The Lunch Break Chronicles

ABOVE: Kerry’s chicken paella, prepared on a charcoal grill in her backyard last week.

6/4/2009

In an effort to make the LBC more robust, I’ve enlisted the help of a few gastronomically-inclined friends and coworkers. While not professionals by any means, these are the people I frequently consult when I run into trouble in the kitchen, which is an almost daily occurrence.

FIRST UP: Kerry Sherck, a freelance photographer and enthusiastic home cook, teaches me about the Valencian dish, paella.

–CP

ABOVE: Kerry toasts Italian [gasp] arborio rice in the sofrito, not the traditional Spanish arroz bomba, which can be more difficult to find.

KERRY’S TAKE ON PAELLA: Making paella is one of those things – like burgers or pizza – that can be a contentious undertaking. Maybe not here in Fairfield County, but definitely in Spain and in Spanish restaurants around the U.S. There are debates about what ingredients should be mixed, the best pan to use, how thick should the rice be, and even how to eat it.

I learned to make paella from a master. Sarah Jay, former managing editor of Fine Cooking, runs a business selling paella pans and other imports from Spain. And she makes a damn good paella.

Years ago Jay lived with a family in Granada, Spain, where every Sunday was paella night. As a result, she follows the rules she learned there, and I, as one of her protégées, follow some of the same basic principles:

– Never mix chicken and seafood in the same paella [recipes for both on her website]
– Keep the rice layer relatively thin
– Don’t serve the paella onto plates, guests get a fork and eat directly out of the pan

Eating out of the pan creates an intimate dining experience, and a quick study of the leftover paella says a lot about the people at the table. Besides knowing who ate the most, the remaining rice borders speak to the relationships between the people at the table. [Couples generally break down rice borders that stand between them; acquaintances may not.]

Since paellas ordered in restaurants can often be disappointing, I usually resort to making my own. There are, however, local restaurants that specialize in paella. Among them are La Paella Tapas Bar and Restaurant and Meigas Restaurant, both in the Norwalk Wall Street area; and Barcelona, which has locations throughout Fairfield County.

As Jay says, occasionally the “stars will align” and your paella will be a stellar one. I remember bending over a hot pan with my fork on a 98 degree afternoon years ago at her house, and not even noticing the heat. A solid 10.

–Kerry Sherck

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND: This Sunday, June 7, the “Paella Parade” will take place at Pier 17, South Street Seaport. Ten NYC chefs from Spanish restaurants will be making huge paellas (in 36-inch pans) and members of the public will get to vote on which one is best. There’s going to be Spanish wine and Spanish cheese for tasting. The event runs from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and tickets are $25 [purchase in advance, or at the door]

ON DECK: Maggie Perez, a staff writer at the Advocate, brings us her first post in a series about summer salsas.

ABOVE: The yellowfin tuna tartare with Maine lobster salad, avocado and pineapple vinaigrette.

ROUGE WINEBAR: 88 WASHINGTON ST., NORWALK

06/04/2009

Last week at SoNo’s sleek, new Rouge Winebar I tried the tuna tartare, which was very good and quite generously portioned. For Melanie Barnard’s full review, check out the GO section in today’s Advocate:

“The menu is geared toward tapas and other small plates, each served in generous enough portion to be a light main course. So, we skipped the traditional entrees, even though duck breast in Calvados with yam puree and wilted spinach, or salmon osso buco with mashed potatoes and asparagus in caper beurre blanc were quite tempting.”

–CP

ABOVE: Counter-clockwise, marinated anchovies, Mussels al Diablo, the rear dining room and tuna tartare.

BARCELONA WINE BAR: 222 SUMMER ST., STAMFORD

5/30/2009

The lone torero, stoic, motionlessly taunting his prize, stood printed on a banner in front of 222 Summer St. for months, similarly beguiling passersby eager for what was to come: tapas and Spanish wine.

Barcelona Wine Bar has establishments in virtually every other city with a sizable population in Fairfield County, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before they expanded into Stamford. The Spanish tapas restaurant officially opened yesterday and has taken over a space on lower Summer St. which has seen something of a transformation in the last few months.

The restaurant features a large central, u-shaped bar and several booths with additional seating in front and on the street-side patio. A small dining room is also available for more traditional, quieter dining.

Barcelona carries over their chic, modern decor, accented with photography depicting the ritualized art of corrida, bullfighting being a central visual theme of the restaurant group.

Diners familiar with the other restaurants will also find the menu nearly identical, ranging from charcuteria plates, salads, full entrees and, of course, tapas, the main draw.

After deciding on a pitcher of sangria we went with a charcuteria plate [Manchego, chorizo and Jamon Serrano], anchovies with garlic and olive oil, tuna tartare, mussels and a plate of olives. I wouldn’t say we found ordering difficult, but there is a lot to choose from and it all sounds fantastic.

The mussels were a perfect garlicky, bacony dish and the tuna tartare is prepared with just the right amount of citrus and capers to contrast with the fish and olive oil. The fresh, marinated anchovies were my favorite – owing to their simplicity – drenched in garlic and olive oil, eaten alone or with warm bread.

Barcelona’s vast array of tempting menu options guarantees we will be back. Next time, hopefully, with a better understanding of the wine list.

-CP

POST SCRIPT: Check out the photoblog for a vignette from Summer St. last night.

5/28/2009

The newly-launched site NYC Mugged, dedicated to quality coffee in New York, is yet another example that New York’s specialty coffee scene is flourishing.

The site offers a searchable database of coffee locations, reviews and short features, like where to find a cup of Stumptown, which made its East Coast debut last year.

Even if searching out the perfect double ristretto, cortado or seven-ounce cappuccino isn’t your idea of a perfect day in New York, there may be something here for you.

–CP

ABOVE: A hastily baked raspberry buttermilk cake. Looks aren’t everything.

5/26/2009

Paging through the most recent Gourmet, this raspberry buttermilk cake caught my eye. As Deb, the prodigious poster behind the Smitten Kitchen blog remarks, “I have a serious soft spot for everyday cakes.”

While I hadn’t really contemplated desserts in these terms before, I am ready to embrace the concept of the everyday cake and this is a good example. With minimal preparation, using ingredients easily kept on hand, you can’t go wrong with this recipe for a simple summer dessert.

Besides, I’m always looking for reasons to demonstrate that my recent purchase of a six-quart mixer was not a superfluous and extravagant acquisition. My one-time panic at the prospect of creaming butter by hand has been superseded by ceaseless Internet research into the chemistry of this most basic baking operation on the microscopic level, the ideal initial temperature of the ingredients, the rate at which said ingredients warm relative to the speed of the mixer and let us not forget the of principle of emulsification.

I call it a draw.

So, after covering the Stamford Memorial Day parade with reporter Devon Lash – who was also my ride – we ducked into Stop & Shop at Ridgeway so I could pick up a few staples, including ten pounds of flour and a carton of raspberries. [Though, whatever frozen fruit I had at home would have worked equally well]

I came to find out only later that Smitten Kitchen not only had converted the measurements into weight in metric units – which appeals to my self-diagnosed OCD – but also slightly modified the recipe with the inclusion of a little lemon zest. I’ll try that next time.

–CP

RECIPES: The Gourmet original, and Smitten Kitchen’s slightly modified version.

LBC FILE PHOTO

5/23/2009

While at Williams-Sonoma today, looking at things I want but can’t afford, I was surprised to see that they just started offering a selection of whole-bean roasted coffee from the well regarded Vancouver-based 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters.

This is good news for Stamford, which is still without a real independent coffee shop and with limited access to high-quality roasted coffee. However, based on the packaging, neither I nor the store staff could determine when it was roasted.

High-end roasters like Stumptown and Intelligentsia are making inroads in the New York market, where Counter Culture has been available for some time, however, none of this has trickled down – or up, rather – to Stamford.

Apparently, they are only selling blends for $14 per pound [yikes], no single-origins or micro-lots.

The current offering:

Epic Espresso

French Roast

123°W Longitude Blend

–CP

FETTE SAU: 354 METROPOLITAN AVE., WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN

5/23/2009

At Fette Sau [German for fat pig], after you jockey for some precious real estate at one of the long picnic tables in the dining room or on the patio out front, you head for the long line at the counter. Here you order your barbecue by type and by the pound.

It is a beautiful thing,

Pulled pork. Beef brisket. Ribs. Boston butt. Pork belly. Pork sausage. Pork cheeks.

Yes, my friends, Berkshire pork cheeks!

The glorious cue, tender and smoked-to-perfection is piled high on a butcher paper covered aluminum tray next to your Guss’ half-sour pickles, German potato salad, baked beans, or sauerkraut.

Fette Sau is serious about their cue, evidenced by the larger-than-life butcher’s diagrams painted on the walls. Everything I ate here was absolutely fantastic. And I ate a lot.

Fortunately they are equally serious about their beer and spirits, focusing on local craft brews like Blue Point, Sixpoint, Chelsea and a top-notch bourbon and single malt selection. The downside being that you can spend as much on booze here than on your meal. Easily.

If you can deal with elbowing through a crush of hipsters and negotiating for table space, you must go.

The hard-core carnivore inside of you will not regret it.

–CP

ABOVE: The beef enchilada ranchera plate at Mary Ann’s Mexican restaurant in Stamford.

MARY ANN’S: 184 SUMMER ST., STAMFORD

5/22/2009

After being called out as a “West Coast Snob” on the blog yesterday regarding my natural skepticism of the new Mary Ann’s Mexican restaurant on Summer St., I felt obligated to put aside my inherent bias and sample an entree.

So in a fit of overcompensation, I donned my Top-Siders and a button-down Oxford and before heading out to West Beach for the afternoon, I stopped by Mary Ann’s with a friend.

Mary Ann’s has a bunch of other locations in Manhattan and one in Port Chester and though I’ve seen them before, I’d never been in one.

The Stamford location had been open for less than 24-hours at this point, so it is with a degree of caution that I let my true feelings be known in this forum. The relatively inexpensive menu was highly pared down for opening day from what, on the internet anyway, is a veritable encyclopedia of Mexican and Mexican-inspired dishes.

The first bad sign was that the tap water was basically undrinkable. Neither of us could really figure out what was wrong with it. But it was wrong. I’m sure they will work that out.

On to the margarita. It tasted like something you’d make with the green stuff in the bottle. For what it’s worth, I don’t know anything about margaritas and I ordered it on the rocks with salt for $8. It was OK, I drank it and I was happy, but it was nothing fancy.

Next, I ordered the beef enchiladas after learning that the beef was, in fact, steak cubes rather than ground, though I’d prefer shredded. The beef was tender and well seasoned and the dish came with black beans, a little shredded iceberg and half of an avocado.

For the record, I’m not an authenticity freak when it comes to Mexican food. I don’t really care if I’m eating something that you can’t find in Mexico [try and find a giant, gooey, carne asada burrito – one of man’s most perfect creations – in Mexico City]. Give me a couple of enchiladas with a fried egg on top and I’m good to go.

The bottom line is, I’d rather not get into the whole “this isn’t Mexican food, this is Tex-Mex” or whatever debate, I’d rather just enjoy my food.

That being said, my food at Mary Ann’s was not very good. The enchiladas were OK, the sauce wasn’t that great, the whole dish was overcooked and sort of crusty and I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to compare it to something I’d buy at Costco and have to defrost.

It was their first day, so I guess I should give them the benefit of the doubt. The restaurant is in a decent downtown location and I’m sure that on a lively Friday or Saturday night, the atmosphere will probably make up for a lot, provided that you ignore the fake cacti and that the high school crowd doesn’t take to it like it has to Buffalo Wild Wings.

But I’m not a grumpy old man. I swear.

–CP

POST SCRIPT: It wasn’t all bad, the waitress was very nice and she said the menu will soon expand to the full version after the kitchen staff get a handle on things.