The New York Dragonista!

This weekend  my friend Vern & I, ushered in the year of the Dragon in NYC with an oriental theme without even having to go to China Town... We meet at Grand Central under the clock and checked into The Mansfield suite #1107.

In order to decompress we had to sip some Johnny Black & munched down some dark sea salt caramel chocolates while watching Monsieur Depardieu.

“My Afternoons with Marqueritte” (“la tete en friche”) was a wonderful film about random encounters and human compassion and that set the mood for our ZEN weekend.

Friday night our first stop was O'mai, a small Vietnamese restaurant on 9^th avenue. The space was small but the kitchen produces some remarkable dishes. We started with spring rolls & grilled prawn (some how lobster roll was translated as grilled prawn...) but both were superb... I was not really in the mood for bitching... remember ZEN!

The roast duck in tamarind sauce is not to be missed. The skin was crispy, the duck was tender and the sauce was light yet spicy without being overwhelming. The side dish of "bok choy" could be a meal on its own with jasmine rice & for us it was the star of the weekend.

We passed on desert and thanks to Google found Grom in the West Village. The pistachio gelato is pure bliss in a cup! It is smooth and creamy and it tastes as if you were eating fresh Turkish pistachios.(They claim it is Syrian pistachio, but I know better!...) 

Worth the walk and the price.

For Saturday night we found our way to 32^nd street between 5^th and 6^th and found a selection of Korean restaurants. Once again, Vern not being well versed in Korean cuisine, we had to have the real BBQ experience... Sizzle!...

Keeping with our theme we decided to take in Yimou Zhang’s “The Flowers of War”... in  the cineplex midtown. Okay, so no weekend can be perfect. From the first scene with Christian Bale something just wasn’t right and it all went down hill from there. It was more like a SNL skit than a serious movie about the atrocities that occurred in Nanking. Yet is worth seeing just to laugh at some of soon to be classic dialogue & possibly a cult movie in an obscure manner.

We finished our weekend on Sunday morning after reading the Times at Le Pain Quotidien, by Central Park West and as chance would have it, our waitress was Chinese...(no way!)

It had snowed the night before so the park was beautiful in its white blanket as we walked and talked and slowly. We passed by the Bergdorf windows and there were three beautiful red, paper cut dragons flowing though the three windows to welcome the New Year. A good end to a wonderful weekend...

Unlike "Thelma & Louise" we managed to stay away from cars & cliffs... and both made back to our routines in Florida & Connecticut...safely!

快乐新年份 vern = "Happy New Year Vern!"

谢谢你为一个伟大的周末及合作写这 = "Thank you for a 

great weekend & for co-writing this..."




PS: Vern is Director of Clinical Research for HIV and Pulmonary Diseases... saves lives daily!

            {Ginger & Garlic Bok Choy}

1 1/2 pounds very baby (dwarf) bok choy, each one halved lengthwise

Flavoring sauce:
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
11/2 teaspoons canola oil or sesame oil
2 teaspoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
11/2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 2 teaspoons water

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the bok choy. When the water returns to a boil, let the vegetables cook for another minute, until just tender. Drain, flush with cold water and set aside.

2. Combine the flavoring sauce ingredients. Taste and make any adjustments needed. You want a savory-briny-sweet taste. Set aside.

3. Heat a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Add the oil, ginger and garlic. Cook for about 30 to 45 seconds until aromatic. Add the bok choy, give things a stir and cook for about 2 minutes, until heated through. Raise the heat to medium-high, add the flavoring sauce and keep cooking for another minute or so, stirring, to coat the vegetables well.  The bok choy will weep a bit of water.

4. Give the cornstarch a stir before adding it to the vegetables. Cook for another 30 seconds, or until thickened, and glossy. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Sweet but not innocent...

What can I say?... I did use the blog as an excuse to get this cake in my tummy... {Heee Heee!}
I know it is very sneaky of moi!


Lori Andrews wrote:


{I was asked (via text) to “talk ab something snappy, happy…make people smile.  But the idea is about soul, humor and community, ur love of baking, just anything that matches.”  I smiled at the “anything that matches” part; that was the quintessential clue that the blog entry request was partly an excuse to satisfy Moshe’s craving for Mexican Chocolate cake.

This cake is an oxymoron for the senses.  It sits there on the plate looking so sweet and innocent, but in just one bite you know you’ve been deceived.  It’s spicy hot; it’s sweet;  it’s savory; it’s cool.  Most of all, it’s fun!  I love to bake and I love to surprise people, so this particular dessert is one of my favorites.   The recipe is my own creation--traditional sour cream chocolate cake meets Pancho Villa. 

“Pancho Villa” is part of this cake because I love Mexico!  Really love it.  Actually, I love any Spanish-speaking, spicy-food eating, folk-art-painting. loud-string-instrument wailing,  bright-color-splashing, and sun-shining country.   I can’t explain it, but I feel it at my core.  The clean, orderly streets of Zurich? No gracias.  It’s the senoras selling nopal (cactus) out of burlap sacks on their backs…in front of the cathedral… on the dirt street with no curbs… and the stray dog asleep at the feet of the Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe statue.  This is what elates my soul.}

{Pancho Villa Cake}

Cake:

1 Devils’ Food or Chocolate Fudge boxed cake mix (Eeekkk, it’s true!)

1 package (3.9 ounces) chocolate instant pudding mix

4 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup warm water

3 TBSP. chipotle powder

1 tsp. cayenne powder

1 tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. ground cloves

Note:  Depending on your tolerance for “heat,” add more or less spices.

Frosting:

2 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar

2 TBSP cinnamon

milk, to desired consistency.  (Whole milk works best, but any milk is fine.)

Cake: 

Place all ingredients in mixing bowl and mix using an electric mixer on low speed for a minute or two.  Increase to medium speed and mix until all ingredients are incorporated.  Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl from time to time as you mix.

Place batter into well-greased and floured bundt pan.  Bake at 350 F. for 40-50 minutes, or until top of cake is just firm to the touch.  (Or until inserted skewer comes out dry.)  Let cool for 30 minutes.  Remove cake from pan.  Let cool thoroughly.

Frosting:

Place powdered sugar and cinnamon in mixing bowl, whisk together.  Start out adding ¼ cup milk, then SLOWLY add milk 1 TBSP at a time, mixing until the desired consistency is achieved.  If you add too much milk, add additional powdered sugar.

Drizzle evenly over top of cooled cake. 

People!!! if you wish to celebrate with one of Lori's delicious cakes contact her at:
3andrews@optonline.net


Enjoy! MO

à la coque or a-la-Mo-euf?

This holiday season my “fave-fab” gift came from my friend Peter…

He is a friend first, but also my neighbor in Fairfield, as well as my final touch master of our most beautiful events produced…(with his genius floral creations…)

We know each other for 16 years or so! It took him few years to size up this (then...) new kid on the block… yet I was able to earn his trust, and creative respect… Thus the rest is history…

Our process before, during and after the events is one that is be-fitting to be a reality show in Bravo!

A face to face in his Fairfield farm house or my cottage, few manic phone calls on the run to the market, but mostly a banter that is cheek and tongue the rest of the time…(one that most can not follow a single word of… including his partner dear Chris.)

Our shared laughter is our tool to survive the pressure cooker that we daily sit in, called the “Special Events Industry”.

So enough about us!..

The Gift was a dozen organic home-grown eggs…from his chicken coop in the back of the house…

(His gardens, and multiple mini barns… are a magical oasis, sanctuary & a kind of a charming ZOO!)

And today, as I opened the egg carton box; I had 2 eggs… they were exactly like the ones I remember from my childhood…

Small, soft, tender, orange in the center…with a fragrance that was full on nostalgia.

I remember egg shopping with mom in the back streets of Sisli- Markets (Istanbul)… There was a basement store we used to step down to…where there used to be hundreds of dozens of eggs…a nasty smell of chicken poop…flying feathers …and a deafening sound:

“buck,buck,,,,, buck,,, buckAHHHH”

Little that I knew that was a gourmet experience to become uber-chic 42 years later…

Talk about farm to table…

As a young child I love “à la coque yumurta”, soft boiled eggs…seasoned with salt, and had best time dipping my crusty bread with each morsel.

Also I loved to call on my mother or my baby-sitter (who was awake!!!), to run and see that I had not touched my breakfast at all.

You see what I loved to do was to turn the empty hallowed up egg shell upside down in the coquotier (special egg dish)…clean out my plate… and pretend I was not hungry!

My poor older baby-sitter “Habibe Teyze” always humored me by over reacting in the most dramatic ways possible…morning after morning!

Once I would confess…we would laugh & laugh & laugh!

She will say “You tricked me again my baby”…

Here I am 40 plus years later…

Blending it all: the streets of Istanbul, a kitchen of a posh 70’s apartment, my humble peasant “Habibe Teyze”, Peter with his Coque & Oeufs, and my seldom playful childhood…

Hope you try this at home:


{Soft Boiled Eggs}

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon salt

6 cups water

Directions:

1
Bring the water to a rapid boil.

2
add salt and keep it at a rapid boil.

3
Prick the bottom (wider end) of the egg with an egg pricker

4
Immerse in the boiling water and boil for exactly 5 minutes.

5
Dash in cold water, crack & enjoy.

PS: Good news for those of you that are scared of your stove tops…

Le Pain Quotidien serves Organic Soft Boiled Eggs with crusty breads for breakfast…exactly how I love it…

Old & New...

Well I am 47 now…

It seems like certain things are a bit more in focus…

Beautiful days, dark hours, magical moments or ugly moments…

Are all more meaningful once one shares them…

I was born with the "creative" genes…

I have to be honest, becoming an expert in one area never occurred to me…

It seems like tough I know little bit of this and that…

Trust me that is a problem too…

“What do I want to become when I grow up?” is a question etched in my brain…

What is really the description of success?

Yet it seems like I have done somethings since graduation…

Tons of applause, many compliments… and few failures along the way…

My cup is full, sometimes overflew, at times it seemed empty…

In my quietest moments…

When I did not have to prove anything to anybody…

I now have to ask,  “What do I enjoy the most?”

My fatherhood, my ever studentship, my desire to solve the human condition, my cooking, and the ritual of sharing what I cook with others?…

But I love mostly the conversations that happen around the dinner table…

It is time now for me to take these pleasures and collect my thoughts…

Not call them a project or job, and start my journey…

Where will I sleep, where will I anchor my boat?… 
I do not know at the moment…

Yet I feel it is time to do this for me & for me only…

I do not fit any formulas… not for the longest time now…

I want to document my journey

Old friends and new, old and new dishes, my motherland and my habitat, old and new conversations…

Will I be able to catch up with my-self?

This is not a departure yet more of an arrival.

I am excited….

MO-XO

PS: It's soup weather!