Red Rooster

I took a field trip to Harlem a few weeks ago for dinner at Red Rooster, and let me tell you, the neighborhood is not the place it used to be (sketchy). Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go skipping around there at night twirling my pigtails or anything, but the place has changed a lot in the past few years (majorly gentrified).

Chef Marcus Samuelsson opened this place less than a year ago with the idea of melding his roots (Ethiopian), his upbringing (Swedish), and his current home (Harlem) into an affordable neighborhood dining destination. The idea is interesting, but the execution left me pretty disappointed (and if you scroll down to see what I made ordered for dinner you'll understand what I mean).

Corn bread, honey butter, and tomato jam. The salt-flecked corn bread was delicious and moist, and the honey butter made it that much more enjoyable. On the other hand, the tomato jam tasted like mild Pace salsa. Not good.

Two of my friends ordered the fried yard bird, with white mace gravy, hot sauce, and shake (some sort of seasoning blend). This is a terrible picture, but the portion was generous, the skin nice and crispy, and the hot sauce complex and full of heat.

Blackened catfish and black eyed peas with fried pickles and lemon dill slaw. I didn't taste this (I hate fish), but apparently it was so good that by the time I looked back up from my plate it was all gone! 

Yams and sweet potato puree with bacon, horseradish, and maple. We shared this as a table, but we didn't finish it. To me, that speaks volumes. The puree was just too soupy. We turned our attention to picking the crunchy bits off the top and pulling out the pieces of bacon that were folded into the puree.

And now for the picture I've been holding off on sharing because it is just too disgusting to look at. Chickpea dumplings, fresh cheese, spinach, and peas. This is what I made the mistake of ordering. I was so hungry and humiliated by my choice that I ate the entire thing. It tasted fine (even verging on flavorful), but it was almost entirely texture-less and every time I caught a glimpse of it I felt ill.

 

In a nutshell, I don't recommend the trek to Harlem for Red Rooster. I've heard they have great cocktails, but I couldn't justify spending $14 for a drink on a Monday night.

Bag Lunch: Turkey Sandwich with Pesto Mayo and Dried Cranberries

I ate a variation of this sandwich for the first time at a bridal shower last summer in Central Park. It was a terrific afternoon, so anytime I make this sandwich I'm transported back to that perfect summer day.

Here's what you'll need (amazing day in the park not included):

• Bread (I used whole grain)
• Pesto (fresh or store bought)
• Mayonnaise 
• Hard, grate-able cheese (I used Pecorino)
• Dried cranberries
• Arugula 
• Turkey

The flavor profile for the sandwich is a little autumn-y (turkey, dried cranberry), but the arugula brightens everything up making it a great summer lunch. And, bonus, no cooking required.

Mix some mayo into the pesto (or pesto into the mayo, depending how much you love mayo) and spread liberally on two slices of bread. This acts as an adhesive for all the loose ingredients in the sandwich.  Pick a slice and sprinkle on some grated cheese and cranberries. Dried fruit in a sandwich? Blegh, you may say. I was skeptical at first, too, but it brings a nice sweet/tart flavor to this sandwich and provides an interesting textural contrast to the other ingredients.

Pile on a generous handful of arugula and top it off with turkey (placing the turkey last keeps the unruly greens in place) and the other slice of bread.

I have to say, this is a lot more interesting than your standard turkey sandwich, and your coworkers will be impressed that you're not eating peanut butter and jelly, again, for the twelfth day in a row.

Kelley & Ping

I don't generally venture out for lunch (no time, no money), so I try to be selective when I do. An author friend mentioned Kelley & Ping as a cheap and delicious lunch spot in Soho, so I had to check it out. I was not disappointed!

In celebration of getting out of my office for lunch, I ordered a tropical iced tea (sadly, not spiked). It had lovely pineapple and mints flavors, but wasn't overly sweet.

What's inside the container?

Kelley & Ping's dim sum lunch box. Shrimp shumai, vegetable spring rolls, cold sesame noodles, and steamed shrimp dumplings accompanied by some sort of soy sauce dip and sweet & sour sauce. The diverse combination was the perfect solution for this extremely indecisive person. I could have spent fifteen precious minutes of my lunch hour trying to decide between their enticing salads, noodle bowls, and wraps, but I'm a sucker for dumplings and spring rolls. Everything was delicious, but the crispy spring roll, and peanuty noodles were what I savored most.

Not only is lunch at Kelley & Ping affordable ($12 for a meal and drink), it's tucked away on Greene Street, sheltered from the hoards of fashion-crazed European tourists and disgruntled New Yorkers roaming Soho.

Lentil and Rice Salad

I recently inherited the contents of my friend Annika's pantry (she left me for Chicago) and included in the bounty was a bag of lentils. What will I do with lentils? I thought to myself. As a kid I hated lentils so much I would cry if my dad made me eat them. A bit dramatic? Maybe.

Thankfully, the opportunity to use them and make other people eat them came up a few weeks later when I was invited to a pot luck. In an effort to save some money and use what I had on hand, I found this recipe on Epicurious. And, what do you know, it was actually delicious and quite pretty.

The vibrant chopped vegetables.

The boring lentil and brown rice mixture.

The marriage of bold and bland. Beautiful! (Sorry for the extreme closeup.)

Think of this as tabbouleh but with lentils and rice subbed in for bulgar. The textures and flavors in this dish are fantastic! The lesson here is that your five-year-old self shouldn't keep your grown-up self from going back and giving things a second chance.

Imperial Woodpecker Sno-Balls

As much as I love ice cream, gelato, and frozen yogurt, having a dairy-based dessert in the middle of a heat wave tends to make me feel ill. So I was pretty eager to try out Imperial Woodpecker Sno-Balls, the West Village's pop-up snow ball shop.

  

Overwhelmed by all the flavor choices (a feeling that's not surprising given my tendency to have a panic attack when faced with a decision of any sort), I settled on Key Lime Pie. Fun neon color, WAY too sweet. Probably not helped by the addition of condensed milk. (And here I was complaining about dairy in my frozen desserts.)

 

Their snow-balls are pricey ($4 for a small), their syrups are extremely sweet (the word syrup should have tipped me off, right?) but finishing one is guaranteed to bring your body temperature down a few degrees and it's sort of fun to walk around eating something this strange looking.

 

You'd think my initial review of this place would keep me from going back . . . but I already have. Am I crazy for paying $4 for a pile of sugar ice I didn't love the first time? Potentially. But I do live in New York where I pay about 45% of my net income to sleep in a closet-sized bedroom, so maybe crazy is my middle name. Anyway, my second go--granny smith apple sans condensed milk--was much better than the first. 

Bag Lunch: Orzo Salad

I gleaned most of my cooking skills from logging hours of watching the Food Network. This recipe came from an episode of Everyday Italian I watched in college, and it is so reliably delicious that I still make it, more than five years later.

I modified things a bit to work with what I had, so there was no mint in my salad, I added chicken, and used a store-bought balsamic vinaigrette. But, if you have the time, I definitely recommend making the red wine vinaigrette that's part of the recipe. There was just something missing from my salad without the zing of the red wine vinegar.

Since I ate this salad all week, I kept a large container of the orzo, chickpeas, onion, and chicken in the fridge and each day added tomatoes, basil, and dressing to the portion I planned to eat for lunch. Cut tomatoes get mealy fast, chopped basil and mint will turn brown after a while, and dressing will make orzo (or any pasta, for that matter) soggy when it sits too long, so either eat this salad right away or keep the delicate ingredients separate!

Here's the salad looking much more attractive in the natural light. My kitchen makes everything a sickly yellow.

Prime Meats

Brunch is definitely one of my favorite things about living in Brooklyn. Each neighborhood is littered with delicious options, each quirkier and cozier than the next. One of my favorite places (aside from my number one, Miriam) is Prime Meats. Their egg sandwich is my go to. You can get it with their excellent bacon or sausage, but I was feeling "healthy" that day, so I opted for avocado.

 

Buttery biscuit, perfectly ripe avocado, creamy scrambled egg, and melted cheese (with a dash or seven of Cholula hot sauce--a condiment I keep in my desk drawer I love it so much). Heaven. The only downside was the enormous biscuit. How could I possibly take a bite without ruining my beautiful sandwich?

Not being a fan of inefficiency or waste (particularly of a very delicious biscuit) I sliced the top part in two and enjoyed a post-egg sandwich snack of biscuit . . .

. . . dipped in honey. Free dessert!