Omelettes & Asteroids

The City Grill

269 Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023
(212) 873-9400
thecitygrillnyc.com

Empire
2642 Broadway
New York, NY 10025
(212) 663-6004

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER brunch, another Street Fair.

My mom and I wove our ways through the sea of white tents and tube socks towards the promise of The City Grill and another brunch of bellinis and Bloody Marys. We were again rewarded for our efforts. And it was a reprise of smoked salmon as well, this time wrapped in egg whites with chives and cream cheese. Filling, similarly priced, but far from the nearly flawless display of egg excellence at Serafina.

We then spent our afternoon wandering the halls of the American Museum of Natural History. The Museum's featured exhibit of the moment, Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids, was a sprawling survey of tall tales from the around the globe, the buzzkill of debunking tempered by a kind spinning of the stories into accepted traditions. And, of course, we didn't miss the dinosaurs, meteors or every schoolchild's dream: exquisitely crafted agricultural dioramas.

Pink unicorn, shiny rocks, space rocks, and some sweet, sweet diorama action

Mint and her Dad joined us a little later and a little further uptown for dinner at Empire. The Chinese-Japanese joint serves all the standard fare you'd expect at such a spot, perhaps with just a bit more panache, and an array of vegetarian mock-meat dishes. The home style bean curd is worth trying, and the salt and pepper shrimp is light and perfectly peppery. The service is generally miserable.

Of course, no visit to the Upper West Side would be complete without a Steph sighting, so we swung by Dive 75 for a few drink with Steph and a round of her favorite game, Apple to Apples. A lot of days end with drinks and good times, but this City reminds you it's okay to start with them too.

Brunch on Broadway

Serafina
210 W. 55th Street
New York, NY 10019
(212) 315-1700
serafinarestaurant.com

Bello Giardino
71 W. 71st Street
New York, NY 10023
(212) 875-1512
bellogiardino.com

MOM'S FLIGHT LANDED in Queens around 10:00 a.m., by 11:00 she was in Brooklyn, and by 1:00 p.m. we were in Manhattan sitting at the Dream Hotel's glittery Serafina restaurant, perusing the brunch menu. The whirlwind was calmed by the brunch-included Bloody Marys. And the Salmon Benedict was pretty alright too--perfectly poached clouds of egg whites and running yolk piled atop smoked salmon.

Dining with the glitterati at Serafina

Brunch at Serafina, aside from being delicious, is just a short walk down Broadway to a matinee, which was our plan for the afternoon. Kathy and Frank came down from Connecticut for the occasion, and we were joined by a few of my ma's YSU cohorts who flew out for Wicked and the weekend. Afterwards, we wandered around a nearby Street Fair before taking the subway uptown to the excellent Bello Giardino.

The hole-in-the-wall Italian join was packed this time around, and our "just in case" phone call a few hours before to make dinner reservations for seven in the garden proved prophetic. Bello Giardino's informal atmosphere rightly attracts diners reveling in its superbly fresh pastas; my tri-color gnocchi with shitake mushrooms and goat cheese was a wonderful take on the doughy Italian favorite.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Serafina is an enjoyably showy spot to take visiting friends; Bello Giardino is fast becoming a favorite.

Let the Feast Begin!

Port City Java
21 N. Front Street
Wilmington, NC 28401

(910) 762-5282
portcityjava.com

South Beach Grill
100 S. Lumina Avenue
Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480
(910) 256-4646
southbeachgrillwb.com

Elijah's
2 Ann Street
Wilmington, NC 27501
(910) 343-1448
elijahs.com

IF ONE OF my favorite culinary truths about New York City is the vast abundance of international and creative vegetarian food to be found here, then one of my favorite parts of traveling south and east to the Atlantic Coast is the buckets and buckets (quite literally) of seafood to be had there. And in a city like Wilmington, whose historic downtown has managed to outlaw franchises, the buckets to be had are mighty, mighty tasty indeed.

We start, however, with a blueberry muffin procured from Port City Java, which sits downstairs, conveniently, in my brother's apartment building, which is oddly enough a former Masonic temple:

Not the most delicious blueberry muffin I've ever had, truth be told, but when you're sitting alongside the Cape Fear sipping iced coffee on a 95-degree Saturday morning eating said blueberry muffin in the company of Mint, mom and brother, its tastes okay. Throw in the view and one doesn't complain:

The day was spent mostly at the beach, which included the ice cream cone (top) and 75-degree water, after which my brother took off for the airport to meet his girlfriend, Elisa, while my mom, Mint and I grabbed a late, light lunch at the nearby South Beach Grill. Situated at one of the main entrances to Wrightsville Beach, parking can be a frustrating affair, but more enjoyable food within walking distance of the sand is hard to find.

Lunch was wasabi-crusted sea scallops, a 'Seafood Napoleon' of shrimp, fried tomatoes, and crab meat with boursin cheese, and a plate of seafood nachos featuring creamy crab, a few more shrimp and homemade tortilla chips, all shared between the three of us. The creative fare might not be as finely-executed as that in downtown Wilmington, but the ambitious dishes are well-prepared and make most excellent beach fare.

After making the fifteen minute drive back into Wilmington, we took a few hours to relax, clean up, and share a bottle of wine. And then, once again, it was time for food. (I love Wimington!) My mom's recommendation for tonight: Elijah's.

Sitting off the end of Wilmington's riverside boardwalk, where the cobblestones of Ann Street mark the end of the city's main drag, Elijah's sits sprawled out with its triple-terraced patio overlooking the Cape. It's beautiful spot to sit on a summer evening and dig into a bucket of seafood. Literally. "The Carolina Bucket"--crab legs, shrimps, mussels, clams, corn, slices of sausage, and bunches of fresh oysters. Had we known the bucket (below, top left) would be so deep, we might not have also ordered the chef's Grill Plate, a pile of blackened salmon, mahi mahi and skewered shrimp. Suffice it to say there was a lot of food.

Dessert, somehow, was deemed necessary. Apple pie and a chocolate cake were ordered, the latter (above, bottom left) boasting more than a pound of butter and chocolate per slice. The thing was a veritable chocolate truffle, engorged and molded into something resembling a slice of pie so rich and dark it appeared a black hole at our table that we could only hope sucked the calories out of itself. Even more confounding was the Cape Fear coffee my mother ordered (above, bottom right). It looked innocent enough; the Bailey's, Khalua, and amaretto all involved begged to differ.

And so began the weekend.

RECIPE! "Eggsestential" Chicken Salad

THIS RECIPE NEEDS a better name, perhaps, but my uncle's sarcastic moniker has stuck since no one else in my family has come up with anything better. Chicken-less Chicken Salad? A bit obvious, not to mention redundant. Egg salad? Not by any definition of the stuff. So, like it or not, "Eggsestential" Chicken Salad it is for now.

This recipe is also the first in what will hopefully be a growing list of work-friendly meals, as in: make it the night before, bring the leftovers along for lunch the following day. It's all part of my attempt to save some cash and eat well. An actual written recipe for this creation has never existed, so the following is a list of improvised ingredients inspired from the fashion in which my mother has previously combined them, or those like them:

3-4 cups cooked rice
4 hard-boiled egg whites
3 plum tomatoes
1 head of broccoli
1 shallot
1/2 cup chopped, cooked tempeh
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
+ 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup dijon Nayonaise
1/4 cup of olives
Fresh basil, chopped
Salt & pepper

Chop well tomatoes (remove seeds), broccoli (cooked, if desired), shallot, and olives; cook tempeh and chop into small pieces; grate cheese. Set all aside. Cook rice (Note: About 1 1/2 cups uncooked rice yielded more than enough for this recipe). Mix rice and all ingredients in large bowl. Add Nayonaise and stir well, adding more if needed. Wash and chop a small handful basil leaves; mix in and season to tase. Serve on a roll, sliced bread, or whatever-- hot or cold.

Easy (if somewhat time-consuming) to make, and delicious warm or cold, it's a great recipe to take to work, a picnic, a barbecue, etc. Using Nayonaise, a soy-based mayo, keeps the nutrition level leaning towards healthy, although the cheese and (when fried) tempeh threaten to spoil the effort. Perhaps I'll work on a non-fried way to cook the tempeh.

Feel free to improvise this list. The basil was used mostly because we have some growing in the kitchen (which was an amazingly sweet inclusion). If making to be consumed by a crowd in one sitting, I would probably include avocado. Pistachios or celery would add some crunch. Using the hard-boiled egg yolks would probably create a more savory flavor; plain Nayonaise and honey, a sweeter one. Enjoy!

RECIPE! Pear & Blackberry Crostata

PRIOR TO MAKING this recipe I'd never before heard of crostata. Or so I thought. Apparently, I've eaten them with some frequency. After some online research, crostata turns out to be little more than an Italian quick-fix recipe for a more labor-intensive pastry--a tart. Score another point for Italian home-cooking.

Truth be told, this recipe looked anything but easy when I first saw at it. Making a pastry crust from scratch seemed like an awfully intricate and complicated task, and not one I thought myself ready for. The result, however, was a surprisingly simple process so very far less daunting than it seemed and a terrifically impressive dessert that's fairly hard to mess up. It's really worth a shot for anyone who doesn't bake often but wants to look good doing it. Locate the following:

2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
+ 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup butter
+ 2 tbsp butter, melted
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/3 cup milk
2 tsp shredded lemon peel
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup blackberry preserves or jam
4 medium peeled, sliced pears

1. In medium bowl, stir together flour, 1/3 cup sugar, and baking powder. Using a pasty blender (or: two knives cutting in opposite directions--it helps if the butter is not too cold for this but it absolutely cannot [read: cannot] be warm and/or melting), cut in 2/3 cup butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.

2. In small bowl, mix egg, 1/3 cup milk, 1 tsp lemon peel, and vanilla. Pour mixture into flour mixture, stirring until moistened. Knead gently until smooth (keep hands well- floured). Separate one-third dough, set aside; pat remaining two-thirds into bottom and up sides of a 10-inch tart pan. Spread blackberry preserves evenly over pastry in tart pan.

3. If you have the space and a rolling pin, turn out the remaining dough on a well-floured surface into a 9-inch circle. If you live in New York City (read: have a kitchen the size of a shoebox), sprinkle flour on a plate, covering it well. Take up the 1/3 remainder of dough in well-floured hands, and work dough into a flat circle as large as is easily obtained, attempting for 6-7 inches in diameter. Set on floured plate and lightly work outwards to full-size; place in freezer.

4. In a large bowl (this can be the now-empty dough bowl), toss together pears, 1/4 sugar, and 1 tsp lemon peel. Arrange pear slices over preserves in tart pan. Drizzle with melted 2 tbsp butter. (Tip: wait to peel/slice pears until this step--the dough firming in the freezer will be easier to work with next step.)

5. Remove your chilled, flattened dough on well-floured plate from freezer. Cut into 1/2-inch wide strips. Arrange strips over pears in a lattice pattern. (Looks fancy, right?) Brush lattice with additional milk; sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes at 375 degrees.

Cool tart in pan for 30 minutes, serve warm. (Tip: if particularly juicy, you can chill your crostata fully in fridge after allowing it to sit out its 30 minutes in pan.)

I felt like adding those notes in italics within the body of the recipe instead of here post-recipe as is MEF! custom because some of those points are rather important--they make working the recipe significantly easier, cleaner, and more successful. So, there you go. The crust of this thing is ridiculously rich (almost a cup of butter will do that), tastes like you spent way more time on it than you did, and the lattice-work looks like you are way better at baking than you are. Not too bad for not too much work.

RECIPE! Pumpkin Cookies

THESE LITTLE BUGGERS show up every year around the Holidays. At least, at my grandparents' place they do. Their origins are slightly uncertain, but I suspect my grandmother had something to do with it since the recipe, as it was given to me, came with a warning: measurements are tripled. Ah, nothing like cooking with math.

The astute among you will be quick to point out that presently we are in the month of June, following up with a question about why I would be presently making a Holiday recipe. Well, the recipe is being made now because it was passed along to me yesterday, because it was one my grandmother made frequently, and because it was two years ago today that my grandmother passed along. All things considered, it seemed appropriate that I celebrate her memory in food, and when celebrating someone's memory in food it is always advisable to do so with dessert. I'm pretty sure that's how everyone would have wanted it.

I decided to buy the more specific ingredients at Whole Foods in Union Square, not because I necessarily think that the vegetable shortening and canned pumpkin are better at Whole Foods, but because I was already in the city and attempting to buy specific things like shortening and pumpkin at Polish stores in Greenpoint is mind-numbingly difficult. So, however you like, gather the following, and don't worry this recipe is -not- tripled:

1 cup shortening

1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 cup nuts

3 tbsp butter
4 tsp milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

To make cookies: combine in large bowl shortening, sugar, pumpkin, egg, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Blend ingredients well, gradually adding flour. Spoon batter onto lightly greased cookie tray and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes, or until brown at edges. Remove from oven, remove from tray, allow to cool. To make frosting: in bowl, combine butter, milk, brown sugar, and vanilla. Blend ingredients well. Fold in powdered sugar; blend well. Spread frosting on cooled cookies. Eat many.

These cookies keep really well. They taste like little bites of pumpkin pie. Which is probably how they've come to be known in our family as pumpkin cookies. Go figure. This recipe makes about two dozen cookies. Or if you really want to make them like my grandmother--triple the recipe.

BRUNCH!: Mary's Diner

Mary's Diner
666 Main Street (Rt. 20)
Geneva, OH 44041
(440) 466-6393

THIS MUST BE, without question, one of the finest trips I've ever made home, considering only food consumed, and excluding, of course, my grandmother and her homemade meatballs (may they both rest in peace). It's been a good trip for eating, and this fine Sunday afternoon we added Mary's Diner in Geneva to our growing list of good eats.

For a recent renovation, Mary's pulls of the period-appointed look better than most. The floor is checkered, ceiling as shiny as the exterior, coffee hot, service warm, and neon glowing all around. The food is cheap, too. My grandfather and I both ordered the banana nut pancakes ($3.99) and my ma chose an omelet ($5.99). I also ordered a side of mac n' cheese (um, because it was on the menu), which prompted our waitress to rightfully remark, "That's an odd combination." I agreed with her and promised to keep them separate on my plate.

Mixing these two is not necessarily a taste sensation

The mac n' cheese turned up glowing all sorts of orange. On seeing this I immediately suspected American cheese was involved, and on tasting this was confirmed. A bit abrasive, I'll admit, for mac n' cheese, but still enjoyable. The pancakes, on the contrary, were entirely supurb. Rather than mixing the banana-nut combo into the batter, a warm compote of crushed peanuts and walnuts was mixed with maple syrup, topped with bananas, and delivered on the side to be poured over our pancakes.

Incredible. The abundance of peanuts gave a saltier, more savory flavor to the pancakes than the more commonly used (and sweeter) pecan-walnut pairing, and in mixing them with warm syrup inspired me to repeat this simple improvement at home. As long as you keep your pancakes apart from your mac n' cheese, you can't go wrong.

Please do try this at home

I should also mention here the dessert my mom and I assembled last night and finally stuck in the oven this afternoon: a pear-raspeberry tart that turns out more like a pie and is remarkably simple to assemble from scratch. Recipe forthcoming. For now, enjoy the pictures:


MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Why not; he'll prolly make the tart some coming weekend, too.

Madsen Donuts, Since 1938

Madsen Donuts
5426 Lake Road East
Geneva-On-The-Lake, OH 44041
(440) 466-5884

MY DOUGHNUT LOVE runs deep and at Madsen is where it begins. I have few fonder childhood memories than waking up over July 4th weekend, wandering downstairs and out to the front porch to find family members gathered about boxes of doughnuts. Thinking about it now, there may have been twice the number of doughnuts sitting on the table than family sitting around it. Given the size of my family, that's a rather remarkable accomplishment.

There's always room for doughnuts

We've discussed my love for doughnuts before, specifically regarding a variety found here in Greenpoint. Nothing, however, competes with the creme sticks found at Madsen--the unbelievably chocolaty frosting, the light marshmallow filling, the spongy fried dough--for which hungry Madsen's customers line up daily, stretching out the screen door of the 70-year-old establishment. The jelly-filled, sugar-covered sticks are my personal favorite, with a jelly filling that tastes like jam rather than fake fruit; the almost-crispy cinnamon sticks get snapped up just as quick. And, all day, tray after tray, Madsen sets out a stready stream of freshly-made doughnuts to replenish those bought as quickly as patrons can carry them away. It's positively ritualistic.

Which is why here, in Geneva-On-The-Lake, doughnuts are served with every meal, and sometimes in-between. Eat up.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: He probably already did.

The Italian Re-Birth of a Dairy Queen

Alessandro's
6540 Lake Road West
Geneva-On-The-Lake, OH
(440) 964-5766

AS FAMILY LEGEND goes, my grandfather first came up (and kept coming) to Geneva-On-The-Lake when the little Lake Erie town was in its resort-town heyday. That was during the 1930s and 1940s. In the 1950s he bought the now-century-old lakeside house he still owns and the family, to this day, still frequents. He bought the house the same year my mother, the middle of seven children, was born, and with this small army waiting in the wings he decided to make another purchase: a Dairy Queen franchise.

The kids all had college tuition to earn and, besides, they needed something to keep them busy in the summer. So, this was the trade off--make ice cream now, go to college later. The stories from those Dairy Queen days are nearly endless in my family. Business was brisk through the 60s, died off with the town's waning, aging popularity during the 70s, and by the 80s the former hot spot was mostly abandoned save for a few buckets of marshmallow topping.

The 'old Dairy Queen' was re-imagined as an Italian restaurant in the mid-90s by my uncle, but the food never won over any of the locals. It was sold to another Italian man in 2001, Alessandro , a native Italian, who promised to try the same Italian trick. The town said it would never stick. They weren't expecting the food to be so damn good.

How good is the food at Alessandro's? Really, really good.

For the first time in 40 years the parking lot off Lake Road is packed just as it used to be, with lines of waiting customers spilling out the doors. The town may be run down a bit more than it used to be, like the old Dairy Queen's exterior, but the new life inside owes a debt to the fantastic food coming out of the kitchen (that folks in this town will line up to pay $12-plus for a plate of pasta should tell you just how good it is).

Alessandro's, in truth, is part of an slow but sudden revival in this once-thriving resort haven, by many accounts Ohio's very first. While fun, games, and dancing have all been parts of its heritage (my grandfather boasts of getting Cab Calloway's autograph after a 1930s dance), fine food has never been a fine point in any of the stories I've been told. Doughnut shops, ice cream parlors, a few pizza establishments--these are the vendors of Geneva-On-The-Lake's past. Alessandro's is one for its future.

My linguine with zucchini and seafood was infinitely better than a similar dish I ate at New York landmark Patsy's just earlier this week; that pasta, zucchini, shrimp, and crab can all be cooked in one dish and not one wind up overcooked is remarkable to me. My mother's mushroom ravioli were light and rich, with tiny cherry tomatoes brightening up the dish, and my grandfather's meat lasanga, by all reports, wonderful. The antipasti platter of mushroom and tomato bruschetta (garlicky without overpowering) with tomato, mozzarella and basil on fresh focaccia was simple yet exciting.

It's a far cry from the days of toppings fights and "Rose and Tony's pepperonis" pizza, but it's new life in a place with seriously great heritage, Dilly Bars and all.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Most certainly.