I Love New York - Sripriphai Part Deux

Yes, I've written about this place before, but frankly it's worth revisiting. Another hidden gem just outside the sacrosanct boundaries of Manhattan, this restaurant offers some of the best Thai food in the city, if not the best. I have a friend who says that another place, which I will visit soon, is better, but right now I'm sticking with Sripriphai.

Like most New Yorkers who live on this island, I tend to get myopic when it comes to travelling outside of my little universe. We can always find an excuse not to leave our little fortress of solitude: problems/delays with the subway, most of us don't have cars so moving about can get complicated, and bus service can take forever. However, a quick ride on the 7 line brings you to the wildly, colorfully diverse neighborhood of Woodside, Queens. This melting pot of cultures from all over the world offers something for everyone from everywhere. Literally. On one block, a mosque sits next to a Chinese take-out, which is near a Dollar Store, with an empanada joint next to it, and an old-school Italian pizza place is its neighbor.

 

What to drink...?
A visit to Sripriphai calls for a little forethought when it comes to wines. You can't just bring any red or white. This food is bright with pure colors, flavors and aromas, and sometimes very, very spicy. Most wines will get blown out of the glass. What you need is something with good acidity and/or something that has some residual sugar. Bubbles are a plus too. Which is where either Champagne (acidity and bubbles) or Riesling (residual sugar and acidity) come in handy.

 

Papaya salad
These types of wines can stand up to the intense flavors in these dishes. They can also carry through and cleanse your palate, preparing you for the next treat.

 

Fried tofu
Heck, the bubbles in Champagne can act as little scrubbers, cutting through the intense flavors that are inherent in some of these.

 

Fried watercress salad
Sugar in the Riesling acts as a protective layer when it comes to spicy plates, countering the spicy oils and also preparing your palate for what comes next.

 

Drunken noodles
Some of these dishes are quite extraordinary. Bright, vivacious, alive.

 

Red snapper with garlic sauce
They haven't been dumbed down for their American audience, they have maintained their authenticity and are true to themselves. Which is what I love, and respect.

 

Curried pork with beans
I am not certain stuff like this would fly outside of New York. Or at least it wouldn't do as well as this place has. Sripriphai used to be a tiny sliver of a restaurant. Now, it's a large establishment with a gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous back garden.

 

Chinese greens

 

Braised pork leg (amazing)

 

Curried noodles with chicken (insanely good)

 

We're stuffed, but dessert comes anyway: sticky rice with taro and banana
It's places like this, that have remained true to themselves, that remind me why I love New York sometimes. Despite the gentrification and Las Vegas-ification of a once proud city, you can still find restaurants that haven't sold out to the fast food crowd. They require you to sit, be patient, and enjoy both your food and your company. Take your time to discover them and you will be pleasantly rewarded.
Cheers!

Sripriphai
64-13 39th Avenue
Woodside, NY 11377
Tel# 718.899.9599

Meals with Friends in Paris

My first week in Paris, I joined fellow blogger and good friend Sharon at her place for a fantastic lunch. A British expat, Neil, also joined us, as did my wife, who had just landed and courageously ignored the jet-lag trying to drag her down. After picking her up from the Air France shuttle, we dropped her bags at our apartment and walked through the Jardins du Luxembourg to Sharon's place.

Henri the Hedgehog
Midway through the beautiful park, we came across a group of people standing in the path, watching something on the ground. As we approached, we realized they were all staring at a small hedgehog, who was meandering slowly in the warm sun, ignoring all the gawking stares. I whipped out the camera and caught him as he made his way home for lunch. Christening him Henri (make sure to pronounce it with a thick French accent, "Hunhreeeeeeeee") the Hedgehog, we wished him a bon apetit and continued on our own way.


Lunch was amazing, as Sharon is the consumate host and cook. We started with Champagne, of course, opening a NV Jacques Lassaigne Vignes de Montgueux, light on the palate with some lovely elegant notes of citrusy herbs on a steely frame. Super dry, just lovely to quench our thirst as we feasted on homemade gougères. Alongside this, there was a NV Henriot "Rose Noire", something I'd never tried. But being a fan of the house, I forced (wink, wink) myself to taste, only to find the wine slightly oxydized and I think flawed. There was some discussion as to whether it was, but in the end I believe it was and need to retaste it.

With the meal, we opened some more bottles, of course. A 2005 Frederic Mugnier Chambolle Musigny was sacrificed for scientific purposes (talk about infanticide!). Lovely but far too young, this was a shy puppy, revealing only some dark Pinot fruit on a powerful frame. Hmmm... need to come back to that in about 5 years! Next came a 1999 Daniel Rion Chambolle-Musigny "Les Beaux Bruns" which was just singing, a gorgeous Chambolle with some age on it and ready to drink now. God, I love Burgundy. Lastly, with a cheese platter that would make most cheese shops in NYC blush, we cracked a 2000 Domaine de l'Arlot Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru "Clos de l'Arlot" Blanc. Beautiful, just absolutely fresh and fruity and minerally, with a great mouthfeel that matched the cheeses.

A week passed and I went to ViniSud, the Rhone, then made my way back to Paris for one last night of debauchery. Who else to call but some friends who like wine and good food? So Sharon and her boyfriend Arnault ventured into the warm February night to join me and my friend Cybele at Restaurant Astier, in the 11th Arrondissement.

Astier's Cheese Plate
Wow, what a deal! For 31€ you can get a 4-course meal of classic French dishes in a welcoming, low-key, unpretentious environment. Just what I like! I ordered a bouillon de champignons (mushroom broth) for a starter, then went to a Charolais beef with potatoes drenched in cheese and cream. Yum! The cheese platter was a plate a meter wide that stank to high Heaven and was oh-so-delicious. Dessert was a Chocolat Parfait, but at this point all I could venture was a few bites before stalling.


Our first wine was a white, a 2004 J.-M. Boillot Puligny-Montrachet, from a year I like where the acidities were very high in Burgundy. This was fantastic, putting on weight throughout the meal as I saved a large glass for the cheese, which was the correct thing to do. Beautifully minerally, with laser-like precision, and fleshy fruit, this was redolent of lemony truffles. Powder this up and I'd do lines of this all night!


At the same time as the white, we decided to order a red, a 1998 Jacques Prieur Beaune 1er Cru "Clos de la Féguine" and have it decanted. While this is a year I enjoy, this wine was tough to wrap our palates around. Smelling beautifully of older red Burgundy, it refused to come out its shell despite being decanted for over an hour, only coming out to play at the very end of our main courses. Ah, well, such is the way of things sometimes...

Restaurant Astier
44, Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud
75011 PARIS
Tél : 01.43.57.16.35

Cheers!

The Best Lunch Deal in NYC

My mother decided to invite me to lunch to celebrate my birthday a few days early as I will be away on the Big Day. Lo and behold, she dragged me to Jean-Georges restaurant for a leisurely (ie 3 hour) lunch. Now I know where I get this love of slow food from...

This was my first time back to JG since they redid the room, and I have to say the place looks great. I liked it before, truth be told, but it was far more formal and a bit cold. Now it's soft and warm, with beige leather seats and an inviting glow from a flowing chandelier anchored to the ceiling.

We ordered the $28 prix-fixe menu for 2 dishes, still one of the city's best QPR (Quality-to Price Ratio) lunch deals. Of course, that means I could spend more money on wine... But that's for later.

The meal started off with some interesting amuses bouche: a rice cracker puff with some tuna tartar, a raw Kumamoto oyster with a briney foam, and a soup of chestnut with a ravioli filled with chestnuts. The tuna was delicious, absolutely delicious on the cracker; the oyster slightly overpowered by the foam, which was far too salty; and the soup absolutely fantastic, just the most ethereal and light essence of chestnuts, with a slightly under-cooked ravioli to mar the quality just so.

My first course was a butternut squash soup with tiny cubes of squash, chives and black trumpet mushrooms (one of my favorite 'shrooms!). Thick and creamy, this practically oozed butter but wasn't as heavy as one would think. My pet peeve with butternut squash soup is how absolutely filling it can be if not done properly. This was very, very good, nicely balanced, especially on a dark and dreary fall day. The one fault I could find with it was that every once in a while it was a bit saltier than I wanted it to be. Not by much, but enough to notice. Then again, I've begun to notice a salty trend in NY cuisines lately for some reason, and I know I'm not the only one.

Second course was sweetbreads on a licorice stick with a roast pear and some lemon sauce. Very good, but not as good as the ones I had at 11 Madison Park a few weeks ago, which were sublime. These were delicious, don't get me wrong, and yes I realize I am spoiled sometimes. Beautiful texture, if just so slightly drier than I liked, but I am picky.

Now to the wine. The list is nicely stacked, though with more recent vintages. Some wines are pretty decently priced, though there are of course those I look at and laugh... After chatting with the sommelier (something I think anyone who wants to be assured of a good choice should do at a place like this, no matter how much they think they know), we decided on a 2001 Domaine de l'Arlot Nuits St Georges Clos des Forets St Georges. This comes from Burgundy, my favorite region, and from a vintage that offered nice bright fruit and good acidity, something I love in wine. Then again, when dealing with Burgundy, there is one paramount lesson: always go with the producer, not the vintage.

At first, the wine was rather reticent, showing hints of cherries and forest floor, carried through from the nose to the light-bodied palate that ended with tart tannins. As it sat and I swirled the glass, the wine began to gather strength and depth, even seeming to become darker. Yet despite this added weight, it never lost its elegance, becoming more focused as the elements came together. Cherries, raspberries, sous-bois (forest floor), earth, some mushrooms, all danced on a frame that seemed to vibrate on the palate with an intense nervosite, ending in a medium-length finish. This is beautifully typical Burgundy. And WOW did it go well with my sweetbreads! Talk about enhancing the experience...

Then came the obligatory avalanche of small desserts and guimauve, real marshmellows still quivering on the plate. Yummy!

The only part that was off was our waiter, who while professional was rather cold and impersonal, which we both found off-putting. The sommelier, on the other hand, was warm and friendly, a nice contrast to his comrade.

All in all, a wonderful way to spend 3 hours on a Wednesday afternoon.

Cheers!