Dinner for 2: $68.00

The ramen craze has pretty much passed by the part of Brooklyn where I live, until now.  When I learned that a noodle bar had opened up within walking distance of my apartment I absolutely had to check it out. No matter that it was a hot and sunny day.

Zuzu is a cute little spot occupying a lonely corner on 4th avenue in what real estate agents would probably call Park Slope but which really isn’t. 4th avenue is not a particularly attractive area with four lanes of commercial traffic whizzing by. It is generally a street you cross quickly to get to Park Slope on the eastern side or Gowanus/Carroll Gardens to the west. Nevertheless the restaurant was quite busy on a Friday night and its a good thing we arrived on the early side as people were waiting for tables by the time our food arrived.

You sit on tall stools around tiny tables, or if you’re on your own you can sit at the bar and watch the action in the open kitchen. The open kitchen would be good entertainment for a single diner because there is simply not enough light to read by unless you get seated at one of the larger tables by the window (unlikely if you are on your own).

Our friendly waitress – who had some incredible multicolored thing going on with her eyelashes – recommended a Ramune soft drink which she described as having a hint of bubblegum. Not normally a flavor I seek out in a beverage but the fact that you have to pop a glass marble into the bottle to get the carbonation going was enough to sucker me in for a try. It did indeed have a hint, a perfume perhaps, of bubblegum but was actually quite nice.

To start we split an order of mini pork buns. I was expecting a standard chinese style bun but what they delivered was more like a sandwich using steamed bun dough as the bread.

Mini Pork Buns with Braised Pork Shoulder, Scallions, Cucumber & Sweet Chili Sauce

The pork with the pickled cucumber and chili sauce go together very well though the sandwich configuration makes it one hell of a mess to eat.  Do not order this if you are wearing pastels.

The menu described the signature Zuzu ramen as having a smokey dashi broth.  I’ve never seen a dashi broth described as smokey so of course I had to give it a try.

‘ZuZu’ Ramen with Charshu, Slow Cooked Egg, Bamboo Shoots & Seasonal Vegetables in a Smokey Dashi Broth

The photo here doesn’t really do the soup justice but the light was so low that I needed to use the flash in order to get anything other than shadows. The charsiu was good, not great though. The noodles were nice and fresh and there was a generous helping. Smokey turned out to be an apt description of the broth. It was quite unusual and enjoyable. The broth really elevated the ramen from ok to really good.

All in all it was a good solid bowl of ramen.  I prefer Minca in Manhattan but the next time I feel like noodles and I am loathe to hop on the subway I will drop in again.

Zuzu Ramen
173 4th. Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Recommend by Eating in Translation

It goes without saying that I find a lot of the restaurants I try by reading other food blogs. One of my all time favorites is Eating in Translation. Dave Cook manages to try an unbelievable number of restaurants, stores, events, etc and I check his site daily for inspiration for new food adventures. And I can honestly say his site has never steered me to a bad meal.

So last weekend when the Alsatian and I were planning an epic walk from our place in Brooklyn to Union Square I checked the blog out for a good place to go in Chinatown – which conveniently was at the midway point of our walk.   I am a sucker for a good bowl of noodles so we decided to try some tasty hand pulled ones.

Lunch for two: $12.50

About 3 miles into our 6.5 mile route we stopped in to refuel at this diminutive restaurant.  The friendly waitress showed us to one end of a long communal table with a couple at the other end eagerly slurping away at their lunch.  From our spot we had a perfect vantage point to watch the actual hand pulling of the noodles.

If you’ve never seen noodles being hand pulled it is quite a fascinating sight.  I would love to know exactly how it is that a single blob of dough becomes a pile of thin noodles without any pasta machine or knives of any kind – it is a pretty amazing process that involves some considerable dexterity which I almost certainly lack.  There is a lot of twisting and twirling and voila noodles. 

You can get any style of noodle they offer with any topping in soup or dry (fried). We started with an order of shredded pork chop knife pealed noodles which as the name might suggest are cut rather than pulled.  I have to admit I was a little disappointed when they placed the dish down in front of us but it what it lacked in color it made up for in taste.   It was actually quite good and we left nothing on the plate.

Shredded Pork Chop Knife Pealed Noodles

Eating in Translation mentioned being underwhelmed with the quality of the fishballs so we opted for short ribs in our soup instead.  It looked really promising when it hit the table.   A generous portion of noodles, greens and short ribs.

Shredded Pork Chop Knife Pealed Noodles

When I tasted the soup I thought the noodles were yummy and as fresh as could be but the broth was a little thin on flavor. I must’ve been giving off some kind of disappointment vibe because the waitress bolted over to point out the fresh cilantro and chili sauce on the table.   These additions really made the meal.   The sauce was a chili sesame mix that was fantastic and really added a punch to the soup.  This turned the soup from ok to really good.

Chilli Sauce that I really loved

We left rested and fueled up and ready to finish our walk. This would be a perfect place to come on your own though don’t expect to have a table all to yourself if you do.

Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles
1 Doyers St
New York, NY 10013

Dinner for 3 grownups and one adorable 3 year old: £130 (including wine and after dinner drinks)

There are some restaurants you follow from afar.  Restaurants in countries that you don’t live in and might never visit but that you know about and dream about eating in.   St John’s in London is one such restaurant for me. Despite the inordinate amount of time I spend in London for some reason I’ve never managed to make it to either of Fergus Henderson’s restaurants until now.

St. John’s is famous in culinary circles everywhere for being a proponent of snout to tail eating – popularizing the less expensive and glamorous cuts of meat and emphasizing local and seasonal produce.   Just my kind of place. Luckily I have a good friend who has lived near Spitalfield’s market for over a decade and St. John’s is kind of their local joint.   So when I did a tiny favor of carrying over some small items from New York that were ludicrously overpriced in London I received an invite to eat at St. John’s Bread and Wine (the more casual of the two locations) as a thank you.  I will gladly be a pack mule for any friends who return favors in such an outsize manner.

The space is spare and casual. We arrived for an early dinner as 3 year olds turn into gremlins if you feed them after 8. At the beginning of the meal it was nice and quiet making conversation easy. By the time we left to room was so loud we were yelling at each other across the table. This is a great place for groups but maybe not a spot for a cozy romantic meal. I suspect the other location may be the better for a date.

The menu at St. John’s changes daily depending upon what is available and fresh, so even though my friends had eaten there countless times there were items that were new to them. I love restaurants where the menu changes so often they simply print the menu off every day on inexpensive paper. A leather bound menu often indicates a bored kitchen staff making the same routine meals day in and day out. This does not appear to be an issue at St. John’s.

We ordered a number of the smaller items and one main course to share. Our first dish was a plate of steamed whole langoustines with house made mayonnaise which were so gorgeous that we all gobbled them down before I remembered to take a photo of them.

The next dish was the first of what turned out to be a good selection of vegetarian items on the menu – a whole roasted head of garlic with fresh goat cheese and toast.

New Season's Garlic & Goat's Curd

The garlic was so sweet and creamy and the whole head was so infused with oil (in a good way) that I suspect it was more a confit of garlic rather than a standard roasting in foil or a dish.   It was a fantastic combination with the fresh cheese.  I  have since come home and roasted garlic to serve with goat’s cheese – to great acclaim.

The next veggie friendly item and surprisingly my favorite dish of the night was a ramson (ramps) and white bean soup.  We had all expected a pale bean dominated soup to arrive at the table and therefore when the waitress put this incredible verdant green concoction down in front of us we all stared at it for a few minutes before eating it. It was fantastic. It only occurred to me later that ramson are ramps – one of my favorite of the first items available in the green markets in the northeast US in early spring.   The soup was simply divine with that pungent onion/garlic hybrid taste of the ramps.

Ramson & White Bean Soup

After the vegetarian dishes we were served foie gras & duck liver toast which was quite tasty.   Next came cold spring lamb with herbs which was again quite lovely.

Spring lamb with herbs

A second lamb dish Speckled Face Lamb & Purple Sprouting Broccoli was just scrumptious.  My favorite thing about the lamb dishes is that the lamb tasted lamby. These lambs had lived out in a field somewhere eating grass. I really like lamb and mutton for that matter – especially when they don’t have that generic meat taste you are often served these days. This was not generic grain fed lamb.

The last dish was a bit of an homage to the neighborhood’s Jewish history – Salt Beef & Pickles.

I’d never even heard of this dish before and it doesn’t resemble any American Jewish deli item I could recall and I can recall a LOT of deli. It was as good as it was odd looking. A robust corned beef flavor with sweet pickles. Oh so good.

I had hoped to sample their deserts but at this point I was so stuffed I could barely stay upright. I will make a return visit specifically for their Eccles Cakes.

This is a place you need to book in advance for dinner but you can always stop by to pick up their fresh baked breads and brownies or a nice bottle of wine.  They also serve breakfast and lunch, which makes me want to just show up one morning for breakfast and just stay all day through all three meals.

One of my dinner companions that night has said one of the truest things I think I’ve heard about London. The country has the most incredible produce – vegetables, meats, cheeses and so on and so many restaurants in London seem to go out of their way to ruin it all. St. John’s serves you the best of what is produced in Britain and it does it so simply and so well that it was one of my favorite London dining experiences to date.

St. John’s Bread and Wine
94-96 Commercial Street
London E1 6LZ

Meal for 1: £55.00 (for 3 courses, wine and tea)

The Wallace Collection is a small museum in Mayfair that is often listed in good London guide books but which luckily doesn’t seem to be popular with the teeming hordes you find at the changing of the guard. Originally recommended by a friend in response to an offhand comment that I must have been to every museum in London (impossible of course) it has become one of my favorite places to spend a quiet afternoon.

The museum itself houses the fine and decorative arts, arms and armor collected by an English aristocratic family in the 18th and 19th centuries. There are some great items in the collection including a few very famous paintings. There is also a horde of swords and pokers and other sharp pointy things which are always fun to look at. My favorite part of the museum however is the restaurant/café in the covered courtyard in the center of the museum.

The Wallace Restaurant has two sections – a very casual café with a less expensive and smaller menu – which is good for a light lunch or snack, and the restaurant with a more up market menu and prices. Both occupy the same sunny space. On this day I decided to treat myself and headed for the restaurant.

The maitre d’ seated me in a quiet corner table which had a comfy cushioned bench and a pillow for me to cuddle up to. He did not seem at all put out to be seating me by myself in jeans, a sweatshirt and sneakers. There were plenty of diners who were dressed for a nice meal, but just as many who displayed the same complete lack of effort as me.

Sweetbreads a La Normande

My first course was Ris de Veau a La Normande – pan fried sweetbreads on toast with anchovies, cherry tomatoes and capers. This was my first time eating sweetbreads. Strange as this may sound they remind me of tofu. They have a texture of their own, but such a mild flavor that eating them is really all about the sauce which in this case was yummy.

After nearly 35 years of not eating scallops I have suddenly found myself in a mad love affair with them. I think my former disdain of them really stemmed not from the scallops themselves but with the people who prepared them. An overcooked scallop is an evil, vile, horrible thing. But a properly cooked scallop is one of the most delicious things you can eat. I ordered Les Coquilles Saint Jacques – scallops braised with Savoy cabbage and Alsatian bacon, hoping that the chef wouldn’t cook them to death.

Scallops with Savoy cabbage and Alsatian Bacon

The chef did not ruin the scallops and in fact they were cooked perfectly – caramelized lightly on the outside but not cooked all the way through. This was a scallop at its best. And whoever it was that discovered that scallops and bacon love each other so much deserves a monument in their honor.

For desert I did something kind of out of character and ordered a dessert that I make myself and that I therefore know is dead simple to prepare. Fondant au chocolate et glace pistache – flowerless chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream. Now it does not take an awful lot of effort or even a deft hand to make a little molten chocolate cake but it is really important that you use a good quality chocolate.

Molten chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream

The little cake was scrumptious and once I cut into it with my fork its molten center oozed out perfectly. I’ll try something more interesting next time but I enjoyed this simple little desert.

In addition to the lovely meal, service at the Wallace is really good – which is virtually impossible to find in London. I found it disconcerting to have the waiter willingly making eye contact with me from across the room. For anyone who spends a lot of time in London this is all but unheard of at anything less than the best (read most expensive) restaurants. And this is ultimately the best thing about the Wallace. It is not a place to go for a cheap meal but it is not ridiculously expensive either, especially for the quality of the food, service and atmosphere.

The Wallace is a great place to come on your own for lunch or dinner. It would also be a great place to bring visiting friends or relatives for a slightly off the beaten tourist track museum visit and meal.

Book I was reading: The Day Wall Street Exploded

The Wallace Collection
Hertford House
Manchester Square London
W1U 3BN

Pie for 1: £ 4.40

In the midst of  my epicurean rampage through Borough Market last Saturday I did manage to purchase some food that I did not gobble down right there on the spot.  One of the places I shopped at was the Pieminister stand.

Pieminister Stand in Borough Market

I am waiting for the day when doctors tell us that the secret to a long and healthy life is a diet that relies heavily on pie and mash.  Meat pies are not really a big thing in the States which is genuinely a shame.  I am always on the look out for a good one when in London which explains why I have been putting on weight lately.

With names like Chicken of Aragon and Mr. Porky I wasn’t quite sure about Pieminister.  I mean they looked quite nice but Chicken of Aragon?  After perusing my options I settled on a pie described as a seasonal variety – the Deerstalker.  I was a little concerned by the presence of lentils in the filling as this was edging toward healthy eating. The rest of the ingredients; Venison (hence the name), Cattechino sausage, bacon, juniper and thyme convinced me that this pie would in fact be heart disease inducing enough to be worth a try, so I overlooked the lentils.

Deerstalker

My flat in London has a proper oven so luckily I was not reduced to nuking the poor thing – something I would not really recommend.

Let’s start with the filling.  I was right about the lentils – they were a distraction really.  Its a meat pie – the filling should consist of meat! I suspect that the lentils were just there as filler so that they could get away with putting less venison in as they did not add anything to the experience. The venison itself was nice and tasty.  I think minus the lentils and with a little more meat it would have been very good.

The pastry however was just fabulous.  Flakey and buttery and just exquisite.  I would definitely try another Pieminister pie – one without lentils or greens or any kind of pretense at genuine nutrition however.

Pieminister Stall
Borough Market
8 Southark St
London, SE1 1TL