Goodbye shallot, hello cippolini...
Sunday, October 22...
Well, another shift over at Candle 79 and you'll be happy to hear that it went fairly well, actually I was thrilled after my last shift. I did not go down to the dungeon and work, and I did not have to peel hundreds of shallots and almost cry from the pain. I am learning some Spanish and am getting better at explaining things by animation and a few words. My experience in Russia helped with this, though they probably see me as the silly gringo girl that makes funny gestures. Anyway, I actually stayed upstairs in the main kitchen for the whole shift and worked mostly with the cold prep chef, helping make fresh guacamole, salsa with heirloom tomatoes, tofu horseradish dressing and roasted squash cubes, and I met an onion tonight that is slightly bigger than the shallot called the cippolini, which I had to peel. I worked carefully with it in case there were a few hundred behind the corner waiting to be peeled, which was not the case tonight. Every shift, I get to try a dish and tonight I tried the chickpea cake with fall vegetables, red pepper curry, apricot-date chutney and toasted almonds. It was presented to me like any other customer and was delicious. I actually fell into a nice rhythm while chopping tonight and listening to loud Mexican dancing music in the background. Often the chefs and assistants will be singing or dancing or joking around with one another in Spanish, so I felt that I was right in the heart of Mexico and a Mexican kitchen while in NY. I smile and tell them that I'm learning Spanish so I can understand what they are saying. When I try to have any conversations with anyone more than a few words there is just this smile and blank stare at me like I am saying "blah, blah, blah" so I stop, smile, and move on. I'm learning.
On Saturday, Yuki and I went to the Japanese food fair for foodservice professionals, which is one of the largest food shows in the US. Actually, it ended up being about 3/4 sake companies from Japan trying to push their delicious cold, sake samples, which was really hard to take. Then there were other food booths that we got to know really well and their tastings, from sashimi, sushi, udon noodles, nori and sushi to home-made tofu and special soy sauces, mirins, vinegars, misos and rice. The best part was the large Masamoto knife selling and demonstration area. Masamoto is one of the most well-known and oldest knife-making companies in Japan. There was a crowd of young men awing over their cases, filled with knives, from long sashimi knives with 80% angle on one side and 20% on the other side and a few thousand dollars to standard knives with points. The owner is also a master of Japanese calligraphy and was writing the names of people on their knives using a Japanese hammer and nail. I bought a beautiful Japanese knife and had it engraved by the master with my name in Japanese. How cool is that? Later in the afternoon, there was a demonstration on sharpening your knife using special stones and he used mine to demonstrate how to sharpen my type and had me come up to feel first hand how to sharpen it and give me lessons. He would speak in Japanese to direct me and there was a poor young guy translating in English, saying... "ok keep to 45 degrees on right, put right finger over knife, three middle fingers on left on the top, now push back and forth quickly... good, good, ok keep it going" He was like the knife coach, actually he reminded me of the Karate Kid movie and I was the kid that was trying to become champion. After I worked on my knife, he took it and made sure it was perfectly sharpened for me to use. It was quite the honour and I now knowI can do great things with that knife as it has been blessed by one of the few senior masters of knife-making in Japan.
So, I had to take this big knife on to dinner with me and home on the subway. We went to Pure Food and Wine with a few people and loved it. It's at 54 Irving Place near Union Square, www. purefoodandwine.com and is now my favourite restaurant in NY. I was hesitant to try it for awhile because of the raw food aspect... what would I do with just raw food and nothing heated up... how could it be that good? I think most at our table, except Yuki who is interning there part-time, felt that way and were pleasantly surprised.
The entire table had the chef's tasting menu and it was absolutely wonderful in taste, quality, and presentation and we all thought that, including the non-vegetarians. Also the service was excellent with knowledgeable and attentive staff. It's really hard to believe that no high heat is used to make anything, there are no processed foods or ingredients, and all the ingredients and dishes are made with such care and creativity. For example, the ravioli wraps are made with coconut that is sliced, seasoned, and dehydrated and the icecream from pressed almonds. This is an upscale gourmet restaurant that has beautiful ambiance in the main dining room and a splendid and cosy patio on the inside (my school mate was there recently and said she was sitting beside Hilary Clinton and her friends) and also has a very nice kitchen with high celings in an open concept design and another kitchen near by with lots of windows and facing the street. Both kitchens are bright, clean and filled with young people buzzing about and had a good energy about them. I spoke to the head chef, a graduate of our school, to compliment him on the meal and ambiance in both the dining room and kitchen. He was very nice, and young as all the head chefs seem to be who I meet, and we discussed that I could do some part-time internship hours there in the future. How fun! Right now there are quite full as so many students from our school want to intern there part-time and full-time after graduation, especially after they hear that it's a nice place to work and they treat interns well, which is not that easy to find in terms of restaurants. However, classes are always graduating and therefore there is a lot of traffic in and out of this restaurant.
Well, another shift over at Candle 79 and you'll be happy to hear that it went fairly well, actually I was thrilled after my last shift. I did not go down to the dungeon and work, and I did not have to peel hundreds of shallots and almost cry from the pain. I am learning some Spanish and am getting better at explaining things by animation and a few words. My experience in Russia helped with this, though they probably see me as the silly gringo girl that makes funny gestures. Anyway, I actually stayed upstairs in the main kitchen for the whole shift and worked mostly with the cold prep chef, helping make fresh guacamole, salsa with heirloom tomatoes, tofu horseradish dressing and roasted squash cubes, and I met an onion tonight that is slightly bigger than the shallot called the cippolini, which I had to peel. I worked carefully with it in case there were a few hundred behind the corner waiting to be peeled, which was not the case tonight. Every shift, I get to try a dish and tonight I tried the chickpea cake with fall vegetables, red pepper curry, apricot-date chutney and toasted almonds. It was presented to me like any other customer and was delicious. I actually fell into a nice rhythm while chopping tonight and listening to loud Mexican dancing music in the background. Often the chefs and assistants will be singing or dancing or joking around with one another in Spanish, so I felt that I was right in the heart of Mexico and a Mexican kitchen while in NY. I smile and tell them that I'm learning Spanish so I can understand what they are saying. When I try to have any conversations with anyone more than a few words there is just this smile and blank stare at me like I am saying "blah, blah, blah" so I stop, smile, and move on. I'm learning.
On Saturday, Yuki and I went to the Japanese food fair for foodservice professionals, which is one of the largest food shows in the US. Actually, it ended up being about 3/4 sake companies from Japan trying to push their delicious cold, sake samples, which was really hard to take. Then there were other food booths that we got to know really well and their tastings, from sashimi, sushi, udon noodles, nori and sushi to home-made tofu and special soy sauces, mirins, vinegars, misos and rice. The best part was the large Masamoto knife selling and demonstration area. Masamoto is one of the most well-known and oldest knife-making companies in Japan. There was a crowd of young men awing over their cases, filled with knives, from long sashimi knives with 80% angle on one side and 20% on the other side and a few thousand dollars to standard knives with points. The owner is also a master of Japanese calligraphy and was writing the names of people on their knives using a Japanese hammer and nail. I bought a beautiful Japanese knife and had it engraved by the master with my name in Japanese. How cool is that? Later in the afternoon, there was a demonstration on sharpening your knife using special stones and he used mine to demonstrate how to sharpen my type and had me come up to feel first hand how to sharpen it and give me lessons. He would speak in Japanese to direct me and there was a poor young guy translating in English, saying... "ok keep to 45 degrees on right, put right finger over knife, three middle fingers on left on the top, now push back and forth quickly... good, good, ok keep it going" He was like the knife coach, actually he reminded me of the Karate Kid movie and I was the kid that was trying to become champion. After I worked on my knife, he took it and made sure it was perfectly sharpened for me to use. It was quite the honour and I now knowI can do great things with that knife as it has been blessed by one of the few senior masters of knife-making in Japan.
So, I had to take this big knife on to dinner with me and home on the subway. We went to Pure Food and Wine with a few people and loved it. It's at 54 Irving Place near Union Square, www. purefoodandwine.com and is now my favourite restaurant in NY. I was hesitant to try it for awhile because of the raw food aspect... what would I do with just raw food and nothing heated up... how could it be that good? I think most at our table, except Yuki who is interning there part-time, felt that way and were pleasantly surprised.
The entire table had the chef's tasting menu and it was absolutely wonderful in taste, quality, and presentation and we all thought that, including the non-vegetarians. Also the service was excellent with knowledgeable and attentive staff. It's really hard to believe that no high heat is used to make anything, there are no processed foods or ingredients, and all the ingredients and dishes are made with such care and creativity. For example, the ravioli wraps are made with coconut that is sliced, seasoned, and dehydrated and the icecream from pressed almonds. This is an upscale gourmet restaurant that has beautiful ambiance in the main dining room and a splendid and cosy patio on the inside (my school mate was there recently and said she was sitting beside Hilary Clinton and her friends) and also has a very nice kitchen with high celings in an open concept design and another kitchen near by with lots of windows and facing the street. Both kitchens are bright, clean and filled with young people buzzing about and had a good energy about them. I spoke to the head chef, a graduate of our school, to compliment him on the meal and ambiance in both the dining room and kitchen. He was very nice, and young as all the head chefs seem to be who I meet, and we discussed that I could do some part-time internship hours there in the future. How fun! Right now there are quite full as so many students from our school want to intern there part-time and full-time after graduation, especially after they hear that it's a nice place to work and they treat interns well, which is not that easy to find in terms of restaurants. However, classes are always graduating and therefore there is a lot of traffic in and out of this restaurant.
posted by Caroline at 10:07 PM
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