Our Man Sietsema and Anatomy Known Only to Veterinarians

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 10:37 PM, May 6, 2008

This week, Our Man has discovered a Nigerian place in East New York, Brooklyn—and he is really psyched, because although Our Man frequents all manner of African places around the city, a reliable Nigerian spot had eluded him until now.

Not anymore! Enter Festac Grill, where chef/owner Abiodun Imasuen serves several dishes that Our Man thinks are fantastic. (Although he has to convince her that he does indeed like spice before she'll let him order.)

When Imasuen is finally persuaded that Our Man really does want to sample her wares, she comes up with a wonderful goat pepper soup, "bursting" with offal—"kidney, liver, tripe, jelly-like skin, and other anatomic features normally known only to veterinarians."

Our Man also enjoys a simpler fish pepper soup, and the poached porgy. Our Man also approves of the bar snacks, including beef kebabs coated in crushed peanuts.

On a related note, I just found this website, which has a bunch of Nigerian recipes, in case you want to try those dishes at home.

Our Man Sietsema and Fork in the Road Join Forces, Eat Dosas

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 8:21 AM, April 30, 2008

This week's Eats section is a special South Indian extravaganza. Our Man reviews Tamil Nadu Bhavan, a new vegetarian South Indian restaurant on Lexington Avenue. Meanwhile, I discover three Hindu temples that all boast canteens, two of which focus on South Indian fare.

First up! Our Man at Tamil Nadu Bhavan, where he finds 20 varieties of dosas, including rarer finds like the ghee roast (a dosa swimming in clarified butter) and the self-explanatory "5-foot dosa," which is so big Our Man notes that it could be used to wrap up a good-sized child.

Our Man also finds serviceable South Indian thalis (full set meals of rice, several veggies and bread), along with all manner of lentils and rice aplenty. The best rice option, Our Man finds, is a one called curd rice that comes swimming in yogurt. It has a "puckeringly sour effect. Little Miss Muffet would have approved," notes Our Man.

Turn the page, and you'll find FitR (that's me) at three Hindu temples: two in Queens, one in New Jersey. Hindu temples often have kitchens to prepare prasad. Those are small food items (usually sweets) that are first offered to the gods, and then eaten by devotees as part of the worship.

These three temple kitchens, though, evolved into full-fledged canteens. (Well, one is more of a sweets/snacks shop), You can sit among a hubbub of families and eat all kinds of dosas, uttapam, idli, daals and other, rarer, regional specialties like pongal—a buttery yellow split pea and whole peppercorn soup—and bobbatlu, a sweet, grainy flatbread served with milk poured over it.

Our Man Sietsema at the Golden Shopping Mall

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 8:00 AM, April 23, 2008

When J &L Shopping Mall in Flushing went under (reportedly because the owner sold it to a condo developer) a cry of hungry despair went up from chowhounders everywhere. J&L had held a much-loved food court with obscure regional Chinese specialties. But take heart, Our Man Sietsema is here to save the day.

This week, Our Man is at Flushing's Golden Shopping Mall, a worthy substitute for J&L. Our Man notes that the food court here holds "an even more arcane assortment of Chinese regional cooking styles."

Our Man throughly enjoys himself at the food court. He finds all sorts of regional dishes, like Sichuan composed meat salads swimming in chile oil, and the lighter fare from Tianjin, such as a salad of bean curd, celery and boiled peanuts.

He finds hand-cut noodles from Xi'an, and recommends the lamb noodle. And as is his wont, Our Man loves the lamb sandwich—"Don't miss the so-called lamb burger ($2.50), a wonderful sandwich on a homemade pita layered with rich roasted meat and pickled chilies."

(If Our Man was coming to my house for dinner, I'd definitely make lamb.)

A classic Our Man column, a great find. Get there.

Our Man Sietsema and the Tough Old Cock

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 8:27 AM, April 16, 2008

This week, Our Man is at Agnanti, a new restaurant in Bay Ridge that specializes in the cooking of the expat Greek community in Turkey.

The background info in this story is classic Our Man—he tells us all the Greeks in Turkey: their history, their cooking and even digs up "Apicius, the Roman Mark Bittman" to comment on a soup. If you got all your history lessons from Our Man's columns, you'd be doing pretty well.

On to the food! Our Man likes it. He especially likes the rooster: "Who'd believe that a tough old cock would cook up so juicy and flavorful?" Ba dum bum.

He also loves the vegetarian stuffed grape leaves, the croquettes of zucchini and cheese and soutzoukakia, ground meat kabobs in tomato sauce flavored with an unexpected jolt of cumin.

A few items get the smackdown. Our Man notes that the kitchen gets a little overzealous with its grill, rendering its grilled meats dry—"a fate that also befalls sardines and pork chops..."

Sigar bourek, sometimes called "fingers of Fatimah...bear an unmistakable resemblance to frozen croissants." Oh snap.

But Our Man finds plenty to like, including the cheese selection.

What's in Pandora's feta? You'll have to read the story to find out.

Our Man Sietsema and the Organic Chicken Sternum

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 8:48 AM, April 9, 2008

This week, Our Man checks out Soba Totto, the newest addition to the Yakitori Totto chain. Soba Totto focuses on charcoal-grilled skewers of chicken.

We didn't realize chicken sternum could be skewered, but Our Man is here to teach us these things. And he likes it: "an aerodynamic-looking bone that's ganged up three to a stick like jet planes flying in formation, producing a soft crunch as you bite down."

Our Man also notes that at dinner on Valentine's Day he found the skewered chicken hearts irresistible, as they looked exactly like mini human hearts. He's a romantic, after all.

Among the more familiar chicken parts, Our Man says that the chicken skin and the chicken meatballs are the "awesomest." Also recommended are the many versions of soba noodles, and a "lovely invalid's rice porridge."

All in all, Our Man really likes this restaurant, so we suggest you get there now. But avoid the sea cucumber. If Our Man admits he finds a food repulsive and frightening, we're pretty sure one bite would give the general public nightmares for life.

Soba Totto
211 East 43rd Street
212-557-8200

Our Man Sietsema and the Very Small Piglet

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 8:10 AM, April 2, 2008

This week, Our Man is in Astoria, eating grilled pig at Arcos, a Portuguese churrasqueira. He loves the place, especially the charcoal-grilled suckling pig:

"...wads of dark luscious meat interleaved with layers of fluffy white fat into a sort of carnivorous napoleon. Barely adhering, the burnished skin perched on top as light and crisp as a potato chip."

A carnivorous napoleon? This makes us crave suckling pig and it's not even 9am. Damn you, Our Man!

It turns out the restaurant grills three or four "very small pigs" every Friday and Saturday. Other days of the week, Our Man recommends the pork chops, and reminds us not to miss the excellent homemade potato chips.

Arcos isn't all about the meat, it also specializes in seafood, like grilled octopus in lemon and garlic and clams steamed in wine, parsley and garlic.

Also! Our Man discovers a "chourico sausage of Ron Jeremy length," enjoys a $22 bottle of Monte Velho, loves the salt cod fritters, and finds only one item on the menu that's a total flop.

Our Man Sietsema at Merkato 55

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 8:34 AM, March 26, 2008

This week, Our Man reviews Marcus Samuelsson's new pan-African restaurant, Merkato 55. He finds much to recommend, an endorsement that should carry a lot of weight, given Our Man's longtime interest in African cuisine.

Our Man reminds us not to fear the Meatpacking location (or MePa, as it is lately, and annoyingly, called). "Herman Melville wandered the cobbles long before Lindsay Lohan," he writes. Onward!

Among the Ethopian selections, Our Man finds that the doro watt has "marvelous depth of flavor" and the kitfo, a beef tartare cooked just slightly with hot, spiced butter, has a "wild richness."

The foie gras chutney is less successful, causing Our Man chase little bits of liver around the bowl. Don't make Our Man chase little bits of liver around the bowl!

The pita bread also meets disapproval—"cardboardy material that might better be sent to the troops in Iraq as body armor," Our Man helpfully suggests.

All in all, though, Our Man admires Chef Samuelsson's sweeping, continent-wide scope, and wonders if this restaurant will make African food the Next Big Thing.

Our Man Sietsema and the Inscrutable Do Do Frog’s Leg

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 5:52 PM, March 18, 2008

This week, Our Man chronicles the rise of Fujinese noodle joints in Chinatown—the earliest incarnations were out-and-out dives, but recent additions to the genre have amenities like actual waitresses. Our Man is at two such places this week, Food Sing 88 Corp. and Best Fuzhou Restaurant.

At Food Sing 88 Corp., Our Man finds much to like. The house special hand-pulled noodles amount to a "a beef landslide in a rich fragrant broth."

"If you want to eat like a Fujianese immigrant, pick the pork bone noodles," he continues. BUT! "Don’t order it unless you intend to suck down the copious marrow, which is the best part."

Onward and upward to Best Fuzhou Restaurant, where Our Man finds enough organ meat and amphibians to occupy him, including duck kidney with cauliflower (yum!), frog wrapped with leaf (eh.) and do do frog’s leg (eh?).

As an added bonus, at Best Fuzhou, Our Man "thrilled to the spectacle of two waitresses wrestling a five-foot eel."

He also discovered a delicious-sounding dish that he says is a memorable new addition to the Lower East Side noodle catalog. To find out about that, though, you'll have to read Our Man's story...

Food Sing 88 Corp.
2 East Broadway
212-219-8223

Best Fuzhou Restaurant
71A Eldridge Street
212-219-3328

Our Man Sietsema Grapples with Mixology

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 12:06 PM, March 11, 2008

This week, Our Man heads to Williamsburg to explore the "crippled kitchen theme" at Huckleberry Bar. The trend, as Our Man sees it, is toward bars and lounges that bring on young, hungry chefs to create elaborate bar menus with little more than a hot plate.

At Huckleberry, Our Man enjoys many of the small bites and sandwiches that emerge from the crippled kitchen—a toasted ham and cheese sandwich, showcasing ham from Salumeria Biellese and Irish cheddar, and the "perfect" pickle platter:

"Veggies the size of a baby’s thumb march onto the plate in pairs, like a miniature Noah’s Ark: fennel bulbs, carrots, turnips, Bosc pears, yellow beets, and sliced Kirby cukes, each with its own lip-puckering astringency."

Along the way, Our Man considers the absurdity of the term "mixologist" ("Why not 'alcohol chef?'") but approves of the end results, including classics like the Sidebar and Negroni, and new inventions like the Edward Bulwer-Lytton (ginger-infused rum, crème de coco and grapefruit juice). He also finds the bar's backyard to be the "perfect place to suck a spliff."

Huckleberry Bar
588 Grand Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718-218-8555