A's Favorite Food Memories of 2013

Unlike previous years, we didn't go on a European adventure that dominates my favorite food memories. In the end I chose all domestic locations and also chose to forego listing home cooked meals as we've done so much cooking this year as compared to years past. So, here's my list, in no particular order, of my favorite food memories of 2013!

1. Ceviche Tostada - La Isla Bonita (Los Angeles, CA)

The ceviche tostada from La Isla Bonita is something that I still think about, and I ate this back in April. No really, it's that good. The ceviche itself is incredibly fresh tasting and flavorful. The sweetness of the shrimp and fish mix has so much natural sweetness that counterbalances the tartness from the lime. The crunchiness of the tostada offers an additional texture while also serving as the delivery method for the amazing ceviche.

2. Pescado Zarandeado - Coni'Seafood (Los Angeles, CA)

Coni'Seafood is famous for this dish native to the Sinaloa region of Mexico. The head chef here, Sergio, is apparently the only person in this whole restaurant (and possibly the US) who can cook this dish properly. It's a split snook shaken over lit coals to control cooking. Sergio is a genius at this style of cooking. The fish is so tender and flavored so well with whatever marinade he has the fish soaking in. It also comes with sliced cucumber, red onion, and a sauce that I think might actually be made from the marinade. It has hints of soy sauce and onions and tasted almost Asian. M and I devoured this whole fish to the point that the waitress was impressed by how clean the bones were picked. If you're in LA, don't be afraid to take the trip into Inglewood for Coni, but just make sure to call and confirm that Sergio is there first.

3. Fish Taco - Ricky's (Los Angeles, CA)

When M and I made our visit to Ricky's, the stand was still located in the parking lot of a strip mall. Ricky has since procured a food truck so his operation is mobile now. It's a little disappointing since part of the fun of the experience is that you could watch the guys frying up your tacos. Regardless, wherever Ricky is parked, you need to try these tacos. We tried both their shrimp and their fish tacos, but the fish were the stars here. The batter is seasoned really well and isn't heavy at all. The fish is tender, flaky, and has just the right amount of crunch from the batter. The pico de gallo and lettuce offer freshness to balance the fried fish, and the crema offers, if nothing else, a nice creaminess to the entire taco.

4. Roasted Bone Marrow with Charred Spring Onions, Pickled Fresno Chiles, and Tortillas - Empellon Cocina (New York, NY)

At Empellon, M and I had a lot of really good dishes. So much so that we chose this meal as our favorite of 2013. The brightest star of that meal was this roasted bone marrow dish topped with charred spring onions, pickled fresno chiles, and served with fresh tortillas. Sadly this was just a seasonal special so it's quite possible that we may never see this dish again. The roasted marrow is nicely salted and decadently rich. The charred spring onions tasted like spring, and the peppers added a subtle heat and tartness. They serve this with freshly made tortillas, and we turned it all into tacos. Delicious, delicious tacos.

5. Firecracker Lentil Fritters - Rangoon (Philadelphia, PA)

M and I really love Burmese food, and I think a lot of that comes from the fact that it's so hard for us to find. One thing we love the most about it is how fresh everything tastes. You might think that, because of this reasoning, I'd never pick a fried dish, and I never did either until I tried these lentil fritters. They're mashed up lentils with mint, onions, cumin, chili peppers, and some other spices that we couldn't identify. It's also served with a sour, garlicky sauce that had a fish sauce smell to it as well. The crunch of the crust was balanced by the mashed lentil interior that was piping hot and perfectly mushed. You didn't actually need the sauce because of the bevy of spices, but it did add additional layers of flavor when dipped.

6. Chicken Pot Pie Fritters - Family Meal (Frederick, MD)

We've been big fans of the Voltaggio brothers ever since seeing them both on Top Chef. It was with great anticipation that we were able to go try one of Bryan Voltaggio's restaurants while on our PA/MD road trip. We actually went about an hour out of our way just to get there, but it was well worth the drive. The appetizer we kept reading about was the chicken pot pie fritters. We had no clue what to expect, but we both really like pot pie so it made sense to try them. I call these things magic pot pie. They are literally balls of chicken pot pie filling encased in a lightly breaded shell. The only thing I can think of that they do is that they freeze the pot pie filling and then bread and deep fry them to make sure they're warm after cooking. Regardless of how they do it, they're amazing.

7. Tsukumen - Tsujita LA (Los Angeles, CA)

One of the things that M and I really wanted to try while we were out in LA was tsukumen from Tsujita LA. It's their specialty, and this is the US outpost of a highly revered tsukumen shop in Japan. Here's my review of our meal there. This was easily one of the best things I ate all year, and the fact that we were able to sit outside and enjoy the sun and warmth while doing so made it a great experience.

8. Asparagus - ABC Cocina (New York, NY)

This year M and I went through a huge Spring Vegetable kick. We were able to finally try spring onions, ramps, and garlic scapes. However, one of my favorite dishes of the year came from a trusty old friend of a spring vegetable, asparagus. It was prepared in the wood-fire grill and topped with pickled spring onions, marcona almonds, and a clear vinaigrette of some sort. The dish tasted like I would expect Spring to taste. The asparagus tasted so fresh, and the pickled spring onions and vinaigrette added tartness. The almonds added texture, but I'm not sure they were fully necessary. It was still a wonderful dish, though.

9. White Rose and Saffron Pistachio Ice Cream - Saffron and Rose Ice Cream (Los Angeles, CA)

I love ice cream. A lot. We ate a lot of good ice cream this year from places like Dave and Andy's in Pittsburgh and The Igloo in Everett, PA, but my favorite ice cream experience was from Saffron and Rose Ice Cream in LA. It's a Persian ice cream shop specializing in the flavors from their culture. We tried two of their traditionally flavored ice creams: white rose and saffron pistachio. The white rose ice cream was so floral and tasted just like a rose smells. I can't really describe it any other way. It's so simple and so tasty. The saffron pistachio was a revelation. It uses the white rose ice cream as a base, but then they add a touch of saffron which gives it color and a hint of flavor, and they then mix in pistachios for crunch. They also add these frozen white blobs of frozen cream which are apparently a delicacy in Persian culture. It's hard to describe the flavor of this because saffron is such a distinct flavor, but it's also paired with white rose. The frozen cream is also a fun surprise you get here and there. If you ever find yourself in the Westwood area definitely check out this little ice cream shop.

10. Brussels Sprout Pie - Motorino (New York, NY)

It's hard to imagine listing a pizza on a "best of" list since I'm from Chicago, and if it's not Lou Malnati's I'm probably going to think it's inferior. However, while I'm not ready to say this is better than my beloved Chicago-style pizza, it is certainly a very very good pizza. The Brussels Sprout pie is topped with Brussels sprout leaves, fior de latte, garlic, pecorino, smoked pancetta, and extra virgin olive oil. We love Brussels sprouts and never thought to break the leaves up and put them on a pizza. Also, they pair perfectly with smoked pancetta since the saltiness of pancetta lends itself well to the slightly bitter Brussels sprouts. This is a white pie as well so the flavors of the sprouts and pancetta do not get muddied by a tomato sauce. The crust is also perfectly chewy with just the right amount of crunch and "burnt" flavoring from the wood-fire oven.

9th Ave Food Festival 2013

This past weekend was the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival in Hell's Kitchen. Although Manhattan has lots of street fairs in the summer, this festival in May is special. A lot of the neighborhood restaurants participate which makes it more diverse than the usual street fair and gives it more character. I've been going since I was a kid (things were really different back then), and since moving to the neighborhood almost 8 years ago, A and I have tried to go every year.

We did most of our food crawling on Saturday. Our first stop this year was Poseidon Greek Bakery, which is probably one of our first stops every time we go.

Clockwise from top left: menina mash, menina mash partially eaten, the Poseidon stand, lots of pies

We got the Menina Mash, a vegetable pie filled with carrots, potatoes, spinach, chickory and escarole. The phyllo is flaky but not overwhelming, the vegetables are mashed together in a delicious green mixture, and the flavors are so comforting. Poseidon is a Hell's Kitchen institution and they have been serving delicious pies for years. We've never had a bad one there and recommend them all. They also have Greek sweets in addition to the savory pies.

Our second stop was a new one for us - Añejo Tequileria, Chef Angelo Sosa's Mexican place over on Tenth Avenue. We've had this place on our to-visit list for some time, so we stopped by to say hi to Chef and get some tacos.

Clockwise from top left: Añejo stand, chicken taco, menu sign, short rib taco

They were sadly sold out of the mushroom taco, so we went with the short rib taco (braised short ribs, cocoa, green cabbage, pico de gallo, chipotle crema, queso fresco) on a recommendation from Chef Sosa and the chicken taco (tender dark meat chicken, scented with banana leaf and achiote, cabbage, pico de gallo, chipotle crema, queso fresco). They were both delicious. The tortillas were a little bit dry but the taco fillings were really juicy and tasty. Our favorite was probably the short rib taco. There were such nuanced flavors to that taco and we would gladly get another one.

Our third stop was another annual stop - Millie's Pierogi! They come down from Massachusetts for this festival with their delicious pierogies and we always stop by to get some.

Clockwise from top left - potato and cheese pierogi, cabbage pierogi, pierogi stand, kielbasa pierogi, menu sign, pierogies plate

We usually get the same three pierogies: cabbage, potato and cheese, and kielbasa with potato and cheese. (They also have cheese and prune, but we've never gotten those.) It varies by year, but this year I think our favorite was the cabbage. We've never tried the kielbasa dog or the golumpki (stuffed cabbage), but maybe some year we will. The pierogies are so good though, that it's hard to choose anything else.

The food festival debuted a new "food truck park" this year on one block of the food festival (at least we don't remember it being there before), where there were about six or seven trucks lined up selling food items. The challenging thing about this was that some of the trucks didn't really have smaller sized food items to offer on their regular menus. If other visitors are like us, we usually don't get full meals at any individual stand but instead look for smaller items for a food crawl. 

Clockwise from top left: menu board, Desi truck, inside the kati roll, aloo masala kati roll, free sample of puri-bhaji

We stopped at the Desi Truck, because out of all of the trucks there, it is hardest for us to visit them since they are down in SoHo. We got the aloo masala kati roll, which had curried potatoes, peppers and onions inside. It was a delicious snack. We also got to try the puri-bhaji, a puffed round flatbread with light potato curry, since they gave out free samples to a lot of people around the truck. That was really good and after the sample, we thought maybe we should have ordered that instead!

Our last snack on Saturday was at Leon Bakery, a Mexican spot on 9th Avenue that used to just have baked goods, groceries and tamales, but now has lots of options like tortas, cemitas and huaraches. We've been there a few times, but of course haven't shared it with you yet since we're so behind on posting.

Left to right: wrapped up tamale, partially eaten tamale, horchata

For our last stop, we picked up a chicken tamale (it was supposed to be spicy but it was kind of mild) and a cup of horchata. It was a nice snack but I was expecting more from the tamale based on past experience with Leon. More spice, more flavor, more from the chicken inside. Maybe I got the wrong one and should have gone with my gut and gotten whatever was in the salsa verde. I think maybe I will stick with the cemita there, which I really like. The horchata was sweeter than usual and less cinnamon flavor, but still refreshing. It also had a bit of a sourness to the aftertaste. Not a sourness like it was going bad, but a sourness that was hard to describe. It didn't make it a bad drink, just a taste we weren't accustomed to.

We only made one stop on Sunday (other than picking up free cottage cheese from Friendship). We were looking for a snack so we stopped by one of the MozzArepas stands which show up several times along the festival blocks.

The MozzArepas stand, corn cakes on the griddle, our arepa

You can get MozzArepas at almost every street fair over the summer and they're nothing extraordinary, but we still like them. They consist of two round griddled corn cakes with mozzarella in between. The cheese is gooey and melty, and if you like corn and cheese like we do, it's always a nice treat. The MozzArepas have a really nice sweetness from the corn to pair with the salty, melted cheese. Not the best arepas, but they're fine. (The only arepas we've ever mentioned here are from the much-missed Farmers Rotisseria, but we've had a bunch of them, both Colombian and Venezuelan style, so we have a fair number of places to compare with.)

Lastly, in case you couldn't make it to the festival, here's a little taste of what it was like on Saturday, in addition to the fabulous snacks we talked about already. There were small street-side beer gardens, cultural performances, free samples of yogurt and cottage cheese, lots of grilled meat and sausage vendors, restaurant stands, carnival games, and people everywhere. It was a little quieter on Sunday due to the incessant rain.

Looking forward to next year's festival!

Fri(e)day Lunch

I was uninspired by lunch options today. I really had no clue what I wanted, but I knew I wanted to get out and walk a bit. Too often I had stayed within a couple North-South blocks of my office because it was convenient.

I ended up wandering to Domo Taco which I hadn't been to in nearly a year. It wasn't really that much further than I normally walked, but at least it was something different. I thought their tacos were okay if nothing special, but that was their first week or two out, and they were still working out the kinks. Oddly enough I never found myself back at their truck until today. I totally misread their menu and was a miserable failure at ordering, though, probably due to not having visited them in nearly a year...

I ended up ordering just one fish taco and an order of their Japanese tater tots. I say it's a failure because, at my size, one taco and tots just isn't enough food. It actually took me about 5 minutes to realize my error, and by then I felt too embarrassed to go back up and amend/add to the order.  In the end, I happily accepted my bundle and walked off kicking myself for my stupidity. Luckily, fate was on my side this time. Clearly the universe knew that there was more in store for my lunch hour as I passed by Tony's Empanada cart while walking back to the office. Fortune shone on me indeed! I ordered myself a cheese empanada to round out my thoroughly unhealthy meal and happily walked back to my office.

I started out eating the fish taco.

The taco itself is better than my first trip, but overall it isn't anything that special compared to the other Asian fusion tacos out there. The fish was a touch soggy by the time I got back to my desk, but it didn't take away from the overall flavor of the taco. The mix of flavors from their salsa roja, salsa verde, soy miso slaw, and sesame crema had all basically melded together after the journey so I can't comment on them individually, but the overall effect combined with the fish and corn tortillas is one of fresh flavors and varying textures. I almost thought I tasted pineapple somewhere in there and caught myself looking for pieces in the salsas. While I thought that they had improved the taco offerings, I still think this was my least favorite thing I ate today.

I next ate Tony's cheese empanada.

I don't know if the guy running the cart is Tony, but whoever he is, he knows how to sling up some empanadas. For $2, you get a fairly big empanada offering. I opted for cheese since I wanted to get a non-meat lunch for some odd reason. They also have chicken and beef variations available so maybe next week I'll go get some of those. The dough itself is flaky and crispy and has a touch of salt for flavor. The cheese is rich, but it was a little solid as it had cooled a little on my walk back. On its own the empanada tastes great. However, I was given a little cup of their hot sauce, and that was something else. There is some definite heat being packed in this little container of sauce. It also adds a really nice flavor that, for the life of me, I can't remember anymore. All I know is that I ate half of the empanada without sauce so I could comment on the basic flavor, and I'm now regretting it. That's not to say that the empanada on its own isn't good, I just really liked it with the hot sauce.

I saved the Japanese tots for last figuring I would like them the most.

Domo Taco's Japanese Tots are a thing of beauty. They take a small batch of tater tots and proceed to pile on what is, essentially, an okonomiyaki set of toppings. There's Japanese mayo, okonomiyaki sauce, nori, shaved bonito, their salsa roja, and some nacho cheese for good measure. I love okonomiyaki, and this was really just such an amazing little side. I was a little unsure about the nacho cheese, but it really worked. To make sure I got as much of the combined flavors as I could in each bite, I mashed it all together in one gigantic, messy mush. Sure, it's not how I would normally eat tots, but these aren't regular tots. I would certainly get these again whenever I next make it back to Domo Taco's big green truck.

In the end, I was extremely satisfied with my unbelievably unhealthy fried meal. I did manage to keep it meat free, though, and for that I was happy. The lunch may have started out rocky, but it all worked out. Please excuse me now while I go find a place to take a long nap...

Jambalaya Empanada

Last week I tried the spicy chicken empanada at Nuchas, which I really liked. Before the end of the week, I was back for another snack - this time, the jambalaya empanada.

The jambalaya empanada was made with turmeric dough, and had shrimp, andouille, arborio rice, tomatoes, onions and peppers.

The taste of this empanada was dominated by the rice, tomatoes and onions. Similar to the paprika dough in the spicy chicken empanada, I didn't notice much flavor from the seasoned dough (here, turmeric); it really just seemed to give the empanada a special coloring. I also didn't taste the spicy flavor that usually comes with andouille and the shrimp was not really distinguishable. It was kind of like having a tomato rice empanada, which isn't bad, but isn't exactly what I was expecting for jambalaya.

Between the two empanadas, the spicy chicken is definitely my favorite. I think next I'll try one of the vegetarian ones (maybe the shiitake curry?) and then after Easter, can try the Argentine (ground beef one). Curious if any will be better than spicy chicken!

Nuchas

I love empanadas. (I may have mentioned that before.) So I'm not sure how I managed to not try the empanadas from Nuchas until yesterday, considering that I pass by the kiosk in Times Square almost every day going to and from work and I often see their food truck roaming around Midtown.

I stopped by the truck for a late snack and it was tough choosing an empanada because they all sounded good. I was intrigued by the jambalaya empanada because jambalaya is an empanada filling I've never had before and it was made with turmeric dough. Sadly, since it was late, they were sold out which meant I went with my second choice - spicy chicken.

The spicy chicken empanada was made with paprika dough (although I didn't notice much difference in flavor from regular empanada dough) and was filled with spicy chicken, chipotle, tomatoes, onions, peppers and basil. The dough was flaky and thin, but didn't split open while eating. The flavors of the chicken and vegetables were balanced, and tasted really healthy.

I liked this empanada a lot and am a little upset with myself for waiting so long to try one. I can't wait to get another one!