Ivo and Lulu

Ivo and Lulu was the answer to a question that every New Yorker has from time to time, "where is a great BYOB restaurant that isn't too expensive?"  

Located in Soho, this tiny little eatery sucks you right in. Dimly lite on a quiet street, this the perfect gathering for

 friends. Especially friends that like to drink. 

The roomies and I met up with our great friends John and Scott and embarked on a culinary tour that would take us through the French/Caribbean cuisine. 

To start we ordered:

• Gratin Dauphinois - scalloped potatoes, bachmelle with basil, gruyere crust 
• Grilled Avocado - spinach and veggie shitake, mushroom vinaigrette

The scalloped potatoes were a miss for some, but they reminded me of this recipe that my friend Elizabeth would make with heavy cream, boursin cheese and red potatoes. This made me happy, thus these potatoes made me happy. With every bite, I felt like I was doing something wrong (probably had a lot to with all the cream and cheese), so obviously I continued to eat at a rapid pace. 

The grilled avocado (pictured left) was something that I had never seen before. It was incredible. The avocado was silky smooth, and the mushrooms added a whole new dynamic. The vinaigrette was lite and definitely contained some soy sauce which gave it just the right amount of salt. Loved it!

Then for our entrees we tried to each order

 something different:

• Duck Confit with jerk seasoning and mango marinade
• Smoked duck with tangerine and peppercorns
• Summer Squash Ragout with ginger, garlic, and coconut milk
• Chicken with orange and goat cheese

Each entree was served with light, fluffy cous cous, soft, velvety carrot puree and garlic green beans. The chicken was completely over powered by the orange flavor and was my least favorite of all the dishes ordered. The summer squash ragout was just ok. While the presentation was playful and cute, served within an acorn squash, I thought the overall flavors fell flat; every vegetable tasted the same.

But the duck. Oh, the duck. Both duck dishes were a big hit. The duck confit (pictured above) was crispy, juicy and falling off the bone. The jerk seasoning was light and the mango marinade was sweet and not overpowering. The smoked duck was just unreal. The perfect balance of fat and meat, the breast was smoked perfectly locking in all the flavors without drying out. The sauce, like the mango marinade, was sweet, but again not over powering. 

Best part of all this, Ivo and Lulu only uses organic ingredients, and free range game (which probably explains the limited, but interesting selections on the menu). 

When you go (and this one is a must), bring lots of friends, wine and your appetite. The menu was affordable (for New York) with entrees all under $20 and most appetizers under $10. Since you will be bring your own wine you can splurge just a little on the meal. 

Ivo and Lulu

558 Broome St. nr. Varick St. 

New York, NY 10013

Twitter

Listen. I didn't get it either. Why do I care about people constantly updating, telling me what they are doing? I have a life. Duh. Isn't this just like facebook status updates?

Here's the thing though. Twitter is so much more than just updating and I don't know why. Seriously, I find myself checking Twitter more than facebook and this scares me. I've had a personal Twitter account for quite awhile, but recently I created a Frugal Foodies Twitter account and I really enjoy updating and trying to write quick recipes on there. So if you are on Twitter, obviously follow me, but here are some other foodies that have some great things to say!

• Amateur Gourmet - Author Adam tweets about food, his life and other things that entertain me



• Foodimentary - Fun facts about food, and I just really enjoy it



• Everyday Food - An extension of the Martha Stewart Magazine; tweet great, quick recipes



• Smitten Kitchen - recipes, photos etc. I just like them.

These two people I just love:

• AcrosstheMoat - my girl Dell tweets about her daily life and it always entertains me!



• MarcyLane - oh dearest Marcy. I follow Marcy on my phone so I always can she where in the city she is. Seriously at least once a day she makes me laugh out loud, well when she says something funny of course.

Anyways, thought I would change it up and let you in on all the cool people on Twitter. Most of them have blogs as well that they link to from their Twitter account. You are allowed to go to their blogs, however, you are NOT allowed to like them more than me (obviously...)

Great Depression Cooking

Jef sent me this great article the other day about this 93 years old woman named Clara. She has started to create videos to teach people about how she lived through the depression with simple meals.

This is one of my favorite in which she recounts her Sunday breakfast in which her mother would make sugar cookies :)




As you can tell from the video above she is obviously as cute as can be. I don't know if I am at the depression era eating level yet, but it's just interesting to hear her recall the memories of her youth.

Check out her site here and check out her YouTube page for more videos.

Grilled Skirt Steak

I know what you are thinking. Ok maybe I have two ideas as to what you might be thinking a) what is a skirt steak and/or b) why is she going to write about skirt steak?

Well, first things first. A skirt steak is the cut of meat in the plate section of the cow and in between the brisket and flank. I know, it really meant nothing to me either. But if you look at this beautiful diagram via Wikipedia you can see where the meat comes from.

This was my first experience with cooking skirt steak and I mainly inspired because I had just eaten a delicious skirt steak with horseradish cream at Spotted Pig (post to come later!)

I was really quite pleasantly surprised when I went to the grocery store to purchase the steak. For about .40 of a pound (approximately 6.5 ounces) was $4.

That's almost half a pound of steak for under five dollars...I was liking this already.

I had looked over a few recipes that I want to try and for this steak, I thought, best to keep it simple and really taste what the skirt steak is all about. I noticed from just looking at the cut that this was going to be a little tougher than most other cuts and there was a decent amount of white fat streaking over the red meat. However, this doesn't bother me, I like fat on my steaks, and I believe that you really can make any cut of meat good, no matter it's reputation.

The full skirt steak laid out

So that is what I set out to do. Make this cut of meat as delicious as a filet mignon.

Ingredients:

1. 1 Skirt Steak (can be whatever size, this will just change cooking times)
2. 1 Garlic clove (halved)
3. Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Rub garlic clove all over steak, infusing it with flavor. This will be VERY subtle, for a stronger taste I suggest mincing the garlic and spreading over the steak.

Heat grill pan (if you don't have a grill pan, I am sure that a skillet will work) on high, super high heat. Drizzle EVOO on the pan.

When the grill pan is EXTREMELY hot, put steak on for about a 1 minute and 1/2 on the first side, then flip for a minute on the other side. Now the pan should be so hot that there is smoke rising from the pan. You will probably think that something is wrong, but nothing is wrong, you are just getting a good sear on the steak. No need to be alarmed.

Anyways, after you cook the steak on the second side for a minute, flip back over for one more minute. This will be for a medium rare steak.

Cover the steak with foil and let it rest for 5 minutes.

I never really thought there was any truth to this whole, "let it rest" thing. Like most everything I thought I knew, I was wrong. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING. All the juices get reabsorbed back into the steak and make it perfection.

The steak was juicy, flavorful and not as tough as I had originally thought it would be.

There is so much you can do with a good skirt steak. As seen below, I cubed the steak and made an outstanding salad; tossed it with some bleu cheese and my favorite dressing. Also, as you can see in the picture above I cut the steak in two and had it again with some roasted fingerling potatoes, which I have full intentions to write about, because they are were simple, fresh and delicious.

Either way, if you are looking for an affordable steak, this is a great cut, easy to cook and really no hassle.

Roasted Garlic

So this is just a quick little recipe about how to roast garlic.

After researching several different recipes I combine several that I thought would make this super easy and it was! I basically ate the entire garlic bulb. My breath was undoubtedly rockin'

Ingredients:

• 1 garlic bulb
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Foil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel away the other layer of the garlic. Try not to peel off so much that the actual clove is exposed.

Cut off the top of the bulb leaving the tops of the cloves exposed.

Drizzle with some EVOO and wrap in foil.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

When you take out the bulb make sure that cloves are tender to the touch. Gently remove from bulb.

Boom. Roasted.

I have some recipes coming up that incorporate this so take note!

Babbo

So I did it. I went to Babbo. Straight up, there is absolutely nothing frugal about anything I am about to write. It wasn't the most expensive meal I have ever eaten, but trust me it was up there. In order for me to properly communicate the essence of this meal I think I should start from the beginning.

On February 9, 2009 at 10 am, I began to call Babbo to make a reservation for March 9, 2009. That's right, a full month before the actually dining date. This meal was to be for the winner of the Top Chef challenge, the game that Jef and I play each season of Top Chef. We each pick four chefs and whoever wins gets to pick the place where the loser has to take them to dinner. We both agreed that Babbo was our restaurant of choice and since it was such a nice place we would split the bill no matter who the winner was (eh hem, ME.) So I psycho-dialed for 30 minutes till I finally spoke with someone and locked down the reservation.

Fast forward to March 9th. The day was finally here, everything in a month basically revolved around this reservation. I can remember on March 1st literally thinking "there's only 9 days left till Babbo..." So yeah, I guess you could say I was excited.

Our reservation was at 8:30 and since it's in the neighborhood Jef and I decided to walk there. So we set out all dolled up and arrived at about 8:25. We checked in and they told us there's a little wait for our table. FINE. We were there 5 minutes early, so I was ok with this. Slowly time starts to tick by and before I know it, its 8:45. Now normally this wouldn't have been that big of deal, but considering the hoops that I had to jump to make this reservation, you would think that they would be on time...but whatever, we were at BABBO.

Finally we are seated, and to be honest Jef and I didn't really even look at the menu, we knew what we wanted (mostly because we had been studying it...for a month) -- the tasting menu. Listen, if we were going to to go to Babbo, we were going to go all out. We ordered some wine and anxiously awaited for the first course to arrive. They give you a cute little card with all the courses on it so you don't get lost and know what's coming up. Below is what we dined on that night:

1. Culatello with Ramps and Pecorino
   


2. Pappardelle with Hedgehogs and Thyme
   


3. Duck Tortelli with "Sugo Finto"
   
   


4. Grilled Guinea Hen with Pumpkin Fregula and Black Truffle Vinaigrette



5. Coach Farm's Finest with Fennel Honey



6. "Crema con Mosto"



7. Chocolate "Tartufino"



8. Almond Torta with Brown Butter Gelato



9. Ricotta Cheesecake with strawberries, sweet cream and aceot mandori

Since reading this basically requires a dictionary I've hyperlinked most of the words that I didn't know, so if you have questions feel free to click on the links above and I'll do my best to explain below. Luckily the tasting menu online was pretty close to what we had that night so I knew what comprised most courses, but I definitely had to look about 25% of what we ate.

The only way I think that can truly take you through the experience is going course by course.

Course 1: Ah, course one. What a wonderful way to start the night off; Culatello with Ramps and Pecorino. The culatello (which is similar to prochuttio) was so tender and buttery it literally just melted in your mouth. It was presented as one large slice which encompassed the entire plate and was paper thin. Topped with pickled ramps (which are, to my understanding, onions) and pecorino cheese, it was utter perfection. Some bites had a little kick to them, which I really enjoyed. Jef said when he is rich he is going to order three orders of it because it was so good.

Course 2: Pappardelle with Hedgehogs and Thyme. Being half Italian I do love my pasta and thought this was an overall nice course. The mushrooms were meaty and the pasta was fresh. In my humble opinion the thyme was just a touch strong and in the scheme of the overall meal this was one of my least favorite courses. Again, nice, but I wouldn't order it.

Course 3: Duck Tortelli with "Sugo Finto." Even now as I sit here and write this all I can remember is feeling really, really heavy after I ate this. Which I have no idea if that was the intention, to the put the heaviest course early on, but I seriously finished eating it (I mean obviously I was going to clean my plate, duh!) and thought, ut oh, I might not be able to finish. Don't get me wrong I am sure that the course was cooked to perfection, but it was a bit lost of me since I was fighting the feeling of being too full.

Course 4: Grilled Guinea Hen with Pumpkin Fregula and Black Truffle Vinaigrette. "You go and do something like this…and totally redeem yourself!" I think that is really the only way to truly express this course. Redemption. Redemption for making me feel so full that I couldn't go on. But I infact did go on. I went on to savor the most delectable of all the courses we ate: the Guinea Hen. I knew enough about a Guinea Hen to know that it was a game bird, what I didn't know was how unbelievably awesome it was. Grilled to perfection, there was the perfect blend of fat and tender, succulent meat, that which ever fork full reminded me of why I am here. The pumpkin fregula and black truffle vinaigrette complimented the bird perfectly. My mouth is watering just thinking about this course. I would happily sell my first child to have that again, which probably isn't necessary since it's on the menu, but still if they ever take it off, bye, bye baby.

Course 5: Coach Farm's Finest with Fennel Honey. So when I was trying to figured this out online I could not for the life of me figure it out. Then once we got to dinner the light bulb clicked on and I realized this must be the cheese course! I love cheese, I love cheese like it's nobody's business. So this was a great course for me. A little slice of goat cheese and brie served with crunchy bread. Drizzle on a little honey, bam, delicious-ness. Definitely something that I am going to try at home!

Course 6: "Crema con Mosto." Ok, I still don't know what this exactly is, all I know is that had there not been other people around I would have gladly licked the little bowl that this cream from heaven arrived in. I swear, it was the creamiest thing I have ever eaten. So light for being cream and whatever "Mosto" is, is absolutely delicious. I want to say it's somehow related to chocolate, but I don't know. All I know is that my spoon was constantly hitting the side of the bowl as I tried to scrape for more.

Course 7: Chocolate "Tartufino." This course was good, I am not a huge chocolate person so it was kind of lost on me, but it was some delicious chocolate with a cherry inside. Surprise!

Course 8 and 9: Almond Torta with Brown Butter Gelato and Ricotta Cheesecake with strawberries, sweet cream and aceot mandori. Because apparently Jef and I look like the people who like to eat, we were brought two separate desserts and thankfully our server did. The dessert we were originally suppose to both get was the Almond Torta which was a cake made with olive oil. This was a fail in my book. The cake was a little dry for me and the brown butter sage sauce reminded me too much of the raviolis that made for valentines day. The cheesecake on the other hand, I could have eaten for days. There was a gram cracker-like crust on the top, and it gave the creamy text of the actual cake a really nice crunch. Honestly, one of the best cheesecakes I have ever had. The perfect way to end the night (especially since the server put that dessert in front of me.)

I will say a couple of things took me by surprise though, #1 was how unconcerned the host seemed to be about us not having our table on time, I don't know why but that really irked me #2 Out of all nine course, I really feel like the Guinea Hen course was the only one really well explained. I mean, I would have liked to known a little more about what I was putting in my mouth, especially after how much money I was paying!

With that said, this was truly a night to remember, we saw some celebrities (most notable Jorma from Lonely Island and SNL skits) and dined like them too. My applogies for the lack of photos, I felt a little weird snapping pictures of the food since it was so nice, but I got the best courses before I even knew they were the best! Ha!

Would I go back to Babbo? Absolutely. Do the tasting menu again? Sure, so long as I am not paying :)

Babbo

110 Waverly Pl
New York, NY 10011

(212) 614-6670

Chelsea Market

Living in New York provides me with the unique possibility of visiting some of the top markets in the world. My affinity for food has only grown further by having the freshest produce available. I don't know if I will stay here forever, but I do know that wherever I go they better have a decent market. 

Anyways here are some pictures I took a couple of weeks ago of Chelsea Market, home to the Food Network, so you know everything in there must be good! Enjoy!