The original Brother Jimmy's BBQ on the Upper East Side

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After burgers, the second specialty I always recommend friends and family coming from Europe to try is BBQ. as I mentioned in prior posts, what we call BBQ in France is grilling. Little I know that in Denmark, they are familiar with the BBQ as we know it here. I knew about smoked fish, but not meat, and Our friends Anne and Klaus even have a smoker at home. 

Anyway, our place of choice was Brother Jimmy's BBQ, but not the location near Madison Square Garden I reviewed, but the one on the Upper East Side, that is in fact the original restaurant. As we went on a weekday, the place was empty. Not that it helped with the noise level, considering that the music was literally blasting. 

It is a fairly big place with four distinct sections :

The main dining room:

The back dining room:

The second dining room with the kitchen in the back:

The bar with its games:

With its wood everywhere, it had a very rustic and country feel, with, on the wall, artifacts to remind you you should have worn your stretch pants. 

To start, we decided to order fried pickles (served with ranch dressing), a dish definitely unknown in Denmark. It was a good way to show that anything can be fried, and when it is fried, it is good!

We wanted to order fried green tomatoes, but unfortunately, they were out of it.

Then, we went for Jimmy's Pig Pick, a sampler dish where we got Northern ribs and BBQ chicken (you have a choice between this or pulled chicken, brisket, pulled pork or other types of ribs). 

I admit that I thought it would be bigger as we ordered the one for two people. I am not sure if this was the result of a confusion when we ordered. Anyway, it was enough food considering we were planning on having dessert later on. 

The chicken was very good: moist, I loved the sweetness if the BBQ sauce with it. The ribs were also delicious, tender, falling off the bone. I should mention that, with the Pig's Pick, came a salad. Needless to say that I did not care about it...

As sides, we got some cole slaw, as well as hush puppies:

Jodi decided to order a bunch of sides:

Fried Brussels sprouts:

Corn bread:

Mac & cheese:

Tater tots:

All of them were quite good, my preference going to the tater tots and corn bread. 

The lunch at Brother Jimmy's BBQ was succulent and comforting. It is definitely a great place to eat some authentic American BBQ. 

Enjoy (I did)!

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Brother Jimmy's BBQ

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Italian dinner Family style at Carmine's in NYC, New York

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There are institutions in NYC and Carmine's is definitely one. It is not just experiencing some good Italian food, but also eating it family style, like you would do at home, sharing huge plates of delicious food, where taste matters more than presentation. So we decided to go there with the Kroners, our Danish friends. Good that we had a reservation, because it was packed, unexpected for a Wednesday night! 

We went to the restaurant on the Upper West Side that is in fact the original restaurant, opened in 1990. This place is huge: I am not sure how many people they seat in the dining room, but it was quite impressive, tables being for four people or more. Well, being two could be challenging considering the quantity of food served, although you can take it home. 

At the entrance is the large bar where you can either wait, drink or eat. 

Upstairs is the dining room. 

The menu is pretty traditional, so there is no surprise there. As we were six, they suggested to order one appetizer, one pasta and two entrees. We kind of followed their advice, although replacing one entree with a (large) side. 

As we were waiting for our food, they brought us some bread. 

The focaccia was just ok for me, tasting a bit stale.

Then came our appetizer: tomato and mozzarella. 

Nice plate: the star was definitely the mozzarella that they make there. It was soft and tasted fresh. 

Then came the spaghetti (store bought) and meatballs that were the size of my fist. 

Coincidently, there were six meatballs; I am not sure if they considered one by person or not. These meatballs were delicious: tasty, not dry with a delicious hint of herbs. 

The pasta sauce was succulent: thick, it is not just made with tomatoes, but also with beef, and you may end up with delicious pieces of meat in your plate. We all finished our plates, regretting that there was not more. 

Then came the chicken saltimbocca:

It is chicken breast cooked with ham and mozzarella, served on a bed of spinach and bathed in a wine sauce. I was not that thrilled by the spinach (I prefer them with cream to offset the bitterness), but really liked the chicken that was perfectly cooked. 

Last was our side: eggplant parmigiana. 

Ok, they call it a side there...It was definitely big, with an impressive presentation, a knife stuck on the thick block formed by the multiple layers. It was delicious, the eggplant really shining. I just regret that there was not more tomato sauce on it. 

Needless to say that we were full at that point (ok, I admit that the hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookie from City Bakery did not help...). So, no dessert. That was fine considering the fantastic dinner we had at Carmine's. I should mention the very good service and the noise level that requires you to scream to be heard. But hey, this is the price to pay and it is worth it. 

Enjoy (I did)!

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5 Napkin burger in Union Square, NYC

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Our friends from Denmark, Anne and Klaus came recently to visit New York with their kids Signe, Emile and Jonas. We spent some time with them and had to live up to our reputation of foodies (I hate that word). So we picked few places, some of them really representative of Americana. So, of course, we went for burgers. We had to take into account few things: first, there needed to be vegetarian options, Jonas being vegetarian. Second, there should be, a least, a classic cheeseburger. So we de facto eliminated Burger Joint and Umami Burger (although I still salivate like a Pavlov's dog when thinking about the truffle burger there). 

So, we picked 5 Napkin Burger. I went already to the original one in Hell's Kitchen, but never to the one in Union Square. No surprise there: the decor is similar, representing a slaughterhouse, the cleanliness indicating that it represents it after the slaughter. One cannot miss the hooks hanging

Or the multiple scales displayed all over the restaurant. 

If you have never been to 5 Napkin Burger, let me explain to you how it was born. It all started at Nice Matin, a French restaurant located on the Upper West Side. One of their most successful dish was a burger where the meat was so juicy that you needed five napkins for your hands. The owners of the restaurant Simon Oren and Andy D'Amico then got the idea to open a restaurant where their signature burger would be the star. Since then, it has been a success story, with few restaurants in the city, as well as in other cities. 

But do not imagine that the menu offers only burgers, as it's name could lead you to: they serve other dishes, including salads and...sushi! Interesting! Not sure I would think about ordering sushi there. 

The Kroners got their burgers, but, of course, we did too...Jodi ordered the classic cheese, an 8 oz. beef patty served with American cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles, on a sesame brioche bread. 

It was very good, the meat being juicy and very tasty, topped by a nice amount of cheese. 

But it did not measure up with the 5 Napkin burger that I ordered. 

The beef patty was literally smothered with Gruyere, caramelized onions and rosemary aioli. 

A bit messy for sure, but who cares? Certainly not me who needed more than 5 napkins to clean my hands, the juiciness of the meat adding to the delightful mess.

To go with the burger, I of course ordered a milk shake. Usually, I order a vanilla one, but I got tempted by a cookies and cream that had little pieces of oreo cookie in it.

Everything was fantastic there and it was the perfect introduction to the next few meals we planed for our friends! I certainly did not regret the choice of 5 Napkin Burger: this is definitely one of the best in the City!

Enjoy (I did)!

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Eggs Benedict at Sel De Mer in Brooklyn, NY

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As we had to be in Williamsbug on a Sunday afternoon, I looked on google map for restaurants nearby the location we were going to and noticed Sel de Mer. I rapidly glanced at the menu and proposed to Jodi to go there for brunch. 

The inside of the restaurant fits the name, decorated with sailors portraits as well as objects all related to the sea. I wonder if the owner comes from the Bretagne region (Brittany) in France as the theme is definitely from there.

As we were waiting for our food to come, they gave us some bread and butter, the latter being topped with crystals of salt (in France, salted butter is mainly eaten in the Bretagne region).

Then, came our dishes. For brunch, they have a small menu, with a majority of egg dishes. So we went for that. Jodi got the eggs and avocado.

The dish was composed of crushed avocado, cilantro, two poached eggs, on toasted baguette, mixed greens and home fries. As Jodi does not like poached eggs, she asked them to cook them longer, request that they executed without any problem. This was a very good dish, refreshing, the restaurant not being shy on the amount of avocado they put in it.

On my side, I got the Eggs De Mer:

It was two perfectly poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, sambuca cured salmon on an english muffin, with mixed greens and home fries. This was delicious: they put a nice amount of salmon that was both fatty and delicate. It was simple but well executed. We also both got the home fries and these also were perfect: crunchy, cooked all the way through, probably baked rather than fried.

This was a great brunch and the eggs were delicious and...cheap. This is definitely a place I want to go back to, for brunch, but most certainly for dinner as they seem to have some mouth watering seafood dishes.

enjoy (I did)!

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Sel de Mer

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Khe-Yo in Tribeca, NYC, NY

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I never had Laotian food before and admit that I was thrilled to try Khe-Yo when I heard that acclaimed Chef Marc Forgione was associated to the restaurant. Yes, Khe-Yo is the result of the association of a terrific triumvirate, the main character being Chef Soulayphet Schwader whose family escaped from Laos in 1975, after the communists came into power. Years later, not being able to find good Laotian food in the city, he and his partner Nick Bradley joined Chef Marc Forgione and opened few months ago a Laotian inspired restaurant in the thriving TriBeCa area. Of course, as I never tried Laotian food before, I cannot comment on the authenticity, but, anyway, they never presented their restaurant as authentic Laotian; more Laotian inspired, bringing to the table Southeast Asian cuisine, with for instance some flavors resembling Thai cuisine or some dishes Korean ones as you will see below. 

We went there on a Friday night, after an open studio night at the New York Academy of Art. Fortunately we had a reservation, because this place was packed from the moment we arrived to the moment we left. 

I am not sure if they had staff issues, but the service not what I would have expected and, honestly, we just wanted to leave at some point. Not that the food was not good (it was delicious), but the noise level was very, very high, making it difficult to hear each other. So my advice: no romantic dinner or date there, except if you want to make sure you do not hear what the other person says... 

There, no bread and butter, but rather sticky rice with a crushed eggplant sauce that was very smooth and a bit smokey, and with a Thai chili sauce fairly hot called "the bang bang" sauce, in a way reflecting the sound my foot made banging on the floor expressing how spicy this was. 

Although they say on the menu that "sticky rice tastes better when eaten with your hands", I ate it with the sole utensil present on tables: a spoon. Yes, because some of the dishes are made to be eaten with your hands; for others, they will bring you what you need, such as chopsticks. But, to make sure you have clean hands before dinner, like a good little boy or girl, they bring you a wet towel as soon as you order. 

Menu wise, this is of course not your usual dishes or ingredients: mainly meats, few seafood and, unfortunately only one vegetarian entree, it features animals like quail or poussin. 

We decided to try few appetizers. The first one was Ping-Sai-Ua-Moo or grilled Laos style sausage. 

It was a nice presentation and, in fact, all the dishes were well plated and looked appetizing. On one side of the sausage was a mango and peanut sauce (the peanut taste was predominant) and on the other side some lettuce. Although the way to eat it was not explained by the staff, I understood (hopefully) right away that I had to eat it like Korean BBQ, putting a slice of sausage on top of a leaf and add some sauce. 

It was delicious: the lettuce adding a bit of crunch to a sweet and savory combination that was delightful. The sausage had a nice char adding more flavor to the dish. 

The second appetizer was Nam-Khao or kaffir lime sausage with crunchy coconut rice. 

To simplify the description, it was like rice balls, but made with coconut rice, crunchy on the outside from being fried and very slightly softer on the inside. It was perfect with or without the sausage that was a bit spicy. 

For the entrees, Jodi ordered the Khoua-Lhon or wok-fried glass noodles. 

At that point, they brought her chopsticks. It had a nice amount snow peas and sugar snaps in it. Although delicious, I found this dish a bit disappointing, as not original or standing out. 

On my side, I ordered the Goong-Phet or chili prawns:

It was composed of ginger scallion toast and Thai basil sauce. This was a succulent dish, delightfully tasty. The prawns were quite big and perfectly cooked, bathed in a sauce that was slightly spicy, the heat slowly building up in the back of my throat. The toast was good, but I thought that there was too much of it and replaced it with sticky rice at some point.

To go with our meal, I ordered a Laotian beer that was perfect:

The food definitely met my expectations: creative and sublime, although I was surprised to see that they only offered ice cream (coconut or salted caramel) for dessert, making us feel the meal was incomplete. The only negative there was the noise level that made this experience less pleasant than it should. Next time I will bring my noise canceling headsets...

Enjoy (I did - what did you say?)!

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