Emilio's Ballato

Tonight was Round 2 with Emilio's Ballato on Houston between Mott and Mulberry. The first time I ate here was a Thursday night with 4 friends. We sat around one of the few tables in the narrow dining room that stretches back from the Houston-facing front door and filled the next 2 hours sipping Emilio's fine red wine (I think he actually makes and bottles it), indulging in several of his mouthwatering classic appetizers and entrees including meatballs and eggplant parmesan, enjoying great conversation and at the end of the night, we received a special tour of the new private dining room and downstairs club renovations. Talk about Italian hospitality.

This time around I took my order back to the apartment and found that the food was just as magnificent out of house as it was in house. While there was definitely magic to the dining in experience, the majority of it comes from the food. Tonight we ordered the broccoli rabe, arugula salad with oranges, fennel and meyer lemon vinaigrette, tagliatelle bolognese, and linguine with clams in a white wine garlic sauce.

Though these may sound like pretty standard Italian dishes you could find anywhere on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, the quality of ingredients makes them anything but standard. Exceptional is the word. The bolognese reminded me a lot of Capo's rigatoni with truffle meat sauce in Santa Monica, where the meat is rich but not heavy, the weight of the sauce kept in check by the light oils and absence of tomato. For the linguine with clams, what stood out the most to me was the pasta itself. I often don't think too much about pasta quality but this stuff was so good that it made me pay attention. The tagliatelle pasta in the bolognese was equally as premium--both pastas made into soft dough with a little bit of gluten elasticity but not so much that it sticks and bounces like a rubber band as so many dry pastas from the grocery store do. I wasn't surprised to discover later that they make their pasta from scratch every day. Moving onto the broccoli rabe. The rabe was super green--greener than spinach--and sauteed with olive oil, thick slices of garlic, and red pepper flakes. The arugula salad's soft, sweet, not-too-tangy meyer lemon vinaigrette was the complement of all complements to the peppery fresh arugula leaves (wouldn't be surprised if they got the arugula from a local source) and crunchy light shavings of fennel. I was practically drinking the leftover juices from the salad. Actually I did.....

Of all the Italian restaurants in this city I've tried, I must say Ballato and Babbo are tops. There are so many I've been to that imitate the rustic menus of cheese plates, cured meat plates, pizzas, pastas, ensalate and frankly, I'm getting a little bored with them. They're great don't get me wrong but when you see the same thing over and over, it feels less special. The novelty wears off after a while. Otto Pizzeria was the 1st of those types of Italian restaurants I ever went to and I'll never stop loving it but I think there's just too many copycats in the city these days. They'll never be able to make me feel like I'm eating in a hillside trattoria in old Italy like Ballato and Babbo do.

2 Champagne Cocktails Taste Test

I'm always eager to read over cocktail menus especially since these are the revival days of the mixologist, where bartenders receive as much acclaim for their inventions as four star chefs. The drinks with the most exotic ingredients grab my attention first but in the end it's usually the simplest drink I like the most. This was the case for 2 champagne cocktails I had at the Gramercy Park Hotel last night.

1st up: the James Bond
Hennessey Cognac, Orange Curacao, a splash of pineapple and fresh lime topped with Prosecco

2nd: classic Champagne cocktail
Champagne, bitters, cube of sugar

I preferred #2. I had high hopes for the James Bond--which wasn't too different than the classic--but the juices overpowered the other flavors in the flute making it too sugary and less fizzy. When you have such a little space to work with, balance and proportion is crucial to nail. You can get away with mistakes in a pitcher but not so much in a delicate glass like a flute.

I was also enamored with the way the sugar cube dissolved in the bottom, adding more bubbles to the visual.

Does Searing Seal In The Juices?

The short answer is no, and before I go any further let me admit that I stole all of this information from an episode of Good Eats. That being said, it doesn’t take a TV show host to taste the inherent goodness of a properly seared protein. Alton proved that when you sear a piece of meat and then cook it to the same temperature as a similar sized un-seared piece of the same meat, the seared piece actually weighs less, thus proving that it did not help with the retention of moisture.

This is where the issue becomes more complex. While searing may not seal in the juices, it does contribute a great deal to flavor and appearance. A well seared piece of beef, chicken, poultry, fish etc looks much more appetizing than a protein that has just been put in the oven to roast, and we do eat with our eyes first. However, the most important part of searing is the flavor it imparts. The caramelized surface of a well seared protein creates depth of flavor and a contrast of texture that is a key to the enjoyment of a dish.

I sear almost any protein that I cook, whether it’s something delicate like a piece of salmon, something simple like a chicken breast, or something bigger like a pork tenderloin or even a pork shoulder. Searing your meat is the first step in creating a flavorful dish. So, should you be searing your meat? Yes, but maybe not for the reason you thought.
-J

Drinking on an Empty Stomach

There are a lot of food myths out there; the danger of drinking on any empty stomach is not one of them. Countless studies have proven that the rate of intoxication increases when you have not had much to eat. Eating stems the tide of intoxication, because it decreases the rate of your body’s alcohol absorption. By decreasing your body’s metabolization of alcohol, your stomach contents also decrease the amount of alcohol in your blood stream, which is a nice little tidbit for those who try to push the limits of the law.

I did my own research Friday night. It was no double blind study; actually it all happened by accident. I started drinking as soon as I got off of work, and kept putting off dinner. By the time 9 o’clock rolled around, I was heading off to bed instead of spending the rest of the night with my friends. Not only did this miscalculation affect my night negatively, it led to quite the unpleasant feeling when I woke up the next day. So remember, never drink on an empty stomach, especially if you plan on having more than a couple.
-J

NYC Pimm's Cup Winner

I tried a Pimm's cup at the Spotted Pig and Madame Geneva on Bleecker. To my surprise, Madame Geneva served the better glass. Spotted Pig's was too watered down.

Spotted Pig Gnudi & Burger

BP and I hit up Spotted Pig for dinner at the bar last week. First up was the sheep's milk ricotta stuffed gnudi with brown butter sauce and crispy sage. Next was the burger cooked medium rare on a brioche bun with rosemary and fried garlic seasoned shoestring fries. If you read my post about the mochi balls, the gnudi was fashioned with the same fundamental structure but instead of rice flour and ice cream, it's potato pasta and creamy cheese. If you think about it, this kind of formula does well across all cuisines if the translations are pierogies, spring rolls, samosas, etc.

I mentioned the Spotted Pig in my Breslin post as they share the same head chef, April Bloomfield. The Spotted Pig takes the same British gastropub approach and similarly turns up the notch on richness and flavor in their dishes. I once had brunch here and nearly passed out on my walk home. A fully cleaned plate of 2 fried duck eggs (which are twice the size of chicken eggs) over a fried chicken liver hash did me in faster than a plate of country ham and grits. Phew. Decadent and health hazardous, but never disappointing.

Next time I go back I'm going to be a little more adventurous and try their roll mops which the bartender told us was pickled herring. Doesn't sound very appetizing but you never know.

Fun Fact

Another fun fact I learned in the wine class. Monks are who we can thank for wine. They started growing vines in France way back when and they were the ones who determined which estates got the "grand cru" classification.