Szechuan Gourmet (Midtown)

This is the third post in the series A Casual Weekend in New York. Other posts include Frank Pepe's Pizza and Salumeria Rossi Parmacotto.

It's a well known fact that Times Square itself is pretty much a culinary deadzone. As you walk between the huge M&M Store, the loud flashy billboards, and the hoards of people, you glance between your choices:

Should I eat at the Olive Garden, Planet Hollywood, or that huge McDonalds that overlooks the square? 

Choices choices.

It wasn't until years later that I learned that if you just walked a few blocks away from Times Square, there were actually plenty of excellent places at which to dine. Much better choices.

On our last night in New York, we had to make a choice.
We had enjoyed a delightful lunch at one of our favorite Italian eateries. We knew we didn't have much time before our 7PM train back to Boston. Bryan was loathed to eat train food for dinner (do they even sell food on the train?), and he really didn't want to wait until midnight to eat in Boston.

So we had to find something relatively close - a place that wouldn't balk if we walked in with our casual dress and suitcases. After a not-so-brief search online (hey, these things are important!), we found the highly reviewed Szechuan Gourmet right on 39th street, only 5 blocks from Penn Station.

Perfect.

Szechuan Gourmet is not really a hidden secret in New York.  It has a spot on Eater's coveted 38 Essential Restaurants list. The Food Network's show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" also featured Szechuan Gourmet's Crispy Lamb Filet on its show about Chopsticks. Frank Bruni gave this place two stars in his glowing New York Times review back in 2008.

We ordered some of our favorites Sichuan dishes, such as Braised Spicy Fish Filets with Napa Cabbage (literally "water-cooked fish" in Chinese), Ma Po Tofu, Stir Fried String Beans, and Stir Fried Shredded Potato.

Everything was quite good. The Mapo Tofu could have used a bit more Sichuan peppercorns, and the string beans were just at tad greasy. Overall, though, the flavors were decidedly authentic and full of intensity.

My favorite dish was the Stir Fried Shredded Potatoes (thanks to the recommendation from Frank Bruni in his New York Times review), which were delightfully crispy and surprisingly flavorful. They tasted more like a vegetable than a starch. It reminded me of a similar (but also different) dish I like to get in Boston.

Is it the best Sichuan food I've ever had?

Probably not, but then perhaps I'm a bit spoiled.

We have some pretty good Sichuan food here in Boston. In fact, well-known food writer Kenji Lopez-Alt from Serious Eats has even gone so far as to say "Boston's got Sichuan Restaurants that puts even the best in New York to shame, and that includes those in Flushing" (emphasis added). [source]

I haven't eaten at enough places in Boston or New York to make such a strong statement. However, I will say that this restaurant, which is pretty revered as far as New York Sichuan restaurants are concerned,  is at least equal to the best places in Boston.

I'm not complaining. It's awesome that there's such a good place right in Midtown Manhattan. All in all, the food at Szechuan Gourmet is very good. The intense and authentic flavors from their ample use of Sichuan peppercorns was most certainly present. Their general command of flavors is good, and every dish was really quite enjoyable.

Best yet, it was fast, which is great when you're rushing to be on time for that train.

I'm sure I'll be back again . . . suitcase and all.
Szechuan Gourmet
21 W 39th St
New York, NY

Scampo Spring Menu {Snapshot}

This is a {Snapshot} of Scampo. The original, more detailed post can be found here.

Spring is in full force here and many restaurants are rolling out their spring menus. Scampo contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked me whether I wanted to try some of their new spring dishes. I've never really thought of Scampo as the type of place that changes its menu a lot so I was curious how they would incorporate spring ingredients into their current line up.

Mozzarella from the Mozzarella Bar with king crab, cocktail avocado & green mustard oil

We had a HUGE meal! They ended up giving us a nice mix of popular favorites (such as the appetizer shown above which was on the menu when I visited in 2011) as well as a great overview of their spring-focused menu.

I'll start with our favorite dish of the entire evening (from the Mozzarella Bar section of the menu): Mozzarella with Beef Carpaccio  ($20)was fantastic. The carpaccio itself was super soft and flavorful. Bryan was extremely impressed with the excellent al dente texture of the uber-thin angel hair spaghetti, which can so easily be overcooked (and so often is!) due to its size. The spaghetti was delicious, tossed with spring purple garlic and hot red pepper. I loved it.
The Hand Cut Serrated Egg Pappardelle which came with a sauce of chervil, English peas, and pancetta ($14/$24) was rich, buttery, and flavorful but suffered in texture. The fresh pasta was wayyy overcooked - almost melt-in-you-mouth soft. I guess if you like really mushy pasta and don't enjoy chewing, it might not seem so bad. However, we tend to prefer pasta with a nice al dente bite, and thus we were a bit disappointed.

Scampo has a huge brick oven in the center of the restaurant and they cook plenty of cool breads, pizzas, and other items inside. This individual sized pizza (really, almost enough to serve 2 people) was topped with applewood smoked bacon cured in apple cider, smashed plantains, and ricotta cheese. Though unusual, it was actually pretty tasty and reheated nicely the day after as well.
Bryan love duck fat fries (he claims Michael Mina's restaurant in San Francisco offers incredible duck fat fries for free instead of bread!), so he was excited to see these Duck Fat Fries with Truffle Aioli ($9) on the menu. These were nice fries, and you could taste the fresh potato flavor in each stick, not something you necessarily experience in more processed fries. I wished they were a bit crispier, and we felt they were undersalted (easily remedied, of course). The truffle flavor was pretty faint - I'm not sure I really tasted it. I still give a significant edge to my favorite truffle fries on the other side of the river.

This next dish screams spring: Delicate Mushroom Gnocchi with Grilled Lobster Tail and Spring Ramps ($18/$28). The dish was solid - the gnocchi is quite starchy and soft (almost gummy), not my favorite type of texture. The flavors of the dish were nice, though it was tough to share the single, lone grilled ramp on top of the dish. I wished for a few more!Bryan really enjoyed the next entree, Blackened Flatiron Steak ($38) which came with fried polenta sticks and mashed sweet potatoes. The beef was super tender and cooked to a nice medium rare. The sauce was flavorful and overall the dish was quite good.Though this may not be the prettiest dish to look at, the Chilean Sea Bass ($36) surprised us. We had never tried oven-roasted sweet cabbage, but it was really, really good! It reminded us of the way we make Brussels sprouts at home - crispy, light, yet flavorful, just a tad bitter and sweet at the same time. Not surprisingly, the cabbage here is topped with crisped shaved Brussels sprout leaves, which may explain the association.

The fish itself was unusually sweet (almost like there was honey or something on top). It was OK, but I almost wished for a bit more umami to balance it out. The lobster risotto underneath was pretty tasty (though not particularly memorable).  
We were pretty full at this point but we knew we had to try some dessert. This Chocolate Peanut Roulade was excellent. It's made with high quality dark chocolate and filled with a dark chocolate mousse. I found it to be just a tad sweet, but my other friend who loves chocolate desserts thought it was insanely good. I really enjoyed the peanut caramel on the side. The malted vanilla ice cream, though underwhelming on its own as far as ice creams go, worked well with the rest of the components. If you like anything with peanuts and chocolate, you can't go wrong with this dish.
The Lemon Sabayon Tart was already delicious on its own, but the accompaniments really made it shine. It comes with a blackberry Merlot sauce, blueberry ice cream, and a crunchy lime tuile. I loved the blueberry ice cream and had no trouble finishing it.


Thoughts
There's a reason why Lydia Shire is so successful in Boston - her food is very good and her restaurants are well run. Except for maybe the texture of the pappardelle, there were really no misses in the entire meal. We had many dishes that we enjoyed a lot. I would most definitely go back and just taste my way through the mozzarella bar - they are so fun!

The restaurant can get loud on busy evenings (we went on the Thursday right before Memorial Day weekend). They gave us a table a little further away from the bar so it wasn't too bad, but I could imagine wishing the noise level were just a bit lower if I were sitting in a different area.

Overall, though, we are fans of Scampo and have returned on numerous occasions. Bryan likes to take his out of town coworkers there because everyone always loves the food and the restaurant's got a cool history of being inside of a jail.

Disclaimer: Scampo paid for the cost of food. We paid for alcohol and gratuity. All opinions are my own.

80 Thoreau

"After you get off Route 2, run right on Walden Street, and then turn left on Thoreau."

We chuckled a bit as we listened to ourselves talk, but we weren't making this up. These are actual street names in Concord, Massachusetts, a town about 45 minutes north of Boston. In fact, the legendary Walden Pond where Henry David Thoreau penned his famous book Walden is just down the street from our destination.

And yes, it's that Concord - the historic other half of "Lexington and Concord". 

I was in a car with three of my other female friends. We were going out solo - without the husbands - to celebrate my friend Liz's birthday. We wanted to go somewhere special, yet we also had to take into the major consideration that Liz was very very (we're talking close to nine months) pregnant (aka no fancy sushi or grand wine pairings).

Our choices were immediately limited severely by the fact that Liz's birthday just happened to land on the day of Boston University's graduation.

Uh oh. Every single reasonably nice restaurant in Boston was booked solid. A brief search through Opentable gave very unsatisfying results.

Thankfully, Liz decided to go outside the box (and the city) and found us a reservation at 80 Thoreau in Concord. Yes, we would have to drive out a bit, but the reviews for the place were stellar, and Liz had managed to book us the most exclusive and special seats in the house.

Open since April 2011, 80 Thoreau is the brainchild of Ian Calhoun and Vincent Vala, two friends who vowed they would open a restaurant together someday while they were students at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration.

It didn't happen immediately. Ian spent some time in Paris before moving to New York. He finally returned to Massachusetts to study business at Harvard. Vincent spent time in Florida post- graduation before moving to New York to gain experience working with Thomas Keller at Per Se and Tom Colichio at Craft.

Finally, in 2011, they were able to come back to Concord, the historic town where Ian grew up, to open up their first restaurant. They brought on board Chef Carolyn Johnson, who has cooked at many top restaurants in Boston, such as Salamander, Icarus, and more recently, Rialto.

80 Thoreau is located right at the Commuter Rail station in Concord. Even if you don't have a car, you can take the commuter rail almost straight to the restaurant's door steps. 80 Thoreau sits right next to the train station. Some say you can even hear the rumble of trains going by on occasion (we did not hear any during our meal).

Though the restaurant's at the top of these long, menacing stairs, there's a nice elevator around the corner, which Liz was only far too happy to use.

The menu consists of New American dishes inspired by local and seasonal ingredients. Concord is actually near several farms, which allows the restaurant great access to some hyper local produce. Appetizers (or "first courses" as they are called on the menu) range from $8-$14 while entrees hover between $23-$31. There's also a bar and a bar menu, which includes both small "bar bites" ($4-$12) and "bar plates" ($14-$15) which could easily be dinner on a casual weeknight.

You can't tell from the photo, but the ambiance is lively and reasonably relaxed. The space is surprisingly large, with a reasonably sized bar area and two dining rooms.

The best seats in the house, however, are at the chef's counter. There are only four of these exclusive seats in the entire restaurant.

At the chef's counter, you get front row seats to all the action that's happening in the kitchen. It's fascinating to watch how a perfect steak is grilled, what steps are involved in making tempura lemon "confit", and why you need warm hands to form the perfect ice cream canelles.

 I asked our server if there was another kitchen elsewhere, and she said no. You are seeing everything right in front of you (it's immaculate, might I add).

But the best part of the chef's counter is the access to the special Tasting Menu. The Tasting Menu is only offered on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with two seatings a day: one at 5:45, the other at 8:30. That's a maximum of 24 seats a week.

The menu changes weekly, is kept "under wraps" until service, and almost always features current seasonal ingredients created with extra oomphs of creativity. Because of the small amount of diners per week, the chef is able to use more luxurious ingredients and time/labor-intensive techniques to create some pretty unique dishes.

We couldn't wait to get started.

We began with a Pisco Sour amuse. It was bright, full of citrus, just a tad of a sparkle - a perfect way to begin the tasting menu.

Along with the cocktail came another amuse of these baby French Breakfast Radishes, which were smeared with herb-infused butter (sage, rosemary, and thyme).

"The cocktail's not too sweet," said my friend, Christina.

I'm not a huge fan of sweet cocktails in general, and I often find them to be too sweet. I agreed with Christina though, this cocktail was perfectly fine.

Christina and I are kindred spirits in some ways. We both have relatively small appetites and struggle with finishing tasting menus. We lamented about how oftentimes the last course in a tasting menu just doesn't taste good to us. It's not because it's actually a bad dish, it's usually because we are so full we have absolutely no ability to enjoy food by that point.

I told her my typical game plan, developed through the constant tasting menus I've experienced in the past several years:

1) Don't be afraid to start packing leftovers, even if you are only on course 3 of a 5-6 course tasting.
2) Eat slowly.
3) Don't fill up on bread.

Famous last words.

The freshly baked bread (whole grain and light sourdough) soon arrived. We found out it was from Iggy's in Cambridge and it was fantastic. We all especially loved the sweet, nutty wholegrain bread and couldn't get enough of it.

"I totally want to stop by Iggy's in North Cambridge and pick up a loaf of this bread."

Within ten minutes, not a single sliced of wholegrain bread remained on the table.

So much for my game plan.

The first official course, "Chilled Asparagus" came served over asparagus chèvre and topped with microgreens  tossed in a truffle Merlot vinaigrette. Wild flowers from mustard and chives completed the fresh spring look of this dish.

The truffle aroma was intoxicating yet subtle enough that it did not overpower the dish. My friend Liz longed for more mustard flowers, which she felt added a unique grassy and forward element that enriched the rest of the dish beautifully.

"That is the best asparagus dish I've ever had in my life," said Liz.

The next dish was phenomenal, and my personal favorite bite of the evening. The lovely Smoked Scallop Raviolis were handmade and possessed that perfect soft but chewy texture. We couldn't get enough of that incredible scallop and potato filling.

After inquiring a bit more, we learned that the scallops are cured for two days with citrus, salt, sugar, and herbs before being smoked at very low heat over hickory chips for a long time.

We absolutely loved the intense smokiness of the scallops (it was almost like there was bacon in there, even though there was not!), which combined nicely with the potatoes inside the ravioli. The pea puree (and fresh peas!) added a lovely spring touch to the whole bite.

For our third course, we had the Seared Tilefish, which was so soft we could easily cut it with a fork. It was served over sea beans (a legume), a bed of sweet, creamy parsnip puree, and a "tempura confit lemon slice" (which we'd watched them fry earlier right in front of us!).

The flavors of this dish were quite good. We all agreed that the lemon was a necessary component in each bite, mostly for the tart balance that it brought to the dish, but also for the crunch.

The tasting menu was already screaming Spring! yet there was more to come.  Our final course consisted of a Roasted Rabbit Loin that was artfully rolled up with mushroom risotto and ramp leaves with rabbit jus. This was served alongside various springtime components, such as braised morel mushrooms (yum), spring greens tossed with a chardonnay vinaigrette, and a deeply flavorful puree made from fava bean shells (can you believe that?), anise, and cumin. It was wonderfully earthy and even my friend Beata, who hates the taste of licorice, loved the fava bean puree.

The rabbit meat was admitted just a bit on the dry side, but the flavors of the overall dish were excellent. I even brought home some leftovers for Bryan to try (remember the game plan?), and he said the rabbit loin was his favorite course in terms of overall flavor.

For our "pre-dessert", we enjoyed a simple refreshing sorbet of muscat grapes over some cookie crumbs.

I'm a huge fan of olive oil desserts, so it's no surprised that I loved our final course. We had tiny little Olive Oil Rosemary Cakes which were served with extra virgin olive oil ice cream (yum!), olive oil powder, honey comb candy, and orange gel. Pastry chef Katherine Hamilburg, who used to work at Bergamot, is extremely talented and makes exquisite desserts.

I am so inspired to go home and make some olive oil cakes and ice cream. Heck, I might even whip out my molecular gastronomy kit and try to make some olive oil powder!


Overall Thoughts
We had a lovely time at 80 Thoreau. The staff was accommodating to our needs and took great care of us. They made a special virgin cocktail for Liz for the first course, and answered all her questions - everything from whether the cheese was pasteurized to the intricate methods used to make certain dishes. The food is excellent and I think chef Carolyn Johnson is doing a great job exhibiting New England's seasonal ingredients in a sophisticated yet approachable way. This is definitely one of the best meals I've had in the suburbs of Boston.

We did feel that the tasting menu moved a bit too slowly. We booked the 8:30 seating and didn't finished everything until close to 11:30PM. It's one thing to spend 3 hours enjoying a nine-course or twenty-three course menu. Five courses over three hours is most certainly on the slow side. If we weren't enjoying each others' company so much, we may have gotten a bit annoyed.  I think we were the last people to leave the restaurant.

Other than that, the entire experience was quite pleasant and I can totally see why this place is so popular. There aren't that many options in this part of the city, and 80 Thoreau captures the winning balance of excellent food, attentive service, and a warm and friendly ambiance.

80 Thoreau
80 Thoreau St
Concord, MA 01742

Puritan & Co {SNAPSHOT}

This is a {Snapshot} of Puritan & Co. The original, detailed post about the restaurant as a whole is here.

Bryan and I stopped by Puritan & Co. for the first time this year. We'd visited it a few times last winter, but it somehow fell off our radars for the first half of this year. Even though Will Gilson wasn't in the house (he was at the Nantucket Wine Festival all weekend), the rest of the staff held down the fort admirably in his absence. Service was great, the food was all very good, and we walked away wondering, "why don't we come here more often?"

We started with the citrus marinated scallop (as an amuse bouche), and it was fantastic. The scallop was so sweet, and everything just came together very nicely in that tiny bite. I really was wishing I had actually ordered the appetizer portion of that dish.

Maybe next time.

We had a lovely starter soup that consisted of smoked pork belly, various beans, and a puree made out of . . . ramps perhaps? Alas, I cannot remember. I should have taken notes, but I did not. In any event, it was very, very good. We polished the whole thing off quite quickly. Of course, it was lovely to break that egg open and mix the yolk around with all the other flavorful elements of the dish.

We also tried a Crispy Pig's Head Torchon, which is made by mixing and rolling together various parts of a pig's head (organs are removed!) such as the cheeks, skin, etc. It was a tad rich for me, but Bryan enjoyed it quite a bit.
 Black Pepper Pasta ($17) with dandelion greens, guanciale, and spring garlic was absolutely fantastic. I loved the bitterness of the dandelion greens (my first time trying it!) and the pungent "bite" from the garlic. The freshly made pasta was lovely as well. I would most definitely order this dish again.
We were flabbergasted at how "rare" the lamb was cooked (a very, very good thing) in our entree, called Lamb Three Way. It consisted of lamb belly, lamb loin, and I can't remember the third one, maybe lamb tenderloin? The entire dish was incredibly tender and not too gamey at all. I'm going to hazard a guess that it's American lamb, which has a much milder taste than New Zealand or Australian lamb. Overall, the dish was excellent, with a lovely balance of flavors from fresh, seasonal spring vegetables.

If I go back, I definitely want to order more of that citrus cured scallop, as well as the pasta.

Gosh, I love spring ingredients.

Related Posts
Puritan & Co.
Garden at the Cellar
Cooking Class with Will Gilson
Tomato Vine Tasting Tour with Will Gilson

Puritan & Co.
1166 Cambridge St
Cambridge, MA

Chez Henri

This is the seventh restaurant post in the ongoing series Welcome to My New Hood, a series highlighting the neighborhood between Harvard Square and Porter Square in Cambridge. Other posts in this series: Rafiki Bistro (now closed), Super Fusion Sushi, Temple Bar, Giulia, Cambridge Common, and Ten Tables Cambridge. 
 
I've seen lots of restaurants come and go, but I think Chez Henri has been in Cambridge ever since I moved here almost twenty years ago (man, time flies).

Known best for its pressed Cubano Sandwich, Chez Henri actually has a lot of interesting Cuban/French inspired dishes that makes it just a bit different from your typical American style gastropub on this stretch of Mass Ave between Harvard and Porter in Cambridge.

Just recently, news came the this neighborhood stronghold is being sold and may be renamed. Chef-owner Paul O'Connell has indicated that he hopes to sell it to Dylan Black, current owner of Green Street who used to work at Chez Henri.

I met Chef Paul O'Connell at East End House's Cooking for a Cause benefit event last year. He was super friendly, sharing with me fascinating stories about how he has cooked for Julia Child (who used to live in Cambridge really close to the restaurant!) as well as the food blogger, "Julie" of "Julie and Julia" fame.

I'm a little sad to see this neighborhood institution go. I'm hoping that the new owners preserve what's great and unique about Chez Henri, namely its famous cubano, interesting Latin focused dishes, and solid French cooking. Initial news reports seem to indicate this is the intent of Dylan Black and his team, which is encouraging.

Nevertheless, if you want to taste the Chez Henri that you've known and loved the past 15 years, you might want to head over there before the end of the summer, which is when the changeover is expected to take place.

Here's a look at the first meal we had there after moving into the neighborhood.

Bryan started with Blanquette de Lapin, which is homemade cavatelli tossed with white wine braised rabbit, cream, and herbs ($15).This dish is definitely more French than Cuban (not sure if it has any Cuban influence, in fact). The texture of the homemade pasta was great, and Bryan liked the overall flavors of the dish. I personally found it to be a bit too heavy and rich, and could only handle a few bites of it.

I started with the Bistro Salad (pictured up top), a pile of fresh greens tossed in a dijon and herb vinaigrette mixed with crispy potatoes, warm bacon lardons, and a soft boiled egg ($12). This is a classic French dish, and they dine a fine job on it.

This Cuban-inspired appetizer was a special of the evening, and thus not on the regular menu. The shrimp was cooked just right and the dish had a nice kick that came from the Cuban spices.

We also enjoyed Pressed Cornish Hen, which came with red Kouri squash polenta, truffle pan jus glace viande, and charred greens ($24). The chicken was juicy and tasted pretty good with the nicely browned skin.

For dessert, we shared a Strawberry Shortcake with Pineapple Sauce. Bryan and I have always loved biscuit-based strawberry shortcakes, so we enjoyed this particular dessert. It's not something that blew me away, but we liked how it wasn't cloyingly sweet. The ice cream added a balance to the entire dessert.

We thought all of the dishes at Chez Henri were pretty good, and definitely a step above several of the other gastropubs down the street. Of course, the prices are higher here, so you do pay a premium for the more upscale food. Nothing particularly blew us away, but everything was solid.

If you sit at the bar, you should most definitely try the Cubano, probably one of their most famous items. I didn't get one at this meal, but I've tasted it before, and it's quite good.

We'll miss you Chez Henri. Hoping the "new" you preserves the best of what you already have and adds even more to the neighborhood.

Thanks for a great 19 years!

Chez Henri
1 Shepard St
Cambridge, MA 02138