Chez Christine

Grandmother's House

I've been tagged by Jo for a meme at the Dancing Deer Baking Company for their "Sweet Home" initiative:

Dancing Deer’s Sweet Home Initiative raises money for scholarships to help educate homeless women and end family homelessness. As a part of this initiative, our CEO, Trish Karter, will be riding her bike 1,500 miles from Atlanta to Boston, visiting family shelters in each city to raise awareness about this issue. She’ll also be recording stories from the women she meets along the way, asking them about their experiences. One question she’ll ask them are what foods remind them of home. (See more here.)

Trying to pick something reminding me of home was actually more difficult than I expected, given how I grew up in a family that loved food.  Food was the central theme at my grandmother's house, where we ate dinner at least 4 - 5 times a week growing up.  She loved to cook and expected family to be around, and my parents happily obliged.

If we didn't eat at grandma's, we ate out.  My dad was the one who always initiated going to new restaurants, trying new foods, and reasoned that it was too much of a bother to shop, cook, and clean up when there were so many inexpensive restaurants around.  So even though both my parents are great cooks, home-cooked food always evokes memories of grandma.

There was always a common theme for dinner: white rice, stir-fried dishes, steamed dishes, vegetables, sometimes Chinese BBQ takeout, and always a soup, usually loaded with a flavorful broth and soup bones I would gnaw on.  She always managed to get multiple dishes onto the table at the same time, steaming hot- sometimes I think my sense of cooking timing and mise en place comes from her.  Her best trick was to keep food warm in the electric rice cooker, sitting atop a wire rack. 

When we all pitched in to move the food from the kitchen to the dining room table, I always liked the job of opening up the rice cooker and seeing what was inside.  There could be anything from steamed spareribs to a whole steamed fish, sometimes chicken stewed with Chinese sausage and black mushrooms, or one of my favorites, minced pork with water chestnuts.  After moving the hot fragrant dish to the table, I'd gingerly remove the rack with a pair of chopsticks, then use the chopsticks to fluff the rice.  God forbid I used the rice paddle/scooper to fluff the rice, I'd get a quick admonishment for doing so.  I think she thought that fluffing rice with something flat would mess up the texture.

In any case, after being fortunate to always have a meal with multiple dishes, our meals would end with her famous soups, always flavorful and fresh, nourishing and a true sign of a great cook who was resourceful yet demanded the freshest ingredients from her daily trips to Chinatown.

So while yes, there are lots of specific dishes that might remind me of home, the steam and smell that emanates out of a rice cooker, sometimes with a little surprise sitting on top of it, is what reminds me of home the most.  Home was grandmother's house, her beaming proudly from the head of the table, while the rest of the family quickly emptied the platters of food she labored over everyday.

Bon Appétit!

db Bistro Moderne Bridal Shower

12 days and counting until the big day, eek!  But I guess it's not to late to talk about Bridal Shower #1.  I'm lucky to have received two showers since we have such great family and friends on each coast.

Day 2 in New York City was great, with one of the major factors being that I didn't have to plan anything!  The location of my bridal shower was kept a secret, and I was led to the special destination, db Bistro Moderne!

11 lovely ladies were there ready to celebrate and have a good time, with fresh flowers and adorable L.A. Burdick Chocolate Mice favors at each place.  Our party of 12 fit perfectly in the little side alcove of the main dining room, making it feel private but not removed from the other guests.

It was such a treat to have my shower at this restaurant, and we had such a difficult time deciding what to order.  Remembering my last time there and the amazing Escargots and Chicken Oysters Friccassée, I jumped when the server said the soup of the day was leek and potato with frogs' legs.  Creamy and with a hint of garlic, it was satisfying and simple, just what I needed since I had deliberately skipped breakfast.

The came our entrées.  My rockin' maid of honor (the other H in my life) ordered the lamb tagine, which was earthy, sweet and savory at the same time:

I chose the lobster salad, with avocado and hearts of palm.  While all the ingredients were stellar, it was seriously underdressed.  In fact, the only dressing was the drizzle over the top.  Poor dressing technique always bothers me, but the other aspects of the dish were still great.

Then came the fun part: presents!  During presents we also ordered dessert.  Since it was still winter, not much fruit was on the menu, so  I chose the chocolate-peanut-banana combination.  Yum.  The peanut ice cream was really nice, especially with the caramlized bananas.

A few mimosas, great company, delicious food, and a wonderful occasion to celebrate.  My bridesmaids sure know how to throw a bridal shower!

db Bistro Moderne
55 West 44th St.
New York, NY 10036

Bon Appétit!

Momofuku - Finally

Every time I go to New York City, I come back completely exhilarated yet exhausted.  There are too many places to try out, too many to revisit, too many to just stumble upon and relish in the discovery.

I went for a long weekend at the end of February for one of my bridal showers (yes, more than one - it's what happens when you have family & friends on both coasts).  Although the nicest part of the trip was seeing my best friend and other friends & family, eating and wandering was a close second.  And like the last trip, it was nonstop.

After taking a quick red-eye, I checked into the hotel and searched for breakfast, walking in unusually balmy weather before tucking into a baguette at Le Pain Quotidien.  The communal tables, bowls of coffee, and pots of jam and hazelnut-chocolate spread were just what I needed to settle into the trip.  Nothing too fancy, yet definitely not what I eat every morning to make it feel special.

I stopped hyperventilating and gasping at the prices for shoes at Neiman Marcus and made my first discovery of the trip: a chocolate café on the shoe floor!  I don't remember the name of it, but it actually has a conveyor belt loaded with glass domes of pastries going around the counter, with a few tables and a storefront of boxed chocolates.  Who knew?  It's a nice quiet place to get a sugar fix.

I succumbed to the temptation to crawl into bed and take a nap, then decided to find myself a late lunch, namely the Grand Central Oyster Bar.   As much as I loved the ambiance, the history, and watching the cook make my oyster pan roast in the weird contraption, the pan roast was much too rich for me and didn't come close to what I expected something called a pan roast to be.  Still, I loved the atmosphere and subsequently made my second discovery of the day, the Grand Central Market.  It's nice to know that Manhattan has such a fabulous place right in its heart.

The evening began with meeting up with the girls and having my first Momofuku experience.  Yes, my first ever Momofuku food - I think I've been living in a cave or something.  It took me long enough, but I think I kept secretly hoping to eat the legendary Bo Ssam as my first David Chang bite.  That will have to wait for another trip, but we hung out for a bit at Momofuku Bakery next door, amazed at how packed it was for a bakery on Friday night while we waited for a table at Momofuku Ssam.

Maybe we were giving off good vibes, maybe we were especially charming that night, but we ended up waiting only about 15 minutes on a Friday night at 8PM before we got a table.  Good table, good wine, good company, and adventurous eaters.  Here's what we ate, everything was spot-on and delicious, although the spicy rice cakes were a tad too spicy for all but the half-Korean in the group.

Oh, and the famous pork buns?  Every bit as good as rumored, so good that we placed two orders and then got another order to split as dessert.  Go figure.

Since it was dark, my pictures came out blurry and most can't be posted, but suffice to say that yes, we had a bowl of deep fried shrimp heads.  Yum.  I think we even joked about serving them at the wedding but decided that wouldn't be a good idea.  We were a little disappointed they wouldn't let us order dessert from the bakery next door, but we ordered one thing off the menu and it was great, lots of textural differences and really interesting (but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was).

Ending the night at Pegu Club for cocktails was the best idea.  It almost seems hidden, yet was jam-packed when we got there and remained so the whole night.  I immediately could tell this was a serious cocktail bar when my drink arrived with Kold-Draft ice cubes in it.  I won't go into it in this post, but suffice to say the classes I saw John Gertsen do at Stir gave me my first education in the importance of ice in drinks.

Stumbled back to the hotel and it was as end to another night in New York City.  Next up, the bridal shower!

Bon Appétit!