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J. Sung Dynasty and Bangkok House

Dan P.Thursday, April 1, 19930

CaB Magazine
April 1993

You Are Where You Eat
Restaurant Reviews

Let me start with the obvious. China is a big place. With almost four million square miles of land a billion residents, there are a lot of variations on home cooking. There’s an area in the northeast that the Chinese call Tung Pei and Americans call Manchuria. In truth, Tung Pei no longer exists as an entity, and has fractured into the provinces of Kirin, Liaoning and Heilung Kiang. Bordered on different sides by Mongolia, Russia and Korea, and once under Japanese domination, the cuisine has developed some interesting stylistic blends.

There are a lot of Chinese folk here in New York, too. Strangely, for many years no one brought the tastes of Manchuria to our fair city. Then, seven years ago, restaurateur Jimmy Sung decided it was about time to introduce New Yorkers to the flavors of his northeast. Combining the talents of some top chefs, he brought Manchurian and Hunan dishes to the second floor of the Hotel Lexington, at J. Sung Dynasty.

One of the perks of being a restaurant reviewer is that sometimes I get invited to be the guest of a local restaurateur looking for a little publicity. This can make things difficult if the restaurant isn’t worth the trip. Luckily, in this case the food and ambience make it easy to like. Climbing the stairs off 48th Street, we were greeted by dozens of photos of Jimmy himself with sports and political figures from all over the world. A thank-you note and photograph from Jean Kirkpatrick graces the coatcheck. All of this opens up into a beautifully designed formal dining room, with private banquet alcoves surrounding.

The service is efficient, if a bit stiff. Most of the staff we had contact with spoke fluent English, a nice change from the typical Chinese establishment in this town. When Mr. Sung is present, he brings a cheerfulness and enthusiasm for his restaurant that infects the staff; if he could bottle it and leave it when he’s not around, he’d have it made.

The menu starts with the standard numbered fare found anywhere. It ends with a description of the restaurant’s founding and the cuisines served. In between are the Manchurian and Hunan specialties and a delightful taste treat. There’s also a complete wine list, with upwards of thirty top-notch choices. The biggest plus here is that you know immediately that the ingredients are fresh. From the first bite, I had no worries that anything had been sitting around waiting for an unsuspecting customer to drop in.

I recommend starting the meal with dumplings. There are the usual fried variety, which are tasty enough, but for a nice change try the Steamed Dumplings in Hot Oil – delicate rice noodle packages with a mildly spicy sesame sauce. The Crispy Spring Rolls are another good choice, and count on the dipping sauce being a whole lot better than what normally shows up in those plastic packets. The soups are generally good, though a bit bland for our tastes.

If you’re feeling a bit daring, give the Flavored Crispy Jelly Fish a shot. Unlike the usual tasteless rubber-textured mound, you’ll find yourself nibbling on brightly vinegared and seasoned seafood that may change your opinion about trying the unusual. While you can certainly order your main course from the customary selection, I recommend diving right into the specialties of the house. On the Hunan side, you’ll find everything from honey-cured and smoked ham in herbs to lobster in garlic and ginger sauce. Top raves go to the Tangy Tangerine Beef, a nice twist on the usual orange variety found around town. Crystal Prawns with Walnuts, dressed in a lightly seasoned sauce also got a thumbs up.

J. Sung Dynasty is also one of the few places around that you don’t have to order your Peking Duck the day before you show up for dinner. With the dozens of orders requested out of the kitchen each evening, the chefs make it fresh every day.

From the Manchurian options, I can heartily recommend the Sweet and Sour Crispy Fish. This lightly breaded treat is actually cooked through, and coated with one of the best glazes I’ve tasted on this dish. Sizzling crisp-fried Dalian Scallops are another good choice. The beancurd casserole is a litte bland but with some salt and pepper picked right up, and certainly made a nicer light choice than some of the tofu dishes we’ve been subjected to. Top honors go to the Smoked duckling Chang Chun Style with crispy vegetables drizzled in hot sauce, and the Sauteed Chang-Pei Pheasant in savory brown sauce.

Make J. Sung Dynasty a definite stop next time you’re hanging around Grand Central Station. And tell Jimmy who sent you.

J. Sung Dynasty, 511 Lexington Avenue (at 48th Street), second floor in the Hotel Lexington, 355-1200. Open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner. All major credit cards. Lunch, $20-25; Dinner, $35-40.

Ever since I saw The King and I when I was a child, I’ve been impressed by things Thai. Surrounded by the mountains of Laos and Burma, and the jungles and plateaus of Cambodia and Malaysia, the cuisine of Thailand has not only its own magic, but the influence of those other national cuisines as well. I realize that the hallmark of Thai restaurants is to have cheerful waiters, but if you like that style almost to excess, and food that is a definite cut above the norm, Bangkok House is the place to go.

From the moment you enter this lavender, bamboo and polished-wood upper east side establishment, you’ll be fussed over by some of the most chipper waiters this side of the Hudson.

It’s almost always hard to get a group of folks to agree on splitting fewer appetizers than there are people, especially when everything smells and looks wonderful. Our waiter happily agreed to have the kitchen make up a sample platter with some of the house favorites. The Beef Satay (Sate) was grilled perfectly and served with a peanut sauce and cucumber “salsa” that outshines the usual. Paw-Pyak, or spring rolls, were crispy little fingers of flavor served with mild and medium-spicy dipping sauces. (If you want things really spicy here, you have to insist.) Paw-Yak Koong, jumbo shrimp stuffed with black mushrooms, pork and white pepper wrapped and deep-fried were a new treat for all of us, as were the Hoi-Jo, a delicious combination of pork, shrimp and bamboo shoots deep-fried in bean curd.

Outside of this selection, I can personally recommend my favorite Thai dish, Laab Gai, tiny bits of minced chicken dressed in ground chili, onion and lime juice, extra spicy, of course.

The main courses run the gamut of Thai food, with everything from sauteed broccoli (Koong Ka-Na) to the deep-fried spare ribs (Si-Krong Mu). Everything we’ve had here was wonderful and beautifully presented. Extra sighs of contentment went to the house specials, including Pod Ma-Kahm, my personal choice, a superb crispy half duck and fruit drizzled with a tamarind and curry sauce. Also the Haw-Muck, a spicy combination of shrimp, scallops, mussels, squid, and sole steamed in red curry and coconut milk; and the Gai-Ta Krai, or lemongrass chicken, a delicious marinated and sliced breast of chicken, cooked to perfection. If you don’t have personal favorites, let your waiter pick out a selection for you, you won’t be disappointed. Bangkok House also has a short dessert list but unlike the usual fare of ice creams and fruit this one is worth at least sampling – creamy coconut Thai Custard, Fried Wrapped Bananas soaked in honey and sesame seeds, and Chocolate Mousse.

Bangkok House, 1485 First Avenue (between 77th and 78th), 249-5700. Open 7 days a week for dinner, takeout and delivery available. All major credit cards. Dinner $25-30.

CaB magazine was one of the first publications I ever wrote for. Published by my dear friend Andrew Martin, it covered the Cabaret, Theater, Music and Dining scene in New York City, long before slick publications like Time Out NY and Where NY became popular. We had great fun writing it, and some wonderful writers contributed to its pages. When the magazine folded in the mid-90s, Andrew disappeared from the scene, and rumors had it that he departed from this existence not long after. I was thrilled to find out in mid-October 2005, a decade later, that the rumors were just that. Andrew contacted me after finding my site via that omnipresent force, Google. He’s alive and well and a member of a comedy troupe called Meet the Mistake. Somehow quite fitting!

CaB Magazine, Magazine articles

Restaurants

BA

Dan P.Friday, February 18, 20050

Outlet Radio Network
February 18, 2005

I’ve just returned from a fantastic vacation in Buenos Aires! Two weeks of (mostly) good weather, an amazing city to explore, new friends met (including one quite special one), and all sorts of adventures to share. I’m going to try to encapsulate it, and include a proper dose of food and wine, in a few short paragraphs (which won’t remotely do it justice, but such is life).

Friends Pascal, Nestor and Tuomas chat over breakfast.

It’s a long flight from New York, a solid ten hours, but I’ve done worse and I had two seats to myself, so being the petite sort, I curled up and went to sleep for most of the time. Arrival in Argentina, and ready to go. My guesthouse (more about which later, as I highly recommend it), had arranged a taxi to meet me, and so I was quickly whisked off to the neighborhood of San Telmo. As we pulled into the area, all I could think of was, I’m back home! It could have been the East Village/Lower East Side…there wasn’t even that much of an increase in signage in Spanish (which says more about the East Village than about Buenos Aires).

Evita’s tomb, at which flowers are left daily by fans

At the guesthouse, LugarGay (literally “gay place”), I was welcomed with open arms by Nestor (center in the pic) and Juan, the two owners, and the current temporary “houseboy”, Henry – about whom much more later! We stumbled along in my limited Spanish and Nestor’s somewhat better English, got me settled, and then I was promptly greeted by several of the current residents. LugarGay seems perfect for those who like to travel, comfortable rooms, a quiet atmosphere, and a relatively sophisticated clientele. I spent the afternoon on my own exploring the immediate neighborhood, and then found myself in the company of a charming man from Finland, Tuomas, on the right in the picture (who thankfully spoke impeccable English…and French…and Spanish…and Italian…and Dutch…and Finnish…), for dinner. We were joined by another man, originally from Canada, who had fallen in love with a local guy a few months earlier and decided to move, at least part-time, to “BA”.

Evita’s tomb, at which flowers are left daily by fans

Dinner at a local, very gay friendly (as is most of Buenos Aires) restaurant, La Farmacia, and then a good night’s sleep. Breakfast with some of the guys in the house, at least those who had awakened, and I met yet another charmer, Pascal, from Paris. In fact, Pascal (left in the picture) and I spent a good portion of the next week exploring the city together.

People line up to get into favorite parrillas…

Like any big city, there are tons of things to do. Museums and galleries, parks, monuments, cemeteries (one has to pay homage to Evita’s tomb…), and loads of restaurants to sample. Argentinians, and especially porteños, as the denizens of BA refer to themselves, love to eat. And they eat a lot of red meat, especially beef. In fact, other than accompaniments of a bit of salad or the occasional sauteed green leaves, little shows up on plates other than slabs of beef. Argentinian beef is a bit leaner than what we see in the US, but I am still amazed that with the quantity (often a steak for both lunch and dinner) that is consumed, that porteños aren’t all a bit on the hefty side. Dinner at a parrilla can often consist of several courses of meat – what is referred to as an asado, or as we might call it, a barbecue. Innards are quite popular, and I tried several new things (seasoned and grilled intestines anyone?), and a lot of old faves. An afternoon lunch on the roof of La Farmacia. Meat is generally served with a sauce called chimichurri, a slightly spicy herb sauce, for which I’ve posted a recipe below. It’s quite delicious!

Porteños also eat late by our standards. Most restaurants, other than those catering to tourists, don’t open until 9 p.m. And no local would be caught in one before 10 – in fact, many folk go out to dinner at 11 or 12 at night, even on “school nights”. How they manage to eat so late, and often go out to a club or bar or coffeehouse afterwards, and still get up for work in the morning, is beyond me.

Argentinian wines are to be found everywhere, and there is little else to be had other than in some of the swankier wine shops. Some Chilean and the occasional Uruguayan wine (again, more later, as I spent a couple of days in Uruguay exploring as well), and maybe a high-end French or Italian wine. Prices, by the way, are extraordinarily low, mostly based on the current exchange rate – nearly 3:1 to the US dollar. But even with the exchange, markups just aren’t as ridiculous as they often are here. At fine restaurants, a bottle of a good reserve wine might go for 60-70 pesos, or about $25-30. The same bottle here might sell in a restaurant for $60-70, or more than double…trust me, import costs aren’t that high. And meals are also inexpensive – lunch is available fixed price at most restaurants and is almost always under 10 pesos – $3-4. Dinner might, in the finer restaurants, run you 60 pesos, but more than likely not. Generally we ate for about 40 pesos apiece, including wine.

Henry (right) and I (umm, left)…

And last, for this column, but by no means least, I return to the aforementioned “houseboy”, Henry. We hit it off immediately, and within a day of flirting we had quickly become an “item” around the guesthouse. He hails from Trujillo, Peru, and is adorable and my heart remains with him! We spent my entire vacation together, when he wasn’t working, and who knows what the future will bring!?

Chimichurri

½ cup oil
½ cup vinegar
½ cup white wine
1 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
1 scallion, chopped
1 small tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 small sweet pepper, finely chopped
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon ground pepper (or chili powder if you want spicy)
½ teaspoon oregano leaves
2 bay leaves

Basically, mix all the ingredients together and let it steep for at least 12 hours before using. It should be used within a couple of days as the freshness of the flavors will fade quickly. This isn’t my recipe, but comes from a local chef, and I may play with it a bit and re-post a new one down the road…

I started writing food & wine columns for the Outlet Radio Network, an online radio station in December 2003. They went out of business in June 2005.

Online Publications, Outlet Radio Network

Argentina, Travel

A swamp cabbage by any other name

Dan P.Sunday, February 12, 20122

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

Slender cylinders of gleaming ivory, firm on the outside, tender, moist and creamy on the inside. Sounds like perfection in a vegetable, and for some, the palmito, or heart of palm, is just that. But, just what is it? Does it really have anything to do with palm trees? Why do old British cookbooks refer to it as “burglar’s thigh” and Americans call it swamp cabbage? And just exactly what can you do with it?

First off, yes, it has everything to do with palm trees. Particular varieties that are harvested when young, generally when the trunk of the palm reaches about two meters in height and ten centimeters in diameter. Let it go past that point and the inner core of the tree starts to become fibrous and woody. But harvested at that point it’s one of the world’s great under-sung vegetables.

Traditionally harvested in Brazil from wild palms, closely related to the coconut palm, the trees were single stemmed – that meant that for roughly every two dozen hearts of palm stuck in a can a future tree was lost, and they took two years to reach that size. Ecuador, meanwhile, cultivated a “self-suckering”, “multi-stem” variety that often sends up as many as forty trunks, reaching the necessary size within a single growing season, and they regenerate themselves.

Here in Argentina, you see the cans in every supermarket and dietética. On restaurant menus they appear raw in salads, or mixed with shrimp and mayo and stuffed into an avocado half. They’re tossed on pizzas and milanesas, often drowned in swirls of salsa golf, the local mayo-ketchup blend. They make appearances in savory tarts, usually baked with the ubiquitous ham and cheese.

High in protein and low in fat, palm hearts can be cooked in the manner of many another vegetable. An old local recipe uses thin rounds cooked down in a white wine, heavy cream and butter sauce, ladled over slabs of pork loin, covered in cheese, and then baked in the oven until golden brown. It’s an amazing, savory dish that unfortunately is also packed with fat and salt. I’ve taken the classic as an inspiration to create a wonderful salmon dish. And “burglar’s thigh”, “swamp cabbage”? Not a clue. Searched through every historical text I could lay my hands on, print and online, and not one explanation.

Salmon and Palmito Gratin

4 fillets of salmon, 150 gm each, skin and bones removed
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
1 large shallot, finely chopped
60 ml dry white wine
200 ml plain yogurt
120 ml low-sodium vegetable stock
100 gm palm hearts, rinsed, sliced in rounds (roughly 4 hearts)
50 gm grated cheese (I’m fond of local Romano or Grana Pampeana)
salt and pepper
chives, finely chopped

Sprinkle the salmon fillets with a little salt and several grinds of pepper, and then rub all over with the chopped garlic and olive oil. Let sit for 30 minutes at room temperature. Heat a skillet over high heat for about ten minutes, until it’s hot. Place the salmon fillets in the pan (no extra oil is needed) with the side that had the skin face down. Cook for 2 minutes until lightly golden and then flip them over. Cook for just 1 minute and remove to a baking dish.

Turn the heat down to medium and add the shallots, cook for a minute, then add the wine to deglaze the pan, scraping any stuck bits into the mix. Cook for a minute, then add the stock, yogurt, and palm heart slices. Continue stirring and cook for 10 minutes.. Adjust the seasoning to your taste with salt and pepper. Spoon over the fillets, piling up the palmitos atop. Cover with grated cheese and stick under the broiler for 5 minutes until golden brown. The salmon should just barely be cooked through. Serve, garnished with chives.

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

Fish

Game On – The Shell Game

Dan P.Saturday, October 5, 20190

Many moons ago, or, to be more precise, just over seven years ago, during July and August of 2012, I started a little “game” based on the old encyclopedia game, but updated using Wikipedia. There’s a whole explanation, and video, on the original post over on my SaltShaker blog. I had good intentions, as it was just sort of a nice break from only writing about food and wine, but in the end, it only lasted for six posts, and then just passed into oblivion.

That has happened on and off again with writing ideas, like my thought two years ago to start a series of commentaries here on political stuff… which lasted exactly one post (the fallout from various friends after sharing it was just more wearying than it was worth). But I’m feeling in the need of a diversion again – this may only last a post or two, we shall see. I decided rather than picking up from the last post in the original game, to give Wikipedia another shot with a “random article” pick, and see where it led my thoughts.

So, the page it led me to this time was that of Dizoniopsis coppolae, a type of marine sea snail found in the Mediterranean (pictured above… very pretty, no?). Now, I could go on for a bit with various bits and pieces about sea snails, I have no doubt. And maybe even a recipe or two, which would probably be best suited back on the other blog, but I thought instead, I would head down the rabbit hole (the sea snail hole?) of the who, related to this snail. As the Wikipedia page notes, this snail was first described by “Aradas, 1870”. A bit of research leads me to one Andrea Aradas, of Catania, Sicily.

Sr. Aradas was a Sicilian zoologist, who had started out as a medical doctor, something his father, Fernando, pushed him into. I have no doubt that their were family squabbles aplenty when young Andrea headed down the path of researching and teaching about mollusks rather than staying the course of medicine. In the end, however, he was rather important in his field… Malacology… which we’ll come back to in a moment, having discovered and/or described numerous species over the years, amassing a huge collection of both live and dead specimens, along with a lot of research into prehistoric echinoderms, and in the end, creating Sicily’s first science museum, the Zoology Museum at the University of Catania, which still exists to this day, and donating his personal collection to the museum.

Now, most of you know I love words, and so, seeing a word I didn’t know, I immediately headed there. Malacology is a branch of invertebrate (no spine) zoology specializing in the study of mollusks. I had no idea that mollusks have the second most number of species that have been discovered of any phylum of animals, after arthropods (insects, which doesn’t surprise me as coming first). Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams (and presumably other bivalves), octopuses and squids. Those who study malacology are, not shockingly, called malacologists. I also learned that there’s a second term, not to be confused, which is Conchology (and, by connection, conchologists), which is the study of the shells of these same mollusks, but not the creatures themselves.

And that, was kind of where my random wanderings took me. I’m sure I could go on and keep going within this arena, but I will pick that up on the next installment, assuming there is one. Instead, I wanted to circle back to Andrea Aradas, who in addition to the dozens upon dozens of mollusks he first described, also has the distinction of having gotten to name, or had named after him, six particular species of mollusk. And since we started off with a pretty picture of shells, I thought it only fitting to finish off with those half dozen, as best I could figure out from online photos (and yes, I “lifted” these photos from various places on the internet)….

Aradasia Gray, 1850, today reclassified as Coralliophila inflata

Atrina aradasii, 1851, aka Pinna aradasii, though now reclassified as Atrina fragilis

Cernuella aradasii, 1842

Limopsis aradasii, 1842 – fossil remains

Murex aradasii, 1883

Pectunculus aradasii, 1842, which, I think, is this one, though hard to find, and appears to have been reclassified as Glycymeris violacescens

Whither goest this game next?

Flotsam, jetsam, lagan, and derelict

Biography, Italy, Photos, School, Science

The Book Stack #1

Dan P.Sunday, December 27, 20150

A selection out of what I’ve been reading recently. They don’t really need an introduction.

I like Charles Pierce’s writing, and he often hits the nail on the head. This book, Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free, is no exception. For the most part, he just lays it out there and shows just how idiotic many things in our country have become. Do I always agree with him? No. But it’s always thought provoking. Does he always make his case? No. He does against the “easy” targets, where he can just point out flaws that probably any thinking person would immediately see. But when it comes to making fun of, which is really what the book is, targets where there are philosophical, moral, ethical, even intellectual debate (particularly with arenas that broach into the world of religious faith), he points, but doesn’t provide the backup evidence, making the assumption that anyone reading his book is of like mind with him, and will simply agree that whatever he’s pointed to is worthy of mockery. For those of us who struggle at times with reconciling science, logic, and faith into a composite whole, those chapters come across a bit smarmy. Still, a recommended read, just to get the mental cogs turning.

Secretly, I grew up kind of wanting to be Alexander Mundy. He was the cat burglar turned spy-thief for the Secret Intelligence Agency of the US government in the late 60s television series It Takes a Thief. The show was inspired by the Hitchcock film To Catch a Thief (1955) starring Cary Grant, and on the flipside, while not acknowledged, is probably in the background of things like the late 2000s show White Collar, and certainly has some influences from the life of Frank Abagnale, whose life then went on to inspire the Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can. All that aside, I had visions of being a cat burglar, when I wasn’t entertaining visions of being a forest ranger or FBI agent. How things change as we grow up. I’ve always maintained a fascination with the news of jewel and art thieves, and while now there’s simply no likelihood of taking either up as a profession, I enjoy reading about the heists. Still one of, if not the largest, diamond theft in history, the story in Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History is a reasonably in-depth analysis of the most likely scenario for how the theft went down. Some of it is clearly speculative, especially attributions of motivations and thought processes lent to the main actor, Leonardo Notarbartolo (after whom I’ve named a Pandaren rogue in World of Warcraft, for those into that sort of thing). And some of it is pieced together from what evidence and testimony was available to the authors, Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell. It’s clearly well researched and very well written. If I have any quibble with the book is that the ending is an awfully quick wrap-up – akin to the sort of thing one sees at the end of a competition show, where the eliminated contestant’s picture is shown for a moment along with a caption of “John Smith is happy back with his family and thinking about what to do next.” One wants to know, “Where are they now? What are they up to?” Well worth a read.

A few months back, Buzzfeed published a list of what they considered the 51 Best Fantasy Series ever written. Now, there’s nothing that says that anyone at Buzzfeed is an expert on the topic, nor that the choice of 51 (why 51?) series was a good one, but I was casting about for somethings interesting to read and thought I’d start in on the list. I quickly read through the first couple of series, I’m not going to go back and review them now as my memory is already getting hazy on them, but I highly recommend all of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Kingkiller Chronicles, Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive, and Brent Weeks’ The Lightbringer series, particularly the first, which was one of the best fantasy series I’ve ever read, though the next two series are almost as good. All captured my attention and engaged me, and I was glad to have discovered them via the list. I skipped over A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin (the books behind Game of Thrones) and Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, simply because I’ve read them in the past. And I’m going to skip the 41 novels of the Discworld saga from Pratchett, because I’ve given them a try, and after 1½ of them, read a year or two ago, I just gave up on them as simply not my cup of weak tea.

Now, to this series, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, including three novels, The Golden Compass (aka Northern Lights), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. It feels a bit more like a teen read than an adult fantasy read. Some of that is simply the characters, the primary ones being children in their early teens. But more of it is that it’s written in a borderline puerile style. I found that although I enjoyed them, I wasn’t particularly engaged by them. There’s a lot of railing against what is an awfully thinly veiled Catholic church, and of a government influenced by religious leaders, clearly the author isn’t a fan of either. There’s a lot of moralizing, but it’s very superficial. And in the end, the ostensible resolution is pretty insipid. The first volume has been turned into a movie of the same name, and albeit also pretty kid-oriented and “Hollywood”, is actually better than the book, a rarity in my experience. While not bad reads, there are certainly other books in the genre more worth putting your time into, as noted above.

Books (Reviews)

Books, Fantasy, History, Politics

Street Food Buenos Aires

Dan P.Thursday, May 8, 20080

What’s Up Buenos Aires
NEWS
May 8, 2008

Street Food Buenos Aires

One of the first things that gastro-tourists notice about Buenos Aires, after they’re done rushing in for their requisite platters of massive steaks, is the lack of street food. Most major cities have vendors who wander the streets with small carts, or park their wagons in strategic locales, selling everything from local specialties to a cornucopia of ethnic imports.

When I first arrived in BA, I came to the conclusion that locals simply don’t like to eat standing up, nor grab something quick to take back to the office. And it is true that lunch is a more leisurely affair here than in many world capitals, with business back-burnered or perhaps discussed over a bottle or two of wine. But, there is fast food, and its not just eaten by adolescents, and there are spots where standing to eat is commonplace.

One of the issues, I suppose, is the narrowness of the streets in the central business district. There’s simply nowhere for a cart to be that would be safe for anyone involved. But parks are a good bet, and there is more green space in Buenos Aires than almost any other major city in the world. Often, admittedly, these offer a very limited selection of items – hotdogs or hamburgers, perhaps a milanesa (breaded cutlet) sandwich. Caramelized nuts are popular snacks. But that’s not lunch.

There are spots in the more working class neighborhoods, and the one that most visitors see is San Telmo, where, while not cart-based, there are little hole-in-the-wall parrillas, or grills, dotted throughout the zone. These spots are little more than a standup lunch counter, where workers on a quick break cram in to grab a choripan (sausage sandwich), a vacipan (flank steak sandwich) at any of a dozen spots, or huge slice of pizza and BA’s classic fainá (chickpea bread) layered atop at a traditional joint like Pirilo, along Defensa Street.

But the best spots for street food are the two Costaneras, or boardwalks. It’s a misnomer, as there are no boards, these are wide concrete walkways that border two stretches of the city limits. The Costanera Norte, at least the portion with street food, runs alongside the domestic airport, looking out on the river. Here, a dozen or more relatively permanent wagons offer up a range of parrilla options – from sandwiches to small plates, and covering different types of sausages – chorizo, morcilla, salchicha parrillera, as well as various cuts of meat, both beef and pork. Some few even offer up classic achurros, or innards, though generally seem to be momentarily out of them when you ask.

Join in with the cabbies, cops and service workers munching away for a quick lunch along the river. You could do a lot worse than simply starting at the eastern end with Parrilla Oriente and having yourself a bondiola con limón, or start at the other end, by the airport entrance, with a churrasquito, a thin cut of grilled beef, at El Tano Criollo. Each spot offers up its own array of condiments, from classic chimichurri and salsa criolla to interesting spicy combinations like onions and chilies.

The true hotspot for street food, however, is the Costanera Sur, located on the far side of Puerto Madero Este, running its entire length along the canal and ecological reserve. On weekdays the selection is much the same as that of its northern counterpart, though with a few more options (the occasional lamb or chicken offering) – but on weekends is when it really shines. Then, the ubiquitous parrilla wagons are joined by smaller temporary carts that serve up a variety of food from the northern regions of the country – everything from locro (corn, squash, beef, and sausage stew) to fried breads impregnated with bits of chicharron (pork cracklings). Too, in fitting with the porteño sweet tooth, there is sudden influx of dessert stands, many of them overflowing with dozens of different varieties of tarts, tortes, and other sweets, a full range of coffee options, and lines that extend down the walkway. This is a place where families come to enjoy the open air, eat a little, watch one or another street performer, and maybe take a walk through the reserve. But for the dedicated street food fanatic, it’s just one long banquet table.

Dan Perlman is a former New York based chef, sommelier, food and wine writer who now lives in Buenos Aires. For more of his scribblings on food, wine, and restaurants visit his blog at www.saltshaker.net

Thanks to Fall 08 intern Christine for sampling so much yummy street food with us.

Online Publications, What's Up Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, Restaurants, Street food

Supper Club, The Book

Dan P.Tuesday, June 14, 20110

“Oh, did I tell you I have a cookbook? I have a cookbook deal.”

– Ted Allen, writer and food show host

Did I ever tell you the story of how I was almost Ted Allen? No, I know I didn’t, though once before I promised to. So here’s the story. I was living and working in NYC, as a sommelier at the time, with a small catering business on the side, plus occasionally running these Second Sunday Supper Club dinners I’ve been going on about recently. I also had this hobby. Standup comedy. I know, it’s a strange hobby, right? But there it was. And I was actually pretty good at it – performed a couple of times a month around the city, did some events, even thought about it as a possible career – well, actually more, I thought about comedy writing as a career, the lifestyle and demands of being a comic just weren’t what I was into – but, I love food and wine too much, so, back to the restaurants with me.

Anyway, I got a call from a friend who’d seen me perform, knew I worked in the food industry, and that he was with a team casting a part for a new reality TV series for Bravo where they were going to do makeovers of straight guys’ lives, did I want to audition? I thought it would be fun and showed up on the appointed day and auditioned for a group of a few folk sitting around, there were a bunch of us… and then they asked me to wait a little while while they went through some other auditions. Then they called me back up and asked me to, and I remember this vividly, do an on camera audition “as gay as you can possibly be and selling us on White Zinfandel”. Afterwards, I got a call from the guy who’d called me in the first place, who said, “Look, we like you and we really need someone who knows something about food, but it was down to you and this other guy, and you’re just not gay enough!” So Ted, if you’re ever sitting at a table in my restaurant, wherever it may be… well let’s just say, you might want to bring a food-taster with you. Maybe Carson. Not gay enough. Bah!

Supper Club by Kerstin Rodgers So Ted Allen has a cookbook too now, damnit. Oh, and so does Kerstin Rodgers. Better known to the world at large as Ms Marmite Lover through both her blog, The English Can Cook and her supper club as they’re styled in Jolly Old England, The Underground Restaurant. I knew the book was coming out – it came out at the end of April, I got my copy a couple of weeks ago when it arrived with a lovely thank you note from Kerstin – as quite awhile back she’d contacted me to tell me she was writing a book about the whole phenomenon of supper clubs and wondered if I’d contribute a typical Argentine meat recipe. Not something I cook here at Casa S, as I told her, but it was what she wanted, so my version of locro is enshrined in her pages.

So on to the book itself. First, it’s a weighty tome, coming in at an even 3 pounds in hardcover. Love the actual cover, not so keen on the dust jacket which seems to have been designed by someone else entirely (none of which was likely in her hands). It’s cutely illustrated with line drawings throughout, the few pages of photography are a little grainy, but show a glimpse into the behind the scenes of the subject matter – it’s subtitled “Recipes and Notes from The Underground Restaurant” – and, it turns out to be pretty much that – not so much about the phenomenon, but more directly her own place. There’s certainly mention of other places, she doesn’t short shrift anyone, but in the end, there is a focal point. And that doesn’t surprise me in the least, Kerstin has been a tireless promoter not only of the whole scene in the UK, but in particular of her own spot, and she’s quite good at it with ning groups, newspaper articles, radio and television interviews, speeches, council meetings, and anyplace else one might pop up. I wish I had 10% the marketing skill that she does. Sometimes I wish she did too. That’s not personal against her, it’s just usually when a visitor from across the pond is extolling her place and telling me how I should be grateful to her for the mere fact that I’m allowed to exist.

The book is a fun read, and the text portion, The Notes, that take up the first 80 pages of 300-some, are written in style that’s basically like reading her blog or having a chat with her over tea. It’s in a casual vernacular, filled with references and slang that for a non-Brit sometimes take a moment to register. She covers everything from how she got started, to bits about her childhood, to her thoughts and recommendations on how to start your own. For that alone, it’s worth a read, even if I’d have given different advice here and there – but then, it’s all a matter of opinion and location – hers is based on the view that people open supper clubs because they’re primarily anarchists or anti-establishment, which may be true in London, but isn’t necessarily so elsewhere, like here for example. The book moves on to the recipes, laid out nicely and each with a little intro. They’re easy to read, easy to follow – I haven’t tried any of them out, but reading through them, they make sense and I think would to the average home cook. And much of the food is just for that purpose, it’s food that someone with a good basic kitchen skill set could jump in and reproduce, and uses, for the most part, ingredients that are probably found in many a pantry.

Now, if Kerstin will permit me, not that she has any choice, I’m going to poke a little fun. Not negatives, just some momentary amusements on my part….

She talks here and there about the whole anarchy of the movement and sticking it to the man and that sort of stuff. Which, to me anyway, contrasts with all the public appearances with corporate media, a book publishing gig, and, the one thing that I noted in more than a fair share of recipes, the reliance on tinned and boxed ingredients. Likewise, Kerstin is a vegetarian, well, pescetarian, but has offered up a section of red meat recipes – not of her own, this is where some of the rest of us in the supper club world came into play, but I found myself wondering why – why not take that stand if that’s what you believe in? (Assuming an ethical basis for her pescetarian-ism, which of course, may not be her reason at all.)

Having spent a good portion of my life writing and editing, proofreading mistakes tend to glare at me (in other people’s writings, for some reason they never stand out in my own when I proofread, so there you have it). The two that stand out in my mind this morning are “course salt” and “chilies en adobe” – the latter striking me with a giggle when I read it and having conjured up an image of popping the lid off a can of plaster to find spicy little vegetables mucking about in the white goo. It’s “adobo”, a tomato, garlic, onion and herb sauce that chilies, more often I would assert, come in. Likely, that was a program spell checker auto-correction that just wasn’t caught.

Blackening. It’s a process of cooking that comes to us from the Cajun cooking world. And, it doesn’t involve coating fish in spices and then baking it in the oven or frying it in oil. Really. If you’ve ever seen it done or done it, you know how it gets its name – the spice rub is fine, but the process is to have a cast iron skillet heated pretty much to glowing hot (when I worked at the Sazerac House we used to put a skillet on a flame when we got in first thing in the morning and it would be “ready to use” by lunchtime) into which you place the fish (or chicken or meat) without any oil or other fat, just dry, for long enough to char the herbs and spices, i.e., blacken them, and it was hot enough to cook the meat through at the same time.

And the last note was on her nod to Latin American traditions of closed door restaurants. Despite our having had a conversation about it, she stuck with the party line that she’d come into the conversation with, that it all started in Cuba in response to government restrictions and the American embargo (more anarchist rhetoric, I guess) with the paladar movement, and that it was a response to economics, as it has been recently in the UK. Sorry, but just not the case. First, puertas cerradas (as they’re called everywhere else in Central and South America except Cuba, where the name is based on a soap opera that was popular in the mid-1980s) have existed in Latin America stretching back as far as I’ve been able to research it – they’re just part of the culture, not economic (which is not to say there aren’t economic factors, it’s just not the driving force historically). There are places here in BA that have been open 30 and 40 years and I know of some in Lima and Mexico City that have been open as long. The paladar movement in Cuba didn’t really come into being until 1988, and was not in response to either restrictions or embargo (which began 28 years earlier in 1960), but to the start of the reversal of some of that – it was when the Cuban government made, more or less, a peace offering to its struggling populace and passed a law that allowed for paladares to open as long as they met a set of rules (limited to 12 seats, no advertising, and limited to certain dishes served, among other things). There’s a really well written history here. Paladares may not be state-run restaurants, but they’re not underground either, they’re very heavily regulated.

So that’s the book. Overall worth the investment for a combination of the interest factor, and being the first onto the shelves of what will no doubt be a slew of supper club cookbooks (hey, I’ve been working on one for over two years, but after losing the publisher who initially contracted for it, it just hasn’t been my focus). The recipes look like fun, and there are plenty of them, and like ones that any good home cook could tackle with aplomb and produce good results.

Books (Reviews)

cookbooks

Building a Relationship with the Kitchen

Dan P.Tuesday, March 5, 20020

Santé
The Magazine for Restaurant Professionals
March/April 2002
Page 28

FROM THE CELLAR
Building a Relationship with the Kitchen

The “front-of-house” and “back-of-house” staff are in the restaurant business for different reasons. In general, cooks put in longer hours for less pay than waitstaff and managers. Their rewards are enjoying the pleasures of the creative process and knowing that they put out a quality product. Waiters and managers get paid for delivering it to and interacting with the public.

While most chefs I have worked with have an interest in wine, they have neither the time nor inclination to invest in wine education for themselves or their staff. They argue that there is more than enough to learn within their own sphere of ingredients, techniques, and frequently changing menus.

AN OPEN INVITATION

So how does a beverage director gain the needed support of the kitchen in putting together a winning program? In a word, inclusion. “I just wanted to be asked” is a phrase I have heard over and over again in my restaurant career. When I was a chef, I used to say it, too!

To begin the interaction, start with the basics. Every day quality restaurants have a lineup with the front-of-house staff. For me, part of that time is spent discussing a topic related to the beverage program – a review of the house spirits, or a comparison tasting or a sampling of new wines. The kitchen staff are always welcome to attend. Do they? Rarely. But they know they can; they’ve been asked.

We have a monthly wine class that is mandatory for front-of-house employees. On occasion we stay late at night to taste sample bottles. I try to arrange those events at a time when the back-of-house staff can attend as well. Some of them do. All of them can. They’ve been asked.

When I open wine, or when my staff opens wine, I expect us all to taste it. My view is that the customer should never get a taste of a bad wine; it is our job, not theirs, to weed out inferior products. And if I come across something interesting, or if the customer offers to share a little with me, I always take the glass back to the kitchen and share it with whomever is expediting – the chef, a sous chef, or sometimes a line cook. They love it. Who doesn’t love to be included?

POSITIVE INTERACTION

How does this time and effort with the kitchen evolve into something worthwhile for me? For the restaurant? For our customers? A restaurant’s success comes down to taking care of its customers. Sometimes the people who don’t get to spend the shift with those customers forget that central mission. Rather than haranguing them, try enrolling them. Use enticement, use creativity. Open your mouth and ask for their active participation.

Here’s an example: Our chef puts together a daily tasting menu. I match wines with each course. At least once a week, I ask her if there’s a wine she’d like to see with one of her courses. I used to get no response. Now I get requests! As I wrote this, she just came to me and asked if I’d be willing to put together a wine tasting menu for Valentine’s Day.

Two years ago at a management meeting, I suggested that we put together a series of wine dinners. The kitchen responded that it was “too much work”. Having been a chef, I knew that wasn’t true; rather, the kitchen just wasn’t interested. At a management meeting a few weeks ago, our group owner asked why we hadn’t had any wine dinners. Hesitantly I turned to our chef. She asked if I’d like her to collaborate on planning menus with me and how I would like to approach them!

At lineup, I ask the floor staff to talk about their dining experiences at other restaurants. In addition to service and food, they talk about favorite wines. Sometimes one of them finds a wine that they’re excited about and wish we hadon our list. I’ll get a sample and we’ll try it. While the cooks may not come to our meetings, they now poke their heads into the office to suggest wines that they’ve tried at other restaurants too.

Let’s face it, if you spend a large amount of your time battling over territory, resources and procedures with your chef, you’re both wasting time. If you can forge a great working relationship where you can both contribute to each other’s creativity, think of what you might accomplish. And all it takes to start is to ask.

Santé is a glossy format trade magazine for restaurant wine buyers and educators. I wrote as a freelancer for them on and off from the first issue in November 1996 until November 2002 when they decided to stop using freelance writers.

Magazine articles, Santé

Management, Restaurants, Wine