Restaurants: Olio

Do you ever get so behind a restaurant that you don’t want to admit that anything else could possibly be as good? I spend a lot of time at Motorino, a pizza restaurant that is conveniently located next door to my current apartment in the East Village. They turn the simplest ingredients into masterpiece pizzas.

I had heard that Giulio Adriani, an Italian award-winning pizzaiolo, just opened a restaurant called Olio in the West Village. He called Motorino unauthentic and said that he doesn’t consider it to be competition. This made me extremely skeptical of Olio, but I thought I should check it out.

Right off the bat, Olio has a lot going for it: large space, soon-to-come outdoor seating, and great cocktails.

Matt got the Margherita, which is his usual at Motorino. We both agreed that it was delicious, but not quite as good as Motorino. I think that we both like the cheese at Motorino better, as well as the charred flavor of the crust.


I went with the Mezzaluna, which was described as half salami and ricotta and half cherry tomatoes and smoked mozzarella. The pizza was in a half-moon shape with the cherry tomatoes and mozzarella taking up most of the pie and the salami and ricotta actually stuffed in the crust.


This was no Pizza Hut stuffed crust. The puffy crust was filled with creamy ricotta and rich, chewy chunks of salami. Yum.


We both kind of ate in silence as we savored our pizza but didn’t really want to admit how good it was. The toppings were all extremely simple, but very high quality. The crust had a great balance of being chewy but light. I can’t wait to come back when the patio opens!

Dad

Well - it has been a crazy few months, to say the least. As some of you might already know, my dad passed away this summer. He was and always will be one of my great inspirations for cooking. He always knew how to fill a room with joy by cooking a delicious meal for family and friends.

My mom dug up this picture of us making pasta back in the day. Love you and miss you, dad.

Even though I just moved to New York City, I’m moving back to Boston in a few weeks to be with my mom. My boyfriend will still be living in NYC, so I’ll be splitting up my time between Boston, NYC, and wherever my job sends me…

LOST Premiere Party

I’m back! Given that I’m kind of a LOST freak, I thought it fitting to start back up by blogging about the LOST-themed food I made for the premiere.

I stretched the theme a little to make it a good excuse to buy some sushi-grade fish, so I made some Tuna Poke and Hamachi Carpaccio. I also had to throw in some of Hurley’s ranch dressing (ranch composite, anyone?) and Katie supplied the Dharma beer. Yep, we’re cool.

*Sorry for the photo quality. I forgot my camera so these are taken from a camera phone.


Ok – enough of the LOST chatter and onto the food.

I had a hard time finding sushi-grade tuna and Hamachi, so I actually ended up at the sushi section of Whole Foods asking for thickly sliced tuna and very thinly sliced Hamachi. They seemed awfully confused about my specific requests, but it worked!

Hamachi Carpaccio

I’ve had Hamachi Carpaccio served with very thinly sliced jalapeno before and it’s one of my favorite dishes. When I’ve had it, it has been served with some kind of ponzu sauce. I bought some ponzu and simmered it for about 5 minutes with a clove of garlic and a piece of ginger. To assemble, I arranged the sliced Hamachi around the plate and topped each piece with a slice of the jalapeno. I placed a small bunch of cilantro in the middle and poured some of the fully cooled sauce over the fish.


Tuna Poke

I made a fairly basic tuna poke but did my best at measuring the ingredients so I'd know for next time:

2 c. roughly chopped sushi-grade tuna
½ large shallot (or 1 small), finely chopped
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 tbsp. soy sauce
Peanut oil
Sriracha
Wasabi
Sesame seeds, toasted

Mix the shallot, sesame oil, soy sauce, and tuna very carefully as to not break up the tuna too much. Add a tiny bit of peanut oil until it gets to the right consistency and siriacha and wasabi to taste. I topped it with some toasted sesame seeds and served it over some cucumber and lettuce. We simply ate it with potato chips, but you could serve over crispy wontons (or even plain is good).


Happy LOST watching!

Restaurants: Tre Kronor

I’ve been talking about trying Tre Kronor ever since I saw it featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives last summer. Tre Kronor is a little Swedish BYOB restaurant located in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. Although it’s a bit of a trek from downtown, Katie and I chose to go on a snowy night last week thinking it was perfect weather for some Swedish comfort food.

We were freezing by the time we got there, so we were happy to see that they had several soups on the menu. Katie got the mushroom soup special and I went with the French onion. I have no doubt that both were delicious, but we were so cold and hungry that anything hot would have been amazing!




Tre Kronor makes their own gravlax, so that was a must try. An order of gravlax turned out to be a pretty large platter including toast points, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, red onion, and mustard sauce. The gravlax was perfect. I want more…now.


I ordered the duck with apple pork sausage, wild rice, and lignonberry jam. I always love duck with something sweet, but I wasn’t sure if I’d wild rice was really what I felt like with my duck. I went with it anyways and was glad I did; it was absolutely delicious. I wasn’t wild about the sausage that they put next to it, but everything else made up for it.


Katie ordered the Swedish meatballs, which tied with the gravlax for star of the night. The meatballs were smothered in a veal stock gravy and served with mashed potatoes, fresh cucumbers, and some lignonberry jam. I bet they serve such a large portion so others at the table can try.


Ok – we were kind of stuffed by this point but still had some of our wine to finish, so we ordered the bread pudding to share for dessert. It was warm, comforting, and a perfect end to the meal.


Did I mention how cheap this place is? We ordered tons of food, but were very pleasantly surprised when the check came…

Guacamole-off

When I heard last week that a couple of my co-workers were organizing a “guacamole-off” at work, I knew I would have to come up with a winning recipe. I’m usually a purist when it comes to guac, but I figured I’d have to make something a little different to make mine stand out. I decided to put some mango in it and add some habanero hot sauce to counteract the sweetness. I also found some key limes at the store that I thought would give my guacamole an interesting twist. It worked – I won!

I created the recipe the night before using one avocado and just recreated it in the morning with four avocados. It made for an easy but yummy dinner over with some pan-fried catfish.

Key Lime Mango Guacamole

1 ripe avocado
1 clove of garlic
¼ tsp. kosher salt
2-3 tbsp. mango, chopped
2 tbsp. red onion, chopped
Juice of 1 ½ key limes
½ tsp. habanero hot sauce
1-2 tbsp. cilantro, chopped

Chop the garlic and smash into a paste with the salt. Add the rest of the ingredients and mash until desired consistency.

Restaurants: Momofuku Noodle Bar

Since I moved to New York last month, everyone has told me that I need to try the pork belly buns at one of the Momofuku restaurants. Fortunately, Noodle Bar and Ssäm bar are both within walking distance of new place. My roommate Jess is one of the many who have gushed about them, so we made our way to Noodle Bar (the more casual option) on Sunday night to check it out.

We started off with the pork belly buns. Each bun is filled with a couple generous slices of pork belly, cucumbers, hoisin, and scallions. When you top it off with a little bit of chili sauce, it’s…well…heaven.


We also tried the roasted brussels sprouts with bacon, kimchi, and carrots. If you know me, you know how I feel about Brussels sprouts. Bias aside, I think this dish could convert the most adamant brussels sprouts hater.


We then each got noodle bowls. I got the momofuku ramen with pork belly, pork shoulder, and a poached egg. I guess I went a little overboard on the pork, but how could I resist?


Jess tried the ginger scallion noodles. She also ordered a side of broth to pour over the noodles, which turned out to be a great call. The broth was incredible.


I’ll probably be back very soon...next weekend maybe??

Restaurants: Toro Sushi

A post about my favorite sushi restaurant (and maybe overall restaurant) in Chicago is long overdue. Toro is a tiny BYOB in Lincoln Park that may not look like much, but I don’t think you can get better sushi for your money. I went about once a week when I was living in Chicago, even braving the sometimes 2 hour wait.

A few tips -

• Get there early and prepare to wait. They will turn people away when the waiting list has gotten too long. Don’t take your chances: get there early, leave your phone number, and wait at a bar nearby.


• Sit at the sushi bar. It’s a little cramped, but Mitch (the chef/owner) will usually pass out some of his favorites to try. Don’t be alarmed if he gives you a fist pump.


• Get the salmon nigiri! It’s the best…ever.

My friend Katie and I went last week and got some of our favorites:

Hot Finger Roll Appetizer – deep fried spicy salmon roll


“O” Roll – super white tuna, wasabi tobiko, spicy tuna, and avocado


Alaskan Roll – salmon and avocado


Mackerel Nigiri, Salmon Nigiri, Hamachi Sashimi, Tuna Sashimi


Deep Fried Green Tea Ice Cream