Restaurant review: Arnold's

We cannot come to Cape Cod without stopping for a fried seafood feast at the most delicious clam shack on earth: Arnold's. Located on Route 6 in Eastham, Arnold's Lobster and Clam Bar is one-stop shopping for a wonderful night. Not only do they serve fresh fried seafood and lobster rolls, but they also have a delicious ice-cream stand *and* an 18-hole mini golf course.

We first discovered Arnold's more than 10 years ago, and it's been in business for more than 30 years, but the secret is out of the bag and it now draws annoyingly enormous crowds of hungry Cape vacationers. This photo was taken last Sunday night - a Sunday night! It took almost 45 minutes from arriving in the parking lot to placing our order inside. I will not wait in this kind of line for just any fried clams, scallops, and onion rings. But Arnold's makes the BEST of each that I've ever had.

Once you finally make it to the line and place your order, be prepared to wait another 20-25 minutes for food to be ready. They'll give you a Cheesecake-Factory-style beeper/buzzer device, which will flash and make noise when your order is ready to pick up. During that time I suggest you stop by the bar (pictured above) and get yourself a large and cold beer - the perfect accompaniment to fried seafood. You'll also need to devote a few of those minutes to finding a table - as I said, it gets crowded, and there's no host or hostess to seat you.

I also suggest ordering a cup of Arnold's clam chowder. It is creamy and clammy and rich enough that you'll only want a small serving, no matter how hungry you are after waiting in that long line.

For dinner on Sunday, we went to town. We shared a large order of fried clams strips and onion rings. Then, my mom and I each ordered fried Wellfleet scallops. I do love those clams, but I think the fried scallops are the best item on the menu. They're huge and succulent and surprisingly light for things that have been breaded and deep fried, before I slather them in tartar sauce at least. Arnold's also sells baked scallops, but I can get an unfried scallop anywhere. Plus, the baked scallops come with a baked potato (BO-ring!) and a small side salad - no thanks. Not at Arnolds'. I get all the vegetable I need from the pickle bits in the tartar sauce and those marvelous onion rings.

Judd and Kristy each got a 2-lb lobster. Ordering a whole lobster is always too messy a project for me for me, but I do love lobster meat and was happy to eat a drawn-butter dipped nibble of what they'd worked so hard to get out of those hard shells.

I spend 51 weeks per year wondering what I'll get at Arnold's during the one or two nights per year that I get to stand at the counter and place my order. I'm not kidding. Judd teases me about it all the time. But I think he's just worried that this could be the summer where I leave him for Arnold.

***

Details:

3580 Route 6

Eastham, Massachusetts

(508) 255-2575 - (Arnold, call me!)

Shellfish feast for four: $140 (CASH ONLY!)

Cape Cod 2010

On Saturday morning, after packing up our temperamental cat and half of our kitchen, (including our 7.25 quart Le Creuset dutch oven, 14-cup Cuisinart food processor, new ice-cream maker, and the aforementioned corn zipper) Judd and I drove up to Wellfleet with my mom and sister where I will spend the next two weeks reading and cooking as much as I can. Glorious.

We're renting the same house where we've spent one week for four of the last five summers and it's great to be back. We started our vacation with a variation on last summer's inaugural Cape Cod steakhouse dinner: grilled ribeye steaks, creamed spinach, local corn on the cob, grilled portobello mushroom caps, sliced tomato and onion, and béarnaise sauce (it was far more appetizing than it looks).

Yesterday, we grilled a selection of sausages for lunch (bratwurst, knackwurst, and frankfurters from Schaller & Weber, purchased in NYC and brought it up here in a cooler), which we enjoyed along with the Barefoot Contessa's "vegetable coleslaw" and homemade baked beans.

In case you're craving some delicious and extremely easy vegetarian baked beans and want to make them yourself - no baking involved - here's the recipe:

Sweet and smoky [baked] beans

1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil

1 small onion, minced

1 large garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

3/4 cup smoky barbeque sauce (I like Bull's Eye Original BBQ Sauce)

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 and 1/2 teaspoons dijon mustard

1 teaspoon hot sauce

two 15-ounce cans small red beans, drained and rinsed

In a large, deep skillet, cook onion and garlic in oil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and cook until nearly evaporated. Add barbeque sauce, water, brown sugar, mustard, and hot sauce and bring to a boil. Add the beans and cook over moderate heat until the sauce is thickened, about 15 minutes. Transfer beans to a bowl and serve.

Restaurant review: Alma

I am so excited to tell you about Alma, an out-of-the-way Mexican restaurant in Red Hook. I have been there twice in the last two weeks and both times have enjoyed the inexpensive food, potent margaritas, and their wonderful roof deck!

According to wikipedia, Red Hook, Brooklyn was settled by the Dutch in in 1636 and named "Roode Hoek" after the red clay soil and the point of landing projecting into the East River ("hoek" means point or corner in Dutch). Red Hook is actually a peninsula between the Buttermilk Channel (who knew that there's such a sweetly named channel in Brooklyn!?), the Gowanus Canal, and Gowanus Bay on the south-west edge of downtown Brooklyn. Over the last 400 years, the Dutch moved out, Brooklyn's largest housing project and shipping yards moved in, and in the 1990's, Life Magazine named Red Hook one of the worst neighborhood's in America. Today, while it's still an industrial neighborhood, in typical Brooklyn fashion, Red Hook is also home to many hipsters who have drawn several cool restaurants and bars to the area.

Last Saturday night, we piled into my mom's car for a family outing to Red Hook. Our first stop was dinner at Alma, followed by a trip to the nearby Fairway to help my sister stock up on pantry items, staples, and cleaning supplies for her new apartment (she moved into her new place on Sunday and is now officially an Upper West Sider).

Alma is located in a three-story brick building, right on the East River. The first floor houses the large bar area, which has a ping pong table in the back (a good place to kill time if there's a long wait for the roof deck), the second floor is the main dining room, and the top floor is the enormous open-air roof deck with panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline.

I didn't think Alma took reservations, so I didn't call ahead. (I think I was wrong, so you should give them a call if you don't want to wait for a table.) We arrived around 6:30 and were told there was a 45 minute wait to sit on the roof deck - annoying, but, as you can see, the view (especially at sunset!) is worth the wait. For the record, there would have been no wait if we wanted to sit in the dining room, which resulted in a scuffle with my sister about whether or not to wait for the roof deck. Ultimately, she saw things my way. We gave the hostess a cell phone number, and went downstairs to the bar, and played ping pong until our table was ready, only 15 minutes later.

We started our al fresco dinner with a basket of chips and super-spicy salsa, an order of guacamole, and a special appetizer: a crab and gouda quesadilla. I don't love crab, but it was pretty good. For my entree, I had corn enchiladas stuffed with cheese and portobello mushrooms with a pumpkin seed sauce. The serving was enormous and the enchiladas were delicious.

Judd had grilled garlic and chipotle shrimp with pico de gallo, pickled red onions, chipotle mayo and mango salsa. Despite all of those interesting-sounding accoutrements, he thought the shrimp were quite flavorless and wasn't too impressed.

My mother ordered chicken fajitas (boring!) and found the grilled chicken to be quite dry. I almost never order chicken at Mexican restaurants - I think it always tastes like cat food. But I have had the steak fajitas at Alma before and thought they were tasty, if maybe a little boring.

Kristy ordered a fish special: pan seared dorado with sauteed spinach and some kind of flavored broth and a side of sautéed mushrooms. She thought both were good, not great.

We shared an outstanding tres leches cake for dessert topped with strawberries, shredded coconut and whipped cream. It was an individual cake instead of a slice of a bigger cake, and was not as mushy as the version I made a few weeks ago.

The service at Alma was awful - they need about three more waiters to properly serve all of the tables on the roof deck (two waiters for 80-100 people? really?). And the food was just above-average. But on a mild and breezy August night, when you're sipping a margarita and overlooking lower Manhattan on that roof deck, who really cares?

** (one star for the food and one star for the view)

Details:

187 Columbia Street

Brooklyn, New York

(718) 643-5400

Dinner for four: $180

Restaurant review: Barbuto

One of the few pleasures of spending hot, humid summer weekends here in New York City is the ability to eat at popular restaurants that have an annoying no-reservations policy stress free. That's because most city dwellers pack up and head out of town each Friday afternoon, leaving the rest of us to enjoy those places hassle free all weekend long. Holiday weekends are even better. For example, Kristy and I had a wonderful and wait-free dinner for two at Blue Ribbon, followed by an even better wait-free dessert at Blue Ribbon Bakery, over July 4th weekend earlier this summer. If you've ever tried eating at either place on any non-summer weekend night, you'll understand what a small miracle that was. Last weekend, while Judd took some well-deserved time off and headed out west to visit his family, my sister and I checked out Barbuto, Jonathan Waxman's rustic Italian hot spot in the West Village.

I had never heard of Jonathan Waxman before he joined the cast of Top Chef Masters. But he made it pretty far in Season Two and the other well-known cheftestants often seemed in awe of his talent, which was good enough for me to add Barbuto to my list of places to try. However, the no-reservation-for-small-parties policy was a big turn off. Who wants to eat at 6:00pm? Not me, but I also don't want to stand at a crowded bar for 90 minutes until a table is available. Which meant I wouldn't be trying Barbuto until the summer.

Barbuto occupies a former Rolls-Royce garage on the corner of Washington and West 12th Streets. The restaurant still has enormous garage doors that completely open the dining room up to the street when the weather is warm. And since it was close to 90 degrees last Saturday night, all of the garage doors were WIDE open.

We were bold and arrived at Barbuto around 7:30pm, (I had hoped to get there earlier, but my sister is slow!), where were promptly told we would have to wait a little while for a table. No big deal - - there happened to be two empty seats available at the bar, where we able to order some snacks: an arugula salad with grilled peaches, buffalo mozzarella, and aged balsamic vinegar for Kristy and bruschetta with caponata and grated ricotta salata for me. And guess who was lingering around the bar while we enjoyed our wine and snacks? Jonathan Waxman himself! Quietly observing the room, sipping a cocktail, and all decked out in a hot pink polo shirt and khakis. Twenty minutes later, the hostess escorted us to a prime outdoor table for two -- right on the corner -- another stroke of luck!

Barbuto's menu, while seasonally-inspired and changing daily, is still a traditional Italian menu: antipasti, primi (pastas), secondi (proteins/main courses) and contorni (vegetables/sides). Even though we'd already shared some appetizers at the bar, we decided to split a pasta before each ordering our own main course. Actually, it was gnocchi, slightly crispy from having been sauteed, and served with with fresh corn, cherry tomatoes and snipped chives. The individual little gnocchis were less crispy and more mushy than I would have liked, but you still can't go wrong with potato dumplings and corn. I'd order it again. For my entree, I had a grilled hanger steak with roasted whole shallots. It was excellent. They must have a super-hot grill in the kitchen, because my steak was perfectly charred on the outside and still pink inside. The serving was so big that I ended up taking half of it home. Kristy ordered roasted chicken with a fresh herb salsa verde. I don't get too excited about chicken, but it was quite tender. We also shared some kind of forgettable tomatoey-string bean casserole topped with breadcrumbs. That's all I can remember about it.

We were too stuffed to order any dessert and the large and loud crowd of drunk bachelorette party goers across the street at Tortilla Flats was getting annoying. So we called it a night and headed uptown with our doggy bags.

The verdict: very cool setting and ambiance on a perfect West Village corner location, but the food was just mostly great, not outstanding. Perhaps if Mr. Waxman had put down the drink, put on an apron, and headed into the kitchen, it could have been a home run.

**

Details:

775 Washington Street (between Jane and West 12th Streets)

New York, New York

(212) 924-9700 - don't bother calling if you're only going with one other person - they don't take reservations for parties of two

Dinner for two (with very little wine - I was still recovering from a margarita-filled birthday dinner the night before): $140

A rare treat

While up in Boston last weekend, I was lucky enough to stop for lunch at one of my favorite places from my college days: Mr. Crêpe in Davis Square.

I first discovered Mr. Crêpe during my senior year at Tufts. It was a tiny little sliver of a restaurant on Holland Street (near Black and Blues Boutique - which is still there) with not nearly enough tables for the many eager crepe eaters. Sometime after I graduated, Mr. Crêpe wisely moved into a much larger space right in the heart of Davis Square (it's near the Somerville Theater now). And nearly 10 years later, it's still going strong, with almost the exact same selection of delicious sweet and savory crêpes.

Last Saturday, I ordered my very favorite crêpe from their list of vegetarian "supercrêpes," the super avocado: an enormous crêpe filled with baby arugula, tomato, monterey jack cheese, and sliced avocado. I added corn relish, too. Not only was it fantastically delicious, but also a gastronomic time machine, bringing me right back to the 2000 - 2001 academic year. I was smiling all afternoon.

The next time you are in Somerville, Massachusetts, I strongly encourage you to stop by Mr. Crêpe at 51 Davis Square.

Tres leches cake

On Friday, July 23rd, Judd got the news that I'd been waiting MONTHS to hear - the case he'd been working on since last November, the case that was scheduled to go to trial in federal court on Monday, July 26th, had settled. Now if that isn't a reason to bake a cake, I don't know what is.

We'd gone out to a celebratory dinner on Friday night (or as celebratory as a man who's been working 80+ hours a week for who-can-even-remember-how-many-weeks on end can get) at Havana Alma de Cuba and enjoyed a delicious tres leches cake for dessert. When I mentioned to Judd that I'd make such a cake before and that it was very easy, he decided to give it a try for our Sunday night dinner with my mom and sister. He did an excellent job. And he didn't have to think about loan syndication once.

I can only say a handful of things in Spanish besides "mas sangria, por favor," but even I know that tres leches means three milks. Tres leches cake is made by baking a rich eggy and buttery sponge cake and then pouring a mixture of three milks (evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and regular old whole milk) over it when it comes out of the oven. As the cake cools, it soaks up the milk mixture and the result is a delicious cake-pudding hybrid.

The following is based on a recipe I saved from a 2001 issue of Martha Stewart Living:

1 stick unsalted butter (8 tablespoons) melted and cooled slightly

6 large eggs, separated

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups whole milk

1 12-oz can evaporated milk

1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter an 9-by-13 inch glass baking dish.

2. In a large bowl, combine egg whites, baking soda, and salt and whip until soft peaks form.* Add the egg yolks to the stiff egg whites until completely combined. Whisk in sugar until combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold in melted butter. Fold in flour, 1/4 cup at a time.

3. Pour batter into the baking dish and bake until golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean - 2o to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack.

4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the three milks. Pour the entire milk mixture over the cake while it is still piping hot. The cake should absorb most of the mixture within 5-7 minutes. Let it stand until cool.

5. When cake has cooled to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator to chill at least five hours or overnight.

6. When ready to serve, top with fresh whipped cream (heavy cream + vanilla extract + a little sugar, whipped until stiff) and fresh berries.

*If you have a hand mixer, get it out. Judd used our powerful new 9-speed Cuisinart hand mixer that we got as a wedding present (thanks, Lara and David!). I have whipped egg whites and whipped cream by hand before and it was terrible. Our new mixer made that otherwise tedious task a joy.