The Lunch Break Chronicles

ABOVE: Trout and red snapper at New Wave Seafood in Stamford.

NEW WAVE SEAFOOD: 81 CAMP AVE., STAMFORD

7/13/2009

I’d seen the delivery vans around town for years, emblazoned with their logo and the likeness of a proud yellowfin tuna, planting thoughts of seared ahi, poke salad and island living in my head. I even lived around the corner from their warehouse for a while. But until last month I had no idea that New Wave Seafood had a retail fish market, always assuming they were strictly wholesale purveyors.

Only hours after I was bemoaning the state of supermarket seafood available in Stamford, settling for a snapper fillet that looked like it had been sitting on ice for weeks, I noticed the “retail” sign outside of New Wave.

Then came the talk around the office; web editor Jon Lucas went to a barbecue over the weekend and his host served up fish from New Wave, stating they were his first choice for fish. Editor David McCumber said he noticed the sign the other day and was meaning to check it out. Then I heard managing editor John Breunig talking about it too. Why didn’t anybody tell me about this before? Was it too obvious? Did they all assume I knew?

Well, I didn’t and I’ve been suffering through the meager offerings at Stop and Shop and the Belltown ShopRite being both too lazy and too cheap to drive to Whole Foods in Greenwich [the whole mackerel I saw the last time I was in there looked fantastic].

I walked away with a pound and a half of sea scallops, some polpo salad and a crawfish cake lunch after my first visit.

The polpo salad with its big, meaty chunks of octopus in a light vinaigrette was very good while the crawfish cakes were not my favorite [and worse, the fries were soggy].

Our meal that night featuring seared scallops was excellent. The bivalves were just as good as those I have personally hauled out of the ocean after dives in Santa Barbara.

Inside, New Wave has a long counter with both fillets and steaks and a host of prepared dishes and seafood salads as well as whole fish on ice and a swimming-pool-sized tank of live lobsters.

All of this is tucked away in Springdale, largely unseen but, now, not forgotten.

–CP

7/10/2009

A CROSSOVER POST FROM THE ADVOCATE BOOK BLOG, BOOKENDS:

I was in Barnes & Noble the other day with a $50 gift card burning a hole in my pocket. Predictably, I headed straight for the food section (I’m in a fiction rut right now) and immediately noticed some of the prominently displayed works of food porn, notably “A Day at El Bulli,” and Thomas Keller’s “Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide.”

The former is a 600-page tome containing literally thousands of full-color photographs representing a 24-hour period at the Michelin three-star restaurant in Spain. Widely considered one of the best restaurants in the world, you can see why as you page through this book.

The famed French Laundry, Per Se, etc., offers a “do not attempt this at home” look at Keller culinary genius. Amazon writes:

The book makes no bones about being addressed to professionals. Typical recipes, like Marinated Toy Box Tomatoes with Compressed Cucumber-Red Onion Relish, Toasted Brioche, and Diane St. Claire Butter, involve multiple preparations and dernier cri ingredients, and thus resist home duplication. There’s also the matter of the pricey equipment required–chamber vacuum packers and temperature-maintaining immersion circulators–not to mention the precautions required to ensure that foods, usually cooked at low temps, are safe to eat.

Whatever the case may be, this book is beautiful and inspiring.

CLOSER TO HOME: Connecticut’s own Spanish restaurant empire, Barcelona, just launched their own book, “The Barcelona Cookbook: A Celebration of Food, Wine and Life.” [Read my related post on their Stamford restaurant here]

Continuing on with the Spanish theme is Jose Andres new book, “Made in Spain,” playing off of his PBS show of the same name. I’ve had the opportunity to visit one of his restaurants in Washington D.C. and have always enjoyed is wild-eyed enthusiasm for all things delicious.

IT SHOULD BE NOTED: Some of my perennial favorites, Calvin Trillin and Jefferey Steingarten are buried on the lower shelves, below all the celebrity chef cookbooks but are well worth checking out.

WHAT I BOUGHT: The Silver Spoon, an encyclopedia of Italian cooking.

WHAT I WANTED TO BUY BUT COULDN”T FIND UNTIL AFTER IT WAS TOO LATE: Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

INTRIGUED BY: M.F.K. Fisher’s “The Art of Eating”

–CP

Welcome to installment four of our summer of salsa. To recap, CP and I are celebrating summer by making a salsa every week. All the recipes are from the book Nueva Salsa by Rafael Palomino and Arlen Gargagliano.

This week we decided to go easy, with a fruit salsa you simply mix together and serve as a salad dressing.

Here’s what you need:
½ papaya, peeled, seeded and finely diced (about 2 cups)
¼ cup plain yogurt
2 teaspoons chipotle puree
juice of ½ lime

In case you’re wondering, chipotles are fully ripened and smoked jalapeno peppers. You can find the puree in La Marqueta or a local Hispanic deli, or if you’re lucky, in the “international” section of a regular grocery store. I usually pick up La Costeña, a sauce that comes in an red can. It’s pretty spicy so go easy!

You are probably more familiar with papayas, but essentially they are large, shaped like a football, and yellowish to salmon colored when ripe. Chris said the fruit smells like dirty socks. I think it’s an acquired taste. read on after the jump

ABOVE: The $9.99 “lobster dinner” from Stew Leonard’s Grill at Calf Pasture Beach, seved with corn on the cob, drawn butter and a view of the beach.

6/29/2009

I’m a glass-half-empty kind of guy. So when I’m complaining about how I have to get up at 6 a.m. to meet a reporter for an assignment that requires walking through the mud and sand and who knows what else as part of our Breaking the Sound Barrier series, I tend to ignore all the good things.

Good things like being out of the office, working on my farmer’s tan and exploring new corners of my adopted state.

And the lobster.

When I found out my leg of the trek would take me to Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, I knew one thing: I would be having lobster for lunch and I would not be paying for it and this would make me happy.

As I sat in the cool shade, pulling the crustacean apart, wrenching the sweet meat from its rigid shell, I looked out to the beach, past the leafy trees and busy playground, and out onto the Long Island Sound and the Norwalk Islands. Children, beachgoers, sailors at once enjoying the mild afternoon.

The simple meal provided not only a respite from the day’s long walk, but was also a celebration of the season. This is summer and I was happy, if momentarily.

–CP

WATCH THE VIDEO: of course, my video camera’s battery died before lunch.

Maggie chips in with another Summer of Salsa recipe. I guess it doesn’t always work out how you’d like it [see post], but I guess that’s all part of the learning process. Do any of you have any salsa recipes you’d like to share?

–CP

Summer of Salsa: Guava, lime, ancho chile salsa

Welcome to installment three of our summer of salsa. To recap, CP and I are celebrating summer by making a salsa every week (Please add a link to the last post). All our recipes are from the book Nueva Salsa by Rafael Palomino and Arlen Gargagliano.

This week I navigated guava, lime and ancho chile salsa on my own, and had a bit of trouble, so be sure to read the precautionary tale below before you try this at home.

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED:

2 ancho chiles
1-pound bar guava paste, diced
juice of 2 limes
kosher salt to taste

THE BOOK SAID:

“In a medium saucepan of boiling water, cook the chiles for about eight minutes, or until softened. Drain and let cool to the touch. Dice.

In a medium bowl, combine the chiles and diced guava paste. Stir in the lime juice, salt, and pepper. Let sit for about 20 minutes before serving.”

Sounds so easy, right? Well, let me tell you, this took me well over an hour.

First, I think I cooked the ancho chiles too long. I was using nice, fresh chiles my husband’s parents had brought from Mexico, and after 8 minutes they were so soft the outer skin was peeling right off. I spent a lot of effort trying to cut them into slices and peel off the skin when warranted.

Also, I scraped the seeds out, assuming the book had simply neglected to mention this step, then later reversed course.

Cutting the guava paste was a breeze, but after mixing everything together and tasting it I regretted cutting them into half-inch cubes. NOTE: Guava paste is basically pure sugar, and it tastes like it. Given that I prefer salty to sweet, I could have gone for much less guava paste in every bite. And I only used half of a slightly-less-than-one-pound bar.

In the end, this was my least favorite salsa so far, mostly due to the sweetness. To be honest, when I first saw this recipe I envisioned using fresh guava, and I think if you could find guavas in your grocery store, that would be excellent. Per the book, I paired the salsa with chicken, and every once in a while, when I got a bite of smoky ancho chile with lime juice and salt, that tasted great.

MY RECOMMENDATION: go fresh or reduce the paste by a large portion unless you are a sugar fanatic.

–Magdalene Perez

ABOVE: Roasted tomatoes and garlic.

6/26/2009

A QUICK UPDATE IN THE “IT’S-STILL-THE-FIRST-WEEK-OF-SUMMER” VEIN: Slow roasted tomatoes.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out [read: even I can do this].

Halve a bunch of grape or cherry tomatoes, put them on a baking sheet with some whole, unpeeled garlic cloves.

Season and drizzle with olive oil.

Throw all this into an oven dialed way down to 225 for three hours.

Eat.

DISCLAIMER: This is stolen from Smitten Kitchen, who has some ideas for usage here, or you can just eat them as-is, like I did.

–CP

ABOVE: Augustino Scicchitano, left, watches a bocce game while Nick Eisanelli and Dominic Schinella, enjoy steak sandwiches during bocce league night at the Minturnese Social Club.

6/24/2009

After rushing back on an express train from New York today, I arrived at Springdale station just in time for bocce night at the Minturnese Social Club. League nights started two weeks ago but I was out of town the first week and bocce was rained out last Wednesday.

Today, despite the day-long sporadic precipitation, we rolled.

2009 marks the inaugural year for team “i Advocati,” the newsroom’s bocce team and we are off to a poor start thus far, with a perfect 0-6 record. Apparently, years of experience on our opponent’s behalf is getting the better of our youthful exuberance.

Nevertheless, we had a hell of a good time, getting tips from the guys, drinking Peronis and eating steak sandwiches. Tony Cardillo and Tony Rizzi were manning the grill, serving up the sandwiches with your choice of sweet or hot peppers. The hot peppers, a Peruvian variety, come from Rizzi’s garden down the street and tip the Scovile scale more than enough for my palate.

I played bocce a little in college and it’s slowly coming back to me. Now, I just have to learn how to swear in Italian.

BELOW: Sam Laria rolls his way to a clean 3-0 sweep of the Advocate team.

6/24/2009

MOMOFUKU SSAM BAR: 207 2ND AVE, NEW YORK

I made my first trip to celebrated chef David Chang’s Momofuku Ssam Bar in the East Village with my friend Ali last night – primarily to experience the legendary steamed pork buns firsthand.

The buns, stuffed with rich pork belly and pickles – what former chief Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni called “the city’s most perfect finger food” – are a sublime tribute to fat and salt and certainly lived up to expectations.

But my favorite dish was the Santa Barbara uni, served with slivers of fennel in a wonderful briny, green, nori broth. The uni – red sea urchin roe – was amazing in its own right, ultra creamy and sweet, but combined with the broth, became the highlight of my meal.

So with this, Ali Fenwick, a good friend and News21 fellow, became an honorary member of The Uni Brotherhood.

As we were settling up the bill, Ali took a look at the check and remarked astutely, “that is the best itemized receipt ever.”

AND IT WAS:

Manhattan cocktail

Santa Barbara uni

Steamed buns

Seasonal pickles

P.E.I. Mussels

Crispy pig’s head (don’t ask)

Ice cream pie

–CP