October knife-fest!

october has always been the month when we offer our customers free knife sharpening service.  but this year, we coincide that with store-wide knife sale.  you might ask, what’s different this year?  well, MAC knives are in our store!

we have been looking for another line of knives to carry, and after a much deliberation we decided on MAC.  for some reason, MAC knives are hard to find… the big box stores like william sonoma and sur la table do not carry them.  MAC knives are mainly carried by stores specializing in cutlery or stores that caters to professional cooks/chefs.  and this is not because the knives are inferior in quality or performance.  great chefs like thomas keller, eric ripert, and the late jean-louis palladin have used MACs and declare the knives worthy of their kitchens.  below is a quote from charlie trotter in Food & Wine Magazine July 2001, which captures the essence of MAC knives…

Trotter likes MAC knife’s blades so much he endorsed them. They’re stamped, not forged like most other high-end knives, so they’re thin, lightweight and precise

MAC is very confident that once you try their knives you’d always want to use them for your everyday cutting.  they are giving us two “test drive” knives for our customers to try.  brian (the store owner and a chef) tested one of the loaner knives and says that MAC knife is simply “really awesome and sharp.”  but don’t just take our word, try them yourself!

whew… now that we’ve let our excitements out of our chests, here are the details on our sale and free knife sharpening…

WUSTHOF, GLOBAL, KYOCERA and MAC knives are:
10% off when you buy 1 piece
15% off for 2 to 3 pieces
20% off for 4 pieces or more

clearance WUSTHOF knives are 30% off, cherry stained knife block is 50% off.  check in with our store…

maximum 2 knives per customer for the free knife sharpening, straight edge only.

all promotion ends October 31st, 2009.

Report from Le Fooding D’Amour Paris-New York

Last Saturday, September 26th, I braved the brooding weather and threats of long lines akin to Depression era’s food line to eat some creations by New Yorker and Parisian chefs.  The two nights event was a marriage between food, music, and art, organized to raise funds for Action Against Hunger.  It’s never been so fun or easy to support a good cause…

I started the night with a glass of Veuve Cliquot champagne and a three cheeses plate.  My stomach started to grumble, so I scanned the line for the best second bite bet.  The line for Black Label Burger from Minetta Tavern in New York is out of the question for the time being, so I went on queue for bite size steak with charred aubergine from the Parisian restaurant, Le Chateaubriand.  I was not disappointed as the steak was tender and perfectly cooked, drizzled with a citrusy dressing.  It is quite a feat to cook steak that well for a large crowd, so big kudos to the chef, Inaki Aizpitarte.  The smear of charred aubergine was a nice surprise, new flavor I wouldn’t mind having again.

So close yet so far away...

My next memorable bite was naturally the Black Label Burger from Minetta Tavern.  The slider size burger lived up to its reputation.  It was served very simply with brioche buns, without cheese, yet so flavorful as if every cell of the meat was infused with parmesan.  Apparently, that cheesiness (in a good sense of the word) is called “nuttiness” in foodspeak. It was rich without being greasy.  I scarfed down the burger and left no photographic proof it ever existed!

I spotted Daniel Boulud at his booth, and tried his traditional Moroccan couscous with a tender morsel of beef.  My next stop was for a barbacoa (beef head) taco from Brooklyn’s restaurant du jour, General Greene.  It had cilantro, julienned carrots, drizzled with Sriracha, which gave it the banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich) flavor profile.  Beef was the main protein of the night…

Snow Blossom by Dutch Kills

To top the evening off, I had the Wild Cherry Mojito cocktail by Parisian mixologist, Thierry Hernandez.  The vodka based drink had fresh cubed ginger and macerated cherry, but the mint was a bit tired.  The American cocktail counterpart was the Snow Blossom, by the Dutch Kills bar mixologists.  I didn’t get the drink’s exact components, but this pretty cocktail got its “snow” from mixing the soda in the shaker.  I wish I had chosen Snow Blossom instead, but I figure Dutch Kills is a local place that I can go to anytime while the Le Plaza Athénée’s bar is in Paris.

The rain started to pour at the end of Le Fooding, but I decided to line up once again for my last taste of the night: combo of Salted Hazelnut Gianduja and Bourbon Vanilla ice cream made by a Brooklyn creamery. The streets of Queens have quieted down as I walked back towards the car. It was a quick surreal moment of eating ice cream in the rain.  Overall, the event went well and I had a pretty good time trying out some food on both sides of the Atlantic.  Until next year, Le Fooding!

– mel harjono

the graphic art projection

perfex mills are on sale!!

for those in the know, perfex mills are the true French classic cooking tools…

sturdy cast aluminum with a satin finish, these mills are guaranteed to last a lifetime. crank-operated design has been manufactured by a family-owned company in Saint-Etienne, France, for half a century. its distinct look will draw people’s eyes and perhaps start a conversation!

we have three zero pairs of 3″ salt and pepper mills for $65 (regular: $130), and two zero 3″ pepper mills each for $32.50

Stop-motion Recipe

This video really puts the smile on our face…

Happy Cooking!

congratulations to Lydia Auslander, winner of our Julie & Julia raffle

Lydia Auslander, the winner of our raffle prize worth over $300!

Carla, our store manager, in action...

we had so much fun at the julie & julia movie premier… thank you to all our customers and moviegoers who stopped by our table, it was a pleasure to meet all of you!

the movie is absolutely entertaining and we are delighted in the renewed interest in julia child and her legacy. she introduced accessible, authentic french cuisine in america with passion and precision. it took her and her co-writers, simone “simca” beck and louisette bertholle, many years to get mastering the art of french cooking just right to be published. the book won critical acclaim and was a bestseller despite initial doubts that americans would be too intimidated by its encyclopedic-like approach to recipes. and now, 49 years after its initial release, the book is once again a bestseller, a testament to julia child’s enduring charm.

we also highly recommend my life in france, which “recounts in detail the culinary experiences she and husband Paul Child enjoyed while living in Paris and Marseilles, including her excited description of the Sole meunière lunch she savored in Rouen the day of their arrival, and which sparked her obsession with French cuisine”

keep on cooking!

“you have no real talent for cooking”

this entry’s title comes from a line uttered in heavy french accent from the upcoming movie julie & julia, starring meryl streep and amy adams. even if the movie bombed (which it probably won’t, judging from positive pre-release chatter), i won’t be able to resist seeing meryl streep as julia child. also, it has been awhile since a food-centric movie premiered so i am doubly excited. the movie opens on august 7, 2009.

in the ’90s i occasionally watched julia child’s cooking program on PBS in my dorm room. i instantly love her carefree and fearless personality, even without realizing that she’s a huge american icon in popular culture as well as food enthusiasts’ patron saint. for the longest time i thought she was british!

i have watched countless cooking shows and concluded that there is nobody quite like julia child. she’s truly special…

some behind the scene scoops:

from steamy kitchen blog: http://steamykitchen.com/4542-julie-and-julia-movie.html

from serious eats blog: http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/07/food-in-julie-julia-film-movies-amy-adams-meryl-streep-julie-powell.html

– mel harjono

From the Aegean Sea to the Bahamas, we’re all about Picnic!

Picnic (pĭk‘nĭk):

n.

1. A meal eaten outdoors, as on an excursion.
2. Slang. An easy task or a pleasant experience.
3. A chance to show off cute Picnic at Ascot insulated bags.

The sun’s out, the weather’s warming up… It’s picnic time!

We just received new shipment of insulated bags, wine carriers, and more to make your picnic, well…. a walk in the park. The wine carriers are insulated and come with corkscrews, so no more heartache from being unable to open your favorite chilled Rosé… The lunch packs come with utensils plus salt and pepper shakers, all you have to supply is your own gourmet concoction. Here are a few suggestion of what to pack for your picnic:

bread + cheese + cured meat or dried fruit
bread + hummus + fresh fruit

I’m convinced my girlfriends and I had the best hiking snacks of anyone when we hit up the Grand Canyon last weekend: cranberry/hazelnut bread, havarti, and perfect dried apricots; green chile cheese bread with spinach hummus; a few oranges; and dark chocolate for dessert. The bf and I also consistently rock the best climbing lunches as well: bread or water crackers, semi-soft cheeses, and smoked salmon.

Take a bottle of wine or some Fat Tire Ale in cans (cans transport way easier and Fat Tire seems to be the best beer available in cans) and call it a day.

– from SeriousEats

Or how about this encyclopedia-like picnic friendly recipes by Mark Bittman:  101 20-Minute Dishes for Inspired Picnics

Who says life is no picnic?

IKEA cuisine: Some Assembly Required

leave it to michele humes, one of my favorite food blog writers, to come up with palatable “recipes” and gorgeous photos of food made with IKEA’s ready-made offerings.

It might surprise you to know that there’s not a thing in Ikea’s signature meatballs that a conscientious home cook wouldn’t put in his own.

I could have replicated the Ikea cafeteria experience at home, I suppose, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, I dropped the frozen, fully-cooked beef-and-pork meatballs straight into a simmering saucepan of home-made marinara. Swedish meatballs are considerably firmer than their Italian cousins, but still fabulous over spaghetti.

Instant mashed potatoes, whatever you happen to think of them, have an even consistency that’s ideal for piping or shaping into croquettes. And Ikea’s version, containing nothing but dehydrated potato, is better for you than most.
Here, I piped the “Potatismos” into swirls of pommes duchesse, a dish not seen in fashionable restaurants since 1978. To recreate (or bastardize, call it what you will) this French classic, make up the mashed potatoes according to package instructions, but omit 1/4 cup of the milk; remove from the heat and stir in one egg yolk; spoon into a piping bag fitted with a star tip, and bake the swirls on a greased sheet pan in a 400 degree oven until lightly browned.

I served them on a bed of artificial but oh-so-good cream gravy (the kind normally served with the aforementioned meatballs.) Retrolicious!

the full story is at serious eats: http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/01/ikea-groceries-some-assembly-required-product-reviews.html

Nespresso is giving away $50 credit towards your coffee!

if you have been thinking about getting a Nespresso machine, now is a good time to purchase one. any machine purchase $299 and above, Nespresso will give $50 credit towards coffee pods. this promo is running from April 30th thru June 30th, so you will have plenty of time to decide. come to our store and experience Nespresso yourself.

we had been looking around for  espresso machines to carry in our store but could not find a brand we were truly happy with. then at a trade show in Chicago over a year ago, we stopped by Nespresso’s booth and were truly impressed by their espresso and the machine’s ease of use.

a fancy espresso machine is only as good as the espresso it produces; nestle, which owns Nespresso,  offers 12 coffee blends to choose from plus some “special editions,” all of them taste smooth without bitterness. these machines make perfect espresso with a nice crema on top because it uses 19 Bar pressure pump, which is more pressure than your car tires. Nespresso machines are Swiss-made, you know you are getting superior technology and quality.

we also like that Nespresso makes the smallest espresso machine around, the Essenza. people have told us that they put these machines on their boats or RVs.

happy Earth Day, everybody!

today is the Earth Day, the day to celebrate our home planet. let’s recharge our commitment to make it a better place to live. we can start simply by eating less meat and buy local produce. we like the “Big Green Cookbook: Hundreds of Planet-Pleasing Recipes and Tips for a Luscious, Low-Carbon Lifestyle” by Jackie Newgent, for its easy to follow and delicious recipes. because let’s face it, mars is way hotter than summer in florida, plus that tiny problem of not having oxygen and water…