December 2014 – Page 2 – Food & Pixels

Park Ave Winter

After closing for renovation at the end of 2013, the seasonal themed Park Avenue restaurant had relocated from its Upper East location to Park Ave South, near Madison Square Park. Its décor and menu will still be changing seasonally. On a warm December Sunday, we head to the new Park Ave Winter for Brunch ($32/pp). The winter décor was white, bright and elegant.
Spacious dining room with tall ceiling was divided into two levels. On one side, huge windows let in plenty of light; the other was furnished with cozy booths. Dry tree branches hanging upside down, with the white/clear globe lights hanging, it feels like a winter wonderland with snowflakes slowly falling.
To start, I had a “Winter Citruscello Bellini” from the blend your own bellini selection. It is refreshing, sweet with some sort of seed floating with the bubbles. It is eyes pleasing and unique.

Cinnamon rolls came in a little cast-iron pan, warm, fluffy and soft. I normally steer away from the frosting. The word frosting to me indicates it would be too sweet, too artificially sweet with a lot of sugar. But this cream cheese frosting was light, and the sweetness was just about right. The portions of our appetizers were very generous. It could have been an entrée portion at some other places, especially for pre fixed brunch. The salmon bucatini was creamy, wasabi caviar was clearly for decoration, and it did add an extra texture. I also really appreciate the crunchiness of bread crumb in contrast to the pasta and soft salmon.

Steak hash was surprisingly light and crispy. My partner in crime felt there was a bit too much bell pepper. My sunny side egg with polenta (French for risotto) was heartwarming and delicious, although I would like a little more mushrooms in it.
Dessert was not part of the pre fixe, it was on the house (THANK YOU!!!:)). “Winter White” looked just as it’s named. Big scoop of homemade vanilla ice-cream in a sundae glass, topped with popcorn and a white mocha sauce poured over it. Although it sounded sweet with the white mocha sauce, it wasn’t overwhelming, and was absolutely delightful. The salty popcorn gave it a crunchy contrast and perfect balance.

However, my biggest surprise coconut cake at the very bottom of the sundae. It was a hidden gem, you won’t get to it till the very end. In Chinese, there is a saying “Treasures always sink to the very bottom”, and this is the perfect example. The only suggestion I have was may be add another thin layer of coconut cake in the middle of the ice-cream? since I love it so much. All in all, this brunch was of great value. Great place to spent a Sunday morning/afternoon. Great selections, and just overall good fool.
Park Ave was awarded with a Michelin Star before it closed in 2013, hopefully it won’t be long before it regains its star. (Dec, 2014)

Park Ave Winter slideshow–

New York Sushi Ko

Since Former 15 East alumni Chef John Daley opened Ko in LES, it has been a tough to get into place. The eleven-seat restaurant with only the sushi bar and a small table, Chef Daley do it all by himself. There’s only one other waiter/ server/ host as staff. On a rainy, windy, late September evening, we arrived early for our reservation, but was turned away by the host.
“We’re not open yet” he said.
“Can we come in and get a drink first?” we asked politely.
“You can get a drink at the bar down the street” he replied.
Had it not been their long waiting list for reservation or the $75/pp cancellation policy, I might have walked away.
Both Chef and waiter were attentive, but seemed unfriendly. Perhaps offended by my camera (no flash, I promised), during the 2+ hours meal, both of them have managed not to crack a smile. We had the more expensive $190 full Omakase oppose to the “a little less, still expensive” Sushi Mono. As we approached the sushi part of our dinner, Chef Daley asked to have my camera put away. Something about “food are meant to be enjoy, not photograph…” I honestly don’t remember his exact words, but that was a first. May be Ko would like to adopt Corton’s practice and put their policy on their website?

After the sashmi and the cooked dishes, we had 11 pieces of sushi: Kanpachi, Shima Aji belly, Aji, Saba, smoked Attic Char, Kimedai, Botan Ebi from canada with smoked sea salt, baby sweet shrimp from Japan, Uni from California, Chu Toro from Boston, and Otoro from Boston blue fin. Notice, aside from uni and ebi, all pieces are fish, no shellfish.
Overall, I’d say the sashmi was better than sushi piece. The sushi rice was missing something, the balance was off, and it was falling apart as we picked it up. Yasuda said “rice is the most important part of sushi”, as my dinner coming to an end at Ko, I truly understand the meaning of those words. (Sep, 2014)

ZZ’s Clam Bar

Located in NOHO, right next to Carbone, behind a dark door is a cozy bar/ restaurant that only host 12 seats. If you didn’t look closely, you could walk right passed it and not realize there is a restaurant there. Other than the bouncer outside, the tiny little blue neon sign “ZZ’s” on the window, is the only indication of the place. Why would a restaurant need a bouncer you might think, but once we settled down into the room, we totally understand the need.
The small dimmed-lite room is a treasure box with lots of gems. There is a glamorous antique chandelier hanging atop; antique looking chairs pairing with marble top table. During the course of dinner, we were also told every pieces of silverwares and dinning wares are antique. The bar is equipped with a ice tub countertop. With all the bottles on the shelves and unnamed bottle of odd shapes and height tuck in the ice tub, it looks like a treasure island itself. But of course, guarded by the genius mixologist.
Everything on the cocktail menu are so temping, but at $20 a pop, we only each ordered one cocktail. We both agreed we’d have to come back, even just for drinks, and that we would sample everything on that cocktail menu.

We had heard that dishes are small bite size, and that the beef carpaccio is a whopping $105, so we have to choose wisely. The uni toast each have 5-6 thick, sweet, rich, deliciousness on it; sprinkled with chopped garlic and chives. However, the garlic was a bit too much for my taste.

Lobster ceviche came on top a huge bowl of ice. Lobster was soaking in a coconut bath with slices of avocado. A perfect balance of fresh and creamy richness. The jalapeño gave it an extra little kick.

Beef, uni carpaccio with lobster and caviar

The beef carpaccio by itself could be a little salty, but when it paired together with the sea urchin’s sweetness, the lobster’s fresh and crunchiness, and atop the airy crispy toast, it is a little piece of heaven. Oh, we found bits of clams on it as well. Bonus!!! Although it did came with a very, very steep price tag, it was worth every penny of it.
The cocktail, beef carpaccio are on top of our list to come back for. And next time, we will definitely try the tuna carpaccio with foie gras. (Dec, 2014)

Neta

Neta

Masa, the only 3 Michelin Stars sushi restaurant in New York, aka the most expensive restaurant in NY. Unless one is willing to pay a (at least) minimum $500/pp entry fee, one had no chance to set foot in this high court of sushi. We, of course, like many others, are still waiting/saving for that special occasion. Fortunately, Neta opened in the village, operated by a pair of Masa vets: Chef Nik Kim was the head chef at Masa for 10 years and Chef Jimmy Lau was the head Chef of Bar Masa, As soon as we heard that, we couldn’t wait to try it out.

Dark wood trims, pale white curtains, from the outside it is hard to tell that it is a sushi bar; it seems more like a modern French bistro. Behind the doors is a somewhat narrow space. Other than a few tables on the side, is a long maple wood counter that sits 20. The open concept kitchen took up most of the space. It has stove stations by the wall, prep stations in the middle, and sushi bar in the front. Chef Kim and Lau orchestrated in the front, with 5-8 all white wearing cooks prepping in the back. We grabbed the bar seats in front of Chef Kim. From where we sat, we full view of everything that was going on in the kitchen. We could see the cooks prepping our scallop-uni dishes, and Chef Kim carefully inspecting a giant slab of fish that was just brought in. We really enjoyed our view, our eyes were eating the dishes reach our table! There are two Omakase options available ($95 and $135), and there is also an a-la-carte menu. In hope to get the best experience, we went for the more $$$ one.

Dungeness Crab Salad

Sawara Sashimi Salad

Grilled Scallop

Softshell Crab Karage

Chopped salmon with Sichuan peppercorn oil

O-Toro

Sawara

Kanpachi

Sake

Suji

Softshell Carb Karage

Uni Porridge

Unagi roll

Plum Granite with fried duck skin

The signature, Bluefin-rich Neta roll

Ume Shiso

Butternut milk ice-cream

Neta was very well worth the hype. It met our expectations in many levels. The uni risotto was just to die for. Everything was creative, delicious, and beautifully arranged. However, I do wish to have a little more varieties since there were 2 karage and 2 sawara, not that they were bad. i also think it was a little odd that we had granite before the neta roll, as if the rhythm was broken off a little, not sure if that was intentional. For $135 a person, this is a great value alternative to Masa. Not long after our visit, we learned that Neta has earned 2 Michelin stars. Congrats Chef Kim and Chef Lau! (June, 2012)

note: We went to Neta back in June, 2012. Since then, both Chef Nik Kim and Jimmy Lau have left Neta together. The place is now manned by a former Per Se vet, and we have yet been back. Also, since Chef Kim and Chef Lau’s departure, Neta has lost its 2 Michelin stars.

Month: <span>December 2014</span>

Park Ave Winter

New York Sushi Ko

ZZ’s Clam Bar

Neta