Chocolate Anyone?

written by Deepa Chander

When I think about the most expensive chocolate dessert in the world, I picture it sitting proud on a plate, somewhere in the middle of an exotic resort being served by tuxeod clad gentleman, eating it while sipping the perfect champagne.But surprisingly, this is one dessert that I don't have to travel far to find, just hop on the subway and get to Serendipity 3, right here in New York City. Deemed the world's most expensive chocolate dessert, this lavish and luxurious item sells at a whopping $25,000. The Frozen Haute Chocolate is made from a blend of 28 cocoas from around the world and is served in a goblet lined with edible gold. It is topped with whipped cream, more gold and a side of Madeline au Truffle, which itself sells for $2,600 a pound. And for the "cherry on top", the dessert is plated with an 18k gold and diamond bracelet resting on the base of the goblet, and a gold spoon with white and chocolate diamonds as souvenirs. In this age of financial downfall, this may seem like a bit much. I mean, who in the world can afford to pay $25,000 for dessert? Probably just the filthy rich and famous, but then again this is New York where you have to think ahead all the time on the culinary scene. Coming up with unique and bizarre food is part of the process and, for some customers, part of the appeal. There are many other unique items made from chocolate that seem to attract crowds like chocolate spas to relax your mind and body at the Hotel Hershey in Pennsylvania, or chocolate flavored toothpaste - cause..well, why not? I guess the point is the excitement of paying an exuberant amount of money on dessert (and jewelry). Is it any good? Who cares? After shelling out $25, 000 for it, I doubt I would complain.

PS: This dessert is just a version of their popular frozen hot chocolate, created by owner Stephen Bruce.
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Cherry Stained Photography

written and photographed by Rebekah Peppler

Is it just me or have the cherries never been better then right here right now? Firm, juicy and sweet as the heavens, these amethyst phenoenons demand a hot summer day, a seat on a concrete curb and a surfeit of garnet-stained hands and lips. A few weeks ago, when my eyes proved too big for my stomach and cherries threatened to overtake the house, I reached for my favorite sweet tart dough recipe, doctored it up with a bit of cardamom, a touch of almond and let those crimson delights do all the work. Let's just say that tart never made it to sunset.

Since – as a rule – I don’t go a night without dessert, I switched out the filling for the probably the easiest custard known to man, dolloped it with lightly sweetened whipped cream and sat back as the sky turned from day to night, my lips and hands perfectly matching the cherry-red sky.

Cherry-Cardamom Tart
Serves 8-10

For Cardamom Sucrée Crust
For one 9” tart, six 3” tartlettes … and a bit extra for a rainy day
• 125 g powdered sugar
• 250 g butter; unsalted
• 3 eggs
• 500 g cake flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp cardamom; freshly ground
Cream together butter and sugar until lightened and doubled in volume. Add eggs and almond extract gradually, mixing to combine after each addition. Sift together cake flour, baking powder and cardamom. Add all at once and mix just to combine. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill till firm.
For Almond Cream
• 125 g butter
• 125 g powdered sugar
• 125 g almond flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 20 g pastry cream powder (25 g cornstarch can be substituted)

Cream together butter, sugar and almond flour. Add eggs and almond extract gradually until completely combined. Add the pastry cream powder and mix tocombine.

For Tart
Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Roll out the sucrée and line a 9-inch tart shell, chill for at least 30 minutes. Dock the bottom of the shell and place an even layer of almond cream into the unbaked tart shell. Line with pitted Bing cherries and bake 40-50 minutes until the crust is browned and almond cream is set. Allow to cool.
Custard Tartlets with Sweet Cherries
Makes six 3-inch tartlettes
• 100 g vanilla sugar
• 2 eggs
• 50 ml heavy cream
• 125 ml milk
• ¾ tsp cardamom; freshly ground
• ¾ tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp almond extract

• Cardamom-Sucrée
• Bing cherries; pitted
• Crème Chantilly

Line six tartlette molds with cardamom sucrée and chill. Dock the bottom of the tartlettes with a fork, fill with baking weights and blind bake till lightly browned. When cooled, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Add the heavy cream, whole milk, cardamom and extracts until incorporated. Strain custard, fill tart shells with pitted cherries and fill with custard. Bake 300˚ for 20-25 minutes or until custard is set. Cool and serve with crème chantilly.

For the Crème Chantilly
• 100 g heavy whipping cream
• 25 g powdered sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

Whip heavy cream to a soft peak, add in sugar and vanilla and whip to medium peak.

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Cali: The Cottage Eatery

written by Martine Boyer

Snugly nestled in the corner of a strip mall parking lot, the Cottage Eatery is a delectable reason to venture into tiny Tiburon, a small seaside town, in the Marin Headlands, no more than 15 minutes outside of San Francisco.Envisioning a cottage by the sea, the location was a disappointment quickly forgotten once we stepped inside the softly lit room. Run by Edward Carew and Jennifer Rebman, a husband and wife team, the year-old Cottage Eatery offers a stylish an inventive menu, created from locally sourced ingredients.

We were welcomed warmly, seated immediately, and quickly charmed by our rustic surroundings. Our informal yet informed server turned out to be Chef Carew’s wife and partner, Jennifer.

What followed was a two-hour progression of ooh’s and aaah’s. Lightly marinated Monterey Bay sardines, quickly followed by braised tripe served piping hot. These were a delicious start to our eventual six course meal. Our next starter, seared foie gras, a creamy combination of layered flavors, was one of the highlights of the evening. Unable to resist, we ordered two main dishes, the spaghetti dish, which belied the simplicity of its name by leaving us wanting more, and the Duroc suckling pig, perfectly cooked and armed with crackling skin and melt in your mouth tender meat.

Finally, dessert was an unpretentious peach tart. Effortlessly wowing us, with flaky crust and warm sweet peach flavor, it was a delicious complement to the velvety vanilla ice cream accompaniment.

We left reluctantly, but satiated, and planned our return to the cottage by the parking lot. A worthwhile incentive to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.

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Ribbed

written by Anthony Ramos

Memories linger from my 4th of July holiday in Michigan and interfere with my “back to work” reality. Lazy days at our lake house are now replaced with the daily grind that is NYC.Happily over the long weekend I was able to cook casual meals for us to enjoy al fresco.

We all had a hankering for ribs, so I reached for my iPhone to reference some recipes on BigOven – my latest app obsession. List in hand we headed to a supermarket. I loaded up on all the necessary spices and ingredients to satisfy our current craving.
Back at the homestead, I mixed together a dry rub of smoked paprika, garlic, chili and onion powder, cayenne and white pepper, salt, and sugar. I generously applied the dry rub to the meaty ribs and let them relax in the refrigerator for two hours.

After kicking back on the pontoon boat for a leisure putt-putt around the lake I returned to preheat the oven to 300 degrees and to start making the saucy glaze. Equal parts of cider vinegar, brown sugar and Dijon mustard are slowly heated in a saucepan and reduced to a thick syrupy sauce. Taste testing along the way, I added more brown sugar to balance the acidity of the vinegar.
With two racks of ribs in the oven I basted them every half hour for the next three hours. The house was filled with the scent of aromatic spices and the zing of cider vinegar.

To keep my stomach distracted and my head occupied I focused on building the evening’s bonfire. S’mores are traditionally on the dessert menu and there’s really nothing like a fire-toasted marshmallow, melted chocolate and graham cracker treat.

Every visit to the oven door was in anticipation of dinner. Fresh corn on the cob was prepped for the grill with silks and husk removed. Each cob was nestled in a foil blanket with pats of butter, salt and cracked black pepper. With the grill heating up I removed the ribs from the oven and placed them on the grill with ears of corn outlining the two beautiful racks. Basting once more helped the ribs attain a crispy caramelization and I rushed them to a serving platter. The ears of corn were sweet, buttery and the kernels were slightly charred and meltingly tender.

And the ribs,… meaty, succulent, sweet, spicy, smoky, and fall off the bone perfect accompanied by sticky fingers and smiles. Memories like this will just have to sustain us until we return.

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Reader Discretion Advised

written by Andrea Scalici

In the Land of the Free where we eat what we please, it is hard to imagine using more of a product than the same ol’ thigh, breast, or wing. But all over the world, cutting up a fish or animal and using every single part is common practice.. While the varieties run the gamut, I have broken it down so it’s easier to stomach. Blood, Brains, Body, and Booze. (Reader discretion advised…)

BLOOD

In places like Hungary, Trinidad, Sweden, China, and all over Europe, pig’s blood is used for dishes such as blood and eggs, blood pudding – much like rice pudding –, blood dumplings, jellied blood, and of course, blood sausage (the only food my brother doesn’t like), all respectively. Blood sausage is known and Boudin in France and Blutwurst in Germany so be sure to know what you are ordering.

BRAINS

Not only used for thinking, but also for nourishment, who woulda thought?! Right here in the U.S. of A. dishes like squirrel brain grace tables in the South. Other places in the world enjoy calf’s brains, or tete de veau, in France; sheep’s head, called smalahove, in Sweden; and cow brains, made into “tacos sesos”, in Mexico.

BODY

This is where it gets interesting, seeing exactly how consumers get the most if their meat. Monkey toes in Indonesia for example, deep-fried and eaten off the bone like our version of chicken wings. “Borewors” from South Africa are sheep, pig, and cow intestines stuffed with meat and off cuts, much like our version of sausage. Have the BBQ on? Why not try skewered rat like in Thailand. Got a smoker in your house? How about smoked bat like in Indonesia. If those aren’t for you maybe you would rather try dried bugs or lizards like in Beijing or Hong Kong? A little closer to home of course is the cow’s foot, usually jellied in Poland and called “nozki” or “p’tcha” in the Jewish religion. If that wasn’t enough use of your cow, you could always use the lungs too like they do in Malaysia and the Philippians. I am starting to feel like we are being very wasteful here!

BOOZE

Last but certainly not least are the many wondrous things our human race does with the art of fermentation. Though definitely not as…well, interesting, as the foods listed above, these liquors certainly break the mold. If you are, like me, a big fan of artichokes, try “Cynar” from Italy, a bitter liqueur made from artichokes. (There also exists a non-alcoholic artichoke tea from Vietnam). “Kvass”, from Russia is for beer lovers and is a beer-like beverage made by fermenting old bread in water. And from Greece, “Retsina” takes a different twist on white wine by adding pine resin. The story goes that the church imposed taxes on wines not altered in an attempt to discourage drinking. But as these things go, the people developed a taste for the cheap stuff!

Bon appetit
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Lucky No.7

written by Anthony Ramos

Each time we walk through the doors at No. 7 Restaurant we wonder to ourselves – why do we go any place else? The restaurant, perched right above the Lafayette subway station, is located at 7 Greene Ave in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. Fort Greene is home to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, known to locals as “BAM” and to a diverse mixture of people. The neighborhood exudes a bohemian, earthy, liberal air – no wonder French Culinary Institute Alum, Chef Tyler Kord, has dug his heels into this eclectic enclave.

My partner, Marc, and I settled into one of the tables in the back of the restaurant guided by a chic but approachable hostess. The room is filled with culinary hipsters, first dates, flirty gay couples, and the like.

I love that point in the evening during dinner service where you can feel the electricity and excitement in the air – it’s usually when the house is packed, the kitchen is running like a well-oiled machine and the wait staff never misses a beat. Everyone falls into this mesmerizing groove of sorts – having worked back of the house I feel that nervous thrill as dishes are being knocked out one by one and the intensity of the environment fuels every drop of adrenaline in your body. A feeling I miss from working at L’Ecole – the restaurant at FCI.

As we settle in with a cocktail, we peruse the concise menu sitting in anticipation to listen to the specials of the day. The wait staff is friendly, confident and sexy and our waiter tempts our palates with the chef’s daily selection.

We started with a snapper sashimi over Galia melon dressed with a spicy peanut, jalapeno and cilantro sauce. Each bite was savored and the various flavor notes were absolutely harmonious.

For main entrées we had the boneless pork chop that was slowly braised in a ginger broth then seared on the grill – served over Sardinian pasta called fregola the juicy chop delivered savory bites. I love their crispy breaded chicken, it is incredibly moist, rolled into a cylindrical shape – it’s a must have! The contemporary American cuisine has hints of Korean influence with pickled vegetables and kimchi pierogies.

Sitting comfortably in our seats my eyes wander to check out the bustling bar scene and the busy yet tiny exhibition kitchen. No. 7 is the kind of restaurant I would love to own someday, it’s cozy, sophisticated and always a welcoming place to dine.

The night winded down, I sip an after dinner coffee, and slide further into my chair. My body almost limp from feeding off the adrenaline rush, sated we saunter into the night.

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Sex, Food, and Photography.

written and photographed by Rebekah Peppler
As you read, please enjoy my current fetishes throughout…
Giada, Nigella and Rachael are all doing it, heck even Thomas Keller is doing it. It glistens, it envelops, it’s like velvet on the tongue. Are we talking about the same thing here?

The phrase “food porn” sauntered into the spotlight via Frederick Kaufman’s aptly titled article, “Debbie does salad Read Full Article Here: the Food Network at the frontiers of pornography.” Originally published in 2005 by Harper’s Magazine, the term quickly vaulted into our vocabulary through the likes of Anthony Bourdain and has definitively, and lasciviously, stuck.

In Kaufman’s piece he works with a photographer (who based much of her career in the porn industry) to compare the striking parallels between porn films and Food Network shows. Especially startling is the analysis of camera techniques. Imagine Giada with her beguiling smile and trademark low-cut top squeezing a lemon – close-up on the curvaceous, dripping lemon, then Giada, back to the lemon – you get the picture.



Besides television’s seductive presentation of food, there’s the good old-fashioned photography. Not that we’re complaining. Who doesn’t love a beautiful shot of food? Whose lips do not part slightly while peering at the perfect composed covers of Saveur, Gourmet, Food & Wine and Bon Appetit?

A still of freshly-made pasta coaxed into shapely tortellini or a close-up of a juicy burger, cheese dripping off the perfectly formed patty onto its unfailingly plump bun. These shots are products of an ideal trifecta of light, focus and composition. Since food porn is a delight to sit back and enjoy as well as actively participate in (as I do on an markedly frequent basis) here’s a few starter tips:

1. Lighting is key. More precisely, natural lighting is key. Think of the sexiest times of day and use those as your ideal times to shoot. Morning’s hazy sun, slinking through the shades or early evening’s sultry shadow creeping into to steal the day away are both perfect moments to capture your creation on film.

2. Focus on something special in your piece. Isn’t it true that the small – sometimes lacy – details make all the difference? Whether it be the tip of that perfect berry atop your tartlette or the ripple of molten chocolate ganache languidly making it’s way down the edge of that triple chocolate layer cake, spotlight that special something and narrow your focus to get up close and personal.


3. Compose your piece to bring your viewer right in there with you. Take a bite out of that vivacious red velvet cupcake, leave just a few crumbs of a cookie lingering on the plate. Let your viewer feel like they could use their finger to swipe up the leftovers or finish what you started. Leave something to the imagination (just because it’s – food – porn doesn’t mean it can’t be a bit classy right?) Crop out the end of that croissant, remove a basket of overflowing tomatoes from the table full of them. Leave it up to the viewer to fill in the gaps – you know they want to.

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All the Hype about Marlow and Sons...

by Rebekah Peppler

All the hype Marlow and Sons has been receiving these past few months is one reason to visit the Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based gourmet store-cum-restaurant. The other is their amazingly honest, down-to-earth food, which changes according to season and the availability from local producers.The oysters are guaranteed to be fresh and briny, plucked straight from icy east coast waters and at $2.75 each, they’re worth every slurping mouthful. The menu includes ever-rotating-with-the-seasons crostini, soup, salad, panini, pasta, brick chicken, and fish, as well as a well-edited selection of cheeses and cured meats.

One of the most satisfying dishes during a past visit was a creamy, locally-made Salvatore Bklyn Ricotta crostini, drizzled with honey, thyme and mint, and topped with a generous dollop of poached rhubarb.

And, while the service is a gamble, dessert is a sure fire hit - the words "chocolate-caramel tart" are all that are needed to get a decadently rich, sea-salt enhanced slice of heaven. One of the best ways I've found to end a night out.

81 Broadway
Williamsburg Brooklyn 11211
(718) 384-1441
www.marlowandsons.com

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