A nice spring mash-up

My brother once called me a great "last day before vacation" cook - meaning I can take whatever happens to be in the fridge and make a meal out of it.  This remark was in response to a meal that my 18-year-old self had made from the contents of his 23-year-old summer sublet bachelor pad fridge.  I can't remember what that meal was, other than I know it included a leftover Hamburger Helper flavor packet. These days my leftover fridge ingredients tend to be higher quality than Hamburger Helper, but I still like to think of myself as pretty good at improvising.  So faced with a new week's re-up of CSA farm share vegetables, I was trying hard to use up our greens, and came up with a surprisingly yummy lunch yesterday. 

I had some garlic scapes and leeks sauteed in butter which were left over that I hadn't put into last night's risotto.  I added this into swiss chard sauteed with pancetta and added some broth to help it cook faster and give it some liquid.  Then tossed in fresh Korean noodles -- these are great jia-jyung-myun-style round wheat noodles that have a great toothsome bite.  And the final ingredient -- the one that really pulled it all together -- was a chopped salted preserved duck egg, homemade by my mom's friend.  I've never made salted eggs, but whatever the Chinese do to preserve it not only infuses a salty flavor throughout the egg, but also does something to the texture.  The egg, including the white, gets a dense grainy creaminess -- almost like a blue cheese.  And that's exactly the kind of thing it added to the noodles -- coating everything with an extra dose of flavor and texture.  It was so good, Redneckhunter even liked it, despite all the green things!

Happy Hour at PING, Portland, Oregon

On my first day in Portland, Matt and I went to happy hour at PING, a restaurant featuring a blend of Asian snacks and bar food.
I started with a glass of yuzu beer, a drink consisting of Sapporo draft beer with yuzu extract & sugar. It reminded me of a shandy- very light and refreshing.
At Ping, they also have drinking vinegars made from their sister restaurant Pok Pok. I tried a the tart tamarind vinegar with soda. It was also excellent.








We ordered some snacks to tide us over until dinner time.
First up was a Chinese tea egg, a hard boiled egg made in black tea, soy sauce, ginger, star anise and cinnamon. It was a straightforward and faithful version of this snack.

My favorite item was the baby octopus skewer. They were marinated in lime, chilies, garlic, fish sauce, and cilantro. The flavor was a fantastic mix of sour, spicy, and savory.

On special that day, they offered duck liver skewers. They came with a spicy dipping sauce.

I finished off with ju pa bao, a dish from Macau, that was simply a fried pork chop seasoned with salt, pepper & garlic served in a bun that's similar to a torta. It was simple and tasty.





102 Northwest 4th Avenue
Portland, OR
(503)229-7464

Ma Peche, NYC

Ma Peche is the newest soon-to-be-open addition to the Momofuku empire, their first foray into Midtown. Prior to its officially opening in the Chambers Hotel on 56th Street, they started serving a limited lunch menu in the hotel mezzanine lounge. So on our last "pretending to be ladies who lunch" day, petiteseour, another friend, and I decided to check it out and take advantage of the $10 lunch specials before the real restaurant prices hit.

The space was lovely, albeit without real tables and chairs. And by 12:20, the place was already full. After a short wait, we ended up on a loveseat and ottoman eating off of wooden box-cocktail tables.

Being all slightly under the weather, we had to rethink our usual practice of sharing all of our food. We all wanted to try the Hue-style chicken soup, but didn't think we could each eat an entire bowl. The waiter gave us a bit of a hard time about this, but after we explained that we were each going to order a lunch special on top of this, he acquiesced.

This was just the start of an all-around difficult service situation. When the soup did arrive, it came in one bowl (the ingredients in one bowl -pictured left, with broth to be poured on top). We had to re-explain why we couldn't all eat from the same bowl, then had to wait for them to come back with smaller bowls, all while our soup sat and cooled. Then there was also the bottle of water that was never delivered to petiteseour, and other general inattentiveness and forgetfulness.

For our main lunch specials, we tried the rice noodles with pork ragout, greens, and crispy shallots, and the terrine banh mi (both pictured above). The banh mi was terrific - the terrine was flavorful, the bread crusty, and the pickles fresh.

The final nail in the coffin on the service was ordering coffee at the end. They served French press coffee for $7. Faced with the decision of getting $7 coffee or going out in the cold to go somewhere else, we figured, well, we'll split a pot between us. Even though we asked for 1 pot of French press, they came back with 1 double press, and 1 single press. It was more coffee than we could drink, and we were charged $21. The way we saw it, our waiter could have explained the sizes, and suggested that maybe a pot for 2 could be split by the 3 of us.

So hopefully they'll figure out the service in the official restaurant. Our waiter was only saved from being stiffed too badly on tip due to his being quite cute, our friend's sympathy having worked as a waitress herself, our having sat and chatted at lunch for over 2 1/2 hours, and not wanting to be perceived as typically thoughtless "ladies who lunch." We all agreed it ended up being a pleasant lunch, a nice spot for our little girls reunion, but if we had all be coming from jobs to meet up for a Midtown lunch, we would have really gotten pissed.

Ma Peche
Mezzanine at the Chambers Hotel
15 West 56th Street, New York NY 10019
(b/n Fifth and Sixth Avenues)

Spot Dessert Bar, NYC

Petiteseour and I decided to save room for dessert by basically making it dinner. Armed with a Daily Candy deal of two-for-one desserts, we hit the newly opened Spot Dessert Bar within days of its opening. Well-pedigreed pastry chef and owner Pinchet Ong himself was there mixing up cupcake batter, making homemade raspberry drinks, and showing the staff how to plate up beautiful desserts.

Petiteseour had ambitiously thought we should each take advantage of the deal, and get 2 desserts a piece, but I wisely convinced her to go for 2 desserts and 2 cookies.

We chose two of the more Asian-fused creations -- persimmons on fragrant jasmine rice pudding, with passion fruit foam, mascarpone, pistachios, white chocolate shavings, and caramelized tuile crisps; and white miso semifreddo with olive oil cake, macerated raspberries, and crumbly walnut "sand."

The white miso semifreddo was good. If you took a little piece of each element together in one bite, it all worked together. The raspberries were delicious. On the other hand, the persimmon rice pudding was a revelation in flavor with each bite - you tasted something new with each spoonful. We both absolutely LOVED it - I'm craving it as I type this...


Finally we finished with a super thick peanut butter cookie with a nice sprinkle of sea salt on top, and a pretty pink and white frosted green tea shortbread. Petiteseour also grabbed a couple of cookies for the road -- Chinese walnut and ginger oatmeal.

I think this place will definitely earn a spot on our regular girls day rounds.

Spot Dessert Bar
13 St. Marks Place, New York NY 10003
212-677-5670

Nectar, Berwyn PA

We had a girls day around Wayne, PA, and decided to try brunch at Nectar in Berwyn. With decor that looks like Buddakan in the suburbs, it also had a Pan-Asian fusion menu.

We started out with fun fruity drinks. I opted for 2 starters -- lobster sliders and grilled calamari salad with chorizo, parmesan, frisee, arugala, and lemon vinegraitte.

The other girls got a lobster omelette, which came with little potato croquettes (like high end tater tots stuffed with yummy blue cheese); shrimp pad thai; and their version of chi-chi egg foo young.



Nectar
1091 Lancaster Ave. | Berwyn, PA 19312 | 610.725.9000