Week 13 - Stuffed

The stuffed challenge popped up right around the time I had signed up for a cooking class to make Paraguayan empanadas, so it was a perfect fit! I didn't have time to get the pre-packaged empanada discs from the store before making them, so I made my own dough, which was more work but still seemed to come out okay. As usual, I was completely incapable of rolling them into circles or any remotely symmetrical shapes, so A had to take over that task.

I made the filling vegetarian, using black beans, corn, green peppers, red peppers, onions, and scallions, and then put them in the air fryer for about 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees. They turned out pretty well despite not being deep fried, but I think if I made these again, I'd get the pre-made discs to make our lives easier.

A's Top 10 Food Memories of 2010

So, M has posted her 10 favorite food memories of 2010. I'm a tad late, but oh well. We were both hoping to finish this before or on New Year's day, but I kind of messed that up. Oops.

Anyway, it's really hard to narrow down my top 10 food memories since M and I went to so many great restaurants, and we ate so much good food. To give you an idea of what I was up against, it took me about 2 or 3 days to go through all of our food adventures. From there I was left with a list of 29 items from which to pick. A lot of great options were left off, and M even offered to expand our lists to 15, but that would have been the cheap way out.

Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are my top 10 (and yes, there is overlap with M):

1. Monte Alban (LA) - Mole Negro

This wasn't my first foray into mole sauce, but this was my first taste of real Oaxacan black mole. Monte Alban is a restaurant in West LA, and this also happened to be one of the first things I ate all year. Smokey, sweet, and amazingly tasty. After finishing the chicken and the rice, I ended up mopping up the excess sauce with the provided tortillas.

2. Jitlada - Khao Yam

Ah, the first overlap with M's list. Yet another early year delicacy to make the list. Not sure how much more I need to describe the Khao Yam as M has done a good job of it in her own list. Suffice it to say, if you're ever in LA, and you have a chance at visiting Jitlada, it is highly suggested that you take advantage of the opportunity.

3. Burmese Food Fair - Tofu Salad

2 in a row! M and I definitely have some similarities in our tastes. This is, quite possibly, our favorite dish here in NYC. Sadly, we can only find it at one of the few Burmese food festivals done yearly. Even then, there's no guarantee that they have it available since all of the dishes are home-cooked/prepared. I really do want to learn how to make this so we don't have to wait and get lucky at one of the festivals.

4. Olieng - Pla Pattaya

Olieng is a Thai restaurant in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. They serve up traditional Thai fare done up really really well. One dish in particular, the Pla Pattaya, is a true delicacy. It's so special, that often times it runs out before the end of the night. Pla Pattaya is a whole fried red snapper topped with some special sauce, calamari, shrimp, scallops, basil, bell peppers, onions, and scallions. The pairing of the slightly sweet, slightly salty sauce with the crunch of the fried fish and fresh vegetables is sublime.

5. Marea - Ricci


M took me to Marea for my birthday this year. For once, we got to a restaurant before the major hype write up and subsequent month wait to get in. The meal itself was superb. Most people talk about their signature Fusili with Bone Marrow and Octopus (which I had), but the Ricci appetizer we had was the highlight of this meal for me. The Ricci is sea urchin on top of a crostini wrapped in lardo and seasoned with sea salt. It's a very simple sounding dish, but the flavors are unbelievable. The briny sea urchin paired with the richness of the lardo is exquisite. Marea certainly deserves the high praise and recognition it has received so far, and I would really love to go back and get more Ricci.

6. I Love Py - Chipa Guazu



Another overlap with M. We visited the Paraguayan bakery of I Love Py during our quest to eat the entire World Cup. Chipa Guazu is a corn pie filled with onions, eggs, and milk. It's mildly sweet from the corn, but it's also fluffy while still being dense. I really don't know how they manage that, but they do.

7. Patacon Pisao - Patacon



We first experienced Patacon Pisao at the 2010 Vendy Awards. A patacon is a Venezuelan sandwich filled with meat, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and a special mayo-based sauce with flattened, fried plantains used as the bun. Wow, simply awesome. It was so good that when we later heard that Patacon Pisao would be down at the Hester St market, we made a special trip down to visit even if it was a tad cold to be eating outside. These sandwiches are that good. Sadly they are located only up in Washington Heights and Elmhurst. There's a rumor that they'll be opening a store in the LES, and if that happens I'll have to put aside my hatred of hipsters and head down there often.

8. WD-50 - Cold Fried Chicken



I took M to WD-50 for her birthday this year. WD-50 is Chef Wylie Dufrense's avant garde restaurant. It's amazing how he and his staff can turn traditional dishes into adventures on every plate. There were so many dishes from this meal that I really liked, and it was really down to two dishes for this list. The Cold Fried Chicken ended up winning out after much deliberation, and it makes it to my top 10 list. I'm not sure how they "fried" this chicken, but it's served cold and full of flavor. It's accompanied by buttermilk ricotta whipped up to taste and feel just like mashed potatoes, caviar, and a honey tobasco sauce. I love fried chicken, but this was a revelation.

9. Cambrinus - Flemish Onion Soup



Cambrinus was the first restaurant we ate in when we arrived at Brugge. One of the biggest draws that I found was their extensive list of beer. When we sat down and looked over the menu and some reviews, we knew we were in for a treat. The menu was full of traditional Flemish, Dutch, and French recipes, and pretty much all of the reviews were favorable. Oh, and did I mention the laundry list of beers? I was in heaven. Now, I love French Onion Soup. I used to get it all the time when it was available. This Flemish version served at Cambrinus was just something else. From their menu: "Flemish Onion Soup with 'Oud Brugge' cheese and the beer 'Brugse Zot'". The aroma wafting from the mini-pot after removing the top was divine. The taste was even more heavenly. It's hard to describe just how good this soup was. Basically, take the best French Onion Soup you've ever had and multiply that by about 100, and you're getting to about how good this was. Cambrinus was one of the best restaurant experiences we had while in Europe so definitely go try it if you're ever in Brugge, and try one of their soups.

10. Shake Shack - Jelly's Last Donut Concrete



M and I love Shake Shack... a lot. It's bad enough that some of the cashiers there recognize me. But, we love their burgers and fries, and we love their custard. But out of all of the custards we've tried, all of the different concretes we've tasted, one stands out above all of the rest. Jelly's Last Donut is a Theater District location special concrete. It's made up of Doughnut Plant donuts, strawberry preserves, and cinnamon sugar spun into vanilla custard. I'm a donut-a-holic. No, not on the same level as Homer Simpson, but I loves me some donuts.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2010

Here we are, at the end of 2010. This year has been such a blur and the year in food has been no exception. It was so hard to pick out 10 top food memories from the year because there has been so much good food! A lot of things got left off the list that were good, including Shake Shack in its entirety. I think overall that has been one of the more significant food events of our year, since it opened in our neighborhood, making it easier for us to enjoy all the monthly custards, special concretes and special events like the entire Shacktoberfest menu. With something like that missing the list, what made it for me (A's list to come)? Here are my favorite 10 food memories of the year, in random order:

1. Waste em All burger from Grill Em All truck


The Food Network's Great Food Truck Race filmed its finale in NYC over Memorial Day weekend. We went down to the Union Square area to check it out, trying the two finalists - Grill Em All truck and Nom Nom truck - both from LA (we had been to Nom Nom in LA earlier in the year). We tried 2 different burgers from Grill Em All but my favorite (and one of the better burgers of the year) was the Waste Em All - topped with cheddar cheese, beer soaked onions and jalapeno peppers. The burger was definitely memorable (along with the yummy fries in truffle salt), and this also makes the list because we got to watch the filming and the end of the show before it aired, which was lots of fun.

2. Haribo smurfs


In the train station in Antwerp, Belgium, I found this bag of Haribo smurfs (smurfen, schtroumpfs). I haven't been able to find it anywhere else since then - not in Brussels, not in Brugge, not in the States. As soon as I tried the berry flavored smurfs, they shot up to the top of my favorite candy list. Unfortunately they're so hard to find. If you have any idea where I can find them, please help!

3. Patacon Pisao


When the Vendy Awards came around in September, one of the contenders we were really looking forward to trying was Patacon Pisao. They're usually far uptown (although they also have a place in Queens) so we had never tried them before. We tried the patacon sandwich (two flat green plaintains instead of bread, with chicken, ketchup, queso frito, lettuce, tomato and special sauce). It was delicious. We couldn't wait to get another one so we tried at the sh*tshow that was the Grub Street Food Festival where the line went in both directions, didn't move and there was no room to walk because of the mob scene (not their fault). After that failure, we ventured down to the Hester Street Fair on a different weekend they were there and had a patacon sandwich each. I got chicken again and it was quite delicious. They're opening a new location soon. I can't wait.

4. Veggie pancake from Pancakes! Amsterdam


We really wanted to try Dutch pancakes while in Amsterdam and Pancakes! Amsterdam seemed like a good choice. Dutch pancakes may look big but they're quite thin and filled with toppings so they're not that heavy. Our first pancakes there were so good that we decided while there that we would try to come back again the next day before leaving Amsterdam. I loved my veggie pancake the best - it had mushrooms, spinach, onions, tomatoes and pine nuts. Healthy and delicious!

5. Hazelnut dacquoise at the Bar Room at the Modern


Back in 2005 or 2006, I went to the Modern for an interview lunch. For dessert, I had the dacquoise. It was so good that it stuck in my head years later as one of my favorite desserts ever (along with Lahaina Grill's Iao Valley lime tart, Brasserie's frozen chocolate souffle from 2003, Perilla's cranberry apple cobbler, maybe a couple of others - since I'm more of a savory person, I can actually make a short list of favorite desserts but absolutely cannot do that with savory food). I remembered it being like a crispy upscale candy bar. When we saw the dacquoise on the bar room menu, the choice for our 6 month wedding anniversary was simple. I had the dacquoise for dessert and it actually lived up to the memory and my expectations.

6. Khao yam at Jitlada


Jitlada was a definite on our LA places to go list. We heard that their Thai food was excellent and being lovers of Thai food, we had to try it. We were not disappointed. If you love spicy food, you will also not be disappointed because they do not tone down the spicy dishes and just serve them as they should be.

We had so many good things there but my favorite was definitely the khao yam (rice salad). Khao yam, a Southern Thai specialty, consists of jasmine rice, mango, green beans, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, Thai chiles, carrots, cucumbers, cabbage, bean sprouts, coconut and dried shrimp. This was one of those dishes where after you eat it, the only thing left to say is, wow, when can I have it again? Unfortunately for us, we cannot find it anywhere other than Jitlada and we live across the country from Jitlada! While there, I was googling khao yam looking for places in NYC ... and google sent me links to posts about Jitlada. Oh well. A must for our next trip to LA.

7. Fish Soup at Cambrinus


We got into Brugge, Belgium late in the evening after spending the entire afternoon in Antwerpen, so we ventured somewhere close to our hotel for dinner. Cambrinus was a great find, and confirmed our feeling that we were really going to like Brugge (and we did). It was a bierbrasserie, with a huge beer menu and so many food options. The portions of the entrees were huge. This was also where I learned that in Brugge apparently people love spaghetti bolognese. My plate of it was so gigantic that neither of us could finish it.

But even better than the spaghetti bolognese was my appetizer - the best fish soup I think I have ever had. The menu said it was fish soup with "rouille" (spicy garlic sauce). I don't know how to explain how good it was, but it was so tasty and comforting. It came with two pieces of garlic "bread" which were also delicious.

8. Tofu salad from Burmese Fun Fair


There aren't many options for Burmese food here in New York so we get our "fix" during the various food fairs they hold during the year (usually in the summer). The tofu salad is one of our favorite things. We get there early to make sure we can get some before they run out, but the problem is that I want more in the days after the food fair and it's impossible to get. It's really that good and the flavors are so unique. This tofu salad was for a fundraiser in Woodside earlier this year.

9. Beef and bernaise from wd-50


If you know me, it might be shocking to have a dish in the top 10 with beef in the title considering how little red meat I eat (and also to have a burger on the list with it). But it's wd-50, so nothing is really what it seems. It was such a dilemma for me deciding between this and the cold-fried chicken, but in the end this was the one that surprised me most with its flavors, its creativity and its complete difference from what I thought it would be. And it was so tasty. Instead of beef with a bernaise sauce, it was bernaise gnocchi topped with caramelized shallot paste in a beef broth and accompanied by snow peas. Amazingly good.

10. Chipa guazu from I Love Py


We previously talked about I Love Paraguay, the Sunnyside bakery with some of the only Paraguayan food we could find in NYC. Chipa guazu gets a spot on this list because it was delicious from the first bite and it also represents everything we wanted out of our World Cup challenge. We got to try something new for us while learning more about the country and its cuisine. To me, the World Cup is not just about soccer/football, but about coming together, understanding one another and learning about the rest of the world in one of the few true moments of togetherness. Our Paraguayan lunch trip did this in so many ways. Not only did it have great new food, but I got to put my shaky Spanish to use, tried the chipa guazu on a recommendation from someone actually in Paraguay, and got to spend lunchtime surrounded by Paraguayan folks watching deportes on TV. The World Cup was also one of the main motivators to us finally putting this blog together so it holds a special spot on this list. (After all, at least one spot had to go to something we ate from the World Cup challenge!)

I can't wait to see what delicious food 2011 will bring. What were your favorite (or top or best) food memories of 2010?

I Love Paraguay

We had been planning to do our World Cup recaps in order, but lunch today was so delicious that we have to skip ahead to tell you all about it.

Since Paraguay's first game in the World Cup, M had been searching online to find a Paraguayan restaurant in NYC. We found a bakery/cafe in Sunnyside called I Love Py, another place in Brooklyn that appears to have closed down ... and that's it. We decided to take advantage of the extra day off for Independence Day to head out to Sunnyside to visit I Love Py. We were hoping it would be open and we were in luck!

When we got there, the cafe was about half-full of small groups indulging in Paraguayan dishes and watching the news about the World Cup. (It was amusing when they started talking about the Paraguayan team; the place went silent as everyone watched the news.) We looked through the menu and zeroed in on the section for Paraguayan specialties. After that, the difficult part was just figuring out what to choose!

The one thing we knew we were going to get was chipa guazu, a Paraguayan corn pie filled with fresh corn, onions, eggs and some other stuff. It was recommended to M on Twitter by someone in Paraguay during her Paraguayan restaurant search, and we had to try it. Although we tried many good things during lunch, this was probably our favorite thing.

The chipa guazu was light and fluffy. You could see (and taste) the corn kernels, as well as the onions and eggs. It was similar to a light quiche with a bit of creaminess to it. Delicious.

Since the restaurant advertises their empanadas in the window, we also tried a few of those (carne, pollo y queso) and one of the croquetas de carne.

Of these, the chicken was probably our favorite, followed closely behind by the ground beef. Both came with well-seasoned meat and a hard boiled egg inside. The cheese was nice and gooey but we definitely preferred the meat empanadas. The croquette was soft and tasty, with meat very similar to the ground beef empanada.

The last thing we got was also on the Paraguayan specialty menu, something called mbeyu. We had never heard of this before and looked it up online from the cafe. According to websites, it's a traditional "starch cake" that might be made with cassava (farina) or manioc flour. We didn't realize how heavy it would be, and decided to try it.

This was probably our least favorite but it wasn't bad. We had started out with the most seasoned foods (the chipa guazu and chicken empanada) so maybe we would have felt differently if we started with the mbeyu. We thought it might be good on the side of soup, but since the temperatures were in the high 90s ... soup was not part of the plan for lunch.

We didn't try any of the drinks (they have lots of juices), but it seemed like everyone else there was drinking two-liter bottles of Guarana Brazilia. Maybe we should try that next time.

Not only was all of the food great, but it was really affordable. Everything we got, including tax and tip, came out under $20! It felt like such a steal.

If you're looking to try Paraguayan food, we highly recommend going to I Love Py. Not just because it's the only Paraguayan place we could find in the city, but because it's good. Definitely try the chipa guazu and some of the empanadas. We plan to go back for more of those!

I Love Py is located at 43-16 Greenpoint Avenue in Sunnyside, Queens. It's a short walk from the 46 St stop on the 7 train.