On food and travel: January 2013

Cocoron Soba - NYC

Cocoron is a tiny soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles) shop in the Bowery neighborhood. Cocoron means "heartwarming", and as we walked in hungry at almost 10p.m. on that cold January evening, it provided just that. The place was inconspicuous and we missed it as we walked in front.

It has only about a dozen seats, mostly around a counter overlooking the small open kitchen. Although it was rather late, the place was almost full. We were lucky to have 2 seats at the counter without having to wait.

We were sitting about one meter from the stove, so it was very hot. Although the owners are Japanese, the staff despite shouting "gozaimasu" each time a diner walked in, spoke another language (Nepali? Tibetan?) among themselves.

Green tea. It's only at the end of our meal that we realized that we had to ask the waitress for more hot water for refills.

Kasiwa Soba with chicken thigh, chicken meatballs, Shiitake mushrooms and scallion

Tororo Wakame Soba with tororo, wakame seaweeds and scallion

The soba was excellent. Had they not been so slow, we would have shared an additional bowl. There was only one inconvenience however with Cocoron: since the place is so small and we were literally eating in the kitchen, our clothes picked up all the strong cooking smells. As we left, we just wanted to rush to our hotel to shower, so Cocoron is definitely not the dinner place before a night out.

Cocoron
http://cocoron-soba.com/

Sylvia's Harlem Restaurant Gospel Brunch - NYC

Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem was founded in 1962 by Sylvia Woods, the "Queen of Soul Food", who passed away in 2012. Sylvia's has grown into a big enterprise with a catering business and a range of food products.

We wanted to have some soul food during our trip (especially some fresh corn bread) and Sylvia's seemed to be a fine option. When we found out that they offered a "Gospel Sunday Menu" with live gospel music from 12:30 to 4p.m., the decision was made. Since they do not take reservations for this event, we arrived there early at 11:45.

Here are some photos of the place taken while we were leaving at around 13:20 - all tables were occupied and there were more than 15 persons waiting to be seated. Some were even eating at the counter by the kitchen, which in our view is not the most comfortable/practical area.

We ordered a breakfast plate and a lunch entrée. Soon after we ordered, a basket of warm biscuits, margarine spread and grape jelly was served. Sylvia's own hot sauce was already on our table. We asked for some corn bread and were told that it was in the oven and would not be ready for a while..

Fried catfish and scrambled eggs with grits

Southern style fried chicken with 2 sides: garlic mashed potatoes and black-eyed peas (seasoned with smoked turkey)

We also ordered an extra side of baked mac & cheese

Shortly after 12:30, the gospel music started with singer Ruth energizing the diners with a beautiful rendition of 'Amazing Grace'. I managed to snap a photo before she began a tour of the restaurant.

Stopping by each table, she would ask diners where they came from, then shout "[country name] is in the house, y'all! Enjoy!" We were surprised by the great diversity of the other diners around us, from Argentina to Norway and South Korea.

Since our plates had already been cleared but we wanted to listen to the music for a while, we ordered a Peach Cobbler for dessert.

Finally, after checking on the status of the corn bread 3-4 times during our meal, and minutes before we were about to leave, a young waiter brought us a basket of warm corn bread straight out of the oven. The smile on his face was like "you've been very patient. Here's your treat!". Although stuffed at this point, we managed to finish this corn bread which was seriously good.

As we left the restaurant, we noticed a display of several Sylvia's products on sale, which included peach cobbler and corn bread mixes.

The Sunday Gospel Brunch at Sylvia's was a great experience that we strongly recommend to Harlem visitors who want to (re)discover soul-food.

Sylvia's Restaurant
Harlem, NYC
http://www.sylviasrestaurant.com

Rouge Tomate - NYC

Rouge Tomate NYC offers modern American cuisine, based on the SPE (Sanitas Per Escam = health through food) charter. The funny thing is that we had to go to New York to eat at Rouge Tomate, while the original Rouge Tomate restaurant is right here in Brussels on Avenue Louise!

Bread and olive oil

Appetizers

Wild mushroom soup - dried fig, crosnes, parsnip, hedgehog, puffed quinoa, Spanish sherry

Baby beet and carrot salad - caca cara orange, house-made ricotta, castle franco, olive crisp

Entrées

Barnegat Light Tilefish - bamboo rice, Kumquat, Kimchee, scallion, blood orange bisque

Amish Country Chicken "En Sous Vide" - daikon, baby bok choy, nebrodini mushroom, ginger sabayon

Desserts

Banana Trifle - soy chocolate pudding, candied peanuts, maldon sea salt

Heirloom Citrus Entremet - orange scented chiffon cake, blood orange, kumquat, olive oil gelato

Rouge Tomate NYC
http://www.rougetomatenyc.com/

Jean Georges - NYC

Jean Georges restaurant is located in the Trump International Hotel & Tower, next to Central Park and Columbus Circle. It is the flagship restaurant of Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a native of Alsace who now heads a group of more than a dozen restaurants. The cuisine at Jean Georges mixes French, American and Asian influences.

Jean Georges is one of the seven restaurants in New York City holding three Michelin stars.

We walked through Nougatine, a restaurant-bar which offers a casual alternative to Jean Georges.

The Jean Georges dining room. We were seated at a banquette by the big glass windows overlooking the room. Here's the view from our table:

All the diners seemed to have taken the casual-elegant dress code seriously, which matched the setting well.

We were offered bread before the amuse. They had a selection of 4 types of bread.

Amuses bouche

Fluke sashimi with tangerine snow
Beet toast with fresh ricotta and candied pecans
Sweet potato soup with parmesan and dashi

We selected the Tastes of Winter menu.

Appetizers

Sesame crab toast, miso-mustard, Asian pear and shiso - very good

Gulf shrimp, water chestnuts, saffron, silken kabocha and chipotle - way too salty

Entrées

Steamed Flounder with roasted pumpkin seeds, spaghetti squash and soy yuzu broth - the steamed fish, squash and broth did not complement each well, which resulted in a less than memorable dish.

Red Snapper crusted with nuts and seeds, sweet and sour jus - nice!

Dessert

I ordered the Winter Dessert Tasting, which consisted of butternut squash sorbet, espresso syrup and pumpkin seed brittle, cranberry bar, carrot meringue and clementine granite.

A waiter rolled a trolley to our table with a huge jar of marshmallow, and started to cut some pieces. Who would have thought that serving marshmallows could be so classy?

Here are the two vanilla marshmallow cubes along with a selection of mignardises.

We had asked for the details of the amuses bouche at the beginning of our meal. As we were having dessert, a waitress brought a personalized menu to take home - a nice touch indeed!

Service was good, although some waiters seemed to be in a rush for no apparent reason, since there were so many of them. The steamed flounder was rather disappointing, and the rest of the dishes were good but nothing spectacular, as one would expect from a three star restaurant. Although we had a pleasant lunch at Jean Georges, we would not recommend dinner there, since the dinner prices are way too high for the quality of what comes out of Jean Georges' kitchen.

Jean Georges

http://www.jean-georgesrestaurant.com/

The Modern - NYC

The Modern restaurant, located at MoMA, features French-American cuisine. It belongs to the Union Square Hospitality Group, which has a dozen other restaurants including Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe. We wanted to try either Gramercy Tavern or The Modern, both holding a Michelin star, and picked the latter so that we could combine our meal with a visit to MoMA.

Main entrance through the museum