Cappucino in the Campo de Fiori

 

Felidia - New York City

I first learned about Lidia Matticchio Bastianich from Vicki a few years ago. For some reason, this Istrian-born Italian cooking show host, cookbook author, and restaurant owner had stayed under my radar, despite our love of Italian cooking and television cooking shows. In 2007, at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which we attend as exhibitors every year, Vicki met Lidia and acquired a signed copy of her most recent cookbook, Lidia’s Italy. She is also the author of four books on Italian cooking.

During our semi-annual trip to New York this May for Vicki’s sales meetings, we had the opportunity to dine at Lidia’s flagship restaurant, Felidia. It was opened in 1981 by Lidia and her former husband, Felice (Felice + Lidia = Felidia). Lidia is now involved with two other restaurants in Manhattan, Becco (with her son, Joseph Bastianich) and Del Posto (with her son and Mario Batali), along with Lidia’s Italy restaurants in Kansas City and Pittsburgh.

Located on a busy street in Midtown East, we arrived at Felidia just in time for our 12:30 lunch reservation. We were led past an opulent mahogany bar to a dining room with light yellow walls bathed in orange-tinted lighting, while a skylight on the second floor provided the entire space with a hint of sunlight.

Since everything on the menu sounded tempting, there was no way we could choose so we decided on the tasting menu, which features three courses and dessert, selected by the chef. We also chose the wine tasting menu to pair wines with our courses.

We began with an antipasto course, a delicate julienne of fagioli beans, lightly steamed and tossed in olive oil with pickled red onions and sliced almonds. With the beans we were served Bastianich Rosato, a rosé from the Italian winery owned by Lidia’s son Joseph in partnership with Mario Batali. It paired well with the bean salad and had a rich fruity taste.

Our primi course was the superb Ravioli con Cacio e Pere, pear and fresh pecorino-filled ravioli, garnished with aged pecorino, crushed black pepper and slices of green olive. The pasta was paired with a crisp white wine, Calcare, from the Sauvignon grape, grown in the Marche. These small square ravioli were one of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever had; they simply melted in your mouth with the sweet, musky taste of the pecorino cheese and the tang of the green olive—wonderful!

Secondi consisted of three different cuts of veal cooked three ways, “Vitello, Vitello, Vitello.” Arranged around the rim of the plate were a veal sweetbread braised, then sautéed; a braised veal cheek; and a sautéed veal tenderloin. These gorgeous morsels were served on a bed of asparagus with a mushroom sauce reduction and a little Castelmagno cheese. The entire dish was sublime—the sweetbread was perfectly cooked with just the right amount of browning, which added flavor; the veal cheek fell to pieces when touched with a fork; the sautéed tenderloin was savory and cooked to a moist, medium rare. It was served with a super Tuscan, a 2002 Tassinaia, a blend of sangiovese, cabernet, and merlot grapes. The wine had good fruit, depth, and maturity, and paired perfectly with the rich decadence of the veal.

Dolce consisted of a trio of desserts; Tiramisu Agli Agrumi—orange liqueur-soaked lady fingers with orange mascarpone cream, and blood orange-poached cranberries; a warm mini-Caprese cake with chocolate, passion fruit and caramel; and a citrus sorbetto. The small bites of dessert were served with a heady sparkling moscato from Piemonte. Both wine and sweet made for a perfect ending to a divine meal. All that was missing was the intoxicating smell of jasmine that hangs in the air outside almost every café in Italy.

The tab for the tasting and wine courses plus coffee and Pellegrino was $180.00. Outstanding service, great food, excellent wines, highly recommended.

Link:

Video - Lidia Bastianich discusses here restaurant, Felidia

Absent No More

Yes, I haven't posted to this blog for well over a year, but that will now change. Due to the encouragement of my lovely wife, Vicki, I will begin blogging again on food, wine, and such. We've been travelling lately, and visting a number of wonderful eating establishments, which must be written about, so keep your eyes and ears posted.

-- Bob

Healthy Hot Dogs?

Everyone who knows me well is aware that I love hot dogs. I’ll take all different kinds, from the so-called gourmet dogs to those big boys that they sell at 7-11. Hot dog eating doesn’t come without guilt, however, as most franks are laced with bad stuff like nitrates and filler. So I was intrigued when I tried a sample at Trader Joe’s of their Uncured Beef Hot Dogs, which according to the package are nitrate free, with no fillers, gluten, msg, antibiotics or hormones. Not only that, but my sample tasted great!

They’re not cheap, four bucks for a package of eight, but I brought one home and tried them today. The best way to cook hot dogs is to grill them, but I chose to steam mine. I like having two dogs because I can dress them up differently. On one I put Dijon mustard, red onion, sliced dill pickle, and halved cherry tomatoes. I also added a few Tai chilies I keep just for this purpose. On the other I put some grainy mustard, onion, and sweet pickle relish. Both were marvelous, and the flavor of the dogs stood up to all my additions. They went great with one of my favorite chips, Kettle Chips Yogurt and Green Onion.

Guilt free hot dogs? Well, it ain't health food, but it's a step in the right direction.

Fresh Mex

Fresh Mex, at the corner of 5th and Keystone. sounds like a chain, but it’s not. I’ve been there a few times now and frankly, I think it’s just as good as Beto’s down the street, a place everyone raves about. So far, I’ve tried three kinds of their terrific tacos, al pastor, carnitas, and chile verde. The all come in a nice fresh tortilla and the meat is perfectly cooked, chewy, but not tough, with little pieces of fat that give it a delectable flavor. My favorite is the al pastor, which is pork marinated in various spices then roasted. Taquerias in Mexico frequently cook the meat on a vertical rotisserie similar to a Turkish doner kabab. Thin slices of meat are then carved off the roast and placed in small tacos with onions and cilantro.



On my last visit I had the enchiladas plate with one chicken and one beef. The food was nicely presented with rice, beans, salad, and a swirl of sour cream on top of the enchiladas, which were covered with a red picante sauce. The chicken enchilada was a little dry, but very flavorful; the in-house made sauce was excellent, with a very earthy taste. Its beefy cousin was outstanding, tender beef with wonderful flavor. I’m not a huge fan of sour cream on my Mexican food, but it went well with the flavors and I felt sad as I ate the last bite. The beans and rice were pretty pro-forma, but when covered with the sauce, were quite good.



All meals at Fresh Mex start with a basket of chips and a bowl of the outstanding salsa fresca. Tomato, onions, cilantro, and hot peppers, it was perfectly made, with enough bite to keep the salsa interesting. The chips are freshly made and had great taste.

The service at Fresh Mex is outstanding. Both of the women that have waited on me have been friendly and efficient, often returning to my table to see how I’m doing. The owner frequently walks among the diners also, saying hello and asking how the food it. Years ago there was a Chinese restaurant at this location where my son Matt and I used to get a lot of take-out, even though it wasn’t very good. It was followed by a place called California Burgers that also served Chinese food―not very good either. The owner of Fresh Mex tells me that people still come in asking for Chinese cuisine. What they can get instead is some of the best and most authentic Mexican food in Reno.

Lemons & Limes ... Getting Expensive??

The news reports that the recent freezing temperatures in California's Central Valley has caused the loss of approximately three-quarters of the state's $1 billion citrus crop. The Golden State supplies about 87% of the country's lemon crop. This big freeze, according to reliable sources, will cause the citrus prices to go up, including lemons. Go up? Holy smoke, they've been so expensive the past few years they ought to be called yellow gold. When did someone decide that a dollar was a good price for a lemon? Well, go to supermarkets in Reno and you find plenty of them for a buck a pop. Granted, they can be found a lower prices—I buy them in bags of five at Trader Joe's for $2.79, but they're not monsters, by any means.

So what can we expect if the price goes up—three dollars apiece? And what about limes? Will they become green jewels? Some stores in Reno try to get away selling them for 50 cents each, Albertson's for one. I buy them at the King Ranch Market on Well Ave., where they're always at least 4 for a dollar and sometimes twice that. If they go up I may have to quit drinking gin & tonics—heaven forbid!

Boeuf Bourguignon

Vicki and I had some friends for dinner last evening and I decided to to make boeuf bourguignon. It's something that I haven't cooked for a long time, but years ago I used to prepared it frequently. It's part of the basic repetoire I learned from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 1. This book, along with her long running show, The French Chef (1962-73), founded my interest in fine cooking.

I love this dish, slow simmered pieces of beef swimming in a rich wine sauce with mushrooms, and pearl onions. It's classic French comfort food, perfect for the cold winter nights we've been having in Reno lately.


My dish is a variation on the Julia Child recipe. I researched a number of different recipes and came up with this one, which has some added ingredients. Basically, pieces of beef are browned, then slowly simmered for hours with bacon and vegetables in red wine. I also added beef broth, which is traditional, but some recipes don’t include it. I was very pleased with the results. I’m not sure it’s better than Julia’s recipe, just a variation.


We served the stew with garlic-celery root mashed potatoes, a classic Caesar salad, and for dessert, a lemon-yogurt cake with blueberry sauce and vanilla ice cream. The wine to accompany the dinner was Vino Noceto Sangiovese (2002) from Amador County’s Shenandoah Valley and a Cloudline Pinot Noir (2005) from Oregon.


Vicki is a fabulous dessert maker, but I promised to make the entire dinner, so I tried this Ina Garten recipe for Lemon Yogurt Cake with blueberry sauce. Everything went pretty smooth except when I poured the batter into the pan and popped it into the oven, I realized that I'd forgotten to add the eggs--quickly it came out, back into the mixing bowl, eggs added, beaten, and back into the oven. Okay, time was getting short and I was going too fast. Our guests loved it!