Eating Our Way Across NYC

This blog is for keeping track of things I cook, but I am not cooking this week since I am in New York, New York for spring break! NY is a food-lover's paradise. This is what I ate. 
 
Day 0

Late Lunch/Early Dinner @ Radiance near our hotel. Tea Shop with Asian Fusion foods. We shared a pot of white peony tea and an order of chicken won tons (the first time I ever had won tons that weren't fried!) Nathan had an unagi (eel) rice bowl and I had shrimp with avocado, pickled cabbage and creamy miso sauce.


Midnight (our time) snack @ Red 58 - a small bar/grill a few blocks from our hotel.
Shared an order of BBQ pork sliders (bbq pork, melted havarti and pickles) and a blue cheese wedge salad. He had a manhattan and I had their "Bastarda's" - a mix of JD, SoCo, Amaretto, cinnamon and an orange slice. Yummy.


Day 1

"Brunch" at Katz's Deli! Katz's is the "I'll have what she's having" restaurant in When Harry Met Sally, but it's more than just a movie spot. It's super good.
Shared a giant pastrami on rye, potato salad,  and pickles.

Not actually what she had.

 "Snack" at a brewery as we were walking back to our hotel after wandering up and down Little Italy, Chinatown, Town Hall, the Library/Bryant Park and Rockafeller center. I was thirsty. I had the wheat beer and Nathan had "Old Red Hen." They brew their own rootbeer which I might go back for. As we were leaving he said that he was going to suggest stopping for ice cream, but the beer hit the same spot. Beer. It's like ice cream for grownups!


Dinner before our show at Basso 56th, an Italian restaurant near Broadway. Shared a caprese salad.He had spinach and cheese ravioli and I had fettuccine with porcine mushrooms and spinach.

Fresh Mozzarella = love

Day 2

Central Park today!
"Brunch" was a $1 hot dog from a cart. Everything comes with brown ground mustard instead of yellow stuff here. I love it. Wish I could get a coke though. Stupid pepsi everywhere.
Later we had waffles from a cart called Waffles and Dinges with speculoos spread and whipped cream. Speculoos is the consistency of creamy peanut butter and tastes like a gingerbread cookie. Amazing.

Dinner was at Les Halles where Anthony Bourdain used to be the executive chef. It was all I wanted and more. I had steak frites with blue cheese sauce (to compare with the same meal at Mon Ami Gabi - it was better) and Nathan had some tripe thing. He is gross. Monday is half-off wine day so we shared a bottle of beaujolais. The only thing that could have made my dinner at Les Halles better would be Tony himself showing up, but it was not to be.

Oh, hi Sarah. Didn't see you come in.

What the %()&$#! is that: Chayote Edition

These little guys were in my produce basket this week. I was glad I arrived before the produce truck and helped distribute on Saturday because I got to see the boxes they came in and write down the name. They are most commonly called chayotes, but there are some regional names for them that are too good not to post. In les pays francophone, one might call them christophenes. Throughout Central America, a chayote is a choko. In Brazil, it's a chuchu, and in India it's a chow chow. If you happen to live in the swamps of Louisiana, you will recognize this vegetable as an alligator pear.

An urban legend circulates Australia claiming that the McDonald's restaurants there use chayote rather than apples in their apple pies because they maintain attractive color and firmness when cooked. I told my husband. He said he doesn't care what's in a McDonald's apple pie because they are delicious no matter what.

The other vaguely interesting factoid I found researching the alligator pear (see, it is the best name), is that many people report allergic reactions after contact with the squash's skin. I didn't notice any reactions at the distribution because each chayote was individually wrapped in small plastic baggies, but when I started to peel the chayotes to cook them, my hands and arms went all itchy and blotchy. Fortunately, the flesh of the squash does not cause the same problems.

Since Julia Child didn't include any christophene recipes in MtAoFC, and I couldn't find any recipes for chayotes in any of my other cookbooks, I turned to the internet for recipe ideas. Unsurprisingly, most of what I found was for Mexican or Central American style cuisine. This worked out well. The produce co-op planners are prudent, so I also had several Anaheim peppers on hand. I searched, compiled and tweaked and came up with a few promising ideas.  Pack my knives and call me Kenny 'cause I'm about to make chayote two ways.
 
Tuesday's Dish - Rice with Chayote

I'm told this dish is called a Fritanga and is a staple in Guatemala, but searches for the word just yield Nicaraguan restaurants, so I'm not sure I believe it. It's basically a saute of chayote, tomatoes and onions with cooked rice and seasoning. I realized too late that I might have had better results if I had used uncooked rice and made it as a paella. My aunt gave me a beautiful paella pan for my birthday in March, but so far I have only used it as a roasting pan for chicken. It's exactly the right size.

the cutest tomatoes

1. Peel, slice and sautee 1 chayote along with 1 medium onion (diced) and 2-3 chopped garlic cloves.
2. Add about 1/3 cup cooking liquid (I used chicken stock, but vegetable stock or water would work just fine I'm sure) and chili powder, cumin, paprika and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
3. Stir in 2 cups of cooked rice and a coarsely chopped tomato. Cook until heated through.

 

Chayote stays firm through cooking and has a mild taste similar to cucumbers. They're family, after all. The real star of this dish was the cherry tomatoes I quartered and sauteed until just done. I served this with cheese-and-Anaheim-pepper enchiladas. Yum!



Wednesday's Dish - Chayote with Tomato, Green Chile and Cheese

tomato/chile puree

1. Peel 1-2 chayotes and slice into julienned strips. The core of the chayote is edible and a bit nutty so go ahead and leave it in.
2. Roast whole tomatoes (I used more of the super cute cherry tomatoes) under the broiler until they begin to pop, then process (leave the skin on) with 1-2 roasted green chile peppers (peeled and seeded) and 2-3 garlic cloves until smooth.
3. Dice and saute half a yellow onion, once the onion becomes translucent, add your tomato/pepper puree and a pinch of red pepper flakes.
4. Stir in the chayote and 1/4 cup water or stock. Cook 15 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and stir in 1-2 tbsp chopped cilantro and 1/4 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese.   

I didn't have any cilantro on hand, but I didn't have to go to the store because my husband is a genius. Last time we had bunches of cilantro, he froze chopped cilantro with a little water in an ice cube tray like little cilantrocicles. I just had to grab a cube and let it thaw.



I liked this dish a lot better than the previous one. Nathan and I both decided that chayote is okay. I will probably never buy a chayote in the store, but I wouldn't refuse it if served. The roasted tomato and chile sauce tasted good and cheese makes everything better. I have a coworker who often says she'd eat a shoe if it had melted cheese on it. Well, I'd eat a chayote if it had melted cheese on it.

Chayote Squash with tomato peppers and cheese served with pollo asada.