Emily’s Post

Sorry for the delayed posting! I was away from the interwebs today and only just remembered I owed dear Emily a visit.  It’s been a while!

Hmmm, so here’s a good one…

VULGAR CLOTHES

To define differences between clothes that are notable because of their smartmess and clothes that are merely conspicuous is to define something that is very elusive.  However, there are certain rules that seem to be established.

Vulgar clothes are those which, no matter what the fashion of the moment may be, are always too elaborate for the occasion; they are too exaggerated in style like last year’s no pants trend, too much for me!), or have accessories out of harmony with the dress and the wearer.

Beau Brummel’s remark that, when one attracted too much notice, he could be sure of being not well-dressed but overdressed, has for a hundred years been the comfort of the dowdy (considering Beau’s a male fashionista from the 18th century, and his style of clothing is called dandyism, I’m not sure I want to listen to him either ).  It is, of course, very often true, but not invariably.  A person may be stared at for any one of many reasons.  A woman may be stared at because she is ill-behaved (woo who!), or because she looks like a freak of the circus (which, incidentally is a good look!) or because she is enchanting to behold.

If you are much stared at, what sort of stare do you usually meet?  Is it contemptuous or curious or is it admiring (clearly she’s never been on the subway. I often confuse meaning behind the stares with all of those words plus some).  If the first, change your behavior; if the second, wear more conventional clothes and make-up; if the third, you may be left as you are.  But be sure of your diagnosis (I’m sure there’s a website for this).

Tuesday Review – Gennaro

Gennaro

665 Amsterdam Ave

(between 92nd St & 93rd St)

New York, NY 10025

(212) 665-5348

When our good friend Alicia came home from a year aboard in Florence she began a quest to find authentic northern Italian food in New York.  What she found was Gennaro, a tiny, cash only spot in the 90’s on the West Side.  You might overlook it entirely if you are even in that neighborhood, but once you eat there you will be making it a regular spot.

Sunday Night Dinner! – Ragu Bolognese with Homemade Tagliatelle

Music: Beautiful Beat – Nada Surf

To celebrate Peter and BJ, we had a crowd over for some hearty ragu bolognese!  Since the weather has changed again, it was a perfect chilly night feast.  I wasn’t sure if there was a difference between ragu and bolognese so I did some research.  Ragu just means meat sauce but the bolognese refers to where it originates (in Bologna, Italy) but usually includes some tomatoes.  This is a Mario Batelli recipe that my friend Cia sent me.  She has her own additions, which I’ve added here. I’ve also changed this around a bit too based on what I had in my refrigerator…we were ill prepared for a big meal this week! We served it with fresh homemade pasta. Yes, please!

Ravioli with Brown Butter and Sage Sauce

Music: The Middle East – Blood

We here at Brooklyn Plated are real fans of the simple dinner (I mean, who isn’t).  This is an easy week night dinner (for those of you that actually eat pasta) and very tasty.  I think the first time we had this was at our old neighborhood standby, Gennaro, on the Upper West Side many moons ago. I can’t remember where we got the actual recipe from, James has been making this for years but, as you can see, it’s very simple.

Lemon Squares – Sweet Thursday

Music: Love Will Tear Us Apart – Broken Social Scene

Maybe it’s the promise of Spring that’s got me thinking about lemons.  My mom made lovely lemon squares growing up and I wanted to replicate them for our post lobster bisque dinner (made from leftover lobsters from Southampton!). I got the recipe from the trusty Tartine cookbook.

Book Review – The Big Oyster

The Big Oyster, History on the Half Shell

By Mark Kurlansky

Random House 2006

When I was younger growing up on Long Island, NY my uncle and cousin would take me clamming in the Great South Bay.  We would get up at the crack of dawn to catch an early low tide and head out to Squaw Island, a little patch of nothing near the marshy coast where we would pull buckets of delicious, fresh littleneck clams.  On the ride home my uncle would pull out a clam knife and easily shuck a clam open and pop it right in his mouth.  My fascination with shellfish can easily be pin pointed to this memory.

Shaking Beef and Seasame Asparagus

I couldn’t help myself, I had to recreate the Shaking Beef from The Slanted Door…even though it wasn’t a great meal.  I was shocked when I googled “shaking beef” and Charles Phan’s recipe showed up in epicurious.  I paired it with some Jasmine rice and a nice asparagus dish. It came out SO well and will absolutely suffice when I have a hankering for The Slanted Door. I had to alter a few things due to what wasn’t in my cabinets but this is what I did:

Oh My Lemon Tartlets – Sweet Thursday

Music: Frank, AB – The Rural Alberta Advantage

All I’ve wanted to do since our San Francisco trip is eat Meyer lemons.  Since my local grocery store isn’t fancy at all, I had to settle for regular lemons.  We ate our fair share of lemon tarts in SF and I wanted to try to recreate each special moment at home.  Lo and behold the Tartine Cookbook has their special recipe for their Lemon Cream Tarts. Woo Whoo!  We ended up serving them in Southampton as part of the birthday celebration.  Here’s what I did…

AND we’re back….

Hi there. Been awhile. How’ve you been?

We took a couple days to recover from our eating frenzy in SF but we’re happy to be cooking and back on track.  I don’t have a recipe for you today but I have some lovely food pictures of the weekend we spent in the Hamptons with our great friends.  Happy Birthday Melissa!

About 20 of us rented a mansion for a Big Chill-esque weekend (I’ve never seen this movie but apparently someone dies, hence the get-together…thankfully that wasn’t the case for us but because of the storm, this house was the perfect setting for a horror film so there was the potential for a kinda “big chill” on our hands…).  We had a BBQ/Pot-Luck Thanksgiving Dinner on Friday night. Saturday night  The Clam Man of Southampton came to the house and created a good ol’ fashioned clam bake for us complete with oysters, lobsters, steamers, mussels and baked potatoes.

The best thing to do with a group of late 20 somethings/early 30 somethings (besides totally age yourself in your own blog)? Flip cup, charades, Jenga and Beatles Rock Band.  Man, I’m really setting us up for some gore.

An unreal baked potato cheese thing - who made this??? I can't remember...

Meats

Pork Tenderloin

Pre-Mashed Cauliflower

Sweet Potato Casserole

Baked by Melissa Mini Cupcakes

Clam Bake

Lobsters

Mussles n' Stuff

San Francisco – Day 6

First Stop

Tartine Bakery

600 Guerrero Street

San Francisco, CA 94110

415 487 2600

We started the day off with a drive to the Mission. We met our friends Mika and Ryan at, the one, the only Tartine! (I’ve been waiting all week for this).  We shared a Pain au Chocolat (perfectly bittersweet chocolate too) and a Breakfast bun made of orange and honey. We enjoyed our coffees and breakfast outside in the sun before heading out to Muir Woods.  Incidentally, we also took a sweet treat with us for the road…I title the last shot “Still Life with Meyer Lemon Tart in Redwoods”.

Second Stop

In-N-Out

798 Redwood Hwy

Mill Valley, CA

(800) 786-1000

We couldn’t come to CA without a visit to this institution.  We ordered cheeseburgers, animal style of course, with fries and chocolate shakes. Did you know you can get the fries animal style too?  A very enthusiastic 12-year old boy informed me of this well after I’d ordered but plan to try it next time. Who knew fast food could be so good?…California did.

Third Stop:

Zuni Café

1658 Market St
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 552-2522

And for a real change of pace, we decided to finish our amazing trip with a couple stops.  We started the night off with oysters and martini’s at Zuni.  We were given a mix of:

• Eld Inlet Kumamotos (WA – win!)
• Sister’s Point (CA)
• Pearl Point (CA)
• Drake’s Bay (CA)
• Hog Island Pacifics (CA)
• Little Skookum (WA)

Forth Stop:

Flour + Water

2401 Harrison St. @ 20th St.
San Francisco, CA

415.826.7000

I’ve gotten more recommendations for this place than any other in SF, including a random “have you been to flour and water?” from a shop owner in the Haight.  Our reservations were for 10 PM and I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.  But it was packed and lively and very well decorated (both in décor and with hipster doofus’). Don’t miss the bathroom’s curio cabinet (a highlight) filled with old photographs and dried coral.  We started with a glass of Montepulciano at the bar and move to our table.

We ordered a Margherita Pizza (simple enough) to split as a starter (WIN!).  These thin crust Neopolitan pizzas actually competes with NYC. For dinner, I had the fried sunchoke and potato tortellis and James had the seafood stuffed tortellini verde with prosecco, fennel and tarragon. Both were served in simple subtle butter sauces that were very good and not at all rich.  We didn’t get pictures – camera ran out of batteries – but this is certainly a place to come with friends and plan on staying a few hours enjoying good wine and food. It was the perfect finale to a wonderful culinary week.