Feeding Umi » brunch

Mini Update: Cafe Ghia

umi — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 08:49:36 +0000

Sometimes I want to make mini updates to mention a particular new dish at a place I’ve all ready talked about, or to show case a small something. Not a full update, but a mini-update.

My staple brunch item at Ghia’s, was the daily scramble. For the spring, they had butternut squash, kale/spinach, and goat cheese in an soft scramble egg, with a side of potatoes. The mild goat cheese and sweet butternut squash in this savory dish was eye opening. This time around, they had asparagus (which is in season now), mushrooms, and goat cheese… which for some reason didn’t tickle me as much. I like asparagus, but just not particularly with eggs or cheese. That might sound weird, since I think the idea of a poached egg on a bed of grilled asparagus sounds sublime… but let’s just say I wasn’t feeling it today.

Luckily, they had their vegan scramble, which sounded delightful. It had tofu, sweet potato, kale (the sweet potato and kale sort of recreated my butternut squash kale love from the previous dish – do you see a pattern, internet?!), scallion, spicy black bean sauce, with a side of ginger-lime tofu “cream” and toast. Uh… AMAZING. I also ordered a side of egg, sunny side up (beautiful orange runny yolk, just the way I like it. Excellent eggs, by the way). Whether you’re a meat eater, vegetarian, or vegan, this dish is so savory and creamy. So, definitely don’t miss this.

side note: WHAT IS IN THEIR ginger-lime tofu “cream”? It was super tasty and felt decadent, but without yolks like in mayonnaise or any dairy, I’m really curious what gives it its texture. I just googled and came up with a vegan sour cream recipe that calls for silken tofu, firm tofu, lemon, and soy sauce. I can’t imagine that those ingredients in a food processor would give you something like sour cream or this cream in question… hmmm.

Cafe Ghia

umi — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:18:18 +0000

Cafe Ghia
24 Irving Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11237

The corner of Irving and Jefferson was left bare after a dark neighborhood bar shut down a few years ago. Ryan’s totally been hoping that something cute opens up there, since it’s a prime location, but we were sad that the building looked like nothing was going on for a long time.

Of course this all changed a couple of months ago. We saw the windows had newspaper plastered on and there was some serious work going on over there. Then in the last 2 months, we saw a serious bar table and some espresso machines/coffee stuff, which sparked some debate. Will it be a bar? Or a cafe? (We were hoping bar.) And at nights when I walked by the place after work, I would plaster my face on the window hoping to get some inkling of what was coming. (You know, and in the process creeped out the owners of the place.)

They are a restaurant/cafe that is open for breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner 7 days a week. Awesome, right? They are open until 1am-2am (depending on the foot traffic) and their kitchens current close around 11pm (although they will probably start having late night snacks available until closing).

On the first weekend of April, they opened up! (Apparently they were hoping to open up since October, but things kept getting pushed back.) Of course we slid on in Sunday evening, one of the first people in that night to survey our new neighborhood restaurant.

The place offers seating of around maybe 15 people on the floor and another 8 or so at the bar. It’s full of light and super cute with great shelving system that I am totally jealous of. (Seriously, I need something like that.) The menu is simple, but has vegetarian opens, soups, appetizers, and Ryan’s favorite… Charcuterie plate (and a cheese plate). They have wines, local beers (Sehr Crisp! Pork Slap! Oh my!) and a good brunch cocktail selection. (Including some serious hangover recipes: Emergen-C cocktails? Ben’s Breakfast Beverage Buffet: Coffee + Water + Coke + OJ?) The best part is the price point is really good. Their house wine is delicious and affordable. They have a seriously lovely white wine, called BOE (with a beautiful label done by a local Bushwick artist).

Their dinner menu is a little light (but hearty enough with good portions), currently consisting of their soup of the day (more on that later), salads, charcuterie plate, cheese plate, and sandwiches. When we went there for dinner, their mac n’ cheese and burgers weren’t on the menu, yet. Ryan and I got the turnip soup to share with the cheese plate and charcuterie with chicken liver. The SOUP was seriously good, you guys. I still think about it. It was the perfect consistency and creamy with some drizzled pesto and pumpernickel croutons. I loved everything there, but that was MY FAVORITE thing.

The cheese plate was delicious. They were all very earthy and they are all from the farm that the chef worked at previously (local in NJ, I believe). There was a creamy harder cheese, a stinky soft cheese, and a sharper harder cheese. The breads were toasted (kinda like a sandwich) and was soft and crispy. The charcuterie plate was good. Love the prosciutto and coppa. They were all cured in house, as well. GET THE CHICKEN LIVER. It was creamy and savory and everything I love in pate. It was A LOT of food.

I loved that this place is dedicated to being open for breakfast and lunch during the weekday. I wouldn’t get to take advantage of this, but Ryan certainly could. We went there for brunch twice and loved what we had. Some home runs were the breakfast sandwich (bacon egg and cheese? You can’t really go wrong – and Ryan loves his sandwiches and bacon), daily scramble (I love the combination of goat cheese, butternut squash and spinach. The butternut squash is done so well and adds to the creaminess of this whole dish. I love the fact that the second time around they used kale. That balanced out quite well.), and the belgian waffle (I have no words to describe this. It’s like a pumpkin pie custard delight).

We’re so excited that this place opened up on that corner. With this place, arepas place, the coffee place and the salad place on Wyckoff, there are tons of daytime options near the Jefferson stop now. Over all Cafe Ghia is a missing puzzle piece to the growing culinary scene out here.

Weekend Brunch – Crepes

umi — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 21:55:24 +0000

Few weekends ago Ryan tried to recreate his father’s crepes. The crepes themselves were adapted from various online recipes:

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt

Or something like that. The real interesting things happen with the fillings and toppings. Next time, I want to make a simple egg custard. This time around, Ryan made some savory crepes by frying up bacon to a crisp and pulsed them in the food processor. Them he mixed the crushed bacon with oregon gouda shavings. For a sweet crepe, we just used some confectionary sugar and lemon.

Light, simple, savory, and sweet.

Three Angels by the Park – A Coffee Place

umi — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:22:40 +0000

There is a new coffee place right near the corner of Troutman and Irving, right near Maria Hernandez Park. It’s a cute place with a LARGE seating area out back, both indoors and outside. It’s super laid back with good lattes and hot chocolate and just the usual fare of cookies and muffins. It was a little hard to spot, but it is across the street from the park. In side, the chairs are cozy and a little miss matched. It’s note quite as stylized or hip as it’s Morgan stop equivalent, Orwell cafe, but it’s a welcome addition near the Jefferson stop, I’m sure.

Handmade Croissant

umi — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:30:16 +0000

I will say it here, these croissants were a fail. They tasted great, but I think I used yeast that was too old, and didn’t foam, and the batter didn’t rise. However, the whole thing is just SO high maintenance that I baked it anyway. It had enough butter than Ryan ate it and liked it, but I would like to give it another try. The problem is that since you need to keep refrigerating the batter and butter to fold, it takes more than a day and it’s hard to plan out to make.

(Tangent: Ryan got me a French Rolling Pin for my birthday, and I have to say that I am definitely a convert. Easier to use, wider surface area, and light. Love it.)

To Make

put 0.50 ounces of active dry yeast in 1/4 c lukewarm water and wait until frothy (this is the part I failed) – around 10 minutes. If it doesn’t froth up, throw it away and try again. Mix with 1/2 c milk and 1 c heavy cream.
Combine 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp of salt and 3 tbsp of sugar (aka. the dry materials). Mix well with whisk. Then mix the liquid mixture in.
Add in extra 2 c flour slowly and knead the batter until the batter is no longer sticky and smooth. Wrap mixture and put in the refrigerator for an hour.
pound two sticks of butter into a thin sheet (use saran wrap on top and below), try to roll out and then put in fridge, also.
Take the dough out and divide into two. Roll one out to twice the surface as the rolled out butter. Fold dough over the butter, fold the dough over, wrap and refrigerate. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Refrigerate for 30min-1hr minutes until the dough is cold.
Take out of fridge and roll out carefully (if the dough is too cold, pound the dough down) and fold back into thirds. Refrigerate the dough again for 30min-1hr.
Repeat and refrigerate for 6+ hrs (or overnight). The dough will rise in the fridge (or should if the yeast was done right), so reinforce the dough with saran wrap (allow room for rising).
Roll the dough out and cut out into triangles, roll the dough from the wider base, then turn the corners into a crescent. When finished, let the dough rise again for an hour until they are doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 425 F. If you want, make an egg wash with one beaten egg w/ a dash of milk and brush on top of the croissants. Bake for 20-30 minutes until they look golden brown.

I didn’t do the egg wash and I stored the dough in the freezer for a while, before making, so all in all considering… it was pretty good. I also wrapped some bittersweet baking chocolate in between the crescents before baking, for chocolate croissants and those were delish! Over all, pretty good breakfast/brunch/snack. I hope to have an update soon on a batch that goes well.

Great NYC Brunch Deals – Early Spring Edition

umi — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:46:15 +0000

I don’t know whether it’s getting away from the rough and tumble of the week, or just having a lazy morning, but I love brunch. I love the “carby” fluffy and eggy brunch foods. I love something salty and hearty accompanying that. I love bloody mary’s, I just love everything about brunch. And great deals make it love it even more. There’s a lot of love floatin’ around now… you see?

For my birthday, I did brunch last year, because I should do my favorite thing in the whole world. For reals. I had unlimited mimosas, bread, lamb sausage, and eggs at Taboon. Loved it. This year, I am thinking of hosting my own brunch up on the roof or something. Or I might be lazy and just pick a place.

If fact, for my birthday last year, I was originally hoping to go to Merkato 55, which hosts a brunch dance party. I thought, “What Fun!” You know, drink some bubblies, dance on a sofa, eat some brunch, and still get home by 5pm. They were real assholes, though. The story is is that on Sunday, April 26, a friend of a friend was DJing at Merkato 55. I emailed them to ask whether I needed a reservation for Sunday Brunch (since they don’t pick up their phones) and they emailed me back with just a line, “We don’t do Sunday brunch.” The thing is, aside from knowing that there was a party there Sunday, which I was invited to, which I specified, on their site it featured a page that said, “New Brunch Menu On April 26th!” WTH? I emailed them back and they just replied with, “No.” That’s it. No other sentence. What kind of stupidity is that? So I decided not to go, and I told my friend why.

As much as it got hyped in the New Times Styles section, I won’t be going to a douchey place like that anytime soon. Instead, I want to talk about two places. One in Manhattan’s midtown and the other in Brooklyn right off the L Train Graham stop.

Anyway, few weekends ago, when I was apartment sitting my mother’s place while she went to Japan, I decided to go to Taboon. It was one of the first WARMEST days of pre-spring in NYC. Unfortunately Taboon was doing some re-modeling and missed out on a great brunch crowd opportunity, and I was stuck trying to find some other place to eat.

KyotoFu
705 9th Avenue
New York, NY 10019-7929

Luckily, I remembered Kyoto Fu had some weird and interesting things. The thing about Kyotofu is that they have the cutest deserts, but they are “interesting” rather than good. I never ate there before, but the cocktails left more to be desired, when I went there last for a night cap. However, I held out hope… I’m one of those… they had such a good idea. Good Japanese food in small cute bites, done really WEIRD. This is also where Ryan and I came on our second date nearly 2.5 years ago. Maybe that’s why… I still really want to come back here Sunday afternoon for their sake happy hour and sake flights. It’s a great place and up front you can buy tons of little home-made Japanese treats.

Anyway, getting back to the subject at hand. BRUNCH. They have a really great brunch. All of their brunch menu items come with a complimentary bloody mary, mimosa, or bellini. I got the Brioche bread with truffled poached egg. It was DELICIOUS. Although, my only thing against the eggs were that I would have liked it REALLY RUNNY, but I know how hard it is to get the timing right. It probably was really runny when it left the kitchen. Also, instead of poaching, it looks like they soft boiled the egg. The presentation was REALLY cute, too. The brioche was baked in a fluffy WIDE Japanese shoku-pan style, buttered with the middle cut out for the plump beautiful soft boiled egg. All this sat on a thin layer of shaved truffles with a side of citrus arugula and parmesan. Nice, eh? It was around $13 bucks for the whole shebang.

Ryan got their curry rice with egg. He couldn’t resist the lure and said it was pretty damn good. They had other things, such as, french toast and omelettes (because Japanese people do great omelettes with rice). They all ranged around the $10-15 and all came with a complimentary drink.

The bloody mary’s are pretty good. It’s a light refreshing drink that’s VERY JAPANESE. It’s not a thick tomato juice. It’s like a watery tomato and pepper flavored cocktail. It’s good, just you should know what you are getting. This is not to be confused with bad bloody mary places that just use canned tomato with no other flavorings or just watered down tomato juice.

And just look at those adorable, and yummy, little chocolate filled treats with our receipt. <3 it.

I’m not too diligent about it, but one of the things I’ve been striving to do is to find yummy places in Brooklyn. It isn’t hard to find a place to have Brunch in Williamsburg, but going to a place like Egg just isn’t on my list of fun things to do. I don’t like crowded spots and I don’t like to wait. If I am made to wait, I like accomodations like, Northeast Kingdom, who lets you sit downstairs, watch cartoons, and drink complimentary coffee.

Harefield Road
769 Metropolitan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211-3701

Harefield Road is a GREAT deal. They have a big brunch menu complete with french toast, eggs benedict, turkey clubs, huevos rancheros, etc… They all come with a coffee or tea and either a mimosa or bloody mary. All of that for $12, which includes tax. It’s a block from the Graham L stop, and although often there is a wait, it’s usually around 15 minutes for parties of 2-4. It’s standard fare.

I ALWAYS get the harefield eggs, which is a poached egg on smoked salmon and an english muffin, with a side of charred rosemary potatoes (exceptional) and fruit, which I substitute often for salad. The bloody mary’s are SOLID and EXCELLENT. They are spicy. I get unlimited coffee while I wait and at my table. The service varies, but with my drink, I hardly care. They have $5 draft beers on top of that at Brunch. $5 for any additional drinks and an extra side of potatos is $2.

This is my new “go-to” place. I think I go there at least 2-3 times a month. It’s always gotten good marks with the people I take, and it’s a little more close to home. After brunch, I usually take a brisk walk to Bedford and window shop before heading home.

German Pancakes – Portland Pounds Take II

umi — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:41:51 +0000

So, another explanation for those pesky pounds I gained might be all the sweets I’ve had in Portland. Basbousa, bachlava, and german pancakes. This was my first time ever having these fluffy things. You sprinkle them with confectionary sugar and drizzle lemon juice over that, to “melt” the sugar with the acid. That, coupled with some cooked apples, is awesome brunch/breakfast stuff. The credit here goes to Ryan’s mother Sharon who prepared the dish. And look! Cast-iron pan! The dish itself was very straight forward. She googled the recipe here to guide her on the exact measurements.

6 eggs
1 cup milk, room temperature
1 cup sifted bread flour or all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons butter

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and stick your cast-iron skillet or baking dish in there to heat up, while you mix your ingredients. This would be especially important for cast-iron so there would be no thermal shock.

Beat eggs until frothy and mix the milk, flour, vanilla, and cinnamon. Beat mixture for 5 or so minutes.

Pour butter in the hot cast-iron/baking dish and line the bottom. Then pour the mixture into the cast-iron/baking dish.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the edges fluffy up and golden. Serve immediately and cover slice with confectionery sugar and lemon juice.

Brunch and Bread-Making

umi — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:15:45 +0000

What would this blog be without a weekly report of our brunch? Well, I love the bread-making, obviously! This weekend, I baked bread for a friend’s birthday (to the left) and glazed it with olive oil, garlic, and rosemary. Otherwise, I used my first batch of bread that I made a few days ago and soaked it in egg, sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, and cloves and made some french toast. The key, of course, is to use substantial bread (so it won’t break apart) and soak it long and good. Delicious!

We had a quick brunch while the bread was baking, so I can head to the Bronx to prepare for Daniel’s Birthday dinner. I left the bread to rise overnight and baked it for 50 minutes on the medium crust setting. Shaping the bread myself, isn’t so much my forte. The dough shaped by the breadmaker, on the other hand, is beautiful. Machine 1, Umi 0, but I would rather forgo the shape for bread that’s full of bread-y taste. (Mmm yeast fermentation!)

Crusty Crumbled Baguette French Toast

umi — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:06:44 +0000

I had some left over baguettes, today, so I decided to make some french toast. It was quick, easy, and delicious. The bread was pretty hard, so cutting it crumbled some of the pieces into large chunks. That produced really fluffy nuggets of eggy french toast.

I had around half of a large baguette left. Since I left it to absorb A LOT of egg, I used three eggs in total. For three eggs, I splashed some 3% milk, added around 3 tablespoons of sugar, beat the mixture, and added 2-3 drops of vanilla. I also added a small splash of Johnny Walker Black (I didn’t have bourbon). Sprinkle some cinnamon too, if you have some. I was out.

Let them soak in the egg and then heat up the pan. I like to let them soak in there for a while. Flip the bread in the egg mixture. Butter up the pan generously and place the bread gently on the pan. Line the pan and fit as much as you can on the surface area. Use medium heat so you don’t burn them too quickly. Let them cook in the butter and become fluffy. I also liked to top the bread off with a little bit of the mixture. When they brown and puff up, flip once. Brown the other side and then take off the pan. Serve with maple sugar and some more cinnamon to taste.

You can top it off with anything you like, but I prefer good ol’ syrupt for my french toasts. Confectionery sugar or a crumble of brown sugar might also be nice. (I would also recommend rolling them in brown sugar right in the pan, right before taking them off.) You can brown them a little more if you like the outside crispy, but be sure not to burn them or the butter. If you are doing more than one batch in the pan, try to wipe the pan clean with a paper towel before putting the next tablespoon of butter in the pan.

This is seriously the perfect way of serving older hardened or stale bread. Delicious. Just give the bread enough time to soak in the egg.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

umi — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:03:22 +0000

After my last batch of pancakes, I wanted to make some lemon ricotta pancakes. I used to get these amazing little pancakes at Henry’s, on 105th st. and Broadway on the upper west side. My friend Daniel used to say, “they are like a little burst of sunshine in your mouth.” They were light, fluffy, delicious. This time, I wanted to make something comparable… and avoid making monstrously large things. ; )

I always like to make sure that I am going about this right, so I consulted the internet. I found A Good Appetite, and her recipe for homemade ricotta AND lemon ricotta pancakes. Their site is a wealth of information that I’m going to enjoy going through. Fortunately, I bought some ricotta the other day. However, in the future I really want to try making it. It doesn’t require anything special, other than a thermometer, milk, and cheese cloths.

I read through her recipe and confirmed that you just need to juice and zest a single lemon, and I figured that would work well for my purpose, too. For the rest of the recipe, I used my good ol’ handy pancake batter.

Microwave 2-3 tablespoons of salted butter
Separate 1 large egg and beat the whites until it foams. I like to create peaks and make sure they stay put. Beat in the yolk.
Mix butter, 1.25 cups milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract into egg mixture.
Sift 1.5 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 3 teaspoons of baking powder.
Fold liquid mixture into the flour mixture.

Into that basic mixture, I just added ricotta and blueberries, last time. (I put the blueberries on top of the mixture in the pan) This time around I eyed around a cup of ricotta cheese into the mixture (I wasn’t very precise). Then I grated the zest of the whole lemon right in. I cut the lemon into wedges and squeezed in. It was a large/medium lemon. Then voila!

The consistency was great. This time, I used a 1/4 measuring cup to measure each pancake. I used two pans and buttered the griddle and sides of each pancake. The taste was a tarter than the ones at Henry’s. It was great with maple syrup, but I can’t help think that maybe it could have used some more sugar. Of course, one thing this needed was some confectionery sugar right on top. ; ) In that case, no additional sugar needed.

Ryan loved them, though. Loved as in, not because he likes pancakes or when they are made for him, but loved as in preferred these to my regular pancakes AND the ricotta and blueberries pancakes I made last time. That was a surprise. I, personally, really liked the blueberry pancakes. Next up: Mixed Berry Pancakes. (And, of course, home made ricotta cheese, and home made mozzarella cheese.)