Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts

Brooklyn NYC - Day 3

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Let's just pretend we haven't skipped a beat with our blogging, and now we're magically onto our Saturday food adventures in NYC. And boy did we pack in a lot of food! After a full afternoon and evening of photographing a wedding in Brooklyn and at Bubby's, we got up pretty early to hit up the flea markets out in Williamsburg. But before we got on the G line train, we walked into "dough" for a healthy breakfast, DONUTS! these donuts are really the size of small cakes, but they came with high recommendation so we each had to have one. May had the Earl Grey Chocolate and I had the the Blood Orange which you see in the photo. Slightly denser than most Canadian donuts that we eat, there was a very satisfying chew in texture; but at the end of the day i'd have to say the draw to these donuts are their very unique flavours. The lineups all over speak for themselves.

After a quick visit to Artist & Flea, we walked right to the water's edge for Smorgasburg. My kinda market, this otherwise clear park space was full of food vendors. A wide range tents serving ready made food of all sorts. Anything you can imagine it was all there, we are talking about grilled cheeses, beef jerky, ramen noodles, tempeh, smokehouse bbq sandwiches, smoores, pickles, yes everything. After a long deliberation we shared a lobster roll and schnitzel. At $16, the lobster roll from Red Hook Lobster Pound was good, but not particularly unique. But holy schnitz! that pretzel bun schnitzel was likely one of the best sandwiches we've ever had. Called the "Bamberg", the chicken had a parsley panko crust, with cucumber daikon and carmelized onion mustard. boomshakalaka! this is a must for everyone.

We spent the late afternoon walking the amazing Highline and exploring around Chelsea before we eventually made our way to Eataly. What is Eataly you ask? well it is this amazing Italian food emporium that prior to this trip i read so much about through the new york times. Look, if Mario Batali is involved, you should have high expectations and that it definitely met. Just imagine every kind of inspiring and delicious food venues squashed into one big space. We're talking about aisles of imported and freshly made italian foods, specialized grocery selection, culinary and wine classes, and multiple food stations/restaurants serving up delicious eats. I was initially worried how pretentious this kind of place might be, but if you can appreciate the level of quality a place like this delivers; Eataly is an extremly lively and socially engaging space. It was noisy, crowded but everyone was excited by food in all ways imaginable and we were no different. We eventually found a bar infront of a pizza oven. May had the Salsicciotta, which was a Napolettana pizza with smoked provola cheese, mushrooms, neapolitan sausage and fresh basil. I had the Rigatoni with sweet sausage, tomato, grana padano, pecorino and bitter greens. Simply perfection; so good infact that our oohs and ahhs convinced the people next to me to order the same thing, true story. And like every good evening, we ended it off with pistacio and coconut gelato, yes sir.

Do you like the places we visited? Don't forget to visit our NYC google map for all the locations we've visited and more!

All Seafood Everything

Woa hello there! its been a while since we've posted. We've had a pretty busy summer so far, lots of things to share and post, so stay tuned. Today's meal post is circled around our favourite protein, the seafood. haha.

crab cakes
May's favourite! crab cakes, made with fresh crab meat, crackers, mayonaise, red peppers, dill and panko crust. an egg to bind

cous cous shrimp salad
a simple cous cous salad with shrimp, that we de-shelled

shrimp mac n' cheese

shrimp mac n' cheese
who doesn't love mac n' cheese? we had a craving one night and decided to make one in a cast iron pot. A simple Bechamel sauce made with swiss cheese, added to macaroni, shrimp and cauliflower.

Enoteca Sociale

Some of you may know, the better half of 4417 celebrated her birthday this weekend!  Yes, we packed the long weekend with cleaning, gardening, shopping, lobsters, brunch, and bowling; more on that later.  This post is about a birthday dinner, just the two of us at a restaurant we've been salivating over for a long time now.  We've failed to get a reservation a few times now, so this time i made no mistake an planned two weeks in advance.

enoteca1
we like the light hearted, homey, family feel of the space
enoteca2
we started with the special, suckling pig rillette with a pickled mustard seed dressing.  the arancini con stracciatella is a riceball served with arugula and carmalized onion.
enoteca3
house made pappardelle with ontario goat ragu
enoteca4
ontario rainbow trout with dandilion and pearl onions, and a N'djua & clams dish
enoteca5
i promise you, she's very happy and extremely full, but dessert is on its way!
enoteca6
i had the budino, which is a chocolate mousse/pudding with seat salt and a hazelnut merigue
enoteca7
may had the tiramisu.  chef rocco's version is made with blood orange zest and prosecco.

Wow wow wow, what a celebration meal, it felt like it was my birthday too.  Maybe it was because we had some truely well executed homestyle Roman food that we really connected with, but i think we both agree our server, Scott really added to our dining experience.  He took the time to carefully explain each dish, and made suggestions on why we might want to choose certain dishes in combination with each other.  He helped us pick out wines that suited our taste, and he gently convinced me that I probably couldn't finish all that i wanted to order, haha.  The warm neighbourly service and cozy down to earth dining room was definitely refreshing as it contrasts the slightly tenser environment we've experienced at pizza libretto in the past (same owner).

The dishes were all very well thought out, relying on simple ideas and quality ingredients.  There is clear presence of local ingredients in the menu, the fish dish reminded me why rainbow trout is probably one of the most forgotten and underrated proteins ontario has to offer.  The obvious high note in our meal for me was the pappardelle as the pasta had the perfect chew only roman's know about and the goat ragu is braised to an almost silky texture without any gamey flavours.  And birthday girl will now be suggesting we go to enoteca sociale every week for her favourite tiramisu, it was simply the best we've had.

Thank you for an amazing and memorable meal, and happy birthday may!

pasta love

woah first off, happy 2011! its been a crazy year of transition, change and in my case personally frustration. I think I can speak for both of us by saying that we welcome some stability and new surroundings this coming year. Its gonna be a big year, and we wish you all well.

Pasta! we bought a pasta maker! and instead of rolling it all out by hand, we've got a nice manual crank to do the job. $20! what a deal! I'm still in love with this thing, and here are some recent creations. We've made ravioli filled with lobster, buttercup squash, mushroom+ricotta as well as linguini. Sure it does take up time, but its a great way to socialize while cooking together with family and friends. And the texture and taste is incomparable!

pasta love
makign the pasta dough, we've used this recipe. we found semolina (durum) flour at bulk barn, although most large grocery stores should carry it also.

pasta love
rolling the dough out is a lot harder than you'd think, without a pasta maker.

pasta love
we made our filling, and portioned it off. having random ravioli shapes adds personality =]

pasta love
we seal off the edge with the edges of our forks

pasta love
and voila! mushroom ravioli with a sundried tomato sauce.

pasta love
and one out-of-focus photo of our ricotta-squash linguine topped with pea shoots and panchetta.

Lobster Ravioli

Lobster Ravioli



This is our first time making fresh pasta I think. The recipe called for semolina flour, but we just winged it with all purpose flour, and surprisingly, it turned out really well!

For filling, we used lobster, bought from Foodie mart for $8 for two! Incredible deal. I don't actually know what else is in there, maybe Gabe can fill in for that. We also made yam filling, which turned out to be delicious too.

After having a difficult time rolling out pasta dough, Gabe bought a pasta maker, and we've been making a lot of fresh pasta ever since! Stay tuned for more pasta adventures.

as seen at canteen

my brother and I treated my family to dinner at Oliver & Bonacini's latest, Canteen in the new TIFF building. The menu was simple and tasty, the service team was noticebly novice but not terrible. It is definitely my kind of place, not too pretentious, but still a refined, comforting and soulful meal. I'm sharing my favourite dishes of the night.

as seen at canteen
love the little Le Cruset. this is french onion soup, that isn't overly salty as it always is when eating out. the cheese is Gruyère is sharp and aromatic.

as seen at canteen
the chicken liver is brilliant! the current compote is a perfect sweet compliment. at $8 this is the best deal in the house.

as seen at canteen
my dad ordered the meatball pasta and i want to find a way to make meatballs like this at home. reminds me of the meatballs i'd order at Fusaro's when i worked near there back in the day.

as seen at canteen
braised lamb and gnocci. well seasoned, the braising juice has deep flavours. The Gnocci isn't as fluffy bouncy as the gnocci at Quince, but I still enjoyed it. A larger portion would be better, or at least the addition of a squash or veggie.

sorry no dessert photos! we were too quick to finish them up before i even though of taking any photos. the Soma brownie is a no brainer and the Espresso Affagato is something i'd love to have everynight after dinner.

the only thing i'll add is that i've been there since again once more and noticed some dishes weren't as good as my first visit. the french onion soup was much saltier for example. I hope this quick convenient food joint serves consistently in the future.

random meals

i have a few random food thoughts and meals to share, and they dont really follow any specific thematic but here it is =]

grandma's favourite
i'm pretty sure this is grandma's favourite breakfast.. only i had it this one morning. i think she likes the syrup.. i mean.. duh, who doesn't. I toast it so its just under being crunchy for her cuz that's how she likes it. I on the other hand like it crispy and crunchy.

big brother apple
even tho the left is a gala, and the right is according to foodie mart "red apple", somebody must messing with our fresh apples because this can't be natural.

compostable bag
how cool is this? the chip bag biodegrades in the landfill after 8 weeks (i think) according to the back of this bag.

breakfast sandwich
proably the most desired breakfast, the breakfast sandwich. must have cheese. must have an egg. and some kinda piggy meat. ie bacon or ham =]

just add ricotta
so there was some leftover tomato sauce and meatballs.. so i added some leftover ricotta (from the muffins we made) and basil leaves to kick it up a notch!

cooking mama
Hayden started cooking at a very young age

random mash ups

hello there, haven't posted in a while. we've been all over the place this past week and here are some meals we've been mashing up randomly while trying to eat up our pantry

panko breaded chicken breast, tomatoes, boccocini, basil on pasta
we breaded chicken breast with panko that was on sale, then added boccocini, tomatoes, sauce on pasta with basil. no leftovers here, but definately a random mash up of things

egg spam on rice
we made this dish with some left over rice and stir fry and completed it with a slice of spam with a hole of a fried egg inside! oh and that's a left over shrimp on top.. haha (like i said, mash up)

antipasto ham sandwich and split pea soup
some split pea soup from a previous meal, with a sandwich where i added a good layer of antipasto that we bought from costco

my lady is so good to me

so.. i've been busy working lately.. and without a doubt stressed out. it isn't going to end soon and could get worst.. and i am so lucky to have a lady that not only takes care of me, but does a pretty darn fantastic job. i'm pretty simple because all i need is a yummy meal and a loving heart, and i have that unconditionally.

tomato ricotta pasta
we've been eating salad more frequently, and may had the idea to make a ricotta tomato pasta sauce.

tomato ricotta pasta
of course we topped it with some shredded proscuitto, parma and basil!

salmon and blue

sorry its been a while... may has been travelling around europe.. i'm sure she'll be adding photos from geneva, milan, paris, madrid and barcelona. i know eh? lucky her! and.. my excuse was working on a deadline, and then "recovering" afterwards. so these next few photos technically are from when my parents were still in vancouver.

salmon pasta

so in an effort to save money and eat pantry food.. i made this pasta up.. using some left over celery, onion, black olives and a can of salmon! canned roma tomatoes that i diced up too.. and voila!

salmon pasta

i was hoping for some canned clams or something too.. but it was tasty enough =] oh.. and i put lots of basil and fresh parsley. and then i crumbled some spicy calbrese slices that i crisped up on the pan.

blue cheese bourisin

and then i found out recently that i'm the only one in my family that likes blue cheese. for some reason i thought my mom would be on board.. but nope.. its just me. on the left is bourisin cheese spread that fraser introduced me to many years ago.. and on the right is roseburg blue cheese with some honey drizzled on top. of course the ultimate flatbread cracker underneath. woot!

oh guess what? May's coming home tomorrow!! wuhoo!! her flight originally was supposed to be today, but it got overbooked so she had to stay over an extra night, boo!! =\ the good news is she got a nice fat cash compensation that personally think made it worth it.. but don't tell that to a lady when all she wants is to come home =] I can't wait to see her!

tomatoes?




If you've read the about section, you would know that I love tomatoes in every kinda and shape.

Italy has some of the best tomatoes. They're sweeter and juicier, I've had so much of it in the past a few month.

Here is a grilled tomato, cheese, ham sandwich, and a pasta with ricotta cheese and pan fried tomatoes, onions with garlic.