FoodMayhem

Perilla Perilla, an herb that is a member of the mint family, and the name Harold Dieterle chose for his restaurant, is a welcomed addition to the NYC restaurant scene. While winning the first season of Top Chef guaranteed tons of press and a stream of people lining up to try Perilla, I believe that Perilla has staying power because Harold truly has talent.

I’m going to justify my opinion by adding that my friend and mentor, Carol Gelles, who dined with me and Lon, has been to Perilla twice before and loves it. She had dishes in mind that we had to try, the first being, the Spicy Duck Meatballs. They were rich, peppery, and delicious. To top it off, I loved the accompaniments (which was pretty much true with every dish), a raw quail egg and mint cavatelli. We also had a well-balanced Heirloom Red Lady Apple Salad with Maytag Blue Cheese, and a Sweetbreads Thai Salad, a special that our charming waiter described so well, Lon was enticed. Carol and I, both not big fans of sweetbreads, were so impressed. Delicious! The green papaya salad underneath went perfectly with the wonderful texture of each fried piece coated in rice flour.

By now, I was already won over and just excited to try more. Carol ordered the Pancetta Wrapped Pork Tenderloin which was cooked the way most restaurants served pork tenderloin – medium. I prefer medium rare, but I was so impressed with the presentation. I don’t know if you can tell from the picture how round each piece was, but wow, were those perfect circles.

I was more interested in the appetizers so I ordered the Sardines as my entree. I also figured we ordered three appetizers, two sides, and would probably try dessert. I like that they plated the sardines in a larger dish so that it would look like an entree. We agreed that there was nothing exciting about the sardines, but the beets, salad, and sauces were fantastic.

I think Lon’s Jerk Style Black Grouper was my favorite dish. I’m not crazy about most white-fleshed fish, but this grouper had the best texture ever! I was also going nuts over the purple yams, plantains, and black bean puree. The whole dish just came together for me and I am definitely having this dish again. Lon was a bit upset that it didn’t taste like “Jerk” and I agree, it needs a different name, but nothing else should change.

The side of Broccoli Rabe with Oyster Sauce and Orange Confit was very good.

Carol insisted we order (and we’re glad she did) a side of Faro Risotto. I insist that you order it too. Harold calls it Risotto which does sound better, but when I ate it, I thought of mac & cheese, just way more elegant. It is absolutely delicious!! Another dish, I’ll have to eat again.

Before ordering desserts, Carol warned us that the desserts she had tried so far, weren’t great. It was a while ago and the dessert menu looked a bit different so we took a leap of faith and tried freshly fried doughnuts (I order these any chance I can get), the Blood Orange Cheesecake, and Frozen Chocolate Mousse. We licked the plates clean, with the exception of some fruit on the cheesecake plate that weirded me out because it had some sesame oil on it. We raved and raved amongst ourselves until Carol pulled over a waitress and asked if the Pastry Chef had changed. Indeed! There has been some bad press about the dessert here so I want to let everyone know:
THE PASTRY CHEF HAS CHANGED and now desserts are a must!

I was very happy with my meal, which Lon and I discussed all the way home. It cost less than we expected, about $60 per person with tax and a generous tip. The portions were large and execution serves as a lesson. Perilla really uses some great ingredients and a great variety of ingredients. The menu is exciting and every dish feels as if Harold had a hand in it, which he probably did, since we found him in the kitchen. Bravo Harold!

To celebrate Monica & Jae’s birthday, a night of Turkish food and partying at Vig 27 was planned. Sarah (all the pictures here are courtesy of Sarah) picked the restaurant, and it was a great choice.

From outside, Ali Baba Ali baba is unassuming, no more than 12 feet wide. When you walk in, it’s a tight fit, and it seems like a small place. But as you walk back, the restaurants gets wider and the ceiling goes up, and then, if you’re in a group, as we were (12 people), we went all the way to the enclosed garden, that had a large space heater. There were two other large groups in the garden with us.

The employees at Ali Baba all seem to have an accent, which made communication a bit iffy at times, but mostly things works out. Such as ordering two large plates of the Mixed Appetizers. Each includes lebni, hummus, eggplant salad, ispanak eggplant, and pilaki. These were accompanied by absolutely delicious bread, sliced into strips, lightly topped with black sesame seeds. The ispanak eggplant (which had lots of sauteed onions and peppers) was the clear winner for everyone at our half of the table. The communication issues did create confusion when we ordered lahmacun, for which Ali Baba is well known. We tried to understand what the difference was in portion size between the large plate and the appetizer plate. Our waitress explained that the appetizer was the diameter of a drinking glass and the large plate was “three pieces”. So for twelve, we asked if we need four of the large plate — and the waitress sort of shrugged and said yes. We decided to just get three plates and then another hot appetizer of Arnavut Cigeri (fried liver cubes). It turned out that the “pieces” in the large plate were each about ten inches in diamater, and nine of them were way too much for appetizers. We took three and half pieces home!

Everyone enjoyed the lahmacun, despite our ordering flaws and inability to pronounce the name. We topped them with the included flat leaf parsley, lemon, and other accoutrement. Our only complaint was that the pizza-like items were not hot enough. Temperature returned as an issue later, but let’s come back to that topic. Separately, almost everyone enjoyed the liver; it was perfectly cooked and tasted wonderful with a sprinkling of lemon and seasoned, raw, red onions.

After the appetizers were through, and a bottle or two of wine were inhaled, most people were feeling fairly full. So when the prodigal portions of entrees arrived we all breathed deeply and put our best foot forward.

Sticking with their bread skills, I ordered the Donerli Pide, a thick dough crust, stuffed with lamb gyro meat and some red peppers and tomatoes. It was basically a Turkish calzone, sans cheese. It was oily, enormous, and very tasty. Jessica ordered the Mixed Grill, a vast plate of rice pilaf, charred pepper adana kebab, shish kebab, doner, and a lamb chop. The adana was wonderful, perfectly spiced and perfect texture. Most of the other meat was mediocre, particularly due to over-cooking. Everyone at the table shared plates, and most (except Jessica) eemed to think that the winner was either my pide or Sarah and Ran’s ravioli-like dish, Manti, in a thick yogurt sauce.

After the eating fest was drawing to a close, we somehow found room in our chest cavities to expand our lungs and bellow out a “Happy Birthday” song, which was louder thanks to the waiters and nearby tables joining in; and then room in our stomachs for the wonderful cake that Jessica made.

Overall, the service at Ali Baba was good, the portions were very large (holy cow!, I mean lamb), and the prices were very reasonable. Add in the fact that there is the large space in the back yard and they don’t charge a cake cutting fee, and this is a perfect restaurant for a party. With two people celebrating birthdays, ten of us split the bill for twelve people, including a couple of bottles of wine, a built in service charge, plus we added some more on for good service and it came out to $40 per person. Very fair.

I recommend you catch the next flying carpet to Ali Baba and let us know what you think.

For more great pictures of this event, check out Sarah’s Flickr set.

Believe it or not, I’ve never been to the famous Union Square Cafe Union Square Cafe. It’s expensive, and at times very hard to get reservations, so somehow, it has slipped through, until today. My friend Lily and I made last minute plans for lunch there and it happens to be restaurant week (which I pay no attention to for dinner since I haven’t been impressed the last few times). We had a very enjoyable lunch for a very good price so I’m sure to return to Union Square Cafe again, at least for lunch during restaurant week.

The atmosphere is nothing fancy, just clean and comfortable, tables spaced apart nicely unlike most of NYC. The floors were slippery though and I almost fell twice. Three types of fresh bread, olives, and butter are presented at seating and water is delivered and refilled promptly. I was very happy with their 2008 restaurant week menu because there was four choices per course. I hate when there is only two choices for any of the courses and I’ve seen that often on restaurant week menus, which is one of the reasons I stopped going.

For appetizers, Lily started with the Mushroom Bruschetta with Baby Mustard Greens and Goat Cheese. The flavors were nicely balanced and each ingredient was noticeably fresh. I selected the Crispy Eggplant “Meatballs” with Peperonata Vinaigrette and Ricotta. It was fantastic! Even Lily, who does not like eggplant, thought it was delicious. After finishing the eggplant-balls, I wiped the plate clean with bread. The oil used, the light cheese, and peperonata were so good! I could’ve eaten another plate.

Since Lily had never eaten Arctic Char, our wonderful and informative waiter recommended she try it. It was nicely presented with crispy skin and a Citrus-Watercress Salad and Chopped Egg. The fish was cooked perfectly and showcased the wonderful texture of Arctic Char. They were also careful to use lighter accompaniments that would not overpower the subtle flavor of this fish. I could not resist the sound of Tender Braised Heritage Pork and Fennel Stew with Parmigian Polenta. It was exactly as it sounds, a great winter comfort food. The generous portion of pork stew was larger than I expected and the awesome polenta was super rich and buttery. I was so full and trying hard to finish it.

I was a bit less impressed with our desserts. Lily’s banana cheesecake had that fake banana taste and the crust was a bit salty. I liked the Rum Roasted Pineapple surrounding it because you could see and taste the vanilla bean but overall, didn’t care for it. My Piemontese Hazelnut Cake had a hard texture and was very dense for cake. I loved the accompanying Gianduja ice cream but didn’t even finish half the cake.

I can tell that Union Square Cafe pays attention to their ingredients and the executions are mostly done well. Very nice presentations, the service is superb, and the location is ultra convenient. So today, I considered the $24.95 per person (pre-tax and tip), a great deal. Definitely try to visit them during lunch for restaurant week. They don’t participate in dinner anyway.