Reunion at Public

It was a super weekend as Kate from my time at Teach For America Denver was back in the US for the first time in 2 years!  Her parents threw her a surprise party on Thursday with her friends and family and we capped it off with dinner and a night out on Saturday.  I snagged a 9pm reservation at Public restaurant so we decided to meet at the sister bar next door ahead of dinner just to catch up.  The Daily specializes in drinks where they offer a rotating menu of 6 specialty cocktails that they change as you guessed it- on a daily basis.  You can find updates on their facebook page.  They also offer the standard bar, plus wine and beer.  Both my friends opted for the shaken watermelon chili margarita.  I only took a sip of the bright pink concoction and it was incredibly refreshing and well balanced, not too sweet but with a firm chili kick that tickled my throat.

During dinner, we opted for a bottle of Riesling to go with our four shared appetizers and one entree.  While our waiter's comments were not the most attentive, the service at times slow, I would say eighty percent of the dishes deserved its one michelin star award.  The first appetizer was the whole anchovies with spicy aioli a top a quinoa croquette.    The second was a hearty legume salad with french lentils and green beans, tossed with avocado,toasted pecans and a slightly sweet pomegrante vinaigrette.    Excellent use of textures and flavors.

The second round of dishes came out painfully slow but was quickly forgotten once we started to eat.  The skin on the tasmanian trout was crispy and the pale pink flesh was firmly seasoned and seared to a beautiful medium.  While I normally prefer seared scallops, the sweet chili grilled scallops surprised me and was balanced well with the slightly bitter greens on the plate.

The most disappointing dish was actually the grilled kangaroo which faltered in both the presentation and execution.  It was grilled rare, sliced too think and somehow formed into a ball and set atop of a falafel cake.  Sounds delicious right? The only other time i've had kangaroo was back in Denver at TAG where it was much much better.

Our waiter surprised us with a complimentary tasting of late Riesling to go with the solid sticky toffee pudding dessert.  As an admitted wine novice, this late riesling was super sweet and tasted like liquid raisins.

Overall, I would recommend this place to family, friends and even strangers

It is with great pleasure that I post the non food related human picture on this blog.  My friend Brigitte insisted I use her name in this post so why not go even further and show you a picture of her, she's on the left!

Around the world in 3 meals

Upon my return to the US, I had to catch up on my tv shows and came across a new series on Bravo TV called "Around the World in 80 plates" a cooking competition that as you guessed it- takes place around the world.  One of the contestants is a chef at Fatty Crab, a southeastern (mostly malaysian inspired) destination with several outposts here in Manhattan.  Too be honest, I can't quite remember everything and neglected to capture any photos but I can say that their signature "Chili Crab" and their pork and beef sliders were both terribly disappointing.  The crab dish was perhaps two tablespoons of pulled crab meat swimming in a thick and creamy bowl of chili sauce.  No veggies, no rice, no garnish, it was a bit of a fishing expedition to say the least.  Not worth the exorbant price of $28.  The sliders were spiced with what I believe was an excessive amount of all spice and/or star anise that was incredibly off putting to the point I could not finish it.   The week after we dined at Fatty Crab, the chef on "Around the world" was promptly eliminated from the show....The only redeeming part of the meal was the delicious chicken wing appetizer.  Deep fried and tossed in a sweet soy, chili sauce. the wings  reminded me of the top notch ones at pok pok wing down in the lower east side.

In a craving for pasta and to catch up with a good friend after being away for almost 7 weeks, I researched my way to Osteria Morini, a Michael White restaurant in Soho.  Though they placed us right by the kitchen exit, we caught glimpses of the chefs hard at work preparing what ended up to be a fantastic meal. The insalata mista was mixed greens and spring veggies tossed with sliced salumni and shaved parmigianno which added a wonderful saltiness to the fresh salad. The two pastas were exquisite and perfectly al dente.  One was a simple truffled cream sauce, proscuitto, peas and wilted raddichio while the second was a spinach pasta with a hearty lamb ragu.

In the final segment of this post, I dined at Pio Pio for their entire Peruvian Chicken.  The space was filled with a variety of diners surrounded with a mixture of wood paneling/accents and stone structures all added to a wonderful atmosphere for the evening.  Sure you can get a perfectly acceptable rotisserie chicken at Costco for $5 but this was worth every penny.  Juicy and well spiced and I really didn't feel the need to use the green Aji sauce.

I will say that the spicy corvina ceviche appetizer was excellent, served with gigantic fresh corn and what I can only interpret some sort of nuts/seeds (in the very back, any guesses?).  The slice of boiled sweet potato was a nice touch to counter the acidity and spiciness of the dish.