Even Better

"I didn't think this dish could get any better, " James said after a few bites of our house favorite spaghetti with clam sauce. I snuck a little chopped prosciutto into the pan with the garlic and red pepper.

Sauté sliced garlic (4 cloves) and crushed red peppers in olive oil. Add 3-4 slices prosciutto, 2 lbs of clams (we like Manilla best but they aren't as easy to fine in the summer), a handful of chopped parsley, juice of 1 lemon and 3/4 cup of wine, raise the heat to high and cover the pan. Steam the clams for about 8 minutes until they all open. Add the strained pasta (today I used a combo of spinach and wheat noodles) into the pan along with a good sized knob of butter and more chopped parsley. Give the noodles a good toss around over low - medium heat and serve.

Happy Birthday Honey

Katz's Deli

No trip to New York is complete without a stop at Katz's deli, the legendary Lower East Side sandwich emporium that sent salamis to soldiers in WWII and hosted the most memorable scene of Meg Ryan's career.

Though Langer's in LA might edge slightly ahead because of it's brick oven toasted rye bread, the pastrami at Katz's is spicy and fatty and superb. The pickles crunchy, and the atmosphere -- well, let's just say uniquely NY -- 24 hours a day.

Barbuto

I have to admit, I've know about Jonathan Waxman for years but he was never really on my radar until his stint on Top Chef Masters. He isn't flashy or new but his simple cooking showcasing the best local ingredients won and gentle calm in the kitchen won us over and put his New York restaurant Barbuto on my must visit list.
I started with this raw zucchini salad. A tangle of shaved zucchini, toasted hazelnuts and a lemony vinaigrette served a top a smear of black olive paste. So simple and so delicious I am going to try a version of this at home.
From my seat I could see into the open kitchen and watched Chef Waxman expediting dishes while warmly greeting diners at the kitchen tables and across the cheerful dining room.
I was lucky enough to pop into the kitchen and meet the chef. We chatted about gardens (he's working on a NY schoolyard garden) and how he misses LA sometimes while he signed my copy of his cookbook, A Great American Cook.
When my waiter learned it was my first visit to Barbuto he "insisted" I try the roast chicken. I rarely order chicken in a restaurant but I gave in and was served a delightfully crisp-skinned meaty bird. Quality of the bird aside, the star of this dish was the salsa verde -- parsley, tarragon, fresh oregano, capers, garlic and olive oil. This super punch of flavor made simple chicken more than a weeknight dinner dish and I am going to work on a house sauce like this for James.

A great dinner from a great American cook.

Blue Ribbon Sushi

I've been a fan of the Bromberg Brothers of New York's Blue Ribbon restaurants since they had one little jewel box of a bistro in Soho where the city's chefs filled the tiny room's tables, open until 4 am every night.

The original Blue Ribbon is still going strong and still serving what may have been New York's first plate of buttery bone marrow with the house specialty oxtail marmalade.

Since those early days the brothers have expanded to eight restaurants and a bakery across Manhattan and Brooklyn. Sushi may seem like a departure but as at all their outposts, the Bromberg's rely on simple preparation allowing the super fresh, high quality ingredients to shine.

Spicy lobster roll. . . delicious.

Les Halles

Culinary bad boy Anthony Bourdain's orignal New York outpost, Les Halles, is a busy cheerful restaurant specializing in the straight forward fare of French bistros. Not particularly inventive (although when it first opened there were few like it in the states) but unpretentious and executed with finesse.

The menu features onion soup, classic terrines, and the specialty -- steak frites. I had to order the dish what many claim are the city's best fries.

Reliable and something for everyone, that's Les Halles. Feeding the city like it's Paris market name sake once did.

Breakfast at Balthazar

Balthazar, long a go-to spot for chick Soho dining, offers French style all day dining for people who have time to dine all day. Morning brings eggs in puff pastry, addictive bread baskets, and flaky croissants courtesy of the adjacent bakery.

I slide into a booth among a room of regulars for a latte in a bowl and house made granola with yogurt and fruit.Balthazar is more French than France -- a slice of a time gone by we tourist go dream of finding, but it's right here at home.

My Bread is Garbage

I am lucky enough to be in New York City on a job, with a little time off.

And so, on one not so sunny but still very hot morning I decided to make a bread pilgrimage to search out the bakery of my favorite baker, bread guru, Jim Lahey. I have been cooking my way through Lahey's revolutionary bread cookbook, My Bread, since James bought it for me last Christmas. I wanted to see what the real thing was like. And here -- very far from Sullivan Street, behind this unassuming facade (hardly the exterior one expects for a true king of the bread world) I came face to face with Lahey's creations.

I selected a small multigrain roll (paninetto as the bakery says). The minute I bit into the thick crisp crust and felt it shatter like beautiful toasty glass one thought popped into my head. "My bread is garbage."How does he do it? What am I doing wrong?

As I walked the nearly 4 miles back to my hotel in Soho (very near Sullivan street and the bakery's original location) I pondered on the more than 35 years that, somewhat halfheartedly, I have been playing with and have been taunted by homemade bread. I've done quick breads, biscuits, yeast cakes, eggs breads, whole wheat loaves, parkerhouse rolls practically bathed in melted butter but until Lahey's no-knead recipe convinced me to just let the dough sit I can't say homemade bread was a regular treat at our house, or that I was very proud of the results. I was proud that is -- until I took a bite of the real thing. One bite and it was over.

Though I rarely detail it, sometimes I have trouble getting Lahey's recipes to rise or the loaves are flat and sad. The original recipe and the whole wheat are pretty much no-fail but the more exotic flavors, carrot bread and walnut I wasn't sure about, until today. I wondered if my bread came out like the master's, now I know, sadly, it does not.

As I wandered home, flush with this new reality I thought, " there is one more pilgrimage to make."
About two years ago Lahey opened Co (pronounced Company) specializing in wood fired pizza with the baker's justly famous dough. I wandered in, a little worse for the sudden summer rainstorm that hit more somewhere around 34th street, and was met by a cheerful waiter who suggested I sit at the bar thinking it would be more fun than one of the long tables. "The bartender is really chill," he said.

I saddled up the the small marble bar in full view of the Co packaged salt and olive oil and a gleaming espresso machine.

Seemingly seconds later Siri, more charming than "chill", came to tell me about the specials of the day. I immediately fell for the raw vegetables with anchovy dip. A bagna calda I thought, until out came a superbly creamy concoction surrounded by crisp baby vegetables. Salty, savory, with an anchovy flavor so mild it seemed vaguely like the best caesar salad dressing ever. If not for the polite company I'd have been tempted to dive into this small bowl and lick it clean. Spectacular and simple -- I'm hoping My Bread has the recipe, this could be a new party regular at our house.
Sensing my interest (well maybe obsession) with the kitchen -- I could see the beautiful Earthstone oven from my perch at the bar -- Siri, bartender supreme, wrangled me an invitation to visit the kitchen, where Brendan, the man at the oven filled me in on the finer points of pizza cookery.
900 degrees of deliciousness -- Co's wood-fired oven hard at work. A finished pie takes about 5 minutes.
These are no ordinary pizzas. Sure there are Margherita and a meatball versions but Co is justly famous for it's Popeye -- gruyere, pecorino and mozzarella cheese topped with fresh spinach which toasts in the intense heat. Other pies feature fresh arugula, ham and cheese, and, the diet buster Flambé, a combination of lardons, caramelized onions, cheeses, and super-rich béchamel sauce. The menu is simple ( 9 pizzas, some salads, "toast" (crostini with a choice of toppings), and soups thickened with Lahey's delicious bread crumbs) and I suspect changes with the availability of the best ingredients.

Counseled by my new friend the bartender I went with the day's special. Corn purée topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, fresh Italian kale, and sweet juicy golden cherry tomatoes, added after the pie had baked.

Lahey's crust is at once crisp and chewy. The breadmaker's holy grail.

One bite in I swooned for the combination of sweet and yet savory corn and crisp, not quite bitter leaves. Two bites in I started to wonder what a purée so delicious was costing my diet. Three bites in a slight panic set in but I kept going.

Relief set in when my new friends in the Co kitchen shared the recipe with me: fresh corn kernels pureed in the "robocoup" -- the French original that inspired the Cuisinart home version -- and strained through a "China cap." That'll make a few dirty dishes at home but two of James favorite flavors on one crust is worth a home oven try.

While I'm happily munching, Siri tells me that Lahey is working on a pizza cookbook -- have to put that on a future Christmas list.

Better than dessert, after a few minutes of chatting at the bar, Siri knows a groupie when she sees one, and brings the man himself, Jim Lahey, over to say hello. We chat about crust and LA and my problems with some breads. Lahey offers to look at pictures of my home loaves to give some personalized direction (I'll update on that one). A doughy dream come true -- hero worship at the marble bar.

Thank you Siri, my fairy bread godmother!