Feeding Umi

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.

Now, we LOVE a good cow patty. We love it done well. There are several things that we like… a good fast food type burger like Shake Shack (mmm brisket burger…) or something a bit more upscale like Resto. It’s gotta taste seasoned and beefy. Condiments are a plus. Location and hospitality are another plus, but just aren’t deal breakers to us.

When I found Zaitzeff near where I used to work downtown, I was ecstatic. Kobe beef burgers? Yum. I finally brought Ryan here and he was pretty surprised. The place isn’t bad and it is some of the best stuff you can eat if you’re in that area. We ordered the kobe beef burger and it was very satisfactory. The bread was really interesting. It was a buttery flat toasty english muffin/pita-like bun. The burger was a nice size and a nice width and prepared perfectly to a pink inside. It was good. And you can get good bottles of beer here, like Rogue. The fries are pretty damn good too.

Another place I just got around to trying out is NY Burger Co. I got… basically a gift certificate and tried out a burger with Ryan and MJ. It was good and their collection of condiments were impressive and variety of burgers were vast. However, as Ryan pointed out, the burger didn’t taste very beefy. It was substantial and the bread was nice… but the beef was a bit tasteless. In fact it was all about the cheese and sauce.

However, if you want a TRANSCENDENT burger experience, you’ve gotta try STAND.

STAND
88 University Place
New York, NY 10003-4566

It’s a really cute place that Ryan and I were both skeptical about at first, but they might be our new favorite non fast-food burger place. Even above Resto. For reals. In fact, after going to Stand, for the first time, I went to Resto and had something other than their burger. I had their green curry moule frites and I was delighted. Anyway.

Stand isn’t pretentious, but it looks too nice to be a place that really cares about it’s burgers, I though. I don’t know why. It’s amazing, though. I have not tried anything other than their “Stand Burger” cooked medium rare. I am a sucker for seasoned patties. They come with fried pickles (which I tried for the first time there), which are great… but the small fries are fresh, generous, and lovely. I am a particular fan of their sweet potato fries. And if that isn’t enough, they have THE MOST AMAZING drinks. It’s a completely decadent experience… going there. And they are priced super reasonably. Their shakes are great. Their virgin toasted marshmallow shake tastes… not like marshmallows, but like toasted marshmallows just before folding into a smores cracker. Their mint and bourbon shake is also transcendent. Strong and amazingly good.

It’s a lot of food, so be prepared to take off your belt. The ice cream to top it all off, though, is that the servers are pretty damn good and the bartender is really sweet.

I wanted to do a low key dinner for my mother this year. Coincidently, I started a new job on the same day and had to work late that day. Thankfully, near my mother there is a great restaurant called “Toto.” There is also a Soba Toto near east 42nd st, however, this Toto focuses on Japanese skewers done amazingly well.

Toto
251 West 55th St
New York, NY 10019

Sophear, Danny, and Ryan joined my mother to celebrate her birthday. We love the tsukune, here, which is the chicken meat balls. I’m not a big chicken meat ball fan, but this is so juicy, soft, and seasoned (I get it with just salt, no tare (sauce)) that this is the primary thing I get whenever I come here. I also ordered my mother some smelt, hearts, chicken livers, etc… Sophear and Danny ordered some potato salad and the gyoza dumplings are delicious and went over really well.

It’s the cheapest, but if you are not famished, it’s a great place to get a la carte meal tappas style. Also, Ryan loves their donburis (with chicken and green onions). It’s definitely worth checking out. We got lucky and didn’t have to wait at all to seat 5 people. However, in the past, we’ve waited close to 30 minutes. I always walk away when there is an over 1 hour wait. I think it’s getting better.

(Pictures from top to bottom, left to right:
Smelt, liver, mostly eaten potato salad, eringi mushrooms with bonito flakes, three different types of onigiri (cheese flavored, soy sauce flavored, and miso flavored), and green tea cheesecake with red bean sauce),

This is along the same line as the tarako spaghetti or salted pollock roe spaghetti. In Sardinia they use bottarga, or smelt roe, to make spaghetti. It’s a block of roe that you grate. Sort of like a parmesan of the sea. It’s fishy, salty, and delicious. Really, it’s easy and perfect for a special dinner.

All we like to do is roast a whole bulb of garlic in the oven for 40+ minutes at 400 or so degrees. I pluck out the cloves, mash it with some spaghetti, drizzle some olive oil, and maybe some dried pepper and other herbs. Then you just grate some bottarga right on top. It’s delicious and garlicky and one of our favorite things to do now. It’s great accompanied by something white and sparkly to drink.

The best thing is that it’s easiest thing to do. You just need to go out to a nice Italian store and get some bottarga. They also sell it dried in a bottle, which we haven’t tried yet, but it’s basically all the same. It’s also perfect to have when a vegetarian comes over. Despite the fact that Ryan tried to push it on Tracy, because, “Hey! It’s just eggs. You eat eggs.” Ahem. I don’t think that’s the point. We just boiled some spaghetti, mixed it the bulb of roasted garlic, and grated ours with bottarga and topped hers off with some home made tapenade of sun-dried tomatoes and chopped olives.

So, rarely do I venture forth to the Garden State. However, when Jay and Shai invited me over to Zeke’s goat roast, I had to see it and eat it, because it’s just not that common in the city, you know? Jay kept telling me about the last animal cook out they did… they cooked an ostrich. No kidding. They went to an ostrich farm, picked one out, they shot it and butchered it, and Shai cooked it. Apparently it was delicious. This time, they did a greek style goat roast.

The bookshelf below showcases all the skulls of animals consumed in previous roasts. I think there is a cow, another goat, ostrich, and a row of small rabbit skulls.

The goat was prepared and carved by Shai of Dovetail fame. The goat was stuffed with cilantro, herbs, lemon, and bulbs of garlic and basted in a herb olive oil blend every hour or so. The oven was a brick oven with coals on the bottom. He made some greek yogurt Tzatziki sauce and a cucumber and tomato (with jalepenos and red pepper) salad to accompany it. Otherwise, he asked guests to either bring some drinks or a side, and I came armed with a mediterranean treat, basbousa.

I suppose these sorts of things are quite common in other places, pig roasts and all, but having never lived outside of NYC, you never really see anything like this other than maybe a pig roasted on a spit at a street festival. I didn’t even know that you can cook a goat in an “oven” with coals on the bottom.

I was assured that this goat was picked up on a local farm, shot after leading a happy (as happy as they come when they are raised for eating) organic life.

Also, Zeke had a pet tortoise that we did not eat.

The goat cooked for a total of 9 or so hours before reaching the prime temperature. The final result was some tender delicious goat meat. The tenderloin was delicious, but also the leg and belly was good too. It was SO tender and really juicy. I wonder whether that’s the cooking or goat’s just really damn good?

Before cooking the goat, they marinated the organs in a red wine vinegar mix, and grilled them separately. The heart was cut, put on skewers, and was delicious! I’ve never eaten goat heart before. Chicken hearts, yes.

I had lots of wine, Ryan had some orange juice and campari, and we topped the evening off with some basbousa and chocolate smores over a fire pit. That’s what I love about leaving the city, 2 out of 4 times in the last 2 or so years, whenever I left the city for Jersey, it involved a fire pit and some smores. (One time I didn’t get smores was Rob’s wedding. :P The other time was when I went into Hoboken to go to a Zumba dance class with a coworker. Definitely didn’t get any smores that time…) It’s one of those things that although you can do it at home in front of a stove, or make some yourself in a toaster, it’s the not the same as cooking some smores on a stick…