Restaurant review: Barrio Chino

I recently ventured out of my West Side comfort zone for dinner on the Lower East Side. For those unfamiliar with the Lower East Side, it is located in the south eastern portion of Manhattan, north of Chinatown and south of the East Village. Formerly known for its squalid tenements overflowing with recent immigrants, the Lower East Side has evolved into a haven for hipsters in recent years and is now home to many trendy shops and restaurants. An in-the-know friend from L.A. stopped by Barrio Chino on Broome Street when he was in town a few weeks ago which got me thinking I should check it out myself.

Barrio Chino, a small and nondescript restaurant whose name apparently means "Chinese hood" in Spanish, celebrates the neighborhood's immigrant past by combining Mexican fare with Chinese-accented decor. The weather here in NYC was particularly glorious on the night my friend Ann and sister joined me there for dinner, and we were seated in an airy corner table near the restaurant's open windowed front wall.

It seemed serendipitous that the perfect accompaniment to Mexican food would also be the perfect accompaniment to a warm and breezy early summer evening: margaritas, in our case traditional fresh lime, jalapeno lime, and fresh grapefruit. YUM!

Barrio Chino offers eleven anotjitos (appetizers) including six varieties of tacos. Since I can't have Mexican food without guacamole, I was glad to see guacamole on the menu, which we ordered and enjoyed with their homemade chips and a bowl of seriously spicy salsa for only $8.

We also shared an order of the al pastor tacos - three homemade tortillas overflowing with marinated grilled pork, chunks of pineapple, cilantro and white onion. They were awesome.

After the guacamole and soft taco opening act, I ordered another margarita and the vegetarian enchiladas verdes -- two tortillas stuffed with sauteed zucchini and mushrooms, and topped with a green salsa and melted oaxacan cheese. They were ok, but not nearly as good as the tacos. The tortillas were mealy and mushy under all that sauce and the vegetables inside were fairly bland.

My sister ordered the bistek a la casa -- marinated skirt steak served with sauteed spinach and mushrooms, black beans, and queso fresco. Nothing memorable, but perfectly acceptable for those who try to limit their personal food pyramid to proteins and vegetables.

Ann, who was also on a short-lived pre-wedding Atkins plan the night we had dinner, ordered cazuela de mariscos -- sauteed calamari and shrimp in a tomato chipotle sauce. It was pretty good, but tasted more Italian than Mexican to us.

For dessert, we tried to order churros, but they didn't have any. So we settled on the coconut flan which was pretty good, if you like flan, and I ordered a third margarita which in retrospect, was not the best idea I've ever had, but they were so good!

Words to the wise: while our dinner was pretty good, I think a taco-focused meal would have been even better. Also, if you love margaritas like I do, I suggest you save Barrio Chino for a Friday or Saturday to avoid worrying that you will become one of the sick passengers who occasionally screws up the morning subway commute.

**

Details:

253 Broome Street (between Orchard and Ludlow)

New York, New York

(212) 228-6710 (I don't think they take reservations, but just in case)

Margaritas with a side of tortilla-enhanced food: ~$50/each

cheers and jeers

Happy Memorial Day! Judd and I are enjoying some down time in warm but quiet NYC and today seemed like a good time to fill you in on some local culinary highlights and lowlights from the last few weeks.

CHEERS TO:

Rigatoni alla ricotta at Pomodoro Rosso, an otherwise lackluster restaurant near our apartment. The rigatoni is fresh, not dry, served in a tomato sauce with prosciutto and onions, and topped with a big dollop of fresh ricotta cheese. It's really good! NB - I believe that Pomodoro may also win the prize for largest serving of wine per glass on the Upper West Side.

The most delicious veal saltimbocca I have ever tasted at Lupa, Mario Batali and Joe Bastiantich's Roman trattoria on Thompson Street. I found this picture on flickr if you want a visual, but otherwise imagine an ENORMOUS but super thin breaded and fried veal cutlet, topped with salty prosciutto and savory sage leaves, finished with white wine and lemon juice. I had an underwhelming and overpriced New Year's Eve dinner at Lupa a few years ago and had not been back since, but the veal saltimbocca put it squarely back on my radar.

A big, bubbling dish of excellent moussaka at Kellari's Parea Bistro, an upscale Greek tavern in the Flatiron District. Moussaka is a baked casserole-style dish of layered eggplant, potato, ground beef, tomato sauce, and bechamel sauce, and Kellari's version is outstanding.

"Lemonese" chicken at Henry's End in Brooklyn Heights. Henry's End has been serving this chicken dish - a cutlet breaded with romano cheese and served on a lemon cream sauce - since the 1980's and while is sounds uninspired in 2011, it was really quite good. Henry's End has a great wine list, too.

Pancetta bread at Eataly -- cubes of pancetta are baked right into the bread -- a stroke of genius! Actually, everything at Eataly is delicious, including their homemade super-buttery onion focaccia. I also discovered a gorgonzola piccante in their cheese case that I'm still thinking about several weeks later. The only negative things I have to say about this otherwise incredible store is that it has a very confusing and hard to navigate layout and it is always crowded.

JEERS TO:

A shamefully tiny serving of "mignon de porc" at Les Halles. I cannot believe they have the nerve to charge $20 for three bites of pork tenderloin, no vegetables, and a huge pile of mashed potatoes. Tisk, tisk, Anthony Bourdain.

The number of strollers at the new Ditch Plains on the Upper West Side. I felt like I was in day care center. Even though my fish tacos were tasty, I won't go back for to meet people for dinner unless one of them wears diapers.

Smallish portions of strange things at Kin Shop. The spicy duck laab salad was too spicy for me to eat, the grilled prawns came with their heads on, and I didn't recognize the mushrooms or the chickpeas in the roasted king oyster mushrooms with bamboo shoots, garbanzo beans, and turnips. Harold Dieterle, I think you've taught me that when it comes to thai food, I prefer the more mainstream offerings (e.g., chicken satay, spring rolls and pad thai).

Soggy grilled pizza at Cafe Fiorello, a pre-Lincoln Center mainstay. For close to $30, pizza better be perfect. But their "signature" thin-crust pizza was practically burnt around the edges and soggy in the middle - so disappointing! Everyone who had recommended that place loves their antipasto bar, so maybe I'll go back to try that.

Dingy surroundings and mediocre sushi at Yama on Irving Place. This wouldn't be noteworthy if Yama hadn't previously been my favorite sushi place in town. They make really good spicy mayonnaise that they drizzle over everything, but it couldn't spruce up my spicy tuna rolls or my avocado, cucumber, carrot and lettuce roll (a/k/a the salad I didn't finish, mixed with rice, and wrapped in seaweed).

asparagus soup

I do love to make soup and for Easter this year, I celebrated spring with a tasty asparagus soup. This soup, adapted from an excellent Williams-Sonoma cookbook titled "Soup for Supper," is incredibly easy to make and rich despite the lack of cream. Here's how to make it:

3 bunches of asparagus* (2.5 - 3lbs), tough ends removed

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1.5 cups peeled and diced russet potato (~1 large potato)

3-4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1/2 cup milk

chives

creme fraiche

salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut off tips of the asparagus spears. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the asparagus tips and boil for 2 minutes. Drain and immediately immerse the tips in cold water to stop the cooking. Drain, pat dry, and set aside.

2. Cut the remaining asparagus into 2-inch pieces. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter. Add the asparagus pieces (not the tips!), stirring occasionally until well coated with the butter, 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the potato and 3 cups of broth. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the asparagus and potato are very tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender or food processor. (Or if you have an immersion blender, that works well, too.) Return the soup to the saucepan, add the milk and as much of the additional broth as needed to achieve the desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper and reheat over low heat.

4. While the soup is reheating, melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add asparagus spears, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the asparagus spears are heated through - about 2 minutes. Stir asparagus tips into soup.

5. Ladle the soup into bowls, top with a dollop of craime fraiche and snipped chives.

serves 6

*I prefer the thick stemmed asparagus, but the pencil thin ones can work here, too.

carbo-loading

It all started as a joke. I had been giving Judd a hard time about his eating habits -- he considers pizza a breakfast food and popcorn a dessert -- when he pointed out that I consume grams upon grams of unnatural white powdered sugar substitute per day. He had a good point - there's nothing healthy about sweetening your drinks with the contents of a yellow, baby blue, or pink paper packet. But even though I know it's probably not good for me, I can't seem to cut it out of my diet completely. So, I thought up a challenge: I would give up my beloved Splenda if Judd would run a 10k.

Fast-forward a few months. Judd had not spent more than 20 minutes on the treadmill, and I was still recklessly stirring who knows what into my daily cups of coffee. Somewhere along the way though, I decided I myself could use a fitness challenge. A goal to set with literal milestones to work toward. So in January, I signed myself up for the Scotland 10k and started running in Central Park on the weekends. And this morning I did it! (If you squint, you can see me in that photo wearing a blue shirt and navy shorts, just behind that orange pole.) I ran a full loop, 6.2 miles, around the park with 10,000 other runners, most of whom finished long before I did. I never expected to win today's race, but I must admit that I was pretty humbled by the number of runners either twice my age, twice my size, or with half as many legs that jogged right past me. (I did actually pass one blind guy around mile 4.)

Even though I'm hardly a high-octane running machine, I still needed fuel to get out there and go, even when I was only jogging one or two miles. Which brings me to the best part of jogging: carbo-loading! Sure I often eat (not to mention drink) tons of carbs on an average weekend night. But I've really enjoyed having an excuse to indulge in potato, rice, and flour based entrees lately and have also been expanding my own pasta repertoire at home. Here's a recipe worth sharing for a vegetarian rotini with lentils that I made last weekend courtesy of Lidia Bastianich - super easy and delicious!

1 cup small green lentils

1/3 cup diced carrot (~1 medium carrot)

1/3 cup diced celery (~1.5 stalks)

2 bay leaves

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

4 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

28-oz crushed tomatoes, preferably San Marzano

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1-lb rotini or other pasta

8-10 large basil leaves, shredded

1 cup freshly grated pecorino cheese

1. Rinse the lentils and put them in a saucepan with the diced carrot and celery, bay leaves, and 3 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil, cover the pan, and adjust the heat to maintain a gentle, steady simmer. Cook until the lentils are just tender, about 25 minutes (or longer, depending on the size).

2. When the lentils are almost cooked, pour the olive oil into a large skillet and set it over medium-high heat. Scatter in the garlic slices and cook for a minute or two, until sizzling and starting to color; sprinkle the crushed red pepper and toast as the garlic sizzles. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and stir well. Bring the tomato sauce to a boil and simmer for five minutes until starting to thicken.

3. When the lentils are tender remove the bay leaves and pour the lentils and any remaining liquid into the pot with the tomatoes. Season with salt, add shredded basil, stir everything together, and heat the sauce to a bubbling simmer. Cook for an additional 25 minutes until the lentils are quite tender and the sauce has thickened to a consistency you like for pasta.

4. In the meantime, cook the rotini in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the al dente noodles right into the simmering tomato sauce. Cook an additional minute or two and turn off the heat. Stir in grated cheese and drizzle with a little olive oil before serving.

a gigante pot of Greek beans

I was feeling adventurous the other day and decided to try my hand at gigantes, the giant white beans often featured in Greek cooking. I believe gigante means "giant" in Greek and these creamy beans really are enormous - each one is roughly the size of a quarter. A quick search on epicurious yielded a recently published recipe for gigante beans from one of my favorite chefs, Michael Symon.

I went to law school in Cleveland and spent three happy years living amongst laid-back and good-natured midwesterners. Cleveland is actually a great town for foodies -- it is home to a surprising number of excellent restaurants and specialty markets and there's never any traffic or need to make a dinner reservation more than a few days in advance. And, for the most part, it's less expensive to eat out there in than in New York, which was friendly to my graduate student budget.

During my third year of law school, I read "The Soul of a Chef," by Michael Ruhlman, a journalist and Cleveland native. The book, which I recommend despite its slow beginning, profiles two very different up-and-coming chefs, Michael Symon and Thomas Keller (the famed chef behind the French Laundry in Napa and now Per Se and Bouchon Bakery in New York). At the time, Michael Symon was an ingenue on the national culinary scene, though he had a successful restaurant, Lolita, on Cleveland's trendy west side (trendy for Cleveland, at least). Since the publication of Rhulman's book, Michael Symon has opened Lola, a second much bigger restaurant in Downtown Cleveland, won a coveted James Beard award, and least interestingly, joined the Food Network's roster of American Iron Chefs. But he was so lovable as a struggling young chef bringing his passion to a random neighborhood of a dying rust belt city, that I won't hold that against him.

But I digress -- pent up blogging energy. The bottom line is I was excited to make Michael Symon's version of gigantes only to discover that I could not actually find the dry beans. Anywhere. I went to Fairway, Citarella, and Whole Foods and none of them carried gigante beans. One of those new helpful women in red aprons at Fairway suggested I try Kalustyan's on Lexington Avenue and 28th Street.

Kalustyan's is the most magical specialty foods store I have ever been in. They have row upon row upon row of exotic ingredients. I would not have been at all surprised to see a cape-clad Harry Potter shopping in there for rare ingredients for a new spell recipe. Since I don't really like candy and never did, the "like a kid in a candy store" has never really applied to me, but that's how I felt as I roamed the aisles of imported beans, grains, nuts, herbs, spices, and spreads. You must check it out. I found a 2lb bag of gigante beans in no time at all and was on my way home to get started. 24 hours later, I had 3 quarts of really tasty beans.

And without further ado, here's the recipe for an enormous pot of greek beans:

1 pound dried gigante beans

1/4 cup olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups chicken or vegetable broth

2 cups water

1 28-ounce can of chopped San Marzano tomatoes

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup ouzo (Greek anise-flavored liqueur)

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup fresh chopped dill

1. Place beans in a large bowl and cover with water by three inches. Let soak overnight then drain and set aside.

2. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add chopped onions and garlic and saute until onions are golden brown, 7-10 minutes. Add beans, broth, water, chopped tomatoes with juice, vinegar, ouzo, oregano, and crushed pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until beans are tender 2-3 hours.

3. If necessary, uncover and cook beans until tomato mixture thickens and liquid is slightly reduced, an additional 10-15 minutes. Stir in chopped dill and season beans with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

We've been eating a lot of beans at our house this past week. They're good plain, with a salad, along side a sliver of spanikopita, and over couscous.

If you don't feel like making gigantes yourself but you'd like to eat some, I suggest stopping by Anthi's Greek Food, a delicious and inexpensive takeout place on Amsterdam Avenue between 89th and 90th. I have picked up gigantes, spanikopita, and tzatziki there several times lately and it's all been great.

Twice as nice

Yesterday was a special day for me and Judd: it marked two years since we tied the knot, threw a big party, and headed off to Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast for twelve glorious days of Atkins-defying bliss.

After an underwhelming an overpriced anniversary dinner at Minetta Tavern last year, I decided not to take any chances this year and booked us a table at Del Posto, the feather in the Bastianich-Batali-Bastianich cap. And it was sensational.

On Saturday night, we headed down to the corner of 16th Street and Tenth Avenue to meet our friends Manny and Deana for an over-the-top dinner courtesy of Del Posto's celebrated executive chef, Mark Ladner. We spent four hours savoring their five-course tasting menu along with some excellent 2008 Bastianich "super white" wine. The menu was a mix of both traditional Italian-American favorites (e.g., a small cup of stracciatella soup, garganelli with veal ragu, marinated clams with fried artichokes, grilled pork) and more contemporary offerings (e.g., a spicy shellfish stew with diver scallop carpaccio, super-creamy parmesan cheese risotto drizzled with 25 year-old balsamic vinegar, stuffed pig's trotter with lentils). And even more incredible than the food was the service -- I felt like a princess as soon as they gave me and Deana a special little footstool for our purses. Our dinner at Del Posto was one of the best meals of my life -- and certainly one of the most expensive! - but it was worth every penny.

Last night (our actual anniversary), I decided to keep with the Bastianich theme and tried a recipe that I'd seen Lidia Bastianich make on her terrific public television show, Lidia's Italy, a few weeks ago: pasta with baked cherry tomatoes (pasta con pomodori al forno).

It was really delicious and very easy to make. Here's the recipe:

3 pints cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus one tablespoon

1/3 cup unseasoned dry bread crumbs

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for the pasta water

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 lb penne (or rigatoni, or spaghetti)

10 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced

~20 basil leaves, torn, chopped or shredded

1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese

4 ounces ricotta cheese (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Toss the tomato halves in a large bowl with 3 tablespoons of olive oil, bread crumbs, pepper flakes, and salt. Pour the tomatoes onto a cookie sheet and spread them apart in a single layer. Bake until the tomatoes are shriveled and lightly caramelized (but not dried out), about 25-35 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, fill a large pot with salted water and heat to a rolling boil. When the tomatoes are nearly done, drop the pasta into the boiling water, stir, and return the water to a boil.

4. As soon as the pasta is cooking, pour the remaining olive oil into a heavy-bottomed skillet, set it over medium-high heat, and scatter the sliced garlic. Cook for a minute or two, until the garlic is sizzling and lightly colored, then ladle in about 2 cups of the pasta cooking water, and bring to a vigorous boil, stirring up the garlic. Let half the water evaporate, then lower the heat and keep the sauce barely simmering.

5. Remove the tomatoes from the oven when done.

6. When the pasta is al dente (about 2 minutes before the suggested cooking time on the box), lift it from the water, drain it for a moment, and drop it into the skillet with the garlic. Toss pasta with the sauce, cooking for an additional minute - 90 seconds.

7. Turn off the heat, slide in the baked tomato halves, and shredded basil leaves. Stir will until the pasta is evenly dressed and the tomatoes are well-distributed. Sprinkle on the grated cheese and toss once more.

8. Serve immediately with a dollop of ricotta cheese.

Risotto caprese

I love risotto and I also love caprese salad. Last weekend I combined them: risotto with cherry tomatoes, torn basil leaves, and fresh mozzarella cheese. Here's the recipe:

7-8 cups simmering chicken or vegetable broth

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup finely chopped onion (1/2 a small onion)

2 cups short grain rice (arborio or carnaroli)

1 cup dry white wine

3/4 lb fresh lightly salted mozzarella cheese, cut into small cubes

1/4 grated parmesan cheese

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup shredded basil leaves

salt and freshly ground pepper

1. In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the rice and stir until each grain is well-coated with oil and translucent with a white dot in the center, about 3 minutes. Add the wine and stir until completely absorbed.

2. Add the simmering broth one ladleful at a time, stirring frequently after each addition. Wait until the stock is almost completely absorbed (but the rice is never dry on top) before adding the next ladleful. Reserve 1/4 cup broth to add at the end.

3. When the rice is tender to the bite but slightly firm in the center and looks creamy, after about 20 minutes, turn off the heat and stir in the reserved broth, the mozzarella cubes, grated parmesan, tomato halves, and basil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.