owners Nicole Ponseca and Enzo Lim together with their Chef, Miguel Trinidad, have now opened their own place, also in the East Village.


I had heard a lot of good things about Maharlika, so I made sure we visited it on our next trip to New York. We came twice, for dinner and brunch, with a group so we could sample a good number of items on their funky and playful menu.

Spiced Nuts (Yum!)

I have company coming for drinks and cocktails tonight, and I wanted to add something to the usual boring cheese board, prosciutto and salami that I'm serving. I remembered having seen this nuts recipe in a Cooks Illustrated magazine, so I thought I'd give it a try. Excellent results, if I may say so myself -- the nuts were crispy and well-flavored with the mild spices in it. They're truly so more-ish -- once you start eating them you can't stop! I will definitely make this for the coming holidays. [Note:  I used a mixture of almonds and walnuts, which were what I had at hand. Next time I will add cashews, macadamia, and pecans.]
   I have always found it tricky to make the spices adhere to the nuts, and the secret in this recipe is the water-diluted egg white, while the salt prevents it from coagulating. I have added some variations at the end of the recipe, for other exciting flavors.

Spaghetti Sauce, Filipino Style

Whenever I visit my children in New York and Boston (or they come to visit me), I always cook Filipino dishes – both are foodies and love to cook (yes!), but they live such busy lives and don’t often have the time to cook their favorite comfort food from home. Spaghetti sauce is one such dish and back home in the Philippines this sauce is always cooked with ground meat, in Ragu or Bolognese style (see my posting in this blog about Pasta Sauces). Bolognese is a robust meat sauce also known as Ragu; it is hearty, with ground beef or pork, pancetta, tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrots and celery.  The sauce is sometimes enhanced with a bit of wine, cream and seasoning.

Pasta Sauces

Pairing Pasta Sauces Pasta Shapes

Pureed, creamy or clinging sauces are best served with such long, thick and sleek pasta shapes as spaghetti, fettuccine, cappellini or linguine pastas that will allow the sauce to flow evenly over the face of the noodle.

When the sauce is both thick and chunky, it is appropriate for any shape of pasta. It is viscous enough to coat long pastas such as fettuccini or spaghetti and its chunks are just rights for filling the gaps in a shell or spiral-shaped pasta.

My Maiden Cooking Demo, Quezon City, Philippines

[Posting is in progress - this might take a while - thanks for your patience.]

With Malou & Sammy

With Chito, Rose, Malou & Sammy

With some sorority sisters & fraternity brods.

With my family.

[Narrative to follow.]